Malcolm Turnbulls publisher Sandy Grant continues to plug away at the mystery of who exactly circulated the former PMs opus, A Bigger Picture, in March.

Aided by former Interpol and AFP investigator Nick Klein, Grants publishing house Hardie Grant isnt just out to nab a single source of the leak - after all its already reached a settlement with Scott Morrison adviser and manuscript super spreader Nico Louw. The investigation is out to get everyone who received the digital manuscript and forwarded it on.

Apparently, its quite an extensive list. Its also worth noting Turnbull has had no shortage of help tracing the spread, given a large number of people who received the email contacted Turnbull, his mates, or family members to let them know they had received it. Maybe there is loyalty in politics after all.

Illustration: John Shakespeare Credit:

One tip-off made to Turnbulls camp about the leak came from Philip Citowicki, a former adviser to foreign minister Julie Bishop and, until September, an aide for Australias High Commissioner in the United Kingdom, George Brandis. Sources familiar with the matter said Citowicki received a copy of the manuscript in an email chain that included Louw. Apparently, comments by various people were made during the circulation of the emails including claims the manuscript had been sent to thousands, as well as the mirthful exclamation of ha ha ha. Classy stuff.
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SINGAPORE  According to the Singapore Police Force, family violence cases have spiked since the circuit breaker period began on 7 April.

This appears to be in line with similar increases being seen around the world.

In Part 1 of our feature on family violence amid the COVID-19 pandemic, I spoke with Shailey Hingorani, the head of research at the Association for Women for Action and Research (AWARE).

She explained her how her organisation has been seeing a marked increase in calls relating to spousal, elder and child abuse. She also gave her views on how the pandemic and social distancing measures might be behind the rise in cases.

If youre in need of help relating to family violence issues, or know of someone who is, here are some resources:

AWARE Helpline: 1800-775555

AWAREs Chat and Call-Back Service: https://www.aware.org.sg/womens-care-centre/callback-chat/

National Care Hotline: 1800-2026868

Related stories:

COVID-19: AWARE launches online text chat service after record number of helpline calls

Spike in family violence cases during COVID-19 circuit breaker
In Naperville, leaders called on residents to speak up and take action against racism. While they condemned widespread discrimination across the country, some also focused more locally. They called out what they termed subtle racism in Naperville. And some pointed to recent racist and gang graffiti found on a Naperville park partition over Memorial Day weekend, the latest in a string of racist incidents and allegations in Naperville over the past two years.
Hyderabad: A 24-day-old infant and a three-month-old baby boy were among the six Covid-19 victims who lost their lives on Saturday even as the state recorded 74 new cases.

The other four fatalities were of two men aged 58 and 52 with hypertension, a 62-year-old male with diabetes and hypertension, and a 47-year-old who had previously undergone cardiac surgery. The total number of cases stands at 2,499 and the toll at 77.

Among those who tested positive were four journalists working for TV channels, three of whom are cameramen. Their families have also been tested. The results of 26 TV journalists who got tested for the disease are yet to come in.

While Hyderabad recorded 41 cases on Saturday, several districts also reported Covid-19 cases and they stand to be moved out of the green zone. The green zone list that had 25 districts a week ago has now been whittled down to 14.

The districts that are out of the green zone now are Mahbubnagar, Suryapet, Jagitial, Wanaparthy, Warangal Urban, Vikarabad, Nagarkurnool, and Nizamabad, along with Ranga Reddy, Sangareddy, and Medchal-Malkajgiri.

Elsewhere, there was anxiety after three students tested positive for the disease at the Osmania Medical College along with a worker in the mess at Osmania General Hospital. Just because the mess worker happened to work at the hospital, it does not mean that he acquired the disease at the hospital, a senior health department official said when asked about this case.

Many doctors began expressing fears and talking of some panic in their ranks. Pictures of people crowding the OGH corridors ignoring social distancing and other safety measures began making the rounds late evening on some chat boards populated by doctors.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-31 17:21:18|Editor: huaxia

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The U.S. Capitol building is seen in Washington D.C. May 27, 2020. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

- "COVID-19 affects us all and does not respect borders; defeating it requires the entire world working together."

- "The United States cannot eliminate this virus on its own and to withdraw from the World Health Organization -- the world's leading public health body -- is nothing short of reckless."

- "Trump's action is an enormous disruption and distraction during an unprecedented health crisis."

BEIJING, May 31 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. government has been slammed at home and abroad after announcing on Friday "terminating" its relationship with the World Health Organization (WHO).

U.S. health experts and lawmakers have expressed concern over the decision announced by President Donald Trump amid the COVID-19 outbreak.

Patrice Harris, president of the American Medical Association, described Trump's move as a "senseless" action with "significant, harmful repercussions."

"COVID-19 affects us all and does not respect borders; defeating it requires the entire world working together," Harris was quoted by CNN as saying, urging Trump to reverse the course.

Lawrence Gostin, a professor of global health law and director of the O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University, described the move as "foolish and arrogant" in his Twitter account.

"Trump's action is an enormous disruption and distraction during an unprecedented health crisis," said Gostin, also the director of the WHO collaborating center on national and global health law. "The President has made us less safe."

A lady wearing a face mask walks out of a grocery store in Manhattan of New York City, the United States, May 29, 2020. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)

Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia said that "the United States cannot eliminate this virus on its own and to withdraw from the World Health Organization -- the world's leading public health body -- is nothing short of reckless," according to a CNN report.

Even within the Republican party, some Republicans also expressed their disagreement. Senate Health Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander reportedly said he disagreed with Trump's decision, because, without U.S. funding, clinical trials to develop a COVID-19 vaccine might be hampered.

In addition, the European Union (EU) has urged the United States to reconsider its termination of ties with the WHO, warning that Trump's move would erode global efforts to curb the spread of the virus.

"The WHO needs to continue being able to lead the international response to pandemics, current and future. For this, the participation and support of all is required and very much needed. In the face of this global threat, now is the time for enhanced cooperation and common solutions. Actions that weaken international results must be avoided," Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, and Josep Borrell, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, said in the statement on Saturday.

"In this context, we urge the U.S. to reconsider its announced decision," the statement said.

Photo taken on May 29, 2020 shows the White House in Washington D.C., the United States. U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that his country is "terminating" its relationship with the World Health Organization. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

German Health Minister Jens Spahn tweeted that Trump's move was "a disappointing backlash for International Health."

"The EU must take a leading role and engage more financially," Spahn said, noting that this would be one of Germany's priorities when it becomes the bloc's rotating presidency on July 1.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's spokesperson said earlier that Britian "has no plans to stop funding the WHO, which has an important role to play in leading the global health response."

"Coronavirus is a global challenge and it is essential that countries work together to tackle this shared threat," the spokesperson was quoted by The Guardian as saying.

Irish Minister for Health Simon Harris on Friday described Trump's move as an "awful decision."

"A global pandemic requires the world working together ... We should unite in our fight against it (COVID-19) & not fight each other," Harris tweeted.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova told TASS news agency that Washington "dealt a blow" to the international framework for cooperation in healthcare at the moment when the world needed to join forces. 
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-30 23:29:44|Editor: huaxia

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HOHHOT, May 30 (Xinhua) -- More than 2,000 firefighters have been sent to put out thunder-triggered forest fires in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, local authorities said Saturday.

Smoke was reported at about 2 p.m. in at least two spots in the Great Khingan Mountains. Strong wind fueled the fire.

Firefighters as well as firefighting equipment and three helicopters were immediately sent to the fire scenes.

The battle against the fires has obtained partial results and is still underway. Enditem
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The 'encounters' between criminals and UP police have gone up since the lockdown has been eased, as per a report in TNN.

Over a span of nine days, Noida Police alone took part in eight shootouts with criminals. 11 suspects have been taken into custody as a result; nine of them had injuries.

All those arrested have a criminal background and many carried a reward of Rs 25,000 issued by the UP Police.

On May 20, the first such encounter happened after a gap of nearly two months. In a joint operation with Special Operations Group, the police claimed that it was forced to fire shots at three criminals when they attacked them.

Shutterstock

Three criminals--Saddam, Satar and Pankaj--were arrested. All of them received bullet injuries in the alleged encounter. They were accused of robbing a truck that was transporting coolers. Three country-made revolvers were seized from their possession.

Six days later, the Noida Police arrested Mohit after a brief encounter. He received a gunshot injury on his leg. Mohit is accused of stealing bikes. The police claimed that he robbed his victims by hitting them with a wooden stick and threatened them with a pistol.

Inadvertently, the first press statement issued by Noida Police mentioned that they have recovered a blood-soaked wooden stick and a toy pistol, which was later changed to country-made revolver.

Shutterstock

Since then, there has been a series of face-off between police and suspected criminals. A gang of cow smugglers was asked to stop on the intervening night of May 26-May 27. In the encounter that followed, Chahllum Ali received a gunshot injury on his leg. Two people were arrested. Police again seized countrymade revolvers and claimed that the suspects had several cases of cow slaughter and Arms Act registered against them.

On May 27, the police claimed an alleged cow smuggler Naseem was arrested after an encounter. He, too, was injured and received a gunshot injury on his leg. The country-made revolver and cartridges were recovered from him.

The following day, in Greater Noida, the police claimed it received a tip-off that a man with a criminal antecedent was planning to commit a crime. Like in other cases, it was the same sequence of events. A suspected criminal, Sachin, fired shots at police when they asked him to surrender. The police also fired in retaliation. Sachin received gunshot injuries and a country-made revolver was recovered from him.

PTI

Between May 28 and May 29, three criminals were arrested and two got injured in the alleged police encounters.

Uttar Pradesh has seen several such encounters between police and criminals. Since 2017, over 5,000 such shootouts have taken place. Human rights activists have questioned the state government and the police over such encounters. The police have always defended themselves claiming that the crime rate in the state has gone down because of strict enforcement of the law.

In 2018, Apple executive Vivek Tiwari was killed by firing by UP Police. Initially, police claimed that he didn't stop his SUV at a checkpoint but subsequent investigation by an SIT revealed that a constable Prashant Chaudhary indiscriminately fired shots at him. The constable was arrested and booked for murder. Chaudhary's colleague was arrested for voluntarily causing hurt to Tiwari's ex-colleague who was in the SUV.


The Washington Post is providing this news free to all readers as a public service.

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In a paper to be published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, astronomers from the University of Chicago and Yale University show that the odd properties of Oumuamua, a recently-discovered cigar-shaped object of extrasolar origin, can be explained if it contained a significant fraction of frozen molecular hydrogen.

Oumuamua was first detected by the University of Hawaiis Pan-STARRS 1 telescope in October 2017, more than a month after it passed its closest point to the Sun.

Subsequent detailed observations conducted by multiple space- and ground-based telescopes detected the sunlight reflected off the objects surface.

Large variations in its brightness suggested that Oumuamua is highly elongated and up to 275 m (900 feet) in its longest dimension.

The object also experienced a small but persistent acceleration that could not be explained simply by the Suns gravitational pull.

Theories about its origin include everything from being a planetary fragment to an alien light probe.

We developed a theory that explains all of Oumuamuas weird properties, said Yale Universitys Professor Gregory Laughlin.

We show that it was likely composed of hydrogen ice. This is a new type of object, but it looks like there may be many more of them showing up, going forward.

Although hydrogen is the most common element in the Universe, it is rarely found in solid form, which requires extremely cold temperatures. Frozen hydrogen does, however, offer a compelling mechanism for acceleration.

As Oumuamua passed close to the Sun and received its warmth, melting hydrogen would have rapidly boiled off the icy surface, providing the observed acceleration and also winnowing Oumuamua down to its weird, elongated shape  much as a bar of soap becomes a thin sliver after many uses in the shower, Professor Laughlin said.

He and his colleague, University of Chicagos Dr. Darryl Seligman, theorize that hydrogen ice-rich objects can potentially form in the dense cores of molecular clouds that pervade the Milky Way Galaxy and give rise to new stars and planetary systems.

If Oumuamuas anomalous acceleration stemmed from sublimating hydrogen ice, it is likely that a large population of similar objects exist, the astronomers said.

Our estimate of Oumuamuas initial mass thus suggests a total mass of one Earth mass of hydrogen-rich bodies per star.

A galactic sea of unbound planetesimal-sized objects has potential consequences for star and planet formation, and population members will be readily detectable with the forthcoming Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, they added.

ESOs proposed Comet Interceptor mission, moreover, will be well-positioned to provide in situ studies.

_____

Darryl Seligman & Gregory Laughlin. 2020. Evidence that 1I/2017 U1 (Oumuamua) was composed of molecular hydrogen ice. ApJL, in press; arXiv: 2005.12932
GREENWICH  Greenwich registrars are busy making sure voters will be counted during the upcoming presidential primary and Novembers election, while working to find ways to keep them and poll workers safe.

The fact that we find ourselves in a health crisis does not change our overriding goal to run fair and safe elections, town Democratic Registrar of Voters Mary Hegarty said. Casting our ballots is one way we can reclaim a piece of our normal lives.

Ensuring safety and promoting turnout are focuses for the registrars as crucial votes approach.

We are obviously very concerned about protecting both voters and our poll workers, Republican Registrar of Voters Fred DeCaro III. We are doing everything we can to make sure we have enough equipment for everyone.

DeCaro and Hegarty gave a presentation Thursday regarding elections plans. DeCaro said polling places in town will be able to provide for safe social distancing.

Voting stations will be added. And steps will be taken to make sure poll workers have enough protective gear, including masks, Plexiglass shields and hand sanitizer. Gone, at least for the primary, will be the coveted I Voted stickers given to people who cast ballots, DeCaro said. Voters will be asked to wear masks and gloves to the polls.

Thursdays presentation was put together by the Greenwich League of Women Voters and Greenwich Library.

There are two contests upcoming. The presidential primary will be held in the state on Aug. 11, followed by the Nov. 3 general election.

Connecticut does not have an official vote by mail policy but it does allow people to vote by absentee ballot if certain criteria are met, including illness. As a result of that and through executive orders from Gov. Ned Lamont, people will be able to vote by absentee if they choose to for the Aug. 11 primary.

It is possible the state Legislature will meet in special session to potentially expand the use of absentee ballots for the Nov. 3 election, Hegarty said.

Registrars stressed that people who vote by absentee ballot will need to make sure they get in on time. Ballots must be received, not just postmarked, by election day.

DeCaro said people can no longer expect to put their ballots in the mail the day before the election and expect them to arrive on time. He said the 2018 elections saw 39 absentee ballots that couldnt be counted because they did not arrive in time or did not follow procedure. In 2019s municipal elections that number went up to 63. In the special election this past January for the 151st legislative District, there were 71 absentee ballots that came in too late to be counted.

He and Hegarty stressed the need to for voters to get the ballots out early and to make sure they are completed properly.

We have to keep educating voters about this, DeCaro said.

Novembers ballot, in addition to the presidential line, will also include races for the 4th Congressional District and the towns four seats in the state Legislature.

Both DeCaro and Hegarty will be on the ballot for new two-year terms but there have been no stated challengers to either.

Fred and I run a Registrars of Voters office free from politics, Hegarty said. We are both happy to help with voting-related matters and answer voting-related questions from Greenwichs residents without regard to their political persuasions. Greenwich is fortunate we approach the job this way. Some towns in Connecticut are known to have warring registrars.

The presentation was done via Zoom and was recorded so it can be posted at the Registrar of Voters section of the towns website at www.greenwichct.gov.

kborsuk@greenwichtime.com
As Delhi University gears up to move its entire admission process online, several concerns have been raised over the process, including the verification of documents, over-centralisation of processes and the end of student-teacher counselling.

Last week, the university shared a tentative schedule of the admission process with the standing committee of the academic council, along with a list of agenda items. The agenda items included online verification of the documents to approve provisional admission and physical verification of the original documents of the applicants once the session commences.

Several teachers and principals have raised questions about the move, stating that it leaves room for fraudulent admissions and makes the entire admission process impersonal. The stakeholders point towards the challenges of verifying documents like mark sheets, birth certificates, and caste and income certificates online.

Former academic council member Pankaj Garg, who teaches at Rajdhani College and has been on the colleges admission committee, said, Generally after Class 12, several students are confused about what to do. That can only be resolved through direct interaction and counselling by teachers. The interpersonal interaction among parents, teachers and students will end because of this online process. Till now, students would visit the college for admission, take a look at the various facilities, and even talk to teachers of the admission committee for counselling.

Following the 2018 controversy over former Delhi University Students Union president Ankiv Baisoya, who had been charged with producing fake degrees and mark sheets for admission, the varsity had asked colleges to take steps towards a forensic examination of degrees and mark sheets by experts.

A principal of a south Delhi DU college, requesting anonymity, said, One year, the varsity asks us to arrange for forensic experts and check the documents of all students. Just the next year, it calls for provisional admission without even the physical verification of mark sheets. If these werent necessary, why the push for forensic examination of the documents last year?

The principal added that checking documents once colleges reopen will lead to a chaotic situation. Under the previous system, we would finish these processes earlier. Now, they will spill over to the academic session. We wont even know if students cancel their admission and go to other colleges.

Dean (Admissions), DU, Shobha Bagai said it was still too early to comment on this process since all statutory bodies are yet to be consulted. As far as counselling is concerned, we are mentoring volunteers for the online counselling of prospective applicants. Under the present situation, it wont be appropriate to ask students to travel from other states and visit different colleges with different cutoffs. Such physical interaction wont be feasible or safe for students amid this pandemic, she said.

Meanwhile, a group of the varsitys executive and academic council members has also written to the vice-chancellor regarding the online open book examination mode, pointing out the drawbacks of the system.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology says 12,000 village panchayats are yet to be covered by the Common Service Centre, the members wrote. This was in reference to DUs proposal of tying up with government CSCs to ensure students have access to the Internet and devices to appear for their papers.

A village Pradhan in Sonepat district told us that there was no CSC in his village. During a telephonic survey of two panchayats of Madhubani District in Bihar, we found that only one of them has a CSC, but that too functions infrequently with no proper sitting arrangement. In Brahmauli Kunda village of Pratapgarh district of UP, CSC is 8 to 10 KMs away from that village [sic], the teachers group Academics for Action and Development wrote, stating that students could not depend upon CSC infrastructure for exams.

Despite calls and messages, DU vice-chancellor Yogesh Tyagi did not respond to requests for comments on the matter.

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In London, hundreds defied rules against large gatherings Sunday to rally at Trafalgar Square and mass outside the new U.S. Embassy on the south bank of the River Thames, where they chanted no justice, no peace in solidarity with the U.S. movement against racial bias in the criminal justice system.
A man sits on the waterfront of the Victoria Harbor of Hong Kong Tuesday, May 26, 2020. AP





The United States' decision to revoke preferential treatment for Hong Kong will have "little impact" on the city's economy, according to Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po.



He said Hong Kong was experienced in handling financial challenges, had anticipated a fallout from worsening China-US trade friction, and had nothing to be afraid of.



Given US action targeting the city and restricting exports of high-technology products, he said Hong Kong should aim to strengthen ties with other trading partners, including countries in Europe and Japan.



He said this in an interview with Global Times, a nationalist tabloid affiliated with the Communist Party mouthpiece People's Daily, hours before President Donald Trump's official announcement on Friday that the US would begin eliminating Hong Kong's special policy exemptions.



Earlier, amid concern over Beijing's decision to draft a national security law tailor-made for Hong Kong, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared that the city no longer maintained a high degree of autonomy from the mainland.



Chan told the mainland tabloid that Hong Kong products made for export to the US "accounted for less than 2 per cent of the city's overall manufacturing", worth about HK$3.7 billion, and were less than 0.1 per cent of the city's overall exports.



"We have been preparing for all the different scenarios," he added.



He reiterated the government's position that Hong Kong's status as a special administrative region (SAR) of China was enshrined in its mini constitution, the Basic Law, which has been in place since Britain returned the city to Beijing in 1997.






Chennai, May 31 : Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K.Palaniswami on Sunday announced extension of the COVID-19 lockdown till June 30 with some relaxations in the restrictions like operation of state transport buses.

In a statement issued here Palaniswami said barring Chennai, Tiruvallur, Chengalpattu and Kancheepuram district, 50 per cent of the public transport buses will be operated.

Private buses will be allowed to ply on permitted routes.

According to Palaniswami, buses can ply only with 60 per cent passenger seat occupancy.

However the bank on inter-state bus transport continues to be under ban.

The other relaxations effective from June 1 for those within the Greater Chennai Police limits excepting containment zones: -IT companies can function with 20 per cent employee strength subject to a maximum of 40 employees.

-Other private sector organisations and function with 50 per cent worker strength.

-All showrooms can function -except those in malls- with 50 per cent workforce subject to a condition that not more than five customers are inside the shop.

-Restaurants, tea stalls are allowed dine-in dine-in facility from June 8 with 50 per cent seating capacity with air conditioners switched off.

-Plying of taxis (maximum of three passengers), auto rickshaws (two passengers) and cycle rickshaws are allowed.

-Barber shops and beauty salons are allowed to function without air conditioners.

Appreciating the selfless work of the 33,000 conservancy staff in Chennai, Palaniswami announced an honorarium of Rs 2,500.

He also announced seven days quarantining of people living in Chennai slums suffering from COVID-19 co-morbities like blood pressure, diabetes and other ailments and a financial support of Rs 1,000 will be paid to such persons when they are sent back home.

The relaxations for other areas: -Private organisations and IT companies can function with 100 per cent of their workforce.

--All showrooms can function -except those in malls- with 50 per cent workforce subject to a condition that not more than five customers are inside the shop.

-Restaurants, tea stalls are allowed dine-in dine-in facility from June 8 with 50 per cent seating capacity and air conditioners are to be switched off. Liquor shops can function between 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

-Plying of taxis (maximum of three passengers), auto rickshaws (two passengers) and cycle rickshaws are allowed.

Palaniswami also said that companies should encourage their employees to work from home.
A looter rushes out of the Patagonia Store on 4th Street in Santa Monica on Sunday. (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

The tension was palpable Sunday in Santa Monica.

What started as a peaceful protest along Ocean Avenue devolved into chaos around 1 p.m., as looters smashed storefronts in the Santa Monica Place mall and other downtown businesses. Police said they made hundreds of arrests and that the National Guard had arrived to help.

Couples sitting and enjoying meals at recently opened restaurants looked stunned as cars dropped off people, many of them wearing masks and hoodies, who then broke into a pharmacy on 7th and Broadway. Several looters stormed inside and took handfuls of items.

At the same time, demonstrators walked from the Santa Monica Pier north along Ocean Avenue, carrying signs and chanting.

"A peaceful protest is underway along Ocean Avenue between Montana and Colorado," the city said in a statement issued at 1:15 p.m. "The Santa Monica Police Department is on site and has a presence throughout the community."

The demonstration was meant to decry the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis last week. The unarmed black man died in custody after a white police officer kneeled on his neck for several minutes, despite Floyd's pleas that he couldn't breathe.

But as the protest got underway, looters swarmed the downtown area in what appeared to be an organized attack. Cars dropped them off in front of businesses, they smashed windows and grabbed what they could, and when police approached, they jumped back into the waiting cars.

Dozens stormed the Santa Monica Place mall, smashing the windows of a Louis Vuitton store and several other shops. The mall entrance was blocked by a gated barrier, but the crowd got through, leaving with armloads of clothing and other goods before police arrived.

A few blocks away, on 4th Street and Broadway, a Vans store was breached. Scores ran inside, stealing shoes and skateboards from the showroom and a storage area. Some loaded merchandise into plastic crates.

As looters stormed the store, a white woman pleaded with a black woman to stop.

Story continues

I was here during Rodney King. Please stop, she said. I get it.

The other woman, gripping the arms of a black man standing at her side, responded, We are dying. No justice, no peace.

Santa Monica police officers rolled up on motorcycles shortly before 3 p.m. and entered the shoe store with guns drawn.

Amid the chaos, Santa Monica pushed up its Sunday curfew to 4 p.m. from 8 p.m. and extended the hours to 5:30 a.m. Monday.

UPDATE: As of 2:25pm, tonight's curfew has been updated to 4pm, 5/31. All I-10 and PCH ramps into Santa Monica now closed by CHP. Stay out of downtown.  City of Santa Monica (@santamonicacity) May 31, 2020

The California Highway Patrol closed the freeway ramps into the city. Cars stuck at the Cloverfield exit were being directed to continue forward on the 10 Freeway, but a full closure of all lanes was implemented behind the vehicles.

By 2:30 p.m., more than 50 law enforcement officers had stormed the Santa Monica Place mall, where the storefronts for 7 for All Mankind and Hugo Boss were smashed. Overhead, a police helicopter circled.

Alarms could be heard as people ran out with arms full of clothes and sirens blared in the background.

A white man walking through the mall area with his bike laughed at the pillaging and said, This is great.

But as police combed the plaza, more looters gathered outside Bubar's Jewelers, on 4th and Broadway, as reports came in that looters were being shot at in another jewelry store.

Amid the sirens, scores of people ran to a nearby alley and began rummaging through what they had taken.

They found what looked like the back entrance to another store and swarmed in but were interrupted by shouts of "Police!" that sent the group scrambling again.

More than 50 looters ran from the alley with armloads of shoe boxes and other items while a black car drove up.

Get in. Put it in there. Im trying to help you, the driver yelled to the crowds of looters.

One woman began throwing clothes and shoes inside the car as sirens blared in the background. A few minutes later, police and firefighters showed up after a fire was started at a nearby store.

All the while, peaceful protesters continued to march, making their way to 5th Street and circling the chaos between looters and police.

Around 8 p.m., sirens and store alarms were still blaring as police began to take control of the area, clearing the streets block by block. Business owners were arriving at their stores to assess the damage and protect what was left.

A fire burns in a building on 4th Street in Santa Monica on Sunday night. (Melissa Etehad/Los Angeles Times)

The owner of Cisco Home on Lincoln Boulevard, a designer furniture store, said he rushed to his store after his neighbor texted him that "people were doing crazy things." Inside, a couch was flipped over and water from the sprinklers had damaged some of the furniture.

"We lost everything in 10 minutes," said the owner, Roman, who declined to give his last name. He estimated that the damage would cost up to $6 million.

The owner of a nail salon near Lincoln and Broadway stood outside his business at 8 p.m., giving instructions to workers unloading a truck full of wooden boards.

The owner, who didnt want to share his name, said he arrived at his business at about 4 p.m. to find it destroyed. He shook his head.

Rafael Resendez, the owner of the barber shop next door, was also speaking with workers, helping them board up his business. Looters had taken up to $12,000 worth of equipment, including hair cutting tools and cash registers.

Resendez said Sunday was the first day his shop, Lincoln Barbers, had been open in two months because of the coronavirus outbreak. He closed at 2 p.m., telling his employees he didnt think the looters would hit them. He had posted posted a sign that read Mexican owned and messages in support of the protesters in hopes they would avoid his business.

It didn't work.

I feel guilty for not doing more, he said. Those people are looking for excuses to commit crimes. They dont care about [George Floyd]. I do care about him. This is not the way to do it.

People are arrested in Santa Monica. (Melissa Etehad/Los Angeles Times)

Dozens of protesters were arrested Sunday evening after hours of demonstrating across downtown. The group was pushed by law enforcement to the entrance to the Big Blue Bus station on Colorado Avenue, where they were encircled and arrested. Police offered to let them leave but when many tried, other officers did not let them pass.

When they said we could leave they blocked us off and then they arrested us, said Stevie Doaty, 22, who moved to Los Angeles a month ago from Cleveland.

Elsewhere in the city, a Los Angeles Police Department officer watched as firefighters put out flames on top of Sake House, a restaurant on Santa Monica Boulevard.

This is upsetting, he said. Most of these people arent from L.A. Theyre just out here just causing havoc and chaos.

The police officer said 99% of police are in support of the protesters' message, and that he was protecting them, not looters.

Theyre throwing Molotov cocktails and looting and looting and looting. Its difficult to deal with that, he said. Im hoping I get more than three hours of sleep tonight.

Times staff writers Kim Christensen and Joseph Serna contributed to this report.
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An old industrial warehouse has been transformed into edgy studio apartments in the heart of one of Sydney's trendiest neighbourhoods.

The warehouse was built in the early 1900s and started life as the Darlinghurst Shepherd & Newman printing works in a laneway five minutes' walk from Oxford Street, one of the city's main shopping strips and creative hubs.

The building was converted into nine one-bedroom apartments in the mid-1990s which were sold as 'empty shells' by City Project Marketing realtor Sam Elbanna for $220,000 to $390,000 in 1997.

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An outside view of the industrial warehouse turned sleek city studio on Printer's Lane in Darlinghurst, just over 10 minutes walk from Sydney CBD

The kitchen and living space, which has been carefully renovated to keep authentic features like exposed ceiling beams and stainless steel girders

The shared rooftop terrace, overlooking landmarks like the Sydney Tower Eye in the heart of the city

'People were stepping over syringes and used condoms to get inside the door,' Mr Elbanna told realestate.com.au.

'They all sold in 45 minutespeople were ringing up my mother trying to get their hands on them and throwing their chequebook at the car.'

Mr Elbanna said demand was so high because the Shepherd & Newman studios were among the last 'quintessential warehouse apartments' left in Sydney in 1997.

Darlinghurst's grungy reputation has gentrified since then, but BresicWhitney agent Maclay Longhurst believes interest in the industrial apartments remains the same 23 years later.

The minimalist bedroom, tucked in a corner beside an enormous window that floods natural light into the loft

The renovated kitchen, fitted with stainless steel appliances and a portable island (centre) which can be wheeled around the apartment to make room for guests

Another view of the living area with Scandinavian-style light bulbs hanging from the ceiling beams

Today, the building is one of the few inner city warehouse conversions with original features like hardwood floors, exposed ceiling beams and painted brick walls.

Those authentic features contrast against the renovated kitchen workspace, which is fitted with stainless steel appliances and a portable island that can be moved around to create space for guests.

Outside, a shared rooftop terrace overlooks the CBD, with some of the city's finest cafes, bars and restaurants dotted along the route.

Mr Longhurst expects the 102sqm property with private parking and a shared rooftop terrace at 5/1 Printers Lane to fetch at least $1.6million AUD.

The modern bathroom which has a statement mosaic tiled wall and a generously sized shower

An inside view of the front door and entryway, decorated with vintage accessories like a wooden ladder which nods to the property's industrial past

The downstairs parking garage which provides space for one car, an unusual bonus in a city centre location

'A raw industrial space always gets the attention of the market, just because so few ever become available,' he said.

Mr Longhurst had 18 'professional types' at last week's first open-house, one of whom returned for a second viewing on Thursday.

Property records show the studio was originally bought by the partner of an international law firm who is now looking to upsize.
With a large number of migrant workers returning to their hometowns amid the ongoing nationwide lockdown, a massive workforce shortage has hit the operations in industrial, transport and other sectors, which reopened after an almost two-month hiatus, according to various trade associations.

Traders bodies estimate that nearly 60-70% of the labour force employed in Delhi left the city during the lockdown imposed to halt the spread of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19).

The Delhi government is likely to conduct a study on how many migrants have left the Capital and the impact of their exodus on different sectors.

The workers who have returned to their hometowns are from both skilled and unskilled sectors and include those engaged as machine operators in factories, loaders, drivers, housekeeping staff, as well as those involved in packaging, construction workers, hand-embroidery workers, salespersons and security guards, among others.

Business owners from the industrial, wholesale and retail, and transport sectors, and those who run small eateries and restaurants say that with a large chunk of workforce gone, the lockdown-hit business that was slowly picking up has been adversely affected.

Over 70% of the total workforce has already left the city. Local workers and those who come from neighbouring NCR towns such as Sonepat, Ghaziabad, Ballabhgarh, and Noida account for just about 20% of the total workforce. Of the local workforce, many are facing movement issues given the restrictions on state borders and only 8-10% of the workforce has been able to rejoin work in the last few weeks. As a result, compared to pre-lockdown days, only 5-7% of the usual business activity has taken place given that there is already very low demand and supply, Praveen Khandelwal, general secretary, Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), said.

He added that the government must conduct a study on this mass reverse migration and come up with a consolidated policy to ensure social security and health cover for migrant workers in the future. We have written to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs to look into the impact of the workers exodus on the economy and find ways to stabilise it, he said.

According to the data shared by the Delhi government, nearly three lakh migrant workers, who were stranded in the city after the nationwide lockdown came into force on March 25 rendering many jobless, have left Delhi in over 250 Shramik Special trains. According to government officials, at least 4.5 lakh people have requested the state government to send them back to their home towns and more trains are scheduled to leave Delhi in the next week.

Delhi has not seen such a large-scale exodus of migrant workers in the last few decades. Soon after the lockdown was announced, a large number of migrant workers had started walking towards the city borders and the bus terminals to go back to their home states  mostly Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, and Odisha, among others. While several workers set out on foot, undertaking long, arduous journeys over several hundred kilometres, the Central and state governments later made arrangements to ferry workers home in the special trains.

Due to the unprecedented manpower crunch, various factory units have also been hit. At Bawana industrial complex, around 6,000 factory units of the approximately 14,000 factories that are mostly involved in manufacturing plastic products, auto parts, and cardboard have resumed operations. Earlier about 2 lakh people worked here. Now, there are only around 70,000 workers still around, which means that about 60% of workers have returned home. Our businesses have already been hit because of low demand, and not having enough people to work has just added to the challenge, Rajeev Goyal, president, Bawana Manufacturers Industrial Welfare Association, said.

Wholesale markets such as Khari Baoli and Naya Bazar where food grains and spices are sold are also feeling the heat of the migrants exodus. Naresh Gupta, president, Delhi Grain Merchants Association, said that even though shops in such markets deal in essential commodities and were open throughout the lockdown period, over 70% of the workers here left. On average, of the 10 workers employed at one unit, only two or three workers are still here. From the supervising and management staff to those engaged in loading and unloading products, there are just a few workers. Now it takes us two to three days to clean, segregate and load stacks of grains, which used to be a days job earlier. We have also started receiving some interstate orders now, but with limited people, it has only added to the work pressure, Gupta added.

Daily operations at wholesale vegetable markets such as Azadpur Mandi have also suffered. Anil Malhotra, member, Agriculture Produce Market Committee, said most of the workers here left after some Covid-19 cases were reported at the mandi. The workers were scared and left the city the first chance they got. Only about 35-40% of the workforce is left here now. Trucks stay lined up for hours as there are only a few men to unload the produce. This has added to the losses mounting already, Malhotra said.

According to the Delhi government, at least 25 cases have been reported from the mandi so far.

Shop owners at retail markets are also trying to run their businesses smoothly even as many from the housekeeping staff, assisting salespersons, tailors, guards and even parking attendants have left town. We will face a huge problem when more customers start pouring in. We havent been able to start proper parking arrangements at the market as there are no attendants, and hiring new people has also become difficult, Ashwani Marwah, general secretary of traders association at Lajpat Nagar, said.

Even the transport sector is not untouched. Pradeep Singhal, chairman, All India Transporters Welfare Association, said the transport business has suffered huge losses because of the labour shortage. Since the initial lockdown, we have been working on 40% efficiency, and now with most labourers gone, we have come down to 30% efficiency. At times, when trucks with goods are ready to leave, there are no drivers available to transport them. The limited staff ends up doing multiple shifts often, Singhal said.

Brajesh Goyal, the convener of the traders and industries wing of the Aam Aadmi Party, confirmed that about 60%-70% of the total workforce has left the city. The situation is becoming tough. Several migrants who remain in the city will also leave soon. We have been encouraging traders to ensure proper facilities for the available workers who are already demanding higher wages. The government is planning to set up a committee to address these issues.

A Delhi government spokesperson said the workers exodus will adversely impact the economy, and the government will soon conduct an assessment for the same. The process of migration is continuing, and the lockdown has just been lifted. It will take a while to assess the impact on different sectors. The government will be undertaking a study in the matter eventually, the spokesperson said.

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Guwahati, May 31 : Assam has exceeded the testing rate of Kerala and within a week it will start testing of swab samples of 10,000 people per day to detect Covid-19 patients and by June 15, two lakh people would be tested creating a record in India, Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma claimed on Sunday.

The minister said that Assam has overtaken the testing rate of Kerala, which (Kerala) he said so far tested around 70,000 samples. "Kerala's health infrastructure is 60 years old and Assam's health infrastructure are is 3 to 4 years old." The minister said that in the past 90 days, swab samples of 1,00,483 people were tested in seven laboratories and by June 15, two lakh people would be tested creating a record in India. "From next week two to three more laboratories would start testing of samples increasing the testing capacity to 10,000 samples per day," he said.

"By sacrificing their personal safety, the health workers have done an incredible task by testing a record number of samples. Despite 1, 272 patients in Assam, in almost all 33 districts, there is no community spread of the coronavirus. Currently 4,232 corona patients can be treated at a time," Sarma added.

According to the minister, since the withdrawal of the inter-state restrictions by the Union Home Ministry on May 4, over 2.30 lakh people returned to Assam from 14 states heavily increasing the coronavirus cases in Assam and all the people are properly quarantined with no major problems.

"Highest number of people tested Covid-19 positive among the people returned from Maharashtra, followed by 333 positive cases from among the people returned from Tamil Nadu, 134 from those from Delhi and 111 cases from among the people from West Bengal." Sarma said that with the increasing of the testing capacity (of samples), there would be 4-day institutional and 10-day home quarantine. To prevent the spread of the coronavirus in the society, Sarma also said that the Assam government had launched a new scheme "Ruthless Quarantine With Big Heart".

While Assam's main city and commercial hub Guwahati falls in Kamrup Metro, Golaghat district is a major tea growing area and part of the famous Kaziranga National Park in the district.
Dana Boente, then-acting U.S. Attorney General, during a meeting at the White House on Feb. 7, 2017. (Andrew Harrer-Pool/Getty Images)

FBI Says Its Top Lawyer Is Leaving the Bureau

WASHINGTONThe FBIs top lawyer, Dana Boente, who has spent nearly 40 years with the Justice Department, is leaving the bureau.

Boente has most recently served as the FBIs general counsel but has held a variety of roles in his 38-year Justice Department career, including acting attorney general in the early days of the Trump administration, a United States attorney in Virginia and the acting head of the departments national security division.

The FBI said that Boente had given notice on Friday that he intended to retire effective June 30, the bureau said.

Throughout his long and distinguished career as a public servant, Dana has demonstrated a selfless determination to ensure that justice is always served on behalf of our citizens, FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a statement announcing Boentes departure. We should all be grateful for his dedication to the Department of Justice, the FBI, and the American people.

Boente became acting attorney general in early 2017 after Sally Yates, a holdover from the Obama administration, was fired after refusing to defend the presidents travel ban, and remained in that role until Jeff Sessions was installed.

As a top Justice Department official, he approved one of three applications to renew secret surveillance warrants targeting former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. A Justice Department inspector general report from December said those applications to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court had numerous significant errors and omissions that cut against the FBIs premise that Page, who was never charged with any wrongdoing, was an agent of a foreign power.

The report said that Boente and other Justice Department officials did not have accurate and complete information from the FBI at the time they approved them.
Hydroxychloroquine Study Corrected After More Than 100 Scientists Question Findings

Update: The study was retracted on June 4, 2020.

Original story below.

Medical journal The Lancet on May 29 issued a correction to a recent study which found that antimalarial drugs Hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine were linked with an increased risk of mortality in hospitals, and an increased frequency of irregular heart rhythms.

The study, titled, Hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine with or without a macrolide for treatment of COVID-19: a multinational registry analysis, and published on May 22, included records of 96,032 patients from 671 hospitals in six continents. The patients were hospitalized between Dec. 20, 2019, and April 14, 2020.

Patients receiving the anti-malarials were put in four different groups: chloroquine alone, chloroquine with a macrolide, hydroxychloroquine alone, or hydroxychloroquine with a macrolide. Patients who received none of the treatments formed a control group. Researchers found the 14,888 patients in the treatment group suffered higher mortality when compared to the control group of over 80,000.

We were unable to confirm a benefit of hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine, when used alone or with a macrolide, on in-hospital outcomes for COVID-19, the researchers wrote.

The study led the World Health Organization to temporarily suspend the trial of hydroxychloroquine on COVID-19 patients, and to the UK regulatory body, MHRA, requesting the temporary pause of recruitment into all hydroxychloroquine trials in the UK. France also changed its national recommendation of the drug in COVID-19 treatments and halted all trials.

A pharmacy tech pours out pills of hydroxychloroquine at Rock Canyon Pharmacy in Provo, Utah, on May 20, 2020. (George Frey/AFP via Getty Images)

However, more than a hundred scientists and medical professionals raised questions about integrity of data analyzed in the study and subsequently wrote an open letter to its authors and the editor of The Lancet, listing 10 major concerns.

These included the fact that there was no ethics review, and unusually small reported variances in baseline variables, interventions and outcomes, as well as no mention of the countries or hospitals that contributed to the data source and no acknowledgments to their contributions. A request to the authors for information on the contributing centers was denied, the letter said.

Among the scientists other concerns were that the average daily doses of hydroxychloroquine were higher than the FDA-recommended amounts and that data reportedly from Australian patients did not seem to match data from the Australian government.

Too many cases for just five hospitals, more in hospital deaths than had occurred in the entire country during the study period, they wrote, noting that Surgisphere, a healthcare data analytics company, has since stated this was an error of classification of one hospital from Asia. This indicates the need for further error checking throughout the data base, they wrote.

The scientists also said the authors have not adhered to standard practices in the machine learning and statistics community. They have not released their code or data.

Data from Africa indicate that nearly 25% of all COVID-19 cases and 40% of all deaths in the continent occurred in Surgisphere-associated hospitals which had sophisticated electronic patient data recording, and patient monitoring able to detect and record nonsustained [at least 6 secs] or sustained ventricular tachycardia or ventricular fibrillation. Both the numbers of cases and deaths, and the detailed data collection, seem unlikely.

A pharmacist shows a bottle of the drug hydroxychloroquine in Oakland, Calif., on April 6, 2020. (Ben Margot/AP Photo)

The Lancets study was informed by data from Surgisphere of which Sapan Desai, the president and Chief Executive Officer, is listed as one of the four authors.

We discovered that a hospital that joined the Surgisphere registry on April 1, 2020 (in between our quarterly audit periods) self-designated as belonging to the Australasia continental designation. In reviewing the data from each of the hospitals in the registry, we noted that this hospital should have more appropriately been assigned to the Asian continental designation, Surgisphere said in a statement.

This hospital was properly reclassified in our database. The findings of the paper are unaffected by this update, the company said.

In the correction issued on Friday, The Lancet also mentioned the same hospital.

The appendix has also been corrected. An incorrect appendix table S3 was included, originally derived from a propensity score matched and weighted table developed during a preliminary analysis. The unadjusted raw summary data are now included.

The Lancet added that there have been no changes to the findings of the paper, and that the corrections have been made to the online version and will also be made to the printed version.

In response to the correction issued on May 29, James Watson, a Thailand-based statistician with the University of Oxfords Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health, who led the drafting of the letter, told BuzzFeed News that the authors of the study had failed to address the other nine points referred to in the letter.
By PTI

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Sunday condemned India's decision declaring two officials of its High Commission in New Delhi as persona non grata on charges of espionage and ordering them to leave the country within 24 hours, saying the action has been accompanied by a negative, pre-planned and orchestrated media campaign.

Pakistan's Foreign Office said that the two staff members of the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi were lifted by the Indian authorities on May 31 on "false and unsubstantiated charges".

They were, however, released on the High Commission's intervention, it said.

"The Indian action has been accompanied by a negative, pre-planned and orchestrated media campaign, which is a part of persistent anti-Pakistan propaganda," the FO said in a statement.

"We condemn the detention and torture as well as threatening and pressuring of the diplomatic officials to accept false charges," it said.

It said the Indian action is in "clear violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations as well as the norms of diplomatic conduct especially in an already vitiated atmosphere".

The FO's statement came after India on Sunday declared two officials of the Pakistan High Commission as persona non grata on charges of espionage and ordered them to leave the country within 24 hours, the Ministry of External Affairs said.

Abid Hussain and Muhammad Tahir were caught by police while obtaining sensitive documents relating to Indian security establishment from an Indian national in exchange of money, official sources said.

The officials, working at the visa section of the Pakistan High Commission, confessed during the interrogation that they worked for Pakistani spy agency ISI, the sources said.

The punitive action against the two officials came in the midst of frayed ties between the two countries over reorganisation of Jammu and Kashmir by India.

Pakistan had downgraded diplomatic ties by expelling the Indian High Commissioner in Islamabad following India's decision to withdraw special status of Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcate the state into two union territories in August last year.

The MEA said a strong protest was lodged with the Charge de Affairs of the Pakistan High Commission over the activities of its two officials against India's national security.

The sources said the two officials were handing over Indian money and an iphone for providing them the documents.

They initially claimed that they were Indian nationals and even produced fake Aadhaar cards, the sources said.
Maintaining that India is engaged with China diplomacy talks inspite of recent skirmishes, Union Home Minister on Sunday, said that India's sovereignty and security were of utmost importance, in conversation with Republic Media Network Editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami in his show 'Nation wants to Know'. He said that India is in talks with China via both diplomatic channels and Army officers will soon meet China's People's Liberation Army. Videos of Indian Army officers and Chinese officers brawling with each other at Ladakh border have been doing the rounds on social media.

Amit Shah's interview with Arnab Goswami: On COVID, Mamata, CAA, Maharashtra, China & more

Shah on Indo-China tussle

"Now talks are being held on both diplomatic level and Army levels and I believe that the situation will be handled. But I wish to clarify that Modi government will not allow to dilute India's security and sovereignty at its borders," he said.

Talking about Pakistan's concerns of India attacking it via 'false-flag operations', he added, "India will never adopt an expansionist policy. I clearly state that whether it's surgical strike or airstrike, violations of India's borders won't be tolerated and neither will attacks on India's territory. We don't covet anything of anyone, but anyone who tries to take something of ours will get a tough answer."

Amit Shah says 'Centre not a mere spectator' in Palghar mob-lynching investigation

Shah on Kashmir

Speaking on Jammu-Kashmir today, he said, "Article 370 and the Citizenship Amendment Act, both of which are related to the unity and integrity of the country. Whoever has spread the fear on CAA are now worried. The lowest terrorist incidents after 90 have occurred after the removal of 370 and during 2014-2020"

On being asked about the Opposition's questions on the recent IED bomb diffusing done by Army in Kashmir's Pulwama, he said," The Congress has no right to ask any question about it. Congress is responsible for the terrorism that has created cancers. Section 370 was the biggest reason for instigating youth in the valley. This led to the youth of the valley towards separatism and terrorism."

Amit Shah reveals reason for 'Unlock 1', says 'army of COVID warriors readied in 2 months'

Recent Indo-China skirmishes

Apart from two armies' standoff, the Air Force was forced to rush its fighter jet patrols in Ladakh after Chinese military choppers were found to be flying close to the Line of Actual Control on last Tuesday. Indian Army sources on Sunday morning stated that the defense forces were involved in a stand-off with their Chinese counterparts near the India-China border in north Sikkim. The confrontation is reported to have taken place near the Naku La Sector and was solved later after local-level talks between the authorities.

Coronavirus Live Updates: India plans phased reopening as cases reach 1,82,143

On Wednesday, Trump said that the United States is willing and able to arbitrate the conflict between India and China amid heightened tensions and heavy troops deployment at the border. India, in response on Thursday that it is engaged with the Chinese side to resolve the border issue peacefully. Echoing India's stance on the Indo-China border dispute, China, on Friday, rejected any 'third-party intervention' in the matter, stating that the two countries 'have perfect border-related mechanisms and communication channels'.


Senator Lamar Alexander on Sunday hit actions by some involved in the Nashville protests.

He said, Looting and burning the courthouse by a few dishonors the peaceful protest of thousands against racial discrimination and police brutality. Governor Lee and Mayor Cooper are right to call on the National Guard to restore order and allow Nashville to heal and rebuild.

"At the same time, I think of my friend, South Carolina U.S. Senator Tim Scott, who is African American and who told me that he was stopped by police several times even when he was on the Charleston County Council for being a black man in the wrong place.

"We must redouble our efforts to change such attitudes and end racial discrimination.
AMRITSAR: The students of Government Medical College (GMC) here on Sunday wrote to chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh, medical education and research minister O P Soni and the ministry family and health welfare, urging them to reduce MBBS fee in the state.

As per the cabinet decision of May 27, the fee for a full five-year course in government-run medical colleges from this session will be 7.8 lakh  a hike of around 80% from the previous 4.4 lakh.

Amritsar medical students association president Dr Vaibhav Chawla said, The decision of fee hike has aroused immense despair among the medical fraternity. The move will make medical education impossible for the middle class and economically weaker strata. We request the CM to roll back the MBBS fee in Punjab.

Other disgruntled members of the association claimed the government had earlier hiked the fee by 160% in 2015. Now 5 years later, again a hike of 80% has been announced, which is a clear violation of the Supreme Court orders prohibiting any institution from increasing the fee beyond 15% in a minimum of three years. Punjab has hiked MBBS fee twice within 4 years, they said.
OAKLAND, Calif.  Jack Dorsey was up late Thursday at his home in San Francisco talking online with his executives when their conversation was interrupted: President Donald Trump had just posted another inflammatory message on Twitter.

Tensions between Twitter, where Dorsey is chief executive, and Trump had been running high for days over the presidents aggressive tweets and the companys decision to begin labeling some of them. In his latest message, Trump weighed in on the clashes between the police and protesters in Minneapolis, saying, when the looting starts, the shooting starts.

A group of more than 10 Twitter officials, including lawyers and policymakers, quickly gathered virtually to review Trumps post and debate over the messaging system Slack and Google Docs whether it pushed people toward violence.

They soon came to a conclusion. And after midnight, Dorsey gave his go-ahead: Twitter would hide Trumps tweet behind a warning label that said the message violated its policy against glorifying violence. It was the first time Twitter applied that specific warning to any public figures tweets.

VIDEO: Here's why it so hard to find a work-from-home webcam

The action has prompted a broad fight over whether and how social media companies should be held responsible for what appears on their sites, and was the culmination of months of debate inside Twitter. For more than a year, the company had been building an infrastructure to limit the impact of objectionable messages from world leaders, creating rules on what would and would not be allowed and designing a plan for when Trump inevitably broke them.

But the path to that point was not smooth. Inside Twitter, dealing with Trumps tweets  which are the equivalent of a presidential megaphone  was a fitful and uneven process. Some executives repeatedly urged Dorsey to take action on the inflammatory posts while others insisted he hold back, staying hands-off as the company had done for years.

Outside Twitter, the presidents critics urged the company to shut him down as he pushed the limits with insults and untruths, noting that ordinary users were sometimes suspended for lesser transgressions. But Twitter argued that posts by Trump and other world leaders deserved special leeway because of their news value.

The efforts were complicated by Dorsey, 43, who was sometimes absent on travels and meditative retreats before the coronavirus pandemic. He often delegated policy decisions, watching the debate from the sidelines so he would not dominate with his own views. And he frequently did not weigh in until the last minute.

Now Twitter is at war with Trump over its treatment of his posts, which has implications for the future of speech on social media. In the past week, the company for the first time added fact-checking and other warning labels to three of Trumps messages, refuting their accuracy or marking them as inappropriate.

In response, an irate Trump issued an executive order designed to limit legal protections that tech companies enjoy and posted more angry messages.

MODERATED: Twitter obscures Trump tweet 'glorifying violence'

Twitters position is precarious. The company is grappling with charges of bias from the right over its labeling of Trumps tweets; one of its executives has faced a sustained campaign of online harassment. Yet Twitters critics on the left said that by leaving Trumps tweets up and not banning him from the site, it was enabling the president.

It really is about whether or not Twitter blinks, said James Grimmelmann, a law professor at Cornell University. You really have to stick to your guns and ensure you do it right.

Twitter is girding for a protracted battle with Trump. Some employees have locked down their social media accounts and deleted their professional affiliation to avoid being harassed. Executives, holed up at home, are meeting virtually to discuss next steps while also handling a surge of misinformation related to the pandemic.

This account of how Twitter came to take action on Trumps tweets was based on interviews with nine current and former company employees and others who work with Dorsey outside of Twitter. They declined to be identified because they were not authorized to speak publicly and because they feared being targeted by Trumps supporters.

A Twitter spokesman declined to comment. Dorsey tweeted Friday that the fact-checking process should be open to the public so that the facts are verifiable by everyone.

Trump said on Twitter that his recent statements were very simple and that nobody should have any problem with this other than the haters, and those looking to cause trouble on social media. The White House declined to comment.

The confrontation between Trump and Twitter has raised questions about free speech. Under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, social media companies are shielded from most liability for the content posted on their platforms. Republican lawmakers have argued the companies are acting as publishers and not mere distributors of content and should be stripped of those protections.

RELEASE NOTES: Get Dwight Silverman's weekly tech newsletter each Monday

But a hands-off approach by the companies has allowed harassment and abuse to proliferate online, said Lee Bollinger, the president of Columbia University and a First Amendment scholar. So now the companies, he said, have to grapple with how to moderate content and take more responsibility, without losing their legal protections.

These platforms have achieved incredible power and influence, Bollinger said, adding that moderation was a necessary response. Theres a greater risk to American democracy in allowing unbridled speech on these private platforms.

For years, Twitter did not touch Trumps messages. But as he continued using Twitter to deride rivals and spread falsehoods, the company faced mounting criticism.

That set off internal debates. Dorsey observed the discussions, sometimes raising questions about who could be harmed by posts on Twitter or its moderation decisions, executives said.

In 2018, two of the presidents tweets stood out to Twitter officials. In one, Trump discussed launching nuclear weapons at North Korea, which some employees believed violated company policy against violent threats. In the other, he called a former aide, Omarosa Manigault Newman, a crazed, crying lowlife and that dog.

At the time, Twitter had rules against harassing messages like the tweet about Manigault Newman but left the tweet up.

The company began working on a specific solution to allow it to respond to violent and inaccurate posts from Trump and other world leaders without removing the messages. Dorsey had expressed interest in finding a middle ground, executives said. It also rolled out labels to denote that a tweet needed fact-checking or had videos and photos that had been altered to be misleading.

The effort was overseen by Vijaya Gadde, who leads Twitters legal, policy, trust and safety teams. The labels for world leaders, unveiled in June 2019, explained how a politicians message had broken a Twitter policy and took away tools that could amplify it, like retweets and likes.

We want to elevate healthy conversations on Twitter and that may sometimes mean offering context, Del Harvey, Twitters vice president of trust and safety, said in an interview this year.

By the time the labels were introduced, Trump was not the only head of state testing Twitters boundaries. Shortly before Twitter released them, the president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, tweeted a sexually explicit video and Iranian leader Ali Khamenei posted threatening remarks about Israel.

Last month, Twitter used the labels on a tweet from Brazilian politician Osmar Terra in which he falsely claimed that quarantine increased cases of the coronavirus.

This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules, the label read. However, Twitter has determined that it may be in the publics interest for the Tweet to remain accessible.

On Tuesday, Twitter officials began discussing labeling Trumps messages after he falsely asserted that mail-in ballots were illegally printed and implied they would lead to fraud in the November election. His tweets were flagged to Twitter through a portal it had opened specifically for nonprofit groups and local officials involved in election integrity to report content that could discourage or interfere with voting.

Twitter quickly concluded that Trump had posted false information about mail-in ballots. The company then labeled two of his tweets, urging people to get the facts about voting by mail. An in-house team of fact checkers also assembled a list of what people should know about mail-in ballots.

Trump struck back, drafting an executive order designed to chip away at Section 230. He and his allies also singled out a Twitter employee who had publicly criticized him and other Republicans, falsely suggesting that employee was responsible for the labels.

Dorsey and his executives kept on alert. On Wednesday, Twitter labeled hundreds of other tweets, including those that falsely claimed to include images of Derek Chauvin, the white police officer who was charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in the death of George Floyd, an African-American man in Minnesota.

Trump did not let up. Even after Twitter called out his shooting tweet for glorifying violence, he posted the same sentiment again.

Looting leads to shooting, Trump wrote, adding that he did not want violence to occur. It was spoken as a fact.

This time, Twitter did not label the tweet.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
We are at a watershed moment where surveillance is no longer limited to what we do, but how we feel.





The coronavirus is a kind of watershed event for surveillance.

Firstly, it is spreading everywhere with the disease. And secondly, we are seeing a change in the nature of surveillance from over the skin surveillance to under the skin surveillance.

Over the skin surveillance is the things that we do, where we go, who we meet, what we watch on television. We know that, for years, corporations and governments have been developing the abilities, the technological tools, to monitor what we do. And this gives them a lot of insight into our political views, our preferences, even our personalities.

But what is happening now is that surveillance is beginning to go under the skin  revealing not just what we do, but how we feel.

Of course, it is, at the moment, focused on the disease itself. In order to know whether we are sick, the surveillance systems need data about what is happening inside our bodies  our body temperature, maybe our blood pressure, perhaps our heart rate. All of these things can be used to establish our medical condition.

But once surveillance goes under the skin, it can be used for many other purposes. For example, if you read this article or watch the accompanying video, it might offer some clue about your political views or personality.

But what if surveillance systems can actually go under your skin as you are reading or watching it? Perhaps your TV is watching you and a biometric bracelet on your wrist is measuring your body temperature, your blood pressure, your heart rate. They can know not only what you are reading or watching but how it makes you feel  what makes you angry, what makes you laugh, whether you agree with me or if you think  I am crazy.

The implications of this are extreme. They can go all the way to the establishment of new totalitarian regimes  worse than anything we have seen before. They can also result in huge revolutions in the job market, in the economy, in personal relations.

I am not against surveillance itself. I think in this pandemic we need to make use of whatever technologies are available to us to fight it and to ease the accompanying economic crisis. Surveillance can help us do that. It can, for example, ease the lockdowns and allow people to go back to work, school or university much earlier than if we did not have this technology.

But it should be done carefully. And there are two main guidelines we should follow.

Firstly, we should monitor people if they are sick, but this should not be done by the police or the security services, which could potentially use the data for other purposes. Independent healthcare authorities or agencies should be established and tasked solely with stopping the pandemic. The data they collect should not be shared with anybody else  not the police, not our bosses, not our insurance companies.

A lot of people, including politicians, are describing the fight against the pandemic as a war. And in a war, we need to involve the security services. But this is not a war. This is a healthcare crisis. It is not about soldiers running around with guns. It is about nurses in hospitals changing dirty bedsheets.

We do not need experts in killing people. We need experts in taking care of people. So if you want to put somebody in charge, put a nurse in charge, not a soldier or a general.

But better yet, there are ways to not put anybody in charge, ways that information can be shared peer to peer without a central authority that collects it all. So, for example, there are technologies that allow your smartphone to talk directly to the smartphones around it. So, let us say you were with someone who later tested positive for COVID-19, that persons smartphone will alert your smartphone and the smartphones of the other people who were around them.

Secondly, if we increase the surveillance of citizens we must always balance it by increasing the surveillance of governments and corporations.

Governments are now making extremely important decisions. They are handing out money like water  hundreds of billions of dollars or, in the case of the United States, trillions of dollars. This should be monitored. Who is making the decisions about where this money goes? Does it go to help big corporations whose directors are friends with government ministers, or does it go to help small businesses?

Governments may try to say that it is too complicated to track all of these decisions and payments, but it is the same technology. So if it is not too complicated to monitor us, then it is not too complicated to monitor them.

So citizens need to demand two things  firstly that their privacy be protected as far as possible, and secondly that any increase in the monitoring of them be accompanied by an increase in the monitoring of governments.

People may think, OK, well adopt this emergency measure now and when this emergency is over, when there is no more coronavirus, we can dismantle this surveillance system. But measures taken in an emergency have a nasty tendency of outlasting the emergency. It is easy to build a system of surveillance but very difficult to dismantle afterwards.

There is always a new emergency on the horizon. Even if the number of COVID-19 patients is down to zero, governments will say but there might be another wave or there might be an Ebola outbreak, so we need to keep this in place.

So whatever systems are established now, whatever measures are adopted, think of them as long term. And do not just think about your present government. Maybe you trust your present government with this surveillance system, but think about the politician in your country you are most afraid of. Now ask yourself, What happens if this politician is prime minister or president in four or eight years from now? What kind of surveillance system do you feel comfortable with them being in charge of?

But the most important thing to realise about all these technological inventions is that technology is never deterministic. It always depends to some extent on politics and on our decisions. We can decide to use the same technology to build very different kinds of societies. We saw this in the 20th century when the same technology was used to build communist dictatorships, fascist regimes and liberal democracies. If you look at North Korea and South Korea today, they have access to the same technology, they just choose to use it differently.

It will be the same with new technologies like surveillance systems. So we have to question the political decisions we take now about how to use them. Because with this pandemic, there is not only a motivation to increase monitoring, there is also agreement from the public. OK, go under my skin, I allow it. It is a small step because right now, that information will be gathered to know whether or not you have the disease. But it is, nevertheless, a step in a dangerous direction on a momentous road so we must be careful as we take it.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance.
Sudhir Suryawanshi By

Express News Service

MUMBAI: The Maharashtra government has decided to cancel final year examinations of universities and university affiliates, chief minister Uddhav Thackeray announced on Sunday. The students will be given an average mark based on their past examination results.

Earlier in a day, Thackeray chaired a meeting with vice-chancellors of universities to consult about the examinations of final year students. Thackeray in his state address on Sunday evening said that they want to give relief to over eight lakh students of final year graduations in Maharashtra by cancelling their exams and giving average marks calculating the past marks of previous semesters.

Today, we are not in a position to conduct the exams and in future when it will happen that we are not also sure. The new academic year is starting so we do not students miss their further educations and career opportunity. Those students are not happy with the mark of last semester they can reply to upgrade their mark once the situation is normal, the chief minister said.

Maharashtra government has already cancelled the first and second-year exams. University Grand Commission had asked to conduct the exam in July but the situation in Maharashtra particularly in Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur belt is critical. All these regions fall under the red zone, ergo conducting exams doesn't seem viable.

Thackeray said that they are committed to restarting the new academic year that will be either virtual or actual by following the social distancing norms. Earlier the Maharashtra higher and technical education minister Uday Samant had written UGC to cancel the final year exams and award the average marks on the basis of previous semesters result. Maharashtra governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari had taken the objection and even wrote to chief ministers Thackeray by complaining against the minister for his stand of cancelling exams.
Immigration Officials at the Hamile border in the Upper West Region have arrested 19 Nigeriens who were en route to Burkina Faso but were using Ghana as a transit point.

They allegedly entered Ghana using unapproved routes.

Initial investigation by the Ghana Immigration Service revealed the migrants aged between 14 and 43 had planned to sneak into Burkina Faso for farming purposes.

Public Relations Officer of the Ghana Immigration Service in the region in a statement said the Nigeriens have been screened by port health officials and sent back to Kumasi

Preliminary investigations revealed that they were in Ghana around Ashanti region for some time now. The migration was to sneak into Burkina Faso en route Niger for farming purposes. They were screened by the Port Health personnel. They were sent back to Kumasi and its environs on board a VIP bus, the release indicated.

Burkinabes arrested

In a related development, 10 Burkina Faso nationals have been apprehended at the Babile inland checkpoint in the Upper West Region on Friday, May 29, 2020 at about 23:50 GMT.

Preliminary investigations by Immigration Officials revealed that the ten had sneaked into Ghana through unapproved routes.

They are made up of seven males and three females with their ages ranging between two and 31.

Onboard a commercial Yutong bus with registration number GT 4356-16, they were destined for Kumasi and Bole respectively.

The arrest was made by the officials during a routine exercise to screen and profile persons in buses in vehicular traffic.

Meanwhile, the illegal migrants have been screened and okayed by the Port Health Officials.

They have since been handed over to the Burkina Faso authorities on the other side of the border at the Hamile post.

Since the border closure, many foreign nationals have been arrested in different parts of the country using unapproved routes to enter the country.

Most of these people, after investigations and tests, are noted to be carriers of COVID-19.

Meanwhile, President Akufo-Addo has indicated that foreigners who enter into Ghana when the country's borders have been closed will be dealt with together with their Ghanaian accomplices.

 citinewsroom
The finance ministry is not in favour of increasing goods and services tax rates on non-essential items in the next month's meeting of the GST Council, despite depressed revenue collections due to the nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of COVID-19

New Delhi: The finance ministry is not in favour of increasing goods and services tax rates on non-essential items in the next month's meeting of the GST Council, despite depressed revenue collections due to the nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of COVID-19.

If Goods and Services Tax (GST) rates are increased on non-essential items, sources said it will further bring down their demand and impede the overall economic recovery.

Post the lockdown, the demand has to be induced and economic activity has to improve on all fronts, not just on essential items side, they said.

However, the decision will be taken by the GST Council headed by the finance minister, according to sources.

Rates will come up for discussion during the council meeting next month to be attended by state finance ministers, they added.

The 39th meeting of GST Council was held in March, which proposed rationalisation of taxes on many items.

The nationwide lockdown was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 24 March for 21 days in the first leg in a bid to contain the spread of novel coronavirus. It was then extended till 3 May and then again till 17 May. The fourth phase of lockdown is in place till 31 May.

Click here to follow LIVE updates on coronavirus outbreak

The lockdown has led to a major shrinkage in GST collections. The government deferred the release of April GST revenue collection data due to the lockdown.

The government had last month extended the deadline to file GST returns for March to 5 May, from 20 April.

As per convention, the government releases GST revenue collection number on the basis of cash collection in a particular month. However, with the situation arising out of COVID-19, the government has decided to wait till the extended deadline for filing returns before release of the collection figure.

Sources further said that the government has not taken any call on monetisation of deficit at this point of time to shore up its resources.

Nobody knows how this COVID-19 pandemic pans out, what shape it is going to take, what kind of impact it will have on the Indian economy, and globally also no country knows today what lies three months later, sources said.

As of now, the government has increased the borrowing limit from Rs 7.8 lakh crore to Rs 12 lakh crore, which is Rs 4.2 lakh crore higher than the Budget estimate.

The RBIs monetisation of the fiscal deficit broadly means the central bank printing currency for the government to take care of any emergency spending and to bridge its fiscal deficit  this action is resorted to under emergency situations.

Sources, however said, there is a need to bring down cost of borrowing for the government in the given situation.

As a result of this, the government has to withdraw 7.75 per cent Savings (Taxable) Bonds scheme from the close of banking business on Thursday.

The scheme, commonly known as RBI Bonds or GOI bonds, is popular among retail investors who look for safety of principal and a regular income. NRIs, however, are not eligible for making investments in these bonds.

On issues pertaining to labourers with regard to wages and opportunities, sources said the finance ministry has initiated talks with the Labour Ministry on job losses and salary cuts due to the lockdown.

The Labour Ministry will engage in talks with the states on the issue, they added.
Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) is detained by U.S. Capitol Police while supporting voting rights protesters at the Capitol Thursday. (Bloomberg News)

The Democrat was arrested with several others, including faith leaders and youth who have been hunger striking for our democracy, his spokesman said.
Health officials conduct a coronavirus test on a student at Yangji Elementary School in Anyang, Gyeonggi Province, Sunday, after a student there tested positive for the virus. / Yonhap



By Jun Ji-hye



The number of daily new COVID-19 cases in Korea has been declining for four consecutive days, but health authorities remain on high alert for sporadic group infections.



The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said Sunday it had detected 27 new cases, and there had been one more death, Saturday, which brought the country's total to 11,468, and the death toll to 270.



It marks the first time in five days that the country recorded fewer than 30 cases, with the number falling from 79 to 58 to 39 to 27 for the past four days.



The authorities have almost completed coronavirus tests on cases related to the latest infection cluster traced to a logistics center operated by e-commerce platform giant Coupang in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province.



According to the KCDC, 111 virus patients were traced to the Coupang warehouse as of 12 p.m., Sunday, up from 108 reported at 11 a.m., Saturday.



Among the 111 cases, 75 were employees of the logistics center, while 36 others had been in contact with them.



The health authorities are staying vigilant over concerns that sporadic group infections could continue in Seoul and nearby areas, because patients linked to the logistic center mostly live in the nation's capital, Incheon and Gyeonggi Province.



"The number of daily new cases has been showing a reduction trend, but there are still many cases whose infection routes have yet to be identified," Kwon Joon-wook, head of the National Institute of Health under the KCDC, told a media briefing. "In addition, the recent infection cluster at the Bucheon logistics center has raised concerns over further community spread, especially in the capital area."



According to officials at Anyang and Gunpo in Gyeonggi Province, five people in Anyang and four in Gunpo tested positive for the virus, Sunday. The nine patients were pastors and churchgoers and their family members who went to Jeju Island together from May 25 to 27.



The patients include an elementary school student. According to city officials, the student attended school on Thursday, raising concerns over mass infection at the school.



Authorities are also keeping a watch on new cases coming from the Korea Campus Crusade for Christ (CCC) and an announcer academy in Seoul.



In a bid to stop the further spread of COVID-19, the government has announced enhanced preventive measures against the virus, which apply to the capital region.

The measures include the temporary suspension of operations at public establishments such as museums and art galleries.



The government also asked bars and other facilities with a high risk of infection to refrain from operating.
New York: A Fox News reporter was pummelled and chased by protesters who had gathered outside the White House early on Saturday as part of nationwide unrest following the death of George Floyd.

For several journalists across the country, the demonstrations were taking an ominous, dangerous turn.

Fox News reporter Leland Vittert before being attacked during a demonstration at the White House as part of American unrest following the death of George Floyd. Source: Fox News

A television reporter in Columbia, South Carolina, was hurt by a thrown rock on Saturday and a journalist in Minneapolis was shot in the thigh by a rubber bullet. Demonstrators also broke windows and vandalised the Atlanta office building where CNN is headquartered, and police in Louisville, Kentucky, apologised after an officer fired what appeared to be pepper bullets at a television news crew.

Fox's Leland Vittert was rattled following the Washington attack that he said was clearly targeted at his news organisation.
David Roddy has been a member of the Chattanooga Police Department for 24 years.

@ChiefDavidRoddy

After the video of George Floyd's arrest and his subsequent death went viral on Monday, a Tennessee police chief tweeted his thoughts on Wednesday.

David Roddy said that officers who don't have an issue with Floyd's arrest should turn in their badges.

His tweet has since gone viral with over 159,000 retweets and 623,000 likes.

Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

A Tennessee police chief by the name of David Roddy sent a message to his fellow officers on Twitter in response to the death of George Floyd.

On Wednesday, Chattanooga Police Department Chief David Roddy said police officers who didn't see an issue with the graphic video that showed former Minneapolis police officer David Chauvin kneeling on Floyd's neck as the 46-year-old repeatedly said, "I can't breathe," should quit the force.

"There is no need to see more video. There no need to wait to see how "it plays out". There is no need to put a knee on someone's neck for NINE minutes. There IS a need to DO something. If you wear a badge and you don't have an issue with this...turn it in," Roddy wrote.

Roddy's tweet has since gotten over 159,000 likes and 623,000 retweets. According to the Chattanooga Police Department website, Roddy has 24 years of service under his belt.

Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital on Monday shortly after his arrest. Since the video starting circulating social media, Chauvin was charged on Friday with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter, and all four officers that were involved in the arrest were fired.

Footage of the arrest has also sparked outrage across the country causing protests in cities like Minneapolis, Atlanta, New York, Los Angeles, Denver, Detroit, Dallas, Washington, DC, and more.

Roddy did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Related: Courtroom Tactics White House Reporters Can Use

Story continues

Insider
A coalition of scientists is calling on Premier Gladys Berejiklian to halt coal mining in Greater Sydney's water catchment.

In a letter sent to Ms Berejiklian, more than 20 scientists and academics are calling for a stop on approvals for new mines in the Special Areas and those being considered for expansion or modification. The freeze should remain until the impacts of mining "can be reliably assessed and quantified with a high degree of scientific confidence".

Disappearing creeks, bulging valleys, a shifting dam wall and a lack of monitoring are among the reasons to halt the mining.

The Eastern Tributary, in the Woronora catchment area, south of Sydney. The region of the Special Areas is among those highlighted by scientists worried about the ongoing impacts from underground coal mining in Greater Sydney's catchment. Credit:Janie Barrett

The missive comes as the Department of Planning restarts the approval process for the proposed expansions of the Russell Vale and Dendrobium mines, and three months after it gave the go-ahead for the Metropolitan mine to extract coal from under Woronora reservoir.
More than 150 organizations in Canada have united to support Principles for a Just Recovery, to influence what Canada will look like after COVID-19.

For individuals interesting in learning more about a Just Recovery, Peterborough Youth Empowerment has organized a Teach-In over Zoom on Saturday at 3 p.m. This Teach-In is open to everyone, of all ages, and will examine what a Just Recovery, from a Peterborough perspective might look like. To attend the Teach-In, participants must register in advance at act.350.org/event/teach-ins-just-recovery_attend/25014.

According to a press release issued from the Just Recovery campaign, Recovery efforts must support the transition to a more equitable, sustainable and diversified economy, and not entrench outdated economic and social systems that jeopardize the health and well-being of people, worsen the climate crisis or perpetuate the exploitation or oppression of people. For more information, please visit 350.org.

Volunteers Honoured

During their 41st annual general meeting, which was recently held online, the New Canadians Centre (NCC), honoured their volunteers and partners.

NCC executive director Andy Cragg honoured the life and legacy of Sister Ruth Mary Hennessey, who died on May 14 of this year, with the Ruth Hennessey Spirit of Giving Award for her generosity, leadership and commitment to welcoming newcomers and refugees in our community.

Sister Ruths involvement with refugees began in the 1970s when she and other volunteers in the community welcomed refugees fleeing Vietnam. This work assisted with the establishment of the NCC in 1979. In the 1990s, Sister Ruth and the Sister of St. Joseph were involved in establishing Casa Maria, a nonprofit organization that supports and offers safe temporary shelter to refugees. Over the last 20 years, Sister Ruth helped to change the lives of over 200 people from around the world.

The Volunteer of the Year Award was presented to Fabiola Contreras Carrasco: Fabiola Contreras Carrasco  has courageously shared her story to help others understand what it is like to leave everything behind to build a better future. She has been facilitating the NCCs Womens Group since 2015, is a mentor for newcomer women, and served on the organizing committee for International Womens Day in Peterborough.

The Becky Rogers Community Partner of the Year award was presented to the Community Dental Health Clinic at Peterborough Public Health. The clinic was one of the Resettlement Assistance Programs first partners when the program began in 2016.

This is a very proud moment for everyone at Peterborough Public Health, said Arti Joshi, manager of oral health services, their efforts reflect the important way local public health services help keep New Canadians healthy, and strengthen our community.

Please visit nccpeterborough.ca for more information and how you can become involved.

Library Curbside Pickup

Curbside Pickup begins on Wednesday at the Peterborough Public Library, 345 Aylmer St. This is a contactless method which enables community members to borrow physical materials from the library. Pickup services are available Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to noon and 2 to 4 p.m., Thursdays from 1 to 3 p.m. and 5 to 7 p.m., and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to noon and 2 to 4 p.m. Items must be reserved in advance and pickup takes place in the Library Commons parking lot off Simcoe Street.

For more information, please visit ptbolibrary.ca or call 705-745-5382 ext. 2340.
THE LIZARD by Dugald Bruce-Lockhart (Muswell Press 12.99, 306 pp)

THE LIZARD

by Dugald Bruce-Lockhart (Muswell Press 12.99, 306 pp)

This impressive debut focuses on St Andrews University undergraduate Alistair Haston, who is brokenhearted at the break-up of his relationship with fellow student Ellie, and consoles himself with a Greek islands trip.

He knows she plans to go there, too, and hopes they collide by chance. But on the ferry from Athens he meets a charismatic Australian, Ricky, who introduces him to Heinrich, a renowned German artist living in a magnificent mansion overlooking the sea.

Alistair is hired to find models for Heinrich, and is ushered into a world of drugs, debauchery and murder then he is forced to flee to save himself.

Written with huge verve, the story twists and turns like a malign serpent and features a memorable villain in the wily Australian who lured Alistair into the maelstrom.

THE LAST TRIAL by Scott Turow (Mantle 20, 464 pp)

THE LAST TRIAL

by Scott Turow (Mantle 20, 464 pp)

More than 30 years ago Turow introduced talented courtroom lawyer Sandy Stern in his Presumed Innocent, and now hes back in this enthralling legal drama.

Stern is 85 now, and in poor health. But he is, nevertheless, persuaded to defend his old friend Dr Kiril Pafko, a Nobel Prize winner for medicine, who has been charged with fraud, insider trading and  astonishingly  murder connected to his pharmaceutical company that created a cancer drug.

As the trial unfolds, it becomes apparent that the man who appeared beyond reproach is anything but.

How far will Stern go to defend his friend, and does he even deserve to be saved? Stern wrestles with his conscience as well as with his courtroom opponent, U.S. attorney Moses Appleton.

Gripping, elegantly written and packed with surprises, this sublime thriller crackles with life.

DEAR CHILD

DEAR CHILD by Romy Hausmann (Quercus 12.99, 352 pp)

by Romy Hausmann (Quercus 12.99, 352 pp)

Thirteen years ago, 23-year-old Lena Black was abducted in Munich after attending a student party.

Beautiful, articulate and full of hope, she is imprisoned in a windowless timber cottage in the woods by a man who demands she obeys him.

Over the years she bears her captor two children, a boy and a girl. All of his family have to follow his instructions to the letter.

Not surprisingly, Lena eventually decides to kill her captor, but fate intervenes and theres a road accident which sends Lena and her daughter to hospital.

And so the path to normality begins  or does it?

Claustrophobic, terrifying and fiercely compelling, this is heartbreaking.
Thank you for reading!

Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading.
Amid the violent protests calling for justice after a police officer killed George Floyd, one woman attempted to kill four law enforcement of the New York Police Department.

The woman, identified as Samantha Shader, 27 years old, allegedly hurled a Molotov cocktail onto a marked police vehicle in Brooklyn with officers still inside.

Violent protests

The suspect threw the projectile through the rear window of the vehicle which was parked at around 10:40 p.m. at the corner of Eastern Parkway and Washington Avenue, said police.

According to the New York Post, authorities said the device did not ignite and was not able to injure any of the officers inside the vehicle.

As officers were taking Shader into custody, she allegedly fought back by biting an officer in the leg. Local authorities have charged the woman with four counts of criminal possession of a weapon, and reckless endangerment, attempted arson, attempted murder of a police officer, and assault.

Shader's sister, Darian, 21 years old, tried to interfere with her sister's arrest. Police officers took her into custody as well charged her with obstruction of governmental administration and resisting arrest, said reports.

Dermot Shea, the New York Police Commissioner, expressed her condemnation of violent acts and said: "It is by the grace of God that we don't have dead officers today."

The head of the Detectives Endowment Association, Paul DiGiacomo, said that they would not tolerate these actions and branded the sisters as "violent criminals."

Also Read: Trump May Assume Control on Minneapolis Chaos Amid George Floyd Protests

Other incidents also involved protesters throwing bricks at police officers, and DiGiacomo stated they would be taking actions to ensure that these heinous criminals are punished and charged for their deeds.

Patrick Lynch, president of the PBA, said that these women, along with other violent criminals, should be able to hide under the label of a protester.

Spread of violence

Authorities arrested more than 200 protesters on Friday night and early Saturday morning amid a tense stand-off between local authorities and residents as rioters chanted "they're killing us" and held up signs comparing the NYPD to the KKK, as reported by Fox News.

Shea said that protesters bringing loaded firearms and other deadly weapons is the farthest thing from being civilized. "It is very difficult to practice de-escalation when you're having a brick thrown at you, at your head," he added.

The commissioner also said that several officers had to be brought to the hospital after protesters knocked their teeth out.

Shader is set to appear before a Brooklyn Federal Court judge on Monday to face her charges, and she is one of the three people who were charged federally amid the violence, reported Daily News.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio stated that some people in the crowd planned to start violence and did do violence, positioning themselves to where they can control the environment.

Shea added that they support the people's right to protest but said that civil disobedience was the significant factor in the incident. The violence did not discriminate whether the officer was white, black, male, or female, he added.

Related Article: CNN Reporter, Crew Arrested on Air While Covering Minneapolis Protests Over George Floyd Murder

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Actor Michael Angelis in a scene from episode 'The Last Supper' of the BBC series of dramatic monologues 'Single Voices', May 20th 1989. (Photo by Don Smith/Radio Times/Getty Images)

Michael Angelis, best known for Alan Bleasdale dramas Boys from the Blackstuff and GBH has died suddenly aged 76.

Angelis may be known better by younger audiences as the narrator of kids TV favourite Thomas and Friends.

The actor, who replaced original narrator Ringo Starr in 1991, died while at home with his wife on Saturday.

The Liverpool-born actor voiced the famous show for over twenty years, as well as playing Arnie in September Song, Lucien Boswell in The Liver Birds, Mickey Startup in Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, Chrissie Todd in Boys From The Blackstuff and Martin Niarchos in GBH.

Read more: Rachel Riley 'feels guilty' enjoying family help with baby daughter during lockdown

He also made appearances in The Bill, Heartbeat, in Holby City and Casualty.

Large working replica steam engine of the popular children's storybook character Thomas the Tank Engine is seen during a 'Day out With Thomas' in Uxbridge, Ontario, Canada, August 11, 2019. (Photo by Creative Touch Imaging Ltd./NurPhoto via Getty Images)

John Bradley, who played Samwell Tarly in Game of Thrones, praised the star for the mark he left on television with his acting roles.

He tweeted: "To be in both Boys From The Blackstuff and GBH is really leaving your mark on telly. He was superb in both."

Little Britain star Matt Lucas said: Michael Angelis was one of the greatest TV actors I've ever seen. His work with Alan Bleasdale was tremendous. What a loss.

The Thick Of It writer Simon Blackwell also paid tribute on Twitter, writing: Sad to hear that the great Michael Angelis has died. Exquisite and moving in Boys From The Black Stuff, enormously funny as Lucien in The Liver Birds.

Actress Helen Worth, who plays Gail in Coronation Street marrying actor Michael Angelis at Chelsea Register Office. (Photo by Rebecca Naden - PA Images/PA Images via Getty Images)

Angelis first made his mark on TV in the 1970s, appearing in Z Cars, Thirty-Minute Theatre and Coronation Street.

Read more: Simon Thomas reveals his father has died aged 78

He also enjoyed roles in Minder, World's End and A Touch Of Frost.

He was married to Corries Helen Worth, known for playing Gail Platt, between 1991 and 2001, before later marrying Jennifer Khalastchi.

He was succeeded as narrator on Thomas And Friends by fellow Liverpool-born actor Mark Moraghan who was later replaced by John Hasler.
Asian Worker wear disposable face mask for protection coronavirus spreading and smoke dust air pollution filter in factory. Photo: Getty

China is heading for an uneven recovery as businesses emerge from COVID-19 shutdowns.

Factory activity in the world's second largest economy grew at a slower pace in May but productivity in the services and construction sectors quickened, Reuters reports.

It is the second consecutive month that manufacturing has slowed but levels remain healthier than record lows in February when the pandemic caused travel restrictions, quarantine and factory closures.

The manufacturing Purchasing Manager's Index (PMI) eased to 50.6 in May from 50.8 in April, according to National Bureau of Statistics data. This held above the 50-point mark that separates expansion from contraction but analysts had expected a PMI reading of 51.

Export orders saw a fifth consecutive month of contraction with a sub-index standing at 35.3 in May, considerably below the 50-point mark, as the global spread of the respiratory virus affected demand.

"Judging by the PMI sub-indices, the absolute levels of demand-related indices are way below the production-related ones, indicating a pronounced constraining impact from demand on production," said Zhang Liqun, analyst, China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing (CFLP).

READ MORE: The common thread underlying the riots, COVID, China, Twitter and Trump

More than 50% of companies have reported a drop in demand, added Liqun.

But there are signs of improvement with domestic demand picking up, according to analysts with investment bank CICC.

And spending on infrastructure, is expected to give activity a boost in the second half of the year and into 2021. Meanwhile construction activity has grown to 60.8 in May from 59.7 the previous month and new orders are continuing to rise.

Non-manufacturing PMI rose to 53.6 in May, from 53.2 in April, indicating consumer confidence may slowly be improving.

China's economy shrank 6.8% in the first quarter, the first contraction since quarterly records began.

For the first time since 2002, China has not set a target for an annual growth goal.

Last week the country's central bank announced that Chinese lenders could post flat or falling profits in 2020 despite earnings growth in the first quarter.
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Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Minneapolis, United States  Sun, May 31, 2020 18:46 599 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdb3b5c3 2 World George-Floyd,race-protests,racial-violence,US-election,Donald-Trump,Joe-Biden Free

US presidential candidate Joe Biden on Sunday condemned the violence of race protests that have erupted across the United States but said Americans had a right to demonstrate.

"Protesting such brutality is right and necessary. It's an utterly American response," the Democratic White House hopeful said in a statement.

"But burning down communities and needless destruction is not. Violence that endangers lives is not. Violence that guts and shutters businesses that serve the community is not."

Biden called Friday for justice for George Floyd, the black man killed by a white police officer in Minnesota, and said it was time to heal the "open wound" of systemic racism in the United States.

"The very soul of America is at stake," the former vice president said in remarks broadcast online from his Delaware home.

The 77-year-old presumptive Democratic presidential nominee denounced what he called an "act of brutality" against Floyd and said he had spoken with members of his family.

"We need justice for George Floyd," he said.

Floyd's death triggered three nights of rioting in Minneapolis and protests against policy brutality in other US cities.

"The original sin of this country still stains our nation today," Biden said in a reference to slavery.

"Sometimes we manage to overlook it," he said. "But it's always there."

"We're a country with an open wound," Biden said. "And it's long past time that we made the promise of this nation real for all people."

The Democrat also directed some criticism at his November election opponent, President Donald Trump, although he didn't mention him by name.

"This is no time for incendiary tweets," he said.

"It's no time to encourage violence," Biden said of a Trump threat to potentially shoot looters.

"This is a national crisis and we need real leadership right now," Biden said, "leadership that will bring everybody to the table so we can take measures to root out systemic racism."

"With our complacency, our silence, we are complicit in perpetuating these cycles of violence," he said.

Derek Chauvin, the policeman accused of killing Floyd by kneeling on his neck for several minutes, was taken into custody on Friday and is facing charges of third degree murder and manslaughter.
President Donald Trump is looking to bring Russia back to the G-7.

The G-7 is comprised of the U.S., Canada, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and Japan.

After Russia seized and annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, the Group of 8 suspended Russia from the group.

Trump said Saturday he plans to invite Russia, South Korea, Australia and India and postpone the summit, holding it in September.

The U.S. holds the G-7's rotating presidency this year and gets to determine where the meeting is held and set the agenda.

Trump has repeatedly advocated for expanding the group to include Russia, prompting opposition from some members, including Canadas Justin Trudeau, who told reporters he had privately aired his objection to Russian readmittance.

Russia has yet to change the behavior that led to its expulsion in 2014, and therefore should not be allowed back into the G7, he said at a news conference.

The House also passed a bipartisan resolution in December 2019 that supports Russias previous expulsion from the annual gathering.

The Associated Press and CNN contributed to this report.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-01 03:12:41|Editor: huaxia

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ANKARA, May 31 (Xinhua) -- Three members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) were killed in eastern Bitlis province of Turkey, the Turkish interior ministry said on Sunday.

Turkish security forces conducted an air-backed operation in the region, the ministry said in a written statement noting that the operations are underway in the region.

Turkish security forces have long been conducting operations against the PKK in southeastern Turkey and northern Iraq where the group has hideouts.

These operations are intensified in the past few months. PKK members often use northern Iraq to launch cross-border terrorist attacks in Turkey.

In a separate statement on Sunday, the defense ministry also stated the Turkish commandos "neutralized" two members of the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) in northern Syria, as they were trying to "infiltrate into the region of Peace Spring aiming to destroy peace and security environment".

Turkey sees the YPG group as the Syrian branch of the PKK. The Turkish army launched many operations in order to create a YPG-free zone along its border within the neighboring country.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States, and the European Union, has been rebelling against the Turkish government for over 30 years, which has claimed lives of more than 40,000 people. Enditem
PHILADELPHIA  Hundreds of people gathered in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh to protest the death in Minneapolis of George Floyd, but the peaceful demonstrations later turned violent with cars set ablaze and other property damage, and Philadelphia police announced an 8 p.m. curfew in the city.

A crowd estimated by police as numbering 500 people gathered at Philadelphia's City Hall, kneeling for more than eight minutes in honor of Floyd, a black man who died after a white officer pressed a knee into his neck, then marched through Center City to the Philadelphia Museum of Art on Saturday.

Back in the City Hall area, protesters sprayed graffiti on a statue of former Philadelphia Mayor Frank Rizzo, tried to topple it and set a fire at its base. Rizzo, mayor from 1972 to 1980, was praised by supporters as tough on crime but accused by critics of discriminating against minorities. His 10-foot-tall (3-meter-tall) bronze statue outside the Municipal Services Building, across from City Hall, has been defaced before and is to be moved next year.

During the protests, a state police vehicle could be seen on fire nearby; it wasn't immediately clear how the blaze started and police didn't immediately respond to a message seeking comment. At least one other vehicle fire could be seen later in the area, and a Starbucks coffee outlet in the area was set afire.

The peaceful protests earlier were touching showings of our collective grief," Mayor Jim Kenney said. The anger being displayed now cannot continue. Please have respect and dignity for each other and return home."

Police later announced that the mayor had implemented a mandatory city-wide curfew of 8 p.m. Saturday through 6 a.m. Sunday. Only persons with essential duties will be permitted outdoors," police said in a Twitter post as the mayor and police commissioner were to speak later.

Crowds also gathered Saturday afternoon for a march in downtown Pittsburgh to protest Floyds death. Police reported that the crowd near the PPG Arena was mostly peaceful but a group overtook and destroyed a marked police vehicle. Two journalists in the area were reported injured.

Protesters later smashed a glass business front and were dispersed with gas, police said. Pittsburgh Public Safety later reported ore business fronts broken out in the downtown area and protests are entering businesses.

In Harrisburg, PennLive.com reports that several hundred people gathered Saturday on the steps of the state Capitol, many standing silently with raised fists. Some chanted I can't breathe" and carried signs such as White Silence is Violence, Fight for Your Country and No Peace No Justice.

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George Floyds death demonstrates just how little America cares about Black lives at home and abroad.

Seated in the unenviable squalor of my modest, sparsely furnished living room, deep in the southern end of shithole Africa, as American President Donald Trump casually described it in January 2018, I have come to the firm conclusion that America is not qualified to lecture my continent on human rights and democracy. I have watched the video of the tragic, untimely death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota and have remained appalled at the brazen inhumanity demonstrated by the police in a first world democracy.

I have read in horror countless social media posts, penned by pained Black, brown and white folks on the latest controversial death of a Black man in America, which came on the heels of the killing of Ahmaud Arbery in Brunswick, Georgia and Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky.

Each post has been inundated with an obvious abundance of silent, peaceful rage and despondency at the violent racism permeating every aspect of life in the worlds leading democracy. Utterly shocked at what I have been seeing, I have had to repeatedly remind myself that this is America.

This is the same country that reacts with immediate moral outrage whenever something goes terribly amiss and somebody dies at the hands of the police and in full view of the public in Africa.

Whenever the spectre of governmental injustice lords over Africa, America always makes its boisterous, unapologetic voice heard on a continent purportedly starved of human rights.

America is always proud to condemn the brutal violence by cowardly and vicious armed groups and the disproportionate use of force by security forces in Africa. In fact, a predictable stream of condescending diplomatic self-righteousness is certainly the lifeblood of Americas ubiquitous presence in Africas young and still-developing democracies.

However, it is not just America that is forever indulging in this made-for-TV moralising crusade, whenever a life is regrettably stolen. The rest of the West also chimes in with a chorus of splendid, choreographed integrity.

So, since Monday, when news of Floyds death first surfaced, I have been anxiously waiting to hear a deluge of condemnations from these highly respectable Western nations.

I have hoped to see Frances President Emmanuel Macron hold a news conference, imploring the American authorities to uphold democracy and put an end to the spate of tragic deaths of Black people.

I have hoped to catch a reassuring soundbite from Canadas Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, expressing disapproval of Americas systemic abuse of African-Americans.

I have hoped to watch Germanys Angel Merkel declare her profound unease with Americas long and shameful record of violating the human rights of its Black citizens.

But I have heard nothing: not a statement, not a tweet has come out of the worlds leading democrats and human rights proponents.

The truth is the West does not really care about human rights, especially the human rights of African-Americans and Africans; it just cares about preaching about human rights and striding the world stage with hypocritical pride and a pompous air. For, if it really did care, at all, America would not be witnessing nationwide protests today and its fellow first world nations would not be so silent about it.

George Floyds tragic death is not an isolated incident, not a mistake or an exception. It is a sign of a systemic failure in upholding the human rights of minorities and migrants in America.

Minority and migrant communities face more socioeconomic precarity, inadequate healthcare, shorter life spans, and higher incarceration rates than white Americans. Yet the response of the US government to these systemic problems has been to increase policing, not to try to resolve them.

Large numbers of minority voters, particularly African-Americans and Latinos, have also struggled to participate in national elections and have their voice heard on the political scene. Voter suppression in these communities is rife and certain political forces have continued block efforts to enfranchise these voters.

Yet the American megaphone diplomacy in Africa has always insisted on free and fair elections and brandished the American system as a model to follow.

That America is facing such a human rights crisis at home perhaps should not come as a surprise. For decades, despite what it has been preaching, it has purposefully undermined international law and the establishment of a robust international human rights regime which would have pressed governments around the world (including the US one) to uphold human rights at home and abroad.

This has served America well, as it has ensured immunity for its soldiers and political agents committing violent crimes abroad and supporting and abetting dictatorial regimes which have victimised their own citizens. America has done nothing to prosecute grave human rights violations and killings by its soldiers in Iraq and has gone as far as threatening the International Criminal Court, which has opened an investigation into US crimes in Afghanistan. It has also consistently overlooked grave human rights violations by its closest allies  Israel and Saudi Arabia.

Indeed, the leading nation of the free world has no moral high ground from which to lecture Africans on human rights.

Yet as disappointed as I am with Americas dubious modus operandi and deplorable human rights record, I have found Africas strong and unequivocal condemnation of Floyds agonising death a truly welcome and positive development. Without a shadow of doubt, Africans are increasingly convinced that the way forward for their countries does not uphold the American system as a model but as a cautionary tale.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance.
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Donald Trump that he will postpone until the fall a meeting of Group of 7 nations he had planned to hold next month at the White House despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic

Aboard Air force One: President Donald Trump said Saturday that he will postpone until the fall a meeting of Group of 7 nations he had planned to hold next month at the White House despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. And he said he plans to invite Russia, Australia, South Korea and India as he again advocated for the group's expansion.

Trump told reporters on Air Force One as he returned to Washington from Florida that he feels the current makeup of the group is very outdated" and doesn't properly represent "whats going on in the world.

He said he had not yet set a new date for the meeting, but thought the gathering could take place in September, around the time of the annual meeting of the United Nations in New York, or perhaps after the US election in November.

Alyssa Farah, White House director of strategic communications, said that Trump wanted to bring in some of the country's traditional allies and those impacted by the coronavirus to discuss the future of China.

The surprise announcement came after German Chancellor Angela Merkel's office said Saturday that she would not attend the meeting unless the course of the coronavirus spread had changed by then.

The leaders of the worlds major economies were slated to meet in June in the US at Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland, but the coronavirus outbreak hobbled those plans. Trump announced in March he was canceling the summit because of the pandemic and that the leaders would confer by video conference instead. But Trump then switched course, saying a week ago that he was again planning to host an in-person meeting.

Now that our Country is Transitioning back to Greatness, I am considering rescheduling the G-7, on the same or similar date, in Washington, DC, at the legendary Camp David, Trump tweeted. The other members are also beginning their COMEBACK. It would be a great sign to all - normalization!

The G7 members are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. The groups presidency rotates annually among member countries.

Trump has repeatedly advocated for expanding the group to include Russia, prompting opposition from some members, including Canadas Justin Trudeau, who told reporters he had privately aired his objection to Russian readmittance.

Russia has yet to change the behavior that led to its expulsion in 2014, and therefore should not be allowed back into the G7, he said at a news conference.

The House also passed a bipartisan resolution in December 2019 that supports Russias previous expulsion from the annual gathering.

Russia had been invited to attend the gathering of the worlds most advanced economies since 1997, but was suspended in 2014 following its invasion of Ukraine and annexation of Crimea.
Around 150 people have taken part in two demonstrations in Dublin showing solidarity with the racial protests in the United States.

George Floyd, an unarmed black man died earlier this week in Minneapolis, after a police officer knelt on his neck while trying to arrest him.

It has sparked protests across the United States with curfews in place in many cities in the country.

Two protests have been held in Dublin today.

One took place outside the US Embassy in Ballsbridge and another took place in the Phoenix Park.

One protestor in Dublin said: There needs to be systemic change, from the bottom up.

Another added: I dont think everyone is out because of that one incident. Its just the build up of it.

Protest today by young people at the US Ambassador's residence in Dublin. Solidarity protests around Ireland have been called. Tomorrow at 1pm at Blanchardstown Town Centre for Dublin 15 area. #BlackLivesMatter #GeorgeFloydProtests #dubw pic.twitter.com/P52ltc7TcL  Ruth Coppinger (@RuthCoppingerSP) May 31, 2020

Huge turn out already outside the US embassy in Dublin #BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/2WI2aXnZE4  a big nice boy (@spicebagsupreme) May 31, 2020

In the US, another night of unrest has left charred and shattered landscapes in dozens of cities, as years of festering frustrations over the mistreatment of African Americans at the hands of police boiled over in expressions of rage met with tear gas and rubber bullets.

Cars and businesses were torched, the words I cant breathe were spray-painted all over buildings and a fire in a rubbish bin burned near the gates of the White House, as tens of thousands marched peacefully through city streets to protest against the death of George Floyd.

His death is one of a litany of racial tragedies that have thrown the US into chaos amid the coronavirus pandemic that has left millions out of work and killed more than 100,000 people, including disproportionate numbers of black people.

Washington protester Olga Hall said: Were sick of it. The cops are out of control. Theyre wild. Theres just been too many dead boys.

Earlier: George Floyd solidarity demonstrations organised for Dublin

People stand on top of a baseball backstop during a protest over the death of George Floyd in Los Angeles. Picture: AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu

By By Press Association, with reporting by Digital Desk staff

Demonstrations are due to take place later in Dublin over the death of an unarmed black man in the United States earlier this week.

On Monday, George Floyd was pinned to the ground with a police officer's knee, prompting protests in Minneapolis, where it happened.

Two demonstrations in solidarity with protesters in the US will take place in Ballsbridge, and the Phoenix Park.

US protests heat up as governors call in National Guard

Governors in several US states called in National Guard troops as protests over police killings of black men intensified on Saturday.

Similar scenes of unrest unfolded across several cities from New York to Tulsa to Los Angeles, where police fired rubber bullets to scatter crowds and at least one police car burned.

The protests  which began in Minneapolis following Mondays death of George Floyd during an arrest  have left parts of that city a grid of broken windows, burned-out buildings and ransacked stores.

In Washington, President Donald Trump sent tweets ridiculing protesters outside the White House who were among thousands nationwide incited by the death of Mr Floyd, who died after a policeman pressed his knee onto his neck for more than eight minutes.

The demonstrations have become a national phenomenon, with protesters decrying years of deaths at police hands.

In Tulsa, Oklahomas Greenwood District, the site of a 1921 massacre of black people that left some 300 dead, protesters blocked intersections and chanted the name of Terence Crutcher, a black man killed by a police officer in 2016.

Protesters climb on a flipped over police vehicle in Salt Lake City (Rick Bowmer/AP)

In Tulsa and Wilmington, Delaware, demonstrators made their way onto nearby interstates and shut them down temporarily.

In Tallahassee, Florida, a pickup truck drove through a crowd of protesters, sending some running and screaming as the vehicle stopped and started and at one point had a person on its hood, police said. No serious injuries were reported.

In Columbia, South Carolina, a television reporter for WIS-TV was injured by rocks thrown amid protests outside the Columbia Police Department.

People jump out of a window at a Starbucks store during a protest on Saturday in Philadelphia (Matt Rourke/AP)

In Los Angeles protesters chanted Black Lives Matter, some within inches of the face shields of officers.

Police used batons to move protesters back and shot rubber bullets to scatter the crowd. One man used a skateboard to attempt to break the windshield of a police SUV. A spray painted police car burned in the streets.

Meanwhile, Mr Trump fired off a series of tweets taunting protesters and praising the Secret Service, who used shields and pepper spray to push back people gathered to protest Mr Floyds death and the presidents response.

Mr Trump tweeted he had watched from inside the White House as officers let the protesters scream & rant as much as they wanted, but whenever someone . got too frisky or out of line, they would quickly come down on them, hard  didnt know what hit them.

Mr Trump said if the protesters had managed to breach the White House fence, they would  have been greeted with the most vicious dogs, and most ominous weapons, I have ever seen.

The US president ended the last of five tweets by saying, Tonight, I understand, is MAGA NIGHT AT THE WHITE HOUSE???

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz fully mobilized the states National Guard and promised a massive show of force to help quell unrest that has grown increasingly destructive.

The situation in Minneapolis is no longer in any way about the murder of George Floyd, Walz said. It is about attacking civil society, instilling fear and disrupting our great cities.

The Pentagon has ordered the US army to put military police units on alert to head to the city on short notice, at President Donald Trumps request, insiders said.

Protesters hold signs as they march during a protest over the death of George Floyd in Chicago on Saturday (Nam Y. Huh/AP)

Criminal charges were filed on Friday morning against the white police officer who held his knee on the neck of Mr Floyd, a black man who was handcuffed at the time. However, this has done nothing to stem the widespread anger.

Derek Chauvin, 44, has been charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.

Chauvin was also accused of ignoring another officer who expressed concerns about Mr Floyd as he pleaded that he could not breathe, while Chauvin pressed his knee into his neck for several minutes.

Mr Floyd had been arrested on suspicion of using a counterfeit twenty dollar note at a store.

Philadelphia police restrain a man during the Justice for George Floyd Philadelphia Protest on Saturday (Matt Rourke/AP)

An attorney for Mr Floyds family welcomed the arrest, but said he expected a more serious murder charge, and wants the other officers arrested, too.

After a tumultuous Friday night, racially diverse crowds took to the streets again for mostly peaceful protests in dozens of cities on Saturday. The previous days protests had also started calmly before many descended into violence.

The massive crowds involved, with many people not wearing masks or practising social distancing, raised concerns among health experts about the potential for the spread of the coronavirus.

Hundreds of people were arrested Friday, and police used batons, rubber bullets and pepper spray to push back crowds in some cities.

Many departments reported officers were injured, while social media was awash in images of police using forceful tactics, throwing protesters to the ground, using bicycles as shields, and trampling a protester while on horseback.
Hundreds of Philadelphians filled the city streets on May 30 to protest police brutality and the death of George Floyd.

Floyd, an unarmed black man, was taken into police custody after police suspected him of using counterfeit currency at a convenience store in Minneapolis. Floyd died while in police custody, with a viral video circulating online showing his last moments. In the video, now-former police officer Derek Chauvin was seen kneeling on Floyds neck for several minutes. Chauvin, who has since been fired, is being charged with manslaughter and third-degree murder.

Protests in Philadelphia began at noon, with a kneel-in around City Hall. At 2 p.m., the local Black Lives Matter group had a protest by the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Both of these protests were peaceful. Later, protesters made their way down to North Broad and Vine streets, where police vehicles were stomped on, vandalized and set ablaze. Other police cars were sent on fire by City Hall.

Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw reported that 13 police officers have been injured, WPVI-TV (6abc) reported.

Protests in Philadelphia on May 30, 2020. Julia Hatmaker | jhatmaker@pennlive.com

A statue of former mayor Frank Rizzo, a controversial city figure and former police commissioner, was covered in paint. Windows for several buildings, including TD Bank and City Hall, were smashed. A Starbucks in Dilworth Park was set aflame. Looting occurred on Chestnut and Sansom streets.

Protests in Philadelphia on May 30, 2020. Julia Hatmaker | jhatmaker@pennlive.com

While some protesters were violent, others made concentrated efforts to keep the movement peaceful. You can see what one hour of the protests looked like in the Facebook Live below. Please be warned though that the video does include profanity.

Philadelphia was just one city where protests took place. In Harrisburg, protesters had a violent clash with police.

8 May 30 protest

READ MORE:

Violent protests over George Floyds death spread beyond Minneapolis

National Guard called to Minneapolis as protests against George Floyds death continue

Eagles Carson Wentz comments on death of George Floyd: Institutional racism in this country breaks my heart and needs to stop

Barack Obama calls for justice after protests over George Floyds death in police custody

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Over 200 people rallied Saturday in Gage Park for the protection of Black lives.

The Hamilton protest comes on the heels of high-profile, police-involved deaths in both Canada and the United States. Some of the ensuing protests in the U.S., turned violent.

Shouting slogans of No justice, no peace and Black Lives Matter, protesters wore face masks and followed physical distancing guidelines while making their message heard along Main Street East near the Hamilton Childrens Library.

People denied the organizers were on scene and asked attendees to be safe and leave in pairs avoiding the police who monitored the situation from afar.

Also Saturday, thousands of people took part in a rally in downtown Toronto. Similar protests are planned for Halifax later Saturday and Montreal on Sunday.

A Minnesota police officer is now facing a murder charge in the death of George Floyd, a Black man caught on film pleading for air as an officer knelt on his neck.

And Ontarios Special Investigations Unit is looking into the death of Regis Korchinski-Paquet, who fell from the balcony of a 24th-floor Toronto apartment while police were in the home on Wednesday.

Attendees observe a minute of silence for people who have died in actions with the police during rally Saturday in Gage Park. The Hamilton Spectator
As protests quickly flipped from peaceful to fiery in more than two dozen U.S. cities, President Donald Trump said little Saturday about the frustrations that drove thousands of people to crowd into downtown streets in the middle of a pandemic. Instead, the president defaulted to his usual style of leadership: tearing people down and talking tough.

"Mayor Jacob Frey of Minneapolis will never be mistaken for the late, great General Douglas McArthur [sic] or great fighter General George Patton," Trump tweeted Saturday of the Democrat whose city was in flames. "How come all of these places that defend so poorly are run by Liberal Democrats? Get tough and fight (and arrest the bad ones). STRENGTH!"

Trump blasted demonstrators who had confronted Secret Service agents outside the White House as "professionally managed so-called 'protesters' " who "were just there to cause trouble." And he seemed to savor a confrontation, tweeting that "Tonight, I understand, is MAGA NIGHT AT THE WHITE HOUSE???"

There was no talk of uniting the country and, hours later, only brief mention of those protesting racial injustice, police brutality and the killing by a white police officer of a black man, George Floyd, in Minneapolis. Even then, Trump maintained the strategy he has used throughout his tenure, emphasizing the nation's divisions and seeking to capitalize on them.

"We support the right of peaceful protests and we hear their pleas, but what we are now seeing on the streets of our cities has nothing to do with the memory of George Floyd," Trump said after watching the SpaceX launch in Florida. "The violence and vandalism is being led by antifa and other radical left-wing groups who are terrorizing the innocent, destroying jobs, hurting businesses and burning down buildings."

In the absence of presidential leadership, and with crowds gathering yet again Saturday night, members of Congress, governors and mayors need to step up, said Princeton University historian Julian Zelizer.

"If some leaders don't offer a prospect of change in the next few days, that sense of hopelessness we're seeing on the streets just gets worse," said Zelizer, who studies the 1960s and '70s, a period of similar social and economic upheaval when divisions over race and class exploded into riots.

"Good leaders cannot separate themselves from the turbulence," Zelizer said. "If they're silent, or if they're too distant, it just adds to the frustration people feel."

There is no magic formula for averting a long, hot summer of street violence and social discord, of raging flames and physical confrontations. Through several nights of intensifying protests following Floyd's death on Monday, few moments have offered any promise of a healing connection. Rather, the people Americans have chosen to take charge in times of crisis have more often left a leadership vacuum - such as the remarkable absence of police and public officials on the streets of Minneapolis in recent days.

A rare exception came on Friday night in Atlanta. As fires burned and angry crowds banged up against lines of police officers, the city's police chief, Erika Shields, waded into a clot of protesters and listened to their grievances.

Shields told the protesters that bad cops must be "weeded out and fired before they can choke somebody." She told them again and again, "I'm with you." She gently touched their arms.

"I'm standing here because what I saw was my people face to face with this crowd, and everybody's thinking 'How can we use force to defuse it?' And I'm not having it. I'm not having it," Shields told the crowd. "You have a right to be upset and be scared and to want to yell."

Demonstrators thanked the chief, held her hand and cried to her about their fear for their children's lives.

By contrast, the lack of evident leadership on the streets of Minneapolis on Thursday and Friday nights - a source of wonderment among TV commentators across the ideological spectrum - led to the sense that no one was in charge. Businesses burned to the ground. The nation watched on live TV as crowds looted liquor stores and other shops, with no pushback from the authorities.

Minnesota officials seemed to speak of everything but a constructive path forward. Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Democrat, who represents Minneapolis, posted a video saying that "we can't ask our community to be peaceful if we continue to not deliver justice for them."

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, denounced the protests, calling Friday's violence "a mockery of pretending this is about George Floyd's death or inequities or historical traumas to our communities of color."

The sight of demonstrators breaching and setting fire to the Minneapolis police department's 3rd Precinct station on Thursday became a symbol of the government's loss of control. Frey, the city's first-term mayor, said he ordered police to abandon the station.

"The symbolism of a building cannot outweigh the importance of life, of our officers or to the public," he said.

But Lucy Gerold, who spent 31 years with the Minneapolis police, the last six as commander of the 3rd Precinct, called that decision "an inexperienced and naive response" that sent the wrong message to demonstrators.

City leaders "just said OK, if we just give them the precinct, we'll feed the beast and they'll be satisfied," said Gerold, who left the department in 2014. "That's just feeding the fire. . . . I think that opened the door for the rest of it."

Probably no political gesture, speech or legislative action could have prevented this week's explosion of frustrations. But in the long, ugly history of American political street violence, the enduring images of healing often involve dramatic scenes of politicians and police who, rather than facing off against protesters, waded in for tough, painful confrontations that pointed a path toward reforms.

On the night the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., was assassinated in 1968, as 34 U.S. cities burned in riots of grief and anger, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy stepped before a crowd in an Indianapolis neighborhood already engulfed in protest. Police had declined to accompany Kennedy because the crowd was too hot.

Standing on a flatbed truck, Kennedy said to a virtually all-black crowd: "You can be filled with bitterness, with hatred, and a desire for revenge. We can move in that direction as a country, in great polarization - black people among black, white people among white, filled with hatred toward one another.

"Or we can make an effort, as Martin Luther King did, to understand and to comprehend, and to replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land, with an effort to understand with compassion and love."

Kennedy spoke that night for the first time in public about the killing of his brother, the president. "For those of you who are black and are tempted to be filled with hatred and distrust at the injustice of such an act, against all white people, I can only say that I feel in my own heart the same kind of feeling. I had a member of my family killed, but he was killed by a white man."

The president at that moment, Lyndon Johnson, made no such gesture as U.S. cities burned. He felt betrayed, believing that by winning historic civil rights laws, he had done more for the country's black population than any president in decades.

Trump, too, has perceived the week's violence through the prism of his own political status. Retweeting a list of top Minnesota politicians, all Democrats, he wrote, "Time for a change!"

On Saturday afternoon, Trump urged the nation's mayors to "get tougher," and he dismissed protesters as "a lot of radical left bad people."

District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, whom the president had accused of failing to provide police support for Secret Service officers guarding the White House, blasted Trump on Saturday for his brand of leadership.

"We need leaders who . . . in times of great turmoil and despair can provide us a sense of calm and a sense of hope. Instead, what we've got in the last two days from the White House is the glorification of violence against American citizens," Bowser said.

The lack of a clear, consistent message helped create a sense of anarchy that fed reactions ranging from disappointment to denunciation around the world. America's rivals and adversaries jumped on the violence as proof that the United States treats its people unjustly.

Turkey's leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said that a "racist and fascist approach" led to Floyd's death and was a symbol of an "unjust order" in the United States. In Iran, people held a candlelight vigil in memory of Floyd. In China, state television broadcast a commentary contending that excessive police force "shows the deep social contradictions" in the United States.

Trump continued to talk tough; on Saturday, he reiterated an offer to make the Army available to suppress riots, saying, "We have our military ready, willing and able."

Other political leaders also made clear that the street violence was unacceptable. Atlanta's mayor directed a stirring, tough message to protesters who were setting fires on the city's streets.

"This is not a protest," said Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, a Democrat. "This is not in the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr. This is chaos. A protest has purpose. . . . You're not protesting anything running out with brown liquor in your hands and breaking windows in this city. . . . Go home!"

But there was little talk about the kinds of reforms that might at last repair relations between police and black Americans.

"That's not going to come from this president, but policing is still mostly a local and state issue," Zelizer said. "Just as we've seen with the pandemic, governors can and will step up."

The reports from blue-ribbon commission and congressional investigations produced following past rounds of urban street violence would test the strength of any bookshelf. And that process has brought changes that have reduced the use of force in many police departments, especially in big cities.

But police brutality and racial bias continue to hold explosive power as political issues, and few elected officials spend much energy confronting the problem. It's easier for some leaders to traffic in pat slogans, bashing either the police or the protesters.

Trump's use of the phrase "when the looting starts, the shooting starts" - coined by a former Miami police chief and used at campaign rallies by the 1968 independent presidential candidate, segregationist George Wallace - was a reminder that it can be all too easy to use division and discord to bolster a political following.

Wallace built a movement with overtly racist appeals in 1968, lashing out at protesters. "If any demonstrator lies down in front of my car when I'm president, that'll be the last car he lays down in front of," he said.

Richard Nixon, the Republican candidate for president that year, blasted antiwar protesters. "They call themselves flower children. I call them spoiled rotten," he said. But as the nation suffered through a summer of street violence, Nixon softened his campaign, settling for a while on a more hopeful message.

In one campaign TV ad, he summoned "the voice of the great majority of Americans, the forgotten Americans, the non-shouters, the non-demonstrators. . . . They are black, and they are white; they're native-born and foreign-born; they're young, and they're old. . . . They know that this country will not be a good place for any of us to live in unless it is a good place for all of us to live in."

In 2016, Trump adopted not Nixon's approach, but Wallace's message, the one that clicked with disaffected, frustrated white voters - a politics of grievance, featuring full-throated attacks on elites, government and the media.

Late Saturday, as the nation braced for another scary night, Trump continued his campaign, tweeting, as ever: "Fake News is the Enemy of the People!"

- - -

The Washington Post's Mark Berman contributed to this report.
After two months of lockdown, people in West Bengal are all set to step outdoors on Monday amid restriction and significantly less public vehicles.

Long distance trains, government buses, ferry services, taxis and auto-rickshaws will operate with limited number of passengers, while private bus operators on Sunday said they will remain off the streets as carrying fewer passengers would lead to losses. Buses cannot ply if passengers exceed seating capacity and all people on board must wear masks and gloves.

Local trains and metro services, which carry the maximum number of people in Kolkata and between the state capital and the suburbs, will not run. Taxis, radio taxis and auto-rickshaws have been allowed to ply with only two passengers.

ALSO READ | Unlock 1: States allow shops, markets, offices to reopen with full capacity

State government offices, which now operate with 50 per cent workforce, will have 70 per cent people from June 8. Private offices, too, can operate from June 8 with managements deciding the size of manpower, said a notification the state issued on Saturday. However, work from home should be encouraged, it added.

The lockdown has been extended till June 15 in containment zones but the state has allowed tea and jute industries, along with medium, small and micro industries and construction activities to start from Monday with 100 per cent manpower.

Shopping malls will open on June 8. Amitabh Taneja, chairman, Shopping Centres Association of India (SCAI), said, We welcome the announcement by the Union ministry of home affairs. SCAI has made a stringent set of standard operating procedure which has been submitted to the MHA as well as the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and other authorities.

ALSO READ | Lockdown 5.0: Bengal allows some relaxations; restaurants, malls can reopen

Hotels and restaurants have also been allowed to resume operation from June 8. Owners of restaurants that have bars are, however, in a dilemma as there is no official order to serve liquor. Also, the owners apprehend that few people will come in the evening since the curfew will be in force from 9 pm.

We welcome the decision. We are working on a standard operating procedure adhering to contactless dining and maintaining social distancing norms, said Shiladitya Chaudhury, co-founder of Oudh 1590, Chapter 2 and Master Dimsum, three well-known restaurants of Kolkata.

The Mamata Banerjee government had earlier divided the Red Zone into three sub-zones namely, A for affected zone, B for the buffer zone and C for the clean zone. The government has allowed relaxations in ZoneB and Zone-C in the red zones. Strict lockdown will be imposed in ZoneA.

The state has allowed indoor and outdoor activities related to television and cinema production (except for reality shows) with no more than 35 people. People from the industry said they will not start shooting till a guideline is in place.

Cinema halls and multiplexes, however, will remain closed. A prominent exhibitor, Arijit Dutta of Priya Cinema said, We told the authorities that seats can be kept vacant between patrons to ensure social distancing. If people can travel in auto-rickshaws and buses why cant cinema halls operate?

Mamata Banerjee has also announced that places of worship can open from June 1 but no more than 10 people can enter these places and there shall be no religious gatherings or festivals. Interestingly, some of the biggest and most visited temples such as the Kali temples at Dakshineswar and Tarapith will not open for at least 15 days, managing committees of these institutions said. The authorities at Belur Math, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited earlier this year, will also remain closed for at least 15 days till safety arrangements are beefed up.

Mosques too are likely to see fewer people. The West Bengal Imams Association said opening places of worship is not the priority of a government. Efforts should rather be made to open establishments that affect livelihood of people, said Mohammad Yahiya, chairman of the association.

A large section of entrepreneurs have, however, welcomed Unlock 1. Fashion designer Snehasish Bhattacharya said Darzee, his studio, will open on Monday. We will request visitors to restrict their numbers to no more than three at any given time. They must seek appointment prior to a visit. Masks are an absolute must inside the studio, he said.

Many hawkers who hail from other states have returned home. Some hawkers have already opened shops and some more will start business on Monday. But given the present scenario I doubt if customers will maintain health guidelines, said Shaktiman Ghosh, general secretary, National Hawker Federation.

Among the 200 long-distance trains that will start plying across the country, eight pairs will be run from Howrah and Sealdah stations. These include the Kolkata-Amritsar, Howrah-Jodhpur, Howrah-New Delhi and Sealdah-Bhubaneswar special trains. Passengers have to arrive at stations 90 minutes before departure and undergo screening.
After creating a menace in around 5 states, swarms of locust species have now entered Tamil Nadu. They have attacked bananas, rubber, and other crops in parts of plantation dominated districts of Tamil Nadu.

Farmers in Kanyakumari district bordering Kerala have claimed that the 'locusts' have ravaged the banana and rubber crops to a large extent.

However, the state government on Saturday said these were native grasshoppers and not desert locusts. An expert committee from the Tamil Nadu Agriculture University that conducted an inspection in Nilgiris and Krishnagiri districts found that the species which affected the crops in the districts in the Western Ghats region were local grasshoppers.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister E Palaniswami said that there were nearly 250 species of grasshoppers in the state and they don't pose any major threat to the crops. He also stated that Tamil Nadu was not a breeding ground for the desert locust.

In the last few days, coffee grasshopper, Bombay locust and the Crytacanthacris Tartarica, were spotted in Tamil, Nadu. They are a type of grasshoppers that were mistaken for the desert locust in the state.

The Tamil Nadu government has advised farmers to use bioinsecticides like neemseed oil to protect agriculture and horticulture crops.

Locusts, popularly known as ''tiddi dal'', are short-horned grasshoppers that feed on crops. So far, locusts have spread across Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and Maharashtra.

Also read: Locusts attack fear in Delhi, Mumbai: No need to panic, won't enter homes

Also read: Locust attack in India: Swarms of locusts enter Maharashtra; damage orange orchards, vegetables
What started out as a peaceful protest against police brutality and the death of George Floyd turned violent late Saturday as protesters hurled rocks and bottles at cops outside Miami police headquarters and set squad cars on fire, and officers fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the crowd.

Scenes of destruction  few injuries  on morning after Miami protest of George Floyd death

For a couple of hours on Saturday night, Downtown Miami turned chaotic, with dozens taken into custody.

Miami police officers in tactical gear began clearing the intersection between a police parking garage and Interstate 95 as several police cars on fire billowed flames and smoke. Aerial television news footage showed a group of looters ransacking Bayside Marketplace in Downtown Miami.

Miami-Dade County issued a dispersal order for anyone around the Miami Police Department and the countys government center.

If you resist arrest, you may be subject to other police action, which may include the use of less lethal munitions which could cause significant risk of injury to those who remain, Miami-Dade Police tweeted. The department said 38 people had been arrested Saturday. The charges are not yet known.

Cars burn near the City of Miami Police headquarters as during George Floyd protest in downtown Miami on Saturday, May 30, 2020.

Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez ordered a local state of emergency and a 10 p.m. curfew. Miami Mayor Francis Suarez insisted the police department was acting extremely restrained. By 10:30 p.m., Downtown Miami had largely quieted as police officers were out in full force and only a few pockets of protesters remained.

The chaos marred what had largely been a peaceful day.

The rallies unfolded as similar ones that have been held in cities across the country to protest the death of Floyd, a black man who died after a white police officer held his knee on his neck for more than 8 minutes on May 25 in Minneapolis. Video of the encounter  which showed Floyd gasping and saying he could not breathe  went viral and has sparked national outrage about police tactics.

Story continues

At 11:30pm, cops started arresting people at the Miami protests. I counted at least a dozen on this street. They knocked me over and tried to detain me too, but let me go after they saw my press badge. Seems like all protesters have been disbursed by now pic.twitter.com/InCLtROWZy  Alex Harris (@harrisalexc) May 31, 2020

Four officers have been fired. One of them, Derek Chauvin, was charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter after an autopsy concluded that he contributed to Floyds death, along with drug use and heart disease. The autopsy said that initially there was no evidence of strangulation.

Protests in some cities have turned violent, most notably in Minneapolis, where rioters looted stores, attacked officers and torched a police station. On Saturday, the states governor authorized a massive mobilization of Minnesotas National Guard to disperse nighttime crowds.

Passionate crowds gathered in cities across Florida on Saturday.

In Tallahassee, the states capital, protesters chanting no justice, no peace marched to the citys police department while a red truck with a Georgia tag plowed through the crowd. In Tampa, protesters berated police officers  and the media  but the gathering was peaceful.

In Miami-Dade County, authorities were hoping to avoid the violence and mass arrests that had played out in Minneapolis, Los Angeles and Atlanta.

A protest in Coral Gables, one of the countys more affluent towns, drew a much smaller crowd, about 100 people. The protesters had coordinated with the citys police department  which drew derision from some social-media activists.

Passing cars honked support. People cried Hands up! Dont Shoot! and Black Lives Matter at the corner of Coral Way and LeJeune Road.

Coral Gables resident London Wood, who is black, brought his 13-year-old son. The teen held up a Justice 4 George Floyd banner.

I wanted him to see this, Wood said. I wanted him to understand the fight weve been fighting for years. I hope that itll spur him to being active against these kinds of injustices throughout the rest of his life.

Johnny, at center, screams as he joins fellow demonstrators during George Floyd protest in downtown Miami on Saturday, May 30, 2020.

Coral Gables Police Chief Ed Hudak and other law-enforcement officials even answered questions from members of the crowd, and even prayed with them.

Back in Downtown Miami, the raucous crowd drew plenty of car honks and even the clank of pots and pans from residents on the balconies of the high-rise condo buildings.

The rally started about 3 p.m. at the Torch of Friendship monument at Bayfront Park, some chanting: Indict, convict, send those killer cops to jail, the whole damn system is guilty as hell! One man, shirtless in the steamy heat that approached 90 degrees, yelled out: Say his name!

George Floyd! the crowd shouted back

A few Miami police officers wearing surgical masks because of the coronavirus pandemic walked up, telling protesters they were only there to watch before backing off. Forty minutes into the protest, the crowd was spirited but peaceful. Many wore masks, although few bothered to distance themselves from each other despite the threat of the novel coronavirus.

This cant be tolerated anymore, said Jaylen Bishop, 19, of Miami. To see the system fail us time and time again is enough. Weve got to break the cycle. Ive been tired. This has been a headache seeing this over and over again.

Shortly before 4 p.m., the crowd began marching west, down Northeast Third Street, eventually ending up in front of the Miami Police Department. They held a moment of silence for Floyd. Then, they weaved back to Biscayne Boulevard and in front of the Freedom Tower, Miamis iconic landmark, and the AmericanAirlines Arena.

City of Miami Police fire tear gas at demonstrators during George Floyd protest in downtown Miami on Saturday, May 30, 2020.

Cops said they were taking a hands-off approach.

Police officers on bicycles had blocked off streets to funnel the protesters. They watched casually, interacted little and at one point rode away when surrounded at one intersection. Some marchers cursed out cops, yelling sellouts! Somebody threw a water bottle at a police car, but fellow protesters began shouting the person down.

Protesters briefly surrounded a Miami-Dade green-and-white patrol car, but mostly took photos.

Whenever there was a cop car parked in the middle of the street, [marchers] were saying dont take the bait, walk around it, said Francisco Pedro, 32, an organizer who works for Florida Majority. There was a lot of damage control within the march to make sure it was peaceful.

Eventually, the protesters marched onto Interstate 95. Traffic was shut down for more than one hour as some young men climbed atop traffic signs, and took selfies in front of graffiti-scrawled police cars.

Past 7 p.m. the interstate was cleared but a group of protesters gathered in front of the west entrance of a Miami police garage, on a side street between the building and the Interstate 95 overpass.

The crowd was largely dissipating when some men jumped atop a parked Miami patrol car. A Miami Herald photographer saw a man throw a gallon jug of water at police, even as protesters were trying to get him to stop. Soon, others were throwing rocks and other items  and officers started firing tear gas and rubber bullets.

A police officer shoots rubber bullets toward activists during a OJustice for George FloydO protest in downtown Miami on Saturday, May 30, 2020.

We showed a lot of restraint, Miami Police Chief Jorge Colina told the Herald on Saturday night. But the second someone starts hurling rocks or bricks, thats when it changes. Now its just lawlessness.

One protester insisted cops acted first. They started it first. They threw the tear gas first, said Theodros Fekade, 21.

By 9 p.m., police officers in riot gear were marching in lines around the police department to secure the streets, occasionally firing tear gas at small groups of protesters. Firefighters arrived and extinguished police cars and other vehicles that had been set ablaze.

Looters briefly ransacked Bayside Marketplace as darkness fell. Trash cans and chairs were turned over, windows smashed, clothes left on the concrete in haste. Police officers rushed in to clear out people from the mall that had largely been closed in recent months because of the pandemic.

Colina said he believes that most of the disturbances were started by outside agitators. He also said police saw one man holding a sign reading 1312, which according to the Anti-Defamation League is a skinhead slogan meaning all cops are bastards.

The chief also said undercover detectives were in the crowd taking pictures of many of them and he expects arrests to be made later.

An activist is wounded during a OJustice for George FloydO protest in downtown Miami on Saturday, May 30, 2020.

Ultimately they will be charged after the fact, Colina said. Just because you got away with it tonight doesnt mean we wont come for you.

Mayor Gimenez, speaking to WPLG-10, said the vast majority of the protesters were peaceful and he believed most of the agitators were not from Miami.

I thought I saw some smoke bombs being thrown at police officers in the city of Miami. You dont normally throw smoke bombs when youre going to a peaceful protest, Gimenez said.

Kendra Cooper said her childs father, Steve Georges, of Miami, was arrested outside Bayside. Cooper, of West Palm Beach, said they were not among the looters.

We didnt do anything, Cooper said. They grabbed everybody who was just walking.

Miami Herald staff writers Joey Flechas, Alex Harris, Sarah Blaskey and Nicholas Nehamas contributed to this report.
Lewis Hamilton has hit out at the Formula One community over a lack of racial diversity amid the George Floyd protests this weekend.

'Black Lives Matter' demonstrations are taking place around the world after Mr Floyd died having had a knee pressed into his neck for more than eight minutes while being detained by white police officer Derek Chauvin on Monday.

Hamilton, 35, who has been the subject of racist abuse during his F1 career, says he feels isolated in trying to combat racial discrimination in a sporting discipline he described as 'white dominated'.

Lewis Hamilton has hit out at the F1 community for staying silent amid the George Floyd row

Protests have been taking place across the world as part of the Black Lives Matter movement

Hamilton criticised the lack of racial diversity in his own sporting discipline on Instagram

The six-time F1 champion posted on Instagram: 'I see those of you staying silent, some of you the biggest stars yet you stay in the midst of injustice.

'Not a sign from anybody in my industry which of course is a white dominated sport. I'm one of the only people of colour there yet I stand alone. I would have thought by now you would see why this happens and say something about it but you can't stand alongside us.

'Just know I know who you who you are (sic) and I see you.'

Protests in America have seen violent clashes with police, with dozens of American cities being set ablaze, with Mr Floyd's death becoming a symbol for systemic police brutality against African-Americans.

Hamilton also called for several world leaders to educate their countries on racial principles

Mr Floyd's death came after Minnesota police officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on his head for eight minutes whilst restraining him for a non-violent crime

Mr Floyd's death on Monday has sparked protests throughout the week and has become a symbol for systemic police brutality against African Americans

Meanwhile, the UK and Europe has largely seen more peaceful protests so far.

Chants of 'I can't breathe' - the words Mr Floyd spoke whilst being restrained by Chauvin, 44 - were heard across London this weekend while protesters in Cardiff were holding placards which said, 'The UK is not innocent.'

Hamilton admits that he does not support the violent protests but urged the need to resolve racial inequality on a global level.

He added: 'I do not stand with those looting and burning buildings but with those who are protesting peacefully.

'There can be no peace until our so called leaders make change. This is not just America, this is the UK, this is Spain, this is Italy and all over.

'The way minorities are treated has to change, how you educate those in your country of inequality, racism, classism and that we are all born the same!

Hamilton (pictured middle) says he stands alone as a black F1 driver in a white dominated sport

'We are not born with racism and hate in our hearts, it is taught by those we look up to.'

The 35-year-old, who is widely-regarded as one of Britain's greatest ever sportsmen, has suffered from abuse due to the colour of his skin in the past.

His team manager at Mercedes, Toto Wolff, revealed the racist abuse he suffered as a small child still hurts today.

Wolff said last year: 'When Lewis was younger, he was the only black kid among the white kids, and I know he was racially abused on the track.

The six-time F1 champion has suffered from racist abuse earlier in his sporting career

'If, as a child, you have had to overcome abuse and discrimination, on one side it makes you a stronger personality but on the other side it also leaves scars.

'Today, Lewis has a good and mature perspective, but the scars are certainly there.'

Hamilton has recently called sport governing bodies out for not administering harsh enough punishments on offenders of racist abuse.
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In this July 17, 2019, file photo, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms speaks during a Senate Democrats' Special Committee on the Climate Crisis on Capitol Hill in Washington. Neither public rivals nor personal friends, Bottoms and Stacey Abrams spent years climbing parallel ladders from nearby outposts at Atlanta City Hall and the Georgia Capitol. A Now the Atlanta mayor and the former Georgia governor candidate find themselves at the same political intersection on Joe Biden's list of potential running mates.

(AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms urged protesters to "go home" after some shattered the glass entrance to the local headquarters of CNN, which also houses a police precinct.

"This is not a protest," Bottoms said. "This is chaos. A protest has purpose."

The mayor urged residents to vote "if you want change in America."

Bottoms cited her own experience as a mother of black children, telling protesters, "You're not going to out-concern me and out-care me about where we are in America."

Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

Claiming protesters were dishonoring the life of George Floyd and violating "the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr.," Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms on Friday condemned residents of her city who protested outside the local headquarters of CNN, which also houses a police precinct.

While most protesters were peaceful, some in the crowd of hundreds threw objects at the entrance to the CNN building, shattering the glass. Others defaced its logo.

Videos captured by local media also showed some protesters jumping on and throwing objects at police cars.

The protests began as a response to the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on Monday.

"This is not a protest," Bottoms said. "This is chaos. A protest has purpose."

"If you love our city, go home," she added.

People gather at CNN Center during a protest against the death in Minneapolis police custody of African-American man George Floyd, in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. May 29, 2020.

REUTERS/Dustin Chambers

The mayor was flanked by local musicians TI and Killer Mike, who urged their fellow Atlantans to stay peaceful.

Bottoms, for her part, said those who loved the city and it's "legacy of black mayors and black police chiefs," should just "go home."

She also cited her own experience as a mother of black children, and said the protesters weren't the only ones concerned about racism in America.

Story continues

"I am a mother to four black children in America, one of whom is 18 years old. And when I saw the murder of George Floyd, I hurt like a mother would hurt," Bottoms said. "And yesterday when I heard there were rumors about violent protests in Atlanta, I did what a mother would do, I called my son and I said, 'Where are you?' I said, 'I cannot protect you and black boys shouldn't be out today.'"

Bottoms continued, after a pause: "So, you're not going to out-concern me and out-care me about where we are in America. I wear this each and every day, and I pray over my children, each and every day."

Atlanta has itself been the scene of high-profile killings by police. In 2019, for example, a member of Mayor Bottoms' security detail, while off duty, shot and killed 18-year-old D'Ettrick Griffin. The officer was pumping gas when Griffin reportedly attempted to steal his vehicle.

Griffin's family filed a $5 million lawsuit against the city.

On Friday, Bottoms argued those upset over police brutality should express it at the ballot box.

"If you want change in America, go and register to vote. Show up at the polls on June 9th; do it November. That is the change we need in this country," she said. "We are better than this."

Have a news tip? Email this reporter: cdavis@insider.com

Read the original article on Insider




Haiti - Education : Two scenarios for the return to school





Over a hundred actors and partners in the education sector, including several former education ministers, education specialists, union representatives and leaders of socio-professional organizations, shared their ideas on strategies and mechanisms for the resumption of school activities during a videoconference on May 28 last at the initiative of Pierre Josue Agenor Cadet, the Minister of National Education and Vocational Training.



These exchanges enabled each actor to better understand the proposals and actions envisaged by the Ministry with a view to relaunching school activities by the end of the summer, if sanitary conditions allow and after the scientists' opinion on the pandemic.



Minister Cadet welcomed everyone's participation and said that no date had yet been set, speaking of planning and anticipating scenarios in order to prepare for school resumption.



Two main options that are on the table at the moment :



The first option provides for resumption on August 3, 2020 with the end of school activities on September 30. The State exams (9th AF, ENI, CEF, Bac) are scheduled between 5 and 23 October 2020. The new 2020-2021 school year would be launched in early November.



The second option rather provides for resumption on September 1st and the end of school activities to end the year on October 30. State exams, in this case, are scheduled between November 3 and November 20, 2020. The new academic year would be launched in early December.



Minister Cadet said he did not rule out other options, even a possibility for the new school year to start in January 2021.



He stressed that the objective set was to see how to end this very disrupted academic year in order to have at least 120 days of class to validate the school year. Recalling that most schools worked on average around 70 days "It therefore takes 50 more days to complete the school year, while taking into account that situations vary from one region to another and from one category of schools to another."



More nuanced, the former ministers Charles Tardieu and Paul Antoine Bien-Aime and education specialists, in particular Guy Serge Pompilus and Jean Michel Charles, who welcome this initiative of the ministry, believe that other possibilities allowing an approach should be considered. sliding to consolidate the achievements of schoolchildren over three years, the automatic transition to certain levels of basic and secondary school. According to them, focus on exam classes and not take options that could compromise the next academic year.



Other participants, Jean Luc Tondreau from UNESCO and Brice Saintil from UNICEF, mentioned the development of a comprehensive support plan for the education sector taking into account health, psycho-social aspects, canteens support for school administrators in difficulty.



At the end of the discussions, it was decided to set up two intersectoral working teams, with the participation of former ministers of education and several specialists, in order to deepen the reflections on the different options considered and to reach a consensus on the plan to revive school activities that the Ministry would adopt.



Miloody Vincent, Director of Communication for the Ministry announced other meetings to come next week under the chairmanship of Minister Cadet who intends to maintain this permanent climate of dialogue in order to find solutions together to the problems of the sector.



HL/ HaitiLibre


















The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) in Jigawa State, on Sunday, confirmed the death of one of its members, Nasir Adam, from coronavirus complications.

The deceased Mr Adam was aged 36.

The NMA chairperson in the state, Nura Basirka, told journalists in Dutse that Mr Adam died of acute respiratory disease which was later confirmed as COVID-19 following the outcome of the test result.

Until his death, Mr Adam was the Medical Officer in the Department of Internal Medicine, Federal Medical Centre, Birnin Kudu, Jigawa state, Mr Basirka said.

Late Mr Adam born in Jos, Plateau State, in 1984. He attended primary and secondary schools in Jos and graduated from Ahmadu Bello University Zaria in 2012. He did his housemanship at the Federal Medical Centre.

PREMIUM TIMES had reported how 29 health workers contracted coronavirus and recovered from the virus in Jigawa.

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) on Saturday announced 553 new infections across Nigeria with Jigawa having five cases, bringing the total confirmed cases in the state to 270.

The NCDC also confirmed 12 additional deaths across the country. It did not mention the state(s) where the deaths occurred. However, a government statement in Jigawa said one of the deaths was recorded in the state. Two of the deaths were recorded in neighbouring Kano State, officials said.

The Kano State Ministry of Health on Saturday announced that the two deaths brought the total fatalities from the virus in the state to 43.

The Ministry of Health in its late Saturday tweet also said the state has discharged eight additional cases of COVID-19, as total discharged now stands at 200.

Kano has so far recorded 951 COVID-19 cases.
Egyptian prosecutors renewed on Sunday the detention of an underage Egyptian TikToker known by the alias Menna Abd El-Aziz and six others for 15 days pending investigations into the young girls sexual assault claims, a judicial source said.

Abdel Aziz, 17, was arrested on 26 May. Prosecutors accused her of inciting debauchery and forging an online account, rights group Egyptian initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), whose lawyers represent the girl, said on Sunday.

The public prosecutors office said in a statement Saturday that some of the defendants raped Abd El-Aziz, while others sexually assaulted, beat and robbed her.

The prosecution said that Abd El-Aziz will be examined by a forensic pathologist to determine how her injuries were sustained and to what extent she was sexually assaulted.

The prosecution did not disclose in its statement the details of the incident, merely describing it as painful.

EIPR has called for the immediate release of Abdel Aziz, saying that prosecutors should have dealt with her as a victim and a rape survivor rather than a defendant.

Last week, Abd El-Aziz said in a live Instagram video that one of her friends had raped, beaten and injured her. She added that the person also filmed the incident without her consent.

She claimed that three of her female friends conspired with the alleged rapist to assault her, and then one of these female friends uploaded a video of part of the incident online.

In her video, Abd El-Aziz pled for help from the government.

Abd El-Azizs video went viral, sparking a lot of controversy on social media, with some people claiming that the alleged rape victim deserved what happened to her due to what they described as her inappropriate behaviour and social media posts, while many others came to her defence, saying that rape is a crime regardless of the victims behaviour.

In a series of videos and social media posts, the assailants mentioned in Abd El-Azizs video denied her claims, accusing her of stealing a mobile phone and claiming that she had sex with the alleged rapist consensually.

Later, Abd El-Aziz appeared in an Instagram video with her alleged rapist where she said that she has made up with him, asserting that people were trying to drive a wedge between them".

The prosecution said in its Saturday statement that Abd El-Aziz was pressured by the family of one of her attackers to announce on social media that she had reconciled with him.

The defendant [Abd El-Aziz] has admitted to committing some crimes that she could be punished for; however, the young minors harsh socioeconomic conditions led her to commit such crimes, the prosecution said.

The prosecution added that Abd El-Aziz was driven into a dangerous life in which she met with the rest of the defendants who assaulted her.

According to Article 267 of the Egyptian penal law, the crime of sexual intercourse with a female without her consent is punishable by death or life imprisonment.

The article also says that the perpetrator can face the death penalty if the victim has not reached the age of eighteen, or if the perpetrator was the victims kin, guardian, wage servant, had authority over her, or if multiple perpetrators committed the crime.

Article 268 of the penal law stipulates that sexual assault is punishable by a minimum prison sentence of seven years and a maximum of life imprisonment.

The prosecution said this case, and other cases that it has investigated recently, warns of imminent dangers to the youth of this country that are reaching them through cyberspace.

It added that this cyberspace is not subject to any monitoring, under fake slogans falsely calling for freedom of expression.

It urged parents and officials to not turn a blind eye to things that are spreading lewdness among the youth under calls for liberalisation.

This is not the first time that the public prosecutors office has attacked social media and warned of what it perceives as moral dangers targeting the youth in the unsupervised cyberspaces.

In late April, two female TikTok influencers were arrested for immorality.

On 14 May, TikTok influencer Mawada Eladhm was arrested and charged with violating the Egyptian familys values and principles.

Eladhm, who has 3.1 million followers on TikTok, became famous for posting lip syncing and dance videos.

On 21 April, 20-year-old Haneen Hossam, also a TikTok influencer with over 1 million followers on the app, was arrested and charged with "inciting debauchery and immorality" through posting videos on the app.

Hossam was charged for a video in which she was recruiting women to join a group she created on short-video sharing platform Likee, with the purpose of promoting the platform in return for payment.

Two days after she was released on EGP 50,000 (approximately $3,000) bail on 7 May, a Cairo court accepted the general prosecutions appeal against the order, and ordered the renewed 15-day detention of Hossam, who has been detained ever since.

TikTok is a Chinese social media application in which users typically share short lip syncing, dance and comedy videos. According to a report by the technology news website The Verge in April, the application has been downloaded over 2 billion times.

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The World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) has released a set of guidelines to aid the recovery of the global tourism sector from blows dealt by the COVID-19 pandemic.

With the pandemic sweeping through the corners of the world and hurting economies as well, travel agencies and hospitality companies have been badly hit, with many grounded.

Depending on when travel restrictions are lifted, the United Nations specialised agency has warned that international tourist arrivals could fall by between 60 and 80 per cent.

This puts an estimated 100-120 million jobs at risk and could lead to about $1.2 trillion loss in exports, experts say.

The UNWTO, on its website, said the guidelines aim to support governments and private sectors across the globe to recover from the unparalleled crisis.

According to the Secretary-General, UNWTO, Zurab Pololikashvili, the guidelines were produced in consultation with the Global Tourism Crisis Committee and in partnership with Google.

They are to help governments and businesses restore confidence in the sector as the world embraces innovation and digital transformation of the sector.

These guidelines provide both governments and businesses with a comprehensive set of measures designed to help them open tourism up again in a safe, seamless and responsible manner.

They are the product of the enhanced cooperation that has characterised tourisms response to this shared challenge, building on knowledge and inputs from across the public and private sectors and from several UN agencies as part of the UNs wider response, Mr Pololikashvili said.

Suggested protocols

The new guidelines focus on priority areas such as international border management, cross-cutting measures in the private sector, safe air travel, hospitality, tour operators and travel agencies, destination planning and management.

The guidelines highlight the importance of restoring the confidence of the travelers through safety and security protocols designed to reduce risks in each step of the tourism value chain.

The protocols include the implementation of check procedures where appropriate, including temperature scans, testing, physical distancing, enhanced frequency of cleaning and the provision of hygiene kits for safe air travel, hospitality services or safe events.

Innovation key

The guidelines also highlight the opportunity to foster a digital transformation of destinations, companies and employees with new initiatives.

These include free online training with the UNWTO Online Academy and the implementation of apps such as the Hi Card to improve international interoperability at the airports and hotels.

Underscoring the role of technology in promoting social distancing in hotels and tourist destinations, Mr Pololikashvili said the UN agency will work with Google to promote digital learning and online skills training so as to provide new opportunities across the global tourism sector.

We are thrilled to be working more closely with Google, he added. The past weeks have highlighted the enhanced role technology plays in our lives and furthering the digital transformation of tourism will make the sector more resilient and create opportunities for people all around the world.
vineet updhyay By

Express News Service

DEHRADUN: Uttarakhand Tourism Minister Satpal Maharaj, his wife, son, daughter-in-law and former minister Amrita Rawat has tested positive for COVID-19.

The state government on Sunday said that the cabinet ministers including the Chief Minister will be tested for the viral infection and be quarantined.

Madan Kaushik, a state cabinet minister said, "The decision will be taken in accordance with guidelines soon. The ministers those attended the cabinet meeting will be quarantined."

Total 42 including staff, family members and close to the family of the minister were quarantined in All India Institute of Medical Science, Rishikesh to make sure they do not come in contact with any other person.

All these 42 people live in the minister's residence including his family, staff and followers.

After the news of the cabinet minister and his family members testing positive came to light, the decision was taken to test the whole cabinet, said, government officials.

CLICK HERE FRO COVID-19 LIVE UPDATES

Apart from two cabinet ministers, all the members including CM attended the cabinet meeting on May 29.

As the news of the minister and others testing positive came out, panic gripped the state government officials and almost every one of them refused to come on record to comment on the matter.

"The design about how to go public about this will be taken soon. A statement will be issued in this regard," added a senior government official on the condition of anonymity.

Uttarakhand registered 105 new positive cases on Sunday taking total tally in the hill state to 907. As cases continue to rise in the state, senior government officials denied community spread in the hilly state.

Maharaj, who had attended a meeting of the state cabinet on Friday last, and the rest of the family have been home quarantined at their residence in the city.

Rawat's swab sample report confirming that she is COVID-19 positive arrived from a private lab late on Saturday evening, the minister's OSD Abhishek Sharma said.
Jane Rosen began yelling sometime in April. By May, it had become routine. The incidents usually occur near her minivan, which she parks alongside Central Park in New York City.

As she attempts to enter or exit the vehicle, a cyclist or a runner will whiz by, so close she can practically smell them.

"I scream, 'Where is your mask?,'" said Rosen, 73.

Her daughter warned her that these confrontations could end badly. But it feels worth it, she said, because lives are at stake. She's had about 18 such confrontations. The figure would be higher, she said, if she ventured out more often.

Melissa Mayen, a high school senior in Washington, D.C., had also been avoiding going outside. Then, in mid-May, she set out for a ride for the first time in nearly a month.

She was startled when a man, walking across the street, yelled something about a mask.

"I almost fell off my bike," she said.

She owns one mask, which her father brought her from a construction site where he works. Aside from the fact that it's so thick that she can barely breathe in it, she tries to preserve it for higher-risk situations.

"If you are yelling at someone to wear a mask, then give them a mask," she said.

Several months into the coronavirus pandemic, battles over when to wear masks have heated up, sometimes with political alliances replacing health guidelines.

And few activities seem to have incited more debate than exercise: walkers, cyclists, runners, skaters  everyone seems to have contradicting interpretations of the science and etiquette around how to behave outside.

First, let's get to the rules:

Runners are required to wear masks, right?

Not necessarily. When cities and states started urging people to wear masks to reduce transmission of the coronavirus, some made exceptions for exercising. Carry a mask, many seemed to say, but if you're by yourself on an empty street, you don't have to wear it.

New York City explicitly states that face coverings are not required while walking, running or biking, if you can keep your distance. Likewise, San Francisco has urged runners to carry a mask and put it on when they are near other people.

Since mid-May, Los Angeles has required residents to put on a face covering upon leaving home. But masks are not required while running and biking so long as distance is maintained  though they should be carried, the county and city later clarified.

In Boston, an elevated heart rate is no excuse not to cover your nose and mouth.

"You need to be wearing a face covering when you're out exercising," Mayor Marty Walsh said in April.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends wearing cloth face coverings in public settings "where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain," but offers no specific guidance on exercising.

Why can't runners just wear masks?

It can be really hard to run in a mask.

Many runners are put off by how challenging it is to inhale as their heart rate rises. It can be much more difficult than walking in a mask.

"It's harder to breathe, and it's a lot more clammy," said Gaston Ly, a store manager at Running Room in Honolulu.

Others forgo one because, even as the virus spreads, masks have not been widely adopted in their communities.

"Oh gosh no!" said Larry Holt, the owner of Ken Combs Running Store in Louisville, Kentucky, when asked if runners there wore masks. "That's the craziest thing I've ever heard of in my life."

(In Kentucky, Gov. Andy Beshear asked residents to begin wearing masks in public May 11. Like officials elsewhere, he made an exception for people exercising alone.)

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

Even in Hong Kong, a city so committed to face coverings in public that it has been widely praised as a model, there is little expectation that runners will wear masks, said Brian Woo, a founder of a running group there.

"I assume it's just understood that running is not a time for wearing masks," he said.

Still, there's evidence that runners should wear masks, right?

There is no scientific consensus around the importance of wearing a mask while exercising, primarily because so little relevant research has been completed.

Researchers do agree that masks slow the spread of the virus. They also agree that it's best to avoid exercising within 6 feet of anyone beyond your immediate household and that working out is less risky outside than inside.

Donald Milton, a professor of environmental health at the University of Maryland School of Public Health who has studied masks' ability to block respiratory droplets, suggests their value depends on location.

"Outdoors is relatively safe, and masks would only be important if you are exercising in crowded areas or indoors in space shared with other people," he said.

How could a runner or biker infect me?

It would most likely occur while you were stopped talking to them, said Julian Tang, a virologist and a professor at the University of Leicester in England. He thinks the risk of infection from quickly passing someone is low, because the "massive air volume will dilute any exhaled virus and the wind may carry it away."

In general, researchers agree that air circulation outdoors seems to strongly inhibit transmission of the coronavirus. In a study of more than 7,300 coronavirus cases in China, just one was connected to outdoor transmission.

What about sweat?

Stranger sweat is disgusting. But it's not among the bodily fluids that the CDC warns transmits the coronavirus.

What about spitting?

Spitting is not only disgusting but also dangerous, as saliva can contain viral droplets. Runners, cyclists, skaters, walkers  don't do it! (Or at least not around others.)
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-31 15:04:44|Editor: huaxia

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CHICAGO, May 30 (Xinhua) -- Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has imposed a curfew on the U.S. third largest city Saturday evening, as protests there over an African American's death in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Monday have escalated.

At a news conference on Saturday evening, Lightfoot said as the demonstration had "evolved into criminal conduct," she decided to impose a curfew on the city from 9 p.m. Saturday (0200 GMT Sunday) to 6 a.m. (1100 GMT) Sunday until further notice.

Violators will be given a chance to disperse before arrested, Lightfoot said, and the order exempts essential workers.

After intense skirmishes overnight, which led to 108 arrests, protests in Chicago on Saturday escalated. Thousands of demonstrators marched in downtown Chicago, burning at least one flag, climbing onto a bus and a light pole, hurling bottles, overturning police cars, and surrounding officers, local media reported.

"I've seen protesters hurl projectiles at our police department ... bottles of water, urine and Lord knows what else," Lightfoot said. "I want to express my disappointment and really, my total disgust at the number of others who came to today's protests armed for all-out battle."

"We can have zero tolerance for people who came prepared for a fight and tried to initiate and provoke our police department," she added, but ruling out calling in the National Guard.

Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown said at least one officer had "broken bones," and several others suffered less serious injuries.

Several buildings had been vandalized, windows broken, and the police responded with pepper spray and "arrests to prevent looting," he said.

George Floyd, a 46-year-old African American, died Monday after Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was captured on video pinning Floyd down by his neck for eight minutes. Protests erupted in Minneapolis in the following day and quickly spread across the United States.
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Coronavirus infections are spreading in warehouses run by online commerce companies Coupang and Market Kurly. The surge at Coupang's warehouse in Bucheon has also spread to a nearby call center.

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Health authorities said Wednesday that a call center worker who tested positive for the virus had contracted it while working at the Coupang warehouse in Bucheon last weekend. He developed a sore throat and cough and told the company before isolating himself. He tested positive on Tuesday.

The call center is eight times the size of the one in Guro in southern Seoul where 166 employees tested positive earlier this year.

Bucheon city officials set up a test center on the roof of the call center to check all staff.

The number of confirmed infections traced to workers at the Coupang warehouse has risen by 49 in just one day to 63. Health authorities believe the 1,300 workers at the warehouse came into close contact without wearing masks in the cafeteria and smoking areas.

Some 1,523 people including staff from suppliers are being tested, so the number of cases is expected to rise even more.
Australia would welcome an official invitation to the Group of Seven (G7) nations and there has been contact on the matter between the prime minister and the United States, a government spokesman said on Sunday.

"The G7 has been a topic of recent high-level exchanges," the spokesman said in an emailed comment. "Australia would welcome an official invitation. Strengthening international cooperation among like-minded countries is valued at a time of unprecedented global challenges."

U.S. President Donald Trump said he would postpone a G7 summit he had hoped to hold next month until September or later and expand the list of invitees to include Australia, Russia, South Korea and India.

U.S.-Australia ties have been strong, even though recent White House comments on the origins of the coronavirus outbreak have frustrated Australia's push for an independent inquiry, sources have told Reuters. The two security partners also diverged radically in their management of the pandemic.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has been so far one of the very few world leaders to pay a state visit to Washington during Trump's tenure, and both leaders have openly signalled their camaraderie.

COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine  one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show

Morrison, unlike some European leaders, has avoided criticising Trump publicly and has teamed up with the United States in its tougher stance against China, Australia's main trading partner.

Relations between Canberra and Beijing have been strained amid Australian accusations of Chinese meddling in domestic affairs and concern about what Australia sees as China's growing influence in the Pacific region.
Homebuyers may be handed thousands of dollars to build houses as the government desperately tries to stave off a construction collapse.

Construction of new homes has plummeted during the coronavirus pandemic along with most other economic activity and is feared to be slow to revive.

Home auctions and inspections have only just been allowed for the first time in more than two months and are still subject to many restrictions.

More than a million people have also lost their jobs, taken pay cuts, or fear they could be next, and are in no position to take out a mountain of debt.

Homebuyers may be handed thousands of dollars to build houses as the government desperately tries to stave off a construction collapse that would cost many jobs

Despite already spending well over $300 billion on coronavirus stimulus packages, the Federal Government is tipped to splash more cash to tackle this.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg could announce a scheme to help pay deposits for anyone building new homes, Sky News claims.

Grants of up to $10,000 have at various times been offered by the states, but only to first homebuyers struggling to own their first property.

The government's plan is instead believed to be across the board, for anyone constructing a new home.

As Australia's population grows it needs more housing supply to avoid running out, so it is hoped giving an incentive to build will jump-start construction.

House prices would skyrocket if there was not enough ongoing construction, as well as thousands of jobs potentially lost.

Home auctions and inspections have only just been allowed for the first time in more than two months and are still subject to many restrictions

Registered bidders line up for the auction in Coorparoo, Queensland, after restrictions were relaxed there, but the industry still faces a long road back

Shadow Treasurer Jim Chalmers cautiously welcomed the claimed plan but wanted to see the details before giving it any support.

'Already, before the crisis, construction was relatively weak and homeownership was at 60-year lows, so we had a challenge there,' he said on Sky News.

'That has been exacerbated by this coronavirus crisis. In two or three months, we are very worried that construction will fall off a cliff and that's why we have been making very constructive suggestions about what the government might do.

'We want to make sure that their plan is comprehensive, and we hope that they pick up and run with some of the ideas that (Labor has) put on the table.'

As Australia's population grows it needs more housing supply to avoid running out, so it is hoped giving an incentive to build will jump-start construction

Construction of new homes has plummeted during the coronavirus pandemic along with most other economic activity and is feared to be slow to revive. Pictured is a house at Toongabbie in Sydney's west

Dr Chalmers also suggested a program to help essential workers move closer to where they worked.

The claimed new stimulus appears similar to a proposal by the Property Council of Australia to give every buyer of a newly-built home $50,000.

Under the $2.5 billion proposal, 50,000 new homes will be built and more than 200,000 jobs created.

The proposed 'new home boost' initiative would be limited to the first 50,000 purchases and run between July 2020 and June 2021.

WHAT IS THE 'NEW HOME BOOST' PROPOSAL? - $50,000 grant to all purchasers of newly constructed dwellings only, not existing housing - Potential to stimulate the construction of 50,000 new dwellings, supporting 200,000+ jobs - Grant scheme limited to the first 50,000 purchasers, including lessees of new retirement living units, with these to be geographically spread - Approximately $2.5billion of Federal funding required to stimulate - No pricing cap  the aim is to bring forward all possible market demand and stimulate the greatest economic response - Scheme would require commencement on site between 1 July 2020 and 30 June 2021 only Property Council of Australia Advertisement

The PCA also wants stamp duty scrapped and foreigners welcomed back to Australia to buy more properties.

Chief executive Ken Morrison said 'big and bold thinking' was needed to restart the economy after the pandemic.

'As Australia's biggest employer which contributes over 13 per cent of GDP, the property industry can be a powerhouse behind economic recovery and growth with the right policy settings and market incentives from the federal, state and territory governments,' he said.

The PCA also proposed a 'Welcome to Australia' program aimed at promoting Australia as a 'safe and healthy destination' for skilled workers.

The government already has a scheme in place to guarantee first homebuyer deposits, allowing them to get a mortgage with just a five per cent down payment.

The program was a key part of Prime Minister Scott Morrison's election campaign and was already maxed out in the first few months of this year.
As the youngest and one of the newest Vista school trustees, Cipriano Vargas is a leader in the districts efforts to modernize education, and also a watchdog for its most vulnerable students.

Were going ahead with personalized learning, but we need to make sure we do it right, keeping in mind the needs of our (English as a second language) and special education students, so they dont get left behind, he said.

It wasnt long ago that Vargas, one of nine children in a migrant worker family, was learning English in Vista schools himself. The first-generation college student who became the first student from Cal State San Marcos to be named a trustee to the state university systems board in 2012. Last fall, Vargas came full circle to become an elected official in the school district he attended as a boy.

I want to make systemic change here and help our community here, because this is where I grew up, he said.

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Although Vargas is new to the position, Interim Superintendent Matt Doyle said he adapted quickly to the role.

Our theme this year as a school district is students at the center, Doyle said. I believe Cipriano is a really good example, having been a student in Vista Unified his whole school career starting in kindergarten, and through graduation.

Vargas, 25, was born in Vista, the fourth of nine children. His father worked in the strawberry fields in Fallbrook, and the family moved frequently within the community  renting small apartments or staying with friends, he said. Starting in elementary school, Vargas participated in Migrant Education, a federally funded program that provides support services to students whose parents labor in agriculture.

Through the program he received school supplies, went on field trips and had home visits with instructors who helped him and his siblings bolster their academic skills. They visited a pumpkin patch one year and went on a camping trip  rites of passage for many kids, but novel experiences for Vargas, whose parents were struggling to make ends meet.

Over time, through after-school services, thats where I saw Cipriano become aware of his skills, said Dolores Valdes Benson, a program specialist in the Migrant Education Program. That is where he became aware that he had a story to tell, a message to convey. Despite his humble disposition he speaks with confidence and with passion.

Most important, Vargas said, was a migrant education conference at Cal State San Marcos, which opened the door to higher education.

For the very first time, I said to myself, I want to come here, he said. Sure enough, four years later, I started as a freshman.

The journey was marked with obstacles, though, and there were times when he thought of turning back. Vargas grew up in a Spanish-speaking family, and took English as a Second Language classes until his freshman year at Vista High School, when he transitioned to mainstream classes. Although he was then proficient in English, Vargas said he lacked confidence in his speaking skills and shied away from speaking in public.

Being an English learner had an impact, he said. I would get nervous, start to stutter, lose my train of thought. I would avoid having to present if I could. Looking back, thats part of the process of being an English learner.

By his junior year, he adjusted to high school and joined Future Farmers of America. Through the campus organization, he raised goats and pigs for livestock competitions, developed his public speaking skills and came out of his shell.

True to his plan, he enrolled at Cal State San Marcos after graduation. As soon as he started, though, he had doubts. He hadnt learned to budget money or manage his time. During his first semester he squeezed in a full academic schedule with a 30-hour-a-week job, with unsuccessful results. His grades plunged and he landed on academic probation.

Its times like that when you question yourself, he said. Do I belong here?

Then Vargas encountered the College Assistance Migrant Program, (CAMP) which provides academic support to U.S. citizens or legal residents who are children of migrant farm workers. It offered a lifeline to the overwhelmed freshman.

He was like a sponge, he wanted to know everything  what resources are out there, what can I use? said CAMP director Minerva Gonzalez. And he worked diligently to make sure he remained on this campus, to make sure that he graduated.

Vargas volunteered to speak to other migrant students and families, and in 2011 he traveled to Washington D.C. to speak to congressional offices about the program, said Patricia Wilcox, a coordinator with Migrant Education. He not only explained the program, but also defended it to staff members who were skeptical of its value.

It made him stronger, and realize I need to represent my community and not just tell my story,  Wilcox said.

Meanwhile Vargas pursued a degree in sociology and womens studies, worked as a peer mentor for CAMP, and became vice president for Associated Students Inc. and campus president for MEChA, the Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan.

In 2012, Gov. Jerry Brown named Vargas as one of two student trustees who serve two-year terms on Board of Trustees for the California State University system, making him the first CSUSM student to hold that position.

That role was a crash course in topics such as budget, tuition, enrollment, campus facilities and graduation rates.

I was getting information right and left, learning data, learning numbers, Vargas said.

He held that position until his graduation in 2014, and then joined Teach for America. He taught for three years in a dual-language kindergarten class in San Antonio, Texas. When the chance arose to run for office in the Vista school district, he returned home to win a place on the board last November. His priorities include helping at-risk students and introducing bilingual education in early grades.

Vargas approaches his role with the same solid study habits and love of learning that he employed as a student, said Carol Weise Herrera, vice president of the board.

Hes very inquisitive, she said. He doesnt make rapid decisions about things. He thinks them through, and makes sure that what he does doesnt just influence one set of students, but all students. Thats what I like about him  hes there for all kids.

Vista is in the midst of a transition to a system of personalized learning, in which students chart the course of their education, using digital tools and resources. Vista High School  Vargas alma mater  will transform to a personalized learning academy this fall, thanks to a $10 million innovation grant from XQ: The Super School Project. For Vargas, that makes his role even more rewarding.

There were things happening here that make me wish I was still a student here, and that brings me excitement, he said.

deborah.brennan@sduniontribune.com Twitter@deborahsbrennan
Last Tuesday, Governor Ralph Northam issued an order requiring Virginians over the age of 10, with a few exceptions, to wear a mask while inside public buildings and any indoor place where people congregate.

The Governor apologized for leaving his mask in the car and being unprepared for interacting safely with the public while visiting Virginia Beach. However, that little episode further solidified the idea that the governors edicts are for thee but not for me.

Masks wont solve the challenges in nursing homes, meat packing plants and high-density neighborhoods, often in low-income, minority communities, where we lack strategies for isolating individuals who have tested positively.

The science behind the mask mandate appears to be based on the best information and knowledge the state has right now about preventing COVID-19s spread. It is also mimicking other progressive governors in other states who have mandated mask-wearing.

During his Tuesday press conference, the governor said, I am not looking for people to get in trouble for not wearing a mask. But I am looking for people to do the right thing.

Then he issued a veiled threat by suggesting that when the General Assembly returns for a special session in late summer, it could consider an individual civil penalty for those who dont wear masks. Northam suggested that, for now, the mandate would be enforced by the Health Department.

This measure will pit employers and employees against customers and will put the business in a awkward and uncomfortable position of potentially refusing service and losing business.

The Virginia Chamber of Commerce issued a statement following the governors announcement which further illustrated the strange orders coming form the governors mansion.

As businesses continue to adapt to the current environment and restrictions associated with Phase One of the Forward Virginia plan, it is unreasonable to hold them accountable for the enforcement of this new mandate, which could create unsafe situations for workers tasked with confronting non-compliant customers.

The Virginia Chamber continues to strongly encourage the use of face coverings to prioritize the safety of our citizens, but is deeply concerned by the burden the enforcement of this mandate will place on the thousands of businesses throughout the Commonwealth.

The Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police asserted that the mandate was putting business owners in a no-win situation, choosing between confronting customers or receiving a citation.

Virginia Republicans objected to the order, maintaining that it is unconscionable to require businesses to enforce a government mandate under threat of sanctions from government agencies. This puts yet another burden on businesses already reeling from months of being shut down or severely limited.

The governors orders were extremely vague. They did not specify what a mask is or how it should be affixed to a persons face. This means Halloween masks and masks on a stick are all fair game for those who need to get into a store.

Northam also didnt provide Walmart, Safeway or any other store with guidance about what to do when customers arrive without face coverings. Given the politicization that has accompanied the issue nationally, I have doubts that many individuals will find the mask mandate intolerable.

Given the absence of direct guidance from the governors office, enforcement is likely to be lightand that is good. Im also hoping that any verbal confrontations that arise between the masked and the unmasked dont get out of hand. I fully support a persons right to wear a mask, or not, and I am good with whatever decision a person makes.

The bottom line of all of this is that the virus is very real, but every person must be vigilant and do what they feel is best for themselves and their families.

A Culpeper town councilman and a Republican, Jon Russell founded and is the national director of the American City County Exchange, an affiliate of the American Legislative Exchange Council. His views are his own.
By Ayya Lmahamad

Azerbaijan will resume flights to its Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic on June 8, board chairman of TABIB Ramin Bayramli said on May 29.

He stressed that number of domestic and international flights will be reduced and all of them will be conducted in accordance with certain rules. The number of passengers on board will also be limited due to the fact that a social distance between them will be observed.

As for the resumption of other domestic and international flights, there are no concrete decisions yet.

Bayramli also said that the country is discussing issuing COVID-19 passports, a document that will allow passengers to avoid quarantine in the countries of arrival.

"Implementation of COVID-19 passport in air travel is an international practice. It means that in the last days before the trip an examination for coronavirus is carried out, a negative result is noted and a special health certificate of a citizen is attached in his COVID-19 passport. However, the possibility that infection may also occur after the examination is taken into account and is being discussed. A decision on this issue will be made in the coming days. After that we will start implementing this passport", - he said.

Azerbaijan first introduced special quarantine regime on March 24 and the fourth stage of quarantine regime easing came into force May 31.

As of May 31, Azerbaijan has registered 5.246 COVID-19 cases and 61 coronavirus- related deaths so far. The total number of recovered patients is 3.327.

--

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
On Friday, James Dailey (pictured in mugshot) was denied a new trial by a judge in Florida

A Florida judge has denied a new trial for an elderly death row inmate who was convicted of killing a 14-year-old girl in 1985 - despite another man confessing to the grisly murder.

Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Pat Siracusa on Friday denied the latest efforts from James Dailey, 73, to prove his innocence in the death of young Shelly Boggio.

Dailey's attorneys previously sought to introduce new evidence to the case that would reportedly exonerate him, including a confession from co-defendant Jack Pearcy.

Boggio was found stabbed and drowned in the water off Indian Rocks Beach more than 30 years ago. Pearcy and Daily were both convicted of first degree murder in separate trials.

Pearcy is serving a life sentence while Dailey is on death row after the jury declined to recommend a death sentence in Pearcy's case.

The Tampa Bay Times reports Dailey's defense obtained a signed statement from Pearcy, 64, in December that read: 'James Dailey had nothing to do with the murder of Shelly Boggio. I committed the crime alone.'

Both Jack Pearcy, 64, (left) and James Dailey, 73, (right) were convicted in the 1985 murder of Shelly Boggio in St. Petersburg, Florida

Shelly Boggio was found stabbed and drowned in the water off Indian Rocks Beach more than 30 years ago. Pearcy and Daily were both convicted of first degree murder in separate trials

He signed a similar statement in 2017 admitting his guilt.

But in a March court hearing, Pearcy refused to testify and instead professed his own innocence. He's reportedly given inconsistent statements about his involvement in Boggio's murder.

Judge Siracusa determined on Friday that there was no admissible evidence for a new trial and Dailey's death penalty sentence would stand.

Josh Dubin, Dailey's lead defense attorney, said in a statement: 'Unfortunately, the trial court ruled today that it could not consider the overwhelming evidence of Mr. Daileys innocence, including Jack Pearcys repeated confessions that he committed the murder alone, because of its view concerning a number of technical legal requirements.'

'We respectfully disagree with the Courts ruling and will continue to fight for justice for James Dailey. He did not murder Shelly Boggio.

James Dailey, 73, pictured at the time of his arrest, was originally scheduled to be executed on November 7 last year but a federal court gave defense lawyers more time to make their case after his co-defendant, Jack Pearcy, 64, said he was solely responsible for the death

In September, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ordered Dailey's execution for November 7, but a federal judge later approved a stay of execution to give Dailey's attorneys more time to research the case.

A new execution date for Dailey has not been scheduled yet.

Dailey currently has an appeal pending with the US Supreme Court in another effort to halt his execution.

In 1987, Dailey was sentenced to death row over the killing of Boggio two years earlier in St. Petersburg.

Authorities said that Dailey, Pearcy and one other man met Boggio while she was hitchhiking with her twin sister in May 1985.

After a night of drinking, Dailey and Pearcy took Boggio to a deserted fishing area.

Court documents said Boggio had been beaten, choked, stabbed 31 times and held underwater until she died.

Her body was later found near the Walsingham Road bridge near Indian Rocks Beach one morning.

When Pearcy was arrested in Kansas, he told detectives that Dailey was the one who stabbed Boggio and held her underwater. Pearcy claimed he tried to stop the attack.

He told police the night he was arrested: 'I just want you to know that I got out of the car and tried to stop Jimmy D. from stabbing her, but when I saw it, I puked all over the place.'

In following appeals, Dailey maintained that he was innocent and that he was asleep at his home when the murder happened.

No physical evidence linked Dailey to the murder, The Times reports.

Dailey himself told the states parole commission in 2015: 'I am innocent. Jack Pearcy killed that girl, but I have no way to prove that.'

Jack Pearcy, pictured in 1987, wrote in December last year: 'James Dailey had nothing to do with the murder of Shelly Boggio. I committed the crime alone.'

Dailey was largely convicted based on testimony from three jailhouse informants, who claimed that he shared descriptive and graphic details of Boggio's death.

Paul Skalnik, one of the jailhouse informants, was notorious for snitching and testified in several cases for lenient treatment.

Earlier this year, Dailey alleged that prosecutors had committed 'a fraud on the court' by withholding key information about the star witness from the jury.

Dailey's defense attorneys allege that the star witness, Paul Skalnik, misrepresented his history of criminal charges during his testimony by failing to disclose that he had been charged with lewd and lascivious assault on a child under 14 in 1982.

The charge was later dropped as part of a plea bargain.

This had left the jury with a 'grossly distorted (diminished) understanding of Skalnik's criminal history,' they said.

Dailey denied in an interview with ABC News that he had ever had a conversation with Skalnik, much less confessed to a known jailhouse snitch.

He said: 'I never said a word to him in my life, and I had to sit there in the courtroom and listen to him just say I confessed all these horrible things to him, and I never said anything to him.'

Dailey's case has been tried twice with two different juries, but each recommended the death penalty.
Law enforcement officers in Minneapolis were caught on camera firing several paint rounds at civilians standing on their own property in an effort to enforce the city's curfew.

Cell phone footage shows what appears to be an armored truck rolling down a residential street while nearly two dozen officers and law enforcement march behind.

The police were reportedly patrolling the Whittier neighborhood during the volatile George Floyd protests on Saturday and attempting to enforce the new curfew.

Nearly two dozen law enforcement officers were seen patrolling through a Minneapolis neighborhood during the George Floyd protests Saturday

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey on Friday imposed a mandatory nighttime curfew for residents citywide after three nights of protests over the death of George Floyd.

The curfew prohibits anyone from being in public spaces between 8pm and 6am this weekend.

In the video, several members of law enforcement can be heard screaming 'go inside now' to direct residents off of the streets.

Tanya Kerssen, the woman who captured the incident, and at least one other person were watching the scene unfold from the front porch of a home.

Although Kerssen and other witnesses were standing on private property, authorities zeroed in their curfew campaign on them.

Although the witnesses were at a private residence, officers fired several paint rounds at them on Saturday night

Right before officers unleashed paint rounds on the civilians, a cop yelled 'Light 'em up!'

After yelling at the witnesses to go inside several times, one officer instructs the group to 'light 'em up.'

At least two officers appear to begin to fire several rounds of paint projectiles at the group.

Kressen and the group rush inside while law enforcement is still yelling from outside.

No one appeared to sustain any serious injuries.

Of the event, Kressen wrote on Twitter: 'Share widely: National guard and MPD sweeping our residential street. Shooting paint canisters at us on our own front porch. Yelling light em up.'

According to Frey's current order, the curfew does not extend to private residences.

It states: 'A nighttime curfew is imposed on all public places within the City of Minneapolis, including streets...during curfew hours, all persons must not travel on any public street or in any public place.'

None of the people in the video appeared to be on the street.

Following Floyd's death, all four officers pictured in cell phone footage of the incident were fired from the Minneapolis Police Department

The National Guard said in a statement to Fox 9 that their soldiers were not present during this incident.

'The enforcement officers in this tweet are not members of the Minnesota National Guard,' they said.

DailyMail.com has reached out to the Minneapolis Police Department, Gov. Tim Walz and the Minneapolis Department of Public Safety for further comment.

Derek Chauvin (pictured in his mugshot) has been charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter

The arrival of the National Guard comes as Minneapolis, and several other cities across the country, launch protests against police brutality and systematic racism in law enforcement.

Last week, cell phone video showed Floyd, handcuffed and pinned to the ground, with one police officer - Derek Chauvin - kneeling on his neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds.

Two minutes and 53 seconds of this was after Floyd was unresponsive.

Floyd, 46, is heard pleading: 'I can't breathe', as he is arrested by four cops for allegedly using a counterfeit $20 bill at a convenience store. He later died at a local hospital.

Outrage sparked across the country and Minneapolis Mayor Mayor Jacob called for Chauvin to face criminal charges.

All four officers involved were subsequently fired. On Friday, Chauvin was was officially charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter over Floyd's death.

Protests have since popped up in several US cities, including Minneapolis, New York City, Atlanta, Phoenix, Columbus, Washington D.C., Los Angeles and Philadelphia.

On Saturday, demonstrations erupted across the US as police cruisers were torched, buildings burnt and ongoing clashes with police

At least three people were killed during demonstrations and dozens more were injured.

In Minneapolis, protesters were seen fleeing after cops hurled tear gas into the crowds while some responded by launching fireworks back at officers.

Pictured: People run during a demonstration against the death in Minneapolis police custody of African-American man George Floyd in Minneapolis

Several protests have launched across the United States over the death of George Floyd

The National Guard was activated to defend the White House from attack as the Secret Service agents on the ground struggled to keep control of crowds descending on the seat of the US government.

The Big Apple was ablaze as NYPD vehicles were torched and ransacked while shocking footage emerged of cops violently detaining protesters.

A man was left critically injured in Dallas when he was attacked and stomped on by a group of people when he allegedly tried to defend a store with a large sword.

In Atlanta a cop suffered 'significant injuries' when they were hit by an ATV, while in Chicago, a man commandeered a police horse and rode off on it.

Los Angeles deployed the National Guard for the first since the 1992 riots when the police officers who beat up black man Rodney King walked free of all charges and California Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in LA County.

Pictured: People stand near a burning building during protests sparked by the death of George Floyd while in police custody

As some protests turned violent, city officials in Minnesota deployed the National Guard

Pictured:Raymond Curry attends a protest outside the Minneapolis 5th Police Precinct while wearing a protective mask that reads 'I CAN'T BREATHE' on Saturday

Minnesota - where Floyd died - has born the brunt of the protests which began there Tuesday before fanning out across the country.

Rioting was still going on in the early hours of Sunday, with the Minneapolis police department reporting a big group of protesters on foot and in vehicles throwing missiles of some sort at cops.

Minnesota Dept of Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell announced early Sunday there had been 'dozens' of arrests through the night but no 'substantive' injuries.

The Minnesota National Guard announced at around 10:30p.m it was sending 10,800 troops in to tackle protests Saturday night, as pleas for people to observe curfews fell on deaf ears.

The Minnesota National Guard said on Twitter it already had more than 4,100 citizen-soldiers and airmen already in the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul and was ramping it up to a staggering 10,800.

There were just 700 on duty on Friday.

People marching from Minneapolis to St. Paul were also met with tear gas from officers stopping them in their tracks and sending masses fleeing from the potent chemical.
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John Arlen Munn, Sr., 83, of Billings, passed away on May 22, 2020. John was born on Sept. 12, 1936, in Pocatello, Idaho, to Alex and Eugenia (Smith) Munn. John's parents later divorced. John lived in Pocatello, through his freshman year of high school and then moved to Cushman with Eugenia and Carol Faustine (Munn) Schaff to live on the Golden Valley Ranch, owned by his father.

Following high school, John attended Montana State University in Bozeman, obtaining his Bachelor's Degree. He then attended Texas A&M where he obtained his Master's Degree and went on to have a multitude of careers in his lifetime. John was a Grade School Teacher in the Lavina and Cushman areas, a Plant Manager at Chef Francisco, a Bakery Owner, and PSC where he was able to work into his late 70's until a debilitating stroke in 2013 made it too difficult to see his clients. No matter the job, John did it to the best of his ability.
Kentucky congressman against mandates says he has COVID-19
Belgian Prince Joachim has tested positive for the novel coronavirus after attending a party in Spain, the country's royal palace informed. Prince Joachim had travelled from Belgium to Spain for an internship on 26 May. Two days later, he went to a party in the southern city of Cordoba, before testing positive for Covid-19, the palace informed on Saturday.

Prince Joachim, the youngest son of Princess Astrid and 10th in line to the Belgian throne, is said to have mild coronavirus symptoms. He is 28 years old.

READ | Spain to mourn pandemic victims for 10 days

According to media reports the prince, a nephew of Belgium's King Philippe, was among the 27 people at the party. As per the Cordoba's lockdown rules, a party of this size would be a violation of regulations, as gatherings of no more than 15 people are currently permitted.

An investigation has been launched by the Spanish police in the matter and those found to have flouted lockdown rules will be fined up to 10,000. Everyone who attended the party is said to be in quarantine.

READ | Zinedine Zidane under scrutiny after breaking lockdown rules in Spain: Report

The party was first covered by a Spanish daily, which cited a document from the Andalucian authorities but did not name the prince. Belgian media have since confirmed with the palace that Prince Joachim is in Spain and remains in quarantine. Rafaela Valenzuela, a representative of the Spanish government in Cordoba, condemned the party, calling those who attended irresponsible.

COVID-19 situation in Spain

Spain is one of the worst affected countries in the world with its coronavirus tally at 239,228 cases of infections and 27,125 deaths, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

READ | Nissan to close Indonesia, Spain auto plants after losses

READ | Spain hospital denies finding snake in operation theatre, says there was only a monkey
Colorful sample sheets of hanji are currently on display at the Hanji Culture and Industry Center in Seoul, May 20. Various kinds of hanji are categorized by production region, use and type. Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk



HCIC aims to save struggling hanji industry



By Kwak Yeon-soo



The Hanji Culture and Industry Center (HCIC) has opened in Seoul on May 20 in a bid to promote hanji and revitalize the slumping industry of traditional Korean paper.



With over 1,000 years of history, hanji is made from the bark of paper mulberry trees and comes in different types depending on the ratio of ingredients, techniques used in screening the fiber and thickness of the paper.



Due to its strength and durability, the bark of paper mulberry was not only used for making paper but also for making shelter and items of clothing.



During the Joseon Kingdom, hanji was considered fine quality paper and was exported to China where it was sold at high prices.



In the wake of modernization and the introduction of mass produced pulp paper, however, hanji fell out of favor. As a result, there are only 19 traditional hanji workshops remaining nationwide.



"Hanji has a long history. Despite its excellence, the hanji industry is shrinking as a number of hanji workshops were pushed out of business following economic trouble," Vice Culture Minister Oh Young-woo said at an event celebrating the opening of the HCIC. "Through this center, we hope to promote hanji not only in Korea but across the globe."





An artwork made with hanji is on display at the Hanji Culture and Industry Center. Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk



The Korea Craft and Design Foundation, which runs the HCIC, plans to host regular workshops and seminars to offer a wide range of exchanges among those involved in the industry, including hanji producers, designers, craftsmen and local governments.



"We will form a network to boost the traditional hanji market," KCDF President Kim Tae-hoon said. "The center aims to function as a cultural platform where Korean traditional paper can ride the hallyu wave and increase its presence overseas."



On the first floor, visitors can discover various kinds of hanji displayed by production region, use and type. Some 400 different handcrafted local hanji products from 18 traditional hanji workshops are currently on display. The center offers samples from the 14 sunji (plain hanji) workshops and four colored hanji workshops, and visitors are allowed to examine and compare the distinct textures of hanji made in different parts of the country.









The production technique does not vary that much, but water and climate, such as wind, humidity and temperature, lead to differences in the texture of the paper made in each region.



"Although we don't sell hanji at the center, we provide visitors with detailed information on the weight, size, production and price of hanji, as well as relevant sales outlets," HCIC official said. "That is to support purposes ranging from conservation of cultural properties to printing handicrafts and interior applications."





Handicrafts made with hanji are on display at the Hanji Culture and Industry Center where visitors can discover new uses or art forms of Korean traditional paper. Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk



On one side of the room, handicrafts made with hanji are on display where visitors can discover new uses or art forms of Korean traditional paper.



On the basement floor, there is a space where both specialists and the general public can hold forums, workshops and seminars on hanji. There is also a small lab where visitors can study modern applications of hanji.



Hanji makers from different regions gathered at the hanji center on the opening date to discuss the current state and future prospects of the hanji industry.



Kim Bo-kyung, CEO of Fides International, pointed out that hanji is a latecomer compared with paper from Japan and Southeast Asian countries. Fides International is a company that exports handmade hanji products to the U.S. and European markets.



"Hanji is of high quality, but due to lack of promotion, it has failed to appeal to global buyers. We need to aggressively participate in international craft trade fairs and exhibitions in order to familiarize potential customers with hanji," she said.



According to Kim, the Library of Congress in the U.S. started using hanji to preserve its cultural assets in 2003. Leading restorers of Italy and France have also praised hanji for how suited it is for use in restoring cultural assets.



Kim added that it can also be used for restoration projects in Korea. "One way to protect and preserve hanji is to increase its usage in restoring our own cultural properties such as palaces and temples," she said.



Meanwhile, hanji makers expressed concerns about the shortage of apprentices and the lack of interest of the younger generation.



"Hanji makers are growing old, and many of them have no one to pass on their skills to. Over the last 25 years, the number of workshops fell from more than 100 to around 20," Jang Seong-woo, CEO of Jangjibang hanji workshop located in Gapyeong, Gyeonggi Province. "I expect that within the next 10 years, less than 10 hanji workshops will survive."





A hanji archive where visitors can get access to detailed information about different types of hanji and the raw materials used for its production is situated in the basement of the Hanji Culture and Industry Center. Courtesy of HCIC
Britons dreams of heading back to Benidorm or the Canary Islands have been dashed as Spains tourism minister demands the UK government improves its coronavirus situation before its tourists can return.

Maria Reyes Maroto said British tourists will not be among those participating in a proposed trial for allowing tourists back into the country.

The first tourism test-run is due to take place in two weeks, ahead of the reopening of Spanish borders to holidaymakers from July 1.

The pilot 'action plan' will require tourists to undergo PCR coronavirus tests at the airport and then remain isolated for six hours in their hotels to await the results.

The latest news from Spain comes as the British government faces increasing pressure to scrap its scheme forcing all travellers arriving in the UK to spend 14 days in quarantine.

Brits hopes of travelling to Spain for a holiday have been dashed as the Spanish tourism minister said the UK must improve its UK record

Maria Reyes Maroto said the Spanishand regional governments had been in talks with holiday providers TUI and Jet2holidays

Tourism and aviation industries have warned the measures could scupper any hopes of economic recovery and there is now a growing number of ministers and Tory MPs demanding Home Secretary Priti Patel rethink the plans.

Mrs Reyes Maroto said tourists from Germany and the Nordic countries were the most likely to be permitted entry for the trial because their 'epidemiological situations are very good.'

The tourism minister said the Spanish and regional government were in talks with holiday providers TUI and Jet2holidays about the prospect of Brits returning to the country.

Regarding UK visitors she said: 'There the health situation still has to improve. For us it is important to guarantee that people arrive healthy and leave healthy.'

Mrs Reyes Maroto said Germany and the Nordic countries were most likely to be the first to return as beaches in usually bustling tourist towns such as Menorca (pictured) are left emptier than usual

Disco INFERNAL! Spanish nightclub bosses are furious after government says they CANNOT reopen in next lockdown-easing stage Nightclubs and discos across Spain have been told they can't open yet as the Spanish government does a U-turn on its easing of lockdown plan. Owners have likened the change of heart to 'having a jug of water thrown over us' as they will have to wait anything up to one month to reopen their doors. Nighlife Spain published extensive guidelines on how clubs and discos, especially in holiday hotspots, could deal with the crowds in a post-coronavirus era. The Spanish government made a U-turn on its decision to allow clubs to reopen in phase three of easing lockdown rules The guidance included clubbers dancing in their own squares, the compulsory wearing of masks, drinking through ecological straws and 'traffic lights' to control entrances. As many regions in the country head into phase three of easing restrictions the Spanish government had previously said clubs could open provided there were limits on capacity. But the decision was reversed yesterday even though cafes, pubs and restaurants are now open. Nighlife Spain has voiced its 'incomprehension and perplexity' at the decision and has demanded direct talks with the Ministry of Health. They want to get a new agreement before the majority of the country enters phase three from June 8th. The Spanish government hasn't explained why clubs and discos must remain closed at the moment but not all of Spain's nightlife disagrees with the decision. The Balearics asked to enter phase three without opening clubs as the islands' government did not think it was ready to do so because of the risk to health. Places allowed to open with restrictions as Spain enters phase three: Bingo halls

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The suggestion of a 'test-run' for the return of tourists to the county is yet to be approved by the government but if it does get the go-ahead Mrs Reyes Maroto said Germany and the Nordic countries were most likely to be first.

The regional government in the Balearic Islands has been pressing for the trial-run return of tourists, with plans to commence the first entry from June 16.

Also included in the proposed test-run are the Canary Islands and Mrs Reyes Maroto also has plans to incorporate areas such as Costa Blanca and Costa del Sol if the regional governments wish to be involved.

Restrictions in Benidorm and Marbella are expected to be reduced tomorrow, allowing beaches to reopen.

However, Benidorm mayor Toni Perez made the decision to keep beaches closed until mid-June.

The Balearic government has outlined a number of measures in it's pilot 'action plan' for reopening to tourists as it hopes to be one of the first regions in Spain to receive holidaymakers.

The first tourists to arrive in Mallorca will undergo PCR coronavirus tests at the airport and then remain isolated for six hours in their hotels to await the results.

It is planned to test-drive the new procedures in mid-June if permission is given to bring up to 5,000 Germans to Mallorca as a prelude to the opening of international borders and the scrapping of Spain's 14-day quarantine rule from July 1st.

According to reports in the island's press, the go-ahead has already been given by both the Ministry of Tourism and Ministry of Transport but approval is still pending from the Ministries of Labour and Health.

The Balearics, which include Mallorca, Menorca and Ibiza, have a low incidence of coronavirus deaths at 224 since the outbreak of the crisis and just over 2,000 infections.

As a result, the local government wants the islands to be treated as one of the world leaders in dealing with the aftermath of COVID-19 and how to cope with international tourism again in the safest way possible.

'The pilot plan aims to demonstrate that it is possible to allow the subsequent entry of tourists without risk into the islands from July 1st, the date on which the summer season is to start more generally, hence the inclusion of tests for detection of the disease on arrival at the islands,' says Diario de Mallorca.

Four hotels in Mallorca have offered to take the German visitors from June 16 to 30. Two of them are in Platja de Palma and two in Alcudia. It is hoped to have another one Menorca, another in Ibiza and a third in Formentera.

The experiment will also test all the coronavirus protocols, from arriving at the airport, transfers to hotels, the accommodation itself, arrangements around the swimming pools, use of the facilities, trips out and their eventual return.

President of the Hotel Federation of Mallorca, Maria Frontera said the pilot test was essential to demonstrate that the Balearic Islands are a safe destination.

It is hoped it will help pave the way for other international tourists, including from Britain when travel is allowed.

This comes after Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez put the UK at the top of his list of target countries in talks aimed at reaching bilateral 'safe corridor' swaps.

Spain has quarantined all international arrivals for 14 days since May 14 but recently announced that the country would open for tourism from July 1.

The first tourists to arrive in Mallorca will undergo PCR coronavirus tests at the airport and then remain isolated for six hours in their hotels to await the results. Pictured: A passenger arriving in Adolfo Suarez Madrid-Barajas Airport last week

People sunbathe and children play in the water in Mallorca, Spain, as the country partially eases lockdown restrictions

Home Secretary Priti Patel said new quarantine rules for travellers returning to the UK will start from June 8

Travel quarantine plan Q&A What will happen? From June 8, all travellers arriving in the UK  whether by air, land or sea  will have to fill in a form before being allowed into Britain. This will include British nationals coming home, as well as foreign visitors. You will have to provide an address where you will be staying and self-isolate there for 14 days, with no visitors and no trips outside. Officials will carry out spot checks at addresses to ensure that people comply and public health officials will also carry out random checks by phone. How will it work? Passengers will be able to complete a 'contact locator form' on the Government's website up to 48 hours before departure. There will be no paper versions of the form. Failing to complete it before travelling is a crime. However, the scheme has been criticised because checks for the forms will only be done at random, meaning some people could slip through the net. Will anyone be exempt? Yes. Haulage workers, medics who are helping to fight the virus and some seasonal agricultural workers. A full list will be published on the Government's website. This applies to foreigners from all countries, except Ireland, in order to protect the Common Travel Area. How long will these restrictions be in place? Home Secretary Priti Patel described them as 'temporary health restrictions' but, in reality, they will be in force for as long as coronavirus remains a threat possibly for many months. However, there is a glimmer of hope for tourists wanting to go abroad in that the scheme will be reviewed every three weeks. So the restrictions could be lifted in time for the high season if the virus is kept under control. Transport officials are also talking to other EU countries about the possibility of 'air bridges', which would allow the measures to be dropped for visitors returning from these places. Portugal, Spain and Greece have all expressed interest in creating these bridges at some point in the future. Advertisement

There has been debate over whether Britons should be allowed to holiday in Spain after the Home Secretary Priti Patel announced that anyone who arrives into the UK after June 8, including returning Britons, will have to self-isolate for 14 days or face fines of 1,000.

Patel has faced criticism from the tourism and aviation industries over the new quarantine rules.

Many now believe the scheme will launch as expected in just over a week's time before then swiftly being 'knocked on the head' and replaced with a more nuanced approach at the end of June.

Ministers at the Treasury, the Department for Business and the Department for Transport are all now said to be pushing for the scheme to be dramatically overhauled.

The restrictions, which include the threat of unlimited fines if people breach self-isolation, are due to be in place indefinitely but will be subject to a review every three weeks.

Some ministers believe imposing quarantine on travellers returning to the UK from parts of the world with a smaller outbreak than Britain is illogical.

A cross-party group of 40 MPs, including former transport secretary Chris Grayling, has been set up to push for the measures to be relaxed.

However, Whitehall sources told MailOnline that changes would only be made to the quarantine measures when the science on the spread of the disease allows it.

Optimism among MPs that the scheme could be rapidly rethought is shared by some in the tourism industry.

They believe the rules will be relaxed in July at the same time that the Government could move to ease restrictions to allow the reopening of hotels and other leisure facilities.

The period between April and September is key for the hospitality sector with one source saying the industry does now have 'quite advanced plans to safely open in July'.

They added: 'The danger is that if no one is allowed into the country without spending two weeks in quarantine it simply won't be economically viable for them to do so.'

The travel industry also lambasted the rules, labelling them as 'ineffective and unenforceable' given that those travelling to the UK from Ireland were exempt from the rules.

It means flyers can first travel into Dublin and then either jet into the UK or get a bus across the border with Northern Ireland, avoiding the self-isolating rules.

Airlines prepare for major return to the skies with over 160,000 flights in July as UK government looks set to ease quarantine measures on international arrivals... while Spain and Greece warn Britons will NOT be welcome

By Luke May for MailOnline

Airlines are plotting a major return to the skies come July, amid growing speculation that the government will ease its quarantine measures for international arrivals - but two summer hotspots may not allow Brits to visit.

British Airways, EasyJet and RyanAir have announced thousands of redundancies after the coronavirus lockdown grounded most of their flights in March.

But as domestic lockdown measures ease, companies are now scheduling more than 160,000 passenger flights from July, with room for 29.5million passengers, according to The Sunday Telegraph.

Heathrow Airport has been empty in May compared to previous years, but airline companies are now planning a return to service in July, should quarantine measures be eased

Home Secretary Priti Patels quarantine plan, which from June 8 will require anyone entering the UK to self-isolate for two weeks, appeared to torpedo Britons hopes of a European summer holiday.

But there are rumblings the government could change its plan when the quarantine is reviewed on June 29.

A senior industry source told The Telegraph: 'The sense is that they might quietly do a U-turn after the first review period. Grant Shapps [Transport Secretary] is against quarantine, the Treasury are against it, Beis is against it and DCMS hate it.'

RyanAir flights have been grounded as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, but its owner Michael O'Leary thinks the government could scrap quarantine rules by the end of June

Flights for July are scheduled, which means they are subject to change if lockdown measures are not eased. But there are hopes the government could decide to allow travel to certain summer holiday favourites, such as France, Spain, Greece, Italy and Germany.

Britain does not feature on Greece's list of 29 countries it has deemed safe enough to accept tourists from. However it is reviewing the list at the end of June.

Brits may still be able to visit during the last two weeks of June, but they will be subject to mandatory testing on arrival and a period of quarantine depending on the results.

British Airways, which has announced up to 12,000 redundancies, is scheduling flights for July in the hope passenger numbers will start to increase

Spain's tourism minister Maria Reyes Maroto has said the Britain's infection rate 'still has to improve,' before it will begin to allow visitors, according to The Mirror.

Spain is set to reopen its borders fully on July 1. Speaking to Spanish media about the possibility of Brits visiting beforehand, the senior Spanish minister said: 'There the health situation still has to improve.

'For us it is important to guarantee that people arrive health and leave healthy.'

In an interview with The Mail on Sunday, RyanAir boss Michael OLeary predicted quarantine rules for passengers would be quietly dropped or formally withdrawn by the end of June because they wont work.

He said: You can fill up your arrival card as Mickey Mouse, 1 Walt Disney Street, London SW22  theyll take the cards and off you go. So its a complete shambles.

The Home Office, Border Force and police will all tell you quietly, and off the record, it [quarantine] is completely unimplementable.

According to The Sunday Telegraph, RyanAir is hoping to ramp up flights to at least 40 per cent of its usual July schedule, while EasyJet hopes to run 30 per cent of its timetable from July to September.

British Airways, which has announced up to 12,000 redundancies as a result of the coronavirus crisis is also expected to return.

The Airport Operators Association says it is waiting for government guidance on how flights can travel safely with the correct social distancing measures in place.

A spokesman told the Sunday Telegraph: 'Once these guidelines are agreed and given that they are based on a common European baseline, this puts in place the right conditions for opening up air bridges to low-risk countries.'

When asked if July holidays could be a possibility for Brits earlier this week, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: 'I absolutely wouldn't rule it out, we've got to proceed cautiously, we've seen what happens when this virus gets out of control and we have as a country managed to get it back under control and protected the NHS.'
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I am sure that even those who were not big fans of Sonu Soods movies have now become his diehard fans during the lockdown. And why not? The man has been a literal Godsend for those people who have been stranded across the country and have been unable to reach home.



From migrant labourers to working women, Sonu Sood has been hard at work in ensuring he can help as many people as he can in getting home safe and sound.

However, the recent case in which Sood stepped in to become someones personal superhero has left everyone in awe of him.

On Sunday morning, the actor was tagged by a woman in a Tweet with a link to a video, showing an old woman sitting alone at the Bandra station after she had been abandoned by her own son.

@SonuSood sir please have a look at this video of a lady who is thrown out by her son for whom she came from Delhi to Mumbai. PL Sir I'm requesting you drop her somewhere she can be safe, bcoz her son from Delhi doesn't allow her to enter the home, the Tweet read.

https://t.co/zDWB5EDWpd @SonuSood sir please have a look at this video of a lady who is thrown out by her son for whom she came from Delhi to Mumbai. PL Sir I'm requesting you drop her somewhere she can be safe, bcoz her son from Delhi doesn't allow her to enter the home  Divya Gupta (@dg1994194) May 31, 2020

Soon enough, she received a reply from Sonu Sood himself, who assured her that it was going to be a special day for the old mother.

Today will be a special day for her  https://t.co/qKExYavsB5  sonu sood (@SonuSood) May 31, 2020

And given how active and selfless the Bollywood star has been with regards to helping out people during the lockdown, we have no doubts that he will personally ensure the safety and security of this poor, old mother.

Naturally, people on Twitter wasted no time in showering Sonu Sood with praises and hailing him for his self-sacrificing attitude towards the needy:

Sonu Sood ji apki goodwill k baare me kuch kahna apka apmaan hoga,kyuki apki achhai ko kahne k liye shabd kosh me shabd hi nahi hai,pata nahi aap tak meri posts pahunchati bhi hai ya nahi,i really salute you sonu ji  Amit Bhardwaj (@AmitBha78353028) May 31, 2020

In our country run through prime minister, minister, chief minister, ias office, etc ..but all are failed to understand about people problem .one man who understood the problem .and help those in problem..salute to you .i feel that we dont need government .  goutam (@goutam34166062) May 31, 2020

                            l  Anshul Aggarwal (@bindaasdelhi) May 31, 2020

Lots of  and respect to you...!

I cant understand how people become so cruel to an extent that they abandon their own parents.  Sumi Kala (@sumi_kala) May 31, 2020

Sonu sir aap jo bhi jaise bhi bs itna yaad rakhna dil ek hi hai lekin ise bhi aap puri jindgi ke liye jit chuke ho  NiteshnpMishra1995 (@NMishra1995) May 31, 2020

In case you are not aware, this is not the first time the actor has personally responded to a request on Twitter to help someone out. Why, yesterday alone, he replied to at least 10 tweets assuring them of help:

                         https://t.co/74tMOtQr8p  sonu sood (@SonuSood) May 30, 2020

Ask them to wait. Their phone will ring tomorrow.. no more walking on foot by anyone ever. . Atleast ...as long as my twitter handle exists  https://t.co/Ln0t9XjhH2  sonu sood (@SonuSood) May 30, 2020

Tomorrow she will be at her desired destination.  https://t.co/1ARDyxawkc  sonu sood (@SonuSood) May 30, 2020

Details bhejo. . Karta hoon kuch https://t.co/n0a2uxNYwp  sonu sood (@SonuSood) May 30, 2020

Well, these are just some of the Tweets he responded to. If I posted each and everyone in this article, you would keep scrolling for days!

Goes without saying, Sonu Sood is the messiah for the needy in this country right now and once all this is over and the dark days are behind us, the entire nation must do something to show this man their appreciation.

God bless you, Sonu Sood!
The United States has delivered two million doses of a malaria drug to Brazil for use in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, and the two countries are embarking on a joint research effort to study whether the drug is safe and effective for the prevention and early treatment of Covid-19, the White House announced Sunday.

The White House announcement comes after months of controversy over the drug, hydroxychloroquine, which President Trump has aggressively promoted, despite a lack of scientific evidence of its effectiveness as a treatment for Covid-19. Mr. Trump stunned public health experts recently by saying he was taking a two-week course of the medicine.

The donated doses will be used as a prophylactic to help defend Brazils nurses, doctors and health care professionals against infection, and will also be used as a therapeutic to treat Brazilians who become infected, the White House said.

Hydroxychloroquine is widely used for the prevention of malaria and for treatment of certain autoimmune diseases including rheumatoid arthritis and lupus, and many doctors consider it safe. But the Food and Drug Administration has warned that it can cause heart arrhythmias in some patients, and the debate over its use in the coronavirus pandemic has been politically fraught.
Read The Stars live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic here. This story is no longer updating.

5:45 p.m.: Federal and provincial officials in Saskatchewan say customers of a Walmart in North Battleford earlier this month should watch for symptoms of COVID-19 after a visitor to the store tested positive for the virus.

The Saskatchewan Health Authority says in a news release that it and Indigenous Services Canada are notifying residents of North Battleford and area that the person was at the store on May 21, and was likely infectious at the time.

They're saying anyone who was at the store between noon and 2 p.m. that day should immediately self-isolate if they experience COVID-19 symptoms, and call authorities to arrange for testing.

5:12 p.m.: Ontarios regional health units are reporting another 381 new COVID-19 infections, according to the Stars latest count.

As of 5 p.m. Sunday, the health units have reported a total of 29,586 confirmed and probable cases, including 2,328 deaths, as the daily counts have fallen from a spike that saw the totals above 400 cases per day most of last week.

In May, the growth of new infections has not been felt equally in the province. The daily numbers have been falling outside of the GTA. Meanwhile, new cases inside the region have remained relatively high.

Sundays tally included 150 new cases in Toronto and 139 more in Peel Region; together, the two health units accounted for more than three-quarters of the provinces new infections.

According to a provincial database of COVID-19 cases, nearly 80 per cent of the 3,783 Ontarians with an active case of COVID-19 reside in the GTA, with nearly 85 per cent of those in living in Toronto or Peel Region.

In many parts of the province, only a handful of patients still have an active illness. Eighteen of Ontarios 34 regional health units  including all six in Northern Ontario  have fewer than 10 active cases.

Meanwhile, the 12 fatal cases reported in the province since Saturday evening represented the lowest single-day total since April 5. The rate of deaths has fallen considerably since peaking at more than 90 in a day in early May, about two weeks after the daily case totals hit a first peak in mid-April.

Because many health units publish tallies to their websites before reporting to Public Health Ontario, the Stars count is more current than the data the province puts out each morning.

Earlier Sunday, the province reported Ontarios COVID-19 testing labs completed 17,014 tests Saturday, marking the third consecutive day above the target total of 16,000 daily.

The province also reported 781 patients are now hospitalized with COVID-19, including 118 in intensive care, of whom 90 are on a ventilator  numbers that have fallen sharply this month. The province also says nearly 22,000 patients who have tested positive for the coronavirus have now recovered from the disease  about three-quarters of the total infected.

The province says its data is accurate to 4 p.m. the previous day. The province also cautions its latest count of total deaths  2,247  may be incomplete or out of date due to delays in the reporting system, saying that in the event of a discrepancy, data reported by (the health units) should be considered the most up to date.

The Stars count includes some patients reported as probable COVID-19 cases, meaning they have symptoms and contacts or travel history that indicate they very likely have the disease, but have not yet received a positive lab test.

5:06 p.m.: Public Health officials in New Brunswick are reporting three new cases of COVID-19 near Campbellton  in the north of the province  bringing to 12 the number of cases in a local cluster being blamed on a local doctor.

Dr. Jennifer Russell, the provinces chief medical officer of health, says the three new cases Sunday and one reported Saturday are all seniors at the Manoir de la Vallee in Atholville, a long-term care facility, and are all reported directly related to the outbreak in the area.

Last week, a health-care worker at the facility also tested positive. The outbreak began after a local doctor contracted the virus in Quebec and returned to New Brunswick, and then failed to self-isolate. The incident has been referred to the RCMP for review.

4:01 p.m.: Toronto Public Health provided updated local COVID-19 totals on Sunday, including 150 new cases and five new deaths. The number of active cases crept up to 1,905 from 1,899.

The total number of deaths listed for the city is now 823.

1 p.m.: Eighteen residents of Woodbridge Vista Care Community were transported to hospital on Saturday night after testing positive for COVID-19, York Region said.

York Region spokesperson Stephanie Crowley confirmed that paramedics transferred the 18 patients from the long-term-care home near Steeles Avenue and Martin Grove Road to hospitals outside York Region. Crowley did not specify the conditions of the patients.

To date, 80 residents and 20 staff have tested positive for COVID-19 at Woodbridge Vista Care Community, according to provincial figures. Twelve have died.

12 p.m.: The Ontario government is asking for Ottawas help to expand broadband internet access for students as schools remain closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

On Sunday, in a letter to the federal government, Education Minister Stephen Lecce and Infrastructure Minister Laurie Scott requested immediate, urgent support to address gaps in broadband access in areas of rural and Northern Ontario.

While most residents in Ontario have access to the internet, the speed, quality, and cost vary significantly across the province, the ministers wrote.

Existing internet connectivity gaps prevent many elementary and secondary students from accessing the same learning made available to all other Ontario students, affecting education equity.

The letter states that, according to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, every Canadian should have an internet connection with access to broadband speeds of at least 50 Mbps download and 10 Mbps upload and access to unlimited data.

The Ford government has committed to spend $315 million in the next five years to expand broadband access province-wide, and is asking the federal government to help speed up the effort of bringing almost 3,000 schools across the province, including 99 in Northern Ontario, online.

11 a.m. Ontarios regional health units are reporting a total of 29,227 confirmed and probable cases, including 2,316 deaths.

The total of 314 new confirmed and probable cases reported since the same time Saturday morning was down from the previous day, as the daily totals continue to fall from a spike that saw the health unit totals above 400 per day most of last week.

The Sunday-morning tally includes the 123 new cases in Toronto and 114 more in Peel Region reported Saturday afternoon; together, the two health units accounted for nearly three-quarters of the provinces new infections.

According to a provincial database of COVID-19 cases, nearly 80 per cent of the 3,783 Ontarians with an active case of COVID-19 reside in the GTA, with nearly 85 per cent of those in living in Toronto or Peel Region.

In many parts of the province, only a handful of patients still have an active illness. Eighteen of Ontarios 34 regional health units  including all six in Northern Ontario  have fewer than 10 active cases.

Meanwhile, the 18 fatal cases reported in the province since Saturday morning were below recent days. The rate of deaths is down considerably since peaking at more than 90 deaths in a day earlier this month, about two weeks after the daily case totals hit a first peak in mid-April.

Because many health units publish tallies to their websites before reporting to Public Health Ontario, the Stars count is more current than the data the province puts out each morning.

Earlier Sunday, the province reported Ontarios COVID-19 testing labs completed 17,014 tests Saturday, marking the third consecutive day above the target total of 16,000 daily.

The province also reported 781 patients are now hospitalized with COVID-19, including 118 in intensive care, of whom 90 are on a ventilator  numbers that have fallen sharply this month. The province also says nearly 22,000 patients who have tested positive for the coronavirus have now recovered from the disease  about three-quarters of the total infected.

The province says its data is accurate to 4 p.m. the previous day. The province also cautions its latest count of total deaths  2,247  may be incomplete or out of date due to delays in the reporting system, saying in the event of a discrepancy, data reported by (the health units) should be considered the most up to date.

The Stars count includes some patients reported as probable COVID-19 cases, meaning they have symptoms and contacts or travel history that indicate they very likely have the disease, but have not yet received a positive lab test.

11 a.m. When Kathryn Butler Malette learned her younger sister was diagnosed with COVID-19, she was confronted with a waking nightmare: that her beloved sibling might die alone.

While Ontarios government has said facilities can allow end-of-life visits, Butler Malette said she was told the Ottawa-area long-term-care home where her sister lives didnt want to chance it, given the magnitude of the outbreak they were experiencing.

Experts and insiders say that palliative care, which focuses on comfort, has become less of a priority during the COVID-19 pandemic, primarily due to visitor restrictions and even bans born out of staffing shortages and a need to limit exposure to the virus. But some say its time to loosen those restrictions and find a balance between keeping everyone safe and allowing dying patients to say goodbye to their loved ones.

Butler Malette would have done anything to be able to be with her sister through her sickness, worn any personal protective equipment, taken any precautions, she said  especially if her sister were to have reached end of life.

It didnt get that far  after a few dips, Butler Malettes sister has recovered, though the two have yet to be reunited  but the predicament is playing out in long-term care homes and hospices across the country, said Sharon Baxter, executive director of the Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association.

While many provinces are loosening their policies on visiting dying family members, Baxter said, the facilities caring for patients are not always following suit. She said its time for that to change.

Were wanting to call attention to the issue that we could do much better with compassionate protocols. And now that things are starting to loosen up ... nows the time for us to look at, can we provide PPE for family members? she said. Can we make sure that family members can get in and say their goodbyes?

She said that during this crisis, palliative care has been put on the back burner.

9 a.m.: Pope Francis cheerfully greeted people in St. Peters Square on Sunday, as he resumed his practice of speaking to the faithful there for the first time since a coronavirus lockdown began in Italy and at the Vatican in early March.

Instead of the tens of thousands of people who might have turned out on a similarly sunny day like in pre-pandemic times, perhaps a few hundred came to the square on Sunday, standing well apart from others or in small family groups.

Until June 3, people arent allowed to travel between regions in Italy or arrive from abroad for tourism, so the people in the square came from Rome or places in the region.

Noting this was the first time he could greet people in the square for weeks, Francis said that one doesnt emerge from a crisis the same. You either come out better or you come out worse. He said hed be back to greet them next Sunday in the same place at noon, smiling and pointing down to the vast square far below his studio window.

8 a.m.: India reported more than 8,000 new cases of the coronavirus in a single day, another record high that topped the deadliest week in the country.

Confirmed infections have risen to 182,143, with 5,164 fatalities, including 193 in the last 24 hours, the Health Ministry said Sunday.

Overall, more than 60 per cent of the virus fatalities have been reported from only two states  Maharashtra, the financial hub, and Gujarat, the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The new cases are largely concentrated in six Indian states, including the capital New Delhi.

There are concerns the virus may be spreading through Indias villages as millions of jobless migrant workers return home from cities during the lockdown. Experts warn that the pandemic is yet to peak in India.

7:45 a.m.: Russia reported 9,268 new cases of the coronavirus on Sunday, the first time in a week that the daily tally exceeded 9,000, but the lowest death toll in several days: 138.

Overall, Russia has recorded 405,843 cases and 4,693 deaths from COVID-19. The relatively low mortality rate compared with other countries has prompted skepticism domestically and abroad.

7 a.m.: Ontarians who rely on prescription medication will hopefully see an onerous COVID-19 precaution lifted by the end of June.

A 30-day limit on prescriptions was brought in by the Ontario government in the early days of the pandemic in an effort to prevent drug shortages. Spokespeople for Ontarios seniors community and the provinces pharmacy industry say they expect the limitation will be lifted within the month, returning to the usual 90-day maximum by July 1.

Its been a difficult policy, said Justin Bates, the chief executive officer of the Ontario Pharmacists Association. We stand by the policy, we think it was the right thing to do, but I think everybodys hopeful that we can get back to 90 days and to a normal cycle of quantity.

Saturday, 7 p.m. Ontarios regional health units are reporting 320 new COVID-19 infections, according to the Stars latest count.

As of 5 p.m. Saturday, the health units had reported a total of 29,212 confirmed and probable cases, including 2,316 deaths. The daily counts have fallen from a spike that saw totals above 400 cases per day most of last week.

Saturdays tally included 123 new cases in Toronto and 114 more in Peel Region; together, the two health units accounted for nearly three-quarters of the provinces new infections.

According to a provincial database of COVID-19 cases, nearly 80 per cent of the 3,933 Ontarians with an active case of COVID-19 reside in the GTA, with nearly 85 per cent of those in Toronto or Peel Region.
If you ever wanted a snapshot of how suffocating the lockdown has become, consider the answer of Anna Nolan, the Irish star of the original series of Big Brother, when asked if she'd care to reminisce on it. "At this stage, if you wanted me to sing the theme tune and wear a chicken outfit, I would, just for social contact," she says.

You know things are bad when it's getting rough for someone who once spent 64 days and nights cooped up with 10 strangers in the full glare of TV cameras. Anna, after all, is able for levels of claustrophobia that would kill an ordinary mortal. She is, all things considered, better equipped to deal with a pandemic than Kate Winslet in Contagion.

While some of us are struggling to put up with our parents or partners, Anna dealt with a group of fame hungry randomers, some of whom were "more irritating than you can imagine".

If Big Brother taught her anything, she says, "it was how to endure boredom well. There are so many ways around it. You have to try to achieve something small each day. They could be the tiniest of tasks, like doing a few lunges or going for a walk. And I learned to remember no matter how bad things get, you will always feel slightly different the following day".

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When we imagined a pandemic, we probably thought it would be something suitably apocalyptic, like 28 Days Later. Instead, it turns out it has resembled an often tedious, occasionally riveting, reality show which aired 20 years ago this summer. Like nothing else before it, Big Brother showed what happens when human beings are subjected to industrial levels of cabin fever.

It proved that sometimes the best drama, the rat-in-a-maze sensationalism, happens when people are cooped up together all day and all night. It was a documentary on the craziness and petty domestic disputes that come with lockdown, a soft porn soap opera with moral dilemmas thrown in.

In its heyday, it answered the pressing social questions like: Is it possible for a woman to be born into the body of a man? (Nadia, series 5). Would most homophobes change their minds if they lived with a gay man? (Bubble and Brian Dowling, series 2). And can a man ever deliver a credible threat to a transgender woman while dressed as a panto villain? (Jason Cowan, series 5).

And it showed us that Irish people, like pandas, do rather well in captivity. Anna the nun, as she became known, was a kind of fantasy best friend for millions, the sane, cool-headed one in a house that also contained 'Nasty' Nick and Craig the plumber; she went on to become a successful television executive.

Brian Dowling, in season 2, was a former flight attendant turned one-man social movement. He went on to become one of the most famous Big Brother alumni of all and was eventually recruited to present the show.

Ray Shah, a Dublin man, was one of the stars of the fourth season. Their prominence, given the relative rarity of Irish people in the British Big Brother, seemed confirmation of the idea that we are just sounder than other nationalities.

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The show made people famous for "just being themselves". At first glance, this seems like an alluring democratisation of celebrity - freeing it from talent, making it all about personality, something any young person would sign up for.

However, in practice it was more brutal than anything the music industry or Hollywood ever invented. It involved exploiting people's reactions and putting them in extreme situations so that their emotions were on display - like a sort of human zoo where the public could use the phone lines ("check with the bill payer, rates may vary") to bang on the glass of the enclosure. "It was abuse, of course it was," Anna recalls, "but we signed up for the abuse and we could leave any time we wanted. We were vain and desperate for attention."

Her first inkling of how big a show it was going to be was the phone book-sized contract that Channel 4 sent her. By then something was in the air: TV executives had become convinced that the next big hit would involve a reality TV social experiment.

The previous winter, the BBC had a very boring precursor to Big Brother called Castaway, which quickly fizzled out. In the same year, Fox in America had developed Temptation Island, where paradise-stranded couples were tempted into infidelity by hot singles - a sort of forerunner to Love Island.

Big Brother looked set to easily beat both of these early rivals, however. It had already been a huge hit in Holland but, while we had the internet in 2000, there was still no YouTube and, consequently, very little opportunity to hear about telly sensations from across Europe. It was reported that the Channel 4 show received over 40,000 applications, and the housemates selected to compete in the series were kept secret until they entered the house.

When they were made public, they were presented as a sort of bohemian ensemble - Anna was the 'lesbian nun', Andy Davidson admitted to appearing on a live sex show, while Caroline O'Shea had previously worked in a gay bar and sold sex toys.

During their stay in the house, the housemates were required to wear microphones at all times, ensuring everything they said was heard. Throughout the house, there were two-way mirrors lined against the walls, with a production team filming behind them. The bedrooms featured infrared imaging cameras, allowing the cameras to continue filming while the lights were off.

The Diary Room was where housemates were required to share their thoughts on the events in the house, and were often given tasks, which left the viewing public agog. During their time in confinement, the housemates were required to nominate two of their fellow contestants for potential eviction, and the two or more with the most votes would be nominated.

Big Brother was a sensation from the off. Millions tuned in to watch the first eviction and the confrontation between Craig, the eventual winner, and 'Nasty' Nick, the Machiavellian broker who was evicted for attempting to manipulate the vote. It was the television event of the year. Everything - even the chickens in the yard - was live streamed to the internet, and there was a new interactivity, with the public involved in shaping how the show played out.

There was an innocence to the first season. The original housemates' only inkling of the success of the show came from the number of evenings it was being broadcast. They had little idea of the stardom awaiting them on the outside.

As the series progressed through the decade, the fame-hungry housemates became increasingly knowing and the heavily edited, increasingly staged interactions would set the tone for a decade of reality television.

At the beginning, the show still retained a patina of being a purely social experiment. Channel 4 would draft in psychologists who would say things like "the housemates are feeling exposed right now" (you think?), but as the Noughties bore on, and Big Brother became ever more exploitative, the number of mental health professionals prepared to become involved in the show dwindled.

By then, Big Brother had become a sort of breeding ground for the kind of ersatz stars whose defining lack of self-esteem and high-priced lawyers made them the perfect and plentiful fodder for a rapidly morphing tabloid media. Its undisputed reality princess (with apologies to Kerry Katona and Jordan) was Jade Goody, a gobby Londoner from a broken home, whose lack of general knowledge - she thought "East Angular" was "abroad" - made her the original reality TV ditz.

The affection for Jade and her alleged dimness quickly curdled however. The presenter Dominik Diamond called her a "nasty slapper" with a face like a pig. She found herself in bed with her housemate, PJ, who denied their under-the-sheets fumble and ran from her, screaming. By then, the papers were calling her public enemy number one.

She was even more unpopular than Saddam Hussein (who she thought was a boxer) and Channel 4 had discussed providing her with protection after the series ended. Jade quickly learned that being "an escape goat" was big business, however. Six months later, she had her own reality show, columns in OK! and Heat magazines and was worth about 4m. She remained one of the biggest stars Big Brother had ever produced and in 2007 returned to the celebrity iteration of the show where she was accused of being racist against the Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty. Her referring to Shetty as "Shilpa Poppadom" was discussed in the House of Commons.

When Gordon Brown, then the UK's chancellor of the exchequer, flew to India to discuss trade, he was met by more than 20 news crews asking him about a programme he had clearly never seen. In India, effigies of Goody were burned. It was all quite nasty and Jade was a vulnerable character.

The following year, Jade learned that she had terminal cancer, the stages of which were reported in mawkish, desperate detail. When she died, at just 27, her obituary appeared on the front page of The New York Times. A tabloid freak show had become respectable news.

In hindsight, it's easy to wonder if the Big Brother producers would have gotten away with making her such a hate figure today. Jade was a fragile person and the intervening years have seen shows like Jeremy Kyle taken off the air after their guests took their own lives.

A decade ago, these kinds of questions were not yet asked. Big Brother became a global phenomenon, spawning Celebrity Big Brother, Big Brother's Little Brother (which helped make a star of Russell Brand) and Big Brother's Bit On The Side. It would inspire a whole ecosystem of reality dross, like Geordie Shore, The Only Way Is Essex and Made In Chelsea. In the last few years, Love Island has taken over the news cycle. Last month, Netflix launched its latest addition to the genre - Too Hot To Handle is a sort of mash-up of Love Island and the original Big Brother.

Do these shows have a particular appeal in a time of lockdown?

"We're all trapped now," Dr Tanya Horeck, Reader in Film, Media & Culture at Anglia Ruskin University told the BBC recently. "People are using reality TV as a way of trying to process how we're feeling during lockdown. I've seen countless posts on social media of people saying things like 'It's Day 35 in the Big Brother House'."

And in recent months, the contestants of the latest Big Brothers have found that there isn't much difference between life inside and outside the houses. In Brazil, the first cases of Covid were confirmed in late February - but by then, the housemates on Big Brother Brasil had already been sequestered together for a month. When they were finally told the news, it was on camera. It was "a great opportunity to inform and alert our viewers about Covid-19, but also to ensure the safety of our house guests," the show's director claimed.

There were similar scenes in the German, Swedish and Canadian versions of Big Brother. In the latter, contestants puzzled over why they could no longer hear a live audience booing and cheering on eviction night. "Maybe the house is suddenly soundproof?" mused one contestant before the show was cancelled, the prize money donated to health charities.

Big Brother was always regarded as one of the worst excesses of a celebrity obsessed culture, but perhaps the stars of the show have lessons for the way we live now.

"All these years later, people are getting a glimpse now of just how boring it is being cooped together like that", Anna Nolan says. "One thing that really struck me was that the producers didn't actually have to do very much to provoke conflict.

"When you've nothing to do, the tiniest thing can seem incredibly irritating, the smallest gesture can seem deeply moving and something random on the news can seem very upsetting. When you can't leave the environment you're in, you swing a lot, emotionally speaking. So don't beat yourself up for that; it's very normal."





Big Brother: The best bits

The Big Brother baby that never was (Big Brother, Season 6, 2005)

When dancer Anthony Hutton and cardiac nurse Makosi Musambasi had what was inevitably described as a "romp" in the house hot tub, she asked Big Brother could she have a pregnancy test. In the end, there was no baby and the pair gamely relived their tryst for an episode of Ultimate Big Brother in 2010.

George Galloway gets catty (Celebrity Big Brother 4, 2006)

The former MP would probably prefer to be known for his anti-war stance, but when his obituary is written, it will have to refer to that time he imitated a cat and drank from a saucer of milk. He later said his antics "were the same stunts that BBC presenters and celebs get up to for Children in Need". Nobody bought it.

Yeah Jackie! (Celebrity Big Brother 3, 2005)

When the producers of CBB decided that the magic ingredient missing in a house containing Brigitte Nielsen was her former mother-in-law Jackie Stallone, the introduction between the pair was TV gold. "Jackie?!" Nielsen spluttered. "Yeah Jackie," came the deadpan response - and became one of the slogans of year.
Chinese state media is giving extensive coverage to violent protests roiling cities across the United States, while the unrest has also featured widely in Chinese social media.

The death of George Floyd, a 46-year old black man, while in police custody last week has sparked demonstrations and unrest across the politically and racially divided country.

China's state-run CCTV aired parts of an interview that his brother, Philonise Floyd, gave to US news channel MSNBC in its noon broadcast on Monday, where he said US President Donald Trump did not give him the opportunity to speak during a phone call and where he cried at the mention of his brother.

While the unrest in US cities has been widely reported by international media, China's interest comes at a time when relations between the two are particularly strained.

CCTV featured reports from one of its reporters running with protesters in Minnesota, as well as short videos shot by Americans depicting police violence against protesters.

On China's social media platform Weibo, at least five news items on the protests were among the top 20 trending topics by midday, led by reports Trump had been temporarily taken to a bunker as protesters surrounded the White House.

On Twitter, the protests also featured widely among the top 20 trending items, with the hashtag #BunkerBoy at a prominent second place.

For some analysts, the Chinese media coverage of the protests echoed their reporting on the coronavirus situation in the United States.

"The number one thing they want to show is that the Communist Party is doing a better job in terms of fighting the coronavirus and managing society," said Alfred Wu, associate professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore.

"That's the main message: the US is not doing good."

Some Chinese media have made comparisons between the US protests and those in Hong Kong, the latest flashpoint in US-China tensions. Trump has begun the process of eliminating special US treatment for Hong Kong to punish Beijing's decision to impose new national security laws on the territory.

The state-run China Daily posted a political cartoon showing a coronavirus patient saying "I can't breathe" - the dying words of Floyd - as a figure resembling Trump walks away after cutting the line to an oxygen tank labelled "WHO".

That was a reference to his decision to withdraw the United States from the World Health Organisation on Friday.

Reuters
California churches detail Sunday reopening plans; Rick Warren says Saddleback will wait

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Pastor Greg Lauries Harvest Church and many other Californias megachurches are reopening on Pentecost Sunday with detailed plans to keep their congregations safe from COVID-19. But others, including Pastor Rick Warrens Saddleback Church, say they will wait for conditions to improve before resuming large gatherings.

Harvest Church will officially be reopening its doors on Sunday, May 31 for a very special worship service! Harvest Church says on its website, which adds that a maximum of 100 people will be able to attend per location even as the church utilizes all its facilities, including outdoor spaces.

Laurie is giving a special message and host Christian musician Phil Wickham as a special guest artist.

We strongly encourage everyone to wear masks while on campus ... We will have hand sanitization stations at various locations around campus, the Southern California megachurch says.

The Church United network, which has around 3,000 churches representing 2.5 million members in California, has announced its intentions to reopen.

Pastor Warren, author of The Purpose Driven Life, released a video message saying Saddleback Church in Orange County will remain closed.

He said the state government has outlined four phases of reopening as the pandemic subsides. The state has released 12 pages of instructions that churches must follow exactly, to open places of worship during phase two, he noted.

The rules, he added, are unworkable for all churches, especially for large churches like Saddleback. For example, no church, irrespective of its size, may not have more than 100 people in attendance. This would mean, he points out, only 2,000 of the 30,000 members of Saddleback could attend.

Recently released guidelines in the state allow churches to gather but only at 25% capacity or with 100 people (whichever is lower).

While were all eager to gather together for worship, we have decided for many important reasons that Saddleback is going to be patient and were going to wait for better conditions before we resume our large, public gatherings, Warren said.

His motive for remaining closed is love and faith, not fear. Saddleback has never been closed during these past 11 weeks. On the contrary, weve been doing more in our communities than ever before. Our buildings have been closed, but the church is not a building. We are a living, breathing body;  we are a people, not a place.

On Friday, the Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision rejected a California churchs request to set aside Gov. Gavin Newsoms guidelines that allow congregations to meet in person but limits attendance.

Christians have been debating how much state entities can restrict certain freedoms, particularly religious worship, by deeming it nonessential to prevent further spread of the novel coronavirus.

Our fear is simply this, Governor Gavin Newsom said earlier, as was reported by The Center Square, Congregations of people from far and wide coming together in a closed space at a large scale remains a point of concern and anxiety for us. We are working on guidelines for physical distancing and working with faith leaders talking about unique conditions in their own facilities. Nothing is etched in stone.

Like Pastor Laurie, Jack Hibbs, the pastor of 14,000-member Calvary Chapel Chino Hills, has announced his megachurch is reopening.

Hibbs said in a video message that the church is having three services on Pentecost Sunday while continuing to livestream the services. However, he said he estimates that each location may have an attendance of about 40-45% of the capacity.

The decision to reopen our church doors was not taken lightly or rashly decided. This decision was birthed out of intensive prayer, fasting, and patience to hear God's voice, the church says on its website, which carries a detailed plan for reopening. It is our aim to do all we can to protect those who attend our church with common-sense measures to prevent the spread of all possible illnesses.

In an interview with The Christian Post earlier this month, Hibbs explained that it is the pastors burden to minister to the people, particularly those in his congregation, and to continue to proclaim the Gospel.

When we look around at this crisis, the issue of not exactly meeting the criteria of what is defined as a church  meaning our getting together, our fellowship with one another  the mandate given to us from Scripture to pray for one another even to the point where we are to lay hands on the sick and pray for them, he said.

The Christian ought to be the wisest, ought to be the best, the most resourceful citizen in any community. So by no means do we desire to resist the authorities that be according to Romans 13, which speaks about how followers of Jesus are to conduct themselves in relation to the governing authorities.

"In fact, we have been extremely compliant for over two months, our state, when petitioned, when we asked our governor's office: 'Where are you placing the value of the church? The fact that we provide mental and spiritual health and stability at such a critical time, where do you place us in priority?'"

Hispanic evangelical leader and Sacramento megachurch pastor Samuel Rodriguez also announced, in a video message, resumption of physical services on the campuses of New Season on Pentecost Sunday, while abiding by every single CDC recommendation.

According to Rodriguez, 7,000 to 8,000 churches are reopening. He said he is believing God for a fresh outpouring of His precious Holy Spirit.

We are mindful of our nations proud heritage of religious liberty, established from its founding as a place of refuge and respect for people of faith, Rodriguez and William Jessup University President John Jackson earlier wrote in an open letter.

Today, we join together respectfully urging Californias governor, county supervisors, mayors and other civic leaders to support the reopening of church gatherings in ways that are sensitive to public health concerns as well as providing for the fundamental freedoms so richly encouraging to personal and societal well-being and ensconced in our founding documents.
hogan

The EUs trade chief is mulling a bid to become the next head of the World Trade Organisation as pressure for the under-fire rule setter to reform mounts.

A spokesman for Phil Hogan, the European commissioner for trade, confirmed that he was considering the role after Roberto Azevedo unexpectedly announced his departure from the worlds trade watchdog last month.

The next director-general of the WTO, which is responsible for setting trade rules, will take charge during a delicate moment for the international trade system as US-China tensions re-emerge and protectionism surges.

The Geneva-based organisation has come under pressure to reform and has faced fierce criticism from Donald Trump.

Hes a strong supporter of a reform agenda for the WTO, Mr Hogans spokesman said, according to Reuters.

Mr Hogan told the European parliament last week that it would be wonderful if a European candidate took over as the WTOs new head.

Arancha Gonzalez Laya, the Spanish foreign minister, and Sigrid Kaag, the Dutch trade minister, are also said to be in the frame as possible European candidates. Members of the WTO can put forward their candidates from June 8.
London, May 31 : UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab on Sunday defended the easing of lockdown measures in England from Monday despite the thousands of new COVID-19 cases every day and also several scientists speaking out against the move.

Speaking to the BBC, Raab said the government had been listening to the views of different scientists who did not all agree.

He said the country was now transitioning from level four to level three of the COVID-19 alert system, adding that the easing of measures was only being taken because the government had met its five targets.

The government "wanted to avoid a re-entering of the lockdown", he told the BBC, but with the track, trace and test system a targeted approach could be taken.

"We have definitely got the ability and we will target specific settings or particular regions or geographic areas - and that gives us the confidence to take sure footed steps forward." Scientists who advise ministers have voiced concerns about easing the rules.

Professor John Edmunds, from the London School of Tropical Hygiene and Medicine and also a member of Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), said it was a "political decision" to ease measures, adding that the levels of coronavirus were still "very high".

Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust and a member of Sage, said in a tweet that COVID-19 is "spreading too fast to lift lockdown in England" and NHS test and trace "has to be fully working and infection rates have to be lower".

Epidemiologist Professor Sian Griffiths told the BBC that if scientists were in charge of decisions, lockdown would probably not be eased currently, but she said there were other factors to consider.

On Sunday, the UK continued in the second position after the US with 38,458 COVID-19 deaths, which also accounts for the highest fatalities in Europe, while the total number of cases stood at 274,219.
On Saturday, top Minnesota officials came out in unison with a clear message: The people who took part in vandalism and other violent actions over the past few days in the state did not live there. At a news conference, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said officials estimated around 80 percent of the people involved in violence were from out of state. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey also expressed a similar sentiment: I want to be very, very clear: The people that are doing this are not Minneapolis residents. St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter went even further and said all those who were arrested in the city he leads were from out of state. Carter later walked back that statement saying that he had received inaccurate information. This morning I shared with you arrest data received in my morning police briefing which I later learned to be inaccurate, Carter said.

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BREAKING: Mayor of St. Paul Minnesota says he was wrong this morning when he said Every single person arrested last night in St. Paul was from out of town. He blames inaccurate information given to him during a police briefing.  David Begnaud (@DavidBegnaud) May 30, 2020

The officials were questioned about their claims after journalists went to look at jail records and found that the overwhelming majority of people arrested in connection to the unrest in Minneapolis had Minnesota addresses. NBC affiliate KARE 11 found that of 36 cases, 86 percent had Minnesota addresses. Fox 9, meanwhile, has a slightly different number, but it tells the same story: Of the 45 people arrested, 38 had Minnesota addresses, or 84 percent. Authorities cautioned though that the records dont always tell the full story because people often give fake addresses.

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Except thats not what the data says so far: https://t.co/uP8lyaD24h https://t.co/lrDozNwri0  Brandon Stahl (@b_stahl) May 31, 2020

Regardless of what the jail records say, some on the ground insist that people from outside of the state are joining in the protests. The Star Tribune notes that while Minnesotans have made up most of the arrests, people from all corners of the country representing a patchwork of ideologiessome extremehave increasingly turned up as the protests have grown in size and level of violence.
PITTSFIELD  Two people were injured when their three-wheel motorcycle hit a deer and both where thrown off.

Bobby O. Lewis, 76, of Jacksonville was driving west on Interstate 72 on the Hannibal, Missouri, bridge approach in Pike County at 11 a.m. Sunday when a deer ran into his path, according to Illinois State Police.
The Pennsylvania Department of Health on Sunday reported 511 new positive coronavirus cases, raising the statewide total to 71,926 in about three months.

There have been 5,555 deaths in the state due to COVID-19, with 18 new fatalities reported on Sunday.

The numbers of coronavirus cases and deaths were reported as of midnight Sunday. There are 383,111 patients who have tested negative, the department said.

More: Coronavirus charts, data, resources

Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine has previously said the continuing decline of new cases has been encouraging. This marks the 21th day in a row the state has reported fewer than 1,000 new cases.

Most of those infected with the coronavirus recover without hospital treatment and suffer relatively mild symptoms. But the virus can be serious for seniors and those with underlying health conditions.

About two-thirds of Pennsylvanias coronavirus deaths have occurred in long-term care facilities, including nursing homes. The department of health reports that there are 15,486 resident cases of COVID-19 in nursing and personal care homes, and 2,659 cases among employees at 609 distinct facilities in 44 counties.

On Friday, Dauphin County and seven other counties entered the states yellow coronavirus phase, which allows more businesses to reopen, with some restrictions. Also Friday, several counties were the first to move into the green phase, which is the least restrictive.

More counties, mostly in western Pennsylvania, will be moving to green this coming Friday.

Gov. Wolf has said he anticipates the remaining 10 red counties will be lifted from the stay-at-home order by June 5. They include Lancaster, Lehigh and the Philadelphia region.

The governor said public schools, closed from March to the end of the current academic year, will reopen in the fall.

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Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 30)  The Civil Aeronautics Board on Saturday told airlines to cancel their flights set on June 1, Monday, shortly after local aircraft carriers announced their new flight schedules.

The board said that the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Diseases has yet to approve domestic air travel routes.

Consequently, airlines are hereby advised to cancel their flights on June 1, 2020 and to stop selling tickets for the said date, the board said in a statement.

This comes after Philippine Airlines announced its resumption of international and domestic travel starting June 1, when restrictions ease amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

PALs overseas flights will only be available for destinations in the US, Canada, Guam, Vietnam, mainland China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Taipei, Singapore, Japan, the UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, PAL said. It is also working on operating flights to London and Sydney, Australia, the airline added.

Cebu Pacific said it will also start flying passengers to a few destinations within the country beginning June 2, while international trips will remain suspended until June 30.

Both airlines assured that safety precautions such as disinfection, wearing of protective gear and online check-ins will be strictly followed while crew members will also take rapid antibody test before the trips.

AirAsia said it is also speaking to some local governments on airport guidelines as it mulls resuming flights next month.

The Manila International Airport Authority also released plans for airport terminals with flights expected to return.

Earlier, General Manager Ed Monreal said in a statement that Terminal 1 of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport shall continue serving international flights, while Terminal 2 will be for evacuation and sweeper flights and for domestic flights from PAL. Terminal 3 will be for AirAsia and Cebu Pacific, while Terminal 4 stays closed.

Only 400 passengers for international inbound flights are allowed per day, MIAA said, as instructed by the IATF.

MIAA maintained that it is ready for Metro Manila to shift into general community quarantine on June 1, allowing more movement in the country.
Christians wearing masks attend a service at the Yoido Full Gospel Church in Seoul, Sunday, May 31, 2020. No case of COVID-19 has been reported from the church since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. Churches and schools are cautiously reopening as the government is relaxing social distancing despite clusters of infections from dance clubs and delivery service centers. Yonhap
Moussa Faki Mahamat, the Chairperson of the African Union Commission has condemned the death of George Floyd who died in police custody. The Chairperson reiterated the Union's support for the people in the US and rejected their ''discriminatory practices''. The death of George Floyd has sparked a huge reaction across the globe. Many world leaders have expressed their concerns regarding the treatment of minorities and racial discrimination.

From Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to Labour leader David Lammy in the UK, to Turkish President Erdogan to Michelle Bachelet to the former president of Chile Martha Louise, to the Princess of Norway - the representatives have voiced their concerns over the incident and its ramifications. The Chairperson of the African Union has also condemned the death of George Floyd and reminded the US of the Resolution on Racial Discrimination.

Read: Adidas Shares Nike's 'Don't Do It' Video Backing George Floyd Protests; Gets Lovely Reply

''Recalling the historic Organisation of Africa Unity (OAU) Resolution on Racial Discrimination in the United States of America made by African Heads of State and Government at the OAU's First Assembly Meeting held in Cairo, Egypt from 17 to 24 July 1964, the Chairperson of the African Union Commission firmly reaffirms and reiterates the African Union's rejection of the continuing discriminatory practices against Black citizens of the United States of America,'' read a statement from the office of the Chairperson.

Read: George Floyd Protests Live Updates: 'Will Always Stand Against Violence & Disorder': Trump

The US urged to ensure the elimination of discrimination

Mahamat also urged the US authorities to work towards the elimination of discrimination. ''The Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat strongly condemns the murder of George Floyd that occurred in the United States of America at the hands of law enforcement officers and wishes to extend his deepest condolences to his family and loved ones. He further urges the authorities in the United States of America to intensify their efforts to ensure the total elimination of all forms of discrimination based on race or ethnic origin,'' read his office's statement.

46-year-old Goerge Floyd died on a street in police custody. A shopkeeper had called police suspecting that Floyd had a fake $20 bill. Officer Derek Chauvin who attended the complaint could be seen in a viral video with the officer placing his keen on his neck. The video was taken by an onlooker in which Floyd could be heard saying he couldn't breathe. The death of George Floyd has triggered unrest across the country with reports of violent clashes and loot.

Read: George Floyd's Death: Iranian Foreign Minister Slams US, Calls For War Against Racism

Read: US Raises Hong Kong Issue At UNSC, China Hits Back By Criticizing George Floyd's Death

(Image credits: Associated Press)
The bowling alley felt hollow with the lights turned off and the bowling pins lined up in obedient rows across the 12 lanes, stiff and still.

Were old school here, owner Gary Eckhardt quipped, pointing to a vintage barber chair cloaked in worn leather, empty. Scorecards, usually filled by hand using miniature pencils, rested untouched on the bowling alleys tables.

Though the alley has had its wear and tear over the years, evidence of the Eckhardts care and investment fill the space. Curated awards and photographs decorate the wood-paneled walls. Neat rows of worn bowling shoes line the shelves behind the counter.

We provide a great service to the community, he said. We are probably the most inexpensive form of entertainment for a family to do.

Public health orders in response to the COVID-19 pandemic shut down small businesses like Glenrock Bowl back in March.

The building, and its owner, have deep roots in Glenrock, like so many of the towns small businesses. Dozens of businesses here, along with other tiny Wyoming towns, have been pummeled by the pandemic. Business owners question whether they will survive. With the days of federal funding from the Paycheck Protection Program ticking by, many expectant owners are waiting to see if a new pile of state funding could fill the gap. Others have elected to eschew the relief and wait out the tough times on their own.

Eckhardt, 76, worked in the same space he now hopes to save when he was in high school. The 100-year-old historic brick building in the heart of Glenrock once hosted a Chevy garage with apartments nestled on top.

His father moved from Illinois to Thermopolis in 1947 in search of a drier climate for his ailing health when Eckhardt was 4 years old. The family meandered and eventually wound up in Glenrock a decade later. The town of roughly 2,500 grew off the oil booms and the buzz of a 762-megawatt coal-fired power plant along Interstate 25.

Eckhardt eventually followed in his fathers footsteps in Wyoming, becoming an ironworker, then an owner of the bowling alley. Eckhardt has run the bowling alley off and on since 1986. It started with six lanes and eventually doubled to a dozen, thanks to Eckhardts own hands and determination.

It hasnt always been an easy road, though. Eckhardt knows what hardship feels like. He wears a face of kindness flushed with quiet pride, along with well-loved jeans spotted with the occasional grass stain.

Its been a struggle, he said of operating the bowling alley. Its been a labor of love.

Fast-forward a few decades and Eckhardt is now 76 years old. Its May 20 and the air of the bowling alley, usually charged with the energy of both professional and amateur bowlers, sits static.

Eckhardt could technically reopen. Earlier this month, he contacted state health officials to request a variance on the public health order. To open, he would need to cap the number of people and practice social distancing, along with other health guidelines, to prevent the spread of the deadly virus. He keeps a limited team of employees: a bartender and cook. Sometimes he needs a few extra hands at the rental desk. Thats about it.

But hes scared. Eckhardt thinks the state may be opening up too quickly, further endangering vulnerable people.

Its pretty tough, he said, holding back tears. I got a lot of loyal people that want this back, they need this back. This community has nothing else like this. But you got to be smart.

Hes skeptical if state or federal relief can help mom-and-pop businesses survive the pandemic.

Theres help out there, but the trickle-down never trickles down, he said. Its pretty diluted when it does finally get down to the rest who need it.

Social security, his pension from his ironworking days and a loan from the bank have helped him and his wife scrape by this spring. But accessing the resources he needs has been tough and full of paperwork, he said.

Im pretty fortunate that I can have (the building) paid for, thank God, or otherwise I couldnt do it, he said.

In his eyes, there are going to be businesses that dont come back.

I dont think weve even seen the damage that this thing is going to do to people, when the unemployment checks run out and people still dont have food, he said in a soft and shaky voice.

Slow open

Small businesses have gradually started to reopen in Glenrock and across most of Wyoming. On April 28, the governor and state health officer allowed some personal care businesses to open their doors to customers, if they took safety precautions.

Across the street from the Glenrock Bowl sits Shear Heaven, a hair salon, now back open. The salon occupies a petite, single-story home tucked back from the road and surrounded by a lush lawn.

Owner Debby McCrary had temporarily closed the salon on March 13, about a week before Gov. Mark Gordons public order. McCrary was concerned for her customers, many of whom are elderly. Though McCrary admits its been a difficult time to be self-employed, shes managing. She and her husband received a $2,400 economic stimulus check in mid-May. She doesnt plan to apply for any state or federal aid as long as she can keep cutting hair.

The Wyoming Business Council announced it will unveil new state relief programs for small businesses facing hardship in early June. The $325 million in funding for the state relief programs will come from the $1.25 billion in federal coronavirus relief provided to Wyoming.

Styling hair is McCrarys pride and joy, having perfected the skill over a career of 34 years and counting. She started up the business from scratch in 1995, eventually bringing on another stylist, Marcie Smith, to help keep the business thriving.

I think were protecting our clients as much as we possibly can, she said while standing outside her front door to limit the number of people inside. But the hardest part is becoming accustomed to not hugging her patrons.

Some of the people who come in here, they dont have anybody, she said. And you know what? The hug you give them might be the only hug they get for a month.

Beyond the pandemic

Glenrock resident Lila Swan has seen videos of herself as a 4-year-old, prancing around during the grand opening event of the Dave Johnston coal-fired power plant in 1959. Her grandfather owned the land and donated it to lure the company to Glenrock.

I dont even remember the grand opening, but I have home movies of me there, so I know I was there, she said with a smile.

During lunch at Reids Red Hots on South Fourth Street, Lila and her husband Jim Swan shared their worries for the town. Units of the nearly 60-year-old power plant are slated for retirement in 2027.

A lot people who live here work there, Jim said. And of course a lot of people commute from Douglas and Casper and they bring in business to Glenrock.

Many here wonder what will become of the town or the state, as Wyomings dominant industry, coal, precipitously declines. Its a well-worn discussion lawmakers across the state have been starting to iron out with greater zeal since the pandemic slowed demand for coal even more. The U.S. Energy Information Administration forecasts coal production declining by 25 percent this year.

We are tied to energy: restaurants, tourism, manufacturing, everything here basically has a tie  whether directly or indirectly  to energy, said Robert Short, chairman of the Converse County Board of Commissioners. As energy continues to be assaulted, we are more and more at risk.

Short also owns seven businesses in the county, some located in Glenrock.

It has been absolutely brutal, he said. The Hotel Higgins in Glenrock went from having 17 employees to two. Hes received aid from the federal Paycheck Protection Program, but a majority went to employees. Ultimately, the relief has not been enough. Mortgage payments, utility costs and other operating expenses continue to pile up.

How do you keep the lights on? he asked.

For now, Lila, the long-time Glenrock resident, is simply trying to survive. Her life in Glenrock orbits around family. But shes been deprived of seeing their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren for weeks out of fear she could contract the virus from family members working in the health care industry.

I just want a hug, she said, tears puddling in the corners of her eyes.

Counting losses

Every year, on the night of Glenrock High Schools prom, a gaggle of teenagers flocks to Glenrock Bowl to hang out until around 2 a.m. The school lures the students to party at the bowling alley, where its safe, with the promise of a gift at the end of the night. Since 1986, Eckhardt, the owner, has partnered with the school to host this post-prom activity.

But not this year.

We missed it this year, because of (the pandemic), he said. I feel sorry for the seniors, everything theyve worked for for 12 years and not even have a graduation ceremony.

One day soon, Eckhardt hopes he will be able to safely reopen. In the meantime, he considers the closure a true loss to the community.

Yet even with the the loss, Eckhardt wants to keep some perspective. He stressed the importance of keeping people healthy and alive. If keeping businesses closed a bit longer means saving more lives, he will comply.

We shouldnt have 100,000 people die from this, he said. Its just wrong.

Follow the latest on Wyomings energy industry @camillereports

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Mumbai, May 31 : The Mumbai region Covid-19 cases shot above the 51,000-mark on Sunday even as the state death toll reached 2,286, with 89 fatalities - down by 27 from the highest 116 deaths recorded on May 29 - health officials said.

Sunday's toll includes a whopping 70 deaths in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region alone - the worst-hit in the country, besides 2,487 new positive cases recorded in the state.

This comes to roughly one death every 16 minutes, and an average 104 new cases notched every hour, in the state.

Maharashtra has been recording 75-plus fatalities and new patients over 2,000 daily for the past six consecutive days, with the last highest figure of 3,041 infections on May 24.

With 89 fatalities, the state death toll has touched 2,286 while the total number of Coronavirus patients increased from Saturday's 65,168 to 67,655 on Sunday.

The health department said of the total number of cases declared till date, 36,031 were active, an increase of 1,150 over Saturday's 34,881.

The state has notched a recovery rate of 43.35 per cent and a mortality (death) rate of 3.37 per cent, with the patient doubling time improving to 17.5 days over last week's 11.3 days, against the national average of 15.7 days.

Of the total 89 fatalities on Sunday, 52 were recorded in Mumbai alone, taking the city deaths up from Saturday's 1,227 to 1,279 now, while the number of Covid-19 positive patients here shot up by 1,244 cases to touch 39,686 now.

Besides Mumbai's 52 deaths, there were 18 fatalities in Thane (Navi Mumbai, Thane, Kalyan-Dombivali), 9 in Pune, 6 in Nashik (Malegaon), 2 Solapur, and one each in Osmanabad and Yavatmal.

The victims comprised 46 men and 43 women, and nearly 63 per cent of them suffered from other serious ailments such as diabetes, hypertension, heart problems and asthma.

On the positive side, a total of 1,248 fully cured patients returned home on Sunday, taking the number of those discharged from 28,081 to 29,329.

Maharashtra announced a gradual easing of the lockdown from June 1 under #MissionBeginAgain, with specified activities permitted in phases, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said in an address to the state on Sunday.

Spelling out cheers for Bollywood, film shootings of all types have been permitted with a set of guidelines, while doorstep delivery of newspapers will also start shortly.

The MMR continued to cause grave concerns with 1,548 Covid-19 deaths and positive cases shooting past the 50K mark to touch 51,397.

Though trailing a distant second after Mumbai, Pune Division fatalities touched 415, besides 9,339 patients.

The next major area of concern is Nashik Division with 163 deaths and 2,046 positive cases, followed by Aurangabad Division with 66 fatalities and 1,838 cases, and finally Akola Division with 48 deaths and 1,010 cases.

There's Latur Division with 10 deaths and 356 cases, Kolhapur Division with 10 deaths and 866 patients, and finally Nagpur Division with 11 deaths and 744 cases.

Meanwhile, the number of people sent to home-quarantine increased from Saturday's 551,660 to 558,100 on Sunday, and those in institutional quarantine decreased by 940 to 34,480.

In yet another relieving news, there are as many as 72,704 beds available for quarantine in the state.

The state's containment zones decreased from 3,169 to 3,157 on Sunday and 18,490 health teams have carried out a survey of a population of around 70.1 lakhs in the state.

(Quaid Najmi can be contacted at q.najmi@ians.in)

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
MINNEAPOLIS  Police used tear gas, smoke grenades and nonlethal projectiles Saturday night in a coordinated effort to beak up groups gathering after the start of the Twin Cities' curfew, aimed at preventing another night of violent protests after days of unrest following the death of George Floyd.

Several hours after the 8 p.m. curfew began, there were "no reported injuries of consequence," Minnesota Department of Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell told the media. He acknowledged that the situation could change as the night continued.

Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey reported at least two dozen arrests were made Saturday night and said it was too early to say whether the curfew would be extended another night.

Earlier Frey said even peaceful protests weren't welcome after the curfew. Highways were closed and officials urged all residents to stay home, saying it was necessary to separate peaceful protesters from those intending to cause further damage to a city reeling after days of fiery demonstrations.

Dont go out of your homes; dont make things more difficult, Minnesota governor Tim Walz said. Local officials' increasingly strict stance comes after days of violence in the city, with Thursday night's unrest being the most chaotic as protesters breached a police precinct building and set it on fire.

Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, died Monday after a white Minneapolis police officer kept his knee pressed into his neck for more than eight minutes, sparking dozens of protests against police brutality across the country.

City-by-city look: George Floyd protests continue Saturday, cities begin issuing curfews

Thousands of people took to the streets nationwide and hundreds were arrested Friday and into early Saturday morning, resulting in injuries to protesters and officers. By sunrise, at least three people had died amid the protests.

Demonstrations continued throughout the day Saturday in dozens of cities, and more protests were planned and curfews issued for Saturday evening.

Story continues

Follow USA TODAY reporters Trevor Hughes and Tyler Davis for reports from the scene. Our live blog will be updated throughout the day. Here are the latest developments:

Minnesota Department of Transportation announced multiple highway closures in the Twin Cities, starting at 7 p.m. Saturday. "Routes will remain open for motorists to exit downtown areas," the department tweeted.

Officials expected demonstrators to set fires, use deadly force and use "civilians as shields from law enforcement," the Minnesota Department of Public Safety tweeted before and after curfew began.

As part of the state's increased enforcement, the Minnesota National Guard said more than 4,100 service members had been deployed to the Twin Cities and projected more than 10,000 would soon be called up.

Who is causing the violence? Extremists are hijacking peaceful protests, officials say

Read this: Experts say knee-to-neck restraint is dangerous, but Minneapolis allows it.

Tear gas, smoke bombs and explosions near Fifth Precinct

Hundreds of protesters sat to await the arrival of law enforcement as curfew approached near Fifth Precinct. One commented that police couldn't arrest the whole group.

Soon, black-clad law enforcement approached to the sound of explosions. Some demonstrators chanted Hands up, dont shoot!

Police officers fired nonlethal projectiles toward masses of people, including a crowd of media gathered in an alley next to a looted store.

Protesters reported tear gas being used. Some people hobbled away from an intersection appearing to be injured.

"State Patrol troopers are moving in to secure the Fifth Precinct. Go home and obey the curfew order now," Minnesota Department of Public Safety tweeted.

An empty street fills as curfew falls near Lake Street

Minneapolis' Lake Street was the scene of running battles between protesters, law-enforcement and the Minnesota National Guard on Friday night. But as curfew began Saturday, it was nearly empty and eerily quiet.

Smoke still wafted from some of the burned-out buildings, including the Third Precinct police substation. Earlier in the day, hundreds of volunteers swept clean the debris that once clogged the streets.

Soon, the area was filled with people again as a crowd materialized.

A group headed across the Mississippi River bridge on Lake Street from Minneapolis toward Saint Paul, initially with no sign of law enforcement.

Moments later, police pushed back the large protest group. Under a heavy barrage of flash-bangs and smoke grenades, the group quickly retreated, chanting We come in peace, we mean no harm.

Officials walk back claims about out-of-state arrests

Walz and Carter alleged early Saturday that many of the protesters inciting violence and causing destruction were from outside the state but later acknowledged current data does not support that claim.

A civil arrest list provided by the public information officer of the St. Paul Police Department shows 12 of the 18 people arrested from Thursday through 6 a.m. Saturday were from Minnesota. Five of them are from St. Paul, three are from Woodbury (part of the Twin Cities metropolitan area), two are from Minneapolis, one is from Mankato and one is from St. Louis Park. Four are from out of state and two did not have cities of residence listed.

Carter said his statements were based on data he later learned was inaccurate. Walz said arrests made Saturday night will give officials a much bigger data set of where protestors are from.

As grocery stores close in Minneapolis, volunteers offer help

Volunteers on the north side of Minneapolis on Saturday afternoon turned parking lots into makeshift markets to combat a dearth of grocery stores in the area.

At the intersection of West Broadway and Emerson avenues, about 250 people filled the lots at U.S. Bank and Episcopal Church in Minnesota to drop off and pick up donations from members of the community.

Amanda Kelli, 18, has relatives who live on the north side and said its been a struggle to find food the past few days.

My family has been looking for somewhere to go grocery shopping  my mom, my dad my grandma, she said, as she held her baby and chowed on pizza. But we couldnt find nothing so we came here.

All businesses along Broadway appeared to be closed as of Saturday afternoon due to violent protests the past two nights.

Breyonne Golding, a community planner, called the donation effort healing for a low-income area usually starved of resources, but even more so now.

On the north side, theres only three grocery stores. All of them are boarded up, said Golding, a native of Connecticut. Its about to be the first of the month, where are they gonna get food?

Omar to Minneapolis residents: Stay home tonight

Rep. Ilhan Omar asked Minneapolis residents to stay home Saturday night in an effort to isolate "agitators" she says are destroying minority owned business during protests over the death of Floyd.

Omar, D-Minn., represents the district where Floyd was killed.

"Right now, our grief and pain is being exploited. People primarily from outside our city are destroying black and minority-owned businesses in our city, Omar said. We cant let them. Let us all prioritize justice for George Floyd, police reform, alongside the safety of our community and the prevention of more violence. I urge people to stay home tonight so we can better target and isolate these agitators.

 Sean Rossman

Minnesota National Guard plans to deploy as many as 10,000 soldiers

The Minnesota National Guard planned to deploy as many as 10,000 troops to respond to unrest in Minneapolis, a massive increase over the 850 now on duty.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon offered to assist Minnesota with active-duty troops. So far, Walz has not sought help from federal troops, according to a statement from Jonathan Hoffman, a Defense Department spokesman.

Walz said this morning that he had spoken with the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs on Saturday, as well as with mayors across the country, and was "fully mobilizing" the state's National Guard for the first time in Minnesota's history.

Walz alleged that the protests were fueled by elements of domestic terrorism, ideological extremists and international destabilization.

Members of the Minnesota National Guard controlled access to the streets on Lake Street near Columbus Avenue in Minneapolis. Humvees and trucks blocked the road as firefighters and public works officials tried to shut off leaking gas lines and clear rubble from the road. Saturday, May 30, 2020

'Stay home tonight,' officials and community leaders plead

In an afternoon news conference, Minnesota officials asked residents to forgo protests and stay home after 8 p.m. Saturday night so that law enforcement could "remove those folks who are harming us." Community and faith leaders  including reverends, rabbis, imams and representatives of the state's Latino, Asian, and Native American communities, as well as the uncle of Philando Castile  encouraged residents to observe the curfew.

"We need to create the space for people to be able to grieve, to come together, to mourn the loss of George Floyd," Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan said in an afternoon news conference. "We cannot do that until community can gather safely ... Stay home tonight so that we can remove those folks who are harming us."

Flanagan said that some of the protesters were "detractors," "white supremacists" and "anarchists."

"They are not from our state, and they're coming from the outside," and Sen. Amy Klobuchar. "We cannot move forward when people are burning down our city."

Volunteers begin cleaning up

Across Minneapolis, groups of volunteers spontaneously appeared to begin cleaning up the damage Saturday morning.

Leaning on her shovel while talking, social worker Kara Vangen, 58, said no one should mistake the cleanup as a criticism of the protests themselves.

"Im supporting the protesting, completely. And this is my neighborhood, so this is part of the healing," she said, over the scrape of shovels clearing rubble from a burned-out Walgreens.

Wearing face masks, Anton Reuter and Beno Boda, both 17, picked up trash strewn in the street.

The two, who live nearby, said they had heard reports that troublemakers from outside downtown Minneapolis have been flooding into the area last night causing damage. They wanted people to know that those who live here care about this neighborhood.

"Its not going to get better waiting on the government," Boda said.

Morning in Minneapolis: Firefighters put out blazes, clear rubble

As Saturday morning dawned in Minneapolis, authorities had moved back into some formerly contested areas, and firefighters with the Minneapolis Fire Department poured water onto a still-smoldering gas station in the Hiawatha area as a small crowd watched. No police were present.

Minneapolis awoke Saturday to the smell of burning rubber and plastic after overnight protests. Firefighters poured water onto a still-smoldering gas station in the Hiawatha area.

Over on Lake Street at Columbus Avenue, members of the Minnesota National Guard controlled access to the streets, their Humvees and trucks blocking the road as firefighters and public works officials tried to shut off leaking gas lines and clear rubble from the road.

Because some areas lost power, drivers collided yesterday when speeding through stoplights that werent working, and their abandoned crashed cars were then set ablaze. Broken glass from shattered windows and bus stops crunched underfoot.

"This is sad. Its very emotional right now. I just had to come down and see it," said Brian Ledin, 58, who lives in a nearby suburb but was born in the area.

Smoke rose from an OReilly Auto Parts store and CenterPoint energy workers searched for broken gas lines.

Report: Military police could be dispatched to Minnesota

The Pentagon on Saturday ordered the Army to put military police units on alert to head to Minneapolis on short notice at President Donald Trumps request, the Associated Press reports, according to three people with direct knowledge of the orders who did not want their names used because they were not authorized to discuss the preparations.

According to the AP report, soldiers from Fort Bragg in North Carolina and Fort Drum in New York have been ordered to be ready to deploy within four hours if called. Soldiers in Fort Carson in Colorado and Fort Riley in Kansas have been told to be ready within 24 hours.

Fired Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin arrested, booked

Derek Michael Chauvin, 44, was arrested Friday and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter in connection to Floyd's death. He was booked into the Ramsey County Jail.

A criminal complaint that references body cameras worn by the four now-former officers involved in the incident sheds additional light on what happened on Memorial Day in the moments before and after Floyd's death.

Booking photo for Derek Michael Chauvin, 44. Chauvin is a former Minneapolis Police Department officer who was arrested in connection with the death of George Floyd.

The Hennepin County Attorney's complaint said Chauvin had his knee on Floyds neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, including two minutes and 53 seconds after Floyd was non-responsive. Read more.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: George Floyd protests: Minneapolis police use tear gas; dozens arrested
A woman who says she lost an eye during a protest over George Floyds death has urged people to keep demonstrating.

Linda Tirado, a journalist and photographer covering the protests in Minneapolis, the city where Floyd died after a police officer knelt on his neck for eight minutes, told people to stay in the streets for her.

It comes to my attention that some folk are using my injury to argue that people should stop protesting, she wrote on Twitter.

F*** that, stay in the streets double for me, because I cant.

She claimed: It was police who shot me, not protesters.

George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Show all 30 1 /30 George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Police spray mace at protestors to break up a gathering near the Minneapolis Police third precinct after a white police officer was caught on a bystander's video pressing his knee into the neck of African-American man George Floyd, who later died at a hospital, in Minneapolis Reuters George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets A protester holds a sign with an image of George Floyd AP George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Protesters demonstrate against the death of George Floyd AFP via Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets A protester throws a piece of wood on a fire in the street just north of the 3rd Police Precinct Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets People in other US cities also protested the murder, like Los Angeles AFP via Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets AP George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Reuters George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets AFP via Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets AFP via Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets AFP via Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets A police officer lobs a canister to break up crowds Reuters George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets A protester is treated after inhaling tear gas Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Two police officers stand on the roof of the Third Police Precinct during a face off with a group of protesters Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Protesters outside a Minneapolis police precinct two days after George Floyd died EPA George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Protesters run from tear gas Reuters George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets AP George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Demonstrators gather to protest in Los Angeles AP George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Police remove barricades set by protesters AFP via Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets A fire burns inside of an Auto Zone store near the Third Police Precinct Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Flowers, signs and balloons are left near a makeshift memorial to George Floyd near the spot where he died AFP via Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets A policeman faces a protester holding a placard in downtown Los Angeles AFP via Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets A couple poses with a sign in Los Angeles AFP via Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets MINNEAPOLIS, MN - MAY 27: A man is tended to after sustaining an injury from a projectile shot by police outside the 3rd Police Precinct building on May 27, 2020 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Four Minneapolis police officers have been fired after a video taken by a bystander was posted on social media showing Floyd's neck being pinned to the ground by an officer as he repeatedly said, "I cant breathe". Floyd was later pronounced dead while in police custody after being transported to Hennepin County Medical Center. (Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images) Stephen Maturen Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets A protester reacts after inhaling tear gas Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Getty Images George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Protesters use shopping carts as a barricade Getty Images George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Protesters clash with the police as they demonstrate against the death of George Floyd AFP via Getty Images

Ms Tirado said she has lost eyesight in her left eye after what she believed was a rubber bullet hit her in the face  although Minneapolis Police told The New York Times they have not used them for decades.

If someone believes that we have injured them, we encourage people to contact our Internal Affairs Unit or the Office of Police Conduct Review, John Elder, a police spokesperson told the newspaper, adding he was not aware of the incident at the time.

Ms Tirado told The New York Times: I was aiming my next shot, put my camera down for a second, and then my face exploded.

The Minneapolis Police Department has been approached for comment by The Independent.

Protesters have taken to the streets in Minneapolis  as well as in other US cities and across the world  after Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, was killed after he pleaded for air as a policeman kept him pinned to the ground.

Derek Chauvin, the now-fired officer, was charged with third-degree murder on Friday.

Tens of thousands of people have joined nightly protests across the US since Floyds death, with at least 1,600 people arrested in 22 cities as some demonstrations descended into violence.

From Los Angeles to Miami to Chicago, demonstrations marked by chants of I cant breathe  a rallying cry echoing Floyds dying words  began peacefully on Saturday before escalating as people blocked traffic, torched cars and businesses, and clashed with riot police  some responding with tear gas and rubber bullets.

Hundreds gathered in Trafalgar Square in London for a Black Lives Matter demonstration on Sunday, with some holding signs reading Justice for George and Rest in power.

Additional reporting by agencies
With the United Kingdom preparing to relax some curbs related to coronavirus lockdown, Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has called on citizens to not become complacent warning that the virus still posseses significant risk. Sturgeon while talking to the press urged citizens to stay cautious even though the country is preparing to reopen.

Read: UK's Dominic Raab Says 'targeted Approach' Would Be Adopted If COVID-19 Cases Spike

The United Kingdom is slowly moving towards the reopening of the country allowing small and non-essential businesses to open up with limited restrictions from June 1. According to reports, schools in the country will start to reopen from June 1 and six people can get together at the same time moving on from earlier rule of just two people. The easing in lockdown has drawn criticism from some health experts in the country who feel it is too early to reopen.

Read: UK Minister Suggests Local Lockdowns To Fight Second Coronavirus Spike

COVID-19 outbreak

The deadly coronavirus infection has claimed more than 3,69,000 lives across the world and has infected over 6 million people globally since it first broke out in December 2019. The United States remains the worst affected country with over 1,00,000 deaths and 1.7 million cases.

The United Kingdom is also among the countries most affected by the pandemic with 2,74,000 infections and 38,400 deaths, according to figures by Johns Hopkins University. The virus is believed to have originated from a seafood market in China's Wuhan city, the supposed epicentre of the disease, where animals were reportedly being traded illegally.

Read: UK To Allow 2.2 Million Clinically Extremely Vulnerable People To Go Outside

Read: UK PM Claps For Health Workers Along With Countrymen To Express Gratitude

(Image Credit: AP)


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Linkedin Devina Heriyanto (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sun, May 31, 2020 10:04 600 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdb244fd 1 Books Book,Rutger-Bregman,Humankind,interview,Bloomsbury Free

What if people are inherently kind?

This question remains at the heart of Humankind, a newly published book by Rutger Bregman, a Dutch historian and author of Utopia for Realists.

Bregman refutes the grim and cynical view of humanity, which often highlights people's capacity for evil and violence, saying that historical data and modern research suggests that there is good in every human.

Besides the elaboration on the thesis of kindness, Humankind also explores how our cynical view of humanity might be detrimental to society and how we can improve the system with this new realism approach, which can be applied in many fields, from education, management and law enforcement to counterterrorism and politics.

Read also: 'Humankind' brings out the best in humanity

The Jakarta Post spoke with Bregman via email to discuss cooperation in times of separation, the news industry and how we can see more kindness in the world.

You open the book with the story of the Blitz, on how people come together in a time of crisis. We are in the middle of one, and yet, due to physical distancing, we are separated from one another. How do you think this will affect solidarity and cooperation between people?

If you follow the news, its easy to become cynical. And sure, weve seen some depressing stories about people hoarding toilet paper, for example. But when we zoom out, well see that the vast majority of the behavior is actually prosocial. Billions of people around the globe are following the guidelines of health authorities and have totally changed their lives in just a couple of weeks. Its the greatest explosion of cooperation this world has ever seen.

In the book, you point a finger at the media for spreading cynicism and highlighting, if not sometimes exaggerating, the worst part of humanity. What are your suggestions for the news industry?

Its important to make a distinction between the news and journalism. The news is about recent, incidental and sensational events. Its mostly about exceptions. So if you follow a lot of the news, and you only hear about these exceptions, then at the end of the day youll know exactly how the world does not work. And youll be quite pessimistic as well. Psychologists have a term for this: "mean world syndrome".

I think its important that journalists zoom out, and focus on the bigger, structural forces that govern our lives. I also think its important that they are constructive. This means that they dont just write about the problems, but also about the solutions, and the people who are helping us move forward.

I think it's somewhat interesting that you mention a lot of names for humanity in the book (homo puppy, homo ludens, homo economicus), but do not once write about homo homini lupus, not even to debunk this. Was this a deliberate choice? Do you have more thoughts on this?

The idea that "a man is a wolf to another man" is very strange. It the first place, we know now that human beings are actually one of the most friendly and cooperative species in the animal kingdom  this is the secret of our success. Its the reason why we conquered the globe instead of the Neanderthals. On the other hand, wolves can be quite cooperative as well. So maybe its not really an insult to be compared to wolves.

You devote one part of the book to education, how seeing children as responsible and full of potential might actually help them grow. But do you have any tips for parents, on how they can educate children to be more compassionate and less cynical?

Children are born as emphatic and compassionate beings  so you dont have to teach them generosity, its in their nature to be friendly. We know from scientific studies that infants as young as six months old can distinguish right from wrong and have a preference for the good over the bad. I think its important to design our education and our schools around that insight, to bring out the best in our kids. So dont try to teach them to be cynical, but give them the freedom to play and explore.

There have been too many instances in which we've witnessed that power indeed corrupts. You cited a TV program, The People's Parliament, as example of how citizen politicians might produce better debates than career politicians. Ireland also has Citizens' Assembly, which has produced significant results in its four years of establishment. I'm just wondering if you think that this could be replicated in a bigger country, such as Indonesia, with 250 million people and its challenging geography.

Why not? The biggest experiments with participatory democracy have actually taken place in Brazil, a huge country as well. And these experiments have been very successful. An important study from 2014 found that involving citizens more in our democracies results in "increases in health care spending, increases in civil society organizations, and decreases in infant mortality rates". Whats not to like?

In the book you devote a chunk to dissecting the conditions that necessitate evil or evil acts. But what are the prerequisites so that we can have more kindness in the world?

What you assume in other people is what you get out of them. So if we assume that most people are evil and selfish, well design our schools and organizations, our prisons and democracies around that idea. It will become a self-fulfilling prophecy. But we can turn this around. We can design our institutions in a very different way: more trusting, more egalitarian, less hierarchical. Believing in the good of humanity is a revolutionary act  it means that we dont need all those managers and CEOs, kings and generals. That we can trust people to govern themselves and make their own decisions.

Last, what would so say to someone who has grown so tired of the world in hopes that they might start to believe that humans are actually pretty decent?

Study history. Study science. In the last 15 to 20 years, there has been a silent revolution in science. Experts from a variety of disciplines  anthropology, archaeology, sociology, psychology etc.  have moved from a quite pessimistic view of human nature to a much more hopeful view. And its exactly what we need right now. Remember: cynicism is another word for laziness. If we want to face the great challenges of this century, we have to start believing in ourselves. (wng)

The book is available at Transit Bookstore and Periplus as preorder.
If you're interested in submitting a Letter to the Editor, click here.

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The National Guard sets up near the Lake Street/Midtown metro station as buildings continue to burn in the aftermath of a night of protests and violence following the death of George Floyd, in Minneapolis, Minn., on May 29, 2020. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

More States Mobilize National Guard in Response to Violent Riots Following George Floyd Death

More states have called in the National Guard amid protests and violent rioting following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody on May 25.

The governors of Texas, Georgia, Colorado, Missouri, Utah, and California joined several other states in mobilizing the National Guard on May 30 in an effort to control those demonstrations that turn violent.

After numerous discussions with state and local leaders, I have signed an order authorizing the activation of up to 3,000 National Guard troops statewide ahead of several planned protests on Sunday, May 31, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp wrote in a tweet late May 30.

These highly trained citizen-soldiers will partner will law enforcement to preserve peace and protect Georgians in every corner of our great state, he added.

Utah Gov. Gary Herbert also said he had activated the National Guard, adding that the state condemns violence and looting.

I have activated the National Guard to help control the escalating situation in downtown Salt Lake City. I once again call on all who are protesting to do so peacefully, he wrote on Twitter.

In a press release issued May 30, Missouri Gov. Mike Parson said he had signed an executive order declaring a state of emergency in Missouri due to civil unrest, and noted that the Missouri National Guard and the Missouri Highway Patrol were ready to support local authorities. He didnt say when or how they would be used.

We are deeply saddened by the tragic death of George Floyd. We are also saddened by the acts of violence that have transpired across our nation and state in response to this event. At this time, we are taking a proactive approach to protect Missouri and its people, Parson said.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott also activated the Guard in response to protests throughout the state, noting that Texans have every right to exercise their first amendment rights, but violence and looting will not be tolerated.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis also said he had authorized the Colorado National Guard to support city officials with public safety activities through the weekend, and noted that Denver Mayor Michael Hancock had done the same to help keep people safe and prevent further destruction.

Hancock implemented a citywide curfew in Denver that went into effect May 30 from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m., and remains in place each night until June 1. The curfew will be enforced, and violators face up to a $999 fine or one year in jail; however those who need to travel for essential activities for health and safety and employees traveling to and from work will be exempt.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said the California National Guard was being deployed to Los Angeles overnight on May 30 to support our local response to maintain peace and safety on the streets of our city.

Ohio, Washington state, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Minnesota, and Washington have also mobilized their National Guard in response to protests.

Widespread protests have broken out across the United States in recent days following the death of Floyd, a 46-year-old black man whom police sought to arrest outside a south Minneapolis grocery store on Memorial Day for alleged fraud.

A citizens cellphone video showed an officerwho has since been identified as 44-year-old Derek Chauvinkneeling on Floyds neck for almost eight minutes as Floyd repeatedly said he couldnt breathe and begged officers not to kill him. He eventually became unresponsive, with one witness noting that his nose was bleeding. The footage spread quickly on social media.

Floyd, a father of two, was pronounced dead May 25 after he was taken into custody by authorities and on May 26, all four officers involved in Floyds arrestChauvin, Thomas Lane, Tou Thao, and J. Alexander Kuengwere fired from the Minneapolis Police Department, according to a news release issued by the Minneapolis Department of Public Safety.

While many people seek to peacefully protest Floyds death, much of the protests have degenerated into chaotic riots and wide-scale looting, particularly in Minneapolis, which has seen a majority of the rioters coming from out of state, St. Paul, Minnesota, Mayor Melvin Carter said in a press conference early May 30.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump on May 30 warned individuals who are crossing state lines to incite violence could be committing a federal crime, writing on Twitter: 80% of the RIOTERS in Minneapolis last night were from OUT OF STATE. They are harming businesses (especially African American small businesses), homes, and the community of good, hardworking Minneapolis residents who want peace, equality, and to provide for their families.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has greeted children of all ethnic groups across the country on International Children's Day, which falls on June 1.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, called on children to study hard, firm up their ideals and convictions and develop strong bodies and minds to prepare for realizing the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation.

Xi noted that children nationwide have experienced a special period during the country's fight against COVID-19 as all Chinese people stand united.

Witnessing the great feats of Chinese people working together and rising to challenges, the children have followed the call of the Party and the government to support the anti-epidemic battle with their concrete actions, demonstrating the fine spirit of the country's children, Xi said.

He stressed that China's children today are not only undergoing and witnessing the realization of the country's first centenary goal, they are also a new force for achieving the second centenary goal and building China into a great modern socialist country.

Xi urged Party committees and governments at all levels as well as the society to care for children and create favorable conditions for their growth.
AFP

The Railway Protection Force data, as reviewed by Hindustan Times, says nearly 80 migrant workers died of starvation or heat sickness while travelling on special trains to their home villages amid the lockdown to contain the coronavirus. Read more

Here's more top news of the day:

1) Concerns Rise As 11 More Healthcare Workers Test Covid-19 Positive At AIIMS, Total Reaches 206

AP

The frontline warriors are among those most exposed to the deadly virus which has infected millions around the world. At Delhi's AIIMS hospital, 11 more healthcare workers,including two resident doctors, tested positive for COVID-19 infection, taking the total infected to 206 so far. Read more

2) In Maharashtra, Relatives Flout Norms & Open Body Bag For Funeral; Now 18 Have Tested Positive

Representational Image/Thinkstock

Openly flouting the norms to be observed while collecting the body of a patient who died of COVID-19, a family opened the body bag in Maharashtra's Ulhasnagar and now as many as 18 members of the family have tested positive for coronavirus. Read more

3) Someone Has Filed A Plea In SC Asking For Replacing The Word India With 'Bharat' Or 'Hindustan'

AP

A plea seeking direction to Centre to amend the Constitution and replace the word India with 'Bharat' or 'Hindustan', claiming it will "instill a sense of pride in our own nationality," will be heard in Supreme Court on June 2. Read more

4) Sons Refuse To Allow Their 80-Year-Old Mother Inside House Over Coronavirus Fears

In a very upsetting incident, an 80-year-old woman was allegedly not allowed into their house in Telangana's Karimnagar by her sons out of coronavirus fear as she returned from Maharashtra, the worst-hit by the disease in India. Read more

5) Donald Trump Announces US Pulling Out Of WHO In Middle Of Global Pandemic. Here's What It Means

Reuters

US President Donald Trump has announced that he is "terminating" the country's relationship with the World Health Organisation (WHO). He added that the US will redirect funds intended for the agency to other global health projects. Read more
(Natural News) President Donald Trump has signed an executive order directing federal agencies to develop new regulations under an existing law that protects social media companies from being sued for user content.

The regulations are aimed to protect users from unfair or deceptive content restriction practices that may be employed by these companies.

The order, signed by Trump on May 28, may force social media giants such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to ease their current content restrictions, especially those regarding political speech or they risk losing significant liability protections.

Trumps decision to sign the order is seen as an escalation of his ongoing spat with Twitter.

The social media platform recently came into the spotlight after it annotated two of Trumps tweets regarding mail-in ballots with a fact-checking label.

This move from the social media website, Trump said, is tantamount to election interference.

The choices that Twitter makes when it chooses to suppress, edit, blacklist, shadowban are editorial decisions, pure and simple, the president said, adding that by fact-checking his tweets, the social media platform ceased to become a neutral entity, and instead, became an editor.

Twitter launched its fact-checking labels early this year in a bid to combat the spread of what it called misinformation regarding the Wuhan coronavirus on its platform.

Trump, in a statement, accused Twitter of selectively applying its fact-check labeling, noting that the San Francisco-based company has the power to choose what to fact-check and what to ignore or promote on its site. (Related: Twitter to add warning labels to misleading coronavirus tweets  but whos fact-checking Twitter?)

The order signed by Trump calls for the creation of new regulations under section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, all of which will ensure that social media companies that engage in any sort of censoring or political conduct will be stripped of their liability shields.

As stipulated in the constitution, Section 230 largely exempts online platforms such as social media websites and the like from any liability for content posted by their users, although they can be held liable for content that violates anti-sex trafficking laws or posts that infringe on existing intellectual properties.

Attorney General William Barr, during Trumps announcement of the executive order, said the 1996 Communications Decency Act was only meant to protect a fledgling industry, and that it has since been stretched way beyond its original intention, and people feel that on both sides of the aisle.

Were fed up with it. What I think we can say is that were going to regulate it, Trump said just before signing the order, which he claimed would uphold freedom of speech.

Trump, before getting flagged, was an avid user of the platform, which he used to send out unfiltered messages and statements to the public and to his supporters.

Trump order prompts social media outcry

Twitter, responding to Trumps order, said the presidents action is a reactionary and politicized approach to a landmark law, adding that any attempts to purposely weaken Section 230 would effectively threaten the future of online speech.

In a series of tweets, Twitter founder Jack Dorsey noted that the social media platform will continue to point out incorrect or disputed information, adding that doing so does not make their platform an arbiter of truth, a reference perhaps to Facebook founder and head Mark Zuckerbergs statement that privately owned social media platforms must not act as arbiters of truth when it comes to the content that its users choose to upload or post.

Our intention is to connect the dots of conflicting statements and show the information in dispute so people can judge for themselves, Dorsey said.

Law expert Jack Balkin, who teaches constitutional law at Yale University, said in an interview with Al Jazeera that Trump is merely seeking to frighten and coerce social media companies to leave him alone and refrain from doing what Twitter did.

Online juggernaut Google, which owns YouTube and several other media sharing platforms, noted in a statement that changing Section 230 would likely hurt the American economy, as well as its position as a global leader on internet freedom.

Twitter refuses to back down, flags another Trump tweet for glorifying violence

Twitter, on Friday, once again flagged one of Trumps tweets, noting that the president broke the platforms rules by glorifying violence.

The tweet in question  which can now only be read after clicking on a notice stating that the tweet violated the sites rules  contained a statement noting that when the looting starts [in Minneapolis], the shooting starts.

Trump posted the tweet days after Minneapolis residents launched protests in memory of George Floyd, a black man who was killed by a white police officer in what is considered to be another episode of American police brutality.

FactCheck.news has the latest on social media censorship and misinformation.

Sources include:

TheEpochTimes.com

Politico.com

AlJazeera.com

TechCrunch.com

CBSNews.com

BBC.com

Reuters.com

NPR.org
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When we reimagine education, all stakeholders need to be at the table: teachers, administrators and staff, school board members, taxpayers, parents, and students ... and, OK, Bill Gates and Governor Cuomo. During a time of crisis leaders need to make decisions quickly and definitively. Why flaunt a billionaires offer to dictate change to our education system? Leadership requires trust so we can move forward together.

When the governor closed schools, everyone moved together and provided online content in an emergency situation. Schools are not providing distance learning. Nor are they providing online classes. Educators are doing herculean work to get content and support to students all over NY in any way possible.

It is not all happening online and all students are not engaged. Many students lack the technological tools at home and many school districts lack the technological infrastructure to support online/distance learning. Some parents are guiding these efforts and some are not for many reasons. It is not perfect and there are plenty of areas that need to be improved. We may need to do this again or we may want to use technology to supplement education in the future.

However, New York educators and the governor do not have established trust. This is a complicated relationship that has formed after many poorly implemented educational endeavors, that include, unfunded mandates, broken funding formulas and poorly executed teacher assessments, just to name a few. Multi-billionaire and private-school-educated Bill Gates has scapegoated teachers and intuitions as wasteful in his criticisms of public education. Needless to say, that is not the best way to win friends and influence people.

Now crisis has come. Gates and our governor receive high marks for their leadership. Our governors actions have saved thousands of lives and the Gates Foundations continuing work for world health will contribute to a quick recovery and the prevention of future pandemics.

Now is not the time for the governor and Bill Gates to disguise top-down initiatives for education as part of a pandemic response. This partnership amid these uncertain times should give us all pause. Devising system changes without involving the stakeholders is a formula for failure. The mistrust will continue to grow if our governor pushes forward without providing adequate funding; professional development for educators; technological infrastructure; curriculum for technologically literacy; and appropriate implementation of such plans. Well-designed school systems will happen only after we engage all stakeholders.

Dia Carabajal

Auburn

Dia Carabajal is the Democratic candidate for the state's 126th Assembly District.

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For most of her adult life, Mikaila Harwood Ramone has worked in the food service industry in one form or another.

So, owning a bakery is not a big stretch.

It felt like a calling, Harwood said. Something I was meant to do.

The Butte woman, who has a bachelors degree in French from the University of Montana, has held several jobs  everything from waiting on tables to decorating cakes.

More often than not, her workplaces were small businesses owned by women, which is where Ramone drew a lot of her inspiration.

Understandably, Ramone had some misgivings about opening Mick & Goldies Bakery in the midst of a pandemic.

Did people really want to come out yet? she thought. Did they want to spend money?

Her fears were unfounded.

Butte residents have embraced the new bakery, which opened May 19.

I didnt realize Butte had such a sweet tooth, laughed Harwood, who had run a home-based baking business for a year before opening her own store.

Her menu items include breakfast sandwiches, croissants, morning buns, gluten-free muffins, cheese buns and cookies. Baguettes are also available, along with sugar cookies, cupcakes, a variety of beverages and fruit.

What customers wont find on the menu are donuts.

No, we dont sell donuts, Ramone said emphatically. Town Talk does the best!

To get her business on track took some time, given the pandemic and all its ramifications. Face-to-face meetings came to a halt and Ramone had to rely on emails and phone calls to keep the ball rolling.

It was harder to get into contact with all the right people, Ramone said, and she is thankful to the Butte Health Department, who she said was so helpful in getting things moving ahead.

Family members were helpful, too.

Early on, Ramones mother, Krestie, came with paint brush in hand, ready to help get the business up and running.

Her father, John, has become a daily fixture, buying a few items every day.

Both have been super supportive, Ramone said.

Also on board are two of her five siblings  Eli is the head baker and Natasha works behind the counter.

Ramone is also thankful to the Uptown Butte business owners, who since opening her doors have not only patronized the store, but have given some helpful tips.

The Uptown is a great place, Ramone said. There is nowhere else I want to be.

Although Ramone is feeling a bit overwhelmed, she knows this was a good time to open her business.

I set out to fill a niche, Ramone said. It just feels right.

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Post-Eid bonhomie

The coronavirus pandemic is showing the many sides of various politicians. In Uttar Pradesh, the Muslim clergy is rubbing its eyes in disbelief at the way chief minister Yogi Adityanath has started behaving. Apparently, a day after Eid, he personally called up some Muslim notables complimenting them on the way Eid prayers were offered throughout the sprawling state without any major violation of lockdown or of social distancing norms. Yogi reportedly promised to visit some Muslim centres, too. During the anti-CAA stir, the Yogi administration was seen by Muslims as rather suppressive and occasionally high-handed.

Chouhan CoV-impeded

The cabinet expansion in the Shivraj Singh Chouhan ministry seems jinxed. Mr Chouhan, under pressure from Jyotiraditya Scindia camp followers, wants to expand his council of ministers to accommodate those who had defected from the Congress. But each time Mr Chouhan contemplates something, the coronavirus scare prevents him from going ahead. This week, when everything appeared fine and final, six employees at Bhopals Raj Bhawan tested Covid-19 positive, converting the venue of the swearing-in into a red, containment zone. Mr Chouhan has reason to worry as the Rajya Sabha polls are slated to be held in the state, and Assembly by-elections to 24 seats are due.

Uddhav safe for now?

There is a build-up of doubt regarding the longevity of Uddhav Thackeray-led coalition government in Maharashtra. Well-placed sources think it is a creation of former state BJP chief minister Devender Fadnavis who is wary of the overtures made by rivals such as Narayan Rane. Delhi  the euphemism for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home minister Amit Shah combine  does not seem to be interested in toppling the Thackeray ministry.

Jogis identity capital

The late Ajit Jogi was a pragmatic politician. The former Chhattisgarh chief minister used to make full use of his satnami harijan, tribal and Christian credentials as per the political situation he faced. His tribal record was legally contested, as was his acceptance of Christian faith, which remained hazy in the public domain. Once a Muslim Congress politician was given charge of the state where Mr Jogi was a stakeholder. The bureaucrat-turned-politician would seek help pointing that he was ahle-kitab [follower of the same book(s)]. Mr Jogis exit from the Congress and fallout with the Nehru-Gandhi families remains mired in mystery. According to some in the know of things, the Gandhis and Mr Jogi fell out over the (in)famous Balco deal. P. Chidambaram is said to have briefed 10 Janpath in such a manner that no church or Christianity came to his rescue.

DA matters dearly

Central government employees and retired officials are deeply exercised over the denial of dearness allowance till July 2021. The Central government has suspended DA in view of the coronavirus pandemic, but babus have their own issues. DA matters a lot to those on verge of retirement as their pension is fixed as per salary and DA structure at the time of retirement. This fixing of pension has financial repercussion on a retiring official's finance for the remainder of his/her life. There are thousands who retire virtually every month at all levels at the Centre and in the states.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-31 17:36:30|Editor: huaxia

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LOS ANGELES, May 30 (Xinhua) -- California governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in Los Angeles County on Saturday night on the fourth straight day of protests over the death of African American George Floyd.

Newsom also authorized assistance by the National Guard in coping with the unrest in downtown Los Angeles.

A document signed by him said the state government made this decision based on the request by the city and the county of Los Angeles, which, with a population of more than 10 million population, is the most populous county in the United States.

It also attributed the Los Angeles protests to a response to the death of George Floyd.

"On May 25, 2020, George Floyd tragically died in Minneapolis, Minnesota, shortly following his arrest in which an officer of the Minneapolis Police Department kneeled on his neck to detain him during the arrest, and then did not respond to Mr. Floyd's requests for help when he stated that he could not breathe," the document read.

A curfew announced by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti on Saturday afternoon took effect in the second largest city of the United States, from 8:00 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. local time for Saturday going into Sunday.

Several other cities in the Los Angeles area on Saturday imposed curfews beginning at 8:00 p.m. as well. They included Pasadena, Santa Monica, West Hollywood and Beverly Hills.

The protest over Floyd's death went into the fourth straight day on Saturday in Los Angeles city. Thousands of protesters on Saturday afternoon took to the streets of the downtown Fairfax District, home to some shopping streets with boutiques and specialty stores, to express their anger over the killing of the unarmed Minnesota black man by a white police officer.

But the demonstration turned into riots later.

Video clips posted online showed that the storefront windows and ATM machines on the street there were broken, and that an Adidas flagship store, a two-floor Nordstrom department store and a Ray-Ban sunglasses flagship boutique had been looted.

"This is no longer a protest," Garcetti told the NBC4 news Saturday night. "This is vandalism. This is destruction."

Local media said about 1,000 National Guard members were expected to be on the scene starting around midnight to help restore order.

More than 530 people were arrested Friday night and early Saturday after protests turned violent in downtown Los Angeles, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. Enditem
Surreal is, perhaps, the only way to describe marking of the first anniversary of the Modi 2.0 government. As the government data detailing the pre-coronavirus disease destruction of the economy and the consequent ruination of crores of lives during the last year was being released, Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi was writing to all of us describing the year as a golden chapter in the history of Indian democracy. This ruination has been aggravated by the coronavirus pandemic and the unplanned and abrupt unilateral lockdown announced by the PM. This lockdown has neither strengthened the efforts to combat the pandemic nor has it provided any relief to beleaguered citizens. The situation continues to worsen.

India appears to have entered a post-truth society. The Oxford Dictionary defines post-truth as relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief. The propaganda and spin machine of the government projects a surreal world divorced from the truth.

The first year of this government has been traumatic. Apart from all other issues such as the economic downturn, increase in peoples miseries, assaults on democratic rights and civil liberties, this year has been traumatic for the single-minded focus with which this government began to systematically undermine Indias secular, democratic, republican order.

Among the attacks  the delivery of a verdict and not justice in the Ram temple site dispute in Ayodhya, the triple talaq criminalisation of only Muslim men, not other for deserting their wives  are two that spring to mind immediately.

Modi 2.0 began with an immediate assault on the Constitution with the abrogation of Article 370. In one stroke, the state of Jammu and Kashmir became a part of history and was bifurcated into Union territories. The promises made during the freedom movement and the Constitution have been betrayed. The manner in which this was done was an affront to the constitutional scheme of things. By dissolving the elected assembly and not holding the elections along with the 2019 general elections, this government deliberately bypassed the constitutional stipulation that the border of any state in India cannot be altered without the concurrence of the assembly. As the assembly was non-existent, the governor appointed by the Centre was presumed to be the substitute, whose consent was naturally obtained. The entire exercise was done surreptitiously.

Then came the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), a brazen violation of the Constitution in stipulating religion as a criterion for citizenship. The Constitution underlines the equality of every citizen, irrespective of caste, creed, gender or any other attribute. The corollary to CAA was the National Population Register on whose basis the National Register of Citizens would be prepared. This exercise was rightly seen by many as the intensification of communal polarisation that feeds into the larger construct of targeting the Muslim minority. These two, along with many other assaults, are part of the effort to transform a secular, democratic, republican India into an intolerant theocratic, exclusivist fascistic state, which is the project of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological mentor of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Citizenship is the fundamental requirement for every other right provided by the Constitution. Once people are stripped of their citizenship, they stand automatically stripped of all their rights and liberties in India.

These assaults on the Constitution were accompanied by the weakening of the constitutional institutions. Both these issues were challenged in the Supreme Court (SC) and continues to remain there without being heard, considered or adjudicated on. The SC has chosen to consider matters such as anticipatory bail to journalists charged with aiding campaigns of hate as being more important than the defence of the Constitution. From the deepest recesses of my memory come surging images of courts during South Africas apartheid regime where criminals were acquitted, and the victims prosecuted. Retired SC Justice Gopala Gowda recently commented that the draconian experience of the infamous ADM Jabalpur case in which anyone considered a political threat to authorities could be taken into custody without trial, during the Emergency, is now passe.

The four foundational pillars of the Constitution  secular democracy; social justice; federalism; and economic self-reliance  are taking a severe beating. Sharpening communal polarisation and the undermining of secularism are accompanied by attacks on any expression of dissent. Draconian laws such as the Sedition Act, the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and the National Security Act are used. The stigma of social oppression has worsened.

There is increasing centralisation of all authority by the central government bypassing elected state governments, negating federalism. A unitary State is required not only to centralise authority to facilitate the realisation of the RSS project but also to create a surveillance-based security State.

The grandiose announcement of ~20 lakh crore financial package in the name of self-reliance is nothing but a blueprint for Indias self-subservience. It provides profit maximisation for foreign and domestic corporates. The net result will be the further widening of economic inequalities which have already reached alarming levels.

Such are the dark clouds that have engulfed the Indian Republic during the last year. The silver lining must be enlarged by all of us together to overshadow and consume these dark clouds.

Sitaram Yechury is general secretary, CPI(M)

The views expressed are personal

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From Portland to Pensacola, violent protests flared in more than 30 cities across the U.S. this weekend in the wake of the death of George Floyd, an African American man who pleaded that he could not breathe after a white police officer kneeled on his neck for more than eight minutes during an arrest.

Why did Floyds death spark such widespread, visceral outrage, while three other deaths of African Americans this year  Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia and Tony McDade, a black transgender man killed by police officers in Tallahassee  did not?

An array of combustible issues converged to form a perfect storm of civil unrest after Floyds death and could lead to longer-lasting changes, experts and protest organizers said.

For starters, the coronavirus pandemic that has sequestered most Americans to their homes, forced millions into unemployment and has disproportionately infected African Americans already had many black Americans and white supporters simmering with rage and frustration, said Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the National Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

The depths of despair are enormous right now for black people in this country, she said. You pile on unchecked police violence and it makes for a perfect storm.

Throughout the weekend and across the country, police cars and government buildings burned, the National Guard was deployed into major U.S. cities, and some cities instituted curfews. In one Midwest city, a person was killed and at least two more shot.

In Atlanta, protesters stormed the CNN Center while its mayor pleaded for calm, and in Washington, the White House went on lockdown after protesters massed outside. Protests also flared in Louisville, Philadelphia, Detroit, Austin, Charlottesville, Va., and Columbus, Ohio.

More than 1,400 people were arrested in 16 cities since Thursday. More than 500 of those happening in Los Angeles on Friday, the Associated Press reported.

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Fired Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was arrested Friday on charges of third-degree murder and manslaughter after Floyds death. A bystanders video caught more than eight minutes of Chauvin's knee pinning Floyds neck as the suspect lay on the ground and pleaded for help before eventually passing out.

That video, which went viral, is another key reason his death has sparked so much outrage, said Keneshia Grant, a Howard University political scientist. The moments leading to Arberys death also were captured on video, but the footage of Floyds final moments  with the victim repeatedly saying he couldn't breathe and asking for his mother while irate bystanders pleaded with police to stop  caused a much deeper emotional wound in those who watched it, she said.

Also, President Donald Trumps controversial response to the incident and the protests it sparked may have driven more protesters to the streets, Grant said. Trump in a tweet on Friday called the violent protesters THUGS, adding that he was ready to send in the military if things got out of control and when the looting starts, the shooting starts.

America does not have a leader to bring people together, Grant said. We didnt get a tweet that told everyone to Kumbaya and hold hands. We got a tweet about looting and shooting.

Demonstrators protest in Centennial Olympic Park, Friday, May 29, 2020 in Atlanta. Protests were organized in cities around the United States following the death of George Floyd during an arrest in Minneapolis.

Calvetta Williams, founder of Mother's Against Violence in Des Moines, Iowa, normally organizes small rallies of 100 or 200 people for local victims of gun violence. But when she saw the video of Floyd's demise, she felt she needed to organize something bigger.

She posted an event invite on her group's Facebook site, which garnered 400 "likes." On Saturday, more than 1,000 protesters showed up for a peaceful march along University Avenue near downtown.

"It was beautiful," Williams, 49, said. "It felt like I was part of a movement."

For Williams, it was Floyd's desperate pleas for his mother while subdued by police that struck a chord with her and prompted her to act. Another rally was scheduled for Sunday.

"It hit my spirit, my soul," Williams said of the viral video. "I was angry. I felt I needed to stand up and show my support."

The large-scale rallies that spread through nearly every major city in America over the weekend resemble the mass protests that materialized during the 1960s civil rights movement led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., said Jill Savitt, executive director of the National Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta.

Those incidents and the protests that followed led to significant policy shifts, she said. The murders of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, three civil rights activists, in 1964 helped push the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, she said. And the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches, which dissolved into bloody confrontations with local law enforcement, helped propel the signing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Savitt said.

Similar policy and systemic changes could result from todays protests, she said.

You hate that you need tragedies like this for change, but history tells us thats what happens, Savitt said. Were having a societal shake of the lapels.

Silas Lee, a sociologist at Xavier University of Louisiana, said he has also been impressed by the large number of white and brown protesters taking part in the rallies. Large-scale civil right protests dont effect change unless widely supported by Americas diverse populations, he said.

This is not just an African American issue, he said. Its a white issue, its a brown issue, its a human issue.

A protester argues that property damage can be repaired May 28 in front of a burned-out building in Minneapolis after the death of George Floyd.

Grant, the Howard University political scientist, said the protests wont work without widespread multicultural support. White people have to figure out why theyre afraid of black people, she said, why theyre not appalled by these killings.

She added: Black people have been trying to do something for 400 years: Assert their humanity. And it hasnt worked.

Contributing: Deborah Barfield Berry

Follow Jervis on Twitter: @MrRJervis.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: George Floyd: Anger over his death sparked in part by coronavirus
UPDATE (6/1): Pa. coronavirus cases reach 72K, but number of new cases hit 2-month low. State reports no new deaths in Lehigh Valley.

The number of new coronavirus cases went up by 511 on Sunday, according to the latest information released by the Pennsylvania Department of Health on May 31, 2020. The total number of COVID-19 cases statewide now stands at 71,926.

Every county in Pennsylvania has at least one case. The state reported another 18 new deaths, bringing the total to 5,555 coronavirus-related deaths since the first case was reported in Pennsylvania in March.

The number of cases in the Lehigh Valley went up by 38, from 6,809 to 6,848. Those statistics include Lehigh and Northampton counties.

Cant see the map? Click here.

Coronavirus in Pa.

Last week 18 counties entered the green phase of Gov. Tom Wolfs reopening plan and all counties are expected to be out of the red phase by June 5.

Pennsylvania Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine warned residents not to lower their guard against the spread of the disease.

We need to remember that the threat from COVID-19 has not gone away, she said. As counties move into the yellow and green phases, we must take personal responsibility to protect others. Wearing a mask, continuing to maintain social distancing, and washing your hands frequently are all steps we can take to help protect others, including our most vulnerable Pennsylvanians, our essential workers and our healthcare system.

There are 620 patients who have a positive serology test and either COVID-19 symptoms or a high-risk exposure, which are considered probable cases and not confirmed cases, according to the state. There are 383,111 patients who have tested negative to date.

Most of the patients hospitalized are ages 65 or older, and most of the deaths have occurred in patients 65 or older. In nursing and personal care homes, there are 15,486 resident cases of COVID-19, and 2,659 cases among employees, for a total of 18,145. About 5,455 of Pennsylvanias total cases are in health care workers.

Coronavirus in the Lehigh Valley

Lehigh County is larger than Northampton County, so it makes sense that county would have more cases of coronavirus. Lehigh Countys total number of cases went from 3,747 on Saturday to 3,765 on Sunday, an increase of 18 cases. Northampton Countys total went from 3,062 cases on Saturday to 3,083 on Sunday, an increase of 21 cases.

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to Lehighvalleylive.com.

Rudy Miller may be reached at rmiller@lehighvalleylive.com. If theres anything about this story that needs attention, please email him. Follow him on Twitter @RudyMillerLV. Find Easton area news on Facebook.
Nordstrom at the Grove after looting (Dakota Smith / Los Angeles Times)

As looters began to descend on the Grove shopping mall on Saturday evening, two security guards outside the Nike store begged protesters not to enter.

Were one of you, one guard said.

Several stores at the upscale shopping mall next to Farmers Market in Los Angeles were hit, including the Nordstrom. A police kiosk at the mall was set on fire but officials were able to extinguish it before it spread.

The crowd rushed into the mall after police attempted to push some of the protesters assembled near 3rd Street. As the looters entered the area, the Grove's outdoor speakers played music  the familiar crooners the shopping mall is known for.

Over a span of 20 minutes, looters broke into stores and emerged with goods. At the Apple Store, people were seen coming out with large boxes. One man and woman took goods from the Sephora beauty products store and placed them into a suitcase.

The Nordstrom department store was ransacked by looters. A police kiosk was burned.

Some stores, including the Gap, had just opened for in-store shopping after officials recently lifted restrictions.

As police cruisers drove into the back entrance of the mall, sirens blaring, looters fled, carrying boxes of shoes and clothes with plastic hangers still attached.

Some scrambled up the hill at nearby Pan Pacific Park, throwing their loot over the fence.

Across the street, another shopping center was hit.

When a protester smashed the front window of the nearby Whole Foods on 3rd Street with a hammer, some screamed, Dont do that! Please! while others cheered.

The protesters began to clash among themselves. Some who urged peace created a barricade of shopping carts around the stores entrance to protect it, but moments later, another group jumped the barricade and broke the stores door down.

More than three dozen officers stormed the scene from the Westside, firing rubber bullets and sending hundreds sprinting. Stop running! one man screamed, standing atop a car with a megaphone. Stand as one! Say his name!

Story continues

Police and protesters were in a tense standoff near the Grove, with police shooting rubber bullets and striking demonstrators with batons. Several police cars were set on fire and other vehicles vandalized. Protesters also took over a Metro bus and climbed onto its roof to record videos of the police.

Speaking to a reporter at the Grove on Saturday evening, Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore said he understood people's anger and frustration but that the city needed to pull together.

"This is not the solution," he said, standing next to the Nordstrom store that was looted. "We haven't given up on L.A., and L.A. shouldn't give up on itself. We can pull around this...Policing doesn't fix these kinds of societal problems. I need all of L.A. to step up right now and be part of the solution."




Rode Microphones founder Peter Freedman has warned that the Morrison governments newfound enthusiasm for reviving the fortunes of Australian manufacturing will fail unless there is a long term commitment to the sector.

The Sydney-based audio equipment maker is a stalwart of the local manufacturing scene, with Mr Freedman a long-standing proponent of building products in Australia instead of lower cost options in China.

Peter Freedman, founder of Rode Microphones, at his factory in Silverwater. Credit:Wolter Peeters

The government recently established a manufacturing taskforce headed up by former Dow chemicals boss and advisor to Donald Trump Andrew Liveris in an effort to ensure key products are made in Australia.

But Mr Freedman said reviving Australian manufacturing would require a sustained push from government."The problem is that they're looking for short term solutions," Mr Freedman said. "And there are no short term solutions here, none at all."
Minneapolis, May 31 : Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as activated "full mobilization" of the National Guard after four straight nights of violent protests in the US state's biggest city of Minneapolis over the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, in police custody.

The move on Saturday represents the largest domestic deployment in the Minnesota National Guard's 164-year history, Xinhua news agency.

More than 1,000 additional Citizen-Soldiers and Airmen will be activated on Saturday, according to a tweet from the state's National Guard.

This is in addition to the 700 that were on duty as of late last night, the tweet said.

Thousands of protesters took to the streets of Minneapolis on Friday night, defying a citywide 8 p.m. curfew that had been announced earlier that day.

Businesses were burned and vandalized, as the rioting continued, said local media reports.

"So, let's be very clear. The situation in Minneapolis is no longer, in any way, about the murder of George Floyd," the Governor said at a press conference on Saturday morning.

"It is about attacking civil society, instilling fear and disrupting our great cities." Floyd, aged 46, died on Monday after Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, held him down with a knee on his neck though he repeatedly pleaded, "I can't breathe", and "please, I can't breathe".

Chauvin was arrested and charged with three-degree murder and manslaughter on Friday.

Floyd's plea before his death evoked African-Americans' painful memories and sparked a nationwide cry for justice.

In 2014, an unarmed black man, Eric Garner, repeatedly saying "I can't breathe" when a New York officer held him in a chokehold before his death in police custody.

Since then, the plea has become a rallying cry at demonstrations against police misconduct across the country.

Floyd's death has led to violent protests in other major US cities.

In New York, officials on Saturday denounced acts of violence that took place during the protests, leading to the arrest of 300 protesters .

Mayor Bill de Blasio said at a briefing that some protesters "came with an agenda of violence and incitement", and the city does not allow it to happen.

Since Thursday, thousands of New Yorkers have taken to the street to voice their anger over police brutality and racism in the country that together led to Floyd's death.

On Saturday, more people joined demonstrations held at various locations across the city.

Meanwhile, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan announced a city-wide curfew from 5 p.m. to 5 a.m. after protests broke out downtown.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti also announced that a curfew will be in effect in the city's downtown that began from 8 p.m. Saturday to 5.30 a.m. Sunday following four days of demonstrations.

On Friday night, multiple businesses were looted and damaged in an unrest in downtown Los Angeles that ended with more than 530 arrests and six policemen injured.

A Friday night protest in the Northern California city of Oakland turned into a riot with dozens of protestors arrested.

The city's Police Department said in a tweet that the peaceful demonstration turned out to be an unlawful assembly and multiple officers were injured.

In Texas, Governor Greg Abbott has sent state resources to ensure peaceful protests in cities.

Abbott said the Texas Department of Public Safety has sent more than 1,500 officers to assist local police departments in the cities of Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Austin.

His move came after four police officers were injured in Houston on Friday night as nearly 200 people were arrested in a night of chaos in the city's downtown.

The rally started Friday afternoon and deteriorated into violence in the evening. By Saturday morning, broken windows and graffiti were seen as the crowds dispersed.

Protests over Floyd's death also took place in a number of other US cities, including Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Denver, Phoenix and Memphis, local media reported, adding that more demonstrations were expected to take place across the country.
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North Korea on Friday lashed out at the United States for issuing an advisory last month over the communist regime's cyber threats.

"To put it clearly, our state has nothing to do at all with what is claimed by the U.S. to be a cyber threat," Pyongyang's foreign ministry said in an English statement on its website.

"The U.S. should be clearly aware that worthless and worn-out plots and fabrications invented continuously by themselves will no longer work against the international community," it added.

On April 15, four U.S. government agencies issued a joint advisory highlighting the cyber threat posed by North Korea.

"The DPRK's malicious cyber activities threaten the United States and the broader international community and, in particular, pose a significant threat to the integrity and stability of the international financial system," the advisory said, referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

The advisory also said that North Korea has relied on cybercrimes to raise funds to develop weapons of mass destruction and carry out ballistic missile programs. (Yonhap)
RALEIGH, N.C.Sunday, the cleanup of downtown Raleigh begins.

As the sun came up, hours after a protest turned destructive, Raleigh took stock of the damage in the states capital city.

Nearly every shop along Fayetteville Street had shattered windows. Buildings were defaced. And the citys residents were left to pick up the pieces.

A peaceful demonstration Saturday in front of the Wake County Courthouse  one of many protests after George Floyds death in Minneapolis  turned tense around 7 p.m., when officers released tear gas and pepper spray into the crowds near South McDowell and West Davie streets.

As the night wore on, crowds thinned from a peak of more than 1,000. Police repeatedly used tear gas and smoke bombs; and in front of the courthouse on Fayetteville Street, they shot rubber bullets at protesters and journalists.

In the morning, downtown Raleigh lay strewn with garbage and broken glass, nearly every window broken, graffiti spray-painted across its walls.

Caffe Luna restaurant sat wide open on Hargett Street. The Raleigh Times Bar had a head-sized hole through its one remaining window. The merchandise from the CVS in Fayettevlle Street lay on the sidewalk outside. At the DGX dollar store at Blount and Davie streets, the aisles were overturned and the windows smashed. Every bottle of shampoo had been not only knocked to the floor but emptied.

Banks had pigs scrawled on the front doors. Half-empty bottles of whiskey sat on the park benches. Empty tear gas canisters sat on piles of broken glass.

The coolers inside downtown businesses were ransacked, alcohol taken and partially drunk. Gallons of milk sat on the sidewalks with swigs taken out of them. Downtown residents said once the tear gas hit the streets, protesters stole water to pour in their eyes.

On Sunday morning, downtown residents quietly took up garbage bags and joined the cleanup.

Its hard to make sense of, said Carolyn Glover, who lives at Sir Walter Apartments. It was peaceful at 4 oclock. The families. The Blacks and the whites. Then the thugs moved in. I watched them jump on that newspaper box. I watched them break in that bank. It was white and Black. We stood right here until the tear gas was getting in. The tear gas was getting in the windows.

In a Sunday morning tweet, Raleigh Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin called the behaviour of the protesters who turned what had been a peaceful demonstration violent unacceptable.

A small number of individuals later showed up with the intention of inciting violence and chaos, Baldwin said. They threw bottles and bricks at police officers, looted storefronts and damaged countless small businesses. This behavior is unacceptable and will not be tolerated. Their actions in no way align with the goals of those who organized yesterdays protests and they do not reflect who we are as a city.

Floyd, an African-American man, died in Minneapolis on Monday. In a widely circulated video, a white police officer is seen kneeling on Floyds neck while Floyd says he cannot breathe. Floyd was declared dead shortly afterward. The now-fired officer, Derek Chauvin, has been charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.

In the days since Floyds death, protesters have turned out in large numbers in Minneapolis, where they burned a police substation; in Atlanta, where they broke into the CNN building; and in New York, where they rallied in front of the Barclays Center, a symbol of gentrification in Brooklyn.

Crowds also protested in Houston, Los Angeles and in Charlotte, where a Food Lion was broken into and several people were arrested, including a city council member.

The activists in Raleigh were also recognizing Breonna Taylor, a Black woman who was killed March 13 in Louisville, Ky., after police forcibly entered her home to serve a search warrant; and Ahmaud Arbery, a Black man who was fatally shot in Georgia by two white men in Georgia while running.

Several protesters said they were afraid to be Black men in America right now.

Its pretty scary, Donny Durham, 21, of Greensboro, said. Its pretty freaky.

Raleigh police were investigating a shooting at the corner of Blount and Martin streets that left a man wounded at 2:08 a.m. Sunday. The man was transported to WakeMed for treatment.

Police records show six people  five males and one female  were arrested at 4 a.m. for breaking and entering at DGX. All but one of those charged are Wake County residents.

Raleigh police arrested two men at 5 a.m. for resisting a police officer at 200 Fayetteville St.

At 12:15 a.m., Wake County Sheriffs officers arrested a 21-year-old male resident of New York City at 316 S. Fayetteville St., charging him with felony inciting a riot, being intoxicated and disruptive and possession of a controlled substance.

Organized cleanups

At least two groups said on social media that theyll hold organized cleanups in downtown on Sunday. Bill King, president and CEO of the Downtown Raleigh Alliance, asked volunteers to come to Fayetteville and Hargett streets at 10 a.m.

Many have already reached out, so if you want to help clean up downtown Raleigh, bring a broom or shovel, gloves, and a mask tomorrow morning, he tweeted.

Another group of volunteers plans to gather at 10 a.m. by the Sir Walter Raleigh statue by the Raleigh Convention Center, according to Trey Roberts, the co-founder of Raleigh Pride.

Officials respond

At 12:30 a.m., Gov. Roy Cooper said he was in continued contact with Emergency Management officials about violence occurring in some of our cities.

Frustrating that planned peaceful protests about real systemic racism are marred. I am grateful for those seeking justice peacefully, Cooper tweeted.

At 12:45 a.m. N.C. House Speaker Tim Moore said he asked Cooper to immediately send in the National Guard. He followed with livestreamed videos on his Facebook page showing the destruction from above, with police cars, smoke and clusters of activity scatted through downtown. He said hes really is at a loss for words for what to say.

Its one thing to see this on TV, Moore said. Its another thing to see the fire, have the tear gas get in your face, hear the screams.

It was just absolute mayhem, he said. Theres just no words for this.

By 11 p.m., alarms were blaring across downtown. As protesters smashed into the Tattoo Supreme piercing parlour and airbrushing businesses, riot police marched silently and threw tear gas canisters at the crowd.

At Blount and Davie streets near City Market a half hour later, the DGX was on fire. People gathered to watch firefighters battle the blaze. Windows were broken out, and smoke poured out through the front door.

In a video statement early Sunday morning, Raleigh police Chief Cassandra Deck-Brown sharply criticized the vandals and looters, saying, We will not turn a blind eye to the despicable and outright criminal behaviour at the protest.

We as a community are better than this, she said.

She said the Raleigh Police Department absolutely respects and supports the rights of all individuals to peacefully protest and was present to ensure demonstrators safety during what was supposed to be a peacefully assembly.

As the day wore into tonight, and the night into this mornings early hours, some of the individuals began to break store windows, setting fires, looting and simply destroying property, she said. We will not tolerate these acts nor those individuals who seek to sow discord where we seek to build bridges, strengthen partnerships and maintain a safe, vibrant and healthy community.

She added said witnesses to criminal acts at the rally should call Raleigh Police Department.

Two members of the Raleigh city council said on social media that they had been at the protest.

Jonathan Melton tweeted around 6:45 p.m.: The protests around the country offer a space for people to make their voices heard, but they must happen without violence and further loss of life. Its time we have the difficult conversations needed to stamp out racism and end these unjust killings.

On Facebook, Saige Martin wrote: Ive had tear gas deployed on me twice this evening. Thats been nice.

The organizers of Saturdays afternoon rally said they had planned a non-violent event but criticized the Raleigh Police Department for their use of force.

We are committed to supporting peaceful means of ending all forms of racism and violence, the statement said.

Glover, 71, stood outside her apartment building on Fayetteville Street for several hours watching the protest Saturday. It was so wonderful. It was so diverse. People had kids on their shoulders, she said.

I support peaceful protests, Glover said about 9 p.m. over the sound of shattering glass and exploding fireworks. Now theyre just being destructive.
The versatile actor, who plays the role of Kartar, the math whizs friend in London, says he is awestruck by Balans work ethic.

She does brilliantly in front of the camera and she is a powerful performer. I have watched her on reel, but its fascinating to see someone in the flesh, how they are in real life and how they switch into their character when the cameras go on. It was like I was learning the craft from her and felt as though I was back in school because she has the capability of attracting people with her work; she is smart and has that energy in her. She does such amazing work on sets yet she is not big-headed, she is down to earth and warm indeed, shes incredible, Chugh gushes.

When asked about his character, the actor doesnt shy away from giving us details. I am not sure just how much of this film is based on Shakuntala Devis real life. My character is, if I am not mistaken, kind of a mathematician and is also a guest in the guesthouse she stays at. I am one of the people who welcomes her here. My characters name is Kartar, a Punjabi character. As soon as she walks in I have to welcome her, he reveals, adding that the time setting of the film was unique.

The film is set in the 1940s and during those times, women were not very commonly seen travelling alone. But she (Shakuntala Devi) was a powerful woman, much ahead of times and had a very powerful persona. A few scenes were canned in a beautiful house that was made into an old school kind of location, Chugh explains.

Meanwhile, the actor also tells us about his other projects in the pipeline. Apart from Shakuntala Devi, I also starred in the international film Three Dots and a Dash alongside Vinay Pathak, which is in post-production. This film was to release in 2020 but owing to Covid-19, we are waiting to know its release date. I have done many auditions for commercials and I have also auditioned for Akshay Kumar starrer Bell Bottom, he shares before signing off.

Directed by Anu Menon for producer Vikram Malhotra, Shakuntala Devi is slated to release on Amazon Prime Video. However, a release date has not been confirmed yet.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address his monthly radio programme Mann ki Baat at 11am on Sunday on the final day of the fourth phase of nationwide lockdown to control the spread of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19).

The Prime Ministers address may focus on the relaxations being given from June 1, after more than two months of lockdown.

He had announced a 21-day nationwide lockdown on March 24 as a precautionary measure to contain the infections. The lockdown was later extended thrice till May 31.

The 65th edition of Mann ki Baat comes a day after the one-year anniversary of the second term of the Modi government.

The Union ministry of home affairs (MHA) has issued new guidelines for phased re-opening of all activities outside containment zones for the next one month beginning June 1.

India had witnessed the highest-ever single day spike of 7,964 Covid-19 cases on Saturday, taking the countrys tally to 173,763, according to the Union health ministry.

With as many as 265 fatalities reported in the last 24 hours, the death toll due to the virus now stands at 4,971. Out of the total number of Covid-19 infections, 86,422 are active cases and 82,370 have been cured or discharged.

The Prime Minister had focused on the situation prevailing in the country due to the coronavirus pandemic in his last Mann Ki Baat programme and urged people to help the poor, migrants and needy during the lockdown.

PM Modi had said that Indias fight against the coronavirus disease is people-driven and is being fought by the masses and the administration hand in hand.
COVID-19 fatalities may be much more than what is being reported

New AI-based test uses X-rays to detect Covid in a few minutes

Hospitalisations in Delhi during third Covid wave significantly lower than second

Lockdown: From June 1, Goa to get more trains, flights

India

pti-PTI

Panaji, May 31: Trains and flights are expected to arrive in Goa in large numbers from June 1 as the fifth phase of the coronavirus-induced lockdown brings with it a greater rolling back of restrictions, officials said on Sunday.

Konkan Railway public relations officer Baban Ghatge said three trains originating from Delhi and Mumbai will halt at Madgaon station in south Goa from June 1, and so would Mangala Express (New Delhi to Ernakulum), Netravati Express (LTT-Mumbai to Thiruvananthapuram) and Duronto Express (Nizamuddin to Ernakulum).

Full list of trains from June 1: Precautions and other guidelines to follow

The state health department had set up facilities required to test passengers in view of the virus outbreak, he added. The New Delhi-Vasco Goa Express will also start its regular trip from June 1.

Coronavirus: Delhi seeks Rs.5000 Cr from centre to pay employees | Oneindia News

As per Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), anyone arriving in Goa will have to either carry COVID-19 negative certificate from an ICMR-certified lab or get himself tested for the infection here.

The state government has announced a repatriation flight from Dubai to Goa on Monday bringing in Indians from the Middle East.

All eyes on trains as 1.45 lakh people set to travel today

Dixon Vaz, founder president of Goa Seamen Association of India, said two flights of Srilankan Airlines carrying 200 Indians working on different ships abroad are scheduled to land at Goa airport on Monday.

"These people were stranded in Colombo for long. Their flight was cancelled thrice and finally they got a go ahead. At least 7-10 repatriation flights with Indians, especially Goans, from places like London are waiting for the nod to arrive in Goa.

Some 800 Goans working on different ships have already arrived," he added.
San Francisco, May 31 : Google has apparently delayed the launch of Android 11 Beta version as several US cities are currently under protests over death of George Floyd in Minnesota.

The tech giant earlier planned to showcase new features in Android 11 on June 3.

"We are excited to tell you more about Android 11, but now is not the time to celebrate," tweeted Android's developer account.

"We are postponing the June 3rd event and beta release. We'll be back with more on Android 11, soon," it added.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has activated "full mobilization" of the National Guard after four straight nights of violent protests in the US state's biggest city of Minneapolis over the death of Floyd, an unarmed black man, in police custody.

In New York, officials on Saturday denounced acts of violence that took place during the protests, leading to the arrest of 300 protesters.

Some Twitter users, however, questioned Google's move to delay the Android 11 Beta launch owing to political unrest in the US.

"What does politics have to do with postponing the June 3rd event?" tweeted on user.

Another commented: "Google didn't specifically point out but its pretty obvious "now is not the time to celebrate" Android Police also made an article about it implying it's because of George Floyd. Seems ridiculous to postpone a mobile OS event bc of it. PS5 is on schedule".
The management of the University of Benin (UNIBEN) in Edo state has reacted to the alleged rape and murder of Vera Omozuwa, a 100-leve...





The management of the University of Benin (UNIBEN) in Edo state has reacted to the alleged rape and murder of Vera Omozuwa, a 100-level microbiology student of the varsity, inside a church.









The attackers of the student had reportedly smashed her head with a fire extinguisher which left her unconscious and led to her death.





According to NAN, Lilian Salami, the vice-chancellor of the institution, in a statement on Sunday, described the incident as shocking.

In the statement by Benedicta Ehanire, the institutions public relations officer, the VC said the actions of the attackers were reprehensible and should not be condoned in any society.





She said the current COVID-19 pandemic was already hard on everyone and that compounding it with inflicting additional pain on any family was a wicked act.





While commiserating with the bereaved family, Salami prayed God to grant her soul peaceful rest.





The vice chancellor also urged students of the institution and indeed all young people to be wary of the company they kept and the places they visited.





She added that a delegation had been sent by the universitys management to commiserate with the bereaved family.
Egyptian banks will be open from 8:30am to 2pm starting Tuesday, instead of the normal hours of 9:30am to 3pm, per a decision by the Central Bank of Egypt.

According to the central banks decision, bank employees will check in at 8am and sign off at 3pm, the head of the Federation of Egyptian Banks, Mohamed El Etreby, said in a statement.

The move comes in line with the new timings of the countrys curfew, he said; on Sunday, the government announced that the curfew would now finish at 5am instead of 6am for a period of two weeks.

The curfew, which has been extended and shortened several times since it was introduced in March as a measure to reduce the spread of the coronavirus, will begin at 8pm each night.

The government is taking steps to reopen facilities and commercial activities that were closed in light of the pandemic, with hotels and government offices opening their doors this week under strict new measures that include mandatory mask-wearing and limits on capacity.
Fiona Bruce has revealed her husband coloured her hair for her during lockdown by following a YouTube tutorial - after she had a 'complete crisis' with her roots.

The Question Time host, 56, told how she is also doing her own TV make-up due to the pandemic, and likened having to apply foundation with a brush to 'painting a wall'.

Fiona has been married to Nigel Sharrocks, an advertising-executive, for 25 years, and the couple are spending lockdown at their west London home with their two children Mia, 18, and Sam, 22.

Speaking to Stella Magazine, she said: 'I had a complete crisis with my roots.

Fiona Bruce has revealed her husband coloured her hair during lockdown by following a YouTube tutorial - after she had a 'complete crisis' with her roots

'Then my husband watched a video on YouTube and coloured my hair for me. He didn't help  he did it.'

The newsreader added that she was given a large bag of kit and 'some instructions' from the make-up department for her TV appearances.

'Now I'm having to paint on my foundation with a brush. It's literally as if I'm painting a wall,' she said.

Fiona also opened up about her love of partying, admitting if she can 'find an excuse' to have one, 'she will'.

Fiona has been married to Nigel Sharrocks, an advertising-executive, pictured together at Wimbledon beside Darcy Bussell in July 2017, for 25 years

'I love dancing and drinking,' she told the publication. 'Nowadays it doesn't happen as often as I'd like Apparently I was at Oxford the same time as Boris. But I never saw him.'

Though it's likely she'd leave the catering to someone else, as she admitted to being 'a terrible cook'.

Earlier this month the newsreader came under fire for referring to security guards, care workers and bus drivers as 'low skilled' during a nightly news bulletin.

Reporting on new Office of National Statistics figures citing higher deaths amongst lower paid workers, Ms Bruce read: 'People in lower skilled jobs such as security guards, care workers and bus drivers are among those most likely to die from coronavirus according to new data.'

Earlier this month the newsreader came under fire for referring to security guards, care workers and bus drivers as 'low skilled' during a nightly news bulletin

While many defended the presenter's use of words, saying the report simply stated 'fact', others called for the news anchor and the BBC to apologise, which the corporation later did.

Fiona said recently she feels grateful for her 31 years in the media.

'At some point, the BBC will decide it doesnt want me to carry on,' she conceded. 'There's nothing I can do to change that. I just enjoy it while it lasts.'
Its been four weeks since San Francisco Mayor London Breed announced an ambitious plan to clean up and slow the flood of homeless tents in the Tenderloin. And while there have been some small improvements, there are more tents than ever.

Take a look at the count.

When Breed unveiled the Tenderloin plan on May 6, the nonprofit group Urban Alchemy, which provides services to homeless camps, counted 387 tents and makeshift structures lining the sidewalks of the area bounded by Market, Geary, Mason and Polk streets.

On Thursday, the count was 448, an increase of 61 tents and structures.

It is still a disaster area, said Supervisor Matt Haney, who lives in the neighborhood.

Jeff Kositsky, who leads the Healthy Streets Operations Center and is overseeing the Tenderloin plan, said that with work the city may be able to find room for controlled encampments for about 100 tents in small parking lots and alleyways scattered throughout the neighborhood.

A city-sanctioned camp for eight tents opened on a parking lot at 180 Jones St. last week.

But that would still leave about 300 tents on Tenderloin sidewalks. Thats partly the result of the city admitting fewer people into its 1,200-bed shelter system so that residents can be physically distanced to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in the shelters close quarters.

The Homeward Bound program, which normally sends two to three homeless people per day back to their families in other locations, is now averaging two people per week.

The mayor is working with the Department of Public Health on a plan to safely reopen more beds in our shelters and Navigation Centers, with increased testing and other safety measures, said Jeff Cretan, Breeds spokesman. These sites are key for getting people indoors and off the streets.

In the meantime, the thinking appears to be that, for better or worse, the tents are the best alternative to the shelters and may help contain the spread of the coronavirus among the homeless.

And that at this point, minimizing the spread of the virus and saving lives is the citys top priority.

Hopefully, we can get things to a better place in the months to come, Kositsky said.

In the meantime, rows of tents continue to block the sidewalks. Drug dealing and open drug use remain rampant, and there appears to be little regard by many for the social distancing and masking  now mandatory in San Francisco  called for during the pandemic.

Another problem is that the homeless, many suffering from mental, drug or alcohol problems, often lack the desire or wherewithal to go somewhere else.

We call it the Tenderlife, neighborhood resident Craig Butler said as he walked down Hyde Street on his way to a corner market Thursday morning. Half the people here are half dead and with no place to go. Im lucky. I have a place to live.

Breed announced the Tenderloin cleanup plan two days after neighborhood business owners, residents and UC Hastings College of the Law, which is located in the Tenderloin, filed a lawsuit against the city in federal court. The suit seeks to force the city to clean up the tents, garbage and drug dealing that have worsened significantly during the coronavirus pandemic and put the neighborhoods families, businesses and children at risk.

This would never be allowed to happen in more affluent neighborhoods, UC Hastings Executive Director of Operations Rhiannon Bailard said. The citys safety plan just further institutionalizes the Tenderloin as a containment zone. They might as well just put up gates.

But there have been some improvements in the Tenderloin and other neighborhoods in recent weeks.

More portable toilets have been set up throughout the neighborhood, a section of Golden Gate Avenue in front of St. Anthony Dining Room was blocked off to encourage social distancing, and police and Homeless Outreach Teams encourage the homeless daily to keep their tents at least 6 feet apart.

Public Works continues to clean the streets and sidewalks regularly.

The city has placed 1,140 of the more vulnerable homeless in hotel rooms, and a sanctioned camp for 90 tents was opened on Fulton Street after the area was overrun by the homeless in tents along the walkway of the Asian Art Museum.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

Fulton was a nightmare, and now it is a place of healing and refuge, Kositsky said.

The Fulton Street encampment  within sight of City Hall  is clean, fenced and well staffed.

But while its only a block away, its not in the Tenderloin.

Another sanctioned camp, this one for 40 tents, opened in the Haight on Friday, and work has begun on a third at Everett Middle School on Church Street to serve the Castro.

Again, not in the Tenderloin.

Some have suggested opening safe campsites in plazas bordering the Tenderloin, like Civic Center Plaza or Union Square.

But if the continued presence of police and park ranger squad cars posted across from City Hall is any indication, Civic Center Plaza is off the table. And most people would agree there is little chance the city would open a homeless encampment at Union Square, in the heart of the citys tourist and shopping district.

On Thursday, the mayor announced a phased reopening the city, including plans to relax restrictions on restaurants and other businesses.

For us in the Tenderloin, it feels like a Twilight Zone episode. Reopening to what? Bailard said. Do we expect customers of these businesses to run the gauntlet if residents are scared to do so? Do we expect children to navigate that sidewalk and climb over those tents?

Good questions all.

San Francisco Chronicle columnist Phil Matier appears Sundays and Wednesdays. Matier can be seen on the KGO-TV morning and evening news and can also be heard on KCBS radio Monday through Friday at 7:50 a.m. and 5:50 p.m. Got a tip? Call 415-777-8815, or email pmatier@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @philmatier
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Linkedin Jimmy Hay (The Jakarta Post) The Conversation  Sun, May 31, 2020 10:04 600 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdb23595 3 Entertainment grief,film,feelings Free

Grief is a common theme in cinema, it provides emotional, character-focused situations that for many viewers are instantly familiar. Most of us know what the characters on screen are going through, we understand the disorientating swell of feelings and acute sense of loss that the actors articulate and perform because we are more than likely to have experienced them ourselves.

This familiarity leads many films to approach grief in purely narrative terms, to have bereavement as an inciting incident from which to begin the story. There are films, however, that seem more interested in exploring grief as a sensation often experimenting with film form in order to capture a sense of the lived experience of grief.

Here are five such films that to try to convey through empathetic aesthetics what it feels like to really grieve.

1. Jackie (Pablo Larrain, 2016)

Jackie offers a highly subjective portrait of Jackie Kennedy (Natalie Portman) in the moments and days following the assassination of her husband, John F Kennedy (Caspar Phillipson). While whispered and out-of-focus political manoeuvrings take place in the background, the camera rarely moves from a tight, handheld close-up on Portmans face.

When it does, it tracks smoothly and at some distance as she moves through the cavernous and unpopulated rooms of the White House. A jarring juxtaposition is created by this interplay of shot types, conveying the sense of disorientation Portmans character is experiencing.

The film contains very few scenes in the traditional sense. Instead, the majority of Jackie plays out as incomplete moments, frequently out of chronological order, that create a fragmented, almost cubist, picture of acute grief following a sudden and unexpected death.

2. Morvern Callar (Lynne Ramsay, 2002)

The viewer establishes an intimate relationship with the eponymous Morvern (Samantha Morton), as no other characters in the film ever know she is grieving for her boyfriend  whose suicide Morvern covers up in order to live a new life. This privileged position forms an unspoken pact that invites us and only us to witness Morverns grief.

Mortons performance is a study of near-silence and stillness, allowing the viewer to experience silence as an individual, personal state of being, according to the film academic Sarah Artt. No memories or feelings are articulated vocally, and director Lynne Ramsay eschews the flashback in favour of poetic imagery that resists clear meaning while inviting interpretation.

At different moments in the film, Morvern repeatedly appears and disappears, unable to be contained by the image. We see this at play as she is sat in her front room as Christmas tree lights flash on and off; when she is dancing at a house party and wandering through a Spanish nightclub. In these moments, and throughout, the film articulates the impermanent and deeply interior nature of identity when a person is grieving.

3. Vital (Shinya Tsukamoto, 2004)

Vital is not an easy watch because the film is so effective at creating an aesthetic that is empathetic to the painful sensations experienced by Hiroshi (Tadanobu Asano), the films central character.

Hiroshi awakens from a coma suffering amnesia, having been the driver in a car accident that killed his girlfriend Ryoko (Nami Tsukamoto). Memories of the crash and of Ryoko increasingly pierce his waking state, grief overwhelming both him and the audience. It does the latter by offering a haptic viewing experience  what film theorist Laura Marks describes as a visuality that functions like the senses by triggering physical memories of smell, touch, and taste  through its hyper-focus on different textures, loud discordant sounds and choppy editing.

As the philosopher Havi Carel writes, the films sensory focus is mirrored in the viewers reactions to the film  it moves, touches, disgusts and awes the viewer in a process parallel to Hiroshis, portraying in an uncomfortably subjective way his grieving experience.

4. The Babadook (Jennifer Kent, 2014)

Few films capture the physical toll and lasting trauma of grief in the manner that The Babadook does. While masquerading as a creature feature horror film  an incredibly effective one  The Babadook is in the main a character study that explores the visceral effect of grief trauma on Amelia (Essie Davies), as she becomes increasingly sunken-eyed, pallid-skinned and disconnected from reality.

The Babadook itself is a beast-like manifestation of her unrelenting grief that continues to dog her seven years after the death of her husband. She is still plagued by nightmares, visions and flashbacks of the car crash that killed him. These moments continually rupture her daily routine, as she relives the site of her grief as an ever-repeating cycle typical of trauma survivors, who experience durational rather than chronological time and so continue to experience the horrors of the past through internal shifts in time and space.

5. Manchester by the Sea (Kenneth Lonergan, 2016)

Casey Affleck won the Oscar for best actor for his portrayal of Lee Chandler, a man reeling from a tragedy in his recent past. Affleck offers a restrained, emotionally distant performance that befits a character who exists but struggles to live, who has neither the ability nor the desire to get over his grief.

The film reflects its central characters emotional stasis through a lack of tonal variation, an almost ubiquitous use of static long shots, and  with one notable exception  a lack of signposting for its flashbacks that captures realistically the subconscious, punctuating nature of memory.

Given that the classical three-act structure demands resolution, it is rare for a film about grief to resist the familiar arc of a character moving through stages to a place of relative contentment at the films close. The absence of emotional resolution for Lee Chandler is refreshing, because in truth grief rarely follows a neat and finite linear path.

---

Jimmy Hay, Lecturer in Film and Television, University of Bristol

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post.

Topics : grief film feelings
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-31 21:09:51|Editor: huaxia

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ABUJA, May 31 (Xinhua) -- Resident doctors in Nigeria have issued an ultimatum to embark on an indefinite strike if the government failed to address their demands within 14 days, as the country continues to battle the novel coronavirus pandemic.

The Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) on Sunday told the media that the agreement to embark on the indefinite strike action was reached on Saturday.

Sokomba Aliyu, the association's national president, said issues affecting the Nigerian healthcare system and welfare of health workers remained their core concerns.

Part of the demands of the NARD from the government included the provision of adequate personnel protective equipment, such as N95 respirators, gloves, and others to all health workers during this pandemic, Aliyu said.

The resident doctors also demanded the prompt payment of their salaries, as well as the immediate recall of their sacked colleagues in central Nigeria. According to the association, 26 resident doctors at the Jos University Teaching Hospital in Nigeria's central Plateau State were illegally disengaged without recourse to the law governing residency training.

The doctors also called on security agencies especially in Lagos, Delta, and Abuja to stop the harassment and assault of doctors while carrying out their legitimate activities during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The NARD president noted the shortage of medical staff, especially resident doctors in most health institutions across the country, and called on the government to quickly address the problem. Enditem
Starting in a few weeks, you may receive a phone call that comes up as NJ Covid Team or something like it, and it might trigger your robocall impulse to hang up.

Fight the reflex. Yes, the call will be from a stranger, and it might include some disturbing news and intrusive questions about your health. But it could also save your life and the lives of people you care about.

New Jersey is in the process of launching its most aggressive strategy yet against the coronavirus, by deploying an army of health officials known as contact tracers, who are tasked with tracking down people who might have been exposed to a pathogen that has taken an appalling toll on our state.

Perhaps you have heard the broad strokes about this method, but it starts with this precept: To safely reopen without a vaccine, New Jersey must be able to detect fresh outbreaks, and contain them. That means we must have a tracing program that matches our testing capacity, which is currently a robust 20,000-plus daily.

Heres how it works: Those found to have the virus are interviewed by contact tracers, who help assemble a list of anyone who has been in close contact with the infected person over the previous two weeks. The tracers then call those who were potentially exposed, and ask them to get tested themselves and to stay isolated if they are infected. They will spell out the precautions one must take to stay safe and ensure they dont expose others.

Then they repeat the process for the next circle of associates  contact, test, and isolate when necessary  and if you stay with it long enough (as they did in South Korea, Hong Kong, New Zealand, etc.), the virus is stopped in its tracks.

Is it resource-intensive? Absolutely. Time consuming? No doubt. An inconvenience for those who get that unnerving phone call? It could be.

But this state has no chance to eradicate COVID unless we all buy into the most proven tool in public health and epidemiology, and accept that our common enemy is a virus that has killed an average of 192 New Jerseyans daily since April 1.

You cannot open society without contact tracing  that would be like opening the floodgates without any method to contain the flood, says Perry Halkitis, the Dean of the Rutgers School of Public Health. What contact tracing does is lessen the flow of a broken dam and allows the water to trickle in, instead of rushing in and destroying everything in its path.

Halkitiss school has been enlisted by the state Department of Health to help with the recruitment and training of up to 5,000 tracers who will work with more than 100 health departments across the state. Many of these tracers will come from the states university population, so they might sound young and nervous at first, even if much of what they ask is scripted.

Yes, some scammers have already crawled out from beneath their rocks. If a caller asks for your credit card number, social security number, insurance info, or even your birthday, thats a scam. The real contact tracers will not ask those questions, nor would they send you a link that allows them to take over your laptop or smart phone. If you smell a scam, report it to the Fraud Task Force at (866) 720-5721 or visit the Division of Consumer Affairs website.

The most personal questions tracers will ask will be related to your symptoms, workplace, home space, and contacts.

There are also privacy concerns, given the role of Apple and Google in the creation of a digital tracing app that uses Bluetooth technology to ping the phones of people who were within range of an infected person. Data is currency for tech companies, so the state will not endorse the app for now. Were still evaluating the potential upsides, a DOH spokesperson said.

As for security issues within the CommCare database platform that our states tracers will use, Assemblyman Andrew Zwicker (D-Somerset), who chairs the Science Committee, has that covered: He has introduced a bill that requires the contractor, Dimagi, to erase all individual data within 30 days.

Thats a key aspect, because we have to get this right.

The state has already ramped-up testing and the tracing team is powering up, with 900 members and 1,000 in the pipeline. Now we have to do our part: If the phone rings, take the call. It is best way to push back against a killer that has already taken 11,500 of our neighbors.

An potent battle plan for Covid 19: A Q&A with Paterson mayor Andre Sayegh https://t.co/01syWYg9Xc pic.twitter.com/iiI1iqax8N  NJ.com Politics (@NJ_Politics) May 26, 2020

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.

Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook.

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Tell us your coronavirus stories, whether its a news tip, a topic you want us to cover, or a personal story you want to share.

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(ASX:OSL)

If you've been following the OncoSil story, earlier this year, in March, the USFDA granted breakthrough device designation for our device, which was a major achievement. And in April, the European authorities granted CE marking. So, the company has now moved from a late-stage R&D company to now commercialising a truly breakthrough implantable radiotherapy device for the treatment of pancreatic cancer.Next slide, please. So just if we summarise quickly the investment thesis. OncoSil Medical is a commercial stage medical device company pursuing targeted radiotherapy with a truly recognised by US and European authorities breakthrough technology for the treatment of pancreatic cancer. We are addressing a $3 billion global market opportunity with no direct competitors, and in terms of other technologies, particularly brachytherapy. We are now ready to commercialise in Europe. And with the CE mark, that CE mark not only allows us to commercialise in 28 markets in Europe, it also allows us to file in multiple ASEAN and APEC countries, which we've already done. So we're expecting approvals in Asia later this year on the back of the CE mark.We expect, despite COVID-19 pandemic, our launch preparedness for Europe has been impacted, but we still expect first revenues later this year. Unfortunately, pancreatic cancer is a deadly disease, and these patients still have to be treated despite the challenges that come with a pandemic. In exciting news, we've raised $14 million by private placement earlier this month, and we are concluding later today a $5 million fully underwritten rights issue. So we have effectively raised $19 million on the back of our CE mark and USFDA breakthrough designation. So it's an exciting development for the company. We are now fully funded to exploit the commercial opportunities that come with those approvals. Next slide, please.So let's do a quick recap of pancreatic cancer. Treating pancreatic cancer, as I'm sure you're all aware, is a very challenging and difficult area of oncology. Existing treatments for pancreatic cancer are ineffective. They result in very poor survival outcomes -- arguably, the worst survival outcomes you can have in any cancer. For unresectable locally advanced pancreatic cancer, the overall median survival is only 8.5 months. And the five-year survival is less than 5 per cent. Compare that with breast cancer today, fortunately, it's 95 per cent five-year survival, but unfortunately, for pancreatic cancer, it's less than 5 per cent. And the reason for that is late diagnosis. Most patients don't recognise symptoms until the cancer has potentially metastasised. Existing treatments, whether it's chemotherapy or radiotherapy or the combination of the two, are ineffectual. And only 15 per cent of patients present with tumours that are resectable. And there have been limited advances over the past 20 years in terms of further improvements with chemotherapy.Next slide, please. The OncoSil device provides a unique and effective solution to this challenge of improving survival and improving outcomes in unresectable locally advanced pancreatic cancer. As I alluded to in the beginning of the presentation, we have now achieved CE mark approval, which allows us to commercialise the device not only in Europe, but also in the UK. We have breakthrough device designation in both the UK, the European Union, and now the US. The device is classified as an active implantable medical device in both the EU and Australia, and as a class III active implantable device under US regulations.We have a wealth of clinical data, six studies completed to date, all yielding very positive results on tolerability, safety and efficacy. But the PanCO study is the one that we'll talk a little bit more about during this presentation. So what is OncoSil? OncoSil is effectively radioactive microparticles that are implanted directly into tumours, and for pancreatic cancer, we use ultrasound-guided endoscopy to target the tumour and to basically implant or insert or inject the microparticles into the tumour to irradiate the tumour from within. It's a single device to be used once, but we believe that in the future if the patient warrants it, additional dosing could be made available. The device is permanently placed in the tumour unless the tumour is subsequently reduced in size to allow it to be resected or removed surgically.So the PanCO study, which was the pivotal study that secured the breakthrough designation by the USFDA and the European approval for CE marking, shows excellent local disease control. 90.5 per cent of the patients in the PanCO study achieved local control within 16 weeks. In other words, the tumour was no longer growing and spreading. It showed prolonged overall survival, a highly encouraging rate of surgical resection with curative intent, remembering that this group were truly unresectable upon entry, showing high degree of disease control, tumour reduction, and prolonged progression-free survival. All the outcome measures that oncologists are looking for in any treatment of oncology, but particularly so in this very difficult area of unresectable locally advanced pancreatic cancer.Next slide, please. There is a wealth of data. And I'm not going to bore the audience today with a wealth of clinical data. I'm just going to focus on two outcome measures. The first being overall survival, or improved or prolonged overall survival, and the second will be the surgical downstaging or resection rate. OncoSil Medical has clinically proven to prolong median overall survival in locally advanced pancreatic cancer patients. And as you can see from this graphic, we're effectively doubling the survival benefit by taking OncoSil. The standard median overall survival in unresectable locally advanced pancreatic cancer is eight months. In May last year, we did an analysis of the PanCO data, and it was showing an effective doubling to 16.1 months. We will do a further analysis later this year, and we expect that that survival benefit will be further prolonged as the majority of the patients that were alive May last year remain alive today. So we are showing prolonged overall survival and significant reductions in the risk of death compared to chemotherapy or induction chemotherapy or chemoradiotherapy combinations when you see it in the literature. And so this is a compelling story. Pancreatic cancer patients can live for eight... Generally median survival, eight months, and we're showing a doubling of that survival and we expect that to improve. Next slide, please.The other important clinical outcome that I want to highlight, which highlights the impact of this technology, is its ability to downstage the tumours. And by downstaging, it basically means OncoSil converts technically inoperable patients, patients whose tumours cannot be removed surgically, to being able to push them into surgery, extending their survival and their quality of life. Why is this important? If you have unresectable locally advanced pancreatic cancer, you will probably live eight to nine months, depending on which paper you cite from the literature. If you can have your tumour removed, certain studies indicated that survival extends out to three years or greater.So what did we find in the PanCO study? We are effectively showing a tripling of the ability to go into surgery with curative intent. And that 7 per cent typical resection rate from the literature is based on a meta-analysis of the literature. So it is actually an unrealistic target for resection. However, let's take it for what it is. The best, as you can see in the literature, is 7 per cent resection rates for people who are unresectable, versus getting almost 24 per cent on the PanCO study. So a tripling of the ability to have your tumour converted from inoperable to operable. And if you can have your tumour removed, your survival will jump from perhaps months to years.Next slide, please. So if we take that data and we start looking commercially at the market opportunity, there's a significant market opportunity for the locally advanced unresectable population, which represents 40 per cent of the total pancreatic cancer market. And that represents 50,000 patients in the EU and the UK. So it's a tremendously promising opportunity to become the standard of care. Because standard of care currently, which is chemotherapy combined with radiotherapy, is giving median survival of eight months, where we're showing a doubling of that already. And if patients can be converted from inoperable to operable, they can live for years. Next slide, please.So we see a highly attractive and scalable operating model at OncoSil to commercialise this unique breakthrough technology. We have no competitors. It's a patented technology and it's a platform technology. This technology can be used in other solid tumours. We've trialled it in primary liver cancer, and we will move shortly into bile duct cancer. A little bit more about that in a moment. We have a low cost base. And we only require a moderate sales force to commercialise this technology because of the nature of the fact that this is a rare cancer and it's treated at tertiary referral centres and there are only a certain amount of those in each geography. In Australia, 15 tertiary referral centres deal with 92 to 94 per cent of all pancreatic cancer cases. So you don't need a large GP sales force to target that. In the UK, for example, there are only 26 centres that treat the vast majority of pancreatic cancer. Once again, you don't need a large sales force. So a moderate sales force is all that is required for us to take this technology to those markets.We have comprehensive manufacturing capability in place, which is highly scalable, and the economies of scale will kick in as we move forward. As I indicated earlier, this is a platform technology applicable to other cancer indications with a focus on bile duct cancer and liver cancer.Next slide, please. I'm going to move quickly today with the story for OncoSil. It's a compelling story, and we can cover this off in 15 minutes. The commercial strategy is currently in full swing. We have four growth pillars. The first one is clearly targeting Europe and the UK on the basis of our CE marking. We are already preparing for that launch and we expect first revenues later this year from that geography. We clearly have already filed, and we've made those announcements on the ASX for filings in ASEAN and APEC markets. So keep an eye out for approvals in Singapore, Hong Kong and New Zealand in the near future. One key area that we've talked about quite often in the past, including with FNN, is strategic partnerships. And I'll talk a little bit more about that in the future, but there are unique geographies which we would like to partner with for both an R&D uplift, but also commercialisation.And finally, but no means least, is our US market entry strategy, which is well advanced and we have a dual entry pathway, which I'll talk about in a moment, but it focuses on an expedited development and approval process, now that the US has granted us through the FDA a breakthrough device designation.Next slide, please. So we've talked a $3 billion global market opportunity. As you can see there, the UK market is worth, in the locally advanced unresectable space, a $150 million market opportunity. The rest of Europe represents an almost $900 million USD market opportunity. Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia are smaller, discrete markets that we feel we can capture with our moderate size sales force.And these markets also can be captured completely as pancreatic cancer is treated in a very centralised way. For example, the Singapore market represents just under $10 million, but all of the pancreatic cancer patients are treated at two sites, the National Cancer Institute and, of course, the Singapore General Hospital. And something similar also in Hong Kong where the predominant site, the leading site there, is the Prince of Wales. We know those markets well, we've done work there in the past, and we see great opportunities to commercialise the technology in Europe and also in Asia and Australia ultimately.China and Japan, I'd like to talk about briefly. Comes back to that comment I made earlier about strategic partnerships. China and Japan represent a significant, exceeding 1.5 billion US dollar, market opportunities. We believe our technology can be used in those markets. Chinese and Japanese physicians are exceedingly interested in our compelling data, but we know that the best way to target those markets both from a regulatory pathway point of view and ultimately from commercialisation is to seek a strategic partnership. And that's something we will actively exploit moving forward.And moving forward, the breakthrough device designation received from the USFDA earlier this year allows us to look towards an expedited development and approval for a half a billion dollar market opportunity. Next slide, please.So Europe, clear path to first revenues, and those first revenues will be achieved with a modest number of sites. So even though we're impacted currently by COVID-19 pandemic, it is clearly impacting our launch preparedness, but we believe we can achieve first revenues later this year with sites coming on board. We're doing training online rather than face-to-face training. We already have five sites established because they were the sites involved in our earlier clinical studies. So the focus is on winning and activating large key hospitals moving forward with a small dedicated sales team. Once activated, we will work with the sites to quickly move all eligible patients onto the device. And we expect through sharing experience between sites to lead to an exponential sales growth over time.Next slide, please. So much for saying I could finish within 15 minutes, already hit the 15 minute mark, but we're making good progress here. So we see in Europe a repeatable sales model where we target the key sites. As I said, we already have five sites already activated. We are strategically targeting the next 15 most valuable sites in Europe with online training. And once those 20 sites are up and running, we will expect to get revenues later this year. And then we will continue that cycle, basically building evidence, sharing experience, engaging in training with relevant practitioners, and increasing utilisation, both within a hospital that's brought online, but also within the network in which that hospital operates. Next slide, please.Now let's talk a little bit about the US. As we said, we have a dual entry process that is well established. With the USFDA granting us breakthrough device designation in March, we will now work very closely with the FDA to optimise a pre-market approval with an expedited development and approval process to target a pancreatic cancer market that's worth half a billion dollars. So keep an eye out for ASX announcements in the coming months where we announce what our clinical program and regulatory program will look like on the basis of the USFDA breakthrough designation, which will allow us to come to the market much sooner than would have been if we had not been granted that breakthrough designation.But in a more near-term opportunity, we actually see an entry into bile duct cancer. Bile duct cancer, or sometimes referred to as cholangiocarcinoma, is an area of huge unmet need where exceedingly poor prognoses, even worse than unresectable locally advanced pancreatic cancer. This has been a journey that we started back in 2018. And it culminated initially with the USFDA granting the company a humanitarian use designation, or HUD, for intrahepatic and distal cholangiocarcinoma. We had a successful pre-submission meeting middle of last year, and we plan to file next month the humanitarian device exemption for distal bile duct cancer. And that's a very near-term opportunity. And if we are successful, we would be able to commercialise the bile duct cancer in the United States in 2021. So we are already living up to the promise of a patent technology with more than one indication. We clearly have a European approval in pancreatic cancer, and we believe we can move quickly to securing US approval in bile duct cancer. Next slide, please.For a small Australian company, we arguably have one of the finest and most highly credentialled boards for a medical device company with a small market cap of less than a 100 million, led by Dr Chris Roberts, who is our chairman, and under his leadership we've moved forward with, I think, a very successful and aggressive program of subsequent commercialisation based on those two major breakthroughs that we had earlier this year with the USFDA and with the CE marking from the European authorities. Chris Roberts needs no introduction really, but I will just in passing mention that he was the former chairman of Sirtex in its formative days. And, of course, we all recall Sirtex becoming an icon to the Australian market. And, of course, Chris served as the CEO of Cochlearfor many years. So under his leadership, I think we have a good stewardship of the company from the board.Next slide, please. In terms of executive management, I'm very proud to lead a very experienced and highly capable team. Couple of highlights here. Karl Pechmann has recently joined us. Another very seasoned company secretary and CFO to lead us into commercialisation. David James is the head of global manufacturing and operations. And David has brought a wealth of experience from his time at Sirtex, where he inhoused the Sirtex manufacturing process. Nicole Wilson has led the company's regulatory pathway and has led to the success of filings in Asia and APEC on the back of our CE marking, but also has been pivotal in our activities with the USFDA.Two other highlights to talk about. Charles Rowland heads up our US operation, and with potential approval later this year, Charles is busy preparing for a possible commercial launch in bile duct cancer. And most recently, we announced the appointment of Nigel Lange as European president for OncoSil Medical. And Nigel also would be well known to many investors familiar with the Sirtex story. Nigel has a depth of experience in brachytherapy and in cancer, but was most notable for his time as the head of European operations for Sirtex. And his success there we hope to translate into success with OncoSil, and Nigel will lead our commercialisation efforts in Europe later this year.Next slide, please. Coming to the end, we see an exciting path forward in both the nea-and midterm. The announcement of Nigel Lange has been completed. And that excited the market because we now have a very exciting management team to lead commercialisation. We talked about the humanitarian device exemption for bile duct cancer -- that will be filed next month. We are looking forward to regulatory approvals in Hong Kong and Singapore. We are looking to share with the market and with the medical community through publications and presentations the maturing long-term survival data. We are expecting first sales later this year, despite COVID, in both the UK and in the EU. We do expect and we are quietly confident of getting approval on the HDE filing that's going in next month and having that regulatory clearance from the FDA for US entry into bile duct cancer anticipated in Q4 this year. Regulatory clearance in Australia can be expected on the back of the regulatory success we've had with CE marking, and that's anticipated for 2021.And then, obviously, if we are successful with the bile duct cancer submission to the USFDA, we can expect first sales and procedures in distal cholangiocarcinoma or distal bile duct cancer in early 2021. So I will stop there. It's a compelling story. We've had some significant breakthroughs this year. And despite the pandemic, we're looking forward to first revenues later this year in the UK and in Europe, and looking forward to other approvals in Asia, as well as regulatory filings for bile duct cancer with the USFDA. Thank you very much for your interest in OncoSil.
FARGO, N.D.  The smell of pepper spray still hung in the air Sunday as volunteers, police and city workers began cleaning the mess in downtown Fargo after Saturday nights rioting.

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This article was published 31/5/2020 (599 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

FARGO, N.D.  The smell of pepper spray still hung in the air Sunday as volunteers, police and city workers began cleaning the mess in downtown Fargo after Saturday nights rioting.

Some volunteers coughed because of the lingering chemical agents and many others cried as they swept up broken glass and collected spent rubber bullets and empty tear gas canisters.

The Exchange building, JL Beers, Vinyl Taco, Gate City Bank, Hotel Donaldson, the Forum and River City Church were damaged by rocks or spray paint.

"Dont do this to your city, man," said longtime Fargo resident Robb Walvatne as he helped pick up debris. "There were sirens all night long. Listen to that man, were 200 miles away from Minneapolis. What is going on in Fargo? Fargo. This is the saddest thing Ive seen, and I cant understand what is going on."

"You dont ruin your city," he said.

Chris Wooten, born and bred in Fargo, joined more than two dozen volunteers who cleaned up the damage mostly on First Avenue North, just east of Broadway.

What began as a peaceful protest in support of Minneapolis's protest against excessive police force Saturday, turned violent later in the day. Restaurant windows were smashed, dumpsters burned, rocks were thrown at police, and police used tear gas, rubber bullets, pepper bullets, and sandbags to disperse crowds in downtown Fargo. C.S. Hagen / Fargo Forum

"This place has always been my home. I think this was a complete overreaction," Wooten said, expressing anger and sadness about the bedlam. He bent down in the street to pick up a pair of pinkish sunglasses. "See? The protesters were destroying themselves."

While shovelling broken glass outside of HoDo, Dan Farnsworth said watching the destruction broke his heart.

"I had trouble sleeping last night after all that happened," he said.

Fargo Mayor Tim Mahoney said at a news conference Sunday it was time to rebuild, not retaliate.

"We know we are shocked and you are angry. Last nights action doesnt define (Fargo's) people," Mahoney said.

Moorhead Mayor Jonathan Judd also spoke with reporters at the news conference.

"The reason why we're here today is because of George Floyd, and this incident has set off a lot of emotions across the country. I would like to extend condolences," Judd said. "It's hard for me to find the words to express my feelings... this has been an emotional roller-coaster not only for myself, but for individuals I am close to."

A protester triggers a fire extinguisher toward police officer during Saturday night's riot in downtown Fargo. C.S. Hagen / Fargo Forum

George Floyd's death and Saturday's unrest are a wake-up call for Americans, Judd added.

"We need to have a candid conversation about racism in this country... It's time folks," he said.

The violence in downtown Fargo came from about 40 to 50 outside agitators, said Fargo police chief David Todd, who thanked Mahoney and Judd for defusing potential violence earlier in the day on Saturday.

"You could see some hostility in that march, but you could see good people, too," Todd said. "There were a lot of good people. When they reached the police department, it was tense at times but we had a really good reaction."

After demonstrators met police at the new Fargo police headquarters, the march continued on streets that were not part of the original route. The Fargo Police Department didnt stop the march, which had about 2,000 people, because of the violence that is occurring in other cities across the United States, Todd said.

"We wanted to let people march and keep people safe," he said.

Police learned about plans to loot and burn downtown from social media, Todd continued. "We started to see more aggression toward our officers."

The protest march in Fargo Saturday, was peaceful, but a group of marchers became violent in the evening. C.S. Hagen / Fargo Forum

Eighteen people were arrested with 10 were charged with inciting a riot. Four officers needed medical attention, with two police officers suffering concussions after getting hit by rocks, Todd said.

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum walked through downtown and felt inspired by the volunteers cleaning up, he said.

"The important message that began (Saturday) morning about justice and humanity and important aspirations for us to come together  its lost when it moves from the peaceful protest to what I think can only be characterized as an organized riot," Burgum said.

"Its clear that there were people that arrived last night not for dialogue, not for progress, but for violence and vandalism," the governor said.

Multiple police departments, the Cass County Sheriffs Office, the North Dakota National Guard, undercover agents, and other agencies were deployed to the riot, Mahoney said.

Alan Kasin, a co-owner of Pounds, a bar and restaurant on First Avenue North, was filling a tin tub with ice and water bottles on the sidewalk as the cleanup progressed. Backhoes rumbled back and forth from glass, rock and dirt piles.

Fearing for the safety of his staff, he closed his restaurant early Saturday, during the earlier stages of the riot, he said.

Some protesters threw rocks at police, despite being urged to remain non-violent by other protesters. C. S. Hagen / Fargo Forum

"We had to shut down pretty quickly  had to get staff out safely," Kasin said. "All of this stuff is replaceable."

He attended the rally, called Fargo Marches for George Floyd, earlier in the day, and called it inspiring.

"I thought it was pretty emotional. It was everything you would want to see as far as a peaceful assembly," Kasin said.

Before he left his business Saturday, he saw some people trying to calm down protesters.

"You could feel the crowds agitation, but at some point, there werent enough voices to keep it calm," he said.

"Is this what America is about?" One volunteer woman said out loud while pushing a broom.

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Andrew Buck, a longtime Fargo resident, said he joined the protest early on Saturday, and also later when the riot began. He tried to keep people quiet, and at one point was taken into police custody, but released, he said. A tear gas canister flew past his head as well, he said.

Buck joined other volunteers to help clean up because Fargo is his home.

"We had 16 hours of protesting and it took 45 minutes to clean it up," he said.

Erika Kraft, a night nurse at Essentia Health, just got off her shift and headed to downtown to help clean up.

"Some of the money it will take to repair everything could have gone to people who need food and shelter," Kraft said.

 Fargo Forum


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Chinese President Xi Jinping applauds after voting on the draft resolution for the controversial national security law for Hong Kong during the closing ceremony of the third session of the 13th National People's Congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, May 28, 2020. EPA



By Amanda Price



Somewhere inside the corridors of Zhonghanhai, the word "transparency" lies limp and lifeless, hopelessly gasping for air.



It is a pathetic sight.



Straining to cling to any semblance of its former meaning, its injuries are overwhelming.



And then, it is too late  "transparency" has finally succumbed, clubbed to death by the fatal rhetoric of Chairman Xi and his band of storytellers.



It is not the first word to have fallen victim to the Chinese Communist Party. Words such as "truth," "peace," "sincere," "responsible," "cooperation" and "commitment" have also been beaten senseless, or used as battering rams to break down enemy walls.



Although nothing like the authentic word, Xi Jinping has invented a new "transparency" which, reconstructed by CCP etymologists, means "We've shown you everything we want you to see." According to this revised version, Xi and the CCP are transparent to a fault.



The Webster Dictionary, it seems, is no match for the linguists in Beijing.



Their arsenal of words, turned into weapons for the ears of "foreign dogs", have become a new form of warfare  one that needs no chemicals, but whose purpose is insidiously to silence the voices of those daring to insist that words have singular meanings.



None of us should be surprised at Chairman Xi's abuse. Reinventing words, or rather truths, has been a hallmark of the Chinese Communist regime since the Cultural Revolution. Xi did not begin the practice, he merely perfected it.



CCP narratives have long been constructed like bamboo scaffolding, as flexible as it is strong. Now that bamboo is simply stronger.



Now, under eloquent silky attacks from the "Chairman of Everything," accountability is the new scourge from the West, and avoiding it, is the CCP's renewed priority.



To be fair, Xi Jinping must be given credit for his consistency. After all, has Xi ever indicated he owes anyone an explanation for anything? Whether it is the kidnapping and torture of his own citizens and foreigners, or his "Soylent Green" approach to dealing with ethnic minorities, Xi has always set himself above and beyond the reach of what the gullible call "accountability."



Xi is responsible to himself alone, having made himself a deity lacking nothing except the divine. His ascension is masked in a cloud of ambiguity, just thick enough to hide the bloodied corpses upon which he climbed to reach the summit.



Such is the way of tyrants, you may say, but there is a uniqueness to Xi Jinping that lends him a legitimacy few other tyrants have known.



The secretive nature of the Chinese government has kept the whole truth of Xi's phenomenal rise to power protected from public scrutiny. The portrait we have of him is absurdly incomplete, leaving gaping holes now filled with cleverly constructed and almost plausible propaganda.



Although we do not know how the once unknown Xi rose, seemingly against rule and logic, to hold unprecedented power in the Chinese Communist Party, we do know that Xi grew up experiencing both the highs and lows of the Cultural Revolution under Mao.



At a young age his father, the Communist Revolutionary Leader, Xi Zhongxun, was arrested by Mao's police for supposedly giving support to a novel that was deemed critical of Mao. Xi was purged several times during his career. In line with the methodology that, ironically, Xi junior further advanced, the family members of the senior Xi were purged as well.



Xi Jinping was expelled from Beijing and sent to work as a farmhand in an impoverished rural village. There, while living in a cut-out in a hill, he discovered what it meant to experienced poverty, condemnation and dishonor.



One sister was unable to cope with the family's fall from grace, and hung herself to escape the shame and deprivation of all she had once known.



From the scant evidence available, which requires reading between the lines of that which Xi has revealed, it appears that Xi was spurred on rather than defeated by his circumstances.



As a young man he re-joined the ranks of the Party faithful, and took his first steps to creating an account which would later position him as a 'people's president' or "Xi Dada." Paradoxically, his suffering under a regime driven by a personality cult would provide him with both legitimacy among the new elites, and appeal to millions who had suffered themselves.



His motivation, it was claimed, was to build the "Chinese Dream" or "the great rejuvenation of the nation."



As soon as power was within his grasp, however, Xi began his own purge, one more surgical than his predecessors.

Many high-ranking officials were harshly demoted without evidence of disloyalty; some disappeared altogether. The aim was to establish a hierarchy of leaders that could be manipulated, who had no moral qualms about Xi's immoral edicts, and no conscience other than the one they were allocated.



With a following of puppet leaders, Xi could take a government claiming to represent the interests of the people, and invest himself with every title on offer, and others that previously did not exist.



With unchallenged power, Xi changed the Constitution to ensure he was head of the police, head of national security, of the judiciary, the secret services, the military and all economic and social reform.



According to Gary Locke, the former American Ambassador to Beijing, "Xi is at the centre of everything"  and he will remain the center of China's universe indefinitely.



A Beijing editor reported, "He is not afraid of heaven or earth. And he is, as we say, round on the outside and square on the insides. He looks flexible, but inside he is very hard."



Xi believes he is untouchable within the walls of his own kingdom. And while he has demonstrated near genius in the field of strategy and regime-building, his rampant victimization of rivals, his contempt toward elder statesmen, and his attempts to paint human rights-conscious nations as vile and uncivilized, suggests motivations that are as deeply personal as they are maniacal.



Whether he is seeking to avenge his father, or seeking revenge for his past, Xi has become the world's most powerful, dynamic and highly-motivated dictator. But as the self-appointed supreme authority within the Chinese Communist Party, his motivation goes beyond power.



Far more than any other world dictator, Xi's is driven by conquest. He is not satisfied with combating democratic organizations and dismissing other nations' achievements, he seeks to own them, and too often has done just that.



According to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, since Xi Jinping came to power, there have been more cases of stolen intellectual property and technology by the Chinese government than prosecutors around the world can handle.



"They're (the CCP) willing to steal their way up the economic ladder" at the expense of other nation's economies, stability, and strength. China's cyber-attacks, theft of technology and intellectual property are "well-orchestrated and well-resourced" and planned at the top level, according to the FBI Director. Intelligence agency reports say that under Xi Jinping, this form of theft has helped to make the CCP rich while robbing nations of billions upon billions of dollars.



The World Health Organization has at best a 50-50 chance of surviving this pandemic based on Xi's alarming influenc

e over the former international and independent agency of the United Nations.



Just when Xi bought executive shares in the WHO is still uncertain, but his influence over the director-general during the pandemic has made it possible for Xi to remain in his self-made Olympus, protected from the scrutiny of mere mortals.



With regard to the current global health crisis, a leading German epidemiologist wrote, "President Xi's persistent refusal to allow an independent international investigation into the origins of the virus, is more than a lack of responsibility, it is a declaration of contempt for human life. It is a crime, a crime that cost lives for a nation to say "We own the right to refuse to be investigated, to have the evidence examined. Most every other country in the world would have called for the investigation themselves."



China, under Xi, has answered calls for transparency by handing out lollipops, claiming it as benevolence to a world to which if refused to be accountable.



Refusal to act with human decency in the face of a global health crisis is alarming enough, but to this Xi has added childish retaliation toward nations that requested what other nations would offer before being asked.



Psychologist professor Jiu Xiao, wrote in a paper profiling China's President, said, "Though seemingly mild-mannered and tempered, Xi's decisions and actions are that of a petulant child who is not given what they want. Mature adults respond after considering the factors leading up to a situation, but Xi's sense of entitlement suggests that his consideration always and only focuses on how things will affect him personally."



Yet despite all that we know about Xi Jinping, many continue to force his cruelty and tyranny through a sieve of acceptance. Perhaps if he had horns rather than an Armani suit, perhaps if he had fangs rather than a Mona Lisa smile, we would be less able to pretend Xi Jinping was not the tyrant that his actions reveal him to be.



The desperate citizens of Hong Kong, fighting against a tsunami of evil, do not have the luxury of pretence. The death toll sounded as Beijing passed its National Security stranglehold law. For Xi Jinping, Hong Kong will be yet another conquest he can mark on his belt.



In passing this law, the CCP and Xi are not threatening to destroy a governmental system, but the lives and security of Hong Kong's citizens, citizens who are more skilled than Westerners at interpreting the words that drip like poison from the CCP's lips. "National security" means "the supremacy and domination of the Xi's regime." A law that will "target only certain individuals" means "a law in which everyone is a potential target and anyone can disappear."



Similarly, "foreign interference" means Hong Kong will never again be able to appeal for help from anyone, anywhere. All international NGOs in Hong Kong will work under strict CCP regulation or be expelled. Xi and the CCP will never again have to answer for anything they do to Hong Kong, nor will they have to work under the cover of night.



And if Hong Kong collapses either through the resistance of its citizens or through the terror this new law invokes, Xi will not blink an eye. The protestors will be blamed the same way an abusive partner blames their victim. "Look what you made us do" will be Beijing's response to a Hong Kong that is broken. "We knew what was best for you but you refused to listen".



We make a fatal mistake in believing that Xi will stop with his conquest of Hong Kong. Taiwan will today be considering its options, knowing that if no-one stands in the way of Xi's malevolent plans, Taiwan will be next.



We make a further mistake in believing that economic sanctions alone will curtail Xi's lust for conquest. He has proven to be a patient man. Xi will wait for an opportune time, as he did with the pandemic, and attack again not caring if Chinese citizens are among the victims.



We must, of course, never fight fire with fire. But we should remember that water, so steady and constant, will overcome the fiercest flames. Xi Jinping is not infallible, his regime is not unstoppable, and his power is ultimately based on fear, and the fabricated belief that he rules a government the world cannot do without.



As Hong Kong is robbed of its freedom, as minorities groups continue to be persecuted and exterminated, as human rights are unashamedly abused, as nations continue to be threatened and bullied, we must decide on an appropriate and definitive response to the tyranny of Xi Jinping and his regime.



We must answer the petitions of those clinging to the hope that we will respond. We must draw a line in the sand and say, "No further." We must defend those who Xi has disarmed and speak on behalf of those who have been silenced.



Xi Jinping must know that, unlike him, we mean what we say.


Nevertheless, in a statement after Mr. Trumps tweet, Attorney General William P. Barr said the F.B.I. would use its partnerships with state and local police to identify violent protesters, whom he also called domestic terrorists.

The violence instigated and carried out by antifa and other similar groups in connection with the rioting is domestic terrorism and will be treated accordingly, Mr. Barr said.

But the American Civil Liberties Union condemned Mr. Trumps vow in a statement from Hina Shamsi, its national security project director.

As this tweet demonstrates, terrorism is an inherently political label, easily abused and misused, Ms. Shamsi said. There is no legal authority for designating a domestic group. Any such designation would raise significant due process and First Amendment concerns.

Mr. Trumps tweet appeared to be part of an effort by his administration to blame far-left activists for the violence gripping the nation after the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis last week. Earlier Sunday, Mr. Trumps national security adviser, Robert C. OBrien, had blamed such activists during appearances on CNN and ABC News, saying that he had not seen anything to corroborate reports by the Department of Homeland Security and the news media that far-right groups were also stoking violence.

Mr. OBrien said the F.B.I. needed to come up with a plan to deal with antifa.

Right now, I think the president and the attorney general, Barr, want to know what the F.B.I.s been doing to surveil, to disrupt, to take down antifa, to prosecute them, Mr. OBrien said on the ABC program This Week. This isnt the first time theyre out there. And they are using military-style tactics and traveling around the country to take advantage of these situations and burn down our cities.

That Mr. Trump does not have the apparent legal authority to tell his administration to designate a group as a domestic terrorist organization did not matter to his supporters, several of whom praised his statement. One adviser to Mr. Trump said that appearing to crack down on the protests was politically important to the president, with just five months until Election Day.

Julian Barnes and Adam Goldman contributed reporting.
A fresh picture of Pakistan's ailing former prime minister Nawaz Sharif taking tea at a London cafe along with some members of his family went viral on social media, sparking a debate on his health with the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf members demanding his return to face corruption cases.

In the picture, the 70-year-old three-time premier is seen sitting at a roadside cafe with his granddaughters. He sported a blue shalwar kameez and a cap and apparently looked in better health.

Some ministers got skeptical about the serious nature of his health, saying Sharif is roaming on London streets and he even did not bother to wear mask in this COVID-19 testing time.

"This picture of Sharif having tea in cafe is exposing our law, justice and judicial system. This picture also tells how much people can trust on the accountability system in the country," Science Minister Fawad Chaudhry said.

Prime Ministers adviser Shahbaz Gill said that Sharif had gone abroad after lying in the court. "The Sharifs think the people are fool, Gill said and asked Mr Sharif to return Pakistan to face corruption cases against him.

Punjab Information Minister Fayyazul Hasan Chohan said that how come Sharif roam on London's streets without a mask. He should be brought back to face corruption cases against him.

As the picture went viral on social media on Saturday it became top trend, sparking a debate about Sharifs health with his detractors asking why he does not return to Pakistan if he is well while his supporters expressed joy at seeing their leader in good health and spirits.

Sharifs daughter Maryam Nawaz claimed that the picture of the PML-N supreme leader was released by some elements with an intention to humiliate him.

"Like in the past practice they (an apparent reference to the establishment) wanted to humiliate him by leaking his picture. But the response to it was otherwise. The supporters of him got happy to see him. His detractors must learn from this," she said.

She said when her mother was in the ICU in a London hospital, such elements even tried to take her picture forcibly. For them to take Nawaz Sharif and his familys womens pictures is not difficult, she said in a tweet.

Shahbaz Gill, however, claimed that the PML-N itself had leaked this picture of Sharif to tell its workers that he is fine and "very much in-charge of the party". He said the PML-N workers were looking up to Sharif's younger brother Shahbaz Sharif that is why the party had to leak this picture.

Earlier in January, a picture of Sharif having tea at a London restaurant had gone viral, inviting a lot of criticism and raising suspicion that he might have gone out of Pakistan under some deal.

Defending this and previous "leaked" pictures, PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Auranzeb said: "Mr Sharif had gone out to have a walk as per doctors advice.

Sharif in November last had left for London after the Lahore High Court granted him a four-week permission allowing him to go abroad for his treatment.

He had given an undertaking to the Lahore High Court to return to Pakistan citing his record to face the process of law and justice within four weeks or as soon as he is declared healthy and fit to travel by doctors.

Sharif was also given bail in the Al-Azizia Mills corruption case in which he was serving seven-year imprisonment in Lahore's Kot Lakhpat jail.

Sharif, who was diagnosed with an immune system disorder, has been advised by a PTI governments panel of doctors to go abroad for treatment. He had been diagnosed with a complicated coronary disease.

In London, he underwent comprehensive cardiovascular evaluation and investigations at Royal Brompton & Harefield Hospital.

According to his daughter, Sharif's cardiac surgery had been postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Fayaz Wani By

No devotees in Kheer Bhawani mela

The annual Kheer Bhawani yatra and mela in Kashmir on Saturday saw no devotees. The annual fair, which is one of important festivals of Kashmiri Pandits, is celebrated at the Ragnya Devi temple in Tulmulla area of central Kashmirs Ganderbal district.

However, due to the lockdown, the J&K Dharmath Trust, which manages the yatra, had advised devotees this year not to visit shrine in view of the ongoing pandemic.

Every year thousands of Kashmiri Pandits visit the temple to celebrate the annual festival. All the temples in Jammu and Kashmir have remained closed since lockdown was enforced by authorities in March.

Development work resumes in Srinagar

The administration in Srinagar has permitted resumption of developmental works from June 1. Deputy Commissioner Srinagar Shahid Iqbal Choudhary has directed all departments and agencies to restart execution on all infrastructure-based developmental works for 264 activities which include various important and major developmental projects.

These include 64 works of R&B, 50 of SMC Drainage, 49 of RDD, 28 of KPDCL, 16 of PHE and 11 of LAWDA which make the most of these works.

The projects, which involve and are under execution at an estimated cost of over `1,300 crore, include a host of crucial infrastructural projects in various sectors ranging from health to roads and bridges to drainage to power and water to lake and environment conservation and beautification.

State gears up to prevent locust attack

The Jammu and Kashmir government is gearing up to prevent locust attacks on the crops in the Union Territory.

The Agriculture department has constituted district-level committees in Kashmir to tackle any possible attack by the desert locust wreaking havoc with crops in some states.

The teams have been asked to be vigilant and ready to spray chemicals to prevent the locust from damaging crops.

The government has asked twin agriculture universities of UT  SKUAST Kashmir and Jammu to constitute team of scientists to analyze pattern and ways to fight this threat and come up with a detailed plan to tackle locust threat, which has destroyed crops in nine states so far.

Women SHGs produce over 9 lakh face masks

Amid growing concern over dearth of face-masks to stop spread of coronavirus pandemic, the all-women self-help groups (SHGs) in Jammu and Kashmir have risen to the extraordinary challenge by manufacturing over 9 lakh face masks.

Officials said about 2,000 women from several SHGs across the J&K have joined the fight against the Covid-19 and successfully manufactured more than 9.73 lakh face masks.

In Kashmir division, the women-led SHGs have manufactured 5.63 lakh face masks and in Jammu Division, over 4 lakh face masks have been manufactured. Prior to outbreak of pandemic, the SHGs were stitching shirts, bags and uniforms.
In the week that President Trump took on social media, Axios has learned that he had a call Friday with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg that was described by both sides as productive.

Why it matters: With the White House and Twitter at war, Facebook has managed to keep diplomatic relations with the world's most powerful social-media devotee.

Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post on Friday:

"I've been struggling with how to respond to the President's tweets and posts all day. Personally, I have a visceral negative reaction to this kind of divisive and inflammatory rhetoric. ... But I'm responsible for reacting not just in my personal capacity but as the leader of an institution committed to free expression."

"I disagree strongly with how the President spoke about this, but I believe people should be able to see this for themselves, because ultimately accountability for those in positions of power can only happen when their speech is scrutinized out in the open."
Police take back the streets at around midnight after firing copious amounts of tear gas to disperse protesters and rioters outside the Minneapolis Police 5th Precinct during the fourth night of protests and violence following the death of George Floyd, in Minneapolis, Minn., on May 29, 2020. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

Officials Concerned Outside Groups Inciting Lawlessness Amid Minneapolis Protests

MINNEAPOLISFederal, state, and local authorities have observed a changing pattern of the protests in Minneapolis in response to the death of George Floyd and are concerned that persons from outside the state actively participated and agitated amid the protests in recent days.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said that the dynamic [of the protest] has changed over the last several days.

We saw more and more people coming from outside of the city. We saw more and more people looking to cause violence in our communities and I have to say it is not acceptable, he said during a press conference on May 30.

Frey suggested to local residents not to participate in the protests anymore, as the circumstances have changed: If you have family members or friends that are even considering protesting, this is no longer about protesting. This is no longer about verbal expression. This is about violence.

In St. Paul, Minnesota, every person arrested on the night of May 29 was from out of state, Mayor Melvin Carter III told reporters. He said local activists confirmed that the violent protesters arent from Minneapolis.

I hear them say: We dont know these folks. We dont know these folks who are agitated. We dont know these folks who are inciting violence. We dont know these folks were first in breaking windows.

80% of the RIOTERS in Minneapolis last night were from OUT OF STATE. They are harming businesses (especially African American small businesses), homes, and the community of good, hardworking Minneapolis residents who want peace, equality, and to provide for their families.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 30, 2020

Attorney General William Barr warned on May 30 that it is a federal crime to cross state lines or to use interstate facilities to incite or participate in violent rioting.

Groups of outside radicals and agitators are exploiting the situation to pursue their own separate and violent agenda, he said. We will enforce these laws.

Growing Number of Protesters Have Agenda

Thousands of protesters broke an 8 p.m. curfew imposed by Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, storming downtown areas in the twin cities area, with some looting and setting fire to stores.

While a mix of ethnicities appeared to join the protest, and people of all ages were present, the ages skewed mostly younger.

The atmosphere was chaotic, smoky, and loud and a growing number of protesters seemed to have an agenda other than justice for Floyd. Others were rioting, looting, and burning stores nearby.

Many of the signs at the protest were the same and had Party of Socialism and Liberation written along the bottom under the slogan, Jail All racist Killer Cops!

Some people were handing out water and snacks, and later on, others were helping those who were affected by tear gas.

Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin kneels on the neck of George Floyd, a handcuffed man who was pleading that he could not breathe, in Minneapolis, on May 25, 2020. (Darnella Frazier/AP)

The death of Floyd, a black man in Minneapolis who died earlier this week while in the custody of Minneapolis police, has caused a national uproar.

Protests exploded in dozens of cities around the nation, including Minneapolis, Washington, New York, Atlanta, Detroit, and Louisville, on May 29 with occasional looting, arson, and vandalizing.

A widely circulated video showed Floyd lying down and handcuffed as a police officer was seen kneeling on the mans neck for nearly nine minutes. The footage showed Floyd telling officers that he cant breathe before his body went motionless. According to a Minneapolis Fire Department report (pdf), Floyd was unresponsive and pulseless when he was being transported into an ambulance by paramedics from the site of his arrest to the hospital.

The police officer who was seen kneeling on the mans neck, Derek Chauvin, was fired on May 25, along with three other officers. He was charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter on May 29.

NY Black Lives Matter Activists Seen in Minneapolis

During the May 29 night protests in Minneapolis, some Black Lives Matter activists from outside the Twin Cities region were seen to have participated.

Hawk Newsome, a Black Lives Matter leader in the Greater New York area, flew in along with other group members from New York on May 29 following Floyds death on May 25.

Protesters shout at police outside the Minneapolis 5th Precinct Station on May 29, 2020. Across the road, stores were being looted and set on fire. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

Newsome used a megaphone to shout slogans, such as down with the capitalist pigs, during a protest outside the 5th Precinct of the Minneapolis Police Department.

I want to point something out to yall, right.  Do you ever notice when we march, half of the group is a little bit scared and the police are all over you? said Newsome. But when youre out here with thousands of fearless [expletive], were in control. What do they do? They back up and run. And thats why we say, Back up, back up, we want freedom, freedom.

The Black Lives Matters activists werent observed as being part of the violent crowds, although it was difficult to positively identify anyone.

Venus Upadhayaya and Janita Kan contributed to the report.

Charlotte Cuthbertson Senior Reporter Follow Charlotte Cuthbertson is a senior reporter with The Epoch Times who primarily covers border security and the opioid crisis.
In a press conference held in Cairo, Minister of Health Hala Zayed said that the Egyptian capital has had the most cases of coronavirus in the country.

A graph shared by the ministry showed that Cairo tops Egypts governorates in the number of infections with 7,111 cases, followed by Giza with 2,629 cases, Qalioubiya at 1,787, Menoufiya at with 1,532, Fayoum at 1,277, Alexandria at 1,078, and Beheira at 988.

The minister also revealed that the total number of coronavirus cases reached 23,499 on 30 May, including 8,000 cases that are being treated in youth hostels. She also added that the ministry mobilised 1,000 mobile medical caravans to distribute 8 million doses of medication to infected patients currently in home-isolation.

Zayed said that another 57 laboratories will be opened by the end of the week to provide PCR analyses, in addition to 17 labs operating under the Ministry of Higher Education.

During the press conference, Minister Zayed said that the Ministry of Health has gone from having 18 hospitals for treating and screening COVID-19 to 376 hospitals with a capacity of 35,000 beds.

Minister Zayed also revealed that Hydroxychloroquine is still being used as a treatment in Egypt.

It has shown effective and positive results in mild coronavirus cases, she said.

Last week, the World Health Organisation announced that it had halted the use of Hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for coronavirus temporarily over health concerns that were reported in several countries.

The minister also renewed her call for fully-recovered coronavirus patients to donate blood to help patients in critical condition.

She also asked citizens to download the Health Egypt app to follow the latest updates concerning the virus on their smart phones, adding that 600,000 citizens have already downloaded it.

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In February, as awareness of the coronavirus grew, Stanford behavior scientist BJ Fogg took a precaution traveling through Los Angeles International Airport: He wore a mask.

I was one of like three people in the whole airport that was wearing one, and I felt really odd, Fogg said. Now, I think its flipped. The norm, at least there, has probably shifted.

In a few months, masks went from a rare to routine sight in much of the U.S. Health officials now recommend their use in public settings: According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, wearing a cloth face covering may slow spread of the virus that causes COVID-19 by preventing droplets from infected people from being transmitted to others.

Mask-wearing is increasingly mandated by businesses and jurisdictions, and some believe the rules should be broader. Jeremy Howard, a research scientist at the University of San Francisco, co-wrote an open letter signed by more than 100 scientists urging governors to require masks in public.

Pretty much every state also requires that you wear pants in public, Howard said. A mask is much more important from a hygiene point of view. If you dont wear pants, youre probably not going to kill anybody. But if youre not going to wear a mask, you absolutely might kill people.

The idea is that people who have the virus and dont know it or are asymptomatic are less likely to emit droplets and infect someone if theyre wearing a mask. While, at least in the Bay Area, it seems most people wear masks when going into grocery stores, banks, post offices and for curbside pickup, its clear not everyone is on board.

Objections to mask rules range from high-profile confrontations at stores and protests to walking through the grocery aisles without a mask or with one dangling around the neck. Reasons for resistance can be just as varied.

I can only guess at what those are, Fogg said. But some might be to show defiance, to make a political statement, to somehow express or feel like they are free and can do whatever they want.

Nick Otto / Special to The Chronicle

A HuffPost/YouGov survey released last week found that 8% of Americans self-reported feeling judged negatively for wearing a face mask in public, while 23% felt they were judged positively and 54% felt they were not judged at all. In the poll, 8% said they see wearing a mask as a sign of weakness.

Which is really weird, said Howard, the USF researcher. Like, theres so many total badasses that wear masks  whether they be ninjas, military in the desert, welders, whatever.

A recent study conducted by researchers in Berkeley and Britain found men surveyed were more likely than women to identify wearing a mask as shameful, not cool, a sign of weakness, and a stigma. The survey, of 2,459 people mostly ages 25 to 54, also found that overall men were less inclined to wear masks than women.

Elena Conis, a historian of U.S. public health and medicine at UC Berkeley, said that people who oppose health guidelines such as vaccinations or quarantines usually have a handful of reasons.

Either they dont believe the risk is particularly high for them, Conis said, or they believe the risk of (the disease) is a risk they want to take. Or they feel so strongly about their individual or personal liberty that it kind of trumps any public health messaging.

As an example, Conis pointed to the forming of an Anti-Mask League in San Francisco during the Spanish flu of 1918. The league protested the citys order that masks be worn in public, drawing 2,000 people to one meeting, even as the disease would ultimately kill more than 3,000 residents.

It takes infringement of personal liberty to protect the publics health in pandemic times, Conis said. And in a country founded on principles of individual liberty, that can sometimes be a hard sell.

Nick Otto / Special to The Chronicle

The coronavirus is believed to spread mainly through droplets produced by an infected person coughing, sneezing or talking. Warner Greene, a senior investigator at the Gladstone Institutes, said the virus is unusual in that people can transmit it for a long period of time without showing symptoms. A cloth mask can intercept respiratory as well as smaller aerosol droplets, which can carry the virus and travel farther than the 6 feet recommended for social distancing, Greene said.

Frankly, this is not part of the culture in the United States, this is strange and not something we naturally do, Greene said of masking. But for this virus it makes incredible sense. And it only works if everybody is doing the same thing, protecting everyone else.

George Rutherford, an infectious disease expert at UCSF, said masks have proven remarkably effective at reducing transmission of other viruses causing respiratory illness if worn correctly over the nose and mouth.

Its the equivalent of not blowing smoke in someones face, Rutherford said. If people are going to be out and about, I think we need to be conservative about masks. Its a trade-off.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

San Francisco tightened its mask rules Thursday with a new order requiring face coverings in most outdoor settings, including when exercising within 30 feet of another person or walking past someone on the sidewalk, with few exceptions. Throughout the Bay Area, signs at businesses and parks remind people to maintain distance and about county mask rules. But that doesnt always ensure compliance.

At Cole Hardwares half-dozen stores, President Rick Karp said a vast majority of customers have been cooperative, but there have been a few verbal altercations  and one instance of an employee being pushed  with people hassling us and not wanting to wear a mask.

They tend to be people that, I guess, feel its a violation of their personal rights, Karp said. It makes my staff, who already feel on edge and nervous about working, feel even worse.

Nick Otto / Special to The Chronicle

At three Andys Local Markets in Marin County, General Manager Brooksley Dixon said that employees have needed to remind a few maskless shoppers of the requirement.

Sometimes they get mad, Dixon said. Sometimes theyre like, Oh, I left it in the car.

With some shelter-in-place measures easing, officials caution against letting mask habits slip. State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, said face coverings are 100% essential to not just reopening our economy, but keeping it open.

This is not a forever thing. This is until we have a vaccine or a very effective treatment, Wiener said. It is a simple, easy way for all of us to help collapse infection rates.

Wiener said he believes that masks should be required in public, period, and can be mandated as a public health measure by officials.

It requires all of us to embrace something new, Wiener said. But if we all do it, it becomes more normal.

Matt Kawahara is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mkawahara@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @matthewkawahara
Wyoming is a national leader in many aspects of oil and gas industry management. We require financial assurance that wells are drilled to the highest safety standards and that they will be competently plugged, abandoned and site-reclaimed when they no longer produce. Wyoming recently eliminated the tiny Conservation Tax that helps finance the work of our Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (WOGCC) and contributes to plugging abandoned orphan wells. The WOGCC also requires modest bonds to assure operators clean up and plug wells when their useful lives are over. And we require when a well has not produced for three years (is idle) the operator must provide a bond (like an insurance policy or a cash guarantee) of $10 per foot, which can be used by the state to properly plug and reclaim the well if the operator does not do so. Without these bonds or the now eliminated Conservation Tax, Wyoming taxpayers would be liable for paying for this work on private (fee) and state mineral deposits. There are many thousands of such wells, and tens of thousands of additional permitted wells not yet drilled.

This system has worked reasonably well over the years. WOGCC data show that, from 1997 through July 2016, the Commission spent $13.9 million to plug 1,710 orphan wells. But only $3.5 million of this came from forfeited operator bonds, and the Commission was forced to make up the extra $10.4 million from the Conservation Tax fund.

At May 7 this year, the WOGCC website showed 2,898 orphan wells remain unplugged. Not shown are depths of those wells, total estimated cost of plugging them or the total value of forfeited bonds available to pay for the work. If we assume these wells average 2,000 feet deep and a cost $10 per foot to plug and reclaim, the states liability will approach $58 million, less the value of any forfeited bonds. If the wells are deeper, the cost will be greater.

Fiscal prudence demands that Wyoming maintain bonding of idle oil and gas wells. In the past, the majority of orphaned wells were shallow (2,000 feet or less) coal-bed methane wells on small pads. Today, horizontal oil wells range from 10,000 to 15,000 feet deep, with pads up to 40 acres, and could cost exponentially more to plug and reclaim. (The WOGCC has spent between $500,000 and $1,000,000 to plug individual deep wells.)

More daunting, todays record-low fossil energy prices and the current financial turmoil in the industry almost surely presage an avalanche of unbonded idle wells becoming orphans.

Moreover, chaotic energy markets and COVID-19 disruption are threatening Wyomings conservative approach to risk management. First, the WOGCC has reduced the Conservation Tax to 0 mils. Second, there is an ongoing campaign by a publicly funded state-industry organization, the Enhanced Oil Recovery Institute, to essentially eliminate idle well bonding requirements, but to also severely limit the efficacy of our underlying well bonding program. If idle well bonding were to be removed at this time of severely reduced state revenues, it is unclear how WOGCC would begin to fund its liability to plug the already existing 2,900 orphan wells, not to mention additional wells being shut in and orphaned each week.

These idle and orphan wells are primarily on private surface, owned mostly by Wyoming citizens, taxpayers and voters. These landowners are burdened with the damages caused by idle or orphaned wells. They degrade and devalue property, provide a breeding ground for noxious weeds and threaten groundwater. How will the WOGCC or the legislature address this responsibility if industry is no longer required to provide bonds?

Essentially, industry is trying to finance production of oil and gas into a down market by using the cash and credit that now insures the state against having to pay to clean up orphan wells. This is happening at a time when other jurisdictions  from Saudi Arabia to Russia to Texas  are considering curtailing production. Industry is asking for this break at a time when Exxon Mobil is shutting down 75 percent of their Permian Basin rigs, and ConocoPhillips is reducing production by 460,000 barrels a day. Yet, Wyoming is being asked to finance sustained production by shouldering more risk.

Warren Buffett is fond of saying, When the tide goes out you see whos swimming naked. If there ever was a time Wyoming should not expose our state to the risk of unbonded wells being idled or abandoned, that time is now.

Bob LeResche is a former Commissioner of Natural Resources of Alaska, energy executive and investment banker. He and his wife Carol own a ranch and heirloom vegetable farm near Clearmont, Wyoming. He is a board member of the Powder River Basin Resource Council and the Western Organization of Resource Councils.

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The security guard shot and killed during Friday nights unrest in Oakland has been identified as David Patrick Underwood of Pinole.

Underwood, 53, was identified Sunday by the FBI. A second guard was also shot and wounded. Both were working as contract security officers for the Department of Homeland Security, guarding the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building.

Underwood died from gunshot wounds sustained after shots were red by an unidentied subject in a vehicle, the statement. The shooting happened at around 9:45 p.m. A vehicle approached the building, read the report. An individual inside the vehicle began ring gunshots at contract security officers for the Federal Protective Service of the Department of Homeland Security.

Because the shooting happened on federal land, the FBI in San Francisco is conducting the investigation in partnership with Oakland police. The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives also is investigating.

Underwood was the younger brother of Angela Underwood Jacobs, a Republican candidate for Congress in Lancaster (Los Angeles County). On Saturday, Jacobs posted on Facebook: My brother, Dave Patrick Underwood, a federal officer, was murdered 5/29/20 in Oakland California, while on duty during the riots, read the posting. This Violence Must Stop.

Underwood, who was known as Pat, grew up in Richmond and Pinole, part of a large extended family. His father, Dave Underwood, had been one of 12 children, and had served in the Air Force before working for 35 years as a custodian at UC Berkeley.

It was a stable family, according to Greg Underwood, the youngest of three kids. The oldest, Angela, was an outstanding student and went on to become a banker. Pat, the middle child, stood out in athletics as a left-handed-shooting forward on the varsity basketball team and played center field and pitched for the varsity baseball team at Pinole Valley High School.

Pat was in the newspaper every week, constantly breaking school records, said Greg, a freelance video editor in Richmond who was also an athlete. We used to always battle over who had the most trophies, he said. It finally ended in a tie. Then it became whose trophies were bigger.

Underwood was also interested in sleek sports cars and worked with his dad as a janitor at Cal to purchase a new charcoal-gray Datsun 280Z Turbo while still in high school.

He was in love with that car, his brother Greg said. Pat was a popular guy. Buddies were always calling him to play basketball. He had friends everywhere.

Ed Marshall, a high school classmate, always rode shotgun in the 280Z, playing old-school house music on the car stereo. He was the nicest, kindest, most giving person, said Marshall, who remained a close friend. He was well-known in the community and wouldnt hurt anybody.

After graduating from Pinole Valley High in 1985, Underwood enrolled at Contra Costa College, where he went out for both the basketball and baseball teams. When those didnt work out, he hit a wall, and Underwood drifted up to Sacramento, where a lot of his high school buddies had moved.

But he never really left the family home in Pinole and was always there when his parents needed him. When their health failed, he ended up moving home for good to take care of them until they died.

He was still in the family home and assumed his own fathers role as something of a patriarch to a slew of cousins, nieces and nephews.

Pat was someone you could depend on, said Greg Underwood. If you said Pat, I need a ride to work at 9, Pat was there at 8:59, beeping his horn. Anything that he would put his mind to, he did it.

Marshall said Underwood went into security work to be there for people and help and protect them. Hed worked at various federal buildings for nine years. He also moonlighted in nightclub security at Ruby Skye in San Francisco and planned to open his own security firm.

Never married, Underwood never lost his love for music, cooking and the Datsun/Nissan Z-series car. His original 280Z led to a 300Z and the 350z, three generations of the same low, sleek, powerful two-seater. He worked on all three cars in his driveway because he had remodeled the garage into a gym.

He liked to get out there in his gym and pump weights, said Marshall, who would still go by and visit, play the old- school 80s hits and catch up on the Pinole Spartans. Underwoods house was the place to go for major sporting events on the big screen or for a Memorial Day barbecue. The coronavirus canceled this years event, but the old Spartans plan to meet with their families for a cookout at San Pablo Reservoir.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

Pat would bring the laughter, the music and the good times, Marshall said. Its hurtful, real hurtful, to have to do it without him.

He did not deserve to go out this way.

Witnesses to Fridays shooting reported that the two guards were ambushed by gunmen who pulled up in a white van. The other victim is said to be in stable condition and has not been identified.

In a briefing with reporters on Saturday, Ken Cuccinelli, deputy secretary of Homeland Security, suggested the attack was possibly part of a pattern and that the department is aware of threats against other police stations and federal buildings.

Let me be clear, Cuccinelli said. When someone targets a police officer or a police station with an intention to do harm and intimidate, that is an act of domestic terrorism.

Officials made a point of distancing the killing from the nationwide protests after the death of George Floyd while he was in police custody in Minneapolis.

During this time of trauma and hardship in our nation, we are further saddened and outraged by this callous act of gun violence, said Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland. We should never conflate the actions of murderers with the motives of protesters demanding justice.

Any information regarding the shooting can be reported anonymously at tips.fbi.gov.

Sam Whiting is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: swhiting@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @samwhitingsf
Pockets of demonstrators converged, dissipated and shifted across San Francisco on Sunday as street unrest intensified over the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Demonstrations ebbed and flowed around City Hall throughout the day. Some protesters assembled there only to leave to join a swelling crowd near lower Market Street. A crowd of several hundred people gathered there around 6:30 p.m. after an initial rally fizzled.

San Francisco police declared the City Hall rally an unlawful assembly after the citys 8 p.m. emergency curfew took effect, and ordered people to disperse or be arrested.

The Police Department said late Sunday that although the majority of Sundays demonstrations were overwhelmingly orderly and peaceful, around 80 arrests were made, mostly for violations of the emergency curfew and for looting. Some of the arrests resulted in the seizure of firearms and explosives, police said.

About 50 people stood face-to-face with officers in riot gear outside City Hall. Officers were holding their ground while some protesters set off fireworks and lit a dumpster on fire. After about 30 minutes of confrontation, the demonstrators dispersed.

Now Playing: Protesters refused to heed official pleas to stay home Saturday, instead taking to Oakland and Bay Area streets, where police officers in riot gear faced another night of outrage over the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Here's an inside look. Video: Matthias Gafni, Erika Carlos

The downtown crowds thinned markedly as the night wore on. Nearly two hours after the curfew took effect, about 40 people could be seen walking from Market Street to Mission Street. Police blocked off Grant Avenue and Sutter Street, where a group of people had been detained.

In an an apparent attempt to discourage the kind of looting and vandalism that convulsed the city late Saturday, police had lined up during the aftternoon outside boarded-up businesses on Market Street near the Powell Street cable car turnaround and at the Westfield Centre mall.

Now dont hurt anyone tonight, you hear? a male pedestrian said to the officers outside the mall.

Thats not our plan, one officer answered.

I dont say it to be sarcastic, the man said. But its worth saying.

Officers lined Market between Fifth and Seventh streets, including many from well outside San Francisco. Police from the Central Valley cities of Atwater and Livingston as well as sheriffs deputies from Merced and Mariposa counties were among those represented.

There were no reports of looting Sunday, though some people entered a CVS drugstore at Market and Seventh streets to pick over the stores remains as a harrowing weekend drew to a close.

In an earlier news briefing, Mayor London Breed said city leaders feel the hurt and the pain of those outraged at the video of a white Minneapolis police officer putting his knee on Floyds neck for nine minutes as the African American security guard struggled for air. The officer, Derek Chauvin, has since been fired and charged with third-degree murder.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

Floyds killing has touched off days of unrest in cities across the country, including Oakland and San Francisco. Breed said she understood the outrage but denounced people she said were coming to our city for the sole purpose of destroying our city.

Protesters gathered outside Breeds home Saturday night, shouting and setting off fireworks.

Now Playing: A protest in Oakland Friday night over the police-custody death in Minneapolis of George Floyd devolved into chaos, with fires being set, windows smashed, police officers struck by thrown objects and tear gas and rubber bullets fired at protesters. Video: San Francisco Chronicle

Breed said the protesters outside her home were all white people yelling, Black Lives Matter. But that didnt bother me as much as the taunting of me coming outside with firework torches in their hands looking like what used to happen when the KKK would show up to black peoples houses to burn their houses down.

The mayor added, You can disagree with my policies, you can not like me, you can protest me at City Hall all day every day. But dont come for me like that. Dont come to my house. Because at the end of the day, whats more disrespectful is the fact that we have people who are not black chanting Black Lives Matter and dont mean it.

San Francisco Chronicle staff writers Tony Bravo and Matt Kawahara contributed to this report.

Dominic Fracassa, Lizzie Johnson and Trisha Thadani are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: dfracassa@sfchronicle.com, ljohnson@sfchronicle.com, tthadani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @dominicfracassa, @lizziejohnsonnn, @TrishaThadani
Rajasthan extends night curfew to minimise spread of virus

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

Jaipur, May 31: Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has directed for continuation and strict enforcement of night curfew in the state even after May 31 to minimise the risk of a spurt in coronavirus infection.

Gehlot asked his officials to ensure that there should be no laxity in the night curfew in the state. The chief minister directed authorities to reschedule prohibited area as per the number of active infected cases, so that curfew is continued only in the affected area.

oronavirus: India records single-day jump of 8,380 positive cases in 24-hours| Oneindia News

Punjab announces 4 week extension of lockdown

Gehlot gave these direction during a high-level review meeting at his residence on Friday on the situation of coronavirus spread in the state.

He said the health protocol should be strictly maintained, even if they relate to VIPs. He said there should be no laxity in provisions of penalty under the Rajasthan Pandemic Ordinance. It is very important for protecting people's lives and public health, he said.

Gehlot also asked private hospitals to fulfil their moral responsibility by adopting a humanitarian approach to provide free treatment to corona-infected patients.

He instructed that proper availability of maternal and child health services should be ensured in state hospitals. Due to lockdown or corona epidemic, the common man should not face any problem in medical treatment.

Lockdown 5.0: What is open, what is closed

Additional Chief Secretary (Medical and Health) Rohit Kumar Singh said that Rajasthan's condition is better than those of other states due to corona infection.

The number of active infected patients is stable and recovery rate has increased in last 6 days in the state, he said.
Pastor Enoch Adeboye, General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), on Sunday said a lot of great things will come ou...

Pastor Enoch Adeboye, General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), on Sunday said a lot of great things will come out of the lockdown imposed due to the deadly coronavirus.





Adeboye in a sermon during a live broadcast to his members on Sunday, predicted that many babies will be birthed in early 2021.





The cleric, who informed Christians to rejoice during the lockdown, identified David and Elijah and Joseph in the Bible, as persons who became great as a result of lockdown in their lives.





He said, let me warn pastors, now Im busy you are resting. Early next year you will be very busy.

As a result of the lockdown you will have a lot of baby naming ceremonies.





David, Elijah, Joseph, and some others became great during a lockdown.





He, therefore, added that the best thing to do during a lockdown is rejoice, praise God, study the Bible and pray.





Visions usually come during lockdown. Plan towards actualizing the vision and when you finish planing you need to hand it over to God.





He also said God told him not to worry about persons who died due to coronavirus.





According to him, God allowed it because he wants to prove that he is the Almighty, hence the low COVID-19 deaths recorded globally.





The cleric said, God said I should not worry about those who will die due to coronavirus.





Aint you amazed at the number of people who have been recovered compared to the number of those who died? All over the world the number of those who died is less than 10 percent.





If you research, you will know that the number of people who have died due to coronavirus is lesser than those who have died because of accident or other means.





This is because God just wanted to prove himself that he is the almighty that he can lockdown the whole world.





Im appealing to those who havent give their life to Christ love your self by seeking him.If you find him you will fine life and if you hate him.





To those who think they are big and mighty where is it now. The almighty God says sit down at home.




Bryan Gargano sat in his car this morning with his wife and two daughters in the parking lot at St. Marys of the Lake Roman Catholic Church in Skaneateles following a parking lot Mass.

This was extremely refreshing and energizing, said Gargano, of Borodino, from the front passenger seat of his car. His wife, Jennifer was at the steering wheel. His two daughers, Sarah and Kaitlyn, were in the back seat. All had face masks on.

Its been so long since weve been able to receive the Eucharist. Its a blessing, he said.

Bryan Gargano, of Borodino, far left, his wife, Jennifer (at the steering wheel) and their two daughters, Sarah and Kaitlyn, attended the parking lot Mass at St. Mary's of the Lake Roman Catholic Church in Skaneateles.

A total of 38 cars had registered ahead for the service. Numbers were limited to 50% of the parking lots capacity. Those attending were told to stay in their cars as the Rev. Richard Dunn led the 33-minute service that was broadcast through a speaker system. Ushers/parking lot attendants with yellow vests and face masks directed those attending to pre-determined areas of the lot to insure social distancing.

Its been 11 weeks since weve been able to celebrate Mass (together), said the Rev. Richard Dunn. Who would have expected it would have taken this long. Today we celebrate Pentecost. We have been longing for the Holy Spirit. Weve been longing for Jesus in our lives. Today that longing is fulfilled.

The Rev.. Richard Dunn, left, priest at St. Mary's the Lake Roman Catholic Church in Skaneateles addresses parishioners in cars during a parking lot service.

Long-time parishioner Nancy Murray attended the parking lot service this morning by herself in her car. She said shes been house-bound for weeks and as for church has been doing it on TV. She had trouble hearing the priest whose brief sermon was interrupted by the villages fire station siren sounding off, but welcomed the opportunity to attend Mass in person.

Rev, Richard Dunn, administers Holy Communion to parishioner Nancy Murray during the parking lot Mass held at St. Mary's of the Lake Roman Catholic Church in Skaneateles.

St. Marys of the Lake was among several Catholic churches throughout Central New York this morning that held low Masses (simple services, with no hymnals, choirs or wine) in parking lots, or services inside with no more than 10 attending  following guidance from the Syracuse Diocese.

The guidelines from Bishop Douglas Lucia come after Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed an order last week allowing gatherings of 10 people or fewer  including at religious ceremonies  to resume.

As of Friday afternoon, Danielle Cummings, a spokesperson for the Syracuse Diocese said The Rev. Lucia planned to conduct indoor services at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Syracuse, limited to 10 parishioners at a time. According to the churchs website, services were scheduled today at 7:30 and 9:45 a.m. and 5:10 p.m.

6 Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception opens with some restrictions

Other Catholic churches that scheduled parking lot Masses were Holy Cross in DeWitt; St. Rose of Lima in North Syracuse, and All Saints Church in Syracuse, Cummings said.

Dispensation from the obligation to attend Sunday Mass continues, as do live-streamed services. The diocese is asking anyone who is sick, immune-compromised or 65 and older to stay home.

Churches must be sanitized before and after every Mass, which might change schedules.

Sign in front of Skaneateles Episcopal Church, which is offrering its Sunday church services online.

Meanwhile, many Protestant and non-denominational churches in Central New York continued live streaming or pre-recording their services so members could view them online.

Shortly after 10 a.m. this morning, Sue Grady and Sandy Nichols were spotted leaving Skaneateles Presbyterian Church with face masks on.

The two are members of the churchs hand bell choir. Grady, who is the groups director, said six of the 16 members in the group showed at the church this morning to perform a song, Breathe On Me Breath of God, as part of the churchs service that was being live streamed.

We cant sing so were going to ring, Grady said, adding the bell ringers took precautions to keep social distance while performing.

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Complete coronavirus coverage on syracuse.com
San Francisco, May 31 : As people spend more time online attending meetings, classes, binge-watching Netflix and gaming, screen fatigue has affected millions and Google experts have now listed some advice to cut screen time and stay healthy.

To avoid getting pulled into your phone, you can use your voice to ask Google Assistant for help completing actions, like setting an alarm, sending a text, playing the latest news, getting answers to questions, help finding recipes or ordering takeout and much more.

"You can also create custom or ready-made Routines to trigger several actions with a single command," according to Lilian Rincon, Senior Director of Product Management, Google Assistant.

The Google experts advise people to find active alternatives like stepping away from the screen and add physical activity into your life.

"If you have children, you could even exercise with them. As you make progress, use Google Fit to keep track and earn heart points which can help you meet the World Health Organisation recommendations," said Kapil Parakh, Medical Lead, Google Fit.

If you have kids, chat with them about the content you each prefer and work with them to plan out a schedule for listening, watching, playing and interacting with it.

"Does the content align with your family's values? Does the experience affect your kids' behavior in ways that help them relax and/or thrive? If not, consider alternatives and discuss your reasoning. Use this guide to get help talking to your kids about finding positive content and other tech topics," explained Jennifer Kotler, UXR Lead, Google Play.

Clearly segmenting work time and non-work time improves one's satisfaction with their wellbeing, Google said in a statement.

Turning off notifications and putting your laptop out of sight reduces the tendency to check work email or hop into a last-minute video meeting.

"When it's time to get back to work, take a few minutes to think through your goals for that work time before getting started. And create a dedicated workspace to signal to your brain that it's time to focus," said Jessica DiVento, Chief Mental Health Advisor, YouTube.

Blue light can have a negative impact on our natural sleep cycles by delaying the release of melatonin and increasing our alertness.

"Start with around 30 minutes of screen-free time before bed, and work your way up to two hours, depending on what works best for you. Try reading a book or listening to an audio program instead so you don't have to engage with a screen," advised Alan McLean, Designer, Google Wellbeing Lab.
A 38-year-old Uttarakhand man died in revenue polices custody in Almora on Saturday night leading to his family accusing the police of murder. They also refused to take his body, said officials.

According to Manisha Markana, tehsildar of Almora, the man hailing from Palyu village in Dhaulcheena block was taken into custody on Saturday following his wifes complaint accusing him of assault and domestic violence.

The revenue police then took the womans husband, Soban Singh, 38 in custody, Markana said.

The official added that Singhs health condition deteriorated on Saturday night, following which the officials rushed him to the community health centre in Dhaulacheena area of the district, where he died during the treatment.

For Coronavirus Live Updates

The family of the deceased was informed about his deteriorating health condition when the cops rushed him to the hospital. The family has refused to take Singhs body alleging the presence of injury marks on the deceased and have demanded an inquiry into this matter. A post-mortem examination was done but its report was awaited till the filing of this copy.

Singh had returned from Gujarat on May 12 after which he was home quarantined. The local tehsildar (revenue officer) further informed that the swab samples of the deceased were also taken and sent for testing as the real cause of death is not known yet.
Venus Behbahani-Clark welcomed her third child on Friday night.

The Real Housewives of Melbourne star gave birth to a baby boy at Epworth Richmond hospital at 22:38, and is yet the name the newborn.

'Giving birth during a global pandemic will always seem a bit surreal to me,' Venus wrote to Instagram following the birth as she shared several selfies.

Congratulations! Real Housewives of Melbourne star Venus Behbahani-Clark (pictured) welcomed her third child on Friday night at Epworth Richmond hospital

The human rights lawyer covered her baby's face with an emoji in all of the pictures.

'Finally together on the outside,' she gushed following the birth.

'Family and friends still haven't met or held my son but I'm grateful for the healthy and cheeky baby we have been blessed with and I can't thank my lovely obstetrician Dr. Kliman enough for his support, care and amazing delivery.'

'Giving birth during a global pandemic will always seem a bit surreal': The human rights lawyer gave birth to a baby boy, who she is yet to name, and shared several pictures to Instagram

Privacy: Venus covered her baby's face with an emoji in all of the pictures

Venus shared one adorable picture holding her newborn baby's hand.

A second picture showed doctors holding the little boy immediately after the birth, wearing latex gloves that were covered in blood.

She cuddled up to the little boy for another shot with husband James Nicholas Clark.

Parents! She cuddled up to the little boy for another shot with husband James Nicholas Clark (pictured)

Welcome! Another picture showed doctors holding the little boy immediately after the birth, wearing latex gloves that were covered in blood

The star has two other children with husband James.

In April, Venus spoke candidly about her fears of having another baby during the coronavirus outbreak.

'Being pregnant comes with a lot of emotions you didnt think you had. Each baby Ive carried has been different. This one during COVID-19 has been a real struggle,' she shared in a heartfelt post to Instagram.

The lawyer admitted she found social isolation 'tough' and she was 'afraid' of giving birth during a pandemic, as well as being stressed about homeschooling her two daughters Giselle, 10, and Sophia, six.
In 1989, District of Columbia Mayor Marion Barry, Jr. insisted that his city was basically crime-free except for all the murder. "Except for the killings, Washington has one of the lowest crime rates in the country," he told a luncheon audience at the National Press Club.

On May 28, MSNBC reporter Ali Velshi said something just as mind-bogglingly absurd. As violent riots erupted in sections of Minneapolis over the death of George Floyd, Velshi insisted that the protests were basically peaceful.

"I wanna be clear on how I characterize this," Velshi said, as buildings literally burned to the ground in the background of the broadcast. "This is mostly a protest. It is not, it is not, generally speaking, unruly."

It's interesting to watch Velshi struggle to find the words to shape the narrative he's trying so desperately to tell: that the violence and upheaval unfolding around him aren't really happening. That the burning buildings are somehow not indicative of what is really taking place on the ground. That the whole scene is really just a peaceful protest, so please don't misinterpret the fires, the destruction and evacuation of Minneapolis's 3rd police precinct, the vandalism of police vehicles, and the looting of the Target and arson of the AutoZone as "unruly."

According to the Saint Paul Police Department, more than 170 businesses were damaged or looted that night, and there were dozens of fires.

Liberals are so obsessed with controlling the narrative on race, so immersed in their own self-serving propaganda, that they actually believe that society is going to accept their bald-faced lies over reality itself  over the television footage of the destruction, over the police reports documenting the property damage, over the cries from governors and mayors urging citizens to please stop the looting and rioting.

Vox recently published an article by Morgan State University professor Jason Johnson titled "What we're missing when we condemn 'violence' at protests," which attempted to discount reality and explain away what our own eyeballs are seeing when we view the footage of the George Floyd protests unfolding across the country. Johnson insisted that these seemingly violent events are simply the result of a sensational news media establishment. "In reality, these protests are usually not completely consumed with chaos," he wrote. "Nighttime coverage will seldom show a full city map demonstrating that, two blocks over from a street that looks like a 'city engulfed in flames,' there's a CVS still open for business."

And who is responsible for these fires? The police, of course. "[M]uch of the property damage attributed to protesters is often the result of police action or inaction in the face of lawful public behavior," Johnson stated, explaining that "police munitions often start fires at protests."

Johnson also pointed out how the media fail to separate peaceful protesters from rioters, who really can't help binging on stolen goods. Because the police "are so occupied harassing and corralling peaceful protesters and the streets are filled with smoke, it's pretty easy to break into a Verizon store, a beauty shop, or a grocery store and take what you want."

The authentic protester, on the other hand, has a legitimate reason to destroy property. "For protesters who are angry about violent, unaccountable police in Minneapolis, overtaking and burning down the Third Police Precinct is a specific act of revolt," Johnson stated. "This is a fundamentally different action than using the chaos from two blocks over to raid a liquor store."

Johnson concluded his Vox article by forwarding the latest dose of racial grievance propaganda, which is the notion that police have been responding to black protesters with an unwarranted use of force while dealing ever-so-kindly with armed white protesters speaking out against the lockdowns.

CNN peddled this same nonsense with a recent article headlined "The protest pictures alone tell the story of America's racial hierarchy," which used selectively edited pictures to suggest that callous white cops were needlessly throwing tear gas at innocent black teens for protesting peacefully, while dangerous white protesters were left alone by police at the Michigan State Capitol, despite the fact they were putting everyone in danger by carrying long guns and refusing to social distance and wear masks.

This narrative is a lie  and the captions under the CNN pictures revealed the truth for anyone who wanted to look past the misleading headline to the fine print. Cops were throwing tear gas not at innocent black teens peacefully protesting the death of George Floyd on a quiet Minneapolis street, but because rioters had first vandalized, and then burned down, the Third Police Precinct. Likewise, police stood down at the Michigan Capitol not because the protesters were white or conservative, but because they weren't breaking any laws. In fact, the contrast between the George Floyd protests erupting in big cities across America and those protests against the lockdowns happening at state capitols couldn't be more stark.

The George Floyd protests have been marred by outrageous acts of violence and destruction  so much so that governors have declared states of emergency and have called in the National Guard. All manner of businesses have been looted, vandalized, and set ablaze. As reported in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, "Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms had a blunt message to protesters who turned the streets of downtown Atlanta into scenes of violence and destruction late Friday: "Go home.'"

In New York, according to Fox5, "[m]ore than 200 people were arrested, including one person who faces attempted murder charges for throwing a lighted Molotov cocktail into a marked police vehicle that four officers were inside. Many NYPD officers were injured in different incidents during the protests."

And the lockdown protests at the various state capitols? Besides a few rogue militants legally carrying weapons (who broke no laws and started no trouble), the biggest transgression these people committed was not wearing masks and properly social distancing, which prompted Democratic congressional candidate Ryan Farrar to respond by wishing the protesters would die of COVID-19. There was no documented violence at these protests, or property damage, or attempted murder. No looting of department stores, vandalizing of police stations, or throwing of bottles and trashcans at police, which unfortunately cannot be said of the George Floyd protests breaking out across America. Perhaps this is why police didn't don riot gear and launch tear gas?

Not that liberal journalists care about truth or accuracy of information. Leftist media outlets, like CNN and MSNBC, care only about forwarding a political narrative of racial grievance and unrest, and will do so even if it involves Soviet-style propaganda and the telling of bald-faced lies.

MSNBC host Joy Reid is a bald-faced liar, and she recently proceeded to tell a bald-faced lie on MSNBC's All In with Chris Hayes:

And it's the same thing with these armed white men who can get armed up and walk into a state capitol and that's okay. And the police are benign. They don't even act afraid. But let black people show up and protest the death of an innocent black man and suddenly, you know what, we need tear gas. We've got to go full force.

Yep. That's it exactly, Joy. The tear gas wasn't for the rioters vandalizing police stations and burning down buildings, but for the black teens peacefully protesting. Uh-huh. And Washington, D.C. is the safest city in America.
A police officer stands amid smoke and debris as buildings continue to burn in the aftermath of a night of protests and violence following the death of George Floyd, in Minneapolis, Minn., on May 29, 2020. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

Those Burning Our Cities Aim to Destroy Our Civilization

Commentary

The first thing to understand about the destructive mob riots sweeping the country is that they arent race riots. The death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25 while being arrested by the police is merely the pretext for the violence. The cause is hatred.

Hatred of America, first of all, but ultimately hatred of civilized order itself.

Many of the thugs looting and destroying property are white. So what we are witnessing is not a battle between black and white. Its a battle between the forces of civilization, on the one hand, and the forces of anarchy, on the other.

But nothat is not quite right. To speak of a battle between two things implies that there are two active sides. That is not, not yet, the case with the tsunami of destruction and murder we are watching on nightly television. Rather, what we are witnessing is an assault by the forces of barbarism on a supine establishment that has been pretending to represent the authority of civilization.

It is curious that the most egregious scenes of violence are taking place in blue states in cities run by left-wing mayors. Many of the mayors and chiefs of police are themselves black. In many locales, the police have been told to stand down as the mob rampages. The mayor of Minneapolis blamed white supremacists and outsiders for the violence.

Unfortunately for that assertion, there are no white supremacists to be found, only members of Antifa, Black Lives Matter, and kindred groups. An analysis of the ZIP codes of those arrested shows that they are overwhelmingly from the Minneapolis area.

Meanwhile, various celebrities are encouraging lawlessness by cheering on the malefactors, publicly promising to post bail for them.

Justin Timberlake, to take but one example, encouraged his fans to join him in supporting the Minneapolis protestors by donating to a freedom fund to combat the harms of incarceration.

What about the harms of destroying other peoples property or bashing in their heads with a skateboard? Ultimately, as Calvin Coolidge observed, property rights and personal rights are the same thing.

Snarling Criminality

I should say a word about The Narrative. The official line is that police officer (now ex-police officer) Derek Chauvin killed George Floyd by kneeling on his neck for nearly nine minutes and asphyxiating him. The whole horrible incident was captured on videoFloyd can be heard piteously saying I cant breathe, I cant breatheso its an open and shut case.

Except that there is a wrinkle. The preliminary autopsy report revealed no physical findings that support a diagnosis of traumatic asphyxia or strangulation. The report went on to note that Mr. Floyd had underlying health conditions including coronary artery disease and hypertensive heart disease. The combined effects of Mr. Floyd being restrained by the police, his underlying health conditions and any potential intoxicants in his system likely contributed to his death.

On June 2, CBS reported that an additional examinationit isnt clear that it was an actual autopsyconcluded that Floyd died by homicide, with the cause of death mechanical asphyxiation, contradicting the medical examiner.

A skeptical analysis by a law enforcement publication claims that Floyd had methamphetamine and fentanyl in his system and that he may have been exhibiting signs of excited delirium. This report also claims that Chauvins neck restraint was consistent with Minneapolis department policy and the best practice according to multiple scientific journals. That violates the narrative, I know, but it is certainly true that this case is not as simple as everyone would want you to believe.

This doesnt necessarily exonerate Derek Chauvin. It does, as Andrew McCarthy notes in a thoughtful column about the legalities of the case, show that here, as is so often the case, things are more complicated than they may first appear.

What is not complicated is the snarling criminality of those smashing storefronts, setting fire to cars and police stations, and sending innocent passersby to the hospital or the morgue.

There is some macabre irony in the fact that while most of the country is locked down by the diktats of the health police, enforced by power-mad governors and those aspiring to power in city councils and mayors offices throughout the country, abetted by virtue-signaling sheep who scream at their neighbors if they get within six feet of them or appear in public without a mask, thousands of vicious criminals are given leave to loot and burn and pillage. The rules about social distancing are suspended so long as people are bent not upon making their living but destroying the livings of others.

President Donald Trump has responded vigorously by calling out the National Guard. We must all hope that they will soon restore order. But the glimpses of viciousness broadcast across the country cant be unseen.

A Thin Line

In a magnificent monologue on his television show, Tucker Carlson peeled back the headlines to expose the festering reality that has brought us to this pass.

The ideologues will tell you, he noted, that the problem is race relations, or capitalism, or police brutality, or global warming. But only on the surface. The real cause is deeper than that and its far darker. What youre watching is the ancient battle between those who have a stake in society, and would like to preserve it, and those who dont, and seek to destroy it. Thats exactly right.

Writing in the dark days of 1939, Evelyn Waugh noted that barbarism is never finally defeated; given propitious circumstances, men and women who seem quite orderly will commit every conceivable atrocity.

Many if not most of the violent hooligans defacing our cities today are young beneficiaries of the richest and most generous society the world has ever seen. At school, they were taught to despise their country as racist, sexist, colonialist, and exploitative, attitudes that were reinforced in college and from the megaphones of the media, Hollywood, and our elite universities. How thin is the line between civilization and violent anarchy!

Waugh was right.

The more elaborate the society, the more vulnerable it is to attack, and the more complete its collapse in case of defeat.

We got a taste of that vulnerability when we indulged in a strange cult-like exercise of society-wide self-asphyxiation over a novel respiratory bug. Now we seem bent on trying self-immolation instead.

At a time like the present, Waugh warned, society is notably precarious. If it falls we shall see not merely the dissolution of a few joint-stock corporations, but of the spiritual and material achievements of our history.

I think that is worth keeping in mind as we watch CNN and MSNBC cheer on the protestors who are determined to destroy us.

Roger Kimball is the editor and publisher of The New Criterion and publisher of Encounter Books. His most recent book is The Fortunes of Permanence: Culture and Anarchy in an Age of Amnesia.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Voters have "bigger things to worry about" than the Dominic Cummings controversy and have not raised it unprompted in focus groups in the UK, a leading pollster has said.

James Frayne, founder of the Public First research agency, said the behaviour of the British prime minister's chief adviser "would not make the top 100" in the list of what families were worrying about this weekend.

It came as a poll in the UK - conducted for the Telegraph - showed that a third of the public say they would have would have done the same as Cummings if they had felt the welfare of their child was at risk.

Police last Thursday said that Cummings "might" have contravened public health regulations during his 14-day stay in Durham but that it warranted no further action.

Frayne claimed the Cummings saga was "beyond an irrelevance" to the majority of the public, who were far more concerned with job security, schools reopening and being reunited with family and friends. He said that, while opinion polls showed public disapproval for what Cummings did, they involved people being asked for their view on a specific subject, rather than asking them what subjects mattered to them.

However elsewhere in the UK, it was revealed yesterday that Britain's disastrous decision to abandon testing for coronavirus occurred because health systems could only cope with five cases a week.

Newly released papers from the Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies (Sage) show routine testing and tracing of contacts was stopped because Public Health England's systems were struggling to deal with a handful of cases.

At a meeting on February 18, advisers said PHE could only cope with testing and tracing contacts of five Covid- 19 cases a week, with modelling suggesting it might only be possible to increase this to 50 cases. Advisers then agreed it was "sensible" to shift to stopping routine testing, despite acknowledging that such a decision would "generate a public reaction".

The decision to give up on testing those with symptoms of coronavirus is now seen as the key reason the UK has the highest death rates in Europe.

Over the next month, the UK government says it will roll out a national contact tracing scheme - a full 14 weeks after officials raised the country's poor readiness for such a scheme.

England is now recording around 8,000 new cases of Covid-19 every day and the NHS "test and trace" system is promising to warn up to 10,000 people a day that they have been near someone who has tested positive.

The end of routine testing in the UK came on March 12, when UK prime minister Boris Johnson announced that anyone with symptoms of coronavirus should simply stay at home for a week.

On this day the UK recorded 421 new cases. However, after the virus raged uncontrolled through the UK that month, Boris Johnson's government was forced back to nationwide testing - announcing a "five pillar" plan on April 2, which finally led to a nationwide tracing service launched last week.

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2021]
The iconic Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. and the National World War II Memorial are among the landmarks in the nation's capital that were vandalized amid weekend protests and defaced with graffiti.

'In the wake of last night's demonstrations, there are numerous instances of vandalism to sites around the National Mall,' the National Park Service for the National Mall said in a tweet on Sunday along with photos of monuments covered in graffiti.

'For generations the Mall has been our nation's premier civic gathering space for non-violent demonstrations, and we ask individuals to carry on that tradition. '

Spray paint that reads 'Yall Not Tired Yet?' is seen on the base of the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, the morning after protests over the death of George Floyd

Spray paint that reads 'Do Black Vets Count?' is seen World War II Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, Sunday. The memorial honors and remembers the one million black veterans who served

A group that held a march and then a rally at the Lincoln Memorial saw the words 'Yall not tired yet?' spray-painted.

The question 'Do black Vets count?' was also spray-painted across part of the National Mall World War II Memorial.

The memorial honors and remembers the one million black veterans who served.

A National Park Service worker was later seen using a power washer to remove the paint on Sunday morning.

Several people were charged with rioting in the city.

Carlos Farrar with National Park Service power washed the black spray paint later in the day

Graffiti that reads 'No More Black Bodies' was painted near the Washington Monument

The Robert E. Lee statue and Daughters of Confederacy building in Virginia were also defaced by George Floyd demonstrators as several Confederate monuments were targeted in protests across the country.

As tense protests swelled on Saturday into Sunday morning, monuments in Virginia, the Carolinas, Tennessee and Mississippi were defaced.

The presence of Confederate monuments across the South - and elsewhere in the United States - has been challenged for years, and some of the monuments targeted were already under consideration for removal.

In the former capital of Confederacy, protesters sought to condemn police brutality and the racism woven into America's history by damaging confederate monuments in Richmond.

The Robert E. Lee statue in Richmond, Virginia, was defaced with graffiti on Saturday night as protests over the death of George Floyd continued

Several Confederate monuments across the US were damaged by protestors who're fighting racism and police brutality

Protester Andie Baker, right, of Richmond, holds a US flag in front of the graffiti-covered statue of Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart after two previous nights of unrest

Demonstrators hold signs near the graffiti covered statue of Confederate General Stuart. Virginia Governor Ralph Northam issued a curfew for Sunday evening

The statute of Gen. Robert E. Lee, a Confederate officer in the Civil War who owned nearly 200 slaves, was covered in graffiti.

Messages like 'Amerikkka,' 'Black Lives Matter,' 'No More White Supremacy' and 'F*** 12,' which is a reference to law enforcement.

The Stonewall Jackson Memorial, Jefferson Davis Memorial and the J.E.B. Stuart statue were also targeted.

A statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis had 'cops ran us over,' spray-painted on the base. A noose had been flung over Davis shoulder.

A fire burned for a time at the headquarters of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, a group responsible for erecting many Confederate statues and fighting their removal.

The building, too, was covered in graffiti, The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported. It was later extinguished by local firefighters.

Protestors on Saturday night set the United Daughters of the Confederacy headquarters on fire

Pictured: Several demonstrators protesting outside the United United Daughters of the Confederacy headquarters

Messages like 'Abolition','One Love' and 'Police are Creepy' were written on the headquarters building

In the coastal city of Norfolk, protesters climbed a Confederate monument and spray-painted graffiti on its base, according to photos posted by a Virginian-Pilot journalist.

Norfolk is among the Virginia cities that have signaled intent to remove their Confederate monuments. In February, state lawmakers approved legislation that would give cities autonomy to do so.

A commission in Richmond recommended removing one of five Confederate statues along the city's famed Monument Avenue.

The debate around removing Confederate monuments came to a head in Virginia in 2017, when white supremacists and protestors clashed at the Unite the Right rally.

Pictured: Protesters toppled the statue of Edward Carmack outside the state Capitol after a peaceful demonstration turned violent

In 2017, the infamous Unite the Right rally took place in Virginia as debates about keeping Confederate monuments grew

In Mississippi, the words 'spiritual genocide' in black spray paint, along with red handprints, stained the sides of a Confederate monument on the University of Mississippi campus Saturday.

Photos shared by Skye Spiehler on Facebook appeared to show the one young man responsible for the defaced statue. One person was arrested at the scene.

Ole Miss administrators, student leaders and faculty leaders have recommended moving the statue - installed in 1906 and a rallying point in 1962 for people who rioted to oppose the university's court-ordered integration - from a central spot to a Civil War cemetery that's in a more secluded location on campus, but the state College Board has delayed action.

Critics have said its display near the university's main administrative building sends a signal that Ole Miss glorifies the Confederacy and glosses over the South's history of slavery.

A Confederate statute near the University of Mississippi was defaced with the phrase 'Spiritual genocide'

The statue was built in 1906 and a rallying point in 1962 for people who rioted to oppose the university's court-ordered integration

Pictured: A monument to Confederate President Jefferson Davis in Richmond, Virginia, is covered in graffiti

In Charleston, South Carolina, protesters defaced a Confederate statue near The Battery, a historic area on the coastal city's southern tip. The base of the Confederate Defenders statue, erected in 1932, was spray-painted, including with the words 'BLM' and 'traitors,' news outlets reported. It was later covered with tarp, photos show.

In North Carolina, the base of a Confederate monument at the State Capitol was marked with a black X and a shorthand for a phrase expressing contempt for police, according to a photo posted by a News & Observer journalist to social media.

The word 'racist' was also marked on the monument, the newspaper reported.

The question of Confederate monuments has been especially contentious in North Carolina, where such monuments are generally protected by law.

A nearly two-year battle was waged over the fate of the 'Silent Sam' statue after it was toppled by protesters at the University of North Carolina's flagship Chapel Hill campus in 2018.

The Confederate Defenders of Charleston, South Carolina, was defaced with the message 'Black Lives Matter'

One message on the Confederate Defenders of Charleston reads: 'This is the Problem #Racist'

Pictured: Protesters gather around the base of the Confederate monument on the grounds of the State Capitol in Raleigh, North Carolina

A legal agreement reached last November handed over the statue to a group of Confederate descendants, keeping it off campus. A Confederate statue outside a Durham courthouse was also torn down by protesters.

Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper had asked for the three Confederate monuments on the grounds of the Capitol to be moved to a nearby battlefield.

A state historical panel voted in 2018 to keep the statues, but add context about slavery and civil rights. Statues in Winston-Salem and Chatham County were removed last year in rare moves.

In Chattanooga, Tennessee, protesters spray-painted a statue Saturday of Confederate Lt. Gen. Alexander P. Stewart on Saturday, the Chattanooga Times Free Press reported.

Pictured: A tattered American flag lays on the ground on the property of the United Daughters of the Confederacy headquarters in Virginia

This Confederate monument has several graffiti messages scrawled over the surface, including 'f*** 12,' which is a reference to law enforcement

In Nashville, Tennessee, and in Philadelphia, statues of people criticized for racist views, but without Confederate ties, were also targeted.

Protesters in Nashville toppled Saturday a statue of Edward Carmack, a state lawmaker in the early 1900s and newspaper publisher who had racist views and wrote editorials lambasting the writings of prominent Tennessee civil rights journalist Ida B. Wells, The Tennessean reported.

Protesters sprayed graffiti on a statue of former Philadelphia Mayor Frank Rizzo, tried to topple it and set a fire at its base.

Rizzo, mayor from 1972 to 1980, was praised by supporters as tough on crime but accused by critics of discriminating against people of color. His 10-foot-tall (3-meter-tall) bronze statue across from City Hall has been defaced before and is to be moved next year.

On Saturday, demonstrations erupted across the US nad police cruisers were torched, buildings burnt and ongoing clashes with police.

At least three people were killed during demonstrations and dozens more were injured.

Several protests have launched across the United States over the death of George Floyd

Following Floyd's death, all four officers pictured in cell phone footage of the incident were fired from the Minneapolis Police Department

In Minneapolis, protesters were seen fleeing after cops hurled tear gas into the crowds while some responded by launching fireworks back at officers.

The National Guard was activated to defend the White House from attack as the Secret Service agents on the ground struggled to keep control of crowds descending on the seat of the US government.

The Big Apple was ablaze as NYPD vehicles were torched and ransacked while shocking footage emerged of cops violently detaining protesters.

A man was left critically injured in Dallas when he was attacked and stomped on by a group of people when he allegedly tried to defend a store with a large sword.

In Atlanta a cop suffered 'significant injuries' when they were hit by an ATV, while in Chicago, a man commandeered a police horse and rode off on it.

Los Angeles deployed the National Guard for the first since the 1992 riots when the police officers who beat up black man Rodney King walked free of all charges and California Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in LA County.

Minnesota - where Floyd died - has born the brunt of the protests which began there Tuesday before fanning out across the country.

Pictured: People stand near a burning building during protests sparked by the death of George Floyd while in police custody

Rioting was still going on in the early hours of Sunday, with the Minneapolis police department reporting a big group of protesters on foot and in vehicles throwing missiles of some sort at cops.

Minnesota Dept of Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell announced early Sunday there had been 'dozens' of arrests through the night but no 'substantive' injuries.

The Minnesota National Guard announced at around 10.30pm it was sending 10,800 troops in to tackle protests Saturday night, as pleas for people to observe curfews fell on deaf ears.

The Minnesota National Guard said on Twitter it already had more than 4,100 citizen-soldiers and airmen already in the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul and was ramping it up to a staggering 10,800.

There were just 700 on duty on Friday.

People marching from Minneapolis to St. Paul were also met with tear gas from officers stopping them in their tracks and sending masses fleeing from the potent chemical.
Quake hits Armenia: 28 km northwest of Jermuk

Crete island lighthouse illuminated with colors of Armenian tricolor

Aurora Humanitarian Initiative to allocate $500,000 to projects in Artsakh

Sajid Javid: Britain must learn to live with COVID-19, it could be with us forever

Erdogan suggests Putin and Zelensky meet face to face

EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus meets Aliyev

US imposes sanctions on Ukrainians related to 'Russian harmful foreign activities'

Sabah: Ankara refuses to hold next Armenian-Turkish meeting in a third country

US general discusses regional security and bilateral cooperation in Armenia

Secret graves of alleged protesters discovered in Almaty

Armenian side members to Armenian-American Intergovernmental Commission confirmed

WHO advises countries to lift or ease international travel restrictions

US sanctions against Vladimir Putin, Ruben Vardanian and members of the Russian government

Armenian Foreign Ministry discusses Mirzoyan's participation in Turkey forum

Thailand to resume non-quarantine travel scheme from February 1

Instagram introduces paid subscription feature

NEWS.am daily digest: 20.01.22

Europe considers new strategy to combat COVID-19

Norwegian prosecutors refuse release Anders Breivik, 2011 mass murderer

Erdogan urges Turks to sell foreign currency for liras

Azerbaijan not yet returned about 300 sheep of Armenia villager

Media: Israeli President thinks about visiting Turkey

Dollar quite stable in Armenia

Trade turnover between Ukraine and Armenia increases by 24%

Armenia legislature speaker meets with of International Republican Institute president, and director for Eurasia

Kremlin does not exclude new call between Putin and Biden

EU Special Representative for South Caucasus to soon visit Armenia, Azerbaijan

State Duma discusses work of biolaboratories near Russia's borders

US lawmakers to parliament speaker: Armenian POWs must be returned to their homeland immediately

Security Council chief: Armenia expects OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs to visit region

Armenia government does not approve plan to considerably raise minimum wage

Turkish FM: Armenian representatives invited to diplomatic forum in Antalya

Twitter suspends Mexican billionaire's account over offensive behavior

Armenian PM says Omicron strain is slowly spreading

Azerbaijan says it supports launching border delimitation process with Armenia with no conditions

Zakharova speaks on Aliyev's visit to Kyiv

Zakharova does not comment on Azerbaijan president's threats against France presidential candidate for her Artsakh visit

Cavusoglu: Steps to increase mutual trust will be discussed at next meeting with Armenia

US gives go-ahead to Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia to send missiles and other American-made weapons to Ukraine

Zakharova: Russia, as OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair, supports continuation of work in this format

Cyber attack on Red Cross: data of over 515,000 people compromised

Pashinyan: UK has been strong partner of newly independent Armenia

Israel hopes UN will unanimously condemn Holocaust denial

Armenia, Ukraine depositories sign memorandum of cooperation

Azerbaijan advises Armenia to correctly assess the new geopolitical realities and draw conclusions

Australia, UK to fight back against cyberattacks from China, Russia and Iran

Protesting residents of Armenias Parakar community march to territorial administration ministry

Armenia government approves protocol on implementation of readmission agreement with Lithuania

Iran suspends gas supplies to Turkey

MFA: Armenia has no preconditions for border delimitation

621 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia

Paris to have place named after Hrant Dink

Armenias Parakar enlarged community residents protesting outside government building

Turkey opposition party MPs petition for parliamentary inquiry into Hrant Dink assassination

France, Germany, Italy and Spain call on Israel to halt construction in East Jerusalem

Armenia parliament speaker in US, meets with Nancy Pelosi

Iranian MFA: Relations between Iran and Russia have moved into a new diverse, intensified direction

Biden says invasion of Ukraine will be disaster for Russia

Newspaper: Armenia PM Pashinyan plans to hold Presidents office

Newspaper: Opposition Armenia bloc, led by ex-President Kocharyan, starting new processes

Taliban PM calls on Muslim countries to be first to formally recognize their government

Saudi Arabia records lowest temperature in 30 years

Erdogan's visit to Ukraine scheduled for February 3

Russian peacekeeping contingent establishes order of passage through Lachin corridor

French Senate votes to ban hijab at sporting events

Armenian FM: All necessary conditions to be created for Demarcation Commission work

Olaf Scholz: Borders in Europe cannot be changed by force

Lavrov presents Armenian Ambassador to Russia, with the Order of Friendship

Bill Gates warns of pandemics far more serious than COVID-19

FM on mirror withdrawal of troops: Not a single Armenian village will be left without proper protection

Macron: EU countries must work together on agreement for stability and security

PM Pashinyan assumes accountability for Armenia special representative for negotiations with Turkey

Turkey Central banks and UAE sign agreement worth almost $5 billion

Blinken: Western countries need unity to stop Russian aggression against Ukraine

Iranian President performs evening namaz in Kremlin after talks with Putin

Turkish police detain women protesting price hikes in hygiene products

Delegation headed by Chief of the Cypriot National Guard General Staff has meetings in Armenia

Merkel refuses job in UN structure

Greece receives the first batch of French Rafale fighters

NEWS.am daily digest: 19.01.22

Azerbaijan hopes Pope to mediate in relations with Armenia

Talks between presidents of Russia and Iran start in Kremlin

Armenian FM: This is not first time Baku makes nonconstructive statements

Armenian Investigative Committee: 3,809 people die in the 44-day war

Ombudsman: I urge not to give in to Azerbaijani manipulations, to visit Artsakh

Armenian FM: Armenia passes a package of proposals to Azerbaijan

France names the main favorite of presidential election

Garo Paylan concludes address in Turkey parliament in Armenian

Russian Foreign Ministry believes there is no risk of large-scale war in Europe

Dollar goes up in Armenia

Sharmazanov: Armenia ex-President Sargsyan did not decide to hold press conference, he did not change his mind

Blinken: Russia has plans to increase force on Ukraine borders

:       

Azerbaijani military participate in Turkish drills

Taliban say all conditions for recognizing legitimacy of government are met

Azerbaijan MFA statement distorts events of Armenian massacres in Baku 32 years ago

Karabakh ombudsmans office: Azerbaijans anti-Armenian, genocidal policy has clear chronology

US official, Barzani are photographed against backdrop of Greater Armenia and Kurdistan map

Armenia ex-defense minister, army General Staff chief, some others criminal case court hearing kicks off

FM: Most important direction continues to be international recognition of Artsakh
Hyderabad, May 31 : The Telangana government on Sunday decided to extend the lockdown in areas outside containment zones till June 7.

However, the lockdown in containment zones has been extended till June 30.

A government order was issued in this regard after Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao held a meeting with senior officials.

The announcement comes a day after the Centre decided to extend the lockdown in the areas inside containment zones till June 30.

The Chief minister held discussions with Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar, Director General of Police Mahender Reddy and other senior officials against the backdrop of the Centre issuing new guidelines on the lockdown.

It was decided to implement the relaxations given in the guidelines by the Centre in all the areas except in the containment zones.

KCR, as the Chief Minister is popularly known, directed the officials concerned to strictly implement the lockdown in the containment zones.

The night-time curfew will be in force from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. The shops can remain open till 8 p.m.

Currently, the night curfew is in force from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m.

He also said that there should not be any restrictions on the inter-state travel.

According to Government Order, no separate permission will be required for inter-state movement of people.

Earlier, the state government had extended the lockdown till May 31.

The state has witnessed spike in Covid-19 cases following the beginning of fourth phase of the lockdown on May 18.

Officials admitted that the movement of people following the easing of lockdown norms led to increase in number of cases.
New Delhi: A 22-year-old man who ran a robbery training school from his house in outer Delhis Bawana was arrested after an encounter, police said on Sunday.

The police said the suspect, Manish, started the school in his house in the areas JJ Colony after getting bail from prison in a snatching case earlier this year.

He has 17 known snatching cases registered against him. After his release from jail in February, he decided he would not be directly involved in robberies and would instead make money by training young snatchers and robbers, and from taking a cut on their earnings, said Gaurav Sharma, deputy commissioner of police (outer-north).

So, Manish allegedly scouted for youngsters  minors and adults  who were keen to enter the trade.

He would bring them to his house in Bawanas JJ Colony and train them to identity targets like pedestrians and cyclists and snatch from them without getting caught. He also trained them on what neighbourhoods to choose and getaway routes strategically, Sharma said.

It remained unclear how many robberies were allegedly carried out by Manishs trainees, but the police said they were alerted of the presence of Manishs school by one of his trainees, Kuldeep, who was arrested on May 24 for a snatching in Bawana.

In the early hours of Friday, on the basis of a tip-off, we set up a trap in Bawana. When Manish and his two associates driving a van were signalled to stop, they rammed the police barricades and tried to get away, Sharma said. Once intercepted, Manish allegedly fired at the police team, who fired back in response. No one was hurt in the brief exchange. The police went on to recover two guns and 20 allegedly stolen mobile phones from the gang.

Another investigator not authorised to speak to the media said Manish charged between 20% and 50% as commission on the after-sale value of the robbed items.

While we caught Manishs associates, Hazibul Sheikh and a minor, Manish ran down a drain to escape. But he hurt his foot in the process, and we caught him, said the other investigator.

Sharma said Manish would also train them on how to cover their faces and avoid having any signs on themselves and their motorcycles that could lead to them being identified.

He would also provide them motorcycles to carry out the robberies and take care of their legal needs in case anyone got caught, the officer said.

In return, his apprentices would pay him a share of their earnings.
Southeast Asia is appreciated among international travelers for its exotic culture, spectacular beaches and low prices for everything from tasty local delicacies to luxury spa treatments. And unlike most of its Southeast Asian counterparts, the Philippines makes an effort to attract expat retirees, offering an easy, perk-filled path to permanent residency. The standard of living in the Philippines is high and the opportunity for adventure is great, while the cost of living is one of the world's greatest bargains. Here's how to tell if the Philippines could be the place for you to retire overseas.

Visit During the Rainy Season

As when planning an international move anywhere, you need to try the Philippines on for size before committing. Ideally, you should plan your trip during the rainy season. It's one thing to be in this country during the dry season, when skies are bright and the weather is idyllic. It's another experience altogether when the rain is falling so fast and hard you quickly find yourself wading in ankle-deep runoff while walking down the street. If you're OK with life in the Philippines during monsoon season, you'll love it when the sun is shining.

[See: The 10 Best Places to Retire in Asia.]

Take Advantage of Convenient Residency Options

The Philippines offers several competitive retirement programs through its Philippine Retirement Authority. Most expat retirees opt for the Special Resident Retiree's Visa. You qualify if you're at least 50 years old and receive a pension worth at least $800 per month for an individual or $1,000 per month for a couple. In addition, you'll be required to deposit $10,000 into a Philippine bank. You can also qualify without a monthly pension by depositing $20,000 in a local bank. This amount can be put toward a long-term lease or the purchase of a condo or townhouse valued at more than $50,000.

In addition to granting you the ability to stay in the Philippines long term, a Special Resident Retiree's Visa also entitles you to PhilHealth, the government health care program, exemption from certain taxes and access to special Philippine Retirement Authority benefits, including its "Greet and Assist Program," where you're met on arrival at the airport.

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English Is Widely Spoken

The Philippines is a linguistically diverse place. More than 100 local languages are spoken. English is an official language alongside Filipino. You could enjoy a full life here without having to learn much Filipino.

[See: The Best Places to Retire Overseas in 2020.]

The Low Cost of Living in the Philippines

Depending on your lifestyle and where in the Philippines you choose to settle, your cost of living could be as low as $800 a month for a couple. The tax situation in the Philippines is friendly to expat retirees. The country taxes income earned in the country, but not foreign pensions, Social Security and annuity income for foreign residents.

Choose From Beach, Mountain and City Lifestyle Options

With more than 7,600 islands and some of the most spectacular ocean scenery in the world, the Philippines understandably appeals to beach lovers.

Dumaguete, a city on the island of Negros that's home to a large and established expat community, including a good number of U.S. veterans, is a top seaside lifestyle choice. Expats spend lazy afternoons enjoying al-fresco dining and people-watching on Dumaguete's main avenue, "The Boulevard." If you're looking for a more active beach lifestyle, consider Apo Island, with its world-class diving.

Northeast of Dumaguete is Olango Island, a tiny island just off Cebu that offers all the makings of a dream tropical lifestyle, including sandy beaches, rocky shorelines, sea grass beds, mangrove forests and coral reefs. While the living is small-town, simple and beachy, Olango is near Cebu City, a major urban zone where you can access shopping and other modern amenities.

Tagaytay is a great choice for non-beach living. This cool mountain retreat is about an hour from Manila. Despite its proximity to the capital, this is not an urban option. Tagaytay sits on a ridge 2,100 feet above sea level, meaning the air is cleaner, the climate milder and the scenery more pastoral than in the nearby capital. Tagaytay is a region of mountains, lakes and lagoons.

Manila is a quintessential Asian metropolis. The landscape is punctuated by skyscrapers, the horizons are hazy and the traffic is heavy. This chaotic city can be a good choice if you're interested in starting a business as part of your retire overseas adventure.

Foreign Property Ownership Is Restricted

Buying a home in the Philippines is more complicated than it can be in other parts of the world due to restrictions on property ownership. Foreigners are permitted to purchase condominiums and townhouses only. Land ownership is limited to Filipino citizens.

Rental options range from budget to luxury, but even luxury rentals are a bargain. You'll find rental services in every city with an expat community. However, the best ways to find a property to rent are word of mouth, walking around the neighborhoods where you're interested in settling and looking for "for rent" signs. You're more likely to be able to negotiate the terms of the lease by dealing directly with the owner than by working through an agency.

[Read: How to Retire in Thailand.]

Access International-Standard Health Care

Manila, home to three Joint Commission International-accredited hospitals, is where you'll find the country's best health care options. This city has developed a reputation as one of the world's best medical tourism destinations. You will also find a high standard of care in the cities the government has targeted as retirement hubs, including Dumaguete and Cebu. Health care in the Philippines is far less expensive than in the U.S., even when paying out of pocket. General consultations cost the equivalent of about $6, and consultations with specialists cost about $10.

Understand When Safety Can Be a Concern

Like everywhere in the world, the Philippines has its downsides. In some areas of the Philippines, the infrastructure isn't dependable, and power outages are a part of everyday life. Political volatility and civil unrest have made safety a concern in some spots, including the Sulu Archipelago and Marawi City. Being aware of these challenges and the fact that a big percentage of the Philippines' population lives in poverty is the first step to avoiding problems. Retirement communities are often far removed from the dangerous areas. The government is committed to the tourism industry, and keeping popular areas safe is a priority.





More From US News & World Report


Actor Akshay Kumar took to Twitter on Sunday evening to rubbish reports about him booking a whole flight for his sister, Alka Bhatia, and her kids so that they could travel to Delhi. In his tweet, he wrote, This news about me booking a charter flight for my sister and her two kids is FAKE from start to end. She has not travelled anywhere since the lockdown and she has only one child!..

This news about me booking a charter flight for my sister and her two kids is FAKE from start to end.She has not travelled anywhere since the lockdown and she has only one child!Contemplating legal action,enough of putting up with false, concocted reports! https://t.co/iViBGW5cmE  Akshay Kumar (@akshaykumar) May 31, 2020

The said report quoted a source who claimed Akshay booked a whole passenger flight and converted it into a chartered flight, for his sister to fly from Mumbai to Delhi in the current Covid-19 pandemic situation. It further said that the flight had only four crew members taking care of them.

The 52-year-old actor further wrote in his tweet that he is planning to take a legal step against this. Contemplating legal action, enough of putting up with false, concocted reports! read his remaining tweet.

Meanwhile, Akshay is currently locked up inside his house in the lockdown, with his wife Twinkle Khanna and kids Aarav and Nitara. He was recently also spotted shooting with filmmaker R. Balki for an awareness campaign, complete with all the required precautions.

Follow @htshowbiz for more
New Delhi:

Steel Minister Chaudhary Birendra Singh has invited companies from the UK and Luxembourg to invest in India.



Singh, who was on a 3-day visit to UK and Luxembourg, invited companies and businessmen from these two countries to invest in India and be a partner in Indias growth story, the Steel Ministry said in a statement today.



The minister, who returned to India on Thursday, was accompanied by senior officials from Ministry of Steel and state-run steelmaker SAIL, it added.



Singh met Deputy Prime Minister of Luxembourg Etienne Schneider and discussed various issues of mutual interest.



He highlighted the significance of Luxembourg from steel industrys point of view and expressed gratitude to Schneider for taking a keen interest in business relations with India, the statement said.



The minister invited Luxembourg government and businesses to explore opportunities for enhancing their business presence in India and assured of full support of the Indian government.



He also visited the offices of engineering giant Paul Wurth and the worlds largest steel maker ArcelorMittal and met their top management representatives.



Singh shared details of steps being taken by the central government to improve ease of doing business and facilitate foreign investment.



The minister shared his vision for steel industry in India and termed R&D as the key driver for sustainable growth of the industry, the statement said.



He stated that steel producers will have to come forward and demonstrate advantages of using steel by executing innovative pilot projects, it added.

For all the Latest Business News, Economy News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday he would postpone a Group of Seven summit he had hoped to hold next month until September or later and expand the list of invitees to include Australia, Russia, South Korea and India.

Speaking to reporters on Air Force One during his return to Washington from Cape Canaveral in Florida, Trump said the G7, which groups the world's most advanced economies, was a "very outdated group of countries" in its current format.

"I'm postponing it because I don't feel that as a G7 it properly represents what's going on in the world," Trump said.

It was unclear whether Trump's desire to invite the additional countries was a bid to permanently expand the G7. On several previous occasions, he suggested Russia be added, given what he called Moscow's global strategic importance.

Russia was expelled from what was then the G8 in 2014 when Trump's predecessor, Barack Obama, was U.S. president, after Moscow annexed the Crimea region from Ukraine. Russia still holds the territory, and various G7 governments have rebuffed previous calls from Trump to readmit Moscow.

White House spokeswoman Alyssa Farah said Trump wants the countries to discuss China at the summit.

Trump has attacked Beijing over its handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which began in China, and on Friday he ordered his administration to begin the process of ending special U.S. treatment for Hong Kong in retaliation for China's decision to impose a new security law on the former British colony.

The decision to postpone the G7 summit is a retreat for Trump, who had sought to host the group of major industrialized countries in Washington as a demonstration that the United States was returning to normal after the coronavirus epidemic, which has killed more than 103,000 Americans to date.

Trump had canceled an in-person G7 meeting scheduled for March as the virus spread, but had recently sought to revive it.

French President Emmanuel Macron backed the idea of an in-person meeting, according to the White House, but Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau declined to endorse it, saying there were too many health-related questions. This week, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she could not attend.

South Korea is aware of Trump's invitation and will discuss the matter with the United States, a government official in Seoul told Reuters on Sunday.

The G7 groups the United States, Britain, France, Japan, Germany, Italy and Canada, and the European Union also attends.
President Donald Trump said Saturday that he will postpone until the fall a meeting of Group of 7 nations he had planned to hold next month at the White House despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

And he said he plans to invite Russia, Australia, South Korea and India as he again advocated for the group's expansion.

Trump told reporters on Air Force One as he returned to Washington from Florida that he feels the current makeup of the group is 'very outdated' and doesn't properly represent 'what's going on in the world.'

He said he had not yet set a new date for the meeting, but thought the gathering could take place in September, around the time of the annual meeting of the United Nations in New York, or perhaps after the US election in November.

President Donald Trump walks off Marine One and into the White House on Saturday

Trump said he will postpone the G7 summit meeting, which he hoped would be held at the White House next month, to this fall. Trump is seen above with other G7 leaders in France last August

Alyssa Farah, White House director of strategic communications, said that Trump wanted to bring in some of the country's traditional allies and those impacted by the coronavirus to discuss the future of China.

The surprise announcement came after German Chancellor Angela Merkel's office said Saturday that she would not attend the meeting unless the course of the coronavirus spread had changed by then.

The leaders of the world's major economies were slated to meet in June in the US at Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland, but the coronavirus outbreak hobbled those plans.

Trump announced in March he was canceling the summit because of the pandemic and that the leaders would confer by video conference instead.

But Trump then switched course, saying a week ago that he was again planning to host an in-person meeting.

'Now that our Country is "Transitioning back to Greatness", I am considering rescheduling the G-7, on the same or similar date, in Washington, DC, at the legendary Camp David,' Trump tweeted.

'The other members are also beginning their COMEBACK. It would be a great sign to all - normalization!'

The president said he wanted to invite other countries including Russia to the meeting. Russian President Vladimir Putin is seen above in Moscow on Thursday

The G7 members are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. The groups presidency rotates annually among member countries.

Trump has repeatedly advocated for expanding the group to include Russia, prompting opposition from some members, including Canada's Justin Trudeau, who told reporters he had privately aired his objection to Russian re-admittance.

'Russia has yet to change the behavior that led to its expulsion in 2014, and therefore should not be allowed back into the G7,' he said at a news conference.

The House also passed a bipartisan resolution in December 2019 that supports Russia's previous expulsion from the annual gathering.

Russia had been invited to attend the gathering of the world's most advanced economies since 1997, but was suspended in 2014 following its invasion of Ukraine and annexation of Crimea.
Cora Mojica says there's "a scary feeling" these days at Vancouver General Hospital, where she works in food services, preparing and delivering meals to patients in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mojica  a Hospital Employees' Union member  says so far, none of her coworkers have been infected, but they are worried. She estimates 90 per cent of them are women of colour, most are immigrants from the Philippines, and all feel vulnerable.

"We always take extra, extra precautions not to get the virus," she said. "We are told to wear the proper PPE, [wash] hands frequently and [maintain] social distancing."

Cora Mojica

Many front-line workers  including food services employees, health care aides, grocery store clerks, and custodial staff  are people of colour. They are at the low end of the earning scale, but are at high risk of being exposed to COVID-19 and spreading it.

Why care aides are more vulnerable

The epicentre of B.C.'s COVID-19 outbreak has been long-term care homes and assisted living facilities, where a disproportionate number of care aides are Filipina women, according to Leonora Angeles, an associate professor with UBC's Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice.

Due to federal immigration and labour policies such as the Live-in Caregiver Program, many Filipino-Canadians are kept working in low-wage sectors such as domestic child care and seniors' care, she said.

"We know from research that about 50 per cent of largely women under the Live-in Caregiver Program have not been able to move out of care-giving work," she said in an interview with Stephen Quinn, host of The Early Edition.

"And 15 years after they've been out of the program, their wages have remained basically the same in real value."

Since 2003, the subcontracting of senior care services to private care homes has also led to a "vicious cycle of low pay, difficulty in hiring and retaining staff," as well as increased workload and deteriorating conditions for care workers, Angeles said.

Story continues

Darryl Dyck/Canadian Press

As a result, many health care aides have no choice but to work at multiple sites to make ends meet  a practice that Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry says has led to COVID-19 transmissions between care homes.

Single site order

To curb further outbreaks, Dr. Henry imposed a single site work order on 533 facilities across the province. But as of May 28, 36 homes have yet to implement the plan.

The order has had a financial impact on health care aides, especially casual workers and those who work in private facilities. According to a report by B.C. Seniors Advocate Isobel MacKenzie, private care home workers could earn 28 per cent less than the industry standard base wage of $23.48 an hour.

"Working in one site alone to protect everyone else is good for the benefit of the community, but for the benefit of individual needs and individual families' needs, it's not enough," said one care aide, who spoke to the CBC on condition of anonymity.

Prior to the single site order, she said she and many of her colleagues worked at multiple care homes.

Now, she is restricted to one assisted living facility in the Lower Mainland, where she has a temporary position and is guaranteed only 23 hours of work a week.

Temporary wage boost

On May 19, the provincial government announced a temporary pay boost for front-line workers. The lump sum payment is worth about $4 per hour for a 16-week period.

"Everybody was just clapping ... from our facility," the care aide recalled.

She estimates she would receive roughly $1,400 total, which she says would allow her to pay bills, keep financing her car, and send money to her mother in the Philippines.

But the province has yet to implement other promises, such as a temporary wage top-up for private care home workers. The initiative would cost the province $10 million per month.

Mike McArthur/CBC

"That money hasn't arrived yet because it's a complicated process," Health Minister Adrian Dix told Quinn.

"There are dozens of collective agreements, for example ... but we're getting there and it's going to be retroactive."

Foreign credentials recognition is needed

While all these measures will make a difference, Mojica, a member of Migrante B.C.  a community-based organization of Filipinos in the province  says it's also important for the government to recognize foreign credentials. Otherwise, workers from other countries will continue to work multiple low-wage jobs to patch together a living and expose themselves to health risks, she said.

"Back home [in the Philippines], they are nurses, doctors," Mojica said.

"When they come here to find a job, they have to really work whatever job they can find to support themselves and support their families."

RJ Aquino, director of the Tulayan Filipino Diaspora Society, is also pushing for B.C.'s Ministry of Health to collect racial and ethnic data to see how COVID-19 uniquely affects the Filipino-Canadian community.

"We want to create evidence-based public health policy not only to respond to specific communities, but to employ preventative measures and identify which communities would need support and, in the long run, which communities have been affected the most," he said.
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President Donald Trump has celebrated the first launch of American astronauts from US soil in nearly a decade with the successful mission of Elon Musk's SpaceX on Saturday afternoon.

At the launch site in Florida, Trump marveled at the power of the rocket ship and the danger faced by its passengers as they soared into the stratosphere, providing a moment of triumph for the president even as his country raged over the death of a black man in police custody.

Protests have broken out in several American cities over the death of George Floyd, which briefly dominated the agenda over a domestic coronavirus death toll which has climbed past 100,000.

Spectators watch from a bridge in Titusville, Florida as the SpaceX Falcon 9 lifts off with NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken in the Dragon crew capsule

Spectators gathered on a bridge in Titusville as the rocket lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral

Beachgoers watched from the Cocoa Beach Pier, as the SpaceX Crew Dragon took off from the Kennedy Space Center

People had their cellphones at the ready to record the moment for themselves and watch later on after it was all over

For the first time in nearly a decade, astronauts blasted towards orbit aboard an American rocket from American soil, a first for a private company

Beachgoers view the SpaceX shuttle launch in Cocoa Beach on Saturday afternoon far away from the more crowded parts

Trump said of the SpaceX rocket launch: 'That was a beautiful sight to see and I hope you all enjoyed it' and said the United States would be the first country to put a man on Mars.

He also congratulated Musk.

'I speak to him all the time. Great guy. He's one of our great brains, we like great brains, and Elon's done a fantastic job,' Trump said.

Following Saturday's successful launch, he said: 'When you hear that sound and you hear all of that roar, you can imagine how dangerous it is.

'When you feel the shake  and we're very far away  but when you feel the shake over here, it's pretty amazing. Beautiful site. A beautiful ship, too.'

Asked why he felt it was important to be in Florida for the launch, given all that is going on in the country, Trump said the launch was a 'great inspiration' for the country.

President Donald Trump speaks inside the the Vehicle Assembly Building after the manned SpaceX Falcon 9 Crew Dragon Demo-2 mission lifted off from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center

While speaking at the Kennedy Space Center, Trump said that 'the United States has regained our place of prestige as the world leader.'

'You can't be number one on earth if you are number two in space and we are not going to be number two anywhere,' he said

Trump said: 'We suffered something that was terrible, it should have never happened. And that's one of the reasons I wanted to be here today. I thought it was so important to be here today.

'And I think any one of you would say, that was an inspiration to see what we just saw.'

While speaking at the Kennedy Space Center, Trump said that 'the United States has regained our place of prestige as the world leader.'

The president continued: 'You can't be number one on earth if you are number two in space,' and that 'we are not going to be number two anywhere.'

Trump praised the American spirit 'which powered our astronauts to the moon' and has 'also helped lift our country to ever greater heights of justice and opportunity throughout our history.'

Trump said 'a new age of American ambition has now begun'.

'It's incredible, the technology, the power. I'm so proud of the people at NASA, all the people that worked together, public and private. When you see a sight like that it's incredible,' Trump said

President Trump made remarks following the launch of the first crewed NASA/SpaceX mission from Kennedy Space Center

Trump also said he spoke with the astronauts prior to Saturday's launch, saying he told them, 'God bless you.' He praised the astronauts for having a lot of courage

Trump praised America as 'the leader of the world again' in space travel and talked about a future mission to Mars

During the address he said: 'Under Nasa's Commercial Crew Programme, we will use rockets and spacecraft designed, built, owned and launched by private American companies at a fixed price for the American taxpayer.

'Today's launch makes clear the commercial space industry is the future.'

Earlier in the day, Trump made some remarks after the launch calling it a 'beautiful sight.'

'It's incredible, the technology, the power. I'm so proud of the people at NASA, all the people that worked together, public and private. When you see a sight like that it's incredible,' Trump said.

The beaches along the Space Coast were packed as thousands gathered to watch the launch.

Spectators crowded public viewing sites as the rocket took off from Pad 39A, a historic site at NASA's Kennedy Space Center.

Pad 39A has been the starting point of missions dating back to the Apollo era, including the first moon landing in 1969.

Florida beaches opened earlier this month. Spectators crowded public viewing sites such as this flyover bridge

Spectators are pictured walking from their vantage point on a bridge in Titusville after watching SpaceX Falcon 9 lift off

Beachgoers appear to be excited after watching the Space X shuttle launch in Cocoa Beach on Saturday afternoon

Very few people on the beaches were seen socially distancing or even wearing masks as they watched the rocket launch

People gathered on Cocoa Beach on Florida's Space Coast to witness the launch for themselves

Some rocket viewers decided to hide among the reeds to escape the more crowded sands

Couples stood on the beaches and watched the launch. The first manned launch in nine years

People stood and watched the rocket blast off holding their cellphones and binoculars

People took time to stand and watch the rocket launch just after 3pm on Saturday afternoon on Florida's east coast

All eyes were skyward as the rocket lifted off towards the heavens and ultimately the International Space Station

People on the beach clapped and cheered as the Falcon rocket took off from launchpad 39A

It was a day out to remember for this group of friends and family who stood together as they watched the launch

There were great expectations on the beach in the moments before the launch on the Florida beach

The launch of the Falcon 9 rocket officially brought spaceflight back to US.

Astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley took off from Launch Complex 39A at 3:22pm Saturday  the first time in nine years an American crew has launched from US soil.

'Let's light this candle,' commander Hurley said just before liftoff.

There was a 50 percent chance Falcon 9 would not take off Saturday due to ominous clouds and lightning risks, but the weather cleared with just 45 minutes left on the clock countdown.

The Launch America mission is also the first time a private company has put astronauts into space and is the second attempt to launch after Wednesday's flight was aborted due to poor weather conditions.

Spectators wait for liftoff on Cocoa Beach, Fla.

A viewer watches the sky during the SpaceX launch

After reaching orbit, Falcon 9 successfully returned to Earth and was retrieved by SpaceX's autonomous spaceport drone ship 'I Still Love You.'

The Crew Dragon is now taking the 19-hour journey to the International Space Station, where Behnken and Hurley will join the Expedition 63 crew.

The International Space Station was only accessible to NASA astronauts through the purchase of seats on Russian capsules launched from Kazakhstan - but that has all changed as of today.

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NASA and Elon Musk's SpaceX have officially brought spaceflight back to US with the successful launch of the Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center to the International Space Station

NASA and Elon Musk's SpaceX have officially brought spaceflight back to US soil

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said during a press conference, 'Maybe theres an opportunity here for America to maybe pause and look up and see a bright, shining moment of hope at what the future looks like, that the United States of America can do extraordinary things even in difficult times.'

Among the spectators was Neil Wight, a machinist from Buffalo, New York, who staked out a view of the launch pad from a park in Titusville, Florida.

'It's pretty historically significant in my book and a lot of other peoples books. With everything thats going on in this country right now, its important that we do things extraordinary in life,' Wight said.

'We've been bombarded with doom and gloom for the last six, eight weeks, whatever it is, and this is awesome. It brings a lot of people together.'

Crew Dragon should be in position to dock with the ISS about 24 hours after takeoff and will connect to the ship autonomously.

President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence watched the Falcon 9 rocket launch from afar

President Donald Trump speaks with reporters after viewing the SpaceX flight to the International Space Station

Falcon 9 successfully launched from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida Saturday, May 30

Falcon 9 took off at 3.22pm ET and took the nine minute trip into Earth's orbit

After successfully docking, Behnken and Hurley will join the other members on the space station and become part of the Expedition 63 crew.

The two men are scheduled to stay up to four months, after which they will come home with a Right Stuff-style splashdown at sea.

'I would be lying to you if I told you I wasn't nervous,' Bridenstine said before the launch attempt. 'We want to do everything we can to minimize the risk, minimize the uncertainty, so that Bob and Doug will be safe.'

NASA urged people to stay safe and watch from home due to the coronavirus, and by NASA's count, over 3 million viewers tuned in online.

However, spectators began lining the Cape Canaveral areas beaches and roads with signs along the main beach drag that read 'Godspeed.'

President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence returned to Kennedy Space Center to watch the second attempt of Launch America, which finally brought spaceflight back to US soil.

'That was a beautiful sight to see and I hope you all enjoyed it,' Trump said shortly after the rocket ship designed and built by Elon Musks SpaceX company lifted off for a trip to the International Space Station.

Astronaut Bob Behnek is pictured holding a toy dinosaur in his hand that belongs to one of his children

The Crew Dragon will now take the 19-hour journey to the International Space Station, where Behnken and Hurley will join Expedition 63 crew

There was a 50 percent chance Falcon 9 would not take off today due to ominous clouds and lightning risks, but the weather cleared with just 45 minutes left on the clock countdown - and the astronauts are heading to the International Space Station

NASA and Elon Musk's SpaceX have officially brought spaceflight back to US with the successful launch of the Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center to the International Space Station.

Spectators watched the Falcon 9 rocket take off from Kennedy Space Center from a nearby beach

Both NASA and SpaceX said they would be 'proceeding with countdown' despite a 50 percent 'weather cancellation risk' amid concerns over possible thunderstorms and rain around the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral early Saturday morning.

Bridenstine said during an afternoon briefing: 'We are predicting a 50, 50 shot of going this time.'

'But because we are in late May, we have to take any shot we can get.'

'We almost made it on Wednesday and the trend is better today than it was on Wednesday.'

The biggest concern was lighting, precipitation, cumulus clouds and anvil clouds - all of which could ground Falcon 9 until Sunday.

However, about 45 minutes to launch, all requirements went from red to green and a SpaceX official said 'weather is a go.'

The launch pad where Falcon 9 took off from is the same one used by NASA's last space shuttle flight, piloted by Hurley, in 2011.

Since then, NASA astronauts have had to hitch rides into orbit aboard Russia's Soyuz spacecraft.

Earlier today, Behnken and Hurley had a social distancing farewell with their families who met them outside of the Kennedy crew quarters before they took the journey to Launch Complex 39A.

Behnken (left) and Hurley (right) conduct a series of pre-flight checks in the Dragon Crew capsule

Behnken and Hurley were met by their wives and children before heading to Falcon 9, but had to keep with the social distance policy and were only able to send air hugs and blow kisses

NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley (left) have once again emerged from the Kennedy crew quarters dressed in sleek white spacesuits as they head to Launch Complex 39A for their second attempt at making history

This is the second time the astronauts have said farewell to their family. NASA and SpaceX were forced to abort Launch America Wednesday with less than 17 minutes on the countdown clock due to poor weather

Behnken and Hurley had to keep a distance from their families while saying goodbye before heading to Launch Complex 39A

After saying farewell, the pair loaded into a white Tesla Model X with bright blue NASA stickers on each of the doors and the 'worm' logo on the back windshield

Due to the policy, the team had to stand six-feet from their wives and children and say goodbye with air hugs.

Before saying goodbye, Behnken and Hurley suited up in the new spacesuits developed by Musk with the help of costume designer Jose Fernandez with envisioning the prototype.

Fernandez, who has worked on 'The Avengers' and 'X-Men', revealed that Musk wanted the crew to look better in the suit than without it, 'like a tux.'

'Musk kept saying, anyone looks better in a tux, no matter what size or shape they are,' he said in an interview with Bleep.

'I personally spent a lot of time  it took us three, almost four years to design these suits that both look good and work well,' Musk said during NASA's live coverage of the launch attempt on Wednesday.

The launch pad is the same one used by NASA's last space shuttle flight, piloted by Hurley, in 2011. Since then, NASA astronauts have had to hitch rides into orbit aboard Russia's Soyuz spacecraft. The crew is still pushing forward with plans and the astronauts are now fully dressed in the spacesuits developed by Musk with the help of costume designer Jose Fernandez with envisioning the prototype

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstein paid the astronauts a visit in the crew quarters. Having to keep the social distancing policy, Bridenstein snapped a selfie to commemorate the mission dubbed Launch America

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstein snapped 'the perfect selfie' in the Kennedy crew quarters with Benhken (back left) and Hurley (back right), who are all smiles ahead of the launch

The crew are dressed in spacesuits developed by Musk with the help of costume designer Jose Fernandez with envisioning the prototype. Behnken (left) flashes the camera smile while standing next to Hurley (right) in the crew quarters

The ground crew is running through a series of tests on that are designed to connect into the Dragon seats, which provides cool to the astronauts and communication to the crew. As it stands, the 24-storey-tall SpaceX Falcon 9 is due to lift off at 3.22pm Eastern Time, propelling astronauts Behnken and Hurley aloft on a 19-hour ride to the International Space Station

Doug Hurley (pictured) is suited up and ready to go for Launch America

Hurley and Behnken are wearing the new SpaceX suits that Elon Musk said he personally worked on for three to four years

'You see the spacesuits in the movies  they look good, they don't work well.'

'You can make a spacesuit that works, but it doesn't look good, because fundamentally it's a pressure suit that has to survive in a vacuum.'

The suits were constructed in Hawthorne, California, which is the same facility where SpaceX keep its rockets.

They are custom-made for each passenger aboard Crew Dragon and designed to be functional, lightweight and to offer protection from potential depressurization.

For Musk, the launch represented another milestone for the reusable rockets his company pioneered to make spaceflight less costly and frequent.

And it would mark the first time that commercially developed space vehicles - owned and operated by a private entity rather than NASA - have carried Americans into orbit.

Musk said on Wednesday he accepted absolute responsibility if today's historic launch of his Falcon 9 rocket ended in tragedy.

The biggest concern is lighting, precipitation, cumulus clouds and anvil clouds - all of which could ground Falcon 9 until Sunday. The first Falcon 9 rocket launch try on Wednesday was called off with less than 17 minutes on the countdown clock due to stormy weather

Dolphins swim in a lagoon near Launch Complex 39A at sunrise at Kennedy Space Center in Florida this morning. Elon Musk said they would be 'proceeding with countdown' despite a 50 per cent 'weather cancellation risk'

The SpaceX suits have been jointly designed by a Hollywood costume designer and by Elon Musk himself

Spectators setup spots on the Florida beach to watch NASA and SpaceX make history. NASA had discouraged spectators from traveling to Florida to watch the launch, citing the coronavirus pandemic

The because in Florida are flooded with people who are enjoying the sun while they waited for the NASA-SpaceX launch

How SpaceX astronauts quarantined to keep coronavirus off the ISS Pre-launch quarantine periods are standard procedure for any space flight. Crew Dragon's astronauts, Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley went into quarantine on May 13 - two weeks ahead of their original scheduled liftoff. They were given the option to quarantine at home if members of their households would not be coming and going. Behnken and Hurley stayed at their homes - because their families were already quarantining due to the pandemic - until they were required to report to the Kennedy Space Center on May 20, according to Space Flight Now. Both astronauts got daily temperature checks in the weeks leading up to Wednesday's launch. Their interactions with others have been limited, and anyone who would have to come into contact with them also had to get a daily temperature check. During training, staff had to stay six feet away from each astronaut and wore masks. Staff were also required to keep quarantine protocols, stay socially distanced and wear protective gear when they needed to closely interact with the astronauts and support crew. Although the astronauts continued to have contact with one another, many of the training exercises that would normally come with hands-on instruction and adjustments were instead attended virtually by staff. Mr Behnken and Mr Hurley have undergone at least two coronavirus tests. Advertisement

Musk told CBS This Morning: 'I'm the chief engineer of this thing so I'd just like to say that if it goes right, it's credit to the SpaceX-NASA team. If it goes wrong, it's my fault.'

Asked whether there was one thing about this afternoon's launch that kept him up at night, he added: 'There's thousands of things that can go wrong and only one thing that can go right.'

The last time NASA launched astronauts into space aboard a brand new vehicle was 40 years ago at the start of the shuttle program.

President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence visited the Kennedy Space Center three days ago for the first launch attempt and returned on Saturday.

Musk, the South African-born high-tech entrepreneur who made his fortune in Silicon Valley, is also the chief executive of electric carmaker and battery manufacturer Tesla Inc.

He founded Hawthorne, California-based SpaceX, formally known as Space Exploration Technologies, in 2002.

Aerospace giant Boeing Co, producing its own launch system in competition with SpaceX, is expected to fly its CST-100 Starliner vehicle with astronauts aboard for the first time next year.

NASA has awarded nearly $8billion to SpaceX and Boeing combined for development of their rival rockets.

Wednesday's launch was cancelled with less than 17 minutes remaining on the countdown clock as bad weather meant the launch had to be delayed by a few seconds around the Kennedy Space Center.

Elon Musk's space company SpaceX tweeted the above today as it prepares to send two NASA astronauts to the International Space Station aboard its Falcon 9 rocket from Florida - marking the company's first mission carrying humans aboard

Elon Musk said today they would be 'proceeding with countdown' despite a 50 per cent 'weather cancellation risk'

This meant it would have missed its trajectory for arrival at the fast-moving ISS. NASA astronauts Behnken and Hurley were strapped in and ready to go when it was cancelled.

SpaceX said in a Tweet: 'Standing down from launch today due to unfavorable weather in the flight path. Our next launch opportunity is Saturday, May 30 at 3:22 p.m. EDT, or 19:22 UTC.'

NASA astronaut Bob Behnken waves to the crowd as he and fellow crew member Doug Hurley ride back from Launch Complex 39A after the mission was postponed Wednesday due to bad weather

The SpaceX suits have been jointly designed by a Hollywood costume designer and by Musk himself (pictured: Matt Damon in 2015's The Martian; and NASA astronaut Bob Behnken wearing the SpaceX suit, right)

Hurley said: 'We could see some raindrops on the windows and just figured that whatever it was, was too close to the launch pad at the time we needed it not to be.

'Understand that everybodys probably a little bit bummed out. Thats just part of the deal. ... We'll do it again, I think, on Saturday.'

The SpaceX demo-2 mission will see the Falcon 9 rocket and attached Crew Dragon capsule shoot into space as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program.

If successful, it will pave the way for future partnerships between NASA and commercial companies, and a new age of space travel.

The mission was cancelled as Storm Bertha rolled into the area of NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Pictured above is the rocket on Wednesday moments before the launch was cancelled

SpaceX founder Elon Musk (left) wearing a face mask with the SpaceX logo at Cape Canaveral in Florida on Wednesday

The launchpad at Cape Canaveral in Florida is pictured above last Saturday. The rocket will lift off 8.22pm UK time

The Falcon 9 will take off from Cape Canaveral on the other side of the Atlantic and be visible in the UK sky two hours later
As of August 26th, 2021 Yahoo India will no longer be publishing content. Your Yahoo Account Mail and Search experiences will not be affected in any way and will operate as usual. We thank you for your support and readership. For more information on Yahoo India, please visit the FAQ
Australias COVID-19 restrictions came just in time to avert disaster, with new modelling showing waiting just one more week risked infections ballooning to 35,000.

Waiting another to introduce border closures and social distancing measuring could have led to a five-fold increase in Australias current infections.

Australia's Chief Medical Officer, Professor Brendan Murphy, discusses COVID-19 modelling during a press conference at Parliament House in April. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

That's the finding of a new paper analysing the pattern of coronavirus infections using a technique dubbed back projecting.

Mortality rates, hospitalisations and ICU admissions would rise by the same magnitude, said study author Professor Ian Marschner at the University of Sydneys Faculty of Medicine and NHMRC Clinical Trials Centre.
Pranab Mondal By

KOLKATA: Kolkata Polices fourth battalion on Friday threw bricks and hurled abuses at their superiors to protest against the alleged negligence in ensuring the hygiene and safety of the constabulary inside the barracks.

This was the third incident of open rebellion in Kolkata Police in the past 10 days. The protesters alleged that the campus and barracks were not sanitised after one of their colleagues tested positive for Covid-19, a few days ago.

ALSO READ | Kolkata: Cop suffering respiratory problems dies at hospital, colleagues protest alleging negligence by seniors

On May 19, a group of constables of the combat force chased an IPS officer of DCP rankand assaulted him.

A few days later, constables went on a rampage at Garfa police station in south Kolkata after a colleague, who was suffering from a respiratory problem, died.

Taking to Twitter, West Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankhar described the revolt by the personnel of Kolkata police as worrisome.

Concerned, aghast at happenings at Kolkata Police Training School; Garfa Police Station and now 4th battalion of Kolkata Police at Bidhannagar. Chinks getting exposed in historically impeccable Kolkata Police, he wrote.

Urgent fairness steps needed so that there is wholesome addressing of grievances effectively. Bureaucracy and police need to be distanced from any political affinity for sake of transparent and accountable administration, another tweet read.

Congress leader Abdul Mannan expressed his concern over the frequent open rebellion in the force.

A video clip of the incident showed angry police personnel inside the fourth battalion compound shouting and throwing bricks targeting their seniors standing outside.
San Francisco, May 31 : An Italian court has dismissed an appeal by the Cupertino-based tech giant Apple to look into the 10 million euro fine slapped by the Italian Competition Authority for iPhone performance throttling.

In 2018, Apple was hit with a 10 million euro fine in Italy over the iPhone performance throttling scandal.

Apple appealed against the ruling by the Italian anti-practice watchdog (AGCM) but the new court filings have revealed that the company has lost its appeal.

Seen first by setteBIT on Twitter, the ruling said the changes to performance due to battery health should have been immediately been made known to iPhone owners.

Apple added the changes without disclosing them to users through release notes, reports 9to5Mac.

The court ruling read: "The conclusion of the AGCM that the omissions and insufficient information on the batteries of the iPhones by Apple until December 2017, result to be integrated with an incorrect commercial practice pursuant to art. 22 of the Consumer Code." "This conclusion is based on the observation that the disclosed omission of information, relating to one of the main characteristics of the product that affected its performance and duration, led consumers to make mistakes both in the purchase decision and, above all, in that of correct use and replacement of iPhone devices".

Apple has already agreed to pay nearly $25 to affected iPhone users - mainly owners of iPhone 6, 7 and SE devices - in the US as part of the $500 million class-action settlement in a case which involved slowing down older iPhones with a battery software update in 2017.

Apple admitted in 2017 that the software update slowed down certain iPhone models with degraded batteries. The iPhone maker said that the update was necessary to prevent unexpected shutdowns and preserve the life of the devices.

However, the Cupertino-based tech giant also apologised for not communicating to users properly and offered affected customers cut-price iPhone battery replacements.

France's consumer fraud group has also imposed a 25 million-euros fine on Apple for deliberately slowing down certain older iPhone models.

Apple also reduced the price of an out-of-warranty iPhone battery replacement by $50 from $79 to $29 for anyone with an iPhone 6 or later whose battery needs to be replaced.

-- Except for the title, this story has not been edited by Prokerala team and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed
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Yes Banks leadership team has decided to restructure their compensation package for FY 2020-21, in a manner wherein up to 30 percent of their total cost to company (TCC) will be allocated as variable pay, the bank said in a release on May 31.

COVID-19 situation has exacerbated the gradually slowing growth momentum in the global economy and the revival of economy will to a great extent depend on the robustness of the financial services sector, the bank said.

While the country without a doubt is navigating in unchartered waters, the Bank is appreciative of the leadership team for their unstinted support, demonstrating the highest level of ownership and commitment to the Bank, it said.

Top management of a host of banks and other institutions, including Kotak Mahindra Bank, had taken pay cuts in view of the COVID-19 situation while several companies have also announced pay cuts of employees. For instance, Kotak Mahindra Banks top management had taken a 15 percent cut. The bank also announced pay cuts for employees earning above Rs 25 lakh per annum.

Yes Banks employees too had voluntarily contributed an amount equal to one days salary to the PM CARES Fund to support ongoing relief efforts to combat COVID-19, the bank said. The Bank remains committed to working with health authorities and the government to support communities in combating the COVID-19 situation, the release said.

Yes Bank was bailed out early this year by a bank consortium after the lender nearly failed financially on account of alleged mismanagement and careless lending practices by the former management. The RBI appointed a new board and management is in place headed by former SBI executive Prashant Kumar.
The coronavirus may have arrived in Europe as early as November last year, French scientists have revealed.

Dr. Michel Schmitt, from Albert Schweitzer Hospital in Colmar, northeastern France, and his team of researchers examined thousands of chest X-rays from late 2019 and were able to identify two scans that were 'consistent' with the symptoms of Covid-19.

The scans, which were identified between November 16 and November 18, now cast a new light on when the coronavirus crisis first hit Europe as scientists continue their search for 'patient zero'.

The scans, which were obtained by NBC News, were among almost 2,500 X-rays that Mr Schmitt's team analysed and show the virus was in the country before its first reported case on January 24.

The team of scientists found that the first case of the coronavirus dated back to November 16- weeks before it was officially reported in France. Pictured: The chest scan of one of the patient's with coronavirus

Pulmonologist and global health expert at the University of Washington Dr Vin Gupta, who analysed the X-Rays, told NBC News: 'This fits a pattern we're seeing with coronavirus  especially early coronavirus infection where you're seeing some abnormalities in some parts of the lungs but not abnormalities everywhere.'

Dr Schmitt's team were also able to identify 12 cases of coronavirus in December and 16 in January.

However the scientist said that conclusions could not yet be drawn and his team would now be looking at X-rays dating back to October in an effort to map out the spread of the virus.

He told NBC News: 'We can only manage the future if we understand the past. Today, we clearly do not understand this outbreak.'

He added: 'This could completely change the government's management strategy.'

The team's findings come just weeks after French doctor Dr Yves Cohen, head of resuscitation at several hospitals in Ile-de-France, Paris, revealed he had found a positive test for coronavirus on December 27.

Dr Cohen's team, who had re-tested the negative coronavirus and flu samples of 24 patients, said his findings confirmed the virus was in France before it was officially reported.

His team revisited the negative tests for patients who were admitted to hospital with respiratory symptoms in December and January, he told French channel BFMTV.

A man, now in good health, was identified as carrying coronavirus but Dr Cohen said the man was 'surprised' as he did not understand how he was infected.

The team of researchers at Albert Schweitzer hospital have been analysing almost 2,500 X-rays

The hospital is located in the city of Colmar which is in the Grand Est region of northeastern France

He told BFMTV: 'Of the 24 patients, we had one positive result for Covid-19 on 27 December when he was in hospital with us.'

However Dr Cohen said at the time that it was too early to know if the patient was France's 'patient zero'.

He added: 'He was amazed, he didnt understand how he had been infected. We put the puzzle together and he had not made any trips. The only contact that he had was with his wife.'

In February, five Britons were diagnosed with coronavirus in the Alpine village of Contamines-Montjoie near Mont Blanc after they caught the virus from a Brighton man who stayed at the same resort.

The middle-aged patient had flown from Singapore to the ski resort but only displayed symptoms of the contagious virus on his return to the UK.

The anonymous patient was rushed to a specialist infectious diseases unit at Guy's Hospital in London where he was quarantined as the third coronavirus patient on British soil.

Six other UK nationals who had come into close contact with them at the resort were also taken to hospital in Lyon, Saint-Etienne and Grenoble.

Pictured: The Les Contamines alpine village in the French Alps where five Britons were diagnosed with the virus in February

The new evidence comes as France begins to lift its lockdown restrictions and slowly begins to reopen its schools.

Earlier this month, Sweden's state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell revealed that the country likely had coronavirus cases as early as November last year.

He told Sweden's TT news agency: 'There wasn't any spread [of infection] outside Wuhan until we saw it in Europe later.

'But I think that you could find individual cases among Wuhan travellers who were there in November to December last year. That doesn't sound at all strange, but rather very natural.'

Sweden - one of just a handful of countries to resist a lockdown - has no plans to implement large-scale sample testing of patients who received care for respiratory symptoms or flu last year to see if they had coronavirus.

The country's first official coronavirus case was a woman in Jonkoping who tested positive on January 31 after a trip to China. The woman has since recovered from the illness.

The first case of the virus in Wuhan, China, was first brought to the attention of the World Health Organization (WHO) on December 31.

The country reported several cases of an unusual pneumonia and according to the authorities some of the patients were operating dealers or vendors in the Huanan Seafood market.

On January 13, the WHO confirmed the first case outside of China in Thailand.
The Chamber of Petroleum Consumers Ghana (COPEC Ghana), has noted that government has no hands in the impending fuel price increment.



Executive Director of COPEC, Duncan Amoah explained that the external factors that are beyond the control of government are to blame for the hike.



Fuel prices are expected to go up on Monday following the 23.25% surge in price of Brent crude oil, in addition to the 41.80% and 22.68% significant rise in the prices of Gasoline and Gasoil respectively on the international market, the Institute for Energy Security said on Friday.



Going by the 23.25% surge in price of Brent crude oil, in addition to the 41.80% and 22.68% significant rise in the prices of Gasoline and Gasoil respectively on the international market; the Institute for Energy Security (IES) foresees prices of fuel on the domestic market going up, and above April 2020 levels, it said.



It added that, The marginal depreciation of the local currency would also be another determinant for the Bulk Distribution Companies (BDCs) in selling to the OMCs, and that would definitely reflect at the pump.



A litre each of petrol and diesel is currently sold for 4 cedis 6 pesewas on the average.



For the last pricing window, Shell (Vivo), Total, Goil, Allied Oil, Star Oil, Petrosol and Puma Energy joined other Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) to maintain prices at the pump, the statement said.



Due to the marginal increase in the prices of oil and fuel on the international market in the first Pricing-window of May 2020, prices of petroleum products on the local market remained largely unchanged within the Pricing-window under review, IES added.



According to the IES, Brent crude price moved above the $30 per barrel mark for the Pricing-window under assessment. The crude price recovery is coming on the back of rebound in demand for crude products such as gasoline, gasoil, jet fuel.



This positive gain can be attributed to the easing of restrictions in economic activities around the world, and the cutback in production by the OPEC+.



IES concluded that, following this, Brent crude price appreciated by 23.25% from $27.36 per barrel recorded at the end of the first Pricing-window of May to close at $33.72 per barrel on average terms at end of the second Pricing-window.



Gasoline and Gasoil prices as monitored on Standard and Poors global Platts platform shows significant surge. While Gasoline went up by a whopping 41.8% to close the window at $287.65 per metric tonne on average terms, Gasoil price rose by a significant 22.7% to close trading at $264.83 per metric tonne, it added.



Speaking on this matter on TV3 Saturday May 30, Mr Duncan Amoah said : The understanding we are getting is that effective Monday almost every OMC would have gone up on their prices between 5 to 8 per cent.



We will want to ask the public to take advantage of the period between now and Monday to fuel up because it is likely they will be paying more for fuel.



These increases are not a function of government because taxes have not gone up, the cedi seems to be losing quite some ground over the period largely due to international market differences.



And so, in as much as we would have wished to pay lower for fuel these are understandable dynamics. The only caution we will draw to the OMCs is that they shouldnt increase it so huge, just stagger it piece meal for all of us like they did when the prices were coming down.

Source: laudbusiness.com









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S&P Global Ratings notes four Islamic finance social instruments can help core Islamic countries, banks, and corporations navigate the current situation arising out of Covid-19. These are Qard Hassan, social Sukuk, Waqf, and Zakat.

In its article "Islamic Finance And ESG: Sharia-Compliant Instruments Can Put The S In ESG," S&P says that COVID-19 has significantly slowed core Islamic finance economies because of their governments' measures to combat the spread of the virus.

It sees unemployment rates rising as some companies experience significant revenue reduction. However, Islamic finance provides socially responsible products, and the current environment could offer the possibility to leverage them.

As regulators and policymakers around the world seek to establish a more sustainable, stakeholder-focused, and socially responsible financial system for the future, S&P Global Ratings notes there are certain similarities between Islamic finance and sustainable finance.

Islamic finance abides by the goals and objectives of Sharia, and has some overlap with environmental, social, and governance (ESG) considerations and the broader aim of sustainable finance.

Although this may sound obvious for environmental aspects through green sukuk and governance aspects through the presence of additional governance layers, the social aspect has until now been less obvious.

The spread of Covid-19 and countermeasures to slow its spread have significantly slowed the core Islamic finance economies.

As a result, we expect unemployment rates to increase, with a consequent significant loss of income for households as companies implement measures to reduce their costs amid declining revenue.

The Islamic-finance industry has been talking about the potential to use the social instruments of Islamic finance to help address the impact of Covid-19 on corporates and banks through unremunerated or subsidised liquidity to help them cope with the short-term loss in revenue and allow them to preserve employment.

Social instruments could also be used directly to support households by compensating them for lost income, and by providing access to affordable basic services, such as education and health care.

From a credit rating perspective, in our opinion, banks' use of social instruments would have a limited effect on their balance sheets, as long as such instruments did not significantly reduce their profitability or increase their costs materially.

The social nature of sukuk would have no bearing on the instrument's creditworthiness as long as the social measures did not change the sponsor's obligation to pay sufficient amounts for the periodic distribution and principal reimbursement. -- Tradearabia News Service
Albuquerque Journal staffers were recently honored with two dozen awards in two separate regional contests, including first place honors in 10 categories in the Top of the Rockies competition coordinated by the Colorado chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.

The Top of the Rockies contest, which covered the 2019 calendar year, drew a record number of entries from newspapers and broadcast television and radio stations in New Mexico, Colorado, Utah and Wyoming.

The Journal competed against large market commercial stations and newspapers with circulation of more than 75,000.

The Journals winning entries were:

First Place

Digital editor Robert Browman, photographer Roberto E. Rosales and former staff writer Angela Kocherga in multimedia story for 8 Hours on the Border, a series that explored what Border Patrol agents were dealing with as a record number of migrant families sought asylum in the U.S.

Journal investigative reporter Colleen Heild in religion general reporting for Victim hopes child sex abuse conviction of priest leads to healing.

Journal investigative reporter Mike Gallagher in marijuana enterprise reporting for his Legal pot or not? A New Mexico debate series that looked at issues surrounding legalizing recreational marijuana in New Mexico.

Columnist Joline Gutierrez Krueger in the column personal/humor category for Lost dog brings out the best in a whole lot of people, Hormel Cana Spam contest at State Fair and After crash, a long road to hope.

Gutierrez Krueger also won top honors in the news column category for Couple who lost legs in crash still awaiting justice, After public suicide, widow describes a good man, lost and Who is the Mona Lisa of I-40.

Editorial page editor DVal Westphal in editorials for On dangerous ground, NMs capital outlay needs an accountability plunger and Updated trapping regs just sidestepped gruesome NM reality.

Design director Leah Derrington for front page design.

Reporter Jessica Dyer in the best solutions journalism category for Sheltering the Homeless.

Reporter Shelby Perea in education: enterprise reporting for her series on elevated lead levels found at some APS schools.

And reporter Matthew Reisen in headline writing for Las Cruces man gets caught in pico de-lie-o, That was no junk in the trunk and Fake deputy pulls driver over, meets the real thing.

Second Place

Greg Peretti in headline writing for Lion Eyes, Reducing baaaa-d fire danger and The whole kitten caboodle.

Browman, Rosales, Reisen, city editor Martin Salazar, reporters Elise Kaplan and Katy Barnitz and graphics artist Cathryn Cunningham in multimedia story for 72 Hours  Life & Addiction in Albuquerque.

Designer Jennifer Swanson for single page design.

Photographer Jim Thompson in news photography for Best friend to the end.

Reporter Edmundo Carrillo in general reporting-series or package for his coverage on the Gary Gregor child abuse case.

Perea in the best solutions journalism category for Extended learning time brings hurdles.

Heild in health enterprise reporting for her Feeling the Pain series, which examined the severe lack of timely access to health care in New Mexico.

Third place

Thompson in news photography for Father accused in babys death released.

Assistant managing editor Helen Taylor in headline writing for Fab forte: Australian animator brought Beatles cartoons, Yellow Submarine to life, No Eternal Return for small investors: Meow Wolf buying back low-cost shares, and Creative labor: Once derided, Judy Chicagos Birth Project is now in demand.

Dan Boyd in marijuana general reporting for Medical users struggle with costs.

And Kaplan in news reporting-single story for Teen Dies in Santa Fe juvenile lockup and a sidebar DA: Referring cases to federal court a crime-fighting strategy.

In addition, the Journal won three awards in the annual Best of the West contest, which draws hundreds of entries each year from newspapers, magazines and websites in 14 Western states, including California and Texas.

Rosales won second place in news slideshow for 8 Hours on the Border: U.S. Border Patrol agents encounter a record influx of migrant families seeking asylum.

A great approach to 8 Hours and a fairly tight edit help this entry elicit a mood that only one can imagine what the subjects were feeling, the judges wrote. Great execution and craft were exhibited here.

Photographer Eddie Moore won third place in that same category for Behind the Boom, about a record surge in oil production in New Mexico.

The photographers ability to deliver a strong sense of place elevated this entry, the judges wrote. A good variety of images also helped.

Gutierrez Krueger won third place in the general interest column writing category for After public suicide, widow describes a good man, lost, The last ride: Couple lose legs in 2016 crash, patience with justice system as case languishes and Who is the Mona Lisa of I-40?

The range of topics and the quality of the work was impressive, the judge wrote. The best columns had strong reporting and a clear, confident voice.
Pakistan is planning to seek $15 billion in new loans to return its maturing external public debt and build up the official foreign exchange reserves, the highest amount to be borrowed by the country in a single year, a media report said on Sunday.

Out of the $15 billion estimated external borrowings in fiscal year 2020-21, nearly $10 billion will be used to return the maturing loans, excluding interest payments, sources in the Ministry of Finance told The Express Tribune.

The paper reported that the remaining amount will become a part of the external public debt that has already increased to $86.4 billion as of March end this year.

The estimated $15 billion borrowings will be the highest loans to be taken by the country in a single year, highlighting the challenges that the government faces due to the deepening debt trap.

Because of the inability to enhance non-debt creating inflows, Pakistan's $12 billion gross official foreign currency reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) are largely the product of borrowings.

For fiscal year 2020-21, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has projected SBP's reserves at $15.6 billion in its April report, which will again be impossible without borrowings, as the Fund sees only a slight increase in exports and marginal decline in remittances in the next fiscal year.

The finance ministry has estimated the gross receipt of $15 billion from bilateral and multilateral lenders, commercial banks, issuance of Eurobonds and the IMF for fiscal year 2020-21, according to the sources.

Pakistan's heavy reliance on foreign creditors can be gauged from the simple fact that from July 2018 to June 2021, it will have taken $40 billion new loans. Out of this, $27 billion would be consumed in paying old loans and rest $13 billion will be added in external public debt.

As per the official estimates, by the end of June this year, the current government would have taken nearly $25 billion loans in its tenure and $16.5 billion were to be consumed in paying principal loans.

The estimated fresh borrowing in the next fiscal year will be 7 per cent or $1 billion higher than the outgoing fiscal year's revised estimate of $14 billion worth of external inflows, said the sources.

Pakistan is currently under the IMF programme but it is technically suspended for the last few months.

The materialisation of the $15 billion external loans will also depend upon the revival of the IMF programme, as the government has included loans from the IMF and budgetary support from the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

Pakistan expects to receive $2.1 billion from the IMF in the next fiscal year, subject to successful completion of quarterly reviews. This year, the IMF gave $2.8 billion, including $1.4 billion emergency COVID-19 assistance.

The government still has a plan to borrow $3.4 billion from the foreign commercial banks, which will essentially be rollovers of the existing commercial loans.

If Pakistan avails the G-20 debt relief, it may not be able to contract fresh commercial loans till December 2020.

The bilateral inflows are estimated at just $770 million due to the completion of major ongoing projects of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

Pakistan has estimated $6 billion loans from the multilateral creditors in the next fiscal year. The ADB is expected to lend $1.4 billion as against $2.8 billion in this fiscal year.

The World Bank may extend $2.9 billion in new loans after all its policy loans did not materialise in this fiscal year, said the sources.

The Islamic Development Bank is expected to extend $1 billion in fresh loans and $500 million receipts are estimated from the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), said the sources.

It has to be seen if the government ventures in the international capital markets before December 2020 due to its decision to avail debt relief from G-20 nations, according to the report.
Muhammadu Saad Abubakar IV, sultan of Sokoto, has asked security operatives to fish out the bandits who raided communities in Sokoto ...

Muhammadu Saad Abubakar IV, sultan of Sokoto, has asked security operatives to fish out the bandits who raided communities in Sokoto and killed over 70 people.





Five villages in Sabon Birni local government area of Sokoto were attacked on Wednesday and more than 70 people were killed.





Speaking when Abubakar Sadiq, chief of air staff, paid him a courtesy visit at his palace on Saturday, the monarch said the level of insecurity in the country has grown from bad to worse.





Insecurity has gotten to the point that you will be in your house and somebody will just come and pick you up, he said. People can no longer go about their normal businesses in Nigeria.Insecurity has gotten to the point that you will be in your house and somebody will just come and pick you up, he said.





You just cant imagine how people could be this callous to take away lives without even taking anything from them. The first and foremost job of any leader is to protect the lives and properties of his people.





In the last couple of years, banditry has gone from bad to worse in Nigeria. We have to find out what has gone wrong. What are these bandits after? What do they stand to gain? I think there is something behind it.In the last couple of years, banditry has gone from bad to worse in Nigeria. We have to find out what has gone wrong.What are these bandits after?What do they stand to gain?





We are ready to support the arms forces to achieve the desired success. Follow bandits to anywhere they are and kill them. We must protect our people at all cost.





On how best to ensure such security is guaranteed, sultan advocated adequate funding of the nations security agencies.





of the country. We must equip our armed forces because its the most important thing to do. We must continue to give information in confidence, he said. The federal government must equip the armed forces even if it needs using the whole budgetof the country. We must equip our armed forces because its the most important thing to do.We must continue to give information in confidence, he said.





Unless we wake up as a country and equip our forces to the highest level, we will continue to have these challenges.





Our forces need the minimum logistics but I am very sure we do not have them in good numbers. We need massive recruitment, massive training and equipment. Nigeria armed forces dont have the equipment to deal with all terrains.





Speaking on the relevance of Sadiqs visit, sultan said the state is very pleased to receive him and his team, hence its prompt response to the plight of the people.





We want to thank you most sincerely for responding to our calls very quickly. The last attack on Sokoto was very pathetic that we lost 74 innocent people just like that. The visit will give a lot of hope to the hapless citizens that they have real not been left on their own, he said.





Sadiq said he visited Sokoto to reassess the operations and determine how much support the air force needs to render in the north-west.





We are going to commence operations in Sokoto. It covers, Katsina, Niger, and Nasarawa states, he said.





We are going to commence a lot of military flight activities here. We are appealing to the people of Sokoto state to give us all the needed assistance so that the activities of these criminality will be brought to an end as soon as possible.

Muhammadu Saad Abubakar IV, sultan of Sokoto, has asked security operatives to fish out the bandits who raided communities in Sokoto and killed over 70 people.





Five villages in Sabon Birni local government area of Sokoto were attacked on Wednesday and more than 70 people were killed.





Speaking when Abubakar Sadiq, chief of air staff, paid him a courtesy visit at his palace on Saturday, the monarch said the level of insecurity in the country has grown from bad to worse.





Insecurity has gotten to the point that you will be in your house and somebody will just come and pick you up, he said. People can no longer go about their normal businesses in Nigeria.Insecurity has gotten to the point that you will be in your house and somebody will just come and pick you up, he said.





You just cant imagine how people could be this callous to take away lives without even taking anything from them. The first and foremost job of any leader is to protect the lives and properties of his people.





In the last couple of years, banditry has gone from bad to worse in Nigeria. We have to find out what has gone wrong. What are these bandits after? What do they stand to gain? I think there is something behind it.In the last couple of years, banditry has gone from bad to worse in Nigeria. We have to find out what has gone wrong.What are these bandits after?What do they stand to gain?





We are ready to support the arms forces to achieve the desired success. Follow bandits to anywhere they are and kill them. We must protect our people at all cost.





On how best to ensure such security is guaranteed, sultan advocated adequate funding of the nations security agencies.





of the country. We must equip our armed forces because its the most important thing to do. We must continue to give information in confidence, he said. The federal government must equip the armed forces even if it needs using the whole budgetof the country. We must equip our armed forces because its the most important thing to do.We must continue to give information in confidence, he said.





Unless we wake up as a country and equip our forces to the highest level, we will continue to have these challenges.





Our forces need the minimum logistics but I am very sure we do not have them in good numbers. We need massive recruitment, massive training and equipment. Nigeria armed forces dont have the equipment to deal with all terrains.





Speaking on the relevance of Sadiqs visit, sultan said the state is very pleased to receive him and his team, hence its prompt response to the plight of the people.





We want to thank you most sincerely for responding to our calls very quickly. The last attack on Sokoto was very pathetic that we lost 74 innocent people just like that. The visit will give a lot of hope to the hapless citizens that they have real not been left on their own, he said.





Sadiq said he visited Sokoto to reassess the operations and determine how much support the air force needs to render in the north-west.





We are going to commence operations in Sokoto. It covers, Katsina, Niger, and Nasarawa states, he said.





We are going to commence a lot of military flight activities here. We are appealing to the people of Sokoto state to give us all the needed assistance so that the activities of these criminality will be brought to an end as soon as possible.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Rallies and marches -- some which sparked violence, while others were peaceful and organized -- were held across the country on Saturday to protest the death of George Floyd in police custody.

It was the third day of demonstrations being held across the country.

Floyd died Monday in Minneapolis after officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes. Chauvin has since been fired, and arrested and charged in Floyds killing.

During a press conference on Sunday morning, Police Commissioner Dermot Shea announced that between 340 and 350 people were arrested during protests Saturday evening. Over 30 members of the NYPD were injured, according to Shea.

Another Staten Island rally has been organized for Sunday, where marchers plan to walk from the Park Hill Houses in Clifton to Bay Street in St. George.

STATEN ISLAND RALLIES ON SATURDAY

On Saturday, a demonstration from Tompkinsville to the 120 Police Precinct in St. George drew more than 500 people for a peaceful march.

Many who participated in the march said the death of Floyd in police custody in Michigan was reminiscent of the situation surrounding Eric Garners death.

Gwen Carr -- the mother of Eric Garner.-- and the Rev. Al Sharpton led a prayer vigil at the Tompkinsville site where Garner died while being taken into police custody in July 2014.

We have to send a message -- were not just going to sit still while they kill our people, Carr said to a crowd of more than 500 people. This is too much.

A rally later in the day Saturday forced the closure of the Lily Pond Avenue entrance and exit ramps on the Staten Island Expressway in both directions as about 100 people gathered in the area to protest the death of Floyd.

The group was met with a large police presence on School Road, which deterred the protesters from trying to continue onto Lily Pond Avenue and potentially onto the expressway.

RALLIES ACROSS THE CITY

A mostly peaceful protest in Manhattan in the afternoon on Friday was followed by what authorities described as a planned gathering with violent intentions assembled near the Barclays Center. Images and confirmed reports of violence between police and civilians included a Molotov cocktail thrown into an occupied police van, officers attacking peaceful protestors, and a cop with his teeth knocked out.

More protests were held across the city on Saturday, and there was a lot of destruction -- including a torched NYPD car and an Apple store vandalized -- in the aftermath, according to a report in the NY Post.

The report contained photos of a burned police smart car overturned on its side in front of the Bloomingdales in Soho.

The Post also described an Apple Store on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn that was vandalized with anti-police slurs and  and BLM, which stands for Black Lives Matter."

Published reports also say there was looting of many businesses across the city on Saturday night into Sunday morning.

SOCIAL DISTANCING

One of the major issues at the rallies was adhering to social distancing practices during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

A rally in Hell's Kitchen Saturday night. (Sydney Kashiwagi /Staten Island Advance)

In Hells Kitchen, as protests erupted across the city, New Yorkers were congregating in large crowds on closed streets, and not using social distancing practices, according to witnesses.

A rally in Hell's Kitchen Saturday night. (Sydney Kashiwagi /Staten Island Advance)

After three nights of demonstrations across New York City where police and protesters have clashed, city leaders said theyre working with community groups and developing a strategy to prevent violence moving forward.

Reporter Sydney Kashiwagi contributed to this report.

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PADERBORN, Germany (Reuters) - England forward Jadon Sancho capped a blistering individual performance with a second-half hat-trick which helped Borussia Dortmund to a 6-1 win at Paderborn on Sunday and kept alive their slim Bundesliga title hopes.

The result left Dortmund second on 60 points from 29 games with five rounds of matches remaining, seven behind champions and league leaders Bayern Munich, while Paderborn remained rooted to the foot of the standings on 19 points.

With prolific 19-year-old Norway striker Erling Haaland sidelined by a knee injury, the visitors missed a string of chances in the first half but Sancho lit up the second as Dortmund ran riot.

Thorgan Hazard, who took Haaland's place up front, gave Dortmund a 54th-minute lead from close range after keeper Leopold Zingerle, who had made a string of good saves, failed to deal with an Emre Can cross from the left.

Sancho made it 2-0 with a simple tap-in from two metres three minutes later thanks some good work from Julian Brandt before an Uwe Hunemeier penalty briefly rekindled Paderborn's challenge in the 72nd minute.

It turned out to be a false dawn as Sancho scored Dortmund's third two minutes later with a fine left-foot shot from inside the penalty area and Paderborn fell apart in the closing stages.

Achraf Hakimi drilled in the fourth in the 85th minute with a crisp shot into the far corner and Marcel Schmelzer added the fifth in the 89th from close range.

The unstoppable Sancho broke away at the halfway line barely 60 seconds later and with Paderborn throwing everybody forward for a corner, he had all the time and space to put the icing on the cake with a clinical finish.

Dortmund, the 1997 Champions League winners who last won the German title in 2012, are at home to ninth-placed Hertha Berlin in the next round on Saturday while Paderborn visit fifth-placed RB Leipzig.

(Writing by Zoran Milosavljevic; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
Four police cruisers burn immediately north of Philadelphia City Hall. Smoke is seen rising from the area, the view from CBS3 studios @CBSPhilly pic.twitter.com/a8nOcMcvgd  Joe Holden (@JoeHoldenCBS3) May 30, 2020

Hundreds of people gathered in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh to protest the death in Minneapolis of George Floyd, a black man who died after a white officer pressed a knee into his neck, but the peaceful demonstrations later turned violent with cars set ablaze and other property damage and Philadelphia police announced an 8 p.m. curfew in the city.

A crowd estimated by police as numbering 500 people gathered at Philadelphia's City Hall, kneeling for more than eight minutes in honor of Floyd, then marched through Center City to the Philadelphia Museum of Art on Saturday.

Thirteen police officers were injured, according to multiple reports.

Back in the City Hall area, protesters sprayed graffiti on a statue of former Philadelphia Mayor Frank Rizzo, tried to topple it and set a fire at its base. Rizzo, mayor from 1972 to 1980, was praised by supporters as tough on crime but accused by critics of discriminating against minorities. His 10-foot-tall (3-meter-tall) bronze statue outside the Municipal Services Building, across from City Hall, has been defaced before and is to be moved next year.

During the protests, a state police vehicle could be seen on fire nearby; it wasn't immediately clear how the blaze started and police didn't immediately respond to a message seeking comment. At least one other vehicle fire could be seen later in the area, and a Starbucks coffee outlet in the area was set afire.

The peaceful protests earlier were touching showings of our collective grief," Mayor Jim Kenney said. The anger being displayed now cannot continue. Please have respect and dignity for each other and return home."

Crowds also gathered Saturday afternoon for a march in downtown Pittsburgh to protest Floyds death. Police reported that the crowd near the PPG Arena was mostly peaceful but a group overtook and destroyed a marked police vehicle. Two journalists in the area were reported injured.

Protesters later smashed a glass business front and were dispersed with gas, police said. Pittsburgh Public Safety later reported ore business fronts broken out in the downtown area and protests are entering businesses.

In Harrisburg, PennLive.com reports that several hundred people gathered Saturday on the steps of the state Capitol, many standing silently with raised fists. Some chanted I cant breathe" and carried signs such as White Silence is Violence, Fight for Your Country and No Peace No Justice.
Chinese Ambassador to the U.S. Cui Tiankai has written an op-ed on NPC's decision to establish and improve a legal system and enforcement mechanisms for safeguarding national security in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. The article was published in Bloomberg Opinion on May 30th. Below is the full text:

I am a big fan of Hong Kong. The city presents a unique contrast between historical richness and vivacious modernity, with its classic trams roaming the streets and noisy, bustling restaurants. It is a romantic fusion of the East and the West.

To our regret, such romance is evaporating. In recent months, we have seen terrible scenes there. Mobs attacked the police with iron rods, and stockpiled bricks and Molotov cocktails. They detained passengers at the airport and even set an innocent old man on fire. Government buildings were stormed and vandalized. Shops were closed and streets were wrecked by arson attacks.

Taking advantage of the absence of a national security law in Hong Kong, protesters have time and again instigated violence and clamored for Hong Kong's "independence," crossing a red line for the central government. At the same time, external forces have increasingly interfered in Hong Kong affairs without scruple. Because of this, Hong Kong is in disarray. China's national security is at risk.

That is why the central government has chosen to act. According to Article 23 of the Basic Law, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region is authorized to enact laws on its own to safeguard national security. But such laws have been delayed for 23 years, since Hong Kong's return to China, because the opposition has tried in every way possible to strangle them.

This situation has compelled the National People's Congress to adopt the legislation instead. The 13th NPC has decided to establish and improve a legal framework and enforcement mechanisms for safeguarding national security in Hong Kong, and its Standing Committee will do the formulation work.

This decision enjoys extensive support from Chinese people, including in Hong Kong, many of whom believe it should have been done long before. If the chaos and instability we have seen in Hong Kong did not spur us to take action, we would not be living up to the expectations of the people.

Some people doubt if it is legitimate for China to take this action. In all countries, unitary and federal alike, only the central government has the legislative authority to decide issues concerning national security. Similarly, China's central government has the primary and ultimate responsibility for upholding national security, and the NPC is the highest-level legislature in China.

Others worry that the legislation will affect the policy of "One Country, Two Systems" under which Hong Kong is guaranteed a high degree of autonomy. In fact, it will only ensure the principle's sound and sustained implementation.

The NPC's decision makes clear that the principles of "One Country, Two Systems," "Hong Kong people governing Hong Kong" and a high degree of autonomy will be fully and faithfully honored. National security is the basis of "One Country, Two Systems," whose strengths can only be maximized in a secure and stable society. Hong Kong's underlying economic and social problems cannot be resolved by disrupting social order, and there can be no development and long-term prosperity if national security is undermined.

Many Americans who live and work in Hong Kong may wonder what the legislation will mean for them. The answer is that it will provide a safer and more secure environment. The legislation is only targeted at actions that jeopardize China's national security, such as splitting the country, subverting the government, committing terrorist activities and externally meddling in Hong Kong affairs. People who have nothing to do with these should have no worries.

In fact, the legislation will protect law-abiding citizens, ensure Hong Kong's high degree of autonomy and contribute to a sound legal and business environment there. A stable and prosperous Hong Kong will bring more opportunities to its residents and investors.

Just like a tree cannot live without roots, the national security legislation in Hong Kong will lay the groundwork for the practice of "One Country, Two Systems" and Hong Kong's long-term stability and development. With it, Hong Kong will remain the vibrant, romantic city we all love.
Hunt Real Estate announced this week it has purchased Glens Falls-based Potvin Realty.

Charlotte Potvin, owner of the formerly Century 21-affiliated brokerage, will join Hunt along with 19 real estate agents.

"The real estate market is changing. In order to provide better customer service and extraordinary marketing, we felt Hunt has more to offer across the board," Potvin said.

Since 2017, Potvin's company has sold 369 properties and claimed $67.5 million in sales volume.

Dave Evans, regional vice president of Hunt Capital Region, praised Potvin and her associates.

"We are excited to welcome Charlotte and her team to our existing group of professionals working in our Glens Falls and Lake George branches," Evans said.

Sign up for The Knick  Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter.

Hunt Real Estate Corp., founded in 1911, is the parent company of Hunt Real Estate ERA and operate more than 50 branches in New York, Massachusetts and Arizona.-

 Leigh Hornbeck
Editorials represent the institutional view of the newspaper. They are written and edited by the editorial staff, which operates separately from the news department. Editorial writers are not involved in newsroom operations.
Gov. Greg Abbott has declared a state of disaster after two days of protests in Houston and other Texas cities following the death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer.

The declaration, signed around noon Sunday, stems from what state officials described as violent protests that endanger public safety and threaten property loss and damage amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.

The order gives the governor the ability to designate federal agents to serve as Texas Peace Officers, officials said.

Abbott also deployed thousands of state troopers and more than 1,000 Texas National Guard members Sunday to Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Austin. Federal law enforcement officers will also aid state and local law enforcement.

In Houston, 274 demonstrators were arrested on Saturday through early Sunday. Thirteen of the arrests were for burglary, including looting stores. The bulk were for obstructing the roadway, HPD Chief Art Acevedo said. Police have not yet issued a more specific number on how many were taken into custody from the downtown protest. Another 137 were arrested during Friday's protests, which resulted in damage to more than a dozen police cruisers.

Still, Houston avoided the type of violence seen in cities across the nation, they said.

"We're very proud of our community," Acevedo said.

The city is planning a special rally and a march for Tuesday, he added.

Still, the Galleria and some area stores were closed because of the threat of looting, and city leaders warned that peaceful protestors need to stay away from that type of criminal activity.

Even though residents have been well-behaved, Mayor Sylvester Turner asked Houstonians to stay indoors as much as possible over the next few days.

"Stay off the streets. Stay home," Turner said.

Chronicle staff writer Gwendolyn Wu contributed to this story.

nicole.hensley@chron.com
A Black Lives Matter demonstrator has been shot dead outside a bar in Omaha, Nebraska following a night of protests on Saturday.

Footage circulating on social media shows James Scurlock, 22 - who is black - being gunned down by a man - who is white - outside the Hive Bar.

In the video, a man in a gray shirt appears to be speaking with the victim, who is in a dark shirt and jeans.

The person recording the video is heard yelling that he has a gun and says 'it's not worth it'.

Seconds later two loud gunshots are heard and the videographer quickly ducks for cover. Scurlock was shot twice in the neck.

In the video, a man in a gray shirt appears to be speaking with the victim, who is in a dark shirt and jeans (left)

Footage circulating on social media shows James Scurlock, 22 - who is black - being gunned down by a man - who is white

The incident took place outside The Hive Bar on Saturday before 11pm. The homicide occurred after protests ended according to the mayor

Police said they responded to the scene at approximately 11.01pm after officers reported hearing shots fired near 12th and Harney Street.

'Upon officers' arrival to the scene of 1207 Harney Street [the location of The Hive], they found a male suffering from a gunshot wound,' Omaha Police Department said in a statement. 'The male was transported to the Nebraska Medical Center where he succumbed to his injury.'

'The Omaha Police Department is not currently looking for any suspects,' OPD added. 'Investigators are in the process of reviewing all collected evidence, video, witness interviews and conferring with the Douglas County Attorney's office.'

Police initially said Saturday night that the suspect was at large but soon after they tweeted that the shooter was in custody.

On Sunday afternoon Police Chief Todd Schmaderer said the shooter was still detained but that any booking or 'charging decision on that front will come from the county attorney's office'.

Schmaderer added: 'And he tells me that will be accompanied by a press conference.'

OPD said no police officers were involved in the shooting.

Witnesses claim the shooter 'taunted' protesters and went out to the sidewalk yelling 'n****r lover'. From the video, it's unclear what happened before the shots were fired but witnesses claim Scurlock - who was with his brother - jumped on the shooter's back to stop him from using his weapon.

Protesters rally in response to the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis near 72nd and Dodge in Omaha on Friday

A man yells at Omaha police during a Black Lives Matter protest at 72nd and Dodge Streets on Friday

'James was passionate for Justice, but today his fight ended as he was shot and killed downtown Omaha while protesting for the same Justice he deserves,' a GoFundMe page states

Loved ones of Scurlock have posted a GoFundMe page.

'James was passionate for Justice, but today his fight ended as he was shot and killed downtown Omaha while protesting for the same Justice he deserves,' the page creator writes.

'May you Rest In Peace James.'

The Omaha World-Herald said Scurlock's family was not ready to talk but would speak soon.

On Sunday afternoon, Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert said that protest were peaceful but following the demonstrations groups started destroying businesses. Police said the majority of people arrested on Saturday were white.

According to witnesses, Scurlock was killed outside a business that had been damaged earlier in the night.

Omaha announced a a curfew Sunday from 8pm for 72 hours. The National Guard will be working with the OPD.

The investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information or video of the incident is urged to contact the Homicide Unit (402) 444-5656. Information can also be reported anonymously through Omaha Crime Stoppers at (402) 444-STOP, at www.omahacrimestoppers.org or on the P3 Tips mobile app.
Residents living along the Hau (Back) River in the Mekong Delta province of An Giang are now worried for their safety and homes after riverbank collapse occurred earlier this week.

A 40-meter section of National Highway No. 91, which runs adjacent to the Hau River, in Binh My Commune, Chau Phu District sank into the water early on Wednesday morning.

Residents who live along this road have been losing sleep as their house may be next to be devoured by the river.

I woke up many times during the night and went outside to check whether the road was still there or had already subsided, said Le Ba Truyen, 70, who has lived there since he was born.

Truyen was one of a few residents who saw the riverbank collapse on Wednesday.

A birds-eye view of the subsidence along National Highway No. 91 in An Giang Province, Vietnam, May 27, 2020. Photo: Chi Quoc / Tuoi Tre

Meanwhile, Nguyen Van My said he has no other choice but to prepare for relocation, as he and his family may have to abandon their home if more parts of the national highway continue to sink into the river.

Financial support from the state will not be enough. Our lives are be turned upside down as we will have to find a new place and livelihood, My stated.

Expressing the same concern, Le Thanh Hung now has no idea what he will do to earn a living and take care of his wife and son when they move to a new place.

Many other residents in Binh My Commune are also on the fence between living in fear at their current homes or relocating to a safer area.

Parts of National Highway No. 91 in An Giang Province are fenced off due to a high risk of subsidence. Photo: Chi Quoc / Tuoi Tre

The An Giang Peoples Committee has declared a state of emergency following the subsidence on Wednesday.

A more serious incident previously occurred at a nearby section of the highway last year.

Local authorities are reviewing their measures and estimating the number of affected residents to devise a detailed support plan.

About 29 households in Binh My Commune now need to evacuate promptly on account of subsidence, said Tran Thanh Nha, Party chief and chairman of Chau Phu District.

Many poor residents are living in 16 tents and makeshift homes in the at-risk area.

The subsidence of National Highway No. 91 that occurred in 2019 (right) and on May 27, 2020 (left). Photo: Buu Dau / Tuoi Tre

Each of these families has been provided with VND40 million (US$1,700) worth of assistance, Nha continued.

Regarding a long-term solution, we have proposed that provincial authorities channel VND50 billion [$2.1 million] into site clearance on a 13-hectare land plot, which will be turned into a relocation area for residents affected by subsidence, the official stated.

Eight out of 29 affected households have been relocated so far, said Nguyen Thi Ngoc Lan, Party chief of Binh My Commune.

They have been allocated empty land plots, while their new homes have been built with the help of local charitable groups, Lan elaborated.

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The Noida-Delhi border will remain sealed for movement of people to and from the national capital, the Gautam Buddh Nagar administration said in its latest guidelines for the COVID-19 lockdown issued on Sunday.

The decision has been taken as the source of infection in 42 per cent of coronavirus cases detected in the district in the last 20 days has been tracked to Delhi, the guidelines said.

The district administration had on April 21 banned movement of people between Noida and Delhi.

The inter-state travel ban exempts ambulances, doctors, goods carriers, media, those directly involved in COVID-19 services and those with passes issued by the administration.

In an order, the Gautam Buddh Nagar district administration said that previous directions issued in the district as per the state guidelines will remain in place. In urban areas, 50% of the shops will open every alternate day.

In residential societies, if one tower reports cases, it will become a containment. However, if multiple towers report cases, they will be converted to containment zones, along with the common facilities like parks, gyms and pools.

The Gautam Budhh Nagar district administration's order also instructed commercial and office spaces to disinfect their premises in the event that any cases are reported. also said that industrial activities could be carried out outside of containment zones.

The Uttar Pradesh government allowed interstate travel but restrictions on movement of people into Ghaziabad and Noida from the adjacent national capital continue for now.

In guidelines on the next phase of the lockdown, which begins Monday and will last till June 30, the state government had left it to Gautam Buddh Nagar and Ghaziabad administrations to take a call on relaxing restrictions travellers from New Delhi.

Ghaziabad authorities said the previous restrictions will continue till they come up with fresh instructions.

Both districts allow movement related to essential services and for people with valid passes through their 'sealed' borders. But the restrictions meant to contain coronavirus cause problems for people who commute to work across the border.

Largely following the Centre's guidelines issued a day earlier, the state government has allowed the opening of religious places, malls and educational institutes in a phased manner from June 8 onwards.

On travel, the order issued by Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary R K Tiwari said, "There is no ban on interstate and intra-state movement by persons or goods."

But at the same time, it said there will be a ban on the movement of people from the containment areas in Delhi to the NCR areas of Gautam Buddh Nagar and Ghaziabad.

(With inputs from PTI)


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PETERBOROUGH, England  The Jamaican bobsleigh team is used to training without snow, but the coronavirus lockdown has seen its male athletes resort to pushing a car around the streets of an English city to stay in shape, with an eye on Olympic qualification.

Some residents of Peterborough have offered their help to Shanwayne Stephens and Nimroy Turgott as they push a Mini down the road, before realizing it is part of a new training regime to work around the closure of gyms in England.

"We had to come up with our own ways of replicating the sort of pushing we need to do. So that's why we thought: why not go out and push the car?" Stephens, 29, told Reuters.

"We do get some funny looks. We've had people run over, thinking the car's broken down, trying to help us bump-start the car. When we tell them we're the Jamaica bobsleigh team, the direction is totally different, and they're very excited."

The couple said they had been inspired by the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics men's bobsleigh team, immortalized in the 1993 film "Cool Runnings."

But they said they aimed to qualify for the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022 and then outperform the 1988 team, who did not officially finish the four-man bob competition after crashing.

"Those guys set a legacy, and a movie came out of it. For me personally, I want to surpass that level, and even go beyond that," Turgott, 27, said.

Turgott, who normally lives in Jamaica, has been staying with Stephens since January, and the pair had always planned to do summer training in Britain, albeit in gyms rather than on roads.

"If you're able to do the same sort of training without the same equipment, then you should be able to achieve more with the right equipment," he said.

The pair are focused on qualifying for Beijing 2022. While the woman's team competed for the first time in 2018 in Pyeongchang, South Korea, the men's team failed to qualify.

Story continues

"The last Olympics, we missed it by one slot. And now we are using that experience as our motivation moving forward," Turgott said.
South Africans will be able to buy alcohol from Monday for the first time in two months, as the government eases one of the toughest lockdowns in the world.



The alcohol ban was introduced to enable the police and hospitals to better focus on tackling the coronavirus.



Alcohol can now be sold from Monday to Thursday only for consumption at home.



The ban was introduced at the start of the lockdown in order, above all, to free up hospital beds. And also to reduce domestic violence.



Alcohol-fuelled violence is a huge problem in South Africa, particularly at weekends.



Doctors and police say the ban has had a dramatic impact, contributing to sharp drop in casualty admissions.



But the countrys brewers and its wine makers have complained that theyre being driven out of business. And the government has lost a fortune in tax revenues.



South Africa is easing some lockdown restrictions, hoping to revive its economy at a time when the infection rate is starting to rise.



Cape Town is currently experiencing a sharp spike, and other major cities are expected to follow suit.



The country is also grappling with a serious shortage of testing equipment.

Source: bbc









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Pope Francis advised people not to be pessimistic as the world makes a slow departure from the coronavirus lockdown and adjusts to a new way of life during his first noon address for three months.

During Mass in St Peter's Basilica, Vatican City, to mark Pentecost Sunday, Francis departed from a prepared script - speaking of how people are more important than the economy as countries prepare to reopen.

Standing in his window he noted people's tendency to say 'nothing will return as before' and that that kind of thinking, he said, guarantees 'the one thing that certainly does not return hope'.

For the first time in three months Pope Francis led the first noon address at the St Peter's Basilica, Vatican City, to mark Pentecost Sunday

Speaking from a window, Francis departed from a prepared script encouraging people not to be pessimistic as we enter into a new post-coronavirus era

During the address, which was possible for the first time in three months as Italy's lockdown draws to an end, he took to task his own church for its fragmentation, saying it must pull together.

'The world sees conservatives and progressives,' he said, but instead all are 'children of God'.

'Healing people, not saving (money) to help the economy (is important), healing people, who are more important than the economy. We people are temples of the Holy Spirit, the economy is not,' Francis said.

Instead of being pessimistic about the future holds, Francis told the faithful to focus on what unites them, he added: 'In this pandemic, how wrong narcissism is.

'The tendency to think only of our needs, to be indifferent to those of others, and to not admit our own frailties and mistakes.'

Pope Francis was greeted by people in St. Peter's Square as he resumed his practice of speaking to the faithful there for the first time since lockdown began in Italy

Pope Francis celebrated the Solemnity of Pentecost with a Mass in St. Peters Basilica, with a limited number of the faithful in attendance

Francis did not mention any countries. Many governments are deciding whether to reopen their economies to save jobs and living standards, or whether to maintain lockdowns until they are sure the virus is fully under control.

The popes words were met with applause by hundreds of people in the square, many of whom wore masks and kept several metres from each other. The square was reopened to the public last Monday. Normally tens of thousands attend on a Sunday.

While the Vatican has reopened the basilica to tourists, the rank-and-file faithful are still not allowed to attend Masses celebrated by the Pope to avoid crowding.

The last time the pope delivered his message and blessing from the window was March 1, before Italy, where more than 33,000 people have died from the virus, imposed a lockdown. The last restrictions will be lifted on Wednesday.

Francis led the crowd in silent prayer for medical workers who lost their lives by helping others.
In this Saturday, May 30, 2020, photo, Camden County Metro Police Chief Joe Wysocki raises a fist while marching with Camden residents and activists in Camden, N.J., to protest the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Read more

As Philadelphia shot up in flames Saturday, and cops forcefully cracked down on residents protesting police brutality and the killing of George Floyd, Camden decided to take a different path.

There, the citys officers, including Police Chief Joe Wysocki, locked arms with activists, clergy, and other protesters, and joined in the call for justice for Floyd, the Minnesota black man who was killed after Derek Chauvin, a city police officer, kneeled on his neck while Floyd gasped for air and said, I cant breathe.

I wanted the unity, Wysocki said in an interview. I was looking for peace. People had to be able to speak their mind, they had to be able to vent.

 READ MORE: Philly retail stores ordered closed for curfew as looting expands beyond Center City

Saturday saw a nation engulfed in tension, as cities like Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Atlanta saw protests against police killings escalate and turn into widespread looting and violence. But Camden march organizers noted the partnership they had with the citys police force led to a much more peaceful day of protest.

They didnt try to use their authority to control the crowds," march organizer Yolanda Deaver, 36, said. They made it about the people, about how we feel. They stood with us.

Hundreds turned out for the Camden march, which stretched from Mount Ephraim Avenue to the citys police administration building. Members of the clergy called for unity, while activists called for people to put aside their differences and work together to reform the criminal justice system. More than 30 officers stood in unison with marchers and shouted slogans like No Justice, No Peace, No Racist Police.

After the march ended, law enforcement capitalized on the positive tone of the day and continued engaging with community residents throughout the evening.

We had pop-up barbecues. We cooked hamburgers, we cooked hot dogs, and we gave out ice cream, Wysocki said. We were trying to connect with residents in a positive way.

Connecting with residents and standing with the community while they express their grievances toward police is a fundamental part of the Camden Police Departments strategy of community policing," according to Wysocki.

You have to build the trust, he said. The younger generation, theyre upset, and rightfully so. ... You cant fix that overnight.

The department has been recognized in recent years for its wholesale reform of police operations to be one built on the principles of deescalation. Wysocki noted that in Camden, officers undergo constant training in how to alleviate tension with words and intervene in situations where fellow officers might become overly hostile while making arrests.

When you have someone in crisis, its better to talk to them and calm them down if possible, Wysocki said. Time is on our side to slow things down. Its really important to try to stop force from ever having to be used.

The department also revamped its use-of-force policy last August, which Wysocki says would reduce the chances that an incident like Floyds death would happen in Camden.

Youre not allowed to choke, Wysocki said of his departments policy. The officers that were there in Minnesota had a duty to intervene.

 READ MORE: Police turn more aggressive against protesters and bystanders nationwide, adding to violence and chaos

March participants, including activists and clergy, reveled in the day of unity.

It was a collaborative approach, Minister Wasim Muhammed, 53, of Camden said. The community shouldnt know you when its just an arrest. We know each other and have conversations. ... We as a community decide to come together.

Amid the positivity in Camden, many watched as violence unfolded across the river in Philadelphia, where police cars burned, storefronts were shattered, and a curfew was strongly enforced by law enforcement. Some had words of advice for their neighboring citys police force.

Philadelphia really doesnt have a great history  going back toward Rizzo days, Muhammed said, referring to the citys former police commissioner, Frank Rizzo. Start doing more engagement with the community.
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I am the ads.

Mike Blake/Reuters

A Tesla shareholder intends to agitate at the company's annual meeting next month for more old-school advertising.

Tesla has never spent any money on traditional ads, while other carmakers have spent billions.

But Tesla and CEO Elon Musk enjoy an immeasurable amount of goodwill, earned advertising, both from fans and customers, but also from Musk's other companies and his celebrity status.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Tesla, famously or infamously, doesn't really spend an money on advertising. Contrast that with the traditional auto industry, which, for decades, has been among the biggest and most reliable ad spenders on the planet. In the "Mad Men" era, it was possible to devote an entire career to the Buick account and retire happily.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk isn't exactly anti-advertising; several years ago, on a quarterly earnings conference call, he even speculated that Tesla would eventually develop an ad budget, because that would support the media and media  journalism  needs support.

I'm not sure if he feels the same way these days, but he has certainly discovered the value of so-called "earned" media: that's the positive messaging around your products or services that satisfied customers offer on their own, without any prompting. Think of people posting Instagram photos of their Teslas, accompanied by rave reviews.

Other categories are "paid" and "owned." Paid is the old-school stuff: TV, print, radio, billboards, and now digital and social. It is what it sounds like; a company buys it, and these days that often means giving money to Facebook or Google.

Owned is advertising that belongs to the advertiser and that they control. Tesla has sort of engaged in this practice. Think of the red Tesla Roadster that Musk's other company, SpaceX, put into orbit in 2018. Or, more recently, of astronauts headed for the International Space Station in a SpaceX capsule getting a ride to their rocket in a Tesla Model X.

Story continues

A Tesla shareholder intends to agitate at the company's annual meeting next month for more old-school advertising, perhaps to spur demand during the coronavirus pandemic recovery. Musk isn't likely to be interested in entertaining the idea.

In the meantime, here are 10 times when Musk proved that ads are pointless for Tesla:

Musk sends his personal, red Tesla Roadster to the red planet.

tesla roadster starman space

YouTube / SpaceX

The marketing stunt to end all marketing stunts. General Motors might spend billions convincing people to buy Chevys, the company doesn't have a sibling rocket concern that can send Chevys into orbit.

The Falcon Heavy rocket that SpaceX launched in 2018 required a dummy payload, and Musk decided that a Tesla vehicle would be ideal. His very own red original Roadster, in fact.

The car, piloted by a space-suited "Starman," was released once the launch cleared Earth's gravity well, to the strains of David Bowie, with the words "Don't Panic" displayed on the car's infotainment screen, a reference to Douglas Adams' book "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," a Musk favorite.

Tesla designs ventilators to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tesla Ventilator

Tesla/Screenshot via YouTube

Ford and General Motors teamed up with, respectively, GE Healthcare and a ventilators maker called Ventec soon after concerns emerged that an upswelling in COVID-19 patience would exhaust thee limited US supply of ventilators.

Tesla also jumped into the fray, with engineers repurposing auto parts to produce a prototype ventilators that could be quickly manufactured.

Boring Company hats, raising $1 million for Musk's tunneling side project.

Elon Musk.

Business Insider/Dave Smith

Musk got stuck in Los Angeles traffic a few years back and was so incensed that he started a tunneling concern, the Boring Company, to dig tunnels under congested freeways to speed up transit.

The company raised a cool million in 2018 by selling hats. Later, it raised more by selling flamethrowers.

None of this was directly about Tesla, but it continued to brand Musk as a daring, problem-solving, irreverent innovator.

Tesla's market capitalization booms relative to the competition.

Tesla Detroit sales vs market cap

Andy Kiersz/Business Insider

Tesla's best free advertising comes from Wall Street and investors' obsession with the upstart automaker's growth story. Every single trading day is potentially a Tesla promotion.

With a market cap of $150 billion, Tesla is now financially larger than GM, Ford, and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles combined.

Musk dates Grimes, and later they have a baby together and give it an unusual name.

Elon Musk and Grimes, whose real name is Claire Elise Boucher.

Neilson Barnard/Getty

Musk is a weird sort of geek celebrity, but he has been married (twice) to actress Talulah Riley, and more recently he's made headlines for his relationship with musician Grimes. The couple welcomed a son, named "X  A-12," in May, and the birth was widely covered.

All the while, Tesla was restarting its operations in China after a coronavirus shutdown and SpaceX was readying the first launch of astronauts to the International Space Station from American soil since the end of the Space Shuttle program.

Musk was too busy to think about advertising, so he just made news himself.

Musk talks to Joe Rogan and smokes some pot and millions talk about nothing else for days.

Joe Rogan and Elon Musk.

The Joe Rogan Experience/YouTube

Before Joe Rogan inked a $100-million deal with Spotify, he and Elon Musk broke YouTube with two-hours of podcast in which Musk covered a lot of conversational ground and puffed on a large joint.

Not something that Henry Ford probably would have done, but it again bolstered Musk's renegade reputation among his vast fan base, many of whom are also huge Roganites.

Musk's 2015 Sorbonne speech, in which he called for a carbon tax.

Elon Musk in Paris

Screenshot

Somewhat a fading memory now, but in 2015, Musk conjoined Tesla's mission to accelerate humanity's exit from the fossil-fuel era with a pre-Trumpian US commitment to the Paris Climate Agreement.

Musk called for a carbon tax back then, taking Tesla's guiding philosophy and marrying it to the imperative to fight global warming through massive government policy. In typical fashion, Musk showed that he  and Tesla  cared about far more than just selling cars.

But showing that they cared about more than selling cars ... helped Tesla sell a lot more cars. By the end of 2019, it had delivered almost 250,000.

Tesla merges with SolarCity and Musk introduces the Tesla Solar Roof.

Tesla Solar Roof

Screenshot via Tesla

As with the Sorbonne speech, Musk used the 2016 takeover of then-struggling SolarCity  he was chairman, and his cousins had started the company  to extend Tesla's green credentials.

At an event in Los Angeles, Tesla revealed its Solar Roof, a high-end product that combined energy gathering with Tesla's already-existing electric-vehicle and energy-storage businesses.

It followed that if you wanted a Tesla roof, you'd consider a Tesla car and a Tesla battery pack. Synergy!

Musk takes the Steve Jobs presentation to a new level.

Elon Musk presents the new, 2nd-generation Tesla Roadster.

Tesla

Tesla doesn't do Apple-like presentations  it does raucous, rock-concert-like product reveals that put the competition to shame.

Musk is the emcee and ringmaster. He plays the role of 21st-century Thomas Edison to the max, firing up fans and getting the media to broadcast, comment on, and document the whole experience, all for the cost of an open bar and a great light show.

Musk is a real-life superhero.

Elon Musk.

Flickr/jurvetson

Musk was the model for Robert Downey, Jr.'s Tony Stark character in the "Iron Man" movies, so every time the MCU took to the screen and Iron Man was included, Musk and Tesla benefited from reminders that the "real" Tony Stark was hard at work in Silicon Valley and Los Angeles, remaking the world.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Representative image

China announced on Sunday two new confirmed cases of coronavirus and four new asymptomatic cases, including one person without symptoms of COVID-19 on a chartered flight from Germany.

The two confirmed cases in Shandong province on Saturday compared with four cases the day before, data from the country's health authority showed.

The National Health Commission (NHC) confirmed three new asymptomatic cases on Saturday.

On Sunday, the Chinese city of Tianjin confirmed one asymptomatic person, a passenger arriving from Frankfurt on a chartered Lufthansa flight, LH342, to Tianjin. This case was discovered between midnight and 6 a.m. local time on Sunday, the city's daily statements show.

These charter flights are part of an accelerated entry procedure offered by Beijing as China and Germany seek to reignite their economies after months of lockdown. The flight to Tianjin carried about 200 passengers, mostly German business executives.

COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine  one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show

Lufthansa has another charter flight scheduled for Shanghai on Wednesday.

A 34-year-old German engineer tested positive for the coronavirus after arriving in Tianjin but he does not have any symptoms, the Tianjin government said on its official social media platform Weibo.

The asymptomatic patient has been transferred to a local hospital to be placed under medical observation, the Tianjin government said, adding that the whole process was a "closed loop", meaning posing no great risk to the Chinese public.

The number of confirmed cases in the mainland as of May 30 stood at 83,001, data form NHC showed.

With no new deaths reported, the death toll in the country remained at 4,634.
By Ayya Lmahamad

Azerbaijani Ambassador to Russia Polad Bulbuloglu has said that Baku is taking relevant measures to repatriate Azerbaijani citizens stranded at the Russian border amid the closures of borders over COVID-19.

Bulbuloglu made the remarks at an online press conference Russia and Azerbaijan: Horizons of Strategic Cooperation held on May 29.

He reminded that thousands of Azerbaijan citizens are stuck on the land border with Russia.

He also thanked the southern Russian republic of Dagestan that has given temporary shelter to the Azerbaijani citizens on the border.

We are doing our best so that these people could return to their homeland as soon as possible. I would like to take this opportunity at this conference to express my great gratitude to the leadership of Dagestan, the people of Dagestan, who helped our citizens in this difficult situation. We have repeatedly appealed to them [Azerbaijani citizens] to not gather at the border, but they can also be understood. They have lost their jobs, and go there in the hope of crossing the border as quickly as possible. As of mid-March, over 7,500 Azerbaijani citizens have already managed to return to their homeland. After the conversation of Vladimir Putin with Ilham Aliyev, more than 400 people managed to return by the land border in this short period, through Samur [border crossing point]. 175 of our citizens were repatriated by plane. Everything is being done to relieve people of their difficult situation today," Bulbuloglu said.

The problem related to Azerbaijani citizens was raised during the discussion of the epidemiological situation in Dagestan with Russian President Vladimir Putin. This was followed by a telephone conversation between the presidents of Russia and Azerbaijan on May 18, who agreed on a step-by-step passage of citizens across the border.

It should be noted that temporary accommodation center (TAC) were set up in Dagestans Magaramkent region bordering Azerbaijan on May 16, for the Azerbaijani citizens who couldnt return homes.

Azerbaijan has repatriated over 20.000 citizens from Moscow, Istanbul, Kyiv, Minsk, Iran, Tashkent (Uzbekistan), Riga (Latvia), among other countries so far.

Azerbaijan first introduced special quarantine regime on March 24 and the third stage of quarantine regime easing came into force May 18.

As of May 31, Azerbaijan has registered 5.246 COVID-19 cases and 61 coronavirus- related deaths so far. The total number of recovered patients is 3.327.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
Warming events are increasing in magnitude and severity, threatening many ecosystems worldwide. As the global temperatures continue to climb, it also raises uncertainties as to the relationship, prevalence, and spread of parasites and disease.

A recent study from the University of Washington explores the ways parasitism will respond to climate change, providing researchers new insights into disease transmission. The paper was published on May 18 in Trends in Ecology and Evolution.

The review builds upon previous research by adding nearly two decades of new evidence to build a framework showing the parasite-host relationship under climate oscillations.

Traditionally, climate-related research is done over long timescales, however, this unique approach examines how increasingly frequent "pulse warming" events alter parasite transmission.

"Much of what is known about how organisms and ecosystems can respond to climate change has focused on gradual warming," said lead author Danielle Claar, a postdoctoral researcher at the UW School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences.

"Climate change causes not only gradual warming over time, but also increases the frequency and magnitude of extreme events, like heat waves."

Claar explained that both gradual warming and pulse warming can and have influenced ecosystems, but do so in different ways. Organisms may be able to adapt and keep pace with the gradual warming, but an acute pulse event can have sudden and profound impacts.

The 2013-2015 "blob" is one such extreme heat pulse event that has been linked to a massive die-off of sea stars along the Pacific coast of the U.S. and Canada. Many species of sea stars, including the large sunflower sea star, were decimated by a sudden epidemic of wasting disease.

Five years later, populations in the region are still struggling to recover. The abnormally warm waters associated with the blob are thought to have favored the spread of the sea star-associated densovirus, the suggested cause of the disease.

The authors compare the prevalence of these marine diseases to a rising tide, an ebbing tide, or a tsunami. Disease transmission can rise or ebb in concert with gradual warming or a series of pulse warming events.

However, a severe pulse warming event could result in a tsunami, "initiating either a deluge or drought of disease," as was observed with sea stars along the Pacific Northwest.

However, not all pulse heat events will cause the same response. What may benefit a particular parasite or host in one system can be detrimental in another. Warming can alter a parasite's life cycle, limit the range of suitable host species, or even impair the host's immune response.

Some flatworms which target wildlife and humans cannot survive as long in warmer waters, decreasing their window for infecting a host.

Another recent UW study found that parasites commonly found in sushi are on the rise with their numbers increasing 283-fold in the past 40 years, though the relationship between heat pulse events and their abundance is not yet clear.

"The relationships between hosts, parasites, and their corresponding communities are complex and depend on many factors, making outcomes difficult to predict," said Claar, who recommends researchers make predictions on a case-by-case basis for their individual systems.

The authors conclude that rather than a straightforward tidal prediction, they would expect pulse warming to cause "choppy seas with the occasional rogue wave."

It is important that we are able to understand and predict how parasitism and disease might respond to climate change, so we can prepare for, and mitigate, potential impacts to human and wildlife health." Danielle Claar, Lead Author and Postdoctoral Researcher, School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, University of Washington
The 'Pinjra Tod' group, a collective of women students and alumni of colleges from across Delhi, on Sunday condemned the "usage of draconian laws" against its members after two were arrested in connection with violence during anti-CAA protests here in December.

While 'Pinjra Tod' activist and JNU student Natasha Narwal has been booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) under the same FIR as filed against Safoora Zargar, Meeran Haider, Umar Khalid and others, its other member Devangana Kalita booked in connection with violence during the protests in old Delhi's Daryaganj area.

This is the third case under which Kalita has been arrested by the police, of which two are related to northeast Delhi riots.

Condemning Kalita's arrest, the group said, "She has now been taken into police custody at the Daryaganj police station. This reveals the completely misinformed nature of the charges being made against the protesters."

The Daryaganj protest was among the first massive protests against the CAA in Delhi, where 'Pinjra Tod' members, among thousands of others joining the call, were caught in a "brutal lathicharge by Delhi police", the members alleged.

"They released an immediate witness account of the situation documenting the peaceful nature of the protest and the unprovoked brutal lathicharge on the same by the police and even got MLCs registered for the same. Apart from herself suffering injuries in the police lathi charge, it is important to note that the 16 other people accused in the Daryaganj FIR have all got bail," they said.

The police have shown a "total inability to produce evidence of involvement in violence".

"The use of draconian laws such as the UAPA, and their invocation against democratic activists is a clear abuse of the powers vested in the state," the activists said.

"We condemn the strategy being used by the police of invoking new and unsubstantiated charges on Devangana and Natasha as per the convenience of their narrative and without any basis," they said.
The Democratic mayors of major American cities are lighting into Donald Trump for his controversial tweets and statements surrounding the nationwide protests of the police killing of an unarmed black man in Minneapolis last week.

"He's making it worse," Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said on CBS' "Face the Nation" on Sunday.

"This is not about using military force. This is about where we are in America. We are beyond a tipping point in this country, and his rhetoric only inflames that, and he should sometimes just stop talking," Ms Bottoms said, responding to a tweet by the president over the weekend urging "Liberal Governors and Mayors" to get "MUCH tougher" or the feds would begin using "the unlimited power of our Military."

Mr Floyd, 46, died on 25 May after a Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin, knelt on his neck for several minutes even though Mr Floyd did not have a weapon and complained he couldn't breathe.

Mr Chauvin has been arrested on Friday and charged with third-degree murder.

The ensuing protests against police brutality over the last several days in Minneapolis and other major US cities such as Atlanta, Brooklyn, Washington DC, and Chicago have led to heated confrontations between demonstrators and law enforcement, some of which have broken out into small pockets of violence. There were several instances of looting, vandalism, and arson of entire buildings over the weekend.

Thousands of Americans in cities all across the country were hit with pepper spray, tear gas, or police batons over the weekend. Local journalists have been fired upon with rubber bullets, and a CNN reporter and his production crew were arrested in Minneapolis on Friday for shooting live film in a part of the city that the Minnesota state patrol was trying to block off to the public. Some protesters gathered outside CNN headquarters in Atlanta, with some breaking its glass windows and tagging profanities with spray paint.

Mr Trump's initial response to the protests antagonised people who have turned them violent. The president fired off a series of tweets with racially coded language that also threatened to unleash federally-sanctioned violence on protesters. Twitter has flagged the tweets as violating the app's rules because they are "glorifying violence."

"These THUGS are dishonouring the memory of George Floyd, and I wont let that happen," Mr Trump tweeted. The president said he had spoken with Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and offered military assistance should the state need it.

"Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!" the president capped his tweet.

Ms Bottoms, who issued an impassioned plea on Friday for people not to stop looting and vandalising buildings and stores in Atlanta, is hardly the only Democratic mayor to take aim at Mr Trump over his recent statements on the protests arising over the death last week of George Floyd, 46.

DC Mayor Muriel Bowser, whom Mr Trump singled out for criticism in a series of tweets on Saturday, has lamented the president's response to the protests.

I think that the president has a responsibility to help calm the nation, and he can start by not sending divisive tweets that are meant to hearken to the segregationist past of our country, Ms Bowser said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

Ms Bowser often shies away from directly criticising the president, who has sizeable input into the district's budget as the executive of the federal government.

But Mr Trump tweeted on Saturday that Ms Bowser "is always looking for money & help" and "wouldnt let the D.C. Police get involved" to keep protesters in check at demonstrations at the White House.

That apparently pushed the DC mayor over the edge, compelling her to respond with fiery tweets of her own.

"I call upon our city and our nation to exercise great restraint even while this President continues to try to divide us," Ms Bowser tweeted.

"While he hides behind his fence afraid/alone, I stand w/ people peacefully exercising their First Amendment Right after the murder of #GeorgeFloyd & hundreds of years of institutional racism," she wrote, adding that Mr Trump is "just a scared man."

In Chicago, Mayor Lori Lightfoot had choice words for the president, telling reporters that his goal is to "polarise and destabilise local government and to inflame racists' urges. And we can absolutlely not let him prevail.

Ms Lightfoot, like Ms Bottoms and Ms Bowser, is a black woman who leads a major metropolitan area with numerous historically black neighbourhoods and institutions.

"I will code what I really want to say to Donald Trump... It's two words. It begins with 'f,' and it ends with 'you,'" Ms Lightfoot said.
An off-duty NYPD officer killed herself with a bullet to the head in her Bronx apartment, authorities say.

The 39-year-old officer, who worked in East Harlem's 23rd Precinct, was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound just before 2am, the NYPD confirmed to DailyMail.com.

Sources said the officer was found by her girlfriend, a fellow cop in the same precinct, in the living room of the home they shared in the Throg's Neck neighborhood of the Bronx.

The New York Post reported that the officer left behind a note that mentioned problems with her relationship.

Neither the officer killed nor her partner were named.

An off-duty NYPD officer was reportedly found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot to the head early Sunday in the Bronx apartment she shared with her cop girlfriend. Both officers worked at East Harlem's 23rd Precinct (pictured), according to police sources

The apparent suicide comes as New York City is rocked by protests over police brutality. Officers are seen patrolling the streets in Brooklyn on Saturday night

The apparent suicide comes as New York City is rocked by protests over the death of George Floyd, a black man who died when a white Minneapolis cop knelt on his neck for over eight minutes last week.

Largely peaceful protests around the city on Saturday gave way to scattered clashes between police and protesters later in the evening.

Demonstrators smashed shop windows, threw objects at officers, set police vehicles on fire and blocked roads.

There were multiple complaints about police unnecessarily shoving or bludgeoning protesters and spraying crowds with chemicals.

New York City police said 345 people were arrested, 33 officers were injured and 27 police vehicles were damaged or destroyed by fire. There were no major injuries reported.

Largely peaceful protests around the city on Saturday gave way to scattered clashes between police and protesters later in the evening

New York City police said 345 people were arrested, 33 officers were injured and 27 police vehicles were damaged or destroyed by fire on Saturday

Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said some peaceful demonstrations were 'hijacked' by people with violent intent.

'We're going to make sure that everyone has the right to peacefully protest and assemble,' Shea said said at a briefing with the mayor.

'But we are not going to tolerate destruction of property, having our officers put into harm's way or any civilians put into harm's way.'

At his daily coronavirus briefing on Sunday, Governor Andrew Cuomo said the National Guard is on standby in New York City, Buffalo and Rochester, where hundreds of people gathered to help clean up damage from protests the night before.

'We expect additional protests tonight and we're preparing for such,' Cuomo said.

The governor also said state Attorney General Letitia James' investigation into actions by NYPD officers and protesters will include any protests held throughout the weekend.
Here are todays top news, analysis and opinion at 9 PM. Know all about the latest news and other news updates from Hindustan Times.

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Dhankhar seeks meeting with Press Club Kolkata to discuss move to curb press freedom

In yet another unprecedented move, Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankhar has sought an interaction with members of the Press Club, Kolkata, to discuss the alleged curtailing of press freedom by the Mamata Banerjee-led government in the state. Read more

Delhi records highest one-day spike of 1,295 Covid-19 cases, tally past 19k

Delhi on Sunday recorded its highest single-day spike of 1,295 Covid-19 cases, taking its overall count of coronavirus infections to over 19,000. Read more

World No Tobacco Day 2020: 8 effective ways to kick the butt, live healthy

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This app claims to delete all Chinese apps on your phone

Tension along the Indo-China border has been escalating in the past couple of weeks. Even as the two countries take the diplomatic route to end border brawl, they keep strengthening their military might along the LAC in eastern Ladakh. Amid the present circumstances, a Jaipur-based tech startup has launched an app that is aimed at helping users delete Chinese apps from their smartphones. Read more

Rohit Sharma honoured and humbled for Khel Ratna nomination

India batsman Rohit Sharma, who on Saturday was nominated for the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award, expressed his gratitude for being shortlisted for the honour by the BCCI. Read more

Bihar residents offer food to people on Mizoram-bound train, Mizoram Chief Minister Zoramthanga tweets video

Just three days after tweeting a heartwarming video of passengers onboard a special Mizoram-bound train giving away their food to Assam floods victims, Mizoram Chief Minister Zoramthanga shared another clip detailing a similar situation. And now many are suggesting that it shows the true spirit of India. Read more

Covid: UP govt planning new tax? Watch CM Yogi Adityanaths message

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister announced details of lockdown relaxations in the state from June 1, 2020. Yogi Adityanaths announcements were largely in line with the Central governments guidelines issued a day earlier. He ruled out the possibility of additional taxes, claiming that his administration was focused on giving concessions to the people. He also spoke against large public gatherings in the near future, stating that Covid-19 pandemic can be defeated if the administration continues to work in a united fashion. Watch the full video for more.

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Details added (first version posted on 18:27)

BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 13

By Elchin Mehdiyev - Trend:

Today, one of the important issues is the return of Azerbaijani citizens staying abroad to Azerbaijan, Spokesperson for the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry Leyla Abdullayeva said.

Abdullayeva made the remark at the briefing in the Operational Headquarters under the Cabinet of Ministers of Azerbaijan, Trend reports on May 13.

Presently, Azerbaijani citizens from about 60 countries want to come back, the spokesperson said. Despite the suspension of international flights, Azerbaijan continues to return its citizens via special charter flights.

"The citizens staying abroad are being evacuated upon the instructions of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and First Vice President Mehriban Aliyeva, the spokesperson said. For this purpose, Operational Headquarters has been created under the Foreign Ministry. At the first stage, the ministry receives the operative information from the representatives of the embassies and diplomatic services.

So far, about 20,000 Azerbaijani citizens have been returned to Azerbaijan, the spokesperson said. The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry receives phone calls from the citizens living abroad and their relatives. From May 1 up till now, the Foreign Ministry received 664 phone calls via hotline and the ministry still receives the phone calls. Both the Foreign Ministry and the diplomatic corps received phone calls. We urge citizens staying abroad to comply with the rules of the quarantine regime in those countries."

During the evacuation, preference is given to old women, minors and those who have health problems, the spokesperson said.

"Presently, Azerbaijani citizens from about 60 countries want to return to Azerbaijan, the spokesperson said. Along with those in Russia, Turkey and European countries, there is one citizen in China, as well as citizens South African Republic and other distant countries. Their appeals are also in the spotlight. The work is underway."
The PS5 will offer backwards compatibility for PS2, PS3, and PS4 games according to a PlayStation 5 page recently published by a large Turkish retailer. PlayStation 5 owners will apparently be able to utilize the next-gen consoles Blu-ray drive to play the older titles.

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A PlayStation 5 page published by a Turkish retailer called Hepsiburada has led to a flurry of speculation thanks to its content in regard to backwards compatibility. Once translated into English, the details reveal that the PS5 will supposedly be able to play all PS2, PS3, and PS4 games, which would be an incredible selling point for the next-gen console if true.

There is the possibility that Hepsiburada has simply misprinted the details in a similar manner to that of the recent leak concerning the PS5s launch date that was presumed to be revealed by a Japanese job listing. The large e-commerce firm claims to be the Turkish equivalent of Amazon, offering over 500,000 products on its website pages.

At the moment, its not even confirmed how many PS4 games will run on the PS5, so to say all PS2, PS3, and PS4 titles will work on the upcoming console seems to be something of a stretch, although it is possible some details got lost in translation. Microsoft has recently stated that the Xbox Series X will be the most compatible console ever" and Sony has not offered up any hints that refute that claim at the moment.

Full backwards compatibility, all the way back to the PS1, could seem like a pipe dream to most PS5 fans at the moment. Its possible that Sony might be holding an ace up its sleeve in regard to PS5 backwards compatibility, but there are still the more important matters of price and design to be revealed yet.

Sale off - Buy NexiGo 2020 Playstation 4 now on Amazon
Breccia, a company linked to businessman Larry Goodman, is understood to be seeking legal costs of up to 5m following its marathon High Court litigation with Dr Joseph Sheehan, a co-founder of Dublin's Blackrock Clinic.

The case, initiated in 2014, concerned the ultimate control of the clinic. Goodman secured majority control of Blackrock Clinic earlier this year after acquiring Dr Sheehan's 28pc stake from a receiver.

Last week, Mr Justice Michael Quinn dismissed several claims made by Dr Sheehan. They included that Breccia had conspired with another clinic co-founder, Dr George Duffy, and others to damage Dr Sheehan's interests regarding his acquisition of loans made to buy shares in the clinic.

The judge refused to grant declarations that Breccia was not entitled to acquire the relevant loans and guarantee. Quinn granted a counter-claim by Breccia for judgment for around 19m against Dr Sheehan.

The total 19m amount comprises some 17.5m, plus some 1.5m interest, due on loans made by Anglo Irish Bank in 2006 to acquire shares in Blackrock Hospital Ltd, which owns the share capital of Blackrock Clinic Ltd.

Anglo also made loans to Dr Duffy, which were used to acquire shares in Blackrock Hospital Ltd.

After Anglo's takeover by IBRC, the loans were sold to Breccia, which also bought shares in Blackrock Hospital Limited

According to sources, Breccia incurred legal fees of around 5m, and it is understood it will be seeking these costs from Dr Sheehan, although this will have to be adjudicated. It is understood Breccia is confident of securing the sum.

Breccia declined to comment on the legal costs. A spokeswoman for the Goodman-linked company said: "We welcome the recent decision of the High Court which found there to be no basis or substance whatsoever to Joseph Sheehan's allegations of conspiracy and wrongdoing against Breccia and its co-defendants Blackrock Clinic and Dr. George Duffy."

It is further understood the Blackrock Clinic is claiming $1.6m in legal costs arising from the case. Dr Sheehan's Chapter 11 petition, filed with the Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois on March 12 , includes a disputed claim for this amount from the Blackrock Clinic.

It also included a disputed claim for just over $2.5m from Dublin-based law firm Shannon & O'Connor. Chapter 11 is similar to Ireland's examinership regime and is a form of bankruptcy which involves the reorganisation of a debtor's business affairs, debts and assets.

A representative for Dr Sheehan said he intends to appeal the decision. He said that Dr Sheehan believes he is owed legal fees for certain parts of the lengthy proceedings. He added that Dr Sheehan does not believe that he should pay any of Breccia's costs until the appeal is determined. Dr Sheehan co-founded the hospital in 1986 with his brother Dr James Sheehan, surgeon Maurice Neligan and Dr George Duffy.
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Paris Jackson joined a Black Lives Matter protest in Los Angeles on Saturday.

Jackson was one of many stars to join in nationwide protests yesterday in response to the death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old unarmed black man who was killed on Monday by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. After arresting Floyd, Chauvin knelt on Floyds neck for nearly 8 minutes. A video tape of the incident has sparked nationwide mourning and reignited the ongoing conversation regarding racial inequality in the United States. Yesterday, protests occurred from coast to coast, as individuals in major cities like Los Angeles, Chicago and New York banded together against racial injustice. Although protests were primarily of a peaceful nature, there were also reports of some instances of violence, both by police officers and by protesters. Additionally, there was some looting that occurred in cities across the country.

More from Footwear News

A growing list of brands and retailers  such as Nike, Reebok and Nordstrom  have also condemned racism in the wake of growing national unrest. Some companies, such as Fila and Puma, have committed to putting their dollars toward fighting racial injustice as well. Whats more, numerous designers are taking a stance against inequality, among them Marc Jacobs, Tommy Hilfiger and Paul Andrew.

Launch Gallery: Los Angeles Stores Looted Amid Unrest Across the U.S.

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Another water safety warning has been issued after two girls were rescued after getting into difficulty while swimming in the River Lee.

The girls were among a large group of teens who had gathered in the Regional Park in Ballincollig, west of Cork city, on Saturday afternoon as temperatures soared.

Several went swimming close to the parks weir but the alarm was raised when two of the girls got into difficulty.

Onlookers threw a lifebuoy into the water as a local teenage boy with lifesaving skills went into the water to help them.

Emergency services were also alerted but the girls were brought to safety.

Both were taken to hospital for observation. They are expected to make a full recovery.

The incident has prompted a water safety from Cork City Council, which manages the park, urging people not to swim in the river at this location.

A spokesman said no swimming signs have been erected at this location for several years because the area can experience treacherous currents at any time.

It is particularly prone to fast-flows and dangerous currents if the ESB discharges water from its hydroelectric dam at Inniscarra a few kilometres upstream.

Locals familiar with the river said when such dam discharges occur, vast volumes of fast-flowing water can arrive at the weir area of the Regional Park minutes later without warning, catching people unaware.

There was another near miss on Wednesday when a teenage girl crossing the river got into difficulty.
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New York (United Nations) 26 May 2020 (SPS)- Polisario Fronts Representative to the UN, Dr Sidi M. Omar, issued a statement on the occasion of the Annual Decolonization Week, which also coincides with the Africa Day, May 25, recalling the UN pending mission of decolonisation of the occupied parts of Western Sahara, still under Moroccan illegal occupation.

The Sahrawi diplomat further stressed the responsibility of Spain, as Western Saharas administrating force under international law, even if it abandoned its responsibilities of completing the decolonization of the occupied parts of Western Sahara.

Following is the full text of the statement of which SPS received a copy:

The Decolonisation of Western Sahara: The UN Pending Mission

The UN observes these days the Week of Solidarity with the Peoples of Non-Self-Governing Territories in accordance with General Assembly resolution 54/91 of 6 December 1999, by which the General Assembly decided to observe annually the Week of Solidarity with the Peoples of Non-Self-Governing Territories, beginning on 25 May. The General Assembly also affirmed once again that the existence of colonialism in any form or manifestation is incompatible with the UN Charter, the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

On 14 December 1960, the General Assembly adopted resolution 1514 (XV) containing the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples in which it solemnly proclaimed the necessity of bringing to a speedy and unconditional end colonialism in all its forms and manifestations.

To this end, the General Assembly declared a set of principles including the need for immediate steps to be taken to enable the peoples of Non-Self-Governing Territories to enjoy complete independence and freedom (OP 5). Western Sahara, of which parts are now under illegal occupation by the Kingdom of Morocco, remains one of the 17 Non-Self-Governing Territories since the inclusion of the Territory (known then as the Spanish Sahara) on the list of territories to which General Assembly resolution 1514 (XV) was applicable.

The list was elaborated and adopted by the Special Committee on the Situation with regard to the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples in 1963 and approved by the General Assembly in the same year. The inclusion of Western Sahara on the list of Non-Self-Governing Territories was an international recognition of the inalienable right of the Sahrawi people to self-determination and independence and the responsibility of the United Nations with respect to the Territory and its people.

It also implied the need to end colonialism in the Territory in line with General Assembly resolution 1514 (XV), a process for which responsibility was entrusted to the then administering power, Spain, in cooperation with the United Nations in line with Chapter XI of the UN Charter.

In this context, since the adoption of its resolution 2072 (XX), the General Assembly kept calling on Spain, as the administering power of Western Sahara, to take all necessary measures to decolonise the Territory.

Spain however did not fulfil its obligations as an administering power in Western Sahara nor its sacred trust regarding the Sahrawi people. Rather, it signed a tripartite agreement with Morocco and Mauritania on 14 November 1975.

Spain also declared, on 26 February 1976, that it considered itself henceforth exempt from any responsibility of an international nature in connection with the administration of Western Sahara and then withdrew from the Territory. The fact remains, however, that both Madrid Agreement, which is null and void, and Spains declaration of exempting itself from its responsibility regarding Western Sahara have not altered or affected the legal status of Western Sahara as a Non-Self-Governing Territory.

The UN General Assembly, which has exclusive competence on matters related to Non-Self-Governing Territories, has never taken any decision that officially absolves Spain of its responsibility regarding Western Sahara.

Furthermore, the Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs and the UN Legal Counsel affirmed, in his legal opinion issued at the request of the Security Council on 29 January 2002, that:

The Madrid Agreement did not transfer sovereignty over the territory, nor did it confer upon any of the signatories the status of an administering Power - a status which Spain alone could not have unilaterally transferred. The transfer of administrative authority over the territory to Morocco and Mauritania in 1975, did not affect the international status of Western Sahara as Non-Self-Governing Territory (paragraph 6)

In view of the above, two fundamental facts stand out: first, the decolonisation of Western Sahara has not yet been completed and Spain is still the de jure administering power of the Territory as confirmed by the ruling of the Spanish National Court of 4 July 2014, which established that Spain de jure, although not de facto, remains the Administering Power, and as such, until the end of the decolonisation period, it has the obligations set forth in articles 73 and 74 of the UN Charter (paragraph d); second, Morocco remains an occupying power of parts of Western Sahara, as confirmed by the General Assembly in its resolutions 34/37 of 21 November 1979 and 35/19 of 11 November 1980, in which the General Assembly urged Morocco to terminate its occupation of Western Sahara.

In addition to the Articles of the UN Charter and General Assembly and Security Council resolutions related to self-determination, the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Western Sahara of 1975 is a key reference for the legal foundation of the right to self-determination as an inalienable and peremptory right under international law.

With regard to the issue of Western Sahara, it is worth noting that the ICJ affirmed, in its advisory opinion, two fundamental facts: first, Western Sahara was not a land belonging to no one (terra nullius) at the time of Spanish colonisation because it was inhabited by peoples having their own social and political organisation (paragraph 81) and it was in these peoples together that sovereignty over the Territory was invested; second, there was no tie of territorial sovereignty between the Territory of Western Sahara and the Kingdom of Morocco or the Mauritanian entity (paragraph 162).

Thus, based on these two facts, the ICJ inferred its logical conclusion, which encapsulates its answer to the two questions that were presented to it, to the effect that the Court has not found legal ties of such a nature as might affect the application of resolution 1514 (XV) in the decolonisation of Western Sahara and, in particular, of the principle of self-determination through the free and genuine expression of the will of the peoples of the Territory (paragraph 162).

The ruling of the ICJ, which is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, has unambiguously laid down the two legal foundations on which the decolonisation of Western Sahara should proceed; first, sovereignty over Western Sahara is vested in the Sahrawi people; second, as a result, only the Sahrawi people have the right to decide, through the free and genuine expression of their will, the status of Western Sahara in accordance with General Assembly resolution 1514 (XV) and other resolutions relevant to decolonisation.

It is worth noting that the ICJ affirmed that the expression of the will of the Sahrawi people must be free and genuine. This means that the expression must be carried out without any foreign interference of any kind and that it should be done directly by the Sahrawi people through the internationally established democratic processes.

As we observe these days the Week of Solidarity with the Peoples of Non-Self-Governing Territories, we recall the speech delivered by the UN Secretary-General, Mr Antonio Guterres, at the opening of the organisational meeting of the UN Committee on Decolonisation (C-24) on 21 February 2019, when he said that decolonisation is one of the most significant chapters of the Organisations history. But this story is still being written, as 17 Non-Self-Governing Territories remain.

The Sahrawi people are still waiting patiently and resolutely for the United Nations to accomplish its pending mission in Western Sahara by taking the necessary, immediate measures to enable our people to enjoy complete independence and freedom, so that Africa could close one of the most hideous and brutal chapters of the history of our continent.

Dr. Sidi M. Omar

Polisario Front Representative to the UN

26 May 2020." (SPS)

090/500/60 (SPS)
Gray skies are gonna clear up

Put on a happy face

Brush off the clouds and cheer up

Put on a happy face.

After months of depressing news and deep sacrifices, the lyrics introduced in the early 1960s musical Bye Bye Birdie finally seem appropriate. New Mexicans appear to have turned the corner on the coronavirus pandemic, and shutdown orders are being reduced. There is still concern about later spikes, but that truly will depend on us and how safely we venture out into public.

After all, those relaxed restrictions that kick in Monday are because of weeks of personal sacrifices by many New Mexicans. New Mexico Human Services Secretary David Scrase says we have succeeded in reducing the virus spread rate to 1.09, meaning each person who is sick infects, on average, 1.09 others. The goal is to get the number below 1, he said, meaning the virus starts to die out.

In COVID-19 lingo, it means the curve has been flattened! For now. And thats reason to celebrate.

A revised public health order going into effect Monday allows restaurants, gyms, salons and malls to reopen at partial capacity. For the first time in more than two and a half months, New Mexicans will be able to get a haircut from someone other than a brother-in-law with a shears and salad bowl or a Flowbee. During a news conference Thursday, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced the partial reopenings and emphasized its critical people continue to wear cloth masks while out in public  a step that will help keep employees and customers safe, especially from asymptomatic carriers.

Under the new order, restaurants statewide will be able to operate at 50% capacity for dine-in services but cant serve at a bar or countertop, presumably because of proximity concerns. (Its unclear why the order allowing patio dining excludes breweries.) Gyms can also reopen at half capacity, while hair and nail salons, barbershops, tattoo shops, massage services and indoor malls can operate at 25%, in some cases by appointment only. Like your bangs, thats a long way from where we were in March. Meanwhile, retail stores will remain under a restriction requiring them to meter or limit the number of customers and employees inside at any time.

Drive-in theaters will be allowed to fully reopen, although were not sure why they were ever closed. Hotels can book more rooms, and a 14-day self-quarantine order for airport arrivals will be amended to permit some business travelers to come and go more easily. More state parks are reopening, some with capacity limits. Bars and theaters remain closed, but the governor says she hopes to gradually relax more business restrictions in June.

In short, the long-awaited reopening is starting. Business owners are eager even with the restrictions, and the initial response last week to permitted patio dining indicates customers are hungry to spend money  money our state and local governments desperately need spent to generate taxes after months of a near economic shutdown.

And its all possible because the majority of New Mexicans took the administrations caution and guidance to heart, limiting community spread, preserving medical equipment and ICU beds, and saving lives.

The good news spreads into the Navajo Nation, one of the hardest hit regions in the nation, which has seen COVID-19 hospitalizations steadily decline since April 26. Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez credits tribal members cooperation with lockdowns and public health orders as factors in the decline of COVID-19 hospitalizations.

If theres a silver lining here, its the world can no longer plead ignorance to the poverty; the lack of running water, electricity and broadband connectivity in many homes; and the shortage of funding for health care on Native lands. Those issues should not be allowed to recede into the shadows as this virus recedes.

On the fiscal front, both Lujan Grisham and the Legislatures leading voice on budgetary issues, Sen. John Arthur Smith, D-Deming, have said that $1.9 billion of state cash reserves and roughly $1.1 billion of federal stimulus funds could alleviate the need for deep spending cuts during next months special session. While Smith expressed concerns about the outlook for future years given the double whammy of pandemic closures and a drastic collapse in oil prices, both he and the governor said budget cuts for coming years wouldnt be too painful if the federal government gives the state flexibility to spend stimulus funds.

The pandemic has also shined a light on the generosity and strength of our fellow New Mexicans  people like mother of three Buffy Mayerstein, a 35-year-old registered nurse at Lovelace Medical Center who has tended to COVID-19 patients nearly every day since the pandemic began. Im spending all this time caring for everyone elses families and not my own, Mayerstein told the Journals Anthony Jackson, who spent much of a week shadowing her. I have to still be responsible for other peoples lives before I go home  and I dont have very much left to give.

Then there was the Journals May 11 story about Christina Salas, an assistant professor of the Department of Orthopedics and Rehabilitation at the University of New Mexico, and Laura Kief Shaffer, a flight nurse for CSI Aviation, who answered a plea from the Navajo Nation for donated masks, face shield parts and nasal swabs.

And the May 17 column from UNM medical student Baillie Bronner, who reached out to the dean of Medical Student Affairs to start a childcare program for front-line providers without caretakers for their kids. The initiative blossomed into students staffing four COVID-19 hotlines, collecting PPE, creating educational materials and getting groceries to those who were unable to get them themselves.

Their inspiring stories and so many more are true rays of sunshine in this dark pandemic.

While reopenings are lifting spirits and putting people back to work, the governor is right that efforts must continue to combat the virus. Social distancing, mask-wearing and hand-washing are more important than ever as we begin to venture out. Public health officials say infection hot spots can be curtailed by continued efforts, so again containing the virus is literally in our own hands. More than 300 New Mexicans have died from complications from COVID-19, and as the clouds appear to be parting, the best way we can honor their losses is to prevent more.

