Programs have been launched in two of the largest U.S. states to provide economic assistance to undocumented immigrants who have been ineligible for benefits under massive federal stimulus packages enacted to combat financial fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.Immigrant relief funds have been set up in California and Pennsylvania. A similar initiative was launched in Baltimore, Maryland.
Immigrant advocates say that at a time when much of the U.S. workforce has been idled to slow the spread of the coronavirus, it is counterproductive to exclude those lacking legal status from assistance that has made it easier for people to stay at home.
“Immigrant rights organizations recognized immediately that this was going to exacerbate our public health crisis,” Pennsylvania Immigration and Citizen Coalition executive director Sundrop Carter told VOA.
Enacted in March, the CARES Act provided stimulus checks of up to $1,200 to low and middle-income individuals. Families were also eligible for $500 per child under the age of 17.
Passed by a Democratic-led House and a Republican-led Senate, the bill provided benefits to U.S. citizens and permanent residents but excluded undocumented immigrants and individuals in mixed-status families.
Some Democratic lawmakers criticized the exclusions as unjust, noting that many workers lacking legal status pay federal taxes.
“COVID-19 does not care about your immigration status, so neither should our response,” Arizona Democratic Congressman Raul Grijalva said in an April statement.
President Donald Trump’s Republican allies on Capitol Hill were unmoved.Earlier this month, Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas introduced the “No Bailouts for Illegal Aliens Act.” Congressman Ken Buck of Colorado introduced a companion legislation in the House. Their goal is to block funds being sent to U.S. states giving coronavirus-related stimulus checks or other cash payments to unauthorized workers.“The federal government shouldn’t be subsidizing states’ efforts to send cash to illegal aliens,” Cotton said in a statement last month.
With federal aid restricted, California stepped in with its own initiative. America’s most populous state set up a $125 million fund that is providing a maximum of $1,000 per undocumented household.In Pennsylvania, more than 40 nonprofit groups have joined with a charitable foundation to launch the PA Immigrant Relief Fund. The program, which several cities are promoting but receives no state money, has provided financial aid to hundreds of families in its first days of operation, and organizers hope to help thousands more in the weeks and months to come.
“So many organizations really wanted to match the federal stimulus of $1,200 dollars, but we ended up on $800 (per undocumented household in Pennsylvania),” Carter said, adding that the initiative aims “to reach as many people as possible” with funds she describes as “a drop in the bucket.”
Some local governments are stepping in, as well. In Baltimore, Maryland, a mayoral office for immigrant affairs established an emergency fund to “help families achieve economic stability by using funds towards rent, utilities and/or other basic needs.”
The key requirement for federal stimulus money is a social security number given to U.S. citizens and permanent legal residents. The stipulation has served to deny benefits to mixed status families in which a citizen or resident is married to an undocumented immigrant who files taxes using an alternative to the social security number.
Multiple lawsuits are underway challenging the withholding of stimulus money to mixed-status families, as well as undocumented immigrants with children who are U.S. citizens.
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Month: June 2020
US Senate Approves Trump Nominee to Head US Broadcasting
The U.S. Senate Thursday approved President Donald Trump’s nominee for the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), the federal agency that oversees Voice of America and other international broadcasting entities. On a 53-38 party-line vote, the Republican-controlled Senate approved conservative documentary filmmaker Michael Pack to head USAGM for a three-year term. Pack’s nomination has been under consideration for two years, held up in part because of Democratic concerns about alleged financial self-dealing in his businesses. Through his company Manifold Productions, Inc., Pack has written, directed and produced numerous documentaries, many of which have aired on PBS. He has served as CEO of the conservative Claremont Institute and held positions on the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. He has also worked on film projects with former Trump chief strategist and co-founder of Breitbart News, Stephen Bannon.Pack has previous experience with U.S. broadcasting, having served as director of WORLDNET, the global satellite network of the U.S. Information Agency that became the TV unit of Voice of America.”This man is uniquely qualified to hold this position,” Senate Foreign Relations Chairman James Risch said Thursday. “He’s done an outstanding job – everyone should look at the most recent documentary he did on the Supreme Court – it was just outstanding. There’s been a political battle fight over him for two years and one day – today is the moment of truth.”In his confirmation hearing last September, Pack addressed concerns he would attempt to impose a political bias on USAGM agencies, including VOA, which is mandated by U.S. law to be objective and balanced in its reporting. “The whole agency rests on the belief the reporters are independent, that no political influence is telling them how to report the news and what to say. Without that trust, I think, the agency is completely undermined,” Pack told the committee. With Pack’s nomination seemingly stalled in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, President Trump last month expressed frustration about the wait, saying it was due to Democratic obstruction. The president previously threatened to adjourn Congress to push the nomination through. Despite reports that Pack’s business dealings were the subject of an investigation by the District of Columbia’s attorney general, the Foreign Relations Committee approved Pack’s nomination May 20, on a strict 12-10 party-line vote, and then sent it to the Senate floor for final approval. At the time, Senator Risch said the committee was prepared to stand down on the nomination “if the United States attorney general department, Department of Justice asks to stand down; [we] will do so. That has not happened here.” Democrats say nomination sets bad precedentFILE – Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez speaks with the media on Capitol Hill in Washington, March 5, 2019.Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey, the ranking member of the Foreign Relations Committee, said the final vote on the Pack nomination endangered the Senate’s historic advise and consent role on presidential nominees in light of the way it was pushed through without a full airing of Pack’s business dealings. The D.C. attorney general’s office said it has opened an investigation into whether Pack unlawfully used funds from his nonprofit, Public Media Lab, to benefit himself.“I know that the president has spoken both publicly and privately of his intense desire to confirm Mr. Pack, come what may,” Menendez said Thursday. “The objections that I have raised today and have been raising for months are not political or partisan in nature. They go to the most basic and critical question – is Michael Pack fit to serve? Should he be confirmed while he is under investigation and after having been dishonest with the Senate and the IRS?”Menendez detailed committee Democrats’ unanswered questions, alleging that Pack had “misrepresented the relationship between his nonprofit organization and his for-profit company to the IRS. The White House dismissed Democratic concerns, stating that, “The President stands behind Michael Pack and is disappointed, but not surprised, that Do-Nothing-Democrats have once again decided to throw political mud on a public servant’s clean record.” Pack’s film company, Manifold Productions, Inc., received millions in grants from his non-profit, Menendez said. Yet he repeatedly told the IRS that there was no relationship between the two when in fact he ran both of them. Menendez said that Pack has yet to correct misinformation provided to the IRS and to the committee regarding the status of his tax returns.Menendez said Pack had not provided the committee with requested documents detailing the relationship between his nonprofit and his business, claiming sensitive business information. “Business interests are so sensitive that the United States senators cleared to review the most sensitive classified information cannot see them,” Menendez said. VOA did not receive a response to a request for comment from Pack’s spokesperson. US Broadcasting editorial stanceIn recent weeks, Trump has criticized VOA for its news coverage of China during the coronavirus crisis. When asked about the Pack nomination on May 15th, Trump said, “Voice of America is run in a terrible manner. They’re not the Voice of America. They’re the opposite of the Voice of America.” VOA Director Amanda Bennett defended the U.S.-funded news agency’s mission and reporting in a statement last month. “We export the First Amendment to people around the world who have no other access to factual, truthful, believable information,” she said. “That’s why more than 80% of our 280 million audience in 47 languages in more than 60 countries say they find our work credible,” she added. Senator Menendez said on the Senate floor ahead of the final vote Thursday that the connection with foreign audiences depends on the agency’s protections from political interference.“People around the world have come to view the products from all of the networks and grantees as reliable and trustworthy news sources as this pandemic has highlighted,” he said.“It is absolutely critical that any person in this position maintain a strong firewall between the work of its networks and grantees and political interference or influence from the White House or any others.”
The USAGM oversees five U.S. civilian broadcast networks, which include VOA, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), the Office of Cuba Broadcasting (OCB), Radio Free Asia (RFA), and the Arabic-language stations Alhurra Television and Radio Sawa of the Middle East Broadcasting Networks (MBN).
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Cameroon Journalists Blast Government Silence on Case of Missing Colleague
Journalists in Cameroon have marched to government offices to demand an account of their missing colleague, Samuel Wazizi, after local media this week reported he was died in military custody.
Isidore Abah of the Cameroon Association of English-Speaking Journalists’ (CAMASEJ) says he led scores of reporters Thursday in a march to government offices in the southwestern town of Buea.
Abah, who spoke from Buea via a messaging app, said journalists are demanding authorities tell them what happened to their colleague.
“We are disenchanted because we got news that our colleague is no more, so we have come here today to express our grief and to tell the governor that journalists are not armed robbers, journalists are not supposed to be treated with disdain. We have a right, so we have come to express our grief,” he said.
Abah said among the government offices they visited was that of Southwest Region Governor Bernard Okalia Bilai.
According to Abah, Bilai said only the central government in the capital Yaounde could tell them what happened to Wazizi.
Wazizi, whose legal name is Samuel Ajiekah Abuwe, worked for Chillen Music Television.
He was arrested Aug. 2, 2019, for allegedly supporting separatists in Cameroon’s English-speaking northwest and southwest regions by hosting fighters on his farm.
The military transferred Wazizi from Buea to Yaounde, where he had no access to lawyers or family and has not been seen since.
On Wednesday, Cameroon media reported that Wazizi died in military detention in Yaounde. Neither Cameroon’s military nor government have so far commented on the reports.
Journalists in the French-speaking town of Douala staged a similar protest march Thursday to government offices.
Press groups threatened to extend their protests to towns all over Cameroon if the government on Thursday fails to issue a statement.
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Kenya Charges Police Officer with Murder for Coronavirus Curfew Death
Kenya’s Independent Policing Oversight Authority (or IPOA) on Thursday announced a police officer was being charged with murder in the shooting death of Yassin Hussein Moyo.The thirteen-year-old boy was standing on the balcony of his parent’s home in Nairobi on March 30 when he was hit by a bullet as police enforced a nighttime coronavirus curfew.Jonathan Lodompui, vice chairman of the policing oversight authority, a civilian group established to investigate and audit police misconduct, says more officers have been disciplined, but he would not disclose how many. “They have really been disciplined. Some of them have been recalled, some of them have been interdicted, and some certain disciplinary action or role models have been preferred against them,” he said.The IPOA said Thursday that five other police officers were facing charges over other deaths, shootings, and assaults that pre-dated Kenya’s curfew. In a statement earlier this week, the oversight body said 15 deaths linked to police during the curfew are under investigation. But rights groups say since Kenya’s curfew began March 27 police are responsible for at least 26 deaths, the vast majority in poor neighborhoods. Juliet Wanjira is secretariat of the Mathare Social Justice Centre, an organization that documents extrajudicial police killings. She says charges brought against officers has not led to fewer civilians being killed. “Arresting the killer of Yassin Moyo is not going to bring Yassin Moyo back. It’s not going to. What is justice really? Justice is preventing Yassin Moyos from being killed, and that is what we need IPOA and this government to do.”Public anger is beginning to boil over. Video on social media showed protesters defying the curfew Monday night in Nairobi‘s Mathare slum and setting tires on fire in outrage over the shooting death of an elderly homeless man. The protesters accuse Kenyan police of killing the man, whom locals called Vaite, while enforcing the curfew. Speaking to Kenya’s NTV news Tuesday, Kenya Police Spokesman Charles Owino claimed that Vaite was shot not by police but by men on motorcycles. “If any police officer, including myself, if I take the law into my own hands and kill someone, you will not need to expose it. I’ll be taken to court,” Owino said.The police oversight authority says Vaite’s death is one of those being investigated.The IPOA says 87 complaints of police violence have been lodged since the curfew, including shootings, robbery, and sexual assault. The executive director of Amnesty International Kenya, Irungu Houghton, says the spike in cases shows that not enough disciplinary actions are being taken.“If you continue to retain a veil of secrecy around both the disciplinary actions that you’re taking and the officers that are being disciplined, then essentially what you are sending is a signal to the other officers is that they can continue doing what they’re doing and that there will be no consequences.” Kenya’s prosecution of police officers is exceedingly rare. Since its establishment in 2012, the IPOA has convicted only seven police.
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South Sudanese Army Officer Dies of Injuries Following Implication in Civilian Death
A senior South Sudanese army officer implicated in the shooting deaths of four civilians has succumbed to his injuries and died at a hospital in Juba. A source in the office of President Salva Kiir who is not authorized to speak to the media said Lual Okook Wol Kiir died from injuries he sustained during a gunfight involving his bodyguards and civilians on the outskirts of the city on Wednesday. At least three other people died in the shootout in Juba’s Sherikat neighborhood. Residents say the shootings occurred when Wol Kiir, a distant cousin of the president, ordered soldiers and police to open fire on demonstrators. Demonstrator Juuk Thiong Juuk said Wol Kiir, who was also known as Lual Marine, was trying to steal land from local residents. “Lual Marine is trying to grab land from the civilians and when the citizens try to reopen their businesses, Lual Marine came with his soldiers and immediately started shooting civilians and in that moment he shot dead two men and one women and other five are injured,” Juuk told VOA’s South Sudan in Focus program. Shortly after the shootings took place, some Sherikat residents took to the streets to demonstrate. They chanted slogans condemning President Kiir, burned tires, and blocked the Nimule highway, a major route leading into and out of Juba. A statement released by presidential spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny on Wednesday called the killings a “very serious criminal act” and said the perpetrators “must be punished.” Lual Marine was arrested by authorities before he died. South Sudan Army spokesman Major General Lul Ruai Koang said there was a “misunderstanding” in Sherikat “and it got out of hand and as a result, some shooting ensued between him and his bodyguards on one hand and civilians on the other.” Police and soldiers were seen using live bullets to disperse demonstrators in Juba Wednesday. Resident Garang Abraham said he witnessed an officer shoot another demonstrator. “We were coming together and he got shot by the police. He is wounded here on the leg from inside,” Abraham told South Sudan in Focus. Abraham said the demonstrator later died. Demonstrator Amer Majur said she and other Sherikat residents are angry over the killings. “Today, the government is killing our brother. They are killing our sisters. Very innocent, very innocent lady, who making their tea to help their kids and the one that killed them is government of South Sudan,” Majur told South Sudan in Focus. Ateny’s statement said, “The President of the Republic urges restraint from the families and community of the victims.”
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Britain Hosts Global COVID-19 Vaccine Summit
British Prime Minister Prime Minister Boris Johnson Thursday opened the Global Vaccine Summit, a virtual gathering of more that 50 countries, to raise funds for the U.N.-backed public-private health alliance known as GAVI, with the goal of ensuring vaccines are available to all.The summit hopes to raise more than $7.5 billion for the development and equitable world-wide distribution of COVID-19 and other vaccines.In his remarks from London, Johnson pledged Britain will contribute just over $2 billion to the GAVI vaccine alliance over the next five years. Along with creation of a COVID-19 vaccine, Johnson also called on nations to replenish funding for vaccines that already exist.In a recorded video message, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for global solidarity to ensure every person everywhere has access to any COVID-19 vaccine that is produced, and for the network that is used to share that vaccine be used to deliver a range of basic health services.Using data provided by governments around the world, Johns Hopkins University reports the COVID-19 pandemic has killed more than 386,000 worldwide and crippled economies. Restrictions imposed to prevent the virus from spreading have further hampered efforts to deliver regular vaccinations and other health services around the world.