This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers.
A civil servant who was awarded 250,000 after winning a legal dispute after being branded racist has said she was on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

Anne Giwa-Amu, 59, was bullied by colleagues at the Department for Work and Pensions after she said it always rains in Wales.

Ms Giwa-Amu, who is mixed Nigerian and Welsh, joined the department as a full-time administrative officer in Caerphilly in 2017.

She won a won a race and age discrimination case this week after co-worker Daisy Cartwright abused her, and said she wants to leave home to escape more bigotry.

Anne Giwa-Amu, pictured, won her race discrimination case after being mocked for her daily 'weather reports', accused of stealing ice cream and criticised by colleagues for complaining about the cold, wet weather

Ms Giwa-Amu said she was 'targeted' as the only non-white recruit and trainee over the age of 50 in her team.

She said: 'For me to be targeted because of the colour of my skin was quite a shock.

'There's a lot of ignorance about people of colour and it's assumed they've come from somewhere else.

'I'm Welsh and my mother is Welsh, my mother lives here and my grandparents are from here and as far as I'm concerned I've got every right to be here.

'But I would like to move away,' she told The Mirror.

An employment tribunal held in Cardiff found she suffered 'deliberate and humiliating harassment' and that other staff had deliberately created a 'hostile environment'.

Daisy Cartwright, who was also a newly appointed administrative officer, told Ms Giwa-Amu - who graduated from the London School of Economics - that it was 'racist' to say it always rained in Wales.

She attacked Ms Giwa-Amu for always moaning about the weather and whenever she mentioned it would mock her by saying '[Anne] is giving her usual weather report.'

The tribunal heard Ms Giwa-Amu felt Ms Cartwright was trivialising discrimination by calling her 'racist' for moaning about the weather.

In front of colleagues, Ms Cartwright also repeatedly accused the her of stealing ice-cream.

During her time at the DWP office in Caerphilly, pictured, the 59-year-old, a qualified solicitor, was the only non-white recruit and the only trainee over the age of 50 in her team

The tribunal found that while this might have started as a joke, Ms Cartwright carried on 'bullying' Ms Giwa-Amu even after others asked her to stop.

In other peculiar antics, Ms Cartwright sprayed deodorant near Ms Giwa-Amu, knowing she hated it, and span around on a chair while sat next to her to try to make her feel sick.

Another co-worker, Robert Lewis, 'humiliated' Ms Giwa-Amu, described as a 'quiet individual', after he accidentally touched her bottom.

He said, in front of a large group: 'I touched [Anne]'s bum. I touched her bum.'

Ms Giwa-Amu said the experience was 'horrible' and felt Mr Lewis was laughing about how 'unpleasant' it was to have touched her.

The tribunal found senior staff breached her confidence after she reported feeling 'bullied' by Ms Cartwright over her appearance.

Ms Giwa-Amu went on sick leave in March 2017 and was unlawfully dismissed in October that year for being unable to return to work.

She had been living on just 55 a week and had no money for food after her final pay cheque from the DWP was withheld.

Mr Lewis continues to be employed as an administrative officer at the Caerphilly Office while Ms Cartwright was promoted to a job in another part of the civil service.

After the ruling in November, a corrected judgement was made on Wednesday, which states that the DWP must pay 243,635 in compensation.

The tribunal concluded: 'Ms Cartwright's and Mr Lewis's acts were undertaken in an insulting way deliberately intended to humiliate the claimant and create a hostile environment for her.'
In a different age, about three months ago, 20 bucks could buy you up to four sets of music at Smalls, the pulsing Greenwich Village basement club celebrated for crowd-pleasing, unfussy jazz. Squeeze into the front row and youd be close enough to the musicians to sweat on one other. Buy a drink and you were welcome to stick around for a 1 a.m. jam session featuring brash up-and-comers  and maybe guest turns by established stars. That cover charge, and a willingness to pack yourself in, also bought access to the intimate Mezzrow, Smallss sister club, just across Seventh Avenue South.

Smalls and Mezzrow havent been packed in the last 12 weeks, of course. The clubs shuttered after performances on March 15, and their owner, Spike Wilner, said that even before the mandated shutdown, the crowds had diminished and musicians had been canceling gigs.

But theres a funny thing about jazz: It keeps roaring back to life. Live music returns to Smalls on June 1, in a socially distant way, thanks to Mr. Wilners persistence, the clubs shift into full nonprofit mode and a windfall from a celebrity benefactor  a $25,000 donation to the SmallsLIVE Foundation from Billy Joel.

That gift was such a positive vibe at a time when things were really dark, Mr. Wilner said last week. The impact of the virus has been devastating on the jazz community.
New Delhi: Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Sunday (May 31) that a low-pressure area is formed over Arabian sea and Lakshadweep today which is likely to intensify further into a cyclonic storm and reach coastal states of Maharashtra and Gujarat next week.

According to the weatherman, the deep depression is likely to move nearly northwards and reach near north Maharashtra and Gujarat coasts by June 3. It warned that sea condition will be very rough for the next few days and warned fishermen to not venture into the sea till June 4.

It forecast heavy to very heavy rainfall over south coastal Maharashtra for June 2-4, on the north coast on June 2-3 and in Gujarat, Daman and Diu and Dadar and Nagar Haveli on June 3-5. The IMD stated that under the influence of likely formation of a low-pressure system over the Arabian Sea, conditions will become favourable from June 1 for the onset of monsoon over Kerala.

The weather forecast agency use low-pressure area and depression as first two levels among its eight-category scale to classify cyclones based on their intensity.

Sunitha Devi, in charge of cyclones at IMD, said, "A low-pressure area has formed over the southeast and adjoining east-central Arabian Sea and Lakshadweep area. It is very likely to concentrate into a depression during the next 24 hours and intensify further into a cyclonic storm during the subsequent 24 hours."

As per IMD, monsoon will arrive in Kerala on June 1 and in Maharashtra on June 8 this year.

IANS quoted Kuldeep Srivastava, the head of IMD's Regional Weather Forecasting Centre saying that the formation of a low-pressure system in Arabian sea and its movement towards Gujarat coast will bring moisture to Delhi-NCR and North-West India from June 3.

Two storms are forming over the Arabian Sea, one lies off the African coast and is likely to move over Oman and Yemen, while the other is placed close to India.

The development comes almost 10 days after Amphan pummeled several districts of Bengal and Odisha in the fiercest cyclone in the region in a century. As many as 91 people were dead and almost ten million were rendered homeless.
Minneapolis: At least 25 cities in the United States are under curfew as tense protests across the country threaten to turn violent after the death of George Floyd and other police killings of black men.

Police cars were set ablaze, windows were smashed and stores have been ransacked in the protests, which began in Minneapolis following Mr Floyd's death on Monday when a police officer pressed a knee on his neck for more than eight minutes. The unrest has since become a national phenomenon as protesters decry years of deaths at police hands.

Racially diverse crowds took to the streets again on Saturday (Sunday AEST) for mostly peaceful demonstrations around the country, though some again descended into violence.

Dozens of cities went under curfew on Saturday night as government officials questioned whether "outsiders" were wreaking havoc to undermine the protests or stoke unrest - but offered little evidence to back up those claims.
GODFREY  Daycare centers and other child care services are reopening as Gov. J.B. Pritzkers Restore Illinois plan enters Phase 3.

Under this and the plans Phase 4, daycare centers will be allowed to open at a limited capacity for the first four weeks, then some restrictions will be lifted. The restrictions are as follows:

 For the first four weeks of operation, centers must operate with reduced group sizes.

 Limited per room to serving eight infants, 10 children in all other age groups.

 Emergency daycare centers licensed with an emergency license during the plans phases 1 and 2, which have been open for at least four weeks, have already met this requirement.

Before expanding enrollment, programs must:

 Review Reopening Plan with its Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) licensing representative.

 Have at least 50 square feet per child age 2 and older.

 Add a minimum of 4 square feet  beyond regular licensing requirements  of sleeping space per child for infants and toddlers to ensure cribs and cots can be placed 6 feet apart.

Initially during phases 1 and 2, any child care service must have had an emergency license obtained from the DCFS and was only available to children of essential workers. Additionally, under the emergency license, services could only provide care for families who were full-time attendees at a day care.

Some child care providers find these restrictions unrealistic.

Shannon Knight, owner of Little Knights Inc., and Patricia Dooley, director and owner of Bright Tomorrows Learning Center Inc., both in Godfrey, said that they each might lose their businesses under Restore Illinois Phase 3.

These guidelines are not realistic, and are not good for helping these kids, Knight said. Young kids need that social interaction.

Both owners applied for emergency licenses during the first phases, but each were open for fewer than four weeks, missing the eligibility to enter expanded enrollment. Knight said that because of the size of her center, she only will be allowed seven to eight children per room.

It puts the parents in a tough spot, Knight said.

In addition to these restrictions, daycare centers teachers and children are required to wear face covering and shoe covering, or bring a pair of shoes into which they can change.

I have teachers who have had panic attacks trying to wear a face mask, including myself, Knight said. Try keeping a face mask on a 2 year old  that isnt happening. They take it right off or they cry. Some children or scared of them.

Dooley also expressed concern for her business. She said that she will be losing eight families under the restrictions of the current order.

If this remains in place, I will end up losing my business and all my families, she said.

Both women said that they have been fighting these restrictions by spreading the word to the public and calling state representative to try and change the governors mind.

This is my dream job, Knight said. To have it be taken away, is devastating.

Everything is at risk, Dooley said. Im in a fight to the end for my kids and my family.
Stores selling non-essential items in England will be allowed to reopen from mid-June (SWNS)

All the latest coronavirus news and updates. (Yahoo UK)

Following the announcement by Boris Johnson earlier this week, high streets across England will be safely welcoming back shoppers from the middle of June.

The government has stated that businesses selling non-essential items - including fashion, betting and charity shops - can reopen from June 15th, with outdoor markets and car show rooms allowed to receive customers from tomorrow, June 1st.

Many retailers have been closed for ten weeks, when the coronavirus pandemic caused the UK to go into lockdown in late March.

Some town centres around the country have already been putting preparations in place to maintain the social distancing necessary to keep the infection rate down.

Shipley town centre in Bradford has set-up signs to remind shoppers about social distancing (SWNS)

Read more: This 50 BBQ has everything you need for a tasty summer feast

Some high streets have been setting up a one-way system for pedestrians - including Shipley town centre, in Bradford, West Yorkshire.

Signs on lamp posts and painted on the floor will be reminding shoppers to keep two metres apart.

Roadside parking bays will be temporarily removed to create wider pavements to enable this.

Changes will also see a hundred pedestrian traffic lights across the district become automatic - meaning people dont have to press any buttons to activate the crossing.

Pedestrian crossings will become automatic so the public don't need to press buttons (SWNS)

Read more: The make-up and skincare products to buy in Selfridges big beauty sale

The measures come as the government lifts some lockdown restrictions tomorrow, allowing outdoor markets to reopen, as well as for groups of up to six people to meet outdoors.

Shipley Market Square is to open for the first time in months, and Bradford Council has said the area is being used to test the new social distancing measures for shoppers - which will then hopefully be rolled out across the district.

A spokesperson for the City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council, said: "The first test of the type of social distancing measures being considered for across Bradford district are to be implemented in Shipleys market square ready for this weekend.

Story continues

"Moves to install frequent automatic crossing periods - without the need to touch the request button to make traffic stop - at up to one hundred pedestrian crossings across the district, are also being implemented, complete with signage to advise of the changes.

Read more: IKEA is set to re-open - is your local store on the list?

"Having the right measures in place to help people maintain social distancing is crucial to protect the publics health and reduce the spread of the virus, helping to save lives while allowing essential travel.

"This will help people to stay safe as we support the economy to get back on track sustaining jobs and livelihoods as the government restrictions on travel and work are gradually eased."

It comes as IKEA will begin a phased reopening of its stores from tomorrow.

The brand announced that 19 shops will be welcoming back customers across the UK.

Although most sections of the stores will be open, two areas will remain closed for the time being; the restaurants and the childrens play areas.

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RTHK: Mission accomplished: SpaceX craft docks with ISS

A SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule carrying two Nasa astronauts docked on Sunday with the International Space Station, the first time a crewed US spacecraft has performed the feat in nearly a decade.

It was also a first for the private sector, a triumphant moment for the company founded by Elon Musk in 2002. Nasa hopes to build on such partnerships to usher in a new era of space travel.

"Soft capture," the moment when the spacecraft makes first contact and starts latching with the target vehicle, occurred at about 10.16pm Hong Kong time, a little ahead of schedule.

At the time, the ISS was orbiting 422 kilometres over the border between Mongolia and northern China.

A few minutes later, "hard capture" was achieved when the two spacecraft were joined with an airtight seal.

On board are astronauts Bob Behnkhen and Doug Hurley, both veterans of the Space Shuttle program that was shuttered in 2011.

"We copy, docking is complete," said Hurley, the spacecraft commander.

"It's been a real honor to be a small part of this nine year endeavor since the last time a United States spaceship has docked with the International Space Station."

The Crew Dragon capsule had spent the previous 19 hours chasing down the station at speeds of 28,000 kilometres per hour, before carefully aligning its orbital plane and slowing down to a crawl for the delicate docking procedure.

SpaceX's two-stage Falcon 9 rocket began its voyage on Saturday, blasting off flawlessly in a cloud of bright orange flames and smoke from Florida's Kennedy Space Centre.

"I'm really quite overcome with emotion," Musk said. "It's been 18 years working towards this goal. This is hopefully the first step on a journey towards civilisation on Mars," the SpaceX founder said. (AFP)

This story has been published on: 2020-05-31. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
At least 25 cities in the United States have imposed curfews as protests continue over the death of George Floyd. Floyd, an Africa...





At least 25 cities in the United States have imposed curfews as protests continue over the death of George Floyd.





Floyd, an African-American man, was killed on Monday by some officers of the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD).





Video clips of the incident on the internet showed where a white police officer was kneeling on the neck of the late Floyd for nearly 10 minutes. The incident has sparked off protests across the country.





The US authorities announced investigations into the death of Floyd, and four police officers involved in the incident have been sacked.





But protesters are demanding stricter penalties against the officers involved.





The states where curfews have been imposed include California, Colorado, Florida, George, Illinois, Kentucky, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Wisconsin and Washington.





Eric Garcetti, mayor of Los Angeles, extended the curfew to every part of the city from 8 pm until 5:30 am.





I will always protect Angelenos right to make their voices heard and we can lead the movement against racism without fear of violence or vandalism, the mayor said.





The vast majority of people taking to the streets are doing it peacefully, powerfully, and with reverence for the sacred cause theyre fighting for. This curfew is in place to protect their safety  and the safety of all who live and work in our city.





Lori Lightfoot, mayor of Chicago, said the protest in the city was being hijacked by criminals.





We are proud of our long legacy of spearheading all peaceful protest movements that have shaped and reshaped this nation, generation after generation, she said.





And I will not let criminals take over our city. My expectation is that most people who have been peaceful today are going to go home.





But if they dont, then we give the police department another tool to use to enforce the curfew.




Laughing British teenagers have sparked outrage by mocking the killing of George Floyd by police in a sick Snapchat photo.

The post was captioned 'brutality' and shows one teen kneeling on his friend's neck - mocking the way the 46-year-old unarmed black man died after being detained in Minneapolis last Monday.

The video of his death sparked international outrage - and has led to widespread protests and riots across America and the UK.

But this didn't appear to bother the grinning pair and their friend who took the photo - before posting it on Snapchat last week.

Laughing British teenagers have sparked outrage by mocking the killing of George Floyd by police in a sick Snapchat photo

It was later shared on a Warwick University freshers Facebook page - where it quickly drew widespread criticism.

Rumours circulated that the trio, aged between 18 and 19, were due to go to the university in September - but a source who went to school with all three dismissed this.

A student from Lincolnshire was outraged when she saw the post and immediately shared it on Twitter - where it quickly garnered thousands of likes, comments and retweets.

The student said: 'Honestly when I first saw it I wasn't that shocked. We've seen so much racial prejudice but it's not a shock because we see this so much.

The post was captioned 'brutality' and shows one teen kneeling on his friend's neck - mocking the way the 46-year-old unarmed black man died after being detained in Minneapolis last Monday

'Everyone is rightly enraged by this. I think these guys should be known and their employers should be known and take whatever action they see fit.

'It is a criminal offence in my view because they are making a mockery of a guy losing his life. These guys will get a second chance but George Floyd won't.

'Imagine being so bold as to post this on your Snapchat and not get anything back - these people need to be named and shamed.'

University of Warwick said on their Twitter feed: 'Thank you for bringing this picture to our attention. Please be assured that we are looking into these allegations as a matter of urgency.' Pictured: George Floyd

The video of George Floyd's death sparked international outrage - and has led to widespread protests and riots across America and the UK

A woman who went to school with the trio said they have outraged their local community in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear.

She said the picture was uploaded among friends of the boys - who all went to Cardinal Hume Catholic School - on Thursday.

It only went viral after appearing on Twitter - despite being condemned by numerous people in their local community.

The woman, who did not wish to be named, said: 'They are not very sane.

'They were very laddy. They were quite outrageous but not that well liked. I thought the guy who took the photo had his head screwed on a bit more but obviously not because he shared it on social media.

'It's hard not to put the label racist on them for doing this but they never went out of the way to be racist to my knowledge. They were just sick pranksters.'

A spokesman for the University of Warwick told MailOnline: 'None of the individuals involved with an offensive photograph circulated yesterday are connected to the University, as was falsely alleged, nor would they be welcomed.

'Such behaviour goes against the University's principles, which emphasise treating others with respect.'
A 100-year-old Indonesian woman has recovered from coronavirus, making her the country's oldest survivor of the deadly respiratory illness. Kamtim, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, was discharged from hospital this week after a month of treatment in her hometown Surabaya, Indonesia's second-biggest city, officials said. East Java Governor Khofifah Indar Parawansa said she hoped Kamtim's story would give a boost to at-risk residents -- the illness is especially dangerous for older people and those with chronic conditions. "I hope her recovery can motivate elderly people during the pandemic," Parawansa added. Born in 1920, Kamtim was taken to hospital last month after showing symptoms and she was later confirmed to have contracted the virus. Siti Aminah, the woman's daughter-in-law, chalked up her recovery to "discipline and persistence". "Every day I checked her condition with nurses and they always told me that she was very strong and diligent about taking her medicine," Aminah told AFP. "She was very motivated to get better." It was not clear how the home-bound woman contracted the virus. "She probably got it when people from the neighbourhood came around to visit since she never goes outside," Aminah said. Indonesia has confirmed more than 26,000 cases of coronavirus and 1,613 deaths. But the sprawling Southeast Asian archipelago of more than 260 million has among the lowest testing rates in the world. Researchers estimate the true number of virus infections and fatalities is several times the official toll. Kamtim, 100, sits in her living room with her daughter-in-law Siti Aminah in Surabaya, East Java after recovering from coronavirus
GettyImages-1084696568.jpg

Airlines have scheduled a dramatic increase in flights in July in anticipation that Governments will lift travel restrictions for holidaymakers and save the industry from potential collapse, according to data seen by The Sunday Telegraph.

The companies which have already laid off tens of thousands of workers are banking on a V-shaped recovery by scheduling 161,200 passenger flights and 29.5 million seats for July, just eight per cent down on last years July timetables.

The strategy to open up business travel and holiday routes to hotspot favourites like Greece, Italy, France and Spain comes as most European countries are preparing to lift their quarantines or open their borders in mid June or at least by July 1.

It will increase pressure on Boris Johnson to make good his suggestion last week that the UKs quarantine - to be introduced on June 8 - could be replaced with air bridges to low-risk holiday destinations when it is reviewed on June 29.

One senior industry source claimed: The sense is that they might quietly do a U-turn after the first review period. Grant Shapps [the Transport Secretary] is against quarantine, the Treasury are against it, Beis is against it and DCMS hate it.

The exclusive data, from Cirium, a travel analytics firm, shows how the coronavirus pandemic devastated the aviation industry as it tore across the world.

Scheduled passengers were 22.5 million in February, 10 per cent up on last year before it slumped by 93 per cent in April and May. It has risen in June to 38.5 per cent down on last year, as the Far East has opened up, and rises to just minus eight per cent in July as airlines anticipate Europe unlocking.

June and July are scheduled rather than actual flights, which will depend on quarantines easing in June and July. Germany has lifted restrictions, Italy wants to resume travel on June 15, and Spain and Portugal are aiming for July 1.

Story continues

France hopes to drop border controls to and from EU countries after June 15 except with countries that impose quarantine on a reciprocal basis, namely the UK.

Greece has excluded the UK from a white list of 29 countries it judges are low-risk enough from which to accept tourists from June 15 without quarantine although it will open up to more countries after it reviews their infection rates at the end of June.

British Airways says it is aiming for a meaningful return to flying in July, RyanAir plans to ramp up flights to at least 40 per cent of its normal July schedule and EasyJet, which has laid off one in three staff, hopes to operate 30 per cent of its pre-crisis timetable from July to September.

Paul Charles, chief executive of PC Consultancy, which advises the tourist industry, said Britains quarantine risked killing the economy. Travel companies have not had any bookings for April or May. They are worried that if they dont get them in June, they will go under, he said.

The Airport Operators Association (AOA) has urged ministers to aim for the first air bridges to low risk destinations by June 8 so that holidaymakers can sidestep quarantine and the requirement to self-isolate for 14 days on their return to the UK.

The Department for Transport will shortly publish new guidelines for safe travel which will include face coverings or masks throughout the journey, temperature checks, social distancing in airports and contactless travel including for check-ins and payments.

An AOA spokesman said: Once these guidelines are agreed and given that they are based on a common European baseline, this puts in place the right conditions for opening up air bridges to low-risk countries.

The Home Office which has led the moves to introduce quarantine has, however, warned that it will block attempts to lift the quarantine unless it is safe and there is no risk of it sparking a second wave of coronavirus.

A Department for Transport source said: There is certainly a willingness in Government to do as much for this Summer as is safe.

Post-coronavirus air travel:

No travel if you have symptoms

If ill, no cost re-booking or refunds up to six hours before flying

Face masks or coverings from arrival at airport to leaving terminal at destination

Only passengers in the terminal, no tearful goodbyes at departure gates

Contact-less electronic check-in and boarding

Social distancing and one-way systems for waiting and queuing passengers

Airports' association pressing for temperature checks

Exemption from two-metre rule on plane

No on-board duty free, reduced food and drink service, pre-packaged food and cashless payments
Asked about US president Donald Trump's offer of mediation to end the face-off, Rajnath Singh said he conveyed to US defence secretary Mark T Esper during a telephonic conversation on Friday that India and China have existing mechanisms to resolve 'problems' through talks at diplomatic and military levels.

New Delhi: As Indian and Chinese troops remain engaged in a tense border stand-off, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday asserted that the government will not allow India's pride to be hurt under any circumstances even as he said bilateral talks were on at military and diplomatic levels to resolve the row.

Asked about US president Donald Trump's offer of mediation to end the face-off, Singh said he conveyed to US defence secretary Mark T Esper during a telephonic conversation on Friday that India and China have existing mechanisms to resolve "problems" through talks at diplomatic and military levels.

In the midst of the flare-ups between Indian and Chinese armies, Trump on Wednesday said he was "ready, willing and able to mediate" between the two countries. He reiterated the offer on Thursday as well.

The Ministry of External Affairs indirectly rejected the offer two days ago, but Singh became the first central minister to speak on India's position on the issue with clarity.

"I spoke to the defence secretary yesterday. I told him that we have developed a mechanism already under which any problem between India and China are resolved through military and diplomatic dialogue," Singh told Aaj Tak news channel.

Asked whether India can be arm-twisted on the issue by China, he said: "you cannot even think of it."

The defence minister said efforts are on to resolve the border row in eastern Ladakh.

"I want to assure the country that we will not allow India's pride to be hurt under any circumstances. India has been following a clear policy of maintaining good relationship with neighbouring countries and it is not a new approach; We have been following it for long. At times, situation arises with China. It has happened before," he said.

Singh also talked about the Doka La episode of 2017, recalling that the situation then too appeared "very tense". "But we did not step back. Ultimately, we were able to resolve the situation."

The defence minister noted that China has also said that it wants to resolve the border issue in eastern Ladakh through diplomatic dialogue and that transgressions take place due to varying perception about the Line of Actual Control by the two sides.

"It has been India's efforts to ensure that the tension does not escalate. It should be resolved through talks at military and diplomatic levels. Negotiations are ongoing between the two countries at the military and diplomatic levels," he said.

Troops of India and China were engaged in the stand-off for over three weeks in Pangong Tso, Galwan Valley, Demchok and Daulat Beg Oldie in eastern Ladakh.

The trigger for the face-off was China's stiff opposition to India laying a key road in the Finger area around the Pangong Tso Lake besides construction of another road connecting the Darbuk-Shayok-Daulat Beg Oldie road in Galwan Valley.

Military sources said China was also laying a road in the Finger area which is not acceptable to India.

The sources said military reinforcements including troops, vehicles and artillery guns were sent to eastern Ladakh by the Indian Army to shore up its presence in the areas where Chinese soldiers were resorting to aggressive posturing.

The situation in eastern Ladakh deteriorated after around 250 Chinese and Indian soldiers were engaged in a violent face-off on the evening of 5 May which spilled over to the next day before the two sides agreed to "disengage".

However, the stand-off continued.

The incident in Pangong Tso was followed by a similar incident in north Sikkim on 9 May.

The troops of India and China were engaged in a 73-day stand-off in Doka La tri-junction in 2017 which even triggered fears of a war between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.

The India-China border dispute covers the 3,488-km-long LAC. China claims Arunachal Pradesh as part of southern Tibet while India contests it.

Both sides have been asserting that pending the final resolution of the boundary issue, it is necessary to maintain peace and tranquillity in the border areas.
Stick to sports?

Dont bring that trash to Giancarlo Stanton.

The Yankees slugger joined the many stars who have spoken out after George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, died that the hands of Minneapolis police Monday.

Enough is Enough, Stanton said on Twitter. Its going to take everyone to help this system change. No matter your color or attributes, We are all human, who know whats right deep down. Making a real change will be Justice for Floyd & everyone who came before him. Lets all be a part of the change.

Enough is Enough. Its going to take everyone to help this system change. No matter your color or attributes, We are all human, who know whats right deep down. Making a real change will be Justice for Floyd & everyone who came before him. Lets all be a part of the change pic.twitter.com/SERaY4K34X  Giancarlo Stanton (@Giancarlo818) May 31, 2020

Stanton included the praying emoji and shared a Nike ad relating to Floyds death.

Floyd, who wasnt armed, died after Derek Chauvin, a white Minneapolis police officer, knelt on his neck for several minutes while Floyd was handcuffed.

Four police officers who were at the scene have been fired. Chauvin was arrested and charged with third-degree murder.

His death has sparked dozens of protests, some of them fiery, across the nation, including in Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Atlanta, New York City and Newark.

Stanton, 30, has been with the Yankees since 2018. In 2014, Stanton signed a 13-year, $325 million deal with Miami.

On Friday, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy weighed in on Floyds death.

It may seem half-a-country away, but were all in this boat together, Murphy, a Democrat, said during his daily coronavirus briefing in Trenton. There is no doubt that the centuries-old stain of systemic racism is far from being erased from the fabric of this country.

Please subscribe now and support the local journalism YOU rely on and trust.

Brendan Kuty may be reached at bkuty@njadvancemedia.com. Tell us your coronavirus story or send a tip here.
Cafe Society: Creating a Coffee Culture

Born out of a love for good coffee and the idea to support local artisan coffee makers during these unprecedented times, Coffee Culture is an innovative online platform that opens the door to local coffee farmers and roasters in Thailand.



By Amy Bensema

Sunday 31 May 2020, 10:00AM

Coffee Culture bridges the gap and brings local coffee lovers a range of beans from Thai coffee growers and roasters. Photo: Supplied

We all love good coffee. For those of us who love cafe hopping, this pandemic has really thrown a roadblock into getting our daily caffeine fix. With so many small cafes and speciality coffee shops still temporarily closed, one has to wonder if our local favourite spots will have the financial means to bounce back. While we certainly hope to see our beloved baristas again, Coffee Culture (https://coffeeculture.asia/) presents a wonderful alternative in the meantime.

The brainchild of Susan Villota, Coffee Culture is an online marketplace for coffee lovers in Thailand. Its a dedicated site that allows coffee lovers to buy freshly-roasted coffee directly from Thai roasters. Coffee Culture aims to reinvent the way people discover, buy and enjoy coffee.

With delivery available throughout Thailand, Coffee Culture is a coffee marketplace that truly makes a difference. Its a marketplace that supports local roasters to sell directly to consumers. Additionally, a coffee subscription is available. The coffee subscription will feature different beans with distinctive flavours. With so many local livelihoods put on hold or totally lost during this pandemic, Coffee Culture allows consumers to get to know local coffee growers and their story while sustaining their livelihood and bringing income to their families.

Originally, the Coffee Culture online marketplace was meant to launch this June. However, Susan decided to create the platform as a crowdfunding campaign in order to accelerate the launch. The purpose being to help the local roasters who are no doubt suffering.

I want to help local Thai people, who are doing what they love most. To give their coffee product the chance to survive by giving them the awareness needed for potential customers to buy them. Business owners should focus on developing their business to reach the goals and dreams they have, she explains.

The current crowdfunding campaign presents a unique opportunity to build a dedicated marketplace for the local coffee farmers and roasters in Thailand. It is a wonderful way for all of us who love coffee to support small, local businesses while discovering robust bean varieties from all over Thailand. Coffee Cultures aim is true  to help local coffee farmers and roasters to raise their standards, to promote coffee awareness and to create an online coffee culture in Thailand.

For those interested in backing the Coffee Culture crowdfunding campaign, there are a variety of monetary donations to choose from. For example, if you choose to donate B360, you can receive 500 grams of Coffee Cultures signature coffee blend. The blend is available in Medium or Dark Roast, and you can choose the beans to arrive whole or grounded. Alternatively, you can select the Coffee Tasting Kit, which provides the chance to taste three different Thai coffee blends.

Personally, I think that Coffee Culture is a wonderful idea. I love the idea of coming together over a delicious cup of coffee to support local coffee farmers and roasters in Thailand. To learn more about Coffee Culture and their crowdfunding campaign, visit coffeeculture.asia or reach out to Susan via email at susan@coffeeculture.asia Search @coffeeculturethailand to see more from the crowdfunding campaign, including great coffee pairing recipes and videos.

Cafe Society is a monthly column which chronicles one girls search for the perfect cup of coffee. Have a cafe to recommend? Contact Amy via email at bensema.amy@gmail.com or follow her caffeinated adventures as @phuketstagram on Instagram.
By Angel Krasimirov

SOFIA (Reuters) - An Australian ex-soldier, released on parole after being convicted of a street murder in Bulgaria in 2009, fears he will be rearrested if he tries to leave the country and is now seeking a new trial to try to clear his name.

Jock Palfreeman, 33, who served 11 years of a 20-year sentence for murder and attempted murder in the 2007 stabbing of two Bulgarians, was released on parole in September.

The ruling angered nationalist politicians who criticised his release, while the government decision to keep him in a detention centre after his parole strained relations with Australia.

The interior ministry said on Friday that the travel ban would be lifted, a day after the highest appeals court dismissed a request by the ex-chief prosecutor to review the parole.

But Palfreeman, speaking under a portrait of revolutionary Che Guevara which he kept in his cell to keep his spirits up, said he had doubts he would be allowed to leave.

"They could come and arrest me in five minutes," the bearded Palfreeman told Reuters in the office of his Bulgarian Prisoners' Association.

Palfreeman co-founded the association to draw attention to alleged abuse and corruption in the prison system.

He has consistently maintained he acted in self-defence, trying to protect minority Roma being attacked by a group of Bulgarians. He believes video footage of the attack, released by an anonymous user on YouTube, will support his case.

"I believe a fair trial would be possible," he said. "I can speak Bulgarian, I can defend myself because 13 years ago I couldn't speak Bulgarian. I didn't know what was happening and there were a lot of things I missed because of the language barrier."

Palfreeman said he was "completely shocked" by the systemic lawlessness in Bulgarian jails, adding that 90% of prisoners were not allowed to do any work.

Palfreeman, who was serving in the British army at the time of the street fight, said a motion for a new trial was expected to be filed on Monday.

(This story has been refiled to change headline.)

(Reporting by Angel Krasimirov; Editing by Nick Macfie)
A city court heard the bail application of Safoora Zargar, the 20-week-pregnant Jamia Millia Islamia student, and Jamia Co-ordination Committee(JCC) member on Saturday and posted the matter for further hearing on June 4. Meanwhile, it granted interim bail to co-accused Ishrat Jahan for 10 days (June 10-19) on the grounds that her marriage is scheduled on June 12.

The Delhi police special cell on Saturday told the court that members of JCC incited people at different protest sites, created blockades and caused the riots in north east Delhi earlier this year. The special cell, which is the anti-terrorist unit of the force, registered a case to probe if the riots were part of a larger conspiracy.

Thus far, two members of JCC have been arrested in the case. The riots, between February 24-26, left at least 53 people dead.

The JCC is a group of former and current students of the university that came together to coordinate the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests outside the varsity. A JCC member, who wished not to be named, told HT, JCCs idea was to resist the fascist law combination of CAA/NRC/NPR. Road blockade is a way of protesting all over the world...We have reiterated that JCC believes in the constitution and democratic ways of social transition and right to dissent....Delhi police want to suppress all the resistance against the government... and its fascist laws. There has been backlash from the court about the arbitrary nature of the enquiry, and from the public about their revengeful actions.

During the proceedings, Special Judge Dharmender Rana also sought to know the link between Unlawful Activites Prevention Act (UAPA) under which Zargar and the other accused have been arrested and the road blockades: What is the connecting link between UAPA and road blocks. UAPA cannot be invoked for blocking roads. Show me the link.

The police said that the idea was to frustrate the people, paralyse the government and orchestrate riots. It is not just about Safoora Zargar. She is a part of the chain... People sitting in various sites were asked to move and block the roads..., the police said. The police said that the intent was to create blockades such as the one at Shaheen Bagh, and cause riots thereby giving a wrong impression during the visit of US President Donald Trump.

At Shaheen Bagh, locals were protesting since December 15, 2019, against the CAA and NRC. They were evicted on March 25 this year in view of the lockdown as well as prohibitory orders issued under Section 144 CrPC.

Opposing Zargars bail application, public prosecutor Irfan Ahmed, said she visited Chand Bagh (where many incidents of violence were reported) and delivered a provocative speech.

Meanwhile, Natasha Narwal, arrested member of Pinjra Tod, was produced before a special judge. The matter was heard in the evening; the order is yet to be uploaded. Devangana Kalita, another accused, was sent to three day police custody in connection with the FIR filed in the Daryaganj violence case.
BRADY ANDERSON, Chariho, Wrestling, Sophomore; Anderson finished first in the 152-pound weight class at the Griswold Midseason Invitational tournament. Anderson went 3-0 in the tournament, pinning all of his opponents in the first period. Anderson is 10-4.

LYDIA LASKEY, Stonington, Gymnastics, Senior; Laskey finished first in all four events in meets against NFA and Westerly. Laskey had an all-around score of 33.75 against NFA and 34.60 against Westerly.

RILEY PELOQUIN, Westerly, Girls Basketball, Sophomore; Peloquin scored 22 points and had 19 rebounds in two games. Peloquin is averaging 7.6 points and 7.5 rebounds a game for the Bulldogs.

DEONDRE BRANSFORD, Wheeler, Boys Basketball, Sophomore; Bransford scored 25 points and had 28 rebounds in a pair of Wheeler victories. Bransford is averaging 10.6 points and 12.1 rebounds per contest for the Lions.

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After a night of chaos in downtown San Antonio, volunteers descended on the citys historic center Sunday to help clean up the damage, city officials called for calm and police mobilized for possible further unrest.

As night fell, an eerie stillness settled over downtown as hundreds of police officers with batons and zip ties marched into Alamo Plaza, pockets of activists gathered and business owners stood watch in front of boarded-up shops.

Dozens of demonstrators gathered in Travis Park after dark and marched through downtown. A second group gathered opposite a line of police officers on the edge of Alamo Plaza. But unlike Saturday night, there was no violence, and the activists dispersed shortly after a 10 p.m. curfew went into effect.

In a striking contrast to the previous night, an African American man, speaking for a group of about 15 demonstrators, addressed a row of officers near Alamo Plaza and appealed for mutual understanding.

We just want to be heard, and we want change, said Brandon Miller, 25. At the end of the day, it doesnt matter if we want change. You all have to want change also.

He closed by saying: I appreciate your being peaceful with us while we were being peaceful with yall.

The sentiment was greeted with applause by both police officers and activists.

A lot of people here yesterday, they werent here to express their concern or opinion, Police Sgt. Adam Soto said after Sundays protest broke up. They were here to shout, they were here to yell, they were here to destroy.

By contrast, Sundays demonstrators did everything the right way, Soto said. They got heard. They did a peaceful protest. As you can see, we encouraged it.

The group of protesters at Travis Park expressed outrage at the recent death of an African American in police custody in Minneapolis by lying on the ground for nine minutes and calling out: I cant breathe.

George Floyd, the victim in that incident, died after a white Minneapolis officer kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes while Floyd lay facedown on the pavement in handcuffs. In video shot by onlookers, Floyd is heard saying repeatedly: I cant breathe.

Saturday nights violence in San Antonio erupted after the conclusion of a peaceful march in memory of Floyd, a Houston native.

In a move to prevent further havoc, Mayor Ron Nirenberg imposed a 6 p.m. curfew for Alamo Plaza and a 10 p.m. curfew for the downtown business district. Both curfews extend until 6 a.m. Monday. Violators face possible fines and jail time.

If the agitators show up, its not our intention to stay out of sight, Police Chief William McManus said Sunday afternoon as his department prepared to enforce the curfews. I want them to know that were there. I want them there to know that were there in force and that well take the action that we need to take if they start destroying property and injuring people.

Officers patrolling downtown will be flexible in enforcing the curfews, looking for potential troublemakers rather than stopping every person on the street, said Soto, the police sergeant.

Were not here to harass people, Soto said. But we are here to ensure that buildings stay safe and that people stay safe.

On ExpressNews.com: Timeline: George Floyd protesters, SAPD clash downtown

Matthew Busch/For The San Antonio Express-News

Earlier Sunday, volunteers and city crews took to downtown streets to sweep up broken glass and remove graffiti, the aftermath of Saturday nights violence.

At least 39 businesses including the Marriott Riverwalk hotel, a Whataburger restaurant and a row of tourist shops on Houston Street suffered broken windows or other damage, city officials said.

Taggers hit about 28 spots with spray paint, including locations on the River Walk and at La Villita and Hemisfair Park. Several pieces of public art  most notably the citys iconic sculpture La Antorcha de la Amistad, or The Torch of Friendship  were vandalized or smashed.

Its difficult to imagine that the destruction that was caused last night was caused by our residents, Nirenberg said Sunday. Im sure well know more in the coming days, but the ugly scenes from late last night certainly didnt remind me or anyone else of our San Antonio.

Officials were quick to note that the damage here paled in comparison with that in other U.S. cities swept by protests sparked by Floyds death a week ago.

On ExpressNews.com: City officials impose downtown curfew after protests

Floyd was arrested by Minneapolis police on May 25 on suspicion of using a fake $20 bill to make a purchase at a convenience store.

The white officer seen kneeling on Floyds neck is Derek Chauvin, 44. He has been fired from the force and was charged Friday with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. The conduct of three other officers at the scene is under investigation.

Matthew Busch/For The San Antonio Express-News

Saturdays march in San Antonio drew an estimated 5,000 demonstrators, who walked from Travis Park to San Antonio Police Department headquarters, chanting slogans and carrying placards.

The demonstration concluded around 7 p.m. Hours later, confrontations between protesters and police erupted in the streets near Alamo Plaza. Rocks and bricks were hurled into storefronts along Houston Street. Looters ransacked several shops. Police responded with tear gas, sound grenades and pepper-spray projectiles.

On ExpressNews.com: Ayala: Let I cant breathe be a rallying cry for change

McManus said Sunday that the department didnt receive one single report or complaint of excessive force.

Considering the amount of police officers that were out there and the level of intensity from the demonstrators, the assaults that they were doing on police officers, thats pretty remarkable, McManus said.

Two officers suffered head injuries after being hit with flying bottles, he said.

City officials urged calm Sunday even as they said people were justified in feeling outrage over Floyds killing.

I have two African-American young men in my home that I call my sons, said Councilwoman Jada Andrews-Sullivan, the councils only black member, while choking back tears. We know what it feels like to have that pain. We have to make sure that we protect each other. But we also have to realize that we have a police department that is truly here to protect and serve.

McManus joined a chorus of U.S. police chiefs who have criticized the Minneapolis officers handling of the incident. He called Floyds death a murder.

City officials expressed hope that Sunday would be the last night a curfew would be necessary.

We really dont want to have to use these tools, Nirenberg said. But if there are demonstrations, if there are agitators out there, were going to do what we need to do to keep the peace.

On ExpressNews.com: Bexar County sheriff steps up training after death of George Floyd

Police charged four people with crimes related to Saturdays unrest.

Josie Norris, The San Antonio Express-News / Staff Photographer

Joe Canales, 44, of Uvalde was charged with assaulting a police officer, a first-degree felony, along with misdemeanor offenses of rioting, evading and resisting arrest.

Ryatt Ryan Aguilar, 19, of San Antonio was charged with retaliation, a third-degree felony, and misdemeanor rioting.

Wayne Ray Waldrip III, 21, of San Antonio was charged with unlawfully carrying a weapon, rioting and obstructing roadways  all misdemeanors.

Alejandro Yanez, 17, of San Antonio was charged with rioting.

Details of the arrests came as dozens of volunteers poured into downtown to launch a cleanup effort.

They were armed with brooms, trash bags and paint remover and went to work on streets where police and protesters had clashed just a few hours earlier.

I couldnt sleep last night, said Roxanne Rabago, a San Antonio native who works as a school security officer and who watched the events unfold on the news. It was so bad.

Rabago and her two sons, 12 and 10, spent the morning sweeping up shattered glass in front of Jimmy Johns restaurant on Houston, where someone had hurled an object through the front door.

Her eldest son used a broom they had brought to sweep up the shards, while Rabago knelt on the sidewalk using as a dustpan a cardboard protest sign from the night before. Her youngest boy held a trash bag open for them.

I dont want my kids to do it, so I need them to see firsthand, she said.

The brigade of volunteers surprised weary business managers and owners whod expected to clear glass and board up storefronts on their own.

All these volunteers, they got here before I did, said Carley Eddleman, assistant general manager at the Buckhorn Saloon and Museum on Houston. All of these people that are cleaning up Rocket Fizz (a nearby candy shop)? Theyre all just volunteers.

Just after 7 a.m. Sunday, Eddleman carried a case of water bottles out to people sweeping in front of the candy shop. Her own business wasnt damaged  with the exception of some graffiti  but her Houston Street neighbors bore the brunt of Saturdays strife.

The night before, shed watched a video on Facebook that showed people trying to break the window of El Vaquero, a store at Broadway and Peacock that sells Western wear and Texas souvenirs. Bystanders tried to stop them.

People formed a chain, she said. But I think (the people who vandalized the store) came back.

Spurs guard Lonnie Walker IV walked around downtown Sunday morning handing out water bottles to volunteers helping to clean up the mess. At one point, Walker helped power-wash graffiti from a building at Broadway and Houston.

I take great pride in saying I am part of this community, Walker said. I am just a regular human being trying to do what we are supposed to do, and thats bring peace, positivity and joy throughout everybodys lives.

On East Market Street, Lillian Garcia-Martinez spent the morning with her 13-year-old son scrubbing graffiti off iron sculptures along a walkway.

It gets tiresome, she said. But I want them to grow up in a clean city, the way I saw it.

Her son, Sergio Martinez Jr., added: Our city.

Staff writer Tom Orsborn contributed to this report.
Belgium's Prince Joachim, a nephew of King Philippe, has tested positive for the new coronavirus.

That's after attending a party in Cordoba that Spanish media said broke lockdown rules.

Joachim, tenth in line for the throne, reportedly attended the party with 26 other people. The maximum number of people permitted to meet in Cordoba is 15.

Police say they have launched an investigation. A spokesperson for the palace could not confirm the number of attendees at the gathering.
Hacienda Heights unlicensed insurance agent allegedly steals half a million dollars in clients premiums

Los Angeles, California - Unlicensed insurance agent Ai Ling Lee, also known as Linda Lee, 60, of Hacienda Heights, was arrested on nine felony counts of grand theft after allegedly stealing approximately half a million dollars in clients insurance premium payments and failing to place adequate coverage for her clients small businesses.

An investigation by the Department of Insurance found Lee, as owner/operator of Jubilee Insurance Services, allegedly acted as an insurance agent to steal half a million dollars in premium payments even though she was not properly licensed by the department.

Ms. Lees alleged theft left her clients businesses uninsured, exposing them to significant financial risks, said Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara. My department is dedicated to investigating and shutting down unscrupulous agents who abuse the trust of unsuspecting clients.

Lee accepted premium payments from her clients to place liability, property or workers compensation insurance coverage for their small businesses. Lee failed to place insurance coverage or allowed the coverage to lapse for nonpayment leaving her clients small businesses, including restaurants, construction companies and biochemical companies at risk.

In order to inflate premium payments and hide her alleged embezzlement, Lee altered declaration pages for several clients. The premium payments collected by Lee were either not remitted to insurance carriers or only partially paid. Lee also allegedly forged clients signatures on finance agreements in order to finance some of the insurance premiums without her clients knowledge or consent.

Lee was arrested on Friday, May 22, 2020, and is scheduled to appear in court on September 30, 2020. This case is being prosecuted by the White Collar Crime Division of the Los Angeles County District Attorneys Office.

The Department of Insurance issued a Cease and Desist Order against Lee on August 7, 2018, and revoked her business, Jubilee Insurance Services, license on December 1, 2018.
By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: Former Central Information Commissioners on Sunday appealed to Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to release poet, writer and activist Varavara Rao on humanitarian grounds.

If the trial cannot be speedily completed, Rao should be acquitted, former commissioners Shailesh Gandhi, and M Sridhar Acharyulu have stated in a letter written to Maharashtra CM.

Rao, who was earlier lodged in Pune's Yerwada Jail, was shifted to Taloja jail in Navi Mumbai in connection with the Bhima Koragaon case.

Before he was taken in to judicial custody, the Telugu poet and activist was suffering from multiple diseases like piles, thyroid issue, prostate gland enlargement, coronary artillery issue, acidity and migraine synesis, the letter said. He recently developed some more health problems in prison, the former commissioners said.

Rao reportedly fell ill on May 29 and was shifted to J J Hospital without his family's knowledge. His family members were kept in the dark until the Hospital released a bulletin stating that his vitals are functioning normally.

The letter, written by the former CICs, urged that Rao should be released immediately and his bail should not be opposed. If this situation is not permitted, the family should be allowed to travel across state and visit him in the hospital. Otherwise, the officials must help facilitate video-conferencing with his wife and daughters.

The medical conditions and diagnostic reports should be disclosed and the status report should be given to the court on June 2, it said.

The former commissioners said the certified copies of files relating to the investigation of the case are available with police headquarters of Mumbai and state Home Minister. The notes of handing over case to NIA and the Ministry of Home Affairs should be made available within 48 hours as this information concerns the life and liberty of Rao.

The magistrate hearing the case had sought a report about Rao's medical conditions on several occasions. The report was not submitted to the court in the last hearing, following which it has been adjourned to June 2.
Trail Conservancy Cautions Pandemic Care When Hiking

NORTH ADAMS, Mass.  Although most of the Appalachian Trail is still open, hikers are asked to practice common sense during the pandemic while on the trail or to just stay home.

COVID-19 has challenged people to find new ways to stay active while practicing social distancing and local trail volunteer Cosmo Catalano, Jr said although folks are encouraged to stay home, common sense needs to be used to maintain social distancing.

"The AT, along with other trails on public lands provides an important resource for people to get outdoors in a healthy way," he said. "With care and common sense, it's relatively easy for people to maintain appropriate social distance and enjoy the outdoors."

Catalano said the trail organization structure is complicated and is organized by a number of entities. In Massachusetts about half the trail is on state forest lands managed by the Department of Conservation and Recreation. The other half is on lands managed by the National Park Service.

But the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, a non-profit organization that organizes independent volunteer trail maintaining groups, has asked hikers to stay off the 2,200-long trail to help combat the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Thru-hikers have certainly been asked to cancel their long-distance treks. Catalano said it is near impossible to maintain social distancing at busy overnight sites at the traditional starting points in Georgia and Maine. Also, effective hand washing is impossible.

Secondly, Catalano said hikers should not stop in communities to resupply.

"Particularly in the south, long-distance hikers rely on very small towns in remote parts of the country for resupply and other off-trail services," he said. "Sick hikers, who may not even be displaying symptoms, can create an unintended virus hot spot in a small community with limited health care resources."

He added that several towns have closed hiker facilities to stop the spread of COVID-19 and that the National Forest has closed sections of the trail. Plus shelters along the trail are closed.

Catalano said land managers are the only ones who can close the trail and although the Appalachian Trail Conservancy has asked hikers to stay off the trail, he acknowledged that people will likely go hiking anyways.

If this is the case, people need to be responsible and he referred to this list published by American Trails.

He said this is already becoming a problem with folks jumping on some of the more popular trails and if a trailhead looks crowded, stay away.

"Generally, if the parking area is full, choose a different location for your hike," he said. "There are lots of opportunities for safe, responsible recreation in the Berkshires that don't just involve the AT. State Forests have miles of trails of all types. DCR has good trail maps online for all of their major properties."

He said if hikers have their heart set on the AT there are many very lightly traveled sections. He said to look for sections that don't go to a popular summit or a body of water and go earlier in the day.

He if you encounter someone on the trail use common sense and make room while being mindful of your surroundings. He said in many cases it is impossible to step away from the trail without damaging plant life.

With social distancing even two people on the same trail can cause damage.

"The trail is a narrow footpath so hikers approaching each other should step well to the side to let the other pass," he said. "In heavily used areas this can be damaging to the trail environment as plants become repeatedly trampled."

He said also avoid any public facilities or amenities that have been closed by the state.

"We'd recommend not using facilities at overnight sites, such as picnic tables or privies, since these are typically high touch areas where hikers linger," Catalano said. "This is the primary reason the DCR and NPS have officially closed overnight facilities in Mass."

He did say trail maintenance has all but stopped and asked hikers to report any damage to facilities.

Catalano said there are other ways to stay active that are easier to maintain social distancing. He suggested walking in more open spaces or trying paddling

"Paddling is another option pretty easy to maintain separation on the water assuming the launch area is not overwhelmed," he said. "There are many publicly accessible lakes and ponds in the Berkshires w/o a busy boat ramp.  Simply walking in your neighborhood is another fine way to get outdoors; and you might meet some of your neighbors at an appropriate distance of course."
Astronaut Doug Hurley is all set to launch off to the International Space Station along with astronaut Bob Behnken with the Demo-2 Crew Dragon launch. Doug Hurley has been serving in NASA since 2000 and is a veteran of two spaceflights. Hurley was the pilot for STS-127 and STS-135 and he will also be piloting the Dragon Crew spacecraft.

Before joining NASA, Doug Hurley served in the US Marine Corps where he reached to the rank of colonel. As Doug Hurley embarks to one of the most historic space launches in recent years, space enthusiasts have reportedly been interested in knowing about the astronaut's life with regards to his lifestyle, net worth and salary. Read below to know about astronaut Doug Hurley's net worth.

Also read: NASA SpaceX Launch: Here Are The Details Of Rocket's Trajectory And Where It Is Headed

Doug Hurley's net worth details

The details about Doug Hurley's net worth have not been made public by the astronaut himself but have been reported through various sources. As per reports, Doug Hurley has a net worth ranging from $1-$5 million in 2019. Whereas the astronaut's net worth was previously reported to be $1-$3 million in 2018.

Doug's primary source of income is reportedly his profession of being an astronaut in NASA and he does not have any other financial sources. As per reports, the astronaut has a yearly salary of over $100 thousand. Hurley also spoke to a leading news daily recently where he revealed that he is honoured to be a part of the SpaceX-NASA program which is launching American rockets from the American soil after a gap of almost ten years.

Also read: NASA SpaceX Launch Pictures Paint A Thousand Words: See Amazing Pics From Launch Site

Image courtesy - official NASA website

Also read: Will SpaceX Launch Be Visible From The UK? Know Its Trajectory In The UK

Hurley, who is 53 years old grew up in Apalachin, New York outside Binghamton. He has received a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from the Tulane University. During his first mission to space, Hurley assisted in delivering two new components to the International Space Station (ISS) including replacement parts, water and hardware. Whereas during his second mission, Hurley was a part of a similar mission where new components were delivered to ISS but also tested a robotic refuelling mechanism and brought back a failed ammonia pump module to NASA for examination.

Also read: NASA SpaceX Rocket Launch Live Stream: Watch NASA Live Feed On YouTube And NASA TV

DISCLAIMER: The above information is sourced from various websites/ media reports. The website does not guarantee a 100% accuracy of the figures.
Virojt Changyencham/Getty Images

Last year, we had a failed MISD Bond election. The bond failed because our school board and Superintendent Orlando Riddick rushed the process, failed to communicate with the community, added no educational value, and put the bond together poorly. We are now being asked to repeat the same game plan with discussing another bond, while navigating unchartered waters due to a worldwide pandemic, placing limitations and restrictions on our local neighborhood schools. While we learn and adjust to these challenges, our local economy has also seen an increase in job loss and the outlook for our No. 1 economic driver is uncertain. While there is a future need for discussing new facilities, it is best for the MISD school board and Riddick to prioritize our local neighborhood school needs in a responsible manner.

The MISD board and Riddick have released a proposed change to an already approved calendar. If adopted, this new calendar will present challenges for parents, teachers and students alike. Again, we find the MISD board and Riddick rushing a process and missing an opportunity for communicating and engaging the community regarding the innovative intercessional calendar. There has been plenty of time for this possible change to be taken to the MISD stakeholders, as the MISD board and Riddick have been discussing this calendar change amongst themselves since 2019.
Americans are largely united in seeing racism at play in the killing of George Floyd and in policing more generally  but they are divided over the violent protests that have gripped Minneapolis and other major U.S. cities in the wake of Floyds death, according to a new Yahoo News/YouGov poll.

The survey, which was conducted May 29 and May 30, found that a clear majority of U.S. adults (61 percent) believe race was a major factor in the May 25 death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man in the custody of Minneapolis police who lost his life after officer Derek Chauvin held his knee on the back of Floyds neck for nearly nine minutes while Floyd complained that he could not breathe. Only 9 percent said race was not a factor.

Likewise, 72 percent of Americans said they strongly approve of the firing of Chauvin and the three other Minneapolis police officers involved in Floyds death; an additional 12 percent somewhat approve.

More than three-quarters (77 percent) said Chauvin was obviously guilty and, if anything, the authorities were too slow to arrest him; only 23 percent think there has been a rush to judgment and want a more thorough investigation.

And nearly all Americans believe the charge against Chauvin  third-degree murder  is either appropriate (42 percent) or that he should have been charged with a more serious crime (47 percent). A small percentage of Americans said Chauvin should have been charged with a less serious crime (7 percent) or not charged at all (4 percent).

These views reflect the fact that most Americans now acknowledge racial bias in the criminal-justice system  and throughout U.S. society more broadly. Sizable majorities said that race relations in the U.S. are generally bad (57 percent); that they have either stayed about the same (40 percent) or gotten worse (45 percent) over the last decade; that the criminal justice system treats whites better than blacks (62 percent); that police do not treat whites and blacks equally (67 percent  a number that has increased 15 percentage points since 2009); that cops are not usually held accountable for their misconduct (56 percent); and the deaths of African-Americans during encounters with police are signs of a broader problem (61 percent) rather than isolated incidents (39 percent).

Story continues

At the same time, a slim majority of Americans describe the unrest that has erupted in Minneapolis as mostly violent riots (51 percent) as opposed to mostly peaceful protests (10 percent). A quarter (25 percent) see the demonstrations as a mixture of both, about equally.

Asked to characterize the motives of the demonstrators, Americans were torn, with 43 percent attributing the unrest to a genuine desire to hold police officers accountable and 40 percent chalking it up to a long-standing bias against the police.

Protesters demonstrate in Las Vegas over the death of George Floyd. (John Locher/AP)

And so while a rare overall consensus seems to have formed around Floyds death  a development that may have something to do with the fact that a full 70 percent of Americans have watched harrowing video footage of Chauvin kneeling on Floyds neck  the Yahoo News/YouGov poll also shows how complicated views about race in the U.S. remain, with divisions surfacing along both racial and political lines.

Twenty-two percent of Republicans, for instance, said that race was not a factor in George Floyds death, while just 1 percent of Democrats and 6 percent of independents agree.

The number of black Americans who said Chauvin should have been charged with a more serious crime (78 percent) is nearly twice as high as the number of white Americans who said the same (41 percent).

Forty percent of Republicans think there has been a rush to judgment against Chauvin, versus just 10 percent of Democrats.

Wide majorities of Republicans (73 percent) and whites (57 percent) see the unrest in Minneapolis as mostly violent riots. But only a third of Democrats (33 percent) and black Americans (32 percent) describe the events that way.

Asked whether demonstrators have been motivated by a genuine desire to hold police accountable or a long-standing bias against police, the number of Democrats who said the former (64 percent) mirrored the number of Republicans who said the latter (65 percent). Blacks (71 percent) sided with Democrats. (There is, of course, significant overlap between the two demographics, with most African-Americans identifying as Democrats.)

Republicans are split over whether U.S. race relations are generally good (43 percent) or generally bad (46 percent). Democrats (70 percent bad versus 18 percent good) and African-Americans (75 percent bad versus 15 percent good) are not.

A majority of Republicans (51 percent) said the criminal-justice system treats whites and blacks equally. Eighty-six percent of Democrats said the system treats whites better.

A plurality of Republicans (40 percent) said police officers are usually held accountable for misconduct. About twice as many Democrats (75 percent) said they are not.

And perhaps most striking, the vast majority of Republicans (68 percent) said the deaths of African-Americans during recent police encounters are isolated incidents. Eighty-four percent of Democrats disagree, insisting they are signs of a broader problem. This may explain why there is more widespread consensus around Floyds death than around race and policing in general.

The poll suggests that such divisions likely stem from both personal experience and preexisting views of police. Black Americans (32 percent) are three times as likely as white Americans (11 percent) to say they have no trust in cops. Blacks are also three times as likely as whites to say they feel less secure when they see a police officer (60 percent versus 22 percent), while whites are six times as likely as blacks to say they feel more secure (32 percent versus 5 percent).

By the same token, far more blacks (43 percent) than whites (28 percent) said they have been personally treated unfairly by a police officer and that either most (19 percent among blacks; 4 percent among whites) or some (40 percent among blacks; 19 percent among whites) of the officers in their community are prejudiced against African-Americans.

Jessica Knutson and her daughter Abigail, 3, place flowers at a memorial to George Floyd in Minneapolis. (John Minchillo/AP)

Going forward, Americans largely favor a set of reforms to reduce deadly-force encounters with police. Sixty-seven percent support banning neck restraints; 80 percent support an early-warning system to identify problematic officers; 87 percent support outfitting all cops with body cameras; and 88 percent training officers to de-escalate conflicts and avoid using force.

But the public largely opposes one policy proposal that has become a rallying cry among protestors in the wake of George Floyds death  defunding police departments, which proponents say would free up money for less violent alternative emergency response programs that involve health care workers, social workers, conflict interrupters, restorative justice teams and community organizers.

Asked whether they would back cuts in funding for police departments, 65 percent of Americans said no. Just 16 percent said yes  a number that held steady across party lines, with Democrats at 16 percent, Republicans at 15 percent and independents at 17 percent.

The only group to show any substantial support for defunding police departments is African-Americans, who are nearly three times as likely as whites  33 percent versus 12 percent  to say they favor the measure.

Cover thumbnail photo: Carlos Barria/Reuters

___________

The Yahoo News survey was conducted by YouGov using a nationally representative sample of 1,060 U.S. adult residents interviewed online May 29-30, 2020. This sample was weighted according to gender, age, race and education, as well as 2016 presidential vote, registration status and news interest. Respondents were selected from YouGovs opt-in panel to be representative of all U.S residents. The margin of error is approximately 4.3 percent.
By Edward VanWagner

The sight was something I never expected to see in my lifetime. Not that I didnt believe that this could happen. I suppose, after 28 years in emergency services, I simply hoped I wouldnt witness such a sight.

The entire emergency department was in chaos. Dont get me wrong. Chaos is normal in any ED in America. But this was different. Very different. Every inch of space was filled with the acutely sick and dying. The hallways were packed with stretchers with grievously ill people. Oxygen tubing was jerry-rigged through the ceiling tiles in all directions, pumping high levels of oxygen to literally dozens of people at the same time who were desperately trying to breathe.

The staff was running in every direction. No one could move fast enough. One anesthesiologist finished intubating an elderly woman when another succumbed two rooms over. He walked over with the laryngoscopy handle still in hand and repeated the procedure in moments.

This was a small excerpt of what I witnessed during the first week of April 2020. My Critical Care Team had been sent to a hospital close to New York City to evacuate multiple patients from a hospital to another less-impacted facility two hours away in South Jersey. Decompressing the hospital they called it.

Day after day, for weeks my colleagues and I raced around to grievously ill and dying COVID-19 patients. When we didnt find someone desperately gasping for life, we were pronouncing people dead who just hours before were awaiting test results to see if, They had it, too.

People just like you and me.

We, as a people, are really good at taking sides. Republican vs Democrat. Pro-this vs anti-that. One tribe vs the other. And now we have another war brewing

On the one side, we have people clamoring for everything to open up again. Shops, gyms, restaurants, salons, etc. A thousand different businesses, activities, events that were delayed or shuttered by the pandemic.

On the other side, we have essential personnel most vocally, the health care workers at the epicenter of this disaster, screaming, HOLD THE LINE! Open up everything? they gasp, are you insane?!

We hear the shouts to let everyone out and cannot fathom the concept.

In the last two months, I have lost track of how many people I have found dead. How many I did CPR futilely on. All the elderly people I fought to keep alive, seeing the look of panic in their eyes, knowing this was the end.

It has changed me to my core.

When the other side speaks of ending the quarantine, well aware there will be a second wave of cases potentially bigger than the first, I take it personally. Deeply personally.

The offense also stems from the pain these weeks have caused all my coworkers. They are changed, too. All of them faced their own mortality. Some filled out their wills. Others stopped seeing their parents and sent their children away. Others have lived in seclusion, afraid to bring home something that would kill their loved ones.

They all feel a degree of hostility toward the concept of getting over all this. When the statement of losing a few old people is ignorantly bandied about, I see them struggle against being thrown into a violent rage.

The thought of a second wave kills us inside. Having to see another tidal wave of people dying slow, painfully, alone. No family. No support. The other side need to appreciate our frustration over all this.

But we also need to appreciate and understand. While we toil away in the hospitals, on the ambulances, in the streets, our fellow Americans, the ones on the other side are suffering. No work. No income. No support.

Their cries to lift the bans come not from a need to return to the way it was but to a source of sustenance and life. Theyre watching their bank accounts dwindle. Their businesses slowly, painfully collapse. Their entire lifes work turned to dust.

Brother and sisters we all need to support each other.

As to when to lift the restrictions, we all need to accept that there is no perfect point.

Too soon, we kill more people. With a disease that shows no mercy in its worst form. Too late we also kill people through the destruction of their businesses, the loss of their job, poverty, depression, drug and alcohol addiction, suicide. Even the strongest of us have a breaking point.

The most critical thing we can all do is to keep the mindset that we are all in this together. America is stronger when were united.

Tomorrow Ill put on my gear and go back to work. I know there will be more deaths. More suffering. The fight is not over.

Edward F. VanWagner, RN , CCRN, CFRN, EMT-P, is a firefighter, paramedic, and critical care nurse from Northern New Jersey.

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The protest Saturday in Hammond was in response to the police death of George Floyd, who died after an officer knelt on his neck for several minutes during an arrest. Floyd's death sparked protests across the country, and the officer who knelt on his neck has been charged with third-degree murder.

After another Facebook user calls Allison "gross," his friend replied, "Bob Allison do I put my wideout in scoop or just straight blade em? Lol."

Allison said in response, "Straight blade em!"

Another Facebook user then calls both men "disgusting."

Allison did not respond to a request for comment from The Times.

But in his posted apology, which came after The Times reached out for comment, he wrote, "Anyone who knows me knows I have devoted my entire adult life to public safety and care for EVERYONE. I would NEVER invoke or intentionally harm anyone."

The Facebook comments refer to Allison being on the Chesterton Fire Department, but a call to the department Saturday revealed he is no longer on the force.
Saudi cleric Hammoud Al-Labban recites the call to prayers as worshippers wearing face masks and observing social distancing guidelines arrive at al-Mirabi Mosque in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia (Amr Nabil/AP)

Tens of thousands of mosques across Saudi Arabia have reopened for the first time in more than two months, but worshippers have been ordered to follow strict guidelines to prevent the spread of coronavirus and Islams holiest site in Mecca remains closed to the public.

The Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, the third holiest site for Muslims after Saudi Arabias Mecca and Medina, also reopened for prayers on Sunday for the first time since it was closed in mid-March.

Throngs waited outside the holy sites gates before it opened, with many wearing surgical masks. As they were allowed to enter, the faithful stopped to have their temperature checked.

Expand Close Worshippers were told in advance that they must wear face masks at all times when attending mosques (Amr Nabil/AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook

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Whatsapp Worshippers were told in advance that they must wear face masks at all times when attending mosques (Amr Nabil/AP)

The mosque was one of Jerusalems many holy sites, including the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and the Western Wall, that were restricted to worshippers at the height of Israels coronavirus outbreak. Throughout that period, worshippers continued to pray in the alleyways outside the mosque.

In Saudi Arabia, the government prepared for the reopening of around 90,000 mosques by sanitising prayer rugs, washrooms and shelves holding copies of the Koran.

The Ministry of Islamic Affairs said millions of text messages were sent to people in multiple languages to inform them about the new rules for public prayer, which include keeping two metres apart, wearing face masks at all times and abstaining from greeting one another with handshakes or hugs.

Children under 15 are not allowed inside mosques, while the elderly and those with chronic conditions are being told to pray at home.

Expand Close Muslims pray next to the Dome of the Rock Mosque in the Al Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem (Mahmoud Illean/AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook

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Whatsapp Muslims pray next to the Dome of the Rock Mosque in the Al Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem (Mahmoud Illean/AP)

People are advised to perform the mandatory ablution at home since washrooms at mosques will be closed, to use hand sanitiser and to bring their own prayer rugs and copies of the Koran.

The restrictions call for mosques to open just 15 minutes before each of the five daily prayers and to close 10 minutes after they conclude. Friday sermons and prayers are to last no longer than 15 minutes.

The new measures come as Saudi Arabia and other countries around the world begin to loosen restrictions and stay-at-home orders following weeks of curfews and lockdowns.

However the Grand Mosque in Mecca, which houses the cube-shaped Kaaba that Muslims around the world pray towards, will remain closed to the public. The city has been under a strict lockdown for several weeks.

Expand Close A worshipper wears gloves to prevent the spread of Covid-19 as mosques reopened across Saudi Arabia (Amr Nabil/AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook

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The mosque in Medina where the Prophet Muhammad is buried will be partially opened to the public to pray outside.

The continued closure of Mecca points to the increasing likelihood that the kingdom may suspend this years annual Muslim hajj pilgrimage, which falls in late July. A senior Saudi official has already told prospective pilgrims not to plan for the hajj this year amid the global pandemic.

Despite taking early and unprecedented measures to curb the spread of the virus, Saudi Arabia has recorded more than 83,000 cases, including 480 deaths.

Meanwhile, Israel has weathered the coronavirus storm better than some. It has recorded fewer than 300 deaths and has managed to mostly keep its daily infection count to the low dozens since the beginning of May.

But it also imposed severe restrictions which have battered its economy and sent its unemployment rate skyrocketing. Many of those restrictions, including on places of worship, began to be eased earlier this month.
India on Sunday expelled two officials of the Pakistan High Commission on charges of spying and asked them to leave the country within 24 hours, the Ministry of External Affairs said. The two officials were apprehended by Indian law enforcement authorities for indulging in espionage activities.

"The government has declared both these officials persona non grata for indulging in activities incompatible with their status as members of a diplomatic mission and asked them to leave the country within twenty four hours," the MEA said in a statement.

The two officers, who worked in the visa section of the Pakistan High Commission, were caught red handed while engaged in anti-India activity in New Delhi.

Also Read: India-China row: Talks continue without success; PLA carries on troop build-up along border

"Pakistan's Charge de Affaires was issued a demarche in which a strong protest was lodged with regard to the activities of these officials of the High Commission of Pakistan against India's national security," it said.

Besides, Pakistan's Charge de Affairs were asked to ensure that no member of its diplomatic mission should indulge in activities inimical to India or behave in manner incompatible with their diplomatic status.

In a similar incident in 2016, a Pakistan High Commission staffer official Mehmood Akhtar was declared persona non grata after he was caught receiving sensitive documents.

Also Read: Herd immunity as coronavirus strategy too risky for India: CSIR DG
The promulgation of new security law for Hong Kong by China has resulted in a sharp increase in inquiries for immigration from the former British colony especially the city's residents who emigrated en masse there when it returned to the Chinese control in 1997.

Immigration consultants have fielded hundreds of new calls since China's legislature - the National People's Congress (NPC) - unveiled the controversial plan on May 21, bypassing the local legislature, Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported on Sunday.

The legislation was subsequently approved by the NPC, much on the expected lines with an overwhelming majority on May 28, prompting US President Donald Trump to order the removal of exemptions that gave Hong Kong special status.

Trump said on Saturday that Hong Kong has no longer sufficiently autonomous from China to enjoy the special privileges with the US, in place since it left the British control in 1997.

The new law under which China can establish the presence of its security forces in Hong Kong for the first-time evoked strong protests from thousands of local people. The protests were expected to be intensified in the coming weeks.

China says the new law is aimed at throttling secession, subversion, terrorism, foreign interference or activities that threaten national security.

With Hong Kong now becoming the centre of the emerging Cold War between the US and China, a number of local people especially the city's rich are looking to migrate to different countries.

Some are accelerating their decision to buy property overseas, while others are cutting their asking price for local properties, immigration consultancy firms in Hong Kong said.

"The day after that proposal, we received over a hundred calls," said Andrew Lo, chief executive at Anlex, a Hong Kong-based immigration consultancy firm. "People are restless. They ask if they can leave the next day," he told the Post.

Requests for emigration advice have jumped as a result, breaking a lull caused by the coronavirus pandemic, according to Midland Immigration Consultancy.

While the latest number in applications for good citizenship is not yet available, analysts expect them to rise with political temperature, the report said.

"People who were just engaging us on basic information before are now firmly committing by putting down deposits," Gillott said, citing one customer who asked to move his "millions and millions of dollars" to Portugal. "Never seen that before."

The political factor has encouraged some high-net-worth individuals defined as those having more than HKD 10 million ($1.29 million) of wealth to diversify their assets into other cities like London, Singapore and Taiwan.

Taiwan, which is having a stormy relationship with China as Beijing claims the territory to be part of the Chinese mainland, is an attractive destination for many seeking to flee the turmoil in Hong Kong. The self-ruling island allows foreigners to gain citizenship with $199,680 in investments in a business that hires local staff.

Almost 2,400 Hongkongers filed residency applications for Taiwan from January to April this year, compared to 948 last year in the same period, said Midland's director of strategy Tina Cheng, citing government data.

In all, 5,585 people left Hong Kong for Taiwan in 2019, an increase of 41 per cent, the government said.

Despite the interest in Taiwan, the top destinations remain English-speaking countries such as Ireland, Canada, and Australia.

A common language, quality educational systems, and professional opportunities are some reasons those countries are attractive, said John Hu, who has been involved in the migration consultancy business for two decades.

"We're seeing a four to fivefold increase in cases," said Hu, founder and principal consultant of John Hu Migration Consulting. "Now they see the urgency. They ask the question, which type of visa has the shortest processing time?"

Some homeowners are selling their properties to fund their emigration plans. One flat measuring 785 square feet at The Waterside in Ma On Shan this week changed hands at HKD 9.99 million, about HKD 150,000 below bank valuation, as the owner was in a rush to cash in and emigrate, said Christy Chan, chief senior sales manager at Midland Realty.

Vancouver-based property agent Devons Owens has seen a big demand from Hong Kong buyers, some of whom are Canadian passport holders.

"There's definitely increasing demand," she said. "I would say it's jumped compared to before."

For those looking to the European Union, Golden Visa Portugal offers a pipeline for passports from property investments. Starting at 350,000 euros, investors can obtain residency and eventually Portuguese citizenship in five years.
The Chairman, Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Nasarawa State chapter, Joseph Masin, who was abducted by gunmen on Thursday in Lafia has regained his freedom.

Bola Longe, the Commissioner of Police (CP) in the state, confirmed the release of the CAN chairman to journalists on Sunday in Lafia.

Mr Longe said that four suspects have been arrested in connection with the abduction and that investigation was ongoing to arrest all those involved.

He, however, denied knowledge of any ransom being paid to secure the release of the CAN chairman.

READ ALSO:

The police commissioner added that all the suspects would be charged to court for prosecution as soon as investigation was concluded.

Corroborating the release, Sam Joseph, the son of the CAN Chairman, told journalists that his father regained his freedom at about 11:45 p.m. on Saturday, around Lizhi village in Nasarawa-Eggon Local Government Area of the state.

He said the bishop, however, arrived his Bukan-sidi residence in Lafia at about 2:00 a.m on Sunday and had been taken for medical examination in an undisclosed hospital.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), recalls that the state CAN Chairman, who is also the Bishop and General-Overseer of World of God Worldwide Gospel City, was abducted by gunmen from his residence in Lafia on May 28, and taken away on a motorcycle according to family source.

The abductors later contacted the family and demanded N20 million ransom for his release.

(NAN)

SDJ/ACA/IU
Syracuse, N.Y.  Looters targeted two StreeTgame shoe stores in Syracuse overnight, making off with merchandise and leading to the arrest of two Syracuse residents, according to court papers.

The looting happened in the aftermath of a police brutality protest in the city Saturday that spanned into the early hours this morning.

Cassandra Williams, 25, and Delvon Adams, 28, are both charged with third-degree burglary, a felony. Adams was also charged with petit larceny, a misdemeanor.

Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick said Sunday morning that their arrests were made in the aftermath of protests over the death of George Floyd that turned chaotic late Saturday night and early Sunday morning.

Adams is accused of being part of a large scale roving riot through downtown Syracuse when he entered StreeTgame shoe store, 341 S. Salina St., around 12:15 a.m. Sunday, according to a felony complaint filed in Syracuse City Court this afternoon.

Police found him with a pair of Nike Air Max 97 sneakers hidden in his jacket, police said. The shoes retail for around $170, according to Nike.

Williams was charged with entering a different StreeTgame store at 2600 Erie Blvd. E., around 10:45 p.m.

In a statement to New York State Police, store manager Jisang Park said a friend told him that they saw a live video on Facebook of people breaking into the store. When Park arrived, he saw a window had been broken and people were stealing items from the store.

Park told police he tried to stop them, but was outnumbered and for his own safety, went across the street to Fuccillo Hyundai car dealership, where he watched cars after cars going into the store parking lot before police arrived.

In Parks statement, he said police told him that they had a person in custody who was caught in the building with merchandise in her hand. Despite that, Williams was not charged with larceny, according to court documents.

Both were arraigned virtually in city court today. Williams was released on her own recognizance, while Adams was held without bail due to a probation violation. He had been sentenced on March 3 to one year of probation stemming from a petit larceny conviction, according to court records.

MORE ON PROTESTS

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Cuomo puts NYs National Guard on standby as he expects more protests tonight

How George Floyd protests in Syracuse went from peaceful to chaotic

Violence, looting in Upstate NY: Protests turn ugly in Buffalo, Albany, Rochester (videos)
In an official statement on May 20, the synod of the Orthodox Church of Moldova urged the government to make any eventual vaccine against the deadly coronavirus voluntary.

"Societies in many European countries are protesting against the mandatory use of vaccines, particularly vaccines against COVID-19, because they view them as an opportunity for the global system of anti-Christs to introduce microchips into the human body and control people with the help of 5G technology," the statement said.

It was a bizarre cocktail of fashionable conspiracy theories, many of which have coalesced around the development of the next generation of wireless data services known as "5G." And the church in Moldova is not alone in such thinking.

On May 2, the head of Russia's North Ossetia region, Vyacheslav Bitarov, told journalists that vandals had destroyed a cell-phone tower in the village of Nogir out of fears of some connection between 5G technology and the coronavirus.

"A lot of people are saying there is no coronavirus and there is no danger, but that it is all organized by some global forces that are interested in forcing people...onto reservations and then irradiate them from 5G antennae so that they would lose consciousness and then be implanted with microchips," Bitarov was quoted by TASS as saying. "There are a lot of people who think like that."

Such unfounded allegations play upon and bolster widespread public skepticism of governments in matters of health and safety. And they are particularly insidious during the current global health crisis, as they threaten to drown out necessary, science-based information about the deadly COVID-19 pandemic and how to effectively combat the spread of the coronavirus.

Any link between 5G technology and COVID-19 is "complete rubbish," Simon Clarke, an associate professor of cellular microbiology at the University of Reading told the BBC. Stephen Powis, England medical director of the U.K.'s National Health Service, has said the claims of a link are "the worst kind of fake news."

The Origin Story

Fifth-generation (5G) cellular-network technology began being deployed globally in 2019. It promises greater bandwidth and much faster data transmission, up to 10 gigabits a second -- or about 100 times faster than current 4G technology.

This is achieved, however, by using a higher radio frequency than 4G networks. Some of the frequencies used only travel about 1.6 kilometers and have trouble penetrating certain construction materials. As a result, a 5G network requires a much denser deployment of antennae. As of April 2019, operators in 88 countries had begun deploying 5G technology.

Almost immediately, however, anti-5G groups began forming on social media. People posted fake photographs of radiation-warning signs supposedly attached to 5G antennae, for instance. Unsubstantiated and debunked claims ran wild that the technology caused cancer or mental illness, that it killed trees and wildlife, and so on.

The anti-5G movement found eager allies in the larger movement of people who oppose all types of mandatory vaccinations -- anti-vaxxers -- and in many countries, such as Romania, the movements virtually merged.

Small protests were seen around the world.

A May 2019 feature in The New York Times noted that RT America, the Russian state-funded broadcast network in the United States, had published one anti-5G story in 2018, but seven in the first four months of 2019, including one claiming that children were particularly susceptible to cancer and other illnesses purportedly caused by radiation from 5G systems.

"Hundreds of blogs and websites appear to be picking up [RT's] 5G alarms, seldom if ever noting the Russian origins," the Times piece argued. "Analysts call it a treacherous fog."

The International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) has conducted a long-running study that has concluded there are no health hazards associated with the types of radio-wave radiation used by 5G.

Along Came Coronavirus

When the global COVID-19 pandemic emerged in early 2020, numerous unfounded conspiracy theories attempted to link the virus with 5G technology. Some argued that 5G radiation weakened the immune system and left people vulnerable to the illness. Others went further and claimed the virus was actually transmitted by 5G signals. Some, like the Orthodox Church in Moldova, argued that 5G technology and an eventual coronavirus vaccine were part of a massive mind-control plot.

A number of celebrities, including actor Woody Harrelson, boxer Amir Khan, television celebrity Amanda Holden, and others posted the dubious claims on their social-media accounts. Some have claimed erroneously that a new design of Britains 20-pound note contains secret symbols of a 5G tower and the coronavirus.

Such misinformation, which has been dubbed "the coronavirus infodemic," spread like wildfire, according to the Swedish data firm Earhart Business Protection Agency. Earhart tracked 35 of the most popular 5G-coronavirus videos that appeared on social media in January and found that within weeks they had been viewed nearly 13 million times. The popular video-sharing application TikTok has emerged as "a very powerful tool" targeting younger audiences, the study found.

The unfounded rumors sparked a global wave of vandalism against 5G antennae and objects believed to be connected to 5G networks. More than 70 5G masts have been damaged or destroyed in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the Department of Homeland Security issued a warning that such conspiracy theories linking 5G and COVID-19 "are inciting attacks against the communications infrastructure."

RFE/RL's Coronavirus Crisis Archive Features and analysis, videos, and infographics explore how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting the countries in our region.

"Violent extremists have drawn from misinformation campaigns online that claim wireless infrastructure is deleterious to human health and helps spread COVID-19, resulting in a global effort by like-minded individuals to share operational guidance and justification for conducting attacks against 5G infrastructure, some of which have already prompted arson and physical attacks against cell towers in several U.S. states," the warning said.

StratCom, the European Councils task force on disinformation within the European Union and its neighborhood, concluded in a report in April that such conspiracy theories have found "fertile soil in the Western Balkans, where disinformation that the 5G network is causing the [COVID-19] pandemic has spread on social networks and portals."

Chernobyl Syndrome

The World Health Organization (WHO) and others have responded to the 5G misinformation by actively countering it. The WHO has created a page on its website devoted to debunking 5G conspiracies, as have other fact-checking organizations. The British fact checker Full Fact, for instance, regularly examines bogus 5G claims.

However, such baseless conspiracy theories often gain traction because of growing public mistrust of governments in the areas of health and safety. Such mistrust has been exploited and cultivated by the anti-vaccination movements.

In a recent interview with RFE/RL, Nobel Prize-winning Belarusian author Svetlana Alexievich seemed to endorse the 5G conspiracy theories.

The pandemic "is the biggest challenge since Chernobyl," she said, referring to the 1986 accident and meltdown at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union. "It remains to be seen whether this is really the flu or whether 5G affects the human immune system. In my opinion, scientists have no definitive conviction."

Although no reputable scientific study has confirmed any of the conspiracy claims about 5G and coronavirus, Alexievich's comparison to Chernobyl is noteworthy.

That incident has become notorious as an example of government indifference to public health, as the Soviet government hid the scope of the disaster for weeks and exposed its own citizens to grievous immediate and long-term health hazards. It is an example often cited by 5G conspiracy theorists -- along with others such as the thalidomide scandal of the 1950s and 1960s, and the Tuskegee syphilis experiment -- when arguing that governments are not to be trusted.

The Full Fact fact-checking website has argued that "simply asking Internet companies to delete this content is not an adequate response in a free society, is unlikely to work, and could even make things worse."

"People are understandably scared, stressed, and confused, and we need to take that into account in any response," the website concluded. "Not everybody will be convinced. Some people just like conspiracy theories, and they may not be persuaded by the facts. But as the fears around 5G have entered the mainstream, it's on all of us to counter these arguments head-on with clear, high-quality information to convince those who have questions and concerns, rather than simply dismiss them as foolish."

COVID-19 is a serious, infectious disease caused by a newly discovered coronavirus that emerged in Wuhan, China, in late 2019. The virus is transmitted primarily through droplets of saliva or nasal discharge dispersed when an infected person coughs or sneezes. According to the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center, there have been more the 6 million confirmed coronavirus infections globally as of May 31 and more than 365,000 fatalities.
For Subscribers Senate votes to increase Partners in Education tax credit program

Senators voted to increase the amount of money the Partners in Education tax credit program can give out for scholarships to private school students.
Canada's prime minister has said the country is exploring easing restrictions currently preventing some close family members from entering Canada through the U.S. border.

Trudeau: Canada looking to ease travel for families Canada's prime minister has said the country is exploring easing restrictions currently preventing some close family members from entering Canada through the U.S. border.

Trudeau: Canada looking to ease travel for families Canada's prime minister has said the country is exploring easing restrictions currently preventing some close family members from entering Canada through the U.S. border.

Trudeau: Canada looking to ease travel for families Canada's prime minister has said the country is exploring easing restrictions currently preventing some close family members from entering Canada through the U.S. border. Kareem El-Assal Aa Accessibility Font Style Serif

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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has stated that Canada is exploring easing travel restrictions that currently prevent some individuals from crossing the U.S. border to enter Canada to reunite with their family.

Trudeau made the remarks during his daily coronavirus briefing to the Canadian public on Friday May 29.

The Canada-U.S. border was first closed to non-essential travel effective Saturday March 20th by mutual agreement as both countries sought to reduce the spread of COVID-19.

The travel restrictions were initially put in place for 30 days, but have since been extended on two occasions, including most recently on May 20th.

Among those exempt from the travel restrictions include essential workers, and immediate family members of Canadian citizens and permanent residents, as long as said family members are travelling to Canada for non-discretionary purposes.

Immediate family members have been defined as spouses, common-law partners, dependent children, grandchildren, parents, step-parents, guardians, and tutors.

Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) has been provided guidelines on how to define non-discretionary travel.

CBSA is turning away immediate family from entering Canada if it deems the purpose of the trip to be non-essential.

During his remarks, Trudeau recognized the challenging nature of the restrictions for families and said he was hoping to seek a resolution.

However, he noted that easing travel restrictions is cause for concern among Canadas provinces, who he has been consulting with on this matter.

In fact, Trudeau noted that this issue was brought up as recently as the evening of Thursday May 28 when he spoke with provincial premiers.

According to the Prime Minister, some premiers expressed openness to easing travel rules for families on grounds of compassion, while other premiers felt that doing so could make efforts to contain COVID-19 more challenging.

Trudeau concluded by saying that the federal and provincial governments will continue to explore this topic while keeping the safety and security of Canadians at the forefront of the ultimate decision that is taken.

Canada has had special immigration, visa, and travel measures in place since the middle of March.

PM Trudeau announces $650M for COVID-19 response in Indigenous communities  May 29, 2020 Speaking from outside his home in Ottawa, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau discusses the federal governments response to the ongoing COVID-19 (coronavirus dise

Learn more about Canadian family sponsorship

Need assistance with the Temporary Work Permit application process? Contact wp@canadavisa.com.

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NWS

Tropical Storm Amanda has developed in the Pacific south of Mexico with maximum sustained winds of 40 miles per hour, according to the National Hurricane Center. Early Sunday morning, the National Hurricane Center officially called the low aTropical Storm Amanda. The system is expected to dissipate before it moves into the Gulf of Mexico next week.

The storm has a 50 percent chance of development over the next five days, according to NHC.
Family members of Ghanaian musician Bice Osei Kufour popularly known as Obour have rubbished a report by myjoyonline that Obours father, Nana Osei Boansi who allegedly died of Covid-19, was laid in state on the blind side of state authorities.

A family member of the musician who gave her name as Agnes Assiamah Boakye, in an interview captured by Attractive Mustapha said we were told he died of Covid-19. and there were rumors that he had been cremated because of the alleged cause of his death. Due to his traditional status as a revered chief prior to his death, the family had to dispel the rumors.

She explained that they sought permission from authorities for Nana Osei Boansi to be laid in the state for few people to see him and pay their last respect which was fully granted by the appropriate authorities.

She added that they also bought a coffin made of a proper class to prevent people from having direct contact with the body.

Nana Boansi Osei Kuffour who died on 27th March, 2020 shortly after returning from a UK trip was the chief of the Juaso Oyoko clan.
City of Laredo and Webb County officials have confirmed two new cases of the novel coronavirus in their daily update. The added cases bring the city's total of positives to 548.

Fourteen people are currently hospitalized in Laredo with COVID-19.
LONDON (Reuters) - The Lloyd's of London insurance market said on Friday it is considering combining its physical underwriting floor in the City of London with some online elements. Lloyd's shut its 'underwriting room' in its London tower on March 19 in response to the coronavirus pandemic and has said it will not reopen before August, marking the first closure of physical trading in the commercial insurance market's 330-year history

LONDON (Reuters) - The Lloyd's of London insurance market said on Friday it is considering combining its physical underwriting floor in the City of London with some online elements.

Lloyd's shut its "underwriting room" in its London tower on March 19 in response to the coronavirus pandemic and has said it will not reopen before August, marking the first closure of physical trading in the commercial insurance market's 330-year history.

The closure of the underwriting floor, usually packed with brokers and underwriters, meant the market went fully online for the first time, potentially opening the way for its operations to go digital on a more permanent basis.

Underwriters and brokers say the market, which employs nearly 50,000 people, has run smoothly with greater use of existing electronic systems and they are in no hurry to return to the office.

Jennifer Rigby, Chief Operations Officer at Lloyd's, said in a video posted on YouTube on May 28 that the market was planning to experiment with combining the best features of the physical underwriting room "with a virtual room that is available to visit, no matter where in the world you are."

"This clearly has been fast-tracked."

The plan is in development as part of the market's Future at Lloyd's programme to shift to electronic exchanges, though Lloyd's has previously said there would always be a place for a physical underwriting floor.

Lloyd's already uses virtual reality headsets to show brokers overseas how the market operates, a Lloyd's spokesman said.

A more detailed update on Lloyd's' future will be issued in July, Lloyd's said in a progress report on Friday.

The insurance industry has proved its perfectly capable of supporting clients remotely with a near to normal service," said Jon Turner, CEO of broker Gallagher's specialty division.

"A packed trading floor feels like a distant memory."

(Reporting by Carolyn Cohn. Editing by Jane Merriman)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
What Does "Turn the Other Cheek" Mean?

At first glance, we might think this verse teaches that no matter what someone does to us, we are to look the other way. We are not to take any actions against our aggressors. This could not be farther from the truth. This verse is not saying that we are to let people do whatever they want to us. Rather, it is saying that God will handle it.

Looking deeper into Scripture, we find many examples of what Christians are to do when someone wrongs them. In John 18, Jesus is struck in the face by an official of the high priest. His response was to question why he was struck in the face. He asked the official to tell him what he said that was an untruth. John 19:3 states that Jesus was struck in the face again when he was sentenced to be crucified.

Looking back into the Old Testament, we see David sparing Sauls life again and again. 1 Samuel 26:9-11 tells us that David left the punishment of Saul to the Lord.

As Christians, we are going to face persecution. We may even get a slap in the face. What this verse tells us is that we are not to get revenge. We are not appointed to punish the people who wrong us. We are to love them and let God do with them what He will. God has the sole power to punish people who sin, not us.

Who Is Saying This?

The life of Jesus up to this point in Scripture has been rather eventful. He had been tested by the devil himself, learned that John the Baptist had been imprisoned, and made his new home in Capernaum. Jesus began to preach throughout Galilee and called his twelve disciples.

When Jesus told the people they should turn the other cheek, he was preaching at the famous Sermon on the Mount. This portion of Scripture is what Christians today label the Beatitudes. This is referring to the declarations of blessedness. It is a call to moral living for all that hear him. People from all over Syria, Judea, Galilee, the Decapolis, and areas beyond the Jordan River came to hear Jesus speak.

Photo credit: Getty Images/fizkes
Riots erupted in cities across the country this weekend after the death of George Floyd, and the destruction was widely condemned by the president, local elected officials and many members of the African American community. (Dictionaries define "riots" as "a violent public disorder, specifically: a tumultuous disturbance of the public peace by three or more persons assembled together and acting with a common intent.")

On social media, users called the arson and looting "disgusting" and "reprehensible." In response to a trail of vandalism across downtown Louisville, Kentucky, where EMT Breonna Taylor was fatally shot by police in March, Mayor Greg Fischer said the "violence and destruction is absolutely unacceptable." President Donald Trump called the protesters in Minneapolis thugs.

Historians and sociologists said reflexively condemning the actions as reckless or self-defeating minimizes the extent of people's rage. Floyd's death has become part of an all too familiar pattern of confrontations between police and African Americans who lose their lives over minor offenses. For all the denouncements, there are many who say the riots are actions of those who have exhausted every other way to be heard.

'A riot is the language of the unheard': MLK's powerful quote resonates amid Floyd protests

A protester holds a sign that quotes Martin Luther King Jr. on violence in front of a burned-out building in Minneapolis during a demonstration May 28 over the death of George Floyd.

"I'm 58 years old now. I don't remember a year that there wasn't half a dozen cases, spectacular cases of police violence. You could do a New York Times front page, just like you did of the COVID deaths, and easily get 100,000 names, beginning in 1960, of people who died," said Robin Kelley, a professor of history at UCLA who studies social movements in the USA. "My wife asked me this question last night, 'Do you think this is right?' I said, 'What other choice do people have?' "

The riots, experts said, are demands for justice among those who claim they've been unfairly targeted for years. They ignite when people feel as though they have nothing left to lose, when the usual channels for affecting change in a democracy  nonviolent protest, voting  have been ineffective.

Story continues

People need not condone the riots, experts said, but they ought to understand them.

Top lookups, in order:



fascism

racism

white supremacist

riot

martial law

thug

protest

antifa

curfew

loot

justice

anarchy

praxis  Merriam-Webster (@MerriamWebster) May 31, 2020

What is 'violence?' Definitions matter

Many news headlines used the word "violent" to describe the escalating demonstrations.

Kelley questions the term's use when "violence" is defined as attacks against property, rather than against people.

For nearly nine minutes, white Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on Floyd's neck as he pleaded for his life, gasping for air and calling for his mother. Most rioters set fires, sprayed graffiti and smashed vehicles.

Language choices matter: The term "riot" is loaded, and it's why many use "rebellion," instead, experts said. One suggests reckless violence. The other signifies political resistance to oppression.

"The term 'riot' tends to connote a senseless venting of frustration, of destroying your own community and all these other things that are counterproductive, as if there couldn't be political value in urban unrest and forcing the system to examine itself," said Darnell Hunt, dean of social sciences and a professor of sociology and African American studies at UCLA.

George Floyd protests: How did we get here?

Video adds to trauma: 'When is the last time you saw a white person killed online?'

Hunt argued that the term "looting" minimizes the political implications of what people are doing when they rob stores.

During the LA riots in 1992, which erupted after four LAPD officers were acquitted in the beating of Rodney King, there were scenes of people "looting" basic necessities, he said.

"You had a huge immigrant population that was barely getting by, barely surviving, and people were going to drugstores and 'looting' diapers, things to make ends meet in their families," he said. "To minimize that as just, 'Oh, people are just looting,' completely robbed it of the political content and the political possibilities that people are trying to communicate by taking a risk and getting involved."

Police stations, liquor stores: Symbols attacked

Experts said it's important to pay close attention to what rioters set ablaze.

"It is tragic, and it is a loss of people's livelihoods in many cases. But when you actually look at what's being burned and what's being destroyed, and what's being saved, there's an interesting pattern," Kelley said.

Often what's destroyed are symbols of violence and oppression, he said: In Minneapolis, the police station. In Ferguson, Missouri, the convenience store where Michael Brown was accused of stealing. In city after city, liquor stores, which many see as complicit in the subjugation of their communities.

A protester argues that property damage can be repaired May 28 in front of a burned-out building in Minneapolis after the death of George Floyd.

Hunt said that during the LA riots, businesses that were spray-painted "minority owned" were largely left alone. He said he's seen similar graffiti in Minneapolis. Many businesses are boarded up, with messages spray-painted on the plywood. Please dont burn, one read. Babies inside.

"People are making the distinction between businesses that are owned by these large multinational corporations versus those owned by people in the community who, like them, are struggling to get by," Hunt said.

When civility leads to death, revolting is the only logical reaction.



The cries for peace will rain down, and when they do, they will land on deaf ears, because your violence has brought this resistance.



We have the right to fight back!



Rest in Power George Floyd  Colin Kaepernick (@Kaepernick7) May 28, 2020

Contributing: Trevor Hughes

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: George Floyd 'riots,' 'violence,' 'looting': Words matter, experts say
SAND LAKE, N.Y.  State Police in Schodack recently arrested a Sand Lake woman on 54 counts of felony criminal possession of a forged instrument and possession of stolen property.

Grace M. Coons, 41, was charged with 54 counts of felony criminal possession of a forged instrument and 54 counts of misdemeanor fifth-degree criminal possession of stolen property.

Coons is accused of stealing checks from the mailbox of a town of Berlin resident, endorsing the checks, and then depositing them in her personal account. The thefts took place over a month-long period and totaled more than $2,000, according to police.

Initially, police said the victim told troopers that a $100 check had been taken from her mailbox.

After an investigation into the theft by state police members, they determined that there had been 54 checks taken by Coons.

Coons was arrested and processed at State Police barracks Schodack. She was arraigned by Rensselaer County Court and turned over to probation. She is due back in court on a later date.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 31

By Ilkin Seyfaddini - Trend:

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Uzbekistan increased by 41 to 3,554, Trend reports on May 31 with reference to the Ministry of Health.

To date, 2,783 patients have fully recovered in the country, 14 have died.

Uzbekistan has previously divided the country into certain "red", "yellow" and "green" zones, with regards to the level of COVID-19 pandemic spread level.

The Special Republican Commission for the preparation of a program of measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in Uzbekistan has extended the quarantine until June 15, 2020.

Since May 15, the commission has lifted some restrictions on certain activities in Uzbekistan.

The "red" zones include Uzbekistan's Karakalpakstan Autonomous Republic, Andijan, Namangan, Fergana, Samarkand, Bukhara, Syrdarya and Tashkent regions (also divided into zones).

The "yellow" zones include Khorezm region and Tashkent city.

The "green" zones include Jizzakh, Kashkadarya and Surkhandarya regions.

Recently, Navoi region was transferred from "green" zone to the "red" zone.

Moreover, Uzbekistan declared Jizzakh, Kashkadarya and Surkhandarya regions were declared free from COVID-19.

The first case of coronavirus infection in Uzbekistan was detected on March 15 in the laboratory of the Research Institute of Virology; it was an Uzbek woman who returned from France. The Ministry of Health later announced that her son, daughter, husband and grandson also tested coronavirus-positive.

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Follow author on Twitter: @seyfaddini
Srinagar, May 31 : Alarmed by a number of coronavirus cases among people who entered Jammu and Kashmir, a senior doctor on Sunday advised testing of people before they were allowed to travel to the Union Territory by any mode of transporation.

Dr Naveed Shah, Superintendent of Srinagar Chest Diseases Hospital, tweeted: "Seeing the travellers who test positive for Covid-19, we should get travellers getting into our UT tested outside before they enter... be it air or road travel." The standard practice at present is that people are tested for COVID-19 on their arrival in the Union Territory and shifted to institutional quarantine if the results are positive.

More than five dozen people who went to J&K from outside by train or air in recent days have tested positive so far.
Latin America's beleaguered airlines will take up to three years to recover losses due to the coronavirus pandemic, and in the meantime desperately need government help, according to experts surveying the damage to the industry. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) estimates it will take at least that time for the region's airlines to inch back to their pre-pandemic level for domestic and regional flights. Long-haul services to the United States and Europe will take until 2024 to come back, it says. "It's a long-range view; it will not be short term. It will take a lot of work," said Peter Cerda, IATA vice president for the Americas. Evidence of the severity of the crisis came last week when the region's two largest airlines, Chilean-Brazilian LATAM and Colombia's Avianca, filed for bankruptcy in the United States. With countries across the region in lockdown, flight activity has plummeted 93 percent from around 200,000 a day, with losses in revenue estimated at $18 billion. Cerda says that figure is likely to increase. The IATA official says the impact to the industry is even worse than the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. "We are going to have airlines that are not going to be able to recover, that will have to shut down their operations for good," he said. After almost three months of lockdowns and restrictions on movement across the region, airlines have run out of cash and government support is "urgent," he says. - 'Not a rescue' - "What we are asking for is not a financial rescue. It's support, immediate relief that allows the industry to sustain operations," said Cerda. Airlines are seeking tax relief and credit guarantees from governments. Globally, government aid to the airline sector stands at $123 billion, including $300 million from Latin America, according to IATA. "Airports and airlines as well as governments are all losing out at this juncture," because of the lack of connectivity across the continent, says Fernando Gomez Suarez, an aviation industry analyst in Mexico. Governments are conscious of the broader effects and Chile is considering a bailout for LATAM, seeing the airline as vital to the economy, and seeking to preserve 10,000 direct jobs as well as the livelihood of up to 200,000 people the government says are dependent on the airline indirectly. The company has already cut 1,800 of its total 42,000 staff. The company is also holding discussions with the governments of Brazil, Peru and Colombia to save jobs there. - Negotiations - In Brazil, the largest internal market in the region with 90 million passengers a year, private banks headed by a development bank have granted a $1.1 billion loan to its three largest airlines -- Gol, Azul and LATAM. Gol and Azul first had to agree to cut executive salaries and provide special rates and packages to stimulate recovery. In Mexico, the region's largest destination for foreign tourists, Tourism Minister Miguel Torruco insisted his country would continue to have "strong, solid airlines." IATA said talks are underway with the government to reduce airline charges. The country's largest, Aeromexico, will resume some routes starting Monday, though ratings agency S&P lowered its credit rating this week due to the possibility of its debt being "unsustainable." In Argentina, state-owned Aerolineas Argentinas announced a merger with its subsidiary Austral this month to reduce infrastructure and staff to save up to $100 million. IATA meanwhile warned about the impact of the government's decision to keep Argentina's airspace closed until September. - Keep flying - Airline workers who escaped mass layoffs have had to take full or partial wage cuts to keep their jobs. "Imagine losing half or more of your salary... and the bills keep coming in," says Jose de Jesus Suarez, spokesman for the Mexican pilots union ASPA, whose members have gone from six flights a week to just one or two a month. Analyst Gomez Suarez says the markets left vacant by stricken airlines will quickly be absorbed by others. And he says their most urgent challenge will be to harmonize new health protocols between countries, which will mean higher costs for passengers. "People will keep flying. Of course, they will have to change their habits and customs." Latin America's biggest airline, the Brazilian-Chilean group LATAM, filed for bankruptcy in the US in May, after which its shares plunged 35 percent in the Santiago stock exchange An Aeromexico airlines plane lands at Mexico City's Benito Juarez airport on May 20, 2020 A hall at Benito Juarez International airport in Mexico City on May 20, 2020 Passengers at the Avianca check-in area in Mexico City's Benito Juarez airport on May 20, 2020 Latin American airlines face $15 billion in losses over the coronavirus pandemic LATAM airlines aircraft sit on the tarmac at Santiago airport
Sher Bahadur Deuba to take oath as new Prime Minister of Nepal today

Our friendship with India and China remains of 'paramount importance': Nepal at UN

Nepal all set to clear controversial new map amid border row with India

India

oi-Deepika S

New Delhi, May 31: Nepal government is all set to update new map, which includes a stretch of land high in the mountains that India claims as its own, with the ruling Left alliance moving a constitution amendment bill today.

The bill seeks to modify the Nepal map to include Indian territories of Limpiyadhura, Kapalpani and Lipulekh, which Nepal claims as its own.

Last week, after Nepal made public its new map, claiming territory under India's control, the government hit back saying that the revised official map was a unilateral act and not based on facts.

India wants environment of trust before talks with Nepal

Anurag Srivastava, spokesperson Ministry of External Affairs said that what Nepal did was contrary to the bilateral understanding to resolve outstanding boundary issues through diplomatic dialogue. Such artificial enlargement of territorial claims will not be accepted by India, he also said.

Coronavirus: Delhi seeks Rs.5000 Cr from centre to pay employees | Oneindia News

India also urged Nepal to refrain from such unjustified cartographic assertion and respect India's sovereignty and territorial integrity. We hope that Nepalese leadership will create a positive atmosphere for diplomatic dialogue to resolve the outstanding boundary issues, the MEA spokesperson also said.

Last week Nepal's cabinet endorsed a new political map showing Lipulekh, Kalapani and Limpiyadhura under its territory, amid a border dispute with India.
(Natural News) As excited as many Americans probably are about pulling the lever for Donald Trump again this fall, the prospect of wide-scale voter fraud is really putting a damper on things.

Of pressing concern is the sudden push for mail-in voting in response to the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19). Many Democrats claim this is the only way to keep people safe from a second wave, but is there more to it than that?

In recent days, Big Tech has also put its censorship agenda into overdrive, targeting not just the domains of Natural News and Brighteon but also President Trumps Twitter account.

This relentless attack on free speech is truly unprecedented. And when you couple it with both the pandemic and growing civil unrest, what we are witnessing is a recipe for absolute disaster this November.

Tech giants like Facebook and Twitter are doing their part to foment politically targeted hits against conservatives, all the while propping up Joe Biden  and by proxy his potential replacement, should he be deemed mentally unfit  as Trumps successor.

The whole thing smells of a setup, which is why Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, is calling for Americans to withdraw their consent from the 2020 election until every element of rigging can be rooted out of the process.

Even the president himself is calling for major justice against Silicon Valley, the political biases of which threaten to undo the very foundations of our constitutional republic.

If Trump wanted to resolve this problem literally overnight, his best option is to seize the domain names of the tech giants and force them to respect the First Amendment or be shut down, Adams writes.

Be sure to listen below to The Health Ranger Report as Adams issues a public plea for free speech to be protected, no matter the cost:

What do you think should be done to fix the problem?

To those who would argue that the tech cabal is a cohort of private companies that can do whatever they want, the simple answer is that you are mistaken. Because they claim immunity protection under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA), they legally have to behave in a way that protects online free speech.

Unfortunately, none of them are protecting free speech, which is why, at the very least, their Section 230 protections need to be immediately stripped. Should they continue to stifle free speech, then further action will be necessary in accordance with the law.

No matter where you fall on the political spectrum, it is a bipartisan fact that without the freedom to speak, there cannot exist free and fair elections. If only one side of the story is getting told, Americans cannot make an informed decision as to who they should vote for.

Beyond this, mail-in ballots leave an incredible amount of room for vote tampering and manipulation, which erodes the viability of the election even further. Something needs to change, or else we could lose our republic forever.

Our country is already splintered as it is, and any move towards remedying the problem will surely be met with resistance either on one side or the other. But do we really have a choice?

If we sit back and do nothing, the deep state will bring about the election outcome it desires through any means possible. On the other hand, if we stand together in solidarity against the abolishing of online free speech and those who would try to tamper with the election process, perhaps we can preserve our country for at least another four years.

To keep up with the latest news about online free speech, be sure to check out Censorship.news.

Sources for this article include:

NaturalNews.com

NaturalNews.com
Jeremy 'Hot Felon' Meeks has had his fair share of run-ins with the law, becoming famous thanks to his sexy 2014 mugshot.

And the California-born model is using his platform to speak up against the systemic racism that led to another black man's death by police.

He marched shirtless Saturday through Los Angeles as he joined the nationwide protests over the racially-charged killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis.

In protest: Jeremy Meeks marched shirtless Saturday through Los Angeles as he joined the nationwide protests over the racially-charged killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis

The 36-year-old kept his face covered with a blue bandana as a precaution against the coronavirus pandemic.

He held his fist in the air as he marched through the upscale Beverly Hills neighborhood with fellow protesters.

Meeks took to his Instagram story during the march, showing the crowds chanting and someone giving a speech at an intersection.

He turned the camera on himself at one point, saying: 'No justice, no motherf***ing peace. Brought this on yourself. Prosecute or suffer the wrath of the people. The people are fed up. This is your guys' fault.'

Staying safe: The 36-year-old kept his face covered with a blue bandana as a precaution against the coronavirus pandemic

Taking a stand: He held his fist in the air as he marched through the upscale Beverly Hills neighborhood with fellow protesters

Live update: Meeks took to his Instagram story during the march, showing the crowds chanting and someone giving a speech at an intersection

Ex-police officer Derek Chauvin was charged Friday with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter after a video surfaced of himself crushing Floyd's neck with his knee.

Protests have broken out across the country with peaceful demonstrations escalating to riots thanks to anarchist inciters and the heavy presence of police and the National Guard.

Meeks opened up about his own path to prison in September for What's Your Water?: 'At a really young age, I got put on to the hood and from there, I moved out of the house at 15 and was in the streets.'

Supermodel vibes: The blue-eyed beauty most recently walked a few runways for Milan Fashion Week back in February

Leading man: He also made his feature debut this year, starring alongside Jordyn Woods in indie thriller Trigger

He parlayed his viral mugshot into a modeling career, signing with White Cross Management in 2015 while still serving 27-month sentence.

The blue-eyed beauty most recently walked a few runways for Milan Fashion Week back in February.

Meeks also made his feature debut this year, starring alongside Jordyn Woods in indie thriller Trigger.
Boris Johnsons allies have accused his former leadership rival Jeremy Hunt of plotting to destabilise his Premiership.

Now they are preparing attack lines on his time as Health Secretary, in an attempt to neutralise his threat.

Downing Street has been watching suspiciously as Mr Hunt has mounted a sustained attack on the Government over the coronavirus crisis, criticising delays to the track, trace and isolate strategy.

He has also attacked the discharging of infected patients from hospitals into care homes. And last Wednesday, Mr Hunt  who earlier this year became chairman of the Commons health committee  grilled the Prime Minister during a televised parliamentary hearing on why it had taken until April to introduce a 100,000-a-day tests target.

Boris Johnsons allies have accused his former leadership rival Jeremy Hunt (pictured) of plotting to destabilise his Premiership

No 10 aides noted that on the same day, Mr Hunts ally, Penny Mordaunt, accused Mr Johnsons adviser Dominic Cummings of having undermined public health messages with his journey to the North East during lockdown.

They have also observed what they describe as his aggressive social media activity, with Mr Hunt liking messages critical of the Government.

Mr Johnson beat Mr Hunt comfortably in the final round of last summers Conservative Party leadership contest.

But with Mr Johnsons poll ratings dented by the Cummings row, No 10 has grown more concerned about the threat posed by Mr Hunt.

Aides have drafted attack lines on his six years as Health Secretary  including a failure to properly prepare for a viral pandemic.

But with Mr Johnsons poll ratings dented by the Cummings row, No 10 has grown more concerned about the threat posed by Mr Hunt

A source said: Hunts approach is not even subtle. He sees himself as the King across the water.

Another insider said: It is rather ironic that Jeremy is recasting himself as some sort of pandemic planning expert when it will come to pass that in his tenure as Health Secretary over most of the last decade, the NHS did not do enough to prepare for this scenario.

Mr Hunt was Health Secretary during the 2016 Exercise Cygnus pandemic rehearsal that found major failings in the UKs plans. He retained the job for two years afterwards, and now senior Tories are pointing the finger of blame at him for not implementing the reports recommendations swiftly enough.

After Mr Johnson entered No 10, Mr Hunt made it clear he would only accept a top four post as Chancellor, Foreign Secretary, Home Secretary or Defence Secretary. Mr Johnson refused, angered by Mr Hunts aggressive campaign, which had included calling him a coward for avoiding debates.
The Michigan Department of Civil Rights acknowledges that George Floyds death happened a few states west, in Minnesota. However, their goal is to not wait for it to come to this state.

Interim Director Mary Engelman commented on the Minneapolis police officer accused of killing Floyd, as well as the outbreak of violence in Michigan communities statewide.

The death of George Floyd did not happen in Michigan, but there have been incidents like it here, and we cannot wait for it to happen again to speak," she said in a statement. "We can no longer accept token measures and lip service in response to the real risk too many people face every time they leave their homes.

Her words come as Michigan cities such as Grand Rapids and Detroit saw peaceful protests turn violent overnight. Other protests such as ones in Kalamazoo, Flint and Ann Arbor saw little to no violent confrontations between protesters and police, and Flint officers actually started marching with demonstrators.

Police brutality protests in Michigan: What you need to know from this weekends rallies, riots

We call on leaders at all levels to come together in a substantive way to address the systemic racism and bias, both explicit and implicit, that leads to tragedies like the ones weve witnessed in Minnesota," she said. "Our shared sin is not just that racial police abuses happen, but that they continue to happen. We must do everything in our power to say, This ends now.

Both Grand Rapids and Detroit instituted curfews for Sunday night, while Gov. Gretchen Whitmer Saturday called for communities to designate areas for people to protest peacefully as demonstrations, some turning violent, continue across the nation over issues of police brutality against minorities.

Gov. Whitmer wants designated areas for peaceful protesting as unrest continues nationwide

Peaceful protest can be an important tool for sparking change," Engelman said. "Civil disobedience makes a powerful statement in support, but violent civil unrest only makes matters worse for those who must live with the problem every day. We will never right these wrongs by hurting innocents and burning our cities. The question everyone should be asking is What can I do to help make things better? The answer may involve protest, but must also include other concrete, positive actions.

For more information on the Michigan Department of Civil Rights, go to michigan.gov/mdcr.

Read more:

Grand Rapids mayor orders 7 p.m. curfew after night of rioting

Detroit to impose curfew Sunday night starting at 8 p.m., says Mayor Mike Duggan
First program on Digital Health and Imaging starting July 2020

Bengaluru based Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Indias leading institution for advanced education and research in sciences and engineering, has signed a multi-year partnership with TalentSprint.

The Advanced Certification Program in Digital Health & Imaging is the first program to be launched under this partnership, starting July 2020.

Targeted towards professionals keen to master cutting edge tech solutions in eHealth, personalized healthcare, biotech, medical devices, wearables and digital therapeutics, the six-month program will be offered in a hybrid format suitable for executive education. Applications are now open for the first cohort of select 50 candidates.

Speaking on the occasion, Professor Anurag Kumar, Director of IISc, said: Our research and teaching with an emphasis on doctoral and post graduate programs are world renowned. The partnership with TalentSprint will allow us to open up executive education to individual learners. The debut program, Advanced Certification Program in Digital Health & Imaging, is at the intersection of data sciences and biomedical sciences. This field has been emerging over the last few years and has gathered serious momentum in the wake of Covid-19.

The Advanced Certification Program in Digital Health & Imaging will be led by Dr Phaneendra Yalavarthy, Associate Professor at the Department of Computational & Data Sciences, IISc. He will partner with a team of top-tier IISc faculty to teach this course in executive format, starting July 2020.
The Prime Ministers Office (PMO) rejected a RTI application seeking details on the creation and operation of the PM-CARES Fund, stating that the fund is not a public authority, a Live Law report said

The Prime Ministers Office (PMO) has rejected a Right to Information (RTI) application seeking details of the PM CARES Fund, stating that the fund is not a public authority under the Act, Live Law reported.

Harsha Kandukuri, a law student at Azim Premji University in Bengaluru, filed an RTI application on 1 April, asking for the funds trust deed and all government orders, notifications and circulars relating to its creation and operation, as per a report in The Hindu.

On not receiving a response, he filed an appeal to get a response on 29 May. The PMO then told Kandukuri in its reply that the information cannot be revealed under the provisions of Section 2(h) of the Right to Information Act, 2005, as per the report.

PM CARES Fund is not a Public Authority under the ambit of Secon 2(h) of the RTI Act, 2005. However, relevant information in respect of PM CARES Fund may be seen on the Website pmcares.gov.in, the PMO replied, as per LiveLaw.

The reply also stated that relevant information in respect of PM CARES Fund may be seen on the website pmcares.gov.in". However, the copies of the trust deed, and the government orders/notifications relating to the PM CARES Fund are not seen uploaded in the official website of the fund, according to Live Law.

Kandukuri plans to appeal further. "The name, composition of the trust, control, usage of emblem, government domain name, everything signifies that it is a public authority. The composition of the trust is enough to show that government exercises substantive control over the trust, making it a public authority," Kandukuria told The Hindu. The prime minister is the ex-officio chairman of the Trust, while three cabinet ministers are ex-officio trustees.

Under the RTI Act, a public authority is an organisation established (a) under or by the Constitution, (b) by any other law made by the parliament, (c) by a notification or order issued by the government or (d) by notification issued or order made by the appropriate government. The definition also covers organisations financed substantially by the government and non-governmental organisations.

In April, the government said that the fund will not be audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India since it was based on donations of individuals and organisations.

Also in April, the PMO, citing a Supreme Court observation that indiscriminate and impractical demands under RTI Act for disclosure of all and sundry information would be counterproductive, rejected an RTI on the fund details filed by activist Vikrant Togad.

The Prime Ministers Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations (PM CARES) Fund was set up on 28 March in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic to provide relief to those impacted by the outbreak. Many citizens have come forward to donate to the fund.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sun, May 31, 2020 17:04 599 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdb372bb 1 National COVID-19,COVID-19-in-East-Java,COVID-19-in-Indonesia,surabaya,Surabaya-Mayor-Tri-Rismaharini,Tri-Rismaharini,khofifah-indar-parawansa,East-Java,coronavirus,PCR-test Free

The ongoing feud between East Java Governor Khofifah Indar Parawansa and Surabaya Mayor Tri Rismaharini aka Risma over how to handle the COVID-19 outbreak in virus-stricken East Java province has erupted again, this time over two mobile polymerase chain reaction (PCR) labs.

The two mobile labs had been loaned by the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) for use in Surabaya  the epicenter of the outbreak in the province with 2,495 confirmed cases as of Saturday  but were taken over by the provinces COVID-19 task force and sent to Lamongan and Tulungagung regencies instead.

The dispute came to light after a video of Risma speaking over the phone with an East Java administration official went viral on social media on Friday. Risma was apparently furious over the fact that the two PCR labs were not used in Surabaya.

If you want to boycott [me], this is not how it should be, Risma yelled into the phone. I will tell everybody about it.

I cant accept this. I was told I couldnt do my job properly. If someone steals like this, then tell me, who is it who cant do their job properly?

Risma also claimed that she had personally asked COVID-19 Task Force chief Doni Monardo  who also heads the BNPB  for the mobile labs.

The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) also waded into the conflict, with PDI-P secretary-general Hasto Kristiyanto defending Risma, a PDI-P member, and criticizing the governor for not considering the scale of priorities and strategic aspects of handling the COVID-19 outbreak in Surabaya.

Khofifah, however, defended the decision to divert the mobile labs elsewhere, saying that Surabaya already had enough testing facilities.

There are a total of four laboratories in Surabaya. There are also two PCR cars from the State Intelligence Agency. Its more than enough. Other areas that are located far from the labs also have the same urgent needs, she said on Friday as quoted by tempo.co.

East Java Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) acting chief Suban Wahyudiono claimed that the East Java administration had asked the BNPB chief for a total of 15 PCR machines for the province.

We sent the vehicles to Tulungagung because the regency has the second-highest number of COVID-19 PDP [patients under surveillance] in East Java, with 588 PDP. In fact, in Tulungagung, 172 PDP have died, he said on Friday as quoted by kompas.com.

Nevertheless, on Saturday, the two mobile labs arrived in Surabaya again and were immediately sent off by the local authorities to conduct swab tests in several locations in the city.

After they came, we conducted tests in Gelora Pancasila, Husada Utama hospital, Soewandhi hospital and Jiwa Menur hospital using the two PCR vehicles from the BNPB, Surabayas COVID-19 task force spokesperson Febria Rachmanita said on Saturday.

This is not the first time Risma and Khofifah have clashed over how to address the COVID-19 outbreak in the region. In April, the two were in disagreement over whether to enact large-scale social restrictions (PSBB). Earlier this month, Khofifah publicly criticized the Surabaya administration for its late response to a cluster of COVID-19 infections at one of tobacco giant PT HM Sampoernas factories in the city. (trn)
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Among the devastation caused by the flooding in Sanford, the villages war monument was severely damaged. Two area families with military ties are working to raise funds to rebuild the memorial.

Dedicated in 2018, the Sanford Flag Memorial honors those who have served their country.

Jon and Kim Burgess spearheaded funding for the memorial to honor the memory of their son, Lance Cpl. Ryan Burgess who died on Dec. 21, 2006. In 2019, they added a bronze battlefield cross statue to the memorial.

I know it was a devastation because (Kim Burgess) put her blood, sweat and tears into that memorial, said Sanford native Kyle Chase, who is currently stationed in Utah. Chase grew up with Ryan and is one of the fundraiser organizers.

Fellow organizer Allison Dittenbir of Allegan recalls how her husband and son helped raise the Marine Corps flag when the memorial was dedicated. She keeps in contact with Kim and has her full support for the fundraiser.

Weve been in this Marine Corps life for 16 years and weve gone through so much. Its a place where we can go and pay respect to our veterans and those whove paid the ultimate sacrifice for our nation, Dittenbir said.

The plan is to restore the seven flagpoles  including one for the American flag, a MIA/POW flag and one for each of the five branches of the military  along with an eighth honoring the first responders and a display case for another American flag Kim Burgess found after the flood.

In the past week, over 300 donors have given anywhere between $10 to $10,000 towards the $50,000 goal.

Once the news broke out about the damage in Sanford and Midland, it just exploded from there, Chase said. It truly means a lot.

To donate, visit https://www.gofundme.com/f/rebuild-sanford-flag-memorial.
A Belfast post-primary school has become the latest to opt out of academic selection due to the pandemic (David Davies/PA)

A Belfast post-primary school has become the latest to opt out of academic selection due to the pandemic.

Lagan College cited the exceptional circumstances that P6 children are experiencing and concerns for their well being.

Private assessment providers AQE and GL Assessments have decided to hold their exams two weeks later to allow pupils whose lessons have been disrupted by school closures to catch up.

However, we believe that this is the right decision for Lagan College to take and in keeping with our integrated, inclusive and all ability ethos Lagan College

A letter to parents from college principal Amanda McNamee said: The recent Covid-19 pandemic has had a major impact on all our lives including the P6 children, who have been out of school since March 2020, with continued uncertainty about their school provision going forward.

After much, careful deliberation, the board of governors and principal, have decided that this year, in response to the exceptional circumstances that the P6 children are experiencing and on wellbeing grounds, Lagan College will not accept any form of academic selection as part of the P7 transfer process in 2021.

Ordinarily Lagan College, situated in South Belfast, has used the outcome of the assessments as part of its admissions policy, representing 35% of its annual intake of 200 children each year.

This year the school will also not act as a GL assessment centre or an overflow AQE assessment centre in December.

The principal added: We sincerely apologise for any concern that this may cause to P6 families.

However, we believe that this is the right decision for Lagan College to take and in keeping with our integrated, inclusive and all ability ethos.

The replacement admissions policy will be largely based on existing all ability entry criteria.

The principal added: Going forward, we will continue to care for and meet the needs of children of all abilities, at a learning pace that is appropriate to help each individual child flourish and achieve their potential.

The state-run Eleven Plus exam has been abolished.

Private providers are planning to hold their tests a fortnight later in November and December.

They ruled out holding it next year because it would create problems with the academic calendar and said using predicted grades instead would be unworkable.

Catholic archbishop Eamon Martin is among those who have called for their suspension due to the impact on pupils.
A last-minute reprieve with a favourable rent deal will keep the air ambulance service Ornge flying out of Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport during the pandemic, officials say.

Ornges annual rent at the downtown airport has been reset by landlord Ports Toronto to roughly $200,000 a year. It was a whopping $5 million for the three-month period of March, April and May because Ornge had to cover all airport costs after Porter Airlines and Air Canada ceased flying from the island.

The provincial health ministry, which funds Ornge ($204 million annually), paid that bill to keep the airport open. Now, at least for the time being, the annual rent is back to normal.

It is vital that Ornge maintains operations (at Billy Bishop) as it is a key patient transport hub providing quick access to trauma hospitals, said Hayley Chazan, a spokesperson for provincial health minister Christine Elliott.

Ports Toronto and the ministry are still discussing terms going forward. Both parties are hoping normal airport operations will resume later this summer.

We are exceedingly proud to have Ornge based at Billy Bishop Airport and are committed to do whatever we can, within our power, to keep Ornge at Billy Bishop Airport and return the airport itself to strength as soon as is possible and appropriate, said Deborah Wilson, a Ports Toronto spokesperson.

Ornge operates two full-time helicopter crews out of Billy Bishop, and also flies fixed-wing aircraft from the island airport.

Several weeks ago, the Star revealed an unusual financial arrangement had arisen when Porter and Air Canada pulled out of Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport in March due to the global pandemic. Only one tenant  the provincially funded Ornge  was left to keep the lights on. For three months, that amounted to close to $5 million.

That was because Ports Toronto lost almost all of its revenue overnight and there were still bills to be paid to keep the airport open , including airport security and ferry and tunnel services. Ports Toronto, a federal business enterprise that receives no public funding and must break even each year to survive, told the Star it was in a quandary.

Critics of Ports Toronto policy have told the Star it was unusual that the two large airlines were allowed to walk away from contractual rent payments. However, a Ports Toronto executive told the Star that, as his team watched airlines laying off employees due to the shutdown, it was decided it would be unfair to force the airlines to continue paying for a service they were not using.

There were some tense moments as the pandemic spread, with great uncertainty as to when airlines would fly again out of the island. Eventually, the provincial health ministry stepped up to pay $5 million in emergency funding for the March, April and May expenses at Billy Bishop. That deal expires Sunday.

The Star learned this week that Ports Toronto and the provincial health ministry had arrived at a deal. Ornge can continue business as usual flying out of Billy Bishop. It will not be charged any additional amounts other than its regular contractual rent. If regular commercial flights do not resume by the end of July, Ports Toronto will give Ornge 120 days to find a new base. Ornge had been scouting out Buttonville Airport, which many believe would be a better spot geographically to fly from.

(Ports Toronto is) currently facing challenging times with virtually no revenue coming in at present, and fixed costs that still have to be paid, Wilson said. However, it is our intention to do whatever possible to weather this storm and bring this airport back to its former position of strength, given its importance to Toronto.

Ornge spokesman James MacDonald told the Star the company is not currently proceeding on any plans for relocation and look(s) forward to remaining at the island for the foreseeable future.

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FILE PHOTO: Atlantic Horseshoe crabs come ashore to spawn and lay eggs on Pickering beach in Delaware Bay

By John Miller

ZURICH (Reuters) - Horseshoe crabs' icy-blue blood will remain the drug industry's standard for safety tests after a powerful U.S. group ditched a plan to give equal status to a synthetic substitute pushed by Swiss biotech Lonza and animal welfare groups.

The crabs' copper-rich blood clots in the presence of bacterial endotoxins and has long been used in tests to detect contamination in shots and infusions.

More recently, man-made versions called recombinant Factor C (rFC) from Basel-based Lonza and others have emerged.

An industry battle has been brewing, as another testing giant, Lonza's U.S.-based rival Charles River Laboratories, has criticized the synthetic option on safety grounds.

Maryland-based U.S. Pharmacopeia (USP), whose influential publications guide the drug industry, had initially proposed adding rFC to the existing chapter governing international endotoxin testing standards.

USP has now abandoned that, it announced late on Friday, opting instead to put rFC in a new stand-alone chapter. This means drug companies seeking to use it must continue to do extra validation work, to guarantee their methods of using rFC tests match those of tests made from crab blood.

The decision gives the drug industry fewer incentives to end its reliance on animal-based tests, even as companies like Lonza and France's bioMerieux promote man-made alternatives and wildlife advocates worry about crab bleeding's effect on the coastal ecosystem.

USP told Reuters on Sunday its experts concluded there was too little practical experience with drug products tested with rFC to put the synthetic tests on equal footing with crab blood tests, which have been widely used for decades.

"Given the importance of endotoxin testing in protecting patients ...the committee ultimately decided more real-world data" was needed, USP said in a statement, adding this approach will give the U.S. Food and Drug Administration flexibility to work with drugmakers on rFC validation requirements.

USP did say it supports efforts to shift to rFC tests, including for potential testing of COVID-19 medicines or vaccines where it is offering technical assistance.

Story continues

Endotoxin tests number 70 million annually and estimates put the relevant market at $1 billion annually by 2024.

Eli Lilly, one drugmaker that has shifted to synthetic tests for drugs like its migraine treatment Emgality, has said rFC is safe and that the extra validation requirements have been a hurdle to adoption by more companies.

Conservationists, including advocates for migratory birds that dine on horseshoe crab eggs on the U.S. East Coast, have also been pushing for rFC's increased use to take pressure off crabs, some of which die after being returned to the Atlantic Ocean following bleeding.

Lonza did not immediately comment on USP's move.

Charles River also did not return a request for comment.

The New Jersey Audubon Society and Delaware-based Ecological Research & Development Group, a crab conservation group, did not respond to messages seeking comment.

(Reporting by John Miller in Zurich; Editing by Matthew Lewis, Christina Fincher and Sandra Maler)
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 31) While the capital region prepares to ease into a more relaxed general community quarantine, one village in Manila City will still be facing stricter lockdown measures on Monday.

Barangay 847 in Pandacan will be placed under a two-day "hard lockdown" starting 12 a.m. of June 1 until 11:59 pm of June 2, local officials announced over the weekend.

The city's Executive Order No. 24, signed by Mayor Francisco Isko Moreno Domagoso, will implement stricter quarantine measures in the area to allow authorities to conduct COVID-19 surveillance, rapid risk assessment, as well as testing operations. The directive was issued upon the request of the Barangay 847 officials, according to Domagoso.

""May request ang chairman na mag-lockdown. Tiningnan namin ang datos, viable ang lockdown. Granted po ang inyong request," Domagoso said in a live video aired on Facebook on Saturday, noting that the village has four reported confirmed cases and six suspected cases of COVID-19.

[Translation: The chairman requested for a lockdown. We looked at the data, a lockdown is viable. The request is granted.]

Under strict lockdown, residents will not be allowed to leave their homes for the meantime except health workers, military personnel, service workers, utility workers, barangay officials, accredited media practitioners, and other essential employees.

President Rodrigo Duterte upon the recommendation of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) has allowed Metro Manila to shift to GCQ from June 1 to 15, as the country seeks to gradually reopen the economy amid the COVID-19 crisis.

Villages and high-risk areas, however, are still subject to localized lockdowns if deemed necessary.

As of Saturday, the city of Manila has recorded 1,386 cases of the infectious disease.

Cases of COVID-19 in the Philippines meanwhile surpassed 17,000.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-31 07:33:52|Editor: huaxia

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Musicians stage a concert in the courtyard of a hotel in Vienna, Austria, May 30, 2020. A "window concert" was held at a hotel in Vienna on Saturday to celebrate its reopening in compliance with COVID-19 regulations. Hotel guests were able to enjoy the music with social distancing. (Xinhua/Guo Chen)
Indian and Chinese armies were moving in heavy equipment and weaponry including artillery guns and combat vehicles to their rear bases close to the disputed areas in eastern Ladakh as the two militaries remained engaged in a bitter standoff along the troubled border for over 25 days, military sources said Sunday.

The enhancement of combat capability by the two armies in the region came even as both the countries continued their efforts to resolve the dispute through talks at military and diplomatic levels.



The Chinese army has been gradually ramping up its strategic reserves in its rear bases near the the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh by rushing in artillery guns, infantry combat vehicles and heavy military equipment, the sources said.

The Indian Army has also been moving in additional troops as well equipment and weapons like artillery guns to aggressively match up to the Chinese build-up, they said, adding that India will not relent till status quo is restored in Pangong Tso, Galwan Valley and a number of other areas.



The Indian Air Force has been keeping a strict aerial surveillance in the disputed region.



A sizeable number of Chinese army personnel entered into the Indian side of the de-facto border earlier this month and have been camping in Pangong Tso and Galwan Valley since then. The Indian Army fiercely objected to the transgressions by the Chinese troops and demanded their immediate withdrawal for restoration of peace and tranquility in the area.



The Chinese army has ramped up their presence in Demchok and Daulat Beg Oldie too -- the two sensitive areas with a history of skirmishes involving the two sides.



The Chinese army is learnt to have deployed around 2,500 troops in Pangong Tso and Galwan Valley besides gradually enhancing temporary infrastructure and weaponry. However, there is no official figure about the numbers.



Sources said satellite images have captured significant ramping up of defence infrastructure by China on its side of the de-facto border including construction activities at a military airbase around 180 kms from the Pangong Tso area.



The assessment by the Indian Army is that the build up is aimed at putting pressure on India.

"We are well aware of the Chinese ploy. The Indian Army is firm on its stand that we are not going to accept anything less than restoration of status quo in the area," said a senior military official.



Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday said bilateral talks were on at military and diplomatic levels with China to resolve the row.



The trigger for the face-off was China's stiff opposition to India laying a key road in the Finger area around the Pangong Tso Lake besides construction of another road connecting the Darbuk-Shayok-Daulat Beg Oldie road in Galwan Valley.



The sources said China was also laying a road in the Finger area which is not acceptable to India.



The sources said military reinforcements including troops, vehicles and artillery guns were sent to eastern Ladakh by the Indian Army to shore up its presence in the areas where Chinese soldiers were resorting to aggressive posturing.



The situation in eastern Ladakh deteriorated after around 250 Chinese and Indian soldiers were engaged in a violent face-off on the evening of May 5 which spilled over to the next day before the two sides agreed to "disengage".



However, the standoff continued.



The incident in Pangong Tso was followed by a similar incident in north Sikkim on May 9.



The troops of India and China were engaged in a 73-day stand-off in Doklam tri-junction in 2017 which even triggered fears of a war between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.



The India-China border dispute covers the 3,488-km-long LAC. China claims Arunachal Pradesh as part of southern Tibet while India contests it.



Both sides have been asserting that pending the final resolution of the boundary issue, it is necessary to maintain peace and tranquility in the border areas.
Some hit a liquor store near Foggy Bottom, where young men, both white and black, snatched handles of alcohol and took swigs while others ran off with all they could carry. In Shaw, a Giant grocery store  with employees still inside  was broken into, as was a Sephora in Gallery Place. On H Street NE, looters ransacked a CVS. In Georgetown, the Nike stores boarded-up doors were broken down and its merchandise plundered. In Friendship Heights and Tenleytown, five miles from the White House, other groups hit a Target and smashed open Rodmans, a beloved drugstore, specialty grocer and housewares shop  all in one.
CLEVELAND, Ohio  A man was shot in the back late Saturday at a gas station on the citys East Side, police said.

Few details about the shooting were released Sunday afternoon.

The shooting took place about 11:40 p.m. at the BP gas station at the intersection of Lee Road and Harvard Avenue, in the citys Lee-Harvard neighborhood, Cleveland police spokeswoman Sgt. Jennifer Ciaccia said.

A 20-year-old man suffered two gunshot wounds to his back, Ciaccia said. He was taken by paramedics to University Hospitals for treatment. His current condition is unclear.

Cleveland police did not publicly name any suspects, and no arrests have been made.

More Cleveland crime news:

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Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson extends downtown curfew to Monday to clean up damage caused during George Floyd-inspired protests

Man shot dead in Clevelands Stockyards neighborhood, police say
Kylie Jenner attends the 2020 Vanity Fair Oscar Party hosted by Radhika Jones at Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on February 09, 2020 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic)

Kylie Jenner and Forbes magazine are engaged in a row over the billionaire status she was awarded last year.

Jenner was proclaimed the youngest self-made billionaire by the business magazine off the back of her cosmetics empire, but Forbes say she and her family have spun a web of lies to inflate the size and success of her business to make her out to be richer than she is.

But the claims have been met with anger by the 22-year-old, who has taken to social media to defend herself.

Read more: Kardashians and Jenners feel the heat over Australian bushfire crisis

She tweeted: What am I even waking up to. I thought this was a reputable site.. all I see are a number of inaccurate statements and unproven assumptions lol. Ive never asked for any title or tried to lie my way there EVER. period.

Even creating tax returns that were likely forged thats your proof? So you just THOUGHT they were forged? Like actually what am I reading.

what am i even waking up to. i thought this was a reputable site.. all i see are a number of inaccurate statements and unproven assumptions lol. ive never asked for any title or tried to lie my way there EVER. period  Kylie Jenner (@KylieJenner) May 29, 2020

She later tweeted: I am blessed beyond my years, I have a beautiful daughter, and a successful business and im doing perfectly fine.

I can name a list of 100 things more important right now than fixating on how much money I have.

Jenner sold a 51% stake of her cosmetics company to beauty firm Coty for 486m ($600m) in a deal which saw her business valued at around 970m.

Read more: Caitlyn Jenner booted out of I'm A Celeb - but has no one waiting for her at the end of the bridge

According to Forbes however, information shared by Coty showed Jenners firm is significantly smaller and less profitable than the family has spent years leading the cosmetics industry and media outlets, including Forbes, to believe.

Story continues

Forbes spokesman Matthew Hutchison said the magazines extensively-reported investigation was triggered by newly-filed documents that revealed glaring discrepancies between information privately supplied to journalists and information publicly supplied to shareholders.

He added: Our reporters spotted the inaccuracies and spent months uncovering the facts. We encourage her attorney to re-read the article.
Nationals MP George Christensen set up a website backing his push for a China inquiry which is linked to a business promoting sugar pills to treat urinary tract infections.

Mr Christensen has not declared his connection to the company on the register of members' interests, saying he doesn't need to because the business was planned but never started.

Nationals MP George Christensen started the China inquiry website in May. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

The chair of the joint standing committee on trade and investment growth has risked inflaming tensions with Beijing by personally requesting China's ambassador to Australia, Cheng Jingye, appear before an inquiry to answer questions about economic boycotts.

The maverick Queensland MP has been promoting a new website - chinainquiry.com.au - calling on Australians to "stand up for our sovereignty and economic independence, and against threats from China".
Qin Yinglin, chairman of Muyuan Foodstuff seen on November 22, 2012 in Zhengzhou, Henan Province of China. Photo: Visual China Group via Getty Images/Visual China Group via Getty Images

Self-made billionaire Qin Yinglin is the world's richest farmer with a $22bn (17.82bn) personal fortune.

His Chinese pork empire has rocketed in the past year due to shortages and higher prices during the 2019 African swine flu outbreak and the subsequent COVID-19 pandemic.

Yinglin and his wife Qian Ying, started their first pig farm in 1992 with just 22 piglets. By 2019 they had more than 10 million pigs within their Shenzhen-listed company Muyuan Foods.

As the most popular protein in China, pork is in high demand and losses in supply from culling or restrictions can cause prices to rapidly accelerate.

The outbreak of swine flu in 2019 wiped out half of China's pigs driving up prices by 160%. This sent Muyuan Foods share prices soaring 200% and by June last year Yinglin's wealth had doubled to $22bn.

The strength of the company is due to it maintaining ownership of a high percentage of its own farms enabling it to better control hygiene and biosecurity thus warding off diseases.

READ MORE: The common thread underlying the riots, COVID, China, Twitter and Trump

When China went into lockdown in early February this year the supply of pork was restricted, further boosting Muyuan stock by 80% between February 3 and April 28. This added a quick $6bn to Yinglin's fortune.

But analysts predict the restocking of Chinas pork supply could mean a decline in Yinglin's personal wealth which has been underpinned by overpricing in the industry.

Pork prices are now falling as the swine flu outbreak stabilises and coronavirus lockdown is lifted, and the market is expected to continue to normalise.

This is a limited story [for Muyuan] in terms of time, Wilhelm Uffelmann, head of consultancy Roland Bergers food and agribusiness practice, told the Financial Times.

Earlier this year Yinglin told the media COVID-19 was a mixed blessing for farmers.

The epidemic will force the weaker companies and farmers to completely withdraw but it will be an opportunity for profit and development for the stronger enterprises, he said.

Watch the latest videos from Yahoo Finance UK




The University of Benin (UNIBEN) has condemned the raping and killing of its student, Vera Uwaila Omozuwa, in a church.

Naija News reports that Uwaila Omozuwa, who was in her 100-level studying Microbiology in UNIBEN, was allegedly raped and killed by some unknown person while reading in a Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) in Benin City.

Reacting through a statement by the institutions Public Relations Officer, Benedicta Ehanire, Vice-Chancellor of UNIBEN, Lilian Salami, expressed shock and sadness over Omozuwas demise.

Mrs Salami stated that inflicting such pain on any family in this era of COVID-19 pandemic is a wicked act.

She advised UNIBEN students to be careful of the company they keep and the places they visited.

While asking God to grant her soul peaceful rest, the UNIBEN VC revealed that a delegation had been sent to commiserate with the bereaved family.

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The Ministry of External Affairs on Saturday said more than 40,000 Indians returned to India in over 230 flights and naval ships and COVID- related medical supplies were provided to over 154 countries, as it highlighted its achievements in the first year of Modi government 2.0.

Mammoth coordinating efforts were led by India's High Commissions and Embassies across the world under the Vande Bharat Mission, an MEA document said.

More than 40,000 Indians have returned to the country in over 230 flights and naval ships, it said.

COVID-related medical supply was made to over 154 countries and Rapid Response Teams around the world were deployed, the MEA said.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the MEA also set up a COVID-19 control room manned 24x7 to facilitate emergency requests from stranded Indians.

COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine  one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show

As part of the "corona-era" diplomacy, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a video conference with SAARC leaders and a COVID-19 Emergency Fund was created, the document said.

Over 100 virtual diplomatic meetings were held to share perspectives on combating the virus and tackling post-pandemic challenges, it said.

E-ITEC courses on Covid-healthcare are being offered under MEA's Development Partnership initiative for partner countries, the document said.

As part of India's 'Neighbourhood First' policy, the prime minister visited Bhutan, Maldives and Sri Lanka.

Visits from leaders of Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Mauritius took place in the last year.

The document also highlighted elevation of ties with the US and the "immensely successful visits of PM Modi and President Trump, of which - 'Howdy, Modi!' and 'Namaste Trump'- were the highlights".

It said new dimensions of defence cooperation and space partnership with Russia also emerged.

The prime minister visited Russia in September 2019 and a USD 1 billion credit line was announced by Modi for development of Russian Far East, the document said.

It also highlighted the 'China Connect' as the prime minister and President Xi Jinping held their second Informal Summit in Mamallapuram in October 2019.

The MEA underlined India's European connect as President Kovind paid visits to Iceland, Switzerland and Slovenia while Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu visited the Baltic countries last year.

Official visits by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar to 10 European countries, state visits by the King and Queen of the Netherlands, the King and Queen of Sweden, German Chancellor and Portuguese President and PM, were also highlighted.

The MEA said India for the first time participated in Europe-based forums  Mediterranean Dialogue and Munich Security Conference.

First India-Japan '2+2' (Foreign and Defence Ministerial Dialogue) was held and President Kovind visited Japan in October last year, the MEA said.

The document also highlighted that the PM was awarded the highest civilian awards in UAE and Bahrain.

The inaugural Trilateral Maritime Exercise between India, Singapore & Thailand (SITMEX) was also held.

Stepping up relations with Latin America & Caribbean, the Brazilian President was invited as Chief Guest at Republic Day 2020.

The first ever India-CARICOM Leaders' meet led by the prime minister in September, 2019, the MEA document said.

First ever India- Pacific Islands Developing States Summit was held during which the prime minister announced grant support for high impact developmental projects.

The MEA also highlighted launch of African projects such as e-VidyaBharti (Tele-education) and e-ArogyaBharti (Tele-medicine) network, and the inauguration Mahatma Gandhi International Convention Centre in Niger and the Gandhi-Mandela Skills Institute in South Africa.

New Indian Embassies were opened in Eswatini, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea and Republic of Congo, the document said.

Highlighting the 'India Way' at the UN, the prime minister led the Indian delegation at the UNGA. He also participated in the Climate Action Summit and a special event commemorating 150 years of Mahatma Gandhi.

Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) was launched at the UN.

Prime Minister Modi also led India's participation at the G20 Summit, Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, G7 Summit Outreach Sessions, BRICS Summit and ASEAN-related Summits in the last year, according to the MEA document.

A new specialised division in the Ministry for restoration and conservation projects of ancient cultural and heritage monuments was created, the document said.
Sure, it might be warm Wednesday, but what about the rest of the week?

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The COVID-19 job saving scheme was unveiled by the Indian-origin finance minister, married to Murthys daughter Akshata, at the peak of the crisis and is set to gradually wind down until it is fully closed at the end of October.

London: Infosys, co-founded by Rishi Sunaks father-in-law Narayana Murthy, said it had used the furlough-or forced leave-option for 3 percent of its staff in order to tide through the lockdown imposed to curb the spread of the deadly virus.

"In light of the current situation, Infosys has furloughed 3 percent of its UK workforce. We are reviewing this on a weekly basis, Infosys told The Sunday Times.

The scheme was unveiled by the Indian-origin finance minister, married to Murthys daughter Akshata, at the peak of the crisis and is set to gradually wind down until it is fully closed at the end of October.

Under the provisions, the government covers 80 percent of salaries of furloughed staff, up to the value of GBP 2,500 a month, in order to prevent companies having to resort to redundancies. In a latest set of announcements earlier this week, Sunak had added more flexibility into the programme so that employers can make use of the scheme in the most effective way.

Our top priority has always been to support people, protect jobs and businesses through this crisis. The furlough and self-employment schemes have been a lifeline for millions of people and businesses, said Sunak, who is leading the UK governments economic response to the coronavirus pandemic.

We stood behind Britains businesses and workers as we came into this crisis and we stand behind them as we come through the other side. Now, as we begin to re-open our country and kickstart our economy, these schemes will adjust to ensure those who are able to work can do so, while remaining amongst the most generous in the world, he said.

The Sunday Times also claims that the finance minister is drafting up an emergency coronavirus Budget to be tabled before the House of Commons in July, as the lockdown measures begin to be eased from next week.

Plans to save millions of furloughed workers from the scrap heap and retrain them will be a centrepiece of the address to MPs, which is pencilled in for the week beginning 6 July, the newspaper said.

The July statement will not be a full Budget with tax changes but would be a pre-budget report to outline a recovery plan for the pandemic-hit economy. Sunak has had to table a series of mini-budgets in response to the economic crisis since his maiden Budget in early March.

Business groups briefed on the new plans claim the emergency budget will have three key elements--funds to retrain workers laid off when the furlough scheme ends, huge extra infrastructure spending, and a plan to help British-based technology firms.
Two pedestrians were killed Saturday afternoon when an allegedly intoxicated tractor trailer driver veered onto the shoulder of Interstate 295 and struck two vehicles, police said.

Eduardo Villasenor-Aguilar, 61, of El Paso, Texas, was driving a Freightliner tractor trailer southbound near milemarker 2.4 in Carneys Point Township just after 4 p.m. when the vehicle entered the right shoulder, according to New Jersey State Police Sgt. Jeff Flynn.

The victims were working on a Honda Civic that was stopped on the shoulder in front of an Infiniti G20.

The truck hit the Infiniti, pushing that vehicle into the Honda, Flynn said.

Desiree Pulliam, 29, of New Castle, Delaware, and Heber Barreiro-Lopez, 30, of Philadelphia, were pronounced dead at the scene.

Villasenor-Aguilar was charged with two counts of vehicular homicide and driving while intoxicated.

He was placed in Salem County Correctional Facility pending a detention hearing.

The right lane was closed for five hours as a result of the crash, which remains under investigation.

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Matt Gray may be reached at mgray@njadvancemedia.com.
Clodagh Killeen was perplexed to hear that her Galway nursing home featured on a leaked Health Service Executive list of centres that lost residents to Covid-19. Castleturvin Nursing home, where she is director of nursing, was at the bottom of the list, with one resident listed as having died. Except, Castleturvin had not reported any deaths.

The only case of Covid-19 that did come into the nursing home had been successfully contained: the resident had long recovered, the virus had not spread, and no one died a virus-related death. She spent the morning phoning families and reassuring residents that no, she hadn't misinformed them about Covid-19, what they were hearing on the airwaves was not correct.

"The residents read the papers, they are online and very aware of what's going on. It's really very concerning," Ms Killeen said.

"And we would be very transparent; we're very transparent with the families, we're very transparent to the residents, and, of course, with Hiqa and public health."

Ms Killeen failed to get to the bottom of how a Covid-19 death came to be attributed to Castleturvin. There had been a non-Covid death in that time, but the resident had tested negative. "If the HSE are reporting incorrect figures, what other figures are incorrect?" she asked.

In Galway city, a similar scene played out. Martin Breen, owner of St Mary's Residential Care Centre, was investigating how his nursing home was listed as having one Covid-19 death where there were none.

"It is distressing for staff, residents, our families and our local community because the perception is we might have been lying and that is not the case," he said. "On a broader level it brings into question the accuracy of the figures that are broadcast publicly every day, how they are collated and gathered together."

Elmhurst Nursing Home in Dublin was on the HSE list as having two Covid-19 related deaths. "We have had no Covid-19 deaths, we haven't had a single case of Covid-19 in the nursing home," said Stephen Eustace, chief executive of Highfield Healthcare, which owns Elmhurst. He wants the HSE to correct the record to reassure families.

"We've kept the families appraised, we had our mass testing in April, staff and residents all came back negative. So, I don't know where these figures came from."

Both Galway nursing homes have consulted solicitors about correcting the error; Elmhurst has not.

Disputed and inaccurate as the figures are, the leaking of the Health Service Executive list of Covid-19 deaths in nursing homes to The Irish Times has put into the public domain information that has long been sought by politicians, families and patient advocates.

The HSE was asked again at an Oireachtas meeting of the Covid-19 Committee last week, which devoted its entire session to homes. As Sinn Fein TD Pearse Doherty later pointed out, the leaked list was published in The Irish Times the day after the committee was told the information was unavailable.

The accuracy of the leaked information is now under question.

Yesterday, Nursing Homes Ireland said it had received 29 phonecalls from nursing homes stating the published figures were incorrect for their home.

Fine Gael TD Fergus O'Dowd says there are serious questions as to how it was compiled. He said the HSE must now publish the information in the interests of "full transparency and accountability".

According to the leaked figures, the homes with the highest Covid-19 deaths are Ryevale, one of Ireland's most successful family owned nursing home enterprises, and Tara Winthrop, which turned 550,000 profit in 2018 and was acquired last year by Grace Healthcare which has Taiwanese and Australian investors.

In a statement, Ryevale spoke of the devastation of the deaths released last week. It is understood to be disputing the figures, as is Tara Winthrop. The death toll is understood to be 18 confirmed Covid-19 deaths and five suspect, and not the reported HSE figure of 29.

The HSE said that data it collects represents a "snapshot in time".

Public nursing homes were also badly hit: St Mary's in the Phoenix Park, where 25 residents died; Dealgan in Louth, where 22 residents died; and in The Rock in Donegal, where half of the nursing home's population of 19 died of Covid-19-related deaths. A review of the State's response to Covid-19 in long-stay care settings, published last Tuesday, found that 27pc of private, public and voluntary nursing homes were not fully compliant with regulations.

But at the Oireachtas committee on Covid-19 that same day, Hiqa disclosed that on March 30 it submitted a list of 212 nursing homes deemed to be at risk. Hiqa submitted further documents, submitted to the Committee last Friday that effectively warned of the potential for widespread infection in nursing homes.

The names were not divulged to the committee but Hiqa did reveal that the vast majority of the nursing homes are private - although this may just reflect the fact that 80pc of nursing homes are private. Each had breached compliance with regulations, in a way that could "potentially challenge" a nursing home to safely manage residents with Covid-19. Twenty-seven companies ran 89 of the homes on the list of 212; 109 were small homes with fewer than 40 beds registered as limited companies.

The private nursing home operators are contracted by the State for close to 1bn to care for older people. They were represented by effective lobby group Nursing Homes Ireland at the Oireachtas Covid-19 committee hearing last week. Tadgh Daly, its chief executive, told the committee the private operators had been "isolated", and a string of letters released by the department proved his efforts to have the sector's voice heard.

In a swipe at the profits to be made, however, Fergus O'Dowd claimed "very wealthy" nursing home operators were complaining that the State wasn't doing enough for them when they had "a lot of money" to pay for their own testing, PPE and infection controls.

There is no dispute that more than 900 residents of nursing homes died of Covid-19 - accounting for more than half of deaths - and it is their families who are counting the cost.

Families called for an investigation into the deaths of residents at Dealgan. A staff member at St Mary's Nursing Home in the Phoenix Park has made a protected disclosure. Mr Doherty has called for an inquiry into The Rock.

"There are a lot of lists circulating, Hiqa's list of Covid-19 high-risk operators, the HSEs list of the number of Covid-19 deaths in nursing homes. The Hiqa list is still a secret, the accuracy of the HSE report is questioned," said Stephen McMahon of the Irish Patients' Association, which has called for a public inquiry. "Nothing has been disclosed to residents, families or nursing home operators. The HSE has a duty to produce an accurate record of these deaths and explain inaccuracies."

In an unexpected intervention yesterday, Bishop Michael Router joined calls for an inquiry. "We would welcome appropriate inquiries into the reasons why nursing care facilities were so badly affected."
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Karnataka: Government issues fresh rules for inter-State travel

India

oi-Deepika S

Bengaluru, May 31: The Karnataka government on Sunday lifted restrictions on the inter-state and intra-state movement of people and goods as it laid the roadmap for easing lockdown in a phased manner outside the containment zones.

The state government has issued revised protocol for inter-state travel during the 'Unlock 1' period, effective from 1 June.

Karnataka extends lockdown till June 30, issues guidelines

Coronavirus: Delhi seeks Rs.5000 Cr from centre to pay employees | Oneindia News

Revised protocol for inter-state travel

Self- registration on Seva Sindhu app is mandatory but no approval (or e-pass) is required to travel Monday onwards.

The state mandates seven-day hospital isolation for symptomatic patients and immediate Covid-19 test on arrival.

If found positive, the passenger will be shifted to a dedicated Covid-19 hospital or if found negative, no further test will be required.

For those coming from Maharashtra, seven-day institutional quarantine is mandatory even for asymptomatic travellers, which will be followed by seven days of home quarantine.

Special category passengers coming from Maharashtra who are asymptomatic will be exempted from institutional quarantine but will have to go through 14-day home quarantine.

These passengers are those who had a death in the family, pregnant women, children aged below 10 years, elderly aged above 60 years and have a serious illness.

There will be no hand stamping of business travellers from Maharashtra and they will also be exempted from quarantine if they have a return ticket dated within seven days of arrival and a Covid negative test certificate.

Travellers from all other states should undergo 14-day home quarantine, said Karnataka Health Department.

Here is the Karnataka Government revised protocol for inter-state travellers to Karnataka during Unlock 1.0 applicable from Monday, 1st June 2020. I appeal to everyone to follow these guidelines In letter & spirit.@CMofKarnataka @PMOIndia @blsanthosh @AmitShah @JPNadda pic.twitter.com/6viDQoopXq  Dr Sudhakar K (@mla_sudhakar) May 31, 2020

Karnataka on Sunday reported its biggest-ever single-day spike in coronavirus cases with 299 more testing positive for the disease, thus breaching the 3,000-mark. Two more people died of the virus taking the toll to 51, the health department said.

So far 3,221 COVID-19 cases were reported in the state including 1,218 discharges, 1,950 active cases, the department said in a bulletin.
Update: Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler on Sunday morning announced he was extending the curfew to begin again at 8 p.m. May 31.

Portland Mayor Ted Wheelers decision to implement an 8 p.m. curfew Saturday in the aftermath of a downtown riot appears to be without recent precedent.

Wheeler announced the curfew before 4 a.m. as part of a State of Emergency declaration prompted by overnight rioting downtown that left storefronts damaged, merchandise stolen and part of the Multnomah County Justice Center briefly ablaze.

Fridays demonstrations began peacefully as hundreds gathered in Portland -- and in cities across the country -- in response to the death of a black man in Minneapolis who was restrained for minutes by police officers while repeatedly saying he could not breathe. All four officers have been fired and one, captured on video with his knee pressed to George Floyds neck, has been charged with murder.

Wheelers curfew runs from 8 p.m. Saturday until 6 a.m. Sunday and as written prohibits all travel within the city, with limited exceptions for people who are traveling to or from work, seeking medical care, fleeing a dangerous situation or are homeless. First-responders and media are exempt.

Travel includes walking, biking, driving or using public transportation, among other things.

Wheelers curfew is intended to prevent more mass gatherings that could devolve into rioting -- but apparently wont be widely enforced in other circumstances.

Asked whether someone who ventured out past 8 p.m. to do grocery shopping would be cited for violating the curfew, the mayors office said:

The City is not interested in citing people who are going about their business, causing no harm, and uninvolved in criminal conduct.

Thats a clearer message than the one posted online Saturday afternoon by Wheelers office in response to questions about the curfew.

The City asks all Portlanders to voluntarily adhere to the curfew to help protect the safety of our community, Wheelers office wrote in an online Q&A. The curfew is a tool to address the kind of behavior that caused fires, property damage, and personal injury in the City on Friday night, and not to intrude into peoples lives.

Wheelers curfew also will not require the closure of businesses.

The curfew does not require businesses to close, but it does mean that the public should not be traveling to and from businesses like restaurants or retailers during the curfew, so some business may choose to close during these hours, Wheelers office wrote.

Its unclear when a Portland mayor last declared a formal State of Emergency to implement a citywide curfew, although it has likely been decades. Wheelers office did not immediately respond to questions about when a curfew was last implemented.

Also unclear is what criminal consequences, if any, someone could face for violating the curfew. Wheelers emergency order states that violation could result in up to a $500 fine or by criminal prosecution.

But neither Wheelers office nor Tracy Reeve, the city attorney, immediately responded to questions about what criminal statute would be cited for violating the curfew.

The Portland Bureau of Emergency Management will issue an alert to cell phones Saturday reminding people in Portland about the curfew. Officials ask that people who receive the message do not call 911 unless there is an emergency.

To read the Q&A released by Wheelers office, click here. To read the full executive order declaring the emergency, continue below:

"Emergency Executive Order Declaring an Emergency and Implementing a Temporary Nighttime Curfew in the City of Portland Oregon

I, Ted Wheeler, Mayor of the City of Portland, Oregon, by the authority vested in me by the Charter of the City of Portland and applicable code and statutes, issue the following Executive Order: On May 25, 2020, George Floyd died while in custody of the Minneapolis Police Department. Since Mr. Floyds death, thousands of Americans and Portlanders have expressed their frustration in a peaceful and constructive manner. Demonstrators have gathered in many cities to protest Mr. Floyds death. Peaceful demonstrations are essential to our democratic system. Unfortunately, some individuals have engaged in unlawful and dangerous activity, including arson, rioting, looting, and damaging public and private property. These activities threaten the safety of lawful demonstrators, the surrounding communities, and first responders.

For these reasons, I order as follows:

1. A State of Emergency exists within the City of Portland under Portland City Code Section 15.04.

2. Nighttime Curfew. A curfew is imposed in all public places within the City of Portland during the following times: a. Immediately until 6:00 am on Saturday, May 30, 2020. b. From 8:00 pm on Saturday, May 30, 2020 until 6:00 am on Sunday, May 31, 2020.

3. Travel Prohibited. During the curfew, all persons must not travel on any public street or in any public place.

4. Exemptions. All law enforcement, fire, medical personnel, and members of the news media are exempt from the curfew. Individuals traveling directly to and from work, seeking emergency care, fleeing dangerous circumstances, or experiencing homelessness are also exempt.

5. Definitions. a. For the purposes of this Executive Order, travel includes, without limitation, travel on foot, bicycle, skateboard, scooter, motorcycle, automobile, public transit, or any other mode of transporting a person from one location to another. b. For the purposes of this Executive Order, a public place is any place, whether on privately or publicly owned property, accessible to the general 3 public, including but not limited to public streets and roads, alleys, highways, driveways, sidewalks, parks, vacant lots, and unsupervised property.

6. Enforcement. I urge all Portlanders to voluntarily comply with this Executive Order. Pursuant to Portland City Code Section 15.08.040, enforcement of this Chapter may be by civil action as provided in ORS 30.315, or by criminal prosecution. In addition to any other penalty provided by law, refusal to obey an order issued under the authority of PCC 15.08.020 shall be punishable upon conviction by a fine of not more than $500 per occurrence. Any peace officer may issue a citation for violation of this Section."

-- Brad Schmidt; bschmidt@oregonian.com; 503-294-7628; @_brad_schmidt

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It was a sleepless night for many Angelenos, after protests over the death of George Floyd turned violent last night, as police clashed with people in the streets, and businesses in various parts of the city were looted and vandalized.

One of the impacted areas was Melrose Avenue, where storefronts along the famed thoroughfare are marked by broken windows and graffiti. Onlookers, nearby residents, and shop-owners surveyed the damage Sunday morning.

Miles Guidon is the owner of Hollywood 3D Printing on Melrose Avenue. His shop, whose clients include the film industry, were hit late last night. He was in Las Vegas on Saturday, but was monitoring his shop via surveillance cameras installed inside.

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"I was watching the news at 4 p.m." Guidon says. "I didn't see much until around 11:30 p.m., when the frosted white window shattered and a guy came in through it."

Others followed suit, "kicking and damaging things" and ransacking one of the offices. Guidon said they did not take anything of commercial value.

"I feel very disappointed. Last night I felt I was violated."

Miles Guidon stands in front of Hollywood 3D Printing, which was vandalized Saturday night. (Fiona Ng/LAist)

A few blocks west, Gaurav Nanda was taking pictures of the indoor and outdoor furniture shop, Bend Goods, as his employees swept up broken glass along the street. The storefront's many windows were tagged, and one was broken.

"They broke through the glass and stole a whole bunch of furniture. We had a huge, 10-foot orange sofa that they took out the window. They took computers," Nanda says.

On Saturday, he was watching events unfold on the news. One of his friends lived across the street from his shop and was sending videos updating him on the situation on Melrose. At around 10 p.m., he got word that his store had been broken into.

"I am glad my employees are fine and we are safe. It's just furniture. It's just materialistic things. It's sad what's happening in this world," says Nanda. "I am not angry at the protesters. I am angry at the looters. There were peaceful protesters yesterday and there were looters -- they were different people. The looters are not protesters."

Gaurav Nanda stands in front of his furniture store, Bend Goods, which was looted Saturday night. (Fiona Ng/LAist)

Besides curiosity-seekers, there were many good Samaritans who woke up in the morning and decided to help out.

Danielle Hixon lives in the area. She couldn't sleep after seeing the city that she's known and loved crippled by violence. So she got up at 6 a.m., put on some gloves, grabbed her broom and went to work on Melrose.

"I agreed with the protests. I don't care about the big corporations, the CVS, the Targets. But all these mom-and-pops -- I am not okay with the destruction of these small, locally owned shops. They were already hurting from the coronavirus."

Someone snapped a photo of Hixon helping to clean up and posted it on Twitter. Emily Juarez, who lives in Hollywood, saw the tweet, alerted her friend Freddy Salazar and they both headed down to join Hixon.

(L to R) Mindy Howland, Emily Juarez, Freddy Salazar and Danielle Hixon met and became friends while helping shops along Melrose Ave clean up after the protests that occurred in the area on Saturday, May 30, 2020. (Fiona Ng/LAist)

"I just woke up early and went to Home Depot to buy some stuff and came down," said Salazar, who lives in South Central.

There, the three erstwhile strangers met Mindy Howland.

"I met everyone here when we worked together to put a store back together," Howland says.

The four aren't the only ones who came to Melrose to put the city back together.

Jihan Zencirli and Christopher Sullivan put out an ask on Instagram for volunteers to join them this morning. The results? Fifteen people showed up at Cantor's at 9am.

"We want to clean some stuff up and show the city that we care. Even though yesterday was necessary, we still love our city and want to go clean it up," says Sullivan.

Jihan Zencirli and Christopher Sullivan. (Fiona Ng/LAist)

WE ANSWER YOUR QUESTIONS




Haiti - News : Zapping...





Already more than 120,000 recipients of State aid

Digicel informs that it made the deposit Friday, May 29 of 3,072 Gourdes of government assistance, via its service MonCash, according to the list of telephone numbers and names provided by the Government to 44,762 new beneficiaries, which brings the total of people having received the State subsidy to 120,370 beneficiaries. See also : https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-30405-haiti-covid-19-moise-promises-food-to-1-million-families-and-cash-to-15-million-others.html



Arrest of the alleged murderer of Inspector Jeantelus

Saturday the National Police of Haiti proceeded in the commune of Pestel (Dept. Grand'Anse), to the arrest of Jeff Vertilus suspected of being the author of the assassination by bullet of the police inspector Jocelyn Jeantelus, October 20, 2019 https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-29065-haiti-news-zapping.html . The alleged murderer will be transferred to the Central Directorate of the Judicial Police (DCPJ) for the purposes of the investigation. Jeff Vertilus is said to be a member of an armed gang operating in Village de Dieu.



France : A Franco-Haitian mayor in Seine-Saint-Denis

The 43-year-old Franco-Haitian Dieunor Excellent elected was installed as Mayor of Villetaneuse in Seine-Saint-Denis, on May 27.



Death of the poet Alain Philoctete

"The National Book Directorate learns with great pain the news of the death of the Haitian poet, designer and activist Alain Philoctete, at the age of 56 (born July 19, 1963). Author of the poem 'Legende de mon Royaume' in 1998, Alain Philoctete is the son of the poet Rene Philoctete. At the beginning of this year, documentary filmmaker Will Prosper released an 83-minute documentary : 'Kenbe la : Until victory', which recounts Alain Philoctete's fights and his trip to Haiti as part of his permaculture project. In this painful circumstance, the General Directorate sends its sympathies to his wife, the Philoctete family, his friends, in particular the director Will Prosper whom he rubbed shoulders with for several years, and to the poetry community both in Haiti and in Quebec where he had settled for about 16 years."



Message from the Secretary of State for Youth

"This is where you have to fight, to make and build the difference. Elsewhere, in another country, in another State, in another people, people have their own fight to fight. It is Haiti that we must change to taste the happiness of life," Charlot Jacquelin Junior, State Secretary for Youth



Congratulations from the Haitian Basketball Federation

"Congratulations to Conald Colbert, Executive of the Haitian Basketball Federation (FHB) who has just successfully defended his thesis with the mention very well. Thesis subject 'The Basketball market in the metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince, opportunities and challenges'. Haitian Basketball Federation.



HL/ HaitiLibre


















The Tamil Nadu government on Sunday announced an extension of the over two-month-long lockdown (ending May 31) until June 30. The state, however, has given more relaxations this time comprising partially opening of public transport as well as permitting more employees at offices.

State Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami informed that the restrictions on metro, suburban rails, religious places, and inter-state bus transport would continue.

Public transport will resume with reduced services from June 1, but buses will not operate in Chennai, Kancheepurm, Tiruvallur, and Chengalpet districts with the highest concentration of COVID-19 cases in the state.

Also Read:Coronavirus India live updates: Lockdown 5.0! phased exit to begin June 1; COVID-19 tally tops 1.73 lakh

Private stage carriers will be allowed to operate authorised routes, Palaniswami said.

"To prevent the spread of coronavirus, the curfew is being extended till June 30 under the State Disaster Management Act and as per the Union Home Ministry's notification," he said in a statement.

Tamil Nadu is among the states worst affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

It witnessed the biggest single-day spike of 938 new coronavirus cases on Saturday, taking the infection count to 21,184.

Also Read: Locust attack in India: Local species of grasshoppers, not locusts, damage crops in Tamil Nadu

The Centre had on Saturday announced 'Unlock 1", a graded exit plan from the lockdown that allowed, among others, reopening places of religious worship and restaurants.

The state government on Sunday also announced a number of other relaxations, barring containment zones, and these include allowing more employees at the workplace and permitting showrooms and jewellery shops to re-open.

Malls will remain closed, the chief minister said.

Also Read: Coronavirus crisis: Nokia closes Tamil Nadu plant after 42 employees test positive

(With inputs from PTI)
MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 31st May, 2020) The Russian space agency Roscosmos's executive director in charge of crewed space programs, Sergey Krikalev, has applauded the United States on its first crewed launch in almost a decade.

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket with two NASA astronauts on board successfully lifted off from the Florida space center earlier on Saturday, putting the Dragon module on its way toward the International Space Station.

"This launch marks the beginning of another test cycle of crewed spacecraft... This means new opportunities, new reserves - and I am sure that the success of the mission will provide us with additional opportunities that will benefit the whole international program," Krikalev said.

The docking with the ISS is set for Sunday. NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley will join two Russian cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner and NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy aboard the orbital outpost.
Navi Mumbai Migrant workers, who left their hometowns hoping for a better life in the city, have been forced by the coronavirus lockdown to stare at an uncertain future.

Belapur-based Sajan Jha, 35, worked at a restaurant as a cashier until it shut down due to the lockdown. Jha lives with his wife and two daughters, one aged three years and another nine months. He had returned with his family from Darbhanga in Bihar only a few weeks before the lockdown.

One day, a local Gurudwara provided us food, it lasted for a while, another time an NGO provided milk powder for my daughter. We have almost run out of money and I am mainly worried for milk for my young daughter, said Jha.

Jha then sent out a message to a friend seeking ration for his family and 14 others in his area, all of whom have been struggling to make ends meet. The message found its way to Navi Mumbai police on Sunday and within hours, the police provided rations to the families.

I cannot put food on my plate while my neighbour starves. We are worried about the future. We will face hunger for a while but will not leave Mumbai. We will not get work back home, Jha said.

Manish Singh, 36, is also on the same boat. Singh worked at a restaurant and only a few days before the lockdown was set to start his own small canteen. His family lives in Uttarakhand and he tried to return on the Shramik Special train, but his name wasnt listed.

Singh said he will wait it out until lockdown is over before returning home.

The canteen may not start. I will find something in the village. In hindsight, I think it is okay to stay hungry for some time rather than die like animals trying to get back home. When I get ration and cook for myself, I share it with someone needy in the area, he said

Ravindra Prasad, 40, and his wife stay with their nine-year-old twins  a boy and a girl - in Belapur on rent. For three months, Prasad has not paid his monthly rent. The landlord has not come asking for money but Prasad knows he will have to arrange the money soon.

He used to run a snacks cart and would earn Rs 12,000 per month. After the cart was shut, Prasad does not know what the future holds except his option to return to Bihar.

I will have to return home with my family. I will work at a farm and earn whatever little I can. We are daily wage workers, we cannot sit at home for six months and eat peacefully, said Prasad.

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Not so long ago, on 29 February, Gujarats Health Minister, Nitin Patel bared his heart. At the stone-laying ceremony of the Maa Umiya temple  the tallest to be built in Ahmedabad  he said: "I have reached here at this junction only because of the blessings of Maa.

Otherwise, everybody knows that I am on the one side, whereas everybody else is on the other." It took no time at all for the Congress to respond. The Congress MLA from Lathi (Amreli), Virji Thummar, while speaking on the 2020-21 Budget said: The health minister, who is also the deputy ...
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Sunday that US presidents should not 'fuel the flame' of civil discord after President Trump was criticized for his inflammatory response to the George Floyd protests.

Pelosi said on ABC's This Week that US presidents should be a 'unifying force' for Americans as clashes over police brutality ravage the county.

'The President of the United States should bring dignity to the office that he serves. He should be a unifying force in our country,' said Pelosi.

'We have seen that with Democratic and Republican presidents all along. They have seen their responsibility to be the President of the United States, to unify our country. And not to fuel the flame.'

Im not paying too much attention to what the president says, Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Trump tweets.



I think to take his bait time and time again is just a gift to him because he always wants to divert attention from what the cause of the response was. https://t.co/sVerbxGgdM pic.twitter.com/i6302lt9Yd  This Week (@ThisWeekABC) May 31, 2020

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (right) said U.S. Presidents should not 'fuel the flame' of civil discord on ABC's This Week on Sunday

Trump has received immense backlash over his response to the death of George Floyd and the subsequent protests.

He appeared to politicize the demonstrations by blaming the 'Radical Far Left' for instances of violence and called demonstrators 'thugs.'

His most controversial tweet came Friday when he warned that 'when the looting starts, the shooting starts.'

Pelosi added that Trump's tweets are 'bait' and suggested the President used social media to distract Americans.

'I think to take his bait time and time again is just a gift to him because he always wants to divert attention from what the cause of the response was, rather than to describe it in his own terms,' she said.

Pelosi (pictured): 'The President of the United States should bring dignity to the office that he serves...not fuel the flame'

During the interview, she doubled down on her stance that George Floyd was murdered by the Minneapolis officer last Monday

Pictured: Protesters hold signs as people rally in Minneapolis over the death of George Floyd, who died last Monday while in police custody

When questioned about Trump's controversial 'looting' tweet, Pelosi admitted that she 'kind of ignore(s)' the President.

'Im not paying too much attention to what the President says,' she said, adding that she's 'talking about the injustice, the knee in the neck.'

Pelosi also mentioned former President Barack Obama's statement that said the United States needed to 'create a "new normal"'.

'People say, "Lets go back to normal." Well, normal hasnt been so great for a lot of people. Lets make sure normal is consistent with liberty and justice for all,' said Pelosi.

She doubled down on her previous statements that that death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man who died while in police custody, was murdered.

'Well, Ive said right from the start that it was murder. We saw an execution of a person on TV. We saw it happen, a knee to the neck,' she said.

'I had my own concern about a murder three charge. I havent seen a situation where theres a scene of the crime, and people havent been taken into custody immediately.'

On May 24, cell phone video showed Floyd, handcuffed and pinned to the ground, with one police officer - Derek Chauvin - kneeling on his neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds.

Following Floyd's death, all four officers pictured in cell phone footage of the incident were fired from the Minneapolis Police Department

Several demonstrations have taken place across the US as citizens fight against police brutality and racism

Pictured: A NYPD police car is set on fire as protesters clash with police during a march over the death of George Floyd

Two minutes and 53 seconds of this was after Floyd was unresponsive.

Floyd, 46, is heard pleading: 'I can't breathe', as he is arrested by four cops for allegedly using a counterfeit $20 bill at a convenience store. He later died at a local hospital.

It sparked outrage across the country and Minneapolis Mayor Mayor Jacob called for Chauvin to face criminal charges.

All four officers involved were subsequently fired. On Friday, Chauvin was was officially charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter over Floyd's death.

Protests have since popped up in many US cities, including Minneapolis, New York City, Atlanta, Phoenix, Columbus, Washington D.C., Los Angeles and Philadelphia.

After tweeting 'when the looting starts, the shooting starts,' Trump received severe backlash

Trump tweeted on Friday: 'These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I wont let that happen. Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!'

The tweet soon prompted swift backlash for its reference to violence and the phrase's racist origin.

The words echoed the ones used by late Miami police chief Walter Headley, who issued a 'get tough' policy on black protesters during race riots in the city in the 1960s.

'We haven't had any serious problems with civil uprising and looting,' Headley said at a December 1967 news conference The New York Times reported at the time, 'because I've let the word filter down that when the looting starts, the shooting starts.'

'We don't mind being accused of police brutality,' Headley noted. 'They haven't seen anything yet.'

Headly's words were aimed at slum hoodlums who he believed took advantage of the Civil Rights Movement. Trump later defended himself on Twitter.

Pictured: Protesters rally at a George Floyd demonstration in New Orleans, Louisiana, on Saturday

On Twitter, President Trump passed blame on Antifa and 'the Radical Left' for instances of violence during protests

Trump announced Sunday that the US would designate Antifa as a terrorist group

President Trump (pictured) defended his 'looting' comments and argued 'it means when there's looting people get shot and they die'

Pictured: Police officers look on as a car burns in the back as protesters continue to rally against the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd in Washington State

'It means when there's looting, people get shot and they die,' Trump said. 'And if you look at what happened last night and the night before you see that it's very common. And that's the way that was meant.'

'But I don't know where it came from, I don't know where it originated,' the president added.

Twitter flagged Trump's tweet about 'looting and shooting' for 'glorifying violence,' prompting the President to sign an executive order to curb conservative bias on social media.

Trump also received backlash for placing sole blame on 'Antifa and the Radical Left.'

He wrote on Saturday: 'It's ANTIFA and the Radical Left. Don't lay blame on others!'

On Sunday, he announced that the United States would designate Antifa as a terrorist organization.
Patna: Gusty wind with speed of 60 kilometer per hour with thunderstorms lashed Patna and few other districts of Bihar on Saturday evening (May 31, 2020) leading to the destruction of properties and waterlogging at several areas. The temperature of Patna also went down by 5 degrees celsius.

Patna Meteorological Centre said several districts in central and western Bihar, including Patna, Rohtas, Kaimur and Buxar districts witnessed turbulent weather.

Stir was created after a roof of building's located at Munnachak in Kankarbagh fell down due to the wind. A six-story building with 80 people inside was evacuated and they're shifted to Ranbasera. Trees fell near the High Court bend on Bailey Road.

Vehicle movements were also disrupted due to as road railings were broken by falling trees. Net service in many areas was interrupted due to the breaking of the Internet wire. However, the main road has now been opened and there are normal movement of vehicle in the city.

As per IMD, thunderstorm, lightning, rain very likely during next 3 hrs (valid up to 12:30 pm) at few places over Muzaffarnagar, Moradabad, Rampur, Bareilly, Pilibhit, Budaun, Sambhal, Amroha, Bulandshahar, Aligarh, Etah, Kasganj, Farrukhabad, Shahjahanpur, Lakhimpur Kheri and adjoining areas

The weather department forecast also predicts that pre-monsoon thundershowers apart, the southwest monsoon is also progressing swiftly and is expected to reach Bihar between June 13 and 16. The India Meteorological Department on Saturday said conditions were becoming favorable for further advance of southwest monsoon into some parts of south Arabian Sea, Maldives-Comorin area and southeast Bay of Bengal. The wing of southwest monsoon from the Bay of Bengal reaches Bihar through northeastern districts of Katihar, Kishanganj and Purnea.
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Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Beijing  Sun, May 31, 2020 11:08 600 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdb2602a 2 News travel,Airlines,lockdown,China,Germany,coronavirus,COVID-19 Free

A Lufthansa plane carrying around 200 mainly German workers landed in China on Saturday, marking the first return of Europeans since the country suspended visas over the coronavirus.

China drastically cut international flight routes in late March and imposed a entry ban on most foreigners -- including those with valid residence visas.

The move underlined its fears over imported coronavirus cases and a second wave of infections as the virus epicenter shifted beyond China, where the deadly pathogen was first reported late last year.

Many workers found themselves stranded abroad and unable to return after leaving China at the height of the epidemic.

Lufthansa's flight from Frankfurt landed shortly before noon at Tianjin airport, southeast of Beijing, the German flag-carrier said.

The group, made up of employees of German companies and their families, were tested for COVID-19 after they landed and will have to quarantine for two weeks.

"We did not know if this plane would leave or not" until the last minute, said passenger Alexander Ophoven before takeoff.

A second aircraft -- reserved for people whose who need to be in China for economic, commercial, scientific or technological purposes, or for urgent humanitarian reasons -- is scheduled to depart from Frankfurt for Shanghai on June 3.

There are more than 5,000 German companies operating in China, according to the local German Chamber of Commerce.

Two months after closing its borders, China is beginning to lift restrictions on foreigners.

Beijing announced on Friday that some Singapore nationals will be allowed to return from early June. They will only be allowed entry into six cities and provinces initially, including Shanghai.

The number of international flights between China and the rest of the world will increase from 134 to 407 per week as of Monday, according to the Chinese Civil Aviation Administration.
Former deputy Labour leader Tom Watson has had his peerage blocked, it was claimed last night.

He is reported to have been rejected by the independent watchdog over his support for false allegations of a VIP paedophile ring made by fantasist Nick.

He had demanded that police investigate allegations made by Carl Beech, who was later jailed.

Mr Watson is thought to be the third of former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyns nominees for the 2019 dissolution honours whose peerage is understood to have been blocked.

Former deputy Labour leader Tom Watson (pictured) has had his peerage blocked by the independent watchdog, it was claimed last night

Former Speaker John Bercow and Mr Corbyns ex-chief of staff Karie Murphy are said to have been prevented from going to the Lords over concerns about their propriety.

Mr Watson was engulfed in controversy after he championed the claims of the man known as Nick, who falsely claimed he had been abused by Westminster paedophiles.

Harvey Proctor, a former Conservative MP smeared by the allegations, has led a campaign to deny Mr Watson a peerage.

Yesterday a source told The Independent that, unlike the other nominations, there was more of an argument about Mr Watsons case, and a lot of umming and ahhing.

It was separately reported that Mr Corbyn had been told that Mr Bercow and Miss Murphy would not be approved while questions remained about allegations against them.

Mr Bercow, who served as Speaker for a decade until last year, was referred to the parliamentary commissioner for standards in January over allegations of bullying.

He is accused by parliamentary officials of creating a climate of fear and intimidation, which he denies.

However, there are also suggestions that Mr Bercows peerage has not been approved because he is a former Tory MP, and not a Labour nominee.

Tom Watson's peerage was reportedly rejected due to his support of false allegations of a VIP paedophile ring made by fantasist Carl Beech (pictured), who was later jailed

Miss Murphy is involved in the Equality and Human Rights Commission investigation into whether Labour is institutionally anti-Semitic.

She denies wrongdoing, but is named in submissions to the inquiry alongside other officials.

Unless investigations are completed before the deadline for the appointments, they will not go ahead, according to the Sunday Times.

The House of Lords Appointments Commission defines propriety to mean the individual should be in good standing in the community in general and with the public regulatory authorities in particular; and the past conduct of the nominee would not reasonably be regarded as bringing the House of Lords into disrepute.

Downing Street sees the nominees only once they are approved or rejected by the commission.

A prime minister has never previously rejected the advice of the commission on referring nominations to the Queen for final approval.

Mr Watson and Mr Bercow did not respond to requests for comment. Miss Murphy said she did not know that her nomination had been rejected.

She told The Independent: I speak to Jeremy every other day.
By PTI

BHOPAL: Former Lok Sabha MP Premchand Borasi "Guddu" on Sunday returned to the Congress, within two years of his leaving the party and joining the BJP.

The 59-year-old Dalit leader is likely to be the Congress candidate from Sanwer Assembly (Scheduled Caste reserved) from Indore, possibly against Madhya Pradesh minister Tulsi Silawat.

The seat is one of the 24 which will see bypolls, dates for which are yet to be announced.

Guddu, a known critic of Jyotiraditya Scindia who recently shifted to the BJP, said he was happy to come back to his old party as he "could not connect with the BJP by mind or ideology".

"After being troubled by Scindia, I had joined the BJP," Guddu claimed.

Guddu and his son Ajit had joined the BJP ahead of the 2018 MP Assembly polls, the latter failing to win from a seat in Ujjain.




Pastor Enoch Adeboye, the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), has revealed what Christians must do during this COVID-19 lockdown.

Speaking during a sermon on Sunday on DOVE TV, Pastor Adeboye asked Christians to do things that will move them forward during the lockdown.

Pastor Adeboye revealed that David, Elijah and Joseph  biblical characters  experienced uplifting after lockdown.

The popular cleric asked Christians to rejoice, praise God and pray during the COVID-19 lockdown.

There has never been a better time to pray because you have more time and less things to do, he said.

Daddy G.O, as he is fondly called by his congregation, also said Christians to study the word, meditate and receive vision for the future and plan towards actualising your future.

Adeboye advised Christians to clean their houses and environments because of more time on their hands and lighten their houses.

When you clean your house, you will realise things you dont need anymore. Please give them out, he added.

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KC Police: From last night: 85 arrests, significant damage to businesses on the Plaza. Nearly all officers hit with frozen water bottles or rocks. Two officers hospitalized from being struck - one with an injury to the temple and one with a lacerated liver.

There were multiple reports of gunfire and fighting. 3 shootings confirmed.

Several businesses in the Midtown corridor were damaged.

And, of course that police cruiser was burned.

KC police report 3 overnight shootings, double fatality crash early Sunday morning KANSAS CITY, MO (KCTV) - Kansas City police responded to three shootings and a double fatality crash early Sunday morning. Around 1 a.m., a woman was privately transported to a local hospital where she stated she was shot while on the Plaza. Police said she has non-life-threatening injuries and refused to give any further information regarding the incident.

Mayor Lucas, Chief Smith address civil unrest in KCMO KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Kansas City, Missouri, Mayor Quinton Lucas and KCPD Chief Rick Smith held a press conference Sunday to address protests that turned to civil unrest Saturday night in the city. Protesters gathered at the Country Club Plaza early Saturday afternoon peacefully, but as the sun went down, the protests got more violent.

A protest in response to the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis takes a heavy toll on KCPD.Latest update . . .Moreover . . .More roundup reports . . .Developing . . .
A 50-year-old migrant worker died on-board a Shramik Special train from Rajasthan to West Bengal, triggering panic among other passengers who travelled with the body for more than eight hours, police said on Sunday.





Buddha Parihar, who hailed from Harishchandrapur in Malda district, used to work at a hotel in Rajasthan's Bikaner. His brother-in-law Saraju Das also used to work with him at the same hotel.

Parihar, survived by his wife and two children, was working in Rajasthan for nearly 20 years, his family said.



Parihar and Das lost their jobs due to the coronavirus lockdown, and their multiple attempts to return to Malda failed. But they finally boarded a train around 11 am on May 29, police said.



Parihar died on the train around 10 pm on Saturday when it was near Mughalsarai in Uttar Pradesh, they said.



The death triggered panic in the compartment with people suspecting that Parihar might have died due to COVID-19 and the co-passengers might contract the disease, police said.



The body was handed over to the Government Railway Police when the train reached Malda Town station around 6.40 am on Sunday.



Later, the matter was handed over to the Englishbazar Police Station which has started an investigation into the incident and sent the body to Malda Medical College for post-mortem, a senior police officer said.



"We used to work at a hotel but as soon as the lockdown started we lost our job. We didn't have any money left and tried to return home several times but couldn't. In the meantime, Buddha fell sick. Finally, we boarded the train on May 29. But he died on the train mysteriously," Das said.



Malda District Magistrate Rajarshi Mitra later said Parihar had tuberculosis.



Das, who accompanied him, will be tested for coronavirus, he added.
Texas Governor Announces Disaster Declaration for State After Protests

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced a disaster declaration in his state following violent protests across several cities in response to the death of George Floyd.

Abbott declared a state of disaster across all counties, citing threats and incidents of violence in several cities across Texas that have endangered public safety.

Every Texan and every American has the right to protest and I encourage all Texans to exercise their First Amendment rights, said Abbott, according to KBTX. However, violence against others and the destruction of property is unacceptable and counterproductive.

The demonstrations, he said, have become violent in places across Texas, which means its crucial that we maintain order, uphold public safety, and protect against property damage or loss.

By authorizing additional federal agents to serve as Texas Peace Officers we will help protect peoples safety while ensuring that peaceful protesters can continue to make their voices heard, he said.

The disaster declaration comes one day after the Texas National Guard was deployed, and the Department of Public Safety sent more than 1,500 officers to help local police departments.

On Saturday, the governor wrote in a statement that the National Guard and officers were being sent to Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Austin.

Texas and America mourn the senseless loss of George Floyd and the actions that led to his death are reprehensible and should be condemned in the strongest terms possible, Abbott said in a statement. As Texas exercises their 1st Amendment rights, it is imperative that order is maintained and private property is protected.

Floyd died last week while in Minneapolis police custody. A viral video showed an officer with his knee on Floyds neck while he said he couldnt breathe.

But peaceful protests involving tens of thousands of people on Saturday gave way, in some places, to rioting, looting, and violence, with police vehicles torched, stores looted, and objects hurled at officers.

Police and peaceful protesters alike pleaded for a stop to violence, saying it only hindered calls for justice and reform.

In Minneapolis, the city where the protests began, police, state troopers, and National Guard members moved in soon after an 8 p.m. curfew took effect Saturday to break up demonstrations. The show of force came after three days of police largely avoiding engaging protesters, and after the state poured more than 4,000 National Guard troops into Minneapolis. Authorities said that number would soon rise to nearly 11,000.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
(PHOTO: Facebook / Khaw Boon Wan)

SINGAPORE  The suspension of the High Speed Rail (HSR) project aimed at linking Singapore and Kuala Lumpur will be extended to the end of this year.

In the spirit of bilateral cooperation, we have agreed to a final extension of the suspension period to 31 December 2020, said Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan in a Facebook post on Sunday (31 May).

This should provide sufficient time for Malaysia to clarify its proposal and for both sides to assess the implications of the proposed changes, he added.

Khaw noted that Malaysias Senior Minister Azmin Ali had written to him to request a seven-month extension to discuss his countrys possible changes to the project. Construction on the HSR project, which has been suspended since September 2018, was due to resume at the end of this month.

(The) COVID-19 pandemic does inconvenience the discussions but tele-conferencing can largely overcome the difficulty. The key is joint commitment to the projects vision and mutual trust, said Khaw, adding both sides must be convinced that the changes do not undermine the original intent of the project.

I remain optimistic that a HSR linking our two capitals will benefit both our peoples, he added.

Separately, Azmin said in his own Facebook post that the governments of Malaysia and Singapore had agreed to resume discussions on the project in the near future.

He added that he had been asked by his countrys Cabinet to lead the Malaysian team in the discussions with the Singapore Government on this project.

Stay in the know on-the-go: Join Yahoo Singapore's Telegram channel at http://t.me/YahooSingapore

More Singapore stories:

518 new COVID-19 cases detected in Singapore, total now at 34,884

On The Mic: Family violence amid the COVID-19 pandemic (Part 1)
At a public forum Thursday night to discuss the arrest of Tye Anders, black and Hispanic residents  when asked to share their experiences with the Midland Police Department  recounted what they said were racially motivated and sometimes-violent encounters with MPD officers.

I know everybody tired, but we sick and tired of being tired, too, the first speaker, Joseph Norman, said during the second half of the two-hour meeting.

The evening was split into two sections; the first, a question-and-answer with city officials that focused largely on Anders viral arrest, and the second, a portion described by Councilman John Norman as an opportunity for residents to share life experiences.

Freddie Joe Ray told the majority-white panel of city leaders that MPD officers once pointed guns at him and arrested him after he called them for help. He said he called 9-1-1 after he was physically attacked, and instead of receiving assistance, was arrested and charged with two counts of aggravated assault.

Twenty-five to life twice  twenty-five to life for defending my own home at home, he said.

Ray said he received a plea deal for one year of probation after hiring a criminal defense attorney from Lubbock.

Sweetie Mays, who identified herself as 77 years old, described an incident she said occurred when she was 63.

Mays said she was driving home with her granddaughter in the car when an MPD units patrol lights were turned on. She said she was a block from her home and opted to continue until she could pull into her driveway.

When she got out of her car, four officers came toward her, she tripped and a scuffle ensued, she said. Her clearest recollection of the incident was lying on the ground with an officers foot on her back. Mays said she spent the night in jail after officers told her they found drugs in her car (she maintained she did not have any drugs).

Following her release on bond, Mays said she had surgery on her right arm because her rotator cuff was damaged during the struggle with police.

I just praise God because I know I could have gotten killed, right there at my own house, she said.

Police Chief Seth Herman told Mays he would like to speak with her following the forum, adding he was very concerned about what she had said.

Former Midland City Council candidate Daniel Corrales also spoke during Thursdays meeting. He said his grandmother, who represented District 2 and was the first council member of color in the 1980s, had warned him growing up that he would encounter racial bias.

She told me my experience would be different from others because we werent Anglo, he said. I didnt understand what that meant at the time.

Twenty years ago, Corrales said he was stopped for a broken taillight while driving on Scharbauer Drive. Corrales said he was handcuffed and made to sit on the side of the road as officers searched his car. He was released when they didnt find anything in his vehicle and given a citation for the taillight, he said.

That experience influenced him years later when he opted not to prosecute certain cases as an assistant district attorney in New York City, he said.

I declined to prosecute a bunch of cases because I understood where I come from, theres a cultural divide between where you come from and law enforcement, Corrales said.

A 2019 racial profiling report compiled by the city of Midland and provided to the Reporter-Telegram showed African American and Hispanic drivers were stopped at disproportionally higher rates.

While African American residents make up 7 percent of the population, 13 percent of all recorded traffic stops by the MPD were on African American drivers, according to the report. Hispanic drivers accounted for 45 percent of traffic stops and 27 percent of the population.

The report states that white drivers were stopped at rates lower than the percentage of white residents. White drivers made up 40 percent of traffic stops despite being 65 percent of the population, according to the report.

African Americans also were more likely to be arrested or have their cars searched during a traffic stop. Ten percent of African American drivers stopped were arrested, while 6 percent of white drivers and 7 percent of Hispanic drivers were arrested during traffic stops, according to the report.

Thirteen percent of African Americans had their cars searched, compared to 7 percent of white drivers and 8 percent of Hispanic drivers.

It should be noted that the racial profiling report includes only traffic stops in which a warning, citation or arrest was given and not the total number of traffic stops that occurred in 2019.

Thursdays forum became charged as officials tried to wrap up the meeting, when attendees broke out in chants of let us speak. Tensions were escalated by Dallas activist Dominique Alexander of Next Generation Action Network.

Alexander began screaming at officials to drop the felony case against Anders, who was charged with evading arrest after allegedly failing to adhere to a stop sign and pull over when an officer initiated a traffic stop. Alexander also called for Herman to be fired in response to the bystander video that showed several MPD officers pointing guns at Anders while he lay in the grass with his hands behind his back.

Some attendees applauded Alexanders outburst, while others quickly left the auditorium as officials directed everyone to exit the building.

The public discussion was one of several planned community conversations about race relations between residents and law enforcement, according to Norman. Officials have not announced the dates for future discussions.


By Arthur I. Cyr





"Without justice, courage is weak," Benjamin Franklin wrote, and around the world, courage and justice are in evidence regarding purveyors of mass murder.



Early in the morning of May 16, French police arrested Felicien Kabuga in a Paris apartment. Accused of leading and helping to finance the horrific 1994 genocide in Rwanda, he had topped the list of the world's most wanted fugitives.



That list shrinks, slowly but steadily. In March 2016, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) convicted Radovan Karadzic of genocide. He is responsible for a massacre of approximately 8,000 men and boys in Srebrenica in 1995.



In April 2012, an international Special Court convicted former Liberian President Charles Taylor of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Taylor aided Sierra Leone rebel forces in carrying out bloody, brutal atrocities.



Liberia under Taylor was rightly regarded as having a ruling regime that was corrupt and dangerous. Liberia's eventual President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf earlier spent more than a year in prison during the era of Taylor's dictatorship, and he once threatened to kill her. She acquired the nickname "The Iron Lady" because of her legendary determination and courage.



Around the world, justice is catching up with a range of mass murderers through due process. In November 2011, a jury in New York City convicted Viktor Bout for trying to sell arms to the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) in order to kill Americans. His nickname is "The Merchant of Death."



Bout was seized in Thailand in a sting operation orchestrated by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. The Thai government initially vetoed extradition, in response to strong pressures from Russian interests. The turnabout reflected very intense continuous effort by the United States government.



Former Soviet army officer Bout became rich and feared dealing in weapons and drugs on a vast scale. The book "Merchant of Death" documents his extraordinary career. Authors Douglas Farah and Stephen Braun provide details regarding a global trail marked in blood. Bout's arrest in a luxury hotel was a victory for morality and decency as well as law enforcement.



Initially based in Russia, Bout moved his operations to Belgium, then the United Arab Emirates. For years, he kept just barely ahead of a comprehensive worldwide law-enforcement effort to take him down.



Also in 2011, Goran Hadzic was arrested in Serbia. He was the last remaining accused Balkans war criminal not yet taken into custody following the brutal fighting in that region in the 1990s.



United Nations officials joined the international judicial tribunal representatives overseeing these trials in welcoming this benchmark event. Slow and inefficient, international legal institutions nonetheless are steadily making progress.



If this brief brutal list indicates such practices are removed from the United States, think again. Edwin P. Wilson, a retired U.S. intelligence pro, went to work for terrorist state Libya in the 1970s. Wilson recruited expert military veterans, including U.S. Army Green Berets, for Colonel Qaddafi's regime.



Wilson eventually was released from prison after over two decades behind bars. A federal judge declared the Central Intelligence Agency and Justice Department had acted improperly, and overturned his conviction on procedural grounds.



By definition, the rule of law obliges respect for due process. The presumption of innocence is essential to protecting all citizens.



Dr. Franklin and fellow Founders understood the goal is great but the process often painful.





Arthur I. Cyr is Clausen Distinguished Professor at Carthage College and author of "After the Cold War" (NYU Press and Palgrave/Macmillan). Contact acyr@carthage.edu




Rome, May 31 : The COVID-19 hospitalisations decreased in Italy on Saturday, the Civil Protection Department said, continuing a positive trend for the hard-hit Mediterranean nation as it geared up for the end of domestic travel restrictions next week.

Total active infections stood at 43,691, down from 46,175 on Friday, according to the Civil Protection Department, Xinhua news agency reported.

Of these infections, 450 are in intensive care unit (ICU), 25 fewer compared to Friday, and 6,680 are hospitalized with symptoms, down by 414 from the day before. The remaining 36,561, or about 84, are isolated at home with no symptoms or only mild symptoms The densely populated, highly industrialized Lombardy region whose capital is Milan, where the pandemic first broke out on February 21, still had the lion's share of cases, with 21,809 active infections, up by 221 compared to Friday.

Lombardy authorities said Saturday that since the pandemic began, swabs have been carried out on 741,447 people and that the region has so far seen a total of 88,758 infections, 50,878 recoveries, and 16,079 fatalities.

Nationwide, recoveries jumped by 2,789 compared to Friday, bringing the total to 155,633, while another 111 people died, bringing the death toll since the pandemic began to 33,340.

The overall number of COVID-19 cases combining infections, fatalities, and recoveries has risen to 232,664.

On Friday, the Health Ministry said in a statement that based on its nationwide COVID-19 monitoring activities during the week of May 18-24, "at the moment in Italy there are no reported critical situations." Health Minister Roberto Speranza followed this up with a tweet, writing that "the monitoring data are encouraging. The significant sacrifices of the lockdown have produced these results." "We must continue on the path we have taken, gradually and cautiously," the minister added.

Speranza made this comment as Italians got ready to take holiday trips, visit distant friends and family, or relocate to their summer homes, beginning on June 3.

Under terms of a national lockdown that went into effect on March 10 and subsequent decrees by Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte that progressively relaxed the restrictions, Italians are forbidden from traveling across the borders of the country's 20 regions until June 2.

"Beginning on June 3, it will be possible to travel between different regions," the government said on its website on May 27.

"However, the central government can impose limitations on interregional travel... to specific areas of the national territory, based on the proportion of epidemiological risk that is effectively present in those areas," the government added.

As well, people with fevers and those who are isolated at home because they have tested positive to the new coronavirus are forbidden from traveling.

In a statement on Saturday, the National Confederation of Farmers (Coldiretti) said that 7 million Italians are planning a vacation trip next month, breathing some much-needed oxygen into the country's stalled tourist industry.

"The freedom to cross-regional borders beginning on June 3 will have a significant economic and employment impact on tourism," Coldiretti wrote.

Italy's tourist season normally begins in March, but this year the sector lost 81 million visitors between March and May due to the lockdown.

Tourist spending ground to a halt, causing estimated losses of almost 20 billion euros (US $22.21 billion) for hotels, restaurants, transportation firms, and retailers over the past three months, according to Coldiretti estimates.

The hardest-hit sector has been food and wine, which is the "main spending item for foreign and Italian tourists alike," Coldiretti said.

"Food has become the true added value of Made-in-Italy holidays," Coldiretti continued.

Italy is the world leader in terms of gastronomic tourism thanks to its many prized, unique wines and gourmet delicacies, but also because it has "the greenest agriculture in Europe" with over 60,000 organic farms, Coldiretti said.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
By Trend

Netherlands and Azerbaijan are exploring possibilities of cooperation in the renewable energy sphere, outgoing Ambassador of the Netherlands to Azerbaijan Onno Kervers told Trend.

"It is very good that Azerbaijan is focusing on this sphere, because there is a great potential here. Azerbaijan has solar energy, wind energy and geothermal energy. Weve been talking to Azerbaijans Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov. He also understands that if Azerbaijan has renewable energy for its own consumption, the country can export more oil and gas. So, there is a very important connection," said Kervers.

The ambassador pointed out that there is a number of Dutch companies with technology for developing offshore wind energy.

"Talks are underway to see if there are possibilities for cooperation between Azerbaijan and the Netherlands. I speak to a lot of Dutch companies, among which there are companies which can produce relatively cheap biogas. This would be interesting for smaller villages in Azerbaijans regions," said Kervers.

He went on to add that there are Dutch companies working in the offshore, traditional sector in Azerbaijan.

"There is a company, which provides anti-corrosive paint, which is important for the oil rigs, there is a company which deals with waste management in the process of drilling, there are companies specialized in emergency evacuation in the case of an incident on an oil platform," said the envoy.

Kervers highlighted the significance of the Southern Gas Corridor, which envisages transportation of Azerbaijani gas to Europe.

"Netherlands finds Southern Gas Corridor a very important project. After being commissioned, the Southern Gas Corridor will go to Italy and beyond, thereby ensuring more competition. Thats why, although the Netherlands is not a direct consumer of gas via the Southern Gas Corridor, we strongly support this project. We do hope that the capacity of the Southern Gas Corridor will further increase," he said.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
A researcher works on virus replication in order to develop a vaccine against COVID-19, in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, on March 26, 2020. (Douglas Magno/AFP/Getty Images)

Five-Month-Old Brazilian Baby Survives Coronavirus After 32 Days in Coma

After spending a month in an induced coma due to COVID-19, Dom, a 5-month-old Brazilian baby, gets to go home and celebrate his 6-month birthday.

A few months after he was born, Dom was diagnosed with COVID-19 at the Pro-Cardiaco hospital in Rio de Janeiro.

He spent 54 days in the hospital32 of them in an induced coma and connected to a ventilator, Doms father, Wagner Andrade, told CNN.

He had some difficulty breathing so the doctors thought it was a bacterial infection, he said. But the medication didnt work and he got worse. Then me and my wife decided to take him to a second hospital and they tested him.

It was CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, also known as the novel coronavirus that causes the COVID-19 disease.

It Was A Miracle

It remains uncertain how Dom contracted the CCP virus. He may have been exposed during a visit to a relatives home, according to Andrade.

My wife noticed this noise at the end of his breathing, he said. We called a few doctors and one of them told us to record a video. After she saw it, she ordered us to take him immediately to the hospital.

Andrade and his wife, Viviane Monteiro, say it was a miracle that Dom recovered.

First, I felt relieved, and then indescribable happiness, Andrade said. We were longing to get him back home for more than 50 days.

Dom will celebrate his 6-month birthday on June 14 at home with his parents, surrounded virtually by relatives.

Brazil has reported at least 25 COVID-19-related deaths among babies up to 12 months of age, according to data from the countrys ministry of health.

In the last week, Latin America has become the epicenter of the global pandemic. With 465,166 confirmed cases of the virus and 27,878 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data, Brazil is the hardest-hit country in the region.

The CNN Wire and The Epoch Times staff contributed to this report.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office before signing an executive order related to regulating social media on May 28, 2020 in Washington, DC. Trump's executive order could lead to attempts to punish companies such as Twitter and Google for attempting to point out factual inconsistencies in social media posts by politicians.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday he would postpone a Group of Seven summit he had hoped to hold next month until September or later and expand the list of invitees to include Australia, Russia, South Korea and India.

Speaking to reporters on Air Force One during his return to Washington from Cape Canaveral in Florida, Trump said the G7, which groups the world's most advanced economies, was a "very outdated group of countries" in its current format.

"I'm postponing it because I don't feel that as a G7 it properly represents what's going on in the world," Trump said.

Most European countries offered no immediate comment on the proposal, with a spokesman for the German government saying Berlin was "waiting for further information".

It was unclear whether Trump's desire to invite the additional countries was a bid to permanently expand the G7. On several previous occasions, he suggested Russia be added, given what he called Moscow's global strategic importance.

Russia was expelled from what was then the G8 in 2014 when Trump's predecessor, Barack Obama, was U.S. president, after Moscow annexed the Crimea region from Ukraine. Russia still holds the territory, and various G7 governments have rebuffed previous calls from Trump to readmit Moscow.

White House spokeswoman Alyssa Farah said Trump wants the countries to discuss China at the summit.

Trump has criticized Beijing over its handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which began in China, and on Friday he ordered his administration to begin the process of ending special U.S. treatment for Hong Kong in retaliation for China's decision to impose a new security law on the former British colony.

The decision to postpone the G-7 summit is a retreat for Trump, who had sought to host the group of major industrialized countries in Washington as a demonstration that the United States was returning to normal after the coronavirus epidemic, which has killed more than 103,000 Americans to date.

Trump had canceled an in-person G-7 meeting scheduled for March as the virus spread, but had recently sought to revive it.

French President Emmanuel Macron backed the idea of an in-person meeting, according to the White House. But Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau declined to endorse it, saying there were too many health-related questions. This week, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she could not attend.

South Korea is aware of Trump's invitation and will discuss the matter with the United States, a government official in Seoul told Reuters on Sunday.

The G-7 groups the United States, Britain, France, Japan, Germany, Italy and Canada, and the European Union also attends.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 31)  Metro Manila may be shifting to the general community quarantine on Monday, but people, expressing sentiments on social media, are dreading the risks that come with easier quarantine rules as they return to their workplaces.

Aside from the ongoing threat of the highly contagious virus, the impending traffic in the region's major thoroughfares is raising mounting concerns among netizens. Some pointed out the potential similarities in their experiences back when the capital was placed under the modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ).

"Traffic will be the worst. It was traffic during MECQ, what more during GCQ. Think about it," tweeted @vaneexxha.

"Last week ng MECQ the traffic was so heavy, paano na bukas na GCQ (general community quarantine)???" tweeted @futureCBGarcia.

[Translation: Last week of the MECQ, that traffic was so heavy, how about tomorrow when it's already the GCQ?]

"Approaching to the GCQ... most people got so excited that they almost forgot that the enemy was faceless and might be just anywhere. Traffic is terribly back," said @iemjempot. "Vehicles owns the streets and highways again."

Some also expressed worries about the surge in fares and long queues in other modes of public transportation.

"Ang mahal po ng carpool, thrice my usual fare kapag commute. Hindi talaga makatarungan yung GCQ provisions," said @maibaticulon.

[Translation: Carpooling is expensive and is thrice my usual fare during my commute. The GCQ provisions really are not justifiable.]

"TNVS will surely go on a surge hike. Unadvisable to take cabs due to traffic. Trains will have long queues. Lesser chance of happening to ride a jeep or even UV," @vaneexxha added.

'We're on our own now'

Meanwhile, some others aired their disappointment over their lack of options, as the government did not meet its testing target before deciding to ease the quarantine.

"Napunta sa wala lahat ng hinintay natin ngayong quarantine. magpapa GCQ sa NCR (National Capital Region) nang walang MASS TESTING. I guess we're really on our own? #MassTestingPH" said @SURELYAHEB.

[Translation: We've waited for nothing during this quarantine. The NCR will shift to the GCQ without mass testing. I guess we're really on our own?]

"Tomorrow is the day..... I pray that everyones safety and health will survive as we are left with no choice but to risk our lives during this GCQ period," said @seungwanslove.

Malacanang on Sunday urged the public to continue cooperating with authorities in the observance of quarantine protocols, noting that the government "cannot fight COVID-19 alone."

"Let us take care of each other by wearing face masks or face shields, maintaining physical distancing, staying at home when need be and avoiding crowded places and the like," it said.

The Department of Transportation also announced that it has increased its Metro Rail Transit-3 train sets to 19 from 15 on Monday to accommodate more passengers.

The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority also said that its coding scheme for vehicles will remain lifted until June 5, as jeepneys and most buses are still not allowed to ply their routes until June 22.

Starting June 1, quarantine measures will be eased in Metro Manila and several cities and provinces, while the rest of the country will be under a less strict modified general community quarantine.

On Friday, the Department of Health started to change the way it reported COVID-19 cases amid sudden surges, citing delayed results and testing backlogs.

The agency previously said that due to the current current health system capacity and limited resources of the country, it would not be "cost-effective" to include asymptomatic patients or individuals who do not show symptoms of COVID-19 in the testing coverage for the meantime.

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque noted that it would be "physically impossible" to test all Filipinos, hence, the government is only testing 1 to 2 percent of the country's population of almost 110 million.

The country now has 17,224 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with a nationwide death toll of 950. However, a total of 3,808 patients have recovered from the disease.
Let's see if you remember this story: the policeman is accused of killing someone, the incidents sparks so-called protests, the mayor cracks and lets the demonstrators get it out of their system, property and businesses burn down, and then the city is never the same.

That was Baltimore 2014. It sure felt as though I was watching a documentary of that story six years ago.

Why are so many of our cities run by such weak and incompetent leaders?

Former mayor Rudi Giuliani, who did a pretty good job of running New York City, was right on target:

"Progressive Democrats are incapable of keeping their people safe," he said, "because they have criminal-friendly policies that are pathetic, that are dangerous, and now we are seeing the results not only there [in Minneapolis], but watch the cities that start burning. "They are all going to be run by so-called progressives, idiot Democrats who let criminals out of jail, who set bail for murderers and encourage exactly this kind of thing." Giuliani also said Democrat Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Democrat Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz should resign after Minneapolis officers were driven out of a police precinct that was set ablaze by rioters Thursday night. "Giving up a police precinct? The mayor should resign. Telling police officers to flee a precinct, he should resign and be replaced by somebody who can protect his people," Giuliani said. "The governor should resign because he has had four days to protect his people."

We will see if the good people of Minnesota wise up and do some regime change.

In the meantime, Mayor Frey is blaming "white supremacists," but the arrests tell a different story. I guess Mr. Frey had to bring the white supremacist (i.e., it's Trump's fault) into the narrative, but the real thugs did not cooperate with his distraction.

It does not matter who set the fires. The real issue is that the local leadership let them do it. No one stood up to them, and that's how the mayor and the governor failed their constituents.

PS: You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.
As India opens up after a 68-day lockdown, imposed to curb the spread of the coronavirus disease, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday the battle against the pandemic is a long one, warned against complacency, and reiterated the need for citizens to adhere to social distancing norms, wear masks and wash their hands regularly.

In his monthly radio address, Mann Ki Baat, Modi also said although every section of the society has been affected by the viral pandemic, the pain felt by the poor cannot be measured in words. The PMs remarks come in the wake of millions of migrant workers making their way back home during the lockdown, and sustained reports of their economic deprivation, hunger and even deaths.

The PM also emphasised the need for economic self-reliance, sensitivity to the environment, expressed solidarity with those affected by Cyclone Amphan in West Bengal and Odisha, and placed importance on the power of yoga in building immunity and for good health.

The address was broadcast a day after the Modi government unveiled guidelines for what it termed as Unlock 1.0  in contrast to consecutive phases of the lockdown which was first been declared on March 25. The government announced that in the first phase of unlocking India, places of worship, shopping malls, and hotels and restaurants can open from June 8; in the next phase, state governments will consult various stakeholders on the opening of educational institutions; and in the third phase, the government will assess and decide on the opening up of international air travel, metro services, cinema halls and other activities. The new guidelines also remove restrictions on inter- and intra-state travel.

In his radio address, coming just a day after he completed the first year of his second term in power, PM Modi said India has been able to contain the spread of infection and keep the death toll relatively low, compared to other countries, but cautioned against complacence. Covid-19 is very much there and we cannot be complacent. The road ahead is a long one. We are fighting a pandemic about which little was previously known, the PM said.

Experts agreed with the PMs note of caution and believe that the easing of restrictions  while necessary to mitigate the economic crisis  can lead to an increase in cases and the spread of the disease.

The Prime Minister is absolutely right. The coronavirus is going to stay with us for a long time. Although we are behind countries such as Brazil and USA as far as casualty is concerned, we have to conduct more tests, segregate infected people and make the masses more conscious, said Koushik Chaki, secretary, West Bengal Doctors Forum, a prominent body of doctors.

T Jacob John, former virology head, CMC, Vellore, said: Now is the time to up your guard against the disease, and strictly follow preventive measures such as wearing of mask while stepping out, social distancing, hand hygiene etc. With lockdown being lifted the risk of disease transmission also increases as there will be greater public movement.

India ended Sunday with 190,533 cases and 5,328 deaths. The fatality rate in India remains much lower than the global fatality rate, and experts suggest that the lockdown, extended thrice, has pushed back the peak of infections, giving the country time to strengthen its health care infrastructure.

Modi expressed his appreciation for the efforts made by both individuals and organisations in helping those in need during the pandemic and its aftermath. No section has been spared the impact of the pandemic, he said.

However, the worst affected are the poor and the labourers. Their pain, their agony, and their ordeal cant be expressed in words, he said.

Millions of migrant workers in the cities, fearing the loss of their livelihoods, have headed home in states such as Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha and West Bengal, braving hunger, thirst and heat, in an exodus triggered by the enforcement of the lockdown. Indian Railways is running special trains to transport them to their home states.

The PM said the railways too has become a front line worker in the fight against the coronavirus disease.

The Centre, states, local bodies are all working day and night. The way our Railway forces are making efforts round-the-clock, they are in a way front line corona warriors transporting safely millions of migrant labourers to their homes; arranging for their food, managing quarantine centres in every district and arrangements for testing and treatment for everyone. All these efforts are going on continuously and at a large scale, he said.

But Congress leader Kapil Sibal criticised the Centre, saying the government has not able to handle the migrant crisis. He said the governments social distancing with people has increased so much that it does not know what is happening on the ground and how to address the problems faced by people, especially the poor.

...the government has no data as to where they (migrant workers) are, what work they do, where they work, so if they dont have the data, how will they reach the people, those shramiks, those migrants labourers, to give them rahat (relief)? Sibal asked.

In his address, the PM also said the situation should serve as a lesson for India to make provisions for the future. He cited the situation of workers in the eastern states as a case in point, and said the problems suffered by the poor during the crisis had been exacerbated by the lack of development in the region.

The PM reiterated his message of the need for building an Aatmanirbhar Bharat (Self-Reliant India) and said many problems being confronted now would not have arisen if the villages and towns of the country were self-reliant.

At some places work in skill mapping of the labourers is taking place, at some places startups are being encouraged, a migration commission has been commissioned somewhere and the Centre will also help open up opportunities for employment, self-employment and small-scale industries in villages. These decisions are aimed at resolving the crisis and building a self-reliant India, he said.

Experts believe that while this does present an opportunity for northern and eastern Indian states, which have received the maximum number of migrants, ensuring jobs for them will be very challenging.

Ajay Kumar, an associate professor of development education at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), said: It is a structural issue. This is a problem of regional imbalances. Self-reliance doesnt exist in a vacuum, and self-reliance cannot be created only by political will. A comprehensive approach is required to resolve this issue  which should be a combination of social, educational, political and economic development of the region.

The PM also urged people to tap the benefits offered by yoga; several international leaders have shown interest in knowing more about ayurveda and yoga in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic, he said.

We have to explore yoga for community, immunity and unity, the PM said.

During this corona crisis, I had a chance to speak to many world leaders. I want to share one secret today, they expressed great interest in yoga and ayurveda. Some leaders enquired how these can help in these times of corona, he said.

Noting that International Yoga Day (June 21) is around the corner, he said during the lockdown, people from Hollywood to Haridwar have begun paying attention to yoga.

With World Environment Day coming up on June 5, the PM also said it was imperative to pay attention to biodiversity and pay attention to the conservation of water.

In some parts of eastern India, we witnessed destruction caused by cyclone (Amphan) I was in Odisha and West Bengal last week to take stock of the situation. The way people of West Bengal and Odisha showed courage in dealing with the situation is commendable. In this hour of crisis, the country is standing by the side of people of these two states he said.

The PM pointed out that the lockdown has given Indians an opportunity to understand the rich biodiversity around them. Clean environment is directly linked to our life and the future of our children and therefore we have to be concerned about it individually, I request you to plan some trees on this environment day, he said.

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In 1786, at the beginning of what became known as Shays Rebellion, armed rioters shut down courthouses across western and central Massachusetts to prevent judicial proceedings on unpaid debts. In New York City, the Continental Congress sat paralyzed by debates over whether the Articles of Confederation gave it the authority to suppress the uprising. One member of that body, James Madison, later reflected that Shays Rebellion helped galvanize the drive for todays Constitution by underscoring the impotence of the national government under the Articles of Confederation.

In 2020, a series of demonstrations by protesters carrying semiautomatic rifles shut down the Michigan Legislature. Aggrieved by public health restrictions resulting from the coronavirus pandemic, and egged on by President Trumps wildly irresponsible calls to liberate states governed by Democrats, some entered the visitors gallery of the State Senate and yelled at its members. Others lined up outside the office of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who was already the target of death threats. The Legislature adjourned to avoid further armed protests, unable or unwilling to protect its members. A commission with authority over the Capitol grounds, which was itself operating under threats, decided simply to study rather than to end the states ludicrous policy of allowing firearms on the premises.

Rhetorically, the Michigan protesters cloaked themselves in the liberties of the same Constitution that was framed to prevent exactly what they were doing. These protests, variations on which have happened in other states, reveal not only an erroneous interpretation of the Second Amendment but also a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of constitutional government. Constitutions exist to enable the peaceful resolution of disputes.

The Michigan protesters have been compared to everything from terrorists to patriots to, in Mr. Trumps inevitable words, very good people. Those who used weapons to inhibit the business of government are better understood as armed rebels. In this respect, they differ in both motive and objective from the protesters raging against police violence in Minneapolis and elsewhere. The tactics of both groups have unraveled. But the complaint against police violence is against officers of the state breaking the law, not lawfully making policy in the first place.
SONGWRITER/ARTIST LYDIA LAIRD SIGNS WITH PROVIDENT LABEL GROUP AND HER FIRST SINGLE/VIDEO DROPS TODAY, "HALLELUJAH EVEN HERE;"

Seven-Song EP Debuts August 7

May 29, 2020
YPSILANTI, MI -- Ypsilanti businesses in commercial districts may be able to expand their footprints this summer as part of a proposed plan to close some streets to allow for increased capacity and social distancing.

Facing a 50% capacity limit, among other challenges from the coronavirus pandemic, businesses could use outdoor space in front of their storefronts, according to a proposal from the citys Downtown Development Authority.

The idea is by giving businesses more space, capacity would expand and customers could spread apart outside, lowering the risk of potentially spreading COVID-19, DDA officials said, adding that a survey of 50 downtown businesses showed most plan to reopen once the stay-home order is lifted.

The additional capacity would help reduce crowding in stores and allow pedestrians to spread out on our most popular corridors of East Cross Street and Washington, rather than being funneled onto sidewalks," the DDA proposal states. "We hope this encourages people to feel more comfortable and confident returning to their favorite restaurants and shops by providing adequate space to practice safe social distancing.

Outdoor dining - with more room to social distance - planned for downtown Muskegon

City Council will vote on the DDAs proposal at its virtual meeting at 6 p.m. Tuesday, June 2. DDA Executive Director Christopher Jacobs said he hopes the plan can be in place as soon as restaurants are permitted to reopen.

The DDA recommends closing East Cross Street from Rice to River streets in Depot Town, according to the proposal. North Washington Street from Pearl Street to Michigan Avenue and South Washington Street, from Michigan Avenue to the South Huron Parking lot downtown also would be closed.

Michigan Avenue would remain open to east-west vehicle traffic, while Washington Street and Cross Street would both be open to pedestrians.

Proposed street closures in Depot Town, Ypsilanti. (Courtesy of Ypsilanti Downtown Development Association)

The impact of this plan would allow retailers to display goods and complete transactions outdoors, the DDA proposal states. Stores and restaurants can also apply for outdoor cafe permits to reserve parking spaces in front of the business for additional space, according to the plan.

The DDA proposes blocking the streets until Sept. 8, the day after Labor Day. It offered to pay the city $2,500 for the parking spaces lost revenue, which on average collects $1.20 per day, according to the proposal.

Proposed road closures in Downtown Ypsilanti. (Courtesy of the Ypsilanti Downtown Development Association)

Businesses with liquor licenses will need to get permission from the Michigan Liquor Control Commission to serve drinks outside, using a Limited Permanent Outdoor Service Area Permission Application.

The liquor board said it would streamline these applications, which can be in effect through Oct. 31. They require that the area of service is within 25 feet of the licensed bar or restaurant and not separated by a street. The business must also submit permission from the local government.

Michigan expands outdoor, to-go options for liquor licensees during pandemic

Outdoor structures or displays cant be permanent in case an emergency vehicle needs to use the roadway, according to the plan.

We hope this proposal helps create a safe environment for those who live, work, and visit our commercial and public spaces," Jacobs said in an email. Its imperative that we think creatively about how to support our business community as they prepare to reopen so people feel comfortable returning to the places they love.

MORE FROM THE ANN ARBOR NEWS:

Gov. Whitmers plan to reopen Michigan keeps residents in the dark with murky targets and limited transparency

Ann Arbor reopens canoe, kayak liveries on Huron River with coronavirus precautions

Police brutality protesters block streets, brewery leaving downtown: Top headlines Ann Arbor May 23-28
The Minneapolis Police Departments website has shown signs of a hack since late Saturday, days after a video purported to be from the hacktivist group Anonymous promised retribution for the death of George Floyd during an arrest.

Websites for the police department and the city of Minneapolis were temporarily inaccessible on Saturday as protesters in cities around the U.S. marched against police violence aimed at black Americans.

By Sunday morning, the pages sometimes required visitors to submit captchas to verify they werent bots, a tool used to mitigate hacks that attempt to overwhelm pages with automated requests until they stop responding.

Officials with the police department and the city didnt immediately respond to requests for comment.

Anonymous posted a video on their unconfirmed Facebook page on May 28 directed at the Minneapolis police. The post accused them of having a horrific track record of violence and corruption.

The speaker, wearing a hoodie and the Guy Fawkes mask thats a well-known symbol of the group, concludes the video with, we do not trust your corrupt organization to carry out justice, so we will be exposing your many crimes to the world. We are a legion. Expect us.

The video was viewed almost 2.3 million times on Facebook over the weekend, during which violence swept the U.S. as protesters clashed with law enforcement and National Guard troops.

While many demonstrations have been peaceful, others have devolved into rioting. Several cities issued curfews and police have at times turned their rubber bullets and mace on the activists and on journalists covering the protests.

President Donald Trump on Sunday cast blame on the media for stoking the violence thats followed the death of Floyd, an unarmed black man, in Minnesota police custody.
The Ghana Police Service in the Eastern Region have vowed that they would not allow miscreants who foment trouble in elections seasons to have their way in the 2020 general elections.



According to the police, they are well prepared for all persons who do not have good intentions for Ghana and for that matter the Eastern Region.



Speaking to ghanaweb at Aburi on the sidelines of an Editors' Forum on peace and sensitive reporting, Superintendent Raymond Kofi Erzuah, the Koforidua Central Police Commander who doubles as the Acting Regional Operations Commander, said generally Ghanaians are peaceful but only a few who because of their stomachs veer into political vigilantism and violence to plunge the country into anarchy, stressing that such persons would strongly be dealt with.



"2020 elections, the Police, we, have resolved that we are not going to allow miscreants, trouble makers and these vigilantes to create problem for the country.



"We want to sound a word of caution to the would-be trouble makers that they should not create any problem because the police will not sit down for anybody to create problem for the police," he stressed.



He called on the media to also exercise some circumspection in their reportage to ensure that they promote peace on their platforms.



Spt. Erzuah also urged that journalists increase public education on the electoral laws as well as the vigilantism and related offences Act for Ghanaians to see the need to live responsibly as far as the 2020 general elections are concerned.



The Eastern Region has a total of 661 hotspots where electoral violence is likely to be recorded and out of the number 26 of them are on high alert according to the police.



Supt. Erzuah, therefore, gave the assurance that the Eastern Regional Police Command would ensure that the general elections are held peacefully in all those areas.



"The police will enforce the law and we are going to use force to enforce the law...minimal force (or) reasonable force allowed by the law," he said.





Source: ghanaweb.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Bengaluru, May 31 : Karnataka's Covid tally crossed 3,000-mark, a record jump of 299 infections in the past 24 hours, mostly constituting returnees from Maharashtra, raising the state's tally to 3,221, an official said on Sunday.

"New cases reported from Saturday 5 p.m. to Sunday 5 p.m. are 299," said a health official.

Continuing the trend of past several days, domestic returnees formed the lion's share of new cases, accounting for 258 or 86 per cent of the cases.

Of the 258 returnees, 252 returned from Maharashtra alone, 98 per cent of the domestic returnees.

Returnees from other states are a miniscule -- two from Delhi and one from Andhra Pradesh.

Unfortunately, three young healthcare workers working at an isolation ward in Davangere has also contracted the virus.

There were seven international passengers who got infected on Sunday, four from Doha, two from Malaysia and one from Indonesia.

Incidentally, cases with contact history rose to 34.

In the past 24 hours, cases spiked in Vijayapura, Bengaluru Urban, Raichur, Kalaburagi, Bidar, Mandya, Yadgir, Belagavi, Udupi, Davangere, Dakshina Kannada and Uttara Kannada.

Among the new cases, Bengaluru Urban contributed 21, followed by Yadgir (44), Kalaburagi (28), Mandya (13), Raichur (83), Udupi (10), Bidar (33), Belagavi (13), Davangere (6), Dakshina Kannada (14), Vijayapura (26), Uttara Kannda (5), Ballari, Shivamogga and Kolar (1 each).

Of the new cases, 168 are men and 131 women, including 33 children below 10.

On Sunday, two patients succumbed to the virus, a 50-year-old man from Raichur and a 75-year-old man from Bidar.

Across the state, 1,950 are active cases, 1,218 discharged, 51 deaths and 15 patients in ICU.

On Sunday, 221 patients got discharged.

In the past 24 hours, Karnataka has tested 13,358 persons, of which 12,841 tested negative.

In total, 2.93 lakh samples have been tested so far, of which 2.86 lakh were negative.

Top five places with active cases in the state include Yadgir (275), Raichur (214), Mandya (209), Kalaburagi (146) and Bidar (131).

Of the total, Bengaluru Urban has so far accounted for 10 deaths, followed by Kalaburagi (7), Dakshina Kannada (6) and Vijayapura and Bidar (5 each) among others.
The Noida-Delhi border will remain sealed for movement of people to and from the national capital, the Gautam Buddh Nagar administration said in its latest guidelines for the Covid-19 lockdown issued on Sunday.

The decision has been taken as the source of infection in 42 per cent of coronavirus cases detected in the district in the last 20 days has been tracked to Delhi, the guidelines said.

The district administration had on April 21 banned movement of people between Noida and Delhi. The inter-state travel ban exempts ambulances, doctors, goods carriers, media, those directly involved in Covid-19 services and those with passes issued by the administration.
Iskra Lawrence has joined the chorus of voices in condemning the killing of George Floyd on Sunday, as she vowed to protect her newborn son from racial abuse.

The British model, 29, model took to Instagram to upload a snap of the baby she shares with partner Philip Payne, as she spoke out amid the weekend's worldwide protests over Floyd's May 25th death after being restrained by Minneapolis police.

On Friday, ex-police officer Derek Chauvin was charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter after a video surfaced of him crushing Floyd's neck with his knee.

Condemned: Iskra Lawrence has joined the chorus of voices in condemning the killing of George Floyd on Sunday, as she vowed to protect her newborn son from racial abuse

And plus-sized model Iskra threw her support behind the Black Lives Matter campaign as she penned a lengthy caption, highlighting the fact that her biracial baby's skin colour will impact her life in ways she 'will never be able to understand'.

She wrote: 'This is my beautiful innocent black baby. As your mother I will protect you in anyway I can. But I know that will never be enough. Your skin colour will impact your life in a way I will never be able to understand.

'Your father will have to teach you things as a privileged white child I never had to learn. Your friends will need to be allies and speak up for you at times when simply being you could get you hurt or killed.'

White privilege: Iskra highlighted the fact that hey baby's skin colour will impact her child's life in ways she 'will never be able to understand'

Iskra continued: 'Now it's on all of us to educate ourselves. I've asked far too many questions to my black loved ones when they are already exhausted and grieving for their community.

'It's not on them to educate us privileged folk. We need to do our own research into the deep rooted history of racism.

'Ask ourselves questions like why we are shown the graphic videos of black people being murdered on the news yet you'll never see a video of a white person being murdered?

'There are many ways in which systematic oppression is used everyday, especially to continue to spread fear and separation between races. Who is going to read up with me?'

The mother-of-one told her followers: 'If you're not outraged and trying to figure out how you can do your bit ask yourself if your daughter or son, sister or brother was at risk everyday of being murdered for the colour of their skin would you not be doing everything you could.

Advice: She shared a series of posts explaining white privilege and how it can be used for good

'Every opportunity, every micro aggression, constant racial profiling all feeding into oppression. Signing petitions, donating and calling to support is the least we can do.

'Let's have the discussions with our families, campaign to get police reform and continue to learn more so we can combat systemic racism everyday.

'We must use our white privilege to do better in memory of all those who've had their lives ended, futures taken and have to fight discrimination every single day...'

Iskra, who gave birth to her baby in April, revealed in January 2019 that she has experienced both 'hate' and 'racism' since confirming her relationship with Philip.

The model took to her social media platform to share a sweet loved-up picture of herself kissing the handsome American musician.

Instagram: Taking to her Instagram Stories, the British model also shared input from friends

Speaking out: Celebrities and citizens on both sides of the Atlantic have been sharing their thoughts on George Floyd's death at the hands of police in Minneapolis, Minnesota

However, in the caption, Iskra revealed that despite receiving 'so much love and support', the couple were also subjected to 'hate and racism'.

Encouraging her followers to be kind, the stunning blonde then shared her own poem promoting kindness.

She said: 'Today is #hellotokindness @hellomag Ive had such mixed feelings this week, so much love and support when for the first time in my life I shared my relationship online.

'But the fears I had came true when @philipapayne and I started receiving targeting hate and racism. So heres a poem Ive written to share my feelings and spread some kindness - I hope you will share it too.'

She then shared her poem followed by the hashtags: '#loveislove #philipandiskra #interracialcouple #relationshipgoals #couplegoals #happiness #love #bestfriends #poetry #kindness #bekind #endracisim.'
NextShark

A Lowes in Illinois has come under fire after a Chinese woman and Springfield resident claims another customer told her to go back to her country. Xuna Hu says she was shopping for two fire pits when the other customer tried to get Hu to hand over one of the pits, leading up to the alleged racist encounter at a Lowes branch on Wabash Avenue on Jan. 17. "I was like alright, Ill just give you one then, Hu told WICS Channel 20.
Releasing Bollywood films is not always a cake-walk especially when the film needs to be released in theatres across the country. Besides dealing with censorship, sometimes filmmakers also have to deal with the backlash from political groups that often lead to court cases. Here is a list of petitions/ pleas filed against films and how the filmmakers dealt with them.

1. Newton

 IMDB

Starring Raj Kumar Rao in the lead role, the film deals with the story of a government clerk who was sent for poll duty in the Naxal-hit area of Chhattisgarh. It was India's official entry for the Oscars' Best Foreign Language Film category in 2017. The defamation suit and the complaint was filed for allegedly portraying the Central Reserve Police Force in poor light before Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Amit Arora. The complaint against Manish Mundra, producer of the movie, and Shiladitya Bora, the CEO of production company Drishyam Films sought an unconditional public apology and compensation to the complainant, a soldier, and the CRPF.



2. Article 15

 IMDB

A Plea was filed against Article 15 claiming that the film contained casteist slur and that it was a fictional story claiming to be true. A Bench led by Justice S.A. Bobde at The Supreme Court of India rejected the plea citing that the petitioner should instead approach the appropriate authority and then the petition never saw the light of the day.

3. Udta Punjab

 IMDB

Udta Punjab (2010) faced initial friction when the Certificate Board (CBFC) suggested cuts across 13 categories in the film. Besides this, there were rampant protests across northern India and subsequently, a batch of petitions started pouring in. Complaints to the Punjab and Haryana High Court alleged that the movie shows Punjab in a bad light and promotes the usage of drugs. It took a while to clear all these tensions for Udta Punjab. The Bombay High Court ruled in favour of the film after an amicus curiae appointed by the Court watched the movie in the presence of the CBFC officials and producers of the film. The division bench of the Bombay High Court allowed 1 cut and also slammed the Board for imposing cuts without reason on films.



4. Knockout

 IMDB

Knockout released back in 2010. Twentieth Century Fox filed a case of copyright infringement against the makers of the film. They claimed that it was a complete rip-off of the film Phone Booth. An argument that was tough to argue against considering the plot was, indeed heavily inspired by the latter. Eventually, the parties came to an out of court settlement and Sohail Maklai, the producer, paid Fox an amount of 1.25 Crore.



5. Padmaavat

 IMDB

After director Sanjay Leela Bhansali and actor Deepika Padukone received death threats, states such as Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, and Haryana disallowed the screening of the film. The film also had a run-in with the certificate board. Eventually, Viacom 18 approached the Supreme Court for the film, and it was permitted to be released across India.


Imperial Valley News Center

Man Charged with Attempting to Provide Material Support to ISIS

Tampa, Florida - The Department of Justice Wednesday announced the filing of a criminal complaint charging Muhammed Momtaz Al-Azhari, 23, of Tampa, Florida, with attempting to provide material support or resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization, namely, the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS). If convicted, Al-Azhari faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison.

We are grateful for the quick work of our partners at the FBI to apprehend Al-Azhari before he could carry out his attack, said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers. This case demonstrates the Departments commitment to stand vigilant against the threat of terrorism and violent extremism in all its forms.

We are grateful for the hard work and swift action by our law enforcement partners and concerned citizens during this investigation, stated U.S. Attorney Maria Chapa Lopez for the Middle District of Florida. Their coordination and cooperation in this matter allowed us to interrupt a serious threat, without harm to anyone.

From Mr. Al-Azharis attempt to acquire firearms through unlawful channels to his desire to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, it was clear Mr. Al-Azharis intention was to carry out an act of violence, said Assistant Director Jill Sanborn of the FBIs Counterterrorism Division. The FBI and the Joint Terrorism Task Forces across the country will continue to use all of their legal authorities to prevent a potential act of terrorism in the United States, and elsewhere.

The primary mission of the FBI is to protect the American public from a terrorist attack. Todays announcement of the arrest of Muhammed Momtaz Al-Azahari is proof we are committed to that pledge. I commend the 18 federal, state, and local member agencies who comprise FBI Tampas Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) for working day and night to prevent the loss of life in the Tampa Bay community, said Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Tampa Division Michael F. McPherson. We were also fortunate to gain the cooperation of multiple citizens who willingly and bravely provided their assistance during this investigation. This strong bond between law enforcement and the public allowed us to disrupt this threat.

According to the complaint, Al-Azhari was an ISIS supporter who planned and attempted to carry out an attack on behalf of that terrorist organization. Al-Azhari, who has a criminal history that includes prior terrorism charges in Saudi Arabia, attempted to purchase multiple firearms over the course of the investigation, before acquiring a Glock pistol and a silencer. He also expressed admiration for Pulse nightclub shooter Omar Mateen and spoke of his desire to carry out a similar mass casualty shooting. Additionally, Al-Azhari researched and scouted potential targets in the Tampa area, including Honeymoon Island. He also rehearsed portions of an attack and the statements that he would make during or in connection with such an attack.

FBI agents arrested Al-Azhari on May 24, 2020, after he took possession of weapons to be used in an attack.

A complaint is merely a formal charge that a defendant has committed one or more violations of federal criminal law, and every defendant is presumed innocent unless, and until, proven guilty.

This case was investigated by the FBIs Joint Terrorism Task Force, including Homeland Security Investigations, the Tampa Police Department, the Pinellas County Sheriffs Office, the Hillsborough County Sheriffs Office, the Pasco Sheriffs Office, the St. Petersburg Police Department, the Clearwater Police Department, and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. It will be prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Scruggs with assistance from Trial Attorney Ranganath Mathripragada of the National Security Divisions Counterterrorism Section.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) said Sunday that he has asked the state's attorney general to review the New York Police Department's conduct during protests over the death of George Floyd.

Why it matters: Several videos of protests over the weekend showed NYPD officers pushing protestors, driving SUVs through crowds and more. While some of the confrontations were instigated by the protestors, Cuomo said that allegations of misconduct by police officers should be fully investigated.

"If there's an allegation of police abuse, the local district attorney should not be the investigating authority. Why? Because self-policing doesn't work," he added.

Cuomo also called at his press conference on Sunday for the release of prior disciplinary records of any officer under investigation for misconduct "to see if there's a pattern."

Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who has been arrested and charged with third-degree murder for Floyd's death, had 18 prior complaints against him, per CNN.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio defended the NYPD on Sunday, calling it "inappropriate for protestors to surround a police vehicle and threaten police officers."

NYPD commissioner Dermot Shea also said in a statement Sunday that he was "extremely proud" of his officers' conduct, calling violent protestors "a mob bent solely on taking advantage of a moment in American history."

The big picture: Cuomo has been a leading voice in the response to the coronavirus pandemic, with New York being the hardest-hit state in America. Black and brown residents of New York were hit the hardest.
Law enforcement officers near the County-City Building in Lincoln arrested a handful of people Sunday night who defied a city curfew that began at 8 p.m.

About 150-200 people gathered near the state Capitol shortly after 10 p.m. chanting "Don't shoot" and "Hands up" as they faced off with officers, who periodically used tear gas and rubber bullets to try to disperse the crowds.

A Nebraska State Patrol helicopter and police drone hovered overhead as law enforcement and Nebraska National Guard members attempted to keep Sunday's protest from devolving into the violence and vandalism that marred two previous nights.

Mark Nielsen, who lives near County-City building, said the tone from the protesters was more peaceful on Sunday night than the night before, but the police response was swifter, stronger and in his view, uncalled for.

"Tonight, the police are the aggressors," he said.

Nielsen stood outside his home watching the protest, as he said tear gas had made its way inside his home and would not dissipate. While he condemned the property damage that occurred Saturday night, he said the police response caused him to lose faith in local law enforcement.

"I felt unsafe last night," Nielsen said, "but now the people who are supposed to be protecting me are making me feel unsafe."

Stacy Stabler followed protesters looking for her son. The curfew, she said, combined with escalating violence in the area, made her feel like the situation was unsafe, and she wanted to get him out of the area.

"I'm going to pull him by his ear and tell him we're going home," she said.

Riots in Lincoln the previous two nights mirrored those around the country over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Floyd, who was black and was handcuffed, died after a white police officer, Derek Chauvin, used his knee to pin down Floyds neck for several minutes while Floyd pleaded for air and eventually stopped moving. Chauvin has been charged with third-degree murder in the death; the other officers have not been charged.

Dario Rossin, a 17-year-old Lincoln High student, said he was helping organize the protests because he and many others are tired of systemic racism and prejudice in this nation, which was highlighted by Floyd's death.

Around 8:30 at the Capitol building, Rossin spoke calmly to officers along with other protesters. He reiterated through a megaphone repeatedly that the demonstration was to remain peaceful.

Rossin said he intends to continue organizing protests every night in Lincoln until the four officers involved in Floyd's killing are convicted of first-degree murder. He said he thinks protesters will continue to meet at the Capitol in the evenings and then move through the city as they did Sunday.

Earlier in the day, Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird issued a state of emergency that was to end at 6 a.m. Monday.

During the curfew, only people who had to go to work, seek medical attention or support law enforcement were allowed on public streets or to gather in public spaces. Many businesses made the decision to close early Sunday evening.

Sunday afternoon, thousands of people had gathered for a 90-minute rally that spilled beyond the steps of the Capitol, filling the street for a block in front of the Capitol and part of Centennial Mall, while other protesters lined 16th Street, where passing motorists honked and cheered.

The decision to impose a curfew, city officials said, was necessary to keep those who are lawfully gathering safe, to keep the city's streets safe and protect city staff and public and private property.

The protesters in Lincoln over the past few days have largely been peaceful and respectful, and I fully support their calls for justice, Gaylor Baird said in making the curfew announcement Sunday afternoon. Last night, however, a smaller handful of people who apparently have other agendas committed terrible acts of destruction.

Violence in Lincoln is not acceptable. We will take the necessary steps to protect everyone in our community from harm, including our residents, our police and our peaceful protesters.

Journal Star reporter Chris Dunker, who was providing coverage of the protests on the newspaper's Facebook page, was detained at about 9 p.m. by a Lancaster County Sheriff's deputy despite wearing an orange vest labeled "PRESS."

Dunker did not immediately identify himself by name to deputies. Lincoln Police, when asked earlier Sunday about press coverage after the curfew, said media members with proper identification would be allowed to cover events.

During the news conference announcing the curfew, Police Chief Jeff Bliemeister said he hoped people would comply and they wouldn't need to issue citations or make arrests.

We remain optimistic that there will not be the issues that we have seen in Lincoln, Nebraska, the last two nights, and hopefully this 10-hour window this one night will be able to provide us an opportunity to bring some peace.

In a news release, Sheriff Terry Wagner applauded the mayor's decision "so our officers have a tool to deal with those criminals who seek to use the protest process to commit their crimes."

Law enforcement and the National Guard in Omaha also battled protesters Sunday night in Omaha who defied that city's state of emergency, which includes a nightly 8 p.m. curfew for 72 hours.

There, a protest Saturday night turned deadly when a private citizen shot a man to death in the city's Old Market area at about 11 p.m.

Omaha police are investigating the death of James Scurlock, a 22-year-old protester. Police said they arrested someone within the hour in connection with the shooting.

In both cities, peaceful protests turned violent over recent nights, Gov. Pete Ricketts said, reaching alarming levels.

Speaking at Sunday's news conference in Omaha, Ricketts said residents and visitors to Omaha's Old Market "are scared to death."

Gaylor Baird said officials in Lincoln and Omaha will continue to work together in response to riots in both cities.

The last thing we want is for us not having a curfew to send a signal that people should come to our city to bring violence and destruction, Gaylor Baird said. So we are looking to have a unified front to try to keep all of our residents of our two major cities as safe as possible, and that includes our protesters.

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Thailand reported four new coronavirus cases on Sunday and no new deaths, taking the total number of infections to 3,081 with 57 deaths since January, Trend reports with reference to Reuters.

The new patients had arrived in Thailand from the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia and have been in state quarantine, said Panprapa Yongtrakul, a spokeswoman for the governments Centre for COVID-19 Situation Administration.

Local infections have slowed and over the last two weeks, around 80% of new cases were Thais who had returned from abroad, Panprapa added.

Thailand will on Monday begin reopening more businesses classified as medium to high risks, including cinemas and gyms.
In the weeks of the covid-19 lockdown, several individuals and organizations have stepped in where the government failedto help lakhs of stranded migrant workers return to their hometown. One such group is the alumni of National Law School of India University (NLSIU), who organized themselves into an informal collective,  Mission Aahan Vaahan . Over the past week, it has helped nearly 370 people from Jharkhand, one of Indias poorest states, return home by chartering plane from a private airline.

Lounge spoke to Ashwin Shankar, alumnus of the 2000 batch of NLSIU, on how his collective successfully facilitated the return. In the coming weeks, said Shankar, they intend to send at least 10 more flights from Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru to different destinations across India. Edited excerpts:

View Full Image Ashwin Shankar (right), one of the organizers of the Mission Aahan Vaahan initiative, with another member of the NLSIU alumni group.

What compelled you to undertake the evacuation?

Everyones been watching the [migrant crisis] in the news. Theres been a lot of frustration in how theyre treated. Around 23 May, someone in our NLSIU WhatsApp group had proposed to collect Rs2,000 and give it to migrants [in distress]. Id said, Rs2,000 was too less, make it at least Rs10,000. I also said I didnt mind collecting it.

We checked about the buses but it was working out to be expensive. We were told that at state borders, we have to pay bribes to people. Wed heard about 40 trains with migrant workers also not ending up at their destinations. With a flight, you could go back without any hindrance.

One of our classmates works at the Tata Group. He said, we could pay AirAsia or Vistara (owned by the Tatas). So we chartered the flight and it took off.

How did you go about it?

Fund collection was easy. People across alumni were coming forward and volunteering to fund. We paid AirAsia Rs11.4 laks for a flight with 176 people. They were cooperative too. But whether the flight would be allowed to leave was uncertain. We were told that it would go only 12 hours before the departure.

What were the challenges you faced?

First, we had to identify people who needed to go, find the ones who couldnt afford to return at all and prioritize them. We had partnered with a local NGO that had such a database. We had around 10-15 members of our alumni checking up with each person and family of migrants, telling them how to pack, to carry the documents etc. After that, it all went off smoothly.

What do you think of the governments efforts to send migrants back?

Its been a mega failure. In times like these, the test of the country is how it takes care of its poor. The general assumption is, if you have a nationwide lockdown, poor can survive for maximum of one week. We failed them.

What did you learn about the system after doing it?

One, its not easy to do this. You need to have contacts within the government to pull it off. One of the alumni members is a lobbyist and has a network of friends in high places. With his assistance, influence and pressure, this was possible.

There was always a chance that the workers would be left at the airport in Jharkhand. But the government had sent buses at the airport to pick them up and take them to depot, so they could return home after.

The second flight with migrants left from Mumbai airport this morning, sponsored by Godrej group. How did it go?

It was perfect. It was a house-full flight, which was a relief for us. Earlier, many workers had been conned on pretext of return, so there was a chance some would change their minds before landing at the airport. But it didnt happen.

Are there going to be more such evacuations?

Were planning a total 10 flights, this time from Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru to destinations across India. How and when has to be still be worked out. But that should be easy to do. The first flight was largely organized by the batch of 2000. Now members of the other batches are willing to support as well.

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SAN FRANCISCO (BCN)  Protesters and police are confronting one another underneath the Central Freeway skyway near San Francisco's Mission District in what, as of about 7 p.m., remained a peaceful protest of the Monday killing by Minneapolis police of George Floyd.

Crowds had started gathering near San Francisco City Hall early Saturday afternoon to protest the killing of Floyd. As of early Saturday night, the protest - involving thousands of participants - were peaceful, with many protesters dropping to a knee in the streets while police officers stood by and watched.
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Linkedin Charlotte Plantive, Joy Powell and Laurent Banguet (Agence France-Presse) Minneapolis, United States  Sun, May 31, 2020 09:46 600 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdb22a07 2 World George-Floyd,racial-tension,racial-abuse,US,US-election Free

Clashes broke out and major cities imposed curfews as America began another night of unrest Saturday with angry demonstrators ignoring warnings from President Donald Trump that his government would stop violent protests over police brutality "cold."

Los Angeles, Atlanta and Philadelphia were among several cities to order people to stay indoors after thousands took to streets nationwide to protest the death of an African American man during an arrest in Minneapolis on Monday.

George Floyd, who died after a police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes, has become a fresh symbol of police brutality against blacks and sparked civil unrest not seen in the United States for years.

In Los Angeles, officers fired rubber bullets and swung batons during a testy standoff with demonstrators who set fire to a police car. Police and protesters also clashed in Chicago and New York, where several arrests were made.

Trump blamed the extreme left for the violence, including widespread looting and arson in Minneapolis, saying rioters were dishonoring the memory of Floyd.

"We cannot and must not allow a small group of criminals and vandals to wreck our cities and lay waste to our communities," the president said.

"My administration will stop mob violence. And we'll stop it cold," he added, accusing the loose-knit militant anti-fascist network Antifa of orchestrating the violence.

His late afternoon comments came as crowds began marching through streets in Minneapolis, New York, Chicago, Miami, Philadelphia and other cities, chanting slogans such as "Black Lives Matter" and "I can't breathe," which Floyd was heard saying repeatedly before he died.

A peaceful protest took place in Toronto as the demonstrations spread beyond America's border.

LA announced a curfew from 8 p.m. until 5:30 a.m. Sunday while Atlanta's was set for 9 p.m. to sunrise. A similar nighttime curfew was implemented in Louisville, Kentucky.

Authorities in Minneapolis braced for a fifth night of protests over what African American leaders called "systemic" mistreatment by law enforcement.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz called up more national guard troops Saturday and warned they would "decimate" rioters after Friday night's violence in the northern state overwhelmed law enforcement.

Walz said he was mobilizing the state's entire 13,000-strong National Guard to deal with rioters who have looted shops and set fires in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.

Thousands who defied the first night of curfew overwhelmed the police and troops who had been deployed.

All major freeways leading into Minneapolis were shut down Saturday night with military helicopters taking to the skies over the area as the state braced for more rioting, arsons and looting.

People congregated peacefully on Minneapolis streets Saturday afternoon, chanting Floyd's name and carrying brooms to help clean up the scores of shops ransacked in the violence of the previous nights.

Some placed flowers in front of the shop where Floyd was arrested on Monday, before his death in the hands of police was recorded in a horrifying cellphone video since seen around the world.

"Our community has stepped up, there are more people cleaning the streets than looting," said Nicole Crust, 41, owner of a beauty salon that was broken into.

Crust echoed officials who said the worst violence was from outsiders, but added a key theme of the protests: "Police brutality must stop."

Walz warned that protestors staying out Saturday past the 8 pm curfew faced "a dangerous situation."

African American and other Minneapolis community leaders pleaded for local residents to stay home Saturday night, as the curfew was expanded to multiple cities in the state.

In New York's Harlem neighborhood, several hundred people gathered for speeches on racism at a midday rally. Later in the afternoon, the crowd grew to thousands and they began marching through the streets.

"We're not turning the cheek anymore. Black lives matter. They will always matter. And we're here today to show that," said makeup artist Melissa Mock, who joined several thousand in a daytime protest in Miami.

Protests were expected to continue throughout the weekend even after the now-fired Minneapolis police officer accused of Floyd's death was arrested and charged with third-degree murder on Friday.

That night, protestors shouted and chanted for hours outside the White House in Washington as Trump sat inside facing the most serious spate of civil unrest of his presidency, in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic.

With a video showing the officer, Derek Chauvin, pressing his knee on Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes until well after the man went motionless, while three other officers assisted, Floyd's family and many protestors demanded more arrests and tougher murder charges.
Ten weeks ago, I embarked on a mission to overhaul my personal finances.

Having never written a household budget before, I set out to do just that.

I began by downloading a list of the 700 or so most common household purchases, as surveyed by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. I then meticulously sorted each into one of 10 categories I created: housing, household, utilities, transport, food, health, education, appearance, lifestyle and professional fees.

Illustration: Dionne Gain Credit:

Each week for 10 weeks, I focused on one of the categories, listing my relevant expenses in a spreadsheet I titled: Jesss amazingly fun and fantastic and not-at-all boring or scary budget. I then went on the hunt for any potential savings.
However, after the virus raged uncontrolled through the UK that month, ministers were forced back to nationwide testing, announcing a "five pillar" plan on April 2, which finally led to a nationwide tracing service launched this week. A desperate initial shortage of capacity to test and trace is detailed among 51 papers released on Friday, including minutes of 34 meetings, which occurred from January 22 to May 7. They reveal the crucial decisions which led to the disastrous decision to abandon routine testing - which is only now being ramped back up. Minutes of a key Sage meeting on February 18 state: "Currently PHE can cope with five new cases a week (requiring isolation of 800 contacts). Modelling suggests this capacity could be increased to 50 new cases a week (8,000 contact isolations) but this assumption needs to be stress tested with PHE operational colleagues." Sage concluded: "When there is sustained transmission in the UK, contact tracing will no longer be useful." The decision to abandon testing and tracing will rank as one of the "biggest failures of scientific advice to ministers in our lifetimes". Jeremy Hunt, former health secretary

Two days later, Sage's scientists agreed that plans drawn up for PHE on discontinuing contact tracing are "sensible", the minutes show. Loading "Any decision to discontinue contact tracing will generate a public reaction - which requires consideration with input from behavioural scientists," the minutes of February 20 note. The papers show Professor Chris Whitty, the Chief Medical Officer for England, suggested the nation would abandon routine testing on March 5, in part because there was now a "slim to zero" chance of avoiding a global pandemic. Jenny Harries, England's deputy chief medical officer, later claimed abandoning testing was a policy choice because "there comes a point in a pandemic where that is not an appropriate intervention". The government's consistent position at the time was that they were following scientific advice.

However, the World Health Organisation said countries were not doing enough to test and isolate cases. At the same time, its chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged countries to "test, test, test." As the pandemic took hold across the world, Germany was carrying out 50,000 tests a day at a point when Britain could only manage 5000. Jeremy Hunt, the former health secretary, has said the decision to abandon testing and tracing will rank as one of the "biggest failures of scientific advice to ministers in our lifetimes". Earlier this month Sir Patrick Vallance, the Chief Scientific Adviser, singled out the failure to ramp up testing as one of the key errors in Britain's handling of the crisis. The Government has since come under fire for a litany of testing failures, and criticism for repeatedly missed targets to carry out 100,000 tests a day.

Last night, PHE said it was certain it had capacity to track and trace more than five cases at the time of the minutes from the Sage meeting. However, a spokeswoman was unable to clarify whether it would have been able cope with 50 cases outlined in the Sage modelling. "The model used an assumption of five importation events per week in the initial phase," a spokeswoman for PHE said. "This means five imported cases and subsequent cases that may arise as a consequence of those imported cases; the modelling considered the associated contacts for both. Modelling stated that the number of contacts could be managed by PHE." A Government spokesman said: "We have successfully launched NHS Test and Trace, to help us keep this virus under control and save lives, while carefully and safely lifting the lockdown nationally. "Local councils have plans in place to respond to COVID-19. To support the rollout of NHS Test and Trace, we asked all councils to extend their existing plans into dedicated Local Outbreak Plans by the end of June. Last week we gave all councils 300 million new, dedicated funding to support councils to do all they can to make Test and Trace a success. "We now have the 25,000 tracers we need to help control the virus, and hope the public will do their bit to keep the infection rate down"

Meanwhile, a senior medical officer has said Britain's COVID-19 lockdown rules are clear and apply to everyone when asked about a long road trip made by the prime minister's top adviser, Dominic Cummings, at the height of the lockdown. England's Deputy Chief Medical Officer Jonathan Van-Tam has become a favourite on social media during the pandemic due to his colourful turn of phrase, including his insistence on Saturday that the public must not "tear the pants" out of new, slightly looser guidelines. Asked at a daily news conference whether people in authority should set an example and obey the rules, he willingly addressed the issue in contrast to his boss and the country's chief scientific officer, who did not comment on the matter at a previous briefing. "Thank you for the question and I'm quite happy to answer it," he said. "In my opinion the rules are clear and they have always been clear. In my opinion, they are for the benefit of all and in my opinion they apply to all."
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 31

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

The export of cars from Turkey to Turkmenistan increased by 43.21 percent from January through April 2020 percent compared to the same period of 2019, exceeding $8.4 million, Turkeys Ministry of Trade told Trend.

In April 2020, Turkey's car export to Turkmenistan increased by 2.48 percent compared to April 2019, and reached $1.8 million.

The export of cars from Turkey to the world markets decreased by 26.9 percent from January through April 2020 compared to the same period of last year and reached $7.6 billion.

Meanwhile, the export of cars from Turkey accounted for 14.6 percent of the country's total export volume from January through April 2020.

Turkey exported cars worth $596.3 million to the world markets in April 2020, which is 77.2 percent less compared to the same month of 2019.

The export of cars from Turkey in April 2020 amounted to 6.6 percent of the country's total export volume.

Turkey exported cars worth $27.8 billion from April 2019 through April 2020.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu




President Moon Jae-in replaced seven presidential secretaries on Sunday, including naming a former Cheong Wa Dae staffer known as one of Moon's closest aides as his new protocol secretary.







Park Kyung-mee, a former ruling party lawmaker, has been named secretary for education, with Tak Hyun-min, a former Cheong Wa Dae staffer, appointed as new protocol secretary, according to Cheong Wa Dae.







Park was a professor of mathematics education at Hongik University and lawmaker with the Democratic Party. She was defeated in the April 15 parliamentary election.







Tak is known for his experience and expertise in organizing events. He led the government's preparations for the Panmunjom ceremony on April 27 last year to commemorate the first anniversary of the historic summit between Moon and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at the truce village.







Moon also replaced some of key players in the public communication team. He tapped Han Jung-woo, director of the Chunchugwan presidential press center, as secretary for public information and Lee Ji-soo, executive at the Korean Standards Association, as secretary for foreign press.







The president promoted Kim Jae-joon, who is working at the Personal Secretary Office of Cheong Wa Dae, to succeed Han.







The other Cheong Wa Dae officials  Lee Ki-heon and Jo Kyung-ho  have been promoted to serve as secretary civil participation and secretary for social unity, respectively.







The new lineup of secretaries, apparently familiar with details of Moon's policies, comes as his administration is striving to overcome the COVID-19 crisis and gear up for the post-coronavirus era. (Yonhap)


Union Home Minister Amit Shah Sunday said diplomatic and military-level dialogues are going on with China on the current border row and he was hopeful that the issue will be resolved.

Also, in an obvious warning to Pakistan, Shah said India will not tolerate any breach of its borders and befitting replies will be given to such moves. "Diplomatic and military level dialogues are currently going on and I believe the issue will be resolved," he told the 'Republic Bharat' TV in an interview. Shah was replying to a question about the ongoing border row with China ...
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Russia claims that Libya has two central banks, and country is de facto controlled by two centers of power

Open source

Libyan currency worth more than $ 1 billion, which was printed in Moscow and seized by Malta, is not counterfeit. The Russian Foreign Ministry announced this on Saturday in response to US claims, as Reuters news agency reported.

"Libya has two central banks, one in the capital of Tripoli, and the other in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, because the country is de facto controlled by two centers of power," the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.

Russian diplomats note that Goznak sent Libyan notes to the central bank in Tobruk in accordance with the terms of a contract signed in 2015.

So, its not the dinars that are fake, but the statements of America, the ministry said.

The Russian company noted that the cargo was seized by customs officers in Malta when it was heading for Libya in September 2019, in violation of all the rules of international law.

According to Russian customs data, a parallel central bank in eastern Libya stepped up deliveries of new banknotes from Russia last year, before and after Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar launched a military offensive to capture Tripoli.

Data received by Reuters suggests that about 4.5 billion Libyan dinars (more than $ 3 billion) were sent in four batches from February to June 2019.

As we reported before, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will approve a $ 5 billion assistance program for Ukraine at a board meeting on June 5
Protesters have defied curfews in place across dozens of US cities, setting cars alight, smashing windows and clashing with police.

The curfews were put in place in an effort to control demonstrations following the death of unarmed black man George Floyd who died after a police officer kneeled on his neck for more than eight minutes.

Police disperse crowds in Minneapolis after curfew on Saturday, local time. Credit:AP

In Minnesota, where the protests began, lines of police cars and officers in riot gear moved in to confront protesters with tear gas soon after the city's curfew began at 8pm on Saturday.

The Minnesota National Guard, which had more than 4000 members on the ground, said it was "in a position of strength significantly greater tonight in Minneapolis and St Paul than we were last night".
Even amid a global pandemic, the people behind JDE Peets, managed to raise $2.5 billion and take the company public on the Euronext Amsterdamall in just 10 days. It was Europes largest IPO since 2018.

Shares of JDE Peets surged 14% in their debut on Friday in Europe. The company, resulting from the merger of Jacobs Douwe Egberts and Peets last December, is the worlds No. 2 coffee player, with a portfolio that includes Jacobs Coffee, Douwe Egberts, Peets, LOR, Senseo, Tassimo, Pickwick and more.

Fabien Simon of the coffee company JDE Peet's beats the gong of Euronext in Amsterdam on May 29, 2020, as the parent company of Douwe Egberts, among others, goes public on the Amsterdam stock exchange. (Photo by Jeroen JUMELET / ANP / AFP) / Netherlands OUT / Amsterdam,ANP JEROEN JUMELET,eco,NL,Fabien Simon of coffee company JDE Peet's beats the gong of Euronext Amsterdam on Friday 29 May. The parent company of Douwe Egberts, among others, is going public on the Amsterdam stock exchange. ANP JEROEN JUMELET,Parent company Douwe Egberts to Amsterdam stock exchange netherlands out - belgium out (Photo by JEROEN JUMELET/ANP/AFP via Getty Images)

But most consumers still know very little about JAB Holding, the investment firm that pulled off the Peets IPO, or the family behind it: the Reimanns of Germany. Many coffee lovers are likely not even aware that one company is the owner or majority owner of Peets, Panera, Krispy Kreme, Dr. Pepper Snapple, Keurig Green Mountain, Caribou Coffee, Mighty Leaf, Stumptown, Intelligentsia, Espresso House, Baresso, Au Bon Pain, Brueggers Bagels, and Einstein Bros. Bagels.

JAB has spent more than $50 billion since 2014 to gobble up coffee, breakfast, and cosmetics names, and has quietly made itself the largest competitor to Starbucks.

JAB is family owned, privately held, and has roots dating back more than 100 years. The four primary owners of JAB are descendants of German chemist Ludwig Reimann, who in the 1800s married the daughter of his business partner, Johann Adam Benckiser. JAB, formed in 2011, gets its name from Benckisers initials.

The family is extremely private and does not do press, though one year ago the company did have to publicly comment on a Bild report about the Reimann familys ties to the Third Reich. The family acknowledged the facts of the Bild report, and a spokesperson said last year: Its all correct. The family was absolutely ashamed. After the report, the Reimann family said it would donate 10 million euros to a charity and hire a historian to investigate their ancestry in detail for a public report.

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JAB will remain the majority shareholder in now-public JDE Peets, and is the majority shareholder in publicly traded Keurig Dr Pepper.

In many ways, JAB bears similarities to Anheuser-Busch InBev: a massive conglomerate formed through a long series of voracious M&A.

In 2004, Belgian brewer Interbrew (a combination of Belgian and Canadian brewers, formed in 1988) merged with Brazilian brewer AmBev (a combination of Brazilian and Argentinian brewers, formed in 1999) to form InBev. In 2008, Belgian brewer InBev bought St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch to form Anheuser-Busch InBev. In 2012, AB InBev acquired Grupo Modelo, and in 2016, AB InBev bought SABMiller.

JABin a much shorter timehas gone on a similar spending run: It bought Peets in 2012 for $975 million (and got Stumptown and Intelligentsia along with it), Einstein in 2014 for $375 million, Keurig Green Mountain for $14 billion and Krispy Kreme for $1.35 billion in 2016, Panera for $7.5 billion in 2017, and bought Dr. Pepper Snapple through Keurig Green Mountain in 2018.

And JAB isnt done: now its pushing into pet care (but not pet food), beginning with buying Compassion First Pet Hospitals for $1.2 billion last year.



Daniel Roberts is an editor-at-large at Yahoo Finance and often covers the beverage business. Follow him on Twitter at @readDanwrite.

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Police officers and National Guard forces on a street in Minneapolis on 30 May, 2020: Twitter/Tanya Kerrsen

Police officers and National Guard forces in Minneapolis shot paintballs at residents standing outside on their porch, as a curfew was enforced throughout the city.

A video posted on Twitter on Saturday night appears to show the Minnesota National Guard and state police ordering the residents of one street to go inside, before they turn their weapons on a group of residents.

The footage captures people rushing inside the property after shots are fired and shows where one member of the public has been hit by a paintball.

Armed officers can be heard shouting light em up before the shots start.

At around the time of the shooting on Saturday, an 8pm curfew was implemented in Minneapolis, the city where protests started after the death of George Floyd on 25 May.

Tim Walz, the governor of Minnesota, said that the National Guard will be fully mobilised. The number on duty in the city will rise from more than 4,000 to almost 11,000.

The protests against Floyds death and other police killings have swept across the US in recent days.

Share widely: National guard and MPD sweeping our residential street. Shooting paint canisters at us on our own front porch. Yelling light em up #JusticeForGeorgeFloyd #JusticeForGeorge #BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/bW48imyt55  Tanya Kerssen (@tkerssen) May 31, 2020

According to the Associated Press news agency, more than 1,300 people have been arrested since Thursday in 16 cities around the country.

More than 500 of these happened in Los Angeles on Friday.

Story continues

Police have been accused of brutality in their attempts to stifle the protests, with the governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, announcing an investigation into the force used by New York police against demonstrators on Friday.

On Saturday, a video showing an NYPD vehicle ramming into a crowd of protesters was posted on social media.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Democrat Congresswoman, has called on those responsible to face justice for their actions.
Traffic police across Vietnam have booked nearly 10,000 cases of driving under the influence of alcohol over the past 15 days, as part of a month-long campaign to inspect road users in the country.

Officers dealt with more than 194,300 traffic violations from May 15 to 29, according to the traffic police division under the Ministry of Public Security.

The offenses involved 7,226 passenger buses, 2,148 trailer trucks, 25,189 trucks, 15,349 automobiles, and 138,482 motorbikes.

Traffic police units revoked nearly 12,900 drivers licenses and impounded approximately 30,280 vehicles.

Common violations included speeding, failure to wear crash helmets, and lack of drivers licenses and vehicles registration certificates.

Notably, a total of 9,952 road users were booked for driving under the influence of alcohol and 143 for driving under the influence of drugs in this period.

Traffic police in the Southeast Asian country will continue their patrols until June 14 as part of a month-long nationwide campaign to inspect road users and vehicles.

During this campaign, police officers are authorized to pull over drivers, whether or not they have violated traffic rules, for an administrative inspection.

The current law states that traffic police officers can only pull someone over when they have found signs of violations.

Officers are allowed to review road users documents, examine their vehicles, and perform breath tests on them.

Drivers will be free to go if they are found committing no violation; otherwise, fines will be imposed.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
Protests are continuing across the country for the sixth day after unarmed black man George Floyd was killed in Minneapolis by ex-police officer Derek Chauvin.

And Hollywood is taking note, as celebrities use their platforms to give a voice to the Black Lives Matter movement while joining in demonstrations.

Ariana Grande posted Sunday to Twitter after joining the peaceful protest the day before in Beverly Hills.

Black Lives Matter: Ariana Grande posted Sunday to Twitter after joining the peaceful Black Lives Matter protest the day before in Beverly Hills after the killing of George Floyd

Peaceful protest: She posted some photos of the crowd, writing: 'Hours and miles of peaceful protesting yesterday that got little to no coverage'

She posted some photos of the crowd, writing: 'Hours and miles of peaceful protesting yesterday that got little to no coverage.

'All throughout beverly hills and west hollywood we chanted, people beeped and cheered along. we were passionate, we were loud, we were loving. cover this too please. #BLACKLIVESMATTER'

Some of her followers responded with candid snaps taken of the Thank U, Next artist marching with a cardboard sign.

Lizzo took to Instagram with information for a sit-in protest happening Monday in Los Angeles, reading: 'We demand an end to police brutality and racial discrimination.'

In solidarity: She continued: 'All throughout beverly hills and west hollywood we chanted, people beeped and cheered along. we were passionate, we were loud, we were loving. cover this too please. #BLACKLIVESMATTER'

Sit-in: Lizzo took to Instagram with information for a sit-in protest happening Monday in Los Angeles, reading: 'We demand an end to police brutality and racial discrimination'

Side by side: Nina Dobrev also joined the protests in Los Angeles, where she was accompanied by rumored beau Shaun White

Like a movie: The Vampire Diaries star wrote: 'Im shook. Yesterday was unlike anything Ive ever experienced. I witnessed things yesterday afternoon that Ive only ever seen in movies'

Police presence: She posted photos and videos showing a heavy police presence and crowds of protestors chanting 'Black Lives Matter,' 'I can't breathe' and 'hands up, don't shoot'

Racist encounter: She later took to her story after a racist encounter she had: 'He thought because I was white I would agree as he smiled at me. I said, "f*** you you are so disgusting"'

Nina Dobrev also joined the protests in Los Angeles, where she was accompanied by rumored beau Shaun White.

She posted photos and videos showing a heavy police presence and crowds of protestors chanting 'Black Lives Matter,' 'I can't breathe' and 'hands up, don't shoot.'

The Vampire Diaries star wrote: 'Im shook. Yesterday was unlike anything Ive ever experienced. I witnessed things yesterday afternoon that Ive only ever seen in movies.

'I live in the epicenter of West Hollywood where the peaceful protest quickly took a turn. Im sad it became violent, but the violence didnt begin yesterday. Its been present for generations.

'What happened to George Floyd wasnt an isolated incident. Its a systemic problem that is now being filmed. Even if any of you feel as though all you are seeing are posts about the horrendous injustice, it pales in comparison to what the energy felt like being on the streets and there can never be too large of a light shone upon the truth.

'In my stories Ive posted ways you can also join the movement. Please speak up, show solidarity, own the injustice. White people (and yes, Im referring to myself as well) learn something and do something. Its not enough to just post. Listen. Speak up. Amplify. And dont stop there. Join the fight against injustice. #BlackLivesMatter'

She later took to her story after a racist encounter she had: 'He thought because I was white I would agree as he smiled at me. I said, "f*** you you are so disgusting."'

Handing over the mic: Leslie Jordan posted a video to his Instagram, announcing that he's letting a special guest take over his profile

It's karma: Sean 'Diddy' Combs shared a quote to his Instagram: 'Be sure not to interrupt America's Karma right now. 400 years of it'

Burn it down: Jameela Jamil shared a statement calling out law enforcement: 'America is being destroyed and burned down. The National Guard is at war with civilians'

Joining the march: Kelly Ripa showed a more positive example of law enforcement with photos of Camden, New Jersey police officers joining the protests

Leslie Jordan posted a video to his Instagram, announcing that he's letting a special guest take over his profile.

He said: 'I'm heartbroken by these times and what's happening in our country. But now is not a time for me to be talking, but rather I need to listen.'

Sean 'Diddy' Combs shared a quote to his Instagram: 'Be sure not to interrupt America's Karma right now. 400 years of it.'

Good cause: Halsey and her ex-boyfriend Yungblud took part in protests throughout Los Angeles on Sunday, after reuniting a day earlier

Staying safe: The 25-year-old pop star and the British musician, 22, sported face masks and protective gloves during their outing

Defiant: Machine Gun Kelly and Mod Sun used their platform to speak up against the racially-charged killing of George

Making a statement: The rapper, 30, called for officials to 'prosecute killer cops', which was written on a cardboard banner

Demonstration: Mod Sun held up a placard which read: 'No justice, no peace'

In good company: The pair marched alongside a series of fellow LA natives for the great cause

Jameela Jamil shared a statement calling out law enforcement: 'America is being destroyed and burned down. The National Guard is at war with civilians.

'All this because they refuse to even charge officers who killed a black man in front of the whole world!! They would rather lose everything than give a black man justice!! ...Let that sink in.'

Kelly Ripa showed a more positive example of law enforcement with photos of Camden, New Jersey police officers joining the protests.

In memory: Irina Shayk took to her Instagram with some art of George Floyd, collaged with some red flowers

America's sickness: Rose McGowan posted a photo from one of the protests, writing: 'America has a sickness that white Americans dont like to address. Its white people that need to do the work to unpack their racism. Our racism'

Making a change: Celine Dion wrote: 'As so many have already said, it's not enough to be non-racist, we must be anti-racist. Change is long overdue'

Corporate ally: Taraji P Henson shared a statement on behalf of ABC: 'We stand with our black colleagues, creators, performers, storytellers, viewers and every ally of the black community against systemic racism, racial injustice, senseless violence and oppression'

One day: Rachel Lindsay shared a selfie with husband Bryan Abasolo, writing: 'Today we used our voices to make a difference. Today is just one day in the fight. We have to keep pushing forward and demanding change'

Taking a stand: Bella Hadid posted photos of other black victims of police brutality, writing: 'Today I will be standing with and donating to @NAACP_LDF, one of Americas oldest civil rights law organizations, which fights for police reform every day'

Irina Shayk took to her Instagram with some art of George Floyd, collaged with some red flowers.

Rose McGowan posted a photo from one of the protests, writing: 'America has a sickness that white Americans dont like to address. Its white people that need to do the work to unpack their racism. Our racism.

'It is not for African Americans to do for us. I cant imagine how exhausting it must be, how tired they must be. This is a tough, tough time, but it all stems from white fear. We must address our fears and root them out. African Americans are not the enemy. We are. We must own up to this.'

Celine Dion wrote: 'As so many have already said, it's not enough to be non-racist, we must be anti-racist. Change is long overdue.'

Taraji P Henson shared a statement on behalf of ABC: 'We stand with our black colleagues, creators, performers, storytellers, viewers and every ally of the black community against systemic racism, racial injustice, senseless violence and oppression.'

Rachel Lindsay shared a selfie with husband Bryan Abasolo, writing: 'Today we protested. Today we went beyond our platform. Today we put action behind our words.

'Today we used our voices to make a difference. Today is just one day in the fight. We have to keep pushing forward and demanding change.'

Bella Hadid posted photos of other black victims of police brutality, writing: 'Today I will be standing with and donating to @NAACP_LDF, one of Americas oldest civil rights law organizations, which fights for police reform every day.'

Let that skin in: Ireland Baldwin shared a quote: 'They'd rather let the nation burn than arrest 3 of their own...let that sink in'

Powerful together: Jessica Biel offered her platform for the cause, writing: 'As allies, we have to do more. While the obvious and understandable reaction is to be angry, and to fight back with hate - we also need to remember we are most powerful together. Please speak up'

Say their names: Sara Sampaio posted a list of black victims of police brutality, writing: 'White privilege is real! And we must not stay silent! #blacklivesmatter I stand with you!'

Coming together: Khloe Kardashian posted a lengthy statement, writing: 'The battle is not insurmountable, and any action, no matter how small, can be enough to make a difference, because it's going to take us all coming together to demand change'

Endagering protesters: Lana Del Rey was slammed for sharing footage of protesters after a chaotic scene at Los Angeles demonstrations

Proud mom: Ciara shared a photo with son Future Jr, writing a heartfelt message: 'My sweet Baby Boy. I pray that when you get older A CHANGE will finally have come!!'

Ireland Baldwin shared a quote: 'They'd rather let the nation burn than arrest 3 of their own...let that sink in.'

Jessica Biel offered her platform for the cause, writing: 'As allies, we have to do more. While the obvious and understandable reaction is to be angry, and to fight back with hate - we also need to remember we are most powerful together. Please speak up.'

Sara Sampaio posted a list of black victims of police brutality, writing: 'White privilege is real! And we must not stay silent! #blacklivesmatter I stand with you!'

Khloe Kardashian posted a lengthy statement, writing: 'The battle is not insurmountable, and any action, no matter how small, can be enough to make a difference, because it's going to take us all coming together to demand change.'

Lana Del Rey was slammed for sharing footage of protesters after a chaotic scene at Los Angeles demonstrations.

Ciara shared a photo with son Future Jr, writing a heartfelt message: 'My sweet Baby Boy. I pray that when you get older A CHANGE will finally have come!!'

Using her privilege: Kris Jenner wrote: 'I encourage you to reflect today on how you can use your voice and your privilege to help those who deserve the equality, respect and justice that they have been stripped of and denied for far too long'

Be kind: Hilaria Baldwin posted a quote from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: 'If we treat people as they are, we make them worse. If we treat people as they ought to be, we help them become what they are capable of becoming'

Vote! Her husband Alec posted a video captioned 'NOVEMBER' as he sat in silence before saying: 'What can you say? It's been this way for a long time. It's been this way my whole life...We gotta organize. We gotta organize for November'

Paying it forward: Gwyneth Paltrow used her Instagram to promote a list of organizations to donate to amid the riots

Big donation: Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively made a donation of $200k to the NAACP Legal Defense fund

Kris Jenner wrote: 'I encourage you to reflect today on how you can use your voice and your privilege to help those who deserve the equality, respect and justice that they have been stripped of and denied for far too long.

'I will be doing the very same. Lets come together and demand deep and significant change.'

Hilaria Baldwin posted a quote from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: 'If we treat people as they are, we make them worse. If we treat people as they ought to be, we help them become what they are capable of becoming.'

Her husband Alec posted a video captioned 'NOVEMBER' as he sat in silence before saying: 'What can you say? It's been this way for a long time. It's been this way my whole life...We gotta organize. We gotta organize for November.'

Gwyneth Paltrow used her Instagram to promote a list of organizations to donate to amid the riots.

LeBron James called attention to a peaceful protest in Washington DC: 'Is the media showing this??? I bet you they arent. This is beautiful.'

Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively made a donation of $200k to the NAACP Legal Defense fund.

White privilege: Justin Bieber and wife Hailey took to Instagram with a conversation they had with CNN commentator Angela Rye about white privilege

First step: Jay-Z thanked Minnesota Governor Tim Walz after having a conversation, writing: 'This is just a first step. I am more determined to fight for justice than any fight my would-be oppressors may have'

Speak up: Olivia Jade Giannulli wrote on her Instagram story: 'I'm not racist and I never have been but I need to speak up about this because just not being racist isn't enough'

Don't ignore: Kaia Gerber posted a quote to her story: 'Don't ignore something because it makes you uncomfortable'

Educating herself: She also posted a photo of a stack of books with themes of racism and justice, including To Kill a Mockingbird and some James Baldwin titles

Stay safe: Madison Beer claimed she was teargassed and saw people being arrested as she took to her story with a selfie

Hypocritical statement: Sophia Bush called out Donald Trump for his hypocritical statement in support of George Floyd after he condemned Colin Kaepernick

Riot inciters: She also drew attention to white riot inciters who've caused destruction at several demonstrations while black protesters pleaded with them to stop

Justin Bieber and wife Hailey took to Instagram with a conversation they had with CNN commentator Angela Rye about white privilege.

Jay-Z thanked Minnesota Governor Tim Walz after having a conversation, writing: 'This is just a first step. I am more determined to fight for justice than any fight my would-be oppressors may have.'

Olivia Jade Giannulli wrote on her Instagram story: 'I'm not racist and I never have been but I need to speak up about this because just not being racist isn't enough.'

Kaia Gerber posted a quote to her story: 'Don't ignore something because it makes you uncomfortable.'

She also posted a photo of a stack of books with themes of racism and justice, including To Kill a Mockingbird and some James Baldwin titles.

Madison Beer claimed she was teargassed and saw people being arrested as she took to her story with a selfie.

Sophia Bush called out Donald Trump for his hypocritical statement in support of George Floyd after he condemned Colin Kaepernick.

She also drew attention to white riot inciters who've caused destruction at several demonstrations while black protesters pleaded with them to stop.

Gigi Hadid asked her followers for some guidance on where to donate to help bail out protesters from jail.

Jodie Turner-Smith took to Instagram to commemorate the Tulsa race massacre, which took place the same day 99 years ago.

Emily Ratajkowski posted a photo of her sign to her story as she headed to a protest in Santa Monica.

She shared footage of the peaceful protest, as they tried to get the cops to kneel with them.

Jeremy Renner posted a statement: 'My heart is so heavy for the Floyd family. I just watched them speak with the chief of police who fired the 4 officers who killed George Floyd or complicit in the action leading to his senseless murder!'

Demi Lovato shared a photo of a painting she's working on of George Floyd after he was killed by Minneapolis ex-police officer Derek Chauvin.

Rapper Young MA came to the defense of a fan who was pulled over for no apparent reason.

Bail money: Gigi Hadid asked her followers for some guidance on where to donate to help bail out protesters from jail

In memory: Jodie Turner-Smith took to Instagram to commemorate the Tulsa race massacre, which took place the same day 99 years ago

Making a statement: Emily Ratajkowski posted a photo of her sign to her story as she headed to a protest in Santa Monica

Take a knee: She shared footage of the peaceful protest, as they tried to get the cops to kneel with them

Heavy heart: Jeremy Renner posted a statement: 'My heart is so heavy for the Floyd family. I just watched them speak with the chief of police who fired the 4 officers who killed George Floyd or complicit in the action leading to his senseless murder!'

Work in progress: Demi Lovato shared a photo of a painting she's working on of George Floyd after he was killed by Minneapolis ex-police officer Derek Chauvin
NEW DELHI : Riding on the 1.3 trillion in aggregate fund raising in the last few weeks, Reliance Industries is expected to repay its entire reported net debt even if the Saudi Aramco deal is delayed, a brokerage report said.

The company, controlled by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, has sold minority stakes in its digital arm to Facebook and private equity firms such as Silver Lake, Vista Equity, KKR and General Atlantic to raise a cumulative 78,562 crore. Also, the company is raising 53,125 crore through a rights issue.

"We analysed RIL's balance sheet following the recent deal-making. Having raised, on aggregate, 1.3 lakh crore in equity over the past month, we expect the company to repay its entire reported net debt of 1.6 lakh crore in 2020-21, even if the Aramco deal is delayed," Edelweiss said in a research report on the company.

Adjusted net debt, however, at 2.57 lakh crore is higher and would take longer to repay.

"That said, we expect concerns on leverage to be gradually allayed as asset sales continue and tapering capex generates positive free cash flow (FCF)," it said.

With telecom arm Jio's capital expenditure (capex) largely complete, RIL should generate FCF of more than 20,000 crore in FY21 (same as FY20) despite weaker oil and gas earnings.

"We expect RIL to monetise 20% of Jio; this along with partial proceeds from the rights issue and sale of (49% of) fuel retail (to BP for 7,000 crore), not to mention FCF, would lead to cash proceeds of 1.3 trilllion, thereby putting the company on the path to zero net debt in FY21," the brokerage said.

However, adjusted net debt (creditor capex plus spectrum liability) is much higher at 2.57 trillion.

"To repay this, RIL will need to tap into its massive divestment pipeline of oil-to-chemical (O2C) assets ( 1 trillion) and fibre InvIT ( 1.2 trillion). Progress on this front would, therefore, continue to allay market concerns around leverage," it noted.

Even a 5% stake sale of O2C assets to Saudi Aramco (versus talks of 20%) can help fill the shortfall, it said.

The Aramco deal was to conclude by March 2020 but it is now expected within 2020 calendar year.

When RIL announced its rights issue of 53,125 crore on April 30, it was perceived as part of the company's aim to become net debt-free by March 2021. But with shareholders needing to pay only 25% of the rights issue price on application, the proceeds will be 13,281 crore in total and cannot be a major source of debt reduction plan.

The remaining portion of the rights issue price is to be paid next fiscal.

With major refining and telecom projects achieving completion, capex in FY20 slid to 76,000 crore from the high of about 1 trillion in FY19.

"We expect capex to decline further to 46,000 crore in FY21, offsetting lower operating cash flow from oil and gas," it said.

As a result, FCF is expected to remain steady at over 20,000 crore in FY21. "Self sufficiency in operations has the added advantage of freeing up asset sales for deleveraging," it said.

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There was allegedly a stash of weapons and ammunition stored inside the church waiting to be deployed, according to the unsubstantiated story at the time.

An eyewitness account by William Choc Phillips, a white teenager, was documented in the 2001 report of the Oklahoma Commission to Study the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921. It detailed what happened next that day 99 years ago, when armed white mobs swept through Greenwood killing and burning.

Phillips, who later became a Tulsa Police officer, described men firing machine guns at the church, where Black riflemen attempted to protect their already damaged neighborhood.

While standing on the high ground where the machine gun had been firing, we watched the activity below for a few minutes, Phillips testified. Most of the houses were beginning to burn and smoke ascended slowly into the air while people flitted around as busy as bees down there.

From the number that ran in and out of the houses and the church, there had evidently been a couple of hundred who remained behind when the mob bypassed the area. A short while later, Mount Zion was torched.
He and his California-based production partner Darroch Greer had finished a major documentary, The Lafayette Escadrille, about Americans serving in the French Army during World War I. (It premiered at the Santa Barbara Film Festival in January.) Its a very sad subject to work on, said Glenshaw, who lives in Silver Spring. The next one, we knew, had to be something beautiful, really engaging and fun. And we just kept coming back around in our conversations to Ellington, who we both love.
File photo

The Nigeria Association of Resident Doctors has issued a 14-day ultimatum to the Federal Government to immediately implement all the agreements it had with the Association or it will embark on an indefinite strike, The PUNCH reports.

The ultimatum was issued by the NARD in Bauchi on Saturday at the end of its 2020 Ordinary General Meeting with the theme: Health Inequalities and Social Determinants of Health in Nigeria.

It also lamented the poor working condition of its members across the country.

The National President, Dr Sokomba Aliyu, who read the communique at the end of the OGM, lamented that some of its members were intimidated, harassed and maltreated in Lagos, Kaduna, Plateau States and FCT in the cause of performing their duties.

The communique was read at the Multipurpose Hall of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital (ATBUTH), Bauchi.

He faulted the sacking of 26 members at the Jos University Teaching Hospital, Plateau State in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

He also faulted the Kaduna State government for slashing the salaries of its members by 25 percent.

Aliyu said, NARD demands immediate recall of the sacked resident doctors at Jos University Teaching Hospital and payment of their salaries.

NARD demands immediate implementation of the revised hazard allowance, payment of COVID-19 inducement allowance. NARD condemns all illegal deductions in salaries of our members by some state governments and demands an immediate refund.

NARD calls on security agencies to stop the harassment and assault of doctors while carrying out their legitimate activities.

The association hereby issues a 14-day ultimatum to the government to meet her demands failure of which the association cannot guarantee industrial harmony.

The National President said that the NARD also demands a supply of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and other consumables to all health facilities across the country.
A Belgian prince has tested positive for coronavirus after attending a party in Spain during lockdown.

Prince Joachim, a nephew of Belgiums King Philippe, contracted Covid-19 after going to the gathering in Cordoba on 26 May, a spokesperson for the Belgian Royal Palace said.

The party breached lockdown rules because of how many people were there, according to Spanish media.

The royal spokesperson said the palace could not confirm the number of people in attendance.

The 28-year-old prince travelled to Spain from Belgium on May 24 for an internship  two days before the party took place.

He is still in Spain, the palace said on Saturday.

El Pais newspaper said the prince, who is tenth in line to the Belgian throne, attended the party along with 26 other people.

This would go against lockdown rules in the province of Cordoba, where a maximum of 15 people are allowed to meet up.

Spanish police said they had launched an investigation into the incident and those who breached restrictions could face fines of between 600 (540) and 10,000.

All 27 people who attended the party are now in quarantine, Rafaela Valenzuela, the Spanish governments regional envoy in Cordoba, said on Saturday.

She called the gathering completely irresponsible and said it could have caused an outbreak of infections, triggering a return to a stricter lockdown.

I feel surprised and angry. An incident of this type stands out at a moment of national mourning for so many dead, she said.

Spain has started easing some of its lockdown restrictions, which at one point were among some of the strictest in Europe.

Prince Joachim has tested positive for coronavirus after going to a party in Spain (BENOIT DOPPAGNE/AFP via Getty Images) (AFP/Getty)

However, as people emerge after spending months shut up inside, police have intervened in a series of incidents at parties, funerals and other social gatherings at which restrictions were broken.

In Barcelona, bathers were moved off the beach after some were spotted breaching rules by swimming in the Mediterranean, police said over the weekend.

Spains death toll for coronavirus rose by four on Saturday as the country emerges from one of the worst Covid-19 outbreaks in the world to date.

More than 257,000 people have tested positive for the virus nationally as of Sunday.

Meanwhile, the death toll stood at 27,125.

Additional reporting by Reuters
At least six states have either deployed additional law enforcement forces or requested the National Guard to assist local law enforcement agencies to resolve the situation. These states include Minnesota, Georgia, Ohio, Colorado, Wisconsin, Kentucky, and the District of Columbia.Earlier, US President Donald Trump announced his readiness to use the army to suppress the riots that broke out in Minnesota in connection with the murder of a black man.Mass protests in the United States began after posting a video on the Internet that captured the arrest of George Floyd on May 25 in Minneapolis. The footage shows how a policeman while detaining Floyd, pressed his neck with the knee. Shortly afterward, the man died in the hospital. The next day, four police officers who participated in the detention of Floyd were fired from the service. One of them was charged with manslaughter.
A pair of Australian sisters have revealed how they developed their local brand into a multi-million-dollar business one year after launching the world's first 'breast lift in a box'.

Founders Bianca and Bridgett Roccisano, from Victoria, started the business known as Booby Tape after inventing their own $21.95 breast tape to give women an easy added lift.

The business quickly became such a success that the siblings now sell their line of products in more than 35 countries.

Speaking to FEMAIL, the duo said they noticed there was a lack of products that focus on supporting women's breasts.

Since launching in 2018, Bianca, 34, and Bridgett, 29, have released a range of breast products  and the latest sold out in only 24 hours.

The products are both practical and unique to Australia.

Founders Bianca (pictured left) and Bridgett Roccisano (right), from Victoria, started their 'Booby Tape' business after inventing a $21.95 breast tape to give women an easy added lift

Since launching in 2018, Bianca, 34, and Bridgett, 29, have released a range of beneficial breast products  and the latest sold out in only 24 hours

'It's been crazy; we have been overwhelmed with the global response and support we have received from customers,' Bianca said.

'We believed the business had potential from the start, but we didn't expect the growth to be so rapid.'

The brand has more than 1000 stockists in Australia, America, China and the UK.

Their most recent product to soft launch online was the new 24K Gold Breast Masks, which sold out globally within 24 hours of being released

The most recent product to soft launch online was their new 24K Gold Breast Masks, which sold out globally within 24 hours of being released.

The product launched on May 25 and 2,000 breast masks sold out by 11.30am the following day.

When designing the product, which is priced at $34.95 for a packet of two, the sisters said they wanted to create something cute and attractive to wear that also assisted women.

'The gold breast mask took a year of planning to complete and aims to improve skin health, helps reduce wrinkles, repairs dryness and can also help tighten the skin,' Bianca said.

They said women have a tendency to focus on their facial looks but often forget about their chest health.

'The gold breast mask took a year of planning to complete and aims to improve skin health, helps reduce wrinkles, repairs dryness and can also help tighten the skin,' Bianca said

The sisters said the product is suitable for all cup sizes and is recommended for use up to two times per week

The 'secret' active ingredient that allows the mask to perform well is hydrolysed collagen, which is a form of broken-down collagen that can be easily absorbed into the skin and breast.

The sisters said the product is suitable to all cup sizes and is recommended to use up to two times per week.

The 24K Gold Breast Masks will be restocked on the Booby Tape website on Monday June 1.

Both Bianca and Bridgett also focus their planning on overseas events with A-list celebrity guests, but due to the COVID-19 crisis they have placed emphasis on designing more products to add to their range.

What is collagen and why is it important? Collagen is the most abundant protein in your body It is the major component of connective tissues that make up several body parts, including tendons, ligaments, skin, and muscles Collagen has many important functions, including providing your skin with structure and strengthening your bones As we age, the collagen in out body depletes, resulting in wrinkles Source: Healthline Advertisement

Not long before launching the breast mask, the business released the Anti-Wrinkle Silicone Chest Pad, which is priced at $38 and is an overnight treatment designed to prevent chest wrinkles caused by sun damage, sleeping on your side and natural aging.

'While researching, we found that plastic surgeons have been using medical grade silicon to treat scarring and wrinkles,' Bridgett said.

With this new found knowledge, the duo knew they had to develop a product for the decolletage chest area.

The anti-wrinkle pad is also reusable up to 30 times and can be washed to maintain cleanliness.

Not long before launching the breast mask, the business released the Anti-Wrinkle Silicone Chest Pad, which is priced at $38 and is an overnight treatment designed to prevent chest wrinkles

The anti-wrinkle pad is also reusable up to 30 times and can be washed to maintain cleanliness

When asked what is next in store for Booby Tape, the sisters revealed they have a lot planned, including the launch of a new skincare range for women's breasts.

Multiple customers have also demonstrated how to use each of the products on Instagram and the brand has grown to attract a following of more than 87,000 followers.

All Booby Tape products can be purchased from the brand's website to buy or pre-order.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 31

Trend:

The members of the Working Group on Azerbaijan, member of the House Appropriations Committee of the Congress and the Helsinki Commission, Congressman Robert Aderholt and member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Congress Steve Chabot made statements in the US Congress and expressed congratulations on the occasion of the Republic of Day of Azerbaijan, Trend reports referring to the embassy of Azerbaijan in the US.

I am honored to recognize the Republic Day of Azerbaijan, Robert Aderholt, one of the House Co-chairs of the Azerbaijan Caucus, Congressman from Alabama, said.

On May 28, 1918, Azerbaijan became the first secular democratic state in the Muslim East, Aderholt said. Though it was absorbed into the Soviet Union in 1920, Azerbaijan again declared its independence seven decades later in 1991, following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Azerbaijan's Republic Day serves as a time to highlight and reflect on some of the country's best qualities, including its strong relationship with Israel, its focus on energy security, and its key role in regional stability, the congressman said.

Additionally, Azerbaijan is committed to protecting global energy security, especially through its efforts regarding the Southern Gas Corridor, which will decrease the Caspian region's dependence on Russian oil, Aderholt said.

A stalwart U.S. ally, Azerbaijan has aided U.S. and NATO forces by providing critical refueling stations, and Azerbaijan's troops have fought side-by-side with U.S. troops in Afghanistan, the Congressman said. In addition, Azerbaijan has contributed to the security of Kosovo and Iraq and supports peacekeeping operations under the United Nations and NATO. Azerbaijan is also committed to global nonproliferation efforts and participates as a member of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Azerbaijan is a significant US partner in a strategically important area of the world, the congressman said.

Steve Chabot, Co-Chair of the Congressional Azerbaijan Caucus, representative in the House of Representatives (from Ohio) also expressed congratulations.

Azerbaijan is a critical partner of the United States in the region and maintains a proud heritage as an independent country," Chabot said.

Upon declaring independence in 1918, Azerbaijan earned the unique distinction of being the first secular parliamentary democracy in the Muslim world, Chabot added.

Azerbaijan was also among the first states to grant women the right to vote, the congressman said. This stands as a testament to the Islamic world of the universal validity of democratic aspirations, and that self-government and the respect for individual rights is not inimical to their traditions.

Unfortunately, Azerbaijani independence was soon snuffed out by totalitarian USSR, Chabot said. After the fall of the Soviet Union, Azerbaijan regained its independence and was recognized by the United States.

Today, Azerbaijan remains a close partner to the United States and our allies, the Congressman said. Not only has Azerbaijan been an integral part of our efforts in Afghanistan, but it has also been an excellent partner in the wider war on terror. Finally, Azerbaijan is a critical energy provider for Europe.

A Muslim-majority country, Azerbaijan also hosts a thriving, secure Jewish community, and the Azerbaijan-Israel bilateral relationship is strong, Chabot said. I urge my colleagues to join me to commending the people of Azerbaijan on their Republic Day. With this partnership and Azerbaijan's commitment to our friendship in mind, I would encourage my colleagues to join me today in honoring Azerbaijan on its Republic Day.
While the forces of India and China are standing face to face in the Union Territory of Ladakh, the military intelligence and Mumbai Crime branch have exposed an illegal Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) telephone exchange in Mumbai. According to reports, this is the biggest spy network using VOIP telephony to be busted in India.

Security forces had suspected about this exchange after several security officials had received calls from suspected numbers in the last one month. Significantly, this year in the month of May, many officers associated with security forces had received calls from suspicious telephone numbers in which important information related to Ladakh and important defence establishment was sought from them.

Some officers even received calls from many suspicious numbers in which important information regarding the defence establishment from Ladakh was also sought. Those who sought information had given fake identity, so the role of ISI in this matter cannot be denied.

Security forces recovered 191 SIM cards, laptop modem, antennas, batteries and connectors used for illegal VoIP exchange. 71 of the 191 SIM cards were found active.

Investigations have revealed that such VOIP exchanges being run in Mumbai received calls from Pakistan which were converted to local numbers and routed to numbers in Kashmir and Ladakh. The calls were made with efforts to gather intelligence from the officers and jawans associated with the security forces.

#Breaking 1st on TIMES NOW | Huge fake SIM Card racket has been busted in Mumbai. Pak & Gulf link has been emerged. Mumbai Crime Branch raids in Govandi area and raids are still underway. Siddhant with more details. pic.twitter.com/E8jbNNuqvE  TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) May 30, 2020

In this exchange, international voice calls were converted into local calls through SIM boxes made in China. These SIM boxes used a dynamic IMEI system which makes tracking them very difficult. The system has been declared illegal by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. Till now the investigation has also revealed that the telecom department has lost crores of rupees through these exchanges.

The exchanges which converted international voice calls originating from Pakistan into local GSM calls using the Chinese SIM Boxes (boxes fitted with GSM SIM cards of local cellular service providers) were busted in a police raid on Thursday. These SIM boxes also used dynamic IMEI system, which made them difficult to be tracked, sources in security forces said. Apart from Pakistan, calls were received from other places like Dubai, Qatar etc also.

One accused has been arrested in connection with the illegal exchange and an investigation is underway to ascertain the identity of other individuals involved in the network and locations of other similar exchanges that may be present.
The US and the African Development Bank (AfDB) have fallen out over allegations of corruption against the bank's Nigerian head, writes former BBC Africa Business editor Larry Madowo.

Akinwumi Adesina is a sharp dresser known for his expensive tailored suits, immaculate white shirts and an endless supply of colourful bow ties.



But the clean public persona of the 60-year-old president of the African Development Bank (AfDB) is now being questioned after a string of corruption and abuse of office allegations from his own staff spilled into the open. Mr Adesina has denied all the allegations.



The board of governors of the 55-year-old institution met on Tuesday to discuss whether to bring in an outside investigator into the allegations concerning the Nigerian's conduct just days after the US rejected an initial inquiry that cleared him.



The prospects of an independent probe comes only three months before he was expected to be re-elected unopposed at its annual general meeting in August.



US at odds with Africa



The 20-point allegations of "impunity and bad governance" from unnamed employees have exposed a rift between Mr Adesina and ordinary staff.



The "Group of Concerned Staff Members of the AfDB" claimed that Mr Adesina has used the bank's resources for self-promotion and personal gain while also paying out huge but undeserved severance packages to staff who resigned mysteriously, and favouring his fellow Nigerians.





US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin personally signed a letter to the board rejecting an internal investigation that cleared Mr Adesina.



"Mnuchin's move is significant because it has now cast a limelight on governance issues and on [the] importance of an independent investigation to uphold the integrity of the AfDB," said Barbara Barungi, the bank's former lead economist on Nigeria. "There are very few people that were willing to stick their necks out."



Besides the core 54 African countries, the US is one of the 27 non-regional members of the AfDB and its second largest shareholder.





"I think AfDB is Africa's most valuable institution," said one insider who spoke on condition of anonymity.



"But what you have now is the biggest paymaster, the US, in a stand-off against the Africans. If you read Mnuchin's letter carefully, it has put the bank on notice."



The BBC has obtained the original whistleblowers' email from January 2020, sent to two executive directors of the bank, Yano Takuji (Japanese) and Steven Dowd (American), and the British director for its Integrity and Anti-Corruption Department Alan Bacarese.



In an April update circulated to a wider pool of senior managers, the whistleblowers said the Ethics Committee headed by Mr Takuji failed to examine their concerns.



The committee later carried out an investigation and declared that Mr Adesina was "totally exonerated of all allegations made against him" and recommended that the board of governors adopt its conclusions.



In early May, the board's chair - Ivorian Planning Minister Niale Kaba - wrote to shareholders that the African finance ministers who supervise the bank's management intended to clear Mr Adesina.



"We fear that the wholesale dismissal of all allegations without appropriate investigation will tarnish the reputation of this institution as one that does not uphold high standards of ethics and governance," Mr Mnuchin wrote back.



"Therefore, the United States cannot support dismissing the allegations at this stage," he added.



Mr Kaba said in a statement that a decision had not been made about Mr Adesina and he remained in office.



"The bureau, which I chair, wishes to reassure the public that it is seized with the matter and it is treating it with the utmost seriousness that it deserves," he said.



'Trumped up allegations'



The whistleblowers have accused Mr Adesina of major conflicts of interest in his dealings with current and former employees, unethical conduct and preferential treatment.



Mr Adesina, who holds a PhD in agricultural economics from Purdue University in the US, did not respond to BBC requests for comment but released a statement.



"In spite of unprecedented attempts by some to tarnish my reputation and prejudice the bank's governance procedures, I maintain my innocence with regard to trumped up allegations that unjustly seek to impugn my honour and integrity," he wrote.



"I am confident that fair, transparent and just processes that respect the rules, procedures and governance systems of the Bank, and rule of law, will ultimately prove that I have not violated the Code of Ethics of this extraordinary institution."



The AfDB board meeting is said to have agreed to an independent investigation into the allegations concerning Mr Adesina's conduct after Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland supported the US position, Bloomberg news agency first reported.



"Should it surprise the world that we're getting a second investigation backed by no African country? What does that say about the other countries that have lined up behind the US?" wonders Debisi Araba, a friend of Mr Adesina's.



"He's due to run unopposed but you want to muddy the waters with this stain of corruption. I believe he will be vindicated."



Mr Araba worked for Mr Adesina in the Nigerian government and was also an intern at the bank while doing his PhD in 2009.



He says the bank has always had a culture of salacious rumour and gossip but faults the US for formalizing the "crass, bargain basement reasoning" into a complaint.



This was denied by a US Treasury spokesperson, who told the BBC: "The United States continues to value the AfDB and its efforts to promote development, reduce poverty, and address the current health and economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic on the African continent."



Chinese 'shopping spree in Africa'

Some policy analysts at think-tanks in Washington, DC, worry about the timing of the American pushback and its longer-term consequences in Africa.



"A prolonged battle will be a distraction for the AfDB when its resources are more desperately needed than ever for its borrowers," Nancy Birdsall, a Senior Fellow at the Center for Global Development told the BBC.



She said it was not good for the AfDB if Mr Mnuchin was unhappy and suggested that "the US Treasury should look for some form of quiet compromise in which no-one loses face".



Ms Birdsall also reiterated a recommendation she made in a 2018 paper for the leadership of the AfDB to open up its shareholding, including to China and oil-rich economies.



But Daniel F Runde, senior vice-president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, disagreed.



He said the Abidjan-based bank that lends exclusively to African governments represented one of the few non-China-led and western-funded approaches to development on the continent.



"If Adesina is cleared, the US may need to mend fences with the management because China will probably go on a shopping spree in Africa after Covid-19, and we will need every non-Chinese tool to respond," he said.



Mr Runde saw Mr Mnuchin's letter as "disruption" and called it a good tactic but a poor strategy.



"Now that the Trump administration has caused disruption and perhaps made a point, they have to decide when this plays out," he said.



Last October, the 81 shareholders of the bank pledged extra funds to more than double its capital to $208bn (170bn).



Missouri Congressman Emmanuel Cleaver, who sponsored a bill backing the capital increase in the US House of Representatives, came out in support of the new inquiry.



"Independent accountability measures strengthen institutions and reinforce their legitimacy - both domestically and internationally. I am pleased the African Development Bank's Board agreed to take this important step," the Democrat told the BBC in a statement.



Mr Adesina is an eloquent advocate for Africa and the bank and a good fundraiser, but his detractors say he promises more than he delivers.



"His administration hasn't always been fantastic and perhaps he has run roughshod over some people. Maybe the practices haven't always been what they should be, and the feeling is that the board just whitewashed the investigation," the insider said.



Accused of favouring Nigerians

The whistleblowers also accused Mr Adesina of preferential treatment for Nigeria and Nigerians.



"I don't think we should trivialise the issues and reduce them to anti-Nigerian sentiment," said Ms Barungi, the Ugandan-born, Lagos-based former bank employee.



"It's really more about governance concerns that require attention and the investigation to help clear the air," she added.



Mr Araba, a Nigerian, said talk of the "Nigerianisation of the bank" was false as the country was under-represented in employee numbers despite being the largest shareholder.



As the crisis at the bank escalates, employees, consultants and government officials in African capitals, as well as American foreign policy nerds, wonder how this impasse will end.



But at the Treasury building right next to the White House, Mr Mnuchin and his advisors are doubling down.



"Undertaking an independent evaluation of facts is not at odds with a presumption of innocence, and by promoting transparency and good governance, it can only strengthen the AfDB's capacity to deliver results to people across Africa," the spokesman told the BBC.



Mr Adesina's carefully curated career could crumble if a new investigation criticises his reign at the AfDB. His style is solid, but the substance is now under scrutiny.







Source: Daily Graphic /bbc









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-31 11:01:11|Editor: huaxia

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Vehicles of New York police department are covered in graffiti during a protest over the death of George Floyd in the Brooklyn borough of New York, the United States, May 30, 2020. Thousands of New Yorkers have taken to the street to voice their anger over police brutality and racism in the wake of the death of George Floyd in police custody on Monday in Minneapolis. (Photo by Michael Nagle/Xinhua)

NEW YORK, May 30 (Xinhua) -- New York officials on Saturday denounced acts of violence in the city's protests over George Floyd's death, after about 300 protesters were arrested in days.

Mayor Bill de Blasio said at a briefing that some protestors "came with an agenda of violence and incitement," and the city does not allow it to happen.

"Any protestor who tries to take the humanity away from a police officer and devalue them just because they are a public servant is no better than the racists who devalue people of color and particularly black men in America," he noted.

The mayor also urged the police not to take any aggressive acts towards peaceful protestors.

Since Thursday, thousands of New Yorkers have taken to the street to voice their anger over police brutality and racism in the country that together led to Floyd's death on Monday in Minneapolis.

More than 70 people were arrested after clashes with police in Manhattan's Union Square on Thursday. Some threw a trash can towards police and an officer was punched in the face.

On Friday, a generally peaceful demonstration turned violent in the evening in the Brooklyn borough. A police van was set on fire with some others destroyed.

In another place, protesters threw water bottles at police, according to videos circulating online, and over 200 people were arrested Friday.

New York City Police Commissioner Dermot Shea told the same briefing with de Blasio on Saturday that a protester had thrown a molotov cocktail towards a van with officers inside.

"We have multiple officers injured," said Shea. "This was a volatile, as the mayor said, dangerous situation and any and all violence we denounce. We can do better than this and we must."

On Saturday, more people joined demonstrations held at various locations across the city. Local media ABC News reported that around three dozen arrests had been made by the afternoon, mostly due to some protesters' attempts to take over highways.

New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo said at Saturday's briefing that he stands with the protestors, but violence "never is the answer"

Violence is "counterproductive," he said, because it "obscures the righteousness of the message and the mission."

Meanwhile, Cuomo said that he and de Blasio, the governor and the mayor, have agreed to initiate an independent investigation into the clashes between the police and protesters on Friday, which will be led by state's Attorney General Tish James.
- Musalia Mudavadi said there was a scheme, like the one imposed in Parliament, to invade political parties through intimidation

- The ANC leader condemned the ouster of Wetang'ula as FORD Kenya party leader which he said was mischief orchestrated by NASA and Francis Atwoli

- He said his party would cower into any form of political intimidation and bribery which would be detrimental to democracy

Amani National Congress (ANC) party leader Musalia Mudavadi has condemned the ouster of Moses Wetang'ula as Forum for the Restoration of Democracy Kenya (FORD) party leader.

Mudavadi said the illegal ejection of Wetang'ula had been brewing for some time in meetings led by National Super Alliance (NASA) member party aided by Central Organisation of Trade Unions (COTU) secretary-general Francis Atwoli.

READ ALSO: George Floyd: Police boss puts down helmet and baton, joins protesters in march

Musalia Mudavadi said political parties in Kenya were under siege by "evil". Photo: Musalia Mudavadi.

Source: Facebook

READ ALSO: Haki yetu: Kenyan man leads protest in US after killing of George Floyd

In a strongly-worded statement, the ANC leader said the move, which he termed as mischief, was aimed at destabilising political parties in Kenya.

"The mischief has been escalated at a number of meetings led by the leader of a NASA member party whose objective is to destroy and dominate everyone politically," he said.

READ ALSO: Wakenya wachemka baada ya polisi kulazimu mwanaume kulala kizuizini na maiti ya mkewe

He further reiterated he would stand with the ousted senator and further urged FORD Kenya to desist from forces who had ulterior motives for Kenyans.

Mudavadi said the coup was meant to replace the legislator with a puppet who would later to be replaced with someone else.

He firmly stated that his party would not bow to any political intimidation and bribery.

"In the end, evil will consume itself in its own fires. The axis of evil has captured parliament and it is now invading political parties.

"They want to kill all platforms of democracy and this must be resisted by all citizens and leaders of goodwill," he said.

FORD Kenya NEC had announced the removal of Wetang'ula accusing him of gross miss conduct and replaced him with Kanduyi MP Wafula Wamunyinyi.

Wetang'ula was accused of failing to be a symbol of unity in the party, failing to champion for the party's campaign to win elections and interfering with the parties candidate nomination in the 2017 General Election.

In a rejoinder, the senator rubbished the ouster and announced he had suspended Wafula Wamunyinyi from a secretarial position in the party and replaced him with Vincent Kemosi (West Mugirango MP).

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A siege involving a man who took his accomplice hostage in a break-in on Brisbane's northside has ended peacefully.

Following several hours of specialist police and negotiators speaking with the man and woman inside the house in Atrium Way, Everton Hills, the siege ended about 10.30am on Sunday.

The man and a woman are believed to have broken into the house about 3am on Sunday.

When they arrived a stand-off quickly ensued, with police negotiators called in to speak to a man and a woman inside the house.
President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un / Korea Times file



By Kang Seung-woo



President Moon Jae-in's proposal to deal with inter-Korean projects separately from the North's denuclearization negotiations with the United States seems to be losing steam, with Pyongyang still shunning Seoul while seeking dialog with Washington.



According to the North's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Sunday, leader Kim Jong-un presided over an undated key defense meeting of the ruling Workers' Party and laid out "new policies for further increasing" its nuclear war deterrence and putting its "strategic armed forces on high alert operation." However, there was no reference to Seoul's suggestion for cooperation on inter-Korean quarantine measures amid the COVID-19 pandemic.



Kim's remarks are seen as part of his efforts to get the U.S. to return to their nuclear disarmament dialogue, hinting that the North may try to affect the U.S. presidential election in November as the matter has been put on the back burner by President Donald Trump who is seeking reelection. More importantly, it is also giving the cold shoulder to President Moon's proposal for independent inter-Korean cooperation.



"President Moon's drive may lose momentum as the meeting showed that the North only intends to talk with the U.S. and this stance may continue until November," said An Chan-il, head of the World Institute for North Korea Studies.



"In that respect, the South Korean government would find it difficult to get a window of opportunity for inter-Korean talks."



Cheong Seong-chang, director of the Sejong Institute's Center for North Korean Studies, echoed An's view.



"Given that Kim promoted Ri Pyong-chol, who is in charge of building nuclear weapons and missiles, to vice chairman of the ruling party's Central Military Commission, he made it clear that his regime will be committed to strengthening its nuclear war deterrence and boosting its military capabilities," Cheong said.



"In that respect, there is little chance of inter-Korean exchanges and cooperation," Cheong added.



Since the Hanoi summit between Kim and Trump in February 2019 failed to produce an agreement, nuclear diplomacy between the two countries has seen little progress. As a result, inter-Korean ties that proceeded in lockstep with progress in the North-U.S. relations have remained at a standstill.



Frustrated by unproductive results from the North Korea-U.S. denuclearization talks, earlier this month Moon proposed that the two Koreas do what they can do regardless of the deadlock. According to his administration, inter-Korean exchanges and cooperation could take place in the areas of healthcare, railways and tourism.



However, the North Korean regime has yet to respond to the proposal, raising speculation that getting inter-Korean relations back on track have been subordinated to normalization of ties between the North and the U.S.



"Since last year, the North has prioritized talks with the U.S. to ease or lift sanctions as it knows there are few things that the South can do independently with regard to these," said Park Won-gon, a professor of international politics at Handong Global University.



"Unless the South Korean government takes drastic moves such as resuming tours to Mount Geumgang or reopening the Gaeseong Industrial Complex, the North will not have any interest in any proposal from the South."


Dubai: Iran, always keen to score points against its longtime foe the United States, has taken Washington to task over the killing of a black man by a white police officer that has sparked angry protests over racial injustice.

"Some don't think #BlackLivesMatter," Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Twitter. "To those of us who do: it is long overdue for the entire world to wage war against racism. Time for a #WorldAgainstRacism."

Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif. Credit:AP

"The US government is squandering its citizens' resources, whether its adventurism in Asia, Africa, or Latin America...," Zarif said in a tweet partly based on a message that US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo sent to Iranian street protesters in 2018, but with some of the words changed.

Iran's Foreign Ministry earlier denounced the police killing of unarmed black man George Floyd in Minneapolis, which has sparked protests in several cities, some which have turned violent.
By Nicholas Chan

San Jose Spotlight

James Foster lined up at the Di Lac Temple in San Jose, waiting for a hot meal, fresh groceries and face masks. Foster's wife lost her job as a therapist during the pandemic and his relative who supported them financially recently died.

"We're hurting ... These folks provide a life-saving service, especially for someone my age," said Foster, 76.

The Vietnam War veteran considers himself lucky because he has a pension to fall back on, pointing to others who may be less fortunate. With a mortgage to pay, however, making ends meet during the coronavirus outbreak continues to be a challenge.

As the shutdown has left many residents in Santa Clara County and across the Bay Area jobless, people are struggling to feed their families. Religious organizations, nonprofit organizations, schools and government assistance programs have become their lifelines as scores of households seek food assistance for the first time.

"There's a growing anxiety around food and nutrition," Santa Clara County Supervisor Dave Cortese said. "You're seeing more middle-income families, or families that were middle-income, in food lines ... It's heartbreaking. Just a few weeks ago, we had the most robust economy in the world. We had the highest workforce productivity of any metropolitan area in the world just two months ago."

In April, Second Harvest of Silicon Valley established its fourth warehouse in San Jose to meet the surging demand. Officials say they've delivered more than 2 million meals a week last month, a 45 percent spike compared with February. The nonprofit received an average of 1,000 daily calls to its food connection hotline in April, up from about 150 a day before the pandemic. More than 150 National Guard members are distributing food and fielding calls at Second Harvest.

The number of people applying for food stamps in the county has soared, too. The Santa Clara County Social Services Agency received double the number of applications for CalFresh - the state's food assistance program funded by the federal government. The county received about 8,000 applications in April compared with 4,000 in March, according to Angela Shing, director of the Department of Employment & Benefit Services at Santa Clara County Social Services Agency.

CalFresh is generally available to households earning less than 200 percent of the federal poverty level before taxes, which is a gross monthly income of $4,292 for a household of four. Meanwhile, Shing said applications for the state's health insurance program, Medi-Cal, and cash aid and services program, CalWorks, have remained level. She anticipated that applications for Medi-Cal and CalWorks would also increase in the months ahead.

"Right now, food insecurity is the immediate impact for everyone - no matter which socioeconomic class they're in," Shing said.

Despite the surge in applications, the agency issues CalFresh benefits at an average of nine days. Homeless or extremely low-income residents usually receive expedited benefits within three days, Shing said.

"If you are in need, come and apply," Shing said. "My eligibility staff will walk you through what we need."

Many Bay Area residents seek Second Harvest's guidance to apply for CalFresh.

"(A single dad) had his child call the hotline because he couldn't bear to do it," said Patricia Cervantes, food connection specialist at Second Harvest of Silicon Valley. "You can hear him crying in the background. He couldn't believe that he can't feed his kids and he's having to ask for food."

But enrolling people in CalFresh remains a challenge.

While older adults prefer to apply for CalFresh in person, the food bank has temporarily canceled in-person appointments because of the pandemic, said Kelly Chew, director of services at Second Harvest of Silicon Valley. They're often hesitant to share personal information, such as their social security number, to strangers. Others are reluctant to share their struggles.

Still, some applicants find comfort in talking to the operators on the food connection hotline who speak their language, Chew added.

Another barrier lies in people's longstanding distrust in government. Many of them are fearful of the Trump administration's expansion of the public charge rule, according to Cervantes. The rule went into effect in February, penalizing some immigrants who are enrolled in federally funded public benefit programs, including CalFresh, and reducing their chances of receiving green cards or visas. While the rule doesn't apply to many, it has stoked fear among their communities.

"They're afraid of what they hear," Cervantes said.

Others have missed out on CalFresh, Cervantes said, because they didn't know they could apply for more than one public assistance program. Those who do apply are faced with a labyrinth of rules and paperwork, a challenge for older adults and people with disabilities.

Potential solutions

California Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, earlier this year introduced legislation to simplify the process of applying for food stamps for those with disabilities and older adults without earned income. SB 882 was unanimously passed in the Senate Committee on Human Services last week.

"One of the longstanding problems is that we make it too hard for people to sign up for CalFresh in California ... We've been working for years to try to make the system more user-friendly," Wiener told San Jos Spotlight.

During the pandemic, the federal government has temporarily granted the state more flexibility, waiving CalFresh interviews and renewals under certain conditions. People can also verbally attest to their application over the phone.

House Democrats this month passed the $3 trillion HEROES Act, which would temporarily increase the minimum and maximum benefits of the food assistance program. The HEROES Act now awaits the Senate's vote.

The state also issued the maximum amount of CalFresh benefits during the crisis, which is $646 for a household of four. But it's not clear whether the provision will be extended past May, according to a memo by Santa Clara County Supervisor Cindy Chavez. And the Board of Supervisors will consider a proposal Tuesday, authored by Chavez, to continue providing the maximum CalFresh benefits for veterans.

"As unemployment numbers rise and many low-income households are disproportionally impacted due to COVID," Chavez wrote in the memo, "the county has a duty to ensure our vulnerable residents, beginning with veterans on the CalFresh program, have food security throughout and beyond this pandemic."

Contact Nicholas Chan at nicholas4b@gmail.com or follow @nicholaschanhk on Twitter.

This story was originally published by San Jose Spotlight. Please use the following link when sharing: https://sanjosespotlight.com/demand-for-food-assistance-soars-in-silicon-valley-during-covid-19-lockdown/

Copyright  2020 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.
Counsel for the family of 15-year-old rape victim who is a Yemeni national but lives in Ghana, have intensified calls to have the suspect brought to book.



Lead counsel Justice Abdulai speaking to Rainbowradioonline.com expressed disappointment in the way the police have handled the case.



The private legal practitioner told the website the suspect who was granted bail but jumped has since not returned to the jurisdiction for more than one year.



The victim was allegedly defiled at the age of 14 by her grandfather, aged 60, whom she lived with in Ghana at the time of the incident.



He further disclosed that the family have been threatened with harm and death because of their resolve to find justice for their daughter.



He recounted how some family members and Mr. Hassan Zein, the man who was appointed as intermediary by the Chief Imam Sheikh Nuhu Shaributu to find justice for the victim have been smeared with false accusation and threats of death.



The suspect and his assigns have started threatening Hassan Zain with death. They keep smearing him with unfounded allegations and claims because he has been appointed to help find justice for the family, he added.



Lawyer Abdulai further added that despite the instruction by the Attorney-General to the police to furnish her with details on the matter, they have failed all because they connived with the family of the suspect to have him escape from the shores of Ghana.



He since hinted of plans to petition the Attorney-Generals office to have the matter revisited.



Narrating the recent ordeal suffered by Hassan Zein, the lawyer stated that a negative petition was written against him and same was circulated and distributed to various government institutions and agencies led to a media report that Mr. Zein had been arrested and detained by the police.



This he insisted was false, and a figment of the imagination of the those who orchestrated it.



According to him, his client he said has no criminal record because he is a law-abiding businessman.



He said the allegations made in the said petition were borne out of ill-informed uninformed and or misinformation regarding the person of Hassan Zein.



My client has committed no offence. He is nowhere connected to the case. He was only asked to act as an intermediary to ensure the victims family gets justice. However, he has suffered several attacks by the suspects family.



He said the suspect is having multiple passports with multiple names and ages.



Background



The alleged suspect was a long distant relative who was considered a grandfather to the girl and used to often pick her up to school and back home when she closes.



It was on the back of this that he picked her up in the guise of taking her to school and defiled her at a yet-to-be-known location.



The matter was reported to the Kwabenya Police Station who then forwarded to the Madina Police Station for lack of capacity to deal with the matter.



The family claim that the Madina Police Station after arresting the suspect made him go on bail with his wife as the only surety making them believe there were some underhand dealings prior to his release.

Source: rainbowradio.com









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ALBANY  Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and the state's legislative leaders have for years failed to push for the repeal of a 44-year-old statute that has blocked public access to records on internal police investigations, including alleged misconduct by officers.

After weekend protests against police erupted in New York, including Albany, and across the nation in response to the death of George Floyd during a police encounter in Minneapolis last week, when Cuomo was pressed Sunday during his daily coronavirus briefing by reporters about the arguably impenetrable New York statute that shields the personnel files of police officers  and firefighters and corrections officers  he said for the first time that he would "sign" a bill to "reform" the law if the Legislature passes one.

"How many times, have we seen the same situation?" Cuomo said. "Yes, the names change, but the color doesn't and that is the painful reality of this situation and it's not just 30 years, it is this nation's history of discrimination."

Cuomo said on Sunday he has asked state Attorney General Letitia James to "review" the actions of New York Police Department officers during violent protests in that city on Saturday, including video footage showing patrol vehicles driving into crowds of protesters.

"I want that report in 30 days," Cuomo said. "Don't pull any punches. Tell the truth. ... This is a moment of reform, I'm not going to judge it just on what I saw on the video."

Legal interpretations of the statute, known as "50-a" due to its section in state Civil Service Law, have been expanded through the years by both courts and police agencies, including the State Police, which is under Cuomo's control. The statute prevents the public, and in most instances defense attorneys, from accessing the disciplinary records of police officers, including criminal allegations that may have been handled internally.

Advocates for repealing the statute contend it has been used to shield police corruption and cover up Civil Rights violations. In many departments, civilian police review boards are not allowed to know the identity of the officers whose conduct they are reviewing, including whether an officer has been the target of multiple complaints.

While Cuomo has criticized Mayor Bill de Blasio and the New York Police Department for not disclosing its police personnel records, the State Police still do not have dashboard cameras in cruisers or require troopers to wear body cameras. That agency has for years rejected nearly every request for records on its internal investigations or allegations of misconduct, including the files of its deceased members and troopers who may have retired in the face of an internal scandal.

Cuomo has said the death of Floyd  who died May 25 after a Minneapolis patrol officer kneeled on his neck for nine minutes while Floyd was handcuffed and pleading that he was unable to breathe  underscores that there is continuing racism fueling violent encounters between police officers and people in minority communities.

"The big issue is people are outraged and I understand that," Cuomo said. "The same case in states all across this nation where only the name changes by the color stays the same. ... The real issue is the continuing racism in this country. ... We preach a high standard but we still discriminate on the basis of color of skin."

But the governor, in his third term, has never offered his own bill to repeal the statute or directed the State Police to release their personnel files, as he has said New York City should do. Nor has he sought to add legislation to repeal the statute in his annual executive budgets, which he has used as leverage to negotiate for legislative changes on issues ranging from marijuana legalization to criminal justice reforms.

When asked by a reporter Sunday about the status of a stalled body-camera trial program by the State Police, Cuomo said: "I dont know the progress of the body-camera program, but I can get it."

Thomas H. Mungeer, president of the New York State Trooper Police Benevolent Association, issued a scathing letter to the governor on Sunday, saying Cuomo has offered "zero support for us" as troopers have responded to the violent riots across the state.

Mungeer also criticized Cuomo for saying publicly  for the first time  that he would sign legislation repealing 50-a if the Legislature passes it.

"For fulfilling our duties to the people of the state of New York, the proud members of the New York State Troopers PBA have in return been vilified and lumped into a group who you believe doesnt have the wherewithal to discipline themselves," Mungeer wrote. "In addition, you have also most recently vowed to diminish the civil rights of your New York state troopers through changes to (state) Civil Rights Law section 50-a."

Legislative leaders, including Senate Majority Leader Andrea-Stewart Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl E. Heastie, also have declined to champion efforts to overturn the statute, an idea that has garnered fierce opposition from police labor unions.

Their arguable disinterest in the issue was apparent 11 months ago when neither Heastie nor Stewart-Cousins attended a press conference at the Capitol calling for the repeal of 50-a. The event was attended by four mothers whose sons were killed during encounters with police, and their request to meet with the governor that day was rejected.

The press conference was organized by state Sen. Jamaal T. Bailey, D-Bronx, who has proposed a bill to repeal the statute. Bailey also chaired a legislative hearing last October on the issue, but it did not result in any momentum for the legislation, which is sponsored in the Assembly by Manhattan Democrat Daniel O'Donnell, a former criminal defense attorney.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

In an interview Sunday, Bailey said he is "truly hopeful" that the Legislature, and Cuomo, may finally get behind the legislation to repeal the statute. But the senator noted that Cuomo chose his words carefully, and said "reform" rather than "repeal."

"Were at a point in society, were at a moment, where I'm hoping people in and out of the Legislature know and recognize that we should be doing something about police misconduct and making sure that we have meaningful reform," Bailey said. "It seems that people are waking up and seeing what many voices, mine included, have been saying for many years  not just with 50-a but related to unfortunate issues of police misconduct. We need accountably and transparency  and that doesnt mean that we are against the police department."

Diane Kennedy, president of the New York News Publishers Association, testified at the hearing last fall about the difficulties that news organizations face due to the blockade that 50-a has created for journalists seeking to report on allegations of misconduct by police and correction officers.

"Its expansion has drawn an opaque curtain over a category of records which are of vital public interest," Kennedy told the panel. "Trust in law enforcement is eroded when the law serves as a closed door behind which government agencies secretly handle allegations of abuse of authority."

Kennedy cited several examples in which New York newspapers have been unable to obtain details on internal police investigations, even for incidents that had taken place in public and were captured on video.

Through the years, there have been multiple court decisions in New York broadly expanding the 1976 law's original intent, enabling police and prison agencies to conceal internal records that may confirm instances of civil rights violations, excessive force and criminal conduct by officers.

The law shielding disclosure of the personnel records was inexplicably extended to firefighters, following lobbying by their labor unions, although it had been crafted to prevent police officers from being cross-examined about their disciplinary histories during court proceedings.

At the legislative hearings, lawmakers cited a 2016 Times Union article that examined the origins of 50-a, including digging up the supporting memorandums for the legislation that were kept in state archives. They revealed the legislation was never intended to block public disclosure of records on police misconduct, including documented criminal behavior, and that was affirmed by former state Sen. Frank D. Padavan of Queens, who sponsored the legislation 44 years ago.

Padavan, who died two years ago, was a Republican state senator from 1973 to 2010. In a 2016 interview with the Times Union, he said, "If the law is being misused, then obviously an amendment might be in order."

Michael O'Meara, president of the state association of police unions, who testified at last October's hearing with three other labor leaders  including for the State Police  said public access to police disciplinary records could expose officers and their families to safety risks and result in the release of any complaints about them, even unsubstantiated ones, in open courtrooms.

"We don't want to get publicly flogged," O'Meara said. He claimed that, without the statute's protection, someone could access a police officer's personnel file and "tell everybody in the community."

O'Donnell, who was on the legislative panel, pushed back against some of the claims made by the police union leaders, noting that judges in court proceedings would not allow irrelevant or unsubstantiated allegations against an officer to be aired in a public courtroom.

"Your testimony seems to give the impression that a defense lawyer can ask a police officer any question they want," O'Donnell said. "That is not true. ... There are strict limitations on that information."
Curfews were imposed on major US cities as clashes over police brutality erupted across America with demonstrators ignoring warnings from President Donald Trump that his government would stop the violent protests cold.

Minneapolis, the epicenter of the unrest, was gripped by a fifth consecutive night of violence on Saturday with police in riot gear firing tear gas and stun grenades at protesters venting fury at the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, during an arrest in the city on Monday.

Los Angeles, Chicago and Atlanta were among two dozen cities ordering people to stay indoors overnight as more states called in National Guard soldiers to help control the civil unrest not seen in the United States for years.

From Seattle to New York, tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets demanding tougher murder charges and more arrests over the death of Floyd, who stopped breathing after Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.

In Los Angeles, officers fired rubber bullets and swung batons during a testy standoff with demonstrators who set fire to a police car.

Police and protesters clashed in numerous cities including Chicago and New York, with officers responding to projectiles with pepper spray while shop windows were smashed in Philadelphia.

Multiple arrests were reported by US media in Minneapolis, Seattle and New York as rallies continued through the night.

Trump blamed the extreme left for the violence, including widespread looting and arson in Minneapolis, saying rioters were dishonoring the memory of Floyd.

We cannot and must not allow a small group of criminals and vandals to wreck our cities and lay waste to our communities, the president said.

My administration will stop mob violence. And well stop it cold, he added, accusing the loose-knit militant anti-fascist network Antifa of orchestrating the violence.

Democratic candidate Joe Biden condemned the violence of the protests, but said on Sunday that US citizens had every right to demonstrate.

Protesting such brutality is right and necessary, he said. But burning down communities and needless destruction is not.

 National Guard deployed 

Peaceful protests occurred too, including in Toronto as the movement spread beyond Americas borders.

Demonstrators nationwide chanted slogans such as Black Lives Matter and I cant breathe, which Floyd, who has become a fresh symbol of police brutality, was heard saying repeatedly before he died.

Were not turning the cheek anymore. Black lives matter. They will always matter. And were here today to show that, said makeup artist Melissa Mock, who joined several thousand in a daytime protest in Miami.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said he was mobilizing the states entire 13,000-strong National Guard to deal with rioters who have looted shops and set fires in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.

All major freeways leading into Minneapolis were closed Saturday night with military helicopters overhead as the state braced for more rioting, arson and looting, with locals saying much of the violence was being perpetrated by outsiders.

Earlier, people congregated and chanted peacefully in Minneapolis, carrying brooms to help clean up damaged shops and streets.

Some placed flowers in front of the shop where Floyd was arrested on Monday, before his death in the hands of police was recorded in a horrifying cellphone video since seen around the world.

In Houston  where Floyd was born and raised  an old friend of his, Sam Osborne, said as an African American he feared for his life.

Im really messed up they killed him up. Im wondering like, what could possibly happen to me? he told AFP.

Houstons mayor announced at a press conference that Floyds body would be brought back to the Texas city.

At least eight states  including Texas, Colorado and Georgia  activated the National Guard, who were also deployed around the White House to help handle the protests there.

 Black lives matter 

In Washington, protesters faced off with secret service agents outside the White House for a second straight night as Trump faces the most serious spate of civil unrest of his presidency, in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic.

Looting occurred in Miami, where a curfew was also announced, while in New York mayor Bill de Blasio said a video appearing to show an NYPD police car drive into protesters in Brooklyn was upsetting but that he did not blame the officers.

In Los Angeles, the citys mayor expanded a curfew order as looting broke out. Stretched emergency services scrambled to put out two blazes on Melrose Avenue, as similar scenes played out in Washington with officials extinguishing a major fire at a hotel off Layfayette Square.

There were also multiple instances of journalists covering the protests being wounded, with reports of pepper balls and rubber bullets being used on members of the press.

Protests are expected to continue even after Chauvin, the now-fired Minneapolis police officer accused of Floyds death, was arrested and charged with third-degree murder on Friday.

Floyds family and many protestors want a tougher charge brought and have also demanded that three officers who assisted him be charged as well.

SOURCE: AFP
Arlene Foster said there will be opportunity in future to look back on how the crisis was handled (PA)

Ministers are acutely aware of the coronavirus crisis facing care homes in Northern Ireland, Arlene Foster has said.

More than half of all Covid-19 deaths in Northern Ireland have occurred among frail and elderly care home residents.

Providers have previously voiced concerns about the provision of personal protective equipment and staffing levels amid the pandemic.

Measures have been taken by the devolved administration in Belfast in response.

Stormonts First Minister Mrs Foster told the BBCs The Andrew Marr Show on Sunday: If we have a low number of deaths in the first place, then understandably you are going to have a concentration where there are old and vulnerable people.

We are very, very conscious of the difficulties in care homes.

We will look back and there will be plenty of time to look back at how we dealt with this virus.

She said Northern Irelands overall infection rate has been below that in England and Scotland because of a lower population density.

She added that lockdown restrictions were introduced earlier in the diseases spread in Northern Ireland.

Expand Close Stormont health minister Robin Swann has boosted funding for care homes amid the pandemic (Niall Carson/PA) PA / Facebook

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On Sunday, Stormonts health department said one more person had died from Covid-19-related illness, bringing the overall toll to 523.

An extra seven positive cases brought the mainly hospital-related tally to 4,716.

Stormont health minister Robin Swann has announced 6.5 million in additional funding for care homes and expanded testing in those facilities.

The money is intended to help homes increase the level of cleaning and bring in any additional staff required to support the isolation of residents.

Mrs Foster said care home leaders will recognise what the Department of Health has done to help, as she cautioned everyone is grappling with a novel virus.

We are dealing with this without a rule book, she said.

Care home residents account for 53% of all coronavirus-related deaths in Northern Ireland, official statistics show.

Of the 380 care home resident deaths in the year to May 22, 84% (318) occurred in their facility, with the remaining 62 taking place in hospital.

The Department of Health has said there are 69 active care home outbreaks and 52 clusters have been closed.

Expand Close Clifton Nursing Home in Belfast was recently ordered to close (Liam McBurney/PA) PA / Facebook

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Clifton Nursing Home in Belfast was ordered to close recently after the watchdog Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority raised concerns about how it was handling coronavirus.

Mrs Foster also defended Northern Irelands manual contact tracing system, which is following up about 30 positive cases a day.

Apps are expected to be used in the Republic of Ireland and Great Britain which are not compatible with each other, posing challenges for a country like Northern Ireland.

The DUP leader said: We are making good progress.

College graduates, doctors and nurses have been recruited for up to two years to help in the process.

She added: It is forming the corner stone of coming out of lockdown and being able to relax these regulations.
(Newser)  President Trump said Saturday that he will postpone until the fall a meeting of Group of 7 he had planned to hold next month at the White House despite the ongoing pandemic. And he said he plans to invite Russia, Australia, South Korea, and India as he again advocated for the group's expansion, reports the AP. Trump told reporters on Air Force One as he returned to Washington from Florida that he feels the current makeup of the group is very outdated" and doesn't properly represent "whats going on in the world. He said he had not yet set a new date for the meeting, but thought the gathering could take place in September, around the time of the annual UN meeting in New York, or perhaps after the US election in November. A White House rep said that Trump wanted to bring in some of the country's traditional allies and those impacted by the coronavirus to discuss the future of China.

story continues below

The surprise announcement came after German Chancellor Angela Merkel's office said Saturday that she would not attend the meeting unless the course of the coronavirus had changed by then. The leaders of the worlds major economies were slated to meet in June at Camp David, but the coronavirus outbreak hobbled those plans. Trump announced in March he was canceling the summit because of the pandemic and that the leaders would confer by video conference instead. But Trump then switched course, saying a week ago that he was again planning to host an in-person meeting. "Now that our Country is Transitioning back to Greatness, I am considering rescheduling the G-7, on the same or similar date, in Washington, D.C., at the legendary Camp David," Trump tweeted. "The other members are also beginning their COMEBACK. It would be a great sign to all - normalization!"

(Read more President Trump stories.)
Ill. eases worship service restrictions after churches turn to Supreme Court

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Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker has eased restrictions on in-person worship services in new coronavirus stay-at-home guidelines after churches appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court for relief.

In a daily news briefing Thursday, Pritzker announced a new health department guidance for faith leaders seeking to resume in-person worship services, recommending they do so at 25% capacity or a 100-person maximum  whichever is lower  under phase three of the states reopening plan.

Having received many plans and ideas from responsible faith leaders, [Illinois Department of Public Health] has reviewed many detailed proposals and has provided guidance, not mandatory restrictions, for all faith leaders to use in their efforts to ensure the health and safety of their congregants," Pritzker said.

Pritzker said the safest option is for churches to continue with online services and drive-in services. However, he said churches that want to resume in-person services can use the states new guidelines to help combat the spread of the virus.

Places of worship should develop a COVID-19 plan and be prepared to adapt to updated public health guidance and to restrict in-person activities if the incidence of COVID-19 within their communities increases, the guidance reads.

Places of worship should provide training to both staff and congregants on their COVID-19 plans and should share the new safety protocols and processes by email, video, mail, and posted signage  with frequent updates as new safety protocols are implemented.

The guidelines state that churches should expand capacity limits gradually to allow the opportunity to test safety protocols. Additionally, the guidelines encourage churches to hold multiple small services as opposed to one large service.

Churches are also advised to do thorough cleanings of high-trafficked areas and require attendees to wear face coverings as well as undergo temperature and symptom checks upon arrival at places of worship.

Under the states current stay-at-home order, which expires Friday, religious services were limited to 10 people or fewer. That mandate was opposed by several churches and led to lawsuits.

Elim Romanian Pentecostal Church and Logos Baptist Ministries filed an injunction request on Wednesday with the U.S. Supreme Court, seeking relief from the order by Sunday, the holy day of Pentecost.

The appeal to the Supreme Court came after a federal judge denied their request in mid-May.

Last weekend, Elim Romanian Pentecostal Church and two other churches said they received letters from the city of Chicago threatening to shut down their church buildings temporarily through a summary abatement if they continued to hold worship services in defiance of the governors order.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh asked the city to respond to the churchs request by Thursday night, according to The Chicago Sun-Times.

The Chicago Tribune reports that in a filing with the Supreme Court, the state argues that the churches request for relief is now moot because the governor has announced that after that date religious gatherings will no longer be subject to mandatory restrictions.

However, the conservative religious freedom legal nonprofit Liberty Counsel, which represents the Romanian churches, argues that the request for relief is not moot because the governor could just as easily reinstate his orders.

The unilateral actions of Gov. J.B. Pritzker is the classic example of tyranny, Liberty Counsel founder Mat Staver wrote in a statement. He knew he did not have authority to trample on the First Amendment rights of churches and houses of worship, but he did anyway and continued to do so until his case reached the U.S. Supreme Court.

He cannot be trusted to obey the Constitution. The fact that he recently said that churches would never get above 50 people for at least 12 to 18 months, and now a few hours before he had to file with the Supreme Court he removes all restrictions, illustrates that he had no basis for the orders in the first place, Staver added.

The only thing that changed was he was dragged to the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court. While we are happy that all churches and houses of worship no longer have any restrictions, we want to make sure this tyranny and abuse never happens again.
A police officer in Lagos on Sunday morning went berserk and opened fire on his colleagues, after a disagreement ensued between them, leading to the death of a sergeant.

Bala Elkana, the Lagos police spokesperson, said in a statement on Sunday evening that the police inspector has been arrested for his unruly behaviour.

According to Mr Elkana, the inspector, identified as Monday Gabriel, became violent on Sunday morning and started shooting at his colleagues sporadically, killing one Felix Okago, a sergeant, while others escaped without injuries.

In an attempt to escape, the officer took a patrol van and headed towards third mainland bridge, shooting as he was escaping. He was subsequently intercepted by officers at Bariga.

In a short video obtained by The Nation newspaper, the officer was speaking incoherently and alleging that some persons wanted to corrupt him and he should be allowed to go home.

It was also gathered that no fewer than 30 bullets were shot by the officer.

The police spokesperson said the officer had been taken to a police hospital to be examined for mental illness, while an in-depth investigation has commenced to review the circumstances surrounding the incident.

On 31/5/2020 at about 0430 hours, Area A Command received a distress call that one Inspector Monday Gabriel from No 21 Police Mobile Force Squadron Abuja, on Special duty in a Federal Government facility in Ikoyi Lagos, went berserk and started shooting sporadically.

One Sergeant Felix Okago who was on Special duty with the Inspector, died from the gunshot injuries while others escaped unhurt.

In an attempt to escape, he took a patrol van and headed towards third mainland bridge, shooting as he was escaping.

He was intercepted by Policemen from Bariga Division along Akoka, disarmed and handcuffed. The rifle and vehicle were recovered.

The corpse of the deceased Sergeant is deposited in the mortuary for autopsy while the Inspector is taken to Police Hospital for medical examination as he presented signs of mental depression, Mr Elkana said.

The Commissioner of Police in Lagos, Hakeem Odumosu, has directed the Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of investigation to take over the investigation.

The command deeply condoles with the family of the fallen colleague who paid the supreme price in service to his fatherland, the police said.
Behind our current health crisis, another catastrophe is looming: a crisis in rental housing. To prepare for it requires urgent action from every level of government.

It's a crisis long in the making. A 2019 analysis by the Fiscal Policy Institute found more than 46 percent of New York renters are "rent-burdened," spending more than 30 percent of their income on rent. Among families of color, fully half are rent-burdened.

And as jobs have evaporated in the coronavirus shutdown, many could no longer bear the burden: Housing analysts estimate that in April, about one-third of tenants nationwide didn't pay their rent. Locally, the New York Capital Region Apartment Association reported that 45 to 50 percent of tenants had not paid May's rent. And analysts fear that when the extra federal unemployment payments stop in July, unpaid rents will skyrocket.

Early in the shutdown Gov. Andrew Cuomo put an important stopgap in place: a moratorium on evictions, which the Legislature voted last week to extend for the duration of the crisis. With our communities already in upheaval, and with shelter essential for public health, this was a necessary move  but all it does is kick the can down the road. Tenants are still on the hook for back rent. How will they catch up when the moratorium ends? From what savings? From what suddenly larger paycheck?

How many families will end up evicted and homeless  with all the consequences that entails for their health, their education, their futures and, yes, their communities?

Tenants aren't the only ones in trouble. Property owners still have taxes, mortgages, and maintenance costs to pay. Major real estate companies may be able to weather this, but the rental market is stacked with small-scale businesses and owner-occupied units. A tidal wave of bankruptcies and foreclosures for those owners would mean unpaid property taxes and deeper holes in municipal budgets. And more: the accelerating deterioration of housing stock and an even smaller roster of available rentals, driving up rents.

It's one of many storms on the horizon in the time of coronavirus. What state lawmakers have so far done is insufficient to help citizens weather it.

Last week, the Legislature passed the Emergency Rent Relief Act, which would use $100 million from the federal CARES Act to provide rent vouchers to low-income, rent-burdened people whose finances have taken a hit during the pandemic. That money won't nearly go far enough.

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At the federal level, the House of Representatives' HEROES Act contains $100 billion in emergency assistance for renters. But the legislation, passed by the House on May 15, has been met with sneers in the Republican-controlled Senate, and the White House has pledged to veto it.

With the stability of families and communities at stake, this is aid that government must supply. Given the scope of the problem and the dysfunction in Washington, state lawmakers must keep pushing for solutions.

A measure proposed by state Sen. Michael Gianaris would waive  not just delay, but waive  90 days of rent payments for people who've lost income as a result of the pandemic. For their landlords, it would forgive mortgage payments in an equivalent amount. It's worth serious debate in the Legislature  because the reality is that this storm will slam New York one way or another: Either we invest now in keeping families in their homes, or we pay later to address the upheaval of mass evictions and homelessness, foreclosed properties, lost tax revenue and more blight.

Either way, the storm is coming.
The India Meteorological Department on Sunday warned of another cyclonic storm that is brewing in the Arabian sea near Lakshadweep and is likely to reach near Gujarat and north Maharashtra coast on June 3.

The cyclonic storm called Nisarga follows super cyclonic storm Amphan that ravaged the West Bengal-Bangladesh coast this month on May 20.

Heres all you need to know about cylone Nisarga:

 India Meteorological Department (IMD) director general Mrutunjay Mohapatra on Sunday said that a low-pressure area formed near southeast Arabian Sea and Lakshadweep on Saturday.

 This low-pressure area is likely to transform into depression tomorrow and into a cyclonic storm, Nisarga, the day after.

 Cyclonic storm will move towards the north and reach near Gujarat and north Maharashtra coast by the evening of June 3. Maharashtra and Gujarat have been put on pre-cyclone alert.

 The intensity and likely impact of Nisarga will be released by the IMD once the department obtains clearer pictures.

A low-pressure area formed near southeast Arabian Sea & Lakshadweep today. We're expecting that it'll transform into depression tomorrow&into cyclonic storm day after. It'll move towards north&reach near Gujarat&north Maharashtra coast by evening of June 3: M Mohapatra, IMD Delhi pic.twitter.com/f7cgTAbhja  ANI (@ANI) May 31, 2020

 The cyclonic storm once formed is very likely to move nearly northwards till June 2 morning and then recurve north-northeastwards and reach near north Maharashtra and south Gujarat coasts around June 3 morning.

 Under the influence of the storm, Lakshadweep, Kerala and coastal Karnataka are likely to receive rainfall today and tomorrow. Heavy and extremely heavy rainfall is also likely over south Gujarat, north Konkan, Madhya Maharashtra, Daman, Diu, Dadra & Nagar Haveli on June 3 and 4.

How was Nisarga named?

After super cyclone Amphan, the next cyclonic storm in the region was supposed to be named Nisarga. The World Meteorological Organisation maintains rotating lists of names which are appropriate for each Tropical Cyclone basin.

The group of 13 member countries, including Bangladesh, India, Iran, Maldives, Myanmar, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen, names cyclones in the region. Nisarga was suggested by Bangladesh.
Nigerias major carrier, Air Peace, has evacuated 312 Indians from Nigeria back to their country in a 10-hour non-stop flight.

Oluwatoyin Olajide, the Chief Operating Officer of the airline, announced this in a statement in Lagos on Sunday.

Mrs Olajide said that the flight, which departed on Sunday, May 31, from the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, operated with a B777 aircraft with registration number 5N-BWI.

She said the flight, operated by 15 crew members, was expected to arrive Cochin International Airport in Kerala.

The official, while expressing delight over the evacuation flight, thanked the Indian authorities for engaging Air Peace to operate the flight.

She also gave kudos to the federal government for supporting the airline in all its special flights during the lockdown.

She added that the airline alongside other relevant government agencies ensured that all the passengers complied with established health protocols before boarding.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that on May 28, Air Peace evacuated 301 Chinese from Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, and flew back 268 stranded Nigerians from China on May 30.

(NAN)
Copyright  2020 Albuquerque Journal

A convicted sexual predator is back behind bars after his DNA was matched to a rape kit that went untested for nearly a decade.

Victor Gonzales, 43, is charged with criminal sexual penetration, kidnapping and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon in connection with the 2010 case.

Investigators with the New Mexico Attorney Generals Office arrested Gonzales late Thursday and booked him into the Metropolitan Detention Center.

The AGs Office has filed a motion to detain Gonzales until trial.

In the 2010 incident, a woman told authorities a man abducted, bound and raped her at knifepoint in Northwest Albuquerque.

AGs Office spokesman Matt Baca said the rape kit remained untested for eight years and, once tested, came back as a match for Gonzales.

The defendant is a true sexual predator  a serial rapist, the states pretrial detention motion says. DNA evidence proves that he preyed upon (the victim) with the goal of physically and sexually assaulting her.

According to court records, Gonzales has been accused of multiple sexual assaults and convicted of charges in one, serving two years in jail.

In July 2012, Gonzales was indicted after allegedly kidnapping, torturing and raping a homeless woman for two days before she escaped. Those charges were dismissed due to issues with video evidence in the case.

The next year, Gonzales was indicted again, this time on 40 charges that covered five assaults from 2010 to 2012. Gonzales pleaded no contest to the lesser charges and was ordered to serve two years.

Having already been behind bars for two years awaiting trial, he was released.

Gonzales came to the attention of authorities in December 2019 when DNA taken in the 2010 rape was finally tested and investigators tracked down the victim.

According to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court:

The woman told agents the assailant hit her over the head with a knife and abducted her off a street in Northwest Albuquerque.

During the attack, she said, he told her things  details about her daughter  that made her believe he had been stalking her. The woman said she believed he had done this before because of his calmness and the lack of door and window handles on the passenger side of the car.

The man repeatedly beat, strangled and raped the woman, who thought she was going to die and did her best to do everything he wanted her to do to stay alive.

In March, investigators met with Gonzales, who denied the allegation but provided saliva for DNA, which matched the 2010 rape kit.
Demonstrations in Charleston and Columbia turned violent Saturday night, mirroring scenes across the country as protesters clashed with police in the wake of an African American mans death at the hands of police in Minnesota.

Four police offers were injured, one seriously, in Columbia after tensions escalated following an afternoon of mostly peaceful protests. As night fell and curfews were enacted, tensions intensified and reached a violent crescendo in the downtowns of two of South Carolinas largest cities.

In Charleston, police vehicles burned, storefronts were destroyed and gunshots were reported along historic King Street. As an 11 p.m. curfew hit, police used spray and smoke to move the protests turned riot away from the citys core.

Its not going to look good when the sun comes up tomorrow in our city, said Charleston Police Chief Luther Reynolds.

The protests were in honor of George Floyd, an African American man, who died in Minneapolis on Monday while handcuffed in police custody. Floyd was seen on videos gasping for breath during an arrest in which an officer stayed kneeling for almost eight minutes. The officer was arrested on Friday afternoon.

Columbia Police Chief Skip Holbrook said at least one of his officers was injured while responding to a man who was hurt when a group of people attacked him.

Mayor Steve Benjamin imposed a curfew in Columbia effective at 6 p.m. Saturday to help calm the situation. It will remain in effect there through the weekend. Officers used squad cars and armored vehicles to push protesters off the street.

But the unrest in downtown Columbia continued into the night. Some officers were fired upon at Gervais and Assembly near a parking lot, and officers chased after the shooter. Armored police forced a crowd away from the Five Points area.

Columbia's was just one of several protests in South Carolina. Marches in Greenville, Charleston County, Myrtle Beach and other areas allowed residents to vent frustration following the death in Minneapolis.

In Charleston, protesters cornered two supporters of President Donald Trump near a downtown fast-food restaurant in the afternoon and burned a Keep America Great hat taken from one of them. Police protected the men and got them out of harm's way.

Others marched onto Interstate 26 as some branched off to the downtown tourist corridor, where they spray-painted "BLM" and "traitors" on the Confederate Defenders statue at The Battery and shattered windows on Market Street.

Charleston County Council Chairman Elliott Summey imposed a curfew Saturday night, effective from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. Sunday, and Charleston City Council matched that curfew's times, as well.

"Charleston County joins the rest of the nation grieving over of the death of George Floyd. Our citizens have the right to be angry and the right to protest this unspeakable tragedy. Now is the time to join together and honor Mr. Floyds memory peacefully," Summey said in a prepared statement.

Charleston Police Chief Luther Reynolds followed the marchers through part of their route. He denounced the Minneapolis police who kneeled on George Floyd's neck as the man took his final breath.

"They're exercising their rights," Reynolds said, gesturing to the crowd. "What happened in Minneapolis was wrong."

The Peoples Solidarity Society organized a gathering at Marion Square, which quickly turned into a march down King Street. Officers followed the crowd for several blocks before two dozen of them, wearing helmets and armed with batons, blocked them from continuing south past Burns Lane. They held their ground for several minutes as protesters crowded the street.

"I don't think all cops are racist, I know that guy's just trying to do his job and get paid," said Barinwa Wiwuga of Charleston. "But it's bad seeds, and it keeps happening ... racism never surprises me."

Dev Brown put her hands up immediately. Shes fallen victim to police brutality before, she said.

As protesters approached the line of officers, a second row filed behind them.

We built Charleston, Brown said after climbing onto a table that had been dragged to the street. This is a slave city. ... Its ours.

A man emptied an extinguisher into the air before using it to shatter the windows of a civilian car and then a sheriff's SUV.

One protester grabbed a patio chair from FIG and sent it flying through the air at a line of geared-up officers.

Protesters paused to pay their respects at Mother Emanuel AME Church before climbing up the steps to speak to the crowd below.

"Yalls cousins, aunties, uncles lost their lives at this church, one protester said. Nine beautiful souls, and they took (Dylann Roof) away in handcuffs and took him to McDonalds.

(After Roof's arrest in Selby, N.C., an officer brought him Burger King while they waited for FBI agents to arrive to interview him.)

Another man shouted, We will let nobody qualify or disqualify who we are or what we stand for."

After dark, a group of fewer than 100 protesters starting damaging vehicles and breaking windows downtown, Reynolds said of the Charleston protests.

Several businesses were damaged when windows were broken through and at least one hotel's lower-level windows also were shattered by rocks.

"Its not going to look good when the sun comes up tomorrow in our city," he said in a hastily called City Council meeting to impose the curfew.

At least two armored vehicles in Columbia were deployed to contain protesters. Across the street from where three Columbia Police Department cruisers were set ablaze, two other cars in a parking garage were torched. One exploded.

Some protesters tried to break into a jewelry store on Lincoln Street.

Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start The Fire" could be heard faintly from a nearby vehicle.

Several journalists were struck by full water bottles. Benjamin, talking from a loudspeaker, urged protesters to "go home and go home peacefully" as he announced the curfew in Columbia.

"Hands up, don't shoot" a crowd yelled as police funneled them up Lady Street.

Brandon Fragger stood on the porch of the restaurant where he works watching the smoke roll down Lincoln Street from where several cars burned.

Fragger said he knows burning things down is not the answer, but hes attended peaceful protests himself that garnered no results. So I understand why people are frustrated and fed up and who feel invisible in a lot of ways, he said.

In two weeks its going to be somebody else, Fragger said of the repeated incidents involving African Americans and police. Because it always is. And it shouldnt be.

He talked about his own fears being an African American man and getting pulled over. He gets nervous pulling out his wallet or worried that hell drop something and have an officer see it as a threat.

I hate feeling like that because I have friends who are police officers, but its just scary because you never know who youre going to get. Its sad, he said.

"Body cams on!" deputies told one another as they tried to clear streets.

Police formed a line, locked arm-in-arm, urging crowds to disperse and go home, but their commands were ignored.

Just before 8 p.m., authorities began shooting smoke and tear gas canisters into the crowd. On Assembly Street, a tax office was broken into, glass shattered and two chairs on the sidewalk.

People broke into the Carolina Western Pub on Lady Street, taking bottles of beer and climbing over the counter to destroy furniture.

Columbia police officers directed traffic in the initial march from City Hall to the Statehouse. Holbrook said he watched his officers, there early in the morning to protect those peacefully assembled, be pelted with water bottles, then rocks, thrown at them. Then their vehicles were set afire.

What I have witnessed this afternoon, its a travesty, he said. Its going to stop and its going to stop right now.

Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said he actually attended the morning march and walked with the group to the Statehouse. One of the organizers even asked him to speak when they gathered at police headquarters.

The group here now has nothing to do with the group that stood at the Statehouse and peacefully protested, he said. This group is not going to be allowed to take over the city of Columbia.

Lott said he had no count on the number of protesters injured. He said a firefighter was injured when he was struck by a rock, in addition to the four injured police officers.

Earlier, a couple blocks west of police headquarters, a group got into a confrontation that ended in protesters throwing rocks and breaking windows of an SUV. Police in riot gear pushed back the crowd and stood around the SUV. One person was arrested after firing a gun, officials said, and others shattered businesses' windows.

Several protesters climbed scaffolding of a nearby hotel under construction and hung a banner. Another spray painted graffiti on the parking garage across the street.

Benjamin said the city welcomes peaceful protest and discourse, "but this is unacceptable."

I understand the power of peaceful protest, said Benjamin, who got his start in politics protesting racial inequity at the age of 17. I use my voice. I train my children to use their voice.

Saturdays I Cant Breathe South Carolina protest started with thousands of people protesting peacefully within the bounds of their rights.

They did a good job, Benjamin said. But when a protest goes from being peaceful to being violent, the conversation changes.

Echoing coordinated events across the country, crowds began marching Saturday morning on the steps of the S.C. State House. While some protests have erupted in violence, the event in the Capital City on Saturday remained mostly peaceful.

U.S. Sen. Tim Scott posted a Tweet on Saturday urging calm.

"If youre in Columbia and arent from there, go.home. Our state came together&showed the world how to do this the right way and find a solution after Walter Scott&Mother Emanuel. Lets do it again & keep finding solutions together. Violence will only mean more broken lives&hearts," said Scott, the only black Republican in the Senate.

While Floyd's death is just the latest to grip national headlines, organizers said the event was not just in remembrance of him but all victims of police brutality and racial violence, from Mike Brown to Eric Garner.

Serving as a reminder of South Carolinas own pain was a poster bearing the image of Dylann Roof, the white supremacist who in 2015 massacred nine black church members in Charleston's Emanuel AME church.

Under Roof's photo, the poster read "alive." Under Floyd's, "dead."

The rally was a first for Takayla Hart, 19, of Orangeburg.

"We're just honestly tired," she said. "And this straw was just the last straw for me."

Gov. Henry McMaster tweeted South Carolinians are well within their rights to publicly and peacefully express anger over the inexcusable taking of George Floyds life. We should all be angry. There is no excuse for this.

And state Rep. Todd Rutherford, D-Columbia, stood up at the rally to say, This has to stop now.

Every time I turn on the TV, I watch a man as life leaves his body, he said.

The continued threat of the coronavirus also hung over the day.

Alex Hursey and Mike Lewis chose to embrace it, with the Hartsville and Florence residents writing "I can't breathe across their masks.

"I got to stand up, because this is not fair what's happening," Hursey said of her decision to attend. "I've spoken out on social media, but that's not enough."

Pittman referenced the virus saying, the common refrain were in this together doesnt ring true when these deaths continue to happen.

Protesters left the Statehouse grounds, marching to the Columbia Police Department. Along the way, marchers briefly stopped traffic on busy streets so the group could pass through safely.

The scene outside Columbia police headquarters was mixed. One African American officer shared hugs with two female marchers. But tensions occasionally flared with marchers throwing water bottles until march leaders calmed the crowd.

Officers dressed in riot gear and holding shields emerged from the station to hold back the crowd. Barriers were pulled away and marchers and officers stood toe to toe. It culminated in marchers removing the American and S.C. state flags from poles outside the station and caring them on the lawn.

Saturday evening, a group of sign-toting protesters marched down Main Street in downtown Greenville, chanting Black Lives Matter!

A black woman and a young boy lagged behind. The boy approached a white police officer, who offered his hand and a slight grin. They embraced  the woman recorded the moment on her cellphone  and parted ways.

It was a lighthearted moment during an otherwise emotionally charged evening. Protesters held signs  one read "Blue Lives Murder"  and shouted at Greenville police officers. At several junctions officers acted as human blockades, halting the marchs progress. Police placed handcuffs on one white woman, who had engaged in a shouting match with a counter-protesting white man. Later, a black man was led away from the protest by officers.

Protesters stood shoulder to shoulder, setting aside social distancing guidelines even as coronavirus cases in the state increase.

Josh Needelman and Jamie Lovegrove contributed to this report.
Its a trend thats obviously extremely concerning nationwide and something that we need to keep an eye on here locally as well, as we look at all different kinds of vulnerabilities, said Katherine Ellingson, assistant professor with the University of Arizonas Zuckerman College of Public Health.

She pointed out that sample sizes nationwide and statewide are much bigger than the countys sample size, which is an advantage for detecting trends. A bigger sample size of tests might be more representative of the populations racial and ethnic makeup.

The first thing I think about is access to testing, and how that might confound some of these comparisons, she said. Ensuring that theres sort of even access to testing throughout the state is one thing I think about when I look at these numbers.

Its also possible that issues surrounding access to testing could affect the death certificate data, she said. If someone dies from COVID-19 but was not tested, one of their underlying conditions could show up on the death certificate instead.

Death data is notoriously complicated, and ensuring that the appropriate cause of death is attributed is tricky, she said.
BISHOP of Limerick Brendan Leahy has said that confirmations across the diocese will begin from late summer onwards.

While specific arrangements regarding the ceremonies will be based on public health guidance at the time, Bishop Leahy said that they celebrations will be the same special sacramental rite of passage, except perhaps for the numbers involved.

And he gave details of a special diocesan registration system established to facilitate this years celebrations of the sacrament. A similar system has been put in place for parents of children making their first holy communion.

Bishop Leahy, who asked families to register at the earliest opportunity, revealed the outline plan for confirmations - the sacrament that gives the seal of the gift of the Holy Spirt - at the end of Mass on Pentecost Sunday today, which celebrates the Holy Spirit descending upon the disciples of Jesus.

"It has been good on this Pentecost Sunday to dedicate our attention particularly to the girls and boys making the Confirmation and their families.

"We know they are very much looking forward to the big day and my hope is that from late summer onwards we will be able in small groups to begin celebrating the sacrament of confirmation in parishes across the diocese.

Bishop Leahy said that since the boys and girls will by late summer have left their current school, the diocese has set up a registration system to facilitate arrangements.

Families are asked to register the girl or boy who has been preparing for confirmation on a diocesan registration form available on the Limerick diocesan website, www.limerickdiocese.org . The diocese will then inform the parish which will, in turn, be in touch directly with the families.

Likewise, Bishop Leahy said, families are asked to register any girl or boy who has been preparing for first holy communion on a similar form, which can also be downloaded from the diocesan website.

Bishop Leahy also gave details of an online liturgy on Wednesday for sixth year students who were due to commence their leaving cert examinations on Wednesday.

This will be delivered online on Wednesday, June 3, at 7pm by Bishop Leahy, together with Fr Chris ODonnell and diocesan youth ministry coordinator Aoife Walsh. The liturgy of encouragement, a time of prayer and reflection, he said, will be streamed from St Johns Cathedral webcam as well as relayed via Facebook Live and the Limerick diocesan Facebook page.

"It wont be a graduation ceremony or a Mass but, rather, a reflective moment to mark the conclusion of second level studies, Bishop Leahy added.

"Even though theyve had incredible uncertainty in the last weeks or months, nevertheless, this is an important moment to mark. It is a milestone. The class of 2020 will bring with them to future generations a unique experience, one that has certainly brought home both the fragility of life and the importance of focussing on what really matters. It has made us appreciate many things we normally take for granted, life itself, but also family, friends, work and the services of many normally not really acknowledged.

In congratulating the 2020 class, I also encourage them to nurture their relationship spiritually with God who has created each person as a gift for others with a mind to think, a heart to love and hands to take action. I pray that each young man and woman of the 2020 class, with their unique experience marked by the Covid-19 crisis, may go forward in life with the desire to leave a mark in history, making a real difference in our world.

Bishop Leahy, after the ceremony, also urged people not to be complacent now that we seem to be getting on top of the first wave of the COVID-19.

"The R rate were told is going in the right direction. We thank God. But we know we need to be careful not to be opening doors to an intruder that is all too willing to come visit and wield more injury and grief.

"Lets remember the motto, more haste less speed. We want to move to our destination of the Covid-19 new normal but lets make sure we get there within the speed limits indicated for our good. Otherwise, the speed kills warning will apply to the roadways of our relationships and social gatherings. Moving steadily and safely we will save lives," he said.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The Lily Pond Avenue entrance and exit ramps on the Staten Island Expressway were closed in both directions Saturday evening as about 100 people gathered in the area to protest the death of George Floyd.

The group was met with a large police presence on School Road, which deterred the protesters from trying to continue onto Lily Pond Avenue and potentially onto the expressway.

The crowd chanted, No justice, no peace, as other members held signs.

About an hour after the crowd formed around 5 p.m., it began to disperse with the protesters headed back toward Bay Street.

As a result, School Road and Lily Pond Avenue from Narrows Road South to School Road were blocked to vehicular traffic. Troopers helped redirect traffic.

BREAKING: Protestors march to 120 Precinct in memory of George Floyd Posted by Staten Island Advance on Saturday, May 30, 2020

The group appeared to be part of a larger peaceful protest that took place earlier in the day when a crowd marched along Bay Street and Richmond Terrace to the front of the 120th Precinct stationhouse in St. George.

The protest, which was organized by Rev. Al Sharptons National Action Network, insisted that participants remain peaceful and not take part in any violent agitation.

A sit-in that blocked Bay Street between Victory Boulevard and Minthorne Street took place for about an hour after the crowd dispersed.

Cynthia Davis, the president of the Staten Island chapter of the National Action Network, addressed the crowd in front of the stationhouse, lendint her support to some members of the NYPD and asking protesters to pray for peace.

We dont have to be violent to shut it down, Davis said. Were not going to disrespect all police officers because of a few bad ones.
India expels two Pakistan High Commission officials on charges of espionage

India

pti-PTI

New Delhi, May 31: India on Sunday declared two officials of the Pakistan High Commission here as persona non grata on charges of espionage and ordered them to leave the country within 24 hours, the Ministry of External Affairs said.

It said the two officials were apprehended by Indian law enforcement authorities for indulging in espionage activities.

"The government has declared both these officials persona non grata for indulging in activities incompatible with their status as members of a diplomatic mission and asked them to leave the country within twenty four hours," the MEA said.

Pak has intensified terror ops in Valley

It said Pakistan's Charge de Affairs was issued a demarche in which a strong protest was lodged over the activities of the two officials against India's national security.

Coronavirus: Delhi seeks Rs.5000 Cr from centre to pay employees | Oneindia News

"Pakistan's Charge de Affairs was asked to ensure that no member of its diplomatic mission should indulge in activities inimical to India or behave in a manner incompatible with their diplomatic status," the MEA said.
With the country locked down to contain coronavirus, a little girl, Noor in Alappuzha, Kerala, was in extreme distress in the last week of March.

Her essential cancer medicines were not available in Alappuzha. Noors parents could not bear to see their little girl in such discomfort. They used to take Noor to the Regional Cancer Centre in Thiruvananthapuram for chemotherapy. The child was put on temporary medication as the chemo unit was closed in the lockdown.

When Vishnu, a former cop got to know about the little girl from his friend, Antony Ratheesh, a police officer, he immediately decided to help her.

Vishnu, who now works as a security supervisor at Thiruvananthapuram Medical College, covered a distance of more than 150 km on his bike in less than four hours to hand over medicines to Noors family.

Vishnu had been on night duty and was quite tried, but even then he decided to fulfill this mission. He went to the regional cancer center in Thiruvananthapuram, and bought the medicines. He had to somehow make sure that the medicines reach the child by 6 pm.

So Vishnu decided to ride to Alappuzha without taking any rest. He reached Noors house by 5:10 pm.

Vishnu didnt accept money for the medicine, as he realised that the family was not in a position to pay, already burdened with the medical expenditure.

Noors family could not thank Vishnu enough for his kind deed. Vishnu told them it was his duty to help them out.

Vishnu, who believes that the only true religion is humanity, says that its tragic that some people are trying to divide us in the name of faith. I see people as human beings, not as Hindus or Muslims. And we all must help those in distress, unconditionally. Compassion is the only religion worth following, he says.

Vishnu believes that its only love that can defeat hate. From my childhood, I was taught not to look for religion in anyones name, he says.

Vishnu says that when he gave the family Noors medicines, the happiness that he saw in their faces, was the best gift that he could have ever got in return for risking his life.

Noors family was in a very difficult situation. It was after a long wait of 13 years that Noor was born. Her family was shattered because Noor has blood cancer. Her elder brother also suffers from a life threatening disease. They live in a rented house in Alappuzha. When I got to know all this, I felt very sad, says Vishnu.

Its difficult to express the joy I felt in that moment. It was all very overwhelming. Noor would have missed her essential dose that night, but God ensured that it reaches her. With tears in her eyes, the kids mother said that she would always pray for me and my friend, and that was the greatest reward we could ever get, says Vishnu.

Such real life stories of compassion and selflessness reinstate our faith that there could be hate simmering around us, but as long as we have people like Vishnu and his friend Antony Ratheesh, we can together defeat all of it.

This is the India thats entwined in our soul!

(Vishnus interview was initially done in Malayalam with the help of author Rohit Balakrishnan. He translated our questions in Malayalam and sent them to Vishnu, and also translated his responses for us.)

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JUNEAU, Alaska - Juneau law enforcement officers joined elected officials and residents at a peaceful gathering Saturday in Alaskas capital to protest the death of George Floyd.

Violent protests have erupted around the country after Floyd, a black man, died after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee into his neck for several minutes even after he stopped moving and pleading for air.

Juneau Police Chief Ed Mercer said he and other officers attended to show solidarity with residents, the J uneau Empire reported.

We dont tolerate excessive use of force, Mercer said at the gathering in front of a giant whale sculpture on the citys waterfront. A group sang Alaska Native songs, and most people practiced social distancing and wore masks.

Gloria Merry helped promote the low-key vigil to show support for people grieving in Minneapolis and elsewhere, and bring a local focus to a national event.

What goes on outside of Juneau still affects us in Juneau, she said.
Two Delhi Police officers posted in central and outer districts died of Covid-19 between Saturday and Sunday morning, taking the total number of deaths in the police force to three since May 5, when the first death of a constable was reported.

Senior police officers said the two, both assistant sub-inspectors (ASIs), died while being treated for the virus at the Army Base Hospital in Delhi Cantonment.

More than 500 police personnel in Delhi, including two Indian Police Service (IPS) officers, have tested positive for Covid-19 so far.

The Capital has so far registered 19,844 cases of Covid-19, and 473 deaths. As many as 1,295 people tested positive for the disease on Sunday alone, the largest single-day spike in the city yet.

Deputy commissioner of police (central) Sanjay Bhatia said 54-year-old Shesh Mani Pandey, posted as a fingerprints expert in the central districts mobile crime scene inspection team, died on Saturday evening.

Bhatia said Pandey, a former Army jawan who joined the Delhi Police in 2014, was tested for the virus at Lady Hardinge hospital on May 26 after he complained of fever and cough.

On May 28, the report confirmed he had been infected with the virus. Pandey was admitted to the Army Base hospital the same day. He died while being treated, on Saturday evening, Bhatia said.

Four police personnel from the mobile crime team and two of his family members have been tested and quarantined, Bhatia said.

Officers said the mobile crime teams central Delhi office has been disinfected and sanitised.

We are trying to ascertain who Pandey contracted the virus from. The visits of the crime scene investigation team over the past few days are being examined, said a senior police officer associated with the contact tracing procedure.

Pandey is survived by his wife and two sons. The family hailed from Rewa in Madhya Pradesh, and were living in west Delhis Naraina.

In Sundays death, Vikram, posted at the Sultanpuri police station in outer district died of Covid-19 at the hospital, where he was admitted on May 26.

He was on highway patrol duty in the police stations jurisdiction since May 1, a statement released by the Delhi Police said.

According to the statement, Vikram had tested negative in two earlier Covid-19 tests, conducted on May 11 and May 22. On May 25, he felt unwell and a doctor at Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital advised him a weeks rest.

On May 26 morning, Vikram started facing difficulty in breathing at his Kirari Suleman Nagar home. He got himself admitted to the hospital and the same evening he was shifted to Army Base Hospital. In the third Covid-19 test, his report came positive. Around 11.30 am on Sunday, he died during treatment, the police statement read.

Police officers said they have started tracing Vikrams contacts.

Delhi Police chief SN Shrivastava on Sunday afternoon tweeted his condolences. Delhi Police family mourns the loss of 2 brave police officers in our fight against Corona pandemic despite best efforts to save them. We pay homage to ASIs Vikram and Shesh Mani Pandey and may their souls rest in peace. We are committed to providing all help to their families, he tweeted.

On May 5, a 31-year-old constable posted at Bharat Nagar police station in northwest Delhi had died of Covid-19. Later, his wife and son were also tested positive.

Meanwhile, five more police personnel of the Moti Nagar police station tested positive on Sunday, taking the number of Covid-19 cases in the police station to 16. Earlier, the station house officer and his operator were also tested positive.

We have planned to carry out a disinfection drive at the police station for a few days, starting Monday, said Deepak Purohit, deputy commissioner of police (west).
For hundreds of Belgians hoping to spend time with French friends and relatives after almost three months of lockdown, the sunny holiday weekend proved a grim disappointment. While families with ties in the Netherlands, Germany and Luxembourg were able to put the coronavirus epidemic out of their minds for a short while, the French border remained shut. Belgian travellers without written proof that they were on essential business were turned back by French police, despite an announcement from their own government that reunions and shopping trips can resume. Renee-France Ringard had tears in her eyes as she told AFP how she had hoped to cross into France to see her elderly father in the suburbs of Lille for the first time in more than two-and-a-half-months. "The police officer told us there had been no coordination between the French and the Belgians," she told AFP at the frontier, before turning back for the 100-kilometre (60-mile) reverse trip to Brussels. The European Commission has attempted to coordinate the EU response to the global pandemic, but health measures are a matter for member states and the once largely border-free bloc is now a patchwork of regulations. Capitals are beginning to relax their rules, hoping they can revive the devastated tourism industry in time for the summer season, but the return to work is just as chaotic as was the scramble to lock the continent down. "Since this morning, more than 100 vehicles have had to turn around," a French police officer told AFP in the border town of Saint-Aybert. "We've received no new orders so we're running the checks as before." Under French lockdown rules, travellers must have a signed statement explaining a pressing need for a journey -- such as a essential work mission, a cross-border commute or transporting a child to a parent with joint custody. But on Friday, Belgium's Interior Minister Pieter De Crem announced that Belgians could from Saturday once again visit their loved ones, or even just do their shopping, in neighbouring countries. Luxembourg welcomed this, and travellers crossed into Germany and the Netherlands without much trouble, but no-one seems to have told France. - 'Seems unfair' - "We saw the Belgian minister on the television," said Yvon Mathurin and Paule Wetz, a couple in their fifties, who were looking forward to seeing their daughter and grandchildren in Aniche, 50 kilometres inside France. "It seems unfair. There's no coordination in Europe," Wetz complained. Mathurin, meanwhile, reflected a mood of frustration in a Belgium that has adapted to a continent without borders: "The governments should agree something." In a mark of how banal popping into France had become before the epidemic, Andre Dhaeyer just wanted to get some cheese and mineral water. He was bemused but less upset than those divided from loved ones to be turned back after hearing news of a re-opening on the radio and setting off for France. "Well, I'm not going to die of thirst," he said. A Belgian government spokesman admitted there has been some "confusion in the press" and the interior ministry said French residents can visit their families in Belgium, even if the reverse will not be true until a least June 15. After a confused message from their own government, Belgians hoped to visit family members in France. French police turned them back French border police told AFP they had received no new orders and would continue to turn back Belgians on non-essential travel
Plus, Bill's Message of the Day, an honest look at President Biden's press conference.

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WASHINGTON - Another night of unfettered fury, random violence and hardline police tactics unfurled itself Sunday in the United States under clouds of tear gas, pepper spray and smoke from street fires, including directly beyond the front lawn of the White House  all of it sparked by the latest death of a black man while in police custody.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 31/5/2020 (599 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

President Donald Trump walks across the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Saturday, May 30, 2020, after stepping off Marine One as he returns from Kennedy Space Center for the SpaceX Falcon 9 launch. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

WASHINGTON - Another night of unfettered fury, random violence and hardline police tactics unfurled itself Sunday in the United States under clouds of tear gas, pepper spray and smoke from street fires, including directly beyond the front lawn of the White House  all of it sparked by the latest death of a black man while in police custody.

At the edge of Lafayette Square, the park that fronts the most famous presidential residence in the world, protesters clashed yet again with a massive front line of police, Secret Service agents and Park Police officers in a back-and-forth hail of bricks, rocks, rubber bullets and gas canisters, a massive bonfire raging in the middle of the street.

The scene was a far cry from earlier in the day, when small groups of demonstrators milled about near the edge of the park, sharing sidewalk with tourists and dog-walkers out to survey the aftermath of clashes earlier in the week  some of which reportedly alarmed the Secret Service enough to whisk President Donald Trump to a more secure location.

Clear signs of another long night ahead were apparent in cities across the country.

In Philadelphia, brazen vandals began smashing windows, looting stores and setting fire to police cruisers in broad daylight and full view of television cameras, long before the sun went down. Riot squads advanced menacingly on crowds in Santa Monica, Calif. Fires sprang up on the protester-crowded streets of New York City.

And in Minneapolis, where George Floyd died on the street Monday with his throat pressed under the knee of one of his arresting officers, a tanker truck barrelled through a crowd of demonstrators gathered on a closed highway, apparently in an act of provocation that somehow didn't cause any injuries.

Earlier in the day in Washington, crews worked to both scour away the evidence of the previous night's mayhem and to protect buildings from further damage. They whitewashed spray-painted profanities and bolted plywood sheets to the shattered facades of D.C.'s stately downtown cityscape, while small groups of demonstrators exercise their right to free expression.

"Stop killing us," one group chanted as they gathered outside the west entrance to the White House grounds, motorists honking in solidarity as they drove through the intersection, while Secret Service guards clad in body armour watched from a distance.

A woman raises her fist during a demonstration calling for justice for George Floyd in Montreal, Sunday, May 31, 2020. Graham Hughes/THE CANADIAN PRESS

It was a pastoral midday scene compared to the nighttime chaos in cities across the country, where car fires, looting and push-pull battles with truncheon-flinging riot police now seem a nightly cable-news spectacle  all of it triggered by the death of Floyd, whose torturous eight final minutes under ex-officer Derek Chauvin's knee were captured on cellphone video.

Chauvin has been charged with manslaughter and third-degree murder, but activists are demanding the arrest of the other three officers involved as well.

"It's not these protesters that started these fires across America," Floyd family lawyer Benjamin Crump said Sunday on CBS's "Face the Nation."

"It is police brutality and a racist criminal justice system. And the only thing that can put out these fires are police accountability and equal justice."

The unrest, which taps into a deep, long-standing fissure of racial tension in the U.S., has been stoked as well by latent anger over two other recent killings: Ahmaud Arbery, who was shot and killed in February during an altercation with a white father and son, and Breonna Taylor, who was gunned down in her home in March by police during a botched drug raid.

And for some it marks a dramatic end, at least for now, to the more than two months spent avoiding other people in an effort to curb the spread of COVID-19  an ever-present threat that public health officials now fear could flare up again in the wake of the close-quarters chaos.

In Texas, where more than 200 people were arrested Saturday night, Gov. Greg Abbott declared a state-wide disaster, while South Carolina had the National Guard on standby, poised to join the District of Columbia and 15 states that have already activated the reserve military force. Detroit and Indianapolis ordered an 8 p.m. curfew while D.C.'s was set for 11 p.m., a step that did little to quell violence Friday in Minneapolis.

It was a moment in history that had many wondering whether Trump, whose tweets in recent days have done little to ease tensions, might choose to address the nation and take on the president's traditional role of unifier-in-chief.

However, Trump had no public events Sunday, tweeting from the White House instead  expressing support for the National Guard, accusing media outlets of trying to "foment hatred and anarchy" and promising to designate Antifa a terrorist organization.

Antifa, a term often used to describe the militant, anti-establishment tactics of certain left-wing anti-fascist groups, hardly fits the description of "organization," however, raising doubts about whether Trump would be able to make good on his threat  to say nothing of the fact that U.S. law does not grant such power over domestic groups.

Trump did say late Friday that he'd spoken to Floyd's family to express his sorrow for their loss, and in a prepared speech Saturday in Florida, he called on protesters to seek "healing, not hatred" and justice instead of chaos.

But more than once, his words on Twitter have tended to undermine that message.

"When the looting starts, the shooting starts," he tweeted earlier in the week, only to later deny knowing that the phrase originated in 1967 with a notorious Florida police chief known for his brutal, zero-tolerance approach to crime in black neighbourhoods.

After skirmishes broke out between police and protesters outside the White House, he warned Saturday of "vicious dogs" and "ominous weapons" waiting to greet the crowd should they manage to break the perimeter. And he even seemed to urge supporters to stage a counter-protest Saturday night, although he later denied that was his intent.

One step Trump did take late Saturday was to abandon his plan to invite Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other world leaders to Washington in June for a meeting of the G7, which he had hoped to use to send the message that the United States was on the road to recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic.

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The idea was publicly rebuffed on the weekend by the office of Angela Merkel, which made it clear the German chancellor would not be travelling to Washington without a dramatic change in the course of the pandemic.

Trudeau, for his part, expressed support for the idea of an in-person G7 meeting, provided all the necessary health and safety precautions were taken. Officials say the Prime Minister's Office never tried to discourage the president.

Instead, Trump said, he wants to hold the summit this fall  and to bring Russia, India, South Korea and Australia into the fold to broaden what he calls a "very outdated" group of leading world economies. He's musing about scheduling the gathering in September, possibly coinciding with the annual meeting in New York of the United Nations General Assembly, or even after the presidential election in November.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 31, 2020.

 With files from The Associated Press

 Follow James McCarten on Twitter @CdnPressStyle
SUZHOU, China and ROCKVILLE, Md., May 31, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Ascentage Pharma (6855.HK), a globally focused, clinical-stage biotechnology company engaged in developing novel therapies for cancers, chronic hepatitis B (CHB), and age-related diseases, today announced that the company presented four posters of the latest clinical data on three of its drug candidates, including the MDM2-p53 inhibitor APG-115, novel Bcl-2/Bcl-xL dual inhibitor palcitoclax or APG-1252, and IAP inhibitor APG-1387, at the 2020 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting (ASCO20).

As a globally focused biotech company, Ascentage Pharma showcased the research advances of its drug candidates at ASCO for the third consecutive year and attracted global attention.

"In this Phase Ib study, the novel IAP antagonist APG-1387 was combined safely with pembrolizumab with a manageable adverse event profile. This represents an important milestone in the continued development of APG-1387," said Drew W. Rasco, MD, Associate Director of Clinical Research at the START Center for Cancer Care in San Antonio. "Furthermore, we observed some encouraging signs of clinical activity, which warrants further evaluation in specific patient populations, including microsatellite-stable colorectal cancer [CRC] and non-small-cell lung cancer [NSCLC]."

"Palcitoclax [APG-1252] is a novel and potent inhibitor of the Bcl-2 family of proteins and induces apoptosis in tumor cells. In the first-in-human Phase I trial in the U.S., palcitoclax has demonstrated safety and tolerability as well as preliminary evidence of efficacy in patients with solid tumors," said Nehal Lakhani, MD, PhD, START Center for Cancer CareSTART Midwest. "It also demonstrates predictable pharmacokinetics ideal for a new molecular entity. Given the promising evidence of safety and efficacy in the Phase I trial, further evaluation of efficacy in select solid tumors is warranted."

"Advanced liposarcoma is a common histological type of malignant soft-tissue sarcoma with poor prognosis and high recurrence rate, and there is lack of effective treatment options currently. APG-115 is a highly potent MDM2-p53 inhibitor, and our data on liposarcoma presented in last year's ASCO report were promising," said Prof. Xing Zhang, Chief Physician of Melanoma and Sarcoma Medical Oncology Unit of Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center. "In the updated data, a safety expansion at the 100-mg dose level was performed, and the recommended phase II dose [RP2D] was determined as 100 mg. These results support our previous findings that wild-type TP53 is a predictive biomarker of response to APG-115, and liposarcoma may be one of its potential target tumor types. We also look forward to more clinical studies and molecular biological evidence of APG-115."

"Through the showcase at ASCO, Ascentage Pharma is demonstrating its capabilities of global clinical development in apoptosis. The initial data with our drug candidates, including MDM2-p53 inhibitor APG-115, novel Bcl-2/Bcl-xL dual inhibitor palcitoclax or APG-1252, and IAP inhibitor APG-1387, support further study with great potential in combination therapies," said Dr. Dajun Yang, Chairman & CEO of Ascentage Pharma. "We will accelerate our clinical development programs, hoping to offer more treatment options for cancer patients with unmet medical needs."

Phase Ib study of a novel, small-molecule MDM2 inhibitor

APG-115 combined with pembrolizumab in U.S. patients with metastatic solid tumors

Abstract#3512

APG-115-US-002 is an open-label, multi-center, Phase Ib/II study in U.S. , which was designed to assess safety, toxicity, pharmacokinetics (PK), pharmacodynamics (PD), and antitumor activity of APG-115 in combination with pembrolizumab in patients with advanced solid tumors. The Phase Ib dose-escalation study has been completed, and the Phase II is ongoing. The poster only reports the Phase Ib results.

As of April 1, 2020 , in the Phase Ib study, 19 patients were treated with

APG-115 in 4 alternate-day (QOD) dose cohorts (50 mg, 100 mg, 150 mg, and 200 mg) in combination with pembrolizumab. No dose-limiting toxicities (DLTs) were observed. The maximum tolerated dose (MTD) was not reached, and the recommended Phase II dose (RP2D) of APG-115 combined with pembrolizumab was determined as 150 mg QOD according to safety data.

, in the Phase Ib study, 19 patients were treated with APG-115 in 4 alternate-day (QOD) dose cohorts (50 mg, 100 mg, 150 mg, and 200 mg) in combination with pembrolizumab. No dose-limiting toxicities (DLTs) were observed. The maximum tolerated dose (MTD) was not reached, and the recommended Phase II dose (RP2D) of APG-115 combined with pembrolizumab was determined as 150 mg QOD according to safety data. APG-115 in combination with pembrolizumab was generally tolerated. The most common treatment related adverse events (TRAEs) (>10%) included: nausea, fatigue, platelet count decreased, appetite decreased, vomiting, neutrophil count decreased, diarrhea, hypothyroidism, etc.

Antitumor effects were observed among 18 efficacy evaluable patients, including one patient with a confirmed complete response (CR) lasting for 20 months (still ongoing). Two patients had confirmed partial response (PR) for 8 to 9 months: of these, one patient with NSCLC failed 3 months, nivolumab therapy and the other had immunotherapy-naive appendix cancer; seven patients had stable disease (SD) for 1.5 to 7 months. The objective response rate (ORR) was 16.7%, and the disease control rate (DCR) was 55.5%. Details of the patient with CR follows:

White female, age 55 years, diagnosed with stage IIIc serous-cell ovarian carcinoma in 2014, which recurred (as stage IV) within 6 months after surgery and platinum-containing adjuvant chemotherapy and then progressed on doxorubicin, topotecan + bevacizumab, and XMT1536 (ADC targeting NaPi2b) multiple lines of antitumor therapy, but still progressed. However, the patient had a PR after receiving APG-115 and pembrolizumab for 4 cycles, CR after 8 cycles, then maintain CR, now in 25th cycle of treatment. This patient has a family history of malignancy, with blood genetic tests showing wild-type TP53 , ATM germline mutation.

, ATM germline mutation. PK analyses showed that AUC and Cmax generally increased dose proportionally over the dose range of 50 to 200 mg. Combining APG-115 with pembrolizumab did not appear to affect the PK of APG-115. PD analyses showed an increase in serum MIC-1 (biomarker of TP53 activation) that was dose dependent within the APG-115 dose ranges (50-200 mg).

Conclusion: Safety and efficacy data from this Phase Ib study demonstrated that APG-115 in combination with pembrolizumab is promising. The Phase II study is ongoing in the cancer patients with specific biomarker profiling.

Phase Ib study of a novel bivalent IAP antagonist APG-1387 in combination of pembrolizumab for patients with advanced solid tumors

Abstract#3508

APG-1387-US-001 is an open-label, two-part, Phase I (APG-1387 monotherapy) and Phase Ib (APG-1387 in combination with pembrolizumab) study in U.S. Previous Phase I study showed that the MTD of APG-1387 single agent was 45 mg IV once weekly, and DLTs included elevated lipase and facial nerve disorder. This poster reports only Phase Ib results, including the safety, tolerability and preliminary efficacy of APG-1387 + pembrolizumab in patients with advanced solid tumors.

Through April 1, 2020 , 41 patients with various advanced solid tumors had been treated with APG-1387 in combination with pembrolizumab, including 10 patients in dose escalation: 20 mg (n=4), 30 mg (n=3), and 45 mg (n=3); and 31 patients in MTD dose expansion. No DLT was observed during dose escalation, and the MTD of APG-1387 was determined as 45 mg.

, 41 patients with various advanced solid tumors had been treated with APG-1387 in combination with pembrolizumab, including 10 patients in dose escalation: 20 mg (n=4), 30 mg (n=3), and 45 mg (n=3); and 31 patients in MTD dose expansion. No DLT was observed during dose escalation, and the MTD of APG-1387 was determined as 45 mg. APG-1387 was generally well tolerated with manageable adverse events when used in combination with pembrolizumab. Most common TRAEs (10%) included fatigue, headache, nausea, and maculopapular rash. Facial nerve disorder was seen in 2 patients (4.9%), which was not higher than in the single-agent study.

Antitumor effects: among 37 efficacy evaluable patients, 4 patients had PR (2 NSCLC, 1 CRC , and 1 breast cancer) and 12 patients had SD; the overall ORR was 10.8%, and the DCR was 43.2%. The NSCLC cohort achieved 50% ORR and 100% DCR. The CRC cohort achieved 50% DCR with 1 PR and 3 durable SD.

, and 1 breast cancer) and 12 patients had SD; the overall ORR was 10.8%, and the DCR was 43.2%. The NSCLC cohort achieved 50% ORR and 100% DCR. The CRC cohort achieved 50% DCR with 1 PR and 3 durable SD. Preliminary PK data of APG-1387 showed dose proportionality in exposure (Cmax and AUC) over the dose range of 20 to 45 mg.

APG-1387 treatment induced rapid and significant cIAP-1/XIAP suppression, suggesting a potential PD effect.

ConclusionThe efficacy and safety data demonstrated that APG-1387 in combination with pembrolizumab is a promising approach and deserves further study in patients with advanced NSCLC and CRC.

First-in-human study of palcitoclax (APG-1252), a novel dual Bcl-2/Bcl-xL inhibitor, demonstrated advantages in platelet safety while maintaining anticancer effect in U.S. patients with metastatic solid tumors

Abstract#3509

The study of palcitoclax (APG-1252) is a Phase I trial to characterize the safety, tolerability, PK, PD and preliminary anti-tumor effects of palcitoclax, and to determine the MTD/RP2D as well. Palcitoclax is intravenously administered twice per week (BIW) or once per week (QW) to patients with small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) and other solid tumors in a 28-day cycle, the standard "3+3" design was applied to dose-escalation stage. More patients will be included in the MTD expansion cohort after MTD/RP2D is determined.

As of December 21, 2019 , 42 patients (31 on BIW and 11 on QW) with metastatic solid tumors had received APG-1252 treatment ranging from 10 to 400 mg in a 28-day cycle.

, 42 patients (31 on BIW and 11 on QW) with metastatic solid tumors had received APG-1252 treatment ranging from 10 to 400 mg in a 28-day cycle. Four DLTs (Grade 4 thrombocytopenia) were judged by investigators at 400 mg and 320 mg. APG-1252 was well tolerated up to 240mg. MTD/RP2D was determined as 240mg QW.

Most adverse events (AEs) were G1 or G2, and 26.2% patients had  G3 TRAEs. The most common TRAEs were platelet count decreased (14.3%), aspartate aminotransferase increased (9.5%), and alanine aminotransferase increased (7.1%).

Of 36 efficacy-evaluable patients, 3 patients with PR had relapsed SCLC, poorly differentiated neuroendocrine tumor of the prostate, or high-grade serous ovarian cancer. The patient with SCLC had PR that lasted for >18 cycles (dose level: 40 mg BIW). A total of 7 patients achieved SD, including 2 patients with SD lasting  6 cycles and 3 lasting 4 cycles. Another 26 patients had progressive disease at their first tumor assessment. The overall DCR was 27.8%.

APG-1252 displayed linear PK, which were approximately dose proportional over the dose range of 10 to 400 mg.

Conclusion: A sustainable antitumor effect was observed in this first-in-human study, which supports further development of palcitoclax (APG-1252) in combination with other therapies for solid tumors and hematological malignancies.

Phase I study results of APG-115, a MDM2-p53 antagonist, in Chinese patients with advanced liposarcoma and other solid tumors

Abstract#11542

As of January 9, 2020 , 21 eligible patients with advanced solid tumors were treated with APG-115 at 3 dose levels: 100 mg, 150 mg, and 200 mg. Liposarcoma comprised two-thirds of all tumors. Most of the 21 patients had completed  2 cycles of APG-115 treatment, and 1 patient had completed 6 cycles.

, 21 eligible patients with advanced solid tumors were treated with APG-115 at 3 dose levels: 100 mg, 150 mg, and 200 mg. Liposarcoma comprised two-thirds of all tumors. Most of the 21 patients had completed  2 cycles of APG-115 treatment, and 1 patient had completed 6 cycles. Efficacy assessment was performed in 19 patients (4 patients were still on treatment), including 13 with liposarcoma. Among these patients, 1 had a PR, and 12 had SD. The ORR was 5.3%, and the DCR was 68.4%. In patients with LPS and wild-type TP53 (n=9), the ORR was higher, reaching 11.1%, with a DCR of 77.8%.

(n=9), the ORR was higher, reaching 11.1%, with a DCR of 77.8%. Common treatment-emergent adverse events (TEAEs) included anemia and decreases in leukocyte and platelet counts. However, most AEs were G1 or G2, and the incidence of TEAEs was much lower at the 100-mg dose level.

This study found that, using a 21 day-on/7 day-off dosing schedule, APG-115 was generally safe and well tolerated especially at the 100-mg dose level. The RP2D was determined as 100 mg QOD.

Conclusion:

Evidence of single-agent clinical efficacy of APG-115 was observed in patients with LPS, as well as in patients with expression of wild-type TP53 . Updated results of this study continue to support our previous interpretation that wild-type TP53 is a predictive biomarker of response to APG-115 in patients with LPS and other cancers.

. Updated results of this study continue to support our previous interpretation that wild-type is a predictive biomarker of response to APG-115 in patients with LPS and other cancers. The over 10 months' duration of response observed in a patient with PR after treatment discontinuation suggests host immunomodulatory effects of APG-115 and also provides impetus for further evaluation of APG-115 as monotherapy or in combination with immunotherapy.

About APG-115

APG-115 is an orally administered, selective, small-molecule inhibitor of the MDM2-p53 protein-protein interaction (PPI). APG-115 has strong binding affinity to MDM2 and is designed to activate p53 tumor suppression activity by blocking the MDM2-p53 PPI. Ascentage Pharma has previously commenced three clinical trials of APG-115 in the U.S., including a Phase I study as single agent, a Phase Ib/II study in combination with pembrolizumab for treatment of metastatic melanoma or advanced solid tumors, and a Phase I/II study as single agent or in combination with chemotherapy for treatment of salivary gland cancer. APG-115 is the first MDM2-p53 inhibitor to enter clinical studies in China. A Phase I study as single agent and a Phase Ib study as single agent or in combination with chemotherapy for treatment of AML (acute myelogenous leukemia) or MDS (myelodysplastic syndromes) are ongoing in China.

About APG-1387

APG-1387 is a novel small molecule inhibitor of apoptosis protein (IAP) antagonist that was discovered and is being developed by Ascentage Pharma. Ascentage is developing APG-1387 globally and has completed dose-escalation Phase I trials in solid tumors in China and Australia, and a Phase Ib/II clinical trial of APG-1387 and pembrolizumab combination is currently ongoing in the U.S. In addition, APG-1387 is being investigated in a Phase Ib trial for treatment of patients with CHB in China. In February 2020, APG-1387 was approved for a Phase Ib/II clinical trial in combination with chemotherapy for treatment of advanced pancreatic cancer.

About Palcitoclax or APG-1252

APG-1252 is a novel, highly potent, small-molecule drug that was discovered and is being developed by Ascentage Pharma. APG-1252 is designed to treat SCLC, NSCLC, lymphoma, and other solid tumors by selectively blocking Bcl-2 and Bcl-xL to restore the apoptosis process. Two Phase I dose-escalation trials in patients with advanced cancers are currently ongoing in the U.S. and Australia, and a Phase I dose-escalation/expansion trial as monotherapy in patients with SCLC is ongoing in China.

About Ascentage Pharma

Ascentage Pharma (6855.HK) is a globally focused, clinical-stage biotechnology company engaged in developing novel therapies for cancers, CHB, and age-related diseases. The Company focuses on developing therapeutics that inhibit protein-protein interactions to restore apoptosis, or programmed cell death. On October 28, 2019, Ascentage Pharma was listed on the Main Board of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited.

Ascentage Pharma has built a pipeline of eight clinical drug candidates, including novel, highly potent Bcl-2 and dual Bcl-2/Bcl-xL inhibitors, as well as candidates aimed at IAP and MDM2-p53 pathways, and next-generation tyrosine kinase inhibitors. The Company is conducting more than 30 Phase I/II clinical trials to evaluate the eight drug candidates in the U.S., Australia, and China.

Forward-Looking Statements

The forward-looking statements made in this article relate only to the events or information as of the date on which the statements are made in this article. Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, after the date on which the statements are made or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. You should read this article completely and with the understanding that our actual future results or performance may be materially different from what we expect. In this article, statements of, or references to, our intentions or those of any of our Directors or our Company are made as of the date of this article. Any of these intentions may alter in light of future development.

SOURCE Ascentage Pharma

Related Links

https://www.ascentagepharma.com


Amid raging protests in the United States following the death of a 46-year-old George Floyd, the United States has been experiencing a series of violent clashes amid protesting demonstrators and police across cities. On Saturday night, several cities in United States looked like a war zone after rioters torched several police clubs.

While the situation remained tense on Sunday in several cities including in New York, San Jose, Seattle and other cities, social media was also rife with outrage with many condemning police racism using the hashtag #blacklivesmatter.

In fact, the hashtag has gained so much strength that even Twitter has shared it as their bio. The social media platform headed by Jack Dorsey, also changed it profile picture to sport the colour black to represent its support for the movement and perhaps by way of mourning.

The statement comes after Twitter's showdown with the President of the United States, Donald Trump, who recently threatened to ban the platform after it tagged two of his tweets as fake news.

The hashtag is a revocation of the Black Lives Matter movement that started in 2013 after the acquittal of George Zimmerman who had been accused of shooting an African-American man Trayvon Martin in 2012.

The hashtag became a powerful slogan in 2014 after the killings of two more black men, Eric Garner and Michael Brown, with thousands of protesters taking to streets to demonstrate against the killings of black men in the US followed by lack of proper police action.

While the four police officers involved in the incident have been fired and an FBI investigation initiated into the incident, Floyd's killing has brought back memories of 2014 killing of Eric Garner by policemen in New York.
Americas biggest week of rebellion and social unrest may have been sparked by the agonizing-to-watch police-custody killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, but if youre one of the many folks looking to understand why so many corners of our nation are covered with charred ashes and broken glass on this beautiful May Sunday morning, it also helps to roll the tape back about 12 hours.

It was the morning of Memorial Day  as the United States was struggling to honor the humanity of its war dead amid the numbness of 100,000 more dead from the coronavirus  when Team Trump sent the presidents top economic adviser, Kevin Hassett, onto national TV to reassure people not to worry about the 40 million jobless scrounging for their next meal.

America will be fine, a goofy-smiling Hassett said into the camera, because our human capital stock is ready to get back to work." That was at 9:06 a.m. A half-day later, halfway across the country, Minneapolis police called out on the alleged minor crime of passing a counterfeit $20 bill pulled the 46-year-old Floyd from his vehicle, handcuffed him, then watched him die over nine torturous minutes with three officers kneeling on him, one full-weight across his neck as Floyd called for his mother and uttered the all-too-familiar-now words, I cant breathe.

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On the same day that the White House declared the value of working-class Americans as little more than numbers on the balance sheet of capitalism, four cops in Minnesota were caught on video showing that, to them, the value of this particular black Americans life was less than zero. And so it turned out that the so-called human capital stock wasnt ready to go back to work. It was ready to bust through the fence and stampede, no time for the killing floor, determined to show the whole watching world that our worth is real and that you cant put a price on humanity.

America woke up this morning to the stench of thick smoke and revolution, as cities from Los Angeles to Philadelphia are sweeping up the jagged debris from days of rage and flame-lit nights of sheer chaos. As it was in 1919 for the poet William Butler Yeats  in pain from the millions of World War I dead and a global pandemic that has nearly killed his pregnant wife  and as it was for Joan Didion at the end of the long hot summer of 1967, so it is in May of 2020. Once again, things are falling apart. The center is not holding.

And many of us are still too shocked by the bombardment of images flashing across our TV  the flipped, burning police cruisers, the iconic brands of modern capitalism smashed and ransacked  to take that step back and ask ourselves, why now? Why the fire this time?

The answer is there, if you pull the cameras away from the burning car long enough to listen to the humanity of the people on the march  from the 30-year-old Dallas man who said, I write to my senators. I write to my representatives. I just dont know what to do anymore, to a Philadelphia self-described angry black woman, a 50-year-old schoolteacher Jamial Hankinson, who said "that trauma [of racism and fear] is in us, and we just pass it on from generation to generation. Im angry and tired of it.

Folks have reached the point of being sick and tired of being sick and tired, and no one said it better than a Minneapolis peaceful marcher who was interviewed late Saturday night on CNN. He was mad about all the looting and vandalism, because it took away from the reason he was now crossing a Mississippi River bridge, under the threat of arrest.

What were trying to do is stand up for the basic rights of humanity ... and were trying to do it in a peaceful way," he said. "I dont want to go through this anymore, OK?! I want to be able to go into white neighborhoods and feel safe. I want to be able, when a cop is driving behind me, that I dont have to clench and be tense, OK?! I want to be able just to be free and not have to think about every step I take. Because at the end of the day ... being born black is a crime to them, and I dont understand because were all humans.

Thats where the conversation needs to stay, and yet the usual suspects are desperately trying to change the subject. Its a hallmark of Americas violent 21st century that the most detestable spasms of violence  the gunshots that wounded seven protesters in Louisville, the bullets that killed a demonstrator in Detroit and a federal guard in Oakland, the mysterious white men in black garb who systematically shatter windows from Minneapolis to Atlanta  are also wrapped in enigma.

Some blame the rebels, but many on the left and even some government officials are looking at the armed, wacko right-wing Boogaloos eager to start a civil war, while others look at the extreme-left Black Bloc. Lets be honest: In a police-state country with more guns than citizens, no one has a clue where the shots are coming from. One more reason why the people are in a state of revolution.

But you dont need a weatherman to see which way a lot of the weekends violence was coming from. After years of mostly white Cops for Trump and their police unions paying homage to Trumps authoritarianism and guffawing when he tells them no to be too nice to suspects ... like George Floyd, Americas police are rioting again. Not everywhere. Its telling that in some of our most historically racially torn cities  Camden and Newark in New Jersey, or Flint, Mich.  good, decent officers marched or prayed with citizens and shared their outrage over Floyds killing.

But such acts of kindness were quickly subsumed by gestures of police brutality from sea to shining sea  most egregiously, the New York City cop who deliberately accelerated into a gaggle of protesters and needs to be charged with attempted murder, but also his NYC colleagues who pepper-sprayed a man with his hands up, or pushed women to the hard pavement, or the officers in Minneapolis who fired rubber bullets and tear gas into a peaceful crowd. There were so many cases of gratuitous, authoritarian violence that someone composed a greatest hits reel.

Thats all on top of the unprecedented and unconstitutional police violence toward journalists, including the arrest of a number of working reporters  most famously CNNs Omar Jimenez and his cameraman, which happened on live TV  and assaults on others like photojournalist Linda Tirado, permanently blinded in her left eye, or MSNBCs Ali Velshi or Louisville TV reporter Kaitlin Rust, shot with rubber or pepper bullets by cops, in some cases seemingly deliberately.

Ive also covered the U.S. military in war zones, including Iraq and Afghanistan. I have never been fired at by police until tonight," the Los Angeles Times Molly Hennessy-Fiske said from Minneapolis on Saturday night. It cant be a coincidence that so many police seem to share a cultural bond with an American president with such little respect for the 1st Amendment that  just like Joseph Stalin  he calls journalists the enemies of the people.

 READ MORE: Minneapolis is on fire. But is Americas 911 call enough to change our countrys racism? | Will Bunch

This fish stinks from the head. It also cant be a coincidence that more American cities are in flames than any time since the 1968 assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. after the election of a president who ran a blatantly racist, xenophobic and misogynistic campaign to rip the country in two. Trump today is frozen between his dim understanding that the killing of George Floyd was wrong and his go-to divisive maneuvers, like threatening that looters will be shot or calling on his MAGA supporters to confront White House demonstrators  as reflexive as Peter Sellers Dr. Strangelove unable to suppress a fascist salute.

Thats not lost on the people now in the streets, and yet Trump didnt start the fire. It took years of white indifference to dozens of George Floyd-like videos and hundreds of law-abiding marches screaming at deaf ears that Black Lives Matter, and then the perfect storm of a pandemic that killed black and brown people at a separate and unequal rate, partly because the human capital stock that was never essential enough to pay a living wage was suddenly deemed essential enough to report for work and keep the meat grinder of capitalism churning, even if it kills them.

Today, Americas precious human capital stock is stampeding because they can see that the governments who went on a drunken spending binge buying tear gas, rubber bullets, and riot gear to keep them in line suddenly pleaded poverty when it came to ventilators, face masks, and the protective equipment that doctors and nurses needed to keep them alive.

The fire this time is because people understand what it means when a nation that rewarded the corporate looters who nearly bankrupted America with their mortgage schemes and their insider trading with one more massive tax break now declares that anyone who dare loot a pair of sneakers that theyll be shot and executed on sight.

It took the last painful minutes of Floyds life for some white folks to finally see it. This weekend, its been encouraging to see so many white people also marching near the front of the line. Maybe thats what making so many cops act out, and making Trump hide behind the rocket fumes of his Space Force instead of facing the nation and calling for peace. Their game is finally up. Their human capital stock has figured it out, and they are done. We are slouching toward Bethlehem, and anyone who says they know where this revolution turns next is lying.
The city of Minneapolis is under siege after five nights during which thousands of protesters have been marching in the streets, demanding justice in the name of George Floyd and clashing with local and state police and, since Friday, National Guard troops. Businesses have been looted, property has been destroyed by fires and camera crews have highlighted the nightly chaos for the world to see. The outrage is in response to the death of Floyd, an unarmed black man who was held down by four Minneapolis officers, including one seen on video kneeling on his neck for more than eight minutes.

That officer, Derek Chauvin, was arrested Friday and charged with murder, a key demand of the protesters. All four of the officers were fired from the force the day after Floyds death, last Monday.

But activists are pressing for Chauvin to be indicted, the next step in the criminal justice process, and for the arrests and indictments of the other three officers as well.

The incident, and the nights of unrest that followed, have called attention to the often troubled history of relations between police and African-American residents in Minneapolis, a Democratic-dominated city in a traditionally progressive state. The district where Floyd died is represented by Rep. Ilhan Omar, a firebrand Democratic freshman from a large community of Somali-Americans who have settled there.

Former Officer Chauvin's actions were horrific, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz tweeted Friday. His arrest is a good first step toward justice for George Floyd. But it doesnt change the systemic problems and persistent inequities that led to his death or the pain our communities live with every day. Were committed to change.

Protesters in front of a police precinct headquarters in Minneapolis. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

On Thursday, the U.S. Justice Department announced it had made the federal investigation into Floyds death a top priority. In a joint statement, U.S. Attorney Erica Macdonald and FBI special agent in charge Rainer Drolshagen also promised a robust criminal investigation.

Story continues

Walzs mention of systemic problems and persistent inequities reminded observers of previous episodes of controversial actions by police that led to demonstrations and promises of change, including by the current mayor, who was elected on a platform of police reform.

In November 2015, two white Minneapolis police officers killed 24-year-old Jamar Clark, a black man, as they tried to arrest him after a fight at a party. There were differing accounts of the circumstances, but in the end neither officer was charged. The killing set off protests outside a local police precinct that lasted 18 days.

In July 2016 in nearby St. Anthony, Philando Castile, a black man, was shot to death in his car during a traffic stop by Officer Jeronimo Yanez, who is Hispanic. Castile, who was licensed to carry a firearm, informed Yanez that he was armed and was reaching for his drivers license when Yanez shot him seven times at point-blank range through the open window of his car. Castiles girlfriend, who was sitting in the passenger seat, with her four-year-old daughter in the back, filmed the incident on Facebook Live.

The killing set off protests in the Minneapolis community for more than two weeks. Yanez was charged with second-degree manslaughter, the first time an officer has been charged for a fatal shooting in Minnesota in more than 200 cases that spanned over three decades, according to an NPR account.

He was acquitted of all charges at trial.

In September 2017 Justine Damond, a white Australian woman, was killed by Minneapolis police officer, Mohamed Noor, who is black. Damond had called 911 about a suspected prowler, and Noor, who responded to the call with a partner, shot her in an alley in what he admitted was a mistake. He was convicted of third-degree murder and sentenced to 12.5 years in prison. Damonds family settled a civil lawsuit with the city for $20 million. There were protests after this killing too, and a chain reaction of events that shook the city.

Then-Chief of Police Janee Harteau was on vacation at the time of Damond's killing and stayed on vacation for four days instead of immediately returning home. After widespread criticism, she resigned and current Chief of Police Medaria Arradondo took her place.

That year Jacob Frey was elected mayor in large part on a promise of improving police-community relations.

Mayor Jacob Frey in May 2019, announcing a settlement to the family of Justine Damond, who was shot to death by a Minneapolis police officer. (Getty Images)

Two city leaders, one black and one white, thrust into new positions to improve the relationship between the police and the community. The past week has shown how difficult it is to make systemic changes to a culture in which police close ranks around officers who are accused of wrongdoing. Chauvin, the officer charged in Floyds death, had 18 previous complaints against him.

The National Guard was called into the city on Thursday by the request of Mayor Frey, but received no direction on what to do. We sort of knew what we might be doing as it related to civil disturbance in Minneapolis, but its very important we know exactly what were being asked to do so we have the right equipment, we mobilize the right number of soldiers, Minnesota National Guard Adjutant Gen. Jon Jensen said. That element was lacking.

University of Minnesota political science professor Larry Jacobs told AP that the current unrest shows that Mayor Frey is out of his depth.

[Frey] is clearly unable to understand what he has to do to restore order while also creating the kind of healing that has to happen in Minneapolis, Jacobs said. Until about a week ago, he looked to be on a glide path to reelection, and within a week, his mayorship looks like its crumbled.

Minnesota House Minority Leader Kurt Daudt, a Republican, publicly questioned the mayors leadership. The silence from the Governor and Mayor is deafening, Daudt tweeted Friday. There is no plan, there is no communication, and they are choosing to allow destruction and lawlessness over public safety.

Police officers in Minneapolis blocking a road on the fourth day of protests over the death of George Floyd. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Arradondo and Frey, who did not return calls requesting comment, said they were overwhelmed on Friday.

We have never in my 30 years experienced multiple events of high-risk civil unrest that included mass looting, indiscriminate arson with sounds of  gunshots, direct violence in confrontations with police, and all of these happening throughout our entire city, Arradondo said at a Friday press conference. These events over the last 72 hours absolutely overwhelmed our public safety response.

Minneapolis activist Dave Bicking says that the police chief and mayor talk a good talk, but not much gets done. The police chief got the position after the last police chief resigned, Bicking, who is a board member for Communities United Against Police Brutality, told Yahoo News. You talk to people in the black community and other leaders, you hear very little good within the police department. Other than body cameras, pretty much everything else has stayed the same.

One of Arradondos first moves as chief of police was requiring Minneapolis officers to wear body cameras. But ultimately, Bicking says, Arrandaondo works for the mayor, who he claims was not good on police accountability while he was on the City Council.

[Arradondo] works for the mayor and to some extent the City Council, said Bicking. The City Council has been uninterested in reforms  especially with accountability. [Leadership] is saying nice things, but this happened because theyve been ignoring us. Until there is an actual change in action on the street we have not achieved our change and justice for George Floyd.

Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo. (Getty Images)

In an impassioned speech on Friday, former Womens March co-chair Tamika Mallory said black America was in a state of emergency.

The reason why buildings are burning is not just for our brother, George Floyd, said Mallory. Theyre burning down because people here in Minnesota are saying to people in New York, to people in California, to people in Memphis, to people all across this nation: Enough is enough.

Mallory said the solution was to ensure that every incident of police misconduct is prosecuted. Theres an easy way to stop it. Arrest the cops. Charge the cops. Charge all the cops  not just some of them, not just here in Minneapolis. Charge them in every city across America where our people are being murdered. Charge them everywhere. Thats the bottom line. Charge the cops. Do your job. Do what you say this country is supposed to be about, the land of the free for all. It has not been free for black people, and we are tired.

_____

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-31 06:44:21|Editor: huaxia

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HAVANA, May 30 (Xinhua) -- The Cuban government declared on Saturday its full support of the World Health Organization (WHO) after the United States announced it is terminating its relationship with the global organization.

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez wrote on his Twitter account that Cuba lends "its full support" to the WHO and its management of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Rodriguez said that the decision of the United States to end its relationship with the multilateral organization "reflects the growing isolation" of Washington, adding that the decision is "contrary to multilateralism and undermines international efforts to guarantee health and save lives."

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that his country is "terminating" its relationship with the WHO.

In a letter to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus earlier this month, Trump threatened to permanently cut off the nation's funding to the WHO and "reconsider our membership" if the international body does not commit to what he called "substantive improvements within the next 30 days." Enditem
U.S. Sen. Cory Booker called for a national registry of police misconduct in order to keep a record of incidents in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis last week.

We have to create transparency and accountability, Booker, D-N.J. said Sunday on CNNs State of the Union.

He said he was drafting legislation to set up a registry for cases of misconduct, use of force incidents, and people killed at the hands of police. He said he would move to change the section of federal law governing misconduct so make it easier to hold police officers accountable. He also called for a ban on racial and religious profiling.

We know what to do. There are things we can do. We are not helpless. We are not weak. We are strong, Booker said.

And so now its a time to take this energy and this anger and this focus and keep it, until we actually change laws and systems of accountability that can raise standards in our country.

Floyd died Monday shortly after being arrested by Minneapolis police. A cell phone video showed a white police officer keeping his knee on Floyds neck for several minutes as the victim while handcuffed repeatedly said he couldnt breathe. The officer, Derek Chauvin, later was charged with third-degree murder.

NJ Advance Media in 2018 published the first statewide analysis of use of force reports based on 506 public records requests. The report found that just 10% of officers accounted for 38% of all uses of force.

Booker was asked about President Donald Trumps reaction to the violence that followed Floyds death, when he echoed comments of former Miami Police Chief Walter Headley that were criticized by civil rights leaders in that city.

Headley said in 1967, When the looting starts, the shooting starts. Alabama Gov. George Wallace said the same during his 1968 presidential campaign.

....These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I wont let that happen. Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 29, 2020

Booker cited Trumps description of a majority black congressional district in Baltimore as a rat and rodent infested mess where no human being would want to live, and the presidents assertion that the neo-Nazis and white supremacists marching in Charlottesville, Virginia, included "some very fine people.

Every time I respond to Donald Trump, I do it from a place where I realize he doesnt deserve a response, Booker said. He doesnt deserve my attention or my emotion. Our people do. Donald Trump no longer has the capacity to break my heart, to surprise me.

Trump on Saturday said he had asked the Justice Department to expedite a civil rights investigation into Floyds death.

The death of George Floyd on the streets of Minneapolis was a grave tragedy, Trump said. I understand the pain that people are feeling. We support the right of peaceful protesters, and we hear their pleas. But what we are now seeing on the streets of our cities has nothing to do with justice or with peace.

Booker, an unsuccessful candidate for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, spent much of his campaign talking about the need to address issues of particular concern to minority communities, such as poverty and criminal justice.

Floyds death has spurred protests and riots across the country, including in New Jersey. Demonstrators turned out in Newark, Englewood, Trenton and other municipalities across the state.

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.

Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com.
Unless the obscure but powerful Ohio Power Siting Board rethinks a wrongheaded move, the panel, whose voting members are Gov. Mike DeWines appointees, will -- for unclear reasons -- likely end a pioneering plan to install six power-generating wind turbines offshore of Cleveland.

Backers of the Lake Erie Icebreaker project have spent years raising money and perfecting engineering plans -- with support from the U.S. Department of Energy, Case Western Reserve University, an early NASA wind-energy scientist, environmentalists and overseas investors, along with the city of Cleveland. Aim: to test the economic potential of wind power in Lake Erie and the Great Lakes as a whole.

Greater Clevelands leaders understand the economic and job-creating potential and the care with which this project was designed, eight to ten miles offshore of Cleveland, to minimize disruptions for boaters, birders and others.

Project leaders with the Lake Erie Energy Development Corp., or LEEDCo, also had to surmount challenges from winter ice to finding a viable way to supply electricity to the local grid.

DeWine needs to show that he understands this projects importance, too, by making it clear that his appointees  and thats who they are, his people  should stop obstructing this renewable energy project.

Otherwise, the power-siting boards May 21 decision effectively kills the $130 million Icebreaker demonstration project.

Icebreakers fans are many. It won a $40 million U.S. Energy Department grant, bringing its federal DOE money to more than $50 million. It earned sign-off from the U.S. Coast Guard, the Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Mayor Frank Jackson recognized that Icebreaker would put Cleveland on the wind-energy map, helping to complete a deal by which the demonstration project would supply the electricity it generates to Cleveland Public Power via an 11.8-mile cable buried in the lakebed.

Three major environmental groups in Ohio -- the Ohio Environmental Council, the Sierra Club and the Environmental Defense Fund, all exacting stewards of Ohios natural world -- support the project.

If built, Icebreaker would be the first offshore wind facility in the Great Lakes, the first freshwater wind farm in North America, and only the second offshore wind project in the entire U.S, according to LEEDCo.

Unfortunately, words such as first, innovative and new, when applied to electricity production, seem to alarm rather than please Ohio regulators.

Yes, the project had its share of opponents, including powerful coal and electric utility interests. When some yachtsmen, boat dealers, lakefront property owners and bird conservation groups added their challenges to the Icebreaker wind project late in the process, LEEDCo officials spent months negotiating a compromise with the Ohio Power Siting Board staff. The deal they struck would have added safeguards but not killed the project.

Yet when the board itself approved Icebreaker May 21, this compromise was nowhere to be seen. Instead the siting board voted -- unanimously -- to impose a killer condition that would require the turbines to be turned off every night for eight months to lessen bird and bat collisions.

LEEDCo President David P. Karpinski said Icebreakers backers were stunned by the order, which he said reneged on the agreement reached with the Siting Boards staff and would likely make the project financially unviable.

Voting 6-0 to approve Icebreaker with the project-killing requirement were: Public Utilities Commission of Ohio chair Samuel Randazzo, who also chairs the power-siting board; Natural Resources Director Mary Mertz; and designees sitting in for Agriculture Director Dorothy Pelanda, Development Services Director Lydia Mihalik, Environmental Protection Director Lauri Stevenson and Health Director Amy Acton.

Those board members are all Mike DeWines appointees. Their actions or inaction, deservedly or not, reflect on the governor.

Unless Gov. DeWine is OK with the panels mystifying decision to kill this pioneering wind project for Ohio, the governor should step forward and require the board to reconsider its Icebreaker ruling  promptly.

About our editorials: Editorials express the view of the editorial board of cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer -- the senior leadership and editorial-writing staff. As is traditional, editorials are unsigned and intended to be seen as the voice of the news organization.

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* Email general questions about our editorial board or comments or corrections on this editorial to Elizabeth Sullivan, director of opinion and director of the editorial board, at esullivan@cleveland.com.
Monrovia  The Collaboration of Political Parties (CPP) expresses grave disappointment over the decision of the Liberian Senate to investigate Senator Darius Dillion for making comments critical of the Liberian Senate. The CPP acknowledges the bravery of Sen. Dillon to expose bribery in the Senate, which understandably caused embarrassment to Senators, but done in the best national interest of Liberia.

Dillon has shown other lawmakers that they can no longer remain silent thus putting the comfort of their colleagues over the interest of the people. "Any attempt by the Senate to muzzle Dillon's right to free speech as guaranteed by the Liberian Constitution is an attack on our democracy. Shame on the Senate for this reckless vendetta against Dillon, and shame on us the Liberian people if we allow this to happen, and do nothing", says Alexander Cummings, Chairman of the CPP.

The CPP believes that the current investigation is intended to silence Dillon's advocacy for the interest of the Liberian people, force him into censorship, and eventually remove him from the Senate. The CPP vehemently objects and will oppose any attempt to silence, suspend or remove Dillon from the Senate. "This is a planned and determined effort to silence critical and independent voices in the Senate, and eventually remove them. Dillon, being the loudest opposition voice in the senate, is the primary target", observed CPP Chairman, Alexander Cummings.

The CPP recalls that the threat to remove Sen. Dillon began on the day of his induction when Senate Pro Temp, Albert Chie of Grand Kru County, did the dishonorable thing of threatening Dillon with removal from the Senate for Dillon declaring his assets and urging other senators to do the same.

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Chie said: "... the power to remove you from here is not with the Liberian people it is with us here, we alone have that power... . here we are master of our own rules." In spite of that, Dillon courageously continued to publicly expose and condemn the actions of the Senate including the huge salaries and benefits of senators, and corruption in the senate on a number of occasions and objecting to the passage of the recast budget before debating it.

The CPP strongly condemns the Senate's harassment and intimidation of Dillon for doing the right thing. Chie's insistence to remove Dillon from the Senate unless Dillon plays by secret and corrupt rules and joins the bandwagon of corruption in the senate is abominably disgusting and a betrayal of the Liberian people.

Chie, a member of the ruling party, whose failure to exercise leadership and ensure the independence of the Senate, has led to seemingly corruption-induced actions by the Senate, including the unconstitutional removal of an Associate Justice, and the surreptitious confirmation of many questionable executive appointees, often under allegations of bribery. He is the one who should be investigated and removed from the Senate. We call on all well-meaning Liberians to stand against this injustice and ensure that Sen. Dillon remains in the Senate to continue fighting for you.

We must never allow injustice to prevail.

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By Akbar Mammadov

A criminal case has been launched against the acting chairman of the Arkivan municipality of southern Masalli region, Anar Rajabov, on charge of abuse of power, the Prosecutor Generals Office reported in its website on May 31.

The criminal case was initiated after the investigation by the Anti-Corruption General Directorate under the Prosecutor General after it received material proof from the Masalli District Prosecutor's Office on the illegal excavation and transportation of agricultural land in the Arkivan-Kosakul area of Masalli District.

The General Prosecutors office noted that Rajabov abused his powers and deliberately violated the requirements of the Law of Azerbaijan "On Municipal Land Management".

The grounds for suspicion of causing damage to nature in the amount of AZN 644,000 ($378,823) have been identified by the Anti-Corruption General Directorate. Thus, during 2015-2016, Rajabovs illegal activities have led conditions for rendering 5 hectares of agricultural land, pasture land owned by the municipality useless as a result of transportation of clay and sand and gravel deposits by excavating the lands with the help of special equipment.

Because of his illegal activities, a criminal case has been launched under Article 308.2 of the Criminal Code (abuse of power with grave consequences).

Necessary investigative measures are currently being taken at the Anti-Corruption General Directorate with the Prosecutor General to identify the culprits and citizens whose legitimate interests have been violated, as well as to ensure compensation for the damage caused by a full and thorough investigation of the illegal cases, the General Prosecutors office noted.

Recently the State Security Service launched special operation against a number of officials in the country. Thus, head of the Imishli district Vilyam Hajiyev and head of the Bilasuvar district Mahir Guliyev were arrested for four months on charges of embezzlement, abuse of power, and bribery. Six local officials in three other districts were also investigated. Deputy Minister of Culture Rafiq Bayramov and a number of other ministry officials were detained during the State Security Service's operation on May 8.

---

Akbar Mammadov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AkbarMammadov97

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
The recent denial by the U.S. Supreme Court to halt the Adree Edmo sex change surgery leaves many common-sense Idahoans scratching their heads. It effectively means Edmo will get his/her surgery this summer, paid for by Idaho citizens.

To catch up, Edmo is a prisoner in the Idaho corrections system, incarcerated for molesting a 15-year-old boy. Edmo is male, and was so at the time of the crime, but wants to have sex-change surgery, which the state considers an elective procedure that shouldnt be paid at taxpayer expense. Edmos logic is that, without the surgery, his/her civil rights are being violated.

Thats the argument adopted when this case first was ruled on by U.S. District Judge Lynn Winmill, once an Idaho judge in Pocatello, and upheld by the federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Idaho appealed the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, and asked for a stay, which was denied on a 7-2 vote. Technically, Idahos case is still alive, but the surgery seems likely for this summer.

Without explaining its formal logic, its a stretch to fathom the high courts denial of a stay, but presumably, it adopted Winmills and the Appeals Court logic about Edmos rights being abridged.

Edmo argues that denial of the surgery causes him/her severe distress because he/she has gender dysphoria, which led him/her twice to attempt self-mutilation.

Attorneys for the Idaho Department of Correction say his/her prison doctors have determined the surgery isnt medically necessary and would do more harm than good because it could exacerbate Edmos other mental health conditions. Got that? He/she is likely mentally ill.

Idaho Gov. Brad Little has also said Edmo should not have access to taxpayer-funded surgical procedures that other Idahoans cant get covered through their own insurance.

But Edmos attorneys say prisons dont get to pick and choose which people to treat, and theyre required to provide medically necessary care to incarcerated people. They have also contended that the harm done to Edmo by denying the surgery vastly outweighs any harm that providing it would pose to the state.

The order denying the stay was given by Justice Elena Kagan without explanation, but it noted that Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito would have granted the states stay request. (Associated Press, 5/22)

Average citizens will surely wonder why Idaho cant deny a medically-elective procedure to a prisoner. To many, its a waste of taxpayer money on a superficial claim by an undeserving felon.

What about the real victims rights here, the 15-year-old boys right not to be victimized in such a heinous way? The judges didnt address that obvious question. Poor felon gets his/her due process, but the boy, nah.

The case will also get people thinking, once again, about the virtual impossibility of reprimanding, much less removing, a federal judge from office. The U.S. Constitution (Article III) gives federal judges virtual lifetime appointment as long as they maintain good behavior, which doesnt mean rulings with which people disagree.

An independent judiciary, safe from whimsical removal, was a key discussion among the Founding Fathers on the balance of federal power. As Hamilton wrote in Federalist 78, the good behavior language was needed to give real protection for an independent judiciary. That concept has stood the test of time, although many states, including Idaho, require state judges to routinely stand for retention and/or election.

The broader issue though is that rulings like this cant help but diminish how citizens see the law.

Ordering taxpayers to fund Edmos surgery is thus a hollow victory, as it flies in the common-sense faith in the law which average citizens hold.

Judges should keep that principle in mind.

The Constitution gives them effective protection, but it does not make them kings or Gods over us all. Its a short step indeed from citizen disagreement with the law to citizen disrespect for the law.

Heres a final thought. Edmo is scheduled to be released from prison in 2021. Maybe Idaho should let him/her go now; then he/she can pay for his/her own surgery, if he/she thinks its necessary on his/her own dime.

But that would put a felon back on the streets. Sometimes, as Dickens says in Oliver Twist, the law really doesnt make common sense.

Stephen Hartgen, Twin Falls, is a retired five-term Republican member of the Idaho House of Representatives, where he served as chairman of the Commerce & Human Resources Committee. Previously, he was editor and publisher of The Times-News (1982-2005). He is the author of the new book Tradition & Progress: Southern Idahos Growth Since 1990. This column was first published in www.idahopoliticsweekly.com. He can be reached at Stephen_Hartgen@hotmail.com

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With any luck, a rare bird with a broken wing is going to take flight again.

Right now its resting up from major surgery, eating bugs to get its strength back. Its been a rough couple of weeks.

Hes a good little bird, said veterinarian Rebecca Duerr, who performed an operation to knit together three bone fragments in the shattered right wing of a scarce, 1-ounce shorebird known as a snowy plover.

If the patient had to pay, it would have cost $2,500, Duerr said. But birds dont pay at the International Bird Rescue foundation of Fairfield. Its all on the house, including the post-op bugs.

The plover, one of only about 200 left in the Bay Area, was spotted limping along last month by birders at the Eden Landing Ecological Reserve in Union City and rushed to the operating room 65 miles away. Duerr said the bird could have been hit by a car or tangled in fishing line.

During a pandemic, foundation spokesman Russ Curtis said, everyone looks out for everyone else. That goes for birds, too. Birds and people, vertebrates of a feather, flocking together.

Share with us the good news The news these days can be sobering, even grim. But amid the darkness, there are rays of light. We'd like to know about examples of good news you have witnessed during this time. You can tell us your thoughts online at SFChronicle.com by using our Assignment Editor tool, or send an email (which can include a photo) with the subject line "Good News" to metro@sfchronicle.com. See More Collapse

Duerr studied the tiny X-ray and, drawing on all her skill, plotted her strategy.

It was a horrible break, Duerr said. The bone was in three tiny chunks.

It was to be the most delicate operation anyone at the center could remember. To repair the wing, the three wispy bone fragments were lined up and a surgical pin about the width of the slenderest sewing needle was ever-so-carefully inserted through the middle of the pieces.

It took the better part of an hour. The team had to work fast, because anesthesia is tricky stuff when the patient weighs 1 ounce. The operation was more drama than Fairfield has seen in some time.

But all went well, Duerr said. The patient was placed into the recovery room, a birdcage he shared with a killdeer. There are few private facilities at International Bird Rescue.

For two weeks, the brown and-white snowy plover was fed tiny worms and appeared to be perking up. The other day, the pin was removed. In a few days begins a regimen of physical therapy. A bird lover will raise and lower the plovers right wing.

If all goes well, the bird will be released in Union City on Fathers Day, Curtis said, which would be fitting as male plovers are known to be faithful mates and good parents.

Why perform a $2,500 operation on a limping bird? Theres a pandemic going on. Medical resources are in short supply. Why not let nature take its course?

In Fairfield, the very question ruffles feathers.

We have an obligation to help, especially if a species is endangered, Duerr said. The vast majority of our patients are injured by people. Its not the birds fault. We need to do what we can.

Bees shelter in a cold place: Theres good news for 200 rare bees that, because of the pandemic, had been forced to live inside a San Francisco refrigerator.

Theyve been released from captivity. Theyre alive and well in Larkspur.

The bees are the property of neophyte San Francisco beekeeper Bianca Dawydiak, 25, whose new beekeeping business had the bad luck of starting at the same time as the pandemic.

Two months ago, she had a deal to place her 200 bees in a small beehouse on a rooftop on the campus of her alma mater, the University of San Francisco. The same day she was to move the bees to their new home, the campus was ordered shut down and the bee deal was off.

So Dawydiak stored them in her refrigerator instead. She was determined to take good care of her bees, because she had paid $1 apiece for them from a bee wholesaler in Washington. She kept them happy inside empty plastic containers of Chinese takeout food. She punched holes in the container tops and placed cotton balls soaked with sugar water, along with lavender and poppy flowers, inside each one.

A bee, she said, does not mind being in a refrigerator for a spell. It just goes to sleep and awakens hale and hearty when things warm up.

I felt very bad that my bees were in quarantine, even though they seemed to be doing fine, she said.

But a bee, even an expensive one, cannot sleep for very long. So, with USF still closed, Dawydiak decided to build a small beehouse and release the awakened bees in her parents backyard in Larkspur.

That was a lot of money, just flying away, she said. A dollar a bee.

At the end of the year, she hopes to harvest enough bee eggs from the beehouse to keep the business going. Eventually, she hopes to turn a profit by selling bees to Bay Area bee lovers.

The variety of bee that Dawydiak has grown fond of is called a Mason bee. Its scarcer than the kind of bees that live in white boxes by the zillions. A Mason bee doesnt sting, stays close to home and prefers California native plants. Theres no honey involved, which is fine with Dawydiak. Messy stuff, honey.

Dawydiak said beekeeping is a lot more fun than her other job, which is checking up on mortgage loan applicants to see if they qualify and telling them no if they dont. Keeping bees is a snap compared with that.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

These bees are happy, she said, and disbelievers were welcome to check her website (www.bizzbuzz.org) to make sure. You can hang out with them. Theyre fascinating. And they dont bother you. Theyre perfect.

Pick a bird, any bird: Nothing seems to last these days, including the bird that Clay Anderson will draw on your sidewalk.

Its in chalk. It will wash away in the next downpour.

Thats what life is all about, he said. Nothing is permanent, even the things we think are permanent. Were learning that now.

A pandemic, Anderson said, is a good time to think about how temporary everything is.

Anderson, a graphic artist and the youth program director for the Golden Gate Audubon Society, likes drawing birds on sidewalks. Hes pretty good at it. He was the driving force behind the celebrated chalk bird project at Richmond City Hall two years ago. The storms have come and gone since, and those birds have flown.

Anderson is offering his chalk art as part of the annual Audubon fundraiser. Its all online this year, like everything else. No party, no finger food, no Champagne, no dressed-up, decked-out donors. Just an online auction.

Most of the works of art up for bid are the kind you hang on the wall. Not Andersons.

Drawing on the sidewalk during a pandemic has its challenges, Anderson said. Pick your bird, then point to the sidewalk you want covered, Anderson said. Make sure the neighbors dont mind. The Audubon Society gets enough squawking. Then stand back. Way back. Six feet isnt far enough.

Sidewalk chalk is not just kid stuff, Anderson said. Its as real as that thing Michelangelo did on that chapel ceiling, and he didnt have to wear a mask and gloves. And chalk, by its character, it has something to say about creation, too.

We get caught up in things we think are going to survive, Anderson said. Nothing like working with chalk.

The bidding for Andersons services, at bit.ly/BirdAuction, has hit $150. The auction ends Monday. The next rain is predicted for Saturday.

Steve Rubenstein is a staff writer for The San Francisco Chronicle. E-mail: srubenstein@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SteveRubeSF
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Mayor Sylvester Turner has issued an apology to a woman who was trampled by a Houston police officers horse on Friday.

The woman, who the mayor identified as Melissa, was holding a sign during a protest in response to the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis when a mounted officers horse knocked her to the ground. The officer then rode over her, according to video of the incident.
China will give Africa 30 million test kits per month, as well as 10 000 ventilators and 80 million masks, South African president Cyril Ramaphosa disclosed on Sunday during a virtual meeting with top editors in the country.



He did not specify when this initiative will start or how long it would run. Beijing has sent logistic and human resource support to a number of African countries since the pandemic arrived on the continent.



One of the major initial supply of logistics came from businessman Jack Ma, whose foundation teamed up with Ethiopia PM Abiy Ahmed and the AU to distribute logistics across the continent.



China, weeks on, became the center of mass media reports bordering on racist treatment of Africans in the industrial hub of Guangzhou. African diplomats and the AU asked Beijing to take action on the issue.



Back in South Africa, Ramaphosa who is the chairperson of the African Union also defended the decision to reopen the economy of Africas most industrialized nation despite being the most impacted and the having carried out the most tests.



Its now time to open up the economy. We can not keep it shut forever, he is quoted to have said. He confirmed that the country was running out of test kits as recently reported by the health ministry.



He also reiterated that the the main problem with the health system now was that it had far lesser Intensive Care Unit, ICU, beds that it will need at the peak of the pandemic. South Africa will need up to 25,000 ICU beds at peak of pandemic, and it only has 3,500, he disclosed.



This is the big challenge, he added. Some hospitals have increased their ICU beds, but health ministry needs to focus more on this, he stressed.

Source: africanews.com









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The Delhi government reported 57 more Covid-19 deaths on Sunday, taking the disease toll in the city to 473, as per the daily health bulletin.

Of the 57 deaths, 13 took place in city hospitals over 24 hours  the intervening day of May 29 and 30. The other 44 deaths recorded on Sunday were reported over 19 days, with the earliest of them dating April 5.

Delhi had reported a spike in the number of deaths on Friday as well, when 82 deaths had been added to the total in one go. Again, there had been a delay in the reporting of 69 of these deaths.

The backlog prompted the Delhi government to issue show-cause notices and memorandums to seven government hospitals on Sunday, asking why there had been a delay in reporting of deaths.

The government had said a delay in receiving paperwork from hospitals was to blame for the discrepancy in the number of deaths being recorded in the daily bulletin and those being reported by individual hospitals.

To ensure timely reporting, the citys chief secretary Vijay Dev on May 10 had ordered hospitals to report Covid-19 deaths to the integrated disease surveillance programme each day by 5pm. Another order had been issued by the health department asking hospitals strictly to adhere by these standard operating procedures. Action can be taken against the hospitals under the Disaster Management Act that is currently in force.

The total 473 deaths till Sunday puts Delhis case fatality rate  the percentage of people who died among those who were diagnosed with the infection  at almost 2.4%, closer to the national rate of 2.8%.

On May 11, before the backlog cases started being added, the case fatality rate stood at 1%.

The Delhi government had set up a three-member death audit committee on April 20 to review the case sheets, investigations, and death summary before declaring any fatality as a Covid-19 death. The committee decides whether the Covid-19 is the primary cause of death or not.

The death of any person with severe Covid-19 has to be considered a death due to the viral infection, no matter the modality of the death which can be a heart condition, respiratory failure or kidney failure. This is because the infection is new and every day we are learning its effects, said Dr Shobha Broor, former head of the department of microbiology at AIIMS.

The hospitals that got notices and memorandums includes central government-run All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Safdarjung hospital, and Ram Manohar Lohia hospital all of which are designated for the treatment of Covid-19.

There was no delay in reporting the deaths from AIIMS, we will be sending a reply to the notice along with evidence tomorrow, said Dr DK Sharma, medical superintendent of AIIMS.

Notices were also issued to Delhi government-run dedicated Covid-19 hospitals --- Lok Nayak and Rajiv Gandhi Super speciality. Two other Delhi government-run hospitals -- Guru Teg Bahadur and Baba Saheb Ambedkar -- that currently do not treat Covid-19 patients were also issued memorandums. These hospitals treated Covid-19 patients between March 22 and April 18.

The Delhi government had initially designated parts of five hospitals  Lok Nayak and GB Pant, Rajiv Gandhi Super speciality, Baba Saheb Ambedkar, Guru Teg Bahadur, and Deen Dayal Upadhyay for the treatment of Covid-19 patients in March. A few days later, 2,000-bed Lok Nayak and 500-bed Rajiv Gandhi super speciality hospitals were entirely dedicated for the treatment of Covid-19 patients while the others were asked to focus on non-Covid-19 treatment.

Seeing the rising number of cases in the city, the Delhi government again on Saturday asked GTB hospital to dedicate all of its 1,500 beds for the treatment of Covid-19.

None of the private hospitals treating Covid-19 patients were given such notice by the government.

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Congress leader and former legislator Pradeep Mathur has urged Railways Minister Piyush Goyal to announce a relief package for porters hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic or provide them a financial aid of at least Rs 10,000 per month.

In a letter written to the Union minister on Saturday, Mathur said "the government has announced a relief package for the unorganised sector, but no assistance has been given to railway porters."

"Following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the nationwide lockdown, the employment opportunities for the railway porters working as unorganised sectors has come to a halt. As a result of which their families are on the brink of starvation," the letter read.

There are nearly 25,000 licensed porters in Railways, the Congress leader said.

"It is quite essential that the porters must be given Rs 10,000 per month or any other type of relief package be announced for them," Mathur said in his letter.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-30 23:51:26|Editor: huaxia

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GABORONE, May 30 (Xinhua) -- International rating agency Moody's have changed Botswana's sovereign credit rating from stable to negative, the country's reserve bank has said.

Seamogano Mosanako, Head of Communications and Information Services at Bank of Botswana on Saturday issued a statement indicating that Moody's latest out-of-calendar review of the credit ratings, affirmed Botswana's rating of A2 for long-term bonds denominated in both domestic and foreign currency, and changed the outlook from stable to negative.

According to Moody's, this update to the recent March 2020 rating, on a date that deviates from the previously published sovereign release calendar, is prompted by the risks associated with coronavirus shocks, given Botswana's strong dependency on the diamonds industry for growth, exports and budget revenues.

"The revision of the outlook from stable to negative reflects the increasing risks of lower growth, higher budget deficits and likely resultant increase in government borrowing," said Mosanako.

Mosanako said Moody's observed that these adverse effects of COVID-19 pandemic, combined with the current challenges the government faces on fiscal consolidation, could mean further deterioration of fiscal metrics to a level not consistent with the A2 sovereign credit rating.

"The affirmation of the rating, at A2, is underpinned by the government's fiscal position still strong, albeit deteriorating, fiscal and debt metrics, in particular the relatively low public debt level, high debt affordability and fiscal and external liquidity buffers that help in mitigating the impact of the coronavirus shock," said Mosanako. Enditem
A popular social media commentator, Reno Omokri has taken to his official Twitter handle to lament that Africans have now abandoned their cultures.

He added that they are even proud of abandoning their culture.

Read Also: Bank Alert Can Cure Depression, Says Omokri

He further cited that an African can even travel to Dubai for a week and return with an American accent.

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He tweeted: Africans have abandoned their culture. And not only do we abandon our cultures, we are proud of it. An African can travel to Dubai for a week and return with an American accent. Such is the miraculous power of the average African! Signs and wonder!
Some few weeks ago, I met a young woman who narrated how her 11 year old girl was defiled by a 45 year old man in their neighbourhood; she had to nurse the wound and pain of her daughter a class five pupil all alone, whiles the perpetrator walked free because she could not afford to pay GH300 medical bill to support the prosecutions evidence.



The woman said she also came into contact with three other women who had gone through similar fates where their children had been defiled, yet could not find justice, because they had no money to pay medical fees or the needed logistics to go through the long and frustrating process of finding justice for their poor children who had been traumatised and sometimes damaged beyond repairs.



On Mothers Day, there was a report that a suspect who defiled a seven-year old girl at Agona Nyakrom had been freed because the victims poor parents could not raise GH200 to pay for the medical fees at the Agona Swedru Government Hospital.



The plight of a mother whose daughter as young as five years old has been defiled has nothing to be compared to especially when she is a single parent and is challenged financially.



This heart breaking stories where young children and girls who have been sexually abused are refused justice is occurring quite frequently and does not speak well of the nation which is committed to the rights and protection of children especially the girl child.



I have attended several conferences and workshops organized by the Ministry of Gender Children and Social Protection where this issue has featured prominently and officers from the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) have also stated clearly that it is one of the key barriers to prosecuting such cases.



Police Superintendent Florence Anaman, Eastern Regional DOVSSU Commander, at one of the Regional Multisectoral Child Protection Committee meetings, said there is the need for medical fees to be scrapped in times of defilement and rape to ensure justice delivery.



She said quite often parents and guardians whose daughters have been defiled or raped go and dont come back again due to the lack of finances to pay for the medical fees adding that this medical fees is really a burden to all of us both the police and the parents whose children have been abused and we must find an urgent solution.



In some instances, where the mothers are too poor to even foot the transportation costs after reporting the incident, the police officers handling some of such cases have had to contribute to pay for the medical fees to ensure that the perpetrators are brought to book.



Reports from the DOVVSU suggests that many of these defilement and rape cases occur at the rural areas, to vulnerable children of less privileged parents who find it difficult to bear the costs of initiating the prosecution for justice to prevail.



And in many cases the few who try to pursue the matter are challenged by members of the public to abandon the process - the fa ma nyame syndrome.



With this being the situation, many more children are becoming victims to defilement and rape. And perpetrators of such acts dont deserve to be walking around to harm other children.



The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection must come clear on this issue, it should not be too much for the Ministry in collaboration with other state agencies such as the DOVVSU and the Ghana Health Service, to scrap the medical fees for abused children.



This would greatly alleviate the plight of many defiled and raped victims in furtherance of the child welfare and protection systems.



Crime against children especially the girl child need to become a heavy burden on the perpetrators and nothing should stand in the way of punishing men who commit such atrocious acts. They are a threat to the harmony of the entire society.

Source: GNA









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Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez said on May 31 that he will ask the Spanish parliament for the last two-week extension of the state of emergency lockdown until 21st June, after which, restrictions will totally be lifted and free movement will be allowed, a local daily reported. Furthermore, during a video-conference meeting, Sanchez told the regional government leaders that this would be the last extension as the country has managed to curb the infections drastically.

As of May 30, the death toll from the novel coronavirus in Spain spiked by 4, however, the on an average daily fatality slumped as total 27,125 deaths were registered from the disease since the outbreak. The new cases jumped by 271 overnight, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 286,308 in the country. Spain declared a state of national health emergency as of March 14 imposing strict lockdown on the streets as it issued home confinements orders halting all non-essential movement to stem the rapid transmission of the COVID-19 disease, as per reports.

Read: Nepal Reports 166 New Coronavirus Cases, Total Crosses 1,500-mark

Read: UK Minister Suggests Local Lockdowns To Fight Second Coronavirus Spike

10 days of national mourning

On June 2, the government of Spain would announce 10 days of national mourning to commemorate the COVID-19 pandemic victims, a local media reported. In Madrid's Cibeles Square, Spanish flags furled at half-staff in a sign of respect. At the monumental archway Puerta del Alcala, black ribbons hung in memory of the victims, while the eternal flame marked a plaque that reads "Your flame will never fade from our hearts."

However, earlier on May 28, several thousand demonstrators from Spains far-right Vox party gathered in their cars and on motorbikes in the centre of Madrid and other Spanish cities to protest the Spanish governments response to the crisis, according to reports. Protesters opposed PM Sanchez for jeopardizing Spaniards rights by confining people to their homes and closing business during the lockdown. However, in a statement, Spain's government asserted that the confinement measures were deemed necessary to save lives, and prevent the overwhelmed healthcare system from collapse.

Read: Global Coronavirus Cases Cross 6 Million As Countries Begin Easing Restrictions

Read: Pope: Pull Together, Avoid Pessimism In This Coronavirus Era

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In yet another unprecedented move, Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankhar has sought an interaction with members of the Press Club, Kolkata, to discuss the alleged curtailing of press freedom by the Mamata Banerjee-led government in the state.

Interacting with Press Club Executive tomorrow to consider several disturbing actions @MamataOfficial compromising freedom of media and implication of journalists in criminal cases. As watchdog, Press Club at state and national level needs to ensure independence of media, Dhankhar wrote on Twitter on Sunday.

A senior executive of the Press Club said that the governor had sought an interaction and they had agreed. The governor seeking such an interaction is unprecedented in the history of Kolkata Press Club, said a veteran journalist who is also an executive of the organisation.

The Press Club had not raised any such issue but the governor and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders have been alleging that the Mamata Banerjee government is threatening the media.

Dhankhars move comes in the wake of allegations that some cable-based local news channels went off-air  cable operators had put them off air  and a few district-based journalists booked for allegedly spreading fake news.

The governor recently sought information from the states chief secretary regarding the editor of a Bengali daily being summoned to the Hare Street police station. Several other journalists were also questioned by the police regarding publication of certain news. However, the respective organisations did not raise any issue or even report those interactions in their news outlets.

Freedom of the press is inviolable. It is the spine of our democracy and promised by the Constitution, Dhankhar wrote on Twitter on May 28.

Trinamool Congress spokespersons refused to comment. We would rather ignore him. We would have responded if the Press Club had raised an issue, said a senior minister of the state government.

BJP national secretary Rahul Sinha justified Dhankhars move. The government is trying to keep journalists and media houses at gunpoint. Several journalists and editors were questioned. The press has been gagged in Bengal. The governor has made a laudable move, Sinha said.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday that the poor and labourers have been hit the hardest by the coronavirus crisis and that their pain cannot be explained in words.

In his monthly "Mann ki Baat" radio address, Modi said all classes of people have suffered during the pandemic but it is the poor who have suffered the worst.



"Had our villages, towns, districts and states been self-reliant, problems facing us would not have been of such a magnitude as is evident today," he said.



Everyone is working to help the poor and labourers, he said, and highlighted the railways' exercise to transport large numbers of migrant workers to their home.

"The path of our fight against coronavirus goes a long way. It is a calamity, a scourge that does not have an antidote in the entire world; there is no prior experience on that... We are facing newer challenges and consequent hardships," he pointed out.



All the countries hit by the killer virus face similar problems and India is no exception, the prime minister said in his address which came on the last day of the 4th phase of the nationwide coronavirus-induced lockdown.



"There is no section in our country unaffected by the difficulties caused by the affliction -- the most gravely affected by the crisis are the underprivileged labourers and workers. Their agony, their pain, their ordeal cannot be expressed in words. Who amongst us cannot understand and feel what they and their families are going through," Modi said.



He said everyone is trying to share their distress and the torment.



"Our railway personnel are at it day and night. From the centre, states, to local governance bodies, everybody is toiling around the clock. The way our railway personnel are relentlessly engaged, they too are frontline corona warriors," he said.



But the current scenario is an "eye opener to happenings in the past" in the country. It is also an opportunity for scrutiny and lessons for the future, he said.



The distress the workforce is undergoing is representative of that of the country's eastern region, he said. "The very region which possesses the capacity to be the country's growth engine... the eastern region needs development," he asserted.



"Ever since the country offered me the opportunity to serve, we have accorded priority to the development of eastern India. In the last few years, much has been done in this direction which gives me inner satisfaction. And now, considering the migrant labourers, the need of the hour is devising a new solution...we are ceaselessly taking steps in that direction," he said.



Skill mapping of labourers is being carried out, he said.

The establishment of a migration commission is being deliberated upon. Referring to the stimulus package, he said, recent decisions taken by the central government have opened up vast possibilities of village employment, self employment and small scale industry.

"The objective of these decisions is finding solutions to the situation, for the sake of a self-reliant India. Had our villages, towns, districts and states been self-reliant, problems facing us would not have been of such a magnitude as is evident today. But moving from darkness toward light is a human trait," he said.

On his call for an Atmanirbhar Bharat or self-reliant India, Modi said people now have begun to take it as a movement of their own.

People are now buying only these local products, promoting "vocal for local", he said.



He also said people are helping out the needy and are innovating things in the time of the health crisis. Self-help groups are making face masks, education is being imparted online and labs are busy working on a vaccine to counter the novel coronavirus.

The prime minister also asked people to be "extra careful" and stick to precautions like maintaining social distance and wearing masks as the economy gradually opens up.



He said that at the time of the last episode of "Mann ki Baat", the passenger train services, busses and flights had come to a standstill.



"This time around much has resumed -- Shramik Special trains are operational; other special trains too have begun. With utmost precautions, flights have resumed; industry too is returning to normalcy," he pointed out.

In a word of caution, Modi said as a major segment of economy opens up "we need to be even extra alert and careful".



"Whether it is the mandatory 'do gaaz ki doori' (two yards of distancing), wearing face masks or staying at home to the best extent possible, there should be no laxity on our part in complete adherence (to the laid down norms)," he said.



Urging people against letting their guards down, the prime minister said after such "austere penance, and after so many hardships", the country's deft handling of the situation should "not go in vain".



"We must not let this fight weaken. Becoming careless or lackadaisical cannot be an option. The fight against coronavirus is still equally serious. You, your family, may still face grave danger from coronavirus," he cautioned.



Modi said when "we glance at the world, we can actually experience the magnitude of the achievements of the people of India".



"Our population itself is many times that of most countries. The challenges facing the country too are of a different kind, yet coronavirus did not spread as fast as it did in other countries of the world," he said, adding that the mortality rate due to the virus too is a lot less in India.



"All of us deeply regret the loss that we had to undergo. But whatever we have been able to save is a result of the collective resolve of the country," he said.
By Express News Service

CHENNAI: What concerns the people of the capital city is that COVID-19 is fiercely spreading its tentacles and tightening its grip around Chennai. The cases continue to stay at high numbers, with 616 positive ones recorded on Saturday.

On Friday, Chennai recorded as many as 618 cases. Most of these cases were concentrated in Royapuram, Tondiarpet, Teynampet and Thiru Vi Ka Nagar zones. The zones recorded 122, 103, 88 and 44 cases respectively on Saturday.

ALSO READ| TNSCB building in Chennai turns COVID-19 care centre with 1,400 beds

"People need not worry about the increasing number of cases in Royapuram as were doing street to street screening. Around 80 per cent of those who tested positive from here are asymptomatic. We have adopted this approach to break the chain and isolate and treat the COVID-19 patients. The cases might increase further due to this," said J Radhakrishnan, Chennai Corporation special nodal officer for COVID-19.

The Royapuram zone continues to top the list with a total of 2,446 positive cases amounting t0 18 per cent of the total cases in the city. Of this, 1,150 are hospitalised, 1,268 patients have recorded and 28 died. In the past one week alone, it has recorded 678 cases.

According to a corporation official, lack of social distancing in slums is the major reason for rise in cases. Most affected areas in Royapuram zone include PK Raja Nagar, SM Nagar, Thideer Nagar and Anjaneyar Nagar. Meanwhile, Kodambakkam witnessed comparatively lesser number of cases last week (378) and Anna Nagar witnessed a sharp spike with 424 fresh cases in the past week alone.

ALSO READ| Uninvited guest in form of COVID-19 takes away parents, leaves Chennai boy alone at home

On the bright side, recovery rate continues to be good. About 6,869 patients of 13,362, who tested positive in the city have recovered, that is 51 per cent of the total. However, over the last week, deaths too have almost doubled. While on May 22, the city recorded 64 deaths, the toll is now 109.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have hired an exclusive A-list security firm to protect them for 7,000 per day, according to sources.

The couple, who are now living at Hollywood tycoon Tyler Perry's mansion in Los Angeles with their son Archie, are using the firm also used by a slew of A-listers, including Jeff Bezos and Tom Hanks.

The team watching the royals in LA is believed to have been handpicked by Gavin de Becker, 65  a former security chief for President Ronald Reagan.

His firm GDBA claims to protect thousands of clients and has boasted of working with the CIA and FBI.

It is unclear who is paying for the security bill, though friends of the Sussexes claimed this week that the couple would be paying for protecting out of their own pocket.

The team watching Harry and Meghan in LA is believed to have been handpicked by Gavin de Becker, 65  a former security chief for President Ronald Reagan

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have been living in this ultra-luxury Beverly Hills hideout that belongs to Hollywood tycoon Tyler Perry, DailyMailTV exclusively revealed

The friends also claimed that the couple are being protected by a private security team already in place at Tyler Perry's mansion in Los Angeles.

De Becker's GDBA firm are now believed to be behind that team.

A source told the Star: 'Harry and Meghan have full confidence in de Becker's firm and they come highly recommended.

'They are the biggest security firm in LA and by far the most respected.

'They aren't cheap, but if you want the best you have to pay for it.'

De Becker's clients are said to include Amazon boss Jeff Bezos, Tom Hanks, Jennifer Lawrence, Madonna, Cher and Barbra Streisand.

Actor Michael J. Fox describes GDBA as a 'secret service for famous people'.

De Becker is thought to be close friends with Oprah Winfrey, the chat show host who is also a confidante of Meghan.

Harry and Meghan's security has been a subject of much debate, after an insider told the Daily Mail earlier this week that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex could only afford to start paying off their 2.4million bill for Frogmore Cottage once Prince Charles had agreed to foot their astronomical security costs in the US.

Jeff Besoz is among the clients of the security team, dubbed the 'secret service for famous people'

The Sussexes had to ask Prince Charles to bear the cost of their security if they were to have any chance of clearing their Frogmore debt, a source told the Daily Mail. Friends have insisted they are now paying for their own security

The couple have been spotted only a handful of times since their move to Los Angeles, first volunteering for a local charity dropping off food to locals who are more at-risk of catching coronavirus (pictured), as well as taking their beloved dogs out for a walk

However, a friend of the couple later claimed that the Sussexes will pay for any security measures out of their own pocket in the future.

According to the anonymous source, the couple are not 'asking for any special treatment' with regard to their security situation, and 'have not received any'.

DailyMailTV revealed earlier this month that the couple have been holed up in a Beverly Hills mansion owned by Hollywood tycoon Tyler Perry with their son Archie since mid-March, after moving over from Canada.

The source also said the Sussexes have experienced 'unimaginable' levels of intrusion from the press while living in the Beverly Hills mansion during the coronavirus pandemic, including paparazzi-operated drones illegally flying within 20 feet of their house to snap photographs.

At least five such incidents have been reported to the LAPD.

It is not known whether Harry, 35, and Meghan, 38, are renting Tyler's property or staying there as guests, but there is no record of the mansion having been sold.

The couple have been spotted only a handful of times since their move to Los Angeles, first volunteering for a local charity dropping off food to locals who are more at-risk of catching coronavirus, as well as taking their beloved dogs out for a walk

The Duke and Duchess were unexpectedly stripped of their Metropolitan Police security team after their move to North America following their announcement they were stepping down as senior members of the Royal Family earlier this year.
Hyderabad, May 31 : In the biggest-ever spike, Telangana reported 199 coronavirus cases while five more people succumbed to the deadly virus, pushing the death toll to 82.

Heath officials said 196 people in the local population of Telangana tested positive during 24 hours ending 5 p.m. on Sunday. Three migrants also found infected.

This is the highest single-day jump since the state reported first case on March 2.

A day after health officials termed the rise in number of cases a natural phenomenon consequent to the easing of lockdown and warned of another surge, the state witnessed the massive surge.

The state's tally of cases mounted to 2,698, with 1,188 patients under treatment in hospitals.

Officials said 122 people tested positive in Greater Hyderabad alone. This is also the highest single-day number for the state capital, the worst affected among 33 districts. As many as 40 cases were reported from Ranga Reddy district and 10 from Medchal. Both the districts are adjacent to Greater Hyderabad.

Indicating the spread of Covid-19, the cases were reported from 12 districts. Two districts which had not reported a single case since the outbreak of Covid-19 joined the list of affected districts. With this the state has lost all three districts in the category during last two days.

Three migrants also tested positive on Sunday, taking the total number of affected migrants to 192.

The day did not see any positive case among deportees. As many as 212 deportees were tested positive till Saturday. They were among 458 deportees from Saudi Arabia.

The day also saw five more deaths due to Covid-19. Unlike the last two days when officials provided details of the deceased, the media bulletin had no mention of their age, gender and co-morbidities.

Meanwhile, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) in collaboration with the National Institute of Nutrition (NIN) on Sunday completed a rapid survey in five containment zones in Hyderabad to understand the Covid-19 infection among the urban population.

Serum samples of 500 people were collected during the survey from Miyapur, Tappachabutra Adibatla, Chandangar and Balapur zones.

Officials said 100 samples were collected from each zone.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
SpaceX's Crew Dragon "Endeavour" successfully docked with the International Space Station as planned on Sunday morning, marking another key milestone during this historic Commercial Crew demonstration mission it's conducting with NASA. On board Crew Dragon were NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken, the test pilots selected to be the first-ever humans to fly on board SpaceX's Crew Dragon, and the first people ever to make the trip to orbit aboard a spacecraft built by a private company.

The docking process was handled completely autonomously by Crew Dragon itself, which is designed by SpaceX to operate on autopilot from the moment of launch throughout the course of the entire mission. The spacecraft is able to dock with a newer automated international docking adapter installed on the ISS, unlike the original cargo version of Dragon, which required manual capture by the robotic Canadarm 2 controlled by astronauts on the station. The updated cargo Dragon and Crew Dragon are designed to work with the new automated system.

Hurley and Behnken launched at 3:22 PM EDT (12:22 PM PDT) on Saturday, taking off from Cape Canaveral in Florida. It was the second launch attempt for this mission, after weather caused a delay last Wednesday. This mission is NASA and SpaceX's Commercial Crew Demo-2, which is the second demonstration mission of the full flight and return of the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft, one of two vehicles commissioned by NASA from commercial partners to provide transportation services for astronauts to and from the Space Station.

Crossing this milestone means that essentially the first half of the mission has been completed successfully -- so far, SpaceX has demonstrated that the launch process works as designed, as does manual control (the astronauts took over and ran two tests of that system) and automated docking.

The ISS hatch opened at 12:37 PM EDT, and the Dragon hatch opened at 1:02 PM EDT, at which point Behnken and Hurley were welcomed onboard the ISS by the existing crew, which includes two U.S. and one Russian astronaut. Hurley and Behnken will now perform standard ISS crew activities, including conducting experiments and research, during the next several weeks, before they climb back into Crew Dragon for the final portion of Demo-2 -- the trip back to Earth.
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Pastor Enoch Adeboye

General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) Pastor Enoch Adeboye has explained that the current lockdown occasioned by COVID-19 pandemic is a perfect example for Christians to do things that will move them forward, The Nation reports.

Declaring a sermon titled All things work together for good on Sunday during a broadcast on DOVE TV, Adeboye said God had used lockdown in the past to elevate His children.

He mentioned David, Elijah and Joseph as biblical characters who experienced uplifting after lockdown.

To make the best out of the current lockdown, Adeboye said Christians should rejoice, praise God and pray, stating there has never been a better time to pray because you have more time and less things to do.

He also asked Christians to study the word, meditate and receive vision for the future and plan towards actualising your future.

The respected preacher further advised believers to clean their houses and environments because of more time on their hands and lighten their houses.

According to him: When you clean your house, you will realise things you dont need anymore. Please give them out.

He finally asked Christians to pray for him and other leaders because the COVID-19 crisis would task a lot of them in no small measure.
The Chinese embassy and the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) say the Chinese medical team controversially invited to support Nigerian efforts against COVID-19 is still around in the country.

They spoke in response to the suggestion by the Nigerian government through the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs that the team has returned home to China.

When the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was contacted over the recent evacuation of Nigerians from China despite the temporary suspension of the exercise, the ministry explained that the aeroplane that took the Chinese medical team back to their base could not just come empty like that.

The ministrys spokesperson, Ferdinand Nwonye, later said categorically that the Chinese medical team had left Nigeria.

Also, Nollywood actress, Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde, whose husband is a pilot, shared the news of the departure of the Chinese people who flew in some time ago on her Instagram page, with a tagged picture of her husband, Matthew Ekeinde, the flight crew and the Chinese passengers.

This reignited the controversy trailing the whereabouts of the medics that pitted some Nigerians against the Nigerian government, specifically the Ministry of Health.

The Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, had said the medical personnel are not guests of the federal government but CCECC, a construction company.

Some Nigerians and medical associations had kicked against the decision to invite the medical experts.

When the team arrived with medical equipment sponsored by the CCECC in Nigeria on April 8, Mr Ehanire had said they came to share their experiences in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Chinese company said the support was part of its corporate social responsibility in fighting the pandemic in Nigeria as well as preventing its outbreak among its staff by providing expertise on the management of the virus.

Controversial Exit

The Chinese embassy debunked the claim that the medical personnel had left the county unnoticed.

The spokesperson for the embassy, Sun Siaxiong, who spoke with PREMIUM TIMES on Sunday, said the report of them sneaking out of Nigeria was untrue. She said the Chinese medical personnel are still much around here in Abuja.

It is untrue that they have left Nigeria. Their coming to the country was to assist the CCECC to prevent the pandemic outbreak in the company and also to extend their hands to Nigeria in experience sharing and management of COVID-19 pandemic, he said.

The Executive Director, CCECC Nigeria, Lian Jianfeng, also refuted the claim.

Mr JianFeng said the medical team had complied with all known immigration and health protocols and would continue to do so until there is the reopening of international commercial flights to China.

They are still in Abuja. The team are waiting for the re-opening of the international commercial flight from Abuja, he told PREMIUM TIMES.

He added that the Chinese people recently evacuated were a special group whose flight was organised by the Chinese government.

The flight organised by Chinese government was for the special group: aged below 14 or above 60 and some other particular people. The numbers were limited. And the flight departed from Lagos, he said.

PREMIUM TIMES reached out again to the spokesperson for the Foreign Affairs ministry, Mr Nwonye and Mrs Jalade-Ekeinde, about the Chinese embassys refutation of their claims.

Mr Nwonye said he had no comment. I have told you all I know or am I in your law court to answer this? he questioned.

Mrs Jalade-Ekeinde did not respond to mail and text messages sent to her contact at the time of this report.
By Akbar Mammadov

Azerbaijani Parliament on May 31 ratified four draft laws on visa, trade, military and security cooperation with Turkey.

The parliament signed the agreement on Mutual Visa Exemption between Azerbaijan and Turkey. The agreement will allow Turkish citizens to stay in Azerbaijan for a period of no more than 90 days without a visa. Eearlier, Turkey ratified the law to exempt Azerbaijani citizens from visa for the period of 90 days.

The parliament also ratified the Preferential Trade Agreement between Azerbaijan and Turkey.

The Preferential Trade Agreement was signed on February 25 during Recep Tayyip Erdogans visit to Azerbaijan and aims to step up efforts to bring their trade volume to $15bn.

The parliament also ratified the following draft laws: The Agreement on Military Financial Cooperation between the Government of Azerbaijan and the Government of Turkey, and Approval of the Additional Protocol to the Agreement on Security Cooperation between the Government of Azerbaijan and the Government of Turkey.

So far, Azerbaijan has invested 18 billion dollars in the Turkish economy and Turkey 12.5 billion dollars in the Azerbaijani economy. Currently, about 4,000 Turkish companies work in Azerbaijan, and have done work worth $16 billion in more than 300 projects, thereby making Turkey the first-ranked country in Azerbaijans economy.

It should be noted that during Erdogans visit in February, the two countries also signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the construction of the Kars-Nakhchivan railway between Turkey and Azerbaijans Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic.








Federal authorities urged local officials on Sunday to crack down harder on rioters after American cities were rocked by fiery spasms of violence and vandalism, part of a nationwide wave of protests over police misconduct.

President Donald Trump and his attorney general, William Barr, urged cities to follow the example set Saturday night by Minneapolis, where the unrest began earlier this week over the case of 46-year-old George Floyd, a black man who died after a white police officer knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes.

Floyd's death has led to large-scale protests in dozens of cities. In some places, protesters have set fire to police cars and buildings, smashed windows, and looted stores.

On Saturday night, police in several cities intensified their use of force - wielding batons, rubber bullets and pepper spray in incidents that also targeted bystanders and journalists.

In Minneapolis, videos posted online showed police officers yelling, "Light 'em up!" before firing paint at them as they stood on a front porch of a home. No one in the group appeared to be seriously injured.

Edward Maguire, a professor at Arizona State University who recently published a guidebook on police crowd-control procedures, said this instance was egregious because officers fired potentially dangerous rounds at people who posed no threat.

"Everything that police do in these types of situations should be aimed at de-escalation, and that is a really, really stunning example of escalation," he said. "You cannot be shooting projectiles at human beings, unless you have a really good reason to do so."

Watching the events of Saturday night, Maguire said police chiefs across America had read his guidebook to crowd control - and decided to do the opposite. "I'm just seeing examples all over the country right now of bad policing," he said. "Poorly conceived strategies for how to handle protests."

In another incident in Minneapolis, a CBS TV news crew said it was shooting video of a group of officers standing around in a parking lot when someone fired rubber bullets at them. "They're sighting us in, dude," one of the crew says in the video posted by CBS reporter Michael George, after the bullets came closer. Michael Adams, a reporter for VICE News recorded himself being pepper-sprayed by police in Minneapolis while he was on the ground.

One night earlier, TV reporter Kaitlin Rust was reporting live from a protest in Louisville, Kentucky, when she was hit by a pepper ball fired by an armor-clad police officer who appeared to be targeting her repeatedly.

The president said other jurisdictions facing protesters should follow Minneapolis' example.

On Sunday, Trump tweeted: "Get tough Democrat Mayors and Governors. Other Democrat run Cities and States should look at the total shutdown of Radical Left Anarchists in Minneapolis last night."

The president's call to arms against unruly people was underscored by the attorney general, who issued a statement declaring it was "time to stop watching the violence and to confront and stop it."

Barr blamed "outside radicals and agitators" for "exploiting the situation to pursue their own separate, violent extremist agenda." In Minnesota, local officials had made similar claims over the weekend, though arrest records show those charged were overwhelmingly from the area.

The Trump administration sought to blame an anti-fascist movement called antifa for the violence, though the available evidence for that claim is sparse. For several years, conservative groups have said antifa is a growing and pernicious criminal organization; people who have studied self-described antifa activists say it is a very small, scattered group of individuals without an organizational structure or leader.

"The United States of America will be designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organization," Trump declared in a tweet, though there is no mechanism in federal law to brand domestic groups terrorists the same way the government can do so for foreign terrorist groups.

In pushing for a tougher approach to violent protesters, Barr said he had tasked the FBI's joint terrorism task forces - large teams of investigators from agencies whose mission is to investigate terrorism suspects - to "identify criminal organizers and instigators" around the protests.

Video clips from the weekend showed that in some instances, police used force to clear streets, regardless of who was there or what they were doing.

"I've covered protests involving police in Ferguson, Mo., Baton Rouge, La., Dallas and Los Angeles. I've also covered the U.S. military in war zones, including Iraq and Afghanistan. I have never been fired at by police until tonight," wrote Los Angeles Times reporter Molly Hennessy-Fiske, who said she had been shot with at least one rubber bullet by Minnesota State Patrol officers while standing on a street in Minneapolis.

"Where do we go?" Hennessy-Fiske said she yelled at the officers, asking for them to direct her and a group of other journalists to safety. "None of the officers responded. Instead, they chased us along the wall and into a corner." Hennessy-Fiske said she escaped after scaling a wall, with two bloody wounds to her leg.

Col. Matt Langer, head of the Minnesota State Patrol, acknowledged that the actions by his officers "aren't particularly pretty" but called them necessary.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, agreed.

"I supported the actions that were out there. I gave the order to go with them," said Walz, who added that the use of force toward reporters was "unacceptable."

Many of the protests have been peaceful, but the violence escalated in many major U.S. cities on Friday and Saturday nights, when stores were looted and some demonstrators threw firecrackers, bottles, bleach and a molotov cocktail at police, according to officials.

Dozens of police have been injured, according to news reports. In Philadelphia on Saturday night, police said an officer on a bicycle was run over by a car as he tried to stop looters, suffering a broken arm. In Ferguson, Missouri - the epicenter of similar protests in 2014 - all nonessential personnel were evacuated from police headquarters after protesters throwing rocks and fireworks injured four officers, county police said.

"The level of anger and violence in a number of these cities has been really challenging for the police," said Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, a nonprofit group. He said the events of the past week were more widespread, and angrier, than the protests in 2014. "It feels we haven't seen this level of national violence in a long time."

Wexler said that the coronavirus pandemic has posed a new difficulty for police. Historically, he said, police are trained to focus on mask-wearers in any crowd, as a way of identifying potential troublemakers among peaceful protesters. Now, however, mask-wearing is widespread among protesters, giving would-be criminals more camouflage, and making officers more nervous.

Steven Casstevens, president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, said he hoped that "as each day goes by, the anger and the riots will likely go down."

"I ask people to put themselves in the law enforcement officer's position in these scary situations," he said. "People are throwing bottles and bricks and all sorts of things at you and at the same time, they're expecting you to just stand there, take this abuse, and not react. There comes a point where officers have to protect themselves and protect other people around them."

On Friday night in Oakland, California, two federal security officers were shot outside a government building, killing one and critically wounding the other, officials said.

In many cities, mayors had imposed curfews Saturday night. These, in theory, were supposed to weed out the peaceful protesters, because they would go home. That would allow police to isolate a smaller group of disruptive lawbreakers.

"The situation on the ground in Minneapolis & St. Paul has shifted & the response tonight will be different as a result," the Minnesota Department of Public Safety posted on Twitter at about 6 p.m. local time Saturday. "The coordinated . . . law enforcement presence will triple in size to address a sophisticated network of urban warfare."

But in Minneapolis, protesters said there was another effect: After the curfew, police began to treat everyone on the street as someone engaged in "urban warfare," regardless of their behavior.

Three protesters said that, just after the curfew came into effect at 8 p.m., police fired tear gas at what had been a peaceful sit-in.

"Bus reinforcements came by, and a lot of officers just came at us firing tear gas," said a student from Macalester College, who gave his name only as Nate. "No reason for it, completely unprovoked attack on a completely peaceful sit-in protest."

These actions - and videos showing lines of officers in riot gear in several cities - seemed to defy the crowd-control tactics recommended by policing groups. They have recommended that police avoid using armor-clad officers unless absolutely necessary.

Instead, police groups have recommended sending out officers in their regular uniforms, at least at first.

The logic is that - when police don their armor - it can reduce officers' inhibitions about using force, since they are harder to identify by name. And it can also make protesters more likely to turn violent, since it dehumanizes the officers they are attacking.

"It's not just that they lead to a certain amount of impunity among the police. It's that they actually escalate the likelihood that people will attack them," said Alex Vitale, a professor at Brooklyn College who has studied the policing of protests for 20 years. "It's a magnet. It's a magnet for violence."

In New York, video posted to social media showed two police SUVs driving into a crowd of protesters after the protesters blocked their way and pelted them with water bottles. It was unclear whether anyone was injured.

Afterward, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat, said that the incident was under investigation, but that he would not criticize police officers facing such an "impossible situation."

"If those protesters had just gotten out of the way and not created an attempt to surround that vehicle, we would not be talking about this," de Blasio said on local television station NY1.

He added: "In a situation like that, it's a very, very tense situation. And imagine what it would be like, you're just trying to do your job and then you see hundreds of people converging upon you. I'm not going to blame officers who are trying to deal with an absolutely impossible situation," de Blasio said. "The folks who were converging on that police car did the wrong thing to begin with, and they created an untenable situation. I wish the officers had found a different approach. But let's begin at the beginning. The protesters in that video did the wrong thing to surround them, surround that police car, period."

Other New York-based politicians criticized the officers' actions: City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, a Democrat, called it "outrageous," and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., blasted de Blasio on Twitter.

"@NYCMayor your comments tonight were unacceptable," Ocasio-Cortez said. "This moment demands leadership & accountability from each of us. Defending and making excuses for NYPD running SUVs into crowds was wrong."

The aggressive response in these cities was not the rule everywhere. In Camden, New Jersey, the county police chief marched with protesters decrying Floyd's death. In Flint, Michigan, Gennessee County Sheriff Chris Swanson did the same, in a moment captured on video. He told protesters, "I want to make this a parade, not a protest,"

In Baltimore, during a protest at police headquarters, one person carried a sign listing the names of African Americans killed by police. In a moment captured on video by Baltimore Sun reporter Pamela Wood, a police lieutenant read the names aloud.

"Oscar Grant," read Lt. Peter Heron, who was wearing a uniform but no riot gear. Grant was killed by a California transit police officer in 2009, shot as Grant lay on the floor of an Oakland train station.

"Next name!" the crowd shouted back.

"Keith Scott," Heron read. Scott was killed by police in Charlotte, North Carolina, in 2016.

"Next name!"

After Heron finished reading, Wood reported, the protesters moved on and shook hands with some officers.
By Laman Ismayilova

Russian travel website TurStat has listed Azerbaijan's Naftalan among Top 3 resorts in the CIS countries. The rating is based on an analysis of the popularity of CIS resorts for sanatorium-resort and recreation.

The list also includes Lake Naroch in Belarus, Burabay resort in Kazakhstan and Issyk-Kul lake in Kyrgyzstan.

People across the world are traveling to Naftalan specifically to improve their health. This internationally acclaimed health resort offers excellent medical services to its guests.

The healing effect of Naftail oil has been known since ancient times. This unqiue liquid was traded by caravans throughout countries of the Near East.

In 1874, a German engineer Yeager took interest in Naftalan. Soon he started the production of ointments, "naphthalene " in Germany and exported them to various countries across the world.

The uniqueness and high efficiency of naftalan oil is confirmed by numerous scientific studies. Azerbaijani scientist Yusif Mammadaliyev was the first to identify the healing properties of Naftalan oil.

The medicinal properties of the Naftalan oil are said to treat more than 70 illnesses related to bones, skin and joints.

Under the influence of a warm oil bath, the skin pores begin to expand. The substance, passing through the skin, enters the blood. Then naftalan oil is washed away under the shower. However, it is worth remembering not to take hot shower after the treatment due to re-expansion of the pores. After therapy, it is necessary to relax for at least two hours.

During the treatment, peripheral vessels are dilated, which increases sweating and heat transfer. This is a normal process, since it lets all harmful substances leave the body.

Therefore, it is necessary to dress warmly, not to drink cold drinks not only during the treatment, but also during the next month after it. Following naftalan therapy, it is necessary to avoid water procedures (swimming pool, sauna, bath, sea) during a month as it can lead to rapid removal of the substance from the body.

Naftalan oil normalizes the endocrine system in the body. It affects the hypothalamus, which produces serotonin - the hormone of happiness.

---

Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
India ad spends are expectred to see a growth of 23.2 percent to reach an estimated Rs 80,123 crore this year.

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What did actor-director Karan Johar do on his 48th birthday at a time when leaving the house is not an option due to the coronavirus-triggered lockdown? Johar posted a picture of him on Instagram sporting grey hair and told people he is available for fatherly roles.

This one post was enough for Godrej Consumer to approach Johar to advertise their hair colour Godrej Expert Rich Creme. That's exactly what Johar did.

Johar made a video of him using the hair colour at home and shared it on the social media platform with the hashtag #ColourLikeKaran. He also shared a tutorial on colouring hair at home.

This is how advertisements are being made in times of the novel coronavirus pandemic. From writing to direction, all aspects of shooting advertisements are happening at home.

"First your writing has to be done keeping in mind place constraints. We even ask actors to give us a virtual tour of the house to help us know what all props can be used while shooting the ad. It's not easy to include new elements. So, we have to make use of whatever is available," Rajesh Ramaswamy, Founder, The Script Room told Moneycontrol.

COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine  one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show

The Script Room, a writers hub, has created over 40 ad films across brands including Netflix, Oyo, Chumbak, Becks Ice and Groww, a financial services app.

The director of photography, commonly known as DOP, now has to check online the lighting, angle and other aspects at the actor or model's place before shooting.

"You also have to write scripts that are not dialogue heavy. I think montage films are becoming one way of doing it (ads) but advertisers are looking at other ways of exploring," he said.

While some brands are using existing footages to make montages, others are asking models and actors to shoot short video clips at home and then turning the montage into a full ad film.

Another common and important aspect in an ad is the voice over. The process to include the voice over an advertisement has also changed.

Before the lockdown, a voice artist would go to a soundproof studio and record lines using a good quality microphone. After this, the sound would be edited and processed by sound engineers.

"Currently, it is mostly done at the artists place, recorded on their phones, and worked on further by the sound engineer. And for actors, we sort of avoid dubbing and try and capture live audio (by keeping the air conditioner/fan off and so on)," said The Script Rooms Ayyappan Raj.

He also highlighted the smaller crew size. "While currently the crew size has come down due to space constraints, this will continue even when shooting of ads resume." He added that advertising agencies had appealed to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to let them resume shooting with a crew of around 20 people.

"A usual crew size consists of 100 people, crew from different departments from lighting to catering to costumes, etc." Raj said.

"Before a shoot, we do a recce of the venue even this will change and a lot of things will happen over zoom meetings," he added.
Over the course of the last few months, the dedication of our Glens Falls Hospital team has been nothing short of amazing. Our health care heroes have embraced their calling to care for the community in its greatest hour of need. Their efforts have been the focus of an outpouring of love and appreciation from our community  and rightly so.

What hasnt been highlighted to the same degree are the enormous operational changes made by all hospitals in our state. As you likely know, Glens Falls Hospital and all other New York hospitals temporarily suspended the majority of the services we normally provide to prepare for the coronavirus surge. Governor Cuomo mandated this suspension of services and it was the right action to take to ensure we were prepared to care for our friends and neighbors.

Temporarily halting services has also meant a halt in the revenue used to pay employees salaries and other expenses that come with running a hospital. At the same time, we were mandated to increase the hospitals capacity by 50%, we needed to invest in additional supplies and protective equipment to keep our patients and caregivers safe. There is no doubt that these were absolutely the right actions to take, but they have nonetheless caused financial strain.

The American Hospital Association estimates that hospitals in our country are collectively losing $50 billion a month due to the pandemic. For Glens Falls Hospital, to date the coronavirus has resulted in the loss of more than $20 million in revenue. Hospital leaders are actively working with state and federal lawmakers to ensure they understand the financial pressure we are facing, and we are incredibly grateful for their support. To date, Glens Falls Hospital has received nearly $6 million in much-needed grant funding from the Cares Act. However, we have also missed out on some critical relief funds, including payments made to rural hospitals. Through the Cares Act, 155 rural NYS hospitals received a total of $264 million in grants  money that will not have to be paid back. Glens Falls Hospital did not qualify for those rural funds.

The Cares act also provided New York with $5 billion for areas designated as hot spots of the pandemic, which was dispersed to 90 hospitals across the state. Unfortunately, again, Glens Falls Hospital did not qualify for any of this funding. Recently, we received nearly $34 million in advance payments from Medicare in the form of a loan that must be repaid with 10.5% interest. The majority of New York hospitals that received rural and hot spot funding also received the Medicare advance payment.

We share this level of detail because its important for our patients and community to understand the shortfall. We have taken unprecedented and immediate action to control expenses, including voluntary salary reductions from employed physicians and administration and the furlough of more than 350 employees.

Our tremendous team of caregivers has stepped up to provide exceptional care in this uncertain time and we have willingly complied with state mandates that froze more than half of the services we normally provide. We took these actions because delivering community-centered care is our calling  and we are pleased to once again be offering elective surgeries and procedures for your good health.

Going forward, new state and federal support funding will be essential to our future and to the critical care our team provides. We remain hopeful that with the continued help of our elected officials and our community we will be able to secure additional funding to sustain our delivery of high quality, patient-centered care into the future.

As we continue this important work, our incredible team of physicians, nurses and other employees remain prepared to provide the care our community needs right now. We appreciate your continued support and trust in Glens Falls Hospital.

Mitch Amado is senior vice president for finance and chief financial officer of Glens Falls Hospital.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-30 23:39:54|Editor: huaxia

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BAGHDAD, May 30 (Xinhua) -- The Iraqi authorities Saturday imposed a week-long curfew to curb the latest increase in infections of coronavirus in the country, the Iraqi government said.

The decision was made after a meeting by the Higher Committee for Health and National Safety, headed by Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, which took several measures, including imposing "full curfew in Baghdad and the Iraqi provinces for a week starting from May 31 to June 6," al-Kadhimi's media office said in a statement.

The committee ordered the security forces to tighten the control of the implementation of the health restrictions through preventing all forms of gatherings that contribute to the spread of the virus, the statement said.

The restrictions included preventing the people from moving without masks outside their homes, and ordering the traffic police to detain any vehicle that carries more than 50 percent of its capacity and that all occupants should wear masks, it added.

The committee also allowed food shops and bakeries to open their doors, provided that no more than five persons wearing masks allowed inside, otherwise to be closed, the statement said.

The latest restriction measure came as the Iraqi Health Ministry said in a statement that the total number of COVID-19 cases has risen to 6,179 since the outbreak of the disease in the country.

Ten of the infected people died during the day, bringing the death toll in the country to 195, while 3,110 have recovered so far, the statement said.

It also said that 12 health workers were infected during the day.

China has been helping Iraq fight the COVID-19 pandemic, through enhancing Iraq's capability of containing the spread of the contagious disease.

From March 7 to April 26, a Chinese team of seven medical experts spent 50 days in Iraq to help contain the disease, during which they helped build a PCR lab and an advanced CT scanner in Baghdad.

Since March 7, China has also sent three batches of medical aid to Iraq. Enditem
The U.S. leader wants to expand the list of invitees to include Australia, Russia, South Korea and India.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday he would postpone a Group of Seven summit he had hoped to hold next month until September or later and expand the list of invitees to include Australia, Russia, South Korea and India.

Speaking to reporters on Air Force One during his return to Washington from Cape Canaveral in Florida, Trump said the G7, which groups the world's most advanced economies, was a "very outdated group of countries" in its current format, Reuters said.

"I'm postponing it because I don't feel that as a G7 it properly represents what's going on in the world," Trump said.

Read alsoYermak to G7 envoys: Ukraine doing everything to end war, working 24/7

It was unclear whether Trump's desire to invite the additional countries was a bid to permanently expand the G7. On several previous occasions, he suggested Russia be added, given what he called Moscow's global strategic importance.

Russia was expelled from what was then the G8 in 2014 when Trump's predecessor, Barack Obama, was U.S. president, after Moscow annexed the Crimea region from Ukraine. Russia still holds the territory, and various G7 governments have rebuffed previous calls from Trump to readmit Moscow.

White House spokeswoman Alyssa Farah said Trump wants the countries to discuss China at the summit.

Trump has attacked Beijing over its handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which began in China, and on Friday he ordered his administration to begin the process of ending special U.S. treatment for Hong Kong in retaliation for China's decision to impose a new security law on the former British colony.

The decision to postpone the G7 summit is a retreat for Trump, who had sought to host the group of major industrialized countries in Washington as a demonstration that the United States was returning to normal after the coronavirus epidemic, which has killed more than 103,000 Americans to date.

Trump had canceled an in-person G7 meeting scheduled for March as the virus spread, but had recently sought to revive it.
Someone had earlier called police about an armed man on a bike, according to a preliminary statement from the Chicago Police Department.



When officers trained a spotlight on the man, he pointed a gun at their unmarked squad car, according to Pat Camden, a police union spokesman.



An officer jumped out of the squad car and chased the man, who jumped off the bike and began to run, authorities said. The man pointed a gun toward officers and police shot him, according to the police department's statement.



The man died on the scene, according to police and the Cook County medical examiner's office. No officers were injured. He was identified as Darius Cole-Garrit of the 13200 block of South Forrestville Avenue.



Police said a semiautomatic handgun was found at the scene.



After the shooting, about 40 or 50 residents gathered outside red police tape marking the perimeter of the crime scene, exchanging information. A few of them cursed and shouted at the eight police officers who stood next to one another inside the red tape, saying nothing.



About 40 uniformed and plainclothes police officers were called to the scene. Police parked an SUV in front of the area where residents said a covered body was lying, blocking the ground from view as investigating officers pointed flashlights downward.



The Independent Police Review Authority was investigating, as it does for all shootings involving Chicago police officers.
NEW HAVEN  City officers condemmed police brutality with one voice in a video Saturday, coming together after the death of George Floyd at the hands of a police officer in Minneapolis.

Police Chief Otoniel Reyes said Friday that the department would be issuing a statement Saturday, expressing his own anger at Floyds death and noting it was shared by officers around the country.

Instagram video.

Today, the New Haven Police Department wants to call out every single law enforcement officer around the country to stand with us and stand against police brutality, said Reyes in the video, shared on the departments Instagram account. You will hear the voices of the men and women of the New Haven Police Department, but these are also the voices of law enforcement officers around the country that do their jobs every single day, honoring their oath and their commitment to their cities. So, today we speak for us, and we speak for them.

A group of officers, standing shoulder to shoulder on the steps of the station on Union Avenue, call out we stand against police brutality.

The assembled police then recite their oath of office, seeking, in Reyes words, to renew our vow to the City of New Haven.

I solemnly swear that I will faithfully and impartially perform the duties of a law enforcement officer to the best of my ability and according to law, and that I will at all times try to use the power entrusted to me as such officer for the best interest of the city, so help me God, the group intones together.

Floyd died on Monday after a Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin, knelt on his neck for for more than eight minutes while he was handcuffed face down, saying he couldnt breathe.

Chauvin was charged Friday with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.

Connecticut State Police commented in approval of the NHPDs stand on Twitter.

We Stand With You! Troopers said on Twitter. Connecticut State Troopers Stand Against Police Brutality!

The Bridgeport Police Department also agreed with the stance on Twitter, as did Norwalk Police Chief Tom Kulhawik.

We stand with you United AGAINST Police Brutality! We hear you! Bridgeport police said.

Keith L. Mello  who serves as the chief of the Milford Police Department, the president of the Connecticut Police Chiefs Association and chairman of the Police Officers Standards and Training Council  also condemmed the incident in a statement Friday, describing it as beyond disturbing and saying it cast a stain over the law enforcement profession.

Mello said the behavior of the officers involved reflect failures in police tactics, judgment and training.

Of equal concern is the lack of intervention by other officers on the scene, Mello said. We are reminded that we are leaders in our communities, especially during a time of crisis. Our oath and our ethics require us to act whenever we are witnessing an unjust act, even by another police officer.

william.lambert@hearstmediact.com
Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-01 02:45:07|Editor: huaxia

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A woman wearing a mask walks on a street in Ankara, Turkey, on May 31, 2020. Turkish health minister on Sunday confirmed 839 new COVID-19 cases, noting that the increase is within predictable margins. The total number of COVID-19 cases in Turkey climbed to 163,942, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca tweeted. (Photo by Mustafa Kaya/Xinhua)

ANKARA, May 31 (Xinhua) -- Turkish health minister on Sunday confirmed 839 new COVID-19 cases, noting that the increase is within predictable margins.

The total number of COVID-19 cases in Turkey climbed to 163,942, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca tweeted.

In the past 24 hours, 25 people died, taking the death toll to 4,540, the minister stated.

Turkey conducted 35,600 tests for coronavirus in the last 24 hours, bringing the overall number of tests carried out so far to 2,039,194, he said.

The total number of recovered cases stood at 127,973 in Turkey since the outbreak, while 648 patients are being treated at intensive care units.

Turkey reported the first COVID-19 case in the country on March 11.

Turkey and China have supported each other in the fight against COVID-19.

China has facilitated the procurement of medical supplies by Turkey. On April 10, Chinese doctors and medical experts held a video conference with Turkish counterparts to share China's experiences in treating coronavirus patients, protecting medical workers, and controlling the spread of the virus.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday addressed the nation (May 31) through his monthly radio programme 'Mann Ki Baat'. Modi said most of the restrictions had been lifted as a part of lockdown 5.0 and added that people must follow all precautions and stay vigilant.

He appealed to citizens to follow all COVID-19 protocols more sincerely from now. He added there should be no carelessness in maintaining six feet distance (Do Gaj Doori), wearing masks and staying indoors as much as possible. Due to everyone's support, fight against COVID-19 is being fought strongly, he said, adding that citizens should continue to follow social distancing and other protocols.

In his Mann ki Baat radio address, he also cautioned people that complacency against the deadly infection will affect the whole country in the long run. PM Modi said many shopkeepers, in order to adhere to the two-yard distancing, have installed big pipelines in their shops and the merchandise was released from one end and collected at the other end by the customer. He acknowledged contributions from service and sacrifice rendered by doctors, police officers and railways officials.

He said that India faces a lot of challenges, yet as a nation, it has been able to keep corona in check compared to other countries with lesser populations. He said that everyone should now work on their resolve towards "Make in India".

"One more thing that has touched my heart is innovation at this moment of crisis," said PM Modi. He appreciated efforts made by some citizens like KC Mohan from Madurai, Gautam Das from Agartala, Divyang Raju from Pathankot, Punjab, Rajendra Yadav from Nasik for their contributions in the fight against coronavirus. He also thanked the women self-help groups in the village and small towns for making thousands of masks on a daily basis.

On the issue of migrant labourers, he said the establishment of a migration commission was being deliberated upon. He added the recent decisions taken by the central government had opened up vast possibilities of village employment, self-employment and small-scale industry.

The recent steps taken by the centre will ensure an 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat', PM Modi added. The MHA on Saturday came up with new guidelines for a phased re-opening of "all activities outside containment zones for the next one month beginning June 1". As per the Centre, the first phase called 'Unlock 1' will unlock the country barring the containment zones.

He also discussed the importance of yoga to the nation in such troubled times. He also appealed to the citizens to take part in the competition launched by the AYUSH ministry by sending their 3-minute video on yoga.
Law enforcement credentials once offered an appealing and protective sheen to a handful of the top prospects in contention to be Joe Bidens potential running mate.

But three of those candidates  Sen. Kamala Harris, Rep. Val Demings and, most notably, Sen. Amy Klobuchar  now find their records under new scrutiny in a presidential race transformed in the wake of national outrage surrounding Mondays death of George Floyd under the knee of a white Minneapolis police officer.

As a Minneapolis-area prosecutor from 1996 to 2006, Klobuchar had already earned the antipathy of social-justice activists for her tough-on-crime record and history of handling police violence. But those issues are now radioactive with the caught-on-camera death of a black man at the hands of the same officer who was once probed in a police-related death while she worked as a local prosecutor.

Progressives  and right-wing trolls  have also hammered Harris, a former Democratic presidential contender, for her resume as a state attorney general and local prosecutor, going so far as to push a Kamala is a cop narrative designed to diminish and disqualify her in the eyes of the left.

At one point during her presidential bid last spring, Harris expressed regret for backing a controversial truancy law, only to later lean into her record as a prosecutor.

Demings, who served as Orlandos first female police chief, oversaw a department that has had a history of criticism for using excessive force .

But its Klobuchars vice presidential fortunes that may end up as the first political casualty of the Minneapolis unrest.

As she ran for Senate in 2006, Officer Derek Chauvin  caught on video in Floyds death Monday  was involved in a different police-related shooting. Klobuchar had left office and was serving in the Senate by the time the case involving Chauvin went to a grand jury, which declined to charge him and five other officers. But that didnt insulate her from sharp criticism this week.

Story continues

There is a direct line of culpability between Klobuchar and this officer who lynched a man, said LaTosha Brown, co-founder of the group Black Voters Matter. She said it was a vestige of racism to compare the records of Harris or Demings with that of Klobuchar.

On Thursday, Klobuchar was asked on MSNBCs Andrea Mitchell Reports if you should take yourself out of consideration, given that we are now involved in yet another national conversation about racism and about the way white officials have overlooked needed change for decades? Klobuchar said she was staying in.

House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, a top Biden adviser credited with salvaging the former vice presidents presidential bid, acknowledged the significant impact of Floyds death on Klobuchars vice presidential prospects.

The timing of this is horrible for her, he said in an interview with POLITICO. When you have things pop up like this it can be catastrophic to some. What is happening in Minneapolis  the timing of that is beyond anyone's control  the timing is just there. In this business, some things we control and a lot of things we cant control.

Prior to the unrest, Biden and his campaign had been lobbied hard by supporters who want a black woman  like Harris or Demings  while other contingents pushed for a progressive pick like Sen. Elizabeth Warren, or a Midwestern moderate like Klobuchar.

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., pauses while speaking at

Demings and Harris, who are both black, have better records when it comes to social justice, according to some progressive activists and Democratic insiders who argue that black women have a better understanding of the scourge of police brutality. Their law enforcement credentials, some of those Democrats contend, must be viewed in the historic context in which they served as leaders.

So Val and Kamala have law enforcement backgrounds and we were proud of them when they were able to pierce those veils. Now youre telling me we gotta hold it against them? Clyburn said. No, I dont think thats going to have an adverse impact on them.

While Clyburn said he would prefer a black running mate, he and top Biden campaign officials stress that Klobuchar is still in the running, that shes highly qualified and that no has been ruled out because of a law enforcement background.

But for Biden  who has a list of about a dozen possible female running mates and has said he plans to name his pick around Aug. 1  the calculus for selecting his running mate has been altered in recent weeks. A series of incidents has elevated racial issues and placed them at the center of political debate in an election where his chances of winning are contingent on his ability to generate enthusiasm among African Americans, the Democratic Partys most loyal base.

One week prior to Floyds death, the former vice president was forced to apologize after a gaffe in which he told an African-American radio show host that If you have a problem figuring out whether youre for me or Trump, then you aint black. 

Four days later, Floyd was killed, sparking nationwide demonstrations that included a protest Thursday in Louisville, Ky., over the March 13 mistaken police shooting of a black woman, Breonna Taylor, in her apartment; and the May 7 indictments of two white men  one a former law enforcement officer  in the shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery in Brunswick, Ga. The men were charged only after video of the Feb. 23 incident surfaced.

Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., smiles during a presidential forum at the California Democratic Party's convention Saturday, Nov. 16, 2019, in Long Beach, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

The attorney for Arberys family, Benjamin Crump  who also represents the families of Floyd and Taylor  said the collective weight of the three successive killings have raised awareness about white supremacy, police brutality and the need for Biden to pick a black running mate.

In my circle, in my community, black people keep saying, they take us for granted. When are we going to have a woman on the top of the ticket who expresses our life experience? Crump, whos based in Tallahassee, said. We saved his nomination. We think he should show his gratitude and pick a black woman.

Al Sharpton, founder of the National Action Network social justice organization and an MSNBC host, said the issue of police brutality and white supremacy will affect Bidens selection process in a very significant way and that it raises serious questions that Klobuchar has to deal with.

Kamala has had some questionable cases, but not to the degree of Amy, Sharpton said. If I were to list them, I would say Val is the least affected, and Amy is the most challenged by it.

The head of Sharptons network in Orlando, Lewanna Gelzer, has been sharply critical of the Orlando Police Departments history of use of force and said when Demings led it from 2007-11, I never saw any real changes during her administration. I didnt see her reach out and talk to us.

However, the head of the Orlando-area NAACP when Demings served as chief, the Rev. Randolph Bracy, said he and Demings worked hand in glove on social justice policy .... We had a great relationship. Orlando hasnt historically had the problems you see in places like Miami-Dade.

Demings, a two-term congresswoman who is less well-known than Harris and Klobuchar, started to shape the narrative concerning her views in an op-ed Friday titled, My fellow brothers and sisters in blue, what the hell are you doing?

As both a black woman and a former police chief, Demings unique biography has further elevated her profile recently with numerous national television appearances. On MSNBCs Rachel Maddow on Thursday night, Demings intoned that America is on fire right now, and the president of the United States is walking around with gasoline.

Louisiana Rep. Cedric Richmond, a Biden campaign co-chair who is helping lead his running-mate vetting process, said Friday that he talked four times to the former vice president and not once did we talk about the politics of Floyds death.

Of African American leaders who called for Klobuchar to be eliminated from contention, Richmond said, At this moment, a lot of people are talking who dont represent the campaign. I represent the campaign. I understand what everybodys saying, but Im not going to get ahead of the vice president.

Richmond said its not his place to rule anybody out or suggest that we rule them out. Polling and other things will play a role. He should pick whoever he needs to pick to help him win. If thats a green-faced Martian, thats who he should pick.

But in the era of Black Lives Matter, movement co-founder Alicia Garza said Biden might find the issue so controversial that he picks a running mate without a law-enforcement background.

It will be a hard row to hoe for black voters, as my grandmother used to say, especially in this moment when theres so much tension between law enforcement and black communities and policing of black communities, Garza said.

During the presidential primary, Garza endorsed Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who is white, because she had the most robust black agenda.

Former Georgia House Democratic Leader Stacey Abrams, speaks at the National Press Club, Friday, Nov. 15, 2019 in Washington. (AP Photo/Michael A. McCoy)

Harris and Demings arent the only black women who have been discussed as prospective Biden running mates. Others include former Georgia state Rep. Stacey Abrams, former national security adviser Susan Rice and Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, a Biden surrogate who earned praise from Bidens campaign for denouncing unruly protests that erupted in her city Friday.

Angela Lang, executive director of the Wisconsin-based Black Leaders Organizing for Communities, said she favors a black woman running but added that Biden needs to talk more about his own record on criminal justice, specifically the 1994 crime bill, and the role of police and prosecutors.

When Senator Harris was in the race, what I was looking for is how people reconcile their current values with their past. Was it to the level and degree that maybe I would have liked to have seen? I dont think so, Lang said.

These are worth ongoing conversations and an understanding that theres so much police brutality in our face, Lang said. Police brutality is an issue that Democratic candidates are on the right side of it and understand its systemic, it needs to be solved, it needs to be changed.


Union Home Minister Amit Shah Sunday said diplomatic and military-level dialogues are going on with China on the current border row and he was hopeful that the issue will be resolved.

Also, in an obvious warning to Pakistan, Shah said India will not tolerate any breach of its borders and befitting replies will be given to such moves.

"Diplomatic and military level dialogues are currently going on and I believe the issue will be resolved," he told the 'Republic Bharat' TV in an interview.

Shah was replying to a question about the ongoing border row with China in Ladakh and some other areas and circulation of videos and pictures of clashes between personnel of the Indian Army and the PLA of China.

The home minister said the Narendra Modi government would not allow any dilution of its international borders and would take all steps to protect the country's sovereignty. "No one should have any doubt about that.

Asked about the repeated Pakistani attempts to breach the border, Shah said India has never adopted an expansionist policy, but at the same time it would not tolerate any violation of its borders. "If someone tries to do that, we will give a befitting reply. It is our duty and responsibility," he said.

Referring to the ongoing battle against COVID-19, the home minister said the Modi government has been successful in combating the outbreak.

It is not known when the vaccine and medicine will come. How long will people remain in their homes? I can say that India and Narendra Modi's battle against COVID has been successful thus far," he said.

Shah said the entire country is fighting together as one with a single mind and hence the fight against coronavirus has been successful.

"As far as Unlock-1 (beginning Monday) goes, states, districts, panchayats, ASHA workers are ready. An army is ready to fight the COVID," he said.

The home minister said the central government, the Prime Minister and he himself were sad that some migrant labourers had to go home on foot, despite arrangements being made for their transportation.

"This has happened may be due to miscommunication or lack of awareness. But I want to say that about 4,000 'Shramik Special' trains were run by the Railways in which more than 50 lakh people have travelled to reach their respective homes. Another about 40 lakh people used buses to reach their destinations.

"I want to congratulate the Railways, that despite them not having the route drivers, they managed to run so many Shramik trains," he said.

Asked about West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's criticism of the central government policies, Shah said be it fight against coronavirus or tackling the cyclone, things were not in a good shape in West Bengal.

"One thing is sure that in the coming days, the BJP will form the government in West Bengal. People of Bengal are looking for a change," he said.
The march made its way through Brooklyns wide avenues to the sound of cars honking their horns and people cheering from their windows. It wasnt until it reached the neighbourhood of Flatbush that it met a large police presence.

It was a fitting location for the protesters to make their point. Seven years ago, not far down the road from where the two sides met, 16-year-old Kimani Gray was shot dead by plainclothes police officers. Of the seven bullets that struck him, three were found in his back. No one was indicted for his death.

The killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis may have sparked the protests that are taking place across the country, but each community and city has their own stories of police brutality against the black community. It is that cycle of violence and inaction that has caused such anger and brought people on to the streets of Brooklyn.

Im here because Im tired. Im tired of talking. Im tired of praying. Im tired of writing letters. Im ready for results, said Dia Soyer, a 22-year-old resident of Brooklyn who came out to protest.

I think things have gotten worse. We dont want any more governors, we dont want any more politicians telling us to calm down. Were done, she added, as a police car stood smouldering behind her, having been put out moments earlier.

A protester stands in front of a burning police car in Brooklyn on Saturday, May 30. (Richard Hall / The Independent) (Richard Hall/The Independent)

Mr Floyd died after Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes, as the 44-year-old repeatedly told him he couldnt breathe.

The scale of the demonstrations over Mr Floyds death is unmatched by anything in recent years  not since the Vietnam War and the civil rights era has anger and mobilisation been so widespread.

In Minneapolis, the city where the killing took place, in Louisville, Los Angeles, California; Atlanta, Georgia and more than 70 other cities, protesters clashed with police on Friday and Saturday evening  some 25 of which introduced curfews in an attempt to bring calm. In Louisville, Kentucky, protesters came out onto the streets in response to two police killings: Mr Floyd and that of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Louisville ER technician who was killed during a botched police raid in her apartment.

Scuffles between protesters continued into the night throughout the weekend in Brooklyn. In the working-class neighbourhood of Flatbush, there was a sense of simmering anger at the New York Police Department  a venting of frustration that could only take place in the safety of numbers.

Its always been a thing here. Even when I was a kid going to school late, the police would stop you, think youre being truant, take you into the police station. Excessive shit. Just always being oppressive, said Ms Soyer.

This is the type of neighbourhood where people come because they are lower income and they dont have the resources that other people dont have. They are here to survive just like everyone else. We need equality, we need police who care about us, Ms Soyer added.

Lines of police faced off against hundreds of protesters at an intersection in the neighbourhood. The crowd chanted: No justice, no peace and remained mostly peaceful despite some arrests and clashes.

In many ways, the story in Brooklyn is the same as in Minneapolis and in minority communities across the country. Research published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences last year found that police killings account for 1.6 percent of all deaths of black men aged 20 to 24 nationwide. That rate is 250 per cent higher than for white men of the same age.

Protesters face off with police in Flatbush, Brooklyn, on Saturday, May 30. (Richard Hall / The Independent ) (Richard Hall / The Independent)

Minority communities in New York have long complained of racial profiling at the hands of the NYPD. In 2014, Eric Garner, an African American father of six children, was killed by police after being placed in a chokehold. He was being detained for allegedly selling loose cigarettes. His last words were strikingly similar to George Floyds: a video of his death showed him repeatedly telling police officers: I cant breathe.

The NAACP said Mr Garners death showed that for communities of colour, including women and LGBT people of colour, immigrants and low-income communities, racial profiling has been and continues to be a constant reality of life, often with tragic and deadly consequences.

The response by the NYPD to the unrest over the last few days has only made some protesters angrier. One video released on Saturday showed a police vehicle apparently driving into a crowd of demonstrators. Elsewhere in the city, police have used pepper spray and batons to disperse crowds.

Though it rarely dominates the news as it has done in recent days, this kind of violence is all too familiar to black Americans. Many of the protesters out in Brooklyn over the weekend said they felt they had arrived at a breaking point after years of police violence without justice.

I was supposed to get married this year. Im afraid to have kids. Ive been contemplating if I want to have kids because Im afraid of what Im gonna bring them into. Living in this world where you dont feel safe to raise another generation, its a problem, said Diamond Washington, a 26-year-old Brooklyn resident.

More immediately, Ms Washington said the police officers involved in Mr Floyds killing must be held accountable. Currently, only Derek Chauvin, the officer who knelt on Mr Floyds neck, is facing charges of third-degree murder and manslaughter.

For people to say the cops didnt mean it. It was intentional. We want second degree or first-degree murder, and we want all four of them to be arrested, she said of the other officers involved in the arrest.

I went to Staten Island, and now Im here in Brooklyn. If I have to go to each one of the protests all over New York city Im gonna do it.
GB100MZX Dame Nellie Melba Centenary

Members of the Chelmsford Amateur Radio Society will be on-the-air June 13-20 using the Special Event callsign GB100MZX to celebrate the centenary of the broadcast by Dame Nellie Melba



In June 1920 with sponsorship from the Daily Mail newspaper, the Marconi Company broadcast the world's first live recital by a professional musician - the legendary Australian diva, Dame Nellie Melba.



In a makeshift studio at the New Street Chelmsford factory, she opened her recital at 19:10 on 15 June 1920 by singing 'Home Sweet Home' and other popular favourites - the first offical UK Broadcast.



The powerful Marconi company transmitter used in 1920 had been allocated the callsign MZX (Marconi Zulu X-ray). This event subsequently led to 2MT Writtle and later 2LO in 1922  the birth of the BBC.



Details at

http://g0mwt.org.uk/

https://twitter.com/ChelmsfordARS
Demonstrators gather outside of City Hall for a Justice for George Floyd protest on Saturday. Floyd, a black man, died in Minneapolis after a white police officer pressed his knee onto his neck for nearly nine minutes. Read more

This weekend in Philadelphia, peaceful protests turned violent as demonstrators called for justice in the death of George Floyd, a black man who died at the hands of police in Minneapolis.

Police and civilian vehicles were set ablaze. Stores were looted. Windows were smashed. And as all this destruction took place in Philadelphia, the stark divide in the movement against racist policing was laid bare.

On one side of the movement, there are those who use peaceful protest, negotiation, and political pressure to bring about change. On the other side, there are those who believe that violence is a legitimate tool when confronting racist systems. Standing between the two groups are people who use the chaos of the moment to engage in wanton destruction, with little concern for the stated goals of the protest.

That kind of senseless violence, with no goals, no demands, and no desire for peace, is simply chaos, and no movement can survive chaos.

Thats why Im calling for African Americans to stay focused. We are the ones whose lives are on the line. We are the ones who are being killed by police, and for us, this is not an academic exercise.

While others might see this as a political struggle pitting left against right, liberal against conservative, the old guard against the new, black folks cant afford to limit our perspective to the philosophical. Our political views dont protect us from abuse. Neither does labeling ourselves as progressives. Thats why, when I watch white people from left-wing groups like antifa come to protests spoiling for a fight, Im skeptical. I dont believe they represent the best interests of black people. Because white people routinely survive violent interactions with police. Too often, black people do not.

Black folks must stay focused on justice. We must not be satisfied with crumbs.

When others come in and set fires, or turn peaceful protests violent, or destroy the place where we live, they can go back to where they came from. But this is our home. Solomon Jones

The arrest of Derek Chauvin, the white officer who was videotaped kneeling on George Floyds neck for more than eight minutes while Floyd begged for his life, is a crumb. We saw what he did, and his arrest on third-degree murder charges is the very least authorities can do.

But the three other officers who were on the scene must also be arrested. Some videos of Floyds final moments appear to show at least two of them kneeling on Floyd, and every video shows them standing by while a fellow officer took actions that preceded a mans death.

Let me be clear. In my opinion, George Floyd was murdered, and the three officers who watched it happen and failed to intercede are accessories to the crime.

As heinous as that is, thats only part of the reason for black peoples anger.

We are angry because we are caught in the throes of a policing system that evolved from slave patrols meant to keep black people in bondage in the 1800s. We are angry because even now, in videotaped 911 calls made by white people challenging everything from our right to sleep in dorms to our right to bird-watch, police are misused to maintain an unjust racial hierarchy. We are angry because even when our deaths at the hands of police are videotaped, justice is too often nonexistent.

But in spite of all of that, I want African Americans in my city to stay focused. Because when others come in and set fires, or turn peaceful protests violent, or destroy the place where we live, they can go back to where they came from. But this is our home. And we dont want it burned down.

So, if we want justice for George Floyd, and for everyone in our community, we must first make sure our community is still here.

We cannot set fires that destroy our own city. We cannot tear down property in the place where we live. We cannot engage in looting and chaos and ruin. Instead, we must work together for justice.

Justice demands we stay focused.
An abandoned Wall Township mansion home to a distinguished Hearst newspaperman before becoming a state-run psychiatric hospital was destroyed by a roaring fire on Saturday morning and then demolished by county workers.

Firefighters began battling the second-alarm blaze at the Arthur Brisbane Child Treatment Center, located on Atlantic Avenue, shortly after 8 a.m., according to a post from the Glendola Fire Company on Facebook. Monmouth County Public Works demolished the building after the flames were extinguished.

The cause of the fire remains unknown, said Sgt. Jeffrey Flynn of the New Jersey State Police, which is investigating the fire.

The building had to be demolished for safety purposes, Flynn said.

The property, which is nestled in Allaire State Park and about a mile north of the Historic Village at Allaire, was rich in history but fell victim to vandals over the last decade, said Hance M. Sitkus, Executive Director, Allaire Village Inc., in an online post.

It was built in the early 1900s for Arthur Brisbane, a columnist and editor for the Hearst newspaper empire who amassed and preserved a large area of land in what is now Allaire State Park and the Historic Village at Allaire. He enjoyed using the property to ride horseback with his wife and appreciate nature, Sitkus said.

This was a man who fell in love with Allaires natural and historic beauty, Sitkus wrote.

When Brisbane died in 1936, he left 1,200 acres in Wall to New Jersey. The land where the mansion sat was converted into the Arthur Brisbane Child Treatment Center in 1948 to treat the most difficult cases of emotionally disturbed children.

The facility was periodically under investigation for decades, with reports regularly finding uninvestigated injuries, overcrowding, untrained workers, unsafe living conditions and limited treatment options, according to previous Star-Ledger reports. In 2005, the state closed the hospital.

State Treasury Department spokeswoman Jennifer Sciortino said the department, which owns the property, has been working with the Department of Children and Families (DCF) to determine the best way to assist in transitioning the site. DCF is responsible for overseeing and maintaining the property.

Since about 2012, vandals have been trespassing and defacing the building with graffiti, Sitkus said.

Tangible evidence of what this man built has slowly disappeared and now resides largely in just a few books or special exhibits at Allaire Village, Sitkus wrote. This home had a lot of history tied to it. Will people start getting respect, or whats next?

There have been no charges filed, Siktus said.

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.

Avalon Zoppo may be reached at azoppo2@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @AvalonZoppo.
The lowest bar to clear in addressing the death of George Floyd in the custody of Minneapolis police is to understand that it shouldn't have happened. To decry Floyd's death is better than to accept it, certainly, but it's hardly a mark of moral fortitude.

When even institutions like the Fraternal Order of Police are willing to criticize the actions of the arresting officers, doing so becomes less a political statement than a starting point.

In his repeated comments over the past several days, President Donald Trump has reached that starting point - and gone no further. While he criticizes Floyd's death, he has made repeatedly clear his lack of understanding of the resulting protests. To show empathy to black Americans (an effort indistinguishable from his political intentions), he instead shows not only how little empathy he holds but also how much he actually empathizes with the system the protests are targeting.

In remarks made during his visit to Florida on Saturday, Trump came close to expressing a grasp of the driving motivation for the ongoing unrest.

Expand Close A Minneapolis police officer kneels on the neck of George Floyd (47) who was pleading that he could not breathe. Photo: AP / Facebook

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"My administration will always stand against violence, mayhem and disorder," he said, reading from his prepared remarks. "We will stand with the family of George Floyd, with the peaceful protesters and with every law-abiding citizen who wants decency, civility, safety and security."

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"We are working toward a more just society," he continued, "but that means building up, not tearing down."

What the Floyd family and peaceful protesters want is not immediately a decent and civil society. It is, in fact, a just one, one in which Floyd's life isn't more at risk because of the color of his skin. One in which incidents like Floyd's death are rare and one in which it doesn't take days or weeks - or forever - for the perpetrators to be held accountable. A society in which interactions between people of color and law enforcement are not exceptional, and a society in which the ability of people of color to thrive generally is itself not exceptional. A decent society would be great, but the need for a just one is what's motivating people to march in the streets.

At no point has Trump ever spontaneously demonstrated an understanding that race undergirds the enforcement of law in the United States and, therefore, justice itself. Even setting aside his unique understanding of justice as it pertains to his own whims, Trump has made repeatedly clear he sees no justification in opposing the death of Floyd beyond the death itself.

His commentary on Floyd and the protests is broadly and repeatedly dismissive. When an angry crowd arrived at the White House on Friday, he described them as "so-called 'protesters,'" using scare-quotes to suggest the concerns being expressed were insincere and that their attendance was somehow stage-managed. (In the same tweet, he tried to gin up a demonstration of his own, hinting that maybe Saturday could be "MAGA NIGHT AT THE WHITE HOUSE." It wasn't.) In his infamous tweet suggesting looting might result in shooting, he described protesters as "THUGS," drawing no distinction between those committing acts of vandalism or violence with those expressing indignation at Floyd's death and at the system that they believe led to it.

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There's no reason to think Trump believes the system of law enforcement in the country has systemic problems with race. Speaking to CNN on Sunday morning, national security adviser Robert O'Brien said explicitly he himself didn't believe there was systemic racism in American law enforcement. His explanation, though, didn't actually address racism within the system. He instead said "99.9 percent of our law enforcement officers are great Americans," as though systemic racism was solely about racist views of individuals within the system. Racist police officers, whom he acknowledged, were simply "bad apples" - a by-now-familiar rejoinder to the complaints of protesters.

The protesters' point, of course, is that the design and administration of the system yield unequal results for black Americans. That the difference in the likelihood of black Americans to be considered as suspects, their treatment as suspects, the way in which the criminal justice system handles their cases and the punishments it levies are not equal. Are not just. This is intertwined with other ways in which American society disadvantages people of color, often by explicit historical design. The protests aren't about Floyd's death, as such, but his death is a reminder that the endpoint of the system is too frequently the death of a black man.

Many white Americans don't accept there are demonstrated differences in the ability of black and white Americans to succeed. The emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement following the deaths of black men at the hands of police in 2014 shifted the views of many white Americans, mostly Democrats. But a Pew Research Center poll conducted in late 2016 found most Americans - 57 percent - believe the country has made changes giving black Americans the same rights as whites.

Among white police officers, a conservative segment of the white population, 92 percent held that position. Trump, it is safe to assume, joins them. It's likely many of his most fervent supporters do, as well, given polling from the 2016 election that repeatedly indicated Trump's base was more likely than other groups to see white Americans as oppressed.

Trump's response to the protests has not been to "build up and not tear down" in order to build the just society that was written on his teleprompter. It has, instead, been to use the protests as an opportunity to build up his own toughness and his demonstrated support for police while tearing down Democrats and other political opponents. Over and over, he has praised - celebrated - police and the military as enforcement agents.

He has repeatedly criticized Democratic mayors and governors as being unduly wishy-washy in responding to the protests, suggesting, as he did in the 2016 campaign, that he'd be super-extra-mega-tough, given the opportunity. Never mind tweets like this one from 2014, declaring the weakness of Barack Obama's White House was leading to protests that year: "Our country is totally fractured and, with our weak leadership in Washington, you can expect Ferguson type riots and looting in other places".

Part of this is opportunistic, certainly. But part of it, too, reflects the extent to which Trump doesn't, won't or can't understand the concerns of the protesters. Just as he has expressed his belief that black Americans should vote for him because he oversaw a continued reduction of the black unemployment rate, he seems to think simply acknowledging Floyd's death as an unacceptable aberration should be enough. That he can speak for Floyd's family - which seems unlikely, given his actual conversation with them - or that he can articulate the terms under which Floyd's death can be considered.

Here, in a nutshell, is how Trump sees the moment:

"These are 'Organized Groups' that have nothing to do with George Floyd. Sad!"

Protesters are inherently illegitimate gatherings of people organized by some unnamed entity who, he can assure us, are not reflecting the meaning of Floyd's death. Through his other comments, Trump tells us what that meaning is: Bad things happen sometimes and the organized group that is law enforcement must be defended in the face of "violence, mayhem and disorder."

This message may resonate with those who support him but it will by no means prompt any reconsideration from those frustrated by the system he leads.
NRPLUS MEMBER ARTICLE I ve never really thought of Mark Steyn as a Palestinian suicide bomber before.

Youll want some context.

Steyn, a wonderful writer and former National Review colleague, was filling in for Rush Limbaugh a few weeks ago, and he made the case for using antitrust law to bully technology platforms such as YouTube (a Google subsidiary) into giving Republicans a fairer shake. Steyn conceded that the idea might not have much legal merit but insisted that it was necessary on political grounds. The Left, he said, is serious about power, and therefore the Right has to be equally serious  even if that means, as it plainly would mean here, abusing federal antitrust powers in the service of partisan political ends.

Steyn was leaning on a classic political trope, in effect: The other side is a bunch of rat bastards, and therefore it not only is morally acceptable for us to be rat bastards, but we have a moral obligation to be rat bastards  if you arent a rat bastard, you arent a patriot. Those are my words; Steyns would be cleverer, and possibly sung.

That is a pretty common line of thought, if you want to call it that, on the right right now  and on the left, too. Our lefty friends moan that the Right has all the money on its side and all the corporations (except Google, PepsiCo, AT&T, NBCUniversal, Facebook, UBS, JPMorgan Chase, Deloitte . . .), and the Left is therefore justified in engaging in political violence, slander, lies, acts of suppression from the petty to the grand, blacklisting, etc.

These are obvious post facto rationalizations of bad behavior. Its the same reason our Democratic friends have insisted that every Republican president of the modern era was the moral equivalent of Adolf Hitler  they want to behave badly, they do not have sufficient moral cultivation to control themselves, they are looking for a moral permission slip, and there is no ethical get-out-of-jail-free card like the National Socialist German Workers Party.

Story continues

You hear precisely the same thing from people who seek to justify terrorism. Jihad apologists will tell you that of course the Palestinians have to employ terrorism, of course they have to send suicide bombers, of course they have to murder women and children in Sbarro  the Israelis are so vicious and nefarious that anything is acceptable in opposing them, but the Arabs cannot beat them on the battlefield, try as they might.

In the Age of Trump, Republicans call that winning, which is not exactly the right word.

President Trump, incensed that Twitter has put B.S. labels on a couple of his B.S. tweets  not the ones claiming Joe Scarborough murdered a woman, bizarrely enough  retreated into Generalissimo Walter Mitty mode, that thing he does where he postures like an autocratic tyrant and then does . . . squat, more or less. If Twitter doesnt get its act together, he threatened, We will strongly regulate, or close them down, a completely empty threat. He then issued a patently unconstitutional and frankly ridiculous executive order purporting to punitively revoke legal protections enjoyed by technology companies (and publications with comments sections, such as National Review) under the Communications Decency Act. But, in spite of the best efforts of Senate Democrats, the First Amendment still stands and remains an operative part of the Bill of Rights. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey will have a good chuckle and then mix himself another dihydrogen monoxide smoothie.

President Trump, ever the addict, was right back on Twitter, threatening to have the National Guard murder looters in Minneapolis. We dont do censorship in the United States, and we dont do summary executions, either. On Friday, another guest host for Rush Limbaugh allowed that the presidents actions were unorthodox or outrageous. We should speak plainly: These are lies and threats and abuses of the presidents position. These arent questions of etiquette. Republicans should stop making excuses for them or stop wrapping themselves in the mantle of patriotism  one or the other.

Republicans used to be the freedom people: free speech, free trade, free enterprise, free markets, freedom of religion, freedom of association, free to keep and bear arms. Trump and his partisans too often are the opposite of that: the neo-mercantilism people, the wildly expansive government power people, the Orban toady people, the total authority people, the people who complain about abuses of presidential power on Monday and think up implausible excuses for them on Tuesday, the people who conflate corporatism with patriotism, the slanderers, the conspiracy goofs, the shut-down-Twitter-if-Twitter-doesnt-do-what-we-want people.

Our friends on talk radio insist that we are one election away from losing America. If the president can shut down media he doesnt like on a whim, then we already have lost it. All that talk of winning assumes a prize worth having and champions who deserve it.

That kind of winning looks a lot like losing.

More from National Review
Even as tensions continued to grow in the United States, many on social media have been agitating on and off social media, using the hashtag #blacklivesmatter. The old slogan, "Black Lives Matter", has been revoked by many including demonstrators across several cities in India.

However, some in India seem to be using another version of the slogan that has been causing anger on social media. Atul Kasbekar, an Indian fashion photographer and film producer in Bollywood, shared a poster on Twitter which read "All lives matter".

The tweet has been going viral on Twitter with many criticising the post for its insensitive message. "It's really quite simple," the fashion photographer, famous for his Kingfisher fashion photoshoots, wrote on Twitter.

The tweet did not go down well on Twitter, with many slamming the photographer for not really understanding the issue of racism in United States and the specific and often fatal targeting of cops across US.

After outrage, the tweet was deleted. But screenshots of the tweet have gone viral.

The outrage was provoked by rights activists as well as netizens, many of whom tried to explain the history of the hashtag to the photographer. Outraged Twitter users also pointed out that by changing the slogan to "all lives matter", the photographer was defending white privilege.

The issue came up after some in the US started using the alternative hashtag to diffuse to powerful stream of protests against police brutality that are surfacing on social media.

People who yell "AllLivesMatter" at #BlackLivesMatterSame vibe as a healthy person barging into the ER, where doctors are treating a patient with an amputated arm, and yelling "What about ME!? TREAT ME!"It ain't about you.It's about the bleeding patient.Sit the fuc down. Aidyn (@SnaiLords) May 31, 2020

People who yell "AllLivesMatter" at #BlackLivesMatterSame vibe as a healthy person barging into the ER, where doctors are treating a patient with an amputated arm, and yelling "What about ME!? TREAT ME!"It ain't about you.It's about the bleeding patient.Sit the fuc down. Aidyn (@SnaiLords) May 31, 2020

saying all lives matter is like a metaphor I saw: pic.twitter.com/tC58tO5wad Pamela Martinez (@pamelamratinez) May 31, 2020

all lives matter wasnt a thing until AFTER black lives mattermeninism wasnt a thing until AFTER feminismstraight pride wasnt a thing until AFTER gay pridestop taking attention away from those who actually need it. set your morals straight. mila  (@maybanqs) May 31, 2020

Ok since people are confused. Heres a list of things its NOT the time for:I have black friends Im not racist, see? Why cant we all just get along All lives matter (never a time for this)Criticizing the anger of the black community Staying out of it Spiritual Activist (@MysticxLipstick) May 31, 2020

The hashtag is a revocation of the Black Lives Matter movement that started in 2013 after the acquittal of George Zimmerman who had been accused of shooting an African-American man Trayvon Martin in 2012.

The hashtag became a powerful slogan in 2014 after the killings of two more black men, Eric Garner and Michael Brown, with thousands of protesters taking to streets to demonstrate against the killings of black men in the US followed by lack of proper police action.
By Angel Krasimirov SOFIA (Reuters) - An Australian ex-soldier, released on parole after being convicted of a street murder in Bulgaria in 2009, fears he will be rearrested if he tries to leave the country and is now seeking a new trial to try to clear his name. Jock Palfreeman, 33, who served 11 years of a 20-year sentence for murder and attempted murder in the 2007 stabbing of two Bulgarians, was released on parole in September. The ruling angered nationalist politicians who criticised his release, while the government decision to keep him in a detention centre after his parole strained relations with Australia.

By Angel Krasimirov

SOFIA (Reuters) - An Australian ex-soldier, released on parole after being convicted of a street murder in Bulgaria in 2009, fears he will be rearrested if he tries to leave the country and is now seeking a new trial to try to clear his name.

Jock Palfreeman, 33, who served 11 years of a 20-year sentence for murder and attempted murder in the 2007 stabbing of two Bulgarians, was released on parole in September.

The ruling angered nationalist politicians who criticised his release, while the government decision to keep him in a detention centre after his parole strained relations with Australia.

The interior ministry said on Friday that the travel ban would be lifted, a day after the highest appeals court dismissed a request by the ex-chief prosecutor to review the parole.

But Palfreeman, speaking under a portrait of revolutionary Che Guevara which he kept in his cell to keep his spirits up, said he had doubts he would be allowed to leave.

"They could come and arrest me in five minutes," the bearded Palfreeman told Reuters in the office of his Bulgarian Prisoners' Association.

Palfreeman co-founded the association to draw attention to alleged abuse and corruption in the prison system.

He has consistently maintained he acted in self-defence, trying to protect minority Roma being attacked by a group of Bulgarians. He believes video footage of the attack, released by an anonymous user on YouTube, will support his case.

"I believe a fair trial would be possible," he said. "I can speak Bulgarian, I can defend myself because 13 years ago I couldn't speak Bulgarian. I didn't know what was happening and there were a lot of things I missed because of the language barrier."

Palfreeman said he was "completely shocked" by the systemic lawlessness in Bulgarian jails, adding that 90% of prisoners were not allowed to do any work.

Palfreeman, who was serving in the British army at the time of the street fight, said a motion for a new trial was expected to be filed on Monday.

(Reporting by Angel Krasimirov; Editing by Nick Macfie)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
The North American qualifying bonanza continued on Sunday, May 31, as New Jersey's Gaitway Farm played host to no less than 24 races. Standardbred stars made their presence felt during the session, which featured some of the biggest names in the industry.

The session, which was contested over a 'fast' track, was dominated by trainer Ron Burke and driver Yannick Gingras, who recorded 11 and nine wins, respectively.

The fourth race of the session saw Warrawee Ubeaut make her four-year-old charted debut for Gingras and Burke. The star daughter of Sweet Lou started from Post 7 and sat fourth through the opening quarter (:28.4) and half (:57.1). The winner of 19 of 31 races and $1.71-million in purses was second-over by the 1:24.2 three-quarters pole and was on top at the head of the lane. The bay propelled to a two and three-quarter-length win courtesy of a :27.2 final quarter. Warrawee Ubeaut's win time was 1:52.2. Warrawee Ubeaut is owned by Burke Racing Stable LLC, Phillip Collura, Jandt Silva Purnel & Libb, and Weaver Bruscemi LLC.

Atlanta, the sparkling five-year-old daughter of Chapter Seven, made her 2020 qualifying debut in Race 10, as the much heralded bay was solid for the driver/trainer combination of Gingras and Burke. Atlanta lined up in Post 5 and settled for second early, as the Andy Miller-driven Homicide Hunter cut the quarter in :29.1 and opening half in :59. Gingras moved to the lead in the third quarter, as he and Atlanta geared up and went on trip the third timer in 1:26.3. The duo continued their clip in the final panel, as they shot home in :27.3. Atlanta's win time was 1:54.1 and her margin of victory was 10 lengths. Atlanta is owned by Crawford Farms Racing, Brad Grant and Howard Taylor.

Speedster Dorsoduro Hanover recorded the first charted line of his 2020 campaign in Race 11, as the five-year-old Somebeachsomewhere gelding provided Burke with yet another Sunday training victory. Matt Kakaley was in the sulky behind Dorsoduro Hanover, and the duo left from the outside Post 8 and were overland in third past the :28.2 opening quarter. The duo settled down to the lead in the second quarter and was first to the half-mile indicator in :56.2. Dorsoduro Hanover spun off three quarters in 1:23.4 and led the rest of the way. The career winner of $1.67-million finished things off with a :28.2 final quarter. The win time was 1:52.1 and the margin of victory was two and a quarter lengths. Dorsoduro Hanover is owned by Burke Racing Stable LLC, Jandt Silva Purnel & Libb, Weaver Bruscemi LLC and Wingfield Brothers LLC.

The seventh race of the morning saw Gingras and Burke click with another top performer, as Father Patrick filly Sister Sledge trotted to victory in what was the first charted line of her three-year-old campaign. The filly started from Post 8 and was third through the opening quarter (:29.1) and half (:58.4). Sister Sledge was first up in third at the 1:27.1 three-quarters pole before continuing her charge home. Gingras and his filly were determined in the lane, as the continued to fight and eventually got up for a neck win 1:55.3 over the Dexter Dunn-driven Crucial, who was looking to go wire to wire. Sister Sledge, who kicked home with a :27.4 final panel, is owned by Burke Racing Stable LLC, Jason Melillo, Jandt Silva Purnel & Libb, and Weaver Bruscemi LLC.

A pair of three-year-old pacers eligible to the Pepsi North America Cup also notched qualifying victories on Sunday.

Cattlewash, who has been gauged as the 12-1 fourth selection in Trot Magazine's 2020 Pepsi North America Cup Spring Book, kicked off the session with a win for Gingras and Burke. The Somebeachsomewhere colt started from Post 4, was second past the :29.2 opening quarter, and cleared to the lead just past the :58 half-mile marker. From there, Cattlewash went on to cover three quarters in 1:25.1, come home in :28.2, and hang on for a nose victory in 1:53.3. Cattlewash is a homebred of W. Donovan of Delray Beach, Florida.

The other Cup-eligible that recorded a win on Sunday was The Greek Freak, who is a gelded son of Captaintreacherous. Matt Kakaley was calling the shots behind 'The Freak,' who went gate to wire and stopped the clock in 1:53.1. The margin of victory was two and a half lengths. The Greek Freak is owned by Burke Racing Stable LLC, Piatt Racing LLC, Jandt Silva Purnel & Libb, and Weaver Bruscemi LLC.
As if to celebrate the recent fifth anniversary of the marriage equality referendum, LGBT coming-of-age drama To The Stars lands on streaming platforms tomorrow. Although not overwhelmingly original, Martha Stephens' film from the debut screenplay by Shannon Bradley-Colleary is a very charming and enjoyable watch.

In the 1960s, the wide-open countryside of Oklahoma contrasts with the small community where everyone knows everything about everyone else. Iris (Kara Hayward) is a shy high-school student who is an outcast because she wets herself. Her father (Shea Whigham) is silently frustrated, her mother (Jordana Spiro) more vocally so and Iris hovers as innocuously as possible between them.

When a glamorous new student, Maggie (Liana Liberato), arrives in town, she and Iris strike up an unlikely friendship. Maggie is everything that Iris is not and knows how to manipulate her way in with the cool kids, taking Iris with her.

The lesbian romance is neither a major part of the film nor what you might expect, and none of it is explicit at all. Actually, if it wasn't flagged, you would barely notice it because the film focuses on broader soul-crushing.

The main characters are all female but the sense of oppressiveness, of thwarted hopes, dreams and happiness, is more general. Whether it be through laws, expectation or social pressure, everyone has a place they're supposed to fit into.

This world is also exclusively white. But that can lead to a frustration that can manifest in many different ways, from trying to keep other people crushed into the same pen, to violence.

Not just the open midwestern spaces contrast with the social claustrophobia; traditionally, films set in times of bobby socks and Doo-wop music are meant to represent simpler, happy times but this reminds you that they were miserable for anyone who didn't like the place assigned to them.

Some of it is a little unsubtly done, the odd cake is overegged, but overall, the film has a light touch and the characters are easy to care about.

Romance films en famille can be awkward but this is suitable for young teens and up and although it treads a familiar enough path, I enjoyed it a lot.  Aine O'Connor





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I See You

Cert 15; on demand

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Your Urban Dictionary word of the day is 'phrogging', a millennial hobby that involves sneaking into strangers' houses and dwelling under their noses without being caught.

This ghoulish thriller from director Adam Randall and writer Devon Graye sets out wanting you to believe that a supernatural chiller is in the offing, what with a prologue involving a boy being sucked into the air in a remote forest. We then settle into the home of local detective Greg (Jon Tenney), who is heading up the investigation into this disappearance and other similar cases. Tension runs through the household due to a recent infidelity by wife Jackie (an underused Helen Hunt, above) but a series of strange occurrences are also brewing an atmosphere of doubt and insecurity.

The reveal - two "phrogging teens" who may or may not have something to do with the recent disappearances - comes either too early or too late in this plotty film. It does keep you guessing, however, and despite the odd clunky twist and swivelling point of view, ticks along with admiral confidence.  Hilary A White





Only The Animals

Cert Club; Curzon Home Cinema

Rural isolation, romantic betrayal, and some incredulous cosmic coincidence all meet on a rural mountain plateau in France. Alice (Laure Calamy) and Michel (Denis Menochet) maintain a workmanlike marriage bereft of intimacy. Alice has been having an affair with reclusive local farmer Joseph (Damien Bonnard), who is recovering from bereavement.

Connected to these sorry souls, despite dwelling thousands of miles away, is Armand (Guy Roger N'drin), a young man who runs an online racket from the Ivory Coast that involves catfishing lovelorn westerners by masquerading as a beautiful young French girl (Juliet Doucet). The link will ultimately have something to do with the discovery back in that French community of an abandoned car belonging to a missing woman.

How much you get out of Dominik Moll's elegant drama will depend on your willingness to embrace its far-fetched set of interlocking elements that bring all these characters on a transcontinental collision course. As the pieces align in novelistic fashion - Moll and co-writer Gilles Marchand adapt Colin Niel's novel - it does teeter on the edge of ridiculousness. Countering this are compelling performances and Moll's steady, unadorned rhythms.  Hilary A White

Also streaming

Also streaming

Just weeks after Ema, Pablo Larrains reggaeton carnival, Im No Longer Here (Netflix) looks to mine a similar sense of street-dancing Latino verve. A hirsute teen with a passion for cumbia dancing has a run-in with the Mexican cartels and has to take refuge in the States. That, however, might be the start of his troubles. Fernando Frias directs.

Lin Shaye continues her quest to appear in every horror film ever made. The Final Wish (on demand), a particularly gruesome fright-fest from the people that brought us the Final Destination franchise, sees her playing a scary mother in thrall to some cursed artefact belonging to her late husband. Michael Welch is the son on the receiving end of the demonic carry-on.

If youre worried youve grown too accustomed to confined spaces, French submarine thriller The Wolfs Call (Sky Cinema/Now TV) should remedy that. The trailer is thick with pressurised arguments and red-lit sweat beads, suggesting writer-director Antonin Baudry has packed the tropes beloved of the genre.

Roger Doyle is the subject of a documentary portrait that follows the celebrated Malahide composer as he prepares to stage an ambitious electronic opera. The Curious Works of Roger Doyle (Volta.ie) succeeds in getting inside the head-space of one of the countrys most consistent but understated musical visionaries, a man often referred to as the Godfather of Irish electronica.

A strong recommendation accompanies Leave No Trace (Netflix). Debra Graniks beguiling and superbly judged drama tells of an Iraq vet father (a reliably intense Ben Foster) and his daughter living off-grid and in seclusion in the forests of Oregon. They encounter an all-changing complication from which there is no way back. One of the finest indie releases of 2018.

After years of seeming to award everything except the very best film-making, the Academy redeemed itself this year by burying South Korean film Parasite (Curzon, on demand) in Oscars (Best Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, and International Feature Film). Bong Joon-hos tantalising comic noir was not only ingeniously plotted, it was a much-needed reminder to awards season that the West was never the sole preserve of excellent cinema.

Hilary A White

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-31 16:53:36|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, May 31 (Xinhua) -- The following are highlights of China's local business news from the past week.

MEITUAN EARNINGS

China's service-focused e-commerce giant Meituan Dianping reported revenue decrease and operating loss for the first quarter of 2020 amid the COVID-19 epidemic.

Its total revenue decreased by 12.6 percent year on year to 16.8 billion yuan (about 2.35 billion U.S. dollars) in the January-March period, with operating loss expanding to 1.7 billion yuan.

SAM'S CLUB NEW STORE

Sam's Club, a Walmart-owned membership warehouse club, started construction of its flagship outlet in China.

Located in the Shanghai Waigaoqiao bonded area of the pilot free trade zone, the flagship store will be the largest independent building operated by Sam's Club in China and its third store in Shanghai. With a construction area of 70,000 square meters, the outlet is expected to open in 2021.

VOLKSWAGEN INVESTMENT

German carmaker Volkswagen announced plans to invest 2 billion euros (about 2.2 billion U.S. dollars) in China to develop its electric vehicle business in the country.

SHANGHAI EXHIBITIONS

The National Exhibition and Convention Center (NECC) in Shanghai, venue for the China International Import Expo (CIIE), is expected to begin hosting exhibitions starting from July 1 after several months of closure due to COVID-19.

"Amid the epidemic, the exhibition industry is one of the earliest sectors to suspend operation and the latest to restart," said Tang Guifa, president of the NECC.

TRIP.COM LOSS

Shanghai-based Trip.com Group Limited, a leading online travel agency in China, reported 1.5 billion yuan (about 211 million U.S. dollars) loss from operations in the first quarter of this year due to the impact of COVID-19.

The group reported net revenue of 4.7 billion yuan from January to March, dropping 42 percent from the same period last year, according to its financial report.

DIDI FINANCING

Didi Chuxing, the Chinese ride-hailing service, said it has raised 500 million U.S. dollars for its autonomous vehicle business from an investment group led by Japanese conglomerate SoftBank.

The investment will help advance the development and deployment of automated vehicles in Didi's ride-hailing fleets. Enditem
If Canada's big banks are the canary in the coal mine for the economy as a whole, then there was some good news this week, and some less good news.

While the COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on Canadian society, Canada's five biggest lenders  Royal Bank, Bank of Montreal, Scotiabank, CIBC and TD  remained profitable even as they set aside billions of dollars to offset possible losses from loans that might go bad in the coming months.

It was expected that measures to contain the pandemic, such as school and business closures, border shutdowns and travel restrictions, would grind economic activity to a halt, but the banks' quarterly financial results for the three-month period up to April 30 were hotly anticipated because they are a deep dive into just how bad the economy was really doing.

If businesses like manufacturers, oil and gas companies, retailers and tech startups are having trouble paying their bills, that tends to show up at the big banks, which lend them money.

Analysts say one of the best ways of gauging how companies are doing is by paying attention to a banking metric known as loan loss provisions. That's a complicated-sounding term for a fundamentally simple concept: how much banks set aside to pay for loans on their books they think might not get paid back.

Not all those loans will turn into losses. But paying attention to how much the banks are setting aside just in case is an excellent proxy for how worried they are.

Combined, Canada's big five lenders set aside almost $11 billion last quarter to cover loans that aren't currently being paid off as planned. That's almost five times as much as they had set aside for bad loans in the same three-month period last year.

That's the bad news. The good news? "They were bad, but not as bad as feared," said Jim Shanahan, an analyst with investment firm Edward Jones who covers Canada's big banks.

Considering the massive number of layoffs, business closures and the glacial pace of trade flows across the Canada-U.S. border due to COVID-19, there were fears that loan losses could have been "at levels that we would never have contemplated," Shanahan said.

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But that didn't happen.

It's equally important to note that even in all this, the banks are still making money. Collectively, the banks raked in nearly $5 billion in profits over the three months. That's well below their usual pace, but Shanahan said there was "almost a collective sigh of relief" that the banks were still profitable.

Art Johnson, the founder of Calgary-based SmartBe Wealth, is one of the few money managers in Canada who doesn't think shares in Canadian bank stocks are always worth buying, but even he admits their week went a lot better than it could have gone.

David Donnelly/CBC

"When I look at the numbers, they're bad," he said in an interview. "There's no two ways around it, these numbers are bad, [but] markets don't look at bad or good, they look at better or worse."

That explains what the banks' stock prices did this week. Typically lower profits would have sent bank shares tumbling, but shares in all five were sharply up as investors breathed that sigh of relief that Shanahan was talking about.

"People were expecting a lot worse, and they were better than worse in all facets," Johnson said.

Not out of the woods yet

While he understands why the bank stocks rallied with relief, Johnson thinks that exhale may be premature as the real pain in the economy may not show up on the banks' books for another few months, once mortgage payment deferrals run out, and massive government progams supplementing income to laid-off workers expire.

"We'll start to see the real impact of this three [or] four months down the road, and that'll be where ... it'll be interesting for markets," he said.

One of the best ways of gauging how optimistic the banks are about their future is to look at their dividend payments.

Canada's big banks are known as reliable dividend-paying machines, slowly and methodically nudging up their payments to shareholders every few quarters for more than a century. Those big bank dividends are so rock-solid that TD and Scotiabank somehow managed to hike theirs even in the middle of the financial crisis in 2009.

The banks love to hike their dividends because investors love that extra income. But banks won't do it unless they are confident they'll be able to sustain the higher level in perpetuity  a harsh lesson that Quebec-focused bank Laurentian learned this week when it cut its payout, the first dividend slash by a Canadian lender that big in almost 30 years.

If dividend payouts are the best barometer of the financial health of Canada's big banks  and, by extension, the economy  then the fact that none of them saw the need to cut this time around is an encouraging sign.

Those quarterly payouts look as rock-solid as ever, but even the banks admit the future still looks uncertain.

The CEO of National Bank, a distant sixth in the five-horse race atop Canadian banking, phrased it in a, well, enterprising fashion.

"This is Star Trek finance," Louis Vachon said on a conference call with analysts to discuss the bank's quarter, in which it booked one-third less profit and set aside five times more money for bad loans.

"We would describe the current environment as going where no one has gone before."

Canada's economy has managed to live long and prosper for decades on the backs of its biggest lenders, but Vachon makes it clear that those same banks are still keeping their shields up for now.

"We're still watching for the Klingons [because] we're not out of this crisis yet."
Joness city, Ferguson, became a byword for racial injustice six years ago and was a precursor to the sort of unrest now visible on the streets of Minneapolis and across the country. The fatal shooting of an unarmed black man, Michael Brown, by a white police officer during the summer of 2014 added to a long history of racial strife and discrimination in the St. Louis area that includes a massacre of black citizens by their white neighbors in 1917, decades of legally enforced segregation and the destruction of black neighborhoods under the banner of urban renewal.
Should we tell the children? How?

Those are among the many questions parents are asking after the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor. Many white parents wonder whether to talk with their kids at all, while parents of color swallow their grief and fear to have "the talk" once again.

These deaths are part of a more complex story, one some parents have been telling for generations, and others have long felt they've had the luxury to ignore. Experts in child psychology and race-based stress say these conversations are essential for all parents to have, and they underscore that there are developmentally appropriate ways to talk to children of all ages about racism and police brutality.

George Floyd protests: How did we get here?

"Silence will not protect you or them," said Beverly Daniel Tatum, a psychologist and author of "Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? And Other Conversations About Race." "Avoiding the topic is not a solution."

Racism persists, experts say, because many parents avoid difficult conversations.

Protesters march through the streets on May 29 in St Louis.

"One of the most important things to remember is that you may not have all the answers, and that is OK," said Erlanger Turner, a clinical psychologist and assistant professor of psychology at Pepperdine University who studies mental health among racial communities.

USA TODAY spoke with Tatum and Turner about how to talk with children about racial violence:

Why is it important to talk with children about what happened to George Floyd and other incidents of police brutality or racism in the news?

Beverly Daniel Tatum: Even young children may see or hear about highly publicized incidents like the George Floyd case  perhaps overhearing the TV or the radio  and may ask questions. Or if parents are upset by the news, the child may perceive the parents distress and ask why Mom or Dad is upset. In either case, an age-appropriate explanation is better than silence. Older children with Internet access may see online images on their own. Initiating an age-appropriate conversation can give children a helpful frame for understanding difficult realities. If parents are silent, children will draw their own often faulty conclusions about what is happening and why.

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Erlanger Turner: Many adults are hurt and angered by these events, and their children may notice changes in their mood. It is helpful to have a healthy conversation around what happened and also talk about ways to cope when you witness social injustice.

Does COVID-19 warrant avoiding these conversations, given many children are already struggling with fear, anxiety and uncertainty?

BDT: No. Not talking about upsetting events only fuels fear, anxiety and uncertainty. Being able to talk about something with a supportive adult can reduce fear, anxiety and uncertainty. Parents may avoid the conversation because they dont know what to say, but it is a mistake to think that their silence is helpful.

'This report is ... a joke': House Democrats blast CDC over racial disparity data amid coronavirus

ET: I don't think that anxiety and fear about COVID-19 should stop a parent from talking about police brutality. This issue has been increasing in concern over the last few years as the number of black and brown people killed by police continue to rise. I think if you do talk with your child don't leave them in a high state of worry. Make sure to end the conversation by engaging in a pleasant activity after the difficult discussion so they won't stay worried or afraid.

How do parents start these conversations and how does that change depending on the age of their children?

ET: I think the first place to start a conversation around racism and police brutality is with honesty. Take ownership of your feelings and be comfortable sharing those feelings with your child. Then you can begin to allow them to share what they may already know about racial differences. I think that it is always good to allow children to share their opinion and understanding before you offer information.

For younger children conversations about racism should be limited to basic facts about how people are treated differently due to the color of their skin but also acknowledge that not everyone treats people differently based on race. For older teens, parents can consider exposure to news or social media posts as discussion points about this issue.

BDT: Regardless of the age of the child, it is important to balance acknowledging the reality of racism, or unfairness, with messages about the possibility of change, and the community of allies who are working together to make things better.

If a child of color asks if a police officer is going to kill them, what do you say?

BDT: The answer will depend on the age of the child. If it is a young child, a parent can be reassuring. No, honey, you dont have to worry about that. Police officers dont want to hurt you.

In response to an older child, it can be reassuring to say something like: "I know that it is scary to think that something like that might happen, and I really dont want you to worry about anything like that. I know that most police officers want to help people, and most police officers never fire their guns. But sometimes they do get nervous and make mistakes. So it is important for you to know what to do if a police officer ever stops you

Black parents often refer to this as the talk they have to have with their adolescent sons to increase the odds they will survive an encounter with a police officer if and when they are stopped.

ET: That is a tough question. Depending on the age of the child, they may have some awareness of youth that have been killed by police. Obviously you don't want to respond in a way that is going to make children be more fearful for their safety. In my opinion, I think that you should let children know that most police officers work to protect them and their community.

If a child says they are afraid or angry, what do you say?

BDT: Acknowledge the childs feelings. The parent may have similar feelings. I know its upsetting to hear about and see these things happening. It upsets me too when bad things like this happen. Racism is very unfair. But it makes me feel better to know there are lots of people who want to change things." Being able to offer specific examples of community change agents would be useful. Being able to talk about what family members are doing to speak up against unfairness is especially useful. Actions always speak louder than words.

ET: If a child tells you that they are angry, that is appropriate. Don't force them to hide their emotional expression. However, be sure to help them identify ways to express their anger in a healthy manner which may include journaling or exercising to release the energy from their body.

If a child is afraid for one of their friends, what do you say?

BDT: I can see that you are worried about your friend. What do you think we could do that might help him or her? Depending on the situation, this could be an opportunity to talk about what it means to be an ally, and how to stand in solidarity with another person.

Bear witness, record, de-escalate: How race may affect what bystanders are called to do in cases like George Floyd's

ET: If a child is afraid for one of their friends, talk with them about those emotions. Allow the child to express why they may be afraid and help them identify how they can check on their friend's safety to ease their anxiety or fear. Part of what increases anxiety is the fear of the unknown. If you have a plan of action it will reduce some of those fears.

How can parents talk about law enforcement in a way that is honest but also doesnt discourage children from seeking help from law enforcement when appropriate?

BDT: Most police officers become police officers because they want to help people. And there are times when we would really want a police officer to help us  give some examples  if theres been a car accident, or if someone took something that belonged to us, etc. But sometimes a police officer does something bad, like today. When that happens, we might start to think that all police officers are like that. But its important to remember that that is not true.

ET: I think that it is very important to talk with the children about law enforcement. For example, you can talk with them about how they protect rules in society such as making sure that people don't drive too fast so they won't harm themselves or others. Providing clear examples about the ways that law enforcement helps society will allow the child to better understand. You can also be honest about situations such as police brutality and let children know that some police officers break laws. If you have a trusted officer in your community it may be good to also allow the child to talk with them in person to reduce their fear.

Should these conversations be different depending on the race of the child?

BDT: Children of color are likely to experience racist encounters as they get older. They need to be helped to understand their own worth and feel affirmed in their identity as young people of color despite the negative messages they may get from others. Parents of color want to raise self-confident and empowered children who are not demoralized by other peoples racism. This requires lots of conversation about racism and how to resist it in an ongoing way throughout their childrens lives.

White children are often racially isolated as a consequence of segregated schools and neighborhoods, and consequently limited in their understanding of people different from themselves. White parents who want to interrupt the cycle of racism must learn to talk to their children about it and model their own anti-racist activity.

ET: According to research, white parents often don't talk with their children about race or may emphasize "not seeing color." The concept of colorblindness or "not seeing color" is more harmful than helpful and does not honor an individual's identity. ... For white families, research suggests ... conversations should focus on raising anti-racist children and encouraging more friendships with children from others races.

Many of these deaths garner attention because footage of it goes viral. What should we say if our child asks to see it?

BDT: There are many adults who dont want to see such footage. I would not show it to a child at all. Once an image is in your head, it is very difficult to get it out. That said, it is reasonable to describe what happened and talk about why it was wrong. It is also likely that children with Internet access can view the footage without an adults permission or assistance. Talking about it after the fact will help children process their feelings.

George Floyd video adds to trauma: 'When is the last time you saw a white person killed online?'

ET: You should not show your children these videos as it may increase the likelihood of them experiencing symptoms of trauma or having nightmares. What we know from research on witnessing disasters is that individuals may be at a higher risk of developing post-traumatic stress disorder even through indirect exposure to these events.

What do we say if, in the course of this conversation, a child says something racist?

BDT: Inquire about it with curiosity, not judgment. "Im wondering why you said that " After hearing more about what the child is thinking, you can offer correction by providing new information. You know, a lot of people might think that is true, but I dont because....

ET: I think the first thing to do is to not get defensive. You want to foster open communication with your child. However, I think you should explore why they have that opinion, where did they learn it from, and tell them why what they said was wrong. It might be helpful for you as a parent to think about ways that you may have unconsciously expressed racist attitudes.

How can parents explain the uprisings in a way that doesnt condone violence but also doesn't minimize the sense of injustice fueling them?

BDT: Children understand the concept of unfairness as well as the experience of frustration. Years and years of unfairness  racism  results in intense anger and frustration. The conversation can then be about what we must do to fix the continuing unfairness.

George Floyd protests: Anger floods U.S. cities

ET: I think it is important for parents to be honest. Share your hurt, anger, or disappointment with your child. You should also talk about different ways to protest social injustice such as calling your local politicians office or even visit their office to talk with them about policy change to reduce injustice.

Resources for parents

You may also be interested in:

Alia E. Dastagir is a recipient of a Rosalynn Carter fellowship for mental health journalism. Follow her on Twitter: @alia_e

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: How to talk to kids about racism, racial violence and police brutality
NAE calls on Christians to pause, mourn 100,000 COVID-19 deaths in US

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The National Association of Evangelicals is calling on Christians and churches to pause and lament the death of more than 100,000 Americans from COVID-19 on Pentecost Sunday.

Calling for a moment of silence in churches across the country on Sunday, NAE President Walter Kim quoted Revelation 8 in a video message.

When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour, Kim read, explaining that God called for silence so that He could attend to prayers. And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them. Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all Gods people, on the golden altar in front of the throne.

There have been at least 103,781 deaths due to the novel coronavirus and over 1.7 million confirmed cases in the United States, as of early Sunday, according to Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center.

Its a reason for us to pause, Kim said, to remember the dead, to mourn their passing, and to lament the fact that we have not been able to grieve as we typically would as Christians.

Faith leaders are also calling for the observance of a National Day of Mourning and Lament at noon on Monday, June 1.

Local leaders will host civic ceremonies, and the call is being supported by the U.S. Conference of Mayors, which represents 1,400 mayors across the country.

The call is being made by an unprecedented group of 100+ national faith leadersfrom Christian, Jewish, and Muslim traditions representing major denominations, national faith-based organizations, local congregations, and millions of people of faith across the country, NAE said in a statement.

The National Day of Mourning and Lament will lead up to the NAEs annual Pray Together Sunday two weeks later, June 14, to honor and mourn those who have passed, according to Kim.

One hundred thousand people, citizens, friends, and family dead is a terrible marker we must not miss or pass by quickly or easily, the Rev. Jim Wallis, founder and president of Sojourners, said. We must stop. We must weep. We must mourn. We must honor. And we must lament which is to feel and bear great grief and sorrow, and to reflect upon it.

The Rev. Adam Taylor, executive director of Sojourners, commented, Every one of the over 100,000 lives in the U.S. lost to COVID-19 is precious and sacred. While the need for social distancing has precluded funerals and other traditional forms of mourning, we can and must find ways to grieve and lament together as a nation. These tragic deaths include so many heroic frontline and essential workers who risked their lives to heal, protect, and serve others.
Social media allows us to connect with friends and loved ones in meaningful ways even when we arent together in person, which is wonderful. It also allows us to get to know and interact with people in other places, whether thats in the United States or around the world. That, too, is great
Hong Kong, May 31 : The Hong Kong government has said it would not be intimidated by US President Donald Trumps threats to strip the territory of its special economic status following Chinas bid to roll out a new national security law for the city.

Hong Kong's Security Secretary John Lee told the media on Saturday that "the US won't win" by using threats against the regional government, adding authorities were doing the correct thing by supporting the new security law drawn up by Beijing, reports Efe news.

Justice Secretary Teresa Cheng said Washington would be in violation of international law if the US president followed through with his threat to sanction individuals deemed to be aiding the stripping back of Hong Kong's autonomy.

"The US passed their national security laws; so can China. And therefore it is within the sovereign right of each state to pass relevant national security laws," Chen said, according to Hong Kong public media outlet RTHK.

Finance secretary Paul Chan said Hong Kong was drawing up a contingency plan in case the US withdrew the region's special economic status.

On Friday, Trump lambasted the security law that Beijing is planning to apply to the territory.

Critics of the national security law say it would effectively curtail any remaining autonomy in the former British colony.

Hong Kong was handed over to Chinese sovereignty in 1997 but its residents retain a considerable level of autonomy from the mainland under the so-called one country, two systems framework.

The new security law would proscribe acts of "subversion" against the Chinese government.

It comes after a year of pro-democracy protests in the financial hub, which first emerged as a response to efforts by local authorities to introduce an extradition law that opponents said would allow China to target dissidents and free speech activists.

Despite weather alerts for an approaching storm, pro-Beijing protesters gathered in front of the US consulate in Hong Kong on Saturday calling for an end to what they see as Washington's political meddling in the territory.

Pro-democracy protesters, meanwhile, were studying their strategy and urged the international community to back the US' stance on the matter.

Joshua Wong, a prominent pro-democracy activist, called on the international community to form an alliance against the new security law, saying: "actions speak louder than words".

The controversial new security law, passed by lawmakers at China's annual congress last week, would also take aim at any "foreign interference" in Hong Kong.
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CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Today is your last chance to publicly tell a Northeast Ohio high school graduate how proud you are of them in our free digital yearbook below.

You can send your messages of congratulations or words of advice to a specific graduate or to the Class of 2020 as a whole. The quick form, available until 11:59 p.m. Sunday night, is below. Anyone can post a message in the yearbook  graduates themselves, parents, family members, neighbors, the general public.

Northeast Ohio high school seniors will head off to college and careers without the memories of prom, spring sports, senior ditch day and  most importantly  a traditional graduation ceremony, all eliminated because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Most walked the halls of their high school for the last time in March and will not have the chance to say goodbye to classmates  because of distance  or to a beloved teacher or advisor.

Lets give the Class of 2020 something positive to carry with them as they take their next big steps in life.

The form only takes a couple of minutes to fill out, but your words of pride and encouragement will last a lifetime in the hearts of these graduates. We will review messages before they are published.

So, lets hear it for the Class of 2020s resolve and for their accomplishments.

Here is the form (some mobile users may need to use this link instead to see the form ):
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-31 20:47:12|Editor: huaxia

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KATHMANDU, May 31 (Xinhua) -- The Nepali government on Sunday confirmed the death of a two-year-old girl from COVID-19, in the first ever case of death of a child from the pandemic in the Himalayan country.

It is the eighth death from the COVID-19 in Nepal. Earlier, the Nepali government had reported the death of six men and a woman after suffering from the novel coronavirus.

Bikas Devkota, spokesperson at the Ministry of Health and Population, said at a regular press briefing on Sunday that the two-year-old girl from far-western Bajura district, died at District Hospital in Bajura on Sunday after suffering from the virus.

The Himalayan country witnessed all eight deaths in the space of the last 17 days as May emerged as the deadly month in the country.

Guna Raj Awasthi, chief of the Regional Health Directorate in Sudurpaschim Province in far-west Nepal, told Xinhua on Sunday that the deceased child's mother was also tested positive for COVID-19, but her father was tested negative.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health and Population confirmed 166 new cases of COVID-19 as the total count of cases reached 1,567. "Of the new cases, 162 are men and four are women," said Devkota.

It is the fifth day in a row that Nepal witnessed more than 100 cases. After the slow start, Nepal recorded 1,510 cases only in May, according to the ministry.

As the number of cases is rising rapidly, the Nepali government on Saturday decided to extend the lockdown till June 14, and continue to suspend cross-border movement of people and air travels till June 30. Enditem
Nepal law Minister Shiva Maya Tumbahamphe tabled the constitutional amendment bill, to update the map of Nepal, in the House of Representatives on Sunday. The tabling of the bill is crucial as it indicates that the KP Sharma Oli government is confident of its passage in the house.

A discussion on the bill in Parliament is yet to take place. The bill seeks to modify the Nepal map to include Indian territories of Limpiyadhura, Kapalpani and Lipulekh, which Nepal claims as its own.

The move was made after the central committee of the main opposition party, Nepali Congress, in a meeting on Saturday directed its parliamentary party to vote in favour of the bill. The bill couldnt be presented in Parliament on Wednesday as the Nepali Congress had sought more time to discuss the matter internally. Since, its a constitutional amendment bill and requires 2/3rd majority, the Oli govt put it on temporary hold.

With the crucial support of Nepali Congress, the Oli government will likely be able to pass the bill now even without the support of the Madesh-based parties. The Samajbadi Janata party Nepal and the Rashtriya Janata Party Nepal have been asking the Oli government to also address their long-standing demand and that it be incorporated as well.

On Thursday, the spokesperson for Ministry of External Affairs, Anurag Srivastava, said, We note this matter is receiving careful consideration in Nepal, taking its seriousness into account. India is open to engaging with all its neighbours on the basis of mutual sensitivity and mutual respect in an environment of trust and confidence.

A foreign secretary level meeting has been pending between the two sides as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, India had already earlier rejected Nepals decision to issue a revised map that included Limpiyadhura, Lipulekh and Kalapani, which are part of the Indian state of Uttarakhand. In a sharp reaction right after the Nepal Ministry of Land Management had unveiled the new map, MEA had said This unilateral act is not based on historical facts and evidence Such artificial enlargement of territorial claims will not be accepted by India.

Interestingly, both India and Nepal are referring to the 1815 Sagauli treaty but the difference of view lies in the point of initiation of Kalinadi. The East of the river is Nepalese territory and the West is Indian territory.

The latest round of dispute started with India inaugurating the 80km long link road from Gatiyabagarh to Lipulekh in Uttarakhand. Nepal objected to the road saying it lies in Nepali territory. India rejected the claim saying it lies in the Pithoragarh district of Uttarakhand.

Some analysts believe Oli government took a nationalistic stand to be able to rally opposition support and strengthen its position in Nepal. Indian army chief General Naravane indicated Nepal was doing so at the behest of another country, indicating a China hand in the matter.
On Monday, when an unarmed black man was killed by a white policeman in Minneapolis, there were 28 others, predominately black, shot within the city limits of Chicago on the very same day. The Bloody Monday came after 50 others in Chicago were shot (10 fatally) during the Memorial Day weekend  thats 78 human beings in just four days  and since Bloody Monday through 6 oclock yesterday, this weeks tally has risen to 94 people shot, 18 of them dead. What if we could get those across America who are protesting so wrongly that they are willing to break laws to protest Chicagos bloodshed? I have the strong belief the admittedly atrocious deaths of George Floyd in Minnesota, Breonna Taylor in Louisville, and Ahmaud Arbery in southeast Georgia will be handled properly and rightfully but I also suspect this singular week of riots will hamper race relations in our nation for quite some time.

With the most volatile night of the year expected last night in Chicago, the month of May figures, with one day remaining, reveal 327 have been shot this month and 62 of them are dead.

For the year 2020? There have been 1,099 people shot, 223 fatally, in Chicago but now the day-after-day gun fights in Chicago have become so ho-hum we dont even hear about it on national news. I was reminded of the emotionally wracked member of Floyds family who said in one TV clip: Its like a black mans life has no worth.

Three or four years ago, when there was a shooting in Chattanooga, it was front page news. Now its become so commonplace its not even on the 6 oclock news. Protests have become riots. All over the country its as though Floyds death has given rabble-rousers permission to confront police in a senseless way, to burn police cars, and since the majority are angry blacks, it has deflated all hope of a lawful democracy. In Atlanta Friday night, there was wide-spread looting and such a vivid scorn for a police uniform Governor Kemp has called out the National Guard. The governors of Tennessee, Minnesota and Kentucky have done the same thing.

This is absolutely surreal. This IS today in the United States of America. Thousands have now been arrested. For protesting? No  because they each committed a crime. The nationwide devastation is at a cost of many millions, this as COVID-19 races like wildfire. And our black leaders are already sensing the backlash. Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and other civil rights leaders were saddened and stunned.

This is not a protest, Bottoms said during an emotional news conference late Friday. This is not in the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr. This is chaos. A protest has purpose. When Dr. King was assassinated, we didnt do this to our city. You are disgracing our city. You are disgracing the life of George Floyd and every other person who has been killed in this country.

But nowhere were the flames of racial hatred stroked with more anger than in Chicago. Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who is black, failed to mention the 100 shootings of blacks and Hispanics in her city in the past week because she was too consumed by her anger. She blamed everything on the President as this excerpt from Saturdays Chicago Tribune shows:

* * *

HERES WHAT I REALLY WANT TO SAY  

[NOTE: This story was written by Chicago Tribute writer Terrence Antonio James following a news conference on May 22, 2020,at Chicagos City Hall.]

CHICAGO  Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Friday ripped President Donald Trump, saying hes fomenting violence and playing to racist urges for political gain in response to the killing of a black man by a Minneapolis police officer and subsequent rioting.

Lightfoots comments were an apparent response to Trump tweeting a message that included When the looting starts, the shooting starts in reply to rioting in Minneapolis and elsewhere following the death of George Floyd, a handcuffed black man who died after a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on Floyds neck while he was in custody. Lightfoot said the president cannot be allowed to divide and destabilize the country.

He wants to show failures on the part of Democratic local leaders, to throw red meat to his base, Lightfoot said in opening remarks at an afternoon news conference. His goal is to polarize, to destabilize local government and inflame racist urges. We can absolutely not let him prevail. And I will code what I really want to say to Donald Trump. Its two words. It begins with F and it ends with YOU.

Asked later whether she should have used that language toward Trump, in light of former first lady Michelle Obamas when they go low, we go high mantra, Lightfoot didnt back down.

I dont take the bait every time, but this time, when we are suffering pain and trauma at the killing of a black man in the street, to try to, for political gain, and blow the dog whistle to his base, Im a black woman, and a leader, and I feel an obligation to speak out when something as offensive as that is said by anyone, but particularly the president, she said. And I make no apologies whatsoever for my word choice, and the way in which Im calling him out for what he said.

The angry reaction to Trump from Illinois Democrats wasnt contained to City Hall.

From the very moment that I announced my decision to run for governor three plus years ago, I said that this president was a racist, misogynist, homophobe, a xenophobe, and I was right then and Im right now, the states embattled Gov. J.B.Pritzker said. His tweets, his reaction, his failure to address the racism that exists in America, his stoking of the flames in sometimes subtle, sometimes not so subtle, ways is completely unacceptable. Its reprehensible, in fact. (Pritzker is being heavily blamed for the fact Illinois is teetered on what some say is certain bankruptcy. His efforts to get federal aid were rebuffed by Trump about a month ago.)

Cook County States Attorney Kim Foxx said in a statement that shes disgusted by our presidents hateful and racist rhetoric in the wake of the uprisings in Minneapolis.

And Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle released a statement saying theres a pervasive and tragic history of racism in our country, and a United States president who provokes it.

As we grieve Mr. Floyds death, President Trump is inciting violence against the protesters, Preckwinkle said. We cannot stand idly by as he does this, and must affirm the right to peaceful, open protests of police brutality.

Trump later tweeted again, saying in two tweets: Looting leads to shooting, and thats why a man was shot and killed in Minneapolis on Wednesday night  or look at what just happened in Louisville with 7 people shot. I dont want this to happen, and thats what the expression put out last night means  It was spoken as a fact, not as a statement. Its very simple, nobody should have any problem with this other than the haters, and those looking to cause trouble on social media. Honor the memory of George Floyd!

* * *

At 8 p.m. last night, a breaking news story flashed across the Tribute wire: After intense skirmishes overnight, a Loop protest has escalated with thousands of demonstrators marching, burning at least one flag, climbing onto a CTA bus and a light pole, hurling bottles and surrounding police officers on Saturday afternoon.

The crowd, which had swelled to around 3,000, began their demonstration at Federal Plaza at 2 p.m. in response to the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25. Later Saturday afternoon, crowds of protesters made their way onto Lake Shore Drive and shut down portions of the roadway.

As of 3:30 p.m., hundreds were marching north, and became more and more raucous, even hostile, throwing fireworks, bottles, and reportedly a liquid near officers. Some also began tagging buildings, cars and a bus shelter. There was at least one report of injuries to police, including a sergeant who had broken his arm near Trump Tower.

Protesters began cheering as several somehow hopped onto a No. 151 bus, carrying flags. The bus, which was halted, was occupied by a driver, and did not appear to have many passengers.

At one point, protesters gathered on three sides of a police vehicle that was backing up on Dearborn Street and confrontations had broken out between officers and protesters as a police car tried to roll down Monroe Street in the Loop.

Later, police and protesters clashed just outside of Trump Tower when officers wearing helmets and carrying batons pushed protesters out of the way of a police vehicle.

Deandre Washington, 27, gathered early at Federal Plaza before the protest officially began, and said he was mad as hell when he saw the video that showed Floyds death. As a black man in Chicago, he fears being the victim of police violence on a daily basis.

I worry every g** damn day, Washington said.

By 4 p.m., the crowd had broken up into several groups heading in different directions, including Trump Tower, which became especially chaotic with some throwing bottles and fireworks at officers.

Along State Street going north, marchers chanted BLACK LIVES MATTER and I CANT BREATHE, most of them donning masks and many hoisting signs that read DEFUND THE POLICE and JUSTICE FOR FLOYD.

People standing on the sidewalk who appeared to not be part of the protest apparently posed for pictures with the marchers in the backdrop. Some passing vehicles honked their horns in apparent support of their protesting.

At one point, someone threw a drink at a police squad car.

Along the Magnificent Mile, a marcher could be seen later wearing a mobile stereo around his neck, as the song Fight the Power by famed rap group Public Enemy blared from it. At the same time church bells sounded from the Fourth Presbyterian Church.

Zach Daniels, 20, was marching late Saturday afternoon.

Im really tired of seeing racial injustice across our country, said Daniels, who is a student at Moody Bible Institute.

As the March moved to East Lake Shore Drive and Michigan Avenue, one person can be heard shouting, SHUT DOWN LAKE SHORE DRIVE.

Shortly thereafter, the crowd began to enter the outer drive through a northbound entrance ramp.

GEORGE FLOYD! GEORGE FLOYD! they chanted.

A 27-year-old woman who identified herself as Lola was marching on southbound Lake Shore Drive as it was shutting down. She said she came out to bring representation.

To make sure the people who are murdered by cops have a voice and the best way that I know how to do that is leverage my white privilege and I think its important to protect all black people no matter their background or their behavior or where they grew up. 

By 5 p.m., officers had responded to at least a dozen calls of 10-1, a police emergency, as they worked to control the crowd, some reportedly trying to overturn a Chicago police car, others trying to hop onto another CTA bus and some of whom were fighting with officers.

Also as of that time, officials had closed the Ohio and Ontario feeder ramps going in and out of the downtown Chicago area.

Additionally, ramps to the Eisenhower Expressway (I-290) had been closed and the CTA temporarily suspended Red Line service between Clark/Division and Sox-35th stations.

Earlier, officials asked protesters in Chicago to remain peaceful as demonstrations are expected to continue throughout the weekend over the death of Floyd.

Speaking at a service event on the South Side on Saturday morning, Chicago police Superintendent David Brown and Mayor Lori Lightfoot decried the actions of the officers in Minneapolis.

I understand and I feel the pain and anguish the killing of George Floyd has evoked all over this country, Lightfoot said.

She referenced the 2014 killing of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald by Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke, calling it a painful period we experienced as a city.

We have lost too many people to violence in the city. It wasnt just Laquan McDonald, she said.

When asking protesters to stay peaceful, Lightfoot criticized President Donald Trump's response to protests in Minneapolis, saying, "it's not easy when we have a president who is inciting violence."

Lets be better than him, said Lightfoot, who also urged residents that COVID-19 isnt gone from Chicago and that they should wear masks while protesting.

Earlier, Brown said there were about 108 arrests made in connection with the protests Friday and early Saturday.

Among those arrested was someone who faces pending gun charges.

"Many came to the downtown area in Chicago last night," Brown said. "The protesting early on started peacefully and ended more aggressive and intense."

* * *

In Nashville, a Saturday protest that included upwards of 10,000 turned mean quickly, and police said multiple arrests had been made before nightfall. Similar reports were made in over 20 cities on Saturday and state officials across the nation anticipated a long night.

.
Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh has suggested that locust attacks can be avoided by bursting firecrackers and beating drums.

Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh has asked people to burst firecrackers and beat drums to prevent attacks by locust swarms.The Minister took stock of the situation out of locust attack in his Katol constituency. Speaking to farmers, he said: Whenever locust swarms attack, villagers should be alert. Locust attacks can be avoided by bursting firecrackers, the smoke of burning tires or if drums are played.

Earlier, Maharashtra Agriculture Minister Dada Bhuse informed that around 50 per cent locust swarms were killed in the state by the Agriculture Department. Around 50 per cent locust swarms were killed in Maharashtra by the agriculture department. Fire brigade vehicles are being used for spraying insecticides. We are providing chemicals/insecticides to farmers free of cost in the affected areas, Bhuse said.

Locust swarms from Pakistan have entered Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh, threatening major damage to standing cotton crops and vegetables, said a spokesperson of Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, adding that Rajasthan is the most affected state.

The desert locust is a species of locust, a swarming short-horned grasshopper. They are known to devour everything in their path, posing an unprecedented threat to food supply and livelihoods of millions of people.

For all the latest National News, download NewsX App
Osagie Ize-Iyamu, a pastor and governorship aspirant in Edo state under the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has described the killing of a 22-year-old Uniben undergraduate, Uwaila Omozuwa as saddening.

Read Also: UNIBEN Student Shot Dead During Final Year Celebration

Speaking via his official Twitter handle, he further sent his condolences to the deceased parents.

He wrote:

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I am deeply saddened to learn about Vera Uwaila Omozuwa, a 100 level student of the department of Microbiology, UNIBEN, who was the victim of a brutal rape and murder that took place on May 27 in Benin. My deepest condolences are with her family and friends.
The U.S. is reeling from a shocking incident of police brutality and outright murder earlier this week. Minneapolis, MN Police officers detained an unarmed man, and were filmed kneeling with a knee on his throat after already placing him in handcuffs, choking him to death.

His name was George Floyd, a 46-year old black man from Minnesota who has tragically become the next high profile victim of our callous police state after he allegedly aroused police attention for attempting to use a counterfeit $20 bill at a local deli.

The officers proceeded to forcibly remove him from his vehicle and sat him down on the sidewalk, continuing to drag him to their police car where one officer knelt on his throat for over five minutes, as Floyd kept saying, I cant breathe, until he passed out. He was later pronounced dead after his lifeless body was transported from the scene as bystanders watched in horror.

The disturbing video can be seen below:

Witnesses at the scene called on the officers to lift their chokehold, affirming that hes not even resisting arrest right now, and youre fing stopping his breathing right now, you think thats cool?, but to no avail.

Although a spokesman for the police department claimed that Floyd physically resisted officers after being removed from his vehicle, a new video posted to Twitter by award-winning journalist Alex Lehnert shows George only passively attempting to remain in the car while two policemen dragged him out.

New video sent to us shows the moment George Floyd was removed from his vehicle and handcuffed on 38th and Chicago.

Video courtesy of Christopher Belfrey pic.twitter.com/MiIIula4sA  Alex Lehnert (@AlexLehnertFox9) May 26, 2020

The four officers involved in the incident were immediately fired from their jobs and are now under investigation by the FBI, but as of yet are not being held criminally accountable. This clear lack of justice has sparked protests from concerned citizens, groups like Black Lives Matter, and others in the area who view this incident as a racist attack against black Americans by a white police force.

The murder of George Floyd is yet another case in a train of similar incidents in recent years, and further demonstrates the need to de-militarize the police and hold bad officers accountable for their crimes.

Its real ugly. The police have to understand that this is the climate they have created, said one protester. Another proclaimed, I got on my knees and I put up a peace sign and they tear gassed me, and I said, tear gas me again because non-violence seems healing.

However, protests quickly turned violent when a smaller group of rioters began spray painting and vandalizing cop cars and other police property. Police responded with extreme force, launching flash bang grenades and tear gas at crowds.

In the last 24 hours, riots have taken a serious and deadly turn and a number of Minneapolis business have been looted and burned, with at least one fatality, and now it appears that riots have spread to Los Angeles, provoking stiff police responses and causing more injuries.

This is an anger and spillover of what people are feeling, but this is not the right platform to express that, said one of the organizers.

A Future Race War?

Racial tensions have always been strong in this country, but rather than inspiring serious reform, officials seem content to allow such tension to continue to build. Americans should be joining together to demand an end to police injustice and the militarization of local police forces across America. However, tension appears to be a top-down strategy in a nation that is being severely divided along the lines of race, politics, income and class.

For a ruling political class who wishes to maintain and ever-increase their power and control over a citizenry, the strategy of tension is a well-known approach to diverting attention and anger away from the actions, or inactions, of leaders and policy makers, and promoting chaos. It is also well-known that governments capitalize on division and chaos, using this as justification to clamp down, repress, and stifle liberties. Order out of chaos.

Politicians in Washington, DC could dismantle the growing militarization of police, and enforce police accountability, but instead they utilize every such incident to enact evermore draconian laws, such as the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which give even more power and authority to unjust cops.

If we want to solve the problems of racism and police brutality, we must strike at the root, which is a system that has long been manipulating the American public, distorting reality, and falsely claiming to be serving people, while engaged in an unbelievable amount of corruption and evil. This system allows these types of inhumane actions, whether they be committed by cops on the streets of Minneapolis, or by drone pilots in the air over Yemen, to persist, while diverting public attention away from policy and onto identity.

When it comes to our freedom, the powers that be arent intimidated by a public divided over race, in fact, some have pointed out that the global elite may be planning a race war in order to achieve their political goals of more control and widespread acceptance of authoritarian policies.

The one thing that frightens them is the possibility that all of us we will come together to demand a return to a civil and free society. This will happen once we recognize the collective power that we have, and turn our attention to the true source of the problem.

About the Author

Phillip Schneider is a student as well as a staff writer and assistant editor for Waking Times. If you would like to see more of his work, you can visit his website, or follow him on the free speech social network Minds.

This article (The Strategy of Tension Reemerges with the Murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis Police) as originally created and published by Waking Times and is published here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Phillip Schneider and WakingTimes.com. It may be re-posted freely with proper attribution, author bio, and this copyright statement.
The recent period has seen inflated prices for treatment and isolation of coronavirus cases at private hospitals, the prime minister said.

Many people have taken to social media over the past days to complain about the soaring cost of a day in isolation at some private medical facilities. The complaints come amid an escalating burden on public hospitals.

Madbouly's remarks were made during a meeting he held on Sunday with Health Minister Hala Zayed, Higher Education and Scientific Research Minister Khaled Abdel-Ghaffar, Interior Minister Mahmoud Tawfik, Information Minister Osama Heikal, and Presidential Adviser on Health Affairs Mohamed Awad Tag Eldin, among others.

During the meeting, Madbouly entrusted the Egyptian Authority for Unified Procurement with providing hospitals with all necessary medical supplies and with providing medical staff with protective gear, in coordination with the health ministry.

He instructed the officials of all relevant bodies, including supervisory authorities, to inspect hospitals on a daily basis to guarantee that all medical supplies are available, all medics are present, and a decent service is being provided to citizens.

He gave directives to officials to provide coronavirus patients who are in home isolation with the necessary drugs.

In an attempt to free up state-run isolation hospitals for critical cases, Egypt has started to ask coronavirus patients who are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms to isolate at home.

The health ministry said earlier today that it will dispatch medical convoys nationwide to distribute medication and preventive supplies to those in contact with confirmed coronavirus cases.

The country has logged over 23,000 coronavirus cases, including more than 900 fatalities.

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Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 30)  Airline companies announced over the weekend their new domestic flight schedules starting June following the national government's directive to ease community quarantine restrictions in Metro Manila and other areas.

Philippine Airlines (PAL) said in its advisory that it would reschedule its domestic flights to and from Metro Manila on June 8 after more than two months of suspension.

Its international flights will operate with a reduced capacity starting June 1 with San Francisco, and with select routes to the USA, Canada, Guam, Vietnam, mainnland China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Taipei, Singapore, Japan, the UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia on the succeeding days.

The flag carrier initially planned to restart domestic flights on limited capacity on June 1.

Cebu Pacific will also start flying passengers to a few destinations within the country beginning June 2, while its international trips will remain suspended until June 30.

Meanwhile, AirAsia will resume its domestic flights on June 3. It said that its services will gradually increase to include international destinations by July 1.

Earlier, General Manager Ed Monreal said in a statement that Terminal 1 of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport shall continue serving international flights, while Terminal 2 will be for evacuation and sweeper flights and for domestic flights from PAL. Terminal 3 will be for AirAsia and Cebu Pacific, while Terminal 4 stays closed.

The Civil Aeronautics Board earlier advised flight carriers to cancel their domestic flights on June 1 prior to the approval of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases.

Air carriers previously announced that they are ready for the "new normal" in air travel to curb coronavirus spread in the country.

Passengers are expected to follow enhanced safety measures such as the mandatory wearing of face masks, social distancing, and other protocols at the airport and all throughout their flights.

The country now has 17,224 COVID-19 cases, with its nationwide death toll at 950. A total of 3,808 people have recovered from the disease.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-31 16:07:50|Editor: huaxia

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JERUSALEM, May 31 (Xinhua) -- Over 90 percent of Israeli startup companies face a funding slowdown, even though the Israeli economy has returned to almost full activity, according to a new survey released by the Israel Innovation Authority (IIA) on Sunday.

The survey, conducted by the IIA and Israel Advanced Technologies Industries (IATI) organization, shows that even after returning to normalcy following the decline in COVID-19 morbidity, Israeli startups still experience complex difficulties.

In the survey, about 40 percent of hi-tech companies in the process of raising funds have been notified by investors that they are halting the process, while over 50 percent noted that the process is progressing slowly.

Also, 51 percent of the companies requested additional funds from current investors, and of these, only 19 percent reported receiving the extra support.

According to the survey, 42 percent of the companies have applied or consider requesting a loan from a financial entity because of the crisis.

Half of companies already asked for a loan reported that their banks denied their requests, while 30 percent have yet to receive an answer.

About 54 percent of the companies reported that if the current conditions continue, their operations will be discontinued within six months.

Also, about one quarter of the companies reported laying off employees, with 14 percent of all companies reported wide-scale layoffs of over 15 percent of workforce.

This trend is especially apparent in software and communications companies, with about 19 percent of businesses in the field have announced wide-scale layoffs.

About 57 percent of the companies have reported plans for extensive layoffs in the next six months if current situation continues, while 71 percent reported having frozen hiring processes.

In addition, more than a third of companies reported putting employees on leave of absence, while one-third of companies confirmed extensive wage cuts of more than 15 percent of salary.

As many as 60 percent of survey respondents noted that they are considering applying for the assistance offered by the IIA.

The survey was conducted among 414 hi-tech Israeli companies, of which most employ no more than 50 employees. Enditem
Copyright  2020 Albuquerque Journal

Galisteo artist Susan Rothenberg became famous for her paintings of horses, but she never wanted to be pigeon-holed.

She didnt want to be known as the horse lady, said arts writer and author Lucy Lippard, who knew Rothenberg both in New York and New Mexico.

Rothenbergs iconic horses were displayed in museums around the world and attracted the attention of President Barack Obama, who borrowed one called Butterfly from the National Gallery in Washington, D.C., for a room he used to lounge in at the White House.

Rothenberg, who was born in Buffalo, New York, on Jan. 20, 1945, died in Galisteo on May 18. She was the daughter of Adele (Cohen) Rothenberg, president of the Buffalo Red Cross, and Leonard Rothenberg, who owned a chain of grocery stores.

Susan Rothenberg earned a bachelor of fine arts degree from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and later studied at George Washington U

niversity and the Corcoran Museum School in Washington, D.C.

Rothenberg was part of the arts scene in the mid-1970s in New Yorks SoHo. Her first solo exhibition was at 112 Green Street Gallery in 1975. The three large-scale paintings of horses was heralded by art critic Peter Schjedahl as a eureka.

It might seem like success came easily to Rothenberg, but that wasnt the case, said Cathleen Chaffee, chief curator of the Albright-Knox Museum in the artists hometown.

Originally, Susan wanted to be a sculptor, but her talents werent encouraged, said Chaffee.

Chaffee called Rothenbergs 1975 exhibition a breakout moment.

It was a small cataclysm. The horse is so American, she said.

A group exhibition of paintings called New Image Painting at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1978 solidified Rothenbergs reputation as part of a movement that introduced symbolic imagery into Minimalist abstraction, wrote Schjeldahl.

One of the most important exhibitions of Rothenbergs work was in 1992; it was organized by the Albright-Knox Museum and traveled to Washington, D.C., St. Louis, Chicago and Seattle, to name a few cities.

After moving to New Mexico in the the 1990s, Rothenberg started facing comparisons between herself and legendary painter Georgia OKeeffe, a Wisconsin native who was born in 1887 and who lived in Abiquiu until her death in March 1986.

OKeeffes paintings of cattle skulls, flowers and other elements of nature have become iconic to the point of being cliche. In 2010, New York Times art critic David Belcher wrote that comparisons between Rothenberg and OKeeffe had become hard to avoid.

However, Rothenberg came back with the statement that she and OKeeffe were completely different people, although they were both inspired by the New Mexico landscape.

Rothenberg was married to sculptor George Trakas from 1971 to 1979 and had a daughter, Maggie. In 1989, she married the artist Bruce Nauman, with whom she acquired the former Galisteo Pueblo.

That acquisition started to change the direction of Rothenbergs work, as she and her husband set about restoring the pueblo. Lippard said Native relics started showing up in the artists paintings.

Chaffee said that she admired the fact that Rothenberg advanced the role of women in painting by declining to be part of any group show that didnt include another woman.

She wasnt willing to be the token woman, Chaffee said.
I ran around the house and said: Get dressed, were going to Mass!  he said Sunday, with his wife, Renata, and two young sons all beaming outside the Cathedral of St. Thomas More in Arlington, where theyd just gone back to in-person services. It was the first time since March that they had received Communion, a rite Catholics in particular believe connects them to God.
Tehran (AFP) - Iran said its caseload of novel coronavirus infections passed the grim milestone of 150,000 on Sunday, as the country struggles to contain a recent upward trend.

The government has largely lifted the restrictions it imposed in order to halt a COVID-19 outbreak that first emerged in mid-February.

But the health ministry has warned of a potential virus resurgence with new cluster outbreaks in a number of provinces.

Ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said 2,516 new cases were confirmed across the country in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 151,466.

Infections have been on a rising trajectory in the Islamic republic since hitting a near two-month low on May 2.

Yet according to President Hassan Rouhani, Iran was in "an acceptable situation" which is "not even fragile" anymore.

Rouhani said COVID-19's reproduction number used to be more than two in Iran but that it was now "less than one".

Such a rate suggests a virus is petering out, according to scientists.

Health Minister Saeed Namaki also said that the situation was "completely stable" in all but four of Iran's 31 provinces.

But he warned that in some provinces health "protocols were not being observed and we have witnessed a resurgence of the disease".

He named the provinces as Khuzestan, Hormozgan and Sistan and Baluchistan.

So far the government has reimposed a lockdown only in Khuzestan province on Iran's southwestern border with Iraq.

It remains "red", the highest level on Iran's colour-coded risk scale.

Jahanpour said the virus had claimed another 63 lives in the past day, raising the overall toll to 7,797.

Experts both at home and abroad have voiced scepticism about Iran's official figures, saying the real toll could be much higher.
Covered walkway at the southern edge of the Great Court at the University of Queensland. (Nick-D/CC BY-SA 4.0 [ept.ms/2j9VWgB])

Lawyer for Anti-CCP Student Activist Demands Chinese Consul-General Be Dismissed From Australian University

The lawyer for student activist Drew Pavlou has lodged a formal complaint with the University of Queensland (UQ), demanding that the Chinese consul-general of Brisbane be dismissed from an honorary position as adjunct professor after the university said that the diplomats behaviour was unacceptable.

UQ had told The Guardian a week prior that Consul-General Xu Jies controversial actions regarding a campus protest about Hong Kong in his diplomatic capacity would have amounted to a breach of its code of conduct.

As a result, UQ Chancellor Peter Varghese announced the university would no longer offer honorary professorships to any serving foreign government official.

However, the university indicated that it had stopped short of disciplinary action as they viewed Xus comments as having been made in his role as a diplomat.

However, lawyer Mark Tarrant told The Epoch Times that the universitys code of conduct could be applied to Xu as he served and still serves as an adjunct professor under the universitys banner. Tarrant has not received a reply to his formal complaint to the Chancellor.

The call comes as Pavlou was handed a two-year suspension from the university on May 29 for 11 allegations of misconduct, the details of which have been kept confidential by the university.

The University of Queensland has expelled me, an Australian student, for attacking the Chinese governments human rights record. Twenty per cent of their revenue comes from China, so my pro-Hong Kong activism threatened their business model. pic.twitter.com/N2KUEveUgT  Drew Pavlou  (@DrewPavlou) May 29, 2020

It is believed the allegations are linked to Pavlous on-campus activism in support of Hong Kongs 2019 pro-democracy rallies.

The saga has drawn international attention and highlighted concerns around the Chinese communist regimes influence in Australias domestic affairs and educational institutions.

Following the decision, Varghese said in a statement that [t]here are aspects of the findings and the severity of the penalty which personally concern me.

I have decided to convene an out-of-session meeting of UQs Senate next week to discuss the matter, he added.

Tasmanian Senator Eric Abetz told The Epoch Times the matter highlighted the troubling exertion of undue power and influence by the communist dictatorship on Australias universities.

He said universities were designed to foster academic discussion and freedom of thought, something the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) finds completely alien.

The case demonstrates that Australia, like other nations, needs to not only remain vigilant, he said, but also fight back against the all-pervasive influence of the CCP on university campuses, and on Hong Kongs freedom.

Pavlou is still seeking a protection order against Xu through the courts. He alleges that Xu played a role inciting threats and violence against him in July last year after the diplomat published an official statement on his consulates website, accusing protest organisers including Pavlou of anti-China separatist activitiesa crime punishable by death in communist China.

Xu applauded the actions of the Chinese students, calling it patriotic behaviour.

He also said the consulate opposed events which create opposition between Chinese and Hong Kong students and incite anti-China sentiment.

Xu was roundly criticised for his comments with Foreign Minister Marise Payne, who told AAP that the Australian federal government expected all diplomatic representatives to respect these rights [to freedom of speech and peaceful and lawful protest].

The government would be particularly concerned if any foreign diplomatic mission were to act in ways that could undermine such rights, including by encouraging disruptive or potentially violent behaviour.

Varghese told The Guardian that he thought the foreign ministers statements were quite appropriate.

I dont think diplomatic representatives ought to interfere in domestic issues in the way that statement did, he said.

Senator Abetz also condemned the consul-generals actions saying it was completely out of step, and unacceptable for a foreign representative to Australia.

Following the protests, Pavlou received multiple death threats, as well as hundreds of abusive messages on social media from supporters of the Chinese regime. Abusive letters were also posted to his private home address to him and his family.

UQ is yet to respond to the The Epoch Timess enquiry about their response to Tarrants complaint.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-31 00:06:18|Editor: huaxia

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A medical worker wearing a mask and cap walks near a hospital in Quito, Ecuador, March 5, 2020. (Photo by Santiago Armas/Xinhua)

The Chinese-made technological platform that supports Ecuador's emergency response system has been incredibly important during the global health crisis.

QUITO, May 29 (Xinhua) -- A public security network designed by Chinese engineers has become a strategic tool of Ecuadoran authorities to protect public health and social stability amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Juan Zapata, general director of the Integrated Security Service ECU 911, Ecuador's integrated emergency service hotline, recently told Xinhua that the Chinese-made technological platform that supports the country's emergency response system has been incredibly important during the global health crisis.

ECU 911 began to operate in Ecuador in 2012 and currently has 16 command centers nationwide. The system integrates police services, video surveillance with thousands of cameras, GPS, geographic information, and a smart analysis of resources, among others.

"Its state-of-the-art technology has been essential for the coordination of institutions in the country, because practically everything has been done through video surveillance," Zapata said.

The emergency unit assumed new responsibilities after Ecuador entered a health emergency in mid-March, with the technological platform assisting in the implementation of anti-virus measures, including a nationwide quarantine, curfew and vehicular restrictions.

"We are doing this work through our 5,800 video surveillance cameras. In other words, the technology has been put at the service of the national EOC (Emergency Operations Committee) and the regional EOCs for decision-making," he said.

The information generated by video surveillance serves to provide data for areas wishing to ease restrictions and move towards a "new normal."

ECU 911's video surveillance system is essential for managing the health emergency, former Undersecretary of the National Directorate of Social Rehabilitation Ricardo Camacho told Xinhua.

The government has praised the work of ECU 911, with Ecuadorean President Lenin Moreno saying that the inter-institutional coordination of ECU 911 and its immediate action "allows us to save lives."

As of Friday, Ecuador has reported 38,571 cases and 3,334 deaths from COVID-19. 
AUSTIN, TX  Despite the cancellation of the "March/Rally for Black Lives and Freedom" that had been scheduled on the grounds of the state Capitol on Sunday, hundreds of protesters took to downtown to condemn police abuse.

Concerns that white folk  and other agitators of color would have co opted the event led to its cancellation, organizers said. The gathering was meant to protest police brutality in the wake of the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, who died after an officer put a knee on his neck for nearly nine minutes. The event had been scheduled from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., starting with a rally at the Texas Capitol before a march to Austin City Hall on West 2nd Street.

Related story:

Despite the cancellation, throngs of protesters took to downtown streets for the third straight day. By Sunday evening, demonstrators took to Interstate 35 near 8th Street  not far from the police headquarters one block over  effectively shutting down a stretch of the artery, as police reported on Twitter. "Please avoid the area as our officers continue to work to keep Austin safe," police wrote on Twitter.

#ATXTraffic: IH-35 NB and SB lanes near 8th Street is currently shut down, due to protesters on the IH-35 proper. Please avoid the area as our officers continue to work to keep Austin safe. pic.twitter.com/v9S8cB2Voy

 Austin Police Department (@Austin_Police) June 1, 2020

Chas Moore of the Austin Justice Coalition cited safety concerns in cancelling the planned rally. Theres no way under my watch  that we can ask people to come out and potentially have black bodies in harms way," Moore said on a Facebook Live broadcast. The activist referenced rumors about other groups seeking to "hijack" the event, which led to its cancellation.



Story continues

The event's shuttering didn't stop hundreds of protesters from descending upon downtown for the third straight day as police acted to control the crowds. Reached by Patch via email, police confirmed some of the crowd dispersal tactics used that were employed: "Smoke and CS gas was deployed from the ground," an Austin Police Department spokesperson wrote in a reply. "Throughout the demonstrations, officers have utilized less lethal munitions."



CS gas is an eye irritant considered to be a non-lethal chemical unless used in great amounts in enclosed spaces, as Chemical World explains in its website. The incapacitory agent  which is actually a fine powder rather than a gas  has long been used for crowd dispersal, according to the website.

"During the Vietnam war, from the mid-1960s into the early 1970s, American forces used CS as a means of clearing enemy troops from underground bunkers, whilst British troops in Northern Ireland used CS from 1969 into the early 1970s to control riots," the website reads. "Although it is now prohibited from use in war by the Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993, its use by police forces is generally legal. CS has been widely employed in many parts of the world for riot control, in places like Bahrain, Nepal, South Korea and Egypt."

Police denied using tear gas, as rally participants and some media outlets had reported. "Smoke was deployed to divert crowds off the highway after multiple warnings were issued," police wrote on Twitter. "APD officers did not deploy tear gas."

MEDIA: Smoke was deployed to divert crowds off of the highway after multiple warnings were issued. APD officers did not deploy tear gas. https://t.co/Dmq48q3P2M

 Austin Police Department (@Austin_Police) May 31, 2020

Some protesters reported crowd-dispersing materials were deployed from a helicopter over Interstate 35 and reports abounded of rubber bullets being used, but police would not confirm the reports: "For the safety of our community and officers, we do not provide detailed information on all of APD tactics," the spokesperson wrote to Patch in an email, referring to the department's Twitter page for further explanation.



Police sought to warn visitors to downtown Austin of the growing hordes of protesters: "Despite reports of demonstration cancellations, there are currently hundreds of people in the downtown Austin area and more on the way," police wrote on Twitter, adding an aerial view of crowds at Austin City Hall to illustrate. "Please expect delays and plan your travel routes accordingly."

UPDATE: Despite reports of demonstration cancelations, there are currently hundreds of people in the downtown Austin area and more on the way. Please expect delays and plan your travel routes accordingly. Photo depicts aerial view of Austin City Hall. #OneAustinSaferTogether pic.twitter.com/xBPJrTqxxP

 Austin Police Department (@Austin_Police) May 31, 2020

Police alerted motorists to a march planned at noon by demonstrators, urging they seek alternative routes if traveling through the downtown area. "We are here to protect your right to assemble and exercise free speech," police wrote, before adding: "Laws will be enforced. Property damage or violence will not be tolerated."

A march is planned to begin at noon in the downtown Austin area. Please find alternate routes if you plan to travel through the city. We are here to protect your right to assemble and exercise free speech. Laws will be enforced. Property damage or violence will not be tolerated.

 Austin Police Department (@Austin_Police) May 31, 2020

At least 19 people have been arrested since Saturday, police noted, as demonstrations pick up steam. On Twitter, the Austin Police Department said 14 people were arrested Saturday and another five on Sunday. Charges ranged assault on a peace officer to obstructing a highway to assault, police said.

APD officers are partnering w/ surrounding agencies this Sunday to keep Austin safe. Arrest numbers pulled earlier this morning indicate 14 people were arrested yesterday and five today. Charges ranged from robbery, to assault on a peace officer and obstructing a highway.

 Austin Police Department (@Austin_Police) May 31, 2020

The Austin Fire Department responded to several incidents during Saturday's protest, including one vehicle fire, nine dumpster fires and a trash fire. Fire officials noted numersou smaller trash fires were extinguished by law enforcement officials.

Updated response numbers related to last nights event - 1 vehicle fire, 9 dumpster fires and 1 trash fire. Numerous smaller trash fires extinguished by law enforcement.

 Austin Fire Info (@AustinFireInfo) May 31, 2020

For their part, Austin-Travis County EMS officials said they had responded to 19 protest-related incidents. Given the chaotic scene, medics advised residents to avoid the downtown area entirely.

Yesterday's #ATCEMS incident responses shows our #ATCEMSMedics respond to approximately 19 protest related incidents. Please remain aware of your surroundings, know your location if you need to call 911, exercise caution, & above all be safe. Avoid the downtown area if possible.

 ATCEMS (@ATCEMS) May 31, 2020

Protesters in Austin demonstrated against police as much for George Floyd, the man who died at the hands of police in Minneapolis, as for Michael Ramos, a 42-year-old man hit first with a beanbag projectile before being fired upon by another officer with a rifle.



On April 24, someone had called police to report Ramos was ingesting drugs in his car while brandishing a gun, but 18 days after his death, police confirmed no firearm had been found. On Friday, District Attorney Margaret Moore said she would send the case to a special grand jury to assess whether the deadly force by police was justified.



Moore emailed an advisory alerting to the man's mother speaking some 15 minutes before her presentation. Patch reached out to ask if people could attend while she spoke or if her presentation would be livestreamed given the short notice. "This is live in person," Moore wrote, offering no further details.

While not mentioned in the announcement of the rally's cancellation, staging a demonstration might have posed logistical challenges after state officials sealed off the entrance to the Capitol grounds after demonstrations on Saturday. Access to the vicinity around the Governor's Mansion also was sealed off after a day of protests by activists condemning police brutality.



After a day of protesting against police brutality on Saturday, May 30, 2020, demonstrators were blocked from reentering the Texas Capitol grounds as officials closed the gates. A phalanx of troopers enforced the closure, standing sentry-like as protesters voiced their dissatisfaction on the sidewalk fronting the closed gates. Photo by Tony Cantu/Patch staff.

Despite the cancellation, demonstrators reportedly were gathered outside the Capitol grounds in protest.

After organizers canceled Sunday's event, Gov. Greg Abbott issued a state of disaster for the entire state, citing the ongoing protests. In announcing the move, Abbott referenced his ability to send resources to cities in an effort to control the protests. On Saturday, the governor dispatched more than 1,500 Texas Department of Public Safety officers to cities with large protests, later sending members of the National Guard to various municipalities to further quell the demonstrations.



Before the event was nixed over safety concerns, Austin Mayor Steve Adler revealed he would not be in attendance even as he voiced solidarity with the cause. The mayor cited the continued spread of the coronavirus as the reason he wouldn't attend the event, urging others to take precautions should they attend the rally.

"Yet again with the cruel virus, Im confronted with a forced choice between two options both of which I dont like," the mayor wrote. "Do I attend todays demonstration to join with others responding to the death of George Floyd and the ever-increasing list of almost exclusively black and brown unarmed people, including Mike Ramos here in Austin, killed by police? When people learn not to expect justice, our civic institutions lose their meaning. Justice demands accountability and action. I want to stand with others to recognize that only a 'just' city is a safe one."

But it's the continued threat of respiratory illness that prompted him to stay home, he said: "I also know that especially large gatherings still present great risk of spreading the virus in ways that would be hard to tract, isolate and control. On Friday, I extended our Stay Home  Stay Safe Order that calls for everyone to minimize their physical interactions so as to best keep us all safe. The virus is still among us and we must remain vigilant. Im not going to attend the demonstration today. The peaceful gathering planned for today is another important moment compromised by the virus, which has already taken so much from all of us but especially black and brown communities. I ask those that attend to be disciplined about social distancing, wearing masks, and maintaining six-foot distancing. And absolutely, anyone not feeling well should stay at home."

Before the event was canceled, others had voiced support to the event's organizers, including members of the Travis County Delegation to the Texas House of Representatives who said in an advisory they "...stand together today in solidarity with all those peacefully protesting and calling for justice in the wake of the murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Michael Ramos and many others. The long history of systemic racism and brutality in American law enforcement systems require immediate and significant reform and accountability."

However, the delegation offered a caveat: "We do not condone any violence, including police violence," member wrote. "By the Constitution, protesters are guaranteed the right to express their views without fear of being shot at, tear-gassed, shoved or hit by police vehicles as we are seeing in video footage from across the nation. We must deescalate this situation and allow for peaceful protests, but we cannot do that as long as some in our American police forces fail in their sworn duty to create a calm and non-violent atmosphere for the expression of our First Amendment rights."

The delegation members added: "Similarly, we repudiate the attacks on our firefighters, police, EMS and other first responders who are working in good faith to facilitate constructive and conflict-free expressions of protest. While some protesters have acted violently, we are seeing across the country that they are often non-representative of the communities they are defacing and attacking. We cannot and will not allow these actions to invalidate the work of millions more calling for justice, peace and the immediate change we must have."

Protests have been sparked nationwide over the death of Floyd with local demonstrations starting on Friday evening and continuing through the weekend. In Austin, those decrying police abuse also have condemned the death of 42-year-old Michael Ramos, who was fatally shot by police on April 24. Despite a caller's assurance Ramos was brandishing a firearm outside an apartment complex, Austin Police Chief Brian Manley confirmed 18 days later that no gun was found in the dead man's vehicle or in the vicinity of the confrontation.

This article originally appeared on the Austin Patch
Washington: US President Donald Trump said on Saturday he would postpone a Group of Seven summit he had hoped to hold next month until September or later and expand the list of invitees to include Australia, Russia, South Korea and India.

Speaking to reporters on Air Force One during his return to Washington from Cape Canaveral in Florida, Trump said the G7, whose members are the world`s most advanced economies, was a "very outdated group of countries" in its current format.

"I`m postponing it because I don`t feel that as a G7 it properly represents what`s going on in the world," Trump said.

It was unclear whether Trump`s desire to invite the additional countries was an effort to permanently expand the G7. On several previous occasions, he suggested Russia be added given what he described as Moscow`s global strategic importance.

White House spokeswoman Alyssa Farah said Trump wants the countries to discuss China at the summit.

Trump has attacked Beijing over its handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which began in China, and on Friday he ordered his administration to begin the process of ending special U.S. treatment for Hong Kong in retaliation for China`s decision to impose a new security law on the former British colony.

The decision to postpone the G7 summit is a retreat for Trump, who had sought to host the group of major industrialized countries in Washington as a demonstration that the United States was returning to normal after the coronavirus epidemic, which has killed more than 103,000 Americans to date.

Trump had canceled an in-person G7 meeting that was scheduled for March as the virus spread, but had recently sought to revive it.

French President Emmanuel Macron backed the idea of an in-person meeting, according to the White House, but Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau declined to endorse it, saying there were too many health-related questions. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said earlier this week she could not attend.

The G7 is made up of the United States, Britain, France, Japan, Germany, Italy and Canada, and the European Union also attends.
The Government of Ghana announced that it plans to borrow 10 billion Ghana Cedis from the Bank of Ghana to enable it to address the economic impact of COVID-19 on the country.



On Thursday, May, 28, 2020, the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta explained that the Gh10 billion will support the national response in the fight against the coronavirus disease.



In relation to this, Lecturer at the University of Ghanas Department of Economics, Dr.Adu Owusu Sarkodie, has said that Government must invest this money into local production to retain the money in the country.



In an interview with host Samuel Eshun on the Happy Morning Show, he explained: What we must be careful about now is that we must ensure the local economy progresses to reduce foreign dominance. We can mention any amount but if that is not invested in local production, we will be at the same place.



He noted that the COVID-19 pandemic has greatly affected the informal sector.



The economic activities have gone very low because of the suspension of social gatherings. Some peoples work depends on the social gatherings of people at weddings and funerals. Vendors who sell during sporting activities have also been affected. This shows that the informal sector is heavily hit by the pandemic, he said.



He, thus, advised that the Government should take advantage of projects such as the building of roads and the building of the eighty-eight district hospitals to improve the local sectors.



Lets make sure that the 10 billion is invested in local production and take advantage of the year of roads and the agenda 88 hospitals. The building materials for these projects can be locally sourced. Even if it is a foreign contractor how do we make sure that most of the workers are Ghanaians? When we do this we can still retain the money in the country, he added.

Source: happyghana.com









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Protecting the environment in conflicts is a crucial need and a shared responsibility of the international community (Photo: Getty)

Quy made the statement at an online discussion jointly held by the Vietnamese Mission to the UN, the Swiss Mission to the UN, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the peace organisation PAX on May 29th in response to the UN Protection of Civilians Week.

He stressed the need for States to pay attention to restore the environment after conflicts to help civilians soon stabilise their life and maintain sustainable peace.

He told participants that Agent Orange/dioxin has caused serious impact on Vietnams population and the environment, as over 3 million Vietnamese people are dioxin victims and hundreds of thousands of hectares of land are contaminated by the chemical.

Meanwhile, addressing dioxin consequences needs huge resources and time, he added.

The diplomat took the occasion to thank UN member states, organisations and the international community for supporting Vietnam in dioxin detoxification and helping dioxin victims.

Delegates at the event emphasised the need for more discussions at UN and UN Security Council mechanisms on environmental protection in armed conflicts as there is a close connection between protection of the environment, protection of civilians, and development goals.

They said that the COVID-19 pandemic is causing negative impacts on the health systems and peoples health as well as reducing national resources for environment-related issues. However, it creates a chance for leaders to review and pay more attention to issues on security and peace.

Emilia Wahlstrom, a policy expert at the UNEP, urged providing conflict-affected civilians and communities with access to information related to environmental issues in conflicts, while stressing the importance of intensifying information sharing between nations and coordination between UN agencies./.
Scenic City Fishing Charters announced another expansion and is now offering seven fishing guides to serve anglers who want to explore Tennessee waterways.



In business since 2006, Scenic City Fishing Charters provides guided fishing trips for bass, trophy catfish, crappie and now trout.

Guide Scott Lillie "is now offering a unique opportunity very few other guides in Tennessee, or even the South, provide. Lillie specializes in deep-water trolling techniques using downriggers and planer boards. He can carry up to two anglers targeting lake trout, rainbow trout and brown trout. Bass and walleye are also potential side benefits.



"Unlike the other six Scenic City Fishing guides, Lillie does not fish on Chattanooga's doorstep. He hits the road focusing specifically on Watauga, Dale Hollow, Chilhowee and Calderwood reservoirs. Many of Tennessee's deep, cold water mountain reservoirs harbor excellent populations of trout thanks to the state's aggressive reservoir stocking programs. Lillie's favorite summer lake is Watauga in Upper East Tennessee.



"There is no experience or angling expertise required. It can be a great new experience for the avid trout angler, or the same great experience for someone who has never touched a fishing rod, including kids."

"This is due to a well-established thermocline which bottlenecks the fish into a narrower band of water where their preferred water temperature is located, he said. Also, rainbow trout have returned from spawning in the upper lake tributaries.



Lillie joins the six other guides already working with Scenic City Fishing Charters, making it one of the largest professional fishing guide operations in Tennessee. TripAdvisor rates Scenic City Fishing Charters as a 5-Star, Hall of Fame business and the #1 Outdoor Activity in Chattanooga (out of 41 outdoor-oriented businesses).



Along with Capt. Lillie, Capt. Richard Simms is also backed up by Capt. Sam Simons, Capt. Ben Hayes, Capt. Ty Konkle, Capt. Joe Jellison and Capt. Chris Peters.



CAPT. RICHARD SIMMS



Born in Chattanooga, Capt. Simms began his career in conservation as a game warden for the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency before becoming a wildlife photographer and public relations officer for TWRA. Along came children and the desire to come back to Chattanooga, leading to a second career as a professional broadcast news journalist for a Chattanooga television station and freelance outdoor writer. Capt. Simms created Scenic City Fishing Charters in 2006, guiding part-time in the beginning. He gave up his television career in 2014 devoting himself to the guide business full-time.



"Scenic City Fishing Charters truly is a labor of love for me," said Capt. Simms. "Chattanooga city and business leaders have done an awesome job developing our riverfront. But our desire is to get folks off of dry land and out onto the water. It is one thing to see giant fish in the Tennessee Aquarium. It is another experience altogether to see one on the end of your line."



CAPT. BEN HAYES



Capt. Ben Hayes is the primary traditional bass guide (using artificial lures) for Scenic City Fishing Charters. He caught his first bass when he was six years old. Chickamauga has been his home lake for nearly thirty years and he says it has been very exciting to see it grow into one of the finest bass lakes in the country. Capt. Hayes loves to help others catch the big bass, guiding all abilities of fishermen... from Mom's and Dad's taking their young children on their first bass fishing trip, to seasoned tournament anglers.



CAPT. SAM SIMONS



Capt. Simons is a teacher, guiding part-time when he's not in the classroom. His peers in education circles call him "The Fishing Teacher." He and Capt. Simms became friends in 2009 when they teamed up for one of Capt. Simons' student outings, rewarding top performing students with a fishing trip. Soon afterwards Capt. Simons decided guiding was the perfect way to spend his days away from the classroom "educating" others about the bountiful fishing opportunities on the Tennessee River.



CAPT. TY KONKLE



Captain Ty Konkle is perhaps the best trophy catfish guide for Scenic City Fishing Charters with what often seems to be an uncanny ability to find river monsters. He considers himself "a student of all things catfish." He even keeps a huge aquarium stocked with Blue and Flathead Catfish in his home. He loves catching numbers and is certainly good at it, but given the choice he likes to "go big or go home." He says that's why the phrase, "It's called fishing, not catching! is sometimes true.



CAPT. JOE JELLISON



Capt. Joe Jellison actually started out as a client of Scenic City Fishing Charters. Now the student has become the teacher. Like Capt. Simons, Capt. Jellison is a teacher, guiding part-time, fulltime during the summer and during other breaks from the classroom. His catfishing exploits are known far and wide thanks to his incredibly popular YouTube Channel called Chatt Cats Fishing with more than 86,000 subscribers, garnering national, if not worldwide notoriety.



CAPT. CHRIS PETERS



Capt. Chris Peters runs traditional largemouth bass trips on Chickamauga Lake along with Capt. Hayes. When he's not on the water chasing bass, Capt. Peters serves his community battling blazes as a fulltime firefighter. Capt. Peters grew up on Chickamauga Lake where he cut his teeth as a young tournament angler fishing local tournaments. He has consistently placed high on the leader board of Chattanooga Bass Association Tournament Trail and other tournament trails along the Tennessee River System.



GUIDE SCOTT LILLIE



Guide Scott Lillie cut his teeth learning to troll for trout and salmon on the Great Lakes. He grew to love the very specialized downrigging and trolling techniques and has transferred the skills acquired over 30 years to Tennessee. He says, These tools allow us to present our baits in water that is impossible to fish using traditional techniques. Lillie can carry up to two anglers targeting lake trout, rainbow trout and brown trout. Bass and walleye are also potential side benefits. And best of all, it is on beautiful water in some of the most scenic areas Tennessee has to offer. As the saying goes, Trout only live in pretty places. Sit back, relax and enjoy a unique trout fishing trip with Lillie. Lillie also makes and sells his own lures.






Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-30 23:38:12|Editor: huaxia

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ANKARA, May 30 (Xinhua) -- Turkish security forces killed five members of the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) in northern Syria, and two members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in northern Iraq, Turkey's Defense Ministry said on Saturday.

"Two PKK terrorists have been neutralized in Avasin region in an airstrike after they were determined by means of reconnaissance and surveillance. Our operations continue until the last terrorist is neutralized," said the ministry in its Twitter account.

Turkish authorities often use the term "neutralize" in statements to imply the terrorists in question surrendered or were killed or captured.

In a separate statement, the Defense Ministry also said that the Turkish commandos "neutralized" five members of the YPG in northern Syria as they were trying to "infiltrate into the region of Peace Spring aiming to destroy peace and security environment."

Turkish security forces have long been conducting operations against the PKK in southeastern Turkey and in northern Iraq where the group has hideouts. These operations are intensified in the past few months. PKK members often use northern Iraq to launch cross-border attacks in Turkey.

Turkey sees the YPG group as the Syrian branch of the PKK. The Turkish army launched Operation Euphrates Shield in 2016, Operation Olive Branch in 2018, Operation Peace Spring in 2019, and Operation Spring Shield in 2020 in northern Syria in order to create a YPG-free zone along its border within the neighboring country.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States, and the EU, has been rebelling against the Turkish government for over 30 years, which has claimed the lives of more than 40,000 people. Enditem
Americans give President Donald Trump negative ratings for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, and as the crisis has persisted his prospects for reelection in November have eroded, with former vice president Joe Biden now holding a clear lead nationally, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Overall, Americans offer mixed assessments of Trump and Biden, and although the presumptive Democratic nominee is viewed less favorably overall today than he was last fall, he fares better than the president on several personal attributes. At the same time, Trump's supporters are notably more enthusiastic and committed to voting for him in the fall than are those who currently back Biden.

Biden leads Trump 53 percent to 43 percent among registered voters nationally. That 10 percentage-point margin compares with what was a virtual dead heat between the two candidates two months ago, when Biden was at 49 percent and Trump 47 percent. Among all adults, Biden's margin widens to 13 points (53 percent to 40 percent).

Against a rapidly changing backdrop - with the coronavirus far from contained, the prospects for the economy remaining rocky as many businesses begin to reopen and violence convulsing cities across the nation - the poll captures the moment. But it is not predictive as to the political fallout and implications for November, especially given the possible disparity between the popular vote and the electoral college results as was the case in 2016.

Among Trump supporters, 84 percent of adults say they would definitely vote for him in November, compared with 68 percent of Biden supporters. Among Trump backers, 87 percent say they are enthusiastic about supporting him and 64 percent are "very enthusiastic." Among Biden supporters, 74 percent say they are enthusiastic about backing him, with 31 percent saying they are "very enthusiastic."

When a Biden-Trump contest is filtered only through those who currently say they are certain to vote, the former vice president's margin is cut in half (51-46 percent). That highlights the significance of efforts by both campaigns to register and turn out every possible supporter and heightens the ongoing debate over whether states should make voting by mail easier, which Trump opposes even as his party has promoted it as a tool.

On the question of making voting by mail easier, 87 percent of Democrats and 67 percent of independents favor such moves by the states, while 61 percent of Republicans oppose such changes, including 53 percent who say they are strongly opposed. Overall, 65 percent of adults express support.

As they think about the problems the next president will inherit, Americans are evenly divided over whether Trump or Biden is better equipped to manage a recovery of the battered economy (47 percent each), while Biden is favored over Trump as the leader to manage efforts to control the spread of the virus (50 percent to 42 percent).

Two months ago, Trump reached his highest approval rating in Post-ABC polls and for the first time he was in narrowly positive territory with 48 percent approving to 46 percent disapproving. The current poll puts him back into negative territory, with 45 percent approving and 53 percent disapproving.

The decline is also evident in assessments of Trump's handling of the coronavirus crisis. Two months ago, as the nation was beginning to shutter itself to halt the spread of the virus, he was in positive territory, 51 percent to 45 percent. Today he has slipped to 46 percent approving and 53 percent disapproving.

Trump's stronger ratings in March were fueled in part by improved standing among some Democratic-leaning groups, some swing voters and also among women, signs of a rally effect that past presidents have experienced during national crises. That support has now receded, both on his handling of the pandemic and his overall rating. Among women, for example, approval on Trump's handling of the virus has moved from an even split in March (48 percent to 48 percent disapproval) to significantly negative now (39 percent positive to 59 percent negative).

On the economy, the president's ratings are still in positive territory, at 52 percent of Americans approving and 44 percent disapproving. But that also reflects slippage since March, when he was net positive by 19 points.

At a time when more than 40 million people have applied for unemployment insurance, the jobless rate in April was 14.7 percent and some small businesses have been closed permanently, assessments of the economy have understandably turned sour. The poll finds that 34 percent of Americans give the economy a positive rating while 65 percent offer a negative rating, including 24 percent who offer the harshest verdict by saying the current state is "poor."

These overall findings mask sharp differences among partisans. Six in 10 Republicans currently give the economy positive ratings, including nearly 1 in 5 who say the economy is excellent. More than 8 in 10 Democrats and almost 7 in 10 independents, on the other hand, rate the economy negatively.

Neither Trump nor Biden is viewed favorably by a majority of Americans, although impressions of the president are significantly worse. Biden is seen favorably by 46 percent compared with 48 percent who say they have an unfavorable view of him. For Trump, 42 percent say they have a favorable view compared with 55 percent who see him unfavorably.

Biden's significant decline in personal popularity - last fall he was seen favorably by 53 percent and negatively by 37 percent - likely reflects some of the damage from attacks he received from Democratic rivals during the nomination contest and those the Trump campaign have been launching recently.

The Trump campaign has a huge financial advantage over Biden and is expected to use it to further sully his image in an attempt to re-create the circumstances that helped lead to Trump's election in 2016. Four years ago, Trump was seen unfavorably - but rival Hillary Clinton had an image nearly as negative. Compared to Clinton, Biden currently fares better. At this time four years ago, Clinton's favorability was 44 percent positive and 53 percent negative, the latter figure five points worse than Biden.

Democrats are counting on strong support from suburban voters, especially women, to help fuel a possible victory in November. Currently, suburbanites are more favorable toward Biden than they were toward Clinton in May 2016, with Biden at 50 percent favorable compared with 38 percent who were favorable toward Clinton then.

The difference is evident among both suburban women (56 percent say they are favorable of Biden now, 42 percent were favorable of Clinton then) and suburban men (43 percent vs. 33 percent).

Among Hispanics, whose votes are crucial to Democrats' hopes, Biden is viewed less favorably today than was Clinton in May 2016. Four years ago, Clinton was viewed favorably by 76 percent of Hispanics. Today, 56 percent see Biden favorably. During the primary season, Biden sometimes fared poorly among Hispanics compared with his rival Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.

It is on a range of personal attributes that Biden's standing solidifies. Nearly half (48 percent) see Biden as honest and trustworthy, compared with 35 percent for Trump. On the question of empathy, Biden is viewed slightly negatively overall, with 45 percent saying he "understands the problems of people like you" and 49 percent saying he does not. Yet Trump fares worse at 38 percent saying he does and 61 saying he does not.

Biden also rates higher than Trump on whether he has the personality and temperament to be president and whether he has the mental sharpness to serve as president. In both cases, a narrow majority say yes for Biden while a narrow majority say Trump does not have the mental sharpness needed and a larger majority say he lacks the proper personality and temperament.

Trump scores slightly better on the question of whether he is a strong leader, with 50 percent saying yes and 49 percent saying no. For Biden, 43 percent see him as a strong leader while 49 percent do not.

Senior citizen voters helped propel Trump in 2016, and the poll underscores how the group's differing assessment of the 2020 matchup has complicated his chances in November. Four years ago, Trump won seniors by 7 points, 52 percent to 45 percent, according to network exit polls. In The Post-ABC survey, Biden has the edge among older registered voters by 10 points, 54 percent to 44 percent.

Trump also carried white women in 2016 by a margin of nine points according to exit polling, although other estimates find a narrower margin. The Post-ABC poll shows Biden at 51 percent to Trump's 45 percent, a narrow edge.

Biden holds a 2-1 lead among voters under age 40, a bigger margin than Clinton's in 2016. But those younger voters are both far less enthusiastic about supporting Biden and less likely to turn out to vote than older Biden backers.

Trump has the edge among voters in the South while Biden leads in the Northeast and the West. A subsample in the new poll that includes registered voters in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Ohio and Iowa shows a tight contest across those states, with Biden at 51 percent and Trump at 46 percent.

The Post-ABC poll was conducted May 25-28 by phone among a random national sample of 1,001 adults, with 75 percent of interviews conducted by cellphone. The margin of sampling error for overall results is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points; the error margin is four points for the sample of 835 registered voters.

- - -

The Washington Post's Scott Clement contributed to this report.
As a part of the changed scheme, the government has dropped a clause that included the evaluation of plant and machinery that came from China and South Korea.

India may see more iPhones and other handsets being manufactured in the coming months as the government has eased some rules for its PLI (Production Linked incentive) scheme, according to a report by the Economic Times. It has been reported that as a part of the changed scheme, the government has dropped a clause that included the evaluation of plant and machinery that came from China and South Korea.

The empowered committee of secretaries met on Friday and decided to remove the clause, which evaluated plant and machinery brought into India at 40% of its value, and has agreed to a few other changes so that manufacturing could shift to India in a big way, an official told ET.

Also mentioned is that the Indian govt is already in talks with Pegatron, one of Apple device manufacturers, to relocate some of its manufacturing units to India.

Also read: China ready to put Apple, other U.S. companies in 'unreliable entity list'

The move is basically meant to attract US companies to diversify their manufacturing plants from China to other parts of the world as well.

Some of the other changes made include removal of various caps including another clause which said the government would release the incentive despite the industry meeting its targets only if it had the money to do so. In addition a new clause is added that lets companies seek relief from touching targets during natural calamities, for instance Covid-19.

Earlier this month it was reported that Apple is already in talks with top government officials over the last few months "examining the possibility of shifting nearly a fifth of its production capacity from China to India". According to reports, Apple currently sells smartphones "worth some $1.5 billion in India, of which less than $0.5 billion is locally manufactured, and has market share of some 2-3%".
On Saturday, San Antonio joined other cities in rallying for the arrest of the Minneapolis Police Department officers in connection to the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died while in police custody on Monday.

On Sunday, volunteers took to downtown to help with cleanup efforts after the demonstrations ended in violence, vandalism and looting.

On ExpressNews.com: Heavy police presence, community cleanup in S.A. after violence and looting

Mayor Ron Nirenberg imposed a 10 p.m. curfew for the downtown business district that ends at 6 a.m. Monday. City officials expressed hope that Sunday would be the last night a curfew would be necessary.

We really dont want to have to use these tools, Nirenberg said. But if there are demonstrations, if there are agitators out there, were going to do what we need to do to keep the peace.

Below is an abridged timeline of the Saturday night events. For a full timeline, visit ExpressNews.com.

11:30 p.m. | Mayor Ron Nirenberg signed a local disaster declaration and issued a temporary curfew for the downtown area effective 11:30 p.m. to 6 a.m. Sunday and from 10 p.m. on Sunday until 6 a.m. Monday.

This brief curfew will protect the safety of people and property in the downtown business district while allowing the vast majority of people to peacefully assemble, Nirenberg said.

11 p.m. | Officers are deploying flash-bang grenades .

10:30 p.m. | Mayor Ron Nirenberg posted to Facebook: "What started out as a righteous demonstration has devolved for a few folks out there. I hope everyone downtown tonight realizes this is your city, too."

10:24 p.m. | A line of officers deployed tear gas at protestors at N. Alamo Street and Houston Street. A solid line of officers armed with batons, wearing gas masks, then began moving toward the crowd, forcing them up North Alamo in an attempt to disperse those remaining.

9:23 p.m. | As demonstrations continue in Alamo Plaza and the surrounding area, protestors egged SAPD squad cars, put protest signs on them and broke a window at the San Antonio visitors center. 

8:00 p.m. | A stampede of protestors ensued. People sprinted from the scene, running into each other and screaming. Some said theyd heard rubber bullets being fired. Others said the police had begun to enclose on the protestors in a way that caused them to run. Most ran because others were running, fearful of a shooting.

7:44 p.m. | At Alamo Plaza, protestors alternate between yelling at police and at Alamo defenders, who are behind them. Police have formed a barricade of bikes, and another row of police are carrying batons between both groups.

6:44 p.m. | The San Antonio Police Department estimates that at least 5,000 people marched against police brutality and to commemorate George Floyd. The crowd remained peaceful as it passed SAPD headquarters and headed back toward Travis Park.

5:36 p.m. | At Travis Park, hundreds of people are gathered to listen to activists and community members speak about overcoming racial injustice. The crowd stands quiet, until theyre prompted by speakers to briefly chant, We cant breathe! and Black lives matter!

5:10 p.m. | Next to the Alamo, theres a line of at least a dozen police cars, where officers are suiting up in protective vests and riot gear. Some have batons and zip ties, a couple have shields. They are closest to the counter protest planned at the Cenotaph, not the George Floyd demonstration.

4:30 p.m. | In preparation for Saturday evenings demonstration against police brutality and the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, San Antonio Police Chief William McManus told reporters during a news briefing that there will be a massive law enforcement presence around the downtown area.

RELATED: 'He did not deserve to die': Notable San Antonians react to George Floyd's death
By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: Two officials of the Pakistan High Commission here were apprehended by law enforcement officials for their alleged involvement in espionage and have been asked to leave the country within 24 hours.

"The government has declared both these officials persona non grata for indulging in activities incompatible with their status as members of a diplomatic mission and asked them to leave the country within twenty-four hours," a statement from the Ministry of External Affairs stated.

According to sources, the two persons have been identified as Abid Hussain and Tahir Khan. While Abid is a resident of Sheikhpura in Punjab, Tahir is a resident of Islamabad.

Sources said the duo was apprehended in a joint operation by the Delhi Police and Military Intelligence. They have been handed over to the MEA now. Officials said a third Pakistani, a driver with the mission, was also detained during the operation.

According to the statement, Pakistan's Charge de Affaires was issued a demarche and a strong protest was lodged against the two officials whose activities were against India's national security.

"The Pakistan Charge de Affaires was asked to ensure that no member of its diplomatic mission should indulge in activities inimical to India or behave in a manner incompatible with their diplomatic status," the statement added.
I dont think were there yet, she says. If they absolutely have to see grandchildren in person, then they must abide by the recommendations, which is to wear a mask and gloves, and stay six feet away. Say hello to them but dont touch them. No hugs and kisses. Lots of hand-washing and be sure the older person is up to speed on vaccines, including for influenza, Tdap (tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis) and pneumococcal pneumonia. If you have to see them, they cant touch you, and you cant touch them. I know this is difficult, but even if the kids are staying home, their parents probably arent.
The Spanish government has secured the support that it will need in the Congress of Deputies to pass a sixth extension to the ongoing state of alarm, which was first implemented by the Cabinet on March 14 in a bid to halt the spread of the coronavirus.

The executive has reached a deal with the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV), which will vote in favor of the extension, according to sources from the group. Meanwhile, the Catalan Republican Left (ERC) will abstain at the vote in Spains lower house of parliament on Wednesday, after voting against the last two extensions.

The state of alarm is the lowest of three emergency states under Spanish law, and was brought into force by the Spanish government to be able to confine citizens to their homes due to the spread of the epidemic, among other powers. Since then, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has had to request approval in Congress on a two-weekly basis to extend the exceptional measures.

ERC voted against the extension of the state of alarm on the last two occasions

Sanchez, of the Socialist Party (PSOE), heads a coalition government with junior partner Unidas Podemos, but lacks a working majority in the Congress of Deputies. As such, he has had to secure support from other parties in order to pass legislation  including extensions to the state of alarm. Initially he had the support of other groups in Congress, but as the coronavirus crisis has continued  claiming more than 27,000 lives in Spain, according to official figures  some parties, including the main opposition Popular Party (PP), have withdrawn their votes in favor or abstentions.

In exchange for their support at Wednesdays vote  which is due to be the last extension to the state of alarm, which will expire on June 21  the Basque and Catalan nationalist parties have secured commitment from the government that all of Spains regions will recover the majority of the powers that were recentralized under the state of alarm when they enter Phase 3, the last stage of the governments coronavirus deescalation plan.

The deal with ERC  negotiated between Sanchez and Catalan deputy premier Pere Aragones and their respective teams  responds to the partys requests for the regions to be involved in the European Unions economic reactivation fund, but it does not include the reactivation of plans for talks between Madrid and the Catalan government over the future of the region, which has for many years now been immersed in a drive for independence from Spain.

Regional powers

ERC voted against the extension of the state of alarm on the last two occasions on the basis that the Sanchez government had ignored its proposals during negotiations, which included restoring full powers over healthcare to the regional governments, among other demands. The deal reached with the pro-independence party in exchange for support at the vote includes the return of all powers to the region in Phase 3 of the deescalation plan, apart from those covering freedom of movement.

The government has also agreed to create an alternative mechanism to the state of alarm that would guarantee co-governance between the central and regional governments in a similar situation to the one created by the coronavirus pandemic. Catalonia and other Spanish regions have continually complained that the state of alarm had removed their powers of decision-making in their territories. According to the deal, these legal reforms will be presented in a congressional commission with the commitment of approving them in the space of three months.

English version by Simon Hunter.
Vera Uwaila Omozuwa, a first year Microbiology student of the University of Benin, UNIBEN was reportedly raped and battered inside RCCG church in Benin, Edo state.

According to reports from her friends on Social Media, Vera was molested on the 29th of May, 2020 inside a church, near Ikpoba Hill in Benin City.

Photo credit:Mr. [email protected]

According to reports, on the said day, Vera had gone into the church to read, whist preparing f or a possible school resumption after several months of staying at home, due to the lockdown order in the country.

While reading on the said date, her attackers ambushed her right inside the church, raped her and smashed her head with a fire extinguisher, leaving her for dead.

Photo credit:Mr. [email protected]

According to a source, The churchs security officer had gone to collect the keys to the church from its keeper when he was told that there was someone in the church already.

He got to the church only to find Uwaila in a pool of blood and next to her was the fire extinguisher which was used to bash her face.

He ran back to inform the key keeper and his wife, who went to the church to meet her lifeless, thinking she was dead. After careful observation, they noticed she moved her hand and quickly rushed her to the hospital.

It was at the hospital that Uwaila revealed she was reading all alone when some unknown men came into the church, beat, raped and hit her head with a fire extinguisher. However, she later passed on.

The case was eventually reported to Oregbeni Police Station, but nothing has been done about it so far. Her friends and family have now taken to social media to demand action, using the hashtag #JusticeForUwa.

Photo credit:Mr. [email protected] OTO]

A family source, who confirmed the development, described the deceased as an easy-going person.
Chattanooga Police said protestors damaged property throughout downtown Chattanooga, threw rocks at police, fought with officers, and blocked roadways during several hours of tumult late Saturday night and early Sunday morning.

Twelve were arrested, including several from out of town.

After the arrests the group of around 150 protestors surrounded the downtown jail and courts area before finally dispersing around 3 a.m.

There were several separate protests downtown on Saturday relating to the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis. Marchers yelled "No Justice. No Peace" as they marched across the Walnut Street Bridge early Saturday evening.

Police said they tried to break up the large "rancorous" crowd unsuccessfully for around three hours, then acts of vandalism and confrontations with officers began around 11 p.m. in North Chattanooga. They continued for several more tense hours.

Officers who were summoned to the scene included Chattanooga Police, Sheriff's officers and Tennessee Highway Patrol. Police Chief David Roddy was at the scene throughout the day attempting to communicate with the group.

The protestors occupied all four lanes of the Market Street Bridge as they headed toward the north side of the river. At the intersection of Market and Frazier they began a "sit in" at the busy intersection.

Ordered to quit blocking the roadway, the group rose and began marching down the center of Frazier Avenue heading east. A pedestrian lane was open and attempts were made to steer the group toward Coolidge Park. The group resisted and camped at the intersection of Frazier and Tremont, while completely taking over the eastbound lanes.

Officers formed a line and were able to move the protestors off the roadway, then there was a surge back onto Frazier by the group, police said. At this time Caleb Jenkins, Erica Chacon, Taira Truss and Colby Prigmore were taken into custody. Jenkins is from 404 Coffee Lane, Loudon, Tn. Ms. Chacon is from 175 Corvin Meadows Lane, Dayton, Tn., Ms. Truss is from 709 N. Holly St., and Prigmore is from 210 Railroad St., Dayton, Tn.

Police also arrested Sydnie R. Jeffers, of 901 Mountain Creek Road, Apt. 155, for refusing repeated commands to get out of the roadway.

Police said prior to 1 a.m., the large group headed back toward downtown over the Walnut Street Bridge. They "proceeded to travel around the city damaging property all over the downtown area. They went as far south as MLK Boulevard, then along Chestnut "continuing to damage property around the city."

At 7th and Market, an officer took Kristin Holloway, of 821 W. 14th St. Court, into custody for "obstructing a roadway when asked, inciting a riot, and disorderly conduct." Police said he refused to move out of the roadway and was also seen knocking a civilian down.

They next gathered near Buffalo Wild Wings at 100 Market St. just before 1 a.m. They "were continually ordered to peacefully disperse."

Police said two individuals began throwing rocks at officers. They said Denishia Price, of 261 Long Island Road, South Pittsburg, was taken into custody after a chase. Police said during this arrest an individual named Dylan Hardwick approached police yelling. He "was detained until police could calm the scene down." Hardwick, of 4112 E. Stump St., East Ridge, was arrested.

A large rock was then thrown at officers seeking to disperse the crowd. It struck a patrol car and came close to an officer who was standing behind the vehicle.

At that point an officer noticed an individual in a dark shirt running up the hill from Market Street toward the Hunter Museum. The officer said he began to crest the hill at Aquarium Way as bits of concrete were still being thrown at him. Another officer joined in the pursuit as they got to the top of the hill and saw two individuals running away. The pair refused commands to halt.

The officers caught up with the pair at the Hunter Museum. One of the officers drew his tazer on Skyler Dover and he took the tazer away. An officer said he then "stunned (Dover) in the small of his back and it was effective." Dover, of 1406 Morris Hill Road, was then taken into custody along with the female with him.

Back at Market Street near Buffalo Wild Wings officers formed a line to try to keep protestors from entering the streets. Police said a white male tried to push through the line of officers and physically made contact with them. Police said the man, Eric L. Morton, of 310 Marilyn Dr., Jasper, Tn., again tried to push through officers and became physical. It took several officers to take him to the ground and get him into custody, it was stated.

At the same location, police said Darryon Wood pushed officers and tried to assist a friend to get away. Wood, of 1109 E. 8th St., was then taken into custody.

A short time later, police said an officer was pushed by Shaun McAfee, of 1446 Bradt St. McAfee was removed from the protest area and taken into custody.

Click here for video of the march on Walnut Street.

In Nashville protestors set fire to the courthouse. They also toppled a statue to Edward Ward Carmack, a politician and newspaperman who had a running battle with civil rights activist Ida B. Wells.

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee responded by calling out the National Guard, and a 10 p.m. curfew was set.

The governor said, "At the request of Mayor Cooper, I am authorizing the National Guard to mobilize in response to protests that have now taken a violent, unlawful turn in Nashville. The threat to both peace and property is unacceptable and we will work with local law enforcement and community leaders to restore safety and order. This is not a reflection of our state or the fundamental American right to peaceful protest.
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Peshawar:

A suicide bomber on Friday blew himself up at crowded Mardan district courts, killing 12 people and wounding 52 others, hours after security forces killed four suicide attackers who tried to storm a Christian neighbourhood in Peshawar in Pakistan's restive Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.

The attacker detonated a hand grenade before exploding his suicide vest among the morning crowds at the main gate of Mardan district courts.

"First there was a small blast followed by a big blast," chief rescue officer in Mardan Haris Habib said.

"So far we have recovered 12 bodies of lawyers, police personnel and civilians. Besides this, we rescued 52 injured, including lawyers, police personnel and civilians from the spot," Habib was quoted as saying by the Express Tribune.

The injured have been shifted to a nearby hospital. A state of emergency has been declared at local hospitals and security has been tightened in all adjoining areas.

Also read:

Suicide bomb blast kills 10, injures 30 in Pakistan's Mardan, hours after Peshawar terrorist attack

Pakistan: Suicide attack in Peshawars Christian colony; 4 terrorists, 1 civilian killed

This was second attack on Pakistan's legal community. Last month, a blast in southern Balochistan province capital Quetta killed more than 70 people, nearly wiping out the senior lawyers of the city.

Friday's attack on court occurred hours after four heavily-armed suicide attackers tried to storm a Christian colony in Peshawar, killing one person and wounding several others before being gunned down by security forces.

In the predawn attack in the same province, terrorists struck the colony near Warsak Dam, just north of Peshawar, and killed one Christian security guard.

Soldiers backed by army helicopters rushed to spot where they exchanged gunfire with terrorists. All four terrorists were killed during the encounter.

Five persons including two Frontier Corps personnel, one policeman and two civilian guards were injured in the attack.

Director General Inter-Services Public Relations Lt-Gen Asim Bajwa tweeted that all four terrorists have been killed.

"Terrorist attacked Christian Colony Warsak Road, Peshawar. Security forces promptly responded. All 4 suicide bombers killed. Search in progress," Bajwa tweeted.

Two of the attackers detonated their suicide jackets while two others were killed by security forces.

No outfit has claimed responsibility for the attack, but such attacks are blamed on the Taliban.

A Taliban suicide bomber had targeted Christians in Lahore at Easter this year, killing more than 70 people.

Taliban militants stormed an army-run school in Peshawar in December 2014, killing more than 150 people, mostly children, in Pakistan's one of the worst terror attacks.

Today's attacks came a day after an army spokesman said that Pakistan had destroyed organised presence of militants on its soil.

The army had launched operation 'Zarb-e-Azb' in June 2014 in a bid to flush out militants from the country's restive tribal areas and bring an end to the militancy that has killed thousands of civilian since 2004.

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In response to reported statement by Nigerian Ruler, Muhammadu Buhari, that former dictator, Sani Abacha, stole close to $1billion, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), Saturday faulted Buharis submission, saying that Abacha stole far more than $1billion.

The group cited Transparency International report, which submitted that Abacha may have stolen between $3bn and $5bn in public money.

Recall that Buhari had in his article titled Post-Coronavirus, Africas Manufacturing Moment, published on Newsweek.com, said, Nigeria can now move forward with road, rail and power station construction in part, under own resources-thanks to close to a billion dollars of funds stolen from the people of Nigeria under a previous, undemocratic junta in the 1990s that have now been returned to our country from the U.S., U.K. and Switzerland.

That these friendly nations agreed to return these funds after so long is testament to the fact that, thanks to our governance reforms, Nigeria is rightly seen as an increasingly stable and beneficial place to transact and invest.

Responding to the above, SERAP, said Abachas money was far more than that and asked Buhari to:

Clarify this statement Immediately enforce the judgment by Justice M. Idris ordering his government to publish spending details on recovered assets by governments since 1999

Instruct the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami to properly respond to our FoI request on Abacha loot.

We urge @MBuhari to:

1. clarify this statement

2. immediately enforce the judgment by Justice M. Idris ordering his government to publish spending details on recovered assets by governments since 1999

3. instruct AGF Malami to properly respond to our FoI request on Abacha loot  SERAP (@SERAPNigeria) May 30, 2020

Recall also that the regime had on May 28, 2020, opened technical bids for the monitoring and implementation of the $311m Abacha loot recently repatriated to Nigeria from United States and the Bailiwick of Jersey.

Reacting, Abubakar Malami, attorney-general of the federation, said the fund is specially dedicated to the construction of the LagosIbadan expressway, AbujaKano road, and the Second Niger Bridge.
Two children walk on an unpaved road between thatch-roofed houses in Gangchon, Gangwon Province, near Bukhan River, in this 1968 photo taken by Japanese pastor Nomura Motoyuki. / Photo from Noonbit Publishing



By Kang Hyun-kyung



Japanese pastor Nomura Motoyuki, 89, is a self-appointed civic ambassador having dedicated his entire life to helping Koreans and Japanese reconcile with each other to move forward from their tragic past.



Rev. Nomura, also a photographer and author of three photobooks, has been campaigning for Korea, claiming that Japan owes a sincere apology to its neighbor.



"As a national of the country that occupied Korea, I think Japan needs to offer a heart-felt apology to Koreans," he said in the foreword of his latest photobook titled "Gangchon in Korea" published by Noonbit Publishing, Wednesday.



He reiterated his decades-old demand that Japan take measures to mend ties with Korea.



Nomura visited Seoul's urban poor in the 1970s to feed the poorest of the poor as his government turned a deaf ear to his repeated calls.



The Japanese pastor raised money to help them live better lives. He sold his assets and used the money to save a financially strapped small church near Cheonggye Stream in central Seoul. He arranged for U.S. charity groups to help Korea with relief goods and services in the 1960s and 1970s.



Since his first visit to Korea in 1968, he has traveled back and forth between Korea and Japan dozens of times to fulfill his commitment to help the two neighbors end their historical animosity and move on.



His new book "Gangchon in Korea" is another gesture to deliver his message of thanks to the Koreans for their warmth. It presents 136 black-and-white photos featuring Koreans living in the namesake rural town near the Bukhan River in the nation's eastern province of Gangwon. The pictures were taken in 1968 during his first visit to Korea.



In the foreword, he said he had mixed feelings when the airplane landed at Gimpo International Airport. "I had longed to visit Korea since the 1950s, and finally I stepped into its territory in summer 1968," he said. "I couldn't forget the nervous excitement that I had when my airplane arrived in the Gimpo airport which used to be an airfield for the Japanese air force during the colonial period."



Back then, the Japanese pastor recalled people of the two countries had a deep distrust of each other. Koreans were suspicious about his motives, whereas Japanese were sarcastic about his goodwill-based mission in Korea, he said.



"Japanese who were aware of my Korea trip would blatantly ask me why I wanted to go there. When I said I would like to play a role in building peace between the two countries, most of them were skeptical," he said. "(In the 1960s) the Japanese economy was not good. I remember the situation in South Korea was even worse because the country was struggling with economic difficulty as well as political instability."





Two boys on a bicycle look back as Rev. Nomura (not seen in this photo) takes a photo. / Photo from Noonbit Publishing



His Korea mission was full of obstacles, and he faced criticism on both fronts. He endured derision from fellow Japanese. Koreans, meanwhile, were still reeling from the Korean War that broke out five years after the country was liberated from Japan, and were suspicious about his motives and revealed their deep-seated distrust toward Japanese people like him.



But he found a glimpse of hope amid frustration. Koreans he met in Gangchon were warm and naive and they tried to help him out.



Rev. Nomura mentioned a Korean headmaster of a middle school in Gangchon who was willing to provide a place for him to stay and helped him feel at home during his visit.



"Gangchon in Korea" presents Koreans' warmth and hospitality toward the rare Japanese visitor. Korea's peaceful rural scenery, farmers in white clothes and the iconic black rubber shoes and children with happy smiles were captured by the Japanese pastor.



Living in Kobuchizawa, Yamanachi Prefecture, nestled high in the mountains, Nomura is said to have lamented about worsening Korea-Japan relations in recent years.



"He himself liked to be called halaboji (grandfather) or halbae (granddaddy) in Korean, rather than Reverend or Pastor Nomura because he take such titles as a symbol of authoritarianism," said Lee Kyu-sang, the founder and publisher of Noonbit Publishing.



"He is worried about Korea-Japan ties as they have been going from bad to worse and the coronavirus pandemic has made things even more worse as it cut flights between them."



"Gangchon in Korea" was released Wednesday, months after Nomura's second photobook "Memories of Yushin" was published by Noonbit Publishing.



His first photobook "Nomura Report" (2013) captured Korea's urban poor in the Cheonggye neighborhood in central Seoul in the 1960s and '70s.




- Vice Ganda has been posting about positivity and how to balance one's stress on his social media account

- However, this did not sit well with some netizens who started calling the comedian out for spreading 'toxic positivity'

- This prompted Vice to address the backlash he has received from the online community afterwards

- According to Vice, they should stop being a toxic follower and should just unfollow him instead

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Vice Ganda has recently told the people in the online community to stop being a toxic follower.

It can be worth noting that these past few days, the It's Showtime host has recently been called out by some netizens for his online posts about positivity.

According to some netizens, Vice should stop spreading 'toxic positivity' since there is a lot of pressing matters and issues in the Philippines.

Following this news, KAMI learned that the comedian has finally addressed the netizens who have been calling him out about his previous tweets.

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According to Vice, he doesn't want to add to the stress these netizens are currently experiencing. He then added that it would be better if they just unfollowed him instead.

"Ayoko pong makadagdag sa mga pinagdadaanan niyo. Kung ok ako sa inyo at mga tweets ko please continue following me. Salamat po.

"Pero kung ayaw niyo sakin at sa mga tweets ko please do yourselves a little favor. Please unfollow me. Don't allow me to annoy you. And don't be a toxic follower," he wrote.

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As reported earlier by KAMI, the joke of Vice Ganda for Quiboloy was used in Congress to tackle the shutdown of ABS-CBN. Deputy Speaker Rodante Marcoleta played a video where the comedian was seen challenging the pastor. The Its Showtime host immediately reacted after learning that his funny statement was used. He took a swipe at the politician for taking his joke for Pastor Quiboloy seriously.

Vice Ganda is a popular actor, comedian, television host, and recording artist in the Philippines. He starred in many blockbuster movies including Praybeyt Benjamin.

POPULAR: Read more news about Vice Ganda

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Source: KAMI.com.gh
We've lost count of how many times insiders have accumulated shares in a company that goes on to improve markedly. Unfortunately, there are also plenty of examples of share prices declining precipitously after insiders have sold shares. So shareholders might well want to know whether insiders have been buying or selling shares in AppsVillage Australia Limited (ASX:APV).

Do Insider Transactions Matter?

Most investors know that it is quite permissible for company leaders, such as directors of the board, to buy and sell stock in the company. However, rules govern insider transactions, and certain disclosures are required.

We don't think shareholders should simply follow insider transactions. But logic dictates you should pay some attention to whether insiders are buying or selling shares. For example, a Columbia University study found that 'insiders are more likely to engage in open market purchases of their own companys stock when the firm is about to reveal new agreements with customers and suppliers'.

See our latest analysis for AppsVillage Australia

AppsVillage Australia Insider Transactions Over The Last Year

Over the last year, we can see that the biggest insider purchase was by insider Moshe Cohen for AU$1.2m worth of shares, at about AU$0.20 per share. That means that an insider was happy to buy shares at above the current price of AU$0.17. Their view may have changed since then, but at least it shows they felt optimistic at the time. In our view, the price an insider pays for shares is very important. It is encouraging to see an insider paid above the current price for shares, as it suggests they saw value, even at higher levels. Moshe Cohen was the only individual insider to buy during the last year.

You can see a visual depiction of insider transactions (by individuals) over the last 12 months, below. By clicking on the graph below, you can see the precise details of each insider transaction!

ASX:APV Recent Insider Trading May 31st 2020

AppsVillage Australia is not the only stock insiders are buying. So take a peek at this free list of growing companies with insider buying.

Story continues

Does AppsVillage Australia Boast High Insider Ownership?

Many investors like to check how much of a company is owned by insiders. I reckon it's a good sign if insiders own a significant number of shares in the company. AppsVillage Australia insiders own 44% of the company, currently worth about AU$5.8m based on the recent share price. Most shareholders would be happy to see this sort of insider ownership, since it suggests that management incentives are well aligned with other shareholders.

So What Do The AppsVillage Australia Insider Transactions Indicate?

There haven't been any insider transactions in the last three months -- that doesn't mean much. However, our analysis of transactions over the last year is heartening. Judging from their transactions, and high insider ownership, AppsVillage Australia insiders feel good about the company's future. While we like knowing what's going on with the insider's ownership and transactions, we make sure to also consider what risks are facing a stock before making any investment decision. To that end, you should learn about the 4 warning signs we've spotted with AppsVillage Australia (including 3 which are potentially serious).

If you would prefer to check out another company -- one with potentially superior financials -- then do not miss this free list of interesting companies, that have HIGH return on equity and low debt.

For the purposes of this article, insiders are those individuals who report their transactions to the relevant regulatory body. We currently account for open market transactions and private dispositions, but not derivative transactions.

Love or hate this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@simplywallst.com.



This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
French champions, Paris St-Germain have confirmed the signing of striker Mauro Icardi from Inter Milan following his successful loan spell.

The Argentina international, 27, signed a four-year deal with PSG which runs until June 30, 2024, after the French club agreed to pay a fee of 50m (45m) with 7m (6.2m) in add-ons for Icardi, who first joined them on loan from Inter on September 2.

Icardi scored 20 goals in 31 matches in all competitions before the French season was officially ended on 30 April because of the Coronavirus pandemic.

A statement issued by the Inter Milan club on Sunday, read: The statement read: FC Internazionale Milano announces the transfer of Mauro Icardi to Paris Saint-Germain FC: the striker, born in 1993, has permanently moved to the French club.

The Club thanks the player for the six seasons he spent with us and wishes him the best for his future professional career.

PSG also released a statement, saying: Paris Saint-Germain are delighted to announce the signing of Mauro Icardi on a permanent deal, following the strikers loan from Inter Milan during the 2019-2020 season.

The 27-year-old Argentina international (8 caps), who also holds an Italian passport, has signed a four-year deal with the capital club until 30 June 2024.

The Rosario-born player is the 16th Argentinian player in the history of Paris Saint-Germain, and has made 31 appearances for the Rouge et Bleu in the 2019-2020 season, picking up a Ligue 1 winners medal, scoring 20 goals and providing 4 assists.

The post PSG confirm 52m signing of Mauro Icardi from Inter Milan following successful loan spell appeared first on .

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Kathmandu: The dispute between India and Nepal does not seem to be subsiding. The Government of Nepal has introduced the Constitution Amendment Bill in its Parliament about the new political map. Nepal's Law Minister Shivmaya Tumbahamphe has introduced a bill in Parliament regarding the new map. This new map of Nepal also shows Kalapani, Lipulekh and Limpiyadhura of India.

In the last few days, India's relations with Nepal have grown in tandem. Although Nepal has been an old friend of India. The Nepali Congress is favoring a constitutional amendment to update the map of Nepal. Nepal Congress wants to include the disputed areas of Lipulekh, Limpiyadhura and Kalapani in its border. This step is being taken to change the map of Nepal. When Nepal had described the Indian territory as its part in its new political map, then there was a strong reaction from India. The Foreign Ministry had said that the Government of Nepal should respect the sovereignty and integrity of India.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Anurag Shrivastava had said that we urge the Government of Nepal to refrain from publishing such artificial cartographic. Also respect the sovereignty of India. India has objected to the inclusion of Kalapani, Lipulekh and Limpiyadhura in the new map of Nepal Government. This revised map of Nepal was released by the Ministry of Land Resources at the Nepal Cabinet meeting. At the time this map was released, the members of the cabinet present at that time voted in this map. At the same time, India immediately raised objections.

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Pakistan starts international flights amid Corona pandemic

Corona vaccine may come by end of this year, trials on humans begin
A video grab from footage broadcast by the UK Parliament's Parliamentary Recording Unit - AFP

The economic impact of the lockdown will pale by comparison to the "perfect storm" leaving vulnerable children "isolating alongside their abusers", Sajid Javid has warned.

Writing for The Telegraph, the former Home Secretary said the current restrictions appeared to be facilitating a "surge" in sexual abuse of children which he predicted would be reflected in figures later this year.

Mr Javid is to lead a new "no holds barred" investigation into child sexual abuse in Britain, along with the Centre for Social Justice think tank. Mr Javid said the inquiry would not be impeded by "cultural and political sensitivities" after the men convicted in recent high-profile cases were disproportionately of Pakistani, Kashmiri, Bangladeshi and Bengali heritage.

His intervention follows repeated warnings by children's charities about the increased risks of child abuse while children are being kept at home during the lockdown.

Last month The Telegraph disclosed that the number of vulnerable children "out of contact" as a result of the lockdown was causing alarm among ministers studying the cost of measures designed to halt the spread of coronavirus.

Ministers fear that the "usual oversight" available to youngsters at risk of abuse has been absent, with as many as nine in ten vulnerable children kept at home, rather than taking up places available to them at local schools.

Mr Javid said: "Children are less likely to be abused in person by an unknown predator at school than they are to be assaulted by their own family members, friends or acquaintances  often in their own home. Images and videos from sexual assaults such as these are often shared online for the gratification of others.

"For these children, lockdown is the perfect storm. Left to isolate alongside their abuser, these young people will suffer damage so severe and long lasting as to make our concerns about the economy seem insignificant by comparison.

Story continues

"The surge in child sexual abuse happening right now wont be reflected in statistics until later this year."

Mr Javid, who was Home Secretary until his appointment as Chancellor last summer, states that the scale of child sexual abuse in Britain weight "the most heavily on me" of any of the aspects of his role, including terrorism.

The inquiry led by Mr Javid will examine the extent of the "epidemic" of sex crimes against children in Britain, as well as the "general characteristics" of offenders and victims. He will issue recommendations on how to tackle the problem.

Mr Javid said: The seriousness of this crime demands that difficult questions are asked. It is a statement of fact - as well as a source of great sadness and anger for me - that in recent high-profile cases, the men convicted have been disproportionately of Pakistani, Kashmiri, Bangladeshi and Bengali heritage.

"In weighing the significance of this, our investigation will not allow cultural or political sensitivities get in the way of understanding the problem, nor will it limit our understanding of who the perpetrators are and how this crime often goes undetected."
Li Zhanshu, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), presides over the first plenary meeting of the inspection teams on the enforcement of the wildlife protection law in Beijing, capital of China, May 30, 2020. (Xinhua/Li Tao)

BEIJING, May 30 (Xinhua) -- China's top legislature will send four teams of lawmakers to inspect the enforcement of the wildlife protection law in eight provincial-level regions across the country.

Li Zhanshu, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), presided over the first plenary meeting of the inspection teams on Saturday.

Li, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, will lead the inspection himself.

Stressing protection over the wildlife according to the law, Li required efforts to improve related legal systems, and safeguard public health security with strengthened law enforcement.

Li demanded a comprehensive assessment of the enforcement of the wildlife protection law to provide the basis for law revising through the inspection.

China's wildlife protection law was enacted in 1988 and has been revised four times, said Li, noting that the NPC Standing Committee decided to thoroughly ban illegal wildlife trade and food use in February.

The inspection should focus on aspects including the implementation of eliminating the bad habits of eating wild animals, the practice of banning and cracking down on wildlife trade, the management of non-edible use of wildlife, protection of wildlife habitats and the improvement in legal awareness among the public, Li said.

In addition to sending inspection teams, the NPC Standing Committee will also entrust standing committees of the remaining provincial-level people's congresses to inspect the enforcement of the law within their jurisdictions.
Tollywood star Rana Daggubati's marriage with Miheeka Bajaj will be held on

August 8 in Hyderabad. Confirming this, Rana's father, Suresh Babu, said members of both the would attend the ceremony, which would be performed as per government guidelines on the coronavirus epidemic.

A few days ago, the Roka or engagement ceremony was held at the Rama Naidu Studios, after which the wedding date was fixed.
Two people in their 20s have died in Sydney's west on Saturday after a man stabbed his former girlfriend before stabbing himself.

Emergency services were called to a home in Bidwill, near Mount Druitt, just before 12.45pm on Saturday following reports of a stabbing.

Jachai Fuimaono is alleged to have stabbed former partner Ruth Mataafa before stabbing himself. Both were 22. Credit:Facebook

Police officers from the Mount Druitt area command found Ruth Mataafa, 22, outside the home with multiple stab wounds to her chest, side and back.

She was treated at the scene by NSW Ambulance paramedics before being taken to Westmead Hospital in a critical condition. She died later in the afternoon.
Beijing is exploiting differences within countries and regions over the Belt and Road Initiative all over the world, national security experts warn, as it ramps up its push to become a global health and infrastructure leader in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

Victoria is now in an escalating feud with the Morrison government and the Department of Foreign Affairs over its decision to sign on to the $1.5 trillion global infrastructure initiative, which will allow for Chinese investment in Victoria and for Victorian companies to participate in Chinese government projects overseas.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews faces questions about the state's Belt and Road agreement with China. Credit:James Ross

There is now a growing a concern, held at the highest levels of the Morrison government, that China will use the Victorian agreement as a propaganda win to claim the Victorian government has broken ranks with Australia's China policy.

Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas sparked controversy earlier this month when he accused the federal government of vilifying China and engaging in "dangerous, damaging and irresponsible" diplomacy in singling out Beijing for its role in the pandemic.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 31)  Trips involving medical and family emergencies within Metro Manila or one's respective province do not require travel authority from the Joint Task Force COVID Shield, the body clarified on Sunday.

"While the quarantine rules are still strict under GCQ, we also operate under the concept of compassion even before, said Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Eduardo Ano. "This is the reason why we are finding ways to make it easier for people to travel if that travel is really essential, especially if it involves family emergency."

READ: More areas under GCQ from June 1-15

In Friday's Laging Handa virtual briefing, only APOR (authorized persons outside residence) workers have been mentioned by Joint Task Force COVID-19 Shield commander PLt. Gen. Guillermo Eleazar as individuals authorized to cross borders, whether city, municipality, or provincial, because they are either going to or coming from work.

READ: Crossing borders still not allowed under GCQ except for work purposes  Eleazar

The DILG had also said previously that workers in firms already allowed to operate need not secure travel authority in order to be allowed past checkpoints. They may only present their company ID or certificate of employment to the police, who will let them through should they see the workers' firms in the list of establishments permitted to resume operations.

Trips involving two provinces would already require travel authority from the JTF COVID Shield, it said. This also applies to locally stranded individuals who wish to return to their respective hometowns, added Ano.

How to acquire travel authority

According to the task force, a medical clearance certificate is necessary for the issuance of travel authority.

In order to get the said certificate, one must first acquire a certification from their respective barangay captain that they have not developed any symptoms of COVID-19 at least 14 days prior to the travel request.

"The Certification from the Punong Barangay will serve as an endorsement to the City and Municipal Health Office to conduct medical examination," the task force said. From there, the local health office shall issue them a medical clearance certificate.

This certificate may either be submitted to the barangay captain, who will then facilitate the processing of travel authority including the coordination with the local government of the targeted destination, or to the help desk of the municipal or police station.

"Personnel of the Help Desk, under the authority of the Chief of Police will be in charge of the processing which includes coordination with the LGU of destination through the local police station," said the JTF COVID Shield.

Police personnel manning the help desk shall notify the individual that the hard copy of their travel authority is ready for pickup. The document could also be sent via e-mail or messaging apps such as Facebook Messenger or Viber, the task force explained.

In today's statement, Eleazar reiterated that help desks are available in all police stations nationwide, particularly to assist locally stranded individuals.

"Unnecessary" travels like buying goods outside one's locality still prohibited

However, similar to what Eleazar said on Friday, availing of essential goods outside one's locality remains a violation of quarantine protocols under GCQ as it is considered part of unnecessary travels, reminded Ano.

With this, the DILG chief encouraged purchasing such products in stores within their communities.

In this way, you are not only helping the economy in your community but also protecting yourself from the risk of coronavirus infection. So we appeal to the Filipino people to continue avoiding unnecessary travels, he said.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 31)  The Department of Health reported 862 new coronavirus cases in the country on Sunday, bringing the total number of infections to 18,086.

Of the added cases, 16 are newly reported infections that were detected in the past three days, while the remaining 846 are late cases, or those diagnosed four days ago or earlier, but were reported to the agency and only just now confirmed.

The DOH changed its way of presenting data to differentiate new cases from those reported late amid the increasing number of infections, as the country prepares to transition to more relaxed quarantine measures.

Meanwhile, patients who recovered from the virus reached 3,909 with the addition of 101, while seven deaths were recorded, bringing the death toll to 957.

As for Filipinos abroad, the Department of Foreign Affairs reported more than 2,300 additional confirmed cases, bringing the total to 5,184. The sudden spike in new cases is due to late reports from the agencys posts in the Middle East. Recoveries are now at 2,151, while deaths are at 339.

Metro Manila is set to transition to general community quarantine on Monday. This means that more establishments will be allowed to re-open while those currently operating will be allowed to increase their workforce, provided they follow health safety standards, like the wearing of face masks, social distancing, and temperature checks.

GCQ areas considered to be high risk due to the number of COVID-19 cases will be subject to zoning, which will be implemented by the National Task Force on COVID-19.

Public transportation will also be allowed, but at limited capacity to ensure social distancing.
<! Salawa Abeni and the suspect >

By Taiwo Okanlawon

Legendary Musician, Salawa Abeni, known as the Waka Queen has reacted to the arrest of a former student of the Yaba College of Technology, Lagos (YABATECH) who allegedly threatened to release nude photos of her.

The 59-year-old thanked the police and her fans in a post she shared on Instagram on Sunday.

She wrote, My family, friends and fans I present to you the face of the young man Emmanuel Oladunjoye Olufowoke (19 years old) that blackmailed me by threatening to expose my nude pictures on social media. I just want to use this opportunity to thank Nigerians all over the world, the Nigerian police force RRS for helping to catch this boy as I am not his first victim

The Rapid Response Team (RRS) arrested the suspect identified as Oladunjoye Olufowoke, last week Thursday after three days of monitoring him.

Sources close to the team disclosed that the suspect could not be picked because of the prevalence of COVID-19.

The suspect in his statement to the police confessed to have been the mastermind behind the ploy to publish some nude pictures of Waka Queen in exchange for money, adding that he was alone in the scheme.

The suspect, a 2017/2018 Electrical Engineering student of YABATECH, disclosed that he saw the nude pictures in a memory card which he picked up on the floor at YABATECH sometime in November 2019.
The coronavirus pandemic has taken the world by storm, breaking the existing structures and severely impacting the economy.

Countries like the United States, United Kingdom, Italy, Spain and others have been raveged by the global pandemic which started from China and quickly spread across the world.

Europe has been badly hit. But there is one country in the continent which acted early, and fast, and has emerged as an example for the world. That country is Germany.

As the number of cases started rising and governments across the world imposed stringent restrictions, Germany unveiled a rescue package worth 1.1 trillion euros.

The massive package includes state-backed loan guarantees, cash injections and schemes to put millions of workers on reduced hours to avoid layoffs.

And it has been designed to help almost every sector of the society.

The German government will pay for additional unemployment benefits and new tax cuts to help businesses affected by the coronavirus.

Workers forced to stay at home by the pandemic and government measures to contain it will receive between 70 and 77 per cent of net salary from the fourth month of unemployment, a ten per cent increase on previous provisions.

From the seventh month, they will receive between 80 and 87 per cent.

The countrys economy ministry has proposed as much as 50,000 euros in monthly aid to help the stricken firms. And there are also plans for tax cut for the salaried class and heavy rebates for businesses.

Having weathered the coronavirus outbreak better than many of its neighbours so far, Germany has gradually started loosening restrictions in recent weeks.

Shops, factories and restaurants are cautiously reopening but the economic damage is far from over as social distancing rules prevent a return to business as usual.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 286 to 181,482, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed.

The reported death toll rose by 11 to 8,500, the data showed.
Aizawl, May 31 (IANS) Among the eight northeastern states, only Mizoram on Sunday extended the ongoing lockdown for another month till June 30, officials said.

An official release said that in view of the continued increase of Covid-19 cases in different states, especially its neighbouring northeastern states and the return of huge numbers of stranded residents of Mizoram from other states, it is necessary to further extend the lockdown till June 30 in a bid to prevent the spread of the disease in the state.

It said that the state government also issued new guidelines for the fifth phase of the lockdown with special emphasis on maintenance of social distancing and strict vigilance along the 318-km long Bangladesh and 510-km-long Myanmar borders as well as the inter-state borders with Assam, Tripura and Manipur.

Out of the eight northeastern states, only Mizoram is a green state and became Covid-19 free after its lone patient recovered from the disease and was discharged from the Zoram Medical College and Hospital on May 9.

Under the new guidelines, standalone shops and other business establishments are allowed to transact business till 5 p.m. while shops at shopping complexes and commercial hub within Aizawl municipal area and district headquarters would open on alternate days.

"Screening tests of all passengers and returnees are must at the time of arrival and they have to be put in 14-days institutional or home quarantine," the guidelines said.

The night curfew would continue to remain inforce from 7 p.m. to 4.30 a.m. and gathering of more than five people is prohibited.

Mizoram Home Department officials said that more than 6,000 people have so far returned from different parts of the country and another 700 people are on the way to Mizoram from Goa.

Around 1,440 Mizoram residents stranded in Delhi and other north Indian states returned to the state by train on Sunday.

Chief Minister Zoramthanga, meanwhile, commended the officials, doctors, police and other frontline workers for their hard and sincere work.

--IANS

sc/vd
Trevor declined to say which campuses were seeing flat or declining numbers of applicants, though he said there did not appear to be any rhyme or reason about which type of schools were being most affected, as far as four-year flagships or local two-year schools.

In Missoula, UM President Seth Bodnar reported Thursday during an alumni virtual event that out-of-state applicants were up 33% over last year. But when asked for additional data points about the number of applicants, UM spokesperson Paula Short told the Missoulian there were too many peculiarities to provide further year-over-year comparisons, saying the timing of students decision-making was much different than previous years.

For instance, housing deposits were light until we broadly and repeatedly announced that fall semester will be in-person, Short said. Theyve since picked up considerably. Some units of campus housing are, in fact, ahead of last years pace. Students were waiting for that signal, and they are also waiting to see how COVID evolves, which will further inform their decisions about where to attend college.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 31

By Elnur Baghishov - Trend:

As many as 2,516 people have been infected with the coronavirus (COVID-19) in the past 24 hours in Iran, said Kiyanush Jahanpur, spokesman for Iran's Ministry of Health and Medical Education, Trend reports citing the ministry.

According to Jahanpur, 63 more people have died from the coronavirus over the past day.

Jahanpur added that the condition of 2,527 people is critical.

So far, more than 935,000 tests have been conducted in Iran for the diagnosis of coronavirus.

Iran continues to monitor the coronavirus situation in the country. According to recent reports from the Iranian officials, over 151,400 people have been infected 7,797 people have already died. Meanwhile, over 118,800 have reportedly recovered from the disease.

The country continues to apply strict measures to contain the further spread. Reportedly, the disease was brought to Iran by a businessman from Iran's Qom city, who went on a business trip to China, despite official warnings. The man died later from the disease.

The Islamic Republic only announced its first infections and deaths from the coronavirus on Feb. 19.

The outbreak in the Chinese city of Wuhan - which is an international transport hub - began at a fish market in late December 2019.

The World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11 declared COVID-19 a pandemic. Some sources claim the coronavirus outbreak started as early as November 2019.
Workers build a protective railing as construction continued on the New York Islanders' new arena, located adjacent to Belmont race track, Wednesday, May 27, 2020, in Elmont, N.Y. Long Island became the latest region of New York to begin easing restrictions put in place to curb the spread of the coronavirus as it enters the first phase of the state's four-step reopening process. Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Tuesday that Nassau and Suffolk Counties could begin reopening parts of their economy after nonessential businesses were shuttered for two months. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens) Read more

Heres what President Donald Trump would have us think: The worst of the COVID-19 pandemic is behind us. The economy is poised to enjoy a powerful rebound if only businesses reopen quickly. It will quickly recover the tens of millions of jobs lost during the last several months. No need for the federal government to provide more help to financially distressed households and businesses. Mission accomplished.

If only it were so.

To be sure, the economy will get a bounce as businesses reopen, and they are reopening quickly. Just more than 500 counties, accounting for about 10% of the nations GDP, are still locked down. But this is down from a peak of 2,600 counties  with nearly 30% of GDP  just a month ago. By mid-June, the entire country should be open for business.

However, any optimism regarding the economy as businesses reopen should be tempered by two realities.

First, immediately after the reopenings, the economy will still be a shadow of its pre-COVID-19 self. By Labor Day, real GDP will have recovered only half of what it lost during the recession. Millions of unemployed workers who are currently furloughed will be called back to their jobs, but millions will be permanently laid off, and the unemployment rate will settle close to 10%. For context, that is the peak unemployment rate during the financial crisis a decade ago.

The second reality is that the economic recovery will not take full root until there is a widely distributed, and adopted, vaccine. The economy will go sideways, and the risk that the economy will slide back into recession  a so-called double-dip recession  will be uncomfortably high. Even if there is no second wave of the virus, worry about it will cast a pall over business hiring and investment. The uncertainty may not be enough by itself to cause businesses to pull back, but it will be enough to ensure that businesses will not make major expansion decisions.

 READ MORE: People didnt wait for coronavirus shutdowns to stop spending. And reopening the economy doesnt reopen their wallets.

There is no global engine of growth for the coming recovery. This is a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem. The pandemic has pushed the entire world into or near recession. In past recessions, at least one major part of the global economy was able to navigate the downturn reasonably well and lead the world into recovery. China played this role during and after the financial crisis. No one will play this role in this crisis.

Expectations that U.S. consumers, as in times past, might drive the global economy out of its rut will likely be unmet. Lower- and middle-income households will struggle with the high unemployment, fewer hours, and reduced pay, while higher-income households will need to come to terms with their diminished wealth. The stock market has staged a strong comeback since hitting bottom in late March, but stock wealth remains trillions of dollars below what it was before the crisis. And, given the wild swings in stock prices during the crisis  up and down with the latest news of a treatment or vaccine  most investors are significantly discounting the recent rally.

With no engine of growth on the other side of the business reopenings, the responsibility to ensure the economy avoids a double-dip recession later this year rests on the Trump administration and Congress. They will need to come to terms soon on another fiscal rescue package, adding to the $2.4 trillion in funds already appropriated since the crisis began. Approximately one-half of those funds are already spent, and the remaining half will be spent this summer. Without more fiscal help when this money runs out, the fragile economy will likely sink under the weight of still-high unemployment.

House Democrats are on board with the need for more fiscal support and recently passed a nearly $3 trillion fiscal package. But the Trump administration and Senate Republicans are balking. They express concern over the nations ballooning budget deficit and mounting debt load and argue that the economic rebound will be strong enough to make these funds unnecessary. Yes, the nations fiscal problems are serious, but they should be tackled after the pandemic and when the economy is off and running again.

The economy may prove resilient, but it is prudent to plan that it wont be. If it does fall back into recession, history will call this period an economic depression, and the nations fiscal problems will be monumentally worse.

The fast-approaching presidential election should generate the political pressure needed to convince lawmakers to see it this way and agree to another rescue package  not as large as House Democrats hope for, but large enough that with a bit of luck, and a vaccine by early next year, the recovery will remain intact. Even then, given the economic damage caused by this virus, it will take much more government support to fully recover and to legitimately proclaim: mission accomplished.
Nigerian celebrities have taken to Twitter to mourn the death of a 22-year-old 100Level student of Microbiology at the University of Benin, Edo State, Vera Uwaila Omozuwa, who was brutally raped and killed inside a church in the city while reading

Nollywood actress Adesua Etomi, TV personality Ebuka Obi-Uchendu, Reality TV star Mercy Eke amongst other are calling for justice over the tragic incident, which happened three days ago.

The head of the deceased was smashed with a fire extinguisher, and left unconscious around the Ikpoba Hill area of Benin City, the state capital, according to her friends.

Despite being rushed to the intensive care unit of a hospital, Omozuwa couldnt make it as she succumbed to the injuries sustained during the savage attack.

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Read Also: We Will Kill All Aiye Members in UNIBEN: Cultists Declare War (Video)

See some reactions below

This #JusticeForUwa tag is so heartbreaking. Gosh!!!  Ebuka Obi-Uchendu (@Ebuka) May 31, 2020

I can't post the pictures I've seen of Uwa. She went to church to study. She was 22. She was brutally raped and beaten. The culprits are on the run.

Uwa could have been any of us.#JusticeForUwa  Adesua Etomi-Wellington (@AdesuaEtomiW) May 31, 2020

STOP RAPING US!!!!!

Please for Gods sake, enough is enough. #JusticeForUwa  Jellybum (JB of Lagos) (@oluwapelumi_ii) May 31, 2020

Few days ago, #JusticeForTina was trending. Today, it is #JusticeForUwa. The Nigerian state must do all to protect our young girls. Their lives matter and any criminal who attacks and ends it brutally must be brought to justice.  Dr. Dipo Awojide (@OgbeniDipo) May 31, 2020
TV actor Richa Sony has angrily responded to trolls who have been attacking her after her wedding with Jigar Ali Sumbhaniya. The couple tied the knot with her long-time boyfriend in a Bengali ceremony on February 11, followed by a nikaah on February 18.

The actor, who was first seen in Shararat, has filed a case of defamation against the user of the account. She also shared several videos on Instagram where she angrily responds to individual comments of trolls.

After greeting fans, Richa said she had never thought shed record a message like this amid lockdown in the wake of coronavirus pandemic. She then said, Some people are targeting me from anonymous accounts and objecting to my way of life and my behaviour and attitude. She said that some haters often write dirty things to her and talk about Hindu-Muslim divide. I thought I should directly talk to the haters and trolls instead of writing to them. You, especially the haters, will love it when you hear your own praises in my voice.

She then said in a separate video, There is this person who, I guess, has started loving me a lot. I know, this is the language you guys understand. When I wrote fill your heart with kindness and humanity, this person wrote so you can freely celebrate Muslim festivals and I responded Yes, just like Hindu festivals. The troll then wrote Dont fool anyone, when you celebrate Hindu festivals your husband is a Muslim. Responding to the troll the actor used a cuss word and said, Who are you that I must respond to your queries?

She read similar abusive posts on her husbands religion and her inter-religious marriage and responded angrily. In another video, she also asked the troll to make her video viral and help her gain forgotten popularity.

She wrote alongside the post, Act of Defamation a very legal action has been taken against your fake IDs. I am not the one who ..... gets bullied you hear me. You must know whom you are trolling . And I will not block you this time. I will wait.

Also read: Did you know Abhishek Bachchan once worked as Arshad Warsis driver, cleaned studio floors?

Fans showered much love on the post. One wrote, Much Love and Strength To u...this is the best post I have come across and has made my day......YOU are POPULAR...LOTS OF LOVE TO YOU AND TO YOUR FAMILY.....!GOD BLESS..

Richa has also worked in serials like Siyaa Ke Raam, CID, Bhagyavidhata, etc.

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Union Home Minister Amit Shah Sunday said diplomatic and military-level dialogues are going on with China on the current border row and he was hopeful that the issue will be resolved.

Also, in an obvious warning to Pakistan, Shah said India will not tolerate any breach of its borders and befitting replies will be given to such moves.

"Diplomatic and military level dialogues are currently going on and I believe the issue will be resolved," he told the 'Republic Bharat' TV in an interview.

Shah was replying to a question about the ongoing border row with China in Ladakh and some other areas and circulation of videos and pictures of clashes between personnel of the Indian Army and the PLA of China.

The home minister said the Narendra Modi government would not allow any dilution of its international borders and would take all steps to protect the country's sovereignty. "No one should have any doubt about that.

Asked about the repeated Pakistani attempts to breach the border, Shah said India has never adopted an expansionist policy, but at the same time it would not tolerate any violation of its borders.

"If someone tries to do that, we will give a befitting reply. It is our duty and responsibility," he said.

Referring to the ongoing battle against COVID-19, the home minister said the Modi government has been successful in combating the outbreak.

"It is not known when the vaccine and medicine will come. How long will people remain in their homes? I can say that India and Narendra Modi's battle against COVID has been successful thus far," he said.

Shah said the entire country is fighting together as one with a single mind and hence the fight against coronavirus has been successful.

"As far as Unlock-1 (beginning Monday) goes, states, districts, panchayats, ASHA workers are ready. An army is ready to fight the COVID," he said.

The home minister said the central government, the Prime Minister and he himself were sad that some migrant labourers had to go home on foot, despite arrangements being made for their transportation.

"This has happened may be due to miscommunication or lack of awareness. But I want to say that about 4,000 'Shramik Special' trains were run by the Railways in which more than 50 lakh people have travelled to reach their respective homes. Another about 40 lakh people used buses to reach their destinations.

"I want to congratulate the Railways, that despite them not having the route drivers, they managed to run so many Shramik trains," he said.

Asked about West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's criticism of the central government policies, Shah said be it fight against coronavirus or tackling the cyclone, things were not in a good shape in West Bengal.

"One thing is sure that in the coming days, the BJP will form the government in West Bengal. People of Bengal are looking for a change," he said.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-31 21:00:33|Editor: huaxia

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HARARE, May 31 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwe will tighten up security at COVID-19 isolation centers across the country to prevent quarantined returnees from escaping, a senior government official has said.

Minister of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Monica Mutsvangwa told the Sunday Mail that government will tighten up security, especially in the country's border areas to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

"It has been the government's position that security be heightened so that we reduce the spread of the coronavirus. Government is even working on introducing drones so that we increase security measures in border areas," Mutsvangwa said.

More than 118 people have fled from a coronavirus quarantine centers in Zimbabwe, sparking fears of a potential coronavirus outbreak.

The escapees were citizens who had recently returned from abroad, mainly from Botswana and South Africa.

Police spokesperson Paul Nyathi urged the community to report returnees who evade the COVID-19 screening processes.

"We appeal to the community to put their safety, health and security first, and report all returnees who evade the required COVID-19 screening processes to curtail the spread of the pandemic," said Nyathi.

Zimbabwe had as of Saturday reported 174 COVID-19 positive cases. Enditem
Writer James Graham on the set of the AMC series "Quiz." (Matt Frost / AMC/ITV)

James Graham vividly recalls sitting down with his college housemates to watch Millionaire: A Major Fraud, a 2003 documentary about a tabloid scandal that had captivated all of the United Kingdom. In the special, provocateur Martin Bashir built the case against Charles and Diana Ingram, a seemingly mild-mannered, middle-class married couple then facing criminal charges for allegedly cheating their way to a 1-million jackpot on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? using a system of coded coughs.

More than half of the TV audience in the U.K. that night watched the documentary. Most of them  including Graham  left with the impression that the Ingrams were not just guilty, but brazen idiots.

I just couldn't believe how obvious it was and how audacious their crime was and how stupid they were for thinking they could get away it, said the writer during a trip stateside earlier this year.

Nearly two decades later, he is taking a second look at the supposedly open-and-shut case in Quiz, a three-part limited series premiering Sunday on AMC (and available to stream in its entirety via AMC Premiere). Directed by Stephen Frears, Quiz not only questions the Ingrams guilt, but implicates the media for its distortions of reality and suggests the narrative crafted in the courtroom was as manipulative as an episode of Millionaire.

The point is to take any story that everyone is so certain about and go, Maybe those certainties are misplaced in an attempt to to ask questions about the nature of truth and what can be believed anymore, especially in this day and age in my country and your country.

Sian Clifford as Diana Ingram in "Quiz." (Matt Frost / AMC/ITV)

Starring Sian Clifford and Matthew Macfadyen as the Ingrams, the series is set during the dawn of reality television and the run-up to Iraq war  a period when, as Graham put it, there was a wider blurring of the lines of what had previously been quite rigorous ideas around truth and the news.

I think it is not an accident that all these things aligned at the same time, he added.

Story continues

Adapted from his stage play of the same name, Quiz is the latest fact-based drama from Graham who, at 37, has distinguished himself as one of his generations most astute observers of British culture and politics by revisiting familiar events from the recent past from an unexpected angle.

He had his breakthrough in 2012 with This House, an Olivier Award-winning play set in the House of Commons during the 1970s, a turbulent period of trench warfare between the Conservative and Labour parties. He wrote last years HBO film Brexit: The Uncivil War, which chronicled the successful Vote Leave campaign, and Ink, a Tony-nominated play depicting Rupert Murdochs purchase of the Sun newspaper in 1969.

I really enjoy finding these cultural moments, whether it's a referendum or a game show cheating trial, which in and of themselves don't necessarily feel like more than the sum of their parts, he said, but if you step back they seem to represent something bigger about who we are, what we're doing and where were going.

Rather than tackling the obvious subject, I consciously look for those peculiar back doors, he said.

"Ink" is "an origin story for Fox News" illustrated through a lesser-known chapter in Rupert Murdoch's career. When he made a film about Brexit, Graham focused not on Theresa May or David Cameron but on a then-obscure political strategist named Dominic Cummings, who helped engineer the Conservative Party's historic win in December's election and is now a chief advisor to Prime Minister Boris Johnson  but is facing calls to resign because he traveled across the country while sick with what was likely the coronavirus.

At the time he was completely unknown, so to drag him into the light felt like an important public service, but also just a more exciting, fizzy, subversive way of looking at the referendum, Graham said. (Cummings subsequent rise kind of ruined my movie, he joked.)

Graham did not grow up steeped in the arts: He was raised in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, a former mining community in the Midlands region. His family was working-class. His mom was a barmaid and now works as a school receptionist while doing evening shifts in a warehouse. His stepdad was a window cleaner. He was the first person in his family to go to college.

Graham wasnt always interested in politics, but he was captivated by the episodic dramas that unfolded each day in history class. I really liked turning up every class and the story advancing one chapter forward. I remember specifically during the French Revolution, they were about to storm the Bastille when the bell rang and, I was like, 'Noooo, what happened to them?' Politics was an accident of loving history. And history was just a love of stories, he said.

An introverted kid who preferred hammering out prose on a typewriter to hanging out with friends, Graham was encouraged to get involved in theater by his drama teacher, who just really believed in working-class kids from a deprived town doing plays, he said. It's very cliched, but I found the confidence of being someone else on stage and making people laugh, and being silly was really helpful.

After studying drama at the University of Hull, he quickly earned a name for himself in Londons scrappy theater scene  where he met old friend Clifford, with whom he reunites on Quiz."

Benedict Cumberbatch plays Dominic Cummings, the architect of the successful Leave campaign, in "Brexit." (Nick Wall)

He's got a real political conscience, James. That's always been in a lot of his writing and in all of his plays  they always have this thread through them that isn't an agenda, but it's such a balanced examination of the subject he's dealing with, said Clifford, who spends much of her screen time outfitted in mom jeans that were "in danger of giving me thrush. We've come a long way from disused pubs in the east of London to now.

Grahams other recent credits include "Tywysog Cymru, a standout episode of The Crowns third season that followed young Prince Charles as he struggled to learn the Welsh language. But unlike "The Crown" series creator Peter Morgan, hes not particularly interested in royal drama, such as the decision by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle to live as private citizens, which at the time of our interview dominated the news cycle.

I'm sort of dweebier than that, Graham said. I don't want to diminish their experience, but it feels quite soapy. Whereas I like finding weird systems and processes.  England is so effing old and we have so many bizarre, sometimes beautifully ludicrous, sometimes horribly reductive rituals.

He expounded at length about the archaic, centuries-old customs in the House of Commons. In a practice known as nodding through, a member of Parliament who is too sick to enter the chamber can vote as long as he or she is physically present within the gates of Westminster Palace. In the 70s, when no party had a clear majority and every vote was crucial, this led to aging and sometimes dying MPs being transported into the yard to vote, Graham explained. So there were these absurd scenes when ambulances would turn up, like 10 or 12 of them, for the vote at night and the whips would go through the ambulances and check that everyone was alive. (Graham mined these rules to comic effect in This House, which is available to stream on YouTube through Thursday morning as a fundraiser for the National Theatre.)

The best way to look at any institution is to see it at its most absurd and when it's in its biggest moment of crisis. I think the moment at which a half-dead person is in an ambulance and people are questioning whether his pulse is democratically viable enough, you know that the system is flawed, he said. I just think it resonates now in my country and your country. Because things feel like they have escalated to the point where youre watching a nominee for the Supreme Court in tears proclaiming his love of beer and you go, How did we get here?
Tunis, Tunisia (PANA) - On the occasion of the International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers celebrated on 29 May each year, the United Nations Integrated Multidimensional Mission for the Stabilization of Mali (MINUSMA), Tunisian army officer Chahra Ayachi says being an officer in the ranks of the Blue Helmets is an exhilarating task for her
Australian News Recap  May 30

Heres a recap of the major stories in Australia last week:

Mining firm Rio Tinto has apologised for destroying a 46,000-year-old site, considered sacred to Aboriginal people. The mining giant has apologized to Indigenous people in Western Australia saying it is urgently reviewing plans for other sites in the area.

Attorney-General Christian Porter has not apologized for the faults of the robo-debt welfare scheme that forced thousands of Australians to wrongly pay back benefits, citing continuing legal action. About $720 million will be refunded to around 470,000 welfare debts.

Australia is closer to having no new COVID-19 cases. Victoria is the only state to record new cases of coronavirus this weekend, bringing closer the day when Australia records zero additional cases.

West Australian Member of Parliament Andrew Hastie has called the Beijing-backed music app TikTok an attractive database for the Chinese communist regime to collect data on the habits, psychology, and personal preferences of over one million young Australians. Hastie said there were serious concerns about how the data TikTok collects may be used.

The regimes tariffs on Australian barley has not scared off Chinese buyers who want high-quality barley for the production of premium beer. Earlier this week Australian cargo ships were rerouted to other countries as Chinas tariff came into effect, however, a select few are finding their way into the Chinese market because of demand.

Student activist Drew Pavlou has been handed a two-year suspension from the University of Queensland after speaking out about the institutions ties to China. Drew Pavlou faced a disciplinary hearing on May 20 at the university over 11 allegations of misconduct, detailed in a confidential 186-page document, after he sought the courts protection in another case for threats he received linked to his on-campus activism supporting Hong Kong and criticising the Chinese Communist Party.

After 35 years of radio commentary, Alan Jones has signed off from the airwaves on a tender note, saying he hoped his breakfast show had provided stepping stones for listeners.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has stated that Australia is not considering sanctions against Beijing in response to the Chinese communist regimes rubber-stamp legislature, the National Peoples Congress (NPC) approving security laws targeting Hong Kong.

A coalition of democratic nations including Australia, the United States, the UK, and Canada have combined to condemn Beijing as it formally passed a new security law targeting Hong Kong.

The Australian government is not letting recent trade troubles with China or the COVID-19 pandemic stop it from finding new avenues for trade markets. Trade minister Simon Birmingham said that hes confident demand for Australian goods and services will be even stronger when the country comes out the other side of this pandemic, and the government is committed to helping businesses develop export opportunities and connections.

A knife-wielding man was shot dead by police during a stand-off on Melbournes Monash Freeway, with police calling for any dashcam or phone footage. The man was shot dead by police after advancing on officers who tried to calm him down during a stand-off on a Melbourne freeway.

News Corp Australia has announced that the majority of its regional and community papers will go digital-only from June 29, and some will cease entirely.

Federal Member of Parliament Bob Katter said that newspapers could resurrect themselves on an owner-operator basis following News Corp Australias announcement that over 100 regional and community titles will be digital-only from June 29. Katter said that decentralisation of newspaper ownership is a positive and there is an opportunity for the state and federal governments to provide finance to support owner-operators.

The economic downturn from COVID-19 may not be as severe as predicted, Reserve Bank boss Philip Lowe says. Lowe has told a Senate inquiry Australias recovery largely depends on when the public regains its confidence in their health and finances.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on May 27 a draft blueprint on safely starting travel between New Zealand and Australia will be presented to both governments in early June.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison challenged the reasoning of state premiers for keeping internal borders closed as the country begins to reopen the economy. He warned that the border closures risk destroying tourism and the economy, particularly as the mid-year school holiday period approaches.

The director of a Belt and Road Initiative lobby group in Victoria who worked closely with the state government has been found praising Chinese leader Xi Jinpings handling of the CCP virus pandemic in an interview with a state-run national daily newspaper in China. Australia-China Belt and Road Initiative (ACBRI) CEO Jean Dongs praise came around the same that Australia was coming to grips with the news that two Chinese-backed companies had shipped tonnes of critical medical equipment from Australia to China.

Locals found thousands of dead fish washed ashore on Lake Wyangan in New South Wales (NSW) Riverina region on May 23. Among the thousands of fish kills were the native murray cod, yellow belly perch, and bony bream. Griffith City Council promptly alerted the NSW Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Primary Industries (DPI) for an investigation.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has unveiled the governments JobMaker plan to get the country out of intensive care by focusing on job creation that is driven by comprehensive reforms. Top of the prime ministers agenda is focussing on skills and industrial relations. Speaking at the National Press Club on May 26, Morrison said: We need Australians better trained for the jobs businesses are looking to create because thats important.

Iconic Australian TV programs, including Neighbours, MasterChef, The Voice, and 60 Minutes will soon be accessible in Pacific countries on local free-to-air channels, as the Federal government steps up Australias engagement with its Pacific neighbours amidst Chinas rising influence in the region. Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and Fiji are the first of the seven countries to receive the screen content through the PacificAus TV initiative delivered by Free TV Australia.

And that was the recap of last weeks news. Be sure to subscribe to The Epoch Times for quality, independent journalism.
RTHK: Trump says he'll declare 'Antifa' a terrorist group

US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that the United States would be classifying the loose-knit Antifa movement as a terrorist group after blaming it for some of the recent spasm of violence in US cities.

"The United States of America will be designating Antifa as a Terrorist Organisation," Trump announced on Twitter, with little elaboration.

The president and some of his top advisers have blamed Antifa and groups they call "far-left extremists" for hijacking peaceful protests against police abuses after a black man's death in Minneapolis.

Nationwide rioting in dozens of cities was sparked by the videotaped death of the unarmed black man, George Floyd, during his arrest on Monday.

In a series of tweets, the US president also congratulated national guard troops for restoring order on Saturday in Minneapolis after days of unrest.

"The Antifa-led anarchists, among others, were shut down quickly. Should have been done by Mayor on first night and there would have been no trouble!" Trump tweeted.

He was referring to Jacob Frey, the Democratic mayor of Minneapolis, where a horrifying video of Floyd's death  after a police officer kneeled on his neck  sparked the nationwide outpouring of rage, as well as protests elsewhere in the world.

Derek Chauvin, the officer who kept his knee on Floyd's neck even as onlookers pleaded with him, has been fired and charged with third-degree homicide.

Antifa  the name is a contraction for anti-fascist  is a secretive grouping of radical activists that has emerged in recent years, in part in opposition to racist demonstrations in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017.

It is not known to have official leaders. Its members, often dressed entirely in black, protest against racism, far-right values and what they consider fascism, and say violent tactics are sometimes justified as self-defence.

The group's loose, diffuse organisation would seem to make it a difficult target for the terrorist listing. (AFP)

This story has been published on: 2020-05-31. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
New Delhi :

A classified document of Japanese government on Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's death made the details public on Thursday that the legendary freedom fighter died in a plane crash in Taiwan on August 18, 1945, backing the official version.

Bosefiles.info, a UK website set up to document evidence on the circumstances surrounding Netaji's death, According to website, the report was completed in January 1956 and submitted to the Indian embassy in Tokyo, but since it was a classified document, neither side released it.

The seven-page report in Japanese and a 10-page translation in English concludes that Netaji met with an air crash on 18 August, 1945 and died at a Taipei hospital the same evening.

"Immediately after taking off, the airplane in which he rode fell to the ground, and he was wounded," the report notes in its 'Outline of the result of the investigation'.

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https://www.aish.com/jw/s/The-Jewish-Future-Pledge-Ensuring-Young-Donors-Give-to-Jewish-Causes.html

The Jewish Future Pledge calls on Jews to give 50% of charitable contributions to Jewish or Israel-related organizations.

The growing challenges in funding Jewish organizations represent a trend that began long before the current health crisis. According to Pew studies, although Jewish communities are more affluent than ever, fewer young Jews are interested in supporting Jewish non-profits. As the current generation of givers passes on, there is real worry that Jewish charities wont survive. And to make matters worse, donations to Jewish nonprofits, like those to other organizations, have seen a dramatic drop since the outbreak of the pandemic.

With that in mind, philanthropist and business executive Mike Leven, entrepreneur and longtime Jewish nonprofit executive Amy Holtz, and Mark Silverman, former chair of the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta came together to create The Jewish Future Pledge, calling on Jewish donors to earmark at least 50% of the charitable giving in their estate plan to Jewish or Israel-related causes. Over the next 25 years, Jewish donors of every giving level are likely to transfer some $1.26 trillion to charitable causes, and Jewish Future Pledge hopes to direct half of that, or $630 billion, to Jewish causes.

Inspired by the Giving Pledge, an initiative in which Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and other business titans have vowed to leave most of their estate to charity, the Jewish version is not just for the wealthy. Breathing new life into struggling charities will require the involvement of donors on every level  from multi-millionaires to modest givers.

We have an historic opportunity to write the next chapter of the Jewish story. By acting now, we can ensure that more than $600 billion is set aside for Jewish causes as wealth is transferred from this generation to the next, said Leven. And thats why I founded the Jewish Future Pledge. I wanted to start a conversation with my family about the importance of securing the Jewish future. I see an enormous opportunity to help spark thousands  even millions  of similar conversations around Jewish tables before my generation passes about why the Jewish future matters.

The new initiative had a soft launch, led by Senior Director Hadara Ishak, in Atlanta in partnership with the local Jewish Federation, where it garnered its first batch of hundreds of signatures. Early signers include well-known Jewish givers such as Charles Bronfman, Bernie Marcus, Julie Platt and Tom Stern. The Pledge is hard at work seeking partnerships with other Jewish and financial organizations across the country, as well as interest by diverse donors.

We have always prioritized Jewish giving, which is why we already direct over 50% of our philanthropy toward efforts that benefit the Jewish people," said Manette and Louis Mayberg, trustees of the Mayberg Foundation. "We believe that investing in initiatives that inspire, educate and strengthen the Jewish community and Israel will secure a vibrant future for our children and grandchildren. Signing the Jewish Future Pledge provides clear and profound support for our deep belief in giving Jewishly and communicates this value to our children and generations to come.

We trust the next generation, Holtz said. We think theyre going to make great decisions. Were not mandating where they give. We just want to make sure that they give Jewish.
Work of Tysa checkpoint on Ukraine-Hungary border unblocked

17:10, 31.05.20 17909

The drivers and their minibuses are in the customs control zone until all the customs formalities are resolved.
Islamabad: International flights have also been restored in Pakistan amid high-speed coronavirus infection. Domestic flights were launched earlier on 16 May. The lockdown, which was implemented in the country to prevent the epidemic, was relaxed on May 9. However, since the relaxation of restrictions, new cases of corona infection have seen a huge increase.

The Express Tribune newspaper, quoting a notification issued by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), said that under the federal government's decision to allow operation of international flights from 11.59 pm on Friday night. International flights have been launched in Pakistan after more than two months. Please tell that Pakistan allowed domestic flights in this month itself and now after that it has approved international flights.

On the other hand, the infection of corona in Pakistan is spreading very fast. While giving information on Saturday, the Health Ministry of Pakistan said that 2,429 new cases have been reported in the country during the last 24 hours. The number of people infected with them has exceeded 67 thousand 500. So far 1,395 victims have also been killed. While 24 thousand 131 have been recovered. In Punjab province of Pakistan, 1140 cases of infection have been reported and with this the number of cases has increased to 24104. In such a situation, the introduction of international flights can increase the corona cases further.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-31 17:33:37|Editor: huaxia

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GABORONE, May 31 (Xinhua) -- Botswana has announced intentions to allow alcohol sales after a two months ban, as part of efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19.

Addressing the nation through the national broadcaster Botswana Television on Saturday evening, President Mokgweetsi Masisi said his administration intends to lift the alcohol ban.

"As part of opening up our economy government has decided though in a controlled manner, for the sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages," said Masisi.

Peggy Serame, the minister of trade and industry, is expected to share details on the proposed opening on Sunday.

Masisi however pleaded with the nation to drink responsible, adding that his administration will not hesitate to respond on seeing any signs and evidence of none compliance and threat of transmission.

Masisi reiterated that his government continues to do its best to safeguard the health of this nation whilst ensuring that our economy is able to survive following the deleterious effects of the pandemic.

He however warned that efforts to fight the respiratory disease will dent government coffers.

"It must be appreciated therefore, that our on-going efforts to safeguard the future of Botswana in the face of this pandemic will be costly and require that hard choices be made to prioritize the limited resources at our disposal," Masisi said. Enditem
School districts are in uncharted waters with the COVID-19 pandemic  conducting an election entirely through mail-in ballots and facing the threat of a 20% cut in state aid because of declining revenue.

The school election is always scheduled for the third Tuesday in May. That would have been on May 19. However, Gov. Andrew Cuomo delayed the election to contain the spread of the coronavirus. Cuomo on May 6 set the new date on June 9 and said it would be done entirely through mail.

That sent school districts scrambling. In a normal year, school district might send out a few dozen absentee ballots. Now they have to send them to every registered voter within their district. That meant obtaining voter lists from the counties and paying for stamped envelopes to be mailed to everybody, according to New York State School Boards Association spokesman David Albert.

Its been a cumbersome process, but districts are doing their best to comply in a very short period, he said.

Residents should have received their ballot in the mail at this point and, if not, should contact their district office. Ballots must be mailed back and be in the hands of district officials by June 9 at 5 p.m. in order to be counted.

Albert said he is not sure how voting solely by mail will affect turnout.

If this were a normal year, I could tell you maybe 10% to 14% of voters would show up, because thats typically what we see in a school budget vote and board election, he said. This is uncharted territory. Nobody knows. Its just speculation at this point. Theres no educated guest because theres no historical precedent for this.

Hadley-Luzerne Superintendent of Schools Beecher Baker said he thought voter turnout could increase.

Its a little easier to check yes or no at your dinner table rather get in your car and vote, he said. Its going to be interesting to see how it works.

Argyle Business Manager Ron Black said how many voters will participate is a big question mark. He worried that there is a greater chance of a budget being defeated.

Instead of 250 voters, its now going to be in the hands of 4,000 people, he said during a recent Argyle Board of Education meeting.

A lot of those people have never cared about the school budget, have never paid attention to it and now to have the chance to say no to something in the middle of pandemic. It just made me more nervous, he said.

Keeping spending tight

Because of the economic climate with many people being laid off or having their hours reduced, school districts are keeping spending tight. The average proposed increase statewide is about 2.16%, according to a sample of about 75 school districts, according to Albert.

He said the average tax levy increase is about 2.68%. There are a couple of districts proposing large increases that skew the average.

Districts want to keep tax levy increase down. They understand whats happening with the economy right now, he said.

The average spending increase for the 30 school districts in The Post-Stars coverage area is 1.91%, and the average tax levy increase is around 2%. This tax levy calculation excludes the one district seeking to exceed the tax cap  Fort Edward, which is proposing a nearly 20% tax levy increase.

The district has seen major problems with the loss of tax revenue from the former Hudson River cleanup dewatering plant. The owner of the property defaulted on the taxes and the county made the school district whole. Now, Fort Edward has to pay $1.7 million back and it took out a bond because it did not have the funds.

This years $153,000 payment by itself is higher than the $147,000 the district could have raised the tax levy to and stayed under the tax cap.

Superintendent of Schools Dan Ward has pointed out that the proposed tax levy is slightly less than what the district had in the 2016-2017 school year.

The fate of the budget is in the hands of about 1,600 registered voters. Ward said school officials were happy that more people were attending the budget meetings, which were held online because of the pandemic. People care about the issue, he said.

We hope that level of participation continues to stay at a high level, he said.

However, even if voters approve the large tax increase, Ward has said there would still need to be cuts to programs and positions to close a $1 million gap.

In a normal year, districts that saw their budgets fail in May would get to put up the same or a revised budget for a second vote in June. There has not been a lot of state information about what happens in this case.

District may have to adopt a contingency budget, where the tax levy has to stay the same as the current year.

Union concessions

In order to reduce the potential for cuts, the Fort Edward Teachers Association agreed to switch to a less expensive health insurance plan and take a $500 pay cut  saving more than $250,000.

The 33 teachers at Schroon Lake in Essex County also agreed to forgo their cost-of-living raises for the next two years. They will still receive their step increase for another year of service. Superintendent of Schools Stephen Gratto said the teachers sacrifice will save over $27,000 for the district.

This is a very generous gesture on the part of the teachers, he said in a news release. They did not have to take a pay freeze, but I know they realize that the school and the community are facing extremely difficult financial situations. The Schroon Lake community is hurting, and the teachers wanted to do something to help.

Gratto also agreed to freeze his salary.

Few propositions, candidates

School districts also are not proposing much in the way of special ballot propositions. Glens Falls and Queensbury both initially were putting capital projects before voters  only to take them off the ballot after the pandemic hit.

Many school districts have uncontested school board races. The pandemic hampered the ability for people to circulate petitions as the state did not want candidates interacting with the public. There was also a short time frame after the election was rescheduled to submit nominations.

Perhaps because of the financial circumstances the district faces, there is a contested race for the Fort Edward Board of Education. Incumbent Michael Glass and Christina Durkee, Daniel Shiels and Elaine Trackey-Saltsman are running for a five-year seat and a one-year seat created by a resignation. The top vote-getter will get the full term and the second-place finisher will get the partial term.

In Whitehall, there are six candidates seeking four seats on the school board. The field includes incumbents Thomas Baker, Richard LaChapelle and Patricia Norton and challengers George Armstrong, Amy Michaud and Roslyn Stark-Lambert.

The district recently was facing a controversy where Jeff Keller was fired from his job as principal of the junior-senior high school because school officials say he changed students test scores and attendance records to improve Whitehalls academic standing.

Future state aid cut?

Looming over all school officials is Cuomos threat to cut school aid by 20% if the federal government does not come through with a bailout package. That would mean a $5.5 billion aid to schools, which Albert said would be catastrophic for schools.

Albert said he anticipates it would take a while for state aid to bounce back just like it took time to recover from the Great Recession.

One trend Albert said he noticed is that even in this tight fiscal climate, districts are trying not to cut mental health services because students are going to need emotional support when they return to school. Some children have even lost parents to the coronavirus. Parents are also dealing with job loss.

Theres going to be some significant mental health implications from this pandemic, he said.

The Glens Falls City School District was one of the few districts locally that factored the threated 20% aid cut into its budget  deliberately using a lower state aid figure in its revenue numbers and using some more fund balance.

School districts are using more surplus to help weather the storm, according to Albert. However, he said school officials are worried about whether they will be hit with more increased costs such as more extensive cleaning of schools, increased transportation costs because of staggered school schedules or reconfiguration of classrooms to accommodate fewer students.

Theres a lot of potential for new costs that we just dont know, he said.

2020-2021 school budget votes School voters will receive ballots in the mail this year due to the coronavirus pandemic. Ballots must be received by the school district no l

Reach Michael Goot at 518-742-3320 or mgoot@poststar.com and follow his blog poststar.com/blogs/michael_goot/.

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CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Dozens of businesses on Euclid Avenue were vandalized Saturday night before Mayor Frank Jackson imposed an 8 p.m. curfew and asked Gov. Mike DeWine to send in the National Guard.

The right-libertarian group Liberty Hangout posted a video on Twitter at 7:52 p.m. showing a large, diverse group looting Geigers, next door to Heinens.

Storefronts from Public Square to the Starbucks at Playhouse Square were ransacked, though the theaters did not appear damaged. Looters stole an ATM from a restaurant.

Cleveland issues 8 p.m. curfew, Ohio National Guard activated in wake of volatile George Floyd protest and ransacked downtown Cleveland businesses Posted by cleveland.com on Saturday, May 30, 2020

Police Saturday night arrested people who broke the curfew.

Earlier Saturday, the protest began peacefully at the Free Stamp next to City Hall. When the demonstration turned violent, protestors torched at least five police cars, shattered the windows of the Cuyahoga County Justice Center with water bottles and rocks, and destroyed bus shelters .

Thousands of people -- nearly all wearing masks to stop the spread of the coronavirus -- were scattered through downtown Saturday evening, as police in riot gear with plastic shields lined Lakeside Avenue.
New Delhi :

The Delhi High court on Friday blasted the governments panel on unauthorised religious structures for not functioning properly. The court told the AAP-led government that its "one hand ... does not know what the other ... is doing.

Justice Manmohan warned the committee, set up to look into unauthorised religious structures built on government lands, that he might order disbanding of the panel as it has not decided even half of the matters pending before it.

The courts observation came in a matter pertaining to infrastructural projects, one of which was pending since 1976, as there were several religious structures which were to be demolished for completion of the work.

Here are the top quotes of the court:

- The judge said One hand of the government does not know what the other hand is doing. I am surprised what you (committee) people are doing.

- Observing that there was no coordination among government agencies, the judge said, I am candidly saying that nothing is happening in the religious committee. Its members are bureaucrats and they do not even bother to meet and when they meet, they defer the matter on one pretext or the other.

- Infrastructure project is held up due to this. Government officers do not want to do their work. I will be constrained to say that the religious committee is not doing anything and it should be disbanded, the judge said.

- The main problem is that there is no coordination between the government agencies. The main grievance is that nothing is being done by the committee. You are not doing 50 per cent of your work and you have not decided even half of the matters which are pending before the committee, it said.

- The court directed the government to file a report in this regard within two weeks.

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Shimla, May 31 : The curfew has been extended in Himachal Pradesh till June 30 to contain the coronavirus pandemic with certain relaxations in movement of public transport buses and operation of hotels.

After reviewing the situation at a high-level meeting here, Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur announced curfew relaxation from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily.

Also, the state allowed intra-state movement of roadways and private transport buses for the first time during the curfew relaxation timings from Monday onwards.

Presiding over a meeting through video conferencing with all Deputy Commissioners, Superintendents of Police and Chief Medical Officers, the Chief Minister said social distancing must be ensured in the buses and at the bus stands.

The buses would be allowed to ply with not more than 60 per cent occupancy.

The Chief Minister said inter-district movement would be allowed without any pass, but passes would be required for inter-state movement.

He said the people coming from other parts of the country would be quarantined. He said the people coming from the red zones would be kept in institutional quarantine and those from other areas would be kept in home quarantine.

Over 1.60 lakh Himachalis stranded in various parts of the country have reached the state from April 25 till now.

The state on Sunday reported 11 more cases of coronavirus, taking the state's tally to 324.

Solan and Kangra reported the new cases.
President Trump is demanding arrests and long-term jail sentences for the individuals who were filmed beating a man who was said to have been trying to stop looters from attacking a bar in downtown Dallas on Saturday night.

The president on Sunday tweeted in response to video of the incident, writing: 'SO TERRIBLE! Where are the arrests and LONG TERM jail sentences?'

Rioters last night were seen on video hurling rocks at a business owner who was allegedly trying to defend his store with a sword before he was brutally beaten unconscious in Dallas.

The victim was stable, police said, after the man was seen slumped over in the street with blood pouring from gashes on his head in the Victory Park area of the city.

Footage shows the alleged store owner wielding a long blade and rushing toward a few rioters. Within seconds, a furious mob descends on the man, hurling rocks at him, kicking him in the head and beating his face with skateboards and fists.

Dallas Police said the man had taken up arms against the individuals to 'allegedly protect his neighborhood from protesters.'

The alleged business owner's body lies twisted in the street as blood pours from gashes on his head after rioters attacked him in Dallas last night

A furious mob descends on the man, hurling rocks at him, kicking him in the head and beating his face with skateboards and fists

The alleged business owner is seen holding a long blade as he rushes toward one man Saturday night just moments before the mob takes him down

President trump on Sunday demanded 'arrests and long term jail sentences' for the people beating up the man

In a video taken by Elijah Schaffer of Blaze TV, the victim is very rapidly knocked unconscious in the ferocious beating. A few of the witnesses - including the cameraman - rush over to help the man.

One is head yelling: 'Turn him over,' while another cautions, 'Don't touch him.'

The victim's body was mangled by the stomping and kicking of the mob, but he was able to sit up later and was seen holding his hand to his head before being taken in an ambulance.

Across the city there had been 74 arrests by 10.45pm Saturday on the fifth night of rioting across the US over the killing of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody after a white officer knelt on his neck in Minneapolis.

The National Guard was activated to defend the White House from attack as the Secret Service agents on the ground struggled to keep control of crowds descending on the seat of the US government.

The victim's body was mangled by the stomping and kicking of the mob, but he was able to sit up later and was seen holding his hand to his head before being taken in an ambulance.

The Big Apple was ablaze as NYPD vehicles were torched and ransacked while shocking footage emerged of cops violently detaining protesters.

In Atlanta a cop suffered 'significant injuries' when they were hit by an ATV, while in Chicago, a man commandeered a police horse and rode off on it.

Los Angeles deployed the National Guard for the first since the 1992 riots when the police officers who beat up black man Rodney King walked free of all charges, and California Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in LA County.

A total of 11 states and the District of Columbia had activated the National Guard by the early hours of Sunday, as law enforcement buckled under the strain of the protests.

States calling for Guard assistance included California, Georgia, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Washington state.

Washington DC: The National Guard was activated to defend the White House from attack as the Secret Service agents on the ground struggled to keep control of crowds descending on the seat of the US government

Minneapolis: Tear gas and fireworks go off in the streets Saturday night on day five of protests over Floyd's death

Washington DC: The seat of the government was under threat from protesters leading to the National Guard being activated in Washington DC

Washington DC: Demonstrators gesture next to a fire during a rally near the White House

Meanwhile at least 25 cities rolled out emergency curfews to try to bring rioting and looting under control, including San Francisco, Atlanta, Louisville, Los Angeles, Portland, Columbia, South Carolina, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Seattle.

Donald Trump has put the Army on notice to deploy to the streets within a four-hour window - the first time this will have been done in almost 20 years during the 1992 LA riots over the beating of black man Rodney King by cops.

Minnesota - where Floyd died - has borne the brunt of the protests which began there Tuesday before fanning out across the country.

Rioting was still going on in the early hours of Sunday, with the Minneapolis police department reporting a big group of protesters on foot and in vehicles throwing missiles of some sort at cops.

Minnesota Dept of Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell announced early Sunday there had been 'dozens' of arrests through the night but no 'substantive' injuries.

Chicago: A Chicago police vehicle is set on fire during violent protests and bricks are hurled at it

New York: A New York City Police Department vehicle burns after being set alight by protesters

The Minnesota National Guard announced at around 10.30pm it was sending 10,800 troops in to tackle protests Saturday night, as pleas for people to observe curfews fell on deaf ears.

The Minnesota National Guard said on Twitter it already had more than 4,100 citizen-soldiers and airmen already in the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul and was ramping it up to a staggering 10,800.

There were just 700 on duty on Friday.

State police officers were seen in their masses surrounding the fifth police precinct Saturday night after officials insisted that the city would be brought under control following four nights of widespread destruction including a suspected looter being shot dead, businesses being burned to the ground and police officers forced to flee for their lives when a police precinct was stormed and torched.

The city was filled with smoke Saturday as protesters let off fireworks and set fires.

Washington DC:A protester holds up a sign saying 'Stop killing us' as a pack of military police are sen in the background

New York: A vehicle burns near New York's Union Square Saturday night

Hundreds of protesters had gathered outside the fifth precinct and were driven out by state cops using tear gas and firing rubber bullets.

Footage showed protesters had retreated while the officers increased their circle around the vicinity - defending the police station for fear it will be stormed and torched like the third precinct was Thursday.

People marching from Minneapolis to St. Paul were also met with tear gas from officers stopping them in their tracks and sending masses fleeing from the potent chemical.

This comes as Governor Tim Walz has warned that a renewed spike in coronavirus cases could hit residents as protests have seen thousands take to the streets, while he admitted that the state's jails cannot contain the number of people being taken into custody.


The Lagos State Safety Commission on Sunday said it is set to begin the Register-to-Open Initiative of the Lagos State Government. ...





The Lagos State Safety Commission on Sunday said it is set to begin the Register-to-Open Initiative of the Lagos State Government.





This assertion was made by the Director General, Lagos State Safety Commission, Mr. Lanre Mojola during a press conference on Governments plan towards gradual reopening of the economy.





Mojola declared that in line with the directives of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the guidelines towards reopening of the economy, especially religious and social centers have been developed and that consultations were ongoing with all stakeholders in partnership with the Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture.





He noted that upon registration, a verification process would be carried out to ensure adequate space management is put in place across the various centres to guarantee that social distancing, hygiene and safety measures were maintained across all Religious and Social centers.





He stated that a committee had been set-up by the governor, headed by the Commissioner for Special Duties and Intergovernmental Relations, Engr. Tayo Bamgbose-Martins consisting of other Ministries, including the Ministry of Tourism, Arts & Culture; Home Affairs; Physical Planning and Urban Renewal; Economic Planning and Budget to ensure that the process of reopening was done effortlessly.





He said that the Commission had met with various stakeholders in the hospitality and tourism sector and would be engaging more stakeholders in the coming week on the best approach to the gradual reopening of the economy and registration of entities within the various sectors, adding that the process was not tedious and time consuming, and that it took into account all religious centers, event centers, gyms, night clubs, bars, lounges, spars, cinemas, restaurants, etc.





He appealed that the only way to beat the COVID-19 pandemic was through collective effort with all stakeholders and urged all to cooperate with the government in adhering to the safety guidelines.
New Delhi, May 31 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said that even though curbs have been lifted and the economy has opened-up, people still need to be vigilant without laxity.

The remarks came a day after the Central government issued 'Unlock 1' guidelines allowing a phased re-opening of most activities across the country and limiting the lockdown only to containment zones for a month till June 30.

In his monthly radio programme 'Mann Ki Baat', Prime Minister Modi said, "Many curbs have been lifted. A major chunk of the economy is now active again. We need to be more vigilant, be it maintaining a distance of six feet, wearing a mask, staying at home, we must follow all this without laxity. The road ahead is a long one; we are fighting a pandemic about which little was previously known." The Prime Minister added, "Looking at the world, we release how big is the achievement of Indians. The population is more, challenges are different, even then coronavirus could not spread as fast as it did in other countries. The fatality rate is also lower in our country." He also lauded the people for their collective efforts in valiantly fighting the battle against coronavirus. "During this pandemic, we have shown that the idea of service and sacrifice are not mere ideals for us but are the way of life. The entire movement is people driven. In such a vast country, every citizen has taken upon themselves to fight the battle." He said that the innovation amid the challenging times has touched his heart as a multitude of countrymen from villages and cities, from small scale traders to startups and labs are devising even new ways of fighting against the virus.

The Prime Minister said that the vaccine development programme in the Indian labs is being watched by the world with anticipation and hope.

"There is a saying, "Seva Paramo Dharmha". Service is a pleasure in itself. The victory over the virus will depend on our innovation," Prime Minister Modi added.
Part-time police reservists are owed a deep debt of gratitude, the chair of the Police Federation in Northern Ireland said.

Mark Lindsay was marking 50 years since the creation of the group of officers.

It was set up in 1970 at the start of the conflict in support of regular RUC members in response to the growing threat from paramilitaries.

Mr Lindsay said: They knew that by putting on the uniform they would become a target for terrorists.

It is a measure of their courage and commitment that they stepped forward to serve during dark and dreadful days.

These brave officers had day jobs and were then prepared to turn out for their shift as Part Time Reserve officers. We owe them a deep debt of gratitude.

Fifty-two Part Time Reserve officers died and hundreds suffered physical and psychological injuries during their service.

Close to 10,000 men and women stepped up to the plate and gave outstanding service to this entire community Mark Lindsay

Nine were killed after they left the service.

Mr Lindsay said: Close to 10,000 men and women stepped up to the plate and gave outstanding service to this entire community.

Coming from the communities they served, they were the epitome of neighbourhood policing and have been invaluable in supporting their full-time colleagues.

The 50th anniversary of the Part Time Reserve, which became part of the Royal Ulster Constabulary on June 1 1970, is an occasion to reflect on the service they gave and the losses they suffered.

Mr Lindsay added: Today, the Part Time Reserve is a small part of the PSNI with just 245 officers and the organisation is looking at a more defined role for them within the new neighbourhood policing approach.

PSNI chief constable Simon Byrne paid tribute to serving officers and those who had lost their lives.

He said he also remembered the many hundreds more who suffered physical and mental injuries, often life-changing.
WASHINGTON, May 31, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Council on American-Islamic Relations, the nation's largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today condemned numerous incidents of police brutality that have occurred during nationwide protests sparked by George Floyd's murder in Minneapolis, Minn.

SEE: Police Erupt in Violence Nationwide

SEE ALSO: Journalists Detail Being Hit By Rubber Bullets, Attacked While Covering Nationwide Protests

NYPD Officer Rams into Crowd of George Floyd Protesters in Brooklyn

In a statement, CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell said:

"Engaging in police brutality at a protest against police brutality is a surefire way to escalate the unrest occurring on streets across our nation. The imposition of a curfew does not give any police officer free reign to gas, beat, shoot rubber bullets at, or otherwise attack protesters and journalists.



"Although we are not surprised to see that extremists and infiltrators continue to use peaceful protests as an opportunity to engage in violence, we expect and demand better from the law enforcement officers sworn to serve and protect their communities."

SEE: CAIR-NY Welcomes NY AG Investigation into NYPD Use of Force Against Protesters

https://www.cair.com/press_releases/cair-ny-welcomes-ny-ag-investigation-into-nypd-use-of-force-against-protesters/

[MEDIA ADVISORY: Later today, CAIR's Minnesota chapter and coalition partners will take part in a noon news conference at the State Capitol to discuss media coverage and official statements on the protests.

WHAT: Coalition News Conference on Media Coverage of Protests

WHEN: Sunday, May 31, 12 p.m.

WHERE: State Capitol, 75 Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr Boulevard., St Paul, MN

On Monday, June 1, CAIR-Minnesota plans to take part in a rally at the Governor's Mansion to renew the demand for the arrest of all officers involved in the killing of George Floyd.

WHAT: Rally to Call for Arrest of All Officers involved in George Floyd Killing

WHEN: Monday, June 1, 4-6 p.m.

WHERE: Governor's Mansion, 1006 Summit Ave, St. Paul, MN

CONTACT: CAIR-MN Executive Director Jaylani Hussein, 612-406-0070, [email protected]; CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-744-7726, [email protected]

Coalition organizations include CAIR-Minnesota, Black Lives Matter Minnesota, Black Lives Matter Twin Cities Metro, Communities United Against Police Brutality, Cop Watch Minneapolis, Minnesota Disability Justice Network, Twin Cities Coalition for Justice for Jamal, and others.]

CAIR-Minnesota has called on prosecutors in Minnesota to end the nationwide unrest by immediately arresting and charging the three other police officers involved in the death of George Floyd.

SEE: CAIR-Minnesota Calls for Arrest of All Officers Involved in George Floyd Killing, Asks That No Bail Be Granted

https://www.cair.com/press_releases/cair-minnesota-calls-for-arrest-of-all-officers-involved-in-george-floyd-killing-asks-that-no-bail-be-granted/

CAIR's Oregon chapter also issued a joint statement against the curfew in Portland.

SEE: CAIR-Oregon and OJRC Joint-Statement Opposing Portland Curfew

https://www.cair.com/press_releases/cair-oregon-and-ojrc-joint-statement-opposing-portland-curfew/

CAIR's mission is to protect civil rights, enhance understanding of Islam, promote justice, and empower American Muslims.

La mision de CAIR es proteger las libertades civiles, mejorar la comprension del Islam, promover la justicia, y empoderar a los musulmanes en los Estados Unidos.

CONTACT: CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-744-7726, [email protected]

SOURCE Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)

Related Links

http://www.cair.com


In breaking news on May 19, Gov. Steve Bullock announced the Treasure State is steamrolling toward Phase II of reopening.

On June 1, bars, restaurants, breweries, fitness facilities and others can increase customer capacity to 75%. Places of worship and bowling alleys can also welcome more guests. Out-of-state visitors will no longer have to quarantine for 14 days before enjoying Montana. These shifts are unfolding rapidly, and businesses are readying themselves.

On the endless list of considerations for employers, a central question remains. Will employees come back to work? For some out-of-work employees, federal and state unemployment benefits combined make up a greater sum than the employee made previously at their job.

More than the financial bottom line for furloughed staff members is another conundrum: What if I dont feel safe returning to work? The gray area engulfing both employees and employers during these phases of reopening is enormous.

In the past weeks, as the Better Business Bureau has connected with thousands  yes thousands  of businesses. We have heard loud and clear that businesses are worried about the bottom line. Funding cant come through fast enough. We heard worries about whether customers will show up if businesses reopen. And we heard from owners and managers worrying about whether their staff will come back. Though employees technically must return to work when summoned (and hence stop receiving unemployment payments), several good managers have opted for the carrot instead of the stick when it comes to retention in a pandemic.

Recently Mike Nelson, general manager of the Northern Hotel in Billings, spoke to a group of Montana business-people gathered (remotely) to talk about engagement among employees during COVID-19. Since the pandemic began, Nelson says he has had to lay off many of his staff members. That is not an unusual story in todays landscape. But what came next was.

Nelson enlisted the help of remaining hotel staffers to cook takeout meals for any of the staff  on payroll or furloughed  who needed it. The free, hearty meals were offered three times per week.

For the staff who remained at the hotel, many suddenly found themselves without childcare. Instead of sending them home to file for unemployment, Nelson allowed them to bring their children with them to work. The happy sounds of children at the office brought joy during stressful times and added a layer of perspective to the situation.

Next, Nelson leveraged the shutdown to catch up on overdue projects and keep staff at work. To knock out the hotels honey-do list, Nelson said he rotated folks through the roster, meaning accountants were spackling walls and maintenance engineers were cleaning artwork, among other nontraditional duties.

Nelson said he was also zealous about communicating with his staff, whether they remained on the skeleton crew at the hotel or furloughed at home. He gave regular company updates, offering as transparent as possible.

The Northern Hotel offers one of hundreds of stories of great management under pressure. At Better Business Bureau, we advise businesses to guide and reassure employees by keeping them up to date to prevent unnecessary panic or undue stress.

As a business owner, it is important to arm yourself with the most current information and share it with your workforce to show leadership and calm fears. And then, be human. Be kind to your staff. Because as owners across Montana prepare to reopen or welcome more customers, having the staff to do so is vital.

Take a page from Nelson, and so many other great business owners playbooks. Show empathy for employees, be transparent about the state of your business, and take proper precautions before reopening.

Heeding that advice means you will not only be doing the right thing, but youll be building the kind of loyalty it takes to survive a pandemic. Its the kind of loyalty that brings good people back to work when theyre called.

Hannah Stiff is the Montana marketplace manager for BBB Northwest and Pacific.
Whilst international travel has been placed on hold during the Covid-19 pandemic, the worlds wildlife has been able to flourish in both land and seas with the absence of mass tourism.

Thailands natural resources are some of the most beautiful and famed in the world, with thousands of species of flora and fauna native to its shores. Strategies to protect the ecosystem and wildlife for the long-term sustainability of the country are at the core of Tourism Authority of Thailand's (TAT) commitment to responsible tourism, with the tourism board introducing the Responsible Thailand Awards in 2019.

Thailand is one of the top tourist destination in the world and welcomes over 39 million visitors annually, of which over 500,000 come from the Mena region, said Pichaya Saisaengchan, Director of the Tourism Authority of Thailand for Dubai and the Middle East. In order to preserve the natural habitat, wildlife and traditions of the kingdom, it is our responsibility to ensure that we regulate the impact of mass tourism on the ecosystem and engage with our local partners to ensure responsible tourism that is sustainable.

Thailand benefits from a number of esteemed wildlife initiatives and conservation programmes that contribute towards the greater good of Thailand, yet have been affected by the impact of Covid-19 with regards to funding and volunteering.

The impact of the global pandemic has left a funding gap for the worlds wildlife initiatives, many of which rely on tourism for their revenue streams. We would like to support them by highlighting legitimate organisations and initiatives that are doing great work in the kingdom, and how tourists can continue to support them whilst travel is restricted, confirms Pichaya.

Engage with volunteering programs

Early in the year, the Tourism Authority of Thailand - in collaboration with the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources, as well as public and private sectors of the island of Ko Tao - launched The One for Nature project to protect, rehabilitate, and conserve Thailands natural resources through responsible tourism. Travellers can keep up-to-date with volunteering initiatives taking place all over Thailand such as beach clean-ups on Phi Phi Island and street dog adoption programmes in Phuket. One of the main activities of the initiative is to construct artificial reefs for marine ecosystem rehabilitation by using marine-friendly materials to develop new marine-rich dive sites.

Sponsor an elephant

The current global travel ban has seen camps struggle to cover the costs of welfare for the elephants they look after due to the dependency of tourism income. Thai nonprofit organization, Save Elephant Foundation, provides assistance to Thailands elephants through community outreach, rescue and rehabilitation programs, and educational ecotourism operations. The conservation of the elephants has even inspired Bangkok-based jewellery brand, Pattaraphan, to launch the Tusk Earring Collection with 10 per cent of the sales proceeds donated to support the elephants. Enthusiasts of Thailands elephants can lend their support through sponsorship programs, which help provide food, medical care and shelter.

Support thriving turtles with a stay in 2021

Turtles have made a comeback this year, as Thailands beaches remain deserted due to the countrywide lockdown. On the island of Koh Samui, a giant mother turtle laid her eggs, which have been cared for by Banyan Tree Samuis sustainability team and the local Department of Marine and Coastal Resources, protecting them from predators to ensure survival of the hatchlings. Around 200 green turtles hatched in April with exciting moments captured by the Banyan Tree team and shared on their social platforms. In addition, Thailand recorded the largest number of leatherback turtle nests in two decades on beaches in Phuket and Phang Nga. Travellers can support the conservation of the Banyan Tree Samuis thriving turtle population by booking now for stays in 2021. - TradeArabia News Service
Sri Lanka plans to reopen its tourism sector in mid-June by allowing only small groups of visitors to begin with, a local newspaper quoted a senior tourism ministry official as saying.

A limited number of small groups from around the world would be allowed to visit and stay in approved five-star hotels that have put strict safety measures in place, Tourism Ministry Secretary S. Hettiaarachchi said, according to a report in the Sunday Times.

The tourists will be required to carry a COVID-19-free certificate issued either by their governments or a reputed agency, he said, adding that tourists would also need to wait on arrival at the airport for coronavirus testing.

Individual travellers will still not be allowed to enter the country for now. The official did not mention how many people in a group could visit.

Sri Lanka reported another 20 cases of the virus on Saturday, taking the total number of cases so far to 1,613, including 10 deaths.

The country attracted around 2 million tourists last year and the sector contributes around 11% to the nation's gross domestic product.

The Sunday Times said President Rajapaksa had discussed the proposals at a meeting on May 19 with representatives of the tourism industry.

The main tourist season typically begins in around November.

If the government approves the plan, Bandaranaike International Airport and Mattala International Airport, which have been closed under coronavirus restrictions, would partially reopen. Testing facilities would be set up at the airports and private hospitals are expected to provide assistance to tourists as part of the plans, according to the newspaper report.

The tourists will not be allowed to get off buses midway (between journeys) and will be able only to visit selected destinations where they could avoid crowds, Hettiaarachchi said.

Popular sites such as the Yala national park, Udawalawe, Arugam Bay, Trincomalee and selected beach areas would be among those open for the tourists, whose temperatures would be monitored daily, the report said.
The coronavirus outbreak has forced local businesses to dig deep and find solutions to keep the revenue pipeline flowing. While Geranium Lake Flowers in Portland was able to keep some of its business going, the wedding and other celebrations segment temporarily shut down.

Its not a good time for farms that produce flowers, either, as spring and early summer is a peak season.

One day a customer called the shop and asked if she could send flowers to a senior center. A simple gesture to brighten their day. It got Sarah Cowan thinking. One thing led to another, and the Geranium Lake director of sales hatched a plan to provide flowers to seniors and others who receive meals through the Meals on Wheels program.

For the past several weeks, Geranium Lake has made a delivery of single-stem peonies each Friday to a Portland-area Meals on Wheels distribution center. This past Friday, 180 seniors received a peony with their meal delivery.

People are surprised to get these. Theyre so happy that somebody is thinking about them during the pandemic, said Julie Piper-Finley, Portland Meals on Wheels director of marketing and communications.

Coronavirus in Oregon: Latest news | Live map tracker |Text alerts | Newsletter

To donate flowers, people can go to Geranium Lakes website and buy peonies for $30 per bunch of 10. Geranium Lake then puts each stem in a water tube, and attaches a note to each flower. From there, the flowers are delivered once a week to Meals on Wheels.

People just want to do something good right now, Cowan said.

For full transparency, this is a profit-making center for the flower shop and farms. Its not a high-volume venture, but its a way to keep small businesses busy while the economy figures itself out.

Our customers support us, and we can support another small business in the farms, Cowan said.

Piper-Finley said theyre committed to doing this for six weeks, but Cowan says as long as it keeps impacting people we want to keep it going.

--Nick Daschel | ndaschel@oregonian.com | @nickdaschel

Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.
By Laman Ismayilova

With its abundance of historical monuments, Gala State Historical Ethnographic Reserve offers unique insight into the past.

Founded in 2008, the Reserve treasures a rich collection of artifacts discovered during archaeological excavations. Traveling these historical sight will mesmerize you for sure.

People in love with historical journeys take great pleasure for visiting Museum of Archaeology and Ethnography (open-air), the Museum of Antiques and Castle Museum (partly open-air), operating under the Reserve.

The museum centers display more than 2,000 archaeological and architectural monuments, including ancient rock paintings, pottery, household items, jewelry, weapons, coins and much more.

The 18th-century tandoor and two underground passages (10th-15th centuries), old houses, portable tents made of animal skins, stone and straw houses with domes are of particular interest.

Ancient mounds, grave stones, dwellings, places of worship and other monuments also ultimately grab attention of curious visitors.

Gala settlement, where the Reserve operates, is especially famous for its magnificent rock carvings. Hunting scenes, anthropomorphic and zoomorphic images are depicted on the ancient stones.

Scenes of sacrifice, separate images of deer, goats, oxen can also be found here. Ancient findings are presented in the open-air museum and a mosque next to Gesr tower.

Gala is considered one of the oldest shopping centers. Even in the 17th century, the European traveler Engelbert Kempfer wrote that salt, which is distinguished by its taste and whiteness, was mined in the village of Gala.

The eighteenth-century researcher, Johann Lerch, in his notes told about the journey to the village of Gala. In the 40s of the 19th century, the Russian traveler Berezin also mentioned in his notes the fortress in the village of Gala.

The territory of Gala Reserve was suitable for sowing in the Middle Ages, and the defense tower located here was restored by Nadir Shah.

Today Gala State Reserve successfully preserves the spirit of Azerbaijan's historical past. Every year, the Reserve welcomes dozens of visitors who are ready to soak up an unforgettable atmosphere of this place.

---

Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
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Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday spoke with vice chancellors of various universities and said that examinations should be held while ensuring that it doesn't lead to the spread of coronavirus.

An official statement quoted the chief minister as saying that "it is becoming clear that examinations cannot be held in July", but the uncertainty in this regard should be ended and all options should be explored.

Technical and Higher Education Minister Uday Samant, Minister of State Prajakt Tanpure, chief secretary Ajoy Mehta and senior officials also took part in the video conference.

"University examinations should be held ensuring not a single student gets infected by novel coronavirus....The worries of students and parents should be ended by determining the exact method of examination and (finalizing) the schedule," Thackeray said, as per the statement.

The pandemic situation in Mumbai, Pune and Aurangabad, which are hotspots of infection, is changing constantly, the chief minister noted.

COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine  one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show

It should be seen if the crisis can be turned into an opportunity with the use of technology, he added.

As examinations were postponed after the outbreak of virus, students are worried, he noted.

Thackeray also said that universities should find out how teaching is being conducted at foreign varsities.

"Coronavirus should be dubbed an eye-opener. Healthcare facilities need to be prioritized. Similarly, education needs to be seen as essential," Thackeray said, according to the statement.

The chief minister, during the interaction, also called for ensuring that the quality of education is the same across the state and there is no "regional disparity".

Alternatives such as e-learning and digital classrooms should be explored, he added.

Samant said all options for holding examinations were being explored.

Tanpure said the government was in touch with students and parents and taking efforts to ensure that examinations were held.

Follow our full coverage of the coronavirus pandemic here
There has been one reported Covid-19 death in the North today, officials have said.

On Sunday, Stormonts health department said one more person had died from Covid-19 related illness, bringing the overall death toll to 523.

An extra seven positive cases brought the mainly hospital-related number of cases to 4,716.

Earlier today, Arlene Harris said that ministers are acutely aware of the

Read More:

More than half of all Covid-19 deaths have occurred among frail and elderly care home residents.

Providers have previously voiced concern about the provision of personal protective equipment and staffing levels amid the pandemic.

Measures have been taken by the devolved administration in Belfast in response.

Stormonts First Minister Mrs Foster told the BBCs The Andrew Marr Show on Sunday: If we have a low number of deaths in the first place, then understandably you are going to have a concentration where there are old and vulnerable people.

We are very, very conscious of the difficulties in care homes.

We will look back and there will be plenty of time to look back at how we dealt with this virus.
BEML Ltd is firming up tie-ups with two foreign companies for setting up joint manufacturing facilities in India. Besides, the state-owned company has also called for global expressions of interest (EOIs) for more tie-ups as part of its efforts to indigenise technology.

These planned units would be set up in its Make in India Park. In an interview with Business Standard, Deepak Kumar Hota, BEML's chairman and managing director, said the nature of tie-ups through the EOIs would be open-ended. Though Hota did not share the names of the two companies, he said the tie-up with a ...
Violent protests over the death of George Floyd and other police killings of black people in the US grew on Saturday from New York to Tulsa to Los Angeles.

Police vehicles were set ablaze and injuries mounted as the country convulsed through another night of unrest after months of coronavirus lockdowns.

The protests  which began in Minneapolis following Mr Floyds death after a police officer held a knee to his neck until he stopped breathing  have left parts of that city a grid of broken windows, burned-out buildings and ransacked stores.

The unrest has since become a national phenomenon as protesters decry years of deaths at police hands.

More than 1,300 people have been arrested in 16 cities since Thursday, with more than 500 of those happening in Los Angeles on Friday.

Tens of thousands of people were in streets across the country on Saturday, many not wearing masks or observing social distancing, raising concerns about the potential spread of the coronavirus just as society is reopening.

After a tumultuous Friday night, racially diverse crowds took to the streets again for mostly peaceful demonstrations in dozens of cities from coast to coast. As on Friday, many protests descended into violence, with cars pushing into people in at least three cities.

 In Washington, the National Guard was deployed outside the White House, where chanting crowds were taunting Secret Service agents. Dressed in camouflage and holding shields, the troops stood in a line a few metres away, preventing the crowd from pushing forward.

Demonstrators cover their face as people gather to protest the death of George Floyd on Saturday outside the White House (Evan Vucci/AP)

 In Philadelphia, at least 13 officers were injured when peaceful protests turned violent and at least four police vehicles were set on fire, amid other fires downtown.

 In the Greenwood District of Tulsa, Oklahoma, the site of a 1921 massacre of black people that left as many as 300 dead, protesters blocked intersections and chanted the name of Terence Crutcher, a black man killed by a police officer in 2016.

Story continues

 In Seattle, police fired tear gas and stun grenades to try to disperse black-clad crowds that smashed downtown shopfronts and stole merchandise.

 In Los Angeles, protesters chanted Black Lives Matter, some within inches of the face shields of officers. Police used batons to move the crowd back and fired rubber bullets, while a police car burned in the street.

Smoke rises from a fire on a police vehicle in Philadelphia (Matt Rourke/AP)

 In New York City, dangerous confrontations flared repeatedly as officers made arrests and cleared streets. A video showed two NYPD cars lurching into a crowd of demonstrators who were pushing a barricade against one of them and pelting it with objects, knocking several people to the ground. It was unclear if anyone was hurt.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, who said local forces had been overwhelmed on Friday, fully mobilised the states National Guard and promised a massive show of force. The Guard announced it had more than 4,000 members responding to Minneapolis and would quickly have nearly 11,000.

The situation in Minneapolis is no longer in any way about the murder of George Floyd, Walz said. It is about attacking civil society, instilling fear and disrupting our great cities.

A man carries a flag depicting the anarchist symbol in Los Angeles (Chris Pizelloa/AP)

Soon after the citys 8pm curfew went into force, lines of police cars and officers in riot gear moved in to confront protesters, firing tear gas to push away throngs of people.

The tougher tactics came after city and state leaders were criticised for not effectively confronting days of violent and damaging protests that included protesters burning down a police station soon after officers abandoned it.

President Donald Trump appeared to cheer on the tougher tactics being used by law enforcement on Saturday night. He commended the Guard deployment in Minneapolis, declaring No games! and also said police in New York City must be allowed to do their job!

Speaking in Cape Canaveral earlier, Mr Trump warned his administration would stop mob violence, and well stop it cold.

What we are now seeing on the streets of our cities has nothing to do with justice or with peace. The memory of George Floyd is being dishonoured by rioters, looters and anarchists, he said.

We can not and must not allow a small group of criminals and vandals to wreck our cities and lay waste to our communities.

Earlier, Mr Trump issued tweets taunting protesters and praising the Secret Service, who used shields and pepper spray to push back people gathered outside the White House to protest Mr Floyds death and the presidents response.

Mr Trump tweeted he had watched from inside as officers let the protesters scream & rant as much as they wanted, but whenever someone . got too frisky or out of line, they would quickly come down on them, hard  didnt know what hit them.

Great job last night at the White House by the U.S. @SecretService. They were not only totally professional, but very cool. I was inside, watched every move, and couldnt have felt more safe. They let the protesters scream & rant as much as they wanted, but whenever someone.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 30, 2020

Overnight curfews were imposed in more than a dozen major cities nationwide, ranging from 6pm in parts of South Carolina to 10pm around Ohio.

People were also told to be off the streets of Atlanta, Denver, Los Angeles, Seattle and Minneapolis  where thousands had ignored the same order Friday night.

The officer who held his knee to Floyds neck as he begged for air was arrested Friday and charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. But many protesters are demanding the arrests of the three other officers involved.

The events of the last 72 hours, seen live on national television, have shown the opposite: a sudden switch to shots of crowds, screaming protesters and burning buildings, coming in stark contrast to the empty streets of recent months during lockdown.

The unrest also recalled the Los Angeles riots of the 1990s after the acquittal of the white police officers who beat black motorist Rodney King.

The current protests have gripped many more cities, but the financial losses have yet to approach the totals Los Angeles suffered during five days of rioting in 1992, when more than 60 people died, 2,000-plus were injured and thousands arrested.
Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), a civil rights icon, released a statement Saturday night urging protesters to peacefully take to the streets as unrest continues.

What he's saying: "I see you, and I hear you. I know your pain, your rage, your sense of despair and hopelessness," he said. "Justice has, indeed, been denied for far too long. Rioting, looting, and burning is not the way. Organize. Demonstrate. Sit-in. Stand-up. Vote."

"Be constructive, not destructive. History has proven time and again that non-violent, peaceful protest is the way to achieve the justice and equality that we all deserve," he continued.

"Our work won't be easy  nothing worth having ever is  but I strongly believe, as Dr. King once said, that while the arc of the moral universe is long, it bends toward justice."

The big picture per Axios's Zachary Basu: The 79-year-old civil rights leader has received the Presidential Medal of Freedom and is often referred to as "the conscience of the House."

Lewis helped lead the 1963 March on Washington and has served in the House since 1987.

Go deeper: U.S. cities crack down on protests
Washington: President Donald Trump says he wants to invite Australia to join the Group of 7 nations' meeting in the US later this year.

Trump singled out Australia, Russia, South Korea and India as possible additions, as he announced he will postpone the event until at least September and seek to expand the "outdated" group membership, which he says no longer properly represents what's taking place in the world.

President Donald Trump speaks with reporters while in air en route to Andrews Air Force Base. Credit:AP

The G7's members are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The leaders of the world's major economies were slated to meet in June in the US at Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland this year, but the coronavirus outbreak has hobbled those plans.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 31) Over 23,000 repatriated overseas Filipino workers stuck in quarantine facilities in Metro Manila have been transported back to their hometowns, the Labor Department reported Sunday.

In a statement, the agency said a total of 23,472 returning workers had been sent back to their respective provinces, while hundreds more await clearance.

"The DOLE command center also reported that all of the more than 24,000 OFWs who were virtually locked up in various quarantine facilities would have been transported to their provinces by Sunday," the department said.

The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration meanwhile said more OFWs are being fetched from hotels, with more COVID-19 test results expected to be released on Sunday afternoon.

Last week, President Rodrigo Duterte ordered agencies to speed up the release of the test results of the over 24,000 returning OFWs stuck in various quarantine facilities, giving officials one week to send them home to their provinces.

The chief executive likewise appealed to local governments to welcome their residents home. Local officials have voiced their concerns about the possible surge in coronavirus cases in their jurisdictions from returnees who may be infected with the disease.

Authorities, however, have assured that the returning OFWs have been cleared and already tested negative before they were sent home.

RELATED: DILG to issue show cause order vs. LGUs refusing to accept returning OFWs

More OFWs are expected in the next few months, with the COVID-19 crisis still hounding the globe. The government said it expects around 60,000 returning workers in the next two months, with some 300,000 more returning for the rest of 2020.
Lorry driver Stephen Williams, 30, was jailed for two years for terrorising his teenage lover

A former soldier who terrorised his teenager lover by pouring corrosive liquid over her head and stabbing her with a pen has been jailed for two years.

Lorry driver Stephen Williams, 30, forced the girl, who was 18 at the time, to quit her hairdressing job because of his jealous rages, Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court was told.

But when, as he demanded, she went to live with him in his cab, he subjected her to ongoing humiliations, the court heard.

Williams, from Bury, Lancashire, had already demanded that she shun her friends locally and cut off ties with her family, say prosecutors.

Gavin Howie, prosecuting, said the victim even recalled how, when she commented on how a new haircut for her young brother made him look 'cute', he became incensed.

One incident came when Williams drove with the teen to a business where he was picking up a container he began questioning her about former partners.

Arming himself with a knife, which he held to her throat, he said: 'Do you think I won't slice your throat? 'Cause I will.'

The court heard he also poured a corrosive substance, used to clean the underside of lorries, over her head and then laughed at her discomfort.

Shortly afterwards he also stabbed her in the arm with a pen. He then refused to let her go, even when she had an asthma attack.

Another flashpoint came outside her mother's home days later, when his victim told him she wanted to end their partnership, the court heard.

Williams punched her in the face and kicked her as she cowered in the footwell of his car.

He then sped off in the vehicle, said Mr Howie.

He told her during the journey: 'That's it now. You're dead. I'm taking you to a field and you're dead.

"And then I'm going to come back and I'm gonna get your mum and sister and then I'll save your little brother till last."

Mr Howie said Williams bent her fingers back, causing ligament damage, before taking her back to her mother's house.

Williams told her the relationship was over and threatened his victim, that if she ever formed a new one, he would kill her and any new partner.

The defendant later handed himself in at Bury police station after complaints were filed about his behaviour.

He claimed to officers his young partner had a cocaine addiction and the only times he had ever been violent towards her was in self-defence.

One of his former partners was approached by police to provide a witness statement in the current case, the court heard.

She received a threatening phone call from Williams, from Liverpool Prison.

When his cell was searched it was found he had used an unauthorised device to make the calls.

Richard English, defending, said his client had suffered from a traumatic childhood, which had impacted on his later life. Pictured: Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court

He had called the victim 181 times and another ex-partner received 380 calls, a previous hearing was told.

Williams had previously pleaded guilty to using controlling and coercive behaviour, causing actual bodily harm and assault.

In addition, he admitted unauthorised use of a mobile phone to contact the woman and another former partner from prison and witness intimidation.

Mr Howie said Williams claimed at one point that his behaviour had been affected by witnessing the deaths of two comrades while a serving soldier in Afghanistan.

But checks of his Army record had disclosed that the defendant had never been posted to the country.

The hearing was told Williams was dismissed from the armed forces in 2016 after being court-martialled for assault.

Richard English, defending, said his client had suffered from a traumatic childhood, which had impacted on his later life.

The victim had indicated that she wished to continue with the relationship, he told the court.

Mr English said the defendant, who had a steady work record as a bricklayer, joiner, soldier and lorry driver, had also suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Jailing him, Judge John Potter said: 'These offences as a whole portray you as an abusive, manipulative and controlling bully, in particular while you are in relationships with female partners.'

The judge also imposed a five-year restraining order in relation to a former partner.

None was sought regarding his teenage victim.

Judge Potter said he did not consider Williams to be a 'dangerous' offender and he appreciated the fact the defendant had suffered considerable mental health problems, linked to his childhood traumas.

But the judge said these factors 'were no excuse' for subjecting someone 10 years younger than him to such an ordeal.
Participants in a signing ceremony for a 480 billion won ($388 million) green syndicated loan hold copies of the agreement at the Korea Development Bank (KDB) headquarters in Seoul, Friday. The state-run bank and three other financial firms agreed to lend the money to Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) for eco-friendlier shipbuilding. From left are Industrial and Commercial Bank of China's Seoul branch head Niu Jianjun, HSBC global banking for Korea head Howard Kim, HHI Senior Executive Vice President Cho Young-cheul, KDB Vice President Choi Dae-hyun and KDB Capital Deputy President Kim Keon-yeol. / Courtesy of KDB
President Donald Trump boards Air Force One as he departs Washington for travel to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at Joint Base Andrews, Md., on May 27, 2020. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)

Trump Says Antifa to Be Designated a Terrorist Organization

President Donald Trump said his administration would be designating Antifa as a terrorist organization, after nearly a week of widespread looting and riots following the death of an unarmed black man while in police custody in Minneapolis.

Before making the announcement, Trump commended the National Guard for shutting down the chaos in Minneapolis that he said was steered by ANTIFA led anarchists, among others.

What started as peaceful protests over the death of George Floyd, who said multiple times he couldnt breathe and became non-responsive while a police officer knelt on his neck, has turned into violent chaos, which federal officials say was spurred by outside agitators and radicals.

Trump said the majority of people rioting over the past few days in Minneapolis were from out of state and that they were harming businesses (especially African American small businesses). Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has pointed to estimations that show 80 percent of the rioters on May 29 came from outside Minnesota, with the remaining 20 percent being actual Minnesotans.

Attorney General William Barr echoed the president in a statement soon after the move was declared. Barr called the violence carried out by Antifa in connection with the rioting domestic terrorism and noted that it would be treated accordingly.

It is time to stop watching the violence and to confront and stop it, Barr said. The continued violence and destruction of property endangers the lives and livelihoods of others, and interferes with the rights of peaceful protestors as well as all other citizens.

Federal law enforcement will be used to apprehend and charge violent radical agitators, the attorney general said. It isnt known how many Antifa members were taking part in the protests across the United States.

In an earlier statement on May 30, Barr said that the violence within the protests appears to have been planned, organized, and driven by groups of outside radicals and agitators.

Dozens of cities across the country braced for another night of unrest on May 31, as newly added curfews in some areas still failed to quell confrontations between protesters and police.

In recent days, violence has rocked Atlanta, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Denver, Cincinnati, and New York, as well as Portland, Oregon, and Louisville, Kentucky, among others.

Richard Mack, a former sheriff in Arizona and founder of the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA), said he agreed with the presidents designation, calling it a move in the right direction.

If Antifa is calling for violence and are promoting violence, then they deserve the terrorist designation that President Trump has given them, Mack told The Epoch Times.

Martin Luther King Jr. said, Hate cannot drive out hate and Violence multiplies violence. We agree with Martin Luther King, and as the CSPOA, we call for peace, he said.

If the American people reject all violence, then our national security will benefit even more, Mack added. Liberty is still the answer, and peace is still the solution.

The firing and arrest of Derek Chauvin, the police officer filmed kneeling on Floyds neck, on charges of third-degree murder and manslaughter has failed to satisfy protesters. Three officers who stood by during the incident have yet to be charged.

Trump has warned that crossing state lines to incite violence is a federal crime, and previously called for governors and mayors to get tougher on the riots.

Its also not the first time Trump has talked about designating Antifa as a terrorist group. In July last year, Trump said his administration was considering whether to declare the group a major organization of terror.

Read More Antifa Tied to Communist Revolutionary Groups, Shows Documentary

At the time, Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) proposed a resolution in the Senate to condemn the acts of violence carried out by members of Antifa and to label the group as a domestic terrorist organization.

The senators proposed the resolution following Antifa members assault on independent journalist Andy Ngo, who is known for extensively documenting Antifa violence. He was punched in the face, kicked, and had cups of a white substance thrown at him while he was covering one of the groups protests in Portland, Oregon.

Portland police later said the cups contained quick-drying cement mixed into milkshakes.

Ngo, in a Twitter response to Trumps latest announcement, said, Federal investigative authorities must dismantle the networks & hundreds of antifa cells across the US who radicalize, train & carry out organized extremist violence.

They also have international links to affinity cells in Western Europe, Ngo added. It is domestic & international terrorism.

Meanwhile, in an interview with CNNs Jake Tapper, national security adviser Robert OBrien accused the group of using organized and violent tactics, asking what the FBI has been doing about it.

The president and the Attorney General want to know from FBI Director Wray what the FBI has been doing to track and dismantle, and surveil, and prosecute Antifa, OBrien said on May 31.

And if that hasnt been happening, we want to know what the plan is going forward, he said. These Antifa militant radicals who come in to our cities and cross state lines, they are organized and use Molotov cocktails and fireworks and gas to burn down our cities.

Epoch Times reporter Janita Kan, and Reuters contributed to this report.
Ned Gerard / Hearst Connecticut Media

BRIDGEPORT  One person was in serious condition and two others had non-life-threatening injuries after a shooting on Norman Street Wednesday night, according to police officials.

Capt. Brian Fitzgerald said officers responded to a ShotSpotter activation shortly after 8 p.m. in the area of 56 Norman St.
Protests over the killing of George Floyd and against police brutality are continuing in Syracuse tonight.

Syracuse.com is on the scene and we are updating this report as news develops:

1 a.m.: Syracuse mayor Ben Walsh declares state of emergency, sets curfew. No one is allowed out in public between 8 p.m. and 7 a.m.. The curfew goes into immediate effect.

11:45 p.m.: Someone threw a bottle at officers lined up near the Onondaga County Sheriffs Office. The bottle fell about 15 feet short of the police. Officers broke the line and charged near where the thrower was as people scattered. The line moved with the officers. It was unclear if any arrests were made. The line of officers returned to the building.

11:40 p.m.: Looting in the 300 block of South Salina Street at these stores: Street Game, Villa and a convenience store. People could be seen carrying out clothing from one store. Windows broken also at M. Lemp Jewelers on South Warren Street.

11:35 p.m.: Police continue to hold a line of officers at East Onondaga and South State streets near the sheriffs office, with about 60 protesters across the street. Things seem to be slightly calmer at this particular scene at this time.

11:15 p.m. : A young man in a gray hoodie picked up a brick on East Onondaga Street near the Onondaga County Sheriffs Office. Police shouted at him to put it down. He didnt and they shot him with two bursts of what appeared to be rubber bullets. He put it down but said he was fine.

11:15 p.m.: Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh urges calm to protesters; Im very concerned for our city

11:11 p.m.: Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh issued a statement

Like other cities around the nation, Syracuse is the site of protests and anger tonight regarding the killing of George Floyd. I share their outrage and support the peaceful actions they engaged in throughout the afternoon and evening. Late tonight, some protesters turned more aggressive and dangerous despite urging otherwise from most of those involved. I ask all participants to stop any actions that risk their safety and that of our City and to disband. My commitment is firm to strengthen and improve police community relations and ensure equitable law enforcement in the City of Syracuse. We can emerge from this national crisis stronger than ever.

11:05 p.m. : Chants of dont shoot! as a police line continues inching north, and now some east, from intersection of East Genesee and South State. Crowds lining streets on sidewalks, no sign of dispersing but hard to tell how many people remain.

11 p.m.: Syracuse streets are blocked off near the Public Safety Building.

10:50 p.m.: Protesters on East Genesee Street held their hands up as drivers honked their horns.

10:40 p.m.: The crowd downtown near the Public Safety Building appears to be dispersing. A crowd of 50 in front of the Hotel Syracuse also cleared out after a tense night with Syracuse police.

10:35 p.m.: A crowd stood in front of the shattered window in front of Shaugnessys pub and on top of soil in a planter. They stood in a circle around South Warren and Harrison streets as anti-violence activist Clifford Ryans spoke:

We gotta be organized, thats the most important part, we gotta do this smart," he said.

Throughout the night Ryans placed himself between police and protesters in an attempt to stop violence. It didnt always work.

10:30 p.m.: Some windows have been broken downtown including the front of Shaughnessys Pub, 550 S. Warren St. A rock was also thrown through a window of the AXA Towers building.

10:20 p.m.: Police armed with shields are heading back near the Public Safety Building.

10:05 p.m.: Onondaga County Sheriffs Air-1 helicopter is in the sky above downtown.

Police have cleared most protesters from South State and Harrison streets.

9:45 p.m.: About 40 officers deployed tear gas to move dozens of protesters down South State Street away from Public Safety Building. They are now standing guard in front of the building, 511 South State Street.

Officers are shouting move back" in unison.

One protester in a red mask threw a brick

9:30 p.m.: Protesters broke a window in the Public Safety Building. A man with a bat broke a window at the Onondaga County Courthouse across the street and other protesters kicked in the window.

Before 9:30 p.m.: Protesters gathered outside the Public Safety Building. Lights flickered on and off from the Justice Center Jail. Inmates banged on windows as protesters set off fire works.

Protesters in Syracuse face off against police outside the Public Safety Building in on Saturday May 30, 2020.Patrick Lohmann | plohmann@syracuse.com

Police pushing protesters west on Harrison pic.twitter.com/zsBPm6iKE1  Patrick Lohmann (@PatLohmann) May 31, 2020

Cops have started moving people back pic.twitter.com/ncvose1TWp  Chris Libonati (@ChrisLibonati) May 31, 2020

Earlier Saturday

More than 500 protesters on foot and in cars continued to move through the Syracuse-area this evening to protest against police brutality.

The group started at the Justice Center downtown around 3 p.m., continued to the South Side, the North Side and then west out West Genesee Street. At some point, they turned and headed back toward the city.

By evening, police started to block roads and limit access to large shopping centers, apparently guarding against any of the kind of vandalism thats happened in other cities during larger protests.

Police blocked off access to the Target store in Fairmount which closed early. A number of police vehicles could be seen outside the Target store.

Police also blocked access to Destiny USA mall in Syracuse. Several streets were blocked in Solvay, where the group was around 8:30 p.m.

The protesters were largely peaceful all day, but impassioned about the treatment of black people at the hands of police here and nationwide.

Protests have erupted in at least 30 U.S .cities today over the death of unarmed George Floyd at the hands of a police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Protesters say they want to see charges for all four police officers involved in the death of Floyd.

One officer, who was seen in a video with his knee on Floyds neck, was charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter  but protesters and critics believe the charge isnt harsh enough.
ALBANY  City and community leaders Sunday grappled with the fallout from Saturday demonstrations against police brutality that were at first peaceful, but then turned into aggression toward police officers, vandalism and looting - the likes of which the city has not seen in recent memory.

Dozens of businesses worked Sunday to board up broken windows and clean-up the inside of their destroyed storefronts, as others prepared for what might happen Sunday night after both Albany and Schenectady instituted curfews. The same scene was played out in cities across the nation this past weekend in the wake of George Floyd's death in Minneapolis on May 25 after a police officer placed his knee on Floyd's neck for almost nine minutes while he was handcuffed on the ground.

"This set us back years, said Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple, who said 82 members of his department assisted in the city of Albany Saturday night. Apple spoke at Albany County Executive Dan McCoy's daily coronavirus press briefing Sunday morning, which was turned into a talk about the confrontations. What happened in this county, this city last night was despicable.

Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan held a press conference Sunday morning on the steps of City Hall to address what happened Saturday about an hour after peaceful protests ended at the city police's South Station.

Officials acknowledged that the shutdowns in response to the pandemic  which has caused people stress, depression and anxiety  has only fueled people's dismay about continued abuses against the black community. But Sheehan said the people who committed the violence late Saturday were not those who had peacefully marched earlier in the day.

I acknowledge that there is a tremendous amount of pain. There is pain because of what we witnessed with a police officer literally suffocating an individual in custody, Sheehan said.

However, she continued, the violence that emerged in Albany later Saturday night was not about a protest  that violence was about a riot.

She issued a curfew for the city from 7 p.m. Sunday to 7 a.m. Monday in an attempt to maintain order. Businesses were putting plywood over their windows Sunday late afternoon worried that the violence would continue for a second night. Schenectady instituted a curfew also fearing violence would erupt in that city. On Sunday afternoon, protests were peaceful in the Electric City as Schenectady Police Chief Eric Clifford and other officers were seen in a photo shared on twitter taking a knee in solidarity with protestors.

This is not about the police stopping and hassling people for being out, she said. This is about a curfew that we are putting out there as a signal to our residents to be safe.

But community activists say the emotions that led to the violence were real and valid, and the conversations focusing on the violence misses the perspective of what is at stake.

Theres a moment happening across our nation, and its happening peacefully and its happening with uprisings, said Amy Jones, a community organizer with Citizen Action of New York. These are people with no structural power. What theyre seeing and feeling is a moment of empowerment. But pain plus trauma can equal rage. And the oppressor cannot tell oppressed people how to protest their oppression.

Albany Police Chief Eric Hawkins said the city has gotten anecdotal comments from those at the incidents that they did not recognize the people who were responsible for some of the violence. Police are investigating those comments. Hawkins was pressed by reporters about where he was Saturday, and he eventually confirmed he was not in Albany. But he refused to explain where he was or why. "I had other business. I was communicating all day with my command staff," Hawkins said.

One officer was sent to the hospital Saturday night after they were hit with a brick and sustained a head injury. The officer has since been sent home. Two people were arrested during the confrontations, but police said it was for burglary charges that were unknown to have been related to the violence.

Meanwhile, other gun violence continued in Albany, as a 15-year-old and 18-year-old were both injured in gunfire during unrelated incidents.

READ MORE: Damage on South Pearl Street after Saturday violence

Businesses and government buildings along South Pearl Street and Central Avenue had their windows smashed late Saturday night, in addition to people throwing rocks, lighting fireworks that were directed toward police horses and setting fire to objects around the police's South Station. People stole cash registers and cell phones out of stores. Graffiti was also written on buildings on South Pearl Street. A truck driver also lost the items in his flatbed after people set the contents on fire, Apple said.

"We are better than what happened last night," Sheehan said. "We will come together, we will work together. Today is a day for all of us to take a deep breath. We need to stay home, keep your kids home."

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

McCoy said 30 windows were smashed at the Board of Elections on South Pearl Street. Windows were also broken at the county's probation building, department of mental health and the Albany County Judicial Center. Looters also smashed open a glass door at Colonie Center and ran around the empty mall; Colonie police were unsure if items were taken.

"It's troubling to me to see the protestors who take advantage of a situation and turn things upside down," McCoy said, adding "you were being terrorists. It's shameful."

READ MORE: Albany community organizer calls for clean-up after Saturday riots

But local activists stressed that some of Saturdays protesters were grieving the losses of their own George Floyds  loved ones who died at the hands of the police or otherwise.

I think everyone personalized it. It opened a wound, Albany County Legislator Carolyn McLaughlin said at a Sunday rally in the South End. Because when you think about this stuff, it brings tears to your eyes, and to think that nobody cares So last night, you dont care about me, I dont care about you either. Right or wrong.

At her press conference, Sheehan criticized that many of the businesses targeted were black- and brown-owned. However, Jones said some of the damage she saw done was by people who didn't live in the immediate neighborhood.

I was at the South Station, she said. It was white kids with backpacks and bandanas covering their faces who threw bricks through the windows of the police car.

Albany police announced Sunday evening that James Vail, a 21-year-old white man from Delmar, had been charged with throwing the brick that hit an Albany police officer around 7 p.m. Saturday. The officer sustained a concussion and was treated at a local hospital.

Barbara Smith, a nationally recognized black feminist, said people are fed up with what she described as the disregard and dehumanization of black life. She, and other activists, believe the focus must not be on the vandalism and burglaries.

I cannot equate a lynching with the destruction of property, Smith said.

And while the fact that many of the targeted Albany businesses are minority-owned is upsetting, Smith said, property destruction during rebellions in response to injustice has been the norm from the Jim Crow-era she lived through and beyond.

Its excruciatingly painful to think about the loss of peoples livelihoods and businesses, she said. But it just is not in the same category as someone having their life choked out of them on video with three other officers standing around watching.
COVID-19 patients who undergo surgery are at increased risk of postoperative death  global study

This is the first evidence globally about the impact of covid-19 on patients undergoing surgery, aimed at the surgical community.

Patients undergoing surgery after contracting coronavirus are at greatly increased risk of postoperative death, a new global study published in The Lancet reveals. Researchers found that amongst SARS-CoV-2 infected patients who underwent surgery, mortality rates approach those of the sickest patients admitted to intensive care after contracting the virus in the community.

Researchers examined data for 1,128 patients from 235 hospitals. A total of 24 countries participated, predominantly in Europe, although hospitals in Africa, Asia, and North America also contributed.

Experts at the University of Birmingham-led NIHR Global Research Health Unit on Global Surgery have now published their findings that SARS-CoV-2 infected patients who undergo surgery experience substantially worse postoperative outcomes than would be expected for similar patients who do not have SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Overall 30-day mortality in the study was 23.8%. Mortality was disproportionately high across all subgroups, including elective surgery (18.9%), emergency surgery (25.6%), minor surgery such as appendicectomy or hernia repair (16.3%), and major surgery such as hip surgery or colon cancer surgery (26.9%).

The study identified that mortality rates were higher in men (28.4%) versus women (18.2%), and in patients aged 70 years or over (33.7%) versus those aged under 70 years (13.9%). In addition to age and sex, risk factors for postoperative death included having severe pre-existing medical problems, undergoing cancer surgery, undergoing major procedures, and undergoing emergency surgery.

Report co-author Aneel Bhangu, Senior Lecturer in Surgery at the University of Birmingham, commented: We would normally expect mortality for patients having minor or elective surgery to be under 1%, but our study suggests that in SARS-CoV-2 patients these mortality rates are much higher in both minor surgery (16.3%) and elective surgery (18.9%). In fact, these mortality rates are greater than those reported for even the highest-risk patients before the pandemic; for example, the 2019 UK National Emergency Laparotomy Audit reported 30-day mortality of 16.9% in the highest-risk patients, and a previous study across 58 countries reported a 30-day mortality of 14.9% in patients undergoing high-risk emergency surgery."

We recommend that thresholds for surgery during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic should be raised compared to normal practice. For example, men aged 70 years and over undergoing emergency surgery are at particularly high risk of mortality, so these patients may benefit from their procedures being postponed."

Patients undergoing surgery are a vulnerable group at risk of SARS-CoV-2 exposure in hospital. They may be particularly susceptible to subsequent pulmonary complications, due to inflammatory and immunosuppressive responses to surgery and mechanical ventilation. The study found that overall in the 30 days following surgery 51% of patients developed a pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome, or required unexpected ventilation. This may explain the high mortality, as most (81.7%) patients who died had experienced pulmonary complications.

Report co-author Dmitri Nepogodiev, Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham commented "Worldwide an estimated 28.4 million elective operations were cancelled due to disruption caused by COVID-19. Our data suggests that it was the right decision to postpone operations at a time when patients were at risk of being infected with SARS-CoV-2 in hospital. There's now an urgent need for investment by governments and health providers in to measures to ensure that as surgery restarts patient safety is prioritised. This includes provision of adequate personal protective equipment (PPE), establishment of pathways for rapid preoperative SARS-CoV-2 testing, and consideration of the role of dedicated 'cold' surgical centres."



Notes to Editors:



For more information, interviews or an embargoed copy of the research paper, please contact Tony Moran, International Communications Manager, University of Birmingham on +44 (0)782 783 2312 or t.moran@bham.ac.uk. For out-of-hours enquiries, please call +44 (0) 7789 921 165.

The University of Birmingham is ranked amongst the worlds top 100 institutions, its work brings people from across the world to Birmingham, including researchers and teachers and more than 6,500 international students from over 150 countries.

Mortality and pulmonary complications in patients undergoing surgery with perioperative SARS-CoV-2 infection: an international cohort study - Aneel Bhangu and others is published in The Lancet.

Countries participating in the study were: Algeria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Libya, Mexico, Netherlands, Pakistan, Portugal, Spain, Sudan, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom and United States.

The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) awarded 7 million to the University of Birmingham to establish the NIHR Global Health Research Unit on Global Surgery. This unit is engaged in conducting multi-country randomised controlled trials testing interventions to reduce SSI across a range of low- and middle-income countries. It has established sustainable partnerships with the aim of leveraging global policy change: Benin - University of Abomey-Calavi, Cotonou Ghana - University of Development Studies, Tamale India - CMC Ludhiana, Punjab Mexico - Hospital Espanol, Veracruz Nigeria - Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Lagos & Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospitals, Ile-Ife Rwanda - University of Rwanda; University Teaching Hospital, Kigali South Africa - Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital, Johannesburg



The NIHR is the UKs largest funder of health and care research. The NIHR:

Funds, supports and delivers high quality research that benefits the NHS, public health and social care

Engages and involves patients, carers and the public in order to improve the reach, quality and impact of research

Attracts, trains and supports the best researchers to tackle the complex health and care challenges of the future

Invests in world-class infrastructure and a skilled delivery workforce to translate discoveries into improved treatments and services

Partners with other public funders, charities and industry to maximise the value of research to patients and the economy

The NIHR was established in 2006 to improve the health and wealth of the nation through research, and is funded by the Department of Health and Social Care. In addition to its national role, the NIHR commissions applied health research to benefit the poorest people in low and middle-income countries, using Official Development Assistance funding.






Nearly half of the US is on at least one prescription, but the coronavirus pandemic has thrown people for a loop and made picking up medications another in a long list of daily hurdles. Nuro is hoping to make getting prescriptions easier by teaming up with CVS. The company will use its fleet of autonomous vehicles to deliver meds to the curbs of customers who place orders via CVS.com or the CVS pharmacy app. The pilot program will start in June and will serve areas in Houston, Texas.

This service will be free to all CVS Pharmacy customers, and Nuro says that deliveries should take three hours or less. The prescriptions will be safely locked inside the delivery vehicles until the customer proves their identity. The pilot does seem limited, since its serving such a small area, but hopefully it will expand to other cities if its successful. The company says that it plans to eventually transition from its Toyota Prius fleet to its custom R2 delivery bots in the coming months.

Nuro has partnered with Kroger and Dominos to deliver groceries and meals previously, so transporting prescriptions isnt too outside the companys realm of the companys expertise. Hopefully the program will help customers get their medications more easily and safely  especially while social distancing orders are still in place.

This story by Marc DeAngelis originally appeared on Engadget.

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India registered its highest single-day spike of COVID-19 cases on Sunday with 8,380 new infections reported in the last 24 hours, taking the country's tally to 1,82,143, while the death toll rose to 5,164, according to the Union Health Ministry.

India is the ninth worst-hit nation by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The number of active COVID-19 cases stood to 89,995, while 86,983 people have recovered and one patient has migrated, it said.

"Thus, around 47.75 per cent patients have recovered so far," a senior health ministry official said.

The total confirmed cases includes foreigners.

COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine  one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show

The death toll has gone up by 193 since Saturday morning, of which 99 deaths were reported from Maharashtra, 27 from Gujarat, 18 from Delhi, nine each from Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, seven from West Bengal, six each from Tamil Nadu and Telangana, five from Bihar, three from Uttar Pradesh, two from Punjab, and one each from Haryana and Kerala.

Of the total 5,164 fatalities, Maharashtra tops the tally with 2,197 deaths, followed by Gujarat (1,007), Delhi (416), Madhya Pradesh (343), West Bengal (309), Uttar Pradesh (201), Rajasthan (193), Tamil Nadu (160), Telangana (77) and Andhra Pradesh (60).

The death toll reached 48 in Karnataka, 44 in Punjab, 28 in Jammu and Kashmir, 20 in Haryana, 20 in Bihar, nine in Kerala, and seven in Odisha.

Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand and Uttarakhand have each registered five COVID-19 fatalities, Chandigarh and Assam have recorded four deaths each, while Meghalaya and Chhattisgarh have reported one COVID-19 fatality each so far.

More than 70 per cent of the deaths are due to co-morbidities, the ministry said.

According to the health ministry data updated in the morning, the highest number of confirmed cases in the country are from Maharashtra at 65,168, followed by Tamil Nadu at 21,184, Delhi at 18,549, Gujarat at 16,343, Rajasthan at 8,617, Madhya Pradesh at 7,891 and Uttar Pradesh at 7,445.

The number of COVID-19 cases has gone up to 5,130 in West Bengal, 3,636 in Bihar, 3,569 in Andhra Pradesh, 2,922 in Karnataka, 2,499 in Telangana, 2,341 in Jammu and Kashmir, 2,233 in Punjab and 1,923 in Haryana.

Odisha has reported 1,819 coronavirus cases, Kerala has 1,208 cases, Assam has 1,185, Uttarakhand has 749, Jharkhand has 563, Chhattisgarh has 447, Himachal Pradesh has 313, Chandigarh has 289, Tripura has 268, Ladakh has 74 and Goa has 70.

Manipur has reported 62 COVID-19 cases, Puducherry has 51 cases of infection, Nagaland has recorded 36 cases, while Andaman and Nicobar Islands has registered 33 infections.

Meghalaya has registered 27 cases, Arunachal Pradesh has reported four cases, Dadar and Nagar Haveli has two cases, while Mizoram and Sikkim have reported a case each till how.

"5,491 cases are being reassigned to states," the ministry said on its website, adding that, "Our figures are being reconciled with the ICMR."

State-wise distribution is subject to further verification and reconciliation, it said.
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Tombstoners were spotted in Plymouth and Dorset today as thousands of Britons flouted lockdown by flocking to beaches ahead the government officially easing restrictions tomorrow.

Thrill-seekers ignored clear warnings and plunged 200ft off the cliffs at Dorset's famous Durdle Door beach today less than 24 hours after four divers were injured at the same point.

It comes as thousands of lockdown-weary families hit Britain's parks and beaches to lap up the 75F (24C) heat despite government pleas for restraint, with Professor Jonathan Van-Tam asking the public 'not to tear the pants out of' the new rules during yesterday's national press briefing.

Dominic Raab today warned that a second UK lockdown could be imposed if there is an 'uptick' in cases after Britons are allowed to meet up to six people from different households, have barbecues and go to fitness classes once more.

As part of the easing of lockdown restrictions, 2.2 million vulnerable people will be able to go outside with members of their household, while continuing to follow social distancing guidelines, from tomorrow.

Those who live alone will be able to meet outside with one other person from another household, in a move that will come as a release to the largely-elderly shielding population.

Durdle Door in Dorset is filled with visitors this afternoon, despite four people being injured and the air ambulance being called on yesterday

A man is pictured jumping from Durdle Door today despite warnings after people were injured yesterday and the council closing the beach

People continue to dive from Durdle Door on Sunday, despite warnings from the council telling visitors not to do so

Tombstoners have also been spotted leaping into the water along Plymouth's seafront today, despite four people injured in Dorset on Saturday

Pictured: People take to Durdle Door and dive off today despite the council warning that it is shut for safety reasons

People are pictured descending on the beach at Durdle Door, Dorset, despite the council warning that it is closed today

The coastguard is out patrolling at Durdle Door today. The Dorset beach is packed with visitors, despite the air ambulance landing at the beach yesterday

People were spotted jumping into the water at Three Shires Head on the River Dane in Cheshire on Sunday afternoon

There is no room for social distancing as umbrellas line Bournemouth beach on Sunday afternoon

Bourton-on-the-Water in the Cotswolds is packed with visitors this afternoon as families visit the banks of its river

Tombstoners were seen leaping from rocks and the bridge that crosses the River Dane on Sunday afternoon

Brighton's beaches were a popular choice for sunseekers looking to soak up the rays this weekend. Most beach-goers appear to be a safe two-metres apart from others

A large number of police officers were seen patrolling Richmond Falls in North Yorkshire to ensure visitors maintained social distancing rules

People were seen gathering at Richmond Falls in North Yorkshire as they soaked up the sun on this scorching weekend

Two people rescued after aircraft crashes into water in Southampton A pilot and a passenger had to be rescued by the coastguard after their light aircraft crashed into the sea in Southampton. The coastguard said the pair - who were both onboard the aircraft - were found by a nearby vessel at Calshot Spit. A large parachute could be seen attached to the back of the wreckage, suggesting it was deployed when the aircraft got into trouble. An emergency responder can be heard telling onlookers to 'clear the beach'. The plane could be seen on the shore in Southampton. It lay belly-up and appeared to be washed up In a tweet on Sunday, the Coastguard wrote: 'HM Coastguard is dealing with an ongoing incident at Calshot Spit, where we are aware that an aircraft went down into the water. 'Two people were onboard the aircraft and both people have been rescued. 'They were located by a nearby vessel.' No details on the condition of the rescued people were given. Advertisement

Speaking at today's Downing Street press briefing, Robert Jenrick said the Government will review the risks to the clinically extremely vulnerable as part of each review of social distancing measures for the wider population.

The Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government said the next review of shielding measures will take place in the week beginning on June 15.

Of the new guidance which allows people to spend time outdoors, he said: 'This will enable those shielding to see loved ones like children and grandchildren, something many I know are aching to do.

'Having spent many weeks indoors some will understandably be very cautious and concerned about going outdoors. You should only do what you are comfortable with.'

He added: 'If the conditions become less favourable our advice to those being asked to shield will unfortunately need to be tightened.

'The Government will continue to ensure that support is available to those who need it for as long as possible and for as long as people are advised to follow the shielding guidance.'

He said, while the updated guidance from Monday for the shielded is for England only, the Government is working closely with the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland 'who will issue their own guidance in due course'.

It comes as the RNLI is facing demands to bring its lifeguards back after four tombstoners were injured in Dorset.

Just sixteen beach patrols out of a possible 248 have been reinstated prompting furious backlash by sunseekers eagerly flocking to picturesque coastal spots.

Some lifeguards have started patrolling for free but without the RNLI's backing they don't have access to official lifesaving equipment, The Times reports.

Hundreds have joined the #ReturnToShore campaign, with one saying 'The RNLI lifeguard service is the only emergency service which did not continue during the pandemic. Why?'

Boris Johnson has issued a stern rebuke to his aide Dominic Cummings, warning that he 'will not tolerate' another media firestorm. The Prime Minister has ordered his top adviser to stay firmly out of the public eye following the crisis caused by his lockdown trip from London to Durham.

Restless Britons on Satruday brushed aside warnings from police and scientists and were tempted outdoors by scorching temperatures, which climbed to highs of 82F

Britain recorded 215 more Covid-19 deaths on Saturday, taking the official number of coronavirus victims to 38,376 - but it is the lowest Saturday total since lockdown began;

Three SAGE scientists warned over the weekend that the lockdown is being lifted too quickly

Thousands of sunbathers were forced to cram together at Durdle Door today as air ambulance helicopters were called to reports of three people seriously injured after jumping off cliffs into the sea

A long, hot summer could help curb the spread of Covid-19, according to a top epidemiologist..

Speaking at today's Downing Street press briefing, Robert Jenrick (pictured) said the Government will review the risks to the clinically extremely vulnerable as part of each review of social distancing measures for the wider population

Brits have been warned to take the easing of lockdown measures slowly, but Bournemouth beach shows families and other visitors squeezing together

Three Shires Head on the River Dane is attracting visitors during the warm weather on Sunday

Britons enjoying the good weather at Ruislip Lido in London, as the public are being reminded to practice social distancing following the relaxation of lockdown restrictions

Crowds have flocked to Bournemouth beach on England's south coast ahead of lockdown measures being eased on Monday

Sunbathers are out in force on Brighton Beach today on the eve of a further relaxation of the novel coronavirus lockdown rules

Gulls flock above sunbathers on the beach in Brighton as Britain enjoys roasting 75F (24C) summer heat

Paddleboarders exercise social-distancing while afloat in the calm sea off Brighton - as thousands cram Britain's beauty spots to soak up the day's 75F (24C) heat

Ruislip Lido in London is packed today with social distancing appearing almost forgotten ahead of the more lockdown restrictions being eased by the government tomorrow

People fill the beach at Durdle Door, near Lulworth, today despite Dorset Council announcing that the beach was closed to the public

Brighton sunbathers soak up the 75F (24c) rays today on the eve of a further relaxation of the novel coronavirus lockdown rules.

Topless cyclists ride along the Mall in London today as the parks across the city are packed with lockdown-wearing Britons soakin gup the 75F (24C) sun

Large groups, mainly of young people, continue to breach the existing rules and even the eased rules coming in to force tomorrow, in Clapham Common, South London

People enjoy the sun on Clapham Common after the Government eased restrictions and allowed people to meet from Monday

Many seem to be jumping the gun on, and exceeding, the new rules for meeting groups that come into force tomorrow as they enjoy the sun in Brockwell Park, South London

A group enjoy a drink in close proximity and take a selfie while not social distancing in Clapham common, south London

A tombstoner can be seen plummeting towards the sea after vaulting from the top of the ancient limestone arch known as Durdle Door in Dorset

A member of the coastguard looks over a packed beach at Durdle Door, near Lulworth, despite Dorset Council announcing that the beach was closed to the public

Police patrol the cliff top near Durdle Door, Lulworth, after Dorset Council announced that the beach was closed to the public after three people were seriously injured jumping off cliffs into the sea

Members of HM Coastguard Search and Rescue at Durdle Door, near Lulworth, despite Dorset Council announcing that the beach was closed to the public after three people were seriously injured jumping off cliffs into the sea

One RNLI lifeguard, who has started patrolling on a voluntary basis, said: 'It feels as though the RNLI bosses don't have our back. We're volunteering with minimal equipment and at far greater risk.'

From Monday, groups of up to six people will be able to meet outside in England as long as they observe social distancing as part of efforts to fight coronavirus.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said today: 'This is a sensitive moment. We can't just stay in lockdown forever. We have got to transition.'

Asked whether the lockdown will be tightened again if infection rates increase, Mr Raab told Sky News' Ridge on Sunday: 'We will target, if there is any uptick, and it could be in a locality, it could be in a particular setting, we will target very carefully measures that would apply to it so that we can take these steps but also keep control of the virus.'

Visitors begin to arrive at Durdle Door at Lulworth in Dorset and walk the path to the beach at the start of another day of scorching hot sunshine

Inconsiderate visitors left this rubbish at the beach next to Durdle Door and the council warned people to stay away today following dangerous jumping yesterday

Visitors begin to arrive at Durdle Door at Lulworth in Dorset at the start of another day of scorching hot sunshine despite officials warning them to stay away

Visitors begin to arrive at the beach at Durdle Door at Lulworth in Dorset at the start of another day of scorching hot sunshine

Visitors begin to arrive at Durdle Door at Lulworth in Dorset at the start of another day of scorching hot sunshine with sunbathers heading to the beauty spot despite warnings not to do so

Congestion levels in Southampton over the weekend show a 27 per cent rise in traffic from last week, suggesting more cars are heading to towards sea side towns

Congestion data for Bournemouth showed a 14 per cent rise in traffic over last week, while London only saw three per cent more traffic on last week

The number of cars on the road in Southampton over the weekend was up 27 per cent from last week, suggesting more traffic is heading to towards sea side towns.

While congestion data for Bournemouth showed a 14 per cent rise in traffic over last week, while London and Birmingham only saw a three per cent rise in traffic this weekend compared to last week.

Liverpool saw 12 per cent more cars on the road this weekend verses last weekend while traffic in Manchester was up four per cent on last weekend.

Yesterday a picturesque beach was trashed by revellers who left beer bottles, rubbish and laughing has cannisters strewn across the sand.

Formby beach in Merseyside was covered with litter on Saturday, despite pleas from police to continue social distancing.

In a statement the force said: 'We are also asking people to remain respectful and protect our public spaces.

'In recent days we have received reports of excessive littering and fires and BBQs being lit as well as people parking illegally and inconsiderately by blocking driveways and residential roads.'

Despite the crowds being forced to group together following Saturday's incident, people continue to flock to Durdle Door today

People make their way down the steps to the beach at Durdle Door, near Lulworth, today despite Dorset Council announcing that the beach was closed

Crowds have returned to Durdle Door today after the air ambulance was called to the Dorset beach on Saturday afternoon

Pictured: Grassholme Reservoir in County Durham today as temperatures across the country soar while lockdown restrictions are still in place

People have taken to Brighton beach today with lockdown rules still in place as groups practised social distancing at the seaside

Sunseekers are pictured on Brighton beach today as the UK prepares to further ease lockdown rules tomorrow and temperatures soar

People sunbathe on the beach in front of the derelict West Pier in Brighton, on the south coast of England on May 31, 2020 on the eve of a further relaxation of the novel coronavirus lockdown rules

People enjoy the sunshine on a beach at Ruislip Lido at a reservoir in Ruislip, Britain, 31 May 2020 amid soaring temperatures

People apply suncream in the sunshine on a beach at Ruislip Lido at a reservoir in Ruislip, Britain, 31 May 2020 with the south-east experiencing a surge in temperatures

Dominic Raab admits lockdown will need to be tightened again if there is an 'uptick' in coronavirus cases Dominic Raab today defended easing coronavirus lockdown in England despite a chorus of warnings about a second spike - but admitted that curbs will have to be tightened again if there is an 'uptick'. The Foreign Secretary acknowledged the loosening that takes effect tomorrow is a 'sensitive moment', but insisted the government was making sensible changes to get the country back up and running. 'We can't just stay in lockdown forever. We have got to transition,' he said. Mr Raab played down fears that the curbs are being downgraded even though the government's own coronavirus alert system level remains at four - which suggests they should stay in place. And he stressed that ministers would not hesitate to reimpose restrictions in 'localities' or 'settings' if the number of cases begins to flare up again. But the Westminster government is facing a wave of opposition to the relaxation from scientists who say an increase in cases is 'inevitable', while Nicola Sturgeon has stressed she is being more 'cautious' and the virus can still 'run out of control'. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab (pictured today) said the government would not hesitate to act as he defended the decision to loosen draconian restrictions A series of experts have raised concern about the moved to ease the lockdown in England, which takes effect from tomorrow, with the UK still getting 8,000 new infections a day. Up to six people from six different households will be permitted to meet up in public places or gardens, meaning exercise classes and barbecues are back on the agenda. Primary schools and nurseries have also been told they can start to reopen, while all non-essential shops can return from June 15. In Scotland and Wales the loosening is far less dramatic, with only two households allowed to meet up at a time and people told not to travel more than five miles from home. Schools north of the border will not be back until after holidays there in August. Asked whether the lockdown will be tightened again if infection rates increase, Mr Raab told Sky's Ridge on Sunday: 'We will target, if there is any uptick, and it could be in a locality, it could be in a particular setting, we will target very carefully measures that would apply to it so that we can take these steps but also keep control of the virus.' Families across England will finally be able to see their elderly relatives again tomorrow, as millions of vulnerable people 'shielding' are allowed to spend time outdoors. As part of the easing of lockdown restrictions, 2.2million vulnerable people will be able to go outside with members of their household, while continuing to follow social distancing guidelines. Those who live alone will be able to meet outside with one other person from another household, in a move that will bring joy to thousands. Boris Johnson today hailed the 'resilience' of those who have been shielding since March, with many having no face-to-face contact since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. The Prime Minister said: 'I want to thank everyone who has followed the shielding guidance  it is because of your patience and sacrifice that thousands of lives have been saved. 'I do not underestimate just how difficult it has been for you, staying at home for the last ten weeks, and I want to pay tribute to your resilience.' Meanwhile, Nicola Sturgeon today accused England of under-reporting care home deaths as she swiped at Mr Johnson for easing lockdown too early. The Scottish First Minister said the apparent higher proportion of victims in care homes north of the border was due to the way they are recorded. She insisted that people who died of stroke and 'happened' to have coronavirus were counted in the numbers in Scotland - whereas they were not in England, meaning that there was 'under-reporting'. Asked on Sky News whether she thought that the PM was loosening the lockdown in England too quickly, Ms Sturgeon insisted she did not want to 'criticise other politicians' and they were all 'trying to do the right things'. But she pointedly said that in Scotland they were being 'very cautious'. 'This virus has not gone away,' she said. 'That is why in Scotland we are moving very slowly.' Prof Devi Sridhar, who has been advising the Scottish government, warned it looks 'inevitable' that cases will rise again in England. 'I'm very sorry to say that I think it is right now inevitable looking at the numbers,' she told Sky. 'The only thing that might in a sense save England is the good weather and warmth if this virus does indeed die outside quite quickly, but it's incredibly worrying because the numbers are not low enough to have a testing and tracing system take over.' 'If your objective is to contain the virus, to drive numbers down and to try to in a sense get rid of it so no-one is exposed to it, then it is not the right measure right now to open up,' she said. 'It's a big risk and gamble for exiting lockdown with a larger number of deaths than we did when we actually entered lockdown months back.' Prof Sridhar said there was now a clear divide between Government and some scientists, but added that ultimately decisions will be made by politicians. She said: 'I think what they should be saying is they consider the science, and hopefully they listen to it but the decision, and who actually has the accountability, are the politicians and leaders.' Professor Peter Openshaw, who sits on the the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (NERVTAG) to the Government, said people must proceed with 'great caution' as the lockdown is eased. He told the BBC's Andrew Marr programme: 'At the moment, we still have quite a large number of cases out there in the community and I think unlocking too fast carries a great risk that all the good work that's been put in by everyone, to try to reduce transmission may be lost. So we do need to proceed with great, great care at this point.' Asked if the Government is going too fast, he said: 'I think there is a pretty unanimous message now that we need to take this slowly and go step by step. We need to evaluate the effect of each step before we move to the next one. 'I don't hear any great dissent amongst the amongst the advisers who are speaking in public at the moment.' He said it will be around two or three weeks before the effects of the latest easing of restrictions is known. He told the Marr show: 'It's going to be very patchy, it may be that actually easing lockdown is perfectly OK in areas like London which were hit early and hit hard, and where the epidemic seems to have been virtually passed in many parts of the community, with a few exception. 'But up north it's still a very large number of cases. I think we need to be more subtle about the geography and we need to look at the particular areas where it may be appropriate to ease lockdown.' He added: 'Maybe there needs to be a bit more subtlety to the way in which lockdown is eased.' Prof Openshaw also said he believed advice on who needs to shield can be 'fine tuned' to prevent people being kept at home unnecessarily. Mr Johnson (pictured in Downing Street this morning) has announced that the lockdown restrictions will be eased slightly in England from tomorrow 'I think we're going to be able to fine-tune the advice now and actually reassure some people who we feared might be susceptible, that in fact they're not as vulnerable as we thought. So that's really good news,' he said. Writing in The Sunday Telegraph, the government's chief science officer Sir Patrick Vallance explained Sage was only there to advise politicians, who have the final say on what to do with evidence presented to them. He wrote: 'Science advice to Cobr and to ministers needs to be direct and given without fear or favour. But it is advice. Ministers must decide and have to take many other factors into consideration.' The chair of Sage explained the advisory board was not infallible, writing: 'There is a range of opinions in all of discussions and there is wide reading of the latest research, but what Sage endeavours to do is come down to a position or a range of positions, to provide options ministers could consider and explain the uncertainties and assumptions inherent in that science and evidence.' Unions today insisted summer holidays should not be cancelled because teachers have been working 'flat out' during lockdown. Despite the loss of face-to-face lessons, Mary Bousted, general secretary of the National Education Union, said her members deserved the time off. She said any headteachers looking to recuperate lessons, especially for those pupils going into GCSEs and A levels, should only offer voluntary clubs and activities during the school holidays. In a broadside to government the trade union chief also slammed the government's decision to re-open schools on June 1, saying if they had waited until June 15 the infection rate could have been halved. Speaking to Sophy Ridge on Sunday from south London, Bousted said: 'No. The summer holiday shouldn't be cancelled because teachers have been working flat out to provide education for children at home. 'So what should happen is, and we do support this, to have clubs and activities on a volunteer basis for those children to meet together to socialise. 'We don't think the emphasis should be on catch up because many of those children will need to re-socialise, re-engage and re-engage with a love of learning and be involved in creative activities which enable them to become part of a wider society again and have the desire to learn again.' Her words came as a fifth of teachers are expected to stay home on Monday when Reception, Year One and Year Six pupils sit behind their desks again. The figure was revealed by a TES survey of 5,000 school leaders. They may be off because they suffer from health conditions including asthma and diabetes, live with a vulnerable family member or because they are at heightened risk due to their age. They also found eleven out of the country's 20 worst performing councils on tests have told head teachers to keep the gates bolted. The government plans to get Reception, Year One and Year Six pupils back to school on Monday, with an ambition to then get Year 10 and 12 back in lessons on June 15. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have all pushed back their school start dates. Education Secretary Gavin Williamson sought to calm concerned parents today, writing in the Sun on Sunday that pupils will not be allowed to gather in groups larger than 15. He also assured parents it would be safe, saying 'strict safety measures' have been put in place to protect children. Advertisement

Referring to a Government adviser, Mr Raab said: 'As Jonathan Van-Tam ... has said, with a precarious moment we can ease up, we can protect life, but also livelihoods, get life back to something resembling normal, but we must monitor it very carefully,

'If there is any up-tick in the number of cases, if we stop making the progress I described, we will have to take further measures again and target the virus wherever it may appear.'

Beach-goers were crammed together to make room for air ambulances to land at Durdle Door in Dorset yesterday after four people injured themselves jumping off cliffs into the sea.

The four unidentified jumpers vaulted from the top of the ancient limestone arch, which reaches 200ft at its highest point, and are in critical condition, according to Dorset Police.

Pictured: Today's weather forecast from the Met Office as temperatures are set to climb even higher this afternoon

Images from the scene show a mass of sun-seekers crammed into one area, near the only available exit, as they try to vacate the area as the air ambulance lands.

'Don't tear the pants out of lockdown' England's deputy chief medical officer yesterday pleaded with Britons 'not to tear the pants out of' the loosened lockdown when more freedoms are granted on Monday. Professor Jonathan Van-Tam warned that abusing new liberties would fuel the spread of infection and said that the lifting of curbs should be treated as if gently lifting the lid on a coiled spring - 'painstakingly' slow. He told yesterday's Downing Street press conference: 'This is a very dangerous moment  we have to get this right. People have to be sensible and proportionate with their freedoms.' Advertisement

Despite initially claiming that only three people were hurt jumping off the famous archway, it emerged last night that the figure is one higher.

Mark Dowie, the RNLI's chief executive, wrote an open letter asking the government to restrict beach access before 'more lives are lost'.

But former Conservative MP Charlotte Leslie says that the RNLI could fun a full 20million lifeguard service from the 124m in crisis funds that it reported in 2018.

The organisation says that using such funds is not a long-term solution and the group expects a 45million shortfall this year.

Police, the ambulance service, the coastguard and the RNLI attended the Dorset beauty spot on Saturday afternoon.

Videos posted on social media show people climbing and leaping from the arch at the site, which is 200ft high.

Air ambulances landed at the scene and crowds of people were evacuated from the beach and surrounding cliff area. Dorset Police confirmed that three people had sustained serious injuries and were receiving medical treatment.

That evening, Dorset Council said Durdle Door and Lulworth Cove would be closed 'until further notice'. On Sunday morning, the council tweeted that the roads to the popular sites remained closed.

'You will not be able to visit the beaches there and will be asked to turn around if you try and access the villages,' the council said.

People social distance whilst waiting for their morning coffee at the Plymouth Hoe in Devon today as temperatures soar

People are pictured off the coast at Plymouth Hoe in Devon as sunseekers take to the sea and beach in rising temperatures

It said the measure would be reviewed on Monday but urged people to avoid the area 'for now'. Dorset Police tweeted: 'Durdle Door and Lulworth Cove remain closed today along with approach roads to the area. Please do not travel as you will be turned away.'

On Saturday, a post on Poole Police's Facebook page said the 'critical incident' had involved people jumping from the arch of Durdle Door into the sea.

Man in his 30s dies and two people are rescued after fishing boat sinks a mile off the Lancashire coast A man in his 30s has died and two others were rescued from the water after a boat sunk off the coast of Lancashire. A vessel - thought to be a decommissioned fishing boat - got into trouble about a mile from the coast of Fleetwood. A man went down with the boat and his body was later found by the RNLI. The coastguard dispatched two lifeboats, the Shannon class 13-07 and the in-shore D class. Two men - aged 70 and 71 - were picked up by support vessel Eden Rose from the local wind farm. A man in his 30s has died and two others were rescued from the water after a boat sunk off the coast of Fleetwood, Lancashire (stock image pictured) The men were taken back to shore by the Shannon class vessel before being rushed to hospital as a precaution after suffering from shock and the effects of the cold water. The Shannon class vessel then returned to look for the missing man along with the Coastguard helicopter. The coastguard dispatched two lifeboats, the Shannon class 13-07 and the in-shore D class (stock image pictured) Advertisement

'The arch of Durdle Door is approximately 200 feet in height. Hitting water from that height, roughly 77mph, can be critical,' it said.

'This is further compounded by tides, currents and altering depth of the sea bed. It is NOT an appropriate location for this type of activity.'

Meanwhile, people were slammed for running around naked and causing harassment on a popular quayside, have caused a pub to shutdown.

The rising levels of anti social behaviour on The Quay in Exeter, Devon, has led to the Prospect Inn closing down its takeaway service.

The pub said: 'WE ARE DONE. The anti social behaviour on the Quay worsens day by day, but Friday night was the final straw: abuse, harassment, urination and public nudity.'

Tories today slammed 'hard-left' unions opposing the reopening of schools amid claims a fifth of staff will stay off tomorrow.

The National Education Union (NEU) was accused of 'chasing headlines' by resisting the 'phased and cautious' plans to get pupils back in the classroom.

The row came as general secretary Mary Bousted dismissed the idea of making up for lost time during the summer holidays, saying her members had been working 'flat out' during lockdown and deserved a break.

She said any headteachers looking to lay on catch-up classes, especially for those pupils going into GCSEs and A levels, should only offer voluntary clubs and activities during the school holidays.

Her words came as a fifth of teachers are expected to stay home on Monday when Reception, Year One and Year Six pupils sit behind their desks again. The figure was revealed by a TES survey of 5,000 school leaders.

Speaking to Sophy Ridge on Sunday from her home in south London, Ms Bousted said: 'No. The summer holiday shouldn't be cancelled because teachers have been working flat out to provide education for children at home.

'So what should happen is, and we do support this, to have clubs and activities on a volunteer basis for those children to meet together to socialise.

'We don't think the emphasis should be on catch up because many of those children will need to re-socialise, re-engage and re-engage with a love of learning and be involved in creative activities which enable them to become part of a wider society again and have the desire to learn again.'

Dominic Raab today defended easing coronavirus lockdown in England despite a chorus of warnings about a second spike - but admitted that curbs will have to be tightened again if there is an 'uptick'.

The Foreign Secretary acknowledged the loosening that takes effect tomorrow is a 'sensitive moment', but insisted the government was making sensible changes to get the country back up and running.

Spain and Greece warn Britons will NOT be welcome when airlines return to the skies Airlines are plotting a major return to the skies come July, amid growing speculation that the government will ease its quarantine measures for international arrivals - but two summer hotspots may not allow Brits to visit. British Airways, EasyJet and RyanAir have announced thousands of redundancies after the coronavirus lockdown grounded most of their flights in March. But as domestic lockdown measures ease, companies are now scheduling more than 160,000 passenger flights from July, with room for 29.5million passengers, according to The Sunday Telegraph. Heathrow Airport has been empty in May compared to previous years, but airline companies are now planning a return to service in July, should quarantine measures be eased Home Secretary Priti Patel's quarantine plan, which from June 8 will require anyone entering the UK to self-isolate for two weeks, appeared to torpedo Britons' hopes of a European summer holiday. But there are rumblings the government could change its plan when the quarantine is reviewed on June 29. A senior industry source told The Telegraph: 'The sense is that they might quietly do a U-turn after the first review period. Grant Shapps [Transport Secretary] is against quarantine, the Treasury are against it, Beis is against it and DCMS hate it.' Advertisement

'We can't just stay in lockdown forever. We have got to transition,' he said.

Mr Raab played down fears that the curbs are being downgraded even though the government's own coronavirus alert system level remains at four - which suggests they should stay in place.

And he stressed that ministers would not hesitate to reimpose restrictions in 'localities' or 'settings' if the number of cases begins to flare up again.

But the Westminster government is facing a wave of opposition to the relaxation from scientists who say an increase in cases is 'inevitable', while Nicola Sturgeon has stressed she is being more 'cautious' and the virus can still 'run out of control'.

A series of experts have raised concern about the moved to ease the lockdown in England, which takes effect from tomorrow, with the UK still getting 8,000 new infections a day.

Up to six people from six different households will be permitted to meet up in public places or gardens, meaning exercise classes and barbecues are back on the agenda.

Primary schools and nurseries have also been told they can start to reopen, while all non-essential shops can return from June 15.

In Scotland and Wales the loosening is far less dramatic, with only two households allowed to meet up at a time and people told not to travel more than five miles from home. Schools north of the border will not be back until after holidays there in August.

Asked whether the lockdown will be tightened again if infection rates increase, Mr Raab told Sky's Ridge on Sunday: 'We will target, if there is any uptick, and it could be in a locality, it could be in a particular setting, we will target very carefully measures that would apply to it so that we can take these steps but also keep control of the virus.'

Families across England will finally be able to see their elderly relatives again tomorrow, as millions of vulnerable people 'shielding' are allowed to spend time outdoors.

As part of the easing of lockdown restrictions, 2.2million vulnerable people will be able to go outside with members of their household, while continuing to follow social distancing guidelines. Those who live alone will be able to meet outside with one other person from another household, in a move that will bring joy to thousands.

Boris Johnson today hailed the 'resilience' of those who have been shielding since March, with many having no face-to-face contact since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.

Pictured: The air ambulance helicopter touches down at Durdle Door on Saturday afternoon before the council today closed the beauty spot due to injuries

Rowers are pictured on the River Thames near Maidenhead in Berkshire as temperatures soar in the south-east of England

The Prime Minister said: 'I want to thank everyone who has followed the shielding guidance  it is because of your patience and sacrifice that thousands of lives have been saved.

'I do not underestimate just how difficult it has been for you, staying at home for the last ten weeks, and I want to pay tribute to your resilience.'

Boris Johnson's SISTER Rachel is accused of flouting lockdown Rachel Johnson has been accused of bending lockdown rules by staying at her second home in Notting Hill after finishing her presenting shift at LBC. Boris Johnson's younger sister has previously said she is isolating at her home in Exmoor, Somerset, making only essential journeys to Leicester Square in London where she presents an evening show on the talk radio station. According to The Mirror, instead of travelling four hours back to Somerset on Friday, Ms Johnson instead opted to stay at her second home in Notting Hill, where her two sons live. Rachel Johnson was seen returning to her home in Notting Hill on Saturday, having stayed the night after a presenting shift on LBC on Friday It is claimed she travelled back to the Exmoor farm, she shares with her husband and daughter, on Saturday morning by train. A Whitehall source told The Mirror: 'It doesn't look good for anyone,' adding: 'First his friend Dom and now his sister have been caught bending the rules, if not breaking them.' The radio host's spokesman told The Mirror Ms Johnson 'sometimes stays over,' after finishing her show at 7pm. They added Ms Johnson has keyworker status as she is a broadcaster, saying she stays alert at all times while travelling between her job and her home. MailOnline has approached Ms Johnson's for a full comment. Advertisement

Meanwhile, Nicola Sturgeon today accused England of under-reporting care home deaths as she swiped at Mr Johnson for easing lockdown too early.

The Scottish First Minister said the apparent higher proportion of victims in care homes north of the border was due to the way they are recorded.

She insisted that people who died of stroke and 'happened' to have coronavirus were counted in the numbers in Scotland - whereas they were not in England, meaning that there was 'under-reporting'.

Asked on Sky News whether she thought that the PM was loosening the lockdown in England too quickly, Ms Sturgeon insisted she did not want to 'criticise other politicians' and they were all 'trying to do the right things'.

But she pointedly said that in Scotland they were being 'very cautious'. 'This virus has not gone away,' she said. 'That is why in Scotland we are moving very slowly.'

Prof Devi Sridhar, who has been advising the Scottish government, warned it looks 'inevitable' that cases will rise again in England.

'I'm very sorry to say that I think it is right now inevitable looking at the numbers,' she told Sky.

'The only thing that might in a sense save England is the good weather and warmth if this virus does indeed die outside quite quickly, but it's incredibly worrying because the numbers are not low enough to have a testing and tracing system take over.'

'If your objective is to contain the virus, to drive numbers down and to try to in a sense get rid of it so no-one is exposed to it, then it is not the right measure right now to open up,' she said.

'It's a big risk and gamble for exiting lockdown with a larger number of deaths than we did when we actually entered lockdown months back.'

Prof Sridhar said there was now a clear divide between Government and some scientists, but added that ultimately decisions will be made by politicians.

She said: 'I think what they should be saying is they consider the science, and hopefully they listen to it but the decision, and who actually has the accountability, are the politicians and leaders.'

Professor Peter Openshaw, who sits on the the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (NERVTAG) to the Government, said people must proceed with 'great caution' as the lockdown is eased.

He told the BBC's Andrew Marr programme: 'At the moment, we still have quite a large number of cases out there in the community and I think unlocking too fast carries a great risk that all the good work that's been put in by everyone, to try to reduce transmission may be lost. So we do need to proceed with great, great care at this point.'

Asked if the Government is going too fast, he said: 'I think there is a pretty unanimous message now that we need to take this slowly and go step by step. We need to evaluate the effect of each step before we move to the next one.

UK announces official daily Covid-19 death toll of 113 - the lowest since lockdown - taking the official count to 38,489 The UK has announced 113 more Covid-19 deaths today, the lowest since lockdown began, taking the official count to 38,489. Today the Department of Health reported the lowest figure in almost ten weeks - 74 people died on March 23, after which the crisis spiralled out of control. However, the weekends always see a significant drop in deaths due to a lag in reporting. Last Sunday health officials declared 118 deaths, which was a 30 per cent drop from the week before. Today has not seen such a dramatic reduction from the week before. But deaths are still declining from the peak in mid-April when the worst day saw 1,172 people die. Back-dated data from death certificates shows more than 46,000 people had been killed by the virus by May 15, 36 per cent more than the official toll given by the Department of Health (33,998) at that time. If the same mathematical sum was applied to today's DH count of 38,489, it would suggest the true death toll currently is around the 51,000 mark. There have been 274,762 positive test results since the crisis began. But this is a tiny fraction of the millions who would have been infected and never got a test. DH said that testing capacity reached the Prime Minister's 200,000 target yesterday, after promises it would be met before June 1, despite only 115,700 tests being conducted. It said it had reached its 200,000 goal because it had the 'capacity' to take 40,000 antibody tests of health workers every day, which detect if a person has already had the infection and recovered. The government was accused of 'bending the rules' to reach its initial coronavirus testing target of 100,000 per day by the end of April by including home testing kits that had been sent out, but not processed. Despite the Prime Minister saying the government's five tests have been met and it is safe to start relaxing restrictions from tomorrow, the alert level remains at four. There are still 54,000 new infections happening each week - down from 61,000 per week at the start of May - and 133,000 people are thought to currently have the virus, down from 137,000. This means one in 1,000 people are still catching it. Advertisement

'I don't hear any great dissent amongst the amongst the advisers who are speaking in public at the moment.'

He said it will be around two or three weeks before the effects of the latest easing of restrictions is known.

He told the Marr show: 'It's going to be very patchy, it may be that actually easing lockdown is perfectly OK in areas like London which were hit early and hit hard, and where the epidemic seems to have been virtually passed in many parts of the community, with a few exception.

'But up north it's still a very large number of cases. I think we need to be more subtle about the geography and we need to look at the particular areas where it may be appropriate to ease lockdown.'

He added: 'Maybe there needs to be a bit more subtlety to the way in which lockdown is eased.'

Prof Openshaw also said he believed advice on who needs to shield can be 'fine tuned' to prevent people being kept at home unnecessarily.

'I think we're going to be able to fine-tune the advice now and actually reassure some people who we feared might be susceptible, that in fact they're not as vulnerable as we thought. So that's really good news,' he said.

Writing in The Sunday Telegraph, the government's chief science officer Sir Patrick Vallance explained Sage was only there to advise politicians, who have the final say on what to do with evidence presented to them.

He wrote: 'Science advice to Cobr and to ministers needs to be direct and given without fear or favour. But it is advice. Ministers must decide and have to take many other factors into consideration.'

The chair of Sage explained the advisory board was not infallible, writing: 'There is a range of opinions in all of discussions and there is wide reading of the latest research, but what Sage endeavours to do is come down to a position or a range of positions, to provide options ministers could consider and explain the uncertainties and assumptions inherent in that science and evidence.'

Unions today insisted summer holidays should not be cancelled because teachers have been working 'flat out' during lockdown.

Despite the loss of face-to-face lessons, Mary Bousted, general secretary of the National Education Union, said her members deserved the time off.

She said any headteachers looking to recuperate lessons, especially for those pupils going into GCSEs and A levels, should only offer voluntary clubs and activities during the school holidays.

In a broadside to government the trade union chief also slammed the government's decision to re-open schools on June 1, saying if they had waited until June 15 the infection rate could have been halved.

Speaking to Sophy Ridge on Sunday from south London, Bousted said: 'No. The summer holiday shouldn't be cancelled because teachers have been working flat out to provide education for children at home.

'So what should happen is, and we do support this, to have clubs and activities on a volunteer basis for those children to meet together to socialise.

'We don't think the emphasis should be on catch up because many of those children will need to re-socialise, re-engage and re-engage with a love of learning and be involved in creative activities which enable them to become part of a wider society again and have the desire to learn again.'

Her words came as a fifth of teachers are expected to stay home on Monday when Reception, Year One and Year Six pupils sit behind their desks again. The figure was revealed by a TES survey of 5,000 school leaders.

They may be off because they suffer from health conditions including asthma and diabetes, live with a vulnerable family member or because they are at heightened risk due to their age.

They also found eleven out of the country's 20 worst performing councils on tests have told head teachers to keep the gates bolted.

The government plans to get Reception, Year One and Year Six pupils back to school on Monday, with an ambition to then get Year 10 and 12 back in lessons on June 15.

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have all pushed back their school start dates.

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson sought to calm concerned parents today, writing in the Sun on Sunday that pupils will not be allowed to gather in groups larger than 15. He also assured parents it would be safe, saying 'strict safety measures' have been put in place to protect children.
The Ecclesiastical Court of Lyon has paved the way for the compensation of victims of French ex-priest Bernard Preynat, convicted in March for the sexual assault of minors.

In a sentence handed down on Thursday but made public two days later, 21 people assaulted by Preynat between 1971 and 1991 are to receive an unspecified amount of compensation.

Quoting a spokesman for the diocese, the French press agency AFP said Preynat would be made to compensate his victims himself. If that is not possible, the process is to go via another compensation system.

The former chaplain of Sainte-Foy-les-Lyon was sentenced to five years in prison in March after standing accused of sexually abusing some 75 boys when he worked as their scout chaplain.

Preynat's victims later presented "a request for compensation" to the archdiocese for the damage suffered.

Despite the Ecclesiastical Court's decision, Francois Devaux, president of the Parole Liberee NGO fighting paedophilia by priests, told FranceInfo radio the church had completely dissociated itself from Preynat while ordering him to bring financial compensation to his victims that he will probably not be able to pay.

The diocese has a real and heavy responsibility" in the Preynat affair, Devaux added.

In July last year Preynat was defrocked, or "dismissed of the clerical state"  the heaviest sentence that can be pronounced by the church.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-31 23:51:19|Editor: huaxia

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KHARTOUM, May 31 (Xinhua) -- Chinese medical experts in Sudan on Sunday held a video conference with Chinese people in the country over the prevention of COVID-19.

Workers from Chinese companies and Chinese people living in Sudan participated in the video conference, during which Chinese medical experts answered questions related to the coronavirus and introduced the personal protection measures.

The Chinese medical team arrived in the Sudanese capital Khartoum on Thursday from Algeria after ending its two-week anti-coronavirus mission there.

"We are paying attention to the collection of questions and give more video exchanges in recent days," Zhou Lin, the expert team leader, told Xinhua.

On May 30, the medical experts were divided into two groups for the anti-coronavirus mission in Sudan. One of them provided an on-site training for the Chinese doctors from Omdurman Friendship Hospital of Sudan.

The other group went to an office of a Chinese company in Sudan to give an on-site training to the staff.

China has offered help to Sudan in its fight against COVID-19.

In late March, the Chinese Embassy in Sudan donated over 400,000 surgical masks to the Sudanese government.

On April 23, Chinese medical experts held a video conference with Sudanese counterparts to share China's experiences in the prevention and treatment of COVID-19. Enditem
(Newser)  George Floyd's brother has expressed frustration over his phone conversation with President Trump about the killing in Minneapolis. "He didn't give me an opportunity to even speak," Philonise Floyd told the Rev. Al Sharpton on MSNBC on Saturday. "It was hard. I was trying to talk to him, but he just kept, like, pushing me off, like 'I don't want to hear what you're talking about.'" Floyd said he told Trump that he wants justice for his brother. "I said that I couldn't believe that they committed a modern-day lynching in broad daylight," he said. Trump said Saturday that he'd made the call the day before. "I spoke to George's family and expressed the sorrow of our entire nation for their loss," the president said. "It was so fast," Philonise Floyd said, per People.

story continues below

Joe Biden called, as well. "I asked Vice President BidenI never had to beg a man beforebut I asked him, could he please, please get justice for my brother," Floyd said. The family needs a just resolution, he said. "I just don't want to see him on a shirt like those other guys," Floyd said. "Nobody deserves that." A police officer has been charged with third-degree murder in George Floyd's death. Philonise Floyd said that it should be a first-degree murder charge, per the Daily Beast, and that the officers who watched should also be charged. "They all need to be convicted of first-degree murder and given the death penalty," Philonise Floyd said. "They didnt care what they wanted to do with my brother. He was scum, he was nothing." White House officials did not immediately respond to questions about the president's phone call. (Read more George Floyd stories.)
By Lidia Kelly

MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Australia would welcome an official invitation to the Group of Seven (G7) nations and there has been contact on the matter between the prime minister and the United States, a government spokesman said on Sunday.

"The G7 has been a topic of recent high-level exchanges," the spokesman said in an emailed comment. "Australia would welcome an official invitation. Strengthening international cooperation among like-minded countries is valued at a time of unprecedented global challenges."

U.S. President Donald Trump said he would postpone a G7 summit he had hoped to hold next month until September or later and expand the list of invitees to include Australia, Russia, South Korea and India.

U.S.-Australia ties have been strong, even though recent White House comments on the origins of the coronavirus outbreak have frustrated Australia's push for an independent inquiry, sources have told Reuters. The two security partners also diverged radically in their management of the pandemic.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has been so far one of very few world leaders to pay a state visit to Washington during Trump's tenure, and both leaders have openly signalled their camaraderie.

Morrison, unlike some European leaders, has avoided criticising Trump publicly and has teamed up with the United States in its tougher stance against China, Australia's main trading partner.

Relations between Canberra and Beijing have been strained amid Australian accusations of Chinese meddling in domestic affairs and concern about what Australia sees as China's growing influence in the Pacific region.

(Reporting by Lidia Kelly; Editing by Christopher Cushing)




The nephew of President Muhammadu Buhari, Alhaji Ibrahim Dauda has died after a prolonged illness.

Alhaji Dauda died in Daura, Katsina State, North-West Nigeria.

Reacting to Daudas death in a statement signed by his Media Assistant, Garba Shehu, Buhari stated that his family and Daura community has been robbed of one of its finest gentlemen by death.

I am deeply touched and devastated by the passing of yet another family member, a man who had demonstrated amazing kindness and honesty in all his dealings, he said.

Buhari asked the Almighty God to forgive the soul of the deceased and reward his great and noble deeds with paradise.

Dauda is survived by his children, including Dauda Ibrahim, a Chief Administrative Officer in the State House, Abuja.

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President Donald Trump, with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), speaks with reporters while in air en route to Andrews Air Force Base in flight on May 30, 2020. (Alex Brandon/AP Photo)

Trump Wont Invoke Control of National Guard for Now Amid Protests, OBrien Says

President Donald Trump wont invoke federal authority over National Guard troops for now, amid often violent protests across the United States following the death of George Floyd, White House national security adviser Robert OBrien said.

Were not going to federalize the Guard at this time, OBrien told reporters at the White House on May 31. Governors and mayors should be the ones making decisions on law enforcement, he said.

OBrien, meanwhile, told ABC News on May 31 that Trump stands in solidarity with the peaceful protesters who are out demanding answers and petitioning their government about what happened.

Trump is seeking to deescalate the violence and riots in various cities over the past several days, he said.

I want to make a big distinction between peaceful protesters, these great Americans, and thats the difference between our country and many of the authoritarian countries out there, when something like this happens, we investigate it. Our people protest. They petition their government for redress. And we stand with the protesters, OBrien said.

The National Guard sets up near the Lake Street/Midtown metro station as buildings continue to burn in the aftermath of a night of protests and violence following the death of George Floyd, in Minneapolis, on May 29, 2020. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

However, violent ANTIFA radical militants are coming across state lines and inciting violence under cover of night, he said, adding that theyre using military tactics to commit acts of arson.

Theyre especially targeting the most venerable parts of our cities, George. The minority section, the African-American sections and Hispanic areas and burning down businesses of people that are trying to get a leg up.  And were calling on the FBI to investigate Antifa and get to the bottom of these violent rioters. And I dont want them confused with peaceful protesters that have every right to go out to the streets, he said.

Read More Antifa Tied to Communist Revolutionary Groups, Shows Documentary

From Los Angeles to Miami to Chicago, protests marked by chants of I cant breathea rallying cry echoing the dying words of George Floydbegan peacefully before turning unruly as demonstrators blocked traffic, set fires, and clashed with riot police, some firing tear gas and plastic bullets in an effort to restore order.

The sight of protesters flooding streets fueled a sense of crisis in the United States after weeks of lockdowns due to the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic, which has seen millions thrown out of work and has disproportionately affected minority communities.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said the deployment was necessary because outside agitators were using protests over Floyds death to sow chaos.

We are under assault, Walz, a first-term Democratic governor, told a briefing on May 30. Order needs to be restored.

Reuters contributed to this report.
The CEO of a technology company that has been entrusted with state contact tracing efforts for Texans exposed to the coronavirus has claimed a doctorate he never got, according to a Houston-based podcast.

Das Nobel, CEO of MTX Group Inc., says in an online profile on LinkedIn that he has a Doctorate of Management, Organizational Development and Leadership from Colorado Technical University, and that he attended the school from 2008-2012.

MTX was awarded a controversial $295 million contract to help the state track down people exposed to the coronavirus.

The Jess Fields Show podcast recorded audio of an exchange with the registrars office at Colorado Technical University. The woman who answered the phone can be heard telling Fields that Nobel did not get a doctorate degree from the school and that there was no record of attendance past June of 2010.

"This person didn't graduate for that part," the woman says, according to the recording. "His last date of attendance was 2010."

"If this person claims he has a doctorate of management from Colorado Technical University, that would be incorrect? Fields asks later.

"Correct," she said.

Nobel did not immediately return email and text messages Friday afternoon. A spokeswoman for his company said Nobel "did attend this program and stopped short of completing his dissertation to be formally awarded his PhD, which is why he has never claimed to have one. LinkedIn often encouraged users to list their educational experiences, and in this instance, that is what Das has done."

The university declined to confirm or deny Friday whether Nobel obtained the degree he claims when contacted by a Houston Chronicle reporter.

After the little known MTX Group Inc. was awarded its multi million contract in mid-May, Democrats and Republicans alike have criticized the state for a hasty process and a lack of transparency. Republicans have also expressed concerns about potential privacy violations of people subjected to contact tracing by the company.
Ashwini Bhatia, who is currently serving as the Managing Director (MD) and CEO at SBI Mutual Fund, has emerged as a frontrunner for the post of next State Bank of India (SBI) MD by the Banks Board Bureau (BBB) on Saturday.

The governing body has also recommended the names of MV Rao and P P Sengupta for the post of MD at the Central Bank of India and Indian Overseas Bank. Rao is currently serving as Executive Director with Canara Bank while Sengupta is Deputy Managing Director (DMD) at SBI.

BBB members interfaced with 20 contenders from several nationalised banks on May 30 for the said positions, according to an official statement.

Bhatia will be appointed in place of P K Gupta who superannuated on March 31, while Rao will replace Central Bank of India MD Pallav Mohapatra, who will retire in February next year. Sengupta will replace Indian Overseas Bank MD and CEO Karnam Sekar, who retires on June 30.

With this exercise, the government has completed the process of appointment of head of PSU banks for the current fiscal year. The decision on the appointment will be taken by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

BBB, the headhunter for state-owned banks and financial institutions, is headed by former Department of Personnel and Training Secretary B P Sharma.

PM Modi in 2016, approved the constitution of BBB as a body of eminent professionals and officials to make recommendations for the appointment of whole-time directors as well as non-executive chairpersons of public sector banks (PSBs).

It was also entrusted with the task of engaging with the board of directors of all PSBs to formulate appropriate strategies for their growth and development.

BBB was also asked to frame strategy discussion on consolidation based on requirement. The government wanted to encourage bank boards to restructure their business strategy and also suggest ways for their consolidation and merger with other banks.

Mann ki Baat Highlights: Follow all COVID-19 protocols more sincerely from now, says PM Narendra Modi

PM Modi's 'Mann Ki Baat' at 11 am today; focus likely on 'Unlock 1' of lockdown 5.0

Coronavirus India: Record single-day spike of 8,380 COVID-19 cases takes country's tally past 1.82 lakh
By Trevor Hunnicutt

May 31 (Reuters) - Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden on Sunday called for protesters against police brutality not to turn to violence as unrest flared in U.S. cities overnight.

Biden issued a statement just after midnight as protesters in several major U.S. cities vented outrage at the death of a black man shown on video gasping for breath as a white Minneapolis policeman knelt on his neck.

"Protesting such brutality is right and necessary," Biden said in the emailed statement. "But burning down communities and needless destruction is not."

He added: "We are a nation in pain, but we must not allow this pain to destroy us."

Biden will face President Donald Trump in the Nov. 3 presidential election. Trump's re-election campaign manager, Brad Parscale, on Saturday said that Biden should deliver a more forceful condemnation of violence.

Biden's remarks echoed a statement on Saturday by prominent black civil rights activist and U.S. Representative John Lewis of Georgia.

Lewis, who in 1965 was beaten unconscious by Alabama state troopers during a march for voting rights, called for protesters to "be constructive, not destructive," though he said he knows their pain.

(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt in New York Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
The two officials noted with satisfaction the deepened comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries, and agreed to continue coordinating to promote the external activities of their high-ranking leaders in the time ahead and enhance bilateral cooperation in the framework of the Vietnam-Russia, Russia-Vietnam Years.

They also exchanged advice on measures to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, and pledged to assist the citizens of the two countries as well as to coordinate for the timely settlement of problems as they arise. The Russian minister praised Vietnams epidemic control measures, saying it is indeed valuable experience that should be shared with others.

Regarding collaboration on the UN Security Council, Deputy PM Minh appreciated the role, position and contributions of Russia in the international arena, particularly as a permanent member of the council. He thanked Russia for the valuable support that the country had given to Vietnam during the time the latter ran for a non-permanent seat in the UNSC and participated in the UNSCs activities, especially when Vietnam served as President of the council in January.

He also expressed his hope that in difficult times, UNSC member countries, especially Russia and other major powers, will find a common voice, contributing to preserving and promote a peaceful and stable international environment.

The two officials exchanged views on the activities of the UNSC during the past six months, discussed and shared information on hotspots like Syria, Libya, Iran, Sudan and South Sudan. They vowed to continue working closely and sharing information on issues of common concern.

Deputy PM Minh invited the Russian FM to attend the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting (AMM) to be held in early August in Vietnam.
Footage has emerged of two police cars being swarmed by protesters in New York before one of them decides to drive through the crowd.

The protests in New York City were over the death of Minneapolis man George Floyd and other police killings of black men.

Video that was shot in Brooklyn showed two NYPD cruisers driving into protesters who were pushing against a barricade against a police car and pelting it with objects.

The first patrol car initially remained stationary in the middle of the road before demonstrators approached.

Several videos show two NYPD squad cars ramming into multiple protesters

When a second squad car arrives on scene, it runs into several people who struggle to get out of the way

People were pushed out of the way as a second police car arrived on the scene

The demonstrators were standing directly in front of the vehicles at the time and put up a barricade

The activists then began pelting the car with bottles, traffic cones and even bags of trash.

A second NYPD cruiser then pulled alongside the first but appeared to be in a rush to push through the crowds.

Those gathered swarmed the second patrol car which then, without warning, suddenly began to accelerate.

At least three people were pushed to the side and almost run over and the police car drove on down the street.

A second patrol vehicle arrives on scene and appears to be in a hurry to get through the crowd

People can at first be seen throwing bottles and plastic cones at one of the cars

The car rams into a barricade that people are standing against

When a patrol car arrived on scene it was immediately swarmed by protestors

Mayor Bill de Blasio said the incident is under investigation, but emphasized that the officers may have had no other choice.

'I'm not going to blame officers who were trying to deal with an absolutely impossible situation. The folks who were converging on that police car did the wrong thing to begin with, and they created an untenable situation,' he said. 'I wish the officers had found a different approach, but let's begin at the beginning. The protesters in that video did the wrong thing to surround that police car, period.

'People who represent the communities of our city and the residents of our city are not joining negative and violent protests,' de Blasio said.

'Our country has a sickness. We have to be out here,' said Brianna Petrisko, among those at lower Manhattan's Foley Square, where most were wearing masks amid the coronavirus pandemic. 'This is the only way we're going to be heard.'

The large crowds involved, with many people not wearing masks or social distancing, raised concerns among health experts about the potential for helping spread the coronavirus pandemic at a time when overall deaths are on the decline nationwide and much of the country is in the process of reopening society and the economy.

After a tumultuous Friday night, racially diverse crowds took to the streets again for mostly peaceful demonstrations in dozens of cities from coast to coast.

The previous day's protests also started calmly, but many descended into violence later in the day.

A NYPD police car is set on fire as protesters clash with police in Brooklyn

An NYPD patrol car was seen to be in flames on Saturday night during protests over Floyd

A NYPD police officer is removed after being injured as they clash with protesters in Brooklyn

Protesters smash an NYPD police car as they clash with police during a march against the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd, in the Brooklyn borough of New York
Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 30/5/2020 (600 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

CP U.S. President Donald Trump, pictured mocking presidential candidate Joe Biden in 2019, has not been the leader Americans have needed during the COVID-19 pandemic, writes columnist Kerry Auriat. (The Associated Press)

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water

This week, while the United States should have been mourning the deaths of 100,000 citizens to COVID-19, and in fact many governors and other elected officials were, President Donald Trump chose not to mention a word about this tragic milestone and instead did as he often does, re-direct blame toward China. Its his go-to move and no surprise, and yet still it surprises me.

Not unlike Michael Corleone in The Godfather III, being surprised by Trump makes me utter under my breath, "Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!"

Rather than go down the incredibly-complicated road of coronavirus strains, Europe vs Asia, or whether the virus was created in a lab for evil purposes, all of which seems quite self-defeating, instead it might be more worthwhile to talk about the risks of the circus Trump has just created.

U.S. President Donald Trump, pictured mocking presidential candidate Joe Biden in 2019, has not been the leader Americans have needed during the COVID-19 pandemic, writes columnist Kerry Auriat. (The Associated Press)

You dont need this columnist to remind you of the terrible toll coronavirus has wrought upon the globe. Like it or not, there is a need for the President to reassure the nation, allow for a reflection on our losses and to bring calm during such a period.

Trump should have presented a national address in which, solemnly, he read off a list of successes (if he needs to) and talks about the human toll, the challenges ahead, and steps his administration is employing to improve the health outcomes and manage the economic toll.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, despite his countless shortcomings, has done a good job of bringing calm during this unprecedented time, as have other leaders including our own Premier Brian Pallister, Ontario Premier Doug Ford, and, most notably, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.

While I may have differed with them on various policies, I applaud all of their honesty, forthright talk and willingness to openly address the issues at play. Trump has distracted, blamed others, lied and dissembled. Its his modus operandi.

This week, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo advised Congress that the administration no longer considers Hong Kong to be the recipient of favourable treatment guarantees that China promised in 1997. Rather, he posited Hong Kong has been completely incorporated by the mainland Chinese and, as such, should no longer receive beneficial treatment from the U.S.

This withdrawal of preferential treatment would subsequently lead to Hong Kong then facing the same sanctions Trump placed on the Chinese two years ago. It could mean an end to Hong Kong as a global financial centre.

Such a move would be greatly damaging to China. Of course, this move would force China to consider countervailing tactics to increase pressure in the U.S. Just as we have learned from the original round of sanctions, tariffs dont work. They sound appealing, but the reality is that all too often tariffs punish the very people they were intended to help, but if you wanted to redirect the focus of attention from your own failings to someone else, especially during an election year, then China is always a great target.

Some may argue that offending China could result in that nation calling its loans to the U.S. or another equally-problematic response, but most of that chatter is meaningless.

China, to its credit, has been far more expansive and helpful during this crisis than the United States  literally a complete reversal of roles. It has reached out to impacted nations in the Middle East and Africa while the U.S. has retreated from its global role.

You may believe the United States shouldnt be the worlds policeman, and I dont disagree, but understand that there is a price for every decision, including isolationism.

Its an election year, and I expect the silliness to increase significantly, but wouldnt it be great to have leaders who actually understand the weight of the responsibilities and act accordingly? We have such leaders here, and a nation as great as the United States deserves the same.
Most of the state governments have said that they will issue state specific guidelines on Sunday in pursuant of the Centres directions that allow resumption of almost all activities, except a few such as running of metros and opening of cinemas and gymnasiums, from June 1.

The Centres new guidelines provide a roadmap for lifting of the lockdown and allows states to take a call on when the educational institutions, public transport and other social gathering places can open and under which conditions. It also gives powers to the states to take strict measures as per their needs and have to follow the ones issued by the Centre. The nationwide lockdown was first announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 24 for three weeks to curb the spread of the coronavirus disease. It has been extended thrice since then.

However, the relaxations would not be applicable in many areas in 13 cities that account for 70% of the Covid-19 cases, which have been declared as containment areas. The Centre has asked the states to identify the containment centres on high-risk factors such as confirmation rate, fatality rate, doubling rate, tests per million people etc. The Centre has already shared its parametres with the state governments asking them to search for Covid-19 cases through house-to-house surveillance, contact tracing, testing protocol and clinical management of active cases.

The Centres announcement comes days after several chief ministers requested lockdown exit guidelines during their discussion with Home Minister Amit Shah and Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba. We cannot permanently remain in the lockdown, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee said on Friday. On Saturday, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal backed her saying that the country needs to learn to live with Covid-19.

Banerjee has already announced all activities will be allowed in West Bengal from June 1 as the state was reeling under huge financial crisis. States such as Punjab, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh have also citied financial crunch as a reason for allowing all economic activities saying sustaining lockdown financially will not be possible anymore.

Many of the state government had already started working on reopening of hospitability industry, gymnasiums and malls. Karnataka, Goa and Uttarakhand have already announced that they would open hotels and restaurants from June 1 and have urged the Centre to allow opening of gymnasiums and malls also.

State governments such as Rajasthan, Goa and Uttarakhand have also announced opening of all tourism places from June 1, including wildlife areas. These state governments have issued standard operating procedures for sanitising hotels and resorts and allowing guests with social distancing norms. Restaurants in these states would be allowed with 50 per cent of the existing seating capacity. Goa will also be opening up activities along the beaches from June 1 with social distancing norms. Uttarakhand government will open Chardham Yatra from June 1 for pilgrims under the new home ministry order, state government officials said.

As inter-state travel without permit has been allowed, the state governments will have to come up with new policy on quarantine. No more we would be able to provide institutional quarantine to all, said a UP government official. Echoing his sentiments, a Bihar government official said the state has already relaxed institutional quarantine rules to seven days for migrant workers and may further reduce it as more trains will resume operations from Monday.

An official in Himachal Pradesh government said that they were proposing quarantine of only symptomatic residents of the state who want to return back. However, the bigger challenge for hill states like Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand is how to prevent huge tourism inflow expected due to rising mercury levels in the plains. We are discussing this issue and very soon guidelines for tourists will be issued, said Uttarakhand tourism minister Satpal Maharaj.

Reacting to the MHA order, Odisha Special Relief Commissioner Pradip Jena said relaxation in night curfew for two more hours (till 9 pm from earlier 7 pm) is a welcome step. Much of the things described in the guidelines, we have little role to play as the central ministries would issue standard operating procedures such as opening of gyms, temples and schools. We would declare Odisha guidelines tomorrow following all that the MHA guidelines have said, Jena said on Saturday.

A senior Uttar Pradesh government official said they would issue the lockdown 5.0 guidelines in the next few days. We will examine the guidelines and issue the state governments guidelines soon, said chief secretary RK Tiwari. Officials said the state government was considering opening of all states borders for free movement of people even though migrant workers have been a cause of concern as they contributed in large numbers to the surge in Covid cases in recent past.

However, Maharashtra is expected to continue with most of the lockdown 4 restrictions as the number of Covid-19 cases doubled in the state in the past fortnight. The officials said more relaxations can be offered in allowing opening of standalone shops in urban areas. Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has already indicated that he is not keen to lift curbs in Mumbai, Pune and Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) as Covid-19 cases could spike if restrictions are lifted.

The Maharashtra government is expected to issue its revised guidelines for the state by Sunday. An official said that the government is going to provide further restrictions in a gradual and calibrated manner but Covid-19 cases are bound to go up as this happens. The official added that the state government is moving cautiously and relaxations would be given on the degree of contact and essential nature of the service.

(With inputs from state bureaus)
The Gujarat High Court has allowed COVID-19 testing by private laboratories without the need for prior approval of government health officers for patients in certain categories based on the report of a

three-member committee of the state government.

It said government approval should be provided within 24 hours for the rest of the patients.

The Ahmedabad Medical Association had in its plea prayed for HC's direction to permit all private laboratories and hospitals, which have the requisite infrastructure, to conduct RTPCR tests for COVID-19, without any need for prior permission from the government as mandated by it.

"Those categories of patients, as referred to (in the report of the three member committee of the state government), in our opinion, would not be insisted for an approval from the concerned superintendent of the GMERS, Ahmedabad or the DHO for other districts but the COVID19 testing should be done forthwith without any delay and only intimation of such patients may be forwarded to the concerned authorities by the treating consultants," said the division bench of Chief Justice Vikram Nath and Justice JB Pardiwala in an order passed in a suo motu PIL related to coronavirus.

As per the three-member committee report, patients receiving cancer chemo therapy, radio therapy and planned hemodialysis should undergo testing and so do all the pregnant women admitted in the hospitals located in containment area for delivery, in the best interest of the newborn.

The report stated that pre-operative testing for patients undergoing surgery or any other instrumentation can be done as per the discretion of the treating consultant, and emergency and lifesaving procedures may be carried out without waiting for COVID-19 testing in the best interest of

patients.

"For rest of the patients (not covered in the above specified categories), we direct that the COVID testing by the treating physician or surgeon would require an approval to be obtained (from government health officer), but, at the same time, we direct and make it very clear that such approval should be granted at the earliest and, in any case, within 24 hours. This timeline to be strictly adhered to," said the court.

The court observed the "disturbing feature" of the government policy requiring private doctors to seek permission from government health officers for COVID-19 testing on patients being treated by them "takes two to four days before the permission is accorded and the test is performed" and "in a given case, this delay may prove to be fatal".

The government testing policy required permission of Medical Superintendent of GMRC Hospital for private hospitals in Ahmedabad district and/or corporation area, permission from the chief health officer of the concerned district panchayat for hospitals in other districts, and permission from civic

health officer for hospitals in other municipal corporation areas.

Defending itself, the government, in its reply to the court, had said its stand is "in tune with prevalent policy of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and that it has no relevance or connection with the socalled artificial control of data qua the number of cases in the state".

"However, at the same time, the likelihood of fear psychosis being crept in, cannot be ruled out, if the COVID testing is allowed in all asymptomatic cases, just for acquiring a feeling of safety and security," it said.

It further said at present, 19 government laboratories are sufficient and good enough to conduct the COVID test, even though the number of cases may rise.

Twelve private laboratories are also going to be utilized in case optimum capacity of 19 government labs is exhausted, while strictly following the guidelines of ICMR.

The government also said "there is no question of the qualified private laboratories not being granted permission to conduct COVID test in case they comply with ICMR guidelines".

Regarding testing kits, the government told the court its laboratories had "sufficient COVID testing apparatus/kits, wherein COVID testing is provided free of cost".

"Furthermore, as per prevalent regulations, private laboratories are at liberty to procure testing kits from the market, in as much as, the same are easily accessible by the laboratories and the state government is not required to procure and provide the same to private laboratories," it said.
White House National Security Adviser Robert OBrien insisted on Sunday morning that President Donald Trumps inflammatory tweets calling on law enforcement to release vicious dogs and the military to shoot protesters were actually attempts by the president to deescalate violence.

Over the past few days, as protests over Minneapolis police killing an unarmed black man have grown increasingly more intense and violent, the president has fired off several incendiary tweets demanding cops and the military take swift action.

In one notorious tweet, the president exclaimed that when the looting starts, the shooting starts, a phrase that dates back to the 1960s when a Miami police chief vowed a take-no-prisoners approach to unrest in black neighborhoods. The presidents tweet was later deemed by Twitter to violate its rules about glorifying violence.

During a slate of Sunday news show appearances, OBrien waved off any concerns about the presidents remarks as the protests rage out of control. CNN anchor Jake Tapper pressed the national security adviser on the matter, noting that both Republican and Democratic governors have suggested Trumps tweets are stoking more anger.

The president invoked vicious dogs and ominous weapons being wielded against protesters outside the White House, Tapper wondered aloud. Do you think messages like that are helping to unite the country and calm fears?

Referencing the presidents attempted walkback of the looting tweet, OBrien added: He said, look, he was trying to deescalate, he didnt want violence, hes trying to stop the violence that took place overnight.

The message, and its a strong message, we want law and order in this country, he continued. We want peaceful protesters who have real concerns about brutality and racism, they need to be able to go to the city hall, they need to be able to petition their government and let their voices be heard.

The CNN anchor pushed back, highlighting the presidents subsequent tweets in which he boasted that the Secret Service confronting protesters at the White House could sic vicious dogs and use ominous weapons against the demonstrators if things got out of hand.

Story continues

This is not calming language. I dont doubt that President Trump was disturbed by the video of George Floyd, Tapper further pointed out. Its horrific and obscene, frankly. But the president, his passion has not been about the way youre speaking this morning about what happened to George Floyd and the indecency of that, but about the protesters and the violence some of them are causing. And we have government officials, Democrats and Republicans, saying that the president is using inflammatory language.

OBrien, however, said that the presidents passion comes from the fact that weve got great law enforcement officers, not the few bad apples like the officer that killed George Floyd, but weve got a few bad apples that have given law enforcement a bad name.

In another appearance on ABCs This Week, anchor George Stephanopoulos asked OBrien if the president should take responsibility for the tweets and received the same response from the national security adviser.

I think what he said about those tweets is he wants to deescalate violence and doesnt want people looting, OBrien reacted. Peaceful protesters, these great Americans, the difference between our country and authoritarian countries, when this happens, they petition the country for redress.

The Trump adviser would also go on to dismiss any notiondespite what local and state authorities are sayingthat far-right actors and white supremacists had any involvement in the destruction or incitement that has taken place in the nationwide protests. OBrien, instead, placed all the blame on far-left radicals and antifa.

Well, I have not seen those reports on far-right groups, he told Tapper, adding: This is being driven by antifa and they did it in Seattle, theyve done it in Portland, they did it in Berkeley, this is a destructive force.

Right now, the president and the attorney general want to know what the FBIs been doing to surveil, to disrupt, to take down antifa, to prosecute them, OBrien further said on This Week. Not the first time theyre using military-style tactics to take advantage of this situation to burn down our cities. The FBI has to come up with a plan to deal with antifa.

Additionally, OBrien also categorically denied that there was systemic racism present within the nations law enforcement agencies, blaming police brutality against racial minorities on a few bad apples that are giving police a bad name.

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Uttarakhand chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat on Sunday went into self-quarantine as a precaution after his Cabinet colleague and state tourism minister Satpal Maharaj tested positive for coronavirus disease Covid-19. The CM, some of his ministers and top bureaucrats had attended a Cabinet meeting on Friday in which Maharaj was also present.

Apart from Maharaj, his two sons, two daughters-in-law and 17 of his staff also tested positive for coronavirus infection on Sunday, a day after the ministers wife was found positive for the virus.

In a late evening development, the state health secretary Amit Singh Negi said that a decision on putting the other ministers and officials in quarantine would be taken by Dehradun district magistrate on Monday since as per the Centres guidelines that distinguish between high-risk and low-risk contacts of a Covid-19 positive patient, the ministers come under low-risk category. Therefore, they can continue to work normally and need not be quarantined as of now.

All the ministers come under low-risk category as they maintained distance and wore masks during the meeting despite being in the same room. The district magistrate will be taking a final decision on this and decide who will be home quarantined and who can continue working normally. As a precautionary measure, chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat has already quarantined himself, said Negi.

He explained that if some one lives in the same house, travels in the same car, comes in contact with a positive person with less than one metre distance, interacts without a mask with a Covid-19 positive person, then they are considered to be high risk.

In the case of high-risk contact, the person will be home quarantined for 14 days and the test will be done according to the protocol of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). Low-risk contacts can do their work as before but their health status will be monitored for 14 days.

Earlier, confirming the test report of Satpal Maharaj, Abhishek Sharma, officer on special duty to the tourism minister said, Maharaj, his two sons and two daughters-in-law tested positive on Sunday along with 17 of his staff members. A total of 41 people including Maharaj and others who came in contact with his wife, were put in quarantine and tested for the virus infection as per the health norm on Saturday itself. The remaining have tested negative.

He added that the minister and his four family members had been admitted at AIIMS, Rishikesh, where his wife is already undergoing treatment. The other infected people have been admitted to a city-based hospital in Dehradun, Sharma said.

Uttarakhand has reported 907 Covid-19 cases so far including 158 cases which came out on Sunday. Of the total cases, 102 have recovered.
Whilst it may not be a huge deal, we thought it was good to see that the OncoSil Medical Limited (ASX:OSL) Non-Executive Director, Roger Aston, recently bought AU$102k worth of stock, for AU$0.09 per share. However, it only increased their shares held by 9.1%, and it wasn't a huge purchase by absolute value, either.

Check out our latest analysis for OncoSil Medical

OncoSil Medical Insider Transactions Over The Last Year

In fact, the recent purchase by Roger Aston was the biggest purchase of OncoSil Medical shares made by an insider individual in the last twelve months, according to our records. That means that an insider was happy to buy shares at around the current price of AU$0.10. While their view may have changed since the purchase was made, this does at least suggest they have had confidence in the company's future. If someone buys shares at well below current prices, it's a good sign on balance, but keep in mind they may no longer see value. The good news for OncoSil Medical share holders is that insiders were buying at near the current price.

OncoSil Medical insiders may have bought shares in the last year, but they didn't sell any. The chart below shows insider transactions (by individuals) over the last year. If you click on the chart, you can see all the individual transactions, including the share price, individual, and the date!

ASX:OSL Recent Insider Trading May 30th 2020

There are plenty of other companies that have insiders buying up shares. You probably do not want to miss this free list of growing companies that insiders are buying.

Does OncoSil Medical Boast High Insider Ownership?

For a common shareholder, it is worth checking how many shares are held by company insiders. I reckon it's a good sign if insiders own a significant number of shares in the company. Insiders own 13% of OncoSil Medical shares, worth about AU$11m, according to our data. We do generally prefer see higher levels of insider ownership.

What Might The Insider Transactions At OncoSil Medical Tell Us?

Story continues

The recent insider purchases are heartening. And the longer term insider transactions also give us confidence. But on the other hand, the company made a loss during the last year, which makes us a little cautious. When combined with notable insider ownership, these factors suggest OncoSil Medical insiders are well aligned, and that they may think the share price is too low. In addition to knowing about insider transactions going on, it's beneficial to identify the risks facing OncoSil Medical. Our analysis shows 6 warning signs for OncoSil Medical (1 is significant!) and we strongly recommend you look at them before investing.

If you would prefer to check out another company -- one with potentially superior financials -- then do not miss this free list of interesting companies, that have HIGH return on equity and low debt.

For the purposes of this article, insiders are those individuals who report their transactions to the relevant regulatory body. We currently account for open market transactions and private dispositions, but not derivative transactions.

Love or hate this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@simplywallst.com.



This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Former heads of governments across Africa, including two ex-Nigerian presidents, Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan, on Friday, threw their weight behind the President of African Development Bank, Adesina Akinwunmi, who is battling allegations of impropriety.

The allegations were levelled by some whistleblowers who said he violated the banks' Code of Ethics.

Mr Adesina is currently battling 16 allegations levelled against him by a group. He has maintained he is innocent.

The United States is insisting on a further probe despite the clean bill of health given to Mr Adesina by the board of directors of the bank.

The embattled official has said the move to get him out, perhaps at all costs, is linked to his re-election bid and not as a result of any fraudulent action on his part.

Mr Obasanjo, on Thursday, appealed to African leaders to support Mr Adesina, an appeal that has apparently received a rapid response.

Intervention

The African leaders, in a joint statement released on Friday, said since the ethics committee had cleared Mr Adesina of all 16 allegations, he should be exonerated.

"This is why we are concerned with the recent developments at the Bank. Dr. Adesina, who some whistleblowers alleged to have violated the Banks' Code of Ethics, has firmly and consistently declared his innocence of these allegations.

"The Ethics Committee of the Board of Directors, a legal oversight body of the Bank, made up of representatives of shareholders, cleared Dr. Adesina of all 16 allegations, declaring them as baseless and unsubstantiated and exonerated him completely.

"The Chairman of the Board of Governors, based on the report of the Ethics Committee, declared Dr. Adesina exonerated. We understand that the Bank fully followed its rules, procedures and governing systems, which have served it well since African countries established it in 1964," the group said.

High profile group

The signatories of of the letter include: Olusegun Obasanjo (President of Nigeria; 1999-2007), Boni Yayi (President of Benin; 2006-2016), Hailemariam Desalegn (Prime Minister of Ethiopia; 2012 - 2018), John Kufour (President of Ghana; 2001 - 2009), Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (President of Liberia; 2006 - 2018), Joyce Banda (President of Malawi; 2012 - 2014) and Joaquim Chissano (President of Mozambique; 1986 - 2005)

Others are Tandja Mamadou (President of Niger; 1999 - 2010), Goodluck Jonathan (President of Nigeria; 2010-2015), Mohamed Marzouki (President of Tunisia; 2011 - 2014) and Benjamin Mkapa (President of Tanzania; 1995 - 2005)

The letter was also endorsed by Ameenah Gurib-Fakin (President of Mauritius; 2015 - 2018), Rupiah Banda (President of Zambia; 2008 - 2011) Kgalema Motlanthe (President of South Africa; 2008-2009) and Jakaya Kikwete (President of Tanzania; 2005 - 2015).

Commendations

The African leaders noted that, "Africa is facing an unprecedented challenge with the COVID-19 and all hands must be on deck to tackle the pandemic".

They said AfDB, under the leadership of Mr Adesina, has been doing a remarkable job in steering the organisation.

"The Bank announced a $10 billion crisis response facility to support countries in Africa. The Bank also successfully launched a $3 billion "Fight COVID-19 social bond, the largest ever US dollar denominated bond in world history.

"Powered by his vision and leadership, the shareholders of the Bank from 80 countries all approved a general capital increase of $115 billion for the Bank, the largest in its history since establishment in 1964.

"The Bank has been doing a lot for women, with a $3 billion fund to provide access of finance to women, supported by G7 countries and Africa. Across the continent, the Bank's presence and work have been highly visible and impactful.

"In less than five years, the Bank's High 5 agenda has impacted over 333 million people, from access to electricity, food security, access to finance via the private sector, improve transport and access to water and sanitation.

"The Bank has maintained its stellar AAA rating among all global rating agencies. The shareholders of the Bank have all played very important roles in supporting the Bank to achieve these impressive results," the leaders said.

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More commendations, jab at U.S.

Defending Mr Adesina, the group also said "governance is all about respecting and abiding by rules, laws and established governing systems of organisations".

"In the case of the AfDB, while differences may exist among parties, the best way to address them is to first respect the rules, procedures and governance structures of the Bank. To do otherwise will be tantamount to undermining the Bank and its long and hard earned reputation, and that of its President.

"The African Development Bank is a pride for all of Africa, and its President, Dr. Adesina, has taken the Bank to enviable heights. At this critical time that Africa is battling with COVID-19, the Bank and its President should not be distracted.

"Differences will always occur but we urge that all shareholders work together. All shareholders should work with mutual respect, and honour the rules and procedures of the Bank and its governance systems that have served it well for 56 years. No nation, regardless of how powerful, has a veto power over the African Development Bank, and no nation should have such power," they added.
Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc on May 29 discussed on the phone with his Singaporean counterpart Lee Hsien Loong bilateral and regional cooperation in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc talks on the phone with his Singaporean counterpart

PM Phuc appreciated the efforts and comprehensive measures undertaken by the Singaporean Government to contain the spread of the COVID-19 outbreak and mitigate its socio-economic impacts, noting his belief that Singapore will soon be able to put the epidemic under control.

He shared Vietnams experience in the transition to a new normal when the country promotes economic development while continuing with epidemic prevention and control measures.

The Vietnamese Government leader underlined the importance of regional and international cooperation in the current context, and spoke highly of Vietnam and Singapores mutual support in medical supplies as well as coordination in repatriating their citizens. He thanked Singapore and PM Lee Hsien Loong himself for contributing to the success of the Special ASEAN Summit and Special ASEAN Plus Three Summit on COVID-19 Response via video conference on April 14 this year.

For his part, PM Lee Hsien Loong said he was impressed by Vietnams success in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, and thanked Vietnam for helping Singapore with medical supplies, which he said manifested the friendship and trustful partnership between the two countries.

He appreciated the role and initiatives of Vietnam as the Chair of ASEAN in 2020, which aimed at promoting intra-bloc cooperation as well as collaboration between ASEAN and its important partners in coping with and mitigating the impacts of the pandemic.

The two PMs agreed to make joint efforts to keep the impetus of the Vietnam-Singapore strategic partnership through maintaining high-level meetings and exchanges along with bilateral cooperation mechanisms, further strengthening linkages between the two economies and ensuring sustainable supply chains in the context of the world and regional economies are facing numerous challenges.

PM Phuc affirmed that Vietnam attaches importance to cooperation on food security and welcomed talks between ministries and agencies of the two countries for the early signing of a bilateral agreement on rice trade, under which Singapore will import Vietnamese rice in a stable and long-term manner.

The two PMs reached consensus on holding discussions on the early resumption of flights towards gradually restoring safe travelling between the two countries, thus creating a boost for bilateral ties in trade-investment, tourism and people-to-people exchanges in the post-pandemic period. The Singaporean PM suggested establishing a green lane mechanism to facilitate travel serving essential purposes.

The two Government leaders agreed to continue coordinating and supporting each other at multilateral forums. PM Lee affirmed that he will continue to work closely with and strongly support Vietnam so that the country successfully performs its roles as Chair of ASEAN in 2020 and a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council in 2020-2021. PM Phuc said he values Singapores contributions to coordinating the ASEAN-EU relations in the 2018-2021 tenure.

The two also emphasized the importance of maintaining peace, stability, freedom and security of navigation and overflight in the East Sea. They vowed to make joint efforts to maintain solidarity and the common stance of the ASEAN, and push forward negotiations on a substantive Code of Conduct on the East Sea that is in accordance with international law and the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS 1982)./.
by Rasheed Sobowale

The Chief of the Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, on Saturday, 30 May 2020, paid an operational visit to Sokoto State for an on-the-spot assessment of the security situation with a view to fashioning new strategies for dealing with the recent rise in banditry activities in the State.

During the visit, the CAS paid a courtesy call on the Sultan of Sokoto, His Eminence, Muhammadu Sa'ad Abubakar III, and held a closed door meeting with Governor of the State, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, where he assured them that the NAF, operating in synergy with sister Services and other security agencies, would continue to work tirelessly to rid the State of the activities of armed bandits.

The CAS also received operational briefings from the Air Officer Commanding Tactical Air Command (AOC TAC), Air Vice Marshal (AVM) Olusegun Philip, as well as the Commander 119 Composite Group (119 CG) Sokoto, Group Captain Garba Bello.

He equally inspected fuel and other logistics facilities at the Saad Abubakar III Airport, Sokoto, where some NAF surveillance and attack aircraft have already been deployed to support the renewed offensive against the bandits.

Speaking during the courtesy visit at the Sultan's Palace, Air Marshal Abubakar expressed sadness over the recent unfortunate killing of innocent citizens by armed bandits in Communities under Sabon Birnin Local Government Area (LGA) of the State.

He prayed for the peaceful repose of the souls of the departed whilst also entreating God for the speedy recovery of those who were injured in the attacks.

The CAS disclosed that his presence in Sokoto State was also at the instance of President Muhammadu Buhari, who had directed, through the Chief of Defence Staff, that a massive offensive operation be undertaken against armed bandits, kidnappers, cattle rustlers and other criminal elements across States in the North West and North Central Zones of the Country, including Katsina, Zamfara, Sokoto, Niger, Kogi, Kaduna, and Nasarawa, among others.

Air Marshal Abubakar said the NAF had therefore deployed air assets and activated operational plans, in concert with sister Services, to ensure that territories within the affected areas are secured, to keep the people and their properties safe.

He however appealed for the provision of useful and timely intelligence that would enable effective and efficient operations to bring the criminal acts and wanton killings being perpetrated in Sokoto State and its environs to a decisive end.

In his response, His Eminence, the Sultan, thanked the CAS for his swift response to the recent tragic loss of lives in Sabon Birnin LGA, by not only deploying air assets and additional personnel but also coming personally to assess the situation for himself.

He observed that this clear show of commitment would undoubtedly give hope to the people of Sokoto and assure them that, not only is Mr President concerned about their situation, he is also taking decisive steps to deal with the issue.

He noted that it was evident that as a result of the onslaught on the bandits in Katsina and Zamfara States, some of them had relocated to Sokoto to begin to wreak havoc in the State.

He, therefore, highlighted the need for a coordinated approach to ensure that the bandits are denied freedom of movement from one State to another.

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He equally solicited greater synergy between the Governments of Nigeria and Niger Republic in monitoring the border areas to deny the armed bandits safe havens.

Sultan Abubakar promised that the entire people of the State would continue to cooperate with the NAF and other security agencies by providing intelligence that would enhance their operations.

He equally made an appeal to the Federal Government for the provision of more aircraft and equipment to the Armed Forces to enable it more effectively execute its constitutional roles.

The CAS was accompanied on the operational visit by the NAF Chief of Training and Operations, AVM James Gwani; Chief of Aircraft Engineering, AVM Musibau Olatunji, and the Air Officer Commanding Special Operations Command, AVM Charles Owho, as well as Directors and other senior officers from Headquarters NAF.

Vanguard News Nigeria.
Three police officers and a civilian were gravely injured last night when a car deliberately sped into a police vehicle during George Floyd protests in Denver.

The Chevrolet with Wyoming plates tore down the street at around 11pm close to the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in the city center.

In footage, the tires of the car are heard screeching across the asphalt before it is seen speeding through an intersection where several police vehicles are parked up.

It comes as rioters across the States took to the streets for the fifth night running to demonstrate against the killing of Floyd, a black man who died in police custody on Monday after white police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck. Chauvin was charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter on Friday.

The Chevrolet with Wyoming plates tore down the street at around 11pm close to the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in the city center

The car is seen speeding over the pavement towards police vehicles parked up at an intersection last night

In footage from the carnage the tires of the car are heard screeching across the asphalt before it is seen speeding through an intersection were several police vehicles are parked up

Further footage the scene in Denver last night purported to show one of the officers injured in the hit-and-run being loaded into the back of an ambulance.

Police were able to disperse most crowds after the city's 8pm curfew kicked in.

Around 18 protesters were arrested including two for felony charges, but cops said the night was calmer than Thursday and Friday.

A total of 11 states and the District of Columbia had activated the National Guard by the early hours of Sunday, as law enforcement buckled under the strain of the protests.

In Minneapolis, protesters were seen fleeing after cops hurled tear gas into the crowds while some responded by launching fireworks back at officers.

The National Guard was activated to defend the White House from attack as the Secret Service agents on the ground struggled to keep control of crowds descending on the seat of the US government.

Minneapolis: Tear gas and fireworks go off in the streets Saturday night on day five of protests over Floyd's death

Chicago: A Chicago police vehicle is set on fire during violent protests and bricks are hurled at it

New York: A New York City Police Department vehicle burns after being set alight by protesters

The Big Apple was ablaze as NYPD vehicles were torched and ransacked while shocking footage emerged of cops violently detaining protesters.

A man was left critically injured in Dallas when he was attacked and stomped on by a group of people when he allegedly tried to defend a store with a large sword.

In Atlanta a cop suffered 'significant injuries' when they were hit by an ATV, while in Chicago, a man commandeered a police horse and rode off on it.

Los Angeles deployed the National Guard for the first since the 1992 riots when the police officers who beat up black man Rodney King walked free of all charges and California Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in LA County.

States calling for Guard assistance included California, Georgia, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Washington state.

Washington DC: A car burns in a street near the White House Saturday night

Washington DC: A park police officer shoots rubber bullets toward demonstrators gathered outside the White House

Washington DC: A firework is hurled by a protester and explodes by a police line

Meanwhile at least 25 cities roll out emergency curfews to try to bring rioting and looting under control, including San Francisco, Atlanta, Louisville, Los Angeles, Portland, Columbia, South Carolina, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Seattle.

More than 1,300 people have been arrested in 16 cities since Thursday, including over 500 Friday in Los Angeles.

Donald Trump has put the Army on notice to deploy to the streets with a four-hour notice - the first time this will have been done in almost 20 years during the 1992 LA riots over the beating of black man Rodney King by cops.

Minnesota - where Floyd died - has borne the brunt of the protests which began there Tuesday before fanning out across the country.

Rioting was still going on in the early hours of Sunday, with the Minneapolis police department reporting a big group of protesters on foot and in vehicles throwing missiles of some sort at cops.

Washington DC:A protester holds up a sign saying 'Stop killing us' as a pack of military police are sen in the background

Washington DC: Demonstrators gesture next to a fire during a rally near the White House

Washington DC: The seat of the government was under threat from protesters leading to the National Guard being activated in Washington DC

Minnesota Dept of Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell announced early Sunday there had been 'dozens' of arrests through the night but no 'substantive' injuries.

The Minnesota National Guard announced at around 10:30p.m. it was sending 10,800 troops in to tackle protests Saturday night, as pleas for people to observe curfews fell on deaf ears.

The Minnesota National Guard said on Twitter it already had more than 4,100 citizen-soldiers and airmen already in the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul and was ramping it up to a staggering 10,800.

There were just 700 on duty on Friday.

State police officers were seen in their masses surrounding the fifth police precinct Saturday night after officials insisted that the city would be brought under control following four nights of widespread destruction including a suspected looter being shot dead, businesses being burned to the ground and police officers forced to flee for their lives when a police precinct was stormed and torched.

Washington DC: The National Guard has been activated to Washington DC to help protect the White House

New York: A vehicle burns near New York's Union Square Saturday night

New York: A vehicle burns near New York's Union Square as more than a dozen protests spark up across the Big Apple

New York: NYPD officers are poised with their batons after Trump praised their response - despite footage showing mutlipel scenes where cops manhandled protesters violently Friday

The city was filled with smoke Saturday as protesters let off fireworks and set fires.

Hundreds of protesters had gathered outside the fifth precinct and were driven out by state cops using tear gas and firing rubber bullets.

Footage showed protesters had retreated while the officers increased their circle around the vicinity - defending the police station for fear it will be stormed and torched like the third precinct was Thursday.

People marching from Minneapolis to St. Paul were also met with tear gas from officers stopping them in their tracks and sending masses fleeing from the potent chemical.

This comes as Governor Tim Walz has warned that a renewed spike in coronavirus cases could hit residents as protests have seen thousands take to the streets, while he admitted that the state's jails cannot contain the number of people being taken into custody.

New York: NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio and President Trump clashed Saturday night over New York's response to the escalating crisis there
Last month, Johnny Depp and Jeff Beck released a cover of John Lennons Isolation. Beck, for the benefit of the uninitiated, is one the greatest guitarists ever; Depp, the uninitiated are likely to be familiar with and needs no introduction. Isolation is a lovely song; the cover is brilliant; but what gets it a mention here is its aptness. Id definitely put it on my Corona playlist.

People say we got it made;

Dont know were so afraid,

Isolation.

Were afraid to be alone;

Everybody got to have a home,

Isolation.

And thats just the first paragraph of the song. It is from the 1970 album John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band. It was his first solo album after leaving The Beatles.

A decade later, Lennon and Ono would release Double Fantasy, the last album released before his death. The album contains the song Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy), which showcases the best of Lennons songwriting, but isnt very well remembered today, except for one line: Life is what happens to you while youre busy making other plans.

The full paragraph in the song goes: Before you cross the street, take my hand; life is what happens to you while youre busy making other plans.

Yes, I know the original quote wasnt Lennons but we will let that be.

I was reminded of Lennons song on Friday night when Delhi experienced a minor earthquake, its fifth since the lockdown began on March 25. The quake, during which everything shook quite badly, came towards the end of a week when Delhi was expected to see a locust attack (which didnt happen, thanks to the direction of the wind more than anything else), and during which the number of new coronavirus disease cases in the city crossed 1,000 twice.

Whatever plans anyone had made for 2020, none of these are likely to have been part of it.

Everyone had plans for 2020  individuals, companies, even countries. Maybe its because of the ring 2020 has; or perhaps its because 20-20 stands for perfect vision. In my previous avatar as a business journalist, Ive encountered enough companies that set very specific targets for 2020.

By 2020, we will be...

The only way I can think of finishing those grandiose visions now is... alive.

And thats as true for companies as it is for individuals.

Even before the pandemic struck, it was becoming clear that medium-term planning was a pointless exercise. Through the 1990s and 2000s and the first half of the last decade, companies used to thrive on three- and five-year plans. But around the middle of the 2010s, smart companies began realising that the three- to five-year planning window was the trickiest  and also the most treacherous. It was alright to plan for the really long term, and it was essential to plan for the very short term (even if it was all about operations and not strategy), but the ability of unknown unknowns to completely throw three- and five-year plans off course made the medium-term planning exercise difficult.

The Covid-19 pandemic is definitely an unknown unknown and the only known cure for it  breaking the chain of infections through isolation, quarantines, and lockdowns  challenges the fundamental tenets of a networked and globalised world. It isnt just traditional businesses that are affected; new age companies built around the premise of the share economy have been hit hard by the fears associated with sharing. As an aside, I expect sales of personal vehicles to go up. More people will buy cars, motorcycles, even cycles (Im told there are already waiting lists for those in New York).

So much for planning. When boxer Mike Tyson was once asked about whether he was worried that rival Evander Holyfield had a plan for him, he famously answered: Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.

Which is the gangsta equivalent of life is what happens to you, while youre busy making other plans.

And 2020 has punched us all in the mouth.
With his role on MasterChef Australia now behind him, Matt Preston has some extra time on his hands.

And on Sunday, the 58-year-old revealed he will be joining fellow celebrity chef Marion Grasby for a virtual cook-off.

Matt has invited thousands of fans to sign up and show off their skills in the kitchen for the Taste Dinner Revolution Cookalong on Wednesday, June 17.

Fire up the oven! Former MasterChef Australia judge Matt Preston, 58, (pictured) is calling for all foodies to sign up to virtual cook-off next month

Speaking to news.com.au on Sunday, Matt said: 'Whether you cook with Marion or me you'll have a great laugh, you'll hear some good stories, we'll have a very nice 30 minutes in the kitchen cooking.'

Participants will have to choose whether to sign up to team Preston or Grasby, and will be given a list of ingredients to purchase ahead of the online get-together.

However, fans will only be told what they will be cooking on the day.

New gig: Matt has invited thousands of fans to sign up and show off their skills in the kitchen for the Taste Dinner Revolution Cookalong on Wednesday, June 17. Pictured: Marion Grasby

Recipes will cater to all types - including vegans, singles, families and omnivores.

The cooking series will be hosted by The Project's Gorgi Coghlan and will be broadcasted on Taste.com.au.

Meanwhile, Matt is gearing up return to TV alongside MasterChef co-star Gary Mehigan, 52, early next year.

The MasterChef experience: Speaking to news.com.au on Sunday, Matt said: 'Whether you cook with Marion or me you'll have a great laugh, you'll hear some good stories, we'll have a very nice 30 minutes in the kitchen cooking'

The pair will star in Plate of Origin, with the noticeable absence of George Calombaris, 41, who attracted controversy after underpaying staff at his restaurants.

Joining Matt and Gary on the upcoming cooking show is My Kitchen Rules judge Manu Feildel, 45.

It was announced in July that Matt, George and Gary wouldn't be returning to MasterChef following a pay dispute.

In October, rising culinary stars Andy Allen, Melissa Leong and Jock Zonfrillo were announced as their replacements.
Channel 10 has reportedly resumed filming The Bachelor with new social distancing rules, months after production halted amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

But former Bachelorette star Georgia Love, 31, has expressed her concerns for The Bachelor Locklan Gilbert's chances at finding love.

Speaking to Herald Sun, Georgia said she would have struggled to deal with the new social distancing rules.

'I don't know that I would have coped': The Bachelorette's Georgia Love, 31, (pictured) has voiced her concerns for The Bachelor Locklan Gilbert as he restarts filming with new COVID-19 social distancing rules

'I don't know how it will work, I'm quite a tactile person. I don't know that I would have coped,' she told the publication.

Georgia, who met her now-fiance Lee Elliot on the series in 2016 said: 'A huge thing for me is being able to feel the butterflies and chemistry between two people.'

'You can tell if you've got a good connection when you kiss, I think that's really important,' she continued.

'You can tell if you've got a good connection when you kiss': The former reality star said she would have struggled to deal with the new social distancing rules. Pictured with her fiance Lee Elliott

It comes after it was revealed that Channel 10 had reportedly adapted to a series of extreme safety precautions to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Filming reportedly resumed earlier this month after it was postponed in March.

On Thursday, an insider has claimed they witnessed a virtual date between the former Australian Survivor star and several of his contestants this week via video link.

Safety first! It comes after it was revealed that Channel 10 had reportedly adapted to a series of extreme safety precautions to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Pictured Locklan 'Locky' Gilbert

The virtual date was supposedly taking place over Zoom, a video conferencing program that has surged in popularity during the global crisis.

Speaking on his radio show, Matt Acton explained his friend had been working from home when he looked out his window and noticed the bizarre sight.

'[My friend said that] there was, on a picnic rug, a girl on a laptop with a TV crew. They're filming, and she was on a date with The Bachelor,' he said.
Never fight the tape  Marty Zweig

Last week, we saw strength with the Chinese banks, but weakness in the European financial sector. Two weeks ago, we saw weakness with some of the top U.S. banks, grossly underperforming the market. And, to update, with the current market rally, some of the featured U.S. banks have rallied over 15% in the last week.

It will be interesting to see if strength in the financial sector can be the driver for the indexes to test the previous January 2020 highs.

Today, I wrap up this theme and focus on Latin American markets and banks. Why? I want to see clues on if we are heading into a global rally or recession. What happens with our neighbors to the south affects global and our U.S. markets.

Back in December 2019, I identified vulnerabilities that amplify Latin America's credit risks and examined four of the higher-impact vulnerabilities  corruption, global risk such as commodity price fluctuations, tech-driven disruption and the skills gap. In addition to these problems, add to it the economic impact from the COVID 19 outbreak, the secondary effects from containment, and extra risk with some of these (Southern Hemisphere) counties going into fall then winter, which makes this region even more volatile.

While Latin America includes more than 30 countries, I will focus on the six major economies in this region: Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Chile, Brazil and Argentina.

First, lets test the relative strength and performance of the top Latin America Exchange Traded Funds (asset size) and compare their performance (since their March 2020 low) to the strength of the largest fund in the Latin American stock market, the iShares MSCI Brazil ETF (EWZ-green area).

The candidates, ranked by performance: iShares Mexico Capped Fund (28.38% green line), iShares MSCI Peru ETF (28.80% blue line), iShares MSCI Chile Fund (33.74% pink line), iShares Latin America 40 Fund (34.85% red line), and the Direxion Daily MSCI Brazil Bull 3X Shares (71.99% purple line). To compare the relative strength, performance of the Latin American market to the US market, I included $SPX (35.70% black line).

All funds are trading in positive territory, showing strength in this region since the March 24 low. For comparison, the U.S. market ($SPX-black line) is only outperforming two funds in this group and is underperforming the Brazilian ETF  very interesting.

For my readers looking for trading candidates, I included Direxion Daily MSCI Brazil Bull 3X Shares (purple line) to keep front and center as a swing trade candidate. This fund is not one to buy and hold. With its erratic price swings, get on the right side of BRZU and it can make you very quick money. Unfortunately, if on the wrong side of BRZU and it can blow out an account in no time.

It looks like these Latin American funds are in very good shape. If any funds drop under their 2020 lows, it could signal potential problems ahead. I will monitor these funds for potential trading candidates.

To continue my follow the money theme, lets view the relative strength and performance of some top Latin American banks in this region, compared to the strength of the largest region fund, the iShares MSCI Brazil ETF (33.53% green area).

The banks, their respective country and ranked performance are as follows: Itau Unibanco Banco-Brazil (11.85% blue line), BBVA Bancomer-Mexico (14.73% green line), Grupo Financiero Banorte-Mexico (25.78% pink line), Grupo Aval-Columbia (29.71% purple line), Banco Do Brasil-Brazil (35.82% red line), and Bancolombia-Columbia (57.46% orange line). Only one bank is outperforming the US market SPX.

All banks in this group are trading in positive territory. Two banks are outperforming while three banks are underperforming the comparative fund EWZ. What would signal continued weakness? If any banks drop below their previous 2020 lows. If any break out above their previous highs, this would be a very bullish sign.

Here are the action points: Are you monitoring these funds and banks to help signal the next rally or downturn? If not, simply set an alert if any breakout or breakdown. For Simple Simon buy or sell signals, review previous columns for details.

In conclusion, continue to monitor the Chinese, European, Latin American and United States banks. By following the money, it can give valuable tools concerning market direction, both up or down.

Many traders are confused as to why the markets continue to rally with negative market fundamentals, from COVID-19 along with effects from containment. My answer: At some point, algorithm trading will reverse and will switch to being bearish again. There will be a catalyst that reverses the computers to quit buying and begin selling. Will we test the previous 2020 lows? No one has that answer. We must have a strategy if our holdings go up, down or sideways, so to speak.

In the weeks ahead, I will introduce you to some exciting sectors and companies with a high probability they will become candidates for future index leaders.

If you have market questions, email them to my address below.

Plan your work, work your plan, and share your harvest!

DAVID O. ENGLAND is an investor/trader, financial analyst/educator/lecturer and Associate Professor Emeritus of Finance. This column is for educational purposes only and not intended as financial advice. Past performance does not dictate future returns. Questions? Send to thetraderseye@gmail.com. Full Disclosure: The author does not own any securities in this column.

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America can be proud of many things: our innovation, generosity and entrepreneurial spirit are unsurpassed. Yet when it comes to our nation understanding one of the greatest gifts ever given to humanitythe Biblewe're moving from dumb to dumber, and it's no laughing matter.
Saying the city doesnt want a repeat of the vandalism spree that swept Houston Street after the peaceful Black Lives Matter rally Saturday, Mayor Ron Nirenberg has imposed a temporary curfew on downtown San Antonio.

No one is allowed on the streets of the downtown business district from 11:30 p.m. Saturday until 6 a.m. Sunday and from 10 p.m. Sunday until 6 a.m. Monday.

This gives another tool for our responders, our police department, to make sure were preventing any additional criminal behavior, Nirenberg said at a midnight news conference with Police Chief William McManus and City Manager Erik Walsh.

First responders, media, the homeless and people traveling to and from work, seeking medical attention and fleeing dangerous situations are exempt.

Violations are punishable by a fine of up to $1,000 and up to six months in jail.

We have a great tradition of advancing civil rights and nonviolent protest, Nirenberg said.

Unfortunately, because of a few folks, thats not going to be the story in the morning. Its going to be about the broken windows. Its going to be about the criminal mischief. Thats a disservice to the cause that people were assembled for today.

Nirenberg and McManus both decried the death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer who has since been charged with murder in Floyds death.

The video of Mr. Floyd was sickening, McManus said. That is the opinion of every major city police chief. There was no excuses -- nothing that would mitigate what was done to Mr. Floyd. That set law enforcement back eons. The delicate relationship that we have with the community is pushed back to the dark ages. Now weve got to work to get it back.
This is the shocking moment a protester charged with damaging a police vehicle appears to throw a Molotov cocktail at an occupied NYPD cruiser.

Samantha Shader, 27, is accused of chucking the petrol bomb at the police vehicle - which had four officers inside - in Brooklyn shortly after 10.30pm on Friday.

Footage obtained exclusively by DailyMail.com shows a woman preparing the explosive before throwing it at the van.

The lit bottle did not explode, and no officers were injured but other protesters are seen running from the scene and heard expressing shock at the action.

According to a statement provided to DailyMail.com, the NYPD officers exited the cruiser and attempted to arrest Shader. She allegedly then bit an officer as he tried to arrest her.

Her younger sister, Darian, 21, tried to interfere and was also taken into custody. She was charged with resisting arrest and obstruction of governmental administration.

Police has sought attempted murder charges in the case. Shader faces a single charge of causing damage by fire and explosives to a police vehicle.

Prosecutors said Sunday: 'In a post-arrest statement, Shader later admitted to police that she had thrown the Molotov Cocktail at the NYPD vehicle.'

Scroll down for video

Footage obtained exclusively by DailyMail.com shows as a woman prepares the explosive before returning to throw it at the van; the cocktail did not explode

Samantha Shader, 27, is accused of chucking the petrol bomb at the police vehicle - which had four officers inside - in Brooklyn shortly after 10.30pm on Friday

Samantha Shader (right) and Darian Shader (left) were arrested Friday during protests in Brooklyn. Samantha faces a a federal charge of damaging a police vehicle, Darian has been charged with resisting arrest and obstruction of governmental administration

The clip begins with a woman, identified by police sources as Samantha Shader, appearing to ready the alleged device.

She then disappears our of shot before returning into view and throwing the explosive device which does not detonate.

Both sisters - who hail from the town of Catskill - have a history of clashes with police at protests, a law enforcement source told DailyMail.com.

Their mother, Amy, said she had no comment when reached by phone by on Saturday afternoon.

The Shader sisters were among 3,000 demonstrators who took to the streets in New York City overnight as part of a series of nationwide protests over the death of black man George Floyd in Minneapolis on Monday.'

PBA President Patrick Lynch said: 'They are terrorists who tried to murder NYC police officers. Every leader in this city should be speaking up to condemn these attacks and working with us to prevent more violence.'

Paul DiGiacomo, head of the Detectives Endowment Association, called the sisters 'violent criminals'.

United States Attorney Richard Donoghue said: 'No rational human being can ever believe that hurling firebombs at Police Officers and vehicles is justified.'

The lit bottle did not explode, and no officers were injured but other protesters are seen running from the scene and heard expressing shock at the action

The clip begins with a woman, identified by police sources as Samantha Shader, appearing to prepare the explosive. She then disappears our of shot

Protesters run from the NYPD van after the device - which does not explode - is thrown

During Friday night's New York protest a separate NYPD van was set on fire and another cop car was vandalized as activists vented their fury over a 'racist' policing system.

Around 200 demonstrators were arrested in the Big Apple.

At a press conference Saturday, NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea stated: 'It is by the grace of God that we dont have dead officers today.'

Shea also stated that, while the vast majority of protesters gathered peacefully, some came with the deliberate intent to sow discord.

'Coming to an assembly, pre-meditated, with loaded firearms, with bricks, with Molotov cocktails is the furthest thing from civil obedience,' he stated.

Shea revealed 'countless' officers were injured as protest spiraled out of control. Some are still in hospital. One officer had their teeth knocked out.

'There was no discrimination as to whether it was a white officer, black officer, male officer or female officer. [They targeted] anyone in a uniform'.

A separate NYPD vehicle (pictured) was set on fire by demonstrators on Friday night

Another vehicle was was vandalized as activists vented their fury at cops over a 'racist' policing system

Protesters gathered in the early evening outside the Barclays Center in downtown Brooklyn. The 3,000 strong continued their demonstrations into the night

Demonstrators and police officers are pictured at Friday's protest outside the Barclays center

3,000 people took to the streets of Brooklyn on Friday night. Around 200 were arrested

Meanwhile, a 20-year-old protester allegedly suffered a violent seizure and was rushed to hospital in Brooklyn after being shoved forcefully to the ground during the demonstrations.

The woman has been identified by others at the scene as Dounya Zayer who has continued to post updates on her condition from hospital and claims she was 'in no aggressive toward this police officer'.

Zayer took to Twitter from the hospital to post several videos to explain what had happened to her.

'This was me, and I want to make one thing clear to all the people that are commenting lies below this video. I did NOT spit in this officer's face. I was wearing a face mask. He told me to get out of the street and then immediately threw me out of the way,' she wrote.

Whitney Hu, an activist also taking part in the protest, first posted the video of Zayer being flung to the ground by the police officer and lying still for several seconds before eventually holding her head as other protesters rush to help her and call for people to take his badge number.

'The cop pushed her so hard at Barclays & she flung back. She is tiny. Now she's in the ER after a serious seizure. I'm waiting for updates but have to wait outside because of COVID-19. Please keep my protest sister in your thoughts,' Hu wrote.
Kyrgyzstans confirmed COVID-19 cases reached 1748 after 23 new cases were confirmed on Sunday, Trend reports citing Kabar.

Nurbolot Usenbaev, the countrys deputy health minister said at his daily online news briefing that two out of 26 cases are imported, one trucker, the second is a teenager who arrived with his mother from Russia. 23 people are contact persons.

One source of infection has not been identified, he said.

The deputy minister also added that of the new infected 6 are medical workers, raising the total number of medical workers diagnosed with COVID-19 to 350, including 249 recoveries.

Usenbaev said that 57 more patients have made full recovery from the virus, taking the tally of the country's recoveries to 1170.

Currently, 562 patients are still in hospitals, and 5 of them are in intensive care.

A total of 2241 people in the country who have had contact with infected patients are under medical observation, and another 7426 people are in home quarantine under the supervision of doctors for the same reason.
BAKU, Azerbijan, May 31

By Yusif Aghayev  Trend:

The Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA) has prepared a plan for the development of Azerbaijans insurance sector, Head of Insurance Supervision Department of CBA Vusal Gurbanov told Azerbaijan Television and Radio Broadcasting (AzTV) CJSC, Trend reports.

Gurbanov noted that during the implementation of this plan, a number of projects are designed that are aimed at improving the situation in the country's insurance market, overcoming occurred problems and further developing the entire insurance system in Azerbaijan, bringing it into full compliance with international standards in this area of economic activity.

The main objectives of CBA within the framework of this action plan are to increase the level of satisfaction of users of insurance services and create affordable and effective new insurance products for them. To achieve this, it is envisaged to make certain changes in insurance legislation for bringing it into line with the changing market realities. On the other hand, it is planned to improve the norms and methods of insurance supervision itself in order to make them more effective in the conditions of dynamically developing insurance market of the country, said Gurbanov.

Moreover, a plan to digitalize the sector is being actively implemented, and a lot has already been done in this direction; two mandatory types of insurance have been fully digitalized. But much remains to be done, and in this context we are talking not only about the digitalization of the process of drawing up insurance contracts, but also of the settlement of insurance claims, he said.

Implementation of large-scale information and awareness-raising events related to the popularization of insurance among the general population is envisaged, Gurbanov added.

The Financial Market Supervision Chamber of Azerbaijan was abolished on November 28, 2019, in accordance with the decree of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on improving management of the regulatory system and control of the financial services market.

According to the decree, the authorities of the chamber, defined by the laws of Azerbaijan, including its rights and obligations in the field of licensing, regulation and supervision of the financial services market, protection of the rights of investors and consumers of financial services, as well as its property, were devolved to CBA.

Presently, 21 insurance companies and one reinsurance company operate in Azerbaijan.
South Africas schools will not open tomorrow as planned, according to a report in the Sunday Times.

The report comes after news this week that schools in some provinces were still waiting for personal protective equipment (PPEs) to be delivered.

Earlier this week, South African Teachers Union (SAOU) operational director Johan Kruger told MyBroadband that many schools remain unprepared for the return of Grade 7 and 12 learners on 1 June.

At the time, Kruger said the majority of schools in provinces including Limpopo, North West, Free State, Eastern Cape, Northern Cape, and KwaZulu-Natal have not been disinfected, and many were still waiting for PPEs to be delivered.

Kruger provided the example of the North West, where schools in the province said they did not get any assistance from the provincial department of education to prepare for the reopening.

They sanitized their own schools and procured their own PPEs. The schools that did receive PPEs said they were inadequate, said Kruger at the time.

Additionally, a report by IOL stated that 55% of school principals said they are not ready to resume teaching on 1 June. The findings were part of a joint survey conducted by South Africas teacher unions.

The latest report now states that Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekgas plan to open schools for Grade 7 and Grade 12 learners tomorrow was stopped in its tracks  and a return to class is unlikely  during a meeting last night.

It added that the decision is based on opposition from teacher unions and school governing bodies, which stated that schools were not yet ready to open. They motivated to keep schools closed during discussions between unions, MECs, governing body associations, and Motshekga.

Grade R pupils attending private schools will be allowed to attend school from tomorrow, however, as the report stated they have received a special dispensation.

Challenges with opening

When South Africas schools do open, there will be many challenges to overcome.

This includes the screening of learners and teachers, and ensuring COVID-19 does not spread among them.

To achieve this, the Department of Basic Education has sent a document to schools outlining the standard operating procedure during the COVID-19 lockdown.

In the document, the government provides an example screening questionnaire from the Department of Health which shows the type of questions that may be asked of learners.

The document also contains rules for all learners, educators, support staff, officials, parents and communities.

Avoid gatherings.

Maintain a social distance of at least 1.5-2 metres to others, where possible.

Every learner, staff member and visitor must wear a cloth mask at all times.

Avoid direct contact with others e.g. shaking hands or hugging.

Frequently wash hands with water and soap.

Avoid touching the face (i.e. eyes, nose, mouth) with unwashed hands.

Eradicate all forms of stigma and discrimination as a result of COVID-19.

All visitors, parents, and vendors are not allowed to enter school premises unless the nature of their visit is essential.
IT was not Emily Maitlis who overstepped the mark with her truth-laden monologue on Newsnight.

Yes, it was an extraordinary opener, but these are extraordinary times.

The coronavirus death toll in Northern Ireland is thankfully low by international standards. That doesn't mean that Stormont shouldn't be subject to searing scrutiny, particularly over care homes.

But across the Irish Sea, things are much, much worse. The UK has the highest excess death rate in the world. So, let's forgive Emily Maitlis for her powerful, passionate opener. It's not a time for mincing your words.

The prime minister's chief adviser has made a mockery of the very lockdown rules he helped to write, and he lacks the humility to even say sorry.

One individual's indiscretion can be unimportant on so many matters. But Dominic Cummings has jeopardised public health measures designed to save lives.

Expand Close Dominic Cummings has said he acted reasonably and legally (Jonathan Brady/PA) PA / Facebook

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Whatsapp Dominic Cummings has said he acted reasonably and legally (Jonathan Brady/PA)

His decision to cross the country while he had Covid-19, and Boris Johnson's endorsement of that, has undermined trust in the Government at a time when maintaining it is crucial for the collective good.

People told to self-isolate for 14 days to protect others will now think that they, too, can decide for themselves whether or not to comply.

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I've listened to Maitlis's magnificent monologue countless times, and it's not just that I personally agree with it. I can't for the life of me see how it's factually inaccurate.

"Dominic Cummings broke the rules, the country can see that, and it's shocked the Government cannot," she said.

"The longer ministers and the prime minister tell us he worked within them, the more angry the response to this scandal is likely to be.

"He was the man, remember, who always got the public mood, he tagged the lazy label of 'elite' on those who disagreed. He should understand that public mood now. One of fury, contempt and anguish."

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One line - "we do not expect to be joined by a Government minister but that won't stop us asking the questions" - sealed it. This was public service broadcasting at its finest.

Those complaining that Maitlis is aggressive and rude must never have watched Jeremy Paxman and Andrew Neil, or is it only men who are allowed to be confrontational? After a rebuke from the BBC for breaching "impartiality guidelines", Maitlis took the night off Newsnight. Let's hope she comes back and, most importantly, is every inch as fierce as before. When I first entered journalism, Newsnight was unmissable.

It stayed that way until Jeremy Paxman's departure. It became one big yawn under his replacement, the toothless Evan Davis, and seemed to have passed its sell-by date.

In recent months, the programme has been strengthened by the appointment of Lewis Goodall as policy editor. Night after night, he brings to our screens blazingly brilliant and incisive packages that pull no punches.

You will not find a more naturally talented broadcaster, and it's all the more impressive in one so young.

In our social media age, journalism can be too much about selfies and celebrity when it should be the story that is left, right and centre.

Maitlis opened Newsnight with a striking soliloquy last month, as well. You don't survive coronavirus "through fortitude and strength of character, whatever the prime minister's colleagues tell us", she said.

"This disease is not a great leveller, the consequences of which everyone - rich or poor - suffers the same.

"This is a myth which needs debunking. Those on the frontline right now - bus drivers and shelf-stackers, nurses, care home workers, hospital staff and shop keepers - are disproportionately the lowest-paid members of our workforce. They are more likely to catch the disease because they are more exposed."

There was nothing balanced about Maitlis's words, and they were all the better for that.

'Impartiality' should never prevent speaking truth to power.
WASHINGTON  Several hundred people shouting Black Lives Matter and I cant breathe have converged on the White House for a second straight day to protest the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis and President Donald Trumps response.

Trump earlier on Saturday belittled the protesters and he pledged to stop mob violence.

Speaking in Florida after watching the launch of a SpaceX rocket, the president said: I stand before you as a friend and ally to every American seeking justice and peace, and I stand before you in firm opposition to anyone exploiting this tragedy to loot, rob, attack and menace. Healing, not hatred, justice, not chaos are the missions at hand.

Demonstrators vent to police in riot gear as they protest the death of George Floyd, Saturday, May 30, 2020, near the White House in Washington. Floyd died after being restrained by Minneapolis police officers. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)AP

Floyd, a handcuffed black man, died after pleading for air as a white police officer pressed a knee on his neck Monday in Minneapolis. The officer, Derek Chauvin, has been arrested and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter.

Three lines of barricades separate protesters from a loose line of uniformed police officers at Lafayette Park, across from the White House. At one point, the protesters left the park, chanting as they marched up a nearby street. A block from the White House, they held a moment of silence and brief sit-in.

Trump didnt specify how his administration would act against violent protesters.

The leadership of the National Guard and the Department of Justice are now in close communication with state and city officials in Minnesota, he said, and we are coordinating our efforts with local law enforcement all across the nation.

Demonstrators gather to protest the death of George Floyd, Saturday, May 30, 2020, near the White House in Washington. Floyd died after being restrained by Minneapolis police officers. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)AP

Earlier on Saturday, a Fox News reporter was pummeled and chased by protesters who had gathered outside the White House.

Fox's Leland Vittert was rattled following the Washington attack that he said was clearly targeted at his news organization.

We took a good thumping, he told The Associated Press. A live shot he was doing was interrupted by a group of protesters who shouted obscenities directed at Fox. Flanked by two security guards, he and photographer Christian Galdabini walked away from Washington's Lafayette Park trailed by an angry group before riot police dispersed them.

Vittert said there were no markings on him or the crew's equipment to identify them as from Fox. But he said during the demonstration, one man continually asked him who he worked for. He didn't answer, but the man found a picture of Vittert on his cell phone and shouted to other protesters that he was from Fox.

The protesters stopped protesting whatever it was they were protesting and turned on us, he said, and that was a very different feeling.

More:

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Barack Obama calls for justice after protests over George Floyds death in police custody

George Floyd protests get violent in Harrisburg: PennLive photographer describes the scene
A former Bulgarian foreign minister who has since been targeted by the country's courts has vowed to help pull back the curtain on autocratic tendencies and anti-Western elements in the European Union's poorest state.

Daniel Mitov got word last month that Bulgaria's Supreme Court of Cassation upheld lower-court dismissals in consecutive prosecutions that began soon after the fall, in 2017, of the government in which he served.

In an interview with RFE/RL's Bulgarian Service after the ruling, he cited his two-year legal battles as a cautionary tale on the toll of a "totalitarian instinct" in public institutions in postcommunist Bulgaria that has lessons that go beyond politics.

"For 30 years, the prosecutor's office has been used in this way," Mitov, who was foreign minister in two governments from 2014-17, said on May 14. "In the Bulgarian transition [from communism], [the prosecutor's office] has never become the institution that is needed."

Mitov, who as Bulgaria's top diplomat pushed to counter pro-Russian elements and now works for the National Democratic Institute, a U.S.-based nonprofit organization, pledged to sue the prosecutor's office under Bulgaria's State and Municipal Liability for Damages Act.

He suggested his suit might discourage prosecutions like his, which he said were aimed at sending a chilling signal to "European institutions and partner countries."

May Date 'No Coincidence'

His warnings are a reminder of the divisive shadow cast by Moscow even as Bulgaria's political and economic fortunes have turned increasingly westward.

Mitov was a vocal critic of Russian actions in Ukraine and he became Sofia's top diplomat just as Europe and the West were imposing sanctions on Moscow for its annexation of Crimea. He also warned of increasing Russian influence in Syria and the Middle East.

"I am convinced of one thing: the very pressure to bring charges not only against me, but also against other ministers, has largely been linked to our position on Russia," Mitov told RFE/RL.

Mitov noted that the initial accusation against him was raised three years ago on May 9, which is celebrated among EU member states as Europe Day but marked in Russia and much of the former Soviet bloc as Victory Day for the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany.

"I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but it's not a coincidence," he said. "The whole context was clear."

While solidly pro-EU, Bulgaria has historically close relations with Moscow. Russia has a significant "economic footprint" in Bulgaria that has diminished but still exacerbates internal political divisions with respect to Moscow.

The European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) says Bulgaria is home to an outsized share of the continent's most conspicuously anti-Western political parties, including Prime Minister Boyko Borisov's ruling GERB party.

Its "overall party system tends towards anti-Western positions" on fundamental questions, the ECFR's Gustav Gressel wrote in 2017, around the time Mitov's prosecution was being ramped up.

If there was a political bias at work against Mitov, according to Petar Cholakov, a political analyst and sociology professor from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, it could be over his "strong pro-NATO positions."

"He has been critical of Russia's policies -- for example, in Ukraine and Syria -- and of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin's regime as a whole," Cholakov says, adding that "especially in the fields of defense, police, and judiciary, there are still cadres [in Bulgaria] who are loyal to the former communist regime and/or 'admirers' of Mr. Putin's regime."

Lots Of Problems

Bulgaria has an entrenched reputation as one of the European Union's most corrupt states.

Holes in judicial and other reforms and perceived abuses by senior Bulgarian prosecutors have compounded fears of political nontransparency and a lack of accountability, clouding the country's future and scaring off outside investment.

Bulgarians themselves have spoken with their feet: One in four people has left since 1989 -- one of the sharpest population declines in the world -- and UN demographers warned recently that the current population of around 7 million could fall by another quarter by 2050 and by around half by the end of this century.

But beyond the loss of many of Bulgaria's most talented young minds to decades of emigration, many attribute stalled investment to corruption and rule-of-law issues including selective regulation, enforcement, and prosecution.

Foreign direct investment to Bulgaria has fallen off its 2007 peak despite a low-cost workforce, improving macroeconomic performance, and a rising portion of trade with its EU partners. Sofia has also tried to lure investors with one of the region's lowest corporate tax rates and unfettered ownership limits outside of two dozen or so specific sectors.

Throughout, Bulgaria has seen intermittent anti-government protests expressing anger at corruption and a lack of political progress or transparency.

But the lack of a unified opposition has left Borisov -- the chameleonic former Sofia mayor -- and his conservative, populist Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (GERB) in charge for most of the past decade through multiple coalition deals.

High-profile Bulgarian prosecutions have sometimes targeted "those who have lost the blessing of the political elite," according to Cholakov.

At the same time, he says, prosecutors have been seen to spare allies in cases such as what last year became known as "apartmentgate."

That scandal threatened to dent the showing of Bulgaria's ruling parties in European Parliament elections after senior officials -- including the head of the state's anti-corruption commission -- appeared to acquire swank apartments cheaply or misreport the value of apartments in luxury neighborhoods in the capital.

"Middle-class Bulgarians struggling to pay a mortgage on a small city apartment are deeply resentful" and looked on the unfolding scandal with horror, Anti-Corruption Fund co-founder Nikolay Staykov, whose U.S.-backed group and RFE/RL's Bulgarian Service helped unearth the scandal, told the Financial Times at the time.

The country's Anti-Corruption Commission later said it found no conflict of interest in the case, which had led to four senior government resignations.

More recently, a special prosecutor's office quietly issued a decree late on May 27 declaring its intention to drop one of the last "apartmentgate" investigations, removing the threat of prosecution against former ruling GERB party Deputy Chairman Tsvetan Tsvetanov.

"The intensity of the existing backlash against the corrupt justice system is insufficient to provoke meaningful changes of the status quo," Cholakov told RFE/RL in reference to the broader Bulgarian dilemma.

Prosecutorial Record

Prosecutorial powers and choices have particularly concerned many of Sofia's counterparts and institutions abroad, including the European Commission, both before and since Bulgaria's accession to the European Union in 2007.

And public trust in Bulgaria's justice system is among the EU's lowest.

But in October 2019, after protesters turned out in Sofia to challenge the nomination of the current prosecutor-general, Ivan Geshev, GERB and its allies didn't even bother to nominate an alternate choice.

In December, President Ruman Radev launched public consultations on a constitutional reform drive to revamp the powers and accountability of the prosecutor-general.

The Venice Commission, the Council of Europe's advisory body on constitutional matters, had broadly backed such changes.

It based its conclusions in part on an international ruling in 2009 citing the "impossibility" of an effective investigation into the killing of a deputy chief prosecutor due to influence from Bulgaria's top prosecutor at the time.



In that case, brought by a former prosecutor after his dismissal and decided posthumously in 2009, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled that Bulgarian authorities had improperly detained Nikolai Kolev and bungled the investigation into his 2002 murder after he'd expressly warned "he might be killed as part of a merciless campaign...orchestrated by the chief public prosecutor."

The court noted that Kolev had alleged, and a number of senior officials testified, that the country's top prosecutor at the time had "terrorized and punished every subordinate who dared disobey his orders, including when those were unlawful."

In December, incoming Prosecutor-General Geshev invited the predecessor alluded to in the Kolev case, Nikola Filchev (1999-2006), and another controversial former top prosecutor to join his expert council.

'Meaningless Process'

Mitov said he believed the majority of prosecutors and individuals within the judiciary "want to do their job and stand on the side of the law -- it's just that part of this system is used" for political dirty work. "This system with totalitarian instincts is used by anyone who knows how and has the desire to use it," he said.

The ex-minister blamed individuals "who have been steeped in this relationship for a very long time -- they instinctively reach for such levers of influence."

Mitov was originally accused along with a deputy by Sofia city prosecutors of mismanagement over a perceived lack of controls when he piggybacked on the Agriculture Ministry for purchases of plane tickets and accommodation for his ministry. When that avenue was shut down by a court, he was unsuccessfully charged with breach of trust.

The courts threw out both those cases before the highest court last month also sided with Mitov.

Two fellow Reform Bloc cabinet ministers who served alongside Mitov -- Nikolai Nenchev (defense) and Petar Moskov (health) -- were also accused by prosecutors of wrongdoing in cases rejected by the courts.

"At the end of this absolutely meaningless process," Mitov said, "we must draw our own conclusions and make it clear that this [kind of prosecutorial activity] is simply not possible."

Written by Andy Heil based on reporting by Boris Mitov (no relation to Daniel Mitov) and Ivan Bednov
Clean-up event

In a Facebook Live appeal late Saturday, Michael Johnson, president of the Boys & Girls Club of Dane County, urged residents to gather at Library Mall at 5 a.m. Sunday to help clean up the mess. He asked people to bring brooms and trash bags.

We want to show solidarity among our city to respond quickly to the wave of destruction.

It was not the organizers that organized this event today, Johnson said. These are outside agitators.
BRISTOL  Michelle Vernezze, 43, a nurse from Bristol, is fighting for her life at a Kenosha hospital after testing positive May 4 for the coronavirus.

Her husband, Ron Vernezze, 46, shared her story May 20 to help people understand the brutal attack COVID-19 can have on the body and to thank those who have been praying for her recovery.

Its been a long a road  thats for sure, Ron said. Im typically a very private person. It was kind of hard to agree to do the story or talk about it, because first of all, it hurts. Sometimes it hurts really badly.

The couple, both of whom graduated from Westosha-Central High School, are to celebrate their 23rd wedding anniversary soon. They met when Michelle was a senior in high school, have raised four children and recently welcomed their first grandchild into the world.

For 26 years now shes been by my side, Ron said. We do everything together. For her to be at her lowest point in life and I cant be there, just, its tough.

The family has only been able to see Michelle through the ground-floor window since she was admitted, and have brief conversations with her when she has been strong enough to communicate.

The outpouring of people who have come forward is literally what has been able to get me through this with my kids, Ron said. It is what has kept us going.

That support also aims to help the family cover expenses associated with Michelles current and future care. Ron had recently taken a new job and will not qualify for family medical leave. A GoFundMe campaign has raised more than $4,000 so far.

Im not working until shes better, Ron said. When she gets home, Im not going to leave her side until I know shes OK.

Ron said they believe Michelle contracted the virus while at work as a nurse at a clinic in Gurnee, Illinois. Other than going to work, the couple was careful not to leave the house except for essentials. When they went to the grocery store, they wore masks and sanitized everything.

There wasnt a day that went by she didnt say, Ive got to do more to help, Ron said about Michelles passion for nursing.

He said an asymptomatic person had come into the X-ray clinic where Michelle worked multiple times for an unrelated injury before testing positive for COVID-19.

On Saturday, May 2, Michelle didnt feel well when she woke up.

She said, Im really sick, Ron recalled. It just hit her hard. She said her whole body hurt. Her throat hurt really bad.

She contacted her employer and was told she could come in Monday to be tested.

By Sunday she was just in such pain she had tears in her eyes, and I said, We need to go in, said Ron, himself a paramedic for 16 years.

He said it looked as though she had strep throat.

She was so sick, I had to piggyback her to the car. She could barely walk.

After two types of strep throat tests and a test for mononucleosis all came back negative, Michelle was tested for COVID-19 and returned home.

She woke up Monday and said her entire body was screaming in pain, Ron said, adding they got the positive COVID-19 result as he was heading back to the hospital with her.

Those were the last moments he has been able to physically be with her, as he was not allowed into the hospital. She called him the following day to let him know her white blood cell count was extremely low and doctors thought she might have leukemia.

By Tuesday afternoon, she was moved to the Intensive Care Unit on the ground floor, and the family called to talk to her as they visited through a window.

She could barely lift her arms, and the nurse had to help her with her phone, Ron said. The only words she told me were, You need to tell the kids Im going to die. That was really hard.

Over the course of the next week, the virus attacked her body in multiple ways.

She suffered from sepsis, Lymphedema, kidney failure, cytokine storm, cardiomyopathy and a pelvic infection. She needed to be put on a ventilator, and they started dialysis. She was also found to be positive for a rare form of strep throat not initially tested for.

They didnt give her much of a chance of getting through this, Ron said. They kept telling me I need to be prepared, that she is extremely ill.

An oncologist put her on medication to stimulate the growth of white blood cells. When it didnt initially work, she was scheduled for a biopsy.

Literally overnight her white blood count tripled, Ron said, adding the biopsy was put on hold. The doctor said he felt all this was stemming from COVID.

She was actually doing fairly well. She could open her eyes and follow commands, Ron said, adding they were able to video chat. That was my relief point, when I could finally let my guard down and think, Were going to bring her home.

Then, on May 17, he got a phone call and could immediately tell something in their voice wasnt good.

Michelle had started to bleed profusely and doctors needed to do emergency surgery to find out where the blood was coming from and how to stop it. They found her left tonsil had split in two and it was removed. As a result of the loss of blood, she needed a blood transfusion.

She has since been put back on a ventilator and is on dialysis.

While Michelle is asthmatic, Ron said her lungs have been the least affected by the virus.

Her lungs are the only things that did not fail her, he said. It affected pretty much everything else.

He said it has been frustrating to see people posting statements about how young people who get COVID-19 must have some underlying issue and that it is a joke or a hoax.

This is very real, very real, Ron said. I want people to know its causing multiple organs to fail, not just the lungs. It doesnt matter your health. It can take you down very quickly.

The doctors have told me they have seen this cause heart attacks; they have seen this cause strokes. Its all over the place. They are seeing it is causing all of these symptoms she had. Everyone thinks, Oh, its just a respiratory thing. Im younger, I can get through that. Its not so easy.

He said he is thankful for friends, and even complete strangers, who have started prayer chains and sent good vibes.

He said Michelle was still running a fever May 20 and needed another blood transfusion. They are awaiting word about when the breathing tube can come out.

In the meantime, Ron is working on making her homecoming memorable.

I planted a flower bed for her to make things nice, and we planted a big tree for her, he said. Now, Its just a waiting game.
The Book of Life, Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them, Shrek 2.

Theres something for everyone this sunny Sunday with colourful animated adventures, period dramatics, trailblazing thrillers and wry understated British comedies to choose from as TopFilmTip brings you the best films on TV today: Sunday, 31 May.

Some films may require a Sky subscription.

Angel and demon make a wager over love and envy of Mexican childhood friends in afterlife exploring, vibrantly vivid fable The Book of Life 1:25pm Channel 4

Family of blue birds transition to wild Amazonian environs amid chaos of unsavoury logging, poisonous love and an evil Nigel in Rio 2 3:05pm Film 4

Tyrannosaurs' island way of life is upset by arrival of pesky snacks. After much munching all ends well in The Lost World: Jurassic Park 3:45pm ITV1

Julianne Moore grabbing the door of a train as Vince Vaughn holds a small dinosaur in a scene from the film 'The Lost World: Jurassic Park', 1997. (Photo by Universal Pictures/Getty Images)

Teenage boys lives are forever changed under the inspirational tutelage of Robin Williams. Peter Weirs classic Dead Poets Society 4:10pm Sony Movies

In-laws offender steals mutagenic potion, is rescued by gingerbread-golem and supports his friend's interspecies donkey-love Shrek 2 5:00pm ITV2

Read more: Directors who were fired on set

Friendly neighbourhood descends into paranoid chaos in Joe Dante's satanic, sardine-scoffing, 1980's character comedy gem The 'Burbs 6:30pm Horror Channel

Xenozoologist and misfit New Yorkers corral obscure escaped creatures in numinous adventurous fun Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them 7:30pm ITV1

Artists pioneer surgical gender transition and fluidic identity, exploring depth of their love and societal boundaries The Danish Girl 9:00pm Sky Atlantic

Four friends brave brutal bullies and vomitus vengeance tale on search for dead body in fully realised, nostalgic wonder Stand by Me 9:00pm Sony Movies

Substandardly-sized sloop sailor and chum chucking chief chase child-chomper in coffee cup-crunching, sharp shooting, fish em up Jaws 9:00pm ITV4

Bed-bouncing, tiger-footed, toe-balancing boy defies subterranean father and pursues passion to punch audition rivals in Billy Elliot 10:30pm BBC One

Story continues

Psychiatric qualms and suicidal schemes as prescription drug seemingly causes unconscious killing in social-pharma study Side Effects 11:05pm Film4

British actors Paul McGann and Richard E. Grant film a scene in Stony Stratford, Buckinghamshire, for the movie 'Withnail & I', 1986. (Photo by Murray Close/Getty Images)

Destitute thespians indulge in self-pity, Camberwell carrots and booze in plastic bag lamenting unparalleled comedy Withnail and I 00:15am Channel 4

Liam Neeson pursues the man who wronged him meeting mirages, thieves and mystics in metaphysical, philosophical western Seraphim Falls 1:05am Sony Movies

Everything new on streaming in June:

Netflix UK: Junes new releases

NOW TV and Sky Cinema: Junes new releases

Amazon Prime Video UK: June's new releases

Disney+ UK: June's new releases
Controversial Ghanaian artiste Manager, Lawrence Asiamah Hanson aka Bulldog has stated that he instructed Dancehall artiste, Shatta Wale to sack his Militants Music group from his SM Camp.

After months of speculations, Shatta Wale finally broke his silence on the status of his signees, Militants,.According to the Ayoo hitmaker, he sacked the group in January this year but kept mute on the matter because he didnt want the issue to dent his reputation.

The controversial dancehall star said he sacked the Militants  made up of Joint 77, Natty Lee, Addi Self and Captan  because they are lazy, talentless, bad investment and cant write good songs.

Speaking in the presence of Fameye, Kidi and Kelvyn Boy, on United Showbiz show hosted by Nana Ama Mcbrown on UTV, Saturday which was monitored by RazzNews.com, Bulldog who is the manager of Shatta Wale without mincing words, stated that, he instructed the 'Taking Over' hitmaker at the time the two reunited to sack the Militants boys

According to Bulldog, the Militants are talented but arent serious in music. He didnt see anything serious about them concerning music.

He concluded that, "the love Shatta Wale had for his boys prevented him from firing them by then. He has supported them in any way he can".

Source:RazzNews.com
Terming the G-7 as 'outdated', days after pitching for an 'in-person' meeting, US President Donald Trump on Sunday postponed said meeting and called for an expansion of the group's membership. Trump demanded the inclusion of India as well as Russia. While Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended the 2019 G7 Summit in France despite not being a member after a personal invitation by French President Emmanuel Macron, Russia - a former member - was suspended from the group in 2014 over Moscow's seizure of Crimea.

Trump has accused the current members of not properly representing the ongoing Coronavirus crisis and other issues taking place in the world. Apart from India and Russia, the US president also singled out Australia, South Korea as possible additions to the G7 group.

READ | Trump now wants in-person G7 summit, as an example of reopening post-Covid: White House

What is the G7 Summit?

Often being looked at as the grouping of 'rich countries,' the G7 Summit includes the seven countries that are considered the most developed & industrialised economies of the world, for them to discuss economic policies. The grouping that was created in 1975 first included six countries, with Canada joining a year later. The grouping also included Russia, but it was suspended in 2014. The current G7 members are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. The US currently holds the annual presidency of G7 countries.

READ | Trump lauds US' 'bold return to space' after NASA-SpaceX's Crew Dragon launch

'In-person G7 summit'

Issuing a statement on the summit, the White House had said that President Donald Trump believes that there is 'no greater example' of reopening amid the COVID-19 pandemic than holding an in-person G7 summit in America near the end of June. Trump has even suggested that it be held in person at Camp David. This 'change in mind' came even as in March the US president cancelled the physical meet of the G7 and held the very first virtual 'emergency meet.'

"Now that our Country is 'Transitioning back to Greatness', I am considering rescheduling the G-7, on the same or similar date, in Washington, D.C., at the legendary Camp David. The other members are also beginning their COMEBACK. It would be a great sign to all - normalization!" Trump had tweeted.

READ | Donald Trump to postpone G7 meeting after pitching for 'in-person meet' amid Coronavirus

PM Modi in G-7

Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year had attended G-7 meet at Biarritz and held bilateral talks with UK counterpart Boris Johnson, President of Senegal, Macky Sall, and US President Donald Trump. When PM Modi also addressed a session on digital transformation session and climate change and biodiversity on the sidelines of the G-7 Summit, he reiterated on a global platform that issues between India and Pakistan are bilateral, ruling out the then controversy over 'Trump's mediation offer.'

READ | PM Narendra Modi aces G7, scripts diplomatic success in these 6 ways
The opening of the American Embassy a year ago this past May 14th, and the recognition of Jerusalem as the undivided, ancestral capital of Israel was an historic moment in Jewish history. Only two other events in the past 70 years have come anywhere near the significance of this move: the creation of the state itself in 1948, and her magnificent victory in Six Day War nineteen years later. But make no mistake, without the direction and bipartisan support of the United States, none of this would have been accomplished.

In the waning days of the Second World War, President Roosevelt was working on a plan to resettle what remained of European Jewry after surviving the Holocaust, though Roosevelts motives were far from altruistic. He was reviving a secretive 1938 plan called the M Project, an idea that called for possible Jewish resettlement in sparsely populated northwestern Australia, Nigeria, Uganda, and scores of other places -- as long as it wasnt in the United States. Upon his passing on April 12, 1945 the plan was immediately scrapped and utterly discredited by Harry Truman following his ascendance to the presidency.

President Truman, like Roosevelt, was a Democrat, but unlike his predecessor showed much greater compassion and empathy for the horrors European Jewry had just suffered. Despite his plain talk and demeanor, Truman had a sweeping grasp of geopolitical realities. At a 1944 rally in Chicago, then-Senator Truman stated: "Today, not tomorrow, we must do all that is humanly possible to provide a haven for all those who can be grasped from the hands of Nazi butchers. Free lands must be opened to them.

He wasnt alone bucking the decidedly tepid policies of both Roosevelt and the British who also sought an end to Jewish immigration to Palestine. There was also discernible, bilateral support for European Jewry in Congress.

On Thursday, January 27, 1944 James Wright, a Democrat from Texas, and Ranulf Compton, a Republican from Connecticut, introduced the Wright Compton Resolution to the House of Representatives, which called on the United States to use its good offices in support of free Jewish immigration to Palestine and the reconstitution of that country as a Jewish commonwealth. Five days later, Senator Robert F. Wagner, a Democrat, and Senator Robert Taft Jr., a Conservative Republican from Ohio, introduced an identical resolution to the Senate. Although the sniping between both political parties had gone on since the creation of the Republican Party, on this issue, evidenced by their respective platforms in 1948, bipartisan support for the emergent state of Israel was unshakable.

One month after the Jewish state was established on May 14, 1948, the Republicans decreed the following:

"We welcome Israel into the family of nations and take pride in the fact that the Republican Party was the first to call for the establishment of a free and independent Jewish Commonwealth."

Not to be outdone, the Democrats incorporated the following into their platform:

"President Truman, by granting immediate recognition to Israel, led the world in extending friendship and welcome to a people who have long sought and justly deserve freedom and independence. "We pledge full recognition to the State of Israel.

Yet this longstanding Democrat support has alarmingly eroded. Caroline Glick in an article, Heeding Democrat Warnings, states Democrats are abandoning Israel in droves. Dont believe it?

Lets check a poll taken by the Pew Research Center in 2018. According to their research , since 2001 the share of Republicans sympathizing more with Israel than the Palestinians has increased 29 percentage points, from 50% to 79%. During this same period of time the corresponding Democrat support has fallen from 38% to 27%. Interestingly, the poll found that while Republicans and Democrats are deeply divided in views of Israel, so too do they markedly differ in opinions about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: Nearly three times as many Republicans (52%) as Democrats (18%) have favorable impressions of the Israeli leader.

Today, nearly half of Democrats (46%) say President Trump favors Israel too much, while just 21% say he is striking the right balance. In 2010, more Republicans said Obama supported the Palestinians too much (38%) than said he struck the right balance.

These numbers are easily buttressed by looking back at the contents from the three previous presidential platforms. In 2008, regarding the Holy City, Democrats resolved Jerusalem is and will remain the capital of Israel but amended, Jerusalem is a matter for final status negotiations, leaving a full measure of ambiguity.

Republicans countered unambiguously at their convention stating: We support Jerusalem as the undivided capital of Israel and moving the American embassy to that undivided capital, promise President Trump kept on December 6, 2017. Looking back to the conventions of both parties in 2012, the shift in support away from Israel by the Democrats became glaringly apparent.

Turmoil once again reigned at the 2012 Democrat National Convention in Charlotte. Opposition to mention of Jerusalem as Israels capital was so great that it was initially removed from the platform, but clumsily reinstated the next day for fear of alienating Jewish and Evangelical donors. Although 2/3 of an aye vote were needed for reinstatement, there was a great deal of booing and consternation amongst the delegates, since nowhere near that volume was heard, yet the measure was pushed through.

At their 2012 convention, the Republicans unequivocally stated: We support Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state with secure, defensible borders.

If there were any doubt regarding a shift in support for Israel by a huge segment of the Democrat party, their last presidential convention in 2016 put it to rest. The far left under the leadership of Bernie Sanders demonstrated not only a greater schism between both political parties but within the Democrat party itself. Hillary Clinton found herself to the right of Bernie Sanders and only by classic Clintonian chicanery was able to eke out the nomination.

Sanders, a devout Socialist, has catered to the far left of the party. Both he and his broad following took on a sizable shift toward the Palestinian cause in 2016, promoting what he deemed a more "evenhanded" treatment of the Palestinians. He wasnt done. His radical, Socialist views left an indelible impression upon the green and pro BDS crowd that would serve him well going forward into the 2020 campaign. Buoyed by newly elected anti-Israel/anti-Semitic politicians, he took ideas that in the not distant past would have been repudiated out of hand by the Democrat party into its mainstream.

Last week, 18 Democrat Senators penned a threatening letter to Prime Minister Netanyahu and Alternate Prime Minister Gantz regarding plans to annex parts of Judea and Samaria (West Bank), warning it would: betray our shared democratic values by denying Palestinians right to self-determination in a viable, sovereign, independent and contiguous state, and it would likely have detrimental consequences to the Jewish states bilateral and bipartisan relationship with the United States.

For those interested in the welfare of the state of Israel, the difference between both political parties and their candidates in this Novembers election could not be more striking.

Photo credit: Tia Monto
As downtown Charleston bar and restaurant owners on Sunday morning boarded up their windows in anticipation of the possibility there could be another night of vandalism, they uniformly reported their faith in the areas hospitality community was already steeled.

All of this has obviously been a challenge, but today was the first day you got overwhelmed by inspiration, and not anxiety, said Kevin Johnson of The Grocery, who on Wednesday set up guest tables outside of his Cannon Street restaurant, 71 days after shifting to takeout amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Johnson and his employees on Saturday night fled The Grocery after hustling out diners in response to reports that a mob was advancing up King Street. He returned on Sunday morning to find Charleston County Treasurer Mary Tinkler and her son sweeping up glass on his sidewalk. As the day went on, he was visited by many of the same local purveyors who restaurateurs strove to buoy during the states mandated dining room closure, each of them offering to help.

After finding bullets lodged in a wall near the restaurants restrooms and a huge rock that was apparently hurled through the window closest the bar, Im planning for the worst, Johnson said.

In the faces of people like Harry Root of Grassroots Wine and Mark and Kerry Mahefka of Abundant Seafood, though, he saw the best.

There is an overwhelming amount of support: Contractors are coming down with plywood, reported fellow chef-owner Mike Lata.

From his position at The Ordinary on Sunday morning, Lata could gaze down Cannon Street to see boards guarding The Grocery and Babas on Cannon, another stalwart that kept up an active takeout program when most downtown restaurants went dark. Surveying the devastation, he likened it to Armageddon.

Things seem to be out of control, he said.

Latas first restaurant, FIG, was ground zero for a couple of hours on Saturday night. He credited Western Union, the first occupant of the Meeting Street building which houses the award-winning restaurant, with installing plate glass sturdy enough to withstand attacks with flung sidewalk chairs and tables.

But at The Ordinary, a wine bottle was lobbed through the window while guests were still in the dining room; it ricocheted off the floor without hurting anyone, Lata said.

Just before the mob reached The Ordinary, Nathan Wheeler evacuated his guests at Vintage Lounge. He turned the lights on and announced it was time to leave.

According to Wheeler, at least some customers didnt seem to grasp the seriousness of the situation.

Of course, there was one customer who was like hey man, can I make a reservation for like 6 people for next weekend right now? It was insane: I thought he was joking at first, said Wheeler, who escaped through the back door to his car. As he pulled out of the parking lot, he saw a man striding down St. Philip Street with a shotgun.

We had kids and senior citizens in the table close to the window, and once they started breaking through the window, I got everyone out and upstairs, said Richard Bloom of The Rarebit, one of many restaurant owners to express frustration with the perceived lack of police presence on upper King Street.

Someone picked up when Bloom called 911, but he felt the dispatcher didnt appreciate the urgency of the situation. What do you mean? Bloom remembered saying in exasperated response to a barrage of questions. Of course I dont know who the perpetrator is!

Many of the severely damaged restaurants along upper King Street belong to The Indigo Road restaurant group, including O-Ku, The Macintosh and Indaco. Managing partner Steve Palmer on Sunday declined to comment, saying he was still too emotional to talk.

A Facebook Live video which was widely shared showed a group of about two dozen or so people wandering into O-Ku around 9 p.m.; one of them can be heard saying, Open the doors: We in here, before someone apparently launched a firecracker, setting off a crackling cascade of pyrotechnics in the center of a dining room where guests were seated.

Its such a helpless feeling not to be able to protect your own business, said Allison Smith of Glazed Gourmet Doughnuts, which was spared on Saturday night.

But Smith isnt counting on her luck to hold. In addition to boarding up her bakery on Sunday, she installed a new set of security cameras.

Dave Infante contributed to this report.
Secret Service agents in riot gear clashed with crowds of protesters who burst through barricades close to the White House, blasting them with pepper spray in what one onlooker described as a scene of 'insanity' in the nation's capital.

It came just hours after Donald Trump threatened people protesting the death of George Floyd with "vicious dogs" and "ominous weapons" if they breached the White House fence.

Journalist Alejandro Alvarez tweeted: "Insanity outside the White House. Three warnings of an unlawful assembly from the Secret Service before storming into the crowd."

It was one of dozens of flashpoints on a dark day for America, which saw the National Guard activated in Washington DC along with multiple states, while city mayors across the nation - including Los Angeles and Philadelphia - tried to lock down their citizens with rushed curfew orders.

In Chicago, police raised bridges to stop protesters reaching Trump Tower, in New York an NYPD vehicle rammed into a crowd of people who tried to block its path, while widespread looting was seen in Los Angeles.

The National Guard was sent out in Minneapolis, where streets were alight with tension and violence on Saturday night after repeated disturbances on previous evenings.

Mr Trump cheered them on via Twitter, posting: The National Guard has been released in Minneapolis to do the job that the Democrat Mayor couldnt do. Should have been used 2 days ago & there would not have been damage & Police Headquarters would not have been taken over & ruined.

He added: Great job by the National Guard. No games!

Back in the nations capital, on-the-ground footage showed lines of uniformed officers pushing back the crowd, as bottles and liquid are thrown through the air.

Later, protesters breached a second set of barricades of the fortified Lafayette Square and were pushed back and chased by Secret Service officers.

Nearby, US Senator Kamala Harris joined peaceful protesters who were chanting 'hands up, don't shoot' - a reference to the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.

Speaking at Cape Canaveral, Florida after the successful launch of Elon Musk's rocket earlier in the day, Mr Trump blasted what he described as the "rioters, looters and anarchists" that have taken to the streets and warned them that "there will be no anarchy".

"The memory of George Floyd is being dishonoured by rioters, looters and anarchists," he said. "The violence and vandalism is being led by Antifa and other radical left wing groups who are terrorising the innocent, destroying jobs, hurting businesses and burning down buildings."
The public might be more inclined to support a pay freeze if politicians were prepared to follow Jacinda Arderns lead and take a pay cut. And then if frontline essential workers were exempt, we may even cheer. Anni Browning, Clovelly Let Parramatta have its museum ... a new one on a good site Parramatta mayor Bob Dwyer wants to create 3000 full-time jobs on completion of the new Powerhouse museum (Letters, May 30-31). Presumably, that will mean the loss of 3000 jobs from the city. Wouldn't Jobson want to retain all 6000 jobs? Why not let the honourable mayor build a new museum (perhaps preserving some history in the process) and leave the old one where it is? Dick Barker, Epping Mayor, your letter tells us you should not have a museum. All you mentioned was job creation, injection of millions of dollars, infrastructure, the economy and, of course, the token world-class cultural institution. Nothing about preserving the past or educating and inspiring the people of Australia. And you forgot to mention a relocated Powerhouse would stand on the destruction of the state heritage-listed 1870s Italianate villa, Willow Grove. Louis Antony, Mount Victoria The mayor of Parramatta is always quick to claim the advantages of moving the Powerhouse Museum to Parramatta. This is despite strong public opinion against the move. As many people have pointed out, he could have a museum without moving the current one. The items held by the museum at Castle Hill are more than sufficient to stock a new museum without risking the cost and potential damage from moving the Powerhouse's priceless Boulton and Watt engine and other valuable objects. This would be a win-win for everyone. Clive Williams, Lavender Bay

Many Parramatta residents do not want the Powerhouse moved to Parramatta, along with its destruction of heritage. Remember, we vote. Gail Grogan, Constitution Hill Premier Gladys Berejiklian seems fixated on the Powerhouse relocation. Most people in her situation would recognise that they've blundered, and would attempt to rectify the blunder, but not the Premier (''Premier pulls the plug on stadium refurb but will keep Powerhouse move'', The Sun-Herald, May 31). While it's good that she's reluctant to break her promise, she seems unwilling  and unable  to acknowledge that it was a very bad promise. Makes me wonder who she's promised the Powerhouse site to. David Gordon, Cranebrook The decision to proceed with the Powerhouse lunacy is very wrong. A solution would be to leave the existing museum in situ, even perhaps selling airspace above, and build, as infrastructure jobs demand, an appropriate second facility at Parramatta on an appropriate site without demolishing any more historic buildings in the dead of night. Jill Stephenson, Woolwich Silence over Rio ruin is odious The ancient rock art sites in France and Spain are estimated at 37,000 years old, about the same age as the rock art site in the Pilbara ("Federal review tipped as Rio destroys site", May 30-31). What does it say about us that while the European sites are protected from destruction by human and elemental forces, in Australia these sites are accessible to every Tom, Dick and Harry, are left exposed to the elements, and now we find that multinationals like Rio Tinto can knowingly obliterate them, insouciant in their confidence that our governments will do nothing about it? The silence from our leaders is contemptible and speaks volumes about their values. Allowing this desecration to proceed without a whisper of criticism, especially in so-called Reconciliation Week, is proof that the endlessly repeated mantra were all in anything together rings untrue. Frances Dixon, Garran (ACT)

If Rio Tinto says no law was broken when ancient human rock shelters were demolished, then we have a problem with the law. Bruce McGarity, Bathurst Indigenous Affairs Minister Ken Wyatt was disappointed by Rio Tintos action in destroying 46,000-year-old Aboriginal cultural sites in the Pilbara. Wow, Ill bet that hurt Rio Tinto. Sue Martin, Clareville Referendum now We, the people, should decide if a First Nations Voice to Parliament is enshrined in the Constitution, not Coalition governments (Voice of the heart finds top pitch, May 30-31). I expect the reason we have been denied a referendum thus far is the fear that an overwhelming majority would vote in favour of constitutional change. It is to our shame and disgrace that Australia is the only Commonwealth country without an Indigenous treaty. There is much debate as to which is more valuable, a treaty or constitutional recognition. We should have had both long ago. The self-respect of all Australians is at stake here. Graham Lum, North Rocks America's broken hope

The despair is raw in the US. Comparing the response to racial violence shines a light on just how bad it has become. Within a few short decades, the US has fallen from a promise of justice for all as witnessed by Bobby Kennedys ripple of hope speech to Donald Trumps response you loot, we shoot (''The death that ignited a land gasping for air'', May 30-31). John Gibson, Ballina If a Twitter critter becomes bitter, shouldnt he become a Twitter quitter (''Tweeter-in-chief doesn't care if he wins, he needs the battle'', May 30-31)? Donald Bastock, Nowra Your correspondent asks at what point we will be able to say that emperor Trump has no clothes (Letters, May 30-31). Its not that the emperor has no clothes. The emperor has no mind. Thomas Gough, Casula Jones' sins are few Alan Jones hosted weekday breakfast radio for 35 years. That equates to more than 28,000 hours live on air, three and a half hours a day, 46 weeks a year. Yet in the article, there are only two unsavoury comments for which he is condemned ('''Mourning show: tears, tributes for Jones radio adieu'', May 30-31). The good that Jones has done for ordinary people far outweighs the negatives. One cant help wondering that the strident criticism of Jones by his ideological opponents stems from jealousy of his reach, ratings and sphere of influence over the politics of the day, or should I say 35 years. Riley Brown, Bondi Beach

I suppose one can say that Jones listeners were rusted on. Hes been around long enough to ensure that everyone who likes him is rusted on. Thats 15 to 20 per cent of the listening audience (not the population). That also means that more than 80 per cent of the listening audience did not like him. Why then have pollies fawned over him and not the majority of listeners? Paul Bolt, Neutral Bay Coalition in debt to victims Robo-like and unapologetic, the Coalition mutters that it is giving back the $721 million it must now believe it had no right to receive in the first place ( $721m in refunds to robo-debt victims'', May 30-31). This is a nasty reminder that nearly 400,000 lives have been badly messed around by a turbo-charged mixture of ''go get 'em'' conservative ideology and misplaced hubris. Sue Dyer, Downer (ACT) As the parent of a student persecuted by Centrelink for the past three years about Youth Allowance money that was never owed, I congratulate the legal team for their efforts in bringing this government to account. Over the past three years, my daughter has suffered numerous false and intimidating letters over debt that was never owed. My thoughts go out for those who were targeted unfairly and may not have had the family support our daughter had. The pain and stress this created will never be fully known. I hope Gordon Legal now takes it all the way in seeking compensation for the years of grief a large number of affected robo-debt citizens suffered. They deserve no less. Wayne Craig, Hat Head A win for transparency

Congratulations to Professor Jenny Hocking for her win in the High Court of Australia (''High Court allows release of potentially explosive letters'', May 30-31). The decision that the letters between the Queen and governor-general Sir John Kerr prior to the Whitlam dismissal in 1975 are not ''personal'' and can be accessed is a victory for transparency and accountability. Diana Wyndham, North Sydney Well done, Professor. Another apron string of Britains anachronistic control over Australian affairs has been cut. Rob Phillips, North Epping Unis now cash cows Elizabeth Farrelly's elegy for higher education is only half the story (Students are customers, academics itinerant workers, May 30-31). While it is certainly true that universities are now essentially investment banks, one must also look at what is actually being studied to see that universities are a strange chimera: students (especially in humanities departments) pay $40,000 to obtain not knowledge but ''knowledges'', not to learn but to ''unlearn'', not to question but to ''interrogate'', not to delve but to ''unpack'', not to critically think but to ''problematise''.

As with religion, postmodernism and its related sub-tenets should be taught, but comparatively, not elevated to the status of orthodoxy. It won't be long before we adopt the recommendation of the citizens of Idiocracy and start watering our plants with Gatorade because ''it's what plants crave''. Simon Tedeschi, Newtown Candle blow next to go

We have new rules for dinner parties (Dinner party etiquette in the post  lockdown era, May 30-31). Heres one for all generations: no more blowing candles on a birthday cake. This practice will now surely be considered totally unhygienic and even dangerous. From now on, we will have a fake cake for this purpose or perhaps this ritual will no longer exist. How times have changed. Deborah Wicks, Maroubra Cluster lust is back Lyndal Nelson, what you witnessed at Macquarie Centre is probably replicated throughout the state and certainly in North Sydney and Chatswood (Letters, May 30-31). Politicians have of late made a complete turn-around and have declared Australia is now open for business. Hardly surprising therefore that were now returning to behaving like the old normal, despite our leaders constantly reminding us that the pre-corona normal will no longer exist. Tony Moo, North Sydney If COVID-19 case numbers go back up with the easing of restrictions, will we all be talking about ''this precedented situation''? Mickey Pragnell, Kiama Cross purposes
Bir Lehlou (Saharawi Republic)  The Saharawi National Commission for Human Rights (CONASADH), called on the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), to urgently intervene for the release of Saharawi political prisoners in Morocco, to protect them from possible Covid-19 infection.

In a letter sent to the President of the ICRC, Mr. Peter Maurer, CONASADH, expressed deep concern about the situation of the Saharawi prisoners under the bad conditions of Moroccan jails and the spread of Covid-19 in many Moroccan prisoners.

Here is the complete text of the letter sent by CONASADH to ICRC of which Saharawi.net received a copy:

"Request of urgent intervention for the release of Saharawi political prisoners in various Moroccan jails

Dear President,

It is with deep concern that the Saharawi National Commission for Human Rights (CONASADH) addresses you this letter hoping to draw your attention to the dangerous conditions in which Saharawi political prisoners are living in various Moroccan prisons, especially with the alarming spread of Covid-19 infections all over the world, including in Morocco.

The dire conditions of the Moroccan prisons and the alarming lack of the minimum hygienic environment necessary for the protection of prisoners is a permanent threat to the lives of political prisoners, whose only crimes, as evidenced by all international organization, are related to their political views and peaceful activities, as human rights defenders.

ICRC, which strives for the implementation of the Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols that form the core of international humanitarian law according to Article 5 of its Statutes, has received many letters and communications calling on it to visit these political prisoners and to work for their release.

ICRC also received communications calling for its initiative to persuade Morocco end its gross violations to the International Humanitarian law and International law of Human Rights against Saharawi civilians in the absence of any sort of international or UN's mechanisms in charge of the monitoring, reporting and protection of human rights in Western Sahara, which remains under the responsibility of the UN as a Non-Self-Governing Territory pending a decolonization process.

CONASADH cannot understand why ICRC has never visited Saharawi political prisoners in Moroccan prisons so far. ICRC has, on the other hand always been highly welcomed by Saharawi authorities since the seventies to visit Moroccan prisoners of war until the last Moroccan prisoner was released back in 2005. Unfortunately, the ICRC has not been equally helpful to Saharawi victims of disappearance nor to Saharawi prisoners of war and political prisoners so far.

Mr. President,

The Moroccan regime of occupation arrested those Saharawi political prisoners simply because they were defending theirs and their people's rights to self-determination and independence, which are recognized to them by the UN and other international and regional organizations and instruments. Worse, Morocco tried those civilians before its military courts in total violation of the minimum requirement for fair trials. They were also subjected to torture and ill-treatment, and they were transferred tried and imprisoned outside their occupied country, deported to Morocco where they are imprisoned far away from their families, in total violation of the relevant Geneva Conventions requirements.

Even there in Morocco, Saharawi political prisoners are suffering from Moroccan prisons' lack of the standard minimum rules of incarceration though they are serving long imprisonment periods (between 20 to perpetuity). Most of the prisoners have severe health problems and also suffer from the consequences of torture.

Therefore, the spread of Covid-19 in Morocco, including in Moroccan prisons, is an additional threat to their lives and need an urgent intervention from ICRC and all relevant international organizations.

Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Morocco Legal Affairs Western Sahara By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ms. Michelle Bachelet, has already launched an appeal last March on all governments to release prisoners, especially political ones and those detained without sufficient legal basis, to prevent catastrophic rates of infection. We do know of no other prisoners detained illegally than Saharawi political prisoners in Morocco, whose trials were qualified of highly illegal by various international observers, including UN experts.

For all these reasons, Mr. President, CONASADH calls on you and on your organization to immediately and urgently intervene for the release of Saharawi political prisoners and to put an end, not only to their ordeals and possible threats to their lives, but also to a long continuing violation of the international humanitarian law in Western Sahara, the last colony in Africa.

Finally, please accept Mr. President, my highest considerations." (SPS)

090/500/60
The elderly mother of a fugitive who fled while on bail over an elaborate drug smuggling plot has begged authorities to find her son and lock him up.

Jim Soukoulis, 54, vanished in November last year while facing charges over his alleged involvement in a scheme to fly 250kg of ice from California to Australia in a light plane.

His mother Georgia Soukoulis's $600,000 home in Adelaide was used as surety on his bail application and will be seized by authorities if he doesn't turn himself in.

The 87-year-old, who struggles with English and can barely walk, broke down when she was told her home could legally be confiscated if her son remained at large.

Jim Soukoulis, 54, ran from authorities in November last year while facing charges over his alleged involvement in a scheme to fly 250kg of ice from California to Australia in a light plane

'I have worked my whole life for this home,' she told the Herald Sun.

'I am an old lady. I never touched anyone. I don't know why they (sic) take my home. This home was for my last life. I have nothing else.'

Mrs Soukoulis bought the colonial three-bedroom home after immigrating from Greece 60 years ago.

Her husband, who has since died, was injured in a car accident and did not work, leaving the mother-of-two to purchase the home on a single income.

The distraught woman said she had sleepless nights worrying whether her son was still alive, but begged police to 'shoot me first' before taking her home.

CCTV footage (pictured) showed the alleged drug smuggler was at his apartment in South Melbourne on November 12 at 7.36am - it was the last time he reported to police, as per his bail conditions

Soukoulis and two others were charged over their alleged role in a drug trafficking ring in 2017 after ingredients used to make methamphetamine were found by authorities in California.

The trio allegedly planned to smuggle the chemicals into Australia in a light plane that was bought in the US.

Bail for Soukoulis was set at $900,000 - one third was posted by a friend, and the rest against his mother's home - prior to his court date in April this year.

CCTV footage showed the alleged drug smuggler was at his apartment in South Melbourne on November 12 at 7.36am - it was the last time he reported to police, as per his bail conditions.

The trio allegedly planned to smuggle the chemicals into Australia in a light plane that was bought in the US (pictured)

Inside the plane that was allegedly going to be used to smuggle the drugs into Australia

A trial was held on January 30 as prosecutors attempted to claim the money, the ABC previously reported.

He did not answer calls and texts from his girlfriend and was reported as a missing person, but it was later discovered Soukoulis withdrew more than $8,100 from an ATM in South Melbourne over multiple transactions before he vanished.

Australian Federal Police have been probing his family and friends trying to hunt him down.

Police previously stated they believed his attempt to flee was planned.

The AFP allege the men, including the elderly registered pilot, tried to import the drug from California

Judge Martine Marich said there was enough evidence to suggest he had intentionally breached his bail conditions and the bail money should be surrendered to prosecutors.

But the judge gave Mrs Soukoulis an extra six months to make alternative living arrangements if her son didn't hand himself to police, or for the family to argue that the situation was 'unjust'.

The application to seize the elderly woman's home will appear before the County Court of Victoria on July 15.
The Karnataka government was expected to take a call on resuming operation of inter-state buses after getting consent from other states.

The Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) has already started its intra-state services with several restrictions, but was yet to decide on resumption of bus operations outside Karnataka.

"We have not decided yet to operate buses. Other states have to agree for the inter-state movement of buses," a KSRTC official said on Sunday.

The Centre had on Saturday announced the lockdown exit plan 'Unlock 1' that allowed among others reopening places of religious worship and restaurants.

Mall and shopping complex owners in Karnataka are also preparing to open their doors to customers while complying with safety protocols.

"As an immediate measure we are sanitising the entire complex. We will place sanitisation tunnels. We will be sanitising the railings. We have to sanitise the central air conditioner. We are calling the experts and doing it," Dr Uday B Garudachar, Chikpet MLA and owner of Garuda Mall told PTI.

He also demanded that the government consider providing concession in power tariff and waive property tax due to heavy loss incurred by the shopping malls.

"Our association has given a representation to Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa and put forth our various demands to overcome the losses we have suffered, which runs in crores," the MLA said.

Meanwhile, the Karnataka Pradesh Hotels and Restaurants' Association was elated with the state government's decision to lift restrictions on the hotel industry.

"We are fully prepared to resume our business. We will abide by the guidelines such as wearing masks, social distancing, gloves and so on," Association President Chandrashekar Hebbar told PTI.
At least 18 mourners, who attended the funeral of a COVID-19 patient, have tested positive for the infection in Ulhasnagar town of Maharashtra's Thane district

Thane: At least 18 mourners, who attended the funeral of a COVID-19 patient, have tested positive for the infection in Ulhasnagar town of Maharashtra's Thane district, a civic official said on Saturday.

Defying prohibitory orders, at least 70 persons had attended the funeral of a 40-year-old woman, who had tested positive for the virus post her death, a spokesperson of the Ulhasnagar Municipal Corporation said.

The woman's body was handed over to her family with specific instructions to not open the bag, but they opened the wrapped body to perform the last rites on 25 May, the official said.

The police were first alerted about the funeral, following which the civic authorities were notified, he said.

When the 70 mourners, including close relatives, were tested for the infection, reports of 18 came out positive on Friday, he said.

A case has been registered against the deceased's family for violating provisions of the Epidemic Act, the official added.

In a similar incident earlier this month, when a 50 -year-old patient died of the infection, the deceased's family unwrapped the body to perform last rites and at least 20 people contracted the infection.
Ben Lambert / Hearst Connecticut Media /

The world is horrified at the video of police officer Derek Chauvin killing George Floyd by suffocating him in Minneapolis. For five minutes the officer used his weight to crush Floyd with his knee ignoring his plea, I cant breathe. Yet the killing in West Haven of Mubarak Soulemane in January was nearly as brutal and just as wrong.

On Jan. 15, New Haven resident Mubarak Soulemane drove a car he had allegedly stolen at knifepoint off I-95 and onto Campbell Avenue. We know from body cams that within a minute the car was surrounded by police vehicles of the State Police and West Haven police. A few seconds later a trooper drew his gun and demanded that Soulemane get out of the car. Soulemane remained in the drivers seat with the windows up. Within a half-minute the trooper told someone on the other side of the car to shoot the 19-year-old with a taser. Someone (its unclear if it was a state trooper or West Haven policeman) broke the passenger side window and a taser was shot. Within seconds Soulemane was shot seven times with live fire by State Trooper Brian North.
Proprietors of private schools have rejected the plan by the federal government to convert their facilities to isolation centres for C...





Proprietors of private schools have rejected the plan by the federal government to convert their facilities to isolation centres for COVID-19 patients.





Speaking at the briefing of the presidential task force on COVID-19 on May 28, Osagie Ehanire, minister of health, asked schools and hotels to be prepared in the event of a shortage of bed spaces for patients.





We need to continue increasing bed capacity to match the probable number of patients so that we do not experience horrific scenes of bed space shortages seen in some European hospitals, he said





In event of overflow, we can require hotels and school dormitories to be prepared for level 1 (Quarantine) and level 2 Isolation (of COVID-19 positive with zero or mild symptoms), to free hospital beds to be dedicated to level 3, (moderate to severe cases) and level 4, (high dependency and intensive care unit).

However, in a statement on Sunday, the private school owners under the aegis of the National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools (NAPPS), rejected the the idea.





Yomi Otubela, NAPPS president, said: I dont know how many of the western countries whose methods we are copying use schools as isolation centres; I have not seen any.





We should copy and copy rightly. Schools are meant for children and we should not use them for a purpose that will make them abandon schooling.





Private school owners reject this idea. In fact, private schools should be considered for reopening because it is easy to maintain physical distancing than in public schools because they are usually crowded.





Private school owners will not and never allow the use of their facilities for isolation centres.





He urged the government to consider converting large expanses of land and abandoned facilities as isolation centres.





There are large expanses of land and moribund hospital facilities that the government can quickly fix and use for isolation centres, Otubela said.




THE OBUASI Municipal Police Command has arrested a police officer believed to be a member of a robbery syndicate operating in some parts of the Ashanti Region and robbing victims.

Inspector Godwin Mensah, a serving officer stationed at Agona Swedru in the Central Region, was arrested at Kunka Junction in Obuasi on Thursday, May 28, 2020 night by a police patrol team.

Two members of the gang, a police lance corporal and a cabbie, who were all dressed in police uniform, managed to escape arrest, DGN Online learnt.

The three had gone to attack a renowned gold dealer, Thomas Lee aka 'Red' at Memerwa No. 1 in the Obuasi Municipality, and were returning to their base when he was grabbed.

A police source, which confirmed the arrest of Inspector Godwin Mensah, told DGN Online the suspect and his colleague lance corporal are members of the Operation Vanguard stationed at Obuasi.

The two 'recruited' the unnamed taxi driver to join them for the robbery operation, which lasted for one hour.

The source said the threesome, on May 28, 2020 around 7pm, went to the house of the victim, Thomas Lee at Memerewa No. 1 and robbed him of GH10,000 concealed in a traveling bag after accusing him of trading in gold without license.

DGN learned that Inspector Mensah and his gang, who were in possession of AK47 assault rifle, subjected the victim to beating after handcuffing him.

They later bundled him into a Daewoo Matiz taxi cab with registration number AC 9310  18 used for the operation, the police source narrated and added that the suspects took the victim hostage and subsequently escaped from the village with him to Obuasi.

The gangsters allegedly told the victim they were taking to the police headquarters in Accra for him to be processed to court for trading in gold without license.

Officers of the Obuasi Municipal Police Command, armed with the information, tracked down the suspects and arrested Inspector Godwin Mensah at Kunka Junction  on the Obuasi-Kumasi highway  around 9:00pm.

The gold dealer, narrating his ordeal, said: I was here in my room eating when I heard a knock on my door. Before I could go to open it, two people in police uniform stormed in and asked me where I had hidden the gold.

I politely told them there was no gold in my room. I also demanded where they came from and their mission and one of them gave me a slapped on the face.

They handcuffed me and ransacked my room until they discovered GH10,000 concealed in my traveling bag. They took it and dragged me along into a waiting taxi cab.

While on the way, the officers demanded GH100,000 before I could be set free, but I told them the money did not belong to me, but for my master. I said I could only afford GH1,000, they would not budge, Red stated.

The people diverted the course and took to Dokyiwa direction when they spotted a police barrier ahead, but the police, armed with the information, chased the taxi and crossed it at Kunka Junction where one of them was arrested.

Suspect Godwin Mensah remained in police custody since Saturday, while effort was underway to arrest his accomplices, who are currently at large.

The police suspected the threesome to be members of robbery gang, who had been frequenting mining sites in the area and terrorizing operators.

Daily Guide
Legal experts say such a move would raise serious First Amendment and due process concerns.

President Donald Trump said on Sunday that the United States would designate Antifa as a terrorist organisation, despite concerns by legal experts, who say the president has no legal authority for such a designation and question how it would be implemented.

Antifa, short for anti-fascists, is an umbrella term for a far-left-leaning movement with no designated leadership that is opposed to far-right ideologies. Some anti-fascists confront neo-Nazis and white supremacist groups at demonstrations.

Trumps announcement came as he sought to place blame for angry protests  some that have turned violent  gripping the US over the death of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, and other acts of police brutality.

Without evidence, Trump and several top officials from his administration, including US Attorney General William Barr, have blamed Antifa and groups it describes as agitators for taking over the protests in US cities.

The violence instigated and carried out by Antifa and other similar groups in connection with the rioting is domestic terrorism and will be treated accordingly, Barr said in a statement on Sunday following the presidents tweet.

But legal scholars and analysts say Trump has no legal authority to designate a domestic group in the same way it does foreign entities.

No current legal authority exists for designating domestic organisations as terrorist organisations, said Mary McCord, a former senior Justice Department official.

Any attempt at such a designation would raise significant First Amendment concerns, McCord, who previously served in the Trump administration, added.

Experts note that Antifa is an amorphous movement, not an organisation, raising questions on how even a legal designation would be enforced and handled.

Terrorism is an inherently political label, easily abused and misused, said ACLU National Security Project Director Hina Shamsi.

It is unclear whether the Trump administration is seriously pursuing the designation through formal channels, which would typically require coordination across multiple federal agencies. Any attempt to do so would likely meet legal challenges. Trump and other Republicans have made similar calls before.

Local governments, meanwhile, have largely blamed outsiders for the violence seen at protests nationwide. They say the organised agitators are flooding their cities not to call for justice but to cause destruction.

But the state and federal officials offered differing assessments of who the outsiders were, blaming left-wing extremists, far-right white nationalists and even suggesting the involvement of drug cartels. They have also not elaborated on how they have come to those conclusions.

The United States of America will be designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organization.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 31, 2020

The finger-pointing on both sides of the political spectrum is likely to deepen the political divide in the US, allowing politicians to advance the theory that aligns with their political view and distract from the underlying frustrations that triggered the protests.
Rajesh Asnani By

Express News Service

JAIPUR: The political war over Shramik Special Trains took a new twist on Saturday as Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot slammed Union Railways Minister Piyush Goyal over the huge mess in transporting hapless migrant workers to their homes.

While the Narendra Modi government was busy celebrating its six years in office, Gehlot took to Twitter to target Goyal for the failure of the Indian Railways thats regularly running into controversies over the Shramik Express trains it is operating for migrant workers.

In a sharp comment, Ashok Gehlot tweeted, As many as 40 Shramik special trains have been delayed, 1 took 9 days to reach & 80 deaths reported so far. I suggest HPM to let Mr. Goyal be Minister without portfolio as we have never heard of such mess in Indian Railways ever before. Let him concentrate on fundraising for BJP only.

For weeks, the Indian Railways has been facing a lot of flak over delay in running migrant trains and with dozens of them even losing their way and deaths of numerous passengers on the Sharmik Special trains, Gehlot targeted Goyal for the fiasco. But this is not the first time that Gehlot has raked up this issue.

A fortnight ago, Gehlot and Goyal had locked horns over the issue of Shramik special trains.

On May 14, Piyush Goyal had attacked several opposition ruled states, including Rajasthan for allegedly not cooperating with the central government over Shramik Special Trains.

The Union Railways Minister had tweeted, It pains me that several states such as West Bengal, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, are not giving enough permissions for 'shramik special trains' to enter their states.

Within hours, however, Gehlot had hit back at Goyal in a response tweet, There is no permission pending for any train with govt of Rajasthan. In fact Rajasthan was in strong favour that Railways shd be allowed for commute of Migrants. But I am not surprised to see statement by Railway minister, they are skilled in passing their failure on to state govts.

Despite the multiple problems plaguing the Shramik Special Trains, Goyals aggressive defence of the Railways has already drawn sharp attacks from several opposition Chief Ministers ranging from Mamata Bannerji to Uddhav Thackeray.

With the Rajasthan Chief Minister also launching a fierce onslaught on Twitter, the pressure on the Railways Minister is escalating.

With Gehlot even advising the Prime Minister to turn Goyal into a Minister without Portfolio, political circles are now keen to see how the Union Railways Minister will respond.
I stopped long ago reading comments under news articles and opinion pieces. Not because I dont believe readers should have the opportunity to comment, but mostly because nothing about what is posted is helpful or constructive. In fact, much of it is nasty and vile.

For the same reason, Im not on Twitter anymore. Not because I dont recognize social media as a valuable tool for marketing or disseminating important information, but because it has become a forum for misinformation, slander and hate. And I know very well that I have it within me to become part of the problem.

How we speak to each other reveals much about ourselves. The Bible, as relevant on the topic today as it was 2000 years ago, contains dozens of verses about taming the tongue.

It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person, Jesus said, as he rebuked the Pharisees as recorded in Matthews gospel.

I thought a lot about that verse in the last few days as I watched the Twitter barbs fly. President Trump has been advancing debunked conspiracy theories about former Republican congressman and current MSNBC host Joe Scarborough. Trump continues to suggest, without any evidence whatsoever, that Scarborough might have had something to do with the death of a staffer who worked in his Florida congressional office in 2001.

Comedian Kathy Griffin tweeted on Wednesday that Trump should self-inject an air-filled syringe, which would do the trick.

Neither Trump nor Griffin has apologized. In fact, each has doubled down with Trump calling the staffers death a cold case (it was ruled an accident) and Griffin tweeting that she is well aware that an injection of air into the veins could be fatal.

Griffins profane, angry tweets are not unexpected, given that her stance as a Trump-hater is the only thing keeping her relevant on the national landscape. However, this president, any president, should be above spewing unfounded conspiracy theories about people he doesnt like. Even conservative news outlets have taken Trump to task.

Mr. Trump rightly denounces the lies spread about him in the Steele dossier, yet here he is trafficking in the same sort of trash, wrote the Wall Street Journal editorial board.

And, in case you missed it, CNNs Anderson Cooper and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the president fat.

The issue of our current discourse, political and otherwise, goes well beyond the latest round of unfortunate tweets and comments.

What happened to civility and respect? Blaming the president is nothing more than a He started it! schoolyard argument. Were all complicit, myself included. Twitter and other social media platforms arent so much forums to share what is on our minds as much as they are indications of what is lurking in our hearts.

Im not wagging my finger at anyone. I receive a fair amount of angry emails and I will confess that my first inclination is to fire back a response that will get my adversary in checkmate. Victory, after all, is much more satisfying, at least for a while, than reconciliation.

In his book Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis addresses this aspect of the human condition.

If there are rats in the cellar you are most likely to see them if you go in very suddenly. But the suddenness does not create the rats: it only prevents them from hiding, Lewis writes. In the same way the suddenness of the provocation does not make me an ill-tempered man; it only shows me what an ill-tempered man I am.

My first step toward becoming a Christian was to acknowledge my predicament  my own sinful nature. As Lewis points out, Christianity is not reading what Christ said and trying to carry it out. Rather, it is the total interference of Christ in your life which changes you from the inside out and makes obedience to God possible, not as a means to salvation but as evidence of it.

I say this in relation to discourse because whatever small role I might play in the conversation, my faith is what restrains me, and what keeps me from becoming part of the problem.

We hear a lot about the need for more kindness, compassion and empathy. Simply trying to be nicer to one another isnt going to get us far.

For all of us, the real solution begins with admitting theres a problem in the first place.

Rich Manieri is a Philadelphia-born journalist and author. He is currently a professor of journalism at Asbury University in Kentucky. You can reach him at manieri2@gmail.com.
Anti-government protesters protect themselves with umbrellas among tear gas during a demonstration near Central Government Complex in Hong Kong

As pepper balls and rubber bullets rained down on the crowd of Hong Kong protesters crouched by the entrance of a carpark tunnel, protecting themselves from the riot police with flimsy umbrellas, a chill of terror swept over one young man as he dived for cover with his girlfriend.

I remember the moment when it felt like a truck hit the end of my umbrella, it was like it didnt even exist. I put my arm under [her] and said get your head down and our umbrellas were caving in, said the protester, who asked to be identified as Mark.

That night in October Mark blended into the crowd of mainly black-clad protesters, most of them wearing face masks. But as one of the only British expats to join the front lines of the protests, he had a unique background.

Speaking to the Sunday Telegraph as protests got back under way in Hong Kong last week he said he had taken to the streets of his adopted city because his own government had turned its back on the people of Hong Kong.

The UK government this week offered a "path to citizenship" to almost three million Hong Kong residents as it condemned China's move to crush dissent in the former British colony.

But Britain has been criticised for failing to act against the steady erosion of Hong Kongs rights and freedoms for years. It stands accused of doing too little too late to support the pro-democracy movement over the past year of civil unrest.

When Mark first moved to Hong Kong he expected, and initially experienced, a very privileged life of enjoying the citys glamour, wealth and nightlife.

But as strife gripped the city in opposition to a controversial extradition bill and, more widely, against Beijings rule, he said he could no longer take his human rights for granted or stand on the sidelines.

For me being British and seeing that the British government had done nothing, even now, it really made me want to do my part on behalf of what the British government isnt doing, he said.

Story continues

Chinese president Xi Jinping, center, and delegates applaud at the closing session of the National People's Congress

A sense of duty to do whats right motivated him to continue supporting the pro-democracy cause, risking being caught up in the mass arrests of this week, or being crushed in a carpark tunnel last October, he said.

The day of that protest was Chinas National Day, and the streets of Hong Kong had erupted into some of the most violent clashes of the then months-long pro-democracy protests.

Tens of thousands had been marching to protest Beijings grip on the city but the rally spiralled into running street battles with the riot police after an officer shot a teenager. Protesters hurled petrol bombs and stones from burning barricades, while the police turned water cannons, tear gas and rubber bullets on the crowds.

The 50 or so people who had been trapped in the narrow tunnel had a lucky escape. A sympathetic security guard unlocked the exit into the carpark allowing them to flood in, gasping for air and scrambling to hide. An office worker then helped them to leave safely in twos and threes from a neighbouring building.

The terrifying incident was a turning point for Mark. In shock he concluded that the police wanted to trap and brutalise us. They knew there was probably no way out of this tunnel so it was just target practice for them. They knew that this tunnel was going to be toxic with tear gas.

Hong Kongs police force face multiple accusations of excessive force during anti-government protests, a charge they repeatedly deny.

Mark had initially held back towards the middle of mass marches, helping to provide water and First Aid, but the lack of justice over allegations of police violence had pushed him and his girlfriend closer to the protest frontlines, sometimes helping to construct street barricades, he said.

He recalls blood pouring from his knee after being injured by glass. Two lads grabbed hold of me and helped me limp towards a back alley. A First Aider came and then an old lady gave me some water, he said.

He was injured on the night he held a Molotov cocktail in his hand for the first time, which he lobbed at a barricade to try to set it alight. Thats the only time Ive thrown a Molotov and I wouldnt do it again, he said, reconging the moment he set fire to the structure built to defend besieged students at Polytechnic university from the advance of the riot police.

Riot police stand guard outside a Louis Vuitton shop during a protest against Beijing's plans to impose national security legislation in Hong Kong

Although the stakes were high and the authorities would make an example of him if he was caught protesting, the risk was worth it to defend people's rights, said Mark.

For me, its simply the freedom of being able to express myself and to stand against an injustice and not..fear that my life might come to ruin simply because I spoke about a political event, he said.

Teachers are losing their jobs, people are losing their livelihoods, simply because their employer or the government has found out they are pro-democracy.

His Hong Kong friends  too young to qualify for the British National Overseas passport to escape to the UK  were resigned to the lack of support from the UK government, and to resisting Chinese encroachment on their city on their own.

A lot of people have said if Hong Kong is going to become part of China, then Im not going to have kids..Im going to emigrate and then the Chinese government gets the land but the people will just move on, he said. He and his girlfriend would leave together if they needed to for safety.

But he warned that China would not stop if the international community did nothing to stop it taking control of Hong Kong.

In 20-30 years what happens if they want to take Taiwan? And they say ok we didnt get much resistance, we can politically play this? Whats next? he said.
The Nagaland government has removed the health department principal secretary after a Chennai returnee, who was released from a quarantine centre before his test results arrived, tested positive for COVID-19, an official said on Sunday.

The state government has also ordered a judicial inquiry into the incident, he said.

Principal Secretary Menukhol John has been relieved of his additional charge of the health department and Commissioner and Secretary, Art and Culture, Ahola Those given the charge.

The government has constituted a three-member committee, headed by retired District and Session Judge L N Sema, to probe into the transportation of Chennai returnees to Tuensang, it said. Advocates Akum Jamir and Yangthsapila Sangtam are other members of the panel that will submit its report within 15 days.

The committee will enquire whether standard operation procedures formulated by the state government regarding transporting the returnees to their respective districts were followed or not.

The man, who was kept at a quarantine centre in Kohima, was released on May 25 and his COVID-19 test report arrived the next day.

He had returned to Tuensang district from the southern metropolis along with 150 others.

The Eastern Nagaland Peoples' Organisation (ENPO) has demanded action against officials concerned for violation of the standard operation procedures (SOP) in the matter, according to a notification issued on Saturday.

The Nagaland In-Service Doctors' Association (NIDA), however, expressed their resentment over removal of the principal secretary from the health department.

The association wrote a letter to Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio, saying the government had brought "one of the most experienced bureaucrats" to the health department to combat the coronavirus outbreak.

"Under his leadership, the department has been able to step up effectively its preparedness and response... the association is shocked and dismayed to learn about the hasty removal of the administrative head of department," the doctors' body said in the letter.

The NIDA urged the government to immediately revoke the order.

Meanwhile, seven more returnees from Chennai tested positive for COVID-19 in Nagaland on Sunday, taking the total number of cases in the state to 43, Health and Family Welfare Minister S Pangnyu Phom said.

The state recorded a surge in the number of cases with migrants from other parts of the country returning home.
A 13-year-old boy has become the youngest person to graduate from a college in California with four associate degrees and a perfect 4.0 GPA.

Jack Rico now plans to study at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas on a full scholarship.

Young Jack earned four degrees over the course of two years at Fullerton College in Southern California to become the youngest graduate in the school's history.

Jack Rico has earned four associate degrees from Fullerton College in California

Fullerton College President, Greg Schulz, presented Jack with his four degrees at his home

Jack was the youngest of 21,000 students and became well known on the campus.

'They treat me like any other student,' Jack told GMA. 'They're really nice and I've made some friends along the way.'

'It was a really fun and interesting experience,' Jack said to the Las Vegas Review Journal. 'I didn't really know what I was looking into at the start of it.'

Jack admitted that he found the studying both stressful and challenging but was determined to push on.

'I still can't really believe that I've achieved something like this,' Jack said to NBC4. 'I didn't know that I could really do that.'

There was cause for celebration after Jack became the youngest graduate of Fullerton College

Jack plans to continue his education and study history at the University of Nevada on a full scholarship

Initially, his goal was to complete an associate's degree but he ended up taking classes in four subjects: history; arts and human expression; social behavior and self development; and social science.

Unfortunately, his first official graduation was canceled as a result of the pandemic so his family held a drive-by parade outside their front door him.

"I was a little sad and disappointed because I never had a graduation," Jack said to CNN.

He is now going to study history at UNLV as he pursues a bachelor's degree in history.

'I've always been interested in history,' he said. 'It's the story of where we came from.'

His classes will start next month and he will initially be taught remotely.

Jack was the youngest graduate of Fullerton College in its history

The dean of students said that Jack was a popular figure on the campus of 21,000

'He's not a genius,' mom Ru Andrade said. His sister is 15, left, and was also homeschooled 'He works very hard. He just loves information and loves learning,' Jack's mom said

'I'm 13, so I don't want to rush everything,' he said. 'I'm still trying to figure it out, but I just want to focus on learning right now. That's what I love to do.'

Ultimately, the entire family plan to move from their home in Whittier near Los Angeles to Las Vegas and stay in a hotel for three days each week as Jack goes to his classes in person, which would be for the first three days of each week.

His elder sister who is 15 and is home-schooled, will also come with the family.

Despite his young age, UNLV spokesman Tony Allen said the university will do everything it can to make Jack feel at home.

His degrees are in social sciences, social behavior and self development, arts and human expression and history

When Jack is not hitting the books, he is said to be passionate at playing video games

'Jack is a remarkable young man with a bright future ahead of him, and we're thrilled that he chose UNLV to continue his academic journey,' Allen said. 'We have a long history of Rebels making it happen by following their dreams, no matter how big, and we look forward to welcoming Jack and his family to UNLV.'

Although history will be his main area of steady, Jack intends to study a variety of other subjects. 'I still don't have life figured out yet,' he said to the journal.

'He's not a genius,' mom Ru Andrade said. 'He works very hard. He just loves information and loves learning.'

'He really is 13 when it comes to play. He will get done with his work just to get to his video games as fast as he can,' she said.

Andrade says that he son has always been clever. 'He came out smart. He was always like an old soul.'

Jack, like his sister, was also home schooled which allowed him time to learn and to be creative.
A partnership between the UK aid and Gavi - the Vaccine Alliance - is supporting Ghana to use Zipline drones to collect COVID-19 test samples in the country.

A statement issued by the British High Commission, in Accra, which was copied to the Ghana News Agency, in Accra, said this world-leading technology had also increased the country's ability to deliver immunisation kits and vaccines for diseases, such as yellow fever, polio, diphtheria and measles.

Already Coronavirus test samples have been collected from more than 1,000 health centres in rural areas across Ghana and taken to laboratories in Accra and Kumasi.

The drones also return Coronavirus tests results and deliver medical equipment and supplies.

"Together, the UK government and Gavi, alongside the Gates Foundation and the delivery company UPS Foundation, have funded Zipline's drone stations," the statement said.

"Often in hard-to-reach areas, these stations allow health experts to safely collect test samples and deliver these to one of Ghana's testing laboratories".

The transportation of samples and test results in just hours helps to limit the spread of the disease and accelerates case management.

The mode of transportation also limits the exposure of health workers to the virus.

The statement quoted Mr Iain Walker, British High Commissioner to Ghana saying, It is only through global collaboration that we will overcome this global pandemic. The partnership between UK aid and Gavi is an example of this collaboration in action.

By supporting Gavi, UK aid in Ghana is helping to save lives by tracking Coronavirus, getting medical equipment to those most in need and ensuring that children across the country have access to vaccines for the diseases that still needlessly devastate communities.

I am proud that the UK Government's recent pledge of the equivalent of 330 million a year for the next five years will support Gavi's lifesaving work across the world, protecting lives and allowing developing countries to focus more resources on tackling Coronavirus.

For his part, Cyril Nogier, Gavi Senior Country Manager for Ghana, said: The government of Ghana has shown incredible commitment to immunisation for many years, working hard to ensure no child goes without protection against deadly, preventable diseases.

Right now, Ghana is a leader in its use of drone technology, which has already helped thousands of children in remote areas get access to vaccines.

The statement said on Thursday, June 4, the UK Government would host Global Vaccine Summit towards supporting GAVI to mobilise the requisite funds to deliver vaccines against diseases such as measles, polio and cholera around the world and to ensure global access to all new Coronavirus vaccines.

The UK Government has already pledged up to 764 million ($935.6 million) to combat the outbreak of the Coronavirus globally, and in April it pledged an equivalent to 330 million a year, over the next five years to Gavi.

For Africa, the UK has pledged to invest up to 20 million in the African Union's new 'African Union Covid-19 Response Fund' to tackle the Coronavirus and save lives.

Gavi helps vaccinate almost half the world's children against deadly and debilitating infectious diseases.

As part of its mission to reduce poverty and protect the world against the threat of epidemics, Gavi has helped vaccinate more than 760 million children in the world's poorest countries, preventing more than 13 million deaths.

By improving access to new and under-used vaccines for millions of the most vulnerable children, the Vaccine Alliance is transforming the lives of individuals, helping to boost the economies of low-income countries and making the world safer for everyone, it said.

UK aid is the financial support Britain gives to developing countries to promote sustainable development, eliminate world poverty and help people whose lives have been destroyed by disaster or conflict.

GNA
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-31 15:29:42|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, May 31 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. government has been slammed at home and abroad after announcing on Friday "terminating" its relationship with the World Health Organization (WHO).

U.S. health experts and lawmakers have expressed concern over the decision announced by President Donald Trump amid the COVID-19 outbreak.

Patrice Harris, president of the American Medical Association, described Trump's move as a "senseless" action with "significant, harmful repercussions."

"COVID-19 affects us all and does not respect borders; defeating it requires the entire world working together," Harris was quoted by CNN as saying, urging Trump to reverse the course.

Lawrence Gostin, a professor of global health law and director of the O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University, described the move as "foolish and arrogant" in his Twitter account.

"Trump's action is an enormous disruption and distraction during an unprecedented health crisis," said Gostin, also the director of the WHO collaborating center on national and global health law. "The President has made us less safe."

Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia said that "the United States cannot eliminate this virus on its own and to withdraw from the World Health Organization -- the world's leading public health body -- is nothing short of reckless," according to a CNN report.

Even within the Republican party, some Republicans also expressed their disagreement. Senate Health Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander reportedly said he disagreed with Trump's decision, because, without U.S. funding, clinical trials to develop a COVID-19 vaccine might be hampered.

In addition, the European Union (EU) has urged the United States to reconsider its termination of ties with the WHO, warning that Trump's move would erode global efforts to curb the spread of the virus.

"The WHO needs to continue being able to lead the international response to pandemics, current and future. For this, the participation and support of all is required and very much needed. In the face of this global threat, now is the time for enhanced cooperation and common solutions. Actions that weaken international results must be avoided," Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, and Josep Borrell, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, said in the statement on Saturday.

"In this context, we urge the U.S. to reconsider its announced decision," the statement said.

German Health Minister Jens Spahn tweeted that Trump's move was "a disappointing backlash for International Health."

"The EU must take a leading role and engage more financially," Spahn said, noting that this would be one of Germany's priorities when it becomes the bloc's rotating presidency on July 1.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's spokesperson said earlier that Britian "has no plans to stop funding the WHO, which has an important role to play in leading the global health response."

"Coronavirus is a global challenge and it is essential that countries work together to tackle this shared threat," the spokesperson was quoted by The Guardian as saying.

Irish Minister for Health Simon Harris on Friday described Trump's move as an "awful decision."

"A global pandemic requires the world working together ... We should unite in our fight against it (COVID-19) & not fight each other," Harris tweeted.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova told TASS news agency that Washington "dealt a blow" to the international framework for cooperation in healthcare at the moment when the world needed to join forces.
A 12-year-old girl and her teenage friend allegedly broke into a bank in suburban Adelaide while they were on bail for earlier offences.

Police said the girls were wearing hoodies and used a shopping trolley to smash the front window of a bank at the Colonnades Shopping Centre in Noarlunga Centre just after 2am on Sunday.

They allege one of the girls entered the bank while the other kept watch, but both left empty-handed.

Two girls, including a 12-year-old, allegedly broke into a bank in suburban Adelaide while they were already on bail for serious offences (Bank SA branch in Adelaide is pictured)

A window of a neighbouring office was also smashed.

The 12-year-old, from Aldinga Beach, and a 15-year-old girl from Morphett Vale have both been charged with aggravated serious criminal trespass, attempted aggravated serious criminal trespass and breaching bail.

Both have been refused police bail and will appear in Adelaide Youth Court on Monday.
The startup project offers visually impaired people a stable job  listening to peoples breathing and help provide data for diagnoses about respiratory illnesses.

The national survey conducted by the GSO in 2016-2017 and the results made public in January 2019 showed that Vietnam has 6.2 million people with disabilities, accounting for 7.06 percent of the population. This includes 1.03 million visually impaired people.





Because of the specific characteristic of the disability, there are still not many careers and equipment to support the blind. Therefore, they have very few job opportunities and have to take simple jobs which give low and unstable income.



The Vietnam National Institute of Software and Digital Content Industry (NISCI), in cooperation with the Vietnam Blind Association and technology firms and experts, have kicked off a project on building software that helps visually impaired people earn their living by information labelling (InLab).



InLab is a software tool that allows the blind to be involved in data labelling, one of the important stages of the AI industry.

The startup project offers visually impaired people a stable job  listening to peoples breathing and help provide data for diagnoses about respiratory illnesses.

The project will be implemented in two stages. First, building the software tool to train and guide visually impaired people to label data. In the next stage, the people will be instructed how to use computers and smartphones to digitize data.



At this moment, the project implementers are guiding some people to undertake their work.



After understanding how to use the software, people will label data with audio clips or texts (with the support of the reading software) available in the data store. Before taking their work, the people will be tested. Certificates will be given to the people and workers will be classified and given work suitable to their capability.



Those who meet the requirements can log in the system and choose one or many jobs in the list. The software will assess the efficiency of the works based on the information about the time, working frequency and the volume of data labelled correctly, to calculate the pay for workers.



In the current context of the Covid-19 epidemic which puts pressure on the healthcare system, the experts implementing the project hope they can build up a trial model that helps diagnose respiratory diseases through peoples breathing sounds based on the data labeling system.



Many similar projects have been implemented on a trial basis around the world, which allows users to have medical examinations from a distance.



ResApp Health, a project of Australia, and Breathe for Science of New York University, for example, collect breath recording files to study the link between the breath and respiratory diseases.

Kim Chi

Vietnamese scientist finds 'super material' in waste products Aerogel, the super material, opens great opportunities for humans to solve problems, from waste treatment and environmental protection to the production of new materials.
Tense protests over the death of George Floyd and other police killings of black men grew Saturday from New York to Tulsa to Los Angeles, with police cars set ablaze and reports of injuries mounting on all sides as the country lurched toward another night of unrest after months of coronavirus lockdowns.

Minneapolis: Tense protests over the death of George Floyd and other police killings of black men grew Saturday from New York to Tulsa to Los Angeles, with police cars set ablaze and reports of injuries mounting on all sides as the country lurched toward another night of unrest after months of coronavirus lockdowns.

The protests, which began in Minneapolis following Floyd's death Monday after a police officer pressed a knee on his neck for more than eight minutes, have left parts of the city a grid of broken windows, burned-out buildings and ransacked stores. The unrest has since become a national phenomenon as protesters decry years of deaths at police hands.

The large crowds involved, with many people not wearing masks or social distancing, raised concerns among health experts about the potential for helping spread the coronavirus pandemic at a time when overall deaths are on the decline nationwide and much of the country is in the process of reopening society and the economy.

After a tumultuous Friday night, racially diverse crowds took to the streets again for mostly peaceful demonstrations in dozens of cities from coast to coast. The previous days protests also started calmly, but many descended into violence later in the day.

In Philadelphia, at least 13 officers were injured when peaceful protests turned violent and at least four police vehicles were set on fire.

Other fires were set throughout downtown.

In the Greenwood District of Tulsa, Oklahoma, the site of a 1921 massacre of black people that left as many as 300 dead and the citys thriving black district in ruins, protesters blocked intersections and chanted the name of Terence Crutcher, a black man killed by a police officer in 2016.

In Tallahassee, Florida, a pickup truck drove through a crowd of protesters, sending some running and screaming as the vehicle stopped and started and at one point had a person on its hood, police said, but no serious injuries were reported. Police handcuffed the driver but did not release his name or say whether he would face charges.

In Los Angeles, protesters chanted Black Lives Matter, some within inches of the face shields of officers. Police used batons to move the crowd back and fired rubber bullets. One man used a skateboard to try to break a police SUV's windshield. A spray-painted police car burned in the street.

In Washington, growing crowds outside the White House chanted, taunted Secret Service agents and other law enforcement officers and at times pushed against security barriers. President Donald Trump, who spent much of Saturday in Florida for the SpaceX rocket launch, landed on the residence's lawn in the presidential helicopter at dusk and went inside with speaking to journalists.

And in New York City, video posted to social media showed officers using batons and shoving protesters down as they made arrests and cleared streets. Another video showed two NYPD cruisers driving into protesters who were pushing a barricade against a police car and pelting it with objects, knocking several to the ground.

'Look deeper'

Our country has a sickness. We have to be out here, said Brianna Petrisko, among those at lower Manhattans Foley Square, where most were wearing masks amid the coronavirus pandemic. This is the only way were going to be heard.

Back in Minneapolis, the city where the protests began, 29-year-old Sam Allkija said the damage seen in recent days reflects longstanding frustration and rage in the black community.

I dont condone them, he said. But you have to look deeper into why these riots are happening.

Minnesota governor Tim Walz fully mobilised the states National Guard and promised a massive show of force.

The situation in Minneapolis is no longer in any way about the murder of George Floyd, Walz said. It is about attacking civil society, instilling fear and disrupting our great cities.

More than a dozen major cities nationwide imposed overnight curfews ranging from 6 pm in parts of South Carolina to 10 pm around Ohio. People were also told to be off the streets of Atlanta, Denver, Los Angeles, Seattle and Minneapolis: where thousands ignored the same order the previous night.

The unrest comes at a time when most Americans have spent months inside over concerns surrounding the coronavirus, which the president has called an invisible enemy. The events of the last 72 hours, seen live on national television, have shown the opposite: a sudden pivot to crowds, screaming protesters and burning buildings, a stark contrast to the empty streets of recent months.

Hundreds were arrested Friday, and police used batons, rubber bullets and pepper spray to push back crowds in some cities. Many departments reported injured officers, while social media platforms were awash in images of police using forceful tactics, throwing people to the ground, using bicycles as shields and in one instance trampling a protester while on horseback.

Authorities vow crackdown

Quite frankly, Im ready to just lock people up," Atlanta Police Chief Erika Shields said at a news conference. Demonstrations there turned violent Friday, and police were arresting protesters Saturday on blocked-off downtown streets. Yes, you caught us off balance once. Its not going to happen twice.

This week's unrest recalled the riots in Los Angeles nearly 30 years ago after the acquittal of the white police officers who beat Rodney King, a black motorist who had led them on a high-speed chase.

The protests of Floyd's killing have gripped many more cities, but the losses in Minneapolis have yet to approach the staggering totals Los Angeles saw during five days of rioting in 1992, when more than 60 people died, 2,000-plus were injured and thousands arrested, with property damage topping $1 billion.

Many protesters spoke of frustration that Floyds death was one more in a litany.

It came in the wake of the killing in Georgia of Ahmaud Arbery, a black man who was shot dead after being pursued by two white men while running in their neighborhood, and in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic that has thrown millions out of work, killed more than 100,000 people in the US and disproportionately affected black people.

The officer who held his knee to Floyds neck as he begged for air was arrested Friday and charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. But many protesters are demanding the arrests of the three other officers involved.

Trump stoked the anger, firing off a series of tweets criticizing Minnesota's response, ridiculing people who protested outside the White House and warning that if protesters had breached its fence they would "have been greeted with the most vicious dogs, and most ominous weapons, I have ever seen.

Leaders in many affected cities have voiced outrage over Floyd's killing and expressed sympathy for protesters' concerns. But as the unrest intensified, they spoke of a desperate need to protect their cities and said they would call in reinforcements, despite concerns that could lead to more heavy-handed tactics.

Minnesota has steadily increased to 1,700 the number of National Guardsmen it says it needs to contain the unrest, and the governor is considering a potential offer of military police put on alert by the Pentagon.

Governors in Georgia, Kentucky, Ohio and Texas also activated the National Guard after protests there turned violent overnight, while nighttime curfews were put in place in Portland, Oregon, Cincinnati and elsewhere.

Police in St. Louis were investigating the death of a protester who climbed between two trailers of a Fed Ex truck and was killed when it drove away. And a person was killed in the area of protests in downtown Detroit just before midnight after someone fired shots into an SUV, officers said. Police had initially said someone fired into the crowd from an SUV.
Two Brooklyn lawyers have been charged for allegedly tossing a Molotov cocktail into a New York Police Department vehicle early Saturday morning during a protest decrying the police killing of George Floyd.

Colinford Mattis, 32, a corporate attorney with Pryor Cashman, and attorney Urooj Rahman, 31, were charged with the attack where they threw the bomb into an empty police cruiser that was parked outside the 88th Precinct station house in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, cops say.

Police say Rahman, a registered attorney in New York, tossed a bottle filled with gasoline through a broken window into the cruiser just before 1am but the Molotov cocktail failed to ignite.

Rahman then jumped into a van that Mattis was driving and together they sped away from the scene according to the New York Daily News.

Brooklyn lawyers Colinford Mattis 32, (above) and Urooj Rahman, 31, have been arrested for allegedly throwing a Molotov cocktail into an empty NYPD cruiser in Fort Greene early Saturday morning

The bomb attempt was caught on video surveillance cameras outside the precinct located on DeKalb Avenue.

Police chased and stopped the duos van on Willoughby Street and found the makings of another Molotov cocktail in the backseat and a gasoline container.

Both Rahman and Mattis were arrested and charged with attempting to damage or destroy law-enforcement vehicles. Neither had been arrested before.

They face a mandatory minimum sentence of five years and a maximum of 20 years in jail.

They face federal charges and will be arraigned Monday.

'No rational human being can ever believe that hurling firebombs at police officers and vehicles is justified,' Brooklyn US Attorney Richard Donaghue said.

Mattis lives in East New York and graduated from Princeton University and New York University law school in 2016, according to his Linkedin page.

Mattis is a corporate attorney with Pryor Cashman and graduated from Princeton University and New York University law school

The smoldering remains of a scorched police car pictured above vandalized during riots in Fort Greene in Brooklyn on Friday May 29

Hes an associate with Pryor Cashman, a corporate law firm in Times Square where he specializes in start-ups, and is a member of Community Board 5 in East New York.

As of Sunday evening his profile on the law firm's website was deleted.

'This is shocking news to me. The allegation does surprise me because that doesnt sound like him,' Andre Mitchell, president of Community Board 5, said to the Daily News.

Rahmans social media shows she graduated from Fordham University in New York.

The super of Rahmans building in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn described her as 'an angel' who recently lost her legal job.

'I cant believe it. Im stunned. This kid? Shes an angel,' George Raleigh said.

The attack did not appear to be directly linked to a similar Molotov cocktail attack on NYPD officers in Brooklyn on Friday night around 10.30pm where two upstate New York women threw a bomb into a cruiser carrying four NYPD officers.

Samantha Shader, 27, of Catskill New York is now facing federal charge of attempting to damage of destroy law-enforcement vehicles for allegedly throwing the Molotov cocktail into the cop car in Prospect Heights Friday evening.

The device failed to ignite because she used tissue paper in her makeshift bomb, which burned out before reaching the explosives inside.

Samantha Shader, 27, is accused of chucking the petrol bomb at the police vehicle - which had four officers inside - in Brooklyn shortly after 10.30pm on Friday

Footage obtained exclusively by DailyMail.com shows as a woman prepares the explosive before returning to throw it at the van; the cocktail did not explode

Samantha Shader (right) and Darian Shader (left) were arrested Friday during protests in Brooklyn. Samantha faces a a federal charge of damaging a police vehicle, Darian has been charged with resisting arrest and obstruction of governmental administration

Her sister Darian Shader has been charged with obstruction of justice and was released without bail on Sunday after being arraigned in Brooklyn Criminal Court.

Footage obtained exclusively by DailyMail.com shows as a woman prepares the explosive before returning to throw it at the van.

The lit bottle did not explode, and no officers were injured but other protesters are seen running from the scene and heard expressing shock at the action.

According to a statement provided to DailyMail.com, the NYPD officers exited the cruiser and attempted to arrest Shader. She allegedly then bit an officer as he tried to arrest her.

Her younger sister, Darian, 21, tried to interfere and was also taken into custody. She was charged with resisting arrest and obstruction of governmental administration.

Police have sought attempted murder charges in the case. Samantha Shader faces a single charge of causing damage by fire and explosives to a police vehicle.

Prosecutors said Sunday: 'In a post-arrest statement, Shader later admitted to police that she had thrown the Molotov Cocktail at the NYPD vehicle.'

They were among some 3,000 demonstrators who took to the streets in New York City overnight as part of a series of nationwide protests over the death of black man George Floyd who was allegedly killed by a white cop in Minneapolis on Monday.
Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - Saying that national reconciliation must be embraced, 44 members of Libya's House of Representatives have called for an end to bloodshed, rejecting discord and division and called for an urgent return to dialogue through the political process on the basis of truth and tolerance
Andhra Pradesh Municipal and Urban Development minister Botsa Satyanarayana on Sunday slammed the Telegu Desam Party (TDP) for trying to intervene in the dismissal of Andhra Pradesh State Election Commissioner (SEC) saying that the party was only concerned with the 'person and not the system.' "Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar lost his post as SEC in accordance with the government's policy decision. He himself can approach the court. But why TDP intervened in that matter? I believe that TDP is only concerned about the person and not the system," said Botsa Satyanarayana.

His comments come shortly after TDP Rajya Sabha MP Kanakamedala Raveendra Kumar called the interpretation made by Advocate General Sriram Subrahmanyam pertaining to High Court's order on the issue of Andhra Pradesh SEC "wrong".

Read: KIA Motors To Invest Another $54 Million In Andhra Pradesh For Upcoming Project

Read: Andhra Pradesh: Migrant Workers From Uttar Pradesh Agitate At Quarantine Centre

"We have faith in judiciary and the Advocate General Sriram Subrahmanyam is a learned person. Some people were misinterpreting the High Court's verdict. So, the AG during the press meet had asked them to stop such misinterpretations,' he said. "Public did not like TDP policies, which is why they rejected the party during elections. If we commit any mistake, people will reject us too. We are ready to face the people," the Minister added.

Andhra HC Quashes Govt's ordinance and reinstates SEC

Andhra Pradesh High Court on Friday reinstated Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar as the State Election Commissioner (SEC) and quashed the ordinance issued by the Andhra Pradesh government curtailing the tenure of the State Election Commissioner.

This is being perceived as a major setback for Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy as he had publicly described Kumar as 'casteist' and inclined towards Chandrababu Naidu-led Telugu Desam Party. Pronouncing its verdict on 13 petitions challenging Kumar's removal, the bench ruled that the state government did not have the power to issue an ordinance under Section 213 of the Constitution.

Thus, all government orders brought under the section stand invalid. Moreover, the court set aside the appointment of V Kanagaraj as the SEC. Subsequently, Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar resumed his duties as the Andhra Pradesh SEC on Friday soon after the High Court ordered the state government to reinstate him.

Read: Andhra Pradesh Govt Launches 'Rythu Bharosa Kendras' For Farmers Across State

Read: Most Poll Promises Implement Within First Year, Says Andhra Pradesh CM Jagan Mohan Reddy

(With Agency Inputs)
Tories today slammed 'hard-left' unions opposing the reopening of schools amid claims a fifth of staff will stay off tomorrow.

The National Education Union (NEU) was accused of 'chasing headlines' by resisting the 'phased and cautious' plans to get pupils back in the classroom.

The row came as general secretary Mary Bousted dismissed the idea of making up for lost time during the summer holidays, saying her members had been working 'flat out' during lockdown and deserved a break.

She said any headteachers looking to lay on catch-up classes, especially for those pupils going into GCSEs and A levels, should only offer voluntary clubs and activities during the school holidays.

Her words came as a fifth of teachers are expected to stay home on Monday when Reception, Year One and Year Six pupils sit behind their desks again.

The figure was revealed by a TES survey of 5,000 school leaders.

A fifth of teachers are expected to stay home on Monday when Reception, Year One and Year Six pupils sit behind their desks again

Mary Bousted said schools should not cancel the summer holiday due to begin towards the end of July this year. But should offer voluntary activities for children

She told Sky's Sophy Ridge teachers deserved a break as they had been worked flat out

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson sought to assure parents their children would be safe at school on Monday, and said 'strict safety measures' were in place

Speaking to Sophy Ridge on Sunday from her home in south London, Ms Bousted said: 'No. The summer holiday shouldn't be cancelled because teachers have been working flat out to provide education for children at home.

'So what should happen is, and we do support this, to have clubs and activities on a volunteer basis for those children to meet together to socialise.

'We don't think the emphasis should be on catch up because many of those children will need to re-socialise, re-engage and re-engage with a love of learning and be involved in creative activities which enable them to become part of a wider society again and have the desire to learn again.'

Swiping at the government's re-opening plans she said tomorrow is 'too soon' despite the costs to the education of all pupils, including the disadvantaged.

'We are not saying that schools should never be opened but we are saying that if you open schools on June 15 the rate of infection would have halved.

'We think that is safer, we think that is rational, we think that's responsible.'

She also warned headteachers have had inadequate time to plan as the government's guidelines were changed more than 41 times since they were published on May 12, adding to the stress.

Primary schools across England will reopen to children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 6

Classrooms will have to operate with tables and chairs socially distanced. Above is Grove Road Primary School in Tring, Hertfordshire

What will a re-opened school look like tomorrow? Schools are expected to enact the following measures as they re-open on Monday for reception, year one and year six. Parents should have heard from their children's schools about what measures they will be using. - Ties, blazers, hats and bags may be banned on school grounds as these are rarely washed - Pupils could be asked to wear PE kit in so they can avoid changing rooms - Packed lunches may be required, as school canteens are not expected to start serving food Advertisement

'That's hugely added to the stress of school leaders and teachers, because we have a government simply who they think is just making it up as it goes along'.

These plans she said, have given up on 'social distancing in schools' by favouring 'cohort distancing', where children are taught in groups of 15 by one teacher.

'Those children live in families who from tomorrow will be able to go out and socialise with six other people,' she said.

'We're asking teachers without PPE and without social distancing to go into schools, at a time when the rate of infection is still the fifth highest incidence in the world.

'And at a time when there is not a fully functioning test, trace and isolate system in place.'

But Tory MP Caroline Johnson, a part vice-chair and education select committee member, said: 'It is sad to see Labour and the hard-left NEU chasing headlines rather than acknowledging the facts around the phased, cautious wider opening of schools.

'Throughout this pandemic the Government has engaged closely with the unions, schools and local authorities and that engagement continues. Having reviewed the scientific and medical advice from SAGE, all of us want to ensure children can get the education they need whilst ensuring the risk of transmission is very low.

'The safety and welfare of our children and all staff has been central to all decision making by ministers.'

It comes as a TES survey suggests many teachers will stay home when schools open on Monday.

They may be off because they suffer from health conditions including asthma and diabetes, live with a vulnerable family member or because they are at heightened risk due to their age.

They also found eleven out of the country's 20 worst performing councils on tests have told head teachers to keep the gates bolted.

The government plans to get Reception, Year One and Year Six pupils back to school on Monday, with an ambition to then get Year 10 and 12 back in lessons on June 15.

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have all pushed back their school start dates.

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson sought to calm concerned parents today, writing in the Sun on Sunday that pupils will not be allowed to gather in groups larger than 15.

He also assured parents it would be safe, saying 'strict safety measures' have been put in place to protect children.

But he also warned that children's education can't 'suffer during this time' as coronavirus is expected to be with us for many months to come.

'I know full well that parents have been going the extra mile to make sure their children don't miss out during the lockdown,' he said.

'But sadly, not all children have that kind of support.

'For those who have had a particularly tough start in life, the price of not being in education will be a high one.'
President Donald Trump, facing sharp criticism Sunday from lawmakers and thousands of peaceful protestors outside the White House, seized on the unrest over the death of an unarmed African American man to make a political case against Democrats and his likely foe in the 2020 general election, former Vice President Joe Biden.

Just a few hours after CNN and others reported that Trumps top allies and advisers were divided over whether Trump should calm a country on edge with a formal address or ramp up condemnation of looters," the president launched politicized attacks on Twitter  telling Democratic mayors and governors to get tough against anarchists and saying the world is watching and laughing at you and Sleepy Joe. Is this what America wants? NO!!!"

Get tough Democrat Mayors and Governors. These people are ANARCHISTS. Call in our National Guard NOW. The World is watching and laughing at you and Sleepy Joe. Is this what America wants? NO!!!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 31, 2020

Earlier, Trump called for law and order in Philadelphia, NOW! They are looting stores.

He credited himself for Minnesota calling in the National Guard, and questioned, Is this what voters want with Sleepy Joe? All Dems!

Trump then posted STRENGTH on a retweet from a now-suspended account that included a slogan tied to the QAnon conspiracy theory, which last year the FBI mentioned as one of many conspiracy theories tied to potential domestic terrorism threats.

The FBI assesses these conspiracy theories very likely will emerge, spread and evolve in the modern information marketplace, occasionally driving both groups and individual extremists to carry out criminal or violent acts, the FBI said, according to Yahoo News. The FBI said the number of extremists tied to such theories are likely to ramp up in this years presidential election cycle.

The account that sent that apparent QAnon tweet I just referenced on @MSNBC has already been suspended by Twitter for violating its rules. The president elevated it with a message moments before, saying simply: STRENGTH! pic.twitter.com/bm0vHYQiN3  Monica Alba (@albamonica) May 31, 2020

Trump on Friday expressed sympathy for the family of George Floyd, the unarmed man who died after a white Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin, pinned him to the ground with his knee to Floyds neck for almost 9 minutes. Chauvin faces charges of third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter, but Floyds family is pushing for upgraded charges.

Trump also used a historically racist phrase, When the looting starts, the shooting starts, in a tweet that Twitter said glorified violence" earlier this week. The president, who described some protestors as thugs," said the U.S. would not let protests descend into lawless anarchy and chaos." He threatened White House protestors with vicious dogs and ominous weapons, saying many Secret Service agents" were just waiting for action.

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, in a Sunday interview on CNNs State of the Union, said the president stoked racial tensions with his remarks.

He should just stop talking, she said. This is like Charlottesville all over again. After rallies that involved white supremacists in Charlottesville in 2017, Trump said there were some very fine people on both sides.

He speaks and he makes it worse," she added. "There are times when you should just be quiet and I wish that he would just be quiet. Or if he cant be silent, if there is somebody of good sense and good conscience in the White House, put him in front of a teleprompter and pray he reads it and at least says the right things, because he is making it worse.

Rep. Val Demings of Florida, told NBCs Meet the Press, that if there was ever a time we need leadership in the White House, it is now, to help heal our nation.

The violence has since escalated across the country, with a handful of people dead and thousands of arrests in more than 70 cities.

Officials in Minnesota say a mix of out-of-state instigators, including organized crime and white supremacist groups, have incited violence. Videos posted on social media show armed militia groups and antifascist groups in several cities, where large crowds have faced off against police wearing riot gear and using pepper spray, tear gas and rubber bullets.

Up to 2,000 protestors peacefully chanted outside the White House on Sunday afternoon.

It appears that there could be as many as 2,000 peaceful protesters occupying the street near Lafayette Park right now. The vibe is one of immense solidarity and unity. pic.twitter.com/nQKBqKeD6s  Julia Boccagno (@juliaboccagno) May 31, 2020

Peaceful Protest now outside White House. Protestors kneeling and chanting stop killing black people.



This is Day 3 of Washington, DC protests: pic.twitter.com/isfZGFZeGe  Joyce Karam (@Joyce_Karam) May 31, 2020

Trump, pinning the escalating unrest on antifa-led anarchists," Democratic leaders and the media, said on Twitter Sunday that the U.S. would designate antifa a terrorist organization. The statement sparked rebuke, including from U.S. lawmakers and others who pointed out that white supremacist groups had not been singled out in similar fashion, either by the president or law enforcement historically.

Rufus Gifford, deputy campaign manager for Biden, tweeted Sunday that the country is being torn apart at the seams and Donald Trump actually seems to be enjoying it.

The Trump campaign shot back: Joe Bidens campaign staffers are posting bail money for rioters robbing and burning down Black-owned businesses while the deputy campaign manager makes this absurd claim.

Fox News reported that more than a dozen of Bidens campaign staff have donated to a group that helps post bail for Minneapolis protestors.

Biden, in a statement released Saturday, said the last few days laid bare that we are a nation furious at injustice.

Every person of conscience can understand the rawness of the trauma people of color experience in this country, from the daily indignities to the extreme violence, like the horrific killing of George Floyd, Biden said. Protesting such brutality is right and necessary. Its an utterly American response. But burning down communities and needless destruction is not. Violence that endangers lives is not. Violence that guts and shutters businesses that serve the community is not. The act of protesting should never be allowed to overshadow the reason we protest."

Related Content
(Newser)  Tense protests over the death of George Floyd and other police killings of black men grew Saturday from New York to Tulsa to Los Angeles, with police cars set ablaze and reports of injuries mounting on all sides during another night of unrest after months of coronavirus lockdowns. The protests, which began in Minneapolis following Floyd's death Monday after a police officer pressed a knee on his neck for more than eight minutes, have left parts of the city a grid of broken windows, burned-out buildings, and ransacked stores, the AP reports. The unrest has since become a national phenomenon as protesters decry years of deaths at police hands. More:

In Philadelphia, at least 13 officers were injured when peaceful protests turned violent and at least four police vehicles were set on fire. Other fires were set throughout downtown.

story continues below

In the Greenwood District of Tulsa, Oklahoma, the site of a 1921 massacre of black people that left as many as 300 dead and the citys thriving black district in ruins, protesters blocked intersections and chanted the name of Terence Crutcher, a black man killed by a police officer in 2016.

In Tallahassee, Florida, a pickup truck drove through a crowd of protesters, sending some running and screaming as the vehicle stopped and started and at one point had a person on its hood, police said, but no serious injuries were reported. Police handcuffed the driver but did not release his name or say whether he would face charges.

In Los Angeles, protesters chanted "Black Lives Matter," some within inches of the face shields of officers. Police used batons to move the crowd back and fired rubber bullets. One man used a skateboard to try to break a police SUV's windshield. A spray-painted police car burned in the street.

In Washington, DC, growing crowds outside the White House chanted, taunted Secret Service agents and other law enforcement officers, and at times pushed against security barriers. President Trump, who spent much of Saturday in Florida for the SpaceX rocket launch, landed on the residence's lawn in the presidential helicopter at dusk and went inside without speaking to journalists.

In New York City, video posted to social media showed officers using batons and shoving protesters down as they made arrests and cleared streets. Another video showed two NYPD cruisers driving into protesters who were pushing a barricade against a police car and pelting it with objects, knocking several to the ground.

In Minneapolis,state troopers and National Guard members moved in to break up protests after an 8pm curfew took effect, firing tear gas and rubber bullets to clear streets outside a police precinct and elsewhere. The show of force came after three days where police mostly declined to engage with protesters. It also came after the state poured in more than 4,000 National Guard members and said the number would soon rise to nearly 11,000.

More than a dozen other major cities nationwide imposed overnight curfews ranging from 6 pm in parts of South Carolina to 10pm around Ohio. People were also told to be off the streets of Atlanta, Denver, Los Angeles, Seattle and Minneapolis  where thousands ignored the same order the previous night. (Read more George Floyd stories.)
Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser said on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday that President Trump's tweets about protests over the death of George Floyd are "divisive" and draw from the "segregationist past of our country."

Driving the news: A Friday tweet by Trump, which was later flagged by Twitter for violating its rules about "glorifying violence," called protestors "THUGS" and used the phrase, "when the looting starts, the shooting starts."

The phrase was coined in 1967 by Miami police chief Walter Headley, who was criticized by civil rights leaders who argued the Miami police force unfairly discriminated against black residents. Headley once said his officers "don't mind being accused of police brutality."

The phrase was later used by segregationist presidential candidate George Wallace. Trump claimed on Friday that he didn't know the history behind the phrase.

What she's saying: Bowser told "Meet the Press" that Trump "has a responsibility to help calm the nation, and he can start by not sending divisive tweets. ... We certainly urge him to do that."

"We have systematic issues in our country to address, and it's going to take us at every level  federal and local  it's going to take community and government to heal the hurt that people are feeling," Bowser added.

"So what you see in cities across our nation, what we saw last night, are people who are angry and people who are hurting, and some not doing it in ways that are helpful to our cause. But we still have to acknowledge that hurt and that anger."

Go deeper ... Atlanta mayor on Trump's riot response: "He speaks and he makes it worse"




South Korean prosecutors called in Samsung Group heir Lee Jae-yong again Friday as part of an investigation into a controversial merger between two Samsung units.







The summons came three days after Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee was questioned for 17 hours about suspicions surrounding the 2015 merger of two major affiliates: Samsung C&T Corp. and Cheil Industries Inc.







Prosecutors suspect Samsung's top management was involved in efforts to facilitate Lee's managerial succession from his ailing father, Lee Kun-hee, and may have intentionally lowered the value of Samsung C&T prior to its merger with Cheil Industries to help benefit the heir apparent.







Lee was the largest shareholder in Cheil Industries, an affiliate that produces textiles, chemicals and electronic chemical materials, with a stake of 23.2 percent. That means a fall in the valuation of Samsung C&T paves the way for a merger ratio advantageous to the Samsung heir.







Lee is said to have denied the allegations.







The prosecution service's investigation seems to have gained steam this year with fresh rounds of a probe into the group's top management amid reports that it's nearing an end. (Yonhap)


Nigerias fight against the dreaded COVID-19 pandemic is under threat as resident doctors under the aegis of Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) have threatened to down tools over poor welfare.

Rising from its virtual Ordinary General Meeting (OGM) and Scientific Conference on Saturday, the doctors stated that they would embark on an indefinite strike if the Federal Government failed to address their demands within 14 days.

In a communique signed by NARD National President, Dr. Sokomba Aliyu and Publicity Secretary, Dr. Egbogu Stanley, the doctors called on the Federal and State governments to provide adequate personnel protective equipment such as N95 respirators, gloves etc. to all health workers.

According to the association, the 26 resident doctors sacked at Jos University Teaching Hospital must also be recalled and their salaries paid as they were illegally disengaged without recourse to the law governing Residency training.

The association also demands for universal implementation of the Residency Training Act in both Federal and State Teaching hospitals. NARD demands immediate implementation of the revised hazard allowance, and payment of COVID-19 inducement allowance, the communique said.

The association enjoined the Federal Government through the National Assembly to ensure full capture of the residency training funding in the 2021 Appropriation Act.

It also demanded for payment of arrears of the consequential adjustment of the new minimum wage to its members at both Federal and state tertiary health institutions.

The Association condemned what it called the illegal deductions in salaries of members by some state governments and demanded for immediate refund.

NARD observes the slashing of salaries of our members at state tertiary health institutions with particular reference to Kaduna state government that cut the salaries of health workers by twenty five percent.

It also called on security agencies especially in Lagos, Delta and Abuja to stop the harassment and assault of doctors while carrying out their legitimate activities.

NARD observes non-payment of arrears of the consequential adjustment of new minimum wage to some of her members.

It also observed with concern, the non-implementation of revised CONMESS and skipping arrears by some state governments in various state tertiary teaching hospitals.

The NARD noted the shortage of medical staff especially resident doctors in most health institutions across the country and called on the government to address the problem.
Fuck this piece of shit

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when will him and his brother leave this planet

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I vote we launch them both into the sun

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we just have to get the right people involved.

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YT vloggers stay the worst

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He needs to be forced fed shit.

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while being told "it's just a prank bro"

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Omg yes.

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And it being that thick thick milkshake that Dan gave Becky on Roseanne back in the day. Just to make him have to do the action himself.

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Wow this is a special type of shitty.

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total POS

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he is the absolute bottom of the barrel scum

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I had a whole thing I was gonna say but I dont have the energy.





I hope he gets curbstomped.

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todays BLM protest here in austin has been canceled by the organizers bc non-black POC and yts have co-opted it as an opportunity to wreak senseless havoc. my husband and i were planning on attending but i think its the right way to go.

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Yeah Im mad but Im kinda glad the organizer called them out.

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I knew this was going to happen. It's just an opportunity for them to smash shit up and feel rebellious while they go back to not giving a shit about black people within a week (if they ever did).

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Can you guys give me your favorite POC owned political shops?

My goto got shut down for scamming. But its summer time and I dont wear sleeves once its over 85. Gotta up my tank top game.

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Thank you!

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I really LOVE the domain name word play. Lollll

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Not shocked. Watched live news coverage of our unrest yesterday and at least half causing damage were white teens/early twenties douchebags.



Honestly a majority of our damage wasnt done by the protestors, but people who came out after the protest to take advantage of the situation.

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I think the mayor of Minnesota mentioned the overwhelming majority of people who were damaging things were found to be outside states or something like that.

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And he was proven incorrect. Jail records proved most of the people arrested were from MN.

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WI? Bc that's the impression I had of our damage, but I admittedly didn't watch a lot of the coverage.

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Anyone follow the whole Coral Gables thing yesterday? I'm already seeing pictures of the cops kneeling being used by well meaning friends on Facebook, and it's really frustrating me.

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I saw that on FB too but didn't read it, what happened?

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It was planned with the police, like the police were asked to come, and no black leaders or organizations were involved in any planning or anything. And I even saw some things online that it was also being used to gather people's personal information who were coming (don't know how true that is). There's a lot on Twitter from people calling bullshit on the whole thing and refused to support it. Cause seriously, how can you plan an event for a movement and then not involve anyone from that movement? Pretty suspicious to me.

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everyones already posting the video of that white cop in genesee county being like "WE'RE HERE TO MARCH WITH YOU, CONGRATULATE ME!!!"

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the joke is dude has all the resources and audience to play a hero rn by donating money or showing bottom barrel allyship but he's actually just too fucking stupid.



youtube will prob rewarding him with a multi million dollar gaming deal tho

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Dehradun, May 31 : Hours after Uttarakhand Minister Satpal Maharaj tested positive for coronavirus, the state's opposition Congress on Sunday sought that the state cabinet should go into quarantine as he had attended a cabinet meeting earlier this week.

"Very disturbing news, the whole Uttrakhand Cabinet including the Chief Minister may be quarentined (sic) as a Cabinet Minister who attended the Cabinet Meeting found Corona positive," Congress state Vice President Suryakant Dhasmana said in a tweet.

Satpal Maharaj and at least two dozen of his family members and staff also tested positive, state officials said. This came a day after the minister's wife Amrita Rawat, who had fever for the past few days, tested positive for coronavirus on Saturday.

What is worrying is that Satpal Maharaj, the state Tourism Minister, had attended a cabinet meeting on Friday where Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat and other ministers of the BJP government were present.

In a video on his Twitter handle, Dhasmana said: "I think the whole cabinet should go into quarantine and get themselves checked at the earliest as it is a matter of public welfare, of public health, of people's health... so many of the state's people, party leaders and officials, ministers come in contact." "I pray to God that no one else turns out to be infected... to stop this happening, this (quarantining) is necessary. We pray that the Chief Minister and his colleagues stay healthy, and Maharaj ji and his family come out victorious."
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A pair of instructors donning traditional martial arts uniforms and black belts shout out key words in Japanese as they demonstrate punch after block after kick.

The young students gaze at their senseis -- or teachers -- and follow almost synchronously.

Its a scene that has unfolded countless times in Legend Shotokan Karate in Dongan Hills -- but with some very noticeable differences.

The instructors must take a quick pause on occasion for a dog barking in the background, students speaking at the same time or a delay in video relay.

What used to be a dojo full of youngsters has now become an empty dojo with a laptop placed at the center, the presence of students replaced only by their voices coming through the laptop.

Legend Shotokan Karate is one of countless after-school and recreational businesses on Staten Island that have tweaked their traditional models and transitioned to online learning to maintain a presence in their students lives during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

To Hanshi Bernard Scarda, it was equally important to continue teaching karate during the pandemic as it was to be there for the students with whatever they needed.

Its important that the students have somewhere to go," said Scarda. We are not just teaching them karate. They learn valuable life lessons. People sign-up for the karate and leave with much more.

The transition started with instructors uploading content to Google Classroom, where students would be able to upload their assignments.

The instructors felt that a face-to-face interaction with the students would be better, especially since many of the students are friends and theres a great sense of community and family at the school.

Its important to give the kids a sense of normalcy and discipline in their daily routines,'' said Sensei Sal Amato, an instructor at the school. "We are teaching the skills to bolster their confidence and persevere through these tough times.

The school has offered enrolled students free access to the online classes.

Staten Island School of Rock launched its own virtual video software and it is being used around the world. (Photo courtesy Staten Island School of Rock)(Photo courtesy Staten Island School of Rock)

MUSIC SCHOOL ROLLS OUT SOFTWARE

Unlike most other businessmen using Zoom to connect to students, Mike Grande, the owner and director of Staten Island School of Rock, based in Great Kills, has created his own free virtual online platform.

After three years and many nights with very little sleep, Grande has finally been able to turn his once far-fetched idea into a reality. Grande touts that his platform RockOutLoud.live is easier to use than other services and is able to better equip instructors with the tools necessary to successfully educate students.

The moment we were told we had to close due to COVID-19, we immediately had to pivot and teach virtual music lessons,'' said Grande. "While the world went to Zoom, we decided to roll out our virtual music lesson software to our students.

The platform allows for instructors to directly drop files to students and directly and actively engage on a topic together and also provides a better video quality, he said.

Our music lesson video portal offers music educators a way to upload sheet music and chords directly into their video sessions without screen sharing. You have full access to a complete library of sheet music and it also allows our students to download the music they were being taught right on to their computer.

So far RockOutLoud has been used on three continents and is starting to be used in Australia as well. Along with connecting with his students on a daily basis, more than 200 meetings are hosted on the platform daily and Grande has had to upgrade servers due to high demand.

There are plans in the works to expand the program to go beyond music educators. The software can be utilized by doctors to conference with patients about test results while patients will be able to download files directly.

Grande also had more than 100 pizza pies delivered to students of his school to show his appreciation to them.

Dance Electra holds a virtual "buddy day" class. (Photo courtesy Dance Electra)(Photo Courtesy Dance Electra)

OUTSIDE-THE-BOX DANCE EXPERIENCES

Dance schools are also partaking in virtual meetings with students.

Dance Electra in South Beach has been conducting online Zoom sessions since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. But what started out as dance lessons has turned into what has now become a more personable experience with students.

It was like someone pulled your favorite rug out from under you, and dance is something that I love to do and all of a sudden the government tells you that you cant do it anymore, so I had to find a way to see the kids again,'' said Kathy Gambardella, director of Dance Electra. "These kids are just like my kids and its so tough because its not as personable as if they were with us in the studio, the energy isnt the same.

Dance Electra has been adding additional creative classes and ideas in order to keep the students actively engaged. Recently, a professional dancer taught a virtual master class seminar and instructors have conducted in-house scavenger hunts with winners receiving prizes hand-delivered by instructors.

They are also keeping moms and dads engaged by doing a dance lesson with parents involved.

Were trying to keep a positive outlook, but at the same time were trying to be there for the kids,'' Gambardella said. "Zoom definitely isnt the same. Morale is tough to keep up for both the students and instructors, but when some of the younger kids press their face against the screen saying they miss you, you know its worth it.

Instructors for Bedazzled Dance Studio surprised students with a drive by for its 15th anniversary. (Photo courtesy Bedazzled Dance Studio)

Bedazzle Dance Studio in Dongan Hills holds upwards of five Zoom meetings per day on Monday through Saturday and the director of the studio, Miss Christine, says the students have been extremely receptive of the online meetings and 98% of students are participating in the sessions.

We wanted all our students to have some normalcy, as they are isolated at home, and are used to seeing us multiple times a week, she said.

Its important that they keep their bodies moving for their health," she said. "They need that physical and also emotional outlet, that dances allows us to express. They would stay connected to their friends, and to us, their teachers.

The studio practices basic techniques with students as well as choreographed routines that they have been working so hard to perfect this year.

Bedazzle Dance Studio hasnt just stuck to Zoom meetings. Dance instructors for the school personally conducted a drive-by to show their appreciation to students as they celebrated their 15th anniversary. The instructors hand delivered the schools anniversary T-shirts and goodies to students.
The Chiefs and Elders of Bolgatanga, Nabdam, Bongo and Tongo, known jointly as BONABOTO, have petitioned President Akufo-Addo to set up a Committee to investigate circumstances under which a planned airport project in Bolgatanga was later diverted to Paga.

The group is accusing Aviation Minister, Joseph Kofi Adda of altering the said plan.

At a meeting with President Akufo Addo at the Jubilee House, Paramount Chief of the Talensi Traditional area, who led the delegation, Tong Raana Nalebtang Robert Mosore said the issue should be investigated.

Mr President, contrary to your firm commitment to the people of Bongo, our honourable Joseph Adda, since taking over as Minister for Aviation has been making frantic efforts to redevelop the technically unsuitable Paga airstrip against the interest of the people of the Upper East Region and the North East Region. Our case between the Bolgatanga airport in the Regional capital is not born out of ethnic interests but on a real technical and commercial basis and so we carry here a petition on behalf of our people, and signed by the paramount chiefs of the BONABOTO area and chiefs of Sumbrungu and Bolga-Sirigu. With the background of the Bolgatanga airport, and weeks of meetings between the Regional Coordinating Committee and civil aviation we have the plan of the airport herewith for your review and consideration.

Meanwhile, President Akufo-Addo has announced plans by the government to convert the Bolgatanga Regional Hospital into a Teaching Hospital for the training of doctors.

The Tong-Raana Kugbilsong Nalebtang Robert Mosore, commended the President for his proactive leadership.

Leaders have fallen short in protecting their citizens in the wake of the COVID-19. Your proactive leadership has saved the lives of Ghanaians and you really deserve commendation, he said.

He also expressed gratitude to the President for the development projects in the BONABOTO area over the past three years including the US$1 billion Pwalugu Dam, support to farmers through the Planting for Food and Jobs, among others.

---citinewsroom
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Pfizer is working with German firm Biontech for several possible vaccines in Europe and the United States, said the report.

Pfizer believes that a COVID-19 vaccine could be ready by the end of October 2020. Albert Bourla, the CEO of the American pharmaceutical company was quoted as saying this by The Times of Israel.

If things go well, and the stars are aligned, we will have enough evidence of safety and efficacy so that we can have a vaccine around the end of October, Bourla was quoted as saying in the report, CNBC-TV18 said.

Pfizer is working with German firm Biontech for several possible vaccines in Europe and the United States, said the report.

Several pharmaceutical companies and medical institutions across the world have been trying to develop COVID-19 vaccine ever since the pandemic outbreak in December last year in China.

On 18 May, the American biotech company Moderna Inc announced that the preliminary results from the phase 1 trials of their mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine seem to be promising.

The research, being led by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), USA, had started enrolling volunteers in March. As per Moderna, a total of 45 volunteers in the age group of 18 to 55 years were to be enrolled for the trial originally.

Trials of low-cost medicine underway

A keenly-watched COVID-19 vaccine will be priced to allow as wide as possible access to it, if it proves successful, and will be made at huge scale to keep costs down and supply up, said the Oxford University professor co-leading its development.

Adrian Hill, director of Oxfords Jenner Institute, which has teamed up with the drugmaker AstraZeneca to develop the vaccine, said ensuring wide distribution and low cost have been central to the project from the start.

Click here to follow LIVE updates on coronavirus outbreak

This not going to be an expensive vaccine, Hill told Reuters in an interview. Its going to be a single dose vaccine. Its going to be made for global supply and its going to be made in many different locations. That was always our plan.

Work on 7 or 8 top candidates for vaccine being accelerated: WHO chief

Early this month, the World Health Organisation (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said there were around seven or eight top candidates for a vaccine to combat the novel coronavirus and work on them is being accelerated.

Ghebreyesus told a UN Economic and Social Council video briefing the original thinking two months ago was that it may take 12 to 18 months for a vaccine. But he said an accelerated effort is under way, helped by 7.4 billion euros ($8 billion) pledged a week ago by leaders from 40 countries, organisations and banks for research, treatment and testing.

He said the $8 billion will not be enough, and additional funds will be needed to speed up the development of a vaccine, but more importantly to produce enough to make sure that this vaccine reaches everyone  (and) theres no one be left behind.

Sanofi working on 2 vaccine projects

In the second week of this month, French drugmaker Sanofi SA said it plans to enrol thousands of subjects globally for trials of an experimental vaccine for the coronavirus it is developing with GlaxoSmithKline Plc, and that it has started to discuss advanced purchases with several countries.

Sanofi is working on two vaccine projects to prevent COVID-19 - the illness caused by the new coronavirus - and said it is exploring several manufacturing options, including fresh collaborations to ensure it can meet demand if either program is successful.

Drugmakers are rushing to develop treatments and vaccines for the highly contagious coronavirus that has killed over 255,000 people worldwide, infected more than 3.6 million and ravaged economies globally.

Early this month, Microsoft chief Bill Gates had opined that developing coronavirus vaccine could take two years and humankind has never had a more urgent task.

Dr Anthony Fauci has said he thinks itll take around eighteen months to develop a coronavirus vaccine," Gates wrote in a blog post published Thursday. I agree with him, though it could be as little as 9 months or as long as two years."

Even if it takes 18 months, that would still be the fastest that scientists have created a new vaccine, Gates said, adding that hes thinks eight to ten of the 115 current COVID-19 vaccine candidates look promising.

--With inputs from agencies
The "Fact Sheet" published by the U.S. Department of State, highlighting allegations against the Islamic Republic has triggered a war of words between Tehran and Washington.

On Friday, May 22, the State Department "Fact Sheet" maintained that the Shi'ite clergy-dominated Iran, since its establishment four decades ago, has carried out more than 360 assassinations, terrorist plots, and terrorist attacks in more than forty countries across the globe.

The Islamic Republic Foreign Ministry responded harshly, accusing Washington of "lying", "conspiracy" and "fabrication" to start a new round of "psychological war" and "exerting pressure" on Tehran.

Furthermore, Tehran insisted that Washington did not have any "evidence" to prove its allegations.

In an exclusive interview with Radio Farda's Baktash Khamsehpour, Special Envoy for Iran, Brian Hook fired back insisting that, not only the United States but many countries around the world have repeatedly raised their concerns over Tehran's activities, including its nuclear ballistic missiles program.

Furthermore, for the first time, describing the Iranian government as a "Marxist-theocratic" regime, Hook asserted that the Iranian people are tired of their regime.

Here is Radio Farda's Q&A with Brian Hook:

Radio Farda: In the fact sheet, the only specific number given of the victims of what you call the Islamic Republic terrorism is 85 killed in a suicide bombing attack on the building of AMIA ( Argentine Israelite Mutual Association), on July 18, 1994, in Buenos Aires. Would you give a breakdown of the remaining number of the victims, especially the number of the dissident Iranians assassinated, the most recent case being the killing Massoud Molavi in Turkey?

Brian Hook: Well, we did want to highlight how Iran uses its diplomats for assassinations and terrorist activities. We wanted to put that on the fact sheet so the people can understand the regime uses assassinations like the one you mentioned in Turkey, against Iranian dissidents.

Iran's diplomats are agents of terror, and they conducted multiple assassinations and bomb plots all over the world. They conducted acts of terrorism on five continents.

The European Union imposed sanctions on Iran's intelligence service, because of the assassination attempts and bomb plots in Europe. I wish the European Union would also put sanctions on what Iran is doing inside the Middle East. But if you look at the time this regime came to power in 1979, it has been implicated in assassinations and other terrorist plots in more than forty countries. That's just extraordinary.

Radio Farda: In the international diplomatic scene, the United States has made its position clear regarding the Islamic Republic but, at the same time, the European Union, and specifically the Russian Federation, as well as the People's Republic of China are not in coordination with the United States' position toward Iran.

Brian Hook: I challenge a little bit of that question, because when I confer with our European allies, and also with China and Russia, no one wants to see Iran, the Islamic Republic, acquire nuclear weapons; no one is happy about Iran's ballistic missile testing, which is obviously a cover for developing intercontinental and ballistic missiles so that it could send a nuclear warhead wherever it wishes.

I do not think anybody's happy with the regime's regional aggression and hostage-taking. And you have seen European nations, especially the permanent members of the UN Security Council, France, and the United Kingdom, repeatedly condemn Iran for terrorism, ballistic missile testing, missile proliferation, terror finance, and money laundering. They have done a lot to face Iran. We do wish they will join our strategy of maximum economic pressure and diplomatic isolation. We run a very successful strategy over the last two years, and the President would like to get to talks with the Iranian regime, and we would like to see China, Russia, and the European countries join us.

Radio Farda: The Islamic Republic has rejected the State Department fact sheet by accusing Washington of lying, calling the fact sheet "conspiracy", "illusion" and "fabrication" compiled for "psychological war", and exerting pressure on Tehran. As the State Department official responsible for Iranian affairs, what would you say to that?

Brian Hook: We do not pay a lot of attention to the propaganda machine that comes outside of Tehran. This is a Marxist-theocratic regime that peddles in falsehoods and lies.

For forty-one years now the Iranian people are tired of it, the international community is tired of it. When we put out our fact sheet, we can back-up everything in it. And the only thing that Iran really has is complaints that this is a psychological operation. But, when you look at so many people who lost their lives because of Iranian violence; I think everybody who has fallen victim to Iranian terrorism around the world understands the truth.

Radio Farda: You have recently said because of U.S. pressure, the Islamic Republic leaders have decided either to negotiate with or manage an economic collapse. How possible is negotiation with a regime that the U.S. has designated as the "main sponsor of terrorism in the world?"

Brian Hook: One of the reasons that they have been able to get away with so much terrorism is because they have the money to fund it, and what we did when coming to office, we reversed the prior administration's policy of accommodation with the regime and sanctions relief, and even encouraging business with Iran.

But since IRGC controls half of the Iranian economy, probably higher than half, if you are investing in Iran, if you are spending money in Iran, that money can go to terrorism just as easily as it can go to commerce.

So, we put in place a policy of maximum economic pressure, so that this regime simply doesn't have the revenue that it used to spend on its nuclear program, its missiles, not being in peace with its neighbors, its weapons program; and as a consequence, the Iranian regime is weaker, and so are its proxies.

Iran doesn't have the money anymore that it used to, to keep its proxies rich and to keep the regime's elite rich. So, we have been able to affect a change in the regime's behavior simply by denying its revenue. And we have amassed a lot of leverage against the regime, and that leverage is going to be necessary to accomplish the kind of deal we're talking about. We need to get to zero enrichment. Countries that want peaceful nuclear power do not need to enrich.

We also need to do something about Iran's ballistic missiles testing and missile proliferation; all of its hostage-taking and attacking its neighbors. And we believe that our diplomacy will be able to accomplish that result.
If you're just joining us, coronavirus restrictions are slowly being eased across Australia today with states and territories at different stages on the roadmap to reopen the nation.

Cafes, restaurants and pubs in Victoria are reopening to dine-in customers for the first time today, while beauty salons are reopening in both NSW and Victoria.

Cafes can reopen for the first time today since the coronavirus-induced lockdown in Victoria. Credit:Eamon Gallagher

Queenslanders can travel around their state, but the borders remain closed.

Tasmania won't be joining its mainland counterparts in further easing restrictions today, with the island state halfway between stage one and two of its roadmap.

Find out what the rules are in your state, here.
Beijing: The trouble due to coronavirus is increasing day by day across the world, Now the coronavirus has also taken the form of an epidemic. After which, the shortage of food in people's homes is increasing, because of this virus and how many innocent lives that have come to the brink of destruction. At the same time, till date the death toll has crossed 3 lakh 71 thousand worldwide and still no break of this virus has been found.

Five new cases have emerged in China: Five new cases of coronavirus infection have been reported in China, out of which three people do not show signs of infection. Health officials gave this information on Sunday. China's National Health Commission (NHC) said that no new case of infection has come to light in which a person has been infected in the country. It has been learned that out of the five people who were found infected in the country on Saturday, two people are from Shandong province and they have come from abroad. By Saturday, the number of such infected people in the country increased to 389, which do not have signs of infection. Of these, 322 cases have been reported in Wuhan. All these patients have been kept under medical supervision. The total cases of corona virus infection in China have increased to 83,001, of which 4,634 people have died. The Commission said that 78,304 patients have recovered after being infected and 63 patients are being treated in hospitals.

America: 960 people died in 24 hours: According to Johns Hopkins University report, 960 people have died in the last 24 hours due to Corona virus in America.

7386 new cases in Peru : According to the Peruvian Ministry of Health, 7,386 new cases of corona have been reported on Saturday. The total number of cases here has been 15,5,671, so far 4,371 people have died here.

Also Read:

Corona vaccine may come by end of this year, trials on humans begin

Coronavirus increases fear in these cities

America created history, SpaceX launches two NASA astronauts into space

Trump takes decision to postpone G-7 summit to be held in US due to corona
Ilhan Omar said Sunday morning that violent protests all over the country need to come to an end as demonstrators took to the streets to protest race injustices in the wake of the killing of George Floyd.

'The unrest we are seeing in our nation isn't just because of the life that was taken. It's also because so many people have experienced this,' Omar said on ABC News' This Week.

'People are sick and tired of being sick and tired. And we need to really step back and say to ourselves, where do we actually from here?' she continued, adding that much of the destruction is not coming from those who care about the Black Lives Matter movement.

New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, part of the so-called squad, which includes her, Omar, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib, appeared to strike a different tone on Saturday night when she condemned her city's mayor's comments regarding the riots as 'unacceptable.'

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on Saturday defended officers in the city dealing with riots after video footage emerged of one running their police cruiser through a crowd of violent protesters.

Representative Ilhan Omar, whose district include all of Minneapolis, called on Sunday for the violent protests across the country to cease  claiming those causing the arson, looting and violence are not doing so in the interest of the Black Lives Matter movement

The violent riots broke out across the country in the wake of the killing of George Floyd, a black man who suffocated while being pinned down by four police officers during an arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who represents part of The Bronx and Queens in the House, also weighed in on the events, condemning Mayor Bill de Blasio for defending law enforcement who ran through a crowd of violent demonstrators with a police cruiser

De Blasio claimed that New York's finest were just doing the best they could to 'deal with an absolutely impossible situation'

He said an investigation into the incident is underway, but asserted he won't blame New york's finest 'who are trying to deal with an absolutely impossible situation.'

'@NYCMayor your comments tonight were unacceptable,' Ocasio-Cortez asserted in a tweet sent just before 2:00 a.m. Sunday morning.

'As mayor, this police department is under your leadership,' she continued. 'This moment demands leadership & accountability from each of us. Defending and making excuses for NYPD running SUVs into crowds was wrong.'

'Make it right. De-escalate,' Ocasio-Cortez demanded.

Omar, a progressive Democratic congresswoman for Minnesota, represents Minneapolis and some of its suburbs in the House of Representatives.

The violent protests in her district broke out this week after video emerged of George Floyd being killed by a white cop during an arrest in Minneapolis.

Floyd was held down by four cops while he was handcuffed and was pinned down at his neck by police officer Derek Chauvin's knee for longer than eight minutes, cell phone footage of the incident revealed. The victim can be heard telling the officers that he could not breathe.

His death sparked nation-wide outrage leading to a slew of violent protests.

Chauvin, 44, was fired after demonstrators called for him to be reprimanded and arrested  and he was taken into custody on Friday and is being charged for third-degree murder.

The riots, which resulted in looting, arson and violence between protesters and law enforcement, broke out in cities all across the country, not just Minneapolis, including in New York City, Atlanta, Washington D.C., Los Angeles and many more.

Omar, along with others, have insisted that much of the protesters in Minneapolis, and other cities, have come from out of town, or even out of state to participate in violent riots that have caused businesses to shut down as they are burned to the ground and be looted.

Violent protest broke out in cities all over the country after George Floyd, a black man, was killed during an arrest as four police officers held him down in Minnesota and one, a white officer, had his knee on his neck for more than eight minutes

Omar told ABC's George Stephanopoulos on Sunday morning that setting fires risks the community that people claim to be standing for.

'There are people who exploited the pain that communities are feeling and ignite violence,' she continued.

Part of the riots on Saturday included the police car in New York City running through a group of protesters who refused to move for the car to make its way down the road.

'Running SUVs in crowds of people should never, ever be normalized. No matter who does it, no matter why,' Ocasio-Cortez posted in a Twitter thread in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Omar and Pressely, who represents Massachusetts in the House, proposed a resolution on Friday condemning police brutality after Floyd's death.

'For too long, Black and brown bodies have been profiled, surveilled, policed, lynched, choked, brutalized and murdered at the hands of police officers,' Pressley said of the resolution. 'We cannot allow these fatal injustices to go unchecked any longer.'
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-30 23:24:39|Editor: huaxia

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Pham Tan Ha (L, front), vice president of Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanities, presents an award to the first prize winner of the 19th "Chinese Bridge" for southern Vietnam in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, May 30, 2020. The final round of the 19th "Chinese Bridge," an annual Chinese language proficiency competition, for southern Vietnam was held in Vietnam's southern Ho Chi Minh City on Saturday. (Chinese Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City/Handout via Xinhua)

HO CHI MINH CITY, May 30 (Xinhua) -- The final round of the 19th "Chinese Bridge," an annual Chinese language proficiency competition, for southern Vietnam was held in Vietnam's southern Ho Chi Minh City on Saturday.

A total of 26 students from 12 colleges in southern Vietnam participated in three sections of quiz, speech and talent show in the nearly 10-hour-long competition, themed "One World, One Family," winning applause and cheering from the audience with their fluent Chinese and outstanding talent.

Vo Nguyen Quynh Nhu, a student at Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanities, won the first prize of the contest and will represent the country together with the winner of northern and central Vietnam in the "Chinese Bridge" competition in China.

Nhu said she started to learn Chinese by coincidence and had been fascinated by the beauty of Chinese language and culture ever since. "I will work harder to learn Chinese and understand the Chinese culture more deeply and comprehensively. After graduation, I would like to work in fields related to Vietnam-China friendship and improve cultural exchanges between the two countries," she said.

Pham Tan Ha, vice president of Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanities, said in a speech at the competition that the "Chinese Bridge" competition is expected to help students deepen their understanding of Chinese language and culture, adding that the contest was organized despite challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and had attracted many students who have passion for Chinese study.

Chinese Consul General in Ho Chi Minh City Wu Jun told Xinhua that this year marks the 70th anniversary of the China-Vietnam diplomatic ties and is of great significance, and that the increasing exchanges and cooperation between China and Vietnam have brought the two peoples closer.

The young generation of China and Vietnam should improve the cultural exchanges and mutual understanding and jointly promote the shared future of humanity for the two countries, he said.

The contest was co-sponsored by the Confucius Institute Headquarters (Hanban) and the Chinese Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City and organized by Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanities.
Despite a surge in cases in recent days taking Assams Covid-19 tally past 1,200 cases, the state government on Sunday expressed confidence that all measures are in place to tackle the disease effectively.

Exactly two months since the first positive case was detected on March 31, the total cases reached 1,273 till Sunday evening. According to officials, as many as 1,124 cases are of people who returned to the state after May 4 when the ban on inter-state movement was lifted.

The sudden rise in cases is due to homecoming of people from other states. Of the 1,124 positive cases detected since the return of people after May 4, 333 were of people who came from Tamil Nadu, 312 from Maharashtra and 134 from Delhi, health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma told journalists on Sunday.

Click here for full Covid-19 coverage.

According to the minister 2.29 lakh people had returned to the state from other states across the country through roads, railways and air since the imposition of lockdown on March 25.

Almost all the patients detected recently are those who have been in quarantine after their return to Assam. These cases are of people who got infected either in the state from where they came back or during their return journey to Assam, said Sarma.

At present all the 33 districts in Assam have recorded Covid-19 cases. Hojai tops the list with 177 cases, followed by Golaghat with 160 and Kamrup (Metro) with 134. Majuli is at the bottom of the list with just one case.

Due to ramping up of testing facilities, Assam had conducted tests of 104,083 samples in seven government-accredited laboratories in the state till Sunday. Efforts are underway to test 10,000 samples per day soon with the opening of three more laboratories.

Apart from ramping testing, we have been able to put 2.29 lakh returnees in institutional and home quarantine and now have facilities to treat nearly 5,000 Covid-19 patients. This has been possible due to coordinated efforts of all government departments, said Sarma.

The minister added that since testing capabilities have increased, the state government might decide to reduce mandatory institutional quarantine for all returnees from 7 days at present to 4 days sometime in June. Mandatory tests of all returnees will continue as before.

We will try and ensure that test results of all returnees are made available within 72 hours of their return so that they can leave institutional quarantine on the 5th day and spend the next 10 days of mandatory quarantine in their homes, said Sarma.

He added that soon highly symptomatic patients who need special care would be kept at the six medical college hospitals in the state, those considered vulnerable will be admitted at district hospitals and asymptomatic patients will be kept at the 50 Mahatma Gandhi model hospitals across Assam.

Though we are going from lockdown to unlocking, there is no cause for concern in Assam as we have not had community spread of Covid-19 yet. From now normalization will be the theme. We have to coexist with Covid-19 and bring back the economy on track, Sarma, who also handles the finance portfolio, said.

From a stage when news about one positive patient used to worry people across the state, we have now reached a stage where we are handling nearly 170 new positive cases daily, effectively. Therefore, though there is a surge, there is no cause for panic, he added.

The states governments community surveillance programme conducted in May had covered 29,771 villages and detected nearly 26,000 people with symptoms of fever. However, tests concluded that none of them were Covid-19 positive. The second round of surveillance will begin from next week.

Till Sunday evening, 186 Covid-19 patients had recovered in the state and the number of fatalities stood at four.
A gun battle erupted early on Sunday between the security forces and terrorists in Jammu and Kashmirs Anantnag district, the police said.

Kashmir Zone police said in a tweet that a joint team of police and security forces are carrying out the operation in Poshekreeri village of Anantnag.

#Encounter has started at #Poshkreeri area of #Anantnag. Police and security forces are on the job. Further details shall follow. @JmuKmrPolice  Kashmir Zone Police (@KashmirPolice) May 30, 2020

According to the police, two to three terrorists are trapped.

The latest encounter comes a day after two terrorists were killed in south Kashmirs Kulgam district after security forces launched a joint operation in the area.

The police have not revealed the identity of the terrorists, however, sources said that both the terrorists killed in the encounter were locals. Soon after the encounter began mobile internet was suspended in the district.

Last Monday, two terrorists were killed in an encounter in the Khurd-Hanjipora area of Manzgam.

Two terrorists, including Hizb-ul-Mujahedeen so-called divisional commander Junaid Sehrai, were also killed in an encounter at Nawakadal in Srinagar, while over 12 houses were damaged in the encounter.

Three civilians, who were injured after a house collapsed, also died in a hospital due to burn injuries.

Thirty-nine terrorists and two associates have been killed and 24 security forces personnel, including two in ceasefire violations, have also died since the lockdown to control the spread of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) was clamped in March.

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Father of the tenant who was shot to death by his landlord at Ofankor has denied claims that dealings with a mystery woman caused the untimely demise of his son.



Joseph Okyeres comment comes on the back of reports that the landlord shot the late Spark Benjamine, because of an unidentified woman whom the deceased conspired with to milk him dry.



Mr Okyere who spoke to GhanaWeb at his family house at Fise, a suburb of Accra expressed his surprise at that allegation and said he will be glad to see the woman if truly she exists.



What we have been hearing that there is a mystery lady somewhere, that the landlord contracted my son to help him woo is untrue. These are stories that the landlord is telling to sway public attention.



Even if the mystery woman story is true, does the laws of the country allow him to take my sons life? he questioned.



He also mentioned that he trusts the police to bring his son justice as the police have been very good in handling the case. They have been here and spoken to us to calm down as they do their job.



Mr. Okyere further called for on all stakeholders to make sure justice is served.



We want justice to prevail. We know there is freedom but there is also justice in Ghana. We want the laws in this country to work, he concluded.



A week ago, May 24, 2020, a landlord, Victor Stephen Nana Kankam, reportedly murdered his tenant at Ofankor in the Greater Accra region.



The landlord, according to police extract, shot budding musician Spark Benjamine, who was rushed to the police station with multiple injuries.



The victim was subsequently rushed to the Police Hospital but was pronounced dead on arrival.



DSP George Asare, the district commander and his team who went to the crime scene said they saw a pool of blood at the entrance of the deceaseds rented apartment.



The suspect has been detained to assist the police in their investigations.

Source: ghanaweb.com









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Indianapolis: Authorities are investigating "multiple shootings," including one that left a person dead, in downtown Indianapolis on Saturday amid protests over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Chief Randal Taylor confirmed the shootings during a late night news conference, but didn't offer any more details. Police later tweeted that no officers were involved.

Protests became dangerous for a second straight night in Indianapolis as buildings were damaged, officers deployed tear gas and at least one business was briefly on fire.
As Indian and Chinese troops remain engaged in a tense border standoff, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday asserted that the government will not allow India's pride to be hurt under any circumstances even as he said bilateral talks were on at military and diplomatic levels to resolve the row.

Asked about US President Donald Trump's offer of mediation to end the face-off, Singh said he conveyed to US Defence Secretary Mark T Esper during a telephonic conversation on Friday that India and China have existing mechanisms to resolve "problems" through talks at diplomatic and military levels.

In the midst of the flare-ups between Indian and Chinese armies, Trump on Wednesday said he was "ready, willing and able to mediate" between the two countries. He reiterated the offer on Thursday as well.

The Ministry of External Affairs indirectly rejected the offer two days ago, but Singh became the first central minister to speak on India's position on the issue with clarity.

"I spoke to the US Defence Secretary yesterday. I told him that we have developed a mechanism already under which any problem between India and China are resolved through military and diplomatic dialogue," Singh told Aaj Tak news channel.

Asked whether India can be arm-twisted on the issue by China, he said: "you cannot even think of it."

The defence minister said efforts are on to resolve the border row in eastern Ladakh.

"I want to assure the country that we will not allow India's pride to be hurt under any circumstances. India has been following a clear policy of maintaining good relationship with neighbouring countries and it is not a new approach; We have been following it for long. At times, situation arises with China. It has happened before," he said.

Singh also talked about the Doklam episode of 2017, recalling that the situation then too appeared "very tense". "But we did not step back. Ultimately, we were able to resolve the situation."

The defence minister noted that China has also said that it wants to resolve the border issue in eastern Ladakh through diplomatic dialogue and that transgressions take place due to varying perception about the Line of Actual Control by the two sides.

"It has been India's efforts to ensure that the tension does not escalate. It should be resolved through talks at military and diplomatic levels. Negotiations are ongoing between the two countries at the military and diplomatic levels," he said.

Troops of India and China were engaged in the standoff for over three weeks in Pangong Tso, Galwan Valley, Demchok and Daulat Beg Oldie in eastern Ladakh.

The trigger for the face-off was China's stiff opposition to India laying a key road in the Finger area around the Pangong Tso Lake besides construction of another road connecting the Darbuk-Shayok-Daulat Beg Oldie road in Galwan Valley.

Military sources said China was also laying a road in the Finger area which is not acceptable to India.

The sources said military reinforcements including troops, vehicles and artillery guns were sent to eastern Ladakh by the Indian Army to shore up its presence in the areas where Chinese soldiers were resorting to aggressive posturing.

The situation in eastern Ladakh deteriorated after around 250 Chinese and Indian soldiers were engaged in a violent face-off on the evening of May 5 which spilled over to the next day before the two sides agreed to "disengage".

However, the standoff continued.

The incident in Pangong Tso was followed by a similar incident in north Sikkim on May 9.

The troops of India and China were engaged in a 73-day stand-off in Doklam tri-junction in 2017 which even triggered fears of a war between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.

The India-China border dispute covers the 3,488-km-long LAC. China claims Arunachal Pradesh as part of southern Tibet while India contests it.

Both sides have been asserting that pending the final resolution of the boundary issue, it is necessary to maintain peace and tranquillity in the border areas.

Also read: 'No conversation between PM Modi, Trump on India-China standoff,' say govt officials

Also read: Trump terminates US ties with WHO, imposes sanctions against China
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-31 18:44:05|Editor: huaxia

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CANBERRA, May 31 (Xinhua) -- Australian Special Forces soldiers have been formally accused of committing war crimes while serving in Afghanistan.

News Corp Australia reported recently that several troops have received notices from the Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force (IGADF) accusing them of breaching the laws of armed conflict in Afghanistan.

It comes four years after the IGADF launched an investigation into allegations that Special Forces personnel were involved in unlawful killings in Afghanistan.

The notices advise recipients that the IGADF intends to make adverse findings against them, giving them several weeks to respond to the allegations before the report is handed to Angus Campbell, the Chief of the Defence Force, in July.

The final report will make recommendations on what actions should be taken against the accused men, including possible criminal proceedings, as well as recommendations about the culture of the Special Forces.

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) is conducting a separate investigation into alleged war crimes committed by two Special Forces soldiers, one of who is known only as "Soldier C" while the other is Victoria Cross recipient Ben Roberts-Smith.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) revealed on Wednesday that Soldier C is under investigation for killing an unarmed intellectually disabled Afghan man known only as Ziauddin in 2012.

It is the second killing Soldier C has been implicated in after the ABC in March broadcast helmet camera footage of the soldier - who has since been stood down by the ADF - shooting a different unarmed Afghan man three times while he cowered on the ground. Enditem
Cops in three major US cities joined George Floyd demonstrators in solidarity over the weekend, marching together with the protestors and in one case taking a knee.

The support shown by officers in Camden, New Jersey, Ferguson, Missouri, and Flint, Michigan, drew praises on social media after violent protests and looting had erupted following the police-related slaying in Minneapolis on Monday.

Cops in Camden, one of New Jersey's largest and most violent cities, decided to march alongside protesters in rallies held this weekend over Floyd's killing.

Camden County Police Chief Joe Wysocki, who has been working in the city for decades, joined the front line of a march in Camden City on Saturday afternoon, sporting his uniform, a protective face mask and a peace sign.

Cops in three US cities joined George Floyd demonstrators in solidarity over the weekend. Pictured are police in Camden, New Jersey, including Camden County Police Chief Joe Wysocki marching alongside protesters in rallies held this weekend over Floyd's killing

Chief Wysocki on the march today, standing together with the residents we serve to remember and honor George Floyd. #StrongerTogether #CamdenStrong pic.twitter.com/UJAjxXkxrx  Camden County Police (@CamdenCountyPD) May 31, 2020

'Yesterday was another example of our ongoing engagement, and a very real dialogue, that we are having with residents throughout Camden that has made our agency part of the fabric of this city,' Wysocki said in an emailed statement to The Associated Press.

Since Camden's police force disbanded and reformed in 2013 as a county agency, officers there have been hyper-focused on community policing.

It's not strange to see them on walking beats or attending neighborhood block parties like the one Saturday night where two officers grilled up hamburgers and hot dogs.

'We know that together we are stronger, we know that together, in the city of Camden, we can create a space where policing is focused on deescalation and dialogue,' Wysocki said.

Protests have been held for days in cities all over the United States in response to Floyds death. Floyd, who was black, died Monday after a white police officer pressed his knee on his neck until he stopped breathing. The fatal move lasted about 9 1/2 minutes.

Demonstrators outside the police station in Ferguson knelt down for the same amount of time as they remembered Floyd during a rally. To the surprise of many in the crowd, officers on the scene began taking a knee.

Video footage of the moment taken by an intern at Heroic Imagination shows the crowd cheering the cops for their show of solidarity.

Demonstrators at a rally in Ferguson, Missouri (pictured), knelt for 9 1/2 minutes to recall how long Floyd was fatally pinned during a rally. To the surprise of many in the crowd, officers on the scene began taking a knee.

Officers in the background at the rally in footage posted on social media are seen taking a knee in solidarity with the demonstrators as they remembered Floyd

A post of the footage on Twitter, made by the non-profit organization devoted to herorism, noted that 'Ferguson police of every color' had taken the knee.

Officers were seen kneeling along with protesters in other parts of the country, like Miami Dade County in Florida and Santa Cruz in California, in similar social media posts.

On Saturday night, peaceful protests turned violent in cities like New York, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and Atlanta. Store windows were smashed and items were stolen, police cars were set on fire. Both police officers and civilians suffered serious injuries.

On Saturday night, peaceful protests turned violent in cities like New York, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and Atlanta. Store windows were smashed and items were stolen, police cars were set on fire. Demonstrators are seen clashing with NYPD officers in New York

But several instances of police solidarity throughout the US were still being widely shared on social media, providing hope from the mayhem.

Marchers in Flint, Michigan, arrived at a police station where Genesee County Sheriff Christopher Swanson spoke candidly to the crowd and joined with them in solidarity shortly afterwards.

'The only reason we're here is to make sure that you got a voice, that's it!' Swanson told the demonstrators.

Marchers in Flint, Michigan, arrived at a police station where Genesee County Sheriff Christopher Swanson (pictured) spoke candidly to the crowd and joined with them in solidarity shortly afterwards.

'The only reason we're here is to make sure that you got a voice, that's it!' Swanson told the demonstrators. The sheriff is pictured speaking to the demonstrators

Across parts of America, police and protesters have been clashing.



In Flint, Michigan, something else happened.



This is the exact moment when Sheriff Chris Swanson put down his helmet and baton  and joined protesters on their march.pic.twitter.com/VHnwnpUy8r  Goodable (@Goodable) May 31, 2020

The sheriff pointed out that officers across the US were not the same as the former, disgraced cop Derek Chauvin, who has been charged with Floyd's murder and is seen in a viral video allegedly carrying out the fatal move that killed the man.

'Don't think for a second that he represents who these cops are from all over the country and around this nation,' said Swanson. 'We go out there to help people, not do that nonsense.'

Swanson told the crowd he was ditching his riot helmet and baton to prove the commitment officers had to maintaining the peace.

'I want to make this a parade, not a protest,' he told the crowd.

'These cops love you! the sheriff exclaimed to the crowd as people chanted, 'Walk with us! Walk with us!'
The small, scaly mammal cost between $250 and $300 to source, and you have to pay half in advance. Civet cats for sale at a market in Bali. Credit:Amilia Rosa Vonis is far from the only person in the Pramuka market selling exotic animals for consumption. Indonesia is home to some large wildlife wet markets, such as the Beriman Tomohon in North Sulawesi, the Satria in Bali, Hewan Pasty in Yogyakarta, Depok in Solo and Jatinegara, also in Jakarta. There also smaller markets - up to 1000, according to the Jakarta Animal Aid Network. At the Satria, pet shop owner Nengah Wita sells bats, rabbit, chickens, song birds and geckos. He's at pains to stress he sells very few bats (they retail for about $120 each) and says they are only sold to help with asthma in traditional medicine. He says people have "exaggerated" the part played by bats in the origin of the coronavirus.

"I would've fallen sick weeks ago if it was true. But I am fine, I sleep in the shop, I care for them every day, I even got bitten last week but you can see, I am not sick. Just like the last time, the bird flu, I sell birds too, but I was fine then too." Loading These market traders are just the tip of the iceberg. Civets are widely available for sale on Tokopedia, Indonesia's answer to eBay (some listings describe them as pets, others note they are very tasty). It isn't hard to find pangolin scales for sale, either. While experts such as Professor Wiku Adisasmito, who is part of the Indonesian government's national COVID-19 taskforce, have warned that wild animal markets are an "animal cafeteria for pathogens" that could lead to the next coronavirus, the national government has shown little appetite for tackling the problem. Instead, it has suggested that it the responsibility of provincial governments. It's a similar story throughout the region where bats, pangolins, civets, rats, rare birds, dogs, and parts of rhinos, elephants and tigers are regularly traded.

China has, since the emergence SARS-CoV-2, flagged plans to ban the trade of live animals for food - but left exceptions for traditional medicine and fur. That's more than most countries. A Vietnamese plan to ban the trade and consumption of wild animals seems to have stalled. The illegal trade in wild animals for food, medicine, fur and as pets is big business worth an estimated $7 billion to $23 billion annually. The legal trade - loosely regulated by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species [CITES] of Wild Fauna and Flora - is worth perhaps 10 times as much and, until the new coronavirus was unleashed, it was booming. Scott Roberton, the Bangkok-based director for Counter-Wildlife trafficking for the Wildlife Conservation Society, praises China for its post-COVID-19 plans to curtail the wildlife trade, though he admits it could go further. "Its a much bigger problem than a single market in Wuhan. We really need to break this idea that it's only about markets. They are an important location, but huge volumes of the trade in wild animals in the region takes place outside of markets and poses similar risks of virus emergence," he says.

"Wildlife is moved over provincial and international boundaries, stored in houses, warehouses, refrigerated storerooms, restaurants, shops and farms." Roberton, who was based in Vietnam for more than a decade, describes China as less of a "source" country now and as more of a destination for wildlife consumption, as well as a transit country for animals coming from places such as Cambodia and Laos. Indonesia, too, "is a source, destination and transit country". Live turtles for sale at the Xihua Farmers' Market in Guangzhou, China. Credit:EPA/AP Laos and Cambodia, some of the poorest countries in south-east Asia, operate as a source for both farmed and illegally caught wildlife. There is a domestic market, too, for consumption by tourists, as is the case with Thailand. "This is one of the most valuable illicit trades, up there with drugs, weapons, human trafficking and counterfeit goods; it's worth billions of dollars annually," Roberton says.

Loading "One reaction from some governments is that they dont have the trade of wildlife for meat like in China, yet they do have trade for wildlife as pets and traditional medicine. The fact is that the conditions that lead to the emergence of zoonotic pathogens like COVID-19 and SARS occur in the wild animal trade whether they are being sold for meat, fur or medicine, so policies focused on only wildlife meat wont significantly reduce the future threat of pathogen emergence." Australia has backed an international review of wildlife markets in the wake of the virus, which it has labelled a "big risk" to human health and food production. Leanne Wicker, a senior vet at Healesville Sanctuary who worked in Vietnam for years and is an expert on species threatened by the wildlife trade, says such infectious organisms are "no risk to people when wild animals are left in the wild". The problem is that human behaviour, such as habitat destruction, ecotourism, hunting, the trade and consumption of wild animals and the farming of wild animals brings "people and wildlife into unnaturally proximity enabling the spillover of disease between species".

Loading Aside from COVID-19, she reels off rabies, Ebola, Hendra virus, henipavirus, the first SARS coronavirus, monkey pox, HIV, leptospirosis and rat lung worm, salmonella and toxoplasmosis as examples. "The SARS-CoV-2 virus is not the first significant pathogen to arise from the wildlife trade and it most certainly won't be the last." She's also frustrated by the focus on wildlife or wet markets, arguing that restaurants, for example, can also pose a significant risk in spreading new and exotic viruses. Australia's Agriculture Minister David Littleproud said markets that exist across Africa and north and south-east Asia and sell animals for traditional medicine and food consumption are a "particular concern".

Loading "Even before COVID-19, we knew these sorts of markets posed a serious potential risk to human health and, if we obtain the scientific backing, we would like to see these markets phased out to ensure public health," he says. As Wicker says, the impact of the global wildlife trade is "devastating". "While I am acutely aware that the public health risks are significant, it is very hard to ignore the fact that this is a problem caused entirely by human greed. For me, the real tragedy lies in considering the fear, pain and discomfort felt by every single one of the many millions of individual animals who find themselves unlucky participants in this human atrocity." - with Amilia Rosa
People sit on the waterfront of the Victoria Harbor of Hong Kong Thursday, May 28, 2020. Hong Kong has been living on borrowed time ever since the British made it a colony nearly 180 years ago, and all the more so after Beijing took control in 1997, granting it autonomous status. A national security law approved by China's legislature is a reminder that the city's special status is in the hands of Communist Party leaders who have spent decades building their own trade and financial centers to take Hong Kong's place. AP





Hong Kong's residents, who emigrated en masse before the city's return to China's sovereignty in 1997, are hitting the inquiry lines again, amid concerns that the Chinese government's planned national security law would curtail what's left of their political freedom.



Immigration consultants have fielded hundreds of new calls since China's National People's Congress (NPC) unveiled the controversial plan on May 21, bypassing the local legislature. Some are accelerating their decision to buy property overseas, while others are cutting their asking price for local properties.



"The day after that proposal, we received over a hundred calls," said Andrew Lo, chief executive at Anlex, a Hong Kong-based immigration consultancy firm. "People are restless. They ask if they can leave the next day."



From the biggest stock sell-off in almost five years to failed home sales, Hong Kong has turned into a pawn in the escalating rivalry between the US and China over trade, technology and capital markets. US President Donald Trump on Saturday announced he would revoke Hong Kong's special customs status, following the declaration by his Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that the city could no longer be considered an "autonomous" region that deserved to be treated separately from mainland China.



The attempt by the Chinese legislature to throttle secession, subversion, terrorism, foreign interference or activities that threaten national security, has been greeted with violent street rallies, as anti-government protesters reignited their opposition to any move to tie Hong Kong closer to the mainland.



Requests for emigration advice have jumped as a result, breaking a lull caused by the coronavirus pandemic, according to Midland Immigration Consultancy. While the latest number in applications for good citizenship is not yet available, analysts expect them to rise with political temperature.



"The foreign property market is picking up," said David Hui, managing director of Centaline Immigration Consultants, whose firm received up to 100 requests for investment ideas this week, compared with a dozen on average previously. "If the pandemic or external economy does not suddenly worsen, more purchasing power [from Hong Kong residents] will be released in June."



Another push factor had been the announcement by US President Donald Trump to revoke Hong Kong's special trade status, said Golden Visa Portugal's co-founder Jason Gillott, who has signed up 50 clients since he started business in January.



"People who were just engaging us on basic information before are now firmly committing by putting down deposits," Gillott said, citing one customer who asked to move his "millions and millions of dollars" to Portugal. "Never seen that before."



The political factor has encouraged some high-net-worth individuals  defined as those having more than HK$10 million (US$1.29 million) of wealth  to diversify their assets into other cities like London, Singapore and Taiwan.






Four MPs are being quarantined in private hospitals after suffering breathing problems

Four Egyptian MPs are being quarantined at private hospitals after presenting symptoms of the coronavirus pandemic, Mahmoud Fawzi, secretary-general of Egypt's House of Representatives, revealed Sunday.

"Results have yet to show whether they test positive or negative," said Fawzi, dismissing some press reports that they have already tested positive.

Fawzi Said Eid Heikal, a Wafd Party MP representing East Cairo's district of Al-Marg, is the latest MP to be confirmed positive, according to Fawzi.

Heikal went to a private hospital Sunday after he suffered from some breathing problems," said Fawzi, adding that Medical check-ups showed that Heikal tested positive and right now he is being quarantined in a private hospital and a recent report shows that his general health condition is stabilising."

MPs Nawsha El-Deeb and Omar Watany are two MPs who also went to quarantine hospitals in the last few days.

El-Deeb, a Nasserist MP representing Giza's district of Imbaba, said she went to Giza's Al-Agouza Hospital five days ago once she suffered breathing problems.

"The results will show today (Sunday) whether I test positive or negative," El-Deeb told reporters by telephone.

Omar Watani, MP representing East Cairo's district of El-Shorabeya, was taken to a private quarantine hospital Saturday.

"Watani is currently receiving treatment at a private hospital's intensive care unit, but results of check-ups have yet to show whether he tested positive or negative," said Fawzi.

Hesham Magdi, MP from the Upper Egypt governorate of Beni Suef, also went to a private quarantine hospital Saturday. Fawzi said Magdi suffered from chest pain and breathing problems.

"Again, we are still waiting to see whether he will test positive or negative," said Fazwi.

Magdi earlier told reporters he had experienced breathing problems. "But thank God I do not suffer from high temperature, and I just decided to go to hospital to make tests, he said.

Fawzi also revealed that Sherine Farag, an appointed MP who was the first among parliament's deputies to test positive for the coronavirus two weeks ago, left Qasr El-Aini Hospital in Downtown Cairo after she fully recovered.

Fawzi said the fact that some MPs have recently contracted the coronavirus does not mean that parliament will consider postponing plenary meetings.

"Life will not stop and so parliament will meet as scheduled on 7 June to complete discussing its legislative agenda," said Fawzi, adding that, Greater precautionary measures will be taken next week to ensure that discussions will be held in a safe and virus-free environment."

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-31 13:59:53|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, May 31 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping has greeted children of all ethnic groups across the country on International Children's Day, which falls on June 1.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, called on children to study hard, firm up their ideals and convictions and develop strong bodies and minds to prepare for realizing the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation.

Xi noted that children nationwide have experienced a special period during the country's fight against COVID-19 as all Chinese people stand united.

Witnessing the great feats of Chinese people working together and rising to challenges, the children have followed the call of the Party and the government to support the anti-epidemic battle with their concrete actions, demonstrating the fine spirit of the country's children, Xi said.

He stressed that China's children today are not only undergoing and witnessing the realization of the country's first centenary goal, they are also a new force for achieving the second centenary goal and building China into a great modern socialist country.

Xi urged Party committees and governments at all levels as well as the society to care for children and create favorable conditions for their growth.
As of May 31, Thailands parliament reportedly passed a 1.9 trillion baht ($58 billion) economic stimulus package to provide support to the vulnerable population amid the coronavirus pandemic. Thailands government listed out a plan to borrow 1 trillion baht and central bank measures worth another 900 billion baht in soft loans and support for corporate bonds among the three bills it passed in the legislature.

The bill, which is expected to be approved by the upper house Senate in early July after the commencement, would help the administration in the recovery of the economy in shackles due to the pandemic and looming recession, as per the reports. Of the total 1 trillion baht of borrowing, over 600 billion baht will be utilized for the relief from the pandemic and healthcare, while the remaining will be used towards the job creation and uplifting the economy. As of June 1, the country would begin to resume businesses as a part of the third leg of four-stage easing of its lockdown, officials announced in a statement. Further, the country would ease restrictions in order to kickstart the economy.

Read: Thailand Extends Ban On International Flights Until June End Amid COVID-19 Crisis

Read: Thailand's Tourist Drought Leaves Space For Shy Sea Mammal

Emergency decree expires on May 31

Earlier, Thailand announced that it was extending the overseas air travel ban for at least a month, as per media reports. The ban on international passenger flights would last till June 30 in an attempt to contain the spread of COVID-19 via travelling. The announcement comes after the country saw a spike in newer infection, although in a single digit. TheThailand government announced on Twitter that it will extend the national emergency decree that expires on May 31 until June 30 in order to contain the spread of the disease. Meanwhile, the government allowed malls to reopen from May 17 onwards and also decided to shorten night-time curfew by one hour, as per the reports.

The Cabinet has approved the CCSA 's proposal for an extension to the state of emergency for another month, from 1 to 30 June 2020. The extension would help in the management of containing the spread of #COVID19. For more information, please contact 1111.#Thailand pic.twitter.com/WlC91umDrL  PR Thai Government (@prdthailand) May 31, 2020

Read: Business Team From Thailand To Explore Investment Opportunities In UP: Minister

Read: Thailand Lifts Alcohol Ban And Prepares To Resume Businesses As COVID-19 Cases Drop

(Image credit: AP)
The UK government defended its decision to ease restrictions, but advised people that the situation remained critical.

Latin Americas death toll has topped 50,000 and cases have neared one million, with countries such as Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Peru struggling to stem the tide, according to a Reuters tally.

Brazil has registered a record 33,274 new cases of the coronavirus , its health ministry said, raising the total to 498,440 in a country with one of the worlds worst outbreaks. The countrys death toll has increased to 28,834, with 956 new deaths in the last 24 hours, the ministry added.

, its health ministry said, raising the total to 498,440 in a country with one of the worlds worst outbreaks. The countrys death toll has increased to 28,834, with 956 new deaths in the last 24 hours, the ministry added. Italy has added 111 new victims to the countrys official death toll from the new coronavirus and 416 new infections as it prepares to relax travel restrictions next week. The increases bring the official death toll to 33,340.

A third member of a scientific advisory body to the British government has warned that it is too soon to lift the COVID-19 lockdown because the test and trace system is not yet fully operational.

More than 6.06 million cases of coronavirus have been confirmed around the world, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. More than 369,000 people have died, including more than 103,000 in the United States, while at least 2.56 million have recovered globally.

Here are the latest updates:

Sunday, May 31

20:01 GMT  US sends 2 million doses of unproven virus drug to Brazil

The United States has delivered two million doses of the antimalarial medicine hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) to Brazil to fight COVID-19, the White House said, though the drug has not been proven effective against the coronavirus.

HCQ will be used as a prophylactic to help defend Brazils nurses, doctors, and healthcare professionals against the virus. It will also be used as a therapeutic to treat Brazilians who become infected, a statement said.

It said the US would soon also send 1,000 ventilators to Brazil, the epicenter of South Americas outbreak with nearly 500,000 confirmed cases.

We are also announcing a joint United States-Brazilian research effort that will include randomized controlled clinical trials, it added.

President Donald Trump is an outspoken fan of HCQ, which has been used to treat malaria for decades as well as the autoimmune disorders lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.

19:03 GMT  Official warns UK still critical as lockdown eases

The UK government defended its decision to ease coronavirus lockdown restrictions further in England, but advised people that the situation remained critical and they should continue to have as few interactions as possible with other people in all settings.

Speaking at a daily news briefing, Housing, Communities and Local Government Secretary Robert Jenrick said the government was confident the easing was manageable but added the current infection rate meant the room for manoeuvre is quite limited.

The UK reported a further 1,936 cases and 113 deaths related to COVID-19 on Sunday.

Deputy Chief Medical Officer for England Jenny Harries stressed the nation was at a critical time and urged the public to be sensible with the amount of interactions they have under the new restrictions.

19:00 GMT  Egypt reports its highest number of virus deaths

Egypts Health Ministry reported its highest-ever number of infections and deaths from the coronavirus.

The ministry said there were 46 deaths in the last 24 hours, jumping from 34 the previous day. There were also 1,536 confirmed cases.

Egypt, a country of 100 million people, has seen a surge in infections in the past week. It has the highest announced deaths from COVID-19 in the Arab World, and the third in the Middle East behind Iran and Turkey, according to a tally by The Associated Press.

18:32 GMT  Indian states rush to identify high-risk zones

Indian states began identifying high-risk zones where coronavirus lockdowns should continue while the rest of country gears up to reopen in June despite a record rise in COVID-19 cases, officials said.

India gears up to reopen in June [Yawar Nazir/Getty]

Prime Minister Narendra Modis government has extended lockdown until June 30 in so-called containment zones that should remain under lockdown because they continue to report a high number of infections.

But restaurants, malls and religious buildings are permitted to reopen elsewhere from June 8 as India loosens the worlds longest lockdown to curb the spread of the spread of the pandemic.

India has reported 182,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 5,164 deaths.

17:47 GMT  Chile surpasses 1,000 coronavirus deaths

More that 1,000 people have died from the coronavirus in Chile, the health ministry reported, with 827 of the deaths occurring in May alone as the pandemic spreads quickly in the South American mining powerhouse.

The country has had 99,688 confirmed cases of the disease so far, 1,054 of them fatal, the ministry said.

We know we are in the most difficult weeks, Undersecretary of Health Paula Daza said in a televised address.

We are making decisions and taking measures every day to contain the spread, Daza added.

17:45 GMT  South Africa postpones reopening of schools over safety concerns

South Africa has pushed back Mondays reopening of schools by a week, the Department of Basic Education said, saying that a substantial number are not ready to welcome back pupils.

The plan for grades 7 and 12, the last years of primary and secondary school respectively, to return on Monday backfired after teachers unions and governing associations urged school staff to defy the government order, saying schools did not have protective equipment (PPE) to keep educators and pupils safe.

The department said its decision followed three reports by industry players that raised concerns about the state of readiness.

The Council of Education Ministers was concerned that, in some provinces, personal protective equipment for learners in particular had not been received and some schools had not been made ready for the arrival of teachers and learners, it said.

17:40 GMT  New coronavirus losing potency, top Italian doctor says

The new coronavirus is losing its potency and has become much less lethal, a senior Italian doctor said.

In reality, the virus clinically no longer exists in Italy, said Alberto Zangrillo, the head of the San Raffaele Hospital in Milan in the northern region of Lombardy, which has borne the brunt of Italys coronavirus contagion.

The swabs that were performed over the last 10 days showed a viral load in quantitative terms that was absolutely infinitesimal compared to the ones carried out a month or two months ago, he told RAI television.

17:05 GMT  Sri Lanka to reopen some tourism in August with restrictions

Sri Lanka plans to reopen its tourism sector on August 1 by allowing only small groups of visitors to begin with, a tourism official said.

Kimali Fernando, chairperson of the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau, a government body, denied a report in the local Sunday Times that said the sector would re-open in mid-June.

Sri Lanka attracted around 2 million tourists last year [Getty Images]

A limited number of small groups from around the world would be allowed to visit from August and stay in approved five-star hotels that have put strict safety measures in place, Fernando told Reuters.

Sri Lanka reported another 20 cases of the virus on Saturday, taking the total number of cases so far to 1,613, including 10 deaths.

The country attracted around 2 million tourists last year and the sector contributes around 11% to the nations gross domestic product.

16:50 GMT  French COVID-19 cases show further decline

Frances coronavirus cases are continuing to decline, health officials said, with 14,322 patients currently in hospital, down from 14,380 a day earlier.

The number of COVID-19 patients in intensive care fell to 1,319 from 1,361, the health directorate said in a statement.

The hospital death toll from the virus rose by 31 to 18,475  the 11th consecutive daily increase below 100.

Numbers for nursing home deaths will next be updated on Tuesday, the directorate said.

16:03 GMT  Italy records 75 new coronavirus deaths, 355 new cases

Deaths from the COVID-19 epidemic in Italy climbed by 75, against 111 the day before, the Civil Protection Agency said, while the daily tally of new cases fell to 355 from 416.

The total death toll since the outbreak came to light on February 21 now stands at 33,415 the agency said, the third highest in the world after those of the United States and Britain.

The number of confirmed cases amounts to 233,019, the sixth highest global tally behind those of the United States, Russia, Spain, Britain and Brazil.

People registered as currently carrying the illness fell to 42,075 from 43,691 the day before.

There were 435 people in intensive care on Sunday, down from 450 on Saturday, maintaining a long-running decline. Of those originally infected, 157,507 were declared recovered against 155,633 a day earlier.

The agency said 2.434 million people had been tested for the virus against 2.405 million on Friday, out of a population of around 60 million.

15:15 GMT  Bangladesh reopens offices, transport

Public and private offices reopened in Bangladesh after the authorities relaxed some of the measures.

We are gradually returning to normalcy as the lockdown is lifted, health ministry official Nasima Sultana told a news conference in Dhaka, calling upon everyone to follow the post-lockdown guidelines to stay safe.

The return to offices and relaunch of public transport services coincided with Bangladesh reporting a record 40 Covid-19 fatalities on Sunday, raising the cumulative death toll to 650.

15:00 GMT  Abu Dhabi announces one week-ban on traffic

Abu Dhabi, the largest member of the United Arab Emirates federation, announced a one-week ban on traffic to and between its main cities, to be implemented from June 2, the local government media office said.

The restrictions include a ban on entering and exiting the emirate of Abu Dhabi as a whole, it said on Twitter.

The other cities of the oil-rich emirate of Abu Dhabi mentioned by the announcement are Al-Ain and Al-Dhafra. Movement within these cities is allowed as long as a night curfew, already in force, is observed.

14:50 GMT  UK COVID-19 confirmed death toll rises

The United Kingdoms death toll from people who have tested positive for COVID-19 has risen by 113 to 38,489, the government said

14:30 GMT  Britain has reached 200,000 capacity testing target

Britain has reached its 200,000 capacity testing target for the coronavirus on Saturday, including the means for 40,000 antibody tests a day, the government said, adding that it had met the goal a day early.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson set the target of reaching 200,000 tests a day by the end of the month, with aides later saying it was an operational target for Britain to have the capacity to do that number of tests.

Reaching our 200,000 capacity target is an important milestone on our journey to control the spread of the virus, save lives and gradually ease lockdown, health minister Matt Hancock said in a statement.

14:20 GMT  Most pupils in Slovakia due back in school on Monday

Most school pupils in Slovakia are heading back to school on Monday as the countrys educational institutions reopen, after a lockdown to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

Between 50 and 60 percent of children who attend kindergartens are expected to return [Reuters]

Education Minister Branislav Grohling said between 70 and 80 percent of students will be back at primary school on Monday, Slovak news agency TASR reported.

At the same time, between 50 and 60 per cent of children who attend kindergartens are expected to return, Grohling told public broadcaster RTVS.

Regional differences are likely in terms of the numbers expected back in school, Grohling said.

14:18 GMT  Emirates airline lays off trainee pilots, cabin crew

Emirates airline has laid off trainee pilots and cabin crew, according to two company sources, while the Dubai-based carrier said it has had to let go some staff due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

We have endeavoured to sustain the current family as is, and we reviewed all possible scenarios in order to sustain our business operations, but have come to the conclusion that we unfortunately have to say goodbye to a few of the wonderful people that worked with us, a spokeswoman told Reuters.

13:50 GMT  Indonesias Bali limits who can enter island to curb virus spread

Bali Deputy Governor Tjokorda Oka Artha Ardhana Sukawati said the island is limiting who can enter and leave based on certain criteria.





On-duty government officials and people from the private sector who perform services to help curb the coronavirus spread are on the list of those who can come to the island, as are individuals with nuclear family members who are dead or gravely ill, and Bali residents returning from work or study abroad.

Even though the number of infection cases in Bali is low compared to other regions in Indonesia, we continue to see the number of new cases increasing every day, Sukawati said.

13:48 GMT  Spanish PM to extend lockdown a final time

Spains prime minister said the country needed 15 more days of lockdown until June 21 to finish with the pandemic once and for all, and he would ask parliament to approve a final two-week extension to the stay home rule.

We have almost set out what we set out to do, Pedro Sanchez told a press conference, as he expressed his intense relief that the number of new cases of COVID-19 in Spain had fallen dramatically.

From June 21 a national state of emergency will end and with it the lockdown, allowing citizens to move freely in their regions. From July 1, citizens will be able to move throughout the country.

13:40 GMT  Masks and no ablution: Saudis flock to reopened mosques

Mask-clad worshippers flocked to Saudi mosques that reopened nationwide  except in the holy city of Mecca  over two months after congregational prayers were halted under a lockdown.

Complying with stringent social distancing rules, worshippers kept a minimum of two metres apart.

Saudi mosques reopened nationwide  except in the holy city of Mecca [File: Reuters]

They had been instructed to bring their own prayer mats and to perform the cleansing ritual, or ablution, at home, instead of in mosque grounds.

Worshippers rushed to the home of God to perform their obligatory duty (prayers) after the reopening of mosques, the ministry of Islamic affairs said on Twitter.

Hello, this is Shereena Qazi taking over from my colleague Farah Najjar.

12:38 GMT  Spanish PM says Spain hoping for 140bn euros from EU relief fund

Spains Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said he hoped Spain would get 140 billion euros ($155.37bn) from a new European Union recovery fund.

The EU is set to borrow 750 billion euros for the fund, which will offer a mix of grants and loans to countries hardest hit by the pandemic.

12:32 GMT  People more important than economy, pope says

Pope Francis said that people are more important than the economy, as countries decide how quickly to reopen their countries from coronavirus lockdowns.

Francis made his comments, departing from a prepared script, at the first noon address from his window overlooking St Peters Square in three months as Italys lockdown drew to an end.

Healing people, not saving [money] to help the economy [is important], healing people, who are more important than the economy, Francis said.

We people are temples of the Holy Spirit, the economy is not, he said.

Pope Francis leads the Regina Coeli prayer from his window for the first time in three months in the newly reopened St Peters Square [Remo Casilli/Reuters]

12:30 GMT  India reports more than 8,000 new cases

India reported more than 8,000 new coronavirus cases in a single day, another record high that topped the deadliest week in the country.

Confirmed infections have risen to 182,143, with 5,164 fatalities, including 193 in the past 24 hours, the health ministry said.

Overall, more than 60 percent of the virus fatalities have been reported from only two states  Maharashtra, the financial hub, and Gujarat, the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The new cases are largely concentrated in six Indian states, including Delhi, home state of the capital, New Delhi.

11:16 GMT  Iran says virus cases surpass 150,000

Iran said its caseload of coronavirus infections passed a grim milestone of 150,000, as the country struggles to contain a recent upward trend.

The government has largely lifted the restrictions it imposed in order to halt the outbreak. But the health ministry has warned of a potential virus resurgence with new cluster outbreaks in a number of provinces.

Ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said 2,516 new cases were confirmed across the country in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 151,466.

10:34 GMT  Malta to reopen airport on July 1

Malta will reopen its airport to passenger flights on July 1, Prime Minister Robert Abela said, as the Mediterranean island rolls back restrictions introduced in March to halt COVID-19 infections.

Tourism accounts for almost a quarter of Maltas economy and hoteliers have been pressing the government to reopen the airport or risk mass unemployment.

The southern Mediterranean island has recorded some 600 coronavirus cases and nine deaths, having carried out an intensive testing and contact tracing programme. Non-essential shops and restaurants were allowed to reopen in mid-May, but churches on the Roman Catholic island and schools remain closed. Bars and gyms will reopen next Friday.

These are exciting time for Malta. We are returning to normality, Abela said.

09:52 GMT  Paris cafes to get extra terrace space as lockdown eases

Restaurants, cafes and bars in Paris will be able to put more tables outside when they reopen on Tuesday after two months of lockdown, allowing them to serve more clients even as their inside dining rooms must remain closed.

In this crisis, Paris needs to support its restaurants and bars. They are the heart of our city, Mayor Anne Hidalgo told Sundays Le Parisien newspaper.

While other restaurants across France can fully reopen on Tuesday, the high number of COVID-19 cases and higher contagion risks in the densely populated Paris region prompted authorities to allow only limited operations for now.

A man walks past the closed Cafe de Flore [File: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images]

09:20 GMT  Indonesia reports 700 new cases, more deaths

Indonesia reported 700 new coronavirus infections, taking the tally in the Southeast Asian nation to 26,473, said health ministry official Achmad Yurianto.

Yurianto reported 40 new deaths from COVID-19, taking the total to 1,613, while 7,308 people have recovered.

09:09 GMT  Indias Modi urges citizens to stay alert to virus as lockdown eases

Indias Prime Minister Narendra Modi warned the country to remain vigilant against the spread of coronavirus as the country prepares a phased reopening of activities even as daily cases rise to record highs.

India, with the worlds longest lockdown, is set to largely lift containment measures in June, except in high-risk zones.

The fight against the coronavirus is intense, we cannot drop our guard, Modi said in his national radio address, a day after his government extended the lockdown until June 30 in high-risk zones but permitted restaurants, malls and religious buildings to reopen elsewhere from June 8.

Wearing a mask, gloves and following social distancing rules is essential as everyone will soon start stepping out of their homes, Modi said.

Commuters wait for vehicles, as the country relaxed its lockdown restrictions on May 26 in Delhi, India [Yawar Nazir/Getty Images]

08:31 GMT  UK taking right steps to ease lockdown, says foreign minister

British foreign minister Dominic Raab said the careful easing of the coronavirus lockdown was now the right step to take, shrugging off criticism for moving too quickly to allow people more social contact.

We are confident that this is the right step to be taking at this moment in time, Raab told Sky News. We are taking those steps very carefully, based on the science but also based on our ability now to monitor the virus.

07:57 GMT  Scotlands Sturgeon says lockdown easing must be very cautious

Scotlands first minister Nicola Sturgeon said she agreed with scientists that any easing of the coronavirus lockdown must be very cautious after some of those advising government said Britain was moving too quickly.

Asked whether she thought that politicians were no longer following scientific advice, Sturgeon told Sky News: I agree with the opinion that has been expressed over the weekend that weve got to be very cautious. This virus hasnt gone away, there is still a significant risk that it could run out of control again.

07:37 GMT  Russia says coronavirus infections pass 400,000

Russia reported 9,268 new coronavirus cases, raising the national tally to 405,843.

Officials said 138 people had died of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, pushing its nationwide toll up to 4,693.

Russian emergency staff wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) spray disinfectant while sanitising the Kievsky Railway Station in Moscow [Sofya Sandurskaya/Reuters]

07:35 GMT  China says 2 new cases, asymptomatic case on German charter

China announced two new confirmed coronavirus cases and four new asymptomatic cases, including one person without symptoms of COVID-19 on a chartered flight from Germany.

The two confirmed cases in Shandong province on Saturday compared with four cases the day before, data from the countrys health authority showed.

The National Health Commission (NHC) confirmed three new asymptomatic cases on Saturday.

On Sunday, the Chinese city of Tianjin confirmed one asymptomatic person, a passenger arriving from Frankfurt on a chartered Lufthansa flight, LH342, to Tianjin. This case was discovered between midnight and 6am local time on Sunday, the citys daily statements show.

07:31 GMT  Singapore reports 518 new cases

Singapore has confirmed 518 more coronavirus infections, the health ministry said, taking its tally to 34,884.

Migrant workers living in dormitories make up the vast majority of the new cases, the ministry said in a statement.

06:37 GMT  Sri Lanka cricketers to begin training on Monday

A select group of Sri Lanka cricketers, mainly bowlers, will return to training on Monday, amid efforts to restart the game after the coronavirus shutdown, the cricket board said.

Professional cricket has been suspended since March because of the pandemic, with Sri Lankas home series against England and South Africa among its casualties.

Thirteen players will check into a hotel for a 12-day residential camp at the Colombo Cricket Club, Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) said in a statement.

The players taking part in the camp represent a general squad chosen from across all formats, and primarily consist of bowlers, as they need more time for conditioning before going into active competition, it said.

Anybody with a hospital ID gets free PPE. Meet the woman who took out a loan against her own apartment to pay for personal protective equipment for medical workers. pic.twitter.com/4qld0ie9OQ  Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) May 30, 2020

06:27 GMT  Rwanda reports its first coronavirus death

Rwandas health ministry reported the East African nations first death caused by the coronavirus.

The victim was a 65-year-old driver who opted to return home from a neighbouring country, where he resided, after falling severely ill, the ministry said in a statement.

He passed away from severe respiratory complications while receiving treatment at a specialised COVID-19 treatment facility.

06:04 GMT  Jerusalems Al-Alqsa Mosque reopens after two months

Jerusalems Al-Aqsa mosque compound  the third holiest site in Islam after Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia  has reopened after being closed for more than two months because of the coronavirus.

Dozens of worshippers in protective masks were let into the compound before the first prayers, held on a cool and windy night.

Chanting God is greatest, we will protect Al-Aqsa with our soul and blood, the group gathered in front of the large wooden doors were welcomed by mosque director Omar al-Kiswani, who thanked them for their patience.

Hello, this is Farah Najjar taking over from my colleague Ted Regencia.

05:20 GMT  Germanys confirmed coronavirus cases rise by 286 to 181,482

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany has increased by 286 to 181,482, according to data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases. The reported death toll rose by 11 to 8,500, the data showed.

05:10 GMT  Thailand reports four new coronavirus cases, no new deaths

Thailand has reported four new coronavirus cases and no new deaths, taking the total number of infections to 3,081 with 57 deaths since January, according to the Reuters News Agency.

The new patients had arrived in Thailand from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Turkey, and Saudi Arabia and have been in state quarantine.

Local infections have slowed and over the last two weeks, about 80 percent of new cases were Thais who had returned from abroad. Thailand will on Monday begin reopening more businesses classified as medium to high risk, including cinemas and gyms.

Thailand has 3,081 infections with 57 deaths since January [Sarayuth Jojaiharn/AP]

05:00 GMT  Russia records 9,000 new coronavirus cases

Russia has recorded nearly 9,000 new cases of the coronavirus, roughly consistent with the increases reported over the past two weeks.

The national coronavirus taskforce said 4,555 Russians have died of COVID-19 and 396,575 infections have been confirmed overall.

If all categories are counted as COVID-19 deaths, the nations total toll for April would stand at 2,713, or nearly 60 percent more than the previously announced number.

04:06 GMT  Italy warns of EU collapse over coronavirus blacklist

Italys foreign minister has warned that the European Union will collapse if governments treat Italians like lepers over the coronavirus and blacklist Europes one-time virus epicentre during the summer tourism season.

Luigi Di Maio posted a blistering Facebook message on Saturday after Greece excluded Italians  as well as nationals from Spain, the United Kingdom and other countries with high infection rates  from the list of foreign tourists it will welcome this summer.

Di Maio said competition for tourism is one thing, but he insisted that it be healthy and fair in demanding a European response to the reopening of EU borders after virus lockdowns. He warned: If you act differently and dislocated, the EU spirit will be lost. And Europe will collapse.

Far-right demonstrators hold an anti-government protest in the Italian capital, Rome, on Saturday, following the economic crisis due to the pandemic [Cecilia Fabiano/LaPresse via AP]

03:48 GMT  North Macedonia extends state of emergency

North Macedonia has extended its state of emergency for another two weeks because the coronavirus pandemic shows no sign of slowing down.

President Stevo Pendarovski announced the extension on Saturday following a meeting of the National Security Council.

The countrys health authorities reported five new deaths and 35 infections in the previous 24 hours, days after the government allowed bars, cafes and restaurants to reopen. North Macedonia had reported a total of 2,146 confirmed virus cases as of Saturday, including 131 deaths.

03:03 GMT  Romanian PM fined for violating social distancing rules

Romanias prime minister has paid fines totalling about $600 for smoking indoors and holding a meeting in a government building where several cabinet ministers and other participants did not follow social distancing rules, The Associated Press news agency reported.

In a photograph published in Romanian media, Prime Minister Ludovic Orban and others can be seen smoking with food and bottles of alcohol on a table. No one in the photo wore a mask or maintained the required spacing.

Orban told the Mediafax news agency that the picture was taken on May 25, his birthday. The foreign minister and economy minister of Romania were among those attending.

Romania has registered 19,133 confirmed coronavirus cases and 1,259 deaths.

02:34 GMT  China reports two new coronavirus cases for May 30

China has recorded two new confirmed cases of coronavirus, down from four on Saturday, Reuters reported on Sunday, quoting data from the countrys health authority.

Both cases were imported in the Chinese province of Shandong, the National Health Commission (NHC) said in a statement on its website. The NHC also confirmed three new asymptomatic cases, compared with four the day before.

With no new deaths reported, the death toll remained at 4,634. The total number of confirmed cases in the mainland as of May 30 stood at 83,001, data form NHC showed.

02:15 GMT  South Korea reports 27 new coronavirus cases

South Korea has reported 27 new cases of the coronavirus, the lowest since a cluster infection linked to a logistics centre near Seoul broke out last week, Yonhap news agency reported, quoting health officials.

The new cases raised South Koreas total coronavirus caseload to 11,468.

The country reported one additional death, bringing the total death toll at 270. The death rate was 2.35 percent. The total number of people released from quarantine after full recoveries stood at 10,405, up 7 from the previous day, with 793 people currently under treatment.

01:48 GMT  Mexico counts 9,779 coronavirus deaths, 87,512 cases

Mexico has reported 2,885 new cases of coronavirus and 364 more deaths, bringing the total numbers to 87,512 cases and 9,779 deaths, according to data from health authorities.

A small group of protesters rally on Saturday against Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and his handling of the coronavirus pandemic [Rebecca Blackwell/AP]

01:18 GMT  Colombia to shut down Bogota neighbourhood

The mayor of Colombias capital is planning to shut down one of the citys largest neighbourhoods as cases there continue to rise.

Mayor Claudia Lopez said starting from June 1, the working-class Kennedy area  home to nearly 1.5 million people  will be under a strict quarantine.

Police and military will enforce the lockdown and no one will be allowed out, except to seek food or medical care or in case of an emergency.

Businesses like manufacturing that had been allowed to operate will be ordered closed. Lopez said testing for the virus will be doubled. The area today has nearly 2,500 more cases and hospitals there are reaching maximum capacity.

00:10 GMT  Greece reopens doors to travellers subject to testing, possible quarantine

Greek officials have said the country would not limit incoming tourists to those from a list of 29 nations, but travellers from countries not on the list will be subject to mandatory testing on arrival and a period of quarantine depending on test results.

The policy will only be applied during the final two weeks of June, although Greek authorities left open the prospect of additional restrictions after that date.

Arrivals from the 29 countries listed will be tested randomly. The list was drawn up based on a document from the EU Aviation Safety Agency.

00:01 GMT  Turkey prepares to reopen, resume domestic flights

Disinfection teams have swept Istanbuls Grand Bazaar, and the resumption of domestic flights has been announced as Turkey prepares to lift many remaining coronavirus restrictions.

Teams scrubbed the floors of the 15th-century bazaar, which has been closed since March 23, before Mondays return to business. The transport minister said the first air routes between Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Antalya and Trabzon would restart on Monday, with others following gradually.

On Saturday evening, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca announced 983 new cases of coronavirus during the previous 24 hours, taking Turkeys total number of cases to 163,103. In a tweet, he said there had been 26 deaths from the virus over the same period, bringing the overall death toll to 4,515.

____________________________________________________________________

Hello and welcome to Al Jazeeras continuing coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. Im Ted Regencia in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

You can find all the updates from yesterday, May 30, here.
Omjasvin MD By

Express News Service

CHENNAI: As the State heads into June with the number of cases soaring each day, experts are of the opinion that the new COVID-19 containment strategy must be surveillance-based, focussing on elderly people and those with co-morbid conditions, as that would help reduce the mortality rate.

Previous strategies aimed at containing the virus spread and even for one case, a whole street was cordoned. However, by mid-May, the State revised its policy and decided not to cordon off streets and only contain individual houses or apartments.

Additionally, from testing and isolating secondary contacts, the State has now even stopped testing asymptomatic primary contacts of patients.

Experts say that this dilution of strategies will not help mitigate the crisis, and now the focus must be to reduce the number of deaths and protect the vulnerable. "In the beginning, we focussed on everyone. Now, we must concentrate on the vulnerable," said former Director of Public Health Dr K Kolandasamy.

"If a person tests positive, it is important to identify the vulnerable population in that locality. Preventing death must be States priority," he said. Dr Kolandasamy opined that cordoning off a whole street would not work anymore as the virus has spread everywhere.

ALSO READ| COVID-19: Highest single-day spike of 938 cases reported in Tamil Nadu

"Data sampling of patients is a crucial part of containment strategy. If we have samples of the area, social strata and economic indexes, the samples would be universal and will help in identifying high risk population," he added.

"We cordon a street only if there are five index cases and 20 contacts who are positive. Otherwise, we just seal off a house," Special Officer for handling the crisis in Chennai Dr J Radhakrishnan said.

In case the ground-staff did not cordon off any house that had a patient, then it would be corrected as soon as it is brought to the attention of the corporation. "Every single person in the State must wear mask. This is a much simpler solution than the lockdown," says virologist Dr Jacob John, who also believes that the focus now must be to protect the senior citizens.

ALSO READ| Lockdown takes sheen off Arni silk sarees, piled up stocks leave manufacturers in tears

Containment

The city now has just 254 containment zones, following declassification of 897 zones. Many residents have alleged that streets and houses, which had Covid positive cases, were not cordoned off
New Delhi, May 31 : The Raj era grand ballroom-turned-sit-in eatery-turned-take away confectionery and bakery that was patronised by the likes of M.F. Husain and L.K. Advani has been shut for more than two months now, thanks to the lockdown. Over the years, Wenger's in Delhi's Connaught Place not only became a place to be for its scrumptious chicken sandwiches, freshly-prepared pastries and a range of other delectable products, it became a place that churned out stories and built a nostalgic legacy spanning the British Raj to now when India is afflicted with a deadly pandemic.

"We have been shut from day 1 (of the lockdown). We didn't want to take any chances. For us, the safety of our very loyal clientele as well as our employees comes first," said Amit Tandon, the man steering the establishment now. But he too itches to throw its gates open, not just for business but to see the different stories that this place creates through its business, unfold in front of his eyes.

Tandon recalls how this place is not just an eatery but where enduring anecdotes are made. "My uncle tells me M.F. Husain used to be a regular when we had a sit-in facility available back then. He would eat his food in silence and scribble a sketch or two on his napkins, almost every time. My uncle obviously didn't realize the worth of those scribbles on a Wenger's napkin back then. But now, we do. This place is full of such stories," he says.

This phase has been a troubling time for Wenger's like any other businesses. But Tandon says that there's a silver lining. "In the summer, the biggest challenge I face is to keep the fresh cream we use just that - unspoiled fresh. We don't use synthetic creams but ones from the dairy which has a very limited shell life during the heat." The place has seen many changes over the years but the iconic status of its mutton shami kebab remains a constant. There are students in Delhi University to families in Gulmohar Park that come all the way to CP only to have a bite of that wholesome burst of flavour in their mouths. While Wenger's may very well insist it is because of the "quality ingredients" that draw its customers to the kebab, truth remains the story its buyers associate itself with its consumption.

Wenger's history dates back to when Connaught Place was being constructed. Designed in 1926 by a British architect Sir Robert Tor Russell, the market saw a young Swiss couple named Wenger introduce the French bakery items, and Swiss chocolates to a British elite that was away from home - and its usual culinary preferences - in a colonised nation. Wenger's brought a solution for them back then.

The Tandons, the owners now, were sold the business by the Swiss couple in 1945, just two years before India gained independence but the writing was on the wall. It was sold to B.M. Tandon, then an employee, who suddenly became the proud owner of a legacy that was unmatched. Amit Tandon is carrying forward that legacy.

Today, the once beacon of Delhi's culinary and social scene which boasted ballrooms and restaurants faces stiff competition from fusion pastries and designer confectionary outlets. However, Tandon insists that they have a dedicated clientele that is more interested to be part of that legacy than a glitzy product.

"People used to come to Wenger's and they still do. But now they are grandparents. Everyone I know, they keep hopping by and their children are there as well. It's passed from generation to generation," says he. He still fondly remembers how much BJP patriarch Advani loved their products.

While Wenger's may have survived World War II and British leaving India, Tandon concedes the current situation is indeed a "very bad time for everyone". The business has been off for two months and counting and they haven't yet started takeaway.

Asked why, Tandon says that he is concerned about the safety of his employees and customers and won't reopen until "doubly sure". And probably that's what distinguishes Wenger's from the rest in creating an unique brand identity that thrives on long term legacy and loyalty than short term gains.

Even while he says, Wenger's is putting adequate safety measures of cleanliness in order to reopen, but that won't happen if there is an iota of doubt the Tandons may have that reopening can be counterproductive in terms of spreading coronavirus.

But that's Wenger's for you and probably that's one of the many reasons apart from its delicious history that kept generations of Delhites put their money on this confectionery shop - that evokes emotions and weaves a story, every single day of its business.
Washington (AFP) - Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Saturday demanded that Russia free a former US marine accused of spying in Russia after the man underwent urgent surgery in a Moscow hospital.

Fifty-year-old Paul Whelan had emergency hernia surgery late Thursday after suffering "severe abdominal pain," his brother David Whelan said in a statement Friday.

Paul Whelan, who also holds Canadian, Irish and British citizenship, was detained in Moscow in December 2018 for allegedly receiving state secrets.

He insists he was framed while in Moscow for a friend's wedding when he took a USB drive from an acquaintance, thinking it contained holiday photos.

"It is unacceptable that Paul Whelan has been denied necessary medical treatment until his condition became dire," Pompeo said on Twitter.

"We demand Paul's release."

Whelan's case is being heard behind closed doors at a Moscow court, ostensibly due to the case involving state secrets.

The US Embassy has described the secret trial as making a "mockery of justice."

Prosecutors on Monday asked the judge to sentence Whelan to 18 years in a strict regime penal colony. The judge is to deliver a verdict June 15.

Whelan was returned to prison Friday, where the Russian Foreign Ministry insisted he was receiving "all necessary medical assistance."

Whelan's family has complained in the past that he has been mistreated in prison and not received needed care.

Washington has repeatedly denounced his arrest and detention.

The case is one of several sources of US-Russian tension, including differences over the Ukrainian conflict, the war in Syria and the balance of nuclear forces between the two countries.


Ha Anh Phuong is honored by the Varkey Foundation as one of the "Top 50 excellent teachers worldwide".





Ha Anh Phuong is praised for ranking in global teacher prizes finalists by the Department of Education and Training of Phu Tho province. Photo: Files



Ha Anh Phuong and her students .Photo: Files





Phuong as a guest at a meeting held at a high school in Hanoi. Photo: Files





Phuong at a lecture recording at Hung Vuong university, Phu Tho. Photo: Khanh Long / VNP





A cross-border class. Photo: Files
This conversation has been edited for clarity.

MICHAEL: It feels like that paragraph was very much written for this moment.

JON: Yeah, except it wasnt. It was written three or four years ago. Ive been working on this book for six years. But I agree its strange that its coming into the world right now.

MICHAEL: Tell me about how this story, the story thats at the center of that paragraph, and how it first came to you.

JON: Well, I guess it was in 2003. I was traveling with a friend of mine through the redwoods in California. And we were in a town called Crescent City, which is right at the Oregon-California border.

We were having breakfast at this diner in town, and all around the restaurant were historical photographs, black and white photographs of the town just destroyed, you know, wreckage of buildings. There had been a tsunami there. And while we were looking at these photographs, a waitress at the diner  this older woman, almost like something out of a movie  walked by. She must have seen us looking at the pictures, and without saying a word, she slid this old book across the table at us and just walked on.

The book was an oral history of this tsunami in 1964, peoples accounts and photographs of how the town was more or less obliterated, and how they came together to help each other out of that disaster. And I was riveted by that. There was something that was really moving and peculiar to me about a small town facing a challenge like that. But I just tucked it away in my mind as something that one day I might like to learn more about.

I guess I was out of story ideas at some point and was sitting at my kitchen table and finally just Googled it. Turns out that the tsunami was an effect of this enormous earthquake that had happened in Alaska. Its called the Great Alaska Earthquake, which I had never heard of before.

MICHAEL: I have to be honest, Ive never heard about it either, which is a little embarrassing. I mean, the idea that there was a massive earthquake in the United States, its kind of not present in our heads.

JON: Yeah. I felt the same way. I felt embarrassed. And I also felt very sad. I think there was something that felt tragic and a little bit destabilizing to me, that something so dramatic could have happened and I had no idea that it even occurred.
Nurses wheeling a medicine cart down a corridor.

Costfoto/Barcroft Media via Getty Image

Nurses at a drug rehabilitation clinic in Atlanta say management fired the entire nursing staff in April.

Two nurses told Business Insider the team was terminated because they refused to take medical orders from the executive director, who does not have a medical background.

In a phone call shared with Business Insider, the clinic's executive director could be heard saying, "I just assume that a lot of nurses don't have a work ethic. As a group, the nurses seem much more interested in 'whatever is more comfortable for me.'"

The executive director did not respond to Business Insider's request for comment and the clinic's parent company said it was company policy not to discuss personnel matters.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

While nurses around the world are being praised as heroes on the frontlines, healthcare workers at an Atlanta drug rehabilitation clinic allege management fired the entire nursing staff after characterizing them as selfish and lazy.

On April 13, the Atlanta Detox Center terminated at least seven nurses, according to Shialla Warren, the center's former director of nursing and one of those laid off.

ADC executive director Bryan Stephens characterized the layoffs to employees as a reorganization from a full-time nursing staff to using staffing agencies and nurse practitioners.

But Warren and another nurse allege the team was terminated because they refused to take medical orders from Stephens, who does not have a medical background.

Stephens did not respond to a request for comment. The clinic's parent company, Amatus Health, said in a statement to Business Insider that it was company policy not to discuss personnel matters.

"We have an open-door policy for employees to discuss their workplace concerns with management and are disappointed that certain individuals have decided to speak to the media rather than have meaningful conversations with our company to address their concerns," the statement read in part.

Story continues

'It's not like we have a lot of options'

Opened in 2018, the Atlanta Detox Center is a residential substance abuse facility in suburban Riverdale, housing 44 clients in semi-private bedrooms.

The clinic offers individual, group, and family therapy, as well as motivational interviews, art and music therapy, gym facilities, and a movie theater. Out of pocket, a stay at ADC costs $5,000 a week.

Warren said nurses became increasingly resistant when Stephens began to tell them how to take care of the patients.

"The ED tried to tell the nurses when to give medications, when to test patients for COVID, what clients to perform Genesight testing on, and when we could and couldn't send a client to the emergency room," she told Business Insider.

"He didn't have the authority to make any of those types of decisions," she added, "but he told my nurses because he is the executive director he has that authority. And that isn't the case."

Stephens "always wanted nurses, including myself, to take medical orders from him, and we refused," Warren said.

Their resistance, she added, "ultimately ended up in our termination."

"ADC fired us because we were African-American nurses that were not willing to succumb to their unethical practices," Warren said.

The pandemic exacerbated problems at the clinic

The second-guessing became increasingly problematic when the coronavirus pandemic hit Georgia in March, Warren told Business Insider. ADC was facing a nursing shortage as staff members and their children were falling ill with COVID-19.

"I had several staff members sick. Their kids were sick. I was sick," she said. "We don't have a humongous staff, so it's not like we have a lot of options or people we can call."

Warren had been covering shifts for other nurses, she said, when she was hospitalized twice herself with COVID-19-like symptoms and sepsis, in late March and again in early April.

She was still working remotely while receiving oxygen, Warren said.

Coronavirus testing in Georgia was scarce during the first few weeks of the pandemic, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and Warren was not initially tested. But her doctors suspected she had COVID-19.

By March 27, at least one nurse practitioner had tested positive for the disease, the clinic said in an email seen by Business Insider. Nurses say at least two other ADC staffers were in quarantine with symptoms.

Nurses say the clinic had insufficient coronavirus protections

In another internal email obtained by Business Insider, Stephens said masks were offered, temperature checks were taken on all staff and clients, and outside visitors were prohibited.



Additionally, Amatus Health told Business Insider the treatment center was deep-cleaned and staff were told to stay home if they showed symptoms of COVID-19.



"We continue to operate our treatment center in full compliance with all laws, recommended safety guidance, and in accordance with our own policies and procedures," Amatus said in a statement.

But former ADC nurse Melanie Womack said only surgical masks were provided, not N95 respirators, which offer more protection.



There were also too few masks to go around, she said, and no face shields or gowns.

Nurses at Atlanta Detox Center allege the clinic took insufficient measures to protect them from the coronavirus.

DigitalVision

"There's nothing to prevent a spread of COVID in the building," Womack said, adding that Stephens "is more concerned with filling the beds than protecting the staff so there is no transmission."

Womack said she ultimately resigned from the clinic two days before the layoffs after Stephens neglected to tell nurses a client was coming who had previously tested positive for the coronavirus.

When the client couldn't furnish a negative test result, Womack turned them away.



Stephens overruled her decision, she said, and the client was admitted.

'I just assume a lot of nurses don't have a work ethic'

To Stephens, the problem was the nurses' lack of dedication, according to an April 11 phone call with Warren that she shared with Business Insider.

"I just assume that a lot of nurses don't have a work ethic," Stephens said on the call. "As a group, the nurses seem much more interested in 'whatever is more comfortable for me.'"

Their mindset, he added, is "I just want to sit back and take it easy and the moment stuff is asked of me, I'm going to bail."

Stephens said the nurses were calling out sick too much, often staying home to take care of their children because their usual childcare was unavailable under lockdown.

"Have a neighbor watch the child," he can be heard suggesting.

He also criticized nurses being called heroes and complained about the staff at a different facility quitting over insufficient personal protective equipment.

"I'd report every one of those people to the nursing board," Stephens said on the call. "I'd report all of them for refusing to come in."

Cleaning house

Two days after that call, Warren said, she and other nurses joined a Zoom video chat with Stephens and a representative for ADC's parent company, Amatus Health.

Initially, Warren thought they had finally gotten through about the issues with Stephens and the need for better protection.

"It sounded like everything was hashed out on the call," she told Business Insider. "They were told KN95 face masks were ordered."

Later that day, however, the nurses started getting calls telling them they were being terminated.

Warren was actually out sick the day of the layoffs. She said she's now facing $68,000 in medical bills after spending more than a week in the hospital.

In an April 15 email that Business Insider obtained, Stephens blamed the clinic's "critical crisis in nursing" on Warren for failing "to adequately provide coverage."

But Womack described Warren as "a leader" who "follows guidelines."

"I have seen her fight since Day One. It makes no sense for what took place," she said.

'Retaliation'

Deborah Crockett, who was laid off after working as a nurse at ADC for nine months, believes the firings were "retaliation" for speaking up about coronavirus concerns.

The clinic was particularly at risk, she said, given that patients come from across the US.

The National Nurses United union set out empty pairs of shoes representing nurses that they say have died from COVID-19 at a demonstration across from the White House, on May 7, 2020.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

"I was just in awe when they made the decision to lay off all the full-time staff nursing," Crockett told Business Insider. "I didn't think it was justifiable. For this agency to terminate seven nursing employees who are dedicated and who had been working there diligently, I think it's appalling and sad."

According to Crockett, there had been no complaints about her work performance. She said she was even thanked on the Zoom call for staying on after her shift ended in the days before the layoffs.

"And this is how you repay me? I do feel some kind of way. I really do," Crockett added.

Aiden Miller, an attorney representing the fired nurses, said they are considering suing.

"We feel very confident there have definitely been some violations of OSHA protections and we are exploring all other legal options," Miller said, including a wrongful termination suit.

Similar cases have been reported across the country

Nurses across the US have reported being fired in retaliation for voicing concerns about inadequate protections.

In March, a nurse in Chicago filed a lawsuit seeking $50,000 in damages after she said she was fired for warning coworkers about ineffective face masks.

On April 21, Detroit nurse Kenisa Barkai filed a whistleblower lawsuit against the Detroit Medical Center, alleging she was fired for speaking out about understaffing and poor conditions.

"We were already struggling to manage and when COVID came about, it just made it a lot more dangerous," Barkai told the Detroit Free Press.

On May 7, the National Nurses United union protested across from the White House, demanding better personal protective equipment and workers' compensation benefits, and other improvements during the pandemic.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Killer Mike, is mad as h*ll about George Floyds death, he admitted in a speech on May 29. But the rapper turned activist does not want Atlanta to burn.

Killer Mike | Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for REVOLT

Atlanta leaders united to help restore order

Killer Mike, an Atlanta rap artist and activist, joined Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and Police Chief Erika Shields in a press conference to address the city after protests over police brutality turned volatile. Demonstrators rallied against law enforcement over the death of 46-year-old Minneapolis, Minnesota, resident George Floyd, an unarmed Black man who died while in police custody.

Demonstrations across the country have raged since the May 25th incident, with the social media hashtag, #JusticeForFloyd, stoking the public outcry. But, with some protests ending with fires, tear gas, and vandalism, community leaders like Killer Mike have stepped in to help find solutions. Here is how the entertainer addressed his Atlanta neighbors:

I am duty-bound to be here to simply say that it is your duty not to burn your own house down for anger with an enemy. It is your duty to fortify your own house so that you may be a house of refuge in times of organization. And now is the time to plot, plan, strategize, organize, and mobilize. It is time to beat up prosecutors you dont like at the voting booth. It is time to hold mayoral offices accountable, chiefs, and deputy chiefs. Atlantas not perfect, but were a lot better than we ever were and were a lot better than [other] cities are. Killer Mike in a press conference for the City of Atlanta

Killer Mike wants racism burned down

ATL, Ill ride and build with yall forever. Hit me up and let me know what youre doing for A? #Itsa404thing #ad #attcollab pic.twitter.com/feSbuFF6QA  Killer Mike (@KillerMike) April 4, 2019

RELATED: I Said What I Said: John Boyega Is Calling out People on Twitter and the Internet Is Here for It

Four officers were on the scene when Floyd was taken into custody. Killer Mike continued his statement by sharing his opinion about how he believes the situation should be resolved and how society should move forward. He had this to say:

We dont want to see one officer charged. We want to see four officers prosecuted and sentenced. We dont want to see Target [stores] burning. We want to see the system thats set up for systemic racism burned to the ground. And as I sit here in Georgia, home of Stephens, Georgia  former Vice President of the Confederacy. White man said that law  fundamental law  stated that Whites were naturally the superior race. And the Confederacy was built on a Cornerstone. Its called a Cornerstone Speech  look it up  the Cornerstone Speech that Blacks would always be subordinate. That officer believed that speech because he killed that man like an animal. Killer Mike in a press conference for the City of Atlanta

Killer Mike presented an action plan

RELATED: Beyonce Shares Powerful Message With Her Instagram Followers  Were Broken and Were Disgusted

As mad as Killer Mike confessed that he was, he pled with the citizens of Atlanta, saying, It is not time to burn down your own home. Instead, he urged people to complete census forms so that people know who you are and where you are.

The activist also asked voters to exercise your political bully power by beating up the politicians that you dont like at the polls. And, finally, Killer Mike suggested that people go home and come up with real solutions. The wordsmith repeated the mantra to plot, plan, strategize, organize, and mobilize.

Viewers can watch Killer Mikes entire speech here: KILLER MIKE ADDRESSES ATLANTA
A migrant woman working in Nepal gave birth to a baby boy in the no man's land between India and Nepal near Sonauli in UP and named him 'Border' on Saturday.

This comes as the two countries are locked in territorial dispute at Kalapani.

The mother, named Jamtara, went into labour while waiting to cross the border over to the Maharajganj district in Uttar Pradesh. Other women waiting in line and her husband Lalaram carried out the delivery, after which the police rushed the mother and the child to the Nautanwa Community Health Centre.

Amisha Williams, a staff member of the health centre, was quoted by the Times of India as saying that both the child and the mother -- who has two older daughters and a son -- were healthy.

The parents of the baby are from the Prithvipurva village in the Bahraich district. They worked in a brick kiln at Nawalparasi in Nepal and were returning home due to the lockdown.
GRAND RAPIDS, MI  Three Grand Rapids nonprofit organizations are collaborating to train assistance dogs during the coronavirus pandemic.

Paws With A Cause, YWCA of West Central Michigan and Community Food Club have teamed up to provide necessary training for assistance dogs who cater to people with disabilities. The arrangement has allowed for the dog training during the current stay-at-home order in Michigan.

Due to Gov. Gretchen Whitmers stay-at-home order, PAWS trainers have not been able to train assistance dogs in public places since March 13.

In order to restart the dogs training, the YWCA is sharing space in its Sheldon building, at 25 Sheldon Blvd. SE, where dogs learn practical skills to assist Paws With A Cause clients.

We are pleased to partner with Paws With A Cause, who shares our commitment to accessibility for all, YWCA CEO Charisse Mitchell said in the press release. Service animals can be a wonderful resource for individuals with disabilities, including clients we work with at the YWCA.

PAWS assistance dogs help those with mental and physical disabilities complete daily tasks and increase their independence.

RELATED: Whitmer extends stay-home order, closures of gyms, salons and other businesses to June 12

PAWS trainers use facilities at YWCA to teach assistance dogs to open doors and pick up dropped items, as well as navigate stairs, elevators and ramps.

Access to diverse training environments has been key to the assistance dogs training, said Barb Kozminski, senior staff trainer.

Having different environments to work in is really important, said Kozminski, trainer of 29 years. This allows (the assistance dogs) to be exposed to different distractions, too.

As YWCA staff work in the area, the dogs can practice their skills with other people nearby to simulate a likely scenario for their clients.

Each PAWS trainer typically works with five to seven dogs daily. The dogs may be at different stages in their training, Kozminski said.

There are approximately 50 assistance dogs currently being trained. Some have already been matched to clients and are well on their way to their future home.

Meghan Sweers, a PAWS staff trainer for the past year, finds the diverse learning environments especially helpful for dogs in training.

Getting the dogs out helps the trainers decide which career path to put them on and get more information about how they can serve clients," Sweers said.

Community Food Club, a nonprofit member-based grocery store, exposes the assistance dogs to a grocery story setting. The nonprofit also provides an opportunity for PAWS trainers to teach the dogs to avoid food temptations.

We really believe in the mission at PAWS, said AJ Fossel, executive director of Community Food Club. Its brought a lot of joy for my team during a tough time. We love the work they are doing and hope more of our members can benefit from their services in the future.

The assistance dogs will only access parts of the YWCA and Community Food Club buildings currently closed to the public. COVID-19 safety guidelines, such as wearing masks and social distancing, are in place.

Services currently offered by the local nonprofits will not be negatively affected during this collaboration, officials said.

COVID-19 PREVENTION TIPS

In addition to washing hands regularly and not touching your face, officials recommend practicing social distancing, assuming anyone may be carrying the virus.

Health officials say you should be staying at least 6 feet away from others and working from home, if possible.

Use disinfecting wipes or disinfecting spray cleaners on frequently-touched surfaces in your home (door handles, faucets, countertops) and carry hand sanitizer with you when you go into places like stores.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has also issued an executive order requiring people to wear face coverings over their mouth and nose while inside enclosed, public spaces.

Additional information is available at Michigan.gov/Coronavirus and CDC.gov/Coronavirus

More from MLive:

Ottawa County urges Gov. Whitmer not to extend stay-at-home order again

Michigan shopping malls, retail stores weigh risk of opening doors during COVID-19 pandemic

Thursday, May 28: Latest developments on coronavirus in Michigan
Jack Rico, a 13-year-old boy from La Mirada, has made history after graduating from Fullerton College in California with four asso...





Jack Rico, a 13-year-old boy from La Mirada, has made history after graduating from Fullerton College in California with four associate degrees.





According to CNN, Ricos feat  which took him only two years  makes him the youngest student in the schools 107-year-old history to reach the milestone.





The young boy earned the associate degrees in history, human expression, social behavior and social science. He was also said to have graduated with a record 4.0 GPA.





Rico attributed his achievement to proper time management and listening to his instructors. He also said he has always craved to know more about different things in the world.





I just love learning new stuff. I love knowing more about the world and all the different things we could study, he told the media outlet.





Greg Schulz, the colleges president, said Ricos intelligence  despite his age  makes him stand out among the schools 21,000 students.





It is not typical to have such a young student take classes, so Jack is pretty well known on the Fullerton College campus, he said.





Jack is wise beyond his years, and Im so pleased that he found a home and place to excel at Fullerton College.





Ru Andrade, Ricos mother, also said the teenager has proven to be special since he was a kid. Andrade recalled Ricos birthday request  a visit to the White House  when he was just four.





In an attempt to turn down the request, Andrade had told Rico she would take him there only if he could memorise names of all US presidents.





I told him that was a really big trip for a three-year-old. Just kidding around, I said, If you can memorize all the presidents, Ill take you, she recalled.





Andrade said Rico would, however, surprise her a week later, when he told her that he had learnt names of all the presidents, including the vice-presidents.





Rico will further his education after summer at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where he will be studying history.





At 13, the teenager said he has no specific goal in life yet but hopes to keep exploring things that interests him.




A few months ago, Queen Elizabeth II appointed Kate Middleton Dame Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order, a large and very public sign of approval and appreciation for her granddaughter-in-law.

While the Royal Victorian Order has five classes, Dame Grand Cross is the highest in recognition of services to the Queen.

In the last decade, the Duchess of Cambridge's life has changed immeasurably.

Former BBC royal correspondent Jennie Bond said that Queen Elizabeth II reportedly admires the way Kate Middleton has taken to royal life.

"I think she admires the way that Catherine has adapted to the job of being a Queen-in-waiting."

Veteran royal editor Robert Jobson shared how the monarch gave a subtle signal to the world that hinted at how serious and his family were serious about Kate.

Jobson wrote, "In September 2005, I received a tantalizing telephone call from a senior Buckingham Palace insider. The source seemed quite upbeat; the news was happy."

He continued, "When I pressed the informant, a story unfolded that made me begin to appreciate just how important Kate was, and went a long way towards hinting at just how important she may yet become."

Jobson was reportedly told that Kate Middleton had a "series of private meetings with the Queen," and Prince William joined them.

At that time, they had at least two intimate dinners, and Queen Elizabeth had developed a "warm and relaxed relationship" with Kate Middleton.

Aside from that, the dinners were held at Windsor Castle, Her Majesty's favorite royal residence, and a place that she "regards as her home."

Over the next few years, Kate Middleton and Queen Elizabeth II's relationship has even deepened.

Despite reports that Her Majesty doesn't hold an intimate relationship with Kate, royal sources insist that Queen Elizabeth II holds her in high regard and admires how she juggles her royal life with a busy family.

Katie Nicholl told Vanity Fair last year, "Having awarded her granddaughter-in-law the Royal Family Order, the highest honor the monarch can bestow on a female member of the family at the end of last year.

She continued, "The Queen was reportedly thrilled with the Cambridges' tour in Pakistan, which saw Kate give her first-ever TV interview and make headlines around the world with her well-considered wardrobe choices and her unusual decision to stop the royal convoy so the couple could meet a family."

According to Richard Fitzwilliams, giving Kate Middleton the highest honor was Queen Elizabeth II's way of "acknowledging eight successful years of marriage and the fact that the Duchess has produced three heirs, thereby securing the lineage of the House of Windsor."

Kate is described by royal author Leslie Caroll to have the beauty, poise, dedication, and reliability a Queen Consort needs.

However, royal journalist Phil Dampier, told Express UK that for eight or nine years, before they got engaged or married, there was reportedly a phase where Kate Middleton appeared to be doing very little.

"The Queen once remarked Kate doesn't do very much, so I think she had a fairly long entrance to the royal family."

Despite the difficult start, Cambridge's Duchess has more than settled into her role and appears to have taken to royal life smoothly.

READ MORE: Prince Andrew Scandal: Queen Elizabeth's Son Hiding Jeffrey Epstein Crime Information, Butler Says
Kabul, May 31 (IANS) The Taliban has criticized parts of a recent European Union (EU) statement on peace talks, saying the proposed measures would violate Afghanistan's sovereignty.

"We have constantly shown commitment to non-interference in the internal affairs of others in our statements," a statement from the group's spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on Saturday.

"We also expect others to not interfere in our internal affairs nor complicate the issue of Afghanistan even further.

"The future governance system in Afghanistan shall be chosen by the Afghans in intra-Afghan negotiations" it added.

The group, however, welcomed the European Council's support for the peace negotiations, reports Efe news.

In a statement on Friday, the bloc said: "The EU will condition its future political and financial support to ensure that the republican, democratic and values-based principles are protected and further promoted."

It also called on the Taliban to build trust and confidence, allowing the prompt start of intra-Afghan negotiations.

The EU said it was ready to contribute to the stabilization of Afghanistan, support institutional reform and capacity-building, including in the sectors of security and defence.

It would also assist with the reintegration of former fighters as well as their families and the victims of conflict.

The EU's call for a ceasefire came days after the Taliban declared a three-day ceasefire from May 24-26 during Eid and the level of violence remained significantly low compared to recent weeks.

The Afghan government said it welcomed the EU Council's support for Afghanistan.

"The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan welcomes the recent decision of the Council of the European Union for its support for the peace process and development of Afghanistan and to stand by Afghanistan in the future" the presidential palace said in a statement on Saturday.

It also appreciated the EU's "continued support" for strengthening democracy, human and women rights in Afghanistan.

The chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation, Abdullah Abdullah, told a press conference that the members of the leadership committee in the negotiations would be finalized in the coming week.

"We consider today as the official start of the work."

--IANS

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The Constitution of the United States sets forth fundamental laws and guarantees certain basic rights for its citizens. The First Amendment establishes Freedom of Religion, which is under scrutiny in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Governors across the country have sought to mitigate the devastating spread of COVID-19. They restricted large gatherings, including large worship assemblies. Some of their efforts have sparked tension on the basis of religious freedom. Some people of faith have alleged that underneath the claims of protecting public health is a secularist agenda to chip away at religious freedom.

Friday, May 22, 2020, President Donald Trump publicly criticized state governors for maintaining restrictions on worship gatherings. As with past presidents (Republicans and Democrats), President Trump must be applauded for affirming the essentiality of faith, prayer and corporate worship. Wisdom, love, and compassion are also essential elements of faith. For such a time as this, faith communities must assist, comfort, and provide manifold measures of support for human health and life. Forward-thinking congregations are assisting the communitys needs and connecting through virtual worship.

In my new book, Is Christianity the White Mans Religion?, I argue that religious communities must not miss opportunities to bear witness with concern about the health and welfare of all of Gods children. In scripture, Jesus emphasizes the need to tend to the least of these (ref. Matthew 25:31-46). This season has become an important one for local churches to define their mission to emphasize faith attributes beyond singing and fellowshipping in large groups. We are inspired to bear public witness of Gods love.

While government authorities must carefully refrain from burdening, prohibiting or constraining in any way the most essential expressions of faith, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is prudent to avoid large gatherings. This is particularly important for those who engage in vibrant worship. Infected, asymptomatic persons worshippers contribute to an unavoidable viral hotbed and heighten the risk for others to contract the virus. This can be deadly, particularly, for worshippers with preconditions or weak immune systems.

I would ask the president to take notice of the evident unbridled exercise of faith among congregations, noting that convening for worship is not their only significant contribution to faith vitality. Congregations are inspired that their sacred and social worth are vital. Even mainstream media paused for prayer! Reports show both the turn toward and struggle with faith as significant during this time. For example, the African Americans have been hit the hardest. A Pew study reveals that faith has been their safe harbor.

In first century, Christianity spread the most during troubling times and when worship was restricted to homes. Paul used technology of his time to communicate the gospel to believers gathered in their homes. He wrote the Book of Romans to be circulated and read aloud throughout a selection of home sanctuaries.

Comparatively, during the current pandemic, virtual technology has made it convenient for every home to become a sanctuary. The Potters House of Dallas is one of many examples of congregations that has experienced this firsthand. Bishop TD Jakes shares the Word of God in thousands of home sanctuaries. The associate pastors host Bible training, Discipleship gatherings, youth meetings, and children sermons. Jakes Divinity School is organizing online training programs to prepare students from around the world for necessary innovative ministry in the church and community.

The Potters House also attends to practical needs through congregational care, grief support, and tending to the elderly. The auxiliary arms of The Potters House such as United Mega Care has been busy feeding First Responders, thousands of grocery gift-a-ways, and more. The Texas Offenders Re-entry Initiative (TORI) has been helping ex-offenders secure employment. The church is partnering with TD Jakes Foundation to provide a summer virtual STEAM Academy. The Potters House Counseling Center extends mental health services to the community. Additionally, Bishop Jakes national platform assists local and national efforts to communicate proper medical information for citizens health and safety.

Congregations of all faiths are the source of strength and comfort. Ministers, Rabbis, Imams, and chaplains have been busy over the past three months, burying many of the 100,000 deaths related to the pandemic and others who have died by other causes, while also comforting their grieving families.

Is religious freedom really at stake? Perhaps, action taken to protect public health is not in tension with Freedom of Religion or in conflict with the mission of faith practice. The faith community has emerged for greater gospel witness in the public square.
Researchers collecting samples of water from Kisumu Resort on the shores of Lake Victoria in Kisumu, Kenya.

Five Kenyans have sued the Ugandan government for allegedly failing to control floods around the shores of Lake Victoria, resulting in displacement of people and damage to their property.

Former president of the Law Society of Kenya, Isaac Okero, and four others are accusing Uganda of violating their fundamental human rights by breaching the EAC Treaty and the Nile Basin Comprehensive Framework Agreement on how much water Kampala is supposed to release from Lake Victoria.

They have enjoined the East African Community (EAC) and the Lake Victoria Basin Commission in the suit, while Kenya and Tanzania governments are named as interested parties.

"As citizens of Kenya, who reside in Kisumu and are owners of real property located within the vicinity of the shores of the Lake, we have been greatly inconvenienced by the decision by Uganda," says Mr Okero in the court filings. "As applicants we plead for the prayers and orders that Uganda is responsible for the compensation of loss and/or damage suffered by the applicants.

Order that loss and/or damage suffered by the applicants assessed by the court are paid by Uganda." The five say that Uganda's breach has caused flooding that has damaged property and displaced more than 50,000 people around the Lake. They accuse Eskom Uganda Ltd, the biggest hydro electricity generating company in the country, of increasing or reducing the volumes of water flowing from the lake based on how much is needed to meet Uganda's electricity demand. They say the Owen Falls dam, now known as Nalubaale Dam, was built in 1954 as part of a hydropower station in Jinja after Uganda and Egypt signed agreements that the East African country would not do anything to interfere with the flow of the Nile, the world's longest river.

The water flow arrangements were expressed in a series of agreements entered into in 1949 and 1953 between Britain and Egypt and in 1991 between Uganda and Egypt, from which emerged a policy to release water at particular rates to allow for natural flow out of the Lake. "This policy became commonly known as "The Agreed Curve" which was incorporated into the release policy governing the management of the outflow of Lake Victoria waters into the River Nile at Jinja by Uganda as provided for in the agreements," they say.

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ACTIONS OF ESKOM

According to the applicants, whenever more water is needed to meet growing power demands, Eskom allows more water to flow out of Lake Victoria, which in turn leads to lower levels in the lake.

But whenever rain falls heavily, Nalubaale has sufficient water, which implies less water is released, in turn raising levels in Lake Victoria.

They argue that the Nalubaale Dam operators have not been adhering to the Agreed Curve for operations.

Mr Okero, and lawyers Geoffrey Yogo, Raymond Olendo, Jared Sala and Moses Omondi, claim to have suffered "disruption of life, damage to properties, and economic loss."

They charge that Uganda is greatly impacting the lake by releasing more water than is allowed by a legal agreement between Kampala and Egypt.

Uganda's Attorney General, William Byaruhanga, and the EAC secretary General, Liberat Mfumukeko, have been named as the first and second respondents respectively. They are yet to file a response in court.

Uganda's Commissioner for International and trans-boundary Water Affairs at the Ministry of Water and Environment, Mr Jackson Twinomujuni in a response to The EastAfrican said Kampala is yet to be served with the suit papers.
Kylie Jenner is reportedly refusing to answer calls from her 'momager' Kris after Forbes declared she faked her way to her billionaire status.

According to The Sun, the beauty mogul, 22, is believed to be keeping her distance from the Kardashian/Jenner matriarch, 64, amid the highly-publicised scandal.

Earlier this week, the same media company that named her 'the youngest self-made billionaire' in 2018 alleged the reality star fabricated financial documents to support the false claim that she was - a report she has since vehemently denied.

Drama: Kylie Jenner is reportedly refusing to answer calls from her 'momager' Kris after Forbes declared she faked her way to her billionaire status (pictured together last year)

A source said: 'Kris  who reportedly gets ten per cent of Kylies deals  is in panic mode.

'Kylie wont answer the phone to Kris and is at a loss over who to trust. Kris is petrified Kylie could sack her or cut her off so tensions are at an all-time high.'

The publication also said the mother-and-daughter duo are 'freaking out' and 'fear' the recent report will 'hurt their brand, and even worse, they could be in trouble with the government'.

MailOnline has contacted Kris and Kylie's representatives for further comment.

Claims: According to new reports, the beauty mogul, 22, is believed to be keeping her distance from the Kardashian/Jenner matriarch, 64, amid the highly-publicised scandal

Earlier this week, the same media company that named her 'the youngest self-made billionaire' last year alleged the reality star fabricated financial documents to support the false claim that she was - a report she has since vehemently denied.

Top financial fraud attorney Jan Handzlik told DailyMail.com on Friday that Kylie could face a criminal investigation over the alleged exaggerations.

'My guess is that at a minimum the SEC (Securities Exchange Commission) will begin what they call an informal inquiry and then perhaps elevate that to a formal investigation, which gives them subpoena power,' Handzlik said.

He added: 'In this matter you've got a mixture of things that may lead to both civil and criminal scrutiny early on: obviously the celebrity aspect, the large amount of the alleged exaggeration, and the highly public nature.

'All of this is like catnip to a prosecutor or the SEC, because it will lead to very heavy coverage of what takes place.'

Scandal: The same media company that named her 'the youngest self-made billionaire' in 2018 (pictured) alleged she fabricated documents to support the false claim that she was

After the bombshell report emerged, Kylie, who shares daughter Stormi, two, with ex Travis Scott, took to Twitter to slam Forbes.

Jan Handzlik, who served five years as a federal prosecutor in LA and now defends celebrities and big companies in financial fraud cases, said the alleged exaggerations could land Kylie in a world of legal trouble

The KUWTK star penned: 'What am i even waking up to. i thought this was a reputable site. all i see are a number of inaccurate statements and unproven assumptions lol. i've never asked for any title or tried to lie my way there EVER. period.'[sic]

She followed up with a quote from the Forbes report that accused the Jenners and their accountant of producing false tax returns: 'Even creating tax returns that were likely forged that's your proof? so you just THOUGHT they were forged? like actually what am i reading,' [sic] the media personality added.

'but okay i am blessed beyond my years, i have a beautiful daughter, and a successful business and i'm doing perfectly fine.' [sic]

Forbes put Kylie on the cover of its women billionaires in 2018, named her the world's youngest self-made billionaire in 2019 and again earlier this year.

The TV star, the youngest sibling of the Kardashian/Jenner family, started her make up line with lipstick kits in 2015.

Kylie Cosmetics signed a deal with Ulta Beauty Inc to put her products in all of the retailer's 1,163 U.S. stores.

Hitting back: After the bombshell report emerged, the KUWTK star, who shares daughter Stormi, two, with ex Travis Scott, took to Twitter to slam Forbes

Impressive: Kylie, the youngest sibling of the Kardashian family, started her make-up line with lipstick kits in 2015 (launch of her brand in Houston's Ulta Beauty pictured in 2018)

The controversy has exploded around a $1.2 billion deal for the brand, in which Kylie sold a 51 percent stake to makeup giant Coty for $600 million in January.

At the time, Wall Street suspected Coty may have overpaid for the majority stake. The worries were fueled by new financial disclosures made by the publicly listed company, which revealed earnings for Kylie Cosmetics were far lower than Kylie previously claimed.

As part of a relentless campaign to get Forbes to rank Kardashian-Jenner family members at the top of their richest list, the celebrity family had told the magazine Kylie Cosmetics made $360 million in revenue for 2018.

Reports: The controversy has exploded around a $1.2 billion deal for Kylie Cosmetics, in which Kylie sold a 51 percent stake to makeup giant Coty for $600 million in January

But Cotys SEC documents revealed the figure was in fact about $125 million  less than a third of their claims.

The magazine reported that Kylies representatives told them her new skin care line, which launched in May 2019, made $100 million in revenue in its first month and a half.

But Cotys figures show the product line on track to make only $25 million in sales for the year.

In Forbes' bombshell article that downgraded Kylie's net worth from more than $1 billion to just under $900 million, the magazine claimed the family likely showed them tax returns with false numbers.

While we cant prove that those documents were fake (though its likely), its clear that Kylies camp has been lying, the report said.

All change: Coty, which has been struggling with falling sales, saw a share increase of 5 percent following the announcement last year. The share price was at $12.32
At least 12 people have been injured after a prison brawl at a New South Wales correctional facility.

The stabbing incident broke out at Lithgow Correctional Centre in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney, on Sunday morning.

Emergency services rushed to the maximum-security men's prison about 10.50am after receiving reports a man was stabbed.

A 36-year-old male inmate was airlifted to Westmead Hospital with multiple stab wounds to the chest and head injuries

The stabbing incident broke out at Lithgow Correctional Centre (pictured) in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney, on Sunday

But when crews arrived to the scene there were twelve people who had been injured.

A 36-year-old male inmate was airlifted to Westmead Hospital with multiple stab wounds to the chest.

He was also suffering head injuries and is believed to have been placed into an induced coma, 7News reports.

Another person had been taken to Bathurst Hospital via road ambulance while another was rushed to Nepean Hospital for treatment.

At least twelve people are believed to have been injured in the brawl with nine people being assessed at the medical centre at the prison.
GRAND RAPIDS, MI  Jeneva Clark will never forget the first time a police officer pointed a gun at her.

She was 14, a black teenager living in a predominantly white Grand Rapids neighborhood, and was locked out of her house one afternoon. While trying to get into her home through the back door, someone called the police, she said.

Five cop cars pulled up, and all the police officers had their guns on me, said Clark, now 35. I was 14 years old. So, yes, I would say there is police brutality and there is racial profiling (in Grand Rapids).

Clark was one of thousands who showed up in downtown Grand Rapids Saturday, May 30, to protest police brutality.

The protest  and others across the nation and in other Michigan cities like Detroit, Ann Arbor and Kalamazoo  was sparked by the turmoil in Minneapolis surrounding the death of George Floyd after a police officer knelt on his neck.

Shouts of I cant breathe," Black Lives Matter and No justice, no peace echoed through the streets of Monroe Center Street and Division Avenue for hours as protesters gathered outside the Grand Rapids Police Department headquarters at 1 Monroe Center NW. Others marched around the downtown area, some carrying signs with messages of protest.

As a black person, Im fed up, Clark said. These protests are necessary because a lot of people still dont understand what it means to be black in America. Blacks have built this country, and we get no respect, we dont get treated like humans.

"These protests are important because it brings awareness to brutality that black people are afflicted to, and it also brings awareness to just how hurt people are."

The event started with a rally at Rosa Parks Circle in downtown Grand Rapids, where the protests organizers urged attendees to remain calm, quiet and peaceful. Masks were mandatory, and the event was advertised on Facebook as a Silent Protest.

Kaliyah Herman, 22, one of the events four organizers, said her main goal was to keep Saturdays protest peaceful.

We dont want anyone else getting hurt, we dont need people getting teargassed, we dont want people being shot, said Herman, of Grand Rapids. Theyre already doing that in other places. We dont need to do that too to get our point across.

But the protest turned rowdier once protesters marched to stand outside the police headquarters. Officers were awaiting the protesters and were lined up with their bicycles to form a barricade so protesters could not enter the building.

Some protesters threw cans and bottles at the police officers, and in some cases verbally harassed the officers. At one point, Grand Rapids Police Chief Eric Payne came outside to say a few words to protesters; however, the protesters shouted over the police chief and he eventually gave up.

I want to say I hear you," he said into a microphone, over shouts from protesters. "Ive heard you my entire career. Black lives do matter.

The protest in Grand Rapids had not turned violent as of 9 p.m., as was the case in Detroit the night before. Detroits protests on Friday, May 29, began peacefully but the situation turned hostile as the sun went down, as protesters could be seen circling a police vehicle waving middle fingers and swearing at police, The Detroit Free Press reported.

Protesters and police in riot gear in Detroit eventually faced off near the Renaissance Center, with some people throwing rocks and bottles toward the officers. Police responded by charging toward the protesters, with punches thrown and gas canisters fired.

In Grand Rapids, protesters outside the GRPD headquarters Saturday evening spray-painted messages on the building, including Justice George Floyd and Who do you serve."

As of 9 p.m., protesters were still gathered outside of the building. Police had gathered on rooftops and used drones and helicopters to keep an eye on the crowd.

More on MLive:

Protesters take to downtown Kalamazoo streets in response to George Floyds death

Hundreds protesting police brutality gather in Ann Arbor to 'make a change for our country

Man shot and killed, dozens arrested as 1,500-strong Detroit protest over George Floyd death turns violent

We are demanding justice:' Protesters in Detroit call for end of police brutality

Minneapolis demonstrations spark Black Lives Matter protest in downtown Bay City, Flint mayor statement
Minneapolis protesters, undeterred by curfew and National Guard, demand all cops involved in Floyds death be charged.

Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA  Protesters in at least 12 United States cities defied curfews on Saturday night as outrage over police brutality and the death of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, escalated.

Hundreds of protesters were still out in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where Floyd died in police custody on Monday, amid heavy police and US National Guard presence as an 8pm curfew began on Saturday.

We dont need a curfew, we need change, said Mia, a 20-year resident of Minneapolis.

Going home would [send] the wrong message that they can shut us up when they want to, and thats not the case here, Mia, who requested her surname be withheld, told Al Jazeera.

Protesters have promised to remain in the streets at least until all four officers involved in Floyds death have been charged.

So far, only one officer  Derek Chauvin  has been arrested in connection to Floyds death.

Chauvin, who is white, knelt on Floyds neck for nearly nine minutes, even as Floyd pleaded I cant breathe and bystanders urged him to get off.





On Friday, he was charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter. The three other officers involved  identified as Thomas Lane, Tou Thao and J Alexander Kueng  have not been charged, angering protesters who say they all must be held accountable.

Saturday nights protest started peacefully with protesters chanting I cant breathe, and no justice, no peace as they marched down the citys streets.

Meme Green was handing out water, chips, apples and other snacks to protesters with her young son.

He is a Black boy who is going to be a Black man, Green told Al Jazeera. He needs to see the protest in a positive way.

A banner with an image of George Floyd is held by protesters rallying against his death in Minneapolis police custody, in Minneapolis, Minnesota [Leah Millis/Reuters]

But as the curfew began, smoke started appearing on the horizon, with some confrontations between police and protesters.

National Guard fully mobilised

For the first time in state history, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz fully mobilised the National Guard earlier on Saturday in an effort to quell protests which had rocked the city since Tuesday.

The National Guard said more than 4,100 citizen-soldiers and airmen had been deployed to the Twin Cities area, which includes Minneapolis.

Members of the National Guard secure the area during a protest against the death in Minneapolis police custody of African American man George Floyd, in Minneapolis, Minnesota [Lucas Jackson/Reuters]

We are fully-integrated and unified with law enforcement, fire, Emergency Management Systems, and all state agencies to ensure the safety of our citizens, Major General Jon Jensen said at a news conference late on Saturday.

In addition to the National Guard, there was an increased law enforcement presence. Police used tear gas to disperse the crowds, and several arrests were made.

But protesters remained undeterred.

Its absolutely critical that we come together to try to make sure that our babies can grow up in a world where they can walk outside or simply breathe without having to worry about dying, said Minneapolis resident Ashley Paulson.

Police move towards a protester after curfew in Minneapolis [John Minchillo/AP Photo]

Similar scenes were seen nationwide and officials called in the National Guard and implemented curfews in an effort to quell protesters.

In New York City, several groups of protesters rallied throughout the city. While the protests remained mostly peaceful throughout the day, as the sun set, there were periodic scenes of violence. Police used tear gas and videos showed some protesters being thrown to the ground by officers.

Elsewhere, police vehicles and some buildings were set on fire following largely peaceful, but angry protests.

Reminiscent of other police killings

Demonstrators are angry not just over Floyds death, but years of police killings and violence against unarmed African Americans. That especially rings true in Minnesota.

In 2015, protesters rallied for more than two weeks following the police killing of 24-year-old Jamar Clark in Minneapolis. No charges were filed against the officers involved.

The next year, 32-year-old Philando Castile was killed by police during a traffic stop in a suburb of Saint Paul, which neighbours Minneapolis. Castiles girlfriend streamed the aftermath of the shooting live on Facebook. The officer involved was acquitted of manslaughter.

Smoke rises near a demonstrator holding a sign and facing a row of police in Minneapolis, Minnesota [AFP]

Paulson said she has had to have some hard discussions with her five-year-old daughter.

I had to have a conversation with my daughter about the fact that the very people that I was taught were supposed to protect and serve and keep me safe are the very people that she has to be sceptical of, Paulson said. I had to teach [that to] my daughter, and it devastated me.
Three arrested for attempting to smuggle 230kg of kratom into Phuket

PHUKET: Two men were arrested at the Phuket Check Point yesterday (May 30) for attempting to smuggle 230kg of kratom onto the island.

Sunday 31 May 2020, 05:23PM

The three were arrested at the Phuket Check Point yesterday (May 30). Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub

The three were arrested at the Phuket Check Point yesterday (May 30). Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub

Maj Tawan Lekmad of the Phuket Provincial Police explained that officers had already received a tip-off about the delivery and were just waiting for the pickup to arrive.

The pickup arrived as expected, at about 4:30pm, and officers searched the back of the truck.

The haul of kratom was packed in baskets and in sacks, all under a tarpaulin covering the load.

The officers arrested the three in the people travelling in the pickup: two men named as

Wisut Maprai, 30, and Monchai Oncham, 22; and one woman named as Wilaiwan Oncham, 31.

All three are from Ratchaburi. Maj Tawan noted.

The kratom was seized as evidence, as was the pickup truck and two iPhones.

The accused confessed to the allegations against them, Maj Tawan noted in his report.

All three suspects were taken to Tha Chatchai Police Station nearby and charged with possession of a Category 5 drug with intent to sell, he added.

With Phuket airport and all ports on the island closed to all domestic travel, the bridge onto Phuket is currently the only way onto the island.

As such, all people wanting to travel into Phuket must register first and apply to be granted special permission by Phuket officials.

It was not explained whether the three from Ratchaburi had been granted such permission.
San Francisco, May 31 : Google and YouTube on Sunday put a black ribbon on its home page in the US, showing solidarity for protests against the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, in police custody.

"We stand in support of racial equality, and all those who search for it," the message read on the Google home page.

The same message was also placed on the US home page of Google-owned YouTube.

Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai tweeted: "Today on US Google & YouTube homepages we share our support for racial equality in solidarity with the Black community and in memory of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery & others who don't have a voice.

"For those feeling grief, anger, sadness & fear, you are not alone," Pichai added.

Last week, a policeman choked an African-American man Floyd, to death by kneeling on his neck in Minneapolis.

Several states in the US erupted in protests after the video went viral.

The riots stretching from New York on the east coast to Los Angeles on the west rocked the nation that was just beginning to relax the Covid-19 restrictions threatening to spread the disease.

The force of the protests that have turned violent comes from the ongoing brutality against minorities by police with two other recent cases adding to the fury behind the killing of Floyd.
Jimmy Kimmel has urged viewers to vote disgusting Donald Trump out of office following his response to the George Floyd protests.

On Fridays episode of his US talk show (29 May), Kimmel expressed horror at Trumps tweet about the protests, which included the phrase: When the looting starts, the shooting starts.

Our disgusting excuse for a president, Mr Tough Guy, decides I know what Ill do, Ill make this worse, Kimmel said. At one oclock in the morning, instead of trying to make peace, Donald Trump makes a violent threat.

Kimmel continued: Our president is threatening to order the military to shoot Americans, specifically black Americans. And then of course today, as he often does when he says something idiotic, he tried to reel that in. The sad thing about how much he lies is, he isnt even good at it.

Kimmel expressed disbelief that anyone could continue to support Trump after his tweets, describing the president as a man who clearly and intentionally inflames violence in the middle of a riot to show how tough he is.

I dont care what you are, Kimmel added, right, left, Republican, Democrat  I cant imagine there are many of us who want that. Enough is enough. Weve got to vote this guy out already.

Trumps tweet was placed behind a warning on Twitter following its publication, with the platform describing it as glorifying violence.

He later threatened protesters who had gathered outside the White House with vicious dogs and ominous weapons.

Protests have ignited across the US following the death of Floyd, who was killed by a white police officer who continued to kneel on his neck despite Floyd pleading for his life.
ontd faves zach braff and terry crews!

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Fuck Biden and fuck the people saying "if Obama was still president this would be different." Would it? BLM formed under Obama. Fuck off with that bullshit. Democrats don't care either!



Also, if the news don't quit crying "mom and pop shops are being looted!" Mostly they are looting big business. Stop saying that shit to make it worse!

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Wait, what does BLM forming under Obama have anything to do with his presidency? Small businesses are being looted, the media's responsibility should be in making a clear distinction that it's not the protesters doing it.

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In LA they are looting malls, Rodeo, and Melrose. Ain't no damn mom and pop shops there. They are targeting the wealthy or well off.



BLM formed under Obama and he did nothing to stop police violence then. Biden has nothing to say of substance now. Both sides don't give a fuck about black lives.

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Who the fuck cares about the looting? It's the least important part of all of this.

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feguson happened under obama... he called us thugs!!





I can't w/ this revisioning and placing the blame solely at Trump's feet

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No one cared to fund mom and pop shops when all these bail outs happened. Everyone with a "small business" aka 500 employees were able to rack in millions but mom and pop had to struggle.

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Well Trump isn't gonna do shit to make anything better for black people.



Sometimes you have to go with the lesser of two evils. Obama didn't fan racist flames like Trump



Edited at 2020-05-31 10:37 pm (UTC)

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it's honestly disgusting for ppl to be so gleeful about "rooftop koreans" (i'm looking at the LA reddit page). stop inciting and fetishizing asian on black violence



also fuck *democrat* Eric Garcetti for weaponizing coronavirus and closing down the COVID testing centers. he is defending police brutality

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We had protests again today here and surprise surprise without the cops showing up to swing their dicks it has been peaceful as can be from what I have been seeing online. People are marching and chanting, mostly staying to the sidewalk, lots of people with masks and maintaining some semblance of social distance where possible although maybe 3 ft not 6ft.



Id like to think this means the police have finally bought a clue but I doubt it. But as I was typing this I got the emergency alert that the curfew is still in effect even though it doesnt seem to need to be.

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Oh my god. What is the @NYPDnews doing? pic.twitter.com/rZayr421pJ  Rob Bennett @  (@rob_bennett) May 31, 2020



I'm sure this video has already been posted here but posting this again. trigger warning for violence.. I'm sure this video has already been posted here but posting this again. trigger warning for violence..

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I feel sick. And people are still he was scared for his life! Self defense-ing. Hes in a fucking 4 tonne vehicle and they were unarmed WHAT THE FUCK

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Add THAT to the list! Ooh cops and white peoples are soooo going down. Keep digging yall grave deep with your bare hands til you reach to the core. Done deal.



Cant wait to see it bringing in the Supreme Court.

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and fucking di blasio defended the police officer

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Yeah I couldnt believe he said that. Then AOC called him out on it.

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He did all that tap dancing for the Police today and they don't even like him! He's so pathetic.

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I don't get this obsession with "peaceful" protests ("polices didn't show up so it was peaceful"). When THE FUCK has any "peaceful" protest ever changed anything??



Protests doesn't need to be peaceful, black protesters have all the right in the world to destroy shit DESPITE police showing up or not tbqh. Destruction of property can't be compared to the systemic violence minorities, especially black people, are put under by the US police every single day so this fixation on ppl wrecking shit or not or what's the cause behind it coming from ppl who supposedly *support* the protests is nagl imo.



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IA. I think it's important to acknowledge that the out of state whites and the police are being instigators here because I think the organizers of these events WANT them to be peaceful. But it's also like, if black Americans decide they want to destroy police cars they should destroy police cars. They don't need to be peaceful in the face of violence.

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I've see the Jake Paul video which is pretty illustrative of what can go on and ACAB so while emphasizing the points about ppl being on the look out for *who* is causing the trouble are valid.... there's also some stupidity in it because like people who don't think protesters burning shit up is completely rational and valid IN THE FACE OF WHAT'S GOING ON can't possibly understand the situation, can they?



I mean, there's DEFINITELY an argument to be had about how such violence can be perceived and sold by the media, etc. but that's a whole other debate than the "yay peaceful protest"/"no looting plz!!"/"those wrecking shit can't possibly be the VALID protesters" some ppl are flogging.



Protesting against state violence usually means there's violence and radicalism involved. It's not some kumbayah "let's all chant and vote Trump out" shit. Most protests that actually shifted things weren't peaceful AT ALL.

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Everyone who condemns violent protests is conveniently forgetting how America even fucking came to existence. Cause, spoiler alert, the British didn't just hand it over to us. I just want to post that Pitch Perfect gif with the Elizabeth Banks character saying to crack a book on every post of someone complaining about violent protests.

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Those arguments come from people that value their comfort and generalized stuff more than they value lives.

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what do you think about the outside agitator narrative? obviously in such a chaotic situation there will be some bad actors but to me it feels like an attempt to quash unrest and get people to fall back in line :/

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This just happened. Police trying to break up crowd. Some of own devices and other things thrown back at police. @nbc4i pic.twitter.com/lf24YVqtQY  Eric Halperin (@EricHalperinTV) May 30, 2020 Well when I say peaceful protests I mean the protesters are being allowed to protest in the way they see fit, not getting gassed for simply standing on the sidewalk.

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My city has a few vigils and protests organized for this week and I'm going to participate. Feels good to be able to do support the black community both in my city and around the country.



What's been helping me cope with all the emotions (and as a white lady I know I'm dealing with the least compared to everyone else) has been repainting the apartment. My WiFi isn't working so the past weekend I've just been painting and it's been really calming. I hope you all are finding ways to cope with the tragedy and are staying safe 

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It was a trip in Salt Lake City today. Some old ass Trumper white dude pulls up to a protest downtown and had a hunting BOW and started shooting arrows into the crowd. A group tackled and beat his ass, turned over his car and set it on fire. The SLC police stepped aside and let it happen then took the guy into custody.



Then this fuckwad gets on the local news to cry about how terrible he was treated/beat by evil protesters. OMG, I fucking can't...





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I love the "Fake Doctors Real Friends" podcast!

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Literally highlight of my week.

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Im so torn. I like it...but Zach Braff can get annoying after a while. It just sounds like he tries cut Donald down as often as he can and I cant see why Donald stayed friends with him after all these years. I understand joking around and teasing your friends, he just does it excessively to the point that its not fun anymore.



Also John C. McGinley in so intense lol.

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I hadn't noticed that, but I usually only half listen while I'm doing something else. The fact that Donald hides from his kids in his closet kills me.

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There's a huge march going on in the Twin Cities and I feel so bad I'm not there. I didn't see anything about it in groups I follow on Facebook, and they've shut down highways already and more will probably shut again, so I'm scared of going out and being stuck. What are your thoughts on going or not being at a march or protest? I'm white and want to be an ally, and I just feel like no matter what I do, I'm not ever doing enough, and that I'm not being a good person. I don't know, I may be doing a bad job of expressing my thoughts.



Edited at 2020-05-31 09:29 pm (UTC)

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I really want to participate, but I have COVID and Im pregnant so obviously need to stay my ass at home. Im proud of my city though.

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I'm super proud too! One worry I have is that because the Twin Cities straddle the river, it's a risk of getting stuck and not being able to get back across the river. Like, they just bumped up the interstate closures by 2 hours with a very short warning.



Continue staying safe, and sending good vibes your way for a quick recovery. Congrats on your baby too!



Edited at 2020-05-31 10:12 pm (UTC)

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The fact that people cannot understand that the root of this whole thing is the systemic and overt racism that is the backbone of police departments, and the whole fucking country and this is something that we're fucking sick of, is killing me. You tell these people to reflect on how the white protesters with fucking guns show up to the state house and shit and how that expression is viewed as 'fighting for their freedom' over trivial shit such as getting goddamn haircut. But when we protest the systemic hunting down of our people it's going against "America", and white people shut down. They don't wanna learn, they don't wanna change, they wanna keep black and brown people in their places and we're tired of this shit.







Btw: Is anyone else's twitter looking funky? Like most of the elements aren't loading on my paged.

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Same, plus I've been noticing shit just getting deleted on FB too. I can' with the FB police defenders.



I had to log off yesterday. Those people were making me rage and couldn't take the arrogant stupidity/racism even though many of us were fighting back their asinine views.



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Who is this serving?



Who is this protecting? pic.twitter.com/IK8DkwLLUT  jordan (@JordanUhl) May 31, 2020 A compilation of just a *fraction* of the violence and brutality cops are getting away with

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Police unions need to be busted.

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peaceful protesting has been tried. they were ignored, and told to "not disrespect" the flag.



peaceful protesting was done in the civil rights movement, and black people were tear gassed, and beaten.



white people should really stop bringing up mlk jr., and what he would do. like they only see the "i have a dream" mlk jr.

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Donald and his poor WiFi. He was sooo excited to speak to Whoopi. Literally did a whole "Colour Purple" bit on the podcast .

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One of the locations at my work is going to be boarding up and closing early :/ I hope the store remains safe.

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i haven't really been able to make it out to any protests bc since i work in a hospital my thought (like even going out in general for groceries) is if i can limit my exposure to others bc my fear is that i may have covid (& be asymptomatic) & end up exposing others to it. so i've been donating as much money as i can to bail funds & different communities in need. i wish i could do more but i figured this was better than nothing at all & accidentally exposing others.

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At least 10 people were killed and several others were injured in the bombing of a passenger bus in Somalia, not far from the capital of Mogadishu, local media reported on Sunday, citing police.

According to the Garowe Online news outlet, the minibus was hit by a roadside bomb at Hawa Abdi village, about 12 miles northwest of Mogadishu.

Initial reports said that six people had been killed in the blast. No group has so far claimed responsibility for the incident.

-ANI

Also Read: America plunges into crisis as racial tension, unemployment grips amid pandemic
The Afghan government and the Taliban have released more captives as part of a major prisoner swap ahead of formal peace talks aimed at ending the 18-year war.

The prisoner exchange is part of a U.S.-Taliban agreement signed in February that called on the Afghan government to release up to 5,000 Taliban prisoners and for the militants to free around 1,000 government captives as a confidence-building measure ahead of formal peace talks.

"The Government has released 710 Taliban prisoners from Pul-e Charkhi, Parwan and other prisons in the provinces since yesterday," National Security Council spokesman Javid Faisal tweeted late on May 30.

The releases bring to around 2,700 the total number of prisoners freed by Kabul since the U.S.-Taliban agreement was signed.

Suhail Shaheen, the spokesman of the Taliban's political office in Qatar, said on Twitter on May 30 that the militants released 73 members of the Afghan security forces in the provinces of Balkh, Kunduz, Logar, Paktia, Khost, and Paktika.

He said that the Taliban had so far released 420 government prisoners.

The prisoner releases come amid new momentum in the peace process that was on the verge of collapse following intensifying militant attacks.

In a surprise move, the Taliban announced a May 24-26 cease-fire to coincide with the Eid al-Fitr Islamic holiday.

During the cease-fire, Afghan authorities released some 1,000 Taliban prisoners -- part of a pledge by the government to free up to 2,000 militants in response to the Taliban's cease-fire move.

The developments have raised prospects of an extended cessation of hostilities and the long-delayed launch of direct talks between the government and militants over a permanent cease-fire and a future power-sharing agreement.

Since the truce ended, the militants have observed an unofficial reduction of violence, despite staging several deadly attacks on government forces.

A Taliban delegation arrived in Kabul on May 28 for talks over the prisoner swap.
By Akbar Mammadov

The Head of the Azerbaijani community of Azerbaijans Nagorno-Karabakh region, MP Tural Ganjaliyev, has condemned the congratulatory letter sent by Rachel Harder, a member of the House of Commons of the Canadian Parliament close to the Armenian lobby over illegal elections held in occupied Nagorno-Karabakh.

As the head of the Azerbaijani community of the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan and the Azerbaijani-Canadian friendship group in the Azerbaijani Parliament, I condemn and strongly object to the irresponsible "congratulatory letter" sent from Rachel Harder, a member of the House of Commons of the Canadian Parliament close to the Armenian lobby, to the representative of the so-called regime in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, Ganjaliyev wrote in his Facebook page on May 30:

Ganjaliyev reminded Canadian MP Harder that while Armenia continues to illegally occupy the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan and adjacent territories in violation of the basic principles of international law, UN and other international organizations, the Azerbaijani population has been forcibly evicted from their homes through ethnic cleansing and deprived of basic human rights for more than 28 years now.

"In this context, trying to legitimize the election show" in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan on March 31 and April 14, 2020, is a disrespect to fundamental human rights and the rule of law. The international community, including Canada, unanimously rejected the "election show" in favour of law and justice, and expressed solidarity with Azerbaijan.

Unfortunately, the parliamentarian of a country like Canada, which has high respect for human rights and freedoms, has expressed support for Armenia's policy of ethnic cleansing against Azerbaijanis, thus casting a shadow over Canada's foreign policy interests and values.

In the meantime, Ganjaliyev told Trend News Agency on June 2 that Rachel Harder's assistant is a Canadian citizen of Armenian origin. "Most likely, the assistant provided false information to MP Rachel Harder. It would be good if after receiving such information the deputy would clarify it and take action after studying the issue of the conflict objectively", he said.

Ganjaliyev also reminded that Canada recognizes the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and attaches great importance to high democratic principles and the rule of law. "Therefore, such a step of the Canadian parliamentarian arouses the feeling of regret", added he.

I reiterate that the Azerbaijani community of the Nagorno-Karabakh region spares no effort to find a peaceful solution to the conflict - the peaceful coexistence and development of both communities in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, works tirelessly for this purpose.

Ganjaliyev added: We express our gratitude to the international community, including those who support our just struggle in Canada, and call on those who oppose justice to refrain from this wrong path and support the Armenian and Azerbaijani communities of the Nagorno-Karabakh region to live together in peace within the internationally recognized territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.

It should be noted that the illegal elections in Nagorno-Karabakh have been rejected by international organizations such as the EU, the European Parliament, Council of Europe, NATO, Non-Aligned Movement, OIC, among others as well a number of countries, including the UK, Germany, Turkey, Italy, Georgia, Ukraine, Estonia, etc.

---

Akbar Mammadov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AkbarMammadov97

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
When Harry Crosbie and Peter Aiken suggested staging 60 gigs at Lissadell House in Sligo over five years, it was music to the ears of Constance Cassidy and Eddie Walsh, owners of the historic mansion.

They bought the property in 2003 but for five years from 2009 were embroiled in a legal battle with Sligo County Council over rights of way.

Had they lost the case, it could have cost them millions. As it dragged on the only lift they got were the concerts by Leonard Cohen and Westlife in 2010. But then the Supreme Court ruled in their favour in 2014.

Now Lissadell, in which WB Yeats spent so much time and which was the home of Constance Markievicz and the suffragette Eva Gore-Booth, could become Ireland's major outdoor venue.

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"The reaction has been enormously positive," Eddie Walsh said. "Every TD and councillor I've spoken to is hugely in favour of this plan going ahead. Of course, we will have to look at it in detail with the council and follow all the regulations including those relating to Covid-19, but the noises we're hearing are all good."

Sixty concerts with up to 15,000 people at each would attract 180,000 visitors to Sligo every year.

"Think of the business that will bring to bars and restaurants and B&Bs and local shops," Eddie said.

"We've been told that the spend could be up to 100m annually.

"We're aware that a great deal of planning is involved. But we've had first contact with the council and they are positive too.

"Obviously if there is still some form of social distancing in place we will have to ensure it is followed and indeed employ people to make sure concert-goers obey the regulations."

Constance Cassidy said the house is in better shape than ever. "We've been locked down here since March so we got all sorts of little jobs done."

"We have to do it right," added Eddie. But with professionals like Harry and Peter and the advice of the council, we're confident this will be a winner.

"We need Lissadell to be self-sufficient. It's never going to make a profit, but if we could help it pay for itself, it would be marvellous.

"And I'm pretty sure WB Yeats would approve."
CLEVELAND, Ohio  Days before the Saturdays Black Lives Matter protest over the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd, organizers advised people to arrive prepared, but specifically condemned any violence.

Much of the organizing took place on social media, where a list of more than a dozen guidelines for the rally were posted, such as recommendations against wearing contact lenses (in case of tear gas) and for marching with a buddy. Hours before the peaceful rally began at the Free Stamp downtown, a post to the event page discouraged violence of any sort.

If you cannot abide by the rules that have been posted in this event, dont show up, the post says, in part. If you are coming to antagonize, agitate, or disrupt, dont show up. This is not about you, please do not take up space that is being used to center black people.

When the peaceful protest devolved into violence, though, some protestors were ready. Some carried radios.

A man and woman wearing full masks that covered their faces ran after gas canisters and put out the smoke with a bucket of solution. A few others donned hard hats and taped red crosses to their shirts, as a makeshift medical team whose job was to pull people who were pepper-sprayed out of the crowd and flush out their eyes. They also made sure people didnt get dehydrated.

Another female protester used a megaphone to give protesters information, like if police officers were coming from the back to flank them. She also informed the group when a van filled with tactical police officers was coming, long before anyone else saw them.

Violence reigned over the evening. At least one protester carried Molotov cocktails, used to set at least five police vehicles ablaze. Ralliers spray-painted Pigs and Black Lives Matter! on the Justice Center and around other downtown buildings.

Saturday evening, just before Mayor Frank Jackson announced an 8 p.m. curfew, violent groups broke off and ravaged downtown, from Public Square to Playhouse Square.