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Hong Kong Legislature Passes Controversial National Anthem Law
Hong Kong’s legislature Thursday passed a controversial law to forbid ridicule of the Chinese national anthem amid widespread opposition. The move came on the 31st anniversary of the crackdown on the Tiananmen pro-democracy movement, with activists defying a police ban to hold commemorations in a downtown park where a mass gathering has been held for 30 years.The national anthem law passed shortly before 5 p.m. local time, with 41 voting for it and 1 voting against it, after pro-democracy lawmakers were ejected for staging a noisy protest. The law was passed quickly among largely pro-Beijing lawmakers while pro-democracy legislators shouted “A murderous state stinks forever” after the third reading of the bill resumed following a pause of four hours.The chair of the session ordered a suspension around 1 p.m. local time after two pro-democracy lawmakers, Eddie Chu and Ray Chan, were ejected from the council chamber after staging a protest. They rushed to the front of the chamber holding placards and threw pungent liquid in protest and were led away quickly. They said earlier they would use any means to stop the national anthem bill from passing. Police who inspected the scene said they would not rule out arrests.All of the 21 amendments raised by the pro-democracy lawmakers to limit the power of the proposed law were voted down earlier by the pro-Beijing lawmakers, who hold a majority in the legislature. Critics worried the broad definitions of terms like “insult” and “derogatory” in the law could curb freedom of expression in the city.“We don’t want another weapon for the authorities to suppress Hong Kong people,” said Ray Chan, in the morning session. “The kind of stability that is under draconian laws and severe punishment is soulless,” said Wu Chi-wai, chairman of the Democracy Party.Under the new anthem law, offenses are punishable with a fine of $6,500 and up to three years in jail. The bill also mandates schools to include the anthem in their curriculum to teach students “the history and spirit of the national anthem.” The law prohibits behavior “insulting” or misusing the Chinese national anthem, including “publicly and intentionally” altering its lyrics or score, and playing or singing it in a “distorted or disrespectful way.”The passage of the law came amid Beijing’s plans to impose sweeping national security laws on Hong Kong to prevent and punish “acts and activities” that threaten national security, including advocacy of secession, subversion and terrorism and foreign interference. China insisted that such laws were necessary to halt often violent anti-government protests in Hong Kong, which started a year ago. The movement was sparked by a controversial extradition law which could see individuals sent to mainland China for trial.
Tensions in the city persisted Thursday night, with Hong Kongers marking the June 4 anniversary of the military crackdown on the Tiananmen pro-democracy movement after police banned an annual candlelit vigil in the downtown Victoria Park that gone on uninterrupted for 30 years, citing COVID-19 concerns. Thousands defied a police ban and thronged to downtown Victoria Park around 8pm. Unlike past years, there is no organized ceremony as police refused to give a permit. People held candle lights and chanted slogans, but unlike past years when they called for the vindication of the 1989 pro-democracy movement, most were shouting slogans popular in the recent anti government movement, including ones calling for Independence. Some of the chants included “Free HK, democracy now!,” and “Hong Kong Independence, only way!”Some burst out singing the unofficial anthem of the anti government protests ” Glory to Hong Kong.”. Many people say this maybe the last Tiananmen vigil before the national security laws are implemented so they felt compelled to come out.”They want to intimidate us, but I will not be scared. We have a responsibility to keep the memory alive. If we don’t speak up then history will repeat itself, ” saida 66 year old Mr. Cheung, referring to the 1989 crackdown.”Tiananmen is meaningful because it showed the true face of the Communist Party. If we don’t come out while we still can, we won’t have another chance,” said Kenneth, 26.Chains and rails surrounded the vast sports grounds where some 180,000 people attended the commemoration last year – critics say the government used the disease as an excuse to keep the event from taking place as numbers of infections have been low.In early evening, before the candle-lit vigil started, media tycoon Jimmy Lai and politicians including Lee Cheuk Yan, the head of the alliance, and Albert Ho – who were among the 15 pro-democracy figures arrested in April for illegal assembly – marched into Victoria Park. “End to one party rule! Democracy in China now!” they chanted. People could be prosecuted for shouting these slogans once the national security laws are implemented in coming months. Rowena He, author of Tiananmen Exiles: Voices of the Struggle for Democracy in China, and associate professor of history at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said the banning of the vigil together with the two new laws “would have profound implications on Hong Kong” But she said even after the military crackdown in 1989, “[mainland Chinese] people’s resistance have never stopped, even at the cost of freedom, personal happiness, and the future of their loved ones.”“You cannot easily push people into darkness once they have experienced light. [Hong Kong] has been an open society with a strong civil society foundation,” she said. “The collective memory of lighting candles in Victoria Park will define the identity of not just people in Hong Kong, but global citizens who share the same humanity in our war of democracy against dictatorship. “
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Nearly 2 Million More Americans Seek Jobless Benefits
The pace of applications for U.S. unemployment compensation eased again last week, the Labor Department reported Thursday, as many American employers slowly reopen their businesses after the coronavirus pandemic forced their closure. But even as some stores, restaurants and businesses rehired workers and welcomed back customers on a restricted and limited basis, another 1.88 million workers filed for cash benefits after being laid off as the virus continues to take its toll on the world’s largest economy.It was the smallest layoff figure since mid-March, when state governors first issued mass closure directives. But overall, 42.5 million workers have now sought unemployment compensation, more than a quarter of the U.S. labor force of more than 164 million. However, the current actual number of jobless workers is unknown since some who sought unemployment benefits in previous weeks have now been called back to work by their employers. All 50 state governors have begun to ease restrictions on businesses opening in a patch-work array of orders that varies widely throughout the country, and even within cities and counties within individual states. The April unemployment rate was 14.7%, with the government releasing the May figure on Friday. Some economists say it could be about 20%.With mass protests, including numerous chaotic clashes between demonstrators and police roiling the U.S. this week against the May 25 death of a black man while in police custody, the plight of the unemployed has garnered far less attention in recent days.Some lawmakers have been weighing whether to adopt legislation to pay workers a return-to-work bonus of $1,200 as an incentive to begin working again if they can, rather than continue to collect unemployment compensation.The U.S. death toll from the virus has now topped 109,000, by far the most in the world, and health experts predict tens of thousands more will die in the coming months. But President Donald Trump, facing a November re-election contest against former Vice President Joe Biden, is predicting the country will have a robust economic recovery. He almost never publicly mentions the devastating unemployment numbers.Instead, he tweeted Wednesday: “I feel more and more confident that our economy is in the early stages of coming back very strong. Not everyone agrees with me, but I have little doubt. Watch for September, October, November. Next year will be one of the best ever, and look at the Stock Market NOW!”But the coronavirus has had a major effect on U.S. commerce, with more than two dozen companies filing for bankruptcy protection in May and some companies announcing they were closing permanently. The government says the national economy dropped 4.8% in the first quarter, but that was before the full impact of the pandemic became apparent for the April-to-June quarter. Numerous states still require social distancing of at least two meters between people in stores and some major retail outlets are requiring their employees and customers to wear face masks. Some governors are limiting restaurants to half capacity or only allowing out-door eating with appropriate social distancing. But in other states, the restrictions have been significantly lifted and crowds have quickly emerged to resume life, shopping or enjoying a day at Atlantic and Pacific beaches, often ignoring the admonitions of health experts to maintain a safe distance from others or to wear a face mask. Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell has warned that the American economy could endure a multi-year recession if more aid is not authorized for workers. But Trump and Republican lawmakers are balking at approving more government assistance until it can be determined how much effect the already-approved funding is helping the economy. U.S. workers filing for jobless benefits normally are paid slightly less than half their normal salaries. But these payments are currently being augmented during the pandemic with $600-a-week supplements from the federal government for four months, through July. The peak of the unemployment benefit claims likely came in late March with 6.9 million workers filing for the jobless compensation in one seven-day period. The weekly pace of claims has diminished each of the last 11 weeks since then, but the millions of claims have still been unparalleled over decades of U.S. economic history, reaching back to the Great Depression in the 1930s. The number of claims has far exceeded those made during the Great Recession in 2008-2009.
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A Million Beers Await Drinkers as Europe’s Bars Reopen
BRUSSELS/COPENHAGEN — As bars across Europe gradually reopen, up to a million free or pre-paid beers are waiting to lure back wary consumers.
Beer makers from global giant Anheuser-Busch InBev to smaller craft brewers have set up schemes for consumers to buy drinks in advance to support shuttered bars with, in some cases, the reward of free beer when the doors reopen.
AB InBev launched its first scheme “Cafe Courage” in Belgium and has since sold over 200,000 Stella Artois, Jupiler and other brands. It also started similar schemes in 20 other markets across Europe and from Brazil to Hong Kong, raising over $6 million for pubs, bars and restaurants.
World number two Heineken put the number of drinks sold through its various voucher schemes at 270,000.
Now the bars are opening, consumers have had their first chance to redeem coupons or vouchers.