All across our country we have seen peaceful protests turn violent and ravage the communities we hold most dear," Cuyahoga County Executive Armond Budish said in a statement Sunday afternoon. "In our own downtown Cleveland many businesses, restaurants, and organizations were devastated by the riots last night. Some may not recover. We must remember that this is our community and that business owners of all races are being deeply affected by the destruction of their property. I fully support a peaceful protest and encourage you to express your desire for change. I ask that you remain peaceful and remember that when we riot we harm our friends, families, and neighbors.

Related coverage:

Cleveland business owners, residents clean up after protests: See the damage

Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson extends downtown curfew to Monday to clean up damage caused during George Floyd-inspired protests

Cuyahoga County Sheriff David Schilling says police are not the evildoers were portrayed to be
Roughly 25 people gathered on the front lawn of the Manitoba Legislative Building Saturday afternoon for a rally protesting government restrictions during the coronavirus pandemic. It was the third rally of its kind organized by a group called Manitoba Together.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 31/5/2020 (599 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Roughly 25 people gathered on the front lawn of the Manitoba Legislative Building Saturday afternoon for a rally protesting government restrictions during the coronavirus pandemic. It was the third rally of its kind organized by a group called Manitoba Together.

The event took place less than 48-hours before the second phase of the provinces Restoring Safe Services plan comes into effect on June 1. Phase 2 will see the size of indoor and outdoor public gatherings increased and dine-in service at restaurants restored with physical distancing in place.

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On Saturday, protesters said they plan on making their opinions heard at the legislature every weekend for as long as the province has any kind of restrictions in place.

"The plan is to be here every Saturday until Pallister and Dr. Roussin decide that its OK to open up everything and get back to business," said Patrick Allard, one of those attending the rally. "No new normal, thats a load of crap, business as usual.

"Everyone needs to love their neighbour and stop walking six feet apart from each other."

Several guards with the provinces protective services branch stood nearby during the rally. An officer on duty said security presence is standard for any kind of demonstration on the legislature grounds to ensure protests are conducted peacefully.

The guards were not responsible for enforcing physical distancing between protesters and there appeared to be no Winnipeg bylaw officers, who have been tasked with enforcing the provinces public health orders, in attendance.

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Home  Just In  APF personnel open fire in air as Indian smugglers try to enter Nepal

Kathmandu, May 31

The Armed Police Force personnel deployed for border security in the Sarlahi district of southeastern Nepal opened the fire in air after a group of Indian nationals tried to enter Nepal forcefully.

Around 30 Indians tried to cross the border into Bishnu rural municipality-2. When the security personnel tried to stop them, they tried to snatch away the arms, forcing police to open fire in the air to control the situation.

Chief District Officer Mohan Bahadur GC says they were smugglers trying to supply some goods illegally into Nepal. He, however, did not reveal what they were snuggling.

The incident occurred at around 6:00 am today. The situation is under control now.
Two army officers, one non-commissioned officers, and two soldiers were killed or injured during the operations, it said.

Egypts armed forces has killed 19 takfiris in North Sinai during anti terrorism operations last week, a statement by the military read late on Saturday, with operations resulting in the death or injury of five army personnel.

The statement said the three of the extremely dangerous takfiris" were killed in two qualitative operations against in North Sinai. They were found with automatic rifles, hand grenades, and rocket-propelled grenade (RBG) shells.

The other 16 takfiri elements were killed after the armys air forces shelled zones at a number of terrorist hideouts.

Two army officers, one non-commissioned officers, and two soldiers were killed or injured during the operations, it said.

The armed forces said it detonated five explosive devices planted on roads in operation zones, and destroyed two four wheelers and a a warehouse containing large amount of explosives and logistic support for terrorist elements.

It said it arrested a number of smugglers carrying large quantities of weapons and ammunition of various calibers, the statement said, adding that a number of four wheelers were seized with huge quantities of drugs confiscated and a car having $200,000 seized in Ahmed Hamdy Tunnel.



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Because we believe it's time for a change in the U.S. House seat from Iowa's 4th District and because we believe he represents a strong alternative choice to incumbent Steve King for Republicans, The Journal editorial board today endorses the candidacy of Randy Feenstra in the June 2 primary election.

In our view, Feenstra - a three-term state senator from Hull in conservative stronghold Sioux County who possesses additional experience in public service at local and county levels of government, as well as in business - checks all the right boxes in terms of stands on issues, including domestic economic and social issues, important to majority Republicans in the 4th District. (He earned the personal endorsement of Bob Vander Plaats, president and chief executive officer of The Family Leader, endorsements from the National Right to Life Committee and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and an "A" rating by the NRA).

Any effort to argue Feenstra isn't a conservative Republican is, well, laughable. Party members should feel more than comfortable having him carry their banner and take their message into the fall general election campaign against Democrat J.D. Scholten.

In opting to endorse a King challenger this year, we break no news.

In January 2019, we urged King to resign his seat in the wake of controversy produced by a King white supremacy comment during an interview with The New York Times. Just three months before, in October 2018, we endorsed Scholten over King in the 4th District U.S. House race.

On multiple occasions, we have used this space to criticize King for what we view as inflammatory or questionable comments and expressed concern about the impact of those comments on our district. Each time King immerses himself in controversy in this fashion, he holds up our congressional district to ridicule and marginalizes himself within the legislative body he serves, we have written before.

In fact, fallout from the January 2019 NYT King story resulted in a vote by House Republicans to strip him of all committee assignments.

At a May 12 public candidate forum, King said House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy of California will advocate for him to get those committee assignments back, according to a Journal story.

Not so fast, though. In published reports, McCarthy said he didn't tell King he would advocate for him.

I never said that. Committee assignments are decided by the Steering Committee, he'll have the opportunity to make his case. I think members on the Steering Committee, I think he'd get the same answer that he got before, McCarthy said during a May 15 news conference.

Representative Steve Stivers, R-Ohio, was even stronger in his response.

"I am a member of the Republican Steering Committee and former NRCC chairman, and as long as I am a member of the Steering Committee, I will not allow that type of person or that type of ideology to influence the legislation passed by Congress. He will not be serving on any committee. Steve King does more to hurt Republican and conservative causes than help, Stivers wrote in an Instagram post, The Hill reported on May 13.

In other words, a cloud remains over King's seat on committees.

To the detriment of Iowans who live and work in this district, whatever measure of influence or effectiveness King may have once possessed in the House is, in our view, largely gone.

It required no insignificant amount of courage for Feenstra to mount a primary challenge to nine-term incumbent King, but he properly recognizes residents of this congressional district "deserve better." In Feenstra, Republicans of the 4th have a candidate who not only represents needed change, but a candidate who shares their values, principles and positions and who may, in fact, strengthen their hand in the general election campaign this fall.

They would be well-advised to make him their nominee.

Our Opinion editorials represent the consensus view of The Sioux City Journal editorial board. Members of the board include: Bruce Miller, editor; Michael Gors, editorial page editor; Dave Dreeszen; managing editor; Tim Hynds, chief photographer.

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Sohum Shah puts an end to speculations around Tummbad 2, says he's working on another project
The founder and General Overseer of the Synagogue Church of All Nations, SCOAN, Prophet T.B Joshua, has sent a fresh message to the Pres...

The founder and General Overseer of the Synagogue Church of All Nations, SCOAN, Prophet T.B Joshua, has sent a fresh message to the President of the United States of America, Donald Trump.





The message is concerning the current security situation in the USA and the coming presidential election.





Joshua entitled the message he shared during his live Sunday service, My message to President Donald Trump on security issues, recalling that he had prophesied what is happening currently happening in the US during his prophecy for 2020.





Following the killing of George Floyd, Americans, most of the black race have taken to the streets over police brutality with several US states activating National Guard troops.

Joshua said that a similar situation would occur again in June and warned that it could affect the coming election.





During my prophecy for 2020 released on 28th December 2019; prophecy number four concerning America was given as follows: Approach to the security issue will affect the candidates and swing voters in the next election,' he said.





President Trump, this is what is happening now. Another one is coming. President Trump, wake up to checkmate this. It will go beyond this. Another one is coming, starting from the ending of June.





The cleric noted that the people perish where there is no vision, pointing out that during Trumps regime, the name of Jesus has been given more honour.





What glory! Let us look beyond our palace for Gods authority. With God, all things are possible! Let us act now, Joshua said.





It is not all up to God; we have a role to play. More appeals to the people and security are required  in a language that will douse the tension and stop this situation  so we can then commit the future one into Gods hands.
New York City on Sunday topped 200,000 confirmed coronavirus cases, just three months after the first person in the city tested positive for COVID-19.

There were 56 COVID-19 deaths in the state on Saturday, 'which in this absurd reality we live in is very, very good news,' Governor Cuomo said Sunday.

While noting a slight uptick in the three-day average of new coronavirus hospital admissions, Cuomo said the number is declining overall across the region.

The confirmed death toll in the city is 16,848 with a further 4,721 probable deaths.

It comes as NYC, the epicenter of the virus in the US, prepares for the first phase of easing lockdown.

That will see construction and manufacturing workers return to their jobs along with curbside retail. Mayor Bill de Blasio says he expects that to happen in the first half of June.

New York City on Sunday topped 200,000 confirmed coronavirus cases, just three months after the first person in the city tested positive for COVID-19

The confirmed death toll in the city is 16,848 with a further 4,721 probable deaths

And in preparation for that on June 8, Gov. Cuomo said Saturday he will focus this week on providing more testing and more supplies like masks to neighborhoods where infection rates remain high.

Office workers in the city will not return until the second phase and even then, businesses have to meet strict requirements to keep staff safe.

The U.S. death toll from coronavirus topped 100,000 on Wednesday, a startling milestone just four months after the country's first case was confirmed.

It remains the highest death toll from the virus in the world and surpasses the U.S. military combat fatalities suffered in every conflict since the Korean War.

As of Sunday there were more than 104,000 COVID-19 deaths in the US. The figure is more than double the deaths in any other country.

It is a figure that President Trump initially stated would never be hit as he claimed in February that the virus would go away itself as warmer weather began.

He later stepped back on these comments saying that keeping the death toll to 100,000 would be a sign that the administration had 'done a very good job'.

Mayor Bill de Blasio says he expects lockdowns to be eased in the first half of June

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, pictured, expressed hope Sunday that the state is approaching a level where fatalities are perhaps not eliminated but are very few

With coronavirus deaths continuing to decline in New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo expressed hope Sunday that the state is approaching a level where fatalities are perhaps not eliminated but are very few.

Cuomo devoted most of his daily coronavirus briefing Sunday to discussing the ongoing protests against police brutality which, while mostly peaceful, have spurred violent outbursts that left police cars burned, businesses vandalized and hundreds of people arrested from New York City to Buffalo.

He speculated that the unrest might have been enhanced, in part, by pent-up frustration and agitation over coronavirus lockdowns.

: People gather to protest the death of George Floyd Sunday at Barclays Center in Brooklyn

Cuomo devoted most of his daily coronavirus briefing Sunday to discussing the ongoing protests against police brutality. Brooklyn is pictured Sunday

Cuomo also confirmed that dentists statewide can reopen Monday.

The governor said that dentists offices will be subject to state guidance on best practices for safety and social distancing.

It comes as the Cuomo administration slowly eases restrictions on economic activity in the state, region by region and industry by industry.
Dubais Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has unveiled a digital investment platform dubbed RTA Invest for managing investors relations, which will be operational in 2021.



It aims to offer investors a package of smart and streamlined services and showcase RTAs investment opportunities amongst a wider spectrum of local and global businesses. It will also facilitate the response and interaction of bidders to call for RTA investment tenders.



"We are planning to launch this digital investment platform next year to offer an integrated experience for potential investors in RTA projects. The platform will create interactive investment channels with investors for sharing ideas and proposing innovative business solutions," said Ibrahim Al Haddad, Director of Commercial and Investment, Strategy and Corporate Governance Sector, RTA.



"It will enhance the cooperation and investment drive in a variety of fields and boost the public-private partnership, PPP, concept," he stated.



"Through this platform, we are supporting our leaders efforts to elevate the projects competitiveness value, promote the opportunities professionally, attract more and diverse investors in infrastructure projects and initiatives, remarked Al Haddad.



The platform will be appealing especially to technology-savvy international businesses capable of proposing creative funding models for integrated transport systems offering new options to riders and value to Dubais profile as a model future city," he added.-TradeArabia News Service
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.  The inaugural SpaceX astronaut mission successfully completed the first leg of its journey on Sunday, docking with the International Space Station.

"It's been a real honor to be just a small part of this nine year endeavor since the last time the United States has docked with the International Space Station," NASA astronaut Bob Behnken said, speaking from the spacecraft.

"We have to congratulate the men and women of SpaceX ... their incredible efforts over the last several years to make this possible cannot go overstated," Behnken added.

Docking was completed at 10:30 a.m. ET, while passing in orbit over the northern border of China and Mongolia. Behnken and Doug Hurley will then disembark Crew Dragon and join the three crew currently on board the International Space Station.

"Crew of Expedition 63 is honored to welcome Dragon and the Commercial Crew program aboard the International Space Station," NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy said from inside the space station.

"You've completed a historic ride to the ISS and have opened a new chapter in space exploration," NASA's mission control at Johnson Space Center in Houston said

Elon Musk's company launched the pair of astronauts on Saturday afternoon from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, with a Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Crew Dragon spacecraft to orbit. The two astronauts then spent just under 19 hours travelling to the space station.

The mission is known as Demo-2, as its the second and final test flight of the Crew Dragon spacecraft before SpaceX begins flying astronauts every few months. The capsule is the first privately designed and built spacecraft to carry astronauts to space.
Brian OConnor has spent his life creating art.

Visions manifest inside his head waiting to be placed on canvas.

The brush serving as the tool to complete.

Yet, these days, the simple act of painting has become different.

The brush strokes that came easily, are met with varying degrees of difficulty.

OConnor, 62, is redefining himself in his Veguita art studio, as he battles a progressive brain disorder  Posterior Cortical Atrophy or PCA.

PCA is a rare, degenerative brain and nervous system (neurological) syndrome that results in gradually declining vision. Common symptoms include difficulties with reading, judging distances, and recognizing objects and familiar faces.

The symptoms are really strange, OConnor says. I cant write or read very well. Everything that you see is not there. You see a lot of stuff and then nothing.

OConnors journey is the subject of the documentary, Painting Gray.

Filmmaker Ann Bromberg is at the helm of the project and says it focuses on the stigma of the disease  personally and professionally  within a vibrant art community.

Originally, we started this piece to show his major works, Bromberg says. You cant get around the fact that he has PCA. When you talk to him, its noticeable. Hes a prolific painter and the diagnosis has really shifted collaboration with his wife.

Painting Gray can currently be screened at guildcinema.com by donation. The donation will support the filmmakers, artists, Guild Cinema and the PCA Foundation.

The Guild has been collaborating with local filmmakers to screen films online.

Weve launched an online portal to watch locally made movies thatll both help us along in these challenging times for independent movie theaters plus part of the viewing fees will also go to the filmmakers themselves, says Kief Henley, Guild Cinema owner. Its a win-win situation for all via a safe at-home viewing option.

Bromberg traveled southeast of Albuquerque to Veguita for nearly two years to visit OConnors studio.

She chronicled how OConnor pushes his boundaries to learn how to paint again.

He is one of the most prolific painters of this century, Bromberg says. In his paintings, he uses human figures to tell a story. Each character represents part of the sociopolitical narrative.

For OConnor, painting is a vehicle for grappling with the world and make sense of a beautiful mess.

His works are a kind of theater where the acts are played out simultaneously, the sequencing drawn out not through the medium, but through the imagination, memory and experiences of the viewer.

The paintings are about people living everyday lives, dramatic, cowardly, vicious, graceful, funny, stoic, whiney, tragic, dignified, inconsequential and heroic lives, sometimes all at once, says OConnor about his creations.

While filming, Bromberg was humbled by the growing artistic collaboration and relationship between OConnor and his wife, Iva Morris.

Morris is a prolific artist on her own.

She says in the film that she never thought of OConnor and herself as artistic partners until his diagnosis.

I never thought of it in a concrete way, it was like breathing, she says of their professional relationship. We would critique each other. Sometimes he would help me with a painting and Id help him with his. We were extremely honest with each other.

With each passing month, everything changes.

A new normal sets in.

The couple adjusts and moves forward.

Brian needs help all day now, Morris says. He would be (in his studio) whistling and painting. I miss that so much. I cant imagine not being able to draw. I cant imagine not being able to paint.

Bromberg is used to traveling the world to create documentaries.

Though she wanted to stay put in New Mexico for her next project.

I was motivated to do a local film here, Bromberg says. Iva and I were working together and I saw the dynamic of how she was shifting into her role as not only his wife and best friend, but his caregiver.

Bromberg likens the relationship between the pair to Georgia OKeeffe and Alfred Stieglitz or Jackson Pollock and Lee Krazner. Both couples saw great success in their own mediums of art.

To be innovative and creative on top of being married. Its very profound, Bromberg says. Theres this intense collaboration between Brian and Iva thats going to give way to some amazing art.

Bromberg hopes the documentary will educate an international audience, helping viewers to appreciate the roles of families, caregivers, and the courage of an artist living with a fatal brain disorder PCA.

The film will support public health awareness and the development of outreach programs for PCA patients.

It is both a specific local story and the voice of a global artist who is very much a part of the growth and stability of New Mexicos art community, Bromberg says.

ON DEMAND

Painting Gray is available to stream at guildcinema.com and is part of the Albuquerque theaters programming highlighting local filmmakers. A minimum of $5 donation is suggested for the film.
When Sean Doyle heard that Normal People was being adapted for the screen, like almost every actor in Ireland, he went out and bought a copy of the bestselling novel. It is something of a document of his youth - it's set over the period that he did his Leaving Cert and he was a contemporary of Sally Rooney at Trinity College. But, more than anything, he identified hugely with the male protagonist, Connell.

"I don't think I've ever encountered a character in fiction that spoke to me as much," he says. "The descriptions of him made me feel very seen."

The fresh faced 27-year-old specialises in playing schoolboys - he jokes that most of his roles to date have involved a school uniform at some stage and the series director Lenny Abrahamson had him on a shortlist to play Connell.

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When Sean heard that his friend and sometime co-star, Paul Mescal, had been cast in the role, he was initially downcast. "When I heard that I hadn't gotten the part, I took it pretty hard, but in hindsight, I understand that Paul was better in the role," he recalls.

"I can see now he just was Connell - he's perfect for it. Apparently when Lenny saw his [audition] tape, he knew straight away."

And there was consolation in that Doyle would be a part of the series: he plays Connell's judgemental and bullying friend Eric in several of the episodes. Doyle says he based his performance - a study in adolescent maturation - on an impression of a friend from his own school days.

"The person was toxic and a bit of a loose canon. He'd take out his penis on a bus and flap it at people. There is something quite scary, quite controlling about behaviour like that. He actually became a really nice guy in the end, though, and in my mind, Eric has a similar redemption arc."

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Further consolation came in the fact that the series has been a ratings sensation, chiming with viewers like no other drama in 2020, and launching its leads as bona fide sex symbols; Mescal's glistening torso has made O'Neills GAA shorts an unlikely fetish item for millions.

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Doyle witnessed the Live Line furore over the series' frequent sex scenes with some bemusement. "To me, it almost seemed like people of a certain age were outraged at the depiction of sex because they never got to live that life. It's like: 'I didn't get my fields ploughed, so nobody else should be allowed to either.' They don't want to accept that people have willies."

He says that the sexuality depicted in the series is a useful counterpoint to the pornography and dressing room banter that were the education sources for boys of his generation.

"I think that it's great that parents and kids are watching these scenes. When I was growing up, we never learned anything about consent. Instead of that, you got information about consent and sex from locker-room chat and pornography. And you'd sort of get the idea from porn that any time the sink stops working, it meant sex or that any time you ordered a pizza, it meant sex.

"Porn gives the impression that it's all about the man, all for his enjoyment, all from his point of view, and if females come, well, good for them, but that's not necessary. The sex here (in the series) is so different from that. It's healthy."

Doyle says that, by the standards of the day, he came to his own sexuality "quite late" in life. He used apps, but he couldn't bear the conventions of Tinder. "I hated who I became when I was using the apps. Look at me: I'm hot, look at me: I go on holidays, look at me: I have friends. It was all so fake."

By the time he lost his virginity, "I just turned 18 or just turned 17 - I forget which - but I took to it like a duck to water. I didn't really have great sexual experiences to begin with. My attitude was more let's get this over with. It's only in the last two or three years that I've really got any sort of spiritual outlook in sexuality."

He had begun seeing a girl at the beginning of the year, but the lockdown stalled their fledgling romance. "We were supposed to be in Greece touring the islands together. She's on an island in Thailand now. She was doing a course there. I haven't seen her in months, but I can't wait to see her again. The plan is that we'll isolate together when she comes back."

Doyle grew up in Firhouse in Dublin and performance was in his blood: his father was a musician and painter. He went to Templeogue College, where a committed and brilliant English teacher, Declan Fitzpatrick, spurred his interest in literature.

He performed in plays throughout secondary school and attended the Gaiety School of Acting, which his father paid for by selling paintings door-to-door. It was a chance encounter with a casting agent at the RDS when he was 19 that really set him on his way, however.

It resulted in him being cast as Larry Mullen Jr in 2011's Killing Bono, a film that would mark the last performance of the great Pete Postlethwaite. "I don't really feel I learned much from that other than how to spend per diems with cool older actors, but I had a ball and I wish I learned more," Doyle recalls.

After school, he was initially determined to become a barrister, "but later I realised that I only wanted that so that I could stand up later in court and shout 'objection'."

Instead, he studied drama at Trinity, but felt like he never clicked with the college and the course. "Normal People happens as I was doing the Leaving Cert and going into first year. In my head, I was walking around with them.

"In those years, Sally [Rooney] was big in the Hist [the college debating society] and I didn't really engage with that, so unfortunately I didn't know her and I never had a gaff on Wellington Road. The people I was exposed to at Trinity weren't my people.

"They asked me was I coming back or not and eventually I just said no. There was a lot of philosophy and queer theory and it was very academic - I was more about performance."

The cut and thrust of auditions helped him to understand what his 'type' was, but he says this was vastly different from his own personality. "I have these intense big eyebrows and sort of ingenue pretty-boy vibes and then I walk in and I'm an absolute goofball who's tripping over his feet and is socially anxious."

He dropped out of college eventually and as the work started coming in, he found his feet. "I had money for the first time and started paying money to my parents. That freedom of being young and having money for the first time was incredible."

In 2013, when he was 21, he won the part of car-stealing trouble maker Callum Black on Fair City and he would continue to star in the soap for the next six years. He says that the relentlessness of filming was his real training as an actor.

"The speed and the vim and vigour of the whole thing, and work you have to do, it was tough overall," he recalls. "If you can get through a soap and feel like you've done a good job, you can get through anything."

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He's still close to Paul Mescal, with whom he also starred in an adaptation of Louise O'Neill's Asking For It, and says his fellow actor has been enjoying the reaction to the series.

"I think, like all of us, he's probably loving it. O'Neills must be having a field day too! Paul has been lucky really because there hasn't been some big circuit of chat shows to do. A lot of the promotion for this can be done from the comfort of our own homes."

From his teenage years, Doyle says he battled with self belief. "I struggled with depression. I don't think its chemical and it's not a hormonal imbalance as far as I'm aware. I think it's just being creative and being, what's the expression, cursed with a brain - not that I'm particularly intelligent. Feeling bad sometimes goes with the territory."

He's spent lockdown by himself in a bedsit in Dublin city centre. He says it's been a few months full of "ups and downs".

"I'm grateful and blessed that the worst I've had to put up with is a bit of loneliness. I'm enjoying it - coming to a grinding halt and being forced to take stock has been really invaluable. I feel like a better human, more emotionally present. I've been doing yoga and meditation and just practising being kind to myself, and I think when it's all over, this will really stand to me."

He says that the time in isolation has also given him a renewed perspective on just why Normal People has so captured the cultural zeitgeist.

"Little did we know before all this began that what people really want to watch isn't explosions or action heroes. They just want human beings having real human dramas, they want to see people holding and touching hands and feeling pain, connecting.

"I think that's what's made it the perfect television for this moment and it's been incredible to be a part of it."

The final episode of Normal People airs on RTE One on Tuesday at 10:15pm and is also on the RTE Player

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London, the United Kingdom  Twenty-nine-year-old Angela* had not had more than an hours sleep in two days when she heard a knock on her front door. Opening it, she was surprised to find a large parcel.

I havent ordered anything, she told the deliveryman, who stood at a distance with his mask and gloves on.

Its from your sons school, he responded.

Inside the parcel was an assortment of fresh and nonperishable food: pasta, lentils, chili con carne and long-life milk.

I started crying, she recounts over a video call. I just felt so touched, because I had been worrying for the last week. We were running out of food  It made me feel for the first time in a while that Im not invisible.

They dont understand

Angelas son, Shane*, is a pupil at Watergate, a primary school in the south London borough of Lewisham, for children between the ages of three and 11 who have severe learning difficulties.

Though he is rambunctious and good-humoured, six-year-old Shane needs constant support. Born prematurely, he has cerebral palsy and epilepsy, and is registered blind. He has also had a cerebral shunt inserted, which helps to prevent an excess buildup of pressure and fluid in his brain.

Shane does not adhere to normal sleep patterns and requires assistance with basic activities, from lifting his head to eating. Angela must be with him at all times in the absence of a carer or physiotherapist  an often relentless task that means she goes without sleep for nights on end.

A single mother, Angela gave up her job as a hairdresser to look after Shane. She receives no support from her family, and has almost depleted her savings on assistive technology and other essentials for Shane.

I used to be able to see my friends, but weve fallen out of touch because they dont understand Shane or our situation, she explains.

Shane* during a physiotherapy session [Photo courtesy of Shanes mother Angela*]

Anxiety

During the nationwide lockdown that started on March 24, 1.28 million children with special needs have had to confront unprecedented challenges in their daily routines. Their families and schools are under immense pressure to create and adopt new practices to ensure they can continue learning from home.

Anna Somerset is a fundraiser for Watergate and Brent Knoll, another school in Lewisham with which Watergate has a partnership in the form of a grassroots, parent-led trust and charity.

Even in the best of times, a lot of these children are extra sensitive and suffer from anxiety, she explains.

Routine, she emphasises, is absolutely crucial to their psychological growth. When that is taken away, the ramifications can be damaging.

Furthermore, time at school often presents the only opportunity for special needs children to mingle with their peers in a safe environment.

Real love

Watergates curriculum is tailored to the needs of each child. Prior to the pandemic, Shanes hydrotherapy classes, as well as lessons designed to boost his sensory engagement, had helped to improve his condition. More importantly, Angela explains, School gives him the structure that he needs.

She is worried that when he is finally able to return, he will be disoriented and fearful of socialising again, regressing to behaviour that he exhibited when he was first enrolled.

Currently, the Department for Education has issued guidance that educational facilities should be kept open for vulnerable children, as well as those whose parents or carers are key workers. Watergate remains open for a limited number of students who are safer in school than at home. A similar arrangement is in place at Brent Knoll.

Angela says that prior to the pandemic, attending Watergate had helped to improve Shanes condition [Photo courtesy of Angela]

Following a discussion with the school, Angela decided that it was better for Shane to stay at home. Every two days, his teacher calls to check on them both.

Prior to the coronavirus crisis, Angela was able to go grocery shopping alone during Shanes school hours. Now, she cannot leave his side, nor can she take him with her to the supermarket. Venturing outdoors could be lethal for Shane if he catches the virus, since he is immunocompromised and has a weak respiratory system.

What makes them [Watergate] so amazing, Angela says, is that they dont just care about Shane. Theres a real love for the families too. I dont know how they knew we needed food  I never even asked.

A formidable task

Lewisham, where the Brent Knoll and Watergate schools are located, is a culturally diverse borough with pockets of green spaces. But it is also afflicted by a variety of socioeconomic problems. Thirty-seven percent of children in the borough live in poverty, above the national average of 33.6 percent.

Income inequality cuts a jagged path through Lewisham: while there are affluent neighbourhoods clustered around the east of the borough, 63 of its communities are among the countrys most deprived.

Now, even more than before, special needs schools are having to step in to help their students families through difficult times.

Fiona Veitch, 57, has been head teacher at Watergate since last September. Exuding warmth, patience and humour, she says that as the pandemic rages on, everything you know flies out of the window, and a new world unfolds in front of you.

A student at Watergate dresses up as a superhero during holiday club [Photo courtesy of Julieta Nolde]

Watergate has approximately 100 staff members  teachers, therapists, nursery nurses. However, since the lockdown was imposed, only a core team of 25 is present at school at any time, in order to reduce the risk of transmission.

Her team, Veitch notes, is often as frightened as the parents, especially if they or their families have underlying medical conditions that put them in the high-risk category.

She believes her primary task is to understand and respond to the anxieties of both the childrens families and her staff, lift their spirits, and maintain remote learning where possible. That last task is formidable, since every child at Watergate learns differently, and resources may have to be adapted to each of the 130 pupils.

Lately, Veitch has begun staying in a budget hotel during the week, along with other key workers like healthcare staff, to reduce the amount of time she spends commuting and to ensure that she has more time for her staff and the children.

This entails being away from her family, but, she explains, its important for me to be in school every day, because it is reassuring  and makes people feel more confident in an uncertain time like this.

Public shaming

A typical workday for Veitch is now even busier than before. It starts with discussions with other special needs schools about how to acquire protective equipment for staff, organising deliveries to families that are experiencing food shortages, and carrying out individual risk assessments for every child to work out which ones are likely to be safer at school.

For some of them, their families are so stressed and so vulnerable that its a relief to their parents if they are able to send their children in.

Buying groceries and other necessities can be daunting for parents of special needs children, especially those who are already on the breadline or have lost their zero hours contracts, she explains.

If youre a single parent and all three [of your children] have high-level special needs, the pressure youre facing is just so great at the moment.

She adds that at last count, 44 percent of pupils at Watergate were from low-income families, and already eligible for free school meals from the state. But with the spike in unemployment, she estimates that this figure will have increased.

Bespoke play facilities are used by children at Brent Knoll during holiday club [Photo courtesy of Emily Ward]

There is also significant emotional strain associated with bringing a special needs child to the supermarket while social distancing is being observed.

In the case of autistic children, they cant understand what is happening, why they need to stand in line, or keep a safe distance from someone else. They really need sameness, and when they dont get it, its very overwhelming  even intolerable for them, she explains.

She cites examples of how parents have been shamed and admonished in public for not disciplining their children. The fear of judgment is enough to keep these parents at home.

When panic buying took place across the UK pre-lockdown, Veitch was inundated with fretful calls from parents who said they were unable to get nappies and other necessities for their children with severe physical needs. With waiting times of up to three weeks, online deliveries were not an option. The school stepped in, arranging for local supermarkets to save some of these supplies at their customer service desks so families could access them.

We try to act like a community

Ruth Elliot, who is Chair of Governors at Watergate and helps to oversee management of the schools activities, has been involved in special needs education since November 2003. Her late daughter was profoundly disabled and had been a pupil at the school.

I was very, very grateful for the support I had received [from Watergate] before she died, she recalls.

When youve been immersed in that world for so long, you cant just pretend it never existed. So I just stayed on  in different capacities over the years.

Along with 10 volunteers, other parents and school staff, Elliot helped to source food from a Lewisham-based charity called FareShare. This was then packaged into 130 different parcels and sent to vulnerable families with children at Brent Knoll and Watergate, as part of a COVID-19 relief initiative. Angela and Shane were just two of the beneficiaries.

Before FareShare partnered with the school, Elliot says that Veitch and other teachers had even pooled their own money to buy food for families in need. When asked about this, Veitch only says, Everybodys going through a hard time now  we try to act like a community, and hope that its enough.

Dignity and respect

Aside from helping families cope with some of their basic needs during the lockdown, both schools have had to devise creative ways to sustain the childrens learning.

Seven-year-old Lily Deitz attends Brent Knoll. She is a happy child who, according to her mother Laura, loves being outside, jumping on trampolines and swimming.

Lily also has autism and dislikes being interactive with other people. She is tactile and prefers sensory-seeking activities, such as washing her hands.

Lily and her parents David and Laura [Photo courtesy of Laura Deitz]

The Deitzes chose Brent Knoll for their daughter as it was the only school they felt was entirely committed to being excellent and ensuring that every single child in their care can reach their best potential.

As the Deitzes have chosen to keep Lily at home, Brent Knoll has been sending them both electronic and hard-copy learning resources so that Lilys education is not disrupted. Being familiar with how Lily learns at school, her teachers have dispatched a visual schedule to Laura. This guides her through the different pedagogic exercises for Lily to work through, including resources for a picture exchange communication system (PECS), which teaches children with autism to communicate using images.

The day starts when Laura, Lily and her two younger siblings sit down for morning circle time. They watch a video of Lilys teacher, which encourages her to sing along to a tune that she ordinarily listens to every morning at school.

Under Lauras supervision, Lily then alternates between a range of learning activities made accessible by the school over the course of the day. They include multisensory maths training, and online videos that are aimed at improving her linguistic and cognitive skills.

Over the last few weeks, Ive had some of the most meaningful interactions with Lily that I have ever had in my life, Laura reflects.

Lilys teacher checks in on the Deitzes every few days. Laura places weight on the fact that this show of care is not unexpected, and remembers being particularly moved on Lilys first day at Brent Knoll: The teachers knew not just her name, but also mine. The school goes out of its way to extend love not just to Lily, but also our entire family  theyve always treated us with dignity and respect.

There are days  I just cry

Brent Knolls head teacher, Andy Taylor, has been exploring ways to offer parents remote access to counselors who can provide them with regular advice on how to support their childrens learning. But many of the bespoke learning resources that Brent Knoll has created are uploaded online, and he is worried about families who are unable to access the internet at home.

There are quite a few of them, he says, and we send them exercises for their children by post.

Emily Ward, 32, is a learning support assistant for Lilys class, and says she misses seeing her at school.

Lily Deitz and her siblings painting together in lockdown [Photo courtesy of Laura Deitz]

Ward helped to run a holiday club for the school over the fortnight-long Easter holidays, which was attended by an average of eight children each day. For these children, the club is not simply a fun break from lockdown  it comprises sensory play, guided artwork and an opportunity for children with learning difficulties to get enough social interaction and physical exercise in a fit-for-purpose space. This is critical because for children in wheelchairs and those who have to be tube fed, it can be hard to play in conventional settings.

Ward confesses that being an educator for special needs children is frequently trying. I love my job so much, she says, but the pay makes it really difficult to live in London and have  any sort of lifestyle.

I feel a bit like a mental health nurse. Ive had children who kick and punch me, and I have to deal with that in a calm and managed way. There are days when I come home covered in bruises and I just cry. But then I tell myself that Im doing something thats worthwhile, and that the next day will be different. And sometimes it isnt, but when I do make a breakthrough, I feel so happy.

A sense of solidarity

One of the most commonly expressed frustrations within the special needs community is that government support for schools is gravely lacking.

Last year, a report by the think-tank IPPR North revealed that funding for special needs pupils in England had been slashed by 15 percent since 2015.

In 2018, the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) carried out a survey of 637 schools accepting children with special needs. Eighty-three percent of its respondents stated that they had not received any funding from health and social care budgets to support pupils who had been issued an EHC plan  a legal document detailing a young persons special educational, health and social care needs.

Though there was a boost to school funding in late 2019, the spectre of austerity cuts dating back to 2010 continues to loom over special needs schools, and is likely to persist after the coronavirus crisis.

Another mounting problem is that of the parents mental health: whereas school gave them a few hours of respite each day when their children were not at home, now they have to care for them round the clock.

For some parents, Veitch says, they get zero sleep.

What is clear is that COVID-19 has cemented a sense of solidarity between the schools and families of special needs children. Im on different WhatsApp groups with parents at Lilys school, says Laura. Knowing that you are understood, without having to explain yourself  is a very comforting thing.

Veitch shies away from taking any credit for her work, and feels it is the least she can do. Many [of our families] face being ostracised  by society in general. The current situation only serves to magnify that sense of difference and isolation, which is why it is so important that we are there for them in any way we possibly can be, she says, adding: We are not doing anything better than many other schools, both mainstream and special  and like them we do it with a real sense of connection and commitment to our children and their families.
Australian shoppers have voted for their 'most trusted brands', with Bunnings Warehouse taking out the top spot.

The latest Roy Morgan Risk Monitor survey looked at the companies over 12 months, including the unprecedented COVID-19 lockdown, to find the country's top 10 brands of the year.

The results are based on 1,000 consumers who were surveyed every month between May 2019 and April 2020 to measure levels of trust and distrust in more than 800 brands across 25 industry sectors.

In first place, the hardware giant emerged as the nation's most trusted brand.

Germain discount retailer Aldi has been named the most trusted supermarket brand after finishing as the runner-up.

Australian shoppers have voted for their 'most trusted brands', with Bunnings Warehouse taking out the top spot (picture of customers queueing outside a Bunnings store on March 28 due to government's social distancing measures)

Aldi has been named the most trusted supermarket brand after finishing as the runner-up (file image)

Australia's most trusted brand 1. Bunnings 2. Aldi 3. Woolworths 4. Coles 5. NRMA 6. Qantas 7. ABC 8. Toyota 9. Kmart 10. Bendigo Bank Advertisement

Leading supermarket giant Woolworths came third, followed by Coles (fourth).

Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine said Coles was the 'fastest mover' over the 12 months ending April 30, to be 'neck and neck' with Woolworths for the first time.

'Bunnings is, however, the standout in the results. Bunnings keeps innovating and creating new connections with its customers,' she said.

'Australians just love it - even when they can't have a sausage sizzle [during COVID-19].'

NRMA (fifth) emerged as Australia's most trusted insurer - and its most trusted financial services brand.

Despite travel restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic, Qantas (sixth) has also been named in the top 10 most trusted brands.

'Qantas was frequently in the media flying stranded Australians home from across the globe throughout the pandemic lockdown,' Ms Levine said.

Supermarket Woolworths came third in Australia's top 10 most trusted brands (file image)

Other companies named the most trusted brands include Qantas and Kmart (file images)

Other companies named in the top 10 include ABC (seventh), Toyota (eighth), Kmart (ninth) and Bendigo Bank (tenth).

Despite the top four most trusted brands, the retail sector emerged as Australia's most trusted industry, with the supermarket sector coming second, followed by consumer products.

Meanwhile, Facebook, Telstra and AMP were revealed as the most distrusted brands in Australia during April 2020.

'AMP still struggles to recover from the Royal Commission fallout. We saw it leap from virtually no distrust to become the second most distrusted brand in the nation,' Ms Levine said.

'As a consequence, AMP's soaring distrust saw billions of dollars withdrawn from investments under management and the company's share price plummet by more than 70 per cent.

'That's the real risk of distrust. It is not just a reputational issue, it has a material impact on a company's revenues and market value.'

The results are based on 1,000 Australians who were asked to list which brands and companies they trust and distrust and why.
100 Years Ago  1920: Many stories have been published recently concerning the records made by Hog Island and other shipyards in the matter of launchings, but the Sun Shipbuilding Company has a record all its own, which it is believed cannot be equaled. The yard has established a record of 22 minutes from the time a ship starts off the ways until it is safely in wet dock. On Saturday, when the 10,500-ton tanker Agwisun went over, the fete was accomplished in 24 minutes. It all shows what a clever aggregation of workmen the Sun Company has been able to assemble.

75 Years Ago  1945: Two youthful prisoners who broke out of Darbys ancient jail late Tuesday afternoon by bending the bars of their cell and removing the lock from the front door after stealing a police tear gas gun were back in custody today following a few brief hours of freedom. One was surrendered by his parents yesterday and the second, who had the stolen gun with him, was captured in a Chester apartment by a squad of officers shortly after 8 a.m. today.

50 Years Ago  1970: A local ecologist who has spearheaded a teen-age assault of environmental pollution will be honored Tuesday by the Pennsylvania Department of Health for his outstanding contributions in the field at the State Office Building in Philadelphia. Eugene A. Troiano, 112 W. Winona Ave., Norwood, a science teacher at Springfield Senior High School, credits his success to the continual challenge he presents to this students as to what they are doing and why. Troiano has been teaching environmental health

for several years, long before the current wave of activity, spoke modestly for the award.

25 Years Ago  1995: Rite-Aid on Baltimore Pike will be beaming out reports, broadcasting informercials and have a direct connection to insurance companies once their satellite dish is in place. The Clifton Heights zoning hearing board granted a variance request to install the dish which will will provide Rite-Aid with the capabilities of processing prescription orders quicker, offer video training and testing for employees, conduct in-store market research and broadcast manager meetings from the home office in Harrisburg.

10 Years Ago  2010: Michelle Stapleton, a senior at Sun Valley High School, was awarded a certificate and CD copies of her recording of a radio public service announcement that was a winning entry in a PennDOT contest to promote highway safety. Stapleton wrote and recorded a 30-second announcement in which a little girl, via a nursery rhyme, asks her father to slow down and drive safely.

 COLIN AINSWORTH
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 31)  Authorities arrested 90 Chinese nationals in Bacoor City, Cavite on Friday night for violating quarantine protocols amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The police operation was prompted by reports of Chinese nationals frequently seen loitering in front of an apartelle in Bacoor City, without wearing upper garments and face masks, and disregarding physical distancing protocols mandated by the Inter-Agency Task Force.

Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) Anti-Organized Crime Unit detectives were dispatched to the area, later identified as the Mariche Apartelle in Brgy. Mabolo 1, Bacoor City, Cavite.

The police said a large group of Chinese men ran inside the apartelle when they saw the responding officers coming, prompting the police to enter the building. Inside, authorities said they found several Chinese nationals disregarding quarantine protocols, with some allegedly engaged in illegal online gambling.

Ninety Chinese nationals and two Malaysians were arrested. Police said 48 of them claimed to work for an online gaming company, but failed to provide pertinent records such as passports and working permits.

Seized in the operation were 5.3 million in cash, 53 laptops, 102 cellphone units, a passport, and a keyboard, the police added.

The foreign nationals are currently detained at the said apartelle in Bacoor City while authorities process the evidence for proper documentation and investigation.

The arrested foreigners face a number of charges, including violation of Republic Act 11332, or the Mandatory Reporting of Notifiable Diseases and Health Events of Public Health Concern Act, and Presidential Decree 1602, which prescribes stiffer penalties on illegal gambling as amended by RA 9287, both in relation to RA 10175 or the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012.
An administration official, it has been reported, "put his foot deeply in his mouth."

Is that right? Or is it more likely the White House staffer put his foot deep in his mouth then the writer who reported it did the same by taking an oversimplified view of adverbs?

We all learned in school that adverbs modify verbs. You walk quickly, not quick. She sings beautifully, not beautiful. He writes well, not good. In casual situations, we don't think about this rule much. We just speak in a way that comes naturally to us. But when we're trying to be proper, we speak or write with those grammar lessons top of mind. That can cause problems  hypercorrection, trying too hard to speak or write properly, can cause us to make worse choices than we would if we weren't being careful at all. And no part of speech invites hypercorrection more than the adverb.

The author of that line about the administration official likely figured he was modifying the verb, "put." After all, the sentence is describing an action, placing a foot in a mouth (figuratively speaking). Following the logic of "You walk quickly, not quick," the writer assumed the verb "put" should be described by an adverb, "deeply." But is "deeply" really a manner in which you can go about the act of putting?

It's debatable, but I say no. And before I get into the syntax, I'll submit my most compelling piece of evidence: Put the book highly on the shelf. Syntax-wise, this sentence is nearly identical to our foot-in-mouth passage. But it makes it easier to see that an adverb isn't the best choice. The person who put the book on the shelf didn't do so in a highly manner. The action wasn't taking place highly. Instead, the book was high.

Here's another example using a similar structure: The hero shot the villain dead. One more: Homes around here don't come cheap.

In cases like these, a simple analysis of the sentence might suggest you need an adverb. But in fact, the modifier we're looking for doesn't describe an action  putting or shooting or coming  it describes a noun, the book or the villain or the homes. As we know, adjectives, not adverbs, describe nouns. The book is high. The villain is dead. The houses are not cheap.

That's why the administration official put his foot deep in his mouth.

Another situation that causes people to mistakenly reach for an adverb comes up in the common phrase "I feel badly." That's acceptable as an idiom. But if you're choosing it because you think it's grammatically superior to "I feel bad," you're missing an important fact about grammar.

There's a category of verbs called copular verbs that, instead of conveying action, convey states of being or seeming or becoming or one of the five senses. These copular verbs often indicate that an adjective, not an adverb, is called for in a sentence.

Sign up for The Knick  Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter.

Chuck is nice. Marianne seems clever. Steve became angry.

In each of these examples, the modifier isn't describing the verb "is," "seems" or "became." It's describing the noun Chuck or Marianne or Steve. That's why adverbs wouldn't work here. "Chuck is nicely," "Marianne seems cleverly" and "Steve became angrily" are wrong because the verbs are all copular verbs that, by definition, point back to the noun that is the subject.

And though it's less intuitive, verbs describing the senses are often copular, too. The coffee smells bad, not badly. A vacation sounds good, not well. The sauce tastes delicious, not deliciously.

"Feel" is sometimes, but not always, copular. You can carefully feel your way along the wall in a dark room. In that case, the adverb "carefully is modifying the action of feeling. And you could, in fact, feel badly if you were trying to read Braille with numb fingertips. But when you're talking about feelings of pity, shame, guilt or sympathy, the verb "feel" qualifies as a copular verb, which is why "I feel bad" is usually the best choice.

JuneTCN@aol.com.
A major turning point in U.S.-Chinese relations occurred Thursday. It nominally involves the future of Hong Kong, but has major significance for Washington and the wider world.

Chinas National Peoples Congress approved a security law that will allow Beijings security agencies to crack down directly on the civil liberties of Hong Kong residents, who have been protesting the regimes indirect efforts to shrink their freedoms since last summer.

China promised Hong Kong a full range of political freedoms such as freedom of speech and press and an independent judiciary after it regained control of the territory from Great Britain in 1997. Hong Kong autonomy, under the one country, two systems framework, was endorsed by U.S. legislation in 1992.

However, Chinese leader Xi Jinping has been eager in recent years to exert tighter Chinese control over the territory and apparently believes he can do so now with minimal cost. Buoyed by Beijings success (after a rocky start) in crushing COVID-19, in contrast to the chaotic U.S. response, he clearly thinks the world will abandon Hong Kong.

Coronavirus death of Chinese whistleblower doctor should sober Beijing  and us It is an indictment of China's tightly controlled top-down system that silences civil society and independent media, columnist Trudy Rubin says.

That would be a dangerous mistake, because Hong Kong has become the symbol of Xis aggressive global approach.

Hong Kong is a test of whether people (around the world) kowtow to China, whether they say no to pressure from China to implement its authoritarian ideology, I was told by phone by Joshua Wong, the 24-year-old organizer of the 2014 Umbrella Movement that peacefully shut down the territory to protest earlier efforts by Xi to curb its freedoms.

I met with Wong during a November visit to Hong Kong when the citys streets were crammed with demonstrators of all ages and professions. They were protesting Beijings effort to squeeze the Hong Kong government into passing a law allowing residents to be extradited for trial on the Chinese mainland, where the courts are controlled by the Communist Party. Sixteen-year-old high school protesters on the streets spoke to me passionately, as did Wong, about the need to protect rule of law in the territory.

Now, says Wong, the new Chinese law will enable Beijing to openly deploy its secret police and security forces in Hong Kong and arrest all civic and human rights defenders as they have on the mainland. The new law serves as a weapon to rip out all democratic aspirations in Hong Kong, he told me. There is no transparency on how it will be implemented.

After Super Tuesday, expect greater Russian election interference amped up by Trump Trump is still pushing the Kremlin propaganda line -- totally discredited by his own officials -- that Ukraine, not Russia, hacked the last presidential contest, columnist Trudy Rubin says.

What makes Chinas move on Hong Kong even more disturbing, however, beyond the pull of democratic Davids fighting Goliath in Beijing, is that Beijings move reflects the expanding ambitions of Xi Jinping.

The Chinese leader has no doubt been emboldened by the political divisions in the West, the rise of populism, and the weakening of Western alliances under President Donald Trump. And while COVID-19 has wounded China economically, the country is emerging from virus shutdown far sooner than the United States and Europe. So this is an opportune moment for Xi to take action against Hong Kong.

Yet, if the new Chinese security law meets no resistance, Chinese leaders could take this as an indication that they can continue to militarize the South China Sea, gnaw at neighbors borders, and squeeze Taiwan. If Hong Kong falls, it affects the interests of the Western world, Wong told me. Next is Taiwan (which has close military ties with the United States). He wants world leaders to send a warning signal to China, not just talk.

What that warning signal should be is the burning question. In November, Congress passed the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act with a veto-proof bipartisan majority, forcing a reluctant President Trump to sign it.

On coronavirus, Trump should swallow his hunches and let the experts work By shooting his mouth off and ignoring his experts, Trump undermines trust among much of the public, while encouraging his devoted followers to be careless, columnist Trudy Rubin says.

According to the law, the United States may revoke the special trade status it grants Hong Kong if the State Department rules that China has taken away Hong Kongs autonomy. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made that determination Wednesday. Yet eliminating that special trade status will also gravely hurt the citizens of Hong Kong.

Wong and other Hong Kong activists say that the special status should be removed in stages, sending Beijing a clear warning. Although Hong Kong is no longer as important, economically, to mainland China as it once was, the territory is still the preferred route for Western investors seeking to access the mainland Chinese market, and accounts for nearly three-quarters of initial public offerings for Chinese firms, according to Hong Kong Watch.

But for any U.S. pressure to make an impact, say Hong Kong activists and China experts, it must be done in concert with allies, not as part of White House blame-China bluster that is aimed mainly to distract from COVID-19.

Together with European and Asian allies, the Trump administration should collectively set a legislative red line and make a quiet demarche to Beijing: Continue down this path and the worlds most important economic powers will revoke the territorys special economic status, writes the Cato Institutes Doug Bandow.

In other words, to stand with Hong Kong, Trump must stand together with the allies hes dissed, and stand up to Xi, whom he regularly praises.

Stand with Hong Kong, stand firm, and stand with the democratic world.

Trudy Rubin is a columnist and editorial-board member for the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Dozens of journalists across the country tweeted videos Saturday night of themselves and their crews getting arrested, being shot at by police with rubber bullets, targeted with tear gas by authorities or assaulted by protesters.

Driving the news: The violence got so bad over the weekend that on Sunday the Cleveland police said the media was not allowed downtown unless "they are inside their place of business"  drawing ire from news outlets around the country, who argued that such access is a critical part of adequately covering protests.

A Des Moines Register journalist was reportedly arrested while reporting on looting" in the city. She continued reporting from inside a police vehicle while zip-tied.

Why it matters: The incidents show how easy it can be for journalists to become entangled in the stories they cover, especially during a time of civil unrest.

The chaos began Friday night when protests erupted across the country.

The live, on-camera arrest of Omar Jimenez, a CNN correspondent based in Chicago and his crew, set off a flurry of press incidents over the weekend. The journalists appeared to be arrested for no apparent reason. They were released an hour later.

CNN showed live pictures from behind a line of riot police in the lobby of CNN Center, one of Atlanta's top tourist attractions, as a man with a skateboard bashed in the front window while a crowd cheered and pelted officers with water bottles, smoke grenades and large objects.

A reporter from WAVE News, a local station in Louisville, Kentucky, was on-air when police officers shot pepper balls at her. The police eventually apologized.

A Fox News crew was harassed and chased out of Lafayette Park in Washington, D.C., covering protests on Friday. Another reporter in Phoenix posted a video of her getting tackled by protesters during a live TV hit.

The situation escalated across the country Saturday with journalists getting arrested. A HuffPost reporter and a CNN commentator were reportedly arrested Saturday night while covering the protests in New York City.

New York Attorney General Letitia James tweeted Saturday night her office was looking into Mathias' arrest.

A Vice News correspondent tweeted a video showing police in Minneapolis shooting at press (its unclear what they are shooting) and then tackling them to the ground, even after the journalists showed them their press credentials.

A local radio reporter in Los Angeles tweeted that the LAPD shot her and protestors with rubber bullets, even while she was holding her press badge.

Other journalists in Minneapolis and Philadelphia were targeted with tear gas, shot at by police with rubber bullets, and accosted by protestors.

The big picture: The incidents showcase how a hostile environment for the press, made worse by the president's incessant bemoaning of the mainstream media, can make it difficult to cover important moments, like protests.

In response to some of the incidents Saturday night, the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, a database of press freedom incidents in the United States, said it was "working to verify and document reports" coming in Saturday around the protests.

HuffPost put out a statement saying they were "extremely alarmed" that reporter Chris Mathias .was "taken into NYPD custody while doing his job as a journalist." He was released about 1 a.m.

Fox News leadership said in a memo to staff: "We strongly condemn these actions against Fox News Media reporting teams as well as all other reporters from any media outlets who are simply trying to do their jobs and report the news during an extraordinary time in our countrys history."

Be smart: Many of these incidents, because they target the press, were captured live on camera. The footage could help to verify unnecessary police action against journalists.

Editor's note: This article has been updated with the latest crackdowns on journalists.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-31 16:21:31|Editor: huaxia

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DENVER, United States, May 30 (Xinhua) -- A protest over the death of African American George Floyd in police custody continued for the third day despite a curfew in Colorado's state capital on Saturday.

Several thousand people began the peaceful protest at noon, marching through downtown Denver, chanting "hands up, don't shoot," as both National Guard and Denver police officers were dispatched to cope with the situation.

As protests in the last two days led to violence such as vandalizing vehicles, more police were recruited Saturday by the Denver authorities for help.

Demonstrations and riots have spread to more than 30 cities in the United States after a video went viral of Floyd being suffocated to death by a white police officer in the mid-western state of Minnesota on Monday.

Denver's African American Mayor Michael Hancock criticized local protesters who resorted to vandalism and violence in a speech earlier on Saturday and issued in the afternoon an emergency curfew citywide from 8:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. local time for Saturday going into Sunday.

Colorado Governor Jared Polis has authorized the use of the Colorado National Guard to help restore order in Denver.

However, two hours after the curfew started, protesters were congregating at intersections around the city, defying the curfew and police crackdown.

Hancock then said on Channel 4 News: "We have seen enough."

The Denver mayor also told the media that axes, knives and explosives were confiscated and that an extreme minority of protesters were involved in destructive activities.

Policemen fired tear gas, pepper balls and flashbangs at protesters in a bid to clear them off the Capitol area in the afternoon. Only three arrests had been reported by 9 p.m.(0300 GMT Sunday), but later the police responded more aggressively to make many more arrests.

Some political pundits said they believe that the widespread protest had more to do with Americans' frustration over the Trump administration's politically divisive tactics than the actual murder of Floyd by a white police officer.

"This has nothing to do with Floyd's death," Hancock told the media Saturday night.

Many said the policies of the Trump administration's strategy to divide the United States were on display throughout the country this weekend.

They accused Trump of repeatedly and openly condoning or supporting hate groups during his presidency, which was unprecedented for a U.S. president. For example, in 2017, Trump said there were "very fine people on both sides" of clashes at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Enditem
- Francis Atwoli held a meeting of Western Kenya leaders at his home in Kajiado county

- Boni Khalwale said the leaders did not agree on who to lead them in negotiations for the 2022 elections

- Khalwale said the attendants were each given KSh 30,000 allowance despite having made no progress in agreeing on key issues

Former Kakamega senator Boni Khalwale has come out guns blazing at Central Organisation of Trade Unions secretary general, Francis Atwoli, over the Kajiado meeting with leaders from Western Kenya.

As earlier reported by TUKO.co.ke, Atwoli hosted the Western Kenya leaders for a meeting at his Ildamat home in Kajiado on Friday, May 29.

READ ALSO: Picha za Askofu Margret Wanjiru akinyenyekea kanisani baada ya kupona coronavirus

Former senator Boni Khalwale said the leaders were each given KSh 30,000 allowance for attending the meeting. Photo: Boni Khalwale

Source: Facebook

READ ALSO: West Pokot: Police investigate chief who owns a quarter of his sub-location

The meeting was attended by 40 MPs, four governors, 10 senators, Senate Speaker Ken Lusaka, Devolution CS Eugine Wamalwa and Nairobi County Assembly Speaker Beatrice Elachi among others.

Khalwale took to his Twitter page on Sartuday, May 30, saying the meeting was as good as useless as the leaders refused to come to an agreement on who to lead them.

"Yesterday, they could not agree on Atwoli's endorsement as leader to deliver Baluhyia to Raila, Eugene's endorsement as leader for 2022 bargain, Oparanya's endorsement as leader, for 2022 bargain," he said.

READ ALSO: Uganda's COVID-19 cases rise to 413 after 84 people test positive

According to the William Ruto crusader, the only thing that the leaders were happy about was the KSh 30,000 allowance that they were given by Atwoli.

"But at least each MP got the 30,000/- allowance," said Khalwale.

However, a statement that was led by Senator Cleophas Malala after the meeting indicated the leaders had agreed on Atwoli and Kakamega governor Wycliffe Oparanya to lead negotiations for the revival of the Luhya economy.

Atwoli, Oparanya, Wamalwa and Speaker Ken Lusaka are also expected to lead formal negotiations that will see the Luhya nation have a say on all fronts in as far as 2022 is concerned.

ANC party leader Musalia Mudavadi was among the leaders from Western Kenya who failed to attend Atwoli's meeting. Photo: Musalia Mudavadi

Source: Facebook

READ ALSO: My husband left me for my best friend, imprisoned me after giving him 12 children - Virginia Kamotho

Conspicuously missing in the meeting was ANC party leader Musalia Mudavadi and Senator Moses Wetang'ula who have often been fronted as the senior most political leaders from the region.

Musalia issued a statement later on saying he did not attend because he was not invited in the meeting.

The ANC party leader has been meeting different politicians at his party's headquarters with political analysts saying he was looking to work with DP Ruto.

Do you have a groundbreaking story you would like us to publish? Please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690. Contact Tuko.co.ke instantly.

Source: TUKO.co.ke
On a day that protests in Harrisburg resulted in a city in lockdown and the closure of bridges to the West Shore over the Susquehanna River, a smaller group gathered peacefully Saturday on the Square in Carlisle to protest in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd.

Floyd, a handcuffed black man, died May 25 after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee into Floyds neck for several minutes as he pleaded for air.

About 100 people lined both sides of West High Street in Carlisle Saturday holding signs and calling out slogans like I cant breathe and black lives matter.

Most of the people in the cars passing by glanced at the protesters. Many honked their horns or raised fists out windows or sunroofs in solidarity with their message. Only on a few occasions did protesters and drivers or passengers in cars seem to come to a confrontation.

The police were not visible at the protest.

Protest organizer Amber Ivy, from the Carlisle area, said some police officers did drive by who were supportive while other people rolled their windows up and ignored them.

The protest came together through an event Ivy created on Facebook. Calling the video of Floyds death a modern-day lynching that we all witnessed, Ivy said it was important to speak up to raise awareness and to speak up now before similar incidents come to Carlisle.

We have to speak out now. We cant keep putting it off, she said.

Ivy said she was surprised at how many turned out for the protest and said there may be additional protests in the coming days.

I think the more people that come out and help contribute to that definitely speaks volumes. I think we need more people out here, she said. It will directly affect our youth if we dont speak out now.

Its time for the entire nation to address this. Every city. Every small town. Every borough. It doesnt matter where you are. Every single state, every city needs to address this, protester Sarah Scheffler said. Its systemic in our society, and it needs to not be.

Scheffler held a sign listing the names of black people who have been killed by the police, noting that they were only about a quarter of the ones that made it into news articles.

Imagine, if these all made it to the media, how many are not? she asked.

Scheffler said she knows she doesnt have to worry about interactions with police or give her children the talk black parents go through about how to comply with the police, yet finds it frustrating and heartbreaking that the talk is a reality for others.

Choking back tears, Scheffler said, Ive always been a believer in justice and racial equality. It just upsets me for other people ... for people, even children, to just be targeted for the color of their skin.

Nhymir Butlers sign asked a question no doubt on the minds of many, Why is this still a problem?

Butler said he doesnt understand other people and theyre point of view when theyre racist, but he thinks he knows why racist attitudes persist.

I think the problem is that racist people will continue their teachings, he said. I dont think theyre born racist. I think what happens is the thought is instilled in your head.

As a white woman, Sara Markowitz said she was drawn to the protest because its important for white people to become allies to those fighting against racism without drawing attention away from the voices of black people who have been in the trenches for a long time.

People of color have been fighting these battles for a lot longer, she said. Its time for white people to realize that white people created white supremacy.

In a statement sent to The Sentinel, Tim Scott, noting he is an African-American male who also happens to be mayor of Carlisle Borough, said he is sad, frustrated and angry that theres been another officer-involved incident in which a black man lost his life. Protests follow along with demands for justice, but nothing ever seems to happen other than a few platitudes and town hall meetings.

Its a cycle that Scott said repeats itself and spawns the same questions.

Can this happen in Carlisle? Do black lives matter to the Carlisle Police Department? What are the elected officials doing to make sure it doesnt happen in here? Scott wrote in the statement.

Scott recalled interviews with Carlisle Police Chief Taro Landis, who is black, when he was being interviewed for the position. Borough officials asked candidates several questions about use of force, police-community relations and policing in a polarized society.

Chief Landis answer was the absolute best by far, stating that its important to do the right thing, even when no one is watching, Scott said.

In his four years as chief of police, Landis has inspired officers to do the right thing, insisted on proper training, supported transparency and believes in fostering the trust of the community, Scott said. He added the communitys recent support of a fundraiser for the late Cpl. Tim Groller shows the strength of the relationship between the police department and Carlisle residents.

These are the kinds of things that prove how special the citizens of Carlisle are and the bonds that continue to develop with those residents and those whom we trust to protect and serve, Scott wrote. Im proud to say that, when it comes to law enforcement and local government in Carlisle, poor, marginalized and minority groups do indeed matter.

Email Tammie at tgitt@cumberlink.com. Follow her on Twitter @TammieGitt.

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- Mauri Icardi will remain at PSG until June 2024 after the French giants opting to make his deal permanent

- The Argentine star spent the better part of the 2019/20 with the French club where he was impressive

- The transfer brings a bitter end to his association with Inter Milan that lasted more than a year

Former Inter Milan star Mauro Icardi who arrived Paris Saint Germain (PSG) on loan in 2019 has officially sealed a permanent deal with the French Ligue 1 club.

PSG and Inter Milan reached an agreement and Icardi has signed permanent a contract till 2024 with the French giants.

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A fee of 45million plus 7.2million in bonuses was agreed for the player who has scored 20 goals and made four assists for the club in 31 appearances.

Mauro Icardi signs Paris Saint-Germain contract until 30 June 2024," a club statement said.

READ ALSO: Sir Chips Keswick: Arsenal confirm retirement of club chairman

The 27-year-old Argentina international has signed a four-year deal with the capital club until 30 June 2024, the statement added.

Icardi has previously been targeted by London clubs Arsenal and Chelsea, with the Gunners scouting for replacements for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Blues boss Frank Lampard keen to recruit a forward.

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The move ensures the Argentine's career at the San Siro finally comes to an end following a bitter fall-out with Inter that saw him nearly stripped of the club captaincy in 2016.

However, he was finally stripped of the armband at the beginning of the end of his San Siro spell in the start of February 2019.

He has been impressive in his first year in France, scoring 20 goals in just 31 games for the club.

Do you have an inspirational story you would like us to publish? Please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690 and Tuko news.

Why I beat my own mother- Lucy Nyawira | Tuko Talks | Tuko TV

Source: TUKO.co.ke
Weekly poll: is the Realme X3 SuperZoom the right one for you?

Could it be? A periscope camera on a 500 phone that will be available in Europe, rather than China-exclusive? The Realme X3 SuperZoom makes that a reality and shows that the brand is serious about getting a foothold on the Old Continent.

The periscope lens has 122mm focal length, thats 5x magnification compared to the main camera. Speaking of, the 64MP main cam assists in shooting up to 60x hybrid zoom photos. The phone also boasts two 8MP ultrawide cameras, one on the front and one on the back (the main selfie cam is a 32MP shooter).

While this phone is all about the camera, it really goes all out to offer a premium experience. The 12GB of RAM and 256GB of UFS 3.0 storage are hard to beat at this price point (again, looking at models with a wider availability).

The Snapdragon 855+ chipset is an interesting choice. Realme opted out of 5G, leaving that to the X50 Pro 5G, which is also available in Europe. Anyway, the 855+ is faster than the 700-series Snapdragons (especially in the GPU department) and doesnt cost as much as the 865  we wish more companies would do this.

The 6.57 screen with 1080p+ resolution is an LCD instead of an OLED, a disappointment to some, a plus for others. The 120Hz refresh rate puts it in a fairly elite club, however, so its a win either way.



Realme X3 SuperZoom in Arctic White and Glacier Blue

Lets look at the competition. Huawei has the P30 Pro New Edition, which also has a 5x periscope lens and a 2019 flagship chipset. But even though the hardware is a year old, it will cost 750 at launch.

The Poco F2 Pro matches the Realme at 500 and it does get the Snapdragon 865 with 5G and AMOLED screen. The refresh rate is 60Hz only, though, and the 5MP 50mm zoom camera literally cant get close to the SuperZoom camera.

Xiaomi will potentially offer some competition with the Mi 10 Youth, which is rumored to get a European release at some point, but Realme beat it to the punch. Theres also the Honor 30, but the chances of that leaving China are pretty low at the moment.

Finally, Oppos own X50 Pro 5G starts at 600. That doesnt sound much more expensive than the X3, but keep in mind that the base configuration gets 8GB of RAM and 128GB storage and the zoom camera tops out at 2x.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-30 23:46:00|Editor: huaxia

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A protester smashes a window on a police vehicle in the Brooklyn borough of New York, the United States, on May 29, 2020. Protests over Minnesota black man George Floyd's death turned violent in New York City Friday night, with around 200 protesters arrested, local media said. (Photo by Michael Nagle/Xinhua)

NEW YORK, May 30 (Xinhua) -- Protests over Minnesota black man George Floyd's death turned violent in New York City Friday night, with around 200 protesters arrested, local media said.

Tensions flared after a generally peaceful demonstration on Friday afternoon. In the borough of Brooklyn, people clashed with officers and a police van was set on fire with some other vans vandalized. In another location, protesters threw water bottles at police, according to videos circulating online.

Some 200 arrests were made, mostly with minor charges. Some officers were injured, The New York Times reported.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who permitted protests for Floyd's death during the COVID-19 pandemic and called on people to do it peacefully, said on Twitter Friday night that there would be a "full review" of what happened.

"We don't ever want to see another night like this," said the mayor. "Please remember that we're in the middle of a pandemic. We have to do all we can to protect each other. Everyone out there has a responsibility."

On Thursday, over 70 people were arrested during a demonstration for the same purpose in Manhattan.

Floyd, a 46-year-old black man in Minneapolis, died in custody on Monday after a white officer held him to the ground with a knee on his neck for around 8 minutes. Floyd's death has sparked protests across the United States. Enditem
A screenshot of the incident taken on May 29, 2020 in Louisville, Kentucky.

WAVE 3 News

A police officer shot pepper bullets at a local news reporter and her news team during a live segment that covering a George Floyd protest in Louisville, Kentucky, on Friday night.

The reporter from WAVE 3, Kaitlin Rust, was heard screaming off-camera, saying "I'm getting shot," as a police officer approached the news team pointing a pepper bullet gun.

The George Floyd demonstrations have been turning increasingly violent as thousands of protesters are taking to the street of dozens of US cities.

Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

A police officer in riot gear shot pepper bullets directly at a local news reporter and television crew while filming a live segment of a George Floyd protest that erupted in Louisville, Kentucky, on Friday night.

A news crew for WAVE 3  a CNN affiliate  were covering the demonstrations in downtown Louisville on Friday night when a police officer directly fired pepper bullets at them.

In the segment, reporter Kaitlin Rust is heard screaming off-camera, saying: "I'm getting shot."

When the news anchors reporting from the studio ask her if she's okay, Rust responds: "Rubber bullets, rubber bullets. It's okay. It's those pepper bullets."

Shortly afterward, the police officer directly points the pepper gun at the cameraman, who appears also to be hit. When asked "Who are they aiming that at?", Rust responds: "At us, like directly at us."

A 'pepper bullet', also called a pepper ball, is a projectile containing a powdered chemical that irritates the eyes and nose similar to pepper spray.

Watch the encounter below.

The reporter did not know why police were shooting at them but can be heard saying: "I guess we were behind their line, I guess a little too close for comfort."

Story continues

It was reported that the officer was firing rubber bullets, but Jessie Halladay of the Louisville Metro Police Department told WAVE 3 that LMPD officers do not use rubber bullets.

Protests have erupted in multiple cities across the US following the death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old unarmed black man who died after a white police officer kneeled on his neck during an arrest on Monday.

The Louisville protesters were also demanding justice for Breonna Taylor, a black woman who was shot eight times and killed by police carrying out a narcotics bust in March.

The demonstrations have been turning increasingly violent as some protesters started looting shops, lighting cars on fire, and battling with police.

A CNN reporter and his crew were arrested on live television early Friday as they broadcasted the protests in Minneapolis, Minnesota. They were released shortly after and seen back on air an hour later.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz later publicly apologized in a press conference, saying: "There is absolutely no reason something like this should happen...This is a very public apology to that team."

In Atlanta, the headquarters of CNN was pelted with objects by protesters and its windows were smashed.

Read the original article on Insider
In our current contagion  biological and political viruses, rampant  a terrible question, unimaginable since the Civil War, has emerged: Are we in danger of a crisis that will shatter our brilliant experiment in self-government? And, if so, what can we do about it? The Atlantic writer David Frum is well situated to consider these questions and in Trumpocalypse  a dreadful title for a serious book  he gives it his best shot. Mr Frum is a former neoconservative, a long-time pillar of the Republican Partys intellectual elite who was shocked to ...
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Executive Order on Preventing Online Censorship

Washington, DC - By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered as follows:

Section 1. Policy. Free speech is the bedrock of American democracy. Our Founding Fathers protected this sacred right with the First Amendment to the Constitution. The freedom to express and debate ideas is the foundation for all of our rights as a free people.

In a country that has long cherished the freedom of expression, we cannot allow a limited number of online platforms to hand pick the speech that Americans may access and convey on the internet. This practice is fundamentally un-American and anti-democratic. When large, powerful social media companies censor opinions with which they disagree, they exercise a dangerous power. They cease functioning as passive bulletin boards, and ought to be viewed and treated as content creators.

The growth of online platforms in recent years raises important questions about applying the ideals of the First Amendment to modern communications technology. Today, many Americans follow the news, stay in touch with friends and family, and share their views on current events through social media and other online platforms. As a result, these platforms function in many ways as a 21st century equivalent of the public square.

Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube wield immense, if not unprecedented, power to shape the interpretation of public events; to censor, delete, or disappear information; and to control what people see or do not see.

As President, I have made clear my commitment to free and open debate on the internet. Such debate is just as important online as it is in our universities, our town halls, and our homes. It is essential to sustaining our democracy.

Online platforms are engaging in selective censorship that is harming our national discourse. Tens of thousands of Americans have reported, among other troubling behaviors, online platforms flagging content as inappropriate, even though it does not violate any stated terms of service; making unannounced and unexplained changes to company policies that have the effect of disfavoring certain viewpoints; and deleting content and entire accounts with no warning, no rationale, and no recourse.

Twitter now selectively decides to place a warning label on certain tweets in a manner that clearly reflects political bias. As has been reported, Twitter seems never to have placed such a label on another politicians tweet. As recently as last week, Representative Adam Schiff was continuing to mislead his followers by peddling the long-disproved Russian Collusion Hoax, and Twitter did not flag those tweets. Unsurprisingly, its officer in charge of so-called Site Integrity has flaunted his political bias in his own tweets.

At the same time online platforms are invoking inconsistent, irrational, and groundless justifications to censor or otherwise restrict Americans speech here at home, several online platforms are profiting from and promoting the aggression and disinformation spread by foreign governments like China. One United States company, for example, created a search engine for the Chinese Communist Party that would have blacklisted searches for human rights, hid data unfavorable to the Chinese Communist Party, and tracked users determined appropriate for surveillance. It also established research partnerships in China that provide direct benefits to the Chinese military. Other companies have accepted advertisements paid for by the Chinese government that spread false information about Chinas mass imprisonment of religious minorities, thereby enabling these abuses of human rights. They have also amplified Chinas propaganda abroad, including by allowing Chinese government officials to use their platforms to spread misinformation regarding the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, and to undermine pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.

As a Nation, we must foster and protect diverse viewpoints in todays digital communications environment where all Americans can and should have a voice. We must seek transparency and accountability from online platforms, and encourage standards and tools to protect and preserve the integrity and openness of American discourse and freedom of expression.

Sec. 2. Protections Against Online Censorship. (a) It is the policy of the United States to foster clear ground rules promoting free and open debate on the internet. Prominent among the ground rules governing that debate is the immunity from liability created by section 230(c) of the Communications Decency Act (section 230(c)). 47 U.S.C. 230(c). It is the policy of the United States that the scope of that immunity should be clarified: the immunity should not extend beyond its text and purpose to provide protection for those who purport to provide users a forum for free and open speech, but in reality use their power over a vital means of communication to engage in deceptive or pretextual actions stifling free and open debate by censoring certain viewpoints.

Section 230(c) was designed to address early court decisions holding that, if an online platform restricted access to some content posted by others, it would thereby become a publisher of all the content posted on its site for purposes of torts such as defamation. As the title of section 230(c) makes clear, the provision provides limited liability protection to a provider of an interactive computer service (such as an online platform) that engages in Good Samaritan blocking of harmful content. In particular, the Congress sought to provide protections for online platforms that attempted to protect minors from harmful content and intended to ensure that such providers would not be discouraged from taking down harmful material. The provision was also intended to further the express vision of the Congress that the internet is a forum for a true diversity of political discourse. 47 U.S.C. 230(a)(3). The limited protections provided by the statute should be construed with these purposes in mind.

In particular, subparagraph (c)(2) expressly addresses protections from civil liability and specifies that an interactive computer service provider may not be made liable on account of its decision in good faith to restrict access to content that it considers to be obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, excessively violent, harassing or otherwise objectionable. It is the policy of the United States to ensure that, to the maximum extent permissible under the law, this provision is not distorted to provide liability protection for online platforms that  far from acting in good faith to remove objectionable content  instead engage in deceptive or pretextual actions (often contrary to their stated terms of service) to stifle viewpoints with which they disagree. Section 230 was not intended to allow a handful of companies to grow into titans controlling vital avenues for our national discourse under the guise of promoting open forums for debate, and then to provide those behemoths blanket immunity when they use their power to censor content and silence viewpoints that they dislike. When an interactive computer service provider removes or restricts access to content and its actions do not meet the criteria of subparagraph (c)(2)(A), it is engaged in editorial conduct. It is the policy of the United States that such a provider should properly lose the limited liability shield of subparagraph (c)(2)(A) and be exposed to liability like any traditional editor and publisher that is not an online provider.

(b) To advance the policy described in subsection (a) of this section, all executive departments and agencies should ensure that their application of section 230(c) properly reflects the narrow purpose of the section and take all appropriate actions in this regard. In addition, within 60 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of Commerce (Secretary), in consultation with the Attorney General, and acting through the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), shall file a petition for rulemaking with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) requesting that the FCC expeditiously propose regulations to clarify:

(i) the interaction between subparagraphs (c)(1) and (c)(2) of section 230, in particular to clarify and determine the circumstances under which a provider of an interactive computer service that restricts access to content in a manner not specifically protected by subparagraph (c)(2)(A) may also not be able to claim protection under subparagraph (c)(1), which merely states that a provider shall not be treated as a publisher or speaker for making third-party content available and does not address the providers responsibility for its own editorial decisions;

(ii) the conditions under which an action restricting access to or availability of material is not taken in good faith within the meaning of subparagraph (c)(2)(A) of section 230, particularly whether actions can be taken in good faith if they are:

(A) deceptive, pretextual, or inconsistent with a providers terms of service; or

(B) taken after failing to provide adequate notice, reasoned explanation, or a meaningful opportunity to be heard; and

(iii) any other proposed regulations that the NTIA concludes may be appropriate to advance the policy described in subsection (a) of this section.

Sec. 3. Protecting Federal Taxpayer Dollars from Financing Online Platforms That Restrict Free Speech. (a) The head of each executive department and agency (agency) shall review its agencys Federal spending on advertising and marketing paid to online platforms. Such review shall include the amount of money spent, the online platforms that receive Federal dollars, and the statutory authorities available to restrict their receipt of advertising dollars.

(b) Within 30 days of the date of this order, the head of each agency shall report its findings to the Director of the Office of Management and Budget.

(c) The Department of Justice shall review the viewpoint-based speech restrictions imposed by each online platform identified in the report described in subsection (b) of this section and assess whether any online platforms are problematic vehicles for government speech due to viewpoint discrimination, deception to consumers, or other bad practices.

Sec. 4. Federal Review of Unfair or Deceptive Acts or Practices. (a) It is the policy of the United States that large online platforms, such as Twitter and Facebook, as the critical means of promoting the free flow of speech and ideas today, should not restrict protected speech. The Supreme Court has noted that social media sites, as the modern public square, can provide perhaps the most powerful mechanisms available to a private citizen to make his or her voice heard. Packingham v. North Carolina, 137 S. Ct. 1730, 1737 (2017). Communication through these channels has become important for meaningful participation in American democracy, including to petition elected leaders. These sites are providing an important forum to the public for others to engage in free expression and debate. Cf. PruneYard Shopping Center v. Robins, 447 U.S. 74, 85-89 (1980).

(b) In May of 2019, the White House launched a Tech Bias Reporting tool to allow Americans to report incidents of online censorship. In just weeks, the White House received over 16,000 complaints of online platforms censoring or otherwise taking action against users based on their political viewpoints. The White House will submit such complaints received to the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

(c) The FTC shall consider taking action, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, to prohibit unfair or deceptive acts or practices in or affecting commerce, pursuant to section 45 of title 15, United States Code. Such unfair or deceptive acts or practice may include practices by entities covered by section 230 that restrict speech in ways that do not align with those entities public representations about those practices.

(d) For large online platforms that are vast arenas for public debate, including the social media platform Twitter, the FTC shall also, consistent with its legal authority, consider whether complaints allege violations of law that implicate the policies set forth in section 4(a) of this order. The FTC shall consider developing a report describing such complaints and making the report publicly available, consistent with applicable law.

Sec. 5. State Review of Unfair or Deceptive Acts or Practices and Anti-Discrimination Laws. (a) The Attorney General shall establish a working group regarding the potential enforcement of State statutes that prohibit online platforms from engaging in unfair or deceptive acts or practices. The working group shall also develop model legislation for consideration by legislatures in States where existing statutes do not protect Americans from such unfair and deceptive acts and practices. The working group shall invite State Attorneys General for discussion and consultation, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law.

(b) Complaints described in section 4(b) of this order will be shared with the working group, consistent with applicable law. The working group shall also collect publicly available information regarding the following:

(i) increased scrutiny of users based on the other users they choose to follow, or their interactions with other users;

(ii) algorithms to suppress content or users based on indications of political alignment or viewpoint;

(iii) differential policies allowing for otherwise impermissible behavior, when committed by accounts associated with the Chinese Communist Party or other anti-democratic associations or governments;

(iv) reliance on third-party entities, including contractors, media organizations, and individuals, with indicia of bias to review content; and

(v) acts that limit the ability of users with particular viewpoints to earn money on the platform compared with other users similarly situated.

Sec. 6. Legislation. The Attorney General shall develop a proposal for Federal legislation that would be useful to promote the policy objectives of this order.

Sec. 7. Definition. For purposes of this order, the term online platform means any website or application that allows users to create and share content or engage in social networking, or any general search engine.

Sec. 8. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:

(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or the head thereof; or

(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.

(b) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.

(c) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-01 05:16:52|Editor: huaxia

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ANKARA, May 31 (Xinhua) -- Turkey deported 12 Finnish nationals over their links to terrorism, Turkish Interior Ministry announced on Sunday.

In a statement, the ministry said the fighters were sent back as part of Ankara's efforts to "expel foreign terrorists."

Turkey continues to send back foreign "terrorist" fighters, it added.

Ankara says that although several European countries have resisted its efforts to send IS members back to their countries, it will press forward.

Turkey has so far deported at least 7,500 IS members. Enditem
Nam Y. Huh | AP

In response to a city of Chicago request, Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Sunday activated 375 Illinois National Guard soldiers for state active duty to assist the Chicago Police Department.

Guard members will carry out a limited mission to help manage street closures during protests and will not interfere with peaceful protesters exercising their rights, Pritzker said.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson issued a statement Monday urging Black Lives Matter protesters in the U.K. to "work peacefully, lawfully" following days of unrest that saw the statue of wartime leader Winston Churchill twice defaced.

Why it matters: The tense situation in the U.S. has brought the issue of racism and discrimination into focus globally as the world is consumed by the coronavirus pandemic. Protests spreading across Europe "highlight that discrimination and violence against black people is not only a problem of one country  it is commonplace," a top European Union agency told the EU Observer on Monday.

A tweet previously embedded here has been deleted or was tweeted from an account that has been suspended or deleted.

The big picture: Days-long protests have taken place in nations including the U.K., France and Germany. In the southwest English city of Bristol, demonstrators toppled a statue of 17th century slaveholder Edward Colston into the harbor, prompting police officers to launch an investigation, per AP.

What he's saying: Writing in the Voice, Johnson said: "The death of George Floyd took place thousands of miles away  in another country, under another jurisdiction  and yet we simply cannot ignore the depth of emotion that has been triggered by that spectacle, of a black man losing his life at the hands of the police.

"In this country and around the world his dying words  I cant breathe  have awakened an anger and a widespread and incontrovertible, undeniable feeling of injustice, a feeling that people from black and minority ethnic groups do face discrimination: in education, in employment, in the application of the criminal law."

He added that the U.K. had made "huge strides," but "there is so much more to do."

In photos

In the United Kingdom:

Police clash with protesters during a Black Lives Matter protest rally in Westminster, London. Photo: Aaron Chown/PA Images via Getty Images

Activists from the South London branch of Stand Up To Racism hold a protest outside the U.S. Embassy in London on May 31. Thousands more people turned out in the U.K. capital and northern English city of Manchester in further protests later in the day, the start of days-long protests in the country. Photo: Guy Smallman/Getty images

In Spain:

Demonstrators outside the United States Embassy on Jin Madrid on June 7. Photo: Pablo Blazquez Dominguez/Getty Images

In Germany:

Tens of thousands of protesters rallied in Berlin and other German cities against racism on June 6, per DW.com. Photo: Abdulhamid Hosbas/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Thousands of protesters gather in front of the U.S. Embassy in Berlin during a demonstration against police violence and racism on May 30. Photo: Abdulhamid Hosbas/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

In Japan:

People attend a Black Lives Matter demonstration in Tokyo on June 6. Photo: David Mareuil/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

In France:

Demonstrators in Nantes, on June 8. Protesters across France have been defying a ban on large gatherings implemented in response to the coronavirus pandemic to rally against racism. Photo: Loic Venance/AFP via Getty Images

A demonstrator holds a banner reading, "It's not whites vs blacks, this is the world vs racism" in front of a burning barricade following the intervention of security forces in Paris, on June 2, amid days-long protests. Photo: Julien Benjamin Guillaume Mattia/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

In Australia:

Tens of thousands of Australians have protested in cities including Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Sydney, where a traditional indigenous welcoming ceremony is held during a rally outside Sydney Town Hall in Australia on June 6. Photo: Speed Media/Icon Sportswire

Protesters in Sydney rally for the first in a series of protests on June 2. Australia's finance minister told Sky News demonstrators are "selfish" for protesting despite a ban on large gatherings during the pandemic. Photo: Speed Media/Icon Sportswire

In Sweden:

A Black Lives Matter demonstration in Stockholm on June 3. Photo: Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP via Getty Images

In Canada:

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau takes a knee during in an anti-racism protest on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on June 5. Photo: Dave Chan/AFP via Getty Images

Thousands attend a protest at the Vancouver Art Gallery in Vancouver, Canada, on May 30. Photo: Mert Alper Dervis/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

In Greece:

Protest reference some of George Floyd's final words during a protest in Athens, Greece, on June 4. Photo: Menelaos Michalatos/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Riots police stand among tear gas during clashes with protesters outside the U.S. embassy in Athens on June 4. Photo: Angelos Tzortzinis/AFP via Getty Images

In New Zealand:

Some 4,000 protesters march in central Auckland on June 1. Photo: Hannah Peters/Getty Images

In Italy:

Protesters gather outside of the U.S. consulate in Milan, Italy, on May 31 with signs reading, "I can't breathe," as the country remains in a Phase 2 lockdown because of the coronavirus pandemic. Photo: Alessandro Bremec/NurPhoto/Getty Images

In Mexico:

Hand-drawn portraits of George Floyd are hung on a gate outside of the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City on Saturday. The sign reads "Racism kills, here, there, and all over the world." Photo: Pedro Pardo/AFP via Getty Images

Go deeper: Police in several U.S. cities join protesters in solidarity gestures

Editor's note: This article has been updated with the latest protest news.
<! Vera Omozuwa: murdered by rapists >

By Jethro lbileke/Benin

Authorities of University of Benin (UNIBEN) have spoken on the murder of one of their students, 22-year-old Miss Vera Uwaila Omozuwa, who was gang-raped and clubbed to death by unidentified persons.

The incident took place in the night of Wednesday last week, inside the Ikpoba Hill branch of Redeemed Christian Church of God(RCCG) in Benin, Edo state.

The 100-Level student of the Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Life Sciences in the institution, was said to have gone to the church to read when her assailants pounced on her and hit her with a fire extinguisher after raping her.

News of her attack was first published in the newsletter of the Students Union Government (SUG), of the university.

According to a source, the church security officer had gone to collect keys to the church from its keeper when he was told that there was someone already in the church.

He got to the church only to find the girl in critical condition and in a pool of blood with the blood-stained fire extinguisher near her.

He ran back to inform the keeper and his wife, who went to the church to meet her lifeless.

After careful observation, it was noticed that she moved her hand and she was rushed to the hospital.

It was there that she revealed she was reading alone that night when the unknown men came into the church, beat her, raped her and hit her head with a fire extinguisher. They left her for dead, the source explained.

The Public Relations Officer of the SUG, Destiny Uanzekin, explained that the victim who was beaten to a pulp and taken for dead, later died at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH), where she was taken to for treatment.

The university in a statement on Sunday, said it shares in the pain of the family of the victim.

The statement endorsed by the Public Relations Officer of UNIBEN, Dr. Benedicta Ehanire, noted that loosing a child at this time compounds the hardship brought about by the Coronavirus pandemic.

We believe that at this time when the pandemic has created so much concern to everyone, loosing a child compounds the present situation.

This administration is concerned about all students welfare and will always be. We believe that at this time when the pandemic has created so much concern to everyone, loosing a child compounds the present situation.

We share in the pain of the family. It is expected of the management to take some action. In this regard, a delegation is being sent to commiserate with her family, Ehanire said.

At the time of filing this report, the Public Relations Officer of the Nigeria police, Edo State Command, DSP Chidi Nwabuzor, could not be reached for comments.

A top police officer who asked not to be named because he was not authorised to do so, told our correspondent that the Command has commenced investigation into the incident.

Meanwhile, the Ikpoba Hill branch of the Redeemed Church where the incident occurred was on Sunday morning set ablaze allegedly by angry students of the University.
US President Donald Trump on Sunday said that America is designating far-left extremist group Antifa as a terrorist organisation in view of its role in violence across the country after the killing of a black man by a white police officer in Minnesota.

Antifa, regarded as a militant, left-wing, anti-fascist political activist movement in the US, comprises autonomous activist groups that aim to achieve their political objectives through the use of direct action rather than through policy reforms.

The United States of America will be designating Antifa as a terrorist organisation, Trump said in a tweet.

The Trump administration is blaming this far-left extremist group for the sudden spike in violent protests across the country after the brutal killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

The violence instigated and carried out by Antifa and other similar groups in connection with the rioting is domestic terrorism and will be treated accordingly, Attorney General William P Barr said in a statement.

The Trump administration alleges that it appears the violence is planned, organized and driven by anarchistic and far left extremists using Antifa-like tactics, many of whom travel from out of state to promote the violence.

To identify criminal organisers and instigators, and to coordinate federal resources with state and local partners, federal law enforcement is using the existing network of 56 regional FBI Joint Terrorism Task Forces (JTTF), the Attorney General said.

With the rioting that is occurring in many of our cities around the country, the voices of peaceful and legitimate protests have been hijacked by violent radical elements. Groups of outside radicals and agitators are exploiting the situation to pursue their own separate, violent and extremist agenda.

It is time to stop watching the violence and to confront and stop it. The continued violence and destruction of property endangers the lives and livelihoods of others, and interferes with the rights of peaceful protestors, as well as all other citizens, Barr said.

It also undercuts the urgent work that needs to be done  through constructive engagement between affected communities and law enforcement leaders  to address legitimate grievances, he said.

Preventing reconciliation and driving us apart is the goal of these radical groups, and we cannot let them succeed, Barr said.

Appearing on a Sunday talk show, National Security Advisor Robert OBrien told CNN that the president and the attorney general want to know from the FBI what they have been doing to track, dismantle, surveil and prosecute Antifa.

And if that hasnt been happening, we want to know what the plan is going forward. These Antifa militant radicals who come into our cities and cross state lines, and theyre organised, and use Molotov cocktails and fireworks, and gas to burn down our cities, especially businesses in minority neighbourhoods, its got to be stopped, he said.

The violence, he alleged, has been driven by Antifa.

They did it in Seattle. They have done it in Portland. They have done it in Berkeley. This is a destructive force of radicals -- I dont even know if we want to call them leftists. Whatever they are, theyre militants who are coming in and burning our cities, and were going to get to the bottom of it, he alleged.
Epidemiologist David Larsen, from Syracuse University and microbiologists Hyatt Green, from the College of Environmental Science and Forestry and Frank Middleton, from Upstate Medical University are lead members of a multi-institution research project that is expected to have global application in future efforts to track and contain Sudden Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus that causes Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).

The researchers took a novel approach that promises to be cost effective and ensure privacy. Their work has attracted the attention of researchers from universities around the country, including Georgia Tech, Johns Hopkins, and George Mason University, who have expressed interest in joining the effort that surveils for the virus in a local's untreated wastewater facilities.

"Bottom line, this information could be very useful for decision making. When to reopen. Where to reopen," said Larsen.

"Everyone is terrified that the virus is in their neighborhood. We can show that we can't find it here. If we can't find the RNA and there haven't been cases then people can stop being terrified. It doesn't mean to stop being safe, but should hopefully ease minds and help guide decision makers."

Our work is ongoing, but using the methods we have established, we hope to be able estimate the precise trajectory of COVID-19 in a given area. With this information, community leaders can determine where and when to deploy resources, when and what interventions are necessary to keep a community safe, and when it is safe to restart local economies." Hyatt Green, Microbiologist, College of Environmental Science

Currently the research team has surveilled wastewater facilities in Onondaga and Cayuga counties. The team expects to expand their service, which quantifies the disease in wastewater, to seven additional upstate counties soon.

After testing a variety of sample processing methods to find the optimal approach for recovering the tell-tale viral nucleic acid that suggests COVID-19 is present, the research team separates the collected wastewater using a centrifuge, purifies it, and then a qPCR test is used to determine the amount of the virus' DNA that is present.

"Of course there are factors that we need to control for," Larsen said. "For instance, if the results come back with little or no virus detected, does this mean there was no infection or that the virus was simply diluted below the method's limit of detection?"

To accommodate for dilution and decay of the virus, the researchers are looking at the ratio of the COVID-19 virus to the ratio of another virus, or phage, that is reliably found in the human gut and in wastewater. By using the phage as a reference, we have some sort of gauge for exactly how much the wastewater has decayed or diluted which helps us determine how much virus was flushed as well as more accurately predict the spread of infection on the ground.

"Much of the prior work on crAssphage [the ], has been focused on its utility as an indicator of human fecal pollution in natural waterbodies," said Green.

"Many of the same attributes that make crAssphage an attractive indicator organism, such as its prevalence and abundance in the human population as well as its scarcity in other hosts, are also helpful in gauging the degree of SARS-CoV-2 transmission within the community.

In addition to using crAssphage as an abundant surrogate for SARS-CoV-2 during method development and optimization, crAssphage can be used to ensure sufficient viral recovery, which may become an important quality assurance measure when comparing wastewater surveillance data within and between labs.

Furthermore, like SARS-CoV-2, crAssphage is subject to decay and dilution within the wastewater infrastructure and while concentrations of SARS-CoV-2 alone are difficult to interpret, the ratio of SARS-CoV-2 to crAssphage is likely more robust to processes that contribute to the loss of viral nucleic acids during transport."
Actor Taapsee Pannu mourned the death of her grandmother -- whom she fondly called Biji -- on Instagram on Saturday. Sharing a photograph from a Gurudwara, where the photograph of her grandmother was placed along with garlands, she wrote, The last of that generation in the family leaves us with a void that will stay forever.... Biji.

The actor did not share other details. Taapsees Thappad co-star Pavail Gulati was among those who reacted to the post, simply posting an emoji.

Her fans also wrote on the post. May God give you and your family strength, wrote one while another said, RIP, god bless you. Other details of her grandmothers passing away are yet to be made public.

Taapsee is self-isolating in Mumbai with her younger sister during the lockdown. She had earlier spoken about her parents during the quarantine. Im glad that my parents arent living anywhere near the hotspot. Theyre in their 60s and need to be slightly careful. My dad is retired and mom is a housewife. Most of the time, they stay indoors and would only go out for a walk, meet friends, or visit the Gurudwara or market place nearby. So after the lockdown, it hasnt affected them the way it has affected us. They seem to be more worried about how were coping with it, the 32-year-old had told Hindustan Times.

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7: 05 a.m.

As outrage over Floyd's killing spread across the nation, local leaders increasingly said they could need help from National Guardsmen or even military police to contain the unrest.

Georgias governor declared a state of emergency early Saturday to activate the state National Guard as violence flared in Atlanta. Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler declared an emergency and ordered a nighttime curfew for the city.

Approximately 500 Guard soldiers were mobilized in Minneapolis, where former Houston resident George Floyd died after an officer kneeled on his neck. After witnessing yet another night of businesses being ransacked, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said early Saturday that he would attempt to activate more than 1,000 more and was considering federal help. Read more here

6:35 a.m.

Nearly 200 people were arrested during a Friday rally to demand justice for George Floyd, a former Houston resident who died in Minneapolis after an officer kneeled on his neck during an arrest for alleged forgery.

Manually added embed platform.twitter.com. Our officers made nearly 200 a... (More)

HPD officials said that four officers suffered minor injuries and eight police vehicles were damaged during the Black Lives Matter rally in downtown Houston. Several of the people arrested will also be charged with obstructing a roadway, according to Houston Police Department.

TEAR GAS DEPLOYED: Traffic disrupted, tear gas deployed in wake of downtown Houston rally over George Floyd's death

HPD Police Chief Art Acevedo tweeted around 4 a.m. that he was grateful for the men and women of Houston police department and thanked the peaceful protesters.

Manually added embed platform.twitter.com. Done for the night. Grateful f... (More)

Hundreds of protesters marched from Discovery Green to Houston City Hall Friday afternoon to express their outrage over a Third Ward native, Floyd who died at the hands of Minneapolis police. Mayor Sylvester Turner acknowledged that the protesters had a right to march, but asked for a peaceful protest.

"I understand that many have the right to march and protest. Though what I ask of Houstonians is for them to march peace
Former royal chef Darren McGrady prepared lavish meals for Queen Elizabeth II from 1982 to 1993. As a live-in chef, he stayed at Buckingham Palace but also traveled with her majesty when she visited her other residences. McGrady recently revealed that Princess Diana and Sarah Ferguson once snuck into a staff party at Balmoral Castle.

Princess Diana and Sarah Ferguson | Julian Parker/UK Press/Getty Images

Darren McGrady was also Princess Dianas personal chef

McGrady worked in Buckingham Palace until 1993 when he moved to Kensington Palace to serve as Princess Dianas personal chef. In an interview with The Morning Show, the chef talked about his experience working for the royal family and revealed that he often cooked for her two sons as well.

I cooked for Prince William and Prince Harry as babies  I did purees for them and held Prince Harry as a baby while Princess Diana was eating cereal in the kitchen at Windsor Castle, said McGrady. They loved the burgers, they loved the hotdogs, they loved the fried chicken and cottage pies and things like that, but there was always that battle with the nanny about having their green vegetables.

McGrady worked for the royal family until 1997. He now lives and works in Dallas, Texas, and has written multiple cookbooks.

Why McGrady says Buckingham Palace was like Downton Abbey

If youre wondering what its like to be staffed at the Queens residence, McGrady has the perfect pop culture reference. In a recent interview with Insider, the former royal chef said his experience working at Buckingham Palace was similar to the show, Downton Abbey.

I had a room at the palace, said McGrady. When I lived there, it was roomed very much like a show called Downtown Abbey. We had the male kitchen wing, the female kitchen wing, the footmens floor, the housemaids floor, and you werent allowed on the different floors. If you were a chef or a footman and you were trying to sneak up to the housemaids floor and you got caught, you were in serious trouble.

McGrady said the staff was always segregated at Buckingham Palace. And there was never any intermingling at the residence.

We were part of the Victorian era, he continued. You couldnt even begin to imagine single males and single females being on the same floor together.

Princess Diana and Sarah Ferguson snuck into a staff party at Balmoral Castle

When talking to Insider, McGrady explained that the staff would often travel with the royal family when they would visit other residences. He also revealed that once, while he was serving as the DJ for a staff party at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, the Princess of Wales and the Duchess of York both dropped in unannounced.

We had discos, and I was the resident DJ, we had so much fun, McGrady revealed. Once I was spinning the discs at Balmoral, and Princess Diana and Fergie came down, they heard the noise and music and came down to see what it was.

Sarah Ferguson and Princess Diana | Georges De Keerle/Getty Images

One of the footmen, I think, invited them jokingly, he continued. They only stayed a few minutes, but I spun the discs!

Chef McGrady worked for Princess Diana until her tragic death in 1997. After turning down a position to work as Prince Charles personal chef, he moved to Texas where he caters for exclusive events.
I woke up Sunday morning from my apartment in Manhattan to a flood of text messages from friends and family.

The night before, New York City had erupted in protests, following the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, at the hands of Minneapolis police.

Normally, I take long walks, runs or bike rides around New York on the weekends  to clear my mind and break from working. Even during the coronavirus pandemic. And that looked a lot different this Sunday morning. It even sounded different. It was eerily quiet, albeit the sirens here and there. It seemed as if even the birds were chirping less than normal.

Sidewalks across the SoHo neighborhood, Union Square and Fifth Avenue were covered in broken glass. Multiple police cars had been burnt to nothing but ashes. Stores, including a Duane Reade, Urban Outfitters and Swatch, were looted. Banks were ravaged. An Equinox gym had been broken in to. Graffiti covered retailers' logos up and down some of the glitziest shopping districts, which normally would be hosting a hotbed of tourist activity this time of year.

The New York Police Department has since said it arrested almost 350 people Saturday evening, following protests across parts of Harlem, Brooklyn and Staten Island. NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said in a press conference held Sunday that more than 30 officers suffered minor injuries due to clashes with demonstrators.

Here are some photos I took around New York City on the morning of Sunday, May 31.

Multiple cop cars were damaged near the New York University campus, around Washington Square Park.
The Delhi government has sought an immediate assistance of Rs 5,000 crore from the Centre to pay salaries to its employees and meet its expenses as revenues have dried up during the lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia said on Sunday.

Manish Sisodia, who also holds the finance portfolio, said he has written to Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman for help and added that the Delhi government has not received the fund sanctioned to states under the Disaster Relief Fund.

We reviewed the Delhi governments revenue and its minimum expenses. We need around Rs 3,500 crore every month just to pay salaries and bear office expenses. In last two months, GST collection was Rs 500 crore each and combining that with other sources, the government has Rs 1,735 crore, Sisodia said during a press conference.

Watch | Have sought 5000 cr from Centre to pay salaries: Delhi Dy CM Manish Sisodia

We need Rs 7,000 crore for two months. The immediate issue before the Delhi government is how to pay salaries to its employees, he added.

The Aam Aadmi Party said he has asked for assistance from the Centre so that the Delhi government can pay salaries to its employees and everyone who is fighting the coronavirus pandemic.

Due to the corona and lockdown, the tax collection of the Delhi government is running low at about 85%. Delhi has not received any funds from the Disaster Relief Fund released by the Centre to the remaining states, he also tweeted.

Delhi, which is the third worst-hit area in India, has reported 18,549 infections, including 416 deaths, so far.
Marks & Spencer, the UK-based retailer with 19 stores across Ireland, has recognised a 9m (10m) impairment charge in Ireland as a result of testing.

For its Irish stores, Marks & Spencer also said a reduction in sales of 5pc from the three-year plan in years two and three, to reflect a potential recession, would result in an increase of the impairment charge of 6.5m (7.2m).

In its results, published earlier this month, the retailer said it tested other changes and key assumptions.

These include a 20 basis point reduction in gross profit margin throughout the plan period, a 50 basis point increase in the discount rate or a 1pc fall in sales combined with a 10 basis point fall in gross profit margin, stating that these would not result in a "significant increase to the impairment charge".

In a call with analysts, David Wayne Surdeau, the interim chief financial officer of Marks & Spencer, said in its owned business, "the full-year sales decline was driven by Ireland".

He added new store openings in India had partially offset this.

A spokeswoman for Marks & Spencer declined to comment further.

The London-listed retailer said it would accelerate its latest turnaround programme as it dealt with the fallout from the coronavirus crisis and a 21pc fall in its annual profit.

Marks & Spencer made a pre-tax profit before one-off items of 403m (448m) in its year to March 28, down from 512m (569m) in 2018-19.

Irish foodies to get virtual lessons from global chefs

An Irish chef is looking to boost the nations cooking skills, as he launches a new online platform for foodies to cook alongside professional chefs.

Ergo has learned that culinary artist Micheal McKernans Cookalong Kitchen will allow budding Irish chefs to cook along virtually with professional chefs from around the world in their own kitchen.

As a result of social distancing, McKernan organised a series of cook-along events over Zoom with friends and family. Demand has now soared, with Cookalong Kitchen already attracting 200 chefs from across the globe, including from the Philippines, UK, Italy, Ireland and the UAE.

The average charge is 120  depending on the chef  with the company setting a goal to reach 5,000 chefs and 25,000 cook-along events in just 18 months.

+ Gym+Coffee, an Irish clothes retailer, has partnered with PCH International, a design manufacturing company led by businessman Liam Casey, to help it alleviate logistic issues.

Ergo has learned that the fashion chain, which was forced to temporarily close four of its stores due to Covid-19, had struggled to get products manufactured and then transported to customers.

It partnered with PCH, which helped it come up with a solution that allows Gym+Coffee to ship products directly from the manufacturer to its customers.
Anuradha Shukla By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: With high expenditure needed to boost the economy from the slump caused by the COVID-19 pandemic coupled with forecasts of subdued revenue collections, finance ministry officials expect the fiscal deficit for the current fiscal year to rise to as much as 5.2-5.5 per cent of the years GDP.

Last year, it was worse than anticipated. Going by the current scenario, the financial year started with a lockdown, so revenue collection will be subdued. Expenditure will be high in order to boost the economy. So, preliminary internal assessments suggest that fiscal deficit will be between 5.2 to 5.5 per cent of GDP, a senior finance ministry source said.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in her budget speech in February, had invoked the 0.5 per cent escape clause to revise the fiscal deficit target for FY20 from 3.3 per cent to 3.8 per cent. However, according to data released on Friday by the Comptroller General of Accounts (CGA), the fiscal deficit for financial year 2019-20 now stands at 4.59 percent, a breach of 0.7 per cent or a `1.69 lakh crore increase in Indias deficit.

According to the date released, the governments revenue for the fiscal ended March 31, 2020 was Rs 16.82 lakh crore, which was just 91 per cent of the full years target of `18.50 lakh crore. And, this is not just because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

For the past three consecutive years, the government has consistently missed its tax revenue targets. If the CGA data for April is to be believed, there has been a clear contraction in revenue collections amidst the lockdown, with net tax revenue for April standing at Rs 21,412 crore, against April 2019 collections of Rs 71,637 crore.

Total revenue was Rs 27,183 crore, compared with Rs 94,930 crore for the same period last year. However, expenditure for April was Rs 3.07 lakh crore against Rs 2.55 lakh crore in April 2019.

The officials added that the finance ministry was concerned over the spread of the pandemic in high-revenue generating states like Maharashtra and Gujarat.

Much will depend on how quickly we restart economic activities. Cases in industrial states are matter of concern. So, we will be lucky if revenue collection meet even previous year level,  the official added.

Future Bleak

Ministry concerned with spread of pandemic in high-revenue states

Much will depend on how quickly the economy is able to restart, officials say
. . . are you reading now?

Ducks, Newburyport, by Lucy Ellmann the stream-of-consciousness memoir of a middle-aged woman in the American Midwest told in one very long sentence.

The narrator, a former college teacher, has survived cancer and retreated to her kitchen where she bakes pies and mulls over her life, her children and the world.

Her ruminations are interrupted occasionally by passages told from the perspective of a mountain lion. This extraordinary, funny, intriguing book won last years Goldsmiths Prize and was shortlisted for the Booker. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Its a long book  at slightly over 1,000 pages more than twice as long as the average novel  and though its length has troubled some reviewers, I do not want it to end.

Nina Stibbe (pictured) revealed that she would take The Complete Works Of Sue Townsend to a desert island

. . . would you take to a desert island?

I suppose I should take a survival guide with me but Ive never been very keen on that kind of book. What Id really like is another really long book like, say, The Complete Works Of Sue Townsend.

Unfortunately, this exists only in my head as far as I know. Im imagining it will begin with The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole Aged 13 (first published in 1982) and include the seven further Adrian Mole volumes and Townsends six other novels, including The Queen And I and The Woman Who Went To Bed For A Year.

Sue Townsend was one of the UKs most celebrated comedy writers and though Ive read every book already, Id be delighted to gasp and nod and laugh out loud all over again.

. . . first gave you the reading bug?

Im not sure a single book got me into reading, but I think it was being surrounded by books at home, visiting the library and seeing role models reading and talking about books that caught me.

I remember reading Black Beauty, by Anna Sewell, at a young age and being affected by the happy/sad moments, but mostly intrigued that the story was narrated by a horse.

In terms of reading avidly, Id say it was the James Herriot series of vet books, starting with If Only They Could Talk that really gripped me. From there I moved on to other funny, character-driven books by the likes of P. G. Wodehouse, Muriel Spark, Jerome K. Jerome and Nancy Mitford, and clever, funny verse by people such as Spike Milligan and Pam Ayres.

. . . left you cold?

Im not desperately keen on practical survival books (see above) where men in camouflage shorts pretend they need to collect condensation in leaves, make shelters from tree fronds and hack at undergrowth  or theyll die. People have given this kind of book to my son from a young age (though never to my daughter) and they leave me feeling exhausted.

Reasons To Be Cheerful, by Nina Stibbe (Penguin, 8.99), has been longlisted for the Comedy Women in Print Prize 2020. The shortlist will be announced on June 8. For more information, visit comedywomeninprint.co.uk
The super-rich owner of the Matalan clothing chain has been slammed after applying for a taxpayer-backed loan  at the same time as he's being chased by HMRC over an 84million tax bill.

John Hargreaves, who lives in tax haven Monaco, has revealed in a statement to his company's lenders that Matalan expects to access 25million under the Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CLBILS), which is guaranteed by the Treasury.

The Merseyside-based firm has complained it has never 'faced such difficult and unpredictable times' in 35 years of trading and that 'along with a significant number of businesses we have been seriously impacted by Covid-19'.

Suffering: The Merseyside-based firm has complained it has never 'faced such difficult and unpredictable times'

The family-owned firm has already furloughed 11,000 staff under the Government Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, which the company estimates would save it 21million over an eight-and-ahalf-week period. Matalan has also been given a 12-month holiday from paying business rates, which represents a saving of 44million.

Yet The Mail on Sunday revealed last month that the taxman was still chasing Hargreaves for money it claims he owes. It emerged a year ago that the courts had awarded Hargreaves victory in a battle with HMRC over the 84million tax bill, which relates to a 237million share windfall he received from his firm in 2002. The authorities are appealing the case.

Last night, tax campaigner and Labour MP Dame Margaret Hodge, also formerly chair of the public accounts committee, said: 'It does make me cross. It's unbelievable.

'No taxpayer would believe that the money they've worked hard to earn and that they dutifully pay in tax is being used to subsidise an individual or a company that deliberately arranges their financial affairs for no other purpose than to avoid tax. This man has avoided paying millions in tax and has now got the gall to do this.'

She said she did not support withholding Government aid, adding: 'We don't want to damage the economy and [we want to] protect the staff. But I would do this subject to conditionality. What I would do is ask for an equity share so we can get some of the support money back for the taxpayers at some point.'

In 2010 Hargreaves paid himself a 250million dividend after refinancing the firm with around 525million of debt from bondholders.

It also emerged earlier this month Hargreaves is suing his adviser PwC over claims it gave him bad advice before he relocated to Monaco 20 years ago and what he needed to do to avoid paying taxes.

Matalan sources said he separately paid 35million in tax during 2018 and his chain normally contributes 150million a year in business and employee taxes.

The 25million taxpayer-backed loan is part of a 50million financing plan the company has to navigate the crisis. Matalan is proposing to raise the other 25million using loans from its bondholders. It needs approval from its bondholders by 5pm on Wednesday.

Companies borrowing more than 50million through the CLBILS are prohibited from paying dividends and bumper bonuses.

A Treasury spokesman said: 'These loans are targeted to all viable large businesses as part of our action to support jobs and the economy. We have always been clear that these Government-backed loans are repayable and not grants.'

George Turner, director at think tank TaxWatch, said: 'It is right that businesses and employees hit by the outbreak receive support. But, as we saw with Virgin Atlantic, the Government refusing to grant a loan can force tax exile business owners to put their hands in their own pockets. Something that a lot of people would expect Mr Hargreaves to be doing now.'
Australians have hailed it 'the best lasagne' they have ever made

The recipe requires beef mince, tomato sauce, pasta and three types of cheese

Amateur chefs are following an incredibly simple recipe to make gourmet lasagne in a slow cooker.

The recipe, which comes from Kraft Heinz, the world's fifth largest food producer, requires 450 grams of lean beef mince, a jar of tomato sauce, one egg, six sheets of pasta and lashings of mozzarella, Parmesan and ricotta cheese.

Australians have been sharing photos and videos of their dishes in cookery groups on Facebook over the past few weeks, with many hailing it 'the best lasagne' they have ever made.

'Just pass the garlic bread and leave me to it. Looks amazing,' one woman said under a video of lasagne bubbling away in a slow cooker.

Scroll down for video

A restaurant-standard lasagne made by an Australian amateur chef, using a simple recipe from US food producer Kraft Heinz which requires four ingredients and three types of cheese

Slow cookers are available from a range of Australian retailers, with five litre pots for $19 at Kmart and a 3.5 litre Russell and Hobbs machine for $35 from The Good Guys online.

A higher-end Sunbeam slow cooker is currently reduced from $59.95 to $39.95 at Myer.

To make the lasagne, brown the mince in a large skillet, draining excess water and juice through a colander after it's cooked.

Once drained, return the meat to the pan and stir in the tomato and basil sauce and a cup of water to loosen the mixture.

Everything you need to make slow-cooked lasagne 450g lean minced beef One jar of tomato and basil sauce Six sheets of pasta One egg One tub of ricotta One bag of shredded mozzarella Three tablespoons of Parmesan Chopped parsley Source: Kraft Heinz Advertisement

In a bowl, combine the egg, a tub of ricotta, one cup of mozzarella and two tablespoons of Parmesan, adding a handful of chopped parsley once the mixture has combined.

Set a small pile of Parmesan and mozzarella aside for later.

Spoon one cup of the meat and pasta sauce into your slow cooker, which should be sprayed generously with oil to prevent food from sticking.

A lasagne three hours into cooking, with cheese still to melt across some parts of the top

Cover with a sheet of pasta, followed by the blend of cheese, and repeat until you've built three thick layers.

Leave the lasagne to cook on a low heat for four to six hours, depending on your cooker settings, or until all the liquid has absorbed into the dish.

Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top and leave it to stand for 10 minutes until melted and golden brown.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: India registered its highest single-day spike of COVID-19 cases on Sunday with 8,380 new infections reported in the last 24 hours, taking the country's tally to 1,82,143, while the death toll rose to 5,164, according to the Union Health Ministry.

India is the ninth worst-hit nation by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The number of active COVID-19 cases stood to 89,995, while 86,983 people have recovered and one patient has migrated, it said.

"Thus, around 47.75 per cent patients have recovered so far," a senior health ministry official said.

The total confirmed cases include foreigners.

The death toll has gone up by 193 since Saturday morning, of which 99 deaths were reported from Maharashtra, 27 from Gujarat, 18 from Delhi, nine each from Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, seven from West Bengal, six each from Tamil Nadu and Telangana, five from Bihar, three from Uttar Pradesh, two from Punjab, and one each from Haryana and Kerala.

Of the total 5,164 fatalities, Maharashtra tops the tally with 2,197 deaths, followed by Gujarat (1,007), Delhi (416), Madhya Pradesh (343), West Bengal (309), Uttar Pradesh (201), Rajasthan (193), Tamil Nadu (160), Telangana (77) and Andhra Pradesh (60).

The death toll reached 48 in Karnataka, 44 in Punjab, 28 in Jammu and Kashmir, 20 in Haryana, 20 in Bihar, nine in Kerala, and seven in Odisha.

Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand and Uttarakhand have each registered five COVID-19 fatalities, Chandigarh and Assam have recorded four deaths each, while Meghalaya and Chhattisgarh have reported one COVID-19 fatality each so far.

More than 70 per cent of the deaths are due to co-morbidities, the ministry said.

According to the health ministry data updated in the morning, the highest number of confirmed cases in the country are from Maharashtra at 65,168, followed by Tamil Nadu at 21,184, Delhi at 18,549, Gujarat at 16,343, Rajasthan at 8,617, Madhya Pradesh at 7,891 and Uttar Pradesh at 7,445.

The number of COVID-19 cases has gone up to 5,130 in West Bengal, 3,636 in Bihar, 3,569 in Andhra Pradesh, 2,922 in Karnataka, 2,499 in Telangana, 2,341 in Jammu and Kashmir, 2,233 in Punjab and 1,923 in Haryana.

Odisha has reported 1,819 coronavirus cases, Kerala has 1,208 cases, Assam has 1,185, Uttarakhand has 749, Jharkhand has 563, Chhattisgarh has 447, Himachal Pradesh has 313, Chandigarh has 289, Tripura has 268, Ladakh has 74 and Goa has 70.

Manipur has reported 62 COVID-19 cases, Puducherry has 51 cases of infection, Nagaland has recorded 36 cases, while Andaman and Nicobar Islands has registered 33 infections.

Meghalaya has registered 27 cases, Arunachal Pradesh has reported four cases, Dadar and Nagar Haveli has two cases, while Mizoram and Sikkim have reported a case each till how.

"5,491 cases are being reassigned to states," the ministry said on its website, adding that, "Our figures are being reconciled with the ICMR."

State-wise distribution is subject to further verification and reconciliation, it said.
Karleigh Norris expected to spend the end of her senior year in high school hanging out with her friends, getting her diploma as "Pomp and Circumstance" wafted through the auditorium and daydreaming through the last few days of school.

It hasn't worked out that way.

Instead, the newly-minted Hixson High school graduate grabbed her diploma in a drive-thru ceremony, and then, instead of spending time with her friends, Karleigh loaded into a car with her dad, Jimmy, and drove from their home in Chattanooga, Tennessee, to New Orleans.

The trip, a gift from her dad, "has been my childhood dream," Karleigh said Friday morning as she and her father sat sipping sodas at one of the carefully scattered tables at Cafe du Monde in the French Quarter.

It's a quick trip  the Norrises drove down Thursday and planned to head out Saturday meandering eastward along the coast before turning for the north and home. Like most New Orleans tourists, they were filling their time with food -- gumbo, oysters, red beans and rice -- and sightseeing.

But one element of their experience was unique: the emptiness. Even with the city having loosened some restrictions due to coronavirus, the Quarter was largely deserted at noontime on Friday. There was just a smattering of tourists sauntering along Royal or Bourbon streets and through Jackson Square. Sidewalks were empty, benches vacant and shop owners loitered in front of their doors, looking hopefully up and down the street for potential customers.

Coronavirus and the subsequent restrictions to curb its spread has decimated New Orleans' tourism industry. Hotels and restaurants were closed, bars shuttered, famous landmarks boarded up. A city that depends on a continuous injection of cash from outsiders is now suddenly cut off. The few tourists now are mostly like the Norrises: people who live close enough to drive to the city, stay for a short time and then drive back home.

Those tourists have always been a key element of New Orleans' hospitality industry, said Mark Romig of New Orleans and Co., the city's non-profit tourism promotion association.

But now, with traffic at Louis Armstrong International Airport a mere shadow of its former self, those drive-to-Louisiana tourists will be counted on even more heavily.

"The drive market has always been our sweet spot," Romig said. In 2019, about 70% of the city's visitors came from what a distance considered a single day's drive, or about a 1.5 hour flight. With coronavirus likely to be a constant looming consideration in the coming months, Romig said he expects that share to grow larger throughout the rest of the year.

He pointed to a recent report by tourism industry consultant and analyst firm Longwoods International that indicated that the most popular trips Americans will be taking in the next six weeks are car trips that are less than 200 miles.

To help the city's tourism industry get back up and running, New Orleans and Co. will begin a new campaign in areas within about a 200-250 mile radius, Romig said. The messages will emphasize that the things people have missed about New Orleans during the pandemic and ensuing stay-at-home orders are available again. They will also seek to assure travelers that the city can be visited safely, he said.

"It's all about the great things that New Orleans has offered for so many years," he said.

The industry certainly needs it.

Hotel occupancy has hovered in the single digits, though there were bumps during the Memorial Day weekend and in previous weeks, Romig said. And an airport spokeswoman said passenger arrivals in May were down an estimated 94%.

"It's sad and what keeps us fighting to come back," Romig said. "We are going to fight hard to bring jobs and the economy back but we know we need to do it slowly and methodically and follow the guidance" from health officials, he said.

Some of the restaurants that have reopened are seeing some encouraging signs.

Mia Devillier, one of the operators of Justine and La Petite Grocery, said a trickle of tourists had begun to return to her restaurants.

"We've been seeing the foot traffic increase day by day," she said.

Normally, her clientele is 60% tourists. Right now, it's about 30%, she said. Among the tourists, there have been groups from Texas, Mississippi, New York as well as other parts of Louisiana, Devillier said.

"Lots of graduates are still coming out to celebrate, I'm sure they've got family traveling in from the region to celebrate with them," she said.

Those groups are also splurging on their meals, she said.

"I think they are just really happy to get out and have a dining experience," she said.

Despite the lack of tourists, there are some familiar French Quarter archetypes: Haleigh Nordmeyer, sat along on the steps in front of the Louisiana State Museum Friday afternoon. The Christian missionary had come from Dallas to spread the gospel, she said, something she had done before in New Orleans.

"I've never seen the Quarter like this," she said, glancing around at the largely empty street where a few people from her group played worship songs. "There's no other music here besides worship music. When in the Quarter does that happen?"

A few blocks away, Lee and Barrette McBride of Lake Charles strolled along Bourbon Street. The couple comes often to the city, but this was their first time since the pandemic started.

"It's so quiet," Barrette McBride said, allowing that she kind of liked the Quarter that way. But, she lamented, her favorite bar  Tropical Isle  was closed.

"I can't get a Hand Grenade!" she laughed.

Staff writer Anthony McCauley contributed to this report.
Demonstrators protesting police brutality briefly blocked portions of the Westbank Expressway in Marrero Saturday night, and while police reported two arrests, the situation was described as "peaceful."

Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office spokesman Jason Rivarde said protesters partially blocked the westbound Westbank Expressway at ground level at Ames Boulevard for several minutes twice over the course of a couple of hours Saturday night.

He said two people were arrested  and could provide no other details  but described the scene as peaceful. No obstacles were moved into the street.

They tried to block the Westbank Expressway and we didnt let them, he said. You cant block the roadways.

The protest was related to the death of Modesto Reyes, who was shot to death by Jefferson Parish sheriffs deputies on Wednesday night, and timed with nationwide protests in response to the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

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Jefferson Parish Sheriff Joe Lopinto has said Reyes, 35, had led deputies on a chase and was shot only after pointing a gun at officers.

Reyes family members and friends contend footage from video cameras refutes JPSO's version of events, said Reyes little brother, Alfonso Rowland, 30.

"We had to take a stand, we were not being heard, Michelle Charles, an attorney and Marrero native who was there as part of the Algiers-Gretna branch of the NAACP, said Saturday night.

It was a peaceful protest, she said. We just want to be heard and we want justice."
SYDNEY  Australia has stuck its neck out just as China is in a head-chopping mood. So wheres the EU when Canberra needs it?

With the world teetering on the edge of a pandemic-induced economic meltdown, Australia, the worlds 13th-largest economy already on the ropes after years of drought and a horrific fire season, now finds itself squaring off against the worlds No. 2 super-power.

As China threatens to attack Taiwan and pledges retaliation against any country that questions its coronavirus response, Australia this week, along with the U.S., U.K. and Canada, called out the Chinese government over a new national security law in Hong Kong they say is in direct conflict with Beijing's international obligations.

Australia was also the first country to call for an independent inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic amid concerns about transparency from Beijing, leading to economic retribution as China slapped trade tariffs on Canberra.

But the EU seems in no hurry to rush in behind its ally in engaging with Beijing. There could even be an upside for the bloc if Australia remains weakened, as Brussels and Canberra look to conclude a free-trade deal later this year.

European foreign ministers met Friday to reach a common position on China, issuing a statement expressing grave concern at its crackdown on Hong Kong. At a press conference afterward, the EUs top diplomat, Josep Borrell, acknowledged that the autonomy of Hong Kong has been really weakened.

But asked whether Chinas moves against Hong Kong put at risk the EUs investment deals with Beijing, Borrell was unequivocal in his answer: No.

Will there be sanctions? Only one country made reference to the question of sanctions, Borrell said, referring to Sweden. (The EUs decision not to use its leverage as the worlds biggest trade bloc comes in stark contrast to the U.S., which is threatening trade measures if Beijing proceeds with imposing national security laws.)

Story continues

And Brussels is moving forward with plans for an EU-China summit in Leipzig in September. As long as the pandemic allows for it to take place, it will take place, Borrell said.

We will continue trying to put pressure on the Chinese authorities in order to make them aware that this issue will affect the way we deal with some of the issues of mutual interest. But there is nothing more on the agenda, he said.

Translation: If the EU ever gets off the fence, itll have an ass full of splinters.

Tensions between Beijing and Australias conservative government, meanwhile, have been simmering since 2016, when Canberra blocked bids by two Chinese companies for electricity distributor Ausgrid over national security concerns, before later banning telecoms firm Huawei from its 5G network in 2018.

In April, things reached boiling point when Australias Foreign Minister Marise Payne called for an urgent inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus outbreak, to be run independently of the World Health Organization.

The EU, for its part, effectively hung Australia out to dry at the WHO's World Health Assembly in May, derailing Canberras call (with the U.S.) for an independent probe into the coronavirus outbreak by negotiating a compromise counter-proposal with Beijing.

China, meanwhile, responded to Australias slight by slapping an 80 percent tariff on its barley exports and banning four of its largest abattoirs from sending red meat to China. The move was a clear warning shot, with the country also threatening to boycott Australian coal.

In an editorial published Wednesday, the Global Times, a mouthpiece of the Chinese government, warned ominously: If Australia keeps angering China, China should give it a lesson much heavier than tariffs on barley.

Asked to comment on Beijings pressure on Australia, Virginie Battu-Henriksson, the EUs spokesperson for foreign affairs and security policy said: The European Union is a staunch supporter of open and fair trade within a rules-based, multilateral trading system. We encourage all countries to avoid barriers to free and open trade and escalating tensions, in particular at a time when our efforts should be concentrated on fighting the coronavirus pandemic and its consequences.

A trade war with China is no fun for anyone, but its especially problematic for Australia. Unlike the EU and the U.S., which both run large deficits, Australia has a significant trade surplus with the country.

China is the destination for over a third of Australias exports. It buys over 80 percent of iron ore exports; a third of its liquefied natural gas (LNG); three-quarters of its wool; over a third of its alcoholic beverages; and until very recently, 57 percent of its barley and a quarter of its beef. Chinese citizens account for about a third of Australias overseas students and tourists.

Chinas Ambassador to Australia Cheng Jingye gave an indication of the stakes when he told the Australian Financial Review in April that, in the long term, people in China may start to ask, Why we should go to such a country while its not so friendly to China?'

The tourists may have second thoughts. Maybe the parents of the students would also think whether this place, which they find is not so friendly, even hostile, is the best place to send their kids to ... And also, maybe the ordinary people will think 'why they should drink Australian wine or eat Australian beef?

Canberra doesnt need to look far for examples of what happens when Beijings feelings get hurt.

China froze relations with Oslo for six years after a committee appointed by the Norwegian parliament awarded the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize to imprisoned Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo. Beijing took a year for it to get over South Koreas decision to host a U.S. missile shield. And Canada is still feeling the heat over the arrest of senior Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou in 2018.

The Chinese embassy in Australia did not respond to a request for an interview for this article.

If China stops buying Australias beef, barley and wine, perhaps the EU, a fellow champion of the rules-based global order, will step in to lend a hand?

Europe might be the last global power to help Australia out on beef, said economist Hosuk Lee-Makiyama, the head of the Brussels-based ECIPE think tank.

Australias hormone-free beef imports into the EU are subject to a quota, which the EU has been cutting in favor of the U.S. since last year. The 2020 limit is now almost fully used up, according to people briefed on the matter, and Brussels hasnt discussed expanding it.

Negotiators recently completed their (virtual) seventh round of negotiations on an EU-Australia trade deal. While the Aussies insist the current trade spat with China has no direct impact on talks with Brussels, its hard to imagine the pressure to find new buyers for its farmers isnt weighing on minds.

Australia obviously wants access to those [EU] markets as a major agricultural exporter, and it will be more interested in that given whats going on with China, said Roland Rajah, the lead international economist at the Lowy Institute think tank. Well be hoping for some level of solidarity" from the EU, Rajah said.

"Desperation would be overstating it, but [the trade spat with China] weakens our bargaining position," said Saul Eslake, an independent economist and vice chancellors fellow at the University of Tasmania.

Still, theres reason to hope Beijing may back off from a full-scale trade war with Canberra.

China is already engaged in battle with U.S. President Donald Trump in response to its moves on Hong Kong and handling of the coronavirus crisis. It's still reeling from the economic toll of the pandemic. And while China is Australias largest trading partner and its biggest export market, the relationship is co-dependent.

When it comes to Australias top three exports to China  iron ore, coal and natural gas  Beijing doesn't have good alternatives.

They take 40 percent of our exports, but we provide the majority of their iron ore imports, we provide almost half of their coal imports, many of their gas imports, said Lowy's Rajah.

If they wanted to damage us in a major way, they could. But to hit us where it really hurts they would have to hit themselves where it really hurts too.

Jakob Hanke Vela contributed reporting.

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The police in Edo State said they are searching for people who might have witnessed the assault that led to the death of a female student of the University of Benin (UNIBEN), Edo State.

The victim, Vera Omozuwa, a 100-level Microbiology student of UNIBEN, was beaten inside a hall in the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Ikpoba Hill, Benin City on May 13, where she went to study.

She died on May 31, 18 days after, at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital.

She was 23 years old.

As at the day of the incident, she was in a coma, so the police could not obtain a statement from her on what happened, the police spokesperson in Edo, Chidi Nwabuzor, told PREMIUM TIMES, Sunday evening.

Its unfortunate that no person is coming out as an eye witness to give (an) account of what happened, he added.

Mr Nwabuzor, a deputy superintendent of police, said the victims father, Johnson Omozuwa, who reported the incident to the police, is a hearsay witness because he was not at the scene of the crime. He couldnt tell us who the suspects are.

Mr Nwabuzor said the police operatives have spoken with the people in the branch of the Redeemed Church where the late Ms Omozuwa was attacked, but that all of them denied being there when the incident happened.

The police spokesperson said they cannot conclude that Ms Omozuwa was raped by her attackers until a medical report is out from the hospitals she was taken to.

The police are investigating the case, he said.

Meanwhile, the Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, has ordered the police to fish out those responsible for the brutal killing of Ms Omozuwa.

Mr Obaseki is deeply saddened by the death of Ms Omozuwa, a statement by the governors spokesperson, Crusoe Osagie, said.

The murder of Ms Omozuwa has attracted outrage from Nigerians on social media.

I used to be afraid of chewing a gum inside church or stepping in with dirt on my shoes but nowadays people have the guts to go in there to rape and kill? One Twitter user (@staarrgirlll) commented.

The evil men will never go unpunished, she added.

PREMIUM TIMES earlier reported the reaction of the university to the murder of the student.

The Vice-Chancellor of UNIBEN, Lilian Salami, in a statement through the institutions Public Relations Officer, Benedicta Ehanire, described the news as shocking.
The former butler of deceased bank financier Jeffrey Epstein has recently broken his silence to urge Britain's Prince Andrew to cooperate with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

70-year-old Juan Alessi confessed that Prince Andrew attended a couple of naked pool parties at Epstein's home in Florida, famously called, "House of Sin," nineteen years ago.

He also claimed that there were massage tables set up for Prince Andrew.

Alessi worked for Epstein in 1991 until 2006 and was even interrogated by the FBI, police, and the victims' lawyers about Epstein and Prince Andrew.

Speaking to The Mirror, Alessi said he met with the Duke of York twice at the mogul's Florida home, but never saw him interacting with any women.

Describing the Prince, Alessi said, "Andrew was a nice guy. I never see him with girls. I never see him with Virginia. I never saw him naked or actually having the massage," telling Mirror.

"If he had a massage as I say in my deposition, everything was upstairs behind closed doors. I never saw him kissing anybody or patting anybody."

He further said that Prince Andrew was the only person who ever left my wife and me a tip when he left. It was $140 bucks. It was nice."

Alessi claimed that his boss did not allow anybody to them.

The ex-butler said, in a sworn statement to the Palm Beach police in 2005, that Prince Andrew stayed for weeks at a time at Epstein's "blue room" in Florida, which was home as full of nude pictures of young women.

"You would need to be blind not to see them. Pictures of young girls, objects, and ornaments were all over the house."

With Prince Andrew failing to cooperate with the FBI since the investigation, Alessi thinks, "Maybe he has something to hide. I don't know. I don't know what happened beyond that."

US Attorney Geoff Berman told ABC Newsin March that the Duke of York has "completely shut the door on voluntary cooperation" despite initially saying he would, and that the office is now "considering its options."

In August 2019, 66-year-old Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide, and the ex-butler had chosen to spoke out now because he says his confidentiality agreement died when his boss died.

The ex-butler former claimed that one of his jobs was to clean the sex toys that Epstein and his former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell used.

He described Maxwell as a "reputed pimp" and called her "the devil."

"She absolutely knew what Epstein was doing."

Alessi also said that Maxwell knew what Epstein was involved in and that she made him drive around Palm Beach in search of women who could give her boyfriend a massage.

Aside from cleaning sex toys, Alessi was also tasked to pay the women after withdrawing $10,000 from Epstein's bank account and claimed he didn't know what he had been paying the girls for.

"The FBI needs to talk to Ghislaine. She knows more than anyone. Whole days she spent recruiting girls. I was driving. I wish I had known what for. I would stop at a massage parlor," Alessi said.

READ MORE: Royal Shame: Meghan Markle, Prince Harry Switched Post Megxit Backup From Royal Family to THIS
Nearly seven months after Irans security forces killed several hundreds protesters in November 2019, Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli said implicitly for the first time on Saturday May 30 that the number of those killed was around 200.

While Iran has been hiding the actual number of those killed in the violent crackdown that followed the nationwide protests in November, independent news agencies and human rights watchers put the number at up to 1,500.

A short while after the crackdown, U.S. Special Representative for Iran, Brian Hook said that Iranian security forces had killed around 1,000 protesters in November.

Rahmani who was taking advantage of the ongoing protests in the United States to portray violence as something normal that can happen anywhere in the world, did not even give precise figures about the death toll. Some Iranian Twitter users have pointed out the way Iran has been taking advantage of foreign developments to justify its violence.

The minister appeared on a TV program Saturday night to say "around 40 to 45 people, that is about 20 percent of the death toll were killed with weapons not issued by the government," but about 80 percent were killed by government forces.

This means he is still insisting on the government propaganda that some protesters killed other protesters with guns that did not belong to government forces; something officials tried to argue during the crisis in November.

As verified by international human rights watchdogs, Iranian forces even used tanks and machine guns against protesters and shot many in the head at point blank range. Human rights organizations even characterized the outcome of the crackdown at places such as Mahshahr in Khuzestan Province and Shahryar near Tehran as "massacre."

Amnesty International announced last week that at least 304 protesters were killed in 37 Iranian cities, stressing that these include only the cases that are accounted for and the actual number is probably much higher.

According to Amnesty, the biggest number of known deaths were in the underprivileged areas around Tehran where 163 confirmed deaths have been registered, followed by 57 in Khuzestan and 30 in Kermanshah province.

Reuters in December quoted three sources close to Khamenei's inner circle as well as another source as having said that some 1,500 Iranians were killed during the November protests. Khamenei had told the security forces in a public meeting: "Do whatever is necessary to stop" the protests.

Unrest began in mid-November when the government increased the price of gasoline by 200 percent without prior notice. When nationwide protest broke out, the government resorted to one of its most violent crackdowns and shut down the Internet to keep everything concealed from the public.

Rahmani said during the program that "All U.S. media and the opposition including monarchists and Mojahedin-e Khalq and ISIS were training the protesters for armed struggle." He added that they aimed to start a civil war in Iran.

Earlier, when asked why demonstrators were shot in the head, Rahmani said in cold blood, "We have also shot some in the leg." The answer was harshly criticized by some Iranian lawmakers.

According to Amnesty International, most protesters were shot in the head or the upper part of their chest and this shows that security forces had a shoot to kill order.

On his TV interview, however, Rahmani claimed that the armed forces were told not to confront the people with weapons."

The governments stayed silence for nearly seven months despite criticism by Iranian and international media and political figures. Even now the minister has implicitly hinted at a number, there are no names or details about the killings.

Meanwhile Rahmani Fazli criticized the U.S. government for sanctioning him for his part in suppressing the November protests. The U.S. Department of Treasury and many international observers have said that Rahmani was the one who had ordered the security forces to kill the protesters.

The U.S. has also sanctioned Police Chief Hossein Ashtari and some other high-ranking commanders for "their role in the massacres in November 2019."
Two people were arrested yesterday at Salthill Beach in Co Galway after an altercation took place between two men and 40 youths obstructed gardai during the arrests.

The public order incident took place at around 7pm on Saturday evening, when patrolling gardai saw an altercation take place between two men.

When approached by the officers, one man became "aggressive" towards the gardai and resisted arrests.

Dozens of youths then began to interfere with the incident.

"Approximately 40 youths obstructed Gardai during the course of arrest," said a garda spokesperson.

Multiple Garda units were called to the scene in a bid to restore peace and disperse the crowd. Videos of teenagers shouting abuse at gardai have been circulating on social media.

Two people were arrested and taken to Salthill Garda Station.

"They have since been released and a file will be prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions in relation to this matter," said a garda spokesperson.

Gardai then maintained a presence in the area and patrolling officers will be in the area again this evening.
Strictly Come Dancing dancer James Jordan on the Vanessa Feltz show on BBC London 94.9 FM, ahead of the first live Strictly Come Dancing show on Friday on BBC1. (Photo by Jonathan Brady/PA Images via Getty Images)

James Jordan was left "really upset" after watching his hospitalised father suffer a seizure on FaceTime.

The star has shared he went through the troubling ordeal while his dad, who experienced seven seizures in one day, remains in hospital after suffering a second stroke.

He told Hello!: "I was on FaceTime to him this morning and he had a seizure during our conversation and it is absolutely horrendous to see, so that really upset me today. Yesterday he had around seven seizures and no one knows why."

Read more: Ronan Keating's older children haven't met their newborn sister due to lockdown

The 42-year-old added that it has been a struggle for his mother who is not able to visit her husband due to restrictions on hospital visits because of the coronavirus.

Jordan added to the publication: "She's been on the phone to him when he's had seizures as well. I mean, you see all of these people going to the beach right next to each other and they say they're going to open the shops, and yet my mum still can't go in and sit next to my dad when he's very sick in hospital? It's quite upsetting and frustrating."

It comes after the Dancing on Ice champion shared his father had also contracted the coronavirus during his first stay in hospital in April while receiving treatment for his first stroke.

After a second stroke in May, Jordan disclosed via Twitter that his father had been readmitted.

Ola Jordan and James Jordan attend the Pride Of Britain Awards 2019 at The Grosvenor House Hotel on October 28, 2019 in London, England. (Photo by Karwai Tang/WireImage)

The professional dancer welcomed his first child into the world in February as wife Ola gave birth to a daughter, Ella.

He shared back in April that the tot had to be taken to hospital after they feared she was choking on her own saliva.

It transpired Ella was suffering from reflux and thankfully went on to recover.
A huge illegal rave involving hundreds of revellers has been stormed by riot police in east London.

Pictures and videos posted on Snapchat showed scores of ravers gathered at the Springfield Estate, in Clapton, on Saturday night while a DJ played in the street.

The shocking footage enraged locals, with one saying tensions are high", as the group flouted lockdown rules banning mass gatherings.

Officers were scrambled to the scene along with a helicopter at about midnight on Sunday, Hackney Police said.

The force said in a tweet that it involved "many hundreds of revellers".

Hundreds of riot police reportedly descended on the area to break up the rave, with photos on Twitter showing a large number of police vehicles.

Public flock to UK beauty spots

Scotland Yard confirmed a small number of arrests were made for offences including assault on an emergency worker and breach of the peace.

Officers fired a taser on one reveller, the Met Police said.

"At around 21:00hrs on Saturday, 30 May, police became aware of a large number of people gathered at an unlicensed music event in the Springfield Estate, Clapton E5.

"Officers attended and engaged with those present to encourage them to go home.

Colleagues from the National Police Air Service provided assistance.

Pictures and videos from earlier in the day showed huge crowds sprawled across the nearby Hackney Marshes.

It came as thousands of Brits descended on beauty spots under scorching heat on Saturday, including packed scenes spotted at Bournemouth beach, the Peak District and Clapham Common.

At Durdle Door beach in Dorset, crowds of beachgoers were packed into two pens as two air ambulances landed and police were forced to evacuate the sands due to sunseekers jumping from a 200ft cliff.

Thousands Of Beachgoers Visit Durdle Door

Boris Johnson announced earlier this week that the lockdown rules would be eased again from Monday to allow people in England to meet in socially distanced groups of six.
More than a dozen people were arrested Saturday and 15 law enforcement officers were injured in the protests that turned chaotic and violent.

Chief Skip Holbrook spoke with The State at about 9 a.m. Sunday, while standing in front of the Columbia Police Department, where one of the most heated confrontations between protesters and law enforcement occurred.

My heart breaks for what I saw yesterday, Holbrook said. We are better than this  we are better than what we saw yesterday.

Holbrook said 12 of his officers were injured in the protests. One of the officers remains in an area hospital from heat exhaustion, but is expected to recover, according to Holbrook.

Three officers were assaulted, and two suffered cuts on their faces from broken glass thrown at them, according to the tweet.

Police said the other injuries were all related to heat exhaustion.

Further information on the condition of the officers was not available.

Chief Skip Holbrook discusses the protests that turned violent while standing in front of the Columbia Police Department on Sunday morning.

Three deputies from the Richland County Sheriffs Department were hurt during the protests. All were treated on the scene, according to the sheriffs department.

The chief also provided some general information on the number of people taken into custody on Saturday.

There were well more than a dozen arrests, Holbrook said.

When asked if any of the people arrested were armed the chief responded, Let me just say were investigating two shooting incidents.

One of them included an incident when sheriffs deputies were shot at while at the corner of Gervais and Assembly streets. No injuries were reported in that shooting, but a search is underway for at least three people possibly involved, according to the sheriffs department.

Information on the charges the people whove been arrested are facing was not available.

The protests that started as peaceful devolved into riots in response to the death of a black man, George Floyd, in Minneapolis on Monday while in police custody. Tensions have been raised across the nation as Floyds death has sparked national outrage since a video showed a police officer kneeling on his neck before he died.

Story continues

That does not reflect our profession. It certainly doesnt reflect the men and women who so courageously serve here in the Midlands, Holbrook said of the action taken by the Minneapolis police officers in Floyds death. That brush cant be used to paint the whole profession and certainly not us here.

Holbrook said Columbia Police did not use any lethal weapons during Saturdays incidents, but shots were fired from the line of protesters.

Police did use tear gas and rubber bullets at times, according to Holbrook.

No one was believed struck, Holbrook said. It was a tough day and night. Im really so proud of of officers and deputies  their professionalism, patience  they stuck to it. They followed directions. They showed restraint, incredible courage.

Columbia Mayor Steven Benjamin echoed that sentiment when he showed his appreciation for the law enforcement officers and other emergency officials who did not escalate the situation. The mayor also thanked the protesters who didnt get involved with any violent activity.

Im thankful for the respect, restraint & strength shown by peaceful protesters & first responders yesterday, Benjamin said on Twitter.

On Saturday, Benjamin declared a state of emergency and issued a 6 p.m. curfew. Although the curfew is in place through 6 a.m. Monday, Benjamin said the city will be exercising a lighter hand with businesses that are operating legally.

A citywide curfew will be imposed in Cayce beginning Sunday at 8:30 p.m. city officials said. Cayce Mayor Elise Partin said she reached out to area businesses about the curfew, that will last through 6 a.m. Monday.

Cayce is also ready to assist Columbia law enforcement by closing the Blossom Street bridge as a safety measure, according to City Manager Tracy Hegler.

During the protests, multiple vehicles  including three Columbia Police Department patrol cars  were set on fire, business windows were smashed, and the gunfire was reported.

At one point, protesters gathered in front of police headquarters, where they were met by officers and members of the sheriffs department. The protesters tore down the American and state flags, burning the American flag and destroying the state flag.

While Holbrook was speaking with The State Sunday, a couple who operate a shop in the Vista area pulled up to the police department and stopped to thank the chief and law enforcement for saving their business.

The way you shut it off early. We will forever be thankful to you and (Richland County) Sheriff (Leon) Lott, said Bruce Brutschy, who owns Lorick Office Products with his wife Jeanne. We only had one window broken out and some graffiti.

At least 10 businesses or buildings in Columbia were visibly damaged during the protests. That included Aloft Hotel on Lady Street, in addition to the Blue Marlin restaurant and a jewelry store on Lincoln Street, as well as the office office building next door to Sandlers Diamond and Time.

There is the possibility of more protests on Sunday.

The sheriffs department shared a picture of deputies and Columbia police officers praying together as they brace for another day of protest in the city.
A double-murderer who strangled his ex-partner with an iron cord and smothered her three-year-old daughter with a pillow will be deported from New Zealand for drink driving offences.

Fijian national Kamal Reddy, 46, committed the heinous killings in 2006, but was not charged with the murders until 2014 when the bodies were found buried near an Auckland bus station.

Reddy became the main suspect in the investigation after the pair were reported missing in 2013.

But with little evidence, cold case detectives set up an elaborate operation to obtain a confession.

Undercover officers posed as organised crime figures and approached Reddy to join their fake syndicate.

In 2014, Reddy unwittingly led them to the bodies of Pakeeza Yusuf and her daughter Jojo.

Pakeeza Yusuf was strangled to death with an iron cord and her three-year-old daughter Jojo was smother with a pillow in 2006 by Kamal Reddy

He was convicted of the disturbing crimes in 2016 and sentenced to a life in prison with a minimum non-parole period of 21 years.

But it would be his drink-driving record that will see him deported upon his release.

The murders took place before Reddy, a mechanic, was granted residency in New Zealand as a skilled migrant.

That meant he could not be deported for the crimes.

But the immigration and protection tribunal ruled Reddy could be deported for three drink-driving convictions between 2007 and 2013 and three other convictions of driving while disqualified, The New Zealand Herald reported.

Under New Zealand migration law, any criminal conviction in the first five years of being granted permanent residency can result in the withdrawal of residency status.

Reddy argued he should be permitted to remain in the country when he is eligible for parole in 2036 because his adult son lives in New Zealand.

He also told the tribunal he is in the process of appealing his murder convictions to the Supreme Court.

The judge who precised on the murder case said the killing of Jojo was particularly callous. 'She was a sleeping three year old, and you deliberately extinguished her life'

But the tribunal ruled there 'were not exceptional circumstances of a humanitarian nature' that should allow Reddy to stay.

The tribunal read the sentencing judge's notes during the proceedings

'The murder of [Jojo] was by your own admission committed in an attempt to avoid the murder of her mother, and your involvement in it, being detected,' RNZ reported.

'It was an act of particular callousness  she was a sleeping three-year-old, and you deliberately extinguished her life.

'You were content to hold the bodies in your car for a day and a half. Ultimately, you consigned them to a burial where you were certain they would never be found, and indeed your calculation was right.

'They would never have been found but for the police undercover operation.'
Protesters demonstrating against the death of George Floyd, a handcuffed black man who pleaded for air as a white police officer pressed his knee on his neck, targeted Confederate monuments in multiple cities.

As tense protests swelled across the country Saturday into Sunday morning, monuments in Virginia, the Carolinas and Mississippi were defaced. The presence of Confederate monuments across the South  and elsewhere in the United States  has been challenged for years, and some of the monuments targeted were already under consideration for removal.

The words spiritual genocide, along with red handprints, were painted on the sides of a Confederate monument on the University of Mississippi campus Saturday,

Ole Miss administrators, student leaders and faculty leaders

Critics have said its display near the universitys main administrative building sends a signal that Ole Miss glorifies the Confederacy and glosses over the Souths history of slavery.

In Charleston, South Carolina, protesters

In North Carolina, the base of a Confederate monument at the State Capitol was marked with a black X and a shorthand for a phrase expressing contempt for police, according to a

The question of Confederate monuments has been especially contentious in North Carolina, where such monuments are generally protected by law.

A nearly two-year battle was waged over the fate of the Silent Sam statue after it was toppled by protesters at the University of North Carolinas flagship Chapel Hill campus in 2018. A

Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper had asked for the three Confederate monuments on the grounds of the Capitol to be moved to a nearby battlefield;

But the state where the debate over Confederate monuments has perhaps attracted the most attention is Virginia, where a 2017 white nationalist rally over Charlottesville's proposed removal of such monuments turned deadly.

In the coastal city of Norfolk, protesters climbed a Confederate monument and spray-painted graffiti on its base, according to

A commission in Richmond, the state capital and what was the capital of the Confederacy, recommended removing one of five Confederate statues along the citys famed Monument Avenue. Photos posted to social media late Saturday and early Sunday showed the bases of at least two statues  those of Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and J.E.B. Stuart  almost entirely covered in graffiti. Nearby, a fire burned for a time at the headquarters of the United Daughters of the Confederacy,

In Tennessee and Pennsylvania, statues of people criticized for racist views, but without Confederate ties were also targeted.
by Rasheed Sobowale

Due to the current adverse effects of COVID 19 pandemic on the economy of the entire world, Nigeria inclusive, the management of the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL), Abeokuta, Ogun State has put the employment of some of its workers on hold till further notice.

In a letter by its Head of Human Resources, Administration and Procurement, Olanike Ogunleye, the management of the OOPL said the organisation attributed the action to the adverse effects of the Coronavirus pandemic the institution's business and had found it hard to sustain its workforce.

The ever bubbling Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL) which has various units including Guest House, Zoo, Cinema, Halls, Bar, Car Wash among others, was battling delay in the payment of salaries before coronavirus worsened the situation, findings revealed.

The letter reads in part, "As you are aware, the current COVID-19 pandemic has had a toll on all our business significantly. This has resulted in making some difficult business decisions. Due to this situation, we regret to inform you that your employment will be put on hold till further notice.

"You are to hand over all company properties in your possession to the human resource department, who shall do a confirmation of the exit clearance process before your final entitlements (if any) would be paid."

Before laying the workers off on Friday, the OOPL had been alleged to be owing several months of salaries.

A worker, who spoke on condition of anonymity said, "They have been owing salaries since last year. They will pay one and it's going to be after 3-4 months that they will pay another one. We have workers collecting less than N30,000 and they refer to those collecting N50, 000 as senior staff and they are still owing.

"This year, they have paid just January salary and half of April salary which was paid on 20th of April."

The source said, " though, the number of the affected staff is not yet known because this is the first phase which has affected junior workers, which included security and cleaners".

"The mass sack is an annual event in the organisation, which the source attributed to mismanagement of the facility by members of management, whom he accused of pursuing personal interest'.

He appealed to the federal government or any international body to take over the administration of the facility so that the vision of Chief Obasanjo in fighting unemployment through the OOPL will not die in no distance time.

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Speaking with newsmen, The Managing Director of OOPL, Vitalise Ortese, that the decision was informed by the reality of the period, saying "we didn't make single kobo since March."

He described as mischief, the report by a section of the online news platforms that the organization "sacks its workers."

"We didn't sack anybody. It was clearly stated there, temporary cessation. We have not made a kobo since March 16 or thereabout. No bailout and we didn't get palliative from the government.

"How do we pay salaries? It's normal we have to allow people to go temporarily.

"It happens everywhere. Banks are laying off and other organizations have asked people to go home. Everyone is affected, including me. All members of staff are affected. Obasanjo's children are affected, even Obasanjo himself is affected," Ortese said.

Vanguard News Nigeria.
(Newser)  Rio Tinto has apologized to the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura people after setting off explosives last week that destroyed two ancient rock shelters in Western Australia. The sacred Aboriginal site, in the Juukan Gorge in the north of the territory, dates back 46,000 years, SBS News reports. "We are sorry for the distress we have caused," the mining giant's chief executive said in a statement. The company was in the process of expanding an iron ore mine. "As a matter of urgency, we are reviewing the plans of all other sites in the Juukan Gorge area," the CEO said. The Australian government has announced it will begin a review of heritage protection laws, per the Sydney Morning Herald. A UNESCO official has compared the destruction to that of sites in Afghanistan and Syria by the Taliban and ISIS.

story continues below

The company indicated that, in years of negotiations, Aboriginal representatives hadn't relayed the importance of preserving the site, a suggestion that was rejected. "The high significance of the site was further relayed to Rio Tinto," a spokesman said, "as recently as March." He said Rio Tinto didn't disclose its intention to blast and had said last fall that it had no plans to expand the mine. Archaeological digs at the site have uncovered grinding stones, a bone sharpened into a tool and 4,000-year-old braided hair. It's Australia's only inland site where evidence has been found of continuous human residency through the last Ice Age. The discoveries were made after the mining project received approval in 2013. Rio Tinto said it will work to learn from its mistake and "strengthen our partnership." (Read more Australia stories.)
WOOD RIVER  Eleven new coronavirus cases were reported Friday by the Madison County Health Department, bringing the total to 569.

No additional deaths were reported, leaving the toll at 58.

The Madison County figures include 100 people hospitalized and 374 released, meaning they have completed isolation.

Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike on Friday said there were now 117,455 cases recorded statewide and 5,270 deaths. She also said 21,796 tests had been completed in the past 24 hours, for a total of 851,762.

Ezike announced there were 3,599 COVID 19 patients in Illinois hospitals, of which 980 were in intensive care units and 593 on ventilators.

IDPH information by ZIP code showed additional cases in the Alton, Godfrey, Wood River, Edwardsville, Glen Carbon, Maryville, Collinsville and Staunton areas.

As of Friday, 108 cases have been reported in 62025 (Edwardsville), 90 in 62002 (Alton), 42 in 62040 (Granite City/Pontoon Beach), 64 in 62034 (Glen Carbon), 58 in 62234 (Collinsville), 22 in 62095 (Wood River) and 62060 (Madison) and 20 in 62035 (Godfrey).

Eighteen were reported in 62294 (Troy) with 14 in 62052 (Jerseyville) and 62010 (Bethalto); 13 in 62249 (Highland) and 62056 (Litchfield); 11 in 62090 (Venice); nine in 62024 (East Alton) and 62069 (Mt. Olive); eight in 62018 (Cottage Hills) and 62062 (Maryville); and six in 62012 (Brighton) and 62088 (Staunton).

The IDPH is releasing case numbers by zip code for areas with more than five cases. Numbers are not released in zip codes with fewer cases to protect the privacy of patients.

The information is available on the IDPH website www.dph.illinois.gov. Click on the coronavirus banner, then COVID-19 statistics in the drop-down menu on the left side.

More Information COVID-19 by the numbers Illinois - 117,455 (5,270 deaths) Madison County - 569 (58 deaths) Jersey County -20 (1 death) Calhoun County - 1 Greene County - 5 Macoupin County - 45 (2 deaths) Montgomery County - 39 (1 death) St. Clair County - 1,091 (79 deaths) Clinton County - 181 (17 deaths) Bond County -12 (1 death) Monroe County - 94 (11 deaths) Washington County - 18 Cases by zip code 62002 (Alton) - 92 62010 (Bethalto) -14 62035 (Godfrey) - 22 62012 (Brighton) -6 62052 (Jerseyville) -14 62095 (Wood River) - 24 62018 (Cottage Hills) -8 62024 (East Alton) - 9 62025 (Edwardsville) - 110 62034 (Glen Carbon) - 68 62062 (Maryville) - 9 62294 (Troy) - 18 62040 (Granite City/Pontoon Beach) - 74 62234 (Collinsville) - 61 62060 (Madison) - 22 62090 (Venice) - 11 62249 (Highland) - 13 62088 (Staunton) - 7 62069 (Mt. Olive) - 9 62056 (Litchfield) - 13 Sources: Illinois Department of Public Health and Madison County Health Department. See More Collapse

Additional cases have also been reported in Macoupin, St. Clair, Clinton and Monroe counties in the Metro East, according to the IDPH website. Two additional deaths were also noted in St. Clair County.

Ezike talked a little about the push for contact tracing, emphasizing the need for people to answer questions.

However, she noted there will be scammers, and no one will be asked for money, social security numbers, bank accounts or other similar information by a legitimate contact tracer.

The IDPH also updated data on clusters in long-term care facilities.

Five clusters have been identified in Madison County, including: three cases in Cedarhurst of Bethalto; three cases in Cedarhurst of Highland; 49 cases and 18 deaths in Eden Village care Center; 93 cases and 20 deaths in Edwardsville Care Center; and 21 cases and four deaths in Riverside Rehab and Healthcare.

For the latest information on COVID-19 or coronavirus resources, visit the Madison County Health Department online at www.madisonchd.org or on Facebook @MadisonCHD. Also visit www.co.madison.il.us for more news and a daily update or on Facebook @MadisonCountyIL.
WASHINGTON  Downtown Washington, D.C., was filled with flames and broken glass in the early hours of Sunday morning as large groups of protesters moved through the city for the second straight night.

The protesters caused extensive damage to businesses in the blocks surrounding the White House after a large contingent of law enforcement  including National Guard troops, the U.S. Park Police and the Secret Service  kept the demonstrators back from the presidents residence.

Protesters lit fires at multiple locations around the city and clashed with law enforcement, hurling fireworks and other projectiles at the officers. Some protesters sprayed graffiti and broke windows in the citys downtown area. Officers from Washingtons Metropolitan Police Department and the other federal agencies pushed back against the demonstrators with riot shields, batons and tear gas.

Fireworks explode near a police line close to the White House. (AP/Alex Brandon)

The chaos at the Capitol was part of a wave of demonstrations that have taken place around the country the past week following the May 25 death of George Floyd, an unarmed African-American man, in Minneapolis police custody. Video footage showed Officer Derek Chauvin holding his knee on the back of Floyds neck for several minutes as he complained that he could not breathe. Chauvin was arrested Friday and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter.

The first wave of protests to hit Washington, D.C., was on Friday night, stretching into the early hours of the next day as protesters breached barricades between Lafayette Park and Pennsylvania Avenue across the street from the White House. The protesters spent hours violently clashing with Secret Service officers and U.S. Park Police as they pushed toward the White House. After 3 a.m. ET, the Secret Service surged forward and dispersed the protesters with pepper spray. Once Lafayette Park was cleared, it was locked down with barricades and riot shields  held by Secret Service, Park Police and National Guard troops. The expanded perimeter kept the crowds at least a block from the White House.

While some protesters spent Saturday night and early Sunday morning clashing with law enforcement at the barricades near the White House, many more moved into the nearby business district. President Trump posted a slew of tweets on Saturday evening but none directly addressed the protests that raged near his home.
Experts say it's not a good idea to warm up your car in winter

Experts say it's not a good idea to warm up your car in winter. Here's why.
Even before all classes moved online at the University of Nebraska at Kearney in late March, Max Beal was splitting his time between a classroom and a computer screen.

"I did it for the flexibility," said Beal, a senior finance major from Kenesaw. "I knew this was going to be a really busy year with homework and extracurriculars, and I like having the flexibility of online classes."

Although his transition to full-time online student, as well as leader of the UNK Student Senate presiding digitally through Zoom, went as well as it could have, Beal said he's looking forward to returning to the Kearney campus in the fall.

Everything transitioned really well, and I dont think I had a lesser-quality education because of it, he said. But you absolutely lose out on one of the best aspects of being in college, the socializing, meeting new people and being with friends.

Beal isn't alone.

A survey of 835 college students by Axios and College Reaction in early May found nearly two-thirds say they planned to return to campus in the fall for in-person classes regardless if a vaccine or an effective treatment for the coronavirus is available.
Even ordinary things like funerals and pigeons have become political in Kashmir, where ongoing conflict disrupts normal life.

In Kashmir, on either side of the Line of Control that separates Indian-administered and Pakistani-administered Kashmir, seldom is anything simple.

Even burying the dead has become political.

Indian authorities are refusing to hand over the bodies of those killed in ongoing fighting between the Indian army and Kashmiri rebel fighters to their families.

They have given the COVID-19 pandemic as the reason for not handing over the bodies.

Whilst there is the threat of coronavirus, the bodies will not be handed over, the inspector general of police in Kashmir, Vijay Kumar, told Al Jazeera in early May.

That is causing emotional pain to the family of Hazim Shafi Bhat, a disabled teenager who was killed by Indian troops near his village in the Wangam area of Handwara in the north of Indian-administered Kashmir on May 4.

Indian authorities kept his body but allowed his parents to attend the funeral some 35km from their village. While the distance may not sound like much, when you have to navigate checkpoints, curfews and the daily security procedures of the area, also adding in the expense of travel, it becomes very difficult. Put simply, they cannot visit his grave like they would if he were buried in his local cemetery.

The authorities buried Bhat in an unmarked grave in a cemetery reserved for the bodies of unidentified rebel fighters. This, despite there being no evidence that he was a rebel fighter; even an Indian police statement refers to the 14-year-old as a civilian. According to his friends on social media, Bhat was physically disabled and suffered from a speech disorder.

Bhats mother Meema Begum is upset about the situation. She tells Al Jazeera she fears other families will go through the same pain.

If they had handed us the dead body, the family members, his father and his sisters, sometimes could visit his grave, she says. In the future, such attacks will happen again but we demand that this practice shouldnt be repeated with other people.

But it is already happening. Since the Indian authorities began refusing to hand over bodies in April, local media has reported on at least eight families suffering similar ordeals. Given the remote nature of the area, security clampdowns and curfews, that figure is likely to be higher.

The Indian authorities are now routinely burying people away from their homes  sometimes without any funeral.

One rebel fighter known as Wakil Nabi Dar was buried in a government-designated graveyard in Sonamarg, some 120km from his family home in Pulwama, 25km from Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian-administered Kashmir. There was no family funeral for him under the new rules governing the handover of the body, and because he was a rebel fighter, his family was not allowed to go to the government graveyard. In contrast, fallen Indian soldiers who have died in the fighting are given full military honours and buried with their family members in attendance.

The authorities say they do not want the large gatherings that funerals attract, for fear of the spread of infection.

But human rights groups are sceptical.

The main issue for the government is that they are very scared of the spectacle which these funerals create, says human rights activist and chair of the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances, Khurram Parvez, who spoke to Al Jazeera from Srinagar.

Thousands of people come out and mourn these dead militants and rally behind them. They dont want to show people of India and internationally that anything is happening in Kashmir, so  they are taking an excuse of COVID to implement a policy which they otherwise would have not been able to do.

The spy pigeon

But if death is subject to politics then perhaps it is not surprising that even the humble pigeon is not above suspicion.

On the May 25, a pigeon, perhaps unaware of the de facto border, entered the airspace of Indian-administered Kashmir from Pakistan, causing the Indian media to scream Spy because it had been marked with dye and had a ring attached to its legs  a common way for owners to identify their pigeons, and one used the world over. The pigeon was captured by residents who claim it was carrying a coded message.

As of the time of writing, the whereabouts of the pigeon remains unclear. However, a Pakistani villager claims ownership of the alleged feathered James Bond and has spoken to Pakistani newspaper Dawn, appealing to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to return the bird to him, saying it was a symbol of peace, not a spy.

Burials. Pigeons. It seems that everything in the disputed region is subject to spin and politicking.

But once the coronavirus pandemic is over, the Indian authorities will be faced with a choice, whether to continue to bury rebel fighters and others killed in government burial grounds or hand them over to their families as before.

Many Kashmiris under Indian administration are not hopeful there will be a reversal, given the Indian governments recent moves in the region. These moves included revoking the special status given to the area in the Indian constitution that guaranteed special rights, including the autonomy to make laws except on matters that concern foreign policy, defence and communications, and an ongoing curfew that began in August 2019.

Whether it is burials or pigeons or any number of other things, if it happens in Kashmir on either side of the Line of Control it is automatically political.

In an under-reported move on May 27, the Indian authorities extended the ban on 4G mobile internet in Kashmir until June 17. The authorities say it is to hinder the movements of rebel fighters who rely on the network.

But ordinary Kashmiris speaking to local media say all the ban does is hamper their efforts to control the coronavirus pandemic, the same pandemic the Indian government says is the reason they cannot hand over bodies to their families to bury.

Follow Imran Khan on twitter at @AjImran








President Moon Jae-in / Yonhap



U.S. President Donald Trump said Saturday that he plans to invite South Korea to a Group of Seven summit in September.

South Korea is not a member of the G7, which comprises Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Britain and the United States, but the country has drawn widespread praise from around the world for its handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

"We want Australia. We want India. We want South Korea. And what do we have? That's a nice group of countries right there," he told reporters on Air Force One, according to a pool report. He also listed Russia.

Trump said he feels the G7 doesn't properly represent what is happening in the world and that with the additions it could become a "G10 or G11."

"It's a very outdated group of countries," he said of the G7, adding that he has "roughly" discussed the new idea with the leaders of the four countries he would like to add.

Trump, who previously suggested hosting the summit at Camp David in June, said the meeting could be postponed until the weekend before or after the U.N. General Assembly in New York, currently scheduled to begin Sept. 15.

"Maybe I'll do it after the election," he mused, referring to the U.S. presidential election in November. "I think a good time would be before the election."

White House spokeswoman Alyssa Farah added that the meeting will bring together traditional U.S. allies to talk about how to deal with the future of China, the pool report said.

Trump has publicly blamed China for the coronavirus pandemic that has claimed more than 103,000 lives in the U.S., according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Tensions between the two countries have escalated as China has moved to crack down on civil liberties in Hong Kong. On Friday, Trump announced that his administration would begin to roll back privileges Hong Kong has enjoyed with Washington.

Trump has spoken favorably of President Moon Jae-in, calling him "a friend of mine."

In recent weeks he has often claimed that Moon praised the U.S. for doing well on testing people for COVID-19. Trump has also liked to boast that the U.S. was conducting more tests than South Korea, where an aggressive testing regime was widely reported to have contained the disease.

Trump and Moon have worked together to engage North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in diplomatic talks over dismantling Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program.

The negotiations have all but stopped since a second summit between Trump and Kim in Vietnam in February 2019 ended abruptly due to differences over the scope of North Korea's denuclearization and sanctions relief from the U.S. (Yonhap)
Lockdown has devastated many of Britain's businesses  pubs, restaurants, cafes, gyms, high street retailers, leisure operators and more. All have been forced to close for weeks and many are unlikely to see the year out.

But while a majority of businesses are struggling, there are those for whom lockdown has been a huge, if unasked-for, boost.

From toy manufacturers and online tutors, to website builders, cake makers and delivery companies  sales have soared and customer numbers have never been higher.

Some are finding it hard to even keep up with demand  a strange feeling for those businesses lucky enough to be in such a situation.

Thriving: Simon Mellin, in check shirt, with his business partners out on his milk round

'It's been the busiest period of my entire life, but the last thing you want to do is look like you are gloating,' one entrepreneur told The Mail on Sunday last week.

'If this was happening six months ago, you'd feel on top of the world, but it's weird to be having such a successful time thanks to such a rubbish situation.'

One business which has seen takings soar since lockdown is The Modern Milkman, a subscription milk and grocery delivery company in North West England.

Until lockdown, chief executive Simon Mellin's most surreal moment as a businessman was being shut in a fridge one morning with Boris Johnson (who was hiding from the press during last year's General Election campaign).

But it was topped when lockdown saw demand for his delivery service almost double overnight  adding more than 10,000 extra customers.

Simon co-founded The Modern Milkman in 2018 having been inspired by David Attenborough's The Blue Planet series to help people use less plastic.

Milk and other breakfast items such as juice and eggs are collected directly from local dairies and delivered straight to customers' doorsteps, using returnable, reusable packaging such as glass bottles.

'We were a successful business before, but lockdown has transformed us,' he says.

It's like going back to the 1960s and 1970s  before people got everything from the supermarket

'It's an awful backdrop, but it is great to have been able to help people. Customers are happy as we're contact-free - people pay online and the goods are placed on their doorstep. As for local dairies and farmers, around half their business is usually to pubs and restaurants and that got completely switched off, so we've helped them out.'

Simon adds: 'Business has been so busy we've even employed 50 extra drivers.'

Plans to raise more money via private equity have now been shelved thanks to the good health of the business. 'It's been great for community spirit too,' says Simon.

'It's like going back to the 1960s and 1970s  before people got everything from the supermarket.'

Chilling out: Simon Mellin locked in a fridge with Boris Johnson last December

Demand for our quality meat soared

Nick Somper is founder of online butcher The Dorset Meat Company. He sells ethically reared, grass-fed meat from independent local farms. Like Simon Mellin, he has seen business boom.

'We saw a huge spike in web traffic straightaway when coronavirus hit,' he says.

'We actually had to switch our site off most of the time because we only had a finite amount of stock available. Even so, we had a huge order take up and our business trebled if not quadrupled overnight in terms of orders.'

Nick resisted dropping his quality threshold just to be able to keep up with demand.

We want to retain customers who like buying their food online, so we've really concentrated on customer service

'We could have sold four or five times as much as we did in March and April thanks to demand,' he says.

'But our objective hasn't been about just selling during lockdown, it's about how we come out of it as a business afterwards. We want to retain customers who like buying their food online, so we've really concentrated on customer service.'

The business is now a year ahead of where it was supposed to be thanks to the coronavirus effect and it is about to launch a subscription service as well as expand its range of produce to prepared meats such as peppered steak and herb-crusted lamb. It isn't just food which has benefited from lockdown.

Our subscription box of books has gone crazy

Molly Masters runs book subscription service Books that Matter, which focuses on inspiring woman's fiction.

She has seen customer numbers jump from around 900 in February to 2,000 this month and expects to attract between 3,000 and 4,000 next month.

'It's just crazy  we've never reached these kind of numbers before,' says Molly, 23, who set up Books that Matter two years ago while studying English Literature at the University of Sussex.

'It's been really lovely to be part of people rediscovering their love of reading or getting into female-led fiction, so that's been a real positive.'

It's been really lovely to be part of people rediscovering their love of reading or getting into female-led fiction

Customers pay 17 a month for a subscription box containing new or classic fiction, along with three items from female artists, such as tote bags or embroidery packs.

'This month we went for a theme around kindness and compassion which seemed most appropriate  and that proved really popular,' says Molly.

At the start of lockdown, as a result of a demand for more books from customers, she started a 'books and treats' box containing three books which comes out every other Friday and sells out every time.

'The first one we did in lockdown sold out in 20 minutes,' says Molly. Managing the spike in demand hasn't been easy.

'We've been working morning, noon and night,' says Molly, 'and the rule book on how far we plan ahead has been thrown out of the window. It's been stressful, but it's also a labour of love. The overall situation in the wider economy is horrible and we didn't expect to grow as a result of it, but it's been great to have been able to be a part of making this awful experience more bearable for some people.'

Our toy business took off even with the kids stuck at home Plastic-free online children's toy retailer PomPom has seen sales increase during lockdown, but one product in particular has really taken off. Former marketing consultant Katherine Rhodes, who set up PomPom last year with friend Cecily Henderson, says its colourful wooden climbing triangle has soared in popularity. The climbing frame can be used indoors or outside. Hitting new heights: Retailer PomPom has seen soaring sales of its wooden climbing frame for children 'It's difficult for families in lockdown living on top of each other, especially if they have no or little outdoor space,' says Katherine. 'The climbing frame can be folded away under the sofa or behind a door at the end of the day. It's also plastic-free which really appeals to people during these current times.' Both women have been juggling the jump in demand with two small children each at home. 'It hasn't been easy, but we've managed to structure our day so we can get everything done during lockdown,' says Katherine. 'It's been a real learning curve.'

Make your own mozzarella or flavour your gin

Oxfordshire-based Sandy Leaf Farm has also benefited from people wanting to occupy their time during lockdown.

The company, which was founded by Scott MacDonald and Gabriel Yao, sells DIY food, drink and homeware kits, so customers can make mozzarella cheese, infuse gin with different flavours and colours and create their own candles.

People are looking for something interesting to do at home as well as to make something which they'd usually enjoy in a restaurant

'Our peak period is usually Christmas as our products are great for gifts, but there's been a huge increase in people buying our kits during lockdown,' says Scott.

'People are looking for something interesting to do at home as well as to make something which they'd usually enjoy in a restaurant.'

Over the past two months sales have shot up by 400 per cent and some, such as Sandy Leaf's wine-making kit, proved so popular that they've sold out and haven't been able to replace it yet. Such is the backlog that orders placed now will not be dispatched until mid-June.

'It's been tricky to deal with, especially as some of our employee are shielding, so we're working longer hours than normal,' says Scott.

'It has been difficult to meet orders, but it's really helped that we also sell through Amazon. We can send items into its warehouses and it then handles all the heavy lifting such as mailing and returns which really speeds things up.

He adds: 'Getting great feedback from people enjoying the kits makes all the hard work worthwhile.'
With a West Bengals migrant worker testing positive for coronavirus infection, days after his death at Samastipur near here en route his home states from Mumbai, the Covid-19 death toll in Bihar reached 20 on Saturday, the states Health Department said.

Meanwhile, with 206 people testing positive for the infection, the count of total Covid-19 cases in Bihar soared to 3,565, it added.

Click here for full Covid-19 coverage

Samastipur Civil Surgeon R R Jha, the 35-year-old deceased happened to be a West Bengal resident, who fell severely ill on board a Shramik Special train he had boarded in Mumbai for travelling to his home state.

Because of his poor health condition, he was brought down at Samastipur station on May 26 and taken to a hospital where he died within a few hours. His sample was sent for testing and it has tested positive, Jha said.

Earlier, Patna, Vaishali, Bhojpur, Siwan and Khagaria had reported two casualties each while Munger, Begusarai, East Champaran, Sitamarhi, Saran, Nalanda, Rohtas, Jehanabad and Bhagalpur had reported one Covid-19 death each.

In nearly half of the total cases of Covid-19 casualties, the samples were found positive after patients deaths.

Meanwhile, the upward surge in Covid-19 cases, triggered by the continuing return of migrant workers to the state since early May, persisted.

Among the 206 people, who tested positive on Saturday, the youngest one was a one-year-old boy from Bhagalpur while the oldest one was a man, aged 86 years, from Hajipur, the district headquarters of Vaishali.

Districts reporting a significant spike on the day were Sheikhpura, Begusarai, Darbhanga, Bhojpur, Siwan, Saran and Jehanabad.

Patna remains the worst-affected district with 241 cases, followed by Rohtas (205), Begusarai (199), Madhubani (190), Munger (155) and Khagaria (134).

All 38 districts in the state have reported Covid-19 cases. The number of patients who have recovered after testing positive is 1,311, while 73,929 samples have been tested so far, according to a release issued by the state Health Department.

Migrants, who have been arriving by trains and other means of transport including cargo vehicles, comprise a very high proportion of Covid-19 cases in Bihar.

Since May 3, 2,433 migrants have tested positive for the coronavirus and a majority of them have returned from places like Maharashtra (613), Delhi (534), Gujarat (342), Haryana (213), Uttar Pradesh (124), Rajasthan (118), Telangana (103), West Bengal (101) and Punjab (73).
Nicola Sturgeon today accused England of under-reporting care home deaths as she swiped at Boris Johnson for easing lockdown too early.

The Scottish First Minister said the apparent higher proportion of victims in care homes north of the border was due to the way they are recorded.

She insisted that people who died of stroke and 'happened' to have coronavirus were counted in the numbers in Scotland - whereas they were not in England, meaning that there was 'under-reporting'.

Asked on Sky News whether she thought that the PM was loosening the lockdown in England too quickly, Ms Sturgeon insisted she did not want to 'criticise other politicians' and they were all 'trying to do the right things'.

But she pointedly said that in Scotland they were being 'very cautious'. 'This virus has not gone away,' she said. 'That is why in Scotland we are moving very slowly.'

Nicola Sturgeon today accused England of under-reporting care home deaths as she swiped at Boris Johnson for easing lockdown too early

A series of experts have raised concern about the moved to ease the lockdown in England, which takes effect from tomorrow, with the UK still getting 8,000 new infections a day.

Up to six people from six different households will be permitted to meet up in public places or gardens. Primary schools and nurseries have also been told they can start to reopen, while all non-essential shops can return from June 15.

Mr Johnson said explicitly last week that 'barbecues' will now be allowed, sparking alarm from some scientists about the potential for spread.

In Scotland and Wales the loosening is far less dramatic, with only two households allowed to meet up at a time and people told not to travel more than five miles from home. Schools north of the border will not be back until after holidays there in August.

During the interview with Sophy Ridge, Ms Sturgeon was told that 46 of deaths linked to corona were in care homes in Scotland.

By contrast the figure was 28 per cent in England and Wales.

Ms Sturgeon said: 'Every single death from this virus is a matter of deep personal regret to me...'

But she said she did not believe Scotland's care home deaths were really higher.

'More of them in care homes have been attributed to covid in care homes,' she said.

'In Scotland if you die of say a stroke but you also happen to have the virus you will be included in the deaths from covid.

Ms Sturgeon said 'on the face of it' it was a 'question of under-reporting from England'.

Ms Sturgeon also waded into the row over scientific advice to ministers, saying politicians are elected 'not just for the easy times but for the hard times as well. Our advisers advise us but we take the decisions'.

She said if she was a scientist at the moment she might have 'a little concern that politicians are trying to blame me for the decisions'.

Prof Devi Sridhar, who has been advising the Scottish government, warned it looks 'inevitable' that cases will rise again in England.

'I'm very sorry to say that I think it is right now inevitable looking at the numbers,' she told Sky.

'The only thing that might in a sense save England is the good weather and warmth if this virus does indeed die outside quite quickly, but it's incredibly worrying because the numbers are not low enough to have a testing and tracing system take over.'

'If your objective is to contain the virus, to drive numbers down and to try to in a sense get rid of it so no-one is exposed to it, then it is not the right measure right now to open up,' she said.

'It's a big risk and gamble for exiting lockdown with a larger number of deaths than we did when we actually entered lockdown months back.'

Prof Sridhar said there was now a clear divide between Government and some scientists, but added that ultimately decisions will be made by politicians.

She said: 'I think what they should be saying is they consider the science, and hopefully they listen to it but the decision, and who actually has the accountability, are the politicians and leaders.'

The majority of care homes in Britain have not had any staff tested for coronavirus, figures suggest, indicating the Government remains a long way off its target for universal testing by early June.

The latest data on staff testing suggests similarly low figures to those released in recent days regarding the testing of residents.

Sixty-two per cent of care homes have not had any staff members tested since the beginning of the pandemic up to May 27, figures from the Data Analysis Bureau (T-DAB) and Person Centred Software (PCS) showed.

On May 15 Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: 'We will test every resident and every member of staff in our elderly care homes in England between now and early June.'

T-DAB looked at a total sample size of 12,407 care givers from 650 care homes across England, Wales and Scotland.

It found that between the date of Mr Hancock's announcement and May 27, 9 per cent of care home staff had been tested. The figure for England was slightly higher at 10 per cent.

Mr Johnson (pictured in Downing Street this morning) has announced that the lockdown restrictions will be eased slightly in England from tomorrow

Just 15 per cent of care home staff have been tested at any time since the outbreak, figures showed.

The organisation said 6 per cent of care home staff were tested in the seven days up to May 27.

Simon Briscoe, director of T-DAB said: 'The rate of testing of care home staff has picked up in the last week but is still far too slow to get close to the target set by the Government.

'Testing of just one in 10 staff and residents is far below the rate demanded by industry bodies and targeted by Government.'

Speaking on Friday, Professor Martin Green, chief executive of Care England, said testing in care settings needs to be prioritised, and called for 'proper guidance' for homes in relation to the NHS Test and Trace programme, which was launched in England the day before.

Data released earlier this month by T-DAB suggested 38% of care homes have had no residents tested since the pandemic started.
Protesters call for justice for George Floyd, who died after a policeman kneeled on his neck for several minutes,

USA has been rocked by protests coast to coast over the death of George Floyd, an African American who was a victim of police brutality in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

At least 14 cities had to impose curfews and 12 states activated the National Guard as increasingly violent protesters left streets of cities, from New York to Los Angeles, resembling smouldering battlefields.

The massive demonstrations, some peaceful too, have triggered another round of debate over the role of protest in bringing about social change.

Quelling the violence, even with a more aggressive response, is without doubt the primary aim of administrations of stricken states.

The riots were triggered by graphic video footage of a white police officers crushing knee on Floyds neck rendering the victim unconscious. His death, coming after anguished and unheard pleas of I cant breathe were universally condemned across the American political divide.

The booking of officer Derek Chauvin on a murder charge seemed insufficient to assuage the hurt of years of racial discrimination that African Americans, Latinos and Asian Americans have felt in the very land of opportunity.

The underlying racial issue is not new. The President Donald Trumps statement on The memory of George Floyd is being dishonoured by rioters, looters and anarchists, sounded far more reasonable than his earlier incendiary tweet When the looting starts, the shooting starts.

The presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden spoke on the need not to allow the protesting to overshadow the reason for the protest.

The futility of violence, which achieves nothing for the underdog, has been well recorded in history.

The question is are those angered by the recent deaths of George Floyd at the hands of the police and Ahmaud Arbery in a racial attack in Georgia willing to forego violence and take to peaceful protest to try and usher social and political change.

It cannot be an easy choice considering black mortality at the hands of the police and others has played out over generations in USA.
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President Trump has commended the tougher tactics being used by law enforcement in Minneapolis after the Minnesota National Guard joined police as another night of chaos erupted in the city.

Tear gas and rubber bullets were used by police to clear the streets on Saturday night as protesters gathered for another night of demonstrations over the death of George Floyd.

Reports said that tear gas was being fired 'unprovoked' by police as they tried to rid the streets of even peaceful protesters and videos allegedly showed residents being hit with paint pellets when they failed to move quickly enough from their front porch.

An 8pm curfew had been implemented as police looked to prevent any further outbreak of violence in the fifth day of protests which erupted after Floyd's death in police custody on Monday.

It came after four nights of chaos, fires and looting in the Twin Cities that caused the National Guard to be called in.

While insisting that Minneapolis would be brought under control Saturday, state police officers were seen in their masses surrounding the fifth police precinct as crowds remained on the streets.

Minnesota State Patrol also began to report arrests as groups defied the order, which included the arrest of a CBS photojournalist covering the protests.

Police launch tear gas and fire rubber bullets toward protesters and the media near the 5th police precinct during a demonstration in Minneapolis on Saturday night. Reports said that tear gas was being fired 'unprovoked' by police

US National Guard soldiers patrol near the 5th police precinct during a demonstration in Minneapolis on Saturday night. The Guard announced Saturday it had more than 4,000 members responding to Minneapolis and would quickly have nearly 11,000. This was the first time the full Minnesota National Guard was activated since World War Two

This video posted to Twitter on Saturday night allegedly shows law enforcement demanding that a woman in Minneapolis go inside from her front porch as they sweep through the neighborhood to enforce a curfew. When she remains on the porch they turn on her, line up and scream to get inside. They then fire paint pellets as she screams and runs

President Trump commended the work of the Minnesota National Guard but said they should have been there sooner

At around 11pm, they also reported that an officer was injured and being treated by medics for a laceration. The officer later returned to service.

National Guard helicopters were used to drop water on a car fire and other locations as destruction still broke out. Reports of fires and buildings being broken into were reported by the police into the early hours of Sunday morning.

One tweet from the police department claimed that a group was laying nails out on to a street.

Yet officials in Minneapolis say they've succeeded for now in stopping the violent protests that ravaged parts of the city for several days.

As Minneapolis streets appeared largely quiet, Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell said the heavy response would remain as long as it takes to 'quell this situation'.

President Trump on Saturday night commended the work of the National Guard in the Twin Cities but claimed that they should have been put into action days before, criticizing Minneapolis' Democratic mayor Jacob Frey.

'The National Guard has been released in Minneapolis to do the job that the Democrat Mayor couldn't do.,' Trump wrote.

'Should have been used 2 days ago & there would not have been damage & Police Headquarters would not have been taken over & ruined. Great job by the National Guard. No games!'

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who said local forces had been overmatched Friday, fully mobilized the state's National Guard and promised a massive show of force.

The Guard announced Saturday it had more than 4,000 members responding to Minneapolis and would quickly have nearly 11,000.

'The situation in Minneapolis is no longer in any way about the murder of George Floyd,' Walz said. 'It is about attacking civil society, instilling fear and disrupting our great cities.'

This was the first time the full Minnesota National Guard was activated since World War Two.

Large crowds remained on the streets after an alert was issued to cellphones marking the start of the curfew that would last until 6am.

They gathered mostly near the Fifth Precinct and at 38th and Chicago where Floyd died.

Police advance on demonstrators using tear gas to clear the streets of Minneapolis on Saturday night

Smoke rises around a protester during a demonstration to call for justice for George Floyd, a black man who died while in custody of the Minneapolis police. Clashes broke out after hundreds broke a curfew in the city Saturday night

A photographer runs amid tear gas as demonstrations continue following the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd. On Saturday night, Fox News reported that rubber bullets were even fired on their van, damaging their vehicle

Minnesota National Guard members maintain a position on Lake St. in Minneapolis on Saturday night as they were called in to enforce a curfew in the city that has seen four nights of chaos, fires, and looting as anger erupts over the death of Floyd

Police advance as they work to clear streets of those defying the curfew in Minneapolis on Saturday night

As authorities moved across the city to weed out those breaking the curfew, the police department said it had secured the fifth precinct after an attempt to breach the barricades.

Hundreds of protesters had gathered outside but were driven out by state cops using tear gas and firing rubber bullets.

The had been lying in wait for the law enforcement to arrive once the stayed past curfew.

One told USA Today that they couldn't arrest the whole group.

Footage showed protesters had retreated while the officers increased their circle around the vicinity. Some reported as hobbling away, apparently injured.

The tougher tactics came after city and state leaders were criticized for not forcefully enough confronting days of violent and damaging protests that included protesters burning down a police station shortly after officers abandoned it.

Police fired tear gas at the demonstrators as hundreds defied curfew order and gathered around the fifth precinct station

The Minnesota National Guard were called in and helicopters were used to tip water on to cars set on fire

The Minnesota State Patrol confirmed on a tweet that more arrests were made on Saturday

The local authorities issued warnings to leave and go home as they moved to secure the fifth precinct from demonstrators

One video posted by a resident showed police firing paint bullets at them as they filmed from their front porch.

The women were standing just in front of their home to watch the line of officers pile into their street but when they did not go immediately into their house, the state patrol rounded on them and began to fire.

Fox News reported that rubber bullets were even fired on their van, damaging their vehicle.

USA Today also reported that non-lethal projectiles were thrown toward a group of the media who had gathered in an alleyway beside a local store.

The curfew does not extend to members of the media.

Minnesota State Patrol said just before 10pm Saturday that arrests had been made as they also moved through the city enforcing the curfew.

One of those arrested was a CBS photographer covering the protests.

According to CBS Minnesota, veteran photographer Tom Aviles was struck by a rubber bullet and taken into custody by the State Patrol at around 8.45pm Saturday.

They issued a warning on Twitter that they would be clearing the streets and for residents to remain at home unless it was an emergency.

A video posted to Twitter showed women standing on their porch having paint pellets shot at them by Minneapolis law enforcement who moved through the streets on Saturday night to implement a curfew

Governor Walz had promised a greater response on Saturday night after days of chaos.

He also warned that a renewed spike in coronavirus cases could hit residents as protests have seen thousands take to the streets, while admitting that the state's jails cannot contain the number of people being taken into custody.

Yet, the groups of demonstrators lingered hours after the curfew was put into effect.

Minneapolis police said they were moving on another large group just before 11pm.

Elsewhere, streets where there was previous unrest in the city initially lay quiet on Saturday night as smoke still wafted from the burnt out buildings, including the third precinct station.

Crowds soon gathered on Lake Street and headed toward St Paul, where the police officer charged with Floyd's murder is being held in jail.

Minnesota State Patrol reported more arrests on Saturday night as hundreds defied curfew for a fifth night of demonstrations

Demonstrators hurry away from a cloud of tear gas as police advance during a protest of the killing of George Floyd. Large crowds continued to gather on Saturday night despite a curfew and police used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse them

The group chanted 'we come in peace, we mean no harm' as police arrived but were pushed back with more smoke grenades.

MSNBC reported that police were firing tear gas at protesters with no provocation as one of their reporters was hit in the leg with a rubber bullet.

'There was no warning whatsoever,' Ali Velshi said. 'They came in and started shooting.'

NBC News' Morgan Chesky also reported that a large group of police officers suddenly began chasing them and firing flashbangs.

Fire also continued to break out, one on top of a shopping mall which the National Guard responded and local fire service to.

In the early hours of Sunday morning, Minneapolis Police said that a group was caught trying to start a fire while Hennepin County District said armed individuals attempting to break into a building were reported.

In nearby St Paul, the police deportment claimed they were stopping several vehicles driving around the city without license plates.

In a tweet, they said that each time officers stopped the vehicles, people inside raced away on foot, leaving 'vehicles & tools used to wreak havoc on our city behind'.

At least 13 cities introduced curfews for Saturday night including in Minneapolis and surrounding cities of Minnesota, as well as Columbus, Atlanta, Louisville, Los Angeles, Portland, Columbia, South Carolina, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Seattle, Rochester, New York, Louisville and Milwaukee.

Several states have mobilized the National Guard after local authorities buckled under the weight of protests Friday night while President Trump has put the Army on notice to deploy to the streets with a four-hour notice - the first time this will have been done in almost 20 years during the 1992 LA riots over the beating of black man Rodney King by cops.

Minnesota - where Floyd died - has born the brunt of the protests which began there Tuesday before fanning out across the country.
Tukur Jekada, a lawmaker representing Bakura Constituency at the Zamfara House of Assembly is dead.

Shamsudeen Hassan, the Chairman of the House Committee on Information, disclosed this while speaking with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Gusau on Sunday.

Mr Hassan said that the lawmaker died after a brief illness on Sunday.

Mr Jekada was the chairman of the House Committee on Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs before his death.

(NAN)
- Mudavadi said it was unfortunate government was quick to arrest Kenyans for flouting COVID-19 containment measures but the same could not be done when offenders were political and business leaders

- The ANC boss said some of the leaders who attended the lunch hosted by COTU boss Francis Atwoli had travelled all the way from Western Kenya

- This, he said, was against the government's order which restricted movement in and out of the Nairobi Metropolitan Area

- Section of netizens also accused the leaders who attended the meeting of not observing proper social distancing and not wearing masks

Amani National Congress (ANC) leader Musalia Mudavadi has accused the government of selectively enforcing coronavirus containment measures.

Speaking on Saturday, May 30, Mudavadi claimed the government was quick to apprehend citizens who flouted the rules but could not apply similar swiftness when the offenders were politicians or business leaders.

READ ALSO: William Ruto allies hint at an alliance with Musalia Mudavadi

Amani National Congress (ANC) leader Musalia Mudavadi. Photo: Musalia Mudavadi.

Source: Facebook

READ ALSO: My husband left me for my best friend, imprisoned me after giving him 12 children - Virginia Kamotho

While taking a swipe at leaders who congregated at the home of Central Organisation for Trade Unions (COTU) Secretary-General Francis Atwoli, the ANC leader said some attendees had crossed into the Nairobi Metropolitan Area which was under the cessation of movement order.

Mudavadi was emphatic the law only allowed people offering essential services to enter or leave the restricted areas so as to curb spread of the virus to unaffected counties.

READ ALSO: Picha za Askofu Margret Wanjiru akinyenyekea kanisani baada ya kupona coronavirus

"What essential or emergency service were they going to offer? Were they going to provide water? It is interesting that some of them came all the way from Western, passed the National Assembly in Nairobi and proceeded to Kajiado.

On the other hand, you find the government arresting citizens who sneak in and out of the Nairobi Metropolitan Area and locking them up in cells," said Mudavadi.

Atwoli hosted over 50 Luhya leaders at his Ildamat home in Kajiado. Photo: Francis Atwoli.

Source: UGC

In a separate story, TUKO.co.ke reported that Atwoli hosted over 50 Luhya leaders at his Ildamat home in Kajiado where they discussed matters pertaining unity of the community.

The meeting was attended by 40MPs, four governors, 10 senators, Senate Speaker Ken Lusaka, Devolution CS Eugine Wamalwa and Nairobi County Assembly Speaker Beatrice Elachi among others.

During the meeting, the COTU Boss, CS Eugene Wamalwa and Kakamega governor Wycliffe Oparanya were elected the region's spokespersons.

Mudavadi and Bungoma senator Moses Wetang'ula who are vibrant Luhya leaders were, however, missing from the meeting.

"I was not on the list of invitees. So that was not my meeting. I was in another meeting with Martha Karua, Peter Kenneth and former minister Sally Kosgei," Mudavadi said.

Mudavadi met Martha Karua, Peter Kenneth and former minister Sally Kosgei on Friday. Photo: Musalia Mudavadi.

Source: Facebook

The Saturday meeting at Atwoli's home was not the only castigated by Mudavadi but also citizens who took to social media and accused the leaders of not observing social distancing.

Some of the leaders were also put on the spot for parading themselves for a press conference without putting on masks.

"This is a new generation with new ideas and brains, Atwoli should respect that. Social distancing is not for poor only, it's for everybody," Hon Kemboi wrote on Twitter.

"I watched how police arrested youths exercising but failed to arrest Atwoli for similar mistakes," Mr lofty Bee tweeted inprotest of the arrest of some 36 joggers in Kisumu who were accused of not observing proper social distancing.

In response to the accusations, Atwoli defended his guests stating all of them observed high standards of hygiene during the event that also included wining and dining.

"May I assure Kenyans that my guests observed social distancing at my Ildamat Home," the trade unionist tweeted.

Others who lashed at Atwoli are Elgeyo Marakwet senator Kipchumba Murkomen and president of Law Society of Kenya (LSK) Nelson Havi.

"The law should never be for the observance by the meek and disobedience by the mighty. The claimed 40 attendees should be arrested and prosecuted. They are a bad example to those they claim to lead and speak for," said Havi.

Do you have a groundbreaking story you would like us to publish? Please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690. Contact Tuko.co.ke instantly.

Why I beat my own mother- Lucy Nyawira | Tuko Talks | Tuko TV.

Source: TUKO.co.ke
When Habibu Juma Ali lined up his truck full of Whitedent toothpaste behind hundreds of others waiting to cross the border from Tanzania into Kenya, he didnt expect to wait two weeks to get tested for the novel coronavirus.

Truckers are permitted to drive across the otherwise-closed border between east Africas two biggest countries, but for the first two months of the pandemic, they had to get tested at the crossing. More than 150 tested positive and were turned back. The rest spent interminable days waiting for their results.

Ali has spent his days on both the Kenyan and Tanzanian sides of the border town of Namanga, where, when youre on foot, you can cross the border as easily as crossing a road. He has bought food at shops, exchanged money at banks and, at night, he sleeps huddled with other drivers on cardboard mats underneath his truck. They cook and share meals with newcomers as the line of waiting trucks grows. Others find racier ways to pass the time  chewing khat, shooting dice, hiring sex workers.

The truckers growing web of interactions points to a dilemma at international borders: how to let essential trade through without the virus slipping in with it. At a meeting to resolve the growing crisis last week, Kenya and Tanzania agreed that starting next week, drivers will have to get negative test certificates before starting their journeys. To many of the thousands of truckers who already spent days or weeks in Namanga waiting for tests, that decision will have come too late.

If my results come back positive, who can say how many people Id have infected? says Ali. Im almost sure most of us here have now got the virus.

The porous border, inefficient testing and limited contact tracing made this town an ideal place for the coronavirus to spread. Truckers say the long waits left them more susceptible to the virus and cost them time and money. The towns business people, who interact with them on a daily basis, were caught between fear of contagion and unwillingness to give up their livelihoods.

Gridlock: dozens of trucks wait to cross the border in Namanga (The Washington Post) (The Washington Post/Luis Tato)

Truck drivers distribute goods but also sometimes diseases, as became especially clear during HIVs spread in Africa, where they carry the virus at double the rate of the general population. Truckers contacts are harder to trace than people whove travelled by aeroplane, for instance, where passenger lists are available. In Namanga, truck drivers have blended into the town as they wait, making contact tracing nearly impossible.

Kenyas tests at the border have been the only real indication of the extent of the outbreak in Tanzania: the government hasnt released data on new cases since 29 April. The Tanzanian president, John Magufuli, has said numbers are falling, but a US Embassy statement last week said many hospitals in the former capital, Dar es Salaam, had been overwhelmed and that the likelihood of contracting the virus in that city was extremely high.

A Kenyan healthcare worker speaks with a truck driver waiting for his clearance certificate (The Washington Post) (The Washington Post/Luis Tato)

Tanzania has taken fewer day-to-day measures to control the virus spread than Kenya, which has a dusk-to-dawn curfew, mandatory mask-wearing and localised lockdowns. Kenya has over 1,100 confirmed cases and has been generally praised for the seriousness of its response, despite crackdowns on curfew offenders that have killed more than a dozen people and evictions of slum dwellers whove been left homeless at a time when hygiene and sanitation are paramount.

In the days Ive been waiting, where have I not been? I have been all over. Maybe the virus can be all over, too

In Namanga, Kenya only traces contacts of positive cases, and the lag in getting results means truckers can rack up hundreds of contacts before knowing their status. And because Kenyan authorities simply turn around infected Tanzanian truck drivers instead of quarantining them at the border, they also lose the opportunity to interview them in person about contacts.

Contacts are traced using phones or physically by community health volunteers, area leaders or security agencies, says Esther Somoire, who directs health response in the Kenyan county where Namanga is. But its complicated, especially at international borders like Namanga.

Idle chat between two drivers at the border (Luis Tato)

The growing number of positive cases at the border escalated into a confrontation between the Kenyan and Tanzanian governments. A Tanzanian regional government official recently said that Kenya was falsely reporting positive test results for Tanzanian truckers as a deliberate sabotage strategy designed by Kenya against our tourism industry and that the government had done its own tests on those drivers and they came back negative. The two countries compete over lucrative wildlife tourism.

In his daily briefings, Kenyas health minister, Mutahi Kagwe, has called the border posts hot spots but has offered assurances that diligent testing means infected Tanzanian truck drivers are not in our midst. Last Fridays agreement stipulated that the results of all further tests of truck drivers will be released publicly but without mentioning the nationality of the infected.

Crowds of truckers are left in rooms where they cant social distance (The Washington Post) (The Washington Post/Luis Tato)

In Europe, many countries have exempted truck drivers transporting goods from checks at their borders. The United States and Canada dont test truckers crossing their 5,500-mile border. In east Africa, though, testing is more common: Uganda has found dozens of infected Kenyan truck drivers, and Zambia closed its border to Tanzanian truckers after an outbreak at the border created a hot spot there.

Truckers like Ali who are hoping to enter Kenya are at wits end as they wait hours for health officials to take throat swabs. Dozens of them have been told to wait in a bare concrete room with no seats. Some crouch with their heads in their hands, trying to nap while waiting. When a health official shows up, he asks the drivers to practice social distancing, and the crowd lunged at him, many saying it was ridiculous to expect them to distance when they werent even given a place to sit.

Healthcare workers prepare tests (The Washington Post) (The Washington Post/Luis Tato)

Really, honestly, you are not preventing, you are spreading, says Robert Kimani, a Kenyan driver transporting tomatoes from Iringa, in central Tanzania, who had his own reason to be angry. He had initially been tested five days ago, but when results were announced, his name was missing from the list.

There were four of us like that. They didnt even have the courtesy to tell me what happened, he says in an interview later. In the days Ive been waiting, where have I not been? I have been all over. Maybe the virus can be all over, too.

Kenyan health officials have declined to comment on the missing results.

Everyone who relies on the border towns economy, from shop owners to sex workers, are warily continuing business as usual. For most, that involves crossing the invisible border that runs through it.

Jenny Heri and Marcy Mwajuma Kioko say they get paid to have sex with six to 10 trucker clients a day, mostly Tanzanians. Last Wednesday, they were on the Kenyan side to pick up hundreds of condoms at a government clinic, as well as change Tanzanian shillings into Kenyan shillings to wire home to their children. Kioko put some of the condoms in a dispenser in a mens bathroom at the entrance to the border post before looking for more clients among the drivers waiting on the Tanzanian side.

A social worker (L) gives boxes of condoms to Marcy Mwajuma Kioko (C) and Jenny Heri (R) (The Washington Post) (The Washington Post/Luis Tato)

Heri says she and other sex workers have adopted new practices like not facing clients while having sex and sanitising the parts of their bodies their clients touch, but that they know they were putting themselves at high risk.

We know its not perfect, she says. But this job we do, we do to make enough so our kids dont suffer.

Business people in Namanga who interacted with Kimani, the driver who says his first test sample went missing, describe a deep sense of worry about coming into contact with so many truck drivers on a daily basis.

If they are really serious, they would follow up with us, says Elizabeth Wanjiku, who runs a small money exchange. Or government should give us money to stay home if they want to protect us.

Unlike Ali, who sleeps under his truck, Kimani can afford to stay at Joseph Kitalamas guesthouse, where sanitiser is provided. But Kitalamas rooms are often rented and shared by strangers looking to save money.

People are doing so much to protect themselves  washing hands all the time, making their own masks out of cloth, says Kitalama. We are doing our best, but the government should also do its part.

 The Washington Post
An ABC affiliate in California reports that doctors at John Muir Medical Center tell them they have seen more deaths by suicide than COVID-19 during the quarantine.

The numbers are unprecedented, said Dr. Michael deBoisblanc, referring to the spike in suicides.

Weve never seen numbers like this, in such a short period of time, deBoisblanc added. I mean weve seen a years worth of suicide attempts in the last four weeks.

Kacey Hansen, a trauma nurse who has spent 33 years at the hospital, said she has never witnessed self-inflicted attacks on such a scale.

What I have seen recently, I have never seen before, Hansen said. I have never seen so much intentional injury.

To date, there is little evidence that lockdowns have reduced the spread of COVID-19. But even if there were compelling evidence that lockdowns were saving lives, it would be a mistake to ignore the manifold unintended consequences of stay-at-home orders.

As economist Antony Davies and political scientist James Harrigan explain, every human action has both intended and unintended consequences. Human beings react to every rule, regulation, and order governments impose, and their reactions result in outcomes that can be quite different than the outcomes lawmakers intended.

The problem with negative unintended consequences is two-fold.

First, as Ludwig von Mises, observed, every government intervention in markets creates unintended consequences, which often lead to more calls for government interventions which have more unintended consequences, and so on. Second, as Frederic Bastiat pointed out, we tend to focus our attention more on the intended consequences than the unintended ones. (Think of government assistance and the poverty trap.)

The unintended consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic have been severe. Most of the attention, however, has been focused on the economic consequences. Forty million US jobs lost. A looming recession. Hundreds of thousands of businesses wiped out and retirements destroyed.

The psychological and physiological unintended consequences of stay-at-home orders have received less attention. Media have been largely transfixed on COVID-19, reporting daily death tolls and rising case numbers in states easing lockdown restrictions (while failing to note that COVID cases are rising because of expanded testing).

To be sure, measuring the impact on mental health is trickier than measuring COVID-19 fatalities or job losses. But that is no reason to discount the psychological and physical impact of lockdowns, especially when evidence suggests the toll is severe.

A recent Wall Street Journal report shows a surge in the number of people taking drugs for anxiety and insomnia, prompting physicians to warn about the long-term risks of increased prescriptions, which include drug addiction and abuse.

Stay-at-home orders may seem relatively benign, but they are not. Science shows that human beings struggle mightily in isolation from one another.

As The New York Times reported in 2016, social isolation isnt just harmful, its quite deadly:

A wave of new research suggests social separation is bad for us. Individuals with less social connection have disrupted sleep patterns, altered immune systems, more inflammation and higher levels of stress hormones. One recent study found that isolation increases the risk of heart disease by 29 percent and stroke by 32 percent. Another analysis that pooled data from 70 studies and 3.4 million people found that socially isolated individuals had a 30 percent higher risk of dying in the next seven years, and that this effect was largest in middle age. Loneliness can accelerate cognitive decline in older adults, and isolated individuals are twice as likely to die prematurely as those with more robust social interactions. These effects start early: Socially isolated children have significantly poorer health 20 years later, even after controlling for other factors. All told, loneliness is as important a risk factor for early death as obesity and smoking.

Anecdotal evidence, like the testimony of doctors at John Muir Medical Center and reported surges in calls to suicide hotlines around the country, suggest the mental toll of lockdowns could be as great as the material costs. (Indeed, they likely go hand-in-hand.)

Well have months if not years to debate whether the lockdowns were effective or the right thing to do. Whats important to remember is the stay-at-home orders come with a host of unintended consequences that we have not yet even begun to measure or understand.

For his part, Dr. DeBoisblanc has seen enough to convince him that its time to lift stay-at-home orders and let people return to their communities.

Personally, I think its time, he said. I think, originally, this was put in place to flatten the curve and to make sure hospitals have the resources to take care of COVID patients. We have the current resources to do that, and our other community health is suffering.
Police try to contain protesters during a rally at the Barclays Center in the Brooklyn borough of New York on May 29, 2020. (Frank Franklin II/AP Photo)

Woman Charged With Attempted Murder of Police During NYC Protests: Officials

A woman was charged with the attempted murder of New York City Police Department officers for allegedly hurling a Molotov cocktail at a marked police van that was occupied, officials said.

Samantha Shader, 27, of Catskill, New York, which is about 130 miles north of New York City, is accused of tossing the firebomb into the rear window of a van at Eastern Parkway and Washington Ave. in Brooklyn, officials told the New York Post and other news outlets.

The incident took place during sometimes violent protests against the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis. Dozens of cities have seen similar events unfold.

Shader is also accused of biting an officers leg as she was being arrested, authorities remarked.

The woman now faces four counts of attempted murder of a police officer, attempted arson, assault, criminal possession of a weapon, and reckless endangerment, said officials.

Officials told a local NBC affiliate that Shader waived her Miranda rights and admitted to throwing the Molotov cocktail.

A vandalized New York Police Department vehicle is seen after a protest following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis Police custody, in New York on May 30, 2020. (Andrew Kelly/Reuters)

Protesters stand near a burned New York City Police Department van in the Brooklyn borough of New York on May 29, 2020. (Jim Mustian/AP Photo)

Her sister, Darian, 21, was arrested after she allegedly attempted to interfere with her sisters arrest. She faces obstruction of governmental administration and resisting arrest charges, officials told the paper.

In other incidents, cops were hit with bricks, brass knuckles, and bottles, Paul DiGiacomo, head of the Detectives Endowment Association, wrote, promising that in addition to ensuring the strongest possible criminal charges are filed against these vicious criminals, we will be bringing civil actions against any person who harms a detective.

They are terrorists who tried to murder NYC police officers, Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch said. Every leader in this city should be speaking up to condemn these attacks and working with us to prevent more violence. Sadly, they are either silent or working against us.

In addition, Colinford Mattis, 32, and Urooj Rahman, 31, of Brooklyn, were charged with possessing explosive device components after Rahman allegedly tossed an incendiary device at an NYPD police vehicle. He fled with Mattis, officials told NBC4.

According to a federal complaint on the arrest of Rahman and Mattis, During the arrest, officers observed in plain view several precursor items to build a Molotov cocktail, including a lighter, a bottle filled with toilet paper and a liquid suspected to be gasoline in the vicinity of the passenger seat and a gasoline tank in the rear of the vehicle.

On Saturday, more than 300 people were arrested across the city, said Mayor Bill de Blasio, who said it was a tense night for officers.

Anyone who tries to create violence will not be tolerated, he said. You will get arrested, the mayor added.
I grew up in a family of activists and my parents were teachers. They raised me and my brother, Chris, to never shy from fighting injustice. From police brutality, to the war in Iraq, to climate change, weve lifted our voices in protest. So when I saw Chriss video of his recent encounter with a white woman named Amy Cooper (no relation) in New Yorks Central Park, it was surreal that he had captured on his cellphone the kind of racism we had always railed against. All of a sudden, I became one of the hundreds of black women who have watched a video of a loved one being accosted.

Fortunately for Chris, the situation remained verbal. For far too many black families, the result has been fatal; I do not watch those videos. I consider them an extended form of terrorism against the black community. I refuse to subject myself to the psychic, spiritual and emotional pain of watching them. With my brother, I got to see a black man survive what could have become a deadly situation. That was a relief and a cause for celebration for millions of people.

But as I replayed the video several times, I felt more and more uneasy and angry, until an overwhelming fear swept over me. My mind conjured up rapid images of police officers arriving and shooting first, or throwing Chris down and then beating and choking him. My brother. When I posted the video on Twitter, I didnt yet know about George Floyd, whose killing last Monday by a police officer has prompted protests across the country, but I knew about Emmett Till. I knew I wanted to make sure that Amy Cooper would not have the chance to weaponize her racism against anyone else. She could have gotten my brother hurt or killed. I wanted my brothers calm bravery, in the face of a threatening and cowardly act, to be seen. I wanted to shine a light not just on one person, but on the systemic problem of deep racism in this country that encourages her kind of behavior.

Racism affects all black people  men, women, boys, girls, gay, straight, nonbinary  no matter their state of employment or where or if they went to college. I have no doubt that if the police had showed up in the Ramble, a wooded area of the park where Chris had gone bird watching, my brothers Ivy League degree and impressive resume would not have protected him. Yet the Good Negro narrative has long allowed white people to feel comfortable speaking out against the mistreatment of particular black people: He is just like us. She is a good one. Every black person subjected to this kind of hatred needs recognition, justice and support.
<! Buhari loses nephew to death >

President Muhammadu Buhari has been hit with another bereavement as his nephew Alhaji Ibrahim Dauda is dead.

Dauda died in Daura, Katsina State, following a prolonged illness.

In a condolence message, President Buhari said the death has robbed the family and the Daura community of one of its finest gentlemen.

I am deeply touched and devastated by the passing of yet another family member, a man who had demonstrated amazing kindness and honesty in all his dealings, the President said.

He prayed God to forgive the soul of the deceased and reward his great and noble deeds with paradise.

The deceased is survived by a number of children, including Dauda Ibrahim, a Chief Administrative Officer in State House, Abuja,

On May 8, President Buhari also lost his younger uncle, Alhaji Mutari Dauda Daura.

Mutari Dauda Daura was the younger brother of 81 year-old Malam Mamman Daura, the Presidents uncle.

The cause of death was not stated.

On April 17, Buhari also lost his Chief of Staff, Malam Abba Kyari.

In an eulogy, Buhari described Kyari as a friend and loyal staff.
On the occasion of the first anniversary of the second tenure of Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government, Union Minister for Electronics and IT, Law and Justice and Communications Ravi Shankar Prasad on Saturday launched Indias national Artificial Intelligence Portal called www.ai.gov.in.

Artificial Intelligence Portal has been jointly developed by the Ministry of Electronics and IT and IT Industry. National e-Governance Division of Ministry of Electronics and IT and NASSCOM from the IT industry will jointly run this portal. This portal shall work as a one-stop digital platform for AI-related developments in India, sharing of resources such as articles, startups, investment funds in AI, resources, companies and educational institutions related to AI in India. The portal will also share documents, case studies, research reports etc. It has a section about learning and new job roles related to AI, read an official statement issued by the Ministry of Electronics and IT.

On this occasion, Ravi Shankar Prasad also launched a National Program for the youth -- Responsible AI for Youth. The Ministry said, The aim of this programme is to give the young students of our country a platform and empower them with appropriate new age tech mindset, relevant AI skill-sets and access to required AI tool-sets to make them digitally ready for the future. The programme has been created and launched by the National e-Governance Division, Ministry of Electronics and IT in collaboration with Intel India, with support from Department of School Education and Literacy (DoSE&L), Ministry of Human Resource Development. DoSE&L will help reach-out to State Education Departments to nominate teachers as per eligibility criteria.

Addressing the media at the launch event, Prasad said India must be a leading country in the development of Artificial Intelligence in the world, leveraging upon its vast Internet-savvy population and data it is creating. Indias AI approach should be of inclusion and empowerment of human being by supplementing growth and development rather than making human beings less relevant.

The national programme is open to students of classes 8 - 12 from Central and State government-run schools (including KVS, NVS, JNV) from across the country and aims to bring about a change in the thought process and create a bridge for the digital divide. The programme will be implemented in a phase-wise manner and in its first phase, each of the State Education Department will nominate 10 teachers as per the eligibility criteria. Teachers may also self nominate themselves by fulfilling the eligibility criteria. These teachers will be provided orientation sessions aimed to help them understand the premise and identify 25-50 potential students for the programme. The identified students will attend online training sessions on AI and understand how to identify social impact ideas/projects that may be created using AI and submit their ideas through a 60 seconds video explaining a proposed AI-enabled solution, the statement read.
In yet another embarrassment for Pakistan, two officials of the High Commission of Pakistan in New Delhi were apprehended by Indian law enforcement agencies for indulging in espionage activities. The two officials identified as 42-year-old Abid Hussain Abid and 44-year-old Mohd. Tahir Khan, have been declared by the government as persona non grata and have been asked to leave the country within 24 hours. A third person, 36-year-old Javed Hussain, also a resident of Pakistan was involved in the espionage activity.

Aslo read: Pakistan Minister calls nuclear weapon as 'patakha', says 'flew away before 1998 test'

Spying charges

Indian security agencies received a specific input that Abid was "involved in procuring and supply of confidential documents pertaining to Indian Armed Forces." The Indian agencies had the input that Abid and Tahir were planning to come to Gurdwara Road, Karol Bagh to collect some classified secret documents. Republic TV has learnt that a trap was laid near Bikaner wala chowk, Arya Samaj Road, Karol Bagh. Both the officials were apprehended and were asked about their identity but Indian agency officials say the Pakistani officials were continuously trying to dodge and mislead the officers. After further questioning, they revealed their identity. Their associate Javed was then apprehended by the agency.

Indian security agency recovered one Aadhaar card in the name of Nasir Gotam, one iPhone and Rs 15,000 cash from their possession.

Three officials held for spying:

India has lodged a strong protest with the Pakistani counterparts over the development. "Pakistan's Charge de Affaires was issued a demarche in which a strong protest was lodged with regard to the activities of these officials of the High Commission of Pakistan against India's national security. Pakistan's Cd'A was asked to ensure that no member of its diplomatic mission should indulge in activities inimical to India or behave in a manner incompatible with their diplomatic status," read a statement released by the Ministry of External Affairs.

Also read: Pakistan's Javed Miandad the latest to join Cricketer-turns-'strategic expert' bandwagon

Pakistan High Commission condemns action

Meanwhile, Pakistan High Commission has released a statement condemning the action taken by Indian security agencies. "Pakistan condemns the Government of India's decision to declare two officials of the High Commission for Pakistan in New Delhi persona non grata requiring them to leave India within 24 hours. The Indian action has been accompanied by a negative pre-planned and orchestrated media campaign, which is a part of persistent anti-Pakistan propaganda," read the statement. "Pakistan strongly rejects the baseless Indian allegations and deplores the Indian action which is in clear violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations as well as the norms of diplomatic conduct especially in an already vitiated atmosphere."

(Picture credit: The Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi | Facebook)

Also read: World watches silently as Pakistan destroys Buddhist heritage

Also read: 'Pakistan globally isolated; desperate for tragedy in J&K': Maj Gaurav Arya on Pulwama IED
NASA astronauts Douglas Hurley and Robert Behnken head to launch pad 39 to board a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket for a second launch attempt on NASA?s SpaceX Demo-2 mission to the International Space Station from NASA?s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S. May 30, 2020. (Image Source: Reuters)

Elon Musk-owned aerospace company SpaceX on Saturday successfully launched a rocket ship with two NASA astronauts into orbit from the US state of Florida. With the liftoff, SpaceX became the first private company to launch people into orbit.

The blastoff from Kennedy Space Center in Florida also assumes significance as it marks the launch of humans into orbit from US soil for the first time in nearly a decade.

The SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft, carrying NASA astronauts Bob Behnken (49) and Doug Hurley (53), lifted off at 3:22 pm EDT Saturday atop the company's Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center.

The feat was previously achieved by only three governments: the US, Russia and China.

The reusable, gumdrop-shaped capsule called Crew Dragon, would now take the two American astronauts to a 19-hour journey to the International Space Station (ISS). The spacecraft is scheduled to dock with the ISS at 10:29 am EDT on Sunday.

The successful launch, which was postponed early this week due to inclement weather, gave Americans something to cheer about as in the last three months they have lost over 100,000 of their countrymen due to the coronavirus that has brought the country's economy to its knee. More than 40 million people have lost their job and the pandemic has pushed the economy into a recession.

Top US leadership including President Donald Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, and thousands of curious Americans had gathered to watch the launch live on a bright Sunday afternoon.

Congratulating Musk, NASA and the astronauts, Trump described the launch day as a great day for the country.

"I'm so proud of the people, of NASA, public and private. When you see a sight like that, it's incredible. When you hear that sound  the roar  you can imagine how dangerous it is," he told reporters soon thereafter.

"I think this is such a great inspiration for our country. Our country is doing well... We suffered something that was terrible. It should have never happened  it should have never come out of China... That's one of the reasons why I wanted to be here today and I think any one of you would say that was an inspiration to see what we just saw," Trump said.

The President said he spoke with Musk, whom he called one of the "great brains." He also spoke with the two NASA astronauts prior to takeoff.

"What a historic opportunity to watch the first launch of astronauts from American soil to the Space Station since 2011," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said. "Launch America is the first big step on our roadmap to the Moon for Artemis," he said. NASA's Artemis programme, the US initiative to explore more of the lunar surface, aims to land the first woman and next man on the Moon by 2024.

"This is a dream come true for me and everyone at SpaceX, said Musk, who is also the CEO of Tesla.

"It is the culmination of an incredible amount of work by the SpaceX team, by NASA and by a number of other partners in the process of making this happen," he said.

"Today a new era in human spaceflight begins as we once again launched American astronauts on American rockets from American soil on their way to the ISS, our national lab orbiting Earth," said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine.

"The launch of this commercial space system designed for humans is a phenomenal demonstration of American excellence and is an important step on our path to expand human exploration to the Moon and Mars," he said.

"Today, in lifting our ambitions and our imaginations to the heavens, the United States has once more reshaped the future of space travel," said Joe Biden, former US Vice President and Democratic Party's presumptive presidential nominee.

"When Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on a mission to the ISS, they added their names to the long list of heroes who have changed the way we think about our universe and our place in it, he said.

"Their voyage not only marks the return of American astronauts travelling to space from US soil, but a pioneering new phase of public-private cooperation for the peaceful exploration of space," Biden said as he asserted that the seed of today's launch was planted by the Obama-Biden administration.

"We planted the seeds of today's success during the 2009 Recovery Act, which according to NASA, has saved taxpayers up to USD 30 billion and invigorated an aerospace industry in Florida that accounts for more than 130,000 jobs in the state," he said.

House Science, Space, and Technology Committee Ranking Member Frank Lucas Lucas said, "Today marks a new era in space travel".

"It's been nearly 10 years for we last launched American astronauts from American soil on an American rocket. The successful launch today is the culmination of years of hard work and commitment through NASA's Commercial Crew Program," he said.

Congressman Kevin McCarthy said the launch of the spacecraft is a "testament to American ingenuity and our country's profound ability to overcome challenges as they arise, particularly in the age of COVID-19".

Congresswoman Kendra Horn, chair of the Space Subcommittee of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, congratulated NASA and SpaceX on successful demonstration launch of astronauts Hurley and Behnken to the ISS. Known as NASA's SpaceX Demo-2, the mission is an end-to-end test flight to validate the SpaceX crew transportation system, including launch, in-orbit, docking and landing operations.

This is SpaceX's second spaceflight test of its Crew Dragon and its first test with astronauts aboard, which will pave the way for its certification for regular crew flights to the station as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Programme.

After successfully docking, the crew will be welcomed aboard the International Space Station, where they will become members of the Expedition 63 crew, which currently includes NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy.

(With inputs from PTI)
The IMD stated that the 'low pressure' which has formed over the Arabian Sea is likely to move towards Maharashtra and Gujarat and will cause rainfall over these states.

New Delhi: The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Sunday warned that a low-pressure area which is building on the western coast in the Arabian Sea will develop into a "cyclonic storm."

The IMD further stated that the "low pressure" which has formed over the Arabian Sea is likely to move towards Maharashtra and Gujarat and will cause rainfall over these states.

"A low-pressure area formed over South East & adjoining East Central Arabian Sea and Lakshadweep area. To concentrate into a Depression over East-central and adjoining Southeast Arabian Sea during next 24 hours and into a Cyclonic Storm during the subsequent 24 hours," IMD tweeted.

The build-up of a cyclonic storm in Gujarat and Maharashtra comes just days after super cyclone Amphan created havoc in West Bengal and Odisha.
- Wetang'ula has been accused of failing to unite the FORD-Kenya Party and not campaigning for the party's candidate during 2017 General Election

- The party's National Executive Council (NEC) also cited the 2019 Dubai Gold saga Wetang'ula was adversely mentioned in as a reason to dismiss the senator

- The NEC appointed Kanduyi MP Wafula Wamunyinyi the interim party leader

Forum for the Restoration of Democracy (FORD) Kenya Party has axed Bungoma Senator Moses Wetang'ula from the position of party leader.

The party has appointed Wafula Wamunyinyi as the interim party boss. Wamunyinyi is the MP for Kanduyi constituency.

READ ALSO: Boni Khalwale claims MPs who attended Atwoli's Kajiado meeting received KSh 30K each

Photo: Moses Wetang'ula.

Source: Facebook

READ ALSO: My husband left me for my best friend, imprisoned me after giving him 12 children - Virginia Kamotho

The decision to oust the lawmaker from the position was arrived at on Sunday, May 31, during the party's National Executive Council (NEC) meeting.

Leaders allied to Wetang'ula, however, protested the decision accusing Secretary-General Eseli Simuyu and Bungoma Governor Wycliffe Wangamati of forcefully taking control of the party.

READ ALSO: William Ruto elected to represent Africa in global governance body for 3 years

Wetang'ula was accused of failing to be a symbol of unity in the party, failing to champion for the party's campaign to win elections and interfering with the parties candidate nomination in the 2017 General Election.

The NEC also blamed the senator for not providing inspiring leadership to the party and moral impropriety in the account of being adversely mentioned in the KSh 250 million Dubai gold saga in 2019.

In the gold scandal, Wetang'ula was accused of defrauding a member of the Dubai royal family with the promises of helping him procure a multi-million consignment of gold.

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BEIJING (dpa-AFX) - Chinese Internet services provider Tencent Holdings Ltd. (TCEHY.PK) is in talks to invest $200 million in Warner Music Group, ahead of IPO that is slated for next week, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Warner Music is also lining up other potential partners that, along with Tencent, would serve as anchor investors contributing in excess of $1 billion toward a fundraising goal of as much as $1.8 billion, the report stated. The offering is expected to value Warner Music at $11.7 billion to $13.3 billion and is set to begin trading June 3. Tencent was not immediately available for comment, while Warner Music declined to comment. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
"You can have your own V's; there's V's, there are lesser V's," Kudlow said. "There are combos of U's and V's." Cognisant of that uncertainty, the White House confirmed it will not even issue an update to its economic forecasts this summer, breaking decades of tradition. We've had discussions all my career about V-shaped recoveries, L-shaped, U-shaped. One thing I've learned is, don't get into that letter game. John C. Williams, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York Here are the possible shapes that economists are discussing and the caveats that have forecasters writing their predictions in pencil. The elusive V

Since economists know that economic activity slowed sharply during the first half of 2020, the best possible outcome is a swift recovery, making for a V shape in which the economy is back to its 2019 output level within a few quarters. Unfortunately, economists say that projection is probably a pipe dream. In a note titled "V Is for Very Unlikely," Michael Feroli, JPMorgan Chase's chief US economist, described the trajectory as one in which the economy "is turned off and then on, like a light switch." Because economic variables like unemployment and output often face a lingering drag after a one-time shock, that sort of outcome is pretty dubious, he said. Lower business capital spending and state and local budget cuts are likely to weigh on growth for some time, alongside other factors, making it hard for the economy to get right back on track. L is for low expectations

Just as only strident optimists expect a perfect V, only outright pessimists are projecting an L, in which growth remains at or near the very-low levels it almost certainly hit during the second quarter. The economy is already showing a partial rebound, suggesting that such a formation is unlikely. Mortgage applications have stabilised after sharp declines, consumer confidence is recovering slightly and while initial jobless claims remain elevated, they are slowing. The car industry is hopeful that auto sales are in for a rebound in June. Real-time trackers show a muted bounce, with a daily JPMorgan credit card series showing a slow but fairly steady uptick starting from mid-April. Google mobility data suggest that people are moving around more and visiting parks, TD Securities said in a research note. The pickup in areas that drive growth  retail, restaurants, and move theatres  has been more restrained. "None of the states show a sudden snapback," said Jim O'Sullivan, chief US macro strategist at TD Securities, noting that some places are further along the path to official reopening. While the nascent recovery seems to preclude an L, he said, the limited data so far jibe with the idea that the recovery will be more gradual than the collapse. W depends on what's next

That brings us to a scenario that is still on the table: a W-shaped recovery. It could be that the economy will partly bounce back before plunging again amid a second wave of infections as states reopen and people face renewed exposure to the coronavirus, or if the disease stages a comeback this autumn. While economists generally say that a W remains entirely possible, they aren't willing to make it their most-likely forecast because it hinges on two total unknowns: whether there is another spike in infections, and whether states will shut down again if that happens. Analysts who venture a guess increasingly favour a non-letter shape as their base-case: the check mark. The check, the swoosh and the wave The Congressional Budget Office's baseline expectation suggests that growth will contract slightly in the first quarter and sharply in the second quarter before making a gradual rebound starting in the quarter that stretches from the start of July to the end of September. The budget office doesn't label the shape, because the climb back will be slower than the drop. The trajectory looks like a check mark on a graph.

There are big uncertainties around that forecast. Additional waves of infection, variations in consumer behaviour, and the timeline for a vaccine are all wild cards that could change the path ahead. A host of risks could lead to worse outcomes while a vaccine breakthrough or unexpected government support for the economy could improve the trajectory. If a quicker recovery takes hold, the rebound could look more like a swoosh as growth improves slowly before accelerating. But if more infections occur and a vaccine remains elusive, the economy could also face a wave recovery of repeating peaks and troughs as states continually reopen and then pull back. So which is most likely? "We're all prefacing what we say with: We're not epidemiologists," said O'Sullivan, explaining that the range of possible economic outcomes is unusually wide because it turns so much on what happens with public health. Because it's a new coronavirus, and a totally unusual shock to the economy, nobody's guess for what comes next is especially reliable. Loading
It is wrong and irresponsible to cast these precautions as political, as President Trump implied by retweeting a post of presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden wearing a mask. The Republican governor of North Dakota, Doug Burgum, put it exactly right. If someone is wearing a mask, theyre not doing it to represent what political party theyre in or what candidates they support. They might be doing it because theyve got a 5-year-old child whos been going through cancer treatments. They might have vulnerable adults in their life, who currently have covid and theyre fighting. He added that if someone is wearing a mask, you should look at them and say that persons wearing a mask because for them, theres additional risk in their life. To which we would add: They are also being considerate of those around them.
The COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown prompted millions of jobless migrant workers to flee cities and return to their home towns.

Mumbai: With mass migration of labourers becoming a cause of concern, engineering firm KEC International has decided to adopt mechanisation and automation to compensate for the shortage of workers.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown prompted millions of jobless migrant workers to flee cities and return to their home towns.

"We have to live with this migration and we don''t think they will return any time soon. Also, we are not sure if we would get the same set of skilled labourers.

"Therefore, we will have to retrain and reskill the local labourers who have returned from other cities, the company's Managing Director and CEO Vimal Kejriwal told PTI.

However, he noted that this cannot be a long-term solution and to improve productivity, the company will have to adopt mechanisation and automation.

"We are also reworking our capex plans. While we have decided to reduce our CAPEX in certain areas, we will instead deploy some funds on mechanisation and automation for improving productivity.

"We had planned a CAPEX of Rs 250 crore for the year, but we may now spend Rs 100 crore," Kejriwal added.

KEC, the flagship company of the RPG Group, is a turnkey solutions provider and engaged in the business of power transmission and distribution (T&D), cables and railways, among others.

The company has an order book and L-1 (lowest bidder) position in excess of Rs 24,000 cror"This order book gives us clear visibility of revenue over the next 18-24 months. But in case of future orders, we are expecting good number of contracts being awarded by the government agencies in power T&D and railways as well as some metro projects.

"Some states have postponed tendering due to the lockdown, but are expected to award them in second quarter of the year," he said.

Asked about order inflows from the private sector, Kejriwal said, "There has been a slowdown in contracts from the private sector for quite some time and now with COVID impacting their businesses, we don''t expect them to come at least in the near future. So the dependence on government orders will be higher."

The company, which has significant international presence as well, reported about 3 per cent decline in consolidated net profit at Rs 192.88 crore for the quarter ended March 2020 as against Rs 198.76 crore in the corresponding period last fiscal.

The company reported revenues of Rs 3,673.73 crore during the period as against Rs 3,845.51 crore a year-ago.
The Kwara State Governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, has directed the slashing of the Right of Way (RoW) fee for telecommunications firms (telcos) from N5,500 per linear metre to N1 per kilometre of fibre.

This was disclosed in a statement issued by the states Commissioner for Communication, Murtala Olanrewaju, on Sunday.

The RoW charge is the levy paid to state governments for the laying of optic fibre by telecoms operators.

Before now, operators were paying N5,500 per linear metre as the fee for laying fibre cables in the state to strengthen their digital connections.

The commissioner noted that the revised fee which takes effect immediately is the second lowest in Nigeria after Kaduna.

Governor AbdulRazaq has directed that the RoW fee be slashed to N1 only per kilometre, a decision designed to deepen digital penetration in Kwara State, jerk up the states ease of doing business ratings, and ease peoples access to the internet and other digital communication even in the remotest part of the state.

Apart from driving up investment in the sector, the long-term effects of this significant step such as strengthening access to digital communications and bringing more businesses to the hinterlands cannot be quantified, Mr Olanrewaju quoted Governor AbdulRazaq.

Speaking on the reason for reducing the fee, Mr Olanrewaju explained that internet and broadband penetration has a direct correlation with economic development.

A study carried out by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) on Africa reported that a 10 per cent broadband penetration would lead to a 2.5% increment of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita.

The National Economic Council (NEC) had recently resolved to encourage technological advancement as a way to fast track economic development in Nigeria.

He stated that the resolution was hinged on the need to create a favourable business environment for telecommunication companies and to further deepen broadband penetration for social and economic development.

Hike in other states

In January, Lagos, Kano, Anambra, Ondo, Cross River, Kogi, Osun, Kaduna, Enugu, Adamawa, Ebonyi, Imo, Kebbi and Gombe increased the RoW fees for telecoms infrastructure.

This newspaper reported how the federal government expressed dismay over the increment by the states, saying it contravened an agreement reached at the National Economic Council (NEC).

The communications minister, Isa Pantami, in a statement from the ministry said the increment is detrimental to the governments digital economy agenda.

Mr Pantami said it was disheartening to hear that some states have decided to disregard these resolutions and have, in some cases, increased the RoW charges by over 1,200%. This will no doubt impact negatively on the efforts being made by the federal government.

Mr Pantami discussed the many benefits that an increase in broadband access can have on the economy of the various states, the statement said.
Manila, Philippines--(Newsfile Corp. - May 30, 2020) - A new study shows that the entry of heated tobacco products (HTPs) triggered a remarkable reduction in combustible cigarettes sales in Japan. "The decline in smoking rates among adults in Japan is astoundingly impressive when you realize that this has only come about rapidly with the introduction of HTPs," said Nancy Loucas, Executive Director of the Coalition of Asia-Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (CAPHRA).





Prof. David Sweanor, one of the study's authors

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

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Canadian and American researchers looked at how trends in the sale of cigarettes in Japan between 2011 and 2019 correspond to the sales of HTPs that were introduced into the Japanese market in late 2015. Using data from the Tobacco Institute of Japan and Philip Morris International (PMI), the researchers concluded that the accelerated five-fold decline in cigarette only sales in Japan since 2016 corresponds to the introduction and growth in the sales of HTPs. Cigarette sales in Japan were declining slowly and steadily before HTPs were introduced in 2015. Entitled "What Is Accounting for the Rapid Decline in Cigarette Sales in Japan?", the study was published on May 20, 2020 in the peer-reviewed open access scientific journal International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.

HTPs are smoke-free devices that heat, instead of burn, specially-designed tobacco units to release a flavorful nicotine-containing tobacco vapor. As tobacco is not burned, the levels of harmful chemicals produced by HNB products are significantly lower compared to combustible cigarette smoke. The most popular HTP brand is IQOS, a product of PMI.

Consumers' interest and the regulatory environment shape markets, according to Professor David T. Sweanor of the Faculty of Law of University of Ottawa, one of the study's authors. He explained that Japanese regulations precluded alternatives to combustible cigarettes, such as nicotine-containing vaping products. However, HTPs generated huge interest among smokers in Japan. "As more [smokers] adopted the alternative, they helped speed switching by others. I think this gives us an indication of just how much more rapidly countries could reduce cigarette use if there were many different low-risk alternatives available and policies and public education campaigns facilitated a widespread move away from [combustible] cigarettes."

Prof. Sweanor believes Japan is a success story in tobacco harm reduction.

"We have seen the most rapid decline in cigarette sales ever witnessed in a major market. A third of the cigarette market was gone in a remarkably short period of time, and this was accomplished with a non-coercive measure. People who smoke cigarettes were simply provided with a viable alternative."

Governments in the Asia Pacific region that seek to ban or limit the access of smokers to HTPs and other safer nicotine alternatives should look to Sweden which for decades has promoted the shift to low-risk non-combustible alternatives to cigarettes, said Prof. Sweanor. "Now we have evidence that a range of low-risk products can help us rapidly achieve the smoking rate targets of the World Health Organization's Sustainable Development Goals. To seek to ban or limit access to such products protects the cigarette industry rather than public health."

Commenting on the future of smokers in Asia Pacific where HTPs will soon be available, Prof. Sweanor stressed that policies should empower people to take control of their health. "Ensuring that a range of low-risk alternatives are not only on the market but have regulatory and tax advantages over cigarettes has the potential to transform public health. We have long known that people smoke for nicotine but die from the smoke. Cigarette smoking is a public health catastrophe that can be massively reduced through science and technology if policies can be oriented toward replacing rather than protecting the cigarette business."

The publication of the new study is timely as it comes on the heels of the celebration of World Vape Day on May 30, 2020. Observed a day before World No Tobacco Day, World Vaping Day aims to raise awareness on e-cigarettes or vapes and encourage smokers who are unable to quit on their own or with currently available smoking cessation tools to switch to safer nicotine products.

"Safer nicotine products, such as e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products, are the most disruptive influence on smoking in decades. These are the innovations that have the potential to save millions of lives in the Asia Pacific region as well as globally," added Nancy Loucas.

According to Loucas, the most popular form of safer nicotine products in northern Asia are HTPs. Like Japan, Korea has shown similar sales and uptake of HTPs, with corresponding declines in combustible tobacco use. These data show that the substitution of combustible tobacco with reduced-risk products has the potential to be a highly effective tobacco harm reduction strategy, she explained. "So, it is very disheartening that countries in Asia Pacific, like Korea and the Philippines, are looking to either ban and/or reduce access and choice of all forms of tobacco harm reduced products for their smoking citizens."

"Japan's success in reducing smoking prevalence through HTPs should be a wakeup call to local policymakers. Quit or die aren't the only choices for smokers," said Peter Paul Dator, president of The Vapers Philippines.

"This new study lends further credence to adopting tobacco control policies based on a harm reduction model," said Stephanie Thuesen, Director of Stakeholder Engagement at The Progressive Public Health Alliance in Australia.

"Policymakers in Thailand, which has been ranked the worst country in the world to be in if you are a vaper, should listen to Prof. Sweanor. Banning or limiting access to safer nicotine products only serve to protect the cigarette industry rather than public health," said Asa Ace Saligupta who runs the ECST.

About CAPHRA

The Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (CAPHRA) is an alliance of consumer organizations from Australia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand that aims to educate, advocate and represent the right of adult alternative nicotine consumers to access and use of products that reduce harm from tobacco use.

MEDIA CONTACT: Jena Fetalino (63)9178150324 jena@jfprc.com

Prof. David Sweanor, one of the study's authors

"We have seen the most rapid decline in cigarette sales ever witnessed in a major market."

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International journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/56916
Senate Republicans are expected to investigate Joe and Hunter Biden when lawmakers get back to work after the coronavirus lockdown. Reuters (Reuters)

Joe Biden's family history and the tragedies and losses that have shaped his politics and public persona have loomed large throughout his career, relying on a narrative of mourning, resilience and a dynamic with voters who also have emerged from the other side of their shared pain.

Grieving alongside him is Hunter Biden, the former vice president's last living son, whose private life has been mired in controversy as he struggled with sobriety and emerged as a central figure in Donald Trump's efforts to undermine his political rival as he seeks re-election.

While Hunter Biden's private life has made headlines, the president and his Republican allies have sharpened their focus on his connections to a Ukrainian energy firm amid the president's impeachment.

Hunter Biden has shared less of his father's spotlight through the years, next to his politically aspirational brother, but he is now scrutinised by a GOP seeking revenge following Democrats' months-long investigation into the president's attempts to extract politically damaging information about the former vice president from Ukraine's president.

In 1972, Joe Biden  then a 30-year-old senator-elect from Delaware  lost his first wife Nelia and 13-month-old daughter Naomi in a car accident.

In 2015, his son Joseph "Beau" Biden, an Iraq War veteran and Delaware attorney general, died following a brain cancer diagnosis.

His brother Robert "Hunter" Biden, Beau's younger brother, was just 2 years old when his mother died.

Hunter said his first memory "is of lying in a hospital bed next to my brother," he said during the 2015 memorial service for his brother Beau. "I remember my brother, who was one year and one day older than me, holding my hand, staring into my eyes, saying, 'I love you, I love you, I love you,' over and over again."

In a statement following Beau's death in 2015, his father wrote: "Beau Biden was, quite simply, the finest man any of us have ever known."

Story continues

He told MSNBC in January that he believed Beau "should be the one running for president, not me."

Sworn in at his son's hospital bedside, Joe Biden pledged to commute to and from Delaware to Washington DC to spend more time with his children, earning him the Beltway nickname Amtrak Joe.

He later married Jill Jacobs, who became Hunter and Beau's stepmother, in 1977. Their half-sister Ashley was born in 1981.

Hunter Biden graduated from Georgetown University in 1992, then spent a year in the Jesuit Volunteer Corps in Oregon before he pursued a Juris Doctor from Yale Law School.

Following his graduation in 1996, he moved to Wilmington, Delaware, working as a vice president at MBNA Bank, the state's largest employer.

He later sought a position in then-president Bill Clinton's administration, in which he was appointed as a director in the Department of Commerce, where he worked on e-commerce-policy.

Though he left the company in 2001, the Bidens came under fire after it was discovered Hunter Biden continued to receive consulting fees while Joe Biden had supported legislation that was opposed by consumer groups and promoted by credit card companies.

He was appointed to an unpaid seat on the Amtrak board and co-founded the lobbying firm Oldaker, Biden and Belair. He left the group and his board seat in 2008 in the run-up to that year's presidential election after his father was tapped as Barack Obama's running mate.

"I wanted my father to have a clean slate," Hunter Biden told The New Yorker in 2019. "I didn't want to limit him in any way."

He launched an international consulting firm, Seneca Global Advisors, then co-founded Rosemont Seneca Partners with Christopher Heinz, the stepson of former presidential candidate and, later, secretary of state John Kerry.

While his father was in office over two terms of the Obama administration, Hunter Biden frequently reappeared in gossip pages  he was discharged from the Navy Reserves for testing positive for cocaine use, he struggled with drug and alcohol abuse, he had divorced his now-ex-wife Kathleen, and he had a brief relationship with Beau's widow, Hallie, in the wake of his death.

In a statement following reports of their relationship, Joe Biden said: "We are all lucky that Hunter and Hallie found each other as they were putting their lives together again after such sadness. ... They have mine and Jill's full and complete support and we are happy for them."

Hunter Biden also was sued for child support by Lunden Alexis Roberts, an Arkansas woman who named Mr Biden the father of her child in a lawsuit filed in May 2019 seeking paternity and health care support.

They reached a settlement in that case in January. Court documents show that Mr Biden has agreed to pay monthly child support instalments, including 13 months of missed instalments, following the child's birth in August 2018.

Court documents filed in Independence County also revealed DNA results showing that with "scientific certainty" Mr Biden is the biological father of Ms Roberts's child.

But his international business dealings drew criticism against his father, then the vice president, over potential conflicts of interest, as conservative lawmakers and right-wing media have revived allegations of corruption and self-enrichment as Joe Biden emerges as the Democratic nominee to face Mr Trump in November.

In May 2014, Hunter Biden joined the board of Burisma Holdings, Ukraine's largest gas producer, to take the lead on the company's efforts towards "transparency, corporate governance and responsibility". according to a press release announcing his role.

The announcement did not disclose that he is the son of the then-US vice president.

His appointment arrived amid tensions between the White House and Russia over Ukraine's energy independence. Vice President Biden was a key figure in those talks, and the US State Department dismissed concerns about his son's involvement within the country and potential conflicts of interest because he is a "private citizen"  though critics said that even the appearance of a conflict could invite scrutiny.

Five years after his departure from the board, a bombshell story in The New York Times revealed their ties to Ukraine and the removal of a Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin from office over corruption concerns, including Joe Biden's threat to withhold $1 billion in loan guarantees unless Mr Shokin was fired.

Despite no evidence of legal wrongdoing, the controversy was leveraged by Rudy Giuliani as part of a conspiracy to deflect from his own interests in Ukraine as well as President Trump's attempt to extract damning information on his opponent through his own withholding of military aid to the country.

A whistle-blower's report of the president's phone call with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky in July 2019  in which the president suggested withholding congressionally approved funds in exchange for information on the Bidens' ties to Burisma  prompted House Democrats to investigate.

In a White House memo partially transcription the call, Mr Trump urged Mr Zelensky to speak with Mr Giuliani and US Attorney General William Barr, while Mr Zelensky promised that "the next prosecutor general will be 100 per cent my person" and "will look into the situation, specifically to the company that you mentioned in this issue."

Months following the president's impeachment and subsequent acquittal on party lines for his abuses of power, the GOP-controlled Senate is getting closer to its own investigation into Hunter Biden, as lawmakers seek to subpoena a Democratic public relations firm that worked with Burisma.

Joe Biden's campaign has called the attempt  amid a public health crisis that has led to the deaths of more than 100,000 Americans within three months  a "craven, previously debunked smear" against the candidate.

The president has led chants of "lock him up" and yelled "where the hell is he?" in his unhinged campaign rallies, and he has called the Bidens "stone cold crooked" and a "disgrace" while his sons Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump have helped spin allegations into a campaign-trail issue.

"I don't really think about Donald Trump's kids that much," Hunter Biden told ABC in 2019. "They seem clownish, to me, when I see them. It's all noise."

He said he was "shocked" when he discovered he had been at the centre of the president's phone call.

Asked whether it was wise to be involved with Ukraine and invite scrutiny that has now loomed throughout his father's presidential campaign, he said he wasn't taking into account that "there would be a Rudy Giuliani and a president of the US that would be listening to this ridiculous conspiracy idea".

"Did I make a mistake? Well, maybe in the grand scheme of things," he told ABC. "But did I make a mistake based upon some ethical lapse? Absolutely not."

After staying out of the limelight, he made a rare, high-profile public appearance at the 20202 Democratic National Convention, where he spoke with his sister Ashley to introduce their father as he accept the party's nomination on the event's final day.

They gave the "last word" to their brother Beau Biden, who introduced their father at the 2008 and 2012 conventions.

Of his father, Hunter Biden said "he'll listen" and "he'll be there when you need him."

"He'll never let you down," he said. "The strongest shoulder you can ever lean on ... He'll make your grandkids feel that what they've got to say matters."

Read More

GOP subpoenas firm in Biden probe that says it's already cooperating

Analysis: Congress prepares for war over 2020 presidential election

Who was Beau Biden?

Who was Joe Biden's first wife and how did she and their daughter die?
Dhinesh Kallungal By

Express News Service

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Even as the state is battling to contain the spread of the coronavirus, outgoing Chief Secretary Tom Jose -- accompanied by State Police Chief Loknath Behera and a couple of senior government officials  took a chopper ride a day ahead of his retirement.

While government officials maintained that the ride was meant to assess the flood preparedness at Nilakkal and to sort out certain issues related to the sand collected from the Pampa during the last flood, it was reportedly a pleasure trip arranged for the outgoing chief secretary.

The delegation also reportedly held an aerial reconnaissance of a portion of the Cheruvally estate proposed for the Sabarimala airport. Queried on the matter, the state police told TNIE the trip was part of the flood preparation assessment carried out by the chief secretary.

Meanwhile, the public relations department issued a statement saying that the chief secretary held a meeting of officials at Nilakkal in connection with the sand issue. Forest Minister K Raju said he was not informed.

Forest minister not impressed

"If there was any urgent need to convene a meeting of officials chaired by the chief secretary and the state police chief to sort out sand issues in Pampa, the minister of the department concerned should have certainly been informed about it," said Raju. According to insiders, though it was widely rumoured that the outgoing chief secretary would be given charge of COVID control operations after retirement, he was not too interested in the post.

There were reports earlier that the chief secretary would become the chief of the proposed Trivandrum International Airport Limited (TIAL), a company formed to take over the Thiruvananthapuram airport after the Centre privatised the airport.

But the plan hit a roadblock after the airport employees union took the airport privatisation issue to the Supreme Court, with the matter remaining sub judice. Another option of engagement for Tom Jose was the proposed Sabarimala airport. TNIEs efforts to contact him for comment went in vain.
Lucknow, May 31 : In order to help domestic investors in setting up industries and businesses in the state, the Yogi Adityanath government will set up a 'UP Invest Agency' under the 'Udyog Bandhu'.

The agency will assist investors from the time they approach the government till they are able to set up their units. The sole focus of this agency will be to assist investors in identifying sites, getting clearances and handling other problems till the industry becomes functional.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has given an in-principal nod to the body and a cabinet clearance is now awaited to finalise its structure.

Uttar Pradesh Industries minister Satish Mahana said: "Uttar Pradesh is gearing up to increase investment in the state by inviting investors, both foreign and domestic. Earlier this month, we had set up help desks for three countries to hand hold their investors. The Invest UP Agency will be dedicated especially to domestic investors." The agency will operate under Udyog Bandhu and each investor will be allocated a dedicated officer, who will ensure a smooth transition between the time the investor approaches the government and the point when the industry is set up.

The agency will also fast track investments for which the government had signed MoUs during the 2018 Investors' Summit.

The minister said: "We had signed MoUs worth more than Rs 4.28 lakh crore and carried out ground breaking for projects worth more than Rs 1.20 lakh crore. Several other projects have also been initiated over these two years. The agency will now approach investors with whom MoUs had been signed and see why the projects are pending. If they require any assistance, the agency will be their one-point destination for all trouble shooting." In the beginning of May, the government set up a four-member help desk at Udyog Bandhu to interact with investors from South Korea, Japan and Uttar Pradesh and provide solutions.

The government is making concerted efforts to attract investments from these countries as several companies are preparing to wind up their operations in China in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) [India], May 31 (ANI): Sixty-one new COVID-19 positive cases have been reported in Kerala on Sunday, taking the total number of active cases in the State to 670, said Kerala Health Minister KK Shailaja.



As many as 15 people tested negative, of the total cases reported today, 20 returned from overseas (UAE-eight, Kuwait-five, Oman-four, Saudi Arabia-one, Qatar-one, Maldives-one), 37 from other states (Maharashtra-20, Tamil Nadu-six, Delhi-five, Karnataka-four, Gujarat-one and Rajasthan-one). Four people got infected through contact while Palakkad and Kollam have reported two cases each.

A total of 590 people have recovered and discharged. As many as ten new locations have been declared as hotspots today taking the total number of hotspots in the state to 116.

A total of 1,34,654 people are under observation in various districts of the state. Of these, 1,33,413 are under home/institutional quarantine and 1241 are in hospitals. 208 people were admitted to the hospital today.

In the last 24 hours, 3099 samples have been sent for inspection. So far, samples of 67,371 individuals (including the augmented sample) have been sent for inspection. Of the 64,093 samples available, the test results are negative.

In addition, as part of Sentinel Surveillance, a total of 12,506 samples were collected from priority groups, such as health workers, guest workers, social contacts, and 11,604 samples were negative. (ANI)


The death of George Floyd, a black man who died on Memorial Day after he was pinned down by a white Minnesota police officer, has sparked outrage and protests in Minneapolis and across the United States.

The National Guard has been activated in Washington, D.C., and 17 states: Colorado, Georgia, Kentucky, Minnesota, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, Wisconsin, Utah, North Dakota, California, Missouri, Virginia, Kansas, Illinois and Nevada.

In the wake of Floyd's death, murder and manslaughter charges have been filed against Derek Chauvin, the officer who prosecutors say held his knee on Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes. Chauvin and the other three officers at the scene have been fired. The Department of Justice is investigating.

Latest news:

Total arrests top 4,100 but in some cities demonstrations are more calm Protests continue in Minneapolis, NYC, LA, DC, and elsewhere Curfews are in effect in at least a dozen cities LA County declares state of emergency

Here is how the news developed Sunday. All times Eastern.

2:40 a.m.: In several cities, protesters and police share a hug

Although Sunday's protests included much of the looting and violence of the previous week's demonstrations, there were signs throughout the country that relations between protesters and police were warming.

In Orlando, Florida, photos on social media showed two police officers holding hands with protesters through a barricade. A video on Twitter showed a Florida Highway Patrol trooper in Miami detach himself from a security line to offer a hug to a woman sitting on a motor scooter, who said, "I appreciate your patience" after troopers remained calm when protesters approached them.

Elsewhere in Miami, video showed a group of protesters shattering the glass door of a CVS as they prepared to loot the store -- only to be stopped by a group of peaceful protesters who formed a line to prevent them from entering until the police arrived and dispersed the crowd.

Story continues

In New York City's Foley Square, a cheer went up among protesters when a group of NYPD officers took a knee in a show of solidarity.

In Oklahoma City, cameras also captured sheriff's deputies taking a knee, with some hugging protesters near the Oklahoma County Jail.

And in Flint, Michigan, video showed Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson telling a crowd of protesters that he'd ordered his deputies to lower their batons and that he wanted to make the event "a parade, not a protest." The crowd then applauded the sheriff and invited him to join the march.

12:41 a.m.: Clashes continue in some cities, while others are more calm

Arrests during Sunday's protests have driven the total number of demonstrator arrests to 4,100 since protests began early in the week, according to the Associated Press.

Confrontations between police and protesters continued for another night in Brooklyn, where demonstrators clashed with officers outside Barclay's Center.

In Boston, an SUV drove through a crowd of protesters but officials said no one appeared to be seriously hurt.

In Washington, D.C., members of the U.S. Marshals Service and DEA agents were called in to assist National Guard troops responding to protests near the White House, a Department of Justice official said.

In Atlanta, two police officers were fired for using excessive force during an arrest of two college students during Saturday night's protests. Video of the incident appeared to show officers Tase the two students as they sat in their vehicle, and then forcefully drag them out of the car.

PHOTO: A masked protester kneels before San Jose police, May 29, 2020, in San Jose, Calif., in response to the death of George Floyd in police custody on Memorial Day in Minneapolis. (Ben Margot/AP)

Protests in other cities, however, remained largely peaceful Sunday. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said protesters were "largely cooperative" in his state. Large crowds surrounded the State Capitol in Denver but stayed calm, according to reports.

11:19 p.m.: White House in 'elevated security posture' during protests

The White House was in an "elevated security posture" Sunday night amid protests, according to an email obtained by ABC News.

[D]ue to ongoing demonstrations the EOP [Executive Office of the President] Complex maintains an elevated security posture, an email from the White House Management Office sent to White House staff around 9:30 p.m. reads.

The email advised that staff should only come to the White House complex on Monday for essential duties, and to hide their badges until entry if they do.

PHOTO: People gather outside the White House during a protest over the death of George Floyd, who died in police custody, in Washington, May 31, 2020. (Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA via Shutterstock)

Up to 1,000 protesters have been demonstrating in Lafayette Park, across from the White House, Sunday night. Police used flash bangs to prevent another group of protesters from reaching the park.

Photos showed smoke from what appeared to be several fires burning near the White House and the Washington Monument.

Washington, D.C., entered a citywide curfew at 11 p.m., as did San Francisco and Portland, Oregon.

10:08 p.m.: More cities placed under curfew

Denver, Orlando, Chicago, Milwaukee, Salt Lake City and Columbus, Ohio, are under curfew as of 10 p.m.

Protests are also ongoing in Boston and Philadelphia, among other cities.

Looting has been reported in Long Beach, California, where video appears to show looters inside a boarded up business. The perpetrators are seen breaking second-story windows from inside the store, then jumping back onto the street with stolen goods.

PHOTO: Demonstrators protest the death of George Floyd, May 31, 2020, near the White House in Washington. (Alex Brandon/AP)

In Birmingham, Alabama, a Confederate monument in a downtown park has been taken down after a speaker at a rally called for its removal earlier in the afternoon.

The Confederate Soldiers & Sailors monument in Linn Park has been the subject of a legal fight between Birmingham and the Alabama Attorney Generals Office, with the city wanting it removed.

9:51 p.m.: Trump was briefly in bunker Friday, say sources

As protesters pushed toward the White House Friday evening, President Donald Trump was briefly moved into White House's so-called "bunker," multiple senior level sources familiar with the matter tell ABC News.

The detail was first reported by the New York Times.

The underground command center, known as the Presidential Emergency Operations Center, serves as a secure shelter that presidents have used in the past during terrorist attacks.

The United States Secret Service released a statement on Saturday saying projectiles were thrown near the White House on Friday.

Meanwhile, New York Police Department sources tell ABC News that the daughter of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio was among the protesters arrested Saturday.

Chiara de Blasio was among 345 protesters arrested by NYPD officers Saturday night, and was given a desk appearance ticket to face charges of unlawful assembly.

9:03 p.m.: Cities enter 9 p.m. curfew

The cities of Minneapolis, Atlanta and Louisville, as well as the Missouri cities of Kansas City and Ferguson, as well as Miami-Dade County in Florida, are under curfew as of 9 p.m.

Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser announced a curfew for 11 p.m. after not ordering one Saturday.

"We know that the people who were destructive last night are not likely curfew followers," she said at a press briefing Sunday.

8:32 p.m.: Semi plows through crowd protesting in Minneapolis

The driver of a tanker truck is in custody after he plowed his tractor-trailer into a crowd of protesters on a Minnesota highway.

Gov. Tim Waltz quoted reports saying multiple protesters were treated for injuries after the truck barreled through protesters on I-35W, which was closed to vehicular traffic.

PHOTO: A tanker truck drives into thousands of protesters marching on 35W north bound highway during a protest against the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd, in Minneapolis, May 31, 2020. (Eric Miller/Reuters)

"A horrifying image on our television -- a semi ... with a flammable or toxic substance going full force into a crowd of peaceful protesters," Walz said.

Authorities said they don't yet know the driver's motives.

7:31 p.m.: Protesters gather en masse in Minneapolis, NYC, LA, elsewhere

After nearly two months without tourists due to COVID-19 social distancing guidelines, New York City's Times Square is jammed with demonstrators. Protesters made their way to the area from Bryant Park for the city's fourth night of protests over George Floyd's death. Mayor Bill de Blasio said he wasn't considering a curfew following clashes between demonstrators and police Saturday night.

Demonstrators are marching for a sixth night of protest in Minneapolis, where Floyd died. The Minnesota National Guard announced earlier Sunday that more than 5,000 soldiers and airmen were activated in the Twin Cities.

In Boston, hundreds of protesters marched to Boston Police Headquarters for a prayer service. A separate protest made its way toward the Massachusetts State House.

Thousands were also gathered near the White House in Washington, D.C., with other protests ongoing in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and Santa Monica, California.

PHOTO: Police officers kneel during a rally in Coral Gables, Florida, May 30, 2020, in response to the recent death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died while being arrested and pinned to the ground by a Minneapolis police officer. (Eva Marie Uzcategui/AFP via Getty Images)

6:23 p.m.: Houston may give Floyd funeral police escort

Speaking at a rally in support of George Floyd, Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said he wants to give Floyd's funeral a police escort when Floyd's body arrives in Texas for burial.

Floyd, a Houston native, will be laid to rest there following his death Monday in Minneapolis.

"Give us that honor," Acevedo said.

Houston Police will use a high level of security to transport Floyd's body, comparable to when an officer dies in line of duty, Acevedo said.

5:50 p.m.: Bomb found in vandalized Minneapolis store: FBI

FBI bomb technicians found an explosive device in a vandalized auto parts store in Minneapolis on Saturday, the bureau announced.

The FBI alerted law enforcement agencies about the discovery, which it said was a possible incendiary transfer device.

PHOTO: A volunteer worker walks past a shattered display window early, May 31, 2020, at the downtown Macy's store in Chicago, after a night of unrest and protests over the death of George Floyd, a black man who was in police custody in Minneapolis. (Charles Rex Arbogast/AP)

The device contained paraffin oil and an unidentified black liquid, the FBI said.

The owner and employees of the business, which was vandalized on Friday, did not know about the bomb, according to the bureau.

4:23 p.m.: Richmond curfew extended as police investigate shooting

Police in Richmond, Virginia, are investigating a shooting that took place around 1 a.m. during the overnight protests.

A man suffered a life-threatening gunshot wound when the car he was riding in came in contact with a group of protesters.

PHOTO: Fireworks explodes over a protestor with his hands up during a protest against the death in Minneapolis police custody of African-American man George Floyd, in Ferguson, Missouri, May 30, 2020. (Lawrence Bryant/Reuters)

Detectives have determined the gunshots came from behind the car. There is no suspect description at this time and the investigation is ongoing.

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam declared a state of emergency on Sunday.

"I acknowledge each of the voices crying out for justice and healing across the United States and in our Commonwealth. I affirm the deep concerns from the black community," Northam said. "As Governor of Virginia, I call on all Virginians to join together and build a renewed commitment to working for justice and fair treatment."

PHOTO: A demonstrator is injured as people protest the death of George Floyd, May 30, 2020, near the White House in Washington, D.C. (Evan Vucci/AP)

A curfew in Richmond has been extended through Wednesday. Residents must stay in their homes from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m.

4:10 p.m.: Beverly Hills issues curfew, LA County declares state of emergency

A state of emergency was declared in Los Angeles County in the wake of the widespread protests overnight, which included looting and spray painting.

PHOTO: NYPD police officers detain a protester as they clash during a march against the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd, in Brooklyn, New York, May 30, 2020. (Jeenah Moon/Reuters)

PHOTO: A protester raises his arms during a march against the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd, in Brooklyn, New York, May 30, 2020. (Jeenah Moon/Reuters)

PHOTO: An LAPD vehicle begins to burn after being set alight by protestors during demonstrations following the death of George Floyd, May 30, 2020, in Los Angeles. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

The proclamation said the numerous acts of violence pose "extreme peril" to people and property.

"If you are assembling to protest, please do so peacefully and with respect for all those who are suffering," Board of Supervisors Chair Kathryn Barger said in a statement.

MORE: How viral videos of killings of black men take a toll on black male mental health

In Beverly Hills, officials on Sunday issued two curfews: the first is in the city's business district -- which includes Rodeo Drive -- and lasts from 1 p.m. on Sunday to 5:30 a.m. on Monday. The second curfew is citywide from 4 p.m. Sunday to 5:30 a.m. Monday.

"Violence, looting, and vandalism will not be tolerated in our city," Beverly Hills Mayor Lester Friedman said. "Its unfortunate that the message of the peaceful protesters has been diminished by criminal behavior."

"We encourage all of our residents to remain at home," Friedman said.

The Los Angeles Police Department earlier issued a mandatory curfew from 8 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. for the entire city.

PHOTO: An LAPD officer aims a nonlethal weapon during a confrontation with protestors following the death of George Floyd, May 30, 2020, in Los Angeles. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

3:56 p.m.: Philadelphia mayor says destruction 'disappointed me beyond words'

Protests in Philadelphia turned violent on Saturday. Fires were set -- including on police cars -- and stores were looted through the night.

PHOTO: Spray paint that reads 'Do Black Vets Count?' is seen World War II Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, May 31, 2020, the morning after protests over the death of George Floyd. (Carolyn Kaster/AP)

PHOTO: Police are reflected as they stand guard, May 30, 2020, in Philadelphia, during a protest over the death of George Floyd. (Matt Rourke/AP)

Mayor Jim Kenney said Saturday night's "destruction" "disappointed me beyond words."

"I'm sure it saddened every Philadelphian who takes pride in our city -- especially the thousands of Philadelphians who came out earlier in the day yesterday to peacefully yet forcefully protest," he said Sunday. "They made a tremendous statement about their decades of anger over a system that degrades black Americans because of the color of their skin. That statement was important. And it in no way should be diminished by other organized groups of people who tried to cause chaos in our city."

"Those vandals in Center City did a great disservice to the many others who chose to speak out forcefully against institutional racism and violence at the hands of police," Kenney continued. "In looting downtown, these individuals not only desecrated private businesses, they also desecrated the important message that was heard in the earlier, peaceful protests."

PHOTO: Smoke rises from a fire on a police cruiser in Center City during the Justice for George Floyd Philadelphia Protest, May 30, 2020, in Philadelphia. (Matt Rourke/AP)

The Ben Franklin Bridge and all streets in Center City Philadelphia have been shut down for cleaning, officials said, according to ABC Philadelphia station WPVI.

A citywide curfew is in effect from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., during which time residents can only leave their homes to go to work at an essential business, get medical attention or get police help.

Retail businesses have been ordered to close immediately and any business owners or residents cleaning up vandalized stores must finish by 5 p.m., officials said.

3:30 p.m.: At least 155 arrested overnight in Minnesota

At least 155 people were arrested Saturday and overnight in Minnesota, the epicenter of the protests -- and that number is expected to rise as jails book suspects, authorities said.

Arrests ranged from rioting to weapons violations to curfew violations.

PHOTO: Participants face a row of police officers during a 'Justice for George Floyd' event in Houston, Texas, May 30, 2020, after George Floyd, an unarmed black, died while being arrested and pinned to the ground by a Minneapolis police officer. (Mark Felix/AFP via Getty Images)

PHOTO: A mourner cries as she visits a makeshift memorial for George Floyd on the corner of Chicago Avenue and East 38th Street, May 31, 2020, in Minneapolis. (John Minchillo/AP)

AR-15s were among the 12 guns confiscated from protesters, officials said.

Cars without any license plates or lights drove through communities, and when they were pulled over, drivers fled on foot, officials said.

One officer was shot at but was not hit, officials said. The two people in the car from which the shot was fired were arrested and an AR-15 was recovered in that case, officials said.

PHOTO: George Floyd is pictured in an undated photo released by the office of Civil Rights Attorney Ben Crump. (Courtesy Ben Crump Law)

Authorities shutdown major freeways in the city and closed off key routes between Minneapolis and St. Paul to prevent groups from moving between the two cities. A police line blocked the Ford Parkway Bridge.

About 40 minutes after Saturday's 8 p.m. curfew began, riot police seemed to appear from every direction, dozens coming off of city buses and deploying flashbangs and tear gas.

But unlike the violent protests in Minneapolis earlier in the week, Saturday night did not see fires set, looting or destruction of property, police said.

PHOTO: A man confronts a National Guard member as they guard the area in the aftermath of a protest against the death in Minneapolis police custody of African-American man George Floyd, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, May 29, 2020. (Carlos Barria/Reuters)

PHOTO: People clean up outside a local business in the aftermath of a protest after in Minneapolis, Minnesota, May 29, 2020. (Carlos Barria/Reuters)

The curfew and freeway closings will be extended into Sunday night, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said. All transit service in Minneapolis is suspended through at least Monday.

At a Sunday press conference, Walz said he's proud of Minnesota's accomplishments, and that the state ranks second to Hawaii for happiness -- but only for Minnesota's white residents.

"You cannot continue to say you're a great place to live if your neighbor, because of the color of their skin, doesn't have that same opportunity," Walz said.

Floyd's family has asked Walz to let Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison prosecute the case, the governor said. No decision has been made, he added.

MORE: Photos: How protests erupted across the country after the death of George Floyd

Walz said rapper Jay-Z called him to discuss the protests and brought up his concern about hoping the prosecution will move forward fairly.

"It wasn't Jay-Z, international, you know, celebrity ... it was a dad, and quite honestly, a black man whose visceral pain" was clear, the governor said.

"He was passionate, he was gracious," Walz said. "He knows that the world is watching how Minnesota handles this" and that that'll have "an impact across the country."

3 p.m.: DC mayor pleads, 'we do not want our city to be destroyed'

Seventeen people were arrested overnight in Washington, D.C., police said. The U.S. Secret Service said it made one arrest overnight after protesters tried to knock over security barriers and vandalized six Secret Service cars.

The National Park Service is reporting vandalism to historic sites around the National Mall.

PHOTO: Demonstrators protest the killing of George Floyd near the city's 5th police precinct on May 30, 2020 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

The night prior, more than 60 Secret Service personnel were injured from thrown bricks, rocks, bottles and fireworks, officials said.

"Secret Service personnel were also directly physically assaulted as they were kicked, punched, and exposed to bodily fluids," the Secret Service said. "A total of 11 injured employees were transported to a local hospital and treated for non-life threatening injuries."

"No individuals crossed the White House Fence and no Secret Service protectees were ever in any danger," the Secret Service added.

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser on Sunday pleaded with residents, "we do not want our city to be destroyed."

PHOTO: Protesters run after police fired tear gas during a rally in Denver against the death of George Floyd, May 30, 2020. (Alyson Mcclaran/Reuters)

PHOTO: Protesters take to the streets of Richmond, for a second consecutive night to protest the death of George Floyd and police abuse, May 30, 2020. (James H. Wallace/Richmond Times-Dispatch via AP)

"We certainly recognize and empathize with the outrage that people feel ... and we certainly empathize that the killing of George Floyd wasnt the first," she said. "Our police, and firefighters, and members of the public safety team for Washington, D.C., along with our federal partners, have been working to make sure people can exercise their First Amendment rights, while not destroying Washington, D.C."

2 p.m.: 'State of Disaster' declared in Texas

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott declared a statewide "State of Disaster" amid the protests.

PHOTO: Police officers kneel during a rally in Coral Gables, Florida, May 30, 2020, in response to the recent death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died while being arrested and pinned to the ground by a Minneapolis police officer. (Eva Marie Uzcategui/AFP via Getty Images)

"Violence against others and the destruction of property is unacceptable and counterproductive," Abbott stressed. "As protests have turned violent in various areas across the state, it is crucial that we maintain order, uphold public safety, and protect against property damage or loss."

"By authorizing additional federal agents to serve as Texas Peace Officers we will help protect peoples safety while ensuring that peaceful protesters can continue to make their voices heard," he said.

In Dallas, a curfew will go into effect from 7 p.m. Sunday to 6 a.m. Monday.

The body of George Floyd, who was a native of Houston, will be returned to the city, Mayor Sylvester Turner said.

PHOTO: Security forces hold a perimeter near the White House as protests against the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd, take place in front of the White House, in Washington, D.C., May 30, 2020. (Yuri Gripas/Reuters)

Floyd's family and attorneys have yet to confirm funeral arrangements for the 46-year-old.

"The focus needs to be on supporting and uplifting his family," Turner said. "And that's what I want to keep bringing this conversation to. George Floyd. It's not about these other individuals, who won't be a moment. It's about George Floyd, and justice for George Floyd."

1:45 p.m.: Protests reach US Embassies in Europe, 5 arrested in London

The protests over Floyd's death have also gone international, with crowds gathering at U.S. Embassies in Dublin, Berlin and London.

In London, several hundred people sat in the street outside the embassy on Sunday, The Associated Press reported. The Metropolitan Police said officers were sent to the the scene to engage with those in attendance.

PHOTO: Protesters hold their hands in the air during a protest in response to the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody, in Brooklyn New York, May 30, 2020. (Seth Wenig/AP)

Five people were arrested: three for violating COVID-19 rules and two for assaulting police, authorities said.

They were between the ages of 17 and 25, police said, and have been taken into custody.

Woody Johnson, U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom, tweeted, "Freedom of Speech and Assembly are cornerstones of a healthy democracy. I thank those peacefully making their views heard today outside the US Embassy in London and the Met police for ensuring everyones safety."

1:30 p.m.: Illinois National Guard activated after request from Chicago mayor

After "multiple public safety incidents and property damage" during protests overnight, Chicago officials on Sunday announced new precautionary measures for the city.

PHOTO: A woman carries a 'Black Lives Matter' sign past U.S. National Guard troops, May 31, 2020, in Los Angeles. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Access to Chicago's Central Business District and Loop will only be available for people who live in the area, work in the area and who are there to engage in essential activities, the city said.

PHOTO: Shattered glass hangs from a window of a 7-Eleven store early, May 31, 2020, in Chicago, after a night of unrest and protests over the death of George Floyd, a black man who was in police custody in Minneapolis. (Charles Rex Arbogast/AP)

Train and bus service will also be suspended for the Loop area "for public safety reasons."

"Following today's announcement, the City is working closely with the organizers of rallies and protests scheduled to take place within the area this afternoon to provide an alternative, optional route for marches to peacefully and safely return in Chicago," city officials said.

PHOTO: Fire engulfs a small shop with no firefighters available to help, as violence continues following protests over the death of George Floyd, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, May 29, 2020. (Craig Lassig/EPA via Shutterstock)

PHOTO: Protesters destroy a Chicago Police Vehicle, May 30, 2020, during a protest against the death of George Floyd. (Jim Vondruska/Zuma Press)

A citywide curfew is effective from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. daily until further notice.

Gov. JB Pritzker said he is activating the Illinois National Guard after a request from the mayor.

"To those peacefully expressing the pain, fear, and rage of this moment, I hear you," the governor said in a statement. "Your voices matter. We must address the profound injustices in our society and bring about real and meaningful change."

1:15 p.m.: Denver police looking for driver who struck cop car, injuring 4

Denver authorities are looking for a driver who they say hit a police car, severely injuring three officers and a citizen, during Saturday night's protests.

One officer remains in the hospital but all three are expected to make a full recovery, police said. The condition of the injured citizen was not clear.

Have you seen this vehicle? Denver police are searching for this car, a Chevrolet Cruze with the Wyoming license plate No. 59722, after it struck a police vehicle Saturday night, injuring 3 officers and a civilian https://t.co/w3L9vsSIjC pic.twitter.com/cgLrUOVwXz  Denver7 News (@DenverChannel) May 31, 2020

Denver police say they arrested 83 people for curfew violations. Some protesters are facing additional charges for allegedly throwing missiles (any object or substance), damaging property and having prohibited weapons, said police.

PHOTO: Protesters demonstrate in front of the Federal Detention Center in the death go (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee) (Wilfredo Lee/AP)

12 p.m.: NYC police cars plow through crowd, mayor calls for investigation

In New York City, mostly peaceful daytime marches on Saturday turned violent overnight, with people throwing projectiles and torching police cars.

PHOTO: Protesters clash with police in Chicago, May 30, 2020, during a protest against the death of George Floyd. (Jim Vondruska/Zuma Press)

PHOTO: A man wearing a protective face mask kneels in front of police officers during a protest against the death in Minneapolis police custody of African-American man George Floyd near the U.S. Embassy, London, May 31, 2020. (John Sibley/Reuters)

At least 345 people were arrested, according to police sources.

At least 33 officers were injured, including some seriously, police sources said, and dozens of police cars were damaged or destroyed.

PHOTO: A police officer sprays protesters during a march against the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd, in Brooklyn, New York, May 30, 2020. (Jeenah Moon/Reuters)

PHOTO: NYPD officers try to keep control on the streets as they clash with protesters during a march against the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd, in the Brooklyn, New York, May 30, 2020. (Eduardo Munoz/Reuters)

But police are also facing criticism after NYPD SUVs drove through a Brooklyn crowd where people were holding a metal barricade.

There was no loss of life and no major injuries.

Mayor Bill de Blasio is calling for an investigation which will be led by the city's corporation counsel and Department of Investigation commissioner.

NYC police cars plow through crowd, mayor calls for investigation

"There were many things done right by the NYPD," he said, but "there were also mistakes that must be investigated."

Overall, he said the NYPD demonstrated "tremendous restraint."

PHOTO: A protester is assisted after NYPD police officer sprayed protesters during clashes at a march against the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd, in Brooklyn, New York, May 30, 2020. (Jeenah Moon/Reuters)

5:57 a.m.: At least 1 killed in shooting during Indianapolis protests

Police Chief Randal Taylor of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department held a press conference late last night confirming that at least one person has been shot and killed and three more people had been shot throughout the day as protests engulfed the city.

Slideshow: Protests turn violent over the death of George Floyd

"Earlier this evening our officers worked to protect our residents' right to peaceful protests. Most of those protesters cooperated and did a fine job. For that, we're thankful. However, there was a small group of people that escalated to violent acts, including throwing projectiles at officers and breaking windows of government buildings," Taylor said. "Since then, we have seen continued and escalating incidents of violence. This includes shots fired and loss of life. This is not acceptable in this community. This behavior will not be tolerated by IMPD."

"We're asking that residents who do not live in the downtown area go home. Enough is enough. Indianapolis, we are better than this. Downtown is not safe at this time. Residents who do not live in the downtown area, we're asking to please vacate the area," Taylor added.

The IMPD did not give any further details on the circumstances around the death of the individual involved in the shooting and said that they had "lost count" of the number of reported shots being fired across the city.

4:32 a.m.: 28 arrested in Nashville; horses used to back crowd away from precinct

A total of 28 people have been arrested by the Metro Nashville Police Department after the 10 p.m. curfew took effect.

Earlier in the day, protesters marched down Broadway and 1st Avenue North arriving at 1 Public Square to continue protesting outside of the Metropolitan Nashville Courthouse.

Protesters could be seen shouting "no peace" and "don't shoot' as they gathered on the steps of Public Square Park.

Protesters reportedly broke out windows of Metro courthouse and spray-painted obscenities against law enforcement on the walls and sidewalk.

A group of people also managed to break into the Metro courthouse and set fire to the outside and inside of the building before authorities were able to disperse the crowd using fireworks and a smoke bomb. Protesters could also be seen outside the front of the courthouse burning an American flag.

3:39 a.m.: Target temporarily closes 175 stores in 13 states due to protests

Target said Saturday night it will be temporarily closing 175 stores due to ongoing protests.

Target closed 71 stores in Minnesota; 49 stores in California; four stores in Colorado; two stores in Georgia; seven stores in Illinois; one store in Michigan; five stores in Missouri; 12 stores in New York; one store in Nebraska; eight stores in Oregon; four stores in Pennsylvania; nine stores in Texas; and two stores in Wisconsin.

Team members impacted by store closures will be paid for up to 14 days of scheduled hours during store closures, including COVID-19 premium pay.

2:02 a.m.: Atlanta police arrest 70 people, majority of protesters have now dispersed

Atlanta Police have issued a statement saying that they are no longer working any major incidents and the vast majority of protesters have dispersed.

A total of 70 people have been arrested Saturday night into Sunday morning.

PHOTO: Bellevue Police Chief Steve Mylett hugs a demonstrator during a gathering to protest the recent death of George Floyd on May 31, 2020 in Bellevue, Washington. (David Ryder/Getty Images)

1:12 a.m.: Protests mount in Ferguson, Missouri

Ferguson, Missouri, took violent turn when protesters have vandalized the police department.

PHOTO: A masked protester stands in front of a fire during a rally against the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd, in Los Angeles, California, U.S., May 30, 2020. Picture taken May 30, 2020. (Kyle Grillot/Reuters)

Ferguson was the center of civil of unrest in 2014 after the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown, an 18-year-old black man.

All non-essential personnel were evacuated at the Ferguson Police Department.

Missouri Governor Mike Parson declared a state of emergency late Saturday and activated the Missouri National Guard to stand ready to assist.

Two officers were injured and transported to the hospital while two others were treated on the scene for minor injures.

12:53 a.m.: Miami-Dade Police arrest 38 people, suspends all transit services on Sunday

The Miami-Dade Police Department have announced that 38 people have been arrested so far after Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez signed a local state of emergency declaration, ordering a curfew that took place at 10 p.m. last night until 6 a.m. on Sunday after some protesters began to burn police cars at the Miami Police Station.

The Department of Transportation and Public Works also has suspended all Miami-Dade Transit services on Sunday, May 31, including Metrorail, Metromover and Metrobus. This decision was made in an abundance of caution, and to ensure the safety of all passengers and employees, according to a statement released by Miami-Dade County.

12:46 a.m.: Biden releases statement on protests, urges understanding but cautions against 'needless destruction'

Former vice president Joe Biden released a paper statement just after midnight eastern on the ongoing unrest and protests currently gripping several major American cities, urging an understanding of the trauma many people of color in America are facing in the wake of George Floyd's death, but also speaking out against the "needless destruction," that is playing out as a result of the protests.

"These last few days have laid bare that we are a nation furious at injustice. Every person of conscience can understand the rawness of the trauma people of color experience in this country, from the daily indignities to the extreme violence, like the horrific killing of George Floyd," Biden wrote.

"Protesting such brutality is right and necessary. It's an utterly American response. But burning down communities and needless destruction is not. Violence that endangers lives is not. Violence that guts and shutters businesses that serve the community is not," he added.

The presumptive Democratic nominee also added that the protests going on tonight should not overshadow the cause they are trying to advance.

"The act of protesting should never be allowed to overshadow the reason we protest. It should not drive people away from the just cause that protest is meant to advance," Biden wrote.

Biden also acknowledged the widespread pain across the country, not only from the pain of Floyd's death, but from coronavirus as well, relating to the feeling of grief, but implored the country to use the current anger to "compel our nation across this turbulent threshold into the next phase of progress, inclusion, and opportunity for our great democracy."

"I know that there are people all across this country who are suffering tonight. Suffering the loss of a loved one to intolerable circumstances, like the Floyd family, or to the virus that is still gripping our nation. Suffering economic hardships, whether due to COVID-19 or entrenched inequalities in our system. And I know that a grief that dark and deep may at times feel too heavy to bear," Biden said.

"I know."

"And I also know that the only way to bear it is to turn all that anguish to purpose. So tonight, I ask all of America to join me -- not in denying our pain or covering it over-- but using it to compel our nation across this turbulent threshold into the next phase of progress, inclusion, and opportunity for our great democracy."

"We are a nation in pain, but we must not allow this pain to destroy us. We are a nation enraged, but we cannot allow our rage to consume us. We are a nation exhausted, but we will not allow our exhaustion to defeat us," the statement said.

Biden also pledged, if elected, to help lead a conversation on the issues that have caused the current unrest, and referenced again his recent conversation with George Floyd's family and a promise he made to ensure his death will not just be a "hashtag."

"As President, I will help lead this conversation  and more importantly, I will listen. I will keep the commitment I made to George's brother, Philonise, that George will not just be a hashtag. We must and will get to a place where everyone, regardless of race, believes that 'to protect and serve' means to protect and serve them," Biden wrote.

"Please stay safe. Please take care of each other," he added, ending his statement.

ABC News' Whitney Lloyd, Aaron Katersky, Jeff Cook, Christine Theodorou, Ahmad Hemingway, Josh Hoyos, Alexandra Faul, Jim Scholz, Marcus Moore, Clayton Sandell, Bonnie McLean, Sarah Shales, Luis Martinez, Jake Date, John Verhovek, Josh Margolin and Ben Jimenez contributed to this report.

This report was featured in the Monday, June 1, 2020, episode of Start Here, ABC News daily news podcast.

"Start Here" offers a straightforward look at the day's top stories in 20 minutes. Listen for free every weekday on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, the ABC News app or wherever you get your podcasts.

Trump was moved to bunker, sources confirm originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
Demonstrations have once again erupted in major cities across the United States as thousands came together to protest against police brutality in the wake of the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, in police custody.

From Seattle to New York, tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets demanding tougher charges and more arrests over the death of Floyd, who stopped breathing after Derek Chauvin, a white police officer in Minneapolis, knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.

As some protests turned violent, a number of governors activated the National Guard, and several cities ordered residents to stay indoors overnight.
BOISE  Idaho voters got extra time to request their absentee ballots for the primary election, but they may not receive those ballots in time to actually vote.

Chad Houck, Idahos deputy secretary of state, says about 14,000 additional people were able to request ballots after a federal judge extended the deadline to request ballots by a week following last-minute problems with the Idaho Votes website, where voters were supposed to be able to request ballots for the primary.

Thats about 3% of the 429,000 total absentee ballots Houck said voters requested.

But Houck said that because U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill opted not to also extend the deadline for when ballots may be returned to be counted, it is possible that some voters will receive their ballots after the deadline for returning them: next Tuesday, June 2.

We do anticipate there are going to be ballots that are unfortunately going to arrive at homes on the third, Houck told the Statesman in a phone interview Thursday. But thats beyond the control of the clerks. They were doing what they had to do to comply.

The primary election was originally scheduled for May 19. It includes races in either or both parties for Idahos two seats in the House of Representatives plus the Senate seat held by Republican Sen. Jim Risch. Each of the 105 seats in the Idaho Legislature is also up this year, as are four offices in every county: commissioner districts one and two, prosecutor and sheriff.

When the coronavirus pandemic struck, Gov. Brad Little and Secretary of State Lawerence Denney announced in March that the state would change the primary to an all-absentee voting system to protect voters and poll workers. Dates changed slightly: Voters had until 8 p.m. on May 19, the primary election day, to request their ballots, but they would have to return them before 8 p.m. June 2, when they would be counted.

The two weeks between the dates were designed to give voters who requested their ballots at the last minute time to return them, Houck said.

The ruling came after the Idaho Votes website was unable to process last-minute requests, meaning some voters were not able to request a ballot. Nicholas Jones, a candidate challenging Republican U.S. Rep. Russ Fulcher for his 1st District seat, sued on May 19 for an extension, which Winmill granted on May 22.

Winmill set the new request deadline as Tuesday, May 26. Elections officials told the judge that the shortened time frame meant some people may not receive their mailed ballots in time, but Houck said the judge decided not to address that.

If you arent sure if you will receive your ballot in time, Houck recommended you reach out directly to your county clerk. At this point, the election is theirs to run, he said.

Ada County issued 4,602 ballots from requests made by last Tuesdays deadline, Chelsea Carattini, spokesperson for the Ada County elections office, told the Statesman in an email. Most of those were paper requests that arrived immediately after the initial deadline.

The rest  1,325 ballot requests  came through the online request system, nearly half of the roughly 3,000 ballots statewide that Houck estimated came in through Idaho Votes before the second deadline.

Those that requested a ballot after the first May 19 deadline will likely get their ballot in the mail on or just before June 2, Carattini said.

Now, so close to vote-counting day, Carattini said, the only way to ensure a ballot arrives in time to be counted is to deliver it by 8 p.m. Tuesday to the ballot drop box in front of the Ada County elections office, 400 N. Benjamin Lane in Boise.

County clerks across the state have similar drop-off points for voters, Houck said.

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(Newser)  Rep. Joyce Beatty, a grandmother and an African-American Democrat from Ohio, got pepper-sprayed during protests of the death of George Floyd on Saturday in Columbus, reports CNN. "I was there because I wanted the young protesters to know that in solidarity, that I stand with them," Beatty said. "I'm a black woman first and I felt the pain." A rep for Beatty said she was attempting to mediate "as a voice of reason" between protesters and police. The incident, per the rep:

story continues below

"One young black female took a step off (the curb) and the cop kind of took that, I guess, 'sideways.' Instantly, a white man kind of came to her defense and then was instantly body-slammed to the ground. The congresswoman runs out into the street to hold back the cop and the protesters. Another cop comes up with his bike and pushes the congresswoman out of the way ... and then it's naturally getting heated ... that one cop pulls, I don't know why he does it, he pulls out his Mace and does what he does." The Columbus PC had no comment. Beatty called for protesters to "continue to protest, but it must be peaceful and that does not mean we aren't standing up for justice." (Read more Joyce Beatty stories.)
CLEVELAND, Ohio  Cleveland officials extended a curfew imposed after Saturdays tense downtown demonstrations to give workers a chance to clean up the damage done to storefronts and government property.

Mayor Frank Jackson, speaking early Sunday morning on Facebook Live, said the curfew, which is currently in effect and set to expire at 8 a.m. Sunday, will begin again at noon and remain in effect until 8 a.m. Monday. Vehicles and pedestrians will not be allowed to enter or travel through downtown.

Officials provided for limited exceptions for cleanup and those who live and work downtown. However, they encouraged those who live and work in the area to also stay home.

(You can watch the video at the bottom of this story. The mayors proclamation imposing the curfew can be found here or at the bottom of the story.)

The curfew is not city-wide but rather intended to give city employees time to perform cleanup and board-up work downtown, the mayor said. He added that the city will work with the Downtown Cleveland Alliance and coordinate with businesses damaged and looted during the riots.

Police Chief Calvin Williams, who joined the mayor on the broadcast along with Ohio National Guard Lt. Col. Thomas Butler, also indicated that officers would be out in in force to try and prevent a repeat of Saturdays events.

I encourage folks, stay home tomorrow, the chief implored. Stay with your families. Stay with your loved ones. And let us take care of the rest of the city so we can get through this.

A protest organized by Black Lives Matter Cleveland over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis started peacefully Saturday afternoon at the Free Stamp in Willard Park. Tensions escalated between police and protesters, with demonstrators throwing water bottles and rocks and officers launching tear gas and pepper pellets into the crowd.

The protest, which was one of many carried out in cities across the country, grew even more volatile as demonstrators set on fire two police cars and other vehicles. Some protesters smashed windows and looted restaurants and stores. While the protests initially focused on the streets surrounding the Justice Center, some protesters headed east and damaged buildings for several city blocks.

Hours later, Jackson imposed an 8 p.m. curfew to try to clear out the remaining demonstrators who continued to wreak havoc. Gov. Mike DeWine deployed the Ohio National Guard to help with the crowds and the city also received assistance from suburban police departments.

Police made arrests but have not said how many were in custody as of Sunday. Williams said investigators were reviewing videos and conducting probes. He indicated that many who rioted are from outside the area.

Read more:

Cleveland Police chief suggests protesters who sparked violence during George Floyd demonstrations were not from here

Police, protesters clash in downtown Cleveland during George Floyd protests as businesses looted, curfew imposed

Cleveland mayor issues imposes 8 p.m. curfew, Ohio Gov. activates National Guard after George Floyd protest turns volatile

Protestors break windows, set police cars on fire as George Floyd demonstrations turn violent in downtown Cleveland
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-31 14:55:07|Editor: huaxia

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DENVER, United States, May 30 (Xinhua) -- A high school teacher from the U.S. state of Colorado was stunned to receive a medical bill of 840,000 U.S. dollars for his treatment after contracting COVID-19, local media reported on Saturday.

The bill received by Robert Dennis, a Centennial High School teacher, covered Dennis' time at Denver's Sky Ridge hospital, where he was put on a ventilator in the intensive care unit for two weeks.

However, what was not included was Dennis' three weeks at Spalding Rehabilitation Hospital, or his wife's trips to the emergency room when she was also fighting the virus. The couple estimated that their total bills would top one and a half million dollars.

The couple had insurance and they planned to call to make sure that they were covered.

"Seeing that number yesterday for the first bill, it took your breath away again," the wife said, "It's scary. I don't care how much you have covered. It's scary to see that kind of number and not really know." Enditem
NORMAL  The Normal City Council will consider a development agreement for the former Wildwood Industries property that could create 50 jobs on Normals north edge.

The council will also consider a proposal to expand the fire departments emergency medical services to Hudson. The council will meet at 7 p.m. Monday. The meeting will be conducted live and available at https://www.normal.org/.

The 68.9-acre Wildwood property on the southeast corner of North Main Street and Kerrick Road contains an unfinished 500,000-square-foot warehouse and distribution building. Construction started in November 2007 and stopped in October 2008.

The warehouse property was conveyed out of bankruptcy to the contractors, including general contractors Johnston Contractors Inc. and Stark Excavating, who were owed more than $8 million.

The proposed project is being led by Phoenix JCR Normal Industrial Investors, LLC, an affiliate of Phoenix Investors, LLC. Phoenix Investors is a national commercial real estate firm based in Milwaukee, Wis., whose core business is the revitalization of industrial properties throughout the United States.

The council packet says Phoenix Investors has identified five prospects for the project and is confident it will lease the project by completion of the construction work. The proposed project will include an investment of approximately $16 million to acquire, renovate, improve, and lease the existing facility for warehouse and distribution purposes. Once complete and leased, the project is expected to create approximately 50 jobs.

The warehouse is unfinished, City Manager Pam Reece said. We now have a developer who wants to finish the project and then lease it out. That would be exciting to see that property actually completed.

In other business, the council will consider expanding the fire departments emergency medical services to the village of Hudson.

Currently, the Hudson Fire Protection District provides emergency medical service to the village and surrounding area. In July 2019, Normal Fire Department was contacted by Hudson to discuss the possibility of expansion.

During a May 4 work session, Normal Fire Chief Mick Humer told the council the Hudson department has been impacted by increasing minimum wage rates and turnover. Normal already responds to approximately 50 calls per year from Hudson to provide paramedic-level services. Hudson responds to approximately 150 calls per year.

Under the proposed agreement, the Hudson department would pay the town $225,000 for services in the first year, with a 3% increase in the second and third years. The town would provide EMS service 24 hours per day, 7 days per week.

We dont want to risk the service level to Normal residents, but we are confident that we can accommodate the Hudson Fire Protection District in our runs without impacting that, she said.

No additional staff will be necessary, she added.

Humer said the Normal department has not experienced any difficulty with call volume and intercepts in Hudson. Normal has a similar deal in place with the Towanda Fire Protection District.

The Normal Fire Department responded to 5,446 ambulance calls in 2019, and has three paramedic-level ambulances, two advanced life support engine companies and one basic life support engine company. EMS calls for service usually increase by 300 calls per year, so an additional 100 calls per year has little impact on NFD operations. The department monitors response times and the potential utilization of mutual aid to best address patient needs.

If approved, the contract would begin July 1.

Contact Kevin Barlow at (309) 820-3238. Follow him on Twitter: @pg_barlow

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The scramble to jump on one of the hottest gold trades in years - by shipping bullion to New York -- has sparked what may be one of the largest ever physical transfers of the metal.

"The flows into New York are unprecedented," said Allan Finn, global commodities director at logistics and security provider Malca-Amit. His company's teams in New York have been working 24 hours a day to cope with demand while navigating lockdowns, flight disruptions and social distancing.

The COVID-19 crisis has severely affected the supply chain for gold. Credit:Bloomberg

Gold flooded into the US in recent months as traders rushed to profit from an arbitrage caused by dislocations in the market triggered by the pandemic. Since late March, some 550 tonnes of gold - worth $US30 billion ($45 billion) at today's price and roughly equal to global mine output in the period - have been added to Comex warehouse stockpiles. Hundreds of tonnes of that was imported.

While tens of billions of dollars of gold change hands every day in financial markets, a much smaller amount tends to physically move between vaults in trading hubs like London, Zurich and New York.
Hancock High School seniors are celebrating an important milestone in their life with a twist we're seeing all across the country due to COVID-19.

One by one dozens of cars drove down Quincy Street in Hancock Saturday for the seniors graduation parade. The community stood alongside on the sidewalk cheering the seniors on.

Afterwards, the high school hosted a closed graduation ceremony for only students and direct family members to follow social distancing orders.

"It's a privilege to be able to know each and every one of you, and to be able to create so many memories that we'll never forget, and now today, we will create one last memory together celebrating our greatest achievement, said Willard Bal, Salutatorian.

During the ceremony, Vanessa Dulong performed an original, titled "Quarantined." Jamie Sintkowski performed an original rap, titled "Distancing."

Hancock Superintendent Steve Patchin says district staff is so proud of these talented students and their original arrangements.
Courtesy Photo

The Railroad Commission of Texas launched a statewide drone inspection team April 28, sending drones to inspect a possible leak from a well near Red Bluff Reservoir in Reeves County.

The affected area could not be physically inspected because the road to the site was under water. A licensed RRC pilot launched a drone and determined a possible source of release using aerial and thermal images. The operator was contacted and sent personnel to the site by boat. The personnel took multiple samples from all over the well pad for analysis. The wellbore has been dug out and is being monitored for leakage.
IDEA Public Schools co-founder Tom Torkelson will receive $900,000 as part of a separation agreement reached last month, when he resigned as CEO after a two-decade run with the states largest charter school operator, according to a copy of the deal obtained Friday.

The amount far exceeds the annual salary of Texas highest-paid school leaders, who typically earned $300,000 to $450,000. Torkelsons base salary on his four-year contract with IDEA, which had two-plus years left on it, called for an annual salary of $275,000 and performance bonuses of up to $200,000.

IDEA officials said Torkelson also received a similar amount of compensation from IPS Enterprises, a nonprofit offshoot of the charter network, bringing his total annual payment close to the $900,000 settlement amount. IPS Enterprises was formed to assist the charters expansion nationally and does not receive taxpayer funds, relying in large part on private donations.

In the separation agreement, obtained through a public records request, IDEA leaders and Torkelson said the deal was reached to avoid a protracted dispute process, to avoid extensive legal expenses and costs including litigation costs that might otherwise be incurred, to preserve needed philanthrophy to IDEA and to resolve any and all disputes with finality.

With respect to the transition of Tom Torkelson as CEO and Executive Chair of IDEA Public Schools, the IDEA board and Tom worked earnestly to facilitate an orderly transition, IDEA Board Chairman Al Lopez wrote in a letter to IDEA affiliates.

With the assistance of professional advisers, counsel and a respected independent facilitator, an agreement was reached whereby IDEA Public Schools will pay Tom $900,000 to facilitate this transition.

IDEA officials said the payout will come from public and private funds, though they did not specify an exact breakdown.

The charters leaders do not expect the $900,000 amount will trigger a Texas law that requires state officials to dock payment of taxpayer funds to districts that pay out more than a years worth of salary and benefits in severance to a superintendent. The law specificies only that independent school districts are subject to the provision.

Most recently, the Texas Education Agency docked Katy ISD by $513,754 after reaching a settlement agreement totaling $955,795 with former superintendent Lance Hindt.

Torkelson drew widespread praise from charter advocates and other education leaders during his tenure building IDEA, which operates 91 schools in Texas, including in San Antonio, with a combined enrollment of 49,500 students. IDEA also operates five campuses in Louisiana.

But Torkelsons leadership came under fire in the months before his resignation after the disclosure of plans to lease a private jet and costs totaling $400,000 associated with the luxury boxes and event tickets.

Immediately following his resignation, Torkelson said he believed there was 100 percent unanimity that this was the right call for the organization at this time. IDEA board members selected co-founder and superintendent JoAnn Gama as Torkelsons replacement.

Torkelson did not respond to a request for comment.

jacob.carpenter@chron.com
Hundreds of apartments and offices in towers up to 45 storeys could be built on the Sydney Fish Market site at Pyrmont under the government's plans for the area, triggering criticism from the lord mayor and local member.

As the Berejiklian government forges ahead with its $750 million project to relocate the fish market to the head of Blackwattle Bay, Infrastructure NSW last month released plans to guide a major redevelopment of the site.

The fish market could be demolished to make way for a waterfront residential and employment precinct. Credit:Louise Kennerley

The government is consulting the public on three "precinct plan scenarios" that will shape the revamp of Blackwattle Bay. The area was first designated as a future apartment, employment and dining hub in 2013.

Infrastructure NSW says the rezoning of 5.4 hectares of land for up to 1700 dwellings and 7000 jobs will "deliver new open space and return inaccessible parts of Sydney Harbour to the public for the first time in decades".
The images coming from Minneapolis are alarming  a violent response to a brutal killing of a black man by a white police officer. We are blind, though, if we think what is going on in the middle of the country could not happen here.

In Minneapolis, George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, was arrested by police Monday after a convenience store clerk accused him of trying to use a counterfeit $20 bill to buy cigarettes. A video shows a white police officer, identified as Derek Chauvin, pinning Floyd face-down to the ground with his knee pressing the back of Floyds neck.

I cannot breathe, Floyd is heard saying on the video. Itll kill me, I cant breathe. He later died.

Even if he were using an illegal counterfeit bill  which is not proven  that should not be a death sentence. No one should be handled with such brutality, for any reason, by officers sworn to protect the public.

But its a fact that black people are killed by police in this country in disproportionate numbers. Police killed 1,099 people in 2019; nearly one-quarter were black although they make up only 13 percent of the population, according to the site Mapping Police Violence. Black people are three times more likely to be killed by police than whites.

In Minneapolis, the four white officers allegedly involved in Floyds death were fired, but not immediately arrested. On Friday, Chauvin was charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter. Coupled with the brutality, people protested and by Wednesday that escalated to fires, including a police station, and looting. Protests have spread to cities in California, Oregon and Ohio.

Racism, shamefully, is embedded in this country. On Feb. 23, in a Georgia suburb, a white father and son were videotaped shooting a defenseless black man, Ahmaud Arbery, who was jogging. They werent charged until May, and later the man who recorded the murder also was charged.

Police brutality was spotlighted after the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., six years ago. Measures were taken, such as putting police cameras in most departments and requiring more training. But shootings keep happening.

Setting fires and looting are not condoned, but are a response to intense frustration.

Police shootings of black people in Connecticut have sparked protests  there is no less outrage here  but religious and community leaders have prevailed in keeping demonstrations within First Amendment expression.

Two years ago, a 15-year-old black youth, Jayson Negron, was shot and killed by a Bridgeport police officer. A state police investigation determined it was justified. Last May during a protest on the anniversary of his death, Bridgeport police, who were arresting people for not dispersing quickly enough, handcuffed and detained a Hearst Connecticut Media reporter who was covering the event. Similarly, three CNN journalists were arrested by Minneapolis police Thursday while doing their jobs.

Tensions are high, compounded by the coronavirus pandemic which strikes black communities in greater numbers. Understanding is needed before change can happen.
Now in its sixteenth season, The Incredible Dr. Pol has been allowing viewers a sneak peek into the working life of a large-animal farm vet (who also treats small animals of every kind) in his Michigan community.

Dr. Jan Pol of The Incredible Dr. Pol | Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic

RELATED: How Many Seasons Does The Incredible Dr. Pol Have Under Its Belt?

The reality show has also apparently been influencing a new crop of wanna-be veterinarians to pursue a career just like Dr. Pols.

What inspired Dr. Pol to become a veterinarian

Born in 1942 in the Netherlands, Dr. Pol was raised on a farm to appreciate and care for animals, and that he did. As a youngster, Dr. Pols father put him in charge of many of the animals on the premises: from chickens to goats to cows. No wonder he seems so at home with them when he makes farm visits on the show!

RELATED: The Incredible Dr. Pol Celebrated National Puppy Day and Its What We All Need Right Now

His son, Charles, explained to National Geographic in 2014 about his dads innate way with animals and how his calling was clearly defined from a young age.

My dad was born in the Netherlands and grew up on a farm. Initially, he wanted to be a farmer. But there isnt much farmland left in the Netherlands, so its nearly impossible to do. When he was nine years old, his brother called the local vet to help them deliver a litter of piglets. My dad helped the vet, and from that moment on, he knew what he wanted to do.

Is Dr. Pols son, Charles Pol, a vet, too?

While Charles is on screen a great deal with his dad on The Incredible Dr. Pol, helping him with cow birthings and bull castrations, the 41-year-old set his sights from a young age on a more glittery, exciting backdrop  Hollywood.

RELATED: The Incredible Dr. Pol: What Is His Net Worth and What Is the Veterinarians Ethnicity?

Dr. Pol explained to Tribune News Service in 2018, [Charles] went to film school in Miami and then went to Hollywood. He said, Were here in Hollywood. Lets make movies! But the writers strike was there, and filmmakers were a dime a dozen, and he was here for about eight to ten years.

Then he had a friend at Nickelodeon and Charles said, If you want to make a reality show, you should make one with my dad. Hes a veterinarian. He does large animals. Hes in the Midwest, and theres been nothing like that on TV. And hes a CHARACTER,  Dr. Pol recalled.

And the rest is history!

The vets-in-training that Dr. Pol is inspiring

One need only look on Twitter at the accolades tweeted out from Dr. Pols fans  age ten and younger  who have caught the Dr. Pol bug of wanting to devote their lives to caring for animals.

One young fans parents tweeted, My 9 year old just cant get enough @DrPol. She decorated her room with her own Dr. Pol decorations and apparently had a dream last night that she pregnancy checked a cow.

@DrPol This is Ella she did a wax museum report on Dr. Pol, wrote another fan about her young daughter. She taught her class about doing a stomach flip on a cow just like Dr. Pol. That was one of her favorite episodes. Ella is going to be a wonderful vet someday! Just wanted Dr. Pol to know how inspiring he is!

Even older fans are galvanized by Dr. Pol to appreciate the hard work that goes into caring for working farm animals.

Well, Im certainly not 9, tweeted a mature fan, but Im right there with the little gal. Love the show. Even the reruns!

RELATED: The Incredible Dr. Pol: The Real Reason Dr. Emily Left
Oh my God, forgive us our sins.

They are many.

They are dark.

They fill this soul with a grief so heavy, so encompassing, that it makes me want to grab my family and run away from this world with all of its festering, rotten, putrid beliefs, behaviors, corruptions and filth.

Its a feeling that quickly gets the wind knocked out of it  theres nowhere to run.

Wherever there are people, human nature at its best will exist and human nature at its worst will exist.

And even if there were someplace to run, theres no escaping my own faults, failings, shortcomings and sins.

Wherever you go, there you are.

Still, events from the past few weeks have fueled in me that feeling  that longing to escape this deranged world.

Like the devastating news I read this month that an Alabama grandmother allegedly livestreamed a man sexually assaulting his 1-year-old daughter (her granddaughter) for a pornographic site.

Its awful, said Geneva County Sheriff Tony Helms, according to AL.coms Carol Robinson. Its hard to describe it any other way. A lot of evil does exist in this world.

The worst part? Thats just an example of two awful people who got caught. Think of the countless who havent.

One of the things that bothers me is how many other cases there are like this out there just waiting on a tip from a good citizen to tell us, Helms said. Thats the scary part.

Lord help us.

And like the horrifying video that circulated last week showing a dying George Floyd telling Minneapolis police officers he couldnt breathe while one of the officers kneeled on his neck for those long, long minutes that led to an unjust death.

It makes me want to scream a tweaked version of Romans 7:24: Oh, what miserable people we are! Who will free us from this life that is dominated by sin and death?

Who will deliver us from hatred, injustice, assault, murder, corruption and evil?

Who will save us from ourselves?

What is in your heart if you use your body weight to suffocate a man while he is pleading for his life? wrote Christian author Paul David Tripp in a recent Facebook post. And what is in your heart if seeing it doesnt produce moral grief and outrage in you?

Grief. Sadness. Anger.

I know Im not alone in feeling all of that, plus perhaps a raw and ragged fear that despite everything I know about the goodness of God and the end of the story, that all thats good in the world doesnt drown out all thats evil.

That it sometimes feels like were using toy water guns to quench raging forest fires.

Jesus have mercy.

There is so much hate and division in this world. It is so sad to watch and it hurts my heart, wrote Birmingham businessman and Living Life On Purpose podcast host Matt Wilson in a recent Facebook post.

To see the video of George Floyd being choked to death is awful. If there were no video it would be awful. But to hear people begging those men to stop and nothing being done is excruciating.

But what to do with these feelings?

Tensions are high everywhere, Wilson wrote. We need to love one another. We need God's help to get through all of this. We are broken as a nation. We need to recognize that and ask for forgiveness for the way we have all treated one another.

Ask for forgiveness. Love one another. Rely on Gods help.

And resist, oh resist, the temptation to run away from it all.

To turn off the news.

To turn off our hearts.

To turn a blind eye.

To turn into stone.

What evils have gone unabated because of our passivity, wrote Amy Dimarcangelo for The Gospel Coalition. When weve chosen superficial peace over godly anger  or when weve traded justice and righteousness for a shallow deposit of nice.

Rachel Blackmon Bryars is a Huntsville-based columnist for Al.com, co-host of Belle Curve Podcast and managing partner of Bryars Communications, LLC. Keep up with her work on her Facebook page.
By Azernews





By Akbar Mammadov

A criminal case has been launched against the acting chairman of the Arkivan municipality of southern Masalli region, Anar Rajabov, on charge of abuse of power, the Prosecutor Generals Office reported in its website on May 31.

The criminal case was initiated after the investigation by the Anti-Corruption General Directorate under the Prosecutor General after it received material proof from the Masalli District Prosecutor's Office on the illegal excavation and transportation of agricultural land in the Arkivan-Kosakul area of Masalli District.

The General Prosecutors office noted that Rajabov abused his powers and deliberately violated the requirements of the Law of Azerbaijan "On Municipal Land Management".

The grounds for suspicion of causing damage to nature in the amount of AZN 644,000 ($378,823) have been identified by the Anti-Corruption General Directorate. Thus, during 2015-2016, Rajabovs illegal activities have led conditions for rendering 5 hectares of agricultural land, pasture land owned by the municipality useless as a result of transportation of clay and sand and gravel deposits by excavating the lands with the help of special equipment.

Because of his illegal activities, a criminal case has been launched under Article 308.2 of the Criminal Code (abuse of power with grave consequences).

Necessary investigative measures are currently being taken at the Anti-Corruption General Directorate with the Prosecutor General to identify the culprits and citizens whose legitimate interests have been violated, as well as to ensure compensation for the damage caused by a full and thorough investigation of the illegal cases, the General Prosecutors office noted.

Recently the State Security Service launched special operation against a number of officials in the country. Thus, head of the Imishli district Vilyam Hajiyev and head of the Bilasuvar district Mahir Guliyev were arrested for four months on charges of embezzlement, abuse of power, and bribery. Six local officials in three other districts were also investigated. Deputy Minister of Culture Rafiq Bayramov and a number of other ministry officials were detained during the State Security Service's operation on May 8.
City officials expected Midland International Airport to be hit hard during the coronavirus pandemic.

It has been.

The city a report last week that showed the number of people traveling on American Eagle, Southwest or United dropped from 50,350 in April 2019 to 5,262 in April 2020. That was a decline of 89.5 percent year over year in April.

It was a decline that is basically unprecedented in Midland International Airports history. The sharp decrease in Aprils numbers continued a trend that started in March. The number of boardings this fiscal year went from being 7.7 percent higher at the end of February to 17.4 percent lower at the end of April.

Also, down this fiscal year are fuel sales (6.8 percent) and parking revenues (16.1 percent).

This trend is expected to continue longer-term because the number of flights leaving Midland International Airport in May will be one-third of the number of flights before the coronavirus, according to the city of Midland.

The city is expected to receive nearly $23 million in economic relief funding for Midland International Airport.

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act was signed into law by President Donald Trump this spring and is providing direct economic assistance for American workers and families, small businesses, and preserves jobs for American industries, according to the Department of the Treasury.

Midland International Airport will receive $22.935 million. That amount is the seventh most for any airport in the state of Texas and the most for any Texas airport not located in Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio or Austin.
Sudans Ambassador to Uganda Najwa Abbas Gadaeldam died Wednesday from COVID-19 in Khartoum. Abbas helped shape Sudan's foreign policy, and she promoted bilateral ties between Sudan and several countries.

Abbas served as Sudans ambassador to Uganda during the administration of former President Omar al-Bashir, who was ousted from power by military leaders in April 2019 following mass protests across the country over skyrocketing prices for bread.

Abbas played a significant role in rebuilding diplomatic ties between Khartoum and Kampala. During her period as ambassador, Abbas also served as special adviser to Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni on Sudan and South Sudan.

Played 'a huge role'

Dawood Abulazeez, Abbas cousin, says the ambassador was loved by many in Sudan.

She was born and raised in Omdurman, and she got all her other studies and schools [schooling] until she reached the University of Khartoum. She graduated from the college of engineering in 1989. She got a masters degree in Germany in microchips, Abulazeez told South Sudan in Focus.

Abbas strengthened Sudans diplomatic relations with several countries, including Uganda, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia and South Sudan, according to Abulazeez.

She has been playing a huge role in fixing so many holes of relations between Sudan and other countries in Africa, locally and Internationally. Former President Bashir asked her to help in repairing some international crises, and after al-Bashir, [General Abdulfatah] al-Burhan also did the same, Abulazeez told VOA.

In February, shortly before a snap legislative election in Israel, which was the third one in less than a year, Abbas organized a controversial meeting in Entebbe, Uganda, between the head of Sudans Sovereign Council, al-Burhan and Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu.

Secret meeting sparked protests

After the secret meeting, Israel said the two countries had agreed to move toward forging normal diplomatic relations. Only two Arab states  Egypt and Jordan  have diplomatic ties with Israel.

Sudanese government ministers insisted they were unaware of the meeting, and protests erupted in Khartoum because of it.

Haj Hamad, a political science lecturer at Khartoum University, describes the late Abbas as a courageous woman, saying her decision to get involved in rebuilding bilateral ties with Israel was a risky move.

She has developed some very special relations with Israel, something that is very unique for Sudanese, especially ladies. And I think this is a generation brought up in a culture of boycotting Israel, Hamad told South Sudan in Focus.

Special ties to Israel

Following Sudans historic revolution, Sudan restored relations with several countries. Hamad says Abbas will forever be remembered for her role in making that happen, especially with regard to Israel.

It seems she succeeded to develop such kind of relations with such communities, and she was trying her best to sell Israel in the region. Through this kind of popular diplomacy, she had tried to make her outreach to the military, who happened to already [have] relations and coordination of anti-terrorism policies with the U.S, Hamad told VOA.

Israeli TV Channel 13 reported Wednesday the Israeli government sent a plane with medical staff and equipment to Khartoum in an attempt to save Abbas life, though it noted she died 24 hours after its arrival.
By Trend

Georgia expects serious economic recession in 2020, Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development Natia Turnava told reporters, Trend reports citing Georgian media.

Georgia has all the resources to make 2021 the year of economic growth, Turnava added.

A 16.6-percent decline in the economic growth was expected in April, as a result of our policy. We had a state of emergency in the country, economic activity was substantially limited, and we did this deliberately to protect the population from the spread of the pandemic," the minister said.

Turnava noted that May will also be very difficult, as well as the rest of the year.

"A serious decline is expected in the economy in the whole world and in Europe. However, we have all the resources to make 2021 a year of growth and enterprises will be an integral part of this success, Turnava said.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
Nigerian actress Toyin Abraham has used her platform to call for justice following the murder of a 16-year-old girl, Tina.

The young girl is said to have been murdered by a trigger happy police officer.

Read Also: 60-Year-Old Nigerian Publisher, Toyin Akinosho Opens Up On Why He Never Got Married

Taking to her page, Toyin wrote;

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What do we call it when police men who are supposed to be protectors of lives are the one taking lives? My hearts are with the parents of Tina and I am committed to supporting them in my own little way. I am impressed with the swift response on arresting the erring cops but please let it not end there. Police as an institution must show that it will no longer condone this act of lawlessness. Nigerians must feel safe within Nigeria.
WASHINGTON - As protests over the death of George Floyd grow in cities across the U.S., government officials have been warning of the outsiders -- groups of organized rioters they say are flooding into major cities not to call for justice but to cause destruction.

But the state and federal officials have offered differing assessments of who the outsiders are. Theyve blamed left-wing extremists, far-right white nationalists and even suggested the involvement of drug cartels. These leaders have offered little evidence to back up those claims, and the chaos of the protests makes verifying identities and motives exceedingly difficult.

Police officers across the country were gearing up Saturday for another night of potentially violent clashes in major cities. Some states had even called in the National Guard to aid overwhelmed police.

The finger pointing on both sides of the political spectrum is likely to deepen the political divide in the U.S., allowing politicians to advance the theory that aligns with their political view and distract from the underlying frustrations that triggered the protests.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz on Saturday told reporters hed heard unconfirmed reports that white supremacists were coming from elsewhere to stoke the violence and that even drug cartels are trying to take advantage of the chaos. John Harrington, the states commissioner of public safety, later said they had received intel reports on white supremacists.

But I cannot say that we have confirmed observations of local law enforcement to say that weve seen cells of white supremacists in the area, he said Saturday.

But federal officials later pointed to far left extremist groups. President Donald Trump alleged the violence was being led by Antifa and other radical groups. Antifa, short for anti-fascists, is an umbrella term for far-left-leaning militant groups that resist neo-Nazis and white supremacists at demonstrations.

Attorney General William Barr later seemed to echo Trumps assertion, saying the violent incidents in Minneapolis were driven by groups using Antifa-like tactics. Barr vowed that federal prosecutors across the country would use federal riots statutes to charge protesters who cross state lines to participate in violent rioting.

A Justice Department spokesperson said the attorney generals assertion was based on information provided from state and local law enforcement agencies, but did not detail what that information entailed.

Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf was even more vague, declining to point to any particular ideology in his assessment. His agency has heard that a number of different groups are involved in these whether its Antifa or its others, frankly, he said. The groups appeared to be organized and using tactics that wouldnt normally happen in peaceful protest, he said, though he didnt elaborate.

While the motives behind the violence were unclear, there was firmer evidence that some of the protesters were coming to the demonstrations from outside the urban centres that have been the epicenter of the demonstrations.

In New York City, federal officials were bringing charges against several suspects, including one of two sisters from upstate New York accused of throwing a Molotov cocktail through the back window of a police van in Brooklyn, a law enforcement official said. The initially peaceful demonstrations in New York City over Floyds death spiraled into chaos as night fell Friday. Protesters confronted police officers, destroying police vehicles and setting fires.

In Detroit, 37 of the 60 people who were arrested in overnight protests did not live in the city  and many came from nearby suburbs, police Chief James Craig said Saturday. Although Detroit is about 80% black, many of those arrested were white.

We support the right to free speech. We support peaceful protests, Craig told reporters. If you want to disrupt, stay home and disrupt in your own community.

Initially, St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter said hed been told all of those arrested in his city Friday were from outside the state. But a spokesman said Saturday night the mayor had later learned more than half are from Minnesota.

In Hennepin County, which includes Minneapolis, 47 of the 57 people arrested in protest incidents through Saturday morning had provided a Minnesota address to authorities, according to Jeremy Zoss, a spokesman for the Hennepin County Sheriffs Office.

Carter expressed the opinion of many black activists in the Twin Cities who have expressed disbelief that local residents would destroy their own neighbourhoods, burning down essential services and damaging small businesses. And while it was local protesters and groups that staged initial angry, but peaceful, demonstrations, it was agitators from elsewhere that strategically escalated the tension by causing damage and setting fires, they said. Their beliefs were reinforced by the large numbers of white people in the protests in Minneapolis.

I think about a third of the people are from out of town here to make the city burn, said Justin Terrell, executive director of the Council for Minnesotans of African Heritage. It is just putting black people in a crossfire not just between fascists and anarchists -- but putting us in a crossfire with the national guard.

Its exceedingly difficult in the chaos and dark of the events to prove these claims. The challenge is made harder in the Minnesota protest, where very few arrests were made in the first two nights of unrest. St. Paul arrest records showed 18 people were arrested on charges related to civil unrest from Thursday to early Saturday morning. Of those, only four were from outside the state; two were listed as unknown.

Still, some civil rights leaders had a clear message for anyone coming to protest, even those who show up to call for justice for Floyd.

The moment has passed. Go home, stay away from here. We are a vulnerable population. At the end of that day if black folks cant rebuild then the only thing weve done is build more power for white folks, said Terrell. Youre talking about years, decades of work undone by these groups -- and by the officer.

Trump vowed Saturday that the radical left criminals, thugs and others would not be allowed to set communities ablaze.

I will not allow angry mobs to dominate, he said. Wont happen.

___

Hennessey reported from Minneapolis. Associated Press writers Jill Colvin in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Michael R. Sisak in New York and Corey Williams in Detroit contributed to this report.
Taika Waititi has been criticised for policing black anger in a tweet in which he appeared to criticise the anti-police brutality riots that have taken place across the USA.

The Thor: Ragnarok and Jojo Rabbit director shared a clip of rapper Killer Mike speaking through tears as he urged black protesters to not burn your own house down and instead fortify your own house.

Peaceful and non-peaceful protests, riots and looting have occurred in Atlanta, Minneapolis, Kentucky and New York in recent days, along with other cities and states across the United States, following the death of George Floyd.

The 46-year-old was killed after a white police officer knelt on his neck for several minutes, while Floyd pleaded for his life.

Waititi captioned the shared Killer Mike clip with: Watch the whole thing. Eloquent. Clear. Everyone is angry but there is a way to direct that anger.

Waititis tweet was met with strong backlash, however, with numerous Twitter users accusing him of attempting to police black anger.

You are not Black and you do not get to decide how or when Black people should express and direct our pain and anger, read one tweet. How about you open your purse and use your platform to uplift our voices and resources? This is very disappointing coming from you.

Another wrote: Youre not going to sit here and police my anger and my communitys anger. You are no one of us. Dont you dare tell us how to respond. Keep your respectability politics to yourself.

Millionaire filmmaker being out of touch on your left, read another. Another Twitter user wrote: I implore you to seek out Black voices that dont just say what you WANT to hear. Listen to the Black people in your mentions.

Access unlimited streaming of movies and TV shows with Amazon Prime Video Sign up now for a 30-day free trial Sign up

Filmmaker Matthew A Cherry, who won an Oscar in February for his short film Hair Love, also tweeted at Waititi, writing: This aint it either.
Most members of the elite in Nigeria often quarrel with themselves in the area of why a country like Malaysia is developing and Nigeria is not. They ask how the People's Republic of China has been able to throw its cloak of poverty and underdevelopment to the garbage of history. The concern of the Nigerian elite is derived from one truism: both countries were almost at par at the level of development indicators in the 1960s. Many Nigerians would even submit that Malaysia took palm oil seeds from Nigeria in the 1960s to go and plant back home and Malaysia is doing better than Nigeria in palm oil production worldwide as at today, while Nigeria is quite far away from doing well in the business.

Unfortunately, however, the same elite hardly ask themselves some basic relevant questions: what is responsible for the development setbacks in Nigeria? Who is responsible for what? Arguments of lack of national cohesion have been variously advanced as possible reasons. Impact of colonial legacy has also been given as part of the rationales. Poor infrastructure, military dictatorship, poor leadership, etc, are also some of the reasons often given. But most unfortunately again, hardly do people focus on ministerial attitudes as possible dynamics. The use of 'ministerial' is in the sense of both the 'Ministry' and the 'Minister.'

Put differently, how do Ministers behave officially in Nigeria? How do Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of Government behave or operate in Nigeria? Do they ever behave in the spirit of quest for national unity, or unity of purpose in political governance? True, there is nothing to really write home about. Official attitudinal disposition is largely driven by factors of 'self-perception,' a 'holier than thou,' 'better than thou,' or 'more powerful than thou,' attitude. Mentality of service to the Government, not to mention service to the nation, is never part of their agenda. Rather, it is self-ego, power rivalry, religious bigotry, ethnic chauvinism, and political chicanery that are generally promoted to the detriment of national development, public transparency and public accountability. These are the ordinary dynamics of non-development in the Nigeria of today.

In Nigeria, for example, when letters are officially written by public or civil servants to law-abiding citizens of Nigeria, the signatories to the letters are always directed to do so, but when the same citizens write to any of the government agencies, the Directors and Permanent Secretaries are not always directed to reply. No administrative courtesy to reply, giving impression of non-seriousness of purpose in public governance. Even when such letters may be irrelevant or considered to be without value, courtesy and responsibility still requires a reply in the spirit of efficiency and effectiveness of Government, but this is hardly so. Communication has always remained unidirectional, and as a result, public governance has never been efficient and effective. It is only when Government is seriously criticised by and in the public that public and civil servants are compelled to respond and that replies suddenly become a desideratum.

In fact, it is in Nigeria, not to say only Nigeria, that the level of ministerial lies is also very high. Ministers in Nigeria cannot easily be relied on, because of their conflicting statements. They say one thing in the morning and thereafter in the afternoon, denying them differently. This situation has not helped the image of Government at home and abroad. An analysis of some manifestations is necessary at this juncture.

Manifestations of Ministerial Dishonesty

Let us espy the case of the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Raufu Mohammed to begin with. He caused the arrest and detention of one journalist, Rotimi Jolayemi, popularly referred to as 'Oba Akewi.' 'Oba Akewi' literally means 'King of Akewi.' 'Akewi' is a person who sings in praises or in condemnation of things and people, using poetic stylistics, special Yoruba traditional philosophies and incantations. When he was to be arrested and was not readily found, his wife, Dorcas, along with his two brothers, John and Joseph, were reportedly arrested and detained. When Mr. Rotimi Jolayemi eventually surfaced on May 6, 2020, he was transferred immediately to Abuja.

Why the arrest and detention? Rotimi Jolayemi, in one of his poetic songs, presented the Minister, Lai Mohammed, in bad image. In the video recording of the poem that I listened to, he called Lai Mohammed 'were', meaning 'insane' or 'mad person.' More of concern, he called the Minister as having been brought up, or nourished with 'omi iro', that is with 'water of deceit,' or polluted water. The use of words like these is simply to suggest that if the Minister is frequently telling lies, it is because the water and the blood flowing in his blood capillaries has been tainted with untruths. Thus, the Minister is painted as a recidivist liar.

But again, what has prompted the poet and journalist to paint the Minister as a blatant liar? Rotimi Jolayemi, rightly or wrongly, does not believe in the statement of the Minister that Government had incurred the sum of N100 million for the purposes of COVID-19 palliatives. He also accused other Ministers and the Accountant General of the Federation. He insinuated in his video that N1 trillion could not have been incurred for COVID-19.

Whereas, the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari is on record to be fighting societal indiscipline, and particularly, corruption. If any journalist believes that there have been jots of sharp practices in the management of COVID-19 palliative funds, he should be free to draw attention to it. In this regard, the whole issue of his arrest is about Jolayemi's criticism of the Honourable Minister, who reportedly denied the incident (please vide Adeola Fayehun's video series (https://youtu.be/rRIVnxAwAZc).

Many issues can be raised regarding the attacks by Rotimi Jolayemi and the response of the Minister. The first is the issue of right of opinion which every Nigerian has, as guaranteed by the 1999 Constitution, as amended. In fact, by virtue of Rotimi Jolayemi's status as a journalist, he is also specially required by the Constitution to monitor political governance and hold Government accountable. Consequently, he cannot be arrested for performing his constitutional duties. There is no big deal in levying allegations against any public official if the basis for it exists.

The second issue is the mania of monitoring political governance and holding government officials accountable to the people of Nigeria. Should Rotimi Jolayemi have described the Minister as a lunatic, a perpetual liar, etc? If he has reasons to justify his allegations, then the allegations should not have warranted police arrest and detention, which brings us to the third issue: the reactive attitude of the Minister.

The appropriate, civilised response is to challenge the allegations against him in the law court. It is fundamentally wrong to use one's position as Minister to order the arrest of a journalist. The reaction of the Minister is therefore most uncivilised and untenable in a democratising, nation-making country, like Nigeria. The year 2020 marks the 21 years of uninterrupted efforts aimed at strengthening the foundation of democratic culture in Nigeria. The use of manu militari method to silence an opponent is not in tune with the efforts being made to evolve an enduring democratic culture in the country.

A fourth issue is the reported denial by the Honourable Minister of the whole scenario. The denial, in itself, appears to be more damaging than the allegations levied against him by Rotimi Jolayemi. As revealed in the Adeola Fayehun video, which has gone viral, the Minister cannot honourably deny a truism but he has done just that. Ministers, like any other public and political servants, must learn how to appreciate the word, 'integrity' in their political dictionary. Ministers are entitled to respect from the public, as servants of the public, but when Ministers do not behave well in order to earn such public respect, criticism and resistance should be expected. In this case, no use of force can be enough to suppress suspicions and criticisms. They are indestructible ideas that cannot be fought with forceful intimidation. The answer to public criticism is either further clarification, self-defence or court prosecution. Certainly not by show of power.

The case of the Honourable Minister of Health is more unfortunate, because it goes beyond self or individual interest shown in the case of the Minister of Information and Culture. The case of the Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, has a national and international character because of the multi-dimensional nature of COVID-19 politics and the involvement of the Foreign Affairs Minister, who is a member of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 pandemic.

For instance, the Health Minister told all Nigerians that fifteen Chinese medics who came to Nigeria on April 8, 2020 were to assist the Government in the war against COVID-19. Impression was given by him that they were coming on the kind invitation of the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. As the Honourable Minister put it, 'first of all, what the Chinese doctors will be doing in Nigeria is capacity-building, to add to the body of knowledge which Nigerian doctors and experts have... They will be able to connect with our scientists and doctors via tele-conferencing, so that we can start early to be able to ask questions and hear their narratives.' The importance the Minister attached to the coming of the Chinese medics was to the extent that he opted to go to the airport to personally receive the Chinese guests, rather than taking active part in the COVID-19 daily up-date on that day.

Incredibly but true, the Chinese never came to Nigeria on the basis of any governmental invitation. It has been revealed that they came on the business invitation of the CCECC, a Chinese construction company doing good business in Nigeria. The company has publicly denied that the 'medics' came for any corona virus assignment in Nigeria. In fact, they were not quarantined in the isolation centres established by the Presidential Task Force. Besides, many of the Chinese 'medics' have been reported to be technicians and not medical physicians.

In this regard, there are other related questions which make the statement of the Minister look true, but most unfortunately, unbelievable. Chinese medics came to deliver anti-COVID-19 equipment donated by the Beijing authorities to their counterparts in Abuja. And true enough, the Chinese doctors arrived as scheduled with a 30-day visiting visa each and the Minister went in person to receive them. Unfortunately too, the Government of Nigeria did not host them as required by protocol. They were hosted by the CCECC management.

And perhaps most disturbingly, when the issue of where-about of the Chinese medics was again raised, the Honourable Minister of Health, who initially said that the Chinese were coming to help Nigeria, later claimed not to know their where-about. It took the time of the Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, to come to his defense and explain that the Chinese actually came to help in the conversion of ThisDay Dome into an isolation centre, which Prince Nduka Obaigbena, Chairman of Leaders and Company, donated to the Government of Nigeria for temporary use to assist in the containment of COVID-19 pandemic.

In terms of diplomatic protocol and etiquette, it is improper for a Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to descend so low to the level of going to receive a non-governmental delegation at the airport. Even if a delegation is governmental, the level of who should receive the delegation also matters. For instance, in 1982, when the President of Nigeria, Alhaji Shehu Shagari, was to go on official visit to Paris, France, the then French President, Francois Mitterrand, assigned a very junior Minister, Mrs. Georgina Dufoix, who was in charge of either fish or water resources, to receive the Nigerian leader at the airport. The Embassy of Nigeria in Paris kicked against the choice of Mrs. Dufoix. That was how the visit was cancelled sine die. Visits in international relations are not a child's play.

Although the Elysee (Presidency) and the Quai d'Orsay (Foreign Ministry) tried to manage the crisis by differentiating between official and officious visits, as well as between State Visits, Courtesy Visits and Working Visits, the cancellation of the visit seriously tainted the bilateral ties that had already been largely predicated on mutual suspicion. In other words, there is reception diplomacy in international relations that the Minister of Health should not have ignored.

A Minister should not simply wake up to engage in any act of diplomacy without carrying along the Ministry of Affairs. The Health Minister's airport reception of the Chinese is better looked at as going to the airport to ensure the safety of the donation of anti-COVID-19 equipment and supplies rather than an attempt to receive the medics. The airport reception, at best, was a faux pas. Why should a Minister of Interior know the location of the Chinese delegation, who came to Nigeria for the purposes of reconstructing ThisDay Dome to assist the Federal Government and the Minister of Health would not know? Tissues of lies lay somewhere. If truly, he does not know, where is the inter-ministerial coordination required at the level of public governance? Nigeria is not entitled to have Ministers of Untruths. Nigeria can never survive on the basis of lies-driven political governance and selfishness-driven policies. What about anti-Nigeria decisions of Ministers?

NCC-NIDCOM Saga and Political Chicanery

The NCC is Nigerian Communications Commission. NIDCOM means Nigerians in Diaspora Commission. The NCC is headed by Professor Umar Danbatta in his capacity as the Executive Vice Chairman, while the NIDCOM has Honourable Abike Dabiri-Erewa as Chairman and Chief Executive. The saga in question is not at the level of the two agencies of government, but at the level of attitudinal disposition of the two agents of government. How do the two individuals protect the national interest? In fact, how have people been reacting to the saga? Indeed, what is the saga about?

From the perspective of polemology, the saga is still at the level of a crisis. The object of dispute is the allegation of forceful ejection of the staff of NIDCOM from their offices located within the premises of the NCC in the absence of its Chief Executive, Dabiri-Erewa. The origin of the saga is traceable to February 13, 2020 when the NIDCOM drew attention to the attachment of its office space and mistreatment of NIDCOM staff by armed security men, who reportedly came at the instance of the Honourable Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ali Pantami.

The need for an office space to enable the newly established Commission to begin to function was made known as far back as June 2019. It was in response to Dabiri-Erewa's request for office space that some agencies of government offered some offices. The EFCC and the CBN offered to assist. The NCC, thanks to Professor Umar Danbatta, the Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, similarly offered its space in its Annex Office in Mbora District, Abuja.

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More interestingly, the NCC not only gave an office accommodation, but also took additional steps to providing some basic furniture. Following delivery of the office and furniture, the NIDCOM began to adapt the office to suit its purpose: installation of workstations for not less than 140 people; installation of a PABX-supported international Call Centre in collaboration with the Airtel Nigeria Limited, etc.

What is noteworthy here is that the NIDCOM has been settling down gradually in their new NCC office. The NIDCOM Chairman was to move there by mid-February 2020. However, a letter done by the NCC was served on her on February 9, 2020, giving an ultimatum of one week to vacate the office, as the Honourable Minister of Communication and Digital Economy purportedly needed the same office. More embarrassingly, even though one week ultimatum was initially given, it is useful to note here that on February 11, that is, only two days after, NIDCOM staff were reportedly denied access to their offices on the fifth floor of the NCC building. On February 14, reports also have it that NIDCOM offices were forcefully broken into without the knowledge of the NIDCOM's Chairman.

As noted in a Press Statement issued on May 24, 2020 by the NIDCOM, 'the Director of Special Duties of NCC informed the NIDCOM staff that he is acting on the instruction from the Honourable Minister, Pantami, to evacuate/refuse them entry into the building until further directive is given.' More important, when the NIDCOM's Chief Executive returned from her official trip to Ethiopia on February 14, she discovered that 'all items including the 140 work stations, personal computers, printers, sensitive documents and personal belongings of staff were carted away. The Call Centre was locked up.' Although the NCC boss has reportedly denied sending any armed security to do the dirty job, the question remains who directed the action?

The point being made here is simply the attitude of Ministers in Nigeria. Abike Dabiri-Erewa was on official trip with Mr. President to Addis Ababa. It was when she was not around that the dastardly act took place. Why was her attention not called to the eviction notice before giving a week's ultimatum? Why was the one-week ultimatum not respected? Why forcefully break into NIDCOM's offices? Who carted away their belongings, both official and personal?

Without any whiff of doubt, Ministerial behaviour is increasingly becoming reckless in Nigeria. The recklessness is driven by lack of policy coordination, which enables individual arrogance. Indeed, nothing prevented Mr. Pantami to have a tete-a-tete with Dabiri-Erewa inform her about why there was the need to eject the NIDCOM from the NCC building. Some observers have commented that Dabiri-Erewa is always hiding under 'woman factor' to fight her case. Why not? If the Chief Executive of NIDCOM were to be a serving or retired military man, would any armed security men have been deployed? Why are Nigerians disregarding policemen but never attempt to look into the face of soldiers, even when they are not armed? In fact, what makes it difficult for the Government to allocate an office accommodation to NIDCOM? Why is the NCC boss behaving as if the NCC building is his own personal property ? Have all the floors in the NCC even been fully occupied? Why is there no appreciation of Nigerians in Diaspora in light of their great financial commitment to the funding of development projects?
A mentally disturbed man shot dead five members of his family before being gunned down by the security forces in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, officials said on Sunday.

The accused Jehanzeb Surkheli killed his two wives, daughter, son and daughter-in-law after a fight over a petty issue in KPK's Batagram district, Station House Officer Nisar Ahmed said.

Surkheli, whose age was not mentioned, is suspected to have suffered with a mental illness.

He threatened the locals from entering his house and started digging graves inside to bury the bodies, the SHO said.

The police team reached the spot and asked Surkheli to surrender but he opened fire. Surkheli was killed in the police's retaliatory fire.
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An Australian journalist covering riots in Los Angeles over the death of George Floyd has been confronted by angry protesters who said they were sick of being told what to do by people who look like her.

Alexis Daish was in West Hollywood with her cameraman and security guards about 4pm local time covering the protest for Channel Nine's Weekend Today.

Ms Daish, who is the network's US correspondent, first explained how police were outnumbered and had no escape after their cars were torched and destroyed, before asking a group of protesters to explain their outrage.

'We're tired of people like you guys telling us how to feel about our own lives,' one of the protesters said, pointing at Ms Daish, who is blonde, and her crew.

'This anger is coming from hundreds of years,' he went on to say. 'Three people in two weeks... How many times does this have to happen?'

Protests and riots have erupted across the US since George Floyd, 46, died in Minneapolis on Monday after a white cop pressed his knee against Mr Floyd's neck for eight minutes.

A protester poses for photos next to a burning police vehicle in Los Angeles, Saturday, May 30 during a demonstration following the death of George Floyd

'We're tired of people like you guys telling us how to feel about our own lives,' one of the protesters said, pointing at Ms Daish, who is blonde, and her crew

A person jumps on a burning police vehicle in Los Angeles, Saturday, May 30, 2020, during a protest over the death of George Floyd

Demonstrators smash a police vehicle in the Fairfax District as they protest the death of George Floyd, in Los Angeles, California on May 30

The officer involved, Derek Michael Chauvin, was charged with third degree murder and manslaughter days after footage of the incident went viral.

Protesters took to the streets demanding reform after what many believe is another senseless death and example of police brutality. Mr Floyd had been accused of using a counterfeit $20 bill at a deli.

Los Angeles erupted in violence Saturday as cops in riot gear clashed with protesters who sprayed graffiti and torched police cruisers while officers shot rubber bullets into crowds and beat demonstrators with batons.

'We have done everything white people have asked us to do,' a protester told Ms Daish on the streets of West Hollywood, some 28 hour drive from where Mr Floyd died.

'We've tried everything. We had a black f**king president and it didn't work. Black people were still dying.

'We're tired of being told that these buildings and businesses are worth more than my body. That is not the case.'

Officer Derek Chauvin (pictured) was identified as the officer pinning down George Floyd in video footage that was widely shared on Tuesday

Chaos continues: A shirtless man was seen running near a burning building in downtown Minneapolis after a night of unrest and protests over George Floyd's death

George Floyd's (pictured) heartbroken family have called white cop Derek Chauvin to be charged with a more serious crime than third-degree murder after their lawyer revealed that Chauvin knelt on Floyd's neck for a staggering eight minutes during the arrest for forgery

Philadelphia: G. Lamar Stewart Sr. carries his son G. Lamar Stewart Jr. as protesters over the death of George Floyd gather at City Hall on Saturday

Following his response, the crowd erupted in cheers and Ms Daish and her crew moved away from the group for their own safety.

She described the chaos as 'just unbelievable', particularly given the nation is still battling a deadly COVID-19 pandemic.

'Los Angeles has been so strict about these shutdown stay at home orders,' she told viewers back home in Australia.

'You're not even allowed to leave home without having a mask on you. We're in the midst of a pandemic and now this.

'If anything is going to lead to a second wave, this is the perfect storm.'

People gathered at the riots explained they hoped for a peaceful protest, but were forced to 'react with violence' following the arrival of riot quads and police officers.

Officers are armed with rubber bullets and batons while they attempt to hold back growing crowds.

New York: Protesters on the West Side Highway confronted police officers as they marched Downtown toward City Hall during protests for George Floyd on Saturday in Manhattan

Pictured: A car is seen on fire at the parking lot of a Target store during the protests in Minneapolis

Washington DC: Protesters holding banners march from Capitol Hill toward the White House during a rally against the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd on Saturday

Pictured: After a peaceful march of hundreds to the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta on Friday

Protestors in Atlanta, Georgia, vandalized the CNN headquarters building during demonstrations Friday night

About 20 police cars were torched or destroyed at the LA protests, meaning officers were left with no means to quickly escape the protests should they have to flee.

Most of the cars have since been vandalised and now display expletive-riddled messages urging people to 'kill cops'.

Los Angeles Police Department have declared an 'unlawful assembly', meaning they can ask groups to disperse, but according to Ms Daish, the message has done little to sway the crowds.

Ms Daish's run in with the protesters comes as Channel 7 journalist Ashlee Mullany was almost taken out by a stun grenade as police closed in on a Minneapolis protest.

Ms Mullany, who is the network's US correspondent, crossed to Sunrise live from Minneapolis on Thursday afternoon to report on the mayhem as protests raged on in the city for a third day.

Footage showed the journalist duck for cover as a stun grenade was fired in her direction by police officers who descended on the protest.

Los Angeles erupted in violence Saturday as cops in riot gear clashed with protesters and the City of Angels went up in flame

Harlem: Demonstrators participate in a solidarity rally for George Floyd on Saturday in New York

Pictured: A man kicks out a store front window during a protest on Thursday in St. Paul, Minnesota

Former cop Derek Chauvin, who was arrested for the murder of George Floyd on Friday, is reported to be on suicide watch in his single cell in Ramsey County Jail and under constant surveillance

State troopers were called in and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey asked for the National Guard's help after one suspected looter was fatally shot and stores were ransacked and torched during the riots.

Shocking images Thursday morning showed the widespread destruction left overnight after stores including Wendy's, Target, Walmart and Autozone were looted and some even set on fire.

Mayor Frey pleaded for calm ahead of more expected protests this evening telling residents 'we cannot let tragedy beget more tragedy.'

Videos also showed what was reported to be an apartment building entirely engulfed by flames as rioters stood and watched. The fire department was nowhere to be seen.

Other demonstrators carried signs and wore T-shirts reading 'I can't breathe' - some of the last words Floyd said as he begged the police officer for his life.

Some held signs reading 'Black Lives Matter' and pictures of Floyd as they marched through the streets.

Curfews have been introduced in 10 cities across the nation to restore a semblance of order.

New York: Protesters gather in Harlem to protest the recent death of George Floyd on Saturday

Harlem: A crowd of hundreds grew to thousands in upper Manhattan as the protesters began to march Downtown

In Times Square, New York City, hundreds of NYPD officers formed a barricade and marched down the street to force protesters gathered in anger over police brutality back

So far, Chauvin is the only officer who has been charged in relation to Mr Floyd's death, but President Donald Trump indicated further charges may be laid against the three other officers who witnessed the incident and did nothing.

'The police officers involved have been fired from their jobs, one of them has already been arrested and charged with murder,' Trump said.

'State and federal authorities are carrying out an investigation to see what further charges may be warranted including against sadly the other three.

'In addition my administration has opened a civil rights investigation and I have asked the attorney general and the justice department to expedite it.'

The 44-year-old Chauvin is reportedly on suicide watch following his high profile arrest. His wife also filed for divorce.

He has a camera focused on him all day and and cops check on his cell inside Ramsey County Jail in St. Paul, Minnesota in person every 15 minutes.

When discussing Chauvin's arrest, Trump also took the opportunity to savage the crowds of protesters across the nation, describing them as 'mobs' and 'criminals'.

'The mobs are devastating the life's work of good people and destroying their dreams,' he said on Saturday.

He added demonstrators be stopped 'cold' by his administration - a day after he sparked outrage for making the inflammatory statement that 'when the looting starts the shooting starts' and the same day he tweeted that anyone scaling the White House grounds would be faced with 'ominous weapons'.

'My administration will stop mob violence and stop it cold,' he said.

Atlanta cop commended for his compassion during protests over George Floyd's death An Atlanta police officer stunned demonstrators protesting the death of George Floyd by sympathizing with them and admitting they 'have a right to be p***** off.' Hundreds of demonstrators descended on the streets of Atlanta, Georgia, in protests over the death of George Floyd, who died after a Minneapolis officer knelt on his neck for eight minutes. As 500 National Guard soldiers dispatch to embattled cities and authorities clash with civilians, Officer Z. Murphy's compassionate approach resonated with demonstrators on Friday. 'I do, alright, I have a son who's 31, I have a son who's 15, alright, and I have to have these conversations with him all the time,' Murphy says. Officers at the scene were reportedly telling protesters to leave via loudspeakers, but later realized this was the wrong approach. 'What was going on up here was wrong, that's why we brought it to a stop. The loudspeaker, the yakking, and the yapping,' he said. 'We said pause, let these people remain here, let them stay on the street, let them express their grievances because you have a right to be p***** off.' One protestor then interjects that officers 'over there, they don't feel the same way.' 'That's why I told them to shut the f*** up,' Murphy replied. The group of protestors cheered and Murphy fist-bumped one of the men. One person called out to Murphy to say that he needs to give his understanding energy to some of his fellow colleagues. 'One at a time, my brother, one at a time,' says Murphy. Footage of the conversation was shared to Twitter where it has received more than 346,000 likes and 108,300 retweets as of Saturday afternoon. Murphy (pictured): 'We said pause, let these people remain here, let them stay on the street, let them express their grievances...' Advertisement

In addition to local authorities, the National Guard has been dispatched to cities like Minneapolis, St. Paul and Atlanta
Two Republicans  a health care insurance executive and a Russian immigrant  will face off Tuesday in hopes of garnering the GOPs nomination in the 5th Congressional District.

The winner will face incumbent U.S. Mary Gay Scanlon, D-5 of Swarthmore, who has held the post since November 2018 after winning a special election. The 5th District includes all of Delaware County, parts of South and Southwest Philadelphia and a sliver of Montgomery County.

Rob Jordan, a senior sales executive for Blue Cross, grew up in Marple and graduated from Cardinal OHara High School and Villanova University. Hes the son of Maryann and Rob Jordan, the former president of the Marple Township Board of Commissioners. The candidate founded the Log Cabin Republicans club in Philadelphia.

Dasha Pruett spent her first 10 years in Moscow before her family left the former USSR, coming to the United States in 1980. Her father had been exiled to Siberia several times and her family endured religious and political oppression. Pruett is an ardent Donald Trump supporter.

Identified as a Socialism Slayer by Breitbart, Pruett is motivated by her history.

Sharing a story of when she went to the Giant on Township Line Road in Havertown over the past few months and seeing the empty shelves, Rob Pruett, her husband and campaign manager, said, She actually started to cry right there in the store  She never thought shed see that in America.

Pruett said she has concerns for struggling business owners, like her husband with his photography studio. I dont see how Im going to be working again until the fall, he said.

Coming from a Delaware County home that was active in politics, Jordan remembered as an 18-year-old canvassing with then-congressional candidate Curt Weldon in Marple. He could go house to house and find something in common with every citizen, he said.

Jordan said he decided to run after the Trump impeachment proceedings. It seemed like such a ramrod and unfair process, he said. They first tried on the Russian thing and that failed. They came up with this Ukrainian thing. Theyre just trying to get anything through. That made my blood boil.

Initially, he was going to run in Philadelphia but was asked to run here, which has had its own set of challenges due to the limitations presented by coronavirus in mid-March.

I am used to Zoom meetings and conference calls on remote, Jordan said. I much prefer being in person.

And while he has moved forward with online virtual campaigning, Jordan added, Im self-funding and underwriting it myself. We will need more money in the fall.

Pruett explained how his wifes campaign is getting its message out, even with all of the restrictions placed by the pandemic.

We cant do fundraisers, he said. We cant do town halls. Weve been limited to just the computer and social media.

Yet, Pruett added, Its being persistent. Its every day. Its getting the message out.

He said lawn signs have been popular, with more than 350 having been distributed. From Ridley to Radnor, from Aston to Ardmore, from Glen Mills to Glenolden, Dasha is everywhere, he said. Its cool.

Rob Pruett outlined reasons his candidate would be the better nominee.

(Jordan) lives on Greene Street (in Philadelphia), he said. He lives in District 2. The fact that he can run for District 5, its absolute insanity. It would be like an immigrant from China coming over here and running for the United States  Rob, you dont live in the district, you shouldnt even be able to be here.

In addition, Pruett said, My opinion in this politically correct world we live in, I think only a woman could beat a woman  Only a woman can fight a woman. Based on that alone, she should be the nominee.

Jordan responded.

Im not a carpetbagger, he said. I live in the district. Broomall is my base. The property in Philadelphia is an investment. (Pruett) also owns a house in Delaware. Broomall has always been my base.

Jordan said hes also gotten criticism for being gay.

I have had a few people say to my face, I cant vote for you because you are LGBT,' he said. Thats been a little disappointing. The response has been mostly positive but there has been some discrimination and some downside to it.

Both candidates emphasized their fitness to be chosen to face Scanlon.

Last I heard, she was doing a Zoom call about climate change when theres 40 million people out of work, Pruett said of the congresswoman. Dashas) going to be talking to mid- and big-sized businesses about how we get this thing started back up again. Were in it to win it. We feel like our chances are very, very strong.

Jordan offered his own reasons why voters should pick him.

The priority for the primary next week is getting the strongest candidate forward, he said. Its the education. Its the experience. Its the community roots. Ive been born and raised here  My message to the voters of the 5th Congressional District is that Im coming home to give more service as a way to give back for everything they helped me be.
Four more persons, including a woman who had returned from Canada, tested positive for coronavirus in Chandigarh on Sunday, taking the total tally of cases in the Union territory to 293.

Among the new patients, two women were residents of the city's worst-hit Bapu Dham Colony. While another is a 40-year-old man, resident of Khuda Ali Sher area, according to an official health bulletin.

The fourth case in the 27-year-old woman who returned from Toronto in Canada, it stated.

Of the total COVID-19 tally of the city, 90 cases are active. Chandigarh has so far reported four deaths due to the infection, the bulletin stated.

A total of 4,785 samples have been tested so far and of them, 4,478 samples are negative and reports of 13 samples are awaited.

Meanwhile, Chandigarh Deputy Commissioner ordered prohibition of movement of people for non-essential services between 9 pm to 5 am.

"Any breach of this order shall invite action under section 188 of the Indian Penal Code," the order stated.

Section 188 of the IPC deals with disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant.

READ | Punjab Govt Extends Lockdown Till June 30 With Relaxations Subject To Centre's Guidelines

READ | Domestic Passenger Flights Resume In Chandigarh
Reaching to migrant population from Eastern India including Poorvanchal, which faced massive problems in movement to their home states during the lockdown, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said no words can express their pain and agony and dropped indications of plans for bringing eastern India on the map of economic development.

For latest updates on coronavirus, click here

There is no stratum in our country unaffected by the difficulties caused by the affliction-the most gravely affected by the crisis are the underprivileged labourers and workers. Their agony, their pain, their ordeal cannot be expressed in words. Who amongst us cannot understand and feel what they and their families are going through! All of us are trying to share their distress; the torment, Modi said in his monthly radio address Mann Ki Baat.

The remarks came in the wake of the massive migrant crisis during Covid-19 laying bare open the wounds of joblessness and poverty in states falling in the regionthree of which Bihar, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh goe to polls in 2020, 2021 and 2022. Modi appreciated states making commendable efforts in helping those, who are most vulnerable and took note of skill mapping being done of migrants and setting up of migrant commission.

While Nitish Kumar ruled Bihar, where polls are due in October this year, have gone for massive skill mapping of migrants who came home and promised them the state will arrange work for them in the state, Yogi Adityanath led Uttar Pradesh not only set a migrant commission for their welfare but also raised an emotive pitch saying other states employing workers from UP will now have to take the states permission,

Modi noted had our villages, districts, states been self-dependent, many problems would not have been present before use in the shape and size that they are today and dubbed the current scenario an eye opener.

Noting that the nations balanced economic development is possible only through the development of Eastern India, Modi said ever since the country offered him the opportunity to serve, we have accorded priority to the development of eastern India.. And now, considering the migrant labourers, the need of the hour is devising a new solution - paradigm.we are ceaselessly taking steps in that direction..

In the pain of our labour, we can see the pain of Eastern India, which has the potential to become the growth engine of the country, whose labour power has the capacity to take the nation to new heights. The development of that eastern region is very important. Today, the distress our workforce is undergoing is representative of that of the countrys eastern region. The very region which possesses the capacity to be the countrys growth engine, whose workforce possesses the capability and the might to take the country to greater heightsthe eastern region needs development. It is only the development of the eastern region that can lead to a balanced economic development of the country, the Prime Minister said.

Linking the development in the region to his recent Atmanirbhar Bharat pitch, Modi also referred to communications from one person each from Bihar and Assam regarding self reliance in small scale businesses and said his campaign will take the country to greater heights in this decade.
PM allows over 300 Chinese traders to enter Vietnam to buy lychees

Lychee traders in Bac Giang Province rush to deliver the seasonal fruit to wet markets, May 2019. Photo by VnExpress/Ngoc Thanh.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has given permission for Chinese traders to enter Vietnam to buy lychees in the northern province of Bac Giang, a lychee growing hub.

Three hundred and nine of them are expected to enter Vietnam in June and be tested for Covid-19 during a 14-day quarantine period, La Van Nam, chairman of Luc Ngan District in Bac Giang.

The Chinese side is closely coordinating with their Vietnamese counterparts for this, he said.

The traders will have to show Covid-19 negative certificates issued by competent Chinese authorities. Upon arrival in Vietnam, they will be quarantined in five hotels and guesthouses in Bac Giang.

Following that, those who test negative will be granted a certificate saying they are virus-free and permitted to interact with local farmers.

Since March 22 Vietnam has not allowed entry for foreign nationals except those with diplomatic and official passports and business managers, experts and high-skilled workers. All are quarantined for 14 days.

Other special cases seeking entry have to be approved by the PM.

Luc Ngan District has 15,290 hectare of lychee orchards, and is likely to produce 85,000 tons this year. Of this, 34,000 tons are fresh fruit for the domestic market, 36,000 for exports and 15,000 for processing.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Vietnamese lychees are mainly exported to China, but smaller quantities also go to countries in the Middle East and the EU, Russia, the U.S., Canada, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Thailand, and Australia.

Vietnam has gone 45 days without community transmission of Covid-19. It has reported 328 infections without any deaths, of these 49 are active patients as 279 have recovered after treatment.

The Covid-19 pandemic hit 213 countries and territories, with more than 370,472 deaths reported.
New Delhi: US President Donald Trump on Sunday (May 31, 2020) said that the US government will designate the anti-fascist group Antifa as a terrorist organization.

The announcement, made by Trump on Twitter, comes amid violent nationwide protests about police brutality following the death of 'George Floyd' seen on video gasping for breath as a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck.



The United States of America will be designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organization.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 31, 2020

US Attorney General William Barr said on Saturday "outside radicals and agitators" have hijacked protests in US cities over the killing.

"Groups of outside radicals and agitators are exploiting the situation to pursue their own separate and violent agenda," Barr said in an on-camera statement.

It is not clear how many, if any, of the protesters participating in demonstrations across the country are from Antifa. John Harrington, the head of Minnesota`s Department of Public Safety, told a news conference on Sunday that about 20% of Saturday`s arrest records were for people out-of-state, though he did not yet have the total for Saturday night`s arrests.

Trump`s tweet on Sunday is not the first time the president has described Antifa as a terrorist group.

Other conservative politicians, such as Texas Senator Ted Cruz, have made similar statements.

It is also unclear whether the Trump administration is seriously pursuing the designation through formal channels, which would typically require coordination across multiple federal agencies.
Journalists covering nationwide protests over the death of a black man at police hands in Minneapolis have found themselves under attack, by police and at times by protesters. The arrest and handcuffing Friday of a black CNN journalist by police in Minneapolis -- even as he was reporting live on camera following the death of George Floyd -- may have drawn the widest coverage. The journalist, Omar Jimenez, was released an hour later after the Minnesota governor personally intervened. But there have been several other serious incidents across the country, notably in Louisville, Kentucky, where a riot-squad policeman fired what appeared to be pepper-spray pellets at a local TV crew filming the scene. "I'm getting shot!" Kaitlin Rust, a reporter with local TV channel WAVE-3, cried out on camera. And in Minneapolis, freelance journalist Linda Tirado was struck in the left eye by a rubber bullet fired by police, and said later on Twitter that she had permanently lost vision in that eye. "Authorities in cities across the US need to instruct police not to target journalists and ensure they can report safely on the protests without fear of injury or retaliation, said a statement from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Members of the media have also come under attack by protesters. In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, photographer Ian Smith said he was subjected to a beating until other demonstrators came to his defense. In Atlanta, the headquarters of news network CNN was attacked Friday by several dozen people. Someone in the crowd lobbed a flash grenade into the building's lobby as police stood guard there. And on Saturday morning, a Fox News journalist who was reporting from a position in front of the White House was pummeled and chased by demonstrators until police intervened. "If you are a protester, do what you feel is right, but dont stop us from doing what we know is the job we have to do for the public. Please do not target, intimidate, humiliate or block our efforts," said a statement from the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ). President Donald Trump has frequently targeted the news media as a source of what he calls "fake news," claiming without evidence that the media invent stories intended to harm him. Following the attack on the CNN building in Atlanta, the president retweeted a supporter's post that seemed to gloat about the incident: "In an ironic twist of fate, CNN HQ is being attacked by the very riots they promoted as noble & just. Oops. He has regularly denounced the press as "enemies of the people," and has often singled out CNN as a favorite target. Media critics and commentators say such language can have the effect, at least among fringe elements, of encouraging violence against journalists.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Americans across the country have received a first wave of stimulus relief checks, and they could be receiving a second one.

On Friday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Congress would decide whether to pass a final coronavirus relief package in upcoming weeks, CNBC news reported. This news comes after CNBC reports legislation from Democrats that calls for another set of checks to be sent out.

Were taking a careful look at a fourth and final bill. You could anticipate the decision being made on whether to go forward in about a month, said McConnell. And it will be narrowly crafted, designed to help us where we are a month from now, not where we were three months ago.

Similar to the first round of stimulus checks, they are based on your 2019 return. CNBC reports from experts that it is best to file a tax return if one hasnt already done so, in order to receive the second stimulus.

The IRS extended the federal income tax filing deadline from April 15, to July 15, 2020, due to COVID-19.

STILL DIDNT GET THE FIRST CHECK?

If you have not yet receive your coronavirus stimulus payment, youre not alone.

You can get your payment more quickly if you give the IRS your direct deposit information. The new deadline for giving the IRS your banking information is Wednesday, May 13, at noon.

You can supply your information via the IRS Get My Payment app, which was set up to track the status of your payment.
Ali Velshi knew almost instantly what had happened when he felt a sharp pain in his leg Saturday night in Minneapolis: He'd been hit with a rubber bullet fired by police.

"As a kid growing up in Canada, it felt familiar. It felt like a puck hit me in the shin," said the MSNBC anchor, who was covering what he described as a peaceful march of protesters. "It hit in a place that hurt."

Velshi, who suffered minor bruises, was one of at least a dozen journalists injured in cities across America this weekend - including a photographer who was blinded in one eye - as police fired rubber bullets, pepper spray and tear gas to quell unrest. Not since the 1960s, when the nation was wracked by civil rights demonstrations, antiwar protests and urban riots, has the press been embroiled in so much violence on American shores.

In several cases, reporters appear to have been swept up in indiscriminate efforts by authorities to disperse crowds. But in a number of incidents, journalists were injured, harassed or arrested after identifying themselves as reporters - a blatant violation of constitutional protections and long-standing ground rules that guide interactions between media and law enforcement officials.

Later on Saturday, for example, Velshi said his and another TV crew were confronted by police in a nearly deserted parking lot and informed them they were news media. " 'We don't care,' " Velshi said the police told him before opening fire, without injury.

Elsewhere around the world, journalists are regularly arrested or injured covering demonstrations as governments attempt to suppress reporting that threatens their legitimacy. But such examples have been rare in the United States. Before the Minnesota protests, 43 journalists here over the past three years had been detained by police while covering demonstrations - 37 of them during protests over President Donald Trump's 2017 inauguration, according to Joel Simon, executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Whether these assaults are happening by accident or on purpose, they have the effect of impeding the news - hampering the public's ability to see and judge the behavior of officials who are accountable to them. They may also amount to an infringement of human rights.

Simon sees several troubling forces behind the deteriorating dynamic between police and reporters. Police departments are increasingly relying on "quasi-military" tactics to suppress demonstrations - such as "kettling," in which two lines of officers bottle up protesters in a confined space and arrest everyone caught in between, including reporters.

And unfortunately, in many communities these days, where economic pressures have led to media layoffs and cutbacks in coverage, "the police simply don't know the journalists who are covering them," Simon said.

Meanwhile, social media has undermined public trust in the news media, a phenomenon egged on by Trump's frequent criticism of the press. Which makes it more likely that reporters will be met with hostility by police or demonstrators.

"I've never seen anything quite like this," Simon said. "Many of the norms have broken down."

In some cases this weekend, it was protesters who targeted journalists: A Fox News crew was punched and harassed outside the White House early Saturday; a crowd defaced the facade of CNN headquarters in Atlanta.

But much of what has transpired against reporters was perpetrated by police.

CNN cameraman Leonel Mendez and producer Bill Kirkos were both hit by rubber bullets as they were covering the street protests in Minneapolis on Saturday evening, suffering minor injuries. A day earlier, Mendez and Kirkos were arrested along with correspondent Omar Jimenez in an incident carried live on the network.

Vice News reporter Michael Anthony Adams shouted nearly a dozen times that he was a member of the media as police in Minneapolis poured out of a van and yelled for people to leave.

"I don't care," said one officer, ordering Adams to the ground. As Adams laid facedown, showing his press badge, he was hit by a blast of pepper spray. The exchange was caught on camera.

Several of the most chilling accounts came from Minneapolis, where the national protests first erupted last week after the death of an African American man, George Floyd, after a white city police officer arresting him knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes.

Los Angeles Times reporter Molly Hennessy-Fiske wrote that several journalists in Minneapolis shouted "press" and waved credentials but were nonetheless cornered and chased by police spraying tear gas and firing rubber bullets. One hit her photographer colleague Carolyn Cole in the face.

"I didn't realize it, but I was bleeding from several wounds to my leg," Hennessy-Fiske wrote. "Blood covered the face mask of a reporter next to me, who was so stunned someone had to tell him he was hurt."

Reuters TV cameraman Julio-Cesar Chavez was filming police about 8 p.m. Saturday when they began firing. "I've been hit in the face by a rubber bullet!" he said on camera. Chavez was hit in the back of his neck, under his left eye and his arm, while a Reuters security adviser also suffered injuries, according to the news service.

Journalists were not safe in their cars. Minneapolis Star Tribune reporter Ryan Faircloth had blood running down his face as he said on camera that he was "just trying to get out of the area" when a police tear-gas round shattered a car window. He was hit in the face and arm.

In some parts of the country, police detained press members, including HuffPost reporter Christopher Mathias, who wore a press badge while on assignment to cover protests in New York. He was released several hours later.

In Michigan, Detroit Free Press senior news director Jim Schaefer said on Twitter that several of his reporters were pepper-sprayed by police, and an officer slapped a live-stream camera out of the hand of a photographer "as she tried to do her job. This is not OK." Free Press reporter JC Reindl captured a chilling image of a police officer wearing a gas mask just an arm's-length away. "Last thing I saw before I got sprayed," he tweeted. "I was even holding up 'media' badge."

"One of the craziest nights of my career. Got tear-gassed multiple times," tweeted Free Press reporter David Jesse. "Police shot rubber bullets at us even [though] we were moving where they wanted us to go, holding up our press passes and yelling media."

Police representatives in Minneapolis and Detroit did not respond to requests for comment Sunday.

An officer in Louisville, Kentucky, on Friday night pointed a gun containing pepper balls at a local TV news cameraman as reporter Kaitlin Rust screamed on live TV, "I'm getting shot!" An anchor in the studio asked who the officers were targeting. "At us! Directly at us!" she replied.

Louisville police spokeswoman Jessie Halladay said the department was trying to identify the officer who fired at them. "Targeting the media is not our intention. There was a lot going on last night, and to be fair to both the officer and to Kaitlin, we need to take a deeper look at what happened and what prompted that action," Halladay said in a statement, according to the station. "So we have said that we will do that and if there needs to be discipline we will address it."

In Los Angeles, KCRW journalist Cerise Castle tweeted a photo of the rubber bullets that she said police fired at her and protesters. One of them hit her.

Hennessy-Fiske, the Los Angeles Times reporter, wrote that what she experienced in Minneapolis was unlike anything she's experienced in a career that has taken her to war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan and protests in cities such as Ferguson, Missouri, and Dallas.

"I have never been fired at by police," she wrote Saturday, "until tonight."
The coronavirus pandemic has taken a huge toll on sleep, with nearly half of respondents to a global study by Australian experts reporting poor sleep and two in five waking frequently in the night.

The study, which had more than 2000 people responses, will show 46 per cent are sleeping poorly during the pandemic, compared with 25 per cent before it, and 41 per cent are waking during the night three or more times a week, a symptom of insomnia.

Rosary Coloma has been having trouble sleeping during the coronavirus pandemic. Credit:Janie Barrett

Melinda Jackson of the Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health at Monash University said the causes of sleep disruption included pandemic stress, anxiety, job changes and financial distress.

Heavier alcohol consumption was a factor for 39 per cent of those whose sleep was worse, and increased phone usage was also a cause, she said. Some people could develop insomnia that lasted beyond the pandemic.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-01 01:18:39|Editor: huaxia

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HOUSTON, May 31 (Xinhua) -- More than 100 people were arrested Saturday night in U.S. city of Houston as protest continued for the second day over the death of George Floyd.

Houston police tweeted Sunday morning that more than 100 individuals were arrested on various offenses.

Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo and Executive Assistant Chief Troy Finner joined hundreds of protesters Saturday evening, marching for more than three hours in downtown Houston. A large police presence were seen at the demonstration which was largely peaceful.

Protest in Houston started Friday afternoon, with more than 100 people arrested when it deteriorated into violence in the evening. Police said eight police officers were injured and 16 patrol vehicles were damaged.

Meanwhile, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said Saturday that the body of George Floyd will be laid to rest in Houston.

"This is the same city that George Floyd grew up," Turner said, asking for peace amid violent protest and riot.

"His body will be returning to this city, to his city," said Turner.

Demonstrations and riots have spread to cities across the United States after a video went viral of George Floyd being suffocated to death by a white police officer in the mid-western U.S. state of Minnesota on Monday. Enditem
New Delhi: Registering its highest single-day spike of Covid-19 cases, India on Sunday climbed two notches up on the global coronavirus charts, taking the seventh position.

According to the Johns Hopkins coronavirus tracker, India stood at seventh position with 189,765 cases, preceded by Italy with 233,019 and followed by France with 188,752 cases. However, the Union Health Ministry said in the evening that the country's total cases stood at 1,82,143 with 8,380 new infections reported in the last 24 hours.

The number of active Covid-19 cases stood to 89,995, while 86,983 people have recovered and one patient has migrated, the ministry said. "Thus, around 47.76 per cent patients have recovered so far," a senior health ministry official said. In the last 24 hours, 4,614 patients were found cured, the ministry said.

Through a graded, pre-emptive and pro-active approach, the government is taking several steps along with the States/UTs for prevention, containment and management of Covid-19, the ministry said, adding that these are being regularly reviewed and monitored at the highest level. The total confirmed cases includes foreigners.

The death toll has gone up by 193 since Saturday morning, of which 99 deaths were reported from Maharashtra, 27 from Gujarat, 18 from Delhi, nine each from Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, seven from West Bengal, six each from Tamil Nadu and Telangana, five from Bihar, three from Uttar Pradesh, two from Punjab, and one each from Haryana and Kerala.

Of the total 5,164 fatalities, Maharashtra tops the tally with 2,197 deaths, followed by Gujarat (1,007), Delhi (416), Madhya Pradesh (343), West Bengal (309), Uttar Pradesh (201), Rajasthan (193), Tamil Nadu (160), Telangana (77) and Andhra Pradesh (60).

The death toll reached 48 in Karnataka, 44 in Punjab, 28 in Jammu and Kashmir, 20 in Haryana, 20 in Bihar, nine in Kerala, and seven in Odisha.

Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand and Uttarakhand have each registered five COVID-19 fatalities, Chandigarh and Assam have recorded four deaths each, while Meghalaya and Chhattisgarh have reported one COVID-19 fatality each so far.

More than 70 per cent of the deaths are due to co-morbidities, the ministry said.

According to the health ministry data updated in the morning, the highest number of confirmed cases in the country are from Maharashtra at 65,168, followed by Tamil Nadu at 21,184, Delhi at 18,549, Gujarat at 16,343, Rajasthan at 8,617, Madhya Pradesh at 7,891 and Uttar Pradesh at 7,445.

The number of COVID-19 cases has gone up to 5,130 in West Bengal, 3,636 in Bihar, 3,569 in Andhra Pradesh, 2,922 in Karnataka, 2,499 in Telangana, 2,341 in Jammu and Kashmir, 2,233 in Punjab and 1,923 in Haryana.

Odisha has reported 1,819 coronavirus cases, Kerala has 1,208 cases, Assam has 1,185, Uttarakhand has 749, Jharkhand has 563, Chhattisgarh has 447, Himachal Pradesh has 313, Chandigarh has 289, Tripura has 268, Ladakh has 74 and Goa has 70.

Manipur has reported 62 COVID-19 cases, Puducherry has 51 cases of infection, Nagaland has recorded 36 cases, while Andaman and Nicobar Islands has registered 33 infections.

Meghalaya has registered 27 cases, Arunachal Pradesh has reported four cases, Dadar and Nagar Haveli has two cases, while Mizoram and Sikkim have reported a case each till how. "5,491 cases are being reassigned to states," the ministry said on its website, adding that, "Our figures are being reconciled with the ICMR."

State-wise distribution is subject to further verification and reconciliation, it said.
It's been 40 years since 23-year-old Vietnam War veteran Joe Campos Torres' body was found washed up on the banks of the Buffalo Bayou.

On May 5, 1977, Campos Torres, was arrested at a bar for disorderly conduct. Instead of being taken to jail, police took Campos Torres to "The Hole," an isolated area behind a warehouse along Buffalo Bayou where Houston Police Department officers could write reports, question suspects and sleep.

Campos Torres was beaten by six officers for hours before they took him to the city jail. Once there, officials refused to book him because of the extent of his injuries, and ordered that he be admitted to a hospital. The six arresting officers instead took him, once again, to The Hole.

LOOKING BACK: Witnesses reflect on LA's Rodney King riot 25 years later

Following another beating, Campos Torres was pushed off the raised platform and fell 20 feet into the Bayou, where his body was found three days later.

"We never got justice," his sister Sandra Torres told the Houston Chronicle in 2011. "All those cops, they just got a slap on the wrist, and you know what? Where's my brother? He's gone. The cops got to go home to their families while he was floating in the water for three days."

Of the six, initially only officers Terry Denson and Steven Orlando were charged with murder. An all-white jury found them guilty of negligent homicidea misdemeanorand sentenced the officers to a year's probation and a $1 fine.

Houston's Chicano community found the fine especially hard to swallow, with chants of "A Chicano's life is only worth a dollar," reverberating through the neighborhood and throughout the country's Mexican-American communities.

The officers were eventually sentenced to nine months in prison, but tensions simmered for a year until they boiled over on the anniversary of Campos Torres' death.

In 1978, the Cinco de Mayo celebrations at Moody Park erupted into riots. Police attempts to break up the crowd were met with waves of retaliation by the attendees.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW: A look at prominent figures in the Rodney King riots

"What happened was when the police came in to arrest some people, and actually took somebody, people said 'No,'" then-rookie cop Harold Barthe told Houston Public Media in 2008. "'You're not going to take him and do what you did to Joe Campos Torres."

"People rose-up and started throwing rocks and bottles at the police, overturning police cars and shouting 'Justice for Joe Torres' and 'Viva Joe Torres,'" Barthe said.

"The community had this insurrection in the face of the brutality of the Houston Police Department," Carlos Calbillo, a community historian and filmmaker who made a documentary about the Torres case, told the Houston Chronicle in 2011.

More than 40 people were arrested during the riots, which became nationwide news and led to the creation of HPD's internal affairs department.

Today, Campos Torres' family is working to erect an official marker to commemorate his death and the riots.

"There has never been anything to mark (Torres' death) in a positive way," Torres' nephew Richard Molina, told the Houston Chronicle in 2014. "No parade, no day of remembrance. It's never had its own day, but is definitely something that should be remembered, a lesson of Houston history and among Mexican-Americans."
- The 31 inmates who tested positive were part of the 59 samples that were taken from the prisoners during recent target mass testing

- The remandees were taken to different hospitals in Nairobi county were they were admitted

- The country has recorded 1,888 cases of coronavirus with 464 recoveries and 63 deaths

At least 31 inmates at the Nairobi Remand Prison have been evacuated from the facility after they tested positive for the dreaded coronavirus.

Kenya Prisons Service commissioner general Wycliffe Ogallo said the 31 were part of 59 samples taken from remandees and prisoners on Thursday, May 28, in the ongoing targeted mass testing.

READ ALSO: Uganda's COVID-19 cases rise to 413 after 84 people test positive

The prisoners were held at Nairobi Remand Prison and have since been evacuated from the correctional facility. Photo: Nairobi News

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: My husband left me for my best friend, imprisoned me after giving him 12 children - Virginia Kamotho

The patients were evacuated from the correctional facility by the Nairobi county officers and are now receiving treatment at various centres across the city, as reported by Citizen TV.

From the results received on Saturday, 31 samples had tested positive for coronavirus after which the Nairobi County Emergency Response Team promptly moved in and evacuated the patients to various treatment centers for case management, Kenya Prisons Service said in a statement.

At the same time, the Kenya Prisons Service confirmed that all the convicts and remandees currently in custody were safe.

Kenya Prisons Service commissioner general Wycliffe Ogallo. Photo: People Daily

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: Moses Kuria na wenzake wajipata pabaya Karatina

Correctional facilities in Kenya that are often crowded and with compromised hygiene practices, have had strict containment measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

The move has seen 11,000 petty offenders and convicts who had already served the entirety of their respective jail terms released to decongest the prisons and achieve some social distance.

The prisons service also suspended visits to all prisons, borstal institutions and youth corrective training centres to contain the bug.

"If need be, we will adopt and deploy more radical approaches to prevent the spread of the virus within our correctional facilities," he said.

The country has recorded 1,888 cases of coronavirus with 464 recoveries and 63 deaths.

Do you have a groundbreaking story you would like us to publish? Please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690. Contact Tuko.co.ke instantly.

Source: TUKO.co.ke
WASHINGTON - The third day of protests in the nation's capital over George Floyd's death began with bent knees, raised fists and pleas that this night, unlike the last, would remain peaceful. And in those moments Sunday, the more than 1,000 people who marched to Lafayette Square across from the White House listened.

Then came darkness and with it, another night of mayhem. American flags and parked cars and buildings were lit ablaze - including St. John's Church, a historic landmark opened in 1816 and attended by every president since James Madison. Firefighters quickly extinguished the basement fire, which police say was set intentionally.

Downtown, metal baseball bats bashed through shop windows; looters roamed, hitting stores miles from the White House. In the park, protesters faced the familiar pop, pop, pop of pepper bullets and stinging clouds of tear gas meant to push back hundreds of them as they tried, again and again, to break through the police barricades set up around President Donald Trump's home.

"Stop it! Stop!" yelled an African American woman who ran over to two skinny young black men as they hurled water bottles at the phalanx of officers.

"Civil disobedience! It's civil disobedience, and it means you sit your a-- down there and you don't move until they drag you away," she yelled, her voice hoarse. Defiant, the young men reloaded and kept throwing.

"They're dodging water bottles and we're dodging bullets," one yelled back, curling over in rage and near-sobs. "They're still killing us! They're still beating us! I see them put a knee on that man's neck and kill him! Civil disobedience gave us nothing!"

The latest confrontation - which climaxed at 10 p.m., when officers launched flashbangs in an apparent effort to clear the park - followed a weekend of intense, often violent clashes between heavily armored law enforcement officers and outraged activists, some of whom looted stores and set buildings ablaze in Washington and its neighboring suburbs.

On Sunday, the city and the region braced for another night of mayhem. District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, ordered a citywide curfew from 11 p.m. Sunday to 6 a.m. Monday. She also activated the D.C. National Guard.

In neighborhoods across D.C., people spent the afternoon hammering plywood boards outside retail shops and restaurants in the hope that their businesses would escape the attacks that others a day earlier did not. For some, those images, paired with the racial tension gripping dozens of cities across the country, conjured memories of the riots that ensued in 1968 after the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

This explosion of anger coincides with a global pandemic that has taken more than 100,000 lives, including at least 4,300 in D.C., Maryland and Virginia. Though many protesters have worn masks, the gatherings seldom allow people to stay six feet apart from one another.

On Sunday, as in the days before, any fear of catching or spreading the virus did little to deter the crowds of people who showed up to express their frustration with police brutality.

Among them was Elizabeth Ferris, who had begun recording a video at an intersection just before the scene around her deteriorated. A flash bang fired. A girl sobbed.

"We have no weapons, what are you doing?" a man screamed, but Ferris, who is white, kept filming. She held her phone in one hand and poured water into a protester's eyes with the other.

Just then, Ferris screamed. The camera panned down. More than a half-dozen sting balls had struck her leg, leaving it pocked with deep, bloody red circles. Four volunteer medics rushed to wrap her leg; she did not want to leave.

"I took six rubber bullets, but do you know what didn't happen to me?" said Ferris, a 36-year-old student in foreign policy and public policy at Georgetown University. "No one kneeled on my neck."

She got up and limped toward the Capitol.

Amid other anxious moments between the two sides - the hurling of water bottles, startling charges by police, a man and woman both pepper-sprayed near the barricades - there were also genuine moments of unity, a stark contrast from the previous night.

A black officer, according to witnesses, briefly took a knee in solidarity with the protesters, who erupted in cheers.

Not long afterward, another officer made an announcement on a megaphone: "Attention: We will continue to move back unless you break the police line."

And again, cheering from the protesters, many of whom appeared to want the officers to join them rather than fight with them.

At the Capitol, protesters shouted at police, who stood masked and silent around the property's perimeter, to take a knee.

"It's not so hard to take a knee," they yelled at the officers.

"I can't breathe, I can't breathe," protesters shouted.

"Hands up, don't shoot," they chanted as they raised their hands, and at last an officer responded.

"We're listening to you," said the woman, who was white. "We'll stand here all day."

Such moments were rarer Saturday, when downtown windows were smashed and fires were set. D.C. police said 17 people, mostly local, had been arrested. U.S. Secret Service and Park Police said they each arrested one person.

"We're sending a very clear message to people that they have a right to exercise their First Amendment rights but not to destroy our city," Bowser said Sunday on NBC News's "Meet the Press." "We saw a level of destruction and mayhem among some that was maddening."

In Virginia, Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, declared a state of emergency a day after protests in Richmond and Manassas left businesses wrecked and Confederate statues vandalized.

The protests have triggered an angry response from President Donald Trump, who specifically singled out D.C. Bowser, in turn, has blamed Trump for stoking divisions, saying he had "glorified violence."

Bowser returned to that refrain during her television appearance Sunday. "I think the president has a responsibility to calm the nation," she said. "He can start by not sending divisive tweets that are meant to hearken to the segregationist past of our country." Bowser was referring to the president tweeting "when the looting starts, the shooting starts," a phrase infamously used by a Miami police chief during racial unrest in the 1960s.

Her denunciation of the president was echoed by Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a prominent Republican who has clashed with Trump in recent weeks over the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic. Hogan said he worked to "lower the temperature" during the 2015 protests in Baltimore after Freddie Gray died in police custody, a tack he said Trump had failed to take. "It's just the opposite of the message that should have been coming out of the White House," Hogan said Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union."

Bowser initially dismissed the value of imposing a curfew, saying, "We know people who were disruptive last night are not likely curfew followers." LaToya Foster, a spokeswoman for the mayor, said Bowser changed her mind "out of an abundance of caution."

D.C. Police Chief Peter Newsham - who noted that 11 of his officers were injured, including one who fractured a leg after being hit by a brick - blamed the violence and vandalism on a small group and said his officers were prepared to handle more unrest.

At least one of the business owners whose property was damaged said she bore no resentment toward the protesters.

Michelle Brown learned at midnight Saturday that her restaurant near the White House, Teaism, was on fire. Brown, still in pajamas, grabbed her hand sanitizer and car keys to go see the damage. Before she left, she wrote a tweet.

"Before anyone puts a single word in our mouths: Black lives matter," she wrote.

Brown learned that protesters had destroyed her 20-year-old tea chest and that her beloved artwork would soon be ash. Police prohibited her from entering her restaurant in the middle of the night, but hours later, she returned to find its charred remains. "It was heartbreaking," Brown said. "But this moment is not about us."

Brown wanted her customers to focus on the intense suffering that has swept the country instead of the damage done to her restaurant, because, she said, it would one day recover. "This seems pretty minor. . . . We have been through three months of being closed; we have seen 100,000 people die," she said, referring to the pandemic's impact. "I think the protests are great, and I think they are warranted."

On Sunday, Jay Michaels, angry and exasperated, decide to join the one outside the White House. The 23-year-old D.C. native walked there with a red bullhorn and a Washington Redskins mask. He wished he did not feel the need to protest but said he had no other choice.

"Turn the other cheek hasn't worked," said Michaels, a recent college graduate who wants to go to law school. "We've got to do something."

Michaels is tired of people looking at him like he's dangerous because he is black.

"This is not about D.C. police - this is about all police," he said. "If we burn everything down, then something has got to give."

By the time he arrived, the mood had grown more tense.

Each step the Secret Service officers took back from the police line drew taunts and the occasional water bottle.

"Do you feel like taking a knee now?" one man called out to a group of officers who briefly put down their riot shields.

The officers again stepped forward, and more people ran.

"Don't shoot us!" yelled Vashti Mathis, 35. "We can't even walk in our own community. We built this country. We shouldn't have to do this in 2020."

The police advanced again; more people ran, and Mathis retreated with them.

Even then, Andrew Blunt, who had also come out Saturday, could sense a difference Sunday. It struck him that, after the protesters started throwing objects and jumping the barricade, others shouted at them to stop.

It sent a message, the 22-year-old thought: "What we did here yesterday, we're not doing that anymore."

But he acknowledged that the message might not hold, because nightfall was coming.

- - -

The Washington Post's Justin Wm. Moyer, Marissa J. Lang, Tom Jackman, Perry Stein, Gregory S. Schneider, Ian Duncan, Emily Davies, Justin George and Peter Hermann contributed to this report.
Syracuse, N.Y.  At times shouting I cant breathe, about 100 people stood in the street at Syracuses police headquarters today to protest police-involved violence.

At one point, protesters took over a part of South State Street, which is lined with police and court buildings and Onondaga Countys holding jail, called the Justice Center.

The police then blocked off South State Street at about Madison Street and East Onondaga Street; it appeared that was to allow the protesters more room.

The protest, like others around the nation today, came one day after a former Minneapolis police officer was arrested in the death of George Floyd.

Protestors have part of South State Street shut down. pic.twitter.com/4FFnFE9tHH  Chris Libonati (@ChrisLibonati) May 30, 2020

In Syracuse, officers looked out of the police headquarters, called the Public Safety Building, as the protesters shouted no justice, no peace and black lives matter.

A man tried to drive through the protest and his car has been suirrounded. Protestors walked him back to the intersection. pic.twitter.com/kUtPlkL9b6  Chris Libonati (@ChrisLibonati) May 30, 2020

Police are shutting down the street now. Well past Madison St. About 100 people are here. Its pouring rain.



The chants are similar refrains.



No justice, no peace.



Black Lives Matter. pic.twitter.com/bOvRxQjpDH  Chris Libonati (@ChrisLibonati) May 30, 2020

Most people were wearing masks. It did not appear any police officers were in the crowd.

Floyd, 46, died Monday after a former police officer kneeled on him during an attempted arrest involving a counterfeit bill. Four Minneapolis police officers have been fired. One, Derek Chauvin, was charged Friday with third-degree murder and manslaughter.

Floyds death has prompted protests and calls for racial justice around the country.

MORE ON GEORGE FLOYD

Fort Drum soldiers may be sent to Minneapolis to quell unrest, report says

Syracuse police chief: I believe it was right to charge officer who killed George Floyd

Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin arrested in death of George Floyd

Minneapolis police arrest CNN reporter Omar Jimenez, crew, live on camera

Minneapolis police station torched amid George Floyd protest; 7 protesters shot in Kentucky
Ireland Baldwin opened up last month about her 'severe anxiety disorder' amid her quarantine from COVID-19.

But the native Angeleno is prioritizing both her mental and physical health during her long isolation.

She teased her taut midriff Saturday in black activewear as she stepped out for a jog with a male friend in her Los Angeles neighborhood.

Breaking a sweat: Ireland Baldwin teased her taut midriff Saturday in black activewear as she stepped out for a jog with a male friend in her Los Angeles neighborhood

The 24-year-old sported a cropped black long-sleeve Vans shirt with a pair of skintight black leggings.

She finished the ensemble with a pair of red sneakers, holding her phone as she worked up a sweat.

Ireland recently faced backlash for not using her platform to speak up about the killing of George Floyd.

She responded Saturday on her Instagram story: 'Just because people don't flood your feeds and flood their own stories with constant repostings of what other people are posting, that doesn't mean that they're not doing things in their own time.

Back in black: The 24-year-old sported a cropped black long-sleeve Vans shirt with a pair of skintight black leggings

Cool kicks: She finished the ensemble with a pair of red sneakers, holding her phone as she worked up a sweat

Speaking up: Ireland recently faced backlash for not using her platform to speak up about the killing of George Floyd, responding on her story: 'That doesn't mean that these things aren't on the forefront of my mind'

'That doesn't mean that these things aren't on the forefront of my mind. That doesn't mean that I'm not doing my part. Honestly, I feel like a lot of people are at a loss for what they can do, and I'm trying to do my best to figure out and educate myself.'

The model previously posted a photo of herself in a black bikini as she held her new rescue dog Pieces after taking a dip.

She opened up about her mental health last month, starting an Instagram Live talk show to discuss topics with her followers and friends.

Ireland said: 'I know everyone is probably so sick and tired of Instagram Live by now, but the reason I'm doing this is because I have severe anxiety disorder.

'I've noticed the past few nights my anxiety has been really increasingly getting sort of worse at night, and it kind of hit me last night.'




Haiti - Agriculture : The State buys fertilizer for agricultural producers in the South





As part of the strengthening of the Response Plan of the Ministry of Agriculture to promote sufficient agricultural production in this pandemic period, after two first series of contracts relating respectively to soil preparation services and the distribution of maize seeds, Stem peas, Congo peas, spinach and calalou gonbo in the South Department, Patrix Severe the Minister of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Rural Development signed this week a contract for the acquisition of chemical fertilizers with the firm Agroservice.



This 65.2 million Gourdes contract includes the purchase of 32,665 bags of fertilizer, including 20,415 bags of 100 pounds of NPK 20-20-10 full fertilizer and 12,250 bags of 100 pounds of urea.



According to the Severe Ministry, this new contract should help fertilize a little over 4,000 hectares of land at the level of the irrigated perimeters ranging from the plain of Aquin to Les Anglais where 6,000 farmers are concerned.



As a wholesaler Agroservice must ensure the delivery of fertilizers to the supply points indicated by the Ministry.



The Minister made a point of recalling that this contract enters into a total framework which is to make available agricultural foodstuffs on all the national territory. Stating that other contracts of this kind have been signed https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-30802-haiti-agriculture-the-agricultural-response-plan-underway.html and will be signed with other service providers to support agricultural production in services such as soil preparation, seed and fertilizer supply, and water availability at the plot level.



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-30868-haiti-agriculture-fao-strengthens-its-emergency-response-program-for-rural-communities.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-30836-haiti-agriculture-signing-of-3-agreements-with-fao-relating-to-rural-populations.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-30802-haiti-agriculture-the-agricultural-response-plan-underway.html

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-30780-icihaiti-agriculture-fao-support-for-the-spring-agricultural-campaign.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-30771-haiti-agriculture-minister-severe-adopts-a-triple-approach.html



HL/ HaitiLibre


















Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-31 21:43:59|Editor: huaxia

Video Player Close

by Xinhua Writers Bai Xu, Ren Liying

SHIJIAZHUANG, May 31 (Xinhua) -- Liu Shichao dipped his index finger into burning liquid to light a cigarette, conjuring up a magic trick that would endear him to his fans.

After being posted by a foreign blogger on Twitter last year, the video went viral and was viewed more than 10 million times. The 34-year-old farmer from north China's Hebei Province gained fame as "Hebei Pangzai," which means the chubby man, in Hebei.

Now boasting more than 160,000 followers, Liu is fondly called "the king."

"Internet and social media have given opportunities to ordinary Chinese people, especially the farmers at grassroots level, so that they could make their lifestyle understood and voices heard by others around the world," said Liu's wife Li Meijing.

Li did not initially like seeing her husband flirt with social media, because many of the video clips then were about consuming liquor, which she believes is "bad for health."

Liu likes to appear cool in his videos. But in private, the man in a simple T-shirt and jeans is a typical Chinese farmer: honest, rustic and not so eloquent. He was the owner of a restaurant in 2016, when he started posting clips on Kuaishou, a Chinese video sharing app.

"At first, I filmed myself smashing a brick with bare hands, or opening a beer bottle in various ways," he said. The footage of him guzzling beer and other types of liquor in minutes attracted thousands of followers.

In 2019, after he became known on Twitter, Liu saw a rapid increase of followers on his Kuaishou account, some of whom sent him messages in English.

"It suddenly occurred to me that foreigners use Kuaishou as well," he recalled.

A middle school graduate, Liu used translation software while replying to the messages. Sometimes when translation was too Chinglish, he would ask friends for help.

In the process, he found that his overseas followers were interested in the daily life of ordinary Chinese, especially farmers. "They know so little about us," Liu said.

He opened his Twitter account in August 2019 after which the content of his videos went beyond the dinner table.

"Once I filmed my shopping experience with my son in a county supermarket, which, to my surprise, was viewed for nearly one million times. Many viewers had no idea what supermarkets in rural China look like," he said making no attempt to hide his pride.

A video of him playing with his family on the snow was viewed more than 209,000 times. People from Canada, the United States and elsewhere exchanged their snowy day experiences in the comments.

After posting another footage, in which he baked sweet potato, Liu asked his followers about their favorite food. Followers shared their childhood memories full of emotions, from toasted bread on home fire in Britain to kumara of New Zealand, from blackberry picked in the forest to grandmother's popcorn, from roasted crayfish with friends to hotdogs cooked on a small fire in the yard.

"I want to tell my overseas followers there are tens of thousands of people at the grassroots level like me, who are enjoying their lives with passion in every part of the country," he said.

Comments about his posts are always heart-warming.

"I admire your hardworking parents," says Lara Parpan, a Filipina. "You are a good son. Stay strong and continue to inspire others!"

Liu even had followers from Turkey who offered to send him beer.

When China was hit by COVID-19, Liu received lots of messages from across the world, asking him to take care of himself and praying for his safety.

Liu's wife's attitude gradually changed, and she is now supportive. "China is home to numerous farmers," said the 31-year-old mother of two. "Although we are all called 'farmer,' every one is a unique individual. I will be happy if the video clips could help foreigners know more about life in rural China."

Liu said he is always compared with Li Ziqi, a Chinese blogger who shot to fame with short YouTube videos recording her traditional and idyllic lifestyle in China's countryside.

"Our styles are different," he said. "I admire her persistence, but my style is more casual with the common touch."

"I think we are showing people different aspects of the Chinese culture," he said. Enditem
Dear California kids:

Dont let us adults destroy your futures! This time of distance learning and COVID-19 chaos is the opportunity of a generation  maybe a century  to fix whats so very wrong with how California treats kids. And right now, you have unprecedented power. I am begging you to use it.

Before COVID-19, California wasnt doing well by its 9.1 million residents under age 18. Now in crisis, the states adults are conspiring, without your input, to make things even worse for you. By Junes end, your governor and Legislature will likely pass a budget that cuts a record $15.1 billion from your schools, further hurts the economy, and guts other programs essential to your growth.

You may think that you can do nothing to stop this  after all, you are being ignored as politicians and powerful adult interests make decisions about your future. It doesnt have to be this way. Right now, with schools shut because of the pandemic, Californias children and teens have more leverage than ever before.

This leverage comes from the fact that education cant restart in California without your consent. If you kids act together, you have the power to keep the schools shut down. This applies to distance learning, which cant work if you refuse to sign on to the internet, as well as to physical school reopenings, which cant happen until you agree to walk back onto those campuses.

Your advantage is not just practical. Its moral. School districts  having thrown you into hastily organized online classes that left you with massive learning loss  can no longer pretend they have your best interests at heart. But your greatest power is financial. California school funding is based on daily attendance. If you stay home, or refuse to open educational apps, school districts, already in fiscal crisis, will shut down. They wont get funding if you are absent.

So, as the father of three of you, Id like to suggest that now, with the budget being written, is the moment to organize and start pressuring your elders. A student-led movement could dictate the terms of the school return and of funding for education and other childrens programs  if it could credibly threaten a statewide student strike in the fall.

What should your demands be? You should figure those out for yourselves, as you meet online. Given California adults record of failing you, you shouldnt trust any of us, including this columnist, to set your agenda. You already know firsthand that California ranks low in education funding. Who is paying the price for this neglect? You. Fewer than half of you meet state standards in English language arts and mathematics. Only 42% of high school students meet the states own criteria for being prepared for college. And equity? Your generation has some of the biggest student achievement gaps  based on race and poverty  in our very unequal country.

California leaders love to tout the health insurance coverage theyre providing children, but they rarely mention that youre not getting enough actual health care. The state ranks especially low on giving kids preventive health screenings, dental care, nutrition assistance, and mental health and substance abuse services.

California is also awful at child care and special education. Elected officials have been promising quality universal preschool for 20 years without delivering it. And there is no state worse than yours at providing sufficient educators, counselors, support staff and administrators for your schools.

The problem in California is not a lack of money  we are rich  or even a lack of good intentions. Its that adults are selfish and lazy, and refuse to coordinate the different agencies, programs and levels of government that should serve you.

In this extraordinary moment, there are many demands you could make. My suggestion  take it with an adult-size grain of salt  is that you start by saying you wont return to campus or sign into Google Classroom until all cuts to childrens programs are reversed. Your logic would be simple: Before COVID-19, kids were getting systematically screwed in California. During COVID-19, your schools are shut and youre stuck with your families at home. So its intolerable that adults are cutting tens of billions of dollars from schools and other programs.

You also might look beyond the current horrors and demand better in the future. Extensive studies have shown that to meet your educational needs, the state should have been spending between 25% and 50% more on schools than it was before COVID-19. You could demand that the state, starting next year, fund schools based on educational goals. That would mean eliminating the current Proposition 98 formula, which bases school funding on tax revenues and economic growth.

You also might consider demanding your democratic rights. This year, because its the centennial of womens suffrage, you may have heard about celebrations of universal suffrage. What about suffrage for children? It isnt a wild idea. Countries around the world have elected youth parliaments In fact, children have already made changes in the way our state works. The most successful youth-led organization here might be California Youth Connection  a group of foster children who have worked with adults to secure recent reforms to the child welfare system.

Of course, some adults will dismiss you as immature for threatening not to return to school. Ignore them. Adults are already making that very same threat. Just last week, the superintendents of six large school districts  L.A., San Diego, Long Beach, San Francisco, Oakland and Sacramento  threatened to not reopen schools in the fall unless they get more money from the state.

A little political advice. Dont bother with challenging your local school board or principal. Train all your fire on Gov. Gavin Newsom. The governor has near-total power on budgeting, and he won his office on a platform of investing in children, from cradle to college.

I want to put your mind at ease about one thing. If you have to strike in the fall, you dont have to stop getting an education. Many schools around the country have developed excellent distance-learning curricula  better than what youll find in California  and offered them for free online. And with greater choice comes more power. Use that power. The only people who can save Californias kids are Californias kids.

Sincerely,

Joe Mathews

Joe Mathews writes the Connecting California column for Zocalo Public Square.
Emmanuel Victor Smith, Ghana's former High Commissioner to the United Kingdom has disclosed that former President John Mahama never lobbied to be the running mate for late President John Evans Atta Mills.



Speaking in an interview on Neat FMs Me Man Nti programme, he said former President Jerry John Rawlings who is also the founder of the largest opposition NDC 'wanted no one else but Mahama'.



"Rawlings used to say it has to be John; because John and Mills ticket will be a winning team and indeed it was..." he recounted.



Listen to him in the video below





Source: Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Sunday shared a picture of 'ScoMosas' with mango chutney and tagged Prime Minister Narendra Modi - essentially Samosas that he's made, giving his own personal twist to the name. Taking to Twitter, Morrison stated that he has made everything from scratch, including the Mango chutney. Tagging PM Modi, he stated that "it is a pity" their upcoming meeting is through a video link. The Australian PM stated that the 'ScoMosas' are vegetarian and he would have liked to share it with PM Modi.

Sunday ScoMosas with mango chutney, all made from scratch - including the chutney! A pity my meeting with @narendramodi this week is by videolink. Theyre vegetarian, I would have liked to share them with him. pic.twitter.com/Sj7y4Migu9  Scott Morrison (@ScottMorrisonMP) May 31, 2020

Read: Israeli president calls Australian PM after teacher's ruling

Netizens React

Several Netizens have reacted to Australian PM's 'Sunday ScoMosas' post on Twitter

 Love from India    thejadooguy (@JadooShah) May 31, 2020

Proposing your name for Michelin Star  Meenakashi Lekhi (@M_Lekhi) May 31, 2020

Read: Afghanistan 'looking forward' to historic occasion as Australia confirm one-off Test

Look so yummy samosa...#AatmanirbharAustralia  Hardik Bhavsar (@Bittu_Tufani) May 31, 2020

Read: Russia's rocket space junk triggers speculations of meteor sighting in Australia

PM Modi-Morrison to hold talks

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison will hold a bilateral summit through a video-link on June 4. According to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), the two leaders will be discussing and the issues of mutual interest in the India-Australia summit. Along with it, reportedly, the two leaders will be signing a number of bilateral agreements, including ones on military logistics and science and technology.

Meanwhile, currently, Australia has a total of 7,192 cases of Coronavirus, out of which 103 people have succumbed to the infection. On May 25, he stated that the country will not reopen its borders anytime soon and added that it will continue its talks with New Zealand for a trans-Tasman safe travel zone.

Read: Australian PM Scott Morrison says borders will not reopen 'anytime soon'
Brexit trade talks cannot go on for ever and will need to conclude before the autumn, Britain has warned the EU.

Ahead of the next crunch round of talks this week, sources close to the negotiations said that the EU had accepted that the UK would not budge on its red lines.

It came as EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier warned Boris Johnson not to backslide on his promises.

Britain has warned the EU that Brexit trade talks cannot go on for ever and will need to conclude before the autumn. Pictured, Boris Johnson speaks with Germany's chancellor Angela Merkel and other officials at a European Union Summit in Brussels in October 2019

In an interview with the Sunday Times, Mr Barnier issued an ultimatum, saying there would not be an 'agreement at any cost'.

He said: 'We remember very clearly the text which we negotiated with Boris Johnson. And we just want to see that complied with. To the letter... And if that doesn't happen, there will be no agreement.'

In response, a UK source close to the negotiations said yesterday: 'We expect next week's round to be constructive and keep the process on track. But then we are going to need things to move forward faster.

'The EU seems to have finally understood we aren't going to move on fundamentals, so they now need to think quickly about how they can find an agreement that reflects this reality.

EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier warned Boris Johnson not to backslide on his promises and issued an ultimatum, saying there would not be an 'agreement at any cost'

PM 'changes mind' over Huawei Boris Johnson has 'changed his mind' over the deal with Chinese telecoms giant Huawei, according to a senior Government source. The company is to hold crunch talks with Downing Street this week following reports No 10 is seeking a way out of the deal to let Huawei build 35 per cent of the 5G network. The meeting with Sir Edward Lister, one of Mr Johnson's senior aides, has been described as a 'clarifying moment' for the company. A senior Government source told the Sunday Times the Prime Minister wanted to use a new security review 'as cover' for getting out of the deal. Another said Mr Johnson's 'attitude has changed'. It is understood that No 10 has drawn up a plan to phase out the role of Huawei by a fixed date, with 2023 floated as a possible deadline. Advertisement

'Talks cannot go on for ever. The UK has to make sure businesses can prepare properly for what will happen at the end of the year.'

Government sources have accused the EU of stalling the talks into the autumn, when it will be too late for businesses to prepare.

A senior Government source said: 'The EU needs to inject some political reality into its approach and appreciate that they cannot use their usual tactic of delay to drag the talks into the autumn.

'October is too late. Our businesses need to know whether there is going to be a trade agreement before then to prepare for the end of transition.'

The latest round of negotiations ended in stalemate after the two sides failed to reach agreement on key areas including fishing, a level playing field between British and EU companies and the role of European courts.

The next round, which begins this week, is crucial as negotiators will have to determine whether sufficient progress has been made, or resort to no-deal planning.

Privately, negotiators expect the pace to pick up in July following a meeting between the Prime Minister and EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen.
Blakeandcatherine.com scored 40 Social Media Impact. Social Media Impact score is a measure of how much a site is popular on social networks. 2/5.0 Stars by Social Team

This CoolSocial report was updated on 16 Nov 2014, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want.

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PAGE TITLE Catherine and Blake - Welcome DESCRIPTION KEYWORDS OTHER KEYWORDS catherine, blake, welcome, catherine and blake welcome, catherine and blake, and blake welcome, blake welcome



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Bengaluru, May 31 : Mandatory registration on Seva Sindhu portal, health screening and select quarantining norms have been ordered for all inter-state travellers arriving in Karnataka from Monday, as part of phased reopening or relaxation of Covid lockdown norms, an official said on Sunday.

"Mandatory self-registration on seva sindhu portal by all travellers before entering Karnataka," ordered Health and Family Welfare Commissioner Pankaj Kumar Pandey.

Every person visiting the state from Monday has to enter his name, address and mobile phone number, however, no approval is required to enter the state.

Similarly, all incoming passengers will be made to undergo health screening at the state border check-posts, airports, railway stations and bus stations.

All business visitors should provide their details while transit travellers must submit the address in the destination state, along with indicating the exit-check post from Karnataka.

"Home quarantine hand stamping on hand for 14-days period as per quarantine norms," said Pandey, which will be determined on the basis of health screening.

All Covid symptomatic passengers arriving from any state will be quarantined for a week at hospital, followed by another week's quarantining at home.

"Test immediately on arrival, if positive, shift to dedicated Covid hospital. If negative, no further test required," he said.

In the light of majority of positive cases in the state occurring in people with domestic travel history to Maharashtra, the health department made separate protocol for people arriving from that state.

All asymptomatic passengers coming from Maharashtra will be subjected to a week's institutional quarantine, followed by another week at home quarantine.

If any passenger develops Covid symptoms during the fortnightly quarantine, they will be made to undergo a test.

However, some asymptomatic individuals from Maharashtra have been provided some exceptions and designated as special category passengers.

Special category passengers include people who suffered a death in family, pregnant women, children below 10, elderly people above 60, individuals suffering from serious illness and human distress.

Similarly, the department has also made some provisions for business travellers from Maharashtra.

Likewise, anybody arriving from Maharashtra with a Covid negative test certificate from an ICMR approved laboratory will be waived of seven days institutional quarantine.

"All travellers from Maharashtra who come with Covid negative test certificate from an ICMR approved lab which is not more than two days old from the date of arrival are exempted from seven days institutional quarantine," said Pandey.

Such passengers will be sent to a fortnightly home quarantine.

Likewise, if someone is a transit traveller from Maharashtra, such persons should establish that they are so by producing a flight or travel ticket for onward journey.

"In case one is travelling by road, he should provide the identity proof and address proof of destination state. Such travellers should be hand stamped if travelling by road as 'Transit Traveller'," said Pandey.

In case of people from other states, all of them will be subjected to 14-days home quarantine.

"For persons where home quarantine is not possible, then institutional quarantine should be done, especially when we have large family or no separate room for home quarantine," he said.

Similarly, institutional quarantining will also be prescribed for passengers from slums or overcrowded places where home quarantining is not possible.

The health department has also listed norms for business and transit travellers from other states.

Listing out some general rules for all people under home quarantine, the health commissioner divided them into people falling in rural areas and in urban areas.

In rural areas, gram panchayat task force will carry out the overall responsibility of ensuring home quarantine.

Common home quarantine protocols in both places include posters notifying home quarantine on the door, information to neighbours, 3-member monitoring teams, flying squads, IVRS call centre outbound calls and quarantine watch app for daily self-monitoring among others.

All those people who are in home quarantine or otherwise, should call 24x7 helpline Apthamitra in the event of developing any symptoms at 14410.

"To get telemedicine help and be directed to fever clinics for further assessment and Covid test," added Pandey.
BRUNSWICK HILLS TOWNSHIP, Ohio

Disturbance: Boston Road

A man told police that he was trying to enforce social distancing when he kicked his neighbor off of his porch steps at 8:06 p.m. May 13.

Officers were called to the scene by the victim, who said she had come to the mans trailer to confront him about an incident in which the man had allegedly yelled at the womans son while the boy was walking his dog.

The victim said the man cursed at her and put his foot on her stomach and tried to push her down the steps.

The man said he told the woman to back away from his trailer due to social distancing, reports said, then put his foot out and (the woman) walked into his foot.

Neither the man nor the woman suffered visible injuries and neither was charged. Police referred the incident to the Medina County prosecutor.

Disturbance: Cessna Avenue

Police responded to a disturbance between two women at a home at 4:35 p.m. May 14. The caller said she had come to the home to pick up a punching bag she had purchased from the homeowner on Craigslist.

When she arrived, the buyer said the sellers dog came out and began jumping at her car, scratching the passenger side door. The homeowner put the dog away and reportedly told the other woman that the scratches would buff out.

The buyer said the seller became angry and told her to get off her property when the buyer took photos of the damage. The seller later told police that she saw no damage to the buyers car.

Neither party was cited in the incident.

Fraud, Cliffwood Lane

A woman reported being defrauded of more than $7,000 by a man through a companionship app called sugardaddy.com at 4:47 p.m. May 15. Police and bank officials from Huntington Bank and Randolph-Brooks Federal Credit Union in Texas were still investigating the incident at the time of the report.

Drug possession: Grafton Road

An Olmsted Falls man was charged with possession of opium when police responded to a drug overdose at 10:35 a.m. May 17. The man reportedly flagged officers down when a passenger in his car was showing signs of overdosing. The victim was given Narcan and taken to an area hospital. No further information was available at the time of the report.

Read more news from the Brunswick Sun.
Dubai-based state-owned carrier Emirates has reportedly laid off about 180 pilots on May 31, as part of its cost-cutting strategy amid growing financial woes in the wake of coronavirus outbreak.

These pilots were on probation and were the first officers under training for type-rating on the A380 fleet, Moneycontrol reported.

"This is the first phase of the layoffs. These pilots were called to the office and given the letters," the report quoted a senior executive as saying. The executive added that more layoffs are "expected tomorrow".

As per the report, the notice period for those on probation is seven days, but Emirates has decided to extend this to 14 days, as a 'gesture of goodwill'.

Emirates, one of the world's biggest long-haul airlines, had suspended regular passenger flights in March due to the COVID-19 outbreak. It resumed flight operations from 21 May to nine destinations - London Heathrow Frankfurt, Paris, Milan, Madrid, Chicago, Toronto, Sydney and Melbourne.

Also Read: Boeing axes 12,000 jobs as coronavirus corrodes travel industry

There was speculation in the market that Emirates Group, the parent company of Emirates Airline, may cut about 30,000 jobs to reduce costs amid the coronavirus outbreak. The aviation services company owned by the government of Dubai plans to cut down its workforce by about 30 per cent from more than 105,000 at the end of March, as per Bloomberg News report.

Also Read: Fear of airline bankruptcies triggered knee-jerk opening; but states not playing ball

The state-owned airline reported a 21 per cent growth in net profit for its financial year ending March 31, but said the coronavirus pandemic had hit its fourth-quarter earnings. The Dubai state carrier clocked 1.1 billion dirhams ($287.5 million) in FY21, compared to 871 million dirhams in the previous year. Revenue, however, declined by 6.1 per cent to 92 billion dirham due to 4.2 per cent decline in the number of passengers carried by the airline.

By Chitranjan Kumar
L.A. Police Face More Mass Demonstrations After Fridays Violence

Police were out in force across Los Angeles today, trying to hold the peace amid multiple protests tied to the police killing

of George Floyd in Minneapolis, as Mayor Eric Garcetti announced an overnight curfew for an area downtown Los Angeles.

In the Fairfax District, several hundred demonstrators converged, with many taking over the intersection of Third Street and Fairfax Avenue, shutting down traffic. At the nearby intersection of Third and Edinburgh Avenue, several police cars were vandalized and rubber bullets were fired to try to control the crowd.

Police tried to hold the line against further advancement, and could be seen engaging in scuffles with some protesters, with some officers using their clubs.

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Police later brought in large, military-style vehicles to clear the streets, and some sign-carrying protesters chanting Eat the rich came to Beverly Hills famed shopping street Rodeo Drive.

The Fairfax District gathering followed a noon demonstration at Pan Pacific Park, at 7600 Beverly Blvd. A handful of similar demonstrations were planned for other areas of the city Saturday, including a 3 p.m. event in Boyle Heights.

At a hastily scheduled news conference to address what the city is doing to keep the public safe, Garcetti announced a curfew for the areas bounded by the four freeways.

The curfew is in effect from 5 p.m. Saturday to 5:30 a.m. Sunday, and Garcetti said it was issued at the request of Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore so officials could clean up Fridays mess.

The mayor joined many other city officials Saturday in sympathizing with demonstrators while also appealing for calm. With liberty comes responsibility to be able to peacefully protest, Garcetti said.

For that one or two percent of the protesters who think that (violence) is the way to make a statement, do not do a disservice to the memory of George Floyd (and) the folks who have died at the hands of the brutality that we all stand against, Garcetti said.

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Garcetti told reporters he had no plan to call for National Guard troops to assist police. This is not 1992. We are not going to evoke what happened then and call in the National Guard. But thats on all of us. Lets all of us de-escalate, he said.

Reverend Najuma Smith Pollard, program manager for the USC Cecil Murray Center for Community Engagement added, It is the right thing to stand up and speak out. We dont need more mayhem. It doesnt work.

Earlier Saturday, Moore said that all restrictions had been lifted in the downtown area, as he also appealed for calm.

While more protests are slated for various locations throughout the city today, we remain hopeful those demonstrations will be peaceful, Moore said in a series of tweets sent shortly before noon Saturday.

I am asking for all of Los Angeles to come together and find the ability to peacefully express individual and collective grievances while also maintaining the safety of all of Angelenos, he said, adding that the LAPD will be deploying additional resources to maintain order.

Moore said 533 people were arrested overnight on charges that include burglary, looting, probation violation, battery on a police officer, attempt murder and failure to disperse. All but 18 have been released.

Six Los Angeles Police Officers were injured during the protests on Friday night and early Saturday morning, Moore tweeted. They sustained non- life-threatening injuries ranging from lacerations to impact wounds.

Saturdays events began at noon, as Black Lives Matter Los Angeles held a rally at Pan Pacific Park. Another protest, hosted by the Coalition for Community Control Over the Police, happened at 1 p.m. outside LAPDs Southeast Station, 145 W 108th St. and included a march to the Los Angeles County Sheriffs office at 1310 W. Imperial Highway.

At 3 p.m., a demonstration was scheduled at Mariachi Plaza, 1831 E. First St. to demand the release of all prisoners, as well as an end to police terror and crime against Latinos and blacks.

People took to the streets Friday for the third consecutive night to demand justice for Floyd, who died Monday after being handcuffed and pinned to the ground by a white Minneapolis Police Department officer, Derek Chauvin, who pressed his knee on the 46-year-old mans neck for several minutes while three other officers looked on.

Video footage of the arrest, in which Floyd is heard saying I cant breathe, spread widely online, and all four officers were fired.

Chauvin was charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter on Friday.

The LAPD was placed on tactical alert at 2:20 p.m. as a precaution ahead of the protests, according to Officer Tony Im.

After night fell, several businesses downtown were looted, including the Target store at Seventh and Figueroa streets, a Rite Aid store at Seventh and Hope streets, along with the Sixth Street Market and the Starbucks on Sixth Street between Broadway and Main Street and jewelry stores near Sixth Street and Broadway.

A trash can was set on fire near Olympic Boulevard and Hill Street and quickly extinguished by officers. Three fires were set near the intersection of Hill and Seventh streets, one in the intersection, another south of the intersection on Hill Street and a third on a sidewalk near a building.

As Los Angeles firefighters arrived to extinguish the flames, someone in the crowd grabbed a department fire hose and tossed it into the fire burning in the intersection.

At least one LAPD cruiser was tagged with graffiti.

Police set up skirmish lines throughout the downtown area and, in at least one instance, fired non-lethal ammunition as they pushed a crowd out of the area, some in the crowd stopping to hide behind vehicles to throw objects at officers.

A person answering the phone at the Metropolitan Detention Center could not give an exact number of arrests, but stated it was a busload.

The looting came about four hours after several people were detained shortly before 7 p.m. near Fifth and Olive streets for allegedly throwing objects at officers and damaging police cars that were parked near the intersection.

A protestor was seen on video spraying a fire extinguisher at officers, then running through the crowd spraying fire retardant.

Im sorry that L.A. failed tonight, Moore told reporters Friday night. Our ability to have a demonstration, express our views, our anger, our disgust unfortunately turned into an unruly situation with officers being injured, property damage occurring.

An officer was put in a chokehold and kicked by some protesters in the Pershing Square area. It was not clear if this was the same officer who was sent to a hospital with injuries from a confrontation with demonstrators.

LAPD Capt. Gisselle Espinoza told reporters it was disappointing to see protestors attack the officer.

This was not what we wanted, Espinoza said. We wanted it to be peaceful. We want people to exercise their First Amendment right to assemble, for speech and we wanted this to be peaceful. We want peoples voices heard and thats not whats happening.

Shortly before 7:30 p.m., a group of about 100 blocked traffic on the Harbor (110) Freeway, near the James M. Wood Boulevard exit. They were cleared from the freeway, but re-entered near Fifth Street at 8:20 p.m.

KNX Newsradio reporter Pete Demetriou was attacked during the protests, he said on Twitter. About five people punched him before others came to his aid, and a woman grabbed his microphone and yelled obscenities into it, but he was able to push her away.

Photos posted by Demetriou showed items confiscated by officers, including brass knuckles, knives, bottles of urine, spray paint cans and a gun that fires pepper balls.

A photo also circulated on Twitter of an KABC7 van tagged with illegible graffiti.

Demonstrators initially gathered at 5 p.m. outside City Hall and marched south on Spring Street, then north on Figueroa Street.

The protest was declared an unlawful assembly shortly before 9:30 p.m. due to repeated acts of violence and property damage, according to the LAPD.

People were advised to get off the streets and businesses were told to close in the downtown area from the Santa Monica (10) to the Santa Ana (101) freeways and the Harbor (110) Freeway to Alameda Street.
Two suspected robbers have been arrested by the Suhum District Police Day Patrol Team at Suhum overhead, in the Eastern Region for dressing in military uniform and robbery.



The two suspects were identified as Solomon Aquah, a 25-year old civilian employee of the Ghana army who was dressed in full army uniform and Prince Obeng, a 20 year old driver in charge of a Daewo Matrix taxi cab with registration number GG 376- 18.



Mr Francis Gomado, Deputy Eastern Regional Police Public Relations Officer who disclosed the incident to the Ghana News Agency (GNA), said an eye witness who was riding a motor bike on May 27, 2020, from Obuoho, on reaching a section of the road at the outskirts of Anum Apapam, was stopped by the two suspects who had crossed the road with their taxi cab.



The two were extorting money and foodstuffs from unsuspecting commercial motor riders who were plying the road.



He said the Okada riders at a point massed up and challenged the authority of the suspects.



Sensing danger, the suspects sped off in their taxi cab, but were pursued by the riders to the Suhum overhead where the Patrol team came to their rescue and took over from them and sent the suspects to the Suhum Police Station.



At the Police Station, one Michael Martey, a complainant, identified Solomon Aquah as the man dressed in military uniform with three others who snatched his taxi cab from him on May 9, this year.



The suspects are currently in Police custody assisting in investigations, while the Daewoo Matrix Cab they used has been impounded for further investigation.

Source: GNA









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Virgin Media has become the latest coronavirus victim on the highstreet as it confirms all of its stores will stay closed after the lockdown is lifted.

The telecommunications company has 53 stores across the country but none have survived the coronavirus shutdown.

The coronavirus lockdown, which was enforced in March, has exacerbated the falling number of customers entering their stores.

The Mirror reports that Virgin Medias executive director for sales Rob Orr said: By creating new jobs in our most popular care and sales channels, we will be better able to provide our customers with the top service and support they rightly expect while retaining our talented workforce.

Virgin Media has closed all of its 53 stores in the UK permanently and says all 341 non-furloughed staff will be offered at-home customer service roles

All 341 of Virgin Medias non-furloughed staff will be offered alternative roles within the company as it looks to move its business online.

The staff will be given first refusal of at least 300 brand new roles in at-home customer service.

Those who refuse the new jobs or are not selected will be made redundant.

The end of Virgin Medias highstreet stores follows in the footsteps of other retail brands that have been forced to close because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Laura Ashley, Cath Kidston and restaurant chain Chiquito have all been coronavirus highstreet fatalities.

Earlier this month it was reported that Virgin Media and O2 would be merging to create a 31billion media a telecoms giant that could provide competition to BT

The Sun reports that 20,000 shops are expected to close for good in 2020 because of the hammer blow dealt by coronavirus, according to the Centre for Retail Research.

Earlier this month it was reported that Virgin Media and O2 would be merging to create a 31billion media a telecoms giant that could provide competition to BT.

It is believed the merger will speed-up the installation of 5G networks across the country and could see as much as 10billion of infrastructure investment in the UK market over the next five years.

Ernest Doku, mobiles expert at Uswitch.com, said: 'This merger will almost certainly throw down a challenge to the most dominant player, BT.

'It's a natural and complementary fit, with O2 returning to fixed-line broadband and Virgin Media bolstering its mobile proposition.
President Donald Trump on Saturday called for expanding the G-7, which he described as a very outdated group, to include India, Australia, South Korea and Russia, suggesting it could be called the G-10 or G-11. He also said he is postponing its next meet, which the US is hosting, to September or November,.

Im postponing it because I dont feel that as a G7 it properly represents whats going on in the world, Trump told reporters on Air Force One on the way back from the historic launch of the first manned mission into space by a private company, SpaceX. Its a very outdated group of countries.

We want Australia, we want India, we want South Korea. And what do we have? Thats a nice group of countries right there, he said, skipping Russia. But he appeared to have suggested inviting Russia as well, according to a report from a pool of reporters that traveled with him.

The president went on to describe the expanded group as the G-10 or G-11, and added, he had roughly discussed the idea with the leaders of the four countries hed like to add.

The Group of Seven, as the G-7 expands to, is an intergovernmental organization of some of the worlds largest economies, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan. India is a member of the larger version of the body that is called the G-20.

An aide to the president said the plan is to bring together all traditional allies to discuss how to deal with the future of China.

Trump has called before for Russia to be readmitted to the group, arguing, as he did before the 2019 summit in Biarritz, because a lot of the things we talk about have to do with Russia. But this is probably the first time any of the G-7 member countries has called for including India or the other three named by Trump.

The US president had pressed the G-7 heads of state and government at a dinner during the Biarritz summit to readmit Russia. Only Italy had backed him, according to The Guardian. Japan was neutral. France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Canada had pushed back forcefully.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had attended the Biarritz at the invitation of the host, French President Emmanuel Macro. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had attended a meeting of the body in Gleneagles, Scotland in 2005 at the invitation of then British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

The group was then called the G-8 with Russia as the eighth member. Russia was expelled by the group in 2014 for annexing Crimea.

There was no clarity on the timing of the summit though. The American leader suggested it could take place in the weekend before or after the annual UN General Assembly meetings, which are scheduled to start on September 15 and end on September 22.

But Trump indicated he was toying with other options as well. Maybe Ill do it after the election., he said. Think a good time would be before the election. US elections are due in November and he is running for a second term.

So it might be a G10, G11, and it could be after the election is over, he added, leaving the question of dates wide open at the time.
An archeology expert, who works onboard the expedition cruise ship the National Geographic Explorer, has opened up his collection of precious artifacts to the public online.

Newbridge resident Vincent Butler has set up a blog called Cabinet of Curiosities which includes information on dinosaur fossils, meteorites, prehistoric artifacts, slave tokens, volcanic bombs, skulls, whale teeth and Viking animal bones.

Vincent spent several years analysing archaeological animal bones recovered on excavations, such as the Wood Quay Viking site in Dublin.

He explained: Natural history and antiquities have always fascinated people. Since boyhood I have been an avid collector and to date have amassed a considerable eclectic collection of items reflecting my broad spectrum of interests.

He added: If nothing else, the blog will serve as a pleasant, interesting distraction from the current health situation we find ourselves caught up in and also help parents who can use them with their children to explore the subjects and items I will be showcasing.

Young students at home will find something to engage their interest and this hopefully will encourage them to study the material on their own.

Resource

The blog will be a valuable resource for teachers and will be ideal for mini-projects, particularly for national school students.

Vincent is a professional archaeologist and lecturer who received his BA in geography and archaeology and Masters Degree in environmental archaeology from University College, Dublin.

He has lectured widely on cultural, geographical, and archaeological subjects.

Two years ago, Vincent compiled a photography book - Sixty Photographs For Simon - and all proceeds went to the Simon Community.

The book was a selection of images collected over a period of two decades during work-related travel to 25 territories including the Arctic, Scandinavia, Europe, Africa, South America, Antarctica and Asia.

Each image is accompanied by the story behind it such as the Franklin expedition graves in the Canadian Arctic; a Gentoo penguin with her chicks on the Antarctic Peninsula; a traditional Andean cottage in Peru and Saharan sand dunes in Morocco. The foreword was written by Tim Severin, the explorer who sailed across the North Atlantic in a skin-covered boat, the St Brendan, in the 1970s.

View the Cabinet of Curiosities blog at: vincentbutlerheritage.geography.ie

A slave token, which was a form of currency

A cluster of fossilized Ammonites

A piece of meteorite which hurtled through space before falling to Earth
By Graham Keeley BARCELONA (Reuters) - A nephew of Belgium's King Philippe, Prince Joachim, has tested positive for coronavirus after attending a party in Spain, which Spanish media said broke lockdown rules because of the number of people there. The prince, 28, tested positive after attending the gathering in the southern city of Cordoba on May 26, a spokesperson for the Belgian Royal Palace said on Saturday. The spokesperson said the palace could not confirm the number of people in attendance at the party

By Graham Keeley

BARCELONA (Reuters) - A nephew of Belgium's King Philippe, Prince Joachim, has tested positive for coronavirus after attending a party in Spain, which Spanish media said broke lockdown rules because of the number of people there.

The prince, 28, tested positive after attending the gathering in the southern city of Cordoba on May 26, a spokesperson for the Belgian Royal Palace said on Saturday.

The spokesperson said the palace could not confirm the number of people in attendance at the party. The palace said Joachim travelled to Spain from Belgium on May 24 for an internship and was still there.

El Pais newspaper said the prince, who is tenth in line to the Belgian throne, attended the party along with 26 other people.

This would be a breach of lockdown rules in the province of Cordoba, where the maximum number of people permitted to meet is currently 15.

Spanish police said they had launched an investigation into the incident and those who breached restrictions could face fines of between 600 and 10,000 euros.

All 27 people who attended the party are now in quarantine, Rafaela Valenzuela, the Spanish government's regional envoy in Cordoba, told a press conference on Saturday.

Valenzuela called the gathering "completely irresponsible" and said it could have caused an outbreak of infections, triggering a return to a stricter lockdown.

"I feel surprised and angry. An incident of this type stands out at a moment of national mourning for so many dead," she said.

As the government eases Spain's lockdown regulations, at one point some of the strictest in Europe, police have intervened in a series of cases of people flouting social distancing restrictions.

(Reporting by Graham Keeley; Additional reporting by Kate Abnett; Editing by Frances Kerry)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Last week, the Fine Gael Government, defying its own traditions, took two decisions that threw small and medium enterprises to the wolves.

First, it continued the lockdown that is choking private sector firms.

Second, it distracted from its lethal decision to dump vulnerable patients in private nursing homes by attacking their profits.

Behind these decisions lies a dysfunctional culture of public sectorism and, in RTE, a barely concealed contempt for the private sector's profit motive.

That cultural snobbery surfaced twice last Tuesday: on RTE's Morning Ireland, and in Fine Gael TD Fergus O'Dowd's combative submission on nursing homes to the Oireachtas Committee on Covid-19.

Let me start with a reality check. The private sector creates all our wealth.

The private sector has 1.5 million workers. Most of them, 65pc, are employed by small or medium enterprises. Like private nursing homes.

This SME sector pays the wages and pensions of 450,000 public sector workers (half retirees) although mostly pension-less itself. The SMEs are the donkeys of the Irish economy, deprived of the superior conditions of the public sector they carry on their breaking backs.

Yes, many in the public sector do a good job. Most of them are nice, educated people. But it's easy to be nice when you can't be fired.

But I have never met a public sector employee who can empathise with the private sector, or connect their own good fortune with the lack of it in others.

We are all products of our material circumstances. Not being a hypocrite, I freely admit that when I worked in RTE, I shared the general view we were a cut above independent film makers.

But a move to the private sector and the collapse of communism cured me of the delusion that a minority have a right to ride on the back of the private sector donkey without showing at least some respect.

Furthermore, the public sector is no protector of freedom. If RTE had the last word, my voice would never be heard. My freedom of speech comes courtesy of a private sector company.

I believe our public sector culture caused the greatest economic error of our era - the long lockdown which has dealt a deadly blow to roughly a third of Irish SMEs - who employ over a million workers.

It also led to the lethal neglect of our private nursing homes and well over half of all Covid-19 deaths.

In proof of all the above assertions, let me take you back to last Tuesday, when Tadhg Daly, who represents Nursing Homes Ireland, was due to appear at the Oireachtas Committee dealing with Covid-19.

A few hours before, Audrey Carville gave Daly a public sector baptism of fire on Morning Ireland.

Carville tore into Daly about the profits of private nursing homes, "owned by multi-million euro investment funds which make millions of euro in turnover".

But this was flak, not fact. Daly reminded her that 65pc of the private nursing homes are family owned and classified as SMEs.

Carville's raw response revealed RTE's cosy public sector culture. "But they're for profit, they're for profit!" she cried.

Let me give Carville two reality checks. First, we are not North Korea but a free enterprise economy. Second, private sector profits help pay public sector salaries.

But Carville's sniffing at the base profit motive was only a prelude to Fergus O'Dowd's similar follow-up at the Oireachtas Committee on Covid-19.

O'Dowd set out to robustly play down the submission of Tadhg Daly, of Nursing Homes Ireland, based on letters between the Department of Health and Nursing Homes Ireland.

Daly's work was made more difficult because the Department of Health only got around to releasing the letters an hour-and-a-half before the hearing.

Furthermore, Fergus O'Dowd seemed to have clairvoyant powers about the correspondence.

Bristling visibly, he took the same adversarial approach to Daly as Audrey Carville had done.

He even echoed her problem with profit, stressing that NHI had "very wealthy business men and business women" as directors.

But Daly had a better case. The State had sent vulnerable elderly people out of State care homes into private nursing homes without PPE - at the same time sucking staff out of them with higher wages.

Furthermore, the State could not pretend what happened in private nursing homes was not its concern.

Rather than take on the burden, the State outsources 80pc of the care of the elderly to private nursing homes under the Fair Deal scheme.

By doing so they save taxpayers a packet. State nursing homes cost an average 1,615 per week. Private nursing homes are nearly half that at 915.

But to the credit of private nursing homes, although starved of staff and PPE, some four out of five residents recovered from Covid-19.

Later last Tuesday, under pressure from Miriam O'Callaghan about a HIQA list of 200 nursing homes at risk sent to his department, Simon Harris asked her to remember that NHI represented the "owners" of private nursing homes.

The sight of Fine Gael politicians putting clouds over SME "owners" is a regression to De Valera's statist protectionism.

As a result, a triad of public sector figures are deciding on how long a lockdown should last for, a private sector for which they clearly lack any cultural sympathy.

First, a group of Fine Gael politicians, all of them permanent and pensionable, who haven't followed New Zealand's Jacinda Ardern example and taken a pay cut.

Second, Nphet, a 32-member group of handsomely paid public service medical experts and officials, but no private sector representative.

Finally, RTE, the State broadcaster, cheerleads the Government's policy in continuing a lockdown which is choking our fragile private sector.

These three pillars of State power have created a corporate State culture that cossets the minority public sector while marginalising the majority private sector.

Can we see any chink of light where a pensionless private sector carries a cosy public sector - which perversely seems intent on killing the battered goose that lays its golden eggs?

Thankfully, yes. Micheal Martin, of Fianna Fail, and Alan Kelly, of Labour, have been looking out for the small firms that employ a million workers.

Robert Troy (FF) has been campaigning for greater restart grants and insurance cover for small businesses with their backs to the wall.

Jim O'Callaghan joined him last week in calling on Leo Varadkar to stop listening exclusively to the most conservative medical voices, and get our country back to work.

The Oireachtas Covid-19 Committee has a crucial role to play in challenging conventional wisdoms of the Continue Cocooners.

So far, ably chaired by Michael McNamara, a calm figure who discourages grandstanding from members, it has subtly widened the public discourse and done the State some service.
Trump has made the U.S. space program a priority, making the cosmos a place both to be militarized as well as an opportunity for economic expansion. The White House reconstituted the National Space Council with Vice President Pence as its chair, speeding up efforts to return to the moon, standing up the new Space Force military branch, and slashing regulations while promoting the growth of a commercial space industry.
 Flash

NASA and SpaceX launched Crew Dragon spacecraft from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Saturday, carrying two American astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS).

The Crew Dragon spacecraft lifted off on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 3:22 p.m. Eastern Time, from historic Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. Veteran NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley are co-commanders on the mission.

U.S. President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence watched the launch at the center.

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine tweeted, "For the first time in 9 years, we have now launched American astronauts on American rockets from American soil. I'm so proud of the NASA and SpaceX team for making this moment possible."



NASA confirmed main engine cutoff and separation of the rocket's first and second stages minutes after the lift-off.

Falcon 9's reusable first stage booster has successfully landed on the "Of Course I Still Love You" drone ship off the Florida coast.

The Crew Dragon reached Earth orbit about 12 minutes after takeoff, and is making its way to the ISS, according to NASA.

The spacecraft is scheduled to dock to the space station on Sunday at 10:27 a.m. Eastern Time. The spacecraft is designed to do this autonomously, but the two astronauts and the station will be monitoring approach and docking, and can take control of the spacecraft if necessary.

After successfully docking, Behnken and Hurley will be welcomed aboard station and will become members of the Expedition 63 crew. They will perform tests on Crew Dragon in addition to conducting research and other tasks with the space station crew.

The mission will conclude with the Crew Dragon undocking from the station, deorbiting, and returning Behnken and Hurley to Earth with a safe splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean, according to NASA.









The mission duration has not been announced yet. NASA said it will be determined once on station based on the readiness of the next commercial crew launch.



Behnken and Hurley were among the first astronauts to begin working and training on SpaceX's next-generation human space vehicle, and were selected for their extensive test pilot and flight experience, including several missions on the space shuttle, according to NASA.

Behnken will be the joint operations commander for the mission, responsible for activities such as rendezvous, docking and undocking, as well as Demo-2 activities while the spacecraft is docked to the ISS.

Hurley will be the spacecraft commander for the mission, responsible for activities such as launch, landing and recovery.

This is SpaceX's final test flight for NASA's Commercial Crew Program and will provide critical data on the performance of the Falcon 9 rocket, Crew Dragon spacecraft, and ground systems, as well as in-orbit, docking and landing operations.

The test flight also will provide valuable data toward certification of SpaceX's crew transportation system for regular flights carrying astronauts to and from the space station.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 30

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

The export of cars from Turkey to Kazakhstan in the first four months of 2020 declined by slightly over 27.8 percent compared to the same period of 2019 and amounted to $13.8 million, the Turkish Ministry of Trade told Trend.

The volume of cars exported from Turkey to Kazakhstan in April 2020 increased by 23.8 percent compared to April 2019 and amounted to $4.6 million.

The export of cars from Turkey to the world markets decreased by 26.9 percent from January through April 2020 compared to the same period of last year and reached $7.6 billion.

Meanwhile, the export of cars from Turkey accounted for 14.6 percent of the country's total export volume from January through April 2020.

Turkey exported the cars worth $596.3 million to the world markets in April 2020, which is 77.2 percent less than in the same month of 2019.

The export of cars from Turkey in April 2020 amounted to 6.6 percent of the country's total export volume.

Turkey exported cars worth $27.8 billion over the past 12 months (from April 2019 through April 2020).

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
LOS ANGELES, CA  Protesters marched in several Los Angeles County cities Sunday, gathering in solidarity against the killing of George Floyd. Groups demonstrated, chanted, held signs in an effort to make their peaceful yet confrontational point heard with authorities.

Board of Supervisors Chair Kathryn Barger announced Sunday that she has proclaimed a state of emergency as well, which will facilitate interagency response coordination and mutual aid, accelerate the procurement of vital supplies and enable future state and federal reimbursement of costs incurred by the county.

"This emergency comes as we are in the midst of battling another emergency caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. This taxes our resources, but not our resolve," Barger said. "We will do everything in our power to keep our communities safe and protect lives and property. I continue to call on our residents to maintain calm and seek solutions productively, not destructively."

Roughly 1,000 National Guardsmen took up their defensive position along with area police, a move that Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said he hopes will be a "very short visit," but there is no fixed timeline.

To that effect, all area residents were ordered to remain home until 6 a.m. Monday.

The only exceptions to the order were made for people traveling to and from work, those seeking medical treatment, homeless people as well as emergency and medical workers.



Still, hundreds defied the curfew, gathering after 6 p.m. in downtown Los Angeles.

Demonstrators confronted guardsmen, according to media reports, chanting "No Justice, No Peace," and "Black Lives Matter," and "George Floyd! George Floyd!"

Even with the curfew order, groups gathered to vandalize and loot businesses and shopping districts. Santa Monica and Long Beach were both hard hit.

Santa Monica protest grows violent

Police told the public to stay away from the downtown and Civic Center area Sunday in Santa Monica as a peaceful protest devolved into looting in the Third Street Promenade area.

Story continues

According to NBC, a Los Angeles Police Department officer was shot in the foot amid the protests and looting at the Santa Monica-Venice border. She was hospitalized and is expected to recover.



Photos: George Floyd Protests Continue In Santa Monica. People protested in Santa Monica Sunday in response to George Floyd's death  in which a Minnesota police officer is now accused of murder  and amid protests across the U.S.

All Interstate 10 and Pacific Coast Highway off-ramps into Santa Monica were closed by the California Highway Patrol as the situation escalated, the agency announced.

Video showed some people breaking off from the peaceful protest, looting stores, taking items and running.

A curfew was updated to 4 p.m. Sunday in Santa Monica. City officials had announced it would be at 8 p.m. early Sunday but updated to 4 p.m. following the unrest.

With brooms and empathy, Angelenos pitch in

Tom O'Connell, a 20 year Fairfax resident, woke to a trash-littered street. Blue Adidas boxes, from a looted shoe store, were scattered across his Laurel Avenue front yard and across the asphalt.



Taking his dog for a walk, he followed the detritus to Melrose Avenue, and saw what happened when tensions snapped overnight. He captured pictures of littered side-streets of his area home. O'Connell, a father of three, had joined hundreds on Saturday Pan Pacific Park a short distance from his Melrose area home. And he listened as protests escalated overnight



Sunday morning, he joined fellow neighbors, many of whom said they understood the impulse behind the destruction, in an effort to clean up the neighborhood.

Sunday vigils

A handful of candlelight vigils and other actions in memory of Floyd took place Sunday, including a 3 p.m. protest at Long Beach Police Headquarters and vigils in Compton at 6:30 p.m and Pasadena at 7 p.m.

Garcetti said a small number of COVID-19 testing sites may not open Monday because workers do not feel safe reporting to those locations, but the city's largest site at Dodger Stadium will remain open.



He also appealed for demonstrators to remember that the coronavirus pandemic still presents a serious threat.

"The folks that are out there on these streets should not be a victim of this virus because we're not practicing social distancing," he said.

Saturday's peaceful demonstrations escalate

The Los Angeles Police Department said 398 arrests were made Saturday related to the protests, with accusations including burglary, looting, vandalism, failure to disperse, being a felon in possession of a gun, and numerous curfew violations.

LAPD Chief Michael Moore acknowledged he saw a few instances of improper policing techniques as officers tried to control the sometimes unruly crowds. Moore said he has been handing out his business card to demonstrators who complained about police conduct over the weekend.

The chief said the department will take complaints from anyone who has an accusation of excessive force or unlawful arrests by the LAPD.

Peaceful demonstrations in the Fairfax District Saturday became unruly when several hundred demonstrators converged, with some taking over the intersection of Third Street and Fairfax Avenue, shutting down traffic. At the nearby intersection of Third and Edinburgh Avenue, police fired tear gas and rubber bullets into the crowd after several police cars were vandalized.

Police tried to hold the line against further advancement, and could be seen engaging in scuffles with some protesters, and some officers used their clubs. They later brought in large, military-style vehicles to clear the streets, while some sign-carrying protesters chanting "Eat the rich" moved on to Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills' famed shopping destination.

A boy holds a sign during a protest in downtown Los Angeles, Friday, May 29, 2020, over the death of George Floyd, who died in police custody on Memorial Day in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Christian Monterrosa)

The windows at scores of stores were broken, with people rushing in and clearing shelves of pricey merchandise.

The Fairfax District gathering followed a noon Black Lives Matter rally at Pan Pacific Park, at 7600 Beverly Blvd. A handful of similar demonstrations were also held Saturday in other parts of the city.

At a hastily scheduled news conference to address what the city is doing to keep the public safe, Mayor Eric Garcetti announced a curfew for the downtown area and initially said he would not ask for National Guard troops. Shortly afterward, he extended curfew, which was in effect from 8 p.m. Saturday until 5:30 a.m. Sunday, to the entire city and asked Newsom send 500 guard troops to help police.

Villanueva later said the number was closer to 1,000 because he made a similar request for unincorporated areas.

Nationwide, at least 5,000 National Guard Soldiers and Airmen have been activated in 15 states, plus the District of Columbia, in response to civil disturbances tied to Floyd-related protests, according to a statement released Sunday.

Other area cities followed Garcetti's lead Saturday night, including Culver City, Santa Monica, Beverly Hills and Pasadena, which all implemented similar curfews. It was unclear whether those cities or others would do the same Sunday evening.

Looting was rampant Saturday at several downtown stores, in the Fairfax District and Beverly Hills with targets including a high-end consignment store on Fairfax Avenue, an eyeglass store on Melrose Avenue, a Target in the Beverly Grove shopping center and a Walgreens at Fourth and Hill streets.

Later in the evening looters cleaned out an Apple store on Melrose Avenue and reportedly took merchandise from a MedMen cannabis dispensary in West Hollywood. Images of similar damage in the Larchmont area was circulated on social media.

Minneapolis-based Target announced late Saturday that it will temporarily close 175 of its stores, including more than two dozen in the Southland. Employees will be paid their regular salaries for two weeks, including bonus pay for working through the COVID-19 pandemic.

A woman carries a 'Black Lives Matter' sign past U.S. National Guard troops in the Fairfax District, an area damaged during yesterday's unrest, after the troops were activated by California Governor Gavin Newsom following violent demonstrations in response to George Floyd's death on May 31, 2020 in Los Angeles, California. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Garcetti expresses sympathy

The mayor joined many other city officials in sympathizing with demonstrators expressing frustration about repeated acts of police brutality targeting black men, while also appealing for calm. "With liberty comes responsibility to be able to peacefully protest," Garcetti said.

"For that one or two percent of the protesters who think that (violence) is the way to make a statement, do not do a disservice to the memory of George Floyd (and) the folks who have died at the hands of the brutality that we all stand against," Garcetti said.

Rev. Najuma Smith Pollard, program manager for the USC Cecil Murray Center for Community Engagement added, "It is the right thing to stand up and speak out. We don't need more mayhem. It doesn't work."

Demonstrations have been held throughout the nation, and in several other parts of the world, since video of Floyd being handcuffed and pinned to the ground by a white Minneapolis Police Department officer, Derek Chauvin, who pressed his knee on the 46-year-old man's neck for more than eight minutes while Floyd pleaded for air and three other officers looked on.

Video footage of the arrest, in which Floyd is heard saying "I can't breathe," spread widely online, and all four officers were fired.

Chauvin was charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter on Friday.

At 5 p.m. Tuesday, the NAACP, the National Association of Day Laborers and a coalition of faith leaders will sponsor "Caravan Vigil & Peace," which will convene at First AME Church in Pasadena, 1700 N. Raymond Ave, It will be followed by car caravans through the streets of Pasadena.



Earlier Saturday, LAPD Chief Michel Moore joined other city leaders in appealing for calm.

"I am asking for all of Los Angeles to come together and find the ability to peacefully express individual and collective grievances while also maintaining the safety of all of Angelenos," he said.

The LAPD reported 4,400 calls to 911 within the fist 30 minutes of Saturday's protests, according to ABC7.

The exact number of arrests for will not be available until later Sunday, police officials said. But Moore said 533 people were arrested overnight Friday on charges including burglary, looting, probation violations, battery on a police officer, attempted murder and failure to disperse. All but 18 have been released.

A protester is treated after he said was shot by a projectile by police during demonstrations following the death of George Floyd on May 30, 2020 in Los Angeles, California. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

"Six Los Angeles Police Officers were injured during the protests on Friday night and early Saturday morning," Moore tweeted. "They sustained non- life-threatening injuries ranging from lacerations to impact wounds."

In a statement accompanying his emergency declaration statement, Newsom warned against outsiders who might come to California to exploit its "pain to sow chaos and destruction," and urged a renewed focus on the systemic issues at the core of the disturbances.

"Our state and nation must build from this moment united and more resolved than ever to address racism and its root causes," Newsom said.

City News Service contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on the Los Angeles Patch
Sunrise's Edwina Bartholomew will return to the Channel Seven breakfast show on Monday morning, just six months after welcoming daughter Molly.

The 36-year-old has revealed she's excited to be back on television screens so she can 'contribute to telling breaking news stories' to Australians every day.

'It's been a weird time being an observer and sitting on the couch,' the journalist and television presenter told News Corp Australia on Sunday.

She's back! Sunrise's Edwina Bartholomew, 36, (pictured) will return to the Channel Seven breakfast show on Monday morning, just six months after welcoming daughter Molly

Edwina continued: 'It was particularly hard during the bushfires, to think I couldn't contribute to telling those stories.'

However, she said that she's thankful to have been self-isolating at home with baby Molly on maternity leave throughout the coronavirus pandemic.

'The timing in that respect has been great,' added Edwina.

News just in! The presenter has revealed she's excited to be back on television screens so she can 'contribute to telling [breaking news] stories' to Australians

'It's been a weird time being an observer and sitting on the couch':The mother-of-one said she's also excited to 'speak to other humans again' once she's back in Sunrise's Martin Place, Sydney studios from Monday morning

The mother-of-one said she's also excited to 'speak to other humans again' once she's back in Sunrise's Martin Place, Sydney studios from Monday morning.

Last week, the Sunrise presenter shared a sweet Instagram post of daughter Molly befriending a picture of another baby on a packet of nappies.

Her baby gazed lovingly at the photo, clearly feeling she had made a new pal.

'Timing in that respect has been great': However, she said that she's thankful to have been self-isolating at home with baby Molly on maternity leave throughout the coronavirus pandemic

Edwina captioned the adorable photograph: 'Makes friends easily'.

Earlier this year, the journalist reflected on how motherhood had strengthened her marriage to husband Neil Varcoe.

'Neil has been so amazing,' Edwina told The Herald Sun at the time.

'They say you fall in love with your husband again after you have a baby. And that was definitely the case for me,' she cooed.
The battle lines are already drawn in a high-stakes political contest that will ostensibly determine the fate of the American shale industry. On the blue corner is former VP Joe Biden, who has not only pledged to steer the U.S. to a net-zero carbon emissions status by 2050 but is also hell-bent on stopping key oil and gas projects on federal lands and waters including the controversial Keystone XL. In the red corner is President Trump, who has taken credit for the spectacular surge in U.S. shale oil production, rolled back a raft of regulations on the fossil fuel sector, and sworn to continue doing so if re-elected.

The dynamics in the oil and gas sector have, in the past, determined the outcomes of U.S. presidential elections, which in this case appear to favor Trump courtesy of prevailing low gas prices.

The outcome of the elections might, however, ultimately prove to be a moot point in the shale industry's grand scheme of things.

That's according to a recent report by the Rapidan Energy Group, which has concluded that whereas the shale industry is likely to bounce back faster under Trump than Biden, even Trump will be powerless to help the industry in a weak macro environment.

Weak Recovery

Source: Axios

Rapidan says that U.S. onshore oil production is likely to clock in 1 million barrels per day lower by 2023 if Joe Biden trounces Donald Trump in the November elections. However, the advantage would be almost negligible if the oil markets are only able to put up a weak recovery.

Related: Stocks To Watch As Shale Bounces Back



Rapidan has a base case of Brent crude prices rebounding to the low $50s/b in 2023 while oil demand rises to around 10 million b/d over the timeframe. On the global stage, Rapidan's base case has oil production rising courtesy of returning OPEC+ production, a rebound by Canadian sands, as well as a startup of seven floating production units in Brazil.

Rapidan, however, sees Brent plateauing in the mid-$40s/b by 2023 with global crude demand climbing only 7.3 million b/d over the timeframe. Meanwhile, U.S. shale production would come in a good 1 million b/d below the base case in 2021.

Nor surprisingly, Rapidan says the tables are likely to turn for Iran if Biden wins with the Middle East nation expected to export 1.8 million b/d just a year after Biden ascends to the Oval Office but might not be allowed to pump that much until the second half of 2022 under Trump.

The Silver Lining

The Rapidan report is very bearish for U.S. shale, either way.

The base case--which is the bullish scenario-- has predicted that the U.S. shale industry will not be able to fully recover pre-crisis production levels over the next three years, even under Trump. The projected Brent crude of low $50s/b by 2023 suggests that the majority of shale firms are doomed to remain in the red.

The U.S. shale industry is already in dire straits, with hundreds of operators staring at bankruptcy. WTI prices have been range-bound at $32-34/barrel over the past few weeks, with the current WTI price of $33.75 a long way off the ~$50/barrel that many shale producers require to turn a profit.

But it's not all doom and gloom though, and Trump might actually be able to do the industry some good.

In a recent statement, the International Energy Agency (IEA) head predicted that oil demand is set to rebound and even surpass pre-crisis levels, in lieu of unfavorable government policies:

"In the absence of strong government policies, a sustained economic recovery and low oil prices are likely to take global oil demand back to where it was, and beyond," Fatih Birol, Executive Director of the IEA, told Bloomberg earlier this week.

Even the industry's biggest bogeyman--renewable energy--is lately facing a backlash even amongst European supermajors that have traditionally been at the frontline of the green energy drive. Total S.A. shareholders have overwhelmingly voted down a resolution to force the company to do more about climate change, while Exxon's shareholders have rejected proposals for a report on lobbying and a report on the risks of petrochemical investments.

Low oil prices have led to more than 2.2 million b/d of U.S. oil production being shut down. But ultimately, the cure for low oil prices is low oil prices, and the markets are bound to eventually correct, especially once a supply squeeze begins to threaten.

By Alex Kimani for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Now more than ever, it is clear that our regions economic recovery depends on working together.

Here in Western Massachusetts, there is an effort known as Springfield WORKS that has been bringing together employers, educators, community leaders and job seekers so that together we can figure out how to meet the economic needs of our residents and our local businesses.

As we respond to the changing economic and public health landscape, it is critical that we work together to navigate this changing landscape. Thats why together we are building a new wave of collaboration that funds and advances innovative, actionable solutions to help us thrive once the pandemic passes.

In response to this public health and economic crisis we surveyed our key partners in human services, higher education and business to get a better sense of what they are experiencing, and what resources and solutions might be put in place to help solve some challenges.

We know that small businesses are devastated, with uncertainty around credit, re-staffing and working capital. We know that our community colleges and training providers are scrambling to stay connected to students and looking ahead to figure out new training models. This is particularly difficult in hands-on programs like nursing assistance, pharmacy technicians and culinary.

We also know that lack of access to technology and digital skills are a critical need for families. Not only is online how were connecting to each other, and finding resources to support our families, but our health care, childrens education and our own opportunities for work and job training have shifted online.

That is why Springfield WORKS stakeholders are meeting every two weeks virtually to bring voices together to develop solutions that tackle training and re-employment priorities. Critical to this work is adapting our strategies to ensure that all families have access to digital tools and training, education, workforce training, and social supports. Also critical is the urgent need for greater collaboration with our employers to help them get back to business with the staff that they need.

Our goal, as it always has been, is to provide both employers and residents with the tools to get where they want to go, regardless of the forecast. While we cant fix everything, we can at least be really good managers of the resources that we have and make sure that we remove as many roadblocks to economic security and well-being as possible.

We ask that you join the Springfield WORKS collaboration to help us align your program or service so that together, we can build long-lasting economic opportunity for our families and businesses.

Springfield WORKS is a community-wide initiative with the Economic Development Council of Western Massachusetts, whose purpose is to improve the quality of life in Western Massachusetts through economic opportunity, growth, and resilience.

Right now this is requiring more creative problem-solving, flexibility, and responsiveness than ever before. But Springfield has a long history of innovation, and we believe that working together is the only way well develop the resilience we need to adapt to new circumstances, now and into the future.

Anne Shecrallah Kandilis is the director of the Springfield WORKS program of the Economic Development Council of Western Massachusetts.
Several US states activate National Guard troops as protests over police killings of unarmed Black people grow.

Another round of protests is gripping major cities across the United States against police brutality and violence, especially against unarmed Black people.

Several states have called in National Guard troops to help quell the protests, some of which have turned violent. Cities nationwide have also implemented curfews, but protesters appear undeterred.

Protesters in Minneapolis, Minnesota, have pledged to continue until all four officers involved in the death of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, are charged. Floyd died on Monday after a white officer knelt on his neck. Officer Derek Chauvin has been charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter. The other officers have not been charged.

Trump orders Pentagon to put military police on alert, saying they may be deployed to Minnesota.

Latest updates:

Sunday, May 31

17:30 GMT  Mapping US police killings of Black Americans

Between 2013 and 2019, police in the United States killed 7,666 people, according to data compiled by Mapping Police Violence, a research and advocacy group. On May 26, 2020 at 9:25pm (02:25 GMT, May 27), George Floyd, a 46-year-old resident of Minnesota, became yet another victim of police brutality as he was killed by an officer while unarmed.

Floyds death has prompted thousands of protesters to march in cities around the country demanding justice and an end to police violence.

The number of police killings in the US disproportionately affects African Americans. Despite only making up 13 percent of the US population, Black Americans are two-and-a-half times as likely as white Americans to be shot and killed by the police.

The map below shows how disproportionate these killings are across the USs 50 states.

17:00 GMT  Trump says US to designate Antifa as a terrorist organisation

Donald Trump said on Sunday that the US will designate Antifa as a terrorist organisation accusing the anti-fascist network of the violence seen in several cities across the country.

The United States of America will be designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organization.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 31, 2020

Antifa, short for anti-fascist or Anti-Fascist action, is a fringe movement, a loose collection of organisations and ideas with no party line and no formal leadership, but its fight against the far right has found centre stage in the polarised climate of Trumps America.

15:30 GMT  Governor Walz says Minnesota authorities hit by cyber attacks

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said on Sunday state authorities were hit by cyber attackers before law enforcement launched operations on Saturday to clear protests.

Walz described the incident as a a very sophisticated denial of service attack and said it was executed on all computers. He did not offer additional details.

Governor Walz said the hack is evidence outside groups are trying to sow mayhem in his state [AP]

Walz pointed to the hack as evidence that unrest in his state in recent days has been stoked by coordinated, outside groups trying to sow mayhem.

Thats not somebody sitting in their basement, he told reporters on Sunday. Thats pretty sophisticated.

Minnesota authorities say 20 percent of those arrested had out-of-state addresses.

14:00 GMT  Trump will not activate federal troops for now  NSAs OBrien

President Donald Trump will not invoke federal authority over the National Guard for now, National Security Adviser Robert OBrien said on Sunday.

Were not going to federalise the guard at this time, OBrien told reporters at the White House, saying law enforcement decisions should rest with governors and mayors.

10:17 GMT  Police failing to ensure right to protest: Amnesty International

In city after city, we are witnessing actions that could be considered unnecessary or excessive force. We call for an immediate end to any such use of force and for law enforcement to ensure and protect the legal right to protest, Rachel Ward, National Director of Research at Amnesty International USA, said in a statement.

According to the human rights group, police tactics used so far can trigger escalating violence. Equipping officers in a manner more appropriate for a battlefield may put them in the mindset that confrontation and conflict are inevitable, read the statement, adding that police should demilitarize their approach and engage in dialogue with protest organizers.

09:35 GMT  Fires continue burning: La Mesa local media

Protests turned violent in the city of La Mesa near San Diego, California where demonstrators set buildings ablaze.

Fires continue burning across the city. Protests have been ongoing since early this morning, Hunter Sowards, a reporter from local KUSI News media, said in a tweet.

The City of La Mesa has enacted a curfew beginning May 31st from 1:30AM-7:00 AM. Fires continue burning across the city. Protests have been ongoing since early this morning. City leaders urge people to go home. @KUSINews pic.twitter.com/W7IBD3qLNL  Hunter Sowards (@huntersowards3) May 31, 2020

The city is under curfew from 1.30am (8.30am GMT) until 7am (2pm GMT).

08:19 GMT  Minneapolis protesters undeterred by curfew

We dont need a curfew, we need change, Mia, a 20-year resident of Minneapolis told Al Jazeera.

Going home would [send] the wrong message that they can shut us up when they want to, and thats not the case here, she said, as protesters have promised to remain in the streets at least until all four officers involved in Floyds death have been charged.

Read Lucien Formichellas full story here.

07:58 GMT  Trump didnt give me the opportunity to even speak: George Floyds brother

The brother of George Floyd said he was not given the opportunity to even speak when President Donald Trump called the Floyd family on Friday.

It was so fast. He didnt give me the opportunity to even speak. It was hard, Philonise Floyd told MSNBC.

I was trying to talk to him but he just kept like pushing me off like I dont want to hear what youre talking about, he said.

And I just told him I want justice, I said I cant believe they committed a modern day lynching in broad daylight. I cant stand it, Philonise Floyd added. I just want to understand, why do we have to go through this?

07:25 GMT  Protests raise concerns over spread of coronavirus

Protesters in Atlanta said they had to take to the streets to protest against police brutality despite the dangers associated with the coronavirus pandemic.

Its not OK that in the middle of a pandemic we have to be out here risking our lives, Spence Ingram, a Black woman marching in Atlanta, told The Associated Press news agency.

It came as health experts and officials raised concerns over the viruss spread during the protests that keep gripping major cities across the US.

If you were out protesting last night, you probably need to go get a COVID test this week, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Bottoms said, adding that there is still a pandemic in America thats killing Black and Brown people at higher numbers.

Protesters throw firecrackers amid tear gas during a protest against the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd, in Atlanta, US [Reuters]

06:57 GMT  Journalists hit by police in Minneapolis

Two members of a Reuters TV crew were shot with rubber bullets in Minneapolis shortly after a curfew as they were covering the protest.

My security advisor and I were shot with rubber bullets tonight. He had PRESS labeled clearly and visibly on his bulletproof vest, one of the two reporters, Julio-Cesar Chavez, said in a tweet as he posted a photo of a previous moment when a police officer was aiming directly at him.

My security advisor and I were shot with rubber bullets tonight. He had PRESS labeled clearly and visibly on his bulletproof vest Before being shot, at a separate incident, I was directly aimed at. I took cover https://t.co/HYYwN4Pkka pic.twitter.com/6HwxXiyWQ1  Julio-Cesar Chavez (@JulioCesrChavez) May 31, 2020

Chavez explained in a second tweet that he was shot in the arm and the back of his neck with rubber bullets, while his security adviser was shot in the face, but saved by the gas mask he was wearing.

Tonight I was shot in the arm and the back of my neck with rubber bullets in the middle of covering the Minneapolis protests. My security advisor was shot in the face; his gas mask protected him. Heres what happened: https://t.co/fwwVLAxFIY Heres what it looks like: pic.twitter.com/UwSBqpHv5N  Julio-Cesar Chavez (@JulioCesrChavez) May 31, 2020

No immediate comments were made as Reuters asked Minneapolis Police Department about the incident. Police spokesman John Elder requested a copy of the video.

06:38 GMT  San Francisco to impose curfew

San Francisco Mayor London Breed has declared the implementation of a citywide curfew starting on Sunday at 8pm (03:00 GMT).

People are hurting right now. Theyre angry. Im angry, she said on Twitter, as she announced the decision.

The city and the police will support peaceful protests, as we did all day today, however, she added, We cant tolerate violence and vandalism. Now is the time to go home.

We are implementing a curfew that will start tomorrow at 8pm. People are hurting right now. They're angry. I'm angry. The City and the police will support peaceful protests, as we did all day today. We can't tolerate violence and vandalism. Now is the time to go home.  London Breed (@LondonBreed) May 31, 2020

04:32 GMT  Biden: We must not allow this pain to destroy us

Joe Biden, the presumptive US Democratic presidential nominee, said in a statement early on Sunday that: We are a nation in pain, but we must not allow this pain to destroy us.

These last few days have laid bare that we are a nation furious at injustice. Every person of conscience can understand the rawness of the trauma people of color experience in this country  like the horrific killing of George Floyd, the former vice president said.

Protesting such brutality is right and necessary  But burning down communities and needless destruction is not. Violence that endangers lives is not. Violence that guts and shutters businesses that serve the community is not.

We are a nation in pain, but we must not allow this pain to destroy us. We are a nation enraged, but we cannot allow our rage to consume us. Please stay safe. Please take care of each other. https://t.co/Y224rANwUF  Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) May 31, 2020

04:00 GMT  LA calls in National Guard

The mayor of Los Angeles says the National Guard will be deployed overnight to help local law enforcement as protests continue in the countrys second-largest city.

Mayor Eric Garcetti says he asked California Governor Gavin Newsom on Saturday to send 500 to 700 guardsmen. Crowds of demonstrators have torched police cars, vandalised and burglarised shops and clashed with officers. Hundreds of people have been arrested since Friday night. Police have used tear gas to disperse the crowd.

03:58 GMT  Protesters defy curfew in Salt Lake City

Protests are continuing in Salt Lake City despite a curfew issued by the mayor and National Guard troops deployed by Utahs governor.

Police officials say they are prepared to give people time to leave, but they plan to arrest people who refuse to comply.

What started as a peaceful demonstration on Saturday against the death of George Floyd turned destructive. A group of people flipped over a police car and torched it. A second car was later set on fire.

Police officials say six people have been arrested and that a police officer was injured after being struck in the head with a baseball bat.

03:50 GMT  National Guard deployed in Washington, DC

The National Guard has been deployed in Washington, DC, as pockets of violence erupted during a second straight night of protests.

Hundreds of protesters converged on the White House during the day on Saturday and marched on the National Mall, chanting Black lives matter, I cant breathe and No justice, no peace. Those protests remained relatively peaceful.

Tear gas in the air just blocks from the White House about 20 minutes who. Could honestly barely breathe for a few pic.twitter.com/2YXQ5Dbh4j  Ashish Malhotra (@amalhotra2) May 31, 2020

Police used pepper spray to try to disperse the crowd, but the standoff continued. Protesters dragged away barricades and some broke up concrete to use as projectiles. At one point, a rubbish bin was set on fire.

National Guard troops took up position around the White House on Saturday night.

03:45 GMT  Nearly 1,400 people arrested in 17 US cities

Police have arrested nearly 1,400 people in 17 US cities as protests continue over the death of George Floyd, according to the Associated Press news agency.

An AP tally of arrests found at least 1,383 people have been arrested since Thursday. The actual number is likely higher as protests continue on Saturday night.

03:00 GMT  NYC police drive into protesters

New York City Police Department cruisers drove into protesters who were standing against a barricade and began pelting the police car with objects. The two vehicles drove into the small crowd, knocking several people to the ground, video shared on Twitter showed.

The Associated Press news agency also reported on the incident

Warning: Graphic video

02:50 GMT  Nashville mayor declares emergency as courthouse burns

The mayor of Nashville, Tennessee, has declared a state of civil emergency after protesters lit a fire inside the Metro Courthouse in the states capital city.

Thousands had rallied near the Capitol building on Saturday afternoon to peacefully protest against police brutality and racism. But things turned violent after darkness fell, with protesters breaking windows in government buildings and causing other property damage.

The Tennessean newspaper said demonstrators also pulled down a statue outside the Capitol of Edward Carmack, a controversial former legislator and newspaper publisher who espoused racist views.

Police deployed tear gas and began warning demonstrators that the protest was unlawful.

Governor Bill Lee issued an order Saturday night for the National Guard to mobilise in response to protests that have now taken a violent, unlawful turn in Nashville.

02:15 GMT  Trump continues to attack Minneapolis leaders

US President Donald Trump continued his attacks on Minneapolis city leaders as protests there continued for a fifth night.

The National Guard has been released in Minneapolis to do the job that the Democrat Mayor couldnt do, he said as protests raged on in the city.

Great job by the National Guard, he tweeted. No games! he added, appearing to cheer on the tougher tactics being used by law enforcement around the country.

02:00 GMT  What Al Jazeera correspondents and reporters are seeing in major US cities

Gabriel Elizondo in New York City: Its pretty chaotic out here right now  Groups of protesters are really playing cat and mouse [with police]  Right now the bottom line is: New York City is really a city in the middle of fog right now because its really hard to make out exactly whats happening.

Natasha Ghoneim in Chicago, Illinois: This moment is eerily reminiscent of another moment that the city of Chicago had, and it wont fade from its memory. That was in 2014 when the police shot and killed 17-year-old Laquan McDonald. (Read more about that police killing here.)

Lucien Formichella in Minneapolis, Minnesota: There was a tense moment here in Minneapolis earlier when what was believed to be a drunk man attempted to drive his car through the protest area. The situation was de-escalated by protesters, and the man was sent back. Protesters then erected makeshift barricades to stop cars from driving down the street.

A banner with an image of George Floyd is held by protesters rallying against his death in Minneapolis police custody, in Minneapolis, Minnesota [Leah Millis/Reuters]

Rob Reynolds in Los Angeles: As night falls the standoff between protesters and police continue.

Mike Hanna in Washington, DC: The demonstrations here have been largely peaceful through the course of the day and indeed in the course of the evening. There had been some scuffles. At one stage demonstrators were being pushed back across the park in front of the White House, but generally, the demonstrations have been relatively peaceful.

01:45 GMT  More cities impose curfews

Eugene, Oregon, was the latest US city to impose a nightly curfew as protests over the death of George Floyd intensify.

Eugene city officials enacted a 9pm Saturday curfew. Seattle and Portland, Oregon, also issued Saturday night curfews due to the unrest.

Eugene is home to the University of Oregon.

01:30 GMT  Protests erupt on the US West Coast

Protests are rocking several cities on the West Coast of the US

Washington Governor Jay Inslee activated up to 200 members of the National Guard to respond to protests, some violent, in downtown Seattle that forced the closure of the Interstate 5 freeway and the imposition of a citywide curfew.

Inslee said the Guard personnel would be unarmed and be directed by Seattle officials, who requested the help to protect property and manage crowds who had gathered in response to the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

A woman gestures in front of police officers during a protest against the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd, in Los Angeles, California [Patrick T Fallon/Reuters]

The mayor of Seattle, Washington, meanwhile announced a 5pm curfew for Saturday following protests that spilled onto Interstate 5, forcing its closure through the central part of the Northwests largest city.

The mayor of Portland, Oregon declared an 8pm curfew for Saturday after that city saw fiery protests Friday night.

00:40 GMT  Protesters in Minneapolis run after man believed to have a knife

Calls of hes got a knife rang out as a large group of about 100 protesters followed a man out of the protest.

Many in the group were shouting let him go. Before he walked out of the car park where he was, another man ran up and sprayed him with what appeared to be mace.

I saw somebody run that way after him, [onto Lake Street] but I dont know if he got caught, said one witness.

Calls of "he's got a knife" rang out as a large group of protesters, roughly 100, followed a man out of the #Minneapolisprotest Many in the group were yelling "let him go." Before getting out of the parking lot, another man ran up and sprayed him with what appeared to be mace. pic.twitter.com/GYdsPhYQEE  Lucien (@lucien_form) May 31, 2020

00:15 GMT  Protesters defy curfew in Minneapolis, other cities

Hundreds of protesters continued to rally in Minneapolis, even as a citywide curfew took effect. Similar reports were coming from other cities across the US.

Protesters have told Al Jazeera that they will stay in the streets and continue to rally at least until all four officers involved in the death of Floyd are arrested. They are also calling for police reforms.

Hundreds of people continued to rally in Minneapolis on Saturday after a curfew began [ Lucien Formichella/Al Jazeera]

00:05 GMT  Protests intensify in Texas

As anger over the death of Floyd intensified in Texas, Governor Greg Abbott said he was sending more than 1,500 state troopers to cities where demonstrations were taking place.

Abbott said in a news release Saturday that troopers are being sent to Houston, Dallas, Austin and San Antonio.

Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said on Twitter that nearly 200 people were arrested Friday and most will be charged with obstructing a roadway as several protesters blocked an interstate road and a highway.

Hundreds of protesters gathered in Austin on Saturday outside police headquarters and then marched along Interstate 35.

00:00 GMT  Protesters confront police in Chicago

Protesters were confronting police in Chicago, Illinois, for a second night as anger about police violence and the death of Floyd grew.

More than 100 arrests were made on Friday night in relation to the protests, police said.

Saturday, May 30

23:50 GMT  Protests grip New York City for third night

Protesters rallied in New York City for a third night on Saturday, marching and blocking traffic on a highway.

Several thousand peacefully protested in Union Square and outside Brooklyns Prospect Park. Later in the day, as protesters confronted police, video posted online showed officers pushing some protesters to the ground.

Big turnout outside Prospect Park for another #georgefloyd protest in Brooklyn, one of several happening across the city today. Are we tired? No!/ Are we gonna stop? No! pic.twitter.com/GKFOUBv6IZ  Jake Offenhartz (@jangelooff) May 30, 2020

The mayor said he was upset by videos in which protesters were handled very violently by police and by reports that a state senator and member of the state Assembly were among the people sprayed with irritating chemicals by officers.

Dozens have been arrested over the three days of protest, according to authorities.

23:20 GMT  Protesters rally in Atlanta

Hundreds of people rallied outside the Georgia governors mansion.

Video and photos shared on social media showed protesters blocking the road in front of the Atlanta building, chanting hands up, dont shoot!

According to The Associated Post news agency, the governor, Brian Kemp, was not home on Saturday evening.

Protest outside Govs Mansion in Atlanta got a little testy a few minutes ago; crowd moved from the sidewalk to the street & blocked traffic. Now people are raising their hands #GeorgeFloydProtests pic.twitter.com/57SygLf6aI  Beau Evans (@beauvans) May 30, 2020

The mayor of Atlanta has announced a 9pm (01:00 GMT) curfew in the city that will last until sunrise Sunday morning.

Protests turned violent as outrage over Floyds death intensified outside the headquarters of news network CNN on Friday night.

22:30 GMT  Minneapolis city leaders call for states attorney general to be named special prosecutor

Community leaders and organisers have told Al Jazeera they want Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison to handle the case as they do not trust Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman to do so.

Local media also reported that six of the city councils 13 members have supported that call.

Ellison, who is Black and was also the first Muslim US congressman before being elected attorney general, has good ties with the community, organisers have told Al Jazeera.

22:15 GMT  Protests erupt outside White House for second night

Protesters have gathered outside the White House for a second night, demanding an end to police violence and protesting against Trump, who has been accused of inciting and glorifying violence.

Trump said on Saturday that he is a friend and ally to every American.





I stand before you in firm opposition to anyone exploiting this tragedy to loot, rob, attack and menace. Healing, not hatred, justice, not chaos, are the missions at hand, Trump said in Florida, where he was watching the launch of the SpaceX rocket.

Without evidence, the president has blamed radical left protesters for the violence.

The White House was placed on lockdown on Friday evening as protesters tore down barricades outside. The barricades were several feet in front of the fence that surrounds the presidents residence.

22:25 GMT  Ohio calls in National Guard

The governor of Ohio has called in the National Guard to support local authorities as protests continue to rage in Columbus and Cleveland.

The mayors of both cities announced 10pm (02:00 GMT) curfews.

Governor Mike DeWine said Saturday that the vast majority of protesters want simply to be heard and focus attention on the death of Floyd.

But the governor adds that sadly the calls for justice and change are being drowned out by a smaller group of violent individuals. He says that acts of violence cannot, and will not, be tolerated.

Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther says he believes racism is a public health and safety crisis and he wants to see a more equitable city, but that: We are now at a point that we can no longer tell who is protesting for change and an end to racism and who has only chaos and destruction in mind.

22: 20 GMT  Denver imposes curfew

The mayor of Denver, Colorado, has ordered a nighttime a curfew as demonstrations protesting the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis entered a third day.

Mayor Michael Hancock said Saturday that the Colorado National Guard would help enforce the 8pm to 5am (02:00  11:00 GMT) curfew.

Downtown Denver has seen protests for two nights, with tense moments between demonstrators and police. Authorities have fired tear gas, flash grenades and pepper pellets. Some protesters have broken windows of businesses.

22:00 GMT  George Floyd protests: Minnesota fully mobilises National Guard

The governor of Minnesota, where protests have erupted over police brutality and the death of George Floyd during the last week, has fully mobilised the National Guard to Minneapolis for the first time in state history.

Governor Tim Walz said the deployment comes as part of an effort to help quell the protests, which have often started off peaceful before descending into chaos  violence he largely blamed on outsiders.

Read more here.

A man confronts National Guard members guarding an area of Minneapolis, Minnesota [Carlos Barria/Reuters]

Hello and welcome to Al Jazeeras continuing coverage of the protests in the US over the deadly arrest of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This is Laurin-Whitney Gottbrath in Louisville, Kentucky, Lucien Formichella in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Ted Regencia in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Here are a few things to get caught up:

George Floyd, an unarmed 46-year-old Black man, died on Monday after a white officer used his knee to pin Floyds neck to the ground for several minutes. Floyd can be heard on a bystander video repeatedly pleading with officers, saying I cant breathe. He eventually becomes motionless with the officers knee still on his neck. ( You can read about the deadly incident here .)

The four officers involved in the incident were fired. Derek Chauvin, the white officer who pinned Floyd down, has been arrested and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter. Protesters demand the three other officers be charged as well.

Protests  some violent  have since erupted nationwide as demonstrators rally for justice for Floyd and all unarmed Black people killed by police.

See the updates from Friday nights protests here.
More than a month after the San Ysidro school board agreed to settle a lawsuit against former Superintendent Manuel Paul, the district has not released details or a copy of the agreement.

San Ysidro School District officials say they are withholding the agreement because it is missing the signature of a community member who joined the lawsuit as a plaintiff: Esther Gutierrez.

Once a fully executed agreement is received by the District, it may be released to the public, the district said in a statement to The San Diego Union-Tribune.

The districts lawsuit was filed in February 2015 in an attempt to recover more than $200,000 in severance pay from Paul, who a month earlier was sentenced to two months in federal prison for his role in a pay-to-play scheme.

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The case appeared to reach an end after the school board approved the settlement agreement at a closed-door meeting on Sept. 13. Trustees and Superintendent Gina Potter characterized the agreement as the closing of a chapter.

It is unclear why Gutierrez, whose grandchild is a student in the district, has not signed the agreement. Attempts to reach her were unsuccessful.

District spokesman Francisco Mata said the lawyer representing the district in the case against Paul said the agreement was promptly mailed to Ms. Gutierrez for signature.

Mata said the lawyer, William Trejo, was following up with Ms. Gutierrez to expedite finalizing the agreement.

Trejo did not respond to requests for comment.

The lawsuit against Paul in not the only district matter Gutierrez has been involved in.

In 2015, she was part of successful efforts to unseat two trustees  first Jose Barajas, then Luciana Corrales. Both trustees stepped down, in a three-month period, under pressure and threats of petitions calling for their resignation.

Gutierrez was added as a plaintiff in the case against Paul in May 2016. Court records show she joined the lawsuit after Pauls lawyer argued in court that the district did not have the grounds to bring a claim under a state code  526a  that allows certain tax payers to sue government officials to recoup wasted funds. The court sided with Paul but allowed the district to amend its complaint.

In response, the district added Gutierrez to the lawsuit, identifying her as a taxpayer and local resident.

Paul, who for years rose through the ranks before he was hired as superintendent in 2007, was placed on leave after he was indicted in a pay-to-play scheme that spread across three South Bay school districts.

He resigned five months later.

He pleaded guilty in San Diego Superior Court and was sentenced to probation, ordered to do community service and fined.

But the charges against him didnt stop there. Paul also was charged in federal court, where he admitted he demanded campaign contributions from contractors as a price to consider them for work on district projects.

In January 2015, Paul was sentenced to two months in federal prison, ordered to do community service and fined.

The district sued him to recover the roughly $211,000 paid out to him, the salary he was paid while on administrative leave, attorney fees and other damages.

Pauls lawyer, Dennis Grady, declined to comment on the settlement agreement.

I am precluded by confidentiality from discussing anything at all about that, he said.

Email: david.hernandez@sduniontribune.com

Phone: (619) 293-1876

Twitter: @D4VIDHernandez
ATLANTA, GA  With another night of vandalism in parts of Atlanta, and more protests planned for Sunday across the state, Gov. Brian Kemp has placed all of Georgia under a state of emergency. Kemp will activate 3,000 National Guard troops to try to ensure that protests sparked by the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis remain peaceful.

"After numerous discussions with state and local leaders, I have signed an order authorizing the activation of up to 3,000 National Guard troops statewide ahead of several planned protests on Sunday, May 31," Kemp tweeted late Saturday night. "These highly trained citizen soldiers will partner will law enforcement to preserve peace and protect Georgians in every corner of our great state."

On Friday Kemp placed Fulton County under a state of emergency so National Guard troops could help police quell violence.

"This was an opportunity for Georgians to honor the life of George Floyd, to demand justice and fair treatment under the law. This was not a time to burn police cars, destroy businesses and create fear in the hearts of nearby Georgians," Kemp said Saturday evening. "Too much has been destroyed, let's build a safer, stronger Georgia."

A curfew began at 9 p.m. Saturday for the city of Atlanta according to an executive order signed by Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms. The curfew will be in effect until sunrise Sunday. The order comes after a protest turned into a violent riot Friday night, injuring officers, damaging patrol vehicles and more.

What we saw overnight was not a protest, and it was not Atlanta," the mayor said Saturday. "We as a people are strongest when we use our voices to heal our city instead of using our hands to tear it down. We know our citizens are angry. We are angry and we want justice. If we are to enact change in this nation, I implore everyone to channel their anger and sorrow into something more meaningful and effective through non-violent activism."



Story continues

As of 8 p.m. Atlanta Police said that 34 arrests had been made, mainly along the Marietta Street corridor. Protesters began throwing bottles, rocks, and fireworks at officers shortly before 7 p.m. near Cone and Marietta streets, police said.

One person arrested was armed, and authorities said they have reports of other protesters being armed.

Police Chief Erika Shields said at a Saturday press conference that within Friday's protesters was a group of people not from Atlanta  she said it was clear they didn't know the area as they walked  and they were bent on causing violence. She called them a terrorist organization.

"These were not Atlantans, they were lost in the protest, they didn't know how to march to the state capitol," she said.

Local activists that are known to police didn't know the troublemakers, the chief said.

Mayor Bottoms said what started as a peaceful demonstration, quickly turned into "mayhem and unnecessary destruction." The result was an "assault on businesses that are already struggling to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic."

The Atlanta Police Department said in a statement that they are monitoring protest activity throughout the city and are prepared to make arrests for any criminal acts, following destructive activities on Friday night that stretched into early Saturday.



As a result of the recent acts of violence demonstrated throughout the city, Mayor @KeishaBottoms has signed an Executive Order establishing a curfew in the entire territorial jurisdiction of the City of Atlanta. Curfew will begin at 9:00 p.m. tonight and end at sunrise 5/31/2020 pic.twitter.com/Rf1lFWHUcE

 City of Atlanta, GA (@CityofAtlanta) May 30, 2020

Avalon businesses in Alpharetta closed early Saturday as a precaution after social media messages circulated about possible violence and looting later in the night.

Many Avalon businesses closed early Saturday on rumors of pending violence and looting. Photo by Patch Editor Kathleen Sturgeon

Alpharetta Police Chief John Robison said on Facebook that authorities are closely monitoring the discussions and, in an abundance of caution, preparing to protect the community and businesses.

"Many Avalon businesses have proactively decided to close for the night with downtown businesses likely following suit," Roison said. "This decision was made by the businesses and was not at the urging of the city or the police department."

APD officers, assisted by about 20 local, state and federal agencies, said Saturday they are prepared to monitor activity and protect vulnerable business districts and retail centers, including Atlantic Station, Camp Creek Marketplace, Greenbriar Mall, Lenox Square, Phipps Plaza, Ponce City Market, The Mall West End and others. APD is working collaboratively with those agencies to coordinate security and assure public safety throughout the city.



Im incredibly proud of our officers for showing professionalism and restraint, allowing protestors to voice their valid concerns, said Chief Erika Shields. We were patient. But we will not allow these protests to devolve into the destruction of property or placing the safety or our officers in jeopardy. We will make additional arrests and we are grateful to the assistance we are receiving from our partner agencies.

APD, in close collaboration with its law enforcement partners, has a multi-layered strategy that includes reaction, arrest and SWAT teams to quickly move into trouble spots, stop criminal activity and take suspects into custody.

APD said that 71 arrests were made last night and 20 patrol vehicles were damaged. There were multiple fires, vandalism and other criminal acts.

They said they will not tolerate looting and damage to property are still working to determine the number of businesses that were looted, burglarized or damaged.

At least three Atlanta Police officers suffered minor injuries.

One was pushed down during a scuffle with protestors when a large crowd attempted to surround a police vehicle and two others were injured by flying debris.

Officers were subjected for hours to objects thrown at them including water bottles, bullets, eggs, rocks, fireworks and knives. One officer was fired upon early Saturday morning while driving through Buckhead, but was not injured. Looting, broken windows and other vandalism occurred at several businesses along Peachtree and Lenox roads in Buckhead.

Workers were seen early Saturday morning near Lenox Square on Peachtree Road sweeping the sidewalks, clearing it of shattered glass broken by rioters the night before. Patio chairs and potted plants were smashed through windows. Left behind trash littered the street. Several businesses, including Maggiano's Little Italy had their windows broken.

A protest march Friday from the Georgia capitol to Atlanta's Centennial Olympic Park drew thousands, authorities estimated, but the promoted "peaceful" protest, organized under the #ATLFORUS hashtag, quickly changed when unruly crowds gathered to break windows at CNN's headquarters.



Some of the marchers broke off and objects were thrown at police, cars were set on fire, and stores were looted.



During a late news conference, the mayor urged people to stop and return home immediately.

"If you care about this city then go home," she said. "You're not protesting anything by running out with brown liquor in your hands. When you burn down this city you're burning down our community.

"If you want change in America register to vote. Show up to our polls June 9. That is the change we need in this country," the mayor told protesters. "You're disgracing our city and the life of George Floyd and anyone else killed in this country. We are better than this as a city and county. ... We're no longer talking about the murder of an innocent man. We're now talking about the burning of the streets of Atlanta, Georgia. Go home."

This article originally appeared on the Atlanta Patch
Chetana Belagere By

Express News Service

BENGALURU: As Karnataka is preparing to open all economic activities once the Lockdown 4.0 ends on Sunday, the number of cases continues to increase sharply. But Karnataka still seems to have managed the fight against the pandemic much better than most Southern states and other states reporting a high number of cases and mortality rates.

But experts cautioned that the government should take note of a possible community spread as a large number of migrants are returning from other states and are being placed under home quarantine, especially in villages.

Experts pointed out that most metro cities still remain hotspots across the country. "Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad are all financial and industrial hubs. Bengaluru too is similar, but has managed to keep the virus burden low because of early mitigation and containment strategies," explained Dr Giridhara Babu, Senior Epidemiologist, Indian Institute of Public Health. As per data analysed last week, Karnataka has 38 cases per million, lower than the national average of 70, he said.

ALSO READ| Tribals in Uttara Kannada's Joida show the way to self-isolation amid COVID-19 pandemic

Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar said the state is conducting 4,124 tests per million, which is among the highest in the country. The positivity rate of 1 per cent is better than Keralas 2 per cent; the average daily growth rate is 5.8 per cent, while it is 10.2 per cent for the country, and the mortality rate is 1.72 per cent as against the all- Indian figure of 5 per cent, he added.

Karnataka, being a tech hub, used technology extensively and also adopted suggestions made by public health experts quickly.

"Apart from technology, high testing, transparency, community involvement, seamless coordination across departments, new models like setting up of fever clinics, dedicated COVID-19 hospitals, surveillance system for ILI/SARI cases, collecting data from private pharmacies on patients buying medicines for ILI/SARI and critical care support units doing erounds of all ICUs in the state are some of our best moves which helped keep the numbers low but also bring down fatality rate from 4-plus to 1.6 now," explained Health Commissioner Pankaj Kumar Pandey.

ALSO READ| Mysuru: Not just a piece of cloth, volunteers promote menstrual hygiene amid COVID-19 pandemic

The state government was quick to adapt the Kerala model of contact tracing, but went one up using technology-based surveillance to trace contacts and ensure strict quarantine. Also, Karnataka banned the entry of foreign travellers in January, much earlier than Maharashtra and Delhi.

"On the ground, the Health Department- led surveillance system took on a community-based character with the involvement of elected representatives of local governments, particularly village panchayats. ASHA workers and citizens helped. The police too actively participated," he said.

The state anticipated an extreme scenario. It sought and got the support of private hospitals. Large spaces that could safely quarantine people, including public and private hospitals, and stadiums, too were mapped. However, like many other states, Karnataka too failed to anticipate the influx of migrants and a spurt in cases.

Karnataka had it all under control till migrants started pouring in. "It was a question of the lives of the poor and the government had failed to address their problems from the beginning. The poor had travelled far to escape abject poverty and to live a decent life. But with coronavirus robbing them of all that, they have started coming back," said an expert.

ALSO READ| With influx of people, home COVID quarantine only option: Karnataka minister K Sudhakar

Many hotspots are emerging because of migrants and the state needs to keep a close watch, as some of these returnees may be asymptomatic, said bioethics researcher Anant Bhan. Many epidemiologists claimed community transmission has occurred, but the government is not accepting it.

"More testing and stricter containment measures are needed. The administration needs to focus on districts where migration will increase, protect the elderly and patients with comorbidities," said Dr G Gururaj, Dean, Neuro sciences and senior Professor in the Department of Epidemiology, Nimhans.
It may come as a surprise to many, but a lot of the Jewish "settlers"  I know they hate the term, but there is no better one  are opposed to Trump's peace plan, which allows for Israel to annex a large portion of the disputed territories. They see Trump's plan as too generous to the Palestinians.

Despite the US proposal seemingly allowing for Israeli annexation of all Israeli settlements and the Jordan Valley, some settler officials have come out against the plan for provisioning space for a Palestinian state on some 70 percent of the West Bank.

Many conservatives, both Israeli and American, are surprised at such "settler" stubbornness. Isn't Trump giving the right-wing Israelis more leeway that any other American president? By moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, Trump did what Presidents Clinton, Bush, and Obama would not do.

Apparently, to these "hawkish" settlers, President Trump has not done enough  or rather, he has given a degree of recognition to the Palestinians that the "settlers" are not comfortable with.

Daniella Weiss, a settler leader, has said:

The government of Israel must reject the plan completely. It is a time-bomb of terrible danger. It is a trap coated with honey. The clause regarding sovereignty is only a part of the overall plan, which will eventually award 90 percent [of the arable areas] of Yesha [Judea and Samaria] to the Arabs.

To be fair, this is not a recent development, nor is this aimed personally at Trump. The leadership of the settler organizations have been determined from day one to prevent any Palestinian state at all  in any capacity  as this earlier quote of Daniella Weiss shows:

With my many talks with Ariel Sharon and my work with Ariel Sharon, there was a clear understanding, a very clear planning, of spreading the Jewish communities in the way that there will be no option for a Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria.

So everyone should have known that the two-state solution, in any capacity, was an impossibility  whether due to Arab recalcitrance or Jewish settler determination. Both sides want all of the pie and will accept nothing less. The two-state solution was a farce.

Nor will it appease the "settlers" that Trump has put a deadline of four years on the peace plan  after which Israel will have a freer hand. The "settlers" do not even want to entertain the possibility of a Palestinian entity, even if Trump's plan offers only limited autonomy to it. As far as the settlers are concerned, God gave the Jews the land, and they want all of it.

It is obvious that the "settlers" will not yield. So, amazing as it sounds, they want to sabotage Trump's plan.

Does Israel have the nerve to overrule the "settlers"?

The point is moot, actually. The Arabs will never agree to a limited autonomy, either, and Israel will not offer any more than that. But in the four-year interim, the "settler" enclaves do not like being surrounded by Palestinians, nor do they like construction limits placed on growth, while their connection to "Israel" will be limited to roads, which they consider a security risk.

Yamina Party head Naftali Bennett has long opposed the Trump plan because it also allows for the creations of a demilitarized Palestinian state. Bennett has long argued Israel must apply sovereignty to all of Area C, while the Trump plan allows Israel to annex only half of Area C, effectively 30% of the West Bank.

And it is not merely that the "settlers" want more land, but Trump's plan would give citizenship to too many Arabs.

"The map is not good for Israel. It must be corrected. For example the map would apply Israeli law to over a quarter of a million Palestinians," Bennett told reporters on Wednesday. Right now, there are more than 250,000 Palestinians who would receive citizenship according to the Trump plan, he said. "This is a disaster for Israel. No one will accept this. If the map is good we will support it," Bennett said.

In a nutshell, the Israeli right wants more land than the Trump plan offers, with fewer Palestinians getting enfranchised. Israel wants the land without the Arabs on it (or at least the minimum number). Whether or not this is a good policy is another matter.

So if the settlers get their wish, and no Palestinian entity is allowed, what about a one-state solution where the Arabs eventually get enfranchised? Well, the Arabs know that a one-state solution will eventually erode and dissolve the Jewish state.

This produces a dilemma. Israel wants all the land, but not all of the Palestinains on it, yet claims to be democratic. It is a juggling act. For decades, Israel has avoided the hard decisions by making no formal declarations. Israel refused to annex much of the land and then did a song and dance of explanation when the topic came up.

Trump's plan  for all its wonderful aspects  will put an end to the song and dance. Israel will get half of Area C but will have to enfranchise a lot of unwanted Palestinians, which will cause a crisis, no matter how it is handled.

Let's face it: Israel cannot remain a democracy while this goes on, and it can no longer be hidden and ignored.

If Israel does not enfranchise the Palestinians, it will cease to be democratic.

If Israel does enfranchise the Palestinians, it will lose its Jewish character.

If Israel offers the Palestinians only autonomy, the Palestinians will not accept it. They know that time is on their side.

The only option is separation. If Israel wants all the land, it must pay the Palestinians to leave, and it will not come cheap. The cost will be on the order of $200 billion, and it will have to be footed primarily by the Jewish people.

Rightly or wrongly, Europe will not pay for this, and the U.S. government should not have to. This would amount to about half a million dollars to a Palestinian family of five to leave Judea and Samaria. Nothing less would motivate them, and even that would motivate only some of them.

Some, like Israpundit's Ted Belman, have advocated for a Jordan Option, where the Palestinians are given Jordanian citizenship. But Jordan already disenfranchised those Palestinians born after 1988. Only an overthrow of Jordan's monarchy would effect the change needed, and there is no guarantee that what comes after would be better. All of this would depend on the cooperation of an Arab state to make Israel's life easier. This is the one fatal flaw in all Israeli plans. They require a cooperation that will never exist.

The only solution is physical separation, to wherever...and the worldwide Jewish community will have to pay for it.

It will require something else from the worldwide Jewish community  namely, a change from its knee-jerk rejection of nationalism. Too many Jews in the USA, Canada, France, Britain, etc. have pushed for multiculturalism and have been instrumental in passing laws that have deconstructed the character of Western states. But France has as much a right to remain French as Israel has to remain Jewish. Canada has as much right to remain Western European as Israel has to remain Jewish.

Israel's survival may depend on a mind change in the disapora Jewish community. This is critical, because Israel will need their wealth to pay for this, and Israel will need diaspora Jewry to adopt nationalism as a virtue, or Israel's Jewish character may go down with France, Germany, Spain, and a denationalized West.
The art of grafting has become second nature for jobbing actor, TV presenter and now home-cook Simon Delaney.

With a CV that boasts the Hollywood hit The Good Wife and the big screen scream-fest The Conjuring 2, Delaney could be forgiven for resting on his laurels.

It seems only last month that as DS Ward he was locking up long-hapless Marlon Dingle as part of the latest major plot twist in Emmerdale. But the father of four young boys knows the fickle nature of acting. And as Covid-19 wreaks havoc on his profession, Simon is thankful for his gig as a weekend TV presenter and his decision to diversify away from Tinseltown.

"Let's be honest, the TV and film industry has ground to a halt," he told the Sunday Independent. "I am so lucky that Ireland AM was deemed an essential service.

"I have been called a lot of things in my life but essential is not one of them - but now I have a letter to prove it.

"Let me tell you, I feel so lucky to be able to go to work every weekend because so many of my friends have not been as fortunate.

"Look at my friends, many of them theatre actors, they have been out of work since March and won't be in work for the foreseeable future.

"Stage crew, lighting guys and technicians all out of work. It is a very worrying time to be an actor.

"I think TV work will start heading towards normality over the next couple of months. But the likes of me will be waiting for the big Netflix productions to start kicking back in.

"It is not just for the actor; it is for the crews as well. That are 30,000 or so jobs gone which is a lot of revenue missing from the government coffers. So, they are going to have to do something to help people in my industry, particularly actors."

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Simon is spinning plates when he talks to the Sunday Independent, finishing a production meeting on the weekend magazine show and trying to get home to his wife Lisa.

He says that lockdown has given him perspective and the fact he can earn has given him the freedom to look away from agents and auditions. He has had "heart-breaking" messages from friends about walking through closed theatres.

"Luckily, we have the Covid payment in Ireland but that will be gone shortly. I don't know if some theatres will reopen. I am worried for them. They will have to reopen to strict guidelines which means 30-35pc capacity. No business can run on that.

"The big venues like the 3Arena, they can take the hit but not for too long. But for theatres like the Gate, I am worried for them."

His other TV work has dried up. Apart from filming an episode of the Netflix series Young Wallander, he has been forced to diversify. So cooking offers a new route to the future. "I have been working hard for the last three years in building a food brand," he said.

"Simply Simon's, the cookbook came out three years ago and then I did a pop-up food truck in Kildare village. Oddly because of Covid-19, I got the opportunity to cook every week on Ireland AM and that has been amazing and the feedback has been incredible.

"And on the back of the TV work, I have landed this incredible opportunity which I see as my own personal online cookery course."

Simon has released a line of home delivery food boxes. By pairing his food brand Simply Simon's with DropDish, anyone can order ingredients for his favourite dishes.

The unique selling point? Being able to cook along with him through video tutorials.

"They were watching what I was doing on Ireland AM, these family dishes, one-pot wonders, none of the fancy stuff. They came up with the idea of meal kits and I went off and designed 20-odd dishes that I looked at. The plan is to bring out 10 or 20 new dishes every month.

"It is about making your family meal of the day a bit easier. Like my cookbook, it is simple, we won't be sending you powdered pomegranate or lychee essence.

"Look, I am excited because it is about surviving and I have learned years ago that you have to diversify into other fields. I have a family and acting is so unreliable and I do directing, voiceovers, theatre, film, television and now food.

"I still have an idea of making the food a bigger part of my life, whether that is in the form of a restaurant, diner or another cook book."

Simon Delaney's DropDish meal kits will be available to order from this Wednesday
New Delhi, May 31 : With global travel strictly on hold and most wish-list destinations reeling under severe Coronavirus impact, tourism is one of the most most-affected industries. As international air travel remains suspended, inbound tourism (foreigners travelling into india) will be at a standstill in the coming few months.

According to a global luxury businesses panel hosted by S.P. Jain Global, the hospitality and aviation sectors are arguably amongst the most impacted segments due to COVID-19, with the Indian hospitality industry suffering losses to the tune of $4.5 billion.

However, the industry is anticipating making a comeback by Q4, with certain sub-segments ruling over the others. In the meanwhile what happens to the travel trade? Well, all eyes seem to have turned to the domestic business and leisure market to make up the losses.

While inbound and outbound tourism is expected to be slow, owing to the restrictions placed by countries on international travellers, domestic corporate travel may also take a hit depending on the state of businesses in the country. However, domestic leisure travel is said to rebound swiftly, and will be a major factor in helping the industry recover post the pandemic.

"Initially, people stuck in different parts of the world will travel back to India. Overall, inbound tourism might witness a slow growth. Though India has always been a favourite and affordable spot for international tourists as well as for locals, we can expect a normality by 2021," Debashish Maitra, director of IJ Dream Vacation told IANSlife.

"In simple terms, the first roadblock to an international tours would be taking a flight, which many would like to avoid unless necessary," says Krupa Gupta Saraogi of bookittours.in.

According to Ramesh Ramanathan, Chairman and Managing Director of Sterling Holiday Resorts, with international travel expected to slow down at least for this year, it will only add demand in favour of domestic travel, at least for the foreseeable future. "We are most likely to witness revenge spending once the lockdown is lifted, however, there would be a new set of considerations which will come in to play while shortlisting destinations -- like safety, hygiene, social distancing, and proximity. Also, India has a plethora of splendid locations like the hill stations, beaches, forests, cultural sites, and other iconic attractions, and Indian travellers are most likely to plan stress-free pocket-friendly domestic vacation with their close ones," he shares over email.

Ramanathan added that many are booking from July onwards, as a way to holiday out the COVID-19 stress, but a recovery would likely take three to six more months.

Travel curator Ricky Nakhat does not anticipate a recovery before winter months. Post that, he says that more foreigners might likely tour India as the spread elsewhere is quite high.

How can we promote India as a safe travel space? According to stakeholders, self-driving to destinations would see a considerable spike due to safety issues. Hotels, resorts, cab operators, airports and local city sights must ensure sanitisation and assure visitors of it, if they want to attract tourists. Medical tests of hospitality staff must be done regularly, apart from following basic norms of social distancing, wearing masks and washing hands. Travel insurance would also be aggressively promoted.

Visitors, especially the elderly and those with co-morbidities, can be encouraged to look at stays in zones declared Coronavirus-free or where a lower number of infections were reported. Also people are likely to prefer travelling in small groups. Promoting touchless technology might also help.

(Siddhi Jain can be contacted at siddhi.j@ians.in)
Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden on Sunday called for protesters against police brutality not to turn to violence as unrest flared in U.S. cities overnight.

Biden issued a statement just after midnight as protesters in several major U.S. cities vented outrage at the death of a black man shown on video gasping for breath as a white Minneapolis policeman knelt on his neck.

"Protesting such brutality is right and necessary," Biden said in the emailed statement. "But burning down communities and needless destruction is not."

He added: "We are a nation in pain, but we must not allow this pain to destroy us."

Biden will face President Donald Trump in the Nov. 3 presidential election. Trump's re-election campaign manager, Brad Parscale, on Saturday said that Biden should deliver a more forceful condemnation of violence.

Biden's remarks echoed a statement on Saturday by prominent black civil rights activist and U.S. Representative John Lewis of Georgia.

Lewis, who in 1965 was beaten unconscious by Alabama state troopers during a march for voting rights, called for protesters to "be constructive, not destructive," though he said he knows their pain.
Cancer June 22-July 22 Looking for an escape route? Aren't we all! Let your imagination soar and take over thanks to a cosmic collaboration between the dynamic Sun and artistic Neptune which fill you with inspired thoughts and energy. Channel this extra dose of stimulation towards creative projects or else youre likely to drift and daydream, but hey, whats wrong with that?! Leo July 23-August 22

Today a burst of energy and a wave of rebellion will give you a strong urge to draw attention to yourself. Just make sure it's for the right reasons! Bucking trends will work to your advantage if done well. Youll also crave excitement and any breaks in your routine could expose you to interesting people or unusual situations. Virgo August 23-September 22 As an organised Virgo you dislike hiccups and holes in the system and today they're even more likely to irritate you. Your charm and innate understanding of human nature puts you in a perfect position to ring in reform whether its bending, breaking or abolishing an outdated rule or enforcing helpful new methods. Suggest rather than demand and itll happen. Libra

September 23-October 22 As one of the most affable signs you dislike offending others or hurting their feelings. Today though, you may be asked to give someone your honest opinion. Do so without sugar-coating or tiptoeing - hey, they asked for it. Meanwhile, those whose job descriptions involve marketing or advertising are likely to inspire others with your fresh take. Scorpio October 23  November 22 Lately your financial situation may have been a little erratic or unpredictable. But today they're likely to stabilise. Some news, figures or a lightbulb moment will bring clarity and let you know where you stand as well as point you in the right direction. Having said that, avoid splurging and keep your business acumen hat on.

Sagittarius November 23-December 20 Words of wisdom might be free but at the moment your time isnt. Youll want to unwind but colleagues and friends will feel inclined to call upon you for advice, a lengthy pick apart of the weekends activities or to vent their problems. Unless youre a professional, turn off your phone or start charging by the hour! Capricorn December 21-January 19

Quench your thirst for learning, reading, writing and conversing with interesting people. Youll probably find it easier to absorb information or could perhaps have a lightbulb moment where you finally get a concept which has eluded you for months. You may also receive an important piece of news that youve been waiting on for some time. Aquarius January 20-February 18 You may need to make a decision thats close to your heart. Although, as an air sign you're very logical today today you must try not to let your emotions eclipse your judgment. Youll gain the most by being as objective as possible and looking at the bigger picture rather than the immediate payoffs or pitfalls. Pisces
The Nepal government on Sunday tabled a constitutional amendment in Parliament to give legal backing to a new map that shows Kalapani, Lipulekh and Limpiyadhura as part of the countrys territory, marking another twist in a border row with India.

Law, justice and parliamentary affairs minister Shiva Maya Tumbahangphes proposal for approval to table the constitution (second amendment) bill in the House of Representatives or lower house of Parliament was unanimously endorsed.

The government acted after the main opposition Nepali Congress, which had earlier sought more time to discuss the amendment within the party, directed its lawmakers to vote in favour of the proposal to make the new map a part of the Constitution. The central committee of the Nepali Congress made the decision at a meeting late on Saturday night.

There was no word on the development from Indian officials.

India had on Thursday called for constructive and positive efforts to end the border row with Nepal, saying mutual sensitivity and an environment of trust are needed for handling such issues among neighbours.

The Nepal government earlier planned to move the amendment in Parliament on May 27 but had to hold off on it because of lack of support from the Nepali Congress, which is required for the two-thirds majority needed to pass the change to the statute.

The delay allowed some breathing room for the two sides to tackle the border row, which began after Nepal protested against Indias opening of an 80-km road to Lipulekh on the Chinese border earlier this month. Nepal claims Lipulekh but the external affairs ministry contended the road was completely within the territory of India.

External affairs ministry spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said last week India is monitoring recent developments in Nepal related to the border issue. We note this matter is receiving careful consideration in Nepal, taking its seriousness into account, he said.

India is open to engaging with all its neighbours on the basis of mutual sensitivity and mutual respect, in an environment of trust and confidence. This is a continuous process and requires constructive and positive efforts, he added.

Nepal released its new political map, depicting Kalapani, Lipulekh and Limpiyadhura within its borders, on May 20.

An amendment bill is necessary to change the countrys map in the countrys Coat of Arms which is defined in Schedule 3 of the Constitution, Tumbahangphe was quoted as telling the House by The Kathmandu Post.

Nepals Parliament functions on Sundays, with a weekly break on Saturdays.

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Chinese state media took aim at the US government over the weekend as many American cities were gripped by raging protests and clashes, comparing the unrest with the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong.

Beijing has long been infuriated by criticism from Western capitals, especially Washington, over its handling of the pro-democracy protests that shook Hong Kong last year.

And as unrest erupted across the United States over racial inequality and police brutality after the death during arrest of an unarmed black man, Chinese government spokespeople and official media launched broadsides against American authorities.

Chinese media also circulated video clips suggesting Hong Kong police were "restrained" in comparison to actions seen in the US.

"US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi once called the violent protests in Hong Kong 'a beautiful sight to behold.'... US politicians now can enjoy this sight from their own windows," Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of nationalist tabloid Global Times, wrote Saturday.

It was "as if the radical rioters in Hong Kong somehow snuck into the US and created a mess like they did last year", he added.

China has insisted that "foreign forces" are to blame for the turmoil in Hong Kong, where pro-democracy protesters -- described by Beijing as rioters -- have marched in the millions since June last year and often clashed with the police.

Beijing sparked outrage and concern earlier this month with a plan to impose a law on Hong Kong that it said was needed to protect national security and curb "terrorism", but was condemned by pro-democracy activists and Western nations as another attempt to chip away at the city's unique freedoms.

Following President Donald Trump's announcement that he would strip Hong Kong of its special privileges, a commentary published Sunday in China Daily -- a mouthpiece of the ruling Communist Party -- said US politicians dreamed of "victimising" China.

Story continues

"Better give up that dream and come back to reality," it said.

"Violence is spreading across the US... US politicians should do their jobs and help solve problems in the US, instead of trying to create new problems and troubles in other countries."

- Lack of transparency -

The back-and-forth over Hong Kong has exacerbated US-China tensions, which were already high over a number of issues -- including trade and the coronavirus pandemic, over which Trump has accused Beijing of a lack of transparency.

As violence broke out in the US over the weekend, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying also took aim at Washington.

"I can't breathe," she said on Twitter, with a screenshot of a tweet by US State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus that had criticised the Chinese government over its Hong Kong policy.

Hua was quoting the words George Floyd was heard saying repeatedly before his death -- after a police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes -- which sparked the current unrest in the United States.

Over the weekend, Chinese media also circulated video clips of the US violence, accompanied by the hashtag "How restrained are the Hong Kong police" on the Twitter-like platform Weibo.

One clip posted by the People's Daily on Sunday compared the recent on-screen arrest of CNN correspondent Omar Jimenez, who was covering the unrest in the US city of Minneapolis last Friday, with scenes of Hong Kong police appearing to back away from media personnel in the city last year.

The accompanying caption said "reporters used their professional identities to obstruct law enforcement".

Police in Hong Kong have been accused by rights groups of using excessive force during pro-democracy protests last year.
If SpaceX starts taking up all US astronauts, the annual losses could be more than $200 million, a significant loss for Roscosmoss budget of around $2 billion, said Andrei Ionin, an expert at the Tsiolkovsky Space Academy in Moscow. In this photo, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Crew Dragon spacecraft lifts off from launch complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on May 30, 2020. - NASA astronauts Hurley and Bob Behnken are set to depart for an extended stay at the International Space Station on the SpaceX Demo-2 mission. (Photo | AFP)

Moscow: Russia has lost its long-held monopoly as the only country able to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station following the flawless manned launch by US company SpaceX.

The Russian space agency congratulated the United States and Elon Musks SpaceX on the first crewed flight ever by a private company, but experts said the launch should be a wakeup call for Roscosmos.

The success of the mission will provide us with additional opportunities that will benefit the whole international programme, cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev, Roscosmos executive director for crewed space programmes, said in a brief video address.

Saturdays launch was the first of American astronauts from US soil since the mothballing of the US shuttle programme in 2011 that left Russias more basic and reliable Soyuz spacecraft solely responsible for transporting crews.

Astronauts since then have all trained at Star City outside Moscow and studied Russian before blasting off from Baikonur launchpad in Kazakhstan.

These flights have been an unexpected chance for Moscow to keep producing Soyuz and retain a significant voice in negotiations over the ISS, said Isabelle Sourbes-Verger, a specialist in space policy at the French National Centre for Scientific Research.

The Russian space agency has also earned large sums by ferrying astronauts: a seat in the Soyuz costs NASA around $80 million.

If SpaceX starts taking up all US astronauts, the annual losses could be more than $200 million, a significant loss for Roscosmoss budget of around $2 billion, said Andrei Ionin, an expert at the Tsiolkovsky Space Academy in Moscow.

While Musk, the ambitious entrepreneur behind SpaceX, has named the price of a seat on his spacecraft as $60 million, Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin has announced Russia is working to cut its price by 30 percent.

Ionin voiced scepticism over the plan.

SpaceX is saving money by using cheap engines and manufacturing almost all its own parts, he said. To do this, Russia would have to change its production process.

Another option is a barter system proposed by NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine: for every Russian riding in a US spaceship, one American would take a Soyuz.

Wakeup call

In a broader sense, the appearance of a rival such as SpaceX should be a wakeup call for the Russian space industry, which is in far worse shape than those in charge admit, said Ionin.

A decade ago Russia was behind a large proportion of the worlds launches, but that is no longer the case today due to competition from China and SpaceX.

When we were losing the launches market, Roscosmos said everything was fine because we were the only ones sending people up to the ISS. Now that fig leaf has fallen off.

Russias space sector is marred by corruption, with multiple scandals over the construction of the new Vostochny launchpad in the Far East.

The countrys space industry has also failed to innovate, concentrating on modifying Soviet technology without any major evolution, Ionin said.

The Russian space programme is renowned for having sent the first man into space in 1961 and launching the first satellite four years earlier, and its achievements remain a major source of national pride.

But more recently it has endured a series of setbacks, notably losing expensive spacecraft and satellites in recent years.

The rise of private companies like SpaceX, which has ambitions to conquer Mars, risks leaving Russia irrecoverably far behind, experts said.

Mars next?

For Russia to keep up, a government body independent of the space sectors main players needs to develop a new strategy, Ionin said.

US President (Donald) Trump reestablished a bodythe National Space Councilto set policy goals. We need to do the same thing.

Some observers sense a lack of political will from President Vladimir Putin who appears to be more focused on using rocket science to develop military capabilities, particularly hypersonic missiles.

For Putin, space exploration isnt a priority when it comes to showing off the might of the state, said independent space expert Vitaly Yegorov.

For Ionin, reinvigorating the Russian space programme requires international cooperation, too.

Sourbes-Verger suggested any manned international mission to Mars could be an opportunity for Russia to regain its standing by sharing its skills.

But, she said, the costs of any such mission would be so high that Chinanow the worlds second space power in terms of launcheswould need to be included.

Yet that prospect seems unlikely, she added, given that the US Congress refuses any space cooperation with China.

Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter.
Festival organisers have been urged to find innovative solutions to crowding problems and get their proposals to governments sooner rather than later, as event dates edge closer.

Splendour in the Grass has been postponed until October, Falls Festival is planning to go ahead with an all-Australian lineup over New Year's Eve and a host of other events have announced plans to return in the first half of next year.

One challenge for organisers is how to keep people from spending significant periods of time in close contact.

The people behind Queensland's Woodford Folk Festival will determine in August whether it will go ahead on a smaller scale in late December and other events have been canned entirely, such as the collapse of FOMO festival into liquidation.

On April 30, Australias Chief Medical Officer, Dr Brendan Murphy, sounded a note of caution on the possibility of festivals returning.
Thousands take to the Art Museum steps during Saturday afternoon's protest against the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Read more

At the protest outside City Hall in support of George Floyd on Saturday, people were spaced more than 6 feet apart  the recommended minimum for reducing the spread of the coronavirus. Most wore masks.

But later in the day, such as when crowds gathered outside the Philadelphia Museum of Art, many were not taking those precautions.

Could the protests here and elsewhere lead to a spike in COVID-19 cases? How about other recent outdoor events with large clusters of people, such as a Lake of the Ozarks pool party in Missouri on Memorial Day weekend?

The answer in either case will not be known for days, as symptoms from any new infections might not show up until two weeks after exposure.

There is one reason for cautious optimism: The events took place outside. Research to date suggests the coronavirus is far more likely to spread indoors, especially in poorly ventilated spaces.

Yet Philadelphias own history suggests the open air is no guarantee. In 1918, a spike in deaths from influenza has been attributed to a parade that drew more than 200,000 attendees along Broad Street.

Joel Hersh, former director of the bureau of epidemiology at the Pennsylvania Department of Health, is among those worried that history may repeat itself.

The odds are not good that you would escape all these demonstrations without having somebody be positive, he said. I think its another disaster waiting to happen.

Should someone at any mass event later test positive, public health officials will have difficulty notifying individuals who may have been exposed, he said.

 READ MORE: Philly to start curfew at 6 p.m., orders all retail stores to close; looting expands beyond Center City

The best course may simply be a public announcement, such as what took place after one person at the Ozarks event was confirmed to have COVID-19. Health officials in Missouri have publicly shared that persons schedule so other revelers can be on the lookout for symptoms.

The protests would pose a similar challenge, with an added complication. Many attendees were African American  a group in which the coronavirus has caused more severe health problems.

Its a pandemic, and people of color are getting hit harder, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said Sunday on CNN. Were going to see the other side of this in a couple of weeks.

On CBS News Face the Nation, former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb cautioned that large demonstrations could lead to new waves of coronavirus infections. Minnesota, he said, has seen an increase in cases and hospitalizations in recent days.

Theres going to be a lot of issues coming out of whats happened in the last week, but one of them is going to be that chains of transmission will have become lit from these gatherings, Gottlieb said.

As a rule, a persons chance of becoming infected with a virus depends on the degree of exposure. For an airborne microbe such as the coronavirus, the more time you spend near an infected person, the greater the chance of transmission.

That is partly why being outdoors is thought to be less risky than indoors, as the concentration of any viral particles should dissipate more quickly. Another outdoors benefit: viruses can be inactivated by ultraviolet light from the sun.

A Japanese analysis of 110 coronavirus infections suggested that transmission was far more likely to occur indoors than outdoors.

The type of activity also matters. Singing and shouting, for example, can increase the risk of transmitting an airborne virus, as an infected person is more likely to expel virus-laden droplets of saliva. Dozens of people tested positive after attending a March choir practice in Skagit County, Wash.

No matter the location or activity, physicians warn that continued vigilance is needed. Most people still have not been exposed to the coronavirus, so their immune systems are less equipped to fend it off. And the virus can be spread by people who have no symptoms.

This article contains information from the Washington Post.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Sunday a low-pressure area building on the countrys western coast in the Arabian Sea will develop into a cyclonic storm in the subsequent 24 hours.

The build-up of a cyclonic storm in Maharashtra and Gujarat comes after Cyclone Amphan battered West Bengal and Odisha just a week ago.

A low-pressure area formed over South East & adjoining East Central Arabian Sea and Lakshadweep area. To concentrate into a Depression over East-central and adjoining Southeast Arabian Sea during next 24 hours and into a Cyclonic Storm during the subsequent 24 hours, IMD tweeted.

The low pressure is formed over the Arabian Sea is likely to move towards Maharashtra and Gujarat and may bring heavy rains in these two states.

Another storm is building over the Arabian Sea and is close to the African coast and likely to bring rain and strong winds in Oman and Yemen, the weather bureau has forecast.

IMD had on Thursday the monsoon was likely to arrive in Kerala, which marks the beginning of the four-month rainy season when India receives 70% of its annual rainfall, around its normal onset date of June 1.

It said there were new developing patterns that could speed up the progress of the rain system. IMD on May 15 said the onset was likely to be delayed by four days and the monsoon was expected to arrive on June 5.

The monsoon normally sets in over Kerala around June 1 and advances northwards, usually in surges, and covers the entire country around July 15.

IMD said conditions were becoming favourable for further advance of the monsoon into some more parts of south Arabian Sea, Maldives-Comorin area, south-west and the south-east Bay of Bengal during the next 24 hours.
The union representing Minneapolis Police Officers has long felt that the democratically elected mayor, Jacob Frey, should not be the boss of them. Across the country, armed insurgent demonstrators have expressed similar feelings about their governors: In Michigan, a gang with assault weapons drove the state senators to abandon the capitol. Turns out, in uniform or out, white men with guns can pose a real problem for old-fashioned representative government. In attitudes and political loyalties, a scary number of the people professing to defend the government look more like the problem than the solution.

Just six months ago, Frey issued an order forbidding police officers from wearing their uniforms on the podium at political events. This angered Police Federation of Minneapolis union President Bob Kroll, a President Donald Trump supporter who was set to take the stage alongside Trump at a Minneapolis rally in November. More recently, Frey terminated the warrior-style police training program called "killology," a system linked to the earlier killing of black Minneapolis citizen Philando Castile. The mayor's directive about how his city's police should be trained was "illegal," Kroll announced; the union chief committed to continue teaching police how to apply lethal force to the population that employed them. The officers keep reelecting him. When he retires next year, his second-in-command is set to succeed him.

This sense of revolt among uniformed officers - a distrust of the very state they pledge to protect and serve - has been growing. Police officers are more invested in gun rights than the public is, 74% to 53%; two-thirds of the public support bans on assault weapons, while only one-third of police surveyed do, according to Pew. Cops prefer politicians who give them complete, unquestioned license: members of the NYPD routinely turn their backs on New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, when he appears at occasions like slain officers' funerals. Kroll says his union supported Trump because, while President Barack Obama embraced "the handcuffing and oppression of police," Trump "let cops do their job." The Fraternal Order of Police, the largest and oldest police union, has often endorsed the more conservative candidate in each election since it backed George Wallace in 1968. (The FOP didn't endorse a presidential candidate in 2012.)

Why weren't the officers of the law deployed more effectively when armed opponents of stay-at-home orders chased elective officeholders out of town? Where were they when protesters gathered, from coast to coast, in blatant disregard of the quarantine orders? The answer may lie in the many ways that members of law enforcement hold attitudes that are more like contemporary Second Amendment activists than those of defenders of the state.

This may look like politics as usual in the era of the conservative revival. Since the controversy over the FBI's raid on the heavily armed Branch Davidian religious compound in Waco, Texas, in 1993 during the Clinton administration, the federal government has been skittish about deploying force in face of armed resistance. When rancher Ammon Bundy and his allies occupied government lands in Oregon to protest the imprisonment of ranchers for arson on public land, federal officials during the Obama administration did nothing to force them out; eventually, Trump pardoned Bundy. A conservative majority of Supreme Court Justices created an almost limitless Second Amendment doctrine in support of maximum gun distribution and reversed the half-century of federal voting rights enforcement. The armed resistance in Lansing followed Trump's tweet to "LIBERATE MICHIGAN."

It was not supposed to be like this. When people stopped believing that God had picked the ruler and were starting to think about why we have governments, they figured this out. In a state of nature, without collective institutions like government, people would be - as the defiant Michiganders are - scary. Greedy, proud and fearful, they would kill each other for their crops, or to prove they were just as good as the smarter kid, or because they were afraid the others would kill them first. Life would be, as philosopher Thomas Hobbes famously suggested, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short. Better to get together and contract to make a government to protect us all from each other. Follow-on thinkers soon added the requirement that government must not make matters worse, either. The English, and then others, began establishing governments that satisfied these tests.

The social contract state has two salient features, and both are jettisoned when armed resisters take over a capitol building and a police union defies a ban on "killology" training. The government is inherently equal, as each person is as threatening and as possessed of human rights, as any other in the imagined state of nature. However imperfect, elected representative government manifests that inherent equality. And the elected government must have a meaningful monopoly on the use of force. Otherwise it cannot protect us from each other.

When the gun-toting protesters openly walked into the Michigan statehouse and the Senate vacated the chamber in face of future threats, egalitarian representative government surrendered to the rule of the strong. Threatening death and brandishing death, both in the form of firearms and the often unmasked contagion, the demonstrators proved how potent was the threat of anarchy and how fragile the contract that had contained it for so long. When the police establish their own killology-driven order, the democratically elected government similarly loses its monopoly on force, and mayors sit by, wringing their hands while the unelected police take over the role of the state.

Cellphone cameras play a big role in revealing the deep lawlessness in some areas of law enforcement, but those revelations began 30 years ago with the filmed beating of Rodney King. The persistence of the uniformed revolt and the retreat before the coronavirus protesters are just the most recent in a long retreat from the experiment in self-government. With a critical election looming, the prospect is ominous.

- - -

Hirshman is author of "Reckoning: The Epic Battle Against Sexual Harassment and Abuse."
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A top FBI lawyer who was criticised on Fox News for his role in the investigation of Michael Flynn has resigned after being asked to do so by senior figures at the Department of Justice, NBC News reported on Saturday.

Related: What is 'Obamagate' and why is Trump so worked up about it?

The FBI confirmed to NBC that Dana Boente, its general counsel and a former acting attorney general, announced his resignation on Friday after a near-40-year career. NBC cited two sources anonymous sources as saying the decision came from Attorney General William Barrs justice department.

Boente joined the DoJ in 1984 and in 2015 became the US attorney for the eastern district of Virginia, after being nominated by Barack Obama.

In January 2017, he briefly served as acting attorney general, after Trump fired Sally Yates, an Obama-era deputy, for refusing to defend an executive order on immigration.

Temporarily overseeing the investigation of Russian election interference, Boente signed a warrant authorising FBI surveillance of Flynn.

The retired general, Donald Trumps first national security adviser, was fired for lying to the vice-president about contacts with the Russian ambassador during the presidential transition.

Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about the conversations and cooperated with the special counsel Robert Mueller as he took over the investigation of Russian election interference and links between Trump and Moscow.

Flynn sought to withdraw his guilty plea before sentencing. Earlier this month, Barr said the justice department would drop the case, although a federal judge put that decision on hold.

On Friday, the same day Boente was forced out of the FBI, Trumps new director of intelligence and Senate Republicans released transcripts of the calls in question, between Flynn and the then Russian ambassador, Sergey Kislyak.

Opponents of the president said the transcripts proved that Flynn had been treated fairly. Supporters of Trump said they showed Flynn had been treated unfairly.

Story continues

As Trump attempts to construct a scandal called Obamagate, with the surveillance of Flynn at its centre, his administration is releasing material it hopes will put Obama officials in a bad light.

Boente also wrote a leaked memo concerning material put into the public domain about Flynn, which he said was not exculpatory.

Trump is notoriously open to the views of key Fox News contributors.

On 27 April, the Fox News host Lou Dobbs told viewers: Shocking new reports suggest FBI general counsel Dana Boente was acting in coordination with FBI director Christopher Wray to block the release of that evidence that would have cleared General Flynn.

Trump has reportedly been urged to fire Wray, whom he appointed to replace James Comey, the man he fired in May 2017 in an attempt to close the Russia investigation.

Comeys firing led to the appointment of Mueller, who concluded a near-two-year investigation without proving criminal conspiracy between Trump and Russia.

Mueller did, however, obtain convictions of Trump aides and says in his report the campaign was receptive to Russian help. He also laid out extensive evidence of attempts by the president to obstruct his investigation.

Trump has fired or forced out FBI and DoJ figures including Andrew McCabe, Comeys deputy, lawyer Lisa Page and Peter Strzok, an FBI agent who worked on the case.

On Friday, Wray issued a statement about Boente.

Few people have served so well in so many critical, high-level roles at the department, he said. Throughout his long and distinguished career as a public servant, Dana has demonstrated a selfless determination to ensure that justice is always served on behalf of our citizens.
New York City Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said in a public statement Sunday that he is "extremely proud" of the New York City Police Department's response to protests over the death of George Floyd Saturday night, writing: "What we saw in New York City last night and the night before was not about peaceful protest of any kind."

Why it matters: New York City residents captured several instances of police officers using excessive force against demonstrators. In one video, two NYPD SUVs are seen ramming into protesters who were blocking a road and throwing traffic cones at the vehicles.

In another video from protests on Friday night, an officer was recorded shoving a female protester to the ground. City Council Speaker Corey Johnson and New York State Sen. Jessica Ramos have called for assault charges against the officer, according to CBS New York.

What he's saying: "To the Members of the NYPD: What youve endured these last couple of days and nightslike much of 2020, so farwas unprecedented," Shea said. "In no small way, I want you to know that Im extremely proud of the way youve comported yourselves in the face of such persistent danger disrespect, and denigration."

"What we saw in New York City last night and the night before was not about peaceful protest of any kind. It was not about civil disobedience. It was not about demonstrating against police brutality."

"What it was, quite frankly, was a mob bent solely on taking advantage of a moment in American history, to co-opt the cause of equality that we all must uphold, to intentionally inflict chaos, mayhem, and injury just for the sake of doing so."

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio also defended the NYPD in an address Saturday night. He called the video of NYPD vehicles ramming protestors "upsetting," but said that the protesters were wrong to surround the SUVs.

It is inappropriate for protesters to surround a police vehicle and threaten police officers, he said. Thats wrong on its face and that hasnt happened in the history of protests in this city.

While he wished the officers had not driven into the crowd, de Blasio said he believes "they didn't start the situation," and that it was "started by a group of protesters converging on a police vehicle."

The big picture: Demonstrators set fire to police vehicles and clashed with officers at simultaneous marches that raged through all five boroughs on Saturday night, the New York Times reports.

More than 345 people were arrested, 33 officers injured and 47 police vehicles damaged or destroyed, with several of them set on fire.

De Blasio promised that any police officers who used unnecessary force throughout the protests will be held accountable. He also announced an independent inquiry led by the state attorney generals office into how the police had handled protests on Friday night, according to the Times.

Go deeper ... Amnesty International: U.S. police must end militarized response to protests
When First Constable Charlotte Peak heard the news that four fellow police officers had died in a crash on the Eastern Freeway, she froze in shock.

The 24-year-old, who has been in the force for three years, found it hard to comprehend the enormity of the tragedy. But in the days following, she felt she needed to do something to remember them.

'It didn't feel right not doing anything': First Constable Charlotte Peak. Credit:Darrian Traynor

"It was really, really hard. It didn't feel right not doing anything."

She decided to raise money for the families of those who had died by running 159.485 kilometres  a number she arrived at after adding together the badge numbers of the four fallen officers.
ALBANY  State troopers will aid local governments across upstate New York Sunday as officials expect another day of demonstrations against the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said.

The state is deploying 200 additional state police to Rochester and 150 to Buffalo after a "long and ugly night all across the nation," Cuomo said. The state is also in talks with Syracuse and Albany to see what additional reinforcement their cities may need Sunday, Secretary to the Governor Melissa DeRosa said during a daily media briefing from Albany.

The National Guard is also on standby if needed, the governor said.

"Any other city that asks for additional state police  we can provide that," Cuomo said. "If we need more than the state police, then we have the National Guard, but it's just making sure we have enough resources to address every situation."

READ MORE: Cuomo has not pushed to repeal statute shielding police misconduct

The governor's daily coronavirus briefing was dominated by discussion of the unrest statewide, as Cuomo urged demonstrators to remain peaceful while protesting. In the 24 hours since Cuomo's media availability on Saturday, demonstrations turned violent in Rochester, a protester attempted to light Buffalo City Hall on fire and videos of two New York Police Department vehicles driving into crowds in Brooklyn went viral.

"We still discriminate on the basis of color of skin  that is the simple, painful truth, but this is a moment for truth," Cuomo said. "Now, at the same time, it is equally true that violence never works. How many protests have we had, how many nights have we gone through like last night? How many times have we burned down our own businesses, our own neighborhoods and our own communities? Burning down your own house never works and never makes sense."

Cuomo  known typically for his quick, hands-on approach to emergency and disaster response  was silent as the violence extended well into the night. His social media, more active than usual lately amid the pandemic, went quiet.

In Albany, demonstrators faced off with police officers behind the city's South Station, just blocks from the governor's mansion. The chaos pushed Mayor Kathy Sheehan to implement a curfew shortly before midnight.

READ MORE: Albany continues curfew starting at 7 p.m. Sunday

"(The governor) was on the phone all night with mayors and county executives from across the state, making sure they had the support and state police resources they needed," said Cuomo senior adviser Rich Azzopardi, when asked why the governor did not make a public appearance in Albany Saturday. "This, of course, includes Mayor Sheehan, who I believe also discussed this at her morning briefing."

Sheehan said Sunday morning that the governor had reached out the night before to offer assistance as soon as protests turned violent.

Cuomo was staying in the governor's mansion during the standoff, Azzopardi said.

The governor, who said Saturday that he is "with the protesters," reiterated on Sunday that the protests are not only responding to Floyd's killing, but also hundreds of years of racism and injustice across the country. At the same time, he asserted that violence is not the answer, and looting "dishonors Mr. Floyd's death."

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

After calling on Attorney General Letitia James Saturday to investigate the police response to Friday demonstrations in New York City, Cuomo said he would ask her to also review officers' actions in subsequent protests this weekend and beyond. Her report is due in 30 days, and there will be consequences for officers found to have acted inappropriately, Cuomo said.

Several videos allegedly showing improper police conduct have emerged from New York City in recent days. Alongside the clip of vehicles running over protesters Saturday, another video showed a white police officer pulling down a black man's mask to pepper spray him in the face. The man had been demonstrating peacefully with his hands in the air, and the officer did not pepper spray several white demonstrators nearby.

The day before, a city police officer was captured on film throwing a 20-year-old woman to the ground so forcefully that she had a seizure.

"I've seen those videos, and those videos are truly disturbing," Cuomo said. "And some of the videos, frankly, are inexplicable to me."

The governor also doubled down on calls to publicly release police officer records, and said federal officials should create a national definition of excessive force. Local prosecutors should be barred from investigating allegations of officer misconduct, Cuomo said, because "self-policing does not work, period."

He urged protesters to remain peaceful and focus on "effecting change"  advising them to "be specific" in their demands.

"Use this moment," Cuomo said. "Use this energy constructively, and demand positive change."
Over the past couple of days, numerous advisers both inside and outside the White House have urged the president to tone down his violent rhetoric, which many worry could escalate racial tensions and hurt him politically.

Behind the scenes: The biggest source of internal concern was Trump's escalatory tweet, "when the looting starts, the shooting starts." Some advisers said it could damage him severely with independent voters and suburban women.

After not going to sleep until the early hours of Friday morning, President Trump woke to a string of conversations with advisers who told him he had a problem.

Some of Trump's most trusted aides, including Hope Hicks, expressed concern about a tweet he sent shortly before 1am Friday, in which he used a violent phrase with a racist history rooting back to police brutality against African Americans in the 1960s: "When the looting starts, the shooting starts."

A number of people outside the White House weighed in over the course of the day. On Friday morning, Facebook raised concerns to the White House about Trump's incendiary message and urged them to make a change even if it did not violate Facebook's policies, according to a source familiar with the outreach.

Later that day, Trump phoned Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. During the call, Zuckerberg "expressed concerns about the tone and the rhetoric," according to a source familiar with the call.

Zuckerberg "didn't make any specific requests," the source said. A second source familiar with the call said the Facebook boss told Trump that he personally disagreed with the president's incendiary rhetoric and that by using language like this, Trump was putting Facebook in a difficult position.

Between the lines: Even aides who usually laugh or shrug their shoulders at Trump's more outrageous tweets considered this one a problem. Some said they saw direct political implications.

People close to the president, including several senior White House officials, have privately expressed concerns that his incendiary response to the Minneapolis riots will hurt him with two groups that could remove him from office in November: independents and suburban women. These are groups who already tell pollsters they don't like Trump's tone, even if they like some of his policies.

One adviser said they saw it as the president's worst moment since Charlottesville.

A senior White House official, who typically likes it when Trump takes tough law-and-order positions, described the tweet as "stupid." The official described Trump's ultimate cleanup, in which the president claimed he wasn't suggesting that law enforcement should shoot rioters, as "pretty creative."

Why it matters: After so long working for him, Trump's inner circle usually shrugs at his tweets. So it's a rare moment when they sound the alarm.

Yes, but: After walking back his looting/shooting tweet, Trump tripled down on this incendiary tone in a series of Saturday morning tweets, suggesting that protesters outside the White House would have been "greeted with the most vicious dogs, and most ominous weapons" if they breached the fence.

Trump added: "Tonight, I understand, is MAGA NIGHT AT THE WHITE HOUSE???"  a tweet that seemed to encourage a clash between his supporters and the predominantly African American protesters outside the White House. Trump later denied this was his intention.

What to watch: Over the past 24 hours, theres been a vigorous debate in Trumps inner circle about whether the president should do an Oval Office address to the nation.

The reset  and whats next

Trump's aides saw the president's trip to Florida to watch the SpaceX-NASA launch as an opportunity to reset his message and to distinguish between righteous protests of the murder of George Floyd and senseless riots.

Trump said, "The death of George Floyd on the streets of Minneapolis was a tragedy. It should never have happened. It has filled Americans across the country with horror, anger, and grief."

"I understand the pain that people are feeling. We support the right of peaceful protestors, and we hear their pleas. Unfortunately, what we are now seeing on the streets of our cities has nothing to do with justice or peaceful protests. The memory of George Floyd is being dishonored by rioters, looters, and anarchists."

His advisers were relieved  at least temporarily.

"I think most everyone is satisfied with where things landed [in Saturday's space launch speech] and with the tone of his remarks," a White House official told me. "The president's mind always goes to the place of law and order. He's a tough guy, and his instincts are 'I want to be with the police, I want safety and security, I don't want lawlessness.'"

"But there have been key voices in his ear who have been consistently saying 'Be that guy because we need that. What's happening in Atlanta and Minneapolis is not acceptable,' but also be empathetic and continue to show extreme sympathy for what happened with Floyd. And I think he navigated that very well" on Saturday.

What's next: "You're definitely going to see the law and order, tough guy rhetoric amp up in the coming days," the official continued. "But you're also going to see that laced with sympathy for legitimate protesters and for those actually mourning Floyd's death."
Tamil Nadu reported 1,149 new Covid-19 cases on Sunday, its highest single-day spike in coronavirus infections till date, taking the total count to 22,333.

The earlier single-day surge was witnessed on Saturday when 938 new infections were reported.

Of the new cases on Sunday, 95 were passengers who arrived in the state from outside, according to the state health department bulletin, news agency PTI reported.

With 13 more deaths in the last 24 hours, the death toll in Indias second worst-affected state rose to 173.

As on date, the number of active cases, including those in isolation, stood at 9,400 and 757 people were discharged on Sunday alone, taking the total number of those recovered to 12,757.

Besides Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu is the only state in the country with over 20,000 coronavirus infections while its capital Chennai is among the worst-affected metros in the country.

On Sunday, Chennai district recorded its highest ever increase among the state districts, reporting 804 cases, totalling 14,802 , according to PTI.

With the Covid-19 cases rising rapidly, the state government on Sunday joined some other states in extending the lockdown till June 30, with a revised set of rules for relaxations.

Chief Minister K Palaniswami said that the decision has been taken to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

To prevent the spread of coronavirus, the curfew is being extended till June 30 under the State Disaster Management Act and as per the Union Home Ministrys notification, he said in a statement.

Under the revised guidelines, eight zones have been identified to allow peoples movement, allowing resumption of public transport from June 1 in all but the four worst-affected districts of Chennai, Chengalpattu, Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur.

The other relaxations announced by the government barring the containment zones include permitting showrooms and jewellery shops to re-open but not malls.

Similarly, temples and other places of worship as well as parks, beaches, cinema halls, gyms and educational institutions will continue to remain closed.

IT companies and IT-enabled services can function with 20% employees, up to a maximum of 40 people, reports LiveMint.

(With inputs from PTI)
The Chinese Communist Party has been subtly spreading its influence in Australia with wholesome events like a bushfire fundraiser and youth singing nights.

The escalating diplomatic dispute between Australia and its biggest trading partner China has highlighted how Beijing has been manipulating public opinion internationally.

Before the first cases of the Wuhan-spawned COVID-19 were confirmed, a group called the Australian Council for the Promotion of Peaceful Reunification of China or ACPPRC, presented a $100,000 cheque to the New South Wales Rural Fire Service.

The Chinese Communist Party cleverly spreads its influence in Australia with wholesome events like a bushfire fundraiser and youth singing nights. Pictured is an Australian Council for the Promotion of Peaceful Reunification of China event with NSW Liberal Minister for Skills Geoff Lee

Former Liberal immigration minister Philip Ruddock, who is now the mayor of Hornsby in Sydney's north, was photographed at a bushfire fundraising event in December 2019, organised by the Australian Council for the Promotion of Peaceful Reunification of China

Former Liberal immigration minister Philip Ruddock, who is now the mayor of Hornsby in Sydney's north, was photographed at that event with his local volunteer firefighting brigade in December 2019.

The ACPPRC is opposed to Taiwanese independence and advocates China's dominion over the South China Sea.

The group uses Australian events such charity fundraisers and youth nights to peddle influence.

The ACPPRC was also previously led by controversial Chinese property billionaire Huang Xiangmo, whose ties with former Labor senator Sam Dastyari contributed to the swift end of the ALP representative's political career.

The group is one of many controlled by the United Front, an intelligence arm of the Chinese Communist Party that manages community relations with ethnic Chinese people in and outside of China.

Alex Joske, an analyst with the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said the group, also known as the United Front Work Department, was effective at influencing politicians and business leaders.

'United Front Work usually isn't focused on mass messaging, although it does seek to influence public opinion,' he told Daily Mail Australia.

Alex Joske, an analyst with the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said the group, also known as the United Front Work Department, was effective at influencing politicians and business leaders

'Its priority is to influence and co-opt representatives of different groups, such as politicians and community leaders.

'I'd say that United Front Work has been highly effective in influencing how China and Chinese communities are represented, and using that to influence politicians and business leaders in particular.'

A backbench federal Liberal MP Gladys Liu last year confirmed she was affiliated with United Front groups, as honorary president of the United Chinese Commerce Association of Australia and the Australian Jiangmen General Commercial Association.

The member for Chisholm in Melbourne's south-east, who was born in Hong Kong, also had an honorary role with the Guangdong Overseas Exchange Association in 2011.

A backbench federal Liberal MP Gladys Liu last year confirmed she was affiliated with United Front groups, as honorary president of the United Chinese Commerce Association of Australia and the Australian Jiangmen General Commercial Association. She is pictured sitting between Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Treasurer Josh Frydenberg in September 2019

Ethnic Chinese Australians aren't the only ones targeted by Chinese interests, with former Labor prime minister Paul Keating and former foreign minister Bob Carr among those publicly arguing China's case.

In November, Mr Keating accused Australian security agencies of being anti-China.

'My concern is that what passes for the foreign policy of Australia lacks any sense of strategic purpose,' he said in a speech to The Australian newspapers Strategic Forum event in Sydney.

'The whispered word of 'communism' of old is now being replaced by the word 'China'.

In the lead-up to Australia's May federal election, Mr Keating had told the ABC Australia's spy chiefs with the Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation were 'nutters'.

The Australian Council for the Promotion of Peaceful Reunification of China or ACPPRC was previously led by Chinese property billionaire Huang Xiangmo. He is pictured with former Liberal foreign minister Julie Bishop

Mr Keating was also an international advisory board member of the state-owned China Development Bank, with his image even featuring on the Communist Party linked group's website.

A spokeswoman for the former prime minister told Daily Mail Australia he resigned from this council in April 2019.

Without mentioning Mr Keating, Mr Joske and Charles Sturt University Professor Clive Hamilton told a parliamentary committee on foreign interference in 2018 how the People's Republic of China had ensured 'a former prime minister is invited onto the board of an important institution in the PRC'.

'There is no influence on a specific political or government process as such, although the former prime minister intervenes in important policy debates arguing the case of the foreign government,' they said.

Former Labor foreign minister Bob Carr is among those publicly arguing China's case when it comes to diplomacy. He is pictured with Chinese businesswoman Jean Dong (left) and his wife Helena

Former foreign minister Bob Carr, a former New South Wales Young Labor right-faction ally of Mr Keating's during the 1960s, took exception to Professor Hamilton and Mr Joske's submission two years ago.

As a director of the Australia-China Relations Institute at the University of Technology Sydney, the former NSW premier compared Professor Hamilton to 1950s American Republican senator Joseph McCarthy, who pursued public servants for alleged communist links.

'Australia's new McCarthyism declares guilt by association,' Mr Carr said.

The group Mr Carr used to lead, ACRI, was initially funded by Mr Huang, with a $1.8million donation over three years announced in 2013.

Mr Carr declined to address questions about the United Front when contacted by Daily Mail Australia.

Until April 2019, former Labor prime minister Paul Keating (pictured) was an international advisory board member of the state-owned China Development Bank, with his image even featuring on the Communist Party linked group's website

But a UTS spokesman said ACRI was an 'independent, non-partisan research institute'.

'Its staff regularly express critical opinions on China, with respect to, for example, but not limited to, its lack of democracy and freedom of expression and tightening social restrictions, its assertiveness in the South China Sea, the pace of its economic reform, the treatment of its minority Uighur population in Xinjiang, and government interference in Australia,' he said.

'The analysis and conclusions of the Institutes output are formulated independently by its authors and UTS: ACRI does not take an institutional position on any issue.'

The Labor Party's NSW branch has a troubled connection with the ACPPRC.

Sam Dastyari's career as a New South Wales Labor senator ended in January 2018 after he contradicted the ALP's South China Sea position at a media conference for Chinese-language publications. He is pictured in August 2019 outside a NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption inquiry into Labor Party donations

In 2016, its former leader Huang Xiangmo promised the ALP a $400,000 donation if it changed its policy on the disputed South China Sea.

Sam Dastyari's career as a New South Wales Labor senator ended in January 2018 after he contradicted the ALP's South China Sea position at a media conference for Chinese-language publications.

He was also secretly recorded at Mr Huang's Mosman mansion on Sydney's North Shore advising him his phone might be bugged.

Mr Huang, the head of the Yuhu property group, was last year effectively banned from re-entering Australia, had his citizenship bid blocked and his permanent residency rescinded.

His activities can at least be traced back to an enhanced role played by the United Front since Xi Jinping took over as the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party in 2012 and appears to have accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The role of the United Front has been elevated under Chinese President Xi Jinping. He is pictured at China's National People's Congress on May 28, 2020

As a new President of China in 2014, President Xi declared: 'As long as the overseas Chinese are united, they can play an irreplaceable role in realising the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation as they are patriotic and rich in capital, talent, resources and business connections.'

The Global Times, the mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party, reported on President Xi's clarion call for 'a greater contribution from Chinese nationals overseas to realise national rejuvenation'.

Whether it's influencing public opinion or co-opting the global Chinese diaspora, the United Front uses the shrewd political tactics of Russian Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin.

Communist China's founding leader Mao Zedong saw the United Front as a 'magic weapon' to keep the support of the marginalised to prevent an uprising.

In the foreign policy stakes, nations like Australia that heavily rely on China for trade are the ones set to be marginalised if tensions don't ease soon.
Looters broke into and damaged stores in several Bay Area cities on Saturday, during the second night of chaos in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd.

Groups of looters broke into stores on the border of Oakland and Emeryville Saturday evening, pulling electronics from Best Buy and clothing and other items from several other stores.

The thieves were not part of the main protest in downtown Oakland, located more than two miles away.

In San Francisco, a fire was set at the Westfield shopping mall on Market Street, a San Francisco police representative said.

Now Playing: Protesters refused to heed official pleas to stay home Saturday, instead taking to Oakland and Bay Area streets, where police officers in riot gear faced another night of outrage over the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Here's an inside look. Video: Matthias Gafni, Erika Carlos

The violence and vandalism prompted Mayor London Breed to announce a curfew from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m., starting Sunday. In addition, the National Guard would be on standby, she said.

Im asking the folks who are out there doing what they know they shouldnt be doing, to go home, she said. We don't want that kind of behavior to continue in our city.

San Francisco Police Officer Robert Rueca said a fire was set in the (Westfield) mall, but it was extinguished and that there are multiple reports of property damage around the downtown area.

Walgreens, CVS and Starbucks on Market Street were also among those looted.

One man kicked in the glass window of the Old Navy on Market Street, while several people jumped in and out of the broken window at the CVS grabbing baskets full of stuff.

No police officers stood in the way as people blatantly bashed in windows and sprayed graffiti on others.

At one point, however, a line of officers blocked people from going past 6th Street. One protester antagonized an officer for several minutes until the officer pointed his rifle at him and yelled to get back.

Well before midnight, the crowd of protesters had largely cleared Market Street, but broken glass, graffiti and empty shelves were left behind.

Michael Short/Special to The Chronicle

Tearing down a business that people have spent their lives to build, said Police Chief Bill Scott, if youre a San Franciscan, is that what you want?

Across the Bay in Emeryville, the windows were blown out at Urban Outfitters at about 9:30 p.m., and a woman walked out with at least ten hangars of clothing. Nearby, at the Guitar Center, which had also been breached, several men, wearing masks and gloves, ran out to their cars with at least two guitars in their hands. Another carried a keyboard.

Another group of about 20 people then broke into Marshalls, where they carried out belts and dress shirts. One man ran out with at least eight pillows.

The Emeryville Best Buy was also broken into earlier, with looters piling items into waiting vehicles.

Sgt. Ray Kelly of the Alameda County Sheriffs Office said he did not know how many looters were in the Emeryville area, but that the crowd there was more spread out.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

Despite store alarms blaring, there was no police presence at the shopping center down the road from Best Buy as the thieves moved store to store for more than 30 minutes.

Now Playing: Protesters enraged by the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police surround San Jose City Hall  a gathering that has escalated as police officials intervene. Video: Lauren Hernandez, Erika Carlos

At 10:15 p.m., police finally arrived in riot gear and formed a line in front of stores.

Not a lot to talk about. Its happening, Kelly said. We will deal with what we can.

The Target store down from the Best Buy was shuttered early and boarded up to prevent looting.

In Vallejo, a small group of protesters, who had been part of a larger peaceful parade of cars and pedestrians, converged on a Target in Vallejo, where they squared off with a line of police.

Officers reported that at least one protester had thrown an object at police. Demonstrators can be seen in a live stream breaking the windows of stores in the shopping center.

Staff writer Matt Kawahara contributed to this story.

Jill Tucker and Sarah Ravani are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: jtucker@sfchronicle.com sravani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @sarravani @jilltucker
For someone with an illustrious list of high-profile friends, billionaire heiress Francesca Packer Barham manages to fly under the radar.

The 25-year-old Sydneysider, who is the daughter of Gretel Packer and niece of James Packer, has a tight inner circle made up of A-list entrepreneurs and celebrities.

Among her best friends are PR queen Roxy Jacenko, teeth whitening mogul Alison Egann, Ingham's chicken heiress Jessica Ingham, Atelier Design Group founder Sofia Stapic and Melbourne fashion designers Bianca and Bridgett Roccisano.

Alison Egann, Jessica Ingham, Roxy Jacenko, Bianca Roccisano and Sofia Stapic are pictured

For someone with an illustrious list of high-profile friends, billionaire heiress Francesca Packer Barham manages to fly under the radar

'Chessie is extremely private and hates drawing attention to herself,' one acquaintance told the Sydney Morning Herald.

'She's very down to earth and prefers her friends to be in the spotlight.'

Unlike publicity tycoon Roxy Jacenko, Ms Packer Barham prefers to meet up with her elite group of gal-pals away from the spotlight.

One of the group's favourite Harbour City spots for meet-ups is Mr Wong's restaurant.

But Ms Packer Barham is occasionally spotted at Ms Jacenko's Sweaty Betty publicity events, often for sans-makeup and sporting activewear.

Ms Packer Barham is pictured with Hollywood mega star Robert De Niro

According to the Australian Financial Review, her uncle James is Australia's ninth-richest person with a net worth of $4.94billion, after selling half of his Crown Casino stake in 2019

'Chessie is extremely private and hates drawing attention to herself,' one acquaintance said

According to the Australian Financial Review, her uncle James is Australia's ninth-richest person with a net worth of $4.94billion, after selling half of his Crown Casino stake in 2019.

Shortly after the sale, Ms Packer Barham snapped up one of Sydney's most sought after penthouse suites at Darlinghurst's Horizon tower.

The 40th-floor, five-bedroom apartment cost $16million and is the biggest single-level apartment in Sydney with 565 sqm of internal space and 710 sqm of balcony area.

Bianca Roccisano confirmed she is set to stay in the luxurious address in the coming weeks following cosmetic surgery.

The penthouse suite at Darlinghurst's Horizon tower is one of Sydney's most sought after apartments

Ms Packer Barham snapped up the 40th-floor, five-bedroom apartment for $16million in 2019
Los Angeles, May 31 : California Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in Los Angeles County after violent protests over the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, in police custody.

Newsom also authorized assistance after a request from the city and county of Los Angeles, and will deploy members of the National Guard to assist Los Angeles and neighbouring communities, Xinhua news agency quoted a statement released by the Governor's office on Saturday night as saying.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announced earlier that a curfew will be in effect in the city beginning from 8 p.m. Saturday to 5.30 a.m. Sunday.

The protests against police brutality in the city went into the fourth straight day on Saturday.

Thousands of protesters took to the streets of the Fairfax District and Downtown Los Angeles on Saturday afternoon to express their anger.

Over 530 people were arrested Friday night and early Saturday after the protests turned violent in downtown Los Angeles, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.

Floyd, aged 46, died on Monday after Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, held him down with a knee on his neck though he repeatedly pleaded, "I can't breathe", and "please, I can't breathe".

Chauvin was arrested and charged with three-degree murder and manslaughter on Friday.
Click here to read the full article.

With protests over the police killing of George Floyd spreading throughout the country, public health officials are concerned that these large gatherings could trigger another type of spread: an increase in COVID-19 cases. The demonstrations began on Tuesday in Minneapolis, where Floyd was killed, and as of Saturday, May 30th, have taken place in more than 30 cities around the United States, including New York City, Chicago, Detroit, Columbus, Dallas and Los Angeles  some of which have been hotspots for the virus.

It has been nearly three months since the country started shutting down and restricting non-essential travel in an attempt to control the highly infectious virus. Without a vaccine or cure for COVID-19, public health measures like social distancing and wearing face masks in public have been our primary tool and containment strategy. And while some states have begun the process of reopening, most are still at the stage where large gatherings like protests are potentially dangerous  especially given the number of people who may have unknowingly already contracted the virus.

More from Rolling Stone

Given the fact that there is likely a large group of individuals who are asymptomatic, and given that the activity  in this case, protesting  doesnt lend itself to practicing social distancing, there are certainly concerns about COVID transmission, Dr. Barun Mathema, assistant professor of epidemiology at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health tells Rolling Stone. This is especially the case when there are altercations with law enforcement which, needless to say, are very troubling to see.

According to Dr. Amesh A. Adalja, an infectious disease expert and senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, from a public health standpoint, a mass gathering is always going to be a concern when it comes to the spread of viruses like SAR-CoV-2. The virus can take advantage of any kind of interaction  a protest or rock concert or whatever it might be  that facilitates the transmission, he tells Rolling Stone.

Story continues

Of particular concern to Adalja is the yelling and shouting that goes on at protests, which he says creates more of the droplets through which the virus spreads. It really is going to depend upon how socially distant these individuals are, but I do think we have to be worried about any kind of mass gathering spreading the virus in the era of COVID-19, he says. We know that the virus is going to be with us until there is a vaccine, and any type of social interaction where people are within six feet of each other is going to be an opportunity for the virus to infect others and spread between people.

Protesting during a pandemic presents additional challenges. For example, Dr. Elie Saade, an infectious disease specialist at University Hospitals and assistant professor of medicine at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, says that if a person is wearing a mask and is exposed to tear gas, the tear gas could get on the mask and cause skin irritation. If this happens, some may not be able to tolerate the additional discomfort caused by the mask, and may remove it, giving the virus more opportunities to spread. During the protests, people will be close together, he tells Rolling Stone. Plus, its a situation where you really cant [predict] whats going to happen. Things can be chaotic, so the priority of people may not be to wear a mask, but may be trying to run away or make a point, so that definitely increases the infection risk.

In April, various anti-lockdown protests took place in states like Wisconsin, Kentucky, North Carolina and Ohio, drawing attention and criticism for ignoring social distancing guidelines. Though headlines during that period indicated that the protests occurred at the same time the number of COVID cases in the state spiked, this isnt evidence that the protests actually spread the virus. For that to have happened, the number of cases would have had to increase approximately 14 days after the protests. At this point, Adalja says that he hasnt seen any data demonstrating that people who attended the reopening protests ended up contracting COVID-19 at higher rates. And while Mathema also is not aware of any definitive research linking anti-lockdown protests to a subsequent spike in COVID-19 infections, he says that there has been some anecdotal evidence of clusters of cases emerging in locations like Michigan, following protests.

However, Mathema clarifies that its not possible to know whether these people would have tested positive for COVID-19 regardless of their attendance at the protests. But I believe the thinking is that when you do have a critical mass of individuals, where some individuals could be asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic and shedding the organism, its a really nice environment from a pathogens perspective, he says. If youre a pathogen, you would love to be in places like concerts or protests, where there are people who are excitable and close together.

And though there also isnt specific data on the proportion of people wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) and practicing social distancing at the reopening protests compared with the more recent demonstrations over police brutality, Mathema says that this weekends protestors appear to be better at wearing masks. There was a considerable amount of concern among protesters and organizers about COVID, so I think a lot of community organizers did not go into this blind, he says. They knew what they were doing. And this was a risk that was, in a number of peoples minds, worth taking with appropriate protection, because the cause is very important.

Additionally, in the current wave of protests, Saade says that existing racial health disparities could make things worse. Unfortunately, African Americans are disproportionately affected by this pandemic, and are probably also disproportionately protesting, he says. So thats another concern.

If people do plan on attending protests, all three doctors recommend wearing masks and trying to maintain as much distance between other people as possible, given the circumstances. And while covering our faces is a way of stopping ourselves from potentially spreading the virus, Saade says that masks are also important for protecting ourselves in situations where there are large crowds. The concern is really being close to people, and having their mucus or saliva coming onto our face, he explains. If youre wearing a mask, the risk will be much less.

During his daily press briefing on Saturday, May 30th, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo urged anyone attending protests to wear a mask. You have a right to demonstrate, you have a right to protest, God bless America, he said. You dont have a right to infect other people. You dont have a right to act in a way thats going to jeopardize public healthDemonstrate with a mask on. Whats the difference? I still do not get it.

And though a face mask covered in tear gas can cause skin irritation, Mathema says that another form of PPE may help protect you from both tear gas and the virus. If you can wear goggles to protect your eyes, that would be a good idea, he says. Of course with tear gas, it also irritates the skin and makes it difficult to breathe. So even with goggles and masks, the simplest thing to do if there is tear gas is to move away from it. In addition, Mathema recommends that those attending protests also bring heat-resistant gloves and water, and try to stay with their group.

Ultimately, Saade says that whether or not were in the midst of a pandemic, there are always physical safety risks associated with attending a protest or demonstration, and its up to people to weigh the risks and benefits of their participation. COVID is another risk, he says. That doesnt mean that we shouldnt protest  it just means that we should take more precautions.

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PRESIDENT John Magufuli has cautioned farmers against selling their agricultural produce at throwaway prices, to guard against subsequently buying it at higher prices.

The Head of State sounded the warning yesterday in Dodoma during the historic event to lay the foundation stone for the construction of the State House at Chamwino, an event that was attended by past presidents Ali Hassan Mwinyi, Benjamin Mkapa and Jakaya Kikwete, as well as Mama Maria Nyerere.

President Magufuli was prompted to issue the warning following reports that there were unscrupulous traders who have been luring farmers to sell them crops at lower prices.

"Beware of unscrupulous middlemen from within and outside the country who lure you to sell your produce at lower prices," he said, adding: "This coming year and the following year might not be very good; don't sell your hard earned produce at lower prices, because in the future when hunger strikes you will buy it at very high prices," he noted.

The president told the gathering that it was known that several parts of Africa and the world will experience food shortage because of the lockdown, adding: "It is crucial for us who got a chance to work during the pandemic to preserve our produce, sell them at the right time and when we decide to do so make sure we sell it at much higher prices; don't make ourselves prone to manipula- tion."

The Head of State cau- tioned farmers in Shinyanga Region who allowed middle- men to procure paddy before it was harvested.

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Dr Magufuli said this year the country had enough food reserve and farmers have harvested a lot of produce, stressing that it was crucial to preserve it for future use rather than selling everything.

The president further advised farmers to consider cultivating drought resistant crops such as potatoes and sorghum to sustain them dur- ing famine as well as selling them.

"I am glad that the Gogo people have started to change as this year they have cultivated several crops; I urge you to continue to do the same as there is no free food ..... I must tell you the truth; we cannot be the capital city where its people beg for food," said Dr Magufuli.

The president has all along been calling upon Tanzanian farmers to invest more efforts in agricultural activi- ties to make them self sufficient in food supply.

Former prime minister in the second phase government, Mr John Malecela, said those who worked hard in Dodoma will never go hungry but a few lazy ones might be in trouble.
According to the Illinois Department of Public Health, in the period just prior to and just after Gov. J.B. Pritzker issued his first stay at home order in March, houses of worship in Illinois experienced 13 COVID-19 outbreaks, resulting in 88 cases.

Since then, Illinois has seen no such outbreaks until one was revealed last week. IDPH told me of a very recent church-related outbreak of 39 cases, including the pastor.

That outbreak was acknowledged last Wednesday by the administrator of the Jackson County Health Department. The administrator told WSIU Radio that the unnamed Southern Illinois church had been holding services in defiance of the governor's stay-at-home order.

And now, you gotta figure more church-related outbreaks could happen if people aren't careful.

Gov. Pritzker told reporters last week that his administration will be posting "guidance, not mandatory restrictions for all faith leaders to use in their efforts to ensure the health and safety of their congregants." He said the guidance would be "suggestions" on capacity limits, indoor gatherings of 10 persons or less, etc.

"Governor Pritzker has capitulated, and the Thomas More Society is claiming victory in a trio of church lawsuits charging Illinois' governor with religious discrimination," a spokesperson for the organization said.

And then Attorney General Kwame Raoul filed his office's response mandated by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh after an emergency request was filed by two Illinois churches which wanted the governor's restrictions lifted. In that response, AG Raoul claimed that the filing was basically moot because the executive order would expires the next day "and the Governor has announced that after that date religious gatherings will no longer be subject to mandatory restrictions."

The governor's subsequent order specifically says it "does not limit the free exercise of religion."

Pritzker has always predicted ultimate victory in every case filed against his stay at home order, and his office pushed back against suggestions of capitulation to churches. But the demand from the Trump nominee Kavanaugh may have spooked him.

Either way, nobody wants to make arrests or create a martyr, particularly a religious martyr. And most denominations will be complying with the new guidance. As for those who won't listen, there's not much anyone can do outside of law enforcement, and local sheriffs would likely resist orders to put preachers in jail. Best to just declare victory and move on. If there are more outbreaks like there were before the stay at home order was issued, perhaps church leaders and their congregations will eventually learn from it.

Meanwhile, the governor appears to be pushing ahead with a move into an even less-restrictive Phase 4 of his "Restore Illinois" plan next month without first setting up a robust contact tracing program.

For weeks and weeks, Pritzker's "Three T's" have been: Testing, Tracing and Treatment. The state, he's said, can't do much about developing a treatment, but he has pledged to ramp up the state's testing and contact tracing program.

Pritzker has done well with testing, but he didn't hire anyone to start up a contact tracing program until early May and he appeared in East St. Louis near the end of May to showcase the start of a local pilot project.

The governor's Restore Illinois plan explicitly states that one condition for the four IDPH regions moving into Phase 4 by the end of June is: "Begin contact tracing and monitoring within 24 hours of diagnosis for more than 90% of cases in region."

On Wednesday, the governor said, "We're at about 30% of the contact tracing that we need today." The governor's office claims they're actually above that right now, but Pritzker repeated that figure on Friday.

And then Pritzker said, "we're going to get to hopefully about 60-plus%, it's going to take us weeks and weeks, I can't tell you how long, I mean some people think it will take through August to do it." One issue, he said, is that contact tracing cannot be mandated. A quick foray into social media will show you how insane the ever-growing conspiracy theories have become on this particular topic.

Anyway, my colleague Hannah Meisel asked the governor Thursday whatever happened to that 90% target. "Those are, I guess, internal goals," Pritzker replied.

I was told by the governor's office that Pritzker wants to focus on readily quantifiable, health-related goals. Contact tracing is apparently no longer essential.

Not to mention that Chicago isn't scheduled to have its contract tracing fully operational until sometime in September. The city won't want to be left behind.

Rich Miller also publishes Capitol Fax, a daily political newsletter, and CapitolFax.com.

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Brent Flynn, 19, and Julian Flynn, 23, move furniture out to the street at Culture Hair Studio in Philadelphia, Pa. on Sunday, May 24, 2020. After 16 years in business, Culture Hair Studio is closing. Read more

Its a cloudy Sunday afternoon and Rachael Flynn is sitting in the middle of her homey two-story Mount Airy salon, at times appearing shell-shocked, as her sons haul a heavy cabinet down the steep staircase to the curb.

Here, inside Culture Hair Studio on Germantown Avenue, trays, carts, and styling chairs are strewn haphazardly around the room. Flynn has sold some, donated others.

The end has come.

Every time I come here to move out, its emotional, she said, sitting near the lacquered vintage wood countertops she had carefully picked out five years ago. Its been a roller coaster. Yesterday I was so grief-stricken, I couldnt talk to anyone. Many nights I cant sleep.

She stares at an old thrift-store-bought wooden bureau that reminds her of her kids when they were young. She cant stand to part with it.

You should keep it, Mom, said her elder son, Julian, 23, taking a break from emptying the storefront with his brother, Brent.

My mom has had this business as long as I remember, he said. She was proud of building it. It was her baby. To see it shut down is upsetting, to say the least.

Flynns business is drowning under the first wave of the worst economic tsunami since the Great Depression.

Despite governments efforts to save small businesses from the wreckage of the coronavirus pandemic, many are already shuttered or on the brink. Economists estimate that more than 100,000 businesses across the nation have closed permanently since March, according to a study by researchers at the University of Illinois, Harvard Business School, Harvard University, and the University of Chicago.

More than one in five small businesses say they are two months or less from closing, according to a MetLife & U.S. Chamber of Commerce poll released earlier this month.

Small businesses have always been at risk of failure. Some 30% fail in their second year and about half die after five years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But for some, the pandemic has accelerated the deathblow.

 READ MORE: He gets no sleep collecting the bodies of coronavirus victims: Its not a job for everyone

Restaurants, bars, salons, hotels, and small retail shops are particularly hard hit. Three Philadelphia-area restaurants recently announced they were closing: Farmicia in Old City, Mad River Bar & Grille in Manayunk, and Vitarellis in Cherry Hill, which opened in 1975 as a deli and grew into an Italian BYOB and catering facility.

For Inspired Brews Fermentary in Old City, the pandemic put a nail in the coffin. It is shutting down after 6 years, founder Jessa Stevens said.

The kombucha brewer didnt see its usual boost in sales when spring arrived, and its distributor wasnt able to order as much either. Inspired Brews sold much of its supply to small mom-and-pop shops that are now closed.

Financially, things have been hard anyway in the past a little bit, Stevens said. I think just taking this extra hit was a breaking point.

Heartfelt messages continue to pop up on Facebook, with business owners penning their final goodbyes, often beginning with the words that Flynn used to announce the closing of Culture Hair Studio: Its with a very sad heart 

Its one of the most gut-wrenching notes she has ever written.

Flynn, 49, had launched the salon 16 years ago when she was a divorced mom of two young sons. She later added two business partners, Annie Hauser and Amy Lydon, and 10 other employees, providing health insurance, a retirement plan, and paid vacations.

At the beginning of the mandatory shutdown, Flynn thought they could stay afloat.

She applied for a loan through the Paycheck Protection Program for small businesses. As of May 23, Pennsylvania ranked in the top 10 in the nation for the amount of money small businesses had received under the federal rescue program. Flynns business, unfortunately, wasnt one of the lucky ones. As the weeks slipped by, the situation became dire.

We plugged in all the numbers on an Excel spreadsheet and realized theres no way, Flynn said.

Theres no money left. We couldnt do it, she said, her voice shaking. "Theres nothing we can do.

Uncharted waters

Other businesses are hanging on  barely.

Of my three businesses, only one is still open, Terrell Barkley said. Thats his Brewerytown soul-food restaurant, Barkleys Barbecue on 29th Street near Ridge Avenue, which he opened in 2014.

Barkley will permanently close his concession stand at 30th Street Station. And even though he is now allowed to operate his food truck, he decided to not reopen it  at least for now.

Im not sure its safe," he said. "And the Amtrak location, I think I will just take the loss. Cases are still growing in number and I want to stay healthy.

Im down about 80% in sales, Barkley said. We worked hard to get to this point. I had a big opening at the Amtrak station this year. I put a lot of money invested in getting in there, and our numbers were looking good. People found out we were there and were loving our food.

Its really dim right now," he added. He was lucky enough to receive a $5,000 grant from The Merchants Fund to help stay afloat.

 READ MORE: Phillys essential workers are risking their lives for low pay: I cant not go to work

Neighborhood bar owners also cant fathom the future.

PJ Dolan owns the third-generation family-owned Dolans Bar in Ridley Park. Its been my life. Its all I know, he said. He started working there as a kid washing dishes.

Im not at the point of considering closing, but I dont see how social distancing would ever apply to a small neighborhood bar, he said.

The bar, which regulars know as the quintessential Irish American dive bar and has won the Most Delco Bar award, seats 30. Its walls and bar, as Dolan puts it. To sit six feet apart, only five or six customers could be permitted inside at any given time, and theyd have to walk by one another to reach the bathroom.

How do you pay bills if youre not maximum capacity? he asked. Our weekends pay our bills. Even if we open, we may not survive. ... People who own the bricks can hang on longer. Were lucky that way. But other people, I know theyre really sweating.

This is uncharted waters, Dolan said. Everyone is looking for the balance of health and economic health. Whats the answer? I dont know."

The increasingly acrimonious debate over how to reopen businesses while weighing the growing economic pain against the ongoing public health threat has left some business owners distressed.

Theres such a divide between the people who feel like we should be on lockdown for a very long time and people who feel the need to get back to work and take proper precautions, Flynn said.

You can be someone who wants to go back to work and still love and care about people, she said. Its not mutually exclusive.

After Flynn announced on Facebook that Culture was closing, most people were empathetic and wrote how sad they were. But a few accused her of putting profit above human life because she wanted to reopen.

Hair stylists and cosmetologists are trained how to sanitize their workspace, she said. I dont feel like our governor is giving salons a fair shot," she said. "Were smart and capable. We could open with proper safety precautions.

But we werent given that opportunity, she said.

It was taken from us.

Its like a bomb that dropped in our lives

At the same time, across the city in Fairmount, Elvira Aslanova was closing her salon, too. Shed had Beehive for 11 years and had just redecorated with new cherry wood swivel chairs, bleached oak mirrors, and canvas art of Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn  for an old Hollywood glam vibe.

"We were ordered to shut down Monday, March 16, and I remember like it was yesterday, she said. We were told it would be two weeks. I called a lot of clients and rescheduled everyone for the beginning of May.

The green light to open never came. Her landlord told her he could lower the rent by $1,000 for the next three months. But Id still have to pay $2,000. When youre not making a single cent, its a lot of money, she said. Or, the landlord told her she had three months to vacate with no penalties. She decided to pack it up.

Emotionally, at first you think its OK. Its for the best. Its the beginning of a new life, she said. Then you take the artwork off the walls and you hear from clients and you realize thats it. Its gone.

 READ MORE: One close-knit block is Philly at its best. But the coronavirus casts a dark shadow.

Aslanova didnt just live the American Dream. She is the American Dream. Now 43, she came to the United States from Baku in the former Soviet Union with her family when she was 14. Because they had fled violence and torture, they were granted refugee status.

It's a land of opportunity. It's a land of dreams, she said.

She always worked. As a kid, she chopped up vegetables and made salads for Franklin and Marshall College. She made $4 an hour. You do what you have to do to survive, she said.

After cosmetology school, she worked for other salons before deciding to take a leap and open Beehive. She had four employees.

Katherine Zaleski was one of them. She had worked at Beehive for two years and now worries about whats next.

When I cant see the future, I get anxiety, she said. Im learning to take it day by day. But for any hairdresser, its like a bomb that dropped in our lives.

Aslanova, a single mom of a 7-year-old boy, said she couldnt sink deeper into debt.

We were doing well. This was supposed to be our best year. Nobody saw this coming, she said. But I cant live with this uncertainty. I have to take care of my child. You should never have a business that is costing you money. You need to know when to walk away.

Aslanova will return to her old stomping grounds at Spa Elysium in Chestnut Hill, where she used to be a stylist. It will be like being back home, she said. Now I have to start over. I can take my crown off. I will do whatever I have to do.

For now, she is collecting unemployment and trying to stay positive. I believe that the only things you can lose are your life and health," she said. "Everything else, you can rebuild.

But its still painful to walk away.

This country gave me everything I ever dreamed of, she said.

And now corona has taken it away.

Staff writer Christian Hetrick contributed to this article.
LONDON  When Boris Johnson became the editor of The Spectator in 1999, he declared that he planned to make the weekly magazine, Britains oldest, a refuge for logic, fun, and good writing. It would, he promised somewhat paradoxically, continue to set the political agenda, and to debunk it.

Now that Mr. Johnson is the prime minister, the magazine he once ran has never been closer to fulfilling his ambition of being at once in bed with Britains conservative establishment and willing to yank the covers off it.

Yet in the past few weeks, The Spectators incestuous ties with the governing elite have thrust it into the murky heart of an uproar over a 260-mile drive that Mr. Johnsons most influential adviser, Dominic Cummings, and his wife made to his parents house in northern England, violating Britains lockdown rules.

Mary Wakefield, one of the magazines senior editors, is married to Mr. Cummings and wrote a vivid account of how she and her husband both fell ill with the coronavirus. Mr. Cummings, she said, lay doggo in bed for 10 days before emerging into the almost comical uncertainty of London lockdown.
There are several pain and deaths on the horizon, as the Anaesthesia Department of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, has since Tuesday, May 26, 2020, suspended urgent surgical cases as a result of a surge in severely ill COVID-19 patients in Accra with anaesthetics needed urgently.



The Department of Anaesthesia is responsible for numbing and putting patients to sleep as well as taking care of them in the immediate aftermath of surgery in the recovery ward or the Intensive care unit (ICU), but per an internal memo available to The Herald, from the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, reveals that the health facility is currently not conducting any surgical operations.



This is because, the specialist doctors called Anaesthetists who are responsible for administering drugs to patients to manage and control their pain ahead operations and surgical procedures have been move to treat critically ill COVID-19 patients in other hospitals, where numbers are skyrocketing.



The suspension, according to the internal memo from the head of Department to Director of Medical Affairs, is for all the specialized health workers in the unit, to go to the University of Ghana Medical Centre (UGMC)and Ga East Municipal Hospital, to help take care of those living with the killer virus and are in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the hospitals.



Interestingly, President Akufo-Addo is planning to lift restrictions imposed on the country, as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.



Parts of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital memo had said that the Surge in severely ill COVID-19 patients in Accra, has increased and the number of functional ICU beds in UGMS and Ga East Municipal Hospital are all occupied.



In this regard, the Head of the Anaesthesia Department explained that there has been a request from the National Committee for more specialist Anaesthetists to cover the ICU in these hospitals, adding these are needed urgently.



The document stated that, the Anaesthesia cover for the urgent cases will stop immediately, however, Anaesthesia cover reverts to emergencies only from 27th May, 2020.



The memo was copied to the Deputy Director of Medical Affairs, Head of Surgery, Head of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Head of Ophthamology, Head of Ear, Nose and Throat, Head of Orthopaedics, Patient Care Coordinator, Anaesthesia Dept and the Anaesthesia Dept.



Sources familiar with the situation have explained to The Herald that, urgent surgical cases are emergency surgical cases that can be delayed for a few days.



This paper was told that in normal times, these cases will be done as quickly as possible, but they may be delayed, because the patients condition may require further optimisation before subjecting them to the stress of surgery. The other reason for delay, may be because there are more critical emergency surgical cases competing for space and so the urgent emergencies may have to wait.



It was explained that, the memo suggests that, the number of anesthesiologists are being stretched thin because, a significant number of them are being requested by the National COVID committee to cover duties at the UGMC and Ga East Hospitals, as a result of an increasing number of critically ill COVID cases.



They, therefore, would not have enough personnel to provide anaesthesia service for all emergency surgeries as was the situation until now.



Since COVID-19 was first recorded in Ghana, elective surgeries (Planned non-emergency surgeries) in most tertiary institutions have been cancelled, to make way for critical emergencies and urgent emergencies.



It was pointed out that by this memo, the urgent emergency surgical cases, will have to wait even longer, even if their situations are such that they are optimised for surgery.



The difficulty with that is that, the prolonged delays, can have effects on their surgical outcomes.



Examples of the critical emergency cases include, bleeding broken limbs, testicular torsion, and bowel perforations, appendicitis and babies born with no anal passage among others.



Other examples of urgent emergencies include a broken thigh bone with no wounds, and bowel bleeding that has stopped after non-surgical treatment in the emergency room.



This implies that all urgent surgical emergencies in Korle Bu cannot be operated from today until further notice.



The sources questioned why COVID-19 cases are surging but the president wants to relax restrictions in order to have a new voter register.

Source: The Herald









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Communications Director of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Yaw Buaben Asamoa has urged supporters of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) to cut off their leadership for leading them astray as regards the issue of the new voter register.



The opposition party has strongly argued that the move by the Electoral Commission, Ghana (EC) to compile a new register for the December 7 polls is needless.



It said even in the compilation of a new register, the existing voters ID card should be one of the mandatory documents to be allowed for registration, a departure from ECs NIA cards and national passport.



The party has since made known its intentions to resist the exercise, scheduled to begin late June and end late July.



Speaking on TV3/3FMs The Key Points on Saturday, May 30, Mr Buaben Asamoa admonished supporters of the NDC that they are being misled by the leadership, whose agenda has been to undermine the constitution.



The Adentan Member of Parliament said NDCs leadership stock has gone through vicissitudes and the latest may not be taking decisions that inure to the benefit of the party.



I want to repeat my admonition to those who have love for the NDC as a political organisation. At any point in time, its leadership changes, he noted.



The people who believe in the NDC are being misled by a leadership which is confused at the moment. Please, they shouldnt accede to any agenda that seeks to undermine the life that this constitution has conferred on them.



All these follow a strong assertion by NDC MP Alhaji Inusah Fuseini, who was also on the programme, that his party will resist the compilation of the new voter register with their blood if need be.



Mr Buaben Asamoa stressed: Anytime there is a military disruption of governance in this country, lives [of] people change forever...Your right to work, all the right you believe in, your human rights change. You dont have any. We have been fortunate to have a Fourth Republic which has lasted for 28 years. Please, protect it.



Dont allow any misguided, deluded leader who will tell you that he is trying to protect your lifestyle by destroying the constitution and you follow that person, he is actually destroying the nation.

Source: 3 news









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has made an Indian snack - the popular samosa - and wants to share it with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

He shared the images of the snack, and mango chutney along with it, on his Twitter feed on Sunday and named it ScoMosas.

Sunday ScoMosas with mango chutney, all made from scratch - including the chutney! A pity my meeting with @narendramodi this week is by videolink. Theyre vegetarian, I would have liked to share them with him, Morrison posted on Twitter and tagged PM Modi.

Sunday ScoMosas with mango chutney, all made from scratch - including the chutney! A pity my meeting with @narendramodi this week is by videolink. Theyre vegetarian, I would have liked to share them with him. pic.twitter.com/Sj7y4Migu9  Scott Morrison (@ScottMorrisonMP) May 31, 2020

The tweet has so far garnered 32,000 likes.

In a reply to Morrisons tweet, BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi said: Proposing your name for Michelin Star.

The two Prime Ministers are scheduled to hold a virtual meeting on June 4 that is expected to see an intensification of ties in the economic and strategic spheres.

This will be Prime Minister Narendra Modis first bilateral summit to take place virtually given the embargos on travel due to the covid-19 pandemic.

Australian prime minister Scott Morrison who was to come to India in January for the summit had to put off his visit due to the devastating wildfires ravaging large parts of his country. The visit was being planned for May but now the summit is to happen on 4 June, Indian foreign ministry spokesman Anurag Srivastava said on Thursday.

The two countries are expected to sign an agreement for reciprocal access to military logistics facilities and other pacts aimed at developing alternative supply chains during the summit.

The summit between PM Modi and PM Morrison will be held against the backdrop of heightened friction with China for both countries.

Even before the Covid-19 crisis, the two sides had been exploring the possibility of cooperating on rare earth metals such as lithium, neodymium and dysprosium, of which Australia has the worlds sixth largest reserves. More than 90% of Indias imports of rare earth metals, worth $3.4 million in 2016, come from China.
Philadelphia  and much of the nation  is waking up this morning after a day and night of protests spurred by the May 25 death of George Floyd, whose neck was knelt on for nine minutes by a Minneapolis police officer. Well continue to update our coverage throughout the day. You can find live developments here.

 Lauren Aguirre and Josh Rosenblat (morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)

The week ahead

This weeks most popular stories

Behind the story with Julia Terruso and Jonathan Lai

Each week we go behind the scenes with one of our reporters or editors to discuss their work and the challenges they face along the way. This week we chat with reporters Julia Terruso and Jonathan Lai on covering Pennsylvanias 2020 primary and what you should know for election day.

First up, what all is on the ballot, aside from the presidential race?

Terruso: Plenty! Primary elections for Pennsylvanias 18 Congressional seats in the U.S. House are on the ballot as are the states executive offices  auditor general, attorney general and treasurer. The Pennsylvania Senate and House also have primaries. Not all of these are contested, though. You can check your local county election board website to see a sample ballot for your district.

Lai: One thing to remember is that politicians look at voter turnout and, in the end, they often focus more on their voters than on the general population. So when some communities or neighborhoods vote more than others, that affects their political representation.

How is this primary election different from others youve covered in the past?

Terruso: Well for starters, it was rescheduled. Originally Pennsylvanians were going to vote April 28 but then the coronavirus necessitated legislators to push the date back to allow election officials time to prepare. The pandemic has had a tremendous impact on how Pennsylvanians will vote. An unprecedented number of voters have requested mail-in ballots and were watching how successful that process is in terms of voters getting ballots in by the deadline. County election officials have also seriously cut down the number of polling locations to protect poll workers and given the expectation more people will vote by mail. That could mean longer lines on Tuesday.

Lai: Ive never seen this level of anxiety from elections officials and voters because theyre literally worried about questions of life and death. It is an incredible logistical nightmare to run an election during a pandemic while also implementing structural changes such as allowing all voters to vote by mail. When elections draw near, Im often talking to election officials late in the day, often as theyre driving back from work or afterward. This time, theyre calling me at later and later hours. I talked to people on Memorial Day who were working in their offices, and Ive talked to election officials calling close to midnight as they get off from work. For voters, so much is different: Voting by mail has been the major shift, but for in-person voting there are major polling place closures in some places, including Philly. There are also new voting machines in some places. Its a lot, stacked on top of each other.

How much of an impact will Pennsylvania have on the primary and the general election?

Terruso: Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, is about 460 delegates short of clinching the nomination. Pennsylvania is one of six states and D.C. voting June 2. Those states have 479 delegates up for grabs so its conceivable that Biden  with the help of Pennsylvania voters  could clinch the nomination on our primary day. Its more likely hell fall just short and clinch when more states vote in mid-June.

Pennsylvanias role in the general election is expected to be huge. The state was one of three to flip from blue to red for Trump in 2016 and most experts say Trump needs to carry Pennsylvania to win reelection. So while the primary may be lower stakes, who turns out and in what numbers will be something were looking at with an eye toward November.

Can you safely vote during a pandemic? What if someone wants to vote in person?

Lai: Nothing is 100% risk-free, but yes, there are ways to minimize risk, including voting by mail. The deadline to request a mail ballot has already passed, but there are also ways to reduce risk if you vote in person: Wear a mask and dont touch your face, keep apart from other people, wash your hands or use sanitizer, and try to familiarize yourself with the ballot and how to use the voting machine ahead of time so you can be in and out quickly.

When can we expect to see the results from the election?

Lai: Not for a while. Results from the polling places will still mostly be available on election night, but mail ballots will take time to count  and in some places, such as Philadelphia, officials wont start counting the mail ballots until after election night. Since most votes in Philly will likely be cast by mail, that means the results we see on election night will only represent a fraction of the actual vote.

Elections officials actually warned a few months ago that results would take much longer to count than in the past because of the mail ballots; since then, the pandemic has led to a surge in mail voting that no one expected.

That said, this particular election doesnt have the same level of interest as Novembers will, when turnout is much higher. That will make the problem worse because there will be so many more ballots to count  and it will be particularly high-stakes if the world is waiting on Pennsylvanias result to determine the presidency.

What is one thing you wish people better understood about elections in Pennsylvania?

Lai: How much of the process is done by hand and determined by a generations-old Election Code. The election law changes that allow anyone to vote by mail was the most significant change to election law in decades, but state law remains restrictive in some areas. And even when there are online forms, everything still ultimately is done by hand: Voter registration, mail ballot application processing, counting ballots, preparing poll books, etc. Elections are hugely resource-intensive.

Email Julia Terruso at jterruso@inquirer.com and Jonathan Lai at jlai@inquirer.com. Follow them on twitter at @JuliaTerruso and @Elaijuh.

Photo gallery: Protests and unrest after the death of George Floyd

Heres what it looked like in Philadelphia yesterday as people gathered to mourn the death of George Floyd and protest police brutality.

Can you visit your parents in the yellow phase?

Celebrations through phone or Zoom can never replace the real thing. And now, with Fathers Day just weeks away, we all want to know, can we visit our parents yet? Once were in the yellow phase, the short answer is yes. But before you make plans, theres a longer answer to consider too. Health experts say its still too soon, and if you want to be safe, you may want to wait it out a little longer. There is a possibility that you could be infected, have no symptoms, and pass the virus on to your parents. Without contact tracing, its hard to tell who exactly has been exposed.

Inside The Inquirer

Every day this week, weve been taking you behind the scenes of The Inquirer newsroom to learn more about what we do and how we do it. If you missed yesterdays edition, you can find it here.

For our last installment in this series, were looking at our newsletters, one of which youre reading right now. Heres what our newsletter editor Josh Rosenblat had to say:

You all probably know me by now. Im the guy thats been sending you emails almost every day for about a year. But along with writing the Inquirer Morning Newsletter, I also oversee what goes into our other email newsletters.

My favorite thing about email newsletters is the platform itself. Newsletters allow us to communicate directly with you. And, you have the chance to send us an email right back. We want to send you emails that you look forward to opening each day  from links to stories about our local economy and advice on how to make the most of your time at home to an in-depth look at what a return to baseball would mean to the Phillies and tips on where to get the best takeout right now. And with that, we hope that our emails compel you to do something more. Maybe youll read an article or watch a video on Inquirer.com, reply directly to a newsletter with a comment or a question, or forward a newsletter to a friend. We want you to connect with our journalism so you can stay informed. And, of course, thanks for reading.

Check this out: We have many newsletters aside from this one. Check them out here and sign up to add another one to your routine.

And thats it for this series. What else do you want to know about The Inquirer? What else do you want to see in your inbox? Let us know  you guessed it  by email at morningnewsletter@inquirer.com, or just reply to this email. We look forward to hearing from you.

Comment of the week

Him setting it free at the end really makes this a feel good story. Im glad I stuck with it that long. Biggest fish ever, caught in Philly! Take that, other 65 counties!  tea_i_am on One of Pennsylvanias largest fish, a probable state record, caught in Philly.

Your Daily Dose of | Fringe sports

Gabby Roe is the founder and president of a Wayne-based company that tries to discover and promote fringe sports. That means hes caught up in break dancing, beach soccer, cornhole, curling, axe throwing, ultimate Frisbee, and more.
Life in the times of Covid-19 has become uncertain. The virus scare is not only keeping people locked up inside their homes and adversely affecting the economy, but theres also a constant worry about what the future has in store. And that is taking a toll on peoples mental health in turn leading to the rise in domestic violence cases, relationship falling apart and many taking their own lives.

Actor Suniel Shetty, who has been working towards betterment of children, feels it is a really disturbing time. Talking about how one needs to approach the problem, he says, Parents need to take the charge. While the father probably is going through the most difficult time thinking about how hell make ends meet, and the mother might be worried about how she can support, these tensions shouldnt lead to fights.

The actor further asserts on the importance of giving children a very happy environment.

The uncertainty might have hit you hard, but when your child comes up to you with a smile seeking positivity, you have to reciprocate. Its better to fight your inner fears and keep your family happy. The strength you derive from that is much needed, he adds.

Shetty,58, explains this is just the beginning and we need to accept the current to be able to be prepared for the future.

Once the cure is here and we all get back to work, well have to rebuild everything. That probably would be more difficult than this, he warns.

Given the crisis and uncertainty looming large, many have taken to addiction to get over their worries.Shetty points that such things lead to more emotional breakdown.

He explains, We always crave for this family time. So lets just enjoy it. We all are in this together. Why resort to any sort of abuse or wrong behaviour that at the end of day would spoil our mental peace.

And how can one do that? You need to look around and draw inspiration, says the actor. Everyone is trying hard to cope, be it those who have enough to survive or who are struggling to make ends meet. Depression happens due to lack of protein in our system that generates energy. So, eat and exercise well to generate happy hormones, he shares, adding how his family, too, follows a routine.

Shetty starts his day with exercising, before he sits down for breakfast with his mother (Prema Shetty), while his children, Athiya and Ahaan and wife Mana eat their breakfast later.

My mother is 82. She does breathing exercises and also takes a walk inside the house. My lunch time with her is our pure mother-son time. A proper social distancing is maintained at home, especially when shes around. She enjoys watching old films with all of us. Everyone sitting doing dinner together is another highlight of our day, says Shetty, whos also looking forward to going back to work and finish his films, Marakkar, Fraudster and Mumbai Saga. But we cant take the risk now. We need to be patient and wait till its safer to shoot, he ends.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Shreya Mukherjee Shreya Mukherjee is a senior content producer at Hindustan Times. She has spent over eight years covering entertainment, features and hard-news. When not writing, her passion for travel, literature, films and music gets her going. ...view detail
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Violent protests continued spreading across the United States on Friday, the fourth straight day after George Floyd, an unarmed black man, pleaded "I can't breathe" before dying in police custody in Minneapolis, the biggest city in the midwest state of Minnesota, on Monday.

The White House went into lockdown on Friday evening as hundreds of protesters gathered outside. One protester sprayed the Freedman's Bank Building while some other protesters clashed with Secret Service personnel, witnesses said. Videos showed some protesters burnt flags and knocked over barricades.

"Secret Service personnel are currently assisting other law enforcement agencies during a demonstration in Lafayette Park (outside the White House). In the interest of public safety we encourage all to remain peaceful," the Secret Service tweeted. At least one person was reportedly taken into custody.

In downtown Atlanta, southern state Georgia, a demonstration that began peacefully became chaotic as protesters set a police car on fire, struck officers with bottles, vandalized the headquarters of CNN and broke into a restaurant, the USA Today reported.

The protesters spray-painted the large, iconic CNN logo outside the building, breaking a windowed entrance. One protester climbed on top of the sign and waved a "Black Lives Matter" flag to cheers from the crowd, said the report.









In Minneapolis, unrest continued Friday night as protesters gathered and chanted "No justice, no peace, prosecute the police!" in the streets around the police station blazed a night earlier, defying a citywide curfew imposed earlier in the day. Law enforcement officials fired tear gas into the streets and patrolled in military vehicles.



In Indianapolis, the state capital and most populous city of midwest state Indiana, nearly 100 people took part in a six-hour-long demonstration in downtown Friday afternoon that lasted til the evening, protesting the fatal shooting of a black man earlier this month by an Indianapolis Metropolitan Police officer and other deaths across the country, local media reported.

"Several protesters have damaged police cruisers and continue to throw rocks at officers and the Metro Division office," police in Charlotte, southern state North Carolina, tweeted on Friday.

Several demonstrators were arrested in Charlotte as police issued a "dispersal order" after declaring the gathering of protesters "unlawful," said a CNN report.

In Memphis, southern state Tennessee, about 300 protesters took to the streets for the third straight day to speak out against police brutality and the recent death of three African Americans at the hands of police.









In Knoxville, another city in Tennessee, hundreds of protesters organized by Black Lives Matter Knoxville, gathered peacefully in front of police headquarters Friday evening.



And in Louisville, Kentucky, a crew for CNN affiliate WAVE reported that police officers fired pepper bullets directly at news crew during the protest.

Protests have also erupted in New York, Houston, Las Vegas, San Diego, Chicago and multiple other cities across the United States over the death of Floyd. Local media say more protests are expected to take place across the country through the weekend.

Floyd, aged 46, died on Monday after Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, held him down with a knee on his neck though he repeatedly pleaded, "I can't breathe," and "please, I can't breathe." Chauvin was arrested and charged with three-degree murder and manslaughter earlier on Friday.

Floyd's plea before his death evoked African Americans' painful memories. In 2014, a cellphone recorded an unarmed black man, Eric Garner, repeatedly saying "I can't breathe" when a New York officer held him in a chokehold before his death in police custody. Since then, the plea has become a rallying cry at demonstrations against police misconduct across the country.




https://www.aish.com/jw/s/Im-Deferring-Harvard-to-Attend-Yeshiva-in-Israel-Next-Year.html

With many universities planning to hold virtual classes next year, I'm taking advantage of the opportunity to spend a gap year in Israel.

The chances of college reopening in the fall appear more and more unlikely every day. That puts high school seniors like me in an unusual predicament: Weve endured grueling months of school over Zoom, weve kissed goodbye the end of senior year, and weve accepted the unfortunate reality that graduations will not happen as planned. But were not quite ready to surrender our freshmen year of college  our first opportunity to live away from home  and enroll in a university that plans to hold class virtually.

If youre a high school senior like me, youve probably dreamt about freshman year of college for ages: finally living away from your parents, taking advantage of all the resources universities have to offer, and using your newfound freedom to discover yourself. But the current circumstances dictate that college life will not be found on university campuses: It will take place from your childhood bedroom over Zoom without the amenities and social life ordinary college offers. Perhaps that is why a third of high school seniors will consider a gap year if their college announces plans to hold class virtually, according to a recent Carnegie Dartlet survey.

But what should high school seniors do on a gap year? With much of the world under lockdown and the introduction of new travel restrictions, many gap year options are no longer feasible. However there is at least one place high school seniors can travel before attending college: Israel.

My Jewish high school sends most of its students to Israel every year to enroll in various yeshivot, seminaries, and gap year programs. I was never inclined to take a gap year because the allure of college was too strong. Ive always enjoyed math and science; attending Harvard to study my favorite subjects was too good a deal to defer. That was my thinking until the coronavirus pandemic began.

While Covid-19 shutters much of America, Israel has largely curbed deaths in the pandemic by instituting severe lockdowns early on. The country is now beginning to reopen and this week the Interior Ministry released guidelines for international gap year students seeking to study in Israel. The guidelines explain how incoming freshmen can travel to Israel and quarantine upon arrival, afterwards allowing gap year students to participate in Israels largely open society.

When I was presented with the choice between university in America and a gap year in Israel, I readily chose studying in Israel next year. Even if colleges manage to reopen, they'll reopen with heavy restrictions that will dampen students social life. I think high school seniors should seriously consider spending next year in Israel. Israel offers yeshivot and seminaries for intensive Jewish study as well as gap year programs that feature traveling and learning at universities in Israel. There are opportunities that match the desires of every student: Whether or not you speak Hebrew, have a background in Talmud, are interested in studying, or want to travel, a gap year program exists for you.

Next year I will study at Yeshivat Eretz Hatzvi in Jerusalem. Im looking forward to learning to study independently so that I can continue my Jewish learning in college more easily. Im also excited to learn about Jewish philosophy and leadership training.

This pandemic has provoked introspection and self-reflection. Ive personally realized the importance of my relationship with my grandparents and my familys relationship with Judaism  the one aspect of my life that has not been ended by Covid-19. A gap year in Israel is the perfect chance to deepen my connections with these weighty roots  both familial and religious.

Israel has led an exemplary response to the coronavirus. Israel has become one of the safest places to live owing to its effective handling of the pandemic. Debate about reopening the United States usually centers around finding the appropriate balance between safety and the luxury of normalcy; in Israel that dilemma is avoided. We American high school seniors would be wise to spend next year in Israel where our safety is more certain, our social life will be more vibrant, and where gap year programs will run in-person.

The Yiddish adage man plans and God laughs is particularly resonant to the class of 2020, who had planned a number of events  from graduation to post-high school plans  only to see their senior year spoiled by coronavirus. The world may have spelled the end of our plans to study on American college campuses next year, but it has just as clearly offered Israeli gap years as an appealing alternative.

And who knows? Maybe a year in Israel will teach me a lesson or two that will be valuable as we navigate the world after coronavirus.
New Delhi, May 31 : Rajasekhar V.K., Member (Judicial), National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has moved the Delhi High Court citing that the 'acting president B.S.V. Prakash Kumar, wants to get the prime posting to Mumbai, where "volumes of insolvency and company cases are pending".

Rajasekhar sought a direction from the High Court to appoint an eligible member judicial as the president in place of Kumar, who through orders issued on April 30 and May 12, had shuffled the posting of the NCLT Members.

Rajasekhar was transferred from NCLT Mumbai to NCLT Kolkata, while Kumar transferred himself from NCLT Chennai to NCLT Mumbai.

In the petition, Rajasekhar said Kumar wants to get the prime posting to Mumbai, where volumes of insolvency and Company cases, having huge pecuniary stakes running into more than thousands of crores, are pending. "They relate to all big industries and big business houses such as ILFS, Jet Airways, etc. and he was transferred from NCLT Mumbai to Chennai on September", argued Rajasekhar.

"It is further submitted that the manner in which B.S.V. Prakash Kumar took steps for his own transfer to the Mumbai Bench, of NCLT from where he was transferred vide September 18, 2019, smacks of mala fide", the petition argued.

He has challenged his transfer and termed these orders as a violation of the statutory provisions of law, the rules of transfer and also the law laid down by the Supreme Court.

Rajasekhar submitted that Kumar only worked as District Judge, and as a member Company Law Board and thereafter member judicial NCLT. He argued that Kumar is not a High Court judge; therefore he is not eligible to be appointed as president, particularly when an eligible person, Justice Rajesh Dayal Khare, retired High Court Judge, was available and is at present functioning as a Member (Judicial) at NCLT, Allahabad Bench.

Rajasekhar has urged the High Court to set aside his transfer order issued on April 30 and May 12 transferring him to NCLT Kolkata Bench and Kumar to the NCLT Mumbai Bench, and transfer of eight members of NCLT as illegal. He also urged the court to grant status quo in respect of the members of NCLT till a regular president is not appointed.

The petitioner was appointed as a Member (Judicial) in the NCLT in May 2019, and was posted at the Mumbai Bench. In April, the government extended the tenure of Kumar for another three months. The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) extended the tenure for another three months or till the joining of new President, whichever is earlier.

"Section 419(2) of the Companies Act, 2013 stipulates that the Principal Bench of the NCLT shall be at New Delhi, which shall be presided over by the President of the Tribunal. Despite this specific mandate of the law, the second respondent (Kumar) has been holding court from Chennai and not from the principal seat of NCLT in New Delhi, in violation of the law", said the petition.

The petitioner contended by transferring himself to Mumbai from Chennai, Kumar continues to violate the statutory provisions of law and the law as laid down by the Supreme Court. "Further, as Acting President, the second respondent cannot ask for a transfer, nor can he be transferred to any place, as he has to remain on the Principal Bench at New Delhi so long as he is acting as President of the Tribunal", argued Rajasekhar.
Hundreds of workers at Gordon Ramsay's restaurants are being paid to work their notice periods via the government's taxpayer-funded furlough scheme.

In March the celebrity chef's companies sacked 500 workers as the hospitality industry closed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Today The Sun on Sunday has revealed some of those workers are being paid via the furlough scheme that is estimated to cost the government around 80bn of taxpayers' money.

Gordon Ramsay announced one of his restaurants had reopened this week - but a leaked email shows sacked staff are being paid via the government's furlough scheme

An email seen by the paper from Gordon Ramsay Restaurants' HR Director Sarah Anderson to a London-based worker read: 'Should you not wish to apply for a new role, you will remain on the furlough scheme for the duration of your notice.'

A source told The Sun: 'The furlough scheme is called the job retention scheme - but that is not what he seems to be using it for. They are sacking people anyway.'

The same source went on to claim senior members of staff in Mr Ramsay's restaurants were being offered lower-paid jobs, including telling a supervisor to become a bartender.

Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in West London is just one of the celebrity chef's eateries in the capital

Mr Ramsay, who is thought to be worth close to 200million, has restaurants across London, inlcuding in Mayfair and The Strand.

Alec Shelbrooke said there were questions over whether Mr Ramsay had exploited taxpayers, adding: 'It will have to be carefully looked at whether the scheme was used to increase the profits of the company.'

MailOnline has approached Gordon Ramsay Restaurants for a comment.

The celebrity chef, 53, announced on Thursday evening that The Narrow in Limehouse, London, is returning as a takeaway BBQ restaurant.

Rishi's in-laws furlough three per cent of staff Chancellor Rishi Sunak's billionaire father-in-law's company has deployed the government's furlough scheme for three per cent of its UK staff. Software and consulting giant Infosys, which is based in India, was set up by Mr Sunak's father in law Narayan Murthy in 1981. Now an honorary chairman of the company, Mr Murthy has a fortune worth around 1.7bn, according to Forbes. The company did not tell The Times how many people it employed in the UK, but the paper suggests it is around 10,000 - meaning around 300 workers have been furloughed. A company spokesman said: 'In light of the current situation, Infosys has furloughed 3% of its UK workforce. We are reviewing this on a weekly basis.' Advertisement

He told Instagram followers: 'I've got some really exciting news.

'I know this lockdown has been an absolute nightmare for all of us but tomorrow at midday we're going to open for an amazing barbecue down on The Thames at The Narrow.

The lockdown led Ramsay, to lay off 500 employees in March, with no guarantee their jobs would be safe in the future.

Chefs, waiters and other staff were called to a meeting and told their contracts were being terminated - rather than being furloughed on 80 per cent pay.

It triggered a wave of anger, including from chef Anca Torpuc who at the time branded the celebrity chef a 'piece of 's***' for his decision.

Ramsay, 53, has grabbed headlines throughout the lockdown after he had his wrist slapped for flouting lockdown rules.

The coastguard reportedly issued the father-of-five with an official warning after he was seen in Rock, Fowey, Port Isaac and Newquay  some distance from his 4million home in Trebetherick.
Six airplanes circled the Greenwood area during the morning hours of June 1.

What they were doing, and why there were so many, has long been a matter of passionate debate. Many people believe they were used to shoot at people on the ground and bomb Greenwood.

Officials said the small craft, generally thought to be two-seat, single-engine Curtis Jenny biplanes, were merely keeping track of activities on the ground and relaying the information through written messages dropped in weighted metal cylinders attached to streamers.

To what extent this explanation was initially challenged is unclear, but in October 1921 the Chicago Defender published a story in which it said Greenwood had been bombed under orders of prominent city officials.

The story cited a Van B. Hurley, who the newspaper said had given a signed statement to Elisha Scott, a Kansas attorney.

Scott filed dozens of lawsuits on behalf of victims but doesnt seem to have ever entered the Hurley affidavit into the record. There is no record of a Van B. Hurley living in Tulsa around the time of the massacre or that anyone by that name ever belonged to the Tulsa police force.
The General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Enoch Adeboye, on Sunday, reacted to the reported rape and subsequent death of a University of Benin (UNIBEN) undergraduate, Vera Omozuwa.

The crime reportedly took place inside a hall of one of the parishes of the RCCG on Ikpoba Hill, Benin city.

Mr Adeboye, in a statement posted on his official Facebook page late Sunday, commiserated with the family and also said the RCCG management would cooperate fully with the police to unravel the crime and arrest the perpetrators.

PREMIUM TIMES reported how the police in Edo State said they are searching for people who might have witnessed the assault that led to the death of a female student of the University of Benin (UNIBEN), Edo State.

Preliminary reports indicate that the victim, a 100-level student, was beaten inside a hall in the said parish, where she had gone to study.

The 23-year-old died on May 31, 18 days after, at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital.

As at the day of the incident, she was in a coma, so the police could not obtain a statement from her on what happened, the police spokesperson in Edo, Chidi Nwabuzor, told PREMIUM TIMES, Sunday evening.

Its unfortunate that no person is coming out as an eyewitness (witness) to give (an) account of what happened, he added.

The university had earlier expressed shock at the development.

RCCG reacts

All I can do at this time is to pray for the family of Omozuwa and do everything possible working with relevant authorities to bring the perpetrators to book, Mr Adeboye, a former lecturer, said. I and members of my family condemn this act strongly and urge everyone to stay calm as we are already looking into the matter and cooperating with the police to establish the facts of the shocking situation #justiceforuwa.

The hashtag, #justiceforuwa is currently trending on social media networks with hundreds of Nigerians calling for an efficient investigation and arrest and conviction of the perpetrators.

Sexual assault, rape and murder are prominent crimes security operatives in Nigeria continue to battle weekly in many states across the country.

Getting justice for rape victims, in particular, is usually a herculean task due to the less than efficient investigation and judicial process.
Thimpu, May 31 (UNI) Bhutan reported biggest one-day jump with 10 more COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, taking the total number of cases to 43.

Overwhelming majority of the COVID-19 cases in the country are foreign returnees, declared the Health Ministry of Bhutan on Sunday morning.

Xinhua news agency quoted the Health Ministry statistics stating that out of the 10 new patients, seven are female and three are male, and all of them are recent returnees from West Asian nations, they returned through relief flights that were arranged by the government.
Telangana: Gay couple enter into wedlock, say it has sent out a message

Telangana extends lockdown till June 30; allows inter-state movement

India

pti-PTI

Hyderabad, May 31: The Telangana government on Sunday extended the lockdown in containment zones till June 30 even as it lifted the restrictions on inter-state movement of people. Certain restrictions currently in force in non- Containment Zones would however remain extended till June 7.

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao announced the extension of lockdown after holding discussions with Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar, DGP Mahender Reddy and other senior officials in the backdrop of the Centre issuing new guidelineson the COVID-19 lockdown.

Madhya Pradesh extends lockdown till June 30

Rao instructed the officials concerned to strictly implement the lockdown in the Containment Zones, an official release said, adding that night-time curfew would be implemented daily from 9 PM to 5 AM.

Coronavirus: Delhi seeks Rs.5000 Cr from centre to pay employees | Oneindia News

Shops would be allowed to remain open only till 8 PM, it said. Rao further said there would not be any restrictions on inter-state travel.
Photo:China News Service

Eight pandas moved to their new home in the ancient town of Fenghuang in Central China's Hunan province on Friday.

This is the first time the ancient town, also a popular tourist destination, has welcomed giant pandas. The animals will make Fenghuang their permanent home.

With the average annual temperature ranging from 12.6 to 16.7 degrees Celsius, Fenghuang County boasts more than 3,333 hectares of bamboo forest, providing a good habitat for giant pandas.

To provide a good living environment for the new arrivals, Fenghuang has built a panda theme park.

Two of the eight pandas, named Long Sheng and Qing Feng, were born in 2000 and 2007 respectively. The other six pandas were born in 2017. They were transported from southwest China's Sichuan Province to Fenghuang by a special vehicle.

Before the transportation, the eight pandas were placed under observation in the giant panda protection center, and they are now in good health.

Teng Qiong, director of Fenghuang County Forestry Bureau, said that the pandas were transported in refrigerator trucks for their safety and comfort. A total of six trucks were rented, with four vehicles carrying two giant pandas each, while one truck carried enough bamboo and bamboo shoots for five days, and another empty truck was kept on standby.

"During the transportation, we rested at the high-speed service areas for 30 minutes every three hours. The keepers provided food and water for the pandas and carefully observed their health condition," Teng said.

Construction of the panda theme park in Fenghuang started at the end of 2018. It includes a panda house, a panda hospital, a feed processing room, a tourist service center, a science museum and other supporting projects. There will be 16 professional keepers to take care of the pandas in the park.
NEW DELHI : The Indian Army on Sunday rejected reports of clashes with China, despite the build-up of troops along the border, as the neighbours prepare for commander-level talks later this week.

Diplomatic channels have also been opened up to end the confrontation, which is now in its third week. The face-off is being considered the most serious since the 2017 Doklam standoff.

The Army was referring to a video that has gone viral on social media, showing Indian and Chinese troops engaging in clashes at the Pangong Tso Lake in Ladakh. The content being circulated is not authenticated. Attempts to link it with the situation on the northern borders are mala fide. At present, no violence is taking place. Differences are being addressed through interaction between military commanders, guided by the established protocols on management of borders between the two countries," it said.

On Sunday, a news report by ANI said that China was continuing to bring in troops backed by infantry combat vehicles and artillery guns on their side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC). These were stationed 25-30 km from the LAC and could be brought forward at short notice, it said.

Tensions have been running high between India and China along the LAC, with reports of physical clashes between troops across Ladakh and Sikkim. Troops of both countries have been engaged in a standoff in Ladakh for over three weeks at Pangong Tso, Galwan Valley, Demchok, and Daulat Beg Oldie.

The trigger for the face-off was Chinas opposition to India building a road around the Pangong Tso lake and another link road connecting the Darbuk-Shyok-Daulat Beg Oldie road in Galwan Valley, which lies close to the LAC. India has been building border infrastructure in recent years, but is still behind China, which has motorable roads till LAC.

Following the clashes with Indian troops, China reportedly diverted troops from a military exercise and moved them to forward locations in the Galwan Valley. India has matched the Chinese deployment on the ground, two people familiar with the development said last week.

The 2.45-minute video that is on social media shows Indian security personnel challenging a group of Chinese soldiers who had brought in their Dongfeng vehicle, which is similar in design to the US-built Humvee military vehicle.

We strongly condemn attempts to sensationalize issues impacting national security. The media is requested not to air visuals that are likely to vitiate the situation on the borders," the Indian army said.

However, the release of the clip seemed to have unleashed a Twitter war with an unauthenticated picture purportedly showing Chinese troops wearing masks standing over some Indian troops seen lying on the ground.

India was in talks with China at military and diplomatic levels to ease border tensions, defence minister Rajnath Singh told news channel Aaj Tak on Saturday.

The defence minister has also conveyed to his US counterpart Mark Esper that India and China have established mechanisms to sort out such bilateral issues and would resolve the current problem through dialogue.

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<! Troops of MNJTF: receive defecting Boko Haram commander >

A top Boko Haram commander has abandoned the terrorist group and defected with his wife and child to a secret location manned by the Multinational Joint Task Force(MNJTF).

According to Colonel Timothy Antigha, Chief of Military Public Information for MNJTF, the defector voluntarily denounced the terrorists groups and surrendered.

The defector disclosed that he joined Boko Haram in 2015 and took part in terrorist operations in Arege, Kangarwa, Metele and Mallam Fatori.

He said he decided to surrender following intense bombing of the terrorists positions by the Task Force.

Constant artillery and air bombardments have greatly affected our plans and dampened our morale

He said that more fighters are ready to surrender, but they are uncertain of what fate awaits them.

Pressed for more answers on his personal motivation, he said, I am not sure if our spiritual direction is correct.

In March this year, a group of Boko Haram terrorists surrendered in Sector Four in Diffa, Niger Republic.

Similarly, within the same period, some terrorists also surrendered to troops of Sector One in Mora, Cameroon and are currently being rehabilitated.

Boko Haram defectors in Sector Three (Nigeria) are also being rehabilitated through Operation SAFE CORRIDOR.

While MNJTF will continue to intensify the tempo of its kinetic operations on all fronts, it encourages more terrorists to reject terrorism and abandon the needless killing of innocent civilians, Colonel Atigha said.

They are further encouraged to seek redemption within the structures provided for rehabilitation within the different jurisdictions, he added.
Its off to the races for the worlds largest asset manager, BlackRock Inc. (NYSE:BLK). At a time when the majority of Wall Streets mega banks are just starting to buy into the green investing ethos, BlackRock has quickly established itself as the purveyor of ESG and renewables investing. BlackRock owns one of the largest global renewable power platforms, with $5.5 billion in equity assets under management (AUM).

In January, the firm pledged to grow its ESG and green portfolio from $90 billion to more than a trillion dollars in the space of a decade. BlackRock now appears desperate to be seen as the kingpin of the green drive, even recently bowing to the demands of Canadian oil and gas producer Ovintiv (NYSE:OVV) shareholders, a move it probably would have considered infra dig just a few years back.

And the Fed and the investing universe are loving it.

BLK shares have been on a tear, surging 21% over the past two weeks and 8.8% in the year-to-date after the company clinched a deal with the Fed to run a junk-bond purchase program as part of its multi-pronged stimulus effort, never mind the fact that BlackRock happens to be one of the biggest issuers of said ETFs. BlackRock has a similar equities-buying program with the Central Bank of Israel.

Even PNC Financial Services Group (NYSE:PNC) recent sale of its 22% stake in BlackRock worth $17 billion due to fears of a torrid U.S. economy was not enough to stop the BLK momentum with large institutional investors from as far off as the Middle East scooping up the shares.

In contrast, the Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSEARCA:XLF), an ETF that holds Wall Street bank stocks such as JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM), Bank of America (NYSE:BAC),Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC), Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) and Citigroup (NYSE:C), is down 22% in the year-to-date.

Related: Stocks To Watch As Shale Bounces Back

BLK is the only large Wall Street investment firm still in the green in the ongoing market rout while the six Wall Street banks are languishing in the red.

Source: CNN Money

Wall Street mega-banks are lagging behind by a country mile. Last year, Goldman Sachs became the first big U.S. bank to rule out financing new oil exploration or drilling in the Arctic, as well as new thermal coal mines anywhere in the world.

But thats far from adequate remediation in the eyes of shareholders.

Indeed, Wall Street banks have together conducted fossil fuel financing to the tune of more than half a trillion dollars since the ratification of the Paris climate accord in 2015.

Source: Washington Post

Socially Conscious Investing

BlackRock has invested nearly $2 trillion in more than 800 product offerings across a wide range of investment strategies and asset classes. One of its key products is iShares exchange-traded funds, a class of ETFs that has lately become a big hit with the investing universe thanks to its flexibility and low costs.

In April, BlackRock announced that its iShares portfolio had recorded $13.8 billion in net inflows during the first quarter, a remarkable feat considering that the broader market benchmark S&P 500 lost 16% over the timeframe. iShares now boast $1.85 trillion in assets under management (AUM), representing nearly 30% of BlackRocks $6.47 trillion in total assets.

Another big reason why BlackRock ETFs have become so popular is due to the firms laser-focus on the ESG investment megatrend.

A decade ago, green investing was largely associated with a warm moral glow but was hardly regarded as part of mainstream investing. However, that has changed dramatically over the past few years thanks to increasing climate awareness, investors demanding socially and environmentally conscious options, and a growing shift in policy even by banks themselves.

Related: Deja Vu: OPEC's Recurring Oil Production Dilemma



Indeed, ESG investing is no longer a nice-to-have but a must-have in the hedge fund industry.

As per ETFGI data, ESG ETFs now represent $52 billion of the $6 trillion AUM for the global ETF market. A 2020 Global ETF Investor Survey found that 74% of global investors plan to increase their ESG allocations over the next year.

BlackRock has become a trailblazer in the space, and has pledged to increase its ESG portfolio from $90 billion in 2019 to more than a trillion dollars by the end of the decade. After years of what critics considered prevarication and greenwashing, BlackRock now appears desperate to be seen as the kingpin of the ESG drive, even recently giving in to the demands of Ovintiv (NYSE:OVV) shareholders to get the Canadian oil and gas producer to disclose its plans to meet targets set by the Paris Agreement.

BLK investors are hardly complaining, though.

Bailing out Wall Street

BlackRock has been tapped by the Fed to be the investment manager for investment-grade corporate bonds as well as junk bonds as part of its bailout strategy, in effect, meaning that BlackRock will be buying its own ETFs.

Interestingly, BlackRock is also managing U.S. securities purchases for the Central Bank of Israel.

The Fed has come to the defense of the BlackRock deal, swiftly dismissing the screaming conflict-of-interest thus:

The Manager shall treat BlackRock-sponsored ETFs on the same neutral footing as ETFs sponsored by other entitiesIf the holdings of BlackRock-sponsored ETFs by the Company at any time exceeds or is expected to exceed the then-current market share of BlackRock-sponsored ETFs in the corporate bond ETF market on average (calculated with reference to the most recently ended calendar month), the Manager will notify the Company and consult with the FRBNY, as managing member of the Company, to review the holdings of the Company and implement such adjustments as the FRBNY may direct.

The Fed will use $75 billion of the $454 billion allocated for the CARES Act for its two corporate bond-buying programs.

By Alex Kimani for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Great changes are witnessed in history on rare occasions. 2014 was such a time for India when it saw momentous changes in its political history. At that time, people wanted to get rid of an incapable and corrupt government. This is what drove them to vote the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), led by Narendra Modi, to power.

People generally dont repose enough trust in an incumbent government to vote it back to power a second time. Modi is one of the few leaders in Indian history to have been voted in successively, and with an even greater mandate, to office. While the 2014 mandate was for change, the 2019 one was a clear indication of the peoples acceptance and trust in the changes that were brought by his government. However, when people put such faith in any political leader, the challenge he faces in fulfilling their aspirations and expectations is huge. This requires a substantial degree of political credibility. But in 2019, when the BJP government came to power again, Prime Minister (PM) Modi took several decisions in a courageous and determined manner to fulfil the promises made, something which has remained the ideological foundation of the party.

In doing so over the last one year, Modi has enhanced his credibility and that of the BJP. In fact, the last year can be considered a milestone from the credibility perspective for politics. Whatever ones political ideology, on this count, the political fraternity should acknowledge Modi s contribution.

Also read: The PM must support workers, encourage rural economy, revive industry | Opinion

The abrogation of Article 370, the abolition of triple talaq, amendments in the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and paving the way for the construction of a temple at the Ram Janmabhoomi site in Ayodhya makes the year memorable on many counts  social, political and constitutional. Muslims women have long been victims of the practice of talaq-e-biddat, which makes it easy for a husband to divorce his wife by uttering a few words. They do not have to fear this now. In fact, the abolition of this practice has given Muslim women their self-respect back. After the Supreme Court judgment on Ram Janmabhoomi , the degree of peace and amity that was seen across the country, counts, in my view, as a seminal achievement of the Modi government in the last one year. Our political ideology is based on Rams ideals of Ram Rajya, which enjoins upon everyone to live in peace while practising their own religions.

While Modi tried to reverse the crisis of credibility in politics, the Opposition parties did the opposite when on the issue of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act or CAA, they issued hostile statements. The states ruled by them passed resolutions and sullied the issue. India is a secular nation, and being a global power, it is our constitutional duty to help those people who suffer from religious persecutions in our neighbourhood. Amending CAA to give citizenship to the persecuted religious minorities, is, I feel, an unprecedented step in the history of secularism. But vested political interests tried to create baseless misconceptions among the Muslim community.

The first year of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA)-2 government saw more assistance for farmers, better working conditions for labourers, small shop owners and other micro, medium and small enterprises, and assured pension for the elderly.

Also read | Modi 2.0: Successes, defects and a challenge

As defence minister, the first thing that I wanted was to create the office of the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), which had been pending and could facilitate better coordination among the forces. On August 15, 2019, the PM, in his address to the nation from the Red Fort, announced the creation of the post of CDS. In NDA-1, the government resolved the one- rank one-pension issue.

In order to make India self-reliant in security terms, the thrust was on domestic production of defence equipment, the indigenous manufacture of guns and rifles with private sector participation, the corporatisation of the Ordnance Factory Board, ensuring the delivery of the state-of-the-art Rafale fighter plane from France and the induction of the indigenously-built fighter jet Tejas into the Indian Air Force. I have flown in both these jet fighters and am proud of Indias defence achievements over the last year.

Today, as the world faces the greatest threat in recent history to mankind, the coronavirus pandemic, the PM has displayed both vigilance and competence in fighting this by imposing a strict lockdown at the right time. Today, migrant workers and farmers are going through very difficult challenges. But the government has acted with utmost sensitivity and that is commendable. From ensuring the direct transfer of money into the accounts of poor people and providing them free food grains, to taking inputs from not only politicians but all sections of society, the PM has set the bar for efficient administration very high.

Modi displayed his capability for turning challenges into opportunities by implementing, over the last year, several decisions such as allowing farmers to sell their crops anywhere; introducing a one-nation one-ration card system for labourers; changing the definition of small and medium enterprises; and developing India as a major repair maintenance and overhauling hub for aircraft. The effects of all this will be seen in the decades to come.

This is the centenary year of the death anniversary of Lokmanya Tilak. He raised the slogan of complete independence for India. Given the kind of work that Modi has undertaken in the service of the nation, it can be said with confidence that the Swarajya dream of Tilak at the beginning of the 20th century will most likely be achieved by the third decade of the 21st century.

Rajnath Singh is Union defence minister

The views expressed are personal
NEW DELHI: While not denying that more than 200 healthcare workers have been infected by Covid-19, the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences said 95 per cent of the staff who tested positive did not have any evidence of transmission from the patient care activities.

Of these, a large majority came from containment zones. Training has been imparted to all cadres of staff in infection control practices in (the) context of Covid. This supplemented the ongoing in-service training programme in infection control, AIIMS said in rejoinder to a The New Indian Express news report.

The institute also claimed that it had been issuing appropriate personal protective equipment, including N95 masks, biosafety coveralls etc. in all patient care and support areas to all healthcare workers irrespective of the cadre or mode of engagement.

Dr Srinivas Rajkumar T, who was the general secretary of the Resident Doctors Association, had told this newspaper that poor quality N95 masks and the apathy of the administration were the reasons behind AIIMS employees getting infected.
live bse live

nse live Volume Todays L/H More 

The market will be factoring the weakness in March quarter results which will come in H1 FY21 and so I do not see any reason for the rally, I believe Nifty50 should be rangebound between 9,000-10,000," Sumit Bilgaiyan, Founder at Equity99 said in an interview to Moneycontrol's Sunil Shankar Matkar.

edited excerpts:

Q: The market snapped the three-week losing streak and climbed 6 percent this week.How do you see June panning out? Can Nifty surpass 10,000?

The ground reality in India has been quite divergent. The business has been badly disrupted and operations have been stalled and recovery of these businesses will not be V-shaped, it will take a good amount of time for these to recover. Majority of the Q4 FY20 results will be coming in June 2020 as the deadline is June 30, but these results will not be that bad as lockdown started on March 24. The market will be factoring the weakness in results which will come in H1 FY21 and so I do not see any reason for the markets to rally, I believe Nifty50 should be rangebound between 9,000-10,000.

Q: Bank Nifty rallied nearly 12 percent in the week ended May 29. Do you expect the uptrend to continue in June as well?

There is no definite reason for Bank Nifty to rally in June. Unlike the manufacturing/industrial companies for which we can say worst is over as lockdowns have started easing in various parts of the country, Banks/NBFCs the worst will be seen over the coming 1-2 years in the form of NPAs/bankruptcies as many businesses will be failing.

Q: Do you think the market rally was because of expectations of another stimulus package for demand revival? Do you expect the demand revival package to be announced soon?

No, I do not believe that markets would have rallied on expectations of another stimulus package, as market participants are well aware that the government will not be able to take a bigger fiscal deficit. Although, I expect a revival package for the most affected sectors like aviation, hotels, restaurants, tourism, malls/cinemas, tourism.

Q: What are the top five stocks you'll recommend?

VIP Industries: Enhanced product mix and focus on product designs over utility will aid growth. It is a niche company in travel-related industries which will have a long runway for growth. It has shown stellar RoCE/RoE performance over the last decade. It is currently trading at 22x trailing EPS which is considerably lower than pre-COVID valuations.

Ashok Leyland: We expect revenue growth to rebound in FY22 on the back of a revival in the commercial vehicle cycle. We expect cash accruals to improve, led by a strong volume uptick in FY22, an improvement in EBITDA margin, better product mix and operating leverages. Ashok Leyland will be facing a sharp drop in volumes in FY21. Historically, commercial vehicles cycle has seen a 2-year bearish period followed by a 3-4-year bullish period. It is currently trading at 12x trailing EPS which gives a significant margin of safety to the investor.

Crompton Greaves: The company has made significant efforts in branding, premiumisation and product innovation which are driving growth under the new management. It is looking to increase its distribution reach by 50-60 percent. It is one of the best-performing companies in the consumer durables space, also a mass premium brand which is best suited for India.

Bharti Airtel: Bharti Airtel is one of the top telecom players in India, and is currently in an oligopolistic market with only rivals Jio and Vodafone Idea. The barriers to entry are extremely high in this industry, and the pricing power has come back with the players due to consolidation over the last decade. Mobile revenues would benefit from a steep tariff hike of 20-40 percent taken across prepaid plans with effect from December 4, 2019. We believe it would be the best stock to hold to play the digitalisation theme in India.

Prince Pipes: Prince Pipes is the fifth largest pipe players in India with a market share of 5 percent in a Rs 30,000 crore industry. It has created a good brand image in recent years and also has a robust distribution network (1,408 distributors) comparable to the market leader. It has manufacturing plants spread across India which helps it to reach all the markets, also it is planning to add a new plant in Telangana from the IPO proceeds which will fuel further growth in East and South India markets. Currently, it is trading at 8x trailing EPS (60 percent below IPO valuation), which makes it a compelling buy.

Q: What would be key triggers to look at in June and what should be one's strategy?

Positive triggers could be the re-opening of various parts of the country amid easing of lockdown, better pickup in demand in various sectors, the stimulus package for the most affected sectors.

Negative triggers could be an extension of lockdown in major cities of India, a sharp increase in the number of COVID-19 cases and sluggish demand revival in the opened areas. One's strategy should be a bottom-up approach, and one should focus on the stocks he wants to buy rather than the broader market. One can also choose to do a weekly SIP on the stock that he wants to buy but is afraid of sharp market corrections.

Q: Reliance Industries Rights Entitlement has closed for trading now. What should be the next, and what could be the listing price on June 12, and what is the strategy one should consider once the RIL partly paid up rights shares list on June 12?

It is the first time that shareholders received Rights Entitlement in their demat accounts which are available for trading. Reliance Industries has done a rights issue in the ratio of 1:15 i.e. one share allowed per 15 shares held.

As May 29 was the last day of trading, the shareholder having Rights Entitlement in his/her account on June 2 will be eligible for partly paid-up rights shares and the payment of the first instalment of Rs 314.25 has to be done by June 3. Shareholders who paid the first instalment will get partly paid-up rights shares in their account by June 11 and these shares will be listed on exchanges on June 12. The second instalment of Rs 314.25 will be due in May 2021 and the last instalment of Rs 628.50 in November 2021.

Disclaimer: The views and investment tips expressed by investment expert on Moneycontrol.com are his own and not that of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.

"Reliance Industries Ltd. is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd which publishes Moneycontrol."
Theme parks will begin opening across central Florida this week, but Walt Disney (NYSE:DIS) is going to sit this round out. Disney World is waiting until July 11 to start a phased restart of its gated attractions, a month after the last of its smaller rivals gets its turnstiles clicking again.

Disney was always going to be the one to let the process play out slowly, especially with all eyes on Florida as it starts to loosen the state's lockdown strings. However, ever since it submitted its now governor-approved plans to get going again, it seems as if all of the details of how Disney World will reopen to guests this summer will make the entire experience less than ideal.

A whole new world

Shanghai Disneyland has now been open for nearly three weeks, and a lot of the new practices that Disney instituted there will be ported to Disney World. There will be temperature checks on the way in, and anyone older than two years of age will be required to wear a mask at all times, except for when they are dining. There will be no parades, fireworks, or up-close meet-and-greet character stations.

Disney World has gone on to confirm that it will not offer character meals, a signature experience where guests dine as costumed characters make their rounds visiting tables. It has also cancelled all FastPass+ and dining reservations through the end of the year, and for now it's eliminating the Extra Magic Hours perk it offers guests staying at one of its on-site resort hotels with additional ride time before or after a select park is available to day guests.

The news is grim, and folks do not yet know how bad Disney limiting capacity and requiring guests to make reservations just to visit a single park will be in reality.

Lines aren't necessarily shorter at Shanghai Disneyland, despite capping crowd levels at 30% of the park's capacity of 80,000 visitors. Social distancing is being practiced on rides and the limited number of shows that are available. That, along with ramped-up cleaning efforts, translates into reduced hourly throughput at the attractions. Shanghai Disneyland is able to see some live performances that take place on raised stages, but have to remain in tight taped-off squares to stay away from other visitors. Park employees are actively enforcing compliance.

All of this makes a day at Disney seem more like work than vacation. There's always the hope that trends will improve and Disney will relax the trends sooner rather than later, but who are we kidding here? Mainland China has been reporting new daily cases in the single digits over the past week, and Shanghai Disneyland is not any closer to replacing the new normal with the old magic.

However, don't dismiss Disney's chances for delivering on the kind of special experiences that have made it the world's leading theme park operator.

Out at Disney Springs -- the shopping and dining complex that became the first Disney World business to reopen last week -- the media giant is surprising guests in unique ways. It's selling its iconic Mickey Mouse balloons, giving guests a taste of the theme park experience. Above a storefront balcony, First Order Stormtroopers bark out social distancing safeguards as guests stroll the shops below. There are creature comforts in the calamity. There's magic in the disruption.

You can bet your last churro dollar that Disney will make sure it's not peddling a bad product this summer. It already knows that this is not a time to maximize profitability. No one is going to pay up for on-ride photo packages with guests rolling down a coaster hill wearing a face covering. Classic high-margin concessions will be kept in check to avoid tempting patrons into walking around without a mask as they sip soft drinks and devour Mickey-shaped ice cream bars. Many of the measures already announced will devalue the premium folks pay to stay at a Disney-owned hotels.

Now let's see how this all plays out come mid-July. Disney knows that guests will be frustrated donning masks in the summer humidity and learning the process of snaking through spaced-out queues with what will probably result in longer-than-expected wait times, even with virtual queues.

Allowing all of its rivals to open first may help establish the tone for theme park buffs, but Disney is going to take a few extra steps that will make everything a bit more inconvenient. It's not as if the House of Mouse has a choice here. Its reputation has a longer way down to fall if it fumbles the restart after this historic shutdown.

Give this blue chip stock a chance to prove to you that it's got this under control. If it can pull off Stormtroopers and helium Mickey balloons in a free outdoor shopping mall, one can only imagine what it has up its sleeve to make visitors have more than horror stories to tell when they return home.
Confirmed cases of coronavirus have passed 6 million globally.

The Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Research Centre reported on Saturday evening.

Over 367,000 people have died from the disease worldwide.

The United States is the worst-hit country with over 1.8 million cases and about 105, 000 deaths so far.

Brazil has almost 500,000 cases with almost 29,000 deaths while Russia has almost 400,000 cases with 4,555 people dying from the disease.

The United Kingdom has about 273,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with over 38,000 deaths.

Ghana confirmed its 35th COVID-19 death earlier on Saturday and a new total of 7,768.

2,540 people have, however, recovered from the disease , the figures from Ghanas Health Service indicate.

A number of countries have already began easing restrictions that were put in place once the disease had been upgraded to pandemic status by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Its expected that Ghana will follow this route as well with the President, Nana Akufo-Addo expected to lower some restrictions that had been announced to curb the spread.

Already the lockdown that was imposed in March was lifted after three weeks while markets and businesses were allowed to reopen on condition that they adhere to outlined safety precautions.

However, new waves of coronavirus cases have been recorded in some countries that eased restrictions leading to fears that a surge of cases might be recorded is precautions arent taken.

In the US in particular, recent protests over the killing of an African American man, George Floyd after his neck was kneeled on by a police officer have sparked concerns after a significant rise in the number of cases.

---citinewsroom
Every now and again, I just have to share a potential idea; this column is one of those times. It is during times of crisis that some of the greatest innovations, inventions, movements and opportunities present themselves. Could the current Covid-19 crisis present what might be a defining moment for your community?

What the current crisis has taught us is that change is coming whether we are prepared for it or not. While we may not yet know the extent of each of these changes, we do know it will alter the landscape of our business community. Some businesses will adapt and flourish, others will fail to adapt and be lost. Every locally owned and operated business closing their doors in your community is a small piece of your local identity that is lost forever.

Communities embracing the coming changes will have a unique opportunity that this current crisis presents. What is that opportunity you ask? The opportunity is turning your community into an innovation or entrepreneur hotspot, while at the same time, building a completely new revenue stream for the city.

The process really isnt difficult, nor does it cost much. Most small or midsized communities have vacant or under used buildings and/or office space. The community should take one of these vacant buildings and devote the space to a local Innovation Center. This new facility would assist local entrepreneurs, both young and old, build their dreams. The city should even agree to cover the expenses of the utilities, waive the real estate taxes and even offer some basic maintenance. These items would cost the city very little in actual real dollars.

Once this space is ready, the city should work with a local internet and phone provider to provide no or low cost high-speed wireless internet and phone service. This is one area where you cant cut corners, technology minded entrepreneurs with great ideas need access to the entire world, not just your community. Unlike years past, the opportunity to tap into specialized expertise is no longer just a local requirement. As Covid-19 has shown, with millions now working from home, the world is now your playground, take advantage of this.

Work with local organizations such as the Chamber, Main Street organization and media companies to build a network of retired professionals. Every community has a host of successful business professionals, accountants, lawyers, entrepreneurs and others willing to assist and mentor young and aggressive business owners.

If you want the project to really gather steam fast, work with the local schools, either high schools or colleges, or both, offering scholarship opportunities for students. Have some fun with it as well. Create a Shark Tank type contest for local students and other innovators within the community where they pitch their ideas to a local team made up of some of the brightest business minds in the area. Work with local government, residents, foundations and philanthropists to create a pool of funds to assist the start-ups in addition to the Innovation Center.

What is in it for the community? The community can hold an equity stake in any of the new businesses spun off from this project. The communitys percentage or equity stake can be based on the businesss local presence, the number of local hires and other parameters that might make sense.

This is a project any community can embark on without major expenses. It is a project that sends a message to those in the community that you are open for business. Projects of this nature help retain those younger entrepreneurs that might normally leave for what they perceive as greener pastures on the other side of the fence.

Now is NOT the time for communities to wait for the economic game to come to you; it may never come. Now is the time to take calculated (and low cost) chances on your residents. Who knows, we have a whole new generation of up and coming entrepreneurs, many in our communities that thirst for opportunities. Instill the opportunity in these local entrepreneurs which in turn will create new jobs and revenue opportunities for the community. Who knows, your community might be the home of the next Uber, Facebook, Groupon and the list goes on. By doing nothing, the outcome is already given; by being bold, the sky is the limit - Be bold!

John A. Newby, author of the "Building Main Street, Not Wall Street " national column dedicated to helping communities and local media companies combine synergies that allow them to not just survive, but thrive in a world where truly local is lost to Amazon, Wall Street chains and others. His email at: john@360MediaAlliance.net.
An entrepreneur who was rejected from almost 100 jobs has opened up on the lightbulb moment that sparked his thriving $8million business.

Luke Maguire barely passed his business degree at Bond University in Queensland, finishing in 2010 with a $100,000 debt and no job prospects.

The 20-year-old graduate was knocked back from all the marketing jobs he applied for, including one handing out Red Bull cans.

Luke Maguire barely passed his business degree at Bond University in Queensland, finishing in 2010 with a $100,000 debt and no job prospects

'I remember thinking if I was denied that job, nothing good was going to happen for me,' he told news.com.au.

After landing a temporary job parking cars at rugby league games and being 'treated like rubbish' by wealthy customers, Mr Maguire realised he needed to turn his life around.

One of his favourite subjects at university had been internet marketing.

While the idea of social media marketing tools were still in primitive stages at the time, the budding businessman had a hunch it would take off.

One of Luke Maguire's favourite subjects at university had been internet marketing (pictured with his partner Allira

'I decided to go out to local businesses and tell them they needed to be on Facebook  again I got rejected so many times being told "Facebook is for kids" which is quite ironic looking back,' he wrote on his website.

He finally landed two clients and set up Social Media Mansion - one of Australia's first social media marketing agencies.

'I was learning as I was going and I wasn't an expert  I was just doing something nobody else was, and slowly and surely businesses realised they needed social media,' he said.

As his list of clients grew, Mr Maguire saw gaps in the market.

He learned he didn't like posting social media content at all hours of the day because scheduling tools didn't exist, so he set about finding a solution.

'This is where I had my "ah-ha" moment,' he wrote.

'If I was facing this problem, no doubt many others were also. So I decided to look into how to create software solutions to do so.'

He finally landed two clients and set up Social Media Mansion - one of Australia's first social media marketing agencies - in his graduating year

The business owner reached out to a marketing company in the US and asked to be mentored.

Instead, they offered to teach him how to create and sell online solution packages at a cost of $30,000 and a percentage of the idea.

To make it happen, he sold his car and TV, moved back in with his parents and worked every day for the next five months.

In 2015, the Instagram scheduling tool Instamate was launched and made $1million in its first week.

'It was an amazing number and I never thought I'd earn it in my life  it was a big turning point and very quickly opened my mind to what was possible online,' Mr Maguire told the publication.

He developed a series of additional online solution packages and was making millions by his mid-20s.

Mr Maguire, who is now 30, makes $5million per year - a figure set to rise to $8million this year.

He has now travelled the world speaking at major business events.
Unprecedented crises such as the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pose huge challenges not just to the socio-economic fabric of the country but also to the quality of leadership. At moments like this, it is important that the central leadership in India is able to work in collaboration with states as well as global leaders. To Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modis credit, he has built up strong ties with world leaders, especially United States (US) President Donald Trump. On February 25, Modi hosted Trump and his family at Hyderabad House for lunch. In a reflection of the warmth and the cordiality that marked the event, talks between the two leaders and delegations went on for so long that US embassy officials had to step in to remind the guests that they had to leave for the next destination.

Among those present were top industrialists and dignitaries from both countries. Even when others began to leave, albeit reluctantly, Modi and Trump continued their discussions. Many noted that this sort of warm relationship between an Indian PM and a US President was rare, in fact, unprecedented.

Also read: Leading India to full independence, writes Rajnath Singh

But, there were already dark clouds on the horizon. A few kilometres from Hyderabad House, the government was struggling to control a terrifying communal riot that had got India much negative press across the world and tarnished its image to some extent. To add to this violence was the fact that a grave economic crisis was upon us. And then, Covid-19 began its lethal spread across the world, creating what is one of the biggest tragedies the world has faced in the past century.

This then is the time for Modi to take hard, perhaps even unpopular, decisions. He is often compared with the imperious Indira Gandhi. There are some similarities between the two leaders. Gandhi had total control of her party and the government, and so does Modi. She could take hard decisions and so does he. She was able to win over friends on the international circuit and he has been able to do so too. Both were backed by a commanding poll mandate.

Over the last six years, Modi has been firm in executing his decisions,. He started his second term with controversial decisions on issues such as the triple talaq law, striking down Article 370, and introducing the Citizenship (Amendment) Act. He had just begun on big ticket economic reforms when the pandemic swept through the country. Now, the question is whether he will be able to handle this successfully and get the economy back on track.

Also read | From petrol price, new trains and flights: What will change in lockdown 5.0

Millions of migrant workers have returned home. They have no jobs, no food security and little hope for the future at the moment. He has to instil confidence in them, kickstart the rural economy and oversee a revival of the industrial sector. All this requires enormous leadership skills.

The fifth phase of the lockdown has begun. The earlier lockdowns have not been able to stop the pandemic, but they have brought time to mitigate its effects. A number of financial institutions have predicted that the economy will contract, and Reserve Bank of Indias governor seems to be of the same opinion.

Let us look to the past to see if there are lessons for the future. In 1965 when India was attacked by Pakistan, then PM Lal Bahadur Shastri formulated viable agricultural policies. He evaluated central planning and price control policies. In August 1965, he told Parliament that the government would lift many economic restrictions. He even wanted to devalue the currency, but his finance minister TT Krishnamachari stood in the way. But, unfortunately, Shastri passed away after this. His successor Indira Gandhi continued with his policies; she devalued the rupee in 1966. She pushed ahead with bank nationalisation and the abolition of privy purses.

The green revolution and the increase in industrialisation are the products of that era. All this helped her to deal with the drought of 1967. Again in 1979, during the Janata Party regime, GDP contracted. When Gandhi came back to power in 1980, she brought in a new industrial policy but also formed committees for trade and financial reforms. The role of the private sector was enlarged, though the government couched this in socialist jargon.

Testing times bring out the best and boldest in leaders. Modi does not have a family lineage like Indira Gandhi did, nor is he an accidental PM like PV Narasimha Rao or Manmohan Singh. Like his predecessors, he will have to navigate his way around many crises, the most severe of which confronts us today. He is not one to shy away from taking difficult decisions. Now, the PM has written a letter to his countrymen, with an appeal to unite. Trust generated by dialogue with common man was always his strength, now he is going to fight this battle with it.

Shashi Shekhar is the editor-in-chief, Hindustan

The views expressed are personal
NORTH KOREA- The large object captured on May 27 by Planet Labs' satellite imagery on Sinpo South Shipyard remains mysterious of what its purpose and what it actually is.

On May 29's article posted on the 38 North website, which is a site dedicated to exposing security matters connected to the Hermit State, Analysts Petet Makowsky and Jack Liu flagged the discovery.

According to the report, the latest updates suggest that the intelligence group of South Korea nearly monitors North Korea's activities at the Sinpo South Shipyard due to a suspected new ballistic missile submarine launch.

Despite the images taken by Planet Labs, no signs of any activity have been observed using commercial satellite imagery at the construction even in its associated parts yard.

However based on the report, the awning at the secure boat basin blocks confirmation if it what is berthed there is indeed a submarine or not, parts of the submersible barge are still visible

Moreover, Express UK also reported, that there is an approximately 16-meter long linear object situated on the quay, and possible that it is on a dolly but its purpose remains unknown as there is no equipment or vehicles surrounding it.

The last month's subject with a serious medical condition, Kim now is at the center of another terrorism issue as the images prompted that Kim is gearing up for another missile test, regardless of the global health crisis.

It also supports the report published on Sunday by KCNA, which is a state news agency, that suggests he presided a meeting that focuses on increasing North Korea's Nuclear War deterrence.

Read also: Pentagon Plans to Protect America From Ballistic Missiles, Sets Up Plan B for Assurance

The state news agency also mentioned that crucial measures were taken to increase considerably the firepower strike ability of the Korean People's Army's artillery.

KCNA also added that the Central Military Commission considered putting the strategic armed forces into high alert operation in accordance with the nation's building and development of the armed forces.

No specific date was mentioned but it is the first appearance of Kim which happened this month since his disappearance.

Kim's appearance was imminent because it scotches the circulating rumors regarding the possible Kim's death or his vegetative state after his surgery, but despite the evidence, experts suggest that there is no way to verify as to when the footage was taken.

According to Korea Times, earlier this month, Research Fellow in the Proliferation and Nuclear Policy group, Royal United Services Institute which is a London-based group, Cristina Varriale published an analysis suggesting that North Korea's current actions purposely stall bilateral talks with the US and President Donald Trump, which aims to denuclearise North Korea for strategic reasons.

Varriale pointed out that the Hermit State made a strategic decision in waiting to talk about its new policy approach until it is ready to present the fresh strategic capability that the 36-year-old dictator announced will be exhibited this year.

She also added that the approach can be part of a larger package of change as she sighted that the strategy also intends watchers to focus on North Korea while they are enhancing the nuclear capabilities in Pyongyang.

Related article: Husband and Wife Executed By Firing Squad While Trying to Escape North Korea

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
500 National Guard Personnel will Join the LAPD to Protect the Community from Violence and Looting

Mayor Garcetti updated Los Angeles on safety measures taken due to the rise in violence amid the George Floyd protests. There is concern of public protection, there is call for action from the mayor. Garcetti elaborated on the significance of peaceful protests. According to Garcetti, progression will come through peace. Those who attended the protest on Saturday, May 30, stated it began peacefully, but as night fell the rioting and violence began to peak. Mayor Garcetti confirmed the protest started off with no issues but as the sun began to set, the images seen were the ugliest in a generation.

City Patrol worked throughout last night, trying to calm the city streets from the havoc it was facing. Some cops ended up physically injured, but the mayor stated that the risk of danger is not new to the L.A. Police Force. Garcetti acknowledge thoughts of the system being racist and rigged against a certain people of color. The Los Angeles City Mayor touched on how the riots has hindered the recovery for small businesses and progress made amid the COVID-19 pandemic. He stated the violence and looting is clouding the message peaceful protesters are trying to convey. City leadership is developing plans to clean up the streets and provide a safe space for peaceful freedom fighters to stand for their beliefs.

Restoring the peace and finding the common ground are the principles Los Angeles Leaderships is standing on. Public officials are looking to tap into all existing resources to protect the city, starting with a citywide curfew. From 8pm-5:30am the city is under a strict surveillance, making sure businesses and events are closed during those times. Law enforcement across the state came to aid LAPD and based off the conversation with the California State Governor the mayor had the opportunity to call in the National Guard. He accepted the help from the national guard and declared the riots a state emergency. 500 National Guard Personnel will be in L.A. to back up law enforcement, the L.A. Chief Police spoke more about what role they will play.

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L.A. Police Chief Michael Moore summarized the details of the protests that happened this weekend; as night fell there was violence against officers, cars and busses were on fire. Hours after the protests broke up, there were expressions of destruction. Tactics and strategies are geared to maintain order, further measures have been taken to gain control over the violence happening across the city. National Guard arrived hours after the request on Saturday night, they will join the Los Angeles Police and be engaged in the community and be stationed on foot at locations to safeguard certain businesses. The National Guard is planning to stay as long as they are needed.

City infrastructures were interrupted because of the violence seen in the streets. The testing sites were closed early yesterday due to rioting, Mayor Garcetti stated volunteers were not feeling safe enough to work. Some COVID-19 testing sites will remain closed on Monday, June 1, but the largest testing location at the Dodger Stadium will remain open. Brought on by request of LAPD, Dash and Metro busses were taken off route last night, people were stranded throughout the city. Some Dash routes have resumed on Sunday and all of Metro is up and running.

The rage must not consume us, it must not be turned back on us. We know it is only with peace that progress will follow. We must not allow any who feast off of chaos, who hunger for division who want to replace peaceful protest with images of a nation coming apart; we must not let them win. The mayor stated black lives matter and people from every ethnicity are confirming that message, Garcetti ensured the protest yesterday had the intention of being organized and peaceful. He declared as long as he is in office, he will lead the entire city government to protect the right to be heard. The mayor is calling for a peaceful and safe expression of those rights. Garcetti explained that the small percentage of people who are causing destruction, are hi-jacking a moment and movement and re-directing the focus away from the cause.
Legal team of George Floyds family asks for his body after coroner raises doubts about suffocation as cause of death.

The family lawyers of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man who died in US police custody, have requested his body for an independent autopsy after the county coroner raised doubts about suffocation as the cause of death.

The 46-year-old died on Monday after Derek Chauvin, a white officer in Minneapolis, pinned his neck down to the ground with his knee for nearly nine minutes. His death has sparked protests demanding justice across the United States.

The Hennepin County medical examiner said the combined effects of being restrained, potential intoxicants in the 46-year-olds system and his underlying health issues, including heart disease, likely contributed to his death. It revealed nothing to support strangulation as the cause of death.

There were no other details about intoxicants, and toxicology results can take weeks.

In response to the preliminary autopsy findings, Benjamin Crump, one of the lawyers representing Floyds family, said the legal team would hire Michael Baden, the former chief medical examiner of New York City, to do the independent autopsy.

Baden had also been retained to do an autopsy for Eric Garner, a Black man who died in 2014 after New York police placed him in a chokehold and he pleaded that he could not breathe.

AUTOPSY STATEMENT: The legal team representing the family of George Floyd has issued the following statement related to the preliminary autopsy findings by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner. #GeorgeFloyd #SayHisName #JusticeForGeorgeFloyd #JusticeForGeorge #JusticeForFloyd pic.twitter.com/2szasXwiz8  Ben Crump (@AttorneyCrump) May 30, 2020

Crump said the preliminary findings were part of a pattern also seen in previous cases of deaths at the hands of police.

We saw in the Eric Garner case, and so many other cases where they have people who work with the city workers come up with things that are such an illusion  he had asthma, he had a heart condition  all these things that are irrelevant when they were living, breathing, walking, talking, just fine until the police accosted them, Crump said.

A bystander video of Mondays incident shows Floyd pleading for help, repeatedly saying: I cant breathe.

Floyd eventually goes motionless, and Chauvin continues to kneel on Floyds neck for nearly three minutes despite appeals by bystanders to get off of him, according to court documents.

The four officers involved, including Chauvin, were fired on Tuesday. Chauvin was arrested and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter on Friday, more than three days after the incident.
Beijing/Hong Kong: The promulgation of new security law for Hong Kong by China has resulted in a sharp increase in inquiries for immigration from the former British colony especially the citys residents who emigrated en masse there when it returned to the Chinese control in 1997.

Immigration consultants have fielded hundreds of new calls since Chinas legislature - the National Peoples Congress (NPC) - unveiled the controversial plan on May 21, bypassing the local legislature, Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported on Sunday.

The legislation was subsequently approved by the NPC, much on the expected lines with an overwhelming majority on May 28, prompting US President Donald Trump to order the removal of exemptions that gave Hong Kong special status.

Trump said on Saturday that Hong Kong has no longer sufficiently autonomous from China to enjoy the special privileges with the US, in place since it left the British control in 1997.

The new law under which China can establish the presence of its security forces in Hong Kong for the first-time evoked strong protests from thousands of local people. The protests were expected to be intensified in the coming weeks.

China says the new law is aimed at throttling secession, subversion, terrorism, foreign interference or activities that threaten national security.

With Hong Kong now becoming the centre of the emerging Cold War between the US and China, a number of local people especially the citys rich are looking to migrate to different countries.

Some are accelerating their decision to buy property overseas, while others are cutting their asking price for local properties, immigration consultancy firms in Hong Kong said.

"The day after that proposal, we received over a hundred calls," said Andrew Lo, chief executive at Anlex, a Hong Kong-based immigration consultancy firm. People are restless. They ask if they can leave the next day," he told the Post.

Requests for emigration advice have jumped as a result, breaking a lull caused by the coronavirus pandemic, according to Midland Immigration Consultancy.

While the latest number in applications for good citizenship is not yet available, analysts expect them to rise with political temperature, the report said.

"People who were just engaging us on basic information before are now firmly committing by putting down deposits," Gillott said, citing one customer who asked to move his millions and millions of dollars" to Portugal. Never seen that before."

The political factor has encouraged some high-net-worth individuals  defined as those having more than HKD 10 million (USD 1.29 million) of wealth  to diversify their assets into other cities like London, Singapore and Taiwan.

Taiwan, which is having a stormy relationship with China as Beijing claims the territory to be part of the Chinese mainland, is an attractive destination for many seeking to flee the turmoil in Hong Kong. The self-ruling island allows foreigners to gain citizenship with USD 199,680 in investments in a business that hires local staff.

Almost 2,400 Hongkongers filed residency applications for Taiwan from January to April this year, compared to 948 last year in the same period, said Midlands director of strategy Tina Cheng, citing government data.

In all, 5,585 people left Hong Kong for Taiwan in 2019, an increase of 41 per cent, the government said.

Despite the interest in Taiwan, the top destinations remain English-speaking countries such as Ireland, Canada, and Australia.

A common language, quality educational systems, and professional opportunities are some reasons those countries are attractive, said John Hu, who has been involved in the migration consultancy business for two decades.

"Were seeing a four to fivefold increase in cases," said Hu, founder and principal consultant of John Hu Migration Consulting. Now they see the urgency. They ask the question, which type of visa has the shortest processing time?"

Some homeowners are selling their properties to fund their emigration plans. One flat measuring 785 square feet at The Waterside in Ma On Shan this week changed hands at HKD 9.99 million, about HKD 150,000 below bank valuation, as the owner was in a rush to cash in and emigrate, said Christy Chan, chief senior sales manager at Midland Realty.

Vancouver-based property agent Devons Owens has seen a big demand from Hong Kong buyers, some of whom are Canadian passport holders.

Theres definitely increasing demand," she said. I would say its jumped compared to before."

For those looking to the European Union, Golden Visa Portugal offers a pipeline for passports from property investments. Starting at 350,000 euros, investors can obtain residency and eventually Portuguese citizenship in five years.

This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.

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Mask-clad worshippers flock to Saudi mosques two months after communal prayers were suspended.

Saudi Arabias mosques have opened their doors to worshippers for the first time in more than two months as the kingdom eased restrictions imposed to combat the novel coronavirus.

It is great to feel the mercy of God and once again call people for prayers at mosques instead of at their homes, Abdulmajeed al-Mohaisen, who issues the call to prayer at Al-Rajhi Mosque, one of the largest in the capital Riyadh, told Reuters news agency on Sunday.

Worshippers headed to mosques for dawn prayers amid strict regulations requiring the use of face masks and personal prayer mats, avoiding handshakes and standing at least 2 metres (6.5 feet) apart.

The elderly, children below 15 and people with chronic diseases are not permitted. People must perform the ablution rite, the act of washing the face, arms and legs before prayer, at home.

My eyes filled with tears when I entered the mosque and when I heard the call to prayer. Thank God for this blessing that we are back to the houses of worship, Said Maamoun Bashir, a Syrian resident in Riyadh.

Worshippers rushed to the home of God to perform their obligatory duty (prayers) after the reopening of mosques, the Ministry of Islamic Affairs said on Twitter.

The ministry posted a video showing a mosque with many worshippers wearing face masks and reaching out for a large bottle of hand sanitiser after prayers.

Mosques opened across the country on Sunday except in the holy city of Mecca to curb the spread of the coronavirus [Reuters]

Authorities have asked mosques to avoid crowding and the distribution of food, drinks, incense and miswak twigs used to clean teeth, according to the ministry.

My feelings are indescribable. We are so happy. Thank God we are back in [His] house, Abdulrahman, 45, told AFP news agency at Al-Rajhi Mosque.

All the precautionary measures have been put in place here.

But some took to social media to complain that worshippers in other mosques were not strictly complying with the rules.

I prayed, praise be to God, in the neighbourhood mosque  and it was a beautiful feeling, said one Twitter user.

But I swear to God that some people do not care about anything. No face mask. No rug.

Saudi authorities said earlier this month that restrictions would be lifted in three phases, culminating in a curfew ending on June 21, with the exception of the holy city of Mecca.



The Hajj and Umrah pilgrimages, which attract millions of Muslims from around the world, remain suspended.



The country of some 30 million has reported more than 83,300 infections and 480 deaths from the disease, the highest among the seven Gulf Arab states.
Uttar Pradesh's Prayagraj is getting ready against a possible attack by a swarm of locusts, which has reached the state from Rajasthan. "The swarm of locusts flying from Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, has reached Uttar Pradesh. District authority and state government are prepared to control the attack of locust and have warned people. We have also trained the farmers about how to save their crops," Dr Sunil Kumar Singh, district agriculture officer, Prayagraj, told news agency ANI.

Dausa in Rajasthan, Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh, Chhatarpur district of Madhya Pradesh are the three major regions where the locusts have predominantly attacked. "The swarm of the locust is expected to spoil the crops and trees of the region to a great extent. In the wake of possible locust attack in the city, we have tested the machines and now we are prepared to deal with it," Ajay Kumar Sharma, member of the team preparing to fight the locust attack in Prayagraj, told the news agency.

Also read:Locust attack in India: Local species of grasshoppers, not locusts, damage crops in Tamil Nadu

Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh have already seen damage to standing cotton crops and vegetables due to these migratory pests. Earlier today, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the government is extending all help to the farmers to handle the agriculture crisis - locust infestation - in the country. "The administration is using modern technology to help the farmers against locust attack," Modi said during his radio programme Mann Ki Baat.

What has triggered the locust movement is the large scale breeding of locusts that happened in areas like Iran, Baluchistan and Pakistan. The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations had warned, much in advance, about the spring breeding of desert locusts that continue in southern Iran and southwest Pakistan despite ongoing control operations in those countries.

"As vegetation dries out, more groups and swarms will form and move from these areas to the summer breeding areas along both sides of the Indo-Pakistan border as several waves from now until at least early July. Good rains are predicted during the first half of June along the Indo-Pakistan border that would allow egg-laying to occur. This should reduce the further eastward movement of swarms that have already arrived in Rajasthan, India," the FAO said.

Also read: Locusts attack fear in Delhi, Mumbai: No need to panic, won't enter homes
Canada and four other countries are still trying to pressure Iran to release the flight recorders from a Ukrainian passenger plane shot down in January over Tehran, Transport Minister Marc Garneau says.

As Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737-800 took off from Tehran's Imam Khomeini international airport on January 8, heading for Kyiv, two Islamic Revolution Guards Corps' missiles were fired at the plane which brought it down near the capital city, killing all aboard.

Victims of the crash included 82 Iranians, 63 Canadians, 11 Ukrainians, 10 Swedes, four Afghans, three Germans, and three Britons.

It took Iran's authorities three days to admit that the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps' (IRGC) missiles hit the passenger plane. Most of the passengers were Canadian-Iranians.

"The black boxes are still in Iran and we will continue to put pressure on the Islamic Republic," Canadian Transport Minister Marc Garneau said on Sunday, May 31.

Iran initially insisted that Boeing, an American aircraft manufacturer, or another country provide technical equipment to Iran to decode the black box itself.

Finally, after increasing international pressure, Iran announced on March 11 that it was ready to hand over the black box to Ukraine or a third country within the next two weeks. The plane's black box has not been delivered since.

Meanwhile, the state-run Iran Students News Agency, ISNA, reported on Sunday that in a "new decision" Iran will "probably" send the black boxes of the Ukrainian plane to France.

The report claims that since Kyiv has not yet responded to Tehran's latest offer, Iranian officials have decided to send the black boxes of the plane to another country, possibly France. What offer is referred to remains unclear, but Ukraine is demanding compensation and Iran is not willing to meet Kyivs expectations

Nevertheless, from the early days after the tragedy, Ukraine has repeatedly called on Iran to hand over the flight recorders.

Earlier, on March 11, Canadian Transport Minister, Garneau, was at the Montreal meeting of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) when Iran's representative promised his government would surrender the so-called black boxes to Ukrainian authorities by March 25.

"The boxes are still in Iran and we continue to exert pressure," Garneau said at a government briefing on a video link.

"They said it would be within two weeks. That coincided with the serious onset of COVID-19 in Iran. And they explained that they were not in a position to address that matter at that time."

The contents of flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder are usually critical to crash investigations. Iran doesn't have the technical capabilities to read the black boxes. Based on international regulations, Iran is expected to ask other countries with the proper knowledge and equipment to help.

The tragedy occurred just after Iran launched missiles into Iraq at two American military bases in retaliation for the U.S. having killed the IRGC top General, Qassem Soleimani, days earlier. As Iranian troops were on the alert from a possible U.S. retaliatory strike, the civilian airport remained open and when the Ukrainian plane took off a missile operator fired thinking it was a hostile target.

Clearly Irans air defense command system did not work, which would make senior commanders responsible for the downing of a civilian plane.

Immediately after Iran admitted to shooting down the passenger plane, thousands of people held protest rallies across the country and many were arrested.

Tehran still insists that a "human error" is responsible for shooting down the doomed plane.

Nevertheless, Ukraine has repeatedly demanded punishment for "all" persons, including the Commander-in-Chief of the Islamic Republic Armed forces.

Canadian lawyers for the relatives of the victims of Flight 752 last February filed lawsuits in Canadian courts for $ 1.5 billion compensation (the US $ 1.1 billion).
Hong Kong: 3.75m registered for CuMask

The Innovation & Technology Bureau announced that as of 9pm today, the CuMask online registration system has received over 1.37 million registrations, covering more than 3.75 million registrants in total.

Over 3.23 million masks have been delivered by the Hongkong Post.

The bureau appealed to residents to register before the June 6 online registration deadline.

Those who do not register online may go to designated collection points in person and present their Hong Kong Identity Card to receive the CuMask.

Details and the exact date will be announced later.

This story has been published on: 2020-05-31. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath on Sunday (May 31, 2020) said the first year of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's second term is historic', crediting him with ending the J&K's special status, triple talaq and paving the way for a Ram temple in Ayodhya.

He lauded the BJP-led Union government for taking unprecedented steps' in the interest of every section during the coronavirus crisis.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has translated hollow promises' of the past into a reality, Adityanath said in a video conference.

"The passion he has shown in solving problems, which have been a challenge for the country over the years, is unmatched," said Yog.

The scrapping of Jammu and Kashmir's special status, ending triple talaq and paving a way for the construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya are a proof of this, the chief minister said.

He said the battle being fought under the leadership of the PM Modi against the coronavirus pandemic has 'set an example' for the whole world.

During this lockdown, he did exemplary work by paying maximum attention to the interest of the most-affected sections, Adityanath claimed, highlighting the Rs 20 lakh crore package announced by the Centre to give a fillip to economy activity.

"India has now embarked on the path of self-reliance. Soon, India will become the manufacturing hub of the world," the CM claimed.

Adityanath said when migrants started returning to UP, people thought it would trigger chaos, but they 'considered them as their strength'.

Through the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), Modi has fulfilled India's long-pending dream of providing a dignified life to the oppressed minorities of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, he said.

The practice of triple talaq ended. This protected women's dignity. The inequality that persisted over the centuries came to an end, the chief minister said.

The chief minister said along with the implementation of the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana, many decisions were taken for the prosperity of farmers.

"It is a result of PM Modi's glorious leadership that India got recognition on the world stage during the lockdown," he said.
People walk between buildings at a shopping mall in Beijing on October 18, 2018. (GREG BAKER/AFP via Getty Images)

US Investors Have Increasing Exposure to Chinese Banks, Bad Loans

Chinese companies loyalties often rest with CCP, not their investors

Commentary

U.S. investors have an increasing number of reasons to financially decouple from China.

Fraudulent accounting by a number of Chinese companies and a protracted trade dispute between the United States and China have forced U.S. investors to scrutinize their exposure to Chinese stocks. More recently, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) virus and the Chinese regimes recent proposal of security legislation in Hong Kong have added fuel to the fire.

And last week, an advisory body to U.S. Congress issued a warning over U.S. investors exposure to Chinas precarious banking system.

Its one more reason for investors to reduce their Chinese investment exposure.

Banks

The amount of bad loans on the balance sheets of Chinese banks is worrisome, especially given the growing trend of U.S. savers, pensioners, and retirement accounts owning Chinese stocks, according to a report issued on May 27 by the U.S.China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC).

Calling Chinese banks a source of systemic risk, the report states that unlike U.S. banks, Chinese banks do not have a fiduciary duty to the interests of their investors (owners).

They remain beholden to and supported by the state, the report says. The Communist Party-state retains the ability to intervene decisively in the banking system to achieve desired outcomes.

Specifically, the amount of non-performing loans (NPLs) is concerning. NPLs are loans where the borrowers are not financially viable enough to keep paying interest. Already saddled with NPLs before the CCP virus struck, Chinese banks were mobilized by Beijing authorities to provide new capital to struggling companies during the pandemiceven as existing NPL numbers are spiking.

A decade ago, when the Chinese markets were fairly closed off, such issues were irrelevant for American investors. But today, Chinas problems have become U.S. investors problems. U.S. investors thus have a growing stake in Chinas financial system and all its unattenuated economic and political risks. This is an important issue for policymakers to assess, the USCC report warned.

Chinese companiesincluding many of its banksare part of MSCI and FTSE Russells emerging market and global market indices. Chinese domestic onshore bonds also make up a portion of the widely-followed Bloomberg Barclays Global Aggregate Index. And many popular investment funds are mandated to follow the indices by buying up securities issued by Chinese companies.

This development means U.S. investorsthrough their pension funds, mutual funds, and exchange-traded fundsnow own the stocks of Chinese banks and banking system participants. Put differently, U.S. investors are now on the hook for these bad loans.

Investors: Caveat Emptor

The U.S. administration earlier this month directed the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board to halt its planned investments into Chinese stocks. The Boards Thrift Savings Plan, which has about $41 billion of assets, was planning to follow the constituents of certain MSCI indices, which include Chinese stocks.

But thats only one fund. The government has limited powers to direct individual investors on what to invest inwhich is the way it should be in a democratic, capitalistic system. But it behooves every single U.S. investor to reassess his or her portfolio and think twice about investments in Chinese stocks or bonds.

This is not a political considerationit is a financial and economic consideration.

The USCCs report on Chinas banking system highlights the idiosyncratic risks specific to the Chinese marketrisks that a typical investor cannot economically account for.

Chinese companies behave completely differently than their Western counterparts and do not bear the fundamental characteristics of a typical for-profit company.

As the report notes, Chinese companies do not work for their investors (owners) but must ultimately answer to the CCP. The CCPs directives supersede other priorities, which creates a conflict of interest whereby, in the case of Chinese banks, they could knowingly lose money on loans in order to enact the CCPs policies and directivessuch as lending to unprofitable state-owned enterprises.

And it goes beyond that. Chinese banks and brokerage firms recently pressured their Hong Kong staffers to sign a petition supporting Beijings national security legislation imposed on Hong Kong, according to a May 26 Nikkei Asian Review report.

I had an unexpected task this morning my boss asked everyone in the team to sign this paper, an anonymous Hong Kong employee of a Chinese investment bank told Nikkei. The petition also said signatories should support anti-Hong Kong independence; anti-sedition; anti-terrorism; anti-foreign interference.

Such policies would be unimaginable in U.S. companies. So how can an investor accurately evaluate the business and economic outlook of Chinese companies? Should U.S. investors really have a stake in such operations?

Investors are used to a certain level of regulatory checks and balances. For the most part, investors should not have to worry about the veracity of a companys financial reports. Since the early 2000s, when investors lost billions of dollars from the Enron and WorldCom fraud scandals, U.S. capital markets and the Securities and Exchange Commission have tightened regulations by enacting the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, and established industry safeguards such as the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board.

But Chinese companies typically adhere to none of these. There are Chinese rules and regulations in place, but their effectiveness lags behind those of developed markets. Chinese auditors cannot be investigated or examined by U.S. regulators. The number of outright fraudulent companies or companies engaging in fraudulent acts is significantly higher in Chinese markets.

Chinese banks are widely believed by Western economists to underreport their true levels of NPL. A recent investigation by Karlo Kauko, an advisor at the Bank of Finland, found increasing loan quality problems at Chinese banks due to the smoking gun evidence of their diminishing interest income. This is despite the banks public reports of stable NPL ratios.

How can a U.S. investor trust the financial disclosures of such Chinese companies?

Investors shouldnt be kept awake at night by such transgressions. The right call is to divest from Chinese securities.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
More than 2 million vulnerable people who have been shielding from coronavirus in the UK will now be reportedly allowed to go outdoors from June 1 for the first time in 10 weeks. As of May 31, the community's secretary, Robert Jenrick, announced at the press conference that Prime Minister Boris Johnson praised those peoples resilience as the government now decided to ease movement restrictions.

In England, particularly, the government stated that now 2.2 million people can meet with loved ones outside their homes while still adhering to the social distancing measures, as per the reports. Further, those that resided alone were allowed to meet with one other person outside of their household.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in a statement that he underestimates just how difficult it has been for the vulnerable population to scoop up at homes for over 10 weeks. He added, he wanted to pay tribute to the communitys resilience. Furthermore, the administration urged that the risk of the second wave of coronavirus infection still looms large, and those going out must leave home only once a day, should avoid going to work or the overcrowded shops and places where social distancing cannot be followed, as per local media reports.

Read: UK Government Authorises Return Of Live Sport

Read: UK: Rescuer Receives Unexpected Twist After Responding To Call About Unresponsive Lizard

International travel not exempted

Earlier, last week, the UK government announced tough new measures for the overseas travellers entering the country with 14-day mandatory quarantines and possible fines for a breach. UK Home Secretary Priti Patel, said while speaking at the press conference at Downing Street, London that the new measures will come into force from June 8 onwards and with penalties of up to 1,000 pounds for quarantine breaches enforced from mid-June.

We are introducing these new measures now to keep the transmission rate down and prevent a devastating second wave, said Patel. I fully expect the majority of people will do the right thing and abide by these measures. But we will take enforcement action against a small reckless minority of people who endanger the safety of others, she added. The measure came with an exception to the nationals from the Republic of Ireland.

Read: UK PM Claps For Health Workers Along With Countrymen To Express Gratitude

Read: Ukraine's Soccer Restart Disrupted By Positive Tests

(Image credit and Inputs from AP)
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP)  SpaceX delivered two astronauts to the International Space Station for NASA on Sunday, following up a historic liftoff with an equally smooth docking in yet another first for Elon Musks company.

With test pilots Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken poised to take over manual control if necessary, the SpaceX Dragon capsule pulled up to the station and docked automatically, no assistance needed. The linkup occurred 262 miles (422 kilometers) above the China-Mongolia border.

Congratulations on a phenomenal accomplishment and welcome to the International Space Station, SpaceX Mission Control radioed from Hawthorne, California.

It was the first time a privately built and owned spacecraft carried astronauts to the orbiting lab in its nearly 20 years. NASA considers this the opening volley in a business revolution encircling Earth and eventually stretching to the moon and Mars.

Bravo on a magnificent moment in spaceflight history," NASA's Mission Control piped in from Houston.

NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy greeted the incoming crew by ringing the ships bell aboard the space station.

The docking occurred a little early, barely 19 hours after a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasted off Saturday afternoon from Kennedy Space Center, the nations first astronaut launch to orbit from home soil in nearly a decade.

Despite the coronavirus pandemic, thousands jammed surrounding beaches, bridges and towns to watch as SpaceX became the worlds first private company to send astronauts into orbit, and ended a nine-year launch drought for NASA. The achievement, years in the making, is expected to drive down launch costs so more people might be able to afford a ticket to space in the coming years.

A few hours before docking, the Dragon riders reported that their capsule, newly named Endeavour after the retired shuttle, was performing beautifully. Just in case, they slipped back into their pressurized launch suits and helmets for the rendezvous.

Gleaming white in the sunlight, the Dragon was easily visible from a few miles out, its nose cone open and exposing its docking hook as well as a blinking light. The capsule loomed ever larger on live NASA TV as it closed the gap.

Hurley and Behnken took over the controls  using high-tech touchscreens  and did a little piloting less than a couple hundred yards (meters) out as part of the test flight, before putting it back into automatic for the final approach. Hurley said the capsule handled really well, very crisp.

The astronauts thanked everyone once the capsule was latched securely to the space station. The only snag appeared to involve Dragons communication lines: The astronauts could barely understand the calls coming from Houstons Mission Control following the linkup.

Its been a real honor to be just a small part of this nine-year endeavor since the last time a United States spaceship has docked with the International Space Station," Hurley said. He was the pilot of that last spaceship, shuttle Atlantis in July 2011.

NASA turned to private industry to pick up the slack following the shuttle fleet's retirement, hiring SpaceX and Boeing in 2014 for space station taxi services. Boeing's first astronaut flight isn't expected until next year.

Given the continuing high-risk drama, SpaceX and NASA officials had held off on any celebrations until after Sunday mornings docking  and possibly not until the two astronauts are back on Earth sometime this summer. Clearly relieved, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine tweeted a big welcome home to the Dragon fliers  America's two favorite dads. SpaceX has been calling them dads to drive home the fact that two lives were at stake in this highly technical effort.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

NASA has yet to decide how long Hurley and Behnken will spend at the space station, somewhere between one and four months. While theyre there, the Dragon test pilots will join NASA's Cassidy and two Russian station residents in performing experiments and possibly spacewalks to install fresh station batteries.

While U.S. astronauts will continue to catch a ride on Russian Soyuz rockets, it will be through a barter system now that NASA's commercial crew program has finally taken flight. NASA had been shelling out tens of millions of dollars for every Soyuz seat.

In a show-and-tell earlier Sunday, the astronauts gave a quick tour of the Dragons sparkling clean insides, quite spacious for a capsule. They said the liftoff was pretty bumpy and dynamic, nothing the simulators could have mimicked.

The blue sequined dinosaur accompanying them  their young sons toy, named Tremor  was also in good shape, Behnken assured viewers. Tremor was going to join Earthy, a plush globe delivered to the space station on last years test flight of a crew-less crew Dragon. Behnken said both toys would return to Earth with them at missions end.

An old-style capsule splashdown is planned.

After liftoff, Musk told reporters that the capsules return will be more dangerous in some ways than its launch. Even so, getting the two astronauts safely to orbit and then the space station had everyone breathing huge sighs of relief.

As always, Musk was looking ahead.

This is hopefully the first step on a journey toward a civilization on Mars, he said Saturday evening.

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Elevator rules deem no more than two people for a unit that carries six people, and as an employee enters the office, there are three masks to be used for five hours each a day, then disposed and one for the next day as well.

Image used for representational purpose. Photograph: Danish Siddiqui/Reuters.

Corporates, mostly in the technology sector, have hit the reset button on how they will work as they open up phase by phase and their employees get back to work.

Some of the new norms include a brand new set of standard operating procedures (SOPs) along with revamping existing office infrastructure, among others.

Harsh Goenka, chairman of the RPG Group, which saw about 30 per cent of its 30,000 employees across different businesses and geographies, back at work, said, The cautious balancing of safety norms, while targeting maximum business efficiency, is going to be the new challenge of our times.

RPGs technology company Zensar Technologies, which employs around 8,500 people, is operating at 100 per cent capacity with only 50 per cent of employees attending office. In addition to distancing and other protocols, it is also organising private buses as well as cars to transport employees back and forth from office.

While manufacturing companies are also opening in accordance with the governments directive, its mostly the information technology and services firms that are opening corporate offices.

Aruna Jayanthi, head of Asia-Pacific and Latin America, of consulting firm Capgemini, said that SOPs for employees begin right from the time the employee leaves the house. If its a cab they are taking to come to office, then only one person is allowed in the vehicle and the person must sit diagonally opposite the driver, she said.

Elevator rules deem no more than two people for a unit that carries six people, and as an employee enters the office, there are three masks to be used for five hours each a day, then disposed and one for the next day as well.

Capgemini, which employs about 110,000 in India, has seen about 5 per cent of its workers coming back to office.

In addition, certain desk areas have been cordoned off and there are some that have been marked off to not be used. The limited use of office facilities is being practiced by more and more firms.

No big meeting rooms, no cafeterias, and no visitors inside the office, cautions Goenka, as he goes on to say that for some industries, many employees may not go back to office in the future.

Tech Mahindras chief people officer Harshvendra Soin agrees with Goenka. In the long term, we expect to see a mix of physical and remote working as the new work paradigm, and we target that around 25-30 per cent of our associates will continue to work from home on an on-going basis, said Soin.

Capgemini has also kept its cafes, coffee machines, gyms, and conference rooms shut. No creche either, said Jayanthi.

She goes on to add that Capgeminis Bengaluru office also has a doctor on site at all times, for roughly around 200 employees who are coming to office.

Soin said that demarcation of spaces has been done in common areas, washrooms, and elevators to ensure physical distancing.

We have also created zones in our offices to restrict movements to specific floors. Use of staircases has been encouraged, and in case of using lifts, no more than 2-4 people are allowed at a time, said Soin.

Pramoud Rao, managing director (MD) of security services and CCTV company Zicom, who never shut his offices and has been in work mode from day one of the lockdown, has around 20 per cent of his 300 employees coming to office.

Rao said, for them, the new rules of engagement include no handshakes, eating at ones own desk only, ban on chai and smoke breaks outside the office and standard hygiene protocol like washing hands before and after eating.

We also require that everyone carry two pairs of shoes for its the shoes that carry most germs and dirt when people are walking around the city, he said.

From now, employees will be expected to be more conscious about their personal space than ever before.

Personal hygiene, personal spaces, and how to stay clean when moving around and across different areas will also translate into behaviour at airports, railways and public gatherings. This should eventually have a positive impact on personal habits and behaviour in the work place, said Jayanthi.
Copyright  2020 Albuquerque Journal

Family-owned company FS2 Supply Co. has been making a name for itself with authentic New Mexico merchandise, such as a T-shirt emblazoned with the word Orale, a local catch phrase that takes on different meanings according to the occasion.

Now, the Santa Fe-based company is stepping up to help victims of the coronavirus pandemic with a T-shirt that says Juntos, the Spanish word for together.

The company, which is run by Eric Griego, his wife Kelly and his sister Clarissa Lovato, has dropped the price on short-sleeved T-shirts from $25 to $20 for the Juntos design and is donating 100% of the proceeds to the All Together New Mexico Fund.

As soon as this pandemic hit, we were gearing up for spring season. We had launched new items and we got stuck with inventory, said Eric Griego. We were worried about where our next paycheck was coming from.

During a brainstorming session about the future of the largely online retailer (fs2supplyco.com), Lovato pointed out to her brother that there are people who need more help than the Griego/Lovato family, Griego said in a recent telephone interview.

That led Griego to design the New Mexico Together Juntos T-shirt. Sales of the fundraising shirt have allowed the company to write a check for $1,000 to the fund that is helping New Mexicans respond to and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. The fund is being administered by the Santa Fe Community Foundation.

Life is pretty crazy for the Griego family these days. Kelly Griego, who is a third-grade teacher at Chaparral Elementary School in Santa Fe, is conducting long-distance learning with 23 students.

In the meantime, Eric Griego is trying to run his businesses, which include graphics firm Firestik Studio, while juggling parenting duties with Kelly for their three children, who are homebound all the time because of the stay-at-home orders.

The Griegos feel bereft because their daughter Alexa didnt have a real-life graduation this year when she finished up at St. Michaels High School in Santa Fe. To help heal the wound, the family created a tribute page on the company website to honor graduating seniors: https://fs2supplyco.com/2020-nm-graduates/

The portraits of high school and college graduates from around the state are alphabetized by first name, ranging from Abenicio at Cottonwood Classical Prep to Zachary at Pojoaque Valley High School.

During the next few weeks, FS2 Supply will randomly select multiple graduates featured on its website to receive a free NM Zia Storm Grey hoodie. The winners will be posted on the companys Facebook and Instagram pages, and the hoodie will be sent to each of the winners.

Giving back to the community is the best way to get through this, Eric Griego said.

In February, the company decided to make its holiday pop-up store at 1012 Marquez Place in The Lofts of Santa Fe a permanent retail location, based on the success of its 2019 selling season.

Until the COVID crisis hit, retail hours were 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays in the two-story loft, which also houses Firestik Studio.

Griego said and his family opened FS2 Supply in July 2017 in response to the poor quality of New Mexico-themed merchandise sold by corporate-owned retailers.

New Mexicans have a lot of pride in their state. We felt like there was a need for more good-looking New Mexico-themed gifts, Griego told Journal North in a November 2019 interview. The merchandise is printed in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, he said.

In previous years, FS2 Supply has been a vendor at such events as Pancakes on the Plaza, a community event sponsored every July 4 by the Rotary Club, and Oktoberfest in Red River.

This years Pancakes on the Plaza has been canceled because of coronavirus concerns, while Red Rivers Oktoberfest, which is scheduled for Oct. 9-11, is still on, according to the Red River Chamber of Commerces website, even though other popular events in the town have been canceled, including the Memorial Day Motorcycle Rally.
Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe leaves the venue after a news conference on the country's response to COVID-19 in Tokyo, May 25, 2020. Reuters



Japan has not responded to South Korea's renewed call to swiftly retract export restrictions imposed in a row over wartime forced labor, officials here said Sunday, as the deadline for an answer neared.



Earlier this month, Seoul gave Tokyo until the end of May to lift the export curbs imposed in July last year on three key industrial materials in apparent retaliation over a row surrounding the wartime forced labor. Japan also removed South Korea from its list of trusted partners.



"We have been opening dialogue channels even on weekends," said an official from Seoul's trade ministry, who added South Korea will wait until midnight for Japan's answer. "At this point, we do not know whether Japan will respond or not, and what it is going to say."



Industry observers said it is unlikely that Japan will drastically change its stance at a time when the forced labor row showed no signs of resolution.



Japan imposed the export curbs after South Korea's Supreme Court ordered Japanese firms to compensate Koreans forced into hard labor when Korea was a Japanese colony from 1910-45.



If Japan does not come up with a positive response, experts predicted that South Korea may resume its complaint process at the World Trade Organization (WTO).



Hoping for a breakthrough, South Korea in November decided to suspend its lawsuit filed with the WTO and conditionally put off the termination of the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA) with Japan.



In December, Tokyo partially lifted curbs on exports to South Korea of photoresist in an apparent goodwill gesture ahead of their summit.



Experts said if Japan persists with its trade curbs, South Korea may ask the WTO to open a panel. Under the organization's rules, the WTO Dispute Settlement Body can open up a panel to look further into the case, when the two sides fail to reach an agreement.



South Korea could again come up with an option of withdrawing from military information sharing pact of GSOMIA, but experts said that is not likely, considering that it caused a strong objection and criticism from the United States.



Japan has been claiming that the GSOMIA issue is separate from the export restrictions.



"We will first have to check Japan's response, and then make our moves after analyzing situations comprehensively," a government official said. (Yonhap)


US President Donald Trump on Saturday said that he will postpone the G7 summit, which was scheduled to take place in June as he plans for expansion in the groups membership. Trump said that he doesnt think G7 properly represents what is actually going on in the world. It has become an outdated group of countries. He added that he would like to invite other countries like India, Russia, South Korea, Australia in the summit too.

He also said that G7 can be scheduled for September or it can either be held before UN General Assembly. The leaders of these seven countries had scheduled the meet by video conference in late June after Covid-19 quick plans to gather at Camp David. Last week, Trump said that he could hold the gathering at the White House.

G7 holds annual meetings to discuss International economic coordination and the condition of the entire world. The meet includes advanced countries like France, Italy, Germany, Japan, the United States, Britain, and Canada. The focus of this meeting is the struggle of all the countries in the fight against coronavirus.

Also Read: US terminates relationship with WHO, announces measures against China

Recently, Trump also claimed that he spoke to PM Modi and he was not in a good mood over the India and China border conflict. Later there were reports that both Modi and Trump had their last conversation in April which was on the subject of hydroxychloroquine. Moreover, Trump also wanted to mediate between the two countries in the border conflict but soon after India rejected the order and said that the border issue is bilateral between India and China.

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No negotiations were held with the United States on the compensation.

Leonid Kravchuk, the first president of independent Ukraine, estimates compensation for scrapping the country's nuclear weapons after signing the Budapest memorandum at US$250 billion.

"The nuclear weapons were tactical, they also went to Russia. There were Backfire carriers, these are legendary aircraft. They also were transferred to Russia. If one counts everything  it's somewhere about US$250 billion," Kravchuk told Ukrainian TV host and journalist Alesia Batsman during the Batsman program.

Read also"Even nuclear arms will be overshadowed": NSDC names main threat to global security

Yet, he said, Ukraine did not conduct negotiations with the United States on the compensation for this amount.

"It wasn't discussed directly, but the costs were mentioned. At that time, we didn't know the numbers as we do today. I would read, would talk to people, would ask experts. As the president  with all due respect  cannot know all facts and figures. And this is normal, he can't know everything. It was said it would cost a lot to keep the weapons in Ukrainian territory and the costs might be even greater when the weapons were scrapped," Kravchuk explained.

According to him, Ukraine had about 46 nuclear warheads working on solid fuel, and the rest were those working on liquid fuel.

"Liquid fuel in rockets was worse than the nuclear weapons. Chemists told me that if, God forbid, it had spilled somewhere on land, the soil could not be used for decades, or even longer. I spoke about this: "How would we [do this]? We, Ukraine, cannot do this on our own. Russia only wants to take the nuclear warheads," he said.

On December 4, 1994, the Budapest memorandum was signed between Ukraine, the United States, the Russian Federation, and Great Britain; it guaranteed Ukraine territorial integrity and security in exchange for its nuclear arsenal.
Rio Tinto knew of the high significance of rock shelters in Juukan Gorge in Western Australias Pilbara as recently as March, months before they were blown up to make way for a mine expansion last Sunday, the regions traditional owners say.

And in an even crueller blow, the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura Aboriginal Corporation claim they only learned of the miners plans to blast the sites earlier in May, when they were making their own plans to access them for NAIDOC Week celebrations.

The view looking north over the Juukan rock shelters in 2013. Credit:PKKP

The blast destroyed an Aboriginal heritage site which had shown evidence of human occupation stretching back more than 46,000 years and has prompted calls for an urgent review into state and federal heritage-protection laws.

Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Ken Wyatt said WAs Aboriginal Heritage Act had failed, while WA's Aboriginal Affairs Minister Ben Wyatt said new laws were being developed to remove a section of the Act which paved the way for companies to get ministerial consent to destroy or alter heritage sites.
DETROIT, MI  A George Floyd police brutality march in Detroit Saturday started peaceful, then turned violent for the second straight night when protesters faced off with Detroit police in riot gear near the entrance to police headquarters.

Nearly 100 Detroit police officers with body armor and shields stood in multiple rows facing a crowd of nearly 500 at the corner of Third Street and Michigan Avenue in downtown Detroit. One woman walked along the row of officers with her middle finger in their faces. Another swore angrily at officers while protesters held him back.

You want to start a riot, one woman yelled, trying to calm some protesters. For what?

Detroit police stand in formation during a rally calling for an end to police violence and justice for George Floyd Friday May 29, 2020. Nicole Hester/Mlive.com

Many in the crowd chanted, hands up, dont shoot, with their arms raised, in reference to the 2014 police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.

Its when some protesters started throwing projectiles  including water bottles, fireworks, smoke grenades and, Detroit Police Chief James Craig said, small bricks  that police eventually took action, responding initially with tear gas and later with rubber bullets.

Some protesters quickly picked up tear gas canisters and threw them back at police. Officers not wearing gas masks were seen evacuating the area. Several protesters affected by the tear gas were hunched over on a sidewalk while others poured water in their eyes.

A cloud of smoke and gas hovered in the air as protesters retreated, amid explosions of tear gas and fireworks.

Move, one officer said. The line of police in riot gear began marching forward toward the most aggressive of the protesters while banging their shields with batons.

Chief Craig said, as of about 11:30 p.m., there had been five arrests and no known injuries to officers or protesters. While most of the crowd dispersed by that time, dozens remained and continued to face off with police, who eventually fired on the remaining protesters with rubber bullets.

A bus used by Detroit police in situations requiring mass arrests was seen driving in downtown Detroit near midnight while that smaller group of protesters were still in the area.

Man shows injury after being shot with a rubber bullet fired toward protesters by Detroit police on May 30. Photo by Nicole Hester of MLive.

Saturdays was the second Detroit protest against police brutality in the name of George Floyd, who died after Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin was recorded kneeling on Floyds neck as he pleaded, I cant breathe.

The death sparked ongoing riots in Minneapolis this week, which spread to unrest across the nation, leading some cities, like Denver, to implement curfews in order to deter similar violence and vandalism.

Protests took place in several Michigan communities Friday and Saturday, including Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids, Bay City and Ann Arbor. Others are planned for Sunday, May 31.

Protests in Grand Rapids also turned violent Saturday, with protesters starting fires and police firing tear gas.

Detroit police clash with protesters well into early Saturday morning during a rally calling for an end to police violence and justice for George Floyd Friday May 29, 2020. Nicole Hester/Mlive.com

Both Detroit protests, one held Friday and the other Saturday, began peacefully at the Detroit police headquarters but ended with tear gas. As protesters arrived about 4 p.m. Saturday, they sat in the lawn in front of the Detroit police headquarters and chatted.

Many carried signs that said things such as: No KKKiller cops, Save a pig, eat a cop, Black lives matter and Blue lives murder."

While social distancing was not widely practiced at the protests, most wore protective face masks as Gov. Gretchen Whitmer requested during a press conference Saturday.

Were here to spread the fiery spirit of Minneapolis, said Nicole Conway, an organizer for By Any Means Necessary (BAMN), who spoke prior to the march. The badge is not a license to kill.

The march started with a four-mile jaunt into southwest Detroit, destined for Clark Park.

Say his name, the crowd chanted, George Floyd.

Detroit police clash with protesters well into early Saturday morning during a rally calling for an end to police violence and justice for George Floyd Friday May 29, 2020. Nicole Hester/Mlive.com

They also chanted the names of Breonna Taylor, who was shot and killed by Louisville metro police during a raid on March 13, and Aiyana Stanley-Jones, who was killed by Detroit Police Officer Joseph Weekley during a 2010 raid.

As the mass of people, nearly 700 deep, walked along Michigan Avenue past the site of former Detroit Tigers Stadium, cars honked. Motorists pulled over, many smiling and honking in support of the crowd or raising a fist to the sky.

A young girl in the back of an SUV rolled down her window and joined a chant of no justice, no peace.

Residents in southwest Detroit sat on their porches recording the passing crowds, most waving or yelling in support.

Protesters march through Detroit again for second day of protesting police brutality and justice for George Floyd Saturday May 30, 2020 in Detroit. Nicole Hester/Mlive.com

Not all supported the cause.

After 35 cities (protested or rioted) last night, I think this is worse than the pandemic, said Bob Zwolak, a Hamtramck resident who was watching the rally pass on West Vernor Avenue. They are taking an opportunity to loot and steal because the presence of police has been reduced and they backed off.

Throughout the march, police were accommodating, helping to shut down roads and blocking traffic for protesters to pass. Two police helicopters hovered above.

After walking through various neighborhoods, the march returned to Detroit police headquarters where there was the first sense of tension with police, who were lined up in riot gear.

Protesters march through Detroit again for second day of protesting police brutality and justice for George Floyd Saturday May 30, 2020 in Detroit. Nicole Hester/Mlive.com

Protesters took a knee in the street facing officers and remained silent for a minute to honor George Floyd. While some did yell at officers, organizers then tried to end the rally, asking everyone to remain peaceful and return home. They said another rally would occur at the same place 4 p.m. Sunday.

While some did appear to leave, the mass of protesters had grown and others took the lead, marching into downtown Detroit. They converged at the iconic Joe Louis fist statue near Hart Plaza, along the Detroit River, before heading for Interstate 75. Michigan State Police blocked traffic along the north and southbound lanes of I-75 as protesters walked north an exit before hopping the median and reentering the streets of downtown.

After weaving through downtown, protesters began shooting fireworks into the sky and again turned toward the Detroit police headquarters where the chaos ensued a short time later.

As of 1:30 a.m Sunday, Detroit police had not provided an update on the number of arrests or injuries.

There were 60 arrests for disorderly conduct reported Friday, of whom 23 were Detroit residents, in addition to the fatal shooting of a 21-year-old Eastpointe man. Chief Craig said the death was not related to the protest. Two officers was injured, including a captain who suffered a concussion after being hit in the head with a thrown rock and an officer who fell and injured his shoulder.

More on MLive:

Grand Rapids protests turn violent

1,500 attend first Detroit protest

Kalamazoo protests police brutality

Whitmer wants peaceful protest zones
Want to manufacture BrahMos so that no country has audacity to cast evil eye on us: Rajnath Singh

IAF chopper crash: Rajnath Singh likely to be apprised of probe team's findings in next couple of days

Through diplomatic channels and dialogue says Rajnath Singh on resolution with China

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, May 31: The standoff with China along the Line of Actual Control will be resolved through dialogue and diplomacy, Defence Minister, Rajnath Singh said.

He also said that India's effort would be to ensure that tensions did not escalate any further. As of now dialogue is on with China both at the military and diplomatic level. We should have good relations with all our neighbours. Both India and China have resolved incidents that arose from time to time through dialogue and existing mechanisms, Singh also said.

Inspired by Kabir Singh movie, man dates woman posing as doctor

When asked about US President, Donald Trump's offer to negotiate, Singh said that he had conveyed to the United States that the issue would be resolved bi-laterally. The mechanism is in place and dialogue is on, he further added.

oronavirus: India records single-day jump of 8,380 positive cases in 24-hours| Oneindia News

Last week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with the National Security Advisor, Chief of Defence Staff to assess the situation along the Line of Actual Control. India and China have been locked in a tense stand off, especially at the Galwan Valley and Pangong Lake in eastern Ladakh.

India says that it will not allow any change in status quo on the LAC. We have faced similar situations in the past and will face this one too with strength, the officer also said.

The Darbuk-Shyok-Daulat Beg Oldi road once complete will give a major advantage. The Chinese resistance is against us completing this. It is the Chinese troops who are hindering this and we will not back down, the official cited above said.

Defence Minister, Rajnath Singh held a security review meeting with the Chief of Defence Staff and the three Service Chiefs.

CDS, Service Chiefs brief Rajnath Singh as China wants India to half work at along LAC

The meeting discussed various aspects on India's response to the provocation by China at the border. During the meeting, Singh was briefed by the Army Chief M M Naravane about the situation at the Line of Action Control. The Army Chief had two days back had taken stock of the situation.

Since the first skirmish on May 5, Chinese and Indian troops have held talks six times. However with solution in sight, both sides continued to maintain aggressive posturing. China has told India to stop building infrastructure even on its own side of the LAC. While asking China to maintain status quo at the border, India has said that the condition imposed is unacceptable.

For the Chinese the main bone of contention has been the 255 kilometre Darbuk-Syhok-DBO road that was built last year by India on its side of the border. This has made it easier for patrols to operate and the frequency of the patrolling can also be increased.

Even as both sides are locked in a war of words, India has rejected allegations by Beijing that the Indian troops were responsible for triggering tensions. The Chinese have in fact hindered Indian patrols, India has further said.

Meanwhile the Chinese military has been fast increasing its troops in areas around Pangong Two Lake and Galwan Valley along the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh. China is trying to send a clear signal that it is not ready to end the confrontation with the Indian Army. The Chinese side has increased its presence in the Galwan Valley and has erected around 100 tents in the past two weeks. It has also been bringing in machinery for possible construction of bunkers, despite the stiff protest by the Indian troops.

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Story first published: Sunday, May 31, 2020, 8:56 [IST]
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The number of flyers leaving the city surpassed those landing at Lohegaon airport, as limited number of domestic flights resumed operations from May 25.

On Saturday, 745 persons arrived through 10 flights, whereas 1,148 left the city through eight flights.

As of May 30, 3,676 passengers arrived in Pune, while 7,563 flew out of the city. As per the numbers shared by Pune airport director Kuldeep Singh, for every one passenger who arrived in the city, two have left Pune.

With the number of Covid-19 cases rising in the city and costly road travel, people have preferred to fly and most of them are returning to their native places, said an aviation expert.

As per information shared by Singh, on May 25, the first day when the domestic flight services resumed across the country after almost two months, 672 passengers arrived in the city through nine flights while 985 left the city through eight flights. On May 26, 719 arrived in the city through 14 flights while 1,434 left the city through 14 flights; on May 27, 663 came into the city through 14 flights while 1,364 left the city through 13 flights and on May 28, 552 arrived in the city through 12 flights and 1,313 left the city through 12 flights.

According to Dhairyashil Vandekar, an aviation expert, although airports have started functioning, they must streamline the state policies regarding airports and those arriving through flights. And since the first transmission of the virus in the country happened through flight, safety precautions and screening must be given highest priority.

She said, Pune is a commercial and education hub and so we have many who have migrated to the city, which is now a Covid-19 hotspot. So, it is obvious that people want to leave the city. Those leaving the city are the ones who did not find rail or road travel safe and can now travel via a flight which is not only the fastest means of transport, but also the safest.

The state government must now come with a common policy for those arriving through flights from red zone districts instead of completely banning flights. The situation is still evolving and new developments will keep coming in. Also, in addition to thermal scanning the passengers, airports must also opt for pulse oxymeters to screen fliers, Vandekar said.

Train travellers

According to officials, a total of 1.16 lakh people left Pune district via 91 trains since the lockdown began. A total of 37 trains carrying 47,000 passengers travelled to Uttar Pradesh, while 23 trains carrying 30,000 passengers travelled to Bihar. The remaining trains were scheduled to travel to various other states.

Back to the sky

Date arrival pax departure pax arrival flights departure flights

May 25 672 985 9 8

May 26 719 1,434 14 14

May 27 663 1,364 14 13

May 28 552 1,313 12 12

May 29 525 1,390 13 12

May 30 745 1,148 10 8
President Donald Trump, with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), speaks to reporters aboard Air Force One while returning to Washington from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on May 30, 2020. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)

Trump Postpones G-7 Summit, Seeks to Add Countries to Invitation List

ABOARD AIR FORCE ONEPresident Donald Trump said hes postponing a Group of Seven summit he had hoped to hold next month until September or later and wants to expand the list of invitees to include Australia, Russia, South Korea, and India.

Speaking to reporters on Air Force One during his return to Washington from Cape Canaveral in Florida, Trump said the G-7, which groups the worlds most advanced economies, was a very outdated group of countries in its current format.

Im postponing it because I dont feel that as a G-7, it properly represents whats going on in the world, Trump said.

President Donald Trump, with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), speaks with reporters while being flown to Andrews Air Force Base in flight on May 30, 2020. (Alex Brandon/AP Photo)

Most European countries offered no immediate comment on the proposal, with a spokesman for the German government saying Berlin was waiting for further information.

Its unclear whether Trumps desire to invite the additional countries was a bid to permanently expand the G-7. On several previous occasions, he suggested Russia be added, given what he called Moscows global strategic importance.

Russia was expelled from what was then the G-8 in 2014 when Trumps predecessor, Barack Obama, was president, after Moscow annexed the Crimea region from Ukraine. Russia still holds the territory, and various G-7 governments have rebuffed previous calls from Trump to readmit Moscow.

White House spokeswoman Alyssa Farah said Trump wants the countries to discuss China at the summit.

Trump has criticized Beijing over its handling of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic, which began in China, and on May 29, he ordered his administration to begin the process of ending special U.S. treatment for Hong Kong in retaliation for the CCPs decision to impose a new security law on the former British colony.

Trump had canceled an in-person G-7 meeting scheduled for March as the virus spread, but had recently sought to revive it.

French President Emmanuel Macron backed the idea of an in-person meeting, according to the White House. But Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau declined to endorse it, saying there were too many health-related questions. This week, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she couldnt attend.

South Korea is aware of Trumps invitation and will discuss the matter with the United States, a government official in Seoul told Reuters on May 30.

The G-7 groups the United States, Britain, France, Japan, Germany, Italy, and Canada; the European Union also attends.

By Steve Holland
New Delhi: Warning India to be "careful", China on Sunday asked New Delhi not to get involved in the Washington-Beijing rivalry even as some predict that the world's two largest economies are "about to enter a new Cold War".

In an article in The Global Times, China said that there have been some voices calling for the Indian government to join the new Cold War and exploit its position for more gains.

"Such irrational voices are nothing but misleading, which should not represent the mainstream voices and sway the Indian government's stance. Fundamentally speaking, India has little to gain from engaging in a US-China conflict over any topic, with more to lose than gain, which is why the Modi government needs to face the new geopolitical development objectively and rationally," Beijing said.

Several areas along the Line of Actual Control or LAC in Ladakh and North Sikkim have seen major military build-up by both the Indian and Chinese armies, in a clear signal of escalating tension and hardening of positions by the two sides even two weeks after they were engaged in two separate face-offs.

India has said the Chinese military was hindering normal patrolling by its troops along the LAC in Ladakh and Sikkim, and strongly refuted Beijing's contention that the escalating tension between the two armies was triggered by trespassing of Indian forces across the Chinese side.

Us President Donald Trump had also offered to "mediate or arbitrate" the raging border dispute between the two most populous countries, saying he was "ready, willing and able" to ease the tensions.

China asked India to be careful not to include the US factor in its handling of any problem in its relations with China, "otherwise it will only complicate the issue". "The offer of US mediation is unnecessary and the last thing both sides could use. China and India have the ability to resolve their problems, and there is no need for any third-party intervention," it said.

Threatening New Delhi of snapping economic ties, Beijing further said, "If in a new Cold War, India leans toward the US or becomes a US pawn attacking China, the economic and trade ties between the two Asian neighbors will suffer a devastating blow. And it would be too much for the Indian economy to take such a hit at the current stage."

Citing the increasing coronavirus cases and the recession forecast, China stated that the "crippling Indian economy cannot afford any more shocks". It "advised" New Delhi to "always view the India-China relations with rational minds instead of being lured by domestic nationalist sentiment".
By Express News Service

BENGALURU: Altogether 12 engineers working with the Karnataka Water Resources Department are stranded in New Zealand due to the COVID-19 lockdown. The state government has sought External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar's help to bring them back to Karnataka.

The engineers went to New Zealand to attend a training session on hydrology at the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) from March 3 to March 20. They were scheduled to take a return flight on March 23.

"Due to the lockdown, the engineers are forced to stay back. Their families are putting immense pressure on the water resources department to arrange for their return as the female engineers have children between the ages of two and seven. The parents of these engineers are panicking," Karnataka water resources minister Ramesh Jarkiholi stated in a letter to Jaishankar.

The engineers' families are calling the department seeking help to ensure their return and the engineers stranded in New Zealand too have sent mails mentioning the difficulties they are facing psychologically, the minister stated. The minister requested the MEA to bring them back on a flight scheduled on June 7, 2020, from Auckland to Delhi.
Dar es Salaam - Four months ago, Musa Adonicus Sambala declared himself a nonsmoker. But hours after deciding to kick the habit he bought himself a pack of 20 cigarettes and smoked 18 in six hours. He smoked compulsively. Inside remorse and self-pity burned him, he says.

Another furtive attempt to quit smoking.

When he started smoking at 23 years, he was easily satisfied with pieces shared with fellow smokers. In 2020, he had wrapped smoking around every routine. Tanzania banned smoking in public places in 2003, but around Mr Sambala's workplace people smoked anyway.

"I knew tobacco harmed me. I was aware of the heaviness in my chest and grim prospects of some disease in the future, but my many attempts (to quit) failed. I had arguments with my wife about my addiction. But I couldn't help it," says the father of two.

The change for Mr Sambala came when he started receiving daily text messages from a client, who also happened to be an anti-tobacco activist in Tanzania. For more than a month before this successful attempt to kick the habit, the messages came every day.

"I wanted to quit, but my previous failures loomed too large. In the morning, I'd sit on the side of my bed and avoid my phone," recalls Mr Sambala.

The messages never let up. Every morning when he woke up, he could be certain the day would include two morning cigarettes and the 'blip' of his mobile phone, with a message imploring him to quit.

He struggled to sleep. "My chest was heavy with smoking and my mind overwhelmed with guilt that I was harming myself. How could someone else be more mindful of my health than me?"

Before work one day, in what Mr Sambala describes as a mixture of guilt and strength, he picked up his two morning cigarettes, squeezed them in his right hand, and threw them in a dust bin.

He has not lit a cigarette in three months, he says, and now feeling healthier and in control.

Praise has come from friends, some wishing they could do the same. "Only a handful of smokers would not admit that they wish they could quit, immediately," Mr Sambala says. He knows how hard it is to quit and he is ready to help.

"I voluntarily monitor and encourage friends who try to quit. It reinforces my own resolve."

Tanzania is among 168 countries that are signatory to the World Health Organization (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) - the most powerful tool at our disposal to reduce the health and economic burden caused by tobacco.

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The Convention calls on governments to take incremental action to prevent tobacco consumption, marketing and exposure, among many other measures.

When informed of the risks, most tobacco users want to quit, but few get help and support to overcome their dependence.

Treatment of tobacco dependence is one of the measures proposed for any comprehensive tobacco control strategy as indicated in Article 14 of the WHO FCTC. This is because support to stop smoking and medication can increase the likelihood that a smoker will quit successfully.

Treatment programmes should include tobacco cessation advice incorporated into primary health-care services, easily accessible and free telephone help lines (known as quit lines), and access to low-cost medicines.

WHO continues to support Parties to the Convention willing to work, to the extent possible, in creating a healthier environment for their populations by implementing the WHO FCTC.
The mother of Luka Magnotta, whos in prison for killing and dismembering a Chinese student in 2012 and mailing his body parts to politicians in Ottawa, said shes concerned her son could get COVID-19 in jail  and she wont even be informed of it.

I fear every day that my son Luka could easily contract the COVID-19 virus due to being in close quarters, wrote Anna Yourkin, who lives in the Peterborough area, in an email to The Examiner.

Magnotta is in a penitentiary in Pont-Cartier, Que., and Yourkin wrote that there have been more than 35 cases of COVID-19 there  yet she doesnt know whether her son is sick with the illness.

I would like to find out whether my son has COVID-19, she wrote. No one from Pont-Cartier or Corrections Canada has contacted me to let me know if Luka is OK.

Its been eight years since Magnotta killed Lin Jun, a Chinese student studying in Montreal.

He recorded the murder and mutilation, posted it online and mailed Juns body parts to two elementary schools and political parties in Ottawa before fleeing to Europe, where he was captured and brought back to Canada for trial.

Magnotta, 37, was born Eric Newman and grew up in Peterborough and Lindsay, and went to I.E. Weldon Secondary School in Lindsay.

He did not testify at trial and has not spoken to media, yet lately his story has been told.

In 2018 Yourkin released the book My Son, The Killer, co-authored with writer Brian Whitney; it was published by Wild Blue Press.

And in December, a Netflix documentary series was released that focuses on a group of amateur cyber detectives who tried to track Magnotta after videos appeared online where he is seen killing cats. Yourkin was interviewed for the series.

Yourkin wrote this week that shes a concerned mother  and that there must be other families who are concerned too, since it isnt easy getting health information about a loved one in jail.

Yet inmates can consent to any disclosure of their health information, wrote Correctional Services Canada spokesperson Christina Tricomi, and next of kin is notified whenever an inmate is taken to hospital over a significant health change or a life-threatening matter.

CSC is now in the process of checking to ensure they have up-to-date contact information for the next of kin of all inmates, she wrote, and that they have consent from all inmates to release health information to families.

Family members of inmates can always contact the institution if they have questions about their condition, Tricomi wrote.
The two sides updated each other on their respective countries work on COVID-19 prevention and control as well as measures to prevent transmission from outside while resuming socio-economic activities after the outbreak. They stated how much they valued the mutual support and assistance in the fight against the pandemic.

The two sides noted that though a number of bilateral exchange and cooperation activities had been affected by the pandemic, the impacts were only temporary. They agreed that Vietnam-China relations have kept their development trend, as seen in high-level discussions in flexible forms, maintained trade and growth in the bilateral trade value. Ministries, agencies and localities of the two countries, including the foreign ministries and diplomatic representative agencies, have maintained regular exchanges on coordinating the pandemic fight and removing difficulties in order to strengthen cooperation, they said.

The two officials discussed specific measures to increase result-oriented cooperation and some major orientations including maintaining all-level exchanges and contacts in a flexible form, and maximising the overall coordinating role of the Steering Committee for VietnamChina Bilateral Cooperation to enhance partnerships between various sectors and localities in different fields.

Deputy FM Trung asked the Chinese side to continue facilitating and coordinating with Vietnam to accelerate the customs clearance process for goods at land border gates. He suggested some specific measures such as designating border gates for the trade of fruit and food such as the Lao Cai-Hekou railway border gate, increasing the number of cargo trains specializing in transporting farm produce imported from Vietnam, and extending hours for customs clearance at border gates.

He also urged China to accelerate procedures to open its market to Vietnams farm produce and allow more Vietnamese companies to export milk and rice to China.

The two sides agreed to continue discussing their coordination in managing the land border and organizing activities to mark the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Vietnam-China Land Border Treaty and the 10th year since implementing the three key legal documents regarding the land border. They also agreed to conduct, at a suitable time, joint border inspections in accordance with the provisions of the Agreement on Vietnam - China land border and the Protocol on land border demarcation and marker plantation.

The two sides engaged in a sincere and candid discussion on the sea issue, reaching agreement on further making use of existing negotiation mechanisms for substantive outcomes. Deputy FM Trung voiced Vietnams concern about the recent complicated developments in the East Sea and its stance on the nations legitimate rights and interests in accordance with international law and the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. He urged that the two sides promote cooperation and solve disputes in the spirit of respecting each others legitimate rights and interests, previous agreements, the common perceptions of both sides and international law.
Robots and artificial intelligence (AI) applications are increasingly taking over human jobs, as a group of MSN journalists recently found out.

Its nothing new, although in decades past, robots were used primarily on assembly lines in factories.

These days however the massive advancements in AI means that the line between the human world and the computer universe is an increasingly blurry one.

In recent times, Facebook has increased the use artificial intelligence to assist in the monitoring of social media posts.

Now software giant Microsoft are also saying goodbye to human staff and replacing them with machines.

In this case, 27 individuals employed by PA Media, who had been maintaining the news homepages on Microsofts MSN website and its Edge browser, were told earlier this week that their contracts would be terminated in a months time.

I spend all my time reading about how automation and AI is going to take all our jobs. And here I am  AI has taken my job, an un-named staff member said.

What will the MSN AI journalist be doing?

The PA Media journalists had not been responsible for writing news copy; their job was to select news stories from other sources, to decide which news was highlighted, and to edit headlines. The strict editorial guidelines which would have been in place will now be managed by the AI journalist.

There may well be some initial teething issues. But over time  and when one considers the huge resources AI has access to, and the fact that it will continue to grow its knowledge base  robotic journalists probably could work in such instances. Perhaps a couple of human supervisors might be employed to plug any gaps.

Its not good news for human workers as jobs will continue to be lost as more tech companies, and those in other industries, turn to AI to increase their profits.

Like all companies, we evaluate our business on a regular basis. This can result in increased investment in some places and, from time to time, re-deployment in others. These decisions are not the result of the current pandemic, said a Microsoft spokesperson.
By Sterling Rome

On Sept. 11, 2001, I was standing in the window of my apartment on Broadway and John Street when the second plane hit the South Tower. My wife and I eventually fled  on foot  to Brooklyn, and because our building was inside the federal disaster area at that time, we werent able to move back in for months.

We eventually returned to our apartment, but with great trepidation. The air was still filled with dangerous chemicals from the collapse, including the incinerated remains of the victims, and we werent sure if we were risking our health. But local officials had gone on and on about the Wall Street area being safe and how it was our duty to return to normal life. So we did.

We routinely wore gas masks to work, but our neighbors started to chastise us for scaring people  so we eventually stopped.

Six months later I found myself in a speeding taxi holding my wife as she was turning blue, not being able to breathe. She had just been sent home from a downtown hospital with nothing but an inhaler; her breathing issues had become so common that they didnt know what else they could do for her. Rather than take her back there I gave a cabbie $100 to break any traffic laws necessary to get me to Lenox Hill Hospital, where my late father had been on staff for decades. My wife spent a week at Lenox Hill and has had breathing-related problems for the last 20 years.

Eventually the World Trade Center Health Organization was started to address the exact thing we  and countless other people working in and around the site  were told wasnt going to happen. People got sick. Very sick. Many people died and are still dying to this day.

One can argue about any similarities between 9/11 and COVID19, but one that is clear is that a tremendous amount of power, money and control is given to our elected officials in times like these, and it might be time to examine how thats been working out for us.

Just today I watched the Centers for Disease Control reverse course in a mere 72 hours about whether the virus can live on surfaces or not. I am sure we all remember being told we shouldnt wear masks, or that children werent at risk, or that we will need millions of ventilators. Not only did all these very forceful pronouncements turn out to be false, it has been surreal to watch virtually no one take responsibility for them. To this day, I have never heard a single elected official or government bureaucrat admit that the air at the World Trade Center site was toxic, or that we should never have been encouraged to return there.

I believe Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf means well, but since when did he become an authority on infectious disease? And with all due respect to Secretary of Health Rachel Levine, her background is in pediatrics and eating disorders, not viral immunology. In other words, these good people dont know anything more about COVID-19 and what is going to happen tomorrow than you and I do. And apparently, neither do a number of people at the CDC, which should be even more concerning.

They might not like hearing it, but our state and local officials are just like everyone else. Being elected or given a title did not magically make them experts on anything they didnt already know before they got the job. And I can assure you they didnt know anything about a novel coronavirus. I pray that we all remember that when we are asked for blind faith, or are told that something must be true because it comes with a government imprimatur.

I am grateful to say that my wife is living proof that is not always the case.

Sterling Rome was working for CBS News in New York City at the time of the 9/11 attacks. His wife was diagnosed with Ground Zero pneumonia in 2002. They moved to Nazareth in 2006, where Sterling started his own company, shineboxmedia.com, in 2009. They moved to Collegeville, Pa., last year.
Bhopal, May 31 : Former MP Premchand Guddu on Sunday rejoined Congress in Madhya Pradesh, bringing fresh hopes in the party for the upcoming bypolls in the state, due in the next four months.

Bhopal, May 31 (IANS) Former MP Premchand Guddu on Sunday rejoined Congress in Madhya Pradesh, bringing fresh hopes in the party for the upcoming bypolls in the state, due in the next four months.

Guddu was twice MLA and a Rajya Sabha member. His return to Congress can lead to a keen contest for Sanwer seat where by-elections are due.

The Congress leader was with the BJP for over five years. He had joined the party in the last elections, but claims he left it in February when he was served a notice for anti-party activities.

The current Irrigation Minister and a staunch supporter of Jyotiraditya Scindia, Tulsi Silavat, represented Sanwer before switching to BJP in March. He was Health Minister in Kamal Nath's ministry just when coronavirus was declared a pandemic.

The Congress is seriously considering pitting Guddu against Silavat. Guddu has been an MLA in the past from the Sanwer seat reserved for the Scheduled Castes.

Guddu rejoined the Congress with much fanfare in the presence of N.P. Prajapati, former speaker and Sajjan Singh Verma, former minister.

Guddu said he had to leave the Congress and join the BJP due to "sustained victimisation" by Jyotiraditya Scindia.

While in BJP, Guddu said he was ignored because of senior party leader Kailash Vijayvargiya.
Federal Parliament's first Chinese-born lower house MP says the Andrews government's deal with Beijing on the trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative has been shrouded in secrecy, and called on the state to release full details of the scheme's benefit to Victoria.

Gladys Liu said although Australia was open to entering into global trade agreements, "the reality is we do not trade off our values for business".

The comment is a direct swipe at Premier Daniel Andrews, who signed up to the Belt and Road agreement despite opposition from the federal government and Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Liberal MP Gladys Liu says "we do not trade off our values for business". Credit:Eddie Jim

The Victorian government has come under fire in recent weeks over the deal it signed with China in 2018. Previously, Treasurer Tim Pallas said China's tariffs on barley exports were retaliation for the Morrison government's push for an independent inquiry into the origins of coronavirus.
A New Jersey Health Department official fired this week for allegedly failing to disclose a side job also was the target of an investigation by Gov. Phil Murphys administration into leaking confidential information to the press about the states response to the coronavirus, three sources told NJ Advance Media.

The state Health Department confirmed Friday that Christopher Neuwirth is no longer employed as assistant commissioner for the Division of Public Health, Infrastructure, Laboratories and Emergency Preparedness.

New Jersey Globe reported Thursday night Neuwirth lost his job because he did not report on his financial disclosure form that he was also employed by Margolis Healy and Associates, a safety, security, emergency preparedness firm. His name still appears in an internet search as an associate with the company but he was not listed among its employees on Saturday.

Neuwirth posted on Facebook Friday that he had been scapegoated by the administration, which has come under sharp criticism for its pandemic response involving nursing homes. An NJ Advance Media report recently questioned the states lagging actions involving long-term care facilities.

"I was blatantly scapegoated and fired from the job that I spent my entire professional career working toward to achieve, Neuwirth wrote on his private Facebook page, according to a person who confirmed what it said to NJ Advance Media.

Neuwirth did not respond to several requests for comment.

Neuwirth is one of at least two state officials who have been questioned as part of a state Ethics Commission investigation into leaking data and recorded telephone calls to NJ Advance Media and The Record/northjersey.com, according to sources with knowledge of the probe. They spoke to NJ Advance Media on condition of anonymity out of fear of losing their jobs because they were not authorized to speak to the press.

State Epidemiologist Christina Tan was also notified she is a target of the leak investigation, according to two of the sources and also reported by The Record. Tan did not respond to a request seeking comment.

The leak investigation started sometime after NJ Advance Media informed the Department of Health on May 6 it had internal documents identifying the number of nursing homes that reported a shortage of personal protective equipment, the sources said.

Nursing home operators complained that the state was more responsive to hospitals needs than theirs, even though it was widely understood elderly and medically fragile people are the most susceptible to the virus. More than 40 percent of the 11,634 deaths involved residents of long-term care facilities.

The Record recently reported Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli complained she had never had a one-on-one conversation with Murphy and had trouble getting the governors attention. Murphy and Persichilli denied that was the case.

On Friday, NJ Advance Media wrote about a recorded conversation in which Persichilli described how she was reluctant to agree to hire the consulting firm Manatt to perform an analysis of the states response to the pandemic on nursing homes. Persichilli is heard questioning the companys direct experience with long-term care facility management and the price of the three-week contract. She insisted on renegotiating the deal to $500,000  $195,000 less than the original price.

Murphy acknowledged the leak investigation when he was asked about it during his daily coronavirus briefing with the media Friday.

People leaking things and giving the outside world some sense of how the sausage is made, as it were, you know, Ive got no time for that and thats got to stop. The fact of the matter is Judy, and I and (State Police Col.) Pat (Callahan) are up here literally every day," Murphy said.

CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Newsletter | Homepage

Were going through stuff that weve never gone through before, as a state and as a nation. And the last thing we need are people speaking out of school about it. So frankly, enough already. Lets move on. These are tough decisions at every step of the way.

As he has on several occasions in the past several weeks, Murphy also voiced strong support for Persichilli. We could not have a better leader in the Department of Health, he said. Shes the best in the country, and thats all I have to say about that.

Asked about Neuwirths dismissal, Murphy said, Ive got no comment on Chriss situation. But I will say this, that folks are not  its par for the course that youre not supposed to have another source of income, thats just as a general matter."

Murphys spokeswoman and a spokeswoman for the Department of Health did not respond to requests seeking comment about Neuwirth and the leak investigation.

In addition to his $143,750-a-year job with the state health department, Neuwirth is an emergency medical technician, a firefighter and founder of Emergency Manager Project, LLC, according to his financial disclosure form. The company trains emergency management officials, according to the website.

According to the New Jersey Globe article, the administration fired Neuwirth for cause because it believes he was distracted by his job with Margolis Healy when he was sorely needed to help respond to the deadly viral outbreak.

Assemblyman Christopher DePhillips, R-Bergen, sent a letter to Mark T. Holmes, executive director of the State Ethics Commission asking for an investigation into Neuwirths employment.

Under normal circumstances, this is concerning information from both an ethical and operational standpoint. However, as New Jersey endures a COVID-19 death count that has now surpassed 10,000 people, it is horrifying to think that this DoH Assistant Commissioner was engaged in private business dealings while New Jerseyans suffered, DePhillips wrote.

Local journalism needs your support. Subscribe at nj.com/supporter.

NJ Advance Media staff writer Brent Johnson contributed to this report.

Susan K. Livio may be reached at slivio@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @SusanKLivio.
Early action, meticulous contact tracing and public communication have contributed to Vietnams success in handling the Covid-19 pandemic and preventing any deaths, CNN said.

"Vietnam with a population of 97 million people has not reported a single coronavirus-related death despite its long border with China and the millions of Chinese visitors it receives each year," the American news site said in an article on Saturday.

Saturday is the 44th day Vietnam has gone without an infection caused by community transmission. Its Covid-19 count is 328, with 279 patients having recovered after treatment, according to the Health Ministry.

"This is all the more remarkable considering Vietnam is a low-middle income country with a much less-advanced healthcare system than others in the region. It only has 8 doctors for every 10,000 people, a third of the ratio in South Korea, according to the World Bank," CNN wrote.

Its success in dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic lay in "a combination of factors, from the government's swift, early response to prevent its spread, to rigorous contact tracing and quarantining and effective public communication," the cable channel noted.

CNN quoted Guy Thwaites, an infectious disease doctor who works in one of the main hospitals designated by the Vietnamese government to treat Covid-19 patients, as saying the numbers matched the reality on the ground. "I go to the wards every day, I know the cases, I know there has been no death," said Thwaites, who also heads the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit in Ho Chi Minh City.

Thwaites said the speed of Vietnam's response was the main reason behind its success. "Their actions in late January and early February were very much in advance of many other countries. And that was enormously helpful ... for them to be able to retain control."

He noted that Vietnam's rich experience in dealing with infectious disease outbreaks, such as the SARS epidemic from 2002 to 2003 and the following avian influenza, had helped the government and the public to better prepare for the Covid-19 pandemic. "The population is much more respectful of infectious diseases than many perhaps more affluent countries or countries that don't see as much infectious disease - Europe, the UK and the US for example."

Last week, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization hailed Vietnams success in handling Covid-19 pandemic, saying Vietnam was quick to respond to and remains in control of Covid-19.

Politico, a U.S. political news organization, recently said that Vietnam has responded best to the Covid-19 pandemic in terms of health and economic impacts.

On Friday Singaporean PM Lee Hsien Loong praised Vietnams success in handling the Covid-19 pandemic, and thanked the nation for lending a helping hand.
An aerial photo of Daewoo Engineering & Construction's Indonesia Tangguh LNG Train 3 plant currently under construction. / Courtesy of Daewoo Engineering & Construction



By Kim Hyun-bin



Daewoo Engineering & Construction is establishing a name for itself in the global construction market showing rapid growth in recent years. Recently, the company has procured large-scale construction deals including an LNG liquefaction plant project in Nigeria.



On May 13, the construction firm signed a deal to build LNG Train7, making it the first local construction company to be an original contractor to build an LNG liquefaction plant.



The project value is estimated at 5.18 trillion won in which Daewoo will take have a 40 percent or 2.669 trillion won, share in overseeing the main aspects of the project including devising a blueprint, construction, purchase and test runs of the plant.



The builder has been making significant strides in the global LNG liquefaction plant construction market. Last April, the company signed a deal with Indonesia to build a plant in the Tanggu region there, and is in the works to secure a deal with Mozambique to construct LNG Area1, while their efforts have been highly evaluated in the global arena.



The company has been striving in the civil engineering sector as well currently handling four overseas projects in Iraq, India, and Singapore. Starting this year it plans to secure additional deals both overseas as well as in the local construction market.



"We have established a foundation for continuous growth through new visions and successful key strategies, through which we will continue to make progress," a Daewoo official said. "Through positive results we will recover from the uncertainties from the COVID-19 pandemic along with our clients to become the leading construction firm in the country."


MINNEAPOLIS (AP)  Americans awoke Sunday to charred and glass-strewn streets in dozens of cities after another night of unrest fueled by rage over the mistreatment of African Americans at the hands of police, who responded to the violence with tear gas and rubber bullets.

Tens of thousands marched peacefully through streets to protest the death of George Floyd, a black man who died Monday after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee on his neck until he stopped breathing. But many demonstrations sank into chaos as night fell: Cars and businesses were torched. The words I cant breathe were spray-painted all over buildings. A fire in a trash bin burned near the gates of the White House.

READ ALSO: Mayor Turner says George Floyd's body will return to Houston

The fury sparked by Floyd's death was compounded by the coronavirus pandemic, which has left millions out of work and killed more than 100,000 people in the U.S., including disproportionate numbers of black people.

Were sick of it. The cops are out of control, protester Olga Hall said in Washington, D.C. Theyre wild. Theres just been too many dead boys.

Now Playing: Georgia's governor declares a state of emergency to activate the state National Guard as violence flares in Atlanta and in dozens of cities nationwide following the death in Minnesota of George Floyd. (May 30) Video: Associated Press

People set fire to squad cars, threw bottles at officers and busted windows of storefronts, carrying away TVs and other items even as some protesters urged them to stop. In Indianapolis, multiple shootings were reported, including one that left a person dead amid the protests, adding to deaths in Detroit and Minneapolis in recent days.

In Minneapolis, the city where the protests began, police, state troopers and National Guard members moved in soon after an 8 p.m. curfew took effect to break up the demonstrations.

At least 13 police officers were injured in Philadelphia , and at least four police vehicles were set on fire. In New York City, dangerous confrontations flared repeatedly as officers made arrests and cleared streets. A video showed two NYPD cruisers lurching into a crowd of demonstrators who were pushing a barricade against one of them and pelting it with objects. Several people were knocked to the ground. It was unclear if anyone was hurt.

The mistakes that are happening are not mistakes. Theyre repeated violent terrorist offenses, and people need to stop killing black people, Brooklyn protester Meryl Makielski said.

Overnight curfews were imposed in more than a dozen major cities nationwide, including Atlanta, Denver, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, San Francisco and Seattle.

Few corners of America were untouched, from protesters setting fires inside Renos city hall, to police launching tear gas at rock-throwing demonstrators in Fargo, North Dakota. In Salt Lake City, demonstrators flipped a police car and lit it on fire. Police said six people were arrested and an officer was injured after being struck in the head with a baseball bat.

By daybreak, cleanup had already began in Nashville along Broadway Street  known for its famous honky tonks  after protesters broke windows, lit fires and destroyed light poles. Police said in a tweet that at least 30 businesses and buildings were damaged.

Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp authorized the deployment of up to 3,000 National Guard troops to Athens, Savannah and any other cities where more demonstrations were planned Sunday. Kemp had already approved up to 1,500 Guardsmen to help enforce a 9 p.m. Saturday curfew in Atlanta.

The protesters need to know were going to support their efforts in a peaceful, nonviolent protest, Kemp told television station WSB late Saturday. The agitators need to know that well be there ... to take them to jail if theyre destroying lives and property.

OUTRAGE OVER FLOYD'S DEATH: Tensions escalate but remain nonviolent after peaceful day of protests in Houston

President Donald Trump appeared to cheer on the tougher tactics Saturday night, commending the National Guard deployment in Minneapolis, declaring No games! and saying police in New York City must be allowed to do their job!

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden condemned the violence as he continued to express common cause with those demonstrating after Floyds death.

The act of protesting should never be allowed to overshadow the reason we protest, Biden said in a statement Saturday night.

In Ferguson, Missouri, where Michael Brown Jr. was shot and killed by a white police officer in 2014, sparking a wave of protests throughout the country, six officers were hurt after being hit with rocks and fireworks.

Police have arrested nearly 1,700 people in 22 cities since Thursday, according to a tally by The Associated Press. Nearly a third of those arrests came in Los Angeles, where the governor declared a state of emergency and ordered the National Guard to back up the citys 10,000 police officers as dozens of fires burned across the city.

This weeks unrest recalled the riots in Los Angeles nearly 30 years ago after the acquittal of the white police officers who beat Rodney King, a black motorist who had led them on a high-speed chase. The protests of Floyds killing have gripped many more cities, but the losses in Minneapolis have yet to approach the staggering totals Los Angeles saw during five days of rioting in 1992, when more than 60 people died, 2,000-plus were injured and thousands arrested, with property damage topping $1 billion.

But not all protests were marred by violence. In Juneau, Alaska, local police joined protesters at a rally in front of a giant whale sculpture on the citys waterfront.

We dont tolerate excessive use of force, Juneau Police Chief Ed Mercer told a gathering where most people wore masks and some sang Alaska Native songs.

The show of force in Minneapolis came after three days in which police largely avoided engaging protesters, and after the state poured more than 4,000 National Guard troops into Minneapolis. Authorities said that number would soon rise to nearly 11,000.

The situation in Minneapolis is no longer in any way about the murder of George Floyd, said Gov. Tim Walz, who also said local forces had been overmatched the previous day. It is about attacking civil society, instilling fear and disrupting our great cities.

Some residents were glad to see the upheaval dissipating.

l live here. I havent been able to sleep, said Iman Muhammad, whose neighborhood saw multiple fires set Friday night. Muhammad said she sympathized with peaceful protests over Floyds death but disagreed with the violence: Wrong doesnt answer wrong.

___

Associated Press journalists across the U.S. contributed to this report.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 31

By Jeila Aliyeva - Trend:



Potential for building up the Turkmen-Japanese partnership in the trade and economic sectors was discussed during a videoconference of the Inter-Parliamentary Friendship Group between members of the Parliament of Turkmenistan and the House of Representatives of the Parliament of Japan.

The videoconference was hosted in Turkmenistans Parliament on May 29, 2020, Trend reports with reference to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan.

The Japanese delegation at the conference was headed by Head of the secretariat of the Parliamentary League of Japanese-Turkmen Friendship Matsushita Shinpei.

Goof relations between the countries, as well as the positive development and strategic importance of interaction in various spheres between countries were noted. The parties stressed the dynamic nature of inter-parliamentary relations and the importance of dialogue between the legislative bodies of the two countries. It was emphasized that the bilateral cooperation in the fields of science, education and culture is developing.

The parties stressed that the countries actively interact in a multilateral format with international organizations, including the UN and expressed satisfaction with the development of mutually beneficial bilateral relations.

It was emphasized that there are great opportunities for further development of Turkmen-Japanese relations.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @JeilaAliyeva
(CNN) - President Donald Trump announced on Friday that the United States will terminate its relationship with the World Health Organization, a move he has threatened throughout the coronavirus pandemic.

"Because they have failed to make the requested and greatly needed reforms, we will be today terminating our relationship with the World Health Organization and redirecting those funds to other worldwide and deserving, urgent global public health needs," Trump said.

The President said that the "world needs answers from China on the virus. We must have transparency."

Earlier in his remarks, he said that China had not properly reported information it had about the coronavirus to the World Health Organization and said China had pressured the WHO to "mislead the world."

"Chinese officials ignored their reporting obligations to the World Health Organization and pressured the World Health Organization to mislead the world when the virus was first discovered by Chinese authorities," Trump said. "Countless lives have been taken and profound economic hardship has been inflicted all around the globe."

The President had previously announced a temporary halt of funding to the WHO and sent a letter to the agency earlier in May saying that the US would permanently pull funding if the WHO did not "commit to major substantive improvements in the next 30 days."

This story was first published on CNN.com, "Trump announces end of US relationship with World Health Organization"
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday said the state governments revenue increased considerably in May vis-a-vis the poor earnings of April and there was no proposal to levy any new cess or tax to mobilise additional revenue in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.

He made the assertion a day before the beginning of more phased relaxations, also known as Unlock 1, outside containment zones.

We have got good revenue this month with respect to the earnings of the last month (April 2020) and hence there is no proposal to levy any new tax or cess, said Adityanath, while replying to a question at a video conference with journalists here on Sunday on the completion of one year of the Modi governments second term.

Yes, the state governments receipts will be over the Rs 5,000-crore mark by May 31, 2020 against Rs 2022 crore earned in April 2020. The state government spends a sum of Rs 12,000 crore to Rs 13,000 crore on salaries and pension. So, its earnings remain far behind the demand, said a senior officer.

Hike in excise duty rates, opening of liquor shops and increase in VAT on petrol and diesel have added to the revenue this month, the officer added.

Yogi Adityanath, however, exuded confidence about bringing about an improvement in the situation following the beginning of Unlock-1.

After four stages of the lockdown, we will start unlock on Monday We are going to start major activities in most of the areas barring the containment zones, where only doorstep delivery, medical screening and other essential services will be allowed. We have started the economic activities and will expedite the pace of work, he said.

We have been able to get Rs 3 lakh crore investment in the past three years We are making efforts to attract more investment. Teams have been formed. Desks for the US, South Korea and Japan have been set up to attract investment. Any company leaving China looks at UP as a potential destination. A German company did so recently, he said.

On the prime ministers economic package, Yogi Adityanath said his government had been able to draw maximum advantage from the package owing to the state governments expeditious work.

We are already getting maximum benefits from the PMs package. The state will be able to get advantage on the basis of the pace of its work. We are satisfied with the benefits we have taken from the PMs economic package and the Garib Kalyan package. We have derived maximum advantage, taken our existing welfare schemes forward and formulated new ones, he said.

We are focusing on how to give concessions to the people. The state government has been making all efforts to start most of the industry and trading activities following social distancing norms. We will make efforts to break the chain of the coronavirus while giving a push to economic activities, the chief minister said.

He also said mass gathering would not be allowed under any circumstances while norms for various activities had been laid down.

Religious places will open from June 8. For social activities like marriages, norms have been laid down. We are giving relaxation and making efforts to make the people aware of the measures for protection. Protect yourself and help others protect themselves is the mantra to live with Covid-19, the chief minister said.

On the Oppositions charge of the fudging of data, he said, We have been able to provide 1.1 lakh beds in Covid hospitals in the state. This is the highest number in any state We will take the testing capacity to 20,000 (samples) per day by June 30 against existing capacity of 10,000 tests per day. We have carried out 2.72 lakh tests up to now. I wish no leader of opposition parties needs to go to a Covid hospital to realise the facilities being provided there.

But the opposition is indulging in negative politics and leaders who have not distributed even a food packet are making adverse comments on Twitter. We have been provided fudged information about buses. We cant play with the lives of people. We cannot accept this, said Yogi Adityanath, without naming any party.

Commenting on the move not to impose new taxes, Yashvir Tyagi, former professor of economics at Lucknow University, said, I endorse the Yogi governments decision not to impose any new taxes. Any new taxes will only bring down the purchasing power of the people. As the demand is low now, the government needs to give a boost to the economy. But the state government has to go a long way as its receipts are still lower than the expenditure.

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Muslim worshippers enter Jerusalem compound for dawn prayers after weeks of closure to slow pandemics spread.

Jerusalems Al-Aqsa Mosque compound has reopened to worshippers and visitors after more than two months of closure due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Council of Islamic Waqf, which oversees Muslim sites on the complex, cited the viruss slowed local spread in lifting entry restrictions on Sunday.

But the Jordan-appointed council also imposed some precautionary measures to reduce the risk of contagion at Islams third-holiest site. Worshippers must wear face masks and bring personal prayer rugs should they wish to pray in the mosque or on the grounds.

Chanting God is greatest, we will protect Al-Aqsa with our soul and blood, tens of Muslims gathered in front of the large wooden doors, where they were welcomed by mosque director Omar al-Kiswani, who thanked them for their patience.

After they opened the mosque, I feel like I can breathe again. Thanks be to God, Jerusalem resident Umm Hisham said through a face mask, her eyes tearing up, after entering the compound for dawn prayers.

The resumption of prayers capped a sombre period for Jerusalems Muslims, who this year marked the fasting month of Ramadan and the Eid al-Fitr holiday without their usual daily visits to Al-Aqsa Mosque and the adjoining Dome of the Rock.

It also followed a fraught day in occupied East Jerusalem. Israeli police on Saturday shot dead a disabled Palestinian, saying they suspected he had been carrying a pistol. He had been unarmed.

The killing  which happened in the walled Old City near Lions Gate, an access point mainly used by Palestinians  prompted furious condemnation from Palestinians.





The Al-Aqsa Mosque compound had closed its doors in March as part of measures to limit the spread of COVID-19, the highly infectious respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus.

Muslims revere the site, believing that the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven there on a miraculous night journey, and it has often been a flashpoint in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

It is also the holiest site to Jews, who refer to it as the Temple Mount and believe it to be the location of two biblical temples. Later on Sunday morning, a group of Orthodox Jews, accompanied by Israeli police, entered the compound through a visitors entrance adjacent to Judaisms holy Western Wall.

Known to Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif, the site is under the custodianship of neighbouring Jordan, which controlled the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, up until occupation by Israel in 1967.

With the number of COVID-19 cases declining, in recent days both Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories have eased restrictions.

Israel has reported more than 17,000 cases, including 284 deaths.

Fewer than 500 infections and just three deaths have been confirmed in the West Bank and Gaza, which have a combined population of about five million.

Following the deadly shooting on Saturday, the Palestinian leadership demanded that the Israeli police officer who killed the man be brought before the International Criminal Court.

There have been fears that Israeli plans to take advantage of a controversial green light from US President Donald Trump to annex swaths of the West Bank could stoke further violence.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said that people are realising the true potential of Yoga and Ayurveda as they battle the coronavirus pandemic.

During the coronavirus crisis, I had a chance to speak to many world leaders. In their conversation, they expressed great interest in Yoga and Ayurveda. Some leaders enquired how Yoga and Ayurveda can help in these times, PM Modi said during the 65th Mann ki Baat, his monthly radio address.

People are becoming more health conscious as Yoga is getting associated with their lives. During coronavirus crisis too, from Hollywood to Haridwar, people re paying serious attention to Yoga while being at home, he said.

Everywhere, people are willing to know more and adopt Yoga and Ayurveda. Many people who have never practiced Yoga are either taking classes online or learning it through online videos, the Prime Minister said.

He added that in true terms, Yoga is good for community, immunity and unity.

He also gave details about how Yoga can help in battling Covid-19.

This virus affects our respiratory system the most. In Yoga, there are many pranayams (breathing exercises) to strengthen the respiratory system. We have been seeing their effects for a long time. These are time-tested techniques which have their own significance, PM Modi said.

He also asked the people to stay vigilant as a major part of the countrys economy will now open up after four phases of lockdown.

With all due precautions, passenger flights have resumed. Gradually industrial activities are rebooting. It means a large chunk of the economy has now opened up. Now, we need to be even more vigilant, PM Modi said.

On Saturday, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) issued new guidelines for phased re-opening of all activities outside containment zones for the next one month beginning June 1.

The Prime Minister had on March 24 announced a 21-day nationwide lockdown as a precautionary measure to contain the spread of COVID-19. The lockdown was later extended, in phases, till May 31.
Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee delivered a message of understanding, peace and change Saturday, following a night of angry protests in Houston and around the country over the death of native Houstonian George Floyd.

The Houston Democrat said too many Americans fear for their lives because of their skin color and vowed to work to pass legislation to fund training for law enforcement officers to de-escalate situations and overcome biases.

They cannot see a black man. They have to see an American, she said, standing beside Floyds nephew Brandon Williams, Houston rapper Trae tha Truth and other family friends during a press conference at downtowns Mikey Leland Federal Building. They cannot see a white, a brown, an Asian and others. They cannot see a Muslim, a Christian, a Jewish person, or Catholic or Protestant. They have to see an American.

Williams, 29, said his family wanted justice for his 46-year-old uncle, who died in Minneapolis police custody Monday night after a video showed an officer kneeling on his neck and pinning him to the ground while he pleaded for help.

I dont think its hard to tell that that was murder. No person should have to go through that. No family should have to go through that, he said, at one point steadying himself on the podium.

The protests, Williams said, are about change.

I speak to the nation and world when I say people are fed up. Theyre hurt, angry, disgusted, he said. We dont hate law enforcement, but something needs to be done. It has to stop. Im starting to feel like its normalized and nothing about that is right.

Jackson Lee thanked those who rallied in an effort to continue to move the country toward a place where all people have human dignity. She urged the protesters to be safe and the police to also take a considered approach to their actions.

To the officers that were there, there were moments of great stress, Jackson Lee said of Friday nights protests, which lasted well into the early morning hours. Id like them to reflect on those very famous and important words  protect and serve. Id like them to hear the words that Brandon said. That were not against officers.

Williams said his uncle was friendly, loving and caring and had a way of lighting up every room he entered.

He said he was only in Minnesota a few years, but everyone there loved and embraced him.

He meant the world to me, Williams said. He didnt deserve what happened to him.

Xavier Roberson, a close family friend who grew up with Williams, said Floyd always looked out for him.

He always encouraged me, encouraged me to stay in school, both of us, Roberson said. Thats the person who he is. The black community needs more people like that.

They both wore shirts with a drawing of Floyds face and the words I CANT BREATHE over his mouth.

nancy.sarnoff@chron.com

twitter.com/nsarnoff
Trader's body CAIT on Sunday expressed solidarity with Ladakh-based educational reformer and visionary Sonam Wangchuk's appeal to boycott Chinese goods.

Amid tensions between India and China, Wangchuk, the man who inspired the Bollywood block-buster '3 Idiots', has appealed and asked Indians to boycott all Chinese companies.

In a tweet, engineer-turned-educational reformer asked people to boycott all Chinese products to stop Beijing's "bullying" in Ladakh and liberate 1.4 billion bonded labourers in the country.

Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), which claims to represent 7 crore traders, said it has identified about 3,000 categories of heavily imported Chinese products "which must immediately be replaced by Indian products as good quality Indian replacements are available for such products".

CAIT Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal said it will educate traders across the country to stop importing as well as selling these products, and more products will soon be verified and added to the list.

The trader's body said, "The whole country understands the importance of hurting China economically and therefore we wholeheartedly welcome this great initiative and will stand shoulder to shoulder with Sonam Wangchuk".

However, CAIT has also appealed to Indian manufacturers to "get their act together" and gear up to shoulder the responsibility.

CAIT
London, May 31 : The UK's House of Commons or the lower house of parliament should continue its virtual meetings while the threat of coronavirus remains, a committee has said.

The Commons' Procedure Committee published a report on Saturday following the announcement by Jacob Rees-Mogg, the leader of the Commons, that MPs will be recalled to Westminster on June 2 in person to address issues while ending the "virtual Parliament" temporary measures, reports Xinhua news agency.

House of Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle has written to all 650 MPs saying the rules limiting the number of MPs allowed into the famous debating chamber will continue to be just 50 politicians at any one time.

Since April, the vast majority of MPs have been following proceedings and participated from their homes via a video link.

It was the first time in the Commons 700-year history that a hybrid system has been launched, which allows up to 120 MPs at any one time to take part in proceedings virtually, while around 50 could remain in the chamber under strict social distancing rules.

Fears have been expressed that if the virtual parliament is scrapped, MPs unable or unwilling, because of the pandemic, to return to work in the Houses of Parliament, will be denied the chance to vote on key issues.

The rules which allowed the virtual meetings of parliament to take place have now lapsed, and on Tuesday MPs will decide what happens from now on.

One of the biggest issues is how MPs participate in voting.

The time-honoured system of MPs crowded into lobbies to vote "yes" or "no" would mean current distancing rules being broken.

Hoyle said in his letter the traditional lobbies were unsafe to use for voting.

He has given the government until Monday to put forward proposals for how MPs will take part in votes.

One proposed idea is to introduce a system in which MPs line up, two-metres apart, to vote one-by-one in the chamber of the Commons.

A media report said the queue could be 1 km long if most MPs turned up to vote.

The committee's report recommends that a form of virtual participation should be allowed to continue while coronavirus restrictions are in place.

This is to allow MPs who are not able to head to Westminster because of the continuing restrictions caused by the pandemic to contribute to debates and represent their constituents.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-31 19:06:03|Editor: huaxia

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MOGADISHU, May 31 (Xinhua) -- The African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) and the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) on Sunday in separate statements condemned the abduction and deliberate killing of seven health workers and a civilian at a local health center in southern Somalia.

Henrietta Fore, UNICEF executive director said these heinous attacks interfere with fundamental protections of the right to health and the perpetrators must be held accountable.

"These health workers were heroes, putting their safety on the line every day to provide lifesaving care to children and families. We will hold their dedication and sacrifice in our hearts as we continue our work to reach vulnerable children across the country," Fore said in a statement issued on Saturday evening.

The eight people were abducted on May 27 from an NGO-run health clinic, about 30 kilometers away from Mogadishu, before their brutal killing.

Francois Madeira, AMISOM head of mission, said the health workers continue to provide much-needed quality healthcare as Somalia continues to face the challenge of COVID-19 pandemic.

"I am shocked by the senseless killings of civilians. Deliberate attacks against health professionals and facilities are a serious violation of International Humanitarian Law and constitute a war crime in non-international armed conflicts," said Madeira.

He said the health workers are putting their lives on the line to save others in very difficult circumstances.

No arrest has so far been made and no group has claimed responsibility for the murder. Enditem
Photo credit: Steven Ferdman - Getty Images

From Harper's BAZAAR

Following the death of George Floyd, a whole host of public figures, including Michelle Obama, Rihanna and Beyonce, have utilised their social media platforms to send powerful messages and demand justice.

Earlier this week, footage appeared online showing Floyd, who was African American, struggling for breath and crying out "I can't breathe" and "Don't kill me" while a white police officer knelt on his neck for several minutes as other officers stood by. Floyd, a 46-year-old father, was pronounced dead after being taken to a nearby hospital.

The distressing video, which was filmed on Monday in Minneapolis, Minnesota, depicts another incident in a long history of police brutality against black people. Floyd's death also follows the recent high-profile deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, a black man shot and killed while he was jogging, and Breonna Taylor, a black woman gunned down by the police in her own home.

According to CNN, four Minneapolis officers were fired and an FBI investigation was ordered as a result of the incident.

The day after Floyd's death, protests erupted throughout America calling for an end to police brutality and demanding justice for Floyd. Signs saying "I can't breathe" flooded the streets as protestors chanted "No justice, no peace".

Celebrities have shared heartfelt responses as they call for change and action:



Michelle Obama

Rihanna

Story continues

Beyonce





Oprah

Kim Kardashian West

Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez

Ill just say it: a lot of politicians are scared of the political power of the police,and thats why changes to hold them accountable for flagrant killings dont happen. That in itself is a scary problem.



We shouldnt be intimidated out of holding people accountable for murder.  Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) May 27, 2020

Tracee Ellis Ross

Naomi Campbell

Barack Obama

Bella Hadid

Olivia Wilde



Cardi B



Katie Holmes

Zoe Kravitz

You can donate to demand justice for George Floyd

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"Negative reinforcement is a term described by B. F. Skinner in his theory of operant conditioning. In negative reinforcement, a response or behavior is strengthened by stopping, removing, or avoiding a negative outcome, consequence or aversive stimulus."

Kansas City community comes together Sunday morning to help clean up after night of violent protests KANSAS CITY, Mo. - People in the Kansas City community are coming together Sunday morning to help clean up after a night of protests, over the death of George Floyd, turned violent in the Country Club Plaza area. Floyd, a black man, died while in Minneapolis police custody.

For our amateur psychologist readers:And while we know that these do-gooders mean well . . . The fact is that their volunteerism risks offering a reward for illegal behavior.Read more:
US President Donald Trump said on Saturday he would postpone a Group of Seven summit he had hoped to hold next month until September or later and expand the list of invitees to include Australia, Russia, South Korea and India.

Speaking to reporters on Air Force One during his return to Washington from Cape Canaveral in Florida, Trump said the G7, which groups the world's most advanced economies, was a "very outdated group of countries" in its current format.

"I'm postponing it because I don't feel that as a G7 it properly represents what's going on in the world," Trump said.

Most European countries offered no immediate comment on the proposal, with a spokesman for the German government saying Berlin was "waiting for further information".

It was unclear whether Trump's desire to invite the additional countries was a bid to permanently expand the G7. On several previous occasions, he suggested Russia be added, given what he called Moscow's global strategic importance.

Russia was expelled from what was then the G8 in 2014 when Trump's predecessor, Barack Obama, was U.S. president, after Moscow annexed the Crimea region from Ukraine. Russia still holds the territory, and various G7 governments have rebuffed previous calls from Trump to readmit Moscow.

White House spokeswoman Alyssa Farah said Trump wants the countries to discuss China at the summit.

Trump has criticised Beijing over its handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which began in China, and on Friday he ordered his administration to begin the process of ending special U.S. treatment for Hong Kong in retaliation for China's decision to impose a new security law on the former British colony.

The decision to postpone the G7 summit is a retreat for Trump, who had sought to host the group of major industrialized countries in Washington as a demonstration that the United States was returning to normal after the coronavirus epidemic, which has killed more than 103,000 Americans to date

Trump had canceled an in-person G7 meeting scheduled for March as the virus spread, but had recently sought to revive it.

French President Emmanuel Macron backed the idea of an in-person meeting, according to the White House. But Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau declined to endorse it, saying there were too many health-related questions. This week, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she could not attend.

South Korea is aware of Trump's invitation and will discuss the matter with the United States, a government official in Seoul told Reuters on Sunday.

The G7 groups the United States, Britain, France, Japan, Germany, Italy and Canada, and the European Union also attends.
Bosch has announced the appointment of Per Johansson as General Manager for Robert Bosch Middle East FZE, making him responsible for the companys regional operations.

Johansson will also drive the teams efforts to achieve market growth, synergy utilisation and comprehensive stakeholder management.

Steven Young, President, Bosch Turkey and Middle East said: Per Johansson has dedicated 17 years of his career to Bosch, enabling the growth of Power Tools and Security Systems divisions. He brings with him robust knowledge and experience of Boschs businesses which will enhance our strategy and ambition in the region.

As an accomplished senior leader, Johansson brings over 25 years of international industry experience gained in markets including Europe, Asia Pacific and North Africa.

Commenting on his appointment, Per Johansson expressed his delight to lead the Middle East operations, adding: I hope that my longstanding relations across different divisions and markets at Bosch would further strengthen its position within the region. I look forward to working closely with the team, partners and customers in the market while contributing to Boschs great success.

Prior to this role, Johansson led the Power Tools Division as Vice President of both Western and Northern Europe. He has also played a fundamental role within Boschs Security Systems Division in Sweden and Singapore. Johansson has held senior positions with leading industry players in Europe as well.TradeArabia News Service
Wikimedia Commons

New Delhi: Two officials of the High Commission of Pakistan in New Delhi were apprehended today by Indian law enforcement authorities for indulging in espionage activities, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Sunday.

The Government has declared both these officials persona non grata for indulging in activities incompatible with their status as members of a diplomatic mission and asked them to leave the country within twenty four hours, read the statement issued by the MEA.

Pakistans Charge de Affaires was issued a demarche in which a strong protest was lodged with regard to the activities of these officials of the High Commission of Pakistan against Indias national security.

"Pakistan's CdA was asked to ensure that no member of its diplomatic mission should indulge in activities inimical to India or behave in a manner incompatible with their diplomatic status," read the statement.
The General Administration Department (GAD) at the Delhi Secretariat has been sealed for sanitisation after an employee tested positive for coronavirus, officials said on Saturday.

"The official was from the GAD. The department has been sealed for sanitisation. Also, some of the officials are considered as close contacts and have been put under quarantine," a government official told IANS.

Delhi Secretariat houses the offices of all the Delhi Cabinet ministers, including the Chief Minister.

This came after an official from the Health Minister's office and four from the Raj Niwas tested positive for the infection.

The number of coronavirus cases in the city crossed the 18,000-mark on Saturday.
Phuket lockdown relaxed: island road, sea borders open

PHUKET: The Phuket Governor has issued an order relaxing the entry and exit of people arriving on and leaving the island, effective from midnight tonight.



By The Phuket News

Monday 1 June 2020, 12:15AM

Phuket Governor Phakaphong Tavipatana at an event today (May 31) congratulating all the officials and medical staff for their efforts in preventing the spread of COVID-19. Photo: PR Phuket

The order, dated and signed by Governor Phakaphong Tavipatana today, is effective from June 1 onwards, unless otherwise ordered.

The order was publicly posted by the Phuket office of the public Relations Department at 9:12pm tonight (May 31).

Although the news leaked on other news sites in Thailand elsewhere, Phuket officials had not released any previous warning that the road and sea lockdown restrictions would be eased.

The order issued tonight allows for people to arrive and depart Phuket by road, as long as they comply with the requirements and operational standards set by the Phuket Provincial Police that are enforced at the Phuket Check Point at Tha Chatchai, said the order.

Any people passing through the checkpoint on public buses must also comply with the regulations already in effect, the order added, despite the fact that no interprovincial public transport buses are opening into or out of Phuket.

The piers and ports were also reopened to interprovincial travel, with all boat operators and passengers required to also comply with health regulations currently in effect. With respect to water transport, the health regulations are to be regulated by the Phuket Marine Office.

Any travellers suspected of being infected or carrying COVID-19 may be separated and quarantined by officials, the order noted.

Regarding foreign vessels arriving and departing Phuket via international waters, only cargo ships and vessels carrying necessary products and items for delivery are permitted to port in Phuket. While in port, no crew are permitted to disembark without special permission from the relevant authorities. Any persons granted permission, such as envoys and disaster relief personnel, must first be issued a Fit to Travel document issued no more than 72 hours before arrival.

Officials at the piers and ports are empowered to detain any persons for health safety seasons, the order explained.

The order warned that any persons found violating the order could be fined up to B20,000 for breach of Section 51 of the Communicable Disease Act 2015, or face up to one year imprisonment or a fine of up to B100,000, or both, for breach of Section 52 of the same act.

The order further warned that breach of the order could be punished under Emergency Decree Act.
Summer travel via recreational vehicle, or RV, could hit record levels this year. Hitting the road in a self-contained cocoon, which travelers can sanitize to their liking, is on a roll as gasoline prices tumble and Americans seek ways to express their pent up demand to get out of the house.

RVs provide a great way for consumers to enjoy vacations with their families, while still adhering to social-distancing policies that are likely to remain in place in some fashion moving forward, said RV Industry Association President Craig Kirby.

San Francisco-based Outdoorsy.com, a company that connects renters with RV owners, has seen visits to its website hit 2.5 million this month, up 93% compared to the same time last year, according to a spokesperson. Its gross bookings are up 84% year-over-year. "We had our best bookings day on record this week  with 300 percent year-over-year growth that day," she said.

RV vacations produced some of the fondest summer vacation memories from my childhood, such as the time we booked an "Islander" motor home in Atlanta and rumbled up to Ontario to visit family for summer vacation. Best memory? We stopped in Pennsylvania's Amish country during peak fruit and vegetable season, bought berries and my mother made a pie in the RV's tiny oven while we watched locals clop around in their horses and buggies from our parking spot.

A few years later, we rented a 36-foot whopper of a Winnebago to drive to the Rockies for the grand tour from Denver, up through the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone parks and into Montana, then back across the high plains with a stop at Mount Rushmore. Most thrilling for me was that I was 15-years-old at the time and in possession of my learner's permit, and my father let me drive that big rig on those long flat freeways listening to Boz Scaggs and ELO 8-track tapes!

Care to create your own memories? Here's what you need to know to start planning your own RV experience for your family or circle of friends.

First, get busy. Increased interest in RV travel this summer means higher prices and frequent sellouts.

How can you find the right RV? There are several companies that rent their own fleets of motor homes such as Cruise America and El Monte RV. There are also Airbnb-style websites set up that connect potential renters with RV owners, such as RVShare.com, Outdoorsy.com and GoRVing.com. Back in the day, my father saw the Islander parked in a driveway in our neighborhood  he approached the owner and they worked out a private deal to rent it, so there's a low-tech option, too.

Thomas Winz/Getty Images

To get an idea of cost, let's look at Cruise America's weekly rates for a "standard" size motor home that sleeps five. Cruise America's motor homes are midrange  functional but not fancy. Pets are allowed. For a one week rental, picking up and dropping off in the Bay Area, you'll pay about $200 per night, or about $1,400 for a week. There is also a fee of 35 cents per mile, so if you plan on driving 1,000 miles, you'll pay $350. And you'll also pay a $3.50 fee per hour for use of the generator, typically used to power air conditioning. Kitchen and bedding "kits" are extra.

Then there is gasoline, which is relatively cheap right now (averaging about $2.60 per gallon in California). A standard size RV gets about 10 mpg. So, the all-in price for a seven-day RV motor home rental will be about $2,000 plus gas, campground, parking or park fees, and food/beverages. That's the price for a Class C-style motor home.

The larger "bus" style homes (Class A) are more expensive, and offer more room and amenities  I even found one with a fireplace! Keep in mind that you'll likely have to park the big rigs overnight in designated campgrounds, with electrical and waste hookups.

Camper vans, such as the popular Sprinter models (Class B), vary in price, and are prized because they can be legally parked in most parking lots. These smaller, spryer vans are best for those who want to go "boondocking," where you drive to remote areas, park and camp relying on the vehicle's generator and waste systems.

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While I've been writing about driveable motor homes, there are a wide variety of recreational vehicles available, including non-driveable RVs that you tow behind a car, ranging from small teardrop trailers to smooth and silvery vintage Airstreams.

Maskot/Getty Images/Maskot

Some other considerations for those ready to hit the road in an RV this summer:

 You can keep your RV cocoon as sanitized as you like, but keep in mind that gasoline stations, truck stops and restaurants along the road could harbor the coronavirus, so pack latex gloves or paper towels for touching gas pumps, and only allow one person out of the RV.

 Keep in mind that some state park campgrounds are closed, but many are opening now. (Outdoorsy is keeping track of openings/closings here.) Campgrounds are also places where you'll likely come into contact with others. Most private campgrounds, such as those operated by KOA, are still open. In any case, be sure to call ahead to determine availability  you don't want to get stuck driving around in the dark looking for a place to park overnight.

 With many hotels in the United States still closed, you'll have fewer options for alternate lodging if, like our family experienced back in the day, there is too much togetherness and the need for a long hot shower!

Read all recent TravelSkills posts here

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An increase in national apprenticeship vacancies in the past month may have raised false hopes of a long-term skills training recovery with new analysis forecasting apprenticeship numbers are set to fall by up to 30 per cent in three years.

National apprenticeship vacancies plunged from 1731 in January to 468 in April after social distancing measures were introduced. The numbers increased to 687 in May, raising hopes of continued improvement.

Banjo Studholme, 16, is facing a tough job market to get an apprenticeship. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer

Research from the Mitchell Institute at Victoria University estimates that without intervention there will be 130,000 fewer apprenticeships and traineeships from the start of the coronavirus pandemic to June 2023. This represents a 30 per cent drop in new apprenticeships over the next three years which the research predicted could potentially lead to skills shortages lasting up to eight years, hampering the COVID-19 economic recovery.

Banjo Studholme, 16, of Waverley, is hoping to get an apprenticeship in carpentry or construction by the time he completes year 11 this year. But he has found opportunities are scarce.
JACKSON, MI -- Even though much of the state remains shut down due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, there are people who have been and still are working hard to serve the Jackson County community.

Here is a look at some of the men and women who are among those essential workers.

Hannah Gonzalez poses for a photo outside of Henry Ford Allegiance Heath on May 8, 2020. Gonzalez is the Manager of the Respiratory Therapy Department at the hospital. Mikayla Carter | MLive.com

Hannah Gonzalez, Henry Ford Allegiance Health

Hannah Gonzalez has been manager of Henry Ford Allegiance Healths respiratory therapy department since March.

Its been a change for her to no longer be at the bedside of patients, and instead managing a team, especially with the pandemic. Gonzalez said her staff is getting into a routine and is prepared, but the first couple days were filled with unknowns.

At first it was hectic," she said. "We werent sure how to care for these patients and emotions were high, but its becoming kind of that norm that people are falling into. Its a routine that we know exactly what were supposed to be doing so emotions arent as high and morale is coming back up.

When coronavirus entered Michigan, Gonzalez said the hospital was getting frequent communication, including information from overseas and speaking regularly with the physicians at the hospital.

There were so many unknowns of how to protect ourselves, but also protect the patients from ourselves and then how do we care for these patients, Gonzalez said. The camaraderie between everybody has been amazing.

Gonzalezs husband is a farmer, and she is grateful for his support for their family. While shes at work, he stays home with their children.

Paramedic Alyssa Carden poses for a photo in a JCA ambulance on April, 29, 2020. Mikayla Carter | MLive.com

Alyssa Carden, Jackson Community Ambulance

Alyssa Carden has been a paramedic for five years.

When it comes to her job with Jackson Community Ambulance, she said she, along with other paramedics, are more cautious now when going to a scene and are wearing more personal protective gear when on call.

It keeps us more on our toes, Carden said.

Carden, who is a new mother, is also cautious when coming home. She doesnt hold, hug, or kiss her little boy until she has showered and taken the necessary precautions.

The Jackson community has been generous throughout the pandemic, whether its providing food or donating goods, she said.

Carden wishes the coronavirus pandemic would end, but said shes glad people are taking precautions and staying safe.

We just have to keep sticking it out, she said.

Lucas Worden poses for a photo in Polly's Country Market on May 1, 2020. Mikayla Carter | MLive.com

Lucas Worden, Pollys Country Market

Pollys Country Market employee Lucas Worden said the stores have taken multiple precautions to keep employees and customers safe, such as putting arrows on the floor for traffic flow and requiring masks.

Members of the community also are offering a lot of support for workers, he said.

Sometimes youll have war vets walk by and say thank you for your service and Ill have to do a double take, Warden said. I mean, I just stock groceries.

Worden still lives with his parents. Once he gets home he does a quarantine shower and makes sure to put his clothes directly in the washer. Due to the pandemic shutdown, he hasnt seen his girlfriend for four months and said its been hard.

I could use a good date," he said, laughing.

Public Safety Officer Thomas Brower poses for a photo in his police car on May 1, 2020. Mikayla Carter | MLive.com

Officer Thomas Brower, Blackman-Leoni Department of Public Safety

Coronavirus hasnt changed life much for Blackman-Leoni Department of Public Safety officer Thomas Brower.

Hes always kept his police car clean, and frequently uses hand sanitizer or washes his hands. But, now he also keeps his distance from people and wears a mask.

When Brower finishes his work day, he usually leaves his uniform and boots at work, where they are sterilized. If he does bring his uniform home to be washed, he keeps it in a plastic bag until putting it in the washer.

When hes not working, he is caring for his father or his mother-in-law. He provides them with groceries and gets them other items they may need.

Matt Southard poses for a photo in front of his truck at the Modern Waste Facility in Napoleon on May 15, 2020. Mikayla Carter | MLive.com

Matt Southard, Modern Waste

Matt Southard, a Modern Waste sanitation worker, starts work at 4:30 a.m., and once he hits the road its nonstop until the trash is collected.

There has been an increase in trash pickup during the coronavirus pandemic, he said, adding hes now more careful when dealing with the trash.

With this job we never know what were exposed to, so for me, I understand the risk and its just another day," he said. The job has to get done and I have to support my family.

When he saw the sign on the fence outside of Modern Waste that said, Heroes work here, Southard said it made him feel good because he knew the community was supporting him and his co-workers.

Its nice to know people appreciate everything we do, Southard said. Its a dirty job. Its a hard job, so getting that recognition sometimes is really nice."

Mari Lamb poses for a photo in Polly's Country Market on May 1, 2020. Mikayla Carter | MLive.com

Mari Lamb, Pollys Country Market

Mari Lamb, a Pollys Country Market employee, said the coronavirus has affected her personal life more than her work life. Shes a Northwest High School senior and member of the track team.

I didnt get to enjoy my senior year, she said.

When it comes to her home life, Lamb said her family has not been affected by the virus much. She and her father are still working, while her stepmother stays home with the rest of the family. But, not being able to see the rest of the family has been tough, Lamb said.

Elizabeth Lorencen poses for a photo outside of Henry Ford Allegiance Health where she is a Registered Nurse on May 11, 2020. Mikayla Carter | MLive.com

Elizabeth Lorencen, Henry Ford Allegiance Health

Elizabeth Lorencen is a registered nurse at Henry Ford Allegiance Health where she works in a progressive care unit.

Coronavirus has been a challenge, she said, but shes enjoyed stepping up to the plate. Much like with other nurses, Lorencens job has changed in that she has had to train more in critical care.

The patient-to-nurse ratio has gone down to provide more one-on-one care, Lorencen said, adding she is the eyes and ears for the doctors when they are not with patients. Along with working closely with doctors, Lorencen also works with physical therapists, occupational therapists and nutritionists.

"I think were all kind of in a groove. We have adjusted fairly well, Lorencen said. Every day we never really knew what we were walking into, and even every hour it seemed like something would change.

Staff members have been supportive of one another, Lorencen said.

You can tell when maybe a co-worker is having a little bit of a rough day; you can let them lean on you a little bit, she said.

When Lorencen is done with work, she leaves her scrubs at the hospital and immediately washes once she gets home. It can get lonely at home, Lorencen said, as she hasnt seen her family or her friends.

During this time, the best thing for me is coming to work because at least then I am around a supportive group that were all kind of going through the same thing, she said.

Public Safety Officer Alex Watson poses for a photo outside of East Jackson Memorial School on May 1, 2020. Mikayla Carter | MLive.com

Officer Alex Watson, Blackman-Leoni Department of Public Safety

Blackman-Leoni Department of Public Safety officer Alex Watson has been based at a former East Jackson school.

After 14 officers were quarantined, the departments administration decided to base those who respond to rescue and medical calls at the school to protect other officers.

It keeps the exposure away from everybody else, Watson said.

When on a call, Watson said all necessary precautions are being taken, such as wearing a gown, gloves, mask and a Tyvek suit, if needed. The job -- serving the community -- has remained the same, though, he said.

Paramedic Robert Snedeker poses for a photo in a JCA ambulance on April, 29, 2020. Mikayla Carter | MLive.com

Robert Snedeker, Jackson Community Ambulance

Coronavirus has impacted his work life and personal life, Jackson Community Ambulance paramedic Robert Snedeker said.

Its changed how paramedics take precaution, he said, with the type of call dictating the amount of protective gear worn before entering a scene.

But Snedeker also lost his grandmother to the disease, he said. He and his father were not able to see her before she died.

Snedekers wife also has been laid off from her job and is receiving unemployment benefits, he said.

Snedeker continues to take all the precautions to ensure his family remains safe, he said. When he comes home from work, he leaves his shoes outside, puts his clothes in the washer, and makes sure to take a shower. He also takes advantage of the early grocery store hours set for first responders.

Our family is doing all right," he said. We are able to live pretty normal lives right now.

Lauren Bryan poses for a photo at Polly's Country Market on May 1, 2020. Mikayla Carter | MLive.com

Lauren Bryan, Pollys Country Market

Pollys Country Market employee Lauren Bryan said shes seen her store take multiple precautions, such as frequent cleaning, plexiglass going up on each register and masks being a requirement.

But stress has been a big factor for he, she said. Part of her job was to place ads within the store, but once the virus hit Jackson, she was moved to the front to help with the registers.

When it comes to home, Bryan said she cleans and watches Netflix, instead of going out.

I wake up. I come to work. I work for eight an a half hours and then I go home, she said.

Deputy Benjamin Roe poses for a photo outside of the Jackson County SheriffOs Department on May 6, 2020. Mikayla Carter | MLive.com

Deputy Benjamin Roe, Jackson County Office of the Sheriff

Coronavirus has meant many changes for Jackson County Sheriffs Deputy Benjamin Roe.

After every call, Roe wipes down the interior of the police car and his computer. Road citations have gone down, he said, but are still handled the same -- just with a mask and gloves.

When he heads home, Roe lets his family know if hes been in a situation they should be aware of.

Community and businesses have supported the department by donating lunches, gloves and masks, he said.

I was at a car-deer accident one of the first weeks we were quarantined and it was a local business owner," Roe said. He gave me a handful of rubber gloves. I wish I would have gotten the gentlemans name to thank him later on.

Jeff Glover poses for a photo in front of a a garbage truck at the Modern Waste Facility in Napoleon on May 15, 2020. Mikayla Carter | MLive.com

Jeff Glover, Modern Waste

Modern Waste employee Jeff Glover has worked for the company for more than three years. He said trash has increased during the pandemic.

The sign saying Heroes Work Here that community members placed in front of Modern Wastes office "made me feel important, he said.

Glover also has seen messages on the sidewalk thanking him for his service, and thats nice too, he said.

Public Safety Officer Justin Davis poses for a photo outside of East Jackson Memorial School on May 1, 2020. Mikayla Carter | MLive.com

Officer Justin Davis, Blackman-Leoni Department of Public Safety

Blackman-Leoni Department of Public Safety officer Justin Davis said his job hasnt changed much. But the coronavirus has increased awareness.

I choose to not let it control me... or let the fear get to me, Davis said.

When responding to a scene, Davis said dispatch gives officers all necessary information so they know what to expect when entering a scene. Officers also all have the necessary safety equipment, he said.

President of Modern Waste Philip Duckham poses for a photo in his office on Friday, May 15, 2020.Mikayla Carter | MLive.com

Philip Duckham, Modern Waste president

Although businesses and schools are currently closed, theres still trash that needs to be picked up and that is where Modern Waste comes in Modern Waste President Philip Duckham said.

Modern Waste has 55 trucks in operation and hauls around 18 million pounds of refuse per month. That hasnt declined since the COVID-19 outbreak, Duckham said.

We didnt know what to expect, but we just kind of made due, he said.

When the virus first hit Michigan, Modern Waste closed its office and facility to the public to cut back on the interaction between employees and customers, Duckham said. Since then, the business has slowly started to reopen to the public, he said.

When face masks were hard to purchase, Duckham said the wife of one of his employees made masks for employees. Duckham has also has given each employee a $500 bonus check in appreciation for their service, he said.

Sgt. Gregg Conley poses for a photo inside the Jackson County Jail on May 6, 2020. Mikayla Carter | MLive.com

Sgt. Gregg Conley, Jackson County Jail

At the Jackson County Jail, officers typically are in charge of taking in prisoners, transporting them from the jail to the courthouse and releasing them when warranted.

Now, due to coronavirus, Sgt. Gregg Conley said thats changed. Prisoners are no longer transported from the jail to the courthouse as procedures are being done by video conference. Jail personnel are also wearing masks and cleaning more than usual to keep everyone safe.

Conley said he has not personally been affected by COVID-19, and hes taking all necessary precautions before entering his home. His uniform is left at the jail, and once he gets home he heads right to the shower, he said.

Both Conley and his wife are still working, he said, and are fortunate to have opposite days off so theyve not had to worry about childcare.

Amanda Ahrens poses for a photo outside of Henry Ford Allegiance Health on May 8, 2020. Ahrens is the CRNA Coordinator for the Anesthesiology Department at Henry Ford Allegiance Health.Mikayla Carter | MLive.com

Amanda Ahrens, Henry Ford Allegiance Health

Amanda Ahrens is the Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist coordinator for the anesthesiology department at Henry Ford Allegiance Health.

Her job entails administering anesthesia during surgery and, since COVID-19, Ahrens job has changed to include providing airways for patients.

We took on the responsibility of doing all the airway management hospital-wide so that put us in places we dont typically work in, so we were covering the (intensive care unit) and (emergency room) and also anywhere else in the hospital that anyone needed airway management, she said.

When people become critically ill and have respiratory problems like what happens with COVIED -19, we are the team that went around and placed the breathing tubes for these critically ill patients that needed to be ventilated.

In her many years in health care, Ahrens said she has never seen such effort and teamwork.

It is stressful and its difficult but at the same time its been uplifting to see how everyone comes together, Ahrens said. Watching my staff take care of one another, I would definitely say it was like watching family take care of each other.

However, seeing patients who were not able to have their family members with them was difficult Ahrens said.

I think on so many levels, (coronavirus) has personally affected me, she said.

Sgt. Darin Mcintosh poses for a photo outside of his police care on May 1, 2020. Sgt. Mcintosh has been on the job for for 13 years. Mikayla Carter | MLive.com

Sgt. Darin McIntosh, Blackman-Leoni Department of Public Safety

Blackman-Leoni Department of Public Safety Sgt. Darin Mcintosh said his job has relatively been the same.

Ive always kind of been a germaphobe, he said. "I always wear gloves when on scene with people. And all the way back to our academy days officers were taught to maintain a reactionary gap of six feet or greater. The mask thing is new mainly because it feels like Im being suffocated slowly.

When it comes to his home life, Mcintoshthe said the virus has affected him more. He and his wife have taken extra precautions to keep their children safe.

When we get home from work we are taking showers before we have any contact with our kids, he said.

One of the nicest things during the pandemic is seeing the communitys support, Mcintosh said.

Weve been spoiled lately, he said. We have a plethora of supplies being dropped off.

Deputy Corrie Abbey poses for a photo inside the Jackson County Jail on May 6, 2020. Mikayla Carter | MLive.com

Deputy Corrie Abbey, Jackson County Jail

There are fewer arrested people coming into the Jackson County Jail and much more cleaning going on, Deputy Corrie Abbe said.

When dealing with those who enter the jail, he said patience is key.

Theyre obviously scared coming in, Abbey said. Theyre coming into a facility they are not choosing to come into and they dont know what they are coming into.

Abbeys home life also has been affected by the virus. His wife is a nurse at Henry Ford Allegiance Health.

It scares both of us because we have kids at home... we have the unknown, he said.

To protect the children he and his wife take showers once they come home from their shifts.

Theres no hugs," Abbey said. We dont get any hugs. We both work 12 hours a day and the first thing we do is go right to the shower. You cant hug dad or you cant hug mom.

Deputy Corrie Abbey poses for a photo inside the Jackson County Jail on May 6, 2020. Mikayla Carter | MLive.com

Deputy Edward Serbantez, Jackson County Jail

Interaction between people has changed within the job, said Deputy Edward Serbantez of the Jackson County Jail.

There are four to five deputies working at a time and they are all trying to be mindful of their distance, he said, adding that everyone is working diligently to keep the facility clean.

It affects our whole work flow here, he said.

When hes done with work, he washes up, cleans his clothes and then wipes down his vehicle, he said.

Its kind of added time to our job, Serbantez said.

Serbantezs wife works at Ann Arbors C.S. Mott Childrens Hospital on the coronavirus floor, and he said they have also been trying to keep their distance.

Once you get home you want to just cleanse everything that youve touched," he said. "And youre worrying did I get something today or not.
A large crowd estimated by Easton police officials to be more than 1,500 protesters gathered Sunday in Eastons Centre Square, holding signs, clapping, singing songs and chanting in protest against police brutality.

The protests -- both regionally and nationally -- come after George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, died after being confronted by a white officer in Minnesota about an alleged fraud. A witness captured on video footage of an unarmed and handcuffed Floyd being held down on the ground by the officer pressing a knee into his neck. Criminal charges of murder and manslaughter were filed Friday morning against the fired officer, Lt. Derek Chauvin.

In what Easton police described as the largest demonstration they have seen in the citys recent history, participants carried signs stating, Silence is Compliance, Justice for George," Remember Their Namez and I am a mother of African American children." T-shirts read such quotes as, "There Comes a Time When Silence is Betrayal -- Martin Luther King Jr. Chants of Whats his name? followed by Floyd, filled the downtown area.

The Rev. Phil Davis, senior pastor of the Greater Shiloh Church in Easton, told the crowd he wanted to bring God into the conversation and referred to oppression in the Bible.

This is an amazing opportunity for us to come together as a community, Davis said. We stand together in solidarity against racism, and hatred and against prejudice ... Theres a lot of oppression specifically in this situation as it relates to African-American men and women in being oppressed and being kept down and being killed and murdered on the streets. And so together we stand and divided we fall.

Javier Gooden, 13, told the crowd he feels society views him as having criminal tendencies because of his race. Society wants him to apologize for who is he and accept who they want him to be, he said.

Im not going to be the champ how the world wants me to be, Gooden added. Im going to be the champ Im destined to be.

The crowd then walked several laps from South Third Street, up Larry Holmes Drive to South Fourth Street followed by a trip to City Hall. By the time people at the start of the line reached South 4th St. and Larry Holmes Drive, the line of people continued all the way back to Centre Square. The crowd chanted through city streets, No justice followed by No peace" and Black lives matter.

At the the steps of City Hall, they continued with shouts of I cant breathe, in reference to what Floyd said when the officer was kneeling on his neck. They again chanted, No justice, no peace, followed by occasional moments of silence.

The protest was thinned to a smaller crowd of a few hundred by 2 p.m. as they walked a final lap down Washington Street to the Northampton County courthouse for a brief demonstration and then back to Centre Square. By 2:30 p.m., police reopened Centre Square to traffic.

Eastons rally follows similar protests in Bethlehem and Allentown on Saturday. Participants at all the Lehigh Valley protests were urged to socially distance themselves and wear masks.

The rallies in the Lehigh Valleys major cities this past weekend are just three of several being held across the region -- in such cities as Harrisburg, Philadelphia and Newark. Demonstrations in other national cities havent ended as peacefully as Bethlehem, Allentown and Easton.

The Pentagon Saturday ordered the Army to put military police units on alert to head to Minneapolis on short notice at U.S. President Donald Trumps request, according to three people with direct knowledge of the orders who did not want their names used because they were not authorized to discuss the preparations. The rare step came as the violence spread to other cities: A man shot dead in Detroit, police cars battered in Atlanta and skirmishes with police in New York City.

The demonstrations also have heightened fears of contracting COVID-19. As of Sunday, the Lehigh Valley had more than 500 new cases with Pennsylvania now totaling 71,926 cases. State health officials also reported another 18 new deaths, bringing the total to 5,555 coronavirus-related deaths since the first case was reported in Pennsylvania in March.

The Associated Press and lehighvalleylive Reporter Tony Rhodin contributed to this report.

Tell us your coronavirus stories, whether its a news tip, a topic you want us to cover, or a personal story you want to share.

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Pamela Sroka-Holzmann may be reached at pholzmann@lehighvalleylive.com.
Race. Ethnicity. Nationality. These are concepts that can bring people together, but they are also concepts that can tear people apart. Some believe that these concepts are purely human inventions, while others believe they are as real as the sun and the moon. Regardless of how one sees them, however, the fact of the matter is that they are concepts that have influenced our past, our present, and very likely our future. To complicate matters, there is no universal consensus on how to define each of these concepts individually. It all depends on ones ideology. In some ideologies, race, ethnicity and nationality are all one and the same. Other ideologies hold that nationality simply means your country of citizenship and that race and ethnicity have no significance. Here are some of the key differences and similarities between the three concepts:

Race

International friendship. Image credit: View Apart/Shutterstock.com

The definition of race has not been consistent throughout history, nor is it consistent today, based on peoples beliefs. But generally speaking, many people today think of a race as a group of people having certain physical characteristics. And the most distinguishing physical characteristic has historically been skin color. As for the science behind the concept, the growing consensus among scientists is that there is no way to divide homo sapiens, the scientific name for our modern human species, into races, and that the physical differences between people are the products of evolution and the adaptation of groups of human beings to the environments in which they lived.

There are, however, still scientists that do believe there is a correlation between physical characteristics and things like intelligence and morality. This belief was very prevalent among Europeans during the colonial era, in which European powers colonized and subjugated multitudes of different peoples in Africa, Asia and the Americas. They often justified their ill-treatment of the conquered lands native inhabitants based on their belief that those inhabitants were racially inferior to white Europeans. This same belief was often the justification used by white Americans for the institution of slavery in the U.S., and later, the Jim Crow Laws that led to the segregation of blacks and whites in the South.

According to some, race can be synonymous with a persons ethnic or national identity. In Nazi ideology, for example, Jews and Slavs were considered races unto themselves, and inferior races at that, while the so-called Aryans, were at the top of the Nazi racial hierarchy. But simply being white didnt make someone Aryan. They had to be considered descendants of Europes ancient Germanic tribes. In early U.S. history, the Irish were often considered a race separate from Americans of British descent, despite the fact that they were also white.

Ethnicity

International friendship. Image credit: Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock.com

Like race, a persons ethnicity derives from their origins. Unlike race, however, ethnicity can also denote a persons language, culture, or even their religion. Jewish people, for example, are commonly identified as such based on their religious affiliation. Indeed, there are many cases of people who may have Jewish origins, but do not practice Judaism, and therefore, more often than not, do not consider themselves to be Jewish, nor would they be considered Jewish by the vast majority of Jews.

In addition, just as it is possible to be of mixed racial heritage, it is also possible to be of mixed ethnic heritage. Say, for example, that your parents came from different ethnic backgrounds. One was of French origin and the other of Italian origin. Your family would likely carry on customs and traditions of both ethnicities. This is the case for many if not most U.S. citizens.

Some believe that ethnicity does, and even should, overlap with race, nationality, or even both. There are Americans, for example, who hold the belief that one is only a true American if they are of white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant origin. Some people in both the U.S. and Canada do not want to welcome new immigrants of non-European origin into their countries based on the belief that they wont hold so-called Western values. There are also many countries in which a person must meet certain ethnic criteria to qualify for citizenship.

Nationality

The word nationality can have different meanings. It can denote a persons relationship to a specific nation-state. To say, for example, that someone is an American national would indicate that the person is a U.S. citizen. So in other words, nationality can be another way of saying citizenship.

There are other contexts, however, in which nationality overlaps with ethnicity. In Israel, for example, the term nationality that appears on national ID cards implies what in the U.S. would be a persons ethnicity, and has no relation to their citizenship. Hence, Jewish Israelis will have ID cards that indicate their nationality as being Jewish, while Arab Israelis, who make up the bulk of Israels non-Jewish population, will have Arab indicated as their nationality on their ID cards. Israeli is not considered a nationality, and therefore, will not be found on the ID cards of Israeli citizens.

Many people around the world struggle to be recognized as a nationality. In other words, they want an independent nation-state for themselves. The Kurdish people of the Middle East, for instance, are an ethnic group that make up the majority of the population in parts of present-day Turkey, Syria, Iraq, and Iran. But many of them see themselves, not simply as an ethnic group, but as a nation deserving the status of nationality in the form of an independent nation-state. Other groups of people seeking to become nationalities include the Palestinians, who are also located in the Middle East, as well as the Basques of France and Spain, the Quebec sovereigntist movement in Canada, the Baluchis of Pakistan and Iran, and the Tibetans and Uighurs of China. Each of these groups argue for independent nation-states on the basis that they comprise a majority in the lands in which they live and want to protect their cultures, languages, and traditions that they believe are under threat from the countries that currently rule them. Hence, a key difference between ethnicity and nationality is whether or not a group of people with a common heritage in the form of shared traditions, language, or religion reside in a specific territory to which they have a legitimate claim.
The South African government has approved only 11% of applications for COVID-19 relief funding for small, medium, and micro-sized enterprises (SMMEs), according to a report from Rapport.

The COVID-19 SMME Relief Funding Scheme was established and is administered by the Department of Small Business Development. It offers soft-loan funding to qualifying SMMEs over a six-month period which started on 1 April 2020.

The scheme was mired in controversy after a draft document which MyBroadband previously reported on suggested race-based criteria would be used to determine businesses who qualify for the financial assistance.

According to the Departments Progress Report on COVID-19 SMME Relief Funding, it has received 12,982 applications for funding, while only 1,501 have been approved.

As it stands, a total of R513.2 million in funding has been approved, while the Department claimed 21,580 jobs have been saved through current approvals.

4,840 complete applications are currently being processed, the figures showed.

A large number of small businesses have had their applications for relief funding denied, however.

According to a survey of 2,280 small business owners conducted by entrepreneur education platform Heavy Chef, 68% of respondents applications for relief funding were denied.

Additionally, 71% of participants said they would likely have to apply for financing if they are able to resume operations as lockdown measures are eased.

73% of businesses stated they would not be able to operate beyond 2020 should strict lockdown measures be extended.

It should be noted this survey was conducted in April and most businesses will only be able to continue operation under lockdown level 3 from 1 June.

Draft document lists race as criteria

A controversial draft document for the funding scheme which suggested only black-owned businesses would qualify for financial assistance was circulated on social media back in March.

It stated that for an SMME to qualify for relief, it must be 51% black-owned.

In response, Minister of Small Business Development Khumbudzo Ntshavheni stated that all South African businesses will be able to access financial assistance from the government during the COVID-19 coronavirus crisis.

The minister said that small businesses will not have to be 51% black-owned to be able to access financial support.

We are supporting all small businesses in South Africa across the demographic spread, said the minister.

Small businesses registered with the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) by 28 February 2020 are eligible for the relief, granted they are registered and compliant with SARS and UIF.

In addition, the business must be 100% owned by South African citizens and at least 70% of its employees must be South African citizens.

The scheme gives preference to businesses owned by women, youth, and people with disabilities.
Nigeria major carrier, Air Peace on Thursday evacuated 301 Chinese from the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos to Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, China's most populous, commercial city.

The evacuation which was arranged by the Chinese government took off about 10: 00 pm Nigerian time and arrived at about 1:15 pm Nigerian time on Friday.

The Nigeria carrier was also the airline that evacuated Israelis living in Nigeria late March and has been contacted by other countries for evacuation operations.

Spokesman of the airline, Stanley Olisa confirmed the successful flight and said, Air Peace on Thursday, May 28, 2020, operated its second flight to China as "we evacuated 301 Chinese nationals back to their country. The flight departed the Murtala Muhammed International Airport Lagos at exactly 22:05hrs to Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, China. Countries have been contacting us to evacuate their citizens."

Air Peace said it deployed its Boeing 777 aircraft with the registration number 5N-BWI for the evacuation exercise.

The Regional Airport Manager, South West, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Mrs. Victoria Shin-Aba said the flight: P47807 pushed back from the Echo terminal of MMIA at 21:40hrs with 325 souls onboard - 301 Chinese evacuees and 24 crewmembers.

She explained that all relevant government agencies like FAAN, Nigeria Immigration Service, Port Health Services officials and others were fully on ground to success of the evacuation exercise.

Air Peace is slated to carry out more evacuation operations for other nationals living in Nigeria, as the airline and other domestic operators gear up to resume scheduled flight operations soon.

There are indications that commercial flight operations would resume early June, as the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has started auditing airlines in preparation for scheduled passenger service.
KHARTOUM (Sudanow) - Sudan on Saturday summoned the Ethiopian Charge d'Affairs to officially protest what it called an Ethiopian army backed militia intrusion inside Sudanese national territories over the weekend.

An official statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on Saturday, said the Ethiopian diplomat to Khartoum was summoned to the Ministry to officially protest the incursion of Ethiopian militias supported by the Ethiopian army and their assault on the Sudanese citizens and the Armed Forces inside the Sudanese territories.

It said the attack led to the death of a number of Sudanese officers and members of the Armed Forces and citizens, including children.

The statement said the Neighboring Countries Department at the Ministry has conveyed to the Ethiopian Charge d'Affaires the "condemnation and rejection by the Sudanese government of this heinous attack, which came at a time preparations were underway in Khartoum to convene the second meeting of the high-level joint committee on the border issues", due to be co-chaired by the Sudanese Minister of Cabinet Affairs and the Ethiopian Deputy Prime Minister.

The statement said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs demanded that action be taken to end such attacks, and "warned the sustainability and progress of cooperation between the two countries must be based on mutual respect for the sovereignty, independence and borders" of each of them and the right of their peoples to live in safety and peace and to use their natural and economic resources without encroachment or aggression of any party on the other.

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The former vice president, Joe Biden, has called for an end to the violent riots and looting, which were sparked by major demonstrations throughout the United States over the death of George Floyd, in an emotional new statement.

The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee posted a lengthy message to his Medium page during the weekend titled We are a nation furious at injustice.

In it, Mr Biden suggested he supported protests against the death of Mr Floyd, a 46-year-old unarmed black man who died after a white police officer in Minneapolis restrained him for more than eight minutes by kneeling on his neck as he pleaded for air, according to charging documents.

However, the former vice president noted that burning down communities and needless destruction was not a necessary form of protest.

These last few days have laid bare that we are a nation furious at injustice, Mr Biden began. Every person of conscience can understand the rawness of the trauma people of colour experience in this country, from the daily indignities to the extreme violence, like the horrific killing of George Floyd.

The former vice president continued: Protesting such brutality is right and necessary. Its an utterly American response. But burning down communities and needless destruction is not. Violence that endangers lives is not. Violence that guts and shutters businesses that serve the community is not.

The act of protesting should never be allowed to overshadow the reason we protest, he added. It should not drive people away from the just cause that protest is meant to advance.

Protests erupted in at least 30 US cities during the weekend, with many of those demonstrations devolving into violent riots and looting.

Confrontations between protestors and the police have went viral, showing officers in New York driving through crowds of demonstrators with SUVs and officers kneeling on the necks of multiple suspected looters while making arrests in just two examples from the weekend riots.

The protests come amid several other recent examples of excessive police force that led to unarmed black people being killed across the country, including the death of Breonna Taylor. Protestors have said they are demonstrating against the consistent use of excessive force against minority communities.

Tonight, I ask all of America to join me  not in denying our pain or covering it over  but using it to compel our nation across this turbulent threshold into the next phase of progress, inclusion, and opportunity for our great democracy, Mr Biden said. We are a nation in pain, but we must not allow this pain to destroy us. We are a nation enraged, but we cannot allow our rage to consume us. We are a nation exhausted, but we will not allow our exhaustion to defeat us.
FILE PHOTO: Logo of broadcaster Televisa is pictured at its offices in Ciudad Juarez

By Julia Love

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican broadcaster Televisa said on Sunday it will start offering mobile phone service, a bid to challenge billionaire Carlos Slim's America Movil, which has long dominated the country's telecommunications market.

Rather than building infrastructure, Televisa <TLVACPO.MX> will operate as a mobile virtual network operator, or MVNO, and begin by offering service to existing customers of its cable and home internet packages, sold under its Izzi brand. The broadcaster will rent space on Mexico's wholesale telecom network, operated by Altan Redes.

Televisa originally planned to roll out the service in September, Izzi Chief Executive Salvi Folch said in an interview. But as cases of the coronavirus began climbing, executives sensed the economic turmoil stemming from the virus would create more demand for low-price phone packages and will now launch the service on Monday.

"The pandemic made us accelerate our plans," Folch said. "People will have to spend less on some services. ... We view it as an opportunity."

Televisa follows in the footsteps of U.S. cable companies such as Comcast Corp <CMCSA.O> and Charter Communications Inc <CHTR.O> that have ventured into the mobile market as MVNOs in recent years.

Mexico has long fought to promote competition in telecommunications, even passing a constitutional reform in 2013 aimed at loosening Slim's grip on the market. Yet global telecoms titans such as AT&T <T.N> and Telefonica <TEF.MC> have failed to meaningfully erode Slim's market share and America Movil still holds about two-thirds of mobile phone lines, according to statistics from Mexican telecom regulator IFT.

Some telecom experts argue the key to boosting competition is to pit America Movil and Televisa, the king of Mexican broadcasting, against each other.

Televisa's cellular service will be priced at 250 pesos a month per line with unlimited data, about 80% cheaper than comparable packages from America Movil, the broadcaster said. The company will offer the phone plans to roughly 3 million households in 17 Mexican cities.

Story continues

Televisa may consider expanding the service beyond its own clients in the future, Folch said, but starting with existing customers enabled the company to capitalize on economies of scale. The broadcaster will also save by directing customers to purchase phones from other vendors, rather than financing devices.

Televisa has struggled in recent years as broadcasters worldwide grapple with declining viewership. The new offering will strengthen the company's telecom units, which have become its biggest moneymaker, driving close to 70% of net sales in the first quarter.

(Reporting by Julia Love; Editing by Leslie Adler)
The Kaduna state governor, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, has revealed why his relationship with the National Leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu has remained frosty despite being in the same party.

It would be recalled that in an indirect attack during an event in 2016, el-Rufai, in response to a question by Dr. Muiz Banire, a former National Adviser to the APC, pointedly gave what he said could be a way to defeat godfatherism in Lagos.

According to El-Rufai, he defeated and retired four political godfathers in Kaduna State, adding that the feat could be replicated anywhere, including Lagos State.

Throwing the bad blood between him and Tinubu into the open on Saturday during a webinar to mark the 63rd birthday of the Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, el-Rufai said the former Lagos State governor was not his man.

According to him, this was due to the differences between him and Tinubu.

He said during the webinar: I want to congratulate my brother, Ogbeni (Aregbesola), on his birthday. You know Im your man any day. Im not Asiwajus man and you are Asiwajus man, but I am your man any day. Asiwaju and I have differences but you and I have no differences.

In his remarks, Aregbesola, however praised Tinubu for the role he has played in his life.

While appreciating President Muhammadu Buhari for encouraging him all along, Aregbesola said: The second person who has played a very huge role in making me a good public administrator is Asiwaju Bola Tinubu. He takes all the glory, apart from God.

There had been a rumoured cold war between Tinubu and the Kaduna governor for a long time, with many believing that the cold war may not be unconnected with the race for the 2023 presidential ticket of the APC.

Though el-Rufai had on occasions made statements that tend to lend credence to such, Tinubu has remained silent, giving no hint as to his level of relationship with el-Rufai.

The Kaduna state governor, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, has revealed why his relationship with the National Leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu has remained frosty despite being in the same party.

It would be recalled that in an indirect attack during an event in 2016, el-Rufai, in response to a question by Dr. Muiz Banire, a former National Adviser to the APC, pointedly gave what he said could be a way to defeat godfatherism in Lagos.

According to El-Rufai, he defeated and retired four political godfathers in Kaduna State, adding that the feat could be replicated anywhere, including Lagos State.

Throwing the bad blood between him and Tinubu into the open on Saturday during a webinar to mark the 63rd birthday of the Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, el-Rufai said the former Lagos State governor was not his man.

According to him, this was due to the differences between him and Tinubu.

He said during the webinar: I want to congratulate my brother, Ogbeni (Aregbesola), on his birthday. You know Im your man any day. Im not Asiwajus man and you are Asiwajus man, but I am your man any day. Asiwaju and I have differences but you and I have no differences.

In his remarks, Aregbesola, however praised Tinubu for the role he has played in his life.

While appreciating President Muhammadu Buhari for encouraging him all along, Aregbesola said: The second person who has played a very huge role in making me a good public administrator is Asiwaju Bola Tinubu. He takes all the glory, apart from God.

There had been a rumoured cold war between Tinubu and the Kaduna governor for a long time, with many believing that the cold war may not be unconnected with the race for the 2023 presidential ticket of the APC.

Though el-Rufai had on occasions made statements that tend to lend credence to such, Tinubu has remained silent, giving no hint as to his level of relationship with el-Rufai.
Chinese state media took aim at the US government over the weekend as many American cities were gripped by raging protests and clashes, comparing the unrest with the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong. Beijing has long been infuriated by criticism from Western capitals, especially Washington, over its handling of the pro-democracy protests that shook Hong Kong last year. And as unrest erupted across the United States over racial inequality and police brutality after the death during arrest of an unarmed black man, Chinese government spokespeople and official media launched broadsides against American authorities. Chinese media also circulated video clips suggesting Hong Kong police were "restrained" in comparison to actions seen in the US. "US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi once called the violent protests in Hong Kong 'a beautiful sight to behold.'... US politicians now can enjoy this sight from their own windows," Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of nationalist tabloid Global Times, wrote Saturday. It was "as if the radical rioters in Hong Kong somehow snuck into the US and created a mess like they did last year", he added. China has insisted that "foreign forces" are to blame for the turmoil in Hong Kong, where pro-democracy protesters -- described by Beijing as rioters -- have marched in the millions since June last year and often clashed with the police. Beijing sparked outrage and concern earlier this month with a plan to impose a law on Hong Kong that it said was needed to protect national security and curb "terrorism", but was condemned by pro-democracy activists and Western nations as another attempt to chip away at the city's unique freedoms. Following President Donald Trump's announcement that he would strip Hong Kong of its special privileges, a commentary published Sunday in China Daily -- a mouthpiece of the ruling Communist Party -- said US politicians dreamed of "victimising" China. "Better give up that dream and come back to reality," it said. "Violence is spreading across the US... US politicians should do their jobs and help solve problems in the US, instead of trying to create new problems and troubles in other countries." - Lack of transparency - The back-and-forth over Hong Kong has exacerbated US-China tensions, which were already high over a number of issues -- including trade and the coronavirus pandemic, over which Trump has accused Beijing of a lack of transparency. As violence broke out in the US over the weekend, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying also took aim at Washington. "I can't breathe," she said on Twitter, with a screenshot of a tweet by US State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus that had criticised the Chinese government over its Hong Kong policy. Hua was quoting the words George Floyd was heard saying repeatedly before his death -- after a police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes -- which sparked the current unrest in the United States. Over the weekend, Chinese media also circulated video clips of the US violence, accompanied by the hashtag "How restrained are the Hong Kong police" on the Twitter-like platform Weibo. One clip posted by the People's Daily on Sunday compared the recent on-screen arrest of CNN correspondent Omar Jimenez, who was covering the unrest in the US city of Minneapolis last Friday, with scenes of Hong Kong police appearing to back away from media personnel in the city last year. The accompanying caption said "reporters used their professional identities to obstruct law enforcement". Police in Hong Kong have been accused by rights groups of using excessive force during pro-democracy protests last year. Protests have broken out in multiple US cities over racial inequality and police brutality, which Chinese state media have compared with the unrest in Hong Kong
With farmers in states like Rajasthan battling swarms of locusts invading their farmlands, the Odisha government on Sunday asked its farmers to get ready for a similar attack in June.

As informed by the Centre, the locust swarm will invade western Odisha districts like Bargarh and Sambalpur in June and cause extensive damage to trees and other vegetable plantations. Adequate steps will be taken to create awareness among farmers and soon a SOP will be issued. The movement of locusts will be monitored at district and block levels, Dean of the Odisha University of Agriculture Technology, Lalit Mohan Gadnayak said.

It has been decided that a team of entomologists of the OUAT and the Central Rice Research Institute at Bidyadharpur in Cuttack will be formed. The team will issue the SOP for farmers to save their crops, he said.

Gadnayak, however, said the locusts will leave the state with the onset of rain.

He said farmers residing close to Chhattisgarh, have been asked to remain alert and take immediate steps like spraying 5% Neem Seed Kernel Extract 200 litres per acre of crops and vegetation after sunset as a precautionary measure.

If farmers spot locusts swarming towards their farmland, steps like beating utensils can be taken in order to stop the swarms. Since locusts stop movement and settle on vegetation after dusk, farmers can hit branches of trees and crops to remove the locusts, collect and dispose of them by setting fire to the pests at a safe place.

India is currently, seeing the worst locust attack in over 7 decades as locust swarms from Pakistan now threaten to devastate crops and vegetables over thousands of hectares in states like Rajasthan, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh. Rajasthan is now the most affected state.

The desert locust is a species of locust, a swarming short-horned grasshopper that devour everything in their path. As per entomologists, the current swarm of locusts contains immature locusts that could gorge on the crops before getting ready for mating.
Coronavirus cases in Michigan totaled 57,397 on Sunday, May 31. The state reported 513 new cases and 28 deaths.

In total, there have been 5,491 deaths related to the virus. On Saturday, the state released the latest recovery data totaling 38,099 people who are 30 days out from their onset of illness to represent recovery status.

The number of cases and deaths must be reported by health care providers, medical examiners/coroners, and recorded by local health departments in order to be counted, according to the state. Not all counties report this data on weekends, which may skew weekend data.

Health officials encourage looking at weeklong data to identify trends. The latest numbers for the week ending May 27 show an average of 360 cases per day and 34 deaths a day. Thats compared to an average of 552 cases per day for the week prior and an average of 49 deaths per day.

The average age of the deceased is 75 with the largest age group being 70 to 79, according to state data.

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On Friday, Dr. Joneigh Khaldun addressed the widespread fatalities among those in nursing homes, but acknowledged the data currently available likely doesnt paint the full picture.

With 91 percent of nursing facilities reporting, 4,949 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 1,216 deaths have been in nursing homes, Khaldun said Friday during an afternoon news briefing.

About 23 percent of COVID-19 deaths in Michigan have been in nursing homes, but Khaldun said that number will likely grow as more data is made available.

Of the deaths, 53% have been male and 47% female.

The percentages are reversed for coronavirus cases, with 52% female, 47% male and 1% listed as unknown.

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The virus continues to disproportionately affect people of color with 31% of cases and 40% of deaths among the African American community. In contrast, Michigans population is 14% African American, according to the most recent census data.

Detroit continues to be an epicenter of the virus with a total of 1,1041 cases and 1,374 deaths since the start of the pandemic.

Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Kent and Genesee counties remain the top five in terms of highest number of cases, each with 2,000 or more.

Read more coronavirus coverage on MLive:

Sunday, May 31: Latest developments on coronavirus in Michigan

Nearly 5,000 Michigan coronavirus cases have been in nursing homes, but data remains incomplete

After 102 executive orders, confusion is commonplace on whats allowed in Michigan and what isnt

Gov. Whitmers plan to reopen Michigan keeps residents in the dark with murky targets and limited transparency

Michigan doctors and dentists sidelined by coronavirus crisis are back in business, with a new normal
US President Donald Trump plans to invite Australia, India, South Korea and Russia to join an upcoming Group of Seven meeting, in a move that has stoked speculation that he is trying to form a bloc to contain China.

Trump did not say whether he wanted the G7 to become the G11 permanently , but said on Saturday that he wanted to invite the four to attend the summit and said he felt the group was very outdated.

White House spokeswoman Alyssa Farah said Trump wants the summit to discuss China, and the announcement follows escalating tensions between Washington and Beijing over issues such as the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic and Hong Kong.

South Korea and Australia are both long-standing US allies, and the latter has backed calls for an independent inquiry into the source of the coronavirus and also expressed concerns about the planned national security law for Hong Kong.

India, which is at the centre of Washingtons Indo-Pacific strategy, also has a range of disagreements with China, including their current border stand-off in Ladakh.

However, Russia has been building an economic and strategic partnership with Beijing and was kicked out of the G8, as it was at the time, following the 2014 invasion of Ukraine and annexation of Crimea  which calls its willingness to join any US-led bloc into question.

However Trump has on several occasions suggested the country should be invited back, due to its global strategic importance.

Ni Feng, director of the Institute of American studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said Trump was trying to mobilise support from US allies in containing China.

The intention is simple: to isolate China, Ni said. It is just the beginning, and more containment measures will follow.

John Lee, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, a Washington think tank, said the US may be looking to advance an agenda which will consider placing responsibility onto China for the latters failures in allowing a pandemic to occur.

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The emergence of a new grouping would concern China which remains paranoid about being excluded in emerging institutions, said Lee, who is also a fellow at the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney.

China has been seeking to increase its influence in multilateral institutions and platforms over the past decade which  coupled with its rising economic power  has caused increasing concern in Washington.

For example, Trump cited Beijings increasing sway in the World Health Organisation when he announced that the US would terminate its relationship with the body.

The idea of expanding G7, whose current members are the US, Italy, Germany, France, UK, Japan and Canada, could be Washingtons latest attempt to forge an international coalition without China.

Wang Wen, executive dean at Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University in Beijing said it would be impossible for US to form a global cold war frontline against China.

Other countries dont want to pick sides between China and the US

Wang Wen, Renmin University

One thing is absolutely sure: the soft power and leadership of US has been greatly damaged, and its influence in global affairs are set to wane further, Wang said, pointing to the domestic situation in the United States.

Other countries don't want to pick sides between China and the US. It's Washington's fantasy that it can form an anti-China alliance.

Wang said the postponement of the G7 summit reflected US weakness as it had failed to bring the coronavirus pandemic under control in a timely manner.

Trump had hoped to hold the summit in June to show normalisation, but scrapped the plan after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau declined to endorse it and German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she would not attend.

Trump now says he wants the leaders to meet in person in Washington in September or later.

Wu Xinbo, director of Centre for American Studies with Fudan University, argued it was questionable whether the US could succeed in building an anti-China alliance and said the idea of driving a wedge between Russia and China was wishful thinking.

India will not be in the same trench with the US, and Chinas relationship with South Korea is actually improving, Wu continued.

At the same time, Chinas rising geopolitical, economic and technological power, along with its increasingly assertive foreign policy, have prompted renewed efforts from democratic countries to seek common ground on China.

On Friday, Britain said it was pushing the US to form a club of 10 nations that could develop their own 5G technology and reduce dependence on Chinas controversial technology giant Huawei.

On the economic front, the US has launched a fledgling initiative known as the Economic Prosperity Network bringing together countries and businesses that operate under the same set of values.

Shahar Hameiri, an associate professor at the University of Queenslands School of Political Science and International Studies, said it was fair to assume that Trumps proposal for an expanded G7 was linked to the increasing US-China rivalry.

Maybe we are at a point where the emerging decoupling between the two major powers, the US and China, is starting to manifest in increasing attempts to develop international policymaking platforms or organisations that exclude China more, he said.

Hameiri added that Beijing could suffer a significant blow if it was excluded from any new US-led initiative that moved towards a different form of international economic organisation that steps away from the more globalised system that China has benefited from.

However, he said it was not clear that the countries in question would be particularly thrilled to follow this path and it was a big if whether any substantive changes to the G7 would happen.

This is Trump blatantly seeking to mobilise a group against China

James Laurenceson, University of Technology Sydney

The countries involved also have their own business and commercial interests in China, which might make it hard to reach a consensus on isolating and containing China.

For instance, despite the current spat between Beijing and Canberra over calls for a coronavirus inquiry, China remains Australias largest trading partner and its biggest export market.

James Laurenceson, director of the Australia-China Relations Institute at the University of Technology Sydney, said Australian officials would be very cautious about Trumps proposal.

This is Trump blatantly seeking to mobilise a grouping against China, Australias largest trading partner, and embracing Russia in the process, a country that Australia has been openly critical of previously, Laurenceson said. I cant see it flying, he said.

Additional reporting by Reuters.

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31.05.2020 LISTEN

The Central Regional Manager of the Micro-Finance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC), Mr. Anthony Paa Kwesi Sackey has appealed to loan defaulters of the Scheme to fulfill their repayment plan to enable others to also benefit from the facility.

He stated that MASLOC loans are revolving one and therefore when one fails to repay the loans it affects potential beneficiaries.

Mr. Sackey explained that prompt repayment of loans will go a long way to help the Scheme provide more loans to improve the livelihood of the poor and reduce poverty in Ghana as envisaged by former President, John Agyekum Kufour who established the loan scheme in 2006. The Regional MASLOC boss also added that since the establishment of MASLOC in 2006 to provide loans to the informal sector, it has reduced poverty, created jobs and wealth across the country.

According to Mr. Sackey, the Central Region office of MASLOC has disbursed over Ten (10) Million Ghana Cedis to its clients. He expects beneficiaries to repay the loan. He further explained that the non-payment of loans hampers the smooth processing of new applications.

He made this known on the Friday edition of Eagle FM's Kokrokoo Morning Show hosted by Barbara Obeng Dwamena-Mensah.

Mr. Anthony Paa Kwesi Sackey, the Central Regional Manager of Micro-Finance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC), in conclusion, called on all Ghanaians to support the government in its economic transformation drive by repaying loans whenever the Scheme processes loans for them.
Investec made an 18.2m gain from the sale of its Irish wealth management business. (stock image)

Investec, an Anglo-South African financial services company, has said that the Brexit-related restructuring of its Irish branch cost 41m in the year to the end of March 2020, including a provision for an "ongoing legal situation".

In an analyst call, Fani Titi, joint chief executive of Investec, confirmed that it had booked further losses on the restructured Irish branch in relation to an ongoing litigation.

He declined to disclose any more details on the matter.

On the 41m cost of restructuring the Irish branch, and the provision for the litigation, a spokeswoman for Investec said: "The amount involved includes the costs of restructure of the Irish branch arising from Brexit which, as previously disclosed, involved the repayment of 1.2bn of deposits and the closure of certain other businesses.

"The amount also reflects a provision for potential costs linked to litigation in respect of an historic risk matter associated with businesses closed.

"In this regard, while we consider the provision sensible, we are not in a position to disclose further detail because of the ongoing legal situation."

Last May, the South African-founded bank sold its wealth management business in Ireland to British investment manager Brewin Dolphin for 44m.

The acquisition increased Brewin Dolphin's presence in Ireland, with 4.6bn under management, making it the third-largest discretionary wealth manager in the State after Davy and Goodbody.

Investec made an 18.2m gain from the sale of its Irish wealth management business.

In 2018, Investec had cut numbers at the unit in Dublin from 11 to five, and shifted its reporting lines to London as part of a wider Brexit-proofing of the business.

The bank also announced it would stop holding Irish deposits in late 2018.

The Irish-regulated business is focused on services such as treasury, including currency hedging for clients and corporate finance.
On the Frontline Against China, the US Coast Guard Is Taking on Missions the US Navy Can't Do

Competition with China has drawn more Pentagon resources to the Pacific, but the most visible U.S. military presence there...
Australia is poised to join the world's most exclusive political organisation after US President Donald Trump called for an expansion of the Group of 7 nations without China in an attempt to build greater cooperation over restoring the global economy following the coronavirus pandemic.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has discussed the prospect of joining the G7 with a senior Trump administration official, senior government sources say, and is expecting a formal invitation in the coming days that could further test Australian relations with China.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has been in discussions with the Trump administration about joining the G7. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

The offer to Australia will come at a politically fraught moment with the US President facing a domestic crisis at home as violent riots rage across the country sparked by the death of handcuffed African-American man George Floyd while in Minneapolis police custody. At least 25 cities in the United States were under curfew on Saturday night as police cars were set ablaze, windows were smashed and stores were ransacked in the riots.

Mr Trump is also facing criticism on the global stage after he announced over the weekend he was severing all ties with the World Health Organisation over its handling of the coronavirus despite Australia and the European Union successfully establishing an independent review into the UN body's performance.
By Akbar Mammadov

Azerbaijani Parliament on May 31 ratified four draft laws on visa, trade, military and security cooperation with Turkey.

The parliament signed the agreement on Mutual Visa Exemption between Azerbaijan and Turkey. The agreement will allow Turkish citizens to stay in Azerbaijan for a period of no more than 90 days without a visa. Eearlier, Turkey ratified the law to exempt Azerbaijani citizens from visa for the period of 90 days.

The parliament also ratified the Preferential Trade Agreement between Azerbaijan and Turkey.

The Preferential Trade Agreement was signed on February 25 during Recep Tayyip Erdogans visit to Azerbaijan and aims to step up efforts to bring their trade volume to $15bn.

The parliament also ratified the following draft laws: The Agreement on Military Financial Cooperation between the Government of Azerbaijan and the Government of Turkey, and Approval of the Additional Protocol to the Agreement on Security Cooperation between the Government of Azerbaijan and the Government of Turkey.

So far, Azerbaijan has invested 18 billion dollars in the Turkish economy and Turkey 12.5 billion dollars in the Azerbaijani economy. Currently, about 4,000 Turkish companies work in Azerbaijan, and have done work worth $16 billion in more than 300 projects, thereby making Turkey the first-ranked country in Azerbaijans economy.

It should be noted that during Erdogans visit in February, the two countries also signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the construction of the Kars-Nakhchivan railway between Turkey and Azerbaijans Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic.

---

Akbar Mammadov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AkbarMammadov97

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
SpaceX's Crew Dragon safely delivered two NASA astronauts  Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken  to the International Space Station on Sunday after the company's historic launch Saturday.

Why it matters: This marks the first time a private company has delivered people to the space station, and it signals the beginning of the end of NASA's reliance on Russia's Soyuz spacecraft for flights to orbit.

Details: Behnken and Hurley docked to the station at 10:16am ET after spending about 19 hours flying through space to catch up to the orbiting outpost.

During that flight, the two astronauts ate meals, slept for about eight hours and performed a number of systems checkouts ahead of docking.

Behnken and Hurley join NASA's Chris Cassidy and Russian cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner aboard the ISS.

This mission marks SpaceX's final test flight of its crewed system before it's certified for fully operational missions to the station.

The big picture: NASA hopes to continue working with private companies in the future in order to become a buyer of services in low-Earth orbit, opening up the agency to work on getting humans to the Moon and beyond.

What's next: The Crew Dragon and its astronauts will stay docked to the space station for at least the next month and could remain in orbit longer, depending on how the capsule performs in orbit.
What does it say about our society when a man spends eight minutes desperately asking a person sworn to protect his life not to end it?

The police in Minneapolis had confronted George Floyd on suspicion of a nonviolent crime. Onlookers who joined him in pleading with the arresting officer to remove his knee from Floyds neck were also unsuccessful. He died. And we are all witnesses.

And what does it say about our society when a man is killed and it takes the justice system 74 days to respond?

Thats how long it took for the two men who killed Ahmaud Arbery to be arrested, though authorities had identified them within hours of the shooting. And just last week, another 14 days later, a third man was taken in by police.

The actions of the people we trust to carry out our countrys promise of equal justice under the law speak volumes about how much more our country must do to live up to our ideals.

These horrific events come at a time when states and the federal government are beginning to remove the double standards that violate that promise. Notably, laws that criminalize poverty and reinforce systemic racism are being changed. The two of us have participated in the diverse coalition that supports this movement for justice reform. Alongside many others, weve experienced the excitement of real progress.

People nationwide are protesting the death of George Floyd, who died Monday while being restrained by Minneapolis police.

But Ahmaud Arberys murder, and now the tragic death of George Floyd, are heartbreaking reminders that whatever our country has accomplished through legal reform, we arent nearly finished rooting out deep-seated injustice. Simply changing laws, while necessary, is woefully insufficient.

Book justice

Thats because justice does not only live in books or legal statutes. It is written on the hearts of human beings. Without a change of heart, a law can only do so much.

When Arbery was killed, the law required swift action. But thats not what happened.

Had the races been reversed  that is, had the men in the truck holding guns been black and the jogger white  it is simply unimaginable that an arrest would have taken more than two months.

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More: Police act like laws don't apply to them because of 'qualified immunity.' They're right.

The fact that no reasonable person can disagree with this observation shows how complacent weve become with a double standard in our justice system. What would be unacceptable for one group is seen as commonplace for another.

The many explanations that surfaced after Arberys killing have become familiar excuses for the unequal application of the law.

But he looked like a criminal. But he has a record. But he was trespassing a few weeks earlier. (But he was black.)

None of these excuses justify allowing those who killed this unarmed man to walk away. This is not justice. And neither is the brutality of what happened to George Floyd.

But this failure in our countrys core institutions is not limited to the justice system.

Research shows that in the United States, African American men are 2.5 times more likely to be killed by police than white men. And while violence against black men is the most stark illustration of the injustice baked into our institutions, we see inequities across society that contribute to devastating outcomes.

We see it in education where only 6% of black high school students graduate ready for college (compared with a still abysmal 25% for everyone else). In communities, blacks are incarcerated at five times the rate of whites. In the economy, black families net worth is just 25% the national average.

Cultural transformation

Changing laws will help improve these outcomes, in part. But we must do more. Removing the barriers that are holding people back requires a deeper personal and cultural transformation.

If we are to live up to our ideals as a country, then the way our institutions function in practice must reflect a deep belief in people --in all people: in our schools, communities, businesses, and our system of justice. And all Americans must commit to break down the barriers that betray that belief. As long as anyone among us is treated as less than an equal part of our shared humanity, we all have much more to do.

Youll find few who say they disagree with that statement. But actions speak louder than words. And the actions in Minnesota and Georgia speak for themselves.

The same urgent energy and spirit of unity that has emerged to change the laws that govern our justice system must come together to help us break down more fundamental barriers across society. It starts with every American asking themselves: can we live with social institutions that dont live up to our ideals?

Or will we confront the practices that treat some among us as less than others  a view that took Ahmaud Arbery from his family forever and left his loved ones waiting 74 days for justice, and ended George Floyds life in those few, horrific minutes.

Brian Hooks is CEO of Stand Together, the philanthropic community founded by Charles Koch, where Omar Jahwar, founder of Urban Specialists, leads Course Correction Conversations to bring diverse groups of people together to address injustice and heal after tragedy.

You can read diverse opinions from our Board of Contributors and other writers on the Opinion front page, on Twitter @usatodayopinion and in our daily Opinion newsletter. To respond to a column, submit a comment to letters@usatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery protests: Changing the law isn't enough
Latin America's biggest airline, the Brazilian-Chilean group LATAM, filed for bankruptcy in the US in May, after which its shares plunged 35 percent in the Santiago stock exchange

Latin America's beleaguered airlines will take up to three years to recover losses due to the coronavirus pandemic, and in the meantime desperately need government help, according to experts surveying the damage to the industry.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) estimates it will take at least that time for the region's airlines to inch back to their pre-pandemic level for domestic and regional flights.

Long-haul services to the United States and Europe will take until 2024 to come back, it says.

"It's a long-range view; it will not be short term. It will take a lot of work," said Peter Cerda, IATA vice president for the Americas.

Evidence of the severity of the crisis came last week when the region's two largest airlines, Chilean-Brazilian LATAM and Colombia's Avianca, filed for bankruptcy in the United States.

With countries across the region in lockdown, flight activity has plummeted 93 percent from around 200,000 a day, with losses in revenue estimated at $18 billion.

Cerda says that figure is likely to increase.

The IATA official says the impact to the industry is even worse than the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

"We are going to have airlines that are not going to be able to recover, that will have to shut down their operations for good," he said.

After almost three months of lockdowns and restrictions on movement across the region, airlines have run out of cash and government support is "urgent," he says.

An Aeromexico airlines plane lands at Mexico City's Benito Juarez airport on May 20, 2020

'Not a rescue'

"What we are asking for is not a financial rescue. It's support, immediate relief that allows the industry to sustain operations," said Cerda.

Airlines are seeking tax relief and credit guarantees from governments.

Globally, government aid to the airline sector stands at $123 billion, including $300 million from Latin America, according to IATA.

"Airports and airlines as well as governments are all losing out at this juncture," because of the lack of connectivity across the continent, says Fernando Gomez Suarez, an aviation industry analyst in Mexico.

Governments are conscious of the broader effects and Chile is considering a bailout for LATAM, seeing the airline as vital to the economy, and seeking to preserve 10,000 direct jobs as well as the livelihood of up to 200,000 people the government says are dependent on the airline indirectly.

A hall at Benito Juarez International airport in Mexico City on May 20, 2020

The company has already cut 1,800 of its total 42,000 staff.

The company is also holding discussions with the governments of Brazil, Peru and Colombia to save jobs there.

Negotiations

In Brazil, the largest internal market in the region with 90 million passengers a year, private banks headed by a development bank have granted a $1.1 billion loan to its three largest airlinesGol, Azul and LATAM.

Gol and Azul first had to agree to cut executive salaries and provide special rates and packages to stimulate recovery.

In Mexico, the region's largest destination for foreign tourists, Tourism Minister Miguel Torruco insisted his country would continue to have "strong, solid airlines."

IATA said talks are underway with the government to reduce airline charges.

The country's largest, Aeromexico, will resume some routes starting Monday, though ratings agency S&P lowered its credit rating this week due to the possibility of its debt being "unsustainable."

Passengers at the Avianca check-in area in Mexico City's Benito Juarez airport on May 20, 2020

Latin American airlines face $15 billion in losses over the coronavirus pandemic

LATAM airlines aircraft sit on the tarmac at Santiago airport

In Argentina, state-owned Aerolineas Argentinas announced a merger with its subsidiary Austral this month to reduce infrastructure and staff to save up to $100 million.

IATA meanwhile warned about the impact of the government's decision to keep Argentina's airspace closed until September.

Keep flying

Airline workers who escaped mass layoffs have had to take full or partial wage cuts to keep their jobs.

"Imagine losing half or more of your salary... and the bills keep coming in," says Jose de Jesus Suarez, spokesman for the Mexican pilots union ASPA, whose members have gone from six flights a week to just one or two a month.

Analyst Gomez Suarez says the markets left vacant by stricken airlines will quickly be absorbed by others.

And he says their most urgent challenge will be to harmonize new health protocols between countries, which will mean higher costs for passengers.

"People will keep flying. Of course, they will have to change their habits and customs."

 2020 AFP
Bindi Irwin has shared details from her wedding to Chandler Powell and revealed all the changes they had to make as a result of the pandemic.

Sharing a photograph on Instagram of the couple looking at each other in the barn at the Australia Zoo where they tied the knot, she reflected on how much she missed her late father, Steve Irwin, and Powells family, who could not be there because of the coronavirus crisis.

She wrote: This moment. My favourite wedding day photograph. This isnt the fairytale image capturing the perfect wedding day feeling. In fact, its quite the opposite.

This picture was taken after we had to change our entire wedding. We decided not to have wedding guests due to the global crisis for everyones health and safety.

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Our family and friends couldnt be there to celebrate with us. However, they all encouraged us to continue on and get married.

From their love and support, we felt love win. We changed our wedding date the night before we got married but we were determined to let love win.

Everything from the cake to the flowers were different. Thankfully, we worked with local businesses to make it happen. They helped love win.

On our wedding day we were finally about to get married and the paparazzi flew over us in a helicopter scaring our wildlife. We had to leave our stunning wedding venue on the African Savannah for their safety. I said goodbye to the place I had dreamed of getting married for so many years.

At that moment I remembered the filming barn where Id spent much of my life with my family working on Crocodile Hunter and Bindi The Jungle Girl. I knew we could make it work and our zoo crew helped us to move everything inside. I watched love win.

I was there in my wedding dress, husband-to-be by my side, moving tables and flowers and trying to make our day finally become a reality. At one point I sat on a chair in the corner doing my best not to think about how overwhelming things seemed. I missed the people who couldnt be there, my dad, Chandlers family, our dear friends, my family.

Chandler stopped what he was doing and sat next to me. I asked him to list me happy things. He proceeded to remind me that love ALWAYS wins. Thats when this picture was taken.

Despite everything, we got married and Ill forever be grateful. Sure, things werent perfect but thats life. Life is messy and beautiful and meant to be felt.

We were overcoming great obstacles to prove that unconditional love is the most important foundation. Our wedding day wasnt what we planned but it was an extraordinary starting point for our marriage to bloom.

The couple tied the knot at the Queensland zoo on March 25, hours before the country banned weddings attended by more than five people.

During the ceremony they lit a candle in memory of Irwins father, who was killed by a stingray in September 2006, when she was eight.
The fourth phase of the coronavirus-triggered lockdown, which began on May 18, saw 85,974 COVID-19 cases till 8 am on Sunday, which is nearly half of the total cases reported in the country so far.

IMAGE: Migrants onboard a special train at Charbagh railway station, to travel to their native places, during the ongoing COVID-19 lockdown, in Lucknow. Photograph: Nand Kumar/PTI Photo

Lockdown 4.0, which will end on May 31 midnight, has accounted for 47.20 per cent of the total coronavirus infection cases, number crunching from the Union health ministry data reveals.

The lockdown, which was first clamped on March 25 and spanned for 21 days, had registered 10,877 cases, while the second phase of the curbs that began on April 15 and stretched for 19 days till May 3, saw 31,094 cases.

The third phase of the lockdown that was in effect for 14 days ending on May 17, recorded 53,636 cases till 8 am of May 18.

The country had registered 512 coronavirus infection cases till March 24.

India is the ninth worst-hit nation by the COVID-19 pandemic as of now.

The first case of COVID-19 in India was reported on January 30 from Kerala after a medical student of Wuhan university, who had returned to India, tested positive for the virus.

India registered its highest single-day spike of COVID-19 cases on Sunday, with 8,380 new infections reported in the last 24 hours, taking the country's tally to 1,82,143, while the death toll rose to 5,164, according to the Union health ministry.

The number of active COVID-19 cases stood to 89,995, while 86,983 people have recovered and one patient has migrated, it said.

"Thus, around 47.75 per cent patients have recovered so far," a senior health ministry official said.

With the fourth phase of lockdown ending on Sunday, the home ministry on Saturday said 'Unlock-1' will be initiated in the country from June 8 under which the nationwide lockdown will be relaxed to a great extent, including opening of shopping malls, restaurants and religious places, even as strict restrictions will remain in place till June 30 in the country's worst-hit areas.

While announcing the extension of the lockdown in containment zones across the country, the home ministry said temples, mosques, churches and other religious places and shopping malls will be allowed to open in a phased manner from June 8, while a decision on opening of schools and colleges will be taken in July in consultation with states.
Mining giant Rio Tinto has issued an apology after blowing up a 46,000-year-old Aboriginal cave site in Western Australia, vowing to urgently review its plans for other sites nearby and its approach to dealing with heritage matters.

After the miner last Sunday detonated explosives at the Juukan Gorge site, sparking international outcry and a federal government pledge to review the relevant laws, Rio's iron ore chief executive Chris Salisbury apologised for the distress it had caused.

The view on May 15 over the rock shelters, cleared, but before the blast. Credit:PKKP

Mr Salisbury said the miner had been operating on the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura People's country under an agreement since 2011, and it had followed a heritage approval processes for more than 10 years. He said that in 2014 the mining giant carried out a salvage exercise designed to preserve cultural heritage artfacts, recovering about 7,000 objects from the area.

"We pay our respects to the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura People (PKKP), and we are sorry for the distress we have caused. Our relationship with the PKKP matters a lot to Rio Tinto, having worked together for many years," Mr Salisbury said in a statement.
COVID-19 fatalities may be much more than what is being reported

Mann Ki Baat: India is opening up slowly, be extra vigilant says PM Modi

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

New Delhi, May 31: Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the nation through the 65th edition of his Mann Ki Baat and said that India is opening up slowly and returning to normal amidst the coronavirus outbreak.

Addressing the country in his monthly radio programme Mann Ki Baat, PM Modi, however, said that people should be extra vigilant. He said that passenger train services, buses and flights have resumed and Shramik Special trains are operational to ferry migrants back. He said that passenger train services, buses and flights have resumed and Shramik Special trains are operational to ferry migrants back.

The Prime Minister also praised the countrymen saying "India's fight against COVID-19 is people-driven and country's 'seva shakti' is visible in this battle".



Meanwhile, the government has already announced the 'Unlock-1' guidelines that will be followed for the next month as economic activities look set to resume in a phased manner.

Unlock 1.0: Decision to re-open Schools, colleges in July after assessing situation

Coronavirus: Delhi seeks Rs.5000 Cr from centre to pay employees | Oneindia News

PM Modi will most likely deliberate on how India should and will tackle to coronavirus pandemic going forward along with the resumption of economic activities. As of Saturday, India has had 1.73 lakh coronavirus cases and 4,971.

The 65th edition of 'Mann ki Baat' comes a day after the one-year anniversary of the second term of the Modi government.

In the last Mann ki Baat address on April 26, PM Modi had said that wearing masks and maintaining public hygiene will have to become India's new reality. The prime minister had cautioned the citizens against feeling complacent about the disease as it is far from over.
Over the weekend, protests over police shootings spread from Minneapolis to dozens of cities, leading to riots and curfews in numerous places. For many, this brought to mind the waves of protests and civil unrest during the 1960s, which also resulted in violence and the destruction of property.All this comes at a time when the country was on edge due to the coronavirus pandemic and a deep economic downturn. And it comes just five months ahead of a national election that was already certain to be contentious.To gain some sense of the political and historical contexts for todays events,spoke with Michael W. Flamm, a historian at Ohio Wesleyan University. Flamm is the author of multiple books, includingand In the Heat of the Summer: The New York Riots of 1964 and the War on Crime . Here are edited excerpts of the interview:Flamm: My head is filled with many, many thoughts, from the personal tragedy of George Floyd to the larger social tragedy of racial history and violence.The tragedy in Minneapolis follows a historical pattern of riots. The demonstrations often begin peacefully with individuals and groups trying to express their anger, their outrage, their grief. Gradually, the streets are filled with other people. When night falls, there are people with other interests, whether its burning or looting.Sadly, the media focuses on the last group and drown out the earlier, peaceful protests. Violent protests for the media always beat peaceful protests. Footage of people burning buildings, smashing windows  as a producer, you know which images are going to keep more people glued to your channel.There are many explanations. Shootings typically take place in a split second. They involve a quick reaction and judgments. Shootings are complicated; the situations are very complex. This was not a shooting. This was a very different kind of homicide, a very different kind of murder. It was captured on video and didnt happen in a dark alley, where the police officer may or may not have been threatened with a weapon.It also comes at a moment when people are desperate to come out of their homes, to do something. It comes during a burst of good weather. My father lives in Minnesota and he can tell you how cold and wet its been there this spring.And it occurs against a political and economic backdrop. I think the sense of desperation is growing. Many poor people are aware were on the verge of a wave of evictions across urban America the likes of which we havent seen in decades. This combination coming together is causing people to explode.Let me begin with a fact. More than 60 percent of Americans who watched the police riot in Chicago believed they gave the demonstrators precisely what they deserved. Ultimately, the politics of law and order benefits conservatives. It plays to a fundamental conservatism in American society.One of the lessons of Chicago in 1968 is that armed confrontations dont help liberals and they dont help Democrats. The whole world is watching was the chant. The demonstrators in Chicago believed  and I assume the demonstrators in Minneapolis believe  that history will be on their side, and that may not be right.Heres where it gets a little bit complicated. Richard Nixon benefited greatly from the presence of George Wallace in 1968.Wallace was so extreme on the issue of law and order that he made Nixon seem like the responsible moderate on that issue. That helped him tremendously in 1968. I argue, its the law and order issue that allowed Nixon to win his narrow victory.The dynamic here is there is no Wallace for Trump. Trump is Wallace. His actions may prove too extreme. The Democrats may find themselves in a good position here because of Bidens positions on crime and law and order in the past.In 1968, you still had effectively four political parties in the U.S. Within the GOP, there were conservatives and moderates, and within Democrats, there were liberals and moderates. Those splits within the parties muted polarization.Today, we have two largely homogenous political parties  and we have social media and we have an economic crisis and we have a pandemic and we have a president ready to pour gasoline on the fire because he believes his path to reelection leads through division. Its like a perfect path to have widening of divisions in our society and politics.One difference is that we dont have a Vietnam War today. Were not currently engaged in an international conflict simultaneously.But we are living through the perfect storm of historical events. We have an economic crisis similar to 1929, a medical crisis similar to 1918 and now a political crisis similar to 1968. In a sense, we have the worst of all political worlds.
KABUL (Reuters) - Islamic State claimed responsibility for Saturday's bomb explosion that killed an Afghan journalist and a technician in minibus carrying employees of a local television station in Kabul.

At least seven people were wounded in the evening rush hour attack. Pictures showed a white minibus with extensive damage to its front.

"Our colleagues Mir Wahed Shah, an economic reporter, and Shafiq Amiri, an employee in the technical department, were martyred in the incident," said Mohammad Rafi Rafiq Sediqi, chief executive of the Khurshid TV station.

The United States, European Union and NATO condemned the attack. Last year, two employees of Khurshid TV were killed and two wounded in a similar attack.

Islamic State, which battles government forces and Taliban militants, has claimed some of the deadliest attacks in urban Afghanistan in recent years. It did not give a reason for Saturday's blast.

Taliban and other Islamist insurgents have repeatedly targeted Afghan journalists, killing 15 in 2018, the deadliest year yet for the Afghan media, according to the media freedom group Reporters Without Borders.

In 2016, a Taliban suicide bomber rammed his car into a bus carrying employees of Tolo TV, the country's largest private broadcaster, killing seven journalists.

The Taliban, who were ousted from power by U.S.-led forces in 2001, said Tolo was producing propaganda for the U.S. military and Western-backed Afghan government.

(Reporting by Orooj Hakimi, Hameed Farzad, Abdul Qadir Sediqi in Kabul; Writing by Rupam Jain; Editing by Christina Fincher and Nick Macfie)
President Donald Trump said Friday he would strip several of Hong Kong's special privileges with the United States and bar some Chinese students from US universities in anger over Beijing's bid to exert control in the financial hub.

In a day of concerted action, the United States and Britain also raised alarm at the UN Security Council over a controversial new security law for Hong Kong, infuriating Beijing which said the issue had no place at the world body.

In a White House appearance that Trump had teased for a day, the US president attacked China over its treatment of the former British colony, saying it was "diminishing the city's longstanding and proud status."

"This is a tragedy for the people of Hong Kong, the people of China and indeed the people of the world," Trump said.

Trump also said he was terminating the US relationship with the World Health Organization, which he has accused of pro-China bias in its management of the coronavirus crisis.

But Trump was light on specifics and notably avoided personal criticism of President Xi Jinping, with whom he has boasted of having a friendship even as the two powers feud over an increasing range of issues.

"I am directing my administration to begin the process of eliminating policy that gives Hong Kong different and special treatment," Trump said.

"This will affect the full range of agreements, from our extradition treaty to our export controls on dual-use technologies and more, with few exceptions," he said.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday informed Congress that the Trump administration would no longer consider Hong Kong to be separate under US law, but it was up to Trump to spell out the consequences.

China this week pressed ahead on a law that would ban subversion and other perceived offenses against its rule in Hong Kong, which was rocked by months of massive pro-democracy protests last year.

In a move that could have long-reaching consequences, Trump issued an order to ban graduate students from US universities who are connected to China's military.

"For years, the government of China has conducted illicit espionage to steal our industrial secrets, of which there are many," Trump said.

Hawkish Republicans have been clamoring to kick out Chinese students enrolled in sensitive fields. The FBI in February said it was investigating 1,000 cases of Chinese economic espionage and technological theft.

But any move to deter students is unwelcome for US universities, which rely increasingly on tuition from foreigners and have already been hit hard by the COVID-19 shutdown.

China has been the top source of foreign students to the United States for the past decade with nearly 370,000 Chinese at US universities, although Trump's order will not directly affect undergraduates.

Critics say Trump has been eager to fan outrage about China to deflect attention from his own handling of the pandemic that has killed more than 100,000 people in the United States, the highest death toll of any country.

Chuck Schumer, the top Democrat in the Senate, called Trump's announcement "just pathetic."

Eliot Engel, a Democrat who heads the House Foreign Affairs Committee, noted that Trump treaded lightly on Hong Kong during last year's protests as he sought a trade deal with Xi.

"Now, the president wants to shift the blame for his failures onto China, so he's doing the right thing for the wrong reason," Engel said.

Trump's order could also trigger retaliation. China in March expelled US journalists after the Trump administration tightened visa rules for staff at Chinese state media. "Sanctions are not always unilateral and our country (China) has said that we will roll out countermeasures," Hong Kong's security chief John Lee said Saturday.

The United States and Britain earlier in the day urged China to reconsider the Hong Kong law during talks at the UN Security Council, where China wields a veto -- making any formal session, let alone action against Beijing, impossible.

The Western allies raised Hong Kong in an informal, closed-door videoconference where China cannot block the agenda.

They said China was violating an international commitment as the 1984 handover agreement with Britain, in which Beijing promised to maintain the financial hub's separate system until at least 2047, was registered with the United Nations.

"The United States is resolute, and calls upon all UN members states to join us in demanding that the PRC immediately reverse course and honor its international legal commitments to this institution and to the Hong Kong people," said US Ambassador Kelly Craft, referring to the People's Republic of China.

China demanded that the US and Britain "immediately stop interfering in Hong Kong affairs," saying the law did not fall under the Security Council's mandate.

"Any attempt to use Hong Kong to interfere in China's internal matters is doomed to fail," warned a statement from China's UN mission.

"There was no consensus, no formal discussion in the Security Council, and the US and the UK's move came to nothing," it said.
C Shivakumar By

Express News Service

CHENNAI: When the city shut down and stayed indoors fearing the novel coronavirus, migrant labourers were left alone in the streets. Some of them were not paid for the work they had done months before cities came to a grinding halt.

Some of them were thrown out of their rented houses. Most of them had no money to either stay or leave. Left with no options, they started walking towards home, thousands of kilometres away, one step at a time. Finally, when governments arranged trains and allowed private buses, there was an exodus.

Data says that 2.5 lakh migrant workers have left Tamil Nadu. Many of them, speaking with Express, shuddered at the thought of returning to the State for work. Now that industries and businesses have also started reopening, the city and its people are starting to feel the pinch -- realise the contributions of their invisible labour in keeping this city going.

Many businesses are hopeful that a fresh set of hands may arrive when things return to normal, but little is being said about improving working and living conditions of these 'guest' workers. The busy pocket of Guindy Industrial Estate, home to hundreds of small scale units, now looks desolate. The units have opened up, but there are hardly any labourers around.

"Many units are now functioning with a mere 10 per cent workforce," says KV Kanakambaram, president of a manufacturers association there. "There were around 3,000 migrant workers here and many have left." The local workers are also unable to return to work, as public transportation is still not functional.

Construction works left midway are likely to stay that way for sometime. The sector is facing about 70 per cent labour shortage, says S Sridharan of CREDAI. "We can review the exact numbers only after the lockdown has been lifted, but many have left for home. They are unlikely to come back until train services resume," he says. Complicating the concerns of builders, is the escalation of cost of cement and other construction materials.

However, the workers did not just up-and-leave amid the lockdown. Express reported at least three cases where the labourers in the construction sector were denied wages due since March. They were made to stay in and around work sites.

The frugal rations being provided, lack of work and money, and deep worry about the situation back home forced many workers to leave when a chance presented itself. Most of the migrant workers Express interacted with along the NH-16, leaving the city by foot, were from construction sector.

The beauty industry has also suffered badly. "Close to 50 per cent of our workforce was from Northeastern States," says CK Kumaravel of Naturals Salon. Unlike the contemporary situation, Kumaravel has been supporting his staff, who, as a result, have not left from here.

Yet, hes worried that if the crisis prolongs, they might leave. It all depends on the lockdown. If it continues, they may want to leave. Kumaravel also plans to reduce staff strength at his outlets by breaking them into two shifts, to ensure social distancing.

Industry bodies feel this dearth would be a temporary phase. "It may not last more than three months. Anyway, there arent many orders now. Industries can manage with the reduced workforce. In about three months, when they attain 90 per cent of their production capacity, the remaining workforce will come back and boost the capacity utilisation," says K Hari Thiagarajan of the CII.

Thiagarajan also feels these workers "may not have other alternatives" so they will come back. "They wont get paid as much as what they earn here back home," he says.

The industrial hub of Tirupur, which employs around 2 lakh migrant workers, is as badly affected as Chennai. Nearly 20 per cent of the workforce left when the curfew was imposed, claim local industry sources.

Now that industrial units there have been allowed to operate with 50 per cent workforce, local labourers are back in demand. "The orders are limited, which is a pain. But when they increase, we can always train local labourers," says P Mohan of the Tirupur Exporters Association.

But, that is not the case with spinning mills. "Migrant labourers are the backbone of our business.We are devastated, and have no idea when we can reopen," says N Murugesan of the South Indian Spinners Association.

In Erode, around 17,000 workers had registered with the district administration to be sent back home, of which 10,000 are now back in Bihar, Odisha, Jharkhand, UP, Maharashtra, and Rajasthan. The impact of their leaving has been on bleaching, dyeing, printing and construction industries. Textile processors association's K Veerakumar says over 90 per cent of workers in 400 textile processing units in Erode are migrants from northern States.

In Madurai, where an estimated 80,000 migrant labourers are employed, only 10,000 have registered to go home. Of them, 5,348 have already left by special trains and buses. A contractor in Madurai, who has been tasked with building a flyover in the city, says 240 of his 250 workers have left for Bihar and Odisha. "Then 10 others are from Jharkhand, and are waiting for a special train to be announced to leave."

Now, works are being carried out by these 10 workers, and 70 others hired locally, from Melur, Alanganallur, and other places. "Migrant workers will return, but it will take about 6-9 months. The advantage with them is that they are willing to work overtime. Local workers, on the other hand, want to return home every evening. The migrant workers also do not take much leaves as they live close to the work sites," says the contractor.

The contractor, working on a government project, is unaware of the stipulated working hours for labourers, and violates it blatantly.

S Rethinavelu of the Tamil Nadu Chamber of Commerce explains how the entire process works. "Migrant workers are brought here by employers through contractors are middlemen. The places from where they are brought are chosen on a rotational basis. Now, we understand that there are many workers in Bihar, UP, and Odisha looking to come to Tamil Nadu as the pandemic has destroyed their livelihood. It would be nice if governments can arrange something like Shramik trains to also bring them back to their work sites," he said.

"These labourers are leaving their native States due to lack of opportunities there. If governments create opportunities, and give preference for local candidates in each State, the migrant crisis can be averted to an extent," says R Suresh, an assistant professor with the Alagappa University.

Migrant workforce is the building block of what the West now calls the Gig Economy. As said by associations and business owners, the only reason they are in demand is that they come cheap. For a flat monthly payout, they work overtime, they stay near the site and hence do not or cannot take leaves, and, working in a foreign land, they also lack social and public support to argue their cause if they are treated unfairly.

Its this denial of rights that has come back to bite industries and businesses in the COVID era. With lack of basic housing, money, and rations, leaving was the only choice for many labourers. Will the situation change after COVID? Will industries offer a few benefits here and there to retain the workforce? Only time will tell.

(With inputs from Jeyalakshmi Ramanujam, Lalitha Ranjani, Vignesh V, Azeefa Fathima, Deepak Sathish, Chandhini, Sowmya Mani, and Thinakaran Rajamani)
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-31 19:47:17|Editor: huaxia

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SAN FRANCISCO, May 31 (Xinhua) -- San Francisco Mayor London Breed announced on Saturday night a curfew in the city that will last from 8 p.m. Sunday until 5 a.m. Monday local time with the National Guard on standby.

The measures followed chaos and looting downtown. Stores were damaged and looted in some Bay Area cities, including San Francisco, on Saturday as protests over the death of African American George Floyd in Minneapolis raged on in the region.

"People are hurting right now. They're angry. I'm angry. The city and the police will support peaceful protests ... We can't tolerate violence and vandalism. Now is the time to go home," said Breed in a tweet.

Floyd died shortly after a white police officer used his knee to pin Floyd to the ground by the neck.

The city's Police Chief Bill Scott said that the police start to see an increased level of violence after nightfall.

"There is destruction, fires, looting downtown around Westfield mall. Some of the essential workers at the 4th/Mission garage were assaulted," San Francisco Supervisor Matt Haney also tweeted.

A Friday night protest in Oakland turned into a riot with dozens of protestors arrested.

Earlier on Saturday, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan also announced a city-wide curfew for Saturday and Sunday after protests broke out downtown. Enditem
One person was arrested in Rapid City during a secondary protest of the death of George Floyd Saturday afternoon.

Rapid City Police Spokesperson Brendyn Medina said a smaller group splintered off from the hundreds of people who gathered in Memorial Park to remember George Floyd, who died when a Minneapolis Police Officer kept his knee on Floyd's neck for several minutes while he was already handcuffed.

The splinter group of protestors walked to the Public Safety Building to stage a separate demonstration. One man in this group reportedly was interfering with traffic flow on New York St. and putting himself and others in danger.

Rapid City Police Officers asked him to leave the roadway, but Medina said the man refused to comply. He was taken into custody at that point and has been placed under arrest with charges pending.

"We were very grateful for the way the vast majority of those in attendance behaved today," Medina said. "They exercised their constitutional rights appropriately and safely."

Police Chief Karl Jegeris said the incidents in Minneapolis were shocking and reassured Rapid City residents that his department makes every effort to prevent similar incidents here in a Facebook post.

"I want everyone to know that the RCPD remains committed to employing effective and proactive approaches to community policing in our city," Chief Jegeris said. "Each of our officers receives training on the topic of trauma-informed policing with historically accurate information specific to this area we all call home."
France's coronavirus cases are continuing to decline, health officials said on Sunday, with 14,322 patients currently in hospital, down from 14,380 a day earlier.

The number of COVID-19 patients in intensive care fell to 1,319 from 1,361, the health directorate said in a statement. The hospital death toll from the virus rose by 31 to 18,475 - the 11th consecutive daily increase below 100.

Numbers for nursing home deaths will next be updated on Tuesday, the directorate said.

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Authorities are scrambling to track the source of a coronavirus outbreak that has infected 13 people from two households in Keilor Downs, as the state prepares for a new phase of eased restrictions from Monday.

Locked-down businesses including cafes, restaurants and tourist accommodation are preparing to welcome back customers this week but Victoria's state of emergency has been extended until June 21 to enforce remaining restrictions, including those on working from home.

Six new coronavirus cases were recorded in Victoria since Saturday and two earlier cases were reclassified, bringing the state's overall tally to 1649.

Two of the new cases were linked to a family outbreak in Keilor Downs which has now infected 13 people across two homes and sent more than 100 students across four schools into self isolation.
Wesley Chapel United Methodist Church is hosting a drive-by parade for church graduates from 2 to 3 p.m. today.

Graduates from the Wesley Chapel congregation will be on the church lawn to be greeted by church members and those who want to drive by and congratulate them.
Robert Downey Jr. is best known for his performance as billionaire inventor Tony Stark aka Iron Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He played the character in 2008s Iron Man, the first installment in what would become one of the most popular (and profitable) movie franchises ever. The actor bid farewell to the role when Avengers: Endgame hit theaters in 2019.

Robert Downey Jr. in Las Vegas, Nevada | Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC

He walked away with a $75 million paycheck but fans still wonder if Downey Jr. will ever return to the MCU. While Marvel Studios continues to make superhero movies, were taking a look back at the 55-year-old actors time in the MCU. Specifically, the period Downey Jr. spent filming Captain America: Civil War.

Captain America: Civil War premiered in 2016

Captain America actor Chris Evans and Downey Jr. teamed up in Captain America: Civil War. While the actors are good friends in real life, their characters go head-to-head in the movie. Hitting theaters in May 2016, Captain America: Civil War continued the saga of the Avengers and brought together superheroes from across the MCU.

RELATED: Some MCU Fans Wish Theyd Watched Captain America: Civil War Without a Spoiler-Filled Trailer

Today, fans dont think its that good compared to the rest of the Captain America movies in the franchise. Despite the lukewarm reception, theres no denying its still entertaining.

Robert Downey Jr. shipped furniture to Captain America: Civil War filming location

During the making of the superhero movie, the cast filmed on location in Georgia. As people who spend a lot of time away from home on movie sets, the actors have to get creative with their rented digs. Downey Jr. got really creative. When it came time to travel to Georgia, the father of three had all the furniture from his California home shipped to his temporary place.

Downey Jr. talked about it on Jimmy Kimmel Live! during a 2015 appearance with Evans.

Lest I be thought of as some self-involved, snarky, hes got it all thing: You know, youre away from home for a long time. And so, we thought  we bring the cats and the kids and  As a matter of fact, lets bring the house, he said.

RELATED: The $275,000 Gift Robert Downey Jr. Bought Chris Evans When Filming on Avengers: Endgame Ended

Downey Jr., his wife Susan, and their two kids Avri and Exton made themselves at home in Georgia bringing the comforts of home with them. It worked out so well for the family its now a regular thing when the actor has to film on location.

Whenever he rents a place, he has all the same furniture sent so theres consistency from rental to rental, a source told Us Weekly in May 2015. He does it for a sense of comfort.

Maybe a little extravagant, Downey Jr. might be on to something. His familys right at home when they come to his rented pad. Plus, hes got the money to cover the moving costs. The actors net worth is estimated to be around $300 million. And his mansion in Malibu, California, with ocean views and a pool must be a hard place to leave.

One things for sure; well never think twice again about traveling with a pillow from home ever again!

RELATED: How Old Is Robert Downey Jr? Check Out the Gift He Gave Fans On His Birthday
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Linkedin Megan Quitkin and Tara Singh Bam (The Jakarta Post) Paris/Singapore  Sun, May 31, 2020 15:20 599 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdb31fdf 3 Opinion tobacco,e-cigarette,tobacco-control,COVID-19,pandemic Free

While academics, the media and the public health community frequently debate the utility and dangers of e-cigarettes and vaping, this discourse has a myopic focus on the United Kingdom and the United States, which repeatedly pit their respective country experiences against one another.

Notably absent from the discussion is careful consideration of how novel products, including heated tobacco products (HTPs), will impact the low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) where they are being aggressively introduced and marketed. In diverse nations like Ukraine, Yemen, Iraq, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia, these products will further stress already fragile health systems, now further constrained by COVID-19. Young people are particularly vulnerable.

We highlight these increasingly challenging issues amid the pandemic, in conjunction with World No Tobacco Day of May 31.

Read also: Tobacco industry using 'deadly' tactics to hook kids: WHO

With the same tactics they deployed in the US, novel product producers are similarly encouraging youth uptake of e-cigarettes in LMICs, using social media, event sponsorship and flavors. Sound familiar? Thats because the products may be new, but the playbook and producers are not. E-cigarettes are increasingly dominated by the tobacco industry, and HTPs are exclusively tobacco industry owned.

Public health officials have good reason to be anxious. First and perhaps foremost, increasing evidence shows youth who use e-cigarettes, who have never smoked, and would have been considered low-risk for later taking up smoking, increase their chance of smoking traditional cigarettes later in life by two to four-fold.

In many LMICs  where bans on sales to minors are generally weak, where cigarettes are almost always insufficiently taxed and priced and where cigarettes are culturally ingrained and widely used  the potential for youth to transition from e-cigarettes to cigarette smoking is likely to be greater.

Next on the list of things to worry about is lack of enforcement. In LMICs, loopholes to circumvent tobacco control policies abound. Even before COVID-19, many LMICs had difficulty enforcing tobacco control policies, such as smoke-free areas, advertising bans, vendor licensing and measures to prevent youth sales.

In the Asia Pacific, tobacco use causes more than one in five cases of cardiovascular disease, like heart attack and stroke, and nearly a quarter of its population are smokers. This leads to the death of 1 million people in the region each year as a direct consequence of tobacco use.

And despite advances in countries like Indonesia, which has made progress in tobacco control in recent years, every year, more than 225,700 of its people are killed by tobacco-caused disease. Nearly 500,000 children aged 10 to 14 and 64 million people aged 15 and older use tobacco each day in Indonesia, and the tobacco industry is actively pursuing new strategies to lure new and younger users. E-cigarettes and HTPs represent the next step in this aggressive campaign.

Additionally, regulating new products (whose devices and ingredients change rapidly) is expensive and will prove even more challenging amid the global pandemic. The nicotine and tobacco industries will exploit these weaknesses to promote their products and undermine tobacco control policies. Twin epidemics  of addiction to both novel products and traditional cigarettes  could emerge.

E-cigarette advocates often argue that vaping devices should be considered valuable tools in the harm reduction arsenal  and viewed as a new way to fight tobacco addiction. We are all for harm reduction, but vaping does not fall under this rubric. Harm reduction tools  clean needles, for example  are unique in that they do not do certain things: they do not appeal to new users, they do not exacerbate existing problems, and they do not catalyze new epidemics.

There may, of course, be individual instances of e-cigarettes enabling long-term smokers to cease using traditional tobacco products, but the net public health outcome of these products  which weighs the impact on both smokers and non-smokers (particularly youth)  should be the bottom line. Considering the enormous damage e-cigarettes and HTPs will cause youth in LMICs  and the insufficient evidence on reduced health damage to adult smokers  the net public health outcome of e-cigarettes and HTPs in LMICs is likely to be negative.

Novel products are really a distraction from the main game. The key to tobacco control lies not in flashy new ice cream flavored products but, rather, in the adoption and implementation of population-level, evidence-based policies.

These are outlined in the World Health Organizations Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) and MPOWER measures: monitoring tobacco use and prevention policies, protecting people from tobacco smoke, offering help to quit tobacco use, warning about the dangers of tobacco, enforcing bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship and raising taxes on tobacco. Full adoption and implementation of these measures are clearly lacking in many LMICs.

Read also: Quit smoking now or be part of the COVID-19 death stats

Given the potential harms of e-cigarettes and HTPs  and as the long-term health effects are unknown  legislators must be guided by the precautionary principle and evidence-based approach to policy making where the science is inconclusive.

Safety must come first.

What we already know about e-cigarettes is highly disconcerting. Dual use of e-cigarettes and cigarettes, practiced by a considerable number of e-cigarette users, is increasingly found to be associated with critical health impacts. We cannot draw meaningful health impact conclusions on HTPs because few studies are independent of tobacco industry funding  and the evidence is ambiguous.

Far less ambiguous are Big Tobaccos goals.

The industrys success depends on its ability to influence and dictate policy. The WHO FCTC, through Article 5.3, explicitly prohibits this practice, but the industry is desperately trying to transform its identity from a corporate pariah to a harm reduction producer of safer products; if the industry accomplishes this metamorphosis, it can reposition itself as a credible player, worthy of a seat at the table where novel product policy debates occur.

Governments must not fall for this blatant manipulation. They must be proactive.

The COVID-19 outbreak is not the only urgent public health challenge. Time is running out for many countries to dictate how their own novel product narratives will unfold.

At least 24 countries/jurisdictions have banned e-cigarettes, and at least eight countries have banned HTPs. We strongly encourage LMICs to act now, in abundance of caution, to ban the sale of novel tobacco products, as well as their manufacture, import and export.

***

Megan Quitkin is the deputy director of tobacco control at The International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease. Tara Sing Bam is the unions deputy director for the Asia Pacific region.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post.
Hong Kong: China's state media and the government of Hong Kong lashed out on Sunday at US President Donald Trump's vow to end Hong Kong's special status if Beijing imposes new national security laws on the city, which is bracing for fresh protests.

Trump on Friday pledged to "take action to revoke Hong Kong's preferential treatment as a separate customs and travel territory", and to impose sanctions on unspecified individuals over Beijing's new laws on the Asian financial centre.

Pro-China supporters hold a placard on their way to protest at the US Consulate in Hong Kong on Sunday, May 31. Credit:AP

But China's state media pushed back, saying this would hurt the United States more than China.

"The baton of sanctions that the United States is brandishing will not scare Hong Kong and will not bring China down, China's Communist Party mouthpiece, the People's Daily, wrote in a commentary. It used the pen name "Zhong Sheng", meaning "Voice of China", often used to give the paper's view on foreign policy issues.
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- As the coronavirus forced the western world into lockdown in March, humans were confronted with a moral test. Drawing on centuries of philosophical thought that produced the worlds competing modern value systems, each person had to decide which measures were justified to limit the medical and economic carnage. There was plenty of possibility for discord.

Initially, people and leaders coalesced around a version of the biblical philosophy of the golden rule  that we should not do to others what we wouldnt want done to ourselves. That was the basis for asking everyone to make personal and economic sacrifices to limit the death and suffering of the weakest and oldest. Governments of the left and the right made that choice, strongly supported by religious leaders up to and including the Pope.

At the time, I wrote, We are all Rawlsians now, invoking the Harvard philosopher John Rawls who 50 years ago put a version of the golden rule at the heart of his influential theory of justice.

I was wrong. Now the brief weeks of Rawlsian unity have given way to a bitter factional and cultural battle, with rival moral principles hurled like metaphysical grenades. Different countries have taken antithetical approaches while the U.S. has split itself almost into two nations, divided between those who wear masks and those who do not.

Quarantine is when you restrict movement of sick people. Tyranny is when you restrict the movement of healthy people, Meshawn Maddock, an unmasked protester in Michigan proclaimed to Fox News.

Masks, which were not at first recommended by the public-health authorities in the U.S., have created the deepest fault line. Mask-shaming started as a tactic by government-supporting mask-wearers. Early in the lockdowns, Jorge Elorza, a law professor who serves as the Democratic mayor of Providence, Rhode Island, encouraged people to speak up if they saw someone in public without a face mask. You should socially shame them, so they fall in line, he said.

Story continues

Meanwhile in Texas, chat-show host Brenden Dilley donned a Trump 2020 cap and took to Twitter to explain why he was not wearing a mask. Better to be dead than a dork, he said, throwing in some F-bombs for emphasis. Yes, I mean that literally. Id rather die than look like an idiot right now, you weakling.

It took North Dakotas Republican governor Doug Burgum to remind citizens tearfully that those wearing masks might be doing so to protect a loved one who was vulnerable.

What has gone wrong? What has the virus revealed about the moral principles that motivate us? The story can be told with the aid of an allegory, a novel by Steven Lukes, a British political philosopher who now teaches at New York University, called "The Curious Enlightenment of Professor Caritat."

Professor Caritats Journey

Lukess allegory is simple but devastatingly effective. Professor Caritat is an expert in enlightenment philosophy in the country of Militaria, which emphasizes order above all else, and sounds like contemporary China. He is imprisoned for his subversive beliefs. Members of the opposition spring him from jail and send him on a trek through the neighboring countries of Utilitaria, Communitaria and Libertaria in search of the best way to run society. Everybody knows that they hate the military government, but what should they replace it with?

These countries follow three great schools of moral thought:

Utilitarians, following the Victorian reformer Jeremy Bentham, who believe in pursuing the greatest good for the greatest number, even if such an approach may bring harm to some. Communitarians, who believe that the sense of moral duty is rooted in a sense of community, and look for a concept of common good. Libertarians, who believe that individual freedom is paramount, and therefore resist attempts at paternalism or coercion.

In Lukess words, Each of these countries takes one of these ideas to an extreme to the exclusion of the others, and each one is a dystopia.

In Utilitaria, which is gleaming and prosperous, the elderly are routinely put to a humane death. Abortion is legal but decided on by the government, which rules whether any given birth would aid the general happiness.

In Communitaria, everyone is divided into narrow camps, and it is almost impossible to do or say anything without causing offense (which will be punished as a crime).

In Libertaria, which calls the contemporary U.S. to mind, citizens are left alone, which means that many are left to sleep on the street, city centers are full of sleaze, and a few rich people benefit from gambling.

It is a brilliant tour of moral thought, and Lukes told me the book was most influenced by Isaiah Berlin, the 20th-century British philosopher and essayist. Both Berlin and Rawls were present at the lectures in which Lukes first told the fables of the different countries that would become the novel.

The book is really about pluralism: Is there an irreducible conflict between these values? Lukes said. Rawls is an attempt to somehow bring them together to give an overarching theory that somehow encompasses everything. You could contrast that with Berlins position that these are irreducible conflicts that arent going to be resolved, because thats what life is. Instead you just have to choose what your ultimate values are.

By the end of Lukess allegory, Professor Caritat has come around to the Berlin point of view: The conflicts between these competing moral systems cant be resolved.

And looking at the real-life allegory acting itself out in the U.S., Berlin again seems to have been proven right. We are not arriving at a position of moral coherence, but instead confront moral conflict. How did this happen?

Rawlsian Phantoms

Its evident now that those early days of Rawlsian unity were an illusion. Yes, the calls for sacrifice to protect the elderly certainly sounded as though motivated by the golden rule. But in the months since, the scandal of those abandoned to die in nursing homes on both sides of the Atlantic has only grown.

Moreover, getting people to sacrifice in the name of the golden rule requires trust in governments to make sure that those sacrifices are not wasted. In many places, that doesnt exist. The deepening inequality across the western world would have been anathema to Rawls. In the U.S., long-standing casualties of inequality such as African-Americans and Native Americans turned out to be particularly susceptible to the virus, so the pandemic began to reinforce existing feelings of injustice.

Other than in countries where the state could rely on its ability to coerce people, like China, lockdowns worked most effectively under governments perceived to be trustworthy and efficient, like Germany or Norway. In Norway, people believed that enforced self-isolation would pay off. In the U.S., public-health failures blazed a trail of skepticism.

When governments are perceived to be unfair or inconsistent, Rawlsian discipline breaks down. Exhibit A is the remarkable story of Dominic Cummings, the Svengali-like political adviser to U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Britain has a strong tradition of accepting authority, and the population had complied with a strict lockdown with minimal protest  until it was revealed that Cummings had broken the lockdown rules to drive 260 miles with his wife and child when he thought the family might have contracted Covid-19. It led to an outcry, especially as Johnson refused to dismiss him, claiming that Cummings had been concerned for his family and was entitled to use his discretion (opening the way for many more Britons to stop social distancing), and Cummings refused to apologize.

For the many Britons who had gone without funerals or visits to elderly parents, this was a fatal philosophical blow. If Cummings had broken the golden rule, and the government had supported him, there was no reason why they should follow. The ministers defending Cummings were telling the nation that Doms only crime was loving his family too much  and so implicitly telling every Briton who obeyed the rules that they loved their family too little, the columnist Jonathan Freedland wrote in the Guardian.

A final problem for self-sacrifice a la Rawls was that people felt that governments were asking too much, stretching the golden rule too far. Ashley Radcliffe, a stay-at-home mother from the Detroit suburb of Grosse Pointe Woods put it this way in an interview with the Detroit Free Press:

The restrictions are too much. People want to work. They want their lives back. In the first couple weeks I was like, 'We're all staying in.' And we all did. Then that kind of wore off.

She has restarted neighborhood play dates for her 5-year-old son.

Liberty? Which Kind?

Resisting authority is one thing. Fighting for liberty is another. Much depends upon exactly what liberty means, and Isaiah Berlin framed that moral debate. In a famous 1959 essay called "Two Concepts of Liberty," Berlin suggested that libertarians practiced either positive liberty, which entails the active freedom to do something, or negative liberty, which is freedom from interference. His point was that these two kinds of liberty are different. The U.S. Constitution is rooted in negative liberty, the freedom to be left alone. But the protesters who entered the Michigan capitol in Lansing with assault rifles in April and May were plainly pursuing positive liberty. Berlin, who was born in Latvia in 1909 when it was part of the Russian empire, believed that opened doors to totalitarianism.

What, in any case, do the protesters want? A mandatory lockdown clearly violates any definition of liberty, but can this really be said of requiring people to wear a mask when entering a shop? In one incident, a man was caught on video demanding the right to enter a Costco unmasked because I woke up in a free country. In Albany, Minnesota, chanting protesters tried to pull the mask off a reporter, asserting their positive liberty to violate his negative liberty. Various people have been caught on camera deliberately coughing or spitting on people asking them to put on a mask.

Libertarians often face criticism that they are justifying selfishness, and disregard for others. Such incidents confirm the stereotype and embarrass many libertarians. Resistance against incursions by an untrustworthy state does not justify violence against people who wear masks, or even going maskless in public. As Lukes put it: You are putting other people in danger and you are putting yourself in danger. If liberty just means no restraint on something we might want to do, there are obvious deprivations of liberty that are totally justified. Like driving drunk.

Positive liberty also violates many American conservatives respect for their community and its norms, even if they share an instinctive distrust of over-reaching governments. Gary Adkisson, publisher of the Bismarck Tribune in North Dakota, wrote of how he would arrive dirty from work in the fields at a store with a No Shoes, No Shirt, No Service sign:

There were rarely any other shoppers there, but my grandfather or uncles would not let us go inside shirtless or shoeless. It didnt matter that no one else was there, or that the shirts were no cleaner than our skin, or that we would take them off as soon as we left. We wore them because thats what the proprietor required. It was a matter of respect.

Opposition to lockdowns and masks is led by libertarians, but  much as Berlin might have predicted  self-isolation also runs afoul of communitarian and utilitarian ideals. Communitarians, on the right as well as the left, sense that lockdowns violate traditions and harm the community. Asa Hutchinson, the Republican governor of Arkansas, was articulating a communitarian spirit when he said on a Sunday talk show: We take the virus very seriously. Its a risk. It causes death. But you cant cloister yourself at home. That is just contrary to the American spirit.

And of course there is the powerful utilitarian argument that lockdowns are wrecking the economy. That can be attacked as preferring profit to people, but record unemployment numbers suggest a real risk of a mental health crisis that could counterbalance the public-health benefits of reducing the Covid-19 death toll. In Italy, where the disease swamped hospitals for a time, doctors resorted to utilitarian rationing of care.

None of the great schools of philosophy appears to have been deemed adequate on its own for the great test posed by the pandemic.

Principles and Tribes

If no version of moral philosophy has triumphed, what ideas are left standing? Is rhetorical allegiance to principles, such as the golden rule, liberty or the American way, just a cover for tribalism? As the virus has so far hit the geographical regions where one tribe of Americans lives, while mostly sparing the other, principles tend to rationalize behavior instead of guiding it. For people in the densely populated cities of the Acela corridor, who tend to be politically liberal, wearing masks and following government instructions seems like a good idea. For the more sparsely populated states in the middle of the country, whose citizens are philosophically more inclined to distrust the government, it is different.

People can vote or take political positions for a whole variety of motives, said Lukes. But nevertheless, when it comes to justifying their ideas they reach out for principles. Whether those principles are truly important to them is different.

And that is what has happened. Governments, with some exceptions, couldnt persuade their people that they were really following the golden rule and treating everyone with equal respect. They also failed to prove that it was worth doing so. Protesters lost their patience, and misused the notion of liberty as a cudgel against lockdowns, while also bringing valid utilitarian, communitarian and libertarian criticisms into the fray. All may claim to be motivated by principle. But in the U.S., at least, people seem to be taking refuge in tribes, and joining those with whom they already share grievances.

At this point, it looks as though Isaiah Berlin has been proven right.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

John Authers is a senior editor for markets. Before Bloomberg, he spent 29 years with the Financial Times, where he was head of the Lex Column and chief markets commentator. He is the author of The Fearful Rise of Markets and other books.

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On June 17, the United States will tighten its grip even more on the Syrian regime with the entry into force of the Caesar Act, a bipartisan law that aims to sanction any government or any private entity that assists the Damascus regime or con-tributes to the reconstruction of Syria. While the pro-Syrian camp in Lebanon is increasingly calling for normalizing the countrys relations with Damascus, this law may affect Lebanese or Lebanon-based people and businesses.

Any international company that invests in the energy, aviation, construction or engineering sectors in Syria, as well as any person dealing financially with the re-gime, will be subject to the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act of 2019. Caesar is the code name of a former Syrian military police photographer, who fled Syria in 2013, carrying 55,000 photographs showing the bodies of tortured people.

The law aims to prevent any normalization by countries like Lebanon, China or the United Arab Emirates with the Syrian regime and to hinder reconstruction ef-forts with a regime that has turned 14 million of its citizens into refugees or dis-placed people, said Mouaz Moustafa, executive director of the Syrian Emergency Task Force, a group of of Syrian advocates in the United States that helped draft, pass and now implement implement the Ceasar bill.

Any country that hosts people or companies doing this (helping Syria) is target-ed" by the law, which will take effect in several phases, the activist told LOrient-Le Jour. The sanctions are expected to affect, in addition to Syrians, companies or people in Lebanon, Iraq, Russia or Iran, he added.

On June 17, a first batch of sanctions will target individuals and companies, likely to be Syrian, and the list will not include Lebanese names, the activist said. But during the summer, the next rounds of sanctions to be announced by the United States in three or four stages will include Lebanese or Lebanon-based personali-ties or entities.

Warning

It will be a clear warning to any personality or entity in Lebanon cooperating with the Syrian regime, he added, lamenting the fact that prominent figures in Lebanon support the Syrian regime.

These sanctions will affect Syrian personalities or businessmen living in Lebanon and dealing with the regime, Lebanese companies trading with these companies, and all Lebanese individuals or entities providing any assistance to the Syrian re-gime  for example by selling fuel oil, which is being smuggled from Lebanon into Syria as it is well know.

Many companies or banks in Lebanon are working as intermediaries for the Syr-ian regime and will be punished, Moustafa said.Anyone dealing with the Syrian regime in Lebanon must be worried.

The recent crisis has shown how the Lebanese and Syrian financial systems are linked in a legal and illegal way. Those dealing with the Syrian regime need to real-ize how dangerous the Caesar Act is for them, said Assaad Hanna, also a member of the lobby.

Funds of Syrian regime-linked figures in Lebanese banks may also be af-fected. In the absence of precise figures, Lebanese banking sources told our sister economic publication, Le Commerce du Levant, that deposits of Syrian nationals in Lebanese banks are estimated between $10 to 20 billion.

Another problem is the branches of Lebanese banks in Syria, according to Bassem al-Chab, a former lawmaker for the Future Movement. He pointed out that the Lebanese government may be punished if it resumed buying electricity from Syr-ia, as it has done for years.

What about the Lebanese-Syrian Higher Council, coordination agreements be-tween the two countries, cooperation between the Lebanese army and security services with the Syrian regime? al-Chab asked, noting that the Lebanese gov-ernment may face sanctions because of these ties.

Even if the process of rebuilding Syria is still at a standstill, Lebanese companies waiting for this juicy market will have to revise their plans.

As for calls by Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah and other Lebanese politicians to normalize relations with Damascus to pave the way for Lebanese ex-ports to Iraq and other Arab countries through Syria, it is not yet clear whether the transit of goods through Syria  for which tariffs have to be paid  will be con-sidered aid to the Syrian regime.

The Caesar Act is yet another tool that reinforces the logic of sanctions and the idea that the Lebanese economy cannot act as a support economy for the Syria-Iran axis, said a Lebanese politician close to US circles. "This is clearly not the time to call for normalization with the Syrian regime.

For this politician who requested anonymity, the entry into force of this law only makes it more urgent for Lebanon to be consistent in choosing economic partners it is asking for assistance, such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and its political positioning. The more we position ourselves according to the logic that aid to Lebanon will benefit the regional Syria-Iran axis, the more difficult it will be to get help from international donors, he said.





(This article was originally published in French in L'Orient-Le Jour on the 30th of May)


Kabul: Islamic State claimed responsibility for Saturday's bomb explosion that killed an Afghan journalist and a technician in minibus carrying employees of a local television station in Kabul.

At least seven people were wounded in the evening rush hour attack. Pictures showed a white minibus with extensive damage to its front.

"Our colleagues Mir Wahed Shah, an economic reporter, and Shafiq Amiri, an employee in the technical department, were martyred in the incident," said Mohammad Rafi Rafiq Sediqi, chief executive of the Khurshid TV station.

The United States, European Union and NATO condemned the attack. Last year, two employees of Khurshid TV were killed and two wounded in a similar attack.

Islamic State, which battles government forces and Taliban militants, has claimed some of the deadliest attacks in urban Afghanistan in recent years. It did not give a reason for Saturday's blast.

Taliban and other Islamist insurgents have repeatedly targeted Afghan journalists, killing 15 in 2018, the deadliest year yet for the Afghan media, according to the media freedom group Reporters Without Borders.

In 2016, a Taliban suicide bomber rammed his car into a bus carrying employees of Tolo TV, the country's largest private broadcaster, killing seven journalists.

The Taliban, who were ousted from power by US-led forces in 2001, said Tolo was producing propaganda for the US military and Western-backed Afghan government.
By John Farmer, Jr.

In the year since we lost my Dad, I have spent a lot of time reading through what I can find of his 60-plus years of work as a journalist and columnist, from his early column, On The Square, written in the 1950s from Jersey City, through his reporting of everything from the CIAs role in the coup in Argentina to the violence in Northern Ireland to his last column, written two weeks before he died on May 8, 2019, about the enduring cultural value of the cathedral of Notre Dame as a symbol of humanitys reach for the heavens, even for lapsed believers like John Farmer, Sr.

It has been, for me, a deja vu experience, reading his words and searching in them for the father I had come to know and love. He rose fast as a newsman (the term he preferred) when I was young; by the time I was 5, he had moved from covering Jersey City politics to covering the State House in Trenton; by the time I was 8, he had moved to covering Congress and, by the time I was 11, to covering the president for the Newark News and, later, the Philadelphia Bulletin. Journalism is, as the saying goes, a harsh mistress, demanding long and eccentric hours; Dad worked those hours and traveled constantly when I was young, especially during times of unrest and during the election years of 1968 and 1972.

As a consequence, I came to know him through his words. I read every story, every column, sometimes copying his words into a notebook. In that way, he taught me to love words, and language and writing.

Of all the writing of John Farmer, Sr. I have read this year, none has resonated with me more than a piece he wrote from the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles the day after Senator Robert Kennedy was murdered. That had been a grueling year for him and for our family. He had covered the anti-war protests that drove President Johnson from the presidential race and had covered the presidents withdrawal announcement. He had been with Senator Eugene McCarthy early in the campaign and had been with Senator Kennedy in April when the Rev. Martin Luther King was murdered; he talked constantly of RFKs eloquence that night when he calmed the crowd in Indianapolis and prevented bloodshed.

Dad was with RFK in Los Angeles the night he won the California primary and was following him back through the kitchen when Sirhan Sirhan fired the shots that killed Kennedy. Dad dictated the account of the assassination from a payphone at the hotel. I can see clearly to this day the worry on my mothers face that morning; she had seen Dad go down in the chaos, knocked off his feet by a massive television camera, and thought the country was descending into madness.

A day later, Dad wrote a short analysis piece for the Newark News that ran on Page One. It was lost to us until one of Dads fellow-travelers from his Star-Ledger days, John Hassell, found the original Newark News editions from that week on eBay and was kind enough to send them to me. Dads piece, written hastily on deadline and in the noise of the moment, captures the angst of 1968; it also, however, speaks almost eerily to our own time:

Sen. Robert Kennedy in Los Angeles in 1968, shortly before his assassination. (Evan Freed)

By John J. Farmer, Friday June 7, 1968

LOS ANGELES -- The assassination of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy has elevated to doctrine the theory that the United States is a sick society  a judgment that indicts all life in the nation, its aspirations and standards.

The harsh verdict may be true. History will have to pass that judgment. But for now there is a more simple lesson in this violence that is perhaps overlooked.

This simple lesson is that mid-century Americans are fated, with all their diversities, to live closer to one another  to their neighbors and to their nations problems, conflicts, and contending beliefs and aspirations  than any previous generation.

Grievances are enlarged.

It seems more than this generation of Americans can accept with equanimity.

It may be that in some other time the nation can live with as many competing philosophies and ethnic and economic interest groups in its midst. But today these differences are magnified by television, the miracle that at times seems like a malignancy.

The closeness is more than simply the physical proximity of increasing urbanization; it is an emotional closeness. The public is bombarded with news of electric events it sometimes cant comprehend, but which it senses  rightly or wrongly  will affect the character and quality of national life.

The public pronouncements of controversial men like Sen. Kennedy and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King are communicated instantly everywhere, to the simplest of minds as well as to the most subtle, to the angry as well as to the serene.

The least educated and least aware, the least stable and the least sophisticated, have common access to events with the richest, the best educated, the most resourceful and the best-informed elements of American society.

Controversy strikes the country with traumatic suddenness. Everyone and everything seems within reach of everyone else. Personal privacy has perished  not just for the public man, but for the common man who once was quarantined by time and distance from events and crises.

All available evidence indicates that the murders of the Kennedy brothers and Dr. King were not the result of conspiracy. Conspiracy would have been more easily understood. But they were rather the acts of unstable individuals who presumably were swept up in the emotion of events they little understood.

The lesson then  indeed the irony  of our complex society is that it is more vulnerable than any previous society to the compulsions of the least of its elements. Television, the easy scapegoat, will not go away. Nor should it. Our dilemma is not likely to lessen.

We have become, at last, one people. And that is the American ordeal.

This depiction of an American society in which grievances are enlarged, the public is bombarded with news of electric events it cant comprehend, and [c]ontroversy strikes the country with traumatic suddenness was written prior to the development of cable news, of the internet, of social media, of the decline of the fairness doctrine, which used to govern broadcast news, of the transformation of commercial speech into political speech. Those developments have served only to exacerbate the magnification of our divisions that Dad ascribed to television, extending them ultimately to news coverage itself so that we are no longer certain what facts are real or whom to believe.

Our complex society is now, even more than in the turmoil of 1968, vulnerable to the compulsions of the least of its elements; we remain fated, with all of [our] diversities, to live closer to one another -- to our neighbors and to our nations problems, conflicts, and contending beliefs and aspirations  than any previous generation.

We are now, in ways my Dad couldnt have imagined, literally a sick society. Time will tell whether the pandemic of 2020 will be a source of unification, pointing us toward that other time when the nation can live with as many competing philosophies and ethnic and economic interest groups in its midst. I hope so.

I know that I will always wonder what he would have thought and wrote about our times. I know also that, however unconsciously, I will never stop searching the words of other writers, other columnists, for traces of the newsman, the mentor, the father I will never stop missing.

John Farmer, Jr. Is a Professor of Law and the director of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey.

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Several thousand followers of Spains far-right Vox party gathered in their cars and on motorbikes in the centre of Madrid and other cities on Saturday to protest over the governments handling of the nations coronavirus crisis.

The party accuses Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchezs administration of lying about the impact of the health crisis and for violating Spaniards rights by confining people to their homes and closing business during the lockdown.

Vox urged demonstrators to attend the Caravan for Spain and Liberty in vehicles in order to get round the current ban on social gatherings in effect under the nations two-month long state of emergency designed to reduce contagion risks.

People wave Spanish flags and burn flares during a drive-in protest in Madrid against the Spanish governments handling of the nations coronavirus outbreak (Manu Fernandez/AP)

We will never forget what they have done, Vox leader Santiago Abascal said from an open-top bus leading the convoy as it inched down a Madrid boulevard.

Do not doubt that we will make them face justice. They know it and fear our freedom. That is why they try to intimidate us.

Most cars and motorbikes were decked with Spanish flags. There were also small groups of people who took part on foot, with some not respecting social distancing rules.

Protests were also held in Barcelona, Seville and other provincial capitals.

Spains government said the confinement measures have been necessary to save the nations hospitals from collapse and thousands of more lives.

More than 28,000 Spaniards have been confirmed to have died from Covid-19.

The government said that all the information it makes public on deaths and infections from the virus is provided by the regions, some of which are governed by opposition parties. No region has accused the government of relaying incorrect data.

Spains left-wing coalition government declared a state of emergency on March 14. The lockdown applied under the state of emergency, which has limited the right to free movement and assembly, has successfully reined in the outbreak.

Story continues

Far-right party Vox party leader Santiago Abascal waves led the convoy in an open-top bus (Manu Fernandez/AP)

Mr Abascal and another leading Vox politician both fell ill with the virus after holding a massive party rally in early March. They have since recovered.

The party apologised for going ahead with the rally but blamed the government for not warning the nation of the danger.

Vox, which is strongly anti-migrant and anti-womens rights, won its first seats in Spains parliament in April 2019. It then made huge gains in a repeat election in November and is the third largest party in the national Parliament.

Im here to ask for the government to resign. We are tired of being kept in prison, said 47-year-old bank employee Almudena Camara at the Madrid protest.

People applaud demonstrators during a protest in Barcelona (Emilio Morenatti/AP)

Saturdays car protest follows a week of small demonstrations in one of Madrids wealthiest neighbourhoods and other cities that Vox has backed.

With its hospitals now able to handle the smaller load of cases, Spain is slowly moving towards gradually reactivating its economy and recovering social activities.

On Monday, Madrid and Barcelona, the two hardest-hit areas, will be able to join the rest of the country in reopening 50% of outdoor seating at bars and restaurants and gathering in groups of under 10 people.

Mr Sanchezs minority government of his Socialists and the left-wing United We Can party is under increasing pressure from opposition parties and some regional leaders to move forward with the rollback to reduce the already huge impact to the economy.

Spanish government spokeswoman Maria Jesus Montero said on Friday that the right to protest cannot be confused with a right to infect.

This is a country where people can protest freely, but we would like them to transmit the truth about what is happening in this country, where the right to expression is protected, she said.
CNN's Van Jones has continued to weigh in on the racism that plagues America amid the riots and protests that have gripped the country following the death of George Floyd, saying that white liberals like Amy Cooper are more worrisome than the Ku Klux Klan.

During a recent segment, Jones said all white people of having a 'virus' in their brain known as racism no matter how 'well-intentioned' they may be.

'It's not the racist white person who is in the Ku Klux Klan that we have to worry about. It's the white liberal Hillary Clinton supporter walking her dog in Central Park who would tell you right now, you know, people like that  "oh, I don't see race, race is no big deal to me, I see us all as the same, I give to charities."

Jones was referring to Cooper, a white woman dubbed 'Central Park Karen', after she made a false call to New York City police, claiming that an African American, who asked her to leash her dog while he was bird watching, threatened her life.

'But the minute she sees a black man who she does not respect or who she has a slight thought against, she weaponized race like she had been trained by the Aryan Nation.

'A Klan member could not have been better trained to pick up the phone and tell the police, "It's a black man, African-American man, come get him."

'So even the most liberal, well-intentioned white person has a virus in his or her brain that can be activated at an instant,' Jones, who is the co-founder of several social justice nonprofit organizations, said.

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CNN's Van Jones has continued to weigh in on the racism that plagues America amid the riots and protests that have gripped the country following the death of George Floyd, saying that white liberals like Amy Cooper are more worrisome than the Ku Klux Klan

Jones was referring to Amy Cooper (pictured) a white woman dubbed 'Central Park Karen', after she made a false call to New York City police, claiming that an African American, who asked her to leash her dog, threatened her life

Last week, Jones said he hasn't 'seen black people this upset in 20 years'.

'If you are white and are you watching this, look in your own life,' Jones said. 'How are you choking off black dignity? Choking off black opportunity? Choking off black people from asking an opportunity to thrive?'

'Because it's not just that officer. This is a much deeper problem. How are all of us complicit in this? And how are all of us allowing this to happen?' he said.

'I don't have an answer to that,' Jones continued. 'I have not seen black people this upset in 20 years, maybe longer.'

Jones' comments come nearly a week after Floyd, 46, died after bystander video showed police officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on his neck for at least seven minutes while Floyd was handcuffed during an arrest on forgery charges.

On Friday afternoon, Chauvin was arrested and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter, after being fired from the Minneapolis police force.

Last week, Jones said he hasn't 'seen black people this upset in 20 years'. Demonstrators gather around after setting fire to the entrance of a police station during protests over the death of George Floyd

Thousands (pictured on Friday in Minneapolis) have been protesting since the horrifying footage of Floyd's arrest and death in Minneapolis, Minnesota, made headlines last week

Three other officers - Thomas Lane, Tou Thao, and J Alexander Kueng - have been fired over Floyd's fatal arrest but do not yet face charges.

Protests over Floyd's death have spread nationwide and turned to violence in Minneapolis, where a police precinct was overrun and set on fire overnight on Thursday.

It follows high-profile protests and riots in Ferguson, Missouri and Baltimore in 2015, over the police-involved deaths of Michael Brown and Freddie Gray, respectively.

'We thought we got an answer, it's called body cams  that we just put body cams on all these cops and you can see what they were doing,' Jones said.

'They would either be stopped or the public would be so outraged.'

A National Guardsman is seen in Minneapolis on Friday morning in the aftermath of fires

State Police officers form a cordon around the burned third precinct on Friday morning

'These guys knew they had on body cams. There were people standing there with the cell phones out. 18 complaints should trigger a separate review,' he continued.

'You build up to that level of contempt. You build up to that level of dehumanization and desensitization and you are now witnessing the outcome of that,' Jones said.

Other commentators also weighed in as the nation was gripped by images of the third burning police precinct in Minneapolis, which cops abandoned as protesters advanced.

Speaking on MSNBC on Friday morning, Rev Al Sharpton said: 'The pain is the real issue that I think we are seeing there.'

'The feeling that you trust law enforcement and they were the ones to kill your son your brother. Where do you go when you feel the cops and the robbers are against you?' he continued.

'That is the pain we have been trying to expose for a long time that we are seeing explode with this violence,' Sharpton said.

'Let's remember the violence started when that man put his knee on the throat of George Floyd and killed him.'
People in Lebanon and Jerusalem also show support for US protesters demanding justice after George Floyds death.

Thousands of people protested in London and Berlin on Sunday in solidarity with protesters in the United States demonstrating against the death of a Black man, shown gasping for breath in a video clip, as a white policeman knelt on his neck in Minneapolis.

Chanting no justice, no peace, and waving placards with the words How many more? at Trafalgar Square, the protesters ignored UK government rules banning crowds because of the coronavirus pandemic. Police did not stop them.

Demonstrators then marched to the US embassy, where a long line of officers surrounded the building. Several hundred sat in the street and waved placards.

Several hundred protesters also staged a rally outside the US embassy in Berlin, holding up posters saying Justice for George Floyd, Stop killing us and Whos next.

Al Jazeeras correspondent in London Nadim Baba said protests in support of US demonstrators also took place in Manchester in the northwest of England.

One of the chants that was popular was no justice, no peace, which is not a new chant in Britain, said Baba, comparing the demonstrations to the 2011 London riots which were sparked by the death of a Black man named Mark Duggan during a police operation.

That alerted people to the issue of discontent within the Black population and also [served as] a reminder about the consistent death of Black men in police custody over the past few decades, he added.

Floyds death after his arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Monday has triggered a tide of protests in the US.

Demonstrations against racism and police brutality spread to many cities across the US as people in many parts of the country defied curfews to protest against the killing of Floyd.

The days-long protests sweeping the nation have reawakened outrage over years of deaths of Black people at the hands of police, renewing long-standing accusations of institutionalised and systemic racism.

Some rallies have turned violent as demonstrators blocked traffic, set fires and clashed with riot police, some of whom fired tear gas and plastic bullets in an effort to restore order.

Support in Middle East





There also have been expressions of solidarity with the demonstrators in parts of the Middle East region.

Over the weekend, Lebanese anti-government protesters flooded social media with tweets sympathetic to US protesters, using the hashtag #Americarevolts.

It is a play on the slogan for Lebanons protest movement, Lebanon revolts, which erupted on October 17 last year.

Within 24 hours, the hashtag #Americanrevolts became the number one trending tag in Lebanon.

In another expression of solidarity with US protesters, about 150 people marched through central Jerusalem on Saturday to protest against the shooting to death by Israeli police of an unarmed, autistic Palestinian man earlier in the day.

The slain man, 32-year-old Iyad el-Hallak, attended and worked at a school for people with special needs in the Old City, close to the spot where he was shot on Saturday morning, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa.

Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the officers spotted a suspect with a suspicious object that looked like a pistol. Rosenfeld added that no gun was found in the area. Israels Defence Minister Benny Gantz on Sunday issued an apology over the killing.



The police also raided el-Hallaks home in the neighbourhood of Wadi Joz, where members of his family were questioned.

Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz said el-Hallaks family members denied claims that he was carrying a gun, and quoted them as saying he wasnt capable of harming anyone.
The white police officer arrested and charged with the murder of George Floyd is allegedly on effective suicide watch and being checked in on around the clock.

TMZ reported Saturday that Derek Michael Chauvin, 44, has a camera focused on him all day and and cops check on his cell in person every 15 minutes.

It adds that Chauvin, who was charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter on Friday, is under constant surveillance and is in isolation in Ramsey County Jail in St. Paul, Minnesota.

He remains in a single cell in a part of the facility set aside for high-profile cases.

Former cop Derek Chauvin, who was arrested for the murder of George Floyd on Friday, is reported to be on suicide watch in his single cell in Ramsey County Jail and under constant surveillance

George Floyd's (pictured) heartbroken family have called white cop Derek Chauvin to be charged with a more serious crime than third-degree murder after their lawyer revealed that Chauvin knelt on Floyd's neck for a staggering eight minutes during the arrest for forgery

TMZ adds that a source says that the former police officer didn't make eye contact with anyone when he was brought into the jail on Friday and that he was subject to an unclothed body search.

He was then placed in a prison uniform and led to his cell.

Checks on a cell every 15 minutes are said to be common in such a high-profile case, TMZ's source said, but it is not confirmed if there is a threat to Chauvin's life.

Chauvin is reported to have 23 hours in his cell a day with one hour for recreation. He also has access to books, pencils and paper.

The officer's wife, Kellie Chauvin, has filed for divorce following his arrest and is said to be distraught over Floyd's death.

'She is devastated by Mr. Floyd's death and her utmost sympathy lies with his family, with his loved ones and with everyone who is grieving this tragedy,' the Sekula Law Offices, PLLC said in a statement on behalf of Kellie Chauvin and her family.

Footage emerged Monday of white cop Chauvin kneeling on the neck of black man Floyd for more than eight minutes until he passed out and later died, sparking outrage over police brutality and seeing protests escalate across the nation.

Chauvin was taken into custody on Friday and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter. His bail was set for $500,000.

The arrest followed days of nationwide protests and riots demanding his arrest, after he was caught on video kneeling on Floyd's neck while arresting him for allegedly trying to use a counterfeit $20 bill at a deli.

According to the criminal complaint against Chauvin, the Minneapolis police officer was said to have had his knee on Floyd's neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds, with nearly three minutes of the time being after Floyd had become non-responsive.

Floyd was then taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.

The Ramsey County Law Enforcement Centre and adjoining adult detention center where disgraced former cop Derek Chauvin is being held for the murder of George Floyd

On Thursday evening it was revealed Floyd had actually worked with Chauvin as security guards at the El Nuevo Rodeo club, the club owner confirmed.

'Chauvin was our off-duty police for almost the entirety of the 17 years that we were open,' Maya Santamaria told KSTP-TV.

Three other officers involved in Floyd's arrest remain uncharged but were also fired from their jobs Tuesday.

Protesters and Floyd's family continue to call for the arrests of former officers J Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao and for a more serious charge to be brought against Chauvin.

George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, died on Memorial Day as he was arrested by four police officers over allegedly trying to buy cigarettes with a counterfeit $20 bill. He was seen in a video pleading that he couldn't breathe as white officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee against his neck

'We call on authorities to revise the charges [against Chauvin] to reflect the culpability of this officer,' a statement from the family Friday said.

'We fully expect to see the other officers who did nothing to protect the life of George Floyd to be arrested and charged soon.'

The criminal complaint filed against Chauvin Friday also cited the preliminary findings from a Tuesday autopsy conducted by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner which saw 'no physical findings that support a diagnosis of traumatic asphyxiation or strangulation'.

'Mr. Floyd had underlying health conditions including coronary artery disease and hypertensive heart disease,' said the complaint from the Hennepin County Attorney.

'The combined effects of Mr. Floyd being restrained by police, his underlying health conditions and any potential intoxicants in his system likely contributed to his death.'

The full medical examiner's report is pending but Floyd's family have hired the services of former New York medical officer Dr. Michael Baden to perform a second independent autopsy.

They are unhappy with the findings from the county medical examiner that they claim create an 'illusion' of underlying health conditions being responsible for his death.
He's been isolating at his Herefordshire home with mother Elizabeth Hurley, 54.

And Damian Hurley was enjoying a picnic this weekend as he shared a number of snaps on Instagram of the outing.

The lookalike son, 18, posed alongside Allegra Nayar, his cousin through Elizabeth's ex-husband Arun.

Happy times: Damian Hurley enjoyed a picnic with his cousin Allegra Nayar on Saturday near his Herefordshire home

Damian looked smouldering in the shirtless snaps as he wore white linen trousers and let his long chestnut tresses hang in loose waves.

Meanwhile Allegra wore a pink bikini as the pair laughed and joked together on a picnic rug.

They were surrounded by a Fortnum and Mason hamper, a basket of fruit and their books.

Enjoying the sun: The young actor was shirtless, wearing a pair of white linen trousers as he made the most of the weather

Laughing and joking: The young pair were surrounded by a Fortnum and Mason hamper and a basket of fruit

Getting close: Damian and Allegra were not observing any social distancing and it is not known if they have been isolating together

Rural retreat: The lookalike son of Elizabeth Hurley has been isolating at the family's Herefordshire home

Damian captioned the snaps 'reunited', while mother Elizabeth shared an image on her Instagram stories, saying: 'Oh, youth... #lockdown.'

It is not clear if Allegra has been isolating with the Hurley family but the pair were in close proximity to each other for the photo shoot.

It comes after Damian bore an uncanny resemblance to his mum as he posed in a field for a candid Instagram photo recently.

The 18-year-old joked about his chosen attire in the caption where he penned: 'Theme is circa 2004. I think I nailed it?!'

Having a giggle: The pair were enjoying a beautiful weekend as lockdown restrictions remain in the UK

Having fun: Damian showed off his toned physique as he basked in the sun

Proud mother: Elizabeth shared an image of the happy young pair, saying 'oh, youth... #lockdown'

Damian opted for a black Adidas zip-up jacket teamed with a white T-shirt.

He left his long dark tresses loose as he caught the evening sun on his face.

The teenager was surrounded by the leafy green pastures of their stunning country home.

Damian recently admitted there had been some highs and lows in quarantine as he snapped a hilarious series of shots to 'represent' his state of mind.

Pose: Damian bore an uncanny resemblance to his mother as he posed in a field for a candid photo recently

Funny: The 18-year-old joked about his chosen attire in the caption where he penned: 'Theme is circa 2004. I think I nailed it?!'

Family: The teen been isolating at his Herefordshire home with his mother Elizabeth, 54, (pictured)

Ordering the snaps so that they started with him looking camera-ready and ended with him rolling around, he captioned the series: 'swipe for a representation of my mind during quarantine'.

While the series of shots left his 68,000 followers in hysterics, his Austin Powers star mother was more concerned with the dwindling supply of lollies.

She commented on the post: 'How many Fabs have u eaten today??????'

Elizabeth recently said she felt 'incredibly lucky' to be in her country home during this time of social distancing.

Larking around: Damian admitted there had been some highs and lows in quarantine as he snapped a hilarious series of shots to 'represent' his state of mind

Feeling fab: While the series of shots left his 68,000 followers in hysterics, his Austin Powers star mother was more concerned with the dwindling supply of lollies

She penned: 'In these scary times I feel incredibly lucky to live in the countryside and have lots of outside space.

'As well as my son, I have seven other people living with me including my 79 year old mother and her sister- also in her late 70s- and one of my best friends who is in the highest risk group with severe respiratory problems.

'Keeping everyone as safe as possible (and fed) is a full time job. We all are full of the highest admiration for our wonderful NHS staff and are doing everything we can to not add to their burden.'
Genetic screening for prostate cancer in GP surgeries could be effective at picking up otherwise undiagnosed cases of the disease, a new pilot study shows.

Researchers 'barcoded' men for their genetic risk of prostate cancer by testing each for 130 DNA changes - and gave those at higher risk follow-up checks.

Their study found that population screening was safe and feasible, and identified new prostate cancers in over a third of apparently healthy men who were found to have the highest levels of inherited risk.

The pilot was the first ever in the UK to assess genetic screening for prostate cancer in the general population, and will now be followed by a larger-scale study that could prove the potential of a new screening programme for the disease.

The Institute of Cancer Research, London, and The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust worked with GPs to invite more than 300 healthy Caucasian men aged 55-69 to participate in screening. The findings of the pioneering study will be presented today (Friday) at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) virtual annual meeting.

The study was funded by the European Research Council with additional support from Cancer Research UK and the National Institute for Health Research.

The researchers collected DNA from saliva samples of 307 men and looked at for more than 130 genetic changes that can influence the risk of developing prostate cancer, each by a small amount.

They combined the effects of the genetic changes to assign each man an overall risk score. This in turn allowed men to be placed in different risk bands depending on how their level of risk compared with others in the population.

Men in the top 10 per cent of risk - 26 out of the 307 - were selected for screening and contacted by the researchers. Of these, 18 men accepted and underwent an MRI scan and a biopsy, and of these 18 apparently healthy men, seven were diagnosed with prostate cancer.

The good level of uptake among men and effectiveness at detecting undiagnosed disease show that population screening is possible and could be reproduced on an even larger scale.

Researchers also looked at how aggressive the cancers of those within the top 10 per cent of the genetic score were. All seven prostate cancers turned out to be manageable by active surveillance, with a mean prostate-specific antigen (PSA) score of 1.8 - a level between 0 and 2.5 is considered safe.

Now that the initiative has been shown to be feasible, a full pilot study, called BARCODE1, is ready to be launched. This study will involve 5,000 patients from 70 GP practices, and aims to provide a definitive answer on the potential role of population genetic screening for improving detection of prostate cancer.

Researchers believe that genetic screening could detect potentially aggressive cancers more effectively than PSA testing - which is controversial because of its high rates of over-diagnosis.

Study leader Professor Ros Eeles, Professor of Oncogenetics at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, and Consultant in Clinical Oncology and Oncogenetics at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, said:

"A man's risk of prostate cancer is determined in part by which combination of at least 170 different genetic changes they happen to inherit.

"Our pilot study assessed men's genetic risk by testing for more than 130 genetic changes that have been linked to prostate cancer. We showed that genetic barcoding of men can safely and effectively identify those at the highest level of risk for prostate cancer, so they can be targeted for follow-up checks.

"We were able to identify prostate cancers in over a third of the 18 apparently healthy men who we found to have the highest levels of inherited risk. Our hope is that the larger BARCODE-1 pilot study will now be able to definitively show that population genetic screening for prostate cancer can cost-effectively improve diagnosis and ultimately save lives."

Professor Paul Workman, Chief Executive of The Institute of Cancer Research, London, said:

"It's vital that we find ways of putting our increased knowledge of the genetics and biology of cancer to work not only to find new treatments, but also to identify targeted methods for early detection of the disease.

"This is an exciting early pilot study which for the first time in the UK demonstrates that genetic screening for prostate cancer is safe, feasible and potentially effective. It's great to see that this research is now progressing into a larger-scale pilot, which if successful could show the potential of genetic screening to be a life-saver."

Patient Remy Smits, 59, said:

"I signed up for the trial after seeing the details advertised at my local GP Practice. Although I met all the criteria for joining, I did not think I would be in the high-risk group. I had a PSA test not long before joining the trial and it was relatively low (2.1) so I was quite surprised when I got called back for further investigations. I had another PSA test, followed by an MRI scan and then finally a biopsy where they detected cancer the size of a grain of sand which is quite remarkable.

"I have been put under 'active surveillance' and come into the clinic at The Royal Marsden every six months for repeat PSA testing and MRI scans.

"Whilst the realisation that I have cancer came as a shock; I feel better knowing that it has been identified at a very early stage. I also feel that I am now in a much better position to make an informed decision about any future treatment options. I also like the fact that being part of this trial will make a difference for many men in the future."

Professor David Cunningham, Director of Clinical Research at The Royal Marsden, said:

"Earlier and faster diagnosis is often the key to successfully treating cancer. Using genetic screening for men most at risk for prostate cancer will mean we have a much greater chance of being able to treat the disease successfully at an earlier stage, often with less invasive procedures and fewer long-term side effects."

###

For more information please contact Diana Cano Bordajandi in the ICR press office on 020 7153 5021 or diana.cano@icr.ac.uk. For enquiries out of hours, please call 07595 963 613.

The Institute of Cancer Research, London, is one of the world's most influential cancer research organisations.

The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) has an outstanding record of achievement dating back more than 100 years. It provided the first convincing evidence that DNA damage is the basic cause of cancer, laying the foundation for the now universally accepted idea that cancer is a genetic disease. Today it is a world leader at identifying cancer-related genes, discovering new targeted drugs and developing new high-precision forms of radiotherapy.

The ICR is a charity and relies on support from partner organisations, funders and the general public. A college of the University of London, it is the UK's top-ranked academic institution for research quality, and provides postgraduate higher education of international distinction.

The ICR's mission is to make the discoveries that defeat cancer. For more information visit http://www.icr.ac.uk

About The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust

The Royal Marsden opened its doors in 1851 as the world's first hospital dedicated to cancer diagnosis, treatment, research and education.

Today, together with its academic partner, The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), it is the largest and most comprehensive cancer centre in Europe seeing and treating over 59,000 NHS and private patients every year. It is a centre of excellence with an international reputation for groundbreaking research and pioneering the very latest in cancer treatments and technologies.

The Royal Marsden, with the ICR, is the only National Institute for Health Research Biomedical Research Centre for Cancer. This supports pioneering research work carried out over a number of different cancer themes.

The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity raises money solely to support The Royal Marsden, a world-leading cancer centre. It ensures Royal Marsden nurses, doctors and research teams can provide the very best care and develop life-saving treatments, which are used across the UK and around the world.

From funding state-of-the-art equipment and ground-breaking research, to creating the very best patient environments, The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity will never stop looking for ways to improve the lives of people affected by cancer.

About the ERC

The European Research Council, set up by the European Union in 2007, is the premiere European funding organisation for excellent frontier research. Every year, it selects and funds the very best, creative researchers of any nationality and age, to run projects based in Europe. It offers four core grant schemes: Starting, Consolidator, Advanced and Synergy Grants. With its additional Proof of Concept grant scheme, the ERC helps grantees to bridge the gap between grantees' pioneering research and early phases of its commercialisation.

To date, the ERC has funded more than 9,000 top researchers at various stages of their careers, and over 50,000 postdocs, PhD students and other staff working in their research teams. The ERC strives to attract top researchers from anywhere in the world to come to Europe. Key global research funding bodies, in the United States, China, Japan, Brazil and other countries, have concluded special agreements to provide their researchers with opportunities to temporarily join ERC grantees' teams.

The ERC is led by an independent governing body, the Scientific Council. The overall ERC budget from 2014 to 2020 is more than 13 billion, as part of the Horizon 2020 programme, for which the European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, Mariya Gabriel is responsible.
Donald Trump was finally seen trying to practice social distancing when he freaked and dodged a handshake from his official military greeter.

The president, who has repeatedly refused to wear a face mask in public and has been seen flouting social distancing guidelines, appeared to have a change of heart Saturday as he bounded down the steps of Marine One onto the tarmac at the Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland and was met by US Air Force Colonel Donald Schmidt.

Amusing footage reveals Schmidt greeting the president and extending his arm to shake his hand.

Presiden Donald Trump reacts as Air Force Colonel Donald Schmidt attempts to shake his hand as he arrives to board Air Force One to travel to Florida to watch the launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket

Trump arrives at the NASA Shuttle Landing Facility at Kennedy Space Center in Florida

The president then leaped back, gestures theatrically and appears to say 'no' to the colonel.

He then patted Schmidt on the back and the two laughed as they walked across the tarmac to Air Force One.

It was a mark of progress for the president who has repeatedly flouted the CDC's - and his own- guidelines to Americans to wear face masks and keep six foot apart to slow the spread of COIVID-19.

Trump and Vice President Mike Pence watch the launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft

But despite him turning down a handshake, he didn't quite manage to keep the six foot distance from the colonel.

Many Twitter users mocked the president for the exaggerated display.

'The guy pushing to reopen the country too scared to shake hands,' one user said. 'Even when he manages to do the right thing for once, he finds a way to be an asshat about it. It's like a weird superpower of his,' another wrote.

Trump was getting ready to board Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews for a flight to the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. to watch the launch of two Americans into space aboard a rocket built by Elon Musk's SpaceX.
New Delhi: Another objectionable decision has been taken by Nepal in the ongoing border dispute between Pal and India. The Nepal government has decided to close the open borders to enter Nepal and to enter Nepal only from the border area set by the government. In view of tensions with India, Nepal has also approved deployment of army in its border areas. This is happening for the first time.

There are about 1,700 km of open borders between Nepal and India. Till now Indian citizens coming to Nepal used to get entry from these open borders without any restrictions. With the latest decision of the Government of Nepal, now it will be allowed to enter Nepal only by the prescribed limits. The day the Government of Nepal released its new political map by merging Indian territories, this decision has been taken on the same day. But the government kept this decision hidden for a week. It has been made public after being published in the Gazette.

The Cabinet of Nepal PM KP Sharma Oli, who was in a mood of confrontation with India over the border dispute, has decided to shut down all but 20 borders from India, showing strictness in the name of border administration and security. In the wake of tensions with India, Nepal has also cleared deployment of army in its border areas. This is the first time the army is going to deploy on the Nepal-India border. Until now, the SSB used to monitor the border from the Indian side, while the responsibility of security was handed over by the Armed Guardian Force (APF) from Nepal. In spite of having military barracks in each of the border districts of Nepal, the army was never sent to the border in the name of surveillance or security of the border.

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With effect from Monday, residents of Ekiti State now have opportunities to pursue their businesses Mondays through Friday from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Governor Kayode Fayemi who disclosed this in a state-wide broadcast Sunday evening also revealed that consultations are underway to reopen religious worship centres, schools and big markets in the state.

Also with effect from Monday, public officers on Grade Level 8 and above are to resume for duty while those on Grade Level 7 and below are to remain at home till further notice.

The governor also stressed that the dusk-to-dawn curfew will resume daily at 8pm and will last till 5.59 am of the following morning.

He also announced that the states molecular laboratory will be commissioned on Monday to facilitate testing for COVID-19. Fayemi urged residents to give maximum support to the medical experts conducting the tests as modalities have been devised to ensure a seamless exercise.

He said: I therefore urge you to willingly submit yourselves for testing when the officials get to your neighborhood.

This also provides an opportunity for those who might have had symptoms associated with COVID-19 to freely come out for testing at no cost to them.

The governor in the broadcast also reiterated his earlier order that all Ekiti boundaries will remain on complete lockdown daily pending further review at national level.

Speaking on likelihood of resumption of public worship, Mr Fayemi promised that religious centres will reopen very soon revealing that a committee will be engaging with religious organisations to fashion out a workable protocol.

The workable protocol, he said, will enable religious houses to reopen very soon without jeopardising the lives and health of worshippers.

On the fate of schools in Ekiti, the governor explained that efforts to reopen them are also ongoing as the committee set up to appraise the protocols, resources, conditions and modalities for reopening has concluded its work.

The governor also said government is considering reopening major markets to permanent shop owners, after the outcome of the engagement process that is ongoing on the relocation of roadside traders to available alternatives.

The reopening of the major markets, the governor said further, will be subject to compliance with specific conditions and protocols that are being determined.

On when the state will be totally opened up its economy, Mr Fayemi said: Once the report of the random testing shows that we are safe generally, it would further give fillip to our confidence to fully open up our state and return to our normal way of life.

He expressed delight that appreciable progress has been made in the fight against COVID-19 since the second wave of lockdown a month ago, partly in consonance with the national strategy to ban interstate movement, which makes a review of existing regulations necessary.

Mr Fayemi disclosed that Ekiti has so far recorded 20 cases in all with 16 of the patients successfully treated and discharged with only two active cases left at the State Isolation Centre while two cases were lost.

He added that about 300 contact tracing was done with over 200 persons tested so far in the state.

The governor expressed gratitude to front line medical personnel, task force team, security agents, the COVID-19 Response Resource Mobilisation Committee and the general public.

He also appreciated the Coalition Against COVID-19 (CACOVID) led by Aliko Dangote for its contribution and Chikwe Ihekweazu-led National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) for its technical assistance.
The government has earmarked 10,000 beds for patients with serious symptoms, projecting that these will see Delhi through for at least the next 30 days, given that Covid-19 cases are increasing at the rate of 5.9% a day in the Capital.

For the next phase, when Delhi is closer to its peak of Covid-19 cases as predicted by the government, between July-end and mid-August, the administration will take over banquet halls, community centres, stadiums and more hotels - all of which will be in addition to the 10,000 beds, senior health department officials said on Sunday.

Additionally, with cases emerging in slums and unauthorised colonies, the Delhi government is now going to increase the number of beds at Covid Care Centres to 10,000, from around 6,000 currently. This is to ensure that asymptomatic patients, or those with mild symptoms who cannot isolate themselves at home, are able to use government facilities for free, a senior official said.

On Sunday, Delhi recorded its highest ever single-day spike, with 1,295 new cases, taking the total cases of infections in the city to 19,844. Of these, 10,893 are active infections.

Covid-19 cases in Delhi are doubling every 12.8 days, compared to the national average of 16.8 days. At the same time, Delhi had one of the highest testing rates with 10,881 tests per million population, as against the national average of 2,675 tests per million.

Government reports showed that as on Sunday, 1,870 of 4,456 beds  across government and private hospitals  were vacant.

When asked whether Delhis health infrastructure is prepared to take the load, chief secretary Vijay Dev said: In the last few days, we have arranged for at least 5,390 new beds in hotels, and government and private hospitals  most of which will be ready by Tuesday. The total Covid beds for serious patients will then be 10,000, which will set us off for at least the next 30 days, even if daily cases increase a bit. This will also give us time to plan for the next one month and beyond.

For the next phase (in July), when Covid-19 cases in Delhi are close to reaching their projected peak, the government is identifying banquet halls, community centres, stadiums and more hotels to be converted into extended hospitals, and Covid Health or Care centres.

In a day or two, we will issue an order for a banquet hall to be converted into an extended Covid hospital. This will be a trial, of sorts, for the coming days, the health department official said.

Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal reviewed the city administrations bed augmentation plan on Sunday, during which he was informed that the governments Burari hospital will be ready with 450 Covid-19 beds by June 15.

Similarly, the number of beds equipped with oxygen facilities will be increased from the current 3,233 to 5,513 by June 15. By June 2, there will be 90 additional ICU beds taking the total to 521 and the number of ventilators will be increased to 433 from 343, government reports accessed by HT revealed.

Besides, the Centre on Sunday told the Delhi government that hospitals under the railways have earmarked 100 beds for the state and that the Army Base hospital has kept 70 beds aside.

Three dedicated Covid-19 hospitals - GTB hospital (1,500 beds), Satyavadi Raja Harish Chandra hospital in Narela (200 beds) and Deep Chand Bandhu hospital in Ashok Vihar (200 beds) - will be ready by June 2. Another 1,170 beds are being readied in five hotels in Delhi, which government officials said was the first-ever initiative in India where hotels are being turned into extended Covid hospitals.

A senior government official said that around 1,700 beds  against the target of 2,000  have been confirmed by a majority of the 117 private hospitals that were asked to reserve 20% of their total beds for Covid-19 patients. With this, the government had 9,846 beds in place, as of Sunday. The remaining 154 beds will be covered once more private hospitals from the private hospital pool send their confirmations, the official added.

Additional chief secretary (home), Satya Gopal, who is also the Delhi governments nodal officer for Covid-19 management, said: Of the total Covid-19 cases in Delhi, 55% are asymptomatic, who as per Centres guidelines should be under home quarantine. So, if we take 45% (around 4,900 cases) of the 10,893 active cases in Delhi, only 2,586 have required hospitalisation as they are serious cases. Patients with mild and moderate symptoms are kept in Covid Health Centre, Covid Care Centres and some are even in home quarantine, he said.

Government reports showed that as on Sunday, only 624 beds  of a total of at least 6,000 were occupied in Care Centres. Similarly, 158 patients were admitted in Health Centres, which have a capacity of 400 beds.

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The sources of infection are unknown for each of the three cases that have caused temporary school shutdowns over the past fortnight at St Ignatius, Riverview, Moriah College in Queens Park and Waverley College in Waverley.

But those who simply shared a campus with the infected students do not need to get tested unless they developed symptoms, with infection control specialists advising parents that the risk of infection between children was very low.

Children identified as close contacts of the students who tested positive to COVID-19 last week have been told they need to be tested as well as isolate for 14 days before returning to school.

Kristine Macartney, the director of the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance, said parents did not need to get their children tested unless they had symptoms or had been identified as close contacts of the infected students.

"The tests can pick up people who don't have the symptoms but we know that the most appropriate way to use any test is if you have a reason to do it," said Professor Macartney, who has been leading the investigation into COVID-19 in schools.

"I understand that people want to respond and do the best that they can in this context and we recognise that but it's important for everyone to follow the public health guidelines."

The evidence was still emerging but all the data gathered to date suggested that the rate of spread between children was low. A study of 18 individuals from 15 schools in NSW from March to April identified just two cases of secondary transmission. A more recently reported Irish study found no secondary cases among six cases at three schools.

"The really interesting thing about this virus is that it's so wily, it's so sneaky, and while on the one hand it causes severe symptoms and fatal outcomes in some people, it also can be infecting others with few or no symptoms occurring and it's really got this mix of characteristics which make it so challenging," Professor Macartney said.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo said today he expects more protests against police brutality tonight, and hes put the states National Guard on standby.

Cuomo also said hes sending an extra 200 New York State Police troopers to Rochester today at the request of that citys mayor. Buffalo has asked for 150 troopers, top aide Melissa DeRosa said.

The governors office is also talking with Syracuse and other cities about additional help, DeRosa said.

Any other place that needs extra help will get it, either with state police or guardsmen, Cuomo said.

Last night was a long and ugly night, the governor said. Violence never works, he said, adding he supports the arguments made by the thousands of protesters across the nation about people whove died in police custody.

But when those protests turn violent themselves, the call for justice for George Floyd and other people whove died in police-related incident is lost, he said.

Burning down your own house never makes sense, he said in Albany during his daily briefing about coronavirus. It dishonors Mr. Floyds death.

Cuomo called on protesters to be smart together." Lashing out at police officers, local leaders wont help, he said.

At the same time, police behavior is everything. He singled out videos from New York City from Saturday that show city police apparently driving into a crowd of people.

I think its inexplicable, he said, adding that there could be an explanation that he doesnt know about yet.

Cuomo has asked the state attorney general to investigate and return a report within 30 days.

Everybody saw the video, he said. Everybody wants an investigation.

Still, the governor urged protesters to remain calm, to use the momentum of this moment to change policy and improve police relations.

Use this moment, he added, and use it for good.

Coronavirus pandemic

Today, Cuomo reported that New York had 56 additional deaths from Covid-19 in the past day. The last day the number was that low was March 23. Overall, the state has reported nearly 24,000 coronavirus deaths.

Its not a coincidence the unrest happens in the midst of a pandemic, he said. People have lost their jobs. They are isolated at home. People are stressed and worried, he said. It is all of that.

MORE ON PROTESTS

Onondaga County declares state of emergency, countywide curfew starting tonight

Heres who was charged in police brutality protests, riot in Syracuse

How George Floyd protests in Syracuse went from peaceful to chaotic

Violence, looting in Upstate NY: Protests turn ugly in Buffalo, Albany, Rochester (videos)

Got a story idea or news tip youd like to share? Please contact me through email, Twitter, Facebook or at 315-470-2274.
A young Glossy Ibis bird has been rescued from Prime Minister Narendra Modis residence here after it collapsed in the severe heat due to exhaustion and dehydration.

The bird, which belongs to a migratory species called Plegadis falcinellus, was unable to fly away on Friday when the security personnel stumbled upon it near the reception area of the PM House on 7 Lok Kalyan Marg.

Concerned for its well-being, the officials immediately contacted Wildlife SOS (WSOS) on their 24-hour rescue helpline number. In a statement, WSOS said the bird was rescued by a two member team after the NGO rushed an animal ambulance.

The bird was given an oral rehydration solution and it is currently under observation, said WSOS, which rescues and rehabilitates wildlife in distress across India.

As various parts of North India continue to reel under the heatwave, such cases are bound to escalate in the months to come, the WSOS said. A large number of animals, especially birds, are falling prey to the soaring temperature due to dehydration, heat exhaustion and lack of shade.

Kartick Satyanarayan, Co-Founder and CEO of Wildlife SOS, said, We are thankful to the staff and security personnel at the PM House for their support, and for alerting Wildlife SOS to this emergency.

This is a Juvenile ibis as it has a dull brown plumage and white flecks on its neck and chest.

Breeding adults are mostly dark with iridescent green and reddish tones. Ibises have a distinctive curved, sickle-shaped beak. These birds measure 45 to 65 cm in length and their wingspan is 80 to 90 cm.

The Glossy ibis are widely distributed across the world and inhabit wetlands, marshes and agriculture lands. Ibises breed in colonies, building nests in low trees and shrubs. They feed on small fish, frogs, snails, insects.

Wasim Akram, Manager Wildlife SOS Special Projects said, At times like this we must remain compassionate and consider the welfare of birds and animals that share our surroundings. We can do our bit by putting out earthen water bowls and food in our balconies, window sills, outside residential complexes and shops. Creating green cover by planting more trees and keeping potted plants also provide reprieve to these animals.
Speakers took to a podium outside Old Main, with one UA student, for example, beginning her talk with the words, "This is what it's like to be black in America ... terrified."

"This is something that we stand for," said another protester, Yani Langley. "Theres a lot of police brutality happening all over the United States and we just wanted to do our part and come out here and use our voice since we all have one. And just make a difference where we can."

Many businesses in downtown and along North Fourth Avenue closed early, and some displayed signs in the windows saying "Locally, family owned," or "Owned by women," in attempts to avoid the smashed windows and graffiti damage sustained by numerous downtown businesses during the protest the night before. Police Chief Chris Magnus estimated the Friday damage at likely more than $200,000.

Determined to avoid a repeat, police blocked streets into downtown Saturday, pledged a presence of hundreds of officers, and Magnus announced that lawbreakers would be arrested and jailed, rather than cited and released.
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Linkedin Consuelo Marquez (Inquirer.net/Asia News Network) Manila  Sun, May 31, 2020 14:48 599 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdb300cc 2 News Cebu-Pacific,Airlines,Philippines,domestic-flights,travel,coronavirus,COVID-19 Free

Budget airline Cebu Pacific on Saturday said it would resume some domestic flights by June 2, but international flights would remain suspended from June 1 to 30.

We will continue to work with the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF), as well as other national and local government authorities, on the rules and requirements to resume commercial passenger flights between areas under General Community Quarantine (GCQ), Cebu Pacific said in a statement.

In Manila, all flights will depart and arrive from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3. All International flights remain suspended from June 1 to 30, 2020, it added.

Read also: Philippines' primary, secondary schools to resume in August

The airline management reiterated that leisure travel was still prohibited by the government.

It added that guests should check guidelines from the IATF and with the local governments of their origin and destination for the required documents.

Cebu Pacific also said they will provide updates on flight schedules from June 5 onwards as they build-up domestic flight network, depending on market demand, quarantine restrictions and government regulations.

Topics :

This article appeared on the Philippine Daily Inquirer newspaper website, which is a member of Asia News Network and a media partner of The Jakarta Post




Good morning, Nigeria, welcome to Naija News roundup of top Newspaper Headlines in Nigeria for today Sunday, 31st May 2020.

Here Are The Major Nigerian Newspaper Headlines.

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, has confirmed five hundred and fifty-three new cases of Coronavirus in Nigeria. The health sector on Saturday, May 30 at about 11:55 pm updated their official microblogging site account with the new figures which have raised the eyebrows of Nigerians.

President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the reconstitution of the Board of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). Naija News reports that the decision by the President to reconstitution the new NNPC board was disclosed in a statement issued on Saturday morning by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina.

268 Nigerians evacuated from China have arrived at the Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport, Abuja, on Saturday afternoon. This was made known in a post on Twitter by the Chairman, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Abike Dabiri-Erewa.

The founder of INRI Evangelical Spiritual Church in Ejigbo, Lagos, Primate Elijah Ayodele, says Aso Rock, Nigerias Presidential Villa will record another death. Naija News reports that in Primate Ayodele in a series of prophecies warned that President Muhammadu Buhari might lose another special aide if he does not pray. The President lost his chief of staff, Abba Kyari, to complications arising from the coronavirus (COVID-19) disease in April.

A former Group Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Maikanti Baru has passed away. Naija News reports that that the former NNPC GMD died on Friday night, May 29 at age 60.

The Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Council Worldwide (OYC), has urged the Federal Government to dialogue with Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and other Biafra agitators. OYC made this call in a statement jointly signed by Mazi Okechukwu Isiguzoro, OYC President General, Comrade Obinna Achionye, OYC Deputy National President General; and Mazi Okwu Nnabuike, OYC Secretary-General.

Dino Melaye, a former lawmaker representing Kogi West Senatorial District in the National Assembly, has insisted that reports of the deadly coronavirus (COVID-19) in Kogi State is real. Naija News reports that the Kogi State Government had rejected the report of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) that two cases of COVID-19 were recorded within the province.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has reacted to the discharge of Senator Ademola Adeleke by the Federal High Court, Abuja, on the allegations of examination malpractices levelled against him. Naija News recalls that the charges against him were dismissed on Friday by Justice Inyang Ekwo.

The Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL) has temporarily sacked its staff over their inability to sustain its workforce. According to Daily Post, OOPL asked its staff to stay at home for the meantime.

Lagos State has recorded 254 new cases of the deadly coronavirus (COVID-19). This was disclosed in a tweet on Friday by the Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC).

Thats the Nigerian Newspaper headlines for today. Read more Nigerian news on Naija News. See you again tomorrow.

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TORONTO - Thousands of protesters took to the streets of downtown Toronto on Saturday, chanting "justice for Regis" as they rallied in the aftermath of high-profile, police-involved deaths in both Canada and the United States.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 30/5/2020 (600 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Demonstrators gather outside Toronto Police Headquarters after taking part in a rally protesting the death of Regis Korchinski-Paquet in downtown Toronto, Saturday May 30, 2020. Korchinski-Paquet, 29, fell from the balcony of a 24th-floor Toronto apartment while police were in the home. Thousands of protesters took to the streets to rally in the aftermath of high-profile, police-involved deaths in both Canada and the United States. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

TORONTO - Thousands of protesters took to the streets of downtown Toronto on Saturday, chanting "justice for Regis" as they rallied in the aftermath of high-profile, police-involved deaths in both Canada and the United States.

The protest follows the death of Regis Korchinski-Paquet in Toronto on Tuesday, which is currently being probed by the province's police watchdog. The 29-year-old fell from the balcony of a 24th-floor Toronto apartment while police were in the home.

As the demonstration moved through the city's downtown, people shouted in support from their balconies and protesters held signs proclaiming "Blue Lives Batter, Black Lives Matter" and "We Want Answers."

"We've been protesting and now everyone is watching and now people are mobilizing. We can see the power we have in numbers so this won't stop any time soon," said Cara McArthur, who is black, Cree and Sioux.

The peaceful rally, organized by a group dubbed Not Another Black Life, also came on the heels of an incident in Minnesota that has triggered protests in the United States, some of which have turned violent.

A police officer is now facing a murder charge in the death of George Floyd, a black man caught on film pleading for air as an officer knelt on his neck.

In Toronto, protesters chanted "not another black life," "abolish the police," and "no justice, no peace" as they wound through the downtown streets clad in face masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Their chants could be heard from several blocks away during what was a passionate but organized march.

Police estimated the crowd to be between 3,500 and 4,000 and said there was no violence.

A heavy police presence followed the rally, which ended at Toronto police headquarters instead of its scheduled finish at Queen's Park.

A small group protesting COVID-19 lockdowns was gathered there on Saturday, and Not Another Black Life explained the change of plans on Instagram.

"We are not going to Queen's Park due to white supremacy," they wrote.

Speakers during the march said they understood people's anger, and tried to get those marching to do breathing exercises when the march stopped due to the detour.

Organizers asked the crowd to disperse shortly after arriving at police headquarters, but a small group of protesters stayed and continued chanting slogans at officers.

A lawyer representing Korchinski-Paquet's family said her relatives do not want to see violence, only answers as to how and why she died.

In a statement released Saturday, lawyer Knia Singh says the family did not organize or plan the protest. The family says it thanks organizers for bringing attention to a "very serious matter."

Earlier in the week, Korchinski-Paquet's mother said that she called officers to the apartment asking them to take her daughter to the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. She said she never thought her daughter could have ended up dead.

At the protest, McArthur said that was incomprehensible.

"A mother shouldn't call the police for help and the result of the call is her being taken away in a body bag," she said. "It shouldn't happen when someone calls the police. They're supposedly here to help."

She added that the support of non-black demonstrators was vital to their cause. McArthur said it was good that some white people attended, but she wanted to see more people in future protests.

"I just hope that we can continue to do this and it's not forgotten after today," she said.

Following the rally, Toronto Mayor John Tory said he shares in the protesters' rejection of anti-black racism and desire for answers in Korchinski-Paquet's death.

"An independent investigation is being conducted by the Special Investigations Unit and I repeat my urgent request for this investigation to be conducted on an expedited basis," he said on Twitter.

"The investigation itself must be thorough and transparent and must include frequent public updates, not usually a feature of SIU investigations. The results of that investigation will tell us exactly what happened."

Tory said it's time to renew efforts to combat racism and descrimination.

The Toronto Raptors issued a statement expressing their support for the movement late Saturday, though they didn't name any specific people involved.

"While we grieve for those we have lost, we know grieving is not enough. We must honour their memory by acknowledging these ills exist, confronting them, and coming together to create a better society," they wrote. "It is far past time."

Toronto police Chief Mark Saunders also appeared during the protest. He called for calm earlier in the week and has said he wants to expedite the roll-out of police body cameras as a result of Korchinski-Paquet's death.Meanwhile, police said hundreds attended a similar protest in Halifax on Saturday. No arrests were made.

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"We respect the public's right to a peaceful protest," Staff Sgt. R. Scott MacDonald said.

"Police were on hand simply to ensure the safety of the participants and the public. We appreciate that attendees conducted themselves in a peaceful manner."

A rally also is scheduled for Montreal on Sunday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 30, 2020.

 With files from Kevin Bissett.

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. An incorrect date for the death of Regis Korchinski-Paquet appeared in a previous version.
New Delhi:

Government suspended four Home Ministry officials including a Joint Secretary for allegedly facilitating the renewal of FCRA licence of an NGO promoted by Islamic preacher Zakir Naik, against whom several probes are going on.



Those suspended are Joint Secretary G K Dwivedi, an IAS officer, two deputy secretaries and one section officer, official sources said.



The action was taken after the Home Ministry found that Naiks NGO Islamic Research Foundations FCRA licence was renewed recently despite several ongoing probes, including one by it.



The action against two Under Secretaries and one Section Officer was due to their negligence in clearing the renewal while a case is still pending, Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju tweeted.



In another tweet, Rijiju said the Home Ministry was very clear that there should be smooth process of registration or renewal of FCRA licence but not when there is a case pending. We had made the process of FCRA renewal online, he tweeted.



Mumbai Police is also probing allegations against Naik.



Naik is accused of radicalisation of youths into terrorand receiving foreign funds and spending such funds in luring youths into radical views.



He came under the scanner of the security agencies after Bangladeshi newspaper Daily Star reported that one of the attackers of the July 1 terror strike in Dhaka, Rohan Imtiaz, ran a propaganda on Facebook last year quoting Naik.



Naik in a lecture, aired on Peace TV, an international Islamic channel, had reportedly urged all Muslims to be terrorists.



The popular but controversial Islamic orator is banned in the UK and Canada for his hate speech aimed against other religions. He is among 16 banned Islamic scholars in Malaysia.



He is popular in Bangladesh through his Peace TV, although his preachings often demean other religions and even other Muslim sects.

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A SsangYong Motor plant in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province / Courtesy of SsangYong Motor



By Nam Hyun-woo



Mahindra & Mahindra is facing pressure to possibly initiate an "exit strategy" from SsangYong Motor because the government here remains mum on providing additional financial assistance to the ailing Korean car manufacturer despite the Indian parent company's repeated requests to do so.



As SsangYong has been continuing its losing streak in terms of profitability, doubts have been raised on whether Mahindra has a "possible next move," while enduring its own sales and profit contractions.



"With its business at home suffering, there is no reason for Mahindra to keep the lossmaking SsangYong in its portfolio," an automobile industry official said asking for anonymity. "As the state-run bank is remaining tepid, the possibility of Mahindra unloading some of its stake in SsangYong is growing, as it will inject the new capital into the carmaker." Currently, Mahindra has a 74.65 percent stake in the local automaker.



SsangYong Motor reported 649.2 billion won ($527.8 million) in sales during the first quarter of 2020, down 30.4 percent from last year. During the same period, its operating losses widened to 98.6 billion won from 27.8 billion won, year-on-year, with net losses also rising to 193.5 billion won from 26.1 billion won.



The company's auditor and financial advisor, Samjong KPMG, refused to deliver an opinion on the carmaker's ability to run normally, which will put it on the "watch list" of the country's main bourse operator, the Korea Exchange.



"The financial status of SsangYong Motor raises meaningful doubts about its sustainability," the accounting firm said. "There are signs showing the company's ability to create cash flow has been impaired due to weakening competitiveness and the spread of COVID-19."



This deals a blow to even a glimmer of hope that SsangYong would receive financial support from state-run lenders, including the Korea Development Bank (KDB), to overcome its liquidity crisis. Currently, SsangYong has 254 billion won of liabilities due this year  90 billion won of which was borrowed from the KDB and is payable in July.



However, the KDB has yet to say whether it will help the carmaker by extending the due date, with an official at the bank noting, "SsangYong has not requested an extension." The carmaker said it will begin talks with the KDB on the 90 billion won debt in July.



The KDB has been showing a tepid stance on offering further support to SsangYong.



In January, SsangYong Motor Board Chairman and Mahindra Managing Director Pawan Goenka said the company would need 500 billion won over the next three years to normalize operations. At the time, Mahindra said it would inject 230 billion won of this, expressing the hope that the KDB would cover the remainder. However, in April Mahindra said it would only invest 40 billion won and urged SsangYong to "find alternate sources of funding," citing its difficulties in the Indian automobile industry.



SsangYong Motor said the promise to inject 40 billion won shows Mahindra's intention to stay committed to the Korean market, adding half of the 40 billion won had been invested as promised, and the remainder will be paid this month.



But Mahindra isn't in good in shape in terms of its finances. According to a regulatory filing by Mahindra & Mahindra and Mahindra Vehicle Manufacturers Limited, the company posted RS12,120 crores ($1.59 billion) in net sales from October to December last year, down 6 percent from a year earlier. Though the companies are yet to announce earnings for the first quarter of this year, they are expected to see a downtrend given the COVID-19 impact on the global automobile industry.


The founder of a 'virtual summit' who said including George Clooney on its schedule of keynote speakers was a 'misunderstanding' had claimed in an email she'd known the actor for years.

Thrive Philanthropy, a small consulting firm based in Utah, had been advertising the star-studded Connect Summit that would feature celebs including George and Amal Clooney as 'keynote speakers'. But it was exposed as fake after celebrities revealed they knew nothing about the event - despite tickets being being sold for up to $1,799.

Founder Stephanie Lapensee responded that it was not her 'intention to mislead the public' but in an email, she 'claims she has worked alongside Clooney on numerous charity projects since 2006', Page Six reports.

A Clooney representative said the details in the email viewed by Page Six are 'not true'.

Lapensee admitted to the publication: 'I have never worked [with Clooney] or any of his charities.'

A website had claimed to have secured A-list celebs to speak on the topic of philanthropy in an exclusive 'virtual' two-day Connect Summit

Stephanie Lapensee (left) the founder of Thrive Philanthropy said that the entire episode was down to a simple misunderstanding but according to Page Six, she had written in an email that she'd known George Clooney (right) since 2006

A website had been set up inviting journalists to attend the 'two day virtual Connect Summit', promising to 'educate, enlighten and engage on the most crucial and urgent global issues.'

'The event will feature the whos who in the non-profit and philanthropy circuit, including keynote speakers who include Matthew McConaughey, Stephen and Ayesha Curry, George and Amal Clooney, Ashton Kutcher, Charlize Theron, Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds, Camilla Alves, and Julie Cordua,' a press release promoting the summit read.

Tickets were being sold for $399 each with some as high as $1,799 according to Deadline.

However, after the Page Six story was published, the website was stripped of information and the facility to purchase tickets was removed.

'There are ads running claiming that Amal and I will be participating in the Thrive Philanthropy's Connect Summit. We Have never heard of this summit and have never been approached to be part of a charity that is charging $399.00 for people to participate. When we contacted the company in charge they said it was a mistake and would take our names off,' George Clooney wrote in a statement.

'We don't know whether this charity is what it says it is and was just duped by a booking agency or whether there is something more nefarious involved. The best antiseptic is sunlight, and in the interest of protecting the public and the many important charitable organizations we hope that this situation will be rigorously investigated,' Clooney continued.

Some of the celebrities that had been billed as being involved in the event have since released statements in relation to the non-event.

Other celebs given a billing included Ryan Reynolds and his wife Blake Lively. The couple have said they 'were not aware of this event or confirmed to participate.'

A Clooney representative said the details in the email viewed by Page Six are 'not true'. He and Amal Clooney (left) were named on the bill for the event where tickets cost as much as $1,799

Lapensee admitted to the publication: 'I have never worked [with Clooney] any of his charities'

Actress Blake Lively and husband Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds. The couple have said they 'were not aware of this event or confirmed to participate'

Among the recognizable names were Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry and wife Ayesha who have also denied any participation in the event

Stephen and Ayesha Curry have also stated that they 'were never a part of this event.'

The summit also claimed to have David Simas, the CEO of the Obama Foundation, speaking and Dr. Rajiv Shah, President of the Rockefeller Foundation, hosting a panel.

Both have confirmed that neither are taking part in such an event.

Others speakers that had been billed as being involved, according to the website, were Peter Buffett, the son of billionaire Warren Buffett and his wife Jennifer.

At one stage, the summit was offering 'a gift bag, exclusive access to sessions, morning yoga sessions and lunch/dinner with celebrity chef Curtis Stone', Deadline reveals.

Lapensee sent a statement to DailyMail.com explaining that the entire episode was a simple misunderstanding:

'I deeply regret the circumstances surrounding the Connect Summit. Miscommunication from Thrive Philanthropy led to keynote speakers being publicized before they had officially committed to participating in our virtual conference.

'We were hopeful and optimistic that we would be able to confirm these speakers and were in the process of determining their interest. I understand the disappointment and concerns of all involved with the conference. It was not our intention to mislead the public, and I am sincerely sorry for the confusion this has caused. All admissions to the conference have been paused and the one ticket that was sold has been refunded, although I understand this does not minimize this error in judgement.'

The premise has echoes of the infamous Fyre Festival of 2017. The festival was heavily promoted on social media and billed as 'the cultural experience of the decade' touting plush villas and gourmet food. However, the project completely fell apart due to lack of funds, and guests arrived at a barren island with inadequate food, water, or shelter

'The Connect Summit was organized as a platform for philanthropic organizations to come together virtually to plan for the future. Following discussions with our confirmed panelists and project partners, we will re-evaluate the appropriateness of continuing with the Connect Summit and provide an update on the future of the event in the coming days,' Lapensee wrote.

PR firm Wunderlich Kaplan, who had been hired to plug the flashy conference, said it was not a misunderstanding.

After sending out press materials, they were contacted by Clooney's people and later learned that no celebrities appeared to have been booked and that all information related to the event appeared to be 'fraudulent'.

The fraudulent luxury music festival was founded by Billy McFarland, pictured

'While something like this has never happened at our agency of over 20 years, it seems that we were hired to launch a conference that was built on lies,' the agency, headed by Dara Kaplan, wrote in a statement.

'Regrettably, due to fraudulent information provided to us by our client Stephanie Lapensee the founder of Thrive Philanthropy, the creator of the Connect Summit, our agency, Wunderlich Kaplan Communications no longer represents this project.

'We are horrified about the situation and will be working diligently to make sure that all information put out there is corrected. Thank you for your understanding. It's all pretty unbelievable.'

The premise has echoes of the infamous Fyre Festival of 2017 which was billed as a luxury music festival founded by Billy McFarland, of Fyre Media and rapper Ja Rule.

It saw thousands of music fans travel to an event in the Bahamas after spending up to $12,000 on tickets.

It was created with the intent of promoting the company's Fyre app for booking music talent.

The festival was promoted on Instagram by social media influencers who later revealed they had been paid to do so.

Instead of the luxury villas and gourmet meals for which festival attendees paid thousands of dollars, they received prepackaged sandwiches and FEMA tents as their accommodation.

Celebrities including Elsa Hosk, Emily Ratajkowski, Bella Hadid, Lais Ribeiro, Gizele Oliveira and Rose Bertram were also paid to promote the event on Instagram.

McFarland was blamed for the failure of the highly-anticipated music festival which was set to take place in the Bahamian island of Exuma over the course of two weekends in 2017
Scientists have always been our high priests, the folks among us who are really in the know. And theyve sometimes tended to use their knowledge to lord it over the rest of us.

You can hardly blame them. Those positioned to exercise political power long have been inclined to cite not only god but science as their supporting authority. Such adulation would give anybody a swelled head.

Today, of course, the politically powerful are more inclined to skip over god and cite science alone as the authority for their actions.

Yes, much is owed to science, probably human existence itself, given the vast inventory of advancements, including disease conquered, sanitation measures undertaken and medical procedures developed.

It wasnt that far back in history that sickness was thought to derive from unhealthy night air or miasma, and patients were treated by draining off their blood. This was, remember, the accepted science.

It is not, however, a lack of respect that impedes science today.

Au contraire. Science fairly teems with celebrity.

Being susceptible to the same human frailties as other mortals, there are scientists today who enjoy stardom as wizards of knowledge. Theyre said to possess all the right answers, answers the politicians are obligated to heed. (Dr. Anthony Fauci, Bill Nye the Science Guy, Sid the Science Kid, take a bow.)

With the Wuhan virus stalking the land, we are constantly admonished that we must obey the pronouncements of our high priest scientists, no matter how contradictory or otherwise inconsistent their pronouncements may be.

Any deviation from the orthodox knowledge of the moment will result in certain doom for us all, our high-priest scientists  or their supporters  keep warning us.

The Ogre-In-Chief, Donald Trump, is, of course, the principal embodiment of the dreaded anti-science heresy that certain, ahem, deplorables, are exhibiting out there in the benighted hinterlands.

Trump persists in quibbling with the white-coated Knowledgeable Ones as they go about the insightful rituals and ablutions of their temples, which they call laboratories.

Meanwhile, resisting  or even questioning  the draconian lockdown measures that the scientific community has prescribed surely will, we are told, guarantee victory not only for Covid-19 but for the dark forces of ignorance and superstition over rational enlightenment.

Egged on by Trump, dumb-ass Americans clinging to their guns and bibles shockingly seem to doubt the omniscience of our science. Their doubts are regarded as blasphemy.

The uppity dumb asses are asking, Hey, whos really the dumb ass here? as they note the constantly updated and amended diktats issuing forth from the scientific experts.

 The scientific experts (Chinese, World Health Organization) initially declared there was no human transmission of the Wuhan virus, so dont worry about it.

 The experts decreed that, to spare hospitals the burden, nursing homes must accept Covid-19-infected patients. The facilities were not equipped to safely accommodate the stricken. Result: thousand upon thousands of vulnerable elderly nursing home residents became infected and died. (Thanks a million, New York Gov. Cuomo and New Jersey Gov. Murphy!)

 Science tells us now that masks are essential and that youll be cited for not wearing one. But initially science was emphatic in its pronouncements that masks afford little if any protection and may even confer a dangerous sense of unwarranted security.

 Scientific data at first told us with grim confidence that New York City would have a disastrous shortage of ventilators. Follow-up scientific data soon thereafter told us New York City had many more than needed, hoarding ventilators desperately wanted elsewhere.

 Some science told us that lockdowns were essential to curtailing the spread of the virus. But now other science, looking at data in Europe, tells us maybe the lockdown hasnt played that much of a role in curbing the virus after all.

 In succession, scientifically concocted computer models have contradicted one another on how Covid-19 is playing out, positing wildly different outcomes.

 At first scientific data told us hospitals would be overrun by virus victims. Now the data tell us hospitals are standing empty, with ailing folks hesitant to go near them. Some hospitals, were told, now face the prospect of bankruptcy. Meanwhile, potential sickness other than Wuhan virus goes undiagnosed.

 Science initially warned us that the Wuhan virus could live for days on surfaces. Now science tells us, well, um, er, perhaps not. Or  wait!  maybe so as first thought.

 Science is telling us out of one side of its mouth that hydroxychloroquine is highly effective in the early treatment of Covid-19. Out of the other side of its mouth science is saying the medication is not only ineffective but potentially harmful.

As the 2008 financial crisis exposed the limits of economics, so the Covid-19 crisis has exposed the limits of science, writes European journalist Fernando Giugliano.

Maybe its not surprising the scorned deplorables are starting to ask, Just what the hell does science really know, anyway?

The obligatory answer among the smart progressive set remains, despite every indication to the contrary, that science, by gosh, knows everything, absolutely everything. After all, doesnt the word itself derive from the Latin scientia, meaning knowledge?

In whatever form it took throughout history, science has always been right. In ancient Egypt, priests were the scientists of the day, that is, they were the ones in the know, the ones who had exclusive insight into how the universe works.

They and only they could tell you, for example, when certain planetary bodies would align in the sky and when the Nile would rise.

They knew absolutely for sure  it was a scientific certainty of the time  that the sun god governed daily life by making rounds in his big boat in the sky.

Only the priest/scientists were able to divine what the sun gods desires and needs were as the deity went about his chores of running the universe.

If the priest/scientists didnt command the respectful consensus they merited, then the fearsome underworld serpent, Apophis  an allegory for ignorance or disease?  might be turned loose on mankind.

In ancient Greece and Rome, soothsayers and haruspices were the authoritative research scientists of their time. No government lifted a finger without first having these pioneer white coats poke around in the entrails of birds and assess the disposition of the auguries.

Seldom did the powerful doubt the conclusions of these early men of science, and even less frequently did these early men of science doubt their own wisdom.

Science was always right. Even when it wasnt. Which was often.

But heres the great irony: When science wasnt right, it was always science that proved it wrong. Every time, no exceptions. You might even say science has advanced in large measure by being proved wrong.

True, there always have been, and will be, flat-earth yahoos who scoff at the advancement of knowledge. But its an undisputed fact of

history that science from its first utterances has been wrong. And has scientifically proved itself so.

Science has advanced by being skeptical of itself. And it has failed to advance whenever it chose to fend off skepticism by girding itself in the armor of political or religious dogma.

Aristotle is hailed as one of the greatest minds ever. Aristotelian science in his time and for thousands of years after was said to be the gold standard for mans pursuit of knowledge. And, the scholars tell us, indeed it mostly was.

Yet Aristotles inability to grasp, or his refusal or accept, the concept of inertia, held back advancements in the study of physics for 2,000 years, writes historian Yural Noah Harari, surveying the chronicle of science in his Brief History of Humankind.

Aristotle was one of the great pursuers of scientific truth  indeed, is credited with pretty much creating the field of scientific inquiry. But that didnt deter him in the least from wanting to silence the views of others.

Our scholars tell us he advocated burning the works of Democritus, who was among the first to grasp the concept of the atom. Apparently the notoriously nasty world of academic disputation has a long history.

The great astronomer and mathematician Ptolemy concluded that Earth is a stationary body with the sun revolving around it. This, at the time, was advanced thinking accepted as scientific fact.

This view was wrong but long reigned as the scientific consensus, and not just because Church authorities enforced the view, but also because many of the best scientific minds of the time proclaimed Ptolemys geocentric model to be, in so many words, the accepted science.

The Church declared debate on the matter closed, and it cited the authority of science as well as god in doing so. The Ptolemaic view was said to be beyond dispute and was so regarded until eventually, finally, at great length, it no longer was.

Theres accepted science going around today that commands belief at least partly on its status as an article of faith. Namely, evolution.

Yes, evolution includes many convincingly demonstrated truisms.

But there are key questions it doesnt satisfactorily answer, as some stubborn contrarians persist in pointing out.

How and why, for example, in the era of pre-history did the cognitive revolution  the emergence of human imagination  come to evolve and to set early man apart from similar creatures?

How did language manifest itself? Did it do so as a human artifact, like a spear or a stone ax? Or as some kind of mysterious neurological/cerebral code programming?

Who knows for sure? Not the scientific experts, it appears, judging by their several opposing and contentious theories on the issue.

Yet youre best advised not to wonder about these things out loud.

Youre encouraged to accept  to swallow whole and intact  evolution as the Explanation for Everything. Otherwise, fashionable bien pensants will ridicule you as a slope-browed buffoon incapable of recognizing your obvious kinship with the baboon.

Nowadays, with no sense of irony, self-declared progressives often shun skepticism in the name of science itself.

Huffy official reprisals against dissent over Covid-19s often arbitrary lockdown measures are but the latest example.

Long before Covid-19, supposed human-triggered, catastrophic global warming was widely declared todays accepted science, i.e., mandatory belief. And woe unto any who dare to question the received wisdom. Theyre excoriated and flayed as deniers.

Little does it matter that the father of global warming, Stephen Schneider, Stanford PhD, was, before he acquired that title, a tireless Cassandra who had warned of an imminent ice age.

Even less does it matter that a giant of science, Princeton physicist and mathematician Freeman Dyson, often described as the successor to Einstein, dismissed the global-warming movements fervor as more akin to holy-roller tent revivals or party campaign rallies than to rigorous scientific inquiry.

Nor has climate-change ideology been dislodged from the political agenda by contrary factual indications.

While full-out global industrial production raged in World War II, with a massive outpouring of emissions from worldwide coal-burning and oil consumption  icky carbon fuels galore!  global temperatures nevertheless fell instead of rising and did so until around 1970.

Yet science persists with its warnings of cataclysmic climate change  warnings tied to political and economic agendas  while impressively credentialed skeptics are, if not ignored, condemned in the nastiest ad hominem terms.

Austrian scientist Gernot Patzelt, one of the worlds foremost glaciologists, attracts vituperation when he points out that it was warmer 60 percent of the time over the last 10,000 years than it is today.

Scientists, meanwhile  no less than the glitterati of Hollywood  are inclined to sign petitions and publish activist screeds suggestive of the notion that their status gives them unique standing regarding political and economic policy.

Sciences doomsday prognostications on global famine, energy scarcity and other Malthusian disasters have taken their place as roadside litter along with the time-discredited prophecies of crackpot millenarians. Still, science remains un-humbled. Humility does not seem to be one of its noted traits.

Scientists not all that long ago observed the shape of the head and offered sweeping conclusions on the relationship thereof to human character. Phrenology, this science was called.

The worlds leading intellectual lights, meanwhile, endorsed the insidious science of eugencis, the loopy notion that the proliferating birth rates of inferior riffraff were polluting the human gene pool.

(The founder of Planned Parenthood, Margaret Sanger, was a leading champion of this science, no less than were many of our university luminaries, not to mention, ahem, the followers of Nationalsozialismus.)

With unflagging confidence, the high priests of science now assure us were closing in on the day when, looking back through time, well observe the Big Bang  the instant the universe came into existence.

Upon that observation, its suggested, well have our ultimate, concluding, scientific answer for all time. Which almost assuredly, its hinted, finally will dispense with, once and for all, the nonsense about god. Case closed!

Or will it be? Will a supposed ex-nihilo (out of nothing) phenomenon be any more satisfactory a cosmological insight than, say, the accepted scientia of thousands of years ago?

Will seeing the Big Bang with our own eyes satisfy our curiosity about or yearning for transcendence any more than, say, the ancient science of China did, according to which a giant named Pangu created the universe after hatching from a cosmic egg?

Hmm. Whered the egg come from? Hmm. What  or who  set off the Big Bang?

It seems likely that people will persist in wondering, that theyll go on doing so despite the dictates of science and the best efforts of snooty progressives to belittle and ostracize them as reactionary boobs.
The horror was unmistakable even on the primitive 1970s radar screen.

A clear echo was evident, the calling card of a powerful tornado. An embedded "ball image indicated that it had ingested massive quantities of debris, recalled Greg Forbes, at the time a Penn State professor who later would become one of the countrys most visible severe-storm specialists.

A colleague who was watching the radar with him recalled hearing Forbes say: People are dying right now.

They were. On this date 35 years ago, the deadliest tornado outbreak in the states history cut through the heartland of Pennsylvania, killed 64 people, and spawned the states only F5 tornado on record, with peak winds better than 200 mph. On storm surveys the next day, Forbes saw stacks of ripped-down trees piled 10 feet high.

 READ MORE: Mr. Tornado, in one of historys greatest detective feats, measured the immeasurable

Killer twisters also rampaged through northern Ohio, southwestern New York, and Ontario, in regions unaccustomed to encounters with the most ferocious storms on earth. The odds against that happening in those areas are incalculable," said Harold Brooks, senior scientist at that National Severe Storms Laboratory.

In its post-storm report, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration stated soberly: Perhaps the lesson to be learned from the 1985 outbreak is that under the proper atmospheric conditions, major tornadoes can occur irrespective of the location or terrain."

Thirty-five years later, despite remarkable advances in radar and other technologies, tornadoes and their inner lives remain enigmas to atmospheric scientists.

Like about everything else these days, tornadoes are behaving somewhat peculiarly, said Brooks, and that might be related to climate change, but they are directing some of that toward guarding their secrets.

About tornadoes

With vast landmasses beneath subtropical, moisture-laden air surging from the Gulf of Mexico and its polar opposite sagging from Canada, the United States is a world capital of tornadoes.

The most-favored areas are in Tornado Alley, between the Rockies and the Mississippi River, from central Texas through South Dakota, where contrasting dry air that often is part of the tornado recipe, is plentiful.

The diverse air masses clearly have a whole lot to do with igniting the supercell thunderstorms that are the source of some of the most dangerous tornadoes, but indicting those ingredients alone would be a gross oversimplification, according to the Storm Prediction Center.

Tornadoes get their spin when winds blow in different directions in a column of air. But what causes that to happen?

Only about 20% of those supercells spawn tornadoes, and scientists arent sure why some do and some dont. Some tornadoes form independently from supercells.

The truth is that we dont fully understand, says the storm center.

What were they doing around here?

The peak period in the central United States is early spring, with the crest of the wave gradually rippling eastward later in the spring and in June. However, in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast, conditions usually arent as favorable for tornadoes.

Around here, the ideal air masses are present in summer, said Brooks, but the ideal winds tend to occur in winter. In the period of record, few have occurred in Pennsylvania before June.

 READ MORE: Storms disrupt SEPTA rail service; EF-2 tornado damages dozens of homes in Delco

Thats just one reason why the 1985 outbreak was so shocking.

On average only 5%, or 20 to 25, of the 1,000 to 1,200 tornadoes that touch down annually reach severe criteria  EF3s on the Enhanced Fujita scale with winds of 136 mph or greater  with only one making it all the way to EF5, winds stronger than 200 mph.

Half of the 20 tornadoes that hit Pennsylvania that day would have qualified, and one of those was an EF5.

Tragically, the tornadoes hit where people live. Most dont. Much of the nations land is uninhabited or un-built-upon. Some Midwestern counties have populations as low as one person per mile. (That likely would facilitate social distancing.)

For casualties, Brooks said, you have to have tornadoes, you have to have people.

Diary of a mad atmosphere

Just before dawn on May 31, 1985, a warm front lifted across the Ohio-Pennsylvania border and temperatures soared into the 80s in Cleveland and Erie, according to the National Weather Service account. The air felt like water-vapor soup. Meanwhile, a cold front was tracking across the Midwest. What followed was atmospheric fireworks.

More than 10 tornadoes touched down in Ontario. Just after 4 p.m., the Cleveland weather service office posted a thunderstorm warning, and it quickly became clear that a tornado outbreak of an unprecedented magnitude was taking place.

Greg Forbes recalled that an outbreak had been expected, but no one expected this.

What he saw in storm surveys was almost unimaginable. One of them had traveled 65 miles through forestland, up and down deep slopes" just north of I-80, somehow dodging two structures. It mowed down just about every tree in the forests, in a path more than a mile wide at times, and stacking fallen trees atop each other piled 10 feet high.

Good riddance

Nothing like it has occurred so far removed from the prime tornado zones since, and the Philadelphia region in all likelihood would not see anything similar, Brooks said.

Getting something as big as far east as you is really hard, he said. The atmosphere has to work harder.

That said, a powerful tornado that packed winds up to 200 mph took away a house and killed three people in Limerick, Montgomery County, in July 1994, and a killer tornado struck the Philadelphia region, heavily damaging parts of Bucks and Montgomery Counties and leaving four people dead, on May 28, 1896.

As for whether a changing climate means a changing tornado climatology, that would be impossible to know, at least for now, said Brooks.

He said researchers have seen a change in tornado variability. In the 1970s, 150 days per year saw at least one confirmed tornado, with 30 or more occurring on a single day once annually. Recently, the average is 90 days with at least one tornado, and two or three days with 30 or more.

But tornadoes have a long history of peculiar behavior. Totals vary wildly from year to year.

Forbes said he would not rule out a recurrence of 1985 in the next 50 years or so.

It could happen again.
Until now astronauts have all trained at Star City outside Moscow and blasted off from Baikonur launchpad in Kazakhstan

Russia has lost its long-held monopoly as the only country able to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station following the flawless manned launch by US company SpaceX.

The Russian space agency congratulated the United States and Elon Musk's SpaceX on the first crewed flight ever by a private company, but experts said the launch should be a wakeup call for Roscosmos.

"The success of the mission will provide us with additional opportunities that will benefit the whole international programme," cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev, Roscosmos executive director for crewed space programmes, said in a brief video address.

Saturday's launch was the first of American astronauts from US soil since the mothballing of the US shuttle programme in 2011 that left Russia's more basic and reliable Soyuz spacecraft solely responsible for transporting crews.

Astronauts since then have all trained at Star City outside Moscow and studied Russian before blasting off from Baikonur launchpad in Kazakhstan.

"These flights have been an unexpected chance for Moscow to keep producing Soyuz and retain a significant voice in negotiations over the ISS," said Isabelle Sourbes-Verger, a specialist in space policy at the French National Centre for Scientific Research.

The Russian space agency has also earned large sums by ferrying astronauts: a seat in the Soyuz costs NASA around $80 million.

If SpaceX starts taking up all US astronauts, "the annual losses could be more than $200 million, a significant loss for Roscosmos's budget of around $2 billion," said Andrei Ionin, an expert at the Tsiolkovsky Space Academy in Moscow.

While Musk, the ambitious entrepreneur behind SpaceX, has named the price of a seat on his spacecraft as $60 million, Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin has announced Russia is working to cut its price by 30 percent.

Ionin voiced scepticism over the plan.

The Russian space agency has also earned large sums by ferrying astronauts

"SpaceX is saving money by using cheap engines and manufacturing almost all its own parts," he said. "To do this, Russia would have to change its production process."

Another option is a barter system proposed by NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine: for every Russian riding in a US spaceship, one American would take a Soyuz.

'Wakeup call'

In a broader sense, the appearance of a rival such as SpaceX should be a "wakeup call" for the Russian space industry, which is "in far worse shape than those in charge admit," said Ionin.

A decade ago Russia was behind a large proportion of the world's launches, but that is no longer the case today due to competition from China and SpaceX.

"When we were losing the launches market, Roscosmos said everything was fine because we were the only ones sending people up to the ISS. Now that fig leaf has fallen off."

Russia's space sector is marred by corruption, with multiple scandals over the construction of the new Vostochny launchpad in the Far East.

The country's space industry has also failed to innovate, concentrating on modifying "Soviet technology without any major evolution," Ionin said.

The Russian space programme is renowned for having sent the first man into space in 1961 and launching the first satellite four years earlier, and its achievements remain a major source of national pride.

But more recently it has endured a series of setbacks, notably losing expensive spacecraft and satellites in recent years.

The rise of private companies like SpaceX, which has ambitions to conquer Mars, risks leaving Russia irrecoverably far behind, experts said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin holds a video link with cosmonauts onboard the International Space Station

Mars next?

For Russia to keep up, a government body independent of the space sector's main players needs to develop a new strategy, Ionin said.

"US President (Donald) Trump reestablished a bodythe National Space Councilto set policy goals. We need to do the same thing."

Some observers sense a lack of political will from President Vladimir Putin who appears to be more focused on using rocket science to develop military capabilities, particularly hypersonic missiles.

"For Putin, space exploration isn't a priority when it comes to showing off the might of the state," said independent space expert Vitaly Yegorov.

For Ionin, reinvigorating the Russian space programme requires international cooperation, too.

Sourbes-Verger suggested any manned international mission to Mars "could be an opportunity for Russia to regain its standing by sharing its skills."

But, she said, the costs of any such mission would be so high that Chinanow the world's second space power in terms of launcheswould need to be included.

Yet that prospect seems unlikely, she added, given that "the US Congress refuses any space cooperation with China."

Explore further Russia space chief spars with Elon Musk over launch pricing

 2020 AFP
She shot to fame during the fifth series of Love Island in 2019.

And Francesca Allen was still turning heads on Sunday as she was spotted looking effortlessly chic in a plunging white midi dress for a morning walk.

Francesca, 24, oozed sophistication in the flowing white dress and beamed from ear to ear as she walked with friends to Hyde Park.

Gorgeous: Francesca Allen turned heads on Sunday as she was spotted looking effortlessly chic in a plunging white midi dress for a morning walk

The clothing store owner teamed her summery dress with a Louis Vuitton satchel bag and a pair of box-fresh white trainers.

Her wrap-around dress cinched in at her waist and highlighted her svelte frame while its plunging neckline left little to the imagination.

Francesca left her luscious brunette locks to hang loose in tumbling waves and wore a pair of sunglasses on top of her head.

Happy: Francesca, 24, oozed sophistication in the flowing white dress and beamed from ear to ear as she walked with friends to Hyde Park

Fashionable: The clothing store owner teamed her summery dress with a Louis Vuitton satchel bag and a pair of box-fresh white trainers

She accessorised her outfit with three gold bangles, a ring and a pair of gold hoop earrings.

The brunette beauty was joined by some friends, who stuck to social distancing rules, as they walked to Hyde Park in London.

Francesca and her friends seemed in high spirits as they laughed down the street while clutching glasses and drinking from them.

Looking good: The wrap around dress cinched in at her waist and highlighted her svelte frame while the plunging neckline left little to the imagination

Her outing comes just weeks after it was revealed that this summer's series of Love Island has been cancelled amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

ITV bosses pulled the plug on the summer series of the reality show, revealing it was a logistical impossibility to safeguard 'the wellbeing of everyone involved' amid the ongoing global pandemic.

Kevin Lygo, Director of Television at ITV, said: 'We have tried every which way to make Love Island this summer but logistically it's just not possible to produce it in a way that safeguards the wellbeing of everyone involved and that for us is the priority.

'In normal circumstances we would be preparing very soon to travel out to the location in Mallorca to get the villa ready but clearly thats now out of the question.

Day out: Francesca left her luscious brunette locks to hang loose in tumbling waves and wore a pair of sunglasses on top of her head

Bling: She accessorised her outfit with three gold bangles, a ring and a pair of gold hoop earrings

'We are very sorry for fans of the show but making it safely is our prime concern and Love Island will be back stronger than ever in 2021. In the meantime Love Island fans can still enjoy all six series of Love Island on BritBox.'

Host Laura Whitmore weighed in on the cancellation, saying it was the right decision.

She tweeted: 'Like with a lot of things because of restrictions with travel, social distancing and unable to plan ahead, Love Island is postponed until 2021.

'Great news is that there have been more applications then any other series! Next year is going to be BIG. Stay safe.'
Presidente @MartinVizcarraC: Los peruanos somos capaces de grandes cosas. Lo hemos demostrado hace 50 anos y lo volveremos a hacer ahora. No importa que existan voces de desaliento, la mayoria de peruanos estamos unidos y con todas las ganas de salir adelante. pic.twitter.com/RSFsiW7Hl6
One of Hamiltons worst COVID outbreaks is over. But that doesnt mean everyone at the Rosslyn has recovered.

And as recently as Friday, another resident died.

Hamilton public health declared the Rosslyn Retirement Residence outbreak over Saturday, listing Friday, May 29 as the official end of the outbreak on its website. Public health declares outbreaks over when there have been no new COVID cases or evidence of transmission in a facility for 14 days.

Declaring an outbreak over does not mean everyone is well and, in this case, a staff member tested positive as recently as Tuesday.

However, the Rosslyn is a unique case  the home was evacuated two weeks ago.

As of May 15, all residents (but two) were transferred to hospital and health care staff were no longer working in the facility, said Antonella Giancarlo, public health spokesperson, on Saturday. Since the facility was empty, there was no spread over the 14 day period; hence the outbreak was declared over.

A total of 64 Rosslyn residents have tested positive for COVID-19, along with 22 staff. Nine residents have died, including a 93-year-old man who died Friday.

All but two of the homes 66 residents went to hospital two weeks ago when the home was evacuated amid what city officials referred to as a crisis. There was a severe staffing shortage and issues related to poor infection prevention and control measures. The two residents who didnt go to hospital made other arrangements.

Giancarlo said public health did not have information available this weekend on how many Rosslyn COVID cases are still considered active.

In Hamilton this weekend, there were four new COVID cases Saturday and five new cases Sunday. Hamiltons total of confirmed COVID cases was 676 on Sunday, plus seven probable cases. A total of 488 cases are considered resolved.

In the last 10 days, there have been 29 new COVID cases in the city. A total of 21 cases involved close or casual contact, two were acquired in the community, meaning public health doesnt know how the person got sick, and six cases are under investigation.

The Rosslyn has not responded to media requests throughout the outbreak.

It remains unclear when residents will be allowed back in the home.

There are two outstanding orders against the Rosslyn, one from public health and one from the Retirement Homes Regulatory Authority (RHRA). Officials have said the orders must be complied with before the home can reopen.

On Saturday, Giancarlo confirmed an inspection is planned for Monday to assess compliance with public healths order.

Public Health is working closely with the operator to reopen the facility when it is safe and suitable to do so for residents and staff, she said.

The RHRA confirmed Sunday the Rosslyn has not yet complied with its order. The RHRA is currently reviewing what steps have been taken to date comply with it.

The Registrar must be satisfied that the necessary policies, precautions and procedures are in place to protect residents from exposure to COVID-19 and provide them with the care they need, said RHRA spokesperson Farrah Bourre in an email. As these requirements are still outstanding, we cant confirm when residents will be able to return to the home.

Giancarlo said public health will continue to monitor the home even though the outbreak is over.

While the outbreak at the Rosslyn may have been declared over, any concerns around health, safety and environmental issues would continue to be monitored by Public Health Services and other applicable provincial partners, she said.
Bilateral meeting between Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, African Development Bank President, and H.E. Dr. Jim Yong Kim, President of World Bank Group, during day 2 of the AfDB Annual Meetings in Busan, South Korea, 22nd of May 2018.

Control of the African Development Bank (AfDB) is the motive behind US attempts to prevent the re-election of the bank's president, despite producing stellar results,

Already ratified as the sole candidate for a May 2020 election postponed till August due to the novel coronavirus, Akinwunmi Adesina's bid for another five-year term as president of the African Development Bank has been met with strong resistance from the United States.

On the week commemorating five years as president, details of an investigation into his conduct, and subsequent exoneration of all charges brought against him, went public.

In a petition sent to the bank's committee on January 19, 2020, whistleblowers within the bank accused Adesina of 16 breaches of the bank's code of conduct, including "unethical conduct, private gain, and impediment to efficiency, preferential treatment, and involvement in political activities."

After six meetings between February 4 and April 9 to review documents in the allegations against Adesina, as well as a confidential memo detailing his defence, the ethics committee and its board of directors on May 5, described all allegations against Adesina as spurious and unfounded.

In responding to the petitioners, Adesina noted the political undertones, and accused the petitioners of violating the bank's whistleblower policy by breaching the confidentiality of the proceedings.

According to him, the petitioners were manipulated by a group of non-regional executive directors, not for the good governance of the African Bank, but to discredit his candidacy.

The complaint cannot be considered to be in good faith, he continued, because it was not designed to expose fraud, corruption or other misconduct but rather had an ulterior motive.

But the US, through its Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, expressed its reservations about the "integrity of the committee's process" despite the fact that the committee was headed by Takuji Yano, the institution's Japanese executive director.

In a letter dated May 22 to Yano, Mnuchin rejected the report which totally exonerated Adesina of all allegations, thus questioning the integrity of Yano's committee and that of the bank in the process.

Mnuchin called for a "fresh in-depth investigation of the allegations using the services of an independent outside investigator of high professional standing."

On its part, Nigeria made its stand known in a statement by its Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed.

"The call for an independent investigation of the president is outside of the laid down rules, procedures and governing system of the bank and its articles as it relates to the code of conduct on ethics for the president," Ahmed wrote May 26.

Nigeria's ex-President, Olusegun Obasanjo, also weighed-in on the same day, by rallying his former colleagues. Obasanjo pointed out the need to speak against the introduction of alien practices being recommended by some parties.

"The US treasury secretary disparaged the bank and ridiculed the entire governance system of the bank which has been in place since 1964," Obasanjo said.

"This is unprecedented in the annals of the African Development Bank Group. If we do not rise up and defend the African Development Bank, this might mean the end of the African Development Bank, as its governance will be hijacked away from Africa."

Obasanjo further emphasised the need for the AfDB to remain an African-focused development bank rather than one which serves interests outside Africa.

Among those copied in his letter were John Kufour, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Thabo Mbeki, former presidents of Ghana, Liberia and South Africa respectively. Other former leaders include those of Benin, Malawi, Ethiopia and Tanzania.

Besieged by the different submissions, the chairwoman of the AfDB board of governors, Niale Kaba, who is also Ivory Coast's Minister of Development, said "no decision has been taken" in response to press reports that the board had accepted Mnuchin's request.

AfDB's Mandate

The AfDB is a multilateral development finance institution founded in 1964 with a mission to fight poverty and improve living conditions on the continent. It does this through the investment of public and private capital in projects and programs that are likely to contribute to the economic and social development of the region.

Earlier in March this year, the lender issued a $3 billion social bond to help African countries deal with the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. Bids for the securities on the London money market exceeded $4.6 billion. The bank also launched a $10 billion crisis-response facility for African nations.

On May 25, the bank approved a $500,000 emergency assistance grant to Egypt to provide food relief, and to contribute to restoring the livelihoods of vulnerable populations severely affected by COVID 19.

Three days before, it approved a $210 million loan for Mauritius to finance a national budget support programme in response to the pandemic.

These are the latest of interventions in May, with others including a $97 million loan approved as emergency budget support for Senegal to tackle Covid-19, $33m loan approved to tackle Covid-19 in Cape Verde and a $13.7m grant approved to improve the health sector in Zimbabwe.

Others in May are $45m allocated for a bridge to link Cameroon and Chad and $1.67m given for study on building dams in Eswatini (Swaziland).

Nigeria's Influence

Nigeria's influence in the AfDB cannot be overemphasised. It is the largest shareholder with more than nine per cent of contributions, and has played a leadership role right from inception.

The inaugural meeting of the bank's board of governors was held in Lagos in 1964. The board of governors comprised of the ministers of finance (or equivalent portfolios) of the member countries.

These countries in turn present candidates to serve as executive directors. Although originally, only African countries were able to join the bank, it has allowed the entry of non-African countries since 1982.

According to another former Nigerian President, the late Shehu Shagari, in his autobiography Beckoned to Serve, the industrialised Western countries lobbied for years to become members of the AfDB.

When a majority of African countries acquiesced to plans by these nations to provide more funds and take control of the bank, Nigeria, Algeria and Libya stood firm, arguing that this would defeat the very objective for the bank's creation in the first place.

In his autobiography, Shagari expressed surprised when the bank later turned around to seek the approval of the board of governors to accept non-African funding. All other countries apart from Nigeria were in support because no other African country was willing to help the bank financially.

Nigeria had in 1976 set up a Nigeria Trust Fund (NTF) within the AfDB to assist in the development of the poorest AfDB members. The NTF provides financing for projects of national or regional importance, lending at a four per cent rate with a 25-year repayment period.

But due to growing demand for investments from African countries and because of the Bank's limited financial resources, membership was opened to non-regional countries.

The AfDB is Africa's biggest multilateral lender and has an AAA rating from Fitch Ratings, Moody's Investors Service and S&P Global Ratings.

However, it maintains an African character with projects exclusively for Africa. It is headquartered in Abidjan, and its president is always African. However, despite its leadership role in the formation and the funding of the bank, Adesina is the first president of Nigerian extraction.

Infrastructure, including power supply, water and sanitation, transport and communications, has traditionally received the largest share of AfDB lending.

The bank aims to be a body for regional integration that will make Africa more competitive in the global market, while transport and power interconnections between smaller African economies will help create larger markets in the continent.

Non-regional members

At the last count, the AfDB has 81 members, comprising all 54 African countries and 27 from Europe, America and Asia. Some of these non-regional countries include, Brazii, Argentina and Canada; Portugal, Italy, Spain and Germany; India, Turkey and Saudi Arabia.

The Republic of Ireland became the bank's 81st shareholder, following a declaration issued by Adesina on April 24.

It is not out of place to wonder what the non-regional members get to benefit. According to the Irish Minister for Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, Paschal Donohoe, on the occasion of Ireland joining the bank, "The African Development Bank and its sister, the African Development Fund, play an important role in fostering sustainable and inclusive social and economic growth and prosperity, helping the African continent to realize its potential to be the continent of promise and opportunity.

"I see our membership of the Bank and Fund as an investment in this potential. Ireland's partnership with these important regional multilateral institutions will both advance our shared development priorities and will open future opportunities for Irish businesses in the region."

It can be deduced then, that the non-regional members have an eye on African markets, a major reason why they contribute to the AFDB.

Adesina's Exploits

In October 2019, the AfDB raised $115 billion in fresh capital, an operation deemed a personal success for Adesina. A former minister of agriculture in Nigeria from 2010 to 2015, he was named Forbes African Man of the Year in 2013 for his reform of Nigerian agriculture.

In his time as president of the AfDB, he has led the Bank to achieve a historic a capital increase, from $93 billion to $208 billion within five years.

The bank is ranked 4th globally in terms of transparency among 45 multilateral and bilateral institutions by Publish What You Fund, an outfit that consists of 19 developed economies.

Over the past five years under the stewardship of Adesina, the AfDB has provided access to electricity for an estimated 15 million and helped another 141 million gain access to improved agricultural technologies for food security.

Thirteen million have benefited from access to finance from private sector investment projects, 101 million people benefitted from access to better transport and 60 million from improved access to water and sanitation.

Competition and Control

The AfDB's rising profile and influence in supporting African development has not gone unnoticed. Like the World Bank, the AfDB is one of five multilateral development banks in the world. The others are the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the Asian Development Bank (AsDB) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IAfDB).

In February this year, World Bank President David Malpass, an American nominated to the position by President Donald Trump last year, launched a rare attack on the AfDB's lending to African governments.

Malpass said at a World Bank-International Monetary Fund debt forum in Washington that the Asian Development Bank, the African Development Bank, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development were contributing to debt problems.

"We have a situation where other international financial institutions and to some extent development finance institutions as a whole, certainly the official export credit agencies, have a tendency to lend too quickly and to add to the debt problem of the countries," Malpass said.

The AfDB reacted with dismay at the public criticism by Malpass. "It impugns the integrity of the African Development Bank, undermines our governance systems, and incorrectly insinuates that we operate under different standards from the World Bank. The very notion goes against the spirit of multilateralism and our collaborative work," it replied in a statement.

The AfDB claimed that the World Bank is actually culpable in pushing African countries into more debt as it has pumped more than double the AfDB portfolio.

"The World Bank's operations approved for Africa in the 2018 fiscal year amounted to $20.2 billion, compared to $10.1 billion by the African Development Bank.

"We are of the view that the World Bank could have explored other available platforms to discuss debt concerns among multilateral development banks. The general statement by the president of the World Bank Group insinuating that the African Development Bank contributes to Africa's debt problem and that it has lower standards of lending is simply put: misleading and inaccurate."

US Motives

On the face of it, an independent investigation as requested by the US through its treasury secretary should only help vindicate Adesina and solidify his position as an upstanding president who has done exceedingly well in fulfilling the bank's mandate.

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However, the fact that this call was made after an internal inquiry in line with the organisations code of ethics, casts aspersions on not just Adesina and the AfDB, but on the African continent as a whole.

The disregard the US-backed campaign has for the continent's leaders can be inferred from one of the allegations: Adesina was accused of lobbying African leaders to endorse him as president.

He responded: "It is alleged that as president I basically bribed and corrupted the 16 African Heads of State and governments in the ECOWAS region to support my candidacy for re-election.

"The allegation essentially impugns the integrity, leadership and honesty of 16 African presidents and ECOWAS. This is a fanciful and baseless allegation," he said.

There is a convergence in the American-led World Bank take on the AfDB, and attempts by the US to discredit its popular chief executive.

It is ironic that a man whose boss (Trump) appointed his daughter and son-in-law to prominent roles in the White House, is hiding behind "favouritism" and other unsubstantiated allegations to halt Adesina's already endorsed re-election.

This is following a recent trend of US attempts to attack institutions that refuse to bend to its will. A recent example is its tiff (and subsequent withdrawal of funding) with the World Health Organisation over the handling of the coronavirus pandemic, as well as previous uncomplimentary remarks by its president about African countries.

The US' recent foreign policy is a manifestation of its president's "America First" mantra. The US has been especially unfriendly to Nigeria in recent times. A few months ago in February, President Trump issued a presidential proclamation banning Nigerians from migrating to the US.

Meanwhile, in its barefaced challenge of African interests in the AfDB, the US has reportedly garnered support from the Scandinavian bloc, with all of Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden backing it in seeking an independent investigation of Adesina.

France will most likely lend support, and one can expect the UK to align with its traditional ally.

With an increasingly unapologetic insular disposition in recent times, any attempt by the US to paint interventions in the AfDB as altruistic is futile. This call for another investigation reeks of a blatant attempt to discredit the AfDB. This should be seen for what it is and rebuffed, not just from Nigeria but across the continent, and by friendly non-regional members.

Re-alignment

Regarding the AfDB, Nigeria needs to assert its leadership role, mount a diplomatic offensive and recognise those who align with its interests within the region. Among non-regional members, China is already undergoing numerous infrastructural projects on the continent, while Japan is desirous of doing business.

If the US doesn't find it comfortable to abide by the conventions setting up the bank, it may follow the same route taken in its dispute with the WHO and withdraw its funding from the AfDB.

The coronavirus pandemic has brought about discussions of a reset by African countries. This includes the way the continent brands itself, the way it is perceived, who it does business with and on what terms. The battle over control of the AfDB is an opportunity for Africa to affirm its independence
President Trump told reporters on Saturday evening he would postpone the G7 summit in Washington, D.C., to September and expand the meeting to more nations that are not members of the Group of 7.

Details: Trump said he would invite Russia, South Korea, Australia and India to the summit, according to a pool report. "I dont feel that as a G7 it properly represents whats going on in the world. Its a very outdated group of countries," he said.

Pentagon spokesperson Alyssa Farah said the move would bring together traditional U.S. allies to discuss how to deal with the future of China, per the pool report.

The big picture: The G7 meeting had been scheduled to be held in June.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced earlier on Saturday that she wouldn't attend the in-person summit because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Editor's note: This article has been updated with new details throughout.
Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula has published new regulations related to alert level 3 of the national lockdown which allow domestic flights for business travel.

According to the regulations, domestic passenger air travel is not permitted for recreational, leisure, or tourism purposes.

There are also strict rules which must be adhered to by both passengers, airports, and airlines.

No catering will be allowed during flights, no onboard magazines will be provided, and the last row of the aircraft will be reserved for isolation of suspected cases.

All the airports will have markings on the floor for social distancing of 1.5 metres. This will be applicable at check-in counters, security checkpoints, and airport lounges.

All airline check-in agents will wear face shields and people will be encouraged to use self-check-in to avoid queues.

At boarding gates, boarding will be staggered and prioritized in terms of the number of passengers to board.

To further encourage social distancing, only passengers are allowed inside airport terminal buildings  which means no family and friends can accompany travellers inside airports.

In a surprise move Mbalula announced that aircraft will be permitted to operate at full capacity, despite previous discussions about creating more space between passengers.

He said it was not necessary to create additional space between passengers because of the High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filters used in aircraft.

According to Mbalula, these filters are highly effective at removing a virus from the air, which safeguards passengers against the coronavirus.

Three phases

There are restrictions, however, on the number of daily flights  and the airline industry will be opened in three phases.

Phase 1 will allow flights from OR Tambo, Cape Town, King Shaka, and Lanseria international airports.

will allow flights from OR Tambo, Cape Town, King Shaka, and Lanseria international airports. Phase 2 will allow flights from Kruger Mpumalanga, Polokwane, and Bram Fischer international airports.

will allow flights from Kruger Mpumalanga, Polokwane, and Bram Fischer international airports. Phase 3 will allow flights from Kimberley Airport, Upington Airport, East London Airport, Umtata Airport, and Port Elizabeth Airport.

Mbalula said the initial period will serve as a trial to test the systems and measures to determine if they are holding up.

We will further engage with the industry stakeholders on the contributions that are necessary for port health capacity in the operations of phases 2 and 3 of the rollout, he said.

The big problem  few flights available

While opening domestic air travel was welcomed, it does not mean that you can get a flight  as there are currently very few flights and seats available.

This is partly a result of two of the most popular domestic airlines  Kulula and FlySafair  not planning to operate yet.

Kulula owner Comair has entered into voluntary business rescue and only expects to resume flights around 1 November 2020.

FlySafair, which is in a much better financial position because of its substantial cash reserves, remains unsure as to when it will take to the skies again.

FlySafair CEO Elmar Conradie said it can be more costly for them to start operating again under restrained conditions than keeping their planes grounded.

He said the current restrictions on who can fly dampen the demand to travel, which means they may have to fly with empty planes.

Without enough capacity it is not possible to cover the cost of a flight, which means FlySafair will lose money on flights.

Conradie said they need to fill a plane to at least 85% to start to make money, which is unlikely with the current restrictions.

Without some kind of support from the government, we dont know how it can be feasible to just fly for business people, he said.

His views are echoed by SA Flyer Magazine editor Guy Leitch, who said airlines are unlikely to start operating in this restrained environment.

Even with fewer flights per day, aircraft will not reach the capacity levels needed to operate profitably.

Leitch added that companies have also changed the way they operate by adopting video conferencing and webinars over face-to-face meetings.

There is also uncertainty on whether South African Airways (SAA) will open up domestic flights again soon.

On 26 May the airline said it plans to restart domestic flights between Johannesburg and Cape Town with effect from mid-June 2020.

A day later, however, SAAs business rescue practitioners said the airlines announcement that it plans to resume domestic flights was unvetted.

There is a lot of uncertainty for local airlines around domestic air travel, and it shows in the online flight booking platforms.

The screenshots below show what local travellers are greeted with when trying to book a flight from Johannesburg to Cape Town.

FlySafair

Mango

Kulula

SAA

Now read: Here are the new level 3 lockdown rules
Army says it launched raids and air attacks in Bir al-Abed, Rafah and Sheikh Zuweid, targeting terrorist hideouts.

The Egyptian military says it has killed at least 19 fighters during security operations in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula, which also resulted in five casualties among troops

The army said in an online video statement late on Saturday that the fighters were killed in raids and attacks that took place last week in the towns of Bir al-Abed, Rafah and Sheikh Zuweid.

The statement said the army had killed three extremely dangerous fighters as well as 16 others in precision air attacks on their terrorist hideouts.

Troops also recovered troves of automatic rifles, hand grenades and rocket-propelled grenades, according to the army.

Two officers, a noncommissioned officer and two soldiers were killed and wounded in the operations, the statement said.

Other officials, however, told The Associated Press news agency that two officers, including a colonel and a lieutenant, and three conscript soldiers were killed when an explosive device hit their vehicle on Saturday while taking part in a campaign in central Sinai.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to brief the media.

Other details about the incident could not be independently corroborated as Egyptian authorities heavily restrict access to that part of Sinai.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

Sinai unrest

Security forces have been confronting a long unrest in the Sinai led by a local affiliate of the ISIL (ISIS) armed group.

The fighting intensified after the militarys 2013 overthrow of President Mohamed Morsi, who was replaced by General-turned-President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

In February 2018, authorities launched a nationwide operation, focused on North Sinai.

About 970 suspected fighters have been killed in the region along with dozens of security personnel, according to official figures.
Linda Tirado, a freelance photographer, activist and author, was shot in the left eye Friday while covering the street protests in Minneapolis.

Ms. Tirado is one of a number of journalists around the country who were attacked, arrested or otherwise harassed  sometimes by police and sometimes by protesters  during their coverage of the uprisings that have erupted nationwide after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

With trust in the news media lagging, journalists have found themselves targeted.

A television reporter in Louisville, Ky., was hit by a pepper ball on live television by an officer who appeared to be aiming at her, causing her to exclaim on the air: Im getting shot! Im getting shot!

Outside the White House, protesters attacked a Fox News correspondent and his crew, taking the journalists microphone and striking him with it.
T he UK can now test more than 200,000 people for coronavirus per day, the Government has said.

A total of 205,634 tests were available on Sunday, meaning the Government met its daily coronavirus testing capacity target of 200,000 a day early.

But just over 115,000 tests were carried out in the 24 hours to 9am on Sunday.

Boris Johnson originally set a target of 200,000 tests to be carried out each day by the end of May. Officials said later that the target referred to capacity.

Samples are taken at a coronavirus testing facility in Temple Green Park and Ride, Leeds, as NHS Test and Trace - seen as key to easing the lockdown restrictions - is rolled out across England. / Danny Lawson/PA Wire/PA Images

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: Reaching our 200,000 capacity target is an important milestone on our journey to control the spread of the virus, save lives and gradually ease lockdown.

By rapidly expanding our testing capacity, we have been able to introduce NHS Test and Trace, and enabling those who have coronavirus symptoms to get a test is an important part of the programme.

I want to thank and pay tribute to the incredible team who joined together in one of the greatest national mobilisations that weve seen.

We brought together the best minds in the civil service, NHS, PHE, universities and the scientific community, the armed forces and private sector companies across the globe to reach this incredible achievement.

Testers wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) at a drive through coronavirus testing site in north London / PA

The news comes after the UK reintroduced its coronavirus contact tracing initiative on Thursday, after originally dropping the scheme on March 12.

And national testing coordinator Professor John Newton added: The expansion of our testing capacity has allowed us to take important steps to control the virus, including the introduction of a world-class contact tracing service that will help us to safely ease lockdown over time.

I am proud to say that anyone in the country who needs a test can get one, regardless of where in the country they are.

We will continue to develop and grow our testing capabilities, to learn more about transmission of the virus and how it has previously spread.
Now that the Santa Fe City Council has chosen a major Dallas company as master developer for the city-owned Midtown Campus, one of the unresolved issues concerns the hundreds of units of housing expected to built there.

City leaders have essentially promised that the campus site will be used to help meet Santa Fes critical need for affordable housing, a vague term that seems to cover a wide variety of shelter options, from government-subsidized units for the poor to houses that middle-class families can buy.

Theres talk of putting as many as 1,700 housing units on the old college campus, which would create a whole new neighborhood between St. Michaels Drive and Siringo Road.

Many advocates, including Councilor JoAnne Vigil Coppler and the social justice organization Chainbreaker Collective, argue that all the new housing should be in the affordable category.

But Mike Loftin, CEO of the Homewise organization that has successfully created affordable houses around town for years and helped people with financing to get them into the homes, and Mayor Alan Webber support a mix of units.

Loftin, whose nonprofit is part of the development team, is talking about as much as 40% of the new units being affordable housing; the mayor suggests a 50% goal, with 20% or 30% for low-income households and 20% for lower middle income.

If 50% of the new midtown residential development comes to 800-900 housing units  be they rental apartments, owner-occupied houses or condos  the addition of that many affordable homes would be quite an accomplishment for Santa Fe.

And mixing affordable homes with market-rate housing and even upscale residences would be a breakthrough.

For more than a decade, Santa Fe has tried to encourage a mix of affordable and market-rate homes by requiring builders to include a percentage of affordable units in new single-family home or apartment developments. This scheme has seldom worked, though, with developers typically choosing other options, like paying fees to the city in lieu of building affordable units, or just eschewing new housing construction altogether.

The Midtown Campus offers a chance to encourage residents of different income groups to desegregate and come together in a single Santa Fe neighborhood, which just seems like inherently good public policy.

Before the suburbs and gated communities, people from different income levels shared neighborhoods in many American cities.

Still, affordable housing in the midtown development has to be the first priority. The 50% mentioned by Mayor Webber should be the bare minimum portion of the campus residential units intended for low- or middle-class people.

While profits from market-rate or upscale housing might help with the financing of lower-income units, there likely will be economic pressure to reduce the affordable housing numbers as this project proceeds. This isnt free land  the city is carrying more than $2 million a year in debt service on the campus.

Its worth repeating here that Journal North is among those who opposed the secret way the city used to choose a developer. And, please, can City Hall leaders stop citing the state procurement code as the reason the developer selection process was kept secret? Under Webber, the city has chosen to follow the New Mexico state code as if it were some kind of widely proclaimed gold standard for procuring contractors. The state procurement code isnt a statute the city must follow. Santa Fe can have its own, more open procurement standards.

But mixing affordable and market-rate housing on the Midtown Campus is a good idea, however it was arrived at.
San Francisco, May 31 : Google has announced to help people who search for information about anxiety on its platform, with access to medically-validated information about anxiety, including symptoms and common treatments in Covid-19 times.

Starting with the US, Google has partnered the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) to provide access to mental health resources.

People who search about anxiety will see clinically-validated questionnaire called the GAD-7 (Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7).

The GAD-7 will show up in the knowledge panel - the box of information that displays key facts when you search for something.

Anxiety presents itself as a wide range of symptoms, and can be a result of biological factors or triggered by a change in environment or exposure to a stressful event.

"With Covid-19 introducing new points of stress, communities are seeing a rise in mental health issues and needs. New Census Bureau data released last week shows that a third of Americans are now showing signs of clinical anxiety or depression," Daniel H Gillison, Jr., CEO, NAMI, said in a statement.

This seven-question survey covers many of the same questions a health professional may ask.

The answers are private and secure and Google said it does not collect or share answers or results from the questionnaire.

"The GAD-7 helps people understand how their self-reported anxiety symptoms map to anxiety levels of people who completed the same questionnaire. The tool also provides access to resources developed by NAMI so people can learn more and seek help when needed," Gillison added.

Anxiety can show up as a wide range of physical and emotional symptoms, and it can take decades for people who first experience symptoms to get treatment.

"By providing access to authoritative information, and the resources and tools to learn more about anxiety, we hope to empower more people to take action and seek help," said Gillison.
The Union labour ministry will ask states not to change labour laws in ways that could violate Indias commitments to international covenants, and plans to hold a meeting of all state labour ministers, an official said, requesting anonymity.

The ministry is examining a set of radical changes made by Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat to their labour laws, including moves to freeze them altogether.

Ten central trade unions wrote to the Geneva-based International Labour Organisation (ILO), stating that changes in labour laws by these states violate workers rights and ILO convention No 144, to which India is a signatory. ILO convention 144 enjoins signatories to hold tripartite consultations among government, employers and workers.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled states had passed ordinances to give effect to various changes, some of which effectively suspend labour laws. None of the ordinances has received approval from President Ram Nath Kovid, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Madhya Pradesh sent its ordinance for the presidents approval on May 18. The UP government sent its ordinance soon after the states governor Anandiben Patel approved it on May 14. Gujarat too sent its own soon after the states governor Acharya Devvrat approved it.

Under the Constitution, labour falls under the concurrent list, which means the Union government and states have joint jurisdiction. Therefore, changes by state need to be ratified by at the federal level.

Freezing of labour laws can be done for three months, not three years. The main concern is violation of accepted universal norms. Industrial dispute resolution mechanisms, compensation etc are important considerations. Can you simply suspend all labour laws, the official cited above said.

Uttar Pradesh suspended key labour laws for three years on May 6 through an ordinance. Madhya Pradesh announced on May 7 it was taking a similar course to put all labour laws on hold, barring some provisions of the Factories Act, 1948, for the next 1,000 days.

This changes signalled the start of an experiment to remove rigidities in the countrys labour markets and stringent rules for hiring and firing, as global companies start shifting their supply chains away from China and reduce their dependencies on factories there. Five other states, including Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Assam and Odisha, have increased working hours to 12 hours a day for three months. Rajasthan too extended work hours but rescinded it, reverting to eight hours a day.

The moves have drawn criticism from labour experts, who say suspending the laws not just eased regulation but infringed on workers rights. The labour ministry is examining whether the changes impact conventions of the ILO.

The moves to simply suspend labour laws effectively brings the North American hire-and-fire model to the Indian hinterland economy. However, they will also lead to a basic violation of universal workers rights, said economist KR Shyam Sundar of the Xavier Labour Relations Institute, Jamshedpur.

The ILO has said it was deeply anguished by the moves to free labour laws in the states and issued an appeal to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on May 25. Please allow me to assure you that the ILO director general has immediately intervened, expressing his deep concern at these recent events and appealing to the prime minister to send a clear message to central and state governments to uphold the countrys international commitments and encourage engagement in effective social dialogue, said an ILO letter addressed to the trade unions.

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Tara Reid wants to win an Oscar.

The Sharknado actress has dreamed of winning an Academy Award since she was young and has even rehearsed acceptance speeches in her bathroom.

Asked her career ambitions, she said: 'I still want that Oscar. That's every actor's dream.

Golden girl: Tara Reid would love to win an Oscar, saying it's 'Every actor's dream'

'You have your speech all prepared and you practice it in the mirror with the toothpaste as your microphone.

'I would love a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame too - there's still time for that.'

Tara has moved into producing in recent years and admitted she did so as there weren't many acting roles that excited her.

Asked if she moved to producing to make the movies she wanted, she said: 'That's exactly why. There is so much material out there that isn't good or roles that aren't right.

Acting chops: 'You have your speech all prepared and you practice it in the mirror with the toothpaste as your microphone,' she dished. She's seen in Sharknado above

Star power: 'I would love a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame too - there's still time for that'

'I want to find great scripts, get the financing and create the films myself,' she said. 'It feels great to be on both sides.'

The 44-year-old star is best known for playing Vicky in the American Pie movie franchise and though she admitted the movies pushed the boundaries of humor, she insisted they were never offensive or harmful.

She said: 'So many actors were scared to make it at the time. They thought it went too far.

Her start: The 44-year-old star is best known for playing Vicky in the American Pie movie franchise and though she admitted the movies pushed the boundaries of humor, she insisted they were never offensive or harmful

'But it's ultimately a movie about awkward teens and it had so much heart in it,' she said.

'What I love about that movie is that there is no bullying or meanness. Lots of comedies these days are just mean.'

And Tara also confirmed there's another film in the series in the works.

She told OK! magazine: 'There have been talks about that for a while. I've seen the directors and they said it's going to happen, it's just hard to get everyone's schedules aligned.'
George Floyd died on 25 May in Minneapolis after a white police officer pressed a knee into his neck.

London: Nations around the world have watched in horror at the five days of civil unrest in the United States following the death of a black man being detained by police. But they have not been surprised.

Racism-tinged events no longer startle even Americas closest allies, though many have watched coverage of the often-violent protests with growing unease. Burning cars and riot police in the U.S. featured on newspaper front pages around the globe Sunday  bumping news of the COVID-19 pandemic to second-tier status in some places.

George Floyd died on 25 May in Minneapolis after a white police officer pressed a knee into his neck. It was the latest in a series of deaths of black men and women at the hands of police in America.

Thousands gathered in central London on Sunday to offer support for American demonstrators. Chanting "No justice! No peace!" and waving placards with the words How many more? at Trafalgar Square, the protesters ignored UK government rules banning crowds because of the pandemic. Police didn't stop them.

Demonstrators then marched to the U.S. Embassy, where a long line of officers surrounded the building. Several hundred sat in the street and waved placards.

The U.S. Embassy in Berlin was the scene of protests on Saturday evening under the motto: Justice for George Floyd. Police said the gathering, organized through social media, was larger than expected but reported no arrests.

Germanys top-selling Bild newspaper on Sunday carried the sensational headline This killer-cop set America ablaze with an arrow pointing to a photo of now-fired police officer Derek Chauvin, who has been charged with third-degree murder in Floyds death, with his knee on Floyds neck. The newspapers story reported scenes like out of a civil war."

In Italy, the Corriere della Sera newspaper's senior U.S. correspondent Massimo Gaggi wrote that the reaction to Floyds killing was different than previous cases of black Americans killed by police and the ensuring violence.

There are exasperated black movements that no longer preach nonviolent resistance, Gaggi wrote, noting the Minnesota governors warning that anarchist and white supremacy groups are trying to fuel the chaos.''

In countries with authoritarian governments, state-controlled media have been highlighting the chaos and violence of the U.S. demonstrations, in part to undermine American officials criticism of their own nations.

In China, the protests are being viewed through the prism of U.S. government criticism of China's crackdown on anti-government protests in Hong Kong.

Hu Xijin, the editor of the state-owned Global Times newspaper, tweeted that U.S. officials can now see protests out their own windows: I want to ask Speaker Pelosi and Secretary Pompeo: Should Beijing support protests in the U.S., like you glorified rioters in Hong Kong?

Hua Chunying, a Chinese Foreign ministry spokeswoman, pointed out America's racial unrest by tweeting I can't breathe, which Floyd said before his death.

In Iran, which has violently put down nationwide demonstrations by killing hundreds, arresting thousands and disrupting internet access to the outside world, state television has repeatedly aired images of the U.S. unrest. One TV anchor discussed a horrible scene from New York, where police attacked protesters. Another state TV message accused U.S. police agencies in Washington of setting fire to cars and attacking protesters, without offering any evidence.

Russia also expressed a lack of shock.

This incident is far from the first in a series of lawless conduct and unjustified violence from U.S. law enforcement, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. American police commit such high-profile crimes all too often.

There also have been expressions of solidarity with the demonstrators.

Over the weekend, Lebanese anti-government protesters flooded social media with tweets sympathetic to U.S. protesters, using the hashtag #Americarevolts. That's a play on the slogan for Lebanons protest movement  Lebanon revolts  which erupted on Oct. 17 last year. Within 24 hours, the hashtag #Americanrevolts became the No. 1 trending tag in Lebanon.

In another expression of solidarity with American protesters, about 150 people marched through central Jerusalem on Saturday to protest the shooting death by Israeli police of an unarmed, autistic Palestinian man earlier in the day. Israeli police mistakenly suspected that the man, Iyad Halak, was carrying a weapon. When he failed to obey orders to stop, officers opened fire.
Wearing facemasks in public places has become mandatory in Egypt, with violators facing severe fines that reach up to EGP 4,000

Egypt aims to manufacture 30 million fabric facemasks monthly to meet the domestic market need amid the COVID-19 outbreak, Minister of Trade and Industry Niveen Gamee said on Sunday.

Gamee made her comments during a meeting held on Sunday with ready garments and textile industry representatives to discuss procuring the states needs for fabric facemasks depending on the current capacities of operating plants and the reopening of stalled factories.

Minister Gamee said that the ready garments and textile sector is committed to providing facemasks in accordance with the quality standards set by the health ministry and to offer them for reasonable prices, especially with the imminent implementation of the COVID-19 pandemic co-existence plan as of mid-June.

She added that the fabric facemask production process is going to commence over the coming few days with the production of 8 million fabric facemasks in the first phase, which will be delivered to the Unified Pricing, Medical Supply and Logistics Authority tasked with providing the masks to all state bodies.

Egypts industry sector has a significant opportunity to be a core center for fabric facemask manufacturing especially with the increasing global demand for these kinds of facemasks. Egypt has production input which leaves room for increasing production to meet the domestic market needs and then exporting the excess quantities to the external markets, according to Gamee.

She added that 12,700 small ready garments and textile plants have received funds from the Micro, Small, and Medium-sized Enterprises Development Authority (MSMEDA) since 2015, and that these plants will be linked to the larger factories.

For their part, ready garments and textile plant representatives stressed that the sector has significant production capacities, and that the fabric facemask production is a breakthrough for these plants, especially with the global recession that hit the world due to the COVID-19 crisis.

Starting last Saturday, wearing facemasks in public places has become mandatory in Egypt, with violators facing severe fines that reach up to EGP 4,000, according to the Prime Minister Mostafa Madboulys decree issued on 19 May.

Wearing facemasks has become mandatory for workers or visitors at markets, shops, malls, banks, governmental and private institutions until further notice.

On 9 April, Chinas Ambassador to Egypt Liao Liqiang inaugurated a new plant for manufacturing medical facemasks established in the free industrial zone in Cairo.

The plant was established with joint Egyptian-Chinese investment. It will have a total production capacity of 1.7 million masks per day, which is expected to boost Egypts production of medical facemasks eightfold.

Liqiang said the plant is a reflection of the profound relations between Egypt and China, adding that China is supporting Egypts efforts to contain the COVID-19 outbreak crisis.

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For the second consecutive day, demonstrators closed Connecticut highways.

For about an hour Sunday, Interstate 84 was closed in both directions between Exits 22 and 23 in Waterbury.

The highway was closed about 11:50 a.m. for police activity, according to the state Department of Transportion.

And in New Haven at around 1 p.m., Route 34 in both directions was closed between Exit 1 and I-95/I-91 merge because of protesters on road.

About 45 minutes later, I-95 was closed between Exits 47 and 48 because of demonstrators on the highway. DOT reported that the road was cleared at 3:36 p.m.

In Norwalk, just before 2 p.m., demonstrators closed northbound I-95 between Exits 13 and 14 as they walked to the Norwalk Police headquarters in South Norwalk.

The DOT reported that the road was reopened at 2:10 p.m.

Embed 4173357Z-1590948482296 Embed

In New Haven:

After a demonstration on the New Haven Green, protesters walked to highway and blocked traffic.

In Waterbury, social media posts showed protesters walking on the highway, some were seen on standing on cars and trucks.

Just before 1 p.m., DOT reports I-84 lanes were open, but there were heavy delays and a three-vehicle accident.

Westbound delays extended nearly two miles between Exits 22 and 20.

The eastbound accident closed the left lane between Exits 20 and 21.

Earlier Sunday there was a demonstration at Waterbury City Hall and at nearby green.

The protests in Waterbury, New Haven and Bridgeport followed the death of George Floyd on Monday after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for for more than eight minutes while he was handcuffed, face down and saying he could not breathe.

In Bridgeport Saturday, Route 8 was closed for about three hours after 150 demonstrators blocked traffic in both directions.

Troopers said two Bridgeport women were arrested in the Route 8 protest. Alia Cotton, 22, and Tioni Michelle Martinez, 21, were arrested on charges of being a negligent pedestrian, interfering with and an officer and breach of peace. Both were released after posting a $1,000 bond.
On Friday, John Ratcliffe, the Director of the United States' National Intelligence, recently revealed declassified records of intercepted calls involving former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former Russian Ambassador, Sergey Kislyak in disclosure of intelligence materials.

Russian Scandal

The data reveals detailed call summaries dating back to December 2016 and in the weeks before US President Donald Trump took office, have given the most significant evidence that suggests Flynn did in fact explicitly talked about sanctions with Kislyak even though he told both the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Vice President Mike Pence that he did not.

One particular call from December 29, 2016, which happened after the Obama administration handed out sanctions to Russia and ejected its diplomats for intervening with US elections, reveals Flynn talking about said sanctions, as reported by Yahoo News.

The summaries reveal Flynn saying "Let's keep this at even-keeled level; then when we come in, we will have a better conversation where we are going to go regarding our relationship."

Two days later during a follow-up call, Kislyak told Flynn that Russia's reply of not escalating against the United States was a result of their previous conversation.

According to CNN, before his departure this week, Richard Grenell, former acting Director of National Intelligence, declassified the documents. Ratcliffe then sent the documents to Congress on Friday which Senate Republicans quickly made public.

The documents centre around the controversy of Flynn's conversations with Kislyak regarding Flynn's guilty plea about his untruthful testaments to the FBI.

Also Read: US-China Tensions Rise: World Leaders Urge Cooperation to Fight the Coronavirus Pandemic

Former special counsel Robert Mueller and his team procured the messages in 2017. Attorney General William Barr made a motion to dismiss the case early this month.

The calls are crucial to answering the questions about Flynn's attempt at covering up his conversations with Kislyak where they discussed sanctions on Israel and Russia that the United Nations voted on before Trump's presidency.

Accusations

The current president of the United States, Donald Trump, along with his allies, have accused the Obama government of attempting to sabotage them by focusing on Flynn and several of Trump's campaign team members.

Iowa Republican Senator Chuck Grassley said that Flynn and his legal team, as well as the American nation, can now clearly see that Flynn and all allegations against him were debunked and that the FBI knew there was nothing improper about his call, in a bid by Trump's administration that Flynn is innocent.

Kerri Kupec, the spokeswoman for the Department of Justice (DOJ), said that they have the authority to drop the case against Flynn at any time they wish to do so. "We have the prosecutorial discretion to make that decision," she added.

According to Fox News, Grenell completed the declassification of other documents regarding the origins of the Russia probe which includes one that a senior intelligence official said was crucial in learning how some parties manipulated intelligence to reflect support in the launch of the investigation on Russia.

The document has not been transmitted to Capitol Hill yet, and it is still unknown if Ratcliffe will share the information with other lawmakers.

Related Article: Trump Says US Will Move to Support Hongkong: Withdraws From WHO

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Eamonn Holmes is "concerned" about getting on a plane again and heading home to his beloved Northern Ireland.

The 60-year-old, who is based in London, often flies back and forth to see his family and friends but has been grounded as a result of coronavirus.

The This Morning presenter told The Lockdown podcast with PHIL REYNOLDS: "Travelling on an airplane is a concern. Everyone breathing in the same recycled air. But look, Belfast and Northern Ireland is what makes me 'me' and I've still got kids there and I've still got family there and all my brothers are there. Everybody I know.

"I'm the only emigrant. I'm the only one who has gone away. The essence of who I am is there. I still have a home there and therefore that's where I would choose to be or want to be. I will just have to find a way of getting there and getting around that and getting back to what was my normality ASAP."

Eamonn is also desperate to get back to see his beloved mum, Josephine.

He explained that it's up to her when they will be together: "Well, she has to be paramount but my mum is 92 and she's very stoic from the point of view, it's 'What are you saving her from?' It will depend on her wishes and you don't want to endanger her in any way but at the same time I don't want the next time I come in contact with my mother to be at her funeral. I wouldn't want that. You can socially distance and whatever."

As well as family and friends, Eamonn, who is married to Ruth Langsford, admits the other things he misses most about home are the coastline and of course our amazing Tayto crisps.

Reflecting on his favourite spots, he said: "I like the Glens and the Antrim coast. We've always been Antrim coast people. You will always find us in Cushendall and in Ballycastle ... just to see water, it's so therapeutic to drive the coast through Glenarm and breathe in the smell of the salt and dulse. It's simple but it's us.

"It's not uber-sophisticated but to be with friends and family, the extended family circle we have. I talk about my cousins and people in England look at me (like), 'Why would you know your cousins?' We all still know them. It's a different thing.

"I'd like a six-pack of Tayto cheese and onion preferably but I am partial to smoky bacon as well. My son loves prawn cocktails. Rather than a tin of Guinness I'd rather have a Club Orange. There is no orange fizzy drink in the world like Club Orange. You get real bits of orange in it. Nectar of the gods."
In recent months, journalists across the country have proved their worth daily with crucial reporting on the effects of the novel coronavirus on communities. They have done so relentlessly, even as many of their news organizations have been devastated by the economic downturn, and even as many of them have been laid off or furloughed.
New Delhi, May 31 : Weeks after warning all the hospitals here of strict action on delay in reporting coronavirus fatalities, the Delhi government has served a show cause notice to AIIMS, Lok Nayak, RML and Safdarjung Hospitals to explain the reasons for delay in reporting the deaths.

The Delhi Health Department on Sunday said memorandums have also been issued to Baba Saheb Ambedkar Hospital, Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital and Rajiv Gandhi Super Specialty Hospital to explain the reasons for delay in reporting death cases.

"Show cause notices have been issued to AIIMS Hospital, Lok Nayak Hospital, RML Hospital, and Safdarjung Hospital to explain the reasons for delay in reporting death cases in violation of the directions issued by the Health Department of Delhi as well as by DDMA under the Disaster Management Act," the Health Department said.

Also, it said, an advisory have been issued to Lok Nayak Hospital to "be careful in future and follow the orders and guidelines issued by the department in true letter and spirit" so that there is no anomaly in the deaths being reported by the government.

While Lok Nayak Hospital is a Delhi government hospital, Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) Hospital, All India Institute Of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and Safdarjung Hospital are under the Central government.

On May 10, accepting that public and private hospitals in the city were not reporting the Covid-19 deaths in a timely and regular manner, the Delhi government, after much criticism from the opposition, warned all the hospitals of strict action on delay in reporting of coronavirus deaths and ask the healthcare facilities to submit the death report, even nil, by 5 p.m. daily.

Along with the order, Delhi Chief Secretary Vijay Dev on May 10, also issued the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) as per which every Covid hospital and health facility will have to report all death cases of Covid-19 positive patients by email to the District Surveillance Unit and also to the State Surveillance unit of IDSP Cell of Delhi Government by 5 p.m. every day.

The order warned that non-compliance will be viewed seriously and strict action as per the relevant provisions of the Disaster Management Act, 2005 as well as other relevant laws will be taken against the defaulters without any further notice.

While Delhi has reported only 73 deaths till May 10, the Covid toll on Sunday has reached 473 -- after hospitals started reporting the pending deaths. The Health report said that the cumulative death figures refer to fatalities where the primary cause of death was found to be the infection, as per the report of the Death Audit Committee on the basis of case sheets received from various hospitals.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
India on Sunday expelled two officials of the Pakistan high commission after they were apprehended by law enforcement authorities on charges of engaging in espionage, the external affairs ministry said.

Officials of the special cell of Delhi Police, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said three officials of the Pakistani mission were detained at Bikanervala Chowk in Karol Bagh at 10.45am on Sunday while allegedly trying to obtain classified materials on the Indian security establishment.

The three men  identified as Abid Hussain Abid, 42, an assistant in the Pakistani mission, Mohammad Tahir Khan, 44, a clerk, and Javed Hussain, 36, a driver  had been under surveillance for the past few months, the officials said.

They were caught red-handed while obtaining documents on the Indian security establishment from an Indian national and handing over cash and an iPhone to him, said one of the officials cited above.

The three men initially claimed they were Indians and even produced fake Aadhaar cards, the officials said. Later, during interrogation, they confessed they were officials at the Pakistan high commission and worked for the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), a second official said.

A case was registered against them under the Official Secrets Act, the officials said. The detentions were the result of an operation jointly mounted by Delhi Police and Military Intelligence, they added.

Subsequently, the government ordered the expulsion of Abid and Khan, who both work for the visa section at the Pakistani mission. Abid had been posted in the mission since December 2018, while Khan was posted here in October 2015.

A statement issued by the external affairs ministry, without naming the detained men, said: Two officials of the high commission of Pakistan in New Delhi were apprehended today [Sunday] by Indian law enforcement authorities for indulging in espionage activities.

The government declared both these officials persona non grata for indulging in activities incompatible with their status as members of a diplomatic mission and asked them to leave the country within twenty-four hours, the statement said.

Pakistans charge daffaires was issued a demarche or formal diplomatic representation, in which a strong protest was lodged about the activities of these officials of the high commission of Pakistan against Indias national security.

The charge daffaires was asked to ensure that no member of its diplomatic mission should indulge in activities inimical to India or behave in a manner incompatible with their diplomatic status, the statement said.

There was no response from the spokesperson of the Pakistani mission despite attempts to reach him on phone.

The development comes at a time when ties between India and Pakistan are at an all-time low. In 2016, India had expelled an official of the Pakistani mission after he too was nabbed by Indian security agencies while receiving classified documents.
SCHAGHTICOKE  In the past year and a half, Mary Beth Delarms visits to her elderly mother have grown increasingly distressing.

Her then 90-year-old mother was a resident of Diamond Hill Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Schaghticoke, a facility whose persistently poor record of resident care made it a candidate last year for inclusion on a federal watch list.

Whenever Delarm would show up, she said, shed find her mother in a state of neglect  her body and clothes dirty and unwashed, a soiled diaper unchanged. Sometimes there would be feces smeared around the room, Delarm said. Sometimes her mother had unexplained bruises.

Then there were the gradual yet alarming changes in her mother's condition  a 50-pound weight loss in under a year, and teeth falling out from what Delarm suspected was lack of regular dental care.

She began to document her visits with photos and notes: Constantly found wet. Yet staff said they were too busy to change her. This was a regular response, she wrote about one photo.

Provided

That was staffs response to most complaints, Delarm alleges. She brought her concerns to administration and eventually began reporting them to the state. But in her view, nothing changed. And without guardianship rights, she couldnt move her mother to another facility.

Now that coronavirus has made its way into Diamond Hill and prevented Delarm from visiting, shes even more concerned. In fact, she doesnt even know if her mother is dead or alive. She doesnt have a direct line to her mothers room, and no one from the facility has called her back.

Diamond Hill CEO Ari Grinspan did not respond to a request for comment. Clara Tryon, administrator at the home, said she wasn't able to comment and hung up before the Times Union could ask any more questions.

These places have to be held accountable, Delarm said. I dont want to hear, Oh, were so short-staffed or Were so busy. Its a profiteering game to them.

While much attention has been paid in recent weeks to a state directive that may have helped fuel the coronavirus crisis in New Yorks nursing homes, advocates contend that longstanding issues at these facilities similar to those alleged by Delarm played a role as well.

Obviously nursing home residents are a demographic that is particularly vulnerable to COVID-19, said Richard Mollot, executive director of the Long Term Care Community Coalition, a nonprofit that advocates for safer nursing homes. But the lack of sufficient staff in nursing homes on a regular basis, the lack of providing basic infection control and prevention, and other failures in care that have persisted in our nursing homes for years undoubtedly exacerbated the situation.

A Times Union review of 10 nursing homes in the Capital Region with the largest or deadliest known coronavirus outbreaks found many have struggled to maintain adequate staffing and were cited for infection control violations over the years.

All 10 homes had staffing levels below the minimum recommended level for direct care in the months leading up to the crisis, according to a non-profit advocacy group's analysis of payroll data submitted to federal regulators. And seven of the 10 were cited for at least one infection-control violation during annual inspections in the past three years.

Nursing home leaders interviewed for this story disputed any suggestion that short staffing or poor infection control was a factor in the scale of their outbreaks. They said there was little they could do to keep out a virus that spreads among asymptomatic people, and some said the controversial state policy requiring nursing homes to admit COVID-19 patients from hospitals is just one example of how Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's administration left nursing homes to fend for themselves in the early days of the pandemic.

Was that the best policy? Hindsight is always 20/20. We can always second-guess a decision that someone has made, said Bruce Gendron, vice president of the Grand Healthcare System, which has two facilities with large outbreaks in the Capital Region. There is no villain in this scenario except for the coronavirus.

Lori Van Buren/Times Union

Short-staffed

While mistakes are inevitable in any industry, evidence shows that staffing shortages  especially chronic ones  make them far more likely.

Staff with too many residents to care for are simply less likely to have time for basic infection control and prevention practices, Mollot said. That includes things as fundamental as hand-washing or sterilizing equipment before administering care.

If you read any of the (inspection) citations, they dont explicitly say its because (the facilities) are short-staffed, Mollot said. But theyll say things like, Aide said she didnt have time. That, to me, is emblematic of a staffing issue.

In the months leading up to the pandemic, most New York nursing homes failed to maintain staffing levels that experts have determined are sufficient for meeting residents needs, according to an analysis by Mollots organization of payroll data submitted to the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

In the final three months of 2019, New York nursing homes averaged 3.4 direct care hours per resident day (HPRD) and 0.46 registered nurse hours per resident day, according to the analysis. Minimum recommended levels are 4.1 HPRD for direct care staff and 0.75 HPRD for RN staff.

My biggest concern in February, back when all this was starting, was that the lack of staffing would make residents that much more vulnerable, Mollot said.

In the Capital Region, nursing homes with the largest or deadliest known outbreaks of coronavirus all fell short on recommended staffing levels.

Diamond Hill, where Delarms mother lived, averaged 2.6 HPRD among direct care staff and 0.3 HPRD among RN staff in the final quarter of 2019. The facility has had 80 confirmed cases of coronavirus among residents and staff, and 16 virus-related deaths.

The nine other facilities reviewed by the Times Union also fell short. They include Shaker Place in Colonie, Hudson Park in Albany, Our Lady of Mercy Life Center in Guilderland, Teresian House in Albany, The Grand in Guilderland, Pine Haven in Philmont, The Grand at Barnwell in Valatie, Glens Falls Center in Queensbury, and Fort Hudson Nursing Center in Fort Edward.

Teresian House  where over 120 cases and 17 deaths from the virus have occurred  was the only facility to exceed the recommended direct care staffing levels at 4.2 HPRD. It fell short on recommended RN staffing, though, with 0.5 HPRD.

A spokesman for the facility, Paul Larrabee, said its staffing was adequate at the time of the outbreak.

Paul Buckowski/Times Union

Larry Slatky, executive director of Albany County-owned Shaker Place, wrote to the Times Union that at the time the facility learned of its very first COVID case, staffing levels met the facility's resident care requirements based on case mix.

"While we understand the commonly used minimum staffing guidelines, it is impossible to compare one nursing home to another since each nursing home has a unique case mix," Slatky wrote.

Other nursing homes affiliated with larger parent organizations, including Our Lady of Mercy Life Center and Glens Falls Center, said they were able to draw on staff from other facilities in their network as their staffing needs increased during the outbreak. But federal health officials who reviewed virus spread in other parts of the country have said this practice may have actually contributed to virus spread among multiple facilities.

Gendron, who spoke on behalf of the Grands Guilderland and Barnwell facilities, said staffing is a challenge across the industry, especially upstate.

Put simply, demand exceeds supply, he said.

Advocates point out that retention is the real issue. Staff are underpaid and overworked, resulting in high turnover and constant training of new staff.

New York lawmakers have pushed over the years for changes to state legislation that would require nursing homes and hospitals to implement minimum staffing ratios, but none have come to fruition. A state study on the topic is five months overdue.

Infection control

As coronavirus was bearing down on parts of the U.S., CMS announced in March it would conduct focused infection-control surveys at nursing homes to ensure they were prepared for a possible virus outbreak.

An initial wave of surveys during the week of March 30 found that 36 percent of facilities were not following proper hand-washing guidelines and 25 percent failed to demonstrate proper use of personal protective equipment (PPE)  which has been in use at nursing homes for decades.

Facility-specific results from those surveys have yet to be published. But inspection results dating back to 2017 show that seven of the 10 facilities the Times Union reviewed for this story were cited at least once for infection-control violations.

The Grand Rehabilitation and Nursing at Barnwell, a facility in Valatie with over 160 cases of COVID-19 and 14 virus-related deaths, was cited three times  once in 2017 and twice in 2018.

Paul Buckowski/Times Union

State health inspectors cited the home in October 2018, when flu season was getting underway, for failing to maintain contact precautions on residents who had been placed in isolation. Such precautions require the use of PPE when entering a patients room, which must be clearly marked to indicate protections are needed.

A nurse at Barnwell who requested anonymity for fear of retaliation told the Times Union this month that staffing shortages are putting residents in harms way.

I work doubles, she said. You have aides that are working overtime. Youve got one aide for 40 people and then one nurse. Weve got to feed, pass trays, do meds, do treatments, answer bells. Its just impossible. It is bound to lead to poor infection control. There is no way around it.

Grand Healthcare System's Gendron said the virus strained staffing levels at Barnwell as workers fell sick. The company wound up closing two units and transferring those residents to other Grand facilities in an effort to make patient-staff ratios more manageable.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

He downplayed prior inspection-control citations by noting that over 60 percent of all nursing home facilities have been cited for such issues in the past three years.

Other area nursing homes downplayed them, too.

Jeffrey Jacomowitz, a spokesman for the Centers Health Care-owned Glens Falls Center, which has lost at least 19 residents to the coronavirus, wrote to the Times Union that the facilitys most recent citation in 2019 was for a wound care procedural hand-washing deficiency that resulted in no harm.

As leadership from Glens Falls Center and corporate take every deficiency seriously, this very minor citation led to a re-education of clinical and non-clinical staff on proper hand washing and disinfecting of various medical equipment and first aid materials, he said.

A spokesman for Pine Haven nursing home in Philmont, Columbia County, Geoff Thompson, wrote in a response to Times Union questions about the facilitys past infection control citations that in 2017 Pine Haven was cited for an incident involving a housekeeper that had no bearing on patient care, Thompson wrote. Also in 2019, Pine Haven received a state citation that related to human resources education for new hires concerning pneumonia vaccine. Thompson wrote it was unrelated to patient care.

When the crisis broke wide open in March, a lot was not known about COVID-19, Thompson wrote. We along with other healthcare providers are continuing to analyze the multiple factors that came into play.

Pine Haven, which saw 14 out of 36 residents die who contracted the disease, took in one COVID-19 positive patient. And while Thompson did not discuss if that action exacerbated Pine Havens outbreak, he wrote those with COVID need to be treated and remain in a hospital setting.

Advocates for safer nursing homes say states have long done a poor job of citing the extent to which problems occur inside nursing homes, as well as the extent to which they put residents in harms way.

A recent Kaiser Health News analysis found that 99 percent of all infection-control violations are cited as minor and not warranting fines, even though 1 million to 3 million serious infections occur inside long-term care facilities each year and 388,000 residents die annually as a result.

On their own?

More than 5,800 nursing home residents in New York have died from the coronavirus  a figure that is almost surely an undercount because it doesn't include residents who were transferred to hospitals before they died.

Some area nursing homes with large or particularly deadly coronavirus outbreaks said they did what they could to keep residents safe, but were hampered by factors outside their control and received little support from the state.

Our Lady of Mercy, where 14 out of 44 infected residents died, took in three COVID-19 positive patients. But the facility, which runs underneath the umbrella of St. Peters Health Partners, described those patients to the Times Union as in the recovery phase, and a spokesman did not have criticisms about any state policies made during the pandemic.

It started to spread before we even knew we had a single case in our building, wrote Our Lady spokesman Rob Puglisi. That was in March, before it was understood that people could test negative and carry the disease for several days with no symptoms, so we had no indications.

While a state directive requiring nursing homes to accept COVID-19 patients has received a lot of attention (more than 4,500 virus patients were admitted into nursing homes as a result of the directive, an Associated Press investigation found), some area nursing home leaders said they were more concerned that their pleas for help went ignored.

Larrabee, the spokesman for Teresian House, said the facility asked state and local health officials repeatedly for help testing its entire workforce and resident population. Those requests were rejected, he said.

The home eventually went out and got the tests itself, he said, and the entire facility was tested April 29. There have been no new cases discovered since then, he said.

Andy Cruikshank, CEO of the Fort Hudson Nursing Center in Fort Edward, which had 40 cases and 11 virus-related deaths, said it felt like the state abandoned nursing homes during the early stages of the pandemic. Cuomo was focused heavily on fighting for more ventilators and hospital beds, while nursing homes including Fort Hudson didnt even have tests for residents and staff.

Lori Van Buren/Times Union

After backlash for its handling of nursing homes, the state this month rescinded the controversial admittance policy and announced it would be requiring twice-a-week testing of nursing home staff. But Cruikshank contended that Cuomo's team offered no guidance on how facilities were to pay for such a massive undertaking.

With employees tested twice a week, the expectation was nursing homes would miraculously coordinate lab contracts (and) they would have to pay for it themselves, he said. (Cuomos) initial reaction was nursing homes ... are on their own.

At no time did the (state) commissioner of health ask, What do you need to make this better? Cruikshank added. The result is a discoordinated approach.

RELATED: Cuomo defends nursing home policies as long-term care deaths top 5,800

In a statement, the state Department of Health did not respond to the testing concerns raised by the facilities, but noted that it provided both Teresian House and Fort Hudson with thousands of pieces of PPE since the outbreaks, including gowns, face shields, gloves, hand sanitizer, oxygen concentrators and more.

"We've said from the start that protecting our most vulnerable populations including people in nursing homes and adult care facilities is our top priority," department spokeswoman Jill Montag said. "To do so we have issued (Centers for Disease Control)-supported guidance documents, led more than 650 COVID-19 focus infection control surveys and opened 3,000 complaints. Weve restricted visitors, ordered workers to be temperature checked every day, tested staff twice a week, provided 13 million pieces of PPE and taken other actions to protect this vulnerable population."

Lauren Stanforth contributed reporting for this story.
The promulgation of new security law for Hong Kong by China has resulted in a sharp increase in inquiries for immigration from the former British colony especially the citys residents who emigrated en masse there when it returned to the Chinese control in 1997.

Immigration consultants have fielded hundreds of new calls since Chinas legislature - the National Peoples Congress (NPC) - unveiled the controversial plan on May 21, bypassing the local legislature, Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported on Sunday.

The legislation was subsequently approved by the NPC, much on the expected lines with an overwhelming majority on May 28, prompting US President Donald Trump to order the removal of exemptions that gave Hong Kong special status.

Trump said on Saturday that Hong Kong has no longer sufficiently autonomous from China to enjoy the special privileges with the US, in place since it left the British control in 1997.

The new law under which China can establish the presence of its security forces in Hong Kong for the first-time evoked strong protests from thousands of local people. The protests were expected to be intensified in the coming weeks.

China says the new law is aimed at throttling secession, subversion, terrorism, foreign interference or activities that threaten national security.

With Hong Kong now becoming the centre of the emerging Cold War between the US and China, a number of local people especially the citys rich are looking to migrate to different countries.

Some are accelerating their decision to buy property overseas, while others are cutting their asking price for local properties, immigration consultancy firms in Hong Kong said.

"The day after that proposal, we received over a hundred calls, said Andrew Lo, chief executive at Anlex, a Hong Kong-based immigration consultancy firm. People are restless. They ask if they can leave the next day, he told the Post.

Requests for emigration advice have jumped as a result, breaking a lull caused by the coronavirus pandemic, according to Midland Immigration Consultancy.

While the latest number in applications for good citizenship is not yet available, analysts expect them to rise with political temperature, the report said.

"People who were just engaging us on basic information before are now firmly committing by putting down deposits, Gillott said, citing one customer who asked to move his millions and millions of dollars to Portugal. Never seen that before.

The political factor has encouraged some high-net-worth individuals  defined as those having more than HKD 10 million (USD 1.29 million) of wealth  to diversify their assets into other cities like London, Singapore and Taiwan.

Taiwan, which is having a stormy relationship with China as Beijing claims the territory to be part of the Chinese mainland, is an attractive destination for many seeking to flee the turmoil in Hong Kong. The self-ruling island allows foreigners to gain citizenship with USD 199,680 in investments in a business that hires local staff.

Almost 2,400 Hongkongers filed residency applications for Taiwan from January to April this year, compared to 948 last year in the same period, said Midlands director of strategy Tina Cheng, citing government data.

In all, 5,585 people left Hong Kong for Taiwan in 2019, an increase of 41 per cent, the government said.

Despite the interest in Taiwan, the top destinations remain English-speaking countries such as Ireland, Canada, and Australia.

A common language, quality educational systems, and professional opportunities are some reasons those countries are attractive, said John Hu, who has been involved in the migration consultancy business for two decades.

"Were seeing a four to fivefold increase in cases, said Hu, founder and principal consultant of John Hu Migration Consulting. Now they see the urgency. They ask the question, which type of visa has the shortest processing time?

Some homeowners are selling their properties to fund their emigration plans. One flat measuring 785 square feet at The Waterside in Ma On Shan this week changed hands at HKD 9.99 million, about HKD 150,000 below bank valuation, as the owner was in a rush to cash in and emigrate, said Christy Chan, chief senior sales manager at Midland Realty.

Vancouver-based property agent Devons Owens has seen a big demand from Hong Kong buyers, some of whom are Canadian passport holders.

Theres definitely increasing demand, she said. I would say its jumped compared to before.

For those looking to the European Union, Golden Visa Portugal offers a pipeline for passports from property investments. Starting at 350,000 euros, investors can obtain residency and eventually Portuguese citizenship in five years.
The roulette wheel of infection that determines which COVID-19 patients live and die has gripped the world in fear, but researchers are looking into another insidious danger  that the disease could be inflicting lasting, even permanent, damage on its victims.

Infectious disease specialists have learned that the health problems caused by the coronavirus sometimes linger for months, raising fears that the virus may have long-term consequences for peoples health.

Theres no doubt there has been anecdotal evidence of symptoms lingering for a while, but we dont know if its 1%, 5%, 20% or 50% of the cases, said Jeffrey Martin, a clinical epidemiologist and professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at UCSF. We need to find out how common that is. Its important that we separate the rare anecdotes from the true frequency.

Cases of chronic fatigue, heart problems, lung damage, blood clotting and neurological symptoms like dizziness and confusion have been documented in numerous patients long after the initial symptoms of COVID-19 have gone away.

The discovery of chronic symptoms could have a significant impact on human behavior as divisions erupt around the country over the speed with which businesses, parks, movie theaters and other gathering spots reopen. Boozy beach parties and concerts may not have the same lure for the young and healthy if the bacchanalia includes the prospect of prolonged disease and long-term disability.

It is what happened to Cliff Morrison, 68, of Oakland, who is still suffering from mood swings, headaches, blurry vision, aching joints and other strange symptoms nobody warned him about nearly two months after he first fell ill with COVID-19.

I still have shortness of breath and some of the cough and no energy or strength, said Morrison, a nurse and health care administrator, who contracted the disease through his work. My vision has improved but its still a little blurry. No one told me that it would go on as long as it has.

Morrison, who worked as an AIDS coordinator in the 1980s, is one of 50 patients infected by COVID-19 who are enrolled in a study that Dr. Martin and a team of researchers at UCSF and San Francisco General Hospital are conducting. The investigation, called the Long-term Impact of Infection with Novel Coronavirus, or Liinc, is to determine what symptoms linger and how long the health problems last.

The study subjects, all of whom have been fever-free and tested negative for at least three weeks, were chosen because they had a wide spectrum of symptoms, from mild to severe.

Morrison, who lives alone, said he was very sick, unable to get out of bed except to go to the bathroom for three weeks. Besides being short of breath and feverish, his symptoms included vision problems, confusion and memory problems  he said there is a 10-day stretch when he can barely remember anything.

Stephen Lam / Special to The Chronicle

He suffered from unusually intense mood swings, ranging from deep depression to extreme anger. At one point he developed a rash over the lower half of his body that turned into sores, like the chicken pox, lasting two weeks.

More Information Possible long-term COVID-19 effects Breathing issues, fatigue, lung damage, heart problems, blood clots, dizziness, confusion, memory loss, coughing, fever, headaches, loss of sense of smell, mood swings, blurry vision and aching joints. In a small percentage of children who had a coronavirus infection, a condition called pediatric multisystem inflammatory syndrome surfaces weeks after exposure to the virus, causing rashes, fevers and heart inflammation - and, in a few cases, death. See More Collapse

Martin said the plan is to interview, take blood and saliva samples, and chart lingering health problems in study subjects for up to two years. It is important, he said, because the disease has not been around long enough to determine whether the lingering symptoms represent an abnormally long recovery process or a long-term problem.

It appears from the early evidence that Morrisons case is not unusual. Many recovering coronavirus patients have reported residual problems months after the initial infection, far longer than the experts thought was possible. The World Health Organization says patients with mild cases of COVID-19 should expect a two-week recovery process while severe infections could last up to six weeks before they clear up.

The evidence of more chronic problems is preliminary, but it is mounting.

Studies in China have found that most COVID-19 patients  well over 70%  showed lesions or patches of irritation in the lungs known as ground glass opacities that could develop into permanent scars, or pulmonary fibrosis.

The SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes the illness is known to target ACE2 receptors, a protein on the surface of human cells that the spiky virus attaches to. Many of the receptors are in the heart muscle. Various studies indicate cardiovascular damage is common, with one study finding it in 12% of patients studied and another showing heart damage in 19% of the patients.

High rates of blood clots have been reported in China and France. Studies in the two countries found that between 5% and 30% of the hospitalized patients suffered strokes, blockages of arteries or pulmonary embolisms, which are obstructions in the lungs.

Tony-nominated Canadian actor Nick Cordero had his right leg amputated after numerous COVID-related blood clots. The Broadway actor has now been in the hospital for about two months, much of that time on a ventilator.

Others have suffered strokes and heart attacks after being declared disease free and discharged from hospitals. The clots, which are likely caused by immune system responses to the infection, can also cause long-term problems, including heart palpitations and severe shortness of breath.

The virus also appears to attack the central nervous system, causing delirium and hallucinations in about a third of the patients in intensive care units. Morrison never had to go to the hospital, but he nevertheless suffered cognitive issues, which have mostly cleared up.

But many of the long-term problems may be a direct result of the severity of the infection. For instance, most critical patients end up suffering from acute respiratory distress syndrome, or ARDS, which is characterized by fluid in the lungs. Previous studies have shown that as many as 20% of ARDS survivors experience long-term cognitive impairment, including concentration and memory lapses, epidemiologists say.

Timothy Henrich, an associate professor of medicine and Martins colleague at UCSF, said lingering problems can be expected in severe cases involving organ dysfunction, clotting and ARDS, but some people with mild cases of COVID-19 have also reported post-infection problems.

Its not clear whether this is only in the severe cases, said Henrich, an infectious disease clinician, virologist and immunologist. This may be happening in a more sub-acute fashion as well, but it needs to be studied.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

Recovering COVID-19 victims, including some of Martin and Henrichs colleagues, have reported feeling foggy and having trouble focusing on work. Others say their coughs, fevers and breathing issues have cycled on and off for a month after the initial symptoms.

People have reported coughing up blood, losing their sense of smell, migraine-like headaches and short-term memory loss long after being cleared by doctors to go back to their normal routines.

Matt Willis, Marin Countys public health officer, said he is still tired, weak, short of breath and has lingering circulation problems two months after his initial diagnosis.

I feel like my lungs have been traumatized by this, said Willis, who is not part of the UCSF study. Im still close enough to the illness that Im attributing some of these symptoms to post-viral inflammation.

But Henrich said some of these problems continue even after PCR, or polymerase chain reaction, tests no longer detect the virus, indicating an overzealous reaction by the human immune system.

We are seeing immune activation even after the PCR tests are negative, suggesting that the body has cleared the initial virus, but the immune response is ongoing for quite some time, he said. What we are interested in learning is: How long does this inflammation last, is there an ongoing immune activation?

Infectious disease specialists believe that many of the more severe symptoms, including ARDS, are being caused by overly robust immune responses to the infection.

The human immune response may also be responsible for an inflammatory reaction similar to Kawasaki disease that has recently been affecting children exposed to the coronavirus, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warning. Experts say the ailment, known as pediatric multisystem inflammatory syndrome, can cause rashes, fevers and heart inflammation more than a month after exposure to the virus.

Doctors at UCSFs Benioff Childrens Hospital have recently seen dozens of children with reddish-purple lesions on the feet and hands known as acral perniosis. The rashes all appeared weeks or months after exposure to adult relatives with flu-like symptoms, leading researchers to believe it is an after-the-fact inflammatory reaction to COVID-19.

Martin said the study at San Francisco General Hospital will test patients for antibodies and try to figure out what is going on with their immune responses. Researchers will also try to determine whether the 50 patients in the study have developed immunity and how long that immunity prevents them from being reinfected.

Morrison said the lingering fatigue, shortness of breath and blurred vision are concerns, but he is happy the phenomenon is being studied.

Were only four months into this pandemic, he said, and there is still so much that we dont know.

Peter Fimrite is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: pfimrite@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @pfimrite
Maharashtra government is expected to announce revised guidelines on lockdown relaxations and nature of the fifth phase of Covid-19 lockdown on Sunday. This comes a day after the Central government released guidelines on lockdown 5.0 which is being billed as Unlock 1. The phase will see a major cut in lockdown restrictions across the country, barring in Covid-19 containment zones. State governments have been allowed to come up with their respective guidelines on the same.

Maharashtra has registered a recovery rate of 43.09 percent, wherein 28,081 patients have recovered from coronavirus. There are 34,881 active positive cases of coronavirus in the state out of the total 65,168 positive cases.

Gradual and calibrated

According to the Maharashtra government, the opening up of the state will happen in a gradual and calibrated manner, even as the cases will go up. The state government is considering moving cautiously and relaxations would be given on the degree of contact and essential nature of the service.

Also Watch | Lockdown 5 or Reopen 1? E-passes, curfew, malls, bars: New rules explained

Covid-19 hotspot areas such as Mumbai, Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) and Pune are likely to remain under lockdown even as the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Saturday issued guidelines for the phased reopening of activities outside containment zones.

Also read: Tamil Nadu extends lockdown till June 30. Heres what you can and cant do now

What to expect

Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has already indicated that he is not keen to lift curbs in Mumbai, Pune and MMR. On Saturday, NCP chief Sharad Pawar and Thackeray also had a meeting discussing further on opening up of the lockdown. Following this, Thackeray is expected to announce the same after consultation with senior state government officials.

The Ministry of Home Affairs, in its guidelines on Saturday, has allowed the opening up of religious places/places of worship, hotels, restaurants, and other hospitality services, shopping malls from June 8. The state government has not decided yet on this but is unlikely to allow the opening of malls, among others.

Further, it is expected that the state government could remove some of the municipal corporations, excluding municipal corporations of Mumbai, Pune, from the red zone category. Other municipal corporations including Dhule, Solapur, Aurangabad, Malegaon, Nashik, Dhule, Jalgaon, Akola, Amravati and Nagpur cities are in the red zone.

For offices and workplaces

Since more offices are likely to go operational in the near future, the state has issued guidelines for its employees. In a public health department order dated May 30, it has asked the employees to effectively use e-office regime, avoid travelling in groups, sanitise working places regularly.

It has also mandated for the regular checking of the employees with an infrared thermal scanner, use of three-layer masks, etc.

The order also stated that any employee found with a temperature more than 100.4 degrees should be institutionally quarantined and workplaces found with more than 5 positive patients to be fumigated and sealed.

Meanwhile, Madhav Sathe, former microbiology professor at Nair Hospital said, We should hope India has reached the peak of the coronavirus graph and cases will slowly decrease over the next 3 to 4 weeks. Recovery rate has also increased to around 41 to 42% This may improve if the best treatment strategy gets emerged in the next few weeks in India.

Sathe added, By mid-July most cases will be milder. On whether Mumbai can get ride of lockdown by July, Sathe said crowding still may have to be avoided. With maximum precautions, mask, eye shield, washing hands after reaching office and maintaining good immunity is all that will be needed, and crowding still will have to be avoided, he said.
On the festival of Eid, Salman Khan had sent a meal kit with ingredients for sheer korma to 5000 underprivileged families.

Salman Khan has donated one lakh hand sanitisers to the Mumbai Police, who are at the frontline in the fight against coronavirus pandemic.

The sanitisers donated by the actor are manufactured under his recently launched grooming and personal care brand FRSH.

(Click here for LIVE updates on coronavirus outbreak)

The official Twitter handle of Chief Minister of Maharashtra thanked the actor for donating sanitisers.

Here is the tweet

The 54-year-old actor has been constantly extending support to those affected due to the nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of the deadly virus.

He was the first one to provide financial aid to the daily wage workers of the film industry. Khan has also supplied ration to the villages near his Panvel farmhouse and has urged his fans to help those in need.

On the festival of Eid, Khan sent a meal kit with ingredients for sheer korma to 5000 underprivileged families. Earlier, he had launched a food truck initiative Being Haangryy in Mumbai to provide ration to those in need.

Khan has been actively posts videos on his social media handles to raise awareness about the importance of social distancing during COVID-19.

In April, he had dropped a song titled 'Pyaar Karona' through which he urged his fans and followers to follow physical distancing measures to stop the spread of the highly contagious virus.

Though the pandemic obstructed possibility of his annual Eid release, he did share a song 'Bhai Bhai' where he preaches unity and brotherhood.

(With inputs from Press Trust of India)
OTTAWA - The United Nations has confirmed that the election for non-permanent seats on the Security Council  which pits Canada against Norway and Ireland  will take place in June under unprecedented new rules to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 30/5/2020 (600 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Canada's U.N. Ambassador Marc-Andre Blanchard addresses the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly, at U.N. headquarters, Monday, Oct. 1, 2018. The United Nations has confirmed that the election for non-permanent seats on the Security Council  which pits Canada against Norway and Ireland  will take place in June under unprecedented new rules to prevent the spread of COVID-19. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP/Richard Drew

OTTAWA - The United Nations has confirmed that the election for non-permanent seats on the Security Council  which pits Canada against Norway and Ireland  will take place in June under unprecedented new rules to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

The 193 ambassadors will cast their votes on behalf of their countries in a secret ballot with the three candidates vying for two available temporary seats on the UN's most powerful body.

But the vote won't take place during a full meeting of the General Assembly because New York has become the epicentre of the COVID-19 outbreak and that has forced UN diplomats to work from home and rely on videoconferencing.

Instead, the ambassadors will be notified in advance to come to a designated venue at UN headquarters  a staggered, solitary procession that will see the world's leading diplomats presenting their UN security passes and then being given paper ballots.

The ambassadors will be assigned different time slots to come to the UN to cast their ballots to avoid a mass gathering during the pandemic.

The details were released in a memo that has been under consideration by the UN ambassadors for more than a week, and that carried a Friday-night deadline to reach a consensus.

"Enabling the (General Assembly) to carry out its essential duties is one of my top priorities during this challenging time," Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, the Nigerian diplomat currently serving as the president of the General Assembly, said in a tweet on Friday night.

Marc-Andre Blanchard, Canada's ambassador to the UN, said the country is ready for a June vote if it can be done in a safe way and carried out with respect for UN voting rules.

"This is uncharted territory. This has never been done," Blanchard said in a recent interview.

"We need to make sure the institutions are actually adapted to this reality," he added.

"This is not a military war we are facing. It's a health-care crisis and the biggest economic and financial crisis that we have seen since 1929."

The vote was originally set for June 17. The new rules do not specify exactly when the ballot will occur, other than sometime in the month.

Two of the competing countries will need at least 128 votes each, or two-thirds support of the assembly, to win a two year-term that would begin next year. That could mean multiple rounds of voting.

Blanchard said he expected the race to be hotly contested in the "Western European and Others Group," the most competitive of the UN's geographic blocs, where Canada faces formidable opponents.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been courting the support of large voting blocs in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean because European countries are expected to rally around Norway and Ireland. This past week, Trudeau co-hosted a major UN meeting on rebuilding the global economy after the pandemic.

Canada is running on a platform of trying to help rebuild the post-pandemic world. In a joint press video press conference with Trudeau, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres tacitly endorsed Canada's ability to convene larger groups of countries to serve the greater international good  a key plank in Canada's platform for the council.

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Blanchard wouldn't say how much support Canada has been able to garner, but the secret balloting process in the UN has been notorious for deception that has seen countries promise support but take it away when an ambassador casts his or her secret vote.

Blanchard said Canada's campaign for the council rests on what it has been doing to help fight the pandemic. That includes convening like-minded countries to ensure food security in developing countries, keeping vital supply chains open across the globe, and working on new financing models to help struggling countries whose economies have been devastated by the pandemic.

"In other parts of the world, one of the biggest threats is access to food at this time of pandemic when the supply chain is disrupted, where there's no transportation," said Blanchard.

Canada hopes to bridge the differences on the security council  where permanent members Russia and China have been at odds with the U.S., Britain and France  by proposing they all work together towards a common good: the need to elevate economic conditions in all countries after the pandemic.

Canada lost its last bid for a security council seat in 2010 when tiny Portugal won more support. Canada had previously served six stints on the council, one each in the six previous decades.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 30, 2020.
Syracuse, N.Y.  Mayor Ben Walsh urged street protesters to go home following clashes with police and broken windows that marred what had begun as peaceful protests over the death of George Floyd.

Im very concerned for our city right now, Walsh said during an 11 p.m. interview as he monitored the protests. I was very proud of our city and our citizens today as we had peaceful protests throughout the city. Unfortunately, at the end of the protests, some others with different intentions came in and caused an immediate threat to our city.

Walsh said police were forced to use less lethal munitions to disperse a crowd near police headquarters, where some protesters were trying to break in. Walsh said he did not have further details about what munitions were used, but people in the crowd referred to rubber bullets.

Right now Im urging everyone whos out tonight to go home and help us take care of our city. Walsh said

Police deployed tear gas this evening to move protesters away from police headquarters, where protesters broke windows in the Public Safety Building and the nearby criminal courthouse, according to syracuse.com reporters on the scene.

"The intent was to keep people from breaking in to the Public Safety Building,'' Walsh said. A number of individuals broke windows in the criminal courthouse and made their way over to the Public Safety Building, and it was at that point that those less-lethal munitions were deployed.

The crowd dispersed, but some individuals continued to cause problems elsewhere downtown, Walsh said.

More than 500 people and 100 cars had joined the protest. At least 20 riot police moved in carrying shields and wearing helmets. Walsh did not know how many officers were deployed, but said "all of our police resources are being focused on the current situation.''

Walsh said that like the protesters he was outraged over Floyds killing. He fully supported peaceful protests.

In a prepared statement, the mayor said he remains committed to working with police to improve their relations with the community.

"My commitment is firm to strengthen and improve police community relations and ensure equitable law enforcement in the City of Syracuse. We can emerge from this national crisis stronger than ever, Walsh said.

Protests spread nationwide today as people expressed their outrage over the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in Minneapolis police custody after an officer kneeled on his neck for 8 minutes. The officer, Derek Chauvin, has been charged with murder.

At least 25 cities in 16 states have imposed curfews tonight, CNN reported. The National Guard has been activated in Washington, D.C. to assist police handling protests around the White House.

Walsh said he had not decided whether to seek a curfew. He planned to discuss the option of invoking emergency powers with city lawyers.

"We want to see how tonight plays out,'' Walsh said. Im hoping our community does the right thing.

Update: At about 1 a.m., Walsh ordered an immediate curfew from 8 p.m. to 7 a.m.
This is the moment a topless man hits a woman in the face before throwing a punch at another woman during a brawl at an Essex beauty spot.

In the shocking footage a large crowd is seen gathered opposite the Kings Oak Pub in High Beech, a clearing Loughton, Essex.

The video, recorded yesterday, shows a brawl already underway with multiple men and women involved in the tussle.

Had this sent to us



This happened Loughton essex a place called high beech, pic.twitter.com/zhtjwxQP0e  London & UK Crime.. (@CrimeLdn) May 31, 2020

Shocking: The shirtless man hits the woman in a red dress in the face during a brawl on a green space in High Beech, Loughton, Essex

The shirtless man is seen kicking somebody who has fallen to the ground before hitting a woman in a red dress in the face.

He walks away before throwing another punch at a woman with a yellow bag.

A crowd of onlookers cry out at both punches.

Two men near the brawl then try unsuccessfully to shepherd the shirtless man away from the crowd.

He is seen staggering towards the group of people with his fists bunched.

A man stood near the camera yells at the topless man: Oi, what, are you a big man because you hit girls?

At the end of the video, car horns are heard being used.

In a statement, Essex Police said: 'We were called at around 5.10pm yesterday, Saturday 30 May, with reports of a disturbance outside the King Oak pub in High Beech.

People in the crowd attempt to warn the shirtless man away from the group on the field after he throws a second punch at another woman

Parsons Green was packed, with these two women enjoying a drink in the sunshine over the weekend

Police confiscated beer from beach-goers heading to Formby beach on Merseyside on Sunday

Beer and BBQ equipment was confiscated by police, taken from what seemed to be multiple groups heading to Formby beach

'We received information that a large group of people had gathered on greenspace outside the pub and reports of people fighting.

'We attended the scene and gave words of advice to people about congregating.

'They were understanding and left the vicinity without issue or the need for enforcement action.'

They have not received reports of injuries or victims but will be reviewing the video footage.

Essex Police also said that they increased their patrols of the area in the video alongside the Epping Forest Community Policing Team and City of London Corporation Park Rangers.

Deputy Chief Medical Officer for England Dr Jenny Harries begged people to be sensible and not take advantage of the easing of lockdown restrictions

Anyone with information is asked to call 101 quoting incident number 882 or they can report information by visiting www.essex.police.uk.

Alternatively, Crimestoppers can be contacted anonymously on 0800 555 111.

The shocking brawl comes as sun-seekers flocked to beaches all over the UK on Sunday, ahead of the easing of lockdown restrictions from Monday.

Health chiefs begged people to 'be sensible' and not take advantage of the easing - amid scenes of packed beaches and parks, which have raised fears of a second coronavirus spike.

Deputy medical officer Jenny Harries expressed alarm at the 'vision' of crowded beauty spots on another scorching day, suggesting people should take more personal responsibility.

At the Downing Street briefing, Dr Harries said the scientific view was that transmission was much less likely outdoors than indoors, and that was why the loosening in England was focused on those areas,

Durdle Door in Dorset was filled with visitors Sunday afternoon, despite four people being injured and the air ambulance being called on Saturday

A man is pictured jumping from Durdle Door despite warnings after people were injured Sunday and the council closing the beach

People are pictured descending on the beach at Durdle Door, Dorset, despite the council warning that it was closed Sunday

At the Downing Street briefing, Dr Harries said the scientific view was that transmission was much less likely outdoors than indoors, and that was why the loosening in England was focused on those areas

But she said the scenes today gave grounds for concern about 'behavioural' problems with people sharing cars and picnic utensils, and being 'very close together'.

'It is not just about what is possible, it is about what is sensible,' she said.

Thousands of lockdown-weary families hit Britain's parks and beaches to lap up the 75F (24C) heat, ignoring Professor Jonathan Van-Tam's appeal yesterday not to 'not to tear the pants out of' the new rules.

Tombstoners ignored clear warnings and plunged 200ft off the cliffs at Dorset's famous Durdle Door beach today less than 24 hours after four divers were injured at the same point.

People were spotted jumping into the water at Three Shires Head on the River Dane in Cheshire on Sunday afternoon

There is no room for social distancing as umbrellas line Bournemouth beach on Sunday afternoon

Bourton-on-the-Water in the Cotswolds is packed with visitors Sunday afternoon as families visit the banks of its river

Tombstoners were seen leaping from rocks and the bridge that crosses the River Dane on Sunday afternoon

Dominic Raab has warned that a second UK lockdown could be imposed if there is an 'uptick' in cases after Britons are allowed to meet up to six people from different households, have barbecues and go to fitness classes once more.

But he defended the changes amid warning from Nicola Sturgeon and a slew of scientists that they might stoke up infections, saying the country cannot stay in lockdown 'forever'.

But he defended the changes amid warning from Nicola Sturgeon and a slew of scientists that they might stoke up infections, saying the country cannot stay in lockdown 'forever'.

Dr Harries told the briefing this evening that the restrictions were at a 'critical' stage.

'Where we are seeing that Government is easing measures the public really, really need to stick to those messages and it is not just about what it is possible to do, it's about what it is sensible to do and what is sensible to do is have as few interactions as possible as you can with other people in all settings,' she said.

'I think it's really important that people just try to use these measures sensibly for their own benefit but don't risk transmission to other people.'

Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick was asked how worried he is having seen pictures this weekend where social distancing has been difficult or impossible.

He said: 'We're reasonably confident that the steps we've taken and will be taking on Monday are manageable but we have to all continue to play our part in that because the rate of infection remains somewhere between 0.7 and 0.9 and the room for manoeuvre is quite limited.

'We'll obviously keep this under very close scrutiny as we move into this next phase and as we approach the next decision point on June 15.'
Joaquin Phoenix has been doing his best to stay in shape amid the coronavirus pandemic, even as gyms have been closed throughout California.

And true to form, the 45-year-old Oscar winner worked up a sweat Saturday with a karate class held in Beverly Hills.

He didn't bother putting on his shoes as he headed out to his car to leave while covered in sweat.

Staying fit: Joaquin Phoenix, 45, didn't bother with shoes as he headed back to his car following a karate lesson in Beverly Hills on Saturday

Joaquin was dressed ultra casually in a rumpled long white T-shirt and rolled up black sweatpants.

He carried along a red sweatshirt over his arm and brought a glass jar with him.

The Joker star had his unruly salt and pepper hair swept back and sported a close-cropped gray-speckled beard.

Low key: He wore a rumpled white T-shirt with rolled up black sweatpants and carried a red sweatshirt and a glass jar

Joaquin was out without his fiancee Rooney Mara, 35, whom he started dating in 2016 after they starred together in Mary Magdalene, which wasn't released for two more years.

She previously played a supporting role as the ex-wife he still obsesses over in Her (2013), and they would be paired up again in the inspiring story of a cartoonist overcoming paralysis in Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot (2018).

On May 18, Page Six reported that the couple, who got engaged in July, were expecting their first child.

Rooney has taken to wearing oversize clothing in recent weeks, and the report suggested she could be as far as six months along.

Joaquin was out without his fiancee Rooney Mara, 35, whom he started dating in 2016 after they starred together in Mary Magdalene, which wasn't released for two more years; pictured in January 2019

Where it all began: Mara and Phoenix first worked together in the 2013 film, Her, (pictured). They collaborated again on 2018's Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far On Foot

Coming soon: On May 18, Page Six reported that the couple, who got engaged in July, were expecting their first child; shown in January 2019

The two have been quarantining together at their Hollywood Hills home and have yet to comment.

After starring in the billion-dollar grossing Batman-adjacent film Joker, Joaquin will try something warmer with the drama C'mon C'mon, in which he plays a man who has to care for his nephew while on a cross country trip.

The movie, which already wrapped principal photography, was directed by Mike Mills, who previously helmed the Oscar-winning Beginners (2010) and 20th Century Women (2016).
The Australian sharemarket is tipped to stumble into a new week as investors gauge whether the easing of lockdowns - and the promise of accelerated retail spending - will fend off concerns a COVID rally has gone too hard, too fast.

The SPI futures contract is pointing to a fall of 24 points or 0.4 per cent when the ASX opens on Monday, having sagged into the weekend against a familiar backdrop of geopolitical tension. The index slipped sharply at Fridays close after profit takers cashed in on a remarkably strong week as relations between Beijing and Washington again threatened to boil over.

The market is poised for a soft open on Monday. Credit:Louie Douvis

Global equities were already jittery ahead of US President Donald Trumps address on Chinese security laws for Hong Kong and Wall Street closed lower amid the heightened volatility.

Tribeca Investment Partners portfolio manager Jun Bei Liu said this tense undercurrent is one of the few factors that could prevent the ASX from continuing its COVID rally on Monday.
Connecticut is in the midst of a second day of protests over the death of George Floyd, a black man who died Monday after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee on his neck until he stopped breathing.

Protests took place in Norwalk, Stamford, New Haven and Waterbury.

We will be providing updates throughout the day.

In New Haven, protesters close Route 34 and I-95.

Protestors marched through the streets of New Haven and Stamford:

Protesters have closed both sides of I-84 in Waterbury Sunday.

The highway is closed between Exits 23 and 21.

The closure was similar to another protest on Route 8 in Bridgeport. The highway was closed in both directions for about three hours.

In Norwalk:

Watch the New Haven protest here.

It was Route 8 on Saturday and now it looks like a protest has moved to I-84 after a Waterbury rally.

In Stamford:

In Waterbury:

Danbury mayor, police chief deeply troubled

A statement from Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton and Police Chief Patrick Ridenhour:

We are deeply troubled by the recent events in Minnesota. These actions are inexcusable and officers standing idly by when it happens is equally troubling and unacceptable.

We acknowledge the pain that this and all incidents of unnecessary force by police cause the nation as a whole and often communities of color in particular. We do not condone police brutality under any circumstances.

Please know that we cherish the relationship our department enjoys with the entire Danbury community. We will never take that relationship for granted and we will continue to do our best to to ensure fair and equitable treatment for all.

Stamford police chief We are just as disappointed

The death of George Floyd in Minneapolis is very disturbing and there is no excuse for the actions of the Officers. Our thoughts and prayers go out to family of George Floyd as well as the people of Minneapolis during these trying and tragic times.

I would like to assure the residents of Stamford that we are just as disappointed as you are and do not want the behavior of those officers to affect the relationship we have built within our community. We will continue to hold ourselves to the highest standard.- Chief Timothy Shaw, Stamford Police Department
As countless epidemiologists, doctors, professors, economists and politicians have stated during the COVID-19 pandemic, good data is key to responding quickly and effectively to the virus.

Timely and accurate data has helped provinces such as British Columbia and Alberta begin to jump-start their economies after riding out the initial wave of infections.

In Ontario, the primary public sources of information on the spread of the virus have been the provinces 34 local public health units and Public Health Ontario, a government agency created to protect and promote health.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, Public Health Ontario has reported daily on the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths across the province. Over time, it has added other related metrics on hospitalizations, outbreaks in long-term-care settings and types of exposure.

But as the Star has found over the past two months, time lags, changes in how the data is reported and the use of unusual definitions of key metrics have raised questions about whether Ontarians are getting a true sense of the viruss burden on society.

One of the main problems, the Star found, is that the provinces integrated Public Health Information System (iPHIS) was  and still does  seriously under-report provincewide deaths due to COVID-19, particularly in seniors homes.

There is massive room for improvement in how Ontario collects and reports data, said Dionne Aleman, a professor of industrial engineering at the University of Toronto who models infectious disease outbreaks and pandemics.

I assume PHO is operating with better data than they show to the public, but the data presented to the public in Ontario is among the worst of any province or country I have looked at.

Here are four changes the province has made to the way it reports on COVID-19 and why they have complicated both the governments and the publics ability to understand the spread of the virus.

Patients tested vs. samples tested

On April 15, the province quietly changed the way it had been reporting COVID-19 testing data. Until that day, it had published the total number of patients tested for the virus, but that metric disappeared only to be replaced by the number of samples tested each day. Because multiple samples are taken from some patients, it suddenly became impossible to know how many people the province was testing.

Ontario Health, the provinces new health super agency, which took over the public reporting of lab tests from Public Health Ontario on that date, told the Star it was determined that tracking the number of tests performed is a more meaningful measure of provincial testing capacity because the difference between the number of people tested and number of tests performed can vary.

Ashleigh Tuite, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, said knowing the number of people tested is important for calculating the positivity rate  the percentage of people who test positive on any given day.

Any day could include a large number of followup tests on people we already know are positive, she said. You dont necessarily want to be counting these extra tests that youre doing on somebody who has already tested positive because thats not providing you with additional information.

Aleman said simply presenting the number of samples tested may give the impression the number of people tested has gone up, when in fact that may not be the case.

It may still be the same. It may even be less, she said, adding if the province wants to emphasize that the rate of testing is in fact going up, it should provide both the number of samples and the number of patients tested.

When asked about this change by reporters at the time, Health Minister Christine Elliott said the number of people who had been tested more than once is not significant.

No more negatives

At the end of March, the Ministry of Health quietly stopped reporting the number of patients who had tested negative for COVID-19. Up until then, this metric had been included with the number of patients who had tested positive, and those still under investigation, meaning their test hadnt yet been processed by a lab.

Fortunately, it was still possible to calculate the number of people testing negative by subtracting positives from the total number of patients tested. But this became impossible once the province switched to reporting only the number of samples tested.

In this case, its even more critical for us to know of the people who are being tested, what per cent of them are actually coming back positive, what per cent are coming back negative, because that can help at least give us some idea of how to extrapolate those numbers to the wider community, said Aleman, noting the caveat that such an extrapolation would be imperfect because of a biased selection scenario where the province has only been testing people strongly suspected of having the virus.

Other provinces, including Quebec, continue to report a daily number of negative cases.

Numbers hard to compare

On May 19, the Ministry of Health announced it would no longer include in its daily reporting any COVID-19 cases and deaths in long-term-care homes that had not been confirmed by a lab test.

Before that date, Ontarios data included some cases of COVID-19 that had been confirmed by the fact a patient had symptoms and was living in a facility that was experiencing an outbreak, but not a test  the logic being that if a resident got sick where the virus was present, there was no need to conduct a test to confirm the obvious.

The ministry said that removing those cases would result in a measure for long-term-care COVID-19 cases that could be comparable with the rest of the population, where only lab-confirmed cases are reported.

But because the province never did release the total separately, it is not clear how many non-lab-confirmed cases and deaths suddenly disappeared from the provinces data.

Aleman noted that when metrics like this are changed suddenly, it becomes hard to identify trends over time.

We cant really look back and know what changed if things start to look different now than what we expect, she said, noting that separating or combining certain metrics is not a bad thing in and of itself. But you have to do that retrospectively through all of your data as well.

An inaccurate picture

On May 22, Public Health Ontario quietly reclassified more than 5,000 cases of the virus previously thought to have no source of transmission.

Up until that date, the agency had been telling the public that between 35 to 40 per cent of overall reported cases of the virus in the province had no known origin. On May 21, there were 8,471 cases with this classification. The next day, the agency moved 5,309 cases out of this category because it turned out that these cases were outbreak-related (i.e. there was, in fact, a known source of transmission).

As a result, the percentage of cases thought to have no known source  the key measure of community spread  dropped from an average of about 36 per cent for the month before to about 13 per cent in one day.

If its just  all of a sudden out of the blue  all these cases are updated to say, oh, you know, were just going to say that as of today we know how all these people became infected, well, now we dont really know whats been happening, Aleman said, noting that knowing how people became infected is a good thing.

Again it comes back to that issue of needing to understand trends in order to make a decision for the future and here we just have no trends because suddenly the data is totally different.

She suggested that there should be a retroactive update to indicate on what day we learned how they became infected.

University of Waterloo professor of economics Mikal Skuterud, whose research includes linking return-to-work rates within regions to changes in COVID-19 case numbers, said generally that updates and changes to the data can be a good thing: You want to get it right.

But he notes that there is a cost.

It makes the research more difficult for sure, he said, noting that if there is overcounting or undercounting occurring, and its related to the extent to which regions are sending people back to work, its going to throw off all your estimates.

Youre going to say sending people back is a really bad thing. Or the opposite, even scarier, sending people back is not a bad thing, when in fact it is. Then youre completely the wrong policy prescription, Skuterud said. We want to get it right.

A better way

In contrast to Public Health Ontarios daily reporting, several regional public health units have started publishing comprehensive and easy-to-understand data on local cases.

For example, York Regions interactive dashboard has been updated again and again to provide a variety of figures, charts and models. Crucially, users can also download the underlying data.

Similarly, Waterloo Region provides a variety of data visualizations, including epi-curves by symptom-onset date and case-reported date.

Back in April, frustrated with the provinces outdated and clunky system, Toronto Public Health built its own COVID-19 tracking system, known as Coronavirus Rapid Entry System or CORES. That tool now underlies the citys COVID-19 information portal.

None of these existed before the pandemic, but similarly detailed reports are now being published daily across the province in Durham and Peel Regions, Ottawa, Kingston, Simcoe Muskoka and more. Even tiny Hastings Prince Edward publishes a variety of easy-to-read charts and maps with case counts.

If Ontario wants more public compliance with physical distancing and PPE guidelines, they need to clearly illustrate on their webpage the trends that are happening, including trends on testing so that we in the public can understand if lower infection numbers are likely to be driven by lower testing rates, said Aleman.

With files from Mary Ormsby

Kenyon Wallace is a Toronto-based investigative reporter for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @KenyonWallace or reach him via email: kwallace@thestar.ca
As many as 80% of the health care workers (HCWs) on six or more prophylactic doses of the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) were not infected by Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), according to a new pre-print study by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) -- a finding that could establishing the prophylactic properties of the drug against Covid-19, even as several international studies have dismissed its utility as a therapeutic.

The study results were one of the driving factors behind India last week expanding the use of HCQ as a prophylactic drug beyond health care workers in Covid-19 hospitals and close contacts of infected people to frontline workers such as surveillance staff deployed in containment zones, and paramilitary or police personnel involved in Covid-19 related activities.

Also read: From petrol price, new trains and flights: What will change in lockdown 5.0

The results are based on a case control study for which participants were randomly drawn from the countrywide Covid-19 testing data portal maintained by ICMR. The test results and contact details of health care workers (HCWs), diagnosed as positive (cases) or negative (controls) for Sars-CoV-2 using the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test, were available from this database.

The main conclusion that can be drawn after analyzing the data is that HCQ has beneficial effects in infection risk reduction from fourth dose onwards. The first loading dose of 800mg and then every week a dose of 400 mg for 4, 6 or more weeks as per your physicians advice will help cut the risk of infection by 80% in healthcare workers who are not already sick, says Dr Samiran Panda, director, ICMR-National AIDS Research Institute, the study co-author.

Data collection for this investigation was done during May 8-23. HCWs tested between the first week of April 2020 and the end of first week of May 2020 formed the sample pool, from which cases and controls were drawn. About 378 and 373 individuals could be contacted in the case and control groups, respectively.

Also read: Covid-19: What you need to know today

 Ability of this compound to inhibit the infection by SARS-CoV-2, as well as viral replication in cell cultures in a time- and dose-dependent manner made it a primary choice These laboratory findings encouraged researchers to consider HCQ, originally used for malaria, as a repurposed agent for prophylaxis against SARS-CoV-219, says the study.

The National Task Force for Covid-19 in India took cognizance of this evidence and empirically recommended the use of HCQ as prophylaxis against Sars-CoV-2 infection among a select group of asymptomatic people.

Until results of clinical trials for HCQ prophylaxis become available, this study provides actionable information for policymakers to protect HCWs at the forefront of COVID-19 response. Also, it is to be kept in mind that merely taking HCQ is not enough, you cannot go easy on wearing personal protection equipment and other infection control measures, says Dr Panda.

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Tiger King's Joe Exotic allegedly injected his zoo workers with ketamine tranquillisers meant for his big cats.

Rick Kirkham, 61, Joe's head of TV production, has accused him of 'shooting up' workers who had coughs or colds using the powerful anaesthetic - ketamine hydrochloride.

Speaking on the Investigation Discovery channel documentary The Truth Behind Joe Exotic: The Rick Kirkham Story, he said: 'I saw Joe giving animal drugs to the humans working there.

Drugs: Tiger King's Joe Exotic allegedly injected his zoo workers with ketamine tranquillisers meant for his big cats

'When they'd get a cough or a cold, he'd go grab ketamine, an animal tranquilliser, and shoot them up with that.

'I realised everyone who worked at the zoo was some kind of misfit.'

Joe, 57, was also accused of shooting a woman's horse and having it chopped up to be fed to his tigers.

Injections: Rick Kirkham, 61, Joe's head of TV production, has accused him of 'shooting up' workers who had coughs or colds

Speaking on the Netflix documentary, The Tiger King and I, Kirkham said: 'An old woman had a horse and she pulled up.

'She was really upset and said ''can you please take care of my horse he needs to go out to pasture''.'

Kirkham said that 'unbelievably cruel' Joe agreed to look after the sick horse but as soon as its owner left, he pulled out his revolver and shot it before having it chopped up and fed to his tigers.

The production head added that he even saw Joe shoot two of his own tigers, one of which was killed because it nearly bit Joe.

Tiger King: Joe, 57, was also accused of shooting a woman's horse and having it chopped up to be fed to his tigers

Kirkham also said that contrary to Joe's famous moniker, he was 'terrified of big cats'.

He alleged that in documentary scenes where Joe is in a cage with tigers it's because one of the tigers is blind and the other had been tranquillised.

Joe, real name Joseph Maldonado-Passage, is currently serving a 22 year jail sentence after being convicted of two counts of murder-for-hire.

He was found guilty of plotting to kill his rival - animal rights activist Carole Baskin, 58.

The 'Tiger King' was convinced she wanted to destroy his zoo, Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park in Oklahoma.

Joe was also found guilty of 17 counts of animal abuse.

The Truth Behind Joe Exotic: The Rick Kirkham Story will air on the Investigation Discovery channel on June 2.
The Africa Dialogue Series is the Office of the Special Adviser on Africa (OSAA)s signature event. This years edition is organized in collaboration with the African Union Commission, the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), the Department of Global Communications, UN Women and the Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs - Department of Peace Operations (DPPA-DPO).

OSAA was established in April 2003. Its main mandate responsibilities are to advocate for the international communitys support for Africas development; to provide support to UN intergovernmental bodies in their deliberations on Africa, and to provide advice to the UN Secretary-General with regard to Africa and to support his efforts to ensure the coherence and coordination of UN action in Africa. And its focus has increasingly been on the nexus across the development-peace and security-humanitarian-and human rights priorities, in other words, Africas sustainable development.

It is with its cross-cutting and unique place in the UN system in mind that OSAA decided in 2018 to launch the Africa Dialogue Series as its main annual event. The ADS provides a unique global platform to explore and promote critical debates on a broad range of critical and emerging issues of relevance to Africas peace, security, and development. It is a forum for global advocacy and policy discussion. The Africa Dialogue Series offers an opportunity to build synergies across the UN system in support of Africas priorities. It also aims to create a space to amplify African voices.

And by aligning the ADS with the African Union Theme of the year, as well as convening it in May to coincide with Africa Day celebrated annually on the 25th May, my Office aimed to ensure not only that Africa remains a top priority for the UN, but also that the African Unions priorities are echoed at the United Nations.

Last February, the 33rd African Union Summit declared 2020 as the year for Silencing the Guns: Creating Conducive Conditions for Africa's Development". Less than one month after this decision was taken, a new challenge emerged and has threatened our common goal. The COVID-19 pandemic has spread across the world, including in Africa, exacting a huge human toll and far-reaching economic and social impacts.

COVID-19 represents the greatest challenge to global health and development since World War II. It has harshly impacted Africas health systems, exacerbating inequities, and increasing the fragility of Africas economies.

It has also brought into sharp focus the serious problem of inequality within societies across the continent as well as between countries and the often forgotten realities of the most disadvantaged and vulnerable groups, including the refugees, the internally displaced and the millions of people eking out a living in Africas large overcrowded informal settlements with hardly any basic services, water and sanitation. African countries are taking resolute measures, individually and collectively, in line with African realities in fighting the pandemic and its immediate consequences.

Beyond its immediate human impact, the projected medium to long-term social and economic ramifications of the pandemic on Africa could be severe, possibly pushing up to 27 million more people into extreme poverty.

I will not go into detail on what this challenge represents. We have three half days of discussions for that. But I would like to underline that the COVID-19 pandemic is also a threat to peace and security.

Social and political tensions could exponentially rise if our response fails to address inequalities, to protect human rights or if it undermines democratic values.

Hence the importance of meeting this week to discuss about COVID-19 and Silencing the Guns in Africa: Challenges and Opportunities.

Now more than ever, Africa needs the world and the United Nations to debate about what can we do to support the continents own efforts. To look for options in which we can provide funds and technical assistance to support Africas response to COVID-19 while continuing to implement key initiatives such as the Silencing the Guns and the 2030 and 2063 agendas.

During these three half-days of the Africa Dialogue Series we will address the importance of global solidarity; the African Continental Free Trade Area as an opportunity for silencing the guns and fighting COVID-19 and future pandemics; the ways in which we can build sustainable peace and resilience; the relevance of good governance, leadership and people centered development in Africa;the central role of women in achieving peace, security and sustainable development; and the need to foster a culture of peace, tolerance and reconciliation.

These discussions will hopefully help us achieve the following goals:

- First, increased support for the Secretary-Generals call for a Global Ceasefire, in line with the AU theme to silence the guns in Africa;

- Second, better awareness and understanding about the Practical Steps that the AU Master Roadmap offers to Silence the Guns in Africa;

- Third, the ADS should help us identify the ways in which COVID-19 could negatively impact the Silencing the Guns agenda, so that both African countries and the international community can target their actions to prevent and mitigate those negative effects.

- Finally, advocate for a stronger commitment of the international community in the spirit of global solidarity to supporting the African Union and African countries efforts to silence the guns and overcome the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

I truly hope that in these discussions will be able to provide concrete and actionable ideas on how Africa can turn the current challenging conditions into an opportunity and emerge from the crisis stronger, more resilient and well-positioned to accelerate its march to achieving the SDGs through the Decade of Action, and in the longer term, Agenda 2063.

* Adapted from UN Under-Secretary-General and Special Adviser on Africa, Ms. Bience Gawanas welcome address at the Africa Dialogue Series 2020

For more information on COVID-19, visit www.un.org/coronavirus
Centre spatial Kennedy (Etats-Unis) (AFP) - Donald Trump came to Florida on Saturday to witness the dawn of a new space age. But not everyone in America had their eyes to the sky.

As Trump witnessed the successful launch of American astronauts into space from US soil for the first time in nine years, the anger aroused by the death of an unarmed black man -- George Floyd -- during his arrest by police shook the country from coast to coast.

On the Air Force One flight to Florida, two screens showing Fox News -- the presidential channel of choice -- in the press area at the back of the plane summed up the extraordinary day.

Scenes of violent anti-police protests in Minneapolis, where Floyd died, alternated with shots of intense preparation and scientific excitement at the iconic Kennedy Space Center.

Trump himself flicked between the subjects throughout the day. Just before landing, he tweeted about the "rioters" in Minneapolis, adding that 80 percent of them were not from Minnesota.

Three minutes later, in an enthusiastic message, he expressed his hope that the SpaceX launch would be a resounding success.

The Kennedy Space Center is steeped in history: it is from here that Neil Armstrong and his Apollo 11 crewmates took off on July 16, 1969 for a flight that would see them become the first people to walk on the Moon.

Trump, arriving about 15 minutes before Saturday's liftoff to a small platform set up for him to witness the launch, savored the historic moment.

Wearing his emblematic red tie -- the same one he almost always wears at campaign rallies -- he smiled at journalists and gave them the thumbs up.

"What do we have?" he asked. "One minute?"

Relaxed, he finally turned to look at SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon capsule carrying the two NASA astronauts, with Vice President Mike Pence at his side.

- 'The power' -

The ground shook. The emotion was palpable. As the rocket vanished into the upper reaches of the atmosphere, the president turned to journalists and applauded, then started talking.

Story continues

"All of a sudden you hear that roar and it's incredible, the power," he said with a smile.

"You wouldn't think that machine -- as big as it is, it looks small from here -- could have that kind of power to make that kind of sound or that vibration."

He praised American ingenuity, stating: "America will always be first." He spoke of the future, of an expedition to Mars.

With five months to go before the presidential election where he will vie for a second four-year term, he insisted this flight full of promise will be one of the markers of his presidency.

He did not salute the efforts of his two predecessors, George W Bush and Barack Obama, who launched the program to contract spaceflight out to the private sector. The SpaceX launch is the end result of years of work.

Only two US presidents had attended a launch before Trump: Richard Nixon in 1969 and Bill Clinton in 1998.

The reason is two-fold: the risk of cancellation at the last minute due to weather, and the risk of being associated with terrible images if the venture goes wrong.

The bet paid off for Trump, who returned to Florida for the day after a first abortive launch attempt on Wednesday.

As he began his speech from the space center, he returned again to the death of Floyd, saying he understood "the pain that people are feeling."

He strongly condemned the violence that has broken out over four nights of protest since Floyd's death, and denounced the "looters and anarchists" who sowed violence, calling for "healing not hatred, justice not chaos."

But on his return to Washington, he knows he will have to find a deeper, long-term response to a crisis in a country where old wounds that never healed have been freshly torn open.

After several days of sending contradictory signals, the 45th president of the United States will have to find the right tone to ease tensions.

His words will be scrutinized. For his detractors, as for many observers of American life, he has for years been playing a dangerous game on race.
OBERLIN, Ohio  The coronavirus pandemic put a hard stop to a terrific winter-spring art season in Northeast Ohio, but if you missed the best exhibitions on view earlier this year, take heart. Some will resume with extended runs when things open back up.

One outstanding example is Ukiyo-e Prints from the Mary Ainsworth Collection, at the Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College.

The exhibition, which opened in mid-January, will be extended to the end of 2020 after the college and the museum reopen in late summer or early fall. (The college has said it will announce reopening plans in early June).

Consider the show a light at the end of your coronavirus tunnel. Its worth the wait.

Rare sighting

With 115 prints from the late 17th to the early 19th century, the exhibition focuses on a generous chunk of an amazing, rarely exhibited collection of some 1,500 prints left to the museum in 1950 by Oberlin alumna Mary Ainsworth (1867-1950).

The show is packed with entrancing images of celebrity courtesans, or prostitutes; kabuki actors; elaborate festivals; landscapes with Mount Fuji; and busy scenes of city life in Edo, later known as Tokyo  then and now the worlds largest city.

Ukyio-e refers image of the floating world, the transient urban scene revolving around theater, dancing, love and sex in Edo during the Tokugawa Shogunate, the feudal military regime that ran Japan from 1600 to 1868.

The rising merchant class in Edo had money to burn and clever ways to evade restrictions on displays of wealth imposed by elaborately attired samurai warriors, who were supposed to be the top dogs.

Woodblock prints, created through partnerships involving artists, publishers, woodblock carvers and expert printers, emerged in this milieu as a form of affordable popular art based on fancier and more expensive scroll and screen paintings.

Full history

The Oberlin exhibition covers the evolution of woodblock prints, starting with elegant and spectacular monochromatic late 17th- and early 18th-century images by Hishikawa Moronobu and Okumura Masanobu, who depicted courtesans in elaborate, flowing kimonos.

Most viewers will be more familiar with widely known works in the show from the early to mid-19th century, such as selections from Katsushika Hokusais Thirty-six Views of Mt. Fuji, in which the snow-capped, conical volcano is viewed from near and far, and from land and sea.

- Mary Ainsworth (1867-1950) built a significant collection of Japanese woodblock prints, which she donated to Oberlin College, her alma mater, in 1950. The collection formed the basis of an exhibition at the Allen Memorial Art Museum that will go back on view this fall when the college reopens. Oberlin College, Allen Memorial Art MuseumOberlin College, Allen Memorial

Also among familiar highlights in the Oberlin show are Utagawa Hiroshiges famous images of a flowering plum tree under a blushing red sunset sky, and of peasants in conical straw hats crossing Ohashi Bridge over the Sumida River in a heavy downpour.

Both prints were admiringly copied by Vincent van Gogh, one of many Western artists captivated by the bold visual style of Japanese prints, which emphasized strong silhouettes, flat shapes and a forward-pressing visual energy.

Japans impact on modern art was a happy byproduct of its effort to promote itself as a world power after opening up to global trade during the Meiji Restoration.

Soft power of culture

To signal it was open for business, Japan participated in numerous industrial exhibitions and fairs, displaying artistic treasures as a form of soft cultural power. Japonisme, a craze for all things Japanese, was the result, and the Western vogue for woodblock prints was a big part of it.

Ainsworth, an independent-minded heiress who never married, caught the bug during a 1906 trip to Japan, just a year after the increasingly militaristic country surprised the West by winning the Russo-Japanese War.

An 1889 graduate of Oberlin College with an intellectual streak, Ainsworth in 1914 inherited a small fortune amassed by her father, a manufacturer of agricultural equipment who became a banker and a politician.

Her father also left her Wawona, a mansion on a three-acre hill overlooking the Mississippi River opposite Davenport, IA. Ainsworths home became her base for collecting trips, and an archive where she built a research library to help her study her holdings.

By the time of her death, she had created one of the most important collections of Japanese prints in the industrial Midwest  no small feat considering that northern Illinois and Chicago were then full of enthusiastic Japanese print collectors, including architect Frank Lloyd Wright.

Kevin Greenwood, the Allen museums curator of Asian art and the organizer of the exhibition, said its hard to know exactly what Japanese art meant to Ainsworth because she didnt leave behind diaries or correspondence.

Beyond exotica and eye candy

In the catalog of the Japanese touring version of the Oberlin show, Greenwood wrote that for American collectors, Japanese art was a form of chic exotica, or perhaps even eye candy.

Its popularity also contrasted with xenophobic laws such the 1924 Johnson-Reid Act, which barred Japanese immigration to the U.S.

- The Mary Ainsworth collection at the Allen Memorial Art Museum includes this rare early example of Ukiyo-e woodblock prints, a work from 1711-16 by Kaigetsudo Dohan, depicting a courtesan, who can be identified by the bow at the front of her kimono. Allen Memorial Art MuseumAllen Memorial Art Museum

Whats clear, Greenwood said in an interview, is that Ainsworth wanted her collection to have a broad, educational focus. Instead of concentrating solely on the kinds of images that enthralled Western artists, such as van Gogh, Ainsworth wanted to cover the entire, 260-year development of Japanese woodblock prints.

As such, the collection made the perfect gift for Ainsworths alma mater. Examples of her well-informed taste include black-and-white portraits of courtesans by Kaigetsudo Dohan and Okumura Masanobu.

They demonstrate how woodblock carvers used high-precision tools to transpose liquid curving lines created with ink and brush on paper to hard blocks of fine-grained cherry wood.

The show tracks woodblock prints through the introduction of color and the development of spectacular, multi-part prints that created panoramic images.

Most notable is a seven-part print by Kitagawa Utamaro depicting a procession of Japanese women from the Edo pleasure district imitating a parade of dignitaries visiting from Korea.

Greenwood considers it an example of double cross-dressing  women parading as men, and Japanese costumed as Koreans.

Chaste viewpoint

Despite numerous depictions of beautiful courtesans and geisha entertainers, the Ainsworth collection is fairly chaste.

The collector avoided erotic shunga prints, and her taste also didnt run to the lurid spectacles of Yoshitoshi, the 19th-century printmaker known for his blood-spattered samurai battles. (Yoshitoshi was the subject of a fantastic show last year at the Philadelphia Museum of Art).

One surprising outcome of the appetite for Ukyio-e prints in the West is that relatively few examples remain in Japan. Japanese scholars are fascinated by the enthusiasm for this patrimony in the West, and the Oberlin show is a direct result.

Greenwood said he was approached in 2016 by Masako Tanabe, a curator at the Chiba City Museum of Art in Japan, who proposed an extensive research project on the Ainsworth Collection that resulted in a touring exhibition in which the prints visited Japan.

The Oberlin show, accompanied by a lavish, bi-lingual catalog, is another happy result of the Chiba-Oberlin partnership.

At a time in which nationalism and xenophobia are again on the rise, its an especially poignant reminder of the power of art to transcend boundaries.

REVIEW

What's up: "Ukiyo-e Prints from the Mary Ainsworth Collection"

Venue: Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College

Where: 87 N. Main St., Oberlin

When: Reopening with museum late summer or early fall, extending through late 2020. Check website for details.

Admission: Free. Call 440-775-8665 or go to oberlin.edu/amam/
(CNN)  After a night of protests and racial unrest in US cities, President Donald Trump used Saturday morning messages to declare himself safe inside the White House, lash out at a Democratic mayor and raise the prospect of another demonstration with his supporters later in the day.

In a series of tweets, Trump commended the US Secret Service for protecting him inside his fortified mansion on Friday evening as protesters gathered outside over the death of George Floyd. The President suggested that dogs and weaponry were waiting inside the gates.

Calling the protests organized and a disservice to the cause of racial justice, Trump insinuated that his own supporters might stage their own rally in front of the White House on Saturday evening, a volatile suggestion at a fraught national moment.

Later in the day, speaking at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida after the launch of the NASA/SpaceX rocket, Trump admonished protesters across the country, expressed support for the "majority of police officers" and blamed Antifa and the "radical left"  without any proof  in his most in-depth remarks since Floyd's death and the ensuing nationwide demonstrations.

"I stand before you as a friend and ally to every American seeking justice and peace. And I stand before you in firm opposition to anyone exploiting this tragedy to loot, rob, attack and menace. Healing, not hatred, justice, not chaos, are the mission at hand," Trump said.

Trump added the voice of "law abiding citizens must be heard and heard very loudly."

"We must defend the rights of every citizen to live without violence, prejudice or fear," Trump said before voicing support for "the overwhelming majority of police officers who are incredible in every way and devoted public servants."

"No one is more upset than fellow law enforcement officers by the small handful who failed to abide by their oath to serve and protect," Trump added.

In his morning Twitter messages, Trump did not seek to lower the temperature or console Americans who find themselves facing parallel health and racial crises.

"Great job last night at the White House by the U.S. @SecretService. They were not only totally professional, but very cool. I was inside, watched every move, and couldn't have felt more safe," Trump said on Twitter.

The President on Thursday had used the threat of police retaliation and military intervention in Minnesota where protests turned violent and destructive  saying on Twitter that "when the looting starts, the shooting starts." Trump's tweets on Saturday also invoked imagery tied to brutal civil rights-era police tactics.

The Secret Service "let the 'protesters' scream & rant as much as they wanted, but whenever someone...got too frisky or out of line, they would quickly come down on them, hard - didn't know what hit them," the President wrote. "If they had they would...have been greeted with the most vicious dogs, and most ominous weapons, I have ever seen. That's when people would have been really badly hurt, at least."

Trump alleged, without evidence, that protesters in Lafayette Park Friday night were, "professionally managed." There is no indication that they were.

"The professionally managed so-called 'protesters' at the White House had little to do with the memory of George Floyd. They were just there to cause trouble. The @SecretService handled them easily," the President wrote.

"Tonight, I understand, is MAGA NIGHT AT THE WHITE HOUSE???" he added, which CNN reached out to the White House for comment about.

Asked by a reporter later Saturday if he was concerned whether his tweets were stoking racial violence, Trump replied, "No, not at all."

"MAGA is 'Make America Great Again.' These are people that love our country," Trump said as he departed the White House for Florida. "I have no idea if they're going to be here. I was just asking."

When asked if the President was calling on his supporters to protest, Trump said, "I don't care."

Trump also criticized DC Mayor Muriel Bowser, claiming she didn't allow the DC police to get involved in the protests outside the White House. The Secret Service, however, later confirmed that the DC police department and US Park police were on the scene.

Bowser responded to Trump on Twitter Saturday, saying that the DC police department, "will always protect DC and all who are in it whether I agree with them (such as those exercising their First Amendment Right) or those I don't (namely, @realdonaldtrump)."

The DC mayor said while Trump "hides behind his fence afraid/alone," she stands with people "peacefully exercising their First Amendment Right after the murder" of Floyd and "hundreds of years of institutional racism."

Protesters clash with Secret Service outside of White House

Floyd, a 46-year-old African American man, died this week after pleading for help as a police officer used his knee on Floyd's neck to pin him  unarmed and handcuffed  to the ground. His death has ignited protests across the United States.

For more than five hours overnight, protesters on Friday confronted Secret Service officers outside the White House  shouting, throwing water bottles and other objects at the line of officers, and attempting to break through the metal barriers.

At times, the crowd would remove the metal barriers and begin pushing up against the officers and their riot shields. The Secret Service continually replaced the barriers throughout the night as protesters wrestled them away.

Protesters pushed hard enough a few times that officers had to walk away with what appeared to be minor injuries. At one point, the agents responded to aggressive pushing and yelling by using pepper spray on the protesters.

Throughout the night, protesters could be heard chanting their support for Floyd and their dislike of Trump.

The protest, which began around 10 p.m. ET, Friday night outside the White House, had mostly quieted down by 3:30 a.m. ET, Saturday morning.

The crowd thinned out and Secret Service officers were able to expand their perimeter and barriers around Lafayette Park across from the White House.

Earlier Friday night, protesters in Washington, DC, had gathered and the White House was initially locked down as crowds began to move toward that location.

"Secret Service personnel are currently assisting other law enforcement agencies during a demonstration in Lafayette Park. In the interest of public safety we encourage all to remain peaceful," the Secret Service tweeted Friday night.

The lockdown at the White House was lifted just before 8:30 p.m. ET, as protesters marched to different parts of the city, before returning later in the evening.

CNN has reached out to the DC police department for comment about the overnight confrontations.

Six arrests were made during the protests, the Secret Service confirmed in a statement Saturday afternoon.

Multiple Secret Service Uniformed Division Officers and Special Agents sustained injuries after violence from some of the demonstrators, according to the agency.

"No individuals crossed the White House fence and no Secret Service protectees were ever in any danger," the agency said.

This story first published on CNN.com has been updated with additional comment from the US Secret Service and Trump.
Foremost Civil Rights Advocacy group-: HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) hereby absolutely condemns and express our deep shock and to state unequivocally that we are absolutely and unreservedly appalled at the reported rape and gruesome murder of Miss Vera Uwaila Omozuwa, a 100 level Microbiology student of University of Benin, by unknown persons, in a church in Benin City. This is a violent violation and termination of a dream. We think this is sacrilegious and totally unacceptable. Those who murdered this innocent teenage student who went to carry out private studies in the quietness and holiness of the Church are agents of Satan who are bloody murderers and persons bent on bringing the name of the Body of Christ into disrepute. They have committed the most egregious and most senseless profanity that is unprecedented in historical context and monumental in terms of the sheer quantum of what their attempts to damage the brand of the Church represents broadly which is a place that righteousness, peace and human progress are preached. These killers who ended the precious and sacred life of this girl are primitive, satanic, brutish and rapacious. They have committed multiple offences against the Body of Christ and violated the sanctity of the life of this teenage student and their deprivation of her life is murderous and has deprived her of her constitutionally guaranteed fundamental Right to life as provided for in section 33(1) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

We in HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) in a statement by the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National Media Affairs Director Miss Zainab Yusuf said they are understably discomfited and disappointed in the disruptive statement of UNIBEN (University of Benin) authorities, which sought to cast a damaging innuendos of impropriety on the incident, by blaming the victims of violence instead of the perpetrators.We think that the reaction of the University of Benin is not far reaching enough but is timid, tendentious, ambiguous and was done in bad faith. The University of Benin through their reaction tried to cast a blame that the victim of this deadly rape and insensitive gruesome attacks may have brought the misfortune to herself by the company she kept. This pedestrian argument without the faintest empirical evidence is irresponsible and irrational and has therefore exposed the signatory of that public statement by the authority of University of Benin of insensitivity. Is the University of Benin saying then that it has knowledge of those who carried out this dastardly act of murder and sexual violation of the most depraved dimension? why say the students should be careful of the company they keep as if the authority has information not available to the public about the identity of her killers or what? That mumbo jumbo of a media Statement by the University of Benin is absolutely absurd and ridiculous.

We in HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) herewith call on the Inspector General of Police Mohammed Adamu to immediately constitute a team of investigators and speedily bring the perpetrators to book. We plead with the General Overseer of the Redeem Church Pastor Adeboye who is one of the few credible fathers of organised religions in Nigeria to mount pressure on his friend President Muhammadu Buhari to task the Inspector General of Police Mohammed Adamu to arrest, prosecute and punish heavily these senseless killers of this young girl in a scene that is similar to the movie called MURDER IN THE CATHEDRAL. These killers who committed this murder and raped the victim inside a Church of God must be immediately arrested.
Two healthcare workers prepare a room in the Hospital Universitario Morales Meseguer in Murcia, after the last coronavirus patient there was discharged.

The Spanish Health Ministry on Sunday reported the lowest number of new coronavirus cases in a day since March 6. On that date, there were 106 positive tests confirmed, while today, there have been 96 diagnosed in the last 24 hours.

From March 6, cases began to spike in Spain, until they reached more than 9,000 infections in a single day toward the end of March. Since then, once the governments confinement measures began to take effect, contagions slowly started to fall. But until now they had never dropped below a hundred.

That said, the figure should be viewed with some caution. Since the coronavirus crisis began in Spain, there has been underreporting of the figures on Sundays and Mondays, mostly due to lower staffing levels at weekends in hospitals.

Eight areas of Spain reported no new cases today: the Balearic Islands, Ceuta, the Valencia region, Galicia, Melilla, Murcia, the Basque Country and La Rioja

But for the last week we have been in uncharted territory. A new system for notifying infections has changed the statistical series. Whats more, since Monday Spains regions have been assigning cases to the day that they were diagnosed, meaning that the historical series is constantly being revised.

Eight areas of Spain reported no new cases today: the Balearic Islands, Ceuta, the Valencia region, Galicia, Melilla, Murcia, the Basque Country and La Rioja. These falls are reflected in the statistics provided by the Health Ministry this week that show the immediate spread of the virus: a new series that details confirmed cases with symptoms detected in the last seven days. On Sunday this figure fell to 0.6 per 100,000 inhabitants across all of Spain, after several days of rises.

The data is much more positive than that reported on Saturday, when there was an uptick of 271 new cases in the previous 24 hours. Todays figures also saw other falls, such as the number of deaths in the last seven days, which came in at 39. The regions notified the Health Ministry of two new coronavirus-related deaths in the last 24 hours.

Just six regions have seen new admissions to intensive care units (ICUs) in the last week, with nine in total. Hospitalizations in the same period have fallen to 263.

The Health Ministry has announced that it is revising the historical series of data from the coronavirus epidemic in Spain, and Fernando Simon, the director of the Health Ministrys Coordination Center for Health Alerts, said earlier this weekend that the updated information could be available by Wednesday of this week.

English version by Simon Hunter.
When youre living on borrowed time, more borrowing is not the answer.

Thats the situation New Jersey finds itself in.

Even before the Covid-19 crisis our state was at the top of the lists for unfunded liabilities in bonding and pensions.

Now revenues from the major taxes have plummeted.

There are many approaches to filling the budget hole, but Gov. Phil Murphy has seized on the most discredited one: borrowing our way out of it.

State Treasurer Elizabeth Maher Muoio recently released a report on projected shortfalls in the budget for the current fiscal year.

Much of that proposal has been rendered obsolete without additional federal funding and the ability to access borrowing mechanisms, she stated in the report.

Borrowing mechanisms? That brought to mind a couple of Murphys predecessors who got us into this mess, one Republican and one Democrat.

The Republican was Christie Whitman. In 1997, her advisors came up with what they thought was a neat idea to balance her budget. Theyd borrow $2.7 billion and put it into the pension funds, thus freeing up the revenue that would have otherwise gone to make the required annual payment.

Were still paying for it, said Whitmans fellow Republican, state Sen. Steve Oroho of Sussex County. Whatever she borrowed, it ended up costing us $12 billion to repay.

Then there was Whitmans successor. Democrat Jim McGreevey balanced his budgets by borrowing against anything that moved  literally, as he liked to say. One of his billion-dollar bonds was backed up by surcharges on moving violations.

The upshot was that in 2008 the Legislature put on the ballot the Lance Amendment, named after Leonard Lance, a then-legislator from Hunterdon County who was a deficit hawk. When it passed, it closed the loopholes that let governors get away with circumventing the constitutional requirement that borrowing be approved by referendum.

Murphy is relying on other Constitutional provisions that grant him emergency powers, so he can avoid asking the voters to approve as much as $14.2 billion in bonding. (But the bill authorizing the first $5 billion in borrowing has to get through both houses of the Legislature and so far Sweeney has not supported it.)

Its absolutely ridiculous, said Oroho. Look at all the things that havent been done yet.

One such thing is furloughing public employees. That could have said $20 million or more a week, Oroho said, but Murphy declined to do it.

Then there is the governors order keeping small businesses from opening on the same terms as big-box stores like Wal-Mart and Target.

Most of the revenue decline is in the sales tax, Oroho said. I was always told that when youre in a hole, stop digging. Theyre trying to make it deeper and deeper.

He added, I think their strategy is Lets make it look as bad as possible so Washington will help.

Help from Washington may be on the way anyway. I learned that when I spoke to U.S. Rep. Josh Gottheimer, a Democrat who represents New Jerseys northernmost Congressional district.

Gottheimer is a co-sponsor of the SMART Act, a stimulus bill that would appropriate $500 billion to be split up among the 50 states according to a formula that ensures everyone gets a cut.

We need to make sure the different state, county and town governments get relief, he said. This is bicameral and bipartisan.

The reason the bill has bipartisan support is that Republicans are just as committed as Democrats to seeing the country climb out of the coronavirus recession.

Gottheimer, who serves on a recovery committee that meets with President Trump, said hes confident the bill will pass and be signed into law in the near future.

Why are we talking about borrowing when we dont even know whats gonna happen with that? Oroho asked.

Oroho has teamed with Senate President Sweeney, a Democrat from Gloucester County, on another reform to close the states chronic budget gap. Thats the Path to Progress plan that would reduce the states long-term obligations for public-employee pensions and benefits.

Why is Murphy talking about borrowing money rather than cutting such costs?

Thats not difficult to discern. Murphy, who is up for reelection next year, has made it clear his No. 1 priority is public employees. Not only does he want to avoid laying any off, he wants to hire more and more and give them better and better benefits.

Meanwhile Sweeney has made his No. 1 obsession the streamlining of pensions and benefits. Till now, he has thwarted Murphy at every turn. But lately the governor has been using emergency declarations to rule the state singlehandedly.

Why does one guy have so much power? Oroho asked.

Oroho is one of a number of legislators to propose a constitutional amendment that would put limits on such executive orders.

You may not have gotten to vote on all the debt thats been run up in your name.

But lets hope you get a chance to vote on that.

ALSO - MURPHY CANT EVEN PRETEND THIS ISNT ABOUT POLITICS:

Check this opinion piece by two members of Murphys recovery committee that recently ran in the Star-Ledger.

First ask yourself why we need a recovery committee. The way to recover is obviously to get rid of all the rules that are keeping us from recovering, such as that ban on small business openings.

But these two arent even pretending that economic recovery is the committees goal.

Its social engineering (italics mine):

"Not only must we rebuild, but we must do it in a way that ensures that communities that have been traditionally left behind are given the tools not just to survive, but thrive. Communities of color and lower-wage workers have unfairly borne the brunt of the COVID-19 fallout, from their overrepresentation in the rolls of victims to the unemployment and economic devastation wrought on them. If we are to truly call the next phase a recovery, those communities must be lifted up as well.

"To do that, we must embrace Governor Murphys vision for a stronger and fairer New Jersey.

If we are successful, New Jerseys overall economy will once again be not only strong, but its benefits will be more widespread than three months ago.

Want a fairer New Jersey, Guv? You can start by revoking all the rules that unfairly restrict small businesses from competing on a level playing field with the big-box stores.

Somehow I dont think thats the governors idea of fairness.
Madhya Pradesh government has transferred three top officers from Chambal region amid complaints of inaction and patronage to the sand mafia at the ground level in the administration and police department. The transfers follow a recent crackdown on the activities of the sand mafia which had continued despite the lockdown, revealing infighting among officials.

Additional director general of police of Chambal zone DP Gupta, superintendent of police, Bhind, Nagendra Singh, and collector of Bhind district Chhote Singh were transferred on Saturday night and Ravindra Kumar Mishra was appointed the commissioner of Chambal division to take over from MB Ojha, commissioner, Gwalior division, who was holding the additional charge for the Chambal division so far.

The transfers follow action against sand mafia on May 27the second in a fortnightwhen deputy inspector general (DIG) of police, Morena range Rajesh Hingankar raided some illegally run mines in Bharauli and Lahar police circles in Bhind district and seized illegally-mined sand worth about Rs 60 lakh. The seizure spot was hardly 500 meters away from Bharauli police station.

The HT Guide to Coronavirus COVID-19

The DIG police suspended officers in charge of Bharauli and Lahar police stations-Yatendra Bhadauria and Vijay Tomar along with two police constables who were posted in Sheopur district but were staying in Bhind to allegedly provide patronage to illegal sand miners. One of the above mentioned police constables, ran an office at his residence from where he monitored activities of illegal sand miners for obvious reasons, said a police official who didnt want to be named.

He said, the action against the sand mafia was taken at the instance of the state government following complaints of police patronage to the sand mafia.

Earlier, Hingankar had raided illegally run sand mines at Indurkhi and Atarsuma on May 12 night in Bhind district. A machine being used in illegal mining at Indurkhi was seized along with two other machines called pandubbi at Atarsuma.

Two dumpers laden with illegally mined sand were also seized in the operation. The next day, officers in charge of Umari, Amayan and Raun police stations- Mahesh Sharma, Jitendra Tomar and Nayan Sharma - were suspended and attached with the police lines.
Ordinarily, when a part of the lung is damaged, the body redirects the flow of blood toward healthier areas that are better able to absorb oxygen. Shunting stops that process of redirection, resulting in hypoxia. It is, according to Cowl, a common element among the roughly 30 percent of covid-19 patients who exhibit mild symptoms yet have unusually low levels of oxygen in their blood  and who sometimes take a sudden turn for the worse.
SAN FRANCISCO (BCN)

In response to violence and vandalism that have grown from what had started out as peaceful protests Saturday, San Francisco officials late Saturday night imposed a curfew starting immediately, running until 5 a.m., and beginning again at 8 p.m. Sunday.

On Sunday morning, Mayor London Breed clarified the curfew will apply to everyone except essential workers, such as doctors or paramedics, heading to or from their jobs. Businesses are required to close at 8 p.m. as well. The curfew may be extended through the week if unrest continues, Breed said.

The California National Guard is also on standby to respond to lawless behavior in the city, San Francisco officials said during a hastily called video news conference late Saturday night. Vandalism and attacks on police officers accelerated after nightfall Saturday, after several hours of relatively peaceful protests.

Late Saturday night, police were dealing with a spate of arrests in the Union Square, where vandalism to stores and looting were running rampant, police Chief Bill Scott said. There also were outbreaks of violence along Market Street.

"We know people are hurting - officers are hurting, my family is hurting," said Scott, who is black. "We understand as a police department that people need to get out and express themselves."

But he and Mayor London Breed said expression turned to violence and destruction, and that such behavior can't continue.

"What we are seeing tonight ... the vandalism, the violence in our city, that's something we will not tolerate," said Breed.

She acknowledged "a lot of hurt, a lot of pain," especially in the African American community that has been impacted for decades by "bad policy and bad decisions."

"This is the last thing I wanted to do as mayor," Breed said.

MORE: Thousands around the Bay Area take to the streets to protest

Meanwhile in Oakland, where more than 70 businesses and other buildings were vandalized or looted Friday night, police were using tear gas on protesters who were marching in the downtown area. Thousands of protesters have been moving through the city since late Saturday afternoon.

Also, the Best Buy store on Mandela Parkway in Oakland was vandalized and looted by a large group early Saturday night, as were nearby BevMo, Ulta Beauty and other stores across the border in Emeryville. Multiple stores in Emeryville's Bay Street shopping area were looted, including H&M, Uniqlo and GameStop. Emeryville police chief Jennifer G. Tejada said "several hundred young people" were primarily responsible.

"I believe it has nothing to do with the community grief over the killing of George Floyd," Tejada told KPIX.

Smaller, peaceful protests took place Saturday in other parts of the Bay Area, including Santa Rosa and San Leandro.

Copyright  2020 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.
Centre of Indian Trade Union (CITU) on Sunday demanded that the state government should immediately release pending salaries from February 2020 to May 2020 of at least 100 professors working as guest faculties at the Himachal Pradesh University (HPU), Shimla, Regional Centre, Dharamshala and HPU Centre of Evening Studies, Shimla.

CITU has alleged that the state government is exploiting these professors by not paying them the pending salaries.

CITU state president Vijendra Mehra said, As per the University Grants Commission (UGC), these professors should be paid Rs 1,000 per lecture but in institutes like Regional Centre, Dharamshala, they are only getting Rs 500 per lecture. Likewise, these professors should get Rs 50,000 maximum salary as per UGC rules but they are only being paid Rs 25,000 salary.

These professors are conducting online classes during the COVID-19 lockdown. However, they have not been given their salaries from February to May, Mehra said.

He said it is a violation of notifications and orders issued by the Centre on March 20 and March 29, 2020, according to which salary of an employee working in government, semi-government and private sector cannot be deducted or withheld.

CITU has demanded immediate intervention in this matter by the state government and HPU administration to protect financial and emotional securities of the professors.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-31 19:38:40|Editor: huaxia

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RAMALLAH, May 31 (Xinhua) -- Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East Jerusalem was opened on Sunday after 70 days of closing as part of precautionary and protective measures to avoid the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Earlier in the day, thousands of Muslim worshipers prayed fajr prayer, wearing medical facemasks and using their own prayer rugs, according to Omar Kiswani, director of Al-Aqsa Mosque.

"We are insisting to protect our holy mosque at all times, especially when it besieged whether from a coronavirus pandemic or any other reason. It is an Islamic place for all Muslims," said Kiswani, urging worshipers to keep social distancing.

Meanwhile, Ekrima Sabri, head of the Palestinian Higher Islamic Council and the preacher of Al-Aqsa Mosque, called all people suffering from symptoms of illness not to attend and pray in the holy place.

Sabri said in a press statement sent to Xinhua that "I hope prayers will go smoothly, calmly and regularly, as well as all worshipers abide by our instructions to avoid the new virus."

On the other hand, Palestinian security sources told Xinhua that dozens of settlers entered the mosque, hours after the opening, under heavy guards.

The sources added "the Israeli policemen arrested six Palestinians from the courtyard of Al-Aqsa Mosque as settlers entered it." Enditem
Colorado hospital staff lined the hallways of UC Health to bid farewell to a nurse who recovered from COVID-19. (Photo: Courtesy of UCHealth)

A 62-year-old nurse who spent 17 days on a ventilator while battling COVID-19, left the hospital to thunderous applause and the song Eye of the Tiger.

Deb Hoffman is a licensed practical nurse at UCHealth Family Medicine Clinic in Greeley, Colorado who became infected with COVID-19 in April. When her fever topped 103 degrees, Hoffman was rushed to UCHealth Greeley Hospital, then to the ICU at UCHealth Medical Center of the Rockies in Loveland.

Hoffman was intubated for 17 days and on May 9, she was transferred to UCHealth Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins for rehab. By the grace of the God, I made it, she tells Yahoo Life. Hoffman adds that a new medication and a procedure called proning, in which doctors turn respiratory patients onto their stomachs to help clear their lungs, were game-changers.

Staff wanted Hoffman to have a special departure, so in-patient rehabilitation manager Rachel Geoghan helped develop a plan. The therapy team was moved by Debs story and advocated for a large celebration, Geoghan tells Yahoo Life. They saw how far she had come.

Physical therapist Megan OBrien adds, It was pretty profound. I dont know if [we had] a dry eye. When Deb came to us she was very weak and she made such gains.

On Wednesday, Hoffman gave a thumbs-up as she was wheeled down the hospital hallway filled with cheering medical staff who held a We are so proud of you sign and played the song Eye of the Tiger. Hoffmans sister Penny Eidem, her brother-in-law Steve and her nephew Justin were waiting outside.

Hearing the song was humbling. My first thought was, Do I deserve this? Its good I wore a mask because I was crying, says Hoffman.

After six weeks of hospitalization, Hoffman wants to return to work as soon as possible and says the slightest drop of hope can help with recovery. You can beat this.

For the latest coronavirus news and updates, follow along at https://news.yahoo.com/coronavirus. According to experts, people over 60 and those who are immunocompromised continue to be the most at risk. If you have questions, please reference the CDCs and WHOs resource guides.

Story continues



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Rallies will be held in Sydney this week as violent race riots continue to sweep the U.S. following the alleged murder of African-American man George Floyd at the hands of a white cop.

Tens of thousands of Americans have been protesting after Floyd's death ignited nationwide outrage over police brutality and systemic racism.

Floyd, a 46-year-old father-of-two, was filmed gasping for breath as Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for eight minutes before he died in custody of the Minneapolis Police Department on Monday.

Minnesota - where Floyd died - has born the brunt of the protests which began there Tuesday before fanning out across the country.

The 'BLM (Black Lives Matter) & George Floyd Peaceful Protest Sydney' rally will take place at Hyde Park, in the CBD, on Wednesday at 5pm.

The 'BLM (Black Lives Matter) & George Floyd Peaceful Protest Sydney' will take place at Hyde Park, in the CBD, on Wednesday at 5pm, with event organisers promising a 'peaceful protest'

'This is a PEACEFUL PROTEST for the misrepresentation of our Indigenous population in the legal system, as well as in solidarity to George Floyd,' the Facebook event read. Pictured: Protestors are seen during the Invasion Day rally in Brisbane, January 26, 2020

'This is a PEACEFUL PROTEST for the misrepresentation of our Indigenous population in the legal system, as well as in solidarity to George Floyd,' the Facebook event read.

'Although Australia is far from where the [alleged] murder took place, we have a voice. We stand with Minneapolis and their people calling for a raise in the degree.

'Australia however, is not exempt from injustices faced for people of colour and the Indigenous population.'

So far 900 people said they will be attending Sydney's protest, with nearly 3,000 interested in going.

In Minneapolis, riots spiralled out of control Saturday night local time as cop cars were torched, stores were looted and at least 11 states activated the National Guard on a fifth night of protests that show no signs of stopping.

Charlotte, North Carolina: Demonstrators chant and raise their arms during a protest in downtown Charlotte on Saturday

Charlotte, North Carolina: Police stand guard during a protest in downtown Charlotte Saturday night

Officer Derek Chauvin (pictured) was identified as the officer pinning down George Floyd in video footage that was widely shared on Tuesday

At least three people were killed during protests across the US and dozens more were injured. In Minneapolis, protesters were seen fleeing after cops hurled tear gas into the crowds while some responded by launching fireworks back at officers.

The National Guard was activated to defend the White House from attack as the Secret Service agents on the ground struggled to keep control of crowds descending on the seat of the US government.

New York was ablaze as NYPD vehicles were torched and ransacked while shocking footage emerged of cops violently detaining protesters.

A man was left critically injured in Dallas when he was attacked and stomped on by a group of people when he allegedly tried to defend a store with a large sword.

In Atlanta a cop suffered 'significant injuries' when they were hit by an ATV, while in Chicago, a man commandeered a police horse and rode off on it.

Los Angeles deployed the National Guard for the first since the 1992 riots when the police officers who beat up black man Rodney King walked free of all charges and California Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in LA County.

A total of 11 states and the District of Columbia had activated the National Guard by the early hours of Sunday, as law enforcement buckled under the strain of the protests.

States calling for Guard assistance included California, Georgia, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Washington state.

Raleigh, North Carolina: Police in riot gear deploy tear gas at protesters front of the the old courthouse on Saturday

Raleigh, North Carolina: Raleigh Police block Fayetteville Street at Hargett Street as they work to return order after a night of violent demonstrations early Sunday morning

Charlotte, North Carolina: Demonstrators are seen locking arms during a protest on Saturday night in downtown Charlotte

Meanwhile at least 25 cities roll out emergency curfews to try to bring rioting and looting under control, including San Francisco, Atlanta, Louisville, Los Angeles, Portland, Columbia, South Carolina, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Seattle.

President Trump has put the Army on notice to deploy to the streets with a four-hour notice - the first time this will have been done in almost 20 years during the 1992 LA riots over the beating of black man Rodney King by cops.

Minnesota - where Floyd died - has born the brunt of the protests which began there Tuesday before fanning out across the country.

Rioting was still going on in the early hours of Sunday, with the Minneapolis police department reporting a big group of protesters on foot and in vehicles throwing missiles of some sort at cops.

Minnesota Dept of Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell announced early Sunday there had been 'dozens' of arrests through the night but no 'substantive' injuries.
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Population Health Management Market Information: Component (Hardware and Others), Solution (Data Integration & Management, Analytics, and Others), Delivery Mode (On-Premise and Others), End-User (Healthcare Providers, Others) Global Forecast Till 2023

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Population health management is the aggregation and analysis of patient data across multiple health domains and data resources, so as to improve both clinical and financial outcomes. The explosive growth of healthcare data availability which includes clinical data, market data etc. is creating a new set of opportunities and challenges for healthcare industry.

The global population health management market is growing with the rapid pace; mainly due to the technological innovation. According to a recent study report published by the Market Research Future, the global population health management is booming and expected to gain prominence over the forecast period growing rapidly. The market is forecasted to demonstrate a spectacular growth by 2023, surpassing its previous growth records in terms of value with a striking CAGR during the anticipated period (2017  2023).

Global Population Health Management Market - Competitive Analysis

The global population health management market growth is currently dominated by few players. IBM is one of them by holding a strong share in the market. IBM is a U.S. based company that manufactures and markets computer hardware and software and offers hosting and consulting services in areas ranging from mainframe computers to nanotechnology. The prime emphasis of the company is on digital revolution by improving data, cloud, and mobile and social security. The company has entered various collaboration to expand their product portfolio and market share. For instance, on 11 Oct 2016, IBM entered a global strategic alliance with Siemens Healthineers in Population Health Management (PHM). The main aim of this alliance is to help health systems to deliver value-based care to patients. IBM is also driven by its innovative product, and services. On February 21, 2017, IBM Watson launched new machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives with special focus on population health management, advanced imaging analytics, and care coordination.

Cerner Corporation is also one of the leading player in population health management market. On April 13, 2015, Cerner Corporation and Qualcomm Life, Inc. teamed up to extend Cerners medical device connectivity capabilities beyond the hospital to the home.

Global Population Health Management Market - Regional Analysis

Most of the existing market players are concentrated in the Americas owing to well-established market and high healthcare expenditures. According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, in 2015, U.S. healthcare spending increased 5.8% reaching USD 3.2 trillion Canadian healthcare specifically was stressed by an advancing demographic move. The increase of insurance coverage because of health care reform (Affordable Care Act, 2010) in the U. S. additionally prompted an expansion in health care spending.

The regulatory changes in the U.S. such as implementation of Affordable Care Act and Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program coupled with Medicare initiative to penalize unnecessary patient readmissions will strengthen the position of the U.S.

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Prakash Chandra

Astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley who blasted off in SpaceXs Crew Dragon from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, in the United States, on May 31 Sunday 12.52 AM (IST) are not just the first astronauts launched from US soil since the space shuttles were retired in 2011. They are also the first to overcome much more than the clutches of gravity, their flight symbolising the indomitable human spirit breaking free from the COVID-19 stranglehold and reigniting hopes for mankinds finest endeavour: space exploration.

This is the worst of times and the best of times for the global space industry (evaluated at around $375 billion last January before the pandemic forced space agencies to batten down their hatches). NASA has shelved tests on the largest and most powerful telescope ever built, the James Webb Space Telescope, scheduled for launch early next year.

The European Space Agency (ESA)s joint Mars mission with Russias Roscosmos, set to lift off later this year, will have to await its next launch window in 2023. Ditto for Chinas first Mars shot, the ESAs Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer mission and wannabe spacefarer the UAEs Mars orbiter, Hope  expected to piggyback on a Japanese launcher.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has postponed several launches lined up for this year and its four Gaganyaan astronauts  expected to go into orbit from Sriharikota in 2022  face staggered training schedules in Russia. Space probes already at their destinations, such as the ESAs ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter and MarsExpress, and the Solar Orbiter (now en route the Sun) are all in standby mode.

COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine  one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show

However, amidst this gloom, space scientists seem to have found an excellent opportunity to use their skills to help fight the pandemic. Across the world, they are rising to the challenge, developing technology for everything from hand sanitisers to ventilators.

NASA, for instance, has developed an oxygen hood which provides the oxygen pressure needed by COVID-19 patients while protecting healthcare workers from infection. The agency has also wheeled out technology successfully used earlier against the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and Ebola to sterilise the inside of a room thoroughly to wipe out all microbes.

The ESA initiative Space in response to COVID-19 outbreak encourages private companies to deploy space-enabled solutions for improving services in healthcare and education. The agency will fund new projects and provide free satellite capacity. Its flagship Earth Observation Programme, Copernicus, offers many terabytes of free data through satellites to provide critical information in the fight against COVID-19.

India has utilised ISROs geospatial technology under the Bhuvan portal which provides tools and location-based solutions to fight COVID-19.

The rest of the world may have just woken up to terms such as social distancing, but space scientists have always routinely donned personal protective equipment and used sanitation methods for instrumentation and integration of spacecraft in clean rooms. They have also quickly adapted frontier technologies such as 3D printing, which helps astronauts build tools in space, to produce specialised surgical instruments for use on Earth. Researchers at the University of Louisville, Kentucky, have taken this a step further and developed 3D-printed pliable resin swabs desperately needed for COVID-19 test kits.

In these extraordinary times, capabilities like satellite communications and navigation technologies are crucial for a wired world that urgently needs satellite links to stay connected. So space tech companies are using their satellites to track the virus trail on the planet. Used along with analytics tools and artificial intelligence algorithms, the satellite data help scientists identify the spread of the virus.

ISROs telemedicine programme has been using INSAT satellites since a long time to link healthcare centres in rural areas with specialty hospitals in cities. It is now an important element in the fight against COVID-19.

The effects of the pandemic across the planet make for dramatic viewing from space: NASA imagery shows air, water, noise and light pollution across cities dramatically less thanks to decreased human activity in industry, transportation and business. This will have a lasting impact on our relationship with nature and how we treat our planet as a new generation of space explorers point the world again towards great adventure.
US President Donald Trump said Saturday he will postpone a meeting of Group of 7 nations until fall and called for an expansion of the group's membership because he considers it an outdated group that doesn't properly represent what's taking place in the world.

The G7 members are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. Trump singled out India, Russia, Australia and South Korea as possible additions.

"I'm postponing it because I don't feel that as a G7 it properly represents what's going on in the world," Trump said.

It was unclear whether Trump's desire to invite the additional countries was an effort to permanently expand the G7. On several previous occasions, he suggested Russia be added given what he described as Moscow's global strategic importance.

There has been a buzz of a 'G7 + 3', with the United Kingdom too pushing for it largely with a view to overcome dependence of China for 5G technology after the Huawei controversy.

However, the discussion still appears to be at a very nascent stage.

The leaders of the world's major economies were slated to meet in the US this year, but the coronavirus outbreak has hobbled those plans. Previously, Trump had touted holding the G7 meeting in US, as a great example of reopening.

"The President wants to see this (G7) take place," White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany had told reporters during a news conference.

"As America reopens, as we try to approach a place of normalcy where people go back to work, where people do recreational activities but socially distant while they do it, the President thinks no greater example of reopening in this transition to greatness would be the G7, and G7 happening here and happening probably more towards the end of June," McEnany said.

However, German Chancellor Angela Merkel refused entertain the idea, as reports followed of her saying no to attending an in-person summit of G7 leaders that Trump has suggested he will host despite concerns over the coronavirus pandemic, the Politico website quoted her spokesman as saying Friday.
The Nuclear Energy Corporation of South Africa (Necsa) is proposing to reappoint its suspended and subsequently fired former CEO Phumzile Tshelane as a highly-paid consultant to the state-owned enterprise.

This has emerged following a Necsa board meeting on 28 May, where the board authorised its chairman, David Nicholls, to approach the minister of minerals and energy, Gwede Mantashe, to seek the reappointment of Tshelane as a consultant to Necsa on a limited-term contract.

When asked for comment, Minister Mantashe indicated that he is not a member of the Necsa board and is unaware of the details. However, he confirmed that the proposed reappointment was raised with him on 29 May by the Necsa chairman, and that a meeting to address the matter has been scheduled for this week.

It is understood that, at this stage, the consulting contract envisaged by the Necsa board for Tshelane would be for a term of about six months. His first task would be to make progress on establishment of a state-owned pharmaceutical company, Ketlaphela Pharmaceuticals, to manufacture anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs in South Africa.

Ketlaphela Pharmaceuticals is a subsidiary of Pelchem, a company in deep financial distress. Pelchem, in turn, is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Necsa Group, a company itself in severe financial distress, that received a damning qualified audit in its 2017/18 financial year, and again in 2018/19, from the Auditor General.

The Necsa group undertakes R&D and commercial activities in the field of nuclear energy and radiation sciences, and produces medical nuclear radioisotopes and associated services. Necsa is also responsible for processing source material, including uranium enrichment, nuclear waste disposal, and cooperating with other institutions, locally and abroad, on nuclear and related matters.

Sources indicate that Finance Minister Tito Mboweni is sitting on a proposal to give Ketlaphela Pharmaceuticals a two-year monopoly for the import of ARVs from India into South Africa, while arrangements are made with the Indian ARV supplier to set up a local ARV manufacturing facility in South Africa.

Dispute

It is well known that there has been is a longstanding dispute between Necsa and its former CEO, who was suspended in December 2018 by former energy minister, Jeff Radebe, when he dismissed the whole board of Necsa at the time, including then board chairman, Kelvin Kemm.

Kemm, Tshelane and another former board member, Pamela Bosman, who had been convicted of fraud in June 2018 and was subsequently appealing her conviction, challenged the dismissal of the Necsa board and the suspension of Tshelane by Radebe in the Pretoria High Court.

However, despite finding that due procedure had not been followed by then minister Radebe in his removal of the board, the judge dismissed Tshelanes application for his suspension as CEO of Necsa to be lifted. The minister was not found to have acted ultra vires, nor did the judge find that Radebe had ulterior motives in the actions that he took, as alleged by the applicants.

Hasty he definitely was, but [this was] in pursuance of restoring the stature of Necsa as an institution, ruled Judge Mtati.

Following the judgement on 16 August 2019, the new Necsa board instituted disciplinary action against the suspended CEO, and Tshelane was subsequently fired. However, ongoing legal actions by Tshelane have continued in further efforts by him to be reinstated.

Necsa chairman David Nicholls has acknowledged that the board had considered offering its former CEO a substantial sum in settlement of all issues and litigation against Necsa by Tshelane, which proposal is understood to have been rejected by Tshelane.

It has been suggested that the proposal for Tshelane to be reappointed as a consultant to Necsa, which the board authorised its chairman David Nicholls to present to Minister Mantashe for approval, may be some kind of settlement in disguise, and possibly also a way back in as CEO for Tshelane.

The reappointment of a former CEO as a paid consultant to the company, after having been suspended and then dismissed under a cloud, is generally considered to be misaligned with the principles of good corporate governance.

Necsa chairman David Nicholls has flatly denied that an amount of R13 million, or indeed any amount, has been discussed or agreed upon as remuneration to Tshelane for a limited-term consulting contract with Necsa of about six months.

Nicholls did however indicate that it is critical that the debilitating ongoing dispute and litigation by Tshelane has to be settled urgently, to enable a new permanent CEO to be appointed for the embattled Nuclear Energy Corporation of South Africa.

This article was produced by Chris Yelland, managing director at EE Business Intelligence, and republished here with permission.

Now read: Crunch time for Necsa
Prominent Belarusian opposition leader Mikalay Statkevich has been detained on his way to a rally in the capital, Minsk.

Statkevich is a former presidential challenger whose candidacy for the August 9 presidential election was rejected earlier this month.

He was detained on May 31 while on his way to Kamarousky Market in downtown Minsk, where up to 2,000 people had gathered to protest the jailing of opposition blogger Syarhey Tsikhanouski.

Tsikhanouski was recently jailed over an "unsanctioned mass gathering" and his candidacy was also nixed by the authorities.

Tsikhanouski runs a popular YouTube channel called The Country For Life, which frequently challenges Belarusian officialdom.

Those who gathered in Minsk on May 31 also voiced support for Tsikhanouski's wife, Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who has been collecting signatures in her own bid to register as a presidential candidate.

Prospective candidates need to obtain 100,000 signatures to be considered for registration as a candidate.

Statkevich ran against longtime President Alyaksandr Lukshenka in a 2010 presidential election that was widely decried as rigged and was followed by a brutal crackdown.

Statkevich was arrested after attending a large demonstration protesting the 2010 results and spent five years in prison after being convicted of organizing riots at a trial criticized by human rights groups and Western governments as unfair.

The Belarusian Central Election Commission on May 19 rejected documents filed by an initiative group for a Statkevich candidacy, citing his "criminal record."

Human Rights Watch warned earlier this month that authorities in Belarus had intensified their crackdown on protesters, opposition bloggers, journalists, and other government critics with a "new wave of arbitrary arrests" ahead of the election.

More than 1,000 demonstrators joined together in Minsk on May 24 to oppose another term for Lukashenka in one of the biggest protests of the year in the country of around 9 million.

Critics of Lukashenka, who has been in power in Belarus for more than 25 years, say his government has shown little tolerance for dissent and independent media.

The country has been the target of U.S. and EU sanctions over its poor rights record and lack of fair elections, but Belarus and the West have recently sought to mend ties to reduce Russia's influence in the country.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 31)  Metro Manila is set to implement a more relaxed community quarantine on Monday, after President Rodrigo Duterte approved the recommendation of the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) to downgrade quarantine restrictions in the capital.

Duterte's decision on Thursday came after the 17 mayors of the Metro Manila Council earlier voted to ease down protocols from modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) to the less strict general community quarantine (GCQ).

Under GCQ, more establishments will be allowed to re-open while those currently operating will be allowed to increase their workforce provided they follow health safety standards, like the wearing of face masks, social distancing, and temperature checks.

GCQ areas considered to be high risk due to the number of COVID-19 cases will be subject to zoning which will be implemented by the National Task Force on COVID-19.

Quarantine passes are no longer required but travel must still be limited for essential needs. Workers need only to present their company ID or certificate of employment at checkpoints.

Public transportation will be allowed but at limited capacity to ensure social distancing. The government recommends businesses to provide shuttle services for their employees if they are to resume operations.

On Friday, the Department of Transportation (DOTr) Senior Transport Consultant Alberto Suansing told CNN Philippines that the resumption of mass transportation will have two phases. During the first phase, from June 1 to 21, rails and trains will resume partial operations with bus augmentation.

Transport network vehicle services like GrabCar, taxis, and point-to-point buses will also be allowed under certain conditions, while tricycle operations will be subject to the approval of the local government unit. Backriding in motorcycles will remain prohibited.

READ: LTFRB allows over 23,000 taxis and TNVS to resume operations on June 1

P2P buses, shuttle services, and buses for MRT augmentation will only have four pick-up and drop off points along EDSA starting Monday, namely North Avenue, Quezon Avenue, Ayala Avenue, and Taft Avenue.

During the second phase, from June 22 onwards, modern jeepneys may be deployed while some traditional jeepneys will also be allowed to service areas that buses and modern jeepneys cannot reach.

The DOTr said during this period, public utility buses and UV Express vehicles will be permitted to operate but with limited passenger capacity.

Traffic jams are again expected in Metro Manila on Monday, with many people returning to work after being restricted to their homes since the quarantine period. The number coding scheme remains lifted until June 5.

Prof. Guido David of the University of the Philippines Institute of Mathematics told CNN Philippines on Sunday that the coronavirus curve in the capital region still hasnt flattened, and that a rise in daily confirmed infections is to be expected under GCQ.

Sa GCQ, we expect na mag-iincrease pa rin [yung number of cases] kasi hindi madaling ma-contain yung pandemic pag na-increase yung mobility.

[Translation: Under GCQ, we expect a continued increase because the pandemic will be difficult to contain when mobility also increases.]

Some senators have also shared their concern towards such move given that the countrys testing capacity is still not enough in the scenario that more cases will be recorded after the transition.

My fear is that the easing of the quarantine may expose thousands of Metro Manila workers and residents to a new wave of community transmission, Senator Risa Hontiveros said in a statement.

She added the importance of making sure that safety measures are in place to prevent such scenario like conducting more tests, providing personal protective equipment for frontliners, work-from-home arrangements for those who can, and sufficient transportation options.

Guido has also said that the opening up businesses calls for the government to ensure a bigger nationwide testing capacity, as all reporting employees "will now become frontliners.

Aside from the absence of mass testing, Senator Francis Kiko Pangilinan also noted the lack of action towards alleged overpricing and corruption on procurement of testing supplies, while Senator Panfilo Ping Lacson criticized the lack of transparency towards daily reporting of COVID-19 cases.

On Friday, the Health department changed its way of presenting data by separating fresh cases, test results released within the last 3 days, from late cases, those released after more than 4 days.

As for Senator Win Gatchalian, he said that realistically, target testing capacities will not be achieved as scheduled and it is up to the individual to protect oneself.

Nasa atin na ang responsibilidad (The responsibility is on us), he said.

As of May 30, the country has recorded 17,224 COVID-19 cases with 3,808 recoveries and 950 deaths. Total cases in Metro Manila has reached 10,870, with 2,793 recoveries, and 709 deaths.
Evidence of a fight with unidentified persons was found not far from the observation post.

A member of Ukraine's Armed Forces has gone missing near the Chonhar peninsula, Kherson region, close to the administrative border with Russia-occupied Crimea; he has reportedly been abducted.

"It became known at about 5 a.m. on May 30 that a serviceman of a Ukrainian Armed Forces unit went missing while on duty at an observation post in the area of the Chonhar peninsula," the Ukrainian Military Police said on Facebook late on Saturday, May 30.

Read alsoInterior Minister Avakov on Brovary shootout incident: 28 people detained (Video)

A search operation began immediately, it said.

"The serviceman does not answer phone calls; his whereabouts are not known," it said.

Evidence of a fight with unidentified persons was found not far from the observation post, the military police added.

Materials about the incident were forwarded to Ukraine's law enforcement agencies.
By Mark Peterson





As I look back at my 10 plus articles arguing that we should look at the peaceful and stable tradition of Korea, it occurs to me that there are two more items I should cover. I'll call these the "twelve pillars" of the peaceful and stable strain within the narrative of Korean history, to which "no religious wars" and "a remarkable ability to recover from wars" should be added.



At the outset I proposed that the 20th century was an aberration compared to the long haul of Korean history. It appears to me that from the time of the unification of the peninsula (or most of it) by the Silla royalty, after 668, until the Donghak Peasant Movement, launching the beginning of the tumultuous 20th century, that during that great middle period there was remarkable peace and stability.



I know this runs full counter to the common narrative in Korea, but I believe that the narrative has been distorted by the event of the aforementioned 20th century, specifically, the turmoil, and also willful distortions by the Japanese. Let's begin with "no religious wars."



An outsider, when beginning to look at Korean history, would anticipate religious wars for two reasons: First, most other regions of the world suffer from religious wars, and second, there could not be two religions more opposite to each other than Buddhism and Confucianism. One is all about relationships, and has little concern about the next life. The other has little regard for earthly relationships and is all about escape to nirvana. The two could not be more opposite. Yet, we have not had religious wars in Korea. It's remarkable.



The 12th pillar is remarkable recovery from disasters. Let's look at the most recent. After the Japanese oppression and World War II, Korea was left one of the poorest countries of the world. There was the famous report from U.S. government economists who argued that any aid given Korea would be a waste of money because Korea had no natural resources, no infrastructure, a population overburdened with refugees, and in no way worthy of any developmental aid. Fortunately, other voices prevailed and the U.S. gave aid, and South Korea started to develop so that now, 70 years after the Korean War, it is one of the foremost countries in the world. Not just in economic terms, but in moral terms as well  look at how Korea has handled the coronavirus crisis in such an exemplary way.



Other disasters? My Ph.D work inadvertently dealt with the recovery of Korea after the twin disasters of the Japanese invasion of 1592 and the Manchu Invasions (1627 and 1636). I looked at how Korea transformed from a loosely-interpreted version of Confucianism to an absolute-ideal form of Confucianism in the late 17th and early 18th century. (I use the term "ideal" very cautiously, because as Confucianism became "perfect" in application, the downside of perfection made for a new oppression.) Often people who know about the changes in Confucianism in Korea wrongly assume that it was the result of the Japanese invasion. I don't think that is the case. Rather, I see the way Korea restored everything to its prewar situation in the first two generations after the turmoil. But it was not till 70 years later, that the third generation after the war made the devotion to Confucianism, the social movement that changed the country radically.



The point is that after the near-total devastation of the Japanese invasion, and the loss of between two and four million people, Joseon society recovered. And it recovered totally, recreating the society from before the war. The king who was accused of "running off" came back to his throne, officials returned to being officials, common people returned to farming, and slaves returned to being slaves. It could be described as remarkable.



The other big turmoil was the Mongol Invasion of the 1230s to the 1270s, whereby the Mongols killed between one and two million people, and "conquered" the Goryeo court. I put conquered in quotation marks because the conquest was not like that in other countries, notably China, where the Mongols ruled directly. In Korea, the Goryeo king stayed on the throne. Through forced intermarriage with the Yuan royalty, Korea came to be called an "in-law kingdom." After the fall, Goryeo went on for a time. The amount of chaos at the fall of the Yuan dynasty and its impact on the subsequent fall of Goryeo a generation later, was remarkably peaceful.



I think that the common narrative that includes these major disasters in a long list of 900 invasions misses the point. These major events, the Mongol Invasion, the Japanese Invasion, and the Korean War, were years-long, thorough devastations that dwarf all the other invasions. But the point here is that Korea has shown a world-class, uniquely remarkable ability to recover from earth-shattering disasters.





Mark Peterson (markpeterson@byu.edu) is professor emeritus of Korean, Asian and Near Eastern languages at Brigham Young University in Utah.


Kylie Jenner had a catastrophic week after being stripped off the title of "World's Youngest Self-Made Billionaire."

The esteemed business magazine, Forbes, claimed that the 22-year-old had inflated the size and success of her business for years.

On Friday, they released a report reevaluation of the Kylie Cosmetics mogul's alleged worth and had determined that she is not a billionaire.

Reporters Chase Peterson-Whithorn and Madeline Berg claimed, "Forbes has recalculated Kylie's net worth and concluded that she is not a billionaire."

"A more realistic accounting of her personal fortune puts it at just under $900 million, despite the headlines surrounding the Coty deal that seemed to confirm her billionaire status."

Kylie Jenner was labeled the youngest self-made billionaire in 2019 and was able to retain the title by 2020, after selling 51% of her makeup company to the beauty empire, Coty, in a deal that was valued at $1.2 billion.

The writers further claim that the "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" star's business is "significantly smaller and less profitable than the family has spent years leading the cosmetics industry and media outlets, including Forbes, to believe."

The magazine further claim that the Kardashian-Jenner clan went to unusual lengths just to prove how wealthy the mother-of-one is, which even included inviting members of the magazine into their mansions and accountant's offices, and also creating "tax returns that were likely forged."

After the bombshell revelations emerged, Kylie and her mom are worried that she'll be axed off the rich-list and are reportedly "freaking out" as they are scared about ruining their brand.

An insider told The Sun, "Kris and Kylie Jenner are freaking out that this is going to hurt their brand, and even worse, they could be in trouble with the government."

A top financial fraud attorney, Jan Handzlik, spoke to the Daily Mail on Friday, saying that the Kylie Skin CEO could face a criminal investigation over the alleged exaggerations.

"My guess is that at a minimum, the Securities Exchange Commission will begin what they call an informal inquiry and then perhaps elevate that to a formal investigation, which gives them subpoena power."

With the possible interrogation by the SEC, Handzlik further thinks that Kylie Jenner could face a criminal investigation by the Department of Justice.

He said, "those things may very well lead to the US Attorney's office and the Southern District of New York in particular, jumping sooner than they might otherwise."

Not only that, but Kylie Jenner and those who helped her, including her mom, Kris, may also face jail time for the fraud.

"If the Department of Justice decides to make this a criminal case.. if there were to be a conviction, that could include jail time for any individuals who were responsible."

Kylie Jenner responded to the "disgusting" claims of Forbes, saying that all she sees are "a number of inaccurate statements and unproven assumptions."

She took to her Twitter, calling out the "tax returns that were likely forged," to be untrue as there is no proof.

"I've never asked for any title or tried to lie my way there EVER. Period."

However, she insisted that no matter what, she's still "blessed" and is "doing perfectly fine."

READ MORE: Kylie Jenner Fear: Mogul Afraid for Her Daughter Stormi Because of THIS
30.05.2020 LISTEN

Tell us a bit about yourself.

My name is Okwa Morphy from Nigeria. I am a United Nations Volunteer (UNV) with the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS). Im 49 years old and I hold a masters degree in law. My area of expertise is human rights.

Where are you based?

Im currently based in Yambio, the capital of Western Equatoria State in South Sudan. I work with the local community and other stakeholders to raise awareness about the importance of promoting and protecting basic human rights and dignity for all, especially women and children. I love what I do!

What are your responsibilities in the mission and what is your typical day like?

As a Human Rights Officer with UNMISS, my primary responsibilities include monitoring, investigating, documenting and reporting on human rights violations. This is a sensitive and challenging task which broadly includes monitoring parties to the ongoing conflict and how their actions (or inaction) affect civilians rights.

A typical day for me in Yambio involves getting to the office early to check for updates from the mission headquarters in Juba, then setting out to meet local interlocutors. I regularly visit detention facilities for monitoring purposes. The most difficult part of my day is when visiting the special protection units of local hospitals to monitor and record reported cases of sexual violence against women, which is sadly common in South Sudan.

How long have you been a UN Volunteer and how did you become one?

I joined UNMISS as a UN volunteer in August 2017. This is my first UN mission. I came across the UN Volunteers website almost by accident as I was surfing the internet in Nigeria one day. It caught my attention immediately as it encouraged professionals to serve as UN volunteers. I applied and was delighted when three months later I got an offer to serve in South Sudan. It was a dream come true for me career-wise, as it was an opportunity to do the work I am most passionate about and at an international level.

What did your family and friends back home think about your decision to leave your country and work for the UN peacekeeping mission?

My mother was very skeptical initially and didnt understand why I wanted to leave the comfort of my home for a field mission in a country where there was active conflict, poverty and extreme hunger. My siblings were more supportive because they felt it was a unique opportunity but, I must admit, it took a great deal of convincing to get my mother on board. However, Im happy to say that as time went by and having settled into my role, my family is very proud of me.

Tell us about the highlights of your services at your current peacekeeping mission:

The highlight of my experience at UNMISS is undoubtedly the opportunity I have to bring to light the violations of human rights and humanitarian law. It can be challenging, and even heartbreaking at times. But I feel that in some small way, Im making sure that the injustices that have been perpetrated against civilians and vulnerable populations, particularly women and children, will eventually be addressed. In some way, I can say Ive contributed to the justice system and its accountability, as well as the healing process for South Sudan.

What are the three things you like most about the mission and the country you are serving in?

My experience in Yambio has taught me to let go of my personal biases, keep an open mind and learn from my colleagues. It has enriched me tremendously and made me a better person and a better professional. Im very grateful for this stint at UNMISS because it has taught me the value of patience and enabled me to widen my skillset considerably.

What I like about South Sudan is the people who are extremely welcoming and hospitable. Despite all the challenges they face every single day  struggling to feed their children, making a living, protecting their homes and families  you can feel their warmth the minute you meet them. Despite everything they have been through as a people and a country, the smiles on their faces are filled with hope. For me, this resilience in the face of such adversity is rare.

What part of your job do you find most challenging and why?

I get moved when speaking to people whose human rights have been violated in some way, or those who have survived sexual violence. I can see the trauma in their eyes and hear it in their voices. Its always been the most difficult aspect of my job.

Do you think female peacekeepers serve as role models for the local population?

Absolutely! I think we provide local women and girls an empowering ideal to aspire to. When I am among the local communities in Western Equatoria many women come up to me and say that they hope their daughters will one day be like me. I tell them that their daughters can be like me if given the opportunity to go to school and complete their education. Overall, female peacekeepers from UNMISS are loved and respected among our host communities.

What would you say to young people considering a career in peacekeeping?

Peacekeeping isnt for the faint-hearted. It brings out the humanity in all of us and is all about serving societies and individuals that need your help the most. So, if you really want your life to count for something larger than yourself, Id strongly urge you to consider a career in peacekeeping. Its not always easy to be away from family and loved ones and the working conditions can be difficult; but all the sacrifices you make are ultimately worth it!
People gather near Pan Pacific Park for a Saturday protest set up by Black Lives Matter Los Angeles and Build Power. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times)

Beverly Hills officials have urged residents to stay indoors in preparation for protests, and West Hollywood's mayor said that city plans to issue a curfew for 8 p.m. through the 5:30 a.m. Beverly Hills is also ordering a curfew.

The moves come as violent protests hit the Fairfax District around the Grove, Farmers Market and CBS Television City.

Beverly Hills officials urged motorists to avoid the city. Councilwoman Lili Bosse said on her Instagram page that Beverly Hills would also impose a 8 p.m. curfew. Bosse also said the City Council discussed the protests Saturday.

"The protests are a result of the tragic death of George Floyd in Minneapolis earlier this week," she wrote. "I want to remind the Beverly Hills community that we are prepared and here for you during these difficult times. Our police department is prepared and remains committed to providing exceptional service and demonstrating respect to all."

Some shops on Rodeo Drive have been boarded up.

I am asking everyone to stay home, Beverly Hills Mayor Les Friedman said. Thousands of protesters marched through our city streets on Saturday to call attention to the devastating circumstances surrounding the death of Minneapolis resident George Floyd. While most of the protesters were peaceful and there were no injuries, there were multiple incidents of vandalism in the city. The safety of the Beverly Hills community remains our top priority at all times.

A tense standoff between police and protesters was underway in the Fairfax District after demonstrators set several Los Angeles Police Department cruisers on fire. That is east of Beverly Hills and south of West Hollywood.

The group marched past the Grove and Farmers Market. At one point, people tagged a Metro bus and some walls of the Grove with graffiti. Some demonstrators stood on top of Du-par's restaurant holding banners.

On Beverly Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue, a group of protesters crashed with police, throwing debris at them and officers fired less-than-lethal weapons. The officers retreated from the intersection, and protesters marched down the street, some riding on top of dumpsters.

Some protesters tried to get into CBS Television City but were pushed back by security officers and police.

Los Angeles has imposed a curfew for downtown tonight.
Police take back the streets at around midnight after firing copious amounts of tear gas to disperse protesters and rioters outside the Minneapolis Police 5th Precinct during the fourth night of protests and violence following the death of George Floyd, in Minneapolis, Minn., on May 29, 2020. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

Federal Officer Killed in Shooting During Protests in Oakland Is Identified

A federal law enforcement officer in California who was shot dead at a courthouse in Oakland, California, was identified as Patrick Underwood, said his family. It happened as protests occurred outside the building.

Underwood was shot as a vehicle pulled outside the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building at about 9:45 p.m. Saturday. A person opened fire at two contract security officers who worked for Homeland Securitys Federal Protective Service, killing Underwood, his family told Fox News on Sunday.

When someone targets a police officer or a police station with an intention to do harm and intimidatethat is an act of domestic terrorism, Department of Homeland Security Acting Deputy Secretary Ken Cuccinelli told reporters about the incident.

There are currently threats by some to attack police stations and federal buildings, Cuccinelli said. That violence not only wont be tolerated, we are also committed to ensuring that it wont succeed anywhere.

The incident occurred about a week after the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis. Nationwide demonstrations, some of them violent, have ensued in the wake of his death.

Protesters march along the freeway that exits St. Paul on their way to U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis via the Saint Anthony Falls bridge on the fourth day of protests and violence following the death of George Floyd, in Minneapolis, Minn., on May 29, 2020. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

The second officer who was shot in the incident is in critical condition, the FBI told KRON4. The two officers were watching over a demonstration as it occurred.

Lancaster City Councilwoman Angela Underwood Jacobs, who ran for Congress, confirmed the death of Underwood, who is black.

My brother, Dave Patrick Underwood, a federal officer, was murdered 5/29/20 in Oakland California, while on duty during the riots.This Violence Must Stop, she wrote on Facebook.

Officials did not name a suspect in the case.

Last nights shooting of two security guards in Oakland again showed what an inflammatory and difficult period were in. We have to know right from wrong and not use the terrible tragedy in Minneapolis to perpetrate more violence. Theres never an excuse to shoot and kill a security guard, destroy businesses or injure innocent people. Every effort must be taken to apprehend and prosecute those who use deadly violence. People must have the right to peacefully and safely protest in Oakland and across the country, said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.).

And Gov. Gavin Newsom also issued a response.

This is a moment of pain for our state and nation. We are also mourning the tragic loss of a federal security officer and wounding of another in Oakland. Jennifer and I send our sincere condolences to their families, friends and colleagues. No one should rush to conflate this heinous act with the protests last night. A federal investigation is underway, and we should let that process play out, he said.

No other details about the incident were released.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-31 20:33:40|Editor: huaxia

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HANOI, May 31 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam reported no new cases of COVID-19 infection on Sunday, with its total confirmed cases remaining at 328 and zero deaths so far, according to the Ministry of Health.

Meanwhile, as many as 279 patients have totally recovered from the infectious disease, the ministry said.

Vietnam has recorded no local transmission for 45 straight days while there are nearly 7,900 people being quarantined and monitored nationwide, according to the ministry. Enditem
Born on May 31, 1725, in the village of Chondi in Jamkhed, Ahmednagar, today marks the 295th anniversary of the brave queen, Maharani or Rajmata Ahilyabai Holkar, regarded as one of the finest female rulers in Indian history. As a prominent ruler of the Malwa kingdom, she spread the message of dharma and promoted industrialisation in the 18th century.

Her father, Mankoji Rao Shinde, was the Patil (chief) of the village and home-schooled Ahilyabai to read and write despite womens education being a far-fetched idea in the village.

Early life:

Ahilyabai did not belong to a royal lineage, however, her entry into royalty is nothing short of a twist of fate. It was when Malhar Rao Holkar, an acclaimed nobleman in the Malwa territory spotted an eight-year-old Ahilyabai at a temple service feeding the hungry and poor, while on his way to Pune. Immensely moved by the young girls act of kindness and strength of character, he decided to ask her hand in marriage for his son Khanderao Holkar. Ahilyabai was married to Khanderao Holkar in 1733 at the tender age of 8.

Distress soon befell the young bride when her husband was killed in the battle of Kumbher in 1754, leaving her a widow at only 29. But she was forbidden from committing Sati by her father-in-law, who became her strongest pillar of support at the time.

The kingdom felt a strong vacuum when Malhar Rao passed away, soon followed by her young son. Ahilyabai, however, stood undeterred through all her personal losses, that too in quick succession. She channelled her grief when she decided to take matters into her own hands for the sake of the administration of the kingdom and the lives of her people. After petitioning the Peshwa after her sons untimely death, she ascended the throne and became ruler of Indore on 11 December 1767.

Maharani Ahilyabai Holkar:

John Keay, the British historian, gave the queen the title of The Philosopher Queen. He said in her praise: Ahilyabai Holkar, the philosopher-queen of Malwa, had evidently been an acute observer of the wider political scene.

The Queen of Malwa was not only a brave queen and skilled ruler but also a learned politician. Her observation of the British and their agenda was something even the Maratha Peshwa had missed noticing. In a letter written to the Peshwa in 1772, she threw caution to the wind and said: Other beasts, like tigers, can be killed by might or contrivance, but to kill a bear it is very difficult. It will die only if you kill it straight in the face, or else, once caught in its powerful hold; the bear will kill its prey by tickling. Such is the way of the English. And given this, it is difficult to triumph over them.

Development work, philanthropy and more:

Indore prospered during her 30-year rule from a tiny village to a flourishing city. Ahilyabai is famous for having built numerous forts and roads in Malwa region, sponsoring festivals and offering donations to many Hindu temples. Her philanthropy reflected in the construction of a number of temples, ghats, wells, tanks and rest-houses stretching across the length of the country.

Her kingdoms capital, Maheshwar, was a melting pot music and culture and she is known to have opened doors to stalwarts like the Marathi poet Moropant, Shahir Anantaphandi and Sanskrit scholar, Khushali Ram. The capital was also known for its distinct craftsmen, sculptors and artists who were paid handsomely for their work. The queen also established a textile industry in the city.

Through public audiences held daily in her court, Ahilyabai addressed the grievances of her people and always became available to anyone who needed her guidance.

Historians have noted how she encouraged all within her kingdoms boundaries to do their best at whatever they took on. Far and wide the roads were planted with shady trees, and wells were made, and rest-houses for travellers. The poor, the homeless, the orphaned were all helped according to their needs. The Bhils, who had long been the torment of all caravans, were routed from their mountain fastnesses and persuaded to settle down as honest farmers. Hindu and Musalman alike revered the famous Queen and prayed for her long life, writes Annie Besant.

An English poem written by Joanna Baillie in 1849 reads:

For thirty years her reign of peace,

The land in blessing did increase;

And she was blessed by every tongue,

By stern and gentle, old and young.

Yea, even the children at their mothers feet

Are taught such homely rhyming to repeat

In latter days from Brahma came,

To rule our land, a noble Dame,

Kind was her heart and bright her fame,

And Ahlya was her honored name.

Ahilyabai was a woman ahead of her times, but her greatest regret remained her daughter performing Sati upon the death of her husband, Yashwantrao Phanse.

The queen died at the age of 70 after a 30-year rule and was succeeded by her commander-in-chief, Tukoji Rao Holkar I.

Centuries later, the brave and just queens legacy lives on in the form of the numerous temples, dharamshalas, and the large amount of social work she dedicated her life to.

A commemorative stamp was issued in her honour on August 25, 1996, by the Indian government. As a tribute to the ruler, Indores domestic airport has been named Devi Ahilyabai Holkar Airport. The Indore university too was renamed Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya.

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Back on Nov. 7, 1972, Colorados voters passed Colorado Initiative 9, better known as the Colorado Sunshine Law, a citizen-approved statute that requires any state or local governmental body that meets to discuss public business or to take formal action do so in meetings that are open to the public. The vote was 491,073 in favor and 325,819 opposed. A 60.11% vs. 39.89% victory for openness. To quote two Colorado leaders on its effect:

Before its adoption, one could attend a committee hearing and observe that the committee members had already met and decided what to do; thus, a hearing was a charade. Jean Dubofsky, first female justice appointed to the Colorado Supreme Court, 1979-1987.

Colorado was early in the Sunshine movement, and we can be proud. Government should not operate in the dark, and it has been a great reform. Richard D. Lamm, governor of Colorado, 1974-1986.

I was elected to the Colorado House of Representatives that same November day and had a chance to participate in the implementation of that law when the 1973 session began. There was grumbling at first. Why cant we just meet over drinks at the Shirley Savoy  the long-gone Denver hotel where many rural legislators stayed during the legislative sessions  and get all these bills taken care of? some would complain.

Quickly, however, it became the way of life. This was how business was done. I served in the Legislature for six years, then headed four different state agencies under two governors and cannot remember one instance where having open meetings was a problem. During my last four years in the House, I was on the legislative Joint Budget Committee. Composed of three representatives and three senators, this was the committee that drafted the state budget. We had a hearing room on the third floor of the state capital, and it was always packed  state agencies and their advocates, other legislators seeking funds for projects in their districts, the press corps and interested citizens.

Our budget debates were exhausting and sometimes explosive. Once, a member threw all his papers at me in frustration, gave the other members the finger and stormed out. One day, a high school classmate, ragged, alcoholic and homeless, suddenly appeared to ask me for $20.

In my opinion, we legislators were the great beneficiaries of this Sunshine law. Why?

First, because all of our work was out in the open. No one could claim we were hypocrites, arguing one way and voting another.

Second, those who came to observe could get a taste of the difficulty of legislating. Each and every one of us has a stash of brilliant ideas that, if enacted, would immediately transform society. Transforming those brilliant ideas into a piece of legislation that can gain the support of a majority of House and Senate members as well as the governor can be an extraordinarily difficult task, however. To see legislators struggle over these issues is humanizing.

Third, functioning in the open would eliminate many bad ideas. Take New Mexicos capital budget, for example. Months ago, the Journal rightly criticized some of the capital items that were being funded in this secret process. Would the legislators who proposed those projects have dared to do so if they had known they would be named?

The upcoming June 18 special session will bring up another issue  fairness. State budgeting is almost always about increasing funding or adding programs. This session will be very different because enormous cuts will be required. Everyone knows this will be necessary, but unless the process is opened up, how will we know that the process has been fair?

My best wishes to those New Mexico legislators who will struggle with these issues. I hope that they will do so in the spirit of Sunshine.

Santa Fe resident Morgan Smith served in the Colorado House of Representatives and as Colorado Commissioner of Agriculture. He can be reached at Morgan-smith@comcast.net.
Mets starting pitcher Marcus Stroman has never been one to keep quiet.

Hes not starting now.

Stroman once again spoke out Sunday morning regarding the death of 46-year-old George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis police.

Racism is thriving in America, Stroman tweeted. Thats a fact. If you choose to turn a blind eye towards it...youre part of the problem that will continue to destroy this nation. Wake up and look in the mirror!

Several other MLB stars have voiced their opinions, too.

Twins manager Rocco Baldelli tweeted this:

George Floyd should be breathing right now. We have a lot of progress to make. A lot. Remember his name. Remember what happened.

Nationals reliever Sean Doolittle, a New Jersey native, tweeted this:

"Racism is Americas Original Sin. It was here before we even forged a nation, and has been passed down from generation to generation. And we still struggle to acknowledge that it even exists, much less atone for it. The generational trauma of racism and violence is killing black men and women before our eyes. We are told it is done in the name of, law and order, but there is nothing lawful about these murders.

HERES HOW YOU CAN BUY MARCUS STROMAN METS MEMORABILIA

My heart is heavy knowing that George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and too any others should still be alive. We must not look away from the racism and violence. We must never condone racism or extrajudicial violence in the name of law and order. We must take action and call it out for what it is. We must recognize our shared humanity and atone for our Original Sin or else we will continue to curse future generations with it. RIP George Floyd.

Twins outfielder Byron Buxton said this on Instagram:

Its unbearable to even think about whats happening in our city and throughout the country, but things have to CHANGE. African Americans have been slaughtered left and right for nothing more than the color of our skin. That is reality and it has been ignored far too long. DEMAND PROGRESS - DEMAND JUSTICE for George Floyd.

Brendan Kuty may be reached at bkuty@njadvancemedia.com.
Less than three months after the coronavirus pandemic turned the United States upside down, a new normal remains elusive for both rank-and-file citizens and elected leaders.

Theres no playbook for this, Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts told the Journal Star editorial board this week.

More than $10 billion in federal funds have made their way to Nebraska, with much of the money designated for particular purposes  such as stimulus checks and the Paycheck Protection Program. Even as Nebraska as weathered the COVID-19 storm better than most states, having the third-lowest unemployment, that figure of 8.3% is the highest ever recorded for the Cornhusker State.

Hence, its imperative these programs are wisely structured at the federal level and disbursed by the states.

Ricketts unveiled Wednesday his intent for the more than $1 billion made available to Nebraska through the CARES Act. His plan was sound, and a handful of provisions stood out:
By Express News Service

JAJPUR: Jayashree Jena of Baring village within Binjharpur police limits has been staying in a makeshift hut made of bamboo and covered with a polythene sheet near her paternal house for the last few days.

The 27-year-old woman was denied entry into her house by her father Sisir Kumar Dhal despite being tested negative for coronavirus. Jayashree was married off to a man from her village in 2010. But the marriage lasted only for a year as Jayashree, unable to bear the physical and mental torture meted out by her husband and in-laws, walked out of it. She returned home only to be denied entry by Sisir.

Left with no option, Jayashree left for Bhubaneswar in search of work and got employed in a shrimp firm. She shifted to Dhamra in Bhadrak district after the firm was closed four years back and has been working as a construction worker since then. After imposition of the lockdown, Jayashree once again became jobless and decided to return to Baring. She walked and reached Chhanchina in Dasarathpur block on May 12 where she was put under institutional quarantine for 14 days. During this time, her swab sample was tested negative for Covid-19.

After her release from the quarantine centre on May 26, she went to her paternal house and once again Sisir did not allow her in. This time, on the pretext that she had returned from another district. Despite the villagers appeals, Sisir did not relent. Moved by her plight, the villagers constructed the makeshift hut near her house and this has been her abode for the last three days.
Catholics across Portugal returned to churches for their first Sunday Mass since the country entered the government imposed coronavirus lockdown.

The historic Estrela Basilica in Lisbon held a bilingual Mass in Portuguese and English for the community.

A French visitor said it was even more special to be able to return on the day Catholics are celebrating the feast of Pentecost.

With Masses again allowed to take place, recommendations from the Portuguese health authorities include a limited number of people per ceremony depending on the size of each church, social distancing between different groups of people, mandatory disinfectant at the entry to each place of worship and mandatory use of masks.

Portugal has officially recorded almost 32,000 cases of COVID-19 and almost 1,400 deaths.

For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough, that clear up in two to three weeks.

But it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, and death for some people, especially older adults and people with existing health problems.
The Benjamin Franklin Bridge has been temporarily closed as another day of protests gets going in Philadelphia following the killing of George Floyd in Minnesota last week.

The Delaware River Port Authority, which operates the bridge, said Sunday morning that the pedestrian walkway which spans the bridge between Camden and Philadelphia is also closed until further notice due to police activity.

More people keep arriving in Center City to cleanup. Theres still some looting. Also many people with brooms, garbage bags looking to help cleanup #bringabroomPHL pic.twitter.com/En8EstBElw  Noah Cohen (@noahyc) May 31, 2020

PATCO train service that uses the bridge is still running.

Traffic is being diverted to the Walt Whitman Bridge, according to the New Jersey Department of Transportation. Traffic remains heavy on I-676 into Camden.

In addition, all streets in Center City were closed at noon. The closure area runs from Vine Street to South Street between the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers, 6abc.com reported.

The closures come following a night of looting and violence in Philadelphia after what had been a mainly peaceful daytime protest near City Hall and the Art Museum. The demonstrations later turned violent with cars set ablaze and other property damage and Philadelphia police announced an 8 p.m. curfew in the city.

Philadelphia police said Sunday morning that 148 have been arrested in the city since Saturday, including 48 for looting or burglary. At least 13 police officers were treated for injuries.

I-676 northbound, heavy traffic in Camden due to Ben Franklin Bridge closure. Use caution,slow down and expect delays.  NJDOT (@NJDOT_info) May 31, 2020

Philadelphia is among many cities across the country where protesters have taken to the streets after a Minneapolis police officer was charged with the murder of Floyd, a handcuffed black man who pleaded for air as the officer pressed a knee on his neck.

Those who cause harm here whether it was physical harm, injuries, vandalism, fires, those folks were not in active alignment with the purpose of what those who were here earlier in the day were doing, Philadelphia police commissioner Danielle Outlaw said at a press conference Sunday. They were here specifically with the intent to destroy and quite frankly those folks didnt look like me.

A crowd estimated by police as numbering 500 people gathered at Philadelphias City Hall, kneeling for more than eight minutes in honor of Floyd, then marched through Center City to the Philadelphia Museum of Art on Saturday.

Protesters sprayed graffiti on a statue of former Philadelphia Mayor Frank Rizzo, tried to topple it and set a fire at its base. Rizzo, mayor from 1972 to 1980, was praised by supporters as tough on crime but accused by critics of discriminating against minorities. His 10-foot-tall bronze statue outside the Municipal Services Building, across from City Hall, has been defaced before and is to be moved next year.

Derek Chauvin has been charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in the death of Floyd. Three other officers were also fired but have not been charged for their roles in the Monday incident.

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
The Australia-based website Eastasiaforum.org on May 28 ran an article titled Vietnams COVID-19 political gains affirming that Vietnam has earned international accolades as one of the successful countries in Asia to contain the coronavirus.

At an airport in Vietnam - Illustrative image

According to the author, Vietnam may win more than international praise, especially in political terms.

The country has been highly transparent in its response to the crisis through broadcasting regularly on television and keeping its citizens updated on the pandemic via text messages, the article wrote, adding that national media is being inundated with public praise over the effectiveness of government and the Party.

It affirmed that the effectiveness of the Communist Party of Vietnams leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic has helped boost the countrys prestige in the international arena.

With only a fraction of the healthcare budget of other successful countries, the performance of Vietnams healthcare services is surprising, as it not only has successfully contained the virus, but also has donated medical supplies to other countries.

The article stressed that the support reflects the countrys international spirit and sense of responsibility, especially when it is currently the chair of ASEAN and a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council.

The author also said that Vietnam will likely bounce back quickly after the pandemic thanks to government efficiency and resilience during the crisis. Vietnams success in containing the pandemic will make it a good destination for Western firms to invest during the post-coronavirus period, especially firms from the United States or Europe.

East Asia Forum is a platform for analysis and research on politics, economics, business, law, security, international relations and society relevant to public policy, centred on the Asia Pacific region. East Asia Forum is catalogued and archived by the National Library of Australia.

Vietnam goes through 45 days without community infections

No new COVID-19 case was recorded in Vietnam overnight, leaving the total at 328 as of 6am on May 31, according to the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control.

Vietnam has gone through 45 days in a row without community transmission.

Among the 328 cases confirmed so far, 188 were imported.

A total of 279 COVID-19 patients or 85 percent have fully recovered, while the remaining 49 are being treated at central and provincial health facilities in a stable condition. Of those, nine have tested negative for SARS-CoV-2 once, and 17 negative at least twice.

As many as 7,870 people who had close contact with COVID-19 patients or returned from pandemic-hit areas are under health monitoring, of whom 69 were quarantined at hospitals, 6,870 at other concentrated facilities and 931 at home and place of residence./.VNA
By Express News Service

HYDERABAD: In a tragic case of medical and administrative apathy, a six-year-old child, Baby, from Boduppal succumbed to severe dog bite injuries after almost four hospitals refused to provide her treatment through a five-hour ordeal. Baby, belonging to a Scheduled Tribe family, was outside her house when a pack of dogs mauled her. She was attacked by five dogs. We used various tactics to make them leave her. As she was bleeding profusely, we first rushed her to a nearby private hospital, said Holi, her father, who is a daily-wage labourer.

However, the parents were asked to take her to another hospital. The anxious family then took her to two more private hospitals, where the girl was denied treatment. Ultimately, they reached the Fever Hospital at Nallakunta, where she was referred to Niloufer Hospital. While it remains unclear if the treatment was refused by private hospitals for want of a Covid-19 test or because of the severe nature of the injuries, the bereaved father said at all the hospitals, the doctors asked for tests.

The girl was brought dead to the hospital. There was nothing we could do. So we shifted the body to Osmania mortuary where further investigations would be taken up, said a senior official from Niloufer Hospital, who did not want to be named. Meanwhile, a senior official of the Boduppal Municipal Corporation, when contacted, said they would take up animal birth control en masse and offer a compensation to the family. Its high time that the stray dog menace ends in the city. We informed the district collector to look into the matter. However, they gave us a very cold response, said Achyuta Rao, a member of Balala Hakkula Sangham.

Medical apathy

The girls parents had to run from one hospital to another and the entire process took about five hours. When she was finally brought to Niloufer, she was declared brought dead
Rioters last night hurled rocks at a business owner who was allegedly trying to defend his store with a sword before he was brutally beaten unconscious in Dallas.

The victim was stable, police said, after the man was seen slumped over in the street with blood pouring from gashes on his head in the Victory Park area of the city.

Footage shows the alleged store owner wielding a long blade and rushing towards a few rioters. Within seconds, a furious mob descends on the man, hurling rocks at him, kicking him in the head and beating his face with skateboards and fists.

Dallas Police said the man had taken up arms against the rioters to 'allegedly protect his neighborhood from protesters.'

The alleged business owner's body lies twisted in the street as blood pours from gashes on his head after rioters attacked him in Dallas last night

A furious mob descends on the man, hurling rocks at him, kicking him in the head and beating his face with skateboards and fists

The alleged business owner is seen holding a long blade as he rushes towards one man last night just moments before the mob takes him down

In a video taken by Elijah Schaffer of Blaze TV, the victim is very rapidly knocked unconscious in the ferocious beating. A few of the witnesses - including the cameraman - rush over to help the man.