Danish friends Arendse Rohland and Thomas Hoffner Lovgren were among those to profit from free beers after bars re-opened there on May 18.
Danish brewer Carlsberg offered lagers in a bar to consumers who bought bottles or cans from stores in its “Adopt a Keg” scheme. The idea was to lure drinkers back with free drinks and hope that they would then buy more. Hoffner Lovgren and Rohland both seemed willing to do so.
“I rarely only drink one beer,” Roland said after collecting a free drink at Carl’s Ol & Spisehus in a Copenhagen suburb.
Drinkers elsewhere are now in line. France became the latest country on Tuesday to allow bars and restaurants to operate after the Netherlands on Monday. Ireland and Belgium are expected to follow later this month, with Britain in July.
Julian Marsili, Carlsberg global brand director, said its campaign would even continue into the summer.
“Travel will not be massive, at least outside Denmark, so we are encouraging people who want to adopt kegs to explore Denmark further in bars in the tourist places,” he said.
The schemes have helped, but not made up the shortfall. In Britain, the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) said pubs could have recorded their best April in a decade, selling 745 million pints in unseasonably warm and sunny weather.
The issue is acute for brewers, with about a third of beer typically consumed in pubs, bars or cafes. In value terms, that can rise to 60-65%, according to Pierre-Olivier Bergeron, secretary general of the Brewers of Europe.
Beer sales in stores have risen, but well below the rate of wine and spirits and not enough to make up for the loss of on-premise drinking, according to U.S. data from marketing research firm Nielsen.
Will they come?
Reopened bars and restaurants will clearly not operate as they did before the coronavirus closures, with limited time at the bar or table service, shorter hours and measures to minimize contact between staff and customers and to keep customers apart.
Emma McClarkin, BBPA chief executive, said the social distancing gap made a big difference. Two meters, currently used in Britain, might only allow only a third of Britain’s 47,000 pubs to reopen while a one-meter rule, deemed safe by the World Health Organization, would allow 75% to operate, she said.
Brewers have also been helping with some of the new hardware involved and learning from China, where restaurants and bars reopened from March.
Jan Craps, chief executive of Budweiser Brewing Co APAC, said the AB InBev Asian subsidiary had sent “welcome kits” including hand sanitizer, gloves, masks and advice to 50,000 bars and restaurants across China and 1,000 plastic screens to help smaller venues separate groups of customers.
Craps said the kits were being replicated in many other countries, such as the Americas where the brewer has its largest markets.
A study for the brewer of British pub-goers found 93% were keen to revisit their local and over a third intend to visit within a week of reopening. A majority also wanted to keep 2 meters away from strangers.
Business will not resume as before. Belgian cafe and restaurant owners expect on average 45% fewer customers as a result of social distancing measures and consumer wariness.
“It’s not a back to normal situation… establishments now reopening will be reopening under pretty special conditions,” Bergeron said.
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Protests Over George Floyd’s Death Expose Raw Race Relations Worldwide
Images of a white police officer kneeling on the neck of African-American George Floyd, who then died, have sparked protests from Amsterdam to Nairobi, but they also expose deeper grievances among demonstrators over strained race relations in their own countries.
With violent clashes between protesters and authorities raging in the United States, anti-police-brutality activists gathered by the thousands in support of the Black Lives Matter movement in various European and African cities.
Peaceful protesters highlighted allegations of abuse of black prisoners by their jailers, social and economic inequality, and institutional racism lingering from the colonial pasts of the Netherlands, Britain and France.
“If you want to believe that we in the Netherlands do not have a problem with race, you should go ahead and go home,” Jennifer Tosch, founder of Black Heritage Amsterdam Tours, told a crowd in Amsterdam, from where the Dutch West India Company operated ships estimated to have traded 500,000 slaves in the 1600s and 1700s.
Tosch and others drew a comparison between Floyd’s death and the treatment of slaves centuries ago. “We have seen this image before as white persecutors and enslavers held down the enslaved and branded them with an iron.”
People take part in a Black Lives Matter protest in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Monday, June 1, 2020, to protest against the recent killing of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis, U.S.A., after being restrained by police…In London, a protester held a placard reading “The UK isn’t innocent,” while in Berlin around 2,000 people protested outside the U.S. embassy and two Bundesliga soccer players wore “Justice for George Floyd” shirts on Monday.
A similar message came from Dominique Sopo, president of French NGO SOS Racisme, which organized a small protest outside the U.S. embassy in Paris on Monday.
“This issue of police racism is also, albeit with a lower level of violence, an issue that concerns France,” he said.
Police in northern Paris fired tear gas on Tuesday to disperse demonstrators protesting over the 2016 death of a young black Frenchman in police custody – an incident that has drawn parallels with Floyd’s killing.
Adama Traore’s family have blamed excessive force used during his arrest, when the 24-year-old was pinned down by three gendarmes. Successive pathology reports have reached conflicting conclusions over whether his death two hours later resulted from asphyxiation or other factors including pre-existing conditions.
Amid a coronavirus lockdown, French activists also say there have been a number of police brutality cases in low-income neighborhoods where many originate from Africa.
Turkish police officers, in riot gear, and wearing face masks for protections against the spread of the coronavirus, scuffle with protesters during a demonstration in Istanbul, Tuesday, June 2, 2020, against the recent killing of George Floyd in…Clashes in Turkey
In Istanbul, more than 50 people clashed with police officers minutes after beginning a protest over Floyd and what they called police brutality in Turkey.
At least five people were detained after scuffles with officers holding shields, after which other protesters gave speeches denouncing lethal police force and bans on demonstrations in Turkey during the pandemic.
In Nairobi, protesters at the American embassy held signs reading “Black Lives Matter” and “Stop Extrajudicial Killings”.
“The system that allows police brutality to happen in Kenya is based on class. In America, it’s race and class.”
What Is Black Lives Matter?Origins of the movement opposing police violence against black AmericansProtests are planned in coming days in Gambia, Britain, Spain and Portugal.
In Spain, protesters will mark the death of Floyd and “all sisters and brothers who have died at the hands of institutional racism on our streets,” the African and Afro-descendant Community CNAAE said.
Portugal’s gathering will address “the myth that Portugal is not a racist country.”
But not all in Europe side with the protesters.
Spain’s far-right Vox party and the Netherlands’ anti-Islam Freedom Party called those protesting Floyd’s death “terrorists” and backed U.S. President Donald Trump.
“Our support for Trump and the Americans who are seeing their Nation attacked by street terrorists backed by progressive millionaires,” Vox wrote in a Tweet.
In the Netherlands, the Freedom Party’s Geert Wilders tweeted: “White House under attack. This is no protest but anarchy by #AntifaTerrorists.”
Even amid such racial division, Linda Nooitmeer, who heads the National Institute for the Study of Dutch Slavery and its Legacy, drew hope from Monday’s protest in Amsterdam.
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Focus Shifts to Hong Kong’s Fate on Tiananmen Anniversary
As China tightens its control over Hong Kong, activists in the city defied a police ban and broke through barricades Thursday evening to mark the 31st anniversary of the crushing of a democracy movement centered on Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.
With democracy all but snuffed out in mainland China, the focus has shifted increasingly to semi-autonomous Hong Kong, where authorities for the first time banned an annual candlelight vigil marking the anniversary of the 1989 crackdown.
Police cited the need for social distancing during the coronavirus outbreak and barricaded sprawling Victoria Park to prevent people from gathering there. Beijing is taking a tougher stance following months of anti-government protests last year, in what activists see as an accelerating erosion of the city’s rights and liberties.
“We all know the Hong Kong government and the Chinese government really don’t want to see the candle lights in Victoria Park,” said Wu’er Kaixi, a former student leader who was No. 2 on the government’s most-wanted list following the Tiananmen Square crackdown.
Hundreds and possibly thousands of people were killed when tanks and troops moved in on the night of June 3-4, 1989, to break up weeks of student-led protests that had spread to other cities and were seen as a threat to Communist Party rule.
“The Chinese Communists want us all to forget about what happened 31 years ago,” Wu’er told the AP in Taiwan, where he lives. “But it is the Chinese government themselves reminding the whole world that they are the same government … doing the same in Hong Kong.”