One is head yelling: 'Turn him over,' while another cautions, 'Don't touch him.'

The victim's body was mangled by the stomping and kicking of the mob, but he was able to sit up later and was seen holding his hand to his head before being taken in an ambulance.

Across the city there had been 74 arrests by 10.45pm Saturday on the fifth night of rioting across the US over the killing of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody after a white officer knelt on his neck in Minneapolis.

The National Guard was activated to defend the White House from attack as the Secret Service agents on the ground struggled to keep control of crowds descending on the seat of the US government.

The victim's body was mangled by the stomping and kicking of the mob, but he was able to sit up later and was seen holding his hand to his head before being taken in an ambulance.

The Big Apple was ablaze as NYPD vehicles were torched and ransacked while shocking footage emerged of cops violently detaining protesters.

In Atlanta a cop suffered 'significant injuries' when they were hit by an ATV, while in Chicago, a man commandeered a police horse and rode off on it.

Los Angeles deployed the National Guard for the first since the 1992 riots when the police officers who beat up black man Rodney King walked free of all charges and California Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in LA County.

A total of 11 states and the District of Columbia had activated the National Guard by the early hours of Sunday, as law enforcement buckled under the strain of the protests.

States calling for Guard assistance included California, Georgia, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Washington state.

Washington DC: The National Guard was activated to defend the White House from attack as the Secret Service agents on the ground struggled to keep control of crowds descending on the seat of the US government

Minneapolis: Tear gas and fireworks go off in the streets Saturday night on day five of protests over Floyd's death

Washington DC: The seat of the government was under threat from protesters leading to the National Guard being activated in Washington DC

Washington DC: Demonstrators gesture next to a fire during a rally near the White House

Meanwhile at least 25 cities roll out emergency curfews to try to bring rioting and looting under control, including San Francisco, Atlanta, Louisville, Los Angeles, Portland, Columbia, South Carolina, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Seattle.

Donald Trump has put the Army on notice to deploy to the streets with a four-hour notice - the first time this will have been done in almost 20 years during the 1992 LA riots over the beating of black man Rodney King by cops.

Minnesota - where Floyd died - has borne the brunt of the protests which began there Tuesday before fanning out across the country.

Rioting was still going on in the early hours of Sunday, with the Minneapolis police department reporting a big group of protesters on foot and in vehicles throwing missiles of some sort at cops.

Minnesota Dept of Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell announced early Sunday there had been 'dozens' of arrests through the night but no 'substantive' injuries.

Chicago: A Chicago police vehicle is set on fire during violent protests and bricks are hurled at it

New York: A New York City Police Department vehicle burns after being set alight by protesters

The Minnesota National Guard announced at around 10.30pm it was sending 10,800 troops in to tackle protests Saturday night, as pleas for people to observe curfews fell on deaf ears.

The Minnesota National Guard said on Twitter it already had more than 4,100 citizen-soldiers and airmen already in the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul and was ramping it up to a staggering 10,800.

There were just 700 on duty on Friday.

State police officers were seen in their masses surrounding the fifth police precinct Saturday night after officials insisted that the city would be brought under control following four nights of widespread destruction including a suspected looter being shot dead, businesses being burned to the ground and police officers forced to flee for their lives when a police precinct was stormed and torched.

The city was filled with smoke Saturday as protesters let off fireworks and set fires.

Washington DC:A protester holds up a sign saying 'Stop killing us' as a pack of military police are sen in the background

New York: A vehicle burns near New York's Union Square Saturday night

Hundreds of protesters had gathered outside the fifth precinct and were driven out by state cops using tear gas and firing rubber bullets.

Footage showed protesters had retreated while the officers increased their circle around the vicinity - defending the police station for fear it will be stormed and torched like the third precinct was Thursday.

People marching from Minneapolis to St. Paul were also met with tear gas from officers stopping them in their tracks and sending masses fleeing from the potent chemical.

This comes as Governor Tim Walz has warned that a renewed spike in coronavirus cases could hit residents as protests have seen thousands take to the streets, while he admitted that the state's jails cannot contain the number of people being taken into custody.


Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-31 01:02:40|Editor: huaxia

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TASHKENT, May 30 (Xinhua) -- Uzbekistan's Energy Ministry has announced invitation to bid for the design and construction of three hydropower plants in southern Kashkadaria region with support from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the ministry said Saturday.

Uzbekistan has received funding from the ADB for the Sustainable Hydropower Project, under which Rabat, Chappasuy and Tamshush hydropower plants on the Aksu River will be built, according to the ministry.

The announcement said that bidding will be held by Uzbekhydroenergy company and it is open to companies from ADB members, which has an annual turnover of 30 million U.S. dollars or above.

The tender process will be governed by ADB rules and applications can be received till July 31 this year, the ministry said.

Uzbekistan has announced early this week a national Low-Carbon Energy Strategy with an aim of deploying up to 30 GW of additional power capacity and reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 10 percent in the coming 10 years. Enditem
The Delhi University on Saturday released a list of measures to be taken by various colleges for conducting online open book examinations for final year students from July 1.

The measures include holding mock tests for students, notifying students through e-mail and other modes about the exams, and filling up of a pro forma by students stating that no unfair means are being adopted by them.

The university also said in case students miss out on taking the open-book exam (OBE), they will be given an opportunity to appear for pen and paper exams when the situation normalises.

For students residing in Jammu and Kashmir and other such areas which lack the internet and hardware facility required for the OBE, the university has finalised to engage Common Service Centres (CSC), under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, it said.

The students shall be allowed to use information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure resources available with the CSC academy for downloading and taking printout of question papers, scanning and uploading answer sheets on the portal, the varsity said.

The students can avail all these facilities for free at CSCs. There are more than two lakh functional CSCs located at almost all gram panchayats at village level throughout India and all of them shall be available for students, it said.

The universitys decision has been met with opposition from student groups and teachers bodies who have listed the problems of internet connectivity, possibility of adoption of dishonest practices by students.

Notwithstanding that, the university on Saturday issued directives to colleges on the measures to be adopted for the exams.

In view of the prevailing situation of COVID-19 pandemic, it is felt that the examinations cannot be conducted in conventional mode as per the existing government norms of maintaining social distancing and ensuring safety and health of students, the university said.

It said that after much deliberation, it was decided that as a one-time measure, open-book examinations shall be adopted as an alternative for the final semester, term or year students for the 2019-2020 academic session.

Open-book exam dont entirely require online platform, rather only limited access to internet for downloading question papers and for uploading answer sheets after completion of the test, it said.

To check the use of any unfair means during the examinations, each student shall be sign an undertaking by clicking a button on the portal along with scanned images of answer scripts, the university said.

Colleges should remain in contact with their students. Besides using the official e-mail and SMS services, messaging apps like WhatsApp may also be adopted for sending important information to the students, it said.

Colleges may invite online requests from students in case they need to use ICT infrastructure during examinations. If these requests are in high number, the students can be advised to avail the facilities available at Common Service Centre (CSC) near their residence. The examination branch shall e-mail the question papers to the college on each day of exam for every session 45 minutes prior to the commencement of the examination. Students shall answer the questions on plain A4 size paper.

The total duration of the open-book exams shall be of three hours of which two hours shall be given to students for answering the questions and an additional hour shall be utilised for downloading the question papers and uploading the scanned images of answer sheets.

Mock tests will be available for the students on the university portal a week prior to commencement of the exams so that students can make themselves accustomed with the new mode of exams, it said.
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People are protesting across the country in response to George Floyd's death at the hands of police in Minneapolis.

Late Saturday, May 30, Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in Los Angeles city and county. As a backdrop to these events, the coronavirus pandemic continues to rip throughout the country -- disproportionately sickening and killing people of color.

The events bring up a wide range of emotions and reactions to this country's tumultuous and troubled history with race and policing.

Mothers of black boys grapple with how to give their kids "the talk" about police while still preserving the joy of just being a kid. Longtime Angelenos surface memories of the 1992 civil unrest. People who are fed up ask themselves what "right way to protest" will finally get the attention of decision-makers. Business owners worry about how to keep their stores and their livelihoods intact. Nurses wonder about what crowds in the street mean for infection rates.

It is a LOT.

We want to hear from you. How are you feeling about the events of the week? What questions would you like our team to answer? Do you have a story that you want to share?

We read every response but we will not share anything publicly without your permission.

MORE ON LA PROTESTS
ALBANY  Protesters clashed with police Saturday evening behind the city's South Station in a confrontation that started with protesters throwing rocks and ended with police using tear gas, riot gear and officers on horseback to drive away the crowds.

The confrontation prompted Mayor Kathy Sheehan to sign an executive order late Saturday night, setting a curfew in the city that forbid anyone but emergency workers to be in public spaces until 7 a.m. Sunday.

The clash came hours after as many as 1,000 people peacefully protested in the city over the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, by police in Minneapolis on Monday, May 25.

At least one fire burned in the middle of Arch Street and explosions from fireworks and possibly flash grenades used by police could be heard as officers tried to disperse the crowd. Some people threw rocks at police before the confrontation ended with the crowd dwindling by about 9 p.m. Even after that conflict ended, a helicopter with a searchlight could be seen hovering over downtown and Center Square, witnesses said.

Police closed South Pearl Street between Morton Avenue and Madison Avenue and some people lingered around the edge of the police line on Madison late Saturday night. At some point, someone set fire to a tractor trailer parked on South Pearl Street.

A state trooper was injured but it was unclear if any of the protesters were hurt. Police have not said if any arrests were made.

The incident started as a standoff after a protester tossed rocks at a police SUV parked in the lot near the station about three hours earlier. A reporter for the Daily Gazette captured the vandalism on a video. Police filled the parking lot and eventually pushed the protesters away from the station.

As police pushed into the crowd and tear gas was thrown, people could be heard coughing from the vapor as it spread on the street.

Albany police on horses rode through the crowd on Arch Street to try to drive them away from the area.

As police in riot gear pushed forward, the protesters fell back and continued chants of "No justice, no peace."

Others yelled, "I don't see no riot here. Why are you in riot gear."

The conflict in Albany was among a number of protests that turned ominous Saturday evening. In Rochester, Mayor Lovely Warren declared a state of emergency and imposed a 9 p.m. curfew.

"I am asking Albany residents to stay away from the area immediately adjacent to the @albanypolice South Station on Morton Ave.," Sheehan later tweeted. "If you live in the area, please stay indoors."

During the confrontation, someone started a fire on Arch Street, possibly by using some kind of explosive, and bricks and stones were thrown by some of the protesters. Windows were smashed on the windows at the Albany County Department of Mental Health office on South Pearl Street.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

As the protesters fell back, police lined up around the building.

Earlier Saturday, protesters filled the city's Townsend Park and crowds spilled into the streets calling for justice after Floyd's death.

The emotional but orderly crowd expressed frustration with police in general, but the protest remained peaceful. The rally included a 2.23-mile dedication distance run/walk and was organized by All of Us, Citizen Action of New York and Justice4Dahmeek.

The walk was planned weeks before Floyd's killing. When putting together Saturday's event, the organizers thought of several people who experienced police brutality -- Breonna Taylor in Kentucky, Nina Pop in Missouri, Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia, Andrew Kearse in Schenectady and others.

We couldnt even get to this event without another black body dropping to the ground, said Jamaica Miles, an organizer of community grassroots organization All of Us.

Casey Seiler, Becca Carballo and Mike Goodwin contributed to this article.
A local start-up was crucial to Hong Kong's coronavirus response, which has been hailed as "one of the best in the world".

More than 65,000 people returning to the city had to wear electronic wristbands with location tracking and geofencing technology SagaDigits usually deploys in supermarkets to keep track of popular items and to guide shoppers to their favourite products.

The government paid more than HK$$1 million (US$128,993) for the technology, said co-founder Arthur Chan Chi-chuen, a 41-year-old father of two.

"The electronic wristband project is an important breakthrough for our company," he said in an interview. "We have since had more overseas companies and governments talk to us over the past two months, about using our technology for quarantine tracking and other purposes. Some companies have also approached us for potential partnerships," he added.

The company, which has 15 staff members, has developed several apps and technologies over the past four years, and recently raised an undisclosed amount from investors during an initial round of funding.

Its tracking technology was initially designed for retailers. By installing sensors on their shelves, supermarkets and other shops can identify brands that are being picked up more often and can restock accordingly. The technology also helps customers locate the products they want within an outlet.

"SagaDigits wants to promote smart retailing by tracing the movements of goods and people in shops. But when the outbreak began, we thought our location tracking technology could help the government monitor its quarantine regime," Chan said.

The people required to wear the location tracking wristbands activate them using a smartphone app, which then identifies if they have left their home during the quarantine period. Should they cut off the wristband or leave their home before their quarantine ends, an alert will be sent to the authorities. Those caught breaking their confinement face a fine of HK$25,000 (US$3,225) and a maximum prison sentence of six months.

Story continues

The wristbands have proven to be a success, as the tight tracking of quarantines has helped Hong Kong control the spread of the disease. The pandemic, which as infected 5.7 million and killed more than 355,000 people globally, had caused 1,079 cases and four deaths in Hong Kong, as of Thursday.

In a paper published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal last month, Prof Samuel Yeung-shan Wong, director of the Chinese University of Hong Kong's school of public health and a co-author, said that the world could learn from Hong Kong, whose response to the disease was "one of the best in the world".

He credited Hong Kong's strict approach to quarantining travellers as central to bringing the spread of Covid-19 under control in the city. Hong Kong was the first to use electronic wristbands to monitor quarantines, while other cities and countries mainly used sudden visits or video calls to check on travellers.

And now, as the coronavirus is gradually brought under control, Chan is thinking of the next step forward. "We are talking to hospitals and construction companies about using our technology," he said.

SagaDigits' technology can help a hospital check if any patients have left its premises without leave to do so, and it can also allow visitors to find the wards where their loved ones are being cared for. On construction sites, the technology can be used to locate workers, especially those in dangerous areas.

Privacy can be a big concern when it comes to such technologies, but Chan was quick to allay any fears. "We only track the location of a person and not any other personal information. We take people's privacy very seriously," he said.

This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright  2020 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

Copyright (c) 2020. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
With no recognised rule of law, Hong Kong will become a high risk environment.





by John Dobson





Once again our screens are full of pictures of tear gas and pepper spray on the streets of Hong Kong, as citizens protest against the erosion of their liberties. This week the Chinese National Peoples Congress meeting in Beijing overwhelmingly passed a new security bill, which will insert a law directly into Hong Kongs Constitution that whittles away at its one country two systems status. The bill is designed to destroy the civil liberties enjoyed by Hong Kongs people for over a century.





Xi with Carrie Lam, CE in Hong Kong SAR

Little by little, Beijing is violating the one nation, two systems international treaty with Britain, a joint declaration filed at the United Nations, when the colony was handed back on 1 July 1997. The agreement was designed to ensure that the socialist system of China would not be practised in the Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong for a period of 50 years, allowing its capitalist system and open way of life to remain unchallenged until 2047.





Xi is employing the oldest political trick in the book to achieve his aim of changing Hong Kong. First he proposed some reforms in Hong Kongs electoral system. Nothing too extreme of course, just enough for democracy lovers, sensing danger, to take to the streets in a protest which became known as the umbrella movement in 2014. Beijing was initially taken by surprise at the extent of the protest, peaking at more than 100,000 at any given time, but the protests ended without any political concessions from the government. Chinese state media, of course, claimed that the West had played an instigating role in the demonstrations and warned of consequences. These have now arrived.





Hong Kong is one of Asias largest financial hubs and Chinas gateway to the global financial system. Its also Chinas key conduit to the West for foreign trade, with about $1 trillion flowing through Hong Kong each year. The freedom and strong rule of law bequeathed by Britain helped make Hong Kong a thriving centre for international banking and finance. As a result, top firms flocked to the former colony, encouraged by the independent legal system and a strong tradition of transparency. Take a look at the skyline in the business sector with all the big names on display and its not hard to be convinced that Hong Kong has become a magnet for overseas businesses. This has made Hong Kong extremely wealthy and the ideal place for hugely wealthy Chinese, including senior party officials and their families, to store and hide their wealth.





Crucial to Hong Kongs success is the special status granted by America, which has resulted in more than 1,300 US companies having their operations there. The upshot of preferential trade agreements between US and Hong Kong is $67 billion in bilateral trade each year. All this is now at risk due to President Xis aggressive action. So why now?





Xi Jinping clearly sees this as a moment of weakness in a West preoccupied with the coronavirus, the perfect time when he can remove a persistent thorn in his side. In his mind, Hong Kong contains a virus even more dangerous than Covid-19, which must be eliminated before it spreads to mainland China and destroy everything he believes in. The virus of freedom and democracy.





The new law is also a convenient method of distraction from the implosion in Chinas economic growth rate as a result of the pandemic. China watchers have noted that mainland web users overwhelmingly support the new law, showing zero sympathy for Hong Kong protestors. Posts on Weibo, the Chinese Twitter, are full of comments such as we can now finally punish the Hong Kong student thugs. Increased nationalism is a classic way of defusing the social unrest that could flow from rising unemployment in China. Promoting nationalism in order to diffuse internal problems comes straight out of the Putin playbook.





The danger to Beijing is that the new law could kill the goose that lays the golden egg. If a soured environment diminishes Hong Kong as a financial and trade centre, this could play straight into Americas hands. Already the China hawks within the administration consider Xis move to be a big mistake, one which will allow it to welcome back American companies from Hong Kong and the mainland. Promises have even been made to cover the costs of moving, if businesses return their supply chains and production to the United States. A re-shoring fund of 25 billion is currently being considered in Washington. The repatriation of US investment and activity would also fit neatly within the Trump administrations trade policy and his own prejudices about trade.





Last week, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo formally advised Congress that the American government no longer believes that Hong Kong has sufficient autonomy from Beijing, opening the way to ending some or all of the preferential trade agreements and economic privileges. On Friday, President Trump confirmed that his administration would indeed move to revoke Hong Kongs special trading status. He accused China of planning to stifle the opposition and criminalise anti-government movements, such as the pro-democracy demonstrations seen in the territory in recent years. Beijings action, Trump said, was a clear violation of its treaty obligations. China has replaced its promised formula of one country two systems with one country one system.





As a result of the steps taken by the Trump administration, which are yet to be detailed, Hong Kong is likely to lose its lustre as an important financial and commercial centre. With no recognised rule of law, it will become a high risk environment. Businesses will not want to be dragged into disputes in Chinese courts and will re-locate to safer environments, rather than disappearing into a black hole. Hong Kong will become a cheaper, diminished financial city, with lower salaries attracting fewer top talent from around the world. Once a downward spiral starts, its hard to stop.





In this event, President Xi Jinping will have shot himself in the foot.
Valor Global Idaho Valor Global, a women and minority-owned company, prides itself on the diversity of their employees, with minorities and women making up 74% of the leadership team.

Following the announced acquisition of customer care solutions company Pro Service Boise in March of this year, Valor Global is looking to hire hundreds of employees for their newest location. Valor Global, which is headquartered in Phoenix, AZ, is hiring for several notable customer service clients including T-Mobile and Sprint. While all Valor Global team members will be working remotely during the pandemic, applicants must reside in the Meridian/Boise area.

Valor Global, a women and minority-owned company, prides itself on the diversity of their employees, with minorities and women making up 74% of the leadership team. At their Boise location, Valor Global plans to launch its community initiatives with local charities including volunteer programs, monetary and in-kind donations, mentorship, Dream Manager Program as well as provide other great benefits for their employees. For a full list of Valor Global employee benefits and application details, visit: https://www.valorglobal.com/careers/

About Valor Global

Valor Global is a women-owned, Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) and CA Public Utility (CPUC) Clearinghouse Diversity Supplier organization with over 3,000 employees providing Extra Ordinary Customer Experience that powers the worlds most leading brands by infusing culture, innovation leveraging best in class technology, operational excellence using LEAN and Agile framework and extraordinary people.

Valor is the industry leader in NPS, CSAT, retention in Customer Care, Account Management, First party collections, and technical support. Valor delivers cost effective, robust 24/7, bilingual, onshore and offshore support models.
A firefighter walks behind a burning building on Melrose Avenue during civil unrest in Los Angeles on Saturday. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

Inside Von Dutch, a national apparel store known for its trucker hats with a flagship store on Melrose Avenue, the shelves were empty Sunday.

Expletive-laden graffiti was sprayed in blue on the wall, and the carpet was charred from where someone had set a fire the night before.

The store windows had been smashed, and the front door had also splintered, the cracks spidering over a sign that addressed the coronavirus outbreak and said, "The well being of our staff & customers is our number one priority.

Ed Goldman, the general manager for Von Dutch North America, helped carry chairs from the ransacked store to a car outside.

We were getting ready to open after the pandemic alleviation, he said, noting the store had planned to reopen next week. He wanted to give it a little longer because it had been pretty dead along Melrose, even after shopping restrictions were lifted.

Goldman said when his team alerted him to what was happening in the area, his mind flashed back to 1992, when he lived in Santa Monica.

Back then, you wouldnt go east of Westwood, he said, because you were running the risk of your life being lost.

He told his team to leave.

I told them get out because its dangerous, he said. I was here in 92. A lot of people were just shot for hanging around.

Benjamin Baumann, who runs the digital initiative of Von Dutch, was outside when protesters first started breaking in around 7:30 or 8 p.m.

He had come to the area with a friend to monitor the situation and was able to talk down the would-be burglars.

We told them, 'This is our store,' he said. "We completely respect the situation."

They left but later returned, and Baumann and his friend were chased off. Vandals then spray-painted their cars.

We were trying to keep them away from the store, he lamented.

When Baumann got home, he got a text from another friend who said the store was on fire. A longtime customer saw the blaze and used a Von Dutch fire extinguisher to help put it out.

Story continues

Goldman had long teased his team about selling fire extinguishers. There were about 30 decorative extinguishers inside the gutted Melrose shop Sunday morning.

It saved the store, said Goldman, estimating that losses totaled around a quarter of a million dollars in merchandise.

Shortly after noon Sunday, workers from the city's Department of Building and Safety came in shortly after noon to assess the structure and yellow-tagged the store, meaning it needs further inspection before it can be cleared to reopen.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday exhorted people not to lower their guard against the coronavirus pandemic and adhere to the protocols of social distancing, wearing masks and washing hands as the major chunk of the economy was opened up.

The PMs message, broadcast through his monthly radio programme Mann Ki Baat, came a day after the government announced a phased exit from the lockdown imposed since March 25.

Referring to Indias fight against the coronavirus pandemic, the PM said with its diverse challenges and population, the country has been able to contain the spread of infection and the death toll is comparatively lower.

India on Sunday recorded more than 8,000 new cases of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in a single day for the first time as the tally surged to 182,143 and death toll stood at 5,164. Union health ministry data showed there were 8,380 fresh Covid-19 cases, up from Saturdays 7,964, and 193 fatalities in the last 24 hours.

Covid-19 is very much there and we cannot be complacent The road ahead is a long one. We are fighting a pandemic about which little was previously known, he said.

Pain of the poor

The Prime Minister said though every section of society has been affected by the pandemic, the pain being felt by the poor cannot be measured in words.

PM Modi appreciated the efforts being made by individuals and organisations in helping those in need and said there is no section in the country that is unaffected by the difficulties caused by the pandemic.

However, the worst affected are the poor and the labourers. Their pain, their agony, and their ordeal cant be expressed in words, he said.

Even as there has been concern over the movement of migrant workers back to their native states because of limited means of transportation, the PM appreciated the efforts being made by the Indian Railways in helping get workers home.

He said the railway too has become a frontline worker in the fight against the pandemic.

The Centre, states, local bodies are all working day and night. The way our railway forces are making efforts round-the-clock they are in a way front line corona warriors transporting safely millions of migrant labourers to their homes; arranging for their food, managing quarantine centres in every district and arrangements for testing and treatment for everyone. All these efforts are going on continuously and at a large scale, he said.

Learn from the past

The PM said the current situation should be a lesson to learn from the past and make provisions for the future.

He cited the situation of workers in the eastern states as a case in point and said the problem suffered by the poor during the crisis has been exacerbated by the lack of development in the region.

Self-reliance

The Prime Minister reiterated his message of Atmanirbhar Bharat or self-reliant India and said many problems being faced now would not have arisen if the villages and towns were self-reliant.

At some places work in skill mapping of the labourers is taking place, at some places start-ups are being encouraged, migration commission has been commissioned somewhere and the Centre will also help open up opportunities for employment self-employment and small scale industries in villages. These decisions are aimed at resolving the crisis and building a self-reliant India, he said.

Yoga and Ayurveda

PM Modi urged people to explore the benefits of yoga and said several international leaders had shown interest in knowing more about Ayurveda and yoga.

During this corona crisis I had a chance to speak to many world leaders I want to share one secret today, they expressed great interest in Yoga and Ayurveda. Some leaders enquired how these can help in these times of Corona, he said.

We have to explore yoga for community, immunity and unity, the PM said.

Pointing out that the International Yoga Day is around the corner, he said that during the lockdown people from Hollywood to Haridwar are paying attention to yoga.

Environment

With the World Environment Day coming up on June 5, the PM said it is imperative to pay attention to the biodiversity and conservation of water.

In some parts of eastern India, we witnessed the destruction caused by cyclone I was in Odisha and West Bengal last week to take stock of the situation. The way people of West Bengal and Odisha showed courage in dealing with the situation is commendable. In this hour of crisis the country standing by the side of people of these two states he said.

He said the lockdown has given an opportunity to understand the rich biodiversity around us.

Clean environment is directly linked to our life and the future of our children and therefore we have to be concerned about it individually, I request you to plant some trees on this environment day, he said.
When Noel Gallo got a call that five or six workers at Cardenas Market in Oaklands Fruitvale district had tested positive for the coronavirus, the city councilman decided to stop by, maybe ask the owners if they needed help protecting employees and customers.

He was there Thursday, face covered while he talked to managers. Actually, they told him, 12 employees had been infected.

Thats a pretty significant market. Its packed daily, Gallo said. He talked to the managers about enforcing face covering rules for staff and shoppers and about making sure the store didnt get overcrowded.

And he talked about testing. A new site would be opening on Monday in the Fruitvale BART Station parking lot nearby, he told the managers. Everyone, whether they had symptoms or not, should get tested, he said.

The market is located in a predominantly Latino East Oakland neighborhood that has astonishingly high rates of coronavirus infections  about 500 cases per 100,000 residents, nearly three times the Alameda County average. Its one of a handful of communities in the county identified as profoundly vulnerable to the pandemic and in need of expanded public health resources.

That work has taken on new urgency in the last couple of weeks, as the number of cases rose and Alameda County surpassed Santa Clara County as hardest-hit in the region. Alameda County has more than 3,200 cases, compared with Santa Clara Countys 2,700.

As our economy opens up, more and more employment settings are also opening up. And that means we may see upticks, even in counties that are doing well, said Kimi Watkins-Tartt, director of the Alameda County Public Health Department.

New cases in Alameda County jumped more than 30% last week over the one before. The county reported 107 cases on Thursday, the most on a single day since the outbreak began.

Public health officials say that expanded testing explains some of the increase in cases. The county has more than doubled its testing over the past month, so certainly more cases, especially among people who may not have symptoms of illness, are being detected. The county has made strides toward getting testing sites into neighborhoods with the highest rates of cases.

Michael Short / Special to The Chronicle

But not all of the increases can be explained by testing, authorities said. Hospitalization numbers, for example, also have picked up over the past two weeks, and those arent influenced by testing.

The county issued an alert Friday noting that because of rising hospitalization and case counts, it is imperative that we proceed with caution in easing shelter-in-place restrictions and reopening the economy. The statement came as the state rapidly picked up its pace in loosening stay-home orders and allowing more business to resume.

Alameda County, along with most of its neighbors, has moved slowly toward reopening. And because of what were seeing in just this week, Im planning to be super conservative about what else well allow, said Health Officer Erica Pan in an interview.

She and other public health officials said that as they contemplate easing restrictions, they are especially protective of communities of color, which have been disproportionately hit by COVID-19 as well as the economic effects of sheltering in place.

Alameda County may have more cases than any other Bay Area county, but it does not have the highest rate of illness  that distinction goes to San Francisco, which has about 280 cases per 100,000 residents, compared with Alameda Countys 185 per 100,000.

Todd Trumbull

But the case rate varies across the county, and in keeping with statistics in the rest of the United States, communities of color have dramatically higher rates than other areas. Eleven ZIP codes have higher rates than the county average, and all of them have large black and Latino populations. The most affected neighborhoods are in East Oakland and parts of Hayward.

Countywide, Latinos have the highest rate of illness: 321 per 100,000 residents. African Americans have the highest fatality rates: 11 deaths per 100,000 residents, which is double the county average.

It is not necessarily surprising. For sure its disappointing, but not surprising, said Watkins-Tartt, who is heading a team that is addressing health disparities and COVID-19.

People of color have higher rates of chronic illness like diabetes and heart disease that already are known to cause more severe symptoms of coronavirus infection, she said. They also are more likely to work in frontline jobs  in grocery stores and health care settings, for example  that put them at risk of exposure to the virus.

With COVID, those workers were employed by what we designated essential businesses, so they were working while the rest of us were able to go home and stay inside, Watkins-Tartt said. And its usually low-wage work where theres no paid leave or very little paid leave. After transmission has occurred, that makes it difficult for them to heal, to not spread to other people, because their life is not stopping.

Pan and others said they dont yet know if the recent increase in cases is more prevalent in black and Latino communities that have already borne the brunt of illness. Anecdotally, theyre aware of new cases among essential workers  such as the staff members at Cardenas Market  and their close household contacts. But its not clear whether those incidents are on the rise.

Todd Trumbull

Noha Aboelata is CEO of Roots Community Health Clinic, which started offering widespread testing on May 8, and has since tested about 1,200 residents, mostly in low-income neighborhoods. She said shes been concerned to see that the rate of positive tests has stayed high, at about 12%  suggesting that the virus is still circulating widely after more than two months of stay-home orders.

And she noted, too, that the countys public hospitals  shes president of the Board of Trustees for Alameda Health System  have seen the bulk of new patients, a sign that infections are increasing among low-income residents.

I remember that earlier on, I would see the overall numbers being hospitalized and they were at Kaiser or Sutter, and I was wondering where are our patients? Aboelata said. And now were seeing the uptick.

We talk about flattening the curve, but it stands to reason that its going to be more difficult to contain in our more low-income communities, and that is likely part of whats happening right now, she added.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

Alameda County was already more than a month into the coronavirus outbreak before it released neighborhood-level data on infection rates, and by then it was apparent that black and Latino communities were carrying a large burden of disease.

This month, the county reached out to community organizations for help supporting residents. Thats resulted in the expanded testing at Roots, at Allen Temple Baptist Church in East Oakland, and at another site that should start next week at the Fruitvale BART Station, according to Gallo.

Beyond testing, public health officials are trying to get protective gear like face masks and gloves to residents in hard-hit neighborhoods, even passing out supplies on street corners. Theyve encouraged store owners to install plastic barriers and signs about social distancing guidelines that will help protect employees and customers.

Michael Short / Special to The Chronicle

Among the many guesses as to why Alameda Countys case counts have picked up recently is what Pan describes as intervention fatigue  people have been sheltering in place for 10 weeks, and theyre emotionally and financially drained by the isolation.

That may be particularly problematic in low-income neighborhoods where people have less of a financial cushion, Pan and others said.

Its possible, and this is a theory, that things were going well in the beginning with shelter-in-place, and people were scared, probably because youd go outside and the streets were empty, Watkins-Tartt said. But after a while, I think that survival brought people out of their houses.

Gallo noted that in his East Oakland district, some small business owners never shut down, despite shelter-in-place orders, because they had no way to support themselves otherwise. And some of those who did close are pushing hard to reopen soon because their financial situation is becoming dire.

Michael Short / Special to The Chronicle

The problem for me politically is, do I shut you down? Gallo said. Theyll tell me, Im sorry, but this is the only way I can survive.

Gallos colleague in City Hall, Councilman Loren Taylor, said that though black and Latino residents have had the highest rates of infection, its for the benefit of the county as a whole that the virus be contained. That means even cities and neighborhoods that havent seen many cases need to support efforts to test and treat people in at-risk communities, he said.

And everyone needs to obey the countys social-distancing orders, he added  by wearing masks in public, avoiding large gatherings, keeping away from others especially when sick  now and in the coming months or years, until the pandemic has passed.

We are so interconnected, Taylor said. Montclair is very connected to whats happening in East Oakland or West Oakland. The virus doesnt respect the other side of the tracks, figuratively speaking. Weve all got to support and look out for and make decisions that are in all our best interest.

Erin Allday is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: eallday@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ErinAllday
The total coronavirus cases in Pakistan has increased to 69,474, while the death toll reached 1,483, according to figures released by the health ministry on Sunday.

In the past 24 hours, 88 more fatalities and 3,039 new coronavirus cases were registered.

Pakistan's COVID-19 tally now stands at 69,474 cases and 1,483 deaths, the health ministry said.

As many as 25,271 patients have recovered so far, it added.

Sindh recorded the highest number of 27,360 patients, followed by 25,056 in Punjab, 9,540 in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, 4,193 in Balochistan, 2,418 in Islamabad, 678 in Gilgit-Baltistan and 251 in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

The authorities have conducted 547,030 tests, including 14,972, in the last 24 hours.

The number of coronavirus cases is rapidly increasing since the government eased the lockdown before Eid, which was observed on May 24 in the country.

However, undeterred by the increase, the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) has asked provinces to provide feedback to finalise recommendations for reopening of some more sectors.

In a meeting chaired by Federal Minister for Planning Asad Umar here on Saturday, the long and short term strategies on COVID-19 were analysed.

According to Radio Pakistan, the NCOC recommended that educational institutions should be kept closed till August.

It also recommended that marriage halls should be allowed to function with limited number of guests. Only one dish will be served to guests and the operators will follow all other Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).
The United States edged closer to nationwide upheaval on Saturday as protests gained force from coast to coast, and as authorities steeled themselves for another night of unrest over the death of George Floyd.

The killing of the 46-year-old black man in police custody has ignited furor as Americans marked the grim milestone of 100,000 lives lost to the novel coronavirus. Video of the fatal encounter in Minneapolis brought crowds rushing back to the streets after weeks of stay-at-home restrictions, in a return marked by spasms of violence that further frayed the social fabric of a country beset by twin health and economic emergencies.

The spiraling street protests recalled recent activism by the Black Lives Matter movement, while also evoking signature moments in the turbulent history of racial and economic struggle, from the convulsions of 1968 to the riots that broke out in Los Angeles in response to the April 1992 acquittal of the officers charged in the beating of Rodney King. Ongoing eruptions had yet to reach these levels, as mayors and governors beseeched their citizens to stay calm, while President Donald Trump urged authorities to "get tougher."

"People are fighting for their lives," said Rashad Robinson, the president of the racial justice group Color of Change.

At the epicenter of the national anguish, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, mobilized his state's entire National Guard for the first time. Bracing for a fifth night of violence and riots, he warned that the destruction of past nights could be "dwarfed" by events on Saturday night. Governors in other states also activated National Guard units. The Trump administration offered active-duty military forces to help quell the unrest, as the president escalated his rhetoric against protesters, tweeting about the "unlimited power" of the military and the prospect of "many arrests."

The threat did not deter multigenerational and multiracial crowds from thronging cities throughout much of the day. The White House itself became a flash point, as demonstrators clashed with Secret Service officers outside the president's residence.

The same anger that caused demonstrators to seek to breach a barrier erected on Pennsylvania Avenue seized many other metropolitan areas.

In Austin, protesters took over Interstate 35, freighted with symbolism because it cuts the city along racial and economic lines. In Denver, hundreds laid down in front of the state Capitol for nine minutes - the length of time Floyd's neck was pinned under an officer's knee - chanting, "I can't breathe!"

Some took to the streets in Chicago near the Trump hotel, where clashes with police at times turned violent. Trump Tower in Manhattan also became a magnet for protesters who fanned out across New York City in mostly peaceful displays punctuated by scuffles with police.

And a peaceful demonstration outside city hall in Philadelphia gave way to havoc, as police vehicles were set ablaze and protesters attempted to topple a statue of Frank Rizzo, a former mayor and police commissioner reviled by some because of his aggressive law enforcement tactics.

Kelsey Broll, 26, said the chaos deepened when the crowd became too large for protesters to hear instructions from local organizers from the Black Lives Matter movement. They were drowned out, too, as police set off what appeared to be sound grenades and tear gas, she said, and as protesters threw bricks into the windows of banks.

"I'm not condoning violence, but I think we need to band together to show the people in power that we're not just going to let them slide," Broll said. "I'm very sick of what's going on."

She noted that protesters were taking an added risk because the city's stay-at-home order, designed to curb the spread of the coronavirus, is active through Thursday.

Dueling accounts emerged of the identities and motivations of the protesters, as Attorney General William Barr echoed Trump in blaming "extremist groups using Antifa-like tactics," while officials in Minnesota said organized white supremacists might have infiltrated the protests to sow chaos.

State officials instituted new curfews in metro areas including Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Louisville and Portland, Oregon, after the weekend opened in nearly 20 U.S. cities with destruction and arrests. Overnight, protesters repeatedly clashed with police who, in some cases, used pepper spray and rubber bullets to quell crowds. Demonstrators responded by chanting "I can't breathe," spray-painting "Black Lives Matter" on buildings and closing off roads to demonstrate against police brutality.

In Portland, protesters smashed windows of businesses, including a Starbucks and an Apple store, and stole merchandise from a closed mall. In Atlanta, CNN headquarters was vandalized. In Cincinnati, business were ransacked, dumpsters were set ablaze and two police officers were injured in skirmishes with protesters. In Detroit, a 21-year-old was killed in a drive-by shooting where protests were taking place.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, a Democrat, said protests once driven by the community's grief over Floyd's death had been hijacked by people taking advantage of the discord. "This is no longer about verbal expression," he said. "This is about violence, and we need to make sure that it stops."

In remarks at the Justice Department, Barr threatened to prosecute anyone who crossed state lines to riot.

"In many places, it appears the violence is planned, organized and driven by anarchic and left extremist groups, far left extremist groups, using Antifa-like tactics, many of whom travel from outside the state to promote the violence," Barr said, echoing Trump's rhetoric.

Barr did not offer evidence for his assertion, while a Justice Department spokeswoman later said his remarks were based on "information given to us by state and local law enforcement."

Minnesota officials, meanwhile, said they were investigating whether white supremacists from out of state had infiltrated the demonstrations. But arrest records since Friday in the county where Minneapolis is located show a vast majority of those who were taken into custody are from Minnesota.

Of the 57 people arrested in protest-related incidents through Saturday morning, 47 provided a Minnesota address to authorities, said Jeremy Zoss, a spokesman for the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office. Most of them provided addresses from Minneapolis and St. Paul, according to data provided to The Washington Post. The 10 other arrests were of people from other states or the state wasn't provided, Zoss said.

There was no data on 10 percent of other arrests, Zoss said. Arrest data itself does not provide conclusive evidence of the demographics of thousands of demonstrators, and it is unclear if any people provided false addresses

Trump, who spent much of Saturday tweeting about the protests, spoke briefly to reporters before leaving for Florida for the SpaceX launch. After proclaiming in a tweet that Saturday was "MAGA night" at the White House, seeming to anticipate chaos in the heart of Washington, he denied inciting violence, saying, "I was just asking, but I have no idea if they're going to be here."

Stanislav Vysotsky, a sociologist at the University of Wisconsin at Whitewater, said laying blame on outside agitators, in the absence of more convincing evidence, served to "distract from the underlying issues, which are people's frustrations with a number of different structural conditions that begin with police violence against people of color."

"Add to that the economic inequality exacerbated by covid-19, and long-simmering anger becomes explosive," he said. Antifa in particular, he said, had become "a convenient symbol and way to delegitimize protest by aligning it with what's seen as antisocial violent crime."

So far, Vysotsky said, he had only seen anecdotal evidence of some far-right advocates for a race war mobilizing in Minneapolis, but local protesters had largely been able to "identify them and keep them at arm's length."

Robinson, of Color of Change, said there were legitimate questions about the composition of the protests.

"We're seeing some forces who have nothing to do with what we're working for or fighting for," he said.

At the same time, he welcomed new faces to the fold, saying activism in recent years has successfully created new allies.

Arielle Cole, 31, was living in Ferguson, Missouri, when Michael Brown was shot in 2014 but was reluctant to participate in the protest because she was afraid how it would reflect on her nondenominational Christian church. Now a community specialist with the Missouri Department of Mental Health, she returned to Ferguson to protest outside its police station on Saturday night.

"Now I just feel like I'm fed up," she said. "I'm fed up with people's responses to the death of black people at the hands of police officers. I'm fed up with people not understanding that you don't need to know the whole story of what happened to have compassion for someone losing their life."

For Horatio Gonzalez, 22, and Xitlalic Rosa, 23, Saturday was the first protest they ever attended. They traveled across the state line and into Chicago from East Chicago, Indiana, because, as Gonzalez said: "I'm fed up. It's time."

- - -

The Washington Post's Mark Guarino in Chicago, Eric Berger in St. Louis and Matt Zapotosky, Katie Mettler, Alex Horton, Tony Romm and Seung Min Kim contributed to this report.
New Delhi, May 31 : A 54-year-old Assistant Sub-Inspector of Delhi Police has succumbed to COVID-19, officials said on Sunday.

The death of Shesh Mani Pandey, deployed as the fingerprint expert in the Crime Branch, marks the second casualty in the force due to the deadly infection.

According to Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central) Sanjay Bhatia, the officer tested positive on May 26 at the Lady Hardinge hospital after he complained of fever and cough.

"He was found COVID-19 positive on May 28 and was admitted at BASE Army hospital in Delhi Cantonment area the same day." Pandey was an ex-Army personnel and joined Delhi Police on November 1, 2014. He belonged to Rewa district of Madhya Pradesh.

Earlier, a constable posted at Bharat Nagar Police Station in northwest Delhi passed away due to the viral infection.
Ranchi, May 31 : Two people including a policeman were killed in indiscriminate firing by Maoist guerrillas in West Singhbhum district of Jharkhand on Sunday, police officials said.

According to Police, Maoist guerrillas started indiscriminate firing when a team of policemen was on search operation in Porahaat jungle of West Singhbhum district. The attack took place when policemen were enquiring villagers about the movement of Maoists during the search operation.

During cross firing, bodyguard of a police official and a villager were killed.

Maoist guerrillas escaped after killing the two, police said.

Police have launched search operation in the area to arrest the Maoists.

Maoist guerrillas are active in 18 of the 24 districts of the state.
As swarms of locusts threaten vast expanse of agricultural land in the country, different strategies are been tried to fight off the insects.

While in Pink City, Jaipur, officials resorted to drones to get rid of the locusts, farmers in Uttar Pradeshs Jhansi thought blasting off tunes through a DJ band could deter the insects in their resolve to destroy acres of farms.

For the second time in a week, a drone was used to kill locusts in Jaipurs Viratnagar on Saturday night and Sunday morning. The hilly area was inaccessible to tractor-mounted sprayers and a result the administration had to resort to drones to spray pesticides on locust swarms.

We got information about a 3km-by-1km swarm in three villages of Viratnagar on Saturday. We surveyed the area and found the pest present on 230 hectares but the area was difficult to access so we decided to use drone, said BR Kadwa, deputy director of Jaipurs agriculture department in Jaipur.

The Uttar Pradesh government has put nearly 10 districts on alert in the wake of the locust attack. Jhansi is one of the most prominently affected areas in the country.

Also read: PM Modi promises help to all states affected by locust attack

Determined to battle the crop-munching insects, farmers in Jhansi were seen playing loud music with the help of a DJ vehicle used in marriage processions. A video was of the incident was posted by a police officer in Jhansi earlier this week.

DJ is not only effective during parties but for fighting off locusts as well. Days change everyone! You can make a noise or even beat the plate, police officer Rahul Srivastav tweeted along with a short clip of the video.

Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh suggested something similar as asked people to burst firecrackers and beat drums to prevent attacks by locust swarms.

Whenever locust swarms attack, villagers should be alert. Locust attacks can be avoided by bursting firecrackers, the smoke of burning tires or if drums are played, the minister told farmers while visiting his constituency Katol in Maharashtra.

Besides Jhansi, Rajasthans Dausa and Chattarpur district of Madhya Pradesh are among the major regions in the country that have seen swarms of locusts attack.

Locust swarms entered western India from Pakistan affecting states like Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh. The crop munching insects can cause major damage to standing cotton crops and vegetables, posing a threat to food supply and livelihoods.
He was only 9 at the time, but Newark Public Safety Director Anthony Ambrose can still remember the rioting sparked by police brutality against a black man in 1967 that left 26 people dead and the city scarred for decades.

When plans were announced for a protest Saturday in Newark over the death of George Floyd at the hands of a white Minneapolis police officer, Ambrose said he couldnt dismiss the memory of what happened in Newark a half century ago.

It did cross my mind, he acknowledged late Saturday night, after hours of primarily peaceful protesting in Newark and in several other cities around New Jersey.

Thousands of protestors took to Newarks streets, many venting anger and frustration with choruses of I cant breathe and No justice, no peace! The few incidents, including a flag burning, the spray painting of a statue of George Washington, and the slashing of tires on a Newark police vehicle, stood in contrast to looting, fires and violence in other major cities.

At least 13 police officers were injured in Philadelphia when peaceful protests turned violent and at least four police vehicles were set on fire. In New York City, dangerous confrontations flared repeatedly as officers made arrests and cleared streets.

But in Camden, Police Chief Joseph D. Wysocki walked side-by-side with demonstrators.

As the Camden City Ward 2 Councilman I was overwhelmed with happiness to be apart of our community, police department, clergy leaders, elected officials, along with our Congressman Donald Norcross marching together peacefully protesting the police brutality that is happening all across our country. What happen to George Floyd should not happen to any human . Thank you Camden City Police Chief Jospeh Wysocki for standing strong with our community today. Shout out to Yolanda Deaver, our clergy and the Police department to getting this from TALK to WALK!!! #CAMDENSTRONG #GeorgeFloyd #TALKTOWALK #Thisishowuprotest #CometogetherAmerica Posted by Vic Carstarphen on Saturday, May 30, 2020

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka set a tolerant tone heading into Saturdays protests in the states largest city. He called the plans by a civil rights group, the Peoples Organization for Progress, for a demonstration by the historic Essex County Courthouse along Market Street an appropriate response.

Ambrose also condemned the brutal tactics used by the fired officer, Derek Chauvin, to subdue Floyd, and called him a police officer who murdered an individual. Chauvin, who held his knee to Floyds neck as he begged for air, was arrested Friday and charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.

Ambrose attributed Saturdays relative calm to training he said Newark officers have received to de-escalate situations and avoid being drawn into potentially violent confrontations. He thanked other departments for their assistance, and had special praise for the restraint shown by his own.

Every Newark Police officer out there today did a hell of a job, Ambrose said in a brief interview Saturday night outside the Newark Police horse stable.

Capt. Gary Vickers of the Newark Police Department engages several men against outside the NPD's 1st Precinct station house. Newark avoided the kind of violence that many cities experienced Saturday during protests against the police-custody death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.Steve Strunsky | NJ Advance Media For NJ.com

At a separate protest from the one by courthouse, a crowd estimated at more than 1,000 demonstrators gathered in front of the Newark Police 1st Precinct station house on 17th Avenue Saturday afternoon. The crowd had thinned to less than 200 by 9 p.m., though the anger had not all dissipated.

Who are you protecting? Not me! a woman who declined to give her name shouted at an officer from the Essex County Prosecutors office, who was among more than 100 police officers outside the station house. Asked if she personally had been traumatized by police brutality, she replied, All black people are traumatized by police brutality.

The demonstration remained peaceful, and in many cases protestors engaged in friendly or focused conversation with officers and police commanders, before the crowd completely dispersed by 10:40 p.m.

Newarks population is just over one half Black, according to the U.S. Census. The demonstrators also reflected a mix of races.

It surprised me that there were a lot of white people out here, because I thought it would be dangerous for them, said 21-year-old demonstrator Ralphie Iselfonso of Paterson, who identified as Afro-Latino. People are very emotional.

But, he said, There are a lot of peace-loving people out.

Iselfonso said he had travelled to the protest in New Jerseys largest city from his home in Passaic County, because I felt like it was something really important.

Thomas Idiang, a local activist known as Afrika, said he went to the 1st Precinct protest from his home 15 blocks away after hearing that, there were some kids challenging the cops," and he wanted to do what he could to calm things.

Idiang, 40, who runs a local non-profit educational organization, Maat Youth Services, was familiar to many present and attracted some of the crowds attention with an informal, animated talk on the importance of community and political organizing and participation.

I agree that they have to challenge the system, Idiang said of Saturdays protestors. We pay the taxes, we are the government. But if its not organized, if its not centralized, its just chaos.

A demonstration outside the Newark Police Department's 1st Precinct station house was largely peaceful on Saturday. Fewer than 200 protestors remained by about 9 p.m., after police said a peak of at least 1,000 had gathered in front of the station earlier in the day.Steve Strunsky |NJ Advance Media For NJ.com

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Steve Strunsky may be reached at sstrunsky@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @SteveStrunsky. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips
Kenya Moore from The Real Housewives of Atlanta dealt with a lot during season 12 of the show. The hair care products businesswoman had a serious tiff with Yovanna Momplaisir who was uncovered to be the snitch of the group. After reports that the latter would be joining the Bravo reality series full-time, Moore is now questioning if its true. She doesnt seem too excited on the idea of sharing screentime with Momplaisir.

Kenya Moore and Yovanna Momplaisir | Charles Sykes/Bravo/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images / Paras Griffin/Getty Images for Warner Bros.

Why doesnt Kenya Moore want Yovanna Momplaisir to join RHOA?

It was TMZ the outlet that first reported that Momplaisir would be joining the show for season 13. The news came after she made an appearance on the third part of the RHOA reunion. Reportedly, her storyline going into the new season would be her feud with Leakes after she exposed her for being behind Snake-gate.

Despite the rumors, Moore doesnt believe that Momplaisir would be a peach-holder anytime soon. In fact, she shaded the friend of in a recent interview.

[TMZ] didnt say that she would be a peach holder, but I dont think she would be anything full-time other than full-time of BS, she told Hollywood Life. Im kind of over her and the situation and to see that she was plotting to dig up. Why would you want to do that? Just so you could be a part of the show? Ive never done anything to her personally to have her plotting against me and trying to embarrass me and my family, so its a no for me.

Nene Leakes shares Kenya Moores thoughts

Nene Leakes, who doesnt agree with Moore on most things, seemingly agreed with her this time about Momplaisir. You may know that it was the latter that dragged Leakes into the Snake-gate drama accusing her of being the mastermind behind the scheme.

I feel sorry for her, Leakes told ET. She will never be a castmate over here and thats so sad, because she has been used and abused. Bye, girl! She should feel very used. I cant imagine Bravo hiring her to do anything. If so, they dropped down 10 levels.

The OG of Atlanta feels that Momplaisir is not a genuine person and would do whatever it takes to get on TV.

Shes thirsty, honey, Leakes added. She aint never been on TV. She wanted to be on here by any means necessary. So, all they had to do was pick up the phone and say, A camera will be shining. and she was like, Oh my god! Well, let me get my hair and makeup on and come and show up. So, she shows up and they got her where she can turn against me. So, I guess they thought it was a good idea.

Bravo has not confirmed which RHOA Housewives would return for season 13 or who would join the show. However, fans can expect an update very soon from the network about the future of the peaches.

RELATED: RHOA: Nene Leakes Season 13 Future Depends on 3 Things
Hong Kong: The American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong said Saturday was "a sad day" for the global financial centre, hours after US President Donald Trump moved toward stripping the city of its special treatment in a bid to punish China.

In some of his toughest rhetoric yet, Trump said Beijing had broken its word over Hong Kong's high degree of autonomy by proposing new national security legislation and the territory no longer warranted US economic privileges. It followed advice from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Congress this week which recommended the territory's special trade status not be renewed.

A lunchtime protest at the Landmark shopping mall in Hong Kong on Thursday. Credit:Bloomberg

"We will take action to revoke Hong Kong's preferential treatment as a separate customs and travel territory from the rest of China," Trump said, adding that Washington would also impose sanctions on individuals seen as responsible for "smothering  absolutely smothering  Hong Kong's freedom."

Trump told reporters at the White House that China's move on Hong Kong was a tragedy for the world, but he gave no timetable for the moves, leaving Hong Kong residents, businesses and officials to ponder just how far his administration will go.
An American Airlines Boeing 767-300ER.

Arnd Wiegmann/Reuters

As airline employees brace for coming layoffs, their companies have announced buyout offers, part of an effort to reduce the ranks through voluntary departures rather than layoffs.

While it might seem reasonable for workers to take their chances, some are choosing to take the buyouts, opting for a degree of certainty and the continuation of at least some benefits.

We spoke with an American Airlines employee who has decided to take a buyout, who explained why he's giving up his dream job and his paycheck.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

With layoffs looming across the US airline industry, carriers are trying to avoid forced job cuts by offering employees incentives to leave voluntarily.

In recent days and weeks, major airlines including American, Delta, and United have announced voluntary buyout offers for some employees. American and United's offers were for managers, along with support and administrative workers. Offers for frontline employees are coming.

The offers all involve an element of continued pay for at least a few months, medical coverage, and ongoing employee travel benefits.

Whether to accept the buyouts or not can be a difficult choice for workers for whom it's not easy to determine whether they'll be targeted by layoffs. American and United have both said they expect to lay off around 30% of administrative and management workers, while Delta has not publicly stated a number.

Related: Attendants Explain How COVID-19 Has Affected Their Jobs

For some workers, it isn't just a job

For many airline workers, their job is just that: a job. You go in, do your day's duties, and head back home. Or in the case of flight crews, go in, work your trips, and then forget about what was likely just another day in the office.

For a subset of employees, though, working for an airline in any capacity is a dream come true.

Aviation enthusiasts, or "AvGeeks," permeate virtually every work group in the airline industry. For them, every day is a thrill, a chance to be a part of an unfathomably large and complex global machine that makes criss-crossing the world as easy as a few taps on a smartphone.

Story continues

Plus, the access they have at work affords opportunities to go plane-spotting every day, seeing the newest jets, liveries, and airlines, and in some cases, rare, once-in-a-lifetime sightings.

Not to mention the employee travel benefits, which provide the opportunity to fly on different types of planes and airlines, to destinations all over the world, for little or no cost.

One American Airlines employee prepares to give up on the dream

John is one of those employees (his name has been changed for this article, at his request).

In his three years at American  and three years at a smaller airline before that  John has had the opportunity to get up close to all manner of airline operations and planes. He'll even snag an empty seat on a flight during days off to go plane-spotting in another city, and maybe stop at a favorite sandwich shop for lunch before heading back.

In his current role, John is considered a manager, rather than a frontline unionized employee. He's loved virtually every aspect of his job, but recent months have been hard.

"We've only worked five days a month, partly due to a lack of flying, and partly to enable social distancing," he said. "We still got full pay, though."

American was among the major airlines  including Delta, United, Southwest, and JetBlue  to receive assistance with payroll through the federal CARES Act.

In that time, stress over the future has been building, John said.

"There's been a lot of anxiety, a lot of mixed emotions," he said. "Just a lot of waiting for the inevitable bad news."

Despite some moments of optimism from American Airlines CEO Doug Parker and president Robert Isom, the airline said last week that it would need to downsize its management and support staff by 30% to survive the crisis.

Under the terms of the CARES Act, airlines receiving aid are prohibited from furloughing or laying off workers until October 1. American said layoffs will be announced by July 30; workers will be paid through September 30.

"Realistically, we all saw that this was coming, but we remained optimistic," John said.

American announced two voluntary early out programs  or VEOPs  along with the layoff warning.

There are two offers that eligible employees can apply for. Under the first offer, which prioritizes continued pay, employees will work through late June or July, but will earn 33% of their base pay through December 31, 2020. They would keep their employer-subsidized health insurance through the end of the year, and be eligible for COBRA at full rates after that.

Those employees will also continue to get flight benefits for five years, and will get 250,000 frequent-flyer miles.

Under the other VEOP, which prioritizes travel and health benefits, employees will work through roughly the same end date, and would then receive 33% of their base pay, along with full health coverage, through September 30. After that, employees would be eligible for COBRA, but at a reduced rate  the same amount they currently pay for employer-subsidized health insurance  for 18 months.

Employees taking that plan will keep travel benefits for 10 years, and will receive 350,000 frequent-flyer miles.

Employees who take their chances and are laid off will not receive severance, will be eligible for COBRA at full rates, and get one year of continued flight benefits.

John says he does not want to leave the job he loves, but said he's afraid that if he declines the VEOP, he'll end up on the layoff list.

"The layoffs are inevitable, I have relatively low seniority," he said. "It's a huge gamble between separating with some continued pay or really solid travel benefits, or getting laid off with no severance.

John does a bit of unrelated work on the side, and is hoping he can rely on that until he finds a new full-time job.

Because of that, he decided to apply for the travel and health severance offer from the airline.

"Healthcare at my current employee rate for 18 months is incredibly appealing," he said. "Plus 10 years of travel, and the frequent flyer miles are hard to turn down. I'll still make one-third of my pay between whenever my last day is and September 30."

John the travel benefit would be especially enticing while he plans his next career move.

"In the meantime, I can take day trips to go spotting, or go visit friends and family," he said.

John said he is disappointed to see his airline tenure end amid the industry's worst-ever crisis, but said he remains optimistic for the future. American has said it plans to prioritize former employees who take a VEOP if they reapply for jobs with the airline within five years, assuming things pick back up by then.

Business Insider
By West Kentucky Star Staff May. 28, 2020 | 07:57 PM | PADUCAH





Baptist Health says they are using various enhanced cleaning and disinfecting measures, including the latest virus and bacteria killing technology.







According to Baptist Health officials, by next month all Baptist Health hospitals will be set up with two tools to provide the latest disinfecting technology: The Clorox Total 360 Electrostatic Sprayer System, and the Clorox Optimum-UV Enlight System.







The Clorox Total 360 system is a high-level electrostatic spraying unit that is able to spray disinfectant to provide 360 degree coverage of every surface within a room. Officials say the system kills 99.9 percent of bacteria, and cold and flu viruses along with SARS-CoV-2, the strain of coronavirus that causes COVID-19.







Baptist Health Paducah has also been using ultraviolet light (UV-C) to disinfect since 2016. The Clorox Optimum-UV Enlight System is able to delivers a dose of short-wavelength UV-C that kills pathogens such as SARS-CoV-2.







Once a patient has been discharged, an Environmental Services staff member will position the system in the room, leave the room and shut the door, then activate the system via an iPad. A typical room takes approximately three five-minute sessions to fully disinfect.







Hospital staff have also increased the frequency of cleaning and disinfecting. They are also adhering to heightened FDA protocols for food services within their health facilities.

Baptist Health in Paducah is utilizing some of the latest technology to ensure the safety of their staff and patients.
Being awarded James Beard Best Chef is similar to an actor winning an Academy Award.

It is one of the highest recognitions a chef can obtain.

Chef Jonathan Perno of Campo at Los Poblanos Historic Inn & Organic Farm is one step closer to being awarded that recognition. He has been named a finalist for the James Beard Best Chef Southwest Award. He is competing against a few other chefs in Arizona and Las Vegas, Nevada. The winner will be announced in September.

Perno has been a semi-finalist six times and said being named a finalist feels the same. To Perno being awarded James Beard Best Chef Southwest would be gratifying, but it is not everything.

That would be nice and if not Ill just keep moving forward because I know what were doing is in the right direction of the way I see this industry needing to evolve and change towards, he said. This industry is very wasteful, and I think that one of my driving factors is to not be part of that footprint that most businesses in this industry put out there.

Perno believes the reason he was recognized is due to his focus on New Mexico.

The reason why Beard is looking at us is we are committed to this state as a business, he said. Truly committed. We dont put something on our menu and only have one item thats local. This is not a negative toward local businesses. I just want to make that clear before I say what Im going to say, but for these producers, meaning the small producers not national companies, rely on local businesses to support them.

My goal and my hope is that with these efforts here these businesses can start to understand Wow, I can buy some crops in large quantities from specific farms because those efforts from a business speak volumes from the producers of the product. What Im teaching my team is it has nothing to do with us. What has to do with us is we carry the integrity from the producer into the kitchen and we take that same integrity and then we extend it to the guests that buy it at the final step.

The goal is to showcase New Mexico producers and develop relationships with them, according to Perno. His goal is to encourage other restaurants to get product locally rather than out of state and create the smallest carbon footprint possible.

The main focus of this business is stay home and that means stay in state first, he said. If we cant find what we need within the state, then Ill seek outside and those are the right steps, but we stay home first. The farm here on the property is first and foremost, no matter whats going on around me, and then I reach out to my local producers, and use the La Montanita Co-op, their distribution center, to extend my reach through the food shed that we have, which is 300-plus miles in a radius. Albuquerque being the epicenter. I dont use any national broadliners the co-op is my broadliner.

It is important for Perno to learn about the product growing in the farm at Los Poblanos. He is currently researching a plant called cardoon on the property. When harvested he expects there will be about 300 pounds of the artichoke thistle, which is part of the sunflower family.

Thats just one item that were trying to manage on large scale, he said. Were also are pulling ourselves away from more common plants that most of the general public recognize, and were focusing on more wild plants to learn to work with in the kitchen and present to people as menu items and actual foods, not just a pest in your yard like a weed or something. So were working on all those things.

Being a leader is Pernos purpose but he is not entitled.

The whole premise of what I teach these guys is they have to find the joy in what theyre doing. Its not for everybody and it is stressful and it is exhausting physically, mentally, emotionally, everything that you can exude out of a body. But I try to teach my team how to find patience in it and within the patience they find that the work actually becomes less, even though the work is still a lot of work, but the way we handle it as a group takes pressure off.  Im just as accountable to everything that I ask my team to be accountable of so its not like I am above them. When it comes to work I keep my playing field very even no matter what the skill set is. We are equals. They all know Im the chef. I dont have to carry that card around. But when it comes to work were equals and there is no one better than the other. We all have to invest in each other.
The immigrants began to show symptoms in late April, about a week after arriving at the Rolling Plains Detention Center in Haskell, Texas.

They had been held in dorms with other recent transfers, according to a county official. First three detainees tested positive for COVID-19. Then 20 more. As of Friday, 41 immigrants detained at Rolling Plains had been infected. Just three county residents have tested positive.

In Pearsall, Texas, 350 miles south, transfers turned another detention center into a virus hotspot. Frio County had just a single confirmed case of COVID-19 in early April. Then two detainees who had recently been moved to Pearsall's South Texas ICE Processing Facility tested positive, ICE told county officials. Thirty-two immigrants have now been diagnosed, almost 90 percent of the state's official COVID-19 tally in Frio County.

"Our vulnerability is absolutely that detention center," said Frio County Commissioner Jose Asuncion. "Once that facility is exposed, the employees are coming in and out, there's no way to contain it."

In the past several months, while most Americans have been ordered to shelter at home, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has shuffled hundreds of people in its custody around the country. Immigrants have been transferred from California to Florida, Florida to New Mexico, Arizona to Washington State, Pennsylvania to Texas.

These transfers, which ICE says were sometimes done to curb the spread of coronavirus, have led to outbreaks in facilities in Texas, Ohio, Florida, Mississippi and Louisiana, according to attorneys, news reports and ICE declarations filed in federal courts.

ICE's actions have prompted an outcry from Democratic senators, who on Friday said the transfers had spread the virus and demanded Acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf bring them to a halt.

"Until ICE halts transfers and expands testing, the agency will continue to exacerbate conditions for individuals in ICE custody and for all the communities surrounding its facilities," reads the letter signed by 18 senators.

Story continues

Since ICE announced its first case in March, COVID-19 has surfaced in at least 55 of the roughly 200 facilities that ICE uses. More than 1,400 detainees have been infected, roughly half of all those tested, ICE data show. Two immigrants and three staffers have died.

ICE declined to provide information on how many transfers have occurred throughout the pandemic. But NBC News identified nearly 80 since the pandemic was declared, and that is not a complete accounting. The analysis includes moves between immigration detention facilities as well as from criminal to ICE custody. Individual detainees are often moved several times prior to deportation.

Betsy Mejia and her husband Oscar Mejia. Oscar Meija has been detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the Bluebonnet Detention Center in Anson, Texas, since February. (Courtesy Betsy Mejia)

ICE has a protocol for transfers. Detainees are medically screened and cleared for travel, issued a mask, and in some cases, have their temperatures taken, according to court filings and ICE statements. But it does not routinely test prior to moving detainees from one place to the next.

An attorney representing ICE told a federal court in Florida that it only tests immigrants who display symptoms of COVID-19, the Miami Herald reported. ICE told NBC News in a statement that it tests some, but not all, immigrants before they are placed on planes and deported.

Without widespread testing and contact tracing, it is difficult to identify the source of infections inside ICE facilities. At several, employees have been the first to test positive, ICE data shows. But advocates, along with several federal judges overseeing lawsuits against the agency, have voiced concern that transfers are threatening immigrants' lives and contributing to the virus' spread.

"Transfers are ongoing, numerous, frequent and appear to be spreading COVID-19 from one place to another," said Jessica Schneider, director of the detention program at the nonprofit Americans for Immigrant Justice in Miami, one of several groups that has filed a lawsuit on behalf of detainees in South Florida. "The folks that are detained are sitting ducks."

'Someone has died'

Even before the first ICE detainee was diagnosed with COVID-19, more than 4,000 doctors signed a letter warning ICE an "outbreak of COVID-19 in immigration detention facilities would be devastating."

It is difficult, if not impossible, to social distance in detention, doctors and corrections experts said. ICE detention is civil, and not supposed to be punitive. But detention centers share many traits with prisons. Men, women and children sleep, eat and watch television in close quarters, often in open dorms with beds and chairs bolted close together. Their movements, along with access to sanitary supplies, are tightly controlled.

Like nursing homes and meatpacking plants, prisons across the county have proven coronavirus hotspots. When state and federal prison officials in Ohio, Louisiana and California conducted mass testing, hundreds of prisoners came back positive. Most had no symptoms. The federal Bureau of Prisons, which decreased movement of prisoners 90 percent during the pandemic, announced earlier this month it would begin to phase transfers back in. Given the risks, it will conduct "aggressive testing" before and after transfers.

ICE's largest outbreak is currently at Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego, Calif., where nearly 160 people have tested positive. Carlos Ernesto Escobar Mejia, 57, was held at Otay before his death on May 7, the first from COVID-19 in ICE custody. On Sunday, Santiago Baten-Oxlaj, a 34-year-old held in a Georgia facility, became the second person detained by ICE to die of the virus.

The Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego, Calif.

"We've been saying since this started that if the government didn't act quickly, people were going to die," said Monika Langarica, a staff attorney with the ACLU of San Diego, which has filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of detainees at Otay Mesa. "We know that's not hyperbole. Someone has died."

But within its archipelago of detention centers, which includes county jails and privately operated facilities, ICE routinely tests only those who show symptoms. It also does not test all people before deportation, a spokesperson confirmed. Some governments abroad have demanded tests after people deported to Guatemala, Mexico and Haiti were found to have COVID-19.

If half of detainees tested come back positive, ICE isn't testing enough, said Dr. Anjali Niyogi, associate professor at Tulane School of Medicine, a public health expert who has been treating coronavirus cases in New Orleans. The more than 1,400 positive cases within ICE, she added, are "absolutely an undercount."

Doctors and attorneys around the country have argued ICE's best method to stop the spread of disease is to release detainees, particularly those with medical issues. Lawyers and advocacy groups have filed lawsuits nationwide in an attempt to force releases. They argue that because immigration detention is civil, the agency has wide discretion in who it detains. Former ICE officials have backed that claim.

ICE has voluntarily released more than 900 people as part of its own review of which detainees are medically vulnerable, a spokesman said, and several hundred more after court orders. Along with a drop in enforcement due to COVID-19, the number of people in immigrant detention has fallen to under 26,000, its lowest level during the Trump administration.

The Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego, Calif.

The agency has taken "important steps" to keep immigrants and staff safe since the outbreak of COVID-19, a spokesperson said, including medically screening incoming detainees, providing protective equipment and disinfecting facilities. It has also implemented safety measures for transfers. Those with COVID-19 are grouped together, or "cohorted," the spokesperson said, and new admissions are isolated for two weeks before moving into general population.

But every exit and entrance into a detention center increases the risk the virus will spread. ICE Assistant Field Office Director Alan Greenbaum acknowledged the dangers transfers pose in a declaration to a federal court in Massachusetts. He argued ICE should be able to move people from criminal to ICE custody within the same Bristol County facility, which the court had temporarily barred.

Transferring detainees to a new facility, he wrote, "creates a greater risk of detainees being exposed to, or exposing others to, COVID-19."

Read the court document here.

While ICE asserts it has the right to move detainees at any time, for virtually any reason, the agency said transfers are "part of the agency's extensive efforts to stem the potential spread of COVID-19," including to facilitate social distancing. In some cases, that has backfired.

People looked 'very sick'

In early March, just as the coronavirus was beginning to surface on the coasts, ICE arrested K. at his home in Philadelphia. According to his lawyer, Lilah Thompson, the agency asserts a past criminal conviction made K., a legal permanent resident, deportable. (K.'s name is being withheld for fear of retaliation).

K. was taken to Pike County Correctional Facility in Hawley, Penn. Several men held there had tested positive for COVID-19. After showing symptoms, K. was also tested. He had the flu, but not COVID-19. He was recovering when he was woken up before dawn on April 11 to be transferred. Thompson didn't know where he was until ICE notified her K.'s case had been moved to Texas.

K. was among more than 70 people taken from two facilities with outbreaks in the Northeast and moved to the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, according to interviews with attorneys and a federal lawsuit filed earlier this month. The move was first reported by the Dallas Morning News.

They were loaded onto buses, taken to the airport, and flown to Dallas in shackles, according to the lawsuit and interviews with attorneys. Then another bus delivered them to Prairieland.

Days before, about 50 men detained at the Bluebonnet Detention Center in Jones County, Texas, were also transferred to Prairieland, according to an affidavit in the lawsuit.

"We were all squished together and there were people on the bus who looked very sick," a detainee stated in an affidavit. "There were a few people coughing a lot on the way."

No one wore masks, he added, and because everyone on the bus was cuffed, "they could not cover their mouths."

A few days after K. arrived at Prairieland, officers moved him from the dorm into isolation, Thompson said. When they tested K. again, he had COVID-19.

Prairieland had no confirmed cases before the transfers from the Northeast and Bluebonnet, ICE records show. A week later it had three. By May 1, there were 41.

"They put people on buses and planes without proper protection," said Thompson, an attorney with the Nationalities Service Center in Philadelphia. "It shows a disregard for immigrants' lives, and a disregard for their rights."

In at least one case, ICE knowingly transferred a detainee with COVID-19.

In late April, an ICE official submitted a declaration to a federal court in Louisiana that one person who tested positive at the Catahoula Detention Center in Harrisonburg, La., had been transferred to the Richwood Correctional Center, 70 miles away in Monroe.

Richwood had 29 confirmed cases at the time. "Many of these positive cases were transferred from other facilities to Richwood," the official told the court.

That same week, the Associated Press reported, prison officials told employees they'd be required to work 12-hour shifts, seven days a week, due to staff shortages caused by a "high number of positive COVID 19 staff cases." About a week later, two Richwood guards died from COVID-19.

Positive cases there have climbed to 65.

Stories like that concern Rep. Jason Crow, D.-Colo. The weekly reports he gets about the Aurora Contract Detention Facility, outside of Denver, show hundreds of detainees have transferred in and out since the pandemic began.

"These aren't people coming from the border or picked up," said Crow, whose district includes Aurora. "These are people being moved around."

Crow began tracking disease at Aurora last year, when a mumps outbreak swept through nearly 60 detention facilities, infecting more than 900 immigrants.

In a letter to ICE early this month, Rep. Crow expressed concern that transfers could introduce the disease to facilities and surrounding communities, pointing to the admission of a detainee from the Sterling Correctional Facility, a state prison that then had the largest single COVID-19 outbreak in Colorado.

Last week, Aurora diagnosed its first cases of coronavirus among detainees, though several guards have been infected. One of the two men with COVID-19 had recently transferred from Sterling, according to his attorney, Henry Hollithron. Oscar Perez Aguirre, 57, arrived with a fever. After his health quickly deteriorated, said Hollithron, he was hospitalized. Aurora now has five cases.

GEO Group, the private prison company that runs Aurora, said it has been making every effort to keep both employees and detainees safe.

"Our utmost priority has always been the health and safety of all those in our care and our employees," a spokesperson said, adding the GEO Group has no role in the decisions of who ICE transfers or releases.

Federal courts have begun to question ICE about how its transfer practices may be putting detainees at risk.

On May 21, a court in South Florida requested that ICE disclose whether "transfers have been known to result in an increase in COVID-19 cases." ICE asserted they have not.

This came after the agency moved 33 detainees from the Krome Detention Facility in Florida to a nearby lockup in Broward County. Following the transfer, 16 detainees tested positive for the virus, as first reported by the Miami Herald, driving the number of cases at Broward from three to 19, according to ICE statistics.

ICE told the court that it has broad discretion under the law to relocate detainees as needed. The agency regularly transfers people due to risk level, where it has bed space, for medical reasons or to deport them, the agency said, adding that it does not transfer or deport those with symptoms, who are waiting for test results, or who are suspected to have COVID-19, unless medically necessary.

The detainees who were moved to Broward were cleared before leaving, ICE told the court, and were put into a 14-day quarantine.

Because they have been cohorted, the agency said, "ICE does not believe that the transfer has resulted in an increase in COVID-19 cases at" Broward.

Read the court document here.

A federal court in Louisiana has publicly questioned the agency's accounting of cases, particularly with regard to transfers. In response to another lawsuit seeking to free immigrants there, ICE stated in a sworn affidavit that as of the afternoon of May 18, there were "no known cases" at the LaSalle ICE Processing Center in Jena, La. Days before, the agency reported 15.

In an order that led to the release of 14 detainees, the judges described ICE's approach to transfers as an outlier.

"We can only speculate that some of these detainees were moved to other facilities as it is well known that ICE has continued operations and not followed the lead of the Bureau of Prisons and Louisiana Department of Corrections, both of whom have largely precluded the movement of their inmates," the court wrote.

'They're not doing anything right'

Those held inside the nation's immigrant detention facilities could see coronavirus coming, but could do little to stop it.

From inside his dorm at the Bluebonnet Detention Center in Anson, Texas, Oscar Mejia watched the new detainees arrive through April. He and those who slept on the bunks arranged in close rows worried that soon enough, the virus would make its way in, too.

"They've brought new people from other places  from Dallas, from all over," Mejia said in a phone call from the facility, where he has been since February. "Those are people who are coming, they might not be well."

Betsy Mejia speaks to her husband Oscar Mejia in the Bluebonnet detention center over video call. (Courtesy Betsy Mejia)

At least 200 people were transferred to Bluebonnet since mid-March, according to news reports and numbers provided by Management and Training Corporation (MTC), the private company that runs Bluebonnet. Whether the coronavirus was carried in by one of them, or the six officers who have tested positive, Mejia couldn't say.

But beginning in April, he and others in his dorm developed fevers and coughs. Treatment, he said, consisted of Tylenol, allergy pills and salt to gargle with.

"We told them there was corona but they didn't do tests," said Mejia.

That mirrors the account in a YouTube video posted on April 29 that shows a group of men pleading for help from a facility they say is Bluebonnet.

"We've been telling them we're sick, they're not doing anything right," a man in the video said. "All they're doing is giving us Tylenol."

NBC News could not verify the source of the video, but the detainees' uniforms, the ceiling of the dorm, and the dates mentioned in it correspond to verified information and images.

Mejia said he was finally tested for COVID-19 in mid-May. He came back positive, along with 131 other men at Bluebonnet, roughly a quarter of those held there.

The rural West Texas facility now has the second-largest outbreak of any ICE facility in the country, ICE data shows.

Both ICE and MTC told NBC News allegations they have not taken proper precautions are false.

"The health and safety of our staff and the men and women in our care is our top priority," a spokesperson said in a statement, adding that MTC is "strictly following" CDC guidelines and testing anyone who displays COVID-19 symptoms.

As similar stories have emerged nationwide, Washington has begun to respond. The Department of Homeland Security Office of the Inspector General recently opened an investigation into whether ICE adequately safeguarded detainees and staff from COVID-19. On Tuesday, the Senate Judiciary will hold a hearing to examine best practices for incarceration and detention during the pandemic.

Meija's wife, Betsy, said she's tried for months to get help for the men at Bluebonnet. She posted on Facebook. She called the warden in Anson and the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. From their home in Kilgore, Texas  more than 300 miles from Bluebonnet  she's not sure what more she can do.

"I'm fighting a losing battle," she said.
Astronaut Robert L Behnken aka Bob Behnken is one of the two astronauts who will be launched to the International Space Station (ISS) in a historic collaboration between NASA and SpaceX. Bob Behnken is a 49-year-old veteran Air Force test pilot who was first selected as an astronaut in NASA back in 2000. During the Demo-2 Crew Dragon mission, Bob Behnken will be responsible for various activities like rendezvous, docking and undocking along with Demo-2 activities while the spacecraft is docked to the ISS.

Also read: The SpaceX Quiz: Test Your Knowledge About The Private Space Company

Bob Behnken has a total of more than 708 hours in space and has flown in two space shuttle flights in 2008 and 2020. The accomplished astronaut has also a total of 37 hours of spacewalking on six different occasions, as reported on the official NASA website. Though a lot of information about his professional life is accessible for interested people, there are is hardly any information about his family life. Read below to know about Bob Behnken's family.

Also read: Cape Canaveral weather forecast and NASA SpaceX launch details

Bob Behnken's family

Image courtesy - NASA

Bob Behnken is married to Megan McArthur, who is also an astronaut who has put in a significant amount of work at NASA. Coincidentally, both the astronauts who will fly to the International Space Station during the Demo-2 mission are married to astronauts. Megan McArthur joined NASA in August 2000 after completing two years of Astronaut Candidate training and evaluation.

McArthur served as Mission Specialist aboard STS-125 which was the conclusive space shuttle mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. McArthur has logged almost 13 days in space as her mission was completed in 12 days, 21 hours and 37 minutes, as reported on the official NASA website. Megan McArthur has also primarily served as an oceanographer.

Also read: Why is SpaceX going to space? Everything you need to know about Elon Musk's SpaceX

Image courtesy - NASA

Bob Behnken and Megan McArthur have a young son together named Theodore who is six years old. As Bob and Megan are not avid social media users, photos of their son Theodore haven't yet surfaced on the internet. McArthur had recently given an interview to a leading news daily in the USA where she revealed that one of the hardest things to do is watch the person they love get launched into space. McArthur had expressed her concerns around her husband Bob Behnken's flight to space as she has to watch the launch as a spectator and cannot contribute to the mission.

Also read: Will SpaceX launch be visible from the UK? Know its trajectory in the UK
The Odisha government on Sunday alerted farmers about a possible locust invasion in the state and advised them to take precautions, while stressing that there is no reason to panic.

There is a likelihood of Odisha becoming victim to locusts, which have attacked states like Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. Farmers have been asked to remain alert, state Agriculture Minister Arun Kumar Sahoo said.

Stressing that there is no reason to panic, the minister told PTI the state government as well as the Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT) have already issued advisory for dealing with any locust invasion.

As per the latest information, the migratory pests are likely to enter west Odisha districts such as Sundergarh, Bargarh, Kalahandi and Bolangir and cause damage to vegetable plantations and trees, he said.

Necessary measures were being taken to create awareness among the farmers, while the movement of swarms of locusts will be closely monitored at district and block levels, Sahoo said.

Dean of Directorate of Extension Education under OUAT L M Gadnayak said steps were being taken to issue standard operating procedure (SOP) to deal with possible invasion of locusts.

As per indications from the Centre and Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), locust swarms are likely to reach Odisha in June and may affect crops in several areas, particularly in the western region.

Desert locusts, mostly found in East Africa, eat crops and the green part of trees. Plenty of rainfall in East Africa has helped the insects breed and multiply. These insects have entered Iran, Pakistan and now several states in India.

The minister said though Odisha has not encountered any locust attack in recent years, the government is prepared to deal with any situation.

Farmers residing in areas bordering other states have been advised to remain alert and and take steps suggested by the OUAT and the government, he said.

Sahoo said the farmers have been advised to spray 200 litres of a solution of five per cent neem seed kernel per acre of land during the afternoon to prevent locust attack. They can also prepare a solution by adding 300PPM neem insecticide in 200 litres of water and spray it on the crop, he said.

The OUAT, in its advisory to farmers, has also asked them to follow the neem-based treatment. It further said that farmers can beat tin cans to drive away the locusts. Farmers can wield branches full of thorns to avoid locust attack.

The OUAT advisory stated that farmers can spread polythene sheets under trees with locusts in the evening and shake them hard so that the insects fall on the sheets. They can then collect these locusts and put them in kerosene mixed water to kill them.

Since locusts stop movement and settle on vegetation after evening, the farmers can also hit branches of trees and crops to remove the insects and destroy them by setting fire.
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US astronaut Doug Hurley appeared to bang his head as he entered the International Space Station just moments after docking Sunday.

SpaceX delivered Hurley and Bob Behnken to the ISS on Sunday morning, following up a historic liftoff with an equally smooth docking in yet another first for Elon Musk's company.

'Congratulations on a phenomenal accomplishment and welcome to the International Space Station,' SpaceX Mission Control radioed from Hawthorne, California.

Footage shows Hurley looked to bang his head coming out the hatch to greet fellow astronauts. He was later seen with a tissue, wiping his forehead. The station's current crew greeted Behnken and Hurley at an on-schedule hatch opening at 1:02 pm Eastern Time.

It was the first time a privately built and owned spacecraft carried astronauts to the orbiting lab in its nearly 20 years. The docking occurred a little early, barely 19 hours after a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasted off Saturday afternoon from Kennedy Space Center, the nation's first astronaut launch to orbit from home soil in nearly a decade.

Hurley and Behnken were poised to take over manual control, but the SpaceX Dragon capsule pulled up to the station and docked automatically, no assistance needed.

'Soft capture,' the moment when the spacecraft makes first contact and starts latching with the target vehicle, occurred at 10.16am ET. It was followed a few minutes later by 'hard capture' when an airtight seal was completed.

'It's been a real honor to be just a small part of this nine-year endeavor since the last time a United States spaceship has docked with the International Space Station,' Hurley said.

Bob Behnken entering the International Space Station moments after docking Sunday to be greeted by fellow astronauts

US astronaut Doug Hurley appeared to bang his head as he entered the ISS moments after docking Sunday

SpaceX delivered Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to the ISS on Sunday morning, following up a historic liftoff

The station's current crew greeted Behnken and Hurley at an on-schedule hatch opening at 1:02 pm Eastern Time

NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy greeted the incoming crew by ringing the ship's bell aboard the space station. The docking occurred a little early, barely 19 hours after a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasted off Saturday afternoon from Kennedy Space Center, the nation's first astronaut launch to orbit from home soil in nearly a decade

The SpaceX Dragon capsule pulled up to the station and docked automatically, no assistance needed

The docking occurred just 19 hours after a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasted off Saturday afternoon from Kennedy Space Center

NASA astronauts Douglas Hurley and Robert Behnken are seen inside the capsule as it docked on Sunday

In this image taken from NASA TV video, the SpaceX Dragon crew capsule docks with the International Space Station on Sunday

The spacecraft had to perform a series of maneuvers to raise its obit to come close enough to dock at the space station.

The Dragon docked autonomously to a port on the bow section of the of the station's Harmony module.

Once the capsule was latched securely to the space station, the congratulations flowed from NASA, SpaceX and the astronauts.

'Bravo on a magnificent moment in spaceflight history,' NASA's Mission Control radioed to everyone from Houston.

NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy greeted the incoming crew by ringing the ship's bell aboard the space station.

Next, the vestibule between the Dragon and the ISS will be pressurized and the hatch will then be opened, in about an hour.

Once the Dragon is sealed in place Hurley and Behnken will join the three other space station residents, NASA's Cassidy and Russia's Anatoli Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner, to become members of the Expedition 63 crew.

The mission, named Demo-2, marks the first time NASA has launched astronauts from US soil in nine years.

NASA considers this the opening volley in a business revolution encircling Earth and eventually stretching to the moon and Mars.

Hurley (left) and Behnken (right) walk out of the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building on their way to Pad 39-A, at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Saturday

Once the Dragon is sealed in place Hurley and Behnken will join the three other space station residents, NASA's Cassidy and Russia's Anatoli Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner, to become members of the Expedition 63 crew

The mission, named Demo-2, marks the first time NASA has launched astronauts from US soil in nine years

NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy greeted the incoming crew by ringing the ship's bell aboard the space station

The docking occurred just 19 hours after a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasted off Saturday afternoon from Kennedy Space Center, the nation's first astronaut launch to orbit from home soil in nearly a decade.

Musk - who's son X  A-Xii was born earlier this month - said: 'I think this is something that should really get people right in the heart  anyone who has a spirit of exploration.'

He added: 'I am really quite overcome with emotion  it's kind of hard to talk really. It's been 18 years working towards this goal. It's really hard to believe that it's happened.

'This is a craft made by humans, for humans, I think it's something humanity should be proud about occurring on this day.'

Musk said the mission is the 'first step on a journey that would see humans become a multi-planetary species'.

But despite the successful launch of astronauts into low-Earth orbit, Mr Musk said was was not keen to 'declare victory yet', emphasizing that the 'return can be more dangerous than the ascent'.

He added: 'We need to bring them home safely and make sure that we are doing everything we can to minimize that risk of reentry.'

Musk previously said he would accept absolute responsibility if yesterday's historic launch of his Falcon 9 rocket ended in tragedy.

President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence returned to Kennedy Space Center to watch the second attempt of Launch America.

'That was a beautiful sight to see and I hope you all enjoyed it,' Trump said shortly after the rocket ship lifted off for a trip to the ISS on Saturday.

Thousands jammed surrounding beaches, bridges and towns to watch as SpaceX became the worlds first private company to send astronauts into orbit, and ended a nine-year launch drought for NASA.

Elon Musk said he was 'overcome with emotion' after the astronauts were blasted into space in the Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center in Florida

Speaking Saturday, Musk (pictured celebrating) said the mission is the 'first step on a journey that would see humans become a multi-planetary species'

The SpaceX Falcon 9, with NASA astronauts Hurley and Behnken in the Crew Dragon capsule, lifts off from Pad 39-A at the Kennedy Space Center on Saturday

Spectators watch from a bridge in Titusville, Florida, as SpaceX Falcon 9 lifts off with Hurley and Behnken in the Dragon crew capsule

There was a 50 per cent chance Falcon 9 would not take off yesterday due to ominous clouds and lightning risks, but the weather cleared with just 45 minutes left on the clock countdown

A few hours before docking, the Dragon riders reported that the capsule was performing beautifully. Just in case, they slipped back into their pressurized launch suits and helmets for the rendezvous.

The three space station residents kept cameras trained on the incoming capsule for the benefit of flight controllers at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California, and NASAs Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Gleaming white in the sunlight, the Dragon was easily visible from a few miles out, its nose cone open and exposing its docking hook as well as a blinking light. The capsule loomed ever larger on live NASA TV as it closed the gap.

Hurley and Behnken took over the controls and did a little piloting less than a couple hundred meters out as part of the test flight, before putting it back into automatic for the final approach. Hurley said the capsule handled 'really well, very crisp'.

SpaceX and NASA officials had held off on any celebrations until after Sunday morning's docking - and possibly not until the two astronauts are back on Earth sometime this summer.

NASA has yet to decide how long Hurley and Behnken will spend at the space station, somewhere between one and four months.

The ground crew (pictured Saturday) ran through a series of tests designed to connect into the Dragon seats, which provides cool to the astronauts and communication to the crew

The SpaceX suits have been jointly designed by a Hollywood costume designer and by Musk himself

In a show-and-tell earlier Sunday, the astronauts gave a quick tour of the Dragon's sparkling clean insides, quite spacious for a capsule.

They said the liftoff was pretty bumpy and dynamic, nothing the simulators could have mimicked.

The blue sequined dinosaur accompanying them - their young sons' toy, named Tremor - was also in good shape, Behnken assured viewers.

Tremor was going to join Earthy, a plush globe delivered to the space station on last year's test flight of a crew-less crew Dragon. Behnken said both toys would return to Earth with them at mission's end.

After reaching orbit, Falcon 9 successfully returned to Earth and was retrieved by SpaceX's autonomous spaceport drone ship 'I Still Love You.'

The ISS was previously only accessible to NASA astronauts through the purchase of seats on Russian capsules launched from Kazakhstan - but that has all changed on Saturday.
Four decades ago, my favorite college professor asked our class a question I had never considered: Why do people go to church instead of praying alone?

I thought of his answer as I read about Gov. Gavin Newsoms new policy on reopening churches, which was released on Monday. We pray together, my professor said, for the same reason we attend sporting events: to feed off the energy that can only be created by a group.

French sociologist Emil Durkheim called that collective effervescence. It lay at the heart of all religions and  Durkheim said  of every social activity. When people gathered, he wrote, they generated a spiritual electricity that allowed them to transcend the everyday world. They became part of something greater than themselves.

Take this class, for example, my professor added.

I did take it  and every other class he taught  precisely because of the spirit they sparked. Like religion, education is a fundamentally social exercise. It doesnt really work except in concert, which also explains why music lovers go to live shows rather than simply listening at home.

Thats why 1,200 California pastors signed a petition vowing to hold in-person services on May 31, Pentecost Sunday, despite a ban on church gatherings issued earlier this spring by Newsom. He relaxed that prohibition on Monday, announcing that houses of worship could conduct services if they limited attendance to 25% of their buildings capacity or a maximum of 100 people  whichever is lower.

That came on the heels of a decision handed down recently by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, upholding the prior ban on in-person church gatherings. Were dealing here with a highly contagious and often fatal disease for which there presently is no known cure, the court warned.

Thats true. And churches have been a major vector for spreading the coronavirus, in California and elsewhere. Nine cases of COVID-19 are now linked to a Mothers Day service at a church in Mendocino County, while two people who attended a church service on the same day in Butte County have also tested positive for the virus.

Yet President Trump somehow saw fit to order all churches to reopen, which was absurd as well as irresponsible. Ignoring the very real threat posed by church gatherings, Trump pretended he had the power to override state restrictions on them.

But the desire of worshipers to gather is all too real, and altogether human. Its the same sentiment Ive heard from my mostly secular students, who are worried that our campus might remain closed in the fall. Cal State, Americas largest four-year university system, has already declared that it will be online-only next term. Other schools are sure to follow.

Just like churchgoers, however, students know that collective effervescence cant be re-created over the internet. In a recent survey of 3,000 students, three-quarters said that the online education they received this semester was worse than in-person instruction. Eighty-five percent said they missed face-to-face interactions with faculty, and a similar fraction missed socializing with peers.

But dont tell that to to enthusiasts in the business and technology worlds, who see a brave new world  and big dollar signs  emerging from the coronavirus crisis. When the dust settles, they say, more and more people will be studying remotely.

Major world events are often an inflection point for rapid innovation, two officials at the World Economic Forum recently wrote, noting that companies providing online education have continued to attract investors during the pandemic. The changes coronavirus caused might be here to stay.

Lets hope not. As my college professor  channeling Emil Durkheim  taught me, something happens when were physically together that simply cant happen when were apart.

Thats why I remember my professors classes, after all these years. If I had studied with him remotely, I would have missed the electricity and drama that Durkheim described. Like preachers, teachers can transmit information online. But to change somebodys soul, you need to be in the same room.

Jonathan Zimmerman teaches education and history at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of The Amateur Hour: A History of College Teaching in America, which will be published in the fall by Johns Hopkins University Press.
- A popular policeman in Koforidua, Eastern region's capital, has died

- Reports have it that the hardworking officer died of COVID-19

- His subordinates and family members have mourned his passing

Our Manifesto: This is what YEN.com.gh believes in

A very popular policeman in Koforidua has reportedly died of coronavirus after being ill for a short while and visiting two hospitals.

The late officer, a 55-year-old Chief Inspector of Police, was the Station Officer at Central Police Station in Koforidua.

He reportedly took his last breath on Friday, May 29, 2020.

Policemen going on rounds. Source: UGC

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: The constituents in my area want me to become their MP - Asamoah Gyan

According to a reported sighted by YEN.com.gh on peacefmonline.com, he was on admission at the Eastern Regional Hospital in Koforidua for a few days having visited the Police Clinic in Koforidua and Newland Hospital- a private Hospital before his death.

The report went on to indicate that the cause of death was not immediately known until the late security personnel's sample results released after his death reportedly tested positive for COVID-19.

A medical team from the Ghana Health Service (GHS), led by Dr Abu Armel and one Sally Tetteh, visited the Central Police Station on Saturday evening to inform and sensitize officers at the station that the cause of death was probably COVID-19.

Due to this, the team of health experts is expected to return to the region on Sunday, May 31, 2020, to take samples of occupants at the police station and the police barracks and close associates who came into contact with the late officer.

The team from GHS also visited the widow and children to inform them about the situation and the necessary protocols to be taken and observed.

Samples of health workers at the Police Clinic and Newland Hospital have also been taken by the Medical team for testing.

READ ALSO: Serwaa Amihere flaunts curves in new photo; Fella, Salma, Naa Ashorkor, others react

The sudden death of the Chief Inspector has shocked many in the Eastern Regional Capital. On Friday evening, police officers at the station mourned the late Chief Inspector.

The late officer has been touted by many Koforidua residents as a very affable, just and hardworking man who discharged his duties to the admiration of all.

He was honoured by the Police Administration a few years ago together with Police Commander Richardson Kumeko for refusing a bribe from an arrested suspect in Koforidua who attempted smuggling marijuana through Koforidua to the Central region of Ghana.

YEN.com.gh earlier reported that Ghana has recorded another COVID-19 related death in less than 24 hours, bringing the death toll to 36, the Ghana Health Service (GHS) has said.

The total confirmed cases are 7,881 with 2,841 recoveries, according to the Ghana Health Service. Active cases now stand at 5,004.

READ ALSO: Yvonne Nelson hosts Beverly Afaglo's birthday party; Roselyn Ngissah, others attend

The total number of severe cases currently stands at 15 with five others in critical condition. Two are on ventilators, according to the Sunday, May 31, 2020 update.

Yenkasa: Would You Queue For the Voters' Register? | #Yencomgh

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Your stories and photos are always welcome. Get interactive via our Facebook page.

Source: YEN.com.gh
New Delhi: Two officials at Delhi's Pakistan High Commission were caught spying by Indian authorities on Sunday (May 31, 2020). The last time such an incident happened was in 2016.

The two officers identified as Abid Hussain and Tahir Hussain, who worked in the visa section of the high commission, were caught red handed while engaged in anti-India activity.

Further it has been said that the two had assumed fake Indian identities and used it everywhere.

They will soon be declared persona non grata and will be asked them to leave India within the next two days.

In 2016, one Pakistan High Commission official Mehmood Akhtar was declared as persona non grata after he was caught receiving sensitive documents.

During interrogation, Akhtar had revealed that he belonged to Baloch Regiment of Pakistan Army and joined Pakistan's spy agency Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI) on deputation. He had been posted at the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi since September 2013.

The Pakistan High Commissioner was then summoned by the then Foreign Secretary and India registered a strong protest on the activities of Akhtar.

In an apparent tit-for-tat move, on the same day Pakistan declared an Assistant Personnel and Welfare Officer Surjeet Singh of the Indian High Commission at Islamabad as persona non grata.
Cheryl Prescod knows its sometimes impossible to follow the advice of public health officials.

They recommend using a different bathroom, and staying in a basement, or at least another room, to protect loved ones from COVID-19.

But the executive director of the Black Creek Community Health Centre, located in one of the neighbourhoods hardest hit by the disease, according to new data released by Toronto Public Health, often hears from people who just cant do that.

Not everyone has a different room to self-isolate in, Prescod said.

There are a lot of multi-generational families, lots of folks in one apartment, she added. We dont want to over-stigmatize the community but its a circumstance and reality.

The idea of quarantine hotels, providing free accommodation to people jammed into too small apartments, is something thats already being done in New York City. Its one possible solution to support those in isolation, and help stamp out COVID-19 in neighbourhoods that have been disproportionately hit by the disease. Toronto and the GTA remain hot spots, accounting for about 65 per cent of Ontarios coronavirus cases, even as the curve flattens elsewhere in the province.

The city has started conversations with its emergency operations centre and the federal government about the idea, said Board of Health chair and councillor Joe Cressy, now that they can see from geographic data released Wednesday, that while COVID-19 is in every neighbourhood, the burden of the disease is not equally distributed.

We have identified that it is an area that needs to be addressed, he said, adding funding and co-ordinating with other levels of government will be key.

The city started with an approach that focused on the most vulnerable, he said, leasing hotel rooms to provide for homeless people.

Theyve also developed a model for those in supportive housing settings, who may have their own room but share a kitchen and bathroom, and who need to self-isolate, Cressy said. They are still waiting on funding from the province for that. The province launched a $200 million Social Services Relief Fund in March to support vulnerable people during COVID-19, a spokesperson for the ministry of municipal affairs and housing noted.

Airbnb is offering free or subsidized stays to health-care workers, as are some hotels. And accommodation is available to travellers who need to do a 14-day quarantine through the federal government, a spokesperson confirmed. But theres nothing available for people with small homes or apartments that make self-isolating impossible.

Torontos medical officer of health Eileen de Villa cautioned Wednesday when releasing the neighbourhood data, which the city mapped by the first three letters of postal codes, that it doesnt mean the areas with the most COVID-19 cases are unsafe. Or even that people became infected there.

They could have gotten the disease in another part of the city, at work for example, and brought it back. The numbers show that the hardest hit areas overall per 100,000 residents, including outbreaks, are in the far northwest of the city. Neighbourhoods that, on average, also have higher proportions of low-income, racialized people and new immigrants.

Black Creek is the neighbourhood with the third-highest rate of infection per 100,000 residents, at 695, when excluding outbreaks at long-term-care homes and other institutions. Nearby Maple Leaf and Weston are the worst and second worst hit, respectively, with 732 and 706 cases.

Whats clear, Cressy said, is that COVID-19 hurts the most vulnerable.

Disease has always preyed on poverty, he said, adding factors such as access to housing and nutritious food, and type of employment all play a part.

COVID-19 has taken advantage of these health inequities and indeed exposed these health inequities, he said.

In New York City, the office of emergency management made 11,000 hotel rooms available for health-care workers and people who need a safe space to isolate other than their own home, said mayors office spokesperson Avery Cohen. So far, there have been over 10,000 stays.

In recent days, the city announced it will make another 1,200 hotel rooms available through an initiative called Take Care that will also provide wraparound support from community organizations and regular check-ins from trained contact tracers. The goal is to expand to 3,000 rooms by late summer.

Separating will help keep you and your loved ones safe  but it isnt always easy, said Mayor Bill de Blasio in a news release.

From providing free hotel rooms to delivering meals, your city is here to bridge the gap, and has your back each and every step of the way as you recover.

In British Columbia, free accommodation is also available on a case-by-case basis to COVID-19 positive individuals, or their family members or roommates, to make safe self-isolation possible, said a ministry of health spokesperson.

Typically people self-isolating at home have mild cases of the disease. But its something Toronto physician Ariel Lefkowitz said has come into play when discharging more serious COVID patients to recover.

It definitely impacted how long people had to stay in hospital, which of course has wide-ranging effects on the rest of the hospital, he said.

Many of these patients were also working low-paid high-risk jobs as grocery clerks or delivery people, and didnt have access to proper personal protective equipment. Social workers were able to find some of his patients hotel rooms, but the cost was often too high, he said. One man desperately wanted to go home to be with his pregnant wife, but had to stay in hospital longer because the apartment was too small and they only had one bathroom.

The truth is I would rather somebody stay in hospital than go somewhere where theyre going to put other people at risk, where theyre going to put their loved ones at risk, he said.

I think free, safe housing where they have access to food and other things they need to live safely while isolated would be a hugely impactful thing.

Prescod agrees, and would also like to see other measures like free masks, and better communication of public health messages in different languages.

We have to expand our thinking a little bit out of the box, she said.

The people of Black Creek and nearby neighbourhoods have already come together to deliver hot meals, groceries and hygiene kits to vulnerable people.

Its a really resilient and caring community and people want to take care of each other, she added.

But there are barriers and we need to figure out how to remove some of them.

Here are four ideas from other places to help stop COVID-19 in Torontos hardest-hit neighbourhoods:

Neighbourhood contact tracers

New York City has hired 1,700 people to join the Test & Trace Corp, a small army of contact tracers to track down everyone whos been in contact with positive cases. Seven hundred have been hired from neighbourhoods hardest hit by the virus. Forty languages are spoken across the corps, according to the mayors office.

Special taxis

In Japan, the non-profit Nippon Foundation has covered the cost of 100 special taxis just for COVID patients with mild symptoms so they dont risk infecting someone else on the way to the hospital, said a spokesperson.

Community testing centres/mobile testing

New York City is also providing community testing in neighbourhoods hardest hit by the virus, so that people dont have to find their own way to a larger site in a different area. Pop-up testing units are already planned in Scarborough and the province says theyll be coming to other hard-hit neighbourhoods soon.

Support with isolation

The NYC is also providing wraparound support for COVID patients with mild symptoms who need to self-isolate, to make it easier, through a partnership with 15 community-based organizations.

Two hundred resource navigators will be on the ground next week to help residents with access to meals, medicine and laundry, and the program will be expanded over the month of June, according to the mayors office.
A nephew of Belgium's King Philippe, Prince Joachim, has tested positive for coronavirus after attending a party in Spain, which Spanish media said broke lockdown rules because of the number of people there.

The prince, 28, tested positive after attending the gathering in the southern city of Cordoba on May 26, a spokesperson for the Belgian Royal Palace said on Saturday.

The spokesperson said the palace could not confirm the number of people in attendance at the party.

The palace said Joachim travelled to Spain from Belgium on May 24 for an internship and was still there.

Prince Joachim (L) with family at a Belgian Royal Family official photocall Source: Getty

El Pais newspaper said the prince, who is 10th in line to the Belgian throne, attended the party along with 26 other people.

This would be a breach of lockdown rules in the province of Cordoba, where the maximum number of people permitted to meet is currently 15.

Spanish police said they had launched an investigation into the incident and those who breached restrictions could face fines of between 600 and 10,000 euros.

All 27 people who attended the party are now in quarantine, Rafaela Valenzuela, the Spanish government's regional envoy in Cordoba, told a press conference on Saturday.

Princess Maria Laura of Belgium (L) and Prince Joachim of Belgium (R) attend the wedding in Rome. Source: Getty

Ms Valenzuela called the gathering "completely irresponsible" and said it could have caused an outbreak of infections, triggering a return to a stricter lockdown.

"I feel surprised and angry. An incident of this type stands out at a moment of national mourning for so many dead," she said.

As the government eases Spain's lockdown regulations, at one point some of the strictest in Europe, police have intervened in a series of cases of people flouting social distancing restrictions.

Got a story tip or just want to get in touch? Email us at lifestyle.tips@verizonmedia.com.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-30 20:50:51|Editor: huaxia

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HANOI, May 30 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam reported a new case of COVID-19 infection on Saturday, bringing its total confirmed cases to 328 with zero death so far, according to its Ministry of Health.

The latest case was a one-year-old Vietnamese boy recently returning to the country from Russia, said the ministry, noting that 33 other passengers on the same flight with the baby had been confirmed to have contracted the virus.

Meanwhile, 279 patients have totally recovered from the disease, according to the ministry.

Vietnam has recorded no local transmission for 44 straight days while there are nearly 7,900 people being quarantined and monitored in the country, according to the health ministry. Enditem
A Vermont resident was arrested on multiple drug charges after police found nearly 2.5 pounds of cocaine, heroin and other drugs in his car during a routine traffic stop on Interstate-91 Friday night.

Reginald Jones, 38, of Barre, Vermont, was arrested at about 7 p.m. in Bernardston and charged with trafficking in cocaine and heroin, possession of a Class E drug, unlawful distribution of marijuana, driving an unregistered car vehicle and other motor vehicle charges, Massachusetts State Police said.

Trooper Michael Leslie was conducting routine traffic surveillance and stopped Jones, who was driving a Toyota Camry northbound on the highway, police said.

Because the cars temporary Vermont registration had expired, Leslie ordered the vehicle towed. During an inventory search of the Toyota, the trooper found 1,118 grams of cocaine, 53 grams of crack cocaine, 25 grams of heroin, 15 Ecstasy pills and two bags of marijuana, police said.

Jones was booked at the Shelburne Falls Barracks and bail was set at $50,000. He had not made bond as of Saturday night is being held at the Hampshire County House of Correction and until his arraignment scheduled for Monday at Northampton District Court, police said.
Just 15 miles from continued Houston protests over George Floyds death, dozens gathered in Missouri City to demand justice for a man killed in April by an undercover sheriffs deputy.

U.S. Rep. Al Green and the family of the slain man, 35-year-old Joshua Johnson, on Saturday emphasized the need for a peaceful protest amid the backdrop of nationwide violence in the wake of Floyds death.

We all said that this should be done peacefully, the Houston Democrat said. Lets take this to court and see what the court will do for people who have lived under the threat and the fear of becoming a victim at the hands of the constabulary.

Green repeated his calls for an independent probe through a court of inquiry, which requires a state district judge to appoint another district judge to hear evidence and determine if a state law has been violated, and if so, issue an arrest warrant.

His push for that path forward came as he and Johnsons family and friends continued to question authorities version of events.

Thats all we want to do, is get justice, said Johnsons father, Richard Beary. We know that the truth will come out.

The Harris County Sheriffs Office reported that before dawn on April 22, Johnson approached an undercover deputy as he sat in an unmarked vehicle under a street light on East Ritter Circle. He tapped on the deputys window with a BB gun in one hand and his phone with its light turned on in the other, they said.

Words were exchanged, officials said, and the deputy asked Johnson to lower his weapon. According to the sheriffs office, Johnson instead raised it, and the deputy opened fire, striking him at least twice.

Johnson went to his vehicle, leaving behind a trail of blood. The medical examiners office found that he died of multiple gunshot wounds.

The sheriffs office said the BB gun looked like a more lethal weapon  a point the protests organizer ridiculed Saturday.

Johnson believed that someone had tried breaking into his home earlier and was on the lookout for an intruder, his family said.

Bad guys dont carry BB guns, organizer James Hudson said. People that are house sitting for little old ladies in their neighborhood dont  my god, help us.

The plainclothes deputy had been working with the Gulf Coast Violent Offenders task force to find a capital murder suspect from Mesquite. That man wasnt found on East Ritter, where a family member was believed to have lived. After Johnson was killed, the subject of the original investigation surrendered to North Texas authorities.

No video could be found from the Missouri City street. The deputy was not wearing a body camera and wasnt required to while working undercover. Its not known whether he identified himself to Johnson as they spoke.

Green's desire for a court of inquiry also stems from an account of the shooting that was shared by a deputy responding to the scene. A recently released audio recording captured the parents attempting to see their deceased son and being told what occurred, although the deputy speaking to them admitted that he hadn't talked to the person who shot Johnson.

The congressman said he fears the deputy who relayed the story to the parents may have corrupted the initial investigation with false information.

Those at Saturdays rally raised issues with several elements of the deadly encounter, including the lack of body cam footage, a bullet hole in a neighbors garage, the placement of the unmarked police vehicle, and how Johnson was alleged to have confronted the deputy.

Theres no way you had an exchange of words and then you shot him, said Shanequa Estes, Johnsons girlfriend. We were robbed way before we should have been.

Several of Johnsons friends referenced the national outcry over police killings of black men.

Floyd, a former Houston resident, died in Minneapolis police custody Monday night after video showed an officer kneeling on his neck, pinning him to the ground while he pleaded for help. The officer, Derek Chauvin, has been charged with murder and manslaughter, and Chauvin and three other officers at the scene were fired earlier this week.

Protests took place in cities across the nation, and they turned violent Friday night in Houston, with eight officers reported injured and 137 arrests made. Demonstrations continued Saturday.

Bernadette Smith, Johnsons family friend and a relative of the woman for whom Johnson was house sitting, agreed that Floyd needs justice. But Johnson does too, she said.

What about Joshua? she said. What about all the other Joshuas?

samantha.ketterer@chron.com

This story has been updated to include Green's suspicion that a deputy corrupted the investigation.
Malaysia said on Sunday it had agreed with neighbouring Singapore to suspend until Dec. 31 a project for a high-speed rail link between the capital, Kuala Lumpur, and the city-state, to allow discussion of changes.

Analysts estimate the project, first announced by both nations in 2013, will cost about $17 billion, though the two have tried to renegotiate the terms of an initial pact.

"The government of Malaysia and the government of Singapore have agreed to resume discussions on the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore high speed rail infrastructure project in the near future," said Mohamed Azmin Ali, Malaysia`s minister of international trade and industry.

"The discussions will encompass some of the proposed changes in the commercial and technical aspects of the project," he said in a statement.

Singapore`s transport ministry did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 31

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

The volume of electrical goods exported from Turkey to Uzbekistan in the first four months of 2020 declined by 41.9 percent, compared to the same period in 2019, and made up slightly over $14 million, Turkish Trade Ministry told Trend.

In April 2020, exports of electrical goods from Turkey to Uzbekistan fell by 57.3 percent compared to April of last year and amounted to $2.5 million.

Export of electrical goods from Turkey to world markets shrank 13.2 percent from January through April 2020 compared to the same period of 2019, amounting to slightly over $3.1 billion, the ministry said.

Turkeys export of electrical goods to world markets amounted to 6.1 percent of the countrys total export from Jan. through Apr. 2020.

Turkeys export of electrical goods to world markets amounted to $62 million in April 2020, which is 33.8 percent less compared to April 2019, the ministry said.

In April of this year, Turkeys export of electrical goods to world markets amounted to 6.9 percent of the countrys total export.

During the last 12 months (from April 2019 through April 2020), Turkey exported electrical goods worth more than 10.7 billion, added the ministry.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
For the past four nights, the United States has been in flames. While the anarchy has unfolded, more than 80,000 more Americans have tested positive to COVID-19, with many more to be announced today.

Both COVID-19 and the horrifying, slow death of black man George Floyd at the hands of police have sent sparks flying in a tinderbox dried by three long years of Donald Trumps America First drive that aggressively divided the United States and left the already-disadvantaged desperate and further behind.

Cars burn during a protest in Atlanta on Friday. Credit:Getty Images

Under the knee of the now-charged police officer was not just the 46-year-old Floyd, but centuries of proud black Americans who, through no fault of their own, have been born into a system which has both consciously and at times unconsciously deemed them to be less equal, less worthy of the spoils of the land of the free, less trustworthy, and just lesser.

The paroxysm of rage that erupted in Minneapolis after Floyds death and which has continued to spread across the United States cannot be separated from the pandemic ravaging the country. Both unjustifiable police violence and the unequal way in which COVID-19 has landed in the US have laid bare and activated the structural inequalities deeply etched in American society.
AS TOYOTA Motor Philippines (TMP) way of welcoming its valued customers back to its dealerships, TMP is now offering free vehicle interior sanitation for customers who will have their vehicles serviced from May 11 to June 16, 2020.

This Welcome Back promo covers the use of Toyota Bactaklenz, an anti-bacterial treatment proven to eliminate 99.99 percent of bacteria, molds and fungi inside the vehicle which can cause allergy and other health concerns. Based on medical research and studies, sage oil, which is one of its active ingredients, is found to be effective in reducing the spread of common colds and influenza. It can also eliminate cabin odor and foul smell. Other main ingredients are herbal extracts which are non-toxic and environment friendly and are, therefore, safe to use inside the vehicle.

The treatment is applied using a misting system, and leaves a slight pine scent after it is applied. While the main ingredients are non-toxic, part of the sanitation process is to let the mist subside for 10 to 15 minutes before the vehicle is turned over to the customer. Its effectiveness can last up to three months.

Toyota owners will be entitled to one free Toyota BactaKlenz vehicle interior sanitation treatment when they avail themselves of any or a combination of the following services at participating Toyota dealer outlets during the promo period periodic maintenance, general service and body and paint. For further details on this promo, customers can visit: https://toyota.com.ph/promos/bactaklenz. (PR)
Luxaviation Group, a Luxembourg-based company operating one of the largest fleets of private jets in the world, announced Friday it had acquired the VIP terminal at Le Bourget airport in Paris.

Le Bourget is one of Europe's leading business airports, and its purchase marks the 26th terminal owned by Luxaviation. It is the next logical step in the company's innovation and expansion, Patrick Hansen, CEO of Luxaviation Group, said in a statement.

Luxaviation employees 1,500 employees on five continents from its Luxembourg headquarters.
The day after George Floyd was pronounced dead at a Minneapolis hospital, Tucson, Arizona, Police Chief Chris Magnus had seen and heard enough to weigh in on a growing national scandal.

Indefensible use of force that good officers everywhere are appalled by, Magnus tweeted late Tuesday night. This is contrary to how PROFESSIONAL police officers train & conduct themselves. Conduct like this anywhere makes it more difficult for police everywhere to build community trust.

Magnus was one of the nations first major law enforcement officials to weigh in on the now-viral video of the arrest of Floyd, who died on Monday after being handcuffed and pinned to the ground by an officers knee. That Minneapolis officer, Derek Chauvin, and three others were fired Tuesday, and Chauvin was arrested and charged with third-degree murder Friday.

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It wasnt a surprise that Magnus was out front of his contemporaries, given his reputation as a progressive police reformer. But the day after Magnus tweet, many more top cops from across the country joined him in denouncing the actions of Chauvin.

I dont know how you defend what you saw. I cant defend it, Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said. It is very evident that what occurred there was wrong. There is a lack of humanity that is exhibited there, said Miami Chief Jorge Colina. Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore told the Washington Post, The lack of compassion, use of excessive force, or going beyond the scope of the law, doesnt just tarnish our badgeit tears at the very fabric of race relations in this country.

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These chiefs were joined by the heads of major law enforcement organizations like the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the Major Cities Chiefs Association, and even the Fraternal Order of Policethe nations largest police union, which rarely does anything but take the offending officers side.

The chorus of condemnation caught the attention of Phillip Atiba Goff, a researcher and expert in racial bias and discrimination in policing. Goff has been working with law enforcement for more than a decade through his organization, the Center for Policing Equity. Usually, policefrom the chiefs to their patrol officers to retired cops who move into jobs as experts on TVask for the public to reserve judgment until all the facts are in. But last week represented a noticeable shift in the tone from previous police responses to the killings of unarmed black men.

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They believe the health of officers is best served by establishing to the public the difference between what they saw [in the video of Floyd] and who they are, Goff told me. And law enforcement is a culture, nationwide, of imitation.

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And this is why, rather than the words of the chiefs, its been much more instructive to follow whats been going on with their rank-and-file officers since the death of Floyd.

In Chicago, Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara may have told the local NPR station, I dont think theres a single policeman in this country that would say that that was sound police tactics in any way, shape or form. But by the time Catanzaras quotes were published, police officersthe ones who make the traffic stops and enforce the public disturbance complaintswere lining up to face off against protesters in cities all around the country. They brought billy clubs, riot gear, and even tanks. They shot rubber bullets at TV reporters, turned pepper spray on large groups of protestersespecially dangerous in the midst of a pandemicand rushed to the defense of a motorist who recklessly drove through a crowd of demonstrators.

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It was hard to miss the duplicity. NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea strongly and publicly rebuked the four Minneapolis officers involved in Floyds death. What we saw in Minnesota was deeply disturbing. It was wrong, he tweeted. This is not acceptable ANYWHERE. But on Friday in Brooklyn, his officers were swinging batons and scuffling with protesters in the streets, and on Saturday they were ramming their police cruisers into them.

In Seattle, Police Chief Carmen Best tweeted Wednesday that no one is above the law, referring to Chauvin. By the weekend, two of her officers were pummeling a protester on the ground.

And in Minneapolis, where the national uprising got its fiery start, Police Chief Medaria Arradondo earned praise for his decisive action in firing the four officers involved in Floyds killing. I know that there is currently a deficit of hope in our city, Arradondo said in a news conference Thursday. I know that this department has contributed to that deficit of hope, but I will not allow to continue to increase that deficit. By Saturday, journalists reported on Minnesota state troopers firing tear gas at media members at point blank range.

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The initial response of police leaders may have felt like progress, but video footage of police and protesters clashing in the streets reveals the truth: Officers are much closer to what we see in viral videos documenting their brutality than in the well-intentioned words of their leaders. Despite the shift in public statements, police havent changed since the protests of 2014 and 2015. As my colleague Julia Craven wrote on Saturday, this week has happened before.*

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Little of this is a surprise to Jin Hee Lee, senior deputy director of litigation at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, who was part of the team that won class action lawsuits challenging the NYPDs stop-and-frisk policy.

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Over the past few days, Lee has been watching the dichotomy between the flowery formal statements on social media and the countless videos of cops bullying protesters in the streets.

So many of the problems with policing is what were seeing [this week] Lee told me.

While police chiefs were busy lamenting the grisly video of Floyds arrest, Lee and her legal team were asking a court-appointed monitor to conduct an investigation into the NYPDs social distancing enforcement practices. This came after data showed 81 percent of summonses for social distancing violations in New York were issued to black and Latino residents.

Racial discrimination in departments that go unchecked can have terrible consequences, Lee told me. I do think its important to make these connections. It counters the narrative that there are a few bad apples.

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Over the weekend, another video of the police interacting with protesters made the rounds on social media. This one was from Atlanta, where Police Chief Erika Shields turned her attention to a woman who tearfully explained her fear that cops might someday harm her family members. Shields placed her hands on the womans shoulders.

We agree with you, Shields told the woman. Its fucked up and nothing changes.

By the end of the night, Atlanta police officers in riot gear were setting off smoke bombs.
She's most known for her supporting roles in films Mad Max: Fury Road and God of Egypt.

And on Saturday, Los Angeles-based Australian actress Courtney Eaton used her celebrity status to speak up about the killing of American George Floyd as she joined a protest in LA.

The 24-year-old brunette was seen holding a homemade sign which read: 'If you stand for nothing, you fall for anything.'

Out for a good cause: Actress Courtney Eaton (pictured) covered up her face with a red bandana as she stepped out to support the Black Lives Matter protest in LA on Saturday

Stepping out for the cause, the Aussie beauty opted for a black sleeveless singlet top and she covered her face and nose with a red bandana.

She completed her look in denim jeans and black high-top Converse shoes.

Courtney accessorised her look with a black bum bag, which she wore across her body.

Activist: The 24-year-old brunette was seen holding a homemade sign which read: 'If you stand for nothing you fall for anything.'

She was accompanied by a blond male, who wore a black shirt and khaki coloured pants. He had his face covered with a black face mask and matching hat.

Born in Bunbury, Western Australia, Courtney landed supporting roles as Cheedo the Fragile in 2015's Mad Max: Fury Road, and as Zaya in 2016's Gods of Egypt.

Courtney's last role was as Sarah in 2019 action crime thriller, Line of Duty.

Outspoken: Stepping out for a good cause, the Aussie beauty opted for a black sleeveless singlet top and she covered her face and nose with a red bandana

The actress was joined by other famous faces at the protests, including Ross Lynch, Paris Jackson, Emily Ratajkowski and 'hot felon' Jeremy Meeks.

Although it's common for some protestors to wear masks to avoid being targetted by law enforcement, most of the crowd covered up due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Earlier this week, Floyd - an unarmed, African-American male - experienced a horrific death at the hands of police in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

The actress was joined by other famous faces at the raucous protests, including her rumoured ex boyfriend Ross Lynch (center) , Paris Jackson, Emily Ratajkowski and Jeremy Meeks

In the horrifying video footage of Floyd's death, he is seen saying that he can not breathe as officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on his neck.

Eventually he went silent and limp, and he was later declared dead.

Protests swelled after federal authorities said Thursday that they were making the case a top priority but announced no arrests at that time.

The Minneapolis policeman accused of killing Floyd, Chauvin, was taken into custody Friday and charged with third-degree murder, officials said.

The death of 46-year-old Floyd has sparked days of sometimes violent demonstrations in Minneapolis and other US cities over police brutality against African-Americans.
New Delhi, May 31 : Self-grooming is all the rage right now; everyone is happy to join in, from actress Anushka Sharma giving her beau a stylish haircut, to Alia Bhatt allowing her trusted inner circle to chop her locks and even the Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton, taking to hairstyling to groom her little ones at home during the lockdown.

As people choose to groom and beauty themselves in the safety of their homes, the business of grooming products is raking in the moolah.

Products like hair dryers, hair stylers, hair curlers, hair straighteners, body grooming kits, and most importantly, trimmers and men's shavers, have been flying off the shelves - causing a brand to register a massive spike in the sales figures. "There is an increased demand for grooming products such as trimmers, hair styling tools across both men and women categories. Our trimmers and hair dryers continue to be top sellers for us. In fact, we have registered 5X growth vs our original sales speed for trimmers (post Covid-19)," Sharath Nair, Business Head - Lifestyle Business Group, Panasonic India told IANSlife.

"What I see is that the lockdown has created a behavioural change in consumers, and that has fueled this personalised trend for grooming. We definitely see positive impacts in the short to mid term, long term is something time will tell us." Restricted within the confines of their homes, people are making the best use of their electronic companions to support themselves in their daily chores. With the lockdown, grooming sessions that were previously outsourced to neighbourhood salons and barber shops have become a personalised DIY activities.

According to the spokesperson, the overall demand for stylers like straighteners and curling irons is high, but the exponential growth for grooming products - like trimmers - is much higher. Speaking on the supply of equipment to salons, he shares that while sales in salons have definitely been impacted because of the lockdown, "it is more than being made up by the natural demand coming from personalised buying. It has become a family thing, and also an individual thing." Interestingly, personal grooming during this phase has been more of a need than a choice! But the question is will it become a habit so that even after opening of salons and spas, people choose to groom themselves.

This grooming experience has also allowed people to experiment with their looks at no extra cost. Asked if they saw a region-wise differentiation, Panasonic said that regions that have normalized faster have shown higher sales trends, across most electronic purchases.

(IANSlife Features can be contacted at ianslife@ians.in)
A-lister Matt Damon was using Niall Horan's personal bodyguard to keep his family safe during his three-month-long unplanned holiday in Dalkey, south Dublin.

The actor and his family spent lockdown amid the residents of Dalkey, an area dubbed the Irish Riviera.

Joined by three of his four children and his wife Luciana Barroso, the Good Will Hunting star had been hunkering down in Eddie Irvine's 7,000-a-week villa.

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And while the locals went above and beyond to support the actor during his extended stay, it's clear he was taking no chances by hiring Basil Whelan. The burly security guard was spotted jogging alongside Matt on the Dalkey promenade a number of times. He also joined the star and his family on walks through nearby Dillon's Park.

The Damon family were spotted at Dublin Airport last Thursday morning, finally returning to New York to reunite with his eldest daughter Alexia.

Expand Close Matt Damon in Dalkey with his famous SuperValu bag. / Facebook

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Whelan initially rose to public prominence when he was spotted alongside pop star Niall Horan at the end of his time with One Direction.

Dubliner Basil made such an impression on the musician that he secured his services when he went solo, in 2016.

When Horan toured the US, Basil's services were acquired by Westlife for their reunion tour which culminated in their Croke Park performances last summer.
Prasanta Mazumdar By

Express News Service

GUWAHATI: The Oil India Limited (OIL) is in touch with foreign experts to stop the blowout of natural gas from one of its oil wells in Assams Tinsukia district.

The oil major has been in touch with three US expert groups to plug the well. There has been no letup in the blowout  or uncontrolled emission of gas  ever since a burst at Baghjan BGR Oil Well No.5 on Wednesday morning.

We are hopeful we can bring the situation under control by Thursday. We are consulting three US expert groups and we would need their expertise only if our efforts dont yield any results, an OIL spokesperson said.

From Monday, the public sector undertaking would issue a public statement on the progress of repair.

According to sources from the OIL, such an incident is rare and the last in Assam had occurred in 2005 at Dikom in Dibrugarh district. On that occasion, experts had to be flown in from abroad to control a blaze at an abandoned oil well 45 days later.

Meanwhile, OILs Chairman and Managing Director Sushil Chandra Mishra inspected the site on Sunday.

We are focused on providing relief to people who have been affected. At the same time, we are trying to bring the operations back to normal, he told journalists.

There is a strong smell of gas in the air and the authorities have already evacuated some 700 people living in villages adjoining the site of blowout. The people were lodged at some relief camps.

Wildlife activists and environmentalists are worried about the threat the emission of gas posed to flora and fauna of the area. The Dibru-Saikhowa National Park, known for its feral horses, is about 2 km away. The activists said the incident had already affected aquatic animals, including the highly-endangered Gangetic dolphins, and fish at river Dibru.


One year on from the end of her fierce brush with federal political life, former Liberal MP Julia Banks is back to complete "unfinished business" and combat sexist treatment of women in a political system "stuck in time".

Having departed the Liberals to become independent after experiencing bullying  and having noted on the way out that respect for women in Australian politics is "years behind the business world"  Ms Banks wants to expose and combat poor treatment of women in public life.

Julia Banks, near her home on the Mornington Peninsula, has returned to public life to help make it more respectful of women. Credit:Simon Schluter

She says "gendered abuse of women" is so severe in some public arenas, including sport, the media and particularly politics that young women are deterred from entering them, and she wants to tackle this head-on.

Like the ABC broadcaster, Leigh Sales, who recently tweeted screencaps of the "sexualised social media abuse ... all women in the public eye get constantly, whether you are Peta Credlin, Julia Gillard or anyone in between", Ms Banks speaks from personal experience.
Shipley said troopers had asked Ross why he fled and he mentioned having a suspended license. But he did not have a suspended license. At another point, as they tried to learn why he was in distress, troopers asked Ross whether he ingested something. At first, he said yes but later said no, according to state police.
COLUMBIA  Law enforcement officers fired tear gas at several hundred protesters Sunday as they marched toward the Columbia police station, where demonstrations turned violent a day earlier, and later when they returned to the Statehouse.

Meanwhile, Columbia City Council extended its curfew until 6 a.m. Monday.

Police officers began clearing out the Statehouse grounds around 6 p.m., using tear gas to disperse groups and arresting anyone who did not immediately follow orders to go home.

"The curfew is in effect, an officer standing next to Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin yelled into a megaphone. "Disperse or you will be arrested."

Officers used tear gas against demonstrators, then moved in a line into the Vista, the restaurant and entertainment district near the Statehouse.

Tear gas had dispersed the crowd earlier as they marched up Columbia's Main Street before taking a winding path toward the police department. That's where peaceful protests devolved into gunshots and vandalism Saturday afternoon. Demonstrators didn't make it there Sunday.

They were met on Hampton Street by a police presence that included sheriffs deputies with riot shields and red-clad rapid response team officers. For several minutes, protesters screamed at the officers, holding up their arms and urging them not to shoot.

Tensions skyrocketed as protesters screamed that they had nothing but signs and cellphones against the officers riot gear and combat weapons. Then, at the urging of Columbia Police Chief Skip Holbrook, the line of officers began to push forward and the crowd descended into chaos. Many fled immediately, sprinting in every direction. Those who remained seconds longer scrambled away, coughing, as explosions rang out and the air was filled with tear gas.

Some yelled obscenities back at the police as they stumbled away. Hundreds of yards away, protesters regrouped in small clusters, washing their faces with bottled waters and calling friends they had lost in the fray. Outside a nearby wine bar, paramedics treated one man who was bleeding from his side.

Some protesters mentioned regrouping back at the Statehouse. Others dispersed in other directions.

Law enforcement officers at the Sunday protest arrested a 19-year-old from the St. Matthews area who was found to be carrying a pistol and about 70 rounds of ammunition, according to a statement from the Richland County Sheriffs Department.

Dominic Gladden was charged with unlawful carrying of a pistol and illegal acts during a state of emergency. A search of his backpack revealed the pistol, ammunition and a circular high-capacity magazine for the weapon, the sheriffs department said.

Overall, the sheriffs department and Columbia Police made more than a dozen arrests on Sunday and more than 50 during the weekend protests, according to the report. Those arrests included 10 people who face charges of looting.

At least 20 of those arrested were from outside the Columbia area.

Lawrence Nathaniel, the activist who organized this weekend's protests at the Statehouse, said he felt terrible that the first devolved into violence and vandalism, and the second ended with a crowd of marchers being tear gassed at point blank range.

He'd planned to keep the protests on Statehouse grounds, he said, but other activists took charge and led the crowds toward the police station both times.

"I feel like its on me," said Nathaniel, who formed I Can't Breathe South Carolina. He said the group would continue to organize at the Statehouse at 2 p.m. every day until its demands are met.

The group has called for changes aimed at making police more accountable. Its list includes intensive mental health evaluations of all officers assigned to minority communities, creation of a police "use of force" state database, public notice of each case that results in death, and creation of a civilian board to review officer conduct, made up of "black and brown activists chosen by black and brown grassroot organizations."

Nathaniel recalled the summer of 2015, when the Confederate flag was removed from Statehouse grounds following the massacre of nine people at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston by white supremacist Dylann Roof.

"We had the biggest racial crisis of my generation, and we didn't riot and tear up the street. We all stood in a circle and seen that flag come down," he said. "I want the narrative to be about peace and transparency in our police department."

Back at the Statehouse, more than 200 people locked arms to form a human chain, silent for nine minutes in memory of George Floyd, the African American man who died May25 as a Minneapolis police officer held him down with a knee on his neck for nearly nine minutes. Video footage of his death has sparked outrage and riots nationwide.

The curfew extension, approved unanimously without debate during an emergency council meeting, requires people to stay out of Columbia's business districts and "return to their residences and remain off of all common area." The curfew initially took effect at 6 p.m. Saturday.

"Lets be very clear. The violations of peoples personal property and safety will never be tolerated," Benjamin said during the meeting held by videoconference.

Earlier Sunday, a diverse crowd, consisting mostly of young adults, had gathered at the Statehouse and shouted themselves hoarse, repeating Black lives matter, no justice no peace and no racist police for hours.

Columbia police kept their distance, gathering in small groups across Gervais Street. After about 30 minutes, demonstrators turned their attention to the State Law Enforcement Division agents guarding the north entrance to the capitol.

The officers stood as silent sentries, arms crossed or in their pockets, occasionally checking their phones as protesters showered them with chants and accusations.

Either youre on the side of freedom, or youre on the other side, Lexington resident Demetris Hill, who is black, shouted during the protest. We know all police aint bad, but do yall know all black people aint bad?

Bishop Samuel Green, leader of South Carolina's AME churches, pleaded with protesters to remain peaceful and not let violence drown out their message for justice.

"We can be radical and responsible at the same time. Lets turn the world upside down by love and peaceful protest," he said during a news conference Sunday with Gov. Henry McMaster. "We cannot get what we need accomplished when the news cycle is focused on the burnings, the looting and all other matters. ... All of your marching. All of your protesting will be in vain if the memory of George Floyd is desecrated by your violence."

Seanna Adcox and Mike Fitts contributed to this article.
With 158 new Covid-19 cases reported from Uttarakhand on Sunday, the tally of total cases increased to 907 in the state.

A bulletin issued by the state health department mentioned that cases were reported from Dehradun (46), Haridwar (17), Nainital (31), Pauri Garhwal (6), Rudraprayag (1), Uttarkashi (7), Tehri (3), Almora (18), Champawat (4), US Nagar (20) and Chamoli (2).

Most of the people who tested positive on Sunday had returned from Maharashtra, New Delhi, Gurugram, Prayagraj, Chennai, Bihar, Bengaluru, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.

Five cases were reported from US Nagar district are prisoners from Sitarganj prison, while three health workers and one police official tested positive from Champawat district.

In Dehradun district, Uttarakhand tourism minister Satpal Maharaj tested positive for Covid-19 along with his two sons and two daughters-in-law on Sunday. Apart from this, 17 of his staff members have also tested positive for the virus on Sunday, said officials. The ministers wife had tested positive on Saturday evening and had been shifted to AIIMS Rishikesh on Sunday.

After the development, at least four other Cabinet ministers including chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat and as many top bureaucrats including chief secretary and health secretary would be put in quarantine as Maharaj had attended the state Cabinet meeting with them on Friday at the state secretariat in Dehradun.

Confirming the test report of Maharaj, Abhishek Sharma, officer on special duty to the tourism minister said, Maharaj, his two sons and two daughters-in-law tested positive on Sunday along with 17 of his staff members. A total of 41 people including Maharaj and others who came in contact with his wife, were put in quarantine and tested for the virus infection as per the health norm on Saturday itself. The remaining have tested negative.

The districts of Nainital (260), Dehradun (256), Haridwar (83) Udham Singh Nagar (82) and Tehri Garhwal (77) are the districts with the highest number of cases in the state.

The infection rate in the state stands at 3.43% while the rate of recovery is 12.72%. A total of 102 people had recovered in the state till Sunday.

On Sunday, a 20-year-old Covid-19 positive man had also died at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Rishikesh, two days after he tested positive.

Harish Mohan Thapliyal, public relations officer of AIIMS Rishikesh said that the 20-year-old boy had been admitted to the hospital on May 27 for a procedure and he had tested positive for Covid-19 on May 29.

The boy who was a resident of Shyampur area had been electrocuted last month when a part of his body had to be amputated. On May 27, he was admitted to the hospital again as he developed an infection. Before the procedure, his samples were taken for Covid-19 testing and he tested positive on May 29 and he died on Sunday morning, said Thapliyal.
The Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) on Saturday said its members would proceed on total and indefinite strike if the federal government failed to address their demands within 14 days.

Resident doctors are medical doctors who work while undergoing training to become specialists in various medical fields. They make up the largest percentage of doctors in tertiary hospitals.

The association announced its decision in a communique issued at the end of its virtual 40th Ordinary General Meeting (OGM) and Scientific Conference.

The communique signed by NARD National President, Sokomba Aliyu, and Publicity Secretary, Egbogu Stanley, was made available to the News Agency of Nigeria in Kaduna.

The NARD 40th OGM was held under the theme: Health inequalities and social determinants of Health in Nigeria.

NAN reports that the virtual OGM, attended by 74 chapters of the association from across the country, deliberated on issues affecting the nations health care system and welfare of its members.

NARD calls on the federal and state governments to provide adequate personnel protective equipment such as N95 respirators, gloves etc. to all health workers.

NARD also demands immediate recall of the sacked resident doctors at Jos University Teaching Hospital and payments of their salaries.

According to the association, 26 resident doctors at the Jos University Teaching Hospital were illegally disengaged without recourse to the law governing Residency training.

The association also demands for universal implementation of the Residency Training Act in both Federal and State Teaching hospitals.

NARD demands immediate implementation of the revised hazard allowance, and payment of COVID-19 inducement allowance, the communique said.

OGM resolves that urgent steps be taken to ensure that the fate of our members at the State Tertiary Health Institutions be improved through engagement with the various state governments and relevant stakeholders.

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The association enjoined the federal government through the National Assembly to ensure full capture of the residency training funding in the 2021 Appropriation Act.

It also demanded payment of arrears of the consequential adjustment of the new minimum wage to its members at both federal and state tertiary health institutions.

The association condemned what it called the illegal deductions in salaries of members by some state governments and demanded immediate refund.

NARD observes the slashing of salaries of our members at state tertiary health institutions with particular reference to Kaduna state government that cut the salaries of health workers by twenty five percent.

It also called on security agencies especially in Lagos, Delta and Abuja to stop the harassment and assault of doctors while carrying out their legitimate activities.

OGM observes non-implementation of the revised hazard allowance, the non-procurement of life insurance, non-payment of the death benefits claims and COVID-19 inducement allowance of doctors in various health institutions.

NARD observes non-payment of arrears of the consequential adjustment of new minimum wage to some of her members. It also observed with concern, the non-implementation of revised CONMESS and skipping arrears by some state governments in various state tertiary teaching hospitals.

The NARD noted the shortage of medical staff especially resident doctors in most health institutions across the country and called on the government to address the problem.

The doctors threat is coming at a time Nigeria is experiencing an increase in coronavirus cases.

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) on Saturday announced the highest daily figure of confirmed coronavirus cases in Nigeria yet, with 553 new infections recorded.

This brings the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 9,855.

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There are 6,726 active COVID-19 cases in the country as 2,856 people have recovered and have been discharged with 273 deaths recorded.

A breakdown of the 9,885 confirmed cases shows that Lagos State has so far reported 4,755 cases, followed by Kano  951, FCT  616, Katsina  364, Edo  284, Oyo  280, Borno  271,Jigawa  270, Ogun  259, Kaduna  244, Bauchi  236, Rivers  204, Gombe  156, Sokoto  116, Plateau  104, Kwara  87, Delta  80, Zamfara  76, Nasarawa  62, Yobe  52, Akwa Ibom  45, Osun  45, Ebonyi  40, Adamawa  38, Imo  34, Kebbi  33, Niger  30, Ondo  25, Ekiti  20, Enugu  18, Taraba  18, Bayelsa  12, Anambra  11, Abia  10, Benue  7 and Kogi  2.
- Uganda recorded the highest cases of COVID-19 infections after 52 truck drivers tested positive

- The other 32 were from contact tracing and had been held in quarantine facilities

- The new spike poses a danger to the nation that had planned to ease on lockdown as from June

Uganda has recorded the highest number of coronavirus infections of 84 patients bringing the total number of cases in the East African country to 413.

Out of the 84 new cases, 52 cases are truck drivers, 50 of whom arrived from South Sudan via Elegu, while two arrived from Kenya through Busia and 32 were from contact tracing in quarantine facilities.

READ ALSO: West Pokot: Police investigate chief who owns a quarter of his sub-location

Uganda President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni during a past press conference. Photo: Yoweri Museveni

Source: Facebook

READ ALSO: William Ruto elected to represent Africa in global governance body for 3 years

In a Twitter post by Uganda's Health Ministry on Sartuday, May 30, 51 truck drivers who tested positive were handed over to their country of origin.

So far, the country has recorded 71 recoveries and the patients have since been discharged from hospitals across the nation.

Permanent secretary at the Ministry of Health, Diana Atwine expressed worries that the community contacts of the truck drivers might be spreading the disease because some of them are yet to be traced.

It is estimated that one asymptomatic COVID-19 patient can spread the disease to as many as 80 people or even more.

READ ALSO: Picha za Askofu Margret Wanjiru akinyenyekea kanisani baada ya kupona coronavirus

The President Yoweri Museveni-led government had indicated it was intending to ease on lockdown to resume normalcy as from but the latest spike in infections has presented a greatest challenge that may force it to reconsider the move.

The head of state is expected to address the nation on Monday, June 1, in order to give further directions on what should happen in regard to easing on lockdown.

Museveni had indicated it will be compulsory for all citizens to wear face masks once the economy reopens.

The government promised to distribute free masks to the citizens and those who will be found without would be arrested.

Do you have a groundbreaking story you would like us to publish? Please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690. Contact Tuko.co.ke instantly.

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This time time last year, I was lucky enough to be walking the glorious trails that wind their way through the Tramuntana mountains in Majorca like rich seams of gold in rock.

I couldn't have been happier  the sun on my back, tiredness in my legs, and at the end of the walk a drink in the pretty main square of Soller to look forward to. Not a care in the world and a welcome break on one of my favourite islands  a place I will not now probably get back to until next year.

Sadly, my walking trip was about to be disrupted  by news that Woodford Equity Income, a multi-billion pound investment fund popular with readers, had unexpectedly suspended dealings. Worryingly, investors couldn't get their money out. They were effectively trapped  in investment lockdown.

The boil yet to be lanced: Neil Woodford is now living off the vast income that he made from his investors whom he so badly misled and let down

I scurried back to Blighty and wrote that fund manager Neil Woodford and his investment operation Woodford Investment Management were finished.

Sadly, I was right. Today, Woodford Equity Income and Woodford Investment Management are no more, while Woodford himself is now living off the vast income that he made  both before and, indefensibly, after the fund's suspension  from his investors whom he so badly misled and let down.

This Wednesday marks the anniversary of Equity Income's suspension. Sufficient time, you would have thought, for a line to have been drawn under the affair and for everyone to have moved on. Yet we are nowhere near closure. The Woodford boil has yet to be lanced.

For a start, investors in Equity Income are still waiting to see if more of their losses will be covered by the sale of some of the remaining illiquid assets that Woodford inexplicably held in the fund. It's a process overseen by private equity specialist PJT Park Hill and it's proving trickier than a Rubik's cube.

The assets are speculative investments that had no right to be in a fund marketed as a provider of income from a portfolio of equities.

Irrespective of the success of PJT Park Hill's sales patter in offloading the assets, most Equity Income investors will end up having lost money from their Woodford experience.

Meanwhile, a number of legal firms are debating whether to launch class actions against those heavily involved in the Woodford debacle. Their targets include Woodford (of course) and Link, the fund supervisor that failed to supervise until it was too late. Also, Hargreaves Lansdown, which ridiculously labelled Equity Income a best-buy right up until its suspension, even though it had concerns over the fund's growing exposure to illiquid assets, a ticking timebomb.

Even if one of these actions gets off the ground  and they are notoriously difficult to arrange  there is no guarantee that participants will win the compensation they deserve.

Yet it is the regulator's role in this sorry affair that irks me the most. In the wake of Equity Income's suspension, it launched an investigation into what had gone on, but it has yet to reveal to the world whether it intends to take any further action.

Maybe the Financial Conduct Authority is now directing all its firepower into ensuring financial services companies play fair as economic carnage threatens millions of households. And that would be understandable.

But at the very least, the regulator should be marking the anniversary of Woodford Equity Income's suspension by telling former investors where it is with its work.

Has the investigation been suspended while it deals with lockdown-related financial issues? Fine.

Has it been quietly dropped because it believes there is no case for any of the gang of three (Woodford, Hargreaves Lansdown and Link) to answer? An outrage if so.

Or is its investigation ongoing? Again, fine, but it should get its skates on.

Such an update is the bare minimum that former Woodford investors deserve from the regulator. But given the FCA was also culpable, by doing nothing while Neil Woodford turned Equity Income into an investment more toxic than some of the poisons used by villains in the TV Series Death In Paradise, I would be amazed if it makes any pronouncement before Wednesday.
Published on 2020/05/31 | Source

A teacher welcomes students at an elementary school in Seoul on Wednesday. /Yonhap

A total of 2.37 million children returned to school on Wednesday, accounting for 47 percent of the total.

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But 561 out of the 20,902 schools that reopened on Wednesday had to send students back home after coronavirus infections surged in a warehouse by online commerce company Coupang in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province.

Incheon city education officials decided to close 243 schools in the western port city again on Thursday, though high school seniors will be allowed to return.

Education Minister Yoo Eun-hae in a meeting at the government complex in Sejong on Wednesday stressed the need for schools to stay open. "If students can't return to school under the current prevention regime, there might be no offline classes at all this year", she said.

But public jitters are mounting as new infections rose by 49 in a single day after weeks in the single digits.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-31 13:00:29|Editor: huaxia

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Protesters confront police near the White House during a protest over the death of George Floyd in Washington D.C., the United States, on May 30, 2020. Demonstrations and riots have spread to cities across the United States after a video went viral of George Floyd being suffocated to death by a white police officer in the midwest U.S. state of Minnesota on May 25. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)
How do I know you know? Because many of you have spent your careers defending those values, building the institutions that undergird them, cultivating relationships across oceans. You shuddered when he trusted Russias leader over our own intelligence community, when he hailed the boss of the Chinese Communist Party as a good man and a very, very good friend, when he fell in love with the criminal strongman of Communist North Korea. Before the age of Trump, you could not have imagined staying silent in the face of such abominations.


The coronavirus health crisis has not been kind to car owners in the United States.

With many Americans staying at home, their cars are left unattended on the streets. These vehicles then become easy targets for thieves.

Vehicle property thefts jumped 63 percent in New York, and nearly 17 percent in Los Angeles, from January 1 through the middle of May 2020. Those increases are in comparison to the same period last year.

Across the country, many law enforcement agencies are reporting an increase in stolen cars and vehicle burglaries, even as violent crime has dropped.

Police use the term vehicle burglary when talking about when someone breaks into a car to steal objects from it.

Car thefts and vehicle burglaries are low-risk crimes with a possible high reward, police say, especially when many drivers leave car doors unlocked or their keys inside.

You might as well put a sticker on the window that says, come take my stuff, said Alex Villanueva, the Los Angeles County sheriff.

In Austin, Texas last month, police found that 72 percent of stolen vehicles had their keys nearby. Austin's total number of auto thefts last month rose about 50 percent and burglaries to vehicles were up two percent from April 2019.

The public health crisis has created a perfect storm, said Austin police Sargeant Chris Vetrano. Vetrano leads the auto theft force that investigates stolen vehicle cases.

There are reasons for that storm. Drivers are at home and not using their cars very often. Schools are closed, and some young people are doing bad things. Criminals are out of work and have more free time or need money to buy drugs or other things.

Vetrano told The Associated Press that the internet has, in some ways, made things easy for criminals.

You can get on the internet nowadays and learn how to break into vehicles just searching YouTube, he said.

About a year ago, someone broke into Vetranos Ford F-150 truck, one of the vehicles most commonly stolen in the United States.

Police Detective Greg Wilking of Salt Lake City, Utah, said a 22 percent increase in vehicle burglaries could be from a few criminals working quickly.

Its really 10 seconds, he said. Theyre not spending a lot of time in your car. Its a smash-and-grab-and-go, sometimes during the day.

Wilking worries the numbers will keep rising because people get more desperate as time goes on.

However, in some areas, the coronavirus crisis has helped reduce crime.

In Baltimore, Maryland, thefts from cars fell 24 percent, and stolen vehicles dropped 19 percent, from January to May. The decrease is in comparison to numbers from the same period last year.

Colonel Richard Worley, the chief of patrol, gives some of the credit to aggressive efforts to warn car owners to lock their vehicles and take their keys home. Owners also have been told to leave their cars in well-lit areas.

In addition, more people are staying home and keeping an eye on the streets. Because calls for service and violent crime have decreased, police officers now have time for patrolling neighborhoods.

It is easy to forget simple things  even for people who know better. Lindsey Eldridge, of the police departments community outreach office, left her keys in her car. She realized her mistake just before falling asleep.

As Worley said: She could have been a statistic.

I'm John Russell.

Stefanie Dazio reported on this story for The Associated Press. John Russell adapted it for VOA Learning English. George Grow was the editor.

________________________________________________________________



Words in This Story

reward  n. a prize given in recognition of ones effort or service

unlocked  adj. related to something that is undone or open

key  n. an instrument that is used to start up an automobile

sticker  n. something that sticks to a person or an object; a notice

sheriff  n. an elected officer who is responsible for keeping the peace

smash  v. to break (something) into many pieces; to shatter or destroy (something)

grab  v. to quickly take and hold (someone or something) with your hand or arms

desperate  adj. feeling or showing a sense of hopelessness

patrol  n. a person sent to keep watch over an area

statistic  n. a fact or piece of information from a large study




The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has won all the electoral positions contested in the local government council polls held on May 30 in Benue.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the elections were conducted in 23 local government councils across 276 council wards of the state.

The elections, which were adjudged by a team of election observers led by Ibrahim Sheka from Kano, as having low turn out, featured five political parties.

The five parties were; Social Democratic Party (SDP), Accord Party (AP), Africa Action Congress (AAC), All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), Labour Party (LP) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) while the main opposition political party, the APC, boycotted the exercise.

APC had alleged disqualification of their candidates by the Benue State Independent Electoral Commission (BSIEC) and raised issues of bias against the commission.

Announcing the results of the polls on Sunday in Makurdi, BSIEC chairman, Joseph Loko, declared all 23 chairmanship positions in the polls won by the PDP including 276 councilors.

Mr Loko commended the BSIEC officials for the smooth conduct of the polls and directed all elected chairmen and councillors to report to the commissions office in Makurdi on June 1, for their Certificates of Return.

(NAN)
Nissan Motor Cos Chief Operating Officer (COO) Ashwani Gupta has said that the multinational automobile manufacturers biggest mistake had been Global expansion. To do everything, everywhere.

In an interview with CNN Business, Gupta, while explaining the reasons for the company revealing its large net losses for the 2019 financial year, said that the main three factors that had contributed most to the companys 2019 net losses were excessive fixed costs, the Covid-19 virus, and financial impairment.

He confirmed that there would be closures of two plants, one in Indonesia and one in Barcelona. And that the scope of the Barcelona plant closure would be 3,000 jobs. He counterbalanced however by saying that headcount would increase in other parts of the world including Japan and the US. Gupta told CNN we are going to launch 8 new products in next 28months so obviously we need production and we need people.

Gupta explained that Nissan can't guarantee long term job security for its 10,000 workers in the US, now furloughed during the coronavirus lockdown. However, those workers are beginning to return to their factories Now we are ramping up the plants, and they are coming back, Gupta said he was looking at 93 per cent production utilisation in the US.

He said that the company would absolutely not be closing its UK plant, but explained that Nissan is going to focus on US, China and Japan. And the rest of the regions which are also important, we will take the strength from Renault and also Mitsubishi.

He expanded: US, China, Japan are the top three markets for us in terms of market share. But Europe is very important for us because we are the ones who created the crossover SUV. We are going to focus that in Europe, focusing that in Sunderland. At the moment there is no line closures in Sunderland.

Heres the full transcript of the CNN interview:

You announced today that you are downsizing production by 20 per cent, can you do that and keep the workforce that you have now?

So, we are downsizing our production capacity, using two main things. Number one is 7.2 million is based on three shifts- to have the more efficient cost of operation we are bringing down to two shift basis which is 4600hours which makes the plant much more efficient and the cost of operation. So, this is the first major change we are taking. Which is just elimination of the third shift which is nothing to do with the headcounts that we have in the plants. The second step we are taking is the real capacity cut which includes the two plant closures, the first one in Indonesia- which is roughly 250,000- and the second one which we intend to close is Barcelona- which is again 250,000. In addition to that we will be rightsizing some of the capacities around the world, and all put together as we announced before, it is 12,500 which we announced a few months before but that is not the only thing. Most important thing is that we are focusing on new technologies and the new products, because of which we are also increasing our headcount in other parts of the world. Which means in Japan, in United States Silicon Valley, where we are focusing on autonomous driving. So, net-net we are trying to increase in line with the business needs.

The Spanish government has today announced that 3,000 jobs will be lost in Barcelona, can you confirm that?

We intend to close and obviously we will get into the local regulation process of the closure and obviously the scope of the discussion is 3000 employees, but that is part of what we announced before as 12500.

Are you saying you can achieve a downsize of 20 per cent production, by only losing 12,500 jobs? Youre saying there will be no additional cuts?

No. So basically it is part of that, and at first to shift from the three shift to the two shift that does not involve the manpower. What it involves is the impairment and thats why when today we announced our financial results for FY19, we have done the impairment in our results of FY19 which takes out all the empty capacities we have as a financial one shot treatment but from now onwards we will have the maximum two shifts which gives the best efficiency in the operations.

During the 2008 financial crisis you made cuts of 20,000 people. We are being told this crisis is going to be bigger, will you need to make cuts along those lines?

I am sorry, where did you get this figure, we never cut 20,000. I think what you need to understand is that Nissan was the very first to secure the safety of the people, and we went much before the government asked us to close the plant. We were the first ones to close the plants, starting from China, going to Europe, coming to US and so on. The first thing which we did was peoples safety. The second thing we did was to support our community with masks, face shields, aprons and so on. Now the figures you are talking about please do understand that every country has got their own law. We just follow the law. For example, in the United States you have furlough, so obviously the plant is closed but there is furlough, so the people are eligible to get the government support. But in addition, what we did was to keep the Nissan medical assurance system because for us people are most important, and we have to make sure that when we are ramping up the plant, they are back with us.

Are you scaling back even further than those announced last July?

I think what we announced today is 5.4 million capacity. This 5.4 million capacity has a logic to it. At first with this 5.4 capacity on two shift bases will bring the maximum efficiency which is 87% production utilisation across the world- thats the first key point. The second key point is that we believe in 2023 if the global automotive market is 90million and if we have a market share of 6 per cent, we are at 5.4million and this is how we are aligning our capacities.

Which certain markets might you exit from?

As of today, we are not thinking when we look at markets, we have to see markets from brand perspective and from manufacturing perspective. As far as a brand perspective we will not exit the market. For example, in Indonesia we will be in Indonesia only thing is we will change our way of doing business from manufacturing and selling, to import and selling. When it comes to Spain, we will keep our brand. Only thing is we intend to close is Barcelona as a manufacturing facility. As far as exiting the market we have no plans to exit the market because the customer exists today in those markets.

Are there any changes afoot in the Sunderland (UK) manufacturing plant?

Absolutely not, and when we prioritised our markets, we have four things to consider. Number one is market size, number two is our market share, number three is profitability and number four is capability and obviously US, China and Japan are the top three markets for us in terms of market share. In Europe we have a 2.7 per cent market share  Europe is very important for us because we are the ones who created the SUV crossover with Qashqai and Juke. Focusing on Sunderland where the plant utilisation ratio will be around 75 per cent, but rest of the products like A segment, B segment and the LCV vans where the Renault is more strong we will buy from them and this is how we will manage the scale of economies by managing priories and focus in European market.

No line closures in the UK or the US?

At present in the UK there is no line closure. In the US what we are trying to do is to right size Smyrna and Canton. In Smyrna we are going to focus on DSUV and CSUV and in Canton we are going to focus on trucks but we will transfer the Altima from Smyrna to Canton so that both become 93 per cent production utilisation and this is how we are going to align based on the production between the two plants and we will keep these two plants.

How many in the Unites States have you furloughed and how many have you brought back on, as of today?

The number we have today in the United states are close to ten thousand and obviously they are furloughed but now we are ramping up the plants and they are coming back. Absolutely when we look at our market share today and when we look at our product launches which we have in US our production utilisation will be 93 per cent.

Is the intention to rehire those youve furloughed?

When we are going for higher market share, and when we are going for new product launches, we need more. And when we are going for 93 per cent production utilisation in Smyrna and Canton we need more. And just for your information we are going to launch 8 new products in next 28 months so obviously we need production and we need people.

How can you make plans beyond that, when you say that you dont have fiscal visibility for this year?

I think today nobody has the crystal ball to anticipate what will be the automotive market except China and we believe that China is coming back and our market share in China is growing and in the month of April, we sold more than in April of last year. So, we anticipate that the global automotive market in 2020 will be 71 million which is down by roughly 21 million with respect to FY18. When we look at the Unites States, we anticipate that in the US will be 12 million which is four to five million less than last year. So thats why we are not giving any projection this year because nobody knows how the recovery will come back.

Does this 12 million projection factor in a potential second or third wave in the pandemic?

We have no thermometer to check how this is going to link with the economic growth or economic recession or whatever you can call it, so we are not able to give the full year forecast. On the other side US is doing great by opening up the markets so what we are doing now is the weekly business plan and this is the first time we are doing a weekly business plan and monitoring that week by week. So, we believe in July or August we will come to know much more about what will happen in the rest of the year, but I think we have to wait until July.

Has there been any discussion amongst your alliance members about changing the levels of cross shareholdings?

No. As we said yesterday we believe that the alliance is a tool not an objective, and alliance is an enabler to improve the performance of each company and thats why we have got into the next era of alliance which will bring more efficiency and more performance for each company while each keeping the distinctive brands we have across the alliance and this is what we confirmed yesterday. Having said that, Nissan is going to focus on US, China and Japan. And the rest of the regions which are also important, we will take the strength from Renault and also Mitsubishi.

What do you think are the biggest mistakes Nissan has made over the years?

Global expansion to do everything everywhere. But as a result we invested in 7.2million capacity but maybe much more in the dreams of the people and this projection was made based on two things number one 8 per cent market, but number two all the automotive market in the world will grow exponentially and both did not happen, and we landed up in 4.9million. So, this excess capacity but also excess ambition in the mindset of people. I think this is something which we did, and now we have reset, and we are going not for volume but for value.

FY19 will be the biggest net loss since 1999. Do you wonder what all this 20yrs was for?

FY19 is a combination of many things and I think we need to look at it, really look at it, based on three things the first one is the FY19 is the continuation of absolving excess fixed costs with relatively less revenue. Obviously, we dont have profit. Number two is FY19 we saw coronavirus which killed us in February and March which are the peak months to drive the performance. Having said that we still achieved 5.75 per cent of market share. Which means we were very much on our path to getting on to the FY19 financial results but because of corona we could not. And because of first line our base line was low and because corona came in our baseline went below. So, this is Nissan specific these two things. The number three, because we want to do the restructuring, and to do the restructuring we have to do the financial impairment, and to do the financial impairment we have to put the losses in FY19 and thats why the third category in FY19 are the impairment. Thats why I think when we look at FY19 results of Nissan, as far as the market share is concerned its 5.75 per cent which means that still there are 4.9million customers around the world who believe in Nissan. Nissan products and Nissan brand. However, three reason- number one excessive fixed costs, number two the corona virus and number three the financial impairment and thats why we have these net losses.

How would you characterise morale at your company now?

Nissan has gone through crisis, but the history has also shown that Nissan has come out of the crisis in a big way. --TradeArabia News Service
Islamabad, May 31 : The Pakistan government has declared wearing of masks mandatory at crowded places, markets and in public transport, as the number of COVID-19 cases in the country shot up to 68,544, with 1,447 deaths.

"As 92 per cent cases have been reported through local transmission, we have declared the use of masks mandatory in markets, shopping malls, public transport, commercial flights, trains and crowded places," Dawn news quoted Special Assistants to the Prime Minister, Zafar Mirza as saying on Saturday.

About measures being taken to bring back stranded overseas Pakistanis, Special Assistant to Prime Minister on National Security Division, Moeed Yusuf said: "We were bringing 1,000 Pakistanis daily but now it has been decided to bring 2,000 per day. From 1st to 10th June around 20,000 stranded Pakistanis will be brought.

"Of them 8,000 will be brought from the United Arab Emirates and 4,000 from Saudi Arabia. We will soon introduce policy for the stranded Pakistanis due to which they would be able to reach Pakistan without any difficulty." Till date over 33,000 stranded overseas Pakistanis had been brought from over 50 countries, he added.

While talking about resumption of routine flight operations, he said that only flights from Pakistan to other countries had been allowed and it was incorrect to say that anyone could come to Pakistan through routine flights.

Yusuf said borders with China and India would remain closed though some hundred Pakistanis were allowed to return from India in three intervals, reports Dawn news.

"As per agreement of Afghan Transit Trade goods are being sent to Afghanistan. As NATO supply also goes there, around 250 trucks are being allowed through Torkham and Chaman borders daily. Moreover, once in a week 500 Pakistanis are allowed to return through Torkham and 300 through Chaman border," he said.

He said there was no restriction on the Afghan nationals staying in Pakistan to return to their home country.
Hundreds of people have ignored police warnings and flocked to the beach at Durdle Door in Dorset a day after three people were seriously injured jumping off cliffs into the sea.

Images showed so-called tombstoners jumping from the 200ft high sea arch again on Sunday, despite the dangers, as thousands headed to beauty spots to enjoy the sunshine.

It comes as Dr Jenny Harries, the deputy chief medical officer, urged people to be sensible with their new freedoms at this "critical time" as the government began to ease the lockdown.

She told the Downing Street briefing: "Where we are seeing that government is easing measures the public really, really need to stick to those messages and it is not just about what it is possible to do, it's about what it is sensible to do and what is sensible to do is have as few interactions as possible as you can with other people in all settings."

Police, the ambulance service, the coastguard and the RNLI were called to the beauty spot in Dorset on Saturday after three people were seriously injured.

Hundreds ignored police warnings and visited the beach (Andrew Matthews/PA ) (Andrew Matthews/PA)

Air ambulances landed at the scene and crowds of people left the beach as it was evacuated along with the surrounding cliff area.

That evening Dorset council said Durdle Door and nearby Lulworth Cove would be closed until further notice.

Dorset Police also tweeted: Durdle Door and Lulworth Cove remain closed today along with approach roads to the area.

Please do not travel as you will be turned away.

An air ambulance lands on the beach at Durdle Door on Saturday after people were seriously injured while jumping from the cliff (PA)

However, images taken on Sunday showed hundreds of people on the beach.

Others could even be seen jumping into the sea.

A person jumps into the sea from Durdle Door (Andrew Matthews/PA)

Lulworth Coastguard Rescue Team (CRT) posted on Facebook to say people had been jumping from the arch encouraged by the crowds on the beach on Saturday.

As well as the three seriously injured men, police dealt with alcohol-fuelled minor scuffles.

A woman also suffered a suspected broken ankle on Saturday and there was a small but out of control fire from a barbecue.

A person stands on the rocks above the sea at Durdle Door (Andrew Matthews/PA)

Upsetting scenes like we and many others witnessed yesterday illustrate how very dangerous tombstoning is, CRT said.

We couldnt discourage it enough.

People walk towards the beach at Durdle Door (Andrew Matthews/PA)

It came as the UK braced for the hottest day of the year and the public were reminded to practice social distancing ahead of the easing of lockdown restrictions on Monday.

Tuesday could be the warmest day of 2020 so far, with Met Office meteorologist Alex Burkill telling The Independent there was a reasonable chance of temperatures reaching as high as 29C.

Mr Burkhill said the rest of the week would see a slight drop in temperatures with showery rain around the UK.

It is going to be a bit more changeable than it has been. Temperatures will be lower than they have been, but not massively.

Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary, said it was a "sensitive moment" in the country's exit from lockdown but added: "We can't just stay in lockdown forever. We have got to transition."

Asked whether the lockdown will be tightened again if infection rates increase, Mr Raab told Sky News' Ridge on Sunday: "We will target, if there is any uptick, and it could be in a locality, it could be in a particular setting, we will target very carefully measures that would apply to it so that we can take these steps but also keep control of the virus."
GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- Protesters smashed windows and set fires in downtown Grand Rapids as the unrest over police brutality cases across the nation reached a crescendo.

Police used tear gas and flash-bang devices to try to control the crowd.

A protest started as a peaceful demonstration and march in Grand Rapids, but later turned violent.

Protesters surrounded two entrances to Grand Rapids police headquarters on Monroe Avenue NW and some threw water bottles at police standing in riot gear in front of the building.

Later, people began breaking windows in the downtown area, including at the Michigan Secretary of State office and the Kent County Prosecutors Office.

Some tried to set fires at both the Secretary of State building and prosecutors office, although others came up to extinguish them soon after.

The damage to downtown windows was severe and numerous shops were looted.

Cherrelle Dunston, who works at Old World Olive Press at 108 Monroe Center St., found looters smashing her stores windows and trying to steal from the shop around midnight. She was able to chase them away and spent the following hour standing guard outside the store to make sure no one else tried to break it.

So far Ive just been telling everybody that I work here and theyre leaving it alone, now that they see real people work here and need these jobs to pay their bills and survive, Dunston, 29, told MLive.

We came down here for peaceful protest, not this. Not to hurt the community and people who worked hard for these businesses."

Police late in the evening began to use tear gas and other devices as they moved down the street to areas where the damage was occurring.

MLive reporter Melissa Frick contributed to this report

Also on MLive:

No justice, no peace:' Thousands gather in Grand Rapids to protest police brutality

Throngs crowd downtown Kalamazoo from days second protest

Protests over police killings of George Floyd, others rage on in dozens of US cities

Man shot and killed, dozens arrested as 1,500-strong Detroit protest over George Floyd death turns violent
Families of the two friends found dead in a Ludhiana canal on Saturday have alleged their sons were murdered.

The bodies of Jaswinder Singh, 28, and Tejwinder Singh, 22, both residents of Khud Mohalla, were found in the canal near Kaind Canal bridge on Saturday. They were missing since May 26.

Tejwinders brother Honey Chattwal said the men could not have committed suicide. We have seen injury marks on the bodies, which suggest they were murdered. Tejwinders body had multiple wounds, while Jaswinders teeth were broken. We are waiting for the autopsy reports to understand the cause of death, he said.

Inspector Satish Kumar, SHO, Division Number 3 police station, said they will initiate further action after receiving the autopsy reports.
(BCN)  Protesters and police are confronting one another underneath the Central Freeway skyway near San Francisco's Mission District in what, as of about 7 p.m., remained a peaceful protest of the Monday killing by Minneapolis police of George Floyd.

Crowds had started gathering near San Francisco City Hall early Saturday afternoon to protest the killing of Floyd. As of early Saturday night, the protest - involving thousands of participants - were peaceful, with many protesters dropping to a knee in the streets while police officers stood by and watched.

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency is warning transit users that a "civic demonstration" in the Mission Dolores neighborhood of San Francisco is affecting MUNI services there, and recommends finding alternate routes if possible.

In Oakland, where protests of Floyd's killing Friday night left a federal security guard dead, another critically wounded and more than 70 downtown businesses vandalized and/or looted, police were beefing up in preparation to respond to protesters Saturday night. By early Saturday night, there had been no reports of violence. San Jose, which also was the scene of George Floyd protest Friday night, had not experienced any problems as of early Saturday night.

Several hundred protesters had also gathered Saturday night near the Old Courthouse in Santa Rosa's downtown, and police were asking motorists to avoid the area.

Earlier Saturday, Oakland city leaders condemned violent protests overnight that left downtown in tatters, with more than 70 businesses vandalized, looted or both.

And police and businesses are gearing up in case protesters take to the streets again Saturday night.

"We want to make clear that this will not be tolerated," said Mayor Libby Schaaf during a Saturday afternoon press conference. "Tonight we ask you to stay home."

Friday night's destruction was indiscriminate and crossed the line, Schaaf said. Downtown merchants with "Black-Owned" business signs, small shops in the city's Chinatown District, as well as larger chain stores like Walgreens and Target, all suffered.

The protest over the death of George Floyd on Monday in Minneapolis at the hands of police drew an estimated 8,000 to Oakland. The event started out peacefully, the mayor said.

"Protest and free speech are part of Oakland's DNA," Schaaf said. "But these vandals, these violent actors are using peaceful protesters as a shield to hide behind."

Car fires were set, rocks and Molotov cocktails thrown, storefronts shattered and shelves looted at businesses that are trying to recover from three months of shelter-in-place orders.

"This horror was visited on this same community that we are trying to lift up," Schaaf said.

Police arrested 17 people and detained another 40 during melees. More arrests may come following investigations; a review of surveillance video may also identify some 40 to 60 looters, said Interim Police Chief Susan Manheimer.

Seventeen Oakland officers, two Oakland firefighters and seven officers from outside agencies were injured, the chief said.

Manheimer offered condolences to the families of two federal security officers shot while standing at the Oakland federal building. One of the officers has died and the FBI is investigating, she said.

The chief promised a beefed-up law enforcement presence Saturday night and urged business owners who haven't done so already to register their video cameras on the department's website.

Jana and Chris Pastena, who own the Tribune Tavern and two other downtown restaurants, joined Schaaf in asking protesters to stay home.

"We ask that you please not riot and loot tonight," Jana Pastena said. Several windows were broken at the Tribune Tavern on 13th Street and Chris Pastena was assaulted trying to fend off looters.

"This isn't about glass. I think we all know that black lives are greater than some broken glass," Jana Pastena said "I think we can be angry to our core about the death of Mr. Floyd and about the injustice black people suffer every day, and be incredibly angry about the destruction of our businesses."

She added that "from our observation the people doing the damage weren't from our community," a sentiment aired by other business owners.

Thus far police have not released the hometowns of those who were detained and arrested Friday night.

A national coalition of police unions that include three in the Bay Area, on Saturday condemned "criminal behavior disguised as protesting."

"We spoke out strongly to voice our utter disgust with what was done to George Floyd," the coalition said Saturday, referring to statements from the San Francisco, San Jose and Oakland Police Officers unions, along with the Los Angeles Police Protective League.

"George Floyd should be spending this weekend with his family and friends and enjoying his life. The fact that he's not is wrong, and it is a stain on our profession that we must all collectively work to wash away. But the violence and destruction in our cities and our neighborhoods is not the answer. It must stop," according to the coalition's statement on Saturday.

Gov. Gavin Newsom on Saturday said the state is watching extremist groups who may trying to exploit tensions.

"In California and across the country, there are indications that violent actors may be attempting to use these protests for their own agendas," the governor said release Saturday. "We are closely monitoring organizing by violent extremist organizations ahead of tonight."

Newsom said the death of a federal security guard gunned down Friday night in Oakland was "a moment of pain for our state and nation." But he added, "No one should rush to conflate this heinous act with the protests last night. A federal investigation is underway, and we should let that process play out."

Copyright  2020 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.
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It might be particularly easy to re-do your home wireless network. HSN is running a deal that bundles a Google Nest WiFi 3-pack with the original Home speaker for $300  not bad when the mesh router kit often costs more by itself. Given that the two Points included with the Nest WiFi also double as smart speakers, this could give you voice commands across your home without having to buy anything else. Best Buy is also selling a Nest WiFi 2-pack with no Home speaker for $200 if your network wont be quite as elaborate.

Buy Nest WiFi 3-pack with Home speaker on HSN - $300

Buy Nest WiFi 2-pack on Best Buy - $200

Googles past WiFi routers have had difficulty standing out, but the Nest WiFis inclusion of smart speaker functionality gives it an edge over some models. So long as youre close to an access point, you can talk to Google Assistant. The system is also easy to set up, and the design is sleek enough that you might not feel compelled to hide it in a corner.

There are some limitations. Theres no Ethernet on the mesh points, so this wont work if you need the bandwidth or low latency of a wired link. You also wont get WiFi 6 speeds. This is for all-households where wireless convenience matters more than raw performance. If that sounds like your home, though, this might be just what you need.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.
(CNN)  George Floyd's family spoke to both President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden this week following Floyd's death in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Speaking to MSNBC's Al Sharpton, George's brother, Philonise Floyd, said his conversation with President Trump was "so fast."

"He didn't give me an opportunity to even speak," Floyd said. "It was hard. I was trying to talk to him, but he just kept, like, pushing me off, like 'I don't want to hear what you're talking about.'

"And I just told him, I want justice. I said that I couldn't believe that they committed a modern-day lynching in broad daylight," he said.

"I asked Vice President Biden -- I never had to beg a man before -- but I asked him, could he please, please get justice for my brother," Floyd said.

"I need it. I do not want to see him on a shirt just like the other guys. Nobody deserved that. Black folk don't deserve that. We're all dying," he said. "Black lives matter."

CNN has reached out to the family and has not heard back.

Trump said Friday he'd spoken to Floyd's family but didn't reveal details of the conversation.

"I want to express our nation's deepest condolences and most heartfelt sympathies to the family of George Floyd," Trump said during a roundtable event at the White House, later adding, "I spoke to members of the family -- terrific people."

Floyd, 46, died Monday after being arrested by Minneapolis police. Public outrage grew after a video surfaced showing an officer kneeling on Floyd's neck.

Since then, protests against police brutality have spread across the United States.

The four officers involved in the arrest were fired. One of them, Derek Chauvin, was arrested Friday and charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter, according to Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman.

This story was first published on CNN.com, "George Floyd's brother says Trump 'didn't give me an opportunity to even speak' during phone call"
Acting Deputy Attorney General Dana J. Boente during a meeting with the Organized Crime Council and Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force Executive Committee in Washington, on April 18, 2017. (Aaron P. Bernstein/Reuters)

Dana Boente, Last Remaining Signatory of Illegal Spying on Trump Aide, Resigns From FBI

Top FBI lawyer Dana Boente, the only remaining active official who signed the warrants to spy on former Trump campaign aide Carter Page, has announced his resignation from the bureau.

Boente signed one of the warrants renewals that have since been determined invalid by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and thus resulted in illegal surveillance.

Boente was tapped by FBI Director Christopher Wray in January 2018 to serve as general counsel. Prior to that, he served as the acting attorney general, acting deputy attorney general, and acting assistant head of the DOJs National Security Division (NSD).

He was also the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia (EDVA), from September 2013 to Jan. 28, 2018. The district often handles significant terrorism, espionage, and public corruption cases. One of the trials of Trumps former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, took place in an EDVA court, as did the process with a former business partner of retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, former national security adviser to President Donald Trump.

The affidavit against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange was filed in the district during Boentes tenure, meaning Assanges trial will take place in the EDVA if hes extradited from the United Kingdom, where he is currently imprisoned.

Boente announced his decision to retire from federal service on May 29. The resignation will become effective on June 30.

Few people have served so well in so many critical, high-level roles at the Department, Wray said in a statement emailed to The Epoch Times by the bureau.

Throughout his long and distinguished career as a public servant, Dana has demonstrated a selfless determination to ensure that justice is always served on behalf of our citizens. We should all be grateful for his dedication to the Department of Justice, the FBI, and the American people. As a colleague and a friend, I wish Dana the very best as he begins the next chapter in his life.

Wray said hes committed to ensuring that the next general counsel is experienced, objective, and prepared to lead the men and women who make up this vital part of the FBIs mission.

NBC News reported, using unnamed sources, that Wray asked for Boentes resignation, but the decision came from the DOJ. The FBI declined to confirm or deny the report.

On April 24, The Federalist reported that Boente led the charge internally against DOJs disclosure of the new materials in a court case against Flynn. The report referred to an FBI official familiar with the situation.

An FBI official denied that Boente pushed to withhold exculpatory information from Flynn. There have been disagreements between the government and Flynn about what was and wasnt considered exculpatory.

The FBI would neither confirm nor deny whether its denial referred specifically to the documents provided to Flynn on April 24. The documents played a major role in the DOJs move to dismiss the case on May 7.

DOJ Acting Roles

Boentes march through high-level roles started on Jan. 30, 2017, when Trump appointed him as acting attorney general. Prior to that, the post was held by then-Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, who was supposed to lead the DOJ until the confirmation of Jeff Sessions as attorney general.

Yates was fired by Trump right before Boentes appointment for refusing to uphold his travel ban from terror-prone countries.

After Sessions was confirmed on Feb. 9, 2017, Boente became the acting deputy AG.

It was in this role that Boente signed on the second renewal of the deeply flawed Page warrant taken under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Then-FBI Director James Comey signed it for the bureau.

Boente remained in the role until the April 25 confirmation of Rod Rosenstein as deputy attorney general.

On April 28, 2017, Boente was appointed as the acting head of the NSD, replacing then-acting Assistant Attorney General Mary McCord, who had abruptly announced her resignation.

The NSD is responsible for counterterrorism, counterintelligence, and cyber-threat work. It oversees spying under FISAspying both on foreigners and on Americans, with the latter requiring a warrant submitted to the secret FISA court.

A review of a sample of FISA warrants by the DOJs Inspector General revealed that all of them were flawed. Some were entirely missing the Woods file, which is supposed to document how the information in the warrant is corroborated.

On Oct. 27, 2017, Boente announced that he would be resigning from his post at the EDVA and at the NSD, but said that he would remain in those positions until Trump nominated and confirmed his replacements. Boente officially gave up his U.S. attorney role on Jan. 28, 2018, as he moved to his FBI position.

Epoch Times contributor Jeff Carlson contributed to this report.
The lowdown My sleep is patchy, so I schedule a Zoom session with meditation supremo Jacqui Lewis from The Broad Place. Jacqui goes through my before-bed routine and says I probably have high cortisol levels as a result of stress. She suggests going to bed at 10pm consistently and waking at the same time each morning (I am aiming for 7.30am).

A nightly routine will all become signals to my body each night that I am getting ready for sleep. Credit:iStock

Trilogy Vitamin C Polishing Powder, $40. Credit:Jennifer Soo

Also, no tech devices an hour before bed as they can deplete sleep. She also suggests a nightly ritual: a soothing cup of chamomile tea using the same cup each night, then lighting a lavender-scented candle before reading in bed for half an hour. These will all become signals to my body each night that I am getting ready for sleep.

Downtime Twenty minutes.

Results My body and mind seem to like the new sleep sequence and I find drifting off easier.

Where to get it The Broad Place, thebroadplace.com.au.
Copyright  2020 Albuquerque Journal

I had popped into Cafecito, the eclectic Argentinian cafe that opened last fall in the Trailhead Compound of the Railyards Baca District, just once before the COVID-19 shutdown. Even then, the location  in the sunny, industrial-chic space that once housed Opuntia  struck me as ideally socially distanced.

Tucked away on sleepy Shoofly Street at the end of the Acequia Trail, the two-story Trailhead Compound is the design creation of Serquis + Associates, Landscape Architects  also known as Cafecitos owners, Solange Serquis and her husband, Andres Paglayan. The greenhouse-like restaurant facing the street is the buildings crown jewel and, under the direction of Serquis and Paglayan, its South America-meets-Middle East menu fills a void in Santa Fes coffee shop scene.

Cafecitos offerings reflect the Buenos Aires origins of the couple, with all the diversity of that city, and the menu also features a few nods to their Armenian heritage. That means 12 different kinds of empanadas, including a gluten-free option. Since the simple hand pies freeze well, the cafe has added three different frozen samplers for take-out during the pandemic closure ($30-$50). There are also five salad options, including an Armenian Medze sampler (hummus, baba ganoush, tabbouleh, pita); six hefty sandwiches served with side salads; and plenty of thoughtful sides, such as rosemary French fries and truffle butter toast.

I didnt know how lucky I was to be dining inside on that first visit, but I still relished the kind service and the Classic empanada sampler ($10). The plate included empanadas de carne (spiced ground beef and onion), verdura (spinach and ricotta) and jamon y queso (ham and cheese), accompanied by a salad of fresh mixed greens and sliced tomatoes. The small pies are formed from a delicate, sweet-salty dough, each one shaped differently: the ham and cheese empanada featured a mostly hollow cavity with delicately sliced ham piled in one corner; the verdura was dense with creamy ribbons of spinach and cheese; the carne reminded me of a slightly spicier, potato-free Michigan pasty. Theyre served with a vinegary chimichurri sauce weighted with scallions, parsley and oregano, and dotted with chile flakes. I preferred the other sauce, a fiery, nutty chile paste that significantly amps the heat of whatever you dip into it. And I knew Id be back for the house-made lemonade ($4 for 16 oz.), which has that hard-to-find perfect balance of sweet and tart, along with a lovely froth.

Several weeks later, I ordered from a slightly abbreviated menu via curbside pickup. With the exception of the slightly soggy, but still very tasty, herb-flecked rosemary French fries ($3.75), the food suffered not at all from being boxed and transported across town. The substantial square ciabatta slices of the Lomito Completo ($11.50), a traditional Argentinian steak sandwich, soaked up any grease left over from the amply flavored steak strips, which were embedded in a complex strata of romaine lettuce, sliced red onion and tomato, ham, provolone, mayonnaise and fried egg. A pretty roasted beet salad ($8) starred a fanned-out array of earthy yellow and red beets from Reunity Resources, mixed greens, feta and a mustard vinaigrette, though it was missing its advertised candied chile pecans.

The Taste of Argentina for two ($40), another COVID-born innovation, offered five empanadas (carne, verdura, jamon y queso, ricotta, and humita) with sauces; two dinner servings of flat-pounded, breaded Chicken Milanesas accompanied by mashed potatoes, haricots verts, and a large arugula and tomato salad. Dessert was a too-dry slice of lemon poppyseed cake and the much better alfajores, or powdered sugar dulce de leche sandwich cookies. Altogether, its a good value for two hefty meals, and the uniformly cooked, still-tender and delicately flavored chicken was a standout.

Like many restaurants during this uncertain era, Cafecito is still retooling its menu, figuring out what works best for takeout  as well as how to round out certain niches in this rapidly changing dining landscape. Its three newest empanadas are fantastic: a warming Santa Fe (chicken and green chile, $4.20), Tango (small beef strips, tomato sofrito, onion, $4.20) and Vegan (black bean and mashed sweet potato, $3.50). Im excited to try the Lehmeyun, a larger Middle Eastern-via-South America spiced ground beef variety ($6). And at some point, Ill be back for a proper sit-down iced yerba mate ($4) or dulce de leche latte ($4.75) on the pleasant gravel patio.

Cafecito adds to every order a helpful guide to identifying empanada flavors by shape, as well as instructions for baking the frozen pies at home, if you go that route. Its the kind of customer-friendly, at-home dining innovation that many cafes have pivoted to during the pandemic. I look forward to seeing this kind of sweet service last much longer than the shutdown.

Cafecito

3 stars

LOCATION: 922 Shoofly St., 505-310-0089, cafecitosantafe.com

HOURS: Monday-Saturday 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
MILWAUKEE  Following the death of George Floyd, Milwaukee joined a nationwide chorus this weekend, with a day of protests on Friday that broke into rioting that night and continued protests on Saturday.

Protesters in Milwaukee on Friday marched in protest of racial inequality and the death of George Floyd, who died while in police custody after Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin knelt on Floyds neck in excess of 8 minutes. After about 10 hours of peaceful marching and chanting, fractures of the protest turned destructive. Along North Martin Luther King Drive on the north side of the Milwaukee, windows were smashed at a local food market, a Boost Mobile store and Whites Walgreens.

Marchers gathered again early Saturday afternoon at Veterans Park along Lake Michigan. By 1:30 p.m., more than 500 people  mostly young adults of diverse races and ethnicities, but some elderly people and young children with parents joined  began marching toward City Hall.

They chanted the refrains of the Black Lives Matter movement and other similar progressive protests occurring nationwide this week, yelling in unison things like Black Lives Matter and No justice, no peace!

One counterprotester walked by as the march began. He yelled All lives matter at the massive crowd and called for the demonstrators to repent to God. The response from the protesters largely involved cursing at the man and obscene gestures.

Just before 4 p.m. Saturday protesters had completely shut down the 27th Street Bridge over Interstate 94. Traffic was at a standstill south of the bridge and drivers were heading down the wrong lane toward the crowd.

One of the leaders of the Saturday afternoon protest, during a pause at the corner of Wisconsin Avenue and 35th Street, used a megaphone to tell protesters, I dont want any of yall to touch nothing. This is a peaceful march.

His message was met with applause.

Curfew in Milwaukee

During a news conference Saturday afternoon, Milwaukee Police Chief Alfonso Morales said he supported the messages and stories being shared during the day. He wants the city to continue discussing inequality and anger resulting from it, but condemned the violence that occurred on Friday night.

A 9 p.m. curfew has been declared for Saturday in the City of Milwaukee, it was announced at the news conference.

Show some calm. Show some restraint, Milwaukee County Sheriff Earnell Lucas said. He said he wanted the people of Milwaukee to work with the police and city leaders to take back our neighborhood.

What happens across the City of Milwaukee affects all of us and it does not represent all of us, Lucas said. Protect and preserve our neighborhood.

Gov. Tony Evers on Saturday authorized the Wisconsin National Guard to support Milwaukees response to agitators that have disrupted peaceful protests following the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer.

The authorization came at the request of Milwaukee law enforcement officials as well as Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and County Executive David Crowley.

Evers made clear that the National Guard should be used to protect critical infrastructure and not to stop peaceful protest or to interfere with journalists reporting on the protests.

It is critical that people are able to peacefully express their anger and frustration about systemic racism and injustice, in Milwaukee, the State of Wisconsin, and our Nation, Evers, Crowley and Barrett said in a joint statement on Saturday. This limited authorization of citizen soldiers from the Wisconsin National Guard will help protect people who are exercising their First Amendment rights and ensure the safety of the public.

Riot aftermath

Quita White wasnt able to pick up her medication at her local Walgreens Saturday morning. When she walked up, she saw the sliding doors covered in plywood after they had been smashed the night before.

The owner of Trend Benderz, a clothing store at 35th Street and West Capitol Drive, reported that the damage to his store and the amount of property taken equals around $700,000.

White, who is a black Chicago native, said she too is angry about Floyds death. It wasnt right, she said of how Floyd was treated after he was accused of trying to use a counterfeit $20 bill.

But she also think the protests went too far.

Theyre devastating themselves. Theyre messing up their own stores, White said, before driving away to a different Walgreens in her Pontiac Grand Am. Im embarrassed. Theyre acting like the cavemen and monsters they say we are.

John Fleissner, a white art teacher in Milwaukee Public Schools, came by MLK Drive to survey the damage on Saturday afternoon. He said he had marched in the protest Friday during the day, noting that his teachers union has long supported the Black Lives Matter movement, but that he left before any of the destruction started.

Fleissner blamed the Milwaukee Police Departments past actions and ongoing reputation for how demonstrators acted.

He thinks its no surprise that the damage occurred less than a block away from District 5, a police precinct that has been involved in a number of Milwaukees most inflammatory incidences of alleged excessive force  the 2016 riots in Sherman Park following the officer-involved death of Sylville Smith occurred about two miles away from the precinct.

In 2013, two officers from the precinct resigned in a plea deal after they were found to have performed strip searches during traffic stops.

If people in Milwaukee have a problem with the Milwaukee Police Department, Fleissner said, they have a problem with District 5.

Milwaukee officer receives minor gunshot wound

A Milwaukee police officer suffered a minor gunshot wound when protests turned violent overnight, authorities said.

The 38-year-old male officer was shot at about 3:30 a.m. Saturday near the District 5 police station where protesters had gathered.

Chief Morales said the officer who was shot is a model community police officer.

Police said at least three nearby businesses were vandalized. No information was available on the number of arrests or other injuries.

Residents stepped in during the protest and helped put out a fire at a Walgreens in Milwaukees Harambee neighborhood.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
By Brendan O'Brien

MINNEAPOLIS, May 30 (Reuters) - At a little past midnight on Saturday as smoke billowed and flames rose from the tops of a nearby bank and a post office building, Minneapolis grocery store owner Mohammad Abdi knew he had a critical business decision to make.

Either go out into the street and confront the dangerous vandals and looters who were preparing to torch his Tawakal Halal Grocery or standby and watch them destroy his livelihood.

"I told them this is my business, this is my building, please don't do it," he said late on Saturday morning, pointing to the alcove in the front of his building where footprints remained from the looters, who were armed with accelerant.

"I didn't yell, I stayed calm. I told them that I didn't do anything to them. And they left," he added.

The 35-year-old Somali man stayed awake through the night and into the morning to watch over the grocery and A & D Food Market, another grocery he owns across the street in Minneapolis' Lyndale neighborhood, on the city's southwest side.

Minneapolis has the largest Somali community in the United States. Abdi said his businesses remained intact thanks to a group of two dozen friends and customers who also stood watch all night and shooed off groups off vandals.

It is a testament, he said, to the tightly knit community of residents from his native east African nation.

"I was really happy with my community in the way it helped me out," he said. "They love me and trust me."

Peaceful protests have unraveled into nightly riots in this Midwestern city following a bystander video on Monday showing a white Minneapolis police officer pinning his knee into the neck of an unarmed black man who later died.

The death of the man, George Floyd, has sparked outrage and violent protests in other U.S. cities, including New York and Atlanta even after the officer, Derek Chauvin, was fired and on Friday arrested and charged with murder and manslaughter.

Story continues

Throughout the day on Saturday, teams of community members and business owners somberly swept up broken glass and debris as they surveyed blocks of damaged and destroyed businesses.

Volunteers also prepared for another night of violence by putting up boards on exposed windows on Abdi's stores and other businesses in the neighborhood.

"I can do nothing, but everything else is something. I have four kids so I have a lot of excuses. But I can't, this is my city," said Lynn Fields, who lived in Minneapolis before moving to St. Paul, a city 10 miles (16 km) to the east, as she helped board up Tawakal Halal Grocery late on Saturday afternoon.

In addition to a U.S. Post Office and a Wells Fargo bank branch, several other nearby businesses were destroyed by fire over the last few nights of riots, including a convenience store and a Walgreen's drug store.

"It's heartbreaking, just heartbreaking. We are on our own to protect our businesses. We don't have a choice," said Robleh Jama, 40, who works at Al-hussein Perfumes, a store next to Tawakal Halal Grocery.

"They came to destroy," the 40-year-old from Somalia said.

Abdi said that a "black owned" business sign in his front window did not help stop the violent protesters, neither did police officers who focused on clearing the streets of violent protesters rather than protecting local businesses.

"What I saw was really worse than what I saw in Somalia," said Abdi, who fled his native war-torn country in 2004. "It was really, really sad. Wow! Just wow!" (Reporting by Brendan O'Brien; Editing by Sandra Maler)
Frontline workers have been offered a $1,000 stimulus payment after the New South Wales decided to freeze their pay for a year.

The proposed 12-month wage freeze for 410,000 public sector workers is expected to save about $3billion, which would be reinvested in public projects, but it's facing a tough battle to get through the upper house.

Pay rise freezes would cover the entire NSW public service and MPs, with the government citing the economic hit brought on by COVID-19 restrictions.

The one-off $1,000 payment would be available for non-executive frontline workers such as nurses, police officers, paramedics, teachers and train crews in lieu of a 2.5 per cent salary increase.

Frontline workers make up half of the state's 410,000-strong public sector workforce.

NSW public sector frontline workers such as nurses are in line for a one-off $1,000 payment. Pictured is a nurse testing patients at a coronavirus screening clinic

A promise of no forced redundancies is also part of the offer from NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet, who approached union leaders on the weekend in the hope of striking a deal before parliament resumes this week, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

'I want to work with the unions to get a good outcome,' Mr Perrottet said in a statement.

'Given the economic downturn, we want to ensure every dollar counts towards creating jobs and keeping people in work.'

The proposal has already raised concerns from unions.

Unions NSW secretary Mark Morey believes the payment will short-change workers and accused the NSW government of having 'warped priorities'.

The payment for public sector workers such as the police force would be in in lieu of a 2.5 per cent salary increase after the NSW government announced a 12 month wage freeze. Pictured are police patrolling Coogee Beach

'These workers have risked exposure to COVID-19 to protect the public's health. Now Dominic Perrottet wants to put his hand in their pocket and take out half a billion in modest pay rises that was due from June 30,' Mr Morey said.

'Why does Dominic Perrottet look for savings from the very people who have saved us?

The NSW Nurses and Midwives' Association also slammed the 11th hour offer as a poor attempt to buy off their members.

'The NSW government is effectively trying to silence 50,000 nurses and midwives with a $1,000 payment, short-changing them on the sacrifices they have made and continue to make every day,' NSWNMA General Secretary Brett Holmes said.

'This is how nurses and midwives are treated for keeping our communities safe and saving lives throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, essentially saying: "Sorry about your wage freeze, here's a fraction of what you're owed to keep quiet".

'A one-off payment is not an act of generosity from the Treasurer. The government is deliberately attempting to hoodwink our members and is threatening job cuts if the upper house successfully blocks the government's wage freeze regulation.

'It's an extremely insulting and reckless decision by the Treasurer, cloaked in desperation.'

Half of the NSW public sector workforce consists of frontline workers such as paramedics

The stimulus payment offer is dependent on Labor and the crossbench not pursuing a disallowance motion in the NSW Upper House to block the regulation to freeze wages.

The NSW public sector makes up 10 per cent of the state's workforce.

The wage freeze will give the NSW government an additional $3billion to pay for projects to create jobs and stimulate the economy which has been crippled by recent lockdown restrictions.

'We are pausing pay rises for politicians and public servants so we can guarantee jobs for people who are in them and create tens of thousands more for those who have found themselves out of work,' Mr Perrottet said.

'I would love to be able to give everyone a pay-rise but given the environment we need to put our funds towards creating jobs and pay cheques for the half a million people out of work.'
An Irish Air Corps helicopter has been assisting fire crews as they continued to deal with a large scrub fire in the Burren National Park in Co Clare.

Firefighters from Ennistymon have been battling the blaze near Carran since around midday today. The area is inaccessible by vehicles so fire service personnel had to make their way to the fire on foot across difficult terrain.

As the fire spread over a significant area it was decided that assistance tackling the blaze would be required so the Irish Air Corps was requested to provide a helicopter.

An AgustaWestland 139 helicopter was dispatched to the area from Baldonnell aerodrome in west Dublin. The helicopter crew made several trips to Lake Inchiquin near Corofin where they refilled the aircrafts Bambi bucket before dropping the water on the fire.

The helicopter crew later landed at Shannon Airport to refuel and has since returned to Baldonnell. Fire crews are expected to remain at the scene for some time.

An AgustaWestland 139 helicopter was called in to help tackle the fire at the Burren National Park

Meanwhile, in Co Galway, fire crews from three counties have been fighting a significant blaze that has affected forestry and bogland and closed a main road.

Fire crews from Gort, Ballinasloe, Loughrea and Portumna in Galway as well as units of the fire brigade from Scarriff Co Clare and Borrisokane in Tipperary have been fighting the fire at Ballyshrule for most of the day.

The fire has affected both state and private forestry as well as a significant area of bogland. Its understood that one barn has already been destroyed by the fire.

A section of the Woodford to Portumna R352 road has been closed as a result. AA Roadwatch says: Extreme care is advised as smoke is affecting visibility. Diversions are in place via Woodford and Abbey.
BEIRUT, Lebanon  As about 900 children languish in fetid, disease-ridden detainment camps in northeastern Syria, the Western states their parents hail from have insisted they cannot take them back.

But last month, when a 7-year-old French girl was on the verge of dying if she did not receive urgent medical care, France sent a medical jet and flew her to Paris for treatment, leaving behind her mother, two brothers and twin sister.

The repatriation of the girl, Taymia, was the rare exception, but proof, rights advocates said, that countries can take their children back when they want to.

We have seen incredible hardheartedness when it comes to the responses of governments such as France that talk the talk about human rights, said Letta Tayler, a senior counterterrorism researcher at Human Rights Watch. If France could take one child out, why couldnt it take the entire family?
The 138th course of the National Defence Academy (NDA) successfully passed out on Saturday at a ceremony conducted in the premier institutions Habibullah Hall. The passing out ceremony was held indoors breaking away from the annual custom of having parents and distinguished guests from all three services in presence.

NDA commandant Lieutenant General Asit Mistry presided over the function.

A total of 335 cadets graduated from the premier academy. Of the 335, 226 were army cadets, 44 naval cadets, and were 65 air force cadets. After graduation, the NDA cadets are normally allowed leave before joining their respective service organisation. However, the cadets of 138 course will not be allowed leave for home and will head to their organisations directly.

While the army cadets will head to the Indian Military Academy, the naval cadets will head to the Indian Naval Academy, and the air force cadets will head to the Indian Air Force Academy. Travel arrangements will be made by the academy.

It is a matter of pride for NDA that 20 cadets from friendly foreign countries (Bhutan, Tajikistan, Maldives, Vietnam, Tanzania, Mauritius, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Turkmenistan, Fiji, Uzbekistan, Sudan, Mongolia and Bangladesh) also form part of the passing out cadets, read a statement from NDA.

While Battalion Cadet Captain (BCC) Shivam Kumar won the Presidents Gold Medal, BCC Mukesh Kumar won the Presidents Silver Medal, and BCC Parth Gupta won the Presidents Bronze Medal for standing third in overall order of merit. Of all the squadrons in the academy, the Kilo squadron bagged the Chiefs of Staff Banner for their performance.
Eleven suspects have been remanded in custody for two months.

The number of detainees in a May 29 shootout incident in the town of Brovary has grown to 30, the Interior Ministry of Ukraine said; 23 of them have suspect status.

"As of today, May 31, police officers have detained 30 people involved in the crime. Twenty-three of them have been served with the notice of charges," the ministry said on its website on May 31.

Read alsoInterior Minister Avakov on Brovary shootout incident: 28 people detained (Video)

Court rulings have been delivered on 11 of them  they will be remanded in custody for 60 days without the right to put up bail.

The Interior Ministry recalled that the shootout was the result of a feud on the market of passenger transportation services between Kyiv and the suburban town of Brovary.

As UNIAN reported, a shootout incident between representatives of minibus transportation firms was reported in Brovary, Kyiv region, on the morning of May 29. Three persons were injured, two of them with gunshot wounds are in hospital now.

Over 100 people took part in the clashes, the ministry said. One bus with armed men arrived from the city of Vinnytsia, and the other group came from Kyiv in three buses.

Law enforcement agencies began a pretrial investigation into the case under Part 4 of Article 296 (hooliganism), Part 1 of Article 263 (illegal handling of weapons, ammunition and explosives), Part 2 of Article 194 (intentional destruction or damage to property), as well as Article 15, Part 2 of Article 115 (attempted homicide with two or more victims) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
Berrier owns the barbershop, Old Winston Barber & Style Co. near the corner of Sixth and Trade streets. It was closed Saturday, with one of the windows boarded up and the others covered so no one could see in. The comment was posted on a video of protesters sparring with police in another city.

"Throw some bananas down the street and they'll run towards them ... they like bananas," the comment read.

Screenshots of the comment, as well as that of Berrier's Facebook profile, circulated on social media Saturday, drawing the ire of hundreds. In a phone interview Saturday night, Berrier said his account had been hacked and he didn't know what happened until he woke up Saturday morning. His Facebook account has since been deleted.

Sara Hines, one of the barbershop protest organizers, said she was here because racists should be called out into the open and exposed for who they are.

"We will show up at your establishment and shut you down," Hines said. "We will show up at your house, to your job. Calling all racists. Let's go."
(Newser)  Big Pharma is out for bloodhorseshoe crabs' blood, that isand that's not about to change. An effort to promote a synthetic substitute to crab blood in medical safety tests fell short Friday when a powerful US group refused to fully back the switch, Reuters reports. The group, US Pharmacopeia (USP), had seemed ready to support a man-made version in its guide to the drug industry. "There is a consensus on moving forward and USP is fully committed," a top official there told Reuters last year. "Making sure all the stakeholders are on board and all the data has been collected is whats happening right now." But USP said Friday it would only give the substitute a tentative approval.

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Now drug-makers who use the substitute will be expected to guarantee the quality of their testing. "The committee ultimately decided more real-world data" was necessary, said USP. Behind all this was an industry battle between the Swiss biotech Lonza, which backed the substitute, and US-based Charles River Laboratories, which urged caution for safety reasons. Why use crabs' blood at all? The milky-blue stuff clots when it runs into bacterial endotoxins, which helps drug makers find contamination in medical implants and intravenous drugs. Some 70 million such tests are conducted annually and could be worth $1 billion in annual revenue by 2024. But it's no fun for crabs: They're caught at sea, drained of roughly a third of their blood, and returned alive to the water. (Read more Big Pharma stories.)
India hands over COVID-19 related medicines to Madagascar

New Delhi, May 29 (UNI) India Navy Ship Kesari which reached here on May 27, has handed over the COVID-19 related medical supplies to Madagascar government on Friday.

The Indian government in these difficult times is providing assistance to friendly foreign countries in dealing with the COVID-19 oandemic and towards the same INS Kesari carried a consignment of COVID related essential medicines for the people of Madagascar, an Indian Navy Spokesperson said.

An official ceremony for handing over the medicines from the Government of India to the Government of Madagascar was held on May 29, the Indian Navy said in a statement.
Bhopal: Shyambai, a 45-year-old migrant worker who is now back at native village Kota Gunjapur in Panna, stares at an uncertain future due to Covid-19 lockdown which rendered her and teenager son jobless.

Shyambai lost her husband around eight years ago. She had gone to Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh to find employment in construction activities with her son Lokendra, 18, when novel coronavirus struck the nation and lead to countrywide lockdown on March 25.

The employer did not pay her wages and only handed Rs 8,000 for a group of five which included her and her son. With Rs 800 each, the mother-son started the return journey with three others on foot and got a lift from a truck driver who charged Rs 350 each and dropped them for around 200km.

They again started on foot and later a pick-up van offered them lift and later a bus at Satna helped them reach Panna where they were examined medically. In all we walked for around 140km during the journey, she added.

After they were dropped at their native village, they had to spend 14 days in quarantine in gram panchayat bhawan where they werent offered food and had to source meal from home. Kya karte bhukhe marte? Toh ghar se manga ke khate the (We had no option but to get someone to bring food from home. We would have starved to death otherwise), Shyambai told News18 on phone.

The woman also had to get back home amid lockdown as she had left behind four kids with the kin.

They got no government aid upon their return and survived on 35 kg wheat offered through ration cards monthly. Lokendra takes up odd jobs to earn some cash for the family as his mother claims Rs 20,000 wages they earned in Kanpur is yet to reach their bank accounts. There is no work or help around. I am not sure what we will do in the near future, said Shyambai.

Same is the concern of 63-year-old Jairam Ahirwar, a landless labourer from village Gidkhini in Niwadi district, who just returned from Sonipat in Haryana due to lockdown. All the cash we earned there was spent as we had to arrange transportation on our way back, said the elderly man who worked in Haryana as a construction worker. His family of 10 is in huge financial distress as there is no work around for Ahirwar and his two sons, and with no government aid, they had to run the family by borrowing from local shopkeepers.

The old man is awaiting Rs 44,000 of his wages from his contractor.

in the name of government aid, we received 5 kg wheat 1.5 months ago, said Ahirwar, claiming that they urgently need help from the government. Around 45 more people from the village who had migrated for work are back and facing similar hardships.

Another local man, Maniram Ahirwar, who returned from Kapasheda in Haryana with wife Punam after being thrown out of work by construction contractor, is left with a mere Rs 900. The couple is pinning hopes on the sowing season to offer them some work so they can feed the family of five. Their Rs 22,000 worth of wages were withheld by the contractor.

The district, known for its high rate of migration, has witnessed the return of around 20,000 labourers. However, only 1,600 are employed in MGNREGS, Mastram Ghosh, a local volunteer activist, told News18. Ghosh claims only those labourers who had stayed back got the work. The villagers also discriminated with those who returned and are being given 5 kg of rice and 1 kg d=al under Centres assistance and Rs 1,000 aid also could not migrant labourers as they are not listed with Karmkar Mandal, Singh claimed.

For those who migrate at regular intervals to earn in the tribal heartland Jhabua, lockdown hit their living hard as they had to return at a time when they couldnt earn and are sitting at home. Known for their spending spree, these tribals are now spending with care on essentials, said social worker Harish Shankar Pawar. They will get some work in approaching crop season but will head back to other states to earn as locally they have nothing to work with, added Pawar.

According to Dr Ran Singh Parmar, Working President of Ekta Parishad, a Gandhian organisation extending helping hand to workers, migrants have returned in Sheopur empty-handed and some even sold the grain allotted to them in April to meet basic needs. Very few works have started in MGNREGS as administration was busy dealing with migrants, checking their health and sending them in quarantine.

Amid 46-47 degree Celsius temperature, a few opt for tough MGNREGS works which only offer Rs 190 daily, he added. Some who did not have cash had to borrow money to return to native places and still dont have any work, added Parmar.

Another local Ekta Parishad activist Jai Singh from Sheopur told News18 that 5kg per family ration doled out to labourers who returned is insufficient. You cant expect them to work in MGNREGS empty stomach as they have no means left and payments in this scheme are always delayed. We have requested the district administration to help these migrant labourers with ration, he added.

One Fifth Migrant Labourers Still Willing to Go Back for Work

A study carried out by a volunteer organisation has mapped the ordeal of migrant labourers and, surprisingly, concluded that 21 per cent migrant labourers are eager to go back to their works in other states as they believe governments dont wish to offer work in villages. Over 54 per cent dont wish to migrate for work now, while 24.5 per cent are indecisive. Though migration is not their priority , they are uncertain about finding work locally.

Cutting out a sorry figure of labourers economic condition upon their return, the study which included 310 labourers in 10 districts in MP, claimed that 23 per cent of these labourers were left with less than Rs 100 as they reached home. All they earned was exhausted in the return journey as their employers did not help them out. Several had to travel on foot with distance ranging from 200km to 700km. Close to 25 per cent of these migrants were left with Rs 100-500 and 18 per cent had Rs 500 to Rs 1,000 on them. A large number of them spent Rs 500 received in Jan Dhan accounts to fund their return journey.

Amid Covid19-fuelled uncertainty, over 91 per cent of this workforce fears that 2021 will prove to be a year of complete joblessness for them. With no resources or funds, they are apprehensive of a future with several fearing hunger.

As large numbers of these migrant labourers reported normal behaviour of community upon their return, the treatment seemed discriminatory for 23.5 per cent and 5.2 per cent found it humiliating.

Close to 3.5 per cent of these families are under debt of Rs 25,000 to 50,000, and are concerned about finding means to repay these loans.
Kennedy spoke that night for the first time in public about the killing of his brother, the president. For those of you who are black and are tempted to be filled with hatred and distrust at the injustice of such an act, against all white people, I can only say that I feel in my own heart the same kind of feeling. I had a member of my family killed, but he was killed by a white man.
New coronavirus cases in Nigeria have increased for two consecutive weeks, a PREMIUM TIMES review of official data showed.

A review of data provided by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) showed that the country recorded 2,329 new cases in the past week, which is a 22 per cent increase compared to 1,905 cases recorded in the previous week. The previous weeks figure was also higher than the 1,470 cases reported in the penultimate week (May 10- May 16).

While the number of new cases increased in the past two weeks, the number of recoveries have continued to reduce.

A total of 682 patients recovered and were discharged last week, which represents a 3.5 per cent drop when compared to the 707 patients discharged in the previous week. The 707 people discharged in the previous week was a 3.4 per cent drop when compared to the 727 patients discharged in the week between May 10 and May 16.

More deaths from the virus also occurred last week (52) compared to the previous week (45). The previous weeks 45 deaths were however lower than the 47 deaths recorded between May 10 and May 16.

Lagos State remains the epicentre of the pandemic in Nigeria with new 1,389 cases last week after it recorded its highest daily figure of 378 infections on Saturday.

The figure soared when compared to the 984 new cases recorded in the state in the previous week.

Nigeria so far

There are 6,726 active COVID-19 cases in the country as 2,856 people have recovered and have been discharged, with 273 deaths recorded.

A breakdown of the total 9,885 confirmed cases shows that Lagos State has so far reported 4,755 cases, followed by Kano  951, FCT  616, Katsina  364, Edo  284, Oyo  280, Borno  271,Jigawa  270, Ogun  259, Kaduna  244, Bauchi  236, Rivers  204, Gombe  156, Sokoto  116, Plateau  104, Kwara  87, Delta  80, Zamfara  76, Nasarawa  62, Yobe  52, Akwa Ibom  45, Osun  45, Ebonyi  40, Adamawa  38, Imo  34, Kebbi  33, Niger  30, Ondo  25, Ekiti  20, Enugu  18, Taraba  18, Bayelsa  12, Anambra  11, Abia  10, Benue  7 and Kogi  2.

Timeline last week

On Sunday, 313 new cases of COVID-19 were reported in the country.

On Monday, 229 new cases of the pandemic were reported in the country. This brought the tally of confirmed cases to 8,068 as of 11:55 p.m. on May 25.

On Tuesday, 276 new cases of COVID-19 were recorded.

A total of 389 new cases of the pandemic were reported on Wednesday which brought the number of confirmed cases to 8,733.

On Thursday, 182 new cases of COVID-19 were reported in the country.

On Friday, 387 new cases were reported in Nigeria, hence bringing the tally of confirmed cases to 9302 as of 11:55 p.m. on May 29.

On Saturday, 553 new cases of the virus were recorded.

Therefore, a total of 9,855 cases have been reported, out of which 2,856 have recovered and 273 have died.

Testing

Nigeria has so far tested 60,825 persons since the beginning of the outbreak in February. This means the country tested 17,497 people last week, its highest weekly figure of tests conducted.

Despite the increasing figures, many Nigerians say Nigeria is not testing enough and the figures may not present the true situation in the country.

The director-general of NCDC, Chikwe Ihekweazu, had earlier highlighted the need to intensify efforts to improve COVID-19 testing in Nigeria.

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Chikwe Ihekweazu, Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) [PHOTO: PMNEWS]

NCDC said on Saturday it had activated an additional laboratory to its molecular laboratory network.

The Bauchi State Reference Molecular Laboratory is the 29th of its kind in the country.

The health agency in a tweet earlier on Saturday said two more laboratories, in Kwara and Gombe, are in progress.

We are pleased to announce the inclusion of an additional lab to the NCDC Molecular Laboratory Network: Bauchi State Reference Molecular Laboratory, it said.

This brings the total number of labs with the capacity to test for COVID-19 in Nigeria to 29. In progress: Kwara and Gombe.

However, the NCDCs target of testing two million people in three months appears increasingly unrealisable.

Controversy in Kogi

Since the two index cases were recorded in Kogi State on Wednesday, the state government has been at loggerheads with the NCDC.

It should be noted that Kogi and Cross Rivers were the only states yet to confirm any case of the virus until Wednesday when the NCDC announced 389 new cases out of which two were from Kogi State.

Kogi State governor, Yahaya Bello

The Kogi government immediately disputed the test results, insisting that it would not accept any test result conducted outside the state.

In its reaction, the NCDC advised the state epidemiologist to swing to action with the tracing of the contacts of the infected persons.

Also, the Nigerian Medical Association on Friday said it was incredibly disturbed by the response of the Kogi State government over the discovery of two index cases of coronavirus in the North-central state.

The state Commissioner of Information did not only describe the process of arriving at the diagnosis as fraudulent, but he also went on to smear the frontline Health workers and the NCDC (Nigerias infectious disease agency) on live national television, Francis Faduyile, the NMA president said.

New Restrictions

While its coronavirus cases continue to increase, the Nigerian government appears to be in a quandary as to how to check further spread of the deadly virus.

Amidst the increase, the government lifted its lockdown in major cities and replaced it with an interstate travel ban as well as a nationwide dusk to dawn curfew. The government also asked citizens to ensure social distancing and use face masks in public.

The directives have, however, been largely observed in the breach. Interstate travels are still commonplace while many residents still move about without face masks and do not observe social distancing rules.

However, a large number of businesses remain shut while all airports remain closed except for essential flights.

However, the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 is expected to announce a review of the existing policies on Monday.
Twitter's testy relationship with President Trump could ultimately lead to a clipping of social media's wings. (Noah Berger / Associated Press)

Nobody seems happy with Twitter these days  or Facebook or any other social media platform, for that matter.

The Radical Left is in total command & control of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Google, President Trump charged.

Twitter is completely stifling FREE SPEECH, and I, as President, will not allow it to happen!

He said those things on Twitter, where he has more than 80 million readers.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), whos rarely in league with Trump, agreed with him that the internet giants are a problem.

Facebook, all of them, they're all about making money, she complained on Thursday. Their business model is to make money at the expense of the truth.

If theres a bipartisan consensus on anything in Washington, its that someone ought to take big tech down a notch.

The result may be the biggest political crisis the internet companies have faced since their creation  and its mostly their own fault.

The most likely outcome, no matter how the November election turns out, is that Congress will repeal the 1996 law that protects the platforms from liability for almost anything their users post.

Removing that law, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, could throw their business model into chaos and make it difficult for Twitter and Facebook to survive.

Trump and the presumptive Democratic nominee, Joe Biden, have both said the provision should be repealed  although for different reasons.

Republicans claim Twitter and the other platforms are deliberately targeting conservatives and unfairly applying rules against hate speech, incitement and harassment.

Democrats have the opposite complaint: They charge that the platforms dont enforce the rules often enough. They complain that Trump and others have been allowed to get away with flagrant falsehoods and calumnies  which is true.

Last weeks crisis focused on Twitter, which enforced its internal rules on Trump for the first time.

First the company attached warnings, labeled get the facts, to two presidential tweets that had called mail-in ballots fraudulent and predicted a rigged election in November.

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Then Twitter added an anti-violence warning to a Trump tweet about riot-torn Minneapolis. When the looting starts, the shooting starts," he wrote.

Trump and his allies said those disclaimers amounted to censorship. They didnt. Twitter still published all the presidents words; now his readers will see the warnings as well.

Until recently, Facebook was also a target of conservative complaints because it sometimes enforced standards against right-wing extremists. But last week, Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said he no longer thinks the company should try to be arbiters of truth.

Politicians resentment against the increasingly powerful platforms has been building for a long time.

When Section 230 passed in 1996, it was intended to shield fragile startup companies when the internet was young. In the ensuing 24 years, the social media firms have become big and wealthy; its no longer clear that they need protection.

The law not only shielded the companies from liability; it empowered them to restrict access to material that is obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, excessively violent, harassing, or otherwise objectionable.

That clause granted the platforms almost unlimited control over content. They developed rules and procedures for applying them in-house, with little or no visibility to anyone outside.

Twitters standards, for example, list multiple categories of prohibited content, including child exploitation, targeted harassment, hateful conduct, encouraging suicide, nonconsensual nudity, posting other peoples private information, manipulated media, promoting terrorism, threats or glorification of violence, and manipulating or interfering in elections.

The company ruled that Trumps tweets last week violated the last two rules.

The problem is its not clear how the rules are applied, who applies them and how to get redress if you think youve been treated unfairly.

Its easier to get information out of the [National Security Agency] than one of these big tech companies, said Jeff Kosseff, a cybersecurity law professor and author of The Twenty-Six Words that Created the Internet, a book about Section 230.

In Trumps case, the company bungled the process. Its actions against the president seemed to come out of nowhere, with little warning or explanation.

Did Trumps claim, five months in advance, of a rigged election really constitute manipulation or interference?

And it seemed odd that while the president was tagged for falsely claiming that mail-in ballots produce fraud, he was not for repeatedly suggesting that MSNBC host Joe Scarborough had murdered a staff aide in 2001. (Authorities say there is no basis for Trump's allegation; Scarborough was 800 miles away when the woman died.)

Trumps response to Twitters actions was a colorfully worded executive order that threatened to sic two regulatory agencies on the tech company. It asked the Federal Communications Commission to draft new rules to make social media companies liable for more content, and asked the Federal Trade Commission to examine whether the companies are enforcing their standards fairly.

The president's order appeared mostly symbolic, tailored for an election year. The FCC routinely takes months or years to draft new regulations, even on simple issues, and the president's order was almost certain to be challenged in court.

In the longer run, though, Section 230 remains vulnerable in Congress  if only because both Trump and Biden say they want to see it repealed.

What happens then?

Theoretically, eliminating the law could prompt social media platforms to crack down on more content to eliminate anything that could lead to a lawsuit. That could make Trump vulnerable to even more pesky warning labels.

But repeal could also perversely lead to the elimination of almost all standards  because if there are no rules, the platforms can argue that they arent responsible for enforcing any.

And that could produce an internet where pornography and extremist political content, both protected by the 1st Amendment, flood into platforms that were intended to be family friendly.

There was a more sensible solution available. The companies could have reformed their standards and practices, made them far more transparent and allowed the public to see how they were implemented.

But it may be too late for that kind of self-improvement. The companies moved too slowly. They resisted letting anyone see inside.

As a result, a law that was a foundation of their business is now in danger of repeal. Thats not all Trumps fault. Its their fault too.




KEY HIGHLIGHTS

1. Economy could rebound in next 6-9 months

2. Opportunity to get women into the Indian workforce

3. Time to provide jobs to migrant labourers in villages

4. Load on telecom network explodes

As the Indian economy is currently battling multiple crises, one clear message that emerged at a Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) webinar is that the Indian economy could rebound over the next 6-9 months based on the resilience shown by the people, businesses and government. The participants in the webinar on 'New Normal: Impact of Covid on Business and Economy,' pointed out that every crisis throws up opportunities too.

In the current crisis, there is a huge demographic opportunity for India. As more companies look to get more people to work from home regularly, this is an opportunity to get more women into the Indian workforce.

India has the lowest number of women working as a share of the total workforce in the G20, barring Saudi Arabia. Raising women's participation in the Indian labour force to that of men can boost India's GDP by 27 per cent according to a joint paper by then IMF chief Christine Lagarde and Norway's Prime Minister Erna Solberg.

Also Read: Coronavirus India Live Updates: Big part of economy open now, need to be more careful, says PM Modi; total cases-1.82 lakh

It is time to leverage this opportunity. Now is the moment for corporations to hire women who have been out of work, just to look after their families.

Similarly, as migrant labour has gone back to their villages, there is an opportunity to get these people employed in their villages themselves, provided industry sets up shop there. It would raise economic activity in the smaller towns, while reducing the pressure on the big cities.

Speaking of the benefits, Aditya Berlia, Chairman- CII Delhi and co-Promoter Apeejay Stya says: "While the economy could contract by 5-15%, we have been able to connect with government officials quite easily. It would be great if in future too industry can discuss with government without having to come to Delhi every time."

Much of the economic activity that happened over the past two months when there were concurrent emergencies--coronavirus, cyclone, locust swarms and earthquakes-was driven by the telecom network and the IT industry.

Also Read: India Inc seeks IT sector-like benefits for healthcare industry

Rajan S Mathews, Director General, Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) says: "Over the last two months, the load on our network simply exploded. Add to that issues over keeping it on after the Amphan cyclone. From accounting for 6% of the national GDP, telecom was accounting for 35%. All this was possible due to the sustained investment that has been made over the years in building a robust network." He goes on to point out that the telecom sector is rebuilding after a tariff war and needs to fiberise its network.

According to Prativa Mohapatra, VP Sales at IBM India and South Asia, the telecom industry has emerged as the nervous system and IT as flesh and blood in the current crisis. The pandemic has shown the importance of business continuity planning and need for businesses to be agile. According to her, 99 per cent of IBM India started working from home in less than five days. That's the agility that is needed in such times.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and foreign leaders will monitor the Victory parade on June 24 from the tribune on Red Square, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in the interview with Moscow. Kremlin. Putin program on Rossiya-1 TV channel, TASS reports.

"Certainly, the president and the guests will [watch the parade] at the tribune," Peskov said. "No doubt, there will be foreign heads of state." Peskov noted that it was necessary to take into account "epidemiological modality" and expressed hope that the lockdown would be a thing of the past when the parade takes place.

On April 16, the Russian president announced a decision to postpone the Victory Day Parade, which is held annually on May 9, because the preparations for it could not be carried out amid the coronavirus spread. On April 28, Putin said an air military parade would be held on May 9. Putin pledged that the Victory parade would take place later this year.

On May 26, Putin told a meeting with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu that the parade would be held on June 24. Putin explained that he had chosen the date since the legendary, historic parade of victors was held on June 24, 1945. The president ordered the defense minister to prevent any risks for health of the parade participants.
2014 In 2014, his first birthday as Prime Minister, Narendra Modi visited Gandhinagar to seek blessings from his mother Heeraben. Reports said Modi travelled alone in a normal vehicle from Ahmedabad to Gandhinagar on his 64rth birthday. His mother donated Rs 5,000 for the Prime Ministers Relief Fund for flood-hit Jammu and Kashmir on the occasion. Later in the day, Modi hosted a special dinner for Chinese President Xi Jinping in Ahmedabad.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) held "virtual rallies" across India and organising more than 1,000 conferences online last week to mark the first anniversary of the Narendra Modi government's second term.

While Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Council of Ministers were sworn in for the second term on May 26, 2019, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government had taken office on May 30.

The party claims that the past one year has been full of historic achievements that will be written in golden letters in history.

Some of these achievements, as claimed by the BJP, were highlighted in PM Modis letter to citizens on May 30. The letter was written to mark the first anniversary of his governments second term.

Today, 130 crore people feel involved and integrated in the development trajectory of the nation.The light of Jan Shakti and Rashtra Shakti has ignited the entire nation. Powered by the Mantra of Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas India is marching forward in all spheres. PM Modi said.

Experts and political observers suggest that many of the moves initiated by the BJP in the past 12 months were aimed at fulfilling key promises it had made in its 2019 Lok Sabha election manifesto. Many of these promises have been part of the saffron partys agenda for a long time.

Here are some of the key manifesto promises the BJP fulfilled in the past year:

Article 370

On August 5, 2019, months after the second term began, the Centre abrogated provisions of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution that gave special provisions to the then state of Jammu and Kashmir. The government also bifurcated the state into two Union Territories  J&K and Ladakh. While J&K is expected to have its own Legislature, Ladakh will not.

The state, and especially the Kashmir Valley, was placed under strict restrictions while this move was undertaken. Some restrictions such as ban on 4G internet service in Kashmir, remain in place till date.

Law against Triple Talaq

In early August, President Ram Nath Kovind gave his assent to the triple talaq bill passed by Parliament, turning it into a law which made the practice of instant divorce among Muslims a punishable offence.

The law had been in works for a while. However, the bill could not make it through the Rajya Sabha during the first term of PM Modis government, although it was passed by Lok Sabha.

CAA and NRC

The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, which was in works for a while, was passed by Parliament and turned it into an Act after the Presidents assent.

According to the amended citizenship law, members of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities who came from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan till December 31, 2014 and facing religious persecution there will not be treated as illegal immigrants and will be eligible for Indian citizenship. The law excludes Muslims.

Those opposing the amended law say it discriminates on the basis of religion and violates the Constitution. They also allege that the CAA, along with the proposed pan-India National Register of Citizens (NRC), is intended to target Indias Muslim community.

However, the BJP-led central government has dismissed the allegations, maintaining that the law is intended to give citizenship to the persecuted people from the three neighbouring countries and not take away citizenship from anyone.

The development sparked massive protests, some turning violent, against the legislation across the country. Many states and petitioners moved the Supreme Court seeking challenging the constitutional validity of the Act. The matter is still pending before the highest court.

Ayodhya verdict and Centre's setting up temple trust

On February 5, PM Modi informed Parliament that the Cabinet had approved setting up of a trust to construct a Ram Temple in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh as per the Supreme Courts November 9, 2019 verdict in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case.

While the move was based on the top courts ruling, this was seen by many as the BJP meeting one of its key manifesto promises.

A number of promises made in the 2019 general election manifesto are yet to be fulfilled by the NDA government. These include doubling farmers income by 2022, ensuring a pucca house to every family, completion of the dedicated freight corridor project by 2022, establishing 1.5 lakh health and wellness centres under Ayushman Bharat and ensuring availability of banking services within 5 kms of every individual. Some of these are also reportedly under process.

Yet, the novel coronavirus pandemic has impacted the country and its economy. The healthcare crisis and economic revival are likely to be the areas of focus for the Centre in the next 12 months.
Amid protests over police brutality across the US, Chinese officials and media slam Washington over Hong Kong protests.

Chinese state media are taking aim at the US government as many US cities are being gripped by raging protests, comparing the unrest with the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong.

Beijing has long been infuriated by criticism from Western capitals, especially Washington, over its handling of the pro-democracy protests that shook Hong Kong last year.

And as unrest erupted across the United States over racial inequality and police brutality after the death during arrest of an unarmed Black man, Chinese government spokespeople and official media launched attacks against US authorities.

Chinese media also circulated video clips suggesting Hong Kong police were restrained in comparison to actions seen in the US.

US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi once called the violent protests in Hong Kong a beautiful sight to behold.  US politicians now can enjoy this sight from their own windows, Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of nationalist tabloid Global Times, wrote on Saturday.

It was as if the radical rioters in Hong Kong somehow snuck into the US and created a mess like they did last year, he added.

China has insisted that foreign forces are to blame for the turmoil in Hong Kong, where pro-democracy protesters  described by Beijing as rioters  have marched in the millions since June last year and often clashed with the police.

Beijing sparked outrage and concern earlier this month with a plan to impose a law on Hong Kong that it said was needed to protect national security and curb terrorism, but was condemned by pro-democracy activists and Western nations as another attempt to chip away at the citys unique freedoms.

Following US President Donald Trumps announcement that he would strip Hong Kong of its special privileges, a commentary published on Sunday in China Daily  a mouthpiece of the ruling Communist Party  said US politicians dreamed of victimising China.

Better give up that dream and come back to reality, it said. Violence is spreading across the US  US politicians should do their jobs and help solve problems in the US, instead of trying to create new problems and troubles in other countries.

Lack of transparency

The back-and-forth over Hong Kong has exacerbated US-China tensions, which were already high over several issues  including trade and the coronavirus pandemic  over which Trump has accused Beijing of a lack of transparency.

As some protests turned violent in the US over the weekend, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying also targeted Washington.

I cant breathe, she said on Twitter, with a screenshot of a tweet by US State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus that had criticised the Chinese government over its Hong Kong policy.

Hua was quoting the words George Floyd was heard saying repeatedly before his death  after a police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes  which sparked the current unrest in the United States.

Over the weekend, Chinese media also circulated video clips of the US violence, accompanied by the hashtag How restrained are the Hong Kong police? on the Twitter-like platform, Weibo.

One clip posted by the Peoples Daily on Sunday compared the recent on-screen arrest of CNN correspondent Omar Jimenez, who was covering the unrest in the US city of Minneapolis last Friday, with scenes of Hong Kong police appearing to back away from media personnel in the city last year.

The accompanying caption said: Reporters used their professional identities to obstruct law enforcement.

Police in Hong Kong have been accused by rights groups of using excessive force during pro-democracy protests last year.
Even if it's not a huge purchase, we think it was good to see that Peng Zhang, the President & Executive Director of Modern Land (China) Co., Limited (HKG:1107) recently shelled out HK$50k to buy stock, at HK$1.09 per share. Nevertheless, it only increased their shareholding by a minuscule percentage, and it wasn't a massive purchase by absolute value, either.

View our latest analysis for Modern Land (China)

Modern Land (China) Insider Transactions Over The Last Year

President & Executive Director Peng Zhang previously made an even bigger purchase of HK$172k worth of shares at a price of HK$1.16 per share. That means that an insider was happy to buy shares at above the current price of HK$1.03. Their view may have changed since then, but at least it shows they felt optimistic at the time. In our view, the price an insider pays for shares is very important. As a general rule, we feel more positive about a stock when an insider has bought shares at above current prices, because that suggests they viewed the stock as good value, even at a higher price. Peng Zhang was the only individual insider to buy during the last year.

Peng Zhang purchased 854.00k shares over the year. The average price per share was HK$1.14. You can see the insider transactions (by individuals) over the last year depicted in the chart below. By clicking on the graph below, you can see the precise details of each insider transaction!

SEHK:1107 Recent Insider Trading May 31st 2020

Modern Land (China) is not the only stock that insiders are buying. For those who like to find winning investments this free list of growing companies with recent insider purchasing, could be just the ticket.

Does Modern Land (China) Boast High Insider Ownership?

Another way to test the alignment between the leaders of a company and other shareholders is to look at how many shares they own. I reckon it's a good sign if insiders own a significant number of shares in the company. It's great to see that Modern Land (China) insiders own 67% of the company, worth about HK$1.9b. I like to see this level of insider ownership, because it increases the chances that management are thinking about the best interests of shareholders.

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So What Do The Modern Land (China) Insider Transactions Indicate?

It is good to see the recent insider purchase. And the longer term insider transactions also give us confidence. Once you factor in the high insider ownership, it certainly seems like insiders are positive about Modern Land (China). Nice! While we like knowing what's going on with the insider's ownership and transactions, we make sure to also consider what risks are facing a stock before making any investment decision. To that end, you should learn about the 3 warning signs we've spotted with Modern Land (China) (including 1 which can't be ignored).

Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies.

For the purposes of this article, insiders are those individuals who report their transactions to the relevant regulatory body. We currently account for open market transactions and private dispositions, but not derivative transactions.

Love or hate this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@simplywallst.com.



This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Social media users reacted with outrage to an abundance of rubbish left behind at the Three Acorns park in Kirchberg.

The sunny weather and easing of virus restrictions led to multitudes of revelers celebrating the gradual return to normality at the Three Acorns Park (near Mudam) in Kirchberg over the weekend. Social media users reacted with outrage to an abundance of rubbish simply left behind.

Footage of the aftermath was shared almost 900 times on Facebook and viewed over 34,000 times.
To him, every smile she gave was an indication of how he was capturing her heart with his carefully-chosen romantic words and gestures. But unknown to him, those very smiles were reflections of sinister plans she had in store for him.



Its an engrossing story of how something that started off as a romantic date ended up as a memory-etching scary tale which sends shivers down his spine with every recollection.



A horrifying and jaw-dropping recount of a short love story that started at the Glory Land Hotel in Odorkor and ended under a neem tree at the Awudome cemetery around 2am.



Ghanas Independence Day celebration has historically been marked with musical concerts that usually features the creme-de-la-creme of the countrys performers and the situation was not any different in 1998.



It was the peak of Amakye Dedes musical exploits and he was the headliner of an Independence Day bash being held at the aforementioned hotel.



It happened to be a Friday night so Jonathan Akrong, a sales executive at Magnum Supplies and Investment Ltd, decided to storm town, catch some fun, de-stress and recharge for the following week.



As a lover of hi-life music, there was no better place for him to visit than a show headlined by Amakye Dede.



It happened in March 1998. It was a Friday night and there was an independent bash and Amakye Dedes band was playing at Glory Land so I went there to catch some fun. Amakye Dede had just launched the Iron Boy album so it was everywhere.



I went there to enjoy myself and there were a lot girls and I had money so I could do anything. I went to the place alone and had some good time so around 1:30 am the band was about to close



It was at this point, Akrong says he spotted this nice lady with long braided hair. He further described her as a slim but well-shaped and endowed lady whose sparkling beauty was unique.



He offered a bottle of Guinness and the lady took a sip and conversation took off.



I called her and she told me she will be back. After coming back, I bought her a bottle of Guinness and if I remember correctly, she took just a sip. So, I engaged her and she was not the talking type so I had to tread cautiously because I wanted her. She told me she is Abena and stays at North Kaneshie. I invited her to dance but she declined.



The conversation had gone relatively well and with the show now over, it was time to take things a notch higher. Based on the little engagement, Akrong knew his bed was going to be a host to four legs and not the regular two.



So, the show was over and everyone was living. She was reluctant to leave but I pressured her and she succumbed to my pressure. She was slim with a nice shape, flat tummy with nice backside too. Her smile was infectious and anytime she smiled I questioned why, but she just said nothing. I remember this incident with nostalgic feelings.



So, I stopped this taxi and it was almost 2:00 am. She sat at the back and I was in the front seat. Once she got it into the taxi, my plan was to take her to Osu and have some time with her cos my taste had gone high. So, when we got to Obetsebi she asked that we take the Awudome side. When we got to Awudome, she again said that we should take left. There was no light there.



When we took that turn and got to the first neem tree, she asked the driver to stop. The driver was still driving so she got angry and shouted at him. She spoke authoritatively and I turned back to watch her and it was very scary".



She got down, jumped the gutter and started laughing amid loud claps and went straight into the cemetery. The driver asked me to get down but I begged him and he dropped me at the traffic light. At that point I realize I was with the wrong person. Everything cleared from my eyes. It was after the incident that I understood those smiles she gave back at the hotel. Im sure she was saying in her mind that I dont know what she is about, he recounted.



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Electricity supply is expected to rise to 11,000 megawatts by 2023 under an agreement with the German firm Siemens, Information and Culture Minister Lai Mohammed said on Friday.

According to him, it will first grow to 7,000MW by the end of next year from the present 3,400 megawatts.

The minister spoke at a press conference in Abuja as part of activities marking the first year anniversary of the second term of the Buhari Administration.

He said: Following an agreement with German company Siemens in July 2019 to boost power supply in Nigeria, the stage is set for the perennial power problem to become a thing of the past.



Under the three-phase agreement, Nigerians will enjoy 7,000 megawatts of reliable power supply by the end of 2021 (phase 1), 11,000 megawatts by the end of 2023 (phase 2) and 25,000 megawatts in the third phase.

To put things in perspective, Nigerias current power generation capacity is more than 13,000 megawatts, but only an average of 3,400 megawatts reliably reach consumers. In essence, the current amount of power that reaches consumers will more than double by the end of next year.

In addition, this will create thousands of jobs and will leapfrog the country into the next level of industrial and social development.

Follow Us on Facebook  @LadunLiadi; Instagram  @LadunLiadi; Twitter  @LadunLiadi; Youtube  @LadunLiadiTV for updates
<! Confronting the police during the U.S. protest >

Protests over the murder of black man George Floyd by a former Minneapolis policeman continued in many American cities on Saturday.

However, some of the protests snowballed into looting of stores.

In Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan announced a curfew starting at 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday as protests gripped downtown.

Lori Lightfoot, the Chicago mayor also announced a curfew from 9pm to 6am, a little too late perhaps, with reports of vandalism and clashes between protesters and police.

Macys store in Downtown Chicago was one of the stores looted on Saturday night.

Curfews were announced in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Atlanta as the anti-police protests continued.

In Los Angeles, officers fired rubber bullets and swung batons during a testy standoff with demonstrators who set fire to a police car.

In New York, like Chicago, police and protesters also clashed and many arrests were made.

In Minneapolis where the protests began on Tuesday, Governor Tim Walz called in the national guard as he also sued for peace.

Walz had said most of the protesters in Minneapolis were outsiders.

But much later, he walked back the comment and apologised.

Seattle Times reported high tension in the city, despite a rainy afternoon, as protesters chanted I cant breathe! and Whats his name? George Floyd.

Police struggled to disperse the crowd and enforce social distancing, the Times said.

Gov. Jay Inslee later activated National Guard troops to respond shortly after 5 oclock.

The National Guard was also called out in several U.S. states.

The nationwide, unrest began on Friday, prompting the Pentagon to order the Army to put several active-duty U.S. military police units on the ready to deploy to Minneapolis.

In Portland, police declared a riot late Friday night after protesters broke into the citys police headquarters and set fires inside.

In Seattle, at least two more rallies against police brutality are planned Saturday afternoon.

On Saturday afternoon in Downtown Miami, Florida, hundreds gathered to protest police brutality and the death of George Floyd , despite the vicious, sweltering sun.

They chanted Floyds name and demanded justice against abusive cops. They hoisted hand-made signs that read: I Cant Breathe and No More Hashtags. We matter.

Miami Herald reported that policemen failed to react even when protesters shut down Interstate 95 for more than an hour and spray painted police cars.

The afternoons large protest unfolded largely in peace  until the sun began to set, protesters began hurling rocks and bottles at cops lined up outside Miami police headquarters, and officers began firing tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the crowd.

By Saturday night, events had turned chaotic, made even more so because of a thundering fireworks show nearby meant to honour medical personnel working to stem the coronavirus pandemic.

President Trump who was in Florida to witness the launch of the first space flight from American soil in a decade blamed far-left groups, including radicals from Antifa for the protests.

He said they were inciting unrest across the United States and dishonouring the memory of George Floyd.

Trump said he had spoken to the family of Floyd, and expressed the sorrow of our entire nation.

The memory of George Floyd is being dishonoured by rioters, looters and anarchists, Trump said.

The violence and vandalism is being led by Antifa and other radical left-wing groups who are terrorising the innocent, destroying jobs, hurting business and burning down buildings.

The main victims of this horrible, horrible situation are the citizens who live in these once lovely communities, the president said.

Right now, America needs creation, not destruction. Cooperation, not contempt. Security, not anarchy, and there will be no anarchy, he added.

Radical-left criminals, thugs and others all throughout our country and throughout the world will not be allowed to set communities ablaze.

We wont let it happen. It harms those who have the least. And we will be protecting those who have the least, the president said.

He added that the Justice Department had been in coordination with local law enforcement across the country.

Trumps comments did not deter the marchers who filed out in many cities, including Toronto in Canada.

They marched through streets in Minneapolis, New York, Chicago, Miami, Philadelphia and other cities, chanting slogans such as Black Lives Matter and I cant breathe, which Floyd was heard saying repeatedly before he died.
People queue outside a Pret. Photo: Tolga AKMEN / AFP via Getty Images

Pret a Manger has sought help from consultants to negotiate rents on its shops, as it braces for a shift in footfall in city centres.

More than 300 of 430 of the ubiquitous sandwich chains shops will have reopened as of next week. Shops will reopen in cities including Bath, Bournemouth, Exeter, Liverpool and Newcastle.

However as people continue to work from home the company expects a continued shift in demand. It generally relies on dense footfall from office workers.

"Reduced footfall, combined with high rental costs, have placed substantial pressure on our business," said CEO Pano Christou.

He said the company was compiling a clear plan addressing these issues and good progress was being made.

Sky News reported that the chain had appointed the professional services firm Alvarez & Marsal and CWM, a property agent, to negotiate rents.

READ MORE: Coronavirus: 1.5 million people plan to delay retirement

In April, Pret had already begun talks to secure an additional 100m (90.05m) loan to help weather the impact of the pandemic.

Industry body UK Hospitality has urged the government to find a solution to increasingly serious rental overheads in the hospitality industry.

Safety measures in the reopened stores include protective screens in front of tills and limits on the number of customers in shops.
By Akbar Mammadov

Head of Nagorno-Karabakhs Azerbaijani community MP Tural Ganjaliyev has said that Armenia denies the existence of Karabakh Azerbaijanis.

Ganjaliyev made the remarks during his speech in the parliaments session on May 31.

"They ignore Nagorno-Karabakhs Azerbaijani community as well as our population, Ganjaliyev said.

However, Ganjaliyev noted that some Armenians living in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, have been appealing to the Azerbaijani community, expressing their desire live peacefully together with the Azerbaijani community within the internationally recognized borders of Azerbaijan and in accordance with the Constitution of Azerbaijan.

"Both as an MP from Khankendi city and as the head of the Azerbaijani community of Nagorno-Karabakh, I would like to appeal to those Armenians that they must unite around them other Armenian residents, who think as rationally as they do, and together with the Azerbaijani community of Nagorno-Karabakh, they must soon take an action to live peacefully in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan and put an end to the presence of the occupying Armenian forces and the occupying regime there."

The Azerbaijani MP stressed that in general, the activities of the Nagorno-Karabakh's Azerbaijani community have irriated the Armenian side, which is not surprising. "We have recently witnessed the provocative statements of both Armenia and the occupying regime", Ganjaliyev said.

"The best answer to them was given to them in 2019 by the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group. It was after their meeting with us that the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs made two statements, once again drawing attention to the existence of the Armenian and Azerbaijani communities as interested parties in the conflict, and once again this was a very good response to them."

Azerbaijan and Armenia are locked in a conflict over Azerbaijans Nagorno-Karabakh breakaway region, which along with seven adjacent regions was occupied by Armenian forces in a war in the early 1990s. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and around one million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.

The OSCE Minsk Group co-chaired by the United States, Russia and France has been mediating the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict since the signing of the volatile cease-fire agreement in 1994. The Minsk Groups efforts have resulted in no progress and to this date, Armenia has failed to abide by the UN Security Council resolutions (822, 853, 874 and 884) that demand the withdrawal of Armenian military forces from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan.
Tens of thousands marched peacefully through streets to protest the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died Monday after a white Minneapolis, Minnesota, police officer pressed his knee on his neck until he stopped breathing. But many demonstrations sank into chaos as night fell: Cars and businesses were torched. The words I cant breathe  something Floyd said while pinned to the ground  were spray-painted all over buildings. A fire in a trash bin burned near the gates of the White House.
He made the remarks while chairing a meeting in Ba Ria-Vung Tau province between permanent Government members and officials of the eight localities in this region, which comprises Ho Chi Minh City and the seven provinces of Dong Nai, Binh Duong, Binh Phuoc, Ba Ria-Vung Tau, Tay Ninh, Long An, and Tien Giang. The southern key economic region is the only of its kind in Vietnam that boasts sufficient conditions and advantages for industrial and service development to achieve a fast, efficient and sustainable growth. It is currently the largest FDI magnet of the country, a leading economic driver, and a gateway for Vietnams trading with the world.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc (centre) and officials inspects the Phuoc An Bridge project in Ba Ria-Vung Tau province on May 30th (Photo: VNA)

Addressing the event, PM Phuc applauded the eight localities attainments in COVID-19 prevention and control, social security ensuring, and economic development, which have joined the entire countrys efforts to defeat the pandemic.

He also highly valued their resolve in economic development and persistence with the initial targets set for this year.

Regarding the regions development goal, he emphasised that this is the key among the four key economic regions of Vietnam, describing it as a diamond octagon in Southeast Asia as well as Asia given its economic development and healthy living environment.

The PM pointed out that the strength and competitiveness of this region outpaces the others, asking the localities to bring into play their solidarity and join hands to innovate and hold responsibility for national development.

Responding to proposals submitted at the meeting, PM Phuc assigned relevant agencies to devise special mechanisms for key economic regions, especially the southern one.

He told the Ministry of Planning and Investment to consider an aid package from the Government for the localities to invest in urgent infrastructure and transport facilities  a factor of leading importance in local socio-economic development.

Meanwhile, the State Bank of Vietnam and the Ministry of Finance need to work on solutions to facilitate credit institutions engagement in infrastructure development projects, particularly those under the private-public partnership (PPP). The Ministry of Transport has to establish projects on boosting transport connectivity among industrial parks and economic zones in the region.

The eight localities need to prioritise developing digital economy, e-commerce, and the 5G network, which are crucial for high technology development, according to him.



At the session, the PM also asked them to implement the Governments recently-issued Resolution 84/NQ-CP well so as to further tackle production and business difficulties and stimulate consumer demand which is an important driving force for GDP growth.

Prior to the meeting, PM Phuc had made a fact-finding tour of Cai Mep-Thi Vai Port in Phu My town, Phuoc An Bridge, the location of the Cai Mep Ha logistics project, and Hyosung Industrial Park in Ba Ria-Vung Tau./.
Up to 2,000 people gathered to protest the jailing of opposition blogger Syarhey Tsikhanouski.

Prominent Belarusian opposition leader Mikalay Statkevich has been detained on his way to a rally in the capital, Minsk.

Statkevich is a former presidential challenger whose candidacy for the August 9 presidential election was rejected earlier this month, RFE/RL's Belarus Service said.

He was detained on May 31 while on his way to Kamarousky Market in downtown Minsk, where up to 2,000 people had gathered to protest the jailing of opposition blogger Syarhey Tsikhanouski.

Read alsoRussian political scientist Natalia Shavshukova: Luck turned its back on Putin. Post-quarantine Russia will be poorer and angrier

Tsikhanouski was recently jailed over an "unsanctioned mass gathering" and his candidacy was also nixed by the authorities.

Tsikhanouski runs a popular YouTube channel called The Country For Life, which frequently challenges Belarusian officialdom.

Those who gathered in Minsk on May 31 also voiced support for Tsikhanouski's wife, Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who has been collecting signatures in her own bid to register as a presidential candidate.

Prospective candidates need to obtain 100,000 signatures to be considered for registration as a candidate.

Statkevich ran against longtime President Alyaksandr Lukshenka in a 2010 presidential election that was widely decried as rigged and was followed by a brutal crackdown.

Statkevich was arrested after attending a large demonstration protesting the 2010 results and spent five years in prison after being convicted of organizing riots at a trial criticized by human rights groups and Western governments as unfair.

The Belarusian Central Election Commission on May 19 rejected documents filed by an initiative group for a Statkevich candidacy, citing his "criminal record."

Human Rights Watch warned earlier this month that authorities in Belarus had intensified their crackdown on protesters, opposition bloggers, journalists, and other government critics with a "new wave of arbitrary arrests" ahead of the election.
31.05.2020 LISTEN

I am a citizen

I am the son of a Gong-gong beater

Why should the poor teacher go back and teach in this CoronaVirus Pandemic when our confirmed case count is 7616 as at 29th May 2020 and its still rising exponentially?

According to a BBC reportage on schools being reopened in the Coronavirus Pandemic on the 29th May 2020, South Korea has closed schools down again after biggest spike in weeks.

More than 200 schools in South Korea have been forced to close just days after they re-opened, due to a new spike in virus cases.

Thousands of students had earlier on Wednesday returned to school as the country began easing virus restrictions.

But just a day later, 79 new cases were recorded, the highest daily figure in two months.

What a dangerous risk to take against your own citizens.

Why hurtle when you can wait a while to let the dust settle?

In Ghana, the National Council of Parent-Teacher Associations (NCPTAs), Ghana Teachers Union and the Africa Education Watch have added their voices to concerns about the GES' plans to re-open schools.

Why the rush to reopen schools when the country is challenged with an exponential rise in confirmed cases of Covid-19

Has the Ghana Education Service thought through the decision to reopen schools?

Has the Ghana Education Service anticipated the snag the country is likely to face if schools reopen? I doubt.

Does the Ghana Education Service have a Master Plan or Blue print of inventiveness about reopening schools?

Has the Ghana Education Service, thought about providing some essential things in all the schools?

My uncle Mr Adjei Mensah who teaches at the La Wireless JSS asks these questions;

How safe am I if schools are opened?

Are the students books and papers safe to mark?

Will he take these books and papers home to mark?

Do I get free medication if I get infected with covid at work

Is my family compensated if I die after getting covid from teaching at the school?

Will I get risk allowances when schools opening for exposing myself ?

Is it worth to die for the salary which is not enough to feed , cloth and shelter my family?

Will I be able to teach all the subject and periods in a day with a nose musk on?

I have other health conditions that might affect me in this covid pandemic when I get infected. Can I still teach

If a student in class shows covid symptoms after lunch during classes, do we also quarantine the teachers?

Do we quarantine the whole class or the whole school?

Does the school have an equipped sickbay to give initial aid?

How frequent do we test temperature of teachers and students?

If given 1 machine to test temperature . Is it possible to test 45 students in the class before lessons? Do you test again when to go for snack breaks?

Who will test and check the temperature of the students ? Will the teachers be paid for that?

Will the teaching and learning going to continue if we run out of sanitizers?

Will the teaching and learning continue if tap water stops flowing completely

If the teacher get infected is in self quarantine, who will take his/her class?

Are all schools having enough desk to maintain social distance?

Will the school be able to employ more teachers since the teacher to pupil ratio has decreased?

How many teachers are needed per school in each department per subject?

How will you know a child is infected and he/she goes home infected of covid?

How safe will a child be if schools open?

Is education the first priority than life of your child?

Let's not forget that covid is spread out by air and contact therefore its a contagious disease.

Let's keep on keeping on for the best and keep praying

If the Ghana Education Service has answered the above questions from the concerned teacher satisfactorily, and will provide the essentials, then schools can go ahead and reopen

Let me sign off with this African proverb that says  the ears that do not listen to advice, accompanies the head when it is being chopped off. Which means

A person who does not heed advice will suffer the consequences atlas

I remain the echoing voice of a village scribe and Gong-gong beater

TT Caternor

La Dadekotopon
2 quarantined fishermen test positive for coronavirus in the Philippines

by Mary Judaline Partlow

May 31,2020 | Source: PNA

Two of the 164 fishermen who are under quarantine at a government-designated patient care center (PCC) in Dumaguete City, the Philippines, have tested positive for the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).



Negros Oriental Assistant Provincial Health Officer Dr. Liland Estacion made the announcement Sunday at a press briefing in this capital city after having received the go-signal from the Department of Health in Region 7 (DOH-7).



Estacion said the two are from Ayungon, Negros Oriental and Samboan, Cebu.



They were brought to the Covid-19 isolation facility at the Negros Oriental Provincial Hospital (NOPH) here on Saturday evening following the return of the first batch of swab test results, she said.



Both confirmed cases are asymptomatic, she added.



Estacion further said throat swabs were again done on the two fishermen for repeat confirmatory testing in Cebu City.



She assured the public there is very little risk of community transmission here because the fishermen have been under quarantine since May 21 and have not been exposed to other people.



The fishermen arrived in Negros Oriental on May 17 onboard the fishing vessel Phillip D.R., which dropped anchor off the coast of Jilocon in the town of San Jose.



A dead fisherman on board was removed on the same day under suspicion of Covid-19 and was cremated immediately.



The fishing vessels ship captain had died last April 19 had tested positive for Covid-19, said Adrian Sedillo, executive director of the provincial Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases.



A third fisherman, a checker, had died on April 12 but not due to the virus, while the one from Sibulan had died on May 12 but was never tested for Covid-19, he added.



Estacion has reassured the public this is not a locally-acquired transmission of the coronavirus, as she believes the confirmed cases were already infected prior to their arrival here.



There was limited exposure to these fishermen since they were contained at the PCC from the time they disembarked from the fishing vessel, and they are under tight security watch, she said.



The fishermen are well-behaved and it is not true that one of them had allegedly escaped from the PCC, she added.



Estacion said she received the first batch of test results Saturday night, although she did not say how many fishermen were included, while awaiting further results from Cebu City where the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests are being done.



Aside from the 164 fishermen at the PCC in this capital city, seven others are also under quarantine at their hometown of San Jose.



Meanwhile, Estacion said while the fishermen are scheduled to end the 14-day mandatory quarantine on June 5, their stay at the PCC might have to be extended depending on the test results.



She also disclosed that 24 of them have been diagnosed with tuberculosis and other illnesses and are now receiving treatment.

 2020 Philippine News Agency

Theme(s): Others.
Our county commissioners have made a critical decision that affects all of us.

Instead of allowing voters to decide on much-needed, long-term investments in our public schools, they tied the hands of the community and future boards by setting a $300 million bond ceiling  a fraction of what is needed.

The true need exceeds $2 billion, according to an independent study. The Board of Education requested a $1.6 billion bond initiative, which had wide support from business and community leaders across political lines.

Yet the commissioners opted, once again, to kick the can down the road. As a result, our children across the district will continue to wait for safe and suitable classrooms. And our community will have to wait for the post-COVID-19 economic boost infrastructure spending could bring.

To be clear, we must be smart about how we invest our countys hard-earned tax dollars. There is a direct correlation between public education and economic prosperity and the health of a community.

We need leaders with vision  who see the urgency of our situation. If our public schools fail, we all fail.

Carly Cooke
BRIDGEPORT - State Police said approximately 150 people took part in a protest on Route 8 that shut down the highway for several hours on Saturday.

Brian Foley, spokesman for the state Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection, said the demonstration on Route 8 was peaceful. Two demonstrators agreed to be peacefully and respectfully charged, said Foley.

The protest followed the death of George Floyd on Monday after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for for more than eight minutes while he was handcuffed, face down and saying he could not breathe.

Saturday marked the second day of protests in Connecticut, with more than 100 people gathered near the Town Hall in Stratford, hundreds in Middletown and thousands in Hartford.

More protests are planned Sunday in Norwalk, Stamford, New Haven and Waterbury.

Troopers said two Bridgeport women were arrested in the Route 8 protest. Alia Cotton, 22, and Tioni Michelle Martinez, 21, were arrested on charges of being a negligent pedestrian, interfering with and an officer and breach of peace. Both were released after posting a $1,000 bond.

According to the arrest report, at around 3:30 p.m.Troop G in Bridgeport responded to the area of northbound Route 8 near Exit 3. Troopers estimated there were approximately 150 plus protesters were on foot blocking the highway on both sides of the highway.

State police from Troop G in Bridgeport and Troop I in Bethany arrived at the scene to maintain civil obedience and protect both the protesters and those impacted by the protest.

Troopers said the group of protesters remained non-confrontational with troopers; only carrying signs, videoing and posting social media postings, and yelling.

Troopers were able to clear the highway of all traffic stuck on Route 8.

At approximately 6 p.m, a large portion of the protesters dispersed leaving a small group of approximately 12 protesters sitting on the southbound travel lanes refusing to leave.

At around 7 p.m., State Police Sgt. Alex Pearston gave the first dispersal order. About 15 minutes later, Pearston gave the second dispersal order.

At this point two protesters remained and would not leave, state police said. The two - Cotton and Martinez - were taken into custody and arrested at the Troop G barracks.

The Bridgeport protest began at McLevy Green and later then moved to police headquarters on Congress Street.

Scott Appleby, the citys director of emergency communications and emergency management, said some protesters became agitated and knocked down the barriers to the site and gained acess by force to the exterior doors of the police station.

He said the protesters were asked to go back outside, but refused the order.

Protesters forcefully moved further into the facility when BPD deployed pepper spray to deter breach into headquarters, Appleby said. The use of this tactic was announced twice with the request for protesters to exit before being disseminated. There were no serious injuries caused by the spray and the individuals left the facility to return to the demonstration outside.

The protest then moved onto the lanes of travel of Route 8 north and south in the area of Exit 2 and Exit 3.
Alaska Air Group (NYSE:ALK) isn't the best-known airline nationally, but for years it has quietly been one of the industry's top performers, flying passengers up and down the west coast and blanketing the Pacific Northwest with flights.

The airline flew into some turbulence in 2016 when it won a bidding war to acquire Virgin America, but entered 2020 with the integration largely complete, and Alaska once again focused on its core historical markets.

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed everything for Alaska and the rest of the airline sector, causing travel demand to evaporate and starving the industry of revenue. Shares of Alaska have lost nearly 50% of their value year to date, and the airline has cut 80% of its planned capacity heading into June.

The shares are more affordable than they were just a few months ago, but the risks are much higher as well. Is Alaska Air stock a good value or a value trap?

A rough quarter, and the next one will be worse

Alaska lost $232 million in the first quarter of 2020 on revenue down 13% year over year. Those numbers don't speak to the full extent of the damage done by the pandemic, as the U.S. wasn't fully impacted by COVID-19 until near the end of the first quarter.

The airline has parked more than 160 aircraft and sliced its schedule, trying to adjust to demand that at its worst was down 90% year over year. When second-quarter numbers come out in late summer, they will reflect a full three months of pandemic weakness, with only a trickle of revenue coming through the door.

The focus is on cost-cutting. Alaska was burning through about $400 million in cash in late March but had that down to about $260 million by early May. The goal is to get to cash breakeven by year's end, which would give the airline substantial flexibility to weather even an extended downturn.

It's too early to know how long the depressed demand will last, but the airlines came out of the Memorial Day weekend talking about hopeful signs of a gradual recovery.

Alaska prior to the pandemic had been doing a good job trimming routes it inherited in the Virgin America deal that were not profitable. These routes mainly involved more costly cross-country flying to destinations where the company did not have a large number of loyal frequent flier customers.

When we do see a return to flying, domestic travel is likely to come back first. Alaska has a largely domestic-focused network that should do better than some of its larger peers, and a lower cost structure than legacy airlines, including Delta Air Lines, American Airlines Group, and United Airlines Holdings.

There's cash in the bank

Even if post-Memorial Day optimism fails to hold, Alaska has the balance sheet to survive. The company as of May 4 had $2.9 billion in cash and marketable securities, including funds received as part of the government's CARES Act stimulus plan. Alaska has $3.9 billion in debt, a total that includes aircraft lease obligations.

Alaska has suspended more than $500 million worth of planned capital spending, largely through delaying new aircraft deliveries and deferrals on pre-delivery payments. The airline has a number of planes, including jets it inherited in the Virgin America deal, set to come off lease in the years to come.

About half of Alaska's cost structure is variable, and that portion of expense is coming down in line with capacity. Alaska is prohibited as part of the CARES Act to do any layoffs or involuntary separations prior to Sept. 30, but if a recovery has not taken hold by then, it seems likely there will be job cuts in order to hit the goal of reaching breakeven.

"We have been historically and are today financially conservative," company chairman and CEO Brad Tilden said during Alaska's early May earnings call. According to Tilden:

Throughout history, our people have worked our way through challenge after challenge and we've gained new skills and capabilities as we've gone along and we've come away from these challenges better and stronger. We have every belief that will be the case this time and we are fully focused on this outcome.

With billions in the bank and cost flexibility, Alaska should be able to survive through 2020 even if travel remains at April lows. If we are seeing the very early stages of a modest recovery, every tick higher adds just a bit more revenue to the equation and strengthens the airline's cash cushion.

Is Alaska Air a buy?

It's worth saying that if a second wave of the pandemic hits, or airline customers do not return for some other reason, no carrier is safe. There isn't a company in this industry that can survive indefinitely without revenue. But assuming some sort of slow return to normalcy, even if it takes years to fully recover, Alaska should be alright.

Alaska isn't the safest bet in the industry, but the combination of its domestic focus, strong liquidity position, and positive cost-cutting trajectory gives it a much longer runway than some of its rivals.

The stock is cheap, trading at just 0.5 times trailing twelve months revenue. Granted, revenue is going to be muted in the quarters to come, but Alaska in good times traded at near two times sales. If you believe revenue will eventually recover, there is a lot of potential upside to this stock.

Given it is impossible to predict the progress of a pandemic, and all of the uncertainty that still surrounds the sector, I'd caution against investors being over-exposed to any airline or the sector. But for those with a longer time horizon, and plenty of patience, I think Alaska is one of the more attractive stocks in the U.S. airline business today.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 31

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During a difficult period, when the world has faced the coronavirus pandemic, Azerbaijan has demonstrated its ability to cope with an invisible enemy on its own, while a number of developed countries have turned to the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and other international organizations for help, Azerbaijani MP Nagif Hamzayev said.

In our independent republic, which has once again demonstrated its economic and social strength, as a result of the far-sighted and timely decisions of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, all necessary measures have been taken to protect the security and social welfare of its citizens, the MP added.

That is why Azerbaijan is an example of a successful country fighting the coronavirus, Hamzayev added.

The MP said that when the whole world, including Azerbaijan, was fighting the coronavirus pandemic, Amnesty International, which is only a tool in the hands of some foreign circles, became "more active."

This time, the organization, which serves its political interests with its biased views, published a report in which the measures taken by officials in many countries of the former USSR and Central Asia against the spread of coronavirus infection are named "repressive and violent", Hamzayev added.

Amnesty International's Central Asia Researcher Heather McGill has previously said that that governments of Azerbaijan and Russia held accountable social network users, journalists and health workers for the shortcomings in their work and the distribution of COVID-19

The views of the organization, which has always been biased against Azerbaijan and put forward absurd ideas on the eve of prestigious events of international significance, sound ridiculous, the MP added. Although the report of such a serious organization as the World Health Organization on the fight against coronavirus, states that Azerbaijan has achieved very successful results in the fight against coronavirus, both in terms of security and protection of citizens, reports of an organization trying to mix public opinion with false and biased position are not taken seriously.

The course of events also shows that Amnesty International and other pro-Armenian organizations are very concerned about every success of our country, Hamzayev said. By making such biased statements prepared upon the orders of the radical opposition and the Armenian lobby, they deliberately try to overshadow the work and achievements of Azerbaijan in the fight against coronavirus."
Dubai-based Al Ruwad Real Estate has appointed Alaa Masoud as the new general manager of marketing and sales. An expert in marketing and business development, Masoud boasts 20 years of experience in media, communication, hospitality and real estate.

Masoud started his career in Dubai in 2000 in Blue Media Group and Arab Media Group as a sales and marketing manager, followed by a breakthrough into the real estate industry with a position of head of marketing for Azizi Developments.

Since then, he has managed various teams across Emirati brands such as Danube Properties, Sharjah Oasis Real Estate Development and Tilal Properties.

On the new appointment, founder and CEO Ismail Al Hammadi said: "The rapid development in the field of real estate marketing has encouraged the company to search for new real estate experiences in the field of marketing and sales in the UAE, to be added to the expertise it owns."

"We, at Al Ruwad Real Estate aim to enrich our position in the market and achieve the goals compatible with Dubai's development and ambitious plans, looking forward to being at the forefront of innovation and entrepreneurship. Therefore, I needed a proven leader to accelerate this and I have no doubt that Alaa is the right person to take the lead in the company's marketing and sales operations," he added.

On his new role, Masoud said: "I am confident in putting my own mark to ensure the continuous growth of Al Ruwad Real Estate, by dedicating my accumulated experiences in this field that I gained through working with a group of developers in the UAE and renowned marketing agencies."

"I am honored to join Al Ruwad Real Estate and I look forward to contributing to the company's future business development," he added.-TradeArabia News Service
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Race is hard to talk about and often conversations can become divisive, but film is one of our most important meaning-makers, and American movies have been grappling with race for over a hundred years. Here are five essential films that can help us talk about race by seeing how far we have come as a nation and, perhaps, how far we still have to go.

The Birth of a Nation (1915)

D. W. Griffith was the greatest filmmaker of his day, and this film about the Civil War, reconstruction, and the construction of an Aryan nation in opposition to people of color is, as James Baldwin said, simultaneously one of Americas greatest films and an incitement to genocide. The film was the first to be shown at the White House, and Woodrow Wilson is supposed to have said (he probably didnt) that it was like history written with lightning. But the movie had incredible real-world results: it revived the Ku Klux Klan and galvanized the NAACP, and it also probably led to multiple real-life lynchings like the 1916 torture and murder of Jesse Washington in Waco, Texas, where the film had been shown multiple times to great acclaim. The black characters in this film are consistently treated as subhuman or unworthy of citizenship. This makes Birth of a Nation a perfect film to address the historical phenomenon Henry Louis Gates calls Redemption, the violent pushback from former Confederate states against Reconstruction and the legal gains made by former slaves.

Casablanca (1942)

While one could also make a case for Gone with the Wind (1939) as one of the seminal Hollywood films on race and racism, Casablanca represents an important movement forward in Hollywoods treatment of race. Instead of demeaning or ignoring people of color as Hollywood had done for its first three decades, Sam (Dooley Wilson) is presented as fully human, and Humphrey Bogarts Rick matter-of-factly dismisses an offer to purchase him: I dont buy or sell human beings. African-American newspapers extolled the role, with good reason. Sam drives the first half of the movie, he stands up to his employer to protect him, and in what must have felt like a startlingly progressive scene for the times, he lifts his glass in toasts with Rick and Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) in flashbacks. Yes, his is a supporting role, but Sams humanity is never questioned, and although he largely gives up his formational role in the second half of the film, this is a landmark depiction of a person of color.

Guess Whos Coming to Dinner (1967)

During the production of this film, one third of American states had statutes forbidding mixed-race marriages, and LBJs Secretary of State, Dean Rusk, actually offered to resign when his daughter Peggy married a black man. This is a third stage in Hollywoods treatment of race, and star Sidney Poitier (Dr. John Prentice) is central to it. He played leading roles in films including The Defiant Ones (1958), Lilies of the Field (1963), and In the Heat of the Night (1967), was the first African-American to win the Academy Awards Best Actor, and was the one African-American leading man mass audiences clamored to see. In this film, he is matched with classic Hollywood stars Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy (as the parents of his white fiance), and their interplay is fascinating. The film was written and directed by progressive white men, and Tracy plays Matt Drayton, a liberal San Francisco newspaper publisher who finds himself wrestling with his daughters decision. As George Clooney noted, having this good white man wrestle with his hard questions brings it to the cultural forefront. LBJ showed this film at the Western White House in Johnson City, Texas, offering a nice bookend to Wilsons screening of Birth of a Nation.

Do the Right Thing (1989)

African-American filmmakers had been telling stories about people of color since 1919, but with the films of Charles Burnett, John Singleton, and Spike Lee, they achieved national critical acclaim. Do the Right Thing wrestles with racial issues that remain germane to us: representation, gentrification, economic inequities, and violence against black bodies. It also suggests some ways forward. An elderly black woman complained at one of my first public screenings of the film that everyone in the movie was yelling at each other and no one was listening to anyone else, which was one of my earliest insights into how Do the Right Thing moves us. The movie contains an act of heart-breaking violence, but it also ends with the possibility of reconciliation, as Lees Mookie talks with his employer (Danny Aiello) on the morning after the community has burned down Aiellos business. What happened the night before was awful, and their conversation is difficult, but its clear that they have regard  maybe even love  for each other. Ive been teaching this movie for thirty years, and I continue to be stunned by it every single time I show it.

Get Out (2017)

At first in Hollywood, African-Americans were reviled or ignored; then they appeared in small roles, then as leads; then people of color began to tell their own stories and make their own films. But with films like Get Out, Moonlight (2016), and BlacKkKlansman (2018), people of color began to use the tropes and genres of Hollywood film as a means to push back against repression and prejudice. Jordan Peele is retelling the story of Guess Whos Coming to Dinner, but he recasts it not as a drawing-room comedy, but as a social horror film in the mode of Night of the Living Dead (1968), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956/1978), or Rosemarys Baby (1968). Usually black actors are the First to Die, and black best friends are treated as ineffectual comic relief. But in Get Out, we are invited to identify with Chris (Daniel Kaluuya), to feel every racial snub and micro-aggression directed against him, and to cheer when, instead of the white virgin, he (with the tenacious investigation of his best friend Rod [Lil Rel]) is the one who survives the horror that could have destroyed him. One of my white students said she learned more about racism from this film than anything else she had ever encountered; great movies can be that vehicle of change, remorse, and reconciliation for us.
BART said that as of 9:15 p.m. Saturday, the Powell Street and Civic Center stations in San Francisco and the 12th Street station in Oakland are closed because of "civil disturbances," and that trains are rolling through the stations without stopping "until further notice."

Thousands of people are taking part Saturday in a protest in downtown San Francisco against Monday's killing in Minneapolis by police of George Floyd during an arrest. As of 8:30 p.m., the protest had remained generally peaceful.
Social media posts by Corpus Christi naval air station shooter Adam Alsahli indicate he supported al-Qaeda and key figures linked to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Alsahli opened fire at the air station's North Gate last Thursday. A guard was shot but survived with minor injuries thanks to the bulletproof vest she was wearing. Guards returned fire, killing Alsahli.

Alsahli publicly declared his support for al-Qaeda last November.

He moved to the United States from Syria in 2014, according to Todd Bensman, a former manager with the Texas Department of Public Safety and Counterterrorism. Alsahli obtained U.S. citizenship while living abroad because his father was a naturalized American.

His Linkedin profile shows he attended Umm al-Qura University in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, a Salafist Islamic school with a long history of inspiring al-Qaeda leaders. Muhammad Qutb, brother of Muslim Brotherhood ideologue Sayyid Qutb, taught at the school for years, inspiring his students with his brother's jihadist ideology. Muhammad Qutb instructed his students that Muslims should hate infidels and have enmity toward them.

Muhammad Qutb inspired bin Laden; Ayman al-Zawahiri; and Safar al-Hawali, who also taught at Umm al-Qura University. Al-Hawali, a student of Muhammad Qutb, became an early bin Ladensupporter. He accused the West of trying to undermine Islamic society from within after American troops were deployed in Saudi Arabia after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. This same event triggered bin Laden's animosity against the United States.

Muslim Brotherhood emblem (via Wikipedia)

Al-Hawali published a book in 2018 called "Muslims and Western Civilization" that renewed the call for jihad against the West, including suicide attacks. The book's publication led Saudi authorities to arrest him that year.

"It is part of jihad to revive martyrdom operations that spite the enemy greatly. They are kind of infiltrating the enemy and they display the courage of Muslims and their love of martyrdom, and they terrorize the hearts of their enemies," Al-Hawali's book said.

In an Arabic Twitter post last January, Alsahli quoted a statement Hawali made after 9/11.

"The moral spirit is stronger than military technology," it says. "The huge armies can defeat it with hundreds of those seeking Heaven. Technology, no matter how developed, cannot resist the moral spirit of the believers."

Alsahli also complained about Saudi Arabia's detention of Salman al-Odah, a close associate of al-Hawali in the Muslim Brotherhoodinspired Saudi Awakening Movement of the early 1990s. Al-Odah spread anti-Western and anti-Semitic ideas as a leader of that movement. He also was a mentor to bin Laden.

"May Allah Bless him and grant him peace and his membership in the International Union of Muslim Scholars and the European Council for Fatwa. Do the scholars silence this crude audacity?" Alsahli wrote about Al-Odah.

Al-Odah was arrested in 2018 on 37 charges, including incitement against the Saudi monarchy and involvement in the creation of Syria's former al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra.

Brotherhood-linked groups including the Council for American Islamic Relations (CAIR) also have called for al-Odah's release.

Al-Odah and Al-Hawali signed a 2004 letter calling for jihad against U.S.-led forces in Iraq.

"Fighting the occupiers is a duty for all those who are able. It is a jihad (holy war) to push back the assailants," the letter said. "Resistance is a legitimate right. A Muslim must not inflict harm on any resistance man or inform about them. Instead, they should be supported and protected."

Alsahli also posted several videos of IUMS founder Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi on his Facebook and Twitter pages, including a video that called for Muslims to rise up in defense of Jerusalem.

"Where is [the] Islamic world in what is intended for Jerusalem? ... Our nation cannot stand in silence on this injustice," Alsahli wrote.

Al-Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood share many of the same ultimate objectives and dreams of spreading Islamic law across the globe. Al-Qaeda founders, including bin Laden, al-Zawahiri, and Abdullah Azzam all originally belonged to the Brotherhood. But many grew impatient with the Brotherhood's multi-generational approach, rooted in first educating the masses, and split off to form jihadist groups ready to act immediately.

Abu Muhammad al-Joulani, leader of al-Qaeda's former Syrian affiliate Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, told Al-Jazeera that his group takes ideological inspiration from the Muslim Brotherhood.

Both aim for the creation of a global caliphate but disagree on how to build one.

Jeffrey Bale, a professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey who focuses on violence-prone political and religious extremists, finds the terrorist's sympathies for Brotherhood-linked figures like al-Odah, Qaradawi and others unsurprising.

"Even though the two organizations disagree bitterly about the best methods or tactics to use to achieve those goals, the bottom line is that they share the same Islamic supremacist goals," Bale told the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT). "This shooter was clearly too impatient to embrace the MB's gradualist strategy for Islamizing societies and coming to power. So instead he opted to wage armed jihad."

John Rossomando is a senior analyst with the Investigative Project on Terrorism.
It should have been a blessing for Craig Kunisch.

As the coronavirus pandemic crippled New Jersey, his familys two Bergen County restaurants were awarded more than $500,000 in forgivable federal loans aimed to keep his workers on the job and the fourth-generation business afloat.

Allendale Bar & Grill and Mahwah Bar & Grill could certainly use the money. Both were closed until a few weeks ago, and they are now operating at only a sliver of capacity, with skeleton staffs and curbside pickup because of the states continued restrictions on commercial and social life.

Yet Kunisch ultimately turned it down, saying the rules that govern the Paycheck Protection Program loans are setting restaurants up to fail across the state.

That criticism is echoed by others in the business community, who charge the popular initiative enacted in the early days of the outbreak lacks flexibility, with regulations that dont account for just how long coronavirus lockdowns lasted. They are pushing Congress to rework the law, saying that without fixes, it could prove devastating to the very businesses it seeks to aid.

The Paycheck Protection Program, known by its acronym PPP, was part of a $2 trillion stimulus package that rushed through Washington in March as the economy ground to a halt because of the deadly contagion. Nearly $660 billion has been committed to the program, which aims to help small businesses keep their workers off unemployment and cover expenses such as rent and utilities while they are shut down.

The loans offer a big incentive  if a business can meet their benchmarks, the debt will be forgiven, turning it into a grant.

The Small Business Administration calls the program a success, saying that in New Jersey, it has awarded $16.9 billion in critically needed funds to 131,696 small businesses as of May 23.

But industry groups say without changes to the rules, many restaurants and other small shops may never see those loans forgiven. Thats because under the requirements, businesses have eight weeks to spend their money and must dedicate 75% of it toward payroll, at a time when many are barely operating and have little ability to call back their workers as a result.

And if the loans are not forgiven, theres a short window under which the money must be paid back: two years, at 1% interest.

Nobody is running at 75% payroll. Theres not a restaurant, said Kunisch, who warns many owners desperate for cash will lack the wherewithal to cover their loans. These operators are going to get devastated. You know how quick two years is. Its a blink of an eye.

Kunisch is a board member of the New Jersey Restaurant and Hospitality Association, which is pushing for reforms. So is the New Jersey Business and Industry Association, which says the law is well-meaning but argues the eight-week window and the 75% payroll strictures are unrealistic.

Right now, a lot of businesses that are remaining closed really cant use the money as effectively as intended for it to become a grant, said Ray Cantor, a vice president of the Business and Industry Association. We need businesses to be able to use the money to reopen, to restart, to get back on their feet."

Steve Bulger, a regional administrator for the Small Business Administration, acknowledged complaints and said he understands where they are coming from.

But the agencys hands are tied without new legislation, he said.

There are some industries that it wasnt exactly the right fit for, restaurants being one, Bulger said. From what Im told, there are these changes coming from Congress and they are expected to pass.

On Thursday, the House overwhelmingly approved a bill that would quadruple the forgiveness period to 24 weeks, require only 60 percent of the loan to go toward payroll, and extend the time it otherwise has to be repaid to five years. In the Senate, legislation with similar goals has been introduced.

Rep. Andy Kim, D-3rd Dist., said businesses in New Jersey need more time to get employees back to work. The rules as theyve been applied fail to recognize that, he said.

Its holding everyone in this country, all the small businesses in this country, to a one-size fits all approach, said Kim, a member of the House Small Business Committee. Id like to have something that would be able to help as many people as possible.

Bulger noted that more than $100 billion remains available for PPP loans nationally. If the law is rejiggered, those funds may become more desirable for those businesses with concerns, he said.

Stay tuned, because if Congress does change it, we still have a lot of money left, Bulger said.

Some Main Street business owners are crossing their fingers that the requirements will be eased.

Patrick Mannion, who owns an Irish bar in Somerville, received a PPP loan that he is bracing to have to pay back, though he worries whether he has the means to do so. Mannions Pub and Restaurant employs as many as 25 people on a good night, but he is now able to pay only a handful of workers a few hours a week to handle takeout orders.

We cant bring anybody back because were not open still," Mannion said. I cant bring them back because theres nothing to bring them back for.

Down the street in the Somerset County borough, Penny Milligan also received a PPP loan for The Hungry Hound, her speciality bakery for dogs. Milligan said she went back and forth on whether to accept the money, worrying shed end up with debt she couldnt shoulder.

Because it provides pet food, Milligans shop is deemed an essential business under state guidelines and is permitted to be open. But given the health concerns, it is only recently that she has begun ramping up her business, and allowing customers inside the store  two at a time.

Milligan now has two workers helping her and plans to rehire more in the coming days. The timing, she hopes, will allow her loan to be forgiven even if the rules arent loosened.

Kunisch, the Bergen County restauranteur, said he has looked for financial help elsewhere. He accepted two low-interest loans of $150,000 from the Federal Injury and Disaster Loan program, another lifeline that Congress expanded to address the outbreak.

That money has to be paid back  but over the next 30 years.

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.

Riley Yates may be reached at ryates@njadvancemedia.com
By Express News Service

LUCKNOW: For a woman, the birth of her child is always a celebration irrespective of time and place. In an incident amid the ongoing hard time, a woman gave birth to a baby boy in the no mans land between India and Nepal as she was awaiting her turn to cross over to India. The woman, in the bliss of her motherhood, named her son as Border.

Writhing with labour pangs, as the woman felt that it was time for delivery, she sought the help of other women present there who surrounded her to facilitate the birth of the baby. Immediately after the delivery, Nautanwa police rushed both the mother and the baby to Nautanwa Community Health Centre (CHC) in Maharajganj district. On reaching the CHC, the doctors took the duo in their care and as the day ended, both had consolidated. Both the mother and the baby boy are safe and healthy, said Nautanwa CHC staff nurse, Amisha Williams.

Lalaram, a native of Chala Prithvipurva in Bahraich district, was returning to India from Nepal along with his wife Jamtara who was eight and a half months pregnant. In fact, the couple, who already had two daughters and a son, used to work in a brick kiln at Navalparasi in Nepal. Owing to the COIVD-19-driven

lockdown in the neighbouring country, they were returning to their native place through Maharaganj border post.

As the couple were awaiting their turn for crossing over, Jamtara suddenly developed labour pain and became restless leading to the delivery of a baby boy. Later both the mother and the newly-born were rushed to CHC where both were admitted and were doing well, said a source at Sonouli police post.
Los Angeles City Mayor Pleads for George Floyd Protests to Take a Step Back due to Violent Acts in L.A. over 300 arrested

Los Angeles City Mayor Eric Garcetti discussed the efforts of public safety in retaliation to recent violent stirrings happening across the city. Saturday, May 30, thousands came together in protest, closing the L.A. streets from Fairfax all the way through 3rd street, is the aftermath from the current murder of George Floyd by police hand in Minneapolis. Garcetti reiterated what he said yesterday, acknowledging the injustice of police brutality within the Black Community and pleaded with all residents to keep a level head while fighting for peace.

Yesterday Mayor Garcetti responded to the devastating news of George Floyd by stating, He was far from the first, the end of his life, was another page in the worst chapter of our nations history of what it means to be black in America. 244 years into our attempts to define a more perfect union and each time this happens we have to speak clearly. We have to say the truth. We have to stop in these moments as painful as they are, to right the wrongs that arent just part of our history but exist here in our presence.

The mayor reflected on the Rodney King case, considering the riots and fires that came from the rage of a man being captured on film being horrendously beaten by policemen in Los Angeles. Garcetti stated today he wanted to speak very personally to all Angelenos, My first responsibility to you is to protect life and liberty, and to speak the truth so when we see a horrific murder like what we seen on the streets of Minneapolis, which joined too many murders, Garcetti continued, We know all of us cry out, if you have truth and justice in your heart if you love anywhere in your soul, that this wrong and we all want to make it right. The mayor went on to discuss the meaning of liberty is a shared responsibility, to ensure safety for all those who are fighting for justice. Garcetti emphasized that the fight should be peacefully protested, to adjust the world with organized structure.

The mayor stressed the fears of changing the world for the better will slip away due to the more violent side of protesting. Looting, setting fires, and uncontrollable chaos will regress any progress made in COVID-19 recovery, testing sites had to close down today for safety measures. It endangers the emergency first responders, who are already stretched thin due to the viral pandemic. The mayor asked everyone to take a step back for a moment, to let the fire fighters put out the fires and allow peace officers to restore order. Garcetti agreed there needs to be a reckoning for the murder committed, he declared that there should be a demand for justice, but one that does not put peoples lives in danger. Garcetti declared that violence within protest is a disservice to the cause of the fight.

Council Member Curren Price joined the mayor and stated,  We are all leaders, in times like this we all have a chance and responsibility to step up to the plate, do what we can to move forward in a positive way. Price acknowledge the need for protest and to express concerns in times of injustice, but he shared that it comes with a level of responsibility. The council member explained the destruction of property and threatening life does not translate the reason for the call of justice.

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The mayor went on to highlight other unjust murders prior to Floyds death to emphasize the point of action that needs to take place. He called for the help of Non-African Americans to rally behind the fight for equality and justice, to end police brutality. He spoke all owning this moment and all must join this movement. Later that night a protest rose to violent levels with over 300 people arrested and a number of policemen injured. Looting and miscellaneous crimes were committed amid downtown Los Angeles. Garcetti announced a curfew across Los Angeles thats starts at 8pm to 5:30 am, and there is talk of the mayor putting the National Guard on alert.

Reverend Dr. Najuma Smith Pollard. (Screen Shot)Reverend Dr. Najuma Smith Pollard who remembers the terror of the riots during the Rodney King protest shared her wisdom on the matter of protesting peacefully. She quoted a word she heard while wrestling with conflict during the Rodney King moment, We dont wait a minute, a minute is too long in times like these. Smith continued, It is the right thing to stand up, it is the right thing to speak up, it should not be nearly 30 years later we are still facing this issue. Referencing Pentecost Sunday, Reverend Pollard declared that it is right to speak truth to power. She expressed to exhaustion in reposting, retweeting, hash-tagging lost lives within the community, Pollard connected the lost of her son, with the families who lost their loved ones to a system that is unjust. She stressed that the community needs to live in power, but with power comes the shared responsibility for safety.
Ties, blazers, hats and bags are to be left at home and parents have been told to refrain from 'nattering' at the gates as schools prepare to unlock their doors tomorrow.

The measures - which could include asking pupils to wear PE kit all day to avoid using the changing rooms - are designed to ensure a safe re-opening that does not place children at risk of infection from coronavirus.

The chief executive of the Independent Schools Association, Neil Roskilly, explained the changes had to be made as these uniform parts tend to be less frequently washed than shirts, trousers and skirts.

Despite the loss of time, a fifth of teachers are expected to remain at home tomorrow, according to a Tes survey, owing to health issues, age and family members.

Trade union leader Mary Bousted has already poured cold water over suggestions of cancelling the summer holiday, saying staff have been working 'flat out' to provide online lessons during lockdown.

The Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has sought to re-assure parents that 'strict safety measures' have been put in place ahead of the re-opening, and said it must take place because of the impact missed learning is having on children's progress.

Boris Johnson has asked schools to return Reception, Year One and Year Six to their desks on Monday, with a view to getting Year 10 and 12 back at their desks by June 15.

There is also an 'ambition' to get all primary pupils back into schools by the end of June. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have said their schools will not re-open this month.

Ties, Blazers and bags are expected to be dumped from school uniform on Monday. (stock)

Many schools have asked pupils to leave ties, blazers and bags at home when they re-open on Monday. Pictured are pupils at Kempsey Primary School in Worcester

Chief executive of Independent Schools Association Neil Roskilly, left, said some parts of uniform may be banned because they are rarely cleaned. Chief executive of the Independent Association of Prep Schools, Christopher King, said some children may be asked to wear PE kits in to school

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has sought to assure parents that their pupils will not be put at risk by returning to school. He is pictured on Sky News

Speaking to the Sunday Telegraph about the measures, Mr Roskilly said: 'The difficulty is that parents love to congregate and chat at the school gates; they have their daily natter.

'These old habits are difficult to break.'

And the chief executive of the Independent Association of Prep schools, Christopher King, said some schools are even asking kids to wear PE kits for lessons.

'Many are fortunate to have a large site with playing fields and they are looking to incorporate some physical activity into the timetable every day,' he said.

'They are asking the pupils to come to school ready changed because changing rooms are problematic.'

Schools could also ask pupils to bring in packed lunches, rather than rely on the canteen, owing to the risks it is thought to pose.

Despite the lengthy closure, Mary Bousted, general secretary of the National Education Union, has warned that schools should not try to claw back lost time by cancelling the summer holidays as teachers have been working 'flat out'.

Speaking to Sophy Ridge on Sunday from south London, Bousted said: 'No. The summer holiday shouldn't be cancelled because teachers have been working flat out to provide education for children at home.'

She said schools should instead look to supply voluntary clubs and activities to children to help them re-engage with learning.

'We don't think the emphasis should be on catch up,' she said, but they should aim to foster a 'desire to learn again'.

Mary Bousted has said that despite the lost classroom time schools should not look to cancel the summer holiday. She did say they could offer voluntary activities instead

What will a re-opened school look like tomorrow? Schools are expected to enact the following measures as they re-open on Monday for reception, year one and year six. Parents should have heard from their children's schools about what measures they will be using. - Ties, blazers, hats and bags may be banned on school grounds as these are rarely washed - Pupils could be asked to wear PE kit in so they can avoid changing rooms - Packed lunches may be required, as school canteens are not expected to start serving food Advertisement

Swiping at the government's re-opening plans she said tomorrow is 'too soon' despite the costs to the education of all pupils, including the disadvantaged.

'We are not saying that schools should never be opened but we are saying that if you open schools on June 15 the rate of infection would have halved.

'We think that is safer, we think that is rational, we think that's responsible.'

She argued that the government's five key tests for lifting the lockdown are yet to be met, and pointed to Professor Peter Horby, a member of the government's SAGE committee, who has voiced this opinion.

And Bousted warned head teachers had been left with precious little time to prepare for a re-opening as government guidelines had been changed 41 times since they were published on May 12.

'That's hugely added to the stress of school leaders and teachers, because we have a government simply who they think is just making it up as it goes along'.

These plans she said, have given up on 'social distancing in schools' by favouring 'cohort distancing', where children are taught in groups of 15 by one teacher.

'Those children live in families who from tomorrow will be able to go out and socialise with six other people,' she said.

'We're asking teachers without PPE and without social distancing to go into schools, at a time when the rate of infection is still the fifth highest incidence in the world.

'And at a time when there is not a fully functioning test, trace and isolate system in place.'

Primary schools across England will bring back Reception, Year One and Year Six pupils on Monday. However, a fifth of teachers are not expected to return

Many teachers are not expected to return on Monday, reports the Sunday Times, because they suffer from health conditions including asthma and diabetes, live with a vulnerable family member or because they are at heightened risk due to their age.

It comes as arguments continue to rage over whether the Monday opening is too early, with 11 out of the 20 worst performing councils telling headteachers to keep the gates bolted on June 1.

These schools are located in Halton, Doncaster, North Yokrshire, Portsmouth, Cornwall, Norfolk, Peterborough, Lincolnshire, Rotherham, Somerset and Worcestershire.

Writing in The Sun, Gavin Williamson sought to assure parents it would be safe this morning saying 'strict safety measures' have been put in place to protect children.

He also warned that children's education can't 'suffer during this time' as Covid-19 is expected to be around for many months to come.

'I know full well that parents have been going the extra mile to make sure their children don't miss out during the lockdown,' he said.

'But sadly, not all children have that kind of support.

'For those who have had a particularly tough start in life, the price of not being in education will be a high one.'

Classrooms will have to operate with tables and chairs socially distanced, as they are at Grove Road Primary School, Tring, pictured

But at least 39 per cent of parents are expected to ignore the opening and keep their children at home.

A survey of 2,085 mothers by ORB International revealed the shocking figure, as it found many will wait until schools have been open for two weeks before sending their children back.

The UK's biggest teaching union, the NEU, has told it's members not to 'engage' with plans for a re-opening.

And the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers has threatened councils with legal action should teachers who refuse to work be penalised.

A socially distanced classroom at Grove Road Primary School in Tring
Kaleeswaram Raj By

The Madras High Court, in a recent verdict, exonerated a group of journalists of the charges of defamation over certain reports including those against the then chief minister of Tamil Nadu. Justice Abdul Quddhose said that a public servant or a constitutional functionary must be able to face criticism and that the state cannot use criminal defamation cases to throttle democracy.

Section 199(2) of the Criminal Procedure Code (Cr.PC) is a curious law. It enables the state and its functionaries to utilise the office of the public prosecutor to move a written complaint to the Court of Session and to prosecute people, claiming that the President, the Governor or a minister is defamed. Previous sanction of the government is essential for such complaints.

The phrase defamation of a public functionary is, to some extent, ironical. The text of the provisions needs deconstruction for a proper understanding of the offence. Section 499 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) deals with the offence of defamation and it is the same offence that is referred to in Section 199 of the Cr.PC. The second exception to the IPC provision says that expression of an opinion, in good faith, concerning the conduct of a public servant in the discharge of public functions, or his character is not defamation. With this exception, the need to incorporate it in the Cr.PC and to arm the state with government machineries is indeed questionable. In cases of personal defamation, the concerned public functionary can move court personally without the aid of Section 199(2). This is clear from Section 199(6) of the Code. A public functionary is generally criticised for their public activities, which when done in good faith, is not defamation.

In Subramanian Swamys case (2016), the SC refused to strike down the provisions relating to criminal defamation, which in turn kept Section 199 also alive. However, Indian experience shows that Section 199 has been abused by the political executive of all colours from time to time to suppress dissent and stifle criticism. It is also pre-censorship in disguise. It has a chilling effect on whistleblowers.

The argument that defamation as such should cease to be a criminal offence does not appear to be correct. As such, Sections 499 to 502 of the IPC have their own rationale and purpose. A private action for defamation by invoking penal provisions has justification insofar as it seeks to protect the individuals who are entitled to preserve their reputation. But the problem with Section 199 is it conceives public functionaries under the state as defamable and motivates them to repress the dissidents with the instrumentalities of the very same state. Thus, every use of the law becomes a misuse, for it lacks democratic legitimacy.

The High Courts admonition is a great stimulus package to the free speech jurisprudence that badly needed it during the time of the pandemic. The verdict has lessons to offer for democracies across the globe during and after the pandemic. Studies indicate that more than hundred regimes in the world declared a state of emergency in one way or another after the spread of Covid-19. Free speech faces newer threats during the time of pandemic. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, openly warned against the dispensations worldwide from becoming illiberal and abusing the emergency power on the ground of medical exigencies.

The recent verdict also alerts the judiciary in India at a time when its top court is critiqued widely for almost going back to the infamous ADM Jabalpur moment. It was in ADM Jabalpur (1976) that the Supreme Court, by majority, held that the fundamental rights could be suspended during emergency, at the will of the political executive. On issues ranging from internet rights to the plight of the migrant workers, the top court had remained insensitive during the most precarious times.

In India, free speech faces several challenges. Even an innocent tweet, comment or speech is taken as the basis for booking people in different states irrespective of the party in power. Political leaders, public activists, journalists, students, writers and cartoonists are targeted. The politics based on such First Information Reports is essentially undemocratic. In many such cases, instead of Section 199 of the Cr.PC, the political governments use other devices in the IPC. There are outdated laws dealing with sedition (Section 124 A) or blasphemy (Section 295 A) that are misused. The nation needs a liberal reformative agenda to do away with such obsolete and dangerous remnants of the colonial regime.

Potential for misuse is not a legal ground to strike down the law (Shreya Singhal, 2015).Therefore, it is vital to ensure that freedom of speech is not unreasonably curtailed even during a state of emergencyfinancial, political or health. The European Court of Human Rights has laid down the correct proposition: Freedom of expression ... is applicable not only to information or ideas that are favourably received or regarded as inoffensive or as a matter of indifference, but also to those that offend, shock or disturb the State or any sector of the population (Handyside v. United Kingdom,1976).

Kaleeswaram Raj

Lawyer, Supreme Court of India

(kaleeswaramraj@gmail.com)
German chancellor Angela Merkel. Photo: MARKUS SCHREIBER/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

Germany is working on a coronavirus recovery stimulus package worth up to 75bn ($92.6bn).

The coalition government led by chancellor Angela Merkel would provide 58bn whilst the nation's regional states would stump up the rest, according to Sunday newspaper Bild am Sonntag.

Finance Minister Olaf Scholz from the co-governing Social Democrats (SPD) and Economy Minister Peter Altmaier from Merkels Christian Democrats (CDU) are expected to present the economic recovery package next week, reports Reuters.

The scheme could include tax cuts, cash handouts to families, additional funds for small companies, debt relief for local districts and subsidies for the car industry, in line with policy maker proposals.

The fiscal stimulus package would be in addition to a 675bn rescue scheme agreed in March. Both initiatives are attempts to prop up Europe's largest economy, which is expected to plunge into the steepest recession since World War Two.

Wolfgang Schaeuble, president of the German parliament, urged for the stimulus plan to focus on climate policy, digitisation and innovation.

READ MORE: Coronavirus, dire data, geopolitical unrest: Markets brace for turbulence

It is crucial not just to announce large sums of money, but to do the right thing, he told Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung (FAS).

Some people think that climate policy must now take a back seat. But that cannot be seriously advocated, he said.

One sticking point has been cash incentives for customers buying new cars, a scheme already implemented in France.

Schaeuble said such an initiative was unimaginative echoing comments from industry groups that have spoken out against environmentally contentious schemes.
HONG KONGProtesters have deleted their social-media accounts, afraid that their messages could be used against them under Chinas new national security laws. Young parents have scoured the internet for instructions on emigration. Organizers have planned rallies, only to cancel them at the last minute in the face of impenetrable police blockades.

Hong Kongs protest movement  which last year cowed the local government and humiliated the authorities in Beijing who direct it  is in crisis. The tactics that had pushed officials to retreat at times are suddenly inadequate against an aggressive police force, fear of the coronavirus and a Chinese Communist Party that has run out of patience. Many protesters feel they have exhausted their options.

Its the beginning of the end, said Michael Mo, a protest organizer and local official.

The Chinese governments plan to impose security laws on Hong Kong that could curtail the citys civil liberties has left the freewheeling and decentralized opposition movement seeking not only a next move, but a new vision.

Its campaign for democracy was always a long shot, targeting a local government whose leadership is only accountable to Beijing. But Chinas direct intervention has made the challenges even more explicit, forcing a more fundamental reckoning about how to fight back, what the goal is  and whether it is even worth it to try.

Further complicating their calculus, the protesters  a jumble of students, teachers, politicians and activists  find themselves at the centre of a fight between China and the United States. Chinas leader, Xi Jinping, sees the security push as necessary to protect the countrys sovereignty, while U.S. President Donald Trump has cast it as an encroachment on civil liberties, moving on Friday to strip away some of Hong Kongs privileges with the United States.

Some protesters say they will continue to march, futile though it may be, while others who had thrown Molotov cocktails say they now prefer boycotts or strikes. Some want to preserve Hong Kongs relative autonomy from China, while others have joined the once-taboo call for outright independence.

Many are pinning their hopes on the United States pressure on China, but others fear they will become pawns in their rivalry.

What binds many of the protesters together, more than anything, is weariness and dread.

Their demands for universal suffrage  which would allow for direct elections of Hong Kongs chief executive and all lawmakers  and for a more accountable police force remain unmet, despite months of demonstrations. Now that Beijing has escalated the fight, many protesters realize that they may not be able to do the same.

We tried almost everything we could think of last year, said Alex Tang, 32, a labour organizer. Maybe we will come up with something better later. But in this moment, the people just feel tired.

The movements wounded condition has been most evident in the place where it first showed its strength: the streets.

Protests against the national security laws in the past week drew thousands, demonstrating that months of pandemic-induced stasis had not dampened their anger. But the turnout fell far short of the hundreds of thousands  and at times, more than one million  who attended some of last years marches.

Many demonstrators have been deterred by the polices increasingly forceful response. Last year, peaceful protesters were given wide latitude, and when clashes erupted, they raged for hours. Protesters lobbed bricks and gasoline bombs, while officers responded with tear gas and rubber bullets.

Now, swarms of anti-riot officers, under the command of a new police chief appointed by Beijing, scatter even peaceful demonstrators with water cannons and pepper spray from the outset. On Wednesday, protesters called off a rally at the legislature after hundreds of police officers pre-emptively surrounded the complex.

When the protesters poured into the streets instead, the police detained them en masse, in some cases within an hour. More than 360 were arrested Wednesday on top of 180 earlier in the week.

Organizers have acknowledged that for some, the cost of protesting may now be too high.

My gut feeling is that it might let really peaceful protesters, average Joes, stay at home instead, Mo said of the pending security laws. They are afraid of being arrested, harassed by police.

Google searches for the word immigration in Hong Kong spiked after the national security announcement, an indication that some residents may be searching for an exit strategy. So many protesters, fearing future arrests, deleted their accounts on messaging app Telegram that others began urging people to stay online.

If you are timid, you will lose your whole life, a widely circulated message said. Only if you bravely face everything will there be a turning point.

But the alternatives to street protests seem increasingly risky.

Activists suggested that labour unions and boycotts of pro-Beijing businesses could offer new avenues for resistance. That approach had worked in August, when large numbers of air-traffic controllers called in sick, forcing the cancellation of more than 200 flights.

In February, even as the coronavirus made large gatherings impossible, a medical workers strike helped force the government to close parts of the border with the mainland.

Some protesters fear that the security laws, which will be sweeping in scope, could target unions and non-governmental organizations, many of which formed out of last years protests.

The language of the security plan, which Chinas legislature approved Thursday, is broad: China could impose laws punishing any acts and activities that threaten national security, according to state media. The Global Times, a state-run tabloid, suggested that tweets critical of Beijing could run afoul of the rules.

Officials in Hong Kong and Beijing have dismissed fears of overreach, promising to uphold Hong Kongs relative autonomy. But on the mainland, the party has accused church leaders, union leaders and other organizers of undermining state security.

Timing is also not on the unions side. The pandemic has further battered Hong Kongs economy, and some workers are reluctant to strike when unemployment is high, said Tang, the labour organizer, whose union of information technology workers is one of the newly formed groups.

That could change if the global recession, on top of a crackdown, worsens the deep income inequalities fuelling many young protesters who feel that they have little to lose.

If you just give them some time, and the environment is getting worse, they may just say, Screw it. Ill go out anyway, Tang said.

In perhaps the clearest sign of how Beijings latest move has forced many protesters to reassess their strategy, calls for independence for Hong Kong  once a fringe idea  have become common at recent demonstrations.

Historically, most democracy supporters had dismissed the idea of independence as impractical and needlessly divisive, pointing to Hong Kongs cultural and economic ties with China. They pushed instead to preserve the citys high degree of autonomy enshrined in the one country, two systems political formula enacted in 1997 after Britain returned Hong Kong to China.

But activists said the new push by Beijing proved that the status quo was untenable, and that it had jolted awake protesters who thought they could work within the system.

Maybe they still had some hope in the coming election, or they still had some optimistic expectation in the future of the movement, said Ventus Lau, 26, a prominent organizer who identifies as a member of the protests radical wing, referring to legislative elections in September.

The brazenness of the security laws, which bypassed Hong Kongs government, was a very good reminder for those people, he continued.

Were already facing the darkest hour, Lau said. And we will continue to fight.

Still, independence remains a deeply fraught, risky topic. Beijing has said that the national security laws would target secession. Candidates for elected office can be disqualified for supporting independence.

Several protesters who have joined the recent pro-independence chants said the calls were largely symbolic.

When I call for independence, I am simply expressing a wish for the things I am supposed to have, such as human rights and free expression, said Win Kwan, a 50-year-old clerk at Sundays protest. We keep coming out to marches and protests, but it seems like we hadnt gotten anything.

Many protesters true hope, they said, rested with the international community, as they no longer believed that Hong Kongers own actions would have any effect on Beijing. In addition to appealing to the United States and Britain, other protesters have lobbied the United Nations and European Union to condemn the Communist Party.

Many protesters welcomed the United States move this week announcing that it no longer saw Hong Kong as significantly autonomous from China  a designation that, though intended to punish the mainland, would also jeopardize the citys position as a global commercial hub. Trump moved forward on Friday with plans to revoke the citys special status with the United States, as well as to sanction Chinese and Hong Kong officials seen as responsible for the erosion of freedoms in the semi-autonomous region.

It is unlikely that such moves would sway the party. Beijing sees many of the citys activists as colluding with hostile foreign forces bent on using Hong Kong to infiltrate the mainland  a threat that the security laws expressly seek to quash.

The protesters know they are in for a long fight.

Just because we might not see the results in our lifetime doesnt mean that our efforts would disappear, said Alice Chan, a 35-year-old high school teacher who attended Sundays protest. Everything we do now is building the foundation for the generations to come.

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A group of migrants from West Bengal who were ferried to Pune station on Saturday, could not board the Shramik special train due to lack of space. After spending the night at the railway station, these migrants were finally provided seats and left for their hometown at 4pm on Sunday.

On Saturday, hundreds of us were left stranded at the station, despite having the chits as token. We kept waiting till late in the night, but the police dispersed us stating that our train was cancelled. However, we saw some of the people who were with us board the train at 2pm, said Saiful Islam, 22, who wanted to go Kolkata.

We live in Kamshet and had signed up at multiple places in hope of getting a call from at least one place. We filed applications at Talegaon and Wadgaon, said Saiful Haq, 20 who was travelling to Kolkata.

Rajeev Ghosh, 21, who was in the same group as Haq said, We got a call from Talegaon tehsil office on Friday. We were given chits and asked to board the bus. We were made to wait at the station and were taken back in the buses. On Saturday, we got a call from Wadgaon and were ferried to the station again. Most people told us that the train was cancelled as we watched the people who had travelled with us here, get on trains and leave. The buses had left and we were to fend for ourselves at the station, said Rajeev Ghosh, 21, who was to travel to his village after reaching Kolkata.

The problem arose when the labourers were left stranded at the station without clear instructions about whether a train was going to be arranged for them or not. They were provided with food and water for the night but left with no other choice but to sleep on the street or at the empty bus stop.

A train was finally arranged for them at 4pm on Sunday.

We provide trains as per the requirement cited by the state and only those many people can board the train. These passengers must have been beyond the capacity of the train. So, as per the new requirement cited by the state, on Sunday, we merged them with passengers from Ahmednagar and made one train available, said a railway official requesting anonymity.

So far, 2,04,695 people have left on 154 Shramik Special trains from Pune division, according to the office of divisional commissioner Deepak Mhaisekar. Of the 154 trains, 61 were for labourers from Uttar Pradesh, 36 for Bihar, 15 for Madhya Pradesh, 13 for West Bengal, eight for Jharkhand, five for Chattisgarh, five for Rajasthan, two each for Uttarakhand, Tamil Nadu and Odisha, and one each for Himachal Pradesh, Jammu-Kashmir, Manipur and Assam.
The country endured another night of unrest after months of coronavirus lockdowns, with police cars set ablaze and reports of injuries mounting on all sides.
The lawyer for the family of George Floyd Benjamin Crump called for toughening punishment for Floyd's killer - ex-police officer Derek Chauvin, CBS News reported.

"Well, certainly based on everything that has been presented to us. I've talked with his family ad nauseam because you can imagine after seeing the police have his knee on his neck, not for one minute, not for two minutes, not for three minutes, but for over eight minutes while George pleaded, I can't breathe, I can't breathe, called for his mother. We now have the audio from the police body cam and we hear where one officer says he doesn't have a pulse, maybe we should turn him on his side. But yet, Officer Chauvin says no, we're going to keep him in this position. That's intent, MARGARET. Also, the fact that Officer Chauvin kept his knee on his neck for almost three minutes after he was unconscious," the attorney said during "Face the Nation."

"We don't understand how that is not first degree murder. We don't understand- we don't understand how all these officers have not been arrested. And, yes, his family has been notified by the owner of a club that Derek Chauvin was an off duty police officer while George Floyd was a security guard. And so they had to overlap. And so that is going to be an interesting aspect to this case and hopefully upgrading these charges to first degree murder because we believe he knew who George Floyd was."

"We think that he had intent based on not the one minute, two minute, but over eight minutes, almost nine minutes he kept his knee in a man's neck that was begging and pleading for breath. At what point does it not be about detaining a man who's face down with handcuffs, not posing any threat to an intentional will to cause bodily harm? And if that results in death, every prosecutor in America will show that that is first degree murder. And I have to clarify this, because we saw it in Eric Garner when they start talking about underlying health conditions and what drugs and alcohol he had in his system, George Floyd died because of the knee being shoved into his neck, and he could not breathe," the attorney said.

The incident led to a wave of indignation in the US, resulting in riots throughout the country.
New York City's mayor is calling for an investigation after police SUVs overnight plowed through a Brooklyn crowd where protesters were holding a metal barricade.

Video shows one police SUV being blocked by a group of protesters behind a barricade as various items and objects can be seen striking the vehicle. Another NYPD SUV then pulls up alongside the first vehicle before both of them can be seen accelerating into the crowd of people knocking many of them over as the screaming and yelling from the crowd begins to intensify.

MORE: George Floyd protest updates: Police arrest almost 1,700 people across 22 cities in 3 days

New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted, "NYPD officers just drove an SUV into a crowd of human beings. They could've killed them ... NO ONE gets to slam an SUV through a crowd of human beings."

There was no loss of life and no major injuries, officials said.

MORE:How viral videos of killings of black men take a toll on black male mental health

The investigation will be led by the city's corporation counsel and Department of Investigation commissioner.

This came as New Yorkers gathered in the streets to protest the death of George Floyd, a black man who died on Memorial Day after he was pinned down by a white Minnesota police officer.

The officer, Derek Chauvin, has since been fired and charged with third-degree murder.

PHOTO: A police officer sprays protesters during a march against the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd, in Brooklyn, New York, May 30, 2020. (Jeenah Moon/Reuters)

PHOTO: NYPD officers try to keep control on the streets as they clash with protesters during a march against the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd, in the Brooklyn, New York, May 30, 2020. (Eduardo Munoz/Reuters)

New York City's protests turned violent late Saturday, with people throwing projectiles and torching police cars.

At least 345 people were arrested in New York City overnight, according to police sources. At least 33 officers were injured, including some seriously, police sources said, and dozens of police cars were damaged or destroyed.

Mayor Bill de Blasio on Sunday differentiated the peaceful protesters from "people who came to do violence in a systematic and organized fashion."

He denounced "an explicit agenda of violence" among some "anarchist movement" protesters and, overall, he said the NYPD demonstrated "tremendous restraint."

"There were many things done right by the NYPD," de Blasio said, adding, "there were also mistakes that must be investigated."

NYC police cars plow through crowd, mayor calls for investigation originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
New Delhi: A retired teacher, Arvinds dental treatment at a neighbourhood private clinic had remained incomplete and pending for the last two months because of the sudden lockdown. So following relaxation in the lockdown rules, he visited his dentist to get the job completed. This time, his bill included two additional, unexpected items that he was not aware of: Rs 1200 for a pair of shoe covers, a pair of gloves, a head cover and a disposable gown and Rs 1500 for the Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) worn by the doctor.

If you look at the price of disposable gloves, shoe cover, head cover and the gown online, the four items would not have cost the dentist more than Rs 250, so there was a neat profit of Rs 950 on them alone. What he was charging for the PPE too was also quite high. The PPE consists of goggles, face shield, mask (N-95 or surgical), gloves, overall gown, head cover and shoe cover.

Their prices have come down since the beginning of the Covid crisis and according to the price list issued by Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) in the beginning of May, for example, it ranged between Rs 812 (with N95 mask) and Rs 660 (with three-ply mask). Even if the dentist had paid Rs 1,000 for it, he is still making a profit of Rs 500. When you are already charging for the dental services, why should you make a profit on the PPEs? Thats unscrupulous manipulation of the situation.

But these profit margins pale into insignificance when you see the charges imposed in the name of Covid-19 by some of the private hospitals around the country -- the many complaints and tweets by anguished consumers bear testimony to the crass commercialisation and undue exploitation of consumers in these highly difficult times.

A Kolkata resident, for example, said he was charged Rs 12,000 towards PPEs (for four people) and Rs 2,000 for masks (for four persons) during a 20 hour stay at a private hospital for treatment of vertigo. A Pune resident complained that he was asked to pay as much as Rs 9,000 per PPE or a total of Rs 27,000 per day for three PPEs. A Delhi resident said he was charged Rs 18,000 towards PPE for three days stay at a private hospital for a non-covid treatment. Many consumers say that they are now most worried about going to a hospital --- even if it is for a non-covid treatment, because of the exorbitant rates charged by hospitals for PPEs and such other Covid-related expenses.

Hospitals say that their staff have to wear the PPE even while treating non-Covid patients, particularly because many of the patients might be asymptomatic, but carriers of the virus. Thats fair enough, but what is certainly not fair is the abuse of the situation to earn extra profits, at the cost of the consumer.

In fact health insurance companies are also crying foul over the exorbitant rates charged by private hospitals vis-a-vis Covid-19, both in non-Covid as well as Covid cases, particularly the steep rates on PPEs and some related charges. Insurers point out that if, for example, there are ten patients in a unit, the cost of the PPE should be divided among them all. After all, nurses and doctors on duty will wear the same PPE and see all of them. It is therefore incorrect to charge each patient, the full cost of PPE. Insurers are also refusing to pay some of these charges, leaving even those with health insurance, in a deep crisis.

Its time that state governments came to the rescue of consumers and cracked down on private hospitals and clinics using Covid-19 to make a fast buck. There are enough laws in their armoury to do that.

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Protesters stand in front of the burning Minneapolis 3rd Police Precinct building in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the United States, on May 28, 2020. (Photo by Ben Hovland/Xinhua)

WASHINGTON, May 30 (Xinhua) -- Violent protests continued spreading across the United States on Friday, the fourth straight day after George Floyd, an unarmed black man, pleaded "I can't breathe" before dying in police custody in Minneapolis, the biggest city in the midwest state of Minnesota, on Monday.

The White House went into lockdown on Friday evening as hundreds of protesters gathered outside. One protester sprayed the Freedman's Bank Building while some other protesters clashed with Secret Service personnel, witnesses said. Videos showed some protesters burnt flags and knocked over barricades.

"Secret Service personnel are currently assisting other law enforcement agencies during a demonstration in Lafayette Park (outside the White House). In the interest of public safety we encourage all to remain peaceful," the Secret Service tweeted. At least one person was reportedly taken into custody.

In downtown Atlanta, southern state Georgia, a demonstration that began peacefully became chaotic as protesters set a police car on fire, struck officers with bottles, vandalized the headquarters of CNN and broke into a restaurant, the USA Today reported.

The protesters spray-painted the large, iconic CNN logo outside the building, breaking a windowed entrance. One protester climbed on top of the sign and waved a "Black Lives Matter" flag to cheers from the crowd, said the report.

In Minneapolis, unrest continued Friday night as protesters gathered and chanted "No justice, no peace, prosecute the police!" in the streets around the police station blazed a night earlier, defying a citywide curfew imposed earlier in the day. Law enforcement officials fired tear gas into the streets and patrolled in military vehicles.

In Indianapolis, the state capital and most populous city of midwest state Indiana, nearly 100 people took part in a six-hour-long demonstration in downtown Friday afternoon that lasted til the evening, protesting the fatal shooting of a black man earlier this month by an Indianapolis Metropolitan Police officer and other deaths across the country, local media reported.

"Several protesters have damaged police cruisers and continue to throw rocks at officers and the Metro Division office," police in Charlotte, southern state North Carolina, tweeted on Friday.

Several demonstrators were arrested in Charlotte as police issued a "dispersal order" after declaring the gathering of protesters "unlawful," said a CNN report.

In Memphis, southern state Tennessee, about 300 protesters took to the streets for the third straight day to speak out against police brutality and the recent death of three African Americans at the hands of police.

In Knoxville, another city in Tennessee, hundreds of protesters organized by Black Lives Matter Knoxville, gathered peacefully in front of police headquarters Friday evening.

And in Louisville, Kentucky, a crew for CNN affiliate WAVE reported that police officers fired pepper bullets directly at news crew during the protest.

Protests have also erupted in New York, Houston, Las Vegas, San Diego, Chicago and multiple other cities across the United States over the death of Floyd. Local media say more protests are expected to take place across the country through the weekend.

Floyd, aged 46, died on Monday after Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, held him down with a knee on his neck though he repeatedly pleaded, "I can't breathe," and "please, I can't breathe." Chauvin was arrested and charged with three-degree murder and manslaughter earlier on Friday.

Floyd's plea before his death evoked African Americans' painful memories. In 2014, a cellphone recorded an unarmed black man, Eric Garner, repeatedly saying "I can't breathe" when a New York officer held him in a chokehold before his death in police custody. Since then, the plea has become a rallying cry at demonstrations against police misconduct across the country.
The COVID-19 pandemic has unquestionably impacted us all, but for small businesses, in many cases, it has been fatal. It has also had a disparate impact on Hispanic-owned small businesses and those that serve the Hispanic community and employ its members. The precautions taken to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and determination of essential businesses economically crippled small local businesses, an impact from which many will not recover. The Albuquerque Hispano Chamber of Commerce supports fair safety measures that recognize the urgent need to both keep our community healthy and help small businesses recover and survive.

When Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued her stay-at-home order, the Hispano Chamber immediately mobilized all its resources to help small businesses weather the storm. We started the #HispanoHelps initiative, compiling and informing small businesses of available resources from the state, local and federal government agencies including new programs and emergency funding options. Through generous partnerships with other nonprofit organizations and industry leaders such as SQUARE Inc., New Mexico Mutual and Comcast we are providing a series of webinars to assist small businesses with navigating the ever-changing programs and rules and regulations.

This Hispano Chamber and its members are committed to helping our health care workers. Through the #HispanoHelps initiative, we support front-line health care workers, partnering with Twisters Burgers and Burritos, Central Grill and Coffee House, La Mexicana, New Mexicos CW, KRQE Media Group, Duke City Gladiators and PepsiCo to Feed the Frontlines, providing daily meals to first responders. The meals are discounted and paid for by our members throughout the community. Our member Rainbow Riders has committed to Fly the Frontlines by providing a balloon ride to a first responder each week. We have partnered with National Material Company to provide masks to Native American Professional Parent Resources and Southwest Native American Veterans Association to distribute to families and Native American veterans.

As part of our #ReadytoOpen#OpenTogether campaign, the Hispano Chamber and our member Sombra Professional Therapy Products, together with the leadership of Albuquerque City Councilor Klarissa Pena, will be providing personal protection equipment including masks, gloves and hand sanitizer to approximately 1,000 local small businesses so they can open and operate safely for their employees and customers. These efforts and partnerships demonstrate not only our dedication, but more importantly that our members give back to those risking their lives to keep us safe and healthy and support community and businesses.

The Hispano Chambers motto is Join, Connect, Thrive. Never has there been a time when this has been more appropriate. We will continue to join people together to help the community and small businesses, connect them to resources and not only survive the economic impacts of COVID-19 but thrive in the future. We ask that our government officials join us and help small businesses by trusting in their inherent entrepreneurial innovation and commitment to community and allow them to operate in a safe and cautious way. Just as big-box stores have led the way, we now need to empower small and medium businesses to join in the economic recovery. These business owners are concerned about the health and well-being of our community; it is time to trust them to recover the health of our economy. Only together will we keep each other safe and prosper.
Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of Huawei, leaves her home to go to B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver, British Columbia, Wednesday, May 27, 2020. The Canadian Press via AP



An executive for Chinese tech giant Huawei suffered a legal setback Wednesday when a Canadian judge ruled that proceedings to extradite her to the United States will go ahead.



The decision on so-called double criminality, a key test for extradition, found that bank fraud accusations against Meng Wanzhou would stand up in Canada.



The interim ruling denying Meng's attempt to gain her freedom means she will continue to live in a Vancouver mansion under strict bail conditions while her case plays out.



It also effectively dashed hopes for a quick mending of Canada-China relations, which soured following her arrest on a US warrant in 2018 during a stopover in Vancouver.



"The double criminality requirement for extradition is capable of being met in this case," British Columbia Supreme Court Justice Heather Holmes said in her 23-page ruling.



"Ms. Meng's application is therefore dismissed," she added.



Prosecutors accused Meng of committing fraud by lying to a bank, in this case an American one. That is a crime in both Canada and the United States.



Outside the courthouse, protestors held placards that read "Extradite Meng Wanzhou," "No Huawei in Canada" and "Canada don't let China bully us."



Inside, Meng was composed as the judge explained her decision, in contrast to a gleeful thumbs up the "Huawei Princess" had given while posing for pictures with family and friends on the steps of the courthouse days earlier.



Huawei said in a statement it was "disappointed" by the ruling, adding that it looked forward to Meng ultimately being exonerated.



- 'Grave political incident' -



China's Embassy in Ottawa, meanwhile, accused the United States of trying "to bring down Huawei" and Canada of being "an accomplice."



"The whole case is entirely a grave political incident," it said in a statement.



"We once again urge Canada to take China's solemn position and concerns seriously, immediately release Ms. Meng Wanzhou to allow her to return safely to China, and not to go further down the wrong path."



Beijing has long signaled that her repatriation was a precondition for improved bilateral ties and its release of two Canadians detained on espionage suspicions.



The arrests of former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor nine days after Meng was taken into custody have been widely decried as retribution.



While the eldest daughter of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei has been out on bail, the two Canadians remain in China's opaque penal system.



China has also blocked billions of dollars' worth of Canadian agricultural exports.



Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has insisted on leaving it to the courts to decide Meng's fate.



He lamented last week that communist-led China "doesn't seem to understand" the meaning of an independent judiciary.



On Wednesday his foreign minister, Francois-Philippe Champagne, said Canada would "continue to pursue principled engagement with China to address our bilateral differences and to cooperate in areas of mutual interest."



He also said Ottawa would continue to press for the release of Kovrig and Spavor, "who have been arbitrarily detained for over 500 days," and for clemency for a third Canadian, Robert Schellenberg, facing execution.



- Iran sanctions -



During four days of hearings in January, the court heard that Meng lied to the HSBC bank about Huawei's relationship with its own Iran-based affiliate Skycom in order to secure nearly US$1 billion in loans and credit, putting the bank at risk of violating US sanctions.



Lawyers for Canada's attorney general on behalf of the US Justice Department pointed to a 2013 presentation in Hong Kong in which she told HSBC executives that Huawei no longer owned Skycom and that she had resigned from its board.



The Crown called this a deception, asserting that Huawei controlled the operations of Skycom in Iran and held its purse strings.



"Lying to a bank to obtain financial services is fraud," Crown counsel Robert Frater told the court.



Defense lawyer Eric Gottardi accused the US of abusing its treaty with Canada by asking it to arrest Meng as part of a campaign against China's largest international company and leader in 5G, or fifth-generation wireless technologies.



The court, however, dismissed defense arguments that the case hinged on the US sanctions against Iran that Canada had repudiated.



"The essence of the alleged wrongful conduct in this case is the making of intentionally false statements in the banker client relationship that put HSBC at risk," Holmes wrote.



"The US sanctions are part of the state of affairs necessary to explain how HSBC was at risk, but they are not themselves an intrinsic part of the conduct."



Holmes noted that her ruling in no way makes a determination on whether there is sufficient evidence to justify extradition.



That question will be decided at a later stage in the proceedings.



The case now continues to a second phase, yet to be scheduled, when the defense will challenge the lawfulness of her arrest, followed by more hearings likely in September.



Any appeals could further drag it out for years. (AFP)


A middle-aged man from Kitale in Trans-Nzoia County , Kenya died after he was stabbed by a fighting couple that he had gone to separate.

Kennedy Nyukuri was stabbed in the chest and back by the couple on Wednesday night, when he went to their home to break up a fight.

It remains unclear what the man-and-wife were fighting over.

Yesterday night, I heard screams emanating from our neighbours house. It appears that the couple was fighting. Nyukuri, I understand, had gone to break up the fight.



When I woke up today morning and stepped out, I found his (Nyukuris) body lying in a ditch. He was bleeding from the chest and back, said a neighbour.

Tuwani Ward MCA, Bernard Wabwa, urged police to arrest the couple and charge them with causing Nyukuris death.

The deceased was taken to Kitale Teaching and Referral Hospital mortuary. Investigations into the matter have commenced.

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After the death of George Floyd on May 25, protests and unrest have rocked Minneapolis and other cities.

In cities across the United States, tens of thousands of people have swarmed the streets to express their outrage and sorrow during the day. That has descended into nights of unrest, with reports of shootings, looting and vandalism in some cities.

Since the death of Mr. Floyd, protests have erupted in at least 140 cities across the United States, and the National Guard has been activated in at least 21 states.

The police chief in Louisville, Ky., was fired after a restaurant owner was killed when police officers and National Guard troops shot toward protesters. And in Austin, Texas, the police chief said that a black protester who had been shot in the head by officers was in critical condition.
The unity of Americas states has been tested this year and it has sorely failed. Twenty five cities across the US declared curfews on Saturday night to try to rein in the rioting that has spread even quicker than the coronavirus. Streets are burning as the National Guard has been called in across several states and the President has done nothing to quell the flames of anger and despair. Indeed, Donald Trump's screed of tweets across the past four days has only exacerbated the tensions.

The riots have proved a flashpoint in Americas year from hell. Their fires shed light on the nations many divisions: the acute racial inequalities that drive the current protests, both peaceful and violent; the partisan tribalism that has replaced debate; and the failures of American federalism which were already exposed for all to see by the coronavirus pandemic.

Trump poured scorn on the Democrat Governor of Minnesota Tim Walz this week as the twin cities of St Paul and Minneapolis were under siege, just as he actively sought to score points against New York Governor Andrew Cuomo as New York City was overrun by COVID-19.

Across the states, governors and mayors have enacted their own coronavirus lockdowns, testing regimes and reopening plans, just as they now scramble to maintain law and order. While the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has tried to issue national guidelines, its work has been disenfranchised by Trumps White House and adopted only piecemeal by local authorities, not all of whom have deep resources of cash or competence. It is every state, city and citizen for themselves with little sign of collaboration, let alone consensus.

Australians, watching this near-anarchy from afar, should reflect with some gratitude on the strengths of the local version of federalism. While there are clearly disagreements on how to tackle the complex problems generated by the pandemic  border closures, school openings, tax reform  they have for the most part been respectfully prosecuted.
Once upon a time, we all craved a drink with friends. Now, its a 1950s style bike.

I was ringing every day to see if they had stock come in, says Tammy Patterson, of the vintage-style cruiser bike shed been hunting for two months. Nowhere had them.

After two months of hunting, Tammy Patterson, 38, finally purchased a vintage-style cruiser. Credit:Louise Kennerley

She finally managed to nab one this week  an aquamarine Reid Cycles Vintage Classic Ladies bike and cant wait to begin riding it along the lakes near her home with her children, aged 17, 10 and 8.

Theyre just such a beautiful looking bike, she says of her model, with its hallmark large wheels and wicker basket. Im beyond excited.
At least 30 people have been reportedly killed in gun-battle in eastern Burkina Faso.

The 30 were killed in a gun attack on a cattle market, reports say.

Gunmen on motorbikes, reports say, fired into the crowded market in Kompienga town around lunchtime on Saturday, May 30.

Eyewitnesses and residents have been recounting the killings.

It comes after 15 people were reportedly killed in Burkina Faso on Friday, May 29, by suspected Jihadists.

The Jihadists had reportedly attacked traders in North near Mali.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced during a Sunday press conference that he has asked New York Attorney General Letitia James to review protests across New York City after he said his administration has seen many disturbing videos of police behavior.

This comes on the heels of a previous call for review about protests in Brooklyn on Saturday.

Last night, as I said, was an ugly night all across this nation. It was an ugly night across this state," Cuomo said. "We had a number of protests all across the state -- New York City, cities upstate. Weve seen a lot of disturbing videos about the protests, and Ive asked the attorney general to review the New York City protests and the actions and procedures that were used.

The protests were among the many that took place around the nation in response to the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis on last Monday. Floyd died in Minneapolis after officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes. Chauvin has since been fired, and arrested and charged in Floyds killing.

The big issue is the people are outraged and I understand that," Cuomo said. I am outraged. Its not just George Floyds killing although thats enough to outrage a nation... Its the same case all across this nation where only the name changes, but the color stays the same."

Cuomo said he will ask James to include in the review the past demonstrations, as well as upcoming demonstrations on Sunday. The governor said that he hopes the review can be done within the next 30 days.

When asked about violence against protesters by the NYPD, including videos from New York City from Saturday that show city police apparently driving into a crowd of people, Cuomo said the videos were disturbing.

He said that both Mayor Bill de Blasio and NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea are aware that the attorney general will be conducting a review. Cuomo will tell de Blasio and Shea that if the review looks at those videos and finds improper police conduct or behavior, there will be ramifications and consequences.

People deserve answers and accountability," he said.

While Cuomo said what he saw in the videos was inexplicable, he will wait for the independent review from the attorney general to hear what the NYPD has to say before making decisions.

He added that regions in Upstate New York are being allocated additional state police where needed, and the states National Guard is on standby.

26 Protests and unrest across the US on Saturday, May 30, 2020

REAL ISSUE IS THE CONTINUING RACISM

The real issue is the continuing racism in this country and it is chronic, and it is endemic and it is institutional, Cuomo said. And it speaks to a collective hypocrisy. Were very good in this country at telling other people how they should live their lives, how they should act, how we preach a high standard, but we still discriminate on the basis of color of skin. That is the simple, painful truth. But this is a moment for truth.

However, Cuomo said it is equally true that violence never works. He said burning down businesses, neighborhoods, and communities never make sense.

It dishonors Mr. Floyds death. Mr. Floyd was not violent. Mr. Floyd was compliant. Mr. Floyd wasnt even charged or accused of a violent crime. There was no violence. Thats what makes the killing more outrageous. When you are violent, it creates a scapegoat to shift the blame. It allows the president of the United States to tweet about looting rather than murder by a police officer. It allows the federal government to politicize whats going on, Cuomo said.

The goal has to be change, Cuomo said.

We need to mobilize the best in our people rather than allowing the worst, he said. But dont lose the passion; dont lose the outrage. Be frustrated. But, be smart. And be directed and be constructive and destructive. Help your community, dont hurt your community. Be a laser and focus on real, positive change. Thats how this moment becomes a different moment in the history books. Thats how George Floyds death does not become just another name in the long list of people who shouldve never died in the first place. George Floyd must not have died in vain.

RALLY ON STATEN ISLAND

A Staten Island rally has been organized for Sunday, where marchers plan to walk from the Park Hill Houses in Clifton to Bay Street in St. George.

More than 500 people gathered for a peaceful march on Saturday from Tompkinsville to the 120 Police Precinct in St. George. Many who participated in the march said the death of Floyd in police custody in Michigan was reminiscent of the situation surrounding Eric Garners death.

Gwen Carr -- the mother of Eric Garner.-- and the Rev. Al Sharpton led a prayer vigil at the Tompkinsville site where Garner died while being taken into police custody in July 2014.

A rally later in the day Saturday forced the closure of the Lily Pond Avenue entrance and exit ramps on the Staten Island Expressway in both directions as about 100 people gathered in the area to protest the death of Floyd.

The group was met with a large police presence on School Road, which deterred the protesters from trying to continue onto Lily Pond Avenue and potentially onto the expressway.

CORONAVIRUS UPDATE

During Sundays press conference, Cuomo also gave an update on the number of deaths due to the coronavirus (COVID-19). According to Cuomo, 56 people died on May 30 -- down from 67 on May 29.

*** CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE COVERAGE OF CORONAVIRUS IN NEW YORK ***

30 Photos of the pandemic in NYC: The gradual return to normalcy

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South Korea will provide US$4.9 million for a U.N. aid project for North Korea aimed at enhancing understanding of global statistical principles in the communist nation, the unification ministry said Wednesday.







A civilian-government committee on inter-Korean exchanges approved the plan to fund the project of the U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), according to the ministry. The money will be spent over the next six years, with $720,000 set aside for this year.







The fund will be used mostly in improving North Korean people's understanding of international principles on statistics and usability of data as part of efforts to enhance the country's sustainable development capacity, the ministry said.







North Korea lags far behind other countries in generating and using trustworthy statistics. The North rarely discloses economic statistics and other data on its society.







The ministry expects such education efforts on statistics will make it easier for North Korea to be integrated into the international community in the future and possibly create a single unified market between the two Koreas.







In close cooperation with UNESCAP, the ministry said it will make sure the project proceeds as planned and strengthen transparency on how the money will be used in North Korea by getting an annual report from the U.N. agency.







UNESCAP spearheads efforts to resolve such global issues as poverty and pollution by enhancing sustainable development capacity of its member countries. (Yonhap)


Ravi Shankar By

Which other country than India has 80 percent Hindus? Nepal. Which other country has a strong Shaivaite gestalt?

Nepal. The Pashupatinath Temple is as revered as Shri Kashi Vishwanath. Which other country respects the goddess tradition?

Where else does tantricism hold powerful sway? Or, where the Shaivite and the Vaishnavite merge into Buddhism? No need to phone a friend. Nepal is no longer one. In fact, India doesnt have many friends in the hood.

Ironically a country, which has rediscovered its Hindu identity, seems unable to dial down past hostility with Kathmandu.

India has earned the bitter ire of her neighbours, though historic and cultural ties go back millions of years.

Should a cheeky historian suggest that Indira Gandhi sent her troops across the eastern border to spite Pakistan more than to rescue Bengalis, perhaps it wouldnt be too far off the mark.

Indian foreign policy is too Pakistan-centric and personality-driven. In spite of all the help India has given its regional allies, even an experienced diplomat like S Jaishankar is hard pressed to stop Nepal from going the China way. The reason is simple: independent Indias hoary myopic arrogance.

All policy is a reflection of national culture. Indians as a lot are a self-satisfied variety, smug in their cultural superiority over other countries but easy to take offence.

We crow over our deep spiritual wisdom, glorious traditions, ancient architecture, mathematics and pharmacological heritage while ignoring the core of successful engagementcourtesy.

For our national pride to overlook the national pride of neighbours is a costly mistake. While we are quick to show others the mirror, we forget that Atithi devo bhava has an outward looking face too.

Weve lately managed to piss off long-standing friend Bhutan, too. In 2012, when its Prime Minister Jigme Thinley met Chinese PM Wen Jiabao during the Rio+20 Summit, India responded angrily by withdrawing fuel subsidies. It has been downhill from then on. Bhutan has begun to look China-ward.

As China amasses its forces along the LAC, the ghosts of 1962 are stirring in their icy graves. India currently has a golden opportunity to turn world opinion tide further against China, which is currently in Covid-19 disgrace.

Beijings disgustingly opaque dealing of the virus crisis, its refusal to accept responsibility for the contagion and current economic infirmity have provided Delhi with the perfect opportunity to recapture faded geopolitical clout.

Will it be Carpe Diem or simply carp on Nepal by ignoring the Neighborhood First policy?

India will come first only if it places its neighbours first. Little Brothers are always appreciative of largesse. They are playing second fiddle to China right now.
President Donald Trump listens as Dr. Deborah Birx, White House coronavirus response coordinator, speaks during a roundtable with industry executives about reopening country after the coronavirus closures, in the State Dining Room of the White House, Friday, May 29, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Associated Press

President Donald Trump is insisting the Republican National Convention be held without social distancing measures and without the presence of facial coverings, a spokesperson for North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said Friday.

Trump has previously threatened to move the convention from North Carolina, claiming that the state's Democrat governor was in a "shutdown mood" and hadn't committed to allowing full attendance at the event.

Both Texas and Georgia have offered to host the 2020 RNC  scheduled for the end of August  if the event is pulled from North Carolina.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

President Donald Trump is reportedly insisting the 2020 Republican National Convention be held without any implemented social distancing measures and without the presence of facial coverings, a spokesperson for North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said Friday.

According to CNN, on a phone call with Cooper on Friday, the president had insisted that the convention, currently slated to take place August 24-27 at The Spectrum Center in Charlotte, should be held without the measures meant to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

"The Governor spoke to the President today. When the President insisted on a full convention arena with no face coverings and no social distancing the Governor expressed concerns and suggested a scaled back event with fewer attendees," Sadie Weiner, a spokeswoman for Cooper, said in a statement. "They agreed to continue talking about ways to have a safe convention in Charlotte."

The White House did not immediately return Business Insider's request for comment on Saturday.

As Business Insider previously reported, Trump on Tuesday threatened to pull the convention out of North Carolina unless the state allowed the GOP to hold the event at full capacity. The Spectrum Center has a capacity of just over 20,000.

"I love the Great State of North Carolina, so much so that I insisted on having the Republican National Convention in Charlotte at the end of August," the president tweeted earlier this week. "Unfortunately, Democrat Governor, @RoyCooperNC is still in Shutdown mood & unable to guarantee that by August we will be allowed."

Story continues

While all 50 US states have begun the process of rescinding stay-at-home orders, state leaders have ordered re-opened businesses to continue to practice social distancing in their establishments. Since April, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended that facial coverings be worn in public settings.

The president has refused to wear a face mask in public, reportedly over his fears he would look ridiculous and it would harm his chances of getting reelected in November. On Thursday, the president shared a tweet that argued that mandated facial coverings represented a "culture of silence, slavery, and social death."

Trump's insistence of an in-person convention comes as health experts and US officials continue to warn of a potential second wave of COVID-19 in the fall and winter later this year.

Several states, including Texas and Georgia, have offered to step in and host the convention if the president and Republicans decide to relocate outside of North Carolina. Vice President Mike Pence suggested in an interview on Fox News that Texas, Georgia, and Florida could be considered to hold the convention.

Earlier this year, the Democratic National Committee pushed its conference in Milwaukee, Wisconsin from July to August, though DNC members are also hopeful they can hold the convention in-person.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Yoon Mee-hyang, a newly-elected lawmaker and former activist against Japan's wartime sex slavery, holds a press conference at the National Assembly, Friday, to rebut corruption allegations surrounding an advocacy group for "comfort women" she led. Yonhap



Advocacy group urged to overhaul financial management, improve transparency



By Yi Whan-woo



Yoon Mee-hyang, an activist-turned-lawmaker, was a leading figure in a campaign to raise awareness toward "comfort women" after they revealed their plight to the public in 1991.



But she has been gaining attention in recent weeks not for her activities but the allegations that she exploited the country's most-well known advocacy group for victims of wartime sex slavery under Japanese colonial rule for her own interests. The allegations are raising concerns that the group's 30-year campaign for the victims to get Japan to officially acknowledge and apologize for its wartime atrocities and compensate the victims may be tarnished.



Yoon and the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance for the Issues of Military Sexual Slavery by Japan (Korean Council), which she led before being selected as a proportional representation lawmaker, face allegations of accounting malpractice and misuse of funds, including public donations intended to support the victims.





Lee Yong-soo, 92, a surviving victim of Japan's wartime sex slavery, weeps while accusing Yoon Mee-hyang of exploiting her and other victims for her own interests, during a press conference in Daegu, May 25. Yonhap



The accusation was made by one of the surviving victims, Lee Yong-soo, in early May.



Lee, 92, also accused the council of mobilizing the surviving victims for fundraising events, while not giving them enough time to rest.



Yoon had kept herself out of public sight for more than 10 days, fueling speculation she was going to rely on the privilege of not being subject to arrest given to lawmakers  except in a few specific cases  to avoid questioning by the prosecution that has opened an investigation into her and the council.



But she held press conference to deny the allegations, May 29, a day before she started her four-year term as a lawmaker of Civil Together, a satellite party of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK).



In a separate clarification, the council explained that, out of about 2.2 billion won ($1.7 million) in donations the group raised for general purposes from 2017 to 2019, 910 million won, about 41 percent of the total, was spent on supporting the victims.



It said its activities were not limited to financially supporting the victims, adding its movement also centered on restoring the honor and dignity of the victims and raising awareness of the issue on global forums.



The issue has become a source of political strife as Yoon was a lawmaker-elect when the allegations emerged. The opposition parties have demanded she resign, while the ruling bloc has defended her by saying "fact-finding" should come first.



"She should not kneel down to malicious suspicions and personal attacks on her private life," DPK Chairman Lee Hae-chan said.



Senior DPK member Woo Sang-ho also said, "Is Lee Yong-soo being angry a cause for Yoon to give up her National Assembly seat?"









Political analysts have raised concerns that the allegations could devalue the group's and public efforts for the comfort women issue and even stop the campaign although the victims' demands have yet to be met.



"I don't find the actions taken by Yoon and the DPK members problematic, as the allegations have not yet been found to be true," said analyst Yu Chang-seon. "Still, the allegations, if not fully cleared, may put a damper on donations and thus jeopardize the 30-year campaign."





A civic activist holds a picket, reading "Arrest Yoon Mee-hyang" over corruption allegations, beside a girl statue symbolizing victims of Japan's sexual enslavement of Korean women, during a rally in front of the former Japanese embassy site in Seoul, May 25. Yonhap



"We should watch out for any attempts to disparage the decades of progress to raise awareness toward Japan's wartime sex crimes," said Shin Yul, a political science professor at Myongji University. "But frankly speaking, some people may find the line between the allegations against Yoon and the campaign blurry, as she has been an iconic figure for the comfort women advocacy movement."



The analysts speculated the attempts to tarnish the campaign have already begun.



They referred to two critics of the comfort women  former Seoul National University professor Lee Young-hoon and Yonsei University professor Lew Seok-choon.



They recently reiterated their argument that there was no sexual enslavement of Korean women by the Japanese Army and that those women actually went into "voluntary prostitution."



Their argument is in accordance with conservative Japanese politicians.



During a TBS radio interview, Yuji Hosaka, a naturalized Korean and Sejong University professor, speculated right-wing Japanese media outlets are expected to use such Koreans critical of comfort women as their "mouthpiece."



Park Won-gon, an international relations professor at Handong Global University, even warned of the conservative Japanese using Lee Yong-soo's criticism against Yoon to disparage the comfort women advocacy campaign.



"They could possibly argue, 'How can you trust an iconic activist for wartime sex slavery even when a surviving victim does not trust her?'" Park said.



The analysts pointed out that a string of people suspending their donations to the council over the allegations is another "negative sign" for the campaign.



Naver, the country's largest search engine, also suspended its online fund-raising program for the council.





The door of the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance for the Issues of Military Sexual Slavery by Japan is closed, May 26, amid corruption allegations involving its former head Yoon Mee-hyang. Yonhap
The Mumbai crime branch during an inquiry into the illegal international telephone exchange busted on Saturday, learnt that the arrested accused Sameer Alwari, 38, who was operating the exchange in Govandi, had travelled to Nepal earlier and was in touch with several people from Nepal, Gulf and European countries for more than five years. The police have also been inquiring about his financial transaction. Alwari was produced in the court on Sunday and has been remanded to police custody till June 9.

Alwari was arrested on Saturday after the Military Intelligence unit found several calls were coming to Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) from abroad but the numbers were Indian.

The calls that were coming from abroad were landing in the illegal telephone exchange in Govandi and later they were diverted to J&K showing the Indian numbers, said deputy commissioner of police Akbar Pathan of the crime branch.

The two mobile numbers were traced to Govandi. These two numbers were kept under surveillance. All the calls received by the parallel exchange were made from abroad, added officer.

Apart from Mumbai crime branch, the central agencies are also probing if a terror or spy network was operating using multiple SIM boxes as several calls were made to defence establishments in J&K, added official.

Following information, the Mumbai crime branchs unit 6 conducted raid in Govandi in Alwaris residence and arrested him. During raid police seized a total of five SIM boxes, of which one was inactive, and have also recovered 223 SIM cards, 10 mobile phones, a laptop modem, connection board and batteries in the raid.

Alwari was previously arrested in Thane in 2017 for similar crimes. After scrutinising the number and its call records it was found Alwari made and received several calls from other countries like Nepal, several countries from the Gulf and Europe. The accused would illegally convert voice-over-internet telephony (VoIP) calls from abroad into a local call through the illegal international gateway.

A SIM box routes international calls as local calls, allowing the box operator to bypass international rates charged by local mobile network operators. The SIM boxes are fitted with hundreds of GSM SIM cards procured using fake IDs.

There is a possibility that the parallel exchange suspected to be used for anti-national activities by unfriendly nations.

In February this year, the crime branch has busted a similar racket operating from Noida in Uttar Pradesh and Changaramkulam in Kerala. Police seized a total of eight SIM boxes and recovered 686 SIM cards from the raids in the two cities.
Astronauts on board the Dragon successfully docked at the International Space Station Sunday morning, 19 hours after the successful NASA-SpaceX launch.

At 10:16 a.m. Eastern time, the Dragon spacecraft carrying veteran NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley rendezvoused with the space station 262 statute miles above the border of China and Mongolia.

"Docking soft capture. We have docking," NASA mission control in Houston announced.

The accomplishment came at 18 hours and 58 minutes after the rocket, commercially built by technology entrepreneur Elon Musk and his SpaceX team in Hawthorne, California, propelled the astronauts into a new chapter of space exploration, marking the first time a privately funded space program teamed with NASA on such an endeavor.

PHOTO: NASA SpaceXs Crew Dragon astronauts Douglas Hurley, right, and Robert Behnken pose with other astronauts after arriving to the International Space Station, May 31, 2020. (NASA TV/AFP via Getty Images)

Shortly after linking up with the space station, 12 latches of the Dragon were deployed creating an airtight seal that would allow Behnken and Hurley to enter a vestibule and go into the space station.

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station greet NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley as they board following their successful docking from the Crew Dragon capsule. https://t.co/BiiIFCdNIt pic.twitter.com/g8JS1mbUpZ  ABC News (@ABC) May 31, 2020

"It's been a real honor to be just a small part of this nine-year endeavor since the last time a United States space ship docked with the International Space Station," Hurley said after the historic accomplishment.

About 2 hours after docking, the astronauts opened the final of three hatches and entered the space station dressed in dark shirts, light-colored pants and white socks. Behnken was the first to through the hatch, entering the space station at 1:22 p.m. Eastern time quickly followed by Hurley.

On the other side of the hatch they were greeted with hugs by NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy and his two crewmates, Russian cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner. Hurley and Behnken entered the space station while orbiting 262 miles over Turkmenistan.

Story continues

Flight director Zeb Scoville, who was at mission control in Houston, congratulated the crew.

PHOTO: The SpaceX Dragon crew capsule, with NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken aboard, docks with the International Space Station, May 31, 2020. (NASA TV via AP)

''Bravo on a magnificent moment in spaceflight history, and on the start of a new journey that has changed the face of space travel in this new era of space transportation," Scoville said.

Jim Bridenstine, NASA administrator who was at mission control in Houston, was among the first to greet them.

"Welcome to the space station," Bridenstine told them. "I tell you, the whole world saw this mission and we are so so proud of everything you have done for our country and in fact to inspire the world."

Hurley responded, saying, "I appreciate that sir. It's obviously been our honor to be just a small part of this."

PHOTO: The SpaceX Dragon crew capsule, with NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken aboard, docks with the International Space Station, May 31, 2020. (NASA TV via AP)

"It's great to get the United States back in the crew launch business and we're just really glad to be on board this magnificent complex," Hurley said.

Bridenstine asked if they were able to get any sleep Saturday night and into Sunday morning.

"We did get probably a good seven hours or so of the opportunity for sleep and I did succeed at sleep and Doug did as well," Behnken said. "The first night is always a little bit of challenge but the Dragon was a slick vehicle and we had good airflow and so we had an excellent, excellent evening."

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, was also on hand in Houston to congratulate the astronauts and asked them how the Dragon handled in space.

"It flew just like it was supposed to," Hurley said. "We had a couple of opportunities to take it out for a spin, so to speak, once after we got into orbit last night and again today about 20 minutes before we docked and my compliments to the folks back in Hawthorne [California] and SpaceX for how well it flew. It's exactly like the simulator and we couldn't be happier about the performance of the vehicle."

Cruz reminded the astronauts about the problems in the United States on the ground, referring to the violent protests stemming from the police-involved killing of African American George Floyd and the continuing battle against the coronavirus.

"I have to say this launch and y'all's docking is a powerful inspiration of what we can do when we come together," Cruz said.

Hurley responded by recalling that nine years ago he was among the crew that docked space shuttle Atlantis to the space station, ending a 30-year shuttle program and that ever since then SpaceX, NASA and the commercial crew program have been working to restore American launch capability.

"This is just one effort that we can show for the ages in this dark time that we've had over the past several months to kind of inspire especially the young people in the United States to reach for these lofty goals and work hard and look what you can accomplish," Hurley said.

Following the SpaceX launch on Saturday, Bridenstine said he was "so proud" of the achievement.

"For the first time in nine years, we have now launched American astronauts on American rockets from American soil. I'm so proud of the @NASA and @SpaceX team for making this moment possible," Bridenstine tweeted.

Speeding into orbit at more than 17,500 mph, the Dragon spacecraft, now named Endeavour, was able to track down the International Space Station in about the same amount of time it takes for a commercial flight to travel from New York to Sydney, Australia. But the docking procedure was done slowly and cautiously.

PHOTO: SpaceX Falcon 9, with NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken in the Dragon crew capsule, lifts off from Pad 39-A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., May 30, 2020. (John Raoux/AP)

MORE: Dragon soars in successful NASA-SpaceX launch

President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence were on hand at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, to watch the launch on Saturday afternoon. The blast-off was initially scheduled to take place on Wednesday but was postponed due to weather conditions.

"It is absolutely our honor to be part of this huge effort to get the United States back in the launch business. We'll talk to you from orbit," Hurley said minutes before launch.

Dragon docks at International Space Station 19 hours after NASA-SpaceX launch originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
(Anthony Russo)

We're seeing soaring unemployment in much of the world, highly unstable financial markets, governments amassing debt at unprecedented rates. But what is this economic crisis we find ourselves in? A recession? A depression? Something new and entirely different? We asked a range of economists to think about that question and also to propose a single policy or action government officials could embrace that would make a difference. Here are ideas from Joseph E. Stiglitz, Christina Romer, Alicia H. Munnell, Jason Furman, Anat R. Admati, James Doti, Simon Johnson, Ayse Imrohoroglu, Alex Tabarrok and Shanthi Nataraj.





A deep recession, absent better policies or luck

The U.S. public health failures have firmly established this nation as first in confirmed disease cases, first in deaths, first in the rise of unemployment.

Bankruptcies, the pandemics devastating effect on business and household balance sheets, and precautionary consumer behavior may well cause an inevitable COVID-19 downturn to morph into a deep, prolonged recession.

This is not inevitable: There are policy responses that would help immensely, or we could just get lucky, with the pandemic coming under control or the economy bouncing back faster than now appears to be the case.

As the shutdown began, we used a fire hose to try to ensure liquidity and employment: lots of money, not well-targeted and, even worse, very badly administered. Politics as usual meant that while Congress recognized problems that needed to be solved, it couldnt fully deliver. For example, we know sick workers shouldnt go to work, but after lobbying from big business, the legislation that passed still exempts almost half the workforce from paid sick leave.

Simply put, the government must do more to support the economy, including assistance to state and local governments, assurances that the jobless will continue to get help while the unemployment rate remains elevated, passage of paycheck relief programs that will succeed at keeping workers attached to their jobs (see the bill introduced in late May by Rep. Pramila Jayapal [D-Wash.]) and successfully getting aid to the most vulnerable, not those with the best connections to banks.

Story continues

It is even possible that we could emerge post-pandemic and post-recession with a greener, more knowledge-based and more equal economy.

Joseph E. Stiglitz, co-recipient of the 2001 Nobel Prize in economics, teaches at Columbia University and is the author of People, Power, and Profits: Progressive Capitalism for an Age of Discontent.

Aid to states will provide the best return

When the numbers come out in July, we are likely to learn that real GDP has declined at an annual rate of close to 40% in the second quarter. Whether one calls this a recession, a depression, or a public-health-driven economic collapse really doesnt matter; it is a tragedy.

Recent policy actions have helped to contain some of the damage and eased the struggles of unemployed workers. The Federal Reserve has quietly shored up the financial system, and Congress and the administration enacted an unprecedented $2 trillion fiscal stimulus. The expansion of unemployment insurance and the forgivable loans to small businesses that maintain payrolls were both particularly sensible policies.

But still more fiscal help is needed. The single most useful policy action now would be to provide substantial aid to state governments. States are facing severe budget shortfalls and will soon have to cut vital spending on public education, infrastructure and social services. State and local government jobs declined by almost 1 million in April, and more cuts are likely.

Transfers from the federal government (which can borrow) to states (which cannot) were done on a limited scale in the 2009 Recovery Act. Research done by the Council of Economic Advisers showed that state fiscal relief had one of the biggest bangs for the buck of any fiscal action. Moreover, such transfers allow each state to address its most pressing needs and respond to the particular challenges of local communities and industries.

With projected state budget shortfalls of more than $750 billion over the next few years, state aid of between $500 billion and $1 trillion would be appropriate. In an ideal world the size and duration of the aid would be tied to economic conditions, so that the help lasts as long as needed, but no longer. State fiscal relief is our best hope for limiting the economic damage of the pandemic and for putting the economy in a position to recover quickly when conditions allow.

Christina Romer is a professor of economics at the UC Berkeley. She was chair of the Council of Economic Advisers in 2009-2010.





Pay employers to retain their workers







Australia and Denmark did this by creating new programs; other countries expanded existing ones. How does it work? In Denmark, for example, a Copenhagen restaurant with 10 workers can receive up to 90% of salaries  up to about $3,800 per month per employee  which the owner then uses to continue paying workers. In addition, the government compensates the owner for fixed costs, such as rent.

The advantages of this approach for the United States would be threefold. First, it would put employers in a good position to restart once the virus is subdued. Second, employees would continue to receive wages, and so wouldnt have to apply for unemployment. And third, employees could retain their health insurance.

Recently, Congress has shown some enthusiasm for this approach. But is it too late? Two factors make it much more difficult now than it would have been in March. First, employers have already laid off many workers and would have to go through the rehiring process. Second, the $600 bump in unemployment benefits will make many low-paid workers, who are earning more now than before, reluctant to return to their job. Finally, employers have exhausted their resources so the program would have to be very generous for them to participate.

Still, I think we should plow ahead. At least we would know what to do when the next pandemic strikes.

Alicia H. Munnell is director of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College and a professor at Boston Colleges Carroll School of Management.





Pull the next policy lever: assistance to states

A catastrophic failure of economic policies created the Great Depression. That is highly unlikely now because policymakers are drawing on past lessons with a monetary and fiscal policy response that is unprecedented for its speed and its size. But we are headed for a prolonged deep recession.

More government and Federal Reserve stimulus and relief will be needed. Nonetheless, these actions can only effectively treat the demand shock associated with COVID-19; we dont have great tools to handle the massive supply shock it is forcing across the economy. It will likely be years before per capita incomes re-attain the heights they reached before the crisis.

The biggest federal policy lever that has yet to be pulled is large-scale state and local assistance not just to cover the emergency expenses related to COVID-19 but also to plug the large holes it has blown in revenues. Absent this assistance, states will see another round of what should be avoidable layoffs, this time among teachers, firefighters and police officers.

Long lines at food banks are a wake-up call that more assistance is also needed for the most vulnerable, including increased funding for food stamps (the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP) and for healthcare. One crucial action we should take now: putting in place triggers that automatically continue assistance as long as the unemployment rate is above 6%.

Finally, rebuilding the economy over the longer term will require infrastructure investment, expanded training for displaced workers and eventually a plan to stabilize the debt.

Jason Furman is a professor of the practice of economic policy at Harvard University and was chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers from 2013 through 2017.





Without universal testing, recovery will be slow

Whether economists ultimately label this episode a depression or a drawn-out recession is largely irrelevant. How we fare will depend critically on the approach we take to deal with the pandemic.

Allowing the economy to sputter while providing relief that still mostly benefits investors is misguided. Instead, we must address both the public health and the economic crises by making it safer to resume activities. Until effective vaccines and therapies are available, which may be many months away, our best approach is to invest heavily in increasing the capacity for testing many more people and isolating those infected.

Opening the economy while many Americans are rightly anxious is highly problematic. Those who can afford to shelter will continue to protect themselves, while those in lower economic rungs will suffer the bulk of the hardships and the risk of infection. Recovery will be slow and halting, and the inequality of income, wealth and opportunities that was already high will only grow.

Enforcing sensible safety rules such as masks is a good start, but such measures will still restrict activities and be insufficient to ensure confidence. Imagine, however, as economist Paul Romer has suggested, that we invest in sufficient capacity so all of us, without regard to symptoms, are given accurate tests regularly (say, every two weeks) and we enable and even mandate isolation for those infected to prevent further spread. Methods like group testing (mixing several samples for a single test to see if the group tests negative, as the U.S Army did to battle syphilis during World War II) could help while testing supplies remain limited.

This approach will allow us to resume a fuller range of economic activities sooner and more safely. Even better, by protecting rich and poor alike, wide availability of testing and isolation would also begin the overdue process of building a more equitable and inclusive economy.

Anat R. Admati is a professor of finance and economics at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and the co-author of The Bankers New Clothes: Whats Wrong With Banking and What to Do about It.





A V-shaped recovery if government aid is fast

No question the COVID-19 pandemic has wrecked our economy. But this is not a repeat of the Great Depression or even the Great Recession. Although real GDP could well decline at an annualized rate of around 30-40% in the second quarter, we could see an annualized increase of 15-20% in the third quarter. While the depth of the drop this spring is unprecedented, so too will be the rapid recovery.

The economic projections done at Chapman University show a relatively short two-quarter COVID-19 recession. By contrast, the Great Recession of 2007-09 lasted seven quarters. That deep recession started out slowly but did ever increasing damage as credit markets seized up. That credit crunch led what was initially a construction-led recession to one that ultimately gripped the entire economy.

During the current recession, the economic damage is focused mainly on the leisure and hospitality sector of the economy. Unlike the Great Recession which spread to other sectors of the economy, the damage this time will be contained because of the fiscal and monetary actions that have already taken place.

Not only did we get the quick passage of the $2-trillion CARES Act, but the Federal Reserve has greased the wheels with an aggressive increase in bond purchases and lending support. Rather than the lethargic response of the Fed during the Great Recession when it took nine months before entering the scene, the Fed turned on the spigot almost immediately this year, flooding the economy with $2.5 trillion of asset purchases.

These aggressive actions have set us on the path to a relatively rapid V-shaped recovery. But for them to have a timely impact, it will be critically important for those administering the various CARES Act programs to expedite the government payments. Loans given out by banks and other financial institutions that are supported by Fed guarantees also need to be fast-tracked so that businesses arent prematurely forced into bankruptcy.

A fast recovery will still depend on how quickly the economy is allowed to reopen. Even more important and worrisome is whether the worst of COVID-19 is truly behind us.

James Doti is president emeritus and professor of economics at Chapman University.





Antibody tests for better public confidence

Policymakers should go all-in on ramping up antibody testing, to determine who has been exposed to COVID-19. Such tests are not yet accurate enough to determine precise immunity levels, but the work of Michael Mina, an immunologist and epidemiologist at Harvard, and others demonstrates that using such tests in the right way generates not just information about what has happened but, because of what can be inferred about underlying disease dynamics, also the information we need to understand where the disease will likely next impact various local communities. A good metaphor is that of an ocean wave  if you can see the full structure of the previous wave, you can predict a great deal about what the next wave will look like, including when and where it will crest.

These tests are cheap, and everyone should be encouraged to put a drop of blood on a special card once a month, for anonymous analysis in a public health laboratory, with the data fed seamlessly into a dashboard that can be seen by officials and everyone else.

With such data, we can better defend nursing homes, assisted living and other senior care facilities. We will be able to open schools and colleges more responsibly, because we will know much more about where the infection is currently and where it is not. We will also learn precisely what kind of workflow reorganization is helpful in controlling disease, from speeding up buses to changing who comes to work in person and when. To be clear: These antibody tests are a complement to and are not a substitute for the now-standard PCR tests for whether a person is currently infected. The continued scale-up of PCR testing capacity across the country must also continue.

The crisis we face is obviously economic  we remain now in a pure survival phase. The recovery will be difficult because, despite the Trump administrations bravado, the confidence of many people is shattered. Rebuilding the economy requires rebuilding our confidence in public health. For this we need a type and scale of data that only antibody testing can provide.

Simon Johnson is a professor of economics at the MIT Sloan School of Management.





Incentivize older people to stay home







That is why I would label this a synthetic recession. It happened due to decisions made about a virus, not about the economy. Nevertheless, it could lead to a real recession if this shelter-in-place period lasts long enough to cause deeper wage losses, increased bankruptcies and more foreclosures.

That makes reopening the U.S. economy crucial, though it poses major challenges. COVID-19 is especially devastating for the elderly and those with preexisting health conditions. In addition to CDC recommendations about social distancing and public health strategies for all, I believe that as we reopen, we should keep a targeted lockdown policy in place for at-risk groups. If older people and others at high risk could be incentivized to stay at home, a second wave of severe illness during the reopening could be mitigated with less economic fallout, as a colleague and I recently proposed.

Currently, the Families First Coronavirus Response Act only applies to those who are sick or have sick family members. What we need is a policy designed to help the elderly and those with preexisting health conditions remain sheltered in place as the economy resumes.

Ayse Imrohoroglu is a professor of finance and business economics at USC's Marshall School of Business.





Spend billions more on vaccines and testing

If an invader rained missiles down on cities across the United States killing thousands of people, we would fight back. Yet despite spending trillions on unemployment insurance and relief to deal with the economic consequences of COVID-19, we have spent comparatively little fighting the virus directly.

Testing capacity has slowly increased, but where is the national program to create a dozen labs each running 200,000 tests a day? Its technologically feasible but months into the crisis, we have only just begun to spend serious money on testing.

We havent even fixed billing procedures so we can use the testing capacity that already exists. Thats right, labs that could be running tests are idle because of billing procedures. And while some parts of our government are slow, the Food and Drug Administration seems intent on reducing Americas ability to fight the virus by demanding business-as-usual paperwork.

Operation Warp Speed is one of the few bright spots. Potential vaccines often fail and so firms will typically not build manufacturing capacity, let alone produce doses until after a vaccine has been approved. But if we follow the usual procedure, getting shots in arms could be delayed by months or even years.

Under Operation Warp Speed, the government is paying for capacity to be built now so that the instant one of 14 vaccine candidates is proven safe and effective, production will be ready to go. Thats exactly what Nobel-prize winning economist Michael Kremer, Susan Athey, Chris Snyder and I have recommended. It might seem expensive to invest in capacity for a vaccine that is never approved, but its even more expensive to delay a vaccine that could end the pandemic.

Relief payments can go on forever, but money spent on testing and vaccines has the potential to more than pay for itself. Its time to fight back.

Alex Tabarrok is a professor of economics at George Mason University and a member of the Accelerating Health Technologies With Incentive Design team.





The wealth gap widens

Whether history considers the current downturn a recession or a depression, it is clear that it will reinforce the growing inequality in our country.

Low-income workers are more likely to have lost their jobs in the pandemic and less likely to have savings to see them through. While the CARES Act increases and extends the reach of unemployment benefits, millions of workers have been unable to file for benefits, have been denied benefits, or are still waiting to receive them. And the additional benefits are scheduled to expire at the end of July  even though the Congressional Budget Office projects that unemployment will remain above 10% through 2021.

Since higher-earning Americans are more likely to own stocks, the widening gulf between a rebounding stock market and faltering business performance will only increase the wealth gap.

Running a small business  a traditional path to prosperity  has also become more perilous. Prior to the pandemic, five of 10 small businesses had a cash buffer of less than a month. Many have been unable to access Paycheck Protection Program loans; those who have received loans often arent sure how they are allowed to spend the money and whether it will see them through  foreshadowing a wave of bankruptcies in the near future.

Navigating this economic crisis without substantially increasing inequality would require an unwavering commitment to support displaced workers and small business owners. Once the crisis has passed, the structure of the economy, and the types of jobs available, will be different. Just as important, then  when health and economic conditions allow  would be additional investment in retraining workers who cannot return to their old jobs, and helping business owners restructure and restart their businesses.

Shanthi Nataraj is the director of the Labor and Workforce Development Program at the nonprofit, nonpartisan Rand Corp.




Unions controlling key votes in the Virgin Australia administration process have expressed serious concerns about Bain Capital's tilt at the airline due to the buyout firm's history of slashing jobs and imposing harsh conditions on workers offshore.

Virgin's 9000 employees are owed a combined $450 million from the collapsed airline and will be a vital voting block to get any rescue bid approved. As a result, the unions representing the carrier's workers have emerged as kingmakers in the bidding process which will this week hit a pivotal juncture.

Bain part-owned Toys R Us has a patchy industrial relations record in the US, particularly when dealing with workers made redundant during insolvency. Credit:Jane Dyson

Bain, which in Australia is led by former Olympic diver Michael Murphy, is among the contenders for the airline alongside local private equity outfit BGH Capital, Richard Branson linked Cyrus Capital, US airline investor Indigo Partners and Canadian funds management giant Brookfield.

Virgin's administrators Deloitte spent the weekend working through second round bids and could announce a shortlist of two final bidders as soon as Monday.
Twitter censors presidents tweet warning looters will be shot as protests intensify

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Twitter censored an early morning tweet from President Trump Friday, deeming it as glorifying violence after he called violent protesters reacting to the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers THUGS and warned that looters will be shot as rioting intensified in the city.

These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I wont let that happen. Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you! Trump tweeted at 12:53 a.m. after protesters torched a Minneapolis police precinct that was overrun by rioters.

While the social media giant censored the presidents tweet, it was left accessible in the publics interest.

This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules about glorifying violence. However, Twitter has determined that it may be in the publics interest for the Tweet to remain accessible, Twitter said in its statement on the tweet.

The White House insisted in a subsequent tweet that the president was not glorifying violence.

The President did not glorify violence. He clearly condemned it. @Jack and Twitter's biased, bad-faith fact-checkers have made it clear: Twitter is a publisher, not a platform, the White House noted in a tweet which was also flagged by Twitter as a violation of its rules.

The presidents tweet came in the wake of growing unrest across the country overnight, including the burning of a Minneapolis police precinct that was overrun by rioters.

I cant stand back & watch this happen to a great American City, Minneapolis. A total lack of leadership. Either the very weak Radical Left Mayor, Jacob Frey, get his act together and bring the City under control, or I will send in the National Guard & get the job done right, the president added.

Hours later after his tweet was censored, Trump accused Twitter of playing partisan politics and called for its regulation.

Twitter is doing nothing about all of the lies & propaganda being put out by China or the Radical Left Democrat Party. They have targeted Republicans, Conservatives & the President of the United States. Section 230 should be revoked by Congress. Until then, it will be regulated! he said. The President has been targeted by Twitter.

The federal law, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act was created in 1996. It shields websites from liability for content created by their users and permits internet companies to moderate their sites without being on the hook legally for everything they host. The law, however, does not provide blanket protection from legal responsibility for criminal acts, like posting child pornography or violations of intellectual property.

Regulate Twitter if they are going to start regulating free speech. @JudgeJeanine@foxandfriends. Well, as they have just proven conclusively, thats what they are doing. Repeal Section 230!!! Trump tweeted Friday morning.

On Thursday, Trump signed an executive order seeking to limit the protections of Section 230.

Twitter now selectively decides to place a warning label on certain tweets in a manner that clearly reflects political bias. As has been reported, Twitter seems never to have placed such a label on another politicians tweet. As recently as last week, Representative Adam Schiff was continuing to mislead his followers by peddling the long-disproved Russian Collusion Hoax, and Twitter did not flag those tweets. Unsurprisingly, its officer in charge of so-called Site Integrity [Yoel Roth] has flaunted his political bias in his own tweets, the president said in his speech announcing the order.

Legal experts on both the right and the left told CNN that what the president is seeking to do might be unconstitutional because it risks infringing on the First Amendment rights of private companies. It also attempts to circumvent the two other branches of government.

"(Trump) is trying to steal for himself the power of the courts and Congress to rewrite decades of settled law," said Democrat Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the architect of the legislation that the order seeks to reinterpret. "He decides what's legal based on what's in his interest."

Protests have been growing across the country since Floyds fatal encounter with four now-fired Minneapolis police officers, which was caught on video, and triggered violent protests in that city which have since spread to other locations, Denver, Memphis, Louisville and Los Angeles.

The approximately 10-minute video of the encounter shows a handcuffed Floyd lying face down begging for his life and crying for his mother while Officer Derek Chauvin kneels into his neck. Chauvin kneels into Floyds neck until he begins to bleed from his nose and becomes unresponsive. Even after Floyd becomes motionless on the ground, Chauvin continued pressing his knee into his neck for several more minutes as bystanders begged him to have mercy.

Protesters are refusing to back down until arrested have been made for Floyds death.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison told CNN in a live interview Friday morning that he has "every expectation" authorities will press charges against the Minneapolis police officers involved in Floyds death.

We are standing by and helping any way we can. But yeah, I anticipate there will be charges. I hope they're soon. But that is the prerogative of another prosecuting authority. They are trying to be careful. They are trying to make sure their case is strong and airtight, Ellison said.
Amid unrest in dozens of U.S. cities after the death of an unarmed black man pinned by a white police officer, President Donald Trump on Sunday said the nation will designate the antifa movement a terrorist organization.

Earlier this week Trump said that many peaceful protestors were taking to the streets for the right reasons in honor of George Floyds memory. But he also derided looters, threatened White House protestors with vicious dogs and ominous weapons," and over the last two days has pinned much of the blame for the unrest on radical leftists, antifascist groups, the media and Democratic leaders.

Protestors and reporters on the ground in several states, however, have alleged that police have ramped up the violence. And Minnesota officials say a range of out-of-staters, including armed white supremacists, and have incited violence.

Soon after the presidents declaration, But the KKK" and Proud Boys, were trending on Twitter, with many noting that the president had singled out the antifa movement but ignored multiple organizations tied to white supremacy.

The United States of America will be designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organization.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 31, 2020

Congratulations to our National Guard for the great job they did immediately upon arriving in Minneapolis, Minnesota, last night, Trump tweeted earlier Sunday morning. The ANTIFA led anarchists, among others, were shut down quickly. Should have been done by Mayor on first night and there would have been no trouble!

Other Democrat run Cities and States should look at the total shutdown of Radical Left Anarchists in Minneapolis last night, the president continued. The National Guard did a great job, and should be used in other States before it is too late!

Floyd died Monday after a white police officer, Derek Chauvin, pinned down Floyds neck with his knee for nearly nine minutes during an arrest. Chauvin faces a third-degree murder charge, but his family is calling for a first-degree charge as well as justice for other officers involved.

Trump on Friday expressed sympathy for Floyds family. But he said the U.S. would not allow the situation to descend into lawless anarchy and chaos.

The violence has only escalated since. At least four are dead amid protests and riots in dozens of cities, and fifteen states have deployed the National Guard, according to CBS News.

Police in several cities have cracked down in what theyve said is an effort to control crowds and keep citizens safe. But many protestors and journalists have taken to social media to say police are targeting peaceful protestors and arresting reporters as well.

So heres what happened today. The NYPD arrested me at 96th Street and West Side Highway while I was taking photos and video to post to Twitter. I told the police I was with the Press, they walked by me and then turned around and arrested me.  Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) May 31, 2020

Videos have also captured armed militia groups and antifascist protestors in multiple cities.

CNN reported that Minnesota officials say many of the violent protesters who have caused widespread damage are from out of state. Authorities have been monitoring alleged criminals online, including postings by suspected white supremacists trying to incite violence.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said Saturday that the city was confronting white supremacists, members of organized crime, out-of-state instigators and possibly even foreign actors to destroy and destabilize our city and region.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York tweeted that she has questioned the FBI on why domestic terror labels are not applied to white supremacist groups. She noted that FBI testified that U.S. law prevents labeling US groups as terrorists, with severe civil liberties concerns.

Where is that concern today? she added.

I have questioned the @FBI in Congress as to why they dont use domestic terror labels for white supremacist groups.



They testified that the law prevents labeling US groups as terrorists, w/ severe civil liberties concerns.



Where is that concern today?pic.twitter.com/OHhkPrOKQu  Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) May 31, 2020

Trump, who was critiqued earlier this week for using the historically racist phrase when the looting starts, the shooting starts, later blamed the lamestream media for doing everything within their power to foment hatred and anarchy.

As long as everybody understands what they are doing, that they are FAKE NEWS and truly bad people with a sick agenda, we can easily work through them to GREATNESS! the president said.

Minnesota officials in a news conference Sunday morning said there were up to 50 arrests in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul area on Saturday night, and perhaps up to another 50 arrests between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. Sunday during a curfew.

I can't believe what I just witnessed. LAPD just opened fire on peaceful protestors who were chanting "don't shoot" with their hands up on 3rd st in Hollywood. People are running and screaming. I've never seen anything like this in my whole life. pic.twitter.com/cHHKPsKjHV  Matthew Santoro (@MatthewSantoro) May 31, 2020

Who is this serving?



Who is this protecting? pic.twitter.com/IK8DkwLLUT  jordan (@JordanUhl) May 31, 2020

Saint Paul Mayor Melvin Carter said that many rioting were not doing so for the betterment of the community, noting that violence had shut down stores amid a coronavirus pandemic that saw workers lose jobs and families in desperate need for food.

But he acknowledged there was genuine outrage over Floyds death, generations of police brutality and centuries of racism, and added that he was not asking you to sit by the side and patiently wait."

Were asking you to take energy which has consumed our country, a nuclear energy ... not to destroy our neighborhoods, but to destroy the historic culture, the systematic racism, the legal precedence, the police union contracts, the things that make it so difficult to hold those accountable when a life like George Floyds is so wrongfully taken," Carter said.

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At least 50 people have been killed in attacks blamed on armed groups as the country battles an armed rebellion.

At least 10 people were killed when an aid convoy was ambushed in Burkina Faso, the government said on Sunday, bringing to at least 50 the death toll from a string of attacks blamed on armed groups.

The ambush occurred on Saturday near the northern town of Barsalogho, it said in a statement, adding that an attack on a livestock market in the village of Kompienga in the eastern part of the country earlier in the day had killed 25 people, according to a provisional toll.

Saturdays attacks came a day after a convoy of mostly shopkeepers escorted by a local self-defence unit came under fire in the north of the West African country, killing 15 people. That attack, in Loroum province, was also blamed on armed groups.

The humanitarian convoy was returning from the northern town of Foube after delivering food in Barsalogho, the statement said. At least five civilians and five gendarmes were killed and about 20 people were injured.

No group has claimed responsibility.

Saturdays violence underscores deep instability in parts of Burkina Faso, which has been battling armed groups with links to al-Qaeda and ISIL (ISIS) since 2017.

Hundreds have been killed in the past year in the Sahel nation, and more than half a million people have fled their homes due to the violence, which has also raised ethnic and religious tensions.

In the past five years, more than 900 people have been killed by armed groups, while some 860,000 people have fled their homes.

A local governor, Colonel Saidou Sanou, said in a statement that the bloodshed underlined the need for the army and locals to work together to defeat the terrorist hydra.

The Sahel country is taking part in a regional effort to battle an armed uprising along with Mali, Niger, Mauritania and Chad.

Their militaries, under-equipped and poorly trained, are supported by 5,000 French troops in the region.

Unrest in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger killed approximately 4,000 people last year, according to United Nations figures.
FALLS TOWNSHIP >> In an effort to be fiscally responsible while ridding Falls Township Community Park of Canada geese, the Falls Township Supervisors approved a multi-faceted, year-long geese mitigation plan at a one percent savings over 2021. Stepped up geese management efforts began in 2015 and have significantly reduced the number of geese at the park, Falls Township Parks and Recreation...
T housands of activists have gathered in Trafalgar Square, outside the Houses of Parliament and by the US embassy to protest the death of George Floyd in the US, as well as acts of police brutality in the UK.

Protesters could be heard chanting "black lives matter" and "say my name, George Floyd" in central London, in reference to the campaigning civil rights group.

Others held up placards saying "Racism has no place" and "I can't breathe".

A vicar at St Martin-in-the-Fields church on Trafalgar Square, said she could see the crowds gathered for the protest from the church.

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Reverend Sally Hitchiner told the PA news agency: Im very sympathetic to the issue but also surprised to see the strength of emotion that has gathered people together.

Its showing there are people in the UK who care passionately about the situation in the US.

The protesters did not appear to be following social distancing rules, she said.

But she added: "I think theres a huge amount of passion there and thats overriding their concerns.

PA

Its an issue that requires passion but at the same time theres a huge amount of risk in what theyre doing.

The protest comes after an event in Peckham on Saturday and is set to be followed by several more in the capital next week.

The US has been rocked by five days of protest across many cities, after George Floyd, a black man, died in police custody this week in Minneapolis.

Many US protests have been peaceful, but others have turned into violent confrontations between demonstrators and police.

A teenage protestor in Detroit was shot dead by an unknown passerby, while a law enforcement officer in Oakland was also killed after being shot.

A protester confronts a police officer during an 'I can't breathe' vigil and rally in New York / REUTERS

Around 1,300 arrests have been made, with 500 of those in California on Thursday.

President Trump has expressed his sorrow at the death of Mr Floyd, but hit out at protestors and threatened Washington activists with "vicious dogs" and ominous weapons" if they entered the White House.

Derek Chauvin has been charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter after he was filmed kneeling on Mr Floyd's neck for around eight minutes.

Black Lives Matter activists in London / PA

With protesters seemingly not keeping to social distancing rules, some people warned that such large crowds could help spread the virus.

One Twitter user said: "Not much social distancing, who would have thought we were in the middle of a pandemic.."

It comes as officials in the US warned about the dangers of protesting amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The mayor of Atlanta, which has been hit by major protests, has warned demonstrators they have put themselves at risk of contracting coronavirus and should get tested.

And as emergency orders imposed at the start of the pandemic are lifted, protests have now been added to the list of concerns about a possible second wave of infections.

Similar issues have been raised in Paris and Hong Kong, where anti-government protesters have accused police of using social distancing rules to break up their rallies.
For almost 150 years, The Great Southern Star and Yarram Standard delivered the news of their Gippsland communities.

The papers suspended print publication in March amid the coronavirus pandemic but on Friday, Tony Giles, whose family has owned the business for decades, confirmed the worst: the papers were finished.

The Great Southern Star office in Leongatha

The Star and Standard are the latest Victorian mastheads to fall victim to a collapse in advertising and COVID-19.

Their closure follows News Corps announcement last week that 125 of its local papers nationally would either close or go digital only.
In a Victorian inquiry into child suicide, tabled in October 2019, all but two of 35 in the study had experienced severe family violence. None of these children had received support or intervention, despite being known to authorities. The manager of the NSW Domestic Violence Death Review Team, Anna Butler, says that despite successive recommendations by the team for urgent changes to support such children, there has been only limited action by the NSW government and there remains no integrated or consistent response to the children. In NSW alone, there were at least 154 child survivors of homicide who had a parent or parents killed, or a parent perpetrate a domestic violence homicide between 2008 and 2016, the NSW Domestic Violence Death Review team's latest report says. It recommends the state government provide unlimited lifetime counselling to children who have a parent or sibling killed in a domestic violence homicide. It also recommends extending statutory restrictions on the ability of those children to lodge a claim under the Victims Support Scheme (which now runs to the childs 20th birthday). In its most recent report, the team acknowledges the NSW governments election commitment to provide funding to the Homicide Victims Support Group for a facility in Sydney. The Commonwealth and NSW governments have jointly committed $9.4 million towards a first-of-its-kind residential trauma recovery centre for children affected by homicide named Graces Place  in honour of Grace Lynch, the mother of homicide victim Anita Cobby. Construction is expected to start later this year. But there is still unmet need across metropolitan, regional and rural NSW, Ms Butler says.

"There remains a lack of ongoing support for these children," the team's report says. A Department of Communities and Justice spokesperson says the government is considering the Domestic Violence Death Review Teams recommendations. A response will be provided to the NSW Coroner later this year. Lesley Podesta, chief executive of the Alannah and Madeline Foundation, estimates that each year there are about 50 children whose parents are murdered. For six years, the foundation has worked with families torn apart after murder and, Podesta says, crisis services are mostly there at the time of the event, but there is little consultation with children or teenagers about what will happen to them next  no processes designed for young people; no real plan about what will happen. The Alannah and Madeline Foundation has secured funding from the Victorian government for Children Ahead, an intensive program for children who witness homicide. Says Podesta: "It is one of the only services available to families and children who suddenly find themselves uprooted and struggling to come to terms with whats happened. Now its time for all governments to recognise this is a priority." Ola Haydar now knows she needed help.

After the murder of her mother, she moved in with her sisters  Amani, an artist and lawyer, and Nour, a journalist at the ABC. It was after Amani had her first child, a few months later, that Ola started to experience extraordinary grief and terrible memories. I started making connections to how my sister was treating her child and how my mum would be with us; there was a lot of emotional impact, much more than just physically living in the house with a baby who cries. After two years, she moved in with her mothers sister. Her arrangements were complex but she did what she could to get through. Despite the support of her sisters, help was not always at hand. I wasnt interested in help at the time, and now I really had to go looking for it; it's not very accessible, she says. Everything she knew about herself  her academic excellence, her focus on goals  disappeared with the murder of her mother. It made things very hard for me because, suddenly, the way I used to define myself no longer applied. I'm not that person whos excelling anymore. I was barely scraping through my degree.
Business groups from around the country want the Taoiseach to set up a group charged with re-imagining town centres.

41 representatives from chambers of commerce want local economies to be able to function post-Covid-19 and be equipped for social distancing.
Cindy Stumpo made her mark in a male dominated industry as the founder of C Stumpo Development, a custom homebuilder located in Newton, Massachusetts. Her company has been busy even during this time of economic uncertainty and record low unemployment.

We've been jammed. We've been busy. We haven't stopped, Stumpo told Yahoo Finance. Im not seeing a slowdown.

Stumpo, who focuses on the high-end market of $5 million to $10 million homes, has been having a hard time finding skilled workers in the homebuilding industry.

We don't have enough good labor force, nor females, nor males. Stumpo said, adding that the industry has been facing a skills gap problem since 2008. It's all stigma related here. If you know who your kid is, and your kid is not college material, why not alternative education? We don't even have to call it vocational school if that bothers some parents. If you know your kid's a tinkerer, send them off. Let them learn something they can do with their hands to make a living.

Stumpo, who has been in construction for more than three decades, said she was a C/D student in school. But today she runs a multimillion-dollar company. Why? Because I learned a trade, she said.



Stumpo calls herself a pioneer in the industry and hopes to see more women enter the field. because we are so multitaskable. We can do everything. We can have two kids, one on our leg, one in our arms, and that's why I worked the 33 years.

Pamela Mitchell is a producer at Yahoo Finance.

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Matt Bryant, owner of Houston Dog Ranch, noticed that a troubling dynamic was developing in the early days of COVID-19s countywide stay-home order: Reports of domestic violence and animal cruelty had gone through the roof.

Having been a child in a domestically violent home myself, I saw firsthand how pets are used to keep the woman in the home or keep control over a household, Bryant said.

Through his work with the Animal Justice League, Bryant has been invited to serve as an ambassador of the Harris County Animal Cruelty Task Force. Thats where he met Tena Lundquist Faust and Tama Lundquist, twin sisters and co-founders of Houston PetSet, who share Bryants concern over the uptick in domestic violence and subsequent animal cruelty.

Together, the trio moved quickly to launch Pet Protect. The program aids individuals fleeing unsafe home environments by providing free animal boarding for up to 30 days.

Its something that weve been talking about for a very long time. This issue has always been on our radar, but we never had the bandwith or partners until Matt, Lundquist said. When COVID hit, we were developing this program, and there were animals coming in who might sit for two or three days with their injuries. The conversation switched to domestic violence, and we asked Matt, Would you be willing to take pets from those situations?

Bryants response was an emphatic yes.

Houston Dog Ranch has more than 90 rooms available on its 7-acre property in Spring Branch. Accommodations range from private cabins with color televisions for background noise to small group options for dogs who are more social. Popular attractions include a diving pool, splash pads and porches for lounging.

It felt criminal to let those rooms sit empty when theres a need, Bryant said. This was the good and right thing to do on every level.

While Pet Protect is still in the pilot phase, Houston PetSet is covering boarding costs, and Houston Dog Ranch will absorb any training or rehabilitation-related fees for both the dog and its owner.

Bryant, whos been dubbed the Texas dog father within certain rescue circles, enlists a staff of 15-18 dogs to model good behavior and accelerate the healing process.

Weve learned that when youre dealing with trauma recovery, whether its neglect or theyve just missed the windows of development, is a pretty unique situation, he explained. Our dogs help teach others how to trust people and how to read social cues. It also helps with transitions into a multidog home.

Bryants offerings are idyllic, though theres a drawback: Houston Dog Ranch isnt set up for intake after 5 p.m. or to house cats.

Thats where Westbury Animal Hospitals Dr. Jonathan Cooper comes in.

Sometimes when these (domestic violence) events occur, its after hours, Cooper said. We dont want the inability for someone to leave and not take their animal to be a barrier for exiting an unhealthy situation. This program allows victims and their pets to find safe harbor.

Westbury Animal Hospital is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Cooper, who sits on Houston PetSets board of directors, describes the facility as a large, multidoctor veterinary hospital that provides clinical care and emergency practice around the clock.

There are other organizations that take animals from domestic violence situations, but a big piece of the puzzle that was missing was overnight access, Lundquist said. Some research indicates that 40 (percent to) 50 percent of domestic violence victims stay because they dont want to leave their animals behind.

Houston PetSet has partnered with the Harris County Sheriffs Office, Houston Police Department, Harris County District Attorneys Office and Houston Area Womens Center to facilitate the connection between clients and Houston Dog Ranch or Westbury Animal Hospital.

The organization launched Pet Protect in April by pulling funds from the budgets emergency funds. Lundquist and Faust planned to test the program over a 30-day period, though theyre considering an extension based on need.

Well adjust, Lundquist said, now that some stay-home restrictions have been lifted. Thirty days is a good idea in theory, though I think well keep it open and re-evaluate.

amber.elliott@chron.com
As the build-up to the 2020 gubernatorial election in Edo state increases, tension heightened in the camp of Governor Godwin Obaseki as one of his core loyalist, Hon Matthew Iduoriyekewen has thrown his hat in the ring to contest Edo 2020 Governorship election.

The former lawmaker prior to his purchase of expression of interest form in Abuja had told LEADERSHIP penultimate that Obaseki will win the primaries and the Governorship election clean and square.

Iduoriyekemwen joined the APC from the PDP in 2018 when he declared that he was joining the party because the Governor was building the biggest park and modular refinery in his Ikpoba Okha local government area.

Honourable Iduoriyekemwen is a strong supporter of Governor Obaseki until yesterday when he proceeded to pick the gubernatorial form, a move considered as unhealthy for the chances of the governor.

Governor Obaseki, Pastor Ize-Iyamu and Iduoriyekemwen will now slug it out at the APC primaries predicted to be very dicey for incumbent Governor Obaseki because of the huge outcry against his policies in the state.

Governor Obaseki has severally boasted that his second term bid was not negotiable, which have not gone down well with many party members in the state. On several fronts, they have accused him of abandoning governance, leading to a no-show performance in the past three years of his administration in infrastructure development.

The report of Iduoriyekemwen joining the gubernatorial race was received with shock, as it formed topic of discussion among members of the governor's camp in small groups, within and outside government house, Benin City.

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The speculation giving room for the discontent was that since the governor has perfected his plans to join the PDP, Iduoriyekemwen is his own way of resisting decamping with the governor, was to join the race and probably come out as the dark horse in the primaries.

"It is obvious that Iduoriyekemwen does not want to follow the governor to PDP," said one of his followers who pleaded for anonymity.

However in an interview Iduoriyekemwen declared that "Edo state and its people deserve more than the tension we have put our people through just because we want to serve".

Asked why it took him this long to enter into the race, the APC Governorship hopeful said he "has not picked the form for the sake of it but that he needed to consult widely with relevant stakeholders on all sides, in Edo, Nigeria and in diaspora as growing Edo state is not a prerogative of an individual but the collectivity of all Edo sons and daughters."

"Am not in the race to add to the ongoing crisis in the party but to stabilize the party and to show to the world that Edo state has competent and better people than what we have been seeing and are been told" said Iduoriyekemwen".
GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- A quiet calm fell over downtown Grand Rapids for much of Sunday morning and afternoon as the glass was swept away and wooden boards were drilled into empty window sills.

Crowds were back in Rosa Parks Circle but this time they were drawing with sidewalk chalk. Last night, protest organizers stood in the circle urging attendees to remain calm, quiet and peaceful. Masks were mandatory, and the event was advertised on Facebook as a Silent Protest.

The crowd grew in size and lost control as an estimated 3,000 to 4,500 people marched through downtown. The crowd size exceeded the expectations and preparations, City Manager Mark Washington said.

We did not know the number of people that would gather, Washington said. I think our numbers were much larger than what weve seen gathering in other communities particularly across the state and Midwest.

Related: Flint-area police join protesters marching to seek justice for George Floyd

What resulted was looting and vandalism until the early hours of Sunday with many business owners watching security footage of their own property being destroyed.

By 8 a.m. hundreds of community members had already swept the streets clean and were working with business owners to get individual property damage under control.

Throughout the day, families passed out snacks from the back of pickup trucks and rolled dollies full of water bottle cases down Fulton Street.

The Mitten Brewing Company parked a cart a block down from the police department that was the epicenter of the violence on Saturday night and handed out free slices from 20 pizzas. The brewery was far enough away from the protest that it didnt sustain any damage, co-owner Chris Andrus said.

Nobody knows what to do, but one thing we can do is bring a small bit of comfort, Andrus said. Its worth more than we think.

Brenda Davis and her daughter Kennedy drove down from Hudsonville with brooms in hand looking to add to the community effort of hundreds who came in the early morning to clean the streets.

Davis drove down last night to join the peaceful protest and the call for justice for George Floyd but quickly turned around as large crowds started to surround her car and she saw families running away, she said.

I think all of the sudden there was a different agenda, Davis said.

Davis was joined by her friend from church, Quinn McGill of Wyoming, Michigan. Both women felt like the act of service was the best way they could contribute.

We could sit home and watch church or actually be part of it and do like youre suppose to, McGill said. Church isnt a building.

Ahead of Pentecost Sunday service, Rev. Christian Brocato of St. Marks Episcopal Church went on Facebook Live to give a message of hope and update the parishioners about the damage sustained to the flood light on the tower light. He invited the public to come ring the 157-year-old bell at noon in solidarity.

We want to ring the bell to the community to say were here, he said in an interview with MLive. Were part of this community. We support the community, and maybe this bell will give people a little bit of hope.

Brocato said the church was grateful that there was no damage to the stained-glass window or vandalism on the walls made of rock quarry from the Grand River.

The church, which is the oldest building in Grand Rapids, has proven resilient in the face of war before with plaques hanging in the church that date back to the Civil War, he said.

St. Marks has lived through some amazing things, he said.

The church will rely on prayer and precaution as the city braces for another potential night of protests. Parishioners offered to board up the stained-glass windows or physically stand guard.

The city has imposed a curfew from 7 p.m. to 5 a.m. on Sunday and Monday, with the city evaluating whether it should be exceeded.

City Attorney Anita Hitchcock said curfew violators will be charged with a misdemeanor and face up to 90 days in jail and up to a $500 in fined and costs.

Read more on MLive:

Police brutality protests in Michigan: What you need to know from this weekends rallies, riots

Damage from Grand Rapids rioting a nightmare, business owners say

Protesters smash windows and set fires in Grand Rapids, police use tear gas and flash-bangs

Peaceful protest in Grand Rapids devolves into riot, looting and fires

Throngs crowd downtown Kalamazoo from days second protest
IDEA Public Schools co-founder Tom Torkelson will receive $900,000 as part of a separation agreement reached last month, when he resigned as CEO after a two-decade run with the states largest charter school operator, according to a copy of the deal obtained Friday.

The amount far exceeds the annual salary of Texas highest-paid school leaders, who typically earned $300,000 to $450,000. Torkelsons base salary on his four-year contract with IDEA, which had two-plus years left on it, called for an annual salary of $275,000 and performance bonuses of up to $200,000.

IDEA officials said Torkelson also received a similar amount of compensation from IPS Enterprises, a nonprofit offshoot of the charter network, bringing his total annual payment close to the $900,000 settlement amount. IPS Enterprises was formed to assist the charters expansion nationally and does not receive taxpayer funds, relying in large part on private donations.

In the separation agreement, obtained through a public records request, IDEA leaders and Torkelson said the deal was reached to avoid a protracted dispute process, to avoid extensive legal expenses and costs including litigation costs that might otherwise be incurred, to preserve needed philanthrophy to IDEA and to resolve any and all disputes with finality.

With respect to the transition of Tom Torkelson as CEO and Executive Chair of IDEA Public Schools, the IDEA board and Tom worked earnestly to facilitate an orderly transition, IDEA Board Chairman Al Lopez wrote in a letter to IDEA affiliates.

With the assistance of professional advisers, counsel and a respected independent facilitator, an agreement was reached whereby IDEA Public Schools will pay Tom $900,000 to facilitate this transition.

IDEA officials said the payout will come from public and private funds, though they did not specify an exact breakdown.

The charters leaders do not expect the $900,000 amount will trigger a Texas law that requires state officials to dock payment of taxpayer funds to districts that pay out more than a years worth of salary and benefits in severance to a superintendent. The law only specificies that independent school districts are subject to the provision.

Most recently, the Texas Education Agency docked Katy ISD by $513,754 after reaching a settlement agreement totaling $955,795 with former superintendent Lance Hindt.

Torkelson drew widespread praise from charter advocates and other education leaders during his tenure building IDEA, which operates 91 schools in Texas enrolling 49,500 students, along with five campuses in Louisiana. IDEA is scheduled to open its first four Houston-area schools this year on two sites in northern Harris County.

However, his leadership came under fire in the months prior to resignation after the disclosure of plans to lease a private jet and costs totaling $400,000 associated with the luxury boxes and event tickets.

Immediately following his resignation, Torkelson said he believed there was 100 percent unanimity that this was the right call for the organization at this time. IDEA board members selected co-founder and superintendent JoAnn Gama as Torkelsons replacement.

Torkelson did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.

jacob.carpenter@chron.com
By Associated Press

LOS ANGELES: Police have arrested nearly 1,400 people in 17 US cities as protests continue over the death of George Floyd.

Floyd died on Monday in Minnesota after a police officer put his knee on Floyd's neck for more than eight minutes.

The officer was arrested on Friday and charged with third-degree murder.

But the arrest has done little to quell protests across the country.

ALSO READ | George Floyd case: 19-year-old dies after shots fired at protesters in US' Detroit

Most have been peaceful. But a few have erupted in violence, one, resulting in the death of a 19-year-old protestor when shots were fired at them.

An Associated Press tally of arrests found at least 1,383 people have been arrested since Thursday.

The actual number is likely higher as protests continue Saturday night.

Meanwhile, the White House was under a lockdown as protests over the death of an unarmed black man in custody, reached Washington on the fourth day of nationwide demonstrations against the incident in Minneapolis.

Online video showed hundreds of protesters in Lafayette Park just outside the White House on Friday, chanting "No justice, no peace", reported Xinhua news agency.

Potests over Floyd's death continued on Friday night in Minneapolis and a number of other cities, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Denver, Phoenix and Memphis, local media reported, adding that more demonstrations were expected to take place across the country through the weekend.
Scott Gottlieb, President Trump's former FDA commissioner, warned on CBS News' "Face the Nation" Sunday that "this is not the time" to be pulling out of the World Health Organization."

Why it matters: Gottlieb said Trump's decision to cut off the United States' relationship with the WHO will impact international responses not only to the coronavirus pandemic, but also to diseases like polio. For many countries that lack critical health infrastructure, the WHO functions as their Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Gottlieb said.

The backdrop: President Trump announced last week that he is ending funding for the organization after accusing it of failing to hold Beijing to account over the coronavirus pandemic.

Gottlieb noted that Trump has "valid concerns" about the WHO, but disagreed with the decision to terminate the relationship.

"I don't think pulling out was the right measure," he said. "We could have tried to reform the WHO from within, and we could have put pressure on China through the WHO, forcing China, for example, to admit Taiwan to the World Health Assembly."

The big picture: Gottlieb said he believes withdrawal will result in weakened coronavirus responses around the world, particularly in some African nations that overwhelmingly rely on the WHO for health information.

"The World Health Organization is a more important entity to a lot of those countries, Gottlieb said. "It is their CDC. So pulling out of the WHO right now, and pulling away resources from that organization, I think, is going to contribute to some of the adversity and hardships that these countries face as they try to battle COVID disease."

Gottlieb noted that the WHO is also the sole funder of other health initiatives in some countries.

"For example, the polio eradication program  as best I can tell, the only entity funding that program is the WHO, so it's going to be hard for the United States to support that through other organizations."

Between the lines: As the U.S. began pulling away from the WHO, China increased its involvement in the organization, pledging an additional $30 million on top of the $86 million it gave in 20182019.

The U.S., however, gave the WHO $893 million in 20182019, by far the largest single contributor in the world.

WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus pledged in May to hold an independent review of the global coronavirus response. China backed the move, despite strongly rejecting an inquiry when Australia first proposed it.

Go deeper: Making the most of an imperfect WHO
After history-making launch of NASA-SpaceX Crew Dragon on May 30, US President Donald Trump started his address at Kennedy Space Center by lamenting the tragic death of George Floyd. The exciting day with US launching astronauts into the space from American soil for the first time in nine years coincided with the violent protests against Floyds murder in Minnesota on May 25. Trump noted that justice has never been achieved by an angry mob and ensured that justice will be delivered.

Trump not only called the entire incident that happened earlier this week as grave tragedy but said he understands the Americans are filled with horror, anger and grief. However, the US President ensured that even though he stands as an ally to justice, his administration will stand against the violence that has rocked the country for several days.

Read - Trump Lauds US' 'bold Return To Space' After NASA-SpaceX's Crew Dragon Launch

Trump noted, healing not hatred, justice not chaos, to urge Americans to refrain from the mayhem and ensuring that he understands the pain of peaceful protests.

Trump said, "The death of George Floyd on the streets of Minneapolis was a grave tragedy. It should never have happened. It has filled Americans all over the country with horror, anger, and grief."

Read - Trump Urges Minnesota Officials To Get 'tougher'

'Expedite' inquiry into Floyd's death

George Floyd, a 46-year-old African American man, died in police custody and the video of the incident spread rage across the United States while the country was already battling the fatal coronavirus outbreak. In the viral footage, the police officer, who has now been arrested, could be seen kneeling over Floyds neck while he was struggling for breath while being handcuffed. All four police officers involved in 46-year-olds arrest have been fired and the Federal Bureau of Investigation has launched a federal civil rights inquiry.

Trump also mentioned that he has asked the Attorney General and US Justice Department to expedite the investigation. But warned against the violence which according to him has nothing to do with justice or peace. The US President believes that memory of Floyd is being disregarded by looters and even mentioned that he had a word with his family. He pledged to stand with the people who knew Floyd along with many others who are protesting against his death.

"My Administration will always stand against violence, mayhem, and disorder.



We will stand with the family of George Floyd, with the peaceful protestors, and with every law-abiding citizen who wants decency, civility, safety, and security." pic.twitter.com/Wxk6qmBR69  The White House (@WhiteHouse) May 30, 2020

Read - George Floyd Protests Live Updates: 'Will Always Stand Against Violence & Disorder': Trump

Read - NASA-SpaceX Launch Provides Trump Moment To Relish During Difficult Week

Image Source: AP
BIG RAPIDS  5 Star Food Express franchise owner, Andy Bogart, said he appreciates all the support from the Big Rapids community on the launch of his new food delivery service.

Bogart began the food delivery service in early May, with many local restaurants taking advantage of the opportunity to serve more customers.

Bogart, who currently serves several areas throughout western Michigan, said he was excited about the opportunity to bring the service to the Big Rapids area because of his fondness for the community and the local restaurants in the area.

Business has been pretty typical for opening in a new market, Bogart said. The last few days have been really good for us. We are getting some repeat customers and thats a good thing.

5 Star Food Express currently delivers from 14 area restaurants, including local favorites such as, Raven BBQ & Brew, Crankers Restaurant & Brewery and Blue Cow, as well as fast food chains like Buffalo Wild Wings, Mancinos Pizza and Jimmy Johns sandwich shop.

Buffalo Wild Wings is a big customer draw, Bogart said. People like being able to have their food delivered.

Bogart said they are adding additional restaurants all the time to expand the service. They are currently working with the marketing manager for CL Pizza Co. and Antlers Fireside Grill in Canadian Lakes and hope to have those markets available soon.

The marketing manager really wants to get it started, but they are working out some kinks, Bogart said. Antlers changes their menu routinely, with different specials every day, so that is a challenge as far as keeping that up to date on the website.

Nawal's Mediterranean Grille is interested in trying it, as well, he added, but they are dealing with supply issues right now. In addition, everything they serve is locally sourced, so their menu changes regularly also.

Bogart said he anticipates the new market to grow mostly through word-of-mouth, and that growth will depend a lot on what Gov. Gretchen Whitmer decides to do.

When we are opened up 100 percent, we expect a drop off in business because people will be wanting to 'dine-in' once again, he said. But we also expect there will be that segment of the population that will still prefer to have the food delivered for safety reasons, and because they just like the service.

Bogart said many in the restaurant business believe that take out numbers will continue to grow even after the economy is opened up again, because people like the convenience, and restaurant owners like to be able to provide that extra service to their customers.

For customers concerned about safety, food delivery drivers are taking extra precautions in light of the coronavirus pandemic, Bogart said. They are wearing masks and gloves, and practicing no-contact delivery.

Drivers will place the delivery at the customers door, ring the doorbell and step back 10 feet and wait to confirm the delivery, Bogart said. Everything is paid for ahead of time online or on the app when the order is placed, so there is no signature required and no money is changing hands.

There is no personal contact, which is a little disappointing, because I like to put that personal touch on things, he said.

In addition, drivers carry hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes, and wipe everything down between deliveries, he added. If they have to go inside a restaurant to pick up an order, they wash their hands and use hand sanitizer before they make the delivery.

We got a lot going on and we are very excited about how things are working out so far, Bogart said. We look forward to the continued support of our Big Rapids restaurants and customers. We are looking forward to when Ferris students are able to return to campus and expect to get a lot of support from them.

5 Star Food Express delivery service is available anywhere within the 49307 zip code area. There is a flat rate $5 delivery charge for each order, plus a service fee of 15% of the order total.

To order from 5 Star Food express, visit westmichigan.5star.express, download the 5 Star Food Express app, or call 616-863-7857.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-01 04:43:02|Editor: huaxia

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LOS ANGELES, May 31 (Xinhua) -- Los Angeles declared another curfew effective local time 8:00 p.m. Sunday to 5:30 a.m. Monday as the second largest city in the United States braced for another day of unrest and potentially violent protests sparked by death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announced the order at a press conference Sunday noon after a night of looting and vandalism in the city's downtown and shopping streets.

Other cities in Southern California, including Santa Ana, Culver City and West Hollywood, which joined Los Angeles in proclaiming an overnight curfew on Saturday, also extended the curfew to local time 5:30 a.m. Monday.

Police continued to arrest people who were looting stores or were on the streets in violation of a city curfew early Sunday morning and hundreds of the members of California National Guard were deployed overnight in Los Angeles downtown to restore the order.

California governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in Los Angeles County on Saturday night to cope with the unrest, which, with a population of more than 10 million population, is the most populous county in the United States.

The document signed by Newsom attributed the Los Angeles protests to a response to the death of George Floyd.

"On May 25, 2020, George Floyd tragically died in Minneapolis, Minnesota, shortly following his arrest in which an officer of the Minneapolis Police Department kneeled on his neck to detain him during the arrest, and then did not respond to Mr. Floyd's requests for help when he stated that he could not breathe," the document read.

The Consulate General of China in Los Angeles issued a note to Chinese citizens living in the area, reminding them to follow curfew imposed by local authority and skip places where the protests and riots erupted. Enditem
The company had posted sales of 12,138 units in May 2019, TKM said in a statement. "We are conscious of the dealer business conditions in various parts of the country and we have been prioritising production at our end as per dealer requirements, both in terms of quantity as well as the grades that they require," TKM Senior Vice President, Sales & Service, Naveen Soni said in a statement. ALSO READ: Coronavirus LIVE: Delhi Police loses 2 ASIs ...

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A Mercedes-Benz showroom in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province / Courtesy of Mercedes-Benz Korea



Mercedes-Benz Korea is making a broad range of efforts to provide premium experiences to customers from their purchase of vehicles through to after-sales services, the brand said Thursday.



Of those efforts, Mercedes-Benz Korea said it is refurbishing its showrooms and their network across the country so they can provide improved accessibility and a fulfilling brand experience at separate spaces in the showrooms.



In April, Mercedes-Benz Korea opened a new showroom-service center in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, which is one of the largest showrooms among those in Seoul and the surrounding Gyeonggi Province.



The Goyang showroom distinguished its spaces for Mercedes-Benz's sub-brands with its Exclusive Lounge for Mercedes-Maybach, AMG Performance Center for high-performing Mercedes-AMG and EQ Experience Zone for Mercedes-Benz's electric vehicle (EV) brand EQ.



The Exclusive Lounge is a separate space for Mercedes-Maybach customers, allowing customers to observe Maybach vehicles in a private and exclusive environment. The AMG Performance Center is a showroom exclusive for AMG vehicles, providing a high-performance experience for customers. The EQ Experience Zone is reserved for the brand's EVs, where EV technicians and service advisers provide tailored services for EV customers.



Including the Goyang showroom, Mercedes-Benz Korea currently has 59 authorized showrooms, 70 service centers and 22 second-hand vehicle showrooms across the country. This is the largest network for a single import brand in Korea.





Mercedes-Benz technicians inspect a vehicle in this undated file photo. Courtesy of Mercedes-Benz Korea
Taxpayers could end up forking out more than $1 billion to the victims of the bungled "robo-debt" scheme after Attorney-General Christian Porter conceded the Commonwealth may have to pay damages to the hundreds of thousands of people hit with debt notices based on flawed calculations.

But the Morrison government is refusing to apologise to those caught up in its controversial scheme while it faces a legal stoush and has suggested that other government debt-recovery schemes had also been unlawful.

A class action over the scheme, which relied on income tax assessments made by the ATO that turned out to be inaccurate, will go ahead despite the government announcing late on Friday it would repay $721 million to 373,000 people.

Labor is calling on the government to apologise to thousands of people wrongly made to repay funds to Centrelink.
The study led by researchers from Binghamton University, State University of New York was published in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.David Werner, associate professor of psychology, and Linda Spear, distinguished professor of psychology, led a team of Binghamton University researchers in examining whether exposure to anaesthetics during adolescence could affect a person's response to alcohol in adulthood, especially the development of AUD.Anaesthetics are commonly used drugs in the healthcare field and are often administered to children to induce unconsciousness and immobility during surgeries.Researchers discovered that anaesthetic exposure during adolescence may be an environmental risk factor that leads to an increased susceptibility to developing AUD later in life. Although not all adolescents who drink alcohol develop AUDs, Werner said it's important to identify risk factors that contribute to an increased susceptibility to alcohol abuse."This is highly concerning. Given that although the age of initiation and subsequent binging during adolescence is linked to alcoholism later in life, apart from stress, it was not clear what other environmental factors may play a role. This study now highlights a previously overlooked contributor," Werner said.To test this, researchers exposed early-adolescent male rats to isoflurane, a general anaesthetic, in short durations and tested them on various alcohol-induced behaviours later in adolescence or adulthood.The team found that exposure to anaesthetics in adolescence had extremely similar behavioural and neural effects as adolescent chronic alcohol exposure. During their study, the adolescent rats exposed to isoflurane had a decreased sensitivity to the negative effects of alcohol, such as its aversive, sedative and socially suppressive effects.These rats also showed an increase in voluntary alcohol consumption and cognitive impairment, and certain behaviours continued into adulthood after their initial anaesthetic exposure.These results further suggest that exposure to anaesthetics during adolescence, while in some cases is necessary, may have unintended consequences that incubate over time."Apart from infancy to early childhood, adolescence can be considered the most critical developmental stage following birth," Werner said."Given that adolescence is a time period that most often coincides with initial exposure to drugs of abuse, primarily alcohol, we initially performed a retrospective analysis of alcohol responding to our previous data with regard to adolescents that had experienced a surgical event. Noting a potential difference, we then wanted to empirically test whether or not the relationship between adolescent anaesthetic exposure and behaviours linked to alcohol use disorder susceptibility," added Werner.Although the use of anaesthetics is vital for certain surgeries and can't be avoided, Werner said it's important to know the drug's potential effects."Above all, anaesthetics are necessary - which obviously is why they are rightfully included in the essential medicines by the World Health Organization. In the event that the health condition of children and adolescents necessitates an operative procedure, then these should absolutely be used," Werner said."That being said, we hope that this work can be used to inform people, especially younger individuals considering elective procedures that could be delayed into adulthood such as plastic surgery or weight loss procedures, as well as potentially leading to additional screening diagnostics to help identify individuals who may have greater drug use disorder susceptibility," added Werner.Werner plans to continue research on this topic and hopes to examine whether the effects from anesthetics are similar to other substances, as well as the underlying molecular mechanisms in the brain and individual differences. (ANI)
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 31

By Jeila Aliyeva - Trend:



Polypropylene was sold to Russia, Great Britain, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Afghanistan at the auction of the State Commodity Exchange of Turkmenistan, Trend reports with reference to Turkmenistans State News Agency.



The State Commodity Exchange of Turkmenistan registered 67 transactions. The transactions were concluded both in foreign currency and in Turkmen manat.



The above-mentioned countries also purchased aviation kerosene for foreign currency produced at the Turkmenbashi Complex of Oil Refineries.



High-density polyethylene, polypropylene, ECO-93 gasoline (produced at Turkmengas State Concern) and plastic containers became the subjects of transactions of businessmen from Russia, the UAE, Belize and Afghanistan.



Businessmen from Russia, Great Britain, the UAE, and Turkey purchased handmade carpets and cotton yarn worth more than 4 million Turkmen manat ($1.1 million).



Entrepreneurs from Turkmenistan bought high-density polyethylene and polypropylene (produced at Turkmengas State Concern) and handmade carpets for the total amount of over 17,400 million manat ($4.9 million) for the domestic market.



The state commodity exchange of Turkmenistan was established on July 29, 1994. It is the most important body of state regulation of export-import operations.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @JeilaAliyeva
A few years ago, Midland County Hospital District adopted a new mission statement, formalizing its role in leading health care for Greater Midland. Soon thereafter, the district began doing business as Midland Health, illustrating the increasing importance of the community health infrastructure it had built beyond the walls of Midland Memorial Hospital.

More than 50 of your fellow citizens serve on one of Midland Healths three governing Boards, including the elected board of directors. For over 2 1/2 years, these boards have been studying solutions to the upcoming federal government cuts to supplemental Medicaid funding received by our hospital. These funds have been used over the years to build up a health-care infrastructure which supports the work done by Midland Memorial Hospital, including physician recruitment and ongoing support, graduate medical education at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, inpatient behavioral health services at Oceans Behavioral Health and the Springboard Center and Midland Community Healthcare Services primary care offerings for low-income adults and children. These and other non-hospital services cost Midland Health more than $40 million per year, and their continued existence will be jeopardized if an alternative source of revenue is not established immediately.

The board of directors of Midland County Hospital District has identified a county-wide sales tax of a quarter of a 1 percent as the best available source of local support to replace the lost Medicaid funding. By choosing sales tax funding instead of focusing on property tax increases, the board is recognizing the importance of spreading the cost of local health-care infrastructure to everyone who benefits from it, including residents of nearby communities who regularly visit Midland for health care and many other needs and interests. If the quarter-cent sales tax passes, everyone who buys taxable goods or services in Midland County will contribute to the support of the Hospital District, regardless of where they live. More than 21 percent of Midland Health patients live outside Midland County, many in the rural counties immediately surrounding us.

A quarter of 1 percent sales tax will bring a projected $28 million in annual revenue to Midland Health, replacing the majority of the lost federal funding but representing a minimal cost to most consumers. For example, it would add just a penny to a $4 fast food meal, or $1.50 to the cost of a new $600 TV. Food and medication purchases are generally not taxable. If you buy a new car, only the state component of sales tax applies, so the new quarter-cent tax would cost you nothing. Most importantly, the burden of supporting our communitys health-care infrastructure is shared by everyone who relies on the goods and services available in Midland, not just those who own property here.

During this COVID-19 crisis, the hospitalized patients with COVID-19 are managed by infectious disease and critical care physicians recruited by Midland Health from a very small national pool. Hospitalists work around the clock to provide the inpatient care these patients require. Pathologists guide the testing and reporting necessary for other clinicians to make timely treatment decisions. All these specialists and many more across the community are partially funded by Midland Health. Professional fees, especially for Medicare and Medicaid patients, simply do not cover the cost of recruiting and retaining these vital physicians. If Midland Health cannot fund their practices, our community probably will not be able to keep them.

We cannot afford to lose this health-care infrastructure. You may think it is not important as you do not intend to use it. But when you have your heart attack, or you have your stroke, or your child or grandchild is in an automobile accident, or you get COVID-19, Midland Memorial Hospital is where you are going. There is no time to go anywhere else. So, when the doors of our emergency room burst open and it is YOU on the gurney, how good do we have to be? How much health care do you want delivered to you in that moment when your health or your life is on the line?

That is the question you must answer in this election on July 14. I urge you to vote FOR Proposition A and say YES! to health care.

Rosalind Redfern Grover is the chair of the Midland Memorial Foundation board of governors.
One person was shot dead and at least two more injured in Indianapolis on Saturday night amid protests over the death of George Floyd.

Authorities say they are investigating 'multiple shootings,' including one that left a person dead, in downtown Indianapolis.

Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Chief Randal Taylor confirmed the shootings during a late night news conference, but didn't offer any more details.

He spoke to the media shortly after midnight to say 'enough is enough'.

George Floyd protests in Indianapolis turned dangerous for a second night Saturday

Police called people who are not residents of the downtown Indianapolis area to go home on Saturday after they claimed a small group of people escalated violence at a protest

'Indianapolis, we are better than this. Downtown is not safe at this time. Residents who do not live in the downtown area, we're asking to please vacate the area.'

According to the IndyStar, Taylor said that the police supported the right to peaceful protest but that a small group of people had escalated the violence throughout the night.

The police department said that it was forced to disperse a crowd at Market and Alabama Streets after projectiles were repeatedly thrown at officers and windows were broken at government buildings.

'Earlier this evening our officers worked to protect our residents' right to peaceful protests. Most of those protesters cooperated and did a fine job. For that, we're thankful,' he said.

'However, there was a small group of people that escalated to violent acts, including throwing projectiles at officers and breaking windows of government buildings.

'Since then, we have seen continued and escalating incidents of violence. This includes shots fired and loss of life,' he added.

'This is not acceptable in this community. This behavior will not be tolerated by IMPD. We're asking that residents who do not live in the downtown area go home.'

As the group continued, there were reports of looting at restaurants and small fires set in dumpsters, banks and other locations along city streets.

Police later tweeted that no officers were involved as they again urged residents to avoid the downtown area.

A further statement from the police at around 1am on Sunday morning reported further shootings.

People in Indianapolis on Saturday protest the death of George Floyd, a handcuffed black man who died in police custody on Memorial Day in Minneapolis

The police say that the protest in Indianapolis was mostly peaceful but that a small group began throwing projectiles at officers and breaking windows of government buildings

'We support our residents' right to lawful and peaceful protests,' the department said.

'For the safety of everyone in our city, we continue to urge residents to be peaceful in their advocacy.'

'These are NOT officer-involved incidents,' it added.

'IMPD officers have not fired shots tonight.'

Protests became dangerous for a second straight night in Indianapolis as buildings were damaged, officers deployed tear gas and at least one business was briefly on fire.

According to IndyStar, the department did not know for certain how many people were arrested but Deputy Chief Josh Barker said it was 'a number'.

'It has been driven by violent and riotous behavior by some of the individuals who have come to the downtown area this evening,' he said.

People broke windows on Monument Circle in Indianapolis on Saturday night as protests continued over the death of George Floyd

A man uses a fire extinguisher as groups defied a request to end the demonstration at 7pm

'We saw one of the most successful protests that has ever experienced,' Barker added as he commended the daytime demonstrations.

He said the police department met with protesters and organized traffic control.

The demonstrators had been asked by Mayor Joe Hogsett to disperse by 7pm but some ignored the request.

'Unfortunately,' Barker said, 'there were several people who had no intention to protest. Their intention was to riot. When they culminated in front of the City-County building on Market Street, they made those intentions very well known.'

It was reported that at least six people were arrested after protesters broke windows and entered the City County Building around 9pm Saturday.

It was after this point that protesters were told they were now an 'unlawful assembly' and tear gas was deployed.

Rioting and violence continued in small pockets until the early hours of Sunday morning.

Elsewhere in the U.S. George Floyd riots spiraled out of control Saturday night as cop cars were torched, stores were looted and at least 10 states activated the National Guard on a fifth night of protests that show no signs of stopping.

Chicago: A Chicago police vehicle is set on fire during violent protests and bricks are hurled at it

Washington DC: The National Guard was activated to defend the White House from attack as the Secret Service agents on the ground struggled to keep control of crowds descending on the seat of the US government

Scenes of destruction continued to spread across America as the death of the black man at the hands of white cop Derek Chauvin ignited outrage over what many feel is a systemic problem with police brutality against African-American men.

In Minneapolis, protesters were seen fleeing after cops hurled tear gas into the crowds while some responded by launching fireworks back at officers.

The National Guard was activated to defend the White House from attack as the Secret Service agents on the ground struggled to keep control of crowds descending on the seat of the US government.

The Big Apple was ablaze as NYPD vehicles were torched and ransacked while shocking footage emerged of cops violently detaining protesters.

A man was left critically injured in Dallas when he was attacked and stomped on by a group of people when he allegedly tried to defend a store with a large sword.

Washington DC: The seat of the government was under threat from protesters

New York: The Big Apple was ablaze as NYPD vehicles were engulfed in flames while shocking footage emerged of cops violently detaining protesters

In Atlanta a cop suffered 'significant injuries' when they were hit by an ATV, while in Chicago, a man commandeered a police horse and rode off on it.

Los Angeles deployed the National Guard for the first since the 1992 riots when the police officers who beat up black man Rodney King walked free of all charges and California Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in LA County.

At least 10 states and the District of Columbia have either activated or requested the National Guard including Minnesota, Georgia, Ohio, Colorado, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Utah and Texas as local law enforcement struggle to bring the carnage under control.

Meanwhile at least 25 cities rolled out emergency curfews to try to bring rioting and looting under control, including San Francisco, Atlanta, Louisville, Los Angeles, Portland, Columbia, South Carolina, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Seattle.

President Trump has put the Army on notice to deploy to the streets with a four-hour notice - the first time this will have been done in almost 20 years since the 1992 LA riots over the beating of black man Rodney King by cops.
We were fortunate, however, to have Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) and former vice president Joe Biden speak to the country with grace, humility, compassion and determination. The ashes are symbolic of decades and generations of pain, of anguish, unheard, Walz said at a Friday news conference. He apologized profusely for the arrest of an African American journalist covering protests in Minneapolis and for failing to secure the community. I will not patronize you as a white man without living those lived experiences about how very difficult that is, Walz said. But Im asking you to help us. Help us use a humane way to get the streets to a place where we can restore the justice.
Here are the latest developments in the coronavirus crisis.

- More than six million cases -

The pandemic has killed at least 369,086 people worldwide since it surfaced in China late last year, according to an AFP tally at 1100 GMT on Sunday, based on official sources.

There have been more than six million cases registered in 196 countries and territories.

The United States is the worst-hit country with 103,781 deaths. It is followed by Britain with 38,376, Italy with 33,340, Brazil with 28,834, France with 28,771 and Spain with 27,125.

- Trump delays G7 -

US President Donald Trump announces he will delay the Group of Seven summit, headed by the US this year and scheduled to take place in June by videoconference.

Trump had said he might hold the gathering in-person, though German Chancellor Angela Merkel declined outright, followed by varying reactions from other members.

The G7 could now take place in September, Trump says, or it could take place after the US presidential election in November.

- Spain seeks lockdown extension -

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez says he will seek parliament's approval to extend Spain's state of emergency one final time, which would keep the lockdown in place until June 21.

The sixth extension since March will need to be ratified on Wednesday by the parliament.

- 'Everything will be different' -

Pope Francis, speaking in a video message to mark the feast of Pentecost, says the post-pandemic world will be changed for "better or worse" by the coronavirus crisis.

"Once we emerge from this pandemic, we will not be able to keep doing what we were doing, and as we were doing it. No, everything will be different," he says.

- Jerusalem mosque reopens -

Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque compound, Islam's third holiest site, reopens after a more than two months, with new measures in place.

Worshippers have their temperatures taken and staff distribute masks, while tape on the floor inside the mosque and on the stones outside mark where people should pray at a safe distance.

- Saudi Arabia too -

Mask-clad worshippers flock to Saudi mosques that reopen nationwide, except in the holy city of Mecca.

Worshippers are instructed to bring their own prayer mats and to perform the cleansing ritual, or ablution, at home, instead of in mosque grounds.

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Australia's top corporate regulator has contradicted key claims made by the chief executive of ME Bank about the boutique lender's handling of a controversial change to its mortgage redraw policy.

In a letter to a parliamentary inquiry obtained by The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, Australian Securities and Investments Commission chairman James Shipton says his agency pressed ME Bank in December to develop a communication plan and a customer remediation strategy for the now reversed policy change.

ASIC chairman James Shipton has asked ME Bank to correct the public record after inconsistent statements made by chief executive Jamie McPhee. Credit:Eamon Gallagher

The statement contradicted ME Bank CEO Jamie McPhee's earlier assertion to a Parliamentary committee that it had satisfied the regulator when it self-reported plans to alter a faulty legacy banking product.

The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald last month revealed ME Bank had restricted withdrawals from mortgage redraw accounts at the height of the coronavirus pandemic without warning customers.
Onalaska response

Regarding 'It was horrific': Tornado devastates small Texas town of Onalaska, (Apr. 23): My sister lives in a nice, quiet lake-view home in a community called Yaupon Cove in Onalaska. On April 22, an EF3 tornado hit her neighborhood as well as neighborhoods surrounding hers. Homes were leveled, many lost roofs, windows were shattered. Trees pierced roofs and demolished cars. This is Texas, and neighbors helped neighbors as much as possible. What has been nonexistent is government involvement. Gov. Greg Abbott has not even bothered to fly over the area to survey the damage. Thousands of trees were uprooted, debris from destroyed houses are piled 6 feet high along the roads, making them nearly impassable. This has devolved to the point that all this trash is beginning to pose a health hazard. Please, please everyone write and encourage the governor to get to work and help this community.

Sheryl Hewett, Livingston

Mask Up

Regarding Mask Up to show love for your family, (A14, May 28): It is disheartening that wearing a mask is a debate issue at all. Wearing a mask in public areas protects others from contracting the virus from yourself, especially when asymptomatic. Not wearing a mask is a symptom of a selfish, irresponsible society. This has nothing to do with freedom of choice, when choosing to not wear a mask may cause you to contaminate others. That said, businesses such as grocery stores, home improvement, department stores, malls, etc., should require all employees and patrons to wear masks. It is kind of appalling that all stores dont take the threat seriously and voluntarily take all measures necessary to reduce the risk. Store policies are enforceable in their own right and do not require government regulation. I do not believe they would lose any business by requiring masks prior to entry. Ill close by saying that the federal and state political leaders are much too lenient with the precautions everyone should be taking and should be demonstrating good safety practices whenever in public.

Bill Prihoda, Conroe
CLEVELAND, Ohio  Police and protesters clashed for hours in downtown Cleveland on Saturday in the wake of a chaotic demonstration against the police killing of George Floyd, following other cities throughout the country.

After protests earlier in the day that saw police cars torched and windows to the Justice Center smashed, some protesters shattered windows along main business corridors, including Euclid Avenue.

Cleveland police shot tear gas, sometimes as they drove badly damaged vans through intersections, at groups that remained downtown after Mayor Frank Jackson imposed an 8 p.m. curfew for the downtown area and declared a civil emergency. The curfew remains in effect until 8 a.m. Sunday.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine sent the National Guard to the city at the request of Jackson and Police Chief Calvin Williams. State Highway Patrol Officers blocked highway entrance ramps into downtown.

Cleveland police made multiple arrests after the curfew was imposed, Cleveland police spokeswoman Sgt. Jennifer Ciaccia said. She did not provide more information on the arrests.

Jackson in a statement said the protests turned into outright lawlessness.

This violent unlawful behavior completely overshadows the purpose of the demonstrations and those in whose honor they are held, Jacksons statement said. This criminal activity will also not be tolerated.

Several thousand protestors descended on downtown to decry the Floyds death at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer, who knelt on his neck for some eight minutes until Floyd stopped moving.

Floyds death became a rallying point for protesters across the country. In Ohio, protesters squared off with police in Columbus and Cincinnati. Curfews were also imposed in those cities.

A peaceful protest that began at the Free Stamp turned volatile when the group marched to the Justice Center, the downtown building that houses police headquarters, the county jail and courthouse.

Protesters set several police cars ablaze, smashed windows and spray-painted graffiti, including references to Tamir Rice, the 12-year-old boy fatally shot by a Cleveland police officer in 2014, and past riots in Cleveland in the 1960s.

Officers in full riot gear repeatedly fired tear gas into the crowd. Protesters often scooped up the canister and threw it back at the officers.

Protesters left the area around the Justice Center and branched east. Groups tore down Euclid Avenue from Public Square, smashing windows and emptying stores. Geigers, a family-owned sporting goods and clothing store, was ransacked of goods and mannequins. The windows at Heinens were smashed and aisles were lined with crushed and spilled food. Ceramic planters were shattered on the sidewalk.

Red spray paint emblazoned should have listened to us earlier on the shattered windows at the Halle Building. A pillar outside the Starbucks at Playhouse Square was graffitied with Do you hear us now?

The air was filled with the constant screech of security alarms, police and EMS sirens, tires peeling out and protest chants, interrupted by sporadic pops of firecrackers and tear gas canisters.

Police and sheriffs deputies in riot gear clashed with demonstrators minutes after the 8 p.m. curfew went into effect at East 9th Street and Euclid Avenue. People in the crowd chucked water bottles and construction debris at police who had come to the intersection in a Cuyahoga County Sheriffs Department bus used to transport prisoners. The police blocked the intersection as officers deployed tear gas and made several arrests.

The crowd broke into smaller factions that scattered across downtown and continued smashing windows.

Another confrontation broke out at East 9th Street and Prospect Avenue, where police fired flash bangs on crowds of demonstrators, some of whom chucked fire crackers at police in return. A group of police officers inside a City of Cleveland van that had earlier been vandalized and spray painted with the anti-cop message f - - - 12 fired a flash bang at a crowd near the windows of Paninis downtown as they drove past.

13 Looting in downtown Cleveland

Read more from cleveland.com:

Cleveland mayor issues imposes 8 p.m. curfew, Ohio Gov. activates National Guard after George Floyd protest turns volatile

Riots ravage downtown Cleveland, after protests over George Floyds death turn violent

Protestors break windows, set police cars on fire as George Floyd demonstrations turn violent in downtown Cleveland

Clevelanders protest George Floyds death at Justice Center as demonstration turns violent

Columbus police confront protesters for a third day after George Floyds death
Description

"Cinema Arts Centre presents a new online streaming series in partnership with Exhibition On Screen & Seventh Art Productions featuring a different art exhibition film every two weeks in our Virtual Screening Room!



This eagerly awaited exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts was the first ever retrospective devoted to the portraiture of Edouard Manet. Spanning this enigmatic and, at times, controversial artist's entire career Manet: Portraying Life brought together works from across Europe, Asia and the USA.



Manet's portraiture has never been explored in exhibition form, despite it forming around half of his artistic output. He painted his family, friends and the literary, political and artistic figures of the day, giving life not only to his subjects but also to Parisian society. The exhibition consisted of more than 50 works; including portraits of his most frequent sitter, his wife Suzanne Leenhoff, luminaries of the period; Antonin Proust, Emile Zola and Stephane Mallarme, along with scenes from everyday life revealing Manet's forward-thinking, modern approach to portraiture.



The film reveals exclusive behind-the-scenes moments of the exhibition's preparation, which normally go unseen by the public, and interweaves a detailed, superbly crafted biography of Manet and 19th century Paris. Host Tim Marlow and special guests look at the craft of one of the all-time great artists, the 'father of modern art'. (90 min.)



Tickets are limit one (1) per customer. Advance payment may be made anytime prior to the start of the event. To access your content when it is available, please return to this page and select "click to stream" and sign in to view your content during the event window. When you click "play," you will have 72 hours to watch the show.



Thank you for your support of the Cinema Arts Centre at this time. If you need assistance with any step of your ticket purchase, please reach out to info@cinemaartscentre.org and a customer service representative will be in touch within 24 hours."



Cinema Arts Centre
The United Nations on Friday honoured three Nigerians and 80 other military, police and civilian peacekeepers, who lost their lives in the line of duty in 2019.

The fallen heroes were posthumously awarded the Dag Hammarskjold Medal during a virtual award ceremony to mark the 2020 International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers.

Two of them, Henry Ukomadu, a police sergeant, and Moshood Lasisi, an Army warrant officer, died while serving with the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in Mali (MINUSMA).

The third fallen Nigerian peacekeeper, Gabriel Shogaolu, died while serving also with MINUSMA but in civilian capacity in 2017.

During the ceremony, streamed live on the UN website, the recipients' names were announced and displayed on the screen alongside condolence messages from their countries' Permanent Representatives to the UN.

In his message, the Deputy Permanent Representative of Nigeria at the UN, Samson Itegboje, extended the "deep condolences and heartfelt sympathies" of the federal government to the families and countries of the deceased.

Mr Itegboje, who participated in the ceremony, currently serves as Chairman of the UN Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations on behalf of Nigeria.

Nigeria, one of the world's largest troop contributors to the UN peacekeeping operations, was re-elected chair of the committee also known as C-34 for the 48th time in March.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres who presided at the award ceremony, expressed gratitude to the 95,000 UN peacekeepers currently deployed around the world.

Mr Guterres said "they are facing one of the greatest challenges ever: delivering on their peace and security mandates while helping countries to address the COVID-19 pandemic".

He announced the death of two military UN peacekeepers (one from Cambodia and the other from El Salvador) killed by COVID-19 on Thursday and Friday.

"I now ask all of you, wherever you are, to feel strongly the solidarity with those families that are also permanently in our memory, in our attention.

"This is because they were the ones who suffered more to get less with those fallen in the line of duty," the secretary-general said.

On the theme of this year's event, "Women in Peacekeeping" that highlights their central role in UN operations, Guterres stated that women peacekeepers "play an essential role for the success of our peace operations".

Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Nigeria Peacekeeping By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later.

"Day by day, women peacekeepers help improve all aspects of our operations and performance; they ensure better access to local communities.

"They prevent and reduce conflict and confrontation, and they serve as role models for their peers and others.

"As we commemorate the 20th anniversary of Security Council resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security, we must do more to achieve women's equal representation in all areas of peace and security," he asserted.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the ceremony also featured a presentation of the UN Military Gender Advocate Award to two female peacekeepers.

The recipients are Commander Carla Araujo of the Brazilian Navy, deployed with the UN Mission in the Central African Republic, and Suman Gawani, a major in the Indian Army, a Military Observer formerly with the UN Mission in South Sudan.

(NAN)
<! The killer-policeman >

By Kazeem Ugbodaga

A policeman who went berserk and shot his colleague dead has been arrested by the Lagos State Police Command.

The culprit, Inspector Monday Gabriel from No 21 Police Mobile Force Squadron Abuja, on Special duty in a Federal Government facility in Ikoyi, Lagos, went berserk and started shooting sporadically.

He shot one Sergeant Felix Okago dead. Okago, who was on Special duty with the Inspector, died from the gunshot injuries while others escaped unhurt.

It was gathered that the police officer, in a bid to escape, was shooting sporadically on Third Mainland Bridge and was later arrested by policemen from Bariga Division along Akoka, disarmed and handcuffed.

Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Bala Elkana, in a statement said on Sunday at about 04:30am, Area A Command received a distress call that one Inspector Monday Gabriel from No 21 Police Mobile Force Squadron Abuja, on Special duty in a Federal Government facility in Ikoyi Lagos, went berserk and started shooting sporadically.

One Sergeant Felix Okago who was on Special duty with the Inspector, died from the gunshot injuries while others escaped unhurt. In an attempt to escape, he took a patrol van and headed towards Third Mainland Bridge, shooting as he was escaping.

He was intercepted by Policemen from Bariga Division along Akoka, disarmed and handcuffed. The rifle and vehicle were recovered. The corpse of the deceased Sergeant is deposited in the mortuary for autopsy while the Inspector is taken to Police Hospital for medical examination as he presented signs of mental depression, Elkana said.

Elkana said the Commissioner of Police had directed the Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of investigation to take over the investigation.

He said the Command deeply condoled with the family of the fallen colleague who paid the supreme price in service to his fatherland.
New Delhi: Two officials of the High Commission of Pakistan in New Delhi were apprehended on Sunday by Indian law enforcement authorities on charges of spying, the ministry of external affairs said in a statement.

"The Government has declared both these officials persona non grata for indulging in activities incompatible with their status as members of a diplomatic mission and asked them to leave the country within twenty four hours," it read.

The statement further said that Pakistan's Charge de Affaires was issued a demarche in which a strong protest was lodged with regard to the activities of the Pakistani officials against India's national security.

"Pakistan's CdA was asked to ensure that no member of its diplomatic mission should indulge in activities inimical to India or behave in a manner incompatible with their diplomatic status," the ministry said.

Abid Hussain and Muhammad Tahir were caught by police while obtaining sensitive documents relating to Indian security establishment from an Indian national in exchange of money, official sources said.

The officials, working at the visa section of the Pakistan High Commission, confessed during the interrogation that they worked for Pakistani spy agency ISI, the sources said.

Reacting to the Centre's action, Pakistan said that the move was accompanied by a negative, pre-planned and orchestrated media campaign.

"The Indian action has been accompanied by a negative, pre-planned and orchestrated media campaign, which is a part of persistent anti-Pakistan propaganda," the Foreign Office said in a statement.

"We condemn the detention and torture as well as threatening and pressuring of the diplomatic officials to accept false charges," it said.

It said the Indian action is in "clear violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations as well as the norms of diplomatic conduct especially in an already vitiated atmosphere".

The punitive action against the two officials came in the midst of frayed ties between the two countries over reorganisation of Jammu and Kashmir by India.

Pakistan had downgraded diplomatic ties by expelling the Indian High Commissioner in Islamabad following India's decision to withdraw special status of Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcate the state into two union territories in August last year.

The sources said the two officials were handing over Indian money and an iPhone for providing them the documents. They initially claimed that they were Indian nationals and even produced fake Aadhaar cards, the sources said.

(With PTI inputs)
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Our reporters captured the anger and confusion on Saturday, as a peaceful protest that began at Pan Pacific Park intensified over the course of several hours.

Multiple police cars were set on fire, tensions rose in clashes between LAPD officers and the public, and smoke filled the streets near The Grove in Fairfax.

The escalation of events is present in the photos, which start with peaceful marching organized by Black Lives Matter and ends with police in helmets holding batons against curtains of smoke, shooting rubber bullets and tear gas into the crowd.

MORE ON LA PROTESTS

QUESTIONS? Let us know if you have one you'd like answered

At 8 p.m. Mayor Garcetti called in the National Guard.

Here is a collection of images from the day, in chronological order, starting with the damage in downtown Saturday morning (from Friday's protest) and ending Saturday evening in mid-city after our photographer was tear-gassed:

Zara windows were still smashed at the Fig@&7th shopping center downtown on Saturday morning, May 30. (Chava Sanchez/LAist)

Protesters march near Pan Pacific Park today in Los Angeles. May 30, 2020. (Chava Sanchez/LAist)

Protesters march near Pan Pacific Park against the death of George Floyd. (Chava Sanchez/LAist)

A sign at today's protest reads "Care Not Cops." (Chava Sanchez/LAist)

Protesters march down 3rd St. with various signs against racism and police brutality. (Chava Sanchez/LAist)

A protester holds a Justice for George sign at today's march. (Chava Sanchez/LAist)

(Chava Sanchez/LAist)

Two women join today's Black Lives Matter Protest from inside their car. Pan Pacific Park, Los Angeles. May 30 2002. (Josie Huang/LAist)

A woman sings at Pan Pacific Park during a protest against the death of George Floyd. (Josie Huang/LAist)

A woman holds a sign reading "killing black people is a pandemic." (Josie Huang/LAist)

Protesters at Pan Pacific Park. (Josie Huang/LAist)

Two protesters hold a sign that reads "End White Silence." (Josie Huang/LAist)

(Josie Huang/LAist)

Smoke near 3rd and Fairfax. (Catilin Hernandez/LAist)

Protests intensify as a police car is set on fire in the Fairfax area. May 30, 2020. (Chava Sanchez/LAist)

Smoke rises from a burning police vehicle and protesters are at a stand-still after the police hold a line on 3rd and Fairfax.(Chava Sanchez/LAist)

Armed police disperse the crowd. (Chava Sanchez/LAist)

Protesters raise their arms towards police armed with rubber bullet guns. (Chava Sanchez/LAist)

Police with rubber bullet guns create a line around the protesters. (Chava Sanchez/LAist)

A police officer holds his baton at the ready as protesters raise their arms. (Chava Sanchez/LAist)

A police vehicle burns during the protest. (Chava Sanchez/LAist)

A protester stands on a car holding a sign. (Chava Sanchez/LAist)

Police with batons at the ready block the protesters forward movement. (Chava Sanchez/LAist)

Protesters and LAPD officers clash near Fairfax and 3rd. (Chava Sanchez / LAist)

An LAPD patrol car burns near the corner of Beverly and Fairfax. (Chava Sanchez / LAist)

Sheriff's deputies arrive and start moving the crowd down Beverly towards La Brea. (Chava Sanchez/LAist)

An LAPD squad car burns during the protests Saturday evening. (Chava Sanchez/LAist)

Protesters raise signs as an LAPD squad car burns in the distance. (Chava Sanchez/LAist)

Police fire rubber bullets at the protesters. (Chava Sanchez/LAist)

Police launch tear gas into crowds of protesters. (Chava Sanchez/LAist)

Police with weapons watch from a rooftop in mid-city Los Angeles. (Chava Sanchez/LAist)

Tear gas against a Los Angeles Sunset. Tear gas canisters where deployed on protesters. (Chava Sanchez/LAist)

A protester gets water poured into his eyes after tear gas is deployed. (Chava Sanchez/LAist)
Thiruvananthapuram, May 31 : The number of Covid-19 cases continues to rise in Kerala with 61 more cases reported on Sunday - 20 of these among those who came from abroad and 37 among who came from within the country, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said.

With this, the total number of positive cases in the state has touched 670, while 590 people have been cured of the disease till now.

Authorities have dismissed the existence of community spread as the ratio of total cases to contacts continues to be around 10 per cent, while the national average is more than 20 per cent.

There has been a spike in cases since May 7, when the first flight carrying the Kerala diaspora from the Middle East arrived, and till Sunday, 19,662 people have arrived by air from abroad, while around 1.10 lakh have come by train and road from elsewhere in the country.

As on Sunday, a total of 1,33,413 people are in isolation at homes and corona care centres, while 1,241 are in hospitals.

A total of 3,099 samples was sent for examination and results are awaited.

With the spike in cases, the number of hotspots also is going up and on Sunday, 10 new were added, taking the total to 116 hot spots.

With Sundays now being observed as a total shutdown day, the Kerala Police, which is on the vigil, registered 1,254 cases, arrested 1,285 people and seized 677 vehicles for lockdown violations.

Now all eyes are on Vijayan, as the Covid-19 team sits down to decide on how to go ahead with Lockdown 5.0 that signals a gradual removal of the restrictions.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Police have unidentified persons for the murder of a van driver Satnam Singh, 55, a day after his body, with a hand chopped, was found near a drain in Attari village of Ajnala sub-division on Saturday. Satnam worked with the Integrated Check Post (ICP), Attari, which facilitates Indias trade with Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The victims son, Nirmal Singh, said, On May 30, my father went out of home, but did not return. We tried to find him, but to no avail. On Sunday, someone informed us that his body was lying near the defence drain. When we reached the spot, we found that left hand of my father was chopped off. He added, A cord made of cloth was tied to my fathers neck. It appears someone killed my father and threw his body near the drain.

A case has been registered under Sections 302 (murder) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the IPC at Gharinda police station, said investigating officer SI Daljit Singh of Gharinda police station.
It appears to be a successful launch.

The main engine cutoff and there has been stage separation.

This is SpaceX Falcon 9s launch of Crew Dragons second demonstration (Demo-2) mission from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This test flight with NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley on board the Dragon spacecraft will return human spaceflight to the United States.

Demo-2 is the final major test for SpaceXs human spaceflight system to be certified by NASA for operational crew missions to and from the International Space Station. SpaceX is returning human spaceflight to the United States with one of the safest, most advanced systems ever built, and NASAs Commercial Crew Program is a turning point for Americas future in space exploration that lays the groundwork for future missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh has asked people to burst firecrackers and beat drums to prevent attacks by locust swarms

Nagpur: Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh has asked people to burst firecrackers and beat drums to prevent attacks by locust swarms.

The Minister took stock of the situation out of locust attack in his Katol constituency. Speaking to farmers, he said, "Whenever locust swarms attack, villagers should be alert. Locust attacks can be avoided by bursting firecrackers, the smoke of burning tires or if drums are played."

Earlier, Maharashtra Agriculture Minister Dada Bhuse informed that around 50 percent locust swarms were killed in the state by the Agriculture Department.

"Around 50 percent locust swarms were killed in Maharashtra by the agriculture department. Fire brigade vehicles are being used for spraying insecticides. We are providing chemicals/insecticides to farmers free of cost in the affected areas," Bhuse said.

Locust swarms from Pakistan have entered Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh, threatening major damage to standing cotton crops and vegetables, said a spokesperson of Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, adding that Rajasthan is the most affected state.

The desert locust is a species of locust, a swarming short-horned grasshopper. They are known to devour everything in their path, posing an unprecedented threat to food supply and livelihoods of millions of people.
When Jim Lihue watched the morning weather report in Moore, a suburb of Oklahoma City, on Thursday, he couldn't help but chuckle. He laughed in surprise - and cautious relief - that the month of May was almost over.

For most, May is just another month of spring, a cheerful time when the days grow long and the weather gets warmer. But for much of the central United States, May is a time to hold one's breath as the elements wage war above them. The Plains are an atmospheric battleground, and the residents who live there are routinely caught in the crossfire.

No place is that more true than in Moore, home to about 60,000. Lihue's an associate pastor at the Emmaus Baptist Church there, and has experienced more than his fair share of storms.

But this May has been remarkably quiet when it comes to tornadoes on the Plains, the typical barrages of twisters that routinely target areas between Texas and Nebraska during the month failing to materialize. It has left many meteorologists scratching their heads, while residents of the spared communities breath a sigh of relief as the month draws to a close.

May has historically been a tumultuous month for Lihue and millions of others in the Central United States. A resident of the greater Oklahoma City area for 27 years, Lihue says it's virtually impossible to live in the Sooner State and not have had some close calls over the years.

"We've been through the '99 tornado, then we've had some other ones, and then another bad one came through in 2013," he explained. Both of those tornadoes were EF5 or equivalent beasts on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, killing a combined 60 people and scouring some neighborhoods until they were virtually bare.

His family's home lies in the path of the May 3, 1999 tornado; the monster 2013 funnel passed just a quarter mile to the south.

An F2 tornado hit the city in 1998, an F3 in 2003, an EF4 in 2010, and an EF2 in 2015. At least 17 other tornadoes have struck the city since 1890, with dozens of others likely touching down at times when record-keeping was spotty.

But this year, the city hasn't even been under a single tornado warning, a streak residents are hoping continues.

"I was shocked just this morning when I heard from our local weatherman that this season has been so inactive," Lihue said in an interview Thursday.

After the second most active April for tornadoes on record, May has been extraordinarily quiet. Barely 100 twisters have spun up during a month that averages closer to three times that. The last week of the month - typically among the busiest stretches of the year - has been virtually silent.

It's the first time on record the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center, located in Norman, Oklahoma, hasn't had to break out their top tier "moderate" or "high risk" categories for a severe storm outbreak. Not a single violent tornado occurred during May, despite five having spun up already this year. In fact, preliminary reports show that all but two of May's tornadoes were on the low end of the spectrum.

All told, this May is shaping up to be among the least active in at least four decades, when only 88 tornadoes occurred during May of 1980. There's a good chance May 2020 winds up with fewer than 110 tornadoes, depending on how many of the preliminary reports are confirmed after filtering out any duplicate reports. One hundred and thirty-six preliminary tornado reports were received through May 29.

This compares to the May average of 270 twisters across the country, many of them concentrated in the Plains.

The lack of tornadoes is welcome news for millions of residents in the Plains and Midwest, where most years feature swarms of funnel clouds rolling across the landscape like clockwork. Storm chasers, on the other hand, haven't been so happy with this uneventful month.

And others wonder if the ominous calm could foreshadow an uptick come June.

Tornadoes that did form during May came not in droves, but in a trickle, and far removed from the Plains.

A few weak tornadoes briefly danced in Missouri and Tennessee on May 3 and 4, with an EF2 twister tracking for 14 miles near Lancaster, South Carolina on May 5. It was one of only two significant tornadoes that developed during the month, meaning that it had winds greater than 110 mph.

In fact, the only other significant tornado of the month - an EF3 that killed one - occurred near Church Point, Louisiana.

That's a testament to the sparsity of tornadoes that did occur in the Plains, but also alludes to the fact that many of the tornadoes that did hit there missed population centers altogether. Several twisters - like the one that danced near Bowie, Texas, on May 22, or the elephant trunk funnel that touched down south of Post, Texas, the next day - occurred primarily over open landscapes. And if they don't cause any damage, they can't be rated higher than an EF0 or an EFU, for "unknown."

Stephanie Miller, an English professor at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, says she has been "uncharacteristically unstressed" during the recent severe weather hiatus.

"It has been quiet. I don't think we've had any warnings here in Stillwater," she recounted. "Certainly I know that people expect there to be storms and to get some warnings. "

To date in 2020, the National Weather Service in Norman, Oklahoma, has only issued 29 tornado warnings across its county warning area. By this time last year, 98 such warnings had been issued.

The May hiatus comes in stark contrast to April, which featured 351 preliminary reports of tornadoes. That would put it just behind April 2011 for the second-most active May on record dating back to 1950, when reliable tornado records began.

This past April featured three high-end tornado outbreaks that spawned tornadoes by the dozen. First came the Easter weekend outbreak on April 12 and 13, which yielded 140 tornadoes. Two of them were EF4s, including a 2.25 mile wide deadly monster in Soso, Mississippi that became the United States' third-largest tornado on record.

Additional tornado outbreaks came a week later, and again from April 22 to 23, both of which brought strong to violent tornadoes.

A week later, another barrage of tornadoes plagued the South, with another EF4 tornado touching down less than 30 miles south of where two other deadly EF4s struck during the Easter weekend event. That tornado on April 19 struck Hurricane Creek, Sandy Hoo and Pine Burr, Mississippi.

Then, a third outbreak on April 22 and 23 dropped an EF3 vortex on Onalaska, Texas, killing three before the storm produced additional tornadoes in Louisiana and Mississippi.

Most noteworthy were the four EF4 tornadoes that touched down during the month - three of which took place in Mississippi, and the fourth in Hampton County, South Carolina.

The quiet month over the Central United States has been enthusiastically received at a time of high uncertainty and stress over the coronavirus pandemic and its economic fallout. At a time when many states, communities and households are increasingly strapped for cash, the lapse in damaging tornadoes represents a reduced year-over-year financial burden as well.

Overall, severe thunderstorm-induced insured losses, which include damage from tornadoes, are running more than a billion dollars below their decadal average for the month of May. That's according to Steve Bowen, a meteorologist and head of catastrophe insight at the insurance giant Aon. It's also the first time since 2007 that the month of May hasn't featured a single billion-dollar severe thunderstorm or tornado disaster.

"We're slightly below the decadal average for severe convective storms," Bowen said.

Still, weather-related losses are approaching $5 billion, he said. For example, disastrous flooding struck parts of Michigan on May 19, where one dam collapsed, flooding the city of Midland, and another was overtopped in the wake of extreme rainfall.

"It still has been a pretty costly month. We're talking losses, not just from tornadoes, approaching $5 billion," Bowen said.

That's about $1.5 billion below the running average - a token of good news during a national crisis that has left more than 40 million filing for unemployment benefits.

The year as a whole, however, has been an expensive one, with damages from severe thunderstorms tallying $20 billion. Much of the losses stem from the tornado outbreaks that struck the South during April and the vicious tornadoes that tore through Middle Tennessee on the night of March 2.

Among the major contributors have been hailstorms, which Bowen says racks up between 50 and 80 percent of the thunderstorm damage price tag during any given year.

"It's like death by a million paper cuts," said Bowen. "You have a lot of events that cause a couple hundred million dollars ... it adds up pretty quickly."

Even in areas that have been fortunate to miss out what's usually the peak of tornado season, the month of May can reawaken painful memories from years past. Virtually every day in May is an anniversary of a storm that struck years ago. And while the scars in the landscape left by past encounters with Mother Nature's fury may fade, the memories do not.

"Social media brings up the reminders to everyone quite a bit," said Lihue. "On May 20th, it was just a flashback of memories, especially from 2013. The loss of life, the schools that were hit, the loss of children. ... all of that just kind of comes roaring back every May. I'm thankful we didn't go through that again, especially this year with the pandemic."

"A lot of people that I didn't know back in 1999, you find out later that their homes (had been) destroyed," he continued. "You would have never known that because of the rebound that they have made."

Despite the painful memories, Lihue explained that a storm-riddled history has over time brought the community closer together - and made preparation part of the culture.

"I feel like there is anxiety with our kids and our families," said Lihue. "I know people always say the word 'weather aware,' but that's what they are ... people are more aware of what their response is, what they will do, what their plan of action is if a storm were to come through."

Lihue said he installed a storm shelter after the 2013 tornado. In 2015, residents of Moore voted overwhelmingly in support of a $209 million bond that would fund the construction of storm shelters in schools. As of late 2019, all schools in the Moore Public School district had shelters.

"It's great to know that they're there," said Lihue. "I feel like there is anxiety with our kids and our families. More people have in-ground shelter or above ground shelters ... it's pretty common for our area. We put one in our backyard, and just the peace of mind ... my kids know that, our neighbors know that."

It's something that Stephanie Miller witnessed firsthand when she moved to Oklahoma from New York, after pursuing a PhD in England. She noted that each of her students seems to have a story to tell.

"Many of them are close calls that were, fortunately, non-catastrophic," she explained. "I'm glad that we're experiencing a comparatively slow season."

But across Oklahoma, the relatively calm May has been far from easy. Even during a season largely devoid of tornadoes, many folks are struggling to weather the storm.

"The economic fallout that happened, that we saw locally, from covid-19, has businesses and restaurants having to close," lamented Lihue. "Local people we know who had survived previous tornadoes, previous difficulties ... now this is doing them in."

Contributing to the absence of May twisters has been an unfavorable upper-air weather pattern that's shunted the jet stream well northwest of the central and southern Plains. The jet stream, which is a corridor of swiftly-moving air in the upper atmosphere, can help spark severe thunderstorms and adds wind shear, a key ingredient that helps cause storms to spin and spawn tornadoes.

Jet stream energy has been tough to come by this May.

Equally discouraging to storm prospects was a series of lobes of cold that descended over the eastern United States. A "trough," or dip in the jet stream, hovered over the Northeast for weeks, its influence spilling westward in the form of lower humidity levels and reduced fuel for storminess over the nation's Heartland. And when that system finally withdrew, an upper-level "cutoff low," or a chilly whirl of rotating air and low pressure in the upper atmosphere, parked itself over the Southeast for days with a similar effect to its west.

Large-scale triggers for widespread storminess in the Plains have been replaced my more localized influences, making episodes of storms confined to smaller geographical regions.

Heading into June, there are no signals for widespread tornado activity down the pipeline. While there are indictions that parts of the Upper Midwest and Ohio Valley may be at an increased risk for wind-producing thunderstorms to kick off the month, the environment does not look more than marginally favorable for tornadoes anywhere across the Lower 48 in the coming week.
MUNSTER  A restaurant was plowed into after a U-Haul van hit a vehicle, sending it into the brick building.

At 5:31 p.m. Saturday, firefighters responded to a crash at Commander Family Restaurant at 745 Ridge Road in Munster, said Munster Fire Battalion Chief Kevin Nowaczyk.

The U-Haul van hit a parked car from behind, which caused the car to smash into the buildings exterior, he said.

No one was injured but the building exterior was damaged.

Nowaczyk said it was the second time the Munster restaurant has been hit.

In January 2019, a man crashed his vehicle in front of The Commander Restaurant in Munster, shattering the front window.

Gallery: Recent arrests booked into Lake County Jail

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Photo: Illustration by Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Amazon (AMZN) said it was mobilising against bad actors and removing certain images after messages using extremely strong racist abuse appeared on some UK listings.

The abuse appeared on popular products such as Apples (AAPL) AirPods and other similar products.

AirPods began to trend on Twitter (TWTR) in the UK, alongside screengrabs and videos of the website, as outrage spread.

We are removing the images in question and have taken action on the bad actor, an Amazon spokeswoman told Reuters. The company didnt give further details of the bad actor.

The listings including the abuse are no longer visible on Amazon UK  its unclear how long they were live for or of how many products were defaced.

READ MORE: Coronavirus: Google rescinds 2,000 job offers

Amazons UK domain was recently added to the US trade regulators notorious markets report on marketplaces known for counterfeiting and privacy concerns.

The e-commerce giant strongly disagreed with the report at the time, calling the move a purely political act.

Amazon has also been dealing with price-gouging on its site, having removed more than 500,000 listings that bumped up the price of products to unfair levels. Many had been circumventing the measures already in place by listing products as collectible.

Watch the latest videos from Yahoo Finance UK
When the world looked to Asia for successful examples in handling the novel coronavirus outbreak, much attention and plaudits were paid to South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

But there's one overlooked success story -- Vietnam. The country of 97 million people has not reported a single coronavirus-related death and on Saturday had just 328 confirmed cases, despite its long border with China and the millions of Chinese visitors it receives each year.

This is all the more remarkable considering Vietnam is a low-middle income country with a much less-advanced healthcare system than others in the region. It only has 8 doctors for every 10,000 people, a third of the ratio in South Korea, according to the World Bank.

After a three-week nationwide lockdown, Vietnam lifted social distancing rules in late April. It hasn't reported any local infections for more than 40 days. Businesses and schools have reopened, and life is gradually returning to normal.

To skeptics, Vietnam's official numbers may seem too good to be true. But Guy Thwaites, an infectious disease doctor who works in one of the main hospitals designated by the Vietnamese government to treat Covid-19 patients, said the numbers matched the reality on the ground.

"I go to the wards every day, I know the cases, I know there has been no death," said Thwaites, who also heads the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit in Ho Chi Minh City.

"If you had unreported or uncontrolled community transmission, then we'll be seeing cases in our hospital, people coming in with chest infections perhaps not diagnosed -- that has never happened," he said.

So how has Vietnam seemingly bucked the global trend and largely escaped the scourge of the coronavirus? The answer, according to public health experts, lies in a combination of factors, from the government's swift, early response to prevent its spread, to rigorous contact-tracing and quarantining and effective public communication.

Acting early

Vietnam started preparing for a coronavirus outbreak weeks before its first case was detected.

At the time, the Chinese authorities and the World Health Organization had both maintained that there was no "clear evidence'' for human-to-human transmission. But Vietnam was not taking any chances.

"We were not only waiting for guidelines from WHO. We used the data we gathered from outside and inside (the country to) decide to take action early," said Pham Quang Thai, deputy head of the Infection Control Department at the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology in Hanoi.

By early January, temperature screening was already in place for passengers arriving from Wuhan at Hanoi's international airport. Travelers found with a fever were isolated and closely monitored, the country's national broadcaster reported at the time.

By mid-January, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam was ordering government agencies to take "drastic measures" to prevent the disease from spreading into Vietnam, strengthening medical quarantine at border gates, airports and seaports.

On January 23, Vietnam confirmed its first two coronavirus cases -- a Chinese national living in Vietnam and his father, who had traveled from Wuhan to visit his son. The next day, Vietnam's aviation authorities canceled all flights to and from Wuhan.

As the country celebrated the Lunar New Year holiday, its Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc declared war on the coronavirus. "Fighting this epidemic is like fighting the enemy," he said at an urgent Communist Party meeting on January 27. Three days later, he set up a national steering committee on controlling the outbreak -- the same day the WHO declared the coronavirus a public health emergency of international concern.

On February 1, Vietnam declared a national epidemic -- with just six confirmed cases recorded across the country. All flights between Vietnam and China were halted, followed by the suspension of visas to Chinese citizens the next day.

Over the course of the month, the travel restrictions, arrival quarantines and visa suspensions expanded in scope as the coronavirus spread beyond China to countries like South Korea, Iran and Italy. Vietnam eventually suspended entry to all foreigners in late March.

Vietnam was also quick to take proactive lockdown measures. On February 12, it locked down an entire rural community of 10,000 people north of Hanoi for 20 days over seven coronavirus cases -- the first large-scale lockdown known outside China.

Schools and universities, which had been scheduled to reopen in February after the Lunar New Year holiday, were ordered to remain closed, and only reopened in May.

Thwaites, the infectious disease expert in Ho Chi Minh City, said the speed of Vietnam's response was the main reason behind its success.

"Their actions in late January and early February were very much in advance of many other countries. And that was enormously helpful ... for them to be able to retain control," he said.

Meticulous contact-tracing

The decisive early actions effectively curbed community transmission and kept Vietnam's confirmed cases at just 16 by February 13. For three weeks, there were no new infections -- until the second wave hit in March, brought by Vietnamese returning from abroad.

Authorities rigorously traced down the contacts of confirmed coronavirus patients and placed them in a mandatory two-week quarantine.

"We have a very strong system: 63 provincial CDCs (centers for disease control), more than 700 district-level CDCs, and more than 11,000 commune health centers. All of them attribute to contact tracing," said doctor Pham with the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology.

A confirmed coronavirus patient has to give health authorities an exhaustive list of all the people he or she has met in the past 14 days. Announcements are placed in newspapers and aired on television to inform the public of where and when a coronavirus patient has been, calling on people to go to health authorities for testing if they have also been there at the same time, Pham said.

When the Bach Mai hospital in Hanoi, one of the biggest hospitals in Vietnam, became a coronavirus hotspot with dozens of cases in March, authorities imposed a lockdown on the facility and tracked down nearly 100,000 people related to the hospital, including medics, patients, visitors and their close contacts, according to Pham.

"Using contact-tracing, we located almost everyone, and asked them to stay home and self quarantine, (and that) if they have any symptoms, they can visit the health centers for free testing," he said.

Authorities also tested more than 15,000 people linked to the hospitals, including 1,000 health care workers.

Vietnam's contact-tracing effort was so meticulous that it goes after not only the direct contacts of an infected person, but also indirect contacts. "That's one of the unique parts of their response. I don't think any country has done quarantine to that level," Thwaites said.

All direct contacts were placed in government quarantine in health centers, hotels or military camps. Some indirect contacts were ordered to self isolate at home, according to a study of Vietnam's Covid-19 control measures by about 20 public health experts in the country.

As of May 1, about 70,000 people had been quarantined in Vietnam's government facilities, while about 140,000 had undergone isolation at home or in hotels, the study said.

The study also found that of the country's first 270 Covid-19 patients, 43 percent were asymptomatic cases -- which it said highlighted the value of strict contact-tracing and quarantine. If authorities had not proactively sought out people with infection risks, the virus could have quietly spread in communities days before being detected.

Public communication and propaganda

From the start, the Vietnamese government has communicated clearly with the public about the outbreak.

Dedicated websites, telephone hotlines and phone apps were set up to update the public on the latest situations of the outbreak and medical advisories. The ministry of health also regularly sent out reminders to citizens via SMS messages.

Pham said on a busy day, the national hotlines alone could receive 20,000 calls, not to count the hundreds of provincial and district-level hotlines.

The country's massive propaganda apparatus was also mobilized, raising awareness of the outbreak through loudspeakers, street posters, the press and social media.

In late February, the health ministry released a catchy music video based on a Vietnamese pop hit to teach people how to properly wash their hands and other hygiene measures during the outbreak. Known as the "hand-washing song," it immediately went viral, so far attracting more than 48 million views on Youtube.

Thwaites said Vietnam's rich experience in dealing with infectious disease outbreaks, such as the SARS epidemic from 2002 to 2003 and the following avian influenza, had helped the government and the public to better prepare for the Covid-19 pandemic.

"The population is much more respectful of infectious diseases than many perhaps more affluent countries or countries that don't see as much infectious disease -- Europe, the UK and the US for example," he said.

"The country understands that these things need to be taken seriously and complies with guidance from the government on how to prevent the infection from spreading."
Infosys has said that the coronavirus crisis is expected to hit its profitability on account of the negative impact on economies of the United States (US), European Union (EU) and other key markets. The clients in the major IT markets could cut costs hitting its cash flows, Bengaluru-based IT services exporter also said in the filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on May 29. There are also chances of delay and suspension of some existing services projects, it noted.

"Our profitability may be negatively impacted if we are unable to eliminate fixed or committed costs in line with reduced demand. Additionally, any sudden change in demand may impact utilisation in the short term thereby impacting margins. Our profitability may be marginally impacted as some clients may dispute some of the existing work-in-process that has been recognised by us as unbilled revenues. This, in turn, can impact our cash flows negatively," Infosys said.

"The uncertainty in demand as our clients deal with a prolonged economic impact of COVID-19 may cause us to implement severe cost control measures including a reduction in employee bonuses. This could result in increased attrition of employees and/or a higher expenditure on recruitment and subcontracting services, thereby impacting our profitability. If the market price of our shares/ADS remains low due to a prolonged recession, the value of RSUs and the ability to achieve the performance targets of the PSUs we have given to our employees may reduce. This will impede our ability to retain our high performing employees," it added.

Infosys also informed that chief executive officer (CEO) Salil Parekh's total remuneration has increased by 27 per cent to $6.15 million in FY20. Infosys had earlier said that considering business uncertainty amid the coronavirus pandemic, it is unable to currently provide guidance on revenues and margins for the ongoing fiscal. It will provide guidance after visibility improves, it had also said in its earnings report for the quarter ended March.

Meanwhile, Infosys posted a 6.10 per cent jump in consolidated profit for the March quarter at Rs 4,321 crore compared with Rs 4,074 crore in the same quarter last year. Revenue for the quarter rose 8 per cent to Rs 23,267 crore.

Also read: Lockdown 5.0: Fifth phase of coronavirus lockdown from June 1, all you need to know about unlock 1.0

Also read: CBDT notifies Income Tax Return forms for FY 2020-21; check details here
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said the military could deploy troops to Minneapolis 'very quickly' to respond to violent protests in the aftermath of a police killing of an unarmed black man. The death of George Floyd in Minneapolis sparked protests in several cities, some which have turned violent.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said the military could deploy troops to Minneapolis "very quickly" to respond to violent protests in the aftermath of a police killing of an unarmed black man.

The death of George Floyd in Minneapolis sparked protests in several cities, some which have turned violent. Minnesota's governor activated the state's national guard after four nights of confrontations in Minneapolis, its first full activation since World War Two.

A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the military had ordered some active-duty Army military police officers to be prepared to deploy if local authorities requested their help.

"We could have our military there very quickly," if their help was requested, Trump said on Saturday afternoon.

(Reporting by Brad Heath and Idrees Ali; Editing by Daniel Wallis)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh government led by Yogi Adityanath on Sunday (May 31) extended the COVID-19 lockdown in the state till June 30. The government, however, eased the restrictions in a phased manner outside the containment zones.

"Religious places, hotels, restaurants and shopping malls will reopen from 8th June, state's Additional Chief Secretary (Home), Awanish Awasthi was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

As per the advisory, markets will remain open from 9 am to 9 pm, while supermarkets will be allowed to open with conditions of social distancing and other precautionary measures. Weekly markets in rural areas have been allowed to operate, while those in urban areas will continue to remain closed.

All government offices will operate with 100 per cent workforce. However, staggered timings will be followed: 9 am to 5 pm, 10 am to 6 pm and 11 am to 7 pm, so as to prevent overcrowding at workplaces, the guidelines added.

The inter-state bus and taxi services will resume in the state. Mass gathering, however, will remain prohibited. Social distancing and use of a mask for those stepping out of their homes are mandatory. State roadways buses and private buses would be allowed to ply on the roads but passengers would have to wear masks and follow social distancing. The movement of autos and tempos will be decided by the District Magistrate.

In the second phase, educational institutions will be allowed to reopen in July depending on the guidelines of the central government. However, prohibition on entry of people from containment zones or hotspot areas in Delhi to Gautam Budh Nagar will continue. The advisory said no permission, document or e-permit will be required for inter-state travel.

Salons and beauty parlours are allowed to remain open with conditions of social distancing and other precautionary measures. Staff working at such establishments will have to wear face shields and gloves while working.

All industrial activities outside containment zones can operate with the provision that they follow measures like thermal screening, sanitisation and social distancing, etc.
The father of a young woman who was killed alongside her close friend when a four-wheel-drive collided with their car has paid tribute to his 'brilliant' daughter.

Lauren Prothero and Paige Ward, both 27, were driving in Cooloongup in Perth's south on Friday night when their Nissan Micra was hit by a Landcruiser.

Ms Ward died at the scene while Ms Prothero, who was driving the vehicle, was rushed to hospital but couldn't be saved.

Paige Ward (left) and Lauren Prothero (right) were both killed when a Landcruiser allegedly ran a red light and collided with their vehicle

Police said the two men in the 4WD (pictured) fled the scene without attempting to render assistance, the driver, in his 50s, was found in a nearby McDonald's and the other on the run

Police said the driver of Landcruiser appeared to run a red light and did not offer assistance to the pair.

The man in his 50's was later arrested by police after being found at a nearby McDonald's.

He remains in custody.

Ms Ward's devastated father visited the horrific crash scene on Sunday.

'I just couldn't get over how such a brilliant person could be taken away from us,' he told The West Australian.

'She had a brilliant future. In her work she was senior physio down here at the hospital and she had a wonderful boyfriend.

Ms Prothero's father said she had a wonderful boyfriend and a 'brilliant' future ahead

Ms Prothero worked as a senior physiotherapist at a Perth hospital

Lauren Prothero and Paige Ward are pictured together with friends before Ms Ward's January wedding

'They were just about to get together and live together. He's a smashing guy, so what a future they had together - that's been taken away from us and I just don't know how it could happen. It's just surreal.'

The two women were long-time friends who had attended Kolbe Catholic College in Rockingham.

Ms Ward was a newlywed who recently tied the knot with her partner Jacob Dodds in January.

The two were just 800 metres from Ms Ward home at the time of crash.

Anyone who witnessed the incident or who has dashcam footage is asked to contact police.

Ms Ward was a newlywed who recently tied the knot with her partner Jacob Dodds
NASA astronauts entered the International Space Station on Sunday after a landmark 19-hour journey on the first crewed US spacecraft in nearly a decade, a triumph for SpaceX and private enterprise. The arrival completed the first leg of the trip, designed to test the capabilities of the Crew Dragon capsule. But the mission will only be declared a success when the astronauts return safely to Earth in a few months' time. The spaceship's hatch opened at 1:02 pm Eastern Time (1702 GMT) as Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley carried out final procedures before crossing the threshold about 20 minutes later. Wearing black polo shirts and khaki pants, they were greeted by fellow American astronaut Chris Cassidy, as well as Russia cosmonauts Anatoli Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner. The five men posed for photos and then NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine spoke to the crew from mission control in Houston. "Welcome to Bob and Doug," said Bridenstine. "I will tell you the whole world saw this mission, and we are so, so proud of everything you have done for our country." "It's great to get the United States back in the crewed launch business and we're just really glad to be on board this magnificent complex," replied Hurley. Russian space chief Dmitry Rogozin also offered his congratulations to both NASA and Elon Musk, the boss of the private aerospace company SpaceX that built the Crew Dragon capsule. The capsule spent 19 hours chasing down the station at speeds of up to 17,500 miles per hour (28,000 kph), before carefully aligning to its target and slowing to a crawl for the delicate docking procedure, which took place over northern China. - Pandemic and protests - During their stay Behnken and Hurley will perform more checks on the capsule to certify its readiness as the United States transitions to using the commercial sector for rides to the ISS. The space agency has had to rely on Russian Soyuz rockets ever since the Space Shuttle program ended in 2011 -- with 2015 the original target for a replacement program. The United States has paid SpaceX and aerospace giant Boeing a total of about $7 billion for their "space taxi" contracts. But Boeing's program has floundered badly after a failed test run late last year, which left SpaceX, a company founded only in 2002, as clear frontrunner. The launch comes as the world grapples with the coronavirus pandemic, and as the US faces nationwide protests after a black man died in Minneapolis while being arrested by a white police officer. Speaking to Bridenstine, Hurley said he hoped the mission would inspire young Americans. "This was just one effort that we can show for the ages in this dark time that we've had over the past several months to kind of inspire, especially the young people in the United States, to reach for these lofty goals," he said. On Twitter, however, some retweeted the song "Whitey On The Moon" which was released by Gil Scott-Heron in 1970, the year after the Apollo 11 lunar landing. The lyrics juxtaposed the injustice and economic conditions faced by black Americans with the enormous spending required for the space program. - Rough ride - SpaceX's two-stage Falcon 9 rocket began its voyage Saturday, blasting off flawlessly in a cloud of bright orange flames and smoke from Florida's Kennedy Space Center. "I'm really quite overcome with emotion," Musk said. "It's been 18 years working towards this goal." Hurley and Behnken had named their capsule "Endeavour" after the retired Space Shuttle on which they both flew. Asked by a lawmaker how the Crew Dragon's handling compared to that of the shuttle, Behknen indicated the new ship was a rougher ride. "Dragon was huffing and puffing all the way into orbit, and we were definitely driving or riding a dragon all the way up," he said. "And so it was not quite the same ride, the smooth ride, as the Space Shuttle was." - Jabs from Russia - While Russia saluted the United States, it also stressed Sunday it was puzzled by the frenzy unleashed by what many hailed as the dawn of a new era. "We don't really understand the hysteria sparked by the successful launch of a Crew Dragon spacecraft," Roscosmos spokesman Vladimir Ustimenko said. US-Russia cooperation is not expected to end once Crew Dragon goes into service. NASA still plans to use Soyuz rockets to send some astronauts into space, with each seat costing around $80 million. The United States, meanwhile, hopes to revive human space exploration, which has not risen to the expectations of the early space era. The idea of a crewed mission to Mars has been mooted since the 1950s, and NASA has commissioned numerous studies that have never gotten off the ground. The United States now plans to return to the Moon in 2024 under the Artimis mission, establishing a launching pad to the Red Planet by the 2030s.
Actor Noel Clarke attends the Rakuten TV EMPIRE Awards 2018 at The Roundhouse on March 18, 2018 in London, England. (Photo by Jeff Spicer/Getty Images)

Actor Noel Clarke has opened up about being left off the promotional poster of Fisherman's Friends and says his co-stars never "spoke up" on his behalf.

The Kidulthood and Bullterproof star shared an image of the 2019 comedy on Twitter pointing out his absence from the poster despite being named at the top.

Daniel Mays, James Purefoy, David Hayman, Dave Johns, Sam Swainsbury and Tuppence Middleton, all stared in the movie alongside Clarke and are pictured on the poster.

Read more: Bulletproof: Noel Clarke and Ashley Walters on diversity, fame and 'blazing a trail'

Sharing the snub on social media, Clarke adds arrows to the image which shows space where he could have been included.

He captioned it: "And I'll just leave this here. And not one of these other actors spoke up for me and the fact I was not on here, being as well known as most of them."

He added: "For the record I don't believe for a second that any of the cast in the film is racist. Intentional or otherwise. That's not what I'm saying. Nor what I said. For ME to not speak up for them would be wrong."

The tweet was liked more than 20,000 times and had over 5,000 retweets.

And Ill just leave this here.



And not one of these other actors spoke up for me and the fact I was not on here, being as well known as most of them. pic.twitter.com/z3t3rXPBNy  Noel Clarke (@NoelClarke) May 29, 2020

In support of Clarke, writer and historian David Olusaga responded: I don't know Noel but I find it hard to imagine that he's desperate for publicity, but if he was I am sure he'd be able to get it in an easier way.

He later invited actors to contact him to speak about his exclusion if they didnt agree with his comments.

Read more: Bulletproof is standard buddy cop formula but leaves you wanting more

He tweeted: Any actors (friends or not, but particularly friends) who may not understand or agree with what I posted on twitter or why, you have my number or can get it.

Or DM me if you want to question me about it. Im not hard to find.

Fishermans Friends is based on a true story about Cornish fisherman who started a band and were signed with universal records.
New Delhi: Railway Board chairman Vinod Kumar Yadav on Friday (May 29) said that over 52 lakh labourers have traveled in Shramik Special Trains started from May 1 to take migrant workers to their home state. He also added that Indian Raliways have plied 3840 trains so far.

Addressing a press conference, Yadav said, "So far, more than 52 lakh labourers have traveled in Shramik Special Trains started from May 1 to take migrant workers to their home state."

The Railway Board chairman said the states have been provided with as many trains as they demanded. "On Thursday, we ran 137 trains for migrant workers across the country," he said. The railways, however, hinted that the demand for Shramik Special trains is gradually coming down from states.

Yadav further said that states have been told that Railways will provide trains whenever they require. "So far, migrant workers who have gone to other states or to their home state, 80% of them have gone to Uttar Pradesh and Bihar."

"In this difficult phase, Railways is trying its best. As many as 12,00000 Railways employees are engaged in this hour of need to make every train reach its destination on time," Yadav said, adding that some trains were definitely diverted but it was done due to congestion and denied that they were lost.

Yadav also said that Railway is charging only 15% fare of the operation cost of the Shramik Special trains from states and added, "If we run these trains for free, it would become difficult to manage them."

Several states have sought trains for migrant workers saying more than 1400 will travel but in reality, only 500 to 600 workers travelled, he said, adding "this is the reason we are asking for the minimum fare from states to have better management."
US President Donald Trump has been criticized at home and abroad after announcing he is ending US ties with the World Health Organization (WHO).

The EU urged him to reconsider the decision, while Germanys health minister called it a disappointing setback for international health.

The head of the US Senates health committee, a Republican like Mr Trump, said now was not the time to leave.

Mr Trump said the WHO had failed to hold China to account over coronavirus.

The WHO, a UN agency that helps countries promote healthcare and tackle outbreaks of disease, has faced regular criticism from the US president over its handling of the outbreak.

He suspended US funding to the WHO last month and on Friday permanently halted the payment, which last year stood at more than $400m (324m; 360m), the largest single contribution at around 15% of its total budget.
Chrissie Teigen, as Andrea Widburg noted here, is joining the growing celebrity cavalcade of woke leftists vowing to bail out "protestors." She pledged $200,000 to get the looters out of jail, the better to Get Trump, upping her pledge when people on Twitter protested.

It was bizarre stuff, given that she's already made millions from her shelf space selling her own brand of cookware for Target.

Wasn't Target ... one of the first business to have been trashed utterly by the violent, thieving looters? Hasn't Target been forced to shut 24 stores in Minnesota alone due to looting?

The footage from the south Minneapolis looting of Target, on the first night of the riots, was utterly appalling. And the destruction from the first night sent the message to all the dirtballs out here that looting was profitable and blue-city authorities would be doing nothing. After that, they hit Target again.

Here's Oakland, last night, another Target hit by Teigen's finest:

Yet here we have Chrissie, vowing to bail out these very lowlife who perpetrated the problem, too bad about Target and all its lost jobs, as well as availability to people of all income levels including the poor.

Teigen is a pretty disgusting creature to start with, having a really offensive toilet-mouth vocabulary, but she's popular on television. She's gotten into altercations with President Trump, who apparently thinks she is just as disgusting as we do.

Target, a woke corporation of liberals, has nevertheless continued to succor her with her own cookware line for sale on its shelves and here she goes to thank them for it and all the millions it's brought her by offering to bail out the very looters who trashed the Target stores.

The Target annual report should show quite a few of these trashings, probably not just these two, given what is going on now.

Does Target have any self-respect at all? Here's the face of incentivization of looters, and they continue to employ her? Would they continue to employ a cashier who stole from the till, or a backroom-jobber who slipped bales of blue jeans out the warehouse door? How big was the destruction at Target now that the looters have gotten their encouragement from Chrissie? Do normal people encourage the looting of the establishments that pay them?

It reminds me of a statement I heard from an old Irish-American reporter from my newspaper days who was a liberal in a largely conservative establishment. He got asked by leftists if he would be a source for their dishonest expose of the company. He told them hell no, saltily explaining: "You don't sh** where you eat. I get my paycheck from this company, right? So that's where I eat. I don't sh** where I eat." Chrissie Teigen, by that logic, sh**s where she eats.

If Target doesn't confront this enemy within who's effectively encouraging the looting of Target establishments, it's time for the shareholders to step in. How does succoring this person help their bottom line? Target employs celebrities who encourage looting? What a picture.

Yes, Target's leadership is a woke bunch and undoubtedly they are afraid of her because she is married to a popular black Hollywood leftist. They must be trembling at the inevitable yellings of racism to follow getting rid of her. But they're going to have to choose between having stores and being woke at this point. Is Teigen worth this? Their stores are being targeted and burned. They ought to draw a line at burnt stores.

They need to get rid of this viper in their bosom right away, as unfit a representative for the company. The more they employ her, the worse she gets. She's a hazard to Target's stores, a hazard to the company's bottom line, a very bad look for the company to be associated with now, an increasingly repulsive vehicle for public disgust.

Image credit: YouTube screen shot
A radio host has hit back at a troll who created 25 Instagram profiles to call her transgender and overweight during an elaborate hate campaign.

Perth radio star Juelz Jarry endured almost two years of online bullying by a social media troll who created fake accounts to attack her appearance.

Each time she reported a fake account, another would appear half-an-hour later.

Perth radio star Juelz Jarry endured almost two years of online bullying by a social media troll who created fake accounts to attack her weight and appearance

Each time she successfully report one fake account, another would appear half an hour later

The Hit 92.9 breakfast host apologised to her Instagram followers on Friday and explained how 'exhausting' it was to constantly monitor the platform for fake accounts.

'I know I haven't posted in a little while but lately every time I post some loser keeps creating fake profiles to troll my account and monitoring it is f***ing exhausting,' she wrote.

'From my weight to how I look to saying I'm trans, none of this I worry about but I've also have never dealt with trolling before, it's annoying af and I just rather not to post than to have to continuously report and block.'

Ms Jarry believes the same person is behind all 25 fake accounts.

The Hit 92.9 breakfast host apologised to her Instagram followers on Friday and explained how 'exhausting' it was to constantly monitor the platform for fake accounts

She told Perth Now the troll started by leaving vile comments on her personal profile before they began setting up false accounts.

While she was adamant that she was not affected by most of the negative commentary, Jarry was upset by transgender comments calling her a 'lady boy' and claiming she and her co-host Pete Curulli look like 'brothers'.

'I've got cousins that are transgender, and I think I am really defensive of that because of the community, they cop a lot and that's one thing [the trolls] do keep targeting,' she said.

She said the attacker started by leaving vile comments on her personal profile before they began setting up false accounts

'I think because they know it's something I have reacted to in the past.'

Ms Jarry asked her fans not to interact with any fake accounts they come across because 'it only encourages them'.

She spoke out about the online bulling so that young people know trolling and bullying on social media is unacceptable.
Its a NASA tradition that stretches back decades: astronauts waking to tunes piped up from the ground. The tradition began in 1965, when the wake-up song was Hello Dolly by Jack Jones during Gemini 6, and continued during the Apollo program when astronauts returning from the Moon were serenaded by their colleagues in mission control with lyrics from popular songs that seemed appropriate to the occasion, according to a history of NASA wake-up music compiled by Colin Fries, a NASA historian. Several crews have awakened on their final day in space to Dean Martins popular song Going Back to Houston, Fries wrote.
Mexico: The whole human aspect has been shaken today due to many disasters like Corona growing in the World. Due to which every little person has lost many things. The atmosphere of chaos is increasing, while millions of people are spreading infections due to this virus every day. On the other hand, due to this virus thousands of deaths are happening every day. Talking about worldwide figure, till date, more than 3 lakh 71 thousand people have lost their lives due to this virus.

Trump takes decision to postpone G-7 summit to be held in US due to corona

So far 28,834 people have died due to Coronavirus in Brazil. The news agency ANI has given this information quoting AFP.

506 new Corona cases have been reported in Singapore on Saturday. Most of them are foreign laborers living in the dormitory. The number of infected in the country has now reached 34,366.

Corona epidemic spreading rapidly in Pakistan, 'Afridi' also found positive

371 people have died in Mexico in 24 hours due to Corona. The death toll has increased to 9,415 here. Deputy Health Minister Hugo Lopez-Gatel said that the total number of infected has reached 84,627.

South Africa has reported the highest number of 1,837 new cases in a day for the first time since the first case of infection with the coronavirus in March. The number of infected people in the country now stands at 29,240. 34 people died in one day. The death toll in the country has reached 611.

Not a single death from Corona in this country
Two years into operating PREROGATIvE Kitchen, Gena Gale Burghoff and her husband Chris Lockhart have found a groove in Red Lodge.

Even with a population that dips in the off season, the community has supported its restaurants in Carbon County, which Burghoff and Lockhart have been part of for the past decade.

The first year is always a nightmare, but this year we had to borrow much less, Burghoff said. Its hard in the middle of nowhere on a dead-end road to be able to get the freshest ingredients. Were proud to keep it going and staying to our standards.

The couple began with a food truck in a parking lot off Main Street in Red Lodge and are now expanding into a second location at Tippet Rise Art Center, located outside of Fishtail. Theyll serve lunch and dinner to patrons of the performance arts venue and outdoor sculpture park, which opens to the public June 26.

I still think that people locally dont realize how world famous Tippet Rise has become, said Lockhart, who grew up in England. Ive seen articles in the U.K. about it. For us, were super excited to be on board. Its just going to get more and more well-known. Its amazing what they are doing.

Both Burghoff and Lockhart began in the restaurant industry at age 18, though in very different parts of the world. After attending college in Powell, Wyoming, Burghoff headed to Los Angeles to pursue acting, and Lockhart was working in various restaurants around England. He decided to take a year off to travel, and Burghoff was also traveling with Cirque du Soleil. They met in Cambodia, and their relationship developed across the distance. Lockhart then moved to the U.S., and they relocated to Montana a decade ago.

When I was 10 years old, I said I was going to marry a chef, Burghoff said. When I married Chris, he was not a chef, so it was disappointing, she laughed. Lockhart took the hint, and when they moved to Red Lodge he started working in the kitchen at Cafe Regis.

I just like to eat, Lockhart said. Plus, I never really found anything else I was good at, so I just started cooking.

It was also partially because he didnt want to eat nachos the rest of his life, which is my specialty, Burghoff added.

The pace of Cafe Regis got Lockhart up to speed in the kitchen, where 300 tickets will go out on a Sunday. He never attended culinary school. Instead, his recipes and food choices are informed by his extensive travel.

Ive been lucky enough to visit most regions of the world and tried foods all around the world, Lockhart said. Growing up in England also informed his palate. Its so multicultural. I grew up with curry houses, Chinese restaurants, Italian.  I just love different foods from around the world.

Lockhart shares culinary duties with Danny Mowatt, who grew up in Absarokee and attended culinary school at Oregon Coast Culinary Institute. Hes been working with the couple since they were managing Montana Jacks in Nye, and went into business with them to open PREROGATIvE Kitchen in 2018.

Mowatt, whose previous kitchen jobs didnt include a lot of interaction with customers, enjoys the open concept of PREROGATIvE. Customers order at a counter, and wait staff bring food to their tables. The kitchen has a window open to the dining area allowing interaction. Its nice to get to talk to people, he said.

The building was once a bakery, and now seats about 40 people across about 2,000 square feet, including the back space they plan to turn into a private rental room.

They left the old bread proofer in the space (it was cheaper that way) and paid homage to the 100-year-old bakery that operated until 2016 by hanging the old baking tins on the wall and the City Bakery sign from the ceiling.

Food is focused on local ingredients, from steaks sourced outside of Molt and beef from Belgrade to lamb from Big Timber. Local produce is a bit trickier based on location, but in the summertime they frequent farmers markets in Laurel and Billings and try to bring in fresh, seasonal ingredients.

We only use tomatoes when they are in season, Mowatt said. As well, food distributors like Sysco Foods and QFD have started distributing more local products, Burghoff said.

The menu rotates based on available ingredients, but one item that is a staple is Lockhart's sticky toffee pudding, a recipe from his childhood in England. "Ive had my life threatened if I ever take it off the menu," he said.

The menu wont be the same at Tippet Rise, but the local focus remains. The arts center sits atop a working ranch, so the kitchen staff will incorporate beef sourced from Tippet Rise.

They will offer an a la carte menu where guests to Tippet Rise can pick a protein and different sides. Lunch will be grab-and-go style, including snacks and charcuterie plates, as well as soups and sandwiches. Dinners will be served quickly, as well. The goal is to have guests in and out in under 40 minutes, Lockhart said, to accommodate those attending concerts.

The restaurant will serve Tippet Rise's guests, who must preregister to visit the facility. There are hiking and biking trails throughout the property, as well as tours via van. Tickets to concerts are available through a lottery, and registration for a chance at tickets is open at tippetrise.org.

Since opening, Tippet Rise staff and guest artists have been connected to Burghoff and Lockhart through their restaurants. They operated Montana Jacks near Nye on the Stillwater, as well as Ox Pasture in Red Lodge.

Its just been amazing meeting the artists that come out here. And they really seem to enjoy being in small town Montana, Lockhart said.

Burghoff is looking forward to the scenery and the artists who frequent Tippet Rise. "Being back out on that land, its so beautiful out there. Its hard to find creative energy in a small town, especially something that is so intense as it is out there. Just being able to be around that and being around artists is going to be awesome."

Bringing in such a cultural infusion has been refreshing and helps drive business in a remote part of the world, but locals are the backbone of year-round restaurant business in the area.

Its definitely a challenge, Burghoff said. For a town of only 2,000 permanent residents, I think that everyone gets out and supports all the local businesses, not just us.

Photos: PREROGATIvE Kitchen in Red Lodge

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-31 23:15:29|Editor: huaxia

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Two Chinese students walk on the campus of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, California, the United States, June 3, 2019. (Xinhua/Li Ying)

BEIJING, May 31 (Xinhua) -- The announcement by U.S. President Donald Trump that he is considering revoking the visas of thousands of Chinese students is nothing short of sheer politicization of educational exchanges between the two countries. By using lies and innuendos, the Trump administration is destroying trust between China and the United States.

For months, some U.S. politicians have been scapegoating China to shirk responsibilities for an incompetent COVID-19 response amid rising public criticism. Now they have again breached the bottom line. It is shameless to wantonly restrict and repress Chinese students in the United States to meet political goals.

Prohibiting entry of Chinese students and researchers into the United States broke the U.S. leadership's promise of welcoming Chinese students who want to pursue studies there. The U.S. leader said his country would take good care of Chinese people living in the United States, including Chinese students, during a phone call between the two countries' heads of state on March 27. Apparently, the U.S. side is planning to renege on its own words.

More seriously, such a racist move exposes deep-seated zero-sum game mindset and Cold-War mentality of some U.S. politicians. It resembles the anti-Communism narratives in the times of McCarthyism in the late 1940s and 1950s in the United States.

Adopting the old tactics of hyping up "espionage" theory, some U.S. politicians attempt to create an atmosphere of fear in the educational sector and could make anyone the target of persecution on the basis of unsubstantiated allegations.

Were the U.S. side to adopt measures harming Chinese students' rights and interests, it would be brazen political persecution and racial discrimination and a grave violation of human rights. The move also runs counter to the ideals of openness and freedom that the United States claims to be the champion of.

In face of the wrong deeds by the United States, China will definitely take necessary steps to safeguard its students' rights and interests in accordance with law.

The educational restriction is the latest evidence of how low and paranoid the current administration has sunk. It is a warning signal that selfish and narrow-minded politicians are leading the United States into an era when racism and ideological manipulation resurrect. The U.S. public should be cautious as the current administration is stealing their future. 
ALBANY  A fraudster from Menands whose Ponzi scheme bilked more than 400 victims out of more than $5.5 million has been granted compassionate release from federal prison due to his poor health and risk of contracting COVID-19 in his Ohio correctional facility.

Christopher W. Bass, 63, who once invoked the name of God while pledging high returns to his "customers" at the former Swiss Capital Harbor/USA , went to prison after he used investors' money for Cuban cigars, fancy cars, fine art, high-priced liquor and mortgage payments on a pricey home near near Wolfert's Roost Country Club.

It landed him a sentence of 12  years in prison for mail fraud and tax evasion crimes that, according to his victims, shattered lives. With time off for good behavior, his sentence was set to end Oct. 29.

On May 27, Senior U.S. District Judge Lawrence Kahn agreed to release Bass. Elkton federal correctional facility in Ohio, where Bass was serving his time, has endured an outbreak of COVID-19 that has been exacerbated by features of the prisons internal architecture that inhibit social distancing, the judge stated.

The judge said, as of Wednesday, the prison had reported 203 cases of COVID-19 among inmates and seven among staff. He noted that 76 inmates and 46 staff at the prison have recovered. Nine inmates have died.

Bass informed the judge he has high blood pressure and previously suffered a heart attack and stroke.

The judge determined Bass was at risk of severe illness should he contract the virus, noting that strokes have been linked to severe illness from COVID-19. Kahn also said Bass age made further criminal activity unlikely. The judge commuted Bass' sentence to time served, but ordered him to be quarantined for 14 days upon his release.

On March 26, Attorney General William Barr issued a memo expanding release to home confinement of vulnerable prisoners. And the First Step Act that President Donald Trump signed in 2018 allows federal inmates to ask judges for compassionate release after they exhaust administrative requests through the federal prison system. The Bureau of Prisons must have considered and denied the request  or 30 days must have passed from when a prison warden received the request.

The prison's warden denied an administrative request by Bass on May 30.

As Kahn did in granting compassionate release earlier this month to Benjamin Rountree, a convicted cocaine trafficker from Troy, he repeated his view that alarmingly, and despite the demonstrated danger COVID-19 poses in the prison environment, it does not appear that the BOP has updated its regulations governing compassionate release requests since the First Step Act was passed, let alone made any attempt to suspend them or otherwise accelerate the process during the pandemic.

In both cases, the federal public defenders office assisted the defendant. Rountree was helped by Assistant Federal Public Defender Courtenay McKeon. Bass was represented by Public Defender Lisa Peebles.

On May 21, Bass requested compassionate release from Kahn, who has granted release to a number of defendants, including Rountree and one-time Loudonville asbestos businessman Alexander Salvagno, who was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison for racketeering conspiracy for environmental crimes.

In a memo to the judge, federal prosecutors noted that between Jan. 1, 2007 and Aug. 1, 2009, Bass solicited and received more than 5.5 million from more than 400 victims through wire transfers and mailings.

The investments that Bass promoted were frauds, a Ponzi scheme, Assistant U.S. Attorney Edward Grogan reminded the judge The victims funds were used by the defendant, in large part, for his personal expenses.

Grogan asked Kahn to deny Bass request, saying that Bass did not meet extraordinary and compelling reasons to support a sentence reduction.
Henry VIII accused both Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard of adultery, so they were executed for treason. That adultery could transform into treason came about because the monarch and the state were the same. An offensive against the former was a capital crime against the latter.

Thats not how its supposed to be in America. In America, if people dislike a presidents policies, they elect a new president who changes those policies. Treason is a crime against America itself, not a crime against a particular president and his initiatives. But thats not how the left sees things today.

When General Michael Flynns supporters saw the released transcripts of the telephone conversations he had with former Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak in the month before Trumps inauguration, they believed the transcripts vindicated Flynn. The FBI and DOJ had accused Flynn of falsely claiming that, during a December 29 telephone call with Kislyak, he had not discussed the sanctions that Obama had imposed against Russia a mere three weeks before leaving office. They also accused him of lying about not having discussed UN sanctions against Israel.

In fact, the December 29 phone transcripts revealed that Flynn and Kislyak had discussed Obamas order expelling Russian diplomats from America, something completely separate from sanctions. Moreover, the much-revised Form 302 from the January 24 interview the FBI conducted with Flynn revealed that the agents never asked him about sanctions. Given that Flynn hadnt discussed sanctions with Kislyak, and that the FBI never asked him about sanctions, its an impossibility to claim that Flynn lied about sanctions.

Likewise, the transcripts reveal that Flynn and Kislyak discussed the UN sanctions against Israel during an earlier phone call, not the call on December 29, 2016. So again, he did not lie when he told the agents he had not discussed that UN initiative with Kislyak during that call.

The difference between the FBI and DOJ charges against Flynn and the revelations contained in the released transcripts, especially when read together with the Form 302 that was the best that Peter Strzok and Lisa Page could create, vindicates Flynn. Not only was he innocent of the charges, but the transcript also shows a man trying to prevent Russia from hurting America in response to Obamas last-ditch effort to sow dissent between America and Russia.

(It would take a whole book to discuss the why of Obamas efforts. Suffice to say that he was probably trying to force a phone call between Kislyak and Flynn because he was already spying on Kislyak and could, therefore, get to Flynn without an unmasking. The need to go after Flynn was part of a broader Obama administration effort to hide the fact that it had used the governments intelligence apparatus to spy on and attempt to destroy an opposition presidential candidate and eventual president-elect.)

Whats both fascinating and frightful is to read how the left views the Flynn transcripts. Rather than seeing Flynn as a man who was set up by the Obama administration and the intelligence apparatus to destroy Flynn and, by extension, the president-elect he was set to serve, they see treason.

This is treason of an old-fashioned kind, however. Although leftists pay vague lip-service to the notion that Flynn was working against America, the gist of their position is that Flynn was working against Obamas policies. For them, Obama has transmuted into a monarch so that any disagreement with him is treason.

Exhibit A for this argument is Jonathan Chait (and this post has room for only one exhibit today):

Flynns lawyers insisted his call was consistent with him advocating for, not against, the interests of the United States. That depends heavily on how one defines the interests of the United States. In December 2016, the United States had a strong interest in punishing and deterring hostile foreign governments that had stolen the private communications of American political figures in order to affect the outcome of the election. By January 20, the United States would have a very different interest.

Put another way, how dare Trump and his advisors change Obamas policies? To the Chaits of this world, it doesnt matter that the USSR and Russia have always meddled in Americas elections or that the Russian investment was nominal, running to the lows hundreds of thousands in advertisements (not hacking), compared to Hillarys one billion dollar campaign fund.

Chait is also unconcerned that Obama knew in 2014 that Russia would meddle but did nothing about it for over two years. Chait doesnt question why, just three weeks before leaving office, Obama would suddenly announce a radical, aggressive policy against Russia, knowing that the fallout from that policy would inevitably fall into Trumps lap. For Chait, the fact that Flynn wanted to temper events so that Trumps first day in office did not involve a national security crisis constitutes treason because it opposes Obama.

Lese-majeste  the French term for an act against the monarch being tantamount to treason  was supposed to have vanished from these shores in 1776. That the left has reinvigorated this notion to protect Obama is just one of the many things leftists are doing to undermine our Constitution.

(The image for this post is a 1798 print showing John Bull, the generic Englishman, farting on a poster of George III, with an enraged William Pitt the Younger crying out Treason.)
LONDON  Nations around the world have watched in horror at the civil unrest in the United States following the death of George Floyd, a black man who died after a white police officer pressed his knee on his neck until he stopped breathing.

Racism-tinged events no longer startle even Americas closest allies, though many have watched coverage of the often-violent protests with growing unease. Burning cars and riot police in the U.S. featured on newspaper front pages around the globe Sunday  bumping news of the COVID-19 pandemic to second-tier status in some places.

Floyds death on May 25 in Minneapolis was the latest in a series of deaths of black men and women at the hands of police in the U.S.

Thousands gathered in central London on Sunday to offer support for American demonstrators. Chanting No justice! No peace! and waving placards with the words How many more? at Trafalgar Square, the protesters ignored U.K. government rules banning crowds because of the pandemic. Police didnt stop them.

Demonstrators then marched to the U.S. Embassy, where a long line of officers surrounded the building. Several hundred milled around in the street and waved placards.

Protesters in Denmark also converged on the U.S. Embassy on Sunday. Participants carried placards with messages such as Stop Killing Black People.

The U.S. Embassy in Berlin was the scene of protests on Saturday under the motto: Justice for George Floyd. Several hundred more people took to the streets Sunday in the capitals Kreuzberg area, carrying signs with slogans like Silence is Violence, Hold Cops Accountable, and Who Do You Call When Police Murder? No incidents were reported.

Germanys top-selling Bild newspaper on Sunday carried the sensational headline This killer-cop set America ablaze with an arrow pointing to a photo of now-fired police officer Derek Chauvin, who has been charged with third-degree murder in Floyds death, with his knee on Floyds neck. The newspapers story reported scenes like out of a civil war.

In Italy, the Corriere della Sera newspapers senior U.S. correspondent Massimo Gaggi wrote that the reaction to Floyds killing was different than previous cases of black Americans killed by police and the ensuring violence.

There are exasperated black movements that no longer preach nonviolent resistance, Gaggi wrote, noting the Minnesota governors warning that anarchist and white supremacy groups are trying to fuel the chaos.

In countries with authoritarian governments, state-controlled media have been highlighting the chaos and violence of the U.S. demonstrations, in part to undermine American officials criticism of their own nations.

In China, the protests are being viewed through the prism of U.S. government criticism of Chinas crackdown on anti-government protests in Hong Kong.

Hu Xijin, the editor of the state-owned Global Times newspaper, tweeted that U.S. officials can now see protests out their own windows: I want to ask Speaker Pelosi and Secretary Pompeo: Should Beijing support protests in the U.S., like you glorified rioters in Hong Kong?

Hua Chunying, a Chinese Foreign ministry spokeswoman, pointed out Americas racial unrest by tweeting I cant breathe, which Floyd said before his death.

In Iran, which has violently put down nationwide demonstrations by killing hundreds, arresting thousands and disrupting internet access to the outside world, state television has repeatedly aired images of the U.S. unrest. One TV anchor discussed a horrible scene from New York, where police attacked protesters. Another state TV message accused U.S. police agencies in Washington of setting fire to cars and attacking protesters, without offering any evidence.

Russia accused the United States of systemic problems in the human rights sphere. It denounced Floyds death as the latest in a series of police violence cases against African Americans.

This incident is far from the first in a series of lawless conduct and unjustified violence from U.S. law enforcement, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. American police commit such high-profile crimes all too often.

There also have been expressions of solidarity with the demonstrators.

In Brazil, hundreds of people gathered in front of the Rio de Janeiro state government palace to protest crimes committed by the police against black people in Rios working-class neighborhoods, known as favelas.

The protest, called Black lives matter, was interrupted when police used tear gas to disperse people. I cant breathe, said some of the demonstrators, alluding to the George Floyds death. Protesters called for an end to police operations inside favelas.

In Canada, an anti-racism protest degenerated into clashes between Montreal police and some demonstrators. About three hours after a march that snaked its way through downtown Montreal had ended, police declared the gathering illegal after they say projectiles were thrown at officers who responded with pepper spray and tear gas. Some windows were smashed and some fires were set.

Over the weekend, Lebanese anti-government protesters flooded social media with tweets sympathetic to U.S. protesters, using the hashtag #Americarevolts. Thats a play on the slogan for Lebanons protest movement  Lebanon revolts  which erupted on Oct. 17 last year. Within 24 hours, the hashtag #Americanrevolts became the No. 1 trending tag in Lebanon.

In another expression of solidarity with American protesters, about 150 people marched through central Jerusalem on Saturday to protest the shooting death by Israeli police of an unarmed, autistic Palestinian man earlier in the day. Israeli police mistakenly suspected that the man, Iyad Halak, was carrying a weapon. When he failed to obey orders to stop, officers opened fire.

___

Associated Press Writers David Rising in Berlin, Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Frances DEmilio in Rome, Zeina Karam in Beirut, Tia Goldenberg in Jerusalem, Ken Moritsugu in Beijing, Jari Tanner in Helsinki, Finland, and Jim Heintz in Moscow, contributed to this report.

___

Follow the APs latest news about the protests in the U.S. at https://apnews.com/GeorgeFloyd
Protesters marched in the streets again Sunday across the U.S. to call for reforms after the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died in police custody on Memorial Day in Minneapolis.

Most demonstrations, some attracting hundreds of people, were peaceful though violence, including the burning of police vehicles and looting, prompted police in some cities to deploy tear gas to gain control of the crowd.

Early in the day, volunteers turned out in many cities to sweep up debris from businesses that had been burned, had their windows broken or were otherwise damaged Saturday.

Follow this story: For first-in-the-morning updates, sign up to get USA TODAY's Daily Briefing in your inbox

Here's a look at how protests are unfolding around the country on Sunday:

Washington, D.C.: Historic St. John's Church near White House set ablaze

As protesters gathered near the White House, flames were seen at the Washington, D.C., landmark that bills itself as "the church of the presidents."

The fire, apparently an act of arson, was in the basement of St. John's Church, across from the White House, The Washington Post reported, and was extinguished.

It occurred as a demonstration was taking place outside. The gathering had attracted as many as 1,000 Sunday, who faced off against officers in riot gear.

The Episcopalian church in Lafayette Square boasts on its website that every U.S. president since James Madison has attended services there. Consecrated in 1816, the church also says the bell in its steeple, weighing almost 1,000 pounds, was cast in 1822 by Paul Revere's son Joseph.

New York City: Protesters force closure of Manhattan Bridge; street fires, looting

A crucial bridge into Manhattan was closed Sunday to make way for protesters, a day after hundreds of arrests including the mayor's daughter, it was reported.

Street fires were being set and sporadic looting was reported Sunday evening after a day that saw large groups of protesters walk from Brooklyn to Manhattan over the Manhattan Bridge, which had to be closed, ABC7 in New York reported.

Story continues

Mayor Bill de Blasio's daughter Chiara, 25, was among 345 arrested, the station reported based on unnamed NYPD sources. The Daily Mail said it was able to confirm the arrest from a police report.

She was reportedly arrested as part of a group of 100 demonstrators who refused to leave a roadway when ordered by police.

Seattle: National Guard called to Bellevue; protesters block Interstate 5

National Guard troops were ordered to the Seattle suburb of Bellevue after reports of widespread looting.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee ordered 200 National Guard members to Bellevue after the mayor declared an emergency due to violence. Rioters broke into the Bellevue Mall and were stealing goods from stores.

The thefts were part of a day of protests in the Seattle area that included shutting down Interstate 5, the same freeway that San Diego demonstrators blocked more than 1,000 miles away in southern California.

Chicago: Gov. JB Pritzker activates National Guardsmen to assist police

Vandalism reports continued to crop up in several city neighborhoods and some suburbs.

The communities of Tinley Park, Crestwood and Oak Lawn alerted residents to stay home due to civil unrest. Many businesses boarded up.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker said he activated 375 Illinois National Guard soldiers to assist local law enforcement with street closures.

The downtown Chicago demonstrations that drew thousands started peacefully Saturday afternoon in a plaza, with protesters reading the names of black people who have died at the hands of police. But that gave way to violence and destruction that continued overnight Sunday in Chicago and elsewhere.

Police used batons to beat back demonstrators as police cars were set ablaze and windows were smashed at businesses ranging from neighborhood convenience stores to high-end Michigan Avenue shops.

Santa Monica, California: Unchecked looting as marchers confront police

Looters took advantage of a large demonstration several blocks away to hit stores in the city's business district.

In late afternoon, police were met with resistance when they tried to end a demonstration that had been peaceful. Demonstrators constructed a makeshift barricade in the middle of a street to protect themselves from non-lethal rounds fired by officers.

The march had attracted hundreds along the city's main oceanfront boulevard.

Rhonda Mathies, 69, of Louisville, gets down on her knees as she sings "We Shall Overcome" along with the crowd Sunday, May 31, 2020, during a Black Lives Matter healing rally in front of KFC Yum! Center in downtown Louisville.

Though there were many police officers present for the march, looters were able to plunder stores with few to stop them. Cars were seen pulling up in front of stores, with looters running in to collect bundles of clothes and other merchandise, then running out. Boxes littered the sidewalk as thieves were seen transferring goods into plastic trash bags.

A 5:30 p.m. PST curfew was announced due to the protests.

The looting came despite the arrival of the National Guard troops in neighboring Los Angeles, which had seen extensive looting, vandalism and arson on Saturday.

Murfreesboro, Tennessee: Brick thrown into business, police use tear gas

A small but tense demonstration in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, appeared to have dispersed after demonstrators blocked traffic and threw a brick through the window of a local business, prompting police to respond with canisters of tear gas.

About 50 protesters, many of whom appeared to be Middle Tennessee State University students, marched from Main Street toward Forrest Hall, a campus building named for Confederate general and Ku Klux Klan founder Nathan Bedford Forrest.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said protests in Murfreesboro are now overt threats to public safety and property.

George Floyd protests: Records dispute claims that most people arrested came from outside

Police said an armored vehicle was vandalized and protesters have blocked traffic by lying in the street in an intersection. Officers responded by throwing canisters of tear gas to drive protesters out of the street.

However, before the protest escalated, negotiations between police and protest leaders led to calm, then students and officers were seen walking together and posing for photos.

 Nancy DeGennaro, Joseph Spears, Mealand Ragland-Hudgins and Brinley Hineman, Murfreesboro Daily News Journal

Savannah, Georgia: Protesters chant 'Arrest the other three' during rally

Thousands demonstrated against racism and the killings of black people at the hands of police Sunday in Savannah, Georgia.

City leaders joined protesters who peacefully marched from Johnson Square to City Hall.

We need to make sure that we stop apologizing and we move from apology to action, Savannah Police Chief Roy Minter said.

At one point during Mayor Van Johnsons speech, the crowd broke into a chant of arrest the other three, referring to other Minneapolis police officers who stood by while an officer knelt on Floyds neck.

Yeah, they should arrest the other three, Johnson said.

We are tired of the mess and we want it to stop now. We stand here as a united community to say that we are standing with George Floyd and his family, because no man should ever have to die like that, Johnson said. We stand here united as a community to say that crooked police officers are called criminals. And in jail, they should be.

 Will Peebles, Dennis Knight, Mary Landers, Nathan Dominitz and Zach Dennis, Savannah Morning News

San Diego: Police fire tear gas after being assaulted by rocks and bottles

San Diego Police said they fired tear gas canisters Sunday after rocks and bottles were thrown at them.

The department said in a series of tweets that the confrontation was taking place at Second Avenue and Broadway in the seaside city's downtown.

"Certain protestors continue to throw objects and vandalize our city," the department said in one post. "The criminal behavior of these few is unacceptable. We are continuing to order the crowd to disperse."

Earlier, however, the department praised the peacefulness of most demonstrators. But it said it had to issue the order to disperse because of the dangerous actions of a few.

At one point, demonstrators occupied Interstate 5, stopping traffic in both directions, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.

Philadelphia: Mayor Jim Kenney 'saddened and disappointed' beyond words

Another day of street protests gave way to looting, with at least one police vehicle set on fire.

Looters were running out of stores in the northeastern section of the city with armloads of merchandise. In the downtown, workers and volunteers swept up broken glass from windows shattered during riots the previous day. Graffiti was being removed.

Mayor Jim Kenney said the mayhem saddened and disappointed me beyond words, and Im sure it saddened every Philadelphian who takes pride in their city. He said those responsible not only desecrated private businesses, they also desecrated the important message that was heard in the earlier peaceful protests.

Spartanburg, South Carolina: Passing motorists show support for protesters

Chanting No justice, no peace, about 100 peaceful Spartanburg, South Carolina, protesters gathered at Barnet Park, drawing support from motorists who honked their car horns.

We want to take a peaceful stand to show support, said organizer Kelvin Brown. If we can all come together as a people, black and white, we can make a difference.

Many protesters said it wasnt just Floyds death at the hand of a white police officer, or that it took days before the officer was arrested, that triggered anger.

Peaceful marches, burning cars: Protests for George Floyd take varying turns

We need to end the racist system, said Curtis Pickens. If you want all this to stop, real justice is what is needed. Stop the racial and social profiling. Stop hiring white supremacist officers.

Its time to stand up for what we believe in, Isaiah Jordan said. What happened to George Floyd terrorizes the whole nation. Weve got to do something about it. Im just sick and tired of young, black men dying."

--Bob Montgomery, GoUpstate.com

Lafayette, Louisiana: Protesters want police to know 'we're human'

Hundreds of protesters, some wearing protective face coverings, lined Lafayette streets to join a peaceful demonstration against police brutality.

The protest, peaceful like others in Baton Rouge and New Orleans this weekend, began in the morning with protesters lining the streets to chant.

I am sick and tired of being sick and tired, Lafayette NAACP President Marja Broussard said to protesters. I have a message for law enforcement. The message is: we want you to know that were human just like you...We want you to know we have families. Were human.

 William Taylor Potter, Lafayette Daily Advertiser

Augusta, Georgia: Demonstrators chant 'No justice, no peace'

Demonstrators chanted no justice, no peace as they walked along Washington Road in Augusta, Georgia.

While No justice, no peace, was a popular chant among protesters, Sundays peaceful march was about showing strength through peace rather than through violence, organizers said. Latoya Lovett said she asked the Street Justice Council to help her organize the marches after hearing many Augusta residents talk about going to Atlanta to join protests there, which have turned violent after peaceful starts.

You can march in your own city, you can have a voice in your own city, Lovett said. You dont have to go smash windows, you dont have to go beat people, you dont have to drop on the police.

Demonstrators were escorted by Richmond County Sheriffs Office deputies who blocked off roads and intersections as needed. Sheriff Richard Roundtree was among those who helped guide the marchers and ensure safety for both them and the motorists.

We believe in free speech and protesting and voicing your opinion, as long as you do it in a safe manner, Roundtree said. As long as youre doing that, were all for it.

 Will Cheney and Miguel Legoas, The Augusta Chronicle

Jacksonville, Florida: Peaceful rally follows violent Saturday night of protests

A peaceful demonstration was held Sunday outside the Duval County Courthouse. Then protesters started moving downtown and Jacksonville, Florida, police worked to keep them in certain areas.

The cleanup of smashed store windows began Sunday around Florida after a night of unrest throughout the states cities.

George Floyd protests: How did we get here?

Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams said an unnamed deputy was either stabbed or slashed in the neck and was taken to a hospital for treatment Saturday night. A sheriffs office spokeswoman would not comment on the deputys condition Sunday morning.

A protest Saturday resulted in many arrests, but we still dont know how many or anything related to those arrests, the sheriff said.

 Sarasota News-Tribune

Cincinnati: Police make 100 arrests after urging protesters to go home

Police arrested as many as 100 people after using tear gas and imploring the crowd to go home ahead of a curfew.

It ended a day that earlier featured a large crowd gathered at Inwood Park in Cincinnati to hear speakers as a rally, followed by a march.

Organizers gave instructions about what to do if they are tear-gassed. The rally started with a fist-up salute and a song about the death Sam DuBose, shot by a police officer not far from the scene of this protest in 2015.

Some Cincinnati City Council members tweeted from the rally.

 Sarah Brookbank, Cincinnati Enquirer

Contributing: The Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: George Floyd: Protests continue for sixth night across US
Mayank Singh By

NEW DELHI: More Army troops and Indo-Tibetan Border Police personnel have been moved to the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh where the Indian and Chinese armies have been in a state of standoff since early May.

The troops have been moved to match the PLA deployment, a source said. Initially, reserve troops were moved but later it was felt that the numbers have to be beefed up the source added. Besides the Army, the ITBP has also been asked to move out its extra personnel from Jammu and Kashmir.

ALSO READ | India-China border standoff: Soldiers asked to maintain peace on Indian side at LAC, talks to continue

Only those troops which are deployed for law and order duties in Kashmir after Article 370 was scrapped in August 2019 have been asked to join back their parent units, said another source.

These troops were moved out from various battalions. The 3,488 km-long LAC with China is managed by the ITBP and the Army jointly. The army is deployed in sensitive areas

The PLA and Indian Army soldiers clashed at the feature called Finger 5 in the northern flank of the Pangong lake on May 5 night.

A few days later, personnel from the two armies clashed again near Naku La in Sikkim.

Soon after, PLA soldiers moved in personnel in the Indian claimed areas of the Galwan Valley in Ladakh. India responded by saying its troops would continue to enhance its infrastructure.

India is committed to the objective of maintenance of peace and tranquility in the border areas with China and our armed forces scrupulously follow the consensus reached by our leaders and the guidance provided.

At the same time, we remain firm in our resolve to ensuring Indias sovereignty and national security. India foreign ministry spokesperson Anurag Srivastava had said.

The two sides have established mechanisms both at the military and diplomatic levels to resolve situations peacefully through dialogue and remain engaged through these channels, he said
People ran in and out through the Neiman Marcus for over 30 minutes, taking boxes of items out of a storage room. A white SUV rolled up to the scene, and at least three masked people got out, ran inside and came back out minutes later with items in hand. Then the SUV sped off east on Superior Street. Others stood by and yelled out 12! 12! 12! whenever a squad car came close.
Kerrville, TX (78028)

Today

Cloudy skies early, followed by partial clearing. Some mixed winter precipitation possible. Low 22F. Winds N at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Cloudy skies early, followed by partial clearing. Some mixed winter precipitation possible. Low 22F. Winds N at 10 to 15 mph.
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Salman Khan once revealed that when he was in the fourth grade, he was punished and made to stand outside his classroom. However, when his father Salim Khan found out the reason he was pulled up, he took the punishment on himself.

During an appearance on The Kapil Sharma Show, Salman said that he would frequently get punished in school. Once, he was made to stand underneath the flagpole, outside his classroom, as a punishment.

One day, my father was returning from work, and he saw me standing outside class. He asked, What did you do now? I said, Nothing, daddy. I dont know why the principal came and asked me to stand under the flagpole. I have been standing here all day. I was in the fourth grade at the time, he said.

When Salim went and asked the principal why Salman was being punished, he was told that he had not paid his school fees. My father said, He is not supposed to pay the fees, I am. You are supposed to keep him in class. I am running short of money. I will pay the fees but right now, if you need to punish, you need to punish me. So he went and stood under the flagpole, the actor said.

Also see: Sunil Grover cooks up a cigarette in his kitchen in hard-hitting video, Anubhav Sinha shares his own experiences

Salman is currently isolating at his farmhouse in Panvel, on the outskirts of Mumbai, while Salim is staying at their Galaxy Apartments residence. Each year, Eid is celebrated with much fanfare at the Khan residence, but this year, the family could not celebrate it together.In a recent interview, Salim said that he and Salman exchanged wishes on the phone.

Meanwhile, Salman made sure that his fans Eid was made special. Since Radhe: Your Most Wanted Bhai could not release on its scheduled date owing to the lockdown, he released a new song titled Bhai Bhai, which promoted the message of communal harmony.

Follow @htshowbiz for more
Jerusalem: Hundreds of people attended the funeral on Sunday of a Palestinian who was fatally shot by Israeli police in an incident for which Israel's new defence minister later apologised.

A police spokesman had said officers killed a Palestinian they suspected was carrying a weapon in Jerusalem's Old City on Saturday, but according to Israeli media, the man was later found to have been unarmed.

Palestinian officials said the 32-year-old man, Iyad Khayri, suffered mental health issues and they decried his killing.

Rana, mother of Iyad Halak, 32, holds his photo at their home in East Jerusalem's Wadi Joz. Credit:AP

In comments at Israel's Sunday cabinet meeting, Defence Minister Benny Gantz said: "We are really sorry about the incident in which Iyad Khayri was shot to death and we share in the family's sorrow - but I am certain this matter will be investigated swiftly and conclusions will be drawn."
Victoria is the only state to record new cases of coronavirus this weekend, bringing closer the day when Australia records zero additional cases.

The 11 new cases reported in Victoria on Saturday took the national total to 7,185.

Just 22 of the 475 active cases nationwide are being treated in hospital.

That hasnt stopped hundreds of demonstrators in capital cities claiming the COVID-19 pandemic is a scam.

COVID-19, the disease caused by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus.

Members of the anti-vaccination community breached social distancing rules to face-off with the police on May 30.

Placards included 5G = communism and Mandatory vaccination is a human rights violation.

Three of the new Victorian cases were linked to a school cluster and four to a Melbourne hotel where returned travelers are being quarantined

Victoria Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton remains concerned certain quarters of the community arent getting the message.

Still, Australia continues to record far few cases than comparable nations.

The death toll remains at 103, while in stark contrast the United States passed the 100,000 mark this week.

However, a new survey by the Australia Institute suggests more than three-quarters of Australians support states closing their borders to interstate travel.

Strong support was recorded in NSW (70 percent), Victoria (76 percent), Queensland (78 percent) and Western Australia (88 percent) in the survey of 1,005 people.

Meanwhile, passengers from the Ruby Princess cruise ship have been warned a crew member being treated in a Sydney hospital was recently diagnosed with tuberculosis.

The risk to passengers on the troubled March 8-19 cruise is very low, Sydney Local Health District said in a media release on May 29.
Deborah Hutton has come out swinging against the NSW Government for reopening pubs and gaming venues ahead of gyms.

The media personality, 58, aired her frustrations via Instagram on Sunday, posting a picture of Bondi Beach along with the caption: 'Is it just me or is it somewhat hypocritical that #NSW supports opening gambling and pubs while health/fitness facilities remain closed?'

'Can we plz address physical and mental health ASAP,' she added, tagging NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet, and Bondi Icebergs Gym.

'Is it just me or is it somewhat hypocritical?' Deborah Hutton , 58, (pictured) has come out swinging against the NSW Government for reopening pubs and gaming venues ahead of gyms

Clearly irritated, Deborah also added the hashtags, 'exercise is medicine', 'gyms are safe' and 'gyms are essential'.

The NSW Government has allowed beauty salons to return to business on June 1, while restaurants, cafes and pubs will be able to hold up to 50 customers from that date.

But gyms across the state remain closed and the government has not provided a clear timeline on when they could be opened - despite all other states and territories moving to do so.

'Can we plz address physical and mental health ASAP': The media personality aired her frustrations via Instagram on Sunday, posting a picture of Bondi Beach along with an impassioned caption

Hitting out: Clearly irritated, Deborah (pictured) also added the hashtags, 'exercise is medicine', 'gyms are safe' and 'gyms are essential'

Last Monday, Premier Gladys Berejiklian said gyms won't open in the 'foreseeable future' due to their 'health risk'.

It comes after Deborah was caught breaking into a fenced-off beach at Mackenzies Bay in early April.

The sighting came one week after the beach had been closed off to the public amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Gym lover! Glamorous Deborah (pictured) is known for her dedication to fitness and health

Couldn't fence her out! It comes after Deborah was caught breaking into a fenced-off beach at Mackenzies Bay in early April (pictured)

Deborah, who lives in nearby Bronte, was photographed carefully sliding through an opening in the barricade before stripping down to her swimming costume and heading into the water for a dip.

Bondi's council area of Waverley, where Mackenzies Bay is located, had become a coronavirus hotspot at the time.

Mackenzies Bay has since been re-opened to the public.
A number of protests are planned across New Jersey in response to the death of Minneapolis man George Floyd at the hands of a white police officer on Monday.

Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, died May 25 after Officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes while Floyd was handcuffed. Floyd, who was arrested for alleged forgery and wasnt armed, later died.

On Saturday, thousands of people marched through the streets of Newark chanting No justice, no peace!" and I cant breathe in a stand against racism and police brutality, a peaceful protest compared to violence seen in other major U.S. cities. In Camden, Police Chief Joseph D. Wysocki walked side-by-side with demonstrators.

Among the other protests planned in New Jersey:

A protest in Trenton, Justice for George Floyd, is planned from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday, according to PlanetPrinceton.com

Demonstrators in Atlantic City are meeting at the Public Safety Building on Atlantic Avenue at 1 p.m. on Sunday.

There will be a march in Long Branch on Sunday at beginning 1:30 starting at Pier Village by the ice-skating rink.

In Burlington County, a vigil is planned for 7 p.m. Sunday on Walnut Street in Bordentown.

Also Monday, a group calling itself Asbury Park Justice for George Floyd is hosting a 5 p.m. rally at 801 Bangs Ave.

A protest in Willingboro is planned for 4 p.m. on Tuesday. Demonstrators will meet at the GrandMarket Place on Route 130.

There will be a protest in Hoboken on June 5 at Maxwell Place Park starting at 1 p.m.

In Jersey City, there will be an eight-minute moment of silence on Tuesday at 6 p.m. at the Newark Avenue Pedestrian Mall.

Another gathering in Trenton will take place June 6 at 1 p.m. in front of Trenton City Hall. Demonstrators will march down State Street to the New Jersey State House.

Protests over Floyds death spread across the country into early Sunday, spilling into New York City, Atlanta, Detroit, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Portland and Washington, D.C. Four police officers who were at the scene of Flyods death have been fired, and Chauvin was charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in the case.

In New Jersey, all 21 N.J. county prosecutors offices call images of George Floyd death deeply disturbing and said police are not exempt from law.

In a statement Saturday, New Jersey State PBA President Pat Colligan condemned Chauvin and the four officers also at the scene.

The actions that we saw on video are contrary to all our training and does harm to the good reputation of the overwhelming number of brave men and women in law enforcement trying to do their job in an honorable and lawful manner," Colligan said. Nobody in law enforcement can look at that video and justify the actions of those officers.

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.

Avalon Zoppo may be reached at azoppo2@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @AvalonZoppo.
A day of mostly peaceful demonstrations turned into another night of unrest and fury in pretty much every corner of the United States as protests took place in at least 75 cities. Curfews imposed in more than two dozen cities were largely ignored as the National Guard was deployed in at least 12 states amid an effort by authorities to increase their response to the demonstrations that began over the death of George Floyd but have since expanded as an expression of rage at the historic mistreatment of African Americans by police. Police cars and government buildings were set on fire, stores were looted as police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at demonstrators, leading to scenes of urban warfare that were shocking in their size and scope.

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In Minneapolis, the city where Floyd was killed by a white Minneapolis police officer and where the protests began, things were largely quiet during the day Saturday before the National Guard joined law enforcement officers in using tear gas and making arrests as soon as the curfew took effect. Despite dramatic footage out of the city, as protests raged in much of the country, Minneapolis was calmer in the fifth day of protests than it had been in previous days with few reports of fires and looting that had become the norm. Although dozens of people were arrested, there were no reports of serious injuries as of early Sunday morning.

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WATCH: @BreakingChesky reports from Minneapolis as police fire flash bangs.



"Law enforcement tonight, not taking any chances." pic.twitter.com/atuEfFvBpX  MSNBC (@MSNBC) May 31, 2020

It was a different story in Philadelphia, where 13 police officers were injured and at least 35 people were arrested as a peaceful demonstration broke up as night fell and gave way to confrontations with law enforcement. Stores were vandalized and looted and police cars were set on fire as police moved in to clear the streets.

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Crowd has thinned some but still looting happening on Chestnut and Walnut between 15th and 17th. Nearly every store vandalized. Trash cans on fire pic.twitter.com/R30VOWabmr  Anna Orso (@anna_orso) May 31, 2020

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In Washington, D.C. protesters gathered near the Justice Department before moving on to the White House, where many clashed with Secret Service and law enforcement officers. Protesters across the city smashed windows and set fire to garbage cans. Determined to avoid the scenes that played out early Saturday morning, Lafayette Park, which is in front of the White House, was blocked with metal barricades.

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There were also lots of confrontations between police and protesters in New York City, where many demonstrators were arrested by officers clearing the streets. A video showing two NYPD cruisers accelerating into a crowd quickly gained traction on social media and led to an outraged response by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio- Cortez. NO ONE gets to slam an SUV through a crowd of human beings, she tweeted.

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Nearly a third of the 1,669 people that police have arrested since Thursday were in Los Angeles, according to an Associated Press tally. Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in Los Angeles county and city late Saturday and activated the National Guard to assist law enforcement as peaceful demonstrations devolved into violence and looting. Clashes were reported among protesters as some tried to stop others from smashing windows and looting businesses.

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Seattle was another city where peaceful protests turned chaotic as the day progressed. Cars were set on fire, stores were looted as some demonstrators threw Molotov cocktails at police. Two AR-15 rifles were stolen from police vehicles at one point although they were later recovered.

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In Indianapolis, thousands of demonstrators took to the streets peacefully but the situation changed dramatically at night as police fired tear gas to disperse violent protesters. One person was killed and three others were injured early Sunday when someone opened fire at protesters. Police said they were investigating multiple shootings that had been reported.

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The death in Indianapolis brought the total death toll connected to the protests to at least four since Wednesday. Early Saturday, a man was killed in St. Louis as he got stuck between the trailers of a FedEx trucks that protesters were trying to loot. Meanwhile, authorities were still investigating whether the shooting death of a federal officer in Oakland, Calif. on Friday night was directly related to the demonstrations. No one should rush to conflate this heinous act with the protests last night, Gov. Gavin Newsom said. A 21-year-old man was also killed Friday night in Detroit and law enforcement officers believe the gunman may have known the victim and used the demonstration as a cover for the killing. And a 43-year-old man was shot and killed outside a pawnshop in Minneapolis that was being lotted Wednesday.
Citywide

Photo: Tiffany P./Yelp

Protesters have taken to the streets around the country, demanding justice for George Floyd, who was killed by police in Minneapolis, and for other African-American victims of police violence.

In response, Mayor London Breed has enacted a nightly curfew for the city of San Francisco  8 p.m. until 5 a.m., starting tonight.

The curfew has put strain on San Francisco restaurants, already struggling from a lack of dine-in business during the shelter-in-place order for the COVID-19 pandemic. Some are closing early; others are discontinuing dinner service altogether.

Jennifer Bennett, the founder of Cole Valley's Zazie, has had to shut down dinner service, which usually runs from 5 to 8 p.m. on Sundays.

Bennett says she supports the protests. But she's frustrated that the impact will ultimately fall on the employee-owned business, where many of the staff are people of color.

On a normal night, her kitchen staff  the majority of whom are men of color  would typically get off around 10 p.m. Bennett says she can't expose them to the prospect of being arrested.

"A lot of my kitchen guys live around South Van Ness and Civic Center, so I dont want them to get arrested on their way home for being out past curfew," she said. "I also want them to be safe from the police, who are on edge right now.

Jennifer Bennett, center, with her Zazie colleagues in 2009. | Photo: Courtesy of Zazie

Whether the dinner closure will continue beyond tonight remains up in the air. Bennett said she will ride it out and see.

Safety is more important than revenue, she said. But its just another hit on restaurants in 2020.

If I knew the correct organizer to speak with, we would love to stay open and feed to people on the streets for marching for justice," said Marc Schechter, chef and business partner of SoMa's Square Pie Guys. "But safety is most important."

Usually open until 9 p.m. on Sundays, the business will close at 6:30 tonight to protect its staff and delivery drivers, who need to commute home safely.

Story continues

Its definitely scary out there, even if you do the right things, said Schechter. You can actually get caught up in things accidentally.

Though they can't provide pizza to protesters, Schechter says he and co-owner Danny Stoller have donated to the Anti-Police Terror Project.

Photo: Flee Kieselhorst/Square Pie Guys

Schechter says the uncertainty in the restaurant business right now is difficult.

"This is a new level for restaurants right now," he said. "But we are just doing the best we can to keep people safe and provide hospitality and good service."

Other businesses have announced the suspension of dinner service tonight, including Izakaya Rintaro and the Mission location of Pizzeria Delfina.

Others will be closing early, including the Marina's Causwells, the Excelsior's Dark Horse Inn, Gioia Pizzeria in Hayes Valley and the San Francisco locations of Super Duper Burgers.
Ghana is clean today as compared to two years ago and this is as a result of proper and strategic sanitation measures put in place by government, the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) for Korley Klottey in the Greater Accra Region has claimed.



Speaking on Yensempa on Onua FM on Thursday, Nii Adjei Tawiah maintained that Metropolitan, Municipal and Districts Assemblies (MMDAs) have worked incredibly to attain this height.



He told host Nana Yaw Opare that even though there is a lot more work to be done, he is assertive government has won the fight against filth in the country especially in the Greater Accra Region.



Sanitation is a major problem especially in the central business district areas, but we have worked extremely hard to achieve a constant improvement and therefore I can say Ghana is much cleaner than two years ago.



We still have problems coming in from time to time but you could attest to the fact that the cities are clean now and that confirms my position, he stressed.



The former New Patriotic Party (NPP) chairman for Klottey Korley Constituency lauded government for providing waste bins at vantage points to collect debris despite being livid at how people carry garbage from their homes into the bins.



He blamed hawkers and traders for dumping refuse at waste bin points and equally cautioned them to desist from such act or face the full rigours of the law if caught.



He entreated them to register with the Assembly or any private waste management company in managing waste from shops and homes instead of engaging unapproved persons.



Nii Adjei Tawiah also revealed that the Korley Klottey Municipal Assembly has begun profiling and engaging market leaders and hawkers selling on the streets in managing their waste and he is optimistic very soon heaps of refuse found in the central business district would be a thing of the past.

Source: 3 news









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In a May 31 press conference, Mayor Joe Hogsett announced he is signing an executive order giving Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department (IMPD) officers the ability to arrest any individual on the street between 8 p.m. Sunday night and 6 a.m. Monday morning. The only exceptions are those traveling to and from work and emergency medical care.

The curfew comes after two nights of protests, sparked by the death of George Floyd. Floyd, 46, who was murdered by police in Minneapolis last week. Protesters met at Monument Circle at 4:30 p.m. May 30. The tone changed around 9 p.m. after IMPD deployed the first round of pepper balls on the crowd.

IMPD Deputy Chief Joshua Barker defended the actions during the press conference, saying police responded to what he described as rioters near the Market Street entrance of the city-county building. After several people began kicking in windows of buildings and covering their faces with protective gear  in what appeared to be preparation for altercations with police  Barker said officers deployed the pepper balls. According to Barker, protesters arrived at Market Street several minutes before IMPD officers did.

However, many protesters claim IMPD were already on Market Street when they arrived, which prompted them to put on eye protection and bring out gallons of milk, which helps take the sting out of pepper spray. After the official protest ended at 7 p.m., officers were stationed at nearly every corner of downtown Indianapolis to control traffic.

By midnight, there were several reports of shots being fired. Two people were killed last night, and several injured, including one IMPD officer. IMPD Chief Randal Taylor said in the press conference that none of the shootings were IMPD-related.

For two days Ive listened to peaceful protesters advocating change, Taylor said. As an African American man, I share many of their frustrations and agree with much of what theyre advocating for. But nothing about the riots helps the cause of protesters. I specifically dont believe threes a single thing about young people shooting each other in our downtown streets that advances the cause of justice. My prayer is for peace in this city. For the residents of this city that I love, take this into account before senseless violence takes another life.

Both Hogsett and Taylor commended the peaceful protesters, who demonstrated on Monument Circle, the World War Memorial, and throughout downtown last night. It is not currently known how many of the 29 people arrested in last nights events were from out of town, but Taylor said he would not be surprised if individuals from outside the city were in attendance to disrupt the protest.

I know that there were people in the crowd not from the Indianapolis area, Taylor said. I would not be surprised if Antifa (an anti-fascist movement) was there.

Along with protesters advocating for justice for Black victims of police brutality, white agitators were in attendance, and were responsible for many cases of looting and destruction of private property.

These actions are necessary, but they break my heart, Hogsett said of the executive order. They break my heart because I know by taking these necessary steps, we are perpetuating a narrative that places the violent acts of last night on a pedestal.  Looting, rioting and violence against others, that is not who we are as a city. It has never been who we are as a city.

Hogsett said any extension of the executive order will be determined on a day-to-day basis, if protests should continue into this week.

Contact staff writer Breanna Cooper at 317-762-7848. Follow her on Twitter @BreannaNCooper.

Protesters took to downtown Indianapolis May 30 to protest the deaths of George Floyd and Sean Reed. (Photo/Breanna Cooper)
They say organising a wedding is like being on a rollercoaster.

Matt McMahon and Kassey Eldridge have been on quite the ride over the past three months as Victoria's pandemic-induced social restrictions shifted.

Matt McMahon and Kassey Eldridge in their backyard, where they had prepared to marry if restrictions remained tight. Credit:Chris Hopkins

At one point, they were prepared to cancel their wedding, slated for June 7 since they got engaged in January last year.

Then, they were ready to wed privately in their back garden in Kilsyth. Then, when the limit on attendees was increased to 10, they made a new plan  but Mr McMahon still had to give his mother the devastating news she would not be part of the 10.
Deforestation continues to rage in Vietnam

Vietnam will mark four years of natural forest closure this July, a measure to reverse severe deforestation.



A total 58 localities closed their natural forests from July 2016, following Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phucs order which aimed to halt wood exploitation by State agencies, including those certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, and offer assistance mechanisms to switch to alternative materials.



The order banned entry to forests without permission and banned logging altogether.

Many ancient trees are chopped down in a deforestation case in Yok Don National Park, Dak Lak province in late December, 2019





More than 27,260 cases of deforestation were reported annually from 2011 to 2015 with some 2,640ha of forest destroyed each year. The number reduced by 35 percent between 2016 and 2018 as the policy was adopted. Legal proceedings were launched in 363 cases in the same period.



Some 628,000ha of forest were planted, including 44,000ha of protection forest and 577,000ha of production forest. The countrys forest coverage rose to nearly 42 percent by the end of 2018, according to Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD).



The Central Highlands, for the first time in 45 years, witnessed an increase of forest area, standing at 2.5 million hectares in 2018.



As much as VND332 billion (USD14.2 million ) was allocated in 2017 from the State budget to support localities and cover profit losses of forest owners due to the closure order as well as the expenses of management and protection.



The MARD is developing forest carbon sequestration payments, focusing on highly polluted industries, a measure set to be filed to the Government by the end of 2020.



Payments for ecosystem services have been accelerated in the central provinces of Nghe An, Quang Nam and Ha Tinh.



The Vietnam Forest Protection and Development Fund also works with the Vietnam Forest and Delta Programme and Green Truong Son Programme supported by USAID to implement payments in other localities including Thanh Hoa, Quang Ninh and Thua Thien-Hue.



More than VND2.9 trillion (USD124.1 million ) of service fees were collected in 2018, 71 percent more than the previous year as 43 percent of the countrys total forestry area enjoyed the payment in 2019.



Despite incentives and measures taken to protect forests, deforestation, especially in the Central Highlands, continues.



Fokienia  an indigenous type of plant found at an altitude of 1,500m in Dak Lak province  is among the most endangered.



Offering high economic values, fokienia forests have become ideal prey for illegal loggers, despite harsh terrain.



Sub-area 1219 in Krong Bong district, home of ancient fokienia trees, has suffered tree massacres for years. In the latest case, 19 fokienia trees were found chopped into pieces, pulled down to a nearby valley to be brought out of the forest this April. All of the trees belonged to the protection forest.



Although the destruction is clear as day, loggers seem to disappear into thin air and most cases are closed without culprits being punished.



Chu Minh Quang, deputy head of Krong Bong Forestry Companys Segment 2  who is in charge of the sub-area 1219, said to approach the area, it usually takes guarding forces two days of walking. Therefore, despite regular inspections, it is impossible to stop loggers from chopping down precious fokienia trees.



Only 13 people, divided into teams of three to four, manage more than 12,000ha of the forest, Quang said. Each shift lasts two to three days and the loggers take advantage of shift changes to fell trees.



Bui Quoc Tuan, the companys director, said under the impacts of climate change, local residents have lost livelihoods and become dependent on the forests natural resources. Many have established gangs of loggers, joining hands to demolish the natural habitat.



Until now, none of loggers have been arrested. The helplessness sets a huge challenge to stop the crime, said Tuan.



Le Van Long, head of Krong Bong district Peoples Committee, said to encourage people in Yang Mao, Cu Dram and Cu Pui communes outside of the forest not to trespass and exploit wood, local authorities have implemented assistance programmes to help them start businesses and earn sustainable livelihoods.



The district Peoples Committee has investigated local civil servants and residents who gave loggers tip-offs to escape from law enforcement.



The Dak Lak province Department of Agriculture and Rural Development asked forest managers to strictly handle organisations and individuals involved in illegal logging, especially Krong Bong Forestry Company which was unable to protect 19 fokienia trees from being felled.



The lack of sanctions to monitor migration flows and stop forestry land from being illegally traded creates loopholes for deforestation. Meanwhile, benefit-sharing mechanisms are not attractive enough to call for private sector participation in protecting and planting forests, according to the MARD.



From 2021 to 2030, Vietnam hopes to sustainably manage forests, increase forestry coverage and ensure peoples livelihoods in the face of environmental damage caused by climate change, according to a plan signed by Deputy PM Trinh Dinh Dung in mid-April.



The plan focuses on accelerating civic engagement in forest protection and development which hands over forestry areas to local residents, especially ethnic minority groups, to manage and plant trees. The General Department of Land Administration will work as a monitoring body to instruct and inspect localities, organisations and businesses to tighten management over forests.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-01 05:31:00|Editor: huaxia

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MAPUTO, May 31 (Xinhua) -- Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi said Sunday that the country's military units are responding firmly and bravely to the terrorist attacks in the northern province of Cabo Delgado.

Speaking to the national radio station while on a work visit in that province over the weekend, Nyusi said the results of military operations are encouraging.

"We have information that superior members of the enemy force have been shot down. Morale is good," said Nyusi, adding that "the last battles fought by the Defense and Security Forces were huge, they were very productive."

Nyusi said works are effective by authorities based in Cabo Delgado on the ground, in the districts of Mocimboa, Quissanga, Muidumbe and Macomia, where the armed terrorists have perpetrated attacks.

President Nyusi met with senior figures of the Defense and Security Forces in Cabo Delgado accompanied by the ministers of defense and interior. Enditem
An emotional, peaceful demonstration in Downtown Madison on Saturday to condemn the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis devolved into a window-shattering, tear-gas-filled riot later in the evening, with looting and injuries.

Police in riot gear used tear gas and pepper spray to push the crowd down State Street toward UW-Madison after rioters broke windows at a number of businesses. But in a game of cat and mouse, hundreds of demonstrators followed police back up the street toward the Capitol, where another, larger crowd began to gather.

Shortly after 7 p.m., a few individuals could be seen looting a shop, where a fight subsequently broke out. One person was injured in the fight and later taken away by paramedics. Around 8:30, rioters smashed a large window to the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art and looters could be seen throwing items out onto the sidewalk.

The destructive turn followed a lengthy protest that began around noon when about 1,000 people gathered on Capitol Square to demand justice for Floyd, a black man who died earlier this week after a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.

The protest, which shut down traffic at multiple intersections around the Capitol and later moved down East Washington Avenue, was organized in response to Floyd's death  an incident those in the crowd decried as all-to-familiar for people of color.

Earlier in the day, protesters invoked the names of other people of color who have been killed by police, including Sylville Smith and Dontre Hamilton in Milwaukee, and Tony Robinson, an unarmed black teenager who was shot during a physical altercation with a white Madison police officer in a narrow stairwell at a Williamson Street apartment house in 2015. They marched to the Dane County Jail and Robinson's home.

In Minneapolis, Floyd died after former officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee on the 46-year-old man's neck for several minutes while Floyd cried out he couldn't breathe. The actions by Minneapolis police and the echoes of police killings of black Americans nationwide have prompted riots and protesting in that city and across the nation, including in Milwaukee on Friday.

"I can't believe that someone, for nine minutes, was killing someone on the street and nobody did anything to stop it," said Jean-Rene Watchou of Madison, who was at the protest earlier at the Capitol. "I see that as a threat to me as an African-American, that American society does not care about my life, does not care about me  how do I explain what happened to George Floyd to my kids?"

Madison protesters invoked the names of other people of color who have been killed by police, including Sylville Smith and Dontre Hamilton in Milwaukee, and Tony Robinson, an unarmed black teenager who was shot during a physical altercation with a white Madison police officer in a narrow stairwell at a Williamson Street apartment house in 2015. They marched to the Dane County Jail and Robinson's home.

Protests in Minneapolis have been violent for multiple days, and frustration over police brutality against African Americans has spilled into many cities nationwide that have faced violent protests, including Milwaukee and Atlanta.

Minnesota authorities announced Friday that Chauvin had been arrested and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter.

In Madison, protesters  the large majority wearing masks due to the COVID-19 outbreak  carried signs that read "Stop Police Murder," "I am George Floyd" broke into chants of "Black lives matter," "No justice, no peace" and "F--- the police."

Robinson's grandmother Sharon Irwin said Saturday's protest bore a strong resemblance to similar rallies in the city following her grandson's death five years ago.

"It's overwhelming, I'm traumatized," Irwin said. "I'm glad to see this. You know what I hope transpires? That sweeping changes go across the country."

Erin Beehner and Gina Nolan, who are both Madison educators and created the Facebook group for the protest, said the idea started with hopes of providing a place to come together. Beehner and Nolan, who are both white, said they felt it was important to try to confront a difficult conversation.

"Were coming from a place of support and were not taking charge of anything," Beehner said on Friday. "I think its just creating the space for that, for people to share their support, to share their protest, to share their disgust, to share their grievances, to share their anger."

As the protest moved south from the Capitol toward the intersection near the Dane County Courthouse, Taylor Tai, of Madison, sat near the Capitol with a sign around her neck that read "Black lives are not disposable."

Clean-up event In a Facebook Live appeal late Saturday, Michael Johnson, president of the Boys & Girls Club of Dane County, urged residents to gather at Library Mall at 5 a.m. Sunday to help clean up the mess. He asked people to bring brooms and trash bags. We want to show solidarity among our city to respond quickly to the wave of destruction. It was not the organizers that organized this event today, Johnson said. These are outside agitators.

"I've been feeling exhausted of people of color  and specifically black people  having basically no baseline safety in this country," said Tai, who is Taiwanese. "It feels like I have a responsibility to be a part of creating change as a person of color."

While the daytime event was largely peaceful, a motorist drove their vehicle into a group of protesters at a little before 3 p.m. at the intersection of Williamson Street and Few Street.

Madison resident Canaan Odeh, 20, was next to the SUV when it struck an individual on a bicycle. Odeh said he and several protesters encircled the vehicle and struck it while shouting for the driver to stop. Cell phone video from the scene shows the SUV accelerate and drive through the group of people.

Odeh said the driver was stopped by police shortly after and nobody appeared to have sustained any major injuries.

"Regardless of anybody being injured, the intent was dangerous," Odeh said. "We want to see people being held accountable when we're peacefully protesting."

In a separate incident, the rear window of a van on the 500 block of East Washington Avenue was smashed.

In Milwaukee, what began as a peaceful protest turned violent as protesters clashed with police. A 38-year-old officer suffered a minor gunshot wound early Saturday on the city's south side.

On Saturday, Gov. Tony Evers authorized 125 members of the Wisconsin National Guard to support local law enforcement in Milwaukee.

It is critical that people are able to peacefully express their anger and frustration about systemic racism and injustice, in Milwaukee, the State of Wisconsin, and our Nation," Evers, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley said in a joint statement. "This limited authorization of citizen soldiers from the Wisconsin National Guard will help protect people who are exercising their First Amendment rights and ensure the safety of the public.

Several state and law enforcement officials, including Evers, Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes and Attorney General Josh Kaul, this week condemned the actions of the Minnesota officers who arrested Floyd.

"People are hurting," Barnes, Wisconsin's first black lieutenant governor, said on Friday. "People are tired. We are done dying. I am tired of addressing the disregard for Black life in this country. Those who are protesting this injustice are doing so in order to save this nation, and they should be protected. To see a city burn on the outside is devastating but hardly compares to the implosion brought by systemic inequity and injustice."

Wisconsin is considered one of the worst states in the nation for racial disparities between white and black communities. Indicators include unemployment, income and education.

On Thursday, chiefs of police across Dane County spoke out against police brutality during an online town hall meeting.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-31 23:11:05|Editor: huaxia

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SKOPJE, May 31 (Xinhua) -- North Macedonia reported 62 new confirmed COVID-19 cases on Sunday, raising its total to 2,226, according to the country's health ministry.

The ministry informed that 1,552 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 disease have recovered so far, while 133 people have died.

While visiting the city of Kumanovo, northeastern North Macedonia on Sunday, Prime Minister Oliver Spasovski called on citizens to abide by the coronavirus preventive measures.

"It is up to citizens and how much they respect measures whether movement restrictions will be restored in certain areas," Spasovski told reporters.

Health authorities in North Macedonia have announced that movement restrictions may be restored in areas where the number of new coronavirus cases is on the rise.

As of Sunday, a total of 29,575 tests for COVID-19 had been conducted across the country, the ministry said. Enditem
By Express News Service

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Close on the heels of liquor sales being allowed in Kerala, the crime under the influence has once again reared its ugly head after a brief lull during the lockdown period.

As many as three murder cases commissioned under the influence of alcohol were registered in Kerala within a span of a few hours on Saturday night.

In Malappuram district, a father who had reprimanded his son for drinking alcohol was beaten to death by the latter, while a mother was decapitated in Kottayam district by her inebriated son. The third incident was reported from Thiruvananthapuram where a drunken brawl turned fatal when an auto-driver was bludgeoned to death by his friend.

Tirur native Pulickal Muhammed Haji was killed in Malappuram district after his drunk son Aboobaker Siddiqui pushed him to the ground. Haji reportedly had reprimanded his son for consuming alcohol and picking a quarrel with other family members staying at home. This allegedly infuriated Aboobaker and he unleashed himself on his father. Haji felt uneasy and was taken to a hospital, but could not be saved.

In Changanassery of Kottayam district, a 55-year-old Kunjannamma was brutally murdered by her son Jithin Baby, who was heavily drunk while committing the crime. She was decapitated by Jithin using a kitchen knife in a fit of rage after he reportedly expressed his dislike for the dinner Kunjannamma had prepared.

The third alcohol-related murder was reported from Kattachalkuzhy in Thiruvananthapuram district in the wee hours of Sunday. The drunken brawl claimed the life of 36-year-old Shyam, who was bludgeoned to death by his friend Sathi. The duo reportedly had a fight during which Sathi attacked his friend using an iron road that led to his death at a hospital hours later.
Spectators may not have been in attendance at Sweden's Solvalla race track on Sunday, May 31, but harness racing fans that watched the 2020 Elitloppet remotely from all over the world were provided with a treat.

Although he didn't win his elimination heat earlier in the day, the American-bred Propulsion had impressed while in defeat. He had raced three-wide throughout his elim and had gutted it out in the lane to advance to the final.

Eight of the world's top trotters laid it on the line in the final, and Propulsion, who had started from Post 6, was third-last when the field swung for home. That is when driver Orjan Kihlstrom unleashed Propulsion, and the heralded son of Muscle Hill responded.

Horses made spirited bids in the lane, but it was Propulsion, who was flying five- or six-wide on the outside, who swooped up and chugged past his rivals for an impressive win -- possibly the last of his career.

After a ruling from the judges, elimination winner Cokstile was deemed the second-place finisher, while Attraversiamo was the third-place finisher.

RECAP OF THE ELIMINATION HEATS

Post positions for the final of the 2020 Elitloppet have been drawn, as a pair of elimination heats for the prestigious international trotting event took place earlier today (Sunday, May 31). This year's event at Sweden's Solvalla race track is taking place without fans in attendance due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The first heat, which went postward as Race 6, saw Post 8 starter Earl Simon overcome the outside starting slot to post a solid closing victory for driver Franck Ouvrie.

Earl Simon sat in a gapped second-over slot for much of the contest. The Johan Untersteiner-driven Missle Hill had grabbed the lead early and was on the point until being overtaken by Earl Simon late in the stretch. Ouvrie fanned wide off of the turn and gave Earl Simon a clear path to victory. Earl Simon was well within himself in victory.

Missle Hill held on for second. The Per Linderoth-driven Sorbet sat a pocket trip into the stretch and edged forward late to snare third. The Fredrik Larsson-driven Milliondollarrhyme rallied wide from the back of the pack and was right up in the mix for a fourth-place finish.

The top four finishers from the first heat (Earl Simon, Missle Hill, Sorbet, Milliondollarrhyme) have advanced to the final.

The second heat was next up in Race 7, and it was the Christoffer Eriksson-driven Cokstile that raced first up for the large majority of the mile before hitting the wire first. Racing Mange (who was driven by Joakim Lovgren) trotted a tactical two-hole trip and came on late to finish a fresh second.

Although Cokstile captured the second heat with a sustained first-up effort, it was the Orjan Kihlstrom-driven Propulsion that had the harness racing world talking after the tilt.

Propulsion raced three-wide for the duration of the second heat and was still slugging it out in the stretch. Propulsion finished third, while the Erik Adielsson-driven Attraversiamo closed wide for the wire, but had to settle for fourth.

The top four finishers from the second heat (Cokstile, Racing Mange, Propulsion, Attraversiamo) have advanced to the final.

The draw for the final of the 2020 Elitloppet took place after the dust had settled. The draw results appear below.

2020 Elitloppet Final

(Post - Horse - Driver)

1 - Racing Mange - Joakim Lovgren

2 - Earl Simon - Franck Ouvrie

3 - Cokstile - Christoffer Eriksson

4 - Missle Hill - Johan Untersteiner

5 - Sorbet - Per Linderoth

6 - Propulsion - Orjan Kihlstrom

7 - Milliondollarrhyme - Fredrik Larsson

8 - Attraversiamo - Erik Adielsson
YPSILANTI TWP, MI - Trische Duckworth organized four protests against police brutality last week throughout Washtenaw County.

The founder and executive director of the nonprofit Survivors Speak is a Christian woman, so that means Sunday is a day of rest.

She and other protest organizers postponed a planned demonstration on Sunday to Monday, June 1, she told MLive. The protest scheduled for 1 p.m., May 31 would have taken place in the Apple Ridge neighborhood of Ypsilanti Township, the same place where a white Washtenaw County Sheriffs deputy was shown punching ShaTeina Grady El in the head three times before arresting her.

You cant do that.' Ypsilanti woman shown being punched by Washtenaw deputy speaks about altercation

The time and exact location of the protest will be updated later on Sunday or early Monday, Duckworth said, but added that it will likely take place in downtown Ann Arbor. It is not affiliated with the protesters who marched at the University of Michigan and throughout Ann Arbor on Saturday, May 30.

Hundreds protesting police brutality gather in Ann Arbor to 'make a change for our country

Hundreds of protesters attended Duckworths protests from Tuesday through Friday last week, which was sparked by the video of the deputys altercation with Grady El and her husband Daniyal.

Deputies had ordered the Grady Els to leave the scene of a potential shooting in Ypsilanti Townships Apple Ridge neighborhood around midnight on Tuesday, May 26, said the Washtenaw County Sheriffs Office. When officers tried to physically remove the two from the scene, they resisted and the deputy punched Grady El in the head before taking both into custody, police said.

You cant do that.' Ypsilanti woman shown being punched by Washtenaw deputy speaks about altercation

The Grady Els were trying to film the police forming a perimeter near their daughter Jaquisy Diggins home in the 2000 block of Peachcrest Street, Daniyal Grady El said. The police didnt try to explain the shooting situation to them before springing into action, he said.

The command officer on scene ordered the Grady Els to increase their distance from the police perimeter, said Washtenaw County Sheriff Jerry Clayton while presenting bodycam footage Friday.

They were inside the zone we were comfortable with in terms of the safety and risk to (the deputies)," he said. We had one deputy trying to negotiate entry (with the person at the door), and the command officer trying to maintain cover and safety for that officer negotiating.

The shooting, punching & arrests: 45 minutes of bodycam footage of altercation between deputy, Ypsilanti woman released

One element missing from the video is a deputy explaining to the Grady Els that the home is the possible location of the shooter.

We never passed their squad car, which I thought was the barrier, ShaTeina Grady El said. One of (the deputies) could have said, Maam, we need you to move six feet back, just for your safety...theres a possible shooter in the house. That couldve changed it.

In the initial aftermath from the incident, the sheriffs office has placed the deputy shown punching ShaTeina Grady El and other involved staff on paid administrative leave due to union requirements. The Michigan Sheriffs Association is investigating the deputys use of force against the Grady Els, the sheriffs office said. Those findings will be shared with Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel for review.

The Grady Els will seek a felonious assault charge on the deputy, as well as the firings of all staff involved, said their lawyer William Amadeo.

Read more:

Video of Washtenaw County deputy punching woman sparks outrage in Ypsilanti Township

Free ShaTeina: Continued incarceration of Ypsilanti woman leads 300 protesters to block streets again

Outraged residents block streets in protest over Washtenaw deputy accused of punching black woman
In the midst of the flare-ups in Ladakh, China continues to augment its presence along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). Chinese army is deploying artillery and armoured units in proximity to the Indian territory. Military presence is being increased in the areas which could help the Chinese army to reach near the Indian location in a couple of hours, India Today TV reported.

Multiple rounds of talks between commanding officers and Brigadiers from both armies have failed to break the logjam since the first week of May, the report said. Major General level talks would now soon be arranged. "It seems that the Chinese are buying time to build up their positions in the rear side as they have brought in a large number of heavy vehicles with artillery and armoured vehicles in them and their troops," the report also said citing sources.

India too has moved its troops to the locations to match the over 5000 troop strength of the Chinese. So far, no intent has been shown by China to call back or to accommodate India's objections to their actions.

The situation in eastern Ladakh deteriorated after around 250 Chinese and Indian soldiers were engaged in a violent face-off on the evening of May 5 which spilled over to the next day before the two sides agreed to "disengage". However, the standoff continued.

The incident in Pangong Tso was followed by a similar incident in north Sikkim on May 9. The troops of India and China were engaged in a 73-day stand-off in Doklam tri-junction in 2017, even triggered fears of a war between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.

The India-China border dispute covers the 3,488-km-long LAC. China claims Arunachal Pradesh as part of southern Tibet while India contests it. Both sides have been asserting that pending the final resolution of the boundary issue, it is necessary to maintain peace and tranquillity in the border areas.

Also read: Lockdown 5.0: Fifth phase of coronavirus lockdown from June 1, all you need to know about unlock 1.0

Also read: CBDT notifies Income Tax Return forms for FY 2020-21; check details here
In 2004, United Way Toronto released a groundbreaking report, Poverty by Postal Code, which made it clear that peoples socio-economic status and access to services were largely determined by where they lived.

Now along comes COVID-19, and Toronto Public Health releases a map tracking the infection rate of the disease by neighbourhood. Sadly, this map shows the disparity is still prevalent: places lacking programs and service, where people live in cramped quarters, where they are dependent on public transit that is infrequent and inadequate, where they do not have the option to stay home and keep safe  they are most at risk of infection.

These people, working in long-term care, hospital support, grocery stores, factories and delivery services, have kept the city going during this crisis. But they dont live in the light coloured areas of the map.

They live in poorer areas  and theyre suffering disproportionately for it. We have known for years about these vulnerable neighbourhoods in our city, where people have lower incomes, live in inadequate housing, are food insecure and more prone to chronic disease and therefore more at risk during a pandemic.

We urgently need a provincial strategy for places like Scarborough that are now smouldering hot spots of COVID-19  where the virus continues to circulate amongst densely populated, poorly ventilated buildings and in underfunded long-term care facilities.

Toronto Public Health, to its credit, pushed for the collection of disaggregated data to track the virus based on demographic indicators. But even after these findings were released  unmistakably mapping the citys hot spots  the provincial government continues to both question the need for such data and dither on what to do about it.

The province argued that releasing the data could stigmatize communities. I believe that sharing this data at the very least gives people added information they may need to protect themselves. The darkly coloured parts of the map show where the virus is, and while that wont change the reality of the circumstances of where these people live, it adds to the urgency of taking precautionary steps.

Here are a few suggestions to help alleviate the spread of the virus in these hard-hit areas:

Increased mobile testing in neighbourhoods where outbreaks are most severe.

Providing separate spaces for people infected to quarantine safely.

Supplying masks with instructions on how to properly use them.

Co-ordinating food delivery to help limit movement by infected people.

In the face of a hot summer ahead, supplying air conditioners for seniors, and opening multiple cooling centres where people can still maintain social and physical distancing.

Implementing online learning packages for children, including iPads connected to Wi-Fi.

Distributing reloadable grocery cards to replace school nutrition programs.

The hot spots map reinforces the need for policies and action based on the realities of poverty. The pandemic will not end until neighbourhoods like Scarborough and North Etobicoke  home to low income, vitally important workers and vulnerable populations  are safe.
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The Queen has been pictured horse-riding in the grounds of Windsor Castle - her first public appearance since the coronavirus lockdown began.

Windsor is said to be the Queen's favourite royal residence and she has been photographed over the weekend riding one of her ponies, a 14-year-old Fell Pony called Balmoral Fern.

The 94-year-old, who has been a passionate horse lover and breeder of thoroughbred racehorses throughout her reign, had not been pictured riding since she began isolating at Windsor Castle ten weeks ago despite reports she has been taking daily rides.

Wearing a colourful headscarf and smartly dressed in a tweed jacket, jodhpurs, white gloves and boots, this weekend the head of state ventured out to enjoy the sunny weather that has been a contrast to the sombre mood of the lockdown.

The Queen rides Balmoral Fern, a 14-year-old Fell Pony, in Windsor Home Park over the weekend, accompanied by head groom Terry Pendry

She will have been heartened, no doubt, to hear that horse racing returns today for the first time since March 17.

Her Majesty was accompanied by her head groom Terry Pendry, with the pair practising social distancing at all times.

The last public picture of the Queen was taken as she was driven away from Buckingham Palace to her Windsor Castle home on March 19.

One of the Queen's corgis - she has two named Candy and Vulcan - could be seen next to her as they both looked out of the car window.

The Queen carried out official duties the day before her planned departure, but held her weekly audience with Prime Minister Boris Johnson on the phone rather than face-to-face as usual.

Her Majesty was wearing a colourful headscarf and smartly dressed in a tweed jacket, jodhpurs, white gloves and boots, in the photos taken this weekend

The last public picture of the Queen was taken as she was driven away from Buckingham Palace to her Windsor Castle home on March 19 with one of her corgis by her side

The Queen has made two televised addresses to the nation during the lockdown - the first a speech to reassure the country that coronavirus would be overcome and those in isolation 'will meet again', and another on a similar theme to mark VE Day.

In lockdown Queen Elizabeth is said to have continued to take daily horse rides, one of her lifelong pleasures.

Reportedly slipping out of a side door at Windsor castle every morning in a headscarf, jodhpurs and riding boots to take a short drive to her beloved fell pony at Home Park.

Aware of the risk posed to her health by covid-19 Her Majesty is said to make the short drive to the stables unaccompanied  no police, no servants and no family that could expose her to the coronavirus.

In years past Queen Elizabeth II has enjoyed riding in the grounds of Windsor with her daughter the Princess Royal and her head groom Terry Pendry (pictured together in April 2002)

Her favourite pastime: Queen Elizabeth II is seen riding with Terry Pendry in the grounds of Windsor Castle on her 77th birthday (pictured April 21 2003)

The Queen is pictured riding in the grounds of Windsor Castle weeks before her 88th birthday, with head groom Mr Pendry, (April 2014)

Come rain or shine: Queen Elizabeth II rides in drizzling weather, accompanied Terry Pendry in the grounds of Windsor Castle, Berkshire, on the 5th anniversary of the death of The Queen Mother, Mar 30 2007

And head groom Mr Pendry ensures her ponies are ready and that he keeps two metres from his boss.

All protective disinfectant measures are taken, particularly for the horse's saddle and bridle.

The monarch's ride of choice is a black pony called Carltonlima Emma, named after the stud near Leeds where she was bred, and the routine gives the queen a sense of both freedom and normality.

Many thought she would have to give up riding  confined to barracks by the pandemic.

Queen Elizabeth II during her address to the nation and the Commonwealth in relation to the coronavirus epidemic, recorded at Windsor Castle, April 5 2020

But a devoted team of 22 staff are working to provide a protective shield around Elizabeth and Prince Philip, which Windsor Castle colleagues are calling 'HMS Bubble'.

The 22 royal staff have sacrificed their home lives to stay isolated at Windsor Castle and serve Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip for the duration of the lockdown.

A memo issued to staff from the master of the household Tony Johnstone-Burt, 62, a former Royal Navy Officer called the mission to protect the Queen and Prince Philip 'HMS Bubble'.

The Queen was driven from Buckingham Palace to Windsor Castle here she began isolating on March 19, Prince Philip, 98, was flown down to join her from Sandringham shortly after.

In the memo Vice-admiral Johnstone-Burt explains that the staff would be doing their duty by not seeing their families for the duration of the lockdown in order to protect Her Majesty and Prince Philip.

Comparing the conditions to those he experienced while 'at sea' during his 40 years in the Navy he wrote: 'There are 22 Royal Household staff inside the Bubble, and it struck me that our predicament is not dissimilar to my former life in the Royal Navy on a long overseas deployment.

'Indeed, the challenges that we are facing whether self-isolating alone at home, or with our close household and families, have parallels with being at sea away from home for many months, and having to deal with a sense of dislocation, anxiety and uncertainty.'

The term 'HMS bubble' reportedly amused both the Queen and Philip, who himself served in the Navy where he was nicknamed 'Big Bubble'.

The Queen pictured out riding On her 66th Birthday In Windsor Great Park with her husband Prince Philip. April 21 1991

Queen Elizabeth II riding a horse around the grounds of Windsor during a period of raised security at the Castle after the Westminster terror attack in London, March 29 2017

In his uplifting message to staff, Mr Johnstone-Burt wrote: 'I'm sure that we shall emerge as a stronger, more considerate and more resilient Royal Household team as a result and able to do our duty for the Queen.'

'Shielders' get taste of freedom but Jenrick warn advice may tighten again More than two million people who have been 'shielding' will be allowed to go outside from tomorrow. But Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick told the No10 briefing tonight that restrictions might need to be tightened again if 'conditions become less favourable'. Mr Jenrick said the next review of shielding measures will take place in the week commencing June 15 and officials will consider the next steps of the programme 'more generally' beyond June 30. 'Following that review, the NHS will also write to all individuals on the shielding patient list with information about next steps on shielding advice and the support that will be available to them. 'If the conditions become less favourable, our advice to those being asked to shield will, unfortunately, need to be tightened. 'The government will continue to ensure that support is available to those who need it for as long as possible, and for as long as people are advised to follow the shielding guidance.' Advertisement

Members of the Royal staff believe to be isolating with the Queen include Her Majesty's private secretary Sir Edward Young, and his own staff, who have all moved into the castle.

The staff are said to be split into two groups, who work away from their families on a 'three weeks on, three weeks off' basis.

Royal staff, including chefs, cleaners and officials, spend two weeks at home and a third week in quarantine during their time away from Windsor.

Under strict measures to protect the monarch, each employee is then tested for Covid-19 and has their temperature taken before they can begin another three-week rotation.

The queen has continued her duties with grace from the confines of Windsor Castle during the pandemic.

On April 5 more than 23.3million people tuned in to watch the Queen deliver an inspirational' and 'galvanising' coronavirus TV address to the nation.

Her Majesty's highly personal speech evoked Britain's stoicism during the Second World War with viewers admitting they had a lump in their throat and tears in their eyes as she echoed Dame Vera Lynn's words: 'We will meet again'.

Three out of four people tuned in on the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 at 8pm, putting the speech just outside the top 10 most watched broadcasts of all time in Britain.

Queen Elizabeth II speaks to Prime Minister Boris Johnson from Windsor Castle for her Weekly Audience on March 25, 2020 in Windsor, England

Royal commentators said her 'deeply moving' words inspired confidence and boosted morale in an intervention being hailed as the 'finest moment' in her 68-year reign.

On May 8 the Queen paid tribute to Britain's lockdown spirit with an electrifying speech on the 75th anniversary of VE Day, in which she said Second World War heroes would admire the nation's response to the pandemic.

The monarch, who was 13 when war broke out in 1939, added: 'It may seem hard that we cannot mark this special anniversary as we would wish. Instead we remember from our homes and our doorsteps.

Ministers tell parents that reopened classrooms are SAFE amid fears up to HALF will keep their children away Ministers last night reassured parents that reopening primary schools today is safe amid fears many will keep their children away. Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick said it was extremely important children went back to school. It comes as a study suggested up to half of families may shun sending their youngsters to lessons due to worries about the spread of coronavirus. The majority of primaries are expected to open from today, despite fierce opposition from the National Education Union. At the 11th hour, the union again attempted to scupper openings, claiming they should be delayed until June 15 to protect youngsters and teachers. Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick said it was extremely important children went back to school But Education Secretary Gavin Williamson attempted to allay parental and staff concerns, insisting that Government decisions throughout the pandemic are based on the best scientific and medical advice. He said: While there might be some nervousness, I want to reassure parents and teachers that the welfare of children and staff continues to be at the heart of all of our considerations. For the past three weeks the sector has been planning and putting protective measures in place. Speaking at the Downing Street briefing, Mr Jenrick said ministers believe it is possible to open schools safely. He pointed out that 80 per cent of schools have been open throughout the pandemic, with thousands of teachers already educating children of key workers as well as vulnerable pupils. Mr Jenrick said: It may be that there are some parents out there today who have not yet made the decision to send their children back to school but will do so in the days ahead when theyve seen other people make that step and schools manage to reopen safely. I certainly hope so, because its extremely important that we do get children back to school. All of the evidence suggests that it is children from the most deprived, the poorer households, who are losing out by not having that crucial face-to-face contact that you get in a school setting. I dont want to see that continue for any longer. Advertisement

'But our streets are not empty; they are filled with the love and the care that we have for each other.

'And when I look at our country today, and see what we are willing to do to protect and support one another, I say with pride that we are still a nation those brave soldiers, sailors and airmen would recognise and admire.'

She added ' Never give up, never despair - that was the message of VE Day.'

Her words were delivered to the very second that her father, George VI, gave his VE Day speech 75 years ago.

The Queen's first steps back into public view come as the UK government begins its plan to transition out of lockdown.

From Monday, groups of up to six people will be able to meet outside in England as long as they observe social distancing as part of efforts to fight coronavirus.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said today: 'This is a sensitive moment. We can't just stay in lockdown forever. We have got to transition.'

Asked whether the lockdown will be tightened again if infection rates increase, Mr Raab told Sky News' Ridge on Sunday: 'We will target, if there is any uptick, and it could be in a locality, it could be in a particular setting, we will target very carefully measures that would apply to it so that we can take these steps but also keep control of the virus.'

A series of experts have raised concern about the moved to ease the lockdown in England, which takes effect from tomorrow, with the UK still getting 8,000 new infections a day.

Up to six people from six different households will be permitted to meet up in public places or gardens, meaning exercise classes and barbecues are back on the agenda.

Primary schools and nurseries have also been told they can start to reopen, while all non-essential shops can return from June 15.

In Scotland and Wales the loosening is far less dramatic, with only two households allowed to meet up at a time and people told not to travel more than five miles from home. Schools north of the border will not be back until after holidays there in August.

Asked whether the lockdown will be tightened again if infection rates increase, Mr Raab told Sky's Ridge on Sunday: 'We will target, if there is any uptick, and it could be in a locality, it could be in a particular setting, we will target very carefully measures that would apply to it so that we can take these steps but also keep control of the virus.'

Families across England will finally be able to see their elderly relatives again tomorrow, as millions of vulnerable people 'shielding' are allowed to spend time outdoors.

As part of the easing of lockdown restrictions, 2.2million vulnerable people will be able to go outside with members of their household, while continuing to follow social distancing guidelines.

Those who live alone will be able to meet outside with one other person from another household, in a move that will bring joy to thousands.

Boris Johnson today hailed the 'resilience' of those who have been shielding since March, with many having no face-to-face contact since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Prime Minister said: 'I want to thank everyone who has followed the shielding guidance.

UK announces official daily Covid-19 death toll of 113 - the lowest since lockdown - taking the official count to 38,489 The UK has announced 113 more Covid-19 deaths today, the lowest since lockdown began, taking the official count to 38,489. Today the Department of Health reported the lowest figure in almost ten weeks - 74 people died on March 23, after which the crisis spiralled out of control. However, the weekends always see a significant drop in deaths due to a lag in reporting. Last Sunday health officials declared 118 deaths, which was a 30 per cent drop from the week before. Today has not seen such a dramatic reduction from the week before. But deaths are still declining from the peak in mid-April when the worst day saw 1,172 people die. Advertisement

'It is because of your patience and sacrifice that thousands of lives have been saved.

'I do not underestimate just how difficult it has been for you, staying at home for the last ten weeks, and I want to pay tribute to your resilience.'

Mr Jenrick told the daily No10 briefing tonight that restrictions might need to be tightened again if 'conditions become less favourable'.

Mr Jenrick said the next review of shielding measures will take place in the week commencing June 15 and officials will consider the next steps 'more generally' beyond June 30.

'Following that review, the NHS will also write to all individuals on the shielding patient list with information about next steps on shielding advice and the support that will be available to them.

'If the conditions become less favourable, our advice to those being asked to shield will, unfortunately, need to be tightened.

'The government will continue to ensure that support is available to those who need it for as long as possible, and for as long as people are advised to follow the shielding guidance.

'Once again, can I thank all those shielding for your patience, and for your fortitude.

'Everybody across the country appreciates the unique challenges that you face, and we want to continue to do all we can to ensure that whilst you might be at home shielding for a bit longer, you are not alone,' he said.

'Be sensible!' Health chief begs Britons not to push eased lockdown rules to the limit amid fears of infection spike - but message is ignored as people swarm to beaches and parks in 75F heat

Deputy chief medical officer Jenny Harries warned the public to be 'sensible' amid busy scenes in England

Lockdown rules do not officially ease until tomorrow but people appear to have voted with their feet already

Dr Harries said people should take responsibility for minimising their risk of transmitting the coronavirus

Council officials warned people to stay away from Durdle Door today but crowds flocked to the site anyway

As people descended on the beauty spot today, people were also spotting leaping from rocks into the sea

The RNLI has demanded that the Government take steps to stop people turning up at the seaside

Only 16 beach patrols out of a possible 248 have been reinstated, prompting a furious backlash

By James Tapsfield and Sebastian Murphy-Bates for the MailOnline

Health chiefs today begged people to 'be sensible' and not take advantage of lockdown easing - after more scenes of packed beaches and parks raised fears of a second coronavirus spike,

Deputy medical officer Jenny Harries expressed alarm at the 'vision' of crowded beauty spots on another scorching day, suggesting people should take more personal responsibility.

At the Downing Street briefing, Dr Harries said the scientific view was that transmission was much less likely outdoors than indoors, and that was why the loosening in England was focused on those areas,

Durdle Door in Dorset is filled with visitors this afternoon, despite four people being injured and the air ambulance being called on yesterday

A man is pictured jumping from Durdle Door today despite warnings after people were injured yesterday and the council closing the beach

But she said the scenes today gave grounds for concern about 'behavioural' problems with people sharing cars and picnic utensils, and being 'very close together'.

'It is not just about what is possible, it is about what is sensible,' she said.

Thousands of lockdown-weary families hit Britain's parks and beaches to lap up the 75F (24C) heat, ignoring Professor Jonathan Van-Tam's appeal yesterday not to 'not to tear the pants out of' the new rules.

Tombstoners ignored clear warnings and plunged 200ft off the cliffs at Dorset's famous Durdle Door beach today less than 24 hours after four divers were injured at the same point.

Dominic Raab has warned that a second UK lockdown could be imposed if there is an 'uptick' in cases after Britons are allowed to meet up to six people from different households, have barbecues and go to fitness classes once more.

But he defended the changes amid warning from Nicola Sturgeon and a slew of scientists that they might stoke up infections, saying the country cannot stay in lockdown 'forever'.

People continue to dive from Durdle Door on Sunday, despite warnings from the council telling visitors not to do so

Tombstoners have also been spotted leaping into the water along Plymouth's seafront today, despite four people injured in Dorset on Saturday

Pictured: People take to Durdle Door and dive off today despite the council warning that it is shut for safety reasons

People are pictured descending on the beach at Durdle Door, Dorset, despite the council warning that it is closed today

As the coronavirus chaos thundered on today:

The UK has announced 113 more Covid-19 deaths today, the lowest since lockdown began, taking the official count to 38,489;

Ms Sturgeon accused England of under-reporting deaths in care homes, saying that is why Scotland's figures look worse;

The PM has praised the public's 'resilience' as families across England will finally be able to see their elderly relatives again tomorrow, with millions of vulnerable people 'shielding' are given the green light to spend time outdoors;

Chief science officer Patrick Vallance insisted ministers make final decisions on policy as he defended his SAGE advisory group from rising criticism;

Chancellor Rishi Sunak is drawing up an emergency budget for July amid fears that the economy is descending into meltdown;

Unions dismissed the idea that school summer holidays should be cancelled to allow pupils to catch up, saying teachers deserved time off after working 'flat out' during lockdown.

At the Downing Street briefing, Dr Harries said the scientific view was that transmission was much less likely outdoors than indoors, and that was why the loosening in England was focused on those areas

The coastguard is out patrolling at Durdle Door today. The Dorset beach is packed with visitors, despite the air ambulance landing at the beach yesterday

People were spotted jumping into the water at Three Shires Head on the River Dane in Cheshire on Sunday afternoon

There is no room for social distancing as umbrellas line Bournemouth beach on Sunday afternoon

Bourton-on-the-Water in the Cotswolds is packed with visitors this afternoon as families visit the banks of its river

Tombstoners were seen leaping from rocks and the bridge that crosses the River Dane on Sunday afternoon

Dr Harries told the briefing this evening that the restrictions were at a 'critical' stage.

'Where we are seeing that Government is easing measures the public really, really need to stick to those messages and it is not just about what it is possible to do, it's about what it is sensible to do and what is sensible to do is have as few interactions as possible as you can with other people in all settings,' she said.

'I think it's really important that people just try to use these measures sensibly for their own benefit but don't risk transmission to other people.'

Health chief risks fuelling Cummings row by saying obeying lockdown about 'personal integrity' The deputy chief medical officer tonight insisted following lockdown rules is about 'personal and professional integrity' - in what looked to be a swipe at No10 chief Dominic Cummings. Mr Cummings has faced calls to quit after it emerged he drove 260 miles during lockdown to obtain childcare when his wife had coronavirus symptoms. He insisted he behaved legally and responsibly. Dr Harries said: 'From my own perspective I can assure you that from a level of personal and professional integrity, I would always try and follow the rules as I know he does. 'The important thing is they are rules for all of us, and it's really important as we go through into this next critical phase that we do follow them to the best of our abilities, and even minimise if you like, the freedoms that are there to ensure that we can very gently come out of the pandemic.' Advertisement

Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick was asked how worried he is having seen pictures this weekend where social distancing has been difficult or impossible.

He said: 'We're reasonably confident that the steps we've taken and will be taking on Monday are manageable but we have to all continue to play our part in that because the rate of infection remains somewhere between 0.7 and 0.9 and the room for manoeuvre is quite limited.

'We'll obviously keep this under very close scrutiny as we move into this next phase and as we approach the next decision point on June 15.'

Dr Harries was also asked whether people should be concerned that the daily number of deaths appears to have plateaued in the past five or six days,

She said that if the numbers are 'genuinely plateauing, yes we should be very concerned'.

'And that is the reason we need to be really really carefully, not only watching the numbers, but actually watching what we are doing,' she said.

'So we have to keep applying the social distancing measures, limit the number of interactions we have, very carefully and sensibly pick up those easements to make our lives better, but not overdo it, so limit the number of interactions.

'Having said that, of course, we know from the data that it does rely in part on when cases are reported so we can all see the blips at the weekend, so I think we need to be watching over a longer period than a few days to get a sense and that is of course why we have the rolling average because it gives a much more proportionate picture if you like of what is happening in reality.'

In what might have been a veiled swipe at No10 chief Dominic Cummings - who faced calls to quit after it emerged he drove 260 miles during lockdown to obtain childcare when his wife had coronavirus symptoms - Dr Harries said following lockdown rules was a matter of 'personal and professional integrity'.

She said: 'From my own perspective I can assure you that from a level of personal and professional integrity, I would always try and follow the rules as I know he does.

'The important thing is they are rules for all of us, and it's really important as we go through into this next critical phase that we do follow them to the best of our abilities, and even minimise if you like, the freedoms that are there to ensure that we can very gently come out of the pandemic.

'And if we start to spot things on the data that is difficult, there is opportunity for scientific review and advice to the Government about what needs to be done to go forward.'

Brits have been warned to take the easing of lockdown measures slowly, but Bournemouth beach shows families and other visitors squeezing together

Three Shires Head on the River Dane is attracting visitors during the warm weather on Sunday

Britons enjoying the good weather at Ruislip Lido in London, as the public are being reminded to practice social distancing following the relaxation of lockdown restrictions

Crowds have flocked to Bournemouth beach on England's south coast ahead of lockdown measures being eased on Monday

Sunbathers are out in force on Brighton Beach today on the eve of a further relaxation of the novel coronavirus lockdown rules

Gulls flock above sunbathers on the beach in Brighton as Britain enjoys roasting 75F (24C) summer heat

Paddleboarders exercise social-distancing while afloat in the calm sea off Brighton - as thousands cram Britain's beauty spots to soak up the day's 75F (24C) heat

Ruislip Lido in London is packed today with social distancing appearing almost forgotten ahead of the more lockdown restrictions being eased by the government tomorrow

People fill the beach at Durdle Door, near Lulworth, today despite Dorset Council announcing that the beach was closed to the public

Brighton sunbathers soak up the 75F (24c) rays today on the eve of a further relaxation of the novel coronavirus lockdown rules.

Topless cyclists ride along the Mall in London today as the parks across the city are packed with lockdown-wearing Britons soakin gup the 75F (24C) sun

A member of the coastguard looks over a packed beach at Durdle Door, near Lulworth, despite Dorset Council announcing that the beach was closed to the public

Police patrol the cliff top near Durdle Door, Lulworth, after Dorset Council announced that the beach was closed to the public after three people were seriously injured jumping off cliffs into the sea
State of Emergency and curfew declared in LA amidst ongoing protests

Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in Los Angeles as protestors and police clashed during a protest Saturday. Earlier in the afternoon, LAPD police cars were set on fire and vandalized near the CBS Television City on Fairfax Ave. and 3rd Street.

Hoards of protesters took to the streets to show their disapproval of the death of George Floyd, a Minneapolis man killed after a police officer knelt on his neck for eight minutes. Although the protest began as a peaceful march through the Beverly Hills area, by the afternoon, tensions ran high as LAPD police officers stopped protestors from moving forward.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti called for a curfew for downtown LA late Saturday afternoon but later extended the curfew to the entire city of LA Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, Santa Monica, Pasadena and Culver City shortly following.

At 7 p.m. Garcetti tweeted, The curfew has been expanded to the entire city to keep Angelenos safe. People in the City of Los Angeles are required to stay indoors tonight, starting at 8 p.m. until 5:30 a.m. on Sunday morning and a phone alert shortly followed this announcement.

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According to a tweet from the Los Angeles Countys Sheriff Department, Sheriff Alex Villanueva has requested limited activation of the national guard following a request for the troops assistance from Garcetti.

During a briefing this afternoon, the LA mayor urged for peace from protestors.

When the violence escalates, no one wins, Garcetti said. So everybody has to be responsible for owning this moment.
A scant few hours after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Canadas first clinical trials for a candidate coronavirus vaccine, a barrage of unsolicited emails flooded the Canadian Centre for Vaccinology (CCfV) at Dalhousie University in Halifax.

They werent from epidemiologists or doctors. They were Canadians from all over the country volunteering, wanting to be part of the process to provide a first glimmer of hope for a vaccine.

We never have trouble getting volunteers for our studies, but theyre not usually pounding at our doors, said CCfV director Dr. Scott Halperin. Hes been working with CanSino Biologics Inc., based in Tianjin, China, which developed the candidate vaccine. That company has already completed a first phase of clinical trials in China, and has moved on to the next.

With data collected from the Chinese trials, Halperin will have something of a head start on the Canadian trials.

Typically, clinical trials start with a Phase 1, where a small group of subjects between 18 and 55, rigidly screened for their health, will participate in a closely monitored study, primarily to determine if the vaccine has any ill effects on the subjects.

With the head start from the Chinese trials, CCfV will be able to incorporate elder subjects, again rigidly screened for health, into a Phase 1-2 clinical trial. Those trials could begin in a few weeks, pending ethics board approval.

That flood of volunteers for these trials comes as no surprise to Halperin.

In 2014, when the same facility conducted clinical trials for an Ebola vaccine, they had more volunteers waiting in line than they had spots for.

We actually did a study of our volunteers in Phase 1 studies for the Ebola study and an influenza Phase 1 study to find out what was their primary motivation, and the primary motivation was altruism, he said.

Because of the intensive monitoring that takes place during a Phase 1 study, only those volunteers in the Halifax area will be accepted as test subjects, said Halperin. But he foresees no problem in finding enough local volunteers.

People want to help, they want to be part of the solution. Its quite amazing. You hear a lot about antivaccination sentiment, but you dont get nearly as much information about a very dedicated provaccination sentiment and wanting to be part of that solution.

The vaccine being tested by CCfV works on the basis of preventing the coronavirus from entering the bodys cells. If a virus is unable to enter a cell, it cannot use the cells structures to replicate, effectively shutting down the possibility of widespread infection.

Coronavirus has a spike protein, which is instrumental in getting the virus through the cell membrane. The vaccine candidate works by prodding the body to produce antibodies to that spike protein.

For that to happen, researchers use a strain of the adenovirus type 5 virus thats been modified to be unable to replicate.

Adenoviruses are viruses that generally have a very mild effect on humans, and they can be manipulated to induce immune responses. This makes them useful in serving as a vaccine carrier.

In this case, the virus has also been modified to produce the same spike protein that the coronavirus possesses.

When the bodys immune system sees this virus, it treats it as an external threat, and creates an immune response to it. That immune response is directed, in part, towards the spike protein.

The next time the body comes across that spike protein  this time perhaps attached to a novel coronavirus  it recognizes that it has already prepared an immune response to it. Because the immune system has already prepared a response, it is able to rapidly produce the antibody protection that will neutralize the coronavirus. So rather than the immune response taking a couple of weeks, it takes a day or two.

Once the body has prepared an immune response to an invader, that response is remembered by the immune system. The question of how long the immune system remembers that response  for measles, for example, its a lifetime  is one of the details researchers will have to investigate as data comes in from trials and eventually vaccines.

Ironically, the east coast may not be the best place to test a coronavirus vaccine, though.

Of the four Atlantic provinces, Nova Scotia still has the highest number of active cases  78 active cases as of Thursday  with only one or two new cases being reported each day. But it still qualifies as a bit of a wilderness for the coronavirus compared to other places in the country.

And that creates problems in testing a candidate vaccine. Once volunteers have been treated with the vaccine, testing for efficacy  how well it works at protecting subjects from the coronavirus  is dependent on subjects coming into contact with the virus at some point.

You couldnt do an efficacy study, if theres only one new case a day, itd take forever, said Halperin. So you really do need to go where the action is, where public health measures are not being implemented or not effective or where theres an outbreak going on.

For that next stage of the study, trials will be expanded to other labs in the Canadian Immunization Network (CIRN), a network of 10 clinical trial centres spread across the country, giving the candidate vaccine better exposure to the virus.

Phase 3 of the clinical trials would involve hundreds of subjects, likely in multiple countries, to determine how the vaccine would protect against the virus in near-to-real-world conditions.

Should Health Canada approve the vaccine after that spate of clinical trials, the National Research Council, which has partnered with CanSino, and supplied the cell line that CanSino used to create its vaccine, is preparing itself to manufacture the eventual vaccine in Canada for emergency pandemic use.

SM Steve McKinley is a Halifax-based reporter for the Star. Reach him via email: stevemckinley@thestar.ca or follow him on Twitter: @smckinley1
The startling difference between the amount of work pupils at private schools have been doing during the lockdown compared with those in state schools has been revealed in a survey of parents.

About 63 per cent of children at independent schools have spent at least 20 hours a week in home education, but the proportion of local authority school pupils doing this much is just 19 per cent and for those at academies it is only 23 per cent.

The differences laid out in an exclusive Mail on Sunday / Mumsnet poll come as the first pupils prepare to return to classrooms tomorrow.

Experts fear the gulf between children receiving daily online teaching and those in schools with poor home-schooling could blight a generation [File photo]

Meanwhile, other research showed:

A North-South divide has opened up in parents attitudes to sending their children back;

At least 25 councils will defy Government guidance to reopen schools tomorrow;

The Mumsnet survey of more than 1,000 subscribers found about 83 per cent of private students have spent at least ten hours working each week.

Just 53 per cent of state pupils have been doing this much and 47 per cent of academy ones.

When asked to characterise the effect lockdown has had on their childs education, the majority of parents of pupils at all types of schools agreed that it had been damaging.

Only about one in five parents from any group believed lockdown had been beneficial.

A majority of families in the Midlands and East of England intend to send their children back this week. Yet only 45 per cent of parents in the North East said they would do the same, with similar figures for Yorkshire and Humberside and the North West [File photo]

Experts fear the gulf between children receiving daily online teaching and those in schools with poor home-schooling could blight a generation.

Senior Department for Education official Vicki Steward predicted the attainment gap between disadvantaged children and their better-off peers could widen by as much as 75 per cent.

The Office of National Statistics has found that allowing early years and pupils in year 6 (10 to 11-year-olds) back to school  those due to return this week  could potentially release up to one million parents, or 3.8 per cent of the workforce.

But the reality is that many parents will keep their children at home, especially those in the North where Covid-19 infections may not have reached a peak.

Research by data service firm Dynata reveals a divide with those in the South, East and the Midlands and the rest of England over their willingness to send their children back.

In the South West, more than 60 per cent of families questioned said they were comfortable or very comfortable with schools opening this week.

The figure for the South East and the East Midlands was also more than half. But in the North East, 78 per cent of parents said they were very uncomfortable, somewhat uncomfortable or neutral about school resuming so soon, and 62 per cent in Yorkshire and Humberside felt likewise.

Asked if they would send their children back to school on June 1, 66 per cent of parents in Greater London said yes, as did 72 per cent in the South West.

A majority of families in the Midlands and East of England intend to send their children back this week. Yet only 45 per cent of parents in the North East said they would do the same, with similar figures for Yorkshire and Humberside and the North West.

Thousands of state primaries have been told by councils and teachers unions not to open.

A Mail on Sunday survey of local education authorities has found that at least 25 councils of the 152 in England are refusing to allow schools to open.




U.S. Senator Ted Cruz on Friday urged the Treasury and Justice Departments to investigate whether Twitter, which is embroiled in a feud with the White House, is violating U.S. law by letting top Iranian officials use the social media platform.







Cruz, a Republican ally of President Donald Trump, wrote a letter asking the Justice and Treasury Departments to open an investigation into Twitter Inc "for possible criminal violations" of U.S. sanctions against Iran.







Cruz said Twitter may have broken the law by letting Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweet despite their being blacklisted under Executive Order 13876, which bars providing goods or services to those targeted.







Twitter declined comment on Cruz's letter. The Treasury Department, Justice Department and Iranian mission to the U.N. did not immediately reply to requests for comment.







Cruz said he raised the issue with Twitter in February, before the latest Trump-Twitter dust up.







Twitter this week prompted readers to check the facts in Trump tweets about mail-in ballots and it hid a Trump tweet about Minnesota behind a banner saying it violated its rules on glorifying violence.







Cruz argued Twitter is not entitled to an exception under a Treasury Department general license allowing services to those blacklisted "solely" under another executive order, 13599, which targets the Iranian government.







Doug Jacobson, a Washington-based sanctions lawyer, said Twitter "could take the legal position that the services they provide are exempt from the scope of sanctions on Iran by the long-standing Berman Amendment and the Free Trade in Ideas Act."







Jacobson referred to a law sponsored by former Congressman Howard Berman to prevent regulation of the import or export of "informational materials." However, he said Treasury's General License D-1 "imposes certain limits on the provision of social media services in Iran." (Reuters)


Two women have been killed in a crash in Perth's south, with the driver of the other car involved arrested after failing to stop.

Police say the driver, a man in his 50s, did not offer assistance after his four-wheel drive collided with a smaller car as it was turning right in Coolongup on Friday night.

The 27-year-old driver of the other car died in hospital and her passenger, also aged 27, died at the scene.

Two 27-year-old women were killed in a horror smash (pictured) when a 4WD smashed into the side of their car as they turned at a busy intersection

The man was arrested shortly afterwards and taken to Royal Perth Hospital where he is assisting police with their inquiries.

A male passenger in the four-wheel drive, who was not believed to be injured, fled the scene and is being urged to come forward.

Perth man Sunil Kumar witnessed the horror close up after the 4WD missed his car by a split second.

He told Nine News he looked in his rear view mirror before the crash and saw both young women laughing and smiling together.

After the horror collision Mr Kumar jumped out of his car in a bid to save the women.

'Then I went there (to the car) and seen that it was really serious,' he said.

Anyone who witnessed the crash or who has dashcam footage is also being asked to contact police.

A motorcyclist aged in his 30s also died on Friday night in what's believed to have been a single-vehicle crash in Quinns Rock, north of Perth.
Column: A glimpse into my first violent protest

I felt the shifty eyes of the white residents of Beverly Hills on my back. I get it.

The sound of rubber bullets being deployed a block away were very much evident from the Black Lives Matter protest gone violent Saturday afternoon.

The streets were speckled with masked protestors jogging away from the violence, some towards it, and I was sitting on the curb, camera-bag and backpack in tow looking nervous. This was my first protest coverage and in the span of one day, I had witnessed things Id only seen when watching footage of the 1992 Los Angeles Riots.

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Except this time, it wasnt the grocery store a block away from my house being looted and burned down. It was the affluent shops of Melrose and Fairfax.

The same Melrose and Fairfax I had just watched a man pull a gun out on a passing car to unload a round of bullets into, me ducking behind a thin tree and saying a silent prayer that a stray bullet doesnt find its way towards my body.

So yeah, I definitely didnt fault them for staring. I sent an S.O.S. text for a ride out of there before the Mayor Eric Garcetti mandated curfew was effective and I quickly flipped through my photos attempting to chronologize all that happened.

It began that afternoon in Pan Pacific Park as protestors gathered to condemn the death of Minneapoliss George Floyd at the hands of a white officer and challenge the state of policing in America. Things were calm electrified but calm. They came with a purpose to disrupt the norm and make their voices heard.

It was almost reflective of the nonviolent rallies organized by Black Lives Matter in its infancy, a direct call-to-action response to the slaying of unarmed Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old Black boy killed by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman in February 2012. Zimmerman was later acquitted in 2013.

A then 15-year-old me couldnt understand why he was found not guilty.

In my mind, a crime was committed with a body as evidence so what was there not to believe? Since then though, instead of outrage and confusion I find myself staring blank faced at the countless Black bodies killed, many now with video evidence something not afforded to Martin.

According to a study conducted by Frank Edwards of Rutgers Universitys School of Criminal Justice, Hedwig Lee of Washington University in St. Louis and Michael Esposito of the University of Michigan, African Americans are 2.5 times more likely to be killed by police than white people.

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They write, Over the life course, about 1 in every 1,000 Black men can expect to be killed by police.

Thats a lot of waiting with bated breath to be the next hashtag or name on a poster. As I watched protestors park their cars on this quaint, residential street I wondered how none of this had happened sooner.

This being the countless protests, turned violent, turned looting seen all over the country.

I decided to make friends after growing tired of skittishly watching cars speed past, and turned towards a pair of neighbors quietly chatting next to me.

Uh excuse me, Im with the press and I was wondering what you all thought of everything going on? I said, slowly approaching them as if any sudden movement may send them flying off like a highly strung bird.

The woman breathed a sigh of relief.

Oh! That makes sense, I was wondering why you were just sitting there, she chuckled, visibly relaxing. I smiled. I knew it.

Its sad, the woman, Leslie said. The message is lost.

The man nodded empathetically. While we continued chatting for a few more minutes, I thought to myself about this word, lost.

What was lost that day? Countless businesses had lost their livelihoods, looters destroying and picking at every ounce of merchandise protected between thin glass. According to Twin Cities Business, a $37 million affordable housing project in Minneapolis was burned to the ground during a protest on Wednesday night.

Lives had been lost during protests, CNN reporting a 21-year-old man was shot in Detroit Friday. And yet, I couldnt completely agree with Leslie.

Black people have tried the peaceful route and still the message wasnt getting through to the majority. Or maybe it was and it was just being ignored. Was a loss of merchandise greater than a loss of Black lives?

Limping into my house, I plopped onto the couch imagining the blisters I would have on my feet the next day and turned on the news. The same intersection where protestors had been peacefully kneeling hours before was now dark, the only light sources coming from tiny fires and helicopter spotlights.

The lost message was incredibly clear to me: If peace isnt the answer then what do we have to lose?
Choe Hwang-kyu, founder and pastor of Seoul Chinese Church in Daelim-dong, Seoul, poses in front of his church, Saturday. He has saved Chinese people from human trafficking, domestic violence, and other abusive practices. / The Korea Times



By Kang Hyun-kyung



Rev. Choe Hwang-kyu, 57, has risked his life to save the needy and abused Chinese nationals  mostly Han Chinese migrants  for the past two decades.



Death threats and blackmail by human traffickers and thugs have become part of his life. They have tried to coerce him to hand over to them people he was protecting, such as Chinese women who fell victim to human trafficking and a man who was almost beaten to death after he failed to pay fees to his broker in exchange for their helping him enter South Korea illegally.



They threatened his life would be cut short.



But the fearless pastor didn't back down.



Choe has been dealing with such life-threatening moments many times for the past two decades since he launched a human rights campaign initially for illegal immigrants and asylum-seekers from China.



In 2003, he founded the Seoul Chinese Church in the capital's western area of Daelim-dong which is home to South Korea's largest "Chinatown." Since then, the church has been a shelter for Chinese immigrants and dissidents.



"Illegal Chinese immigrants are the most underprivileged ethnic group in South Korea," he said during a recent Korea Times interview. "In China, Korean Chinese are a minority and are discriminated against by the majority Han Chinese ethnic group. But now they (sometimes called 'joseonjok' here) are calling the Han Chinese 'ttoenom' (Chinese supremacists), for the very same treatment they received when they were in China."



Such a rift inside the Chinese community makes his human rights mission tougher.



At his church, the vast majority of its some 100 members are Han Chinese. But a small number of Korean Chinese and Koreans trying to learn Chinese also attend Sunday worship.



Due to the lingering coronavirus pandemic and social distancing, these days fewer members  some 20 people  attend services.



"I've met many undocumented Chinese over the past two decades. I bet I am the person who has met the most illegal Chinese immigrants in South Korea," he said.



It was after 2006 when Korean Chinese were allowed to work in South Korea as guest workers. Before then, according to Choe, "unspecified but many" Chinese immigrants were illegally employed in the manufacturing sector or other "3D" industries grappling with a shortage of workers.



In the early years after he founded the church, Choe met many illegal Chinese and protected them from various human rights violations.



"Before the Korean Chinese were included in the guest worker program, many risked their lives to illegally enter South Korea by sea through arrangements with Chinese and Korean brokers. It was a perilous journey because as we remember, in the early 2000s some of them were thrown into the sea by the brokers and drowned after their attempted illegal entry was discovered by the Korean Coast Guard," said the pastor.



"But this was what happened before the Chinese were allowed to work in Korea. These days, few Chinese enter South Korea illegally because the government eased tourist visa rules to encourage foreigners to come to South Korea for the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics. Under current regulations, Chinese nationals can stay in South Korea for up to five years if they renew their tourist visas every three month. Some Chinese take advantage of the legal loophole and find jobs."



Choe, however, predicted Chinese illegal immigrants by sea will increase in the near future. He speculated the supposed Chinese nationals who illegally entered South Korea by sea off Taean Beach, May 20, could be seeking jobs, not hitmen or assassins hired for a special mission as some YouTubers speculated.



According to police, eight Chinese, including a broker, were aboard the boat and they left the waterfront city in an SUV that was parked near the area.



Police are investigating the case.



Choe said the incident could be a signal for a flood of illegal Chinese by sea. "Last year, the Chinese economy grew 6.1 percent," he said. "But the thing is only the top 20 percent of Chinese enjoy the benefits of China's economic growth. The other 80 percent are financially strapped. The working-class people, for example, earn less than 500,000 won ($450) per month and they find it tough to make ends meet because prices are relatively high."



The working-class people who live in the shadow of China's economic growth turn their eyes to countries outside China to make a living, according to the pastor.



Choe said the intensifying U.S.-China trade war has made things worse for poorer Chinese, claiming the Chinese economy has suffered the worst of it.



"I've heard a lot about the worsening situation in China. Factories in Guandong and Shandong provinces are closing down one after another and people are losing jobs. The poor Chinese, particularly, are feeling the pinch as the U.S. government has stepped up efforts to place sanctions on Chinese companies."



Choe began his humanitarian work for the Chinese "refugees" after an accidental encounter with Chinese dissident Xubo, who was later granted refugee status in South Korea at a symposium on North Korean defectors' human rights in Seoul in 1999.



Thousands of Han Chinese have attended his church over the past 17 years since it opened.



His church members have diverse backgrounds. Some are students who came to South Korea to study. Some are marriage migrants and their spouses. Seamen, chefs and people who work legally in South Korea are also members of the church. Some are illegal immigrants or asylum seekers.



Choe's humanitarian work has not always been well received.



His protection of undocumented Chinese pits him against South Korean law enforcement agencies. For them, the pastor is a headache as he refuses their requests to hand over illegal immigrants to them for deportation.



Choe is a hero for many Chinese as he has saved many people from human trafficking, domestic violence, delayed payments and other abuses.



But there is still some criticism from within.



Inside the church, some "patriotic" Chinese are complaining about his protection of Chinese dissidents who seek asylum in South Korea. They say the asylum seekers are traitors who betrayed their home country, encouraging Rev. Choe to rethink his support for them, a request to which he turns a deaf ear.



His presence complicates matters for Chinese diplomats based in Seoul. His image of a patron lending his helping hand to the desperate Chinese is something laudable but his promotion of Chinese dissidents embarrasses them.





Pastor Choe and his church members gather at Seoul Chinese Church to celebrate its 15th anniversary in this 2018 file photo. / Courtesy of Choe Hwang-kyu
Minnesotta Attorney General Keith Ellison says he expects the former police officer charged with murder for the cop-related slaying of George Floyd in Minneapolis will be slapped with additional charges.

Derek Chauvin, 44, who was fired over the incident which has sparked violent protests and looting in cities across the US, already was charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter Friday.

He is currently on suicide watch at the Ramsey County Jail in St. Paul, where he is being held on $500,000 bail.

Ellison adds that three other ex-cops involved in the incident - Thomas Lane, Tou Thao and J. Alexander Kueng - also are facing possible arrest.

Minnesotta Attorney General Keith Ellison says he expects the former police officer charged with murder for the cop-related slaying of George Floyd in Minneapolis will be slapped with additional charges. Ellison is pictured at a news conference this week after Floyd's slaying

Derek Chauvin, 44, who was fired over the police-related slaying of George Floydalready was charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter Friday. He remains on suicide watch at the Ramsey County Jail in St. Paul

'Let me say that we are very early in this process, very early. It is not uncommon to amend charges. It is not uncommon to add defendants,' Ellison said Sunday, when asked how satisfied he was with the charges already filed after the incident during an interview, Fox News reports.

'The fact is that the investigation is still going on and it actually, it's actually in the middle of the investigation, or maybe even the beginning of the middle, he explains.

'And so I don't want anyone to conclude that these are all the charges that are going be there.'

Footage emerged Monday of Chauvin, who is white, kneeling on the neck Floyd, a black man, for more than eight minutes until he passed out and later died, sparking outrage over police brutality and setting off the protests across the nation.

Since then, protesters and Floyd's family have called for the arrests of former officers Kueng, Lane and Thao and for a more serious charge to be brought against Chauvin.

As the protesting has continued, mayors of several cities and other officials blamed small groups and outsiders for escalating the violence. Protesters 'are coming in largely from outside of the city, from outside of the region, to prey on everything we have built over the last several decades,' said Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, Vox reports.

St. Paul's Mayor Melvin Carter initially insisted 'we don't know these folks,' after claiming every person arrested during violent protesting Friday was from out of town. He later backed off the statement saying he had relied on 'inaccurate' data to make the statement.

Former cops Tou Thao (left), Thomas Lane (second from right) and J Alexander Kueng (far right), who lost their jobs over the police-related slaying of George Floyd, may face charges, says Minnesota's Attorney General Keith Ellison

Meanwhile, Chauvin since his arrest is allegedly on suicide watch and being checked in on around the clock. TMZ reported Saturday that Chauvin has a camera focused on him all day and and cops check on his cell in person every 15 minutes.

It adds that Chauvin is under constant surveillance and is in isolation. He remains in a single cell in a part of the facility set aside for high-profile cases. TMZ also reports that a source says that the former police officer didn't make eye contact with anyone when he was brought into the jail on Friday and that he was subject to an unclothed body search.

He was then placed in a prison uniform and led to his cell. Checks on a cell every 15 minutes are said to be common in such a high-profile case, TMZ's source said, but it is not confirmed if there is a threat to Chauvin's life.

George Floyd's (pictured) heartbroken family have called white cop Derek Chauvin to be charged with a more serious crime than third-degree murder after their lawyer revealed that Chauvin knelt on Floyd's neck for a staggering eight minutes during the arrest for forgery

Chauvin is reported to have 23 hours in his cell a day with one hour for recreation. He also has access to books, pencils and paper.

The officer's wife, Kellie Chauvin, has filed for divorce following his arrest and is said to be distraught over Floyd's death.

'She is devastated by Mr. Floyd's death and her utmost sympathy lies with his family, with his loved ones and with everyone who is grieving this tragedy,' the Sekula Law Offices said in a statement on behalf of Kellie Chauvin and her family.

The Ramsey County Law Enforcement Centre and adjoining adult detention center where disgraced former cop Derek Chauvin is being held for the murder of George Floyd

The arrest followed days of nationwide protests and riots demanding his arrest, after the video of him kneeling on Floyd's neck for allegedly trying to use a counterfeit $20 bill at a deli went viral.

According to the criminal complaint against Chauvin, the Minneapolis police officer was said to have had his knee on Floyd's neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds, with nearly three minutes of the time being after Floyd had become non-responsive.

Floyd was then taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.

On Thursday evening it was revealed Floyd had actually worked with Chauvin as security guards at the El Nuevo Rodeo club, the club owner confirmed.

'Chauvin was our off-duty police for almost the entirety of the 17 years that we were open,' Maya Santamaria told KSTP-TV.

Protesters and Floyd's family continue to call for the arrests of former officers Kueng, Lane and Tou Thao and for a more serious charge to be brought against Chauvin.

'We call on authorities to revise the charges [against Chauvin] to reflect the culpability of this officer,' a statement from the family Friday said.

'We fully expect to see the other officers who did nothing to protect the life of George Floyd to be arrested and charged soon.'

George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, died on Memorial Day as he was arrested by four police officers over allegedly trying to buy cigarettes with a counterfeit $20 bill. He was seen in a video pleading that he couldn't breathe as white officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee against his neck

The criminal complaint filed against Chauvin Friday also cited the preliminary findings from a Tuesday autopsy conducted by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner which saw 'no physical findings that support a diagnosis of traumatic asphyxiation or strangulation'.

'Mr. Floyd had underlying health conditions including coronary artery disease and hypertensive heart disease,' said the complaint from the Hennepin County Attorney.

'The combined effects of Mr. Floyd being restrained by police, his underlying health conditions and any potential intoxicants in his system likely contributed to his death.'

The full medical examiner's report is pending but Floyd's family have hired the services of former New York medical officer Dr. Michael Baden to perform a second independent autopsy.

They are unhappy with the findings from the county medical examiner that they claim create an 'illusion' of underlying health conditions being responsible for his death.
Five prisoners have tested positive for Covid-19 in Uttarakhands Sitarganj jail in Udham Singh Nagar district, ringing alarm bells among the jail authorities here. This is the first case of inmates getting infected with the virus in Uttarakhand

A medical team has been sent to the jail to find out the medical history of the inmates and trace the source of the virus. It is not known at present as to how the inmates contracted the virus, said Dr Shailaja Bhatt, chief medical officer (CMO) Udham Singh Nagar district.

Sitarganj jail in Udham Singh Nagar district has 666 inmates against a capacity of around 300, said jail authorities.

For Coronavirus Live Updates

DR Mourya, superintendent Sitarganj jail said they had taken random samples of 52 inmates for coronavirus testing and sent them to the health department on May 28.

On Sunday, health department officials told us that five jail inmates have tested positive. As these five jail inmates were living in different barracks, samples of other inmates will also be sent for testing, said Dr Mourya.

He added that fourteen other prisoners, who were in touch with the ones who have tested positive, have been put under quarantine in a ward and others including the jail guards and other jail authorities who came into contact with these prisoners will be tested for the disease.

The HT Guide to Coronavirus COVID-19

PVK Prasad, inspector general (IG Jail) said more precautionary measures will be taken to ensure the virus doesnt spread further inside the jail. He said it will be investigated as to how these jail inmates got infected with the virus.

We are ensuring that social distancing is maintained in the jails. We will again take stock of the situation in the light of these positive cases from Sitarganj jail, he added.

The incident has rung alarm bells among the jail authorities especially due to the overcrowding in some jails of the state. Overall, the state has around 5000 prisoners lodged in its 11 jails that have a capacity of around 3,600, said senior officials in the police department.

After first Coronavirus positive case was detected in the state on March 15, the jail authorities took measures like screening every visitor, sanitization of premises and use of masks and gloves by the jail staff.

According to the jail authorities, they had also banned meetings of inmates with their relatives in jails to ensure social distancing. The facility of e-meetings was started later allowing inmates to call their family members through video calling. Not just that, prisoners were also getting produced before courts through video conferencing following the directions given by Uttarakhand high court.
By Carl O'Donnell and Pushkala Aripaka European and South Korean authorities are vying for Gilead Sciences' potential COVID-19 treatment, remdesivir, even though the drugmaker has yet to gain regulatory approval in either market and is still ramping up production of the anti-viral drug.

By Carl O'Donnell and Pushkala Aripaka

European and South Korean authorities are vying for Gilead Sciences' potential COVID-19 treatment, remdesivir, even though the drugmaker has yet to gain regulatory approval in either market and is still ramping up production of the anti-viral drug.

Governments are racing to bolster supplies of remdesivir, which U.S. regulators greenlighted this month as a treatment for the novel coronavirus. Foster City, California-based Gilead said it will donate 1.5 million doses of remdesivir, enough to treat at least 140,000 patients, to combat the global pandemic.

There is currently no approved medication or vaccine for the highly contagious and sometimes fatal illness, but EU countries are already administering remdesivir to COVID-19 patients under compassionate use rules.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) noted it has not yet received an application from the U.S. drugmaker, but said its human medicines committee's (CHMP) timeline to assess the drug would be "reduced to the absolute minimum," (https://bit.ly/2ZPh6HA).

Two weeks ago, the regulator told the European Parliament it may give an initial green light for sale of remdesivir as a COVID-19 treatment, fast-tracking the drug to market amid tight global competition for resources.

On Friday, South Korean health authorities said they would request imports of remdesivir to treat COVID-19, as new outbreaks of the disease flare after social distancing restrictions were eased.

This month, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said Gilead had committed to supply U.S. hospitals with about 607,000 vials of remdesivir, about 40% of the total 1.5 million-vial donation.

Japan and the United Kingdom have both cleared the drug for use and moved to begin supplying it to patients.

The United States, the world's biggest pharmaceutical market, this month granted emergency use authorization for remdesivir in COVID-19, but has yet to approve the broader use of the drug.

The EMA has been reviewing the drug and suggested a beneficial effect in treating hospitalised patients with mild-to-moderate or severe COVID-19

Final approvals are up to the European Commission, which generally endorses CHMP recommendations.

Remdesivir is the first drug to show benefit in a large placebo-controlled trial. Preliminary results from a National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) trial showing the drug cut hospital stays by 31%, or about four days, compared with a placebo.

Last month, Gilead said it will work with international partners to expand production of remdesivir. The company said it expects to have more than a million remdesivir treatment courses manufactured by December, "with plans to be able to produce several million treatment courses in 2021."

The U.S. government began distributing the drug this month but doctors said they were concerned after being denied their request to obtain the new therapy, IDSA president Dr. Thomas File told Reuters in May.

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Lucknow, May 31 : Thirteen persons have lost their lives in the thunderstorm and lightning that struck several parts of central Uttar Pradesh on Saturday night.

Eight deaths were reported from Unnao and five from Kannauj districts.

Large damage to property has also been reported from various districts.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has expressed grief at the loss of life and has announced a compensation of Rs four lakh each for the kin of the deceased and proper treatment for the injured persons.

Unnao Additional District Magistrate (ADM) Rakesh Singh said, "As many as eight people died in rain and thunderstorm in the district. A 14-year-old girl and a 45-year-old man died when they were struck by lightning in Japsara village. A 70-year-old woman also sustained serious injuries due to lightning and was rushed to Sumerpur primary health centre, where doctors declared her dead." The ADM said a 38-year-old resident of Harishchandrapur died after he was struck by lightning while a 26-year-old resident of Basti Kheda died when a tree fell on him.

Two persons from Semrimau and Parshuram Purwa villages died when trees fell on them during the thunderstorm.

In Kannauj, at least five people have died due to thunderstorm and lightning in various parts of the district.

Additional District Magistrate (ADM) Gajendra Kumar said a 45-year-old driver of a pick-up vehicle died when the roof of a gas service warehouse collapsed in Chhatarpur village.

Dinesh Pal of Sursa village died in a wall collapse while an 80-year-old a resident of Bhiknipurwa died in a wall collapse in his house.

The fourth death was reported from Tijlapur village, when a trolley fell on an eight-year-old boy owing to high-speed wind.

The fifth death was reported from Ramaipur where a youth died when a tree fell on him.

Meanwhile, Lucknow recorded 57.4 mm rainfall on Saturday evening, breaking a 61-year-old single day record of rainfall in May.

The state capital had last recorded 57 mm rainfall on May 28, 1959.

The meteorological department has warned that thunderstorm accompanied with lightening and squall up to 50-60 kmph are very likely in parts of Uttar Pradesh on Sunday and Monday.
The fires, violence and looting sparked by video of a Minneapolis police officer pressing his knee on the neck of an unarmed black man who later died show that law enforcement has learned little since the riots in Ferguson, Mo., experts say.

"It's just like Ferguson didn't happen; because we failed to learn the lessons that came out of understanding the root cause of mass protests in this country and how to handle mass protests in this country," said Roy E. Alston, a former member of the Dallas Police Department in Texas.

Alston was part of the U.S. Justice Department's Office of Community Oriented Policing Service (COPS) assessment team that wrote a 188-page report into the 2014 demonstrations in Ferguson, Mo. Those riots followed the shooting of unarmed black teen Michael Brown.

The report found a number of problems in the police response, including inconsistent leadership, failure to understand endemic problems in the community, withholding information that should have been made public and reliance on military-style equipment.

'Police are handling very poorly'

"Here we find ourselves in 2020 with mass protests in Minneapolis based on a event that the police are handling very poorly," Alston said.

There is a complete void in trust between the police and communities of colour, the former officer added.

WATCH | Anger over killing of Floyd George sparks protests across U.S.:

Charles Drago, a former police chief for Oviedo, Fla., is a police instructor and career police officer who specializes in police practices and use of force. He agreed that the lessons of Ferguson have been lost.

"Have we not learned anything from Ferguson? My answer is we have not," Drago said. "We have very short memories, unfortunately. And in policing, I guess we've been famous for that."

The streets of Minneapolis have been the scene of arson, looting and vandalism since the death of George Floyd, who had been arrested by police on suspicion of passing a counterfeit $20 bill.

Story continues

Floyd was on the ground face down and handcuffed while one officer held his knee on his neck for more than eight minutes, according to a criminal complaint. At one point, Floyd stopped breathing.

On Friday, Derek Chauvin, 44, who has been fired from the force, was charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in the case.

That same day, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz acknowledged the "abject failure" of the response to the protests.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Christian Gooden/Associated Press

Alston suggested the Minneapolis police force has done a poor job in communicating to the public about the arrest and death of Floyd.

"We learned in Ferguson, Missouri, communication was the most important. When an incident happened, the foremost authority on that incident must be the police. They must speak to the incident and be transparent in what they know and what they deliver," he said.

"They must allow people to respond in a manner in which people feel respected and that their voices are being heard."

Alston said while Minneapolis police don't look militarized, they appear to be ready to respond in a manner that will actually incite more anger.

"So you show up heavily armed, heavily positioned against the protesters. That literally excites protest."

Reach out to community

Alston said police officials need to reach out to community, business, religious leaders and protest organizers, get them all in a room, and come up with a strategy to suppress the violence.

"The police can't do that. They can't show up in all of their police glory and tell people 'Enough is enough.' You can't do that. They have to work through their intermediaries."

"And within a very short period of time if it's done very effectively, this will become very quiet."

Michigan State University School of Criminal Justice professor David Carter was a leader of that Ferguson assessment in 2014. He said it is important to keep in mind that demonstrators are often angry at the institution of policing, not individual officers.

However, police need to be hyper-cognizant of appearances, he said.

"Officers standing shoulder to shoulder with riot gear and stern looks will be extensively shared in social media and will continue to enrage the community with false narratives," he said in an email to CBC News. "In Ferguson this was like a wildfire that couldn't be put out."

To avoid such violent flare ups, Drago stressed that police departments need to have a rapport and a relationship with their community before the incident happens.

"We see what happens when there's no relationship. We've seen it over and over again across the country."

HenrySocialPhotos via AP

"And if that community doesn't trust the city, the municipality, the police department, this is what happens," he said. "It's not just protests. It's not just people speaking out. It's just out of control because there's so much frustration."

To help quell the anger, police need to be absolutely transparent on every aspect of the Floyd investigation, he said.

"And that may mean every day, two times a day, alerting the press as to what's happening or where they're going, what occurred, what they know occurred, what video they may have, whatever it is."

Drago said he didn't know enough of the details to comment on the overall policing ground strategy in Minneapolis. But he did criticize the tactics of some of their arrest teams.

"[They] are chasing people down alleys, over several streets. And I don't know why they're doing that, because that's not a proper tactic. If they flee from you and they're running, you let them go. You don't just keep chasing them and throw tear-gas grenades at them."

"They need to focus on what's important, that is protecting people's lives. And then second, protecting property and taking up positions in those places."

WATCH | Protesters set police station on fire:

David Couper, the former chief of police in Madison, Wisc., and a proponent of de-escalation strategies which became known as the Madison Method, said Minneapolis officials could take lessons from at least one of the officers involved in policing the Ferguson riots. Lt. Jerry Lohr of the St. Louis County Police was heralded by some for his non-confrontational approach.

" He would stand out in front of the Ferguson station and just talk to people," Couper said.

Couper, who is now a priest, said it was also important for the Minneapolis police chief to have apologized for the incident, over and over again.

"That's never been a practice of policing. You've got to be able to apologize. You're going to make mistakes out there. You've got to be able to say, 'I'm sorry, I'm sorry.'"
President Muhammadu Buhari on Saturday announced the reconstitution of the Governing Board of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), retaining the nine-member structure in alleged breach of the NNPC Act, which provides for a six-member board. The reconstitution, according to a brief statement by Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, followed the expiration of the term of the board appointed by the president in 2016.

Adesina listed members of the new board as Mohammed Lawal (North-west), Tajudeen Umar (North-east), Adamu Mahmood Attah (North-central), Senator Magnus Abe (South-south), Dr. Stephen Dike (South-east), and Chief Pius Akinyelure (South West). According to Adesina, the new board would serve for a period of three years.

The appointments came as Buhari mourned the death of the immediate past Group Managing Director (GMD) of NNPC, Dr. Maikanti Baru, who passed on yesterday. The late GMD served in the 2016 board, and he was rumoured to have died of complications from the coronavirus.

The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) also mourned Baru, saying his death is a huge loss to the oil and gas sector in Nigeria. This was contained in a condolence message released on Saturday in Abuja by OPEC Secretary-General, Dr Mohammed Barkindo.

In a related development, the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) welcomed the reconstitution of the NNPC board. In a statement yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Hon. Ken Robinson, PANDEF also hailed the appointment of Rivers-born Senator Magnus Abe into the board to represent the South-south. But the forum called for the rejigging of appointments into the corporation in the interest of the country.

The appointment of the six members of the new board, as announced yesterday, did not include three other statutory appointments into the board. These include the nominations of the board chairman, who must be the Minister of Petroleum Resources or Minister of State for Petroleum, the incumbent GMD of NNPC, and a Director-General in the Ministry of Finance. The three automatic board members bring the total membership of the governing board of the corporation to nine, in alleged breach of Section 1(2) of the NNPC Act, which provides for a six-member board of directors.

The development implies retention of the status quo that has been criticised by experts, including Lagos-based lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana, SAN, as a violation of the provisions of the Act establishing the board.

Falana had alluded to Section 1(2) of the Act, which stipulates that the affairs of NNPC "shall, subject to Part II of this Act, be conducted by a Board of Directors of the Corporation which shall consist of a Chairman and the following other members, that is- (a) the Director-General, Federal Ministry of Finance and Economic Development; (b) the Managing Director of the Corporation; and (c) three persons to be appointed by the National Council of Ministers, being persons who by reason of their ability, experience or specialised knowledge of the oil industry or of business or professional attainments are capable of making useful contributions to the work of the Corporation."

The provision for the sixth member of the board is contained in Section 1 (3) of the Act, which stipulates that the Chairman of the NNPC Board of Directors "shall be a Minister in the Government of 1979 No. 44 the Federation to be known and styled as the Minister of Petroleum Resources."

Given the appointment of the six members announced yesterday by the president, and the statutory membership of the petroleum minister, a representative of the Ministry of Finance, and the GMD of NNPC, the total members of the newly reconstituted board will remain nine.

On July 4, 2016, Buhari had constituted the NNPC board with the then Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, as chairman, with Baru and the then Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Finance as members. The other six members appointed into the board were the president's late Chief of Staff, Mallam Abba Kyari, Dr. Thomas John, Dr. Pius Akinyelure, Dr. Tajudeen Umar, Mallam Mohammed Lawal, and Mallam Yusuf Lawal.

The trio of Akinyelure, Umar, and Lawal have been reappointed into the reconstituted board.

Upon the exit of Kachikwu, who ceased to be Minister of State for Petroleum and chairman of the board on June 27, 2019, Buhari appointed John, who had been a member of the board since 2016, as the acting alternate chairman of the NNPC Governing Board to run the activities of the board.

Other members of the board, who ran the body since June 27, 2019 until the latest reconstitution, included the current NNPC GMD, Malam Mele Kyari; the late Abba Kyari; Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Finance, Alhaji Mahmoud Isa Dutse; Akinyelure; Umar; Mohammed Lawal; and Yusuf Lawal.

At the time John was appointed as the alternate chairman of the board in June 2019, there was no Minister of Petroleum and when Buhari reconstituted his cabinet on August 21, 2019, Chief Timipre Sylva, the incumbent Minister of State for Petroleum, assumed the position of the board chairman.

Falana had criticised the constitution of the former board by the president for not only violating the NNPC Act, with nine members instead of six, but also for violating the Federal Character Commission (Establishment) Act of 1995.

According to Falana, the former board comprised three members from the North-east, two from the South-south, one from the North-central, two from the North-west, and one from the South-west, without any representation from the South-east. He said this was in violation of the Federal Character Commission (Establishment) Act, 1995, which stipulates that there must be balanced representation across the six geopolitical zones.

The geographical representation in the former board was as follows: Timipre Sylva (South-south), Thomas John (South-south), Mele Kyari (North-east), Abba Kyari (North-east), Tajudden Umar (North-east), Isa-Dutse (North-central), Mohammed Lawal (North-west), Yusuf Lawal (North-west), and Dr. Pius Akinyelure (South-west).

In view of the alleged geopolitical and numerical infractions, Falana warned that unless the board "is properly constituted, its decisions may be set aside with dire consequences for the national economy." He called for an amendment of the NNPC Act to raise the number of the board members from six to nine "to avoid a situation whereby decisions of the board are challenged in court."

Reacting to the reconstitution of the board yesterday, Falana said the board remained nine, in breach of the NNPC Act.

However, he acknowledged that the president had by the new appointments addressed the issue of geographical imbalance in the former board. He said unlike the previous board, which had six members from the North as against three from the South, there were now five members from the North and four from the South, with every geopolitical zone represented.

According to Falana, "The reconstitution of the NNPC board is a partial response to the allegation of ethnic imbalance in breach of the Federal Character Commission Act. It is partial in the sense that the Buhari administration may be said to have complied with Section 14 (3) of the Constitution, which provides that there shall be no predominance of persons from a few states or from a few ethnic or other sectional groups in the composition of the government and its agencies.

"But by excluding women and oil workers from the board, the composition of the administration cannot be said to have complied with Section 42 of the Constitution and Article 2 of the African Charter Act which have prohibited discrimination on the basis of sex or class.

"However, it is pertinent to point out that previous regimes had illegally constituted the NNPC board with nine members. If the administration had decided to retain the nine-member board, it has to take urgent steps to stop the impunity by requesting the National Assembly to amend Section 1 of the NNPC Act as it has established a six-member board."

Buhari, OPEC Mourn Baru

Meanwhile, the former GMD of NNPC, Baru, passed on in the early hours of Saturday at the age of 60. Baru was a member of the board of directors of the corporation that served from 2016 to 2019.

Although, the cause of his death was not officially announced, there were speculations that the former NNPC boss might have died of complications from COVID-19 infection.

In a swift reaction to the death, Buhari who had appointed Baru to head the NNPC in 2016, condoled with the ex-GMD's family, friends and professional colleagues. He also commiserated with the government and people of Bauchi State, as well as the management and staff of NNPC over Baru's death, saying the deceased worked very hard to initiate reforms in virtually all departments of the corporation, bringing it up to speed with global trends and best practices.

According to a statement by Adesina, Buhari acknowledged Baru's efforts to ensure stability in Nigeria's oil sector, with a more guaranteed supply and predictable price regime, which he said weakened unscrupulous parallel marketers, especially during festive seasons.

Barkindo said Baru was a hardworking and committed person who believed in transparency and accountability. He said in the condolence message, "Dr Maikanti Baru was a good and hardworking professional whom l had absolute confidence in both as his colleague in NNPC and, later, as GMD.

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"As GMD of NNPC he repositioned the corporation and the Nigeria's oil industry. He was workaholic, cerebral, humane, godly and kind-hearted."

Bauchi Gov Mourns Maikanti, Describes His Death As A Great Loss

On his part, the Bauchi State Governor, Senator Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed has expressed shock over the sudden demise of former Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation NNPC, Maikanti Kachalla Baru, describing the death as a great loss not only the people of Bauchi and Nigeria, but to the whole world at large.

PANDEF Hails Reconstitution, Insists on NNPC's Reorganisation

In a statement Saturday by its National Publicity Secretary, Hon. Ken Robinson, PANDEF stated, "The major concern of the Niger Delta Region is the skewed composition of the Executive Management of the NNPC, and appointment of chief executives of the corporation's cubsidiaries.

"It is simply abhorrent that the Group Managing Director (GMD), the Chief Finance Officer, Finance and Account, the Corporate Secretary/Legal Adviser to the Corporation, and Chief Executives of virtually all strategic divisions and subsidiaries of the NNPC are persons from the Northern zones of the country."

It urged Buhari to further "carry out a holistic rejigging of the lopsided NNPC management structure, and correct the imbalances, in the interest of equity, fairness, peace and national cohesion".

PANDEF added, "It is significant to recall that the position of Group Managing Director of the NNPC was traditionally and rightly, reserved for persons from the South-south geopolitical zone, which produces about 95 per cent of the nation's crude extraction. It won't be out of place, therefore, to ask for the restoration of that tradition."

But it said the latest NNPC board composition was a departure from the 2016 board arrangement, which had no representation from the South-east, an oil producing zone.

"PANDEF further implores those, particularly from the Niger Delta Region, newly appointed to the Board of the NNPC, to shun partisan and miniature interests in the discharge of their duties and responsibilities," the statement said.
We are grateful to the Nakupuna Foundation for addressing the needs of Native Hawaiian students in communities across the country and working with us to make a difference.

APIA Scholars has announced the launch of a new partnership with the Nakupuna Foundation, the foundation arm of the Nakupuna Companies, a Native Hawaiian Organization (NHO)owned family of companies. Under this new partnership, the Nakupuna Foundation has committed to a one-year $175,000 contribution that will help APIA Scholars provide college and career support to Native Hawaiian students. This includes the APIA/Nakupuna Foundation Scholarship program, set to begin in Spring 2020, which will provide two-year scholarships for eighteen Native Hawaiian students studying in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM)related fields, as well as virtual Scholar programming in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Nakupuna Foundation, named in honor of the Nakupuna Companies founder, the late Warren Nakupuna Ah Loo, is dedicated to the economic advancement of Native Hawaiians, and is especially enthusiastic about supporting educational programs and opportunities focusing on STEM subjects.

We are grateful to the Nakupuna Foundation for their support and partnership in our mission to make a difference in the lives of APIA students, said Noel S. Harmon, President and Executive Director of APIA Scholars. There are tremendous disparities within the APIA community, both economically and educationally, that are often overlooked especially for underrepresented communities. We are grateful to the Nakupuna Foundation for addressing the needs of Native Hawaiian students in communities across the country and working with us to make a difference.

We are extremely excited to begin building a long-term partnership with APIA Scholars, remarked Cariann Ah Loo, Warren Nakupuna Ah Loos daughter and Chair of the Nakupuna Foundation. Their integrated approach to support the entire studentfrom college entry into the workforceis exactly the type of partnership the Nakupuna Foundation wants to build. We are grateful and appreciative for their tremendous efforts to get funding to college-bound Native Hawaiians.

Applications to the APIA Scholarship Program for 2020-21 academic year were available from September 2019 to January 2020. More information about our scholarship criteria can be found on the APIA Scholars website.

For more information about the Nakupuna Foundation, please visit https://nakupunafoundation.org.

_________________________________________________________________________

About the Nakupuna Foundation

The Nakupuna Foundation is a non-profit Native Hawaiian Organization with a mission to support the economic advancement of the Native Hawaiian Community. A cornerstone of our support includes a vision to prepare Native Hawaiians for 21st century job opportunities through a portfolio of targeted investments in students studying STEM subjects. Named in honor of the late Warren Nakupuna Ah Loo, the Nakupuna Foundation owns a family of Native Hawaiianowned companies, the Nakupuna Companies, that act as the main vessel of support for the Foundation.

About APIA Scholars

Based in Washington, D.C., APIA Scholars is the nations leading non-profit organization devoted to providing college scholarships for Asian Pacific Islander Americans (APIAs). APIA Scholars works to create opportunities for students to access, complete, and succeed after post-secondary education; thereby developing future leaders who will excel in their career, serve as role models in their communities, and ultimately contribute to a vibrant America. Since 2003, APIA Scholars has awarded more than $150 million in scholarships to deserving APIA students. APIA Scholars manages three scholarship programs: APIA Scholarship, the AANAPISI Scholarship, and the Gates Millennium Scholars/Asian Pacific Islander Americans, funded by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Over 10 ft long, the marsh crocodile's barrel-like body folds into the contours of the bank and as he moves, a black-crowned night heron moves as well just a tiny bit. Not, to my human eyes, far enough, but then animals and birds always seem to know what theyre doing, unlike another species which shall not be mentioned.| Zai Whitaker writes

I want to think of something besides COVID-19. Sitting on the porch of my cottage, which overlooks Pen 10, I brush away all COVID-19-related thoughts such as, we need to dredge the pond, a difficult exercise at present because of the cost as well as the logistics of finding and bringing in people to carry out the work. I then look at Pen 10 again, with a different lens (which is a challenge), and focus on the largest mugger or marsh crocodile in the group. Over 10 ft long, his barrel-like body folds into the contours of the bank and as he moves, a black-crowned night heron moves as well just a tiny bit.

Not, to my human eyes, far enough, but then animals and birds always seem to know what theyre doing, unlike another species which shall not be mentioned.

Somewhere in my old photo albums  mouldy, silverfish-munched black and white memories I dont have the heart to discard  is a picture of this fellow hatching out of the egg. We watched him hatch, on a stream bank on the Moyar River in the foothills of the Nilgiris. The Moyar is a tributary of the great Bhavani River, and this is where wed been campingwith our trusty old ragi-pan, coffee pot and a few other essentials that had driven down with us in our old WWII Jonga.

The river crossing was memorable, with large submerged boulders that almost overturned the vehicle as one hit the axle with a huge sound-bite. But our most precious possession was the egg-collection permit from the Tamil Nadu Forest Department. With this, we had camped at several crocodile habitats during the nesting season, rescuing the eggs before they were found by local poachers. Prior to Moyar, we had visited Mettur, Sathanur and Amaravathi dams, and sent off several nests back to Madras/Chennai with Irula field assistants who kept the nests cool, damp and stable during the journey by train or bus.

At Amaravathi we had to cross a finger of the dam in a coracle, with a box of translocated eggs packed in earth and sawdust. We were seeing off Rajamani at Pollachi, from where he and the eggs would travel back to the Croc Bank. The coracle was of the authentic, buffalo-hide type, not the fibre-glass ones we see today. And as it wasnt one of the best, it soon started gulping water and spinning round and round like a top. As my side of the boat heaved dangerously once more, my heartless team-mates yelled at me to Steady the box! since I was squatting next to it. Obviously there was far more concern for the eggs than for me.

But now, sans Rajamani and Dorai  whod also left with a couple of nests  we were in this magical riverine habitat where forest eagle owls scared the stuffing out of you with their murderous screeches, and you woke up to see panther and bear tracks awkwardly close to the camp. I say camp, but there was no tent or even sleeping bags; we just searched for rocks that were flat enough to sleep on, first come first served.

It was a treat to watch a nest hatch in the wild; usually, this took place in our lab at the Snake Park and then the Croc Bank. Wed seen the smooth, wet mound of earth as the female rushed off into the water at our approach. We wondered whether she carried water in her mouth, to keep her babies humid and cool? She watched us from the pool, wary but afraid, eyes and nose above water and still as a rock. We moved closer to the nest. And just then, magic happened: we heard the soft nasal Nyuk, Nyuk of hatchling crocs about to hatch. The message is: Let me out of here!

This is when the mother croc arrives and scrapes away the earth covering the eggs, freeing the eggs from their mud nest and allowing them to hatch. The small temporary appendage at the tip of the crocodiles nose, the egg tooth, helps the babies slit the egg shell, and emerge into the world. We performed this action and transferred the hatchlings into a box for their journey to their new home. But there was another night of camping on the stream before we left, and sleep was even harder thanks to the fear that the mother croc would respond to the loud distress calls of her babies, and clamber over our sleeping bodies to rescue them!

So now here he is in front of me today, this scaly barrel who is in his prime, and has fathered several generations of hatchlings. One year, I watched him lurking protectively near a bouquet of tiny hatchlings bobbing in the water, keeping them safe from the other dozen or so animals in the pen. Yes, male crocs make good parents; they have even been seen rolling eggs in their mouth, to help them crack open and hatch. How cool is that!

Author and conservationist Zai Whitaker is managing trustee  Madras Crocodile Bank Trust/Centre for Herpetology
Hes trying to stop the violence that we saw that took place overnight, and the message to  and its a strong message, that we want law and order in this country, OBrien said. We want peaceful protesters who have real concerns about brutality and racism. They need to be able to go to the city hall. They need to be able to petition their government and let their voices be heard. And they cant be hijacked by these left-wing antifa militants.
There may be trouble in paradise for 90 Day Fiance: Before the 90 Days stars Babygirl Lisa Hamme and Sojaboy Usman Umar. The couples relationship appeared to hit a major snag in the latest episode of the hit reality show, leaving fans wondering if they are still together. With 90 Day Fiance fans eager to find out what happens next, a quick look leaves fans wondering why Lisa is not featured prominently on Usmans official Instagram.

90 Day Fiance stars Lisa Hamme and Usman Umar | Instagram @baby_girl_lisa_2020

Lisa erupts in front of Usmans brothers on 90 Day Fiance

Lisa and Usman appeared to take a step in the right direction on the latest episode of 90 Day Fiance: Before the 90 Days when he proposed to her in-person. The two had already agreed to wed when they met online, but Lisa really wanted him to propose to her face-to-face when she flew to Nigeria.

After an emotional proposal, Usmans two brothers, Faruq and Muhammed, drove for hours to attend the wedding. Unfortunately, things did not go as planned when Faruq and Muhammed met Lisa.

During one of their conversations, Lisa remarked how Usman is a very stubborn person, and his brothers could not believe that she would talk about their relationship problems in front of other people.

Things really took a turn for the worse when Faruq and Muhammed told Lisa that in Nigeria, women are not the head of the household. She eventually left the table and told Usman that she was done with the entire situation.

Youre sitting there, criticizing me, and Im not doing it, Lisa stated. Im not sitting here any longer. I tried and I failed. Its done. Im done.

Is this the real reason Usman married Lisa?

Ever since their first appearance on 90 Day Fiance: Before the 90 Days, fans cast serious doubt on Sojaboy Usman and Babygirl Lisas relationship. For starters, Lisa is 20 years old than Usman, who is trying to get his rapping career off the ground.

With Usman looking to get to America at all costs, some viewers have speculated that he is using Lisa to boost his career in music.

The verdict is still out on Usmans motives for marrying Lisa, but he recently told his followers on Instagram that the only reason he married Lisa was because she threatened to kill herself.

RELATED: 90 Day Fiance: Geoffrey Paschel Weighs In On Lisa and Usman  I Question If Hes Totally Into It

Thats how it happened, Usman noted. Because if I didnt love her, Lisa said shed kill herself.

Usman has also stated on 90 Day Fiance that his main goal is to move to America. During a confessional, he admitted he would do anything possible to get to the United States.

He went on to say that he is allowed to have four wives in Nigeria, something Lisa recently opened up about.

The 90 Day Fiance star reveals that she wants to start a family with Usman

During an appearance on the Domenick Nati Show, Lisa was asked if she and Usman are trying to have a baby. In response, Lisa revealed that she is not currently pregnant but they are going to try to start a family.

No, Im not pregnant right now, she shared. As far as children, we are definitely going to try.

In the event that she cannot have children of her own, Lisa confessed that she is willing to let Usman take a second wife. The only catch is that Lisa expects to be at the top of her husbands wife ranking system.

She would also require Usman to take care of all of her bills and provide her with a suitable living space if he married more than one person.

Although Lisa clearly has things ironed out, her future with Usman was left in doubt following the latest episode of 90 Day Fiance: Before the 90 Days. And his activity on social media has not helped the situation.

Babygirl Lisa is M.I.A. on Usmans official Instagram account

Usman has been very active on Instagram and has over 100,000 followers. He mostly shares photos of himself and does a lot to promote his music.

But what has really drawn the attention of fans is the fact that Lisa hardly shows up on his Instagram page at all. The vast majority of the images are of Usman, and he has only posted a few selfies of Lisa.

RELATED: 90 Day Fiance: Babygirl Lisa Hamme Goes Off On Almost Everyone in Leaked Footage

Lisas absence has led to speculation that their relationship is on the fritz. The two have not commented on the rumors, but fans will find out what happened with their wedding on the next episode of 90 Day Fiance: Before the 90 Days.
Rocket fire on the Libyan capital killed at least five civilians on Sunday, the UN-recognised government said, blaming rival forces of strongman Khalifa Haftar for the attack.

"Five civilians were killed and 12 wounded" when five rockets crashed into residential sectors of Tripoli, said Amine al-Hachemi, spokesman for the Government of National Accord's health ministry.

Several of the wounded were in serious condition, including one who underwent a limb amputation, Hachemi added.

He said forces of strongman Haftar, who controls much of eastern and southern Libya, targeted the Soug el-Tlath roundabout and Gharbi street in the centre of Tripoli.

Haftar launched an offensive in April last year to seize control of capital, where the GNA is based.

The conflict -- exacerbated by the involvement of foreign powers -- has so far killed hundreds of people, many of them civilians, and forced the displacement of 200,000 others.

Although the battle for Tripoli has stalled on the ground, the south and centre of the capital have been the target of indiscriminate rocket fire and drone attacks in recent weeks.

Haftar's forces have lost key positions to pro-GNA forces elsewhere in the country since April.

During the first week of May, at least 15 civilians were killed and 50 others wounded in rocket and drone attacks on Tripoli.

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Flashback: the Motorola Nexus 6 was the best in the series and it changed Google

The Motorola Nexus 6 came at a strange time. Google had just sold off the Motorola division to Lenovo months earlier and the smartphone world was in a sudden transition to 64-bit processors. Also, flagship prices were on the rise, something Google tried to fight with the affordable Nexus 4 and 5, but this phone was different.

With the Nexus 6, Google attempted to create a premium device and in many respects it succeeded. However, the $650 price tag for the 32GB model did not sit right with many Nexus fans and the larger 5.96 display had its detractors as well. This was large even by the phablet standards of 2014.



Motorola Nexus 6

The display had QHD resolution, 1,440 x 2,560px, and was an AMOLED panel  a return to form for the Nexus series, which made its debut with AMOLED. The display was bright and colorful and its high pixel count made up for the PenTile arrangement.

Surrounding the screen were two front-facing speakers, something that would later become standard on Pixel phones. Same goes for the water resistance.



Nexus 6 and Moto X (2nd Gen)

The Moto X (2nd gen) served as the basis for the Nexus 6 design, but could not compete with it directly  its 5.2 AMOLED display was smaller and the Snapdragon 801 chipset was lower than what the Google phone was offering.

It came with a Snapdragon 805, the last of Qualcomms flagship 32-bit chips. This was a bit awkward as Android 5.0 Lollipop  the OS that was introduced by the Nexus 6  was the first to support 64-bit processors.

Of course, Qualcomm (seeing Apples 64-bit CPU in the iPhone 5s from 2013) rushed out the Snapdragon 808 and 810 with 64-bit support, but were glad that the Nexus 6 missed out on them.

Anyway, the chipset was still pretty fast and it had a cool feature, the Hexagon DSP. It allowed Google to create its first HDR+ mode, which took several short exposures, picked the best ones and merged them into a single high-quality image.

The Nexus 6 hardware gave Googles algorithm a great platform to work on with a 13MP sensor with fairly large 1.4m pixels. It featured optical image stabilization, the lens had an f/2.0 aperture and was surrounded by a rare ring flash (with only two LEDs, but still).

Historically, Nexus phones did not have the best cameras, but the 6 changed that  it had one of the best cameras of 2014. With the power of the S805 chipset, it was also the first in the series to support 4K video capture, which produced videos with superb quality.

The Google phones didnt have the best battery life either and, again, the Nexus 6 justified its higher price point with superior performance. The 3,220 mAh battery secured a 70h Endurance rating in our test  close to double the Nexus 5 score, but not as good as the 90h posted by the Samsung Galaxy Note 4, which had the same battery capacity.

The bundled Motorola Turbo Charger (based on Qualcomms Quick Charge 2.0) was certainly a perk. The official promise was that 15 minutes of charging equate to 8 hours of mixed usage. We put that to the test, plugging in the phone at 9% and 15 minutes later found it at 30%, quite enough to last the advertised 8 hours.

The phone also supported Qi wireless charging, something pioneered by the Nexus 4, but abandoned by the 5X and 6P that followed.



Lollipop's new Material design

Lollipop changed Android. It said goodbye to Dalvik and pre-compiled its apps with ART (part of why the Nexus 6 was so fast). It introduced Project Volta, to limit the power drain from background tasks. And it dropped the AMOLED-friendly Holo UI in favor of the bright Material design.

And the Nexus 6 changed Google too. It was probably the best Nexus phone ever released, but also the most expensive  it launched at $650, the Nexus 6P that followed it at $500 (even though Google said P stands for Premium).

But with Motorola sold off and Nexus sales low, Google decided to kill of the line and start anew with the Pixel phones  like the Nexus 6 they were expensive and promised to make up for it with a great camera.
Four to five unidentified men drove up to the Sector 33 bungalow of hotelier and businessman Rakesh Singla on Sunday evening, firing 17 shots from 9mm and 32 bore pistols, in what police suspect was a targeted attack on his brother, liquor baron Arvind Singla.

No one, however, was injured in the incident.

About four assailants in a sedan first drove to Rakesh Singlas bungalow around 6.15pm and asked for Arvinds address in the same sector.

The damaged windshield of the Land Rover Discovery. (HT PHOTO)

However, when they reached Arvinds house they panicked after seeing policemen there as he had been provided security by Punjab police and returned to his brothers bungalow where they opened fire, hitting the windows and his Land Rover SUVs windshield, and fled.

Taking stock of the situation with senior police officials, Chandigarh senior superintendent of police (SSP) Nilambari Jagadale said: Seventeen shots were fired and it appears two pistols were used as the shells recovered were from 9mm and 32 bore pistols. There were no casualties and we have accessed the CCTV footage of the assailants. A message was flashed to the Punjab and Haryana control rooms as well to help nab the assailants who drove away.

A leading liquor dealer in Punjab, Arvind said in his complaint to the police that his mother Usha Singla had called him from Rakesh Singlas house to tell him that some people had come to meet him.

But I was in the bathroom and couldnt take her call. After seeing the police outside my house they drove back to my brothers house where both my brother and mother were present and opened fire in what seems to be frustration.

Arvinds family has been in the liquor retail business for generations.

Rakesh Singla, who owns hotels and businesses in Chandigarh, denied any rivalries being the cause of the shootings.

The bullet shells at the crime scene. Two 9mm and .32 bore pistols were used, say police. (HT PHOTO)

We have been in the liquor business for many years and have no rivalries. No threats have been received before this, he added.

Three police teams with the SSP were present at the spot and questioned Rakesh Singla about any individuals he suspected were involved in the incidents.

Police, who were screening CCTV footage from cameras in the area, said the faces of all four men were covered. A case has been registered at the Sector 34 police station under Section 307 (attempt to murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Arms Act.
Health experts are warning that aged care homes need to provide more medical staff and accountability for the health of residents from the board level down to prevent future coronavirus outbreaks.

The aged care sector has been the epicentre of COVID-19 outbreaks around the world with 67 infections and 27 deaths across Australia. Of those, 61 infections and 25 deaths were in NSW.

Medical experts have warned that nursing home and aged care facilities need a stronger focus on expert clinical management. Credit:Getty

The largest outbreak has been in Newmarch House, near Penrith, where 71 residents and staff were infected and 17 elderly people died.

Director of the Australian Health Services Research Institute at the University of Wollongong Professor Kathy Eagar said clinical standards and the management of health risks was essential but lacking in many facilities.
New Delhi: A security guard of a house belonging to leader of Republican Party of India (A) was shot at on Sunday (May 31) morning.

According to the police, the RPI leader Mohd Shakeel Saifi was sleeping inside when the incident took place. They believe the attack was to scare off the leader.

The guard identified as Hari Nath was shot twice in both his legs below his knees. A total of five shots were fired.

The police are conducting an investigation into the matter. There are CCTV cameras but it is not functional.

Saifi is the party's national president of the minority panel. The RPI (A) was founded by Union Minister Ram Das Athawale with him as its president.
When the world looked to Asia for successful examples in handling the novel coronavirus outbreak, much attention and plaudits were paid to South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

But there's one overlooked success story -- Vietnam. The country of 97 million people has not reported a single coronavirus-related death and on Saturday had just 328 confirmed cases, despite its long border with China and the millions of Chinese visitors it receives each year.

This is all the more remarkable considering Vietnam is a low-middle income country with a much less-advanced healthcare system than others in the region. It only has 8 doctors for every 10,000 people, a third of the ratio in South Korea, according to the World Bank.

After a three-week nationwide lockdown, Vietnam lifted social distancing rules in late April. It hasn't reported any local infections for more than 40 days. Businesses and schools have reopened, and life is gradually returning to normal.

To skeptics, Vietnam's official numbers may seem too good to be true. But Guy Thwaites, an infectious disease doctor who works in one of the main hospitals designated by the Vietnamese government to treat Covid-19 patients, said the numbers matched the reality on the ground.

"I go to the wards every day, I know the cases, I know there has been no death," said Thwaites, who also heads the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit in Ho Chi Minh City.

"If you had unreported or uncontrolled community transmission, then we'll be seeing cases in our hospital, people coming in with chest infections perhaps not diagnosed -- that has never happened," he said.

So how has Vietnam seemingly bucked the global trend and largely escaped the scourge of the coronavirus? The answer, according to public health experts, lies in a combination of factors, from the government's swift, early response to prevent its spread, to rigorous contact-tracing and quarantining and effective public communication.

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Acting early

Vietnam started preparing for a coronavirus outbreak weeks before its first case was detected.

At the time, the Chinese authorities and the World Health Organization had both maintained that there was no "clear evidence'' for human-to-human transmission. But Vietnam was not taking any chances.

"We were not only waiting for guidelines from WHO. We used the data we gathered from outside and inside (the country to) decide to take action early," said Pham Quang Thai, deputy head of the Infection Control Department at the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology in Hanoi.

By early January, temperature screening was already in place for passengers arriving from Wuhan at Hanoi's international airport. Travelers found with a fever were isolated and closely monitored, the country's national broadcaster reported at the time.

By mid-January, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam was ordering government agencies to take "drastic measures" to prevent the disease from spreading into Vietnam, strengthening medical quarantine at border gates, airports and seaports.

On January 23, Vietnam confirmed its first two coronavirus cases -- a Chinese national living in Vietnam and his father, who had traveled from Wuhan to visit his son. The next day, Vietnam's aviation authorities canceled all flights to and from Wuhan.

As the country celebrated the Lunar New Year holiday, its Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc declared war on the coronavirus. "Fighting this epidemic is like fighting the enemy," he said at an urgent Communist Party meeting on January 27. Three days later, he set up a national steering committee on controlling the outbreak -- the same day the WHO declared the coronavirus a public health emergency of international concern.

On February 1, Vietnam declared a national epidemic -- with just six confirmed cases recorded across the country. All flights between Vietnam and China were halted, followed by the suspension of visas to Chinese citizens the next day.

Over the course of the month, the travel restrictions, arrival quarantines and visa suspensions expanded in scope as the coronavirus spread beyond China to countries like South Korea, Iran and Italy. Vietnam eventually suspended entry to all foreigners in late March.

Vietnam was also quick to take proactive lockdown measures. On February 12, it locked down an entire rural community of 10,000 people north of Hanoi for 20 days over seven coronavirus cases -- the first large-scale lockdown known outside China.

Schools and universities, which had been scheduled to reopen in February after the Lunar New Year holiday, were ordered to remain closed, and only reopened in May.

Thwaites, the infectious disease expert in Ho Chi Minh City, said the speed of Vietnam's response was the main reason behind its success.

"Their actions in late January and early February were very much in advance of many other countries. And that was enormously helpful ... for them to be able to retain control," he said.

Meticulous contact-tracing

The decisive early actions effectively curbed community transmission and kept Vietnam's confirmed cases at just 16 by February 13. For three weeks, there were no new infections -- until the second wave hit in March, brought by Vietnamese returning from abroad.

Authorities rigorously traced down the contacts of confirmed coronavirus patients and placed them in a mandatory two-week quarantine.

"We have a very strong system: 63 provincial CDCs (centers for disease control), more than 700 district-level CDCs, and more than 11,000 commune health centers. All of them attribute to contact tracing," said doctor Pham with the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology.

A confirmed coronavirus patient has to give health authorities an exhaustive list of all the people he or she has met in the past 14 days. Announcements are placed in newspapers and aired on television to inform the public of where and when a coronavirus patient has been, calling on people to go to health authorities for testing if they have also been there at the same time, Pham said.

When the Bach Mai hospital in Hanoi, one of the biggest hospitals in Vietnam, became a coronavirus hotspot with dozens of cases in March, authorities imposed a lockdown on the facility and tracked down nearly 100,000 people related to the hospital, including medics, patients, visitors and their close contacts, according to Pham.

"Using contact-tracing, we located almost everyone, and asked them to stay home and self quarantine, (and that) if they have any symptoms, they can visit the health centers for free testing," he said.

Authorities also tested more than 15,000 people linked to the hospitals, including 1,000 health care workers.

Vietnam's contact-tracing effort was so meticulous that it goes after not only the direct contacts of an infected person, but also indirect contacts. "That's one of the unique parts of their response. I don't think any country has done quarantine to that level," Thwaites said.

All direct contacts were placed in government quarantine in health centers, hotels or military camps. Some indirect contacts were ordered to self isolate at home, according to a study of Vietnam's Covid-19 control measures by about 20 public health experts in the country.

As of May 1, about 70,000 people had been quarantined in Vietnam's government facilities, while about 140,000 had undergone isolation at home or in hotels, the study said.

The study also found that of the country's first 270 Covid-19 patients, 43 percent were asymptomatic cases -- which it said highlighted the value of strict contact-tracing and quarantine. If authorities had not proactively sought out people with infection risks, the virus could have quietly spread in communities days before being detected.

Public communication and propaganda

From the start, the Vietnamese government has communicated clearly with the public about the outbreak.

Dedicated websites, telephone hotlines and phone apps were set up to update the public on the latest situations of the outbreak and medical advisories. The ministry of health also regularly sent out reminders to citizens via SMS messages.

Pham said on a busy day, the national hotlines alone could receive 20,000 calls, not to count the hundreds of provincial and district-level hotlines.

The country's massive propaganda apparatus was also mobilized, raising awareness of the outbreak through loudspeakers, street posters, the press and social media.

In late February, the health ministry released a catchy music video based on a Vietnamese pop hit to teach people how to properly wash their hands and other hygiene measures during the outbreak. Known as the "hand-washing song," it immediately went viral, so far attracting more than 48 million views on Youtube.

Thwaites said Vietnam's rich experience in dealing with infectious disease outbreaks, such as the SARS epidemic from 2002 to 2003 and the following avian influenza, had helped the government and the public to better prepare for the Covid-19 pandemic.

"The population is much more respectful of infectious diseases than many perhaps more affluent countries or countries that don't see as much infectious disease -- Europe, the UK and the US for example," he said.

"The country understands that these things need to be taken seriously and complies with guidance from the government on how to prevent the infection from spreading."
He added: In a situation like that, its a very, very tense situation. And imagine what it would be like, youre just trying to do your job and then you see hundreds of people converging upon you. Im not going to blame officers who are trying to deal with an absolutely impossible situation, de Blasio said. The folks who were converging on that police car did the wrong thing to begin with and they created an untenable situation. I wish the officers had found a different approach. But lets begin at the beginning. The protesters in that video did the wrong thing to surround them, surround that police car, period.
Actor John Cusack was out filming the protests against the killing of George Floyd, in Chicago on Saturday. He tweeted that the police attacked his bike with batons for filming a burning car.

Cops didnt like me filming the burning car so they came at me with batons. Hitting my bike. Ahhm heres the audio, he wrote in his tweet and attached a video of his altercation with the police. John wrote in another tweet that he was hit with pepper spray too. I havent seen tear gas - but was hit by pepper spray - dont know how a curfew can be started at nine with bridges blocked CTA not running - Be back out tonight a to see what I can, he wrote. In the video a cop can be heard shouting at John to move with loud clanging sounds. Alright, alright, John tells him.

These were some of the peace officers - who gently tuned up my bike with their batons- pic.twitter.com/atMf8VaV6l  John Cusack (@johncusack) May 31, 2020

US has been through five nights of civil unrest that has spread to different cities following the death of a black man shown on video gasping for breath as a white Minneapolis policeman knelt on his neck. Activists staged another round of protests on Saturday in at least a dozen major US cities coast to coast, including Seattle, Los Angeles, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Atlanta, New York and Atlanta.

Cops didnt like me filming the burning car so they came at me with batons. Hitting my bike.

Ahhm heres the audio pic.twitter.com/tfaOoVCw5v"  John Cusack (@johncusack) May 31, 2020

Also see: Sunil Grover cooks up a cigarette in his kitchen in hard-hitting video, Anubhav Sinha shares his own experiences

John is positive the protest will not end soon. Would be very surprised if this is a one or two day event / this may well be the beginning of end of trump loathsome era - thank god -feels like many streams of outrage coming to a head- a wave peaking -Chicsgo scene was about getting to trump tower most of day, he wrote in a tweet.

Chicagos mayor has announced an overnight curfew in the city running from 9 p.m. Saturday until 6 a.m. Sunday, and she says police will crack down on any violence. Mayor Lori Lightfoot says that peaceful protesting over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis has devolved into criminal conduct.

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Petoskey officials at odds over best process for housing reforms

While discussing a possible change to the zoning ordinance, some council members said it doesn't do enough to encourage more housing.
It was 11 p.m. Saturday, and Alexis Equihua, 20, was watching as looters grabbed goods from a Melrose Avenue shop.

Hours earlier, thousands had gathered at Pan Pacific Park for a rally to protest the killing of George Floyd, a black Minneapolis man killed when a white police officer used his knee to pin him to the ground by the neck. They marched down 3rd Street before getting into a standoff with local police.

Over the next few hours, some in the crowd set police cruisers on fire and threw objects at officers, who fired less-than-lethal weapons at them. As the day turned into night, numerous businesses were looted, including some in the Grove mall.

Sometimes peaceful is not enough, said Equihua, 20. Im not one of the people vandalizing, but honestly, I get it. They feel like actions speak louder than words.

There were clearly divisions among protesters about the wisdom of vandalism and looting, and police said they believed the most violent actions might have been done by fringe elements.

When a protester smashed the front window of the nearby Whole Foods with a hammer, some screamed, Dont do that! Please! while others cheered.

Here are the voices of some of the protesters who swarmed the Fairfax District on Saturday.

'It's really like that'

Mariana Solaris, a 20-year-old from San Bernardino, was walking down Melrose Avenue when police fired foam pellets.

I came out peacefully to show my support, and the police are aiming right at me. To feel and experience it for myself  to have to run  Im still shivering.

I saw this on the news earlier tonight," she added, "and I thought, No way is it really like that out there with the police. So I came out to see. And, yeah, its really like that.

'We're going to ... get the backlash'

Travon Walton, a 25-year-old student from Long Beach, arrived in the Fairfax area in the afternoon to join the protests.

He said he saw many non-black protesters inciting the police from up close and worried that the black community would be blamed.

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All the white people are in the front, he said. Were going to be the ones that get the backlash.

This was his first protest, and he planned to leave after the citys 8 p.m. curfew, called for by Mayor Eric Garcetti.

We thought wed just come out here to have a peaceful protest," he said, "but as you can see, its not that at all.

'It's like they don't even care'

A 26-year-old protester shook as police fired another round of rubber bullets at the crowd gathering near Edinburgh Avenue and Beverly Boulevard.

She had been encouraged to attend the protest  her first  by her boyfriend but had already been struck in the back of the leg by a rubber bullet.

Its like they dont even care, said Latanya Marie, who agreed to be identified by her middle name. People are chanting. How are you going to hit people with rubber bullets?

She said she wasnt confident the protests would invoke a change but that she felt better having driven from the Valley to participate rather than supporting only through social media.

I really dont think its going to do anything, she said. But at least Im getting out here and letting my anger be known.

'Nothing has changed'

Marsha Steinberg, 76, who described herself as a longtime activist, was among those who came out for the rally.

I was here for Rodney [King], said Steinberg, who lives in the neighborhood.

Nothing has changed. People have not had an outlet for justice, Steinberg said, adding that new district attorneys need to be elected and prosecute police accused of misconduct.

'Sick and tired'

Isabel Alvarado waved a sign reading, Latinos for Black Lives Matter.

Alvarado, 21, lives in Santa Clarita and said she drove to the L.A. rally because she was sick and tired of waking up every morning to news about police killings.

I cant compare myself to what theyre going through, she said, of being black. But Im here to support them.
Malkeet Singhs 12-year-old son, a Class 6 student at a private school in west Delhi, is worried ever since his school switched to online lessons and tests following the Covid-19 lockdown. As no one in his family owned a smartphone, he was unable to appear for the seven tests conducted by his school recently.

We had repeatedly conveyed our problem to the class teacher and the school but to no avail, said Singh, a contractual driver who lost his job during the lockdown imposed to curb the spread of Covid-19. Singhs children are among the several hundred students admitted under the Economically Weaker Section quota in the 1,700 private schools in the capital every year and are entitled to free education. Parents with an annual income of less than 1 lakh can seek admission under the EWS quota.

However, the switch from classroom teaching to online education has left them in the lurch.

Earlier this month, Hindustan Times had reported that students enrolled in private schools under the Economically Weaker Section quota are struggling to attend online classes due to the lack of devices and high-speed Internet and have been unable to take their exams as well. A plea in this regard was also filed in the Delhi High Court by the NGO Justice For All which contended that over 50,000 such students would be affected by the decision of private schools to conduct online education.

Schools can make temporary provisions for students who are not able to access online education. Instead, they have been ignoring these children who are unable to catch up due to lack of access to devices or the Internet. An alternative mechanism should be arranged for such students so that their academic year is not under threat, said advocate Shikha Sharma, secretary of Justice for All.

Despite the Delhi governments submission in the ongoing casewhich said that under the Right to Education Act, schools should provide equipment if such children were unable to access online educationlittle has changed on the ground.

Laxman, a resident of Nangloi who works as a carpenter, said that his family had no means of getting a smartphone with his meagre means. The family is currently struggling to ensure that their son finishes his holiday homework on time.

My son, who studies in Class 3, had his tests earlier this month. Since we have no high-end smartphone or computer, we had to borrow phones from our relatives or neighbours and all his submissions were delayed. While formulating plans of how to conduct studies during this pandemic, schools and authorities should think of alternative measures for families like ours as well, he said.

Families with multiple children also had their own share of struggles. There is just one phone in the house and I have three children. They have all received tons of homework and we dont know how to help them all. There are constant fights between them to attend classes, Rakesh Thakur, a Kalyanpuri resident, whose children study in classes 5, 3, and 2, said.

SK Bhattacharya, the president of Action Committee of Unaided Recognized Private Schools, said it wasnt practically feasible for private schools to bear the additional burden of providing smartphones and laptops to children and wait for the reimbursement from the Centre.

We havent received any written complaint from EWS students on the matter so far. I dont think there is anyone in Delhi who does not own a smartphone. Besides, they should also look at what is happening in government schools. Why this targeting of private schools? If they are so sympathetic to the cause, they should distribute laptops among all such students, he said.

Government schools are conducting online classes for classes 9 to 12, which is outside the ambit of the Right to Education Act. Private schools are conducting online classes for everyone, including junior-level classes up to Class 8. The RTE Act clearly mandates that the educational material has to be provided by schools. So while during regular teaching, the books and materials were provided by private schools, the necessities of online education should also be provided by them, a senior official from the Directorate of Education said.
US President Donald Trump on Saturday said the National Guard has been called in Minneapolis to do the job that the Democrat Mayor couldnt do after riots following the death of an African American man in police custody.

The full Minnesota National Guard was activated for the first time since World War Two after four nights of civil unrest following George Floyds death. Floyd died on Monday after Derek Chauvin, a white officer, pinned the mans neck down to the ground with his knee for several minutes.

At least six states have called on the National Guard to get the situation under control amid the raging demonstrations in Minneapolis and other places.

The National Guard has been released in Minneapolis to do the job that the Democrat Mayor couldnt do. Should have been used 2 days ago & there would not have been damage & Police Headquarters would not have been taken over & ruined. Great job by the National Guard. No games! Trump tweeted.

Trump had warned earlier on Saturday that if the unrest continues in US cities, then the federal government would step in and the military would be used.

He had said, while speaking at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, that the death of Floyd was a grave tragedy but warned against surrendering to hostility.

Before that, he had threatened protesters with violence in the morning in a series of tweets commenting on overnight protests near the White House.

Trump first said he had watched the events and celebrated how the Secret Service responded, then wrote that nobody came close to breaching the fence, but if they had they would have been greeted with the most vicious dogs, and most ominous weapons, I have ever seen.

On Thursday night, Trump had vowed that the military would be used to help authorities in Minnesota assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts.

His tweets were later hidden by Twitter.

The death of George Floyd on Monday in Minneapolis has sparked demonstrations, some of them violent, in many cities across the United States, including one in Washington on Friday.

The White House was temporarily locked down as hundreds of people gathered on Friday afternoon across the street in Lafayette Square Park.

The Pentagon, in an extraordinary move, said it put military units on a four-hour alert to be ready if requested by Minnesota governor Tim Walz to help keep the peace.

Four police officers involved in the arrest have been fired. Derek Chauvin, a former Minneapolis police officer involved in the death Floyd, has been charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter.

A bystander video recording showed Chauvin kneeling on Floyds neck for at least eight minutes, while Floyd was saying that he could not breathe.

Floyd, a Houston native who had worked security for nightclubs, was arrested on suspicion of trying to pass counterfeit money at a store to buy cigarettes on Monday evening. Police said he was unarmed.

An employee who called for help had told a police dispatcher that the suspect appeared to be intoxicated.

In a striking coincidence, Floyd and Chauvin had both worked security at the same Latin nightclub in Minneapolis, though it was unlikely they ever interacted, former owner Maya Santamaria, who sold the El Nuevo Rodeo club in January, told Reuters.

Santamaria said Floyd worked inside the club on certain nights, supporting other staff with security. She said Chauvin, who worked outside the club as an off-duty cop for 16 years, had a reputation for roughing up customers, but she considered him responsible and a friend.

Three other officers fired from the police department with Chauvin on Tuesday are also under criminal investigation in the case, prosecutors said.

The video of Floyds arrest - captured by an onlookers cellphone as he repeatedly groaned, please, I cant breathe before becoming motionless - triggered an outpouring of rage that civil rights activists said has long simmered in Minneapolis and cities across the country over persistent racial bias in the US criminal justice system.

The US department of justice has made the investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) into George Floyds death a top priority.

(With agency inputs)
Elon Musk's commercial spaceflight company SpaceX is to brave Florida's precarious weather again Saturday in another attempt to launch two Nasa astronauts into orbit.

The 70-metre-tall Falcon 9 rocket is awaiting the green light to blast off from the from Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 9.22pm GMT (3.33pm local time).

If successful, the mission to send astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to the International Space Station will end a nine-year gap in human spaceflight from US soil. It would also mark the first time a private company has sent humans into orbit.

The first launch attempt on Wednesday was scrubbed with fewer than 17 minutes remaining on the countdown clock amid electrical storms and a tornado warning.

On Friday NASA officials said Falcon 9 and its newly designed Crew Dragon capsule were in good shape and ready for launch, adding a final decision on whether to proceed would only come after further assessment of weather conditions.

If Saturday's attempt does not proceed, another is scheduled for Sunday at 3pm local time - with an additional backup date on Tuesday, 2 June 2.

US astronauts have been using Russia's Soyuz spacecraft to travel to the ISS since Nasa's final space shuttle flight  piloted by Hurley  in 2011.

Thousands of spectators are expected to turn out around Cape Canaveral to watch the launch by Space X  a company that one day hopes to send paying customers into orbit.
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Elon Musk said he was 'overcome with emotion' after two NASA astronauts were blasted into space in the Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center yesterday.

Astronauts Robert Behnken, 49, and Douglas Hurley, 53, took off from Launch Complex 39A at 3.22pm in Florida on Saturday  the first time an American crew launched from US soil in nine years.

The pair are on their way to the International Space Station in a rocket and capsule built by the billionaire entrepreneur's firm SpaceX.

The capsule containing the astronauts will break off from Falcon 9 once it reaches orbit.

Mr Musk - who's son X  A-Xii was born earlier this month - said: 'I think this is something that should really get people right in the heart  anyone who has a spirit of exploration.'

Elon Musk said he was 'overcome with emotion' after two NASA astronauts were blasted into space in the Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center in Florida yesterday

There was a 50 percent chance Falcon 9 (pictured) would not take off yesterday due to ominous clouds and lightning risks, but the weather cleared with just 45 minutes left on the clock countdown

Mr Musk - who's son X  A-Xii was born earlier this month - said: 'I think this is something that should really get people right in the heart  anyone who has a spirit of exploration'

Speaking yesterday, Mr Musk (pictured celebrating) said the mission is the 'first step on a journey that would see humans become a multi-planetary species'

Astronauts Robert Behnken, 49, (left) and Douglas Hurley, 53, (right) took off from Launch Complex 39A at 3.22pm in Florida on Saturday  the first time an American crew launched from US soil in nine years

he Launch America mission is also the first time a private company has put astronauts into space and is the second attempt to launch after Wednesday's flight was aborted due to poor weather conditions. Pictured: The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex

He added: 'I am really quite overcome with emotion  it's kind of hard to talk really. It's been 18 years working towards this goal. It's really hard to believe that it's happened.

'This is a craft made by humans, for humans, I think it's something humanity should be proud about occurring on this day.'

Mr Musk said the mission is the 'first step on a journey that would see humans become a multi-planetary species'.

But despite the successful launch of astronauts into low-Earth orbit, Mr Musk said was was not keen to 'declare victory yet', emphasising that the 'return can be more dangerous than the ascent'.

He added: 'We need to bring them home safely and make sure that we are doing everything we can to minimise that risk of reentry.'

He previously said he would accept absolute responsibility if yesterday's historic launch of his Falcon 9 rocket ended in tragedy.

Spectators watched the Falcon 9 rocket take off from the Kennedy Space Center from a nearby beach in Florida

Amazed spectators watched as SpaceX Falcon 9 was blasted off into space yesterday. The launch was the first time an American crew launched from US soil in nine years

Amazed spectators couldn't believe what they were witnessing as the Falcon 9 rocket was launched into space yesterday

A woman showed a young boy the rocket as it made its way through the sky. The astronauts are heading to the International Space Station

Spectators watch from a bridge in Titusville, Florida as the SpaceX Falcon 9 lifts off with NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken in the Dragon crew capsule

Spectators gathered on a bridge in Titusville as the rocket lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral

People had their cellphones at the ready to record the moment for themselves and watch later on after it was all over

For the first time in nearly a decade, astronauts blasted towards orbit aboard an American rocket from American soil, a first for a private company

Beachgoers view the SpaceX shuttle launch in Cocoa Beach on Saturday afternoon far away from the more crowded parts

President Donald Trump speaks inside the the Vehicle Assembly Building after the manned SpaceX Falcon 9 Crew Dragon Demo-2 mission lifted off from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center

It will take Mr Behnken and Mr Hurley around 19 hours to reach the space station, where they will join the three other residents  Nasa's Chris Cassidy and Russia's Anatoli Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner. Together, they will become members of the Expedition 63 crew.

Before yesterday's liftoff, commander Hurley said: 'Let's light this candle.'

There was a 50 percent chance Falcon 9 would not take off yesterday due to ominous clouds and lightning risks, but the weather cleared with just 45 minutes left on the clock countdown.

The Launch America mission is also the first time a private company has put astronauts into space and is the second attempt to launch after Wednesday's flight was aborted due to poor weather conditions.

After reaching orbit, Falcon 9 successfully returned to Earth and was retrieved by SpaceX's autonomous spaceport drone ship 'I Still Love You.'

The International Space Station (ISS) was previously only accessible to NASA astronauts through the purchase of seats on Russian capsules launched from Kazakhstan - but that has all changed as of yesterday.

While speaking at the Kennedy Space Center, Trump said that 'the United States has regained our place of prestige as the world leader'

'You can't be number one on earth if you are number two in space and we are not going to be number two anywhere,' he said

'It's incredible, the technology, the power. I'm so proud of the people at NASA, all the people that worked together, public and private. When you see a sight like that it's incredible,' Trump said

NASA and Elon Musk's SpaceX have officially brought spaceflight back to US with the successful launch of the Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center to the International Space Station

NASA and Elon Musk's SpaceX have officially brought spaceflight back to US soil

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said during a press conference, 'Maybe theres an opportunity here for America to maybe pause and look up and see a bright, shining moment of hope at what the future looks like, that the United States of America can do extraordinary things even in difficult times.'

Among the spectators was Neil Wight, a machinist from Buffalo, New York, who staked out a view of the launch pad from a park in Titusville, Florida.

'It's pretty historically significant in my book and a lot of other peoples books. With everything thats going on in this country right now, its important that we do things extraordinary in life,' Wight said.

'We've been bombarded with doom and gloom for the last six, eight weeks, whatever it is, and this is awesome. It brings a lot of people together.'

Crew Dragon should be in position to dock with the ISS about 24 hours after takeoff and will connect to the ship autonomously.

President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence watched the Falcon 9 rocket launch from afar

President Donald Trump speaks with reporters after viewing the SpaceX flight to the International Space Station

Falcon 9 successfully launched from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida Saturday, May 30

Falcon 9 took off at 3.22pm ET and took the nine minute trip into Earth's orbit

The two men are scheduled to stay on the ISS for up to four months, after which they will come home with a Right Stuff-style splashdown at sea.

'I would be lying to you if I told you I wasn't nervous,' Bridenstine said before the launch attempt. 'We want to do everything we can to minimize the risk, minimize the uncertainty, so that Bob and Doug will be safe.'

NASA urged people to stay safe and watch from home due to the coronavirus, and by NASA's count, over 3 million viewers tuned in online.

However, spectators began lining the Cape Canaveral areas beaches and roads with signs along the main beach drag that read 'Godspeed.'

President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence returned to Kennedy Space Center to watch the second attempt of Launch America.

'That was a beautiful sight to see and I hope you all enjoyed it,' Trump said shortly after the rocket ship designed and built by Elon Musks SpaceX company lifted off for a trip to the International Space Station.

Astronaut Bob Behnek is pictured holding a toy dinosaur in his hand that belongs to one of his children

The Crew Dragon will now take the 19-hour journey to the International Space Station, where Behnken and Hurley will join Expedition 63 crew

There was a 50 percent chance Falcon 9 would not take off yesterday due to ominous clouds and lightning risks, but the weather cleared with just 45 minutes left on the clock countdown - and the astronauts are heading to the International Space Station

NASA and Elon Musk's SpaceX have officially brought spaceflight back to US with the successful launch of the Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center to the International Space Station.

Both NASA and SpaceX said they would be 'proceeding with countdown' despite a 50 percent 'weather cancellation risk' amid concerns over possible thunderstorms and rain around the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral early Saturday morning.

Bridenstine said during an afternoon briefing: 'We are predicting a 50, 50 shot of going this time.'

'But because we are in late May, we have to take any shot we can get.'

'We almost made it on Wednesday and the trend is better today than it was on Wednesday.'

The biggest concern was lighting, precipitation, cumulus clouds and anvil clouds - all of which could ground Falcon 9 until Sunday.

However, about 45 minutes to launch, all requirements went from red to green and a SpaceX official said 'weather is a go.'

The launch pad where Falcon 9 took off from is the same one used by NASA's last space shuttle flight, piloted by Hurley, in 2011.

Behnken and Hurley had a social distancing farewell with their families yesterday who met them outside of the Kennedy crew quarters before they took the journey to Launch Complex 39A.

Behnken (left) and Hurley (right) conduct a series of pre-flight checks in the Dragon Crew capsule

Behnken and Hurley were met by their wives and children before heading to Falcon 9, but had to keep with the social distance policy and were only able to send air hugs and blow kisses

This is the second time the astronauts have said farewell to their family. NASA and SpaceX were forced to abort Launch America Wednesday with less than 17 minutes on the countdown clock due to poor weather

Behnken and Hurley had to keep a distance from their families while saying goodbye before heading to Launch Complex 39A

After saying farewell, the pair loaded into a white Tesla Model X with bright blue NASA stickers on each of the doors and the 'worm' logo on the back windshield

Due to the policy, the team had to stand six-feet from their wives and children and say goodbye with air hugs.

Before saying goodbye, Behnken and Hurley suited up in the new spacesuits developed by Musk with the help of costume designer Jose Fernandez.

Fernandez, who has worked on 'The Avengers' and 'X-Men', revealed that Musk wanted the crew to look better in the suit than without it, 'like a tux.'

'Musk kept saying, anyone looks better in a tux, no matter what size or shape they are,' he said in an interview with Bleep.

'I personally spent a lot of time  it took us three, almost four years to design these suits that both look good and work well,' Musk said during NASA's live coverage of the launch attempt on Wednesday.

The launch pad is the same one used by NASA's last space shuttle flight, piloted by Hurley, in 2011. Since then, NASA astronauts have had to hitch rides into orbit aboard Russia's Soyuz spacecraft. The crew is still pushing forward with plans and the astronauts are now fully dressed in the spacesuits developed by Musk with the help of costume designer Jose Fernandez with envisioning the prototype

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstein paid the astronauts a visit in the crew quarters. Having to keep the social distancing policy, Bridenstein snapped a selfie to commemorate the mission dubbed Launch America

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstein snapped 'the perfect selfie' in the Kennedy crew quarters with Benhken (back left) and Hurley (back right), who are all smiles ahead of the launch

The crew are dressed in spacesuits developed by Musk with the help of costume designer Jose Fernandez with envisioning the prototype. Behnken (left) flashes the camera smile while standing next to Hurley (right) in the crew quarters

The ground crew is running through a series of tests on that are designed to connect into the Dragon seats, which provides cool to the astronauts and communication to the crew. As it stands, the 24-storey-tall SpaceX Falcon 9 is due to lift off at 3.22pm Eastern Time, propelling astronauts Behnken and Hurley aloft on a 19-hour ride to the International Space Station

Doug Hurley (pictured) is suited up and ready to go for Launch America

Hurley and Behnken are wearing the new SpaceX suits that Elon Musk said he personally worked on for three to four years

'You see the spacesuits in the movies  they look good, they don't work well.'

'You can make a spacesuit that works, but it doesn't look good, because fundamentally it's a pressure suit that has to survive in a vacuum.'

The suits were constructed in Hawthorne, California, which is the same facility where SpaceX keep its rockets.

They are custom-made for each passenger aboard Crew Dragon and designed to be functional, lightweight and to offer protection from potential depressurization.

For Musk, the launch represents another milestone for the reusable rockets his company pioneered to make spaceflight less costly and frequent.

Musk said on Wednesday he accepted absolute responsibility if yesterday's historic launch of his Falcon 9 rocket ended in tragedy.

The biggest concern is lighting, precipitation, cumulus clouds and anvil clouds - all of which could ground Falcon 9 until Sunday. The first Falcon 9 rocket launch try on Wednesday was called off with less than 17 minutes on the countdown clock due to stormy weather

Dolphins swim in a lagoon near Launch Complex 39A at sunrise at Kennedy Space Center in Florida this morning. Elon Musk said they would be 'proceeding with countdown' despite a 50 per cent 'weather cancellation risk'

The SpaceX suits have been jointly designed by a Hollywood costume designer and by Elon Musk himself

Spectators setup spots on the Florida beach to watch NASA and SpaceX make history. NASA had discouraged spectators from traveling to Florida to watch the launch, citing the coronavirus pandemic

The because in Florida are flooded with people who are enjoying the sun while they waited for the NASA-SpaceX launch

How SpaceX astronauts quarantined to keep coronavirus off the ISS Pre-launch quarantine periods are standard procedure for any space flight. Crew Dragon's astronauts, Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley went into quarantine on May 13 - two weeks ahead of their original scheduled liftoff. They were given the option to quarantine at home if members of their households would not be coming and going. Behnken and Hurley stayed at their homes - because their families were already quarantining due to the pandemic - until they were required to report to the Kennedy Space Center on May 20, according to Space Flight Now. Both astronauts got daily temperature checks in the weeks leading up to Wednesday's launch. Their interactions with others have been limited, and anyone who would have to come into contact with them also had to get a daily temperature check. During training, staff had to stay six feet away from each astronaut and wore masks. Staff were also required to keep quarantine protocols, stay socially distanced and wear protective gear when they needed to closely interact with the astronauts and support crew. Although the astronauts continued to have contact with one another, many of the training exercises that would normally come with hands-on instruction and adjustments were instead attended virtually by staff. Mr Behnken and Mr Hurley have undergone at least two coronavirus tests. Advertisement

Musk told CBS This Morning: 'I'm the chief engineer of this thing so I'd just like to say that if it goes right, it's credit to the SpaceX-NASA team. If it goes wrong, it's my fault.'

Asked whether there was one thing about this afternoon's launch that kept him up at night, he added: 'There's thousands of things that can go wrong and only one thing that can go right.'

The last time NASA launched astronauts into space aboard a brand new vehicle was 40 years ago at the start of the shuttle program.

President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence visited the Kennedy Space Center three days ago for the first launch attempt and returned on Saturday.

Musk, the South African-born high-tech entrepreneur who made his fortune in Silicon Valley, is also the chief executive of electric carmaker and battery manufacturer Tesla Inc.

He founded Hawthorne, California-based SpaceX, formally known as Space Exploration Technologies, in 2002.

Aerospace giant Boeing Co, producing its own launch system in competition with SpaceX, is expected to fly its CST-100 Starliner vehicle with astronauts aboard for the first time next year.

NASA has awarded nearly $8billion to SpaceX and Boeing combined for development of their rival rockets.

Wednesday's launch was cancelled with less than 17 minutes remaining on the countdown clock as bad weather meant the launch had to be delayed by a few seconds around the Kennedy Space Center.

Elon Musk's space company SpaceX tweeted the above yesterday as it prepares to send two NASA astronauts to the International Space Station aboard its Falcon 9 rocket from Florida - marking the company's first mission carrying humans aboard

Elon Musk said yesterday they would be 'proceeding with countdown' despite a 50 per cent 'weather cancellation risk'

This meant it would have missed its trajectory for arrival at the fast-moving ISS. NASA astronauts Behnken and Hurley were strapped in and ready to go when it was cancelled.

SpaceX said in a Tweet: 'Standing down from launch today due to unfavorable weather in the flight path. Our next launch opportunity is Saturday, May 30 at 3:22 p.m. EDT, or 19:22 UTC.'

NASA astronaut Bob Behnken waves to the crowd as he and fellow crew member Doug Hurley ride back from Launch Complex 39A after the mission was postponed Wednesday due to bad weather

The SpaceX suits have been jointly designed by a Hollywood costume designer and by Musk himself (pictured: Matt Damon in 2015's The Martian; and NASA astronaut Bob Behnken wearing the SpaceX suit, right)

Hurley said: 'We could see some raindrops on the windows and just figured that whatever it was, was too close to the launch pad at the time we needed it not to be.

'Understand that everybodys probably a little bit bummed out. Thats just part of the deal. ... We'll do it again, I think, on Saturday.'

The SpaceX demo-2 mission will see the Falcon 9 rocket and attached Crew Dragon capsule shoot into space as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program.

If successful, it will pave the way for future partnerships between NASA and commercial companies, and a new age of space travel.

The mission was cancelled as Storm Bertha rolled into the area of NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Pictured above is the rocket on Wednesday moments before the launch was cancelled

SpaceX founder Elon Musk (left) wearing a face mask with the SpaceX logo at Cape Canaveral in Florida on Wednesday

The launchpad at Cape Canaveral in Florida is pictured above last Saturday. The rocket will lift off 8.22pm UK time

The Falcon 9 will take off from Cape Canaveral on the other side of the Atlantic and be visible in the UK sky two hours later
Photo credit: CHANDAN KHANNA - Getty Images

From Esquire

Photo credit: CHANDAN KHANNA - Getty Images

On May 13, 1985, police fired tear gas , water cannons, and 10,000 rounds of ammunition into 6221 Osage Avenue in West Philadelphia. Then, from a helicopter, officers dropped onto the building a satchel bomb, the kind used in World War II and Vietnam. Inside the home were seven adults and six children, members of the eco-minded black liberation group, MOVE. Only two people survived. One of the five children who burned was 12-year-old Little Phil Africa. Seven years earlier, his three-week-old brother was killed after being knocked out of his mothers arms and crushed during an altercation with police. After the bombing, a fire broke out that claimed 61 surrounding buildings and left 250 people homeless in the middle-class black neighborhood. The houses built to replace them were  tissue paper  shoddy, and the contractors tasked with replacing them served jail time for misusing the rebuilding fund. By the mid 2010s, more than half of the rebuilt homes sat boarded up, purchased by the city for $150,000 each.



From the 1920s to the 1970s, chemical companies made polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, in Anniston, Alabama . The compounds were used as lubricants and insulators in electrical machinery. They also cause cancer and damage brain structures in humans, and were banned in the U.S. in 1979 . But by then, more than 800 tons of PCBs had been released into a local canal, 32,000 tons more into the citys open landfill. Within the majority black city, black neighborhoods were hardest hit by the pollutants. Today, creeks still run red, and there are  dead zones  where vegetation cannot grow. Even young people contend with cancer and other illnessesthe brother of one local activist died of lung and brain cancer at just 16 . In 2003, residents won a lawsuit against Monsanto worth hundreds of millions, but each of the more than 18,000 complainants only received a few thousand. Adults, saddled with homes they could not sell, were awarded $9,000 each, while children contending with the possibility of a lifetime of intellectual disabilities and health struggles were given just $2,000. Some of the funds created a clinic to treat the still-suffering Anniston residents. It ran out of money and folded in 2017.

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In 1921, white mobs descended on Tulsa, Oklahomas prosperous Greenwood neighborhood. They murdered more than 300 black residents , and burned homes, shops, and local institutions ranging from schools to movie theaters. Entire city blocks evaporated, as well as the contemporary equivalent of tens of millions of dollars in black property and wealth. Nine thousand out of a total of 11,000 Greenwood residents were left homeless. After living in a black community so affluent that it had been dubbed  Black Wall Street , thousands spent the following winter living in tents in an internment camp.

In November 1898, a white supremacist mob stormed the majority black and racially integrated city of Wilmington, North Carolina, and burned the office of a black newspaper. They marauded through the streets, killing as many as 100 black residents. The mayhem was all part of a carefully planned effort to overthrow the local government, which included black aldermen and other officials and civil servants. It still stands as the only successful coup in American history. Black residents retreated into swamps and woods on the outskirts of town to escape the white mob. Around 2,000 left for good, leaving the city majority white.

In 1855, New Yorks Seneca Village was a largely-black settlement with around 225 members. The Upper Manhattan community included an economic mix of people who lived in everything from shanties to two-story homes. They owned livestock, and were shielded from the racism in more developed parts of the city. Some black people owned property, which afforded them the right to vote: 10 of the 100 eligible black voters in the entire state in 1845 were residents of Seneca Village. By 1857, the community was gone, its land acquired through eminent domain to create Central Park.

Photo credit: Oklahoma Historical Society - Getty Images

These are anecdotes of literal, physical destruction of black communities, but while the carnage can be as unmistakable as bombs falling from the sky, it more often takes the form of slower-burning ravages wrought by economic starvation, over policing, educational deprivation, and mass incarceration. American history is littered with the destruction of black communities.

A multiracial group of protestors have taken to the streets across America in the wake of George Floyds murder. And yet they are accused of being black people destroying their own communities, just as black people were condemned for Watts in 1965, Chicago and other cities after Dr. Martin Luther Kings murder in 1968, and Los Angeles in 1992. Aside from the horrifying way that white America seems to be more scandalized by the destruction of stores and police stations than the destruction of lives, the insincerity of this newfound concern for black neighborhoods is obvious. It only ever seems to be activated when a black person picks up a brick. Black neighborhoods have been bulldozed and bombed, burned to the ground and made toxic to those who live in them. If you dont care about that more than you care about a Target, you dont care at all.

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Chicago Restricts Access to Business District After Looting, Vandalism During Protests

Chicago authorities are limiting access to the citys Central Business District and Loop after businesses suffered widespread damage during protests on Saturday night. The city announced Sunday that various streets and transportation routes to the business district will be temporarily reduced.

The Chicago Police Department and other city agencies will reduce access to the Central Business District and Loop to only employees whose businesses are located within the designated boundaries, individuals who reside in the surrounding area and residents engaged in essential activities, reported Chicago Tribune, citing a news release from the mayors office.

Chicago Transit Authority is also cancelling its transportation services in the downtown area due to protests, many of which turned violent, over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis last week. Most of its trains and buses coming in and out of the Loop are temporarily suspended for public safety reasons, according to the release.

The city is working closely with the organizers of rallies and protests scheduled to take place within the area this afternoon to provide an alternative, optional route for marches to peacefully and safely return in Chicago, the mayors office said in the statement.

A check-cashing business burns in Minneapolis, Minn., on May 29, 2020. (John Minchillo/AP Photo)

These measures come as Mayor Lori Lightfoot affirmed that the citys curfew will remain in effect on Sunday night. She has also requested Illinois Gov. Jay Pritzker to mobilize the National Guard to support local police forces in anticipation of further protests. Pritzker said 375 National Guard members will be sent in to primarily provide perimeter line support and will not be patrolling the city.

Its not an easy decision to call in the Guard, Lightfoot said during a Sunday morning press conference. The National Guard obviously has certain optics to it, may come with a certain level of equipment and presence. We dont want to squander that resource and make sure that we only use it when truly there is a time of need.

Chicago Police Departments superintendent David Brown said 240 people were arrested for looting and vandalism during Saturdays protests. He said the violence left 20 officers hospitalized, with at least two requiring surgery.

Let me be clear, last night was not a protest, said Brown, People who came downtown were not there to exercise their First Amendment right. These people arrived in the central business district prepared to damage and steal. Who brings a hammer to a protest? Nobody.

We will not sacrifice our local democracy to lawlessness. We will not, he said.
Wanton destruction, looting and firebombing are unacceptable and unjustified no matter what the provocation, as Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) said on Saturday. Responsible leaders are trying to send that message. But against the presidents bullhorn, it becomes harder to hear leaders like Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, whose anger at destructive rioters in her city was tempered by a heartfelt appeal. We are better than this as a city, we are better than this as a country, she said. Go home. Go home! It becomes more difficult to focus on the message of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), who tweeted, Minnesota consistently ranks highly for our public schools, innovation and opportunity, and happiness - if youre white. If youre not, the opposite is true. Systemic racism must be addressed if we are to secure justice, peace, and order for all Minnesotans.
Copyright  2020 Albuquerque Journal

SANTA FE  An unusual election season  dominated by Zoom calls, not campaign rallies  will lumber to a close Tuesday when New Mexico voters nominate candidates for open seats in the U.S. House and Senate.

State and county races are also at stake, including a series of spirited campaigns featuring liberal challengers taking on Democratic incumbents in the state Senate.

By all accounts, its been a strange time to campaign, amid a public health emergency that has resulted in hundreds of deaths in New Mexico and tremendous economic damage.

This is a whole new thing, University of New Mexico professor and elections expert Lonna Atkeson told the Journal. If youre a candidate, how do you get through COVID  get through so you can be heard?

Campaigns have turned to webinars and telephone calls to address supporters and draw contrasts with their opponents. Theyve relied on mail, print, broadcast and digital media to deliver their message.

But since March, candidates have largely abandoned the usual door-knocking, neighborhood forums and in-person campaign events.

Nevertheless, its now voters turn to weigh in. Polls are open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday, and absentee ballots must be in election officials custody by 7 p.m.

Only Democrats, Republicans and Libertarians can participate in the primary election.

Senate race

The top of the ballot features a contest to succeed U.S. Sen. Tom Udall, a Democrat who is retiring after a long career, including 12 years in the Senate.

The Democratic and Libertarian nominees are already clear. U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, a Democrat, is giving up his seat in Congress  representing northern New Mexico  to try for the Senate.

Scientist Bob Walsh is the Libertarian candidate.

Competing to take them on are three Republicans: business and law professor Gavin Clarkson; anti-abortion activist Elisa Martinez; and ex-television meteorologist Mark Ronchetti.

Lujans departure from the House has triggered a 10-candidate scramble to replace him in a heavily Democratic district.

The seven Democrats running in the 3rd Congressional District are former deputy Secretary of State John Blair; lawyer Teresa Leger Fernandez; Sandoval County Treasurer Laura Montoya; former CIA officer Valerie Plame; state Rep. Joseph Sanchez; 1st Judicial District Attorney Marco Serna; and attorney Kyle Tisdel.

The Republican candidates are businesswoman Karen Bedonie; oil and gas engineer Alexis Johnson; and former Santa Fe County Commissioner Harry Montoya.

State Republican Party Chairman Steve Pearce said the primary plays an important role in determining which direction the party moves. But the GOP, he said, will have no trouble uniting once voters decide the candidates.

We feel like weve got a very strong ticket headed into the general election, Pearce said.

Republicans, he said, quickly embraced digital campaigning when the pandemic hit.

State Democratic Party Chairwoman Marg Elliston said the health emergency hasnt dampened party efforts to energize voters and connect candidates with the public. In Taos County, for example, party leaders have held webinars to introduce candidates to voters.

Weve got outstanding candidates this year and exciting choices, Elliston said.

Republican battle

Perhaps the most combative race this season is the Republican primary in the 2nd Congressional District  traditionally a GOP seat but now held by Democratic Rep. Xochitl Torres Small.

Oil and gas executive Claire Chase and former state Rep. Yvette Herrell have attacked each other over who is more supportive of President Donald Trump, among other issues. Also running is business owner Chris Mathys, who says all three candidates would be strong advocates of the presidents agenda.

The winner will advance to face Torres Small in the fall in whats expected to be one of the most closely watched congressional races in the country. Steve Jones, an independent, is also campaigning for the seat.

Oddly enough, a liberal super PAC weighed in on the Republican side with ads attacking Chase and praising Herrell  a sign that some Democrats view Chase as the more serious threat to Torres Small, should she advance to the general election.

In the Democratic primary, attack ads have emerged in some legislative races.

A coalition of left-leaning groups and activists is campaigning to unseat five state senators, accusing the incumbents of blocking progress on health care, early childhood education and other issues.

The targets include three of the most powerful members of the Legislature: Senate President Pro Tem Mary Kay Papen of Las Cruces; Senate Finance Committee Chairman John Arthur Smith of Deming; and Senate Corporations and Transportation Committee Chairman Clemente Sanchez of Grants.

The incumbents have pushed back on the criticism, arguing that their voting record reflects the wishes of their constituents, many of whom live in rural areas.

Absentee voting rises

Even with the pandemic dominating the news, there are signs of strong voter engagement this year, said Heather Ferguson, executive director of Common Cause New Mexico, a nonpartisan voting rights advocacy group.

About 155,000 voters, for example, had returned absentee ballots through Friday morning, or about seven times more than in the 2016 primary. The number will grow in the coming days as more ballots are returned through Tuesday night.

The increase is due at least partly to a push by election officials to encourage absentee voting as a way to participate in the election safely from home, rather than risking transmission of COVID-19 at an in-person polling place.

Ferguson said the response to the pandemic  much of it coordinated by state and local leaders  has underscored for many voters the importance of casting a ballot.

Its important to raise your voice, she said.

It isnt clear whether the election will attract higher turnout overall.

Atkeson, the UNM political science professor, said the lack of competitive races for the Democratic and Republican nominations for president may mean fewer voters this year than in 2016.

And of course, the public health crisis has prevented much of the in-person contact New Mexicans are used to before an election.

Those of us who love politics love people, Elliston of the Democratic Party said. Its been really hard.
Police are hunting vandals who beheaded a number of memorial statues recognising fallen Second World War heroes.

The Tommy Silhouettes were vandalised at Purfleet Garrison Community Centre in Thurrock, Essex, between 8pm on Friday and 10am the next morning.

Statues were ripped from their stands and others were broken. Essex Police have appealed for witnesses.

Chief Inspector Natalia Ross said: 'The statues were put in place to commemorate those who lost their lives in the First and Second World Wars.

The statues, named The Tommy Silhouettes, were vandalised at Purfleet Garrison Community Centre in Thurrock, Essex, between 8pm on Friday and 10am the next day

'They were enjoyed by the community and centre visitors who wanted to pay their respects.

'Sadly, they were damaged - possibly beyond repair - in despicable acts this weekend.

'A dedicated officer has been allocated to the investigation to look into the circumstances and to find those responsible.'

Neighbourhood watch co-ordinator and Purfleet resident Lisa Wright said she was 'angered, disappointed and sad' when she saw the vandalism, and has raised 320 to replace them through a fundraising page.

The silhouettes had been installed in 2018 to remember Second World War heroes outside the Purfleet Heritage Centre

Locals have now raised 320 to replace the statues, as police continue to hunt vandals

She said: 'One row of soldiers has been ripped from its fixings and discarded and vandalised on the floor, and the other row have been beheaded.'

The 26 Tommy Silhouettes had been installed as part of a 2018 commemoration event held in Purfleet by the vice chair of the local community forum.

Local Labour councillor Qaisar Abbas said he has donated 60 to the fundraiser and reported the vandalism to the police and Thurrock Council.

He said: 'This is unbelievably sad and unacceptable. I have reported this to the police and I hope anyone who knows anything will come forward.'

Anyone with information is asked to call Grays police station on 101 quoting crime reference 42/76981/20.
As appalling details emerged from the Canadian Armed Forces documentation about conditions and practices at long-term care (LTC) homes in Ontario and Quebec, one face should continue to haunt us.

Dr. Li Wenliang, an ophthalmologist in Wuhan, had followed the best practices of ethical reporting also known as whistle-blowing. It encourages a hierarchy of disclosure that begins with internal communication as a first step. If the first revelation is not successful, and depending on the urgency and importance of the issue, the individual may then decide to go public.

On Dec. 30, Wenliang sent a personal memo to medical colleagues warning them of a suspicious illness with symptoms similar to severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). He was concerned that his co-workers wear the proper protective gear.

When his concerns eventually became public, authorities demanded that he sign a letter stating that he had made false comments that had severely disturbed the social order. After signing the statement, he became ill in early January. He was hospitalized and subsequently diagnosed with coronavirus on Jan. 30. Although there was confusion about the date of his death, the Peoples Daily announced that he passed away on Feb. 7, after all-effort rescue.

It is heartbreaking to imagine what would have happened if Chinese officials had listened to his concerns rather than to condemn his actions. Since his death, 5.6 million people have been infected and 350,000 have died worldwide, including a disproportionate number of Canadians in LTC homes.

While our military succinctly highlighted the desperate state in the LTC homes, they were not whistleblowers, like Wenliang, as some have maintained. They were simply doing their job. However, a litany of other individuals  families, patients, judges and senators  had already sounded the alarm and over a long period of time.

In 2009, the Ontario Superior Court had handed a jail sentence of eight months to an abusive support worker in an Ottawa LTC home, after co-workers blew the whistle. That same year, the Senate issued a special study on Canadas Aging Population. Lead by former Sen. Sharon Carstairs, the report called for many of the solutions now being proposed.

Yet those judicial and legislative whistles, clearly fell on deaf ears.

Eight years later, a camera became a whistleblower, when another Ottawa care worker was videoed, repeatedly striking an 89-year-old patient. That incident sparked an investigation into LTC homes run by the city.

The loudest alarm was raised on July 31, 2019, by the provincial public inquiry into the Safety and Security of Residents in the LTCH system, following the murder of eight patients over a nine-year time frame, by nurse Elizabeth Wettlaufer.

Judges and legislators are protected from workplace retaliation when reporting facts and studies, but historically, those who told the truth in the workplace were deemed disloyal or trouble makers.

However, over the years, a shift in thinking has occurred. Enlightened companies and countries, which are mindful of the need to eradicate corruption and uncover fraud, have realized the merit in applauding the acts of those workers who vocalize their concerns, providing the motives are irreproachable. Any disclosure cannot be for personal, discriminatory or retaliatory reasons.

This more modern approach to whistle-blowing, which should more correctly be called ethical reporting, seeks to uncover, rather than smother, concerns. If properly used, it is a strong governance tool.

Whether we listen to questions, investigate and act upon them, is up to us and to our governments  but continuing to ignore or deny warnings, combined with a failure to act, is dangerous at any time. It is even more so as the pandemic holds us in a vicious human and economic grip for the foreseeable future. Already, there are warnings by respected international agencies about COVID-19 related activities, including fraud and cybercrime.

The problem is not so much with the person who is trying to articulate a concern. Whether we live in a dictatorship or a democracy, we typically resist negative information, which might upend the status quo.

But the cost of ignoring those who warn us is far too high. Its not the whistleblowers who are the problem. Its the truths that we dont want to face.
London, May 31 : Researchers, including one of Indian-origin, have found that patients undergoing surgery after contracting COVID-19 are at greatly increased risk of postoperative death, according to a new global study published in The Lancet journal.

Published in 'The Lancet' journal, the global study found that amongst SARS-CoV-2 infected patients who underwent surgery, mortality rates approach those of the sickest patients admitted to intensive care after contracting the virus in the community. In the study, the research team led by the University of Birmingham in the UK examined data for 1,128 patients from 235 hospitals and a total of 24 countries participated, predominantly in Europe, although hospitals in Africa, Asia, and North America also contributed.

The researchers noted that SARS-CoV-2 infected patients who undergo surgery, experience substantially worse postoperative outcomes than would be expected for similar patients who do not have the infection. "We would normally expect mortality for patients having minor or elective surgery to be under one per cent but our study suggests that in SARS-CoV-2 patients these mortality rates are much higher in both minor surgery (16.3 per cent) and elective surgery (18.9 per cent)," said study co-author Aneel Bhangu from the University of Birmingham.

According to the study, the 30-day mortality among these patients was 23.8 per cent. Mortality was disproportionately high across all subgroups, including elective surgery (18.9 per cent), emergency surgery (25.6 per cent), minor surgery such as appendectomy or hernia repair (16.3 per cent), and major surgery such as hip surgery or colon cancer surgery (26.9 per cent).

The study identified that mortality rates were higher in men (28.4 per cent) versus women (18.2 per cent), and in patients aged 70 years or over (33.7 per cent) versus those aged under 70 years (13.9 per cent). In addition to age and sex, risk factors for postoperative death included having severe pre-existing medical problems, undergoing cancer surgery, undergoing major procedures, and undergoing emergency surgery.

According to the researchers, patients undergoing surgery are a vulnerable group at risk of SARS-CoV-2 exposure in hospital. They may be particularly susceptible to subsequent pulmonary complications, due to inflammatory and immunosuppressive responses to surgery and mechanical ventilation. The study found that overall in the 30 days following surgery 51 per cent of patients developed a pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome, or required unexpected ventilation.

This may explain the high mortality, as most (81.7 per cent) patients who died had experienced pulmonary complications. "Our data suggests that it was the right decision to postpone operations at a time when patients were at risk of being infected with SARS-CoV-2 in hospital," said study co-author Dmitri Nepogodiev.
TRENTON  No justice, no peace.

Homicide victim George Floyd, who died during a dreadful encounter with Minneapolis Police, has inspired protests all over America, including here in the City of Trenton.

Reform is not enough, a woman said Saturday afternoon in front of the New Jersey Statehouse. The system itself is the problem.

Standing on the 100 block of West State Street, more than 100 demonstrators voiced their outrage over what happened to Floyd in the Midwest.

During the evening of May 25, Minneapolis Police placed Floyd in a dangerous restraint and held him on the ground for almost nine minutes as the victim repeatedly said, I cant breathe.

Officers Derek Chauvin, Thomas Lane, Tou Thao and J. Alexander Kueng have been fired from the police force, while Minnesota prosecutors have charged Chauvin with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in the aftermath of the homicide.

Chauvin, a 44-year-old white man, placed his knee in the area of Floyds head and neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, according to the criminal complaint. The cops tried to force Floyd into submission, deeming him a suspect in a forgery case.

Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, became unresponsive during the restraint.

Medics subsequently transported him to Hennepin County Medical Center in Minnesota, where he was pronounced dead. A medical examiner determined the combined effects of Floyd being restrained by the police, his underlying health conditions and any potential intoxicants in his system likely contributed to his death, according to Minnesota court documents.

Floyds fatal encounter, captured on video for the world to see, has sparked at least three nights of civil unrest in Minneapolis.

Trentons Saturday afternoon protest proved to be peaceful in a capital city full of violence. The demonstrators did not necessarily practice social distancing  ignoring Gov. Phil Murphys six-feet-spacing rule against non-essential congregations  but Mayor Reed Gusciora allowed it to take place.

We dont have to destroy property, and we can get the message out, Gusciora told the crowd, adding Trenton Police have embraced sensitivity training on how to serve and protect this predominantly black community of 85,000 people, including the mentally ill.

Gusciora released a statement on Friday saying he was outraged by the senseless death of Mr. George Floyd.

I believe that the police officers involved in this deadly incident, led by Derek Chauvin, should be indicted for their actions, Gusciora added. I stand with the family of Mr. Floyd. I stand with the law enforcement officers and leadership across America who have condemned this egregious act. I wholeheartedly agree that it demands a complete examination by top investigators, including the FBI.

A diverse gathering, Trentons protest on Saturday integrated blacks and whites, elders and youth, males and females for a common cause. Many of the attendees held signs emblazoned with messages such as, Black lives matter, The Second Amendment was written when I was deemed 3/5 of a person!! and I cant breathe.

Michael Walker, a Trenton city spokesman, told the protesters to vote, saying the exercise of enfranchisement rights has the power to prevent police brutality.

If you do not exercise your right to vote when it is time to do so, he said, this crap is going to continue.

Others advocated justice and peace.

We need resources as well, a city man said at the protest. Black men are not animals.

Downtown Trenton is generally a ghost town on weekends, but a number of motorists drove up West State Street to honk their horns in solidarity with the protesters.

Everyone appeared to be wearing a face covering, a legacy of the COVID-19 public health emergency.
Commonwealth Bank will allow borrowers who deferred repayments under an emergency scheme to temporarily switch to interest-only loans without the usual credit checks, as lenders scramble to avoid being swamped by distressed loans later this year.

The move comes amid signs a minority of people who deferred repayments are now in a better position than they feared they would be at the height of the pandemic, with Westpac and ANZ Bank saying thousands had decided to voluntarily resume making repayments.

CBA group executive Angus Sullivan says the bank will temporarily allow customers to switch to interest-only payments for a year. Credit:

Banks will this month start checking in with the more than 450,000 mortgage customers who paused payments on their mortgages for up to six months in response to the brutal economic shock from the pandemic.

Despite recent economic data suggesting the financial hit from COVID-19 on Australia has been less dire than feared, banks still face the daunting prospect of a sharp rise in soured loans later this year when the repayment "holidays" end.
So Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz says, The situation in Minneapolis is no longer in any way about the murder of George Floyd. It is about attacking civil society, instilling fear and disrupting our great cities.

Walz doesnt get it. The situation in Minneapolis (and around the country) is about attacking the systemic uncivilized police society, its rebellion against the fear that has been instilled for decades by that police society. Its about disrupting the unjust justice system that gives police almost complete immunity and the unequal treatment given to members of our civilized society. This is an attempt to disrupt the part of our society that allows this to continue.

Walz got one thing right: He referred to the killing of George Floyd as murder.

Laurie Peckham, San Rafael

Trump fans the flames

President Trumps tweet suggesting sending military to Minneapolis to stop the protests and that there would be shooting escalates the crisis and is tantamount to declaring war. His tweeting is divisive to the country, and his Republican colleagues should shut him down!

John Baker, Walnut Creek

An officers lesson

During my career in the SFPD, we had our share of ugly moments where officers committed some monstrous act on a member of the public. In suiting up to go on duty after one of those times, I often relied on what a training officer had told me when I was a young cop. You always have a chance to make up for the bad actions of some idiot. You go treat people right. You listen. And you try your best to be a decent officer. The people you deal with wont forget the bad cop, but they wont forget you either.

May my brothers and sisters carry this forward. We all end up better for it.

Bob Rogers, Aptos, Santa Cruz County

What were losing

So even though President Trump has been stoking our countrys racial tensions for over three years and been embraced by white supremacists, he has the nerve to say Saturday that his MAGA supporters love the black people.

If I could, I would tell Trump: No, Mr. President, your supporters dont love the African American community. Some of them have Confederate flag stickers on their trucks, and many of them still believe your derogatory birther conspiracy theory about Barack Obama.

We gave you less than 10% of our votes back in 2016, when you courted us with the phrase, What do you have to lose?Given your administrations poor response to the disproportionate effect that the coronavirus is having on U.S. black communities, Id now answer the question you asked back in 2016 with this response: our lives.

Xavier Betancourt, San Francisco

A bad photo choice

When Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their fists after medaling in the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, there was great awakening among many white persons like myself. Their outstretched arms were, in my opinion, not just a celebration of their feats among the worlds most competitive sporting events. They symbolically pointed to a future where all people, no matter their color, could live without a racial divide.

The now-famous picture of Smith and Carlos on that podium with arms raised is the reason I am so incensed at The Chronicle for the photo appearing on the front page of Sundays paper. While your selection of this photo of an African American man with a raised fist, celebrating the violence of fire and looting in the background, may be an award winner for its drama and its framing, it is, in my opinion, the worst your staff could have chosen and it degrades the message and quite possibly the hopes and dreams of two brave Olympians who, like Colin Kaepernick, risked everything with a single gesture  a gesture more important than themselves.

Brent Lincoln, Greenbrae

Show of leadership

Id like to suggest the ideal running mate for Joe Biden: Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms. Her impassioned comments to her city, and the nation, about her anger over the murder of George Floyd, and her dismay at the violent destruction carried out by some demonstrators, were quite moving, and a much-needed plea for peaceful methods to demand justice for victims of police abuse. As an African American woman, a former judge, city council member, and now mayor of a major American city, she would be the perfect choice to debate the clueless Vice President Mike Pence and a strong voice for systemic reform in a Biden administration.

Mark Wilson, Berkeley

Put in perspective

Regarding the death of George Floyd: He died at the hands of four police officers, and only one was arrested and charged.

Floyd was arrested trying to use an allegedly counterfeit $20 bill.

Twenty dollars.

Dan Finkle, San Francisco

Source of discord

As long as the focus is on ethnicity and identity politics, there will be discord that includes bigotry, destruction and violence. There is only one scientifically defined race of people. It is known as the human race.

Robert Rissel, San Jose

A poignant cartoon

I was so moved by Jack Ohmans Sunday political cartoon that depicts him growing up in Minnesota, a then-and-now-type story. How so sadly, tragic and ironic that George Floyd was killed at 38th and Chicago streets; the site of civil rights champion Hubert Humphreys Democratic Farmer Labor Party headquarters. Another example of how everyones basic human needs/rights must be met before cultural evolution can thrive.

Karen Cliffe, San Francisco

Dont denigrate Oakland

How dare you put on the front page of Sundays edition the following headline: Riots, shooting rock Oakland. In fact, your precious city of San Francisco has had multiple riots, looting and burning. Furthermore, on the national news, Oakland wasnt shown once but San Francisco was!

Always denigrating the folks who call Oakland home. You are not above the fray, and you should acknowledge that we are in this together.

Lyn Andersen, Oakland

An attack on all

We cant breathe.

Donald Trump has his knee on the neck of all that is true and decent, while Attorney General William Barr stands by ready to prevent anyone from intervening to save the life of our democracy.

Katherine Jacomb, Mountain View
British foreign minister Dominic Raab defended on Sunday the government's "careful" loosening of the coronavirus lockdown, saying it was the "right step to be taking at this moment in time".

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has come under fire from some scientists for easing a lockdown put in place 10 weeks ago, with several saying it was a premature and risky move in the absence of a fully functioning system to track new outbreaks.

With Britain experiencing one of the world's highest death rates from COVID-19, the government says it is easing the stringent lockdown "cautiously" to balance the need to restart the economy, but also to try to prevent another increase in the number of infections. Some say Britain is not prepared.

"We are confident that this is the right step to be taking at this moment in time," Raab told Sky News. "We are taking those steps very carefully, based on the science but also based on our ability now to monitor the virus."

From Monday, up to six people will be able to meet outside in England, some school classes will restart, elite competitive sport can resume without fans and more than 2 million people who have been "shielding" will be allowed to spend time outdoors.

Johnson is under pressure from some in his governing Conservative Party and businesses to start re-opening the economy, after spending billions to help protect companies and workers from the impact of the coronavirus crisis.

At the heart of the strategy to ease the lockdown is a system to test and trace those people who have come into contact with confirmed cases of COVID-19.

The government said on Sunday it had met its 200,000 capacity testing target, including the means for 40,000 antibody tests a day, a day early, a move health minister Matt Hancock described as "an important milestone".

Ministers also say the tracing system is already working, but some scientists say it is too early to say whether it is fit for purpose.

Peter Openshaw, a member of the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group who sits on the government's scientific advisory group, said he shared other scientists' "deep concern."

"I think I share with all my scientific colleagues, or virtually all my scientific colleagues, a deep concern that we need to go with great caution," he told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show, adding there was still a large number of cases in Britain.

"I think unlocking too fast carries a great risk that all the good work that has been put in by everyone to try to reduce transmission may be lost. So we do need to proceed with great, great care at this point."

Scotland's first minister Nicola Sturgeon, who has offered the nation slightly different guidance to that in England, agreed with scientists that the easing must be "very cautious".

"I agree with the opinion that has been expressed over the weekend that we've got to be very cautious," Sturgeon told Sky News. "This virus hasn't gone away, there is still a significant risk that it could run out of control again."

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The bereaved brother of George Floyd said President Trump didnt let him get a word in during a condolence call.

Philonise Floyd, the brother of the 46-year-old black man who died in the custody of Minneapolis police on Monday after an officer knelt on his neck for several minutes cutting off his air supply, said the president kept pushing me off.

It was so fast, he didnt even give me the opportunity to speak, Floyd told MSNBC host Al Sharpton on Saturday.

It was hard. I was trying to talk to him, but he kept pushing me off like I dont want to hear what youre talking about.

George Floyds death on Monday has sparked nationwide protests as well as riots that have included violent clashes with police, widespread looting, and arson in several major cities across the country.

President Trump (left) on Friday spoke to the family of George Floyd, the 46-year-old black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis on Monday. Floyd's brother, Philonise (right), said the president 'didn't even give me the opportunity to speak' during the conversation

Philonise Floyd said that he had a simple message for the president.

I just told him: I want justice.

He said: I said that I couldnt believe that they committed a modern-day lynching in broad daylight.

I cant stand for that. I cant.

Floyd's death has touched off nationwide outrage as protesters and demonstrators staged riots in major American cities. The above image from Saturday shows police officers in riot gear in downtown Miami

Philonise Floyd then broke down in tears while talking about his brother.

It hurt me, he said of his brothers death.

A fatal shooting and lawsuit for excessive force: What we know about the four officers fired for George Floyd's arrest Derek Chauvin In 2006 Derek Chauvin (pictured), 44, was one of six officers connected to the death of Wayne Reyes The white police officer who knelt on George Floyd's neck has already been investigated over three police shootings and a fatal car chase. In 2006 Derek Chauvin, 44, was one of six officers connected to the death of Wayne Reyes. Reyes, 42 was killed by officers after allegedly pulling a shotgun on the six cops, which included Chauvin. Also that year he was named in a lawsuit filed by an inmate at the Minnesota Correctional Facility. The case was dismissed in 2007. Two years later Chauvin was investigated for his role in the 2008 shooting of Ira Latrell Toles during a domestic assault call. Toles was wounded after police said he went for an officer's gun and Chauvin shot him. That same year Chauvin was handed a medal of valor for 'his response in an incident involving a man armed with a gun.' But in 2011 23-year-old Leroy Martinez was shot and injured during a chase given by officers including Chauvin. Chauvin was arrested Friday - four days after Floyd's death - and charged with third degree murder and manslaughter. Tou Thao Tou Thao (pictured), was part of a $25,000 out of court settlement after being sued for using excessive force in 2017 Tou Thao, was part of a $25,000 out of court settlement after being sued for using excessive force in 2017. A lawsuit obtained by the DailyMail.com shows Thao was sued for using excessive force in arrest where he was accused of punching and kicking a handcuffed suspect 'until his teeth broke'. The remaining two officers have been identified as Thomas Lane and J Alexander Kueng. Both were reportedly rookie cops who were still in their probationary periods. Thao, Lane and Kueng do not currently face charges. Advertisement

I just dont understand, man.

Why we gotta go through this? Why we gotta go through this pain, man?

I love my brother. Im never going to see him again.

DailyMail.com has sought comment from the White House.

During a news conference at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Saturday, the president said he expressed sympathy to the Floyd family.

Yesterday, I spoke to George's family and expressed the sorrow of our entire nation for their loss, Trump said.

I stand before you as a friend and ally to every American seeking justice and peace, and I stand before you in firm opposition to anyone exploiting this tragedy to loot, rob, and menace.

Healing not hatred, justice not chaos are the mission at hand.

The president has been criticized for several tweets that seemed to vow a harsh crackdown against protesters, including one in which he referred to rioters and demonstrators as thugs and warning that when the looting starts, the shooting starts.

On Saturday, however, the president tried to strike a different note.

I understand the pain that people are feeling, Trump said.

We support the right of peaceful protests and we hear their pleas, but what we are now seeing on the streets of our cities has nothing to do with the memory of George Floyd.

The violence and vandalism is being led by Antifa and other radical left-wing groups who are terrorizing the innocent, destroying jobs, hurting businesses and burning down buildings.

The main victims of this horrible, horrible situation are the citizens who live in these once-lovely communities... The mobs are devastating the life's work of good people and destroying their dreams.

We support the overwhelming majority of police officers who are incredible in every way and devoted to public service.

Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis police officer who was filmed pressing his knee against George Floyds neck while he struggled to breathe and was handcuffed, has been charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter.

During his interview on MSNBC, Philonise Floyd was angry that authorities in Minnesota have yet to charge the other three police officers involved in his brothers death.

The family is also seeking more serious charges against Chauvin, who ignored Floyds desperate pleas while he was suffocating.

Those three officers - Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao - have all been fired by the Minneapolis Police Department.

They all need to be convicted of first-degree murder, and given the death penalty because they didn't care about what they wanted to do with my brother, Philonise Floyd told MSNBC.

[George Floyd] wasn't a person to them, he was scum. He was nothing.

I can imagine how many people they did like that. I don't need them on the streets to kill anybody else.

I'm hurt, my family is hurt. His kids are hurt.

They will grow up without a father.

Philonise Floyd added: Everybody is crying and in pain right now. So if they could do anything please arrest those other officers.

Sharpton said he will travel to Minneapolis to deliver the eulogy at George Floyd's funeral, though the MSNBC host misspoke.

Floyd's funeral will be held in his hometown of Houston, Texas, according to Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner. A date and time have yet to be scheduled.

White cop charged with murdering George Floyd is on 'suicide watch' and being checked around the clock

Chauvin, the white police officer arrested and charged with the murder of George Floyd, is allegedly on effective suicide watch and being checked in on around the clock.

TMZ reported Saturday that Chauvin, 44, has a camera focused on him all day and and cops check on his cell in person every 15 minutes.

It adds that Chauvin, who was charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter on Friday, is under constant surveillance and is in isolation in Ramsey County Jail in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Former cop Derek Chauvin, who was arrested for the murder of George Floyd on Friday, is reported to be on suicide watch in his single cell in Ramsey County Jail and under constant surveillance

George Floyd's (pictured) heartbroken family have called white cop Derek Chauvin to be charged with a more serious crime than third-degree murder after their lawyer revealed that Chauvin knelt on Floyd's neck for a staggering eight minutes during the arrest for forgery

He remains in a single cell in a part of the facility set aside for high-profile cases.

TMZ adds that a source says that the former police officer didn't make eye contact with anyone when he was brought into the jail on Friday and that he was subject to an unclothed body search.

He was then placed in a prison uniform and led to his cell.

Checks on a cell every 15 minutes are said to be common in such a high-profile case, TMZ's source said, but it is not confirmed if there is a threat to Chauvin's life.

Chauvin is reported to have 23 hours in his cell a day with one hour for recreation. He also has access to books, pencils and paper.

Footage emerged Monday of white cop Chauvin kneeling on the neck of black man Floyd for more than eight minutes until he passed out and later died, sparking outrage over police brutality and seeing protests escalate across the nation.

Chauvin was taken into custody on Friday and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter. His bail was set for $500,000.

The Ramsey County Law Enforcement Center and adjoining adult detention center where disgraced former cop Derek Chauvin is being held for the murder of George Floyd

The arrest followed days of nationwide protests and riots demanding his arrest, after he was caught on video kneeling on Floyd's neck while arresting him for allegedly trying to use a counterfeit $20 bill at a deli.

According to the criminal complaint against Chauvin, the Minneapolis police officer was said to have had his knee on Floyd's neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds, with nearly three minutes of the time being after Floyd had become non-responsive.

Floyd was then taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.

On Thursday evening it was revealed Floyd had actually worked with Chauvin as security guards at the El Nuevo Rodeo club, the club owner confirmed.

'Chauvin was our off-duty police for almost the entirety of the 17 years that we were open,' Maya Santamaria told KSTP-TV.

Three other officers involved in Floyd's arrest remain uncharged but were also fired from their jobs Tuesday.

Protesters and Floyd's family continue to call for the arrests of former officers J Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao and for a more serious charge to be brought against Chauvin.

'We call on authorities to revise the charges [against Chauvin] to reflect the culpability of this officer,' a statement from the family Friday said.

'We fully expect to see the other officers who did nothing to protect the life of George Floyd to be arrested and charged soon.'

The criminal complaint filed against Chauvin Friday also cited the preliminary findings from a Tuesday autopsy conducted by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner which saw 'no physical findings that support a diagnosis of traumatic asphyxiation or strangulation'.

George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, died on Memorial Day as he was arrested by four police officers over allegedly trying to buy cigarettes with a counterfeit $20 bill. He was seen in a video pleading that he couldn't breathe as white officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee against his neck

'Mr. Floyd had underlying health conditions including coronary artery disease and hypertensive heart disease,' said the complaint from the Hennepin County Attorney.

'The combined effects of Mr. Floyd being restrained by police, his underlying health conditions and any potential intoxicants in his system likely contributed to his death.'

The full medical examiner's report is pending but Floyd's family have hired the services of former New York medical officer Dr. Michael Baden to perform a second independent autopsy.

They are unhappy with the findings from the county medical examiner that they claim create an 'illusion' of underlying health conditions being responsible for his death.
The Nepali Congress Party's central working committee has decided to vote in favour of the proposal to amend the constitution in order to change the national emblem that will see a new map of the country on it. According to reports, the largest opposition party in Nepal decided unanimously to vote in favour of the bill that is scheduled to be tabled in the parliament on May 31. The new map will include territories that are disputed between India and Nepal such as Kalapani, Lipulekh and Limpiyadhura.

Read: Amid Border Row, Nepal FM Says Aim To Strengthen Relations With Neighbouring Nations

As per reports, Nepali Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli held an all-party meeting recently to garner support for the bill, where the Congress party said it will decide after meeting with its lawmakers. The bill was earlier scheduled to be tabled in the parliament on May 27 but was removed from the agenda following Nepali Congress party's request. However, the Congress party has accused the government of delaying tactics and has blamed it for not bringing the bill sooner.

Read: 'Open To Engagement Based On Mutual Respect; Positive Efforts Needed': MEA On Nepal

The bill is expected to smoothly sail through the parliament as the ruling government which earlier lacked the numbers in the lower house, the House of Representatives, now has the support of the opposition. The government already has 70 per cent seats in the upper house, where there should be no problem in garnering the votes in favour of the bill.

Read: 'Situation Being Monitored; Trust & Confidence Required': Govt Sources On Nepal Map Row

India monitoring the situation

India is monitoring the current situation in Nepal, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said. "India is open to engaging with all its neighbours on the basis of mutual sensitivity and mutual respect, in an environment of trust and confidence. This is a continuous process and requires constructive and positive efforts," Srivastava said.

(With inputs from PTI)

Read: Big Diplomatic Victory For India: Nepal Puts Constitutional Amendment To Alter Map On Hold
The latest:

The chaos, looting and unrest over the death of George Floyd plays out across in a besieged nation where a coronavirus pandemic had confined most Americans at home for months.

This convergence of national ills  police brutality, racism and a deadly contagion -- is now prompting warnings that mounting protests could exacerbate the spread of a virus that has already disproportionately impacted communities of color.

"You have a right to demonstrate. You have the right to protest. God bless America," New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said during his coronavirus briefing Saturday.

"You don't have a right to infect other people. You don't have a right to act in a way that's going to jeopardize public health."

As the death of the unarmed and handcuffed African American man at the hands of Minneapolis police leads to protests, fires and clashes across the country, Cuomo and other officials have a message for demonstrators  Wear a mask.

"Even if you think you're a superhero because you're young and you're strong, you can get it and then infect someone else," Cuomo said of the virus. "So it's just wholly irresponsible... You can have an opinion but there are also facts, and you're wrong not to wear a mask."

The protests, expected to continue through the weekend, have been especially violent in Floyd's hometown of Minneapolis, where demonstrators seem to have outnumbered police for days  burning buildings and cars and firing guns in the night.

Minnesota Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm said she understood the sadness and anger in the community but cautioned protesters that Minneapolis and St. Paul remain a hotspot for the spread of COVID-19.

"This is essential not only to protect themselves but also to protect their loved ones and the larger community," she said in a statement. "This includes wearing masks when in public and maintaining social distancing as much as possible."

Minnesota's coronavirus death toll surpassed 1,000 this week, according to the state health department. Malcolm said the state was "one of the communities most vulnerable to rapid increases in the spread of the virus" in the nation.





Massive protests across US raise fears of new virus outbreaks

The mayor of Atlanta, one of dozens of U.S. cities hit by massive protests in recent days, has a message for demonstrators: "If you were out protesting last night, you probably need to go get a COVID test this week."



As emergency orders are lifted and beaches and businesses reopen, add protests to the list of concerns about a possible second wave of coronavirus outbreaks. It's also an issue from Paris to Hong Kong, where anti-government protesters accuse police of using social distancing rules to break up their rallies.

Health experts fear that silent carriers of the virus who have no symptoms could unwittingly infect others at gatherings with people packed cheek to jowl and cheering and jeering, many without masks.

"Whether they're fired up or not that doesn't prevent them from getting the virus," said Bradley Pollock, chairman of the Department of Public Health Sciences at the University of California, Davis.

One Atlanta protester said she has no choice following the death last Monday of George Floyd, a black man, after a white police officer in Minneapolis pressed a knee into his neck.

"It's not OK that in the middle of a pandemic we have to be out here risking our lives," Spence Ingram, a black woman, said after marching with other protesters to the state Capitol in Atlanta on Friday. "But I have to protest for my life and fight for my life all the time."

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, in her warning Saturday evening, said "there is still a pandemic in America that's killing black and brown people at higher numbers."

After another night of unrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said that many protesters wearing masks were simply trying to hide their identities and "cause confusion and take advantage of this situation."

The state's health commissioner has warned that the protests are almost certain to fuel new cases of the virus. Minnesota reported 35 deaths on Thursday, a single-day high in the outbreak, and 29 more on Friday.

"We have two crises that are sandwiched on top of one other," Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said.

The protests come at a time when many U.S. cities are beginning to relax stay-at-home orders. When Los Angeles officials announced the reopening of stores last week, they said political protests could resume but with a cap of 100 people.

That didn't stop several hundred people from showing up for a protest that shut down a freeway. Most wore masks, but many did not observe a buffer zone.

Even for the many protesters who have been wearing masks, those don't guarantee protection from the coronavirus.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends cloth masks because they can make it more difficult for infected people to spread the virus  but they are not designed to protect the person wearing the mask from getting it.

World Health Organization releases new guidance for mass gatherings

The World Health Organization on Saturday released new guidance for mass gatherings amid the coronavirus pandemic, recommending a number of possible changes to large events  once theyre allowed to take place.

Holding gatherings outdoors, limiting attendance to healthy people and staggering arrivals could all help limit the spread of the virus, according to the guidance.

In the context of COVID-19, mass gatherings are events that could amplify the transmission of the virus and potentially disrupt the host countrys response capacity, the guidance said. But it said large events offered benefits, too, such as providing employment and boosting psychological well-being.

Since mass gatherings have substantial political, cultural, social, and economic implications, authorities should assess the importance and necessity of an event and consider the option that it may take place, provided all associated public health risks are adequately addressed and mitigated, the guidance said.

The WHO called on public health authorities and event organizers to perform a risk assessment before any gathering and listed a number of steps organizers could take if large events do occur, such as staggering arrivals, increasing the frequency of transport, designating seating, venue capacity could also be adjusted and events could be held virtually or outdoors.

Some recommendations focused on participants, reminding people to observe physical distancing, cough etiquette and hand hygiene practices.

People at risk of developing severe illness  including those over the age of 65 or with pre-existing medical conditions  could be advised to stay away, or special arrangements could be made for them.

The WHO recommendations included a number of other measures as well, such as limiting the duration of events and providing on-site isolation facilities for people who become sick.
Sonu Sood has facilitated several buses for workers stuck in Mumbai due to the coronavirus-forced nationwide lockdown and helped them reach their home states.

Sonu Sood met Maharashtra governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari on Saturday at Raj Bhavan to notify him of the work he was doing to help migrants amid the coronavirus-induced lockdown. Sood has reunited thousands of migrant families during these testing times by arranging safe road travel to their native places.

(Click here to follow LIVE updates on coronavirus outbreak)

Sood briefed about his ongoing work to help the migrant people to reach their home states and to provide them food. The governor applauded Sood for his work and assured him support in these endeavours, read a tweet by the governers Twitter account.

Check out the post here

Film star Sonu Sood met Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari at Raj Bhavan. He briefed Governor about his work to help migrant people to reach their home states and to provide them food. The Governor applauded Sonu Sood for his work and assured him fullest support in his endeavours. pic.twitter.com/JlXVbZiUB4  Governor of Maharashtra (@maha_governor) May 30, 2020

Sood on Friday came to the rescue of 117 girls as he helped them reach home in Odisha. The actor airlifted the girls who were stuck in Kerala Ernakulam due to the nationwide lockdown. After being informed by a close friend, Sood took permission from the government to have Kochi and Bhubaneswar airports opened. A special aircraft was arranged from Bengaluru to airlift 177 women from Kerala to Bhubaneswar and help them return to their families, reports Hindusatan Times.

Thank Bollywood actor @SonuSood for coming forward to help #Odisha girls, stranded in Kerala during nationwide #COVID19 lockdown, to reach home safe. His humanitarian gesture is indeed commendable.  CMO Odisha (@CMO_Odisha) May 29, 2020

The actor along with his friend Neeti Goel have won hearts of millions of Indians with their ''Ghar Bhejo'' initiative.

Sood facilitated several buses for workers stuck in Mumbai due to the coronavirus-forced nationwide lockdown. The actor has transported workers to far off states such as Karnataka, Bihar, Jharkhand and UP.

Recently, the actor launched a toll-free helpline to help migrants in reaching home.

The 46-year-old actor who is known for his roles in films like Singh is Kinng, Simmba and Dabangg is being hailed in the media for arranging hassle-free passage of migrant labourers to their respective homes.

(With inputs from agencies)
Earlier this week in Middletown, Ohio, an argument over $10 resulted in a fatal shooting between two men. Dhameer Haamid Scott, 24 years old, got into an argument with John Booker, 36 years old over money when they were at a residence where Scott's father and Booker's mother lived.

Fatal argument

According to the People, the dispute eventually led into the fatal shooting of Booker and Scott has been charged with murder, as indicated by records from the court retrieved by the Dayton Daily News.

The Middletown Police Department posted on their social media page that they received a call saying there was a shooting at the residence on the evening of Monday.

When officers arrived at the scene, they discovered Booker with a gunshot wound, and they immediately transported him to the hospital but soon died afterwards. Authorities were investigating the whereabouts of Scott as a potential person of interest before he turned himself in.

Scott reportedly went into the residence on Monday and left $30 that his younger brother could use. Later that day, Booker arrived and took $10 from the pile that was left by Scott on a shelf and refused to give it back.

Scott's father contacted him to inform him of what happened, which prompted him to return to the residence on Monday night. Booker and Scott then got into an argument which eventually led physical contact, as reported by ABC News.

Also Read: 14-Year-Old Girl from Iran Murdered by Own Father, Sparking Outrage in the Country

The two parties then moved to the front porch where they continued their argument Scott allegedly shooting Booker with a gun.

"Johnson Sr. advised Dhameer Scott, and another friend of Scott's arrived together, and Scott entered the residence with a gun in his hand," wrote Detective Steve on the court documents which summarized the charge against the suspect.

Reports of gunfire

Vicki Booker, the mother of the victim, tried to interfere with the two before they moved outside and later called 911 to report the incident that took place.

She told officers that there has been a shooting inside her residence and that she is calling for an ambulance. She told dispatchers that there was a fight that led to her son getting shot.

The mother also told authorities that she knew who the shooter was, stating the name "Dhameer" and revealing that his father was also on the scene who she said would reveal his last name. Vicki expressed her concern as her son was shot in his side, and blood was gushing out profusely.

The Middletown Division of Police social media page posted that they were investigating the location of the suspect and shared the sightings of the man. They mentioned in the post that Scott was to be considered armed and dangerous and should not be approached under any circumstances.

The authorities also said that Scott had visible and distinctive money sign tattoos on the front of his neck and urged anyone with knowledge of his whereabouts to report to the station immediately by calling their contact number or directly reporting to the station.

Related Article: Woman Stuffed Grandmother's Corpse in Freezer for 15 Years to Continue Collecting Her Benefits

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A constable was rescued shortly after he was abducted by militants in Shopian district of Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday, police said.

Militants abducted Constable Shakeel Ahmad from near his residence at Thairan Kellar area of South Kashmir's Shopian district, a police official said. He said police immediately swung into action and rescued the abducted cop.
As protests engulfed much of the United States on Friday night and Saturday morning, several videos were shared on social media that appeared to show violent actions by police officers toward protesters or those covering the protests. One video that quickly went viral on social media showed an officer in downtown Louisville shooting Kaitlin Rust, a reporter for a local NBC affiliate, with pepper balls during a protest. In the video, Rust can be seen reporting live from the protest when all of a sudden, an officer starts firing. Rust says she has no idea why shes suddenly under attack and claims she is being struck by rubber bullets but the Louisville Metro Police Department later said that its officers dont use rubber bullets. The department also apologized. The video was particularly poignant considering it took place shortly after a CNN reporter and his crew were arrested early Friday as they reported from Minneapolis.

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This just happened on live tv. Wow, what a douche bag. pic.twitter.com/dQKheEcCvb  Christopher Bishop (@ChrisBishopL1C4) May 30, 2020

Another video appears to show a police officer on a horse trampling over a protester in Houston. We are aware of a video circulating showing one of our mounted patrol horses and a citizen. We are currently reviewing the circumstances behind the incident, the Houston Police Department said.

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Dont let them tell you it was peaceful in Downtown Houston #BlackLivesMatter #GeorgeFloyd pic.twitter.com/JWuCRfdlNT   (@vikthewild) May 30, 2020

There were also several shocking videos out of New York. In one, a police officer appears to slam a young woman to the ground. The woman, Dounya Zayer, says she asked an officer why she had to get out of the street. And he responded first by grabbing her cellphone and throwing it to the ground and then forcefully slamming her into the street.

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NYPD officer just called a female protester a stupid fucking bitch and threw her to the ground pic.twitter.com/18YUHYmqQa  Jason Lemon (@JasonLemon) May 30, 2020

This is the officer. He threw my phone before throwing me. As you can see I was already backing up. All I asked was why. pic.twitter.com/8mct5GrztV  Dounya Zayer (@zayer_dounya) May 30, 2020

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Another video shows a police car in Brooklyn opening a car door into a protester who was on the street. Yet another video from Brooklyn shows police officers hitting protesters with batons.

Police car just drove by demonstrators on Classon Ave in Brooklyn -- some of whom had been throwing cement -- and opened passenger side door into a protester. pic.twitter.com/vd8Lq60TXC  Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs (@NickAtNews) May 30, 2020

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At Oracle Park, the Giants scored seven runs in the first off Chi Chi Gonzalez, then coughed that up by the fourth inning. Tyler Anderson couldnt hold the lead, then Trevor Gott and Tony Watson each gave up two late runs.

SAN FRANCISCO STAR

Billy

Hamilton

Two hits, two RBIs, all in the first inning.

As 8, Rangers 7

In Arlington, Texas, a six-run fifth inning built an 8-1 lead, which withstood the Rangers five-run outburst in the seventh. The As hit four homers, three off Texas rookie starter Taylor Hearn. Sean Manaea improved to 7-3.

OAKLAND STAR

Mark Canha

Hit two home runs and has six on the year; batting .226.

For full box scores and standings, visit http://www.strat-o-matic.com/2020-season-simulation/
Russia is again hacking Polish military websites, this time to leave false documents criticizing the current Polish government and Polish support for NATO and the United States. In April, one such fake document inserted into a Polish military school website, allegedly from the director of the school, criticized NATO and the Polish government. The Poles, like other East European NATO members, plus non-member Ukraine, learned over the past fifteen years to be alert to such disinformation operations and the fake letter was quickly noticed and removed. There have been a number of similar attacks on Polish military and civilian web sites which are more annoying to the Poles than useful to Russia. It is suspected that this operation was probably some kind of training exercise for Russian hackers.

For years Russia has been developing and testing military grade Cyber War weapons on real targets and finding out what works and what needs improvement. The problem with this is that most of the testing is conducted on weaker neighbors Russia is not getting along with. For example, in late 2015, a large part of western Ukraine suffered a power blackout. Some 1.4 million homes and businesses went dark for several hours because of a computer virus (BlackEnergy) believed to be Russian and deliberately deployed against Ukraine to disrupt power plants and the electrical distribution system. From the beginning Ukraine suspected that this was a Cyber War attack carried out by Russia as it was the kind of attack that had no monetary reward, but was the sort of thing one nation would use on an enemy in wartime. Russia denied any involvement, but the Russians always say that even when there is a pile of evidence proving otherwise.

NATO Cyber War advisers immediately went to work helping Ukraine sort out how the attack was carried out and how to protect against future attacks. The investigation concluded that the attacker had first got access to the networks of three small energy companies using spear-fishing attacks. These are carried out using official looking emails that have an attachment which, when opened, secretly installs software that gives the attackers access to the company network. After that several other specialized bits of malware (hacker software) were used to map the compromised networks and then carry out crippling attacks. NATO Cyber War investigators found clear evidence of a professional style attack on the energy company networks including careful reconnaissance of the target network to see what items had to be disabled to cause the most damage. The NATO experts gave Ukraine a long list of changes that would have to be made to government and corporate networks associated with all utility (power, water, and so on) and industrial networks.

The forerunner of this Ukraine attack hit tiny Estonia (population 1.3 million) as early as 2007. In response, Estonia, also NATO member, made a lot of changes and in 2015 formed a Cyber War militia. All this because Russia keeps threatening another major Cyber War offensive. Despite its small size, Estonia is the most technically advanced (on a per-capita basis) nation in East Europe and was able to recruit several hundred skilled volunteers who are hard at work pooling their knowledge and skills to better handle more Cyber War aggression from Russia. Ukraine, despite being the largest East European nation, is much less well prepared to form another Russian Cyber War attack.

Estonia borders Russia which makes Russia reluctant to come in with tanks to take over as they did twice in the 1940s. Instead, Russia made a major effort to crush Estonia via major Internet based attacks in 2007. Estonia survived that invasion but admitted that this sort of Russian aggression caused considerable financial damage. In the wake of these Russian Cyber War attacks Estonia demanded that the UN and NATO declare this sort of thing terrorism and dealt with accordingly. NATO tried to be helpful, but that wasnt enough. The UN was even less helpful as the UN has a hard time getting anything done when Russia is involved because Russia is one of the handful of founding members that have a veto over such decisions.

NATO did make an effort and in 2008 established a Cyber Defense Center in Estonia. This was the most tangible NATO response to Estonian calls for NATO to declare Cyber War on Russia. NATO agreed to discuss the issue but never took any action against Russia. The Cyber Defense Center was a consolation prize, and studies Cyber War techniques and incidents and attempts to coordinate efforts by other NATO members to create Cyber War defenses and offensive weapons. NATO believes this may have deterred Russia from making more Cyber War attacks. Estonians were not convinced because Russia then went ahead and invaded Georgia (a nation of four million in the Caucasus) in 2008 and Ukraine in 2014, and still makes very public threats against Estonia. But the Cyber Defense Center in Estonia has proved to be a valuable resource for other nations looking to improve their Cyber War defenses, especially against Russia.

Cyber Wars have actually been going on since the late 1990s and they are getting worse. It started in the 1990s as individuals attacked the web sites in other nations because of diplomatic disputes. This was usually stirred up by some international incident. India and Pakistan went at it several times, and Arabs and Israelis have been trashing each others web sites for years. The Arabs backed off at first, mainly because the Israeli hackers are much more effective. But in the last few years, the Arabs have acquired more skills and are back at it. Chinese and Taiwanese hackers go at each other periodically, and in 2001, Chinese and American hackers clashed because of a collision off the Chinese coast between an American reconnaissance aircraft and a Chinese fighter. That was just the beginning for China, which now regularly makes major hacking attacks on the U.S. and other NATO members.

Since 2005 these Cyber Wars have escalated from web site defacing and shutting down sites with massive amounts of junk traffic (DDOS attacks), to elaborate espionage efforts against American military networks. The attackers are believed to be Chinese, and some American military commanders are calling for a more active defense (namely, a counterattack) to deal with the matter.

The Russian attacks against Estonia were the result of Estonia moving a statue, honoring Russian World War II soldiers, from the center of the capital to a military cemetery in the countryside. The Estonians always saw the statue as a reminder of half a century of Russian occupation and oppression. Russia saw the statue move as an insult to the efforts of Russian soldiers to liberate Estonia and enable the Russians to occupy the place for half a century. The basic problem here is that most Russians don't see their Soviet era ancestors as evil people, despite the millions of Russians and non-Russians killed by the Soviet secret police. The Russians are very proud of their defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, ignoring the fact that the Soviet government was just biding its time before it launched its own invasion of Germany and Europe in general. All this means little to anyone from outside East Europe, but for any nation neighboring Russia these Russian resentments have to be carefully monitored.

While many Russians would have backed a military attack on Estonia to retaliate for the insult by an ungrateful neighbor, this approach was seen as imprudent. Estonia is part of NATO and an attack on one NATO member is considered an attack on all. It's because of this Russian threat that Estonia was so eager to get into NATO. The Russians, however, believe that massive Cyber War attacks will not trigger a NATO response. They were so sure of this that some of the early DDOS attacks were easily traced back to computers owned by the Russian government. When that got out, the attacks stopped for a few days and then resumed from what appear to be illegal botnets. Maybe some legal botnets as well. Russian language message boards were full of useful information on how to join the holy war against evil Estonia. There's no indication that any Russians are afraid of a visit from the Russian cyber-police for any damage they might do to Estonia. And the damage has been significant, amounting to millions of dollars. While no one has been injured, Estonia is insisting that this attack, by Russia, should trigger the mutual defense provisions of the NATO treaty. It didn't, but it was a reminder to all that Cyber War is very real except when it comes time to fight back.

Poland is the largest of the East European NATO members and is particularly hostile towards Russia because for several centuries Russian has been threatening, attacking, and, during the Cold War, occupying independent Poland with a large military force. The Russians still express open contempt for Poland, especially now that Poland is a member of NATO and reequipping its military with superior Western weapons in place of the Russian equipment they were forced to use during the Cold War. Poland has obtained F-35A stealth fighters, missile-defense systems and even German tanks. Poland has become far more prosperous than Russia and reminds the Russians that, unlike 1939, when Russia and Nazi Germany formed an alliance and invaded Poland, this time around Poland has been assured that their current allies would intervene if Russia tried anything like that again. In 1939 Poland had assurances from Western nations, especially Britain and France, that military aid would be available if Poland were attacked. Britain and France declared war on Germany over the invasion but that was it. This time NATO forces are regularly coming to Poland for joint training exercises, in part to convince Russia that there would not be another 1939. This time the Germans are on Polands side.
The chair of the government's SAGE board has said it is for the government to decide when to ease lockdown measures, after one professor on the advisory panel claimed there was a risk to changing the rules now.

Sir Patrick Vallance, who heads up the advisory board of scientists guiding the government through this pandemic, backed Mr Johnson's decision by saying it is up to politicians to make such decisions.

Boris Johnson has announced that, from Monday, people will be permitted to meet in groups of up to six people, shops will reopen and some children will go back to school.

Sir Patrick Vallance, above at the daily press conference in Downing Street on Thursday, says it is up to ministers to make decisions on lockdown and for Sage to advise

However Professor John Edmunds, an epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said the Prime Minister had 'clearly made a political decision' because the threat of a second peak remains high.

Writing in The Sunday Telegraph, Sir Patrick explained Sage was only there to advise politicians, who have the final say on what to do with evidence presented to them.

Sir Patrick, the Chief Scientific Adviser to the Government since March 2018, wrote: 'Science advice to Cobr and to ministers needs to be direct and given without fear or favour. But it is advice. Ministers must decide and have to take many other factors into consideration.'

The chair of Sage explained the advisory board was not infallible, writing: 'There is a range of opinions in all of discussions and there is wide reading of the latest research, but what Sage endeavours to do is come down to a position or a range of positions, to provide options ministers could consider and explain the uncertainties and assumptions inherent in that science and evidence.'

The lockdown rules are increasingly varied across the UK as the home nations butt heads on easing restrictions

Mr Vallence explained the Sage board is currently made up of academics, clinicians as well as top scientific advisers from the NHS, Public Health Health and other government bodies.

Sir Patrick's peer on the advisory board, Professor Edmunds has warned that, even if the 'untested' contact tracing scheme goes smoothly, the country could still suffer 80 deaths a day until a vaccine is developed.

His comments come as the crucial reproduction 'R' value remains at between 0.7 and 0.9. The R rate denotes the number of other people an infected patient will pass the sickness on to and it must stay at 1 or below or Britain will face another crisis.

Two other SAGE experts lined up behind Professor Edmunds on Saturday to caution that measures were being relaxed when the infection rate was still not low enough.

Professor Edmunds said: 'Many of us would prefer to see the incidence driven down to lower levels because that then means we have fewer cases occurring before we relax the measures.

'We're heading for resurgence' warns former WHO director On Saturday evening a former director of the World Health Organisation Professor Anthony Costello, predicted a resurgence of the virus in a scathing tweet. He said: 'We have 8000 cases daily, a private testing system set up without connection to primary care, call-centre tracing that appears a fiasco, and no digital app. 'After 4 months. Unless the population has hidden (T cell?) immunity, we're heading for resurgence.' Advertisement

'We could tolerate a little bit [of an increase in infections]. At the moment, with relatively high incidence,relaxing the measures and also with an untested track and trace system, I think we are taking some risk here.

'Even if that risk does pay off, and we manage to keep the incidence flat, we're keeping it flat at quite a high level - 8,000 new infections a day.

'If there's a 1 per cent infection fatality rate that's 80 deaths per day, if there's half a per cent, that's 40 per day.

'That's the amount of deaths we might expect to see going forward. That's clearly a political decision, it's not a scientific decision.'

Writing in his column Sir Patrick explained evidence is not always clear, accepting the advice Sage presents to government may not always be correct and science around the virus will change as the world learns more about it.

He added: 'The evidence we present to ministers will always be based on a careful analysis of the science available at the time.'

Sage advisor Professor Robert West explained why some members of the advisory board were frustrated with the government.

Speaking to Sky News he said: 'You wouldn't expect the science to lead the decision making you'd expect it to inform it.

'I think where some of us have expressed concern, it's not that the government just didn't do what we say because we're scientists, it was rather that the principals and the information some of us were trying to put forward appeared not to have been taken into consideration when the policies were made.'

Former World Health Organisation director Professor Anthony Costello sent a scathing tweet on Saturday, predicting a resurgence of the virus.

Scientists have had a mixed response to Boris Johnson's decision to ease lockdown measures further on Sunday. The Prime Minister returned to Downing Street on Sunday morning after heading out for exercise

He said: 'We have 8000 cases daily, a private testing system set up without connection to primary care, call-centre tracing that appears a fiasco, and no digital app. After 4 months. Unless the population has hidden (T cell?) immunity, we're heading for resurgence.'

Ahead of next week's easing of restrictions, England's deputy chief medical officer Professor Jonathan Van-Tam said on Saturday: 'This is a dual responsibility here of government to go slowly and carefully and to take the advice from the scientists, of the scientists to watch this whole thing very closely over the next few weeks and of the public in general to actually follow the guidance.

'Don't tear the pants out of it and don't go further than the guidance actually says.'
Washington: American officials are seeking to determine whether extremist groups have infiltrated police brutality protests across the country and deliberately tipped largely peaceful demonstrations towards violence - and if foreign adversaries are behind a burgeoning disinformation campaign on social media.

As demonstrations spread from Minneapolis to the White House, New York City and overseas, federal law enforcement officials insisted far-left groups were stoking violence. Meanwhile, experts who track extremist groups also reported seeing evidence of the far-right at work.

Protesters in Los Angeles on Saturday night. Credit:AP

Investigators were also tracking online interference and looking into whether foreign agents were behind the effort. Officials have seen a surge of social media accounts with fewer than 200 followers created in the last month, a textbook sign of a disinformation campaign.

The accounts have posted graphic images of the protests, material on police brutality and material on the coronavirus pandemic that appeared designed to inflame tensions across the political divide, according to three administration officials. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity.
HuffPost reporter Chris Mathias was taken into custody Saturday while covering anti-racism protests in New York City.

Mathias, a senior reporter who covers the far right, disinformation and hate, had been reporting for days on the protests, prompted by the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. He was in the Flatbush area of Brooklyn when police took him into custody.

Mathias was released Sunday around 1 a.m. after being taken to the 72nd Precinct in the Sunset Park area of Brooklyn.

Police have aggressively cracked down on the protests  and journalists covering them  in multiple cities during a nationwide uprising against racism. Thousands of people gathered in cities across the U.S. Saturday to demonstrate against racism and police brutality, days after Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee into Floyds neck for almost nine minutes. Floyd, who was Black, repeatedly said he could not breathe and eventually became unresponsive.

While journalists worked to cover protests, some faced arrest while doing their jobs. Police arrested CNN correspondent Omar Jimenez, producer Bill Kirkos and photojournalist Leonel Mendez while they covered protests in Minneapolis on Friday morning. Las Vegas police arrested two photojournalists, Las Vegas Review-Journal staff photographer Ellen Schmidt and freelancer Bridget Bennett, on Friday as well, along with about 80 protesters.

Some reporters in Minnesota said they were hit with rubber bullets, while others were hit with tear gas. Freelance photographer Linda Tirado was shot in the eye while covering protests in Minneapolis. A journalist in Louisville, Kentucky, shouted Im getting shot! as she was hit with pepper bullets on live television.

Many journalists targeted said they were clearly identified as such; Jimenez was delivering a report on live television when police arrested him and two crew members. Mathias identified himself as a journalist while at the protest and...

Continue reading on HuffPost
More Oregon Coast Cancellations Include July 4th, Shore Acres Lights

Published 05/31/2020 at 4:54 AM PDT

By Oregon Coast Beach Connection staff





(Astoria, Oregon)  While the entire Oregon coast is slowly opening up after major restrictions due to COVID-19, the pandemic is still causing the cancellations of a variety of events through the summer and beyond. The primary issue is crowding and no way to effectively practice social distancing.

The largest of the casualties are various Fourth of July celebrations, along with big festivals that already did not happen, including Florences Rhododendron Festival, Whale Watch Week and Goonies Fest. All gatherings over 25 are not allowed yet on the coast, and its difficult to know what events planned for the rest of the year will survive, with some as far out as December already getting the ax.

Seaside already announced its Independence Day shutdown. That celebration is one of the largest in the state. Shorly after, Lincoln City ago announced the demise of its fireworks show for the year.

"As a precautionary measure to protect the safety and health of our residents and guests in response to COVID-19, the City of Lincoln City has made the difficult decision to cancel our annual Independence Day celebration that was scheduled for July 4, said the Lincoln City Visitors Center in a press release.

That show has been running uninterrupted for 65 years.

The City of Astoria also announced its fireworks cancellation for 2020.

With the safety and well-being of our community at the top of our minds, we felt this was not the right time to have this type of large-scale event, said David Reid, AWACC Executive Director.

Bettina Hannigan, executive director of the Florence Area Chamber of Commerce, also expressed sadness at the demise of that central Oregon coast towns show. Other festivals are in jeopardy as well.

We waited as long as we could to make this decision in hopes of hosting this fun day of family events and fireworks, but given the timeline to put this event together - with the producers of the pie- and watermelon-eating contests and the providers of the bounce houses, music, and fireworks - there is no way to plan for it with any certainty, Hannigan said. Currently we are in the wait-and-see stage with all the planning that goes into our Wine and Chowder Trails held on Columbus Day weekend, but were optimistic.

Newport announced the shutdown of its fireworks recently as well.



One of the most bitter pills for many to swallow was the recent announcement regarding the 34th annual Holiday Lights at Shore Acres in December.

The southern Oregon coast tradition - near Coos Bay - typically draws 50 to 60 thousand visitors, but it will not happen this year.

Preparation for the event takes many hours of work that would normally start now and last all the way up to the event, and the uncertainty about health conditions between now and November led to this hard decision, said the Friends of Shore Acres, Inc. in a press release.



That favorite event with Oregonians has been going since 1987.

Also on the chopping block are the summers Living History programs at Fort Stevens, up at the top of the Oregon coast. That includes tours and likely the Civil War reenactment as well.

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Nepal reported 166 new coronavirus cases on Sunday, taking the total number of infections in the country to 1,567, with eight deaths.

The government has extended the nationwide lockdown till June 14 amid a surge in number of COVID-19 cases and decided to deploy the Army in the worst-hit areas.

Nepal registered its highest single-day surge in cases on Saturday with 189 new detections.

Another two patients, including a two-year-old child, have died of coronavirus, taking the total virus deaths to eight. The minor girl, along with her parents, had come to Nepal from India.

The other deceased was a 35-year-old man quarantined in Dailekh district, the Health Ministry said.

There are 1,340 active coronavirus cases in the Himalayan nation. So far, 69,582 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests have been conducted.

The Cabinet meeting held on Saturday had decided to extend the lockdown.

Meanwhile, the government has also decided to suspend all domestic and international flights till June 30.

The prior-imposed nationwide lockdown, decreed to curtail the potential spread of COVID-19, was to end on June 2.

The government has also decided to mobilise the Army to the worst-hit areas to effectively implement the lockdown.

The government also decided to bring home the Nepalese people stranded abroad on a priority basis.

Among the new cases, Rautahat, Salyan and Dhanusha districts reported the highest number of cases with 29, 25 and 21 cases respectively.

Similarly, 18 people each have been detected coronavirus positive from Kalikot and Dailekh, 12 from Saptari and 10 from Sarlahi.
When your children are small and wont eat their greens, its sometimes necessary to chop the veg up into tiny pieces and hide it in a pasta sauce.

Fast-forward two decades, and you have a similar problem if you want them to spend any length of time with you  you have to disguise it as something else.

Our daughters, Alice, 23, and Mabel, 18, are long past the age of wanting to holiday with their boring parents. There was no chance of getting them on a summer break, even before the global pandemic struck  so in January, I looked at the diary and bank balance, took a deep breath and said: Lets have a mini break together in February half-term. Ive always wanted to go to Iceland.

It wasnt just about going to Iceland, of course. It was my sneaky way of having what I knew might be our last family holiday.

Louise Doughty (pictured) who organised a family mini-break to Iceland earlier this year, said she thought the trip would be their last family holiday abroad

Mabel was in her A-level year and had summer plans in Ibiza, probably involving some activities no mother would get to hear about. Alice was due to move to Denmark this autumn to study. Our family is about to fracture for good, I recall thinking  how can I persuade them all to come on a break?

The trick was to choose a country that was too expensive for them to visit any other way. Throw in the Northern Lights and, Yeah, OK, ends up being the nonchalant reply.

How poignant that holiday seems now. At the time their father Jerome and I thought it might be our last trip together, but that it would be just the start of an exciting year for the girls  a year in which, once we were through Mabels exams, Id have more freedom than Id had in two decades. I had begun my tenth novel and researching it was going to involve plenty of travel. I couldnt wait.

As we headed off for Luton Airport, I thought about how nice it was, how rare, to spend time together, just the four of us: not realising that within weeks A-levels would have melted away like snow, all our plans would be cancelled, and we would be spending more time together than any of us could have dreamed.

Family life has been put through the blender for the past two months. I used to be the only person in the house for hours every day. Now Jerome, a radio producer, works in the kitchen, and Alice works on the landing. Mabel sleeps until lunch, then works out in our bedroom and watches Netflix.

Weve negotiated the use of space in the house reasonably well, and its easier than having to home-school small fry, but Ive almost forgotten what the world is like beyond our walls.

Louise recalls the Northern Lights showing up on their first night in Iceland. Pictured: Louise with her husband Jerome and their daughters Mabel and Alice in Iceland

The Iceland trip now has an almost unearthly glow about it. Looking at photos I think, Were we ever really there?

The country has that quality anyway, even when it isnt viewed through the mist of a travel ban. Our vista, after we had picked up the hire car and left the capital Reykjavik, was of the lava fields that lie to the south  a lunar landscape of crags and gulleys dusted with snow.

Our first surprise was how empty it was. Most of Icelands 364,000-strong population lives in the capital, and you can drive for miles without passing a car.

The name of our travel company feels achingly ironic: Discover The World. How we would all love to do that now.

The Northern Lights showed up on our first night. Our hotel operated an alarm system where they called your room so you could rush out in your nightie  pausing only to pull on one of the snowsuits kept in the foyer.

The girls, normally hard to shift from bed, flew outside, and we stood in the car park, watching the pink and mauve swirl, tinged with the kind of green a Parisian might hallucinate after too much absinthe.

Louise admits she tried not do the mental calculation of how much the trip was costing, as she and Jerome would gasped at the scenery. Pictured: The family in Iceland

The hotel excursions were eye-wateringly expensive  a trip up to a volcano crater in a Jeep was 200pp. Instead, we opted for a guided glacier walk.

Later, on Diamond Beach, I stood on black volcanic sands, surrounded by ice rocks. Never have I felt so puny in the face of nature  the things I cant control. Little did I realise, it was a taste of things to come.

There is only so much natural wonder any teenager can take, mind you. On the third day, Mabel uttered the immortal line: Not another waterfall . . ..

I gritted my teeth and tried not to do the mental calculation of how much it was all costing. Many journeys took hours, and while Jerome and I would gasp at the scenery, the girls slipped on their earphones. They disliked sharing a room, too.

There is a strange regression that takes place when two adults and their adult children are in close proximity  a reversion to the roles of carers and kids. Put your hats on! I cried. Its cold. Dont forget your gloves! Alice has visited a UN peacekeeping zone in Colombia and saw the disarmament of FARC guerrillas. Mabel has danced in front of thousands at Sadlers Wells. My girls have nerves of steel, and I was still telling them off.

Louise (pictured) said although they have a delicate balance of being together at home at the moment, she wonders when they'll get the chance to travel again

That instinct, too, turned out to be prescient. A few weeks later, I found myself biting my lip to avoid saying Wash your hands all the time. I again warned them to keep away from strangers. The pandemic has seen our adult children be infantilised more than they could ever have imagined during moments of ire on family trips.

Its now been confirmed that the coronavirus reached Iceland in February  if not when we were there, then within days of our departure. It was probably brought in by tourists like us.

The one worry we had during our visit was about the crowds at the most popular sites. I think about that a lot now: what those places are like with no visitors. The black sands of Diamond Beach will be smooth yet haunted by the ghostly imprint of a thousand tourists who visited before the virus struck.

Our lives are full of practicalities now, the delicate balance of all four of us being together at home. But although our children will flee as soon as they can, I still dream of us being together somewhere so beautiful. I wonder when well get the chance again.

Louise is the author of nine novels including Apple Tree Yard and Platform Seven.
This week I had a conversation that left a mark. It was with Mary Louise Kelly and E.J. Dionne on NPRs All Things Considered, and it was about how past presidents had handled moments of national mourning  Lincoln after Gettysburg, Reagan after the Challenger explosion and Obama after the Sandy Hook school shootings.

The conversation left me wondering what Americas experience of the pandemic would be like if we had a real leader in the White House.

If we had a real leader, he would have realized that tragedies like 100,000 COVID-19 deaths touch something deeper than politics: They touch our shared vulnerability and our profound and natural sympathy for one another.

In such moments, a real leader steps outside of his political role and reveals himself uncloaked and humbled, as someone who can draw on his own pains and simply be present with others as one sufferer among a common sea of sufferers.

If we had a real leader, she would speak of the dead not as a faceless mass but as individual persons, each seen in unique dignity. Such a leader would draw on the common sources of our civilization, the stores of wisdom that bring collective strength in hard times.

Lincoln went back to the old biblical cadences to comfort a nation. After the church shooting in Charleston, South Carolina, Barack Obama went to Amazing Grace, the old abolitionist anthem that has wafted down through the long history of African American suffering and redemption.

In his impromptu remarks right after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Robert Kennedy recalled the slaying of his own brother and quoted Aeschylus: In our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.

If we had a real leader, he would be bracingly honest about how bad things are, like Churchill after the fall of Europe. He would have stored in his upbringing the understanding that hard times are the making of character, a revelation of character and a test of character. He would offer up the reality that to be an American is both a gift and a task. Every generation faces its own apocalypse, and, of course, we will live up to our moment just as our ancestors did theirs.

If we had a real leader, she would remind us of our common covenants and our common purposes. America is a diverse country joined more by a common future than by common pasts. In times of hardships real leaders re-articulate the purpose of America, why we endure these hardships and what good we will make out of them.

After the Challenger explosion, Reagan reminded us that we are a nation of explorers and that the explorations at the frontiers of science would go on, thanks in part to those who slipped the surly bonds of earth to touch the face of God.

At Gettysburg, Lincoln crisply described why the fallen had sacrificed their lives  to show that a nation dedicated to the proposition that all men are equal can long endure and also to bring about a new birth of freedom for all the world.

Of course, right now we dont have a real leader. We have Donald Trump, a man who cant fathom empathy or express empathy, who cant laugh or cry, love or be loved  a damaged narcissist who is unable to see the true existence of other human beings except insofar as they are good or bad for himself.

But its too easy to offload all blame on Trump. Trumps problem is not only that hes emotionally damaged; it is that he is unlettered. He has no literary, spiritual or historical resources to draw upon in a crisis.

All the leaders I have quoted above were educated under a curriculum that put character formation at the absolute center of education. They were trained by people who assumed that life would throw up hard and unexpected tests, and it was the job of a school, as one headmaster put it, to produce young people who would be acceptable at a dance, invaluable in a shipwreck.

Think of the generations of religious and civic missionaries, like Frances Perkins, who flowed out of Mount Holyoke. Think of all the Morehouse Men and Spellman Women. Think of all the young students, in schools everywhere, assigned Plutarch and Thucydides, Isaiah and Frederick Douglass  the great lessons from the past on how to lead, endure, triumph or fail. Only the great books stay in the mind for decades and serve as storehouses of wisdom when hard times come.

Right now, science and the humanities should be in lock step: science producing vaccines, with the humanities stocking leaders and citizens with the capacities of resilience, care and collaboration until they come. But, instead, the humanities are in crisis at the exact moment history is revealing how vital moral formation really is.

One of the lessons of this crisis is that help isnt coming from some centralized place at the top of society. If you want real leadership, look around you.

David Brooks writes a syndicated column for the New York Times.

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- A supposed peaceful demonstration in Portland, Oregon over the death of George Floyd turned into a looting spree

- Protesters began ransacking a Louis Vuitton store and took off many of the precious merchandise

- The mayor decried the incident, which apparently was not just one, but a number of similar incidents erupted in other areas in Oregon as well

- Aside from the Louis Vuitton store, an Apple store also suffered from a similar rampage

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The mayor of Portland, Oregon cried foul over a series of incidents that happened on May 29, Friday during the supposed demonstration over the controversial death of George Floyd.

Many protestors turned to ransack high-end shops in the area such as Louis Vuitton and Apple.

Breaking glass, protestors quickly got in and took the merchandise from the shop. Worse, they were wearing masks and could hardly be identified.

Broken glass, tear gas, shouts of policemen, and the sound of helicopters above the city became common on that fateful night.

Mayor Ted Wheeler, in a Twitter post, was seething. He said that he will be coming back and that they would be hearing from him.

It so happened that he was not in the city when the incident happed as his mother was dying.

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Social media users expressed outrage over the incident. In the Philippines, many stated that it was very disappointing and that the protesters were just using George Floyd's death as a means to do the despicable act.

Kaisa ako sa hustisya dun sa pagpatay kay mr. george floyd at makulong ung mga dapat makulong, kaisa ako sa tahimik na protesta,with social distancing, pero ibang level na ito mga teh! anong kinalaman nang high end level na bag/clothing sa hustisya? saan banda ang hustisya dyan?! Kailangan ba yan ni george?

This is not how protests should be done. The anger has been channeled wrongly by doing such barbaric and violent acts. Innocent people are being dragged into this mess.

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In a previous KAMI report, President Duterte gave a warning to leftist groups who slammed the distribution of relief goods.

Riots and looting have been seen in different countries in many years. With the pandemic, and with many jobless today, many just opted for the easy way.

Please like and share our amazing Facebook posts to support the KAMI team! Dont hesitate to comment and share your opinions about our stories either. We love reading about your thoughts and views on different matters!

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By Express News Service

HYDERABAD: Minister of State for Home Affairs G Kishan Reddy, on Saturday said that the Central government never promised national status to any of the projects in Telangana. Therefore, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government should not make an issue out of the national status for irrigation projects, said Kishan.

Addressing the media through a video conference from New Delhi on Saturday, the Minister said that water disputes in the Telugu States were not new and had been going on for several years. He asked both the Chief Ministers K Chandrasekhar Rao and YS Jagan Mohan Reddy to sit together to sort out the issue peacefully.

Modis welfare reforms

Kishan asserted that the Narendra Modi government at the Centre had initiated several reforms all over the country within a years time after coming to power for a second time. Some of the milestones of the Central government included the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), abolishing the Triple Talaq system and Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir.

Ayushman Bharat scheme

Kishan said that the Centre had imposed a strict lockdown to combat the novel Coronavirus pandemic. Kishan pointed out that the Union government had extended the Ayushman Bharat scheme to help the poor get Covid-19 treatment even in private hospitals. However, the Telangana government had not implemented the health scheme in the State, the Minister of State for Home said during the video conference.

Asad dubs lockdown unconstitutional

AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi said the Central government failed on every front. Speaking on the completion of one year of the Narendra Modi governments second term, Owaisi said the lockdown  imposed amid the novel Coronavirus pandemic  is completely unconstitutional. China has entered our border, millions of jobs have gone, our GDP has slipped to a decades low... what exactly is the Central government celebrating? the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen president asked on Saturday.
Fresh off a plane and sleep-deprived is probably not the perfect preparation to see a beach ball of plastic being cut out of the stomach of a conscious calf. But then I'm not sure what would prepare me.

From seeing the first incision of the knife into the calf's belly, to watching the dragging out of what looked like its entire congealed green guts, took a heart-stopping 20 minutes.

My queasiness lasted most of the day. And the mound they were pulling out of the belly of this live calf was as big as a baby.

When I picked up the extracted twisted plastic knot, slimy with chewed grass, it was still warm from being inside the animal's body minutes earlier.

It was also shockingly heavy and terrifically hard.

"It had to come out," Ethiopian vet, Dr Ashenafi Assefa told us, "If we hadn't cut it out, this calf would have died."

This was our introduction into just how prolific the problem of plastic is along the Nile - the world's longest river. It is affecting animal life, damaging livelihoods and poisoning future generations. And as one political activist told us: "If we don't do anything to save the Nile, the Nile is going to die."

The patient we've just been watching in Gondar, in northern Ethiopia, was a one-year-old calf. He'd been alive for just 12 months and yet he'd managed to eat enough plastic to fill his stomach so much that he faced certain death unless it was cut out of him.

He was literally eating himself to death on plastic. There's now so much plastic waste even in remote rural communities like Gondar, that the animals cannot avoid eating it.

"He'll be back here again soon when his stomach fills up again," says Dr Ashenafi with the confident air of a man who knows he's right and who keeps his knives sharpened and ready.

Everyone we spoke to across the five countries we travelled and along the length of the Nile, gave us repeated warnings. The world needs to do something.

Story continues

Global effort is needed to sort this urgent and huge problem. No one country can do it on its own. Our river is dying. The waterways are choking in plastic. Time and again. Warning after warning. Take action. Take action. Take action now, they told us.

Sound familiar? It should do. If anything, the global coronavirus pandemic has shown how the world CAN collaborate when it has to.

We've seen a combined slamming of borders; a uniform shutting of border gates; an international swapping of solutions, ideas and even personal protective equipment as COVID-19 rampages across the earth.

The planet WAS warned of COVID-19. But few countries were properly prepared for the deadly virus. Or if they believed they were prepared, they're now finding out those preparations have not been enough to avert thousands and thousands of deaths.

There are a host of countries now with teams of scientists all racing to come up with a vaccine for coronavirus. But while the world's eyes are all focused on COVID-19 - (and how can it be any other way) - the plastic problem that existed before the pandemic is STILL there and it will be here AFTER the pandemic.

And in the meantime, that plastic is growing and growing and choking and stifling our rivers which empty out into our oceans.

Our film, The Plastic Nile, shows how desperately needed international collaboration is, if we are to avoid drowning in plastic - because that is what's happening. And it's happening now.

We spoke to illiterate but wise farmers in Egypt who warned us the plastic enemy is killing the waterway they've relied on for generations.

They told us, as they sat along the banks of the Nile that is their lifeblood, about how it had changed beyond recognition in their lifetime; how they could scoop water out of the river to drink when they were children but now it's so clogged and choked with diseased plastic, you can't even see the water in places.

There is nothing quite so informative and revealing as hearing old men with a patchwork of creases etched into their faces, their hands ingrained with dirt from toiling the fields from aged seven to 70, sitting down and giving you the benefit of seven decades of knowledge.

If they tell me the Nile is sick and they don't believe their grandchildren will be able to make a living from farming near the waterway because the water is making everyone ill, I believe them.

We spent weeks tracking down smugglers and criminal gangs making, selling and secretly transporting the forbidden cargo of plastic bags in and out of Kenya, South Sudan and Uganda.

It is an international criminal network now making millions of dollars on a black market which has sprung up as governments try to clamp down on the use of plastic - and it's a network, it seems, which is frustratingly always one step ahead of the environmental police.

Selling illegal plastic bags maybe seen as harmless. It's not like peddling heroin or cocaine or methadone but its addiction is as strong and its effect maybe just as devastating on the whole of humankind.

My partner and his family were brought up in Ethiopia and eulogised about how beautiful the country of his childhood was. It is. Staggeringly so. The Blue Nile waterfalls are magical. But the country hasn't avoided the scourge of plastic.

Ethiopia is believed to have the fastest growing plastics industry on the whole of the continent of Africa. Its plastic bag consumption has risen by nearly 16% in recent years and combined with its lack of organised garbage disposal, its heading straight into a plastic bag catastrophe.

Much of the plastic is discarded in the streets and on the land, sometimes stretching out and blanketing impromptu "tips" for miles. It is putrid, festering, alive with bacteria and toxins and it's not going to suddenly disappear without some tough action.

We discovered when we went to Lake Victoria - one of Africa's Great Lakes and considered to be the source of the Nile - much more of the plastic is hiding beneath the surface of this huge pool of water.

I dived underneath its waters, now so clouded with dirt that visibility is virtually zero, yet repeatedly came up to the surface time and again with clumps of plastic. I could not see a dicky bird. It was like swimming in a pool of black darkness.

All I could do was hold the hand of Raila, the professional diver I was with, and feel for the bottom. As soon as I touched the bottom, I instantly felt objects and pulled them to the surface. Time and again, I'd pull out huge clumps of plastic. It wasn't hard. It was horribly, frighteningly easy.

The plastic is laying on top of the Lake Victoria riverbed and it's also tucked just beneath the sand. It is an island of plastic made up of old nappies, bags, tampons, tubs, containers, cutlery, anything you can think of - all plastic.

Plastic, plastic, plastic, floating, sinking, being buried, laying on top, hiding in the rushes, trapped under the tree roots and hitched on the water vegetation branches. It is everywhere.

A short distance from where we were filming and diving, there was a bloat of hippos - a whole family splashing and snorting water at each other and having a delicious soak in the late afternoon sun. Underneath them, we thought, they're standing on piles and piles of discarded human detritus.

We didn't imagine when we set out to investigate the problem of plastic along the Nile that the problem would be quite so endemic but that we'd also meet so many plastic warriors. There's Tom, a fisherman in Kisumu, who took us in the middle of the night to show us how depleted the fishing stocks are and how the fishing crews are catching plastic as well as fish.

We bonded with Njoki, a kick-ass Kenyan woman who is feistily and fearlessly fighting the criminal plastic bag-manufacturers as well as the corrupt cops they're in league with.

We spent time with Nhial and his armed guards in Juba as he tracked down and rounded up illegal plastic bag-sellers and tried to educate the population about the evils of plastic.

And we saw the hard work of charity workers in even more remote areas of South Sudan where plastic is the only way they survive - providing them with shelter from the harsh sun, coverage from the soaking rains and a critical mode of transporting essential clean drinking water for not only tens of thousands in the country but millions of others too around the globe.

The answer to plastic pollution is not easy. It is an addiction, a habit we're struggling to kick but it is also obvious. It is not a question of IF it can be done. The question is can we afford not to?

Watch The Plastic Nile on the new Sky Documentary Channel Monday 1 June at 9pm
US riots update: Trump says George Floyds memory is being dishonored

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As protests spread across the United States over the death of George Floyd while in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota, President Donald Trump said he supports the right of peaceful protests, but opposed the ongoing violence and vandalism which dishonors Floyds memory.

I understand the pain that people are feeling. We support the right of peaceful protests and we hear their pleas, but what we are now seeing on the streets of our cities has nothing to do with the memory of George Floyd, Trump said Saturday in his remarks from Cape Canaveral, Florida, where SpaceX launched two NASA astronauts into orbit.

Floyd, a black man, died Monday after his neck was pinned down by a white police officer in Minneapolis. Though Floyd repeatedly stated that he couldn't breathe, the officer, identified as Derek Chauvin, did not remove his knee until several minutes after Floyd stopped moving.

Chauvin has been charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.

Floyd's family is seeking an independent autopsy after preliminary findings by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner found that "the cause of death was not asphyxiation, but rather appeared to be 'the combined effects of Mr. Floyd's being restrained by police, underlying health conditions, and any potential intoxicants in his system.'"

Antonio Romanucci, co-counsel in the case, stated, "What we know is clear: George Floyd was alive before his encounter with police, and he was dead after that encounter. We believe there is clear proximity between the excessive use of force and his death."

By Wednesday, protests erupted in Minneapolis and St. Paul, and by the weekend they spread to several other cities, including Memphis, Los Angeles, San Jose, Louisville, Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, Detroit, Portland, New York City, and Washington, D.C., among others. While some demonstrators have remained peaceful, others have resorted to violence.

At least one person died after being shot in downtown Indianapolis Saturday night, according to NPR. Police Chief Randal Taylor said at a press conference that an investigation was on to determine if it was connected to ongoing demonstrations in the city.

The violence and vandalism is being led by Antifa and other radical left-wing groups who are terrorizing the innocent, destroying jobs, hurting businesses and burning down buildings, said Trump, who called Floyds death a grave tragedy that should never have happened.

The main victims of this horrible, horrible situation are the citizens who live in these once-lovely communities ... The mobs are devastating the lifes work of good people and destroying their dreams. We support the overwhelming majority of police officers who are incredible in every way and devoted to public service.

Attorney General William Barr also condemned the violence.

Unfortunately, with the rioting that is occurring in many of our cities around the country, the voices of peaceful protest are being hijacked by violent radical elements, Barr said in a statement Saturday, assuring the people that justice will be served.

Groups of outside radicals and agitators are exploiting the situation to pursue their own separate and violent agenda, he said. In many places, it appears the violence is planned, organized, and driven by anarchistic and far-left extremists, using Antifa-like tactics, many of whom travel from out of state to promote the violence.

He warned that it is a federal crime to cross state lines or to use interstate facilities to incite or participate in violent rioting. We will enforce these laws.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter also said Saturday that a majority of the rioters are from out of state.

After two days of violent demonstrations in California, Gov. Gavin Newsom late Saturday declared a state of emergency in Los Angeles county and city, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Earlier on Saturday, shops at The Grove mall in the Fairfax district, including Nordstrom and the Apple Store, were vandalized and looted, and a small police kiosk was set on fire.

In Washington, D.C., protesters clashed with U.S. Secret Service and police officers on Saturday afternoon and evening, according to The Washington Post.

A reporter, Leland Vittert, who was at the White House and who had covered the 2011 Arab Spring and ousting of Egyptian strongman Hosni Mubarak for Fox News, described the situation, saying: This was the scariest situation Ive been in since I got chased out of Tahrir Square by a mob, and this was equally scary.
Protesters march through Brooklyn on Saturday, May 30, in response to the killing of George Floyd: Richard Hall / The Independent

The march made its way through Brooklyns wide avenues to the sound of cars honking their horns and people cheering from their windows. It wasnt until it reached the neighbourhood of Flatbush that it met a large police presence.

It was a fitting location for the protesters to make their point. Seven years ago, not far down the road from where the two sides met, 16-year-old Kimani Gray was shot dead by plainclothes police officers. Of the seven bullets that struck him, three were found in his back. No one was indicted for his death.

The killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis may have sparked the protests that are taking place across the country, but each community and city has their own stories of police brutality against the black community. It is that cycle of violence and inaction that has caused such anger and brought people on to the streets of Brooklyn.

Im here because Im tired. Im tired of talking. Im tired of praying. Im tired of writing letters. Im ready for results, said Dia Soyer, a 22-year-old resident of Brooklyn who came out to protest.

I think things have gotten worse. We dont want any more governors, we dont want any more politicians telling us to calm down. Were done, she added, as a police car stood smouldering behind her, having been put out moments earlier.

A protester stands in front of a burning police car in Brooklyn on Saturday, May 30. (Richard Hall / The Independent)

Mr Floyd died after Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes, as the 44-year-old repeatedly told him he couldnt breathe.

The scale of the demonstrations over Mr Floyds death is unmatched by anything in recent years  not since the Vietnam War and the civil rights era has anger and mobilisation been so widespread.

In Minneapolis, the city where the killing took place, in Louisville, Los Angeles, California; Atlanta, Georgia and more than 70 other cities, protesters clashed with police on Friday and Saturday evening  some 25 of which introduced curfews in an attempt to bring calm. In Louisville, Kentucky, protesters came out onto the streets in response to two police killings: Mr Floyd and that of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Louisville ER technician who was killed during a botched police raid in her apartment.

Story continues

Scuffles between protesters continued into the night throughout the weekend in Brooklyn. In the working-class neighbourhood of Flatbush, there was a sense of simmering anger at the New York Police Department  a venting of frustration that could only take place in the safety of numbers.

Its always been a thing here. Even when I was a kid going to school late, the police would stop you, think youre being truant, take you into the police station. Excessive shit. Just always being oppressive, said Ms Soyer.

This is the type of neighbourhood where people come because they are lower income and they dont have the resources that other people dont have. They are here to survive just like everyone else. We need equality, we need police who care about us, Ms Soyer added.

Lines of police faced off against hundreds of protesters at an intersection in the neighbourhood. The crowd chanted: No justice, no peace and remained mostly peaceful despite some arrests and clashes.

In many ways, the story in Brooklyn is the same as in Minneapolis and in minority communities across the country. Research published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences last year found that police killings account for 1.6 percent of all deaths of black men aged 20 to 24 nationwide. That rate is 250 per cent higher than for white men of the same age.

Protesters face off with police in Flatbush, Brooklyn, on Saturday, May 30. (Richard Hall / The Independent )

Minority communities in New York have long complained of racial profiling at the hands of the NYPD. In 2014, Eric Garner, an African American father of six children, was killed by police after being placed in a chokehold. He was being detained for allegedly selling loose cigarettes. His last words were strikingly similar to George Floyds: a video of his death showed him repeatedly telling police officers: I cant breathe.

The NAACP said Mr Garners death showed that for communities of colour, including women and LGBT people of colour, immigrants and low-income communities, racial profiling has been and continues to be a constant reality of life, often with tragic and deadly consequences.

The response by the NYPD to the unrest over the last few days has only made some protesters angrier. One video released on Saturday showed a police vehicle apparently driving into a crowd of demonstrators. Elsewhere in the city, police have used pepper spray and batons to disperse crowds.

Though it rarely dominates the news as it has done in recent days, this kind of violence is all too familiar to black Americans. Many of the protesters out in Brooklyn over the weekend said they felt they had arrived at a breaking point after years of police violence without justice.

I was supposed to get married this year. Im afraid to have kids. Ive been contemplating if I want to have kids because Im afraid of what Im gonna bring them into. Living in this world where you dont feel safe to raise another generation, its a problem, said Diamond Washington, a 26-year-old Brooklyn resident.

More immediately, Ms Washington said the police officers involved in Mr Floyds killing must be held accountable. Currently, only Derek Chauvin, the officer who knelt on Mr Floyds neck, is facing charges of third-degree murder and manslaughter.

For people to say the cops didnt mean it. It was intentional. We want second degree or first-degree murder, and we want all four of them to be arrested, she said of the other officers involved in the arrest.

I went to Staten Island, and now Im here in Brooklyn. If I have to go to each one of the protests all over New York city Im gonna do it.
It has always been an intriguing story... and it was back in the news last week. Namely that Steve Bannon, the man who masterminded Donald Trump's unexpected US victory four years ago, is sponsoring an academy for "cultural warriors" in a 13th century former Carthusian monastery, 60km south of Rome.

Inevitably, given the identity of its main sponsor, this "academy" has regularly been billed by Italian and international media as a sort of "boot camp" for populists of the future, an educational facility for "modern gladiators" ready to go out into the world to do battle for Judeo-Christian civilisation.

The academy will be run by the Dignitatis Humanae Institute (Institute for Human Dignity or IHD), an organisation largely but not exclusively funded by Bannon. The IHD wants to ensure that the "Christian voice" is heard "in the public square" in order to "push back the tide of radical secularism".

Last week, the institute was back in the news when it won the latest round in a three-year legal battle as a Lazio regional court ruled that the Italian arts and culture ministry has no right to revoke a 19-year lease of the monastery that it awarded in 2018 to Bannon and Benjamin Harnwell.

The point is, of course, that a whole brigade of local organisations, the local Bishop, Lorenzo Loppa and left-wing politician, Nicola Fratoianni, are just some of those opposed to the idea that the monastery in Trisulti would be used as some sort of finishing school for right-wing activists of the Bannon variety.

In the immediate aftermath of last week's court ruling, Harnwell promised that the academy would shortly be open for business, offering online courses (from the USA) in history, philosophy, politics and theology, initially for a small number of students. But will the courses be focused more on Thomas Jefferson than on Thomas Aquinas - on today's right-wing activism more than on profound spiritual issues?

When Bannon interviewed Harnwell on the Breitbart News daily radio show in December 2016, the two men gave some indication of their "weltanschauung", the way they see things. Bannon spoke of the need to confront a "civilisational jihad", the Muslim invasion of Europe as represented by the migration crisis.

Both men agreed that the declining birth rate in first world countries represented a spiritual decline "because we don't think western civilisation is worth saving". Furthermore, Harnwell argued that both the UN and the EU want to reduce global population, while adding that he sees a straight line between the sexual revolution of the 1960s and today's environmentalist movements, saying: "Now, the priority is the environment and climate change, basically people bad, nature good."

Harnwell added that while campaigning for pro-life issues during his time as aide to British Tory MEP, Nirj Deva, in Brussels, he often had "the sensation of being in spiritual warfare against the devil".

The advisory board of the institute reads like a Who's Who of right-wing traditionalist Curia cardinals, including such as Nigerian Cardinal Francis Arinze, German Cardinal Walter Brandmuller, Guinea Cardinal Robert Sarah and others. Having names like these would seem to imply some sort of Holy See "recognition" but Vatican sources deny this, pointing out that the cardinals had merely put their names to what seemed like a "pro-life" institution.

However, the cardinals in question can hardly claim to have been taken by surprise by Bannon. In 2014, Dignitatis Humanae held a conference, Putting the Preferential Option For the Poor at the Service of Human Dignity at the Pontifical Academy for Social Sciences in the Vatican.

One of the guest speakers was Steve Bannon, who addressed the gathering by Skype from Los Angeles. Speaking on the theme, "Should Christians impose limits on wealth creation?", he warned of the current crisis of faith, a crisis in the west and in western capitalism, saying that the only hope is "enlightened capitalism", adding: "In the struggle between the Judeo-Christian west and atheism... the church militant is called on to combat the new barbarity that will wipe out everything that the last 2,000 years has bequeathed to us... We have to realise that we are at the beginning of a global conflict".

Those remarks were made right at the beginning of this pontificate when few around here would have known much about Bannon. One suspects that both he and his institute might have a deal of difficulty getting "the use of the [Vatican] parish hall" now if they were to apply for it.

Bannon, a three-times divorced Catholic, certainly did not sound like a devout Catholic in an interview with Italian daily Corriere Della Sera last week. Asked if it was true that he had "lost support within the church", he replied: "The Vatican is a black hole of corruption, incompetence and dissolute behaviour. The last thing we need at our academy is to become involved with those monsters..."

Bannon's relations with the traditional right in the Vatican cooled somewhat last year when he suggested that it would be a good idea to make a film out of a recent book, In The Closet Of The Vatican, by Frenchman Frederic Martel, a book which alleges widespread gay behaviour inside the Vatican.

US Cardinal Raymond Burke, often seen as the leader of the traditionalist right in the Vatican, withdrew from the Dignitatis Institute advisory board, saying that he "disagreed completely with a number of Mr Bannon's statements regarding the doctrine and discipline of the Roman Catholic Church".

Like many Italian court cases, this one seems destined to run and run. While the institute gears up to finally open (at least online), the ministry of arts and culture has indicated it will appeal this most recent court ruling, in an attempt to have the Bannon lease definitively rescinded.

As for Bannon, more "culture wars" could be on the way. If recent US media speculation is to be believed, he might just like a piece of the pro-Trump action in the forthcoming US presidential contest. He may not have much time for his monastery this summer.
The Ghana Gas Company Limited is funding the construction of a six-unit classroom block at the Aggrey Memorial Basic School within the Sekondi/Takoradi Metropolis.



Mr Andrew Egyapa Mercer, the Member Of Parliament for Sekondi Constituency, cut the sod for the commencement of the project, which is expected to be executed within six months at a cost of GH520,000.00



The Member of Parliament for Sekondi also happens to be a Board member of the Company whose focus on its Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSRs) include Education, Social, Health and Water infrastructures in Ghana.



The project, aimed at having an improved educational infrastructure in the school when completed, would have other ancillary facilities for sanitation and environmental purposes.



Mr Mercer urged the contractor to carefully and meticulously execute the project within the timelines to avoid cost overruns and unnecessary delays.



The Parents/Teachers' Association chairman for the School, Mr Paul Napoleon Andoh, together with some alumni expressed their gratitude to the MP for facilitating the benevolence.

Source: GNA









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BEIJING, May 30 (Xinhua) -- China honored ten research teams and 286 sci-tech workers on the nation's sci-tech workers' day, which falls on Saturday.

Ten groups, including the team on the third-generation of semiconductor (gallium nitride), were given the "scientific innovation and advancement award" medals.

A total of 28 people, including several researchers who made contributions to the fight against the COVID-19 epidemic, were awarded with badges, while another 258 sci-tech workers were awarded with certificates.

Wan Gang, chairman of the China Association for Science and Technology, said that since the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic, China's sci-tech workers have been fighting on the front line of the epidemic prevention and control and providing support to win the battle.

He expressed the hope that sci-tech workers will forge ahead through creation, innovation and entrepreneurship.

The award, first issued in 2017, is given once every three years. Two special sections of "epidemic prevention and control" and "poverty alleviation" were set up for this year's award.
A police officer secures the cordon at the scene where the lorry was discovered in Grays, London, on October 23, 2019. Photo by AFP.

Thirteen suspects arrested by French police over the deaths of 39 Vietnamese migrants in a refrigerated lorry in Britain have been charged with people trafficking, a judicial source said on Saturday.

Six of the group - mainly Vietnamese and French nationals - were held on Tuesday in the Paris region and have also been charged with manslaughter after the alleged key figure in a ring of smugglers was caught in Germany.

Thirteen people were also arrested in Belgium the same day in an international police operation.

The migrants - 31 men and eight women - were found dead in the truck in an industrial zone east of London in October 2019.

The driver of the lorry has already admitted manslaughter but Tuesday's swoop targeted the smugglers suspected of organizing the migrants' journey from Asia.

The suspect arrested in Germany's Upper Rhine region is a 29-year-old man nicknamed "The Bald Duke," sources told AFP.

"He could be the head of the network on the French side," a source close to the investigation said.

But the man's nationality was not revealed.

The 13 indicted in France also face charges of membership of a criminal organization and all but one was put in custody.

Eleven of the 13 suspects in Belgium have already been charged by a judge in Bruges with people trafficking, membership of a criminal organization and fraud, according to Belgian prosecutors.

The investigation found that the migrants who died were loaded into the truck in northern France, and that the network continued to operate even after the tragedy, charging up to 20,000 euros (S$31,000) to cross from France to Britain.

Investigation sources told AFP the group caught in France was believed to have housed the migrants and then sent them from Paris to the north by taxi.

The driver of the lorry, Maurice Robinson from Northern Ireland, last month pleaded guilty to manslaughter over the 39 deaths.

Four other men are on trial in London over the tragedy, while another man, Ronan Hughes, is facing extradition from Ireland to Britain on 39 counts of manslaughter and one of conspiracy to commit unlawful immigration.
Lara Dutta, Priyanka Chopra and Dia Mirza have faced comparisons with each other all through their careers. They were all winners of the 2000 Miss India beauty pageant and ended up winning the Miss Universe, Miss World and Miss Asia Pacific crowns respectively, as well.

After their big wins, all three of them ventured into the world of cinema as actors. Lara and Priyanka made their debuts opposite Akshay Kumar in 2003 movie Andaaz. Lara then went on to work in films such as Partner, Bhaagam Bhaag, Housefull and others. Meanwhile, Priyanka starred in movies such as Barfi, Mary Kom, Fashion and many others before venturing into Hollywood with her show Quantico and movies such as Baywatch, Isnt It Romantic and A Kid Like Jake.

At every step, Lara and Priyanka had to face critics who would compare their career trajectories. At one such instance, Lara was asked by a journalist at an event if she regretted not taking up offers in Hollywood like Priyanka. Lara was not impressed with the question and gave a clear reply. What do you want? You want two girls to be clones of each other? If one goes left, the other one should go left as well? If one goes right then I should too? Why are you proud of us as Indians? If you want both the girls should walk the same path then what is so special about us?, she said.

Lara added that all three of them are in different phases of their lives and are happy. Do we not look happy to you? Then why do you want all of us to be like each other?, she had said.

Even Dia once discussed the different shapes their careers have taken. Dia had said that she was very proud of Priyanka who is doing very well as an actor, internationally. Im so proud of her. I think our journey is a great example to give because if you look at Lara, Priyanka and Me, I think we are individuals who have defined our own path, she said, adding, We have done exactly what our individuality has determined for us. Priyanka is doing well in acting ... Lara is enjoying motherhood and doing films... and we are not kind of envious about it.

Also see: Sunil Grover cooks up a cigarette in his kitchen in hard-hitting video, Anubhav Sinha shares his own experiences

If you listen to what Priyanka says, she would say the same thing, as would Lara. We are all an outcome of what we call, what we have chosen for ourselves. We are just as liberated as we can be by the ideas that we have of ourselves and as stunted as an idea of ourselves, she had said.

Lara said in a recent interview that both Priyanka and Dia are still a part of her life. Yes, Im still very much in touch with both Priyanka and Dia and very constantly in touch. At least I know for sure that both of them are still a very integral part of my life. Its very easy for us to pick up a phone or anything and just reach out to each other immediately, she told DNA.

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To have corona, and then this  its like a gut shot, Mr. Mills, 56, said.

The upheaval sparked by a video capturing Mr. Floyds agonizing last minutes as a white police officer kneels on his neck is pulsing through an America already ragged with anger and anxiety. Emotions are raw over the toll of a pandemic that has killed more than 100,000 people across the country and cost millions of jobs. On Sunday, at least another 600 Americans were reported to have died from Covid-19.

Minneapolis residents said outrage and protests in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd were a result of a community being tested repeatedly in recent weeks by both police violence and the virus  and in ways that put Americas deep racial inequalities in stark relief.

The outbreak has inflicted disproportionate economic and health tolls on racial minorities and immigrants in Minneapolis and beyond. Black and Latino workers have been more likely to have lost their jobs. Many others are among the low-paid hourly workers who risk their health by going to work at grocery stores, nursing homes, factories, slaughterhouses and other jobs that cannot be done remotely.

The black community in Minnesota has also been hit hard by cases of the virus, just as African-Americans across the country are being infected and dying at higher rates.
Santa Monica protesters face off with police as unrest continues in the wake of the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

National Guard troops arrived in Santa Monica on Sunday evening and were headed to Long Beach after both cities were hit by extensive looting.

It was a surreal end to a surreal day in Southern California as demonstrators once again gathered en masse in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak to protest the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died last week in police custody after a white Minneapolis police officer pinned him down by his neck for several minutes.

National Guard troops and police officers guarded the barricaded steps of Los Angeles City Hall. Emergency alerts on phones warned Los Angeles County residents of a mandatory overnight curfew.

In Santa Monica, looters spent hours in the city's upscale business district stealing items and setting several fires. In Long Beach, an outlet mall and some downtown shops were hit as protesters screamed at looters and begged them to stop. Caltrans closed westbound lanes of the 10 Freeway at Bundy Drive to prevent people from coming into Santa Monica. Hundreds were arrested.

Protests in downtown Los Angeles, Huntington Beach, Santa Ana and elsewhere were largely peaceful.

In Long Beach, hundreds of protesters  many chanting and holding signs reading "No Justice, No Peace" and "Black Lives Matter"  walked at about 3 p.m. from the city's downtown and through Alamitos Beach as residents stood on sidewalks and balconies, shouting words of support.

But less than two hours later, hundreds of people began looting stores at the Pike Outlets. People smashed windows with hammers and trash can lids. Some protesters yelled for the looters to leave the stores alone. Others shouted, Lets hit Nike! before running toward the athletic store.

Several minutes later, a mob rushed back and stormed into Forever 21, slipping on clothes scattered on the floor. At G by Guess, a man used a hammer to smash the store's door before another man intervened and asked him to stop. Suddenly, the would-be looters began punching the man.

Story continues

Chandarley Lim, 28, stood in the middle of the street that runs through the outdoor mall yelling, "Peaceful protest!"

"This is sad, man," she said of the looting. "This is not a good look. Don't let the bad examples ruin it for the rest of us."

Shortly after 6 p.m., Long Beach police declared an unlawful assembly in the area, signaling that arrests would soon follow. About an hour later, police and demonstrators were at a standoff on Broadway and Pine Avenue. At least one protester threw a water bottle at the officers standing along Pine, prompting them to shoot rubber projectiles into the crowd.

Looting continued into the night, and someone set fire to a men's clothing business in downtown Long Beach.

A similar scene unfolded in Santa Monica. Hundreds of people walked from the Santa Monica Pier north along Ocean Avenue, carrying signs and chanting. Some protesters were in a tense standoff with police, who were firing non-lethal weapons after some demonstrators threw objects toward them.

A little before 2 p.m., dozens of looters stormed Santa Monica Place, smashing the windows of Louis Vuitton and several other stores. They left before police arrived.

Paul Cain, who owns the Britannia Pub in Santa Monica, said he called police early in the afternoon to ask about safety in the area. They told him the protesters were peaceful and that he had nothing to worry about.

But soon, he saw waves of crowds on the street outside of his business. He ushered his customers sitting on the patio inside, and they watched looters storm the area.

The people were outside eating and drinking, and all of a sudden it arrived, he said.

Looters also ransacked the Vans store at 400 Broadway, stealing shoes and skateboards. People carried merchandise past the Promenade as police guarding 3rd Street watched them. They ran to a nearby alley, found what looked to be the back entrance to a store, and swarmed inside.

Amid sirens blaring and shouts of "police!" the group ran back out of the alley, carrying shoe boxes. Some of them were picked up by a waiting car. They rushed to stuff the merchandise inside while police on motorcycles approached.

A few blocks away, at 7th Street and Broadway, people were seen breaking into a pharmacy, using a skateboard to shatter the window before climbing inside. Next door, people smashed the window of a jewelry store.

At least one sheriff's patrol car parked outside the civic center was set ablaze. Police shut down all off-ramps into Santa Monica from the 10 Freeway and Pacific Coast Highway and told people to avoid the downtown area.

In response to the protests across the region, Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva announced a countywide curfew beginning at 6 p.m. Sunday and ending at 6 a.m. Monday.

But the looting throughout Santa Monica continued into the evening. Protesters crashed store windows with hammers and ran in, taking what they could before police arrived. Store alarms and police sirens sounded throughout the city.

Inside the Britannia Pub, Cain periodically shouted and pointed out the window toward people with their arms full of merchandise from the Gap and other stores.

Take a picture of that, he said. He must be carrying his body weight in jeans.

Protests also took place Sunday afternoon in downtown Los Angeles, including a march from Pershing Square to City Hall. National Guard troops established a perimeter around City Hall, joining officers from the Los Angeles Police Department.

This is the opportunity for our generation to decide who we want to be as Americans, Elevn St. James, who organized the protest, said into a megaphone from the steps of City Hall. I cant help but think, maybe this is the dream that Dr. King died for.

At some point, he said, Peace wins, and urged the crowd not to escalate the violence.

We cant give them any more reason to shoot and kill us, he said. No more names.

The crowd shouted back: No more names.

Neissa Diabate, 27, stood nearby holding a sign that read, America would not exist without the black community.

Its actually wild that we have to be out here in the middle of a pandemic, she said. America has taught us that peace does not get us far."

At 7:45 p.m., nearly two hours after police warned them that they had violated curfew orders and faced arrests, a few hundred demonstrators departed City Hall and began streaming south on Hill Street. They filed past an empty Grand Central Market, past boarded-up storefronts, past wary security guards who assured them that they, too, had no tolerance for police brutality, and past stone-faced National Guard troops.

When an LAPD helicopter circling overhead turned its beam onto the procession, marchers paused to extend middle fingers to the pilot.

At one point, a marcher flung an M-80 firecracker into a group of police officers stationed at Main and Ninth streets. After it exploded, officers briefly fired rubble projectiles at the marchers, who took off running.

In Huntington Beach, police declared a protest with about 500 people near the pier to be an unlawful assembly about 1 p.m. The crowd shrunk considerably, but police fired pepper balls at some demonstrators who did not disperse, according to reports from the scene.

There were no reports of vandalism, but several people were arrested, said Angela Bennett, public information officer for the Huntington Beach Police Department.

Sunday's demonstrations capped a weekend of violent protests in Southern California, with numerous buildings, including in the upscale Grove shopping center in the Fairfax District, being set on fire.

Los Angeles police said 398 people were arrested Saturday on suspicion of crimes including burglary, looting, vandalism, failure to disperse, and firearms and curfew violations. Five LAPD officers were injured, with two of them hospitalized, officials said.

The most seriously injured officer was struck by a brick in the Fairfax area and suffered a fractured skull, authorities said. An officer also suffered a broken arm, and another's leg was broken during clashes with protesters.

LAPD Chief Michel Moore said the officer whose skull was fractured underwent surgery Saturday night. "I believe he will survive," he said at a Sunday news conference.

The unrest  which undercut a weekend meant to be focused on the the reopening of restaurants, barbershops and hair salons that had been shuttered due to the coronavirus outbreak  spurred cities across the region to enact overnight curfews.

The cities of Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, West Hollywood, Culver City, El Segundo and Torrance announced curfews for Sunday into Monday, as did the city of Santa Ana in Orange County.

In West Hollywood and Torrance, the curfews will be in effect each night until they are lifted by city officials. In Beverly Hills, the curfew took effect at 1 p.m. for the business district, which includes Rodeo Drive, and at 4 p.m. for the rest of the city.

Violence, looting, and vandalism will not be tolerated in our city, Beverly Hills Mayor Lester Friedman said. Its unfortunate that the message of the peaceful protesters has been diminished by criminal behavior.

On Sunday, National Guard troops in full combat gear stood outside shattered storefronts in downtown L.A. as the morning light revealed damage from the days before: broken windows, trash-strewn streets and graffiti-tagged buildings.

By 7 a.m., scores of Guardsmen toting M-4 rifles marched on patrol along Broadway between 7th and 8th streets.

National Guardsmen patrol downtown Los Angeles on Sunday morning. (Monte Morin / Los Angeles Times)

Gov. Gavin Newsom had declared a state of emergency in the city and county of Los Angeles shortly before midnight.

Los Angeles County officials also proclaimed a countywide state of emergency to deal with the unrest.

This emergency comes as we are in the midst of battling another emergency caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, County Supervisor Kathryn Barger said Sunday in a statement. This taxes our resources, but not our resolve.

The proclamation will help authorities coordinate an emergency response and mutual aid and speed up the procurement of supplies, officials said. It also provides for future state and federal reimbursement of costs the county incurs.

The decision to call in the National Guard was criticized by City Councilman Marqueece Harris-Dawson, who represents a portion of South L.A.

Its clear that our fear is real that additional law enforcement will only further violence against people of color, Harris-Dawson said in a statement. Anarchists are taking advantage of our pain with looting and violence  this is not Black Lives Matter or members of our community who have suffered from systematic racism and oppression  these are domestic terrorists.

The last time the National Guard patrolled the streets of L.A. was during the 1992 riots, which erupted after the police officers who beat black motorist Rodney King were found not guilty in a jury trial.

Compared with those riots, the events in Los Angeles over the weekend were significantly less widespread and less dangerous.

Although officers were hurt when protesters threw objects at them, there have been no fatalities. The 1992 riots swept across large swaths of Southern California and left more than 60 people dead.

On Sunday, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority apologized to passengers who were left stranded across L.A. County when bus and rail service was suspended Saturday with little warning.

The unprecedented closure of the Metro system drew immediate criticism from advocates and elected officials who said essential workers were left stranded on sidewalks, at stations and in bus shelters in the hours after the 8 p.m. curfews imposed in Los Angeles and other cities.

Metros chief executive Phil Washington told KNX 1070 News Radio that the agency chose to shut down service because he had seen a lot of damage, and was concerned for the safety of Metro employees.

Washington said Metro supervisors were driving around the city on Saturday night to look for people at bus stops, then calling nearby bus yards and asking them to dispatch vehicles to pick them up.

On Sunday morning, a Metro spokesperson said the agency would reimburse trips taken in a taxi, Uber or Lyft after the system shut down. Anyone seeking a refund should call Metro customer service at (323) 466-3876.

Protesters are thrown out of a Whole Foods Market in the Fairfax District of Los Angeles on Saturday. (Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times)

Lindsay Pierce was operating on only about an hour of sleep when she headed to Melrose Avenue on Sunday morning to survey the damage to her business. What she had seen on her security cameras Saturday night had made her ill.

The Melrose Avenue business owner had been monitoring her shop, Wax, via security cameras as the protests moved through the Fairfax district. At about 11 p.m., she said, three young men darted inside her store after its windows were shattered. They immediately moved to the business' internet router and disconnected it, cutting off Pierce's connection.

"I started sweating, I got sick to my stomach, I was just thinking, 'Please don't light it on fire,'" Pierce said Sunday morning.

Her survey revealed that all the business' electronics were stolen, along with some small merchandise.

L.A. City Councilman Paul Koretz, who represents many of the areas that incurred damage, said business districts along Fairfax Avenue and Melrose Avenue had been "devastated" by looting, vandalism and graffiti.

"This was the weekend that the city had given permission for restaurants and retail to emerge from COVID," he said. "And instead, businesses that were already hanging by a thread are now destroyed."

Rodney Beckwith, who goes by his artist name, Flewnt, is the manager of Resist 323 on Melrose, a store selling custom clothing and art that had one of its windows smashed. He spent the night inside the store, where a garage door security gate was pulled down in front to protect it.

Beckwith was inside Saturday night when he heard people trying to break in through the back door. He shoved a table saw against the security door.

All I could do was try to get to the rooftop, he said. My survival mode, get high and get out the door. Im not going to sit down there, theyre breaking through a door, theyre not knocking.

I know theyre black lives matter, Im black but ... theyre doing something crazy, he said. ... I feel them, Im with them, but at the same time Im protecting a business.

No one was able to breach the security door and get inside.

Eli Ventov has had his store, Reloaded L.A., along Melrose for nearly 12 years. The clothing and jewelry store had just reopened Wednesday after being closed because of the pandemic. On Saturday, as they saw the protests start to grow, workers rushed to Home Depot and got painters paper to cover the windows so no one would break in.

No one did. But in the same building, people broke into the Dr. Martens store. Around 7 p.m., someone threw a bottle with gasoline inside, Ventov said. A fire erupted.

It went from this store, to this store, to this store, Ventov said, gesturing to shoe store Tony-K and then to his store.

Ventov stood across the street and watched his business burn.

On Sunday morning, he stood outside the blackened store, where the roof appeared on the verge of collapse and the sky was visible through patches. He grew teary-eyed as a friend embraced him and told him it would be OK.

I understand where theyre coming from," Ventov said of the protesters, "but did you really need to come that way?

Ricky Flores swept inside the clothing store Flashback, where a sign out front read Now open! Please wear a mask for entry.

He and his friend had opened the store four years ago, and business was going so well they moved from a smaller space next door to a larger one.

The store had just reopened Friday after being closed since March. But they closed Saturday because of the protests. They watched on the news as buildings across the street burned.

When Flores arrived Sunday morning, around 7 a.m., people were still stealing items from the store, he said. The alarm was blaring and people had broken the security gate the night before. People stole three televisions off the wall, shoes and clothes. They even stole the ice cube trays from the freezer.

What kind of a sick person takes the ice cube trays out of the freezer?

Times staff writers Richard Winton, Kevin Rector, Monte Morin, Gustavo Arellano, Alex Wigglesworth, Andrew Campa, Hannah Fry, Kim Christensen, Dakota Smith, Laura J. Nelson, David Zahniser, Kevin Baxter, Leila Miller and Emily Baumgaertner contributed to this report.
Josh Lucas' Ex-Wife Accuses Him of Cheating, Says "I Deserve Better Than This"

Jessica Ciencin Henriquez has accused her ex-husband, Sweet Home Alabama actor Josh Lucas, of cheating on her.

In an emotional statement posted to Twitter, the New York Times writer opened up about their relationship struggles with a kiss emoji and an accompanying caption: "Exes are exes for a reason."

"Having a child with someone makes you want to forgive them more than you normally would," Henriquez wrote on Friday night. "It makes you believe they are better than they are. But it takes a really s--t human to cheat on their partner (correction: now ex partner) in the middle of a pandemic. Thank you for reminding me why I left you in the first place."

"I deserve better than this," Henriquez continued. "Our son deserves better than this."

Henriquez then implored women to unite in their shared experience.

"And yes, I'm airing this publicly because there are a lot of women accepting much less than thy deserve because there are kids in the picture," she explained. "You're not stupid for hoping, for believing that people can change. I see you."

Henriquez and Lucas divorced in 2014 and share a son together, seven-year-old Noah Rev. While Henriquez's new post implies the couple had recently reunited romantically, a source told People that it may not have been the case.

Celebrity Couples Caught Up in Cheating Scandals: Where Are They Now?

Despite their divorce, Henriquez and Lucas have been open about their co-parenting experience.

In 2019, Lucas addressed the family's then co-parenting lifestyle, recounting a story to Jimmy Kimmel about a horrifying moment with a spider while he, Noah, and Henriquez were living in Indonesia.

Just a year before, in 2018, Henriquez wrote a column for Time entitled "Raising My Son With My Ex-Husband Is the Hardest Thing I've Ever Done."

In the article, she disputed the idea that co-parenting is easydespite how many celebrities make it look easy.

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"My son was 1 years old when I moved out of the home I shared with my husband," she wrote at the time. "And ever since then his father and I have tried multiple ways to co-exist."

The mother explained that they tried it all: mediation, seeing each other in moderation and other things to no avail.

She also claimed that she and her ex-husband had engaged in periods where they'd began sleeping together again.

"We've lived separately, together and have even tried nesting (a name for the cohabitation set-up where the child stays in one home while the parents rotate in and out)," she wrote. "We've tried cooperative parenting and parallel parenting, going no-contact and going full-contact (a name for the emotional set back where you start sleeping together again against all better judgment)."

Around that same time, Lucas explained that they were trying their hardest to raise their son in a healthy environment, despite their relationship issues.

"We are both totally committed to raising our son and being in love with our son," Lucas told People in 2018. "I do believe our relationship will be constantly changing ... it's a very remarkably complex period of my life."

Lucas has yet to publicly respond to Henriquez's cheating allegations. However, it's likely that he won't. In 2016, he announced he would stop using Twitter because of trolls and bullies.
GRAND RAPIDS, MI  Mayor Rosalynn Bliss issued a 7 p.m. curfew Sunday, May 31, after a night of rioting downtown.

Under a civil-emergency proclamation, Bliss said that that support of the National Guard is among steps that police and city officials are taking to prevent further mayhem.

Bliss said that city has prepared for potential unrest but she was in disbelief after rioters looted businesses and set police patrol cars on fire.

In a press conference, Bliss and other city leaders said they were working to prevent a repeat of the violent episode.

The violence broke out after a peaceful protect Saturday over the death of George Floyd, who died after a police officer in Minneapolis pressed his knee onto Floyds neck, despite concerns Floyd could not breathe.

Protests have been held across the country.

Your safety, the safety of everyone in the city is my top priority," Bliss said. "We are going to do everything we can to prevent another wave of violence in our city.

She said that after significant review of the events from last night and current concerns that we have, Ive decided to enact a proclamation of civil emergency and that will take place for the next 48 hours. This will result in access to additional resources, including support from our National Guard.

She said that the curfew would be in effect from 7 p.m. to 5 a.m. on Sunday and Monday, with the city evaluating whether it should be exceeded. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer authorized use of Michigan National Guard to enforce the curfew law and protect property.

City Attorney Anita Hitchcock said curfew violators will be charged with a misdemeanor and face up to 90 days in jail and up to a $500 in fined and costs.

Multiple businesses were damaged overnight with fires destroying seven patrol cars and causing significant damage to a downtown business when a Dumpster fire spread.

For all of the violence, police said only one person reported injuries.

The protest drew anywhere from 3,000 to 4,500 people, which was more than those who showed up in other cities in Michigan, including Detroit, city officials said.

City Manager Mark Washington and others praised Grand Rapids police for de-escalating a volatile situation but said police would be escalating its response Sunday night.

He said police worked to prevent rioters who appeared intent on damaging police headquarters on Monroe Center Street NW. He said police headquarters were under attack.

Washington said police would take every appropriate means to prevent another night of violence.

He disputed any notion police did not do enough to stop violence.

Our police headquarters was under attack last night. Protesters were trying to rush in and disrupt our command center. Our officers and partner agencies were focused on public safety and keeping protesters from impacting those operations. I am proud of our police departments response to the events that transpired last night and I am grateful for their efforts to prevent injuries or loss of life  and they did this in a professional and respectful manner.

Read more:

Damage from Grand Rapids rioting a nightmare, business owners say

Police brutality protests in Michigan: What you need to know from this weekends rallies, riots

Throngs crowd downtown Kalamazoo from days second protest
By Online Desk

The government of India on Saturday extended the ongoing lockdown till June 30 in containment zones. Religious places and places of worship for public; hotels, restaurants and other hospitality services; and shopping malls; will be permitted to open from June 8, the new guideline said.

There has been a relaxation in night curfew too. The movement of individuals will now remain strictly prohibited between 9 pm to 5 am (it was 7 pm- 7 am earlier) throughout the country, except for essential activities.

The home ministry has also lifted restrictions on inter-state and intra-state movement of persons and goods from June 1.

India registered its highest spike of 8,380 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, while 193 more deaths reported. The total number of cases in the country now at 1,82,143 including 89995 active cases, 86984 cured/discharged/migrated and 5164 deaths, as per the latest Ministry of Health and Family Welfare data.
A Fox News reporter was pummeled and chased by protesters who had gathered outside the White House early Saturday as part of nationwide unrest following the death of George Floyd.

For several journalists across the country, the demonstrations were taking an ominous, dangerous turn.

A television reporter in Columbia, S.C., was hurt by a thrown rock Saturday and a journalist in Minneapolis was shot in the thigh by a rubber bullet. Demonstrators also broke windows and vandalized the Atlanta office building where CNN is headquartered, and police in Louisville, Kentucky, apologized after an officer fired what appeared to be pepper bullets at a television news crew.

Fox's Leland Vittert was rattled following the Washington attack that he said was clearly targeted at his news organization.

We took a good thumping, he told The Associated Press. A live shot he was doing was interrupted by a group of protesters who shouted obscenities directed at Fox. Flanked by two security guards, he and photographer Christian Galdabini walked away from Washington's Lafayette Park trailed by an angry group before riot police dispersed them.

Vittert said there were no markings on him or the crew's equipment to identify them as from Fox. But he said during the demonstration, one man continually asked him who he worked for. He didn't answer, but the man found a picture of Vittert on his cell phone and shouted to other protesters that he was from Fox.

The protesters stopped protesting whatever it was they were protesting and turned on us, he said, and that was a very different feeling.

He compared it to when he was chased away from a demonstration in Egypt during the Arab Spring of 2011 by a group that shouted, Fox News hates Muslims.

A correspondent from the website The Daily Caller followed Vittert and the demonstrators as they left the park. At one point, someone took Vittert's microphone and threw it at his back. One woman chasing him wore a t-shirt that said, I cant breathe, a reference what Floyd said earlier this week when a Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee against his neck.

Vittert said he was extremely grateful to the Daily Caller for documenting the scene; Galdabinis camera was smashed. They were putting themselves at risk, he said.

It makes me proud to do my job and to be a journalist, he said. I'm proud to be an organization that is unyielding in our coverage. We're going to keep on telling our story and doing exactly what we're doing.

Suzanne Scott, CEO of Fox News Media, said in a memo on Saturday that Fox was taking all necessary security precautions to protect its journalists covering the story.

We are truly living in unprecedented and transformative times and freedom of the press is a vital element to the foundation of our society, Scott wrote.

On Friday, CNN correspondent Omar Jimenez and his two-person crew were arrested while covering overnight protests in Minneapolis. They were quickly released, and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz apologized to CNN.

CNN's headquarters in Atlanta was targeted later Friday by a group of protesters who also fought with police and set cars afire. While police tried to keep them away from the CNN Center, demonstrators broke windows there and scrawled obscene graffiti on the network's logo.

In Louisville, WAVE-TV was on the air covering a demonstration when video showed a police officer aiming a rifle at reporter Kaitlin Rust and her crew. She was heard yelling, Ive been shot! Ive been shot! and described them as pepper bullets.

Louisville Police spokeswoman Jesse Halladay apologized for the incident, and said police would review the video for potential discipline.

Two Associated Press photographers have been hit by projectiles while documenting protests, one in Minneapolis on Thursday and another in Los Angeles on Friday. Neither was seriously injured.

Demonstrators surrounded the police department headquarters in Columbia, S.C. on Saturday and a scuffle broke out with someone wearing a Make America Great Again hat. Rocks were thrown and Miranda Parnell, a television reporters from WIS-TV, was injured and taken to the hospital, according to a tweet from network anchor Judi Gatson.

It was not clear who threw the rock that hit Parnell.

In Minneapolis on Saturday, a Swedish journalist was shot in the thigh with a rubber bullet, apparently from a police gun, while covering a protest, according to the Norwegian newspaper VG.
Rome, May 31 : Italy's celebrated leaning Tower of Pisa has reopened to tourists three months after closing due to the coronavirus pandemic.

First to climb the more than 280 steps on Saturday were 10-year-old Matilde and her father Roberto, BBC quoted the Italian Ansa news agency as saying in a report.

Visitor numbers were being restricted to 15 at a time at the monument, which, along with surrounding attractions, normally draws five million annually.

Tourists have to wear face masks and an electronic device which sends out signals and sounds if anyone gets within a metre of anyone else.

The president of the board of directors responsible for the tower and surrounding monuments, Pierfrancesco Pacini, described it as a new start.

"Our budget will suffer heavy losses but we still wanted to send a signal of confidence and hope," the BBC quoted Pacini as saying.

The tower, whose construction began in 1173, is among several Italian tourists sites to open again, including Milan Cathedral.

Italy is enjoying a cautious relaxation of what were some of the strictest lockdown measures in the world.

As of Sunday, the number of COVID-19 cases in Italy stood at 232,664, with 33,340 deaths.
(Newser)  Protesters took to the streets of cities across America for a fourth night of rallying against the death of George Floyd, and the AP reports that Confederate monuments in Virginia, the Carolinas, and Mississippi were targeted. One at the University of Mississippi was spray-painted with the words "spiritual genocide," along with red handprints; one person was arrested. In Charleston, SC, protesters spray-painted the city's Confederate Defenders statue with "BLM" and "traitors." North Carolina's statue at the State Capitol was marked with a black X, "racist," and what the AP calls "a shorthand for a phrase expressing contempt for police." In Virginia, protesters in Richmond and Norfolk attacked statues, with statues of Gens. Robert E. Lee and JEB Stuart almost completely covered. Elsewhere around the country, per the AP:

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La Mesa, Calif.: The quaint downtown of the San Diego suburb suffered major damage with Chase and Union banks next-door to each other burned to the ground. Windows were smashed at many businesses, including a Goodwill store, a Sothebys real estate office, and a popular bar.

The quaint downtown of the San Diego suburb suffered major damage with Chase and Union banks next-door to each other burned to the ground. Windows were smashed at many businesses, including a Goodwill store, a Sothebys real estate office, and a popular bar. Ferguson, Mo.: Mostly peaceful protests took a turn late Saturday when police said at least six officers were hit with rocks and fireworks. Police used tear gas to disperse a large group of protesters who had set off fireworks inside police headquarters. Gov. Mike Parson activated the National Guard.

Mostly peaceful protests took a turn late Saturday when police said at least six officers were hit with rocks and fireworks. Police used tear gas to disperse a large group of protesters who had set off fireworks inside police headquarters. Gov. Mike Parson activated the National Guard. Richmond, Va.: Photos on social media show several fires downtown overnight as protests in the Virginia capital continued. The headquarters of the nearby United Daughters of the Confederacy burned early Sunday and was marked with graffiti. A dumpster was set afire near the police headquarters, which had its front windows broken out Friday night.

Photos on social media show several fires downtown overnight as protests in the Virginia capital continued. The headquarters of the nearby United Daughters of the Confederacy burned early Sunday and was marked with graffiti. A dumpster was set afire near the police headquarters, which had its front windows broken out Friday night. Phoenix: Police had to defend the departments headquarters shortly after 10 pm, when they said a large group of protesters downtown had become an unlawful assembly. The protesters were seen kneeling with their hands up in the streets outside Phoenix police and municipal buildings.

Police had to defend the departments headquarters shortly after 10 pm, when they said a large group of protesters downtown had become an unlawful assembly. The protesters were seen kneeling with their hands up in the streets outside Phoenix police and municipal buildings. San Francisco: Mayor London Breed declared a citywide curfew from 8pm Sunday to 5am Monday as violent protests rage. She has asked Gov. Gavin Newsom to put the California National Guard on standby.

(Read more George Floyd stories.)
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  President Donald Trump, probably the most famous user of Twitter in the short history of Twitter, is at war with Twitter.

So were down the rabbit hole right from the get-go.

Few have done more to raise Twitters profile than Trump, and yet the two sides pretty much cant stand each other.

Talk about a dysfunctional relationship. Only in America, right?

The battle has heated up in recent days. Trump doesnt like that Twitter has begun to fact-check his tweets. And you can see where the president is coming from.

Trumps tweets get checked when any schmuck out there can pretty much put whatever they want on Twitter? When bots can flood your feed with random stories, videos and ads? When you dont even know for sure whos an actual person out there? When people can have multiple accounts under different names?

If were suddenly so concerned about the truth, why arent everybodys tweets fact-checked? For example, the tweets by all those reporters who breathlessly wrote about the Russia collusion hoax.

Well, that would be a lot of work. Twitter have to hire people to work the back end. And you may have to correct the tweets of people that you actually like. Or who are important to your business. Or whom you root for politically.

And, you know, by doing all that, you may have to accept legal liability for what gets posted on your site. You may be a publication after all, and not just a digital soap box. You may suddenly be open to charges of libel.

No. Better to just slap the fact check tag on Trump, the only person on the internet who fudges the truth. The only person on the internet who says nasty things about other people. The only one whos too in love with their own pronouncements. And just let Trump basher Yoel Roth do the fact-checking. Yeah, thats fair.

I thought the internet was supposed to be this digital Wild, Wild West, where information could bounce freely all over the place, and people could be trusted make up their minds about what to believe. Where people could use other sources to figure out what was true or false. Where people could think for themselves, not to have Big Brother tell them whats right and whats wrong.

No?

Trump the other day signed an executive order aimed at limiting those libel protections that the social media giants enjoy like Twitter and Facebook enjoy.

Trump said that these platforms could censor, restrict, edit, shape, hide, alter" what was posted to their sites, and that the platforms themselves have biases.

Trumps not wrong. Billions of people get their news through Facebook, Twitter and other platforms. They control the flow of information across the globe. Their algorithms favor some content over others. They play favorites by highlighting content they approve of while suppressing what they dont.

All that being said, the executive order is more bark than bite. Its unlikely to change anything.

More to the point, nobody forced Trump to play along with Twitter. He did it of his own volition. He saw the platforms enormous power, and how he could use it to do an end-run around the mainstream cable and print media. And I doubt that hed give up that platform willingly. Its just worked too well for him.

So we have the billionaire president battling a billion-dollar social media platform. So much for social media being the voice of the people. Its a big business, like any other. And now were all hooked, to the point where we hardly care whats true or false anymore. Whatever side youre on, the other side is fake news.

They call this progress?
MINNEAPOLIS  Tense protests over the death of George Floyd and other police killings of black people grew Saturday from New York to Tulsa to Los Angeles, with police cars set ablaze and reports of injuries mounting on all sides as the country convulsed through another night of unrest after months of coronavirus lockdowns.

The protests, which began in Minneapolis following Floyd's death Monday after a police officer pressed a knee on his neck until he stopped breathing, have left parts of the city a grid of broken windows, burned-out buildings and ransacked stores. The unrest has since become a national phenomenon as protesters decry years of deaths at police hands.

Tens of thousands of people were in the streets across the country, many of them not wearing masks or observing social distancing, raising concerns among health experts about the potential for spreading the coronavirus pandemic at a time when much of the country is in the process of reopening society and the economy.

After a tumultuous Friday, racially diverse crowds held mostly peaceful demonstrations in dozens of cities, though many later descended into violence as had happened the previous night.

Few corners of America were untouched, from protesters setting fires inside Reno's city hall, to police launching tear gas at rock-throwing demonstrators in Fargo, North Dakota, to shattered windows at police headquarters in Richmond, Virginia.

 In Indianapolis, police were investigating multiple shootings downtown, including one that left a person dead, amid the protests. Police gave few details but said no officers were involved.

 In Washington, the National Guard was deployed outside the White House, where chanting crowds taunted law enforcement officers. Dressed in camouflage and holding shields, the troops stood in a tight line a few yards from the crowd, preventing them from pushing forward. President Donald Trump, who spent much of Saturday in Florida for the SpaceX rocket launch, landed on the lawn in the presidential helicopter at dusk and went inside without speaking to journalists.

 In Philadelphia, at least 13 officers were injured when peaceful protests turned violent and at least four police vehicles were set on fire. Other fires were set throughout downtown.

 In Salt Lake City, protesters defied a curfew and National Guard troops were deployed by Utahs governor. Demonstrators flipped a police car and lit it on fire, and another vehicle was later set ablaze. Police said six people were arrested and a police officer was injured after being struck in the head with a baseball bat.

 In Los Angeles, protesters chanted Black Lives Matter, some within inches of the face shields of officers. Police used batons to move the crowd back and fired rubber bullets. A graffiti-covered police car burned in the street.

 And in New York City, dangerous confrontations flared repeatedly as officers made arrests and cleared streets. A video showed two NYPD cruisers lurching into a crowd of demonstrators who were pushing a barricade against one of them and pelting it with objects. Several people were knocked to the ground, and it was unclear if anyone was hurt.

The mistakes that are happening are not mistakes. Theyre repeated violent terrorist offenses and people need to stop killing black people," Brooklyn protester Meryl Makielski said.

Not all protests devolved into violence. In Juneau, Alaska, law enforcement officers joined elected officials and residents at a peaceful protest in front of a giant whale sculpture on the citys waterfront.

We dont tolerate excessive use of force, Juneau Police Chief Ed Mercer told the gathering.

Back in Minneapolis, the city where the protests began, police, state troopers and National Guard members moved in soon after an 8 p.m. curfew took effect to break up protests, firing tear gas and rubber bullets to clear streets outside a police precinct and elsewhere.

The show of force came after three days when police largely avoided engaging protesters, and after the state poured in more than 4,000 National Guard troops to Minneapolis and said the number would soon rise to nearly 11,000.

The situation in Minneapolis is no longer in any way about the murder of George Floyd, said Gov. Tim Walz, who also said local forces had been overmatched the previous day. It is about attacking civil society, instilling fear and disrupting our great cities.

Minneapolis' streets steadily grew calmer as the night went on, and Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell said the tough response would remain as long as it takes to quell this situation.

Some residents were glad to see the upheaval dissipating.

l live here. I havent been able to sleep," said Iman Muhammad, whose neighborhood saw multiple fires set Friday night. Muhammad said she sympathized with peaceful protests over Floyds death but disagreed with the violence: Wrong doesnt answer wrong."

Trump appeared to cheer on the tougher tactics Saturday night, commending the Guard deployment in Minneapolis, declaring:

The National Guard has been released in Minneapolis to do the job that the Democrat Mayor couldnt do. Should have been used 2 days ago & there would not have been damage & Police Headquarters would not have been taken over & ruined. Great job by the National Guard. No games!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 31, 2020

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden condemned the violence as he continued to express common cause with those demonstrating after Floyds death.

The act of protesting should never be allowed to overshadow the reason we protest, Biden said in a statement Saturday night.

Overnight curfews were imposed in more than a dozen major cities nationwide, including Atlanta, Denver, Los Angeles, Minneapolis and Seattle.

More than 1,300 people have been arrested in 16 cities since Thursday, including over 500 Friday in Los Angeles.

The unrest comes at a time when most Americans have spent months inside over concerns surrounding the coronavirus, which the president has called an invisible enemy. The events of the last 72 hours, seen live on national television, have shown the opposite: a sudden pivot to crowds, screaming protesters and burning buildings, and a stark contrast to the empty streets of recent months.

Quite frankly Im ready to just lock people up," Atlanta Police Chief Erika Shields said at a news conference. Demonstrations there turned violent Friday, and police were arresting protesters Saturday on blocked-off downtown streets. Yes, you caught us off balance once. Its not going to happen twice.

This week's unrest recalled the riots in Los Angeles nearly 30 years ago after the acquittal of the white police officers who beat Rodney King, a black motorist who had led them on a high-speed chase. The protests of Floyd's killing have gripped many more cities, but the losses in Minneapolis have yet to approach the staggering totals Los Angeles saw during five days of rioting in 1992, when more than 60 people died, 2,000-plus were injured and thousands arrested, with property damage topping $1 billion.

Many protesters spoke of frustration that Floyds death was one more in a litany. It came in the wake of the killing in Georgia of Ahmaud Arbery, a black man who was shot dead after being pursued by two white men while running in their neighborhood, and in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic that has thrown millions out of work, killed more than 100,000 people in the U.S. and disproportionately affected black people.

The officer who held his knee to Floyds neck as he begged for air was arrested Friday and charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. But many protesters are demanding the arrests of the three other officers involved.

"The death of George Floyd on the streets of Minneapolis was a grave tragedy. It should never have happened. It has filled Americans all over the country with horror, anger, and grief." pic.twitter.com/lirAMSv4Wo  The White House (@WhiteHouse) May 30, 2020

Leaders in many affected cities have voiced outrage over Floyd's killing and expressed sympathy for protesters' concerns. But as the unrest intensified, they spoke of a desperate need to protect their cities and said they would call in reinforcements, despite concerns that could lead to more heavy-handed tactics.

Governors in Georgia, Kentucky, Ohio and Texas also activated the National Guard after protests there turned violent.

Police in St. Louis were investigating the death of a protester who climbed between two trailers of a Fed Ex truck and was killed when it drove away. And a person was killed in the area of protests in downtown Detroit just before midnight after someone fired shots into an SUV, officers said. Police

had initially said someone fired into the crowd from an SUV.

--By Tim Sullivan and Stephen Groves
Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-01 01:12:25|Editor: huaxia

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NEW DELHI, May 31 (Xinhua) -- India on Sunday expelled two officials of the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi after they were apprehended earlier in the day for espionage activities, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs said.

They were asked to leave the country within 24 hours.

"The government has declared both these officials persona non grata for indulging in activities incompatible with their status as members of a diplomatic mission and asked them to leave the country within 24 hours," the ministry said in a statement.

"Pakistan's Charge de Affaires was issued a demarche in which a strong protest was lodged with regard to the activities of these officials of the High Commission of Pakistan against India's national security," added the statement. Enditem
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- In light of the protests surrounding the death of George Floyd around the city, Mayor Bill de Blasio on Sunday called for two city representatives to conduct an independent review of actions on both sides of the protest.

The two representatives are James Jim Johnson, the leader of the city Law Department, and Police Commissioner Margaret Garnett.

Said de Blasio: There are changes we have to make. There are changes we will make in this city, and we should make in this country."

Previously, both the mayor and Gov. Andrew Cuomo called for an independent review of actions by police officers by New York Attorney General Letitia James.

Protests have broken out across the city and the nation in response to the death of George Floyd, who died Monday in Minneapolis after officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes. Chauvin has since been fired, and arrested and charged in Floyds killing.

According to Police Commissioner Dermot Shea, about 350 protestors were arrested and more than 30 members of the NYPD were injured Saturday evening.

De Blasio commended police officers, stating that many showed tremendous restraint.

Think about the countless different points around the city [and] the thousands and thousands of NYPD officers that were deployed, the mayor explained. When you add up how many things were happening ... it says something about the NYPD that there was no loss of life, no major injuries.

However, there was property damage to private and public property that the mayor said was dealt with in a timely matter.

We are not going to fix the missed opportunities since 1967 to get this right as a nation," said Johnson. "I want to get this investigation right, and perhaps make a contribution to what we need to do within our society.

Garnett added, I want to be clear that where [appropriate police action] was not the case, we rightly have a higher standard for the police, who are given tremendous power and we rely on to protect us.

DE BLASIO CALLS FOR PEACEFUL PROTESTS

During the press conference, de Blasio described New York City as a sanctuary for protests and an exemplary city in enacting change.

However, he explained that those protests should be peacefully organized to cause real change, relating back to activists Dr. Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi.

No place in America has honored protests more than New York City," he touted. However, the x-factor here is a different kind of a small set of people who came to do violence."

De Blasio said that protests will be respected and police should not have to interfere if they remain peaceful.

22 NYC's Justice for George Floyd protest

THREE CHANGES DE BLASIO PROMISES

The mayor announced three major changes that he hopes to bring to policing policy in New York.

First, he called upon the state government and Gov. Cuomo to repeal and replace Civil Rights law 50-A, which shields police disciplinary records. Cuomo said on Saturday that he would sign the bill today if legislature presented it.

Second, the mayor hopes to amplify screening of new officers, ensuring only those who exemplify what the NYPD stands for, become police officers.

Finally, there may be a shift in police leadership.

There are some people in positions of leadership in a community or some officers on the beat who just dont fit the work needed in that community for whatever reason and unfortunately have a history of tensions with the community, said de Blasio. We cant have that. Not everyone fits every role. Thats true in the NYPD and thats true in all of life. We need to do a better job of hearing the concerns of community leaders when they say someone is not working out in our community, in our precinct, and we need a change. And I pledged to work with the community leaders to make those changes in the weeks ahead.

NO CURFEW OR MILITARY SUPPORT

As cities around the world created a curfew to attempt to stop rallies and violence, the mayor explained that New York City would not be enacting a curfew on its citizens.

No plan for a curfew, he said firmly during the press conference. We find a way, in this most complex of places, to work things out, even if its imperfectly.

PUBLIC ADVOCATE CRITICIZES OVERWHELMING POLICE PRESENCE

Despite Mayor de Blasio and Commissioner Shea commending NYPD for their actions during the last few days of protests, the citys public advocate, Jumaane Williams, criticized police for creating what he deemed unnecessary tensions.

Peaceful protests should never be met with walls of police officers, Williams explained during a separate Sunday morning press conference.

Heavy police presence will not ease discomfort, he said. The mayor saying policing is appropriate is not okay.

Williams said he is calling on New Yorkers, and specifically politicians, to act proactively instead of reactively.

If we dont look at the root of the problem, then were being cyclical, he explained. George Floyd was the last drop of water in the bucket.

PROTESTS AND CORONAVIRUS

While recent headlines have started to draw away from the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic for the first time in months, de Blasio and Williams reminded New Yorkers that the virus is still very much alive.

When youre out there, it doesnt feel like people are remembering there is a pandemic, said de Blasio. Just a few days ago, the only thing we were talking about was a pandemic.

The city is still under the stay-at-home order and isnt expected to enter Phase 1 of reopening until June 8.

Williams explained that officials would need to pay attention to potential spikes in the next seven to 10 days due to the large gatherings.

The mayor said that the combination of unrest from being at home and George Floyds death created a perfect storm to make these protests overwhelming.

Williams and de Blasio both said they believe there has been inequality in healthcare.

You have all the frustrations about injustice combined with frustrations about injustices within the pandemic... which displayed immense disparity, combined with the fact that people spent two months cooped up indoors, de Blasio explained. There is an extra level of frustration.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-01 03:03:36|Editor: huaxia

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BEIRUT, May 31 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Dorothy Shea announced on Sunday that the United States plans to impose new sanctions against Hezbollah and possibly against supporters of the group, OTV local TV channel reported.

"New sanctions will be put in place starting June 1," Shea said in a televised interview.

Shea denied the U.S. intention to cause a collapse to the Lebanese economy by imposing sanctions against Hezbollah, adding that the United States will make announcements next week to provide scholarships for students at the American University of Beirut and the Lebanese American University.

Lebanese experts have expressed their worries about the U.S. intention of putting obstacles in the way of Lebanon's access to funds by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) given the role of Hezbollah in the government.

Lebanon is currently negotiating with the IMF the possibility of funds in a bid to restructure the country's economy and implement necessary reforms for economic revival. Enditem
Cebu Pacific, the Philippines largest national flag-carrier, will gradually resume commercial passenger flights between select domestic destinations starting June 2. All international flightsincluding the Dubai-Manila routeremain suspended until June 30.

The airline continues to work closely with the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF), as well as other national and local government authorities in the Philippines, as regards the rules and requirements to resume commercial passenger flights between areas of the country under General Community Quarantine (GCQ).

In the first phase, CEB will operate return flights from Manila to Cebu, Cagayan de Oro, General Santos and Naga. All these flights are set to depart and arrive from Terminal 3 of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

CEB is set to slowly resume services in its widest domestic network, depending on government regulations and market demand. Passengers are expected to receive updates on routes and schedules in the next days.

Leisure travel remains prohibited at this time. Along with CEB reminders, guests are also reminded to keep posted with the IATF, as well as local government units of their point of origin and intended destination for the required documents.

As flights start to resume, the airline also has ramped up its sanitation protocols at all possible points of contact, to ensure passengers and personnel are protected.

CEB continues to offer flexible options for guest and passengers affected by the flight cancellations from June 1-30. They may rebook their flight for travel within three months from the original flight date; place the full cost of the ticket in a Travel Fund valid for one year; or avail of a full refund. They may use the "Manage Booking" portal in the Cebu Pacific website to avail any of these options.

This is a developing situation and CEBs restart operations may change as quarantine conditions evolve across their network. Passengers are urged to check CEBs website and official social media accounts for the most recent updates. - TradeArabia News Service
The village of Tinley Park also posted a request to Facebook that residents remain in their homes because of protesters and potential civil unrest." The village said first responders were dealing with multiple incidents across the village. The Open Bottle in Tinley Park posted on Facebook it was closing for the day after receiving an automated call that suggested all businesses close for the day.
Christian Association of Nigeria demands release of kidnapped Bishop Joseph Masin

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The Christian Association of Nigeria is calling on the countrys government to secure the release of its chairman of the Nasarawa State unit, Bishop Joseph Masin, who was kidnapped from his house by gunmen last week.

The gunmen came on motorcycles and took Bishop Masin from his home in Bukan Sidi area in the state capital of Lafia on Wednesday night, and are now demanding a ransom of 20 million Nigerian Naira (roughly $52,000), said Pastor Adebayo Oladeji, who leads CANs media and communications department, according to the Nigerian news outlet This Day.

Since we have no police of our own and we are trying as much as possible to avoid chaotic situations, we are placing a demand on the federal government and the Nasarawa State Government to ensure the safety and immediate release of Bishop Masin before it is too late.

In January, Rev. Lawan Andimi, chairman of CAN Michika Local Government Area of Adamawa State, was abducted by the Boko Haram terror group. He was a Church of the Brethren pastor.

Days later, he appeared in a ransom video pleading with church and government leaders to secure his release. However, the pastor was said to have been executed because the Christian community could not raise enough funds to meet the ransom demands. Additionally, sources said that Andimi refused to renounce his faith in Christ.

We will not accept losing another state Chairman  while our security agencies appeared powerless, helpless , CAN said.

Nigeria ranks as the 12th worst nation in the world when it comes to Christian persecution on Open Doors USAs 2020 World Watch List.

The U.S. State Department added Nigeria for the first time to its special watch list of countries that tolerate severe religious freedom violations last December.

The church views the unabated kidnappings, extortions and killings of Christians and innocent Nigerians as shameful to the government that each time boasts that it has conquered insurgency, CAN noted in an earlier statement. It is reprehensible and saddening that each time the government comes out to claim the defeat of the insurgency, more killings of our people are committed.

A human rights group estimates that at least 1,000 Christians were killed by Boko Haram and Fulani radicals in 2019.

CAN has suggested that its difficult for its leaders to believe that the federal government under President Mohammadu Buhari is not colluding with the insurgents to exterminate Christians in Nigeria.

CAN has pointed to the very questionable leadership of the security sector that has been skewed toward a (particular) religion and region.

Is that lopsidedness not a cover-up for the operation of the insurgency? If not, why couldnt the well-equipped security agents of Nigeria get this man killed rescued?

The Nigerian government had claimed that the brutal acts carried out against Christians had no religious undertones. But CAN, then why are extremists and herdsmen targeting the predominantly Christian communities and Christian leaders?

If the security agencies are not living up to the expectations of the government, why hasnt it overhauled them with a view of injecting new visionaries into the security system?
A fired worker of Samsung Group ended his nearly one-year protest atop a 25-meter tower in southern Seoul on Friday, after South Korea's largest conglomerate apologized and promised to resolve what he claims to be his unlawful dismissal.



Kim Yong-hee, a former employee of the now-defunct Samsung Techwin Co., has been involved in a dispute with the group since he was fired in 1995. He claimed he was illegally expelled for his activity to organize a labor union, which had been virtually banned by the family-controlled conglomerate until recently.



After 24 years of struggle demanding Samsung's apology and his reinstatement, he climbed up a traffic surveillance tower on June 10, 2019, and continued a sit-in for 355 days.



Samsung Techwin, a defense equipment maker, was sold to Hanwha Group in 2015.



"The agreement was reached yesterday afternoon after a monthlong negotiation with Samsung from April 29," Im Mi-ri, a professor who co-heads a group supporting Kim, told reporters after he came down from the tower near Gangnam Station in Seoul.



"Mr. Kim's honor was restored as Samsung apologized for failing to resolve his midair sit-in early," she added.



In a statement read by Im, Samsung acknowledged that it had failed to adequately put forth efforts to actively resolve Kim's pain stemming from the conflict with the company since his dismissal.



"I have endured the time on top of the tower thinking of the people who have joined hands and visited Gangnam Station to show support," Kim told reporters.



"I have nothing to wish any more if Samsung establishes a new relationship between the management and its workers through my protest," the 61-year-old activist added.



Earlier this month, Samsung Group heir Lee Jae-yong made a rare public apology over various controversies over the management of the conglomerate and vowed to scrap the group's "no labor union" policy. The group later made an apology for failing to promptly settle the dispute with Kim.



Samsung's actions came after the group's independent compliance committee urged Lee to make a public apology and improve Samsung's behavior regarding the issue of Lee's managerial succession, labor union relations and communication with civil society.



The belated apology also came as Lee faces an investigation into a controversial merger between two Samsung units, Samsung C&T Corp. and Cheil Industries Inc., in 2015.



Lee was summoned by the prosecution Friday for the second time this week in the investigation. Prosecutors suspect Samsung's top management was involved in efforts to facilitate Lee's managerial succession from his ailing father, Lee Kun-hee, and may have intentionally lowered the value of Samsung C&T prior to its merger with Cheil Industries to help benefit Lee Jae-yong.



He also faces a new trial in a bribery case in connection with a scandal that led to the ousting of former President Park Geun-hye.



He was initially sentenced to five years in prison in 2017 but was freed a year later after the Seoul High Court reduced the sentence to 2 1/2 years, suspended for four years, dismissing most of the bribery charges against him. The Supreme Court last year sent the case back to the Seoul High Court for a retrial. (Yonhap)




The United Kingdom, France, and Germany on May 30 condemned the United States' decision to terminate the nuclear waiver for three remaining Iran nuclear-related projects. "We deeply regret the US decision to end the three waivers covering key JCPOA nuclear projects in Iran, including the Arak Modernisation Project," read a joint statement released by the foreign office of the three countries.

Read: Iran's Rouhani Says Trump's Exit From Nuclear Deal Was 'stupid Mistake'

"The JCPOA is a key achievement of the global non-proliferation architecture and currently the best and only way to ensure the exclusively peaceful nature of Irans nuclear programme. That is why we have worked continuously with the aim of ensuring the full and effective implementation of commitments under the JCPOA, in particular the return of Iran to full compliance with its nuclear commitments without delay," the statement added further.

Read: Iran: Experts Will Continue Nuclear Development Activities Despite US Sanctions

According to the US Department of State, the decision to terminate the waiver will take effect after 60-day wind-down and it will include the Arak reactor conversion, the provision of enriched uranium for the Tehran research reactor, and the export of Iran-spent and scrap research reactor fuel. However, The United States extended a waiver for the Russian-backed Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant for 90 days. International assistance a Bushehr predates the Iran nuclear deal.

Read: US Revokes Iran Nuclear Programme Sanctions Waivers, To Take Action Against Two Officials

The JCPOA deal

The projects were endorsed by UN Security Council resolution 2231 and serve the non-proliferation interests of all and provide the international community with assurances of the exclusively peaceful and safe nature of Iranian nuclear activities. US President Donald Trump withdrew from the Obama-era nuclear deal last year, drawing criticism from other parties, including the UK, France, and Germany.

Read: China Urges US To Abide By Its Commitments In Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty

(Image Credit: AP)
Two Capitol Police officers hurt in Saturdays protests in Harrisburg against the May 25 death of an unarmed and subdued black man at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer last week were treated at an area hospital and released later that day, Wolf Administration officials confirmed Sunday.

State Department of General Services spokesman Troy Thompson said the officers, who were not identified, were hurt sometime after 3 p.m. as they responded to support Harrisburg city police with a city police vehicle on Forrester Street that had been surrounded by a crowd of protestors.

Thompson said he could not release specifics about the injuries or how they occurred, other than to say that they came about as a result of interactions with several of the protesters.

Thompson did say the officers injuries were minor.

In a later press conference Sunday, Harrisburg Mayor Eric Papenfuse said that the Capitol officers were injured as they responded to calls to assist a small group of city police that had been besieged by a large crowd of protesters in the area of North and Front streets.

In the ensuing confrontation, Papenfuse said, one of the officers was hit in the head with a thrown brick, and the other suffered a hand injury. Papenfuse said he has been told that the officer hit in the head is resting peacefully at home today, while the second injured officer was back on duty at the Capitol today.

Papenfuse did say that, in his view, the officers actions in responding to that fracas were brave, courageous and averted additional violence.

No arrests have been made in the assaults as of Sunday afternoon. Thompson said that may be because police are still trying to identify precisely who was responsible. It was a large gathering of individuals, and that can make it hard to identify people sometimes, Thompson said. Questions about the incident were referred to DGS because it is the state agency with oversight of Capitol Police operations.

Thompson also said Capitol Police did cite one juvenile with disorderly conduct during Saturdays protests, in an incident that was unrelated to the one that sent the two officers to the hospital. That youth, he said, was released to the custody of his parents.
DETROIT - The city of Detroit will impose a curfew from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. on Sunday through Monday, June 1, announced Mayor Mike Duggan on the afternoon of May 31.

The order does not prevent people from going to work, Duggan said, who made the move after violence broke out this weekend in his city. He sat beside Detroit Police Chief James Craig and community leaders to implore protesters to stay at home Sunday night.

If you come to Detroit and commit criminal acts, you will be arrested, Craig said.

Press Conference 05/31 An update about the last 24hrs in the city of Detroit Posted by City of Detroit Government on Sunday, May 31, 2020

The curfew will stay in place for subsequent days until Craig and the Detroit Police Department feel the threat is over, said Duggan.

We dont want to arrest anybody, the mayor said. This is to keep people safe.

Craig said his department will enforce the order just like he did during previous protests.

First, a warning, then an arrest, Craig said. Im sure many who will be around will be compliant. Others that arent, we will take appropriate action.

The curfew comes after a police brutality march in Detroit Saturday started peacefully in protesting the death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer, then turned violent for the second straight night when protesters faced off with Detroit police in riot gear near the entrance to the police headquarters.

Nearly 100 Detroit police officers with body armor and shields stood in multiple rows facing a crowd of nearly 500 at the corner of Third Street and Michigan Avenue in downtown Detroit.

Detroit George Floyd police brutality protest turns violent as police fire tear gas, rubber bullets

Demonstrators had said they plan to protest at Detroit Public Safety Headquarters beginning 4 p.m. Sunday.

Many of the community organizers that spoke tried to get across a similar message: The unrest did not come from the original, peaceful protesters. Instead, rebel rousers" infiltrated a peaceful movement, said Pastor Maurice Hardwick of the Live in Peace Movement.

Young kids who really care about racism and George Floyd and others, they came, black, white and green came home and should be honored, Hardwick said. The rest came and were rebel rousers. If youre coming (from outside) into the city, you dont get it. You are using black pain for your own agenda."

Tommie Mahone, the stunt driver who did doughnuts on I-94 earlier this year, spoke about the benefits of the stay-home order, which is not to be confused with Gov. Gretchen Whitmers executive orders to prevent COVID-19 spread.

This stay-at-home order will be beneficial for everyone, Mahone said. The violence last night had no point. Those people wanted to be part of something without justification...We need to bridge the gap between the Detroit PD and the higher-ups in the community.

Duggan thanked the community leaders for his help getting the message out.

There is not a mayor who has the type of community leadership that I have here, Duggan said. I ask you to continue being with us and moving forward this evening. I ask you to stick with us and move forward.

Read more:

Police brutality protests in Michigan: What you need to know from this weekends rallies, riots
The Egyptian Medical Syndicate (EMS) said in a statement on Sunday that Health Minister Hala Zayed and the head of the EMS Dr Hussein Khairy agreed on opening a 24-hour channel of communication between them, so that the problems facing medical teams can be solved directly.

The health minister met on Sunday with the head of the EMS at the headquarters of the ministry to address the problems and challenges facing Egypts medical teams amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Khairy reiterated all the former demands of the syndicate and the states duty to protect medical teams so that they can continue to carry out their mission.

The EMS said that Zayed stressed during the meeting the keenness of the ministry and state agencies on implementing the required measures to protect medical teams.

The health ministry said in a statement on Sunday that Zayed asserted during the meeting that all required precautionary measures are being taken to protect the medical teams from infection.

Minister Zayed said that the state will support the medical teams by establishing a fund for work hazards, and that the medical professions allowance has been raised to 75 percent. She added that the ministry is currently studying raising the retirement age to 62.

The minister also said that all medics undergo periodic rapid testing when they enter the hospital to start their work, as well as upon their discharge from the hospital.

She added that the ministry performs PCR tests for any medics who show COVID-19 symptoms while performing their work. The minister indicated that so far over 10,000 PCR tests have been performed on medical teams since the outbreak of the virus in Egypt.

According to Zayed, 20 beds in each isolation hospital have been allocated to infected medical staff.

The health minister expressed her appreciation for all the efforts exerted by the medical teams in dealing with the pandemic.

Over 330 doctors in Egypt have been infected by the coronavirus so far according to the EMS, and 26 doctors have died from the virus.

Egypts Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said on Thursday that Egyptian doctors who die from the coronavirus are treated as martyrs, and the financial compensations to the doctors' families will be handled by the Fund of Medical Professions, which was announced by President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi in late March.

The death of Dr Walid Abdel-Halim, a 32-year-old doctor who worked at El-Munira General Hospital and passed away from the virus last week, has stirred uproar among doctors across social media platforms, with many accusing the Ministry of Health of ignoring the requests of medical staff.

In a statement on Monday, the EMS held the ministry "fully responsible" for the rise in coronavirus infections and deaths among medical staff, which it said is the result of the ministrys inaction and negligence in protecting them.

The EMS presented several demands to the government concerning the safety of medical teams in hospitals after the spread of the virus among the medical staff in the past few weeks.

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ALBANY  A Greene County resident is among three New Yorkers facing federal charges for allegedly throwing homemade explosive devices at New York Police Department vehicles Saturday morning.

Samantha Shader, 27, whose address is listed in Catskill, is accused of lobbing a Molotov cocktail  sometimes known as a "bottle bomb"  at an NYPD car occupied by four police officers and shattering two windows. A witness recorded the incident on video, and Shader admitted to throwing the device at the vehicle in a statement after her arrest, according to a Sunday release from the Department of Justice.
What is art without a gallery? Not just divorced, removed from, or imitating a physical space, but conceived, designed and presented online?

This was the challenge posed by the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art in April, with a commissioning series for contemporary art projects in the digital realm, responding to the coronavirus-enforced shutdown of the gallery.

Artists Amrita Hepi and Sam Lieblich created something to "test a person's personhood". Credit:Justin McManus

The results are in, with six new projects selected for the ACCA Open.

Theres Neighbour, a chatbot designed by a choreographer and a neuroscientist, trained in conversation taken from poetry, philosophy and popular music, which really wants to find out how does it feel?
Protesters gather Saturday in Minneapolis. Protests continued following the death of George Floyd, a black man who was killed in police custody in Minneapolis on May 25. Read more

As unrest continued in Minneapolis on Saturday following the death of George Floyd during his detention by local police, leaders at the federal, state and local levels said large numbers of outsiders had seized upon protests begun by Minnesotans to advance their own political agendas.

But the officials offered little evidence to show who was responsible and contradicted each other on who was to blame.

They variously assigned responsibility for the escalating violence to far-right nationalists, left-wing radicals, drug cartels and possibly foreign agents in statements, news conferences and presidential tweets.

Ultimately, the confusion of rioting and looting that officials said had outstripped the capabilities of local law enforcement and prompted a historic deployment of the National Guard offered little clarity and ample opportunity for opposing political parties to advance their own theories.

 READ MORE: As Philly protests descended into chaos, police restraint was no match for volatility

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, told reporters he had no doubt that protests over Floyd's death began with Minnesotans frustrated and outraged "with inequality, inequities and quite honestly racism that persisted" in the state.

But state officials have assessed that up to 80 percent of those protesting or rioting came from outside Minnesota, Walz said. He suggested that far-right white supremacists and perhaps organized drug cartels were chiefly responsible.

A federal law enforcement official was not aware of any intelligence about cartels infiltrating the protests.

But according to local officials, most people arrested in protest-related incidents were state residents.

Of the 57 people arrested through Saturday morning, 47 provided a Minnesota address to authorities, said Jeremy Zoss, a spokesman for the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office. Most of them gave addresses from Minneapolis and St. Paul, according to data provided to The Washington Post. The 10 other arrests were of people from another states or the state wasn't provided, Zoss said.

State officials said that after reviewing posts online, they were confident far-right racist groups had encouraged their followers to descend on the state and take advantage of the crisis.

John Harrington, commissioner of Minnesota's Department of Public Safety, said officials were "checking to see are they part of an organized criminal organization."

"Is this organized crime? Is this an organized cell of terror?" he said, referring to posts by white nationalist groups.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, a Democrat, said that local law enforcement had been "overwhelmed" by the huge number of people on his city's streets.

"We are now confronting white supremacists, members of organized crime, out-of-state instigators, and possibly even foreign actors to destroy and destabilize our city and our region," he said.

Walz suggested that U.S. intelligence agencies were providing the state with information about who was behind the protests, implying that the National Security Agency, which monitors foreign governments and terrorist organizations, might be playing a role.

U.S. officials dismissed those claims, noting that, by law, the NSA does not monitor domestic political activities. The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence, were also skeptical that foreigners were taking part in protests or had helped organized them. Foreign media, including Chinese and Russian sources, have sought to portray the violence as emblematic of systemic political failings in the United States.

State officials weren't the only ones trying to pin protests in Minneapolis and other cities on politically motivated outsiders.

"The voices of peaceful protest are being hijacked by violent radical elements," Attorney General William Barr said in a statement from Justice Department headquarters.

Unlike state officials, Barr was unequivocal on who was to blame, claiming that the protests were "planned, organized and driven by anarchic and far-left extremist groups using antifa-like tactics," referring to anti-fascist groups that have used violence.

Barr offered no evidence to support those assertions, and his descriptions ran counter to Walz, who blamed the violence, at least in part, on far-right actors.

President Donald Trump wrote in a tweet that 80 percent of the Minnesota protesters had come from out of state, concurring with the governor's assessment. But like Barr, he singled out only far-left groups.

"It's ANTIFA and the Radical Left. Don't lay the blame on others!" Trump tweeted.

The Washington Posts Matt Zapotosky contributed to this report.
Scientists have suggested that the Great Russian Flu of 1890 which killed Queen Victoria's grandson is a Covid-type bug that could be the forerunner of today's global health crisis.

The Great Russian Flu pandemic of the early 1890s was a deadly influenza pandemic which killed around 1 million people worldwide and struck all levels of society including British politicians.

The agent responsible for the outbreak was later conjectured to be an influenza strain, but a group of scientists in Belgium dispute this.

Scientists have suggested that the Great Russian Flu of 1890 which killed Queen Victoria's grandson is a Covid-type bug that could be the forerunner of today's global health crisis. Above, a Victorian hospital ward around 1890

They believe the pandemic was caused by a coronavirus which jumped from cows to humans.

The research, led by Belgian biologist Leen Vijgen, was published several years ago but its findings have reemerged amid the current pandemic.

The Vijgen argument is based on the fact that the human coronavirus OC43 was a very close genetic match to another coronavirus that infects cows, leading researchers to hypothesize that the two must have a common ancestor from around 1890, and the virus may have jumped from cows to humans around that time.

The Great Russian Flu claimed the life of Queen Victoria's grandson, Prince Albert Victor (pictured above)

'It's a very convincing analysis,' coronavirus expert at Bristol University Dr David Matthews told The Observer.

'The scientists used very sophisticated, advanced research and their claim is worth taking seriously.'

The Great Russian Flu claimed the life of Queen Victoria's grandson, Prince Albert Victor, who had been second in line to the throne.

He caught the disease during a New Year's shooting party and died after a five-day battle with pneumonia at Sandringham House in Norfolk on January 14, 1892, aged 28.

The Prince of Wales wrote to Queen Victoria following his death: 'Gladly would I have given my life for his.'

Then-Prime Minister Lord Salisbury was confined to his sick bed for weeks while he battled the virus.
Philonise Floyd is speaking out after the death of his brother George Floyd, the black man whose fatal encounter with police was caught on-camera, with viral footage sparking widespread outrage on social media.

As protests erupt across the country, Floyd virtually spoke with MSNBC's Al Sharpton on Saturday and talked about the conversations he had with President Donald Trump and former vice president Joe Biden, who is the presumptive Democratic nominee in the 2020 presidential election.

"I never had to beg a man before but I asked [Biden] could he please, please get justice for my brother, please. Because I need it, I just don't want to see him on a shirt like those other guys. Nobody deserves that," said Floyd, who was joined by his nephew Brandon Williams and their family attorney Ben Crump.

Meanwhile, Floyd said his call with Trump was much different.

"It was so fast. He didn't give me the opportunity to even speak. It was hard. I was trying to talk to him but he just kept like pushing me off like 'I dont want to hear what youre talking about.' I just told him I want justice. I said that I can't believe that they committed a modern-day lynching in broad daylight," he shared.

"I can't stand for that, that hurt me. I just don't understand, man," he said as he became emotional and fought back tears. "Why we have to go through this? Why we gotta have all this pain, man? I love my brother. I'm never going to see him again."

A spokesperson for the White House did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's request for comment.

RELATED: George Floyd's Girlfriend Pleads for Peace at Protests, Says Destruction Would 'Devastate' Him

Trump, who was in Florida for the NASA-SpaceX launch, made remarks about his phone call with Floyd during a speech at the Kennedy Space Center on Saturday.

"Yesterday, I spoke to George's family and expressed the sorrow of our entire nation for their loss. I stand before you as a friend and ally to every American seeking justice and peace, and I stand before you in firm opposition to anyone exploiting this tragedy to loot, rob, and menace. Healing not hatred, justice not chaos are the mission at hand," the president said.

Story continues

"I understand the pain that people are feeling. We support the right of peaceful protests and we hear their pleas, but what we are now seeing on the streets of our cities has nothing to do with the memory of George Floyd. The violence and vandalism is being led by Antifa and other radical left-wing groups who are terrorizing the innocent, destroying jobs, hurting businesses and burning down buildings," Trump said. "The main victims of this horrible, horrible situation are the citizens who live in these once-lovely communities... The mobs are devastating the life's work of good people and destroying their dreams. We support the overwhelming majority of police officers who are incredible in every way and devoted to public service."

RELATED: Minneapolis, Atlanta, D.C. and More Cities Erupt in Protests Across the U.S. Over George Floyd's Death

This is no time for incendiary tweets. This is no time to encourage violence.



This is a national crisis  and we need real leadership right now.  Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) May 30, 2020

If we are complacent, if we are silent, we are complicit in perpetuating these cycles of violence.



None of us can turn away. We all have an obligation to speak out.  Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) May 30, 2020

Also during the MSNBC interview, Floyd gave his thoughts about former officer Derek Chauvin and the other police officers in the nine-minute video, which shows Floyd's brother George groaning in pain while bystanders plead with Chauvin to be more gentle as he repeatedly asks for help.

"They all need to be convicted of first-degree murder, and given the death penalty because they didn't care about what they wanted to do with my brother. He wasn't a person to them, he was scum. He was nothing," he told Sharpton. "I can imagine how many people they did like that. I don't need them on the streets to kill anybody else. I'm hurt, my family is hurt. His kids are hurt. They will grow up without a father. Everybody is crying and in pain right now. So if they could do anything please arrest those other officers."

Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman, whose office would prosecute the case, said at a recent press conference that his office is still investigating the case and that the video of Chauvin putting his weight on George's neck is "graphic, and horrific and terrible, and no person should do that."

Sharpton said he will be traveling to Minnesota "soon to officiate and deliver eulogies at George Floyd's funeral."
Several cities across the U.S. have been besieged by crowds who defied curfews to protest the death of an unarmed black man, George Floyd, in the hands of a Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin.

In a viral video shot by a bystander, Mr Floyd, 46, was about a week ago seen handcuffed, his neck pinned to the ground by Mr Chauvin, his nose bleeding, as he gasped for breath.

Please, I cant breathe, Mr Floyd groaned.

The police accused him of forgery.

Another video shot at a different angle showed that three policemen kneeled on Mr Floyd, according to local media CNN, while another officer stood to restrain bystanders from the scene.

Minutes later, Mr Floyd laid motionless, his eyes shut, as his head dangled against the pavement. He was declared dead at a hospital shortly afterwards, CNN reported.

All four officers have been fired, according to the police. Police also said Derek Chauvin had been arrested and charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.

But protesters and critics believe the charges are not harsh enough. Angst has since spiked across the country as thousands poured onto streets in demonstrations, some peaceful, others ending in chaos.

The U.S. is also the epicenter of COVID-19 with over a million cases and 100,000 deaths, but this appeared to be the least worries of the demonstrators who went on the solidarity march.

Some protesters were seen in videos launching fireworks and throwing bottles at police barricades. Others torched buildings, burned police cars and even looted stores, CNN said.

In Minneapolis, the city where the incident occurred, a police station was set ablaze, and parts of the city experienced looting and vandalism. Dozens of arrests have been made, but no serious injuries were recorded, the Minnesota department of corrections commissioner Paul Schnell said.

In downtown Indianapolis, Police Chief Randal Taylor said at a press conference Saturday night that at least three people were reported shot and one dead amid the protests.

At least 27 people were arrested in protests Saturday night in Seattle, Washington, according to Seattle Police Department chief Carmen Best.

Also, a 27-second video posted on microblogging site Twitter showed a New York police truck drive into a barricade, and plowing through protestors who were seen throwing objects at the vehicle.

It was unclear if there were injuries or casualties, but New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio told reporters Saturday the police were investigating and maintained that the police might have been left with no choice.

Look, Ive seen that video, and Ive obviously heard about a number of other instances  its inappropriate for protestors to surround a police vehicle and threaten police officers, CNN quoted Mr De Blasio as saying.

And so its clear that a different element has come into play here who are trying to hurt police officers and trying to damage their vehicles, and if a police officer is [in] that situation they have to get out that situation.

An officer in Jacksonville, Florida, was stabbed or slashed in the neck and is currently in the hospital, state police officer Sheriff Mike Williams told a press conference Saturday.

Elsewhere, police responded with rubber bullets, tear gas, pepper spray and arrests, including of reporters. Local reports say 25 cities in 16 states have imposed curfews. Some states have called in the National Guard soldiers to help quell the unrest. California has declared a state of emergency.

In a statement by Democratic Party presidential hopeful Joe Biden, he said protesting such brutality is right and necessary.

Its an utterly American response, Mr Biden wrote. But burning down communities and needless destruction is not. Violence that endangers lives is not. Violence that guts and shutters businesses that serve the community is not.

President Donald Trump has been criticised for his comments about the protesters, calling them thugs and threatening to deploy the military to quell the protests.
Abubakar Umar, a retired army colonel and former military governor of Kaduna State, has warned President Muhammadu Buhari that Nigeria risks sliding into crisis if the president continues to give undue preference to some sections of the country over others in national appointments.

Mr Umar, in an open letter he wrote on Sunday to Mr Buhari, said Nigeria has already become dangerously polarized under Mr Buhari.

The lopsidedness in Mr Buharis appointment, Mr Umar said, is more glaring in the leadership of the nations security services.

He mentioned to Mr Buhari some of the actions of former Nigerian leaders whom he (Umar) said were able to rise above ethnic and sectional considerations to do what was right in the interest of the nation.

Mr Umars letter is titled Mr. President; Please Belong to All of Us, a sarcastic reminder of a popular quote made by Mr Buhari during his inauguration in 2015  I belong to everybody and I belong to nobody.

Mr Umar referred the president to the case of the former Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Walter Onnoghen, who was disgraced out of office on corruption charges.

Mr Onnoghen had resigned from office on account of the charges and was later convicted by the Code of Conduct Tribunal.

The thinking among some Nigerians was that Mr Onnoghen, from Cross River, South-South Nigeria, was hounded out of office so that a northerner could become the CJN.

After his appointment by President Buhari as acting CJN on November 10, 2016, Mr Onnoghens confirmation was sent to the Senate three months after not by Mr Buhari, but by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo who was the acting president then. He was sworn in by Mr Osinbajo, March 7, 2017.

You may wish to recall that I had cause to appeal to you, to confirm Justice Onnoghen as the substantive Chief Justice of Nigeria a few days before the expiration of his three months tenure of the acting appointment to be replaced by a Muslim Northerner, Mr Umar said to President Buhari in the letter.

We were saved that embarrassment when his nomination was sent to the senate by the then acting President, Prof. Yemi Osibanjo. When he was finally confirmed a few days to the end of his tenure, he was removed after a few months and replaced by Justice Muhammed, a Muslim from the North, Mr Umar added.

May I also invite the attention of Mr. President to the pending matter of appointment of a Chief Judge of the Nigerian Court Appeal which appears to be generating public interest.

As it is, the most senior Judge, Justice Monica Dongban Mensem, a northern Christian, is serving out her second three-month term as acting Chief Judge without firm prospects that she will be confirmed substantive head.

I do not know Justice Mensem but those who do attest to her competence, honesty and humility. She appears eminently qualified for appointment as the substantive Chief Judge of the Court of Appeal as she is also said to be highly recommended by the National Judicial Council.

If she is not and is bypassed in favor of the next in line who happens to be another northern Muslim, that would be truly odd. In which case, even the largest contingent of PR gurus would struggle to rebut the charges that you, Mr. President, is either unwilling or incapable of acting on your pledge to belong to everyone  and to no one.

I hope you would see your way into pausing and reflecting on the very grave consequences of such failure not just to your legacy but to the future of our great country, the retired colonel said.

The lopsidedness in President Buharis appointments has been a regular subject of discourse among Nigerians. The president, for long, has appeared unmoved by criticism over the issue but has denied that his appointments are lopsided.

See the full text of Mr Umars letter to President Buhari below:

Muhammadu Buhari, Sunday 30th May 2020

President,

Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces,

Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Dear Mr. President,

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*MR. PRESIDENT; PLEASE BELONG TO ALL OF US.*

One of the swiftest ways of destroying a Kingdom is to give preference of one particular tribe over another or show favor to one group of people rather than another. And to draw near those who should be kept away and keep away those who should be drawn near Sheikh Usman Dan Fodio.

I have been prompted to write you this open letter, Mr. President, by the loud sounds of drums, singing and dancing that erupted within many groups in the last few days on the grounds that you attained the 5th year in office as President of Nigeria. It comes as no surprise that enthusiasm for the celebration is not shared equally by segments of the public. While your admirers and supporters believe you have performed well, many others believe the five years you have been in office as our President has not met the yearnings, expectations and change promised Nigerians.

Mr. President, you know me well enough and my position on issues to realize that I can be neither a rabid supporter nor a fanatical opponent of yours. I believe being a responsible citizen is enough reason to wish you well and to work for your success. As we have seen all too clearly these past few years, your success is ours as is your failure. We swim or sink with you!

You might wish to recall that after the results of the 23rd of February 2019 presidential elections were announced, giving you victory, I addressed a press conference during which I urged the runner-up, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the PDP, to concede defeat. The reason was clear: tensions were running high and little missteps by the leaders might ignite violence, as often happened after major elections. Some supporters of Abubakar Atiku disagreed with me and told me off. As it happened, Alhaji Atiku went ahead to mount a legal challenge to the outcome of the elections up to the Supreme Court. Mercifully, his actions did not result in an outbreak of violence as we feared.

At the same occasion, I counselled the declared winner, your good self, to use the opportunity of your second term to redeem your pledge of being a leader and president of all Nigerians.

On the occasion of the first-year anniversary into your second four-year term, I feel there is an urgent need to revisit this subject matter.

Mr. President, you have often expressed the hope that history will be kind to you. It is within your competence to write that history. But you have less than three years in which to do it. You may wish to note that any authentic history must be devoid of myth. It will be a true, factual rendition of the record of your performance.

And truth be told, Mr. President, there are quite a lot of things that speak to your remarkable accomplishments, not least of which is that for the first time in our democratic history, a sitting President was defeated. That feat was achieved by Muhammadu Buhari. The reason was the public belief of you as a man of integrity.

The corollary to this is that at the expiration of your 8-year tenure in 2023, your achievements will not be measured solely by the physical infrastructure your administration built. An enduring legacy would be based on those intangible things like how much you uplifted the spirit and moral tone of the nation. How well have you secured the nation from ourselves and from external enemies?

At this time and in the light of all that have happened since you took office, any conversation with you Mr. President cannot gloss over the chaos that has overtaken appointments into government offices in your administration. All those who wish you and the country well must mince no words in warning you that Nigeria has become dangerously polarized and risk sliding into crisis on account of your administrations lopsided appointments which continues to give undue preference to some sections of the country over others.

Nowhere is this more glaring than in the leadership cadre of our security services.

Mr. President, I regret that there are no kind or gentle words to tell you that your skewed appointments into the offices of the federal government, favoring some and frustrating others, shall bring ruin and destruction to this nation.

I need not remind you, Mr. President, that our political history is replete with great acts of exemplary leadership which, at critical moments, managed to pull this nation back from the precipice and assured its continued existence.

A few examples will demonstrate this:

In February, 1965, the NPC-led Federal Government was faced with a decision to appoint a successor to the outgoing Nigerian Army General Officer Commanding (GOC), General Welby Everard, a Briton. Four most senior officers were nominated; namely, Brigadiers Aguiyi Ironsi, Ogundipe, Ademulegun and Maimalari. The first three were senior to Maimalari but he was deemed to be more qualified due to his superior commission. He was the first Sandhurst Regular trained officer in the Nigerian Army. His being a Muslim Northerner like the Minister of Defense, Alhaji Muhammadu Ribadu and the Prime Minister, Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa granted him added advantage by todays standards. But to the surprise of even the Igbos, and opposition from some senior NPC members, Minister Ribadu recommended Ironsi, pointing to his seniority. The Prime Minister concurred and Aguiyi Ironsi was confirmed as the first indigenous GOC of the Nigerian Army.

When on 13 February 1976, the Commander-in-Chief, General Murtala Muhammed, was assassinated in a failed Coup de tat, General Olusegun Obasanjo, his deputy and the most senior officer at the time, was sworn in as his successor. The Chief of Army Staff, General T.Y Danjuma, a Northern Christian, was next in line to succeed Obasanjo as the Chief of Staff, SHQ and Deputy Commander in Chief. General Danjuma however waived his right and recommended a much junior officer, Lt. Col. Shehu Musa Yaradua, for the post. Shehu was promoted two steps up to the rank of Brigadier and appointed Chief of Staff SHQ and Deputy Commander-in-Chief. Lt. Col. Muhammadu Buhari was appointed Minister of Petroleum. This was done to placate Muslim North which was deemed to have lost one of its own, Murtala Muhammed.

Both the chief of staff, Mr. Sunday Awoniyi, and the personal physician Dr Ishaya Audu to the Premier of Northern Nigeria, Alhaji Sir Ahmadu Bello, a direct descendant of Sheikh Usman Dan Fodio, were Christians.

Barely nine years after the civil war in 1979, the NPN Presidential candidate, Alhaji Shehu Shagari, picked an Igbo, Dr Alex Ekwueme, as his running mate. They enjoyed a truly brotherly relationship as President and Vice President. President Shagaris political advisor, Dr Chuba Okadigbo and National Assembly Liaison, assistant, Dr K.O Mbadiwe, were both Igbos. His economic advisor, Prof. Emmanuel Edozien and his Chief of Personnel Staff Dr Michael Prest, were of Niger Delta extraction. Remarkably, all his military service chiefs were Christians with the exception of his last Chief Army Staff, General Inuwa Wushishi under whose tenure he was removed in a military coup de tat.

Mr. President, as a witness and beneficiary, it is our expectation that you would emulate these great acts of statesmanship. Which is why we have continued to engage with you.

You may wish to recall that I had cause to appeal to you, to confirm Justice Onnoghen as the substantive Chief Justice of Nigeria a few days before the expiration of his three months tenure of acting appointment to be replaced by a Muslim Northerner. We were saved that embarrassment when his nomination was sent to the senate by the then acting President, Prof. Yemi Osibanjo. When he was finally confirmed a few days to the end of his tenure, he was removed after a few months and replaced by Justice Muhammed, a Muslim from the North.

May I also invite the attention of Mr. President to the pending matter of appointment of a Chief Judge of the Nigerian Court Appeal which appears to be generating public interest. As it is, the most senior Judge, Justice Monica Dongban Mensem, a northern Christian, is serving out her second three-month term as acting Chief Judge without firm prospects that she will be confirmed substantive head. I do not know Justice Mensem but those who do attest to her competence, honesty and humility. She appears eminently qualified for appointment as the substantive Chief Judge of the Court of Appeal as she is also said to be highly recommended by the National Judicial Council. If she is not and is bypassed in favor of the next in line who happens to be another northern Muslim, that would be truly odd. In which case, even the largest contingent of PR gurus would struggle to rebut the charges that you, Mr. President, is either unwilling or incapable of acting on your pledge to belong to everyone  and to no one. I hope you would see your way into pausing and reflecting on the very grave consequences of such failure not just to your legacy but to the future of our great country.

Thank you for your time, Mr. President.

COL. ABUBAKAR DANGIWA UMAR (RTD)
New Delhi :

Three Indians stuck in a war zone in Libya have been evacuated and are being brought back home, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said on Thursday Evening.

She said they have been brought to Benghazi, which is a port city in Libya. "We have brought them in military vehicles 650 Kms away to Benghazi. We will now fly them from Benghazi/Tripoli.

"Two of them were evacuated by the Government earlier also. However, they returned to Libya on 28.4.2016 ignoring our advisories.

"They are being evacuated from war torn Libya at the public expense for the second time," Swaraj said in a series of tweets.

Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal had requested Swaraj to help the three men in returning to India.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
By PTI

WASHINGTON: Google stands in support of racial equality and all those who search for it, Indian-American CEO of the technology giant Sundar Pichai said on Sunday.

He said that the company has decided to share its support for the racial equality in solidarity with the black community and in memory of George Floyd on Google and YouTube home pages in the US.

"Today on US Google & YouTube homepages we share our support for racial equality in solidarity with the Black community and in memory of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery & others who don't have a voice," Pichai wrote on Twitter.

"For that feeling grief, anger, sadness & fear, you are not alone, Pichai said, sharing a screenshot of the Google search home page which said we stand in support of racial equality, and all those who search for it."

His remarks came amidst nationwide violent protests over the killing of unarmed black man George Floyd by a policeman in Minneapolis.

Floyd pleaded for air as the white police officer pressed his knee on his neck, leading to his death.

The officer has been arrested and charged with murder.
Red Wing United held a protest on Saturday at City Hall where over a hundred members of the community gathered with signs in hand and masks on to speak out against the death of George Floyd in Minnesota and many other victims of racism and police brutality.

The death of George Floyd by officer Derek Chauvin has sparked protests and riots throughout the country. Chauvin was charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter, but Laredo residents criticized other aspects of the government and the areas law enforcement.

The protest was kicked off by Christian Ochoa, who gave a heartfelt speech.

Much like the 13 colonies rebelled against the leader who did not listen to their protests, we too have grown tired, we too have had enough and we too will make those who stay silent uncomfortable because being against racism is not enough  you have to be anti-racism, Ochoa said. Silence makes you an accomplice of the oppressors.

Those attending gathered around the entrance of the building to listen to Red Wing Member Alec Martinez, who spoke out against the governments treatment of its citizens. He touched on subjects such as the citys management of the 2019 water crisis issue, the murder of four women allegedly at the hands of Border Patrol agent Juan David Ortiz in 2018 and the shooting death of Jose Walter Garza by police in 2014.

The violence against women, the violence against LGBTQ, the fact that we have more people in prison in American than in any other country on earth, what does that tell you about the society that we live in? Martinez asked.

READ MORE: LPD: Woman to be deported after monitored jail calls led to arrest

Two armed protesters were also present but referred media to a sign with their statement. It stated that they were armed as a result of the El Paso incident where the Hispanic community was targeted, and that far-right counter protesters were prone to violence. However, there was no feeling of alarm from protesters or police officers present.

Martinez went on to present a list of demands from Red Wing United to the City of Laredo.

The transparency of the training for Laredo Police officers and the inclusion of anti-racist/anti-violent if it is not already present was the first demand. The second and third were a non-council appointed citizen committee to monitor police activity and for police officers to only patrol their own neighborhoods.

A lot harder to brutalize your neighbor when you got to see them the next day, Martinez said.

The group also demanded that the LPD and the sheriffs department cease their collaboration with ICE and more robust background checks for police force applicants. Additionally, safer avenues for women to report domestic violence and the termination of any officer that has received use-of-force complaints.

The last demands were the dismantling of the Police Union and that the police budget pay for all city budget shortcomings and any planned increase to the police budget to go to schools, mental health access, infrastructure, etc.

LPD was unavailable to comment, but the masked officers overlooking the protest did not interrupt or involve themselves throughout the hour.

After Martinezs speech, protesters marched around City Hall chanting and waving their signs. These signs had messages like Black Lives Matter, Justice for Floyd and Tu Lucha es mi Lucha. Through his megaphone, he encouraged social distancing, but clusters of people still formed.

Protester Hazel Medina said that she felt the protest was empowering yet peaceful, and that helped their message get across.

This needs to stop. Its not fair, and honestly we are all people. We all have the same heart, we all share the same soul, and this is what weve got to do to help people out, Medina said. Its sad how far we have to come to share the message  Black Lives Matter.

READ MORE: Laredos unemployment has record rise in April

A TAMIU student and protester, Nathan  who wished not to share his last name  said that it was crazy that police brutality has been going on since the 60s and has not stopped. He spoke about how Black Lives Matter has grown nationwide and has advocates in Berlin and Tokyo as well, saying that Black Lives Matter because they understood the pain the black community has endured since the 60s.

We are tired, we are angry, Nathan said. Its crazy how people who arent black are here too, but they feel our pain and all this police brutality. They see it too. This is not just black people, its everyone.

However, not everyone supported the protest.

Osvaldo De Leon was present to see if he could write a story and hopes to be a conservative-libertarian historian.

Despite the organizations encouragement for all to wear masks, De Leon chose not to wear one around protesters because he said he did not fear them and felt that putting on a mask is a way of saying that Texas was taking care of you. He did, however, put on the mask near police officers because he believed they would tell him to do so, but he said that he would not have done so if he was armed.

He then said that the way to fix problems is not to come together, but for individuals to not do bad things. One way he suggested was to teach ones own values to ones children. However, he also said that if, for example, someone is racist, they should not be censored for their beliefs as long as they dont create violence.

Alongside De Leon were approximately five other attendees who chose not to wear masks.

Regardless of the differing viewpoints present, there were no altercations during the protests, and at one point, a police cruiser passing by gave a thumbs up to the protesters which led to a loud cheer and chants.
Kayleigh McEnany's White House press briefings instantly became must-watch TV when she first took the podium on May 1. You need only watch one to see why, and it's not because of her looks. Or at least not entirely. The one on Tuesday, May 26, was particularly entertaining, first as a display of a certain kind of journalism and second as a show of how faulty data can still have their uses.

The fireworks began when Ryan Lizza had his chance to pop a question. Lizza is a decent representative of the type. Since graduating from U.C. Berkeley in the mid-1990s, he's had stints as a reporter for or contributor to the New Republic, Atlantic magazine, New York magazine, GQ, the New York Times, the New Yorker, and currently Politico and CNN. His longest stint  ten years at the New Yorker  ended in 2017 when he was fired for alleged sexual misconduct, which he strenuously denied. A victim, one might say, of #MeToo.

Lizza's question to McEnany was typical of the genre. Its aim was not to garner information that might shed light on the goings-on in the government. It was to juice up the reporter's (or his employer's) prefabricated story angle. Thus:

Kayleigh, we're about to cross the 100,000 dead American milestone. What would  what does the White House view as having  by Election Day, what does the White House view as the number of dead Americans, where you can say that we successfully defeated this pandemic? Is there a number?

Cute, eh? Lizza must have been giggling to himself when he rehearsed that one. Its purpose, apparently, was to evoke in a reader's mind the image of President Trump triumphing over the bodies of dead Americans, as if he and not COVID-19 had killed them.

McEnany declined the bait:

Yeah, you know, every loss of life counts. We say 100,000, but like the President says, you know, one death is something to be mourned. These 100,000 individuals have a face. The President takes this very seriously. It's why he lowered the flag to half-staff for three days, to remember these men and women. I think, you know, Dr. [Deborah] Birx said it best when she said that in their estimates they had anywhere between 1.5 and 2.2 million people in the U.S. succumbing to the virus if we didn't shut down the economy. The President made the very hard choice of shutting down the economy, so we avoided that extraordinary number. Every  one death is too many. We never want to see a single individual lose their life. But that being said, to be under, significantly, that high mark shows that the President did everything in his power and helped to make this number as low as humanly possible.

Because that did not give Lizza quite what he needed, he essentially repeated the question, being sure to keep in the linkage between Trump and "dead Americans." McEnany again was not having it:

You know, in a typical year 120,000 people die of suicide and drug overdose. That's in a typical year. And doctors have said, when you shut down an economy for an extended period of time, that number gets greater. People don't show up for their cancer diagnoses. There is a litany of results when you close down an economy. But closing down the economy for this amount of time kept us far below the 2.2 million number. As we start to reopen, we keep in mind the people who are missing their screening appointments, the people who are not  who are succumbing to suicide and drug overdose because of economic hardship. This President made the right choice. It was a delicate balance, and he did it exactly as he should, guided by data, and we are far below 2.2 million dead Americans because of the actions of President Trump.

If a Lizza story on Politico or CNN has come out of this, I haven't seen it. But this brings us to the second aspect of this interrogatory with Lizza. It is McEnany's repeated use of that 2.2 million number  the projected number of Americans who would die from COVID-19 under a worst-case scenario. Even more terrifying, they would be dead within three months. That was the prediction plucked from a report issued on March 16 by the epidemiology team at Imperial College London (ICL). It was authored by Dr. Neil Ferguson, who in subsequent weeks would be dubbed Professor Lockdown by many of his peers. (Also in subsequent weeks, the good doctor would resign from the U.K. government's pandemic advisory panel after scandalously breaking his own quarantine rules by getting together with his married lover.)

"Professor Lockdown" is apt, because Ferguson's predictions landed amid already growing alarm about the pandemic, and they fed into the decision-making of politicians on both sides of the Atlantic. Shutdowns in both the U.S. and the U.K. increased in extent and severity. March 16 was also the day the Dow plunged 3,000 points as investors recalibrated the hit on economic activity.

Alas, Ferguson's predictions have been widely discredited  being off by one or more orders of magnitude, a matter of which the White House is surely aware. Clearly, though, both McEnany and her boss find it a useful shield when the Lizzas of the world hurl their verbal grenades.

Bill Dunne runs a communications consultancy based in Connecticut.
Imperial Valley News Center

President Trump on Actions Against China

Washington, DC - Remarks by President Trump on Actions Against China:

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Good afternoon. Thank you. Im here today to talk about our relationship with China and several new measures to protect American security and prosperity.

Chinas pattern of misconduct is well known. For decades, they have ripped off the United States like no one has ever done before. Hundreds of billions of dollars a year were lost dealing with China, especially over the years during the prior administration. China raided our factories, offshored our jobs, gutted our industries, stole our intellectual property, and violated their commitments under the World Trade Organization. To make matters worse, they are considered a developing nation getting all sorts of benefits that others, including the United States, are not entitled to.

But I never solely blamed China for this. They were able to get away with a theft like no one was able to get away with before because of past politicians and, frankly, past presidents. But unlike those who came before, my administration negotiated and fought for what was right. Its called: fair and reciprocal treatment.

China has also unlawfully claimed territory in the Pacific Ocean, threatening freedom of navigation and international trade. And they broke their word to the world on ensuring the autonomy of Hong Kong.

The United States wants an open and constructive relationship with China, but achieving that relationship requires us to vigorously defend our national interests. The Chinese government has continually violated its promises to us and so many other nations.

These plain facts cannot be overlooked or swept aside. The world is now suffering as a result of the malfeasance of the Chinese government. Chinas cover-up of the Wuhan virus allowed the disease to spread all over the world, instigating a global pandemic that has cost more than 100,000 American lives and over a million lives worldwide.

Chinese officials ignored their reporting obligations to the World Health Organization and pressured the World Health Organization to mislead the world when the virus was first discovered by Chinese authorities.

Countless lives have been taken, and profound economic hardship has been inflicted all around the globe. They strongly recommended against me doing the early ban from China, but I did it anyway and was proven to be 100 percent correct.

China has total control over the World Health Organization, despite only paying $40 million per year compared to what the United States has been paying, which is approximately $450 million a year.

We have detailed the reforms that it must make and engage with them directly, but they have refused to act. Because they have failed to make the requested and greatly needed reforms, we will be today terminating our relationship with the World Health Organization and redirecting those funds to other worldwide and deserving, urgent, global public health needs.

The world needs answers from China on the virus. We must have transparency. Why is it that China shut off infected people from Wuhan to all other parts of China? It went nowhere else. It didnt go to Beijing; it went nowhere else. But allowed them to freely travel throughout the world, including Europe and the United States.

The death and destruction caused by this is incalculable. We must have answers not only for us but for the rest of the world.

This pandemic has underscored the crucial importance of building up Americas economic independence, reshoring our critical supply chains and protecting Americas scientific and technological advances.

For years, the government of China has conducted illicit espionage to steal our industrial secrets, of which there are many. Today, I will issue a proclamation to better secure our nations vital university research and to suspend the entry of certain foreign nationals from China who we have identified as potential security risks.

I am also taking action to protect the integrity of Americas financial system  by far, the best in the world. I am instructing my Presidential Working Group on Financial Markets to study the differing practices of Chinese companies listed on the U.S. financial markets, with the goal of protecting American investors.

Investment firms should not be subjecting their clients to the hidden and undue risks associated with financing Chinese companies that do not play by the same rules. Americans are entitled to fairness and transparency.

Several of the most significant actions were taking pertain to the deeply troubling situations unfolding in Hong Kong.

This week, China unilaterally imposed control over Hong Kong security. This was a plain violation of Beijings treaty obligations with the United Kingdom in the Declaration of 1984 and explicit provisions of Hong Kongs Basic Law. It has 27 years to go.

The Chinese governments move against Hong Kong is the latest in a series of measures that are diminishing the citys longstanding and very proud status.

This is a tragedy for the people of Hong Kong, the people of China, and indeed the people of the world. China claims it is protecting national security. But the truth is that Hong Kong was secure and prosperous as a free society. Beijings decision reverses all of that. It extends the reach of Chinas invasive state security apparatus into what was formerly a bastion of liberty.

Chinas latest incursion, along with other recent developments that degraded the territorys freedoms, makes clear that Hong Kong is no longer sufficiently autonomous to warrant the special treatment that we have afforded the territory since the handover.

China has replaced its promised formula of one country, two systems with one country, one system.

Therefore, I am directing my administration to begin the process of eliminating policy exemptions that give Hong Kong different and special treatment.

My announcement today will affect the full range of agreements we have with Hong Kong, from our extradition treaty to our export controls on dual-use technologies and more, with few exceptions.

We will be revising the State Departments travel advisory for Hong Kong to reflect the increased danger of surveillance and punishment by the Chinese state security apparatus.

We will take action to revoke Hong Kongs preferential treatment as a separate customs and travel territory from the rest of China.

The United States will also take necessary steps to sanction PRC and Hong Kong officials directly or indirectly involved in eroding Hong Kongs autonomy and  just if you take a look, smothering  absolutely smothering Hong Kongs freedom. Our actions will be strong. Our actions will be meaningful.

More than two decades ago, on a rainy night in 1997, British soldiers lowered the Union Flag, and Chinese soldiers raised the Chinese flag in Hong Kong. The people of Hong Kong felt simultaneously proud of their Chinese heritage and their unique Hong Kong identity. The people of Hong Kong hoped that in the years and decades to come, China would increasingly come to resemble its most radiant and dynamic city. The rest of the world was electrified by a sense of optimism that Hong Kong was a glimpse into Chinas future  not that Hong Kong would grow into a reflection of Chinas past.

In every decision, I will continue to proudly defend and protect the workers, families, and citizens of the United States of America.

Thank you very much. Thank you.
BRIDGEPORT -- A local funeral director got a shock when police said a slide show of the deceased was accidentally substituted with photos of child pornography.

Josue Rivera, 38, who police said provided the photos, was arrested Tuesday morning by members of the U.S. Marshal Violent Crime Fugitive Task Force and charged with first-degree possession of child pornography.

Rivera, of Orchard Street, was being held Tuesday in lieu of $100,000 bond.

According to Detective David DeFeo, on July 16, police responded to the Luz de Paz Funeral Home. An employee of the funeral home told officers that Rivera had given him a thumb drive that was supposed to contain photographs of a deceased person to be played during a funeral.

However, DeFeo said when the employee played the drive it instead contained numerous photographs of child pornography.

Police later examined the thumb drive and said they found 33 files of child pornography including the photograph of one young girl who police said appears to be the defendant's niece.

Police later seized a computer from Rivera's home. It was examined by a special unit of the Monroe Police Department, which DeFeo said found 153 files of suspected child pornography, including three videos.

He continued that the Child Recognition and Identification System identified 35 children who were in the photos and videos.

Edgar Rodriguez, the funeral home director, declined comment.

Contact Daniel Tepfer at 203-330-6308 or dtepfer@ctpost.com. Follow him on twitter.com/dantepfer
Chandigarh, May 31 : Punjab Health Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu on Sunday appealed to the public not to spit and chew tobacco in public places as it spreads infectious diseases, including COVID-19 and tuberculosis.

Now, there is a provision of a Rs 500 penalty for spitting in public places.

Speaking on the occasion of World No-Tobacco Day, Sidhu said the state government has launched a statewide awareness campaign to highlight the deadly effect of smokeless tobacco use and motivate people to quit especially amidst the coronavirus outbreak.

The evidence-based campaign includes the launch of a pre-tested public service announcement entitled "I Don't Believe", which focuses on the health harms that smokeless tobacco users are prone to, and are at a heightened risk for cancer compared to non-users.

Nandita Murukutla, Vice President of the Global Policy and Research, Policy, Advocacy and Communication, Vital Strategies, said hard-hitting mass media campaigns are a powerful tool in tobacco control.

"We commend the state's health department on the timely launch of 'I Don't Believe' and promoting the campaign widely across Punjab. By showing the deadly health harms of tobacco use, the campaign will encourage current smokeless tobacco users to quit."
New Delhi :

A delegation of Delhi BJP leaders on Thursday met Commissioner of Police Alok Kumar and lodged a complaint against sacked AAP minister Sandeep Kumar as well as Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Deputy CM Manish Sisodia, accusing them of "misusing their public authority against women".

The complainants including BJP MP Parvesh Verma, Manjinder Singh Sirsa and other party leaders met the commissioner at PHQ and urged him for registration of an FIR against Kumar who was removed as minister from Kejriwal government after a CD containing objectionable content and purportedly showing him in compromising position with a woman surfaced.

The BJP leaders also demanded "legal action" against Kejriwal and Sisodia for allegedly "protecting" Kumar.

In separate complaints lodged with Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB), RTI activist Vivek Garg and BJP MLA OP Sharma demanded a probe against Kumar. The decision to remove 36-year-old Kumar was taken at a high-level meeting attended by top AAP leaders last night.

Kumar today alleged that he was being targeted under a "conspiracy" as he was a Dalit and demanded a probe into the issue.

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Golden Globe nominee John Cusack witnessed police brutality first-hand in Chicago on Saturday night during a protest for the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis last Monday.

At first, the 53-year-old Illinois native - who concealed his identity with a COVID-19 face mask - spoke to several cops, whom he said 'understood the rage' of 'furious' protesters.

An hour later, John tweeted that he was 'hit with pepper spray' but defended law enforcement for 'not escalating violence compared to other cities.'

Golden Globe nominee John Cusack witnessed police brutality first-hand in Chicago on Saturday night during a protest for the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis last Monday (pictured in 2016)

But by 8:46pm, Cusack posted a video of cops 'coming at me with batons' and hitting his bicycle for 'filming a burning car.'

The Distorted actor - who boasts 2M Instagram/Twitter followers - quoted President Trump's slogan in a video: 'This is making America great again. Is the dream accomplished? Is America great?'

Late into the night, John shared videos of looters breaking into Sally's Beauty Supply and Whole Foods.

Daytime: At first, the 53-year-old Illinois native - who concealed his identity with a COVID-19 face mask - spoke to several cops, whom he said 'understood the rage' of 'furious' protesters

'From what I've seen': An hour later, John tweeted that he was 'hit with pepper spray' but defended law enforcement for 'not escalating violence compared to other cities'

'Here's the audio': But by 8:46pm, Cusack posted a video of cops 'coming at me with batons' and hitting his bicycle for 'filming a burning car'

The Distorted actor quoted President Trump's slogan in a video: 'This is making America great again. Is the dream accomplished? Is America great?'

'Would be very surprised if this is a one or two day event,' Cusack concluded.

'This may well be the beginning of end of Trump loathsome era - thank god - feels like many streams of outrage coming to a head - a wave peaking - [Chicago] scene was about getting to Trump tower most of day.'

One man is dead and five others were wounded in separate shootings since Saturday, and 240 people were arrested - according to NBC Chicago.

Chaos: Late into the night, John shared videos of looters breaking into Sally's Beauty Supply and Whole Foods

Cusack concluded: 'Would be very surprised if this is a one or two day event. This may well be the beginning of end of Trump loathsome era - thank god - feels like many streams of outrage coming to a head - a wave peaking - [Chicago] scene was about getting to Trump tower most of day'

Lockdown: Mayor Lori Lightfoot tweeted Sunday that the '9pm-6am curfew will remain in place until further notice' and Governor Jay Pritzker 'ordered a small contingent of the National Guard'

Mayor Lori Lightfoot tweeted Sunday that the '9pm-6am curfew will remain in place until further notice' and Governor Jay Pritzker 'ordered a small contingent of the National Guard.'

'I want to begin by congratulating and thanking the thousands of people who engaged in non-violent, peaceful protests, and didnt not allow themselves to get sidetracked by the devastation weve seen,' the 57-year-old politician wrote.

'And that's also why I am hurt and angry at those who decided to try hijack this moment and use it as an opportunity to bring havoc - to loot and destroy.

'You should be ashamed of yourselves. What you have done is a dishonor to our city and its long and proud legacy as a leader of bold and vibrant peaceful protest.'

The self-described 'apocalyptic s*** disturber' - who's a registered Democratic Socialist - introduced Senator Bernie Sanders during a Chicago rally on January 18.

John will next play Dr. Kevin Christie in Gillian Flynn's nine-episode remake of the 2013 British series Utopia, which starts streaming later this year on Amazon Prime Video.

Bernie bro: The self-described 'apocalyptic s*** disturber' - who's a registered Democratic Socialist - introduced Senator Bernie Sanders during a Chicago rally on January 18
The Rio Rancho Governing Body shouldnt have moved its regular meetings to 4 p.m. on Thursdays, and certainly not without public input, because it will be harder for Rio Ranchoans to participate in their government.

Most governing body meetings arent well attended, but some are, and voters should always have the option to come.

Wednesday night, governing body members voted 4-3 to move their regular meeting from the traditional time of 6 p.m. on the second and fourth Wednesdays of the month to 4 p.m. on the second and fourth Thursdays.

Councilors Jeremy Lenentine, Dan Stoddard and Bob Tyler voted for the change, and councilors Jim Owen, Paul Wymer and Jennifer Flor opposed the move. Mayor Gregg Hull cast the tie-breaking vote in favor of the change.

The governing body didnt even give residents a chance for input.

In April, members rejected the idea changing regular meeting times, so there was no reason to think the issue would return. Information provided before the meeting didnt mention that intent.

Plus, the city has encouraged citizens to watch meetings online, not in person, due to COVID-19. People who did so couldnt comment even once they saw what was happening.

We dont believe the letter of the law was broken, since meeting scheduling was on the agenda because Tyler had asked to change the time of work sessions from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. We also dont think supporters of the change had ill intent, as they seem to be honorable men.

However, the move didnt respect the spirit of transparency laws and was ill-considered.

Lenentine initiated the change. Hes a pastor at Gospel Light Baptist Church, which normally has services Wednesday evenings.

We understand thats a conflict for him, but if its a problem, why did he run for the office? Now, other city councilors who did factor meeting schedules into their decisions have the rug pulled out from under them.

Many people want to go to church Wednesday night, but scheduling conflicts will happen on any day. Schedule changes just cause confusion.

Stoddard said 6 p.m. winter meetings keep elderly people from having a voice because many dont like to drive at night. However, its dark by 5 in the winter, so unless a meeting lasts less than 45 minutes, daylight-only drivers still wont be able to attend and get home before dark.

Meetings at 4 p.m. are difficult for employed people because most dont get off work until 5. Supervisors outside city government might not allow people to leave early, and if they did, lost hours could mean lost pay.

Parents will not only have to leave work early, but also find child care when most other adults are working and many teenagers are doing extracurricular activities.

Two reasons cited for the change were allowing hourly city employees to attend meetings and salaried employees to finish their days earlier. We know of no reason city supervisors couldnt allow hourly workers to adjust their schedules for one meeting.

For many salaried people, earlier meetings mean returning to their desks afterward to finish interrupted work. If governing body members asked salaried employees whether the change would help them, we didnt hear about it.

The Observer will also have to redistribute workloads to cover meetings moved so close to the Friday deadline.

Governing body members need to reverse the change, or at least take public comment and vote again. As far as we can tell, moving their regular meetings serves only the governing body members who voted for it.
31.05.2020 LISTEN

Between 2014 and 2016, the number of technical and vocational institutes in Ghana declined from 185 to 164. This contributed to lower Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) enrolment of 53,171, compared with the amassed enrolment of 851,312 into senior high schools (SHSs).

According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and the International Labor Organization (ILO), TVET refers to aspects of the educational process involving, in addition to general education, the study of technologies and related sciences, and the acquisition of practical skills, attitudes, understanding, and knowledge relating to occupants in various sectors of economic and social life."

From the definition above, there is no doubt that a functional TVET is crucial in moving Ghanas economy forward and improving on the socio-economic wellbeing of the youth. Unfortunately, to date, not much has been done to advance TVET skills development for the Ghanaian economy to fully benefit from TVET as many developed countries have.

TVET transformation agenda in Ghana:

With the mission to deliver high-quality employable skills and industry-related TVET qualifications which are recognized by local and international labour markets, Ghanas TVET transformation agenda by the government in 2017 encouraged youth to venture into TVET programs. A deputy ministerial position was created and the Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (COTVET) was resourced heavily to harmonization and coordinate this transformation. These were in line with the 5-year TVET transformation strategy which aimed at equipping students with relevant productive and entrepreneurial skills related to TVET courses in order to prepare them for the world of work. According to this strategy, poor public perception of TVET, coupled with low quality of instruction due to inadequate instructor training, and lack of instructional support and infrastructure are among the key challenges technical and vocational education faces in this country. Some of the anticipated changes in the sector include the review of curriculum, increased investment in infrastructure, and the promise to fully include TVET in the current free SHS program by September 2020.

Ghanas situation of teaching and learning under COVID19

The spread of COVID-19 and associated restrictions to contain the pandemic resulted in a global shut down of schools and training institutions at all levels including technical and vocational education. Since the lockdown in March 2020, the government of Ghana together with other stakeholders in education innovatively put in measures to minimize the negative effect COVID-19 would have on teaching and learning.

Ghana Education Service regularly broadcasts various subject topics on a dedicated television channel called Ghana Learning (GL) TV. Joy Learning TV which is a channel of Multimedia Group Limited is also complementing the governments efforts to keep students actively studying despite Covid-19. Most schools have resorted to online platforms like YouTube, websites, Zoom, MS Teams, Google Hangouts, and WhatsApp to continue engaging students.

Worrying situation

From a quick scan of the digital learning space, it is clear that TVET has been left behind. This, as far as I am concerned, will further discriminate against and lower public interests in TVET.

In the ministrys allocation of time to virtual learning, there have been allocations to basic, secondary, and tertiary education without any allocation to TVET for which a deputy ministerial position has been created, just like the other segments of the education ministry.

Surprising to every TVET stakeholder is that despite the heavy investment in COTVET, the only inactive component of their website is the E-learning component when the public needs it the most. This should have been active to give some form of virtual teaching and learning to TVET students.

Conclusion

TVET remains a key solution in tackling unemployment and in dealing with joblessness among the youth in Ghana. The country has seen increased job losses among the youth as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. If discriminatory measures continue in the e-learning environment, the TVET sector would not be supported in the long run and the hope to improve Ghanas economy through technical and vocational education shall never become a reality. I therefore call on the education ministry and COTVET to be innovative in bringing virtual teaching and learning to TVET students in the country.

Kamal Deen Habib

(Economic Empowerment Specialist)

Girls Advocacy Alliance Project

Plan International Ghana

The Girls Advocacy Alliance (GAA) is a 5-year advocacy programme aimed at contributing to gender equality and equal rights and opportunities for girls and young women, with a focus on the elimination of gender-based violence and the economic exclusion of girls and young women. The alliance partner organizations in Ghana are Plan International Ghana, Defense for Children International, and Ghana NGO Coalition on the Rights of the Child.
Anantnag: A 35-year-old man from Uttersoo area of Anantnag in south Kashmir was arrested on charges of raping and impregnating a 14-year-old girl. According to family members of the victim, the girl complained of abdominal pain a few days ago. Her father first took her to a local spiritual healer but due to her deteriorating condition, she was later hospitalised at Anantnag where she was declared eight months pregnant by the doctors.

The family subsequently raised an alarm, and with the intervention of local Auqaf Committee and civil society members, a formal complaint was lodged in Uttersoo police station in Shangas area of Anantnag. After the complaint was filed, the police registered a case in this regard.

A police official confirmed the arrest of the accused and said that further investigations are underway.

The family members say that the accused  a man living in their neighbourhood  is a relative of the victim's mother, and would visit their home on one pretext or another. During this period, the accused lured the minor girl and had allegedly raped her on several occasions in the last months.

As per sources, the victim in her statement to police, accused the man of giving her sedatives and raping her. The accused then threatened her with dire consequence if she revealed it to anyone.

The incident has sent shockwaves in the locality and residents are demanding rigorous punishment for the accused. The local Auqaf president and social activist Beigh Fayaz told News18 that this crime is of heinous nature and if the accused is proved guilty, he should be rigorously punished according to the law of land.
Police arrested the 30-year-old stepson of a 42-year-old woman from Rabodi in Thane on Sunday for killing her by slashing her throat. The stepson, Shahanavaj Ansari, murdered her as she had duped him of Rs 90,000 by luring him with an overseas job offer.

Rabodi police said the deceased, Reshma Ansari, resided in the slum tenements of Rabodi. On Friday morning, locals spotted her body near Saket road with throat slit and informed the police.

While checking the CCTV footage of the area, a rickshaw was spotted on the same road. Probe revealed that Reshma had boarded the rickshaw from her residence. Police found that the vehicles owner was from Kalva who had given this rickshaw on rent to a person from Rabodi area who left for Uttar Pradesh a week and had kept the rickshaw with his friend Shahanavaj.

We arrested Shahanavaj when he confessed to the crime during interrogation. He said that Reshma used to beat him and his younger brother since they were young. He said that his younger brother died when he was in teenage because Reshma had beat him a lot. Shahanavaj had saved Rs 90 thousand to invest when Reshma took the money by luring him with a job out of India. She didnt give him job nor returned his money, said a police officer.

R Shirtode, senior police inspector, Rabodi police station said,  The accused called Reshma on Thursday night and asked to come with him in a rickshaw to talk about the money. He took her near Saket road and when she refused to return the money, he attacked her with knife, took all ornaments she was wearing and dumped her body there. We have arrested him under section of Indian Penal Code 302 and recovered the weapon from him. 
THE TRUANTS by Kate Weinberg (Bloomsbury 8.99, 352 pp)

THE TRUANTS

by Kate Weinberg (Bloomsbury 8.99, 352 pp)

Studying for a degree is only one of the learning experiences of university where teenagers make friends, mistakes and discoveries. Jess, the quietly observant heroine of this piquant novel, arrives at a windswept Norfolk campus determined to be taught by charismatic Dr Lorna Clay, an Agatha Christie specialist.

Lorna takes a flattering interest in Jess and her newfound friends: aristocratic Georgie, whose wildness has a vulnerable edge; Georgies older boyfriend, Alec, a troubled South African journalist; and Jesss gentle geologist boyfriend, Nick.

But the carefree hedonism of their interwoven relationships soon takes on a more sinister note.

With nods to Agatha Christie and Donna Tartt, this is a bracingly intelligent and gripping debut.

THE VAN APFEL GIRLS ARE GONE by Felicity McLean (Oneworld 8.99, 304 pp)

THE VAN APFEL GIRLS ARE GONE

by Felicity McLean (Oneworld 8.99, 304 pp)

In the summer of 1992, 11-year-old Tikka Malloy is at her familys suburban home, swimming in the pool with her sister Laura and hanging out with their neighbours, the Van Apfel girls  Hannah, Cordelia and Ruth. But the languorous atmosphere seems tainted: watchful Tikka sees Mr Van Apfel slap Ruth and notices that rebellious Cordelia seems to be followed by her class teacher, who is the subject of lurid gossip. When all three girls go missing, the rumours rise to a crescendo.

Two decades on, Tikka returns home to visit her seriously ill sister. Haunted by the fate of the Van Apfel girls and determined to find answers, she discovers that people are ready to break their silence.

With echoes of Picnic At Hanging Rock, this is an atmospheric first novel.

ROMAN HOLIDAY

ROMAN HOLIDAY by Caroline Young (History Press 12.99, 256 pp)

by Caroline Young (History Press 12.99, 256 pp)

The 1953 Oscar-winning Roman Holiday was filmed on location in Rome and in nearby Cinecitta studios.

Starring Audrey Hepburn as a young princess on a state visit who wearies of stuffy protocol and escapes to share a brief, bittersweet love affair with an American journalist played by Gregory Peck, the film was an early landmark in a golden age of movies made in Rome.

Directors flocked to film in Hollywood on the Tiber, and stars came to enjoy the dolce vita of its swish bars and nightclubs.

Caroline Youngs evocative book chronicles the glamour and hedonism of post-war Rome through its iconic films, such as Cleopatra, The Barefoot Contessa and Ben-Hur, with intimate snaps of the celebrities who contributed to its heady allure.
Troubled swimming legend Grant Hackett says he's a changed man following his dramatic fall from grace and publicised battle with mental health demons post-retirement.

Once described as a danger to himself by his own family, the triple Olympic gold medallist, 40, says his new partner Sharlene and US swimming champion Michael Phelps have helped him stay out of the headlines in recent years after a series of bizarre public meltdowns.

It all came to a head in February 2017 when he was arrested at his parents' Gold Coast home after his father called police concerned about his safety.

Three years on, Hackett has since climbed the corporate ladder to become a company chief executive and settled down with fiancee Sharlene Fletcher, who he plans to marry later this year.

Grant Hackett attributes to fiancee Sharlene Edwards to turning his life around in recent times

'This might sound a bit selfish but Sharlene keeps me calm. She's a great supporter,' Hackett told the Daily Telegraph.

'She's doesn't take me for granted. She just gets me and that's makes life easy. I don't have to try and be someone I'm not.

He became a father for the third time when baby son Edward arrived in January, three months after the couple announced their engagement.

'I can't explain how I feel. It's the most amazing experience and I'm just grateful everyone is healthy and recovering well,' he said at the time.

Hackett says he's more prepared and relaxed parent from when 10-year-old twins, Jagger and Charlize, from his first marriage to Candice Alley, were born.

Hackett also paid tribute to the most decorated Olympian of all time - Michael Phelps - for saving his life in 2017 when he fled to the US for treatment following his dramatic arrest at his parents home.

Grant Hackett (right) and US swim Michael Phelps (left) remain good mates after Hackett spent time recovering at Phelps' home in 2017 following a series of public meltdowns

In February 2017, embattled swimming star Grant Hackett (pictured) accused his brother of beating him up in a social media post which read: 'My brother comments to the media... but does anyone know he beat the s**t out of me. Everyone knows he is an angry man'.

His brother, Craig, told reporters at the time of his arrest that the Grant Hackett Australia had fallen in love with 'was not there anymore'.

This is a completely different person. He's there in body, but he's not there in mind, soul or spirit,' Craig said.

Hackett attended a 30-day detox program in Malibu before flying to Arizona to continue his recovery at the home of good friend Phelps.

The pair remain good mates as Phelps was one of the first to wish Hackett a happy 40th birthday earlier this month.

'All the work he's done to be able to find happiness and bring peace just brings a smile to my face. I've known him for pretty much my whole life and love him like a brother,' Phelps told the Daily Telegraph.

After a two month stay with Phelps, Hackett returned to Australia in June 2017 and has stayed out of trouble since.

It all came to a head when the former Olympic swimming champion was arrested at his parents house in February 2017. He's pictured in the back of the police car following his arrest

Hackett's road to redemption was completed late late last year when he was appointed chief executive of Generation Life- two years after he first joined the company.

Executive Chairman Rob Coombe says Hackett's tumultuous past have made the former swimming champion more resilient.

'He's not edgy like he was before. He more at peace with the world and with these big hairy audacious business goals, are the equivalent now to gold medals, and we just have to lay them down for him stretch and reach,' Coombe said.

He retired from swimming in 2008 after winning the 1,500m freestyle at both the 2000 and 2004 Olympics, and claiming four world titles in the event.

Hackett was spotted wandering round Melbourne's Crown casino half-naked (pictured) in February 2014 after taking the sleeping pill Stilnox

Hackett's personal life first began to unravel in 2011 when he smashed up the multi-million dollar penthouse he shared with his then-wife, Candice and their two children in an alcohol-fuelled rage following the Melbourne Spring Carnival.

Hackett was kicked out of their home in 2012 following a drunken night out after the Logies.

His high-profile marriage to pop star Alley ended in flames with both sides battling over pre-nuptial agreements and custody of their twins, Charlize and Jagger.

In February 2014 he was photographed wandering around Crown Casino in Melbourne in his underpants.

It later emerged he had taken the sleeping pill Stilnox on the night the infamous pictures were taken.

His prescription drug dependency plunged his life into chaos, forcing him to check into a rehabilitation centre for a five-week program in Arizona in 2014.

Hackett (pictured right at Melbourne Airport) was accused of 'tweaking' a fellow plane passenger's nipple during a Virgin Australia flight from Adelaide in April 2016

In April 2016 following a failed comeback to make the 2016 Olympics, Hackett was escorted from a Virgin Australia flight, accused of tweaking a man's nipple 'quite forcefully' after the man reclined his chair during the flight.

Hackett allegedly 'smelt like alcohol' and was questioned Federal Police about the incident.

Photos taken by fellow passengers showed Hackett slumped over a wheelchair after he was escorted out of the plane at Melbourne Airport.

The business class passenger, who was sitting in front of Hackett, said he felt 'violated' when the swimmer 'groped his chest' during the row.

Hackett has 10-year-old twins to his first wife Candice Alley (pictured at the 2010 Melbourne Cup) before the marriage ended dramatically in 2012
Shenzhen plans to drastically increase the supply of new housing this year, as it ramps up efforts to curb a rapid gain in home prices amid nascent signs of an asset bubble emerging in the post-pandemic period.

The city is set to make a further 69,350 flats available by the end of 2020, a significant increase from the 50,434 on sale at the end of May, according to the Shenzhen Housing and Construction Bureau. It is the first time Shenzhen's housing authority has released the data, a move seen as a way to increase transparency and rein in speculative home purchases.

Pressure on the local government has been building, after the technology hub's home prices spiked when local banks opted to extend more loans and the local government eased some property restrictions. Shenzhen's second-hand housing prices jumped 10 per cent from a year earlier in April, far outstripping an average gain of 0.4 per cent in the 70 major Chinese cities tracked by the statistics bureau.

Prices in Shenzhen's Nanshan district, home to such technology juggernauts as Tencent Holdings and ZTE, surged even more, by 16 per cent in the same period.

As Beijing has unleashed a record amount of loans into the economy this year to combat the damage caused by the coronavirus epidemic, top policymakers are wary of excessive liquidity leading to a potential asset bubble. The official tone towards the property market remains stern, with Premier Li Keqiang and the Chinese central bank reiterating previous warnings that housing should not be a speculative investment.

The move in Shenzhen may mark a shift by the government in how it will respond to rising home prices in the future, with policymakers seeking to raise supply instead of curtailing demand, which typically has a fast detrimental effect on market sentiment.

"The central government is very determined on the stability of housing prices," said Chen Tiancheng, an analyst at Tianfeng Securities. "It will neither stimulate the sector nor bring it down significantly. It will do more to adjust prices from the supply end."

Story continues

A rapid recovery in real-estate prices in Shenzhen stands in stark contrast to what is happening in adjacent Hong Kong, where the property market is now being battered by fears of unrest after Beijing passed a security law bill that would outlaw dissent in the former British colony.

Signs of overheating have already emerged in Shenzhen's housing market. A plot of land was sold for a record 11.6 billion yuan (US$1.63 billion) in the city in May, translating into 63,126 yuan per square metre. That is about 10 per cent more expensive than the previous record set in December.

The frenzy came after Shenzhen loosened some restrictions in the local property market. The government lowered the threshold for the minimum funds required to take part in land auctions, raised the price cap for new housing and shortened the period of mortgage approvals.

This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright  2020 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

Copyright (c) 2020. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
Like so many, I am both desperate to leave quarantine and scared to do so; keen for my children to return to school, but anxious.

There has been a lot of talk of novels such as Stephen Kings The Stand and Albert Camuss The Plague re-entering the bestsellers charts. As a lockdown literary project, some have read Daniel Defoes A Journal Of The Plague Year, the writers evocation of 1665 London. (Take with a pinch of salt the claim that it was an eyewitness testament. Defoe was just five in that year.)

My initial instinct was to shun such reading, thinking it at best ghoulish and at worst hysteria-fanning to take to my bed with books recounting bubonic buboes. Also, I dont need a lockdown project  I have home-schooling, plus extra housekeeping. Ive never had less time.

Patricia Nicol shared a selection of fascinating books featuring tribulations, including Station Eleven (pictured left) and Year of Wonders (pictured right)

But then I picked up the Camus and was sufficiently gripped that I read the Defoe, too. Both fascinated for the parallels with our own viral times: the Governments slowness to act; the rich fleeing, the poorest bearing the brunt of the disease; non-compliant boozers and sanctimonious hypocrites.

I then revisited Geraldine Brookss compelling historical novel Year Of Wonders, set in the real Plague village of Eyam, Derbyshire, which with the arrival of disease in the spring of 1666 took the selfless decision to self-isolate.

And then I turned to Emily St John Mandels mesmerising Station Eleven, which vividly imagines a flu that wipes out much of the worlds population. Most of the novel is set a generation later, with a touring band of actor-musicians trying to resurrect the best of what was lost.

These are all accounts of terrible loss but also of hope, renewal and occasional heroism. Even Camuss existentialist The Plague ends to the sounds of music and jubilant cries, as its protagonist Dr Rieux concludes: One learns in the midst of such tribulations... that there is more in men to admire than despise.

We are still in the middle of terrible tribulations but we will celebrate on the streets again. These books show us that this, too, will pass.
It is a good time to ask ourselves what sort of country we want for those who own the future. We can choose between a small country and a petty one. Between a pocket-size country that is limber, open-minded, reliable, multilingual and driven by great collective ambitions, a country we can feel proud of, regardless of our place of birth. Or we can have a petty country, made up of petty personal ambitions, one that loathes cooperation, cant keep the momentum going and exudes stuffy patriotism.

The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed not only human frailty, but also the extent to which political systems are flimsy. Neither Catalonia nor Spain have scored particularly well.

We have witnessed the fragility of a health service that lacks the necessary resources when the going gets tough and only manages to weather the storm thanks to the goodwill and dedication of its underpaid professionals. We have also seen how wobbly a service-based economy can be when its competitive edge rests on low wages and sunny skies. We lack an industrial policy to foster an environment that leads to job creation and a fiscal policy that extends beyond government handouts, not to mention a chronic lack of infrastructure, of the kind that makes the most of Catalonias geographical advantages rather than curb the growth of its economy. Ours is an unequal society where the school system is not a top political priority.

We are leaving the pandemic behind but there are tough times ahead for the economy. We should establish what our political priorities must be for public spending and to what extent we should rely on civil society for this. We ought to encourage government to play a greater role, but we should also aim to curb red tape and welcome private initiative. It is possible to strengthen the welfare state, with policies such as basic income, without increasing bureaucracy and penalising private efforts and the self-employed. We must ask ourselves: who was truly indispensable when things went south? Who made a positive contribution? Who showed flexibility and kept services running? We should also ask ourselves why the administration failed to provide the public with online services when the rest of society was teleworking en masse.

Madrid is on fire

The pandemic has also exposed the States political recentralisation drift and the irresponsible nature of Spains opposition parties: blood-thirsty and with a rhetoric reminiscent of the Spanish civil war. You could put the latter down to the magnetic effect that Vox has on the PP or it might simply be part of their tradition. Either way, its viciousness is a reminder of the darkest pages of the ever-present two Spains. While many are still dying in hospitals and care homes, mourning has turned into bickering in Madrids lower chamber, a parliament devoid of politics and filled with rage.

We are witnessing an ancient struggle where change coming from the left or from Spains periphery a concept that is conceived as a property but that remains a foreign body, as far as rights are concerned triggers every instrument of the reactionary forces. Anything goes to undermine the PSOE-Podemos coalition government, an administration that has failed to anticipate the lack of scruples that the powers-that-be are displaying.

This week Spains political costumbrismo hit a Berlanga moment when the Guardia Civil came on stage (1). Even if Catalans feel this is a pantomime that can easily be ignored, it is not. The fact that the Spanish government has no choice but to undertake reforms to save its bacon in parliament and hold the line against Madrids feral right is not inconsequential to the well-being of the Catalan people.

Once again, Catalonias exit from the current crisis goes hand in hand with Spains and Europes. If Catalonia were independent, it would be no different, regardless of the benefits of managing our own resources in a world where cooperation with your neighbour is inevitable.

A reliable country

The Covid crisis has left us thousands of deaths in care homes, rising poverty and unemployment, Nissan closing down their factory in Catalonia, and well-meaning political statements with little action beyond appeals to the need to stay together. Spain is at a crossroads while Madrid politics are seized by hysteria and, for the first time in decades, regional governments demand a certain degree of autonomy. This is not the time to be timid. The Catalan government would be advised to make the most of PM Sanchezs survival instinct which is more solid than his principles and try to influence the future of his administration and its policies. It might be tempting to think that what is going on in Madrid today does not affect Catalonias well-being, but that would be unrealistic.

_______

Translators note:

(1) In the second half of the 20th century Luis Garcia Berlangas movies often painted a picture of local everyday life, mannerisms and customs in Spain, sometimes featuring one or more Guardia Civil officers in a rural setting. Last week a number of high-ranking Guardia Civil officers were either dismissed or stepped down in what appears to be a clash with Spains Interior Minister.
Donald Trump has claimed that left-wing activists are responsible for the violent protests in Minneapolis and other cities, and declared his administration will move to designate the loose association of militant left-wing, anti-fascist demonstrators commonly known as Antifa as a terrorist organisation.

The United States of America will be designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organisation, he said in a series of tweets on Sunday blaming violent outbursts and rioting at police brutality protests across America over the weekend on the group and other Radical Left elements.

Earlier in the day, the president lauded the Minnesota National Guard for its efforts to keep the peace at protests in the state on Saturday.

Congratulations to our National Guard for the great job they did immediately upon arriving in Minneapolis, Minnesota, last night. The Antifa led anarchists, among others, were shut down quickly, the president tweeted on Sunday, doubling down on his claim from the day before that Antifa and the Radical Left bear blame for protests turning violent.

The attorney general, William Barr, echoed the presidents notions that left-wing elements have been responsible for violent brushes with law enforcement, looting and vandalism in recent days in cities across America, including Atlanta, Salt Lake City and Los Angeles.

Crossing state lines to participate in violent rioting is a felony that is charged at the federal level.

Unfortunately, with the rioting that is occurring in many of our cities around the country, the voices of peaceful protests are being hijacked by violent radical elements, Mr Barr said in a statement released by the Justice Department.

In many places it appears the violence is planned, organised, and driven by far left extremist groups and anarchic groups using Antifa-like tactics, the attorney general said.

Meanwhile, local leaders in Minneapolis have emphasised that white supremacists and other malign outside actors  some possibly foreign  have also been responsible for inciting violence at protests there.

We are now confronting white supremacists, members of organised crime, out of state instigators, and possibly even foreign actors to destroy and destabilize our city and our region, Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey said in a statement on Saturday.

Yet the truth may be more complicated. While officials have claimed up to 80 per cent of those arrested in Minneapolis were from out of state, local media enquiries suggested this was not the case. Many of the protesters interviewed by The Independent in recent days, both black and white, said they were from the two cities of Minneapolis and St Paul.

The issue of assigning blame has important ramifications, especially given that many black-owned businesses were damaged or destroyed over several nights of mayhem. Many people have said those responsible could not have been from the community. Others have said carrying out acts of destruction was the only way to get peoples attention and to force action.

Thousands of Americans in cities all across the country took to the streets on Friday and Saturday to protest police brutality after an unarmed black man, George Floyd, died last week while being pinned to the ground by a Minneapolis police officer. The protests have spread to more than 30 cities, reaching from coast to coast and taking in states such as Colorado and Georgia.

Mr Floyd, 46, died on 25 May after Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for several minutes even though Mr Floyd did not have a weapon and complained he couldnt breathe. Mr Floyds death became a national cry for action against police brutality after videos emerged of the incident.

Mr Chauvin was arrested on Friday and charged with third-degree murder.

The protests against police brutality over the last several days in Minneapolis and other major US cities such as Atlanta, Brooklyn, Washington DC and Chicago have led to heated confrontations between demonstrators and law enforcement, some of which have broken out into small pockets of violence. There have been several documented instances of looting, vandalism, and arson of entire buildings over the last week.

Thousands of Americans in cities all across the country were hit with pepper spray, tear gas, or police batons on Friday and Saturday.

Law enforcement units have fired rubber bullets at local journalists, and a CNN reporter and his production crew were arrested in Minneapolis on Friday for shooting live film in a part of the city that the Minnesota state patrol was trying to block off to the public.

On Saturday, protesters gathered outside CNN headquarters in Atlanta, where some people shattered windows and tagged profanities on the building with spray paint.

Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio tweeted on Saturday his belief that far-left elements such as Antifa and far-right militants who have recently adopted the name Boogaloo are taking advantage of the protests in American cities to encourage and commit violence.

Many of these professional agitators dont fit a simple left vs right identity. They are part of a growing anti-government extremist movement. They hate law enforcement & want to tear the whole system down even if it requires a new civil war, Mr Rubio wrote on Twitter.
A romantic dinner for two. The wine is excellent, the food delicious. Its almost like the good old days. Except for the giant, see-through lampshades on your heads, Trend reports citing Reuters.

For restaurant owners worrying how they can welcome back customers but keep them safe from COVID-19, a French designer has created a cylinder of transparent plastic that hangs from a cable on the ceiling, much like a lampshade. A scoop cut out of the back allows diner to sit and stand up without having to bend over double.

Christophe Gernigon, who invented the device, called the PlexEat, said the designs already on the market looked like booths in prison visiting rooms, so were not inviting for customers.

I wanted to make it more glamorous, more pretty, he said. His design will go into production next week, and he said he had received interest from France, Belgium, Canada, Japan and Argentina.

France is starting to relax some of the restrictions it imposed to curb the spread of the coronavirus outbreak. Shops and hairdressers have re-opened, and some children are back at school.

But the government has yet to give the green light for the re-opening of restaurant and bars because they pose particular problems for disease control.

Diners cannot eat while wearing a surgical mask, and if tables were removed to ensure customers are a safe distance from each other, many owners say they would not be able to make enough money to cover their costs.

Mathieu Manzoni, owner of the H.A.N.D restaurant that serves American-style food not far from Paris Louvre museum, invited Gernigon to the restaurant this week to hear his pitch. Manzoni said he was planning to place an order.

Will people like it? I cant say but I want to believe that it can add something because I find it fun, he said in his restaurant, which is open for takeaway orders only.
By PTI

SINGAPORE: Singapore is in talks with several countries, including Australia and South Korea, to establish "green lanes" for travel during the COVID-19 environment, officials said.

China on Friday became the first country to establish a green lane with Singapore.

Such arrangements allow for the restoration of connectivity and facilitation of short-term essential business and official travel between countries, subject to safeguards against the coronavirus, The Straits Times said in a report.

"Reciprocal green lane agreements means there must be mutual assurance of each other's test protocol and standards," Trade and Industry Minister Chan Chun Sing told a virtual press conference on Saturday.

Chan said Singapore is in simultaneous discussions with as many countries as possible on forming green lanes, and that such discussions are taking place at a bilateral level, not a multilateral one.

According to officials, the countries include Australia, South Korea, New Zealand and Malaysia.

"We are happy that we have been able to swiftly work on arrangements with China, and we hope to make progress with the rest of the countries," Chan said.

He said there were several considerations that go into deciding which countries to enter into such agreements with.

He explained that a situation where there is no such trust and "everybody does their own thing", with each country insisting on testing travellers for the virus as well as giving them a 14-day quarantine, would be essentially unworkable.

This is because, aside from having to undergo two tests, travellers would have to be quarantined for almost an entire month in order to travel from one place to another.

For a green lane arrangement to work, both countries would have to first have confidence in each other's safeguards and be able to coordinate their quarantine orders so that travellers might only need to be tested or quarantined once.

Apart from discussing necessary protocols, there is also a need to look at the health situation in each country to see when these protocols can safely be deployed, Chan said.

Singapore has so far reported 34,366 coronavirus cases and 23 deaths due to the disease.

The country will relax its circuit breaker measures, starting from June 2, and gradually resume economic and social activities.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-31 21:41:37|Editor: huaxia

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A researcher works in a microbiology laboratory in Hebrew University of Jerusalem on May 26, 2020. (Xinhua/Chen Wenxian)

by Xinhua writer Chen Wenxian

JERSUALEM, May 31 (Xinhua) -- Cooperation between Israel and China in the sector of innovation has a bright prospect and wider cooperation is under expectation, said Asher Cohen, president of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

During an exclusive interview with Xinhua, Cohen expressed his excitement for future cooperation between Israel and China, particularly in scientific R&D fields, saying that the Hebrew University is beyond keen to further their collaborations with the top universities of China.

"One of our top priorities is to increase international cooperation, specifically to increase the cooperation with the Chinese universities," said Cohen.

As of present, the Hebrew University has established close relations with a number of top Chinese universities. Academic exchanges and scientific R&D collaborations have been conducted in many domains such as biology, social science and agriculture.

"It is a priority for us to cooperate and increase cooperation with the Chinese universities," said Cohen, adding that a number of joint academic activities are "progressing very well."

Cohen traveled to China for the first time in 2015. There, he visited a range of Chinese top universities, which to this day has left an outstanding impression in his mind.

China has improved tremendously in the last 50 years in terms of academics and there is now a great deal of "really excellent" universities, he said.

In the eyes of Cohen, China's high education is progressing into a better future. "That's why it is one of our top priorities to cooperate with the Chinese universities," he further emphasized.

Cohen continued that it is "very important" to cooperate between Chinese and Israeli researches because each country and each university has its advantages.

The Hebrew University is renowned for its innovation, and Chinese universities are interested in the innovation aspect. "We cooperate together, and we produce a better product," he noted.

In order to promote innovation cooperation, in 2014, China and Israel established the mechanism of the joint committee. In March 2017, the two countries established an innovative comprehensive partnership during Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to China.

Thereafter, cooperation between China and Israel in innovation has achieved eye-catching progress, with increasing mutual investment and vibrant people-to-people exchange.

Cohen expressed his expectation for more delegations from the Chinese universities when the pandemic is over and more opportunities to visit China in the future. Enditem
Guwahati/Agartala, May 31 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday hailed the northeast people for making business out of local produce, and even daily wagers helping people in the time of coronavirus pandemic.

"Sudip from Assam wrote to me about his business of handicrafts, designed and produced by rural women. Sudip has decided to turn his bamboo-based handicraft business into a global brand in two years," Modi said in his monthly radio programme "Mann Ki Baat".

Modi said he was confident that the self-reliance mission would take India to a new heights in this decade.

The Prime Minister also praised Gautam Das, a vegetable vendor, for providing rice and pulses to the poor by using his his meagre daily earnings.

Das, who earns living by selling vegetables on push-cart in areas on the outskirts of Agartala, capital of Tripura, had provided food to the poor to survive the Covid-19-induced lockdown.

Soon after the Prime Minister talked about the Tripura man in his radio programme, Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb felicitated Das.

"Happy to meet Goutam Das, a cart-puller from Tripura who has spent his savings to serve people during the lockdown. In today's 'Man ki Baat' programme PM Narendra Modiji also appreciated his efforts. He is an inspiration to many, our government will always support him," the Tripura Chief Minister tweeted.

The state government would financially help the family of Das, the Chief Minister said later. The state government had identified 12,000 vendors to be given Rs 1,000 each from the CM Relief Fund.
Three men remain in custody this morning after eight million cigarettes were found in a container in south Armagh.

Tobacco worth 2.7m was also seized during searches in County Louth.
On Sunday came more necessary moves to intensify the police response. In addition to a 9 p.m.-to-6 a.m. curfew until further notice, Lightfoot shut down the Loop and asked Gov. J.B. Pritzker to send a contingent of the National Guard to Chicago to help ensure no rioting. While acknowledging Floyds death sickened her, Lightfoot said she was hurt and angry at those who decided to try to hijack this moment ... to loot and to destroy. You should be ashamed of yourselves. What you have done is to dishonor yourself, your family and our city.
By PTI

WASHINGTON: A group of 85 distressed Indians in the US have launched a SOS campaign to travel back home, urging the Indian government to allow their minor children having American citizenship with valid Indian visas to accompany them to India.

Travel to India by a non-Indian citizen, except for certain categories of those having Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) card, is barred due to strict travel restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The OCI card is issued to the people of Indian-origin, allowing them a visa-free travel in most of the cases.

It also gives them certain privileges like that of an Indian citizen except for buying agricultural land, voting, running for election and working in government.

The group of Indian parents on Saturday, in a letter to the Ministry of External Affairs, Indian embassy and its diplomatic missions in the US, expressed their wish to travel back to India and urged the authorities to allow their minor children with US citizenship to travel with them.

The parents, who have over the past few weeks joined hands on WhatsApp and Facebook, have kids who are born in the US, thus are American citizens and do not have OCI cards.

"For these reasons, we humbly request you to allow minors who are American citizens with valid Indian visas to travel to India," wrote these parents.

"We are sure the Indian Government does not mean to discriminate against us simply because of a completely unforeseen and unprecedented event completely beyond our control.

"Like our fellow Indian citizens who are flying back to India thanks to the Vande Bharat mission, we too have valid reasons to fly back to India. But we cannot because our minor children cannot be left alone in the US to fend for themselves," the group said.

The members of the group belong to various parts of the US, including California, New Jersey, Washington, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Arizona, Texas, Georgia, Ohio, Maryland, South Carolina, and Minnesota.

One stranded Indian parent have also joined the group from Malaysia.

"We are Indians stranded in the US due to this tragic pandemic. We wish to fly back to India. We are also parents to minor children. Our children are American citizens by virtue of their birth here. Our children have valid Indian visas on their passports," they said in the emailed letter.

While the number of signatories is 85, but if taken into account their spouses and kids, the number of those stranded and wanting to fly back home would run into more than 250.

According to the letter, at this moment their minor kids cannot obtain OCI (Overseas Citizen of India) status right now because OCI processing has been stalled for several months and many of us applied for it in January this year and are still waiting for it, and some of them have infants too young for them to have applied for OCIs before the COVID crisis.

"Some of our American visas are about to expire or have expired (and wouldn't be renewed due to max out or job losses) making our children ineligible to apply for OCI. Some of us have entry visa, e-visa/emergency visa, but not OCI.

"Some of us after waiting for OCI for so long, have applied for visa but are unable to get it," the letter said.

Further, OCI students with OCI parents are unable to travel even though their parents are Indian residents, the letter said.

"We are grateful for the Vande Bharat mission and for the recent government order allowing certain categories of OCI cardholders to travel to India. But Indian parents of visa-holder children should not be treated any differently from Indian parents of OCI cardholder children," they wrote in the letter.

"My younger daughter has emergency visa but no OCI which is preventing me to go to India," one of the parents Deeprekha De told PTI.

She, along with her daughters Sahana (11) and Sohana (6), have been living in Liverpool, New York.

Deeprekha and her husband both are IT Professionals but her husband works from Canada and is currently stranded there.

She said that she had applied for an emergency visa for her younger daughter after her mother had a kidney failure in India but the family was unable to fly to India due to the termination of flight operations due to COVID-19 restrictions.
The Islamic State (IS) extremist group has claimed responsibility for a bomb blast that killed an Afghan journalist and a technician in a minibus carrying employees of a local television station.

At least seven people were wounded in in the capital, Kabul, in the evening rush-hour attack on May 30.

"Our colleagues Mir Wahed Shah, an economic reporter, and Shafiq Amiri, an employee in the technical department, were martyred in the incident," said Mohammad Rafi Rafiq Sediqi, the chief executive of the private Khurshid TV.

The IS group, which battles government forces and Taliban militants, has claimed some of the deadliest attacks in Afghanistan in recent years. It did not give a reason for the May 30 blast.

Pictures shared on social media showed a white minibus, which was carrying 15 employees of Khurshid TV, with extensive damage to its front.

The United States, the European Union, and NATO condemned the attack.

Last year, two employees of Khurshid TV were killed and two wounded in a similar attack in Kabul.

The Taliban and IS have both attacked reporters in the past.

Last year, the Taliban warned the Afghan media to stop broadcasting what it called "anti-Taliban statements."

Afghanistan is one of the world's deadliest places for journalists. In January, the Afghan Journalists Safety Committee reported five journalists were killed in 2019.

The media-freedom group Reporters Without Borders said 15 Afghan journalists were killed in 2018, the deadliest year yet.

Based on reporting by Reuters, AFP, and AP
A hosepipe ban's among the measures being considered by Irish Water in an effort to conserve water during the good weather.

The weather has been warm and dry for the past few days and that is set to continue for the rest of the Bank Holiday.

Met Eireann forecaster Liz Gavin has said there will only be a little rain over the next week.

Generally, across the bulk of the country youre looking at anywhere between 3mm and 6mm [of rain], maybe 6mm to 12mm in parts of the north-west and maybe some eastern spots," she said.

Over a week thats not quite a lot at all. There will be a little bit of rain but maybe not quite as much as the farming community would like.

Met Eireann has said that Sunday will see temperatures range between 22 and 26 degrees.

They said that Bank Holiday Monday will be dry, very warm and mostly sunny.

Temperatures are expected to be around 22 to 27 degrees with it being "warmest in the midlands and west.

Tuesday is set to follow suit with highest temperatures hitting 20 to 25 degrees.

Met Eireann said: The best of the sunshine will be in Leinster and Munster.

Connacht and Ulster will become cloudier as outbreaks of rain develop in the northwest during the afternoon.

This rain will gradually move south-eastwards through the evening and early night.

Earlier this month, Irish Water appealed for people to conserve water where they can.

With people adhering to government advice and staying at home since mid-March in response to the Covid-19 crisis, we can confirm that there has been a significant increase in household water usage, the utility revealed.

New domestic metering data has revealed that households are using an additional 24 litres of water per person per day, a 20% increase from February.

Irish Water said in a statement: As water treatment plants are already working to their maximum capacity, we are appealing to the public to prioritise handwashing over powerwashing and conserve water now where they can, so that together we can meet the increased demands on our network when restrictions are relaxed for businesses.

The Department of Agriculture has also announced that there is a red forest fire warning in place until midday tomorrow.

They said: Arising from current weather patterns, an extreme forest fire risk is deemed to exist in all areas where hazardous fuels such as dead grasses, heather and gorse exist.

The Department has reminded members of the public intending to visit forests or other recreational sites that they should stay within 5km of their homes, in line with Covid-19 restrictions.

They added: Do not light fires in and around forests or open land.

The use of Barbeques, campfires and other open ignition sources should be avoided in or near forests and may be controlled by bye-laws in some areas.

Meanwhile, a water safety warning has been issued after two girls were rescued after

Read More:
31.05.2020 LISTEN

The prolonged Covid-19 Lock down has on one hand devastated the national and global economies, on the other the Covid infected cases are on the rise each day despite the closure of work activity. With over 6058196 Covid cases and 3,67386 deaths worldwide, that include 1,74355 Covid cases and 4984 deaths in India, we are moving close to the end of Lockdown 4.0 in India. We now have a gradual unlock down with a relaxed Lockdown 5.0 , given the trend of Corona Virus ongoing threat and fear of death that is looming at the society at large. Better to get back to graded opening of the work activity and putting the economy on its wheel of power now that the Corona Virus is something with which we need to live for some time, but with all the precautions and regulations for our safety

Hundreds and thousands of webinars keeping the people busy whole day and giving our political leaders a chance to address the nation on Media and Social media is a new normal now.

But that is not what the New Normal that we need to rebuild the New India of our dream that would be free from poverty, unemployment, the misery of disease and air and water pollution that was the normal of the urbanisation based models of economic development and growth pre Covid lockdown.

We cannot close our eyes from the massive migration from the rural areas that was prompted by the attraction of the city based culture of development that under the disguise of the glittering lights of urbanisation destroyed the villages that once were the self-reliant centres of human habitats in the lap of nature. With increased GDP growth as the indicator of national prosperity, we cultivated heaps of unemployment, poverty, unprecedented economic divide, further made miserable by massive air and water pollution creating together an unhappy life making India as one of the most unhappy countries, having ranked 144 amongst 156 countries as per the World Happiness Index released in March 2020.

As such, the New Normal that the India needs to build New India where there would be no one unemployed and environment is healthy requires an ultra-radical departure to our approach to development and growth. To draw this New Normal we need to keep the following indicators as the basis for our developmental strategy.

The workers of the unorganized as well as loosely organized sectors comprising of over 90% of Indias workforce many of whom were living in Mega cities have now returned to their villages in anguish and in pains of Covid-19 prolonged lockdown form one of the important consideration of this New Normal Development plan. Most of these workers are highly skilled and have been the pillars of industrial and economic growth for years together and have the rich experience of working in MSMEs and ultra-small enterprises. If we are able to harness this rich skilled manpower and able to push India's industrialization to a new normal of optimal rural-urban mix of new enterprise development that shall cause rapid growth of Mass Entrepreneurship of small and nano enterprises creating millions of new jobs in areas that have this New opportunity of growth, now that the manpower has returned to their roots in rural areas.

But then, the workers alone are not the sufficient conditions for the growth of NMSEs, they require the genius of young inspired minds of tech-savvy youth who are currently enthused to build the new India of their dream. They need to go out in rural India and integrate their techno entrepreneur talent and work together with the workers who have returned to their villages to cause the rapid growth of NMSEs for ushering a new agro-industrial revolution.

The government on its part should support the young India with massive investment plans to cause this new upsurge of techno economic development that shall create employment in plenty and growth with equity and inclusiveness.

But a word of caution here too. Along side with rural industrialization under the New Normal we need to necessarily take up massive rain water harvesting, rejuvenation of water bodies that have been lying neglected for decades and also mount a massive drive for green energy harvesting in rural areas to truly cause green engineering at work in these new rural industrial areas

On top of the new normal for mass entrepreneurship based rural industrialisation, the government should move fast to attract the advanced technology intensive industries that are desirous of moving to India from countries like China and facilitate their growth in the already developed industrial states around many cities. I see such a great opportunity for UP in Noida and Greater Noida, Manesar and Sonepat in Haryana, Neemrana in Rajasthan and Sinner near Nashik in Maharashtra. This is just to indicate a few such places that can facilitate rapid relocation of industries from abroad.

There is no dearth of such developed locations in India as a lot has been done in the past by the successive state and central governments to develop SEZs for industries but without much success as a lot of developed space in SEZs is currently available. But today there is this new opportunity that is knocking at Indias doorstep. India should encash this great opportunity for achieve its goal of 5 trillion dollars economy by 2024 with zero unemployment and massive rejuvenation of green engineering based agro-industrial development, says Prof PB Sharma Vice chancellor Amity University Gurugram who has been the President of Association of Indian Universities AIU
GAINESVILLE, Fla., May 29, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Concept Companies, Inc. completed the sale of a newly constructed and fully leased biotechnology and life science research facility within the Foundation Park development in Alachua, Florida. This 43,180-square-foot building was sold to HF Holdings Colorado, LLC for $12 million, the largest commercial real estate sale in Alachua County Florida since 2015.

Foundation Park, a 43,180-square-foot biotech and life science research facility, is located in Alachua, Florida.

Foundation Park, Concept Companies' biotechnology and life sciences development, is a four-phase project with phase two in the planning stages. Located adjacent to Progress Park, UF Innovate's Sid Martin Biotechnology Incubator, and Santa Fe College's Perry Center for Emerging Technologies, Foundation Park is a cornerstone of north Florida's dynamic life sciences cluster.

Phase 1 of Foundation Park, developed in 2015, is anchored by Applied Genetic Technologies Corporation (AGTC). AGTC performs research and development of genetic treatments for rare inherited conditions with its most advanced products focused on vision-related disorders.

"Foundation Park Phase 1 was developed to serve the growing bioscience and life sciences cluster in the Alachua and greater Gainesville area," said Brian Crawford, CEO of Concept Companies. "Concept Companies is proud to be a partner with the tenants in the first building which includes AGTC, University of Florida's Biotility and AavantiBio and we look forward to continuing to serve the facility needs of the cutting edge companies needing best-in-class laboratory and research facilities."

Concept Companies is committed to the life sciences in Alachua County and will be announcing new projects in the region in the coming months. The sale of Building 1 at Foundation Park is the beginning of the next chapter of new development in the region.

About Concept Companies:

Concept Companies, Inc. is a full-service commercial real estate and development company based in Gainesville, Florida. With a focus on bioscience, life science, health care, and retail development, Concept Companies is managing active development projects throughout the southeastern United States. For more information, visit conceptcompanies.net.

Concept Companies Contact:

Emily Williams

Marketing Manager

352-333-3233, ext. 138

[email protected]

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Foundation Park

Foundation Park, a 43,180-square-foot biotech and life science research facility, is located in Alachua, Florida.

SOURCE Concept Companies

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The unrest over the death of black man George Flody spread across the US on Saturday (May 30) with the protesters coming out on streets setting police cars ablaze, looting shops and clashing with police officers from Atlanta to Los Angeles.

Authorities were preparing for more violence with some calling in the National Guard to maintain law and order.

In Minneapolis, the city where Floyd died after a police officer pressed a knee into his neck despite Floyd's plea that he was unable to breathe, Governor Tim Walz called in the National Guard and vowed to quell unrest as soon as possible.

The situation in Minneapolis is no longer in any way about the murder of George Floyd. It is about attacking civil society, instilling fear and disrupting our great cities," Walz told the media.

Protests erupted in over two dozen cities, including New York, Oakland, California, Atlanta, Portland and Oregon and though protesters were largely peaceful some of them turned violent creating law and order situation.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump is yet to do anything to assuage the anger of the protesters but he added fuel to the fire by posting a series of tweets mocking those who protested outside the White House and warning that if protesters breached the fence, they would ... have been greeted with the most vicious dogs, and most ominous weapons, I have ever seen.

It is to be noted that the officer responsible for Floyd's death was arrested on Friday (May 29) but this has also failed to end the simmering anger.

In Georgia, the governor declared a state of emergency on Saturday and activated the state National Guard as violence erupted in several parts of Atlanta. Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler also declared an emergency and said that curfew will remain in the city during nighttime till the situation improves.

In Portland, protesters entered inside police headquarters and ransacked the building. In Virginia, a police vehicle was set on fire outside Richmond police headquarters by the protesters.

Georgia Governor Brian Kemp tweeted that up to 500 members of the Guard would deploy immediately to protect people & property in Atlanta.
His contract with Channel Nine ends in December.

And Karl Stefanovic set tongues wagging this week when he was spotted with brother Peter on-board a superyacht with Sky News CEO, Paul Whittaker.

In pictures published by The Sunday Telegraph, the 45-year-old Today show star enjoyed a cruise around Sydney Harbour and reportedly was 'toasted' by the high-profile guests before lunch.

Have Karl's contract negotiations stalled? Today star enjoyed a day on a yacht this week with brother Peter Stefanovic and the Sky News CEO

The toasting could have been for both Karl and Peter, who welcomed newborn babies with their wives recently.

The publication reports that Nine bosses 'have made an offer to Stefanovic and his new agent Mark Morrissey, however talks have stalled because the new contract is believed to offer less than half his former $3 million-a-year.'

Also on board the luxury cruiser - which docked at Balmoral for a few hours - was Wentworth MP Dave Sharma, boat owner Richard Weinberg, and chef Guillaume Brahimi.

The publication reports that Karl, who recently vowed to lose 10kgs in ten weeks on Today, even had a smoke on the top deck with Dave.

What's going on? The Sunday Telegraph reports that Nine bosses 'have made an offer to Stefanovic and his new agent Mark Morrissey, however talks have stalled because the new contract is believed to offer less than half his former $3 million-a-year'

back on air: Karl made his Today comeback in January alongside new co-host Allison Langdon

Karl's brother Peter now works for Sky News after leaving Nine amid the Ubergate scandal.

Earlier this month, Karl rubbished reports that he's heading to Hollywood with wife Jasmine Stefanovic to chase a talk show career.

The Sydney Morning Herald's PS Sydney hinted at rumours the Today show host could follow in the footsteps of late night titans like David Letterman and Jimmy Kimmel.

All talk! Earlier this month, Karl rubbished reports that he's heading to Hollywood with wife Jasmine Stefanovic to chase a talk show career

However Karl denied that he was making a move to Tinseltown despite his Channel Nine contract ending in December.

Karl called the claims 'complete rubbish' adding, 'my hands are kinda full at the moment anyway,' referring to his newborn daughter, Harper.

But he admitted he may be expanding his Instagram variety show to network television.

The TV host has been posting the low-quality production to his social media for a number of weeks and believes it has room to improve.

Rumours: It came after Woman's Day magazine reported that Karl was, 'plotting his escape to Hollywood' with wife Jasmine, 36 (pictured)

He told PS Sydney: 'We believe there is a gap in the market for smaller productions, we have a lot of ideas we want to pitch to Nine.

'And yes I have a few Hollywood heavy hitters among my friends, and it would be a bonus if something was picked up there too, but our main focus is local'.

It came after Woman's Day magazine reported that Karl was, 'plotting his escape to Hollywood' with wife Jasmine, 36.

Karl made his Today comeback in January alongside new co-host Allison Langdon.

Daily Mail Austraila has contacted Channel Nine and a representative of Karl for comment in relation to this story.
Hundreds of applicants who had appeared in the recruitment of 69,000 teachers of basic education in the state, held a protest maintaining social distancing here on Saturday.

They alleged that state government is not paying attention to their problems due to which their future is becoming uncertain.

The applicants of this recruitment have not been allowed to do correction even for a single time. Mistakenly, my details were filled wrong due to error in the servers. There are around 5000-6000 such people whose details are incorrect but we were not provided with correction option. Our future is becoming uncertain and state government is not paying attention to solve our problems, Ruchi, one of the protesting applicants told ANI.

Another applicant Arvind, said that though the State Education Minister promised to help the struggling applicant but no action has been taken in this regard.

We are demanding from State Government to solve our problems. Due to server, there were some incorrect details in our form. There was no provision of correction due to which our future is being affected. Education Minister had promised to help us, but any step to solve our problem was not initiated yet, he said.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had on May 6 welcomed the decision of Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court of confirming the State Governments decision of keeping higher cut-off marks for recruitment of 69,000 teachers in the primary schools of the state.

Taking to Twitter CMO wrote, CM Yogi Adityanath has welcomed the High Courts decision in the matter of recruiting 69,000 teachers of basic education. He congratulated all the successful candidates by wishing them to contribute to the education system of the state in the coming time.

State Basic Education Minister Satish Dwivedi had stated that the State Government will try to complete the recruitment process soon.

Uttar Pradesh Government had kept higher cut-off marks for recruitment of 69000 teachers, the governments decision was challenged in the high court which has upheld the decision. We will try to complete the recruitment process at the earliest, he said.
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Twenty-three people were arrested in London yesterday as thousands of Black Lives Matter protesters peacefully marched on the US Embassy in London, with hundreds more taking to the streets of Cardiff and Manchester, to demonstrate against the killing of George Floyd.

Chants of, 'I can't breathe,' rebounded across the Thames this afternoon, the words Floyd was heard gasping before his death as a white police officer knelt on his neck in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Monday.

They defied the ban on mass gatherings to rally at Trafalgar Square before making their way to the gates of Downing Street and then south of the river towards the US Embassy.

Three people were arrested for breaching coronavirus legislation, said police, while two others were detained for assaulting officers. The other arrests were for a range of offences from possession of an offensive weapon to assault on police, obstructing a public carriageway to breaches of COVID legislation.

In a tweet, the Metropolitan Police said: 'The total number of arrests following gatherings in central London today is now 23, all for various offences. They remain in police custody.'

Witnesses reported seeing scuffles break out between police and protesters despite a mainly peaceful day of demonstrations. One group of officers were seen tackling protesters on Kensington High Street, with reports some activists threw traffic cones at police.

The capital wasn't the only site of protests, with activists outside Cardiff Castle in Wales holding placards which said, 'The UK is not innocent,' and in Manchester hundreds flocked to show their solidarity in St. Peter's Square.

Among those chanting at police officers guarding the gates of Number 10 was someone waving the black and red flag of Antifa (anti-fascist). Donald Trump has accused the militant left-wingers of fomenting anarchist violence during the riots in the States.

Dozens of American cities have been set ablaze over the last week amid deadly clashes with police officers over the killing of Floyd, whose death is seen as a symbol of systemic police brutality against African-Americans.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab today appealed for the US not to 'tear itself apart' and said that the Floyd case was 'very distressing'.

Scroll down for video.

US EMBASSY, LONDON, ENGLAND: Demonstrators block the road as they gather outside the US Embassy to protest the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died after a police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes during an arrest in Minneapolis, USA

TRAFALGAR SQUARE, LONDON, ENGLAND: Hundreds of demonstrators were packed into Trafalgar Square on Sunday, chanting 'I can't breathe,' the words Floyd was heard gasping as a white police officer knelt on his neck in Minneapolis

US EMBASSY, LONDON, ENGLAND: A man wearing a protective face mask kneels in front of police officers during a protest against the death in Minneapolis police custody of African-American man George Floyd near the U.S. Embassy

DOWNING STREET, LONDON, ENGLAND: Armed police officers guard the gates of Downing Street where hundreds of protesters were seen holding placards, as well as an Antifa (anti-fascist) flag

Protesters react as a woman screams in pain as she is arrested and led off by police near the US embassy in London on Sunday

Demonstrators gather in front of the US Embassy in London, protesting the police killing of George Floyd in America

People carrying banners gather during a protest over the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died after being pinned down by a white police officer in USA

Police officers struggle against protesters on Kensington High Street as violent scenes mar the mostly peaceful demonstrations in the capital today

Police officers were battered with traffic cones during today's protests in London, with 11 activists arrested in total across the capital

CARDIFF, WALES: Protesters outside Cardiff Castle in Wales today to show solidarity with the demonstrators in the United States

Protesters gather in Manchester today to demonstrate against the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota on Monday

Police officers remove two protesters they handcuffed from outside the U.S. embassy after people marched there from Trafalgar Square in central London

A woman is led away by police during a Black Lives Matter protest outside the US Embassy in London

People carrying banners gather during a protest over the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died after being pinned down by a white police officer

The protest started gathering at the Trafalgar Square and marched through US Embassy in Vauxhall and 10 Downing Street

US EMBASSY, LONDON, ENGLAND: Demonstrators hold up placards as they march towards the US Embassy in central London

CARDIFF, WALES: Black Lives Matter protesters outside Cardiff Castle in Wales on Sunday in solidarity with other protests around the world

Police officers block a road close to the Embassy of the United States of America as people join in a spontaneous Black Lives Matter march through central London

Supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement gather to protest against police brutality in USA and in memory of George Floyd in London

US EMBASSY, LONDON, ENGLAND: Demonstrators with masks covering their faces stand-off with police officers outside the US Embassy in Vauxhall on Sunday

People hold placards as they join a spontaneous Black Lives Matter march at Trafalgar Square to protest the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis

People carrying banners gather during a protest over the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died after being pinned down by a white police officer in USA

People carrying banners gather during a protest in London over the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man killed by a white police officer in the US. These protesters are also holding up a sign for Belly Mujinga, a British transport worker who died of coronavirus after allegedly being spat at

The death of an African-American man, George Floyd, at the hands of police in Minneapolis has sparked violent protests across the USA, with demonstrations also now breaking out in the UK

Supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement with a placard reading 'Pro-Black isn't Anti-White' gather outside the US Embassy

Police officers block a road close to the Embassy of the United States of America as people holding placards join in a spontaneous Black Lives Matter march through central London

People hold placards as they join a spontaneous Black Lives Matter march through central London to protest the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis

Demonstrators stand on top of a bus shelter they march near the US Embassy in central London to protest the death of George Floyd

Supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement gather to protest against the Police brutality in USA and in memory of George Floyd in London

Police officers block a road close to the Embassy of the United States of America as people holding placards join in a spontaneous Black Lives Matter march

But he insisted he would not comment on the backlash against Donald Trump's response to a wave of furious protests across the US, merely saying he wanted the country to 'come back together.'

Having spent the last few months in coronavirus lockdown, very few of the attendees at the protests across the UK appeared to be concerned about social distancing.

One demonstrator said the protests were 'very important because it is sending a clear message that we have had enough racial injustice in our country'.

Raab appeals for US not to 'tear itself apart' over 'distressing' Floyd case Asked about Donald Trump's response, Dominic Raab told Sky: 'I'm not going to start commenting on the commentary or indeed the press statements that other world leaders make, or indeed the US president. 'Footage of what happened to George Floyd was very distressing, as has been the scenes across America of the rioting and some of the violence. 'And what we do know is that the lead suspect has now been charged with murder, there is a federal review and we want to see de-escalation of all of those tensions and American come together.' Later he told the BBC: 'I've long kept to the self-imposed guidance not to comment on what President Trump says or indeed other world leaders, it is not really what my job is.' Mr Raab said he wanted to see the US 'come back together not tear itself apart over this, and of course that is a very distressing and upsetting case'. Advertisement

Isabelle Orsini, 20, is originally from New York, but now lives in Kensington. She said: 'The US obviously has a much deeper and darker history of black discrimination compared to the UK.

'The reason people are so angry is because this is reopening wounds that go back hundreds of years.

'It is very important that we do whatever it takes to tell our government that racism will not be tolerated.'

After Battersea, protesters - many wearing masks - crossed the river again, and headed through affluent Chelsea, Knightsbridge and Notting Hill, before gathering at the base of Grenfell Tower where 72 people died in a 2017 fire.

A reverend at a church on Trafalgar Square, where the protest started, said she was 'very sympathetic' towards those marching but expressed some concern about how close they were.

Reverend Sally Hitchiner, associate vicar at St Martin-in-the-Fields, said: 'It's showing there are people in the UK who care passionately about the situation in the US.

'Clearly they're not following lockdown and social distancing, but I think there's a huge amount of passion there and that's overriding their concerns.

'It's an issue that requires passion but at the same time there's a huge amount of risk in what they're doing.'

The London demonstration comes after tens of thousands of people joined nightly protests across the US since the death, with at least 1,600 people arrested in 22 cities as some demonstrations descended into violence.

BLM have said of their protest in London: 'We are doing this to place pressure on the American government and show that this is a world wide issue.'

BLM protests were also taking place at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany, and at the US Embassy in Denmark's capital, Copenhagen.

After the crowd marched on from the US Embassy, a large number of them stopped under a railway bridge outside Battersea Park Station and chanted 'black lives matter'.

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: A New York City Police Department vehicle burns after being set alight by protesters

A man is taken away by police officers during a protest against the death in Minneapolis police custody of African-American man George Floyd in front of the U.S. Embassy, London, Britain

People are led away by police officers during a protest against the death in Minneapolis police custody of African-American man George Floyd in front of the U.S. Embassy, London

Supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement gather at the US Embassy to protest against the Police brutality in USA

Demonstrators carry placards with slogans as they march in the road outside the US Embassy in London to protest the death of George Floyd

Demonstrators shout slogans as they march in the road outside the US Embassy in London on Sunday

Demonstrators block the road as they gather outside the US Embassy in London on Sunday in solidarity with demonstrators in the United States

US EMBASSY, LONDON, ENGLAND: A woman holds a banner which reads: 'End white supremacy, white silence kills,' as people flout the ban on mass gatherings to protest the killing of George Floyd

Black Lives Matter protesters outside the US Embassy in Vauxhall, London, holding signs including, 'The United Kingdom is not innocent,' and 'Your justice is my justice'

Protesters outside the US Embassy in Vauxhall stand between blocked cars and buses on Sunday during the Black Lives Matter demonstration

Black Lives Matter demonstrators make obscene gestures as they march outside the US Embassy in London on Sunday afternoon

People take part in a Black Lives Matter protest outside the US Embassy in London. The protest follows the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, US, this week which has seen a police officer charged with third-degree murder

People holds signs during a protest against the death in Minneapolis police custody of African-American man George Floyd, in Trafalgar Square, London, Britain

People holds signs during a protest against the death in Minneapolis police custody of African-American man George Floyd

Men holds signs during a protest against the death in Minneapolis police custody of African-American man George Floyd, in Trafalgar Square

People take part in a Black Lives Matter protest outside the US Embassy in London. The protest follows the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, US, this week which has seen a police officer charged with third-degree murder

Four men climbed on top of a bus stop and encouraged the crowd in their chants, before getting down on one knee in silence, leading the gathered crowd to do the same.

Earlier a group of around 20 police officers were met with chants of 'I can't breathe' and 'no justice, no peace, no racist police' when the demonstrators stopped on the corner of Ebury Bridge Road.

The march moved past Chelsea Barracks buildings. Construction hoarding around the outside of a building site has been daubed with graffiti. The text on the hoardings, 'A Heritage A Destiny A Legacy,' has been sprayed underneath with 'Don't Black People Deserve This' written in red.

It comes after protests by BLM in southeast London yesterday, with hundreds marching through the streets of Peckham to demand justice.

Buses and cars were forced to a standstill with groups shouting 'no justice, no peace' and 'stop killing the mandem.'

Further protests are planned by the BLM movement in Birmingham, Manchester, Cardiff and Glasgow, as well as the US Embassy in London.

Footage of another protest in North London on Saturday showed a smaller group of demonstrators marching and carrying a banner reading 'abolish the police'.

Most of those attending both protests were seen standing closer together than the two-metre recommended to prevent the spread of coronavirus. Many could also be seen without face masks.

BERLIN, GERMANY: A woman holds a megaphone during a protest against the death in Minneapolis police custody of African-American man George Floyd, at the Brandenburg Gate

COPENHAGEN, DENMARK: Hundreds of protesters in the Danish capital on Sunday to protest the killing of George Floyd

Protesters holding signs telling people to 'stay woke'

Crowds of Londoners standing just feet apart amid the pandemic as they protest the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota

Two women at the BLM demonstration in Trafalgar Square, central London, on Sunday

A woman with a young child attending a protest over the death of an African-American in police custody

A woman holds a sign saying: 'Who police the police?'

A protester holding a sign with names of those who have died in police custody or while being arrested, or as a result of alleged racial profiling, in the US in Trafalgar Square, London

A demonstrator holds up a sign with an optimistic reminder for people to socially distance during a Black Lives Matter protest outside the US Embassy in London

Police officers are seen behind people during a protest against the death in Minneapolis police custody of African-American man George Floyd in front of the U.S. Embassy in London on Sunday

Thousands gathered in central London and marched to the US Embassy to protest the death of an unarmed black man in Minneapolis while in police custody that has sparked days of unrest in the US city and beyond

Demonstrators carry placards with slogans as they march in the road outside the US Embassy in London today

Last night destruction continued to spread across the United States amid continued outrage at what many believe is a systemic problem of police brutality against African-Americans.

In Minneapolis, protesters were seen fleeing after cops hurled tear gas into the crowds while some responded by launching fireworks back at officers.

The National Guard was activated to defend the White House from attack as the Secret Service agents on the ground struggled to keep control of crowds descending on the seat of the US government.

The Big Apple was ablaze as NYPD vehicles were torched and ransacked while shocking footage emerged of cops violently detaining protesters.

A man was left critically injured in Dallas when he was attacked and stomped on by a group of people when he allegedly tried to defend a store with a large sword.

Black Lives Matter Protesters marching on Whitehall on Sunday

Black Lives Matter protesters marching through central Manchester on Sunday in solidarity with the demonstrators in the US

A woman holds a sign saying 'Black Lives Matter' during a protest outside Cardiff Castle in response to the death of George Floyd on May 31, 2020, in Cardiff, Wales

Black Lives Matter protester marching on Whitehall, London, on Sunday

BERLIN, GERMANY: Supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement hold placards and banners to protest against the police brutality in the US following the death of George Floyd

COPENHAGEN, DENMARK: Supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement protest in front of the US Embassy

A woman speaks into a megaphone while holding a sign which says 'black lives matter' during a protest outside Cardiff Castle

Crowds in Manchester today during the Black Lives Matter protest, as thousands of demonstrators turned out across the UK

A woman wearing a Malcolm X t-shirt holds a sign which reads: 'Justice 4 George.' One of many who gathered outside Cardiff Castle on Sunday

In Atlanta a cop suffered 'significant injuries' when they were hit by an ATV, while in Chicago, a man commandeered a police horse and rode off on it.

Los Angeles deployed the National Guard for the first since the 1992 riots when the police officers who beat up black man Rodney King walked free of all charges and California Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in LA County.

A total of 11 states and the District of Columbia had activated the National Guard by the early hours of Sunday, as law enforcement buckled under the strain of the protests.

In Peckham, London, buses and cars were forced to a standstill on Saturday afternoon when hundreds of Black Lives Matter protesters furious at the Floyd's slaying marched along the main road

Yesterday's protests in Peckham (pictured) and North London were a precursor to a series of demonstrations planned for the next week across Britain by the BLM movement

States calling for Guard assistance included California, Georgia, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Washington state.

Meanwhile at least 25 cities roll out emergency curfews to try to bring rioting and looting under control, including San Francisco, Atlanta, Louisville, Los Angeles, Portland, Columbia, South Carolina, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Seattle.

Donald Trump has put the Army on notice to deploy to the streets with a four-hour notice - the first time this will have been done in almost 20 years during the 1992 LA riots over the beating of black man Rodney King by cops.

Minnesota - where Floyd died - has borne the brunt of the protests which began there Tuesday before fanning out across the country.

The killings reignited tensions between law enforcement and the black community in the US causing unrest across the country

WASHINGTON, DC: A firecracker thrown by protesters explodes under police one block from the White House on Saturday night

Chicago: A Chicago police vehicle is set on fire during violent protests and bricks are hurled at it

Minneapolis: Tear gas and fireworks go off in the streets Saturday night on day five of protests over Floyd's death

Rioting was still going on in the early hours of Sunday, with the Minneapolis police department reporting a big group of protesters on foot and in vehicles throwing missiles of some sort at cops.

Minnesota Dept of Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell announced early Sunday there had been 'dozens' of arrests through the night but no 'substantive' injuries.

The Minnesota National Guard announced at around 10.30pm it was sending 10,800 troops in to tackle protests Saturday night, as pleas for people to observe curfews fell on deaf ears.

The Minnesota National Guard said on Twitter it already had more than 4,100 citizen-soldiers and airmen already in the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul and was ramping it up to a staggering 10,800.

Washington DC: The National Guard was activated to defend the White House from attack as the Secret Service agents on the ground struggled to keep control of crowds descending on the seat of the US government

New York: NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio and President Trump clashed Saturday night over New York's response to the escalating crisis there

There were just 700 on duty on Friday.

State police officers were seen in their masses surrounding the fifth police precinct Saturday night after officials insisted that the city would be brought under control following four nights of widespread destruction including a suspected looter being shot dead, businesses being burned to the ground and police officers forced to flee for their lives when a police precinct was stormed and torched.

The city was filled with smoke Saturday as protesters let off fireworks and set fires.

Hundreds of protesters had gathered outside the fifth precinct and were driven out by state cops using tear gas and firing rubber bullets.

New York: NYPD officers are poised with their batons after Trump praised their response - despite footage showing mutlipel scenes where cops manhandled protesters violently Friday

New York: A vehicle burns near New York's Union Square Saturday night

Washington DC: Demonstrators gesture next to a fire during a rally near the White House

Washington DC: The seat of the government was under threat from protesters leading to the National Guard being activated in Washington DC

Washington DC: A firework is hurled by a protester and explodes by a police line

Footage showed protesters had retreated while the officers increased their circle around the vicinity - defending the police station for fear it will be stormed and torched like the third precinct was Thursday.

People marching from Minneapolis to St. Paul were also met with tear gas from officers stopping them in their tracks and sending masses fleeing from the potent chemical.

This comes as Governor Tim Walz has warned that a renewed spike in coronavirus cases could hit residents as protests have seen thousands take to the streets, while he admitted that the state's jails cannot contain the number of people being taken into custody.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 31

By Nargiz Sadikhova - Trend:

Two more lethal coronavirus cases were reported in Kazakhstan on May 31, 2020, Trend reports with reference to the Kazakhstans Ministry of Healthcare.

The ministry said that one case was reported in countrys Shymkent city (male, born 1959), whereas the other case was reported in Pavlodar region (female, born 1966).

Thus, the overall number of coronavirus-related deaths in Kazakhstan increased to 40.

The first two cases of coronavirus infection were detected in Kazakhstan among those who arrived in Almaty city from Germany on March 13, 2020.

The total number of coronavirus cases confirmed in Kazakhstan since the virus was first confirmed in the country amounted to 10,858 cases. This includes 5,220 people who recovered from the coronavirus, and 38 patients who passed away.

The outbreak in the Chinese city of Wuhan - which is an international transport hub - began at a fish market in late December 2019.

The World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11 declared COVID-19 a pandemic. Some sources claim the coronavirus outbreak started as early as November 2019.

---

Follow the author on twitter: @nargiz_sadikh
The day after Twitter had the temerity to fact check Donald Trump, who has been found to lie and mislead over 18,000 times in the more than 1200 days he has held office, the President was in a Tweet snit: Republicans feel that Social Media Platforms totally silence conservatives voices. We will strongly regulate, or close them down, before we can ever allow this to happen.

Twitters calling out of Trumps charges that postal voting is fraudulent  he believes it helps only

Democrats  followed his vicious trolling of MSNBC host and former Republican congressman Joe

Scarborough, all but alleging he murdered one of his aides. It is a wholly false, despicable, filthy charge, and Trump has utterly resisted recanting the slander, and prefers to keep it alive: Its certainly a very suspicious situation. Very sad, very sad and very suspicious.

US President Donald Trump speaks before signing an executive order aimed at curbing protections for social media giants. Credit:AP

What to do with a President who lies continuously from a bully pulpit with over 80 million followers?

Under US law, Twitter and social media platforms lie somewhere between traditional publishers and broadcasters  who have full control over access to their platforms and the content they present on those media  and public utilities, or common carriers, which are pipes along which anyone can travel with no control by the owner of the content of the flow. If its electricity or telephony or data bits, the medium carries the message.
Copyright  2020 Albuquerque Journal

One thing is for sure: theres never been another election year like 2020. But by the time its over, elections of the future may look more like this one than any other.

With the COVID-19 outbreak hitting the country in the midst of the primary election season, state election officials across the country scrambled to accommodate voting during a pandemic where social distancing has become part of the new normal.

While New Mexico has been scrutinized for holding its primary election late in the season, the timing may have actually benefitted election officials here, allowing them more time to prepare for the June 2 primary election.

Before even the first cases of COVID-19 were in New Mexico, our office, Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver and county clerks around the state started thinking about what an election would look like, Alex Curtas, a spokesman for the Secretary of States office said. We knew there had to be some alterations made in order to preserve public health. We wanted to reduce in-person voting to try to eliminate the spread (of the virus).

Absentee voting

Besides obvious precautionary measures to wipe down voting stations, outfit poll workers with masks and maintain social distancing while lining up to vote on Election Day, county clerks have taken steps to reduce the number of polling stations, and encouraged early and absentee voting.

An effort by 27 of the states 33 county clerks to hold a mail-in election was struck down by the state Supreme Court, which decided it did not have the constitutional authority to determine how elections were to be conducted; that power lies with the Legislature. However, the court ruled that while county clerks could not send ballots directly to registered voters in each major party, they could send them the materials needed to request an absentee ballot.

When the ruling came down, it basically referred us back to conducting a regular election, so this year is not so much different than elections of the past, said Curtas. But we are encouraging absentee voting.

And thats what makes this year unlike any other election year. Curtas said its possible there will be more absentee ballots cast in the primary election than ballots at polling places.

The message hasnt just been get out and vote. Its been stay home and vote, and do it before Election Day, Curtas said.

And voters have responded well, and taken our encouragement and the encouragement of county officials, candidates and the parties, Curtas added. Weve seen way more absentee (ballot) requests and weve already received back more absentee ballots than weve ever seen before.

Curtas said that, statewide, nearly 115,000 absentee votes had been returned through Tuesday, a week before Election Day. By comparison, there were fewer than 25,000 absentee votes during the 2016 primary election.

Santa Fe County Clerk Geraldine Salazar said on Thursday her office has been overwhelmed with absentee ballot requests and phone calls in the weeks leading up to the election. She said theyve received nearly 37,000 absentee ballot requests. More than 16,000 had been logged in as returned, leaving at least 20,000 yet to be returned or processed.

Were doing a lot of the same things, Salazar said, but the difference is it has been quadruple the work.

The deadline to return absentee ballots by mail has passed. Envelops needed to be postmarked by Friday. But Salazar said,  thats due to a law passed last year that allows voters to deliver their absentee ballots to the Clerks Office or a voter convenience center between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. on Election Day instead of mailing it in.

Thats been a true benefit, she said of the law that allows absentee ballots to be returned in person. Because people want to vote.

She added that its important for voters to fill out the entire ballot and sign it, lest their vote not be counted.

A long night

How all those absentee ballots affect getting final results on election night is unknown. Curtas said he didnt expect problems, but there is a possibility that absentee ballots might be delayed. Theres no obligation that people have to know the outcome of every race on election night.

Salazar conceded that theres a very high possibility that all the votes wont be counted before midnight on Tuesday and results wont be known until the next morning.

Whats the biggest unknown is what will happen with all these mail-in ballots that we have to enter and count, she said. Were going to try as we always do to get the results in. Whatever we have that night will be the unofficial results.

Salazar said county clerks have 10 hours after polls close to get those unofficial results to the Secretary of States office, meaning 5 a.m. Wednesday morning.

Asked if this years general election will lead to changes in how elections are handled in the future, Salazar said it likely will.

I think this whole pandemic, with mail-in ballots and absentee ballots, there will have to be changes. We will have to create or add to it to improve the process, she said.

She also said she wouldnt be surprised to see lawsuits filed by voters who requested an absentee ballot and didnt get it on time, which could result in changes to election laws.

When this is over, were all going to have to take a look at this and decide what we need to do to make changes to improve the process, she said.

Election Day

Tuesday, June 2

Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Railway minister Piyush Goyal on Sunday rejected allegations that special trains meant to ferry migrant workers back home were mismanaged and some of them took wrong routes and said every single train reached its desired destination, with only a fraction diverted, and in a five-day period that saw a rush of trains headed for East Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, to avert congestion.

Several Opposition leaders, including Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, have alleged that the trains, labelled Shramik Specials, were running late by days. Others have alleged that a large number of trains was diverted. According to data collected by the Railway Protection Force and reported by HT, around 80 travellers on these have died, although, to be sure, some of them, according to the forces own report, had pre-existing health conditions.

The railway minister said the allegations on widespread delays and diversions were completely baseless and wrong. Almost all trains up to May 19 were before time... (So far) only 71 out of 4,040, which is 1.75% trains, were diverted. Charges like kahin se nikle, kahin chale gaye (they left from somewhere and went off somewhere else), all that is nonsense. Every train reached the destination, only took a slightly longer route to ease the congestion and keep the flow of trains running. Otherwise, I would have to stop the operation, Goyal told Hindustan Times in an interview. It was only between May 20 and May 25 that a rush caused a congestion and resulted in diversions and delays, he added. And no train has taken seven or nine days to reach its destination as is being claimed, the minister said.

So far, 4,040 Shramik Specials  necessitated by a national lockdown brought on by the coronavirus disease (Covid-19)  have carried more than 5.4 million passengers. The minister said almost 80% of the trains were travelling to Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, leading to congestion on the limited routes. And stations which received around three trains a day were being asked to deal with many more.

On being asked why the special trains for migrant workers began operating only by May 1, Goyal said: The purpose of the lockdown was containment and the idea was that we have to break the coronavirus chain and, therefore, starting the trains any earlier would have been counterproductive. The idea was that all migrants should stay where they are... We also requested states to ensure that they were well-looked after.

It needed that five weeks at least to break that coronavirus chain but then, we found that people are getting very anxious... We decided on May 1 to start this and we continued to ramp it up, the Union minister said.

In March, the Centre halted all passenger rail operations in an attempt to stop the spread of Covid-19. It later announced that special trains for migrant workers and some other passengers would be allowed, but only with strict social distancing norms and other health care protocols.

The Indian Railways said on Sunday it will begin operation of 200 special trains from June 1 and more than 145,000 passengers will travel on the first day as the lockdown measures are relaxed over the coming weeks. These services will be in addition to Shramik Special trains, and other special trains being run since May 12.

Goyal said that the reasons for delays of most of the special migrant trains were not the journeys, but at the end. There were only seven places where maximum trains were headed... Trains were just bunched up. Local administrations were taking precautions, taking three hours for each train or two hours for each train to disembark. Fewer platforms were there. So the bunching and delay happened because of the congestion at the end...

He said beyond a point, states demanded more stoppages for the trains that were initially origin-to-destination. They couldnt bring people to the stations in time, the minister said, adding that this caused bunching up. To ease that congestion, we took a considered view and diverted 71 trains.

These trains, he said, took a little longer to reach their destinations but that they took seven to nine days was a gross exaggeration. No train took seven or nine days, he said.

We never refused a single train. On the contrary, states could not use many of the trains that we provided. Nearly 250 Shramik trains which were provided had to remain unused because the states could not get the passengers in time. Maharashtra alone was over a 100 trains which could not be used. Its a very unfortunate situation, he said.

The minister added that despite the diversions, and eateries being closed due to the lockdown, the railways provided food and water, five-six times in some journeys, in the diverted trains. He said 11.9 million meals were provided by the railways in addition to 5.4 million of them provided by the states at the point of embarkation. The railways also provided 15 million water bottles other than those provided by the states. And the states also provided food when the migrants disembarked, Goyal pointed out.

On the issue of deaths  there have been about 80 deaths on board the Shramik Special trains between May 9 and May 27, according to data from the Railway Protection Force  Goyal said they found that in all cases, there were existing ailments. Some of the stories are sought to be portrayed as if people died of hunger or starvation. I can say with confidence that no one died of hunger, he said, adding that in long-distance travel, some deaths occur even in normal operations.

He added that Railways has been transparent about the deaths, and insisted on compiling a list of them, and finding out causes even as news reports suggested that eight or nine migrants died on trains. The real number has emerged only because of this, he suggested.

We are very concerned... My heart goes out to the families (of those who have died), the minister said.

Goyal said some of the deaths could have been prevented with better medical screening but the doctors who were dealing with a heavy flow of people could not be blamed.

He added that 36 pregnant women who were expecting to deliver were allowed to travel in the trains and they went into labour in the course of the journey. They should have never have been on the train.

Praising the efforts of railway employees across the country, the minister said: In such adverse circumstances, moving 54 lakh people, with all the associated health protocols, is certainly not an ordinary operation. And in the extraordinary circumstances, I will say that the railway employees put in their heart and soul... They are as much front-line corona warriors...

The minister said the special trains will run for as long as there is a demand from states. We have been asking states... The current demand today is 250-300 trains. Maximum demand is now to West Bengal and to Odisha.

But the flow is also starting in the reverse direction, he suggested.

The good news is that a lot of people are travelling back from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Trains are getting booked in the reverse direction also.
Ghana's COVID-19 case count has increased from 7,881 to 8,017 after 136 new cases were recorded as announced by President Akufo-Aidoo on Sunday, May 31 during his 10th Address to the nation amid the coronavirus pandemic.



Out of the total cases recorded, 13 are severely ill, 3 critically and 1 on ventilator.



President Akufo-Addo said the number of recoveries has now increased from 2,841 to 2,947, an additional 106.



The death toll remain 36.



Gatherings should not be more than 100 people



President Akufo-Addo has introduced a phased approach of easing of restrictions especially in public gatherings and school attendance.



In his 10th address to the nation on measures being taken against the spread of COVID-19 he said effective 5th June, churches and mosques can start meeting with a maximum congregation of 100 and the mandatory wearing of nose mask.



"In addition to mandatory wearing of masks, a register of names and contact details of all worshippers must be provided; maximum duration of one hour per service," he said.



School reopening



Schools have meanwhile been reopened effective 15th June for only final year students of Junior High, Senior High and Universities.



"Indeed, final year university students are to report to their universities on 15th June; final year senior high school (SHS 3) students, together with SHS 2 Gold Track students, on 22nd June; and final-year junior high school (JHS 3) students on 29th June."



"JHS 3 classes will comprise a maximum of thirty (30) students; SHS classes a maximum of twenty-five (25) students, and University lectures will take place with half the class sizes," according to President Akufo-Addo.



Colleges of Education are also to reopen on the 15th of June for final year students to complete their exit examinations, he added.



Meanwhile, before the re-opening of schools and universities, the Ministry of Education, and the heads of public and private educational institutions, have been directed to fumigate and disinfect their institutions.



"Each student, teacher, and nonteaching staff will be provided with re-usable face masks by the Ministry of Education. For the avoidance of doubt, all other educational facilities, private and public, for non-final year students, will remain closed.



"The Minister for Education, in the coming days, will outline, in detail, the specific guidelines for the safe reopening of our schools and universities," the President stressed.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Armed criminals on motorcycles killed dozens of people in a string of attacks on villages in the restive northwest of Nigeria, medics and residents said.

Dozens of gunmen -- described locally as "bandits -- raided five villages close to the border with Niger in Sokoto state late Wednesday, the sources told AFP.

Lawal Kakale, a local traditional leader in Sabon Birni district, said the death toll had risen to 74 from an earlier figure of 60 as more bodies were recovered in the villages.

"We recovered 25 corpses in Garki, 13 in Dan Aduwa, 25 in Kuzari, seven in Katuma and four in Masawa," he told AFP.

"People fled in all directions and were pursued by the attackers. So, the corpses were scattered."

Medics at the nearby hospital said they initially received 60 corpses with gunshot wounds in the wake of the assaults.

"All the bodies had bullet wounds, most of them were shot in the head," a medic said on condition of anonymity.

There was no immediate official comment from police but security sources said there would be a press conference later Thursday.

Regional governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal said the attack came as a "rude shock" as security officials had recently visited the area to try to calm tensions.

Northwestern Nigeria has been wracked by years of violence involving clashes between rival communities over land, attacks by heavily-armed criminal gangs and reprisal killings by vigilante groups.

Cattle rustling and kidnapping for ransom have flourished in the security vacuum.

Sabon Birni district, 175 kilometres (110 miles) from the state capital Sokoto, has in recent times been repeatedly attacked by armed gangs.

On Monday 18 people were killed when gunmen raided five other villages in Sabon Birni district, local officials said.

Nigeria's armed forces last week launched bombing raids against camps in neighbouring areas of the northwest as part of the latest efforts to curb attacks.

The army said the bombing campaign had killed hundreds of "bandits" but there has been no independent confirmation of the death tolls.

Authorities have previously launched repeated military operations and local peace talks to try to end the violence.

But so far neither strategy has succeeded in halting unrest that has killed an estimated 8,000 people since 2011 and displaced 200,000.

The International Crisis Group warned last week that jihadist groups waging a decade-long insurgency in northeast Nigeria are gaining influence in the northwest of the country.

The Brussels-based researchers said the region risked becoming a "land bridge" to Islamist fighters across the Sahel.

The group said there needed to be closer cooperation between the security forces in Nigeria and Niger to stop the flow of arms across their porous border.

Local leaders in Sokoto have said residents increasingly look to soldiers from Niger for protection and accuse the Nigerian army of failing to respond to attacks.
Pak has intensified terror ops in Valley

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, May 31: A meeting of a core group of top security officials in Kashmir took place to assess the situation in the wake of the rising number of terror activities in the Valley.

It was pointed out that Pakistan had intensified its efforts at increasing infiltrations and ceasefire violations. Further there were also efforts to increase terror activities in the Valley.

Deep penetration, more resistance: Understanding structure of terror group TRF

oronavirus: India records single-day jump of 8,380 positive cases in 24-hours| Oneindia News

General Officer, Commanding, Chinar Corps, Lt-Gen B S Raju and Director General of Police, Jammu and Kashmir, Dilbag Singh, co-chaired a meeting of the core group comprising top officials of the civil administration, intelligence agencies and security forces in Srinagar.

The meeting reviewed the security situation and also discussed the readiness to meet with the anticipated security challenge.

"The core group focused on the need for high level of synergy amongst all agencies in addressing the security concerns of Kashmir. Intelligence inputs indicated that Pakistan had intensified its efforts at increasing infiltration and ceasefire violations across the Line of Control (LoC). There is also an effort to calibrate increase in terrorist actions in the hinterland. Pakistan and its proxies are also active on social media to launch disinformation campaign in J&K," a statement from the Indian Army read.

Pakistan army resorts to shelling along LoC

The intelligence inputs indicate efforts by anti-nationals and Pakistan proxies to calibrate increase in violence in Jammu and Kashmir. The group discussed the need for continued intelligence based anti terror operations with a humane touch.

"In order to address the complete eco-system of terror organisations in J&K, the anti-terror operations are being supported by efforts to identify and arrest over ground workers who sustain the terror organisations," the Army statement also read.
A gruesome sight welcomed the scenery at a forest west of Munich after they found severed body parts of an ape, more than a week ago.

However, recent reports say that the truth behind the remains being left behind is likely less heinous than the speculations that have been going around.

According to Inquirer.net, a cleanly cut hand and foot of a mammal complete with hair, nails, and skin was found by a dog owned by a forester in the Bavarian town of Grafrath. This then stemmed into theories suggesting that the government is covertly conducting coronavirus experiments on monkeys. Many speculated that the hand and foot of the ape were supposed to be disposed of to rid of any evidence.

After examining the body parts of the mammal, authorities were able to confirm that it was from a chimpanzee. Moreover, experts stated that based on their analysis it showed that the remains have been preserved possibly using formaldehyde or any chemicals used to preserve scientific specimens.

In addition, a spokesperson from the police of the nearby Fuerstenfeldbruck stated that the body parts that were discovered were older than suspected. He also said that people should not be worried that an ape was killed in the area last week.

Read also: Australian Zookeeper Mauled by Lions, Suffered Critical Bites on Head and Neck

However, Alkhaleej Today also reported that it still remains unknown how the severed body parts of the chimp ended up in the forest. Yet they noted that in case the offender that left the body parts was caught the offense is more administrative than criminal.

What is clear is that the animal may be a subject of an experiment that has been preserved long before the search for COVID-19 began.

COVID-19 Conspiracy theories

With the continued increase of COVID-19 worldwide, so did the number of conspiracy theories surrounding the pandemic. With the rise of another one regarding the severed body parts of the chimpanzee it is not impossible that more theories will still rise.

One of the most bizarre theories is the one claiming that the coronavirus can be transmitted through 5G networks or that 5G networks weaken the immune system causing people to be more vulnerable to the disease. The said theory has led to people attempting to destroy and set 5G towers in the United Kingdom on fire, according to CNet.

Another theory that is until now the topic of major discussions is the possibility that SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19 leaked from a laboratory and spread in Wuhan. This came about due to the fact that the Wuhan Institute of Virology is near the seafood market where the first cases reportedly emerged. This theory has been the topic of a heated feud between the US and China with the latter insisting that the virus was not cooked up in their laboratory neither did it accidentally leak.

The novel coronavirus has killed more than 375,000 worldwide and has infected more than 6 million. Aside from this many economies have been crippled by the pandemic, thus the search for its origin, cure, and the vaccine is becoming a global race. And with continued discoveries and breakthroughs, many conspiracy theories also continue to come about. Thus, health experts along with government officials have cautioned against believing these theories and advised people t be more vigilant.



Related article: Pigs Roasted Alive in Iowa Farm, Mass Extermination Secretly Taped by Animal Rights Group

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The serial killer Levi Bellfield is set to be interviewed by police in prison about several unsolved violent and sexual offences dating back to 1996, it has been reported.

Detectives want to question the 52-year-old after victims came forward following last year's ITV drama Manhunt, which focused on the search for Bellfield after a murder, according to The Sun.

He was convicted in 2008 of the murders of Marsha McDonnell, 19, in 2003 and French student Amelie Delagrange, 22, in 2004.

The serial killer Levi Bellfield (pictured) is set to be interviewed by police in prison about several unsolved violent and sexual offences dating back to 1996, it has been reported

In 2011 he was also convicted of the 2002 murder of 13-year-old schoolgirl Milly Dowler.

A source told the publication: 'There are a lot of violent and sexual offences that are being looked into. Some came due to publicity generated by Manhunt and some are separate from that.

'Bellfield is quite an intelligent man, but he was not an intelligent criminal. He had a clear pattern of behaviour, which was to stalk women with a hammer and attack them.

In 2011 Levi Bellfield was convicted of the 2002 murder of 13-year-old schoolgirl Milly Dowler (pictured)

He was convicted in 2008 of the murders of Marsha McDonnell, 19, (left) in 2003 and French student Amelie Delagrange, 22, (right) in 2004

'And you don't ask to speak to someone in a Category A prison based on one allegation  it is multiple allegations that show a pattern.'

Bellfield, who converted to Islam and now calls himself Yusuf Rahim, is in HMP Frankland in Co Durham, serving two whole life sentences.

Fellow inmates include Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe and Soham murderer Ian Huntley.

Milly Dowler went missing while making her way home from school and her body was found in a wood six months later.

The fresh probe comes after victims came forward following last years ITV drama Manhunt starring Martin Clunes (pictured in the show) - about the search for Bellfield after a murder

Bellfield, who converted to Islam and now calls himself Yusuf Rahim, is in HMP Frankland (pictured) in Co Durham, serving two whole life sentences

Bellfield, who owned a wheel-clamping business in west London, had a string of convictions for minor crimes prior to being arrested on suspicion of the murder of French student Amelie Delagrange, 22, in August 2004.

Despite having been a suspect in the 2002 killing of Milly Dowler it was not until 2011 he was brought to justice.
Police have found the body of a man believed to be a 40-year-old reported missing west of Brisbane at the weekend.

A search was sparked for Kane Matkovich after he was reported missing on Friday, two days after he was last seen at a Goodna home.

A search was sparked for Kane Matkovich, 40, after he was reported missing from Goodna on Friday. Credit:Queensland Police

Police said they held concerns for the man as he suffered from a medical condition.

Property belong to Mr Matkovich was later found around the Goodna boat ramp where authorities, including police divers, focused their efforts on Saturday.
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With all the other good fortune thats fallen upon Clint Eastwoodgreat looks and talent, for startersthe one that calls out to be noted today is his extraordinary longevity. Sunday, May 31st marks the mans 90th birthday, a landmark exceptional in itselfmost of us would be thrilled to make it anywhere near that threshold of life, not to mention being in such good shape to enjoy it. Congratulations, and happy birthday, Clint!

Beyond simply making it to this enviable life landmark, remaining lucid and able to stand on ones two feet, theres the uncommon blessing of being able to do what one loves doing and still be good at it. Not many can claim this pleasure or distinction, so its worth taking a moment to appreciate and assess what Clint (as essentially everyone calls him whether they know him or not) has pulled off at this cherishable moment.

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Understandably, Clint has eased off the pedal a bit when it comes to actingover the past decade, hes starred in just two films, Trouble With the Curve and The Mule. But his directorial career has continued unabated: During his 80s, he made eight films (the same number as the 16-years-younger Steven Spielberg during the identical period), one of which, American Sniper, was the top-grossing non-franchise/non-Disney animated release of 2015.

This is where we begin to orbit into much thinner atmosphere. First off, directing is often considered a young persons game; Hollywood is always on the lookout for dynamic new talents, who commonly announce themselves in their 20s, flourish through their subsequent two or three decades and then begin to ease off and fade, however unwillingly, into the sunset.

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While some auteurist film critics have worked overtime to make cases for the continued value of the work of certain revered directors as they entered their dotagethose championing the hidden virtues of late-period Ford, Cukor, Preminger, et al.the fact is that strength fades, complacency can set in and one loses touch with the currents of contemporary life.

Weve all seen it happen, and more than once: For a while youve got it, and then you just dont. Back in 1980, M-G-M saw fit to defy this belief by hiring two of Old Hollywoods most celebrated directors, George Cukor and Billy Wilder81 and 74, respectively both at stages of their careers when they counted themselves fortunate to get any work at all. Both were put onto remakes: Cukor was in charge of Rich and Famous, an update of the 1943 female friendship tale Old Acquaintance, while Wilder took the helm on Buddy Buddy, a Hollywood redo of the French hit Lemmerdeur.

As a young Variety scribe enamored of both mens work, I jumped at the chance to spend time on the sets (both were shot on the old M-G-M lot) and watch the old legends in action. Action was the operative word where Wilder was concerned; he was constantly on his feet, cracking jokes with old cohorts Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthew and seemingly happy to be back in his element (he hadnt made a film in Hollywood in seven years).

Action, however, is hardly a word I would have applied to Cukors set. The man was indisputably old at this point; most of the time he could be observed to be resting, husbanding his strength until it was time to roll with his two leads, Jacqueline Bisset (who was also co-producing) and Candice Bergen. Just about the only piece of direction I heard him sayand which he said before virtually every takewas Pick up the pace, ladies, pick up the pace! Thereafter he would slump in his chair and await the next take and sometimes, it must be said, doze until it was time to roll again.

The creative and financial failures of both Wilders and Cukors films simply confirmed the conventional wisdom of the time that the remaining golden-era Hollywood directors were over-the-hill, plain and simple, the victims of diminished physical energy and intellectual focus; certainly, this applied also to Chaplin, Ford, Wyler, Hitchcock, Hawks, Lang, Minnelli, Preminger, Walsh, Kazan and Zinnemann, among others, several of whom I knew and/or watched work toward the ends of their careers.

Its different now, as some directors exhibit great drive, energy and creative vitality past retirement age and beyond; among the persistently creative non-geriatrics are Scorsese, Almodovar, Schrader, Spielberg, Polanski, Werner Herzog, Ridley Scott, Errol Morris, Spike Lee (OK, hes only 63), the Coen Brothers (127 years of smarts and smart-aleckiness combined) and the ageless 90-year-old Frederick Wiseman.

Whenever Ive watched Clint work, the set has been unusually quiet and lacking in the fuss, bother and neuroses common on many locations; everyones there to get the job done quickly and efficiently and the boss isnt going to tolerate anyone who isnt in synch with this goal.

Even as Clint grew in confidence, ambition and achievement over the years, he never slowed down. For means of comparison, he has directed 38 feature films since his first, Play Misty for Me, in 1971, while Steven Spielberg, beginning with The Sugarland Express in 1974, has been behind the camera on 32 features including the forthcoming West Side Story. This is on a par with, or beyond, the productivity of some of the old Hollywood greats.

Among still-living-and-working major American directors, the only one who surpasses Clint in terms of productivity is Woody Allen, who, at 84, has directed (and written) an incredible 50 features in 51 years. Even though he hasnt been able to get last years A Rainy Day in New York, released in the U.S., hes now in post on his latest, Rifkins Women.

A passing thought: I wonder if theyve ever met, or jammed together, Clint on piano and Woody on clarinet. Theyre from totally different worlds, but maybe in S.F. back in the old days.

Given that Clint is entering essentially uncharted territory when it comes to the outer limits of age among working Hollywood film directors, it might be worth taking a look at the few others who have had the physical and creative wherewithal to continue their careers into what is normally called ones dotage.

The worlds record-holder in this regard is the Portuguese filmmaker Manoel de Oliveira, who died five years ago at 106, a year after he completed his final short film, The Oldest Man of Belem; his last feature-length work was Gebo et llombre, finished in 2012, when the director was 103. A devout Catholic and wealthy polo player growing up in fascist Portugal, he only became an artistic force to be reckoned with in the 1980s and kept continuously active thereafter.

I had the pleasure of meeting de Oliveira at a Cannes party some years ago. Already 100, utterly buoyant and happy to be there, he mentioned that he had just arrived from Rome where, that morning, he had enjoyed the privilege of a private audience with the Pope. He laughed and laughed when I responded that he was undoubtedly the only man in history who had met with the Pope and attended the Cannes Film Festival on the same day.

Other filmmakers who have forcefully demonstrated that there can be lots of life well past 65 or 70. Jean-Luc Godard, who will turn 90 in December, nowadays makes rarified self-reflexive works for a highly select audience; Alain Resnais had a late-life blossoming with a rush of films that culminated in Life of Riley, released in 2014, when the filmmaker died 91; Chris Marker passed at the same age in 2012, having just made Aimer, boire et chanter; Alejandro Jodorowsky made The Dance of Reality at 85, while Eric Rohmer finished his final feature, The Romance of Astrea and Celadon in 2010, when he was 89.

It would seem, then, that theres a trend toward more opportunity for, and tolerance of, older people in movies as in politics. Its just that this has lately worked out far better in Hollywood than in Washington, D.C.

So once again, Happy 90th, Clint!

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Tense protests over the death of George Floyd and other police killings of black men grew Saturday from New York to Tulsa to Los Angeles, with police cars set ablaze and reports of injuries mounting on all sides as the country lurched toward another night of unrest after months of coronavirus shutdowns.

The protests, which began in Minneapolis after Floyds death Monday when a police officer pressed a knee on his neck for more than eight minutes, have left parts of the city a grid of broken windows, burned-out buildings and ransacked stores. The turmoil has since become a national phenomenon as protesters decry years of deaths at police hands.

The large crowds involved, with many people not wearing masks or social distancing, raised concerns among health experts about the potential for helping spread the coronavirus at a time when overall deaths are on the decline nationwide and much of the country is in the process of reopening society and the economy.

After a tumultuous Friday night, racially diverse crowds took to the streets again for mostly peaceful demonstrations in dozens of cities from coast to coast. The previous days protests also started calmly, but many descended into violence later in the day.

 In Washington, growing crowds outside the White House chanted, taunted Secret Service agents and at times pushed against security barriers. President Trump, who spent much of Saturday in Florida for the SpaceX rocket launch, landed on the residences lawn in the presidential helicopter at dusk and went inside without speaking to journalists.

 In Philadelphia, at least 13 officers were injured when peaceful protests turned violent and at least four police vehicles were set on fire. Other fires were set throughout downtown.

 In the Greenwood District of Tulsa, Okla., the site of a 1921 massacre of black people that left as many as 300 dead and the citys thriving black district in ruins, protesters blocked intersections and chanted the name of Terence Crutcher, a black man killed by a police officer in 2016.

 In Tallahassee, Fla, a pickup truck drove through a crowd of protesters, sending some running and screaming as the vehicle stopped and started and at one point had a person on its hood, police said, but no serious injuries were reported. Police handcuffed the driver but did not release his name or say whether he would face charges.

 In Los Angeles, protesters chanted Black Lives Matter, some within inches of the face shields of officers. Police used batons to move the crowd back and fired rubber bullets. One man used a skateboard to try to break a police vehicles windshield. A spray-painted police car burned in the street.

 In New York City, video posted to social media showed officers using batons and shoving protesters down as they made arrests and cleared streets. Another video showed two NYPD cruisers driving into protesters who were pushing a barricade against a police car and pelting it with objects, knocking several to the ground.

Our country has a sickness. We have to be out here, said Brianna Petrisko, among those at lower Manhattans Foley Square, where most were wearing masks amid the coronavirus pandemic. This is the only way were going to be heard.

Back in Minneapolis, the city where the protests began, 29-year-old Sam Allkija said the damage seen in recent days reflects longstanding frustration and rage in the black community.

I dont condone them, he said. But you have to look deeper into why these riots are happening.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz fully mobilized the states National Guard and promised a massive show of force.

The situation in Minneapolis is no longer in any way about the murder of George Floyd, Walz said. It is about attacking civil society, instilling fear and disrupting our great cities.

Soon after the citys 8 p.m. curfew went into force, lines of police cars and officers in riot gear moved in to confront protesters, firing tear gas to push away throngs of people milling around the citys 5th police precinct station. The tougher tactics came after city and state leaders were criticized for not forcefully enough confronting days of violent and damaging protests that included protesters burning down a police station shortly after officers abandoned it.

Trump tweeted Saturday night that the Guard should have been used 2 days ago & there would not have been damage & Police Headquarters would not have been taken over & ruined. Great job by the National Guard. No games!
An elementary school student has her temperature checked in Seoul on May 27, 2020.

Kyodo News via Getty Images

Hundreds of South Korean schools were forced to delay reopening amid a surge in new coronavirus infections.

Korean health officials announced 79 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, and 69 among them were reported at a distribution center in Bucheon.

So, 838 schools that were slated to resume classes on Friday remained closed, opting instead to continue with remote learning.

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An uptick in coronavirus cases forced South Korea to close hundreds of schools that had reopened only days earlier, and delay others from welcoming back students.

Some schools resumed classes last week with multiple precautions in place to reduce the infection's rate of spread. The schools were disinfected and students underwent temperature checks, wore face masks, and maintained social distance. Plastic barriers also separated students while they ate and studied, according to the Korea Times.

More schools were scheduled to accept students starting Wednesday.

But the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) reported 79 new cases on Thursday. Of those, 69 were reported at a distribution center in Bucheon, the Yonhap News Agency reported.

This news prompted 838 schools of the nation's 20,902 to postpone reopening and stick with remote learning, the Korea Times said.

South Korea has been heralded as one of the few countries to get its coronavirus response right due to widespread testing, contact tracing, quarantine, and lockdown. As of Saturday, the country had reported 11,441 cases and 269 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

But this new setback forced the government to reinstate restrictions.

Parks, galleries, museums, and theaters in the Seoul metropolitan area have been shuttered for two weeks, CNN reported. Internet cafes have also been urged to close through June 14, and people have been asked to remain indoors and to avoid hosting gatherings for two weeks. Events organized by the government have been postponed, too.

Kim Sang Yong, 39, told the Korea Times that he and his wife believe they shouldn't allow their daughter to attend school "until the recent rise in local transmissions shows signs of abating. Schools can be a hotbed for the virus as many people are in contact with each other."

Read the original article on Business Insider
(Natural News) One day after revelations that the Gates/Fauci Moderna vaccine caused severe illnesses in 20% of high-dose recipients, Bill Gates got devastating news about his other warp-speed COVAX bet. The Oxford Vaccine Group (OVG) spike-protein vaccine was on an even faster track than Moderna. In May, Melinda Gates predicted it would be jab-ready by years end. Oxford and UK officials promised 30 million doses by September.

(Article by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. republished from ChildrensHealthDefense.org)

On April 24, OVG scientists announced that a small macaque study proved the vaccine effective. OVG quickly recruited 510 healthy volunteers for human trials. Pre-publication data released on May 13th reveals the vaccine is less promising than the OVG team implied.

All vaccinated macaques sickened after exposure to COVID-19. Edinburgh Universitys Eleanor Riley told Forbes the vaccine provided insufficient antibodies to prevent infection and viral shedding. Vaccinated monkeys spread the disease as readily as unvaccinated.

Pollard used his power and deceitful puffery about the monkey trial to bulldoze his COVID vaccine into human trials. He shunned inert placebo tests and restricted safety studies to three weeks to hide long-term injuries.

Andrew Pollard strikes again

The OVG is politically wired. Lead developer Andrew Pollard juggles scandalous conflicts that allow him to license, register, and mandate his own untested vaccines to the masses. Pollard is Senior Advisor to Britains MRHA Panel which licenses vaccines, chairs Britains JVCI committee that mandates them, and advises the European Medicine Agency (EMA). He takes payments from virtually all the big vaccine makers. In 2014, Pollard developed GlaxoSmithKlines notorious Bexsero meningitis vaccine, and then mandated it to children despite significant safety signals for Kawasaki Disease and the rarity of meningococcal B infections. The package insert says Bexsero may cause Kawasaki disease in as many as one out of every 1000 children based on reports in the clinical trials.

Pollard used his power and deceitful puffery about the monkey trial to bulldoze his COVID vaccine into human trials. He shunned inert placebo tests and restricted safety studies to three weeks to hide long-term injuries.

Forbes reported on May 21 that the U.S. Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) has given $1 billion to Astra Zeneca in partnership with Oxford for a rushed rollout of the vaccine in September.

In an update on May 22, the Oxford researchers revealed that 1,000 immunisations have been completed and that next study will enroll up to 10,260 adults and children and will involve a number of partner institutions across the country.

Pollard is steaming ahead with his ineffective vaccine. But a vaccine that hides symptoms and allows transmission is worse than no vaccine at all.

Read more at: ChildrensHealthDefense.org
There are times when you are tired of listening to the same playlists over and over on your preferred music streaming app on the iPhone. Sometimes you might want to listen to local FM radio or your favorite radio channel for a change. Up until the iPhone 6s, Apple included FM radio and antennas designed to support the radio signals on iPhones, but never activated the feature in the software. This was despite the US governments appeal to enable FM Radio on iPhones. That does not mean you cannot listen to FM radio on your iPhone though.

You can always visit the App Store and download the dedicated radio apps on your iPhone to listen to your favorite host. The App Store is filled with dozens of radio apps to meet your needs. Not every app is up to mark though which is why we have curated a list of the best FM radio apps for your iPhone below.

Listen to FM Radio on iPhone

We have hand-picked three of the best FM radio apps for you. Use any of them to listen to FM radio on the iPhone.

iHeartRadio

iHeartRadio takes the crown on our recommended list. It offers a nice visual User Interface with Radio and Podcast offerings. From the home screen, you can see live radio stations, artist radio, and browse the list with genres such as Top 40, Rock, Hip Hop, Classic Rock, and more.

You can follow a Radio artist, browse through his latest releases, and even glance over his bio. Based on your location, iHeartRadio showcases the local stations in the app. I like it as a user might give a priority local FM radio station over the national ones.

iHeartRadio has got you covered on the Podcast front as well. You can FM Radio channels as well as podcasts to your library and create custom playlists for it.

iHeartRadio is free to download. The app is available only in a handful of countries such as the United States, Canada, New Zeland, Mexico, and Australia.

 iHeartRadio  Download

TuneIn Radio

As I mentioned, one of the biggest limitations of iHeartRadio is its limited availability. TuneIn Radio is another capable app to list to FM radio on the iPhone. I like how the app displays popular stations and Podcasts in your area on the homepage. The app offers the ability to listen to Music, News, Sports, or Podcasts.

You can favorite any show or artist for easy access in the favorites menu. The player screen is fully functional here. You can forward/backward 30 seconds with one tap, Set an alarm, and even set a sleep timer to automatically turn off the player after a certain time.

My favorite function of TuneIn Radio is car mode. You can tap on the little car icon at the upper left corner and enable car mode. It provides an easy to navigate UI specifically designed while driving.

TuneIn Radio is free to download. The free version comes with banner ads. You can remove those ads and listen to ad-free MSNBC, FOX news, and have fewer ads in more than 100K radio stations by paying $10 per month for TuneIn Radio Premium.

 TuneIn Radio  Download

myTuner Radio

myTuner Radio detects your location and displays a list of Top radio stations on the home page. I like how the app lets you browse FM radio by city. You can also search your favorite channel by genre, country, or current location.

As expected, myTuner as added support for Podcasts and Music. The music player is feature packed too. You can forward/backward 15 seconds, use Siri Shortcuts to access the station with the voice assistant, use sleep timer, and more. myTuner Radio also offers equalizer support. You can tune-in to your preference.

Similar to TuneIn Radio, myTuner Radio also offers Car mode for an easy to use UI when driving. myTuner Radio is free to download. However, some of the functions such as equalizer, car mode, ad-free experience come with a $7 one-time price tag.

 myTuner Radio  Download

Use a Web Player

If your favorite FM Radio station is available online then you can use the web player to listen to FM Radio on the web. Simply visit the web URL of the station on the web browser and start listening to FM radio on the iPhone.

For example, I regularly listen to RadioMirchi FM at home. While driving, I switch to its web player on iPhone to play my favorite station channels.

You can use any of the above-mentioned apps to start listening to FM Radio on the iPhone. For the majority, our recommendation stands with iHeartRadio. If its not available in your country then you can go with TuneIn Radio. myTune Radio is an excellent alternative for those looking for an affordable option.

Do you already listen to an FM Radio on iPhone using any of these apps? If not, then do let us know which app you chose from the list above.
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Linkedin (Reuters)  Sun, May 31, 2020 15:15 599 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdb310bf 2 Science & Tech Amazon,e-commerce,racist,airpods Free

Amazon.com Inc said it was removing certain images after messages using extremely strong racist abuse appeared on some listings on its UK website when users searched for Apple's AirPods and other similar products.

The message sparked outrage on Twitter, with the topic "AirPods" trending in the United Kingdom.

"We are removing the images in question and have taken action on the bad actor," an Amazon spokeswoman told Reuters on Sunday. She did not elaborate more on the "bad actor".

Screenshots and video grabs of the messages were trending on Twitter, with users sharing the images.

Read also: US fashion college apologizes for 'racist' runway show

So if you search airpods on amazon this comes up? :/ pic.twitter.com/cSSeXlfueQ  Podcast Papi  (@NickSwims_) May 30, 2020

The listings with the abusive messages were no longer visible on the Amazon UK website and it was not clear how long they were there for.

In April, several of Amazon's foreign websites, including the UK domain, were added to the US trade regulator's "notorious markets" report on marketplaces known for counterfeiting and piracy concerns.

Amazon strongly disagreed with the report at that time, describing it as a "purely political act."
Demonstrators confront secret service police and Park police officers outside of the White House on May 30, 2020 in Washington DC, during a protest over the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, who died after a Minneapolis police officer kneeled on his neck for several minutes. Eric Baradat | AFP | Getty Images

Here's a list of cities imposing curfews last night

Many cities and local governments across the country had imposed curfews for Sunday night. Here is a partial list of the cities that have announced such measures. All times are in the local time for the city. Atlanta: 9 p.m. to sunrise

Chicago: 9 p.m. to 6 a.m.

D.C.: 11 p.m. to 6 a.m.

Select areas of Dallas: 7 p.m. to 6 a.m.

Los Angeles: 8 p.m. to 5:30 a.m.

Miami: 8 p.m. to 6 a.m.

Minneapolis: 8 p.m. to 6 a.m.

Select areas of Nashville: 8 p.m to 6 a.m.

Philadelphia: 8 p.m. to 6 a.m.

San Francisco: 8 p.m. to 6 a.m.

Seattle: 5 p.m. to 5 a.m. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has said the nation's largest city will not impose a curfew.

California reportedly orders all state buildings in downtown city areas to close

7:35 a.m. ET  California's Department of Human Resources has ordered all state buildings in downtown city areas to close on Monday, according to the Associated Press. The directive, which was issued on Sunday, is thought to cover everything from the Department of Motor Vehicles offices to those that license workers and provide health care. A spokesperson at California's state Department of Human Resources was not immediately available to comment when contacted by CNBC.

A protest earlier in the day in San Francisco devolved into roaming groups of looters along a stretch of Market Street and in the Union Square area following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 30, 2020 in California, United States. Anadolu Agency

Louisville Metro Police Chief says one man has been killed after officers were dispatched to disperse crowds

5:30 a.m. ET  One man has been killed after Louisville police officers and National Guard members attempted to disperse crowds during protests in the early hours of Monday morning, according to the chief of the Louisville Metro Police Department. Steve Conrad, chief of Louisville Metro Police, said in a statement on Monday that officers were dispatched to Dino's Food Market located at 26th and Broadway at around 12:15 a.m. and "at some point" were shot at. Conrad said officers and National Guard members returned fire. One man has died at the scene, the statement said. Conrad said it had been a "difficult" four days for the city, with overnight protests turning "from peaceful to destructive" once again. "I think it is very clear that many people do not trust police. That is an issue that we are going to have to work on and work through for a long time," he added.

Court appearance for former Minnesota police officer moved to June 8

5:00 a.m. ET  The court appearance of Derek Chauvin, a former Minneapolis police officer who was filmed kneeling on George Floyd's neck before he died, has been moved to June 8, according to the jail roster on Hennepin County Sheriff's Office's website. It was previously expected that Chauvin would appear in court for a hearing on Monday. A spokesperson for the Sheriff's Office was not immediately available to comment when contacted by CNBC. Chauvin was charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. He was among the four officers involved in Floyd's violent arrest.

Boston police say 7 officers were taken to hospital overnight

4:10 a.m. ET  Boston Police Department has confirmed seven police officers were taken to hospital as a result of last night's protests, with many more treated on the scene. In a post on the department's official Twitter account, Boston police said that as of 3 a.m. ET, 21 police cruisers had been damaged and approximately 40 individuals were placed under arrest during last night's protest. Numbers were subject to change "as the situation remains active," the department added.

San Francisco police declares unlawful assembly at City Hall

2:40 a.m. ET  The San Francisco Police Department declared an unlawful assembly at City Hall and asked people to leave the area. The city's curfew began at 8 p.m. local time. In a subsequent statement, the department said it had made about 80 arrests near Market Street, SOMA and Union Square, citing curfew violations and looting. In some of these cases, the police said they seized firearms and explosives. The police said, however, "Demonstrations in San Francisco were overwhelmingly orderly and peaceful today, and SFPD officers were proud to help facilitate these in a way that protected the First Amendment rights and safety of all who took part." Update: This post has been updated with details from the San Francisco Police Department.

Kansas City police fire tear gas, declare protest unlawful assembly

12:44 a.m. ET  The Kansas City Police Department declared the protest an unlawful assembly and told demonstrators they must leave the area. The city's curfew began at 8 p.m. local time. It said it was "forced to deploy CS gas," commonly known as tear gas, to "disperse the unruly crowd." The Kansas City Star reported that protesters had been demonstrating at the Country Club Plaza since early afternoon.

Firefighters extinguish a blaze that destroyed a KMBC vehicle Sunday night, May 31, 2020 near the Country Club Plaza in Kansas City, Missouri. Shelly Yang | Kansas City Star | Tribune News Service | Getty Images

Police fire tear gas, protesters set fires near White House

12:30 a.m. ET  Tensions between police and protesters continued as a citywide curfew began in Washington D.C. The Associated Press reported that police fired tear gas and stun grenades at protesters near the White House. Some protesters were seen starting a fire in the street, according to the AP. Department of Justice spokeswoman Kerri Kupec told NBC News that U.S. Marshals personnel and Drug Enforcement Administration agents have been deployed to assist police with security.

Protesters throw a U.S. flag into a fire during a demonstration outside the White House over the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis Police in Washington, DC, on May 31, 2020. Samuel Corum | AFP | Getty Images

There were a number of fires near the White House including Lafayette Square and the historic St. John's Episcopal Church. Every president since James Madison has attended services at the church which dates back to the 1800s, according to The White House Historical Association. D.C. Fire and EMS said the department has extinguished the fires at the church, the park and another in the lobby of the AFL-CIO building.

NYC mayor's daughter arrested

10:19 p.m. ET  The New York Police Department confirmed to NBC News that Mayor Bill de Blasio's daughter, Chiara, was arrested Saturday night for unlawful assembly. She was released with a desk appearance ticket, NBC reported. Her arrest was first reported by the New York Post.

Trump was briefly brought to an underground bunker on Friday

8:51 p.m. ET  The Secret Service escorted President Donald Trump to an underground bunker at the White House on Friday evening, NBC News reports. A senior administration official told NBC that the president was in the bunker for a "very short period" out of an abundance of caution and was back in his residence within an hour. The New York Times first reported the development.

A protester kicks a tear gas canister back at police during a demonstration outside the White House over the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis Police in Washington, DC, on May 31, 2020. Samuel Corum | AFP | Getty Images

Over the weekend, police used pepper spray, tear gas and what appeared to be rubber bullets on protesters near the White House. There were multiple reports of cars and dumpsters set on fire nearby. Correction: This post has been updated to reflect that it was added at 8:51 p.m. ET.

Truck drives through protesters on Minneapolis highway

8:10 p.m. ET  NBC News reported that a large truck was spotted driving through a crowd of protesters in Minneapolis. The Minnesota Department of Public Safety said the driver was injured and is under arrest, NBC reported. It also said it does not appear that any protesters were hit, according to NBC.

Atlanta fires two police for using excessive force against college students

7:21 p.m. ET  Atlanta Mayor Keisha Bottoms said two police officers have been fired after they forced two college students out of their car, used a taser on the driver and arrested both. Bottoms said she reviewed body cam footage with Police Chief Erika Shields and they determined that the two officers should be terminated immediately, according to NBC's local affiliate. Three other officers involved have been put on desk duty for the time being.

Police officers kneel at demonstrations in some cities

Police officers kneel during a rally in Coral Gables, Florida on May 30, 2020 in response to the recent death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died while being arrested and pinned to the ground by a Minneapolis police officer. Eva Marie Uzcategui | AFP | Getty Images

5:35 p.m. ET  Some police officers have joined protesters in taking a knee or other actions to show solidarity with the demonstrations against police brutality. Officers in Coral Gables, Florida, and Santa Cruz, California, were among those that knelt. Jason Kander, a Democrat who previously ran for a Senate seat in Missouri, tweeted out a photo of two officers in Kansas City holding a sign that read "END Police Brutality."

Police fire tear gas and pepper spray in Denver, car rams into officers  80 arrested

Police officers pepper spray a woman next to the Colorado State Capitol as protests against the death of George Floyd continue for a third night on May 30, 2020 in Denver, Colorado. Michael Ciaglo

5:16 p.m. ET  Five police officers and one civilian were injured in Denver, Colorado during the protests on Saturday night. Authorities confirmed that more than 80 people were arrested. Authorities also reported that a driver rammed a car into three officers and a bystander, all of whom went to the hospital to treat injuries. Denver has implemented an 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew.

People react as police officers discharge tear gas next to the Colorado State Capitol as protests against the death of George Floyd continue for a third night on May 30, 2020 in Denver, Colorado. Michael Ciaglo

Virginia declares state of emergency and extends Richmond curfew through Wednesday

People march during a racial justice protest in Charlottesville on May 30, 2020. - Demonstrations are being held across the US after George Floyd died in police custody on May 25. RYAN M. KELLY

5:08 p.m. ET  Gov. Ralph Northam has declared a state of emergency and granted a request from the mayor of Richmond to extend a curfew in the city through Wednesday. The declaration allows the Commonwealth to mobilize resources to assist local authorities, including the National Guard. The curfew in Richmond goes into effect between 8 p.m. ET and 6 a.m. ET. People must remain at home and can only go out for emergency services or to travel to work or places of worship.

Hundreds arrested in Los Angeles, five officers injured

A demonstrator kicks a damaged police vehicle in Los Angeles on May 30, 2020 following a protest against the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died while while being arrested and pinned to the ground by the knee of a Minneapolis police officer. Ariana Drehsler | AFP | Getty Images

3:47 p.m. ET  Nearly 400 people were arrested on Saturday during protests in Los Angeles, according to the LAPD. The charges include burglary and looting, vandalism, arson and curfew violations. The authorities said that five officers were injured and two were hospitalized. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said that some coronavirus test sites may not open on Monday due to the unrest, though the largest testing center at Dodger Stadium will remain open. The city is under curfew starting Sunday at 8 pm PST, after which protesters could be arrested for breaking curfew.

Men take part in a protest against the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd, in Los Angeles, California, U.S., May 30, 2020. Patrick T. Fallon | Reuters

Los Angeles Police Department commander Cory Palka stands among several destroyed police cars as one explodes while on fire during a protest over the death of George Floyd, Saturday, May 30, 2020, in Los Angeles. Mark J. Terrill | AP

Many Apple stores closed Sunday due to protests

3:37 p.m. ET  Apple announced that it would not open many of its stores on Sunday due to the protests against police violence. "With the health and safety of our teams in mind, we've made the decision to keep a number of our stores in the US closed on Sunday," the company said in a statement. Apple has 271 stores in the United States, and about half of those are already closed because of the pandemic. The tech company reopened roughly 100 stores last week.

10 arrested in San Francisco as Mayor Breed announces citywide curfew

A protest earlier in the day in San Francisco devolved into roaming groups of looters along a stretch of Market Street and in the Union Square area following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 30, 2020 in California, United States. Anadolu Agency

2:41 p.m. ET  Police arrested 10 people in San Francisco on Saturday night for looting as demonstrators protested throughout the city, according to San Francisco Chief of Police Bill Scott. Scott said several businesses were damaged and fires were "intentionally set" across the city. "It was a challenging night," Scott said. "We didn't have anyone killed, fortunately." San Francisco Mayor London Breed announced late Saturday that the city will go under a curfew starting Sunday night as a result of the protests. The curfew will last from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m.

Secret Service agents sent to hospital after DC protests

A demonstrator raises their fist as others gather to protest the death of George Floyd, Saturday, May 30, 2020, near the White House in Washington. Evan Vucci | AP

2 p.m. ET  Eleven Secret Service employees went to the hospital for non-life threatening injuries sustained during protests in Washington, DC, on Saturday, the agency said. The Secret Service said in a tweet that its officers made one arrest during the demonstration and that no protesters crossed the White House fence. Peter Newsham, chief of DC's Metropolitan Police Department, said at a news conference on Sunday that the MPD had made 17 arrests, the majority of whom were from D.C. or surrounding cities. Newsham said he expects the department to make more arrests as police view video footage from security cameras at businesses. Newsham said that during the protest three vehicles were set on fire near Lafayette Park, which is directly north of the White House. Eleven MPD officers were injured during the protests, including one who required surgery for a broken leg. The chief said that officers used pepper spray against some demonstrators.

Military Police face off with protesters across from the White House on May 30, 2020 in Washington DC. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds | AFP | Getty Images

240 arrested, 6 shootings and one death in Chicago

Protesters clash with police in Chicago, on May 30, 2020 during a protest against the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died while while being arrested and pinned to the ground by the knee of a Minneapolis police officer. Jim Vondruska | NurPhoto | Getty Images

1:19 p.m. ET  Police arrested 240 people in Chicago on Saturday night in connection with protests and lootings, according to Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown. Authorities said that there were 6 shootings and one death. More than 20 police officers were injured during altercations with demonstrators. Governor JB Pritzker on Sunday activated 375 Illinois National Guard members to aid the police. No public transportation including trains and buses is allowed to and from the nation's third largest city, which is under a 9 p.m. curfew as more protests are anticipated on Sunday. All police days off have been cancelled and officers are on 12-hour shifts.

Protesters clash with police in Chicago, on May 30, 2020 during a protest against the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died while while being arrested and pinned to the ground by the knee of a Minneapolis police officer. Jim Vondruska | NurPhoto | Getty Images

Trump says U.S. will deem Antifa a terrorist group

1 p.m. ET  President Donald Trump said on Twitter on Sunday that the United States would designate Antifa as a terrorist organization, blaming "Antifa-led anarchists" for the violence and destruction in Minneapolis without presenting any evidence to the public. This is not the first time Trump has mentioned declaring Antifa, a loosely organized movement of left-wing activists whose name is short for "anti-fascist," a terrorist group. The president said in a tweet last August that "major consideration is being given" to declaring Antifa as a terrorist organization. Trump's statement comes as political officials in several cities have blamed outside groups for escalating protests. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey tweeted on Saturday that, "We are now confronting white supremacists, members of organized crime, out of state instigators, and possibly even foreign actors to destroy and destabilize our city and our region." Minnesota officials, including Frey, also said that the majority of protestors were from out of state. An analysis by NBC affiliate KARE 11, however, showed that arrest records did not support that assertion.

NYPD arrests about 350 people, 30 cops injured

Officers pursue protesters as they march around downtown on Saturday May 30, 2020 in New York City, NY. Jabin Botsford | The Washington Post | Getty Images

11:50 a.m. ET  The New York Police Department said they arrested nearly 350 people on Saturday night following protests in Harlem, Brooklyn and Staten Island. NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said in a press conference on Sunday that more than 30 officers suffered minor injuries as a result of clashes with demonstrators. Shea said a group of protesters in Harlem turned a peaceful demonstration violent, calling it a "hijacking" of a protest that otherwise went "overwhelmingly well." The protesters caused damage to private and public property in Brooklyn and parts of southern Manhattan near Union Square, Shea said. On Saturday, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said he'd launch an independent review of Friday night's protests in Brooklyn. De Blasio acknowledged Sunday that there were "mistakes," as well as "things that were done right" by the police during the demonstrations. "There will be critiques, and there will be things that need to be investigated, and there will need to be things improved, and we expect to do better today than we did yesterday, but I want to commend the restraint that we saw overall from the NYPD," he said.

A NYPD police officer is removed after being injured as they clash with protesters during a march against the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd, in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, U.S., May 30, 2020. Eduardo Munoz | Reuters

Rifles seized, police officer takes fire and dozens arrested in Twin Cities

A protester runs past burning cars and buildings on Chicago Avenue, Saturday, May 30, 2020, in St. Paul, Minn. John Minchillo | AP

11:38 a.m. ET  Police made at least 55 arrests in Minneapolis and St. Paul overnight, a large number of which were for weapons violations including rifles, according to the Minnesota Department of Public Safety. "I want people to think about this, a large number of the arrests we made over last night were for weapons violations," Commissioner John Harrington said. "We took AR-15s off of people, we took guns off people." Police moved to stop cars driving through neighborhoods without license plates, with lights out and windows blacked out, Harrington said. Several were stolen and were full of rocks and other weapons, he said. One police officer was fired upon from a car but was not hit, according to Harrington. Two people were arrested and an AR-15 rifle was seized, he said. The arrest data is preliminary and another 40 or 50 people were likely arrested overnight, Harrington added. Authorities said there were no major fires overnight.

Rep. Omar calls for 'nationwide reforms' beyond 'justice for George Floyd'

Protesters and National Guardsmen face off on East Lake Street, Friday, May 29, 2020, in St. Paul, Minn. John Minchillo | AP

10:55 a.m. ET  Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., said on ABC's "This Week" that the U.S. needs "nationwide reforms," not just the arrest of a police officer, in order to deliver justice for George Floyd. "The unrest we are seeing in our nation isn't just because of the life that was taken, it's also because so many people have experienced this," Omar told ABC's George Stephanopoulos. "So many people have experienced injustices within our system." On Friday, Derek Chauvin, a former Minneapolis police officer who was filmed kneeling on Floyd's neck before he died, was taken into custody. Chauvin was charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. Chauvin was among the four officers involved in Floyd's violent arrest. Since then, protesters have called for the arrest of the other officers "who stood by idly watching [Floyd's] life be taken," Omar said. "We need nationwide reforms," Omar said. "We need to really step back and say to ourselves, 'Where do we actually go from here?' and that can't just be getting justice for George Floyd. It needs to be bigger than that," she added.

Pelosi calls for Trump to 'unify our country and not to fuel the flame'

A person loots a T-Mobile store near the White House in Washington on Friday, May 29, 2020. Caroline Brehman | CQ-Roll Call | Getty Images

10:49 a.m. ET  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi backed the nationwide protests against racism and police brutality spurred by the killing of George Floyd, and criticized President Donald Trump's handling of the situation. "There's a place for protest at a sign of a knee going into the neck of a person who's not offering resistance or even if he were, disproportionate response from the police," Pelosi said on ABC's "This Week." Pelosi said the president should bring dignity to the office, and "unify our country and not to fuel the flame." "To take his bait time and time again is just a gift to him because he always wants to divert attention from what the cause of the response was rather than to describe it in his own terms," Pelosi said.

A firecracker thrown by protesters explodes under police one block from the White House on May 30, 2020 in Washington DC. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds | AFP | Getty Images

St. Paul mayor calls for police accountability

Law enforcement officers take position during a protest in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S., May 30, 2020. Lucas Jackson | Reuters

10:10 a.m. ET  Melvin Carter, mayor of St. Paul, Minnesota, said on CNN's "State of the Union" that proof of progress on police reform would be more helpful to quell the protests in his city than additional help from the National Guard. "The thing that I think would help us more than military support is some assurance across our country that we possess a legal and judicial system that has the capacity and the capability to hold someone accountable when something this blatant, something this disgusting, something this well-documented happens in plain view for all of us to see," Carter said. Carter said laws and police union contracts are among the things that need to change to hold police accountable. The mayor also said that he wanted to see the other officers involved in George Floyd's death to be held accountable, but he did not say if he thought they should be charged with murder. Over 170 businesses have been damaged in the city during the demonstrations so far. Carter said that while many protestors were there to push for change after Floyd's death, others were there to be destructive. "There are folks in our streets who are there to burn down our black-owned barbershops, to burn down our family-owned businesses, our immigrant-owned restaurants," Carter said. "And it is very clear to me that those people are not driven by a love for our community, and there's no way you can argue that those actions are designed to create a better future for our community, quite the opposite."

Atlanta mayor: Trump is 'just making it worse'

A protester is detained by police officers during a protest against the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd, in Atlanta, U.S., May 30, 2020. Shannon Stapelton | Reuters

10:05 a.m. ET  Atlanta Mayor Keisha Bottoms condemned President Donald Trump's calls for the federal government to step up military action against protesters. "This is like Charlottesville all over again," Bottoms told CNN's Jake Tapper on "State of the Union." "He speaks and he makes it worse." Crowds gathered outside the White House Friday and Saturday night in protest of George Floyd's death. Trump tweeted Saturday that had the protesters breached barriers set up by the U.S. Secret Service, they would "have been greeted with the most vicious dogs, and most ominous weapons." Later on Saturday, Trump called for states to "get MUCH tougher" or the federal government would step in and "do what has to be done," including "using the unlimited power of our military."

Police detain demonstrators for being in the street during a protest in response to the police killing of George Floyd on May 30, 2020 in Atlanta, Georgia. Elijah Nouvelage

Trump has no plans to federalize National Guard right now, White House says

National Guard members walk at the area in the aftermath of a protest after a white police officer was caught on a bystander's video pressing his knee into the neck of African-American man George Floyd, who later died at a hospital, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S., May 29, 2020. Carlos Barria | Reuters

9:59 a.m. ET  White House National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien told reporters that the U.S. will not federalize the National Guard amid nationwide protests over the killing of George Floyd. "We're not going to federalize the Guard at this time," O'Brien said. "If the governors need it, we're there as a reserve and we'll do whatever they need to keep control of their cities. "We want governors to take control of their cities," O'Brien continued. "We'd like to keep this a law enforcement matter, that's our preference," he added. "But if a situation gets out of control there are military that can be deployed. But we hope that doesn't happen." On Saturday night, Minnesota National Guard members were firing tear gas and rubber bullets at demonstrators who were out past curfew. Governors have mobilized National Guard in California, Georgia, Kentucky, Washington and Tennessee among others in response to rioting.

Armoured vehicles are pictured as National Guard members guard the area in the aftermath of a protest after a white police officer was caught on a bystander's video pressing his knee into the neck of African-American man George Floyd, who later died at a hospital, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S., May 29, 2020. Carlos Barria | Reuters

At least 30 businesses and buildings damaged in Nashville

5:25 a.m. ET  In Nashville, 28 protesters were arrested Saturday night after the 10 p.m. curfew, according to the Nashville Police Department. Governor Bill Lee authorized the National Guard to mobilize in response to protests, which he said took a "violent, unlawful turn." Protesters damaged at least 30 businesses and buildings in the city, including the Nashville courthouse, which was set on fire. No officers were injured, according to the police department.

Target temporarily closes 175 stores nationwide

A dumpster is lit on fire infront of a Target store in Oakland California on May 30, 2020, over the death of George Floyd, a black man who died after a white policeman kneeled on his neck for several minutes. JOSH EDELSON

4:36 a.m. ET  Target has temporarily closed 175 stores across the country amid ongoing protests, the company announced late Saturday. "Our focus will remain on our team members' safety and helping our community heal," the company said. Target closed 71 stores in Minnesota, which has been gripped by demonstrations and rioting following the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, after a white officer pressed a knee into his neck while taking him into custody. At least a dozen stores are closed in California and New York. Any Target employees impacted by store closures will be paid for up to 14 days of scheduled hours, including Covid-19 premium pay, the company said. Employees can also work at other nearby Target locations that remain open. Some businesses have been looted and vandalized in cities across the U.S. as protests turned violent, including a Target store in Minneapolis.

A looter robs a Target store as protesters face off against police in Oakland California on May 30, 2020, over the death of George Floyd, a black man who died after a white policeman kneeled on his neck for several minutes. Josh Edelson | AFP | Getty Images

Seattle police arrest at least 27 after crowds set fire to cars

Protesters riot in the streets following a peaceful rally expressing outrage over the death of George Floyd on May 30, 2020 in Seattle, Washington. Karen Ducey

4:15 am ET  More than 20 people were arrested in Seattle during Saturday's protest, Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best said in a statement early Sunday morning. Best said that "multiple officers and civilians have been injured" but did not give further details about those injuries. The protests in Seattle were peaceful for more than two hours before escalating, and some of the demonstrators set fire to police and private vehicles, according to the statement. Mayor Jenny Durkan ordered a curfew from 5 p.m. to 5 a.m. local time. At the time of the statement, the Seattle police and the National Guard were still working to remove people from the city's downtown core.

Police block the street during a protest against the death of George Floyd, a black man who died May 25 in the custody of Minneapolis Police, in Seattle, Washington on May 30, 2020. JASON REDMOND

More than 100 arrested, 13 police officers injured in Philadelphia

Police handle an arrested African-American male as protesters clash with police near City Hall, in Philadelphia, PA on May 30, 2020. Cities around the nation see thousands take to the streets to protest police brutality after the murder of George Floyd. Bastiaan Slabbers | NurPhoto | Getty Images

2:35 a.m. ET  The Philadelphia Police Department said on Twitter that 13 of its officers were injured, including seven with chemical burns to their faces, as officers made more than 100 arrests during Saturday's protests. Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney imposed a curfew last night from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. local time. That curfew is set to repeat on Sunday night. Curfew violations accounted for 52 of the arrests, while another 43 were for looting or burglary, according to the department. There was one arrest for assaulting an officer.

An African-American male poses with a sing in front of burning police vehicles as protestors clash with police near City Hall, in Philadelphia, PA on May 30, 2020. NurPhoto

Los Angeles under a state of emergency, National Guard activated, testing centers closed

Firefighters battle a structure fire on Melrose Avenue in the Fairfax District during demonstrations following the death of George Floyd on May 30, 2020 in Los Angeles, California. David McNew | Getty Images
Bay Area business owners face continuing damage from the violence that has accompanied protests over the police killing of George Floyd in Minnesota.

Walnut Creek saw significant looting Sunday night, as dozens of stores in the Broadway Plaza shopping area  including Target and Macys  were vandalized, prompting city officials to impose an immediate curfew. San Leandro saw widespread looting Sunday night around the Bayfair Mall, as people broke into dozens of stores.

In San Francisco, businesses on Sunday were picking up from widespread damages from riots Saturday night. What started as peaceful protests Saturday afternoon turned into a storm of looting once the sun set, according to observers.

Now Playing: Protesters refused to heed official pleas to stay home Saturday, instead taking to Oakland and Bay Area streets, where police officers in riot gear faced another night of outrage over the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Here's an inside look. Video: Matthias Gafni, Erika Carlos

Late Sunday morning, an alarm was still chirping inside a CVS, which had its front glass door smashed at 581 Market St., while the 7-Eleven across the street went untouched.

Retired Marine Frank Asaro said the looting was far more precise than it seemed in the aftermath. He watched as vans and trucks double-parked on Market Street and waited for people to make multiple trips into businesses to shuttle stolen goods into the waiting vehicles.

It was a free-for-all, Asaro said. People were saying that they were doing this in the name of George Floyd, but they shouldnt drag his name through the mud with these actions.

A security guard at a Market Street hotel who didnt want to be identified had similar observations. Standing behind a makeshift barricade in front of the hotel, he said that the protests were calm until 8 or 9 p.m. Saturday.

Then, people started breaking windows, entering businesses and stealing goods. The guard said it wasnt until 1 or 2 a.m. that police were able to stop the looting.

Boarded-up windows and graffiti-marked businesses were common for stretches of Market Street. At the Sixth and Market Muni stop, someone scribbled Kill Cops.

Around Union Square, hammering, buzz saws and the scrubbing of spray paint were heard on Sunday. Businesses including the AT&T store on Powell Street as well as the Urban Outfitters and Swatch stores a block away had broken windows and signs of theft.

Crate & Barrel employees were boarding broken windows Sunday at the multi-floor store at Stockton and OFarrell, while at Stockton and Geary workers barricaded broken windows at the Louis Vuitton boutique as employees inside surveyed what was left of the merchandise.

Now Playing: A protest in Oakland Friday night over the police-custody death in Minneapolis of George Floyd devolved into chaos, with fires being set, windows smashed, police officers struck by thrown objects and tear gas and rubber bullets fired at protesters. Video: San Francisco Chronicle

Dolce & Gabbana on Grant Avenue also had broken windows and showed signs of merchandise stolen. Department stores Macys, Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus appeared undamaged, as did jeweler Tiffany & Co. The Apple Store on Post Street showed signs of damage on the door.

Grace Jewelers, a business owned by Diana Tang on the street level of the Ellis-OFarrell Parking Garage, had broken windows and what the owners husband, Paul Zhou, said were bullet holes in the glass and walls. The stores 40-plus cases of jewelry were smashed, and the majority of the inventory was gone, said Zhou.

I cant put a dollar estimate on it now, said Zhou of the stores losses. My wife is devastated.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

Zhou and Tang came to the city from their home in San Ramon when they got news of the activity in Union Square around 10 p.m. Saturday. By the time they arrived, the store had been ransacked, leaving shards of glass and bullet casings on the floor.

We ended up staying in the store overnight to try and clean, Zhou said. There was a very heavy police presence until around 4 a.m.

Zhou said he and Tang were sympathetic to the reasons for nonviolent protest. He also said that, as Chinese American business owners who can feel especially at risk of violence, theyre grateful for the protection of the police.

Now Playing: Lilliannia Ayers, of Oakland, stands outside her store, Queen Hippe Gypsy. Her storefront window was broken last night amid the George Floyd protests. On Saturday, she plans to stay at her store no matter what to protect it. Video: Matthias Gafni

Giovanni Ohayon, the manager at Venezia antiques on Grant Avenue, said that during the Saturday night vandalism the door was broken in his store just inside the gates of Chinatown. The stores neighbors, including the two Michael antique stores, did not appear to have sustained damage.

Ohayon said a lot of stuff was stolen on Saturday as he boarded the door and windows further Sunday. He said he was working quickly, fearing more theft and damage once night fell in a few hours.

Tony Bravo and Rusty Simmons are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: tbravo@sfchronicle.com, rsimmons@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @TonyBravoSF, @Rusty_SFChron
Australias mining titans fuelled an impressive mid-session turnaround for local stocks, shaking off trade tensions and US civil unrest to drive the ASX to a strong close on Monday.

The benchmark ASX 200 closed 63.5 points, or 1.1 per cent, higher at 5819.2, in no small part because of surging iron ore prices.

The Aussie dollar also gained 1.3 per cent against the US greenback to a four-month high of US67.53c.

The materials sector was easily the star of the day. It rose by a collective 3.1 per cent after iron ore broke through the psychological $US100 per tonne barrier. Spot gold was also 0.9 per cent higher at near eight-year highs of $US1742.33.

Materials added 35.2 points to the index and just one firm in the sector finished lower, Incitec Pivot. BHP finished up 3.1 per cent to a more than three-month high of $35.71 and Rio Tinto rose 4.1 per cent to $97.23.

Fortescue Metals jumped 6.40 per cent to set a new record high $14.80. Gold miner Newcrest also joined the party with a 2.75 per cent rise to $31.42.

Iron ore prices are making things easier, but the Australian market has made it clear it wants to keep rallying, RBC Capital Markets head of equities Karen Jorritsma said.

Healthcare added 14 points to the ASX, with CSL up 3.06 per cent to $284.67. Investors stepped lightly into the new week as lingering trade tensions and US civil unrest made for a subdued start. Futures were pointing to a slightly positive session on Wall Street tonight.

The ASX fell by as much as 0.85 per cent when it opened following a weekend of riots and protests in the US, including outside the White House, in the wake of the death of George Floyd in police custody last week.

Nerves were also jangling after US President Donald Trumps address on China over the weekend. But that missive did not turn out as inflammatory as the market had predicted.

Tensions between Washington and Beijing remain elevated - especially after President Trump reiterated Hong Kongs special trading status with the US was under threat - but he did not withdraw from the phase one US-China trade agreement signed in January.

Trump also declined to impose sanctions on Chinese officials. Asian stocks surged in response, helped along by positive Chinese manufacturing data.

TMS Capital portfolio manager Ben Clark said it was clear there was still money trying to get into the market.

The dips are still being very aggressively bought, Mr Clark said. In my opinion, a lot of fund managers have been caught with very large cash balances, haven't believed in this rally and written it off ... only for it to keep going.

The week's flow of data begins in earnest on Tuesday with the balance of payments, international investment position, and business indicators for the March quarter.

Analysts will also be looking for colour from the Reserve Bank board meeting on Tuesday but the cash rate is not expected to shift from its current record low 0.25 per cent.
Services for John D. Songy, the 48-year-old Rutland police officer who died from coronavirus, will be held this week.

Songy passed away Friday morning at St. Vincent Hospital in Worcester after a long battle with COVID-19.

The detective was on a ventilator in critical condition at the hospital when he passed, according to his wife Joanne.

John and Joanne both tested positive for coronavirus on April 23. Joanne was able to overcome the virus at home, but Songy was rushed to the hospital on May 2 with shortness of breath.

It is with a broken heart that I had to say good bye to my best friend and love of my life," Joanne wrote on Facebook. "John lost his battle to Covid19 at 12:11 a.m. 5/29/20. I would like to thank each and everyone of you from the bottom of my heart for the prayers, love, and support that you have given to me and our family. I will post an update once his services have been arranged. God Bless you all.

Songy received a plasma infusion on May 5 and was given the drug remdesivir. His body rejected the remdesivir medication and his organs began to fail, putting him in critical condition. He was placed on a ventilator on May 10.

Born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Songy was a graduate of Worcester Vocational Technical Institute.

He worked for years as a machinist at Service Network and Heald Machine Company but then began his new career as a police officer after attending the criminal justice program at Quinsigamond Community College in Worcester, according to his obituary.

Songy first worked as a patrol officer in Oakham then joined the Rutland Police Department in 2012. He received several commendations during his career.

Known for his love of the outdoors, Songy would often be found four-wheeling in his Rubicon Jeep. He loved to travel throughout the country, visiting family and attending Jeep rallies, his obituary said.

Many of his fondest memories were spent with his father on their annual trips visiting family in Louisiana, Songys obituary reads. John embraced his role as a husband and father. He made sure that every holiday was spent at his familys home where he put his culinary talent to work with a buffet-style dinner with leftovers that would last for days.

Rutland Police Chief Nicholas Monaco said Songy had a heart of gold. The detective was dedicated to keeping people safe.

Songy leaves his parents, Alfred and Elaine Songy; his wife Joanne Songy; his daughter, Katlyn M. Songy of New Braintree; a stepdaughter, Shantell B. Madera of Florida; a stepson, DeVante Cotto of Leicester; and his sister, Sherill Colonero-Fitzgibbons of Maryland.

Calling hours will be from 4 to 8 p.m. on Wednesday, June 3, at Miles Funeral Home, 1158 Main St., Holden. Appropriate COVID-19 protocols will be observed including face masks and social distancing.

A funeral Mass will be held at 11 a.m. on Thursday, June 4, at St. Patricks Church, 258 Main St., Rutland. Seating will be reserved for family and members of the Rutland Police Department.

After the Mass, there will be a procession to the Rutland Public Safety Building for a moment of silence.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Sweetpea F.O.R. Animals, 1090 Pleasant St., Paxton, MA 01612.

Related Content:
When the world looked to Asia for successful examples in handling the novel coronavirus outbreak, much attention and plaudits were paid to South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong.



But there's one overlooked success story -- Vietnam. The country of 97 million people has not reported a single coronavirus-related death and on Saturday had just 328 confirmed cases, despite its long border with China and the millions of Chinese visitors it receives each year.



This is all the more remarkable considering Vietnam is a low-middle income country with a much less-advanced healthcare system than others in the region. It only has 8 doctors for every 10,000 people, a third of the ratio in South Korea, according to the World Bank.



After a three-week nationwide lockdown, Vietnam lifted social distancing rules in late April. It hasn't reported any local infections for more than 40 days. Businesses and schools have reopened, and life is gradually returning to normal.



Motorbike riders with face masks are stuck in traffic during the morning peak hour on May 19 in Hanoi.



To skeptics, Vietnam's official numbers may seem too good to be true. But Guy Thwaites, an infectious disease doctor who works in one of the main hospitals designated by the Vietnamese government to treat Covid-19 patients, said the numbers matched the reality on the ground.



"I go to the wards every day, I know the cases, I know there has been no death," said Thwaites, who also heads the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit in Ho Chi Minh City.



"If you had unreported or uncontrolled community transmission, then we'll be seeing cases in our hospital, people coming in with chest infections perhaps not diagnosed -- that has never happened," he said.



So how has Vietnam seemingly bucked the global trend and largely escaped the scourge of the coronavirus? The answer, according to public health experts, lies in a combination of factors, from the government's swift, early response to prevent its spread, to rigorous contact-tracing and quarantining and effective public communication.



Acting early



Vietnam started preparing for a coronavirus outbreak weeks before its first case was detected.



At the time, the Chinese authorities and the World Health Organization had both maintained that there was no "clear evidence'' for human-to-human transmission. But Vietnam was not taking any chances.



"We were not only waiting for guidelines from WHO. We used the data we gathered from outside and inside (the country to) decide to take action early," said Pham Quang Thai, deputy head of the Infection Control Department at the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology in Hanoi.



A woman practises social distancing while shopping for groceries from behind a line at a wet market in Hanoi.



By early January, temperature screening was already in place for passengers arriving from Wuhan at Hanoi's international airport. Travelers found with a fever were isolated and closely monitored, the country's national broadcaster reported at the time.



By mid-January, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam was ordering government agencies to take "drastic measures" to prevent the disease from spreading into Vietnam, strengthening medical quarantine at border gates, airports and seaports.



On January 23, Vietnam confirmed its first two coronavirus cases -- a Chinese national living in Vietnam and his father, who had traveled from Wuhan to visit his son. The next day, Vietnam's aviation authorities canceled all flights to and from Wuhan.



As the country celebrated the Lunar New Year holiday, its Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc declared war on the coronavirus.

"Fighting this epidemic is like fighting the enemy," he said at an urgent Communist Party meeting on January 27. Three days later, he set up a national steering committee on controlling the outbreak -- the same day the WHO declared the coronavirus a public health emergency of international concern.



On February 1, Vietnam declared a national epidemic -- with just six confirmed cases recorded across the country. All flights between Vietnam and China were halted, followed by the suspension of visas to Chinese citizens the next day.



Over the course of the month, the travel restrictions, arrival quarantines and visa suspensions expanded in scope as the coronavirus spread beyond China to countries like South Korea, Iran and Italy. Vietnam eventually suspended entry to all foreigners in late March.



A Vietnamese People's Army officer stands next to a sign warning about the lockdown on the Son Loi commune in Vinh Phuc province on February 20.



Vietnam was also quick to take proactive lockdown measures. On February 12, it locked down an entire rural community of 10,000 people north of Hanoi for 20 days over seven coronavirus cases -- the first large-scale lockdown known outside China.

Schools and universities, which had been scheduled to reopen in February after the Lunar New Year holiday, were ordered to remain closed, and only reopened in May.



Thwaites, the infectious disease expert in Ho Chi Minh City, said the speed of Vietnam's response was the main reason behind its success.



"Their actions in late January and early February were very much in advance of many other countries. And that was enormously helpful ... for them to be able to retain control," he said.



Meticulous contact-tracing



The decisive early actions effectively curbed community transmission and kept Vietnam's confirmed cases at just 16 by February 13. For three weeks, there were no new infections -- until the second wave hit in March, brought by Vietnamese returning from abroad.



Authorities rigorously traced down the contacts of confirmed coronavirus patients and placed them in a mandatory two-week quarantine.



"We have a very strong system: 63 provincial CDCs (centers for disease control), more than 700 district-level CDCs, and more than 11,000 commune health centers. All of them

attribute to contact tracing," said doctor Pham with the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology.



A confirmed coronavirus patient has to give health authorities an exhaustive list of all the people he or she has met in the past 14 days. Announcements are placed in newspapers and aired on television to inform the public of where and when a coronavirus patient has been, calling on people to go to health authorities for testing if they have also been there at the same time, Pham said.



A woman stands in a queue to provide a sample at a makeshift testing centre near the Bach Mai hospital in Hanoi on March 31.



When the Bach Mai hospital in Hanoi, one of the biggest hospitals in Vietnam, became a coronavirus hotspot with dozens of cases in March, authorities imposed a lockdown on the facility and tracked down nearly 100,000 people related to the hospital, including medics, patients, visitors and their close contacts, according to Pham.



"Using contact-tracing, we located almost everyone, and asked them to stay home and self quarantine, (and that) if they have any symptoms, they can visit the health centers for free testing," he said.



Authorities also tested more than 15,000 people linked to the hospitals, including 1,000 health care workers.



Vietnam's contact-tracing effort was so meticulous that it goes after not only the direct contacts of an infected person, but also indirect contacts. "That's one of the unique parts of their response. I don't think any country has done quarantine to that level," Thwaites said.



All direct contacts were placed in government quarantine in health centers, hotels or military camps. Some indirect contacts were ordered to self isolate at home, according to a study of Vietnam's Covid-19 control measures by about 20 public health experts in the country.



A roadside barber donning a face mask gives a haircut to a customer in Hanoi.



As of May 1, about 70,000 people had been quarantined in Vietnam's government facilities, while about 140,000 had undergone isolation at home or in hotels, the study said.



The study also found that of the country's first 270 Covid-19 patients, 43 percent were asymptomatic cases -- which it said highlighted the value of strict contact-tracing and quarantine. If authorities had not proactively sought out people with infection risks, the virus could have quietly spread in communities days before being detected.



Public communication and propaganda



From the start, the Vietnamese government has communicated clearly with the public about the outbreak.



Dedicated websites, telephone hotlines and phone apps were set up to update the public on the latest situations of the outbreak and medical advisories. The ministry of health also regularly sent out reminders to citizens via SMS messages.



Pham said on a busy day, the national hotlines alone could receive 20,000 calls, not to count the hundreds of provincial and district-level hotlines.



A propaganda poster on preventing the spread of the coronavirus is seen on a wall as a man smokes a cigarette along a street in Hanoi.



The country's massive propaganda apparatus was also mobilized, raising awareness of the outbreak through loudspeakers, street posters, the press and social media. In late February, the health ministry released a catchy music video based on a Vietnamese pop hit to teach people how to properly wash their hands and other hygiene measures during the outbreak. Known as the "hand-washing song," it immediately went viral, so far attracting more than 48 million views on Youtube.



Thwaites said Vietnam's rich experience in dealing with infectious disease outbreaks, such as the SARS epidemic from 2002 to 2003 and the following avian influenza, had helped the government and the public to better prepare for the Covid-19 pandemic.



"The population is much more respectful of infectious diseases than many perhaps more affluent countries or countries that don't see as much infectious disease -- Europe, the UK and the US for example," he said.



"The country understands that these things need to be taken seriously and complies with guidance from the government on how to prevent the infection from spreading."

Source: CNN









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The prime minister faces a second crisis beyond the pandemic: China. Too many pundits among our China haters demand that he ban Chinese students, impose tariffs on Chinese imports and ever more foolish notions. There are two things he should do, however.

First, its essential when dealing with authoritarian governments to analyze carefully what really worries them, and what they will ignore. Any economic measures we might take they could care less about, as China could easily hurt us more.

Secondly, it is important to sort the must-haves: from the nice-to-haves. It would be a huge victory if Canada could help prevent Chinese spies from repressing foreign organizations and corporations in Hong Kong. We cant.

We have two musts: the two Michaels and Beijing agents threats on Canadian soil against Chinese Canadians. Kovrig and Spavor must be allowed consular visits again, and then be released. Those Communist Party of China United Front workers who are dispatched to apply pressure on Canadians critical of the CCP should be arrested, named and shamed, criminally charged if not diplomats, sent home if they are.

These are Canadas policy musts today, and the prime minister should cite them publicly and often. We have tried private diplomacy for more than 18 months now. It is time to go public. Will this provoke a CCP backlash? Perhaps, but the risks of not doing so are rising for Chinese Canadians and the two Michaels.

China fears humiliation over larger questions. We need to be far more engaged with like-minded allies in applying maximize pressure on them. This weeks joint statement was a good first step but now it is time to more formally and consistently step up the alliance building and pressure.

Canada should follow the lead of the U.K. in building a permanent coalition of support on Hong Kong. We would be a valuable member and a positive signal to others. We should consider following their lead on offering a form of asylum, and a fast track to Canadian citizenship.

Hard as it may be to swallow, we should follow Trumps lead in increasing pressure on China over both Hong Kong and Taiwan. He once again threatened but did not deliver on larger economic penalties. We should publicly support Taiwans access to multilateral institutions and its right to greater national security.

It is Taiwan that is the President Xi Jinpings endgame. He has pledged he will achieve unification while he is in office. He will fail, but he can make life much harder for Taiwan. A strong cross-pressure of regular public condemnations from as many of the OECD nations who are willing would be profoundly humiliating.

Xi faces his own dilemmas, he is engaged in a game of chicken with Trump. The CCP does not want to lose control in Hong Kong, but almost as badly it does not want to see Hong Kongs status as an Asian financial capital destroyed. The citys stock exchange is dominated by more than 200 listed mainland corporations, for whom access to global capital markets through Hong Kong remains key. If the property market were also to crash, in the wake of a collapse of the Hang Seng index, the cost would be in tens of billions of dollars for Chinese citizens and SOEs.

The Hang Seng has already sunk to a valuation of only 10 times underlying earnings, less than half that of the NYSE. If the Americans do pull Hong Kongs special status, they would be signally to the 1,300 American corporations there, Time to leave! That would really be the beginning of the end for one of the most beautiful multicultural cities in the world. What seemed unthinkable only months ago  that the giant American banks, technology, and professional service firms would leave  now seems possible.

In the Cold War, it took decades for the West to develop an effective set of political and economic levers to restrain the Soviet Union. But economic pressure, public humiliation over the treatment of dissidents and a visible and unmatchable military commitment on all of the Warsaw Pacts borders led to the Soviets collapse.

The struggle to force China to accept the costs, obligations and responsibilities of a superpower requires different tactics. But two things have not changed since that earlier global battle: such a campaign can work only with the closest unity of strategy and tactics by the greatest number of nations; and by carefully choosing a short list of vulnerable targets of pressure wisely.
A third night of confrontation and clashes resumed in downtown Denver on Saturday in advance of an 8 p.m. curfew to help tamp down the damage that occurred the last two nights.
ALBANY - Mohammed Hossain almost got the freedom he has so desperately sought, until the federal bureau of prisons suddenly yanked his hopes away.

Hossain, a 65-year-old pizza maker, has been seeking his release from federal prison after serving out most of his sentence from his 2006 conviction of money laundering in a federal terrorism trial that took place in Albany.

The other defendant in the case, Yassin Aref, a former Albany mosque leader, was released from federal prison and deported to his native Iraq in 2019.

Both men were targets of an FBI sting that utilized undercover informant Shahed Hussain, a Wilton motel owner who had posed for the FBI as a wealthy Islamic fanatic who wanted to kill a Pakistani official in New York City.

Hussain is also the owner of the limousine service involved in the 2018 limo crash in Schoharie that killed 20 people. Hussain is now living in Pakistan, although his son is facing charges on manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in Schoharie County Court.

Hossain, who was convicted of money laundering in the fake terrorism plot, is scheduled for early release in July but has been trying for months to get released earlier than that for medical reasons.

He has diabetes and chronic kidney disease and now fears he would be especially vulnerable to becoming severely ill should there be a coronavirus outbreak at his prison in Springfield, Mo. This is why he and his family are desperately trying to get him home even before his July early release date. Hossain is a U.S. citizen and his family has made preparations for his medical care in Albany when he returns home.

Things seemed hopeful early last month on April 2 when Hossain was told he would be released to home confinement on April 22. Hossain's family was told to make plans to pick him up at his prison in Springfield, Mo. to bring him home, and he was taken out of the general population and put in a 14-day quarantine.

However, five days later, on April 7, Hossain's attorney was told he could not be released since the federal probation department said it could not provide ample monitoring of Hossain during his home confinement.

"Mr. Hossain was removed from quarantine, returned to general population, given a new cell and a cellmate," Hossain's Albany public defender Molly Corbett wrote in a filing in U.S. District Court in Albany on May 27. Corbett is asking that the court release Hossain.

"Mr. Hossains diabetes puts him at serious risk for severe illness and death should he contract the coronavirus," Corbett wrote.

Senior U.S. District Court Judge Thomas McAvoy has ordered the government to respond to the request by June 4. The Justice Department has opposed Hossain's release in the past.
The federal government is considering giving householders cash grants for home renovations, under a multi-billion dollar stimulus package to boost the economy.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Monday confirmed discussions are underway about a fourth cash splash aimed at saving the jobs of 1.2million tradesmen.

The government will also discuss offering first home buyers a $40,000 incentive to buy or build a new home and broadening the scope for who can access the grants.

It comes after the COVID-19 pandemic crippled the housing construction industry and cost an estimated 70,000 tradesmen their jobs.

Construction of new homes plummeted throughout the crisis along with most other economic activity - and authorities fear it will be slow to revive.

The $4billion cash grant scheme would encourage homeowners to make changes to their properties and provide tradesmen with immediate work, which could create an estimated 58,311 new jobs, The Australian reports.

But there would be limits on the type of renovations that could be undertaken, and Mr Morrison warned there would be 'safeguards' in place to avoid people 'rorting' the system.

'You've gotta try and avoid the rorting and people taking advantage of it,' Mr Morrison told 2GB on Monday.

'Even though Australians have been amazing during this crisis, there's still those that will do the wrong things.'

Homeowners could soon be given cash to renovate their homes under a new government stimulus package to stave off a coronavirus-induced construction industry collapse. Pictured: Home renovators Josh Barker and Elyse Knowles

Construction of new homes has plummeted during the coronavirus pandemic along with most other economic activity and is feared to be slow to revive. Pictured is a new build house at Toongabbie in Sydney's west

Master Builders Australia chief executive Denita Wawn said the proposed package would save small businesses from a potential catastrophe.

She said the addition of renovations in the scheme - which also plans to broaden the first home buyers allowance - bypasses 'the red tape' of requesting planning approvals.

Ms Wawn agreed certain criteria should be met for the types of property renovations people could apply for, including making homes more resilient to natural disasters like fires and floods.

Home owners should also be able to use the grant money to rectify cladding and asbestos concerns, Ms Wawn suggested.

Economic modelling commissioned by the business determined the entire stimulus package could generate upwards of 105,500 jobs in the wake of the crisis.

Already, the industry has taken a significant hit for 2020/2021 and 2021/2022. Instead of 159,000 new homes scheduled for completion by 2021, there is only 116,000.

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Based on previous economic downturns, the modelling warns it will likely take the construction industry four times longer to recover than other sectors.

'We have seen that governments can fast track construction activity in response to natural disasters and COVID-19 is shaping up as an economic disaster,' Ms Wawn said.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg is expected to confirm the details of the scheme after it is considered by the cabinet expenditure review committee meeting this week.

Homebuyers may be handed thousands of dollars to build houses as the government desperately tries to stave off a construction collapse that would cost many jobs

Master Builders Australia Proposed Stimulus Measures Master Builders Australia released a series of proposals in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic to keep the construction industry afloat. We are calling for measures such as commissioning local builders to immediately commence maintenance, refurbishment and renovation works on government buildings and facilities around the country,' CEO Denita Wawn said. 'This will not require extensive planning, could be actioned quickly and will provide work for thousands of small businesses in local communities.' She also called on the government to bring forward any planned government spends for 2021 to give the industry a much needed boost. Some of the proposals are outlined below: - Support ongoing building of house and land packages through interest free loans. - First Home-Owner Grants of $40,000 for those buying or building new homes. - Expanding the number of First Home Loan Deposit Scheme loans. - Instant tax write-off/extension of negative gearing for property investors to undertake renovations to rental properties (currently can only claim maintenance) that could include upgrades that provide for the home to be more energy efficient which in turn assists in reducing living costs. - Financial support to home owners through the use of a registered building practitioner to facilitate home renovations on properties that are pre 6 star requirements to enable them to be more energy efficient (eg change in windows, improved heating/cooling appliances etc) and/or make home more accessible for elderly to maximise ability to stay in their own home for longer. - Contribution towards cladding rectification on apartments. Advertisement

It will also include a clause to help pay $40,000 deposits for buyers of new homes, Sky News claimed on Sunday.

Grants of up to $10,000 have at various times been offered by the states, but only to first homebuyers struggling to own their first property.

The government's new plan is instead believed to be across the board - offering financial support to anyone wanting a new home.

Home auctions and inspections have only just been allowed for the first time in more than two months and are still subject to many restrictions.

More than a million people have also lost their jobs, taken pay cuts, or fear they could be next, and are in no position to take out a mountain of debt.

Despite already spending well over $300billion on coronavirus stimulus packages, the Federal Government is tipped to splash more cash to tackle this.

As Australia's population grows it needs more housing supply to avoid running out, so it is hoped giving an incentive to build will jump-start construction.

House prices would skyrocket if there was not enough ongoing construction, as well as thousands of jobs potentially lost.

Home auctions and inspections have only just been allowed for the first time in more than two months and are still subject to many restrictions

Registered bidders line up for the auction in Coorparoo, Queensland, after restrictions were relaxed there, but the industry still faces a long road back

Shadow Treasurer Jim Chalmers cautiously welcomed the plan but wanted to see the details before giving it any support.

'Already, before the crisis, construction was relatively weak and homeownership was at 60-year lows, so we had a challenge there,' he said on Sky News.

'That has been exacerbated by this coronavirus crisis. In two or three months, we are very worried that construction will fall off a cliff and that's why we have been making very constructive suggestions about what the government might do.

'We want to make sure that their plan is comprehensive, and we hope that they pick up and run with some of the ideas that (Labor has) put on the table.'

Dr Chalmers also suggested a program to help essential workers move closer to where they worked.

The claimed new stimulus appears similar to a proposal by the Property Council of Australia to give every buyer of a newly-built home $50,000.

As Australia's population grows it needs more housing supply to avoid running out, so it is hoped giving an incentive to build will jump-start construction

WHAT IS THE 'NEW HOME BOOST' PROPOSAL? - $50,000 grant to all purchasers of newly constructed dwellings only, not existing housing - Potential to stimulate the construction of 50,000 new dwellings, supporting 200,000+ jobs - Grant scheme limited to the first 50,000 purchasers, including lessees of new retirement living units, with these to be geographically spread - Approximately $2.5billion of Federal funding required to stimulate - No pricing cap  the aim is to bring forward all possible market demand and stimulate the greatest economic response - Scheme would require commencement on site between 1 July 2020 and 30 June 2021 only Property Council of Australia Advertisement

Under that $2.5 billion proposal, 50,000 new homes will be built and more than 200,000 jobs created.

The proposed 'new home boost' initiative would be limited to the first 50,000 purchases and run between July 2020 and June 2021.

The PCA also wants stamp duty scrapped and foreigners welcomed back to Australia to buy more properties.

Chief executive Ken Morrison said 'big and bold thinking' was needed to restart the economy after the pandemic.

'As Australia's biggest employer which contributes over 13 per cent of GDP, the property industry can be a powerhouse behind economic recovery and growth with the right policy settings and market incentives from the federal, state and territory governments,' he said.

The PCA also proposed a 'Welcome to Australia' program aimed at promoting Australia as a 'safe and healthy destination' for skilled workers.

The government already has a scheme in place to guarantee first homebuyer deposits, allowing them to get a mortgage with just a five per cent down payment.

The program was a key part of Prime Minister Scott Morrison's election campaign and was already maxed out in the first few months of this year.
Two months after detection of the first case in the state, Assam recorded 159 new Covid-19 positive cases on Saturday, taking total tally to 1,273. With this rise in coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases, Assams tally has breached 1,200-mark.

In the fresh addition, 20 of the new cases were traced to people who had recently travelled to the state by flights.

Even as cases have surged in the state despite lockdown, health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the state is fighting a spirited battle against the coronavirus disease.

Last 90 days we fought a spirited battle against Covid-19. Seen many setting up shining examples of public service, health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma tweeted late on Saturday night.

The states graph of recording Covid-19 cases reveals a rise, gradual for a month but sharp after a month.

Assam had witnessed its first positive case on March 31 when a 52-year-old cancer patient was infected with coronavirus. It took over a month, 37 days to be exact, for the figure to reach the 50-mark in the state but the tally crossed the 100 mark in the next 10 days on May 17.

The figure doubled again to reach 200 cases four days later on May 21 and it crossed 400 cases in another 4 days on May 25. It took just three days for that to double to 800 on May 28 and two days more to cross 1200 on May 30.

On Saturday, the minister is expected to inform how Assam has ramped up facilities to conduct tests of over 1 lakh samples and taking care of over 1000 active at a time when nearly 2.5 lakh people have returned back to the state.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Utpal Parashar Utpal is an assistant editor based in Guwahati. He covers all eight states of North-East and was previously based in Kathmandu, Dehradun and Delhi with Hindustan Times . ...view detail
As cities nationwide launched clean-up efforts and President Donald Trump called antifa a terrorist organization, a special prosecutor was named in the case of George Floyd, whose death in the custody of Minneapolis police continued to reverberate across the nation.

Benjamin Crump, the lawyer representing the family of Floyd, said the police officer who pressed his knee on the man's neck may have known him and should be charged with first-degree murder. Officer Derek Chauvin was charged with second-degree manslaughter and third-degree murder and fired last week, days after the confrontation.

Amid urging by Floyd family members and Minneapolis leaders, Gov. Tim Walz named state Attorney General Keith Ellison as special prosecutor to examine Floyd's death.

In Chicago, one of dozens of cities dealing with sometimes-violent protests, more than 20 police officers were injured, dozens of buildings were damaged and several vehicles burned Saturday night.

On Saturday's National Day of Protest, tens of thousands of people took to the streets. Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Chicago and Atlanta were among cities enacting curfews to quell the upheaval prompted by Floyd's death, racial inequities and police brutality. In New York, fires burned, and a video shared on social media appeared to show a police car driving into a crowd of protesters.

Some journalists covering the demonstrations were injured by tear gas, smoke bombs and nonlethal projectiles fired by police. In Pittsburgh at least three local journalists were injured by protesters, police said.

Resources, ways to donate: How you can take action from home

Our live blog will be updated throughout the day. Here are the latest developments:

An NYPD van burning after it was set on fire by protesters during a chaotic protest over the death of George Floyd in New York, NY on May 30, 2020. (Photo/Christopher Sadowski)

Minneapolis police chief: Floyd's death 'a violation of humanity'

Minneapolis Police Department Chief Medaria Arradondo told CNN in an interview George Floyd's death was "a violation of humanity."

Speaking at the site where Floyd died after fired police officer Derek Chauvin held his knee to Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes, Arradondo apologized to Floyd's family and said he had a "visceral" and "emotional" reaction to the video that has sparked outrage across the nation.

Story continues

There are absolute truths in life," Arradondo told CNN. "We need air to breathe. The killing of Mr. Floyd was an absolute truth that it was wrong. I did not need days or weeks or months or processes or bureaucracies to tell me what occurred out here last Monday, it was wrong.

When asked why he fired the four officers involved in the incident that led to Floyd's death, Arradondo said: "In my mind, this was a violation of humanity. This was a violation of the oath the majority of the men and women that put this uniform on -- this goes absolutely against it. This goes contrary to what we believe in."

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison to lead prosecution

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz announced state Attorney General Keith Ellison will lead the prosecution in the Floyd case.

Ellison called the case unusual because of the way that Mr. Floyd was killed and who did it  at the hands of the defendant who was a Minneapolis police officer.

He said he expects to work together with Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman on the case. Ellison didnt announce additional charges for Chauvin or charges for the three other officers involved in the incident. He added prosecuting police officers for misconduct, including homicide and murder, is very difficult.

Every single link in the prosecutorial chain will come under attack as we present this case to a jury or a fact finder and we need to make sure that we be absolutely prepared. We intend to be absolutely prepared.

Semi-truck driver hospitalized, arrested after 'inciting a crowd of peaceful demonstrators'

The Minnesota Department of Public Safety confirmed a semi-truck driver was hospitalized and arrested after video surfaced showing protesters scattering after a truck drove into a crowd of peaceful demonstrators on Interstate 35.

The Department of Public Safety called the driver's actions "very disturbing" and added the driver was "inciting a crowd of peaceful demonstrators." Videos from the scene showed an 18-wheeler driving toward a large crowd of fleeing protesters before coming to a stop. The demonstrators converged on the truck after it stopped.

"The truck driver was injured & taken to a hospital with non-life threatening injuries," the Department of Public Safety tweeted. "He is under arrest. It doesnt appear any protesters were hit by the truck."

Cities nationwide brace for more protests

After nights of chaos nationwide, cities braced for more protests in the wake of Floyd's death. Many protests have followed similar patterns  there's peace at first, but things eventually turn for the worse, typically at night.

In Santa Monica, California, for example there was peaceful protest where hundreds gathered, marched and took a knee for more than two minutes. However, there were also reports of looting. A video on social media showed a woman attempting to stop looters from breaking into a store.

Other cities also had peaceful demonstrations early and late afternoon Sunday.

In Minneapolis, the epicenter of the protests, there was a sense of calm. Volunteer crews cleaned up broken glass and rubble left behind following widespread looting and protesting. In a change from previous days, city public works crews helped managed the process, which was undertaken primarily by volunteers.

Still, some believed there was more damage to come. So far, just one of the four officers involved in the incident that ended with Floyd's death has been charged. Minneapolis residents want charges for the other three.

'Were here to make a difference': Protesters return to White House

Hundreds of protesters returned to the White House on Sunday, a day after demonstrations turned violent and police used tear gas to dispel crowds in Lafayette Park.

The park was shuttered Sunday and nearby buildings remained boarded up, but police and members of U.S. Secret Service lined the facade of the White House as demonstrations carried on just outside the entrance at 16th and H streets.

Clutching signs that read, end police brutality and peace, but not patience. We need change now, protesters chanted and clapped as the crowds swelled in the late afternoon sun. Amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, most people in the crowd wore face-coverings.

 Courtney Subramanian, David Jackson and Kristine Phillips

'Perfect storm' of civil unrest following Floyd's death, experts say

Why did Floyds death spark such widespread, visceral outrage, while three other deaths of African Americans this year  Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia and Tony McDade, a black transgender man killed by police officers in Tallahassee  did not?

An array of combustible issues converged to form a perfect storm of civil unrest after Floyds death and could lead to longer-lasting changes, experts and protest organizers said.

The coronavirus pandemic that has sequestered most Americans in their homes, forced millions into unemployment and has disproportionately infected African Americans already had many simmering with rage and frustration, said Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the National Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

The depths of despair are enormous right now for black people in this country, she said. You pile on unchecked police violence and it makes for a perfect storm.

 Rick Jervis

Major cities across US impose curfews into Monday morning amid protests

As cities where protests have erupted try to quell the demonstrations, several governors and mayors across the country imposed or extended curfews Sunday in anticipation of another night of unrest. More than 20 cities imposed some type of curfew. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz announced he would extend curfew for Minneapolis and St. Paul through Monday morning.

Other cities that have announced curfews include Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami, Cleveland, Indianapolis, Seattle and Louisville  where Breonna Taylor was killed .

Donald Trump says he'll designate Antifa as a terror organization

President Donald Trump announced Sunday a left-wing group he thinks is leading the violence at anti-police brutality protests will be officially labeled terrorists.

"The United States of America will be designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organization," Trump said.

Antifa  short for "anti-fascist"  is the name for loosely affiliated, left-leaning anti-racist groups involved in some violent clashes in recent years. The movement has no unified structure or national leadership.

 William Cummings and Kristine Phillips

Crump: Officer may have known George Floyd before confrontation

The lawyer for Floyd's family says the owner of a nightclub where Floyd worked notified the family his accused killer, Derek Chauvin, was an off-duty officer there.

"They had to overlap," civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump told CBS's Face the Nation. "And so that is going to be an interesting aspect to this case and hopefully upgrading these charges to first-degree murder because we believe he knew who George Floyd was."

Both worked security at the El Nuevo Rodeo, according to former owner Maya Santamaria. But Santamaria said they may not have known each other since Chauvin, as an off-duty police officer, worked outside, while Floyd worked inside.

Crump said Floyd showed intent to kill by keeping his knee in Floyd's neck for almost nine minutes while Floyd was "begging and pleading for breath," Crump said.

60 Secret Service agents injured in protests

More than 60 Secret Service agents were injured in clashes with protesters in Washington, D.C., on Friday and Saturday, the agency said. Some were assaulted, kicked, punched and exposed to bodily fluids, officials said.

Eleven were taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries. Officials said protesters vandalized six Secret Service vehicles, repeatedly tried to knock over security barriers, and threw bricks, rocks, bottles, fireworks and other items at Secret Service personnel.

Seventeen people were arrested during protests Saturday night when organized groups bent on destruction took over the demonstration, Mayor Muriel Bowser said.

 Kristine Phillips

1 dead in Chicago

Six people were shot, and one was killed, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said.

More than 20 officers went to the hospital, and at least two required surgery, said Superintendent David Brown. Police made 240 arrests, Brown said. In a Sunday morning news conference, Lightfoot called Saturday nights destruction downtown devastating. She said cars were set on fire and windows were smashed.

Is that how we bring social justice? Is that how we bring change? Certainly not, she said.

Lightfoot said, in addition to the citys curfew, she was bringing in the Illinois National Guard and limiting access to the downtown Loop area, where protests took place. Lightfoot also said she was suspending transit services to the Loop.

 Grace Hauck

Minneapolis 'picking up a broom'

No loss of life nor major fire damage was reported after bursts of violence that on Saturday night once again rocked Minneapolis, a city under siege of protests for almost a week, Mayor Jacob Frey said.

"The events of last night were obviously difficult to watch, but the restoration of order was important," Frey said at a news conference Sunday.

Frey said he was encouraged to see residents "coming out of their homes, picking up a broom" to help sweep away the debris from nights of violence.

Trump tweeted congratulations to the National Guard for the "great job they did immediately upon arriving in Minneapolis."

The city planned to impose an 8 p.m. curfew Sunday. Frey pledged to make the state and city a better place for people of color.

"The action of one officer and the inaction of three officers have forever change our city," he said. "We must become a better city. We must become a more just city."

Former police officer Chauvin could face additional charges, and officers at the scene of George Floyd's death are not out of the woods, Attorney General Ellison said Sunday.

Chauvin's partner and two other officers who arrived on the scene as events unfolded have not been charged. Ellison, speaking on NBC's Meet the Press, said County Prosecutor Mike Freeman could charge the other officers with aiding and abetting, among other counts.

'Multiple shootings,' 2 fatalities in Indianapolis

The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department confirmed two fatalities, and said it was investigating "multiple" shootings, none of which were officer-involved, after a second night of violence raged through parts of downtown.

Clashes broke out in a haze of tear gas a little after 9 p.m., about two hours after city officials asked protest organizers to wrap up their events and clear the streets. Several protesters were arrested and widespread vandalism was reported in the aftermath. It was a far different scene earlier in the day, when thousands of demonstrators marched peacefully through Downtown streets chanting slogans such as "Black Lives Matter" and "No Justice  No Peace."

 Tim Evans, Indianapolis Star

Mississippi mayor apologizes for George Floyd Twitter post

A Mississippi mayor has apologized for social media posts that seemed to defend the behavior of Minneapolis police in Floyd's death. Petal Mayor Hal Marx, however, denied his comments were racist and said he won't resign.

"I admit that my comments on the recent tragic death of George Floyd in Minnesota were made in haste and not well-thought out or expressed," he said. He apologized to the city's 10,000 residents and anyone who might have been offended.

The post, which he deleted from Twitter, said, "if you can say you cant breathe, youre breathing. Most likely that man died of overdose or heart attack. Video doesnt show his resistance that got him in that position. Police being crucified."

 Lici Beveridge, Mississippi Clarion-Ledger

4 officers, 3 journalists injured in Pittsburgh

Four police officers and three local journalists were injured by protesters in Pittsburgh, the city Public Safety Department said. At least two police cars were set ablaze, as was an American flag, police said.

Forty-three adults and one juvenile were arrested. State police were called in, and downtown property damage was "extensive" with dozens of businesses looted, the public safety department tweeted. Mayor Bill Peduto accused white, male "anarchists" of hijacking the protest.

To those vandalizing downtown, you will be arrested, Peduto said. You have turned on the very mission, and more importantly  the people, you supposedly marched for."

Read this: Minnesota officials say 'outside agitators' are hijacking peaceful protests. So, who are they?

Police join protest in Alaska

An "I Can't Breathe" rally on the waterfront in Juneau, Alaska, was joined by local residents, elected officials  and police officers.

Floyd uttered "I can't breathe" multiple times in the moments before he died. Juneau Police Chief Ed Mercer said he and other members of his department attended the rally to show solidarity with residents, saying he won't "tolerate excessive use of force." The rally featured Alaska Native songs performed by members of Yees Ku Oo dance group, a multi-cultural group from Juneau.

Im here just to show that we are in this community and let people know that our voices matter and for people to stop killing us, Jennifer Gross, an African-American woman, told the Juneau Empire.

'Dont go out of your homes': Tough response in Twin Cities

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz promised to bring "the full force of goodness and righteousness" as law enforcement enforced a curfew in Minneapolis. Dont go out of your homes; dont make things more difficult, Walz said.

As part of the state's increased enforcement, the Minnesota National Guard said more than 4,100 service members had been deployed to the Twin Cities and projected more than 10,000 would soon be called up.

Several hours after the 8 p.m. curfew began Saturday, there were "no reported injuries of consequence," Minnesota Department of Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell told the media.

Follow USA TODAY reporters Trevor Hughes and Tyler Davis for reports from the ground in the Twin Cities.

Los Angeles mayor asks for National Guard amid violence

In Los Angeles, police cars burned after thousands of protesters gathered at Pan Pacific Park spilled out into streets. Mayor Eric Garcetti asked for the National Guard to be sent in to the nation's second-largest city as protesters torched police cars and vandalized and burglarized stores while clashing with lines of officers. Garcetti said he asked Gov. Gavin Newsom for 500 to 700 members of the Guard.

Elsewhere in California, a few hundred chanting demonstrators marched through San Francisco while northeast of San Diego, police fired tear gas to try to break up a large group that defied orders to leave the La Mesa police headquarters.

Fires at courthouse and City Hall building in Nashville

Fires in Nashville led Mayor John Cooper to declare a state of civil emergency Saturday night. Police announced a 10 p.m. curfew for the city, and Gov. Bill Lee deployed the National Guard. Dozens of protesters had gathered on the steps of Nashville's criminal courthouse and City Hall after a rally and march. Demonstrators smashed windows with rocks and other materials, drawing a swarm of police. The situation at the building appeared to subside around 7:30 p.m.

By 8:15 p.m., fire was visible from a first-floor office at the courthouse. A short time later, police with riot gear arrived as a fire burned inside a window at City Hall. Officers deployed tear gas as demonstrators clustered in the center of Public Square Park.

 Staff of The Tennessean

Contributing: The Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: George Floyd live updates: Special prosecutor tapped to take case




Haiti - FLASH : The number of new cases, doubles in 24 hours





The Ministry of Public Health informs that 281 new cases have been confirmed in Haiti (the day before : 141), for a total of 1,865 cases throughout the national territory (39.9% women and 60.1% men) since the first case (March 19, 2020 https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-30319-haiti-health-origin-of-the-first-2-cases-of-covid-19-in-haiti.html ).



6 new deaths were recorded (5 in the West and 1 in the Northwest) bringing the total to 41.



2 new healings were recorded bringing the total to 24.



The number of active cases (minus deaths and cures) is now 1,800 (+ 18.4%) +263 cases in 24 hours (the day before: +141)



Number of suspected cases: 4,577 cases (+ 11.47%) +471 (the day before: +140)



People hospitalized: 348 people +24 in 24h (the day before: +4)

Home quarantine: 1,651 people +129 in 24h (the day before: +141)



All the details in our daily report of 11:00 a.m.



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-30904-haiti-covid-19-daily-report-may-30-2020.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-30898-haiti-flash-1-584-confirmed-cases-and-4-106-suspected-cases.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-30319-haiti-health-origin-of-the-first-2-cases-of-covid-19-in-haiti.html



S/ HL/ HaitiLibre


















An award-winning fund manager has been found dead near his 3.5million home after he went missing.

Guy Rushton, 36, who was married, was found in a barn near his house in Cranborne Chase, Wiltshire, hours after being classified as missing on May 22.

Rushton worked at Polar Capital, a London-based asset management firm, and had won industry awards, including fund manager of the year in 2018.

His UK Absolute Equity Fund had lost more than a third of its value - around 180million - in March, as global stock markets took a huge hit due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Guy Rushton, 36, (pictured) who was married, was found in a barn near his house in Cranborne Chase, Wiltshire, hours after being classified as missing on May 22

Last month his company announced he was unwell and that his 292million fund - launched in 2014 when he joined the firm - would be wound up as he was unable to return to work, according to The Times.

A letter to investors from Polar Capital on April 15 said: 'The decision to terminate the fund has been prompted by the poor health of the individual fund manager.' The company added that his illness was not coronavirus.

An inquest into his death began last week and Wiltshire police said that there are not believed to be any suspicious circumstances surrounding the death.

Rushton had a reputation as one of the most prolific talents in the sector and colleagues last night said that they had lost 'not only a passionate investor and good-humoured colleague but also a dear friend'.

A company spokeswoman added: 'Guy Rushton's family informed us that Guy had sadly died. Our thoughts are with his family, to whom we express our deepest condolences.'

The manor is located in the small village of Alvediston in Wiltshire, (pictured). The property came with land

It is understood that he was on sick leave at the time of his death, and had not been furloughed or made redundant.

Rushton went to St Peter's School in York, an independent boarding school, before attending Cambridge University were he graduated with a medical and veterinary sciences degree in 2005, having specialised in neuroscience.

At the start of this year he and his wife, Alannah, who had been married for five years, bought a 3.5million manor in Alvediston, Wiltshire, which came with 130 acres of land.

The property where the investor lived is seen here in an aerial shot. The barns and outbuildings are next to the home

It comes as mental health charities have urged the government to act to prevent an increase in suicides during the coronavirus pandemic.

More than 500,000 people have accessed a suicide prevention course in the first three weeks of this month alone, according to the Zero Suicide Alliance.

During the last financial crisis Wall Street and the City of London witnessed a spike in suicides as the banking sector was crippled due to uncertainty.

For confidential support, call the Samaritans on 116123 or visit a local Samaritans branch. See www.samaritans.org for details
While some of us teenagers are struggling to find the right picture to post on Insta, others in our age group go through completely different things that are a lot worse.

Around 42,000 refugees and asylum seekers reside on the Greek islands. Roughly one third of them are children and teenagers, and more than 10 % of these are unaccompanied. In other words, 1600 kids and teenagers are on their own in refugee camps!

For some of them the situation is even worse: When Greece cannot provide the right accommodation for them, they end up in police cells or detention centres waiting for their transfer to a shelter. As of 31 March, 331 children were held in police detention.

At the beginning of March, 10 EU members and Switzerland have agreed to take in a total of 1600 children, and Luxembourg was the first of these countries to hold up their end of the bargain when they welcomed 12 of them mid-April. Ms Jacobs, president of Caritas Luxembourg, the organisation taking care of them, was so kind to answer a couple of questions:

Ms Jacobs, How are the 12 refugees doing?

"They are doing very well. A couple of days ago, we had a big celebration (as far as this is possible in these times) and they were very happy and in good spirits. As things developed very quickly after Luxembourg decided to take in some unaccompanied refugee children, we relied a lot on volunteers from several backgrounds. We are very grateful for the educational staff and others who helped in the process of the transfer and their integration."

The plan is to send them to school next week:

"At the moment, we are in touch with the Ministry of Education to see which schools and which classes they can attend. They already have a couple of lessons at home now but for the future we believe it is better for them if they could join a school."

One of the challenges is that none of them have been attending school for a longer period in their lives, and one of the refugees hasn't been to a school at all, but:

"They are very motivated and they want to learn."

The 12 refugees are between 11 and 16 years old and come from either Syria or Afghanistan. Here they are taught French and Luxembourgish but for now English is the language in which they communicate, as much as they can. They live together in a house which was especially set up for this purpose and the plan is that they stay there for a longer time. There they are supervised by educators around the clock.

"We didn't want to transfer them to an asylum shelter but instead offer them to live as a family together. In a group constellation it is easier for them to integrate. Being together can also help them to process their past," says Ms Jacobs.

Some have experienced traumatic events. One boy is believed to have lost his father in a shooting, another one's "journey" to flee took him one year.

"We are checking now to see if it could be possible for his mother and the rest of his family, who are still in Syria, to also move to Luxembourg."

Two teenage boys from Syria have left their country because of the war and because they were afraid that the Assad regime or other groups would draft them into the war against their will.

"They have other things than war on their mind, they want to have a normal life."

Why were the children and teenagers unaccompanied in the camps?

"They didn't have any other choice. Two of them were separated from their parents at the Syrian-Turkish border. Since then they have not had any contact with their parents and they don't even know if they are still alive."

Will Luxembourg take in more refugees?

"I cannot say, that is for the foreign minister Mr Asselborn to decide. With regards to the more than 1,500 other unaccompanied migrants that several EU countries pledged to take in, we know that Germany has taken in some refugees and we are in touch with German speaking Caritas associations. To welcome these young people is a massive enrichment, not only for the teenagers but for us as Caritas as well."

The refugees upon their arrival /  SIP / John-Christophe Verhaegen

The Corona crisis has hit the people in the refugee camps very hard:

"I believe the situation is very dramatic. The people live very close, often they don't even have water or toilets and that is why it was and is very important to change their situation, especially for the ones living on the Greek islands. We had hoped that we could quickly help even more people but at least so far, the great catastrophe did not happen. It is clear that for the people that already live in difficult circumstances, Corona has made their lives even more difficult, especially for children and women."

For Caritas in Luxembourg the Coronavirus has brought a lot of additional challenges as their support extends to other people, too.

"Of course, there are also all the other people that we help, for example homeless people. Some of them are very anxious, they come to us to have their temperature measured two or three times per day.

At the moment, we are also dealing with a lot of people who have never needed social assistance before. That is very difficult especially for people who before used to live an independent life and now, for the first time, have to ask for financial aid. Many people struggle these days and we try to help."

Coming back to the teenage refugees Ms Jacobs concludes:

"I had expected them to be very anxious when they arrived but the opposite is the case. You can see that in their previous lives they had no other choice but to be very independent, which in a way makes things easier for them here. They are always very positive.

Thankfully several people have followed our call for donations. This money is so important. It ensures that we can continue our work."

If you would like to support Caritas Luxembourg you can find the relevant information here.

Teenage Truth is a series where Jade shares her thoughts and experiences on being a teenager in Luxembourg.
Traders who sell Foodstuff in the various markets in the country have been advised against displaying their wares on bare ground to prevent the contamination of food stuffs.

It is a common spectacle to see fruits and vegetables displayed on bare ground or on torn jute sacks and mats spread on dusty floors in most markets Ghanaian markets.

Mr Harold Esseku, Vice President, Ghana Institution of Engineering (GhIE), said Ghana's markets needed reengineering to ensure food safety and general hygiene.

Mr Esseku said one of the major problems of existing markets was the display of goods on bare ground, a situation he stressed could lead to the contamination of food stuffs as people spit, trample and blow dust on the wares.

Speaking at a presentation of hand washing sets, liquid soaps, cane baskets and nose masks to market women at Tema Community One, by the Women In Engineering (WinE) Ghana, he called for change especially, in this era of COVID-19 where the observation of the highest standard of hygiene protocols must be adopted.

He added that Ghana could not afford having food items and markets contaminated as everyone irrespective of status got their food from the market.

Dr Enyonam Kpekpena, President of Women In Engineering, said her outfit had been brainstorming on how the country's markets could be improved as part of efforts to contain the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.

Dr Mrs Kpepkena indicated that we realize that the current situation within the markets needed to be drastically improved. Our studies in Accra showed that the markets are poorly planned, maintained and unclean.

She said a proactive action at implementing the right, acceptable, hygienic and sustainable measures towards making markets in Ghana safe, clean and well-organized would go a long way to impact the health and longevity of Ghanaians.

She disclosed that WinE Ghana had established a technical advisory group to offer professional and technical advice as well as skills to help re-engineer the various markets saying the food that ends up on our tables are from the markets and the earlier interventions are put in place, the better it will be for our collective health,  adding that the markets were viable receptacles for bacteria and virus.

The WinE president said a proposal to the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, called for some 11 pragmatic short term measures to contain the spread of COVID-19 in the communities.

The measures include maintaining at least one metre each between and around traders, and between buyers and traders, at least three metres of walkways free of hawking in-between traders as well as using task force to ensure traders and patrons observe the various regulations.

Other measures were;food transporters must deliver well packaged foodstuffs in sacks, baskets or wooden carts to the markets with defaulters receiving some penalties.

Alhaji Shehu Abdul Kadiri, Tema Metropolitan Coordinating Director, receiving the items on behalf of the traders, thanked the WinE, saying the items would go a long way to help the Metropolis in implementing the various COVID-19 protocols in the market.

Alhaji Kadiri said to be able to observe social distancing at the markets, the Tema Metropolitan Assemblies relocated some traders to temporal markets created on school parks adding that nose masks were also distributed by the Assembly to residents, traders and drivers to comply with the mandatory wearing of masks as part of measures to curb the COVID-19 spread.

GNA
Anil S By

Express News Service

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With the Pinarayi Vijayan-led LDF government entering the fifth year, it has been a mixed bag in terms of hits and misses. While the CM and the ruling CPM wax eloquent on its achievements, the main Opposition Congress and the BJP have been less than enthused by the administrations showing

Three natural calamities, two global pandemics and a severe socio-political crisis to boot. No other elected government in Keralas living memory has gone through such tumult. Yet the Pinarayi Vijayan government, entering its fifth year of governance, could make a difference though it has had its own share of lapses and flaws. As former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy chose to put it, crisis management is what shows the real calibre of any government.

ALSO READ| On politics, tackling a pandemic and the floods: In conversation with Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan

"Four years is a short period in a states trajectory, but the last four years were historic as far as Kerala is concerned, in terms of setting the bar as the number one state in India," is how Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan sees it.

Undoubtedly, the LDF government stood out for its assertiveness in bringing in major infrastructure developments, be it GAIL, Koodamkulam power line, K-FON or National Highway projects. It however failed to seize the opportunity to cash in on an eco-friendly approach to development, post the devastating 2018 flood.

While KIIFB could be termed the LDF governments best innovation that brought a paradigm shift in development, the ambitious Rebuild Kerala project is still struggling to live up to expectations. A quick recap shows that poor handling of the 2016 Cyclone Ockhi was the first goof-up, which might have led to better preparedness for the back-to-back flood in 2018 and 2019. But it failed to ensure an eco-friendly development model, post the deluge.

Undoubtedly, the 2018 Sabarimala fiasco was the biggest socio-political crisis that the government encountered so far. A government should never take sides, as far as religious beliefs are concerned. We should follow the court verdict. But this does not mean one should rush to bring people from their homes to implement the verdict, says Oommen Chandy.

Infrastructure development, especially the GAIL pipeline, was a big-ticket project that failed to take off, solely because of the previous governments weak approach. Soon after coming to office, Pinarayi sent out a clear message that the project will be implemented.

"In the states recent history, there has been no other chief minister who could and would readily take a call on important matters, without needing to consult anyone, even from the party. This was evident in initiating infrastructure development projects. However, as far as administration is concerned, a Jacob Thomas effect is unfortunately evident among bureaucrats even now," said a top official, on condition of anonymity.

The LDF government has a vision to develop Kerala into a prime investment destination and was hence able to ensure infrastructure development, says CPM state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan. One of the major achievements of the Left government was ushering in a new political culture.

ALSO READ| Kerala opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala turns spotlight on state government's 'omissions'

"The state was going through political tussles, involving the CPM, the RSS, the Muslim League(IUML) and the Congress. A decision was made to resolve these issues through bilateral talks. The CPM announced that the party will refrain from such activities. Such government intervention was crucial," observed Kodiyeri.

As far as crises and natural calamities are concerned, the government didnt fumble. It could ensure disaster management through peoples participation which added a new perspective to the matter, says Kodiyeri. He also feels that in the final year, the government should focus on its new initiatives like Rebuild Kerala and food safety projects.

However, former chief minister Oommen Chandy begs to differ. Crises are what define a government. The government couldnt rise to the expectations on any of these issues, he said. Referring to his handling of the 2004 tsunami, Chandy says the Left government could have handled Ockhi and the subsequent floods in a better manner. As far as COVID-19 is concerned, though the government could do something in the initial phase, later on, it fumbled in its suport of Malayalis outside the state.

He feels that the death of Keralite expats, especially in Gulf countries, could have been avoided. In the second phase of the lockdown, the government should have helped bring back Malayalis based in other states by train and bus. In the third phase, we should have brought back Keralites from abroad. This way, several lives would have been saved, he added. Entering its final year, its time for the LDF government to deliver on its remaining promises. With two elections coming up in 2020 and 2021, the Pinarayi government could opt for a more cautious approach so as not to rock the electoral boat.

ALSO READ| LDF government is a failure on all fronts; industrial sector worst hit: Kerala BJP chief K Surendran
When it comes to China, the Trudeau government has acted with the deference a pageboy would show a queen. As they have muddled through a long series of skirmishes, from the arbitrary and unjust kidnapping of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor to the trade disputes over canola, soybeans and meat, the objections of the federal government have been muted and overly diplomatic.

For a time, it seemed the COVID-19 pandemic would be no different. The well-substantiated suggestion that China had been less than forthcoming in its disclosures about the virus was dismissed by the federal health minister as a conspiracy theory. The minister of foreign affairs twisted himself into a pretzel to avoid even saying the word Taiwan. We refused to close our border to flights originating from China. And this week, as Beijing snuffed out the last remnants of the One Country, Two Systems agreement that protected civil liberties in Hong Kong, the most Trudeau could muster was a call for constructive dialogue.

But, thankfully, a bright light has appeared on the horizon: plucked from the private sector and appointed Canadian ambassador to China last September, Dominic Barton has gone further than any other Canadian official in criticizing Beijing.

Last week, Barton was in the news for his comments to the Canadian International Council during which he suggested Beijing had accrued negative soft power through its belligerent international response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and endorsed a rigorous review of the WHOs response.

By the standard of the Trudeau government, this amounted to surprisingly pointed criticism. More surprising still was the prime ministers endorsement of this criticism the day after it was reported publicly.

Some had early concerns with Barton, who was appointed to the ambassadorship fresh off his stint as the managing director of the consulting firm McKinsey.

But Barton was a savvy choice. An experienced China hand, and a principled realist, he now uses the qualities that enabled him to succeed brilliantly in business to drive his candid commentary about China.

It is helpful that his concerns are real. In bungling its so-called Mask Diplomacy, China has, indeed, eroded its soft power and further alienated foreign governments. The Netherlands was forced to recall 600,000 faulty masks bought from China; in Spain, 50,000 test kits were tossed out after it was discovered they were only accurate about one-in-three times. The Slovenians bought 1.2 million antibody tests for $16 million dollars, only to discover they were similarly useless. The Czechs have had complaints, and so have the Turks. And, of course, Canada too. The list goes on.

Through it all, the Chinese government has pushed aggressively, in a Trump-like way, for the leaders of these European nations to offer public displays of gratitude. But the gambit has backfired. Instead of gratitude, the EUs chief diplomat has warned that this so-called politics of generosity disguises a geopolitical struggle for influence through spinning.

And so it is these two ambassadors who, in positions not known for straight talk, have emerged as the sanest, clearest moral voice when it comes to China.

Of course, there will always be a David-and-Goliath dynamic that constrains what Canadians can say and do when it comes to dealing with a superpower such as China. The reality is Ottawa cannot simultaneously be at odds with both Beijing and Washington, especially while the latter has its mercurial commander-in-chief.

Nevertheless, I predict we can count on Barton to continue to speak truth to power, at least so much as his position  and Canadas position  allows.

And speak truth to power not just to the Chinese but to the Canadian government as well. After all, he has the tools to do so: credibility and respect within Trudeaus Ottawa and within Xis Beijing.

But doing so just got more complicated. On Wednesday, a B.C. judge decided the case against Meng Wanzhou, a Huawei executive and daughter of the companys founder, should proceed.

Though the courts have yet to rule on her extradition to the U.S., the ultimate decision maker in this process is the minister of justice, who must determine whether the extradition could generate an outcome that runs contrary to Canadian values.

Contrary to Canadian values when it comes to China? Watch for Bartons influence as the Trudeau government works to sort that question.
Chemical and biomolecular engineering professor Rajib Saha at the University of NebraskaLincoln. The Indian American researcher has received a National Science Foundation CAREER award that provides $747,855 over the next five years. (unl.edu photo)
Riot police broke up a huge illegal DJ party attended by 'many hundreds' of revellers in East London.

People gathered in Clapton despite lockdown measures banning mass gatherings amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Social media pictures posted on Snapchat show crowds partying as a DJ plays in the road.

Police are pictured in Clapton last night breaking up a huge party amid the coronavirus lockdown

Pictured: Hackney Police in a residential street as the break up a party in East London last night

Hackney Police deployed a helicopter to the scene to break up the part at midnight last night.

Officers confirmed there was a huge party unfolding in their borough in a social media post.

People are pictured gathered in Hackney, East London, where there was a huge party last night

Police are pictured arriving on the scene last night as a helicopter was deployed to the scene

The force tweeted: 'There is a large scale unlicensed music event in a residential street in E5 involving many hundreds of revellers. @NPASSouthEast are providing aerial support to officers on the ground.'

Hundreds of people gathered in Hackney, East London, for a party last night despite the lockdown measures

A DJ was pictured at the scene in Hackney last night as police broke up a party in the street

People are pictured in Hackney last night as they attended a party despite lockdown rules

Snapchat videos showed police and cars at the scene as night falls on the mass gathering.

Clips and pictures on Twitter also showed large groups on Hackney Marches earlier on in the day.

In a video posted on Twitter, one man can be heard saying: 'Check this out, there's a party going on in the park. There's like a DJ down this side.'

Elsewhere, people were seen at beauty spots across England enjoying the warm weather.

It included groups on Clapham Common in south London as others were spotted on Bournemouth beach.
Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich uncovers the stories of survivors who were allegedly abused and sex trafficked by financier Jeffrey Epstein and his girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell. The Netflix docuseries also features the testimony of Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who claims she was trafficked by Epstein to high-profile men, including Prince Andrew and Alan Dershowitz.

In a recent tweet, Guiffre called out supermodel Naomi Campbell, claiming she was Maxwells BFF, and that she saw her with Epstein on multiple occasions.

Ghislaine Maxwell and Naomi Campbell in NYC in 2002 | Mark Mainz/Getty Images

Virginia Roberts Giuffre reveals her story in Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich

Netflixs documentary series, Filthy Rich, examines the numerous cases of alleged sexual abuse Jeffrey Epstein got away with for decades. Through four episodes, survivors tell their stories of their encounters with Epstein, and how he targeted them as vulnerable minors.

On the docuseries, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, now 36, details how Epsteins supposed girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell found her working as a locker room attendant at Donald Trumps Mar-A-Lago resort when she was 16. She says that Maxwell saw her reading a book about massage therapy and offered her a job as Epsteins traveling masseuse.

Soon after Giuffre arrived at Epsteins West Palm Beach home, she says Maxwell and Epstein sexually abused her. She says the couple used her insecurities and vulnerabilities to groom her. And she claims they manipulated her into being trafficked by them for years.

RELATED: Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich: Where is Ghislaine Maxwell Now?

She is at the center of the Prince Andrew Scandal

In Filthy Rich, Giuffre claims that she flew to London with Maxwell and Epstein in 2001 when she was 17. She says that at Maxwells townhouse, she was introduced to Prince Andrew.

After a night of partying, Giuffre says they returned to Maxwells home. After Epstein snapped a photo of her with Prince Andrew, she says Maxwell demanded she provide sexual favors for him.

https://twitter.com/VRSVirginia/status/1262512899626393600

Ghislaine tells me, Youre going to have to do for him what you do for Jeffrey,' Giuffre says in Episode 4 of the Netflix doc. Right after that photo was taken, I was sexually abused by Prince Andrew for the first time.

Maxwell has denied any involvement in Epsteins alleged misconduct. And Prince Andrew continues to deny any wrongdoing and has said he doesnt remember ever meeting Giuffre.

Virginia Roberts Giuffre claims Naomi Campbell was good friends with Campbell

On Twitter, Giuffre has been vocal about pointing out those she feels are connected to Epsteins alleged sex trafficking ring. She specifically called out former supermodel Naomi Campbell, alleging she must have known what was happening because of her close friendship with Maxwell.

She was Maxwells BFF, Giuffre wrote in a tweet along with a picture of her, Maxwell, and Campbell. There is no way in hell that she didnt know what was happening in front of her own eyes. They were all aware of Epstein & Maxwells op- didnt go at any length to hide it either. Thats me @ 17- sad.

In another tweet, Giuffre claimed she encountered Campbell on multiple occasions. You saw me at your parties, you saw me in Epsteins homes, you saw me on the plane, you saw me get my haircut, you saw me on the streets, you watched me be abused, Giuffre tweeted next to a series of pictures with Campbell and Prince Andrew. You saw me!

You saw me at your parties, you saw me in Epsteins homes, you saw me on the plane, you saw me get my haircut, you saw me on the streets, you watched me be abused. You saw me! #Awareness #Justice #GhislaineMaxwell #JeffreyEpstein #NaomiCampbell #PrinceAndrew pic.twitter.com/5TNWvG1eAA  Virginia Giuffre (@VRSVirginia) January 16, 2020

However, Campbell denies knowing about any of Epsteins alleged abuse. In an August 2019 video on her Youtube page, the model says Epstein was just one of the hundreds of thousands of people that shes taken a picture with.

What hes done is indefensible, Campbell says in the video. When I heard what he had done, it sickened me to my stomach, just like everybody else, because Ive had my fair share of sexual predators, and thank God I had good people around who protected me from this. Right now, I stand with the victims. Theyre scarred for life.
RICHMOND  Protesters in Richmond and Hampton Roads blocked highways and started fires Friday night as unrest that has gripped the country following the death of George Floyd during his arrest by police in Minnesota spread to Virginia.

In Richmond, at least one car, a Dumpster and a GRTC Pulse bus were set afire during Friday melees. Protests continued in pockets of the city long after the first demonstration had dispersed.

By 1 a.m. Saturday morning, officers in full riot gear were guarding Richmond police headquarters on W. Grace Street, which protesters had surrounded hours earlier.

Blocks away, officers used pepper spray to move demonstrators off the street near the intersection of Monroe and Broad, where a GRTC Pulse bus had been set on fire. You want to die, bro? one officer yelled at a demonstrator as the blaze grew larger. Back up. Some of the protesters began to chant Black lives matter as the bus  powered by natural gas  went up in a jet of flames.

Gunshots were fired in the air by protesters, police said, though there were no known injuries, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported.

Capitol Square remained closed Saturday.

A window was broken in the Barbara Johns Building, which houses the Office of the Attorney General, and the Virginia Capitol Visitors Entrance, Virginia Supreme Court Building and Washington Building were vandalized as crowds surrounded Capitol Square, Capitol Police said in a statement.

In Hampton Roads, demonstrators temporarily shut down the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel, The Virginian-Pilot reported.

All lives wont matter until black lives matter, one demonstrator told the paper.

Saturday morning in Richmond, several shops along Broad Street were cleaning up broken glass and crews were working to haul away the burned-out GRTC bus.

In a statement Friday, Gov. Ralph Northam said it had been such a sad and emotional week, with too many violent and blatant reminders of how far our country is from genuine equity and fair treatment.

George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and many others have been wrongfully killed, simply for being black. People all over our country are hurting and angry, and rightly so, Northam said. People are crying out for justice and healing. But those arent feelingstheyre actions, and we have a lot of work to do in this country and in our commonwealth.

Mercury reporter Ned Oliver contributed to this story.

The Virginia Mercury is a nonprofit, nonpartisan online news outlet based in Richmond covering state government and policy.
India on Sunday expelled two officials of the Pakistan high commission after they were apprehended by law enforcement authorities on charges of engaging in espionage, the external affairs ministry said.

Officials of the special cell of Delhi Police, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said three officials of the Pakistani mission were detained at Bikanervala Chowk in Karol Bagh at 10.45 am on Sunday while allegedly trying to obtain classified materials on the Indian security establishment.

The three men  identified as Abid Hussain Abid, 42, an assistant in the Pakistani mission, Mohammad Tahir Khan, 44, a clerk, and Javed Hussain, 36, a driver  had been under surveillance for the past few months, the officials said.

They were caught red-handed while obtaining documents on the Indian security establishment from an Indian national and handing over cash and an iPhone to him, said one of the officials cited above.

The three men initially claimed they were Indians and even produced fake Aadhar cards, the officials said. Later, during interrogation, they confessed they were officials at the Pakistan high commission and worked for the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), a second official said.

A case was registered against them under the Official Secrets Act, the officials said. The detentions were the result of an operation jointly mounted by Delhi Police and Military Intelligence, they added.

Subsequently, the government ordered the expulsion of Abid and Khan, who both work for the visa section at the Pakistani mission. Abid had been posted in the mission since December 2018, while Khan was posted here in October 2015.

A statement issued by the external affairs ministry, without naming the detained men, said: Two officials of the high commission of Pakistan in New Delhi were apprehended today [Sunday] by Indian law enforcement authorities for indulging in espionage activities.

The government declared both these officials persona non grata for indulging in activities incompatible with their status as members of a diplomatic mission and asked them to leave the country within twenty-four hours, the statement said.

Pakistans charge daffaires was issued a demarche or formal diplomatic representation, in which a strong protest was lodged about the activities of these officials of the high commission of Pakistan against Indias national security.

The charge daffaires was asked to ensure that no member of its diplomatic mission should indulge in activities inimical to India or behave in a manner incompatible with their diplomatic status, the statement said.

There was no response from the spokesman of the Pakistani mission despite attempts to reach him on phone.

The development comes at a time when ties between India and Pakistan are at an all-time low. In October 2016, India had expelled an official of the Pakistani mission after he too was nabbed by Indian security agencies while receiving classified documents.

The Pakistan Foreign Offices statement, while condemning the Indian governments decision to declare the two officials persona non grata, claimed the Indian action was accompanied by a negative pre-planned and orchestrated media campaign. It said the officials were detained by Indian authorities on false and unsubstantiated charges and released on the intervention of the high commission.

The statement also condemned what it said was the threatening and pressuring of the diplomatic officials to accept false charges. It said the Indian action was a violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and the norms of diplomatic conduct especially in an already vitiated atmosphere.

Pakistan also sought to portray the incident as an attempt to divert attention from internal and external issues within India and the situation in Jammu and Kashmir.

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The Nepal government on Sunday tabled a Constitution amendment bill in parliament aimed at altering the countrys map amid a border dispute with India.

Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Shivamaya Tumbahangphe, on behalf of the government of Nepal, tabled the bill, a day after the main Opposition Nepali Congress also backed the legislation. It will be the second amendment to the Constitution.

Nepal recently released the revised political and administrative map of the country laying claim over the strategically key areas of Lipulekh, Kalapani and Limpiyadhura.

India reacted angrily to the move saying such artificial enlargement of territorial claims will not be acceptable and asked the neighbouring country to refrain from such unjustified cartographic assertion.

The bill seeks to amend the political map of Nepal included in Schedule 3 of the Constitution. The new map will be used in all official documents including the coat of arms after the amendment bill is endorsed through parliament.

Parliament will now deliberate on the proposal before endorsing the bill. After its endorsement by both the Houses of parliament, the President will order issuance of the bill. The central committee of the main Opposition party Nepali Congress on Saturday decided to back the bill.

Last week, the proposed bill was removed from the business schedule of parliament at the last minute at the request of Minister K P Sharma Oli. The discussion on the Constitution amendment bill was delayed as the Nepali Congress asked for more time to discuss the matter in its high-level body. Similarly, the Samajbadi Janata Party Nepal and the Rastriya Janata Party Nepal demanded that their long-standing calls for Constitution amendment also be incorporated. It requires a two-thirds majority to endorse the Constitution amendment bill.

During an all-party meeting on Tuesday, Prime Minister Oli urged the top leaders of all political parties represented in parliament to unanimously endorse it.

Ties between India and Nepal came under strain after Defence Minister Rajnath Singh inaugurated an 80-km-long strategically crucial road connecting the Lipulekh pass with Dharchula in Uttarakhand on May 8.

Nepal reacted sharply to the inauguration of the road claiming that it passed through Nepalese territory. India rejected the claim asserting that the road lies completely within its territory.

Nepalese Foreign Minister Pradeep Kumar Gyawali earlier this month summoned Indian Ambassador Vinay Mohan Kwatra and handed over a diplomatic note to protest against India inaugurating the key road.

However, Gyawali last week said that he was confident that the Kalapani issue between the two neighbours will be resolved through talks.

India on Thursday indicated its readiness to engage with Nepal to resolve the festering border row based on mutual sensitivity and respect.

India is monitoring the current situation in Nepal, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said referring to Kathmandu deferring a plan to bring in a constitutional amendment to validate a new map that depicted Lipulekh, Kalapani and Limpiyadhura as its territory India is open to engaging with all its neighbours on the basis of mutual sensitivity and mutual respect, in an environment of trust and confidence. This is a continuous process and requires constructive and positive efforts, Srivastava said.

The Lipulekh pass is a far western point near Kalapani, a disputed border area between Nepal and India. Both India and Nepal claim Kalapani as an integral part of their territory -- India as part of Uttarakhands Pithoragarh district and Nepal as part of Dharchula district.

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RTHK: India expels Pakistan embassy staff in spy row

Two officials at the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi were being expelled for "indulging in espionage activities", India's foreign ministry said late on Sunday, with tensions already heightened between the nuclear-armed rivals.

The South Asian neighbours have a long-running dispute over Kashmir, which was split between them in 1947 when they gained independence from Britain.

"The government has declared both these officials persona non grata for indulging in activities incompatible with their status as members of a diplomatic mission," the ministry said in a statement.

The pair had to leave the country "within 24 hours" and Pakistan's Charge de Affaires was issued with a "strong protest" over the alleged activities of the pair, the ministry said.

The expulsions came weeks after an Indian national was set to stand trial in Germany, accused of spying on Sikh and Kashmiri communities for New Delhi's secret service.

India and Pakistan have fought three wars against each other since independence, including two over Kashmir.

Kashmir has become a bigger source of tension in the relations between the regional powers after New Delhi last year scrapped the restive Muslim-majority Himalayan region's semi-autonomous status and imposed a curfew to quell unrest.

Rebel groups in Indian-administered Kashmir have battled for decades for the region's independence or its merger with Pakistan and enjoy broad popular support.

The fighting has left tens of thousands dead, mostly civilians, since 1989. India has more than 500,000 troops stationed in Kashmir. (AFP)

This story has been published on: 2020-05-31. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
As the standoff between India and China continues for the 26th day, a major flare-up erupted between the two countries on Twitter as videos of soldiers from both sides assaulting each other at the border started doing the rounds.

It started with an undated video showing Indian soldiers at Pangong Tso in Ladakh wreaking havoc on a Chinese light armoured vehicle going viral. The Indian patrol, a mix of Army and ITBP jawans, is seen hurling stones and using rods to try and break the bullet proof glass window panes.

All this as a bleeding Chinese soldier was lying on the ground and was being comforted by an Indian soldier.

Although the Indian Army quickly rejected the video purportedly showing clashes between Chinese and Indian troops in eastern Ladakh, it did not stop Chinese twitter handles close to the PLA from tweeting images and clips of badly beaten up and bleeding Indian soldiers.

Some of them were lying on the ground while others seemed unconscious. Their hands and legs were bound with ropes. The blue boat visible in the pictures suggested the location was Pangong Tso. Soon enough, Pakistani twitter handles also began tweeting in support of the Chinese troops.

The Indian Army spokesperson Colonel Aman Anand said the contents of the video were not authenticated. Attempts to link it to the situation in Ladakh are mala fide. No violence is happening," he said.

The Army has also requested the media not to air the visuals that are "likely to vitiate the current situation on the borders".

Troops of India and China were engaged in a major standoff for over three weeks in Pangong Tso, Galwan Valley, Demchok and Daulat Beg Oldie in eastern Ladakh, in what is turning out to be the biggest confrontation between the two countries after the Doklam episode in 2017.

Defence minister Rajnath Singh, in an interview to a TV news channel, said the situation in eastern Ladakh is not the usual patrol skirmish that happens because of a difference of perception of the LAC between the two countries. He said the situation is different this time".

Reports from Eastern Ladakh and Satellite imagery indicate that Chinese troops have intruded into what India believes is its territory in Galwan and Pangong Tso.

The troop build-up from both sides is massive and includes tanks and heavy artillery guns. Both China and India have said that military and diplomatic-level talks are on to resolve the standoff.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 31)  Disaster officials from Northern Samar have asked the government to improve the program meant to return people to their homes, as well as the postponement of the Balik Probinsya program.

On May 29, an open letter signed by 20 out of the 24 officers of the province's municipal disaster risk reduction and management office (MDRRMO) said they were appealing to President Rodrigo Duterte and the IATF for the "immediate improvement of the coordination mechanisms in the management of returning OFW (ROFW) and LSIs (locally stranded individuals), as well as the postponement of the Balik Probinsya, Bagong Pag-asa Program (BP2)."

They said recent events have undermined their "previous and ongoing efforts to keep our respective municipalities Covid-19 free."

They said there was poor coordination from the national to the inter-regional and inter-provincial level in the implementation of the program.

Disaster officers said should these issues continue to be unresolved, they are afraid that it would result in the spread of COVID-19 in virus-free areas and waste the efforts done over the previous months.

They added they already raised this concern to their respective municipal mayors and to the provincial government through the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office.

But we have still decided to write this letter so that you may hear our collective voice, and with the belief that this may also echo the sentiments of our counterparts in other provinces, the letter added.

The officers also gave recommendations for the better implementation of the program; among these are providing RT-PCR tests to those coming from the national capital region and other areas with confirmed cases, and indicating a negative test result in medical clearances.

In the appeal to postpone the BP2, the MDRRMO officers in Northern Samar said this should be implemented when the vaccine becomes available at least at the provincial level.

Though we affirm the noble intentions of the program, we firmly believe that the proper timing for its implementation is when we have the COVID-19 crisis clearly under control  and definitely that is not now, they said.

Stringer Wilmark Amazona contributed to this report.
Los Angeles, May 31 : Over 530 people were arrested after protests against police brutality turned violent in downtown Los Angeles, authorities said.

A total of 533 arrests were made related to the protests on Friday night and early Saturday. The charges include burglary, looting, probation violation, battery on police officer, attempt murder and failure to disperse. All but 18 of the arrestees have been released on their own recognizance, according to the Los Angeles Police Department, Xinhua news agency reported on Saturday.

The department said it would continue to assess the full extent of property damage from last night's protest activities.

Several police vehicles were vandalized, and numerous downtown businesses were damaged and looted, the department noted.

Hundreds of protesters took to the streets of downtown Los Angeles Friday night during a third day of demonstrations against police brutality.

Protesters marched in the streets, shouting slogans such as "I can't breathe" to express their anger over the killing of the unarmed Minnesota black man by police. A group of protesters briefly blocked a major north-south freeway in downtown Los Angeles.

Authorities had to make so many arrests because those on the street refused repeated orders to leave, including an unlawful assembly order for all of downtown issued Friday night, according to the Los Angeles Times, adding it marked one of the largest mass arrests by the Los Angeles Police Department in recent years.

Local TV channel footage showed protesters clashing with police and some store windows were smashed.

The Target store at Seventh and Figueroa streets, a Rite Aid store at Seventh and Hope streets, the Sixth Street Market, the Starbucks on Sixth Street between Broadway and Main Street, and jewelry stores near Sixth Street and Broadway were among the businesses looted before midnight, according to the local news outlet City News Service.

Police set up skirmish lines throughout the downtown area and, in at least one instance, fired non-lethal ammunition as they pushed a crowd out of the area, City News Service reported.

Six police officers were injured in confrontations with protesters. Los Angeles Police Department said that those injured officers sustained non-life-threatening injuries ranging from lacerations to impact wounds.

"I believe in our city. L.A. is strong enough to stand for justice and walk in love," tweeted Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti on Friday.

"We respect every Angeleno's right to protest, but violence and vandalism hurts all," he noted.

Los Angeles police Chief Michel Moore tweeted Saturday morning that "last night was a dark reminder of the perils of a society in turmoil." "As of this morning all restrictions in the downtown area have been lifted. While more protests are slated for various locations throughout the city today, we remain hopeful those demonstrations will be peaceful," tweeted the Los Angeles Police Department Saturday morning, adding that the department would be deploying additional resources to maintain order and ensure the safety and security of people.

Demonstrations and riots have spread to cities across the United States after a video went viral of George Floyd being suffocated to death by a white police officer in the mid-western US state of Minnesota on Monday.
GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- What began as a peaceful Grand Rapids protest over national issues of police brutality ended in fires, looting, smashed windows and extensive damage in downtown Grand Rapids.

Several parked police cruisers were set on fire at one point, causing large booms as gas erupted.

The initial protest, like many others across the nation, recognized the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis after a police officer pressed his knee against Floyds neck. Demonstrators began a march about 6 p.m. Saturday, May 30.

But by 8 p.m., hundreds of people had gathered on two sides of the Grand Rapids police station on Monroe Center NW and began shouting chants such as no justice, no peace," and hands up, dont shoot. Several protesters stood toe-to-toe with police, now donned in riot gear, and shouted at officers.

At some point, some people began smashing windows. It seemed to embolden others to join in.

A crowd gathered around the Michigan Secretary of State building at Division Avenue and Fulton Street and several people began to smash windows. Someone then tried to set a banner on fire draped over a smashed window.

Soon after, the crowd moved to Ionia Avenue and smashed windows out of 82 Ionia Avenue, the location of the Kent County Prosecutors office. A large Dumpster was then set on fire nearby.

Related: Protesters smash windows and set fires in Grand Rapids, police use tear gas and flash-bangs

Grand Rapids firefighters arrived to put out the container fire. But as a firefighter jumped out of a truck, someone threw a large firecracker or other explosive toward him and knocked him to the ground.

He clutched at his ears.

The firefighter got up slowly and was helped back into the fire truck. Firefighters then left the scene and allowed the Dumpster to burn.

It wasnt clear if the firefighter was significantly injured.

As the damage to buildings began to grow and the crowd refused to disperse as commanded, police began to fire tear gas, flash-bang devices and smoke canisters.

Grand Rapids police began to move slowly through the streets to try to stop the damage, but the crowd moved to other areas.

Many downtown Grand Rapids buildings were damaged, including the downtown courthouse and the Grand Rapids Art Museum. Along Monroe Center, nearly every business between Monroe Avenue and Ionia Avenue had broken windows. Several had furniture and displays tipped over inside.

Many windows of businesses along Ottawa Avenue, from Fulton to Lyon streets, also were broken.

Some in the crowd ripped street signs from their bases and used them to smash windows. Several buildings were looted, including Kilwins at Monroe Center Avenue NW and Monroe Avenue. People could be seen leaving the shop with handfuls of chocolate and candy.

Shortly after 11 p.m., a parked Wyoming police cruiser was set ablaze on Pearl Street NW near Ottawa Avenue. The fire caught an adjacent cruiser on fire and rioters soon moved in to set fire and smash at least two other parked cruisers.

Even at 3 a.m., groups of people were roaming downtown streets and police continued to receive reports of damage.

Grand Rapids police at 3:30 a.m. issued a statement about the rioting.

Our department is saddened by the events that have transpired downtown over the past 9 hours. What started as a peaceful rally was distorted into senseless acts of vandalism and violence. We know these pointless crimes do not represent who we are as a city. We will work around the clock to hold everyone who was involved in criminal activity accountable for their actions. Everyone in our community deserves to live in safety and peace, police said.

Our personnel will work to serve the community in the coming days while city leadership addresses strategies and plans for maintaining calm and security, police said.

Police administrators said they expected city leaders to give an update on the riot and damage on Sunday.

Observers who came downtown to see what was happening said they were disheartened and saddened by the vandalism and rioting.

Jeremy Abdalla said hes has no problems with peaceful protests, but cannot understand causing damage.

Were going to pay for it in the long run. Taxpayer dollars are going to pay for it. Its for the birds, he said.

Abdalla said he didnt know why people turned to rioting, but suspects immaturity played a role.

Probably half the people out here are under 21, he said.

Megan Wilkes, who was standing next to Abdalla, said the behavior was uncharacteristic for Grand Rapids and its people.

Were not saying the cops are perfect. By far, theyre not. But this is not Grand Rapids in any way, shape or form," she said.

More from MLIve

No justice, no peace:' Thousands gather in Grand Rapids to protest police brutality

Detroit George Floyd police brutality protest turns violent as police fire tear gas, rubber bullets

Grand Rapids police say excessive force not used in arrest of armed man who resisted officers
Aldi shoppers ignored social distancing rules as they scrambled to get their hands on a high-end inspired cookware collection over the weekend.

The round cast iron pot has been closely compared to the luxury top-selling French brand Le Creuset, but the Aldi alternative costs just $24.99 compared to $399.

The products went on sale on Saturday and eager Aldi customers made sure to take advantage, flouting social distancing rules to crowd around the Special Buys aisle.

An image was posted to Reddit with the caption: 'Three months of isolation undone by cheap Dutch Ovens in Aldi...to be fair, it is a great deal!!'

An image was posted to Reddit with the caption: 'Three months of isolation undone by cheap Dutch Ovens in Aldi...to be fair, it is a great deal!!'

The round cast iron pot has been closely compared to the luxury top-selling French brand Le Creuset, but the Aldi alternative costs just $24.99 compared to $399

Other than the cast iron Dutch oven, the supermarket is also offering a cast iron saucepan for just $19.99.

A cast iron fry pan is available for $17.99, which is also very similar to the Le Creuset signature cast iron fry pan but retails for $379.

For $2.99 the retailer is offering mini casserole and baking dishes in a two-set pack that's ideal for preparing an assortment of desserts such as quiches, pies and tarts.

The post quickly gained thousands of views, with most users questioning why Aldi staff did little to control the customers.

One user commented saying the store has occupancy limits but cannot control if the total amount of customers stand in one aisle.

'This is just people being dumb,' the person said.

'Imagine caring more about a f**king bargain pot than a pandemic. The idiocracy is here and now,' another user commented.

The products have been hot-ticket items for years at Aldi, comparing to the $399 Le Creuset version

Another said: 'Give them a pandemic, they'll take a dutch oven'.

Most users shamed Aldi for not controlling the social distancing inside the supermarket.

'Shame on Aldi for running a promo they know will bring crowds during a pandemic. I think the big sales need to be banned until idiots prove they can social distance consistently,' one user wrote.

'The store should be fined. They would have known this exact scenario would have played out given the last 20 years of cheapskates running a muck every weekly special,' another said.

'You can't leave people stuck at home for months watching Bon Appetite test kitchen and expect them not to go crazy when ya get a $17 cast iron skillet!!!,' another commented.
University News

In emails to the University community, University of New Haven President Steven Kaplan and David Schroeder, acting dean of the Henry C. Lee College, expressed sadness and anger over the death of George Floyd and called for justice.

Dear Members of the University Community,

I would like to join the scores of individuals across the country in calling for justice and expressing my sadness and anger over the death of George Floyd. It is heartbreaking and infuriating that these incidents continue to occur.

As an institution committed to the education of students whose career goals are in the field of public safety, we have a responsibility to condemn these horrific actions in the strongest terms possible. Senseless acts of racism, lives lost, and brutality inflicted weigh heavily on all of us, leaving many searching for a way forward. Now, more than ever, it is critical for us to come together as a nation to reject all forms of bigotry that threaten the very fabric of our society and what makes our country great.

Tonight, as we were ready to send my message about George Floyd, I was made aware by several students of some very disturbing audio files that allegedly feature statements made by a member of our University community. Please know that this is a matter I take very seriously. I have asked Rebecca Johnson, vice president for student affairs and dean of students, to conduct an immediate investigation.

As a University community, we have zero tolerance for any issues of hate, racism, and bigotry. Views of that nature are abhorrent and contemptible, and they do not in any way represent the ideals of our University community.

Our community values diversity and inclusion and the richness that the many identities on our campus brings to each of us. Our campus is a place of respectful debate, thoughtful inquiry, and engaged citizenship, and we are equally committed to the protection of individual dignity and the free exchange of ideas. These commitments are at the core of who we are, and are representative of the foundational values we hold dear.

Please know that one of my paramount priorities as president is to foster an inclusive and diverse environment in which all members our community feel welcomed and respected. As members of an intellectual community, we have a responsibility to uphold these standards in all of our words and our actions at all times.

With best wishes,





Steven H Kaplan, Ph.D.

President

Dear Members of the UNH Community:

The Henry C. Lee College of Criminal Justice and Forensic Sciences believes in the concept of service-above-self, and it is in this light that we collectively join the nation in our sadness and anger at the events that led to the death of George Floyd. We denounce these actions and join the nation in mourning a life lost.

This incident was the result of a systemic failure to address policy issues surrounding negligence in hiring, retention, training, and supervision. George Floyds death stands in indictment of American policing, and the politics which oversee it, in their failure to address the very real issues that have caused in the past, and continue to cause, needless deaths. We take a position that large scale policy changes are needed in American policing to prevent incidents like the killing of George Floyd from occurring. Any citizen, of any color, should expect more from the people who are employed to be the stewards of their communities.

By acknowledging the vicarious trauma that many communities feel, particularly communities of color, it is imperative that we teach, train, and live our lives with a level of empathy that will help eliminate situations such as these. We celebrate diversity and inclusion and use them as pillars of strength to empower our students, faculty, and staff. Moreover, we are committed to working directly with law enforcement, other first responders and community members to build bridges of empathy and create more effective training. It is because incidents like this happen far too often (and even once is too often), that we in the Lee College are committed to teach with a devotion to social justice, a commitment to public service, and an obligation to public safety.

Be well and stay safe,

David A. Schroeder, Ph.D.

Acting Dean, Henry C. Lee College of Criminal Justice and Forensic Sciences
The Police Command in Jigawa has arrested 11 suspects for allegedly raping a 12-year-old girl (name withheld).

The spokesman of the command Abdu Jinjiri, confirmed the arrest to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), on Sunday in Dutse.

Mr Jinjiri said the suspects (names withheld) were arrested on May 30, in Dutse Local Government Area of the state.

He explained that the suspects were apprehended after the police received a complaint that one of the suspects, aged 57 of Maai village was seen at Limawa market in Dutse LGA, trying to lure the victim.

READ ALSO:

A case of rape is being investigated at the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in Dutse, sequel to a report received by the Police that a 57-year-old man of Maai village, Dutse LGA was seen at Limawa market trying to lure a 12-year-old girl of the same address, to a seclusion so as to have sexual intercourse with her, he said.

Mr Jinjiri added that in the course of interrogation, the victim listed names of 11 men who had sexual intercourse with her at different times on many occasions.

And to this end, the police arrested the listed suspects, Mr Jinjiri said, adding that the suspects would be charged to court as soon as investigations were completed.

(NAN)
A day after the central government announced phased unlocking of the country from June 1, the Maharashtra government announced fresh guidelines for all government employees working in the country. As per the new guidelines, all employees and visitors will be screened through a thermal scanner before entering office. The state government will keep a check on the strict implementation of screening. "All employees have to wear 3 ply mask or surgical mask while working in the office," says the order.

Employees have also been advised not to touch their face to avoid infection. "Lifts, tables, chairs, etc, will be sanitised thrice a day with sodium hypochlorite. All other office equipment like printer, scanner, computer, etc, will be sanitised with an alcohol-based sanitiser.

The guidelines suggest windows in the office to be kept open throughout the day ventilation. The companies will ensure seating arrangements of employees is done in such a manner that they maintain 3 feet distance from each other while working.

Also read: Coronavirus lockdown: Tamil Nadu announces extension till June 30; here's what's allowed and what's not

As per the Centre's guidelines, the unlocking will also be done in three parts. The guidelines issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Saturday comprised guidelines for phase 1 of resumption of economic activities across states. These guidelines will come into effect from June 1, 2020, and will be effective till June 30, 2020. The current phase of reopening will have an economic focus.

All activities prohibited earlier will be opened up in areas outside the containment zones in a phased manner, with the stipulation of following Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) as prescribed by the health ministry.

Also read: Lockdown 5.0: Fifth phase of coronavirus lockdown from June 1, all you need to know about unlock 1.0

In phase-I, religious places and places of worship for the public; hotels, restaurants and other hospitality services; and shopping malls will be permitted to open from June 8. The Centre will issue SOPs for these activities for ensuring social distancing and to contain the spread of COVID-19.

Also read: Coronavirus India: Record single-day spike of 8,380 COVID-19 cases takes country's tally past 1.82 lakh
Toro, a San Francisco, CA-based data quality monitoring solution provider, raised $4m in seed funding.

The round was co-led by Costanoa Ventures and Point72 Ventures with participation from other backers, including former Head of Data at Uber, Jai Ranganathan, and head of machine learning platform for Ubers self-driving arm, Yu Guo.

The company plans to use the funds to accelerate product development and bring the product to a larger audience.

Co-founded by Kyle Kirwan and Egor Gryaznov, Toro is a data quality monitoring solution showing teams anomalous shifts in complex data. Built by former members of Ubers data platform team, the company provides:

 An easy UI ready for product managers, analysts or engineers

 Automatic recommendations, and flexibility to define custom logic

 The ability to look for anomalies within specific slices of data

 Explainable alerts to improve the speed of debugging

 Engineering friendly APIs, and Performance optimizations for cloud-based data warehouses.

FinSMEs

31/05/2020
CAPE CANAVERAL, FLA.SpaceX delivered two astronauts to the International Space Station for NASA on Sunday, following up a historic liftoff with an equally smooth docking in yet another first for Elon Musks company.

With test pilots Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken poised to take over manual control if necessary, the SpaceX Dragon capsule pulled up to the station and docked automatically, no assistance needed.

It was the first time a privately built and owned spacecraft carried astronauts to the orbiting lab in its nearly 20 years. NASA considers this the opening volley in a business revolution encircling Earth and eventually stretching to the moon and Mars.

The docking occurred just 19 hours after a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasted off Saturday afternoon from Kennedy Space Center, the nations first astronaut launch to orbit from home soil in nearly a decade.

Thousands jammed surrounding beaches, bridges and towns to watch as SpaceX became the worlds first private company to send astronauts into orbit, and ended a nine-year launch drought for NASA.

A few hours before docking, the Dragon riders reported that the capsule was performing beautifully. Just in case, they slipped back into their pressurized launch suits and helmets for the rendezvous.

The three space station residents kept cameras trained on the incoming capsule for the benefit of flight controllers at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif., and NASAs Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Gleaming white in the sunlight, the Dragon was easily visible from a few miles out, its nose cone open and exposing its docking hook as well as a blinking light. The capsule loomed ever larger on live NASA TV as it closed the gap.

Hurley and Behnken took over the controls and did a little piloting less than a couple hundred metres out as part of the test flight, before putting it back into automatic for the final approach. Hurley said the capsule handled really well, very crisp.

SpaceX and NASA officials had held off on any celebrations until after Sunday mornings docking  and possibly not until the two astronauts are back on Earth sometime this summer.

NASA has yet to decide how long Hurley and Behnken will spend at the space station, somewhere between one and four months. While theyre there, the Dragon test pilots will join the one U.S. and two Russian station residents in performing experiments and possibly spacewalks to install fresh station batteries.

In a show-and-tell earlier Sunday, the astronauts gave a quick tour of the Dragons sparkling clean insides, quite spacious for a capsule. They said the liftoff was pretty bumpy and dynamic, nothing the simulators could have mimicked.

The blue sequined dinosaur accompanying them  their young sons toy, named Tremor  was also in good shape, Behnken assured viewers. Tremor was going to join Earthy, a plush globe delivered to the space station on last years test flight of a crew-less crew Dragon. Behnken said both toys would return to Earth with them at missions end.

An old-style capsule splashdown is planned.

After liftoff, Musk told reporters that the capsules return will be more dangerous in some ways than its launch. Even so, getting the two astronauts safely to orbit and then the space station had everyone breathing huge sighs of relief.

As always, Musk was looking ahead.

This is hopefully the first step on a journey toward a civilization on Mars, he said Saturday evening.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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Samsung Electronics employees, who will take part in the C-Lab Inside program this year, gather at the company building in Seoul, May 18. Samsung will provide monetary and consulting support through the program to help launch their companies. / Courtesy of Samsung Electronics



By Kim Hyun-bin



Samsung Electronics said it will support five startups through the "C-Lab Inside" program that assists Samsung employees who wish to create their own startups.



C-Lab Inside was established in December 2012 to encourage in-house ventures, in addition to expanding the creative company culture and discovering innovative ideas. Through the program, the company supports and funds the development of ideas in all aspects of the business.



The five startups chosen this year are Blockbuster, Hyler, Haxby, SunnyFive and Root Sensor.

Blockbuster is the developer of a video editing application that allows users to easily apply computer graphics (CG) and 3D effects to videos.



Hyler is a company developing a program that allows analog text to be digitized and transferred to mobile devices.

Haxby is the provider of an artificial intelligence (AI) study service that records incorrect answers from workbooks and recommends problems based on the learner's ability.



SunnyFive is the developer of a window-shaped lighting device that produces artificial sunlight. RootSensor is produces an innovative sensor that records daily ultra-violet (UV) exposure.



The C-Lab Spin-off program was introduced in August 2015 and provides the selected startups with investment and business counseling to kick off their businesses.



Samsung also has a five-year grace period for employees to return to their original jobs at the company, providing an opportunity for them to launch their businesses without fear of losing their jobs.



Since the C-Lab Inside program was launched, 163 employees have established 45 startups that raised 55 billion won ($45 million) in investments and more than tripled their company value.



A company named "Breathings" was part of the C-Lab Inside program and developed internet-of-things (IoT) solution "BULO," an at-home lung analysis device. Since April 21, the firm has received $72,000 in funding through the global cloud-funding platform Kickstarter.



Kitten Planet, which launched Brush Monster that uses augmented reality (AR) guides to show children how to brush their teeth effectively, is seeking to develop an education program for adult dental care.



Mangoslab recently unveiled "Nemonic Mini," a portable printer that prints memos onto sticky notes without the need for toner. In February, the product was given as a special gift to the tech giant's customers who pre-ordered its latest flagship smartphone the Galaxy S20 series.



In 2018, Samsung Electronics announced plans to fund 500 startups through the program, consisting of 200 C-Lab Inside and 300 C-Lab Outside startups through 2023.



"To continuously foster startups and to create a win-win cooperation platform between Samsung and the firms, we will continue to provide support to help them with their endeavors," a Samsung Electronics official said.




A three-month planned sabbatical, which was meant to be used for a multi-continent trip for two Mumbai women, turned into an experience of a lifetime after they ended up spending almost two months stranded in a country under lockdown. Andheri residents Mitalee Chandwani, 33, and Aditi Khosla, 33, spent 53 days on an island of the Philippines and another few days in the capital of Manila before they could finally board a flight back to Mumbai.

Our original plan was to chill on the beaches of the Philippines for three weeks, then hop on a flight to Italy where we were supposed to volunteer on a farm for two weeks and end the trip in Germany. However, Manila went into lockdown a day after we reached the city and with air travel restricted, we chose to move to an island to ensure social distancing, said Chandwani. She and Khosla both work in the experiential marketing industry.

While Chandwani was already in Indonesia since February 26, Khosla flew from Mumbai to Manila on March 12. That evening we heard that Manila was going into a one-month lockdown within a day. Since we knew there were air travel restrictions and too many tourists were stranded in Manila, we decided to extend our visas and move to the island of Palawan, knowing that there would be fewer people there, said Khosla.

On reaching Puerto Princesa after a 24-hour journey by ship, Chandwani started showing Covid-19 symptoms. We immediately found a hospital in the port city and managed to get a basic test done after a few hours of waiting. Only once the test results came back negative did we head to Palawan, said Chandwani.

The first few days on the island went well, but things changed as the Covid-19 situation around the world became graver by the day. One by one everyone started leaving the island as their respective countries sent sweeper flights to rescue them. We stayed in touch with the Indian embassy and the local tourism board daily, seeking clarity on our return status, said Khosla.

While they got their first chance to come back to mainland Manila on March 23, the women turned it down knowing that entry to India was restricted due to the lockdown. Instead, the duo chose to continue living on the island even as all the other tourists left.

We spent 53 days in Palawan because we didnt want to be restricted to a hotel room in Manila for weeks together. At least on the island, we had access to the beach, said Chandwani.

As the only Indian tourists left on the island by the end of March, the women quickly started adapting. We would spend the morning making calls to the embassy and local authorities, and then finish whatever reading and writing we could as there was no internet on the island. We even used the resorts kitchen and taught the staff how to make naans, said Chandwani.

While on the island, the women also met with an accident while riding a bike. There was no medical facility on the island and we had to take a boat to another island to get a tetanus shot, which was also not available. By this time we were getting more anxious to return home, said Khosla.

Finally, on May 2, a ship was arranged to take the last Indian tourists off the island. Once we were in Manila, we received emails from the Indian embassy and on May 10, six days after reaching Manila, we boarded a flight for Mumbai operated as part of the Vande Bharat mission, said Chandwani.

Once in Mumbai, both the women were quarantined at a hotel for 14 days before being allowed to return home. I had left home on February 26 and got back only on May 25. The three-month sabbatical did not go as planned but we couldnt be happier to be back home with our families, she said.

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Washington: US President Donald Trump on Saturday postponed the "outdated" Group of Seven summit that he planned to hold in June at the White House, seeking inclusion of India and some other countries to the grouping of world's top economies.

Trump told reporters, travelling with him on board the Air Force One from Florida to Washington DC, that he is "postponing it until September" and plans to invite Russia, South Korea, Australia and India.

"I don't feel that as a G7 it properly represents what's going on in the world. It's a very outdated group of countries," he said.

Alyssa Alexandra Farah, White House Director of Strategic Communications, said that this is bringing together "our traditional allies" to talk about how to deal with the future of China.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's office had said on Saturday that she would not attend the summit unless the course of the coronavirus spread had changed by then.

G7 is a forum of the seven countries with the world's largest and most advanced economies  France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada. Heads of States of these countries meet annually on international economic and monetary issues.

The US holds the presidency of the G7 this year. During the summit, G7 president normally invites heads of States of one or two countries to attend the meeting as a special invitee. Last year French President Emanuel Macron had invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the G7 Summit.

Trump talking about inviting India to the next G7 Summit is reflective of the growing international stature of the country.
Republicans sincerely believe that 2018 was a high-water mark for Democrats, that it is just not possible that Democrats can improve on their 2018 performance, and I dont know that thats true, said Nathan L. Gonzales, editor and publisher of Inside Elections, who recently declared the California result an outlier and predicted that the November election would leave the House close to the status quo with no more than five seats changing hands between parties.
In this article UBER

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates  Ride-hailing company Careem has endured a challenging few months as the coronavirus pandemic ravaged demand and froze human movement, keeping the vast majority of its market indoors. At the worst points of the national lockdowns, the company's business was down by more than 80%, CEO Mudassir Sheikha told CNBC on Sunday. But while Careem may emerge from the crisis leaner, Sheikha said, it's still forging ahead with plans to expand its services, and is seeing some of those plans accelerate as demands of the "new normal" create new opportunities. "This crisis is, if anything, accelerating the growth of digital platforms," Sheikha told CNBC's Hadley Gamble via phone. "A lot of people who would go out in the offline world and do things are now forced to do things digitally. My mom, for example, had never used an app but has been forced to use an app to get basic things delivered to her," he said. "So, fundamentally we believe that we're in a very strong place to come out as a digital platform to come out stronger." The Dubai-based company, bought by Uber for $3.1 billion in 2019, is popular across the Middle East, South Asia and parts of Africa. Like countless companies in the transportation space, it has made substantial layoffs due to the pandemic  it announced in early May a workforce reduction of 31%. Sheikha recognized that, as well as the time it may take for business to rebound. "Unfortunately, the core business of people transport has been impacted significantly, and it is our view that while this business is starting to recover it will probably take until sometime next year for a full recovery to happen, and that business will remain a little bit smaller than what we had built."

The Super App

Other parts of the business, however, like delivery and payments  part of Careem's "Super App" mission  are experiencing "rapid growth," Sheikha says. The firm has been branching out in terms of offerings with the aim of offering multiple services beyond ride-hailing on a single screen. If you open the Careem app today, ordering a car is just one of multiple options  the others include bike rentals, food ordering, item delivery and ordering goods from local shops and pharmacies. There's also Careem pay, which enables users to pay for all Careem services from their account within the app and transfer credit to friends and family members. In those areas, "we're doubling down," Sheikha says  particularly now, when so many people are wary of venturing out into public venues and often feel more comfortable using a delivery service to get their products. "So even before we let go of some of the people that we had to let go, a lot of people in this region moved to work on deliveries, to work on the Super App, to work on (Careem) Pay."

He described one of the most recent additions, Careem Shops. "The idea is that regardless of what you want from the online world, you can point to a store and look at that store's catalog and get things delivered to you, at your door in a matter of minutes," he said. "That's the focus, and that's where resources, and more and more people, are being moved towards."

'A ton of opportunity'
Hemant Kumar Rout By

Express News Service

BHUBANESWAR: Prevention is always better than cure. Now that lockdown restrictions are set to be relaxed except in containment zones, preventive actions make more sense against coronavirus.

Interestingly, states like Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Gujarat, Goa, Kerala, Rajasthan and Delhi have already turned to Ayurveda and suggested separate sets of drugs for both preventive measures and treatment of positive cases following the advice of Ministry of AYUSH.

Though Odisha Government on Saturday decided to implement AYUSH system of medicines recommended by the Ministry and directed Collectors and all District Ayurvedic and Homeopathic Medical Officers to take necessary action, no specific protocol has been prescribed leaving practitioners confused.

Health experts say the State Government must constitute a high-level committee with members drawn from the field of ayurveda and decide on a package of drugs to be prescribed to treat patients and distributed across the State as Ayur Kit to boost the immune system.

They claim rasayana therapy will have direct relevance to the prophylaxis and management of SARS-COV-2 infection. The botanicals used in the therapy have been found to be effective in immuno-modulation and restoration of hemostasis.

In Ayurveda, several rasayans are used in clinical practice for strengthening immunity. The Government should immediately decide on a protocol besides widely publicising what is available locally. The sooner, the better, said Prof NC Dash, former Principal of Gopabandhu Ayurveda Mahavidyalaya.

Ayurveda has a combination of drugs with antiviral, antibacterial anti-microbial properties and can act as health immune response. Head of the Panchakarma department of Farrukhabad-based Anar Singh Ayurveda Medical College Prof Santanu Das points at encouraging outcomes in states where Covid patients are on ayurvedic drugs.

Maha Sudarshan churna or Sudarshan ghana bati is a wonder drug that has properties to render the virus inactive inside the body by reducing virus load. Use of the drugs can help asymptomatic patients recover without any complications, he said adding, combination drugs can be distributed as Ayur Kit through Anganwadi and ASHA workers.

While Delhi Government has allowed a set of nine ayurvedic drugs on Covid-19 asymptomatic patients, Haryana Government has suggested Guduchi Ghan Vati, Samshamani Vati, Agastya Haritaki, Sitopaladi Churan and Anu Tel as preventive for service providers including police personnel, sanitation workers and those working in old age homes and care centres.

Madhya Pradesh has already launched Jeevan Amrit Yojana to boost immune system of people to fight COVID-19. It has set a target to distribute 50 gram packets carrying Trikatu churna and Anu taila to 1 crore families.

Dean of Gujarat Ayurveda University Prof Rabinarayan Acharya said evidence-based single rasayana drugs and compound formulations such as Chavyanparsah and Agastayharitaki can also be distributed as a preventive measure.

People in Odisha should be made aware through campaigns or door-to-door visits by health workers, he said.

Apart from masks, age-old traditional remedies like warm water, hot food, gargling with medicated water, steam inhalation and local applications will be helpful for symptomatic relief in mild cases, he added.
The King Georges Medical University (KGMU), Lucknow has informed that out of total 1626 samples tested for Covid-19 on Friday results of 62 were positive.

According to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the total number of cases in Uttar Pradesh is 7,445, including 2,834 active cases.

While 4,410 patients have been cured/discharged/migrated, 201 deaths have been reported in the state so far.

Indias Covid-19 cases witnessed its highest spike as 8,380 more cases were reported in the last 24 hours, as per the latest data of the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The death toll due to the infection has crossed the 5,000 mark.

The total number of cases in the country now stands at 1,82,143 including 89,995 active cases, 86,984 cured/discharged/migrated and 5,164 deaths, it added.

(The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text, only the headline has been changed.)
The Twelfth is coming to the front gardens of homes in Northern Ireland's largest housing estate.

The annual parades, which have been cancelled because of coronavirus, are being replaced with loyalist bands playing on the streets of Rathcoole.

Organisers of the event billed the Stay At Home Parade are asking residents of the Newtownabbey estate to "decorate the streets and your homes because the bands are coming to you".

The event is being viewed as a novel way to enjoy the Twelfth, which takes place on July 13 this year because July 12 is a Sunday.

Meanwhile, bonfire builders in east Belfast are continuing to defy a loyalist pledge to cancel all Eleventh Night bonfires because of Covid-19.

Youngsters in the Orangefield district are still collecting wooden pallets despite appeals to stop.

Loyalist sources told Sunday Life that the bonfire is the work of local teenagers, and is not linked to any paramilitary organisation.

They also expressed a belief that the wood is likely to be removed by government agencies before it can be set on fire.

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In April the Shankill UVF torched dozens of pallets that had been stockpiled on Lanark Way by youngsters in preparation for an Eleventh Night bonfire. The teens were told that there is to be no event this summer.

Explaining why July 12 parades have been cancelled, Orange Order Grand Master Edward Stevenson said the decision was in line with government advice on restricting gatherings.

First Minister Arlene Foster welcomed the move, saying: "The priority for us all must be public health and protecting lives.

"By taking such steps now and if everyone adheres to the advice then we can reduce the pressures on our NHS, save lives and ultimately ensure we emerge as strongly as possible from this pandemic."

cbarnes@sundaylife.co.uk
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-31 02:02:14|Editor: huaxia

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ADEN, Yemen, May 30 (Xinhua) -- Yemen's health ministry on Saturday confirmed 27 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total tally of infections to 310 in the country's provinces controlled by the government.

According to a brief statement released by the country's supreme national emergency committee, "during the past 24 hours, the health teams officially registered 27 new COVID-19 cases in a number of provinces controlled by the government."

Meanwhile, the death toll from the deadly respiratory disease climbed to 77 after 12 new deaths were recorded in the areas controlled by the Yemeni government.

The pro-government health authorities said also that the number of recoveries has increased to 13 since the outbreak of coronavirus on April 10.

The Yemeni government has taken several measures to contain the outbreak of COVID-19, including imposing a partial overnight curfew in Aden and other major cities under its control.

The government called on donors and relevant international humanitarian organizations to provide support to help contain the pandemic.

Yemen has been mired in a civil war since late 2014, when the Iran-backed Houthi group seized control of much of the country's north and forced the internationally-recognized government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi out of Sanaa. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-31 02:22:46|Editor: huaxia

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A car burns outside a Wells Fargo Bank during a protest in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the United States, May 29, 2020. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz on Saturday activated "full mobilization" of the Minnesota National Guard after four straight nights of violent protests in the midwest state's biggest city Minneapolis over the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, in police custody. (Photo by Ben Hovland/Xinhua)

WASHINGTON, May 30 (Xinhua) -- Minnesota Governor Tim Walz on Saturday activated "full mobilization" of the Minnesota National Guard after four straight nights of violent protests in the midwest state's biggest city Minneapolis over the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, in police custody.

The move represents the largest domestic deployment in the Minnesota National Guard's 164-year history, local media reported.

More than 1,000 additional Citizen-Soldiers and Airmen will be activated on Saturday, according to a tweet from the state's National Guard.

This is in addition to the 700 that were on duty as of late last night, the tweet said.

Thousands of protesters took to the streets of Minneapolis Friday night, defying a citywide 8 p.m. curfew that had been announced earlier that day. Businesses were burned and vandalized, as the rioting continued, said local media reports.

"So, let's be very clear. The situation in Minneapolis is no longer, in any way, about the murder of George Floyd," the governor said at a press conference on Saturday morning. "It is about attacking civil society, instilling fear and disrupting our great cities."

Floyd, aged 46, died on Monday after Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, held him down with a knee on his neck though he repeatedly pleaded, "I can't breathe," and "please, I can't breathe." Chauvin was arrested and charged with three-degree murder and manslaughter on Friday.

Floyd's plea before his death evoked African Americans' painful memories and sparked a nationwide cry for justice. In 2014, a cellphone recorded an unarmed black man, Eric Garner, repeatedly saying "I can't breathe" when a New York officer held him in a chokehold before his death in police custody. Since then, the plea has become a rallying cry at demonstrations against police misconduct across the country.
New Delhi: Rainfall lashed parts of Delhi-NCR in the early hours on Sunday (May 31, 2020) and the temperature came down to 26 degrees celsius. As per India Metrological Department (IMD), rainfall accompanied with thunderstorm will be seen in parts of Northeast Delhi, North East Delhi, South East Delhi, Noida, Greater Noida and Ghaziabad in the next two hours.

The wind speed in the national capital on Sunday was at 30-35 kmph.

Delhi: Rain lashes several parts of the city. Visuals from Connaught Place area. As per the IMD, thunderstorm with wind speed of 30-35 kmph with rain would occur over Northeast, North, East, Southeast Delhi, Noida, Greater Noida, and Ghaziabad in the next two hours. pic.twitter.com/KmUL6m4luJ  ANI (@ANI) May 30, 2020

The rainfall caused waterlogging on roads in some areas disrupting the movement of vehicles. Waterlogging was mainly seen near New Delhi Railway Station and Connaught Place area.

Delhi: Rain causes waterlogging at a underpass near New Delhi Railway Station. India Meteorological Department has predicted rain accompanied by thunderstorm & wind in Northeast, North, East, Southeast Delhi, Noida, Greater Noida & Ghaziabad in next 2 two hours. pic.twitter.com/pr1ZvLCAK6  ANI (@ANI) May 31, 2020

Bringing much-needed respite to people from heatwave, heavy rains lashed the national capital and neighbouring areas on Friday (May 29) evening. and the IMD had said that the such weather condition will sustain over the Delhi-NCR region till June 1.

According to the IMD, the Southwest Monsoon advanced into some parts of the southwest and the southeast Arabian Sea and some more parts of the Maldives-Comorin area. "Conditions are becoming favourable for further advance of Southwest Monsoon into some more parts of south Arabian Sea, Maldives-Comorin area, southwest and the southeast Bay of Bengal during next 48 hours," it said.

For the coming week, IMD forecast has also predicted that from night of June 3, a fresh Western Disturbance (WD) will effect North west India and South westerly winds ( through Rajasthan) in association with formation of low pressure system in Arabian sea and its movement towards Gujarat coast will bring moisture to Delhi NCR and North west India in lower levels.
Next to her was another sign: Respect my existence or expect my resistance.

I just dont think thats how change happens, Ms. Moore said of voting. Theyve been telling us to do that for so long  and weve done it  and look at everything thats still going on.

Her words  expressing a sentiment shared by her peers  serve notice to politicians, civil rights groups and Mr. Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee who has urged unity amid the frustration. If you want change in America, go and register to vote, said Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms of Atlanta, but interviews with activists and leading Democratic figures including Stacey Abrams of Georgia, the longtime civil rights leader and former presidential candidate Jesse Jackson, and Representative Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, flipped that typical framework: If Democrats want people to vote, party leaders need to listen to why people are angry.

Ms. Abrams described the events of the past week as what happens when people are desperate for their pain to be validated.

You cannot motivate someone to a behavior that they dont believe will actually bring change, she said. We have to start by saying what you feel and what you fear is real.

As he seeks to win the White House for the Democrats, the party that is the political home of most black Americans, Mr. Biden has attempted to strike this balance. He made clear that he has spoken to Mr. Floyds family. We are a nation enraged, but we cannot allow our rage to consume us, he said in a statement released early Sunday morning. We are a nation exhausted, but we will not allow our exhaustion to defeat us.

The very soul of America is at stake, he said, tying the tension between the police and black communities to removing President Trump from the White House.

The moment may still test Mr. Bidens priorities, as a weary black electorate desires far greater change than the promise of a return to normalcy that has fueled his campaign. Energizing those voters, activists and elected leaders say, means addressing their demands for change and the realities of racism. But the former vice president, one of the Senate architects of the modern criminal justice system, cannot confront racism without addressing systemic inequalities, and he cannot address systemic inequalities by simply returning to a pre-Trump America.
A day after Mizoram chief minister Zoramthanga wrote to Tripura government to cancel the proposal for resettlement of the Bru families in the Zampui Hills and surrounding areas in North district of Tripura, the Tripura government said they are dealing with resettlement of the Bru migrants in accordance with the Centres instruction.

The Bru settlement was a long pending issue and finally it came to an end under the leadership of Modi ji. They will be resettled in the state very soon, said Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb.

Anybody can write a letter but the state government will decide the place of their settlement, he added.

Zoramthanga wrote the letter to Tripura CM weeks after a North Tripura-based NGO, Mizo Convention, protested against Bru resettlement in Jampui Hills and its adjacent areas. Zoramthanga in the letter said Jampui Hills was the traditional habitat of the Mizos.

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Earlier in January this year, the Centre announced a 600 crore rehabilitation package for the Bru migrants who have been staying at six camps in North district of Tripura for more than two decades.

Over 37,000 Bru people took refuge at six camps, three each at Kanchanpur and Panisagar sub divisions, nearly 200 kilometres from Agartala since 1997 after escaping an ethnic clash in Mizoram.

Zoramthangas letter reminded Tripura CM that there has been ethnic tension between both the communities in the two northeastern states which had forced the Mizos to flee from four villages of Sakhan Hills.

His letter added that any kind of strain between the Mizos and Brus in Tripura might have  repercussions in Mizoram.

I would posit that re-consideration and cancellation of the proposed resettlement of displaced Brus amidst Mizo traditional settlers of Zampui hill area and arrangement of other appropriate locations is inevitable if the historic Agreement signed on 16.1.2020 is to be successfully implemented in letter and spirit, Zoramthanga wrote.

Mizoram Bru Displaced Peoples Forum (MBDPF) general secretary Bruno Maha said, The Mizoram government failed to solve our problems for the past 23 years. Now Mizoram should not interfere when our crisis is about to be resolved.

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Sundar Pichai on Sunday expressed his solidarity with the African-America community in the United States in wake of the widespread protests that have been going on in the country over the death of George Floyd.

Alphabet Inc CEO Sundar Pichai on Sunday expressed his solidarity with the African-America community in the United States in wake of the widespread protests that have been going on in the country over the death of George Floyd.

Pichai in a tweet said that Google and YouTube stood in solidarity with the Black community in the country. Today on US Google & YouTube homepages we share our support for racial equality in solidarity with the Black community and in memory of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery & others who dont have a voice. For those feeling grief, anger, sadness & fear, you are not alone, the Google CEO wrote in a tweet.

Today on US Google & YouTube homepages we share our support for racial equality in solidarity with the Black community and in memory of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery & others who dont have a voice. For those feeling grief, anger, sadness & fear, you are not alone. pic.twitter.com/JbPCG3wfQW  Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) May 31, 2020

Google showed its support for the African-American community by displaying a message to highlight the same on its homepage in the US. We stand in support of racial equality, and all those who search for it, Google wrote along with a black ribbon on its homepage.

As per a report by 9To5 Google, this message also appeared at the bottom of Chromes New Tab page on the desktop site.