China did not intervene directly in last year’s protests, despite speculation it might deploy troops, but backed the tough response of the Hong Kong police and government. It then announced last month at the annual meeting of its ceremonial legislature that it would impose national security laws on Hong Kong, circumventing the city’s legislature and shocking many of its 7.5 million residents.
Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, where thousands of students had gathered in 1989, was quiet and largely empty on Thursday. Police and armored vehicles stood guard on the vast space. Few pedestrians lined up at security checkpoints where they must show IDs to be allowed through as part of mass surveillance nationwide to prevent any commemoration of the event.
As has become customary, many dissidents were placed under house arrest and their communications with the outside world cut off, according to rights groups.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson offered the government’s standard defense of the 1989 crackdown.
“The Chinese government has made a clear conclusion about the political disturbance that occurred in the late 1980s,” Zhao Lijian said. “The great achievements that we have achieved … have fully demonstrated that the development path China has chosen is completely correct, which conforms to China’s national conditions and has won the sincere support of the Chinese people.”
Despite the ban on the candlelight vigil, Hong Kong was bracing for possible “pop-up” protests of the type that raged around the city last year and often led to violent confrontations between police and demonstrators.
Thousands have been arrested in the demonstrations, which were sparked by proposed legislation that could have allowed suspects to be sent to mainland China for trial.
The Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic and Democratic Movements of China that organizes the annual vigil called on people to light candles at 8 p.m. (1200 GMT) and planned to livestream the commemorations on its website.
Alliance Chairman Lee Cheuk-yan and several other members of the Hong Kong Alliance gathered at Victoria Park at 6:30 p.m. (1030 GMT, 6:30 a.m. EDT), dressed in black shirts with the Chinese characters for “truth” emblazoned on the front. They lit candles and urged the public to do the same later on to mourn victims of the massacre and show their support for the democratic cause in China.
Lee then led the group of about 15 members in a candlelit procession around the park, shouting slogans including, “Stand with Hong Kong.”
“We have been doing this for 30 years, we have the right to do this, this is a peaceful procession,” he said, stating that it would be “absurd” if this behavior is criminalized.
The group later removed one of the barricades surrounding the park, and entered it to continue their procession.
On Thursday, the Hong Kong legislature passed a law making it a crime to disrespect China’s national anthem. The pro-democracy opposition, which sees the law as an infringement of freedom of expression, boycotted the vote.
“The Hong Kong government tried to please or show loyalty to Beijing and ban our gathering even before the national security law comes in. But we are determined,” Lee said at a kiosk set up by the group to distribute flyers in the busy Causeway Bay shopping district near the park.
“The ban comes amid an alarming acceleration of attacks on the autonomy of Hong Kong and the undermining of the rights and freedoms of the Hong Kong people guaranteed under Hong Kong and international law,” Sharon Hom, executive director of Human Rights in China, said in a statement.
Other vigils, virtual and otherwise, were planned elsewhere, including in Taiwan, the self-ruled island democracy whose government called again this year for Beijing to own up to the facts of the crackdown.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted criticism of China and Hong Kong for banning the vigil earlier this week before meeting with a group of Tiananmen Square survivors at the State Department.
Zhao, the Foreign Ministry spokesperson, said, “We urge the U.S. to abandon ideological prejudice, correct mistakes and stop interfering in China’s internal affairs in any form.”
China has released the last of those arrested for directly taking part in the Tiananmen demonstrations, but others who seek to commemorate them have been rearrested for continuing their activism.
They include Huang Qi, founder of the website 64 Tianwang that sought to expose official wrongdoing. Reportedly in failing health, he is serving a 12-year sentence after being convicted of leaking state secrets abroad.
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India Hopes to Resolve China Faceoff Along Border with Talks
A standoff between Indian and Chinese troops along their disputed border in the northern Himalayas shows no signs of easing. But even as the Asian giants have moved troops and heavy artillery into the region, talks are being held at the military and diplomatic levels to resolve the tensions, according to Indian officials. FILE – Indian Defense Minister Shri Rajnath Singh, speaks during a news conference after a bilateral meeting between the U.S. and India at the Department of State in Washington, Dec.18, 2019.“They [Chinese soldiers] are present in sizeable numbers,” Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh told an Indian television channel on Tuesday confirming the presence of a substantial number of troops along the border. “Whatever needs to be done, India has also done.” The main face off centers around the Galwan Valley and the Pangong Tso Lake in Ladakh which controls access to several strategic points on their Himalayan border. Officials in New Delhi have told local media that Chinese soldiers entered Indian territory at three different points, erecting tents and guard posts prompting India to shore up its presence. Indian analysts say the trigger for the latest flare-up between the two countries is the building of infrastructure such as roads in the border region by New Delhi. “The government has speeded up border construction activities, road building, reactivated airports, which Chinese are not able to digest maybe,” says P. Stobdan, a former diplomat and expert on India China affairs. “So accessibility for Indian troops to the border has gone up and patrolling in the area has also gone up.” The border tensions between the Asian giants have escalated since early May when a scuffle broke out between Indian and Chinese soldiers at Pangong Tso Lake in Ladakh injuring several soldiers. The troop build-up is the most serious since 2017 when the armies of two Asian countries were locked in an eyeball to eyeball confrontation for two and a half months near the tri-junction point between India, China and Bhutan. That standoff, sparked by Chinese soldiers building a road that could have potentially compromised Indian security ,was eventually resolved through diplomatic talks. Several stretches of the nearly 3,500 long India-China border or what is called the “Line of Actual Control” are undemarcated. As troops from both sides patrol the border, scuffles due to differing perceptions of what marks each one’s territory erupt occasionally between soldiers but are usually settled by local military commanders. The latest flareup however is far more serious. “They claim that it is their territory. Our claim is that it is our area. There has been a disagreement over it,” Minister Singh said referring to the current military standoff.
He expressed hope that the dispute will be settled through negotiations. “What can be better if it can be resolved through talks?” But he has also said that India will not let “its pride be hurt.” Beijing has not officially acknowledged any additional recent deployment of forces to the India China border. However the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian described the overall situation along the border as “stable and controllable” at a regular press briefing on Monday. “Between China and India, there are unimpeded channels for border-related communication in diplomatic and military fields. We believe the issues can be resolved after bilateral negotiations and consultations,” he said. FILE – President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi shake hands before their meeting at Hyderabad House, in New Delhi, India, Feb. 25, 2020.The situation along the India-China border was among several issues discussed during a telephone conversation on Tuesday between U.S. President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, according to India’s Foreign Ministry. Senior U.S. officials have also weighed in on the border tensions between the two countries. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told the American Enterprise Institute on Monday that China’s moving of troops to the line of actual control echoed similarly heavy-handed behavior over the coronavirus, South China Sea and Hong Kong. “These are the kind of actions that authoritarian regimes take,” he told the think tank in remarks released by the State Department. Expressing concern about the “ongoing Chinese aggression” on the India-China border, the Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Eliot L. Engel, said in a recent statement that “China is demonstrating once again that it is willing to bully its neighbors rather than resolve conflicts according to international law.” Senior Indian military commanders are expected to hold talks on Saturday to discuss the situation. “India is standing up, sticking to its position. Hopefully the tensions will be deescalated, but who knows,” says former ambassador Stobdan.
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COVID-19 Drags Australia Into Recession
The coronavirus shutdown and the summer bushfires have ended Australia’s run of 29 years of uninterrupted economic growth. Gross domestic product, or national income, for the March quarter fell, dragging Australia into recession for the first time since the early 1990s.George H. W. Bush was the U.S. president when Australia last went into recession in 1991. That proud record of almost 30 years of uninterrupted growth has come to a shuddering halt.In a recession an economy shrinks, or goes into reverse.Latest figures show the Australian economy was in trouble before the COVID-19 outbreak after a devastating bushfire season, a slowdown in tourism and weak domestic demand. The pandemic has only added to the decline.Lockdown restrictions to stem the spread of the coronavirus saw thousands of businesses forced to close, including gyms, cafes, theaters and shops.Unemployment is expected to double to 10 percent, and massive financial stimulus packages have sent national debt soaring.The government is warning that the outlook for the months ahead is dire.However, Australia appears in better shape than other G7 and other Asian countries, which have had much bigger falls in national income.“What we were facing was an economist’s version of Armageddon,” Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said. “We have avoided the economic fate and the health fate of other nations because of the measures that we have taken as a nation. Now, the June quarter, the economic impact will be severe.”The governor of the Reserve Bank, Philip Lowe, said Australia was facing the toughest conditions since the Great Depression. But he, too, said it was “possible that the depth of the downturn will be less than earlier expected.”These are anxious times for many Australians. As unemployment increases, many of those in work are feeling greater job insecurity and face higher levels of household debt. All this against a backdrop of fears of a potential second COVID-19 outbreak.Australia has recorded just over 7,200 confirmed coronavirus cases. The majority of patients have recovered, but 102 have died.Various lockdown restrictions, including the reopening of schools, bars, cafes and beauty salons are being gradually eased across the country.
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Hong Kong Legislature Holds Final Debate on Chinese National Anthem
Hong Kong’s legislature began final debate Thursday on a controversial bill that would criminalize showing disrespect for China’s national anthem.Thursday’s proceedings were interrupted when two pro-democracy lawmakers rushed to the front of the chamber and held up a sign that said “A murderous regime stinks for 10,000 years” before dropping a pot of stinking liquid on the floor. The lawmakers were ejected from the chamber.The bill calls for anyone who intentionally insults the anthem by booing or any other means, to face up to three years in prison and fines of more than $6,000. The measure was introduced last year in response to fans regularly booing “March of the Volunteers” during football [soccer] matches.The bill is expected to be approved sometime Thursday.The global financial hub was engulfed by massive and often violent anti-government protests during the last half of 2019, sparked initially by a controversial extradition bill that eventually evolved into a demand for greater democracy. Many Hong Kongers fear their autonomy is steadily being eroded by a central government on the mainland that is increasingly meddling in its affairs.The vote on the national anthem bill comes exactly a week after China’s rubber stamp parliament approved a new national security law for Hong Kong that would prevent and punish acts of “secession, subversion or terrorism activities” that threaten national security.
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South Africa Schools to Reopen After COVID Closures
After a few fits and starts, South Africa will gradually open schools this coming week, and feelings are mixed about the event as students between 7th and 12th grade go in first. Is it safe? Is it too soon, or overdue? Anita Powell in Johannesburg reports on what doctors, teachers and educational experts are saying.
Camera: Zaheer Cassim Producer: Rod James
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Wife of Former Lesotho Prime Minister Back in Prison in Murder of his Ex-Wife
The wife of former Lesotho Prime Minister Thomas Thabane, who was charged with killing her husband’s first wife, is back in prison after a judge revoked her bail last week, pending a June 16 hearing.Maesaiah Thabane was taken into custody Wednesday. She was initially charged in February for her alleged involvement in the 2017 shooting death of Lipolelo Thabane, just before her husband’s inauguration.Days after Lipolelo’s killing, Maesaiah married Thomas Thabane.Maesaiah’s current legal challenge marks her second stint in prison. She spent hours in jail before posting bail earlier this year and traveling to South Africa to be with her husband seeking medical attention there.Police arrested her when she returned to Lesotho. Her husband, who could also be charged in the case, told the French News Agency (AFP) he didn’t kill anyone, certainly not his wife.Lesotho is a small African country surrounded by the much larger South Africa.
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US Senate Sends Small-Business Loan Reform Bill to Trump
The US Senate on Wednesday approved reforms to the popular Paycheck Protection Program that will give small businesses greater flexibility in using the coronavirus crisis funds. The measure, which cleared the House of Representatives by a 471-1 vote, unanimously passed the Senate and now heads to President Donald Trump’s desk for his signature. The new changes to the PPP, established as a lifeline for small businesses struggling to stay afloat during coronavirus lockdowns, allow for more flexibility in how the relief loans are used, and in the time given to businesses to repay the funds. “These changes will let business owners spend their PPP funds over a longer period of time, use a larger percentage of the loan on non-payroll expenses (like rent), and more,” said Senator Angus King, an independent who aligns with Democrats. The two phases of the PPP have provided a total of $669 billion in lending. “The PPP is a pro-worker, bipartisan program that has been hugely successful in protecting 50 million employees and helping small business owners endure this crisis,” said Senate Republican Marco Rubio, chairman of the small business committee. The bill would extend from eight weeks to 24 weeks the period when funds must be spent for the loans to be forgiven, and would also give businesses as long as five years to repay any money owed on a loan, up from two years. Businesses would be able to use a larger percentage of the funds on rent and other approved non-payroll expenses. The bill would require that 60 percent of a loan be used on payroll, instead of 75 percent — a current stipulation that frustrates businesses like restaurants, which are grappling with high overhead costs. Congress is meanwhile working on a massive new measure to provide fresh economic relief for Americans and fund local pandemic response efforts. But the $3 trillion bill, which passed the Democratic-led House, faces opposition from Senate Republicans who branded it an exorbitant liberal wish list.
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N. Korea Warns S. Korea to Stop Defectors from Scattering Anti-North Leaflets
The sister of North Korea’s leader has warned South Korea to stop defectors from sending leaflets into the demilitarized zone separating the countries, saying it may cancel a recent bilateral military agreement if the activity persists.Kim Yo Jong, who serves unofficially as Kim Jong Un’s chief of staff, issued the warning in a statement carried by state news agency KCNA on Thursday.She was referring to thousands of “anti-DPRK leaflets” recently dumped along the North’s side of the heavily fortified DMZ titled “Defectors from the North.”DPRK, or the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, is the North’s official name.”If such an act of evil intention committed before our eyes is left to take its own course under the pretext of ‘freedom of individuals’ and ‘freedom of expression’, the south Korean authorities must face the worst phase shortly,” the KCNA statement said.Kim Yo Jong warned of the possible scrapping of the inter-Korean military agreement that promised to eliminate practical threats of war as a result of the clandestine leafletting.The military pact reached in 2018 was “hardly of any value,” she said.She also warned the North will completely withdraw from the Kaesong industrial project and shut down the joint liaison office in the North’s border city, unless Seoul stopped such actions.The KCNA report did not single out any individuals for blame in the leafletting. But Kim Yo Jong’s comments come after a former North Korean diplomat and another North Korean defector won parliamentary seats in South Korea’s general election in April.Kim Yo Jong has been the most visible presence around her brother in the past two years. She serves formally as a vice director of the ruling Workers’ Party’s powerful Central Committee
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Doctors Kept Close Eye on Trump’s Use of Malaria Drug
The White House medical team kept a close eye on President Donald Trump’s heart rhythms, including at least one electrocardiogram, to watch for potential side effects when he took a two-week course of a malaria drug to try to prevent the coronavirus, his doctor reported Wednesday.”The President completed the regimen safely and without side effects,” Dr. Sean Conley wrote in a report on Trump’s latest physical and his treatment with hydroxychloroquine.A pharmacy tech pours out pills of hydroxychloroquine at Rock Canyon Pharmacy in Provo, Utah, May 20, 2020.Overall, Conley said, Trump showed little change in basic health measurements from 16 months ago. On the negative side, he gained a pound. But on the plus side, his cholesterol level continued to fall.”The data indicates the President remains healthy,” Conley concluded. Trump recently took a two-week course of hydroxychloroquine after two White House staffers tested positive for COVID-19.Conley said it was done in consultation with “appropriate care team members and close monitoring of the electrocardiogram (EKG),” indicating that doctors were looking for changes in his heartbeat because abnormal heart rhythms are one of the dangerous side effects that have been found in studies of the drug.The drug proved ineffective for preventing COVID-19 in the first large, high-quality study to test it in people in close contact with someone with the disease. Results published Wednesday by the New England Journal of Medicine show that hydroxychloroquine was no better than placebo pills at preventing illness from the coronavirus. The drug did not seem to cause serious harm, though — about 40% on it had side effects, mostly mild stomach problems. Trump has frequently cited anecdotal reports and seemed determined to prove the naysayers wrong. Trump’s weight came in a 244 pounds. That gives him a Body Mass Index of 30.5, based on his 6-foot, 3-inch frame. An index rating of 30 is the level at which doctors consider someone to be obese. About 40% of Americans are obese. Trump was evaluated twice for the physical, first in November 2019 and then in April. He has a resting heart rate of 63 beats per minute. A normal resting heart rate for adults ranges from 60 to 100 beats per minute, and generally, a lower rate implies better cardiovascular fitness. His blood pressure came in at 121 over 79. The American Heart Association says an elevated blood pressure range is when a reading for the upper number consistently ranges from 120-129 and less than 80 for the lower number. People with elevated blood pressure are likely to develop high blood pressure unless steps are taken to control the condition. Trump has shown marked improvement in his cholesterol levels during his presidency, helped by medication. At his physical in January 2018, his total cholesterol was 223. In early 2019, the reading came in at 196. It now stands at 167. The president takes rosuvastatin to help lower his bad cholesterol, known as LDL, and to raise his good cholesterol, or HDL. Ideally, total cholesterol should be less than 200. Trump also takes aspirin daily and finasteride, a drug to treat enlargement of the prostate and male pattern hair loss. Aspirin reduces the risk of heart attack and stroke in people at high risk for them.
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Army: Esper Reverses Plan to Send Active-Duty Troops Home
n an abrupt reversal, Defense Secretary Mark Esper on Wednesday overturned an earlier Pentagon decision to send a couple hundred active-duty soldiers home from the Washington, D.C., region, amid growing tensions with the White House over the military response to the protests.Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy told The Associated Press that the reversal came after Esper attended a meeting at the White House, and after other internal Pentagon discussions. It is unclear if Esper met with President Donald Trump. McCarthy said he believes the change was based on ensuring there is enough military support in the region to respond to any protest problems if needed.McCarthy said he received notice of the Pentagon order to send about 200 soldiers with the 82nd Airborne’s immediate response force home just after 10 a.m. Wednesday. Hours later, the Pentagon notified him that Esper had reversed the decision. The move to keep the troops in the region, however, comes as Pentagon leaders continue to insist they do not want to use active-duty forces to help quell the protests.Earlier in the day, Esper had tamped down threats from Trump about sending troops to “dominate” the streets, telling reporters at a Pentagon news conference that he opposes using military forces for law enforcement in containing the current street protests. Active-duty troops should be used in the U.S. “only in the most urgent and dire of situations,” He said, adding, “We are not in one of those situations now.””It is our intent at this point not to bring in active forces, we don’t think we need them at this point,” McCarthy said in an interview with The Associated Press. “But it’s prudent to have the reserve capability in the queue, on a short string.”Demonstrators gather to protest the death of George Floyd, June 3, 2020, near the White House in Washington. Floyd died after being restrained by Minneapolis police officers.The AP reported earlier Wednesday that the 82nd Airborne soldiers would be the first to leave and would be returning home to Fort Bragg, N.C. The remainder of the active-duty troops, who have all been kept at military bases outside the city in northern Virginia and Maryland, would get pulled home in the coming days if conditions allowed.But then the Pentagon changed its plans.”It’s a dynamic situation,” said McCarthy, adding that the 82nd Airborne troops “will stay over an additional 24 hours and it is our intent — we’re trying to withdraw them and get them back home.”The active-duty troops have been available, but not used in response to the protests.About 1,300 active-duty troops were brought in to the capital region early this week as protests turned violent. The protests came in the aftermath of the death in Minnesota of a black man, George Floyd, who died after a white police officer pressed his knee to Floyd’s neck for several minutes. The active-duty unit that will be last to remain on alert is the Army’s 3rd Infantry Regiment, which is normally most visible as the soldiers who stand at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The troops, known as the Old Guard, are based close to D.C. at Fort Myer, Virginia, and have been on 30-minute alert status. They would continue to be prepared to respond to any emergency in the region within a half-hour for as long as needed.Pentagon leaders have consistently said there continues to be no intent to use the active-duty forces in any law enforcement capacity. They would be used to assist the National Guard or other forces.So far, Indiana has sent about 300 National Guard troops to D.C., Tennessee has sent about 1,000 and South Carolina has sent more than 400.
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Nigerians Mass Online to Demand Justice for Abuses
The rallying cries #JusticeForUwa, #JusticeForTina and #JusticeForJennifer have reverberated among internet users in the country as celebrities have joined virtual campaigns drawing inspiration from Black Lives Matter protests in the United States. The latest outpouring of anger has been unleashed by the cases of three women and girls who were killed or raped in incidents activists say showcase the sexual violence and police brutality widespread in Nigeria. In April, an 18-year-old known only as Jennifer was allegedly attacked and raped by a gang of five men in the northern city of Kaduna. The case only gained attention after her relatives — scared the accused would escape justice — released a video online of family comforting the traumatized teen that was shared tens of thousands of times. Now local police say two men have been arrested for rape and three other suspects are being sought. Two cases that happened last week sparked even more outrage. A 16-year-old high school student called Tina Ezekwe was fatally shot after police opened fire at a bus stop in biggest city Lagos during a night-time coronavirus curfew. After an outcry online the police force said two officers had been detained and were facing disciplinary action and possible prosecution.The same day in southern Edo state 22-year-old university student Vera Uwaila Omozuma, known as Uwa, was found beaten to death in a church after reportedly being raped. A female blogger from the area drew the attention of hundreds of thousands of internet users with the hashtag #JusticeForUwa.Under pressure the regional governor and police pledged an investigation to track down those responsible for the killing of the microbiology student. ‘Bring light’For Nigerians the internet is a key outlet for protests in a country where taking to the streets can often draw a punishing response from security forces and officials frequently duck accountability. “Social Media is a tool to bring light on police, or institutions,” Segun Awosanya, the head of Social Intervention Advocacy Foundation that campaigns against abuses by law enforcement. “Once the light is on them, they have to go back to the cases and dig them up. They can’t keep quiet anymore.”Now the protests rocking cities across the US in the wake of the killing of George Floyd and the power of the online campaigns against police brutality there appear to be pushing more Nigerians to demand action. “We see the crowds in America, and its an opportunity to share our pain and our displeasure,” Awosanya, who has more than 500,000 followers on Twitter, said. ‘#Wearetired’While the online protests were sparked by violence against women, they have quickly began tapping into broader anger about the state of the country. Now some of Nigeria’s biggest stars have ditched their usual reticence to get involved in politics and are speaking out. “#WeAreTired of senseless killings, lorries falling on road and killing passengers, ACs catching fire and burning houses, young girls getting raped, young boys killed,” tweeted Afropop diva Tina Sawage to her four million followers. “Please add your own frustration because my list is long.”Sawage has been joined by other celebrities like music producer Don Jazzy, who has 4.6 million followers, and singers Mr Eazi and Rema who railed against rape in the country and police violence. “The police kills [sic] black Americans and the Nigerian police kill Nigerians,” wrote the even more popular star Wizkid in Pidgin to his 6.5 million followers, taking direct aim at President Muhammadu Buhari.“Buhari/Trump are the same person — only difference is that one knows how to use Twitter.”
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Senate Republicans Launch Investigation Into Origins of Russia Probe
Former U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein defended his decision to open a special counsel investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, telling a Senate panel Wednesday that while there was “reasonable suspicion” for the probe, he should not have signed an application for a surveillance warrant against a Trump campaign adviser.The Senate Judiciary Committee called Rosenstein in to testify about the origins of the FBI investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, the first step in a broader effort by the Republican-majority U.S. Senate to investigate alleged abuses on the part of Obama administration officials, as well as presumptive 2020 Democratic nominee, former Vice President Joe Biden.Chair of the Republican-led Senate Judiciary Committee Lindsey Graham of South Carolina prepares to hear testimony from former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, June 3, 2020.Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham is set to issue 53 subpoenas Thursday, in an attempt to compel testimony from former Obama administration officials, including former FBI Director James Comey and former Attorney General Loretta Lynch. Last month, the Senate Homeland Security Committee approved a subpoena for Blue Star Strategies, the consulting firm that employed Biden’s son, Hunter Biden.The investigation by Senate Republicans — coming five months before the 2020 presidential election — revives President Donald Trump’s long-standing claims there was a conspiracy within the Obama administration to hinder his bid for the presidency and later, his incoming administration.”There are millions of Americans pretty upset about this,” Graham said in his opening statement. “There are people on our side of the aisle who believe that this investigation, Crossfire Hurricane, was one of the most corrupt, biased criminal investigations in the history of the FBI. And we would like to see something done about it.”A Justice Department investigation found last year that the FBI had committed errors in investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election, including mistakes in an application to put former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page under surveillance. However, the investigation did not find any evidence of political bias by federal investigators, as Trump alleges.Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, questions former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein via teleconference during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, June 3, 2020.Rosenstein told lawmakers Thursday he would not have signed the warrant authorizing surveillance of Page under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) if he had been aware of the errors in the application.”Every application that I approved appeared to be justified based on the facts it alleged, and the FBI was supposed to be following protocols to ensure that every fact was verified,” Rosenstein said in his opening testimony.Rosenstein defended the recusal of then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions that put him in charge, calling Sessions one of the most “principled people in Washington.” He also described the decision-making process leading to the appointment of Robert Mueller as special counsel, telling lawmakers “appointing a special counsel was the best way to complete the investigation appropriately and to promote public confidence in its conclusions.”Rosenstein left the Justice Department in May 2019 after two stormy years as the deputy attorney and shortly after Mueller had completed his investigation.Democratic Senator from California Dianne Feinstein prepares to hear testimony from former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, June 3, 2020.Senator Dianne Feinstein, the ranking Democratic member on the Judiciary Committee, noted the Mueller investigation “uncovered more than a 120 contacts between the Trump campaign and individuals linked to Russia.”Feinstein went on to directly quote from the Mueller report, citing its findings that the Trump campaign “expected it would benefit electorally from Russia’s interference” and that members of the campaign lied to Mueller and the U.S. Congress about their contacts with Russia.Democrats have criticized efforts to investigate the Obama administration, saying that Republicans are using congressional resources to help the president’s personal political fortunes while there are more pressing issues.”Those who tuned in might have expected that we’d have a hearing concerning the public health crisis facing America, the pandemic, which we’re fighting every day, which has claimed over 100,000 American lives,” Democratic Senator Dick Durbin said Wednesday.”They might even wonder if we would take up the issue of racism in the administration of justice in America,” he added. “Certainly a timely topic, but we’re not. They might wonder if we would ask a question about President Trump’s suggestion 48 hours ago that he would have a federal militarization of law enforcement across the United States. Certainly a significant constitutional issue. But no, not taking that up today. Instead, taking up the Mueller report, an investigation that was completed more than a year ago.”Chairman Graham has announced the committee does plan to hold a hearing on police use of force.
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DC Guard to Investigate Helicopter Maneuvers to Show Force
The National Guard of the District of Columbia is investigating the use of one of its helicopters to make a “show of force” against protesters near the White House, while President Donald Trump is encouraging authorities to get tougher to quell the unrest over George Floyd’s death.
The helicopter, normally designated for use in medical evacuations, hovered low enough to create a deafening noise and spray protesters with rotor wash on Monday. The commanding general of the D.C. Guard, Maj. Gen. William Walker, said in a statement Wednesday that he directed the investigation, and officials.
The investigation comes as the federal government has promised to maximize its law enforcement presence in the nation’s capital. Scores of heavily-armed federal officers in tactical gear have been on the district’s streets for days, after demonstrators set fires, broke store windows and stole items from the shelves and left police officers injured.
The Trump administration has made an effort to show a use of force in Washington. Hours before a 7 p.m. curfew on Tuesday, cars were being stopped at military checkpoints downtown, and a cavalry of armored military vehicles could be seen driving through the district.
Mayor Muriel Bowser said the administration had floated the idea of taking over the Metropolitan Police Department, a proposal she strongly rejected. She threatened to take legal action if the federal government attempted to do so.
Two Defense Department officials said the administration had ordered military aircraft to fly above Washington on Monday night as a “show of force” against demonstrators. They were protesting the death of Floyd, a black man who died after a white Minneapolis policeman pressed his knee into his neck for several minutes even after Floyd stopped moving and pleading for air. Police made over 300 arrests, mainly for violating the district’s curfew.
Earlier Monday evening, law enforcement officers on foot and horseback moved aggressively to clear protesters away from Lafayette Park near the White House before President Donald Trump walked to a nearby church for a photo opportunity.
After participating in the show of force, Arlington County in Virginia pulled out its officers, saying they were used “for a purpose not worthy of our mutual aid obligations.” County officials said in a statement their officers never wielded their batons and did not fire rubber bullets or tear gas.
After watching the scene unfold on live television, the police chief ordered all the officers to return to Virginia. Officials said they were reevaluating the mutual aid agreements to ensure officers “are never again put in a situation where they are asked to take action that is inconsistent with our values.”
The U.S. Park Police said it gave three warnings over a loudspeaker before clearing the area of protesters, some of whom authorities said were becoming violent, throwing projectiles and trying to grab weapons. The agency said it used smoke canisters and pepper balls to disperse the crowd.
Attorney General William Barr ordered law enforcement to clear the park and push back the perimeter around the White House when he arrived there Monday evening, before the president’s remarks, and that led to police using force to disperse protesters, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.
Officials had decided the perimeter had to be moved by at least one full block, after fires were set in the park the night before, the person said. When Barr arrived, he was surprised it hadn’t been done and directed action to be taken, according to the person, who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
In a Monday call with governors, Trump and Barr encouraged more aggressive action against those who cause violence during protests. Trump said he was “taking immediate presidential action to stop the violence and restore security and safety in America.”
The president urged governors to deploy the National Guard, which he credited with helping calm the situation Sunday night in Minneapolis, and demanded that similarly tough measures be taken in cities that also experienced spasms of violence, including New York, Philadelphia and Los Angeles.
Between the protests and the response to the coronavirus pandemic, the National Guard has been deployed at its highest level in recent history, surpassing the number of troops sent to the Gulf Coast during Hurricane Katrina in 2005. More than 66,700 soldiers and airmen have been activated — 45,000 to assist with the pandemic and more than 17,000 to help with the protests.
The Justice Department had deployed agents from every one of its agencies, including the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team, an elite tactical unit, and riot teams from the Bureau of Prisons.
The Park Police and Secret Service have had dozens of officers out in riot gear in Washington for the last few nights, in addition to the Metropolitan Police Department. U.S. Customs and Border Protection and other Homeland Security agencies were also dispatched.
Most of the protesters have been peaceful and tried to discourage violence. Trump, Barr and others have tried to blame some of the civil unrest on left-wing extremist groups, including antifa, and other “anarchists.” Short for anti-fascists, antifa is an umbrella term for far-left-leaning militant groups that resist neo-Nazis and white supremacists at demonstrations.
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Top Swedish Scientist Defends Country’s ‘Soft’ COVID Approach
Sweden’s chief epidemiologist Wednesday defended his country’s controversial “soft” COVID-19 strategy, in which Sweden never totally shut down, but admitted the country could have done some things better.Unlike its European neighbors and much of the rest of the world, Sweden relied on its citizens’ sense of civic duty. Authorities advised people to practice social distancing, but schools, bars and restaurants have been kept open the entire time. Only gatherings of more than 50 people have been banned.The strategy resulted in one of the highest per capita COVID-19 death rates in the world.At a news briefing, Swedish Public Health Agency epidemiologist Anders Tegnell acknowledged that there would always be “aspects where we could have handled this situation even better than we do today, now, as we learn more and more things.”But he said Swedish authorities still thought theirs was the right strategy. Tegnell said it has worked very well in terms of containing the spread of the disease to a level that the Swedish health care system could handle. It has made it possible to keep schools open, which he said was very important for their society.He acknowledged the “unfortunate” death toll, which he said was mainly in long-term care facilities. In a Swedish radio interview earlier in the day, Tegnell admitted the death toll had made him reconsider his approach to the pandemic.According to the national health agency, the nation of 10.2 million people has seen 4,542 deaths linked to COVID-19, far more than its neighboring Nordic countries and one of the world’s highest per capita death rates.Denmark has had 580 coronavirus deaths, Finland 320 and Norway 237, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.
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