YouTube, on its part, darkened its profile picture on Twitter and announced that it was donating $1 million to address social injustice. We stand in solidarity against racism and violence. When members of our community hurt, we all hurt. Were pledging $1M in support of efforts to address social injustice, YouTube wrote in a Tweet.

We stand in solidarity against racism and violence. When members of our community hurt, we all hurt. Were pledging $1M in support of efforts to address social injustice.  YouTube (@YouTube) May 30, 2020

In addition to this, Google has also postponed its Android 11 beta launch event. While the company didnt explicitly state a reason, it did say that, We are excited to tell you more about Android 11, but now is not the time to celebrate, thereby indicating that the decision had been made keeping in view the present circumstances in the country.
GENEVA, May 18 (Reuters) - South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Monday that Africa affirms its "full support" for the World Health Organization (WHO) which he said had been key in guiding the international response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Ramaphosa, speaking to the WHO's annual assembly being held online, said that assistance to Africa needs to include debt relief and help with diagnostics, drugs and medical supplies. (Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; editing by Emma Farge)
Tens of thousands of mosques across Saudi Arabia reopened Sunday for the first time in more than two months, with worshippers ordered to follow strict guidelines to prevent the spread of the coronavirus as Islams holiest site in Mecca remained closed to the public.

The Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, Islams holiest site outside of Saudi Arabia, also reopened for prayers for the first time since it was closed in mid-March.

With little regards for social distancing, throngs waited outside the holy sites gates before it opened early Sunday, with many wearing surgical masks. As they were allowed to enter, the faithful stopped to have their temperature measured.

The mosque was one of Jerusalems many holy sites, including the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and the Western Wall, that were restricted to worshipers at the height of Israels coronavirus outbreak. Throughout that period, worshipers continued to pray in the alleyways outside the mosque.

Jews also resumed their pilgrimages Sunday to the hilltop compound they revere as the Temple Mount, site of the two Jewish biblical temples.

In Saudi Arabia, the government prepared for the reopening of around 90,000 mosques after sanitizing prayer rugs, washrooms and shelves holding copies of the Quran, the Muslim holy book.

The Ministry of Islamic Affairs said millions of text messages were sent to people in multiple languages to inform them about the new rules for public prayer, which include keeping a two-meter (six-foot) distance between people during prayer, wearing face masks at all times and abstaining from greeting one another with handshakes or hugs.

Children under 15 years-old were not being allowed inside mosques. The elderly and those with chronic conditions were being told to pray at home. People are also being advised to perform the mandatory ablution at home since washrooms at mosques will be closed, to use hand sanitizers and to bring their own prayer rugs and copies of the Quran.

The restrictions call for mosques to open just 15 minutes before each of the five daily prayers and to close 10 minutes after they conclude. Friday sermons and prayers are to last no longer than 15 minutes.

On Sunday, Saudi Arabia also lifted a ban on domestic air travel and permitted some public sector workers to resume office work again, though full attendance will not be allowed until mid-June.

The new measures come as Saudi Arabia and other countries around the world begin to loosen restrictions and stay-at-home orders following weeks of curfews and lock downs.

However, the Grand Mosque in Mecca, which houses the cube-shaped Kaaba that Muslims around the world pray toward, will remain closed to the public. The city has been under a strict lock down for several weeks. The mosque in Medina where the Prophet Muhammad is buried will be partially opened to the public to pray outside.

The continued closure of Mecca points to the increasing likelihood that the kingdom may suspend this years annual Muslim hajj pilgrimage, which falls in late July. Already, a senior Saudi official has told prospective pilgrims not to plan for the hajj this year amid the global pandemic.

Despite taking early and unprecedented measures to curb the spread of the virus, Saudi Arabia has recorded more than 83,000 people contracting the virus, including 480 deaths.

Israel has weathered the coronavirus better than other harder-hit countries. It has recorded fewer than 300 deaths and has managed to mostly keep its daily infection count to the low dozens since the beginning of May. But it also imposed severe restrictions that battered its economy and sent its unemployment rate skyrocketing. Many of those restrictions, including on places of worship, began to be eased earlier this month.

The Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism, but for the most part Jews are forbidden to pray there and instead do so at the adjacent Western Wall. In recent years Jewish activists have been agitating for greater Jewish access to the site, including what they say is the right to pray there. That has angered Palestinians who see the attempt as part of Israeli encroachment on land they seek for their future state. The fate of the shrine is an emotional issue at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

In Pakistan meanwhile, the countrys daily death toll from COVID-19 kept climbing, hitting a new high of 88 overnight.

Amid reports of an acute bed shortage and near daily warnings from health professionals to tighten lock down measures, the government has kept mosques open, urging safe distancing but not enforcing it.

In the latest easing of restrictions, the government has withdrawn the limits on congregations in mosques and churches.

Pakistans coronavirus death toll of 1,483 is third only to Iran and Turkey in the Middle East. The country has counted 69,496 positive cases of COVID-19.
Amid tensions along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Sunday has stated that India does not want a war while also warning China against any attempt to intrude into Indian territory. In a major statement, the former Indian Army Captain said that India would not tolerate any bullying from Chinese side, adding that it is not 1962. The Punjab Chief Minister who had served in the Indian Army and participated in the 1965 Indo-Pakistan War stated that China cannot stop India from building any infrastructure on its side of the border.

"While we do not want war, we will not tolerate any bullying by Beijing. This is not 1962," he said, according to an official statement. "They (the Chinese) do not listen to us when we object to them making roads inside our area in Aksai Chin, but when we make one road inside our area they react with aggression," he added.

Issuing a warning to Pakistan, Singh also said that Pakistan which is trying to foment trouble in Punjab and other parts of India by pushing terrorists, weapons from across the border through the use of drones and other means will pay a price for it. "A robust three-tier security structure, comprising BSF, Punjab Police and Indian Army, was monitoring and securing the border with Pakistan 24x7. The Punjab Police had, in recent months, busted 32 terror modules and seized more than 200 weapons," he added.

READ | Mumbai & major cities in Maharashtra unlikely to ease lockdown restrictions: Sources

Indo-China border row

There have been mounting tensions at the Indo-China border after a few standoffs between the Indian and Chinese army in the past month. However, as per sources, high-level Indian and Chinese military commanders met at designated points along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) on May 22 and 23 to defuse the present tension. Moreover, diplomatic channels in New Delhi and Beijing are also working towards a peaceful resolution.

READ | Rajnath Singh rules out 'mediation' over Indo-China row, says 'diplomatic talks are on'

Raksha Mantri's statement on Trump's mediation offer

Speaking about the current border standoff along the LAC, he said, "Our government, in any case, will not let the self-respect of the nation come down. The face-off has happened in the past as well. We have a system in place to solve the problem. Diplomatic talks are going on."

The Defence Minister outrightly ruled out the possibility of any sort of mediation, a day after US President Trump had claimed that he spoke with PM Modi. Earlier, government sources had also clarified that the PM had only spoken to the US president on April 4 about HCQ. As neighboring Nepal has also raised border issues with India recently, Defence Minister Singh said that the country has always shown 'brotherhood' towards Nepal and is ready for the talks with the country's PM KP Oli.

READ | Talks at military, diplomatic levels on to resolve Ladakh standoff: Rajnath

Face-off between China and India

In the face-off on May 5, scores of Indian and Chinese army personnel clashed along the northern bank of the Pangong Lake and even resorted to stone-pelting. A number of soldiers on both sides sustained injuries. It was the first case of troops from the two sides exchanging blows after a similar incident around the Pangong Lake in August 2017. Moreover, Chinese soldiers allegedly entered the Indian-controlled territory of Ladakh at three different points, erecting tents and guard posts.

READ | Maharashtra: CM Thackeray asks varsities to find ways to prioritise education, hold exams

In a separate incident, nearly 150 Indian and Chinese military personnel were engaged in a face-off near Naku La Pass in the Sikkim sector of the Sino-India border on Saturday. At least 10 soldiers from both sides sustained injuries in the incident. Moreover, Chinese military helicopters were seen flying close to the Line of Actual Control on at least a couple of occasions following the clashes after which a fleet of Su-30 fighters of the Indian Air Force too carried out sorties in the area, the sources said. Earlier, the troops of India and China were engaged in a 73-day stand-off in Doklam tri-junction in 2017 which even triggered fears of a war between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.

The India-China border dispute covers the 3,488-km-long Line of Actual Control, the de-facto border between the two countries. China claims Arunachal Pradesh as part of southern Tibet while India contests it. Both sides have been asserting that pending the final resolution of the boundary issue, it is necessary to maintain peace and tranquillity in border areas.
A promising molecular pair has offered hope that could lead to the development of a new treatment to slow down Parkinson's disease, a study by Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) and Harvard University has found.

Parkinson's disease is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder after Alzheimer's disease, affecting 7 to 10 million people worldwide. Patients with the illness have reduced levels of dopamine in the brain, causing them to have difficulty controlling motor movements, with symptoms such as tremor and rigidity of muscles in hands, arms, and legs. They can also develop some non-motor symptoms, like sleep disturbance, depression, and loss of smell.

Through laboratory investigations and in vivo experiments, the team led by Professor Yoon Ho Sup from the NTU School of Biological Sciences and Professor Kwang-Soo Kim from McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School in the United States found that the 'molecular pair', Prostaglandin E1 (PGE1) -- a type of hormone -- and Prostaglandin A1 (PGA1), can be the key to boosting dopamine levels and slowing Parkinson's disease.

PGE1 and PGA1 do so by binding to Nurr1, a class of proteins crucial to the development and maintenance of dopamine in the brain.

Their binding causes Nurr1 to be activated, resulting in a marked increase in dopamine production while preventing dopamine-producing brain cells from dying. After activating Nurr1, the mice with Parkinson's disease showed significant improvements in their motor functions.

Although much research still needs to be done, these findings could provide a new avenue for the creation of Nurr1-activating drugs to combat Parkinson's disease -- an illness with no cure currently. While there are already treatment methods like dopamine-raising medication or deep brain stimulation using electric currents, these treatments have side-effects and can only address the patient's symptoms, not slow down, or halt the disease.

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Prof Yoon said, "Considering the essential function of Nurr1, we have been searching for its activating molecules in the body. Finally, we have successfully identified that PGE1/PGA1 is the molecular pair that acts specifically on Nurr1 and can lead to neuroprotective effects on the brain."

"Given that all candidate Parkinson's drugs have failed to show neuroprotective abilities in clinical trials, our findings may offer an opportunity to design mechanism-based disease-modifying therapeutics to treat Parkinson's disease with little side effect."

The findings were published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Chemical Biology in May 2020, and were made by researchers from Singapore, the United States, and South Korea.

Prostaglandins (PGE1/PGA1) -- the key to combating Parkinson's disease

One of a number of hormone-like substances in the body, Prostaglandins are responsible for a wide range of body functions such as the contraction and relaxation of smooth muscle, the dilation and constriction of blood vessels, control of blood pressure, and modulation of inflammation.

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Their regulatory roles in activating the dopamine function of Nurr1 have not been studied until now.

To identify and characterise how PGE1/PGA1 activates Nurr1, the team of researchers used nuclear magnetic resonance and X-ray crystallography to decipher the structures of the molecules involved, successfully unveiling details of how PGA1 binding leads to the activation of Nurr1 for the first time.

These findings from experiments on cells were then supported by in vivo experiments with experimentally induced Parkinson's disease, which showed significant improvements in their motor functions when PGE1 and PGA1 were administered.

Prof Kim said, "By uncovering the molecular interactions, we gain insights into the biological function and regulation of Nurr1 in health and disease such as Parkinson's disease. Our findings in this study are adding to what we know about how dopamine neurons function and point towards the development of novel therapeutics of Parkinson's disease."

Highlighting the significance of the findings, co-author Professor Lim Kah Leong, Vice Dean (Research) of NTU Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine said, "PGA1 is not a new kid on the block, but a molecule known to exhibit anti-inflammation and anti-tumour properties. Prostaglandins like PGE1 are available for clinical use, for example in obstetrics cases. This means that the compound can potentially be re-positioned to treat Parkinson's patients, which can accelerate the time needed to take an experimental drug to the clinic."

The scientists are now looking to design a synthetic form of PGE1/PGA1 and to validate it as a potential new drug that can target Nurr1, thereby halting or reversing the onset of Parkinson's disease.
WASHINGTON (AP)  Police fired pepper spray at demonstrators near the White House and the D.C. National Guard was called in as pockets of violence and vandalism erupted during a second straight night of protests over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis and President Donald Trump's response to it.

Hundreds of people converged on the White House and marched along the National Mall, chanting Black Lives Matter, I can't breathe and No justice, no peace.

Protesters threw water bottles, traffic cones, scooters, even tear gas cans at police lines. They set fire to a car and a trash bin and smashed windows, including at Bay Atlantic University. What are you doing? That's a school, one man yelled.

An American flag hanging at the Export-Import Bank was taken down, burned and replaced with a Black Lives Matter banner.

The D.C. demonstration was one of several around the country responding to the death of Floyd, a black man who died in police custody.

Trump appeared to cheer on the tougher tactics being used by law enforcement to disperse protesters Saturday night. He commended National Guard troops deployed in Minneapolis, declaring No games! and he also said police in New York City must be allowed to do their job!

Let New Yorks Finest be New Yorks Finest, Trump said on Twitter after returning to the White House from Florida, where he watched the launch of a SpaceX rocket. He did not talk to reporters upon his return and it was not clear if he could hear the protest over the sound of his helicopter. But for at least part of the flight, televisions on Air Force One were turned to Fox News and its coverage of the protests.

Earlier in the day, he had belittled the protesters and pledged to stop mob violence.

I stand before you as a friend and ally to every American seeking justice and peace, and I stand before you in firm opposition to anyone exploiting this tragedy to loot, rob, attack and menace, the president said after watching the launch of a SpaceX rocket. Healing, not hatred, justice, not chaos, are the missions at hand.

Police were in tactical gear. The D.C. National Guard was activated at the direction of the secretary of the Army and at the request of the Park Police to help maintain order near the White House, Commanding Gen. William J. Walker said in a post on the Guard's Facebook page.

We're sick of it. The cops are out of control, protester Olga Hall said. They're wild. There's just been too many dead boys, she said.

Some vocal protesters directed their comments at a black police officer. Do you support this violence? they asked him. How are you going to protect your kids? The officer got emotional to the point he had to be relieved.

An activist wearing a Black Lives Matter T-shirt put himself between police and the protesters and yelled, Stop. This is what they want.

Speaking over a megaphone earlier in the evening, Cameron McCall said, We dont need violence. All we need are our voices.

While some protesters stayed near the White House, others marched through the streets chanting, No justice and no peace. and Say his name: George Floyd. The mood was angry and several speakers implored marchers to remain peaceful.

The march paused between the the Washington Monument and the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Demonstrators sat down in the street for a moment of silence lasting for the eight minutes or more that the Minneapolis police officer reportedly knelt on Floyd's neck.

At the Lincoln Memorial, one organizer spoke over a megaphone. Look to the left and to the right and thank that person. We can't hug anybody because of COVID, but I love you anyway. Many of the protesters wore masks, but did not socially distance themselves.

Another group circled through the Capitol Hill neighborhood for at least an hour in cars, honking. A helicopter hovered overhead.

In a series of tweets earlier Saturday, Trump doubted protesters' allegiance to Floyds memory, saying they were professionally managed. He offered no evidence to back his assertion, and the president even seemed to invite supporters to make their presence felt: Tonight, I understand, is MAGA NIGHT AT THE WHITE HOUSE???

Trump later rejected the suggestion that he was stoking a potential conflict between protesters and his supporters. I was just asking. But I have no idea if they are going to be here," he said. MAGA is Make America Great Again. By the way, they love African American people. They love black people.

At Saturday's demonstration, there was no evidence of a counter-move by Trump supporters.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

Trump said he had watched every move from inside the executive mansion during Friday's protest and couldn't have felt more safe as the Secret Service let the protesters carry on, but whenever someone ... got too frisky or out of line, they would quickly come down on then, hard  didn't know what hit them.

The president also criticized the mayors of Washington and Minneapolis.

Trump said Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey is probably a very good person, but hes a radical, left mayor. He then described how he watched as a police station in the city was overrun. For that police station to be abandoned and taken over, Ive never seen anything so horrible and stupid in my life," Trump said when speaking briefly to reporters at the White House.

He said Minnesota officials have to get tougher with rioters, and that by doing so they would be honoring the memory of Floyd.

The Secret Service said in a statement Saturday that six protesters were arrested in Washington and multiple officers were injured. There were no details on the charges or nature of the injuries. A spokesman for U.S. Park Police said their officers made no arrests, but several suffered minor injuries and one was taken to a hospital after being struck in the helmet by a projectile.

Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf on Saturday called the protesters criminals who committed acts of violence while hiding behind their First Amendment right of lawful protest.

Late Saturday and early Sunday, protesters vented their rage by breaking into tony shops of Georgetown, on the western edge of the District, and in downtown Washington, breaking windows and glass doors of many stores and looting some of them.

In his tweeting, Trump claimed that many Secret Service agents were just waiting for action and ready to unleash the most vicious dogs, and the most ominous weapons, I have ever seen." His reference to vicious dogs potentially being sicced on protesters revisits images from the civil rights movement when marchers faced snarling police dogs and high-pressure fire hoses.

In a news conference Saturday afternoon, Muriel Bowser, mayor of the nations capital, called Trumps remarks gross and said the reference to attack dogs conjures up with the worst memories of the nations fight against segregation.

I call upon our city and our nation to exercise restraint, great restraint, even as the president tries to divide us, she said. I feel like these comments are an attack on humanity, an attack on black America, and they make my city less safe.

In contrast with the presidents tweets, the Secret Service said it respects the right to assemble and we ask that individuals do so peacefully for the safety of all.

___

AP video journalist Nathan Ellgren contributed to this report.
A tvN's "Comedy Big League" rehearsal is held at CJ E&M Center in Sangam-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul, Dec. 3, 2019. Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk



By Park Ji-won



The government's plan to ease the requirements of eligibility for unemployment support for artists has drawn positive feedback from many.



But some still harbor discontent because they are not entitled to the benefits even under the revised scheme.



On May 20, the National Assembly passed the revision bill that allows artists to receive unemployment compensation if they have paid unemployment insurance for at least nine of the last 24 months before the end of their most recent job.



The government also made another decision that is likely to help artists in their fight against job insecurity.

In a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, the government approved an enforcement decree calling for penalties on employers who force artists to work without a written contract.



The two measures were introduced to protect creatives who were hit hard by the lingering coronavirus pandemic. Movies that were initially scheduled to screen in local theaters have been cancelled. Performances and exhibition schedules were suspended or cancelled, leaving the artists and those who were involved in the business to suffer the financial consequences.

Thus, many artists and performers welcomed the approval of the two measures.

"I think the revised laws signals a positive change in the industry. Freelance artists like me feel nervous because we have no other income source once our contract is over. I heave a sigh of relief for the passage of the laws because I am now eligible for unemployment payment if conditions are met. I can see the incumbent government is trying to cultivate the industry compared to the previous one," Cha Hee-ra, a freelance illustrator, told The Korea Times.



"Now we can demand that our employers sign a written contract with us when they want to hire us. This means that they can no longer abuse us with longer working hours or abusive working conditions. We've been calling for such fair treatment for a long time and now our voices are heard," an alliance of art workers in cultural industry said in a statement, Wednesday.



Despite their positive response, not all artists and performers are happy about the revised laws. There are still people who cannot benefit from the unemployment benefits. Self-employed artists and performers who work under short-term contract scenarios say they cannot meet the condition of having to have paid unemployment insurance for nine months or longer out of the last 24 months.



"In my case, most of the time, I perform only for a few hours at festivals held in local provinces. So I sign a one-day contract. It is hard for me to meet the nine-month condition," a traditional art performer said, asking not to be named.



"Freelance designers like me just work with a company without signing a contract It is hard for us to prove our work unless we hold a fine art exhibition, which is also hard for beginners. And it is also hard to be recognized as an artist by law. For example, my father worked as a full-time fashion photographer for more than 20 years, but he was not recognized as an artist until he applied for this recognition. People who work in theatre, musical and broadcasting companies may benefit from the new law. But there seem to be loopholes," June Kim, a freelance designer, told The Korea Times.



Stressing the passage of the law is a half success it created some blind spots for some artists, the alliance urged the ruling bloc to pass the law on guaranteeing the artists' status, saying "the law on artists' status should be passed because it promotes the rights of artists, who are also laborers, by acknowledging creative activities as labor."



Park Han-sol and Lee Hyo-jin contributed to this story.




Allianz Real Estate has acquired $173 million worth of new buildings as part of its strategy of acquiring income-producing assets (Photo: Pixabay)

SINGAPORE (EDGEPROP) - Allianz Real Estate has acquired a portfolio of prime multi-family residential assets in Tokyo for $173 million. The portfolio comprises 11 new buildings with 275 units, offering a total net rentable area of 90,417 sq ft. Boasting of a well-diversified tenant base, the assets are within six minutes walk to a subway station.

The latest acquisition follows a previous one in November 2019, when Allianz acquired a $1.73 billion multi-family residential portfolio that comprises 82 buildings spread across Japan. Both acquisitions are in line with Allianzs strategy of acquiring core income-producing assets for the long term.

Rushabh Desai, CEO (Asia Pacific) of Allianz Real Estate, says that the recent acquisition is one of the highest stabilised yield spreads in the region. He adds that Japans big four cities, particularly Tokyo, continue to remain attractive with strong urbanisation trends coupled with limited net supply.

Our existing multi-family portfolio in Japan is performing strongly with over 96% occupancy and rental growth as per our business plan, says Desai.

As at the end of 2019, assets under Allianz Real Estates management amounted at $8.65 billion. The firm is the dedicated real estate investment manager within the Allianz group and is headquartered in Singapore. It recently set up an office in Tokyo and hired a senior asset management professional to be based there.

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BAY CITY, MI - The Bay City Commission has a full agenda to take care of during the upcoming Monday, June 1 regular meeting.

The commission will be considering whether or not to approve an Operations and Maintenance Agreement between the City of Bay City and United Bridge Partners, the private company that the Bay City Commission agreed to sell the Liberty and Independence Bridges to in December 2019.

The proposed Operations and Maintenance Agreement states that the City of Bay City is to submit invoices to UBP for the services performed by the City and that UBP will reimburse the City for labor, materials and supplies, and on-call subcontractors/subconsultants as defined in the agreement and plan.

Depending on the outcome of the Operations and Maintenance Agreement discussion, the Bay City Commission will evaluate whether or not to also grant another extension to UBP for the transition period.

The Bay City Commission had previously approved an amendment to the original acquisition and development agreement with United Bridge Partners concerning the citys two drawbridges on Monday, April 20.

The amendment extended the transition period, which is a designated time allowing United Bridge Partners to preform preliminary tasks before assuming ownership of the two bridges. Once the transition period is up on June 1 and if no other extension is approved, United Bridge Partners will immediately assume the responsibilities associated with operating and maintaining the existing Independence Bridge and Liberty Bridge.

The Bay City Commission will also consider awarding a construction contract for a playground project that is finally coming to fruition.

The wooden Imagination Station playground that was located in Veterans Memorial Park on the citys West Side was torn down in 2015 due to concerns about the structure deteriorating and leaching arsenic into the soil.

The City Commission previously approved a master plan for the new Imagination Station playground. The plan at the time was to develop the playground near the Boys and Girls Club in Bigelow Park on Middlegrounds Island.

According to the June 1 agenda, the Playground Steering Committee decided to downsize the project and moved the proposed playground back to Veterans Memorial Park site in a more centralized location.

The City Commission will consider whether or not to award a contract to Sinclair Recreation of Holland, Michigan for the amount of $446,940.00 for the construction of a new playground in Veterans Memorial Park.

According to the City of Bay City, the Bay Area Community Foundation is contributing $367,340 toward the project.

Two traffic control orders will be up for consideration as well, with one order for the Downtown Business District and the other for the Midland Street District. The purpose of these orders is to allow temporary closures of streets to both parking and through-traffic to promote safe community gathering and outdoor seating.

The orders propose that streets close to traffic between May 15 and Nov. 2 and that all intersections will remain open in the Downtown Business District with the north-south streets open in the Midland District to allow for motorized traffic.

The orders would affect Midland Street between Catherine and Henry Streets and Henry and Linn Streets in the Midland Street Business District. Henry Street itself is proposed to remain opened. As for the Downtown Business District, the proposed closures are for the following streets:

- Saginaw Street, from Fifth St. to Center Ave.

- Center Avenue, Saginaw Street to Washington Ave.

- Adams Street, Fifth St. to Center Ave.

- Third Street, N. Water St. to Saginaw Street

The Finance Policy and City Commission portion of the June 1 meeting will start at 6 p.m., with the regular meeting to follow at 6:30 p.m. online. Those wishing to participate during the meeting are asked to use the application Zoom" or to dial into a selected phone number.

The following instructions were provided by the City for how to use Zoom:

Go to join.zoom.us . Enter the Webinar ID number 689236856 (do not enter spaces) when prompted and click join.

You may continue joining by following the prompts to use your browser, or you may download the Zoom App.

To participate during Public Hearing or Public Input click on the Raise Hand Icon at the bottom of your screen.

For those who wish to use a phone instead, the meeting can also be joined by dialing (877) 853-5247 or (888) 788-0099 (Toll Free) and entering the Webinar ID number 689236856 when prompted using the keypad. To participate during public input sections of the meeting, phone users are asked to press *9.

Those wishing to simply listen to the meeting can accessed the live stream here at the meeting time during at the citys website.

Related news:

Great Lakes Bay Pride festival moves online with virtual pride celebration

Hundreds of students get scholarships through Bay Area Community Foundation

Barneys Bakery in Bay City announces it is shutting down indefinitely

Bay Metro receives $3.8 million grant from Federal Transit Administration

Bay County wants to hear from residents affected by flooding for damage survey
Photo credit: Jasmin Merdan - Getty Images

From Red Online

Michael and I met three years ago at a restaurant located right around the corner from my then-apartment in Birmingham, Michigan. I was designing and planning a wedding for the chef and owner's daughter, and he worked at the restaurant as a waiter.

I had been smitten with him for at least a yearthe restaurant has been my favourite spot in the city for over a decade, and I was a regular. I couldn't help but notice him, but I'd never jumped to say hello.

My carousing tomcat bachelor lifestyle and reputation proceeded me; I'd spent many nights at the bar and at dinners with various men I'd taken not-so-seriously, and I knew I would have a lot to prove to if he ever agreed to a date.



But then I reached a point in my life where I felt ready for love, and my casual dating patterns started to feel as meaningless as well, they were. I sent those words to the heavens and, as if they'd heard, a romance quickly unfolded.

In the final weeks of wedding planning, Michael and I spent more and more time around one another. There were glances and subtle flirtations, but nothing that hinted at whether he'd noticed me as I had him.

Once the wedding was over, we stayed in touch. Finally, I gathered the courage to ask him on a proper date. He accepted, and I was determined to impress. I planned a lavish picnic on a beautiful Friday afternoon; I am an event planner, after all.

I packed mini mimosas with a selection of juices, a cheese board with gluten-free crackers to accommodate the allergy I'd overheard him discussing in passing, and some pomegranate seeds, which I'd seen him snacking on now and then. I persuaded one of my favourite restaurants to open early just so I could pick up their famous shrimp and avocado salad. I even carried along a Polaroid camera to capture our first adventure together.

Photo credit: Alamy, Design by Ingrid Frahm - Alamy

We dated for eight blissful months before moving to Detroit together in the fall of 2017. We spent the first year there creating a beautiful home together and trying to settle into a new group of friends. As a boutique business owner, I worked from home, while Michael, a talented craftsman and artist, diligently worked on our home.

Story continues

We traveled the world together and shared many wonderful experiences, but as time wore on, we discovered many things about our respective lifestyles that didn't necessarily gel. His overall relaxed approach didnt bode well against mineIm a triple-A perfectionist who precisely plans every moment. I didnt appreciate his tremendous efforts to make our life run smoothly and he didnt appreciate the emotional labor and financial burden I carried to give us said life. We were in love, blindly charging through life together. When an issue would arise, we didn't take the time to properly address it and find a healthy solution. Instead, we'd hope and assume we would grow as we went along; we were naive.

At the very end of 2018, we made a new friend, John, who quickly became very close to both of us; his support and friendship helped alleviate much of the stress Michael and I were facing. A close friendship turned into friends with benefitssoon, we unconsciously throupled, with John as the guest star.

Then, my life took a turn. As gruelling as 2020 has been due to the COVID-19 pandemic, 2019 remains the hardest year of my life. My grandmother, who adopted me at the age of 3 and whom I took care of for the last decade of her life, started having serious health issues in January. She passed away soon after, on February 6, and from there forward the entire year was a blur. Three months later, my stepfather passed away.

During this time, the darkest period of my adult life, Michael and I drifted further apart. I was buried under a mountain of depression and family responsibility and I would occasionally lash out and push him away. He felt that since he couldnt pull me out of the darkness, he wasn't making me happy. But he was, in fact, the only happy thing I had to hold on to. There was some relief in knowing that when I couldnt be there for Michael, John could. Early that summer, John moved into an apartment in our building and Michael found an escape in leading his home improvement efforts, just one floor below ours.

Photo credit: Everett, Design by Ingrid Frahm - Everett

Michael and I seemed to be at the end of our rope; our lackluster methods of communication didn't prime us for polyamory. We didn't set clear-cut boundaries for our relationship, or our relationship with John. We only knew a line had been crossed once it had been trampled and was far in our rearview. Michael and John having their own relationship outside of ours was a line I never knew I needed to draw. I was always expected to be the alpha, the planner, the organiserbut the hazy headspace I was in made retroactively mapping complex relationship boundaries impossible for me to handle, and so I didn't.

That's when my unconsciously-throupled partners crossed the boundaries I never set and communicated. Michael revealed to me that he and John were in love. Betrayal can take place in any type of relationship, and they were having an affair. I made huge efforts to heal my relationship with Michael, which involved intensive therapy and lots of honesty and vulnerability. To skip ahead (and spare you the sordid details), Michael and I officially called it quits in November, and he promptly moved in with John downstairs.

I suppose Ive been in self-quarantine since then, months before any government mandate or shelter-in-place order was issued. I spent the holidays away from friends and family, holed up in my suddenly all too quiet apartment. I was gutted, stabbed in the heart by one and in the back by another. It was my first real heartbreak, and I had no desire to be around anyone. I transitioned from seeing my therapist in-person to participating in virtual sessions. I read a tall stack of relationship books and listened to an endless list of podcasts. In a time where people typically need social interactions with loved ones for strength and support, I chose to grieve alone.

Id given myself until spring to reflect, heal, and then reenter the world. But then the pandemic hit, and my isolation was suddenly prolonged by mandate. Yes, I have Zoom, FaceTime, HouseParty, and so on, but I immediately missed having my partner physically beside me tenfold. Being contained to the home that we built together, operating in a living memory of what once was, can be debilitating at times. I found myself wondering what John and Michael were doing one floor below; a simple walk down the hallway is riddled with the fear of bumping into them. If I did happen to see one of them, I'd experience a pang of anxiety that takes days to dissolve. Im left to my own devices in a home full of broken dreams and painful memories (cue the dramatic Celine Dion ballads)get me out of here!

Unfortunately, due to my work, financial commitments, and the pandemic, Im not in a place where I can pick up and move. Fortunately, being left alone with nowhere to run has forced me to take a long, hard look at myselfand it's done wonders.

Photo credit: Everett

This pandemic demanded a pause I never knew I needed. Ive continued Zoom therapy sessions and have focused on tackling the emotional work I desperately needed to do on and for myself. I unearthed what felt like mountains of hurt and trauma from my past; I recognised unhealthy habits that I allowed myself to adopt. Through all of this hard work in isolation, and with much help from Esther Perel (look her up, youre welcome), Ive finally found forgivenessfor Michael, for John, and most importantly, for myself. I'm not proud of who I was when my partner chose to cheat on me, but I no longer take responsibility for his choices.

Ive forgiven both a partner and a best friend, and Im working on forgiving myself for not being my best version. I've learned that the love and happiness we feel within ourselves cant be connected to another person. As mamma RuPaul says, If you cant love yourself, how the hell you gonna love somebody else?! Can I get an A-MEN up in here!

Ive also realised through one of the hardest times in our communal human experience that my trauma isnt unique, and my hurt isnt new. While I cant imagine myself dating for many months to come given the state of the world, the mandates on distancing, and my mission to be a better version of myself before I open up to another, I do feel like my heart and soul are ready for a man (yes, just one) to call home. Home is not where you live; I know this well, given that where I live feels like a shell I'm eager to shed.

I have uncovered deeper levels of myself through heartbreak and quarantine, and I will not stop the work that got me here. Im ready to be away from this apartment, as meaningful and beautiful as it is, and to stop grieving. I've stopped creating masochistic tales about what's taking place beneath my floorboards in the apartment my former best friends now share. Ive realised that home is the self-love I'm maintaining, and the relationships I cherish with my family and friends.

I've stopped yearning and am learning to stay present. All things in time. I know lovein its many formsis on the way.



*All names have been changed to protect privacy.

Subscribe to Red now to get the magazine delivered to your door. Red's June issue is out now and available for purchase online and via Readly or Apple News+.



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BRIDGEPORT  A teenager was in serious condition Saturday night following an afternoon shooting, according to officials.

Police Capt. Brian Fitzgerald said a 16-year-old boy was shot multiple times Saturday afternoon in the 100 block of Cottage Street. Initial dispatch reports indicate the shooting happened around
CLEVELAND, Ohio  Cleveland officials have provided no evidence to back statements made by Police Chief Calvin Williams that those who rioted in downtown Cleveland in the wake of volatile protests were from out of town.

Police arrested 65 people during Saturday nights protests over the police killing of George Floyd, according to Cuyahoga County Jail records. Most of the arrests happened after the Mayor Frank Jackson imposed an 8 p.m. curfew, at 7:46 p.m.

Cuyahoga County spokeswoman Mary Louise Madigan said those arrested were booked into the county jail on suspicion of aggravated rioting and violating the curfew.

Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams said during a 12:45 a.m. Sunday briefing on Facebook Live that police believe outsiders came into the city with the purpose of rioting.

We know that a lot of the things that happened today were not [done] by people who reside in Cleveland or live in the area, Williams said during the 8-minute briefing. Were going to do everything we can to bring people to justice who took part in the destruction in downtown today.

Cleveland police could provide no details Sunday afternoon, but spokeswoman Sgt. Jennifer Ciaccia said more information is expected to be released in the coming days.

The city has not answered questions about its plan ahead of the protest, whether enough officers were deployed and why violent protestors were not arrested earlier. The city put out a news release about 8 p.m., with information on the arrests and the city damage.

Cleveland Patrolmens Association President Jeff Follmer said the city failed to plan for the protests turning violent. He said more officers were needed and that the city only started calling in more officers Saturday morning.

Cleveland City Councilman Mike Polensek, who attended the early part of the protest, said it appeared city officials failed to plan for the protests turning into riots, as they have in cities across the country.

He also said he believed the most violent protesters were not from Cleveland. That sentiment was also echoed by Councilman Basheer Jones. But neither had any details on who those violent protests were.

Protesters late Saturday afternoon clashed with police outside the Justice Center, where police shot tear gas and fired flash-bangs into the crowd of several thousand.

Protesters smashed windows torched, police cruisers and guard shacks and tossed tear gas canisters and rocks at the officers. Hundreds left the Justice Center and vandalized dozens of stores. They broke windows and looted some stores.

Similar claims of outside agitators are becoming an recurring concern of law enforcement and elected officials at protests around the country.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Waltz has suggested that as many as 80 percent of the protesters accused of burning and looting in Minneapolis, where Floyd was killed, are not from that state and are coming into the city specifically to riot and incite more violence.

Reports the Washington Post: Leaders at the federal, state and local levels said large numbers of outsiders had seized upon protests begun by Minnesotans to advance their own political agendas. But the officials offered little evidence to show who was responsible and contradicted each other on who was to blame. They variously assigned responsibility for the escalating violence to far-right nationalists, left-wing radicals, drug cartels and possibly foreign agents in statements, news conferences and presidential tweets.

After police and the National Guard blocked routes into downtown Cleveland until 8 a.m. Monday and other possible areas of protest, such as Steelyard Commons, was blocked, a group vandalized a store in the Farifax neighborhood.

Its unknown how many people smashed the store front at Villa Shoe store on East 79th and Euclid Avenue. Shattered glass, mannequins, shoes and other merchandise were strewn across the parking lot.

Cleveland police cruisers sat outside the store in the aftermath and issued warnings to people who walked up to the store.

Jones said he agrees with protesters who peacefully demonstrated against Floyds killing on Saturday and that protests are warranted to combat structural racism.

But this is now becoming more than honoring George Floyd, Jones said. Its not honorable to George Floyd. Its not honorable to Tamir Rice. This is not the way we honor are dead.

Read more from cleveland.com:

Steelyard Commons, Legacy Village, Beachwood Place closed after downtown Cleveland protests turn violent

Cleveland business owners, residents clean up after protests: See the damage

Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson extends downtown curfew to Monday to clean up damage caused during George Floyd-inspired protests

Police, protesters clash in downtown Cleveland during George Floyd protests as businesses looted, curfew imposed
A version of this story ran for New York subscribers on Wednesday.

NEW YORK  In 1975, New York Citys budget was such a disaster it prompted the infamous tabloid headline Ford to City: Drop dead, with the White House closing the door on the citys last hope for a federal lifeline.

Now, Mayor Bill de Blasio says the city, with a budget bigger than those of most states, may soon be back in a similar spot, and hes looking back to the 70s for a maneuver to stave off catastrophe.

After years of free-flowing spending that's driven his liberal agenda through a record bull market, the Democratic mayor is scrambling as the locked-down, virus-ravaged city's shortfall surged $1.6 billion over the past month alone.

De Blasio said he wants the option to borrow his way out of the hole  barring a multibillion-dollar coronavirus relief package from the Trump administration  a power so unusual, it was blocked after the 1970s crisis. But the mayor needs state approval and so far Albany isnt playing ball.

Fiscal watchdogs are calling for more austerity first.

Scott Stringer, the Democratic city comptroller running to succeed de Blasio, estimated that borrowing to cover $7 billion in expenses now would cost the city nearly $11 billion over the next two decades. He seconded the push for federal funding, but sounded the alarm over City Halls extraordinary request.

While it's too soon to rule out any specific budget action, New Yorkers should know that under the mayors proposal our children could be paying over $500 million a year for the next 20 years, Stringer said. I urge extreme caution.

Others were even more dire.

The city has not come close to what it needs to do to control spending to get its fiscal house in order, Andrew Rein, head of the Citizens Budget Commission, said in an interview. Borrowing should be near or at the bottom of any list and we are not close to there yet.

The state Legislature didnt take up the borrowing bill last week  and it is unclear whether it will before the city's spending plan must be adopted by the July 1 start of the next fiscal year. In Washington, partisan divisions have made any federal aid uncertain.

Story continues

But other resolutions are anathema to de Blasio, who entered the 2013 mayors race with a call to tax the wealthiest New Yorkers to pay for universal prekindergarten. (He won the policy, not the tax, after taking office.)

Instead, the mayor is hoping to get through this crisis without substantive budget cuts. Hes bristled at calls to reduce city services or delay raises workers are guaranteed through labor contracts. Layoffs and furloughs are a last resort, hes said. Hes even skipped his routine demand that Albany raise taxes on top earners and high-end home sales  targets he has eyed virtually every year of his mayoralty.

City officials said the mayor is concerned about the potential exodus of millionaires who keep the economic engines humming, and realizes some New Yorkers may not be able to afford current property tax bills, let alone higher ones.

In similarly dire financial straits, de Blasio's predecessor, Mike Bloomberg, relied on politically unpopular tax increases: He raised property taxes 18 percent after the Sept. 11 terror attacks and pushed for a 7 percent increase after the financial collapse years later. He repeatedly cut social services and tried to close fire houses and elderly centers. He even wanted to get rid of the office of public advocate, which later served as a mayoral launching pad for de Blasio. And during his final term in office, Bloomberg balked at the demands of municipal unions, leaving the entire workforce without contracts.

De Blasio has an entirely different attitude toward governing. He fought Bloombergs cuts when he was in the City Council, barely slashed anything after taking over City Hall in 2014 and has in fact increased the budget some $20 billion during his six years in office.

So instead, he is pinning his hopes on Washington replenishing the citys coffers while he seeks borrowing authority from Albany  in each case leaving the city's fate in the hands of a political adversary. (Gov. Andrew Cuomo threw cold water on the idea last week.)

We are now $9 billion in the hole between the current fiscal year and the one that begins July 1, de Blasio said Wednesday. We project unfortunately beyond next fiscal year additional lost revenue that will hold us back further. There is literally no way that we can solve this problem without federal help or without having to make very, very painful choices that will affect the quality of life in this city.

De Blasio projected a $7.4 billion revenue shortfall when he released his revised $89.3 billion budget in April, largely due to a loss of personal income taxes as the job market faltered.

City officials attributed the additional $1.6 billion the mayor announced last week to the grim state New York finds itself in after two months under assault by Covid-19: Even lower sales and real estate taxes than budget officials initially forecast.

The city routinely takes on debt to pay for long-term construction and infrastructure projects, but it is not allowed to borrow for its annual operating budget  a prohibition dating back to the financial crisis of the 1970s. New York City had been borrowing money to stay afloat, then borrowing more to pay off prior loans. In the spring of 1975 the banks cut off the city's cash supply.

The citys leading bankers, who had been its principal lenders, came to see the mayor and the governor and told them both that nobody would lend the city a nickel under any terms, Eugene Keilin, who was general counsel for the budget office at the time, said in a recent panel discussion. The amount of the borrowing had gotten so high, and the explanations for it so vague that the city was not trusted.

The administration is still paying off some of those loans today.

Dean Fuleihan, first deputy mayor, acknowledged the rarity of de Blasio's latest request.

You would only want to do this kind of borrowing in extraordinary times, and thats exactly what this is, he said in an interview Wednesday.

De Blasio, during a recent briefing, pointed out that Bloomberg was able to secure a similar ability from Albany after Sept. 11, and Cuomo has gone in the same direction to cope with the states finances amid the coronavirus crisis.

It's not something we want to use or intend to use in the first instance, but it's something we need as a last resort if our federal government isn't there for us, he said. If we're going to maintain basic services here in this city, we need some capacity to borrow.

Nearly 1 million city residents have already filed for unemployment, Broadway hasnt put on a show in months, and stores and restaurants across the five boroughs remain mostly shuttered.

And while officials in Washington, D.C., fight over an aid package for local governments, the de Blasio administration has about one month to devise a balanced spending plan for the start of the new fiscal year on July 1.

Their basic strategy is to just borrow and beg their way to next January and hope for a new [federal] administration, said Nicole Gelinas, a senior fellow at the fiscally conservative Manhattan Institute. But in the long term, and with the change of the citys economic well-being, that is not going to get you very far.

Meanwhile, City Hall is set to pay $1.5 billion in retroactive raises to part of its workforce come October, Gelinas said. She has long criticized the mayors practice of allocating future funds for past work, something he did in settling the contracts Bloomberg had allowed to lapse.

Instead of asking for blanket revenue replacement from a divided federal government, Gelinas and the Citizens Budget Commission suggested the city cut its expenses further.

But the mayor has never embraced budget cuts.

Year after year, hes asked agencies to voluntarily come up with savings plans, arguing that forced reductions in their spending were a hallmark of the austere Bloomberg years he sought to reverse.

Only a small portion of de Blasio's recent $2.7 billion savings plan comes from recurring cuts. The largest programmatic loss, an annual summer jobs program for teens, will be back in next years budget provided the coronavirus is contained.

And while the city clocked a savings of $50 million on snow removal  since it barely snowed this past winter  there is no guarantee that next years weather will be as mild.

Only once has the administration tasked its agencies with a mandatory belt-tightening exercise called a "program to eliminate the gap."

It involves going through carefully and squeezing out the cellulite that builds up in every department, Alair Townsend, the budget director for former mayor Ed Koch, said in an interview. If you dont force it out, it just grows and grows. The mayor never wanted a PEG program. He thought it sounded like cutting services, and cutting services was not progressive.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday he would postpone a Group of Seven summit he had hoped to hold next month until September or later and expand the list of invitees to include Australia, Russia, South Korea and India.

Speaking to reporters on Air Force One during his return to Washington from Cape Canaveral in Florida, Trump said the G7, whose members are the world's most advanced economies, was a "very outdated group of countries" in its current format.

"I'm postponing it because I don't feel that as a G7 it properly represents what's going on in the world," Trump said.

It was unclear whether Trump's desire to invite the additional countries was an effort to permanently expand the G7. On several previous occasions, he suggested Russia be added given what he described as Moscow's global strategic importance.

White House spokeswoman Alyssa Farah said Trump wants the countries to discuss China at the summit.

Trump has attacked Beijing over its handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which began in China, and on Friday he ordered his administration to begin the process of ending special U.S. treatment for Hong Kong in retaliation for China's decision to impose a new security law on the former British colony.

The decision to postpone the G7 summit is a retreat for Trump, who had sought to host the group of major industrialised countries in Washington as a demonstration that the United States was returning to normal after the coronavirus epidemic, which has killed more than 103,000 Americans to date.

Trump had cancelled an in-person G7 meeting that was scheduled for March as the virus spread, but had recently sought to revive it.

French President Emmanuel Macron backed the idea of an in-person meeting, according to the White House, but Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau declined to endorse it, saying there were too many health-related questions. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said earlier this week she could not attend.

The G7 is made up of the United States, Britain, France, Japan, Germany, Italy and Canada, and the European Union also attends.

Also read: Talks at military, diplomatic levels on to resolve Ladakh standoff: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh

Also read: In a first, Elon Musk's SpaceX propels two NASA astronauts into orbit
The Congress on Sunday slammed the BJP-led Centre government for celebrating the completion of its first year of the second term when the country is on the sixth position in the world for Coronavirus cases. Attacking the ruling government, Congress National Spokesperson Manish Tewari listed down the failures of the ruling government during their second tenure and questioned 'what is NDA-BJP celebrating?'

Taking a dig at the Centre government the Former Information & Broadcasting Minister said India's COVID cases are the sixth-highest in the world. Meanwhile, 80 people have lost their lives in the Shramik special trains arranged by the govt to transport stranded people from one state to another, he added.

Tewari further criticised the BJP government for failing to handle the India-China border dispute at the LAC and said that China has grabbed land between 40-60 KMs in Ladakh. He further pointed out that Nepal has drawn up a new map that impinges on Indias territorial integrity.

He further lambasted the government for failing to revive the country's economy which has been adversely affected due to the pandemic. "Economy is up a creek without a paddle," he said.

READ | On 1st anniversary of Modi 2.0, PM thanks BJP workers, lists milestones: Full audio here

COVID-19 Cases @ 1,81,273. 6 th highest in the world



80 dead in Shramik Specials



China grabs btwn 40-60 KMs in Ladakh.



Nepal draws up a new map that impinges on Indias territorial integrity.



Economy is up a creek without a paddle.



Seriously



What is NDA/BJP celebrating  Manish Tewari (@ManishTewari) May 31, 2020

READ | PM Modi pens letter to the nation on first anniversary of his 2nd term; read FULL message

BJP completes one year of the second term

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday completed a year in office after being elected for the second consecutive time. In 2019, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 303 seats, and the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) won 353 seats while the Congress and its allies (UPA) was confined to two-digit count - 91 seats.

READ | Punjab CM Amarinder Singh warns 'this is not 1962' amid Indo-China border tensions

PM pens a letter to the nation

As Prime Minister Modi completed a year in the office, on Saturday, he has penned a letter to the country. With a massive mandate in 2019, PM Modi came to power for the second consecutive term in India and has in the past year delivered significant decisions including the historic abrogation of Article 370.

Listing abrogation of Article 370, settlement of the Ram Janambhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute, criminalisation of Triple Talaq and the amendment to the Citizenship Act among the key achievements during his second term, he has asserted that his government's decisions in the last one year were aimed at fulfilling the dream of making India a global leader. As the world is fighting a battle with the invisible Covid-19, Prime Minister Modi has said that the country is traversing on the path to victory in the long battle while also acknowledging the tremendous suffering of migrant workers among others.

READ | Madhya Pradesh CM reveals mantra of PM's name as Modi 2.0 completes a year in office
The pressing problem most African families are dealing with at home and abroad is how to ameliorate the hidden and open attacks against them by constituted authorities. Families are pondering and mulling on how to de-escalate the confrontations and keep young Africans safe from deadly assaults.

While Natural Disaster has taken the disproportional death toll on the elders, Africans and minorities; man inhumanity to man has also converged and affected Africans most, no matter where they are. Some Chinese scapegoated and projected blame on African students for Covid-19 that originated in Wuhan. We also witnessed a string of Police ritual massacres in the United States: a lady sleeping at home while Black to George Floyd like Eric Garner snuffed out of breath and life for the world to see.

De-escalation tactics start from within by showing the qualities of cultured people demanding respect. You get what you negotiate, not what you deserve. Look, everyone acts in his best interest, and power is not given up out of the goodness of their hearts but when it becomes too risky and expensive to keep. This was how the old system of slavery was abolished. So watch out, it is a continuous struggle. Do not be fooled by the replacement of slavery with cheap disposable labor.

What brings all these victimization of Africans home to the Continent is the inability of individual African countries to influence or weld power affirmatively as many other countries would. It is very difficult for Motherland to watch her own African children being sacrificed at the altar of racist ideology, political expediency, and promotion or glorification of ranks in open or secret societies because embedded perpetrators happen to be members of constituted authorities.

Those uninformed Africans who think they are supporting conservative or liberal ideology are used as body bags to avoid responsibilities for their actions. This is not new. African chiefs sold their own people as slaves abroad in exchange for mirrors. The slave owners or Massa selected House Africans to supervise their fellow slaves and recently, Arab slave owners appointed other Africans crossing the Desert to whip desperadoes fleeing from African countries into submission and slave camps, used for repulsive acts including body parts removal.

Even Extremist parties have fronted recent African immigrants. So it is not surprising that those self-styled conservatives or liberals are covering the back of their users. As most Africans empathize with their brothers and sisters in Diaspora, or regret the sins of their ancestors for selling them out, we have some within us that are proud conservatives, supporting oppressors that want their "good old days" back.

Let us be clear, these traitors have never seen anything good about themselves or their Continent and would sell their Countries for imported glittering plastics, used discarded goods and environmental garbage. Fake leaders claim to be partners of foreign investors or businessmen opening Free Trade zones and gulping our Foreign Reserves for money laundering abroad. While it is true that some of these African Parasites are created out of greed and self-hate, we have ethnic animosity involved. By the time some swear to spare a snake and kill a fellow citizen or kill your own brothers and sisters as Kaferi or Unbelievers, you realize African mentality has gone insane.

Our suffering abroad and lack of respect for our individual citizens at home is so intertwined, we can not expect others to respect us when we sell one another cheap at home out of spite. Let us face it, lives are cheap in Africa if we are willing to risk it all in the hands of foreigners than stand our ground at home to fight our oppressors.

There is no doubt that there are opportunists who leave their homes where they are too depraved to sow good deeds but go out for soft landing to reap the hard work and magnanimous acts and accommodation of others. The projections of their laziness on victims of host countries are obvious.They will never be respected. Only scornfully treated accordingly as cheap disposable labors.

Since African slaves and their descendants were told how lucky they were to be brought abroad in chains rather than remained in the dark Continent among savages. Fast forward to 2020, some Africans claim they live in the zoo and gleefully echo the "shithole countries" of others. How can you be respected anywhere when you sell yourselves cheap and handed them the excuse to dictate your political economy at home?

Discussions with our children are difficult if History of African Suffrage at home and abroad are not taught in schools to avoid the mistakes of the past. The pride of being an African is being chipped away without many in the new generation realizing it. It might be subtle as skin bleaching or hairstyle but the history of the damage must be seen in an old study of little black children's preference of white dolls to black dolls. 60 years after Independence, most African countries have not found their bearings, not because they cannot but they choose not to, foolishly building castles in the air far away in foreign countries Covid-19 banned them from visiting.

How many countries in other continents pander, invite, welcome and incentivize themselves as "bushmeat" for economic gain? We can no longer threaten our own very existence with so much hate, Afrophobia, self-destruction and expect others to respect us or our younger generation to succeed. Apart from the psychological bearing on self-esteem, the socio-economic devastation is so conspicuous, other continents smell a wounded Continent as prey and go for a kill.

Only those that are either ill-informed or naive would think they are better off than other Africans. This stigma must be broken and must be corrected right now! We must start immediate remedial actions, instead of future rosy projections. A day wasted are lives lost and opportunities missed. It is about time our leaders were challenged to stop seeking salvation from abroad or Heaven when God only helps those who help themselves.

De-escalation starts from within our Home.
Flat-earthers bared the brunt of a few jokes online made by people who pointed to the live images of the spacex launch to prove the earth is round.

Users on Twitter couldn't resist after Saturday's historic launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, when live images beamed back to Earth showed the Dragon crew capsule in orbit against the curvature of the earth.

A Twitter user known as The Noggin wrote in a post directed at the movement saying the footage was indisputable because it was 'completely live'.

'Hey #FlatEarth, we just launched two Americans into space completely live, with tons of live footage. Absolutely no way it could have been fake. Suck it, flerfs,' tweeted the user,m who claims to be a Marine Corps veteran and tweets under the handle @USMCNoggin.

Flat-earthers bared the brunt of a few jokes online made by people who pointed to the live images of the SpaceX launch to prove the earth is round. Pictured is one of the live images showing a view from the capsule against the earth's curvature

A Twitter user known as The Noggin wrote in a post directed at the movement saying the footage was indisputable because it was 'completely live'

A Twitter user who identifies as 'Papi' called an animated image of a young child having a temper tantrum (pictured) 'Flath Earthers after watching the SpaceX Launch'.

A Twitter user who posts under the handle @bringsnacks__ went so far as to include video footage of the SpaceX stage separation, with the earth in the background clearly looking round.

Another Twitter user who identifies as 'Papi' and tweets under the handle called an animated image of a young child having a temper tantrum 'Flath Earthers after watching the SpaceX Launch'.

And a Twitter user who posts under the handle @bringsnacks__ went so far as to include video footage of the SpaceX stage separation, with the earth in the background clearly looking round.

'Flat earthers must be so confused right now #SpaceX #SpaceLaunchLIVE #FlatEarth,' wrote the Twitter user, who identifies as 'f--k off kevin'.

As others took their turn at delivering a good dose of ridicule, astronauts Bob Behnken, 49, and Doug Hurley, 53, arrived at the International Space Station Sunday, where they joined the mission's commander, Chris Cassidy.

It was the the first time SpaceX, the private aerospace company founded by billionaire Elon Musk, had launched a manned mission into space.

It wasnt long before a Twitter user known as The Flat Earther dug in their heels and restated the movements belief by tweeting the question, Why do you think earth is a globe?

As others took their turn at delivering a good dose of ridicule, astronauts Bob Behnken, 49, and Doug Hurley, 53, arrived at the International Space Station Sunday, where they joined the mission's commander, Chris Cassidy. Pictured is the launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida

Astronauts Bob Behnken, 49, and Doug Hurley, 53, are pictured on the Dragon crew capsule after liftoff Saturday on its mission to the International Space Station

It was the the first time SpaceX, the private aerospace company founded by billionaire Elon Musk (pictured), had launched a manned mission into space

It wasnt long before a Twitter user known as The Flat Earther dug in their heels and restated the movements belief by tweeting the question, Why do you think earth is a globe?

'Because you see Photoshop images of it,' wrote the user under the handle @TheFlatEartherr.

'Have you ever tried to prove the globe independently? If not, then you have no evidence of a globe,' the flat-earther explains.

One of the most visible members of the movement 'Mad' Mike Hughes died earlier this year when he attempted to prove the world was flat aboard a homemade rocket that crashed after liftoff.

One of the most visible members of the flat-earthers movement 'Mad' Mike Hughes died earlier this year when he attempted to prove the world was flat aboard a homemade rocket that crashed after liftoff

Hughes, 64, died after the rocket crash landed, possibly due to a parachute malfunction.

Footage of the incident shows Hughes propelling himself into the air as a parachute suddenly comes off the steam-powered rocket on Feb. 22, near Barstow, California, before it crashed.

The rocket then plummets back down to Earth and crashes with Hughes still inside. The daredevil and conspiracy theorist had hoped to launch himself successfully into space to prove the world was flat.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Sunday issued a red-colour coded warning to coastal Maharashtra and Gujarat for June 4 in view of a cyclonic storm in the Arabian Sea.

Fishermen who have ventured into the Arabian Sea along the north and south Gujarat coasts have been advised to return by Sunday and not go out till June 4.

"A low pressure is currently over east-central Arabian Sea and the Lakshadweep Islands. It is likely to intensify into a depression in the next 12 hours and a cyclonic circulation in the next 24 hours," the Cyclone Warning Division of the IMD said.

A low pressure area is the first stage of any cyclone.

"It is very likely to move nearly northwards initially till June 2 and then recurve north-northeastwards and reach near north Maharashtra and south Gujarat coasts around June 3," it added.

The system will bring strong winds and heavy to very heavy rainfall to coastal Maharashtra and Gujarat.

The IMD has issued an orange-colour coded warning to Kerala, coastal Karnataka, Goa and coastal Maharashtra for June 1.

The same warning applies to coastal Maharashtra and Goa for June 2.

For June 3, a red-coloured coded warning has been issued to coastal Maharashtra and Goa and an orange coloured warning to Gujarat.

The red-coloured warning has been issued to coastal Maharashtra, Goa and the entire Gujarat for June 4, Sathi Devi, the head of the National Weather Forecasting Centre, said.

"An intense rainfall activity is expected due to the weather system," Devi added.

The IMD has four colour-coded warnings as per the intensity of any weather system -- green, yellow, orange and the last one being red.

The Ahmedabad meteorological centre of IMD also advised hoisting of "distant cautionary (DC)-1" storm warning signals at all ports on north and south Gujarat coasts, as the sea condition was very likely to be "rough to very rough," with wind speed reaching 90-100 kilometre per hour gusting to 110 kilometre per hour by June 4.

"Fishermen out at sea are advised to return to coasts by May 31.

They are advised not to venture along and off south Gujarat coast on June 2, and along and off north and south Gujarat coast on June 3-4," it added.

On June 2, wind speed is likely to reach 40-50 kilometre per hour gusting to 60 kilometre per hour over south Gujarat coast, with sea conditions very likely to be "rough to very rough".

On June 3-4, squally wind speed is likely to reach 90-100 kilometre per hour gusting 110 kilometre per hour over Gujarat coasts, and the sea condition is very likely to be high to very high, it said.

Fishermen are also advised not to venture into west central Arabian sea along and off south Oman and Yemen coasts during the next 24 hours due to depression over south coastal Oman and adjoining Yemen, the IMD said.
London-headquartered HSBC has appointed an Indian-origin strategy expert to chart the banks growth plans in a post-pandemic scenario.

According to The Sunday Times, Chira Barua has joined the bank as Group Head of Strategy and will assess which markets and areas HSBC should focus on over the next five to 10 years. Analysts believe this could push the bank deeper into Asia in search of higher returns.

The review by Barua, previously a partner at McKinsey & Co and an analyst at Alliance-Bernstein, is aimed at moving the dial more than simply exiting small markets, the newspaper quoted an insider as saying.

I think the group will focus a bit more on southeast Asia, including Singapore, an HSBC banker was quoted as saying.

HSBC is also looking to boost its market share of wealthy customers in the Asia Pacific region, which has a high number of billionaires.

Baruas appointment completes a string of hires by the new HSBC boss, Noel Quinn, who took over as Chief Executive in March.

The bank, which has 235,000 staff in 64 countries, is under pressure to boost returns. Its shares have fallen 38 per cent this year, their lowest level in two decades. HSBC is said to be aiming to strip out USD 4.5 billion of costs and offload USD 100 billion of risky assets over the next few years. It is also ditching share buybacks this year and next, the newspaper report said. PTI AK NSA
After 7 years, many SITs, CBI investigation and probe panels still no justice is served in sacrilege cases: Harpal Singh Cheema

Terming Jan 26 as black republic day, Sikh groups to hold protest against Indias unequal laws and norms on prisoners
After Chhattisgarh government made the forest department the nodal agency for Community Forest Resource Rights (CFRR) - under the Scheduled Tribes and the Traditional Forest Dwellers Act 2006 - state activists alleged that the step is illegal. Activists have said that as per the Act, only the Tribal Affairs Department or any other agency authorized by the Central government could be the nodal agency.

A press release issued by the Chhattisgarh government on Saturday stated that Community members will be given community forest rights for the conservation of forests, participation of the villagers in the management and proper use of trees via forest dwellers. The entire process for its rapid implementation has been chalked out by the state government. The Forest Department has been made the nodal department for the matter of community forest resource rights.

The press release further stated that forest minister Mohammad Akbar has said that under the sections of Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers Act 2006, CFRR have been given to Gram Sabha.

It is worth mentioning that as per the Section 11 of the Forest Rights Act (FRA) Act, the Ministry of the Central government dealing with Tribal Affairs or any officer or authority authorized by the Central government in this behalf shall be the nodal agency for the implementation of the provisions of this Act.

Also read: States flag missing details of returning migrant workers

Most of the implementation has been done by the tribal affairs department. Forest department has been the nodal agency for only community forest resource rights (CFRR) under the Act, said Manoj Pingua, Forest Secretary, Chhattisgarh government.

Forest department can never be made the nodal agency for any rights mentioned in the Act. The tribal department could be the only nodal agency. This is illegal and not in the act. The preamble to Forest Rights Recognition Act states that this law is being enacted for the recognition of forest rights while correcting the historical injustice done to tribals and other traditional forest dwellers. The forest department has never had a supportive attitude towards this law because it feels that if the forest resource is given into the hands of the community then it will not have control, said Alok Shuka, an activist working on forest rights in Chhattisgarh.

Shukla further said that the department has created a system to determine the role of the community in forest management, under which the Community Forest Management Committee (CFMC) has been formed in the village but their control is with the Forest Department. The Department wants these committees to be delegated the rights of community forest resources.

Also read: Lockdown 4.0 deadliest, saw 247 new Covid-19 cases every hour

But this intention is not lawful because the law delegates all rights to the gram sabha which are constitutional and democratic system. With this order of the government, the forest department will be more powerful, so that tribals will get the resources of the forest in the same way as they want. Hundreds of community forest resource claims have been pending in the district level committee since the year 2013, but they are not being recognized only because the forest department does not want to, Shukla said adding that there are 12 claims pending in his area of work in Korba district, Hasdeo Aranya region, but they are not being recognized.

The government in a press release on Saturday claimed that a committee for community forest resource management will be formed by the Gram Sabhas. This committee will work for the conservation of forests, wildlife and biodiversity in community forest areas. Members of Gram Sabha will be included in this committee. Gram Sabha will have the right to nominate a Joint Forest Management Committee or its members of Gram Sabha. This committee will prepare a management plan in accordance with the work plan of the Forest Department and the Wild Wildlife Management Plan. Based on this management plan, the forest department will do the work of plantation, wood, bamboo wells, forest growing work and wildlife management, etc.

Forest Department should not be the nodal agency. It is unjustifiable that the agency responsible for eviction, atrocities, dislocation and exploitation of tribals and forest-dwelling communities will be entrusted with the responsibility of giving forest rights. The very preamble of the Forest Right Act 2006 talks about ending the historical injustices meted out to Adivasi. Even the intent of the government would be noble but the outcome of this decision would be devastating as forest department cannot win the trust of tribals and the forest-dependent community as they have been notorious for snatching entitlement and rights in the name of plantation, sanctuaries and forest diversion, said Vijendra Ajnabi who is a member of Chattisgarh Van Adhikar Manch.

He further said that there is an apprehension that forest department can misuse their influence on joint forest management committee, the sponsored wing of the forest department to take control of forest management from Gram Sabha and deliver the agenda set by the forest department.

I strongly believe that tribal department should remain the nodal agency for the implementation of the Forest Rights Act as it has been several time mentioned in official communication by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs and even in the order delivered by Supreme Court in the Niyamgiri judgement case, Ajnabi said, adding that the Chhattisgarh government should first ensure to recognise the long-pending community forest rights claim duly submitted by Gram Sabha since 2012-13 across the state.
With India witnessing its highest single-day spike in COVID-19 cases on Sunday, the Congress asked the government what its strategy was to fight the deadly virus and revive the economy.

The party alleged that 667 people have also died during the nationwide lockdown and asked the government who was responsible for their deaths.

The Congress also said the government's social distancing with people has increased so much that it does not even know what is happening on the ground and that history books will recognise its last six years as being "a harbinger of doom".

Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said the prime minister and the BJP government must tell the country about its plan to control coronavirus infection and the way forward.

"Four Lockdowns. Today, we witnessed biggest 'Single Day Spike' in COVID19 infection of 8,380. Total Infection at 1,82,490. 5th Lockdown begins tomorrow. What is the govt strategy (sic)," he tweeted.

"Have the lockdowns failed? Is there a blueprint to fight Corona? Any plan out of economic havoc," Surjewala also asked.

He said with the fifth lockdown starting on Monday, "PM and BJP government must tell the 'Plan' - To control infection. Exit route out of Lockdowns. To revive Economy and the way forward."

India registered its highest single-day spike of COVID-19 cases on Sunday with 8,380 new infections reported in the last 24 hours, taking the country's tally to 1,82,143, while the death toll rose to 5,164, according to the Union Health Ministry.

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh also said, "India is the only country to unlock so much even as COVID-19 infections are rising sharply."

"Rightly it has been said. There are three ways of doing things: The Right Way, the Wrong Way and the Indian Way," he tweeted.

Congress spokesperson Kapil Sibal took a swipe at the Centre, saying, "The government's social distancing with people has increased so much that it does not know what is happening on the ground and how to address the problems faced by people, especially the poor."

Talking about the prime minister's letter to fellow citizens, Sibal said, "I want to ask PM that at least now tell us what is your definition of your fellow Indians. Does that definition fit into what happened prior to March 24. At least now change the way you are handling the future of this country."

On the BJP's claim that this is a "golden chapter" in the history of Indian democracy, the Congress leader said, "The government tells the court that we are prophets of doom and future history books will recognise these six years of this government as being a harbinger of doom."

Sibal said the prime minister talks about protecting democracy, "Actually, till March 24 (when lockdown was announced), they tried to throttle democracy."

He claimed that the government makes announcements but it does not even know about the number of migrants.

"Now the government has no data about the number of migrants, either those who come from other states or those who come or who live within states.

"So, the government has no data as to where they are, what work they do, where they work, so if they don't have the data, how will they reach the people, those Shramiks, those migrants labourers, to give them 'rahat' (relief)," Sibal asked.

He said this government in the last six years has not concentrated on the real issues of the people like healthcare, education and taking care of concerns of poor, and has instead talked about 370, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, National Register of Citizens, Citizenship (Amendment) Act, Triple Talaq.

"Had this government in the last six years concentrated on issues concerning people, India would have been different today," he said.

The former law minister said the COVID-19 pandemic has "exposed" the government's helplessness, and the rift that was created in the society has been bridged by people themselves as they stand in solidarity with one another to overcome the current challenges.
Coronavirus has hit more than half the nursing homes in Alabama, killing hundreds who live and work in facilities across the state.

Nursing home staff and residents account for about half of the states coronavirus deaths, according to State Health Officer Dr. Scott Harris, even though less than 1 percent of the states residents live in them. Large outbreaks in Mobile, Alexander City, Hoover and Greenville have sickened hundreds and killed dozens.

And those are just the ones we know about. Nursing homes are required to report positive cases to county health departments and the Alabama Department of Public Health, which has not made that information public. They are required to inform the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, residents, staff and resident representatives (often family members). Still, some family members of residents have repeatedly told Al.com of difficulties in finding out information about cases at specific facilities.

Across the country and in Alabama, nursing homes have struggled just to determine which residents and staff members have the virus. Without testing, it may be impossible to separate asymptomatic but infected workers from residents vulnerable to serious complications. But Alabama nursing homes have struggled to obtain everything from swabs to timely lab results, and have little guidance on how often or widely they should test workers as residents, even as other states push for regular, universal testing.

Its not just states pushing for more testing. Federal officials including President Donald Trump urged all governors on May 11 to prioritize universal testing for nursing homes. But its not a requirement.

Alabama officials have announced no plans to test everyone living or working in long-term care.

Donald Taylor, an expert on nursing homes at Duke University, said states cannot control the spread of COVID-19 without universal testing in nursing homes. Staff members can carry coronavirus in and out of vulnerable facilities, causing outbreaks that spread from long-term care into the community as workers juggle multiple jobs and family responsibilities.

The outbreaks in nursing homes, they may not seem like they affect everybody, but they do, Taylor said. I dont believe we will get a handle on this pandemic until we get it under control in nursing homes.

Its unclear whether Alabama officials have developed a plan to contain coronavirus in long-term care. The Alabama Department of Public Health did not release any information in response to public records requests.

In the absence of any publicly announced initiatives, Alabama nursing homes have developed a patchwork of strategies for fighting the virus. Some release information about positive cases and deaths, while others do not. Owners of some hard-hit facilities have undertaken efforts to regularly test all residents and staff, but others only test those showing symptoms.

Some of Alabamas hardest-hit counties have outbreaks anchored in long-term care. Tallapoosa County is just one example. Three out of six of the countys nursing homes have announced large outbreaks. The small rural county now has the states third highest number of COVID-19 deaths, far ahead of much larger urban areas.

Mobile County, which has the largest number of both cases and deaths in the state, announced outbreaks in six of its nursing homes. Crowne Healthcare Mobile now has more than 100 cases and Lynwood Nursing Home has at least 78.

Many facilities with outbreaks have tested all staff and residents, a costly but vital step to contain the spread of the virus. Joe Perkins, spokesman for NHS Management, which operates several nursing homes around the state, said universal testing is the only way to protect residents.

For those who test positive, it helps us monitor them with aggressive protocols, Perkins said. And it helps us create barriers between the people who are infected and the people who arent.

About half the positive patients at NHS facilities had no symptoms, Perkins said. Without universal testing, they would not have been identified and isolated and could unknowingly pass the virus to others in the building.

Staff members at NHS now test some residents every week, which has become very expensive, Perkins said. Taylor estimates the cost of testing every nursing home resident in the country every week could top $25 million. The federal government has earmarked only $11 million for all testing, not just nursing homes.

The American Health Care Association estimated it would cost $9.2 million to test every staff member and resident of long-term care in Alabama one time. That organization has requested additional funding for universal tests. Leaders in Maryland, New York, Arizona, Texas, New Jersey Delaware, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, South Dakota and Tennessee have announced plans to test all residents and workers at long-term care facilities.

The Alabama Nursing Home Association has not taken an official stance on testing, said spokesman John Matson.

Weve said before that we think any kind of universal testing needs to be a well thought out plan, Matson said. You need to make sure youve answered questions about it beforehand  how youre going to administer the tests, how youre going to get them processed through a lab in a timely manner. You need a plan on how to deal with the results too. Of course, testing just for nursing homes would be about 55,000 individuals (in Alabama). You need a plan to pay for all of that.

Perkins said universal testing can cause staffing problems. At least a quarter of the staff members that who work in NHS nursing homes have tested positive. Nursing homes and state officials will need to plan for staffing shortages as workers quarantine, Perkins said.

Dr. Richard Feifer, chief medical officer for Genesis HealthCare, said the company supports universal testing for nursing home residents. States can help by providing funding and supplies for nursing homes, he said.

Governors and public health officials in some states have utilized the department of health or the national guard to conduct testing, Feifer said. We have been grateful for the support weve received from these states. Many other states do not have a clear testing plan, and some states have planned just one round of testing, which is insufficient.

Gov. Kay Ivey activated the Alabama National Guard to clean and disinfect nursing homes and announced health orders prohibiting visitation.

Our long-term care facilities are home to some of the most vulnerable to this disease, and Gov. Ivey is sensitive to that and has exhausted efforts throughout to do all we can to protect those residents and staff, said her spokeswoman, Gina Maiola. In addition to the Governor activating the Alabama National Guard to assist in these efforts, she has also utilized the Alabama Medicaid Agency to be a resource for sanitation purposes.

Perkins said NHS Management appreciates the support from the state but needs more assistance.

We need help, Perkins said. This crisis is far from over. Its going to be here for a while.

AL.com staff writer Anna Claire Vollers contributed to this report. Updated at 1:58 p.m. with additional information about reporting requirements for facilities.
More Chinese banks are issuing perpetual bonds as a way to replenish capital and support their loan growth, with regulatory incentives spurring 569.6 billion yuan (US$79.6 billion) in total issuance last year for one of the riskiest types of bank debt.

But with more unlisted city and rural lenders also issuing perpetual bonds this year, analysts say investors are facing higher risk issuers with weaker governance. Issuance in China last year already exceeded all perpetual bonds issued by European banks in the three years of 2016-18 combined, at EUR70.59 (US$77.92 billion), according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Perpetual bonds are equity-like debt instruments whose investors are first to be hit if banks run into serious trouble. They are considered risky debt because investors can see their principal wiped out if regulators deem the bank non-viable.

Chinese banks face double threat of more bad debt, lower margins amid worsening coronavirus pandemic

The potential riskiness of the trend was put into focus last week, when Bank of Huzhou issued a 1.2 billion yuan perpetual bond at a 4.7 per cent coupon. The unlisted bank is the smallest bank in Zhejiang province, with 52 billion yuan in assets. But prior to its bond issuance, the Chinese banking regulator and foreign exchange control regulator had fined the bank for fund misappropriation and failing certain reporting obligations, raising questions about the bank's governance.

Chinese banks started issuing yuan-denominated perpetual bonds last year after Bank of China's inaugural 40 billion yuan issue in January.

Banks like issuing perpetual bonds because of a tax break, said Geoffrey Choi, Asia-Pacific financial services assurance leader at EY. The tax deduction is not available to issuers of preference shares, which are similar to debt with a fixed dividend payout. Both instruments are classified as "additional tier one capital" (AT1), which is a type of non-equity capital that banks must hold for regulatory compliance.

Story continues

"Most of the banks that had issued preference shares in the past have now switched to issuing perpetual bonds as the funding cost is lower after the tax deduction," said Choi, adding that issuers could also benefit from faster approval and quicker issuance compared to preference shares.

This year, a total of 274 billion yuan perpetual bonds has been issued " more than five times higher than at a same point a year ago, according to data from the mainland media.

Apart from Bank of Huzhou, other smaller city and rural commercial banks have also issued perpetual bonds. These include Guilin Bank in Guangxi province, Huarong Xiangjiang Bank in Hunan province, which are unlisted and would not qualify to issue preference shares.

The surge in perpetual bond issuance comes as the coronavirus has grounded China's economic growth, with first quarter GDP contracting 6.8 per cent. To support the struggling economy, Chinese regulators have been encouraging banks to issue more perpetual bonds to shore up their capital to backstop their loan growth.

Significantly, for unlisted, smaller banks which typically lack easy access to capital markets, perpetual bonds are an alternative way to raise funds, said Grace Wu, head of Greater China Bank Ratings at Fitch Ratings.

But the flip side is that investors are also facing issuers with a higher risk profile.

"Unlisted banks generally have weaker franchises as well as capitalisation due to their lower profitability or faster growth compared to listed peers. Additionally, strong local government influence, or related-party lending at city and rural banks may raise governance issues," said Wu, adding that their narrower geographical focus also increases concentration risks.

Concerns about Chinese smaller banks' viability was highlighted last year when the central bank and regulator seized control of unlisted Baoshang Bank, an Inner Mongolia-based lender, for a year after the bank collapsed following fund misappropriation by its controlling shareholder.

Banking regulators invented "AT1" instruments such as perpetual bonds after the 2008 financial crisis as a way to impose principal losses on creditors when banks go into financial distress, rather than resorting to taxpayers' money to bail out a failing bank.

As a result, these instruments are often structured with triggers tied to a bank's viability which, if hit, could lead to the bond being written off so that the bank's debt load can be reduced.

These bonds are called "perpetual" because, while the bank has the discretion to early repay the bond, typically on the fifth year of its tenor, it could also choose not to do so.

In China, banks' asset management arms and insurance companies are investors in perpetual bonds, said Dennis Wong, head of markets for North Asia at ANZ, and "most domestic investors regard perpetual bond as a five-year bond".

Outside China, Deutsche Bank became the first leading European bank this year to not take the step of repaying early its "AT1" bond raised in 2014. Chinese banks will have until 2024 to make that call.

This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright  2020 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

Copyright (c) 2020. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
I was outraged at the apparent excessive police restraint used on George Floyd. The man was on the ground with four police officers on his back, did one really need to put his knee on his neck?According to Chief Roddy apparently not and I agree. The officer has been charged with murder.

Speaking of excessive force, I do not understand how protesters think destroying the property of other citizens and businesses that had nothing to do with that is acceptable, it is not. Speaking of unacceptable, looting, really? Using one crime as an excuse to commit another? Using this unacceptable situation for personal gain?

Protesters, listen to Atlanta Mayor Keisha Bottoms, you are disgracing your cities and yourselves.



Sam Lewallen, Jr.




Video by Lee Min-young, Kim Kang-min

The COVID-19 pandemic is expected to bring huge changes to the way Korea approaches foreign policy and security, according to a noted specialist on international relations.

During a recent interview with The Korea Times, Moon Chung-in, special adviser to President Moon Jae-in for foreign affairs and national security, explained what major changes have been made in foreign affairs following the coronavirus pandemic and where South Korean stands after successfully getting through the health crisis.
100 years ago

Connecticut man beaten, robbed

William Warner, a farmer from Sharon, Conn., was in Albany en route to the Adirondacks when he was accosted and grabbed by a man while walking along lower Hamilton Street at 1:30 a.m., and dragged into an alley near the Fuld and Hatch knitting mill. He said the man punched him in the face and knocked him to the ground, before rummaging through his clothes and finding his wallet containing $500 (roughly equivalent to $6,400 in today's money) in an inside jacket pocket. Warner tried to yell, he said, but the man then delivered a severe blow to the top of his head and ran off. After regaining his senses, Warner headed for the nearby police station but encountered two patrolmen on the way. They took him to the second precinct house, before bringing him to the Homeopathic Hospital where he received seven stitches to close up his bloody scalp wound, and based on his description, arrested Louis Jones, 29, in the same neighborhood shortly after 2 a.m.

 Times Union, June 1, 1920

50 years ago

Grads celebrate at Siena, Maria

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

Siena College conferred 415 degrees, including four honorary doctorates, during commencement ceremonies on its Loudonville campus. The graduates, 382 men and 29 women who received bachelor's and master's degrees, heard State Senate Majority Leader Earl W. Brydges claim that, while the United States was "far from being a perfect society," it was the "leader of Western civilization." William J. Lillis of Schenectady became the college's oldest graduate at 81. At Maria College in Albany, Roman Catholic Bishop Edwin D. Broderick presented diplomas to 123 graduates at the eighth annual commencement at Chancellor's Hall. The keynote speaker, the Rev. Albert P. Bartlett of McQuaid Jesuit High School in Rochester, told the graduates the notions of authority, morality and patriotism had undergone a change in modern times.

 Times Union, June 1, 1970

Looking Back is compiled by C.J. Lais Jr. and Azra Haqqie.
Prince Harry reportedly had a secret Facebook account when he was young, and it as a gold mine of how he truly feels about his identity.

Based on his Facebook posts, even under a different name, it can be gleaned that he was somehow feeling suffocated being a royal.

As a member of the royal family and mostly restricted from having a personal social media account, the Prince allegedly has a Facebook account wherein he used a pseudonym, Spike Wells.

Prince Harry, aka Spike, did not want to be detected by the millions on the famous social website, for obvious reasons. But analysts knew for sure that it was the Duke's.

That said, the Facebook account was a goldmine for information about Prince Harry that no one was privy to. Spike Wells is also friends with 400 people, some of which are the most famous and wealthiest socialites in the country. It did not require a genius to know that Spike Wells is of Prince Harry's caliber, or him himself.

The account was active for a total of four years and is thought to contain pictures of him and his ex-girlfriend Chelsy Davy.

Allegedly, Wells was living in Maun, Botswana. While that seems unconnected to Prince Harry, it can be remembered that the Prince and his ex-girlfriend Ms.Davy visited this town in 2007.

Another hint is that Spike Wells' interests are "all sports." The account has constantly changed profile pictures, and one of the pictures that were quite interesting is of a red-headed child gasping.

The fact that it is a redhead is already telling. The gasping may imply a lot of things, one of which is at the time, being a royal was already starting to feel suffocating to Prince Harry.

The caption does not imply that, though since it was even quite humorous. It read, "Oh My God, I'm ginger."

The Facebook account was deleted in 2012 and talked about it is just resurfacing because Prince Harry finally was able to step down from his senior royal position, as his wife, Meghan Markle. One cannot help but ask if this is something he wanted all along.

At the time, the account was deleted because it was risky. According to the former head of royal protection for Scotland Yard, Dai Davies, any royal who would have a Facebook page can pose a security risk.

He said, "From a security point of view I would never recommend anyone high-profile to have a Facebook account." He explained, "depending what you have on it, it is indicative sometimes of where you are going, what you are doing, and more importantly, who your friends are."

One can only wonder if now that they are no longer in royal positions, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are now going to have social media accounts like other celebrities.

After all, they went to the United States for Meghan Markle to pursue her Hollywood career once more and for Prince Harry to get some speaking gigs as well. All these are under their plans to be more financially independent.

They are also there to focus more on their charitable pursuits. Maybe Prince Harry would not post someone gasping anymore. Unless it is because some people are sending drones to their residence and trying to invade their privacy, or they are struggling to pay off their UK debts.

READ MORE: Prince Andrew Scandal: Queen Elizabeth's Son Hiding Jeffrey Epstein Crime Information, Butler Says
By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 05/31/2020



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[ Spoilers Warning: This report contains spoilers revealing whether Lisa and Usman are still together and spoilers that reveal if the : Before the 90 Days couple got married].

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So are Lisa and Usman still together? Did the : Before the 90 Days couple actually get married?

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Lisa and Usman : Before the 90 Days Tell-All spoilers

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Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade.

couple Lisa Hamme and Usman Umar have been shown getting engaged and preparing to marry on Season 4 of : Before the 90 Days, so what is their status now -- are Lisa and Usman married and still together today or have they split up?Lisa, a 52-year-old hospice caregiver from York, PA, and Usman "SojaBoy," a 30-year-old rapper from Nigeria, met on Facebook two years before filming the currently-airing season of : Before the 90 Days.Lisa, a divorced mother of a 15-year-old daughter, fell for Usman, an entertainer in Nigeria who has over 20,000 followers on Instagram, when he wrote her a love song.Lisa's friends and family were worried Usman was scamming her to come to the United States and pursue a bigger rap career, but Lisa followed her heart and flew to Nigeria, which marked her first trip out of America.Usman had already proposed marriage to Lisa, but she didn't think it was official without him doing it in person and giving her a ring.Lisa therefore went to Nigeria with the hope of getting engaged in person and getting married by the end of her trip so she could return to the United States and file for a spousal visa."If my life is one week [or] one month with this man, I've lived a full life," Lisa told her friends before she left America.Lisa gushed, "If I die in Nigeria, I'll die a happy woman because I'll be with the man I love... He's absolutely the man of my dreams. If this is a scam, it's going to break my heart and I will not recover from it."But Lisa had to overcome jealousy and trust issues that stemmed from the fact she had been cheated on in past relationships.Lisa said she couldn't stand the "thirsty" women who followed Usman on social media, and she stewed over women leaving Usman flirty emoticons on his accounts.The more Lisa complained, the more Usman said he had to try to "tolerate" her.Once Lisa arrived in Nigeria, Usman told the cameras he was "in heaven" and in "paradise" holding his love, and Lisa expressed how Usman was "so damn hot."But Usman admitted Lisa had "a bit more belly" than he was expecting and he would've liked her to have a bigger chest with a little waist and big hips, but he said Lisa had a big heart and that's what mattered most.Usman admitted Lisa is not the kind of woman he's typically attracted to, and after the pair made love for the first time -- unprotected -- Usman said the encounter was "70 percent good," which was apparently good enough for him.Lisa, however, continued to be "very jealous," according to Usman, who said she was "even more controlling in person." He feared Lisa's behavior would jeopardize his career or scare some of his fans off."You are not a god," Usma told Lisa after one argument. "You are not up to 10 days in Nigeria and how many times have I said, 'I'm sorry?' I can't even count."Usman griped, "It's better to live in prison... I can't put myself in prison just to make you happy all the time. If this is how you want me to be, then I think it's better for you to just go your way and let me go my way."Lisa felt Usman was being dramatic, especially since she had done so much for him. Lisa reminded Usman that no one is perfect and she was tired from her travels."I love Lisa and I want to make her happy, but if we get married, we need a plan to fix our problems," Usman said in a confessional.After Lisa dressed in traditional Nigerian attire called Hausa and bought a goat as a gift, she finally met Usman's mother Fatimatu, hoping to receive her support and blessing to marry Usman.Fatimatu initially rejected the idea of her son marrying Lisa and did not give the couple her approval or permission."I disagree with his choice to marry Lisa. It scares me because Lisa is obviously much older and also that she will take him abroad," Fatimatu told the cameras."I'm afraid of how they will treat him since the whites don't like the blacks over there."In a last-ditch effort to win her blessing, Lisa prayed with Fatimatu in a mosque since she's a devout Muslim. She dressed and played the part to the best of her ability.Finally, the couple won Fatimatu over once Usman assured her that he's find work in America and come back to Nigeria to visit her often."I have accepted it now," Fatimatu said. "It had become clear to me she and Usman will love together in love and peace. I'm thinking he will come with Lisa here to Nigeria, and I'm happy about it."Later on, Usman picked out a wedding ring for Lisa, who wanted something simple.But Usman said he didn't want to spend his marriage fighting. Usman therefore told Lisa that a Hausa man controls the house and he wanted to be in control of their relationship. Usman was tired of Lisa commanding him to do things, saying that's the man's role.Lisa said a man telling her what to do would be "disrespectful," but Usman wanted to be in charge."If there are two kings in a kingdom, there will definitely be war," Usman said in a confessional.Lisa flipped out and insisted she would never be submissive to a man, but the couple eventually got over their fight and headed to a courthouse in Abuja to get married."If I'm going to marry Usman... I'm going to walk right beside him, not behind him. Usman needs to understand that before we're married," Lisa said in a confessional.Once Lisa and Usman met with a magistrate, they learned they may not be able to get married in Nigeria without a printed copy of Lisa's divorce decree, which she did not bring with her from the United States.Lisa was running out of time in Nigeria and was furious at Usman for not doing his research on the required documents ahead of time. She called the situation "a nightmare."However, Lisa was able to get her divorce decree emailed to her in Nigeria, and she was so excited about the idea of finally marrying her love.But that night, Lisa and Usman had a serious discussion because Lisa claimed to have seen his "whore" on her fiance's Facebook messenger.Lisa said she had been watching the woman for months on Facebook and saw the woman send Usman a kissing emoticon and express her love for him, to which he allegedly called her "baby.""Who the f-ck do you think you're playing with, Usman!?" Lisa vented to the cameras. "I need to make sure he's been faithful to me, because if not, there is going to be no Usman and I."Usman claimed the woman was just his friend and he had been avoiding her.Lisa demanded Usman scrape his social media accounts or else they weren't going to get married. She wanted to see Usman block certain women and clean up his page within hours."Do you... understand that I've been doing a favor for you to get married to you?" Usman asked Lisa. "I'm doing that."Lisa told Usman in reply that she didn't want to marry him because she had 50 men in the United States she could marry instead.Usman responded, "They're not like me," but Lisa countered, "You know what?! You're not that big of a star! You're local talent! Let's get this sh-t straight! You f-cking lied to me. I'm done!... F-ck you and the little boat you've got! Best of luck to you."Lisa threatened to leave Nigeria and give up on Usman, but she said she still loved him and just feared being cheated on again.Usman asked Lisa to be patient with him and trust him, and so Lisa decided to forgive and believe him. Lisa apparently put Usman in his place, and she was proud of herself for saying Usman wouldn't be able to be able to mistreat her.The next day, Usman proposed marriage to Lisa in their hotel room while they were waiting for Usman's relatives to arrive for the wedding."Will you marry me Lisa? With peace, with happiness?" Usman asked."If we can blend our cultures together, then yes," Lisa replied, before gushing to the cameras, "It was everything I ever wanted... It touched me. It's something I'll remember until the day I die. He's my everything and I am ready to marry this man tomorrow."However, Lisa later asked Usman's brother Faruq about Usman's "stubborn" behavior, which upset and offended Usman."I will not let anybody tell me what to do," Usman told his brothers. "Controlling me, that is what I will not tolerate."The conversation became tense and then Lisa stormed away from the gathering and said she was "done.""At this point, I don't know if there will be a wedding tomorrow," Usman told the cameras in the latest episode of : Before the 90 Days.Lisa and Usman are in fact a married couple! However, they are still living apart and in different countries.Lisa appeared on a mid-May Interview Live session with Nigerian motivational speaker Katung Aduwak and noted Usman is her "husband" and they're still married and working through their problems.(One of their issues is that Lisa recently called Usman the N-word).Lisa also referred to herself as a Muslim woman, showing she has converted to Usman's faith since getting married.Lisa and Usman got married during Lisa's trip to Nigeria last year, and she posted a screenshot of their marriage certificate May 14 on Instagram. She had obtained the certificate from the Federal Republic of Nigeria.The marriage certificate says Lisa and Usman got married on August 29, 2019 in Abuja with Usman's brother Mohammed serving as their witness.Photos of what appeared to be Lisa and Usman's wedding ceremony leaked online last year by Starcasm and one picture showed the couple holding their Nigerian marriage certificate.Lisa reportedly chose not to wear any makeup on her wedding day at Usman's request, and Lisa changed her name to Usman's mother's name, Fatima Lisa Umar, when she got married.Lisa also previously confirmed she and Usman are married and "still together" in an early May interview with In Touch Weekly in which Lisa also said she'd be okay if Usman chose to have multiple wives."In the Islamic religion, it is acceptable for him to take four wives, BUT and I mean BUT, he must be able to provide for all four wives," Lisa said through her representative, Rocco Straz."[This includes] financially, housing, utilities, vehicles, car insurance and medical insurance. At that point, if he is able to do all of that, he may take another wife."Rocco added on Lisa's behalf, "The wives do not have to contribute their personal finances with him."Lisa was responding to public comments Usman had made during the April 21 episode of Angela Lee's Lip Service podcast.Usman revealed at the time he doesn't want to stop at just one wife, admitting, "[Lisa] is not okay with it, but she cannot stop me. Yeah, that is the truth.""She cannot give [me a] child. Even if we are going to stay together, I must get [a] child," Usman disclosed, according to In Touch."And that is to say, I have to get married to another woman. It's definitely not only Lisa, whoever I am going to stay with in my life, if you cannot give me a child, honestly I have to get another wife. That is [a] must."In late April, Lisa posted a video on Instagram of Usman dancing with her and captioned it with a kissing emoticon, and going back to April 16, Lisa hinted she and Usman were still going strong through an Instagram post.Lisa shared an image that read, "If another woman steals your man, there's no better revenge than letting her keep him. Real men can't be stolen."She captioned the image, "Since all the negative Nelly's have put me in a snarky ass mood if you think you can take my baby love @officialsojaboy just remember it will turn around and the exact same thing will happen to you but I don't think he's gonna do that to me so hate on hate on and hell yes I'm turning off the comments.""Karma's a bad ass bitch my sisters remember that BGL," she added.Not only did Lisa call Usman her "baby love," but she also insisted Usman would never leave or hurt her.She also posted a message to fans about staying strong during difficult times on April 1 amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, and her location was tagged as Kaduna, Nigeria, implying she was visiting Usman in Nigeria.In addition, Lisa posted a collage of photos of Usman and herself on March 20 on Facebook.In terms of Lisa changing her religion, Usman shared a post on Facebook in December 2019 that showed a screenshot of a text message Lisa had sent him in which she talked about converting to Islam, Starcasm reported."Wasn't for your mom or anyone in our lives, not even you," Lisa allegedly wrote, "this was a decision that I made for myself."Lisa reportedly received her fair share of backlash on social media after revealing she's married to Usman, and some people are claiming Usman has cheated on her. But it hasn't seem to phase the feisty Lisa!When one fan reportedly wrote to Lisa, "I wish you were faithful tho," she reportedly replied, "What do you mean my husband is faithful to me. Keep moving."Lisa then went off at the online troll and, according to Starcasm, wrote, "She is a typical Nigerian b*tch an ppl from my husband area wonder why he married a WHITE AMERICAN WOMAN. FACT STANDS I AM A GOOD WOMAN SO LET MY HATERS COME @USMAN SERIOUSLY ILL F**KING MAKE HER CRY."The commenter continued to allege Usman had been "f-cking around" on her, advising Lisa to get checked for sexual transmitted diseases."Jealous much b*tch? Get in line to kiss my white a**," Lisa reportedly responded."You mad bc I married Usman Sojaboy no wonder Nigerian men are choosing to marry anyone but a Nigerian woman like you.": Before the 90 Days' Season 4 cast Tell-All reunion had reportedly been set to film at a studio in New York City in March similar to past seasons, but due to the coronavirus pandemic, those plans ended up being postponed.Instead, the show ended up filming a reunion remotely, with everyone participating via videoconference, during the first weekend of May.About 10 hours of raw footage from : Before the 90 Days' Season 4 reunion show leaked online, including many segments with Lisa and Usman being interviewed by host Shaun Robinson At the end of the Tell-All's filming, Shaun asked Lisa to describe the future of her relationship with Usman, but Lisa pivoted and requested the host ask Usman the same question first."The future of our relationship always depends on Lisa," Usman said, before revealing he had done everything possible to prove his love for Lisa, including convincing his mother to accept Lisa so they could get married in Nigeria."If that is not the definition of love, then I don't know what is the definition of love," Usman noted."I love her and I [got] married to her. When Lisa came down to Nigeria, the intention was for us to get married... I have [no intention] to get another wife, until -- if -- she cannot give me a child."Earlier in the leaked footage, Usman had repeatedly addressed the topic of whether he wanted multiple wives and explained he would only be interested having a second wife -- who he said would have to have a Nigerian woman from his home village -- if it turned out Lisa was unable to bear him a child.Lisa had also confirmed she would be okay with Lisa having a second wife for that purpose, also she and Usman seemed to disagree about whether the second wife would be considered equal to her (Usman said she would be, while Lisa -- unsurprisingly -- insisted the woman would not be).During is closing comments to Shaun, Usman also insisted he's going to continue his music career, which is his passion.And then Lisa said, "The future of our relationship is off-camera. Him and I discussed a lot of things... Our relationship will proceed from here because it is exactly what we've said. We're blending two people from two different countries and two different cultures."Lisa said it's "going to take time" for them to find their footing, especially since Usman is only 31 years old."He's very young and very naive in terms of what he's been exposed to by doing this show. It's been a shock to him. There's some points that inflated his head more than it should be because it is TV, but he's learning. It's a learning process," Lisa continued."We all make mistakes in life... But we continuously move forward."Lisa said if she and Usman move forward together and have patience with one another then their relationship will be "a success."Lisa may end up moving to Nigeria to live with Usman and appear on : The Other Way.Usman also repeatedly insisted during the Tell-All via videochat he's not with Lisa just to move to the United States."I have no intention to be in the States. Ask Lisa, she will tell you. A lot of people.... [say], 'This guy is young, he wants to marry an old lady from America because he wants a Green Card.' I've been with Lisa for a good three years," Usman began."If I wanted to come to the States, I would be in the States by now."Usman said he wants to stay in Africa like all the other big African rappers have done, adding that he only wants to leave Africa for concerts and shows."The only reason why I listened to Lisa about coming to the States was because we discussed the economy [is better in America]," Usman explained."I have not had any intention, since we got married -- it's been several months right now -- Lisa has been asking me to send my documents so she can fight for me to come to America... but [as of] today, I did not send the documents."The documents would enable Lisa to file for Usman's K-1 visa, but he has clearly not sent them in over eight months since they got married."So I am not desperate to come to America," Usman added. "I don't see anything special in America for my own career, but I believe America is a far better country than my country of Nigeria."Lisa therefore admitted she's considering moving to Nigeria to be with Usman, which would be the type of storyline featured on : The Other Way."That has been on the table for... The Other Way," Lisa noted.When asked when she plans to pack her bags and move to Nigeria, Lisa said, "That is something he and I will discuss when cameras are not around. That is something very personal between him and I."Want more spoilers or couples updates? Click here to visit our homepage!
Members of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 (PTF), on Sunday, met with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

At the end of the meeting, the chairman of the task force, Boss Mustapha, spoke to journalists on their meeting with the president.

Mr Mustapha, who is the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, said the PTF has made recommendations to the president on whether or not schools, religious houses and others should be reopened.

He did not disclose the PTFs recommendations but said only the president could make a final decision on such matters.

Read excerpts of the interview below.

SGF: What we basically did was to submit the fourth interim report to him and to appraise him of the progress that has been achieved in the course of the last two weeks of the extension of the eased phase one of the lockdown and also discuss some of the challenges that weve had and suggested what we need to put in place, going forward.

As far as the work of the PTF is concerned, he was upfront with his commendation and assured us that the nation is fully behind us in the work that he has charged us to do and that hes also appreciative of the work of the frontline workers, particularly the medical personnel, the security personnel and the people who come in contact with the patients in the time of collection of samples, the testings, the care that they are giving.

We also discussed the issue of compliance and he said we should continue to appeal to Nigerians and drive home the point that its a personal responsibility for each and every Nigerian to undertake to ensure that he keeps himself safe and by extension keeping his family, loved ones and community safe.

We will continue to drive that message. Its a message of persuasion, its a message that should make people take personal responsibility for their own protection and health and we will not relent on that.

Q: Kogi and Cross River states are not in tune with the present reality, they are failing to cooperate with the NCDC. Has that come up in your discussions?

SGF: We discussed challenges generally and I believe that in the context of those discussions, certain steps will be taken. We are doing everything to ensure that the entire nation is on the same page with one response and it is very important that we realise that no state is an island unto itself, when you deal with public health matters.

Whatever happens in a particular locality has the consequences of spilling off to other constituencies. That is the message that well continue to drive in our pursuit of getting everybody to be on board and I can assure you that theres no island that exists as far as COVID-19 is concerned in this country. We must integrate all the responses from the different segments of the community and the state and have everybody to be on the same page. We will continue to pursue that and we must also ensure that it happens. I can assure about that.

Q: Some states have reopened worship centres saying prayers are critical in containing the disease. How do you feel about that?

SGF: Thats part of what we have considered in its totality. Wed await Mr Presidents on that, once I receive his approval, going forward, to certain recommendations we have put in place, we will how that happens. The issue of easing up, you know we are in the first phase, we had an extension of two weeks for the first phase, the next phase should be the second phase and along with that will come in with a lot of recommendations, which we expect Mr President to consider.

But I can assure you about one thing, that the ownership of the next stage will be the responsibility of the states and the national supervision and coordination because we have gone into community transmission. Where are the communities? The communities are in the states. So the ownership of the next stage will be the responsibility of the states, the local government, the traditional institutions, the religious leaders at the different levels of our communities because that is where the problem is.

Like weve kept saying, 20 local governments, out of 774, account for 60 per cent of confirmed cases in Nigeria today. So where are these 20 local governments? They are in communities. It means we have reached the apex of community transmission and we must get the communities involved.

So the issues of places of worships, the issues of schools, the issues of some certain businesses that were not opened hitherto are part of the packages that we have looked at and weve made the appropriate recommendations, but you know that Mr President is the only one that can take decisions in respect of that.

In the framework, the states are subnationals, they have their own responsibilities too, so it is in the exercise of those responsibilities that they had meetings with those religious bodies and agreed on the guidelines and protocols on how they open up, but in the framework of the national response we are taking that into consideration.

Q: Is Nigeria winning this fight against COVID-19, considering the rate of infections?

SGF: We are winning. As a matter of fact, you juxtapose the rate of cases with our fatality rate, which is basically about 3 per cent. In other countries and other climes, its over 10%, but the most important thing that you will realise when we started this exercise, we had only five testing stations. Now weve ramped it up to 28, without correspondent increase in the number of deaths. Weve gone beyond 60,000 now, that reflects in the number of confirmed cases

Weve not reached the peak yet and I wont want to fool Nigerians by telling them that we are out of the woods. No, we are not out of the woods. As we even open up and accommodate more enterprises, because we are trying to have a balance between livelihoods and life, theres a likelihood of increase in transmission in cases.

But that should not be a source of despair. Like weve always said, the experts will tell you over 80 per cent will contact coronavirus and will not even notice that they have and that accounts for what is happening at the isolation centres when you see young men saying they are not sick and asking why they are being kept there. They are asymptomatic, they dont show symptoms and they will ware it out.

Theres a 20 per cent that is critical by virtue of certain factors, indices: age, underlying health conditions and vulnerability. Thats the percentage we are trying to protect and if we dont do something in terms of management, in terms of putting in non-pharmaceutical intervention and guidelines to protect that 20%, about 5% of them can fall critically ill and eventually become fatalities in the numbers and thats what we are trying to avoid.

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So everything we are emplacing is to ensure we protect this vulnerable 20%. 80% will wear it out so the figure isnt a thing of major concern. Yesterday when I saw the 553 I called the governor of Lagos, I thought he was going to be under intense pressure, but surprisingly he said no, that it was expected because testing has been ramped up and as you ramp up your testing, it reveals what is happening in your community that prepares better for the kind of management care you will put in place.

We are not worried about it as to whether the numbers will increase? They will increase.

Q: Is there hope if opening the economy soon?

We have started, even in the first phase and the extension that came with it. Essential parts of the economy was opening up by way of allowing agricultural production, people that produce fertilizers. The oil and gas industry was never closed for one day and some aspects of the financial sector was opened. After we receive Mr Presidents approval tonight or tomorrow morning, we will now know which segment of the economy he has allowed to open.
More than 80 percent industrialists in Rajasthan, a majority of them owning micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), are dissatisfied with the centres stimulus package, FICCI has found in a survey.

The online survey by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry or FICCI included 107 industry members, mostly of MSMEs in Jaipur, Jodhpur, Udaipur, Kota, Ajmer, Bhiwadi, Alwar and Bhilwara to capture the status of operations, feedback on migration of labourers and the Rs 29 lakh crore stimulus package announced by the centre recently.

In the survey, 83.2% of respondents mentioned that the stimulus package was not so effective, 15% respondents found it effective and 1.8% found it very effective.

Atul Sharma, director, FICCI Rajasthan state council, said most of the small and medium industries were looking at a relief package instead of a stimulus package. These units are under financial burden as they are not getting any revenue, but there is cash outflow. So, they were looking at some relief in expenses and some kind of grants from the government, he said.

He said the industry association had apprised the state government and the centre of its demand before the package was announced. The three main components of the package were waiver of fixed charges in electricity bills for the lockdown period, help in payment of salaries to workers in the lockdown and waiving interest on loans. However, these have not been met, he said.

According to the survey, 72% respondents said migration of labourers has affected their business.

Sharma said the governments recent initiative to create an online labour employment exchange is a good idea. This is a good initiative and would help the existing and new industries in finding human resource as per their needs. There are many established portals for white collar jobs but this one is a great initiative for blue collar jobs, he said.

Almost 90 percent respondents in the survey said their capacity utilisation is below 50 percent. The survey found that 27.1% respondents are operating at less than 10% capacity, 32.7% respondents are doing capacity utilisation between 10% and 25%, 89.7% respondents are doing capacity utilisation of less than 50% and 2.8% respondents indicated capacity utilisation above 75%.

Sharma said this is partly due to labour shortage, but mainly due to lack of demand.

There is no place to send the material to as there is no demand, he said.

Ashok Kajaria, chairman, FICCI Rajasthan State Council & CMD, Kajaria Ceramics Ltd said, We hope Lockdown 5.0 or Exit 1.0 would bring more positive changes and liberal guidelines as now thrust of both central and state government is on reviving the economy.
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In addition to his research, Cao Bao Anh has authored a book on the human immune system which is credited with helping its readers cope both physically and emotionally with the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.

For Anh, a young Vietnamese national working on his doctorate at Harvard University, immunology is a lifelong calling and an outlet for giving back to the community

Anh, 28, has come a long way from his hometown in Dong Nai Province, southern Vietnam.

After finishing his undergraduate studies as a valedictorian at a Canadian university, he earned himself a spot in the immunology PhD program at Harvard.

Throughout his years of academic success, Anh has maintained the notion that education is key to helping others and giving back to the community.

The opportunity of a lifetime

Anhs first exposure to medical science came in his senior year of high school when he volunteered to help out at a stem cell laboratory at the University of Science under the Vietnam National University-Ho Chi Minh City.

It was during this volunteer experience that a mentor explained to Anh that immunology is the key to modern medicine  an idea which would drive the majority of future academic decisions.

Shortly after, Anh was awarded a Vietnamese government-sponsored scholarship to study at the University of Toronto in Canada where he had the opportunity to attend a talk by revered immunology expert Professor Bebhinn Treanor.

The summer after his freshman year, Anh moved into a youth homeless shelter near the campus to save money so that he could afford the summer courses he needed to qualify for Prof. Treanors introductory immunology course meant for third-year students.

Looking back, I think I was much more of a risk taker then, perhaps because I was certain I would be successful, Anh said in an interview with Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper.

Set on pursuing a doctorate at Harvard, he decided to work on a masters degree with Prof. Treanor despite receiving PhD offers from several other schools after graduating from his university as a valedictorian.

Working with Prof. Treanor, he felt, would be his best shot for a future at Harvard.

It turned out to be the toughest period of my education because doing research really isnt easy. Instead of picking myself up after a failure, I found myself wallowing in pity. Those were my darkest times, Anh shared.

He began studying psychology to better understand his issues and then regained a mental balance.

My internal crisis didnt stop me from applying to Harvard, my long-time dream, he explained.

And that perseverance paid off in the form of a letter of acceptance into Harvards doctoral program.

I always try my best to go after what I want and seek out help when there is a problem which I cant sort out on my own, he explained of his success.

Currently, his research interests include the developmental and evolutionary aspects of immunology.

These interests and the lessons he has learned on the journey toward making them a career are the inspiration behind his book, The Story of Our Immune System  a read which has been enthusiastically embraced by Vietnamese readers amid the fight against COVID-19, thanks to its simplified explanations of the complex human body.

After devouring books from Oopsy, a Vietnamese community of psychologists and psychotherapists, I realized a well-written book can change lives. I wanted to do the same by penning a book on the human body and immune system, Anh said.

"Humans have three interrelated and codependent components  our body, our psychology, and our rationality," the researcher said.

"If one is out of whack, the others will be, too.

We tend to take our body for granted.

"Self-harm habits such as drinking and smoking not only cause physical illnesses but also plunge us into disruptive psychological patterns.

"My book is intended for everyone to teach these concepts to everyone, even those with little prior knowledge on the topic."

Such efforts have been well received by the community.

I told Anh to write his book for the communitys sake instead of his own reputation. He spent a lot of time on the piece and heeded our advice, Nguyen Thi Nhan, an author and translator for Oopsy, lauded her colleague.

Cao Bao Anh (second row, center) stands at a seminar titled Suc khoe cam xuc (Emotional Health) organized by Oopsy, a Vietnamese psychology group in Hanoi, Vietnam, January 2020 in this photo provided by Oopsy.

A proud Vietnamese

Anh topped his cellular and molecular biology cohort at the University of Toronto in 2015 with a 4.0 GPA after receiving a scholarship from the Vietnamese government four years earlier.

He was also the recipient of the 2015 John Black Aird award for the top student at the University of Toronto, as well as a Governor Generals Silver Medal for being one of the universitys most academically outstanding graduates.

He has been working on his doctoral degree in immunology at Harvard University on a full-time scholarship since late 2017.

On top of an already exemplary academic profile, Anh has proven to be a leader outside of the classroom.

In addition to fulfilling a role as an academic programmer and promoter in residence, he also works as a teaching assistant and a course facilitator at the University of Toronto.

In his spare time, he works with patients coping with terminal illness as a volunteer palliative care worker with Hospice Toronto.

Prof. Treanor once told The Star, Canada's largest online news site, that she was taken aback when Anh, then a sophomore, sent her a solution to one of her laboratorys problems which she had described to him just one day prior.

She said she was shocked that Anh was able to see right through to the core of the issue and share his ideas with great dedication.

The Star was also impressed when Anh proudly wrapped himself in a Vietnamese flag after receiving his degree at a graduation ceremony at the University of Toronto in 2015.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
Kenya's Covid-19 cases on Saturday rose to 1,888 after 143 more people tested positive after testing 2959 samples in the past 24 hours, the Health ministry announced.

At the same time, 26 more people have recovered, bringing the total number of recoveries to 464.

While making the announcements during the daily briefings Saturday afternoon, Health Chief Administrative Secretary Rashid Aman said that the fight against the virus needs collective responsibility, solidarity and steadfastness as the Covid-19 cases are not going down.

Dr Aman said the new positive cased comprise 120 males and 33 females aged between one month and 88 years old.

Nairobi had 86 cases, Mombasa, 25 Kiambu in central Kenya six while Busia, Kwale, and Migori counties had three cases each. Kisii, Garissa, Isiolo and Makueni had one case each. Of the cases in Nairobi, Kibra slum had 21.

So far, 33 counties have been affected by the virus.

Dr Aman said asymptomatic cases are a risk to the community. He urged Kenyans to behave responsibly and protect themselves from the virus.
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Linkedin (Reuters) Sydney, Australia  Sun, May 31, 2020 17:06 599 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdb37890 2 News Cathay-Pacific,Airlines,Hong-Kong,China,coronavirus,COVID-19 Free

Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd said on Saturday that the reopening of transit services for passengers at Hong Kong International Airport from June 1 will not include those traveling to and from mainland China.

Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam announced earlier this week that some transit passengers would be allowed through the hub from Monday, but did not provide further details. Transit through the airport has been barred since March 25 as part of measures taken to help control the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

Cathay said travelers could transit Hong Kong if their itinerary was on a single booking and the connection time to the next flight was within eight hours.

"In this first phase, transiting to and from destinations in mainland China is not available," the airline said on its website.

Read also: We are Hong Kong

China's aviation regulator has been flooded with tens of thousands of social media comments criticizing it and the Chinese government for the small number of flight options to bring home people stranded overseas.

The regulator drastically reduced the number of allowed international flights to prevent the potential of importing COVID-19 infections. Many foreign airlines are barred altogether and mainland carriers can fly just one weekly passenger flight on one route to any country, which has sent fares skyrocketing.

That rule does not apply to airlines from Hong Kong, such as Cathay, which are allowed more flights to and from the mainland, but the airline's statement on Saturday indicated it cannot immediately take advantage of the boom in demand.

Cathay has cut capacity by around 97 percent due to a fall in demand and strict quarantine regulations associated with the pandemic.

Rival Asian hub Singapore, which is not allowed nearly as many mainland flights, is gradually allowing some transit traffic to resume from June 2.
The National Youth Authority has organized a day's sensitization workshop for out-of- school adolescents in the Krachi East Municipality of the Oti Region on early marriage and teenage pregnancy.



The programme, which was sponsored by the United Nations Population Fund, was to help pupils and students who were out of school know the dangers associated with early marriages and teenage pregnancies and how to overcome those challenges.



They were asked to maintain good relationship with their parents and pick good role models to guide them.



Mr Yao Sermodey, the Volta Regional Director of the NYA, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that the youth could contribute their quota to the socio-economic development of the country, if they were given the necessary requisite training and mentoring.



Mr Anim Abdul Muttalib, the Municipal Director of Heath, urged the participants to stay away from sex and focused on equipping themselves with skills that would make them become good citizens.



He said the possibility of them having unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases was high when they continued to engage themselves in unprotected sex and short "term partnerships", and urged them to desist from it.



Mr Patrick Jilima Chartey, Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) of Krachi East, thanked NYA for organising the event to curb the menace that had been a major challenge in the District for decades.



He said the Assembly in collaboration with World Vision Ghana, had embarked on sensitisation activities to educate parents and children on the dangers associated with early marriages, resulting in 15.4 per cent reduction of teenage pregnancy in the area.

Source: GNA









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Transport Minister Marc Garneau says that Canadian airlines could go bankrupt if the ailing industry is compelled to refund passengers billions of dollars for flights cancelled due to the pandemic.

"I have said many times that I have enormous sympathy for those who would have preferred to have a cash refund in these difficult circumstances. It is far from being an ideal situation," Garneau told a press conference earlier today.

"At the same time, if airlines had to immediately reimburse all cancelled tickets, it would have a devastating effect on the air sector, which has been reeling since the COVID 19 pandemic started."

Garneau was doubling down on a message he delivered to the House of Commons' pandemic committee on Thursday, when he warned MPs that if airlines "had to reimburse at this time, some of them could fail."

The minister said today it's his responsibility to help Canada's airlines survive the pandemic.

"It is so essential for this country," he said. "This is the second largest country on Earth, with its distances and remote areas, and we expect and need an airline industry in this country."

Watch | Reporters question Marc Garneau about airline ticket refunds

But his response isn't sitting well with Canadians struggling financially during the pandemic who argue it's their right as consumers to get their money back for flights they never took.

"It's very disappointing and frustrating," said Tammie Fang, a health care essential worker in B.C. "My rights as a consumer have been put aside to help balance the airline industry."

Fang works at a New Westminster hospital assisting with open-heart surgeries. She said she spends much of her spare time calling and emailing Air Transat seeking a refund of roughly $500 for a flight to Toronto she never took. She describes it as an extra burden during an already stressful and financially challenging time.

Story continues

"It's disheartening," she said. "It's unbelievable how much effort we have to put in."

Airlines' survival versus consumers' rights

Canada's airline industry has been hit particularly hard by the pandemic, and most of the country's airline fleet is sitting idle at airports across the country. Airlines are losing 90 per cent of their normal revenue streams and some have put their operations completely on pause.

At the same time, pressure is mounting on the federal government to step in and force airlines to pay back passengers who also are struggling financially. Two petitions with more than 30,000 signatures combined have been submitted to Parliament in recent weeks calling on the government to demand that airlines tapping into taxpayer-funded government supports reimburse grounded passengers.

Nick Oxford/Reuters

Billions tied up in refunds

For the most part, Canadian airlines are offering those passengers travel vouchers redeemable for two years. Air Canada also announced last week that it's allowing people to transfer their tickets to others, which could permit ticket holders to sell them. The Canadian Transportation Agency has said offering vouchers could be a reasonable measure in the current circumstances.

Garneau's office said it would cost airlines billions of dollars to refund customers. When CBC asked Transport Canada for specific numbers, it was told the figures the government receives from airlines amount to proprietary information that it isn't authorized to release.

Air Canada's books are open, since it's a publicly traded company. It has about $2.6 billion tied up in ticket sales for future travel over the next year.

On March 16, the airline said its current liquidity level was $6.3 billion  a record level  and its balance sheet was solid. Since then, Air Canada has said it's burning $22 million a day in operating costs and plans to reduce its workforce by 50 to 60 per cent. The company said a dramatic drop in demand during the pandemic caused the airline to slash its flight capacity by 95 per cent.

Government in talks with airlines and consumers

Outside Rideau Cottage today, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau repeated a message he's delivered in the past  that the government has to strike the right balance between keeping airlines afloat and preserving consumers' rights.

"I hear clearly the concerns that Canadians have around their air tickets," said Trudeau. "We will continue to work with the industry and with concerned groups of Canadians to ensure that we find a fair way through this.

"But I know Canadians at the same time want to make sure we continue to have an airline industry after this very difficult pandemic."

The government is in talks with airlines and is looking to see what other countries have done with travel refunds. It's expected to deliver an update on the file in the coming weeks.
Shankkar Aiyar By

It is what economists and political meteorologists call a perfect storm.

May 5, 2020. Indian troops encounter incursions by brigades of the Peoples Liberation Army into Indian territory in regions across the 4,000 km border  the face offs between forces ranged from fisticuffs to fast and furious chases. May 21, 2020. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang DROPS the pretence and the de-rigueur phrase peaceful as he chants Chinas desire of many decades for reunification with Taiwan. May 28, 2020. The National Peoples Congress of China adopts a new security law for Hong Kong, essentially a legislative version of the tanks that rolled into Tiananmen Square in 1989, allowing for prosecution of any acts or activities deemed endangering Chinas national security.

May 29, 2020. US President Donald Trump declares China has replaced the promised one country, two systems with one country, one system. Invoking the powers under United States-Hong Kong Policy Act, scripted in 1991 by Republican Senator Mitch McConnell, Trump announced the withdrawal of special privileges since Hong Kong was no longer sufficiently autonomous as required.

To paraphrase Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, for decades nothing happened. Hong Kong symbolised the idea of what could be for Taiwan, even for many in China. And in four weeks, decades of hope, even if apparently naive, were dashed. The dragon is effectively daring global powers and their ideological moorings.

What emboldens China is its economic power. For three decades and more, China systematically aligned economic growth deploying policy to lure technology and capital  it attracted over $2 trillion in FDI between 1990 and 2018. In a cold and calculated move, China has sought to muscle in its hegemony under the cover of the chaos wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic.

While it is early days, geopolitics is poised at the cusp of a tectonic shift. What holds for geology is true for geopolitics. The shifting of planes affords an opportunity to the world at large to redesign economic engagement and India, in particular, to up its game.

In the emerging geopolitical landscape, countries and companies will have to shed subscription to Tinder-type engagement focussed solely on individual balance sheets and log into to arranged marriages where countries parent investment agreements between entities to achieve stated demand-supply objectives and resilience for the national balance sheets.

The pandemic has illuminated a myth  what was presumed to be a global supply chain was a Chinese supply chain. The centrality of China in the global supply chain and, therefore, global growth story is not easy to rearrange. China leveraged scale to acquire global market share. India could challenge this domination, if it sheds incrementalism and gets its policy ducks in a row, capitalise on the potential of its demography, democracy and domestic market  as it has successfully in sectors such as pharma, automobiles and software services.

The opportunity to dismantle dependencies is manifest and beckons through the fog of the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. The world is hunting for and will hunt for capacity to manufacture vaccines and drugs as they are discovered. India has over 30 PSEs on its auction block. It could offer companies from Canada, Britain or the US, plug and play investment opportunities  to acquire PSUs such as Hindustan Antibiotics, IDPL, Bengal Chemicals, Karnataka Antibiotics or IMPCL to furnish, upgrade or rebuild as per needs. The idea is not just about the immediate needs but decoupling from dependence on China.

Pension funds in Australia, Canada, the UK and the US and elsewhere are hunting for long- term investments. Indias proposed spend in infrastructure is one avenue. Roads Minister Nitin Gadkari is gung-ho about green highways  set up/allow projects on land adjacent to highways which require funding. One of the largest land owners in India, Indian Railways is keen to offer surplus land for renewable/solar energy projects. A public-private collaboration, joint ventures funded by funds could create enterprises and earnings for the future.

Consider the opportunities in education. India is the second largest source of students for foreign universities. Education is among Australias top five exports and is a big part of the economies of the UK and Canada. This was sustainable Before Corona or BC but will not be in AD or After Distancing. Top universities in the developed world are expanding online capacities  for courses in liberal arts, management and skills. Tie-ups between universities could deliver quality for Indian varsities and quantity for foreign online courses.

To manage agri output, India imports energy and raw inputs to produce fertilisers. This is cost ineffective. India could collaborate to set up a plant say in energy and phosphate rich Saskatchewan and access fertilisers without importing costs and a larger carbon footprint. These are only some of the possibilities. The potential for collaborative growth is limited only by imagination.

China, however, has not left much to imagination. Its quest is transparent. The dragons dare calls for a reset in dollar dynamics, reconfiguration of investment and trade flows, and a rethink on definitions of the means and ends of globalisation.

Author of Aadhaar: A Biometric History of Indias 12 Digit Revolution, and

Accidental India shankkar.aiyar@gmail.com
After more referrals and calls, I found a San Francisco doctor who charged $195 for the consultation but, unlike the first, applied it to the treatments, each of which would cost $300 and of course wouldnt be covered by insurance. Still, by then it looked like a deal. At our first appointment, he told my son to expect to come in at least three more times for treatments with his PicoWay laser.
Raipur:

Setting a sterling example, Chhattisgarhs youngest sarpanch Ritu Pandram is busy transforming lives by taking up developmental causes of the tribals as well as imparting free education to the needy.

The 24-year-old head of Saarbahara village panchayat in Gourela development block imparts free education to students and is also working hard to tackle several other issues in her village like water scarcity and sanitation.

If villagers have better access to water, electricity, sanitation and education, it would transform their lives and brighten their future, she told PTI.

Located about 225 km from state capital Raipur, tribal-dominated Saarbahara village has a population of about 9,000.

Ritu, who pursued her post graduation in biotechnology from Guru Ghasidas Central University of Bilaspur, aspires to crack the civil services examination.

However, this has not held her back from contesting the panchayat election in early 2015 from her native Saarbahara village. She was elected as the youngest sarpanch in the state and continued her studies after the polls.

My friends used to call me neta ji in college just to pull my leg, but I had never imagined that I would ever contest an election as it was not my cup of tea. Now my villagers say I was the most suited candidate for the post, the young woman said.

Her agriculturist father Udai Singh Pandram, despite his meager income, educated Ritu and her two other siblings.

Ever since she assumed the office, Ritu got engaged into the task of development and bringing better sanitation and roads in the village.

Simultaneously, she also started her mission of imparting free education to children at her house. She decided to teach them basic Mathematics and Science.

We have a government school upto class XII in the village and even a semi-government model school. But these students need extra attention to understand the basics, she pointed out while talking about her endeavour.

It was started with 12-13 children, upto class VIII, last year and now nearly 30 kids attend her classes.

Ritu later shifted the classes to nearby aanganwadi centre as it was spacious. She also stressed that the government as well as villagers needed to focus in the area of water conservation.

Agriculture is the main source of livelihood of people in the area and for the purpose they are mainly dependent on rainwater for irrigation. Owing to the drought situation in past couple of years, it is becoming difficult for farmers to arrange water for their crops.

We have written to the irrigation department to enhance irrigation facilities. Besides, we are also working on methods to store maximum rainwater, she said.

Ritu also said that villagers lacked adequate information about government schemes and their benefits. She wants to work extensively to spread awareness and help villagers avail the benefits.

Though she is yet to decide on her future plans, the young woman is at present preparing for the civil service examination.

I want to serve the people at grassroot level but not only through politics. I would never let my dream of becoming an IAS officer take a back seat, she asserted.

The sarpanch recently went on a trip to Raipur to see the development works and implementation of government schemes.

Lauding the young sarpanchs efforts, a state government official said, She is working tirelessly to ensure benefits of various state government schemes to villagers and for the progress of the area. She was on a trip to the capital as a part of Hamar Chhattisgarh Yojana.

Efforts had been made by her to harvest rain water as there was shortage of it in the area. She is serious about educating the children in the village and imparting free education to them. She has inspired girls to go for higher education in other towns, the official added.

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Godwin Obaseki, governor of Edo, has ordered an investigation into the death of Vera Uwaila Omozuwa,a 100-level microbiology student of...

an investigation into the death of Vera Uwaila Omozuwa,a 100-level microbiology student of the University of Benin (UNIBEN) in the state. Godwin Obaseki, governor of Edo, has ordered





Omozuwa reportedly died after she was raped and her head smashed with a fire extinguisher inside a church in the state capital.





She was said to have gone into the place of worship to read in preparation for the resumption of school  after spending months at home owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.





In a statement on Sunday, Crusoe Osagie, special adviser to the governor on media and communication strategy, said Obaseki has ordered the police and other security agencies to fish out the culprits and bring them to justice.





The governor is deeply saddened by the news of the death of Miss Vera Uwaila Omozuwa. We have been in consultation with the Edo State Command of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) and have mandated thorough investigation of the matter to ensure that those who are responsible for this heinous crime are brought to justice, Osagie said.





He said the state government would ensure that the law run its course and that the violence against persons (VAP) law and other laws related to rape and sexual abuse are exploited to get justice for the deceased.




HONG KONG, May 30 (Xinhua) -- A senior official of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government said Saturday that the national security legislation will protect the legitimate rights and interests of Hong Kong residents.

Hong Kong residents have no need to worry, Secretary for Justice Teresa Cheng of the HKSAR government said, stressing that the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) will protect the legitimate rights and interests of Hong Kong residents when making the relevant law.

The legislative decision of the NPC was made to safeguard national sovereignty, security and development interests, uphold and improve "one country, two systems," safeguard Hong Kong's long-term prosperity and stability, and guarantee the legitimate rights and interests of Hong Kong residents.

Cheng said she hopes Hong Kong residents can understand and support the legislation.
KYODO NEWS - May 31, 2020 - 19:05 | Sports, All, Feature

American Olympic gold medalist swimmer Katie Ledecky on Sunday jointly hosted an online interactive workshop with Panasonic Center Tokyo to promote STEM education to Japanese students.

Ledecky had earlier this year launched a STEM educational program in partnership with Panasonic aimed at encouraging high school students to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Around 20 Japanese students with prior exposure to STEM education participated in Sunday's event titled "The power to create the future," which was also live streamed on YouTube.

Ledecky spoke to the students, who hailed from seven prefectures across Japan, about the appeal and importance of STEM education, while students expressed how interesting and meaningful it was to solve problems through an interdisciplinary approach.

"What did you think about the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics?" one of the participating students asked in the second part of the event, which was a free question session.

"I'm very grateful they were postponed and not canceled," Ledecky said, after stressing that she felt it was the right decision based on the situation despite having trained for four years for the Tokyo Games.

When asked by another student about the importance of having ambition, Ledecky, who is a five-time Olympic gold medalist and 15-time World Champion swimmer, responded, "I think it is very important to have a dream and to have goals, but don't limit off to just one goal or one dream."

Ledecky also encouraged the students in her closing remarks, saying "I really hope I will be there in your beautiful country next year for the Olympics. Until then, keep working hard."
Almost 2.5million patients have missed out on vital cancer tests and treatment because of the pandemic.

The NHS faces the shocking backlog of cases as it tries to return to normal  and also cope with new victims of the disease.

Cancer Research UK says 2.1million patients are awaiting crucial screening for breast, cervical and bowel cancer.

Another 290,000 have missed out on urgent referrals to confirm or rule out tumours.

And at least 21,600 patients have had surgery, chemotherapy or radiotherapy postponed in the past nine weeks.

Some of these procedures would have saved lives or extended them, granting precious extra time with loved ones.

It is also thought patients with warning signs of cancer have avoided seeking help because they are worried about contracting coronavirus in a surgery or hospital.

With the lockdown being eased today to allow friends and family to meet up, for some shops to reopen and pupils to return to school:

Ministers stressed primaries are safe amid fears some pupils will be kept away;

Britons were urged to remain sensible and not overdo interactions with others;

Police were forced to issue dispersal orders to crowds on beaches in Bude, north Cornwall, after social-distancing rules were flouted;

Up to two million vulnerable patients who have been shielding will be allowed outside for the first time in two months;

A further 113 virus deaths were reported yesterday, the lowest figure during lockdown;

Some scientists warned restrictions were being eased too early with infections and deaths still high;

A poll suggested the Conservative lead over Labour had crashed by eight points following the Dominic Cummings saga.

The numbers awaiting cancer treatment are extremely worrying, according to Sarah Woolnough, policy chief at Cancer Research UK.

She added: Were going to have this huge backlog to clear. Its a massive backlog of services and treatment to deliver. Its absolutely huge, its thousands and thousands and thousands.

Im at risk after crucial drugs had to be stopped For three years Joanna Addis has received cutting-edge drugs to keep her breast cancer from growing. But in April the 54-year-old was told her treatment was to be paused for three months. Her treatment  a combination of the drugs palbociclib and letrozole  was thought to be too dangerous to take during the pandemic because it depresses the immune system. Fears: Joanna Addis lives with her husband Volky in Stockport Mrs Addis, who lives in Stockport with husband Volky, had been taking the treatment since 2017 after surgery failed to control her cancer. I try not to think about what will happen over the next two months, but I do worry about what my scan in June will show, she said. If my disease was to progress, Id feel like I had wasted a treatment option and the time it could have given me. Striking off such a valuable treatment not because of my cancer becoming unresponsive, but because of the risk of the virus, doesnt seem fair. I ended up in hospital soon after I came off palbociclib as pain in my right hip became so severe that I couldnt walk, which felt like too much of a coincidence at the time. Thankfully, no cancer progression was found, but I do really worry what may happen if I need to stay off the treatment for even longer. Everything just feels so out of my control at the moment, which is really difficult. Advertisement

Professor Charles Swanton, the charitys chief clinician, said: My colleagues and I have seen the devastating impact of this pandemic on both patients and NHS staff. Delays to diagnosis and treatment could mean that some cancers will become inoperable.

The longer a patient waits to be diagnosed and treated for cancer, the greater the likelihood their tumours will spread to other tissues and organs to the extent they become inoperable.

Cancer Researchs data shows that across the UK, 12,800 patients have missed out on surgery, 6,000 on chemotherapy and another 2,800 on radiotherapy.

The figures for surgery are particularly worrying because these procedures would otherwise remove tumours that may now have grown or spread.

Almost 2.5million patients have missed out on vital cancer tests and treatment because of the pandemic [File photo]

Many hospitals have delayed chemotherapy, radiotherapy or operations to remove tumours to enable them to cope with a surge in virus cases, as well as to cut cancer patients risk of becoming infected when they come in.

At the same time, patients with worrying symptoms, including lumps on their breasts or frequent urination, which could be a sign of prostate cancer, have been reluctant to make appointments with GPs.

Some family doctors have not been sending patients to hospital for certain diagnostic tests as they have also been halted, particularly procedures to detect bowel cancer.

Routine screening for breast, cervical and bowel cancer has been suspended in most areas over the past two months despite being crucial for detecting early stage tumours.

Lynda Thomas of Macmillan Cancer Support said: Long before the pandemic hit, cancer waiting times were at their worst. Since the coronavirus outbreak, it is has become even harder for people with cancer to get the care and support they need and their anxieties have multiplied.

Two months on, and still waiting for vital surgery A father with terminal cancer is still waiting for surgery two months after it was cancelled the day before it was due to take place. Glynne Pugh, 68, has bowel cancer and was given 12 months to live last November. He was due to have an operation at St Jamess University Hospital in Leeds on March 23. His family were told the postponement was due to the closure of the operating theatre for coronavirus training. Mr Pughs son Bradley, 32, said at the time: It was just devastating  mum and dad were completely in shock and obviously tearful. As a family we understand how much pressure the NHS is under, but we feel that, as dads operation is life or death, the cancer might spread. There is only about six months left, thats the problem. Glynne Pugh, 68, pictured above with his son Brad, has bowel cancer and was given 12 months to live last November. He was due to have an operation at St Jamess University Hospital in Leeds on March 23 His father has survived cancer twice before and his family insist he is strong enough to endure treatment again, but the operation remains vital. There was hope there for the whole family, which was everyone was holding out for, said Bradley, of Stroud, Gloucestershire. What the NHS must be going through is absolutely terrible. They are all doing a fantastic job, but we still feel dad deserves the operation because he is our hero. This is a man who has worked extremely hard all his life. Mr Pugh worked as an engineer from the age of 18. Advertisement

Baroness Delyth Morgan of the charity Breast Cancer Now said: Its extremely concerning to hear of the major impacts the pandemic continues to have on thousands of people affected by cancer. The outbreak has led to many peoples cancer treatment being paused or delayed, an extremely worrying drop in the number of people being referred to see a cancer specialist, thousands of screening appointments being cancelled and some clinical trials being paused.

Figures from Cancer Research UK in April showed 2,700 cases were being missed a week, partly because patients were shunning their GPs and missing out on screening.

The charity says that  thanks in part to a Daily Mail front page on April 22  the numbers contacting family doctors with warning signs has begun to increase, although many are still staying at home.

A more recent estimate of missed cases from Macmillan put the number at 2,000 a week. But officials are now anxious that the NHS will be unable to cope with the huge surge in patients who will start coming through the system for diagnosis or treatment once the pandemic abates.

Even before the virus took off in the UK in March, cancer waiting times were at their worst since records began in 2010 with understaffed hospitals struggling to cope.

This means that patients who have already waited months for a cancer diagnosis or treatment will face a bottleneck in accessing care.

Hospitals will be further constrained by strict infection control measures that mean only limited numbers can have CT or MRI scans each day as machines will have to be thoroughly cleaned. Chemotherapy will also be restricted to a few patients at a time due to social-distancing rules.

Cancer Research UK is also calling on the Government and the NHS to dramatically increase testing for staff and patients within specialist treatment centres to ensure they are Covid-free.

The NHS launched these centres last month in private hospitals and NHS hospitals as a means of providing safe areas for cancer patients to undergo diagnosis and treatment far away from virus wards.

But the charity says that unless patients are tested every time they come for treatment, with staff also being tested very frequently, they cannot be reassured that these centres are clear of coronavirus.

An NHS spokesman said: Even though more people than ever started NHS cancer treatment in March, coronavirus has turned millions of lives upside down. Cancer services are largely now open, ready and able to receive all patients who need care, so the critical point is that anyone who is concerned about a possible cancer symptom should contact their GP practice and come forward for a check-up.

Plight of mother in limbo after clinical trials paused Karen Hilton was due to marry Alistair, her partner of ten years, in April but the lockdown scuppered their plans Karen Hilton was due to marry Alistair, her partner of ten years, in April but the lockdown scuppered their plans. The decision to cancel the event was all the more galling as the 48-year-old fears she may be running out of time to treat her breast cancer. After first being diagnosed in May 2016 and then again in 2017, Miss Hilton, from Dalkeith in Scotland, was found to be suffering from secondary cancer in September 2018 after noticing lumps on her collarbone. Miss Hilton, a former senior consultant for HSBC, is having chemotherapy but fears she may have to stop if it compromises her health. She said: Ive been on my current treatment for a few weeks now, but it could compromise my blood count and if it drops too low, I may have to stop. She had hoped to take part in clinical trials for new drugs, but many of these are on hold due to the outbreak. Miss Hilton, who has a 13-year-old son, said: I want to see my son grow up and its heartbreaking to think that might not happen. Unfortunately, I only have so many options left, and those options include trials for new treatments. She added: They could be the thing that keep me alive but at the moment due to Covid-19 Im not getting access and I dont know how long its going to take for clinical trials to come back. While its a frightening situation, Im also living with hope that I will get the treatment I need. Advertisement

A truly terrible toll for those left to suffer in silence at home

Analysis by Sue Reid for the Daily Mail

Patients with cancer, heart problems and other life-threatening ailments are feared to have died at home as the NHS turned its focus to the pandemic.

Alarmingly, delays in cancer surgery alone will cost more lives than the number of virus patients saved in hospitals, predicts Britains Institute of Cancer Research, one of the worlds most-respected health bodies.

The wake-up call, in an Institute report, warns a three-month delay in operations on the most common adult cancers risks 5,000 extra deaths. A six-month delay would push those excess fatalities up to 11,000.

The NHS waiting list already stretches to many millions and now faces one of the steepest backlog of cases in its history. The British Medical Association says that for doctors and all healthcare workers, this is a daunting prospect [File photo]

The disturbing report follows shocking new figures released by Cancer Research UK that more than two million patients have missed out on vital cancer tests and treatment during the pandemic. Last week, Macmillan Cancer Support warned that nearly 2,000 cases of cancer are going undiagnosed every week due to the crisis.

The Mail revealed the unfolding tragedy of untreated patients last month. By the end of April, just a few weeks after the NHS switched its attention to Covid-19 sufferers, hospital referrals for cancer treatment in England had dropped by nearly 70 per cent.

Under 100 organ transplants were carried out in April, the lowest for 36 years, according to NHS figures. On a day in April, only six of its 24 liver transplant centres were open.

Professor Peter Friend, director of the Oxford Transplant Centre, says that liver, kidney, and heart patients were already dying on lengthy waiting lists before the pandemic. The effect of doing fewer transplants means that this mortality rate must increase, he has warned.

The ordinary public seems to think that hospitals are dangerous places to be right now. One allergy specialist told the Mail that in his north of England clinic, only the most seriously ill risk being infected by the virus [File photo]

Cardiac specialists have reported a 60 per cent decline in hospital admissions for heart attacks, a condition which the NHS says requires immediate treatment in casualty.

Meanwhile, a death certificate count by the Office for National Statistics shows almost 13,000 more people than expected have died in England and Wales since mid-March from causes other than coronavirus.

Statisticians at Oxford and Cambridge are now calling for a national inquiry into the extra deaths amid fears that a lack of medical care is responsible.

Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter, chairman of the Winton Centre for Risk and Evidence Communication at the University of Cambridge, explained: Theres a huge spike in non-Covid deaths at home very quickly into the epidemic.

Its important to know how many might have been at least delayed if the normal (NHS) healthcare system had existed. Visits to Englands accident and emergency departments have halved since the outbreak, tumbling to the lowest since records began.

It means people displaying the early signs of serious diseases have stayed away in their thousands. A nurse and Mail reader has sent us reports with photos showing how many people were at four main casualty departments on a recent Monday afternoon.

The waiting rooms at the finest flagship hospitals in London  Chelsea and Westminster, St Thomas in Westminster, St Marys Paddington and the Royal London in the East End  had just a handful of patients.

The wake-up call, in an Institute report, warns a three-month delay in operations on the most common adult cancers risks 5,000 extra deaths. A six-month delay would push those excess fatalities up to 11,000 [File photo]

It suggests people are afraid of going to casualty in case they break lockdown rules or catch the virus while there. The ordinary public seems to think that hospitals are dangerous places to be right now.

One allergy specialist told the Mail that in his north of England clinic, only the most seriously ill risk being infected by the virus.

These are people who are desperate for help. They will take a risk. Others are afraid of coming to my clinic and could lose their lives because of that.

NHS England has produced a complex road map for opening up hospitals to all patients. Those accepted for treatment or operations will have to isolate for 14 days and be clear of any symptoms before admission. Inevitably it will mean more delays.

Significantly, there will be tests on patients before they arrive to make sure they are Covid-19 free to protect others working and being cared for in the hospitals.

But when the virus is defeated, children are back to school, shops reopened, and cities no longer in lockdown, what will happen to the countless numbers who are seriously ill and whose treatment has been delayed?

The NHS waiting list already stretches to many millions and now faces one of the steepest backlog of cases in its history.

The British Medical Association says that for doctors and all healthcare workers, this is a daunting prospect.

A spokesman said: They want nothing more than to provide the best care for their patients and avoid delays in essential treatment for diseases.

One has to wonder whether the doctors goodwill will really be enough.
America is at a low ebb. Pain and destruction strangle hopes and dreams of people across the country. People are dying - alone from a terrible virus or from a knee on the neck in full public view. Cities burn, destroying businesses and inflaming divisions. Tens of millions are out of work. The president makes it all worse.

This is the state of the union as the nation reels from multiple blows, each one arriving with swift and overwhelming force. Long-standing, untreated inequalities have been exposed anew, and they, in turn, have highlighted the country's real vulnerabilities. What has been just below the surface, known but barely acknowledged and rarely addressed seriously, is now impossible to ignore.

America experienced a wave of burning cities in the aftermath of a racial killing in 1968. America was hit by a pandemic in 1918 that killed even more people than the 102,000 who have died of the coronavirus. America was battered by a Great Depression in the 1930s and laid low by a Great Recession just a decade ago. America has never experienced all of this kind of tumult in the same moment. It is more than the system can bear, and people grieve for the country.

The heinous killing of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police - one officer, Derek Chauvin, has since been fired and charged - provoked instantaneous outrage that united nearly every racial and ideological group in the country. It was a collective cry of anguish and a demand for change to what has become commonplace, the killing of unarmed black people at the hands of law enforcement.

But today that unity brought about by Floyd's death is fraying, as what began as peaceful protests over yet another senseless killing of a black person quickly turned to violence and looting and businesses and police cars in flames. City leaders on the front lines, many of them black Americans, struggle to express their sympathy and solidarity with the underlying conditions that provoked the demonstrations while trying to quell those protests so they can save their communities from further damage and division.

Through all this, President Donald Trump has spewed division with ill-chosen tweets about looting and "shooting" or "vicious dogs" and overpowering weapons. He has attacked Democratic leaders as their communities burn. He flails rather than leads, his instincts all wrong for what confronts the country.

At a time when presidential leadership is most called for, at a time when Americans look to a president for words to unify and heal, many hope this president will resist that call - an extraordinary condemnation of the way he leads in crisis.

"He should just stop talking," Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, a Democrat, said on CNN's "State of the Union." "This is like Charlottesville all over again. He speaks and he makes it worse. There are times when you should just be quiet, and I wish that he would just be quiet."

On the same program, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, lamented what Trump has done in the face of the protests. "It's not lowering the temperature. It's sort of continuing to escalate the rhetoric," Hogan said. "And I think it's just the opposite of the message that should have been coming out of the White House."

America's enemies revel in the chaos of this triple blow or seek to stir more disruption and division as they exploit the chaos. America's allies see a president further withdrawing U.S. leadership at a time when the world seeks to unite against the common enemy of the coronavirus. The American carnage that Trump promised in his inaugural address to end is literally and figuratively on the doorstep of the White House, for all the world to see.

The coronavirus is not under control, and fears of a second wave persist. As the spread slows in some areas hit hardest early on, it grows in other places. The lifting of restrictions on businesses and other activity has in some places brought out crowds of people indifferent to calls for social distancing and the wearing of masks. The massive protests in cities also risk accelerating the spread of the virus.

Trump once, twice, multiple times, dismissed the dangers. Now the pandemic has killed nearly twice as many people as were killed in the Vietnam War and the death toll continues to rise. Black people have borne the brunt of the pandemic, dying at rates far in excess of their share of the population. Hispanics, too, have been hit disproportionately.

Economic pain abounds. The number of people filing for unemployment, though it has slowed in the past two weeks, has reached an astounding number, with roughly 40 million Americans out of work - the worst joblessness since the Depression. Many, if not the majority, of those are people who can least afford it: low-wage workers already struggling to pay their bills.

Many small-business owners, the backbone of the economy, are barely holding on. Some have been forced to close, and more could follow. Now, in some neighborhoods in big and medium-size cities, they are experiencing another threat from the flames that engulfed their livelihoods.

Congress and the White House stand seemingly frozen in the face of this economic catastrophe. Having moved swiftly earlier to supply aid, lawmakers remain at ideological loggerheads over what to do next, trapped in the past as if this were something ordinary and recognizable.

States and cities that have cried out for assistance now have another problem to deal with, the destruction of streets and businesses and neighborhoods from days of violent protests. It can take years for riot corridors to rebound.

"The original sin of this country still stains our nation today," former vice president Joe Biden said Friday. "And sometimes we manage to overlook it. We just push forward with a thousand other tasks in our daily life. But it's always there. And weeks like this, we see it plainly that we're a country with an open wound. And none of us can turn away. None of us can be silent."

The entire nation is bending under the weight of the pandemic, of economic reversals and of the tumult in the aftermath of Floyd's killing and how it is tearing apart cities. But that weight is felt more acutely in certain communities, among black Americans especially, and turning away no longer seems legitimate.

It is in the American spirit to proclaim that better days lie ahead, that this country has faced and overcome every challenge, external or internal. That is useful to remember. But it is also important to recognize the troubled and weakened state of the country today and all the things that have contributed to it and the enormity of finding the will and the leadership that will be needed in the days ahead.
Air travel demand has increased after a long period of travel restriction because of Covid-19.

Airlines have regained 35-40 percent of capacity, according to the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV).



Tran Minh in Binh Thanh district, HCM City, has booked air tickets and hotel rooms for a 5-day family trip to Phu Quoc Island.



Phu Quoc is wonderful with many beautiful beaches. The air tickets and hotel rooms are very cheap, just half of the previous rates. The government has controlled the epidemic well, Minh said.



Large travel firms in HCM City confirmed that clients have returned to book tours, air tickets and hotel rooms.

Vietjet has increased the frequency of the return flights between Hanoi and HCM City, Hanoi/HCM City and Da Nang, and has reopened other domestic air routes to satisfy increasingly high demand.

The re-activation of the tourism industry is expected to help the aviation sector recover rapidly.

The airlines belonging to Vietnam Airlines Group, including Vietnam Airlines, Jetstar Pacific and VASCO, have announced a plan to increase flight frequency and resume domestic air routes under the control of the Ministry of Transport (MOT) and CAAV.



It is expected that the domestic air route network will fully recover by June 2020.



From now to the end of May 15, Vietnam Airlines will provide 17 flights a day on the backbone Hanoi-HCM City air route and it step by step increase flight frequency. It will also increase the numbers of flights between Da Nang and Hanoi/HCM City, between HCM City and Phu Quoc, Hai Phong, Thanh Hoa and Vinh City.



Meanwhile, VASCO has announced an increase of the number of flights between HCM City and Con Dao Island to 6-8 flights. It plans to provide 2-3 flights a week on air routes between Hanoi and Dien Bien City, HCm City and Rach Gia and Ca Mau.



Jetstar Pacific has resumed air routes between HCM City and Da Nang, Vinh, Thanh Hoa, Pleiku, Chu Lai and Dong Hoi.



As for Vietjet, the air carrier has increased the frequency of the return flights between Hanoi and HCM City, Hanoi/HCM City and Da Nang, and has reopened other domestic air routes to satisfy increasingly high demand.



Head of CAAV Dinh Viet Thang said that the domestic air travel market is expected to see full recovery by June.



Meanwhile, it is very difficult to predict the performance of the international market because the epidemic is not under control in many other countries. The resumption of international air routes will depend on tourism demand. Some analysts believe that the international aviation market will only retyrn to normal by the end of 2021.



Thang said the aviation sector has been hit hard by Covid-19. Only 1-2 percent of 250 aircraft were used during the social distancing period.

Le Ha

Local airlines hopeful of increased ceiling prices Increasing ceiling rates for airfares would bring more opportunities for local aviation firms to have flexible and suitable price policies in the domestic aviation market.
COVID-19 infections are still rising more than two months after the country went into lockdown.

Mexico plans to start reopening on Monday, two and a half months after it went into lockdown.

But infections are still on the rise.

Al Jazeeras John Holman joined paramedics near Mexico City.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-31 01:06:12|Editor: huaxia

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People signing a petition in support of the national security legislation pose for a photo at a street stand in Hong Kong, south China, May 29, 2020. (Xinhua/Wang Shen)

Hong Kong is an inalienable part of China and any suggestion that China does not have the right to protect its own territory from separatists, terror and anarchy does not stand up to scrutiny and smacks of hypocrisy and double standards, a spokesman of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government said.

HONG KONG, May 30 (Xinhua) -- China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government on Saturday voiced deep regret that the U.S. government continued to smear and demonize the legitimate rights and duty of China to safeguard national security in the HKSAR which is aimed at restoring stability to Hong Kong society.

A spokesperson of the HKSAR government made the remarks in response to the statement by U.S. President Donald Trump and comments by the U.S. State Department over the past two days.

Hong Kong is an inalienable part of China and any suggestion that China does not have the right to protect its own territory from separatists, terror and anarchy does not stand up to scrutiny and smacks of hypocrisy and double standards, the spokesman said.

To allege that the improved legal system and enforcement mechanisms targeting an extremely small minority of criminals to be introduced by the national security law is undermining Hong Kong people's freedoms is simply fallacious, the spokesman said.

The spokesman said every country has legislation in place to safeguard national security, including the United States.

The existence of those laws to safeguard a country's national security and sovereignty does not give rise to fears of the loss of liberties by its people that will warrant international debate or interference by another country, the spokesman said, adding it is generally acknowledged that all citizens should have the duty to safeguard their country's interests.

If the mere enactment of a national security law is a universal sovereign obligation and does not contradict with individual freedoms and the rule of law, the reactions of the United States and other foreign governments since the approval of the decision by the National People's Congress (NPC) to enact such a law for application in the HKSAR are totally misplaced, the spokesman said.

The legislation only targets acts and activities endangering national security, and the illegal activities particularly mentioned include splitting the country, subverting state power, organizing and carrying out terrorist activities, as well as interfering in Hong Kong affairs by foreign and external forces.

The five basic principles of the legislation are firmly safeguarding national security, upholding and improving the "one country, two systems," adhering to governing Hong Kong in accordance with the law, resolutely opposing external interference, and substantially safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of Hong Kong residents, the spokesman said.

People from all walks of life attend a campaign in support of the national security legislation for the HKSAR in Hong Kong, south China, May 24, 2020. (Xinhua/Lui Siu Wai)

The Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council reiterated in a statement on Friday that the enactment of national security legislation would not change the high degree of autonomy enjoyed by the HKSAR and would have no impact on the HKSAR's judicial independence, including that of final adjudication as enshrined in the Basic Law, the spokesman said.

Trump's claim that Hong Kong now operated under "one country, one system" was completely false and ignored the facts on the ground, the spokesman said.

He said that in exercising a high degree of autonomy under "one country, two systems," the HKSAR government was resolutely committed to upholding its international responsibilities and agreements with the United States and all countries in areas such as trade, investment protection, mutual legal assistance, the fight against transnational crime and terrorism, as well as education and cultural exchanges.

Many of these bilateral co-operations are underpinned by multilateral institutions or bilateral agreements, rather than a "gift" to Hong Kong by another jurisdiction, the spokesman added.

The spokesman said that sanctions or trade restrictions against Hong Kong are not justified and will lead to a breakdown of the mutually beneficial Hong Kong-U.S. relationship built up over the years and only hurt local and U.S. businesses in Hong Kong and the people working for them.

The HKSAR government will not be unduly worried by such threats as Hong Kong will continue to rely on its fundamental strengths of the rule of law, independence of the judiciary, free and open trade policy, level playing field and unique advantages brought about by the continuous opening up of the mainland economy, he noted.

In recent years, Hong Kong has also been doubling the efforts in diversifying markets, including more focus on the fast-growing ASEAN economies, the spokesman said.

In terms of bilateral trade, the United States has been enjoying a trade surplus with Hong Kong over the years which has been the biggest among all its trading partners, the spokesman said.

In 2019, total trade in goods between Hong Kong and the United States stood at 517 billion Hong Kong dollars (about 67 billion U.S. dollars), whereas Hong Kong's domestic exports to the United States were a modest 3.7 billion Hong Kong dollars.

According to the U.S., the United States enjoyed a trade surplus of over 200 billion Hong Kong dollars with Hong Kong in 2019. (1 USD equals 7.75 HK dollars) 
Angola, IN (46703)

Today

Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low around 10F. Winds light and variable..

Tonight

Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low around 10F. Winds light and variable.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-31 23:41:21|Editor: huaxia

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NAIROBI, May 31 (Xinhua) -- Kenya's health ministry on Sunday confirmed 74 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the tally of infections to 1,962.

Rashid Aman, chief administrative secretary in the Ministry of Health, told a daily briefing in Nairobi that the latest cases were detected from 1,574 samples which were tested in the last 24 hours.

The official also announced that one patient succumbed to the deadly respiratory disease, bringing the total number of fatalities since the disease was reported in the country to 64.

According to Aman, so far medical personnel have tested a total of 78,536 samples since the outbreak of the disease was reported in the country in March.

Since the outbreak of the disease was announced, Kenya closed all learning institutions and all places of worship as a measure to help contain the spread of the pandemic.

President Uhuru Kenyatta has also declared a dusk to dawn curfew throughout the country. Enditem
Madrid, May 31 : The Spanish government is considering opening up safe "corridors" to allow foreign tourists to visit the Balearic and Canary Islands in mid-June, Minister for Industry, Trade and Tourism Reyes Maroto said.

Spain received around 84 million tourists in 2019 with income from tourism making up 13 per cent of the country's GDP and providing 12 per cent of jobs, but the ongoing health crisis has put the sector on hold, reports Xinhua news agency.

There is a 14-day quarantine requirement for the arrivals from foreign countries until July 1 to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

But in an interview published in the La Vanguardia newspaper on Saturday, Maroto said the government was considering easing restrictions for the two island groups which are among Spain's key tourist destinations.

"The islands have offered making these corridors and we will also talk to other Autonomous Communities to see if they are interested in corridors and what guarantees they could give us," said Maroto.

Both the Canary and the Balearic Islands are currently in the third stage (Phase 2) of the Spanish government's plan to ease restrictions.

The small islands of El Hierro, La Graciosa and La Gomera (Canary Islands) and Formentera (Balearic Islands) will move into the fourth stage (Stage 3) on Monday.

Maroto added that "it is very important that the first tourists are tourists from countries which are in the same conditions as us and also in condition to fly safely".
Construction of 88 district hospitals across the country as part of governments efforts to improve access to healthcare is expected to begin in the next two months, Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has said.



The Vice President announced this at the launch of a scholarship scheme for postgraduate training of resident doctors of the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons at the Jubilee House on Thursday, adding that by the grace of God, before the end of the year, we would have made some significant progress. At least Im hoping we can roof all of them by the end of the year



He described the project as the largest investments ever to be made in the countrys healthcare sector in at least 50 years.



The 88 district hospital project was announced by President Nana Addo Dankwa AKufo-Addo in one of his series of COVID-19 briefings to the public.



The President said his administration intended to ensure that every district in the country had a hospital.



Additionally, he said all regions across the country without regional hospitals, including the newly created regions, would have regional hospitals to improve access to healthcare in the country.



As part of efforts to beef up the number and improve the quality of healthcare providers in the country, Dr Bawumia said government; in fulfilment of a promise to deliver universal health coverage was absorbing the tuition of Postgraduate Medical Doctors.



Vice President Bawumia stressed the need for the country to train more doctors to meet the World Health Organisations doctor/patient ratio requirements and reverse the overconcentration of doctors in only Accra and Kumasi.

Source: Ghanaian Times









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By Ayya Lmahamad

Azerbaijan exported 2.7 billion cubic meters of gas from Shah Deniz field to Turkey in the first quarter of 2020, which is 20.5 percent more than in the same period last year, the Energy Market Regulatory Authority of Turkey has reported.

Thus, Azerbaijan ranks second in the total volume of Turkish gas imports.

According to information, the first place in the total volume of Turkish gas imports is held by Russia. In January-March this year Turkey imported about 3.7 billion cubic meters of gas from Russia. Iran, which holds the third place in the total volume of Turkish gas imports through pipelines, transported 2.02 billion cubic meters of gas to Turkey in the reporting period.

According to the information, 924.28 million cubic meters of Azerbaijani gas was supplied to Turkey in March, from the total gas export of 3.9 billion cubic meters. This amounted to 23.45 percent of the total volume of gas supplies to Turkey.

At the same time, the share of pipeline gas accounted for 1.8 billion cubic meters, which is 47.5 percent of all supplies.

As reported earlier, in 2019 Azerbaijani gas exports to Turkey amounted to 9.6 billion cubic meters of gas from Shah Deniz field.

Azerbaijani gas is supplied to Turkey only from Shah Deniz field within the framework of Stage 1 and Stage 2 of its development.

The contract on development of Shah Deniz field was signed in Baku on June 4, 1996 and ratified by Parliament on October 17 of the same year. Shareholders of Shah Deniz project are: BP (operator, 28.8 percent), TPAO (19 percent), SOCAR (16.7 percent), Petronas (15.5 percent), LUKOIL (10 percent) and NICO (10 percent).

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At age 95, Max Evans is celebrating the publication of his new novel, The King of Taos.

Its almost like a miracle to me, the longtime Albuquerque author said excitedly.

The manuscript of the novel has been a work in progress for decades.

When I was working for (friend and film director Sam) Peckinpah I was thinking nostalgically about when I was living in Taos and about that old bunch of wino characters, Evans said, referring to the endearing band of drinking buddies in the late 1950s who form the core of the novel.

So I wrote part of the novel down. Then I didnt write more of it for years and years. Then I started again.

When Stephen Hull came on as executive director of the University of New Mexico Press in 2018, he met with Evans, saying how the press planned to launch the Max Evans Library with the reissuance of some of his books. That project began last fall.

In their conversation, Hull said, Evans told him he had returned to working on The King of Taos manuscript.

There were rumors of the existence of the manuscript going back years. But it never really rose to the level of anything we could look at.  Of course we were very interested. Last summer we finally got to see it, said Hull, who edited the manuscript.

UNM Press has published 18 of Evans books over the years, and we sort of consider the press as Maxs publisher, though hes published with others, Hull said. Hes a national treasure.

Two of Evans two most famous novels were about cowboys and were made into movies  The Rounders and The Hi-Lo Country.

The King of Taos is not about royalty, nor about cowboys. It is ironically titled, featuring a king without a jeweled crown, one Zacharias Chacon. Zacharias is a handyman who holds court in a bar.

The book is about the camaraderie, the joy of life, the musings and the misadventures and dreams of Zacharias and his Tokay-loving friends.

Though no storyline binds the novel, the amusing, earthy characters are the glue. Besides Zacharias, theres Shaw Spencer, a budding artist from Kansas who hopes to go into the construction business with Zacharias; theres the Lover, who loves the ladies; theres the Undertaker, the Fighter, the Woodhauler, Indian Tony, commercial artist Dal Holcomb and the Woodcarver. Most are fictional names.

A few are of real Taosenos, including Holcomb and the Woodcarver, who is identified as the famed sculptor/santero/whittler Patrocino Barela.

Throughout the novel, Zacharias is seen at a bar telling everyone that hes waiting for his daughter Rosita to appear and tell him the check has arrived. That would be a check from the Veterans Administration in compensation for injuries he suffered in World War II. She repeatedly reports that sorry, no check was in the mail, Papa. Oh well, he sighs.

With pages left in the novel, the tension builds. Zacharias informs Shaw, who is completing the painting of the ceiling of his studio, that Carlota the witch had predicted that his check would arrive the next day.

Rosita shows up at the Resting Place, a bar, and screams that the check, for $36,000, has indeed arrived. The news floors Zacharias: He held the check and stared.  He stared as if in shock, which of course he was. Then the check began to shake violently in his hands, and Zacharias fell off the (drinking) pole backward in a faint.

He recovers with the help of a drink. Of course. Then the fun commences.

Book of the week review
Pro-China supporters hold the effigy of U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese national flag outside the U.S. Consulate during a protest, in Hong Kong, Saturday, May 30, 2020.(AP)

Beijing: The mouthpiece newspaper of Chinas ruling Communist Party said that the U.S. decision to end some trading privileges for Hong Kong grossly interferes in Chinas internal affairs and is doomed to fail.

The Hong Kong government called President Donald Trumps announcement unjustified and said it is not unduly worried by such threats, playing down concern that they could drive companies away from the Asian financial and trading center.

An editorial Saturday in Chinas official Peoples Daily newspaper said that attempts at forcing China to make concessions on core interests including sovereignty and security through blackmailing or coercion ... can only be wishful thinking and day-dreaming!

Trumps move came after Chinas ceremonial parliament voted Thursday to bypass Hong Kongs legislature and develop and enact national security legislation on its own for the semi-autonomous territory. Democracy activists and many legal experts worry that the laws could curtail free speech and opposition political activities.

The Chinese government issued no official response Saturday, but has said previously it would retaliate if the U.S. went ahead with its threat to revoke trading advantages granted to Hong Kong after its handover from British to Chinese rule in 1997.

This hegemonic act of attempting to interfere in Hong Kong affairs and grossly interfere in Chinas internal affairs will not frighten the Chinese people and is doomed to fail, the Peoples Daily said.

In Hong Kong, small groups of Beijing supporters marched to the U.S. Consulate on Saturday carrying Chinese flags and signs protesting American interference in Chinas internal affair and calling Trump shameless and useless.

Elsewhere in the city, youthful activists including Joshua Wong held a news conference to welcome Trumps announcement and try to downplay any economic fallout.

Tensions between the U.S. and China over Hong Kong have increased over the past year, with the U.S. defending pro-democracy protesters who clashed with police last year and China vilifying them as violent rioters and separatists.

It is now clear that Hong Kong is caught in the middle of major China-U.S. tensions, said Tara Joseph, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong. That is a real shame for Hong Kong and it will be a challenge in the months ahead.

Joseph said there were many unanswered questions about how the trading relationship will unravel and predicted that it wont be like flipping a switch.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo set the stage for Trumps announcement by notifying Congress on Wednesday that Hong Kong no longer has the high degree of autonomy that it is guaranteed under the one country, two systems framework.

Trump said Friday that his administration would begin eliminating the full range of agreements that had given Hong Kong a relationship with the U.S. that mainland China lacked, including exemptions from controls on certain exports.

China has replaced its promised formula of one country, two systems, with one country, one system, he said, echoing recent statements by pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong.

The Hong Kong government accused Trump and his administration of smearing and demonizing the governments duty to safeguard national security and called allegations that the security law would undermine individual freedoms simply fallacious.

President Trumps claim that Hong Kong now operated under one country, one system was completely false and ignored the facts on the ground, it said in a written statement.

Separately, Hong Kong Secretary for Justice Teresa Cheng told reporters that it was completely false and wrong to say the territory was losing its autonomy.

She also criticized the U.S., saying any other state that tries to use coercion or whatever means with a view to interfering with the sovereign right of a state to pass its own national security law is arguably infringing on the principle of non-intervention under public international law, and that is not acceptable.

Washingtons response could include U.S. travel bans or other sanctions on officials connected with the crackdown on last years pro-democracy protests, including members of the Hong Kong police force.

Whatever attempt at suppressing or intimidating Hong Kong officials there may be, I think it wont succeed, because we believe what we are doing is right, said John Lee, Hong Kongs secretary for security.

China decided to impose a national security law on the city after successive Hong Kong governments were unable or unwilling to do so themselves because of stiff public opposition. The one attempt to do so in 2003 was abandoned in the face of major protests.

Beijings resolve to move forward appears to have been hardened by the months of anti-government protests last year and a determination to prevent them from coming back this summer.
Citywide

On Saturday afternoon, protesters gathered at UN Plaza to demand justice for George Floyd, who was killed by a police officer in Minneapolis, and for other African-American victims of police violence. The protest was part of a nationwide series of actions, with similar gatherings in Oakland, San Jose and Los Angeles.

The protest of about 1,000 people proceeded to City Hall, where those gathered peacefully listened to speakers. The photos below are from that event.

Protests in San Francisco continued into the afternoon and evening. Late on Saturday afternoon, a group of about 100 protesters tried, unsuccessfully, to get onto the Bay Bridge. Around 7:30 p.m., more protesters gathered at City Hall and marched down Market Street, with BART closing the Civic Center and Powell stations in response.

In response to reports of looting and vandalism in Union Square on Saturday night, Mayor London Breed announced an 8 p.m.-5 a.m. curfew for San Francisco, beginning tonight.

Here are photos from Saturday's early-afternoon protest at City Hall:
Fishermen who have ventured into the Arabian Sea along the north and south Gujarat coasts have been advised to return by Sunday and not go out till June 4. A low pressure is currently over east central Arabian Sea and the Lakshadweep Islands. It is likely to intensify into a depression in the next 12 hours and a cyclonic circulation in the next 24 hours, the Cyclone Warning Division of the ...

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Digital Editor
Microsoft is to replace dozens of contract journalists on its MSN website and use automated systems to select news stories, US and UK media report.



The curating of stories from news organisations and selection of headlines and pictures for the MSN site is currently done by journalists.



Artificial intelligence will perform these news production tasks, sources told the Seattle Times.



Microsoft said it was part of an evaluation of its business.



The US tech giant said in a statement: "Like all companies, we evaluate our business on a regular basis. This can result in increased investment in some places and, from time to time, redeployment in others. These decisions are not the result of the current pandemic."



Microsoft, like some other tech companies, pays news organisations to use their content on its website.



But it employs journalists to decide which stories to display and how they are presented.



Around 50 contract news producers will lose their jobs at the end of June, the Seattle Times reports, but a team of full-time journalists will remain.



Google funds automated news project



"It's demoralising to think machines can replace us but there you go," one of those facing redundancy told the paper.



Some sacked journalists warned that artificial intelligence may not be fully familiar with strict editorial guidelines, and could end up letting through inappropriate stories.



Twenty-seven of those losing their jobs are employed by the UK's PA Media, the Guardian reports.



One journalist quoted in the paper said: "I spend all my time reading about how automation and AI is going to take all our jobs - now it's taken mine."



Microsoft is one of many tech companies experimenting with forms of so-called robot journalism to cut costs. Google is also investing in projects to understand how it might work.

Source: Daily Graphic









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Kansas City, Missouri, Police say a woman told them she was shot Saturday night on the Country Club Plaza. According to police, the woman took herself to an area hospital around 1 a.m. for treatment of a gunshot wound.
Linda Tirado, 37, has been left permanently blind in one eye following the protest

A journalist and mother-of-two has been left blind in one eye after being struck by what she believes was a rubber bullet or marking round at a protest in Minneapolis on Friday.

Linda Tirado, 37, from Nashville, was left with life-changing injuries while photographing the rally protesting the death of black man George Floyd.

The freelance writer and author told DailyMail.com: 'Protesters said police were tear-gassing. I put on my goggles and respirator.

'It was pretty chaotic - people were moving in every direction. Then I kind of felt my face explode.'

The mother of two young girls, who had also photographed the protest in the city the night prior, added: 'I put up my hands and shouted "I'm press, I'm press."'

With her eyes filled with blood, protesters 'acted as my eyes when I couldn't see past the blood and the swelling' and got her to hospital.

Tirado shared this photograph of her backpack while she was in hospital. She believes she may have been hit by a marking round. They are reduced power cartridges tipped with soft plastic projectiles that leave a bright mark on the target

Tirado kept her followers up to date via Twitter. She explained she is permanently blind in one eye but is grateful it's not her 'photography eye'

'I was in surgery 20 minutes after that,' she told DailyMail.com after returning from hospital on Saturday. 'I woke up this morning with an eye patch on.'

Doctors have told her she is going to be left with scarring on her face and will be permanently blind in one eye - although she hopes in the future she may be able to gain the ability to see light and shadows through the damaged eye.

It will take around six months for her wounds to heal, but she is grateful she didn't lose her 'photography eye so it's not career-ending'.

She explained that her eyeball actually split in two and it is believed the injury was caused by a rubber bullet or a marking round.

Marking rounds are reduced power cartridges tipped with soft plastic projectiles that leave a bright mark on the target. Tirado's bag was left covered with large splotches of fluorescent paint.

She is trying to remain in good spirits despite her prognosis, and is planning to look through her photographs in the next few hours in an attempt to piece together what happened.

Protesters hold their hands in the air during a protest in Minneapolis on Friday over the death of George Floyd

She explained that her eyeball actually split in two and it is believed the injury was caused by a rubber bullet or a marking round, which also destroyed her goggles

'I am out of hospital!' she tweeted Saturday afternoon. 'Still covered in tear gas and blood, kinda pissed that I can't go get like a steak or a super artery-clogging cheeseburger cause everything is shut down, but there's a couple beers in the fridge and there's worse things than a lack of cheese fries.

Tirado's ordeal is not the first by a journalist covering the protests.

Black CNN correspondent Omar Jimenez was arrested live on air on Friday morning by Minnesota State Patrol while reporting on the killing of Floyd.

Jimenez was put in handcuffs and led away from his producers after the team was moved down the street by police in riot gear.

According to one of his colleagues, the crew was told he was being arrested for refusing to move when he'd been told to but he was heard live on air telling the officers: 'Put us back to where you want us - wherever you'd want us we'll go. Just let us know.'

Jimenez told them they were live on air with CNN and was put in handcuffs.

A black reporter from CNN was arrested while legally covering the protests in Minneapolis. A white reporter also on the ground was not. https://t.co/GcfwEvyYQC pic.twitter.com/Mg4ZwKIuKt  CNN (@CNN) May 29, 2020

Black CNN correspondent Omar Jimenez was arrested live on air on Friday morning by Minnesota State Patrol while reporting on the killing of Floyd

The crew's films kept rolling as Jimenez was led away. The cops said they were arrested for not moving on

He asked: 'Do you mind telling me why I am under arrest sir? Why am I under arrest sir' then was led away.

Two of his colleagues from the same team were also arrested. The trio were put in a police van and were driven to a precinct but were released around 90 minutes later after CNN President Jeff Zucker and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz intervened.

Minnesota State Police has since claimed on Twitter the crew were released once they 'confirmed' they were reporters - which they'd done live on air, minutes before Jimenez was put in handcuffs.

Also on Friday, Kentucky police shot non-lethal pepper balls at a local TV news reporter and her film crew while they were covering a protest in downtown Louisville.

The incident was captured live on WAVE-TV. Reporter Kaitlin Rust is heard on the air letting out a scream indicating that she had been shot.

A Louisville Metro Police Department officer (left) fired pepper balls at a local television news reporter, Kaitlin Rust (right), who was covering a protest in downtown Louisville on Friday night

This just happened on live tv. Wow, what a douche bag. pic.twitter.com/dQKheEcCvb  Christopher Bishop (@ChrisBishopL1C4) May 30, 2020

Im getting shot! she said.

The news anchor from inside the studio asks Rust if shes ok, to which she replies: Rubber bullets, rubber bullets.

On Saturday, the full Minnesota National Guard was activated for the first time since World War II after four nights of civil unrest.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said the deployment was necessary because outside agitators were using protests over Monday's death of Floyd to sow chaos and that he expected Saturday night's demonstrations to be the fiercest so far.

From Minneapolis to several other major cities including New York, Atlanta and Washington, protesters clashed with police late on Friday in a rising tide of anger over the treatment of minorities by law enforcement.

'We are under assault,' Walz, a first-term governor elected from Minnesota's Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, told a briefing on Saturday. 'Order needs to be restored... We will use our full strength of goodness and righteousness to make sure this ends.'

He said he believed a 'tightly controlled' group of outsiders, including white supremacists and drug cartel members, were instigating some of the violence in Minnesota's largest city, but he did not give specific evidence of this when asked by reporters.

As many as 80% of those arrested were from outside the state, Walz said. But detention records show just eight non-Minnesota residents have been booked into the Hennepin County Jail since Tuesday, and it was unclear whether all of them were arrested in connection with the Minneapolis unrest.

Minneapolis: Looting and fires broke out again in Minneapolis as protesters defied the state curfew and the National Guard failed to keep the city under control

The Trump administration suggested civil disturbances were being orchestrated from the political left.

'In many places, it appears the violence is planned, organized and driven by anarchic and left extremist groups - far-left extremist groups... many of whom travel from outside the state to promote violence,' U.S. Attorney William Barr said in a statement.

In an extraordinary move, the Pentagon said it put military units on a four-hour alert to be ready if requested by Walz to help keep the peace.

Activists staged another round of protests on Saturday in at least a dozen major U.S. cities coast to coast, including Seattle, Los Angeles, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Atlanta, New York and Atlanta.

In the nation's capital, hundreds of demonstrators assembled near the Justice Department headquarters, then marched toward the U.S. Capitol, chanting, 'Black lives matter,' and 'I can't breathe,' a rallying cry echoing Floyd's dying words.

Many later ended up near the White House, where they faced off with shield-carrying police, some mounted on horseback.

The streets of Minneapolis were largely quiet during daylight on Saturday, though several National Guard armored personnel carriers were seen rolling through town.

Members of the National Guard hold a perimeter as a fire crew works to put out a fire at a gas station in Minneapolis on Friday

Minneapolis protesters took to the streets for a fourth night on Friday, in defiance of a curfew

On Friday, in defiance of a newly imposed curfew, Minneapolis protesters took to the streets for a fourth night - albeit in smaller numbers than before - despite the announcement hours earlier of murder charges filed against Derek Chauvin, the policeman seen in video footage kneeling on Floyd's neck.

Three other officers fired from the police department with Chauvin on Tuesday are also under criminal investigation in the case, prosecutors said.

The video of Floyd's arrest - captured by an onlooker's cellphone as he repeatedly groaned, 'please, I can't breathe' before becoming motionless - triggered an outpouring of rage that civil rights activists said has long simmered in Minneapolis and cities across the country over persistent racial bias in the U.S. criminal justice system.

Floyd, a Houston native who had worked security for nightclubs, was arrested on suspicion of trying to pass counterfeit money at a store to buy cigarettes on Monday evening. Police said he was unarmed. An employee who called for help had told a police dispatcher that the suspect appeared to be intoxicated.

In a striking coincidence, Floyd and Chauvin had both worked security at the same Latin nightclub in Minneapolis, though it was unlikely they ever interacted, former owner Maya Santamaria, who sold the El Nuevo Rodeo club in January, said.

Santamaria said Floyd worked inside the club on certain nights, supporting other staff with security. She said Chauvin, who worked outside the club as an off-duty cop for 16 years, had a reputation for roughing up customers, but she considered him responsible and a friend.
Videos posted to social media Saturday night showed two NYPD vehicles driving into a crowd as protesters took to the streets for a third night over the death of George Floyd. The videos showed that protesters placed a metal barrier in front of a parked police car in Brooklyn. Then another NYPD cruiser drives up and protesters can be seen banging on the car before the driver accelerates into the crowd. The first vehicle then follows suit and accelerates into the crowd, knocking lots of people to the ground.

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Its not immediately clear how serious the injuries were but the events captured on camera took place in a tense evening when thousands of protesters joined demonstrations that were planned in all of the citys five boroughs. Most of the protests were peaceful but dozens of people were arrested as videos showed several police vehicles were set on fire. At least a few of those arrests took place outside Trump Tower.

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Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez released a statement Saturday evening, in which he said that while he understood the anger, he urged a change in tactics. I join with all of you who say enough and never again, and I am committed to changing the system of justice in Brooklyn to one we can all trust. But we cannot build that trust by tearing our community apart, he said.

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On Friday, a cop in Brooklyn was caught on camera shoving a woman to the ground. That took place on a night when more than 200 arrests were made after violent protests outside the Barclays Center, which is also in Brooklyn.

NYPD officer just called a female protester a stupid fucking bitch and threw her to the ground pic.twitter.com/18YUHYmqQa  Jason Lemon (@JasonLemon) May 30, 2020

Amid all the chaos, President Donald Trump decided to throw in his two cents Saturday night by tweeting his support for the NYPD. Let New Yorks Finest be New Yorks Finest, he tweeted. There is nobody better, but they must be allowed to do their job!

For more of Slates news coverage, listen to The Political Gabfest.
By IANS

NEW DELHI: The world is looking towards India how Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the government and the people have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic, controlled it and minimised it, said Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland.

She said she was impressed with the way Prime Minister Modi pulled together members of the SAARC, including Pakistan.

In an exclusive interview with IANS, the Secretary-General said India -- a home to half of the Commonwealth's 2.4 billion citizens -- is a valued member of the Commonwealth family, with its government, people and institutions contributing in practical ways to collaborate across the 54 member countries, particularly through innovative programmes such as the UN India Fund and Commonwealth Trade Finance Facility.

On the pandemic, she said the whole Commonwealth has been affected by the virus.

India reported its first case in January just like the US, Italy and Russia and has made an immense effort to keep the spread of the virus under control and safeguard its citizens.

As of May 20, it has over 106,000 cases and 42,298 recoveries -- considering the size of its population, India has done well, Scotland said.

"That is why, people are looking to India for how Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the government and people of India have responded to the pandemic, controlled it and minimised it because it could have been so much worse," she said.

"We know that we have never needed multilateralism more than we do today. I was very impressed with how PM Modi pulled together members of SAARC, including Pakistan -- everyone came -- in which the need for 'coming together, not growing apart' was underlined.

"I commend India for providing various medical supplies -- testing kits and sanitisers among other items -- to SAARC members, including Commonwealth member states Bangladesh, Maldives and Sri Lanka," she said.

"India is the largest provider of generic drugs globally and can, therefore, draw on its growing pharma industry to provide medical supplies to many small Commonwealth states and we've been very interested in how India's made this contribution."

Thanking to India's Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan for participating in the Commonwealth Health Ministers' meeting this month, she said he highlighted India's response to COVID-19, under the highest level of political commitment and guidance of Prime Minister Modi, who has been pro-active.

"The Commonwealth looks forward to working more closely with representatives of government and other agencies to share solutions and advice in fighting this pandemic," she added.

Commonwealth Health Ministers, including Vardhan, at the Commonwealth Health Ministers' meeting have agreed to coordinate their response in tackling the pandemic.

The ministers have endorsed removing fees for the coronavirus tests and treatment, especially for migrants and refugees, as appropriate within national contexts, and creating a voluntary mechanism to share and distribute extra medical supplies, including ventilators and testing kits.

India will chair the next meeting of the Commonwealth Health Ministers in May 2021.

As on May 21, 5,000,038 coronavirus cases have been reported globally. Half a million of these are in the Commonwealth countries.

Seven member states are among the 12 nations worldwide that have not reported any cases.
The death by cop of George Floyd in Minneapolis was grotesque, a clearer example of police brutality that has otherwise rarely been filmed for all to see. Even if, as has been reported, Floyd did not die of asphyxiation or strangulation as it appeared, his death was without a doubt caused by that officers cruel and unnecessary action and the inaction of his fellow officers who stood by and watched. That officer has been charged with third degree murder and the other officers have been fired. Judicial due process will ensue, both state and federal. In the meantime, that the people of Minneapolis have turned out to protest is understandable.

What is not comprehensible is the destructive actions of so many. Is it really the citizens of Minneapolis who have set the city on fire, burning down small businesses as well as the police precinct building, libraries, etc.? Who are those masked men in black with secret-service quality ear-pieces, military grade gas masks and backpacks full of Molotov cocktails? They are very likely professional rioters, recruited, transported and paid by the likes of some George Soros front group or other anonymous Cloward-Piven devotees who share Soros hatred of America and want to see this nation bought to its knees. Panic over the virus was waning. These orchestrated riots across the country are the next ploy. Someone is organizing this madness. Someone is supplying the most lethal rioters with all the accoutrements of conflagration and moving them into place to all the affected cities. That all costs a great deal of money. Antifa owes its funding to Soros as do the more violent branches of Black Lives Matter. These players seem strangely secure that they will not be arrested or that if they are, they will be quickly released.

These upheavals seem to occur only in Democrat-run cities: Ferguson, Baltimore, New York, Los Angeles. It is easy to see why after seeing the mayor of Minneapolis called back the police and National Guard giving the vandals free rein to destroy his city. His concern was that they be masked so as not to spread the virus! The leadership of Baltimore did the same in 2015; Let them have their space said then-Mayor Stephanie Rawlings. The riots in Ferguson in 2014 were exacerbated by President Obama and Eric Holder, who, as was their habit, immediately blamed the police which had the effect of giving permission to angry citizens to act out in the most destructive ways. Rioters in that city also burned the businesses owned and operated by their neighbors. They burned the markets they regularly patronized. The rent-a-mobs get the action going and the suddenly mindless residents join in to destroy their own community.

What is happening all over America these past several nights is not about George Floyd. The rioters are using his death to embark on rampages, to loot small and large businesses alike. These are not protests. What we are seeing is mass thievery under color of protest. Chances are if the looters in Los Angeles were asked who was George Floyd, they would not have a clue nor would they care. Democrat-run cities have long valued social justice (different standards for different groups) and identity politics over lawfulness and basic values. This is what you get when deviancy has been defined down so egregiously that we have citizens behaving like animals. The looting in Los Angeles, all filmed from above, continues unabated and without police presence. Businesses that have been shuttered for two and a half months are now being completely destroyed, their merchandise looted. Where is Mayor Eric Garcetti? Making sure no one walks on dry sand.

No matter how much the media loves to fan the flames, indicting America as a racist nation and blaming Trump for every single thing they can, these riots have nothing to do with race beyond it being a convenient excuse for criminal behavior. Those rioting, setting things on fire, smashing store windows and looting businesses are black, white, and Hispanic; they are a conglomeration of races, but are all thugs without a shred of decency.

Perhaps the people pulling the strings of these riots think this level of anarchy will be blamed on President Trump but it is more likely that it will ensure his re-election. These things do not happen in Republican-run cities. They happen in cities whose leaders are actually racist but fear being labeled as such so they step back and reveal their own bigotry of low expectations. Its tragic for their cities and for their citizens from whom they instinctively expect criminal behavior. George Soros is most likely funding much of the chaos and is delighted by what he sees. Now we are all seeing the consequences of the tyranny of political correctness, that amorphous decree that common sense has been outlawed and nihilism is the order of the day.

Image credit: King5, via YouTube, screen shot
OPEC President Algeria has proposed bringing forward the next meeting of the oil producing group and its allies, known as OPEC+, to June 4 from an earlier plan to hold it on June 9-10, according to a letter from Algeria to OPEC+ members seen by Reuters.

Algerias energy minister, Mohamed Arkab, said in the letter that he had held discussions with some ministers about bringing forward the dates, which would help facilitate nominations.

The term nominations is used by OPECs de facto leader Saudi Arabia as well as Iraq and Kuwait to allocate crude to traditional buyers depending on demand. The nominations take place around the 10th of every month.

In April, OPEC+ decided to cut its production by a record 9.7 million barrels per day, or 10% of global output, to lift prices battered by a drop in demand because of lockdown measures to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

A drop in OPEC+ production combined with a record decline in output from non-members such as the United States and Canada helped lift oil prices towards $35 per barrel, although they remain at only half the levels seen at the start of the year.

Sources have told Reuters that Saudi Arabia is proposing to extend record cuts from May and June until the end of the year but it has yet to win support from Russia, which believes curbs could be gradually eased.

On Friday, a monthly survey by Reuters showed OPECs oil output hit its lowest in two decades in May as Saudi Arabia and other members delivered record supply cuts.

However, the survey showed the overall compliance was around 75% because Nigeria and Iraq failed to fully comply with their share of reductions.
After 12 deaths in a span of two weeks, seven more patients lost their lives within one-and-a-half-hours on Saturday, casting a pall of gloom on Mumbais Jogeshwari Hospital.

The commonality in all the seven cases was the lack of oxygen. What transpired was an identical indicator attached to oxygen line that indicated 'low oxygen pressure'. Patients would begin gasping and before we could do anything it would be all over, a doctor told Mumbai Mirror on conditions of anonymity.

The doctors and nurses said what was happening at the hospital was unprecedented and they had never in their careers witnessed patients dying in such quick succession, adding that they are not adequately equipped to tend to patients in large numbers.

The hospital currently has no intensivist on its rolls and on Saturday night, there were two just-out-of-college MBBS graduates and two nurses on ICU duty. Besides, the MBBS doctors, who were substituting for two senior doctors on sick leave, were unavailable in the ICU when the seven patients passed away.

When the patients began gasping for breath, the nurses rushed to alert a senior resident doctor, who was posted on the 10th floor isolation ward. However, by the time he reached the ICU and could stabilise the oxygen levels with the help of a technician, the patients were gone.

The deaths prompted Medical Superintendent Dr Mane to call an emergency meeting at 4.30 am to review the situation.

Other patients in the ward panicked after a chaos ensued, following which doctors from other departments were summoned to monitor their condition and calm them down.

"Apart from fixing the oxygen supply, which is such a basic requirement, this hospital needs more senior doctors. The ICU beds have been added to handle Covid-19 patients without adding the requisite manpower, the report quoted a nurse.

No doctor will want to work in a hospital where he has to watch his patients die because of lack of oxygen, a doctor told Mumbai Mirror.

Meanwhile, Dr Mane denied the deaths were caused by lack of oxygen, and said that the fatalities were caused due to the absence of doctors in the ICU during those two hours. She has instituted an inquiry to find out how and why that happened. It is the duty of resident medical officers to manage critical care patients. We will find out why they were absent and why no replacement was arranged, she said.
The office stated that as of the end of May, the number of communes that meet the criteria of a new rural area was 5,177, accounting for 58.2% of the total number of communes, the smallest official administrative unit in Vietnam.

126 districts and towns among a total of 664 in 45 provinces and centrally-governed cities have been recognised as having completed the new rural building programme, with nine having all of their communes meeting the criteria.

Vietnam aims to raise the number of new rural communes to at least 80% by 2025, with the average income of rural residents increasing by a multiple of 1.36 compared with 2020.

The areas which have been recognised as new rural areas during the 2016-2020 period will continue to strive to meet the higher standards contained in the programme.

Over the next five years, the programme aims to further improve rural residents living standards, build modern rural infrastructure aligned with urbanisation and implement climate change adaptation.

It also seeks to ensure a clean, green and safe rural environment, making the countryside become a more liveable region.
Sacramento County health director Peter Beilenson, 60, visits his mother, Dolores Beilenson, 86, at Sunrise of Sacramento, an assisted living center where she has resided for the last year. Dolores tested positive for COVID-19 at the end of March and tested negative three weeks later. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

Like many Californians, Dr. Peter Beilenson has watched in anguish as the coronavirus has devastated elder care homes. As of last week, COVID-19 had killed about 2,000 residents and more than 60 employees of these facilities, accounting for more than half of Californias mortality from the pandemic.

But Beilenson, Sacramento County's health director, also knows that virus testing in these vulnerable places can prevent outbreaks. It may have stopped his mother from sparking one.

His mother, Dolores Beilenson, 86, became fatigued and developed a slight fever in March, and he insisted she have a test though her symptoms were too mild to cause alarm. When it came back positive, he pushed for more testing of others, ultimately revealing 24 patients and 25 staff members with the virus, including some who were mostly without the telltale signs.

The quick and universal testing, said Peter Beilenson, proves "you can actually bring an outbreak rapidly under control."

The problem is that, in California, too few elder care facilities are regularly testing residents and staff, a surveillance gap that Gov. Gavin Newsom is starting to narrow.

Last week, California health officials issued recommendations for universal COVID-19 testing in the state's skilled nursing facilities, nearly six weeks after Newsom said he was prioritizing testing in those homes.

But critics, including advocates for staff and industry trade groups, say the state has merely laid out guidelines that shift responsibility onto counties and nursing homes to actually perform the testing. The likely result: scores of individual, uncoordinated plans with no clear rules for how programs will work, what is required and who will pay.

Some also are bothered that the plan does not include hundreds of assisted living facilities such as Sunrise of Sacramento, where Dolores Beilenson, now recovered, lives.

In Sacramento, Peter Beilenson pushed for universal testing in every facility with a known case, both skilled nursing and assisted living, and found 187 hidden positives. In Los Angeles, health officials recently announced a controversial plan to test only 10% of residents each week and no staff in facilities without known cases. Placer County is asking facilities to test 25% of staff each week.

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Sacramento County health director Peter Beilenson. (Mel Melcon/Los Angeles Times)

"It's all over the board," said Jason Belden, director of emergency preparedness at the California Assn. of Heath Facilities, an industry group. "We just have a lot of unanswered logistical questions."

Under the California Department of Public Health's guidelines, facilities must come up with individual plans by Monday, working with local health departments to conduct at least one round of universal testing of patients and staff. The recommendations ask for frequent retesting when cases are found and less frequent testing when no cases are found.

Mark Ghaly, secretary of the California Health and Human Services Agency, said in a statement that creating a testing framework was a "massive undertaking" and "is not something that can be done well overnight," but that ultimately the facilities have responsibility for safety during the pandemic.

"Many nursing homes are corporate entities and they too need to adapt to this new reality just as other businesses have," Ghaly's statement read. Its "incumbent on them to reduce risk and change their environments to protect the safety of staff and residents."

In California, more than 9,200 residents of skilled nursing facilities and 5,400 of their workers have tested positive for COVID-19.

The new testing directives apply only to the state's 1,224 skilled nursing facilities  which primarily provide short-term, round-the-clock care  and don't cover assisted living facilities that fall under the purview of a different state regulator. Those centers often house patients for longer periods, but there is no statewide plan for testing in them, though there have been more than 2,000 positive cases among staff and residents and 305 deaths.

And the state is not directly providing funding for the testing. State officials say nursing homes could use federal stimulus money and surplus funds from higher Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement rates, and could have testing paid for by the health insurers for residents and staff members.

California is not alone in its problems with curbing the virus in elder care homes. In the absence of a federal plan, the response to testing in facilities across the U.S. has been scattershot, said David Grabowski, a professor in the Department of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School.

Some states are conducting universal testing themselves, he said, while others are intervening only during critical moments. Massachusetts, he said, mailed 12,000 test kits to its facilities, and in Florida, state officials are sending in strike teams to address outbreaks in nursing homes.

In the middle ground are many states such as California that are advocating for testing programs that lack "teeth," he said, because they are largely left to local health authorities and the facilities themselves.

Grabowski said it's still a challenge to obtain access to tests and supplies and ensure that labs can return results quickly. When states fail to manage testing directly, he said, it allows an escape route for some facilities that "dont really want to know results because then they have to do something about it."

"Its a very different policy to recommend universal testing than to go out and provide it," Grabowski said.

Industry advocates agree that many skilled nursing facilities are struggling to cobble together tests and other resources, but attribute difficulties to a lack of adequate funding.

The federal government recently provided nearly $5 billion in emergency aid for skilled nursing facilities, which means each center would get about $300,000, according to the American Health Care Assn. and the National Center of Assisted Living, an industry group.

Assuming a cost of $100 per test, one round of universal testing of residents and staff in the average 99-bed nursing home would cost $20,000, but those costs could escalate quickly if testing needs to be repeated during outbreaks. At a minimum, the state recommends universal testing for all residents and staff in skilled nursing facilities and surveillance testing of 25% of staff each week in facilities without any cases.

The federal funding boost doesn't provide for assisted living facilities, which account for an additional 60,000 employees and 185,000 residents in the state.

The problem of cost is especially worrisome when it comes to testing staff, said Belden, the industry advocate. Though patient costs are covered by state and federal insurance, he said, there is uncertainty about how testing on staff would be covered.

California health officials declined to answer on the record questions about costs of testing, but referred to online documents that indicated private insurance would cover the cost of testing staff. They also pointed to provisions of the CARES Act that requires insurers to pay for tests for healthcare workers and a state mandate that would require about three-quarters of plans to cover costs.

But industry officials and workers advocates raised red flags on relying on staff's private insurance to pay for ongoing regimens that probably would require multiple tests over months, if not longer.

Dr. Sujal Mandavia is an emergency room doctor and chief medical officer of San Francisco-based Carbon Health, which has conducted testing in about a dozen nursing homes in the state. Mandavia said his company is holding off on billing right now for the facilities where they have tested because of the uncertainties around what providers will ultimately pay for.

Its still not clear from the people who would write the checks, the payers and the insurance groups, about what they are willing to pay and when, he said. Ill be honest with you, it may turn out to be an unfunded mandate. Nobody knows yet.

April Verrett, president of Service Employees International Union, Local 2015, which represents many workers in skilled nursing facilities, points out that many of her members are women of color and immigrants, and may lack insurance. She contends it is unclear whether co-pays and other costs would be entirely waived for tests for those who do, and wonders about the hidden costs of testing, including time spent traveling to collection sites if necessary.

Relying on private insurance "is not a sufficient way to deal with this," Verrett said.

"We have heard loud and clear from our members that part of them feeling safe at work is being tested," she said. "It is still putting the burden on the worker to jump through hoops to get testing that should just be readily available."

She also questions whether the industry, which was criticized for failing to provide workers with protective gear, should have so much say in choosing their testing programs  albeit under the supervision of county health directors.

"There is still a huge issue that many workers are facing across the state with feeling that employers are not being transparent," she said.

The state has not published testing data on skilled nursing facilities, including where, when and how many tests have taken place, and does not plan to do so. It took months for state health officials to release, in mid-April, the names of nursing homes with COVID-19 outbreaks, though the data included errors and omissions. The state is still refusing to release testing data by county, despite requests from The Times.

That lack of transparency both with employers and state officials leaves Verrett and others worried that the effectiveness of the myriad testing strategies will be hard to assess.

Things arent going to turn around if we dont have some way to measure this, and if we dont measure it, we will be working in the dark, said Michael Connors, a spokesman for California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform. We are absolutely in the dark right now."
BRUSSELS, May 30 (Xinhua) -- A spokesperson of the Chinese Mission to the European Union (EU) on Friday urged the EU to refrain from interfering in Hong Kong affairs and China's internal affairs in any form, in response to Declaration of the High Representative on behalf of the EU on Hong Kong.

The spokesperson said Hong Kong is a special administrative region of China, and Hong Kong affairs are China's internal affairs. The legal basis for the governance of Hong Kong by the Chinese government is the Constitution of China and the Basic Law of Hong Kong, not the Sino-British Joint Declaration. It is just untenable to accuse China of not being in conformity with international commitments citing the Sino-British Joint Declaration.

The spokesperson said upholding national security is always a duty of the central government. The Constitution of China and the Basic Law of Hong Kong give power and responsibilities to the National People's Congress (NPC) of China to establish and improve the legal system and enforcement mechanisms for safeguarding national security in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) at the national level. The relevant decision is designed for closing national security loopholes in Hong Kong, stopping violence and restoring law and order in Hong Kong, and ensuring Hong Kong's long-term prosperity and stability.

The spokesperson said "one country, two systems" is China's basic state policy. The central government is firmly resolved to implement the "one country, two systems." The decision adopted by the NPC on establishing and improving the legal system and enforcement mechanisms for safeguarding national security in the HKSAR provides a fundamental guarantee for the full implementation of the "one country, two systems," "Hong Kong people administering Hong Kong" and a high degree of autonomy. The decision only targets acts of separatism, subversion, terrorism and foreign interference that seriously undermine national security. It will not impinge on the rights and freedoms of Hong Kong residents, nor the legitimate rights and interests of foreign investors.

The spokesperson urged the EU to observe international law and basic norms governing international relations, respect China's efforts to safeguard national security, refrain from interfering in Hong Kong affairs and China's internal affairs in any form, and take real actions to sustain the sound and steady development of China-EU relations.
The development of industrial zones needs a comprehensive plan to capture the transition of the foreign direct investment inflow (Photo: baochinhphu.vn)

The global production transition out of China spurred by the US  China trade wars and the COVID-19 pandemic recently gave a push to the development of IZs in Vietnam.

In the first three months of this year, five new IZs were founded with a total area of 800 hectares, compared with only four in the whole of 2019.

Some deserted IZs found new developers and had infrastructure developed to get ready for leasing, such as the 46-hectare An Phat High Tech Industrial Park in the northern province of Hai Duong.

Su Ngoc Khuong, senior director of investment, Savills Vietnam, said that a lot of domestic and foreign investors were finding locations in industrial zones for investment, some wanted to become developers of industrial parks while some others planned to expand factories.

Do Nhat Hoang, Director of the Ministry of Planning and Investments Foreign Investment Agency, said that a close watch was being kept on the transition of global production, which was opening opportunities for a number of countries, including Vietnam.

Hoang said that the agency was working with foreign investors who were considering moving to Vietnam so as to raise policies which would create a favourable investment climate.

He added that the Law on Investment was being amended to enable Vietnam to capture the FDI inflow in the context of the global production transition.

The ministry said that the development of IZs needed a strategy which aimed at sustainability, economic efficiency and environmental friendliness.

According to Nguyen Van Toan, Vice President of the Vietnam Association of Foreign Invested Enterprises, the infrastructure of IZs remained a limitation. Toan said that many IZs did not have good transport connectivity.

A comprehensive plan is needed for the development of IZs, Toan said, adding that the plan would prevent rampant development of IZs nationwide and enable Vietnam to capture the opportunities from the global production transition.

Vietnam targeted that the total registered capital into IZs would reach 2.7-3.2 quadrillion VND (116-138 billion USD) in domestic investment and 280-330 billion USD in FDI by 2030. Realised capital was expected at 1.5 -2 quadrillion VND and 240-290 billion USD, respectively, according to the ministry.

In addition, IZs would generate jobs for 5-6 million workers in 2025 and 7-8 million in 2030.

The promulgation of the Law on Foreign Investment in 1987 created conditions for the formation and development of IZs which had so far contributed significantly to attracting the FDI flow into the country.

Statistics of the Ministry of Planning and Investment showed that as of March, 335 IZs were founded with a total area of 97,800 hectares, 206 of which were operational with a total area of 68,700 hectares. The average occupancy rate was 75.6 percent.
Syracuse, N.Y.  A day of overwhelmingly peaceful protests in response to police brutality were hijacked after dark Saturday by a small number of bad actors with sinister motives, city and county leaders said.

The vast majority of the day was both peaceful and lawful, Syracuse Police Chief Kenton Buckner said during a 1:15 p.m. news conference on the response to protests following George Floyds death at the hands of police in Minneapolis.

Unfortunately, a few people hijacked local protests by damaging buildings, looting and other criminal behavior, Buckner said.

RELATED: How George Floyd protests in Syracuse went from peaceful to chaotic

Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh and Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon agreed that the property damage was caused by a handful of people, who may not have even been connected to the original protest.

So far, seven people have been arrested on a variety of charges. Officials urged anyone who incurred damage to contact police, as not every case could be documented at the time.

Buckner defended the law enforcement response overnight, saying that police didnt try to quell the protests until things turned dangerous at night.

The police chief said he was proud of the amount of restraint officers showed throughout the tense day. And he said that police only stepped in when needed, saying, We executed that perfectly.

As some protesters broke windows at the Syracuse police headquarters (Public Safety Building), courthouse and other places, police fired pepper balls that contained some gas and rubber bullets, Buckner said.

But the night ended without any significant injuries to either police or protesters, the chief said, adding that the community was very, very blessed and fortunate to come through Saturdays protests in the way it did.

Unfortunately, a man was shot to death on the citys West Side as the protests were taking place, though theres nothing to suggest a link between the two, Buckner said. The chief noted the murder as an act of senseless violence that was being overshadowed by the coverage of the protests.

Theres now a countywide curfew, from 8 p.m. to 7 a.m., imposed by Mayor Ben Walsh and County Executive Ryan McMahon.

Officials stressed that the curfew was not meant to impinge upon peoples First Amendment rights, but urged residents to adhere to the order.

Tonight, if you come out, be peaceful and lawful, the police chief urged.

Walsh noted that the protests are taking place during the Covid-19 pandemic, and expressed concern that there could be a spike of cases as so many people gathered and many did not wear masks.

We are in the middle of a global pandemic, the mayor said. We should not be outside gathering.

People have a right to protest but there are smart ways to protest and not smart ways, he said. The number of people yelling without masks on is a concern.

But all three leaders  Walsh, McMahon and Buckner  expressed understanding for why protesters took to the streets.

I share with the anger, and the frustration and the grieving of the community, Walsh said, echoing comments he made overnight.

McMahon said that Floyds death amounted to a murder. Its so horrible, so evident, so wrong. And people are angry, he said.

We share in your frustration, we share in your anger, Buckner added. The things that happened to Mr. Floyd should not have happened.

Walsh expressed optimism that the ugliness of Saturday night was already disappearing from city streets. Volunteers and city workers were up early Sunday cleaning up and securing properties.

We had a tough night, we got through it, and by the time the sun rose this morning, I was reminded by how great this city is," the mayor said.

Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh speaks on Sunday, May 31, about the unrest following protests about police brutality.Teri Weaver | tweaver@syracuse.com

MORE ON PROTESTS

Onondaga County declares state of emergency, countywide curfew starting tonight

Heres who was charged in police brutality protests, riot in Syracuse

How George Floyd protests in Syracuse went from peaceful to chaotic

Violence, looting in Upstate NY: Protests turn ugly in Buffalo, Albany, Rochester (videos)

Staff writer Douglass Dowty can be reached at ddowty@syracuse.com or 315-470-6070.
Covid update: Delhi death data row; Modi-Morrisons samosa chat; Pak violence

From a major controversy brewing over data regarding deaths in Delhi, to India's worst-hit state, Maharashtra, announcing easing of restrictions - here are the top ten news updates on the Covid-19 pandemic. Indian Railways is slowly increasing its operations, with the announcement of 200 new special trains which will run from June 1. Meanwhile, violence was reported from a hospital in Pakistan's Karachi. In the United States of America, massive protests over the death of an African-American are raising fears of a new wave of infections. Also, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's bonhomie with international leaders was on display when his Australian counterpart tagged him in a tweet about 'samosas'. Watch the full video for the other updates regarding the spread of the Sars-Cov-2 coronavirus. ...read more
California lawmakers may still create a path to overhaul PG&E Corp.s structure even though the company is poised to remain an investor-owned business after its expected emergence from bankruptcy this year.

State Sen. Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo, is carrying legislation that could make the utility subsidiary Pacific Gas and Electric Co. owned by a new nonprofit public benefit corporation called Golden State Energy. But it would only happen if the PG&Es bankruptcy implodes or state regulators take the drastic step of revoking the companys operating license.

While the bar for such a revocation is high, it is an option that the California Public Utilities Commission enshrined in a new enforcement process when it approved PG&Es bankruptcy reorganization plan Thursday. Regulators at the commission could reconsider the license if the company causes more disasters and other enforcement measures prove insufficient.

The legislation, SB350, is important to Hill, who has been a frequent critic of PG&E ever since one of the companys San Bruno gas pipelines exploded in his district in 2010, killing eight people and destroying 38 homes.

I hope PG&E never starts another wildfire, never causes another pipeline explosion, and I hope the company improves its safety record and public image, Hill said. But the state cannot rely on hope alone any longer.

The bill has not yet advanced in the Legislature. It was supposed to be heard in an Assembly committee on Thursday, but Hill pulled the bill from consideration to continue negotiating potential amendments.

SB350 comes as PG&E nears the anticipated conclusion of its bankruptcy, which began in January 2019 because of devastating wildfires the company caused in the years before. PG&E has faced the prospect of structural change in several ways since then, including a threatened state takeover by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

PG&E ultimately struck a deal with Newsom through which he dropped his opposition to the companys bankruptcy plan  and with it, his threat of a near-term state takeover. As part of that deal, however, PG&E agreed to put itself up for sale if it fails to meet certain bankruptcy deadlines or regulators rescind its license. The deal allows the state, or someone the state supports, to be the buyer.

Hill called SB350 a fleshing out of that part of the deal and said he had discussions with the governors office about the bill. A spokesman for Newsom did not respond to a request for comment.

PG&E weighed in on the bill in a letter sent Tuesday to the chairman of the Assemblys utilities and energy committee, which was supposed to hear the legislation on Thursday. Chris Patterson, the companys senior director of state government relations, wrote that the company was working to emerge from bankruptcy as a transformed utility with improvements to its safety structure, operations and corporate leadership.

In light of the steps that PG&E has taken over the last 18 months, and will continue to take moving forward, we are confident that none of the provisions in this bill will ever need to be used, Patterson said in the letter.

Some wildfire victims are worried about the legislation because they fear it could reduce the amount of money available to pay them through the PG&E bankruptcy case. The company plans to fund victims claims through an estimated $13.5 billion trust  half of which would be provided in PG&E stock.

Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes

Lisa Williams, who lost her home in the 2018 Camp Fire that PG&E caused, said she does not see firm enough assurances in the bill that if the transfer to Golden State Energy is triggered, their trust would retain its full value. Other victims share those concerns, she said.

We need to see these safeguards written into the bill, Williams said.

Hill said SB350 is intended to make sure that fire victims are fully paid. If the bill does not pass, victims would be far more vulnerable should PG&E fail to meet its deadlines and is sold to someone else, he said.

Without this legislation, they have no guarantee, Hill said of fire victims. That is exactly what the legislation is designed to do, is protect them.

The bill has won some support from a group of more than 200 local government leaders spearheaded by San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo that has pushed to turn PG&E into a customer-owned cooperative. Liccardo and other leaders of the group sent a letter to Hill on Wednesday indicating it could support the legislation if it is amended, citing some concerns around what could happen with the bankruptcy process, rate impacts and grid safety.

We appreciate your willingness to embrace a direction for the company for which we have long advocated  to alter the companys ownership structure to ensure that shareholder interest no longer takes priority over the public interest, the letter said.

J.D. Morris is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jd.morris@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @thejdmorris
Gangadhar Krishna

Nobody in the organization is going to lose their jobs. We are fine until December 2020. This was the announcement made in a friends office.

When we chatted a few weeks ago, the only topic of discussion was COVID-19, job loss, pay cuts, forced leave, bad times, recession and depression. The mood was pretty somber. But one friend who seemed less stressed had a different tune. Nobody in the organisation is going to lose their jobs. We are fine until December 2020. This was the announcement made in his office.

Now I knew why he was less stressed. With jobs falling like nine pins, he was better placed.

He said the entire office was now focusing on collections on one hand, and holding on to existing customers on the other. I am sure employees did not have to look over their shoulders, and on the sly apply for jobs on various social media sites. Instead, they focused on work and ensured the company does well so that, they had a job on 2021. The company was not aiming to make profits, but to get past COVID-19 unscathed and reboot in 2021  a simple, realistic and clear vision of the organization.

COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine  one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show

The formula seemed straight forward. A win-win approach. On one side, employees were at ease about their jobs but on their toes striving hard to keep it running. The carrot and the stick were both at play. And on the other, they were in touch with customers either for business or collections. Maintaining relations with customers is imperative for the future of the organization.

Integrity works two ways

Every organisation is talking cost cuts and retrenchments. While, only a few are thinking of investing at these times. Organisations are busy quick-fixing instead of coming up with long term solutions. The exodus of migrant workers a couple of weeks ago and now the dearth of them to resume business is clear evidence of betrayal.

Business owners have amassed enough wealth to have taken care of their work force for three to four months. If only they were benevolent with their employees, the state and Centre could have focused on other challenges and progressed. Instead the workers were left on the streets.

So much for we are like a big family gyan usually given by management to employees. If they were part of your big family, would you throw your kith and kin on the streets? Or would you try to take care of them, come what may? And so, the laborers, seeing the true colours have left for their villages to be with their real families. And now employers may have to source local labor, possibly at a higher price. A penny-wise pound-foolish strategy.

These are combat times of a different nature and requires every individual, every community and every organization to support the government by doing their little bit, and not the other way around. A time when each one, teaches one about the risk, hygiene and social distancing. Illiteracy has not created this mess, the educated demonstrating a sense of apathy has done it.

 President John F Kennedy (January 20, 1961)

Motivated employees satisfy customers

This is the time to maintain status quo and not rock the boat. In a panic mode, it is not enough that the management has a vision, but every employee must see the vision and contribute in meeting it. Simply put, if everyone sees whats in it for them, they will do their bit to contribute towards the vision. It is a time when it is wiser to inform and inspire than to instruct or command. Employees and their suggestions that were once unheard or unappreciated could now come to limelight, heard and implemented. It is the time to inject renewed energy and enthusiasm, focus on doing things differently with all attention on the customer and prime objective to win together.

Time to invest

Jan Carlzon, in his book Moments of truth, speaks on how he turned around SAS airlines not by cutting costs, but by delivering the best service and increasing their market share. Today, we need to retain customers and employees, so tomorrow, we can move full steam ahead. The need of the hour is not on cutting costs but investing on anything, I repeat anything, that will help retain customers and keep the business alive.

If you see your business going online, invest in developing a seamless online presence. If you need to review processes, invest in developing processes that work proactively. If service deliveries need change, invest in new delivery methods. If employees need training to meet present challenges and get ready post-COVID-19, then invest in developing their skills. In fact, Dubai has invested in a drive-in theatre in the last 60 days, just to make sure the show goes on and customers are kept entertained.

And in India too, I gather from various social media, that the age-old neighborhood kirana stores have started or may, I say invested, in home delivery service. An investment at these times not only benefited the business, but have given them the much-deserved goodwill. Now this will become their new norm post pandemic. And what is their ROI (Return on Investment)? Along with goodwill, they have increased their customer base, gained customer loyalty and earned a feather on their cap. While many kiranas have never been in favour of tying up with Ecommerce, this will confirm their thoughts and beliefs. Many customers would realize their folly and return to kiranas. Loyalty works two ways.

It is wiser to retain than retrain

Adopting short sighted labor policies, an organization would certainly benefit and maybe even tide the pandemic. But then what? When the pandemic is behind us, in two months or twelve months, how is the organization going to revive and compete? Would you call your old employees back? Even if you did, would they return? And, even if they did return, having seen your true colors, how productive would they be? How loyal would they be? So, the obvious solution is new hires, retrain and start where you left. And all this comes at a cost that could have been wisely avoided.

What about customer service and customer experience? Can a lean team perform just as efficiently as a fully charged and well-trained team? Customers quickly sense the difference in service and would not think twice to move elsewhere! Once again acquiring a new customer is seven times costlier than retaining existing customers.

It then, makes sound sense to retain your employees than retrain new ones.

It makes sense to retain customers than acquiring new ones.

And in doing this, the organisation gains goodwill of the employee and its customers.

This may surely mean a strain for the organisation, but a huge comfort for the employee and for your customers. And in the long run, it is the organization that will triumph. Past these challenging times, you can once again sit on your laurels and run your business while your employees run the show.

Gangadhar Krishna is the founder of delightingcustomers.com and author of an illustrative business book titled Delighting Customers Is . He firmly believes in organic business development based on the philosophy Sales Heaps but Service Reaps. He can be reached at gangadhar@delightingcustomers.com . View expressed here are personal.
A former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Publicity Secretary in Ondo State, Banji Okunomo, has joined the states October 10 governorship race.

Mr Okunomo, while speaking with journalists in Okitipupa on Sunday, said that his quest for the governorship ambition was to improve the standard of living of the masses.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that Mr Okunomo on Saturday at the PDP Secretariat in Akure picked his Expression of Interest Form in pursuit of his gubernatorial ambition

He promised to execute people-oriented programmes and make sure the masses became part of the decision making in piloting the affairs of the state.

I want to assure the masses that their lives will improve better if I become the flagbearer of my party and eventually win the governorship election.

I have picked the expression of interest form yesterday in Akure and I will also be the first to obtain the nomination form which will be advertised next week, Mr Okunomo.said.

He, however, sought for the cooperation of the masses to ensure that he won the PDP primaries, as well as the state governorship election.

(NAN)
Michel Barnier stoked up the Brexit threats today as he warned the UK cannot cope with coronavirus and no trade deal.

The EU negotiator accused Boris Johnson of reneging on promises as he warned there will not be an agreement unless the British side gives ground.

The vicious swipe came as the PM prepares to join talks for the first time this week, with the clock running down ahead of a summer deadline for deciding whether a settlement will be possible by the end of the year.

There is a deadline of July 1 to seek an extension to the 'standstill' transition period, which will end on December 31 otherwise. But Mr Johnson is adamant there will be no delay, and his envoy David Frost has warned that the hard line from Brussels on issues such as access to fishing waters could prevent progress.

The UK has accused the EU of 'running down the clock' in the hopes that Mr Johnson will cave in to their demands.

In an interview with the Sunday Times, Mr Barnier said the UK had more to lose from failure to get a trade deal than the EU, and the damage would be compounded by the impact of coronavirus.

Michel Barnier (right) accused Boris Johnson (left) of reneging on promises as he warned there will not be an agreement unless the British side gives ground

'The UK has been taking a step back - two steps back, three steps back - from the original commitments,' Mr Barnier said.

'The UK negotiators need to be fully in line with what the Prime Minister signed-up to with us.

'Because 27 heads of state and government and the European Parliament do not have a short memory.'

Mr Barnier said the EU's heads of state remembered 'very clearly the text which we negotiated with Boris Johnson'.

'And we just want to see that complied with. To the letter... and if that doesn't happen there will be no agreement,' he said.

Mr Barnier insisted UK withdrawal from the EU was a 'lose-lose' for both sides and a question of 'damage limitation', saying no-one - not even Nigel Farage - had shown there was any 'added value' to the UK's departure.

But he said the EU was 'less exposed because 7 per cent of our exports go to the UK, whereas for the UK it's 47 per cent of their exports which come to the EU'.

Pointing to the coronavirus meltdown facing countries around the world, he said: 'If we don't get an agreement then that will have even more consequences. And then of course those will be added to the already very serious consequences of the coronavirus crisis..

'So, I think we have a joint responsibility in this very serious crisis, which affects so many families... with so many deaths, so many sick people, so many people unemployed... to do everything we can to reach an agreement and I very much hope that we will do so.'

A British source told the Mail on Sunday: 'What is clear is that the conventional approach will not get us much further. The EU needs to inject some political reality into its approach and appreciate that they cannot use their usual tactic of delay to drag the talks into autumn.'
I dont want to see my son choked to death on a video, said John McGuirk, of Merrillville, who took part in the protest with his wife, Nakesha. A biracial couple, McGuirk said his son is 6 years old.
Chennai:

The Enforcement Directorate today attached assets worth Rs 150 crore of a Chennai-based criminal, wanted in several cases of extortion and murder, in connection with a money laundering probe against him.

The agency said it has attached the assets of Sridhar Dhanpal and his family members under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

Dhanpal and his associates had as many as 26 police FIRs registered against them even as the CBI had issued an Interpol arrest warrant and it is suspected he is currently in Dubai, ED said.

Dhanpal has been evading the judicial proceedings in India for past three years and it is learnt that he flew from India in 2013 and is now in Dubai.

Based on the information from Tamil Nadu Police, the Enforcement Directorate initiated money laundering investigations in this regard and found that the said person had committed the offence of money laundering and using the proceeds of crime, had acquired 124 immovable properties in his name and name of his wife, daughter and brother, the agency said in a statement.

It said Dhanpal also had cases of extortion, murder and attempt to murder, illegal possession of arms registered against him.

An attachment order under PMLA is aimed to deprive the accused from taking benefits of his or her ill-gotten wealth and it can be challenged before the Adjudicating Authority of the said Act within 180 days.

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Published on 2020/05/31 | Source

/Yonhap

Coronavirus infections are spreading among workers at a warehouse by online commerce company Coupang in Bucheon west of Seoul, surging to 90 just five days after the first confirmed case was detected on May 23.

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The virus was detected on hats and shoes worn by some of the workers, suggesting that it may have spread without direct contact.

Another infection was detected at a different Coupang warehouse in Goyang just north of Seoul, bringing the total infections to 39 in Incheon, 32 in Gyeonggi Province and 19 in the capital itself.

The developments prompted government officials to reinstate some lockdown measures in the Seoul metropolitan area from Thursday until June 14.

According to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly half the 224 infections over the past 10 days were detected in Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonggi Province.

The government on Thursday closed private crammers, karaoke parlors and bars again temporarily, as well as museums, parks and other public facilities. Outdoor activities and gatherings were permitted again just a month ago as long as people wore masks and maintained a safe distance from each other.

Health and Welfare Minister Park Neung-hoo told reporters on Thursday that officials "are trying their best to track down potentially infected people, but community transmissions have probably occurred already or may be quietly occurring now. If we fail to quickly stem the spread of infections in the Seoul metropolitan region, they will affect schools and students will not be able to return to classes".

People wait in line to get tested for coronavirus at a makeshift facility in Seoul on Thursday. /Yonhap

Government officials are weary of another total lockdown just days after schools reopened and amid some signs of resurgent private spending boosted by the government's handing out of "disaster-relief" payments.

But Park urged the public to "refrain from going outside and having social gatherings for the next two weeks and avoid restaurants and bars where multiple infections have been detected".
Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun has described as irresponsible, the decision of residents doctors of the Olabisi Onabanjo University...





Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun has described as irresponsible, the decision of residents doctors of the Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital, Sagamu to request for wage increase.





Recall that last week that the doctors said they were embarking on what they called weekend strike until their demands are met.





In his plea, Gov Abioduns closest rival in the 2019 governorship election, Hon. Adekunle Akinlade, appealed to the doctors not to go on strike.





Akinlade also urged Abiodun to set its priorities as he would not be measured by the number of roads he constructed, but by his efforts in saving the lives of Ogun residents during this period of the Coronavirus pandemic.





But in a video obtained by NigerianEye, Abiodun said he was disappointed in the doctors for demanding wage increase at a time like this.





The visibly angry Gov Abiodun chastised the medical practitioners, saying they should be more concerned about peoples welfare than clamoring for money.





According to him, the doctors demand might have political inclinations.





He said, I find it difficult to believe that when we are all putting our thinking caps on, trying to figure out what to do and how to do it, any set of people will be irresponsibly requesting for a wage increase. And these set of people are people that we have entrusted out health to at a point like this. I am very disappointed, I think, that is what I will say for now.





I am beginning to wonder and it is being speculated that this may actually have political inclinations, these people may be politically sponsored. I am yet to believe it but at this point in time, anything is believable. If you see people who are educated, people who went to medical school, people who graduated, whose charge is to look after people, that is what they are charged for; that is what should be paramount to them not money, and we have done our best.





That day, I authorised the use of PPE to them, face mask and everything. I increased their hazard allowance by 300%.





In his veiled response to Akinlades advice that he should make the health sector priority at a time like this, Abiodun fired, saying:





I read in some medium that someone said Gov Abiodun should better focus on the health sector against constructing roads and constructing schools. And I think it is a joke. People just at times talk without even thinking.





In this country, we are ranked very high in our level of preparedness for this Covid. Like I said, we are only number four in testing in this country.





I did not get a penny to acquire a laboratory. We did everything through self help. Our isolation centres are considered WHO said what they saw in Ogun State was simply amazing and what we have done is definitely a legacy post-Covid; and then someone says to me that I am focusing on roads and schools that, I am not focusing on health care. Can you see everything is political?





You know I am not in the habit of responding to baseless and frustrated people when they talk carelessly. But this time it is very painful when it borders on health.





I dont know what those doctors want, I am sure that other doctors are wondering what they want but I can assure you that we will not be subject to anyones blackmail. Thats all I can say.












The COVID-19 testing site in Midland saw a great response from the community over the weekend. Over 1,000 individuals - 1,018 to be exact - voluntarily tested for the virus at the drive-through clinic set up at Dow Diamond on Saturday.

To me, it says our community wants to be tested and is looking for answers. Were certainly happy with the turnout, said Midland County Public Health Director and Health Officer Fred Yanoski.

Shortly after the clinic opened on Sunday morning, cars lined up along Buttles Street. As they entered the parking lot, they were directed into one of three lines where they were asked for identification, whether they had health concerns and had helped assist with relief efforts in flooded areas. At the very end of the line, members of the Michigan National Guard administered nasopharyngeal testing. The clinic was free and open to anyone who wished to be tested, whether they were symptomatic or not.

Yanoski and his staff have received mainly positive feedback from the event. He accredited the services provided by the Michigan National Guard, the Michigan State Police and the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services as well as the large facility at Dow Diamond with the efficiency of the clinic. Ninety percent of the Midland County Department of Public Health staff was on hand to assist.

Im very proud of our staff, who have been very committed, Yanoski said.

Yanoski was most hopeful about meeting the need of the community to be tested. With the recent flooding and the subsequent relief efforts, the Midland County Department of Public Health is concerned about a possible uptick in COVID-19 cases.

Daily News staffer takes test at drive-through clinic

The community has been very diligent with social distancing and the precautions, but when youre facing a natural disaster, that all becomes secondary, said Catherine Bodnar, MD, MPH, medical director with the Midland County Department of Public Health.

Bodnar further requested that residents continue to be vigilant in regard to preventing the spread of the virus. She asked that individuals be diligent in identifying symptoms and continue to adhere to precautions including social distancing and wearing face masks.

There are no immediate plans for another mass testing site in Midland for the immediate future. Once the testing results are analyzed, the decision to conduct further testing will be made.

This will be an initial step to see what the impact is and to see what the demand for testing is. We will certainly follow up afterwards to see if theres an additional demand that we need to meet, said Yanoski.
New Jersey could allow Atlantic Citys casinos to reopen, with some restrictions, by the July 4 weekend after months of closures to slow the spread of the coronavirus in the state, Gov. Phil Murphy said Sunday morning.

Its probably still too early to give you a very specific answer but theres a lot of work going into that right now., Murphy said during a radio interview. But we are trying like heck to get toward, I hope, before the Fourth of July or at least by the Fourth of July ... that were in a position where we can say, you know what, subject to a lot of different parameters the casinos can be open again.

Murphy did not specify the types of restrictions casinos would face. He made the comments during an appearance on the AC Mike Show with Mike Lopez on WOND.

Were spending a lot of time with the owners and operators as well as the workers and their representatives on casinos, the governor said. The bad news is casinos sort of have the attributes that are hardest to deal with this virus. Its indoors, no ventilation. Youre sedentary, youre in close proximity. Having said that, theyre big footprints and we think there are successful steps that can be taken to address the challenges.

Atlantic City casinos have been closed since March 16, though some have since reopened for hotel guests. The gaming floors remain off limits.

The announcement comes as Murphy continues to lift near-lockdown conditions put in place in mid-March. The state is currently in stage one of the multi-stage opening process, and Murphy has said he expects to announce the date stage two can begin on Monday.

Non-essential retail and outdoor dining are among the businesses Murphy said he hoped would reopen soon. Reopening plans announced on Monday will likely go into effect in the coming weeks, Murphy said.

Child daycare centers, non-contact sports, youth day camps, and horse racing are among the reopening steps Murphy recently announced. Restrictions on indoor gatherings will likely be relaxed soon to allow people to gather in houses of worship.

Indoor gatherings are currently be limited to 10 people, while outdoor gatherings can have up to 25.

NJ Advance Media staff writer Samantha Marcus contributed to this story.

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Katie Kausch may be reached at kkausch@njadvancemedia.com. Tell us your coronavirus story or send a tip here.
The Federal Controller of Works in Lagos, Kayode Popoola, on Sunday said the government had begun a systematic maintenance of all bridges in Lagos to ensure smooth rides and safety.

Mr Popoola told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on telephone that government had a schedule to fix all bridges in Lagos State in batches this year as funds were made available.

We have plans for maintenance of all bridges in Lagos state this year, our prayer is that the COVID-19 pandemic should come to an end so that we can swing into action.

There is going to be systematic maintenance, we will change the rubbers of the expansion joints and any one that the metal is bad.

We are going to replace bearings on expansion joints that are worn out, that is the systematic programme that we have this year.

We say systematic because we cannot take all the bridges at once; for instance, we are to maintain Third Mainland Bridge, Marine Beach Bridge, Eko Bridge, Ijora 7Up Bridge, so, we are taking them one after another,  he said.

He explained that funding and traffic congestion were some of the reasons why the bridges could not be shut for repairs at the same time.

We want to schedule the maintenance, he said.

He explained that contracts for repairs of the Third Mainland, Ijora 7Up and Marine Beach Bridges had been awarded while that of Eko Bridge was undergoing procurement for award.

Speaking on the Marine Beach Bridge in Apapa which was supposed to be closed for repairs, Mr Popoola said that the closure for rehabilitation was still being delayed because of rainfall.

He explained that the rains were slowing down ongoing patching of all adjoining roads to the bridge to avert gridlock, adding that, repair works were being washed off by flood.

We will complete the repairs and close the bridge anytime this week to begin work on it, I cannot tell you if it is Monday or Tuesday but I am sure it will be this week.

We have to ensure the adjoining roads are in good condition to take traffic before we close any part of the bridge, he said.

Mr Popoola explained that drains on highways and bridges were also being cleaned to avert flooding.

The cleaning of weep holes on Long Bridge (Lagos-Ibadan Expressway) is ongoing. Desilting of weep holes is a regular thing, that is, we open them up and clean if not, they will have all been silted up by now, silted up means that they will have been blocked by sand.

We are also removing garbage from manholes so that all our drainages will function very well.

We are currently cleaning manholes on Apapa-Oshodi-Oworonshoki Road, Globatek (contractor) is working on it to address major problems of flooding on that road, he said.

The controller appealed to Lagos residents to stop indiscriminate disposal of refuse in drains and open manholes to avert flooding.

Lagosians should please stop dropping garbage inside the manholes. When you go there you will see used tyres, planks and all manners of rubbish. It will be difficult for flood waters to pass through to go into the canals.

Manhole is not meant to collect garbage, people should not drop refuse in gutters and all drainage paths to allow free flow of water, he said.

He lamented that vandals were stealing manhole covers but that plans were on to replace the covers with concrete that could not be easily removed. (NAN)

GA/CHOM/WOJ
Suspicion of possible tensions between military forces and military in Jammu and Kashmir's Anantnag region was confirmed after residents reported severe internet service issues on Sunday.

A massive cordon-and-search operation was launched in the Poshkreeri area of Anantnag district during the night by Indian Army, J&K Police and CRPF following information about the presence of militants, a police official said.

As the security forces searched, mobile internet services were shut down in the entire district as a precautionary measure.

Militants initially opened fire and relocated, resulting in further intensified search by the forces. A gunfight was later triggered between the troops and the militants.

Meanwhile, residents of the South Kashmir district waited for the operation to conclude as the frequent operations have severely affected their daily functioning, including access to the already slower 2G internet connection.

Resident Arif Hussain said people, especially the youth are now fed up of the encounters as they have become more frequent. According to Arif, the regular interruptions in mobile internet connectivity have not only irked the youth but have also disappointed most residents.

Junaid Lolu, a Journalism student, stated that people are unaware of the reasons why security forces shut down mobile services whenever a gunfight is triggered in the region.

Another resident, Asma Tahir, said that the internet system in Jammu and Kashmir is passing through "a grim and disappointing situation" after the abrogation of Article 370 with students being the worst-hit.

"We are not fulfilling our internet requirements through the available 2G mode and frequent shutdowns during anti-militancy operations are adding salt to the wounds," said Asma.

The Government has already issued instructions to schools to conduct online classes due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The administration's decision on announcing e-learning has faced severe criticised by many regarding these online classes during the availability of only 2g internet.

Students state that the suspension of even the limited 2g services during these operations by security forces have created more barriers. Mursal, a primary school student in the valley said that that internet is the only source of keeping them updated in the absence of their school teachers during the lockdown, shutting down of services means that she misses out on her school.

Security agencies and police are defending the internet suspension during militant operations by citing national security concerns. A senior police official on condition of anonymity said that that based on past operations, several unscrupulous elements have managed to trigger tensions by provoking people during these operations through posts on the internet and have proved big reason for the deterioration of law and order in the sensitive region.

The official said that rumour-mongers are trying to instigate people during such operations by misleading them, therefore the internet suspension during these operations are essential steps to ensure maximum protection to the troops and for the locals.

After the abrogation of J&K's special status in August 2019, the educational institutes in Kashmir remained closed for nearly seven months and communication remained blocked. The coronavirus pandemic is another challenge for the education sector. To meet this challenge internet can play a vital role in streamlining the education sector during the lockdown, but regular operations have emerged as a significant threat to such initiatives.
Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo, right, and U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper hold a press conference at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., in this February photo. / Korea Times file



By Kang Seung-woo



South Korea and the United States are yet to reach agreement over how to execute planned joint military exercises in August, according to sources, Sunday, raising speculation that the disagreement may expand to pushing back the transfer of operational control (OPCON) of South Korean troops during wartime from Washington to Seoul.



Hoping that it will regain OPCON by 2022, South Korea wants the upcoming exercises to be focused on assessing its relevant capabilities, but the U.S. is stressing that they need to focus on maintaining the joint military posture that may have been undermined following the postponement of annual drills in the first half of the year due to the COVID-19 outbreak.



The OPCON transition calls on a South Korean general to command the Combined Forces Command (CFC), with a U.S. general taking a supportive role. Currently, the CFC is headed by the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) commander who also leads the United Nations Command (UNC).



In February, the allies decided to indefinitely delay their annual joint military exercises amid a surge in COVID-19 cases across the Korean Peninsula, so the U.S. military believes that the upcoming exercises in August should serve as grounds to prove their combat readiness rather than preparing for the OPCON transfer, according to the sources.



However, the defense ministry here is underscoring that they should test Full Operational Capability (FOC), in which a South Korean commander will take responsibility for the combined defense posture. The FOC is the second of the three-phase verification process for OPCON transfer and if it gets approved by the defense ministers of both sides, a Full Mission Capability (FMC) test will be carried out next year. The two sides carried out an initial operational capability (IOC) test in August last year.



"Should the FOC verification be delayed, the timeframe for the OPCON transfer could be put on hold," a source said.



South Korea, which regained peacetime OPCON in 1994, was supposed to retake the wartime authority by the end of 2015, but the plan was delayed in 2014 after the allies agreed to seek a "conditions-based" transition due to growing tensions on the peninsula.



Those conditions include the acquisition of necessary military capabilities for a South Korea-led combined defense, the securing of critical military response capabilities by the South to deal with North Korea's nuclear and missile threats, and the security environment on the Korean Peninsula and in the region.



"Since the middle of last year, the U.S. military, led by CFC Commander Gen. Robert Abrams, has voiced negative opinions on the OPCON transfer. What Gen. Abrams and the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff stress is that the transition should be based on three conditions, but they complain that the South Korean government is in a hurry to meet its own timetable," said Park Won-gon, a professor of international politics at Handong Global University. The Moon Jae-in administration is seeking to complete the transfer before its term ends in 2022.



The difference on how to program the joint military exercises also comes after the government recently became at odds with the UNC over the latter's role in inter-Korean affairs.



The UNC announced the findings of its investigation into a recent gunfire exchange between South and North Korean soldiers across the border, and its results were in stark contrast to the Ministry of National Defense's conclusion. The ministry expressed regret over the announcement immediately, citing the UNC's failure to properly investigate the North's actions.



Some observers in military circles believe that the UNC was seeking to maintain its presence on the peninsula through the incident.



"After the OPCON transition, the U.S. will assume a supporting role on the peninsula," Park said.



"Considering such a situation, the U.S. is seemingly seeking to exert influence here through the UNC. In addition, I think that the U.S. also has a plan to use the UNC as a replacement for the South Korea-led CFC  although the U.S. government has denied this speculation."


China's investment ambitions in Israel were dealt a blow this week, and analysts say the relationship is under increasing pressure, with the Middle East nation and key US ally caught in the rivalry between Beijing and Washington.

The Israeli government on Tuesday awarded the contract to build and operate a US$1.5 billion infrastructure project to local company IDE Technologies, rejecting an affiliate of CK Hutchison Holdings, which was founded by Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing.

The project, Sorek 2, will be the world's largest desalination plant, with capacity to produce 200 million cubic metres of water annually " a quarter of the water Israel uses each year " in the south of Tel Aviv near an Israeli military base that is also used by the US.

The decision was made little more than a week after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the United States did not want the Chinese Communist Party to have access to Israeli infrastructure and communication systems during a visit to the country.

An affiliate of Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison Holdings lost its bid for an important infrastructure project in Israel. Photo: Nora Tam alt=An affiliate of Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison Holdings lost its bid for an important infrastructure project in Israel. Photo: Nora Tam

It is the latest setback for Chinese investment in Israel " a tech powerhouse and key stop on Beijing's Belt and Road Initiative " since the two countries signed a "comprehensive innovation partnership" agreement in 2017.

Israel's national security cabinet was reported to be revisiting a 2015 deal between the Israeli Transportation Ministry and Shanghai International Port Group involving the Port of Haifa, which regularly hosts joint US-Israeli naval drills and vessels.

In addition, the Israeli Security Agency reportedly blocked the inclusion of Chinese companies in Israeli communications infrastructure after receiving warnings from senior US officials including President Donald Trump. Israel had set up a committee to review foreign investment " not specifically Chinese " in October, but it was not enough to satisfy US officials.

Story continues

Carice Witte, founder and executive director of the Sino-Israel Global Network and Academic Leadership, said the worsening relationship between China and Israel was a bellwether for the geostrategic space.

"Whether or not there are security concerns, the more important point to recognise is that China is not in a position to provide the military support and cooperation that the US provides to Israel " a tiny Jewish nation with 130,000 missiles pointed at it from other countries," Witte said.

"If there is anything that does alarm Israel it is likely the same concern shared by most of the world " the intensifying great power competition between its two biggest trading partners and what that power play means for the future of the world."

A research report by US-based think tank Rand Corporation in April said the United States should be concerned by Chinese investment in Israel that could give China a military and economic edge.

"Since 2013, Chinese companies have increasingly become more involved in Israel by purchasing Israeli companies and successfully bidding on key infrastructure construction projects," the report said.

"Such activity has been significant in the hi-tech sector, in which Chinese investment of venture capital doubled from US$500 million in 2014 to US$1 billion in 2016. Israeli tech start-ups received Chinese investment of US$325 million in the first three quarters of 2018, up 37 per cent from a year earlier," it said.

The report said China's overseas investment had shifted from energy, mining and manufacturing to hi-tech industries such as artificial intelligence, robotics and information and telecommunications technology.

After examining 92 business deals in Israel by Chinese companies between 2011 and 2018, the report found 11 that potentially raised concern for Israel or the United States, including the expansion of the Ashdod port, partial construction and operation of a new terminal by the Haifa port, construction and operation of the Tel Aviv light rail, and the digging of the Carmel Tunnels near Haifa.

Ehud Gonen, a researcher with the Maritime Policy and Strategy Research Centre at the University of Haifa, said Israel was a small country with a complex security environment that must take US attitudes into consideration.

"Israel is a small economy with limited local markets that must have trade and foreign direct investment," Gonen said. "We would like to see as much FDI as possible, also from China, but China has to make moves to address the security concerns of its investment " not only in Israel but all over the world."

Yoram Evron, a senior lecturer with the Department of Asian Studies at the University of Haifa, said as US-China tensions rose, more cooperation between Israel and China would come under pressure because it was deemed "sensitive" by Washington.

"Israel has a clear interest in having a relationship with China in many areas, both politically and economically, considering China's rising profile in the world and presence in the Middle East," Evron said. "Possibly for the same reason, Washington is not happy with it."

He said the US had learned that the best way to kill a project it did not like was to nip it in the bud, as it would be difficult to stop a civilian project after the contract had been signed.

"Unfortunately the relations [between China and Israel] will be affected and positive momentum with China will experience a setback," he said.

Shira Efron, a visiting fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv and an author of the Rand report in April, said Israel was in a difficult position, caught in the middle between the US and China.

"Israel itself is not exerting pressure on China but is itself under US pressure and is forced to appear as if it is dialling back its ties with China, at least temporarily," Efron said. "That is because if forced to choose sides, Israel has no dilemma but will pick the United States, its most important strategic ally."

But she said Israel did not want to take sides.

"Instead, it hopes to reassure Washington that it is heeding its concerns and at the same time maintain its economic, cultural and academic ties with China."

This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright  2020 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

Copyright (c) 2020. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
Floyd, who was black and handcuffed, died Monday after a white Minneapolis police officer used his knee to pin Floyd to the ground for several minutes while Floyd pleaded for air and eventually stopped moving. The officer was charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter on Friday. He and the other three officers who were arresting Floyd were fired on Tuesday. None of the other officers have been charged.
GP-Andrea Rundell, recipient of the Junior League's Jen Smith Living Legendary Award, talks about the award at her office at the YWCA in Champaign on Thursday, May 28, 2020. She was chosen for her work empowering women, increasing community capacity and supporting women who face barriers in society.
Sydney identity Tom Domican was once found guilty by a jury of attempting to murder hitman Chris Flannery by shooting the notorious gun-for-fire outside his home.

Another jury found him guilty of conspiring while in jail to murder the killer who millionaire hotelier Andrew Kalajzich paid to shoot dead his wife Megan in the couple's bedroom.

Two further panels of Domican's peers cleared him of conspiring to murder drug dealer Michael Sayers and prison superintendent Ron Woodham, while the earlier guilty findings were eventually quashed.

Now Domican is faced with the opportunity of sitting in judgment on others as they have of him, after learning he is on the New South Wales jury roll for the next year.

Domican says his official invitation to determine the guilt of others finally proves he is not a criminal as alleged for decades and that he did not take part in Sydney's so-called 1980s gang wars.

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Sydney identity Tom Domican, who was charged with seven murder-related offences in the 1980s, has been put on the jNSW jury roll. He was found guilty by juries of attempted murder and conspiracy to murder. All Domican's convictions were overturned on appeal

Former Sydney garbo Tom Domican, pictured in 1986, says he is sick of being portrayed as an underworld figure. He is now faced with the opportunity of sitting in judgment on others as they have of him, after learning he is on the jury roll for the next year

Last year Domican successfully sued night club baron John Ibraham for $100,000 after Ibrahim falsely portrayed him as a hitman and drug dealer in his best-selling memoir. Ibrahim, pictured with a copy of his book Last King of the Cross, is writing another memoir

The fitness fantatic has long railed against being called an underworld figure and argued that his criminal record was clean, noting every jury verdict against him was eventually overturned.

He has blamed the charges he has faced on malignant forces including corrupt police acting with criminals to besmirch his name and disreputable prison informers.

Last year Domican successfully sued former night club baron John Ibraham for $100,000 after Ibrahim falsely portrayed him as a hitman and drug dealer in his best-selling memoir.

Domican recently received a letter from the Office of the Sheriff informing him he had been put on the jury roll for the district of Sydney for a year from June.

During that time he can be called upon to serve on a jury in criminal trials.

'What it proves to me is that the government and every other bastard has finally accepted the truth,' Domican told Daily Mail Australia.

'And the truth is that there never was a gangland war and never was I involved in criminality.'

Asked if he would wish to sit on a jury, Domican said: 'Of course I would'.

'I'm a f***ing citizen, aren't I? And a respected one.'

Dublin-born Domican is a former garbage collector and onetime inner-city Labor Party numbers man who has been involved in the construction industry and industrial relations.

Domican recently received a letter (pictured) from the Office of the Sheriff informing him he had been put on the jury roll for the district of Sydney for a year from June. During that time he can be called upon to serve on a jury in criminal trials

Sydney identity Tom Domican was once found guilty by a jury of attempting to murder hitman Chris Flannery (pictured) by shooting the notorious gun-for-fire outside his Arncliffe home

He was charged with one murder, one attempted murder and five conspiracies to murder during the 1980s but was cleared of every alleged offence.

Many of those prosecutions had relied on the word of discredited prison informers seeking benefit for themselves. The Independent Commission Against Corruption later issued a scathing report about using such witnesses in criminal trials.

Written in 'the mongrel tongue of the streets', Last King of the Cross is described by its publisher Pan Macmillan as 'crazier than Goodfellas, more compelling than The Godfather'

With multiple alleged victims named in some charges, Domican could have spent the rest of his life behind bars.

'I faced ten life sentences,' Domican said. 'Every case against me fell on its arse.'

People may be excluded from the jury roll if they have a criminal conviction, are serving a term of imprisonment or detention or are undischarged bankrupts.

Depending on the offence they may be excluded for life or a set period of time.

Being on the jury roll made Domican feel vindicated after spending more than 30 years protesting his innocence.

'It not only vidicates me,' he said. 'It vindicates every judge, including the ICAC, that said Tom Domican was innocent of these charges.'

More than a dozen heavy Sydney criminals were killed in the second half of the 1980s in what has usually been described as turf wars over heroin distribution.

Among those cited as major players in the conflict were corrupt detective Roger Rogerson, heroin dealer and armed robber Neddy Smith and hitman Flannery.

'I am really and truly pleased that I have been vindicated and that the court has preserved the presumption of innocence,' Domican told media following his defamation win against John Ibrahim last September. Domican is pictured outside the Federal Court with his wife Anne

Domican had been 'truly pleased' in September after reaching a settlement with Ibrahim (pictured) and publisher Pan MacMillan over his portrayal in the 'Last King of the Cross'

Domican has previously objected to his brief portrayal in the television series Blue Murder which dramatised the exploits of Rogerson, Smith, Flannery and others.

Graham 'Abo' Henry, who also featured in Blue Murder as a serious criminal of that time, wrote about Domican in his own book Abo: A Treacherous Life.

'Everyone involved in major crime gangs in Sydney knew each other,' Henry wrote.

'But nobody knew Domican... He was not a gangster.'

Domican knew some of those who did not survive the era including drug dealer Barry McCann, who was shot dead at Marrickville in December 1987 and boxer Roy Thurgar, who was shot dead at Randwick in May 1991.

'It's not a crime to know people,' Domican said. 'If it was there would be many captains of industry and politicians serving life sentences.'

Sydney's 1980s underworld was portrayed in in the 1995 television drama series Blue Murder. Pictured left to right are Gary Sweet playing hitman Chris Flannery, Peter Phelps as Graham 'Abo' Henry, Richard Roxburgh as detective Roger Rogerson and Tony Martin as Neddy Smith

Tom Domican says it is not a crime to know criminals. He was an associate of boxer turned criminal enforcer Roy Thurgar (left) who was shot dead at Randwick in 1991. Domican was found not guilty of having conspired to murder drug dealer Michael Sayers (right)

Domican was charged with murdering Flannery, who disappeared from his city apartment in May 1985, and his attempted murder at Arncliffe in January that year.

He was accused of firing about 30 rounds from an Armalite rifle at Flannery while he stood in his driveway with his wife and daughter.

Who cannot be a juror? In NSW there are two categories of people who cannot do jury service. They are those who are excluded from the jury roll and those who are exempt from jury service. People may be excluded from the jury roll because they hold high public office such as the governor-general, judges and parliamentarians. People may also be excluded if they have a criminal conviction, are serving a term of imprisonment or detention, have lost a driver's licence or are undischarged bankrupts. Depending on the offence they may be excluded for life or a set period of time. People may be exempt or have a right to claim exemption from jury service because of their employment. They include doctors, dentists, clergy and emergency workers. Source: Communities & Justice NSW Advertisement

The murder charge was dismissed at committal but a jury found him guilty of attempted murder and he was sentenced to 14 years in prison.

Domican successfully appealed the attempted murder conviction in the High Court but by the time he was released had served about five and a half years.

While behind bars Domican was charged with conspiring to murder Sayers in 1983-1985 and Ron Woodham, who went on to become Corrective Services commissioner in 1987-1988.

He was also charged with have conspired to murder Flannery's widow Kath in 1985, Megan Kalajzich's killer Bill Vandenberg in 1986 and policeman turned prisoner Max Gudgeon the same year.

Domican was eventually cleared of all those charges.

[Sayers was shot dead outside his home at Bronte in 1985. Vandeberg hanged himself in prison in 1988].

Domican has never been accused of or charged with drug offences.

'After 30 years I'm just sick and tired of all the bulls**t,' Domican told Daily Mail Australia last year. 'It not only hurts me, it hurts my wife and my family.'

Domican had been 'truly pleased' in September after reaching a settlement with Ibrahim and publisher Pan MacMillan over his portrayal in the 'Last King of the Cross'.

He had claimed Ibrahim's book implied he was a hitman, a criminal who conducted or sought to conduct illegal gambling and engaged or sought to engage in the supply of heroin, and 'a violent criminal who took part in gang wars.'

'I am really and truly pleased that I have been vindicated and that the court has preserved the presumption of innocence,' Domican said outside the Federal Court.

Tom Domican was cleared of conspiring to murder prison officer Ron Woodham (left). Domican was convicted of conspiring to murder Bill Vandenberg who was hired by Andrew Kalajzich (right) to kill his wife Megan. That conviction was later quashed

In addition to the $100,000 payout, Justice John Grifiths ordered that any new printings of the Ibrahim book exclude any reference to Domican.

Ibrahim and Pan MacMillan were also ordered to pay Domican's court costs, estimated to be about $80,000.

Domican claimed he had been 'greatly injured in his credit, and reputation, and has been brought into public scandal, odium and contempt' by Ibrahim's book.

His law suit was filed a fortnight after Ibrahim's book was long-listed in the true crime category of the Australian Crime Writers Association's prestigious Ned Kelly Awards.

Last King of the Cross charts Ibrahim's rise from a boy fleeing war-torn Lebanon with his family to his nights as a bouncer and his eventual domination of the Sydney nightclub scene.

Written in 'the mongrel tongue of the streets', it is described by its publisher as 'crazier than Goodfellas, more compelling than The Godfather.'

'Last King of the Cross is a colourful crime saga like no other and powerful proof that the truth is always stranger than fiction,' the publisher states.

'Bullets fly, blades flash and bodies fall.

'In a city of shadows, John builds his army and empire - partying like a playboy prince of darkness while staying one step ahead of the cops, the outlaw gangs and hungry triggermen, plotting to take him and his family down.'

Ibrahim is writing another memoir to follow his best-selling debut work. Domican is finishing the last chapters of his first book.
Plans call for American forces to be fully out of Afghanistan by May 2021.

Unless President Donald Trump suddenly has another idea, that is. Like getting them all out before Election Day.

The Pentagon will soon be briefing the president on his various options for Afghanistan. One of the possibilities, which is part of the February peace plan that had been heralded as such a turning point, would have U.S. forces remaining in the turbulent land for roughly the next 12 months. But military planners are also prepared for Trump to look for an earlier exit. Specifically, by Nov. 3, when voters will be deciding whether to give Trump four more years in office.

Those of a certain age simply cannot remember a time when the United States didn't have forces inside Afghanistan. After all, the U.S.-led coalition launched its invasion on Oct. 7, 2001. In other words, it'll soon enough be 19 years since we began the so-called war on terrorism that was a product of the attacks on the twin towers of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001.

Simply put, we didn't invade Afghanistan, which had provided safe harbor for al-Qaida, the perpetrators of the attack, just because we felt like it. We were responding, and we did so with a strong bombing campaign with allied forces from Britain, supported by France, Canada, Germany, Australia and others.

It was, unlike the ill-advised invasion of Iraq 17 months later, a response that was widely seen as not merely appropriate, but also as absolutely necessary. Unlike the invasion of Iraq, which was a war of choice, we went into Taliban-controlled Afghanistan because we had to.

No one wanted to be there nearly two decades later. But we had a job to do, and leaving before it was finished would be to cut and run, which isn't the American way. Or isn't supposed to be.

But Trump has never demonstrated that he cares a whit about what America stands for. Instead, he cares only about what makes him look good, what helps him politically.

And if he believes that getting U.S. forces fully out of Afghanistan before the balloting on Nov. 3 will help him at the polls, then that could well be the course of action he foolishly decides to take.
S paceXs historic mission is complete, as astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken have finally set foot on the International Space Station.

The two-man NASA crew blasted off on a Falcon 9 rocket at 8.22pm on Saturday  in the first ever space mission run by a private company.

Their Dragon capsule, operated by billionaire Elon Musks firm, attached to the ISS at 3.16pm UK time. It completed docking at 3.30pm.

More than two hours later, Mr Hurley and Mr Behnken floated safely into their new home.

They were greeted by fellow American Chris Cassidy as well as two other space station residents, Russia cosmonauts Anatoli Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner.

The new arrivals are now officially members of the Expedition 63 crew.

Speaking aboard the space station, Mr Hurley said: It obviously has been an honour just to be a small part of this. We have to give credit to SpaceX, the Commercial Crew Programme and, of course, Nasa.

Its great to get the United States back in the crewed launch business and we are just really glad to be on board this magnificent complex.

From right: Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken join the Expedition 63 crew / NASA TV/AFP via Getty Images

Meanwhile back on Earth, Nasa administrator Jim Bridenstine said: The whole world saw this mission and we are so, so proud of everything youve done for our country and, in fact, to inspire the world.

Mr Behnken said during their time on the ISS, the pair hope to put the Dragon capsule  which they have christened Endeavour  through its paces as well as assist other members of the crew in various other tasks.

He said: Endeavour is going to get a lot of checkout over the next week or two here and hopefully we will be able to declare her operational.

Doug and I will be able to take some burden of Chris and his crew mates Ivan and Anatoli so that we can keep the space station operating at a peak possibility.

"So we are looking forward to contributing any way that we can and like I said trying to keep (the) space station as productive as possible.

The spacecraft had to perform a series of manoeuvres to get close enough to dock at the space station on Sunday afternoon.

Mr Hurley and Mr Behnken took over the controls and briefly piloted the Dragon before putting it back into automatic for the final approach.

Mr Hurley said the capsule handled "really well, very crisp."

SpaceX Falcon 9 launch - in pictures 1 /50 SpaceX Falcon 9 launch - in pictures SpaceX Falcon 9, with NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken in the Crew Dragon capsule, lifts off from Pad 39-A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida Getty Images SpaceX Falcon 9, with NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken in the Crew Dragon capsule, lifts off from Pad 39-A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida AP AP Gregg Newton/AFP via Getty Image AP REUTERS AP The astronauts shortly after take-off AFP via Getty Images Getty Images NASA TV/AFP via Getty Images In this still image taken from NASA TV, the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket's second stage separates from the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule after launch AFP via Getty Images Mike Pence and President Donald Trump REUTERS President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and second lady Karen Pence at Kennedy AP AFP via Getty Images AFP via Getty Images People watch the launch REUTERS REUTERS REUTERS NASA TV/AFP via Getty Images NASA TV/AFP via Getty Images REUTERS The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, with the company's Dragon crew capsule onboard, is illuminated on the launch pad at Launch Complex 39A as preparations continue AP The countdown clock Getty Images Astronauts Bob Behnken (R) and Doug Hurley walk out of the Operations and Checkout Building on their way to the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket Getty Images AP Behnken gives the thumbs up AP AP Bob Behnken, right, and Doug Hurley say goodbye to family members Getty Images Getty Images AFP via Getty Images Douglas Hurley's wife Karen Nyberg and their son say goodbye REUTERS Getty Images AP Gregg Newton/AFP via Getty Image Donald Trump on his way to Kennedy Space Center REUTERS Bob Behnken, right, and Doug Hurley pose on Launch Complex 39A NASA TV/AFP via Getty Images REUTERS Gregg Newton/AFP via Getty Image

Shortly after docking, but before they entered the hatch to the ISS, Mr Cassidy greeted his colleagues by ringing the ship's bell.

He then announced: Dragon arriving.

The crew of Expedition 63 is honoured to welcome the Dragon and the Commercial Crew Programme.

Bob and Doug, glad to have you as part of the crew.

Chris Cassidy prepares the hatch door through to the ISS / NASA TV

The mission, named Demo-2, marks the first time NASA has launched astronauts from US soil in nine years.

Its aim is to show SpaceXs ability to ferry astronauts to the space station and back safely.

It is the final major step required by the Crew Dragon to acquire NASA certification for more long-term manned missions to space.

British astronaut Tim Peake celebrated Sunday's landmark moment on Twitter, writing: Another milestone in the history of human spaceflight.

"Congratulations @SpaceX and welcome to the @Space_Station @AstroBehnken and @Astro_Doug.

A few hours before docking, Mr Hurley and Mr Behnken reported that the capsule was performing beautifully.

Just in case, they got back into their pressurised launch suits and helmets ahead of their arrival.

NASA has yet to decide how long the pair will spend at the space station  between one and four months.

While they're there, the veteran astronauts will join their fellow ISS residents in performing experiments and possibly spacewalks to instal fresh station batteries.

In a show-and-tell earlier on Sunday, the astronauts gave a quick tour of the Dragon's interior.

The blue sequined dinosaur accompanying them  their young sons' toy, named Tremor  was also in good shape, Mr Behnken assured viewers.

Tremor will now join Earthy, a stuffed-toy globe delivered to the space station on an unmanned Dragon test flight last year.

Mr Behnken said both toys would return to Earth with them upon the mission's completion.

After lift-off on Saturday, Mr Musk told reporters that the capsule's return will be more dangerous in some ways than its launch.

In an emotional message, he said: "This is hopefully the first step on a journey toward a civilisation on Mars."
The crowd applauded and cheered while drivers honked and showed support during a demonstration held Sunday in downtown Danville for a Minneapolis man who died in police custody last week.

Speakers shouted messages of love and unity to the group, some of whom held signs that said "Black Lives Matter," "Stop the Hate! Participate with Love!" and "The Murder of George Floyd Will Not Be in Vain."

"The moral of the story is, I see God all around!" one speaker told the crowd of about 200 to shouts of "Amen!"

The event took place at the JTI Fountain at Main Street Plaza on a hot Sunday afternoon.

Jessica Kidd, a 36-year-old Danville native who lives in Blackstone in Nottoway County, announced the event on social media, but many who attended the peaceful protest stopped and listened after they happened to be driving by, she said.

"I've got goosebumps," she told the Danville Register & Bee just after a large part of the crowd broke away to march across the King Memorial Bridge.

Kidd, who served eight years in prison for fraud and other offenses and now has a prison ministry, said God told her to hold the event.

"There's just to so much animosity," she said, adding that everyone was there to "start a love revolution."

Others also coordinated the event, including 18-year-old Danville resident Dasia Swift, 18-year-old Isabella Henley, 20-year-old Sam Faison and 18-year-old Emma Jones.

"We're white, so we decided to use our white privilege for something that's good," Henley said, referring also to Faison, Jones and Kidd.

Tederick Holland, 27, of Danville, said, "I came out to support my people and support the cause."

Danville resident Sheila Calloway told the Register & Bee she felt pain when she saw the video of 46-year-old George Floyd with the knee of a Minneapolis police officer on his neck, repeatedly saying he couldn't breathe.

"It hurt me to my soul," Calloway, 35, said. "It hurts me that my son has to fear for his life every time he goes outside."

Floyd died May 25 in Minneapolis while being arrested, held down by a Minneapolis police officer's knee. The video shows Floyd telling officers he is in pain and can't breathe. Then, his eyes shut and he goes silent. He was pronounced dead shortly after.

That officer, Derek Chauvin, was arrested on Friday and faces charges of third-degree murder and manslaughter, according to Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman.

For 29-year-old Danville resident Remii Morgan, the event was "to come together to show that what happened to George Floyd must not happen again."

"It has to stop," she said.

She was both saddened and outraged when she saw the video of Floyd taking his last breaths.

"I was hurt and, more so, angry because it could have gone a different route," she said of the situation. "An innocent person lost their life at the hands of someone who was supposed to be protecting us."

Though the event was peaceful, one young man passing by in front of Me's Burgers & Brews heckled a speaker.

"We can't hear you, gangsta!" the white, red-headed man shouted. Some of the participants looked over at him but immediately refocused their attention to the speaker.

Kidd told the Register & Bee she hopes to hold similar events every weekend in Danville.

Crane reports for the Register & Bee. He can be reached at (434) 791-7987.

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Carter replied on Twitter with a simple no and said he stood by his comments, specifically promising he would work to shrink the police budget. When an executive branch agency flashbangs a legislator and then pepper sprays him and flashbangs him two more times, there should be a reprisal for that, he said. That is an agency that is out of control.
Ontario is still yours to discover, even if its not fully open for business. Thats the message the provinces struggling tourism industry is trying to send out as it recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic.

It got a boost from the federal government Sunday, with Minister of Economic Development and Official Languages Melanie Joly announcing $30 million in funding for the Tourism Industry Association of Ontario.

TIAO will distribute the money to destination marketing organizations in Southern Ontario, who will use the funds to develop marketing campaigns and strategies to get people out in their regions and help the industry back on its feet.

Our tourism sector and the 1.8 million people it employs across Canada have been hit hard by COVID-19, and were here for them, Joly said in a release. During National Tourism Week, our message to the sector and those whose livelihoods depend on it is clear: Were working with you to mitigate the impact of COVID-19.

TIAO CEO Beth Potter said Ontarios tourism industry has been deeply affected by the pandemic, which has closed borders and kept people at home.

Normally, our industry is about a $36-billion-a-year industry. Right now, weve seen a retraction, Potter said. Were expecting in 2020 were going to lose over 50 per cent of the revenue.

The marketing organizations have also been hit hard, because a good portion of their revenue comes from a hotel tax that they split with the local municipality. With hotels seeing low occupancy, those funds have dried up. But the federal contribution will help the marketing organizations cover about half their operating costs for six months, Potter said.

(The pandemic has been) devastating to our plans for this year from a marketing perspective, said Minto Schneider, CEO of Explore Waterloo. It is such great news that the federal government is stepping up to help us.

Typically, her organization works to promote Waterloo outside of the region, but Schneider said the focus will shift to promote local business and destinations to people who already live there.

Given the kind of new reality, well be marketing within Waterloo region to try and get people who have been locked up in their houses for the last couple of months out to spend money, she said. Our job is now to make an effort to get them out to visit their own backyard, to become tourists in their own town.

The organization is taking a tiered approach, with plans to market the regions destinations across the province and beyond as the economy opens up.

Potter said her association would also be promoting hyperlocal tourism until its safer for people to travel long distances. Whether its stores on Main Street or local restaurants, by supporting those guys youre supporting local artisans and the food supply chain here in the province as well.

The provincial government announced Saturday it would gradually reintroduce camping in Ontario parks and recreational camping on Crown land starting Monday. Backcountry camping, including access points, paddle and portage routes and hiking trails, will open. Day activities such as picnicking and off-leash pet areas are also expanding.

All other overnight camping and some day-use activities at provincial parks and conservation reserves are still restricted until June 14 and will continue to be assessed.

Physical distancing is still in effect and no more than five people are allowed on a backcountry campsite unless they all live in the same household.

Fees for day-use and backcountry camping access will be in effect starting Monday.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A viral video showing an angry mob forcing a mask-less grocery store customer out of a ShopRite on the South Shore has drawn the ire of the anti-mask movement, while participants on both sides of the melee have since provided their own account of what happened.

The heated confrontation occurred nearly three weeks ago inside the Charleston location.

An Instagram user who identified herself as the woman without a mask in the video said she would have fought off the crowd, but [its] very different when youre a young woman alone, being attacked by all these grown a-- men, and mind you I had my 1-year-old daughter with me... its scary.

As employees and shoppers berate the woman for not wearing a mask, one man calls her a dirty a-- pig, while another man off-camera is heard shouting, get the f--- out of here!

One of the shoppers in the video who was wearing a mask claimed the woman was the aggressor.

William Pellegrino, of New Jersey, who identified himself as the man in the camouflage mask, told the Advance/SILive.com the video footage was preceded by a confrontation that was not filmed.

He heard yelling and walked toward the ruckus. The video begins some time after the fight started.

Pellegrino said he wasnt certain of her motive for not wearing a mask, but that she was arguing with the crowd, saying, 'Why does it matter to any of you?'

A spokesman for ShopRite said the store contacted authorities following the incident, though it didnt appear Thursday that police had taken any action in the matter.

The spokesman said earlier this week the only exception for not wearing a mask would be a medical condition, and if customers see someone in the store without one they should contact management rather than addressing the issue themselves.

The woman did not mention in her comments if she had a medical condition, and did not respond to requests for comment.

Deputies from the New York City Office of the Sheriff distributed 3,000 masks at the FDR Boardwalk Sunday in South Beach. May 3, 2020. (Staten Island Advance/Jason Paderon) Jason Paderon

ANTI-MASKERS ERUPT

On Instagram, dozens commended the mask-less woman for standing her ground.

Responding to the support and defending her decision to ultimately leave the store, the woman in the Instagram account said she "unfortunately was the only one speaking up...its really a joke at this point.

One version of the video posted by IG account @we_are_the_revoluti0n garnered nearly 20,000 views and hundreds of comments.

The post was captioned: When the sheep gather up and enforce mask laws.

The accounts home page shows a link to a documentary that discredits world history as its currently taught, including claims 6 million Jews did not die during the Holocaust, and Truths including The destruction of Europe and Western Civilization," and The New World Order and the Satanic Endgoal.

Many conspiracy theorists -- some who identify as truthers -- believe that information funneled from scientists and government leaders to the mainstream media, including the importance of masks, is either fake news or over exaggerated in an attempt to fool the American public for the financial and personal gain of liberal politicians and other elite members of society.

The recommendation to wear a mask comes from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the nations director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and several other top health officials across the globe as an effective way to prevent droplets from spreading to others and therefore slowing the spread.

Some truthers and President Trump supporters cite reports that one type of N95 mask, or wearing the mask incorrectly, could harm others.

An executive order issued this week allowing businesses to refuse service to anyone without a mask came days after Gov. Andrew Cuomo addressed the issue at a press conference Monday.

FILE - In this May 21, 2020 file photo, President Donald Trump holds a face mask in his left hand as he speaks during a tour of Ford's Rawsonville Components Plant that has been converted to making personal protection and medical equipment, in Ypsilanti, Mich. From the U.S. president to the British prime minister's top aide and far beyond, leading officials around the world are refusing to wear masks or breaking confinement rules meant to protect their populations from the coronavirus and slow the pandemic. While some are punished when they're caught, or publicly repent, others shrug off the violations as if the rules don't apply to them. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)AP

TRUMP GOES MASK-LESS

As hundreds protested earlier this month for the early reopening of businesses on Staten Island, some were mask-less and congregating within inches of each other. One sign read, Masks dont work, people should.

Several protestors showed support for Trump, who continuously has appeared on television in public places within close proximity to others not wearing a mask.

Not all anti-maskers are conspiracy theorists, but many believe the governments support of the mask and inclusion of suspected COVID-19 cases in the data reported publicly is a political ploy by Democrats to make the federal government look worse in its handling of the crisis, while accusing hospitals across the U.S. of inflating numbers for additional federal funding.

Politically, they often self-identify as anti-liberal, anti-media, anti-elite and question the opinions of doctors in both science and medicine commissioned to council government leaders around the globe.

Government leaders in New York credit the masks and the shutdown with flattening the curve," as was the formula in several other nations. Officials have said the suspected COVID-19 cases based on a patients symptoms is necessary in obtaining a true picture of the impact, due to a lack of testing thats made it impossible to test anyone exhibiting symptoms.

At a press conference last month, Trump suggested New York City was padding the number of total deaths with suspected COVID-19 deaths, in an effort to obtain more federal funding than needed.

More than 100,000 people across the U.S. reportedly have died from coronavirus (COVID-19), as the World Health Organization has deemed the Americas the current epicenter of the pandemic. Most who have died were seniors, or had pre-existing conditions. Though some were not, and reports of a new illness in children which the CDC has linked to COVID-19 has raised new concerns among experts and the general public.

Hundreds gather at the old DMV parking lot in Travis for a rally to reopen New York City for business. May 16, 2020. (Staten Island Advance/Jason Paderon)

SHADES OF THE SPANISH FLU

During the Spanish Flu of 1918 and 1919 that killed 675,000 people in the U.S., local governments instructed residents to wear a mask in order to help prevent the virus spread.

While compliance was high, some complained the masks were uncomfortable, ineffective or bad for business, while public officials were seen publicly without one, according to History.com.

Mask slackers were arrested and taken to court by the hundreds; a health official shot an unmasked protester, and thousands attended meetings held by the Anti-Mask League in San Francisco, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Some public officials were among those seen publicly not wearing a mask.
GLEN CARBON - Glen Carbon Fire Protection District Emergency Management Services (EMS) Director Eric Wilson will assume the duties of chief of fire and EMS June 1 for the district.

A longtime resident of Granite City and Glen Carbon, Wilson started his fire service career at Glen Carbon in 1987, where he rose to the rank of captain. He joined the Granite City Fire Department as a firefighter and paramedic in 2000, where he is currently a captain.
Australian celebrities including Chris Hemsworth and Margot Robbie have united to show their support for George Floyd who died in police custody in the US.

As angry demonstrations continue to break out across major cities over police brutality, the homegrown talent made their voices heard.

Thor actor Chris Hemsworth shared a protest image of George, with the words: 'Please I can't breathe. My stomach hurts. My neck hurts. Everything hurts. They're going to kill me. George Floyd. Say my name. Rest in Power.'

Standing together! Australian celebrities including Chris Hemsworth, 36, (pictured) and Margot Robbie have united to show their support for George Floyd, who died in police custody in the US on May 25

The actor then tweeted out the hashtag #justiceforfloyd to his 42million followers.

Oscar-nominated actress Margot Robbie also called for an end to racism, sharing a number of powerful images including a portrait of Floyd.

She also shared a number of quotes including one from Martin Luther King Jr, which read: 'There comes a time when silence is betrayal.'

Speaking out! Oscar-nominated actress Margot Robbie also called for an end to racism, sharing a number of powerful images including a portrait of Floyd

The I, Tonya star then shared a Justice for George petition, which has already garnered nine million signatures as of Sunday night.

Riots have spread across dozens of states following the death of Floyd, a black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota on May 25 after a white officer knelt on his neck.

The policeman accused of killing Floyd, Derek Chauvin, was taken into custody Friday and charged with third-degree murder, officials said.

Petition: Margot also shared a Justice for George petition in her bio, which has already garnered nine million signatures as of Sunday night

The death of Floyd, 46, has sparked violent demonstrations in Minneapolis and other US cities over police brutality against African-Americans.

Former Home and Away actress Pia Miller wrote: 'We gotta actively recognise and confront bigotry and racism.'

'We gotta learn and listen as much as we can. It's not enough to just be neutral and live life. We gotta to do the work.'

Shock! 'I've seen so many people standing up for what's going on... but I haven't seen any of my white male friends standing up,' Nicole (pictured) said on social media

Supermodel Nicole Trunfio called on her white male friends to join the conversation.

'I've seen so many people standing up for what's going on... but I haven't seen any of my white male friends standing up,' she said on social media.

'If you're a white male friend of mine, you need to check yourself because now is the time to speak up and support our fellow human beings.'

Outspoken: 'We gotta learn and listen as much as we can. It's not enough to just be neutral and live life. We gotta to do the work,' Pia Miller (pictured) wrote

Former Biggest Loser Australia host Ajay Rochester, who is now based in Los Angeles, also joined the protests in her adopted city.

The 51-year-old shared several powerful images of Beverly Hills and its surrounds to her Instagram, sharing running commentary on a protest.

'Black Lives Matter! Say his name. George Floyd,' she wrote.
Supreme Court judge Sanjay K Kaul on Sunday called out after me the deluge attitude of some of the retired judges, and said the institution is damaged when they start grading of the top court.

Justice Kauls comments made at an online lecture series may be construed as a response to former Supreme Court judge Madan B Lokur, who in an article earlier this week, said the apex court deserved a grade F for its handling of migrant crisis.

Justice Kaul, who is also a part of the bench that has now taken suo motu cognizance of the migrants matter, was categorical in his speech that although criticism of a view point is always acceptable, when imputations and gradings start being made, I think we damage the institution.

The judge added that some of the former judges as well as retired lawyers suffer from the syndrome After me the deluge  English translation of the French expression apres moi le deluge. The proverb is used to suggest a situation that everything will go wrong if one is not in power and control.

Justice Kaul, referring to this adage, said: The unfortunate part is that in some of us who have been a part of this institution, either from the Bar or from the Bench, there is a problem of After me the deluge  which is that since we are gone, everything is going wrong.

Days after Justice Lokurs article created a ripple in the legal fraternity, Justice Kaul said that the growing problem of intolerance is also at times reflected in terms of the judiciary. I say it with some hesitation but judiciary performs a certain role and does not have the opportunity to respond to criticism, he maintained.

Justice Kaul was delivering the lecture on Freedom of speech in times of COVID-19, organized by the Madras High Court Bar Association.

On Wednesday evening, retired Supreme Court judge Madan B Lokur had an article published on a web portal, titled as Supreme Court Deserves an 'F' Grade For Its Handling of Migrants, in which the apex court was criticized for the manner in which it had dealt with the issue when it took up different petitions.

He contended that the Supreme Court forgot what public interest litigation is all about and that if a grading is to be given, it deserves an F.

Recently, former CJI Ranjan Gogoi had also hit out at what he coined activist judges who start raising questions on judiciary immediately after their retirement but keep quiet while in office.

Under attack for accepting the Rajya Sabha membership, Justice Gogoi had said: Who are these activist judges working with? Who is giving platforms to them for saying all this? There are no questions asked.
Nasa astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken have set foot on the International Space Station (ISS), more than two hours after docking with the orbiting laboratory.

The men had to wait for pressure and leak checks to be completed before exiting the Crew Dragon capsule.

They were greeted by fellow American Chris Cassidy, as well as two other space station residents, Russia cosmonauts Anatoli Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner, as they made their way out of their spacecraft.

Both are now officially members of the Expedition 63 crew.

Speaking to the astronauts from mission control in Houston, Texas, Nasa administrator Jim Bridenstine said: The whole world saw this mission and we are so, so proud of everything youve done for our country and, in fact, to inspire the world.

Mr Hurley and Mr Behnken began their 19-hour journey on SpaceXs Dragon capsule on top of the Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral in Florida on Saturday evening.

Although the space station orbits at less than 300 miles above the planet, it took almost a day for the Dragon to rendezvous with the moving laboratory.

The spacecraft had to perform a series of manoeuvres to raise its orbit to come close enough to dock at the space station.

The Dragon docked autonomously to a port on the bow section of the stations Harmony module at 3.16pm UK time, 16 minutes ahead of schedule.

According to Nasa, this linkup occurred 262 miles above the China-Mongolia border.

Crew Dragon capsule, just moments before docking with the space station (Nasa)

Shortly after setting foot on the space station, Mr Hurley said: Its great to get the United States back in the crewed launch business and we are just really glad to be on board this magnificent complex.

When asked whether the crew got enough sleep, Mr Behnken said: We did get probably a good seven hours or so of opportunity for sleep and I did succeed at sleep and Doug did as well.

The first night is always a bit of a challenge but the Dragon was a sleek vehicle and we had good airflow. So we had an excellent evening.

Story continues

The mission, named Demo-2, marks the first time Nasa has launched astronauts from US soil in nine years.

SpaceX also made history by becoming the first private company to send humans into orbit.

The aim of the mission is to demonstrate SpaceXs ability to ferry astronauts to the space station and back safely.

It is the final major step required by SpaceXs astronaut carrier, the Crew Dragon, to get certified by Nasas Commercial Crew Programme for long-term manned missions to space.

(PA Graphics)

Mr Hurley and Mr Behnken have named their Dragon capsule Endeavour in a nod to Space Shuttle Endeavour, a retired orbiter from Nasas Space Shuttle programme.

Mr Behnken said that during their time on the space station, they hope to put the spacecraft through its paces as well as assist other members of the crew in various other tasks.

He added: Endeavour is going to get a lot of checkout over the next week or two here and hopefully we will be able to declare her operational.

Doug and I will be able to take some burden off Chris and his crew mates Ivan and Anatoli, so that we can keep the space station operating at a peak possibility.

So we are looking forward to contributing any way that we can and, like I said, trying to keep (the) space station as productive as possible.

The mission is expected to last anything between one and four months.
The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the manned Crew Dragon spacecraft attached takes off from launch pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. on May 30, 2020. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Let Elon Musk Show the Way for America, Not the Rioters

Commentary

Is there a better quote for America today than Oscar Wildes Were all lying in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars?

We all have that choiceand its more than routinely ironic that the very weekend our country is protesting and rioting over the abhorrent killing of George Floyd, we have returned to space thanks to Elon Musk, the quintessential entrepreneur of our time.

Even more, this is all happening at the time our citizens are just beginning to peek out from their pandemic-induced shelters.

Which side are you on, as we used to sing? Speaking for myself, I choose Musk.

Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the positive, eliminate the negative, and dont mess with Mr. In-Between.

That song was written by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer in 1944, when nearly the entire world was at warfar worse times than we are in now, no matter what were feeling at this moment. Despotism was everywhere. Hitler governed more than half of Europe, Stalin ruled the soon-to-be-expanded Soviet Union, and Mao was revving up to take over China.

If we could accentuate the positive then, we can certainly do it now. The rioterswhether they are Antifa-types who wish to smash the state or just greedy looterswho are running rampant in our cities, do nothing of value for anyone, least of all black people. They depress us, and they depress the decent people of their own communities, and they have, alas, succeeded to a great extent.

America needed a feel-good story right now, and Elon Musk gave it to them.

On the surface, this does nothing for the race situation, but on a deeper level, it does. Everybody dreamsall races and creedsand Musk has given us an opportunity to dream together, if we decide to take it. We can all be among Wildes some of us [who] are looking at the stars, should we decide to do it. Skin color does not apply.

As we look upward, we can dream of new horizons for humanity, such as the colorblind society envisioned by Dr. King. And as we move forward, we can even make the dream come true.

Its interesting, too, that this dreaming did not come largely from the government, but from a private individual with a private business. While NASA luffed, Musk kept going, not waiting for government that moves at the speed of a snail, if it moves at all.

And now the USA is back in space.

But not just space. Musk has a solution for our cities that has more to recommend it than anything we have heard lately from politicians, right or left. (Jerry Browns 1960s-style bullet train boondoggle has finally been canceled.) Musk is not just up in space, hes under the ground unsnarling traffic.

Elon Musks Boring Company has completed digging a second tunnel underneath the Las Vegas Convention Center, marking the end of the first phase of the $52.5 million project to build a people-mover system to shuttle visitors from one side of the venue to the other. The first of the two tunnels was finished in February, according to a report in The Verge.

Workers will now turn their attention to completing the above-ground passenger stations on either end of the tunnels, as well as a third underground station in the middle of the system. The people-mover, which is being formally called the Convention Center Loop, is still scheduled to open to the public in January 2021 in time for the next Consumer Electronics Showif CES happens, that is.

So the future is being created in front of our eyes, while others take us backward to the land of Burn, baby. Burn!

If they stopped for a moment, they might find that Musk has a job for them. It might even pay better than the government dole. And who knows, if they worked hard enough and really wanted to do it, they might be the next ones up in the Dragon.

ENVOI: It should be obvious but Ill say it anywaythat the police, all of them, involved in the killing of George Floyd should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, and the Minneapolis Police Dept. should undergo a thorough vetting. Those things should go without saying. But we should not get lost in recriminations.

To repeat myself (and Wilde): For a better future, we should keep our eyes on the stars.

Roger L. Simon is The Epoch Times senior political analyst. He is also an award-winning novelist, Oscar-nominated screenwriter and co-founder of PJMedia.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
ALBANY  A fraudster from Menands whose Ponzi scheme bilked more than 400 victims out of more than $5.5 million has been granted compassionate release from federal prison due to his poor health and risk of contracting COVID-19 in his Ohio correctional facility.

Christopher W. Bass, 63, who once invoked the name of God while pledging high returns to his "customers" at the former Swiss Capital Harbor/USA , went to prison after he used investors' money for Cuban cigars, fancy cars, fine art, high-priced liquor and mortgage payments on a pricey home near near Wolfert's Roost Country Club.

It landed him a sentence of 12  years in prison for mail fraud and tax evasion crimes that, according to his victims, shattered lives. With time off for good behavior, his sentence was set to end Oct. 29.

On May 27, Senior U.S. District Judge Lawrence Kahn agreed to release Bass. Elkton federal correctional facility in Ohio, where Bass was serving his time, has endured an outbreak of COVID-19 that has been exacerbated by features of the prisons internal architecture that inhibit social distancing, the judge stated.

The judge said, as of Wednesday, the prison had reported 203 cases of COVID-19 among inmates and seven among staff. He noted that 76 inmates and 46 staff at the prison have recovered. Nine inmates have died.

Bass informed the judge he has high blood pressure and previously suffered a heart attack and stroke.

The judge determined Bass was at risk of severe illness should he contract the virus, noting that strokes have been linked to severe illness from COVID-19. Kahn also said Bass age made further criminal activity unlikely. The judge commuted Bass' sentence to time served, but ordered him to be quarantined for 14 days upon his release.

On March 26, Attorney General William Barr issued a memo expanding release to home confinement of vulnerable prisoners. And the First Step Act that President Donald Trump signed in 2018 allows federal inmates to ask judges for compassionate release after they exhaust administrative requests through the federal prison system. The Bureau of Prisons must have considered and denied the request  or 30 days must have passed from when a prison warden received the request.

The prison's warden denied an administrative request by Bass on May 30.

As Kahn did in granting compassionate release earlier this month to Benjamin Rountree, a convicted cocaine trafficker from Troy, he repeated his view that alarmingly, and despite the demonstrated danger COVID-19 poses in the prison environment, it does not appear that the BOP has updated its regulations governing compassionate release requests since the First Step Act was passed, let alone made any attempt to suspend them or otherwise accelerate the process during the pandemic.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

In both cases, the federal public defenders office assisted the defendant. Rountree was helped by Assistant Federal Public Defender Courtenay McKeon. Bass was represented by Public Defender Lisa Peebles.

On May 21, Bass requested compassionate release from Kahn, who has granted release to a number of defendants, including Rountree and one-time Loudonville asbestos businessman Alexander Salvagno, who was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison for racketeering conspiracy for environmental crimes.

In a memo to the judge, federal prosecutors noted that between Jan. 1, 2007 and Aug. 1, 2009, Bass solicited and received more than 5.5 million from more than 400 victims through wire transfers and mailings.

The investments that Bass promoted were frauds, a Ponzi scheme, Assistant U.S. Attorney Edward Grogan reminded the judge The victims funds were used by the defendant, in large part, for his personal expenses.

Grogan asked Kahn to deny Bass request, saying that Bass did not meet extraordinary and compelling reasons to support a sentence reduction.
The mouthpiece newspaper of Chinas ruling Communist Party said on Saturday that the US decision to end some trading privileges for Hong Kong grossly interferes in Chinas internal affairs and is doomed to fail.

The Hong Kong government called US President Donald Trumps announcement unjustified and said it is not unduly worried by such threats, despite concern that they could drive companies away from the Asian financial and trading centre.

The Trump administration has also banned some Chinese students and researchers from entering the US after accusing them of stealing intellectual property, the White House said on Friday in a statement cited by the Chinese state media. The entry ban goes into effect at midnight on June 1.

An editorial in Chinas official Peoples Daily newspaper said that attempts at forcing China to make concessions on core interests including sovereignty and security through blackmailing or coercion... can only be wishful thinking and day-dreaming!

Trumps move came after Chinas ceremonial parliament voted on Thursday to bypass Hong Kongs legislature and develop and enact national security legislation on its own for the semi-autonomous territory.

China had issued no response as of late on Saturday, but had earlier said it would retaliate if the US went ahead with its threat to revoke trading advantages granted to Hong Kong after its handover from British to Chinese rule in 1997. This hegemonic act of attempting to interfere in Hong Kong affairs and grossly interfere in Chinas internal affairs will not frighten the Chinese people and is doomed to fail, the Peoples Daily said.

In Hong Kong, small groups of Beijing supporters marched to the US consulate on Saturday carrying China flags and signs protesting American interference in Chinas internal affair and calling Trump shameless and useless. Elsewhere in the city, activists including Joshua Wong held a press meet to welcome Trumps announcement.
ALBANY  Business owners, volunteers and county and city workers cleaned up Sunday in the business districts along South Pearl Street and Central Avenue where stores had been looted, windows broken and graffiti scrawled.

The rioting occurred Saturday night at least an hour after a peaceful demonstration was made in response to the death of George Floyd while in police custody in Minneapolis. A confrontation outside the South Police Station at Arch and Morton streets turned violent, and the breaking of windows and throwing of rocks and garbage moved and made its way through parts of the city.

The heaviest damage on South Pearl Street happened between State Street south to Madison Avenue. Three banks  Pioneer, Berkshire and Key  had broken windows. Two workers were sweeping up glass outside the Pioneer Bank branch at the southwest corner of State Street and South Pearl Street.

Albany County sheriffs deputies stood guard at the broken front door to the county probation department at 60 South Pearl St. Plywood was installed over the broken windows.

There were sightseers stopping to take pictures from their vehicles on South Pearl Street

Banks are robbers was spray-painted on the Berkshire Bank branch. No more police was on the side of a closed law office at 36 South Pearl St..

At the Key Bank branch Quick and No more police ever had been scrawled on the building.

The cement supports for the arterial headed into the Empire State Plaza were emblazoned with No Peace, Bored? Stressed? Try rioting, Equal Rights and George Floyd. The next one south read NO JUSTICE.

The barriers to the closed McDonalds restaurant had Black Lives Matter written on them. The restaurant windows were smashed or covered with "Black Lives Matter and obscenities directed toward the police.

South of Madison Avenue, the residences along the east side of the street were untouched and there were only a few broken windows on businesses on the west side.

Inside El Pilon Market at 179 South Pearl St., the clerk said other nearby markets were not damaged. It was ugly last night, she said. She declined to give her name after speaking in Spanish to another person on her cell phone telling that person a reporter had asked for her name.

The windows were broken at the north end of the Albany Housing Authority headquarters at 260 South Pearl St. Crews werent just covering the broken windows with plywood. Every window, including the intact ones, were being covered with plywood.

Down at 260 South Pearl St., the Albany County building that houses several agencies had windows broken. Repair crews were covering every window with plywood.

Stores and businesses along Central Avenue from Lark Street west to Quail Street had been broken into and looted.

Ted Lee has owned BSW Beauty Supply at 321 Central Ave. for 23 years. The glass at Lee's business was smashed, his store ransacked. Lee and workers were covering the store's windows in plywood early Sunday morning.

I was here since 1:40 a.m. It was already broken into, said Lee, who moved from Jamaica, Queens to Albany 23 years ago.

It is a national tragedy, Lee said about what is occurring in cities across the country, protests that have turned into violence after Floyd's brutal death.

A few stores down the block at the Alladin Halal Market at 309 Madison Ave., Parvez Hossain was cleaning up, repairing the windows and door. Hossain came to Albany ten years ago from Bangladesh.

They broke through the glass. They took cash, the donation jar and tried to break into the ATM, Hossain said. They took no food.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

Hossain said he had never seen such a large crowd before outside on Central Avenue.

They came in two times, Hossain said.

Adel Ali unlocked the plywood-covered door to Top Quality Beauty Supply, owned by his brother at 282 Central Ave. for about 15 years, to unveil bottles of hair products, colorful hair dyes and mannequin heads strewn across a newly refinished floor.

If you want to take, then take. But dont break, Ali said. How can you show your anger like this? What we did to you? It really hurt me really bad.

Albany County Coroner Timothy Cavanaugh had come from Watervliet to volunteer and help clean up. He was joined by his brother Christopher and his son Patrick in sweeping up glass and other debris removal.

When people need some help, we help out, the coroner said.

The trio was outside the Tay Market at 290 Central Ave. cleaning up glass from where the windows had been smashed. Inside store owner Tay Ngo was straightening out his damaged business. He said he was very thankful for the Cavanaughs assistance.

Looters had smashed their way into the store, Ngo said. They took cash registers, a television and money. The food was mostly undisturbed.

Prior to going to Tay Market, the Cavanaughs were at the start of Central Avenue at Lark Street where they assisted at Center Square Wines & Liquors at 3 Central Ave. The liquor store owner declined to comment as plywood was placed over his business windows.

Central Avenue between Lark Street and Henry Johnson Boulevard had a Boost Mobile store at 23 Central Ave. and Regina Check Cashing at 24 Central Ave. broken into and looted. Cash and cell phones were reportedly taken.

Further up on Madison Avenue, glass crunched under Sean Wades sneakers as he assessed the damage to his store Capital Kicks. He followed a trail of blood drops on the floor as he gestured to shelves and racks wiped clean, and a near empty storage room.

Im all for the protests, I support everyone in this community. Thats why its the craziest thing that this happened, Wade said. I dont understand how you're looting a locally owned business  mind you we have two minority owners too, at the end of the day I dont understand."

Massarah Mikati contributed to this report
VALPARAISO  After spending the last couple of months conducting criminal hearings by video from the county jail as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Porter Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Clymer will begin inviting defendants back into his downtown courtroom Monday morning.

The move is a test of a wider plan by the county judges to figure out how to safely return to their typically busy schedules of processing various criminal and civil matters while faced with the threat of the potentially deadly coronavirus. More than 500 Porter County residents had tested positive for the virus as of Saturday and 25 had lost their lives.

The challenge is how to proceed with the safety of employees and the public in mind, while retaining all the rights of those whose cases are being heard, Clymer said.

Clymer said he has a plan in place of limiting the number of people in his courtroom, assigning seating so everyone has the recommended social distancing between them and having defendants rise from their seats for their hearings rather than come forward as is traditionally done.

"We're going to see how that works," he said.
By Trend

The number of coronavirus tests conducted in Azerbaijan has been revealed, Trend reports referring to the Azerbaijani Management Union of Medical Territorial Units (TABIB).

As of May 30, 4,661 tests were conducted to detect new cases of infection.

In accordance with the data, in general, 294,264 tests were conducted throughout the country.

--

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
Police fired tear gas and non-lethal rounds to force peaceful protesters from the streets of Minneapolis, less than an hour after a 8pm curfew was imposed.

On a night that saw protesters clash with police and National Guard in up to 30 cities across the nation, stretching from Louisville to Miami, authorities were determined to put a stop to the looting and burning that had taken place alongside peaceful protests on previous successive days.

After Minnesota governor Tim Walz claimed the protests over the death in police custody of unarmed black man George Floyd had been hijacked by extremists, he announced he was mobilising the entirety of the Minnesota National Guard for the first time in the states history. He claimed  contrary to what local media found  that up to 80 per of those arrested were from out of state.

The situation in Minneapolis is no longer in any way about the murder of George Floyd, said said Mr Walz. It is about attacking civil society, instilling fear, and disrupting our great cities.

The comment from Mr Walz, which were in line with the leaders of the mayors of the twin cities of Minneapolis and St Paul, indicated the authorities had decided to take a much tougher stance towards enforcing a curfew, that on Friday had been largely ignored ay protesters. On Friday, some protesters were involved in the burning of a number of buildings including a Wells Fargo bank and a Postal Service office.

George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Show all 30 1 /30 George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Police spray mace at protestors to break up a gathering near the Minneapolis Police third precinct after a white police officer was caught on a bystander's video pressing his knee into the neck of African-American man George Floyd, who later died at a hospital, in Minneapolis Reuters George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets A protester holds a sign with an image of George Floyd AP George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Protesters demonstrate against the death of George Floyd AFP via Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets A protester throws a piece of wood on a fire in the street just north of the 3rd Police Precinct Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets People in other US cities also protested the murder, like Los Angeles AFP via Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets AP George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Reuters George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets AFP via Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets AFP via Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets AFP via Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets A police officer lobs a canister to break up crowds Reuters George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets A protester is treated after inhaling tear gas Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Two police officers stand on the roof of the Third Police Precinct during a face off with a group of protesters Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Protesters outside a Minneapolis police precinct two days after George Floyd died EPA George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Protesters run from tear gas Reuters George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets AP George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Demonstrators gather to protest in Los Angeles AP George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Police remove barricades set by protesters AFP via Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets A fire burns inside of an Auto Zone store near the Third Police Precinct Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Flowers, signs and balloons are left near a makeshift memorial to George Floyd near the spot where he died AFP via Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets A policeman faces a protester holding a placard in downtown Los Angeles AFP via Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets A couple poses with a sign in Los Angeles AFP via Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets MINNEAPOLIS, MN - MAY 27: A man is tended to after sustaining an injury from a projectile shot by police outside the 3rd Police Precinct building on May 27, 2020 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Four Minneapolis police officers have been fired after a video taken by a bystander was posted on social media showing Floyd's neck being pinned to the ground by an officer as he repeatedly said, "I cant breathe". Floyd was later pronounced dead while in police custody after being transported to Hennepin County Medical Center. (Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images) Stephen Maturen Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets A protester reacts after inhaling tear gas Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Getty Images George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Protesters use shopping carts as a barricade Getty Images George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Protesters clash with the police as they demonstrate against the death of George Floyd AFP via Getty Images

At the junction of Nicollet Ave and 31st St, close to the headquarters off the police departments 5th precinct, several hundred protesters sat on the ground listening to speakers. The mood was unwaveringly positive and peaceful.

At around 8.30pm on Saturday, a line of riot police emerged from the south and suddenly firing numerous canisters of tear and non-lethal rounds, scattering the crowd. As the protesters then fell back, police made a series of successive advances, firing more tear gas and rubber bullets.

Several members of the media were bit by the rounds, and many were engulfed by the smoke, even as they displayed press credentials and some were wreaking vests bearing the words PRESS. The Independents backpack was struck by one such round.

Two sisters, Nova and Thisy Sims, said that were staying put because the police were continuing to kill people.

 Minnesota governor Tim Walz 'The situation in Minneapolis is no longer in any way about the murder of George Floyd'

I cant go home until they go home, said 27-year-old Nova.

Her sister: The crazy thing is we were not doing anything. We were just sitting there.

Some residents supported what the police were doing.

Mike Anderson, who was white and said he was 64, said the protests had turned into terrorism and that the police had no option but to disperse the crowds.

Theyre burning down everything, said one of his friends. We have to get up in the morning and go to work.

A little way away, a group of young African American men had a different perspective. They said they had been forced to take such a stand, because incidents such as the death of Mr Floyd were not isolated incidents.

They pointed to a long list of young black men who had died in encounters with police, something that a thousand or more peaceful protests had not stopped.

I thought it would be different for my generation, said Abdul Abraham, who studies computer scene in Chicago. But now I am going to have to say the same thing to my son.

His friend, who declined to give his full name, said peaceful protests could only take people so far. He praised the non-violent struggle of Dr Martin Luther King, but said his views were more in line with those of Malcolm X.

He said: We appreciate Martins way, but now its time for Malcolms way  Nobody can give you freedom. You have to take it.
AirAsia India can appreciate limits placed on airfares as it is a "very very short term" measure, its CEO and MD Sunil Bhaskaran on Friday said, adding that the airlines and the market should ideally be left alone when it comes to deciding ticket prices.

On May 21, the central government issued coronavirus-related guidelines to restart domestic flights from May 25 and prescribed a lower limit and upper limit on airfares after setting up seven categories of routes as per the flight duration. It clarified the fare limits would be in place till August 24.

"Ideally, we would like it to be a free market, as far as prices are concerned. But given the circumstances and as a very very short term measure, we can appreciate it (limits on fares)," said the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of the low-cost carrier at a webinar of aviation consultancy firm CAPA India.

"We can understand this. But I don't think this could ever be or this should be a permanent measure. The market has to be left (alone) and the airlines have to be left (alone) to decide," he added.

Domestic passenger services restarted after a gap of two months on Monday when 428 flights carried around 30,000 passengers to their destinations.

When asked about the passenger traffic since Monday, Bhaskaran said, "We do feel that the pent up demand may last for two or three weeks and it is up to us and the airports to bring the confidence in people to travel...Quite frankly, we have taken a more pessimistic view of how things would be or maybe conservative. We would be very happy to see an upside to what we have planned."

When asked which routes the aircraft are likely to see high traffic in the next few months, he replied, "When we see it, one big factor is the quarantine rules in the state and how clear it is to understand and whether there is an institutional quarantine."

He said when a plane goes outside of Bengaluru, it has been seeing good loads (number of passengers) since Monday, but when it comes back to Bengaluru, it has abysmal loads because people don't want to come and go into institutional quarantine.

"We are seeing many of these migrant labourers moving largely to the north and to the east. These are people who are stuck and who would like to get back to their homes. These are the segments that are doing well. How long will they continue? We don't know," Bhaskaran said

"But the numbers (of migrant labourers) we are hearing so huge that it could probably support for another 2-3 weeks," he added.

AirAsia India has been waiting for the government's nod to restart international flight operations for quite some time.

"When we look back, the luckiest thing that could happen to us was that we didn't have international (ops). Otherwise, the hit to us would have been much worse," Bhaskaran said.

While domestic traffic will come back, I don't think the international traffic will come back so quickly and therefore, we have got some more time to plan on how to restart international operations, he said.

He said he is less worried about starting international flight operations as compared to three months ago when it was the biggest thing on his agenda.

"All indications we have is that we will get approvals very quickly," he added.

When asked when would the expansion of Indian aviation begin again, the CEO said: "A, we see today, it (growth) has to come with the confidence in the customers which will come when there is a cure or a vaccine in place. And I don't see it coming back in 18-24 months."

"So, I think it is a pause for Indian aviation for two years. But we will surely get to the growth path after that," he added.

On May 21, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) set the fare bands in this manner: domestic flights with less than 40-minute duration to have a lower and upper limit of Rs 2000 and Rs 6000, for 40-60 minutes Rs 2,500 and Rs 7,500, for 60-90 minutes Rs 3,000 and Rs 9,000, for 90-120 minutes Rs 3,500 and Rs 10,000, for 120-150 minutes Rs 4500 and Rs 13000, for 150-180 minutes Rs 5500 and Rs 15700.

Flights with a duration between 180-210 mins, like ones on Delhi-Coimbatore route, to have a lower and upper limit of Rs 6500 and Rs 18600, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation said in its circular.

Also Watch:
A grief-stricken dentist is suing Health Secretary Matt Hancock and Public Health England over the Covid-19 death of his father.

In what is thought to be the first case of its kind in Britain, former Tory parliamentary candidate Dr Minesh Talati launched the legal action after his 80-year-old father Navin succumbed to the disease at the Royal London Hospital after battling it for 28 days.

The dentist fears he inadvertently infected his father and mother Aravinda, 74, along with his pregnant wife, Joanne, because he followed erroneous Government advice published on the PHE website.

Navin Talati is pictured with his beloved grandson, Eshan, three. The dentist says the Governments scientific advisers knew coronavirus transmission was happening but the PHE website failed to say so. Had it done so, he says he never would have visited his parents

Dr Talati said he unknowingly caught the virus in late February and likely passed it when he visited his parents home in Goodmayes, Essex, on March 7.

Two days later, Dr Talati fell ill and it was later confirmed as Covid-19. PHE advice at the time stated there was little community transmission.

The dentist says the Governments scientific advisers knew coronavirus transmission was happening but the PHE website failed to say so. Had it done so, he says he never would have visited his parents.

Dr Talati insisted his lawsuit has not been brought for financial reasons. He said: I want justice. Someone has to take responsibility for ignoring the signs.

Navin Talati arrived in Britain from India in 1969 and worked as a pharmacist for 35 years.

He also set up a private dental practice with his son in 2009 and supported him when he stood unsuccessfully in the Labour stronghold of Barking, East London at the 2017 Election.

Dr Talati said: He was not just my father, Ive lost my best friend, Ive lost my work colleague. The person I go out for a drink with is my father.

He said he spoke briefly to his ailing father on the telephone before his death on April 18. He said his last words were: Dont worry son.

The lawsuit is the first by a relative over the death of a loved one from Covid-19 and may pave the way for more legal action.

The Department of Health said: We cannot comment on ongoing or potential action against the department.
The Uttar Pradesh government on May 31 extended lockdown in the state till June 30, with phase-wise relaxation of restrictions in areas outside containment zones.

In line with the Unlock 1.0 guidelines released by the central government, the UP government will open religious places, hotels, restaurants and shopping malls from June 8.

In the second phase, according to the guidelines issued by the government, schools, colleges and other educational institutes will be opened, but a decision regarding that would be taken in July.

The state government has said that all government offices will operate with 100 percent workforce. Staggered timings will be followed in the functioning. These timings include: 9.00 am to 5.00 pm, 10.00 am to 6.00 pm and 11.00 am to 7.00 pm.

The guidelines also state that people coming to Gautam Buddh Nagar and Ghaziabad from containment areas of Delhi will be prohibited. Separate guidelines will be issued by district administrations of Gautam Buddh Nagar and Ghaziabad.

COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine  one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show

"State buses will be allowed to operate according to the seating capacity. Passengers cannot travel while standing in the bus," UP Additional Chief Secretary (Home), Awanish Awasthi said.

Awasthi also said that salons and beauty parlours are allowed to remain open with conditions of social distancing and other precautionary measures. Staff working at these establishments should wear face shields and gloves while working, he said.

On May 30, the Centre extended the nationwide lockdown until June 30 in containment areas. With a focus on the resumption of economic activities, the government has termed this phase as 'Unlock 1.0'.

As per a release by the government, the guidelines will come into effect from June 1, 2020, and will be effective till June 30, 2020.

The key highlight in the fresh guidelines is that religious places, hotels, restaurants, hospitality services and malls will be allowed to reopen from June 8. Areas outside containment zones will be opened up in a phased manner. However, this will be done in consultation with the states and Union Territories (UTs).
Despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the retail market in Vietnam in the first quarter of this year still recorded positive results from e-commerce, online shopping and delivery services.

A shopper scans QR codes to shop online (Photo: vinid.net)

The General Statistics Office of Vietnam reported that turnover in the first quarter of food and beverage, and hotel and tourism services decreased by 9.6 percent and 27.8 percent, respectively.

Data from CBRE Vietnam also showed the number of visitors to shopping centres decreased by about 80 percent in both HCM City and Hanoi because of the pandemic.

But although direct shopping revenue dropped, e-commerce and online shopping helped save many retail businesses, the research firm said.

CBRE also reported a strong competition between veteran e-commerce platforms and new players at the end of last month.

During the pandemic, Tiki reached a record of 4,000 orders per minute, SpeedL and Saigon Co.op also soared in the online sales segment.

Ride-hailing platform Grab also quickly launched its GrabMart service to serve the online shopping needs of customers at home.

Vo Thi Phuong Mai, deputy director and head of retail services of CBRE Vietnam, said the COVID-19 pandemic had negatively impacted direct visitor traffic but creating many opportunities for small and medium-sized models such as convenience stores, pharmacies and especially e-commerce.

E-commerce was a bright and transforming point, which supports physical stores during the pandemic, she added.

Multi-channel sales would be more flexible and may even outperform the post-COVID-19 period.

AT Kearney also listed the Vietnamese retail market among the world's most exciting group.

There are many figures and development trends making domestic and foreign retailers realise the attractiveness and great opportunities in the country.

Vietnams economic growth is among the highest in the region. The size of the countrys population is nearly 100 million people, with a young population group and the increasing income.

The rapid urbanisation process creates new shopping and consumption trends, especially in modern shopping spaces.

Under the pressure of the pandemic, many businesses in the retail industry rushed to adapt.

Being a traditional retail giant established in 1996, Saigon Co.op is a typical adaptation when moving to multi-channel sales in recent years such as television retail, applying Scan & Go, and e-wallet MoMo.

"After diversifying the retail category, we are aiming for omnichannel sales," said Nguyen Anh Duc, newly appointed general director of Saigon Co.op in Forbes magazine recently./.VNA
The Rapid Response Squad (RRS) of the Lagos State Police Command has arrested a teenager, Olufowoke Oladunjoye Emmanuel. The Natio...





The Rapid Response Squad (RRS) of the Lagos State Police Command has arrested a teenager, Olufowoke Oladunjoye Emmanuel.





The National Diploma holder of Yaba College of Technology (YABATECH), is accused of threatening to release nude photographs of veteran musician, Queen Salawa Abeni.





He is a resident of Brentfield Avenue, Peace Estate, Magboro, Ogun State.





The 19-year-old was picked up by the Decoy Team of Rapid Response Squad.

In his statement, Emmanuel disclosed that he saw the nude pictures in a memory card.





The 2017/2018 Electrical Engineering graduate claimed that he picked it up on the floor in YABATECH sometime in November 2019.





The suspect said after downloading the nude photographs of Salawa Abeni on his phone, he picked up her mobile number from her Instagram page.





The Eagle Online quoted him as saying: On 1st of April, 2020, I chatted her up and also called her after sending few of the photos to her online. My intention was to negotiate with her for few bucks and for me to destroy the photographs. I thought everything was going on fine until the following day when I heard the news of the blackmail over the radio.





I was with my mother. She was even cursing the blackmailer unknown to her that I was the brain behind it. I immediately sneaked out, destroyed the memory card and threw my mobile phone and SIM card into nearby wetland in Magboro. Since then, I never mentioned it to anyone and never called Madam Salawa Abeni about it again.





The Commissioner of Police in Lagos, Hakeem Odumosu, warned blackmailers and other criminals to stop their acts or face the consequences.





Assuring the people of safety of lives and property, Odumosu counselled parents and guardians to monitor their wards.




"It isnt easy. Our gates are closed and the church is locked," said Fr Bryan Shortall, echoing the sentiments of many priests during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Capuchin friar had to take on extra funerals at crematoriums in north Dublin because many local priests are over 70 and confined to cocoons in their homes.

Ive done the funerals but its rotten, its awful, said Fr Shortall, explaining how he is deeply saddened to witness the suffering of bereaved families being made worse by not being allowed to sit together, or hold each other in almost empty churches.

Yet he remains hugely positive about his work as a priest and believes the challenge of the Covid era is a great time to be in religious life.

Aged 50, he is parish priest of Saint Francis of Assisi parish in Priorswood, Dublin The parish has been served by Capuchin Franciscans since it was established in 1974.

He sat on a wooden bench in bright sunshine at a grotto on the church grounds as he spoke of the upheaval in parish life in Ireland.

As traffic passed on Clonshaugh Drive, he said he found his niche in life after joining the Capuchins straight from Synge Street CBS in Dublin when he became more and more captivated by Saint Francis of Assisi.

Never was the message of Saint Francis more relevant than it is today in recognising the dignity of nature, the dignity of the earth and the greatest of Gods creation is the human person, he said.

He shares the presbytery with Fr Bill Ryan, who was his first mentor in the Capuchins. Fr Bill is in his 70s and is cocooning. Fr Shortall said he does not doubt that many priests who are cocooning are feeling lonely. Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, who is himself cocooning, has been on the telephone regularly with his cocooning priests.

The parish priest uses his smartphone to stream his masses on Facebook Live from a small chapel within the church at 11.30 each morning. He said 150 to 170 tuned into his mass last Wednesday and a total of 460 people had viewed it throughout the day.

He recites the rosary on Facebook Live at night. He said: Last night, I did a night-time prayer and a decade of the rosary here at the grotto and it had 370 comments, six shares, and 902 views.

Suddenly, his flow of conversation halts and he looks up at an Aer Lingus jet climbing in the sky. He checks an app on his phone and says: Thats off to Beijing. Its going off to collect PPE Ive got my flight radar app. Im a big plane spotter. The thing I miss most while being in lockdown is not being able to go out to the airport I love aviation and its killing me that I cant go out to the airport.

Having a pastime must help priests to unwind after busy and stressful days. Fulfilling duties at funerals when only nine mourners are admitted into a church is particularly difficult.

I would always be afraid that if rules were broken that people would be put in danger but luckily rules werent broken, he said of a recent funeral. Saying the mass is surreal in that we are all suffering Not being able to console each other is very hard.

Funerals of people who died with Covid-19 are even more restrictive because of closed coffins. Death is tough enough and loss is profound without the added pain and trauma of Covid-19. Its an awful disease, he said.

He said parish life will not return to normal when churches are allowed to reopen on July 20, because numbers attending masses will be restricted by social distancing rules. A group of 100 could not be accommodated and only around one-third could be allowed in as only three people were allowed in a pew with the ones in front and behind being kept empty. Many children have been disappointed in the cancelling of first communions and confirmations. While children in primary school will eventually receive their first communion, he feared many pupils leaving primary school with cancelled confirmation ceremonies will never be confirmed.

He misses not being able to hug his parents, who live across the city in Kingswood. It is hard and painful that he cannot hug his two brothers and four sisters.

He said later that there may be an additional outcome to the Covid-19 crisis: Maybe in another way, it has perhaps woken us up again to the importance of boundaries between people. Not being in each others faces. Not being space invaders. Thats not a bad thing.
Donald Trump demanded 'law and order' and told Democratic mayors and governors to 'get tough' yesterday as the president remained sheltered in the White House while riots continued across the US.

Trump lashed out at his enemies on Twitter but did not appear in public on Sunday despite White House discussions about a possible televised address.

After watching the SpaceX launch in Florida on Saturday, Trump returned to a White House under virtual siege which last night turned its lights out as protests raged just a few hundred yards away.

The president was briefly taken to a White House bunker on Friday which was used by Dick Cheney on 9/11 and has told aides he worries about his safety.

His former communications aide Anthony Scaramucci last night branded Trump the nation's 'coward-in-chief'.

Donald Trump demanded that state and local lawmakers 'get tough' and call in the National Guard to their cities to help mitigate escalating riots in the midst of George Floyd's death

Trump specifically mentioned the rioting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania  the state has not yet called in the National Guard  and lauded the job done by enforcement in Minneapolis

By Sunday evening, Trump issued a tweet that simply read 'LAW & ORDER'

Looters and rioters in Philadelphia have set fires in the streets and destroyed brick and mortar businesses and stolen the goods  including at Apple and Sephora

National Guard was called into Minneapolis, Minnesota on Saturday by Democratic Governor Tim Walz  the riots originated in the city after George Floyd, a black man was killed by a white cop

Here National Guardsmen are stationed in front of the Minnesota state capital building

National Guard was also activiated in Los Angeles by California's Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom

Natioanl outrage ensued after video emerged of a black man, George Floyd (pictured), being killed during an arrest after a white police officer held his knee on his neck for eight minutes in Minneapolis, Minnesota

Trump has also chosen not to seek control of the National Guard for the time being, while demanding that Democratic mayors and governors deploy it to quell the riots.

'Get tough Democrat Mayors and Governors,' the president urged in a tweet. 'These people are ANARCHISTS. Call in our National Guard NOW.'

'The World is watching and laughing at you and Sleepy Joe,' he continued, referring to presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden. 'Is this what America wants? NO!!!'

By Sunday evening, Trump followed up his calls for the National Guard with a tweet that simply read: 'LAW & ORDER!'

The president is referencing state and local elected officials who have still not called in the National Guard to help mitigate violent riots that have broken out in cities across the country. 15 states and Washington DC have deployed the Guard.

Trump took particular aim at Pennsylvania, where stores including the Apple Store and Sephora were smashed up and ransacked in Philadelphia on Saturday.

At least 13 police officers were injured during the protests and parts of the city were left ablaze.

This led Pennsylvania's Democratic Governor Tom Wolf to sign an emergency declaration to assist the city, which continued to burn on Sunday.

'Law & Order in Philadelphia, NOW!' the president said in a separate tweet. 'They are looting stores.'

'Call in our great National Guard like they FINALLY did (thank you President Trump) last night in Minneapolis,' Trump demanded of the Pennsylvania governor. 'Is this what voters want with Sleepy Joe? All Dems!'

He also lashed out again at the 'Lamestream Media', saying it was 'doing everything within their power to foment hatred and anarchy'.

'As long as everybody understands what they are doing, that they are FAKE NEWS and truly bad people with a sick agenda, we can easily work through them to GREATNESS!,' he said.

His final Sunday tweet simply read: 'FAKE NEWS!'.

Earlier in the day he announced he was designating ANTIFA as a terrorist group: 'The United States of America will be designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organization.'

Antifa, short for anti-fascist, is a loose but radical far-left grouping with no official leaders which regards violent tactics as justifiable.

The president also lauded the National Guard for dealing with the violent rioters in Minneapolis, where they were called in on Saturday.

'Congratulations to our National Guard for the great job they did immediately upon arriving in Minneapolis, Minnesota, last night,' he tweeted. 'The ANTIFA led anarchists, among others, were shut down quickly.'

But he added that the action 'Should have been done by Mayor on first night' of the protests, claiming 'there would have been no trouble' if that was done.

'Other Democrat run Cities and States should look at the total shutdown of Radical Left Anarchists in Minneapolis last night,' the president said.

'The National Guard did a great job, and should be used in other States before it is too late!' he assured.

Trump also retweeted a message from a conservative commentator encouraging authorities to respond with greater force.

'This isn't going to stop until the good guys are willing to use overwhelming force against the bad guys,' Buck Sexton wrote in a message amplified by the president.

Trump also blamed the violent riots,

Trump said Democratic-run areas should look to Minneapolis as an example of how the National Guard can help with rioters

He also blamed media for exacerbating the issue, claiming they 'foment hatred and anarchy'

In recent days security at the White House has been reinforced by the National Guard and additional personnel from the Secret Service and the U.S. Park Police.

On Friday, Trump was taken to an underground bunker which was used on September 11, 2001 and has since been reinforced against a similar attack.

It was not immediately clear if first lady Melania Trump and the couple's 14-year-old son, Barron, joined the president in the bunker.

Secret Service protocol would have called for all those under the agency's protection to be in the underground shelter.

Trump has told advisers he worries about his safety, while both privately and publicly praising the work of the Secret Service.

Demonstrators returned to the White House on Sunday afternoon, facing off against police at Lafayette Park into the evening.

While Trump remained out of sight, his advisers discussed the prospect of an Oval Office address in an attempt to ease tensions.

But the notion was quickly scrapped for lack of policy proposals and the president's own seeming disinterest in delivering a message of unity.

An administration official told the Washington Post that Trump had nothing new to say and had no tangible policy or action to announce at this point.

Trump did address the protests in remarks at the space launch on Saturday, saying George Floyd's death was a 'grave tragedy' which had 'filled Americans all over the country with horror, anger, and grief'.

The president said he was an 'ally to every American seeking justice and peace' but called for 'healing, not hatred' as he condemned looters.

'The memory of George Floyd is being dishonored by rioters, looters, and anarchists,' he said.

Another official said Trump was expected in the coming days to draw distinctions between the legitimate anger of peaceful protesters and the unacceptable actions of violent agitators.

The protests stemmed from a video-taped incident where a 46-year-old black man, George Floyd, was killed in Minneapolis during an arrest where four officers pinned him down.

One of the officers, a white man, can be seen on video kneeling on Floyd's neck during the arrest for more than eight minutes as the victim is heard saying that he couldn't breathe.

The death sparked widespread rage across the nation as protests broke out in dozens of cities, including Minneapolis, where Floyd died, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, New York City, Atlanta, Washington D.C. and many more.
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The devastation of overnight rioting and looting has been laid bare in shocking images from across multiple US cities as black mayors of Washington, DC, and Atlanta, Georgia, plead for an end to violent demonstrations.

DC Mayor Muriel Bowser and Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, both Democratic women, said while they support Americans' right to protest, they wish it was not at the expense of the safety of their community.

Authorities across the nation have arrested more than 1,400 people in 17 cities since Thursday. At least three people have died since the protests began following the horrifying death of George Floyd, a black man who was killed while in the custody of Minneapolis, Minnesota, police officers on Memorial Day.

'We're sending a very clear message to people that they have a right to exercise their First Amendment rights, but not to destroy our city,' Bowser told NBC's Chuck Todd in a joint interview with Lance Bottoms on Sunday morning.

'So we saw a level of just destruction and mayhem among some that was maddening,' she continued. 'Our crews are out right now cleaning up our city, and we are working with all of our law enforcement partners to ensure calm in our city.'

Bowser's comments came as rioters took to the streets in DC over the weekend, clashing with law enforcement all over the city  and even in front of the White House.

Lance Bottoms told Meet the Press that 157 people were arrested in Atlanta.

She admitted that 'there are no easy answers' on how to respond to Floyd's death or race relations between black people and cops, but agreed with Boswer in asserting that 'the solution is not to destroy our cities'.

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George Floyd's killing reignited tensions between law enforcement and the black community in the US causing unrest across the country (protests in major cities depicted)

Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (right) and Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms (left) pleaded Sunday morning that rioters stop 'destroying our cities' as they protest the death of George Floyd

Protests have escalated across the country all week after video emerged of Floyd being killed during the arrest in Minneapolis.

The cellphone video footage showed that Floyd was handcuffed as four police officers pinned him down.

Derek Chauvin, a 44-year-old white cop who has since been arrested, is seen kneeling on Floyd's neck for eight minutes as the victim repeatedly said he could not breathe.

Chauvin was taken into custody on Friday after protesters called for him to be arrested  and he was charged with third-degree murder.

Floyd's family, as well as protesters, are calling for the three other officers involved in the arrest - J Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao - to be charged, too.

Washington, DC

In Washington, DC, the National Guard was activated as almost 1,000 protesters surrounded the White House Saturday night and squared off with Secret Service agents, DC police and United States Park Police.

Law enforcement struck protesters with batons and sprayed pepper spray into the crowds as demonstrators responded by hurling fireworks and bottles at the officers.

Clashes broke out between the crowds and Secret Service agents as they surrounded the president's residence and at least three Secret Service vehicles were seen with their windows smashed and profanities scrawled on the side of them in graffiti.

On Sunday morning, demonstrators took to the streets again, protesting Floyd's death outside an entrance to the White House.

Washington, DC: A worker cleans up debris from broken glass doors of a Michael Kors store in Washington's Georgetown district on Sunday morning

Washington, DC: Damaged windows are seen at a restaurant near the White House which was vandalized during overnight protests and rioting amidst nationwide unrest following the death of George Floyd

Washington, DC: A cyclist stands in front of a damaged office building near the White House on Sunday

Washington, DC: The shattered window of LEBTAV Lebanese Restaurant is seen in DC on Sunday, the morning after protests over the death of George Floyd

Washington, DC: A cyclist passes by graffiti on the side of a building near the White House on Sunday

Washington, DC: Work crews repair broken windows at an office building near the White House on Sunday

Washington, DC: Protesters demonstrate outside an entrance to the White House on Sunday morning

Washington, DC: By Sunday afternoon, thousands of protesters had gathered outside the White House

In addition to DC, a total of 11 states have activated the National Guard as law enforcement buckled under the strain of the protests.

States calling for Guard assistance included California, Georgia, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Washington state.

Meanwhile at least 25 cities rolled out emergency curfews to try to bring rioting and looting under control, including San Francisco, Atlanta, Louisville, Los Angeles, Portland, Columbia, South Carolina, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Seattle.

President Trump has put the Army on notice to deploy to the streets with a four-hour notice - the first time this will have been done in almost 20 years during the 1992 LA riots over the beating of Rodney King by cops.

The White House went on emergency lockdown, as the president was inside during the protests, and a demonstrator tried to scale the fence in Lafayette Park to get inside.

The man was manhandled by Secret Service, removed from the park and taken into custody at the Treasury Annex.

Atlanta, Georgia

Atlanta also had its fair share of rioters descend on the city in the last few days, but Lance Bottoms said that while the scene in the city was 'a bit more calm last night' than previous days, it 'wasn't perfect'.

'People were still out protesting by and large peacefully. We had a curfew last night, a 9 o'clock curfew.

'We ended up arresting around 157 people last night,' she said. 'So, we know the frustration is still there and all of the issues and all of the concerns and anger that were there on Friday haven't gone away.'

She also admitted that a lot of those who showed up to protest, riot and demonstrate were not from the Atlanta area.

Atlanta, Georgia: A young woman makes a sign during a protest in response to the police killing of George Floyd

Atlanta, Georgia: Violent protests broke out in cities (Atlanta pictured) all over the country after a video of Floyd being killed by a white police officer during an arrest emerged last week

As part of the chaos in Atlanta Saturday, a cop suffered 'significant injuries' after they were hit by someone driving an ATV during protests  the driver was taken into custody.

Around 3,000 National Guardsmen and women were activated in Georgia after the Republican governor, Brian Kemp, signed an executive order Saturday night.

National Guard soldiers were seen creating a barrier outside the Centennial Olympic Park in downtown Atlanta while fireworks rained down on police officers in some parts of the city.

Friday was even more chaotic in Atlanta, when demonstrators stormed and destroyed the CNN headquarters and fired a smoke bomb at cops trying to form a barrier to keep them out.

Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota

The clashes in Minneapolis marked the fifth night of arson, looting and vandalism in parts of the state's largest city, and its adjacent capital, St Paul.

The state's governor said on Saturday that he was activating the full Minnesota National Guard for the first time since World War Two.

About 170 stores have been looted and some burned to the ground in St Paul, its mayor said on Sunday.

Images show volunteers digging and searching through debris of businesses along East Lake Street in Minneapolis on Sunday for possible charred remains of rumored victims trapped in the building.

In response to the protests, Target Corp announced it was closing 100 stores, with about 30 in Minnesota.

Hundreds of people from around Minnesota and other parts of the country headed to the Twin Cities to assist with the cleanup process.

Most people were seen sweeping up glass outside of businesses while some people helped clean up a local library where dozens of books were burned.

Minneapolis, Minnesota: Businesses were burned to the ground in Minneapolis during Saturday night's protests. Images show volunteers digging and searching through debris of businesses along East Lake Street on Sunday for possible charred remains of rumored victims trapped in the building

Minneapolis, Minnesota: Local residents inspect a burned post office that was destroyed during continued demonstrations in the city

Hundreds of volunteers (left and right) from around Minnesota and other parts of the country headed to the Twin Cities to assist with the cleanup process. Most people were seen sweeping up glass outside of businesses while some people helped clean up a local library where dozens of books were burned

Went to clean up East Lake Library this morning. Some burned books, but just a lot of mess. pic.twitter.com/2zRAqMi5Xa  Tracy Mumford (@mumfordmumford) May 30, 2020

The Minnesota National Guard announced at around 10.30pm Saturday night that it was sending 10,800 troops in to tackle protests.

State police officers were seen in their masses surrounding the fifth police precinct Saturday night after officials insisted that the city would be brought under control following four nights of widespread destruction including a suspected looter being shot dead, businesses being burned to the ground and police officers forced to flee for their lives when a police precinct was stormed and torched.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey on Friday imposed a mandatory nighttime curfew for residents citywide after three nights of protests. The curfew prohibits anyone from being in public spaces between 8pm and 6am this weekend.

Meanwhile, a new video emerged of law enforcement officers firing several paint rounds at civilians standing on their own property in an effort to enforce the city's curfew.

Minneapolis, Minnesota: A man looks inside of a burned post office that was destroyed during protests Saturday night

Cell phone footage shows what appears to be an armored truck rolling down a residential street while nearly two dozen officers and law enforcement march behind.

The police were reportedly patrolling the Whittier neighborhood during the volatile protests on Saturday and attempting to enforce the new curfew.

In the video, several members of law enforcement can be heard screaming 'go inside now' to direct residents off of the streets.

San Francisco and Los Angeles, California

Curfews were also announced in other California cities including San Francisco, where the mayor called for the National Guard to be put on standby.

Images from San Francisco showed police surveying the damage of businesses in the city. Photos showed shattered glass, knocked over mannequins and graffiti sprayed on walls.

City crews were also seen cleaning up some of the devastation left behind by rioters overnight.

More than a third of the 1,400 arrests made since Thursday came from Los Angeles alone. Roughly 533 people have been arrested in the city since protests began last week.

San Francisco, California: Images from San Francisco showed police surveying the damage of businesses in the city

San Francisco, California: City crews were also seen cleaning up some of the devastation left behind by rioters overnight

San Francisco: Photos showed shattered glass, knocked over mannequins and graffiti sprayed on walls

Los Angeles, California: Volunteers sweep up broken glass in a store in Los Angeles on Sunday

Los Angeles, California: More than a third of the 1,400 arrests made since Thursday came from Los Angeles alone. Roughly 533 people have been arrested in the city since protests began last week. Volunteers are seen cleaning up Sunday after a night or protests

Los Angeles, California: Volunteers are seen sweeping up glass inside a store on Sunday

New York, New York

In New York City, banks, storefronts and vehicles were destroyed during protests Saturday night.

One image shows a burned out police car in lower Manhattan. Other images show glass and debris outside a Verizon store and a chair that was thrown into the glass window of a Chase bank.

New York City officials were looking for a peaceful way forward as the city entered a fourth day of protests against police brutality that have led to the arrest of hundreds of people.

Mayor Bill de Blasio said he had no plans to impose a curfew Sunday, unlike other major US cities, and smaller cities throughout the state.

In New York City, banks, storefronts and vehicles were destroyed during protests Saturday night. One image shows a burned out police car in lower Manhattan

New York, New York: Other images show glass and debris outside a Verizon store (pictured)

De Blasio said city police showed 'tremendous restraint overall' during the weekend's protests, but promised an investigation of video showing two police cruisers lurching into a crowd of demonstrators on a Brooklyn street.

He was appointing two city officials to conduct an independent review of how the protests unfolded and how they were handled by the police.

'We all better get back to the humanity here,' de Blasio said at a Sunday morning briefing. 'The protesters are human beings. They need to be treated with tremendous respect. The police officers are human beings. They need to be treated with tremendous respect.'

Hours after he spoke, demonstrations resumed. Hundreds of people gathered on a plaza in downtown Brooklyn, chanting 'No justice, no peace,' and 'Black lives matter,' while making occasional insulting hand gestures at a line of police officers protecting the arena where the NBA's Nets play.

New York, New York: Glass and debris is seen scattered on a sidewalk outside of a Verizon store in Manhattan

New York, New York: A chair that was thrown into the glass window of a Chase bank during Saturday night's protests is seen on the sidewalk

Largely peaceful protests around the city Saturday gave way to scattered clashes between police and protesters later in the evening. Demonstrators smashed shop windows, threw objects at officers, set police vehicles on fire and blocked roads. Graffiti was scrawled on Manhattan's famed St. Patrick's Cathedral.

There were multiple complaints about police unnecessarily shoving or bludgeoning protesters and spraying crowds with chemicals.

New York City police said 345 people were arrested, 33 officers were injured and 27 police vehicles were damaged or destroyed by fire. There were no major injuries reported. Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said some peaceful demonstrations were 'hijacked' by people with violent intent.

'We're going to make sure that everyone has the right to peacefully protest and assemble,' Shea said said at a briefing with the mayor. 'But we are not going to tolerate destruction of property, having our officers put into harm's way or any civilians put into harm's way.'

Gov Andrew Cuomo said the National Guard is on standby and that hundreds of additional troopers are being made available in Rochester and Buffalo.

Gov Andrew Cuomo (pictured) said the National Guard is on standby and that hundreds of additional troopers are being made available in Rochester and Buffalo

'We expect additional protests tonight and were preparing for such,' Cuomo said at his daily briefing.

The governor also said state Attorney General Letitia James's investigation into actions by NYPD officers and protesters will include any protests held throughout the weekend.

Cleanup was under way Sunday morning in New York City, which is still under a lockdown enacted two months ago when it became the US epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic.

At least five burned-out NYPD vehicles that remained near Manhattan's Union Square were towed early Sunday afternoon. People walked around broken glass on the street to take pictures of the vehicles.

A handful of protesters rallied peacefully in the square, holding Black Lives Matter signs and giving speeches denouncing police violence while families were picnicking nearby.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Damage was also reported in parts of Pennsylvania, including Pittsburgh. Penguins president and CEO David Morehouse provided an assist to a local television camera operator after protests turned violent Saturday afternoon in Pittsburgh.

Ian Smith of KDKA-TV was tossed to the ground and his camera was broken outside of PPG Paints Arena, just as Morehouse was exiting the facility.

Per the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Smith was dragged inside the arena by Morehouse before being transported to nearby Mercy Hospital.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: A cinder block was thrown into a Starbucks in Pittsburgh during protests in the city on Saturday

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Businesses were destroyed in multiple cities in Pennsylvania, including this Starbucks in Pittsburgh

'I was attacked by protesters downtown by the arena. They stomped and kicked me. I'm bruised and bloody but alive,' Smith wrote on Twitter. 'My camera was destroyed. Another group of protesters pulled me out and saved my life. Thank you!'

KDKA-AM broadcaster Larry Richert wrote of Smith's ordeal on his Facebook page, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Richert lauded the efforts of Morehouse, who is a Pittsburgh native.

'Today, our city's peaceful protest turned violent and ugly,' Richert wrote. 'A Pittsburgh Police car was set on fire in front of PPG Paints Arena. During this event, a good friend from KDKA-TV, Ian Smith, an extremely talented photographer and editor was covering the event with reporter/anchor Paul Martino when they were attacked. Ian said they were shouting "Kill him! Kill him!" and destroyed his camera.

'Fearing and pleading for his life he was saved by Pittsburgh Penguins President David Morehouse who was in his office at the time. There is no way to properly thank Mr. Morehouse for his courage.'

A team spokesperson confirmed Morehouse's role in assisting Smith but declined further comment.

A statue of team co-owner Mario Lemieux was vandalized with spray paint during the protests, which are in response to the death of George Floyd on Monday in Minneapolis.

Phoenix, Arizona

Volunteers were using shovels and brooms on Sunday to clean up broken glass outside at least five stores at an upscale mall in a Phoenix suburb that was damaged after a day of peaceful marches turned into a night of sometimes violent protests that included vandalism and an attack on a police station.

Images showed damaged vehicles inside a car dealership as well as volunteers sweeping and shoveling broken glass outside of stores.

On Saturday night, people knelt with their hands up in the streets outside Phoenix police and municipal buildings, chanting, 'Hands up, dont shoot' and 'Black lives matter.'

Phoenix, Arizona: Property damage from overnight vandalism and looting at a Mercedes-Benz in the Phoenix suburb of Scottsdale is seen on Sunday

Phoenix, Arizona: In the upscale Phoenix suburb of Scottsdale, some people smashed windows at stores including Neiman Marcus and Urban Outfitters (pictured), grabbing goods and damaging buildings

Phoenix, Arizona: Volunteer Tracey Schuman cleans up property damage from overnight vandalism and looting at Urban Outfitters on Sunday

Officers used flash-bang grenades and dispersed the crowd shortly after 10pm, telling people it was an unlawful assembly.

In the upscale Phoenix suburb of Scottsdale, some people smashed windows at stores including Neiman Marcus and Urban Outfitters, grabbing goods and damaging buildings.

Phoenix police said Sunday that more than 100 people were arrested on charges of rioting, unlawful assembly or aggravated assault on a police officer while several juveniles were detained for curfew violations, rioting and unlawful assembly.

Protests during daylight were largely peaceful in Phoenix and Tucson.
A woman who opened a bridal boutique shortly earlier this year has revealed that how brides have been enquiring about face masks to match their wedding dresses.

Oana Chaicac, who is from Romania but has lived in Ireland for 13 years, opened the Angelo Bridal, based on Dorset Street in Dublin, in February, but was forced to close the shop due to the coronavirus pandemic.

While dressing the window in the shop, she was inspired to craft face masks as part of a window display for the store but was amazed when brides began enquiring about the face coverings.

She has now revealed her surprise over the amount of requests she has received, telling FEMAIL: 'If there will be a commitment in Ireland that everyone has to wear a mask, I am sure the brides will need it and would love to have one matching the dress.'

Oana Chaicac, who is the owner of Angelo Bridal (pictured) in Dublin, has received a number of orders for face masks designed to match wedding dresses after she created a display in her shop window

Speaking to FEMAIL, Oana who runs the boutique with Diana Lupascu, 31, said: 'We sadly closed our shop in the middle of March and had to postpone our appointments.

'But we kept positive and communicated with our customers online and provided the best possible advice.

'It has had a massive impact on our business especially since spring and summer is the big season for us.

'Some of our brides have postponed their wedding and are going through a hard time emotionally and financially.'

Oana said she began making handmade face masks to show her support for NHS workers, but then she was inspired to use the pastime to raise money for frontline staff. Pictured: A mannequin wearing a mask

Oana revealed that thoughout the pandemic, the bridal shop has been sharing messages on social media to show it's support for frontline workers.

But she said she came up with the idea to launch a line of bridal masks after going to the boutique earlier this month.

After visiting the store to change the shop's display, Oana decided to create masks for the store's window to send a message of support to frontline workers.

Oana (pictured) took over the bridal business in February, but was devastated when the store was closed amid the coronavirus pandemic in March

Oana revealed some brides-to-be have also requested face masks for their bridesmaids (Pictured: Angelo Bridal's window display)

She revealed: 'We started picking accessories we had in store and pinned them on our mannequins.

'The masks are hand-made and we match them with the dress styles, following the details on the dresses.

'At Angelo bridal we always focus on fashion so we put our twist on the face masks and gloves for our display.'

Oana revealed the boutique may go on to craft matching masks for wedding dresses if demand continues, with profits going towards frontline workers

What is happening with the wedding industry across the UK? Churches are planning on allowing wedding witnesses to observe ceremonies using video conferencing technology under government proposals. Ministers are considering changes to the law to allow witnesses to dial-in remotely rather than attend wedding ceremonies physically post-lockdown. This could allow small weddings to go ahead and vulnerable guests and others who cannot attend a ceremony to watch happy couples get married. The move would also be a boon to anyone who has relatives abroad who cannot fly to Britain for the wedding, according to The Daily Telegraph. It comes after Justice Secretary Robert Buckland said he was giving 'anxious consideration' to marriages, which have not taken place since March 23. Advertisement

She explained: 'The moment we started displaying one of our mannequins we were getting lots of positive feedback from people passing by, they were stopping to take pictures, smiling and putting their thumb up at us.

'It was a great feeling for us so we have continued to work on our display.'

The bridal shop owner said the masked mannequins in the window of her store have since led to orders from customers.

Some have also voiced a desire for face masks to match the outfits worn by their bridesmaids on their big day.

And Oana admitted that while she isn't currently planning to sell the masks, she will 'look into it' if she continues to receive a mass of orders.

Oana said: 'We handmade the masks in our boutique, we are not selling them.

'Our idea was to send a supportive message, but who knows for the future.

'If we get a lot of enquiries we can look into it, and ask our designers to create the masks and we will donate the money to frontline workers.

'At Angelo Bridal, brides are our priority and we will be there to support any needs.'
Washington: Doug Hurly and Bob Behnken have become the first US astronauts in almost a decade to arrive at the International Space Station directly from American soil.

Around 19 hours earlier, Hurly and Behnken launched into Earth's orbit aboard the Dragon capsule on a Falcon 9 rocket, both built by SpaceX, a private commercial spaceflight company.

The SpaceX Dragon crew capsule, with NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken aboard, docks with the International Space Station. Credit:NASA

It was the first mission in nearly a decade to launch astronauts from US territory.

After a tense automatic docking sequence successfully linked Crew Dragon to the station's docking adapter, the station's current crew greeted Behnken, 49, and Hurley, 53, at an on-schedule hatch opening. The critical milestone kicks off the crew's potentially months-long stay in the orbital laboratory.
President Akufo-Addo is expected to address the nation tonight on the country's fight against COVID-19.

This will be the tenth time such a televised address will be delivered by the President since Ghana confirmed its first two cases of COVID-19 on March 12

President Akufo-Addo is scheduled to deliver the address at 10:00 pm.

Ghanaians are expectant that President Akufo-Addo during the address will ease the various restrictions imposed on Ghanaians as part of measures to fight COVID-19.

Economist warns against easing of restrictions

Meanwhile, a Health Economist at the University of Ghana Business School, Dr. Gordon Abekah Nkrumah has advised against the lifting of the Coronavirus restrictions without a critical assessment of the impact the move will have on the medico-socio-economic activities in the country.

He argues that any attempt to relax the embargoes should be properly thought through devoid of any political expediency.

Ghanas COVID-19 case count

Per the latest [31st May 2020] Ghana Health Service (GHS) statistics on COVID-19 in Ghana, the confirmed cases in Ghana are now 7,881. The number includes 36 victims who have succumbed and 2,841 people who have recovered.

 citinewsroom
The Evinrude outboard motors brand  one of the most storied brands in the history of Peterborough manufacturing  is about to disappear.

Valcourt, Que.-based BRP Inc. announced Wednesday that it will immediately stop production of the Evinrude E-TEC and E-TEC G2 outboard motors manufactured at its plants in the U.S.

For us, its a bit sad that we discontinued the production of the Evinrude  the outboard engine, BRP chief executive Jean Boisjoli told analysts Thursday. The impact of COVID-19 has left us no choice.

Outboard Marine Corp. made its Evinrude and Johnson brand motors at its Monaghan Road factory until it closed in 1990.

Johnson Outboard Marine Corp. first brought its Canadian operations to Peterborough in 1928.

At its peak, Outboard Marine was the second-largest employer in Peterborough, manufacturing Lawn-Boy lawn mowers, Pioneer chain saws, OMC snowmobiles and Johnson and Evinrude outboard motors.

The Monaghan Road site is now home to the Canadian Canoe Museum.

Bombardier Recreation Products took over ownership of the Wisconsin plant that manufactured Evinrude and Johnson outboard motors in 2001 after Outboard Marine filed for bankruptcy in 2000.

BRP announced Wednesday it will cut 650 jobs, or about five per cent of its global workforce, as it stops producing outboard motors and refocuses its boat brand.

It signed a deal with Fond du Lac, Wisc.-based Mercury Marine to supply outboard engines to its boat brands and support boat packages, and plans to increase its focus on personal power-sport vehicles like its Sea-Doo brand during the pandemic, part of up to $450 million in cost reduction measures slated for this year.

"For us, it's a bit sad that we discontinued the production of the Evinrude  the outboard engine," Boisjoli said. "The impact of COVID-19 has left us no choice."

Three-wheeled motorcycles, whose sales surged in 2019, saw revenue fall by more than 40 per cent year over year in the first quarter as driver licensing offices shut down in many regions.

"The on-road industry suffered the most from containment measures due to the closure of riding schools and licence issuers and the cancellation of demo tours," Boisjoli said.

Correction: This story has been updated to correct Jean Boisjolis name.

 with files from Christopher Reynolds, The Canadian Press and Examiner files
Incidentally, that Supreme Court judgment legally speaking nullified my resignation as I submitted my letter to an illegitimate party structure, which was eventually declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court judgment. Ordinarily, when you speak of the national chairperson of the MDC in 2014, it was myself, deputised by Morgen Komichi. That is an inescapable fact. However, I opted not to go back to reclaim my chairmanship on a matter of principle and conscience, simple because the things that I cited in my resignation letter are still very much alive in the MDC.
Eviction hearings in Pima County will resume Monday with nearly 600 scheduled over the next few weeks, ending a reprieve brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.

Whats different now is that people facing eviction due to COVID-19 hardships, which include financial and health-related issues, can ask the judge for a temporary reprieve based on Arizona Gov. Doug Duceys March 24 executive order.

But advocates say that order, while obviously helpful in the short term, does not go far enough  and that many Arizona residents will soon be overwhelmed with rent debt and late fees. The order is set to expire July 22, which could mean a disastrous August if landlords dont work with tenants.

While (the executive order) has been keeping most people in their homes longer, were going to hit a breaking point where the situation is just as dire, said Amanda Rutherford, staff attorney with Step Up to Justice, a law center that provides free legal advice to people facing evictions.

Its an enormous burden to put on tenants.

To try to help, Stacy Butler of the Innovation for Justice Program at the University of Arizonas James E. Rogers College of Law has submitted a request with Duceys office to amend the order.
Two years ago John Elliott was a businessman heading for burnout and dreaming of leading a team of camels across Australias deserts, from the east to west coast.

In little over a year, he learned how to handle camels, acquired five of them, and set off from a Queensland beach.

But a few weeks into the trip, he had an epiphany. He observed that seeing the camels, with their laid-back gait, humps and stately expressions, made other people happy.

Expeditioner John Elliott (right) with his camel train and dog Bruski in Lakes Entrance catches up with camel trainer Russell Osborne. Credit:Rachel Mounsey

So he "turned left", heading south down Australias more populated eastern side, leading camels Ted, Jackson, Arthur, Bill, and Charlie through communities from Narrabri to Tallangatta to Mansfield.
Interior Minister Rauf Aregbesola had his 63rd birthday colloquium on Saturday, and he had a rare compliment from his party man and Kaduna Gov Nasir El-Rufai who eulogized him and, in the same breath, gave him a dogtag.

The Kaduna governor, in a benign manner, revealed Aregbesola is a poodle.

You know Im your man any day. Im not Asiwajus man and you are Asiwajus man, he said during his teleconferenced speech on the occasion.

That was a joke, in a sense. But el-Rufai doesnt come across as a clown most times.

And, truly, the celebrant proved eventually hes exactly what the APC governor branded him.

While appreciating the panelists assembled to give their expert takes on the topicABCfor discussion, Aregbesola thank a couple of people, with special notes, in not so particular order.

He thanked President Muhammadu Buhari for encouraging him all along. (Maybe from 2015because Buharis CPC, before its merger with Aregbesolas ACN, Tinubus party, were enemies.)

The second person who has played a very huge role in making me a good public administrator is Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, he said. He [Tinubu] takes all the glory, apart from God.

It was a good thing Aregbesola didnt reject el-Rufais tag. Its a mark of loyalty, a mark the Kaduna governor lacks, a lack obvious to many of his benefactors, including ex-VP Atiku Abubakar and even Buhari on whose talakawa-famous integrity el-Rufai rode to become governor in 2015 when the APC toppled the ruling PDP across most of Nigeria.

Im not Asiwajus man, el-Rufai emphasized. Asiwaju and I have differences but you.

His differences with Tinubu are closely connected to 2023, political observers will readily say. The two are believed to be eyeing the presidency after Buhari, though neither has made their intention public.

But the Lagos god father and the accidental civil servant was once rosy.

Tinubu called him by fine names when the governor launched his book he entitled The Accidental Civil servant years ago.
By the time Samuel James Hanna arrived off the coast of Normandy, France, on a long-ago morning in June, hed already seen the toil and toll of war up close.

On June 6, 1944, less than a week shy of turning 20, Jim Hanna and his crew mates aboard the Navy Landing Ship Tank (LST) 308 were delivering a couple of hundred British troops to Gold Beach at about 11:30 a.m. It was the second wave of the D-Day landings as the Allies stormed the beaches of Normandy to reclaim Europe from the Nazis in World War II.

At the time, it was the greatest amphibious military operation undertaken in history. There were 5,000 ships, backed by thousands more smaller craft, 11,000 aircraft and over 150,000 service men. Before the day was over, thousands  Allied and German soldiers, as well as French civilians  would perish. It would set the stage for the Allies to beat back the Nazi juggernaut that had gripped most of Europe since the fall of Paris four years earlier.

For Hanna, D-Day was not the first time he had experienced such a massive operation to bring soldiers, tanks, equipment and supplies to a beachhead.

Nine months earlier, Hanna and LST 308 had come face to face with the Nazi Luftwaffe and SS Panzer divisions at Salerno when the Allies invaded Italy.

And, three months before that in an assault nearly as large as Normandy, hed helped deliver an armored division of U.S. troops to Sicily. It was there, Hanna says, that he was most afraid in his introduction to war.

Hanna grew up at 24 Hawthorne St. in Springfields Six Corners neighborhood, the eldest of three sons from a tight-knit Irish family who had gone off to serve their country in World War II. Today, closing in on 96, Hanna lives in the same neat and tidy red ranch house in Sixteen Acres where hes lived since 1952 and raised his family.

Ask him the secret to his long life and a still very active Hanna will joke, It sure wasnt clean living. I was the rebel of the family. I sure raised hell growing up. More serious, though, Hanna quickly adds that his father lived to 99, so he believes longevity is in his genes.

Hanna graduated from Cathedral High School in the spring of 1941, months before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, that propelled the US into World War II. After graduation, he had followed in his fathers footsteps onto the factory floor at Smith & Wesson, but, like other young men of his generation, Pearl Harbor changed the course of his life.

Hanna, followed later by his younger brothers, enlisted in the Navy and headed off to boot camp in Newport, Rhode Island, in early 1942 and later to 16 weeks school for gunner mates before being assigned to the Massachusetts-built LST 308. A shakedown cruise for the brand-new ship preceded its crossing the Atlantic in a convoy with a load of tanks aboard, bound for North Africa where the Allies were battling to wrest control from Nazi Gen. Erwin Rommels Afrika Korps.

The 308 landed first at the port of Arzew in Algeria and then went on to Tunis in Tunisia after its capture by the Allies. It was in Tunis that LST 308 became part of the Allied forces which prepared for an assault on Sicily where the Nazis had retreated from Africa.

It was off the shores of Sicily that Hanna says he remembers being first struck by fear as an amphibious force of some 3,000 ships brought troops, tanks, trucks and war materials across the Mediterranean to the island off the coast of Italy. News reels of the day reported an air and armored battle of some 57 hours preceded U.S. Gen. George Patton going ashore to claim control of the port of Gela in July 1943.

I was only just turning 19, Hanna says. Youre at the age where you think youre immortal. At Gela, he remembers, That was the most scary one. It was my first real, actual combatwhen you start seeing people getting killed.

LST 308 was delivering an armored attack group to Sicily when two beaches over another LST was blown to bits by German bombers. To me Sicily was the worst, he says. I mean I was really scared. He manned a 3-inch gun and was at battle stations throughout each invasion, enduring shelling from the Axis troops on the shore and from the air. (The 308s armaments were modified for Normandy.)

Once Sicily was secured, it became the base of operations for the Allies to prepare to invade mainland Italy. LST 308 would deliver men and materials to Salerno, the main landing area for the assault that began on Sept. 3, 1943. It was a different type of experience, Hanna recalls. (The Germans) knew we were coming.

Once its duty done in the Mediterranean, LST 308 that fall became part of the convoy that headed north to England, bound, they knew, according to Hanna, for new duty as the Allies plotted a course to reclaim western Europe from the Nazis.

Hanna recalls it as a horrendous trip, not just for having to navigate through Nazi submarine patrols but also encountering a major storm off the Bay of Biscay in Spain. There were waves 60 to 80 feet high. Youd go down in the trough and lose sight of the ship beside you, he remembers.

The 308 unloaded its cargo at Plymouth, England, before continuing on, first to Milford Haven, Wales, and then to northern Ireland. That was a real joyful situation, Hanna remembers. His immigrant father hailed from Belfast so landing at the port of Londonderry meant a family reunion.

I got to see the whole family, Hanna says. When his grandmother died during his time here, he was granted leave and spent 10 days with an aunt, eating well and meeting his extended family. It was great, he says.

It was during the stop in Londonderry that the 308 was outfitted with new guns for the coming invasion codenamed Operation Neptune. After a stop in Scotland on the Firth of Clyde, the ship headed back to the south of England.

We knew weeks before (D-Day) we were preparing for it. We had all kinds of training with the British troops, he says.

30 D-Day anniversary

Hanna can still remember the day the British troops came aboard 308. The sound of their hobnail boots on the steel deck would give you a headache, he recalls. Once aboard, it was a waiting game as inclement weather paused the operations, sending his boat to drop anchor off the Isle of Wight to wait out the delay.

Nobody got off once we started loading. Nobody was in or out, there were no liberties, he says. The about 100-mile crossing that morning was choppy but not too rough, he recalls. The crew was at battle stations for the entire trip.

I dont think there was any real fear, Hanna says. It was more a sense of this is it, well wait and see what happens. LST 308 landed in the Jig Green section of Gold Beach, an area that bumped up against Omaha Beach, one of the two beaches along with Utah, where American troops were landing that day to face a far more bloody confrontation with the Nazi forces.

(Gold Beach) was not like other invasion beaches. It was 100 yards or more from the seawall, so we were letting guys out and theyre running across a hundred yards or so of sand, he explains. As a gunners mate assigned to a station in the aft section of the LST, Hanna says he did not see the action on the beach but knows the success of his ships delivery. We had no casualtieswe lost nobody going onto the beach, all the British soldiers we landed made it.

Over the ensuing two months, his LST would make more than a dozen trips back and forth between England and France, ferrying wounded and prisoners of war one way and then returning with more supplies and equipment for the war effort.

There was a sense of accomplishment after you get the troops on the beach (that) weve done it, Hanna remembers. And, then you bless yourself one more time, saying, Thank God. I had had enough of blood and guts at that point.

By late September 1944, Hanna was bound for home aboard an ocean liner to Lido Beach, New York. Hed have 30 days leave before reassignment to another brand-new LST, the 1079, built in Hingham and bound for duty in the Pacific. As with 308, Hanna went aboard as a plank owner, a member of the commissioning crew and sailed through the Panama Canal and on to Pearl Harbor and the Pacific islands. The 1079 did not see combat, rather ferrying troops and equipment among the islands and to the Philippines. At the wars end, he found himself at Treasure Island Naval Station in San Francisco.

A cross-country troop train would bring him and hundreds of other troops from San Francisco to Boston. Hed arrive at Springfields Union Station to be greeted by his youngest brother. Hanna remembers adjusting back into civilian life, working first briefly for the city in its building department but later joining New England Telephone & Telegraph for a nearly 40-year career in installation and repair work.

All three Hanna brothers came through the war unscathed. He was the only one to see combat. How lucky can you be, he says in reflection. The good lord was watching me, and I can say the same for my brothers. His brother, Thomas, was a Navy aircraft mechanic who worked stateside, and youngest brother, Clark, enlisted at the tail-end of the war and was assigned to the Pentagon.

His own children, particularly his son, Kevin, a retired state trooper whos helped him assemble documents that track the path of his service, have encouraged Hanna to share his memories in hopes they will help new generations understand what happened during World War II and the lessons that can carry forward.

Hanna feels todays younger generation of Americans are too spoiled and may not appreciate what past generations have accomplished to ensure democracy survives. We had nothing back then. Today, the youngsters have so many things that have progressed, he says. Theres nothing wrong with progress, but they dont realize how hard it can be.

Of his own service, Hanna says simply, I think I did a good job, and Im proud to be an American. Thats for sure.

Cynthia G. Simison is executive editor of The Republican. She may be reached by email to csimison@repub.com.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: The Delhi BJP on Sunday slammed the AAP government for spending money on advertisements during the coronavirus crisis, and asked whether it was demanding Rs 5,000 crore from the Centre to meet its promotional expenses.

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia has sought an urgent assistance of Rs 5,000 crore to pay salaries of Delhi government employees and meet office expenses.

Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari asked Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal if his government needed the money to spend on advertisements.

He also cited central government schemes for poor people in a bid to suggest Sisodia's demand was misplaced.

Tiwari tweeted, "790 crore directly in Jan Dhan accounts, free cylinders of Rs 836 crore, Rs 243 crore given to Divyang, widows and senior citizens, Rs 768 crore of ration that you could not distribute.

Arvind Kejriwal ji if you demanding the money for advertisement expenses?" The chief minister has also requested the Central government to help the Delhi people at this time of a crisis.



ALSO READ | To pay employees' salaries, Delhi government seeks Rs 5,000 crore from Centre: Manish Sisodia

Tiwari previously too had attacked the Kejriwal government for issuing advertisements in newspapers and TV channels during the pandemic, claiming there was a shortage of beds in hospitals for COVID-19 patients.

He had sought to know how much money was spent by the AAP government on advertisements and on hospital beds.

BJP's East Delhi MP Gautam Gambhir also took a swipe at the Kejriwal government, saying if it wanted to buy printing press of newspapers with Rs 5,000 crore.

"The frontpage advertisements in every newspaper are appearing daily, if printing press of newspapers will be bought by taking Rs 5000 crore in the name of people," Gautam wrote retweeting Kejriwal's request for Central help.

Sisodia said the Delhi government needs Rs 3,500 crore per month to pay salaries to its employees and meet necessary office expenses.

In the past two months, the government has collected around Rs 1,735 crore revenue only.

He said that tax collection of the Delhi government has been around 85 percent below the normal due to the impact of coronavirus epidemic and lockdown.
Shinhan Financial Group Chairman Cho Yong-byoung, left, and Hana Financial Group Chairman Kim Jung-tai / Korea Times file



Shinhan, Hana chairmen's 32 years of friendship enables alliance



By Park Jae-hyuk



Shinhan and Hana financial groups' sudden announcement Monday that they had formed a partnership to enhance their competitiveness in the global market surprised the nation's financial industry since this was the first time that financial services holding firms here had signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with each other.



Some people even compared this with the 1991 American film, "Sleeping with the Enemy."



Those who are well aware of the two banking group chairmen's careers, however, could easily understand how and why they teamed up with each other.



Behind the alliance was a three-decade friendship between Shinhan Chairman Cho Yong-byoung and Hana Chairman Kim Jung-tai.



According to industry sources, Wednesday, the cooperation was initially pursued between the banking units of the two financial groups.



After employees questioned the intensifying competitions among Korean banks in foreign markets, especially in Southeast Asia, Shinhan Bank CEO Jin Ok-dong and Hana Bank CEO Ji Sung-kyoo accepted their suggestion regarding mutual cooperation overseas.



Known as experts in overseas business, Jin and Ji built more than half of their careers in Japan and China, respectively.



In January, they met privately to discuss the establishment of a consortium to buy a foreign financial firm, because both of them realized that there were many obstacles to their global expansion.



Korean banks have aroused concerns recently, since they have relied heavily on the acquisition of local financial firms in Vietnam, Myanmar and Indonesia for their expansion in the global market.



Due to their fierce competition in Southeast Asia, some of them purchased local firms for more than double any reasonable price and some took over insolvent companies.



Against this backdrop, when the two bank CEOs told their plan to their chairmen, Cho and Kim proposed a partnership between the holding companies.



The two chairmen worked together for a year in 1988 at Shinhan Bank's Yeongdeungpo branch in southwestern Seoul.



Kim, who started his career at Seoul Bank in 1981, joined Shinhan Bank in 1986.



In 1988, he was deployed to the Yeongdeungpo branch and met with Cho, who joined Shinhan Bank in 1984.



At the branch, Kim was in charge of current accounts, and Cho dealt with foreign exchange.



Back then, they used to drink soju together after finishing work.



In 1992, Kim left Shinhan Bank and joined Hana Bank as a founding member.



He served as a vice president of Hana Financial Group in 2005 and president of Hana Daetoo Securities in 2006.



He was appointed KEB Hana Bank CEO in 2008.



Since 2012, he has led Hana Financial Group as the chairman.



Cho, who decided to stay at Shinhan, was appointed Shinhan BNP Paribas Asset Management CEO in 2013.



He became Shinhan Bank CEO in 2015 and Shinhan Financial Group chairman in 2017.



Although they have been in a rivalry since they became the chairmen of each group, Cho still calls Kim a "brother" when they meet privately, according to industry sources.



Based on this long friendship, the nation's leading banking groups agreed to avoid excessive competition and pursue innovation through mutual cooperation in overseas markets.



They vowed to cooperate in seeking business opportunities, coping with various regulations, making investments in foreign markets and establishing international networks.



"This agreement will show the new paradigm of the financial industry; not just allow us to overcome our rivalry and establish a cooperative relationship," Cho said after signing the MOU. "We hope this becomes a great opportunity for both groups to enhance their competitiveness and break through the uncertainties in the global market."



Kim said: "We hope this agreement becomes a cornerstone for both groups to compete with world-class financial institutions."


The Nepal government on Sunday tabled a Constitution amendment bill in parliament aimed at altering the country's map amid a border dispute with India.

Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Shivamaya Tumbahangphe, on behalf of the government of Nepal, tabled the bill, a day after the main Opposition Nepali Congress also backed the legislation.

It will be the second amendment to the Constitution.

Nepal recently released the revised political and administrative map of the country laying claim over the strategically key areas of Lipulekh, Kalapani and Limpiyadhura.

India reacted angrily to the move saying such "artificial enlargement" of territorial claims will not be acceptable and asked the neighbouring country to refrain from such "unjustified cartographic assertion".

The bill seeks to amend the political map of Nepal included in schedule 3 of the constitution. The new map will be used in all official documents including the coat of arms after the amendment bill is endorsed through parliament.

Parliament will now deliberate on the proposal before endorsing the bill.

After its endorsement by both the houses of parliament, the president will order issuance of the bill.

The central committee of the main opposition party Nepali Congress on Saturday decided to back the bill.

Last week, the proposed bill was removed from the business schedule of parliament at the last minute at the request of Minister K P Sharma Oli.



The discussion on the Constitution amendment bill was delayed as the Nepali Congress asked for more time to discuss the matter in its high-level body.

Similarly, the Samajbadi Janata Party Nepal and the Rastriya Janata Party Nepal demanded that their long-standing calls for Constitution amendment also be incorporated. It requires a two-thirds majority to endorse the Constitution amendment bill.

During an all-party meeting on Tuesday, Nepal's Prime Minister Oli urged the top leaders of all political parties represented in parliament to unanimously endorse it.

The ties between India and Nepal came under strain after Defence Minister Rajnath Singh inaugurated an 80-km-long strategically crucial road connecting the Lipulekh pass with Dharchula in Uttarakhand on May 8.

Nepal reacted sharply to the inauguration of the road claiming that it passed through Nepalese territory.

India rejected the claim asserting that the road lies completely within its territory.

Nepalese Foreign Minister Pradeep Kumar Gyawali earlier this month summoned Indian Ambassador Vinay Mohan Kwatra and handed over a diplomatic note to protest against India inaugurating the key road.

However, Gyawali last week said that he was confident that the Kalapani issue between the two neighbours will be resolved through talks.

India on Thursday indicated its readiness to engage with Nepal to resolve the festering border row based on mutual sensitivity and respect.

India is monitoring the current situation in Nepal, external affairs ministry spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said referring to Kathmandu deferring a plan to bring in a constitutional amendment to validate a new map that depicted Lipulekh, Kalapani and Limpiyadhura as its territory.

"India is open to engaging with all its neighbours on the basis of mutual sensitivity and mutual respect, in an environment of trust and confidence. This is a continuous process and requires constructive and positive efforts," Srivastava said.

The Lipulekh pass is a far western point near Kalapani, a disputed border area between Nepal and India. Both India and Nepal claim Kalapani as an integral part of their territory -- India as part of Uttarakhand's Pithoragarh district and Nepal as part of Dharchula district.
Mr. Trumps advisers have nudged him to focus on his success in pushing through the renegotiated trade pact with Mexico and Canada, which has benefits for the auto industry and, were he to make it more of an issue, could help him with working-class voters in Michigan.

And they are hoping that the presence on the ballot in Michigan this year of John James, an African-American Republican who is running for a U.S. Senate seat, could peel away some black voters from Democrats. Indeed, Mr. Trumps decision to include Mr. James at an ostensibly nonpolitical round table with black Michiganders at a Ford plant in May angered prominent state Democrats, according to Democratic officials.

Michigan, however, offers a vivid illustration of how Mr. Trump can be his own worst political enemy.

He delights in headline-grabbing and often menacing attacks but rarely follows through with the punishment he threatens, leaving him looking more like a peanut gallery heckler than a political force to be feared.

That was true in the case of the clash in May. Hours after threatening to defund Michigan, Mr. Trump told reporters, I dont think its going to be necessary and, speaking to the news media in the state the next day, said he was not going to discuss what funds he had in mind.

Similarly, after insulting Ms. Whitmer as half Whitmer and the woman in Michigan while suggesting to Vice President Mike Pence that he ignore her calls entirely, Mr. Trump himself quietly telephoned her to ensure that a shipment of personal protective equipment had arrived in the state.

This pattern of attack-and-retreat instills little fear in his adversaries, reinforces negative perceptions about him among voters (who often only hear of the threats) and hands Democrats fodder for their own reprisals.
The CNN Center in Atlanta was vandalized on Friday during ongoing protests over the deaths of George Floyd and numerous other black men and women at the hands of police.

The large CNN sign outside the center was spray painted and protesters threw objects at the building, breaking windows, a CNN reporter on the scene said. Police ordered the protesters to disperse and created a blockade, but a standoff between demonstrators and police later moved into the lobby of the CNN Center (there is also a police precinct inside the center).

This is terrible to witness, CNNs Nick Valencia, who estimated there were over 1,000 demonstrators at the scene, said. We did see at one point  what we believe was tear gas fired at the demonstrators as theyve been pushed back towards the main intersection.

Also Read: Oprah Calls for Justice After Cop's Arrest in George Floyd's Death: 'My Heart Sinks Even Deeper'

An organized protest began around 3 p.m., according to a local NBC News affiliate station, and marched from the Centennial Olympic Park area to the Georgia State Capitol. While that protest was largely peaceful, some of the demonstrators gathered around the CNN Center in downtown Atlanta and began throwing objects at police officers and setting fire to some objects.

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms denounced protesters who were damaging property.

When you burn down this city, youre burning down our community, she said, visibly upset. What I see happening on the streets of Atlanta is not Atlanta. This is not a protest. This is not in the spirit of Martin Luther King, Jr. This is chaos. A protest has purpose. When Dr. King was assassinated, we didnt do this to our city.

Also Read: Former Minneapolis Policeman Charged With Murder in Death of George Floyd

If you care about this city, then go home, she continued. Bottoms later added, There was a black reporter who was arrested on camera this morning, who works for CNN. They are telling our stories and you are disgracing their building.

Story continues

The Atlanta protests are just one of many happening nationwide in the wake of Floyds death; he died after a white officer in Minneapolis choked him with his knee for several minutes. That officer, Derek Chauvin, was charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter earlier on Friday.

.@CNNValencia and crew take cover after an explosion takes place in the space between protesters and police at the CNN Center in Atlanta. https://t.co/mHZFrcOZj7 pic.twitter.com/HLPzyoKgn9

 CNN (@CNN) May 30, 2020

JUST IN: Multiple police vehicles have had their windows broken in front of the CNN Center in Atlanta. Protests are taking place in multiple cities over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. https://t.co/qyXUVIB6wp pic.twitter.com/wOXefI6G53

 CNN (@CNN) May 30, 2020

Read original story CNN Headquarters in Atlanta Vandalized During Protests Over Police Killings At TheWrap
THE outgoing chaplain of the Oratory School in Woodcote is to become the villages joint parish priest with Goring.

Fr Kenneth Macnab will step down this summer to take charge of the Catholic churches of Christ the King in South Stoke Road, Woodcote, and Our Lady and St John in Ferry Lane, Goring.

He takes over from Fr Antony Conlon, his predecessor at the Oratory, who left the independent Catholic school in 2014 and served as the parish priest until his death last month following a period of illness.

The 54-year-old will be succeeded by Fr David Elliott, the schools current head of theology, until a new permanent chaplain is appointed and says he will keep close links with the school.

Fr Kenneth grew up in Northampton and studied theology at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, before training as a teacher.

He taught for a while and was then ordained as an Anglican priest and served in various posts around the country. He joined the Oratory as an assistant teacher in 2005, around the time he converted to Catholicism, and was ordained in the faith shortly after that. He taught religious education, history and classics.

Fr Kenneth said his proudest moment was seeing the schools founder John Henry Newman, a 19th-century theologian, made a saint by the Pope last year.

He said: I have some very happy memories, including our trip to the canonisation in Rome last year, although the celebrations back here in Blighty were every bit as enthusiastic.

Inevitably there have also been some very sad times but this is what ministry is about  it involves the full gamut of emotions.

Fr Antony was a dear friend and I covered for him a number of times so there will be continuity as Id like to think Im already known in the parish. I hope he would be quietly pleased that Im carrying on his work.

From a selfish point of view, Im pleased to be able to continue working with the Oratory. There will be a lot of overlap and I think its fair to say they havent seen the last of me.
Midland County added no new coronavirus cases on Sunday, its total remaining at 82 cases and eight deaths, according to the daily afternoon state report.

Bay County added seven cases, raising its total to 310 cases and 23 deaths while Gladwin County remained at 18 cases and one death. Isabella remained at 77 cases and seven deaths, while Saginaw County added nine cases, now standing at 1,038 cases and 108 deaths.

The state added 513 new cases and 28 deaths on Sunday. Overall, Michigan is at 57,397 cases and 5,491 deaths.

The average death age is 75.3, according to the state website, mich.gov, with the deceased ranging in age from 5 to 107. The state lists 42% of the deceased as 80-plus and 27% age 70-79. State statistics show 53% of coronavirus deaths are male and 47% are female.

The state lists the total recovered at 38,099 cases, as of May 29, which represents COVID-19 confirmed individuals with an onset date on or prior to April 29, 2020, according to the state website, mich.gov. The numbers will be updated every Saturday.

The state lists the majority of races in positive cases as 31% Black/African American; 37% Caucasian and 16x% unknown, and the top three races in deaths as 40% Black/African American; 51% Caucasian and 4% unknown

The total positive cases are 47% men and 52% women.

Midland County Department of Public Health continues to encourage residents to take precautions to prevent the spread of COVID-19:

 Continue to practice social distancing as recommended by federal, state and local officials

 Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth

 Cover your cough or sneeze with a tissue, then throw the tissue in the trash

 Disinfect commonly touched surfaces

 Stay home when you are sick

 Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. If soap and water are not readily available, use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol.

We cannot stress enough how important it is for our community to be diligent in their community mitigation efforts," said Fred Yanoski, Midland County Public Health director/health officer. "We know that COVID-19 is in our community, and our residents can make a huge impact on slowing the spread of disease by following the recommended precautions."ed precautions."

If you think you've been exposed to COVID-19 and develop a fever and symptoms such as cough or difficulty breathing, call your health care provider for medical advice. If he/she isn't available call MidMichigan Urgent Care in Midland at 989- 633-1350 or MidMichigan Medical Center's Emergency Department in Midland at 989-839-3100.

MidMichigan Health has a COVID-19 informational hotline with a reminder of CDC guidelines and recommendations. The hotline can be reached toll-free at 800-445-7356 or 989-794-7600. Michigan Department of Health and Human Services also has a hotline number for Michigan residents for questions about COVID-19. The number is 1-888-535-6136 and is available seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Residents can also send an e-mail to: COVID19@michigan.gov. E-mails will be answered seven days a week between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.

If you are feeling anxious, stressed, depressed and feel you need to talk to someone, reach out to Community Mental Health for Central Michigan by calling 800-317-0708.
Market cap



By Nam Hyun-woo



The domestic bourse showed a stark change in its market cap rankings after the COVID-19 outbreak, with biotech shares emerging as the mainstream of the market, while conventional large cap shares of manufacturing companies saw a huge contraction.



According to the Korea CXO Institute, eight firms joined the top 100 companies in terms of market cap after the COVID-19 outbreak in Korea. The institute compared the market cap of domestic firms from Jan. 2 to May 22. Korea reported its first confirmed COVID-19 case on Jan. 20.



Of the eight companies, showing the sharpest surge was Seegene, a diagnostics firm manufacturing COVID-19 detection kits.



Seegene was 220th on Jan. 2 with a market cap of 811.9 billion won ($657.4 million), but surged quickly by 151 places to 69th, May 22, with its market cap swelling by 2.5 times to 2.88 trillion won. During the period, the diagnostics firm bagged a series of massive export deals for its COVID-19 detection kit, establishing its reputation as a go-to firm in coronavirus diagnostics.



Alteogen, a biotech firm having technology for subcutaneous administration of biologic products, also displayed a sharp growth of 123 places from 195th to 72nd during the same period. Alteogen rallied throughout this year on rosy anticipations on its license-out deals with global pharmaceutical firms.



Following Alteogen was Celltrion Pharm, up 82 notches from 148th to 66th; EcoProBM, up 82 places from 180th to 98th; and Hanjin KAL, up 53 places from 96th to 43rd. Celltrion Pharm is a pharmaceutical unit of biotech group Celltrion, and EcoProBM produces materials for rechargeable batteries. Hanjin KAL, the holding firm of Korean Air, saw its share price gone up amid an ownership battle between a private equity fund and its founding family.



While these companies made it into the top 100 list, eight others lost their footing



They were KCC, Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME), Korean Air, Hanmi Science, Cheil Worldwide, GS Engineering & Construction and Pan Ocean. Except for pharmaceutical firm Hanmi Science, Korean Air and advertising agency Cheil Worldwide, five of them are manufacturing companies, which have been reeling from the COVID-19 outbreak.



The contrast between healthcare firms and manufacturers was also noticeable on the list of the top 10 companies by market cap.



During the period mentioned, Samsung Biologics went one place to third, and Celltrion also jumped two to fifth. LG Household & Health Care was 12th on Jan. 2, but joined the list after claiming the eighth spot.



While the country's leading pharmaceutical manufacturers were making leaps forward, traditional manufacturers failed to impress as Hyundai Motor went down five places to 10th after the continued decline in its vehicle exports from factory lockdowns and closures in global markets.



As vehicle sales drop, its component unit, Hyundai Mobis, was sixth on Jan. 2, but dropped to 12th, May 22. Steelmaker POSCO also slid from ninth to 16th due to the slowdown in demand in the automotive, shipbuilding and construction industries.



"Biotech, rechargeable batteries and other non-contact businesses showed a sharp growth trajectory in the wake of COVID-19, but the conventional automotive, shipbuilding and construction industries saw their market caps backpedaling," the institute said. "Given Korea is heavily relying on those heavy manufacturing industries, their rebound is critical for its economic recovery."




He should just stop talking, the Democrat said on CNNs State of the Union. This is like Charlottesville all over again. . . . I wish that he would just be quiet. Or if he cant be silent, if there is somebody of good sense and good conscience in the White House, put him in front of a teleprompter and pray that he reads it and at least says the right things, because he is making it worse.
Paul Ejime

After almost five decades of existence, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), arguably Africa's most successful Regional Economic Community should be proud of its modest achievements, especially in the political, peace and security domain. But any celebration could be muted by the realisation that the accomplishments are still short of the goals set by the founding fathers and the aspirations of the Community's more than 370 million people.

With the recent death of Edouard Kodjovi (Edem Kodjo), Togo's third Foreign Minister and one time Secretary-General of the defunct Organisation of African Unity (OAU), the list of the dramatis personae in the formation of ECOWAS through the 28th of May 1975 Treaty of Lagos, is unfortunately dwindling. The major actors of blessed memory include the former President of Togo Gnassingbe Eyadema and Prof Adebayo Adedeji, Nigeria's former Finance and Economic Reconstruction Commissioner/Minister, who earned the sobriquet of 'Mr ECOWAS,' because of his tireless efforts in the birthing of the organisation.

Thankfully, still alive today is Nigeria's former military leader, Gen. Yakubu Gowon, who gave Prof Adedeji the 'command' to undertake with Mr Kodjo, the diplomatic shuttles and groundwork, that culminated in the signing of the Lagos Treaty by an unprecedented number of regional Heads of State at one sitting. This was despite the stout resistance by France and some regional leaders, especially the late Ivorian President Felix Houphouet-Boigny, who had instead supported the formation of a France-Afrique union. The ECOWAS idea prevailed with a compromise under which Cote d'Ivoire's Aboubakar Diaby Ouatarra was appointed as the first Executive Secretary.

ECOWAS' core agenda under the founding and revised treaties underscore the fostering of economic integration. Gen Gowon in an interview during celebration to mark ECOWAS at 40, noted: "There were niggling challenges (including colonial history, cultural and language differences), but thanks to the determination and political will of the leaders at that time, virtually all the member States were represented and signed the Lagos Treaty," with economic and social integration as the primary concern then.

But for almost two decades, including what is often referred to as the 'lost decade' (the late 1970s to the 1980s), and even up to early 21st Century, ECOWAS was bogged down with fighting political fires in a region, then notorious for military coup d'etats. Of note were the conflicts in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea Bissau, and later Guinea, Cote d'Ivoire and other countries.

In 1990, the military juntas in Nigeria and Ghana with the support of a few other regional leaders set up the regional peacekeeping force, the ECOWAS Peace Monitoring Group (ECOMOG). Under ECOWAS leadership, the United Nations later joined the interventions by deploying its peace Missions. Some level of political stability was then restored in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Cote d'Ivoire, but at huge costs in human lives, property, displacements of millions of people and financial losses.

Although the wave of pluralistic democracy that swept across the African continent in 1990s actually started in the ECOWAS region (Benin), the region is still bedevilled by socio-economic and political upheavals.

Today all the 15 ECOWAS nations are practising the democratic system of government with levels of imperfection. And in the words of Prof Adedeji in a 2015 interview at his Ijebu-Ode town in Western Nigeria: "ECOWAS (remains) the only region in Africa where citizens can visit and stay in a country other than their own for at least 90 days without a visa." This was in reference to the ECOWAS 1979 flagship Protocol on Free Movement of Persons, Rights to Residence and Establishment. Also in 1979, the region adopted the ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme (ETLS) to promote cooperation, regional economic integration and common market.

To revamp the organisation's normative instruments, the Authority of ECOWAS Heads of State issued the Declaration on Political Principles in 1991 reaffirming the Community's commitment to democracy and free market. And in response to emerging financial challenges, the ECOWAS Revised Treaty of 1993 prescribed the 0.5% Community Levy payable by member States, on imports from third party countries. This has since become a major source of income for the ECOWAS Commission (formerly Executive Secretariat), effectively replacing the unsustainable and irregular annual contributions.

The Revised Treaty also addressed issues of political governance, sustainable peace and security in the region, resulting in several instruments including the 1999 Protocol relating to the Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management, Resolution, Peacekeeping and Security (or the Mechanism). Indeed, this inspired the adoption of a similar Mechanism by the African Union several years later. Article 25 of the ECOWAS Mechanism provided for the creation of a regional Mediation and Security Council and peace and security interventions, including preventive diplomacy.

This was followed two years later by the adoption of the Supplementary Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance, which sets minimum constitutional convergence criteria for ECOWAS membership based on shared values of democracy and a free market, separation of powers, popular participation, democratic control of the armed forces, and guarantees of basic freedoms. Another key provision of the protocol is 'zero tolerance' for power obtained or maintained by unconstitutional means. This was followed in 2008 with the adoption of the ECOWAS Conflict Prevention Framework (ECPF) to recalibrate the regional peace and security architecture.

In enforcing the zero-tolerance clause of the Supplementary Protocol, ECOWAS has exerted impactful pressure on 'wayward regimes' to change their ways through a combination of sanctions and preventive diplomacy. Between 2009 and 2011, three member States - Guinea, Niger and Cote d'Ivoire - were suspended for violating the Protocol. The ECOWAS Commission under the leadership of Ambassador James Victor Gbeho also refused to send observers to The Gambia's presidential election in 2011 and withheld recognition of the result of that election in which the now-deposed President Yaya Jammeh claimed victory. Earlier, under Dr Mohamed Ibn Chambas, the ECOWAS Commission had resisted an attempt by Niger's former President Mamadou Tandja to elongate his tenure with a dubious constitutional change through a botched referendum in 2009.

Indeed, ECOWAS has been able to restore constitutional order and legality, supported peace and security and the conduct of credible elections in its member States, working unilaterally or in partnership with the international community - African Union, United Nations System, especially the UN Office for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS), now headed by Dr Chambas, European Union, German Development Agency (GIZ -Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit), Danish Agency for International Development (DANIDA), World Bank, African Development Bank (AfDB), Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA), West Africa Network for Peace building (WANEP), and several other organisations and nations. Even today, ECOWAS military missions are in The Gambia and Guinea Bissau on peace and security duty.

There has also been some progress in infrastructure development, in regional roads, environment, electricity/energy Power Pool and Gas Pipeline projects, and other Community programmes, as well as in gender and humanitarian affairs synergy, collaboration on electoral matters through the ECOWAS Network of Electoral Commissions (ECONEC) and the ECOWAS electoral assistance to member States.

The organisation continues its efforts to reconcile differences with the EU on the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), which is designed to replace the old Cotonou Accord between the two regions and open up markets for reciprocal commercial exchanges. These are all commendable efforts.

However, with the rash of governance challenges in several member States, especially over electoral disputes and the tendency for the ruling political parties to manipulate national constitutions either for presidential tenure elongations or in favour of the government in power, and the intolerance of opposition, many political observers believe that ECOWAS should be more proactive and assertive. This can be done by leveraging existing instruments including sanctions and suspension of erring member States as happened in not too distant past. For instance, there are festering political disputes in some member States such as Benin, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Togo, The Gambia, Cote d'Ivoire and Senegal, to name but a few, which must be addressed before they escalate into major conflicts or civil wars, that the region can ill-afford at this time.

Also, with the on-going global financial crisis worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic, ECOWAS leaders must take the sustainability of the regional organisation more seriously.

For instance, the transformation of the ECOWAS Executive Secretariat to a Commission in 2007, with all its good intentions would seem to have created room for wastage. That move was reportedly in line with the African Union Commission and the European Commission structure. Ironically, ECOWAS is older than the African Union Commission which came into existence in 2002, and the European Commission is now effectively emphasising its unity through the nomenclature of the European Union. ECOWAS, too, should be moving towards greater union consistent with its motto of an 'ECOWAS of People and not ECOWAS of States.'

Initially, seven Commissioners plus a Vice President and President were contemplated for the ECOWAS Commission. But it now has 15 Commissioners with the attendant huge increase in personnel and running costs and the unhelpful tendency of some Commissioners operating in silos, protecting national interests at the expense of the Community goal. Some of these statutory appointees allegedly take directives from their home governments in dealing with Community matters and therefore see the organisation as 'a regional cake.'

Despite the eyebrows raised two years ago, the 15 Commissioners are still in place and with the global financial crisis exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic; many countries have been hit hard, including oil-producing regional economic power Nigeria, ECOWAS' major financial contributor. The implication is that ECOWAS could face dire financial strait, similar to its experience in the 1990s when the Executive Secretariat was unable to pay staff salaries. The AU does not have a Commissioner for each of its 54 member States and neither does the EU, which can afford it. With ECOWAS statutory positions rotated, increasing the number of Commissioners to 15, even with unlimited resources makes no economic sense. But if all its member States should insist on having Commissioners at the same time, perhaps every member should separately foot the bill, as once suggested. This will save the organisation the unnecessary financial burden of additional staff salaries and other financial implications of an expanded structure, including new directorates, office space and equipment, and additional running costs.

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Another area of serious concern in ECOWAS' survival is its unsatisfactory stride toward achieving a common market and a single monetary union, which are critical to regional economic integration.

France, acting in collaboration with Cote d'Ivoire, has effectively hijacked the ECOWAS proposed currency name, Eco, to replace the CFA franc, used by former French colony member States in ECOWAS. While ECOWAS has been slow on its single currency programme, which was to come into effect next July after several postponements, the move by Paris and its allies is not only condescendingly audacious, but also smacks of a ploy to undermine the ECOWAS integration agenda. There are a thousand and one names they could have chosen.

The substitution of CFA with Eco also leaves much to be desired, because it appears driven by the ruling class without public support. France will still have a strangle hold on the economy and financial destiny of its former colonies and like with the CFA franc, the exchange rate of the proposed Eco would also be pegged to the Euro.

By and large, ECOWAS could be justifiably proud that today, due to its interventions including preventive diplomacy, democratic culture is gradually taking root in the region with incumbents losing elections to oppositions. Still, peace and security remain fragile in the region.

Going forward, the regional economic grouping must rediscover its teeth/assertiveness in holding its leaders and member States accountable to the instruments and protocols they have signed and/or ratified. After 45 years of existence, it is not enough for ECOWAS to be basking in past glory, because to whom much is given, much is also expected.

Prof. Adedeji had during the Ijebu-Ode interview, made a passionate appeal to ECOWAS member States to work towards the harmonisation of policies, laws and regulations to consolidate regional integration, as envisaged by the founding fathers. Even more optimistic and with justifiable reason is Gen. Gowon, who is advocating a West African government to serve as a building block for the proposed United States of Africa.

But it takes an unwavering commitment, determination, persistence and concrete actions to turn dreams into reality!

 Ejime is a veteran journalist, Consultant on Media, Corporate Communications and Visibility, and Elections .
Mumbai:

Storming his way into telecom sector, Mukesh Ambani, Indias richest man, on Thursday, announced the launch of much-talked about Jio 4G service, offering free voice calls and national roaming along with what he touted as the worlds lowest data tariff.

Ambani, 59, who had more than a decade back left the telecom business to younger brother Anil when the Reliance empire their father had created was split, outlined his re-entry plans through a slew of affordable offerings and plans that promise to shake up the countrys telecom industry.

Targeting 100 million customers in the shortest span of time, he told Reliance Industries annual general meeting that its wireless phone unit, Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd will offer data for Rs 50 per GB and monthly plan for as low as Rs 149.

Voice calling for Jio users will be free for life, so will be national roaming. We Indians have come to appreciate and applaud Gandhi-giri, now we can all do data-giri, which is an opportunity to do unlimited good things with unlimited data, Ambani said at the AGM.

In 2003, the undivided Reliance had created a storm of kind by announcing monsoon hungama, offering wireless connectivity for an unheard price of Rs 501.

Devoting two-third of his 90-minute speech to make a slew of announcements on Jio, he took competition head-on by announcing free services on Jio for four months beginning September 5.

Voice calling will be free on Jio phones for life and post December 31, 10 data plans will be offered starting at Rs 19 a day for occasional users, Rs 149 a month for low data users and Rs 4,999 a month for heavy data users.

In the speech that found mention of his children, Isha and Akash, who are both the directors on Jio as also his wife, Nita, Ambani did not forget to make a mention of governments ambitious programmes Digital India, Make in India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Jio will fulfill Digital India dream of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said, calling Jio a revolutionary step to realise Indias digital ambitions.

Ten big announcements from the event:

# All domestic voice calls for Jio customers will be absolutely free. Roaming charges will also be zero across India.

#Jio aims to take India to the top 10 from current 155th position in the world for mobile broadband access.

# Jio has created an all-IP network. There is only one language spoken on the Jio network. We will have a single digital mother tongue. The all-IP design also makes Jio's network the most expansive and future-proof network in the country. Jio is a data strong network built for the Internet from the ground up. By March 2017, we will cover 90 per cent of India's population. It is the first mobile network that is only 4G LTE.

# The onboarding process will now be 100 per cent digital, using Adhaar-based e-KYC, starting today from Mumbai and Delhi. With instant e-KYC, customers will be able to walk out with an operational connection within 15 minutes.

# Jio apps bouquet will be available complimentary up to December 31 2017.

# Effective rate of data would be five paise per MB, or Rs 50 per GB.

# All complex telecom charges, like black-out days, eliminated.

# Jio's services will be free of cost to all users from September 5 to December 31, 2016.

# Jio's commercial launch likely to be on December 31.

# Special offers for students with 25 per cent more data.

Analysts take:

The analysts have said that Reliance Jios entry into the Indian telecom market will help in decreasing the monthly bills of comsumers. This would also unleash a new round of price war in the telecommunication industry.

RJio in its test phase has garnered over 1.5 million users and aims to take the number to 100 million in the shortest possible time. During his speech at the 42nd AGM of Reliance Industries, Mukesh Ambani said, Indians can all do Data-giri, which is an opportunity for every Indian to do unlimited good things, with unlimited data.

CRISIL Research said that by opting for Reliance Jio plans, mid-to-high end subscribers could see their average monthly mobile bills coming down by 50-60 per cent.

Tanu Sharma, Associate Director Large Corporates, India Ratings & Research said that data tariffs are bound to see a major correction due to RJios launch while the benefits from higher data volumes and user growth will be back-ended.

Sharma said that RJios free voice calling and SMS services and data bundle offer, could hurt the voice tariffs of existing operators, who would need to respond with similar offers in a bid to protect their turf.

The debt profile of operators will deteriorate in 2016-17 as they may incur high capex on network expansion and acquisition of additional spectrum to compete with RJio, Sharma added.

Stating that the telecom sector is currently reeling under financial stress, high debt burden and slowdown in revenue growth, Prashant Singhal, Global Telecommunication Leader, EY noted that, Further decline in data tariffs may impact operators profitability and sustainability.

Motilal Oswal Securities Head (Retail Research) Dharmesh Kant termed RJios tariff as a knockout punch but said the big concern arises on timelines of achieving operating break-even point.

Industry will wait-and-watch for few quarters on how RJios operations develop, and operator manages network and operations for better customer experience, Gartner Research Director Amresh Nandan added.

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Phyllis Irene Gallahan Kerns of White Plains, MD, passed away on Tuesday, May 26, 2020, at the age of 77.



She was born December 13, 1942 to Dewitt Franklin and Lucille Gallahan of Neersville, VA. Just weeks prior to delivery, the proud parents learned they were having twins! Phyllis adored her twin brother, Frank; however, proudly proclaimed to be the oldest, if only, by minutes.



Proud father Dewitt was serving as a surgical technician in the Pacific Theater, World War II. Upon receiving the good news of the pending births, he was issued a two week pass to travel home and be with his new family. It was three years later, with an honorable discharge from the Army, Dewitt returned home again, this time to devote fully to his family. During these three years, the twins, Phyllis and Frank Jr., enjoyed special times with their maternal grandparents, George and Daisy Cogle, also of Neersville. Granddaddy Cogle was partial to his little granddaughter, Phyllis, while Frank Jr. captured Grandma Cogle's heart; both were spoiled! That's what grandparents do!!



Twin brother, Frank Jr. passed away at the age of 48 with heart disease. Phyllis could no longer share good times with her twin brother. There were, however, four more siblings she loved deeply.



Phyllis worked for the Prince George's County Board of Education for 35 years and retired June 30, 2008. She shared many fond memories of her early career working as the principal's secretary. Those memories included meaningful time spent with students, as well as taking especially "good care" of her teachers at Forestville High School. Later, she accepted a position in the regional office serving the Assistant Superintendent and Regional Director. It was during this time, her beloved husband, Bill, succumbed to pancreatic cancer. With the support of her family and friends, Phyllis worked an additional five years. In August 2010, she relocated to Southern Maryland and settled into her new home in Heritage at St. Charles, a 55+ residential community.



Phyllis enjoyed her retirement years traveling with Southern Maryland seniors to Canada, New York, Pennsylvania, North and South Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee. In between these trips, she especially enjoyed sending time with her oldest granddaughter, Ashley, in Philadelphia, and second oldest grandson, Andrew in Colorado.



Phyllis loved to spoil her 11 grandchildren which included two sets of twins; Matthew & Jason, and Rebecca & Hannah. To her delight, the grandchildren enjoyed spending time with Nana Kerns too! Family gatherings were great fun, especially Christmas Eve, which she hosted each year, a tradition she and Bill started early on. Later, siblings Don, Lloyd, Wes and Jeff organized annual family picnics to shared great food, recall fond memories, all the while feeling blessed to be part of a large family growing up.



Phyllis found comfort and joy each week spending time with her spiritual sisters during Book Club. She learned studying her Bible, along with her friends, brought meaningful purpose to her life. Her favorite daily devotional, "Jesus Calling", spoke to exactly what was "on my heart today". She often asked, "How could the author, Sarah Young, write each day's daily devotional especially for me?



Phyllis was the beloved wife of the late William G. Kerns; loving mother of David G. Kerns and his wife Linda Work of Huntingtown, MD, Steven G. Kerns of Chesapeake Beach, MD and William Gregory Kerns and his wife Terry of Mechanicsville, MD. She was the dear sister of Donald Gallahan and husband Stuart Tart of Rockville, MD, Lloyd Gallahan and his wife Lucille of Virginia, Wesley Gallahan of Virginia, Jeffrey Gallahan and his wife Valerie of West Virginia, and the late Frank Gallahan, Jr., Fred Gallahan and Debbie Gallahan. "Nana" was the devoted grandmother of 11 grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.



A visitation will be held at Lee Funeral Home Calvert, 8200 Jennifer Lane, Owings, MD 20736, on Tuesday, June 2 from 10 am until start of Funeral Services at 11 am. Interment will be at Resurrection Cemetery.



For those desiring, memorial contributions in memory of Phyllis, may be directed to the American Cancer Society, P. O. Box 22478, Oklahoma City, OK 73123.





NEW GUIDELINES FOR ATTENDING VISITATION / SERVICES.

- 50 to 75 people max at any given time in Funeral Home.

- Limit visitation to 15 minutes in visitation room to allow for others to express their condolences.

- Funeral Services in Chapel limited to 70 people with four (4) people per pew.

- Masks and six foot social distancing still applies.
The line of cars usually begins to form well before 11 a.m. outside Sharon Elementary school in Newburgh, Indiana, a town of less than 4,000 people along the Ohio River.

Stella Antey, an 8-year-old second-grader, has sat in one of those cars with her older sister, younger brother and parents every weekday for the past two months. The wait for cafeteria workers to hand them free lunches and breakfasts for the next day has often been the highlight of their mornings since schools closed in March.

My favorite is the breakfast, she says. I like the cereal and milk.

Her mother, high school civics and dance teacher Amanda Antey, enjoys the break the trips give her children from the sometimes restrictive learn-from-home routine.

Still, the free meals are far from a luxury. Antey and her drama teacher husband, Eric, still receive pay from Warrick County but can no longer teach the after-school dance and theater classes that provided extra income for their young family of five. Antey says that loss, along with rising food prices during the pandemic, makes the free school meals for their three children crucial.

Nothing goes to waste, Amanda Antey says. Whatever the kids dont eat, my husband and I eat it.

A worker with the Warrick County School Corp. in southern Indiana carries a tray of several pre-packaged breakfasts and lunches to a waiting car on Friday. May 8, 2020. Food service coordinators there estimate their meal program has lost $500,000 since March due to decreased revenue and increased expenses related to COVID-19.

Necessity  both to prevent students from going hungry and to keep the people feeding them safe  is what drives Shenae Rowe through the long days and weekends since she joined hundreds of school nutrition directors across the country who, in a matter of days, transformed their school meal operations into emergency feeding programs.

The efforts come at a price. In the past 10 weeks alone, school districts and nonprofit organizations tasked with feeding children during the pandemic have lost at least $1 billion. The losses continue to climb with every lunch and breakfast workers serve and could force programs across the county to go into debt or dip into money dedicated to teachers and classrooms to stay afloat.

Challenges have come from all sides.

Story continues

What reopened schools will look like: Scheduled days home, more online learning, lots of hand-washing

Although nearly half of Americas schoolchildren were on free or reduced lunch before the pandemic, school shutdowns eliminated the revenue that came from other children whose families paid for the meals.

At the same time, costs have soared. Protective equipment for employees, extra cleaning measures, steps to ensure social distancing in food prep, hazard pay in some cases  they all cost more. Its also more expensive to package meals that can be taken home or to buy individually wrapped foods that are more portable and easier to serve from a social distance than the soups and family-style meals cafeteria workers used to ladle out one at a time to long lines of children.

All told, spending for many feeding programs has outstripped federal reimbursements for the emergency meals. The Houses most recent relief bill allocated $3 billion for child nutrition programs from now through September 2021, but the bill will face heavy challenges in the Senate, and school food coordinators say theyre unclear on how much of that money will go to individual districts even if it passes.

Still in emergency mode, school nutrition directors like Rowe, whose program has lost $500,000 since March, say theyre too overwhelmed to even begin thinking about what theyll do when schools reopen in the fall.

Honestly, we havent been able to get past looking at today, day by day and week by week, Rowe said. We just keep going.

A caravan of cars waits for deliveries of prepackaged breakfast and lunch meals outside Chandler Elementary in southern Indiana. Food service coordinators at the Warrick County School Corp. estimate their meal program has lost $500,000 since March due to decreased revenue and increased expenses related to COVID-19.

Cash poor, cost rich

In Orlando, Florida, where nearly three-quarters of students at Orange County Public Schools qualified for free or reduced-price lunch, Lora Gilbert said her food service program nonetheless brought in $2.2 million from paid lunches in March of last year.

This year, Gilbert estimates her program lost $4 million in March. That number grew to $6 million to $8 million in April and probably the same for May.

Emergency meals have now all but wiped out the cash reserves Gilbert took years to build. Without outside help, she said, there will be no more money left by August.

Orange County schools averaged a million meals served to students every five days when they were open. The emergency program now serves 115,000 to 117,000 meals a day, struggling to find prepackaged items like the cereal bars that were popular with students for breakfast before schools closed.

Coronavirus and school lunches: Free school lunch programs face terrible choice: Fight coronavirus or students' hunger

For years Gilbert had worked to keep product and labor costs down wherever she could while offering students meals like freshly baked pizzas, hummus from scratch and trendy dishes like Korean stir-fry tacos.

But even those innovations, she said, cost less to produce than the emergency meals the district serves from 52 locations on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, sending each student home with six meals every Friday.

Thats our biggest challenge because it costs a lot more money to give out four or six meals at a time as opposed to having a kid come through the lunch line and get one breakfast or one lunch, Gilbert said.

Julie Beer, food service coordinator for the Ukiah Unified School District in Mendocino County, California, said her team is already grasping at straws to keep the kids fed.

About 80% of the 6,000 students in the district are low-income, a percentage so high that it qualifies all students for free meals.

The district is serving about 57,000 free meals a week, either at distribution points where families drive through to pick up items or by school bus delivery at drop-off points.

Ukiahs food services team packs up totes with an entire weeks worth of prepared meals for students  with breakfast and lunch thats 14 servings per order  and distributes them on Mondays.

Like Gilberts program in Orlando, it costs more per meal to give students several meals at a time than it would to serve meals individually through a lunch line. And the district is stretched because it cant supplement the meals with anything it makes from scratch, such as soup and spaghetti because it cant guarantee those items would still be fresh and safe by the time children eat them.

According to a recent survey of nearly 2,000 school districts across the country, nearly half of school districts offering emergency meals serve them only once a week.

Cafeteria workers with the Warrick County School Corp. in southern Indiana pose for a photo greeting sent to students. Food service coordinators there estimate their meal program has lost $500,000 since March due to decreased revenue and increased expenses related to COVID-19.

Rowe in southern Indiana is an exception. Like 13% of the schools that participated in the School Nutrition Associations April 30 survey, workers at the Warrick County district serve meals to students five days a week.

Even in daily meal service, foods need to be packaged. Take apple slices, for instance, a food that has been a staple in American school breakfast and lunches for decades.

Without the ability to place a few apple slices on a childs plate inside a lunchroom, Rowe was left with two options: pay more for individually wrapped packages of apple slices, or package them in-house.

Rowe decided on the latter, but that alone was an undertaking that involved opening a separate kitchen to allocate two food prep workers whose full-time job it is to slice apples, kiwis, celery sticks and other fruits and vegetables for the meals the Antey family and others depend on.

'These kids are coming back': Reopened Montana school offers peek at what fall might bring

While a cumbersome undertaking in Indiana, where Rowes team serves 1,000 meals daily, such an effort would require 100 times the effort in Orlando. So school districts that size opt for the prepackaged options when they can  even if it costs them more.

Aside from the rise in food costs generally, the pandemic has been especially hard on food distributors who work with schools, regardless of whether they had the foresight to plan ahead.

Sean Leer, CEO of Gold Star Foods, was in a California airport headed on a family vacation on Valentines Day when the sight of a few travelers in masks prompted him to launch safety measures for his companys staff and begin working with food suppliers to individually wrap food items they previously sent in bulk.

Those moves require Gold Star, which works with 20% of the nations public schools, to spend extra money on cleaning supplies, protective equipment for their workers, along with seed money to their suppliers for extra packaging. That, along with a general decrease in product demand from schools, led Leer to furlough 20 percent of his staff.

We dont know when well be able to bring them back, Leer said. We hope its soon.

Leer has said that his company has tried to keep their prices as low as they can in the process. But in large school districts especially, the slightest per item increase can have a profound financial effect when serving hundreds of thousands of meals daily.

Katie Wilson, executive director of the Urban School Food Alliance, says the 12 large school districts in her association, which includes Orlando, are losing $38.9 million a week by serving food to their students during the school closures.

Diane Pratt-Heavner, spokeswoman for the School Nutrition Association, said the 861 districts in the survey who agreed to list their lost revenues reported collective losses of $626.4 million.

The price of safety

As much as Rowes program has lost, money is a secondary concern. Although the Anteys and other families have shown overwhelming support for the five-day-a-week food distributions, Rowe knows that it also increases the chance of a coronavirus outbreak if one of her staffers is infected.

Every time I get a text early in the morning, Im afraid Im going to look at my phone and get a message that someone (working in the cafeteria) has gotten sick, she said.

Cards, candy, flowers and homemade cookies from Warrick County School Corp. students and parents are among several gifts and tokens of appreciation cafeteria workers in southern Indiana have received since March when they began their emergency school meal program. Food service coordinators there estimate their meal program has lost $500,000 since March due to decreased revenue and increased expenses related to COVID-19.

The fear is real. Soon after schools across the country started emergency feeding programs, several had to either shut down temporarily or move to other locations after food prep workers tested positive for the coronavirus.

Most recently, officials in Puerto Rico ordered the shutdown of 30 school cafeterias and a few food warehouses after dozens of workers in the U.S. territory tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

A group of mothers and several nonprofits responded by suing the islands Department of Education, accusing it of dodging its responsibility to feed the islands nearly 300,000 public schoolchildren.

Because of the risks, school food service leaders in many places offer hazard pay to front-line workers, and large cafeterias designed to cook a high volume of meals operate at only a fraction of their capacities so workers can operate at a safe distance.

Pratt-Heavner says many members of her association are already reporting shortages of personal protection equipment like masks and gloves, as well as a shortage of cleaning supplies.

And school food coordinators like Gilbert say they are saddled with the additional food safety costs of transporting and storing items like milk, meat and juice at cold temperatures.

Gilbert had to rent 15 refrigerated trucks to store large quantities of items that her staff is now handing out in bulk from a few centralized locations instead of the many schools they served from daily when school was in session.

Reimbursements not enough

Aside from cash reserves, if they had any, these school programs now depend almost exclusively on government reimbursements from a U.S. Department of Agriculture program normally designed to feed students during summer and winter breaks.

USDAs Summer Food Service Program has also been a resource for school food programs in emergency situations, like hurricanes or tornadoes. But the program has never been used for a crisis this widespread.

Students were required to sit and eat the free meals in the center serving the meals, but the USDA has waived that requirement because of the pandemic.

The reimbursement rate for most sites is $2.375 per breakfast and $4.15 for every lunch. But Gilbert and other food service coordinators are often surpassing that amount because theyre having to pay more for individually wrapped items, increased transport costs and packaging.

Congress in March passed a measure that cleared the way for families to receive food stamp benefits to cover the cost of meals children would have normally eaten in school. Only 30 states have qualified for the program so far, and school food officials say lines are still long at their drive-thru and walk-up meal pickups.

On April 27, a group of more than three dozen national school associations, nutritional groups and other nonprofits sent a letter urging Congress to provide school meal programs nationwide with $2.6 billion in the next congressional relief package to mitigate a portion of the estimated, significant financial loss that school nutrition programs have and will continue to experience.

'Going to see massive cuts': Without more coronavirus relief, schools slash budgets, prep layoffs

The House responded by including $3 billion earmarked for school nutrition programs in the $3 trillion Heroes Act, which passed in May by a narrow margin. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said last week that if lawmakers consider another relief bill it would have to be narrower in scope than what the House passed.

In the meantime, other nonprofits and food banks who have stepped in to provide free meals for children have also felt the strain.

In March, several YMCA chapters stepped in to feed schoolchildren in places where coronavirus outbreaks forced school districts to shutter or suspend food distributions and also started feeding programs to supplement efforts of districts with fully functioning feeding programs.

Stacey McDaniel, specialist for the YMCAs Anti-Hunger Initiatives program, says the organization lost $400 million nationwide in April alone.

Not serving the children and families in our communities is not an option for us, McDaniel said. Were going to keep going for as long as we can.

Grim outlook for fall

As stretched thin as school food operations are now, program leaders say their needs will only intensify if schools reopen in the fall, especially if theres no money for school nutrition in another relief bill.

Aside from social distancing for students, schools will also have to figure out how to prepare and serve foods in cafeterias while adhering to social distancing measures for employees.

And while cafeterias are already running low on protective equipment and cleaning supplies, Wilson and others say theyll need a stockpile of those items before they welcome children back.

Pratt-Heavner of the School Nutrition Association predicts that the increased need for free and reduced lunch will present another problem that schools will have to handle in the fall.

In current emergency feeding programs, children and parents dont have to prove that they qualify for free meals. That will change in the fall, and with unemployment rates skyrocketing because of the pandemic, it is unclear how much more profound the needs will be.

Back to school?: Poll: 1 in 5 teachers are unlikely to return to reopened classrooms this fall

And unless schools receive a special waiver to serve all meals for free, they will have to charge children full price for meals unless their parents complete and turn in free lunch applications.

The application is challenging, and they also have to be processed, Pratt-Heavner said. At a time when schools and parents will already be dealing with a number of complicated questions, theyd also have to worry about that.

Food programs in U.S. public schools have traditionally been self-sustaining entities, meaning that they operate from their own budgets while the districts they serve focus on teachers salaries, facility maintenance and other costs associated with running schools.

That may change for programs like Orange County schools in the fall, as Gilbert predicts her program will run out of money by August. Any aid from the district is likely to cut into money for classrooms or other school programs.

Another concern, for Gilbert, Rowe and other food service coordinators across the county, is that the quality of the meals they feed students will suffer, meaning children like Stella Antey wont have as many healthy options at school  whether they pay for them or not.

Things wont be as fresh, Gilbert says. We wont be able to cook as much from scratch.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Coronavirus: School lunch programs going broke because of kids' hunger
However, computer technology was not yet advanced enough to allow for real-time detection of crown-of-thorns. That changed in 2014 with advancements in Deep Learning technology, which allowed Dunbabins team to construct a robot that could be programmed to detect and inject the starfish with bile salts all while operating autonomously. Over the next few years, they refined the prototype to be smaller, lighter and less expensive so that a bot army could eventually be commissioned.
Well, at least the date stayed the same.

Australian bassist Linda May Han Oh and Cuban-American pianist Fabian Almazan will perform for Spoleto Festival USA audiences on Wednesday as originally planned. But instead of beginning a four-night series of concerts in the College of Charlestons Simons Center Recital Hall, the couple will play to a digital camera from their Harlem, N.Y., apartment.

The digital concert is an entry in this years "Spoleto at Home" series of virtual events. The invitation to participate in the series is an example of the outpouring of empathy they have received from the creative community over the last two months, Oh and Almazan said.

There are definitely some angels in the community that we're very grateful for, who really keep music alive and help support musicians, Oh said.

Together, they have taken time during the shutdown to learn the Bata drum, a traditional Cuban Santeria instrument. Almazan has been working with jazz saxophonist Walter Smith on arrangements for an upcoming album. He also just finished adapting to a virtual platform the inaugural musical festival for Biophilia Records, the environmental advocacy record label he founded in 2011.

I think as human beings we have opportunities in the face of these challenges to learn new things, Almazan said. So its not all bad.

Oh also sees an upside to the lockdown. She teaches at the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice, part of the Berklee College of Music in Boston, and when classes went virtual, she invited guest speakers who would not normally join her students, including Angela Davis and Wayne Shorter.

Oh and Almazan, who met in 2006 when they were both graduate students in New York City, have coped with emotions and anxieties provoked by the pandemic by listening to music by artists they admire, such as John Coltrane, Bob Marley, David Ludwig and Silvio Rodriguez.

"Spoleto at Home" listeners can expect an adapted version of the originally scheduled program: music combined with conversations about their environmental activism.

They're not playing in the acoustically perfect, intimate Simons Recital Hall, said Wall Street Journal music critic Larry Blumenfeld, who curates Spoletos jazz series. The Charleston audience can't get that now. But what they can get is them playing together in the intimacy of the home that they share in Harlem. So it's quite different, but it's another version of this. Jazz musicians are a very adaptable breed. They know what they're doing.

The duo's digital concert posts at 5 p.m. Wednesday at https://spoletousa.org/spoletoathome and remains available through June 7.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-31 22:50:15|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, May 31 (Xinhua) -- The announcement by U.S. President Donald Trump that he is considering revoking the visas of thousands of Chinese students is nothing short of sheer politicization of educational exchanges between the two countries. By using lies and innuendos, the Trump administration is destroying trust between China and the United States.

For months, some U.S. politicians have been scapegoating China to shirk responsibilities for an incompetent COVID-19 response amid rising public criticism. Now they have again breached the bottom line. It is shameless to wantonly restrict and repress Chinese students in the United States to meet political goals.

Prohibiting entry of Chinese students and researchers into the United States broke the U.S. leadership's promise of welcoming Chinese students who want to pursue studies there. The U.S. leader said his country would take good care of Chinese people living in the United States, including Chinese students, during a phone call between the two countries' heads of state on March 27. Apparently, the U.S. side is planning to renege on its own words.

More seriously, such a racist move exposes deep-seated zero-sum game mindset and Cold-War mentality of some U.S. politicians. It resembles the anti-Communism narratives in the times of McCarthyism in the late 1940s and 1950s in the United States.

Adopting the old tactics of hyping up "espionage" theory, some U.S. politicians attempt to create an atmosphere of fear in the educational sector and could make anyone the target of persecution on the basis of unsubstantiated allegations.

Were the U.S. side to adopt measures harming Chinese students' rights and interests, it would be brazen political persecution and racial discrimination and a grave violation of human rights. The move also runs counter to the ideals of openness and freedom that the United States claims to be the champion of.

In face of the wrong deeds by the United States, China will definitely take necessary steps to safeguard its students' rights and interests in accordance with law.

The educational restriction is the latest evidence of how low and paranoid the current administration has sunk. It is a warning signal that selfish and narrow-minded politicians are leading the United States into an era when racism and ideological manipulation resurrect. The U.S. public should be cautious as the current administration is stealing their future. Enditem
31.05.2020 LISTEN

The Students Loan Trust Fund (SLTF) has described as unrealistic demands by the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) to have all outstanding loans for students released in five days.

NUGS at a news conference on Thursday, May 28, 2020, issued a 5-day ultimatum to the government to release student loans to them by June 2 or face a demonstration targeted at the Jubilee house.

But speaking to Citi News, Head of Public Affairs at the Students Loan Trust Fund, George Laing said the fund is already in the process of releasing students loans in batches due to the lack of funds.

We are paying them as at when funding is available. I concede that we are not able to pay everyone at once so they have a legitimate concern and we are doing everything we can to expedite payment. As to the five-day ultimatum they have given, I don't think it is realistic because we are paying in batches. We would love to pay a lot of people at once but it is simply not possible as at now so we are doing the best we can but I don't think giving ultimatums at this time even considering their legitimate concerns is the right thing to be doing.

A group calling itself the aggrieved students' loan beneficiaries and concerned tertiary students, Ghana also has threatened a demonstration over the non-payment of student loans from the Student Loan Trust Fund (SLTF).

They described the non-payments of loans as the failure of the body not being able to accomplish their duty in support of students.

A statement by the group said the establishments of the trust fund is not out of order and indeed it is a good course in the right direction. But the recent delay and the deliberate attempt of the Government not to pay its beneficiaries is something which can no longer be entertained.

It is on this note that we release this joint statement to join the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) on Tuesday, 2nd June, 2020, to hit the Streets to register our displeasure and dissatisfaction to the government and its stakeholders amidst this COVID-19 season with all protocols and precautionary measures observed if all the concerns raised by the mother union is not looked at before the slated date.

The group further accused the fund of failing students saying the Student Loan Trust Fund (SLTF) has failed Ghanaian students. It has been so for some time now, that students have agitated for the release of funds.

The statement signed by Adjei Boakye, Convener of the group ended we therefore call and admonish students to observe all necessary precautionary measures as we march through the streets on Tuesday.

----citinewsroom
Admired by some but berated by others for imposing a tight lockdown, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa faces a fresh leadership test over his handling of the coronavirus outbreak. Africa's most industrialised nation is preparing to reopen its economy on Monday as it moves into level three of a five-tier lockdown, in force since March 27, sowing bitter divisions. South Africa had already slipped into recession in the final quarter of 2019 before the virus arrived in March. The rand meanwhile has depreciated by 22.9 percent since January. Unemployment is very high and so is poverty. "Initially there was such a big support for this thing," political analyst Ralph Mathekga told AFP, referring to the shutdown. "But government allowed that goodwill to erode... it began to struggle with the problem of legitimacy when people became irritated with the lockdown measures." Under level three, all but high-risk sectors of the economy will be allowed to reopen, as will schools and places of worship. Liquor sales will resume, but for home consumption only. "The president is going to level 3 because he is buckling under pressure from all fronts," Mathekga said. The main opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) party has welcomed the move but said it came "too late for millions of South Africans who have already paid heavily for (the) government's dithering". "This lockdown is costing our economy around 13 billion rand ($742 million) a day," said DA leader John Steenhuisen. "The president must end it tomorrow." The head of the left-wing Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party Julius Malema opposed the easing of lockdown and said Ramaphosa had effectively resigned as "the captain of the ship". "Our grandmothers are going to die in the same way grandmothers died in Italy," Malema warned, referring to the reopening of churches. South Africa has recorded nearly 31,000 coronavirus cases so far, including at least 643 deaths. - Walking a tightrope - Just two years after winning the presidency by pledging to revive the economy, Ramaphosa has been forced to strike a balance between maintaining public health and ensuring economic recovery. "There are businesses that are going to close and not come back," Sifiso Skenjana, chief economist at management consulting firm IQ Business told AFP. Despite an unprecedented $26 billion virus relief package and food parcels, many South Africans have struggled to get by. The National Treasury has warned that more than 2.5 million jobs could be cut as a result of the pandemic, with wages and salaries expected to fall by as much as 30 percent. Mathekga said Ramaphosa was walking a tightrope even within the ruling African National Congress, where he was not greatly popular. "If he fails business, the black middle class and the poor, he will only have one place to count on, that is the ANC, where they never liked him anyway." But Amanda Gouws, political science professor at Stellenbosch University, argued that Ramaphosa had "shown exceptional leadership". "He locked us down very early in the process... that has saved a lot of lives," she said. Ramaphosa, a former unionist and businessman, has conceded that the government made some mistakes in its COVID-19 response. - 'Mistakes made' - "Some of the actions we have taken have been unclear, some have been contradictory and some have been poorly explained," he said in a recent address to the nation, noting the "anger" the lockdown had caused. Ramaphosa even took it on the chin when he clumsily fumbled with his face mask during a televised speech, fuelling a frenzy of social media jokes. As South Africans made fun of their leader using the hashtags #facemaskchallenge and #CyrilMaskChallenge, Ramaphosa seized the moment to lighten the mood. "I am going to open a TV channel where I will teach people how to put on a mask," he told reporters after the incident. "You can enrol." Gouws said Ramaphosa was someone who "likes to work with consensus" and was a "strategist". But an ongoing ban on cigarette sales remains a thorny issue with social workers and tobacco companies up in arms as an illicit cigarette market blossoms. British American Tobacco South Africa on Friday launched legal proceedings to challenge the government's ban. According to BATSA, the South African treasury is losing 35 million rand ($2 million) in excise taxes per day as a result. South Africa had already slipped into recession in the final quarter of 2019 before the virus arrived South Africans are bitterly divided over the lockdown A South African soldier (left) hands over cigarettes he seized from a small shop to a policeman. The tobacco ban is still in force Ramaphosa was mocked on social media for fumbling while putting on a face mask
CLEVELAND, Ohio  Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams said that protesters who rioted in downtown Cleveland during demonstrations against the police killing of George Floyd are not from the Cleveland area.

We know that a lot of the things that happened today were not [done] by people who reside in Cleveland or live in the area, Williams said. Were going to do everything we can to bring people to justice who took part in the destruction in downtown today.

Williams made the claim during an early-Sunday morning press conference he held along with Mayor Frank Jackson after an afternoon and evening that saw police and protest clash for hours.

Police cruisers were torched and several downtown businesses were vandalized, ransacked and looted. Jackson imposed a curfew, which he later extended to include most of Sunday and early Monday for the downtown area.

There was a large group here that had no intent on being peaceful, the chief added. That caused all of our problems downtown.

The chief had not provided any evidence by 5 p.m. Sunday that violent protestors were from out of town.

Similar claims of outside agitators are becoming a recurring concern of law enforcement and elected officials at protests around the country.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Waltz has suggested that as many as 80 percent of the protesters accused of burning and looting in Minneapolis, where Floyd was killed, are not from that state and are coming into the city specifically to riot and incite more violence. Social media has also become a fertile ground for videos of mostly black protesters questioning why white demonstrators are damaging property.

Williams said investigators in Cleveland will sift through surveillance and police videos in order to identify the people who incited violence and arrest them.

Police made several arrests on Saturday, but Williams said he did not know exactly how many.

He said possible charges could include rioting, vandalism and assault. He said several officers suffered minor injuries during clashes with protestors, including some who fired rocks and other objects at officers.

Read more from cleveland.com:

Police, protesters clash in downtown Cleveland during George Floyd protests as businesses looted, curfew imposed

Cleveland mayor issues imposes 8 p.m. curfew, Ohio Gov. activates National Guard after George Floyd protest turns volatile

Protestors break windows, set police cars on fire as George Floyd demonstrations turn violent in downtown Cleveland
Protesters Robin Markle (left) and Alex Stewart carry a symbolic casket to a hearse during a protest Sunday with members of Disabled In Action/ADAPT, ACT UP Philly, and allies in front of the home of Liz Hersh, Philadelphia's director of the Office of Homeless Services. Read more

Saying the city must do more to protect the homeless and disabled from COVID-19, protesters staged a funeral procession outside the Mount Airy home of Office of Homeless Services director Liz Hersh on Sunday morning.

Organized by the Philadelphia chapters of ACT UP and Disabled in Action/ADAPT, which advocate for people with HIV/AIDS and disabilities, respectively, protesters drove a hearse to Hershs home and laid out three cardboard coffins on the sidewalk to symbolize the deaths of people in shelters and nursing homes. A handful of police officers watched at a distance.

Protesters said that they have met with Hersh and other city officials about their concerns  that homeless people living in shelters are particularly vulnerable to COVID-19 because of the close living quarters  and that the city has made progress in moving people out of shelters. City officials said theyre scheduled to meet with the group soon.

But, protesters said Sunday, more needs to be done. In a news release, they called for the city to open 600 more permanent supportive housing units, and 6,000 new units of affordable housing for people who make less than $20,000 a year. And at Hershs house on Sunday, protesters called for city officials to house people returning from prison, as well as people with disabilities who are living in nursing homes while they wait for their own residences to be renovated to accommodate their disabilities.

Protesters said they know of seven people who have died of the coronavirus who were either in a city shelter or disabled and in a nursing home.

The most pressing short-term issue that needs to be addressed is that there are still barriers for people with disabilities to get into housing if theyre vulnerable to COVID and in a shelter or nursing home and dont feel safe, said Max Ray-Riek, a member of ACT UP.

City spokesperson Mike Dunn wrote in an email that one person in the shelter system had died from COVID, and said that of the 1,278 COVID deaths in the city to date, 53% were among residents of long-term-care facilities.

Dunn added that 250 people have been housed in the citys quarantine site for coronavirus patients with nowhere else to go, and that an additional 50 people who are at risk of contracting the virus are being housed in a separate facility. Shelters have also put social-distancing practices into measure, he wrote.

As we have previously said, should we need additional space, we will lease additional sites to meet the need," he wrote. "Despite broadening the criteria for entrance into these sites, the sites are not at capacity.

On Sunday, protesters also decried the revised city budget, which, in an effort to make up funding lost during the pandemic, slashes funds to a number of city services, including affordable-housing services and eviction prevention, but increased funding to police.

Theres money for the police and no money to house people, said ACT UP member Jose DeMarco.

It was a sentiment that took on particular significance the morning after large protests in Center City against police brutality were followed by looting, fires, a city curfew, and a police crackdown.

Dont push us to the side. Dont tell us we have to keep waiting, said Jamaal Henderson, of ACT UP and the Pennsylvania Poor Peoples Campaign. Dont try to diminish whats going on. We are peaceful now. But as we saw yesterday, I dont know how much longer thats going to last. We need to start making and passing policies that are equitable and fair.

As protesters spoke, some of Hershs neighbors came out to the street and told them to stop. You guys are picking on the wrong person. Shes a good person! one man shouted. Another neighbor, Sara Steele, said that Hersh has worked on housing equity her entire career and that protesters were making a tactical error by targeting her. Its really easy to target one person than this much larger system, she said.

Henderson said that protesters were calling for systemic reform, and want Hersh to advocate for change to her bosses in city government. He spoke with neighbors for some time about the protest. The best thing we can do to combat ignorance is to impart knowledge, he said afterward.
The protest started peacefully, Leah Martin-Brown said, before rioting and looting triggered the lockdown of a city.

The 28-year-old musician from Burleigh Heads on the Gold Coast has been living in LA for almost seven years and felt compelled to lend her voice to the Black Lives Matter protest over the death last Monday of handcuffed African American man George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police.

Organisers asked protesters to sit across an LA intersection "for as long as George Floyd was made to [lie down] with the officer's knee on his neck," Ms Martin-Brown said.

"There's an endemic racism problem here in America. George Floyd isn't the first innocent unarmed black man to get killed in the last [few] months," she said.
Friday morning was warm, and campers along the Pacific Crossing Trail visited with neighbors, dug into sack lunches delivered by volunteers and generally lived life as if they werent in the midst of a pandemic.

None were wearing masks, but why would they? Only eight homeless people have tested positive for COVID-19 in Multnomah County, even after homeless campers formed large tent encampments in Old Town, along Interstate 205 and on the North Portland Peninsula pedestrian path.

Steven Lee sat in a camp chair sharing a snack with friends whose tents are scattered throughout the mile-long stretch of trail north of Lombard Street that contains dozens of tents and tarps packed together.

Lee felt like he moved constantly before Gov. Kate Brown issued her stay-home order in mid-March. That was when the city of Portland stopped deploying workers to dislodge people from camping spots and paused its camp cleanup program.

The last time he moved, he was cleared from his new spot within two days. Then, he set up his tent at a spot just off Peninsula Crossing Trail and has settled in. He has enjoyed the relief thats come with not having to worry about whether hed lose his belongings and look for a new place to rest.

They come there and do a sweep and you get exhausted, Lee said.

But, like other West Coast cities, Portland is now reconsidering its stance.

When the city stopped dispersing campsites, officials cited federal public health guidelines that warned moving people from one informal camp to another could spread the coronavirus like wildfire.

But left alone to camp in one spot, few campers are socially distancing, and neighbors and business owners are complaining about the growing camps. Police claim that scofflaws are terrorizing people in and out of camps.

A city spokeswoman said this week the camps have grown so dangerously large that its now time for the city to disband some of them for safety reasons.

City officials declined to explain in-depth the factors they are weighing as they plan to resume camp disbursement. But so far, Portland is occupying the middle ground between how cities to the north and south are handling people living outside during the pandemic.

Steven Lee (left) and Tonda Eisenburg chat on a warm Friday morning before sharing a snack. They share resources and social time while nonprofits and other buildings are shut down during the coronavirus pandemic.Molly Harbarger/staff

A PLACE FOR US TO GO

As Portland looks to resume its usual practice of evaluating camps for trash, hygiene problems, syringes and criminal activity, and then clearing the worst of them, several Seattle officials want to go the opposite direction.

Thursday afternoon, Seattle City Council members debated whether to enshrine in city ordinance that homeless camps cannot be swept while the city is in a state of emergency.

While Seattles mayor and police chief oppose narrowing the criteria under which camps can be broken up, many city council members see the practice as inhumane during the pandemic.

When briefing the council last week on her planned legislation, Councilmember Tammy Morales said she had long-held skepticism about how Seattle deals with homeless encampments.

In her district, she said, there are two large camps that house about 80 people between them.

We know there are at least 80 people that need somewhere to go if they are going to be disbursed to the street, Morales said.

Tonda Eisenburg wondered the same thing when she heard that she might be moved from her spot along Peninsula Crossing Trail.

She held her dog, Bella, on her lap and dipped apple crisps into a gooey passionfruit chocolate bar that had melted in the sun.

I hope they have a place for us to go to, Eisenburg said. Were trying to live like everybody else.

She moved into the camp just as coronavirus shutdowns started and has found some security there. Not everyone is friendly, but she has made friends. And the proximity to the Fred Meyer on Lombard, the meal deliveries from volunteers and the ability to share resources with fellow campers make the spot better than being on her own, she said.

She suffers from hypoglycemic spells that cause her to pass out, so being around others can be useful -- except when her colored pencils were stolen during one of the spells.

Some of us are like family, Eisenburg said. We have each others backs.

Dr. William Toeppler, medical director for the street outreach volunteer group Portland Street Medicine, said that he has not seen medical problems become more common or more severe due to the larger camps.

His team treats mostly rashes and other skin infections. They can write prescriptions but cant hand out medications, which he is worried will pose a bigger problem as pill bottles empty and it remains difficult to access pharmacies.

He is at the camps several days a week and doesnt see much of an increase in dangerous behavior or health hazards. He acknowledges that city and county officials have several factors to balance, but says the camps are a function of necessity.

Its a survival game for so many of these folks, Toeppler said. Theres less places to get food, so there are less options of where to be. You gotta be around the food.

During the coronavirus pandemic, the city of Portland paused homeless camp cleanups. People have started to pitch tents in large groups in places like Peninsula Crossing Trail, where campers say they congregate for survival reasons.Molly Harbarger/staff

SALEM CRACKS DOWN

Katie OBrien, the executive director of Rose Haven, a homeless social service agency near Old Town Chinatown, dreads the resumption of city camp clearing.

She is already bracing for the onslaught of women who will come to ask for help finding a place to go, only to be told that shelters are largely full and few service providers are operating at normal capacity.

We get why people are saying this needs to be done, but we cant in good conscience do that -- these sweeps -- without providing alternatives, OBrien said.

She has seen news reports and heard from neighbors and business owners who characterize the homeless campers in the central city as all criminals or junkies. But that is not the case, she said, and moving people is certainly not going to mitigate any bad behavior that may be going on.

Even with three city-sanctioned outdoor campsites and a plan to relocate nearly 400 people from shelters into motels, that leaves hundreds more without anywhere to go and fewer resources than ever, she said.

It seems like we are taking a problem and just shifting the problem somewhere else instead of taking the problem and addressing it and trying to find some solutions for it, OBrien said.

In Salem, that combination could lead to a lawsuit from Disability Rights Oregon, the states advocacy and protection organization for vulnerable people.

Volunteer groups have left makeshift handwashing stations along the Peninsula Crossing Trail. During the coronavirus pandemic, the city of Portland paused homeless camp cleanups. People have started to pitch tents in large groups, where campers say they congregate for survival reasons.Molly Harbarger/staff

The organization sent a letter to Salem city officials saying that a new city ordinance is using the coronavirus as a cover to consistently sharpen anti-camping and loitering rules.

The city added restrictions on whether homeless people can sit and lie on sidewalks and public spaces tied to its coronavirus emergency declaration. This is on top of a previously passed rule that prohibits camping on public property.

The city planned not to enforce that rule until there are enough shelter beds for every homeless person in the city who wants one. However, those beds have not materialized.

The city is sweeping people from sidewalks and visible public spaces. People sleeping outside have been allowed to camp only in the undeveloped sections of two city parks, away from the bathroom facilities and water fountains.

What the City of Salem is really targeting is basic activities of daily living that are the unavoidable consequence of being homeless, said Disability Rights Oregon attorney Matt Seres. And their decision to heighten the targeting of those individuals right now during the pandemic and thrusting them into an even more unstable living circumstances really is probably of great detriment to their health and safety.

Jimmy Jones, head of homeless service provider Mid-Willamette Valley Community Action Agency, said the issue is complicated. Salem officials have put a good faith effort for the last three years into housing people who have historically struggled to stay inside.

But they also want to clear sidewalks and appease downtown businesses that have seen the homeless population grow there over the past few years.

I think we need to have a sophisticated, layered response, Jones said. We need to approach that in a really smart way thats not criminalizing homelessness, trying to respect private property.

But you have to be able to answer the question of: Where can people go?

THE LEAST BAD APPROACH

Portland officials seem more focused on the mechanics of how to resume camp dispersal.

Laura Oppenheimer, a spokesperson for the citys office of management and finance, said that officials were happy to heed U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance for the first two months of the pandemic.

The CDC said that moving campers could cause infected people to spread the virus as they travel between campsites.

Since then, though, we've seen something different, Oppenheimer said. People have started concentrating in larger and larger groups, which isn't safe. Our challenge now is to manage that while staying within public health guidance.

The Office of Management and Finance oversees the citys One Point of Contact system, which gathers complaints and ranks which campsites should be prioritized for cleanups. Officials there have largely said they will rely on the Multnomah County Public Health Department to say how cleanups should resume.

But Public Health Officer Jennifer Vines said earlier this week she hasnt seen the specific camp-related issues the city is unhappy with.

"Mama" Sheila lives in a motorhome at the end of the Peninsula Crossing Trail after losing her home. She stays there to be close to her nephews and godson who camp in tents along the trail, along with dozens of others.Molly Harbarger/staff

Certainly there is a problem if the county reopens in June, as leaders plan, and people cant walk down sidewalks maintaining six feet of distance because they are too crowded with tents, Vines said. And its not safe or pleasant for business owners or employees to have to navigate tent cities to open their stores.

But if just looking through a public health lens, there currently doesnt seem to be much risk from the large encampments, she said. The rate of transmission among the homeless population, even after months of increasingly large congregations of people, remains low.

Vines said that, typically, her office finds that housed people pose more of a risk in introducing infections to homeless communities than the other way around.

If it gets introduced to people camping or in shelters, it can spread quickly because of the lack of  access to hygiene, Vines said.

Breaking up camps could also become a problem if homeless people do start contracting COVID-19 at higher rates and county contact tracers are unable to find them. The county is trying to beef up that program in its bid to reopen.

Vines said that COVID-19 has spotlighted many of the failings of where homeless service, public health and safety systems intersect.

Were trying to deal with the least bad approaches to the housing crisis, Vines said.

-- Molly Harbarger

mharbarger@oregonian.com | 503-294-5923 | @MollyHarbarger

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Iran's new parliament speaker said Sunday any negotiations with Washington would be "futile" as he denounced the death of a black American that has led to violent protests across the US. Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, a former commander of the Revolutionary Guards' air force, was elected speaker on Thursday of a chamber dominated by ultra-conservatives following February elections. The newly formed parliament "considers negotiations with and appeasement of America, as the axis of global arrogance, to be futile and harmful," he said in his first major speech to the chamber. Ghalibaf also vowed revenge for the US drone attack in January that killed Qasem Soleimani, the commander of the Guards' foreign operations arm. "Our strategy in confronting the terrorist America is to finish the revenge for martyr Soleimani's blood," he told lawmakers, pledging "the total expulsion of America's terrorist army from the region". Ghalibaf has also slammed the US over the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis which has led to widespread protests across the country. Tens of thousands of protesters have taken to the streets from New York to Seattle demanding tougher, first-degree murder charges and more arrests over the death of Floyd, who stopped breathing after Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes. Decades-old tensions between Tehran and Washington have soared in the past year, with the sworn arch enemies twice appearing to come to the brink of a direct confrontation. The tensions have been rising since 2018, when President Donald Trump withdrew the US from a landmark nuclear accord and began reimposing crippling sanctions on Iran's economy. That was followed by the US drone strike near Baghdad airport in January that killed Soleimani, a hugely popular figure in the Islamic republic. Days later, Iran fired a barrage of missiles at US troops stationed in Iraq in retaliation, but Trump opted against taking any military action in response. Ghalibaf called for ties to be improved with neighbours and with "great powers who were friends with us in hard times and share significant strategic relations", without naming them. - 'Great Satan' - The 58-year-old Ghalibaf is a three-time presidential candidate who lost out to the incumbent Hassan Rouhani at the last election in 2017. The newly elected speaker had also served as Tehran mayor and the Islamic republic's police chief before taking up his latest post. In a tweet on Saturday, he slammed what he called the United States' "unjust political, judicial, and economic structure". This had been "pumping war, coups, poverty, indiscrimination, torture, fratricide and moral corruption to the world, and racism, hunger, humiliation, and 'choking by knee' in its own country for hundreds of years", Ghalibaf said. "What can one call it if not the Great Satan?" he added, using Iran's term for its arch enemy. Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif echoed his remarks on Twitter. "Some don't think "BlackLivesMatter. To those of us who do: it is long overdue for the entire world to wage war against racism. Time for a #WorldAgainstRacism," he said. The post was accompanied by an image of a 2018 statement by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in which the text was changed to be critical of the United States instead of Iran. The altered text read: "The U.S. government is squandering its citizens' resources. "The people of America are tired of the racism, corruption, injustice, and incompetence from their leaders. The world hears their voice." Pompeo responded to Zarif by tweeting that "you hang homosexuals, stone women and exterminate Jews", without elaborating further. Iranian Parliament speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf (C) chairing a parliament session in the capital Tehran A Iranian woman carries a portrait of slain Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, on the 40th day of his killing in a US drone strike, during commemorations marking 41 years since the Islamic Revolution, on February 11 Protesters in Detroit rally over the death of 46-year-old George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis, Minnesota US President Donald Trump, pictured here with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in 2018 withdrew the US from a landmark nuclear accord and began reimposing crippling sanctions on Iran's economy
By Express News Service

KOCHI: Five Malayali medical students, who had been stranded in Armenia for the past two months, finally reached Kochi, thanks to the efforts of the Indian Doctors Club in Qatar. The air tickets of the students - four from Alappuzha and one from Kollam - were sponsored by five doctors of the Indian Doctors Club led by Dr Mohan Thomas.

On receiving information that the five students - Amrutha Pushpalatha, Anagha Immanuel, Devika Srikumar, Grancy Dikson and Selma Ousepachan - the Club sought the help of P Kumaran, Indian Ambassador in Qatar, who got in touch with the embassy in Armenia.

The girls who we helped tried for medical admission for five years through entrance exams and lost out for a few points. They are as good as anyone who got in. We have helped the right people, said Dr Mohan Thomas, in a message. The girls were quarantined in a hotel. He said the girls have taken a loan to study medicine in Armenia. They survive with just `10,000 per month. Theirs is an amazing story of determination and sacrifice, he said.

Air Peace Nigeria evacuates 312 passengers to Kochi

Meanwhile, Air Peace flight from Lagos, Nigeria, arrived in Kochi on Sunday, giving new hope to Keralite expats stranded in Africa. Air Peace airline touched down at the Kochi airport at 3.30 pm with 312 passengers on board. There were 197 Keralites among the evacuees, who were stranded in the African country during the lockdown. As part of the Vande Bharath Mission, Air India Express IX434 flight from Dubai landed at 5:30pm with 184 passengers. Air India Express will operate flights from Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain and Kuwait on Monday.
Curfews have been instituted around the country on Saturday as mass demonstrations broke out nationwide and cities braced for another night of protests.

Minneapolis

A curfew went back in effect in Minneapolis on Saturday at 8 p.m. after the city braced for another night of unrest.

"By being out tonight & breaking the 8pm curfew, you are helping the people using crowds as cover to prey on Minneapolis & destroy community," Mayor Jacob Frey wrote on twitter. The city was also under curfew on Friday night.

Frey said the governor has "fully mobilized" the Minnesota National Guard to respond to demonstrations in the city on Saturday. Violating curfew is punishable by up to a $1000 fine and 90 days in jail, the mayor's emergency regulation said.

Chicago

Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced on Saturday that Chicago would go under a curfew at 9 p.m. until 6 a.m. "until further notice."

On Saturday, thousands marched through the Windy City's downtown after more than 100 protesters were arrested Friday night.

Los Angeles

Demonstrators protest the death of George Floyd in Los Angeles on May 30, 2020. (Ringo H.W. Chiu / AP)

Mayor Eric Garcetti said originally set a curfew starting at 8 p.m. for Downtown Los Angeles lasting until 5:30 a.m, and later expanded it to include the whole city.

We will always protect free speech and Angelenos right to live without fear of violence or vandalism, Garcetti wrote on Twitter, saying the curfew is meant to increase safety for demonstrators, law enforcement and all citizens of Los Angeles.

Protests in LA were already underway on Saturday as buses were overtaken and multiple police cars were set on fire in the city's 4th day of protests.

Beverly Hills also issued a dusk to dawn curfew amid protests and vandalism.

Atlanta

Atlanta went under a curfew Saturday evening, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms announced in an executive order.

The decree applies to the entire city and began at 9 p.m. and will last until sunrise. The city said the curfew is a result of the recent acts of violence during protests.

Story continues

On Friday, Atlanta saw mass demonstrations where protesters set a police car on fire, struck officers with bottles, and vandalized the headquarters of CNN.

Denver

After Denver was rocked by two days of protests, Mayor Michael Hancock announced he is enacting a curfew on Saturday to help protect people and property.

The curfew began at 8 p.m. on Saturday and will last until 5 a.m. Sunday, Hancock said in a press release. There will also be a curfew in place on Sunday evening.

The mayor said 34 people have been arrested in the past two nights of protest, and called the "destruction" in the city reckless, inexcusable, and unacceptable.

Philadelphia

Image: (Yong Kim / The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP)

Mayor Jim Kenney announced he was placing Philadelphia under a curfew on Saturday.

The city's curfew started at 8 p.m. and will last until 6 a.m. on Sunday.

On Saturday, thousands of people marched in Philadelphia in a protest that led to many fires. One Starbucks became engulfed in flames, in addition to some police cars.

Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh went under curfew at 8:30 p.m. on Saturday.

CURFEW: Effective at 8:30 P.M. tonight, there is a citywide curfew in effect for #Pittsburgh.@PghPublicSafety will enforce the City order from 8:30 P.M. to 6:00 A.M.  City of Pittsburgh (@CityPGH) May 30, 2020

The news comes after the city declared the protest an "unlawful assembly" and police reported "rioting and looting" throughout downtown, telling residents to avoid the area.

Seattle

Seattle joined the growing list of cities under curfew Saturday, with its curfew beginning at 5 p.m.

Mayor Jenny Durkan said "crowds need to disburse from downtown immediately."

"While many individuals gathered peaceful, some individuals have started fires and are destroying buildings," the mayor wrote on Twitter. "There are multiple fires downtown and it is an extremely dangerous situation."

Cleveland and Columbus

Both Ohio cities announced curfews as the governor has ordered the Ohio National Guard to respond to the growing unrest.

In Cleveland, the curfew began at 8 p.m. and will last until 8 a.m. Sunday morning. The curfew will also be in place Sunday evening into Monday morning.

The Columbus curfew began at 10 p.m. Saturday and goes until 6 a.m. Sunday.

"In this time of deep anger, sadness, and frustration, we stand with those who are expressing their First Amendment rights, but we will not stand for those who wish to inflict pain and cause destruction," Gov. Mike DeWine wrote on Twitter Saturday.

Portland

Portland went back under curfew on Saturday night. Mayor Ted Wheeler declared a state of emergency early Saturday morning, immediately putting the city into a curfew until 6 a.m. The curfew resumed on Saturday at 8:00 p.m. and will lift on Sunday at 6:00 a.m.

Eugene, Oregon, south of Portland, also enacted a curfew on Saturday, beginning at 9 p.m. and lasting until 6 a.m. Sunday.

Rochester

Rochester, New York enacted a curfew on Saturday in the city between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m. Sunday morning. Mayor Lovely Warren said the order was put into effect "due to potential for widespread breach of peace."

The city saw a large demonstration, where police shot pepper balls at protesters, according to NBC Rochester affiliate.

Miami

Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez announced a countywide curfew Saturday. The announcement comes after the city saw widespread demonstration, and dozens of protestors and police faced off outside a Miami police department.

#CURFEW in effect. I have ordered a curfew of 10 pm countywide for #MiamiDade, effective Saturday, May 30, 2020.  Mayor Carlos A. Gimenez (@MayorGimenez) May 31, 2020

Milwaukee

Wisconsin's biggest city will be under curfew on Saturday after the Mayor said demonstrations turned "unlawful and violent" on Friday.

The lockdown will last from 9 p.m. Saturday until 7 a.m. Sunday.

Salt Lake City

Salt Lake City, Utah is under curfew Saturday night until 6 a.m. Monday morning.

Mayor Erin Mendenhall said the curfew is due to protests that hit the city on Saturday, and people cannot be on the streets except for certain exceptions.

Utah also deployed the state's national guard to the city on Saturday.
TEHRAN, Iran, May 31

Trend:

Iran is to provide five year resident permit to foreign investors, to encourage investments in the country, said the First Vice President of Iran Eshaq Jahangiri, Trend reports via IRNA.

"It's necessary to remove obstacles that prevents foreign investors to reside in Iran as soon as possible, " he said.

The VP said the issues was discussed in a recent meeting attended by the foreign minister, minister of economic affairs and finances and representative of the Central Bank of Iran and other related organizations.

Iran has established a special committee which handles the issues related to attracting foreign investments into the country.

The report related to offering a 5-year permit for foreign investors to reside in Iran has been submitted to the mentioned committee, which discussed the existing obstacles on the matter, including a high investment fee of $250,000, no possibility of property ownership and other problems.

It has been agreed that the issue will be reviewed at the Interior Ministry, for any necessary solutions and moving on with the proposal.
The Times Union has lifted the paywall on this developing coverage to provide critical information to our community. To support our journalists work, consider a digital subscription.

Total COVID-19 cases:

370,770 in New York state, including 29,784 deaths. 65,609 recovered. 2,005,381 total tested.

1,780,897 in U.S., including 104,217 deaths. 416,461 recovered. 16,495,443 total tested.

6,130,158 worldwide, including 370,854 deaths. 2,600,866 recovered.

Note: The figures include presumed COVID-19 deaths. The number of positive confirmed cases is cumulative and includes people who have recovered as well as those who died.

Additional resources:

State-run DMV offices to start some services

The state Department of Motor Vehicles said that beginning Monday, June 1, state-run DMV offices in the counties of Albany, Onondaga, Nassau, Suffolk, Rockland, Westchester and in New York City will begin to process vehicle registrations and other transactions by mail, and beginning June 4, will accept transactions through secure drop boxes located at each office. County Clerks that operate DMV offices in the remaining 51 counties of the state are advised to follow the state DMVs timeline and guidance for reopening. For specific information about services offered by county-operated offices visit https://dmv.ny.gov/dmv/dmv-office-locations

5 new Rensselaer County cases

Five new cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed to the Rensselaer County Health Department, the county announced on its Facebook page Saturday.

The five new cases bring the total number of confirmed cases in the county to 515. The new cases include: A 26-year-old North Greenbush man.

A 52-year-old Rensselaer man.

A 52-year-old Schodack woman.

A 72-year-old Rensselaer woman.

A 26-year-old Rensselaer woman. There are now six residents in the hospital and none in ICU. There are two residents at Samaritan, one at St. Peter's and three at Albany Medical Center hospitals. There are about 110 residents now in monitor quarantine. There have been 9472 tests administered to residents, including 181 tests recorded Friday. There have been 28 deaths of county residents due to COVID-19. The last death from COVID-19 was recorded on May 15. The county also announced two cases cleared for recovery. There are now 415 cleared cases.

Schenectady County sees another coronavirus-related death

The death toll from COVID-19 has hit 32 after a man in his 70s succumbed to the the deadly virus as the number of reported cases of the disease inches up to 679 .

Ten people remain hospitalized as a result of the virus.

The number of people in quarantine is down to 355 while individuals in recovery and isolation have increased.

More deaths added to Albany County total

Albany County Executive Daniel P. McCoy said Saturday that 24 more deaths have been added to the toll, which had been reported to the state but not the county Health Department from three private nursing homes between April 21 and May 26.

Those succumbing were 21 women and three men: one in their 50s, two in their 70s, three in their 80s, 16 in their 90s and two over 100. This brings the countys new death toll to 111, he said. McCoy said since the deaths had already been included in all state metrics, it does not impact the county's ability to transition into the phase two reopening. As earlier reported, that could come in the middle of next week.

Deaths statewide were 67 on Friday

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, in his daily briefing Saturday said 67 people died of COVID-19 in New York on Friday, the same number as Thursday and a continuation of the falling numbers throughout the week. In the briefing from the Bronx, the governor said he'll continue to rely on global experts in the phased reopenings across regions of the state: "I'm not going to put anyone's life at risk."

Read more
The ex-girlfriend of MasterChef: Back to Win contestant Ben Ungermann has spoken out after the chef was charged with allegedly sexually assaulting a teenage girl.

Alicia Miller, who dated Ungermann for four years and was also his manager, told Woman's Day she was 'sorry' to hear about the alleged incident and confirmed she had not spoken to him for a year.

'I'm sorry to hear this has allegedly happened to some poor, innocent girl. [Ben and I] parted ways professionally last year in June and I haven't had contact since then,' Miller said.

Breaking her silence: Alicia Miller (left), the ex-girlfriend of MasterChef: Back to Win contestant Ben Ungermann (right), has spoken out after the chef was charged with allegedly sexually assaulting a teenage girl

Ungermann was charged by Victorian sexual crime squad detectives on March 6 with two counts of sexual assault.

The charges followed an alleged incident in Melbourne's Docklands on February 23 involving a 16-year-old girl.

At the time, he was filming the latest series of MasterChef - but was eliminated from the competition once producers learned of his arrest.

Statement: Alicia Miller, who dated Ungermann for four years and was also his manager, told Woman's Day she was 'sorry' to hear about the alleged incident and confirmed she had not spoken to him for a year

New relationship: After breaking up with Miller sometime in 2017 or 2018, Ungermann began dating South African radio presenter Leigh-Anne Williams (right)

Miller had apparently encouraged her then-boyfriend to apply for MasterChef's ninth season in 2017. Ungermann ended up placing runner-up to Diana Chan.

He said at the time: 'She really applied the pressure on me and said, "You're really good, you should really just do it," and the rest is history.'

After breaking up with Miller sometime in 2017 or 2018, Ungermann began dating South African radio presenter Leigh-Anne Williams.

It's unclear if Ungermann and Williams, who is based in Cape Town, are still together.

Legal matter: Ungermann was charged by Victorian sexual crime squad detectives on March 6 with two counts of sexual assault. The charges followed an alleged incident in Melbourne's Docklands on February 23 involving a 16-year-old girl

On March 20, it was first reported that Ungermann had been arrested.

At the time, a spokesperson for Endemol Shine described his arrest as being 'of a personal nature' but didn't provide further details.

Endemol Shine is the production company behind MasterChef and other popular shows, including Married At First Sight.

Charged: Ungermann will deny all allegations and has hired criminal lawyer Adam Houda to represent him in court. He is listed to appear before Melbourne Magistrates' Court on June 25

Ungermann will deny all allegations and has hired top criminal lawyer Adam Houda to represent him in court.

He is listed to appear before Melbourne Magistrates' Court on June 25.

Mr Houda, who has 24 years' experience in criminal law, told Daily Mail Australia his client was completely blindsided by the charges.

'My client is distressed by the charges, which came as a huge shock to him,' he said. 'The allegations, I am instructed, are a complete fabrication and are denied.'
Why talk only about the US? What about events in India? ask netizens

The murder of 46-year-old African American George Floyd by a Minneapolis policeman has drawn outrage from various quarters, including Priyanka Chopra Jonas, who called for an end to race war and police brutality in the United States.

However, netizens have called out the actress for hypocrisy. In a long Instagram post, the Dostana actress wrote, We all have a responsibility to educate ourselves and end this hate. End this race war here in the US, and around the world. Wherever you live, whatever your circumstances, NO ONE deserves to die, especially at the hands of another because of their skin color.

In response, some of her Indian followers have criticised her for speaking up on this issue while maintaining a staunch silence on a plethora of similar issues in her home country.

Accusing her of opportunistic and selective activism, one Instagram user commented, Hey, miss exotic! Totally appreciate your call to action we must all be angry in solidarity. But where was this solidarity when north Delhi was burning? . Where was this solidarity when you fed into the south Asian anti blackness by literally shilling for a fairness cream? Your solidarities are tailored to your audiences and serve only one party  you.
Shop owners assess the damage after looters and vandals ransack businesses along Melrose Avenue on Saturday. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

Miles Harrison and his mom, Karen, stood outside their local market on Hayworth and Melrose avenues in disbelief Sunday morning.

Chicago natives, they moved to L.A. last year so Karen could work for the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. They loved the idea of walking around under the California sun.

But what they saw Saturday night and what Harrison has experienced as a young black man since arriving in L.A. has them thinking of returning to Illinois.

Harrison is an early bird, he said, and during his 5 a.m. jogs around the neighborhood, he's been stopped and handcuffed multiple times by police. The officers question why the 25-year-old doesn't have a California ID and have called his mom each time to verify his identity. Only lately, he said, have police left him alone because they finally recognize him. But he still doesn't like to go out alone.

When protesters gathered Saturday on nearby 3rd Street, he joined the demonstration.

It was what he saw on his way home, as the 8 p.m. curfew closed in, that shook him.

Entirely new people  young men and women  who he said were not at the demonstrations were spilling out of cars along Fairfax, dashing into stores to grab items, then diving back into their vehicles and taking off.

A procession of cars, SUVs and pickups pulled up in front of the MelroseMac store at 6614 Melrose Ave. and disgorged drivers and passengers around midnight.

With no police in sight, looters scrambled empty-handed into the store through shattered windows and emerged moments later with what appeared to be boxes of computers.

The scene was broadcast live for at least a half-hour on L.A. news outlets.

"It was like a McDonalds drive-through outside the Mac store, where cars were pulling up and others were throwing in looted goods and driving off, Los Angeles City Councilman Paul Koretz told KTLA-TV Channel 5 Sunday morning.

They were in a line, one by one, he said. It was something the likes of which Ive never seen anywhere.

Harrison said that the looters were of every race and ethnicity, but in the end, their actions were only going to reinforce negative stereotypes.

"This is going to make people more scared of people that look like me rather than building allies."
When she thinks about a student going through college, Kristen Renn imagines a seedling growing into a tree: There are a lot of things that could go wrong along the way.

"One cataclysmic event can do it in," said Renn, a professor of higher, adult and lifelong education at Michigan State University.

An entire forest of potential future graduates is now imperiled by the pandemic that has large numbers of students saying they will delay their higher educations, take time off, opt for community college or shift to studying part-time.

While attention has been focused on the impact of these choices on enrollment in the fall, each has also been shown to slow down or derail students on their way to degrees. For them, and for employers who need educated graduates, that means the effects of this crisis will be felt not just for one semester but for six or more years.

That's how long it takes some undergraduates to finish college, if they ever do, even in the best of times. Now, just as happened in the last recession, it is likely to take them even longer and cost more, while - after years of hard-won progress - dropout rates rise and graduation rates fall.

"We're so focused on the now and on the short-term future," said Laura Perna, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education. "But there are serious long-term consequences to this."

Most affected will be Americans who are already way behind their peers in completing higher education: those who come from low-income families and whose parents never finished college.

"This could add a year or two, easily, to a student's time to degree," said Renn.

That's the inescapable lesson of history and research.

Worried about having to take classes online or not sure how they'll pay, for instance, 10 percent of high school seniors who were planning to attend a four-year college or university before the pandemic now say they're going to do something else, the consulting firm SimpsonScarborough reports. About half say they will enroll at a community college.

But high school graduates who put off college often end up never going, research shows. And only 45 percent of people who enter community college full time earn associate degrees in even six years, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.

Some of these students say they ultimately plan to transfer from community college to a four-year university and get a bachelor's degree. But only 13 percent of community college students manage to achieve that goal, the Community College Research Center at Teachers College, Columbia University, says. (The Hechinger Report, which produced this story in partnership with The Washington Post, is an independent unit of Teachers College.)

"For some students [community college] will be like a detour," Renn said, "and for others it will be an off-ramp."

Of students who have changed their education plans, 15 percent say they will reduce the number of courses or the amount of training they take, another survey, by the nonprofit Strada Education Network, found.

But studying part-time also significantly lowers success rates. More than half of part-time students still hadn't earned a credential six years after starting college, the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center says.

Even if graduating high school seniors say they are only delaying their educations, and will eventually go to college, "their likelihood of actually enrolling a year or two years later is lower, and therefore their chances of getting a degree is lower," said Watson Scott Swail, president and CEO of the Educational Policy Institute.

Some may find jobs, start earning money, and stay put, he said. Others will lose the helpful momentum of peer pressure. "You're going to be behind your friends," said Swail. "In your head, you've lost the race."

Of course, many of these decisions about whether, where and how to go to college are being driven by new financial realities. While wealthier families still may largely be able to afford the cost of college, growing numbers of lower- and middle-income Americans - who were already struggling to pay - have now lost jobs or fear they will.

"What's happening right now is putting families into a very precarious position for whom paying for college was precarious to begin with," said Lindsay Page, an associate professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Education who studies how students get to and through college.

"This is not going to affect families for a semester," she said. "It's going to affect them for a really long time."

Some low-income prospective students now are working to help their families, said Yolanda Watson Spiva, president of the advocacy group Complete College America; others are seeing record unemployment rates and wondering whether there will be any jobs for them, even with degrees.

"It's hard enough under regular circumstances to help students understand why college is important," said Spiva. "Trying to get students to understand the value proposition of college now is going to be a more difficult and arduous undertaking."

All of these new barriers and delays will likely further widen the nation's broader socioeconomic divide, Page and other experts said.

"It's middle- and lower-income students who I think will be wildly thrown off by this," Renn said.

Already, only 12 percent of bachelor's degrees awarded by age 24 go to people in the bottom quarter of income, new research from the Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education finds, compared to nearly 75 percent that go to those in the top half.

"From high school graduation out toward college, we're seeing covid make it even less likely that low-income, first-generation students of color do what we hope they will, which is get a bachelor's degree," said Liane Hypolite, an assistant professor of educational leadership at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona.

Although college and university enrollment went up after the last recession, as more Americans sought education at a time when jobs were also scarce, there was a distinctive socio-economic divide, the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center found.

Students from wealthier families continued to attend the priciest institutions while more lower- and middle-income families chose community colleges, which the College Board reports cost about a third as much as the lowest-tier public four-year universities and one-tenth as much as the lowest-tier four-year privates.

Dropout rates rose and graduation rates fell.

Since then, both statistics had begun to improve. The proportion of students dropping out between their first and second years, in any kind of university or college, fell 2 percentage points, and the proportion earning any kind of a degree within six years grew 5 percentage points as institutions put more resources into prodding their students to succeed - often under pressure from policymakers who tied their funding to such measures.

"We were making some good strides in supporting those students and improving completion rates," said Bradley Custer, senior policy analyst for postsecondary education at the progressive nonprofit Center for American Progress.

How delicate these seedlings are, however, is evident from the fact that, even accounting for this progress, 26 percent of students still quit before their second year and 34 percent still haven't graduated after their sixth.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

Now there's fear that financial problems could prompt institutions, some of which have already begun layoffs, to reduce support for students who need it. Student planning and advising offices consume $1 billion a year of university budgets, according to the consulting firm Tyton Partners.

"Those kinds of programs aren't cheap, and colleges are really strapped right now," Page said.

Already, fewer than a third of university and college advisers say they can always meet the needs of their students, Tyton Partners found in a survey of 2,500 administrators, advisers, counselors and faculty. The rest say their case loads are too big to keep up with.

That could take a particular toll on first-year students and returning adults, many of whom need extra counseling. And if their institutions continue to teach online in the fall, as some have announced they will, it may be even tougher.

"Our students are out there floundering," said Hypolite, who still advises graduating seniors at a charter school in Boston where she previously worked. "Once they hit a few roadblocks, without a person and a contact and a human being who can help guide them through the process, they'll say, 'I'm over it.' "

Spiva likens the job of advisers right now to that of contact tracers helping to find people exposed to the coronavirus. "We're going to have to do some contact tracing to find our students, in some cases," she said. And that will have to happen even with advisers' already high caseloads and the possibility that their funding will be cut.

There are glimmers of optimism. The experience of juggling work and family while being shut down at home, for instance, may have made the broader public more sympathetic to the challenges faced by working students with children, and more willing to support services that might help them, said Perna, at Penn.

"There's a lot of complexity that most people haven't been aware of," she said. "Everyone as they're trying to do work is understanding that colleagues have families and other sorts of constraints. When you have those multiple responsibilities, there's a precariousness to it. The whole house of cards can crumble."

Public attitudes toward community colleges also may warm, said Karen Stout, president of Achieving the Dream, which works with those institutions to improve their graduation rates and the odds that their students can successfully transfer to four-year institutions. "And that puts pressure on policymakers to ensure that there are strong credit-transfer policies."

But there are other problems. Should large enough numbers of students put off college but then show up on campus next spring or the following fall, for instance, it could create a sudden surge in demand for required courses that outstrips the supply, Page said.

"Students may be facing these course-level pileups and also advising-load pileups" that delay them on the way to their degrees, she said. "By the time they register, the class is full."

And, in a vicious cycle, anything that slows them down diminishes the chances that they'll ever finish, said Swail.

"It's like a 100-meter dash or hurdles," he said. "If you make the race a little longer, you add another 10 meters onto it, it just gets harder and harder to reach the finish line."

Even students who do show up in the fall may not experience the usual in-person first-year orientation programs universities and colleges have built up over the last decade to get them accustomed to the campus and introduce them to each other, which have helped reduce the dropout rate, said Jennifer Keup, executive director of the National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience at the University of South Carolina.

But Keup sees hope, too.

The purpose of those programs, she said, is to take "a diversity of individuals you're bringing to a campus and make it into a community" by finding things that first-year students can agree they share in common.

And, said Keup, "we've never had a more common human experience than we're having right now."

- - -

This story about college graduation rates was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education.
By PTI

KOLKATA: The Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport authorities on Sunday issued a new set of guidelines for passengers availing flights from here.

It asked passengers to reach the airport three hours before departure time since COVID-19 prevention measures such as bag sanitisation and thermal screening will take longer than usual.

The airport hosted 1,745 passengers arriving and 1,219 departing on the third day of resumption of operations on Saturday, it said in its official twitter handle.
As violent protests continued to roil the nation, Target Corp. said it planned to close some of its stores in the interest of the safety of its workers. The closures include many across the Bay Area  including in Oakland, Berkeley and San Francisco.

We are heartbroken by the death of George Floyd and the pain it is causing communities across the country, the company, which is headquartered in Minneapolis, where a police officer has been charged with third-degree murder of Floyd. At this time, we have made the decision to close a number of our stores. We anticipate most stores will be closed temporarily.
Copyright  2020 Albuquerque Journal

In 2009, when the H1N1 influenza flared up in the United States, American Indians died at rates four times higher than other racial and ethnic groups.

In 2020, Native Americans across New Mexico, the majority of whom live on remote tribal lands, are dying of COVID-19 at rates 19 times that of all other populations combined, according to data provided by the state Department of Health. They account for 57% of the states cases  despite only being 11% of the population  and have infection rates 14 times that of the rest of the population. Other states have also had disproportionately high rates of COVID in Native communities.

Unfortunately, American Indians have the worst health status for infectious diseases, said Dr. Michael Landen, the state epidemiologist, with the New Mexico Department of Health. I would have expected to see a higher rate among American Indians. I would not have expected to see it this much higher; this is just so disproportionate.

In addition to having higher rates of the illness caused by the novel coronavirus, Landen said, American Indians also have higher rates of complications, and the mean age of hospitalizations is 55, younger than that of all other populations. Native Americans account for 57% of the cases in New Mexico and 72% of the hospitalizations, Landen said.

I think theres been some very unfortunate circumstances, he said. There have been some gatherings that led to high rates of transmissions, the NCI (NaNizhoozhi Center Inc., detox center) situation in Gallup.  Then you have persons who have higher rates of complications who have been infected, persons with diabetes, hypertension, chronic alcohol use, those sorts of conditions.

In early April, doctors said, as many as 110 people ended up contracting the virus after coming into contact with someone who had it at NCI.

But as for why COVID-19 in particular has had such an outsized effect, its too early to tell, Landen said.

Were early in this process, he said. Were still trying to determine what explains this huge disparity that were seeing.

But theories abound.

Researchers, advocates and lawmakers point to poor access to a health care system that has been chronically underfunded, high rates of chronic illnesses and environmental factors of heavy metals exposure and poor air and water quality.

Indigenous data

In April, researchers with the University of Arizona and UCLA published a paper detailing their findings that early cases of COVID-19 on tribal lands were more prevalent in households lacking indoor plumbing and were less likely in households where only English was spoken. The research paper, American Indian Reservations and COVID-19: Correlates of Early Infection Rates in the Pandemic, compared rates of the illness in 287 American Indian communities with characteristics of those reservations. It looked at rates only before April 10.

Other studies have found that about 30% of the Navajo people lack access to running water, making it difficult to wash hands frequently  one of the key ways to combat the spread of the virus.

Because the researchers found that households with English speakers were less affected by COVID-19, they highlight the importance of providing the same information in indigenous languages that was provided about the virus in English.

We had some rapid deployment of English and sometimes Spanish messaging for COVID-19, said Stephanie Russo Carroll, associate director for the Native Nations Institute at the University of Arizona and one of the authors of the paper. We didnt have it in Native languages early on, and we didnt have it through the mechanisms where it was going to get to the people who need it. In rural situations, are you utilizing radio, Facebook, flyers.

Carroll said she would like to see the data around COVID-19 and indigenous communities collected with tribal input and shared among tribal leaders so they can determine for themselves what they need to do in the face of the pandemic.

When we think about data for COVID-19, we want to make sure we have data that is meeting the governing needs of tribal nations, Carroll said. In terms of having access to data for cases, hospitalizations, deaths, that are relevant for whatever denominator they want to be using.

In some cases, Carroll said, it will be more helpful to know how many people on reservation land have the virus, and in other cases it would be more helpful to know how many tribal citizens have it, regardless of where they live.

We dont yet know what the long-term ramifications of having been infected with COVID are and if there are health effects well see in the future, Carroll said. Many tribes are interested in knowing about their citizens because often we have people who come home when theyre older  and we want to be able to provide for them when they come back.

In New Mexico, health officials are collecting their racial and ethnic data during interviews with patients or from staff at hospitals or funeral homes, Landen said. He said there havent been any big outbreaks among urban Native Americans.

Although Landen said members of the Navajo Nation  the largest indigenous group in the state  make up a large percentage of the cases, smaller tribes also have disproportionately high rates.

And, he said, although its true that tribes are testing their members at very high rates  the Navajo Nation has tested more than 15% of its population, for example  that doesnt fully account for the disparity of cases.

Uranium exposure

About 30 million tons of uranium was extracted from Navajo lands from 1944 to 1986, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Contamination from hundreds of now-abandoned mines has prompted ongoing federal cleanup and health impact studies.

University of New Mexico researcher Dr. Johnnye Lewis said its difficult to attribute high rates or severity of COVID-19 cases for tribes and pueblos directly to uranium exposure.

But her teams yearslong studies of Navajo residents have linked heavy metals exposure to conditions that may increase susceptibility to infectious diseases such as COVID-19.

Something mentioned by clinicians we have worked with on these studies is a general inability to develop an effective response to infection, and a requirement to treat much more aggressively, said Lewis, the director of the UNM Community Environmental Health Program. We see markers of (immune dysfunction) that are consistent in some of the markers that have been tracked in COVID infections as well.

The teams latest Navajo Birth Cohort study showed that between 25% and 35% of adult Navajo participants had uranium in their urine at concentrations higher than 95% of the U.S. population. Some children born to those adults also had elevated uranium levels.

Dr. Loretta Christensen, chief medical officer for the Navajo Area Indian Health Service, referred to the findings during an October 2019 Senate Indian Affairs Committee hearing.

Its like keeping your hand over a flame. Youre going to keep getting burned, Christensen said. If youre continually exposed to this contamination, youre going to keep getting these diseases.

The researchers also see that Navajos with prolonged heavy metals exposure have higher likelihoods of hypertension, diabetes, kidney disease and cardiovascular disease.

Dr. Debra MacKenzie, deputy director of UNM CEHP, said the team has data on metals-induced chronic inflammation and altered immune system responses as well.

If youre thinking COVID, and youre getting this massive cytokine storm, this could exacerbate the response, MacKenzie said. That is something that is of concern. Obviously, we have absolutely no proof of that. But when we see that metals can induce some immune dysregulation and some underlying inflammatory responses, the hypothesis would be that it could lead to increased susceptibility or worse outcome.

Poor air quality

Heavy metals exposure and poor air quality from oil and gas operations present a double whammy for tribal communities during the pandemic, said Mario Atencio, a member of Dine Citizens Against Ruining our Environment, or Dine CARE.

When BLM or BIA or the industry asked the landholders to sign off on (oil and gas) leasing, no one ever said, These are the public health impacts,' said Atencio, who lives in Torreon and serves on the states Methane Advisory Panel.

He is also on the Counselor Health Impact Assessment  Hozhogonaada Committee, which studied the effects of oil drilling in Counselor, Torreon and Ojo Encino. In the spring of 2018, the committee placed air monitors outside some Counselor homes near well pads to measure pollutants, including particulate matter (PM2.5). The majority of residents in Counselor live within one mile of at least one oil or gas well, pipeline or other infrastructure.

Their report, released in January, found the sites had considerably higher levels of PM2.5 than similar sites in other states.

With higher than average PM2.5 levels, residents living near a source of air pollution are at greater risk for developing or worsening respiratory or cardiovascular diseases, the report says. Chemicals from the source may combine with the particulate matter and travel to the deep regions of the lungs to cause respiratory problems or gain access to other parts of the body through blood-gas exchange.

Long-term PM2.5 exposure may also make COVID-19 symptoms more severe and lead to higher COVID-19 death rates, according to an April 2020 study by researchers at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

The Harvard study has not been peer-reviewed. But the authors say findings are consistent with research showing that air pollution exposure dramatically increased the risk of death during the 2003 SARS outbreak.

Although the epidemiology of COVID-19 is evolving, we have determined that there is a large overlap between causes of deaths of COVID-19 patients and the diseases that are affected by long-term exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5), the researchers wrote.

IHS underfunding

When the United States signed treaties with sovereign tribes, many of them required the federal government to provide health care and public health services to indigenous people. But todays federally funded Indian Health Service lacks the resources and funding needed to fully care for the population.

Since IHSs inception back in 1955 it has been chronically and pervasively underfunded, said Shervin Aazami, the director of congressional relations for the National Indian Health Board.

And he ties this directly to the high rates of COVID-19 in native communities.

The problem was the Indian Health Service was at a major disadvantage before COVID, and thats placed Indian Country in a much more vulnerable spot, Aazami said. Thats why were seeing disproportionately high rates.

For instance, Aazami pointed out, Veterans Affairs spends roughly three times the amount of money per patient than IHS does. As a result, IHS facilities and equipment are much older than the national standard, and may have a hard time hiring and retaining high-quality health care providers, including physicians, nurses, dentists and pharmacists. Across the board, IHS has about a 25% provider vacancy rate, and in some areas its as high as 31%.

Less funding, less accessibility to care and less quality of care, for those reasons you have chronic underlying health conditions that go years and years without getting treated, Aazami said. You have less access to care and treatment, as a result health disparities increase over time.

In the current fiscal year, the IHS budget is $6.04 billion; however, the National Indian Health Board recommends doubling it in FY 2022 to $12.79 billion.

To fully fund the agency, a coalition of tribal leaders estimated, IHS would need $48 billion.

The IHS recently received more than $1 billion from the federal CARES Act.

In a recent interview, Sen. Tom Udall referred to the relief package and said he hopes the federal government continues to pay attention to IHS after the pandemics immediate danger has passed.

Weve been increasing IHS resources and capacity in this time period, and I just hope we dont slip back, Udall said. The IHS needs to be built up, it needs to be invested in, you need an infrastructure investment. I hope we change the way were dealing with the IHS and they end up in a much better place. That would be the smart thing to do.

This story has been supported by the Solutions Journalism Network, a nonprofit organization dedicated to rigorous and compelling reporting about responses to social problems. Theresa Davis is a Report for America corps member covering water and the environment for the Albuquerque Journal.
FILE PHOTO: A pro-democracy demonstrator raises his hand up as a symbol of the "Five demands, not one less" during a protest against Beijing's plans to impose national security legislation in Hong Kong

By James Pomfret and Stella Qiu

HONG KONG/BEIJING (Reuters) - China's state media and the government of Hong Kong lashed out on Sunday at U.S. President Donald Trump's vow to end Hong Kong's special status if Beijing imposes new national security laws on the city, which is bracing for fresh protests.

Trump on Friday pledged to "take action to revoke Hong Kong's preferential treatment as a separate customs and travel territory", and to impose sanctions on unspecified individuals over Beijing's new laws on the Asian financial centre.

But China's state media pushed back, saying this would hurt the United States more than China.

"The baton of sanctions that the United States is brandishing will not scare Hong Kong and will not bring China down, China's Communist Party mouthpiece, the People's Daily, wrote in a commentary. It used the pen name "Zhong Sheng", meaning "Voice of China", often used to give the paper's view on foreign policy issues.

The Global Times wrote, "China has already prepared for the worst. No matter how far the U.S. goes, China will keep its company."

A Hong Kong government spokesman expressed regret the United States continued to "smear and demonise the legitimate rights and duty of our sovereign" to safeguard national security.

In a sign of diplomatic manoeuvring, the U.S. government said it would put one of its prime Hong Kong properties up for sale - a luxury residential complex worth up to HK$5 billion ($650 million).

A spokesman for the U.S. consulate in Hong Kong said this was part of a global programme that "reinforces the U.S. government's presence in Hong Kong" through reinvestment in other areas.

China and Hong Kong officials have justified the laws that will be directly imposed by China to restore order to a city that has been wracked by sometimes violent anti-China, anti-government protests over the past year. They said the laws will only apply to a small number of "troublemakers."

Story continues

Protesters, however, have said they are railing against China's deep encroachment on Hong Kong's autonomy and freedoms despite Beijing's promise to grant the city a high degree of autonomy under a so-called "one-country, two systems" formula since it reverted from British to Chinese rule in 1997.

More protests are planned in the coming weeks.

Countries including the United States, Canada and Britain have expressed deep concerns about the law, with Britain saying it may grant expanded visa rights to large numbers of Hong Kongers.

Demosisto, an advocacy group led by prominent young Hong Kong democracy activist Joshua Wong, said the security law will be "the death of freedom in Hong Kong".

A senior Hong Kong official, Erick Tsang, said he couldn't care less if he were sanctioned by the Washington. "I wouldn't even go to Canada, just in case they try to catch me" there, Tsang told local radio.

Details of the laws remain unclear, even to Hong Kong officials, but are expected to be enacted by China's parliament this summer. The laws will outlaw secession, subversion, terrorism and foreign interference in Hong Kong, and will be imposed without any local legislative scrutiny.

(Reporting by Hong Kong newsroom and Stella Qiu in Beijing; Writing by James Pomfret; Editing by Christopher Cushing and William Mallard)
By Akbar Mammadov

Head of Nagorno-Karabakhs Azerbaijani community MP Tural Ganjaliyev has said that Armenia denies the existence of Karabakh Azerbaijanis.

Ganjaliyev made the remarks during his speech in the parliaments session on May 31.

"They ignore Nagorno-Karabakhs Azerbaijani community as well as our population, Ganjaliyev said.

However, Ganjaliyev noted that some Armenians living in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, have been appealing to the Azerbaijani community, expressing their desire live peacefully together with the Azerbaijani community within the internationally recognized borders of Azerbaijan and in accordance with the Constitution of Azerbaijan.

"Both as an MP from Khankendi city and as the head of the Azerbaijani community of Nagorno-Karabakh, I would like to appeal to those Armenians that they must unite around them other Armenian residents, who think as rationally as they do, and together with the Azerbaijani community of Nagorno-Karabakh, they must soon take an action to live peacefully in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan and put an end to the presence of the occupying Armenian forces and the occupying regime there."

The Azerbaijani MP stressed that in general, the activities of the Nagorno-Karabakh's Azerbaijani community have irriated the Armenian side, which is not surprising. "We have recently witnessed the provocative statements of both Armenia and the occupying regime", Ganjaliyev said.

"The best answer to them was given to them in 2019 by the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group. It was after their meeting with us that the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs made two statements, once again drawing attention to the existence of the Armenian and Azerbaijani communities as interested parties in the conflict, and once again this was a very good response to them."

Azerbaijan and Armenia are locked in a conflict over Azerbaijans Nagorno-Karabakh breakaway region, which along with seven adjacent regions was occupied by Armenian forces in a war in the early 1990s. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and around one million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.

The OSCE Minsk Group co-chaired by the United States, Russia and France has been mediating the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict since the signing of the volatile cease-fire agreement in 1994. The Minsk Groups efforts have resulted in no progress and to this date, Armenia has failed to abide by the UN Security Council resolutions (822, 853, 874 and 884) that demand the withdrawal of Armenian military forces from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan.

---

Akbar Mammadov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AkbarMammadov97

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
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Three mothers are considering suing the Government over school closures - amid claims they may have breached children's human rights and pupil's are being 'treated like they're germs'.

The women have also written to the Secretary of State Gavin Williamson to ask whether the 'long term physical and mental welfare' of pupils has been considered, and to raise concerns about social distancing.

Campaigner Christine Brett, who has two children, said: 'These are healthy children who have been quarantined for 12 weeks - they shouldn't be treated like they're germs, disinfected on entry and separated on to individual tables.'

'Us and Them' campaign group founders Molly Kingsley, 41, Liz Morris, 46, and Mrs Brett, 48, all from Cambridgeshire, have one child each returning to school and another still stuck at home.

They claim 'overwhelming evidence' that lockdown is having a devastating impact on children's wellbeing may have been overlooked. They also fear draconian social distancing rules, planned for when schools return, could cause long-term mental damage to children.

Schools are set to return today for the first time since March 20 - after being closed down because of the coronavirus - but an estimated one million of the two million children eligible to return are expected to stay away from this morning and parents who shun open schools will not face any fines.

Ministers are trying to reassure parents it is safe. The majority of primaries are expected to open to reception, year 1 and year 6 from today, despite fierce opposition from the National Education Union. At the 11th hour, the union again attempted to scupper openings, claiming they should be delayed until June 15 to protect youngsters and teachers.

Former lawyer Molly Kingsley (pictured) is one of three mothers who said evidence the lockdown harms youngsters' well-being may have been overlooked

Welfare fears: Campaigners Liz Morris, 46, left, and Christine Brett, 48, right, are two mothers who could sue the government over school closures

WHAT CAN I DO AS LOCKDOWN MEASURES ARE EASED IN ENGLAND? Some coronavirus lockdown rules are changing in England today as the country tries to return to normal. Rules will be different in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, but here is what the changes will mean for people living in England, and separate questions dealing with the devolved administrations. - Can I meet more people? From June 1 you will be able to meet up to six people from separate households, in outside spaces. This means that you can meet limited numbers of family and friends in gardens and parks, but you must continue to follow social distancing rules. You can play sports with the people that you meet, but only if it is possible to keep a two-metre space between you, such as tennis or football. - Will my children go to school? Primary schools can begin to open for pupils in Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 from Monday. Vulnerable children and children of key workers can still go to class, and teaching can start for older pupils in Year 10 and Year 12 in two weeks time, Monday June 15. - Will any more shops be open? Most non-essential shops will remain closed on Monday, but car showrooms and outdoor markets will be allowed to reopen. Other non-essential shops can start to trade again from June 15. - Can I go on a day out? Day trips to outdoor spaces are allowed as long as you do not stay the night. While on a trip people have to maintain social distancing and hotels are still closed. - Will there still be punishments for breaking the rules? Yes, and fines for rulebreakers have been increased. Penalties for a first offence are now set at 100 (reduced to 50 if paid within two weeks) and double for every subsequent rule breach, up to 3,200. - If I am shielding can I leave the house? From Monday, the two million people who have been shielding in England can now leave the house to spend time with people outdoors. Those considered extremely vulnerable will be able to go outside with members of their household, while continuing to follow social distancing guidelines. And those who live alone can meet outside with one other person from another household, also adhering to social distancing guidelines. Advertisement

On another day in coronavirus news;

Britain is set for a 77F scorcher today as the lockdown is eased with the Government allowing groups of six to meet;

More than two million Britons 'shielding' from coronavirus will be able to go outside for a walk, despite warnings 'nothing will ever be a 100 per cent safe';

Teachers have shared their nerves as they prepare to welcome pupils back into the classroom for the first time in more than two months - but up to a million children may be kept at home amid fears from parents;

Ministers have been sent a list of 45 countries to prioritise for quarantine-free air bridges

Some councils, many of them Labour-run, have also blocked re-opening for now.

The three mothers launched the 'Us for Them' campaign on behalf of parents who say they were made to feel like pariahs by admitting they disagreed with children being kept at home because of Covid-19.

The wellbeing of children must be taken into account in the government's decision-making, they say.

The scientific advisory group, known as Sage, said the risk of children catching the virus while back at school was 'very, very small, but it is not zero'. It also found there was not a higher risk to teachers of being infected compared to other adults going back to work.

The mothers' group, which was formed when they met online, is also arguing against extreme social distancing rules, such as toddlers being banned from playing with soft toys, which could be implemented when children return.

Such measures may contravene the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), which states the best interests of the child must be the primary consideration, they say.

Almost 2,000 parents and teachers who previously feared speaking out in support of a return have rallied behind the campaign.

Many parents are now too scared to admit they want to send their children back to school after unions opposed the reopening of classrooms next week, according to Mrs Kingsley.

The group has been 'deluged' with messages from parents, teachers, and even psychologists thanking them for their bravery in starting the campaign, she said.

The former lawyer, who has two daughters aged three and six, said: 'We've had so many private messages of support - from parents who have felt unable to speak out on their school WhatsApp groups or Facebook groups for fear of a backlash.'

The lobbying group has written an open letter to the Education Secretary asking to know what investigations were done into the impact on children's mental and physical welfare when guidance was drawn up.

They also ask why views of parents and experts on children's welfare appear not to have been considered.

The letter adds: 'We absolutely recognise the challenges for Government at this time but your policies cannot - morally or legally - subordinate the welfare of children to other interests.'

They have instructed a team of lawyers - including a leading human rights QC - to examine whether the government's actions so far and the distancing proposals may have been unlawful.

Mrs Kingsley said: 'If it transpires that the Government has failed to take into account the welfare of children, as a primary consideration, we are prepared to take legal action.'

Mrs Brett, a health economist, said: 'The unions represent the best interests of the teachers, and that's their job, but who's representing the best interests of the children?

'The risk of transmission between children is minimal, according to the experts, whereas the risk of the damage to their wellbeing is high.

'Parents have very much been led and frightened by the risk of the virus. But this fear is stopping them from being rational about what this is going to look like for their children going back to school.

'These are healthy children who have been quarantined for 12 weeks - they shouldn't be treated like they're germs, disinfected on entry and separated on to individual tables.

'Most of us would see that as a punishment, but they haven't done anything wrong. How is that going to make them feel?,' she added.

A classroom is seen with tables and chairs socially distanced at Heath Mount Prep School in Watton-at-Stone, Hertfordshire, as they prepare to reopen today

Social distancing hoops at Holywell Village First School in Northumberland

Mrs Brett is also a children's yoga teacher.

The mums regard the social distancing rules, planned for when schools and nurseries re-open, as draconian.

Mrs Brett said: 'Children are social beings and it's really worrying that instead of going back to a supportive environment where they can actually recover from what's happened, they're going to be further damaged.'

A Department for Education spokesperson said: 'Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic our decisions have been based on the best scientific and medical advice, with the welfare of children and staff at the heart of all considerations.

'We have placed significant emphasis on mental health and wellbeing in our planning framework for the wider opening of schools, and have provided advice for parents and carers on looking after children's mental health during the outbreak.

'We have also provided over 100 million to boost remote education, including providing devices to those children who need it most while working with partners to look at what additional measures may be required to ensure every child has the support they need to deal with the impact of coronavirus on their education.'

Teachers tell of nerves as they defy unions and head back to the classroom today when two million primary school pupils return across England - but up to one MILLION may be kept at home

By Luke May for MailOnline

Teachers have shared their nerves as they prepare to welcome pupils back into the classroom for the first time in more than two months - but up to a million children may be kept at home amid fears from parents.

Before classrooms begin to fill this morning, teachers have been sharing their support for one another as schools reopen with unprecedented social distancing measures in place to keep pupils two metres apart.

Pupils are being dropped off in pens at some schools, while a three-strike policy could see some children sent home if they don't follow social distancing rules.

One teacher wrote this morning: 'Lots of us are going to feel very apprehensive and anxious about the new changes, however that looks in our school. We stand with each other.'

Lockdown easing: How the rules differ across the UK - What are the rules in Wales? From Monday people from two households in Wales will be able to meet outdoors, as long as they do not travel more than five miles and observe social distancing. People who have been shielding will also be able to exercise outdoors and meet people from another household, but must not go into another house or share food. - What are the rules in Scotland? Since Friday, people north of the border have been allowed to meet in groups of eight, outdoors in parks or gardens, but these gatherings can only include members of two separate households. There have been no changes to rules for people who are shielding. - What are the rules in Northern Ireland? Some rules will be relaxed in Northern Ireland on June 8. In a week, some more shops such as car showrooms can open, and outdoor weddings will be able to take place, but limited to fewer than ten people. Pets can also go to grooming parlours, and outdoor sport facilities will be allowed to open. Advertisement

History teacher Chris Beach said: 'First day back in school today. We in Guernsey are blessed to have no active cases, but I am worried for friends and ex-colleagues in the UK - stay safe everyone.'

Another commented 'Anxiety through the roof for many,' as primary school children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 are able to return to school after 10 weeks out.

Schools have been preparing for classrooms to reopen for weeks, corridors have been marked off to keep pupils apart as they go about their school day, while desks have also been moved to maintain a distance of two metres between schools.

Most teachers have reduced class sizes, which will operate in bubbles, with no interaction with other classes.

For younger years, toys have been taken out of classroom and are being kept in storage out of fear they could hold Covid-19 germs.

Brian Walton, head teacher at Brookside Academy in Somerset, spoke to Good Morning Britain ahead of pupils' arrival from 7.30am.

He said: 'Like headteachers up and down the country we've been planning this probably from when lockdown started really. It's taken meticulous plans consultation with staff and parents.

'Like most of the teachers right now I'm glad it was a really early start because I probably wouldn't have slept anyway.'

Children are at an extremely low risk of catching coronavirus. The majority of hospital admissions are people over 60.

The main concern over pupils returning to school is the potential spread of germs between different households, while teachers who may be at risk could also be exposed.

Headteachers have also predicted that more than one in five teachers will be forced to work from home because of health conditions, their age or because members of their family are vulnerable.

Co-headteacher Matt Ferris of Kingsholm Primary School has explained many of the new features in response to parents' questions over how their children will adapt to social distancing measures,

They will be given a designated time slot and and allotted area - or pen - where they leave their child before heading off along a designated walkway.

Pupils will be told to maintain social distancing between others, and they will only be allowed to mix with a small number of others.

Students who do not conform with the social distancing rules will also be sent home on a three-strikes policy.

What can I do as lockdown measures ease in England? Coronavirus rules are changing in England from today, here are some important things to bare in mind. Can I meet more people? From June 1 you will be able to meet up to six people from separate households, in outside spaces. This means that you can meet limited numbers of family and friends in gardens and parks, but you must continue to follow social distancing rules. You can play sports with the people that you meet, but only if it is possible to keep a two-metre space between you, such as tennis or football. Will my children go to school? Primary schools can begin to open for pupils in Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 from Monday. Vulnerable children and children of key workers can still go to class, and teaching can start for older pupils in Year 10 and Year 12 in two weeks time, Monday June 15. Will any more shops be open? Most non-essential shops will remain closed on Monday, but car showrooms and outdoor markets will be allowed to reopen. Other non-essential shops can start to trade again from June 15. Can I go on a day out? Day trips to outdoor spaces are allowed as long as you do not stay the night. While on a trip people have to maintain social distancing and hotels are still closed. Will there still be punishments for breaking the rules? Yes, and fines for rulebreakers have been increased. Penalties for a first offence are now set at 100 (reduced to 50 if paid within two weeks) and double for every subsequent rule breach, up to 3,200. If I am shielding can I leave the house? From Monday, the two million people who have been shielding in England can now leave the house to spend time with people outdoors. Those considered extremely vulnerable will be able to go outside with members of their household, while continuing to follow social distancing guidelines. And those who live alone can meet outside with one other person from another household, also adhering to social distancing guidelines. What are the rules in Wales? From Monday people from two households in Wales will be able to meet outdoors, as long as they do not travel more than five miles and observe social distancing. People who have been shielding will also be able to exercise outdoors and meet people from another household, but must not go into another house or share food. What are the rules in Scotland? Since Friday, people north of the border have been allowed to meet in groups of eight, outdoors in parks or gardens, but these gatherings can only include members of two separate households. There have been no changes to rules for people who are shielding. What are the rules in Northern Ireland? Some rules will be relaxed in Northern Ireland on June 8. In a week, some more shops such as car showrooms can open, and outdoor weddings will be able to take place, but limited to fewer than ten people. Pets can also go to grooming parlours, and outdoor sport facilities will be allowed to open. Advertisement

In a video published on the school's website, Mr Ferris talks parents through what they can expect when Year 6, Year 1 and Reception and nursery children return on June 1.

Drop off and collection times will be staggered with queues and marked walkways for parents and pupils to follow.

Kingsholm is using timeslots based on surnames, with parents being asked to drop children off alone, without siblings or other children.

Pupils will be dropped off by parents in to pens that will be sectioned with barriers as they arrive.

Ministers last night reassured parents that reopening primary schools today is safe amid fears that up to a million children may be kept away.

Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick said it was 'extremely important' children went back to school.

It comes as a study suggested up to half of families may shun sending their youngsters to lessons due to worries about the spread of coronavirus.

This means that a million children, half of those in Reception, Year 1 and Year 6, could be kept off, in a blow to the government's hopes of getting back to normal.

The majority of primaries are expected to open from today, despite fierce opposition from the National Education Union.

At the 11th hour, the union again attempted to scupper openings, claiming they should be delayed until June 15 to protect youngsters and teachers.

Unions are also vehemently opposed to rumours of summer school classes being set up for vulnerable children. Minsters are thought to be considering it as a possibility to make sure pupils get the best opportunities.

Dr Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the National Education Union (NEU), told Sky teachers should not have to work over the summer holidays.

She told Sky's Sophy Ridge on Sunday: 'Teachers have been working flat out to provide education for children at home.

'So what should happen is  and we do support this  clubs and activities on a volunteer basis.'

But Education Secretary Gavin Williamson attempted to allay parental and staff concerns, insisting that Government decisions throughout the pandemic are 'based on the best scientific and medical advice'.

He said: 'While there might be some nervousness, I want to reassure parents and teachers that the welfare of children and staff continues to be at the heart of all of our considerations.

'For the past three weeks the sector has been planning and putting protective measures in place.'

Speaking at the Downing Street briefing, Mr Jenrick said ministers believe it is 'possible to open schools safely'. He pointed out that 80 per cent of schools have been open throughout the pandemic, with thousands of teachers already educating children of key workers as well as vulnerable pupils.

Mr Jenrick said: 'It may be that there are some parents out there today who have not yet made the decision to send their children back to school but will do so in the days ahead when they've seen other people make that step and schools manage to reopen safely.

'I certainly hope so, because it's extremely important that we do get children back to school.

'All of the evidence suggests that it is children from the most deprived, the poorer households, who are losing out by not having that crucial face-to-face contact that you get in a school setting. I don't want to see that continue for any longer.'

Government safety measures include returning primary pupils having access to coronavirus testing, along with symptomatic members of their family. They will be kept in small, socially distanced groups of no more than 15 throughout the day, with staggered breaks, lunchtimes, drop-offs and pick-ups.

Dr Jenny Harries, deputy chief medical officer, told the press conference that testing capacity across the country 'is now very significant' at up to 200,000 a day.

She pointed out that the 'risks of social interactions are reduced' as pupils will be kept in small groups. Boris Johnson wants nurseries and early years providers to reopen today, and primary schools to allow back their Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 groups.

Some students in Year 10 and 12 will be allowed to meet face-to-face with their teachers at secondary school from June 15.

The majority of primaries are expected to reopen. But many are only admitting a fraction of eligible pupils, with the introduction of rotas, as they struggle to adapt to smaller classes and reduced teacher levels.

The National Foundation for Educational Research surveyed 1,233 head teachers in state primary and secondary schools in England.

They expect nearly half (46 per cent) of families to keep their children at home because of their concerns around coronavirus or the need to self-isolate. The figure is slightly higher for primary schools (47 per cent) compared to 42 per cent in secondary schools.

Across all schools, those with the highest proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals  an indicator of poverty  estimate the figure to be 50 per cent. This compares to 42 per cent in schools which have low levels of disadvantaged students.

Cattle class! Primary school unveils classroom of the future with parents dropping off children into PENS as others separate desks, mark out social distancing zones and display posters ordering pupils to stay two metres apart

By Dan Ripley for MailOnline

Primary schools have unveiled how its classrooms will look as they reopen.

Those including children in Kingsholm Primary School in Gloucester have shown how parents will be expected to queue as they drop-off their child into pens at the start of the day.

Measures have also been applied at St Anne's in Sale ahead of pupils returning, with staff preparing many signs and even face masks to help children in their new surroundings.

Sings are displayed at St Anne's primary school in Sale warning students of social distancing

Head teacher Polly Goodson and Deputy Head Claire Cowgill measure the distance between desks in a classroom at St Anne's the wake of the coronavirus outbreak

Co-headteacher Matt Ferris of Kingsholm Primary School has explained many of the new features in response to parents' questions over how their children will adapt to social distancing measures,

They will be given a designated time slot and and allotted area - or pen - where they leave their child before heading off along a designated walkway.

Pupils will be told to maintain social distancing between others, and they will only be allowed to mix with a small number of others.

Students who do not conform with the social distancing rules will also be sent home on a three-strikes policy.

Kingsholm Primary School in Gloucester will also be enforcing strict social distancing rules

In a video published on the school's website, Mr Ferris talks parents through what they can expect when Year 6, Year 1 and Reception and nursery children return on June 1.

Drop off and collection times will be staggered with queues and marked walkways for parents and pupils to follow.

Kingsholm is using timeslots based on surnames, with parents being asked to drop children off alone, without siblings or other children.

Pupils will be dropped off by parents in to pens that will be sectioned with barriers as they arrive.

Measures at St Anne's have been taken to make social distancing lines upon entrance

Signs as well as face masks will now be on display around the school in Sale for children

Like many schools, St Anne's will seat their students to one child per desk in classrooms

Some rooms in the school will now limit the amount of people that can feature in one room

Students at St Anne's will be encouraged to keep two meters apart around school grounds

Later, a member of staff will take each group to their classroom. There is also a set route parents must follow through the school site, arriving and leaving by different entrances.

According to Headteacher Jan Buckland, the pens will be 'roughly a quarter of the size of a netball court' and the barriers will consist of 'bollards with a bit of ceiling tape around to designate the area, some cones and things'.

At Kingsholm, markings have been placed on the ground on the way towards the toilets so that pupils know how far away to stand from one another as they queue. They've added that toilets will regularly be cleaned throughout the day.

Supply to their water fountains have been cut off with pupils expected to bring their own water to school, plus select sinks and toilet will not be functioning.

Breakfast and after school clubs have been cancelled. Classrooms will be more spaced apart with one pupil per table. Kingsholm say pupils will be expected to use their own equipment.

Kingsholm school shows how social interaction will be limited in some classrooms with one child per spaced out desk

Classrooms in the reception year will see toilets limited to just one child at a time (left) with some teachers still preparing the classrooms for the return of the children (right)

The amount of books shared will be reduced. Plus certain toys will be removed from the school to avoid cross-contamination. Mrs Buckland, head of Kingsholm, said: 'Talking about nursery children, we cannot guarantee at all social distancing but we will encourage.

'We will have adults who sit in places to steer children away from each other.'

She went on to say that pupils who do not follow socially distancing instructions on purpose will be sent home after a three strike rule has been deployed.

'We will talk to the parents, if a child is being [non-compliant] then what we will do is phone the parents and the parents will then have to come and collect them,' she said.

Kingsholm previously had an 'open school' policy where parents and guardians were allowed in to the classroom, this will no longer be permitted. The school is urging parents to check their child's temperature each day before school.

Some classrooms will have to share toilets, while water fountains (right) will be shut off

An aerial view of Kingsholm Primary school. Starting from the bottom right of the image at a given time slot, parents will follow a one-way system through the school grounds where they will drop their children off into pens shown by the small squares en route. They will then leave the grounds to the top left of the image. Gathering at the entrance and exit gates are banned

Meanwhile, Schools Standards minister Nick Gibb told MPs that the controversial plans for reception and years one and six to go back on June 1 would depend on evidence that the rate of infection - the R rate - was continuing to drop across the UK.

Appearing virtually before the Education Committee he admitted it was 'difficult to say' whether the Government's ambition to bring back all primary school children back before the summer holidays will come to fruition.

He told MPs this morning: 'It will be totally led by the science. We don't know for certain until tomorrow that schools will return on 1 June for reception, year 1 and year 6. That will depend on the science, although schools are planning for it and all the indications are that the science is leading in the right direction.'

Don't snub our open schools: Ministers tell parents that reopening classrooms is safe amid fears many will keep their children away when lessons restart today

Sarah Harris for the Daily Mail

Ministers last night reassured parents that reopening primary schools today is safe amid fears many will keep their children away.

Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick said it was extremely important children went back to school.

It comes as a study suggested up to half of families may shun sending their youngsters to lessons due to worries about the spread of coronavirus.

The majority of primaries are expected to open from today, despite fierce opposition from the National Education Union. At the 11th hour, the union again attempted to scupper openings, claiming they should be delayed until June 15 to protect youngsters and teachers.

Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick said it was extremely important children went back to school

But Education Secretary Gavin Williamson attempted to allay parental and staff concerns, insisting that Government decisions throughout the pandemic are based on the best scientific and medical advice.

He said: While there might be some nervousness, I want to reassure parents and teachers that the welfare of children and staff continues to be at the heart of all of our considerations.

For the past three weeks the sector has been planning and putting protective measures in place.

Speaking at the Downing Street briefing, Mr Jenrick said ministers believe it is possible to open schools safely. He pointed out that 80 per cent of schools have been open throughout the pandemic, with thousands of teachers already educating children of key workers as well as vulnerable pupils.

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson attempted to allay parental and staff concerns, insisting that Government decisions throughout the pandemic are based on the best scientific and medical advice

Mr Jenrick said: It may be that there are some parents out there today who have not yet made the decision to send their children back to school but will do so in the days ahead when theyve seen other people make that step and schools manage to reopen safely.

I certainly hope so, because its extremely important that we do get children back to school.

All of the evidence suggests that it is children from the most deprived, the poorer households, who are losing out by not having that crucial face-to-face contact that you get in a school setting. I dont want to see that continue for any longer.

Government safety measures include returning primary pupils having access to coronavirus testing, along with symptomatic members of their family. They will be kept in small, socially distanced groups of no more than 15 throughout the day, with staggered breaks, lunchtimes, drop-offs and pick-ups.

Dr Jenny Harries, deputy chief medical officer, told the press conference that testing capacity across the country is now very significant at up to 200,000 a day.

Dr Jenny Harries, deputy chief medical officer, told the press conference that testing capacity across the country is now very significant at up to 200,000 a day

She pointed out that the risks of social interactions are reduced as pupils will be kept in small groups. Boris Johnson wants nurseries and early years providers to reopen today, and primary schools to allow back their Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 groups.

Some students in Year 10 and 12 will be allowed to meet face-to-face with their teachers at secondary school from June 15.

The majority of primaries are expected to reopen. But many are only admitting a fraction of eligible pupils, with the introduction of rotas, as they struggle to adapt to smaller classes and reduced teacher levels.

The National Foundation for Educational Research surveyed 1,233 head teachers in state primary and secondary schools in England.

They expect nearly half (46 per cent) of families to keep their children at home because of their concerns around coronavirus or the need to self-isolate. The figure is slightly higher for primary schools (47 per cent) compared to 42 per cent in secondary schools.

Across all schools, those with the highest proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals  an indicator of poverty  estimate the figure to be 50 per cent. This compares to 42 per cent in schools which have low levels of disadvantaged students.
?? El premier @VicAZeballos, junto a los titulares de Minagri, Jorge Montenegro; y MIMP, Gloria Montenegro, se dirige a #Piura para supervisar la operatividad de los servicios de salud, el orden interno y el funcionamiento de mercados frente al #COVID19.#PeruEstaEnNuestrasManos pic.twitter.com/iOPNwoJymA
WATERLOO REGION  Schools across the Waterloo Catholic District School Board will not be the only ones without the rainbow Pride flag this June.

Wellington Catholic District School Board, Waterloos neighbouring school board, which encompasses Guelph and Wellington County, has also chosen not to fly the rainbow flag at its schools during Pride month.

Catholic schools in Ontario generally have not flown any flags in support of Pride month; the board in Thunder Bay being a rare exception.

We will be acknowledging Pride month throughout June on our board webpage and through social media as our way of recognition and commitment to nurturing safe, inclusive learning environments where every student and every member of our community knows that they are welcomed and valued, said the Wellington boards education director, Tamara Nugent.

She said that while June provides the specific opportunity for the focus on equity, inclusion, diversity, and the LGBTQ community, this work is done by our staff each and every day across our schools in support of all our students.

After several days of fierce controversy, the Waterloo Catholic board backed down from its original plan to fly an alternative flag to mark Pride month, and now says it wont be flying any flag.

Read more:

Waterloo Catholic District School Board backs down on plan to fly alternate Pride flag

Catholic schools should fly Pride flag  or no flag at all

Pride flag debate exposes fatal flaw in Catholic education

In a statement Friday evening, the Waterloo board said its intention of sending a message of unity had instead turned to division.

After receiving feedback from the broader community  but, more importantly, also from some of our students  it is clear that the WCDSBs decision to fly a provincially developed image on a flag during June, to mark Pride month, which was intended to send a message of unity and support, has instead led to division, reads the statement.

Out of sincere respect for all viewpoints shared, the school board will not fly any flag during Pride month.

Board chair Bill Conway told the Waterloo Region Record on Saturday there is nothing further to add to the statement from the school board.

The controversy began last week when plans for an alternative flag to the universally recognized rainbow Pride flag were discussed at a board meeting.

The boards proposed flag, one of several options provided by the Institute for Catholic Education, includes an illustration of Jesus with his arms outstretched, standing in front of a colourful crowd of people with the words, "We are all wonderfully made  we love because he first loved us (1 John 4:19)."

Trustee Greg Reitzel drew public condemnation for comments he made at the meeting, in which he called Pride "the deadliest of the deadly sins" and said hed resign if the Pride flag was flown.

He later maintained his words were taken out of context, and said he was "deeply saddened" that people were hurt by what he said. An apology from Reitzel was later conveyed via Conway.

The board said its flag will be displayed in school foyers throughout the 2020-2021 school year, as the board consults with the LGBTQ2+ community on next steps.

In Thunder Bay, the Catholic board has announced it will once again fly the Pride flag this June.

In a joint movement in 2019, that regions Catholic, public and French school boards all chose to raise the flag in unison.

We understand our students, staff and community face judgment, discrimination and prejudice often in todays society, the Catholic board said in a statement last year.

It is our hope and ultimate goal, to provide an environment where everyone feels valued, included, respected, dignified and loved. This is the reason why we have raised the flag.

Meanwhile, the Waterloo Region District School Board, which encompasses the public schools across the region, will also be flying the Pride flag at all its locations in June.

Many institutions and organizations, including our nations Parliament, fly the Pride flag as a celebration of diversity, reads a statement on the boards website. During the month of June, all Waterloo Region District School Board locations will fly the Pride flag alongside the Canadian flag.
A roadside bomb killed a television journalist in Kabul on Saturday, soon after a top Afghan official appointed to lead peace talks with the Taliban said his team was ready for the long-delayed dialogue.

The blast, which targeted a minibus carrying 15 employees of private television channel Khurshid TV, was claimed by the Islamic State group, according to SITE Intelligence which monitors jihadist activity.

The attack, which the government called heinous, claimed the lives of a reporter and a driver, and punctuated an overall reduction in violence that has followed on from a three-day ceasefire the Taliban instigated May 24.

Also read: In the Afghan theatre, India and its balancing act | Opinion

Just hours before the blast, Afghanistans former chief executive Abdullah Abdullah, who has been appointed to head talks with the Taliban, said his team was positioned to start dialogue.

Abdullah credited the general lull in violence for setting the tone for discussions.

The ceasefire, a reduction in violence and the exchange of prisoners have all paved the way for a good beginning, Abdullah said at his first press conference since taking on the role.

The negotiating team is ready to begin the talks at any moment, he said.

However, he insisted on a fresh ceasefire during the talks.

The attack in central Kabul targeted Khurshid TVs white minibus, the interior ministry said, and caused extensive damage to its front end.

It was the second such attack targeting Khurshid employees in less than a year.

In August 2019, two passersby were killed when a sticky bomb -- a type of homemade explosive attached to vehicles with magnets -- struck a similar Khurshid TV van in an unclaimed attack.

Afghanistan is one of the worlds deadliest places for journalists.

IS have targeted the media before. The deadliest attack came in 2018, when the group killed nine journalists from various news organisations -- including AFPs chief Afghanistan photographer Shah Marai -- in another Kabul blast.

All on the same page

Afghanistans truce ended Tuesday night but violence since then has stayed relatively low, though government security forces have suffered some attacks that authorities blamed on the Taliban.

The ceasefire and general drop in violence has injected hope into Afghanistans peace process, which had earlier this month looked to be on the verge of collapse because of soaring Taliban violence after they signed a deal with the US in February.

Peace talks were initially scheduled to begin on March 10.

Momentum has also built thanks to the governments release of hundreds of Taliban prisoners in recent weeks, as part of a swap that has also seen the militants free government security force captives.

Late Saturday, Afghanistans National Security Council spokesman Javid Faisal said the government had freed another 710 Talban prisoners since Friday in an ongoing process that would fulfil its promise to release 2,000 insurgents in response to the Taliban ceasefire.

US President Donald Trumps administration has made it a priority to end Americas longest war and withdraw all troops by next May. US officials have pushed the Taliban and government leaders to hold peace talks.

Abdullah was appointed to lead the process after he ended his bitter political feud with President Ashraf Ghani earlier this month.

He had announced himself as a rival president after rejecting the result of the September election, which incumbent Ghani eventually won amid fraud claims.

With the end of the dispute, the Afghan government appeared unified in terms of the peace process, a member of Abdullahs negotiating team said.

Now we all are united, all on the same page on the question of peace, Matin Bek, a senior government official, told AFP.

Saturdays attack illustrated the long road ahead to a secure Afghanistan even if the peace process is successful, with other militant groups such as IS continuing to operate in the country.

A key tenet of the US-Taliban accord is that the insurgents will not allow groups like Al-Qaeda and IS to use Afghan soil to plan attacks against the US and its allies.
Photograph: CNN

The circumstances surrounding the 29 May arrest of the CNN reporter Omar Jimenez couldnt be clearer, more obvious, less subject to doubt or debate. You need only watch the video of the incident to know: this is not fake news.

In Minneapolis, Omar Jimenez was covering the protests ignited by the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man killed by the police. Confronted by a phalanx of state policemen in riot gear, Jimenez offered to move back. Were getting out of your way. Just let us know. Wherever you want us, we will go. He calmly identified himself as a CNN journalist and produced his credentials. Nonetheless, he was handcuffed and led away, as he continued to ask, peacefully and respectfully, why he was being arrested. Soon after, his producer and cameraman were also cuffed and marched off. One can hear the distraught cameraman asking what to do with his camera, which was seized by the police  apparently unaware that it was still filming.

What the camera doesnt show is that a few blocks away, a white journalist, also reporting for CNN, was treated by the police with consummate politeness. So what we see, and dont see, is the convergence of two profoundly toxic streams growing stronger and deeper as they continue to poison our society. One is the erosion of our first amendment protections  Jimenezs right to document and describe what he was seeing is constitutionally guaranteed  and the other is the systemic racism that explains why a black reporter was arrested while a white one was encouraged to do his job; why a Minneapolis police officer jammed his knee into George Floyds neck for eight fatal minutes; and why, almost every week, another black person is killed by the police or  like Trayvon Martin and Ahmaud Arbery  by freelance white vigilantes.

One shudders to think what might have happened to Jimenez, a black man in a tense confrontation with law enforcement, had he not been employed by CNN and accompanied by a camera crew.

Story continues

For many years, organizations such as PEN and the Committee to Protect Journalists have been working to safeguard the rights  and the lives  of writers and reporters around the world. Mostly, the arrests, imprisonments and murders of journalists have occurred in (and at the behest of) totalitarian regimes, and in countries in which the lawlessness of criminal cartels has gone largely unchecked. Among the most famous cases was the 2006 murder of the Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya outside her Moscow home and the 2018 killing of the Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul. In just the last two weeks, a Mexican reporter, Jorge Armenta, was murdered and the car of another journalist was firebombed in Sonora state. The silencing of journalists is the hallmark of the dictatorship and the mafia state; threats and violence are the tactics traditionally employed by the powerful and the corrupt to intimidate those who try to expose corruption and the abuses of power.

Weve watched our president deriding the press and encouraging his followers to put their faith in conspiracy theories rather than in facts

But that was always somewhere else, happening to other people, and American exceptionalism allowed us to advocate for  and feel slightly removed from  the reporters attacked and imprisoned in other countries, on other continents. Meanwhile the assaults on freedom of speech and on those who try to exercise that freedom have edged closer and closer to home. Weve watched our president deriding the press and encouraging his followers to put their faith in conspiracy theories rather than in facts. Weve witnessed the relentlessness with which Donald Trump has attacked the media, weve seen Trump and his enablers unapologetic disregard for the truth and for those who work to discover and tell that truth. And weve noted how Trumps covert and overt racism has essentially legitimized and encouraged violence against immigrants and people of color while exacerbating the hatred and bigotry that have always been endemic in our society. It was Donald Trump, after all, who referred to the protesters as thugs and who suggested that looters should be shot.

Given all that, I suppose we shouldnt be so deeply surprised when a black reporter is handcuffed and arrested for the crime of doing his job. And yet we are. One of the most striking things about the video of Jimenezs arrest is the response of the CNN commentators watching the live feed from the newsroom, or whatever the pandemic equivalent of the newsroom is. One says, That is an American television reporter being led away by police  Ive never seen anything like this  Having been in the middle of protests, Ive never seen anything like this. The emphasis on American television reporter is significant as the commentator repeats, for a third time: Ive never seen anything like this.

Well, one wants to say, now you have. Its our turn. Its happening here, right now. The climate has shifted  away from the assurances of the first amendment, away from the pretense of a color-blind, egalitarian society  and towards a moment when the arrest of a working journalist, a black journalist, is still startling, but dishearteningly foreseeable.

Incidents like this will continue to happen, and perhaps get worse, unless we remain vigilant and make our outrage known. Omar Jimenez and his camera crew have been released from police custody. George Floyds killer has been charged with manslaughter and third-degree murder, perhaps in part because the protesters and their supporters refused to keep quiet and let it go. We cant stop paying attention and, more important, calling attention to the importance of the free press and to the horrors of racism. The mistake was always to think that it cant happen here, because it can, it has and  unless we remain aware and vocal  it most certainly will again.
The St. Tammany Parish Library will present several family-friendly Australian-themed presentations by Didgeridoo Down Under. The productions blend music, culture, science, comedy, character building, anti-bullying, environmentalism and audience participation.

The four high-energy shows, including Australian mythological tales, offer one-of-a-kind virtual events. Register online for upcoming shows at:

2:30 p.m. Wednesday, register at bit.ly/DidgeridooJune3

10:30 a.m. Thursday, register at bit.ly/DidgeridooJune4

6 p.m. Friday, register online at bit.ly/DidgeridooJune5

10:30 a.m. Saturday, register online at bit.ly/DidgeridooJune6.

Other events for June 3-10

MAD SCIENCE WORKSHOP: Children ages 6 to 11 can learn about movie effects at 1 p.m. Thursday. Register online at bit.ly/MadScienceJune4.

TEEN ANIME WORKSHOP: Artist Carlos Nieto will teach budding teen artists about drawing anime at 4 p.m. Thursday. Register online at bit.ly/TeenAnimeJune4.

ADULT WRITING WORKSHOP: Published author Elizabeth Hilby will discuss marketing and releasing your book at 10 a.m. Friday. Register online at bit.ly/AdultWritingWorkshopJune5.

HARRY POTTER EVENT: Children age 6 to 11 will create a magic wand and attend classes like potions and transfiguration during this witch and wizard workshop at 1 p.m. Monday and at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday. Register online at bit.ly/HarryPotterJune8.

St. Tammany top stories in your inbox A weekly guide to the biggest news in St. Tammany. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up

TEEN BOOK CLUB: Teens can enjoy listening to Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone by J.K. Rowling at 2:30 p.m. Monday. Register online at bit.ly/TeenBookClubJune8.

KNIGHTS STORY TIME: Children ages birth to 5 will enjoy stories, songs and rhymes about knights at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday and at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday. Register online at bit.ly/KnightsStorytimeJune9.

MANDEVILLE BOOK CLUB: The club will discuss The Radium Girls by Kate Moore at 10 a.m. Tuesday. Register online at bit.ly/MandevilleBookClubJune9.

FISH AND WILDLIFE EVENT: Children will learn about Louisianas fascinating animals at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday and 2:30 p.m. Wednesday. Register online at bit.ly/LouisianaWildlifeJune9.

TEEN ANIMANGA CLUB: The club will discuss anime and manga at noon Tuesday. Register online at bit.ly/TeenAniMangaClubJune9.

CRAFT HOUR: Adults will enjoy crafting at home with instruction at 1 p.m. Tuesday. Register online at bit.ly/CraftHourJune9.

TEEN COOKING WORKSHOP: Teens will enjoy a Harry Potter pancake art challenge and learn how to make homemade whipped cream at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday. Register online at bit.ly/TeenCookingWorkshopJune9.

TEEN WRITING WORKSHOP: Teens will work with Ellen Steigman to retell their favorite family tale at 4 p.m. Wednesday. Register online at bit.ly/TeenWritingWorkshopJune10.
Wind gusts possibly exceeding 100 kilometres per hour may soon rock central and eastern Alberta.

Environment Canada issued wind warnings for much of central and eastern Alberta on Sunday morning. Areas under the warning included the Edmonton area and parts of Sturgeon, Leduc, Strathcona, Red Deer and Camrose counties.

The strong west to northwest winds were expected to develop Sunday evening and weaken by Monday morning.

Damage to buildings may occur, according to the warning. High winds may also move loose objects or break tree branches.

"Be prepared to adjust your driving with changing road conditions due to high winds," it reads.

Environment Canada

A severe thunderstorm watch was also in effect southwest of Edmonton for parts of Leduc, Wetaskiwin, Ponoka and Brazeau counties as well as further south for Mountain View and Rocky View counties.

Conditions were favourable for the development of severe thunderstorms that could include strong wind gusts, large hail and heavy rain.
For most of his career, Christo collaborated with his wife, the former Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon; together, they completed 23 large public projects. They developed ideas jointly, after which Christo made drawings and scale models while Jeanne-Claude (she, too, was known by her first name) handled logistics. Although the body of work was initially attributed to Christo, in 1994, they retroactively applied the joint name Christo and Jeanne-Claude to all their large-scale pieces.
Voter disenfranchisement of Native people has a long and bitter history in America and Arizona. That is why Im disappointed to see Republicans forcing a bill through the Arizona Legislature that would further rip away the voices of Native/indigenous voters by drastically changing the rules for Arizona redistricting, thereby further diminishing the voting power of communities of color. The bill, SCR1018, would break up districts like District 7 where all three representatives are Navajo and the majority of residents are Native American.

The Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission has opposed the measure and a committee of the Navajo Nation Council passed a resolution against it, saying it would violate the Voting Rights Act that prohibits states from creating district lines that whittle away the electoral power of minorities.

To watch Republicans do this to the Navajo and tribal communities as they suffer from a pandemic is unconscionable. The Navajo Nation recently became the worst outbreak of COVID-19 in America.

I have seen firsthand how this virus has ravaged our people. I have lost family members to this virus and mourned with my community. Yet, rather than work with Democrats to bring COVID-19 relief to Navajo and other tribes, Republicans are attacking them by pushing for this bill. I urge my colleagues in the legislature to instead focus on calling for a special session to focus our efforts on helping all Arizonans and small businesses get through this pandemic.

In the meantime, I will fight against SCR1018 and ensure that the voices of our tribal citizens will not be oppressed or extinguished.

JAMESCITA PESHLAKAI

Arizona Senator

Cameron

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They are physicians, mentors, partners, mothers, sisters, friends, colleagues  but most evidently, at the moment, they are heroes. I (virtually) sat down with five women physicians, at all points in their medical careers, who are working in several of the largest emergency departments in Texas, to talk about their experiences with the COVID-19 pandemic.

One of the themes that I heard from each of these physicians was that the inevitable weakening of the patient connection is one of the hardest things about practicing during this pandemic. Due to the six-foot rule and the safety precautions now in place, the doctors take the patients history standing at the foot of the bed, do as little physical exam maneuvers as clinically necessary, and are unable to allow family members past the waiting room. But if anyone knows that medicine is a team sport, its EM physicians. Whether through FaceTiming or calling the family/caregiver, or de-gowning and going into the waiting room to speak with them, they are still doing their best to make their patient care family-centered.

Doctors are finding that on top of dealing with the medical symptoms of COVID, they also have social obstacles causing ethical dilemmas in the care of their patients specifically. All of these physicians I spoke with are practicing at county hospitals, meaning they are the primary caregivers for these large cities homeless, uninsured, undocumented, and underserved. Discharging someone who is unable to self-isolate for the recommended fourteen days brings an ethical challenge. Another physician spoke on how she personally was pushing for COVID-testing in patients who were being medically cleared for jail, as sending an asymptomatic carrier to such a crowded population would put hundreds at risk. Even for many patients who do have a home to quarantine in, taking two weeks off of work is not an option. However, it is important to remember that these challenges are not specific to this pandemic, did not begin with this pandemic, and will not end with this pandemic. Systemic inequalities and disparities due to social determinants already existed in the medical system, but are being especially highlighted by this pandemic.

Unfortunately, all of these aspects of life during COVID are interconnected  medical, social, financial, and psychological. We have all been feeling the effects of social isolation, uncertainty, abundant media coverage, etc. Combine that with the lack of access to mental health services in these underserved communities, and the psychological impact is amplified even more. Each physician noted that they had seen an increase in patients visiting the ED with psychiatric symptoms, in particular, anxiety and panic attacks. Emergency departments are also seeing increased rates of decompensated chronic psychiatric illness like dementia, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia, due to issues accessing care or paying for medications. It was obvious before the pandemic that America has a mental health crisis on our hands, and this fire is only fueled by this novel global situation.

One cannot talk about mental health during the COVID pandemic without mentioning the sector of society that is perhaps experiencing the most trauma  our healthcare workers. One of the residents I spoke with said that the death of Dr. Lorna Breen, an EM physician in New York who tragically died by suicide in April after treating patients with COVID was huge on us. That was a wake-up call that we need to check up on ourselves. Dr. Breens tragic death is just even more evidence to highlight the mental health risks faced by physicians. Physicians already die by suicide at twice the rate of the general population, with women physicians being at an even higher risk than men physicians. This resident stated, There were times before going to work that I sat in my car terrified, on the verge of crying. I was scared for my life; I was scared for anybody around me.. However, she also described bonding with her colleagues about these shared emotional experiences and feeling very supported by the attendings at her hospital as well.

After the few hours I spent talking with these women, it was evident that flexibility is key. One of the physicians I interviewed serves as director of the ultrasound fellowship at her hospital, and their program loaned ultrasound probes that can attach to a cell phone to all of their fellows to be able to practice at home. Another resident I spoke with mentioned that this pandemic had affected her educational experience in that she has learned much more about acute resuscitation of emergently decompensating patients with COVID. It is safe to say that they are training a new generation of experts in emergent situations.

After speaking with these women, for me to use the word inspired is an understatement. As one physician put it, We have stuff that we have to deal with on a daily basis and then be able to go home to our families and act like it is business as usual, go on with your day, and start over the next day. Like seeing people have to die without any family members there. I always knew EM docs were resilient, but now even more so. When it comes to medical specialties, emergency medicine physicians have always been the definition of the front line. They are classically the first physician to see or touch a sick patient. There is no doubt that the highest risk of exposure to COVID is placed on emergency medicine staff. The resiliency that has been shown by physicians all across emergency medicine is undeniable. As one physician I had the privilege of speaking with told me, You are often helping someone on the worst day of their life. Its scary, but at the end of the day, it is what you signed up for when you went to medical school, and when you chose emergency medicine. I love emergency medicine. I would never want to do anything else in my life.

These are the doctors under the PPE.

Rachel MacAskill is a medical student.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com
South African courier companies have seen a significant recovery in their businesses following the relaxation of lockdown regulations around online shopping.

The logistics and freight forwarding industry has also seen significant growth  even compared to their activity preceding the national lockdown.

When lockdown was implemented, we took a hit on our volume like everyone else, but we have a good number of customers in the healthcare and fresh produce sectors which helped, said DPD Laser chief customer officer Hilton Eachus.

DPD Laser is a courier company which operates under the Dawn Wing brand in South Africa.

What were seeing now though is a tsunami of consumers ready to jump into online shopping, simply because its a necessity to stay home and, for many, work from home, Eachus said.

The courier industry has become an enabler to achieve that, we bring the goods to you, and well do it safely through our new contactless delivery process.

He added that the increased adoption of online shopping and reliance on deliveries belies a fundamental shift towards ecommerce on the part of South African consumers.

We believe this will be the big shift to online shopping in South Africa that weve been preparing for, Eachus said.

We are expecting massive volumes from the major e-tailers that we service, but also the smaller shops who have been working hard to bring their business online.

Ecommerce revolution

A recent analysis by ACI Worldwide showed global ecommerce sales in April experienced a 209% growth compared to the same period last year.

South African Express Parcel Association (SAEPA) CEO Garry Marshall told MyBroadband that both the business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) sectors of logistics and courier operations dropped significantly during level 5 of the national COVID-19 national lockdown.

However, since level 4, there has been a dynamic shift. Because of the extension of commodities into permitted products  allowing logistics companies to transport both the inputs and outputs for manufacturing organisations  we managed to get back to about 70% of capacity, Marshall said.

He added that ecommerce companies have seen a massive increase in sales volumes of late.

This has established online shopping and delivery as a norm. This is the catalyst for a surge in ecommerce adoption in South Africa. We have probably advanced five years ahead.

He said that while ecommerce sales might drop as restrictions are lifted and citizens return to physical stores, the barrier of entry to online shopping has been breached by many new customers who will continue to use ecommerce platforms.

Now read: PlayStation 5 showcase expected next week
Protesters stand near a Minnesota National Guard vehicle Friday, May 29, 2020, in Minneapolis. Protests continued following the death of George Floyd, who died after being restrained by Minneapolis police officers on Memorial Day. Read more

Federal authorities urged local officials on Sunday to crack down harder on rioters after American cities were rocked by fiery spasms of violence and vandalism, part of a nationwide wave of protests over police misconduct.

President Donald Trump and his attorney general, William Barr, urged cities to follow the example set Saturday night by Minneapolis, where the unrest began earlier this week over the case of 46-year-old George Floyd, a black man who died after a white police officer knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes.

Floyd's death has led to large-scale protests in dozens of cities. In some places, protesters have set fire to police cars and buildings, smashed windows, and looted stores.

 READ MORE: Amid protests come fears of new coronavirus cases; Philly looting continues; Rizzo statue cleaned

On Saturday night, police in several cities intensified their use of force - wielding batons, rubber bullets and pepper spray in incidents that also targeted bystanders and journalists.

In Minneapolis, videos posted online showed police officers yelling, "Light 'em up!" before firing paint at them as they stood on a front porch of a home. No one in the group appeared to be seriously injured.

Edward Maguire, a professor at Arizona State University who recently published a guidebook on police crowd-control procedures, said this instance was egregious because officers fired potentially dangerous rounds at people who posed no threat.

"Everything that police do in these types of situations should be aimed at de-escalation, and that is a really, really stunning example of escalation," he said. "You cannot be shooting projectiles at human beings, unless you have a really good reason to do so."

Watching the events of Saturday night, Maguire said police chiefs across America had read his guidebook to crowd control - and decided to do the opposite. "I'm just seeing examples all over the country right now of bad policing," he said. "Poorly conceived strategies for how to handle protests."

In another incident in Minneapolis, a CBS TV news crew said it was shooting video of a group of officers standing around in a parking lot when someone fired rubber bullets at them. "They're sighting us in, dude," one of the crew says in the video posted by CBS reporter Michael George, after the bullets came closer. Michael Adams, a reporter for VICE News recorded himself being pepper-sprayed by police in Minneapolis while he was on the ground.

One night earlier, TV reporter Kaitlin Rust was reporting live from a protest in Louisville, Kentucky, when she was hit by a pepper ball fired by an armor-clad police officer who appeared to be targeting her repeatedly.

The president said other jurisdictions facing protesters should follow Minneapolis' example.

On Sunday, Trump tweeted: "Get tough Democrat Mayors and Governors. Other Democrat run Cities and States should look at the total shutdown of Radical Left Anarchists in Minneapolis last night."

The president's call to arms against unruly people was underscored by the attorney general, who issued a statement declaring it was "time to stop watching the violence and to confront and stop it."

Barr blamed "outside radicals and agitators" for "exploiting the situation to pursue their own separate, violent extremist agenda." In Minnesota, local officials had made similar claims over the weekend, though arrest records show those charged were overwhelmingly from the area.

The Trump administration sought to blame an anti-fascist movement called antifa for the violence, though the available evidence for that claim is sparse. For several years, conservative groups have said antifa is a growing and pernicious criminal organization; people who have studied self-described antifa activists say it is a very small, scattered group of individuals without an organizational structure or leader.

"The United States of America will be designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organization," Trump declared in a tweet, though there is no mechanism in federal law to brand domestic groups terrorists the same way the government can do so for foreign terrorist groups.

In pushing for a tougher approach to violent protesters, Barr said he had tasked the FBI's joint terrorism task forces - large teams of investigators from agencies whose mission is to investigate terrorism suspects - to "identify criminal organizers and instigators" around the protests.

 READ MORE: As Philly protests descended into chaos, police restraint was no match for volatility

Video clips from the weekend showed that in some instances, police used force to clear streets, regardless of who was there or what they were doing.

"I've covered protests involving police in Ferguson, Mo., Baton Rouge, La., Dallas and Los Angeles. I've also covered the U.S. military in war zones, including Iraq and Afghanistan. I have never been fired at by police until tonight," wrote Los Angeles Times reporter Molly Hennessy-Fiske, who said she had been shot with at least one rubber bullet by Minnesota State Patrol officers while standing on a street in Minneapolis.

"Where do we go?" Hennessy-Fiske said she yelled at the officers, asking for them to direct her and a group of other journalists to safety. "None of the officers responded. Instead, they chased us along the wall and into a corner." Hennessy-Fiske said she escaped after scaling a wall, with two bloody wounds to her leg.

Col. Matt Langer, head of the Minnesota State Patrol, acknowledged that the actions by his officers "aren't particularly pretty" but called them necessary.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, agreed.

"I supported the actions that were out there. I gave the order to go with them," said Walz, who added that the use of force toward reporters was "unacceptable."

Many of the protests have been peaceful, but the violence escalated in many major U.S. cities on Friday and Saturday nights, when stores were looted and some demonstrators threw firecrackers, bottles, bleach and a molotov cocktail at police, according to officials.

Dozens of police have been injured, according to news reports. In Philadelphia on Saturday night, police said an officer on a bicycle was run over by a car as he tried to stop looters, suffering a broken arm. In Ferguson, Missouri - the epicenter of similar protests in 2014 - all nonessential personnel were evacuated from police headquarters after protesters throwing rocks and fireworks injured four officers, county police said.

 READ MORE: Were sick of it: Anger over police killings shatters U.S.

The level of anger and violence in a number of these cities has been really challenging for the police, said Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, a nonprofit group. He said the events of the past week were more widespread, and angrier, than the protests in 2014. It feels we havent seen this level of national violence in a long time.

Wexler said that the coronavirus pandemic has posed a new difficulty for police. Historically, he said, police are trained to focus on mask-wearers in any crowd, as a way of identifying potential troublemakers among peaceful protesters. Now, however, mask-wearing is widespread among protesters, giving would-be criminals more camouflage, and making officers more nervous.

Steven Casstevens, president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, said he hoped that "as each day goes by, the anger and the riots will likely go down."

"I ask people to put themselves in the law enforcement officer's position in these scary situations," he said. "People are throwing bottles and bricks and all sorts of things at you and at the same time, they're expecting you to just stand there, take this abuse, and not react. There comes a point where officers have to protect themselves and protect other people around them."

On Friday night in Oakland, California, two federal security officers were shot outside a government building, killing one and critically wounding the other, officials said.

In many cities, mayors had imposed curfews Saturday night. These, in theory, were supposed to weed out the peaceful protesters, because they would go home. That would allow police to isolate a smaller group of disruptive lawbreakers.

The situation on the ground in Minneapolis & St. Paul has shifted & the response tonight will be different as a result, the Minnesota Department of Public Safety posted on Twitter at about 6 p.m. local time Saturday. The coordinated . . . law enforcement presence will triple in size to address a sophisticated network of urban warfare.

But in Minneapolis, protesters said there was another effect: After the curfew, police began to treat everyone on the street as someone engaged in "urban warfare," regardless of their behavior.

Three protesters said that, just after the curfew came into effect at 8 p.m., police fired tear gas at what had been a peaceful sit-in.

"Bus reinforcements came by, and a lot of officers just came at us firing tear gas," said a student from Macalester College, who gave his name only as Nate. "No reason for it, completely unprovoked attack on a completely peaceful sit-in protest."

These actions - and videos showing lines of officers in riot gear in several cities - seemed to defy the crowd-control tactics recommended by policing groups. They have recommended that police avoid using armor-clad officers unless absolutely necessary.

Instead, police groups have recommended sending out officers in their regular uniforms, at least at first.

The logic is that - when police don their armor - it can reduce officers' inhibitions about using force, since they are harder to identify by name. And it can also make protesters more likely to turn violent, since it dehumanizes the officers they are attacking.

"It's not just that they lead to a certain amount of impunity among the police. It's that they actually escalate the likelihood that people will attack them," said Alex Vitale, a professor at Brooklyn College who has studied the policing of protests for 20 years. "It's a magnet. It's a magnet for violence."

In New York, video posted to social media showed two police SUVs driving into a crowd of protesters after the protesters blocked their way and pelted them with water bottles. It was unclear whether anyone was injured.

Afterward, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat, said that the incident was under investigation, but that he would not criticize police officers facing such an "impossible situation."

"If those protesters had just gotten out of the way and not created an attempt to surround that vehicle, we would not be talking about this," de Blasio said on local television station NY1.

He added: "In a situation like that, it's a very, very tense situation. And imagine what it would be like, you're just trying to do your job and then you see hundreds of people converging upon you. I'm not going to blame officers who are trying to deal with an absolutely impossible situation," de Blasio said. "The folks who were converging on that police car did the wrong thing to begin with, and they created an untenable situation. I wish the officers had found a different approach. But let's begin at the beginning. The protesters in that video did the wrong thing to surround them, surround that police car, period."

Other New York-based politicians criticized the officers' actions: City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, a Democrat, called it "outrageous," and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., blasted de Blasio on Twitter.

"@NYCMayor your comments tonight were unacceptable," Ocasio-Cortez said. "This moment demands leadership & accountability from each of us. Defending and making excuses for NYPD running SUVs into crowds was wrong."

The aggressive response in these cities was not the rule everywhere. In Camden, New Jersey, the county police chief marched with protesters decrying Floyd's death. In Flint, Michigan, Gennessee County Sheriff Chris Swanson did the same, in a moment captured on video. He told protesters, "I want to make this a parade, not a protest,"

In Baltimore, during a protest at police headquarters, one person carried a sign listing the names of African Americans killed by police. In a moment captured on video by Baltimore Sun reporter Pamela Wood, a police lieutenant read the names aloud.

"Oscar Grant," read Lt. Peter Heron, who was wearing a uniform but no riot gear. Grant was killed by a California transit police officer in 2009, shot as Grant lay on the floor of an Oakland train station.

"Next name!" the crowd shouted back.

"Keith Scott," Heron read. Scott was killed by police in Charlotte, North Carolina, in 2016.

"Next name!"

After Heron finished reading, Wood reported, the protesters moved on and shook hands with some officers.
Mennonites believe in pacifism, reserve baptism for adults and oppose military service. They belong to a Protestant denomination and trace their origins to the Anabaptists, a radical 16th-century sect of the Reformation originating in Switzerland. Their name comes from Menno Simons, a Dutch Roman Catholic priest who joined the Anabaptists.Some Old Order Mennonites eschew technology, cars and dress in plain clothes like the Amish, who separated from the Mennonites in the 17th century. There are some differences. The Amish worship at home and men grow beards without moustaches after they marry.I guess its a little like you go down the highway and one vehicle says Ford and the other says Dodge, and they might all come out of the same assembly line, Bishop Marvin said. But as far as the foundation, or the fundaments of the faith, its not that much different.The Old Order Stauffer Mennonite Church formed in 1845. Today, they number about 2,000 in Pennsylvania, 500 of them in Lancaster County, said Steven Nolt, senior scholar at the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania.The Stauffer Mennonites are probably the most technologically restrictive of any of the Old Order groups, so their means of communication has always been very much face-to-face. They need to be together in order to communicate, Nolan said. Being apart was probably really hard for them.During Sunday worship, Bishop Marvin said their time apart from each other gave parents a chance to read Scripture with their children at home. But he acknowledged challenges. His mother died at age 95 on April 2, and the community couldnt gather for a large funeral service.__Rules on houses of worship have varied from state to state. Gov. Tom Wolfs stay-at-home order in Pennsylvania effectively exempted religious activity, although it strongly discouraged gatherings.The guidance said religious leaders were encouraged to find alternatives to in-person gatherings and to avoid endangering their congregants.Other congregations adapted. The Groffdale Conference Old Order Mennonites used landline phones as an alternative to their in-person worship, cancelled for the first time in more than a century.I can remember my great grandparents talking about the 1918 flu, the Spanish flu, when the churches were closed for three months. There were no funerals, and a lot of people died, said Aaron Hurst, a congregant who owns a hardware store.The conference call worship was launched with the help of Elvin Hoover. From his home office overlooking the Conestoga River, he receives faxes offering farm products, masks and other services. He then announces the news in Pennsylvania Dutch through a phone line that reaches hundreds in his community. Church service became so popular, he said, that on a Sunday, it jammed the local phone exchange.The sheep were hungry! he said. We miss church. Oh, do we miss church.Modern orders like the Akron Mennonite Church used video conferencing for the first time during Sunday worship. Co-pastor Rachel Nolan began the May 3 service by lighting a candle. After a reading, she divided the congregation into virtual breakout rooms and asked them to reflect on the Scripture.How did you hear it differently because of our current situation? she asked. A couple shared their experience after they contracted the coronavirus. Others prayed for a boy who was going to undergo surgery, and a woman diagnosed with cancer.The service ended with Nolan saying: And so let us go with hope, transforming ourselves to transform the world, to which all responded: Trusting in the God who brings life from places of death.At the Stauffer Mennonite Church, the service ended when men, women and children turned around on their seats in unison and knelt on the wooden floor. With their eyes shut, hands cupped around their temples and foreheads pressed against the pews, they recited the Lords Prayer, together but prayerfully isolated.__Associated Press writer Marc Levy in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, contributed to this report.__Associated Press religion coverage receives support from the Lilly Endowment through the Religion News Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for this content.Luis Andres Henao And Jessie Wardarski, The Associated Press
The Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council (GPCC) says churches are ready to organise as many as 10 services a day if the restriction on public gathering is lifted.



According to the President of GPCC, Rev Prof Paul Frimpong-Manso, the church is prepared to apply on the precaution measures to resist the spread of COVID-19.



Prof Frimpong Manso, who is also the General Superintendent of Assemblies of God, Ghana revealed this during an interview with Power Fms News anchor Daakyehene Ofosu Agyeman on whether the church is ready for service if President Akufo-Addo lifts the restrictions.



Prof Frimpong Manso referring to the Bible quoted Hebrews 10:25



not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.



He therefore appealed to the government to formulate safety guidelines for churches to pave way for them to resume worship activities.



The call comes as the ban on all public gatherings including church services remains in force.



He disclosed further that churches have proper structures and the capacity to roll out effective social distancing and safety measures unlike the market places and other business centres which have a challenge adhering to safety etiquettes.



Prof Frimpong Manso said You see the ban was on social gathering but we have parliament meetingin the markets, they say social distancing but markets sometimes are crowded so if we can have people meeting at the market and parliament is meeting, recently chiefs were installing their traditional leaders which was not the best, so I think preventing church and asking church members not to meet is not the best."



At this time were all helping to put in some mechanisms so we are expecting that in the shortest possible time, churches should be able to meet but with certain conditions in place."



"For instance, the church should not be full to 100 percent capacity but will be divided for instance a church with capacity of 1,000 can divide themselves into about five to 10 services having sanitisers and putting in place all the necessary protocols and some guidelines to govern the running of the church.

Source: ghanaweb.com









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Featured Video
Evgen_Prozhyrko/iStockBy ELLA TORRES, WILLIAM MANSELL, CHRISTINA CARREGA and IVAN PEREIRA, ABC News

(MINNEAPOLIS) -- The death of George Floyd, a black man who was seen pinned down in a video by a white police officer and later died, has caused outrage in the city of Minneapolis and across the United States. What started as mostly peaceful protests at the beginning of the week has turned into chaos.



City leaders have pleaded with communities to voice their outrage in a lawful manner, but the widespread escalation of protests continued Friday night into Saturday.



Murder and manslaughter charges have been filed against Derek Chauvin, one of the four officers at the scene who were all fired. The Department of Justice has said a full investigation of the incident is a "top priority."



Prosecutors said Chauvin, who was the officer seen in video pressing his knee against Floyd's neck, had his knee on Floyd's neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds. Floyd was unresponsive for two minutes and 53 seconds of the encounter.



This story will be updated as protests continue throughout the country. Please check back for updates. All times Eastern.



6:12 p.m.: Sen. Kamala Harris attends protest in front of White House



Sen. Kamala Harris joined protesters in front of the White House Saturday afternoon.



Harris posted a video to her Twitter of herself in the crowd with people chanting, "Hands up. Don't shoot."



Harris, who is considered among presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Bidens top choices for vice president, could be seen clapping during the chants.



"People are in pain. We must listen," Harris tweeted.



Her communications director, Sabrina Singh, also tweeted that Harris was in attendance. Singh wrote that Harris was "advocating for people to be heard."



6:06 p.m.: Columbus mayor implements curfew



A curfew from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. has been implemented in Columbus, Ohio, Mayor Andrew Ginther said.



"We respect, value and welcome the right to protest," Ginther tweeted. "This curfew is not intended to stifle peaceful protest but to protect our people."



At least six governors -- in Minnesota, Ohio, Georgia, Colorado, Wisconsin and Kentucky -- have activated the National Guard as protests continue to spread.



Most cited keeping the public safe as their reason for doing so.





5:30 p.m.: Majority of people arrested for rioting were from Minnesota, jail records show



The majority of those jailed in Minnesota on charges of unlawful assembly, riot and/or damage to property charges were from the state, jail records show.



From May 29 to May 30, there were a total of 35 people jailed on those charges. Of those 35 people, only four were from out of state.



State and local leaders have stressed that many of the people causing destruction or inciting violence were from out of state.



The people arrested not from Minnesota were from Michigan, Missouri, Illinois and Alaska, according to jail records.



The jail records only show arrests for the Minneapolis Police Department and don't include arrests on charges, such as burglary, a charge police said people related to the protests were arrested on.



Other agencies, including the St. Paul Police Department, also made arrests. St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter said everyone arrested in his city last night was from out of town.



4:53 p.m.: Atlanta police prepared to make arrests during protests



The Atlanta Police Department is gearing up to make arrests for any criminal activity following destructive protest throughout the city.



The department announced in a press release that it will not tolerate the looting and damage to property that occurred on Friday night and Saturday morning that led to 71 arrests, damage to 20 police vehicles, including two that are total losses, multiple fires, vandalism and other criminal acts as well as a number of businesses that were looted, burglarized or damaged.



Atlanta officers, assisted by about 20 local, state and federal agencies, are prepared to monitor activity and protect vulnerable business districts and retail centers.



Police Chief Erika Shields said police were "patient" despite three officers suffering minor injuries and hours of getting objects thrown at them, including water bottles, bullets, eggs, rocks, fireworks and knives.



"But we will not allow these protests to devolve into the destruction of property or placing the safety or our officers in jeopardy. We will make additional arrests and we are grateful to the assistance we are receiving from our partner agencies," said Shields.

4:29 p.m.: Denver announces curfew this weekend



Denver Mayor Michael Hancock announced an 8 p.m. curfew for this weekend.



Hancock said the National Guard has been activated by Gov. Jared Polis to help enforce the rule.



Essential travel is exempt.



These measures come in the wake of two straight nights of intense, and sometimes violent, protests in the city regarding the death of George Floyd.



4:11 p.m.: 2 NY sisters arrested, 1 charged with attempted murder



Two sisters from the Catskills, New York, are charged with throwing a Molotov cocktail at a police vehicle with four NYPD officers inside near Brooklyn Museum Friday night.



Samantha Shader was charged with four counts of attempted murder, attempted arson, assault, reckless endangerment and criminal possession of a weapon. Darian Shader was charged with resisting arrest and obstruction of governmental administration, both misdemeanors.



The Shader sisters are awaiting arraignment at Brooklyn Criminal Court on Saturday. If convicted, 27-year-old Samantha Shader faces a minimum of 25 years in prison.



Attorney information was not available.



3:52 p.m.: Minneapolis police's protest plans kept under wraps

After 27 arrests, 23 fires and 131 calls to police for shots fired, Minneapolis police have not announced any new plans on how they will handle the ongoing protests any differently.



"We are not going to let a group of people hijack this city," Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo said Saturday.



Arradondo made the promise to residents, but did not share any new tactics his officers will be using tonight to make sure that doesn't happen.



"Over the last 72 hours, so much has been occurring," said Arrandondo, adding, 'We were overwhelmed, quite frankly."



Since Thursday evening, there have been widespread violence, destruction and fires throughout the Twin Cities. Over 380 people called to report burglaries, business alarms and damage to property.



Arrandondo said they are working with legitimate community groups who are holding peaceful protests in order to help separate those designed to incite violence.



Arrandondo seems to be hoping the National Guard will secure areas that have been the site of much of the destruction so MPD officers can go back to answering other calls throughout the community.

3:00 p.m.: 533 arrests, 6 police officers injured in Los Angeles



Six police officers were injured and 533 people were arrested during protests throughout Los Angeles, California, Friday and early Saturday morning, police said.



The hundreds of arrested were charged with burglary, looting, probation violations, battery on a police officer, attempted murder and failure to disperse, police said. All but 18 of the arrested have been released on their own recognizance.



The officers sustained non-life-threatening injuries ranging from lacerations to impact wounds.



"While more protests are slated for various locations throughout the city today, we remain hopeful those demonstrations will be peaceful. The Department will be deploying additional resources to maintain order and ensure the safety and security of not only individuals exercising their first amendment rights but also the residents and businesses in our community," said Los Angeles Police Department Chief Michael Moore.



2:15 p.m.: Attorney General Barr comments on 'radical' protests



Attorney General William Barr warned protesters with ANTIFA and radical ties that they are committing a federal crime.



"Peaceful protests are being drowned out by violent radical elements," said Barr at a brief press conference on Saturday.



Barr noted that there are people with what he called, 'ANTIFA-like tactics,' who are traveling from outside of the area, to participate in protests coordinated as peaceful demonstrations.



Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz announced that they are investigating whether outsiders, including white supremacists, are inciting riots.



"It is a federal crime to cross state lines to participate" in these violent crimes, said Barr.



1:56 p.m.: Public safety alert issued for Ohio



The Columbus Ohio Police Department issued an emergency alert on Saturday afternoon urging people to stay out of the downtown area for their "safety and the safety of others."



The alert comes a day after at least five people were arrested, five officers were injured and several businesses were destroyed during protests, WSYX-TV reported.



1:35 p.m.: Atlanta's mayor denounces protests that turned to 'destruction'

"What we saw overnight was not a protest, and it was not Atlanta ... We know our citizens are angry. We are angry and we want justice," said Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms in a statement on Saturday.



Friday night's protest in Atlanta, Georgia, started out as "a peaceful demonstration, quickly turned into mayhem and unnecessary destruction, and ultimately an assault on businesses that are already struggling to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic," said Lance Bottoms.



The protests were a result of the most recent police-involved killings of African Americans across the country as well as the murder of Ahmaud Arbery who was shot while jogging on Feb. 23 in Satilla Shores, Georgia.



The city's Department of Public Works have been cleaning up the streets, the Department of Transportation is removing graffiti and the National Guard has been contacted for assistance in order to "help our city recover," said Lance Bottoms.



"If we are to enact change in this nation, I implore everyone to channel their anger and sorrow into something more meaningful and effective through non-violent activism," said Lance Bottoms.



1:16 p.m.: A federal officer died, another injured in California

One Federal Protective Service officer has died, and another was wounded Friday night, the FBI said in a statement to ABC News.



As an arm of the Department of Homeland Security., FPS officers are responsible for protecting federal buildings across the country.



A car pulled up to the building and started firing, according to the FBI.



The agency doesn't say if the incident was related to protests in the city.



22 people were arrested during demonstrations in the Oakland Friday night, according to authorities.



The Department of Homeland Security has not responded to ABC News' request for comment



12:18 p.m.: A mayor in Mississippi faces backlash for 'breathe' comments

The mayor of Petal, Mississippi, is facing backlash and calls for him to resign after justifying former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for keeping his knee on George Floyd's neck.



"If you can say you can't breathe, you're breathing," Mayor Hal Marx wrote on his now deactivated Twitter account on May 26 -- the same day Chauvin was seen on a 10-minute video kneeling on Floyd.



Similar remarks were made after former NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo was seen on video using an alleged unauthorized chokehold to allegedly kill Eric Garner in 2014. Garner's last words, "I can't breathe" became a national rallying cry against police violence.



Marx defended his remarks on Twitter, and his deactivated Facebook page as misinterpretations.



The Petal Board of Aldermen held a special meeting on Thursday, voting unanimously to ask for Marx's resignation, The Clarion Ledger reported.



Marx has refused to step aside.



10:58 a.m.: NYPD arrested over 200 during protests



Demonstrations throughout New York City Friday night resulted in the arrest of over 200, including one person in Brooklyn who had a loaded gun and a woman who was armed with a lit Molotov cocktail.



More than 3000 demonstrators gathered in Foley Square and outside Barclays Center, police said.



At the height of the protests, 37 patrol cars were vandalized with graffiti and broken windows, a police van was set on fire and a Molotov cocktail was thrown into an occupied police car -- the officers inside were not hurt.



There were more than a dozen officers injured, ranging from teeth knocked out to shoulder and head injuries.



10:47 a.m.: 1,000 more National Guard service members activated in Minnesota



Governor Tim Walz announced on Saturday morning that an additional thousand members of the National Guard will be deployed to "support civil authorities" during protests over the murder of George Floyd.



"Our communities of color, our business community were out front fighting hand in hand to save businesses it took a decade to build," said Walz during a press conference Saturday morning.



Protests turned violent with fires set across the city, objects were thrown at the police and dozens have been arrested, officials said. Over 700 soldiers and air service members' duty were activated overnight.



What's happening in the city is in "no way about the murder of George Floyd it's about attacking civil society and installing fear," said Walz.



"We cannot as members of the community tolerate that," said Minneapolis Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington at a press conference on Saturday.



Officials said only about 20% of the rioters are Minnesota residents.



Walz noted that practicing First Amendment rights should also involve practicing COVID-19 guidelines, but "the folks that are gathering out there ... the masks were worn to disguise, to cause confusion and take advantage of that situation."



"The Minnesota National Guard is prepared to protect life, protect property and restore order," according to a press release by the state's National Guard.



9:24 a.m.: FBI director calls George Floyd investigation "a top priority"



ABC News has obtained a message to FBI employees sent by FBI Director Chris Wray, on Friday. In it, Wray said the investigation into the circumstances surrounding George Floyd's death "is a top priority, and experienced prosecutors and FBI agents have been assigned to the matter." He said the investigation "will determine whether the actions by the former Minneapolis police officers involved in this incident violated federal law."



He also wrote about how damaging the failure to honor the rights of citizens, particularly those in custody, can be.



"Law enforcement officers have indispensable and often dangerous jobs, but that doesn't diminish the crucial, overarching role we play in society  to protect and serve all citizens no matter their race, creed, orientation, or station in life. This, of course, includes those citizens who are in law enforcement custody," Wray said.



"When we fail to honor their rights, we not only tarnish the badge we wear, we completely erode the trust so many of us in law enforcement work so hard to build, particularly within minority communities. The events this past week in Minneapolis clearly illustrate just how quickly that trust can be lost," the message stated."



8:41 a.m.: White House protesters would have been met with "most vicious dogs," "most ominous weapons," president tweets



President Trump fired off a series of tweets Saturday morning praising the Secret Service after protesters marched in front of the White House Friday night.



"They were not only totally professional, but very cool," he president tweeted. "They let the "protesters" scream & rant as much as they wanted..." he wrote.



The president also wrote that if protestors had become "too frisky" or "got out of line," "they would quickly come down on them," he wrote. He also tweeted that if protesters had breached the White House fence, they would have been "greeted with the most vicious dogs, and most ominous weapons, I have ever seen."



He also took a jab at D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser. "On the bad side, the D.C. Mayor, @MurielBowser, who is always looking for money & help, wouldn't let the D.C. Police get involved. "Not their job." Nice!," the president tweeted.



8:19 a.m.: FBI issues statement on Oakland shooting



The Federal Bureau of Investigation issued a statement after one person was killed, and another injured in a shooting at that took place while protests were happening in Oakland, California. FBI San Francisco and Oakland police are investigating, but it is unknown yet if the shooting is connected to the protest.



"FBI San Francisco and the Oakland Police Department are investigating a shooting that occurred at the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building at 1301 Clay Street in Oakland, California.," the statement read. "At approximately 9:45pm on Friday, May 29, 2020, a vehicle approached the building. An individual inside the vehicle began firing gunshots at contract security officers for the Federal Protective Service of the Department of Homeland Security. One officer was killed and another was injured," according to the statement.

"The FBI has deployed investigators and the Evidence Response Team to the crime scene. We will continue to work this investigation alongside the Oakland Police Department," the statement continued.



7:24 a.m.: Portland mayor declares State of Emergency



Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler announced Saturday morning that he's declaring a State of Emergency in the city following the destructive unrest in the wake of the death of Floyd.



He also announced the city has a curfew in effect until 6 a.m. local time Saturday and will begin again at 8 p.m.



"Burning buildings with people inside, stealing from small and large businesses, threatening and harassing reporters. All in the middle of a pandemic where people have already lost everything," Wheeler said in a statement Saturday. "This isn't calling for meaningful change in our communities, this is disgusting."



Overnight the Portland Police Department declared the protest as a riot after "significant vandalism" was reported and a fire was set inside the city's Justice Center. Police said there was also a shooting connected to the protest.



Police said large sections of downtown were closed and that protesters should "disperse now or you will be subject to gas, projectiles, and other means necessary for dispersal."



5:43 a.m.: 1 dead in Detroit after person opens fire on protesters from vehicle



One person is dead in Detroit after a vehicle drove up on people protesting the death of Floyd and opened fire, according to authorities.



A gray Dodge Durango pulled up and fired into the crowd, hitting a 19-year-old man who later died at the hospital, a Detroit Police Department spokesperson told ABC affiliate WXYZ.



Detroit Police Chief James Craig said the violence and destruction overnight is not what the city of Detroit is about.



"This does not represent the vast major of Detroiters who came here to make a statement," Craig said during a press conference Friday night. "We support the message, but let's do it peacefully."



He said many of the people taunting police officers and trying to incite violence have come from outside the city to sow chaos.



"We know that the individuals from outside the city of Detroit who converged at the protest location don't represent this city. They are not from this city," Craig said. "Let's peacefully protest, but outside of that, we're not going to tolerate it. We're not going to tolerate criminal acts."



4:26 a.m.: 'Prudent' to have Army units ready to deploy to Minnesota, governor says

As fires raged and protests escalated even further throughout Minneapolis Saturday morning, local and state officials said getting the chaos under control will take a response never before seen in the state because "there's simply more of them than us."



Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said at least 1,000 additional Minnesota National Guard troops would be activated Saturday, and even then, that might not be enough.



"You may have seen or heard that, this evening, the president directed the Pentagon to put units of United States Army on alert to possible operation in Minneapolis," Maj. General John Jensen, Adjutant General of the Minnesota National Guard, said during a press conference Saturday. "While we were not consulted with, as it relates to that, I do believe it's a prudent move to provide other options available for the governor, if the governor elects to use those resources."



Walz said it's more complicated than just saying yes and deploying them now because the move to have federal troops patrolling in Minneapolis would be something never before seen in the state.



"I spoke with President Trump the other night, I think it is prudent to have them ready for us to exhaust all resources that we need," Walz said Saturday.



Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Walz angrily took to the podium Saturday morning to ask those setting fires, attacking officers and looting businesses to stop.



"We as a city can be so much better than this," Frey said at the press conference Saturday. "There is no honor in burning down your city. There is no pride in looting local businesses that have become institutions of a neighborhood."



He said people, especially during a pandemic, are counting on grocery stores being open to get groceries, pharmacies to get needed medicine and banks to get money.



"If you care about your community, you got to put this to an end; it needs to stop," Frey said.



Walz said the tragedy of Floyd's death has morphed into "an unprecedented threat to our state," where those causing destruction have no regard to property or life.



Dozens of arrests were made on Friday, but an official total has not been released for the city. In one instance, shots were fired at law enforcement officers overnight.



1:48 a.m.: Shots fired at law enforecment officers in Minnesota



Shots were fired at law enforcement officers in Minneapolis early Saturday morning near the police department's Fifth Precinct, according to Minnesota State Police. No officers are believed to have been hit.



Following the shots, authorities warned residents to leave the area immediately or they would be arrested.



The Minnesota Department of Public Safety said there are 350 officers and troopers in the area and "officers have arrested several people who ignored multiple dispersal orders."



Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz pleaded with protesters overnight to go home.



"Minnesotans, please go home. Its time to restore peace on our streets and in our neighborhoods," Walz said in a statement. "The situation has become dangerous for Minnesotans and first responders."



Protesters took over the Minnesota Police Department's Third Precinct building late Thursday night and ignited several fires.



12:58 a.m.: LAPD asks residents to stay inside, businesses to close in downtown LA



The Los Angeles Police Department has asked downtown Los Angeles residents to stay inside and for all businesses to close due to the escalating protests in the city.



"We have declared an unlawful assembly throughout downtown LA," the department said in a statement Friday. The areas impacted are from the 10 Freeway to the 101 Highway and the 110 Freeway to Alameda.



"This is being made following repeated acts of violence & property damage," LAPD said. "Those on the street are to leave the area."



The department previously asked people to avoid downtown Los Angeles Friday, including nearby side streets and freeways.



12:27 a.m.: Georgia issues State of Emergency, activates National Guard



Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp announced Friday night that he has issued a State of Emergency for Fulton County, where protests have turned violent in downtown Atlanta. He also announced that he's activating 500 Georgia National Guard members.



"At the request of Mayor @KeishaBottoms & in consultation with public safety & emergency preparedness officials, I have issued a State of Emergency for Fulton County to activate as many as 500 @GeorgiaGuard troops to protect people & property in Atlanta," Kemp tweeted Friday.



He said the troops would deploy immediately to help local and state law enforcement officials get control of the "unlawful activity" and to "restore peace."



"We will continue to make all state resources available to local leaders during this emergency situation," he said.



10:21 p.m.: Protests grow violent in Brooklyn



Protests over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis erupted Friday night in Brooklyn where there have been at least 150 arrests, police sources told ABC News.



The protest outside Barclays Center, the home of the NBA's Brooklyn Nets, began peacefully, but drew what police sources described as professional agitators and turned ugly.



There were more than 100 protesters detained outside the arena, mainly for throwing bottles and other disturbances.



Protesters moved toward two police precincts in northern Brooklyn, the 88th Precinct in Fort Green and the 79th Precinct in Bedford-Stuyvesant. Along the way, a police van was set on fire and several cruisers were defaced with graffiti and broken windows.



Some 500 demonstrators massed outside the 88 Precinct, where the van was set on fire. There were about 40 arrests there.



Some demonstrators made it inside the 79 Precinct but were immediately arrested



There have been about a dozen officers hurt so far in clashes with the protesters.



9:21 p.m.: Atlanta sees violence spark outside CNN



A protest in Atlanta grew violent this evening as a handful of protesters began smashing the doors to CNN Headquarters just after 8 p.m., according to Atlanta ABC affiliate WSB.



After defacing the outside of the news network's HQ and lighting a police car on fire, protesters began throwing objects at police who are inside the buildings lobby. Police were holding a line with shields.

"Above everything else, I am a mother. I am a mother to four black children in America, one of whom is 18 years old," Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said at a press conference Friday night. "When i saw the murder of George Floyd I hurt like a mother would hurt. And yesterday when I heard about rumors of violent protests in Atlanta, I did what a mother would do, I called my son and said, 'Where are you?' I cannot protect you and black boys should not be out today."



"So you're not gonna out-concern me or out-care about where we are in America," she added. "I wear this each and every day and I pray over my children each and every day."

8:19 p.m.: Protest outside White House draws Secret Service



A protest this evening in Lafayette Park just north of the White House has drawn the assistance of the Secret Service.



Chants of "Let him breathe," and, "don't shoot," could be heard.



The U.S. Secret Service tweeted, "Secret Service personnel are currently assisting other law enforcement agencies during a demonstration in Lafayette Park. In the interest of public safety we encourage all to remain peaceful."

5:31 p.m.: Trump says he spoke to Floyd's family



Trump told reporters at a business roundtable event Friday afternoon that he had spoken to the family of George Floyd, four days after his death.



"I spoke to members of the family. Terrific people. And well be reporting as time goes by. We think that well also have to make the statement," Trump said. "Its very important, I believe, to the family, to everybody that the memory of George Floyd be a perfect memory -- let it be a perfect memory."



The president also took the chance to emphasize peaceful protests, following controversial tweets earlier Friday in which he said "when the looting starts the shooting starts."



"Its very important that we have peaceful protesters and support the rights for peaceful protesters. We cant allow a situation like happened in Minneapolis to descend further into lawless anarchy and chaos, and we understand that very well," the president said. "The looters should not be allowed to drown out the voices of so many peaceful protesters."



4:21 p.m.: Minneapolis, St. Paul enforce curfew



Gov. Tim Walz has said a curfew will be in place starting Friday night from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. on Saturday in the entire Twin Cities region.



No one will be allowed in the streets in public except for first responders and media. The curfew will also be in place Saturday night at 8 p.m. to Sunday 6 a.m.



"It's time to rebuild our community and that starts with safety in our streets," Walz said in a statement. "Thousands of Minnesotans have expressed their grief and frustration in a peaceful manner. But the unlawful and dangerous actions of others, under the cover of darkness, has caused irreversible pain and damage to our community. This behavior has compromised the safety of bystanders, businesses, lawful demonstrators, and first responders. Now, we come together to restore the peace."



Officers will arrest those who do not comply, Walz said.



Earlier, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey had already issued a curfew order for the city for the same times.

3:40 p.m.: Prosecutors reveal more details about charges on former officer



The Hennepin County Attorney released the full criminal complaint for former officer Derek Chauvin.



The 44-year-old officer who was filmed putting his knee on Floyd's neck faces a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison for third-degree murder charges and a maximum of 10 years behind bars for manslaughter charges.



"Derek Michael Chauvin caused the death of George Floyd by his culpable negligence, creating an unreasonable risk and taking a chance of causing death or great bodily harm to George Floyd," the complaint read.



"The defendant had his knee on Mr. Floyds neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds in total. Two minutes and 53 seconds of this was after Mr. Floyd was non-responsive," according to the complaint.



3:07 p.m.: Floyd's family responds to former officer's arrest



While they said they were pleased with that he was apprehended, they said they expected first-degree murder charges.



"We call on authorities to revise the charges to reflect the true culpability of this officer," they said in a statement.



The family also asked for the remaining three officers to be arrested and charged.



2:28 p.m.: Trump tweets against looting



President Trump again doubled down on his earlier remarks about the ongoing protests.



He tweeted again that "looting leads to shooting" citing "what just happened with 7 people shot." In Minneapolis.



"I don't want this to happen, and that's what the expression put out last night means," he tweeted



2:26 p.m.: Bill Barr releases statement on Floyd death



Attorney General Bill Barr said the Department of Justice and FBI are conducting an independent investigation to determine whether any federal civil rights laws were violated in George Floyd's death.



"The video images of the incident that ended with death of Mr. Floyd, while in custody of Minneapolis police officers, were harrowing to watch and deeply disturbing," he said in a statement.



Barr said the state's charging decisions will be made first.

1:22 p.m.: Officer arrested in connection with Floyds death



Derek Chauvin, one of the four former officers fired for their involvement in George Floyds death, has been taken into custody by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, according to Department of Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington.



Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman is scheduled to give a news conference on developments in the case at 2 p.m.



1:09 p.m.: Cops warn of anarchists infiltrating protests



ABC News obtained a police bulletin issued to the Philadelphia Police Department and the Delaware Valley Intelligence Center that warned that anarchists and other groups are calling on their supporters to commit acts of violence against police officers in light of the protests in Minneapolis.



The bulletin said there have been several social media posts calling for looting and civil disobedience as well as other acts of violence.



"Domestic extremists, including anarchist extremists and other anti-government extremists, are using the unrest in Minneapolis to amplify and justify their calls for dismantling law enforcement agencies and carrying out attacks on law enforcement, government, and capitalist targets, the bulletin said.



The bulletin stressed that non-violent protests are legal and protected by the Constitution.



"Anarchist extremists may be attracted to this call to action and engage in direct action against law enforcement property, such as buildings and vehicles, in order to draw attention to their cause," it said.



12:56 p.m.: Obama offers statement on George Floyd of our darkest chapters'



Former President Barack Obama issued a statement on social media about Floyd's death and the subsequent protests in Minneapolis.



"This shouldn't be 'normal' in 2020 America," he wrote. "It can't be 'normal.' If we want our children to grow up in a nation that lives up to its highest ideals, we can and must be better."



Obama said it is up to Minnesota officials to ensure that Floyd's death is fully investigated and justice is ultimately done, however, he encouraged people "to work together to create a 'new normal' in which the legacy of bigotry and unequal treatment no longer infects our institutions or our hearts."



12:40 p.m.: Governor calls on order to be restored after 'one of our darkest chapters'



Gov. Tim Walz called the death of George Floyd and the subsequent protests that took place have been "one of our darkest chapters." However, he said he refused to let those who caused destruction to Minneapolis "take away the attention of the stain that we need to be working on" and pleaded with the community to help restore order.



Walz said that the "looting and recklessness" that occurred was not caused by those who wanted justice for Floyd.



"We have to restore order to our society before we can start addressing the issues," the governor said, later calling one of the issues "fundamental institutional racism."



He said that he would not "patronize" the black community as a white man, but asked the community to "help us use a humane way to get the streets back to a place where we can restore justice."



Walz started off his press conference by acknowledging generations of pain and anguish that communities of color in America have experienced. He said that those communities have not been truly heard, "much like we failed to hear George Floyd as he pleaded for his life, as the world watched, by the people sworn to protect him, his community, our state."



The commissioner for the state's Department of Public Safety called Floyd's death "murder."



"That's what it looked like to me," Commissioner John Harrington said. His comment marked the first time a member of law enforcement call Floyd's death murder publicly.



Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison began his remarks by quoting Martin Luther King Jr., saying "riot is the way that the unheart get heard."



He said King urged people not to dismiss non-peaceful protests or relegate it as criminality, but ask what was really going on there.



Ellison said that protesters should not react to the National Guard in the way that may react to the Minneapolis Police Department. He noted they are two different agencies and "their job is trying to bring peace and calm back again."



Ellison said that although people continue to ask when justice will be served, he believes authorities understand that "the wheels of justice must turn swiftly."



He also said that while the investigation and criminal procedure for this case is important, it by no means addresses the root of these problems in this country.



"I think we're gonna do some real change.  We're not just gonna fix the windows and sweep up the glass. We're gonna fix the broken, shattered society that leaves so many behind."

11:10 a.m.: City is handling situation in 'best way that we can,' city council VP says



Minneapolis' city council vice president said the government is still adjusting to the situation, but is handling it "in the best way that we can given all of the chaos, all of the unrest, all of the anger and pain in this community."



City Council Vice President Andrea Jenkins told ABC News' Amy Robach on Friday that the city must take control of the situation and "restore some order back."



She also begged people not to gather in the streets, citing the pandemic and the damage that has been done in the last two nights. Jenkins said that the anger of the community has been expressed and she did not want further action to lead to injuries or loss of life.



"We can't allow this type of civic unrest to continue," she said.



Jenkins on Thursday called on city officials to declare racism a public health crisis.



"By declaring racism a public health emergency it provides us the opportunity to name the virus that has infected our American institutions for centuries but in addition, it gives us the opportunities to ... you cant really begin to cure a disease until you know what that disease is," she said. "Its an infectious disease just like the coronavirus and its not just Minneapolis."

11 a.m.: Trump says National Guard is in Minneapolis



President Donald Trump tweeted that the National Guard is now in Minneapolis.



"They are in Minneapolis and fully prepared," the president wrote. "George Floyd will not have died in vain. Respect his memory!!!"

The National Guard has arrived on the scene. They are in Minneapolis and fully prepared. George Floyd will not have died in vain. Respect his memory!!!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 29, 2020

Photos showed members of the National Guard in the streets of Minneapolis. Gov. Tim Walz signed an executive order Thursday activating the Minnesota National Guard after Wednesday night's destructive protests.

10:50 pm.: Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee and former Vice President Joe Biden said he was "furious" over President Donald Trump's tweet on the protests

"I will not lift the Presidents tweet. I will not give him that amplification. But he is calling for violence against American citizens during a moment of pain for so many. Im furious, and you should be too," Biden wrote.



Trump tweeted in the early morning hours of Friday that "when the looting starts, the shooting starts," referring to the protests. He also called protesters "thugs."

Enough.  Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) May 29, 2020

Biden said that he will be speaking more later today about the situation in Minneapolis. He also addressed a CNN crew being arrested.



"This is not abstract: a black reporter was arrested while doing his job this morning, while the white police officer who killed George Floyd remains free. I am glad swift action was taken, but this, to me, says everything," Biden said, with the swift action appearing to refer to their release.

10:20 a.m.: Melania Trump says there is 'no reason for violence'

First Lady Melania Trump said the nation needs to focus on healing and "there is no reason for violence."



"Our country allows for peaceful protests, but there is no reason for violence," she tweeted. "Ive seen our citizens unify & take care of one another through COVID19 & we cant stop now."



Trump also offered her "deepest condolences" to Floyd's family. "As a nation, let's focus on peace, prayers & healing," the first lady wrote.



Our country allows for peaceful protests, but there is no reason for violence. Ive seen our citizens unify & take care of one another through COVID19 & we cant stop now. My deepest condolences to the family of George Floyd. As a nation, let's focus on peace, prayers & healing.  Melania Trump (@FLOTUS) May 29, 2020

10:09 a.m.: City is handling situation in 'best way that we can,' city council VP says



Minneapolis' city council vice president said the government is still adjusting to the situation, but is handling it "in the best way that we can given all of the chaos, all of the unrest, all of the anger and pain in this community."



City Council Vice President Andrea Jenkins told ABC News' Amy Robach on Friday that the city must take control of the situation and "restore some order back."



She also begged people not to gather in the streets, citing the pandemic and the damage that has been done in the last two nights. Jenkins said that the anger of the community has been expressed and she did not want further action to lead to injuries or loss of life.



"We can't allow this type of civic unrest to continue," she said.



Jenkins on Thursday called on city officials to declare racism a public health crisis.



"By declaring racism a public health emergency it provides us the opportunity to name the virus that has infected our American institutions for centuries but in addition, it gives us the opportunities to ... you cant really begin to cure a disease until you know what that disease is. ... Its an infectious disease just like the coronavirus and its not just Minneapolis."

9:45 a.m.: Floyd family attorney calls CNN arrest 'hypocrisy'



Civil Rights Attorney Ben Crump, who is representing Floyd's family, said he was not surprised by the "hypocrisy" of police arresting a CNN crew, but not arresting "murderers from within its own ranks."



"These problems will require systematic change to start the healing process. It won't be easy, but it's essential," Crump wrote on Twitter.

If only I were surprised by this hypocrisy. Minneapolis PD arrests journalists but not murderers from within its own ranks. These problems will require systematic change to start the healing process. It wont be easy, but its essential. https://t.co/2wC3qxLWFT  Benjamin Crump, Esq. (@AttorneyCrump) May 29, 2020

6:59 a.m.: CNN reporter, crew arrested live on air



CNN reporter Omar Jimenez and his production crew were arrested in Minneapolis live on air Friday morning while reporting on the Floyd protests.



The news outlet is reporting that police said they were arrested because they were told to move and didn't.



"A CNN reporter & his production team were arrested this morning in Minneapolis for doing their jobs, despite identifying themselves - a clear violation of their First Amendment rights," CNN said in a statement Friday morning. "The authorities in Minnesota, incl. the Governor, must release the 3 CNN employees immediately."



Minnesota State Sen. Jeff Hayden phoned into CNN and said he just had a joint text with the governor and mayor and that they were just trying to get control of the area and weren't aware of the CNN reporter getting arrested.



"Hoping that we can figure it out," Hayden said.

6:44 a.m.: 70 arrested or summonsed in New York City during George Floyd protests



At least 70 people were arrested or summonsed during a series of protests that started in Union Square and spread through Lower Manhattan through Thursday night.



Most will be summonsed for obstruction of governmental administration and social distancing violations, but there will also be assault and weapon possession charges.



The protest began in Union Square after 3 p.m., Thursday but after that broke up, protests reemerged at Foley Square courthouses, City Hall and Zuccotti Park, the site of the 2011 Occupy Wall Street protest, and moved toward the West Side Highway.



Several police officers were taken to the hospital with minor injuries, one with a possible concussion.



One person was arrested for assaulting a police officer for throwing a garbage can into a crowd and striking a police officer in the head.



Another person attempted to grab the service weapon from a Deputy Inspectors holster. That person will be charged with robbery.

1:15 a.m.: Trump says military could assume control in city, 'when the looting starts, the shooting starts'



President Donald Trump weighed in on the destructive protests in Minneapolis early Friday morning, saying the military could "assume control" of the response.



"These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I wont let that happen," Trump tweeted early Friday morning. "Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts."



Trump also attacked Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, saying the protests are a result of a lack of leadership.



"Either the very weak Radical Left Mayor, Jacob Frey, get his act together and bring the City under control, or I will send in the National Guard & get the job done right," Trump tweeted.



Frey responded to Trump at an early-morning press conference Friday, saying it's weakness to point fingers during times of crisis.



"Weakness is refusing to take responsibility for your actions. Weakness is pointing your finger at somebody else during a time of crisis," Frey said. "Donald Trump knows nothing about the strength of Minneapolis. We are strong as hell. Is this a difficult time period? Yes. But you better be damn sure that we're gonna get through this."

12:48 a.m.: Minneapolis asks residents to 'retreat' over precinct explosion possibility



After people protesting George Floyd's death forcibly took over a Minneapolis precinct and began to ignite fires, city officials are now warning residents to leave the area in case the building explodes.



"We're hearing unconfirmed reports that gas lines to the Third Precinct have been cut and other explosive materials are in the building," the city tweeted. "If you are near the building, for your safety, PLEASE RETREAT in the event the building explodes."



Frey said residents must clear the area so the fire department can put out fires.



"We are working with @MinneapolisFire to deliver resources and respond for a beloved neighborhood in our city," Frey tweeted. "We all need to work together to ensure the safety of our friends, family, and Minneapolis residents. And right now working together means clearing the area."



The Minnesota National Guard has been activated for the area and said it's helping the fire department safely get to fires to help them battle the blazes.



Since the protests started, the Saint Paul Police Department said more than 170 businesses have been damaged or looted. Despite the destruction, with dozens of fires set, authorities said there are no reports of serious injuries. "Calm on the horizon," the department said late Thursday night.

12:32 a.m.: Governor 'shocked' after vehicle attempts to run over protester



Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said he is "absolutely shocked" by video of a car attempting to run over a person protesting the death of Floyd in Denver on Thursday. What started as a peaceful protest turned chaotic with reports of vandalism and violence.



"Tonight is a very sad night for our state. While we are still uncovering all of the facts, a protest regarding the killing of George Floyd devolved into vandalism and violence, and I was absolutely shocked by video evidence of a motorist attempting to run over a protestor," Polis tweeted. "Coloradans are better than this. I share the immense anguish we all feel about the unjust murder of George Floyd. But let me be clear, senseless violence will never be healed by more violence."



Previously shots were fired across the street from Colorado's State Capitol in Denver.

11:51 p.m.: Protesters gain access to police precinct



People protesting the death of Floyd have reportedly taken over the Minneapolis Police Department's 3rd precinct and set it on fire, according to authorities.



Minneapolis Police spokesperson John Elder said staff was evacuated from the building around 10 p.m. local time and that protesters forcibly entered the building and ignited several fires.



Shortly after reports of the precinct takeover, the Minnesota National Guard said it was deploying more than 500 soldiers to the area.



"We have activated more than 500 soldiers to St. Paul, Minneapolis and surrounding communities," the National Guard said in a statement. "Our mission is to protect life, preserve property and the right to peacefully demonstrate. A key objective is to ensure fire departments are able to respond to calls."



9:20 p.m.: Colorado protest marred by gunshots



Protesters outside Colorado's State Capitol in Denver received a scare when someone apparently fired shots nearby, causing the assembled group to flee.



There were no injuries, authorities confirmed to ABC News.



"Officers on scene at W Colfax Ave and W 15 st on shots fired in the area of the Capital. This is an ongoing investigation and the motive is unknown," Denver police wrote on Twitter.



Leslie Herod, who is a state representative, tweeted about the incident as well. She added that someone was apprehended, though police have not confirmed any arrests.



The Capitol was put on lockdown, with Herod, who fled inside included. Herod told an ABC News producer she was not scared by the incident.



"No. This only makes me more resolved. We have more work to do," she said.



8:31 p.m.: 911 call released



The 911 call made by the store owner who accused Floyd of using fraudulent money was released by authorities Thursday evening.



According to the transcript of the call released by the state of Minnesota, the caller -- a store owner -- told the operator that Floyd entered the store drunk and tried to pay for something with "fake bills." He later left the shop and sat on his car. It was there where police found him when they arrived at the scene.



"Someone comes [to] our store and give us fake bills and we realize it before he left the store, and we ran back outside, they was [sic] sitting on their car," the caller said. "We tell them to give us their phone, put their... thing back and everything, and he was also drunk and everything and return to give us our cigarettes back and so he can, so he can go home but he doesn't want to do that, and he's sitting on his car cause he is awfully drunk and he's not in control of himself."



The operator then asked the caller for Floyd's race and sex.



"No, hes a black guy," the caller replied. "Alright," the operator said, letting out a sigh according to the transcript, before the caller asked, "How is your day going?"

6:25 p.m.: Investigation is 'top priority' for DOJ



The Department of Justice has made the investigation into Floyd's death a "top priority," Erica MacDonald, attorney for state of Minnesota, said at a press conference.



MacDonald said President Donald Trump and Attorney General Bill Barr are "directly and actively" monitoring the case.



"It is critical, it is essential, it is imperative that the investigation is done right and done right the first time," she said. "And that is what we are going to do."



No federal or state charges against the officers were announced at the press conference.



Hennepin County Attorney Michael Freeman asked for "patience."



"Give us the time to do this right and we will bring you justice -- I promise," Freeman said.



He said his office has been flooded with calls on the status of the investigation. The main question, he said, has been, "what're you gonna do about the murder of George Floyd?"



"We are going to investigate as thoroughly as justice demands," Freeman said.



He called the officer's action "excessive and wrong," but said he needs to determine if it was criminal.



Both MacDonald and Freeman called on the public to come forward with any information they may have.



There was a delay in starting the press conference, which MacDonald apologized for and said she was hoping to share a development but that it was not the right time.

5:35 p.m.: City releases complaint history of 4 officers



The police officer seen in a video with his knee on Floyd's neck was involved in 18 complaints prior to being fired, according to records released by the city.



Derek Chauvin, who was fired following Floyd's death, was only disciplined for two of those complaints, according to the city records.



The documents do not provide the details of the complaints or the disciplines.



Tou Thao, who was the officer seen standing up in the video, had six complaints, one of which remains open, according to the records. Thao, who was also fired, was not disciplined for the other five complaints.



The other two officers who were fired, Thomas Lane and J Alexander Kueng, have had no complaints.



5:15 p.m.: Governor signs executive order activating National Guard



Gov. Tim Walz signed an executive order activating the Minnesota National Guard following Wednesday night's protests.



Walz said the purpose of the National Guard was "to protect people, to protect people safely demonstrating, and to protect small business owners."



"The anger and grief of this moment is unbearable. People deserve to be seen. People deserve to be heard. People deserve to be safe," he said in a statement. "While many Minnesotans are taking extensive safety precautions while exercising their right to protest, the demonstration last night became incredibly unsafe for all involved."



The National Guard Adjutant General will work with local government agencies to provide personnel, equipment, and facilities needed to respond to and recover from the protests, according to Walz's office.



There will also be about 200 members of the Minnesota State Patrol that will work with state, county, and local community and public safety partners. State Patrol helicopters and fixed wind aircraft on the ground will assist law enforcement officers, the governor's office said.



5:03 p.m.: Families of Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery issue joint statement



The families of Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery -- all of whom died after incidents with current and former law enforcement -- are demanding change and calling for government action to address this "national crisis."



"We're devastated about the senseless violence that has broken the hearts of our families," the families said in a joint statement. "While we are grateful for the outpouring of love and support, it's important that now  more than ever  we use our voices to enact change, demand accountability within our justice system and keep the legacies of Breonna, Ahmaud and George alive. This is a national crisis and our government needs to take immediate and widespread action to protect our black and brown communities."



The families have called for a congressional hearing and a national task force to create new bipartisan legislation that is aimed at ending racial violence and increasing police accountability.



They will also present a case to United Nation Human Rights Committee for sweeping changes to the nation's criminal justice system. A date for when they would be presenting their case was not provided.



Taylor, a black woman, was a front-line worker who died after a police-involved shooting. Taylor and her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, were sleeping inside their Springfield Drive apartment on March 13 when officers with the Louisville Metro Police Department attempted to execute a "no-knock" search warrant.



Three plainclothes officers opened Taylor's front door and "blindly" opened fire into their apartment, according to a wrongful death lawsuit filed in April by Taylor's mother, Tamika Palmer. Taylor was shot at least eight times and died.



Arbery, a black man, was out for a jog when two white men saw him and set off to confront him, police said. The men, Travis McMichael and his father Gregory McMichael, a former police officer, were armed.



A video shows Arbery and Travis McMichael tussling with the shotgun before three shots are fired. Arbery stumbled and fell to the ground, where he was pronounced dead.

City leaders react to protests



The mayor, police chief and city council vice president in Minneapolis emotionally addressed the violent protests that took place Wednesday night over the death of George Floyd, a black man who was seen pinned down in a video by a white police officer and later died.



Mayor Jacob Frey, who at one point became choked up and tearful, said that the protests were "the result of so much built up anger and sadness."



"Anger and sadness that has been engrained in our black community, not just because of five minutes of horror, but 400 years," Frey said at a press conference. "If you're feeling that sadness and anger, it's not only understandable, it's right."



Police Chief Medaria Arradondo said he knew that there was a "deficit of hope" in the community and that his department has contributed to that deficit.



He also said that the violence and destruction seen in Wednesday night's protest was mostly caused by a "core group of people" who were not from Minnesota. He said that most of the community members who have been protesting since Floyd's death Monday have been peaceful.



Arradondo said he wanted to ensure that people could safely protest, but he said he could not allow for criminal acts.



Wednesday night's protest caused destruction and chaos in Minneapolis, including a deadly shooting, looting and multiple fires.



The protests, which had been largely peaceful up until Wednesday night, were in wake of Floyd's death after he was apprehended by Minneapolis police Monday. Disturbing video emerged on social media showing a police officer with his knee on the man's neck as the man repeatedly yells out, "I can't breathe."



"I can't breathe, please, the knee in my neck," the man said in a video showing a police officer pinning him to the ground. "I can't move ... my neck ... I'm through, I'm through."



City Council Vice President Andrea Jenkins sang "Amazing Grace" at Thursday's press conference before addressing the protests.



Jenkins said she wanted to offer "amazing grace" and her condolences to the Floyd family.



"We feel as if there was a knee on all of our collective necks, a knee that says black lives do not matter," Jenkins, who is black, said. "I am part of this system to help to take that knee off of our necks."



Jenkins, Frey and Arradondo said they would be working with the community leaders. A "healing space" will be created at the 3rd Precinct in Minneapolis for residents to express their concerns and anger in a safe and humane way, Jenkins said.

Overnight developments



Police said during the protests they responded to a call of a stabbing victim and found a man in grave condition near the protests. The man later died in the hospital and authorities learned he died from a gunshot wound, according to John Elder, the director of communication for Minneapolis police.



One person was in custody after the shooting, police said. It was not immediately clear what led to the shooting, but the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported that the owner of a pawn shop opened fire on a man he believed was burglarizing his business and fatally shot him.



Police said multiple businesses were looted during the protests and the city's fire department said there were 30 intentional fires during the protests, including at least 16 structure fires.



Massive flames were seen in the sky on videos that circulated throughout social media. As of Thursday afternoon, the fire department said crews were still extinguishing fires along East Lake Street.



People were also throwing rocks at fire department vehicles responding to the scene, according to the fire department, which noted there were no firefighter injuries. Elder had said people were throwing rocks at firefighters.



Civil Rights Attorney Ben Crump, who is representing Floyd's family, wrote on Twitter the family thanked the protesters and wanted peace in Minneapolis, but "knows that Black people want peace in their souls  and until we get #JusticeForFloyd there will be no peace."



"We cannot sink to the level of our oppressors and endanger each other as we respond to the necessary urge to raise our voices in unison and in outrage," Crump wrote Thursday morning. "Looting and violence distract from strength of our collective voice."





Please, Minneapolis, we cannot let tragedy beget more tragedy.



The area along Lake has become unsafe. We are asking for your help in keeping the peace tonight. https://t.co/kRZuWGJY29  Mayor Jacob Frey (@MayorFrey) May 28, 2020





The city requested assistance from the National Guard late Wednesday during the protests, according to ABC Saint Paul affiliate KSTP.



The National Guard did not immediately respond to ABC News' request for comment.



"Tonight was a different night of protesting. Last night we had 8,000 protestors all peaceful. Tonight we did not have that," Elder said.



Elder said that there were no serious injuries to officers. He was not sure about the number of people arrested.



The fire department said there were no civilian injuries from the fires.



Gov. Tim Walz urged people to leave the area as the situation escalated.



"The situation near Lake Street and Hiawatha in Minneapolis has evolved into an extremely dangerous situation. For everyone's safety, please leave the area and allow firefighters and paramedics to get to the scene," Walz wrote on Twitter.



Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey also asked people to evacuate the area.



"Please, Minneapolis, we cannot let tragedy beget more tragedy," Frey wrote on Twitter.



The Federal Bureau of Investigation is probing Floyd's death. On Thursday, it was announced that the U.S. Attorneys Office for the District of Minnesota, the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division and the FBIs Minneapolis Field Office were conducting a "robust" criminal investigation into his death.



"The federal investigation will determine whether the actions by the involved former Minneapolis Police Department officers violated federal law. It is a violation of federal law for an individual acting under color of law to willfully deprive another person of any right protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States," according to a joint statement from United States Attorney Erica MacDonald And FBI Special Agent In Charge Rainer Drolshagen.



The officers involved in the incident were identified by police as Officer Derek Chauvin, Officer Thomas Lane, Officer Tou Thao and Officer J Alexander Kueng.



All four officers were fired, according to Frey.



"This is the right call," the mayor said.



The Minneapolis Police Department said Monday that officers were initially called to the scene "on a report of a forgery in progress" in a statement on their website.



The statement added that officers were advised that the suspect "appeared to be under the influence" and that he "physically resisted officers."



He later "appeared to be suffering medical distress" and officers called an ambulance. He was transported to the Hennepin County Medical Center by ambulance, "where he died a short time later."



The police department said there were no weapons of any type used by anyone involved in the incident and no officers were injured.



ABC News' Catherine, Thorbecke and Will Gretsky contributed to this report.





Copyright  2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
Weve all heard the talking heads on TV and read the articles in magazines. Without at least $1 million invested, were destined to live our golden years, struggling to afford even the basic necessities of life. Or so they say, anyway.

Ive always questioned this wisdom. There are several reasons why retired folks may end up needing less than they think.

Firstly, expenses will decrease. Youll no longer have an expensive commute to work or have to shell out for business casual clothes. And, perhaps most importantly, youll no longer have to save for retirement. That alone can easily put an extra $500 or $1,000 per month into your back pocket. The mortgage will likely be paid off by then, too.

Then theres the motivation of the pundits. These folks often work for mutual funds or banks, companies that have a vested interest in upping assets under management. Its good for business, after all. Yes, most people want to leave an inheritance. But its silly to save more than $1 million when less than that will do. That cash should be spent, not hoarded.

Many also forget about how much Canada Pension Plan (CPP) and Old Age Security (OAS) earnings will help the average person retire. The average Canadian couple can look forward to approximately $2,500 per month in payments from these two sources. Thats a great start right there.

Put all this together, and the conclusion is clear. Most folks wont need millions of dollars to retire. In fact, Id say a lot of baby boomers can afford to retire on just $500,000.

Lets take a closer look at one investment that folks looking to stretch their retirement dollars can make, a safe high-yield stock that can really help someone retire without a whole lot of capital.

Enter Crombie REIT

Crombie REIT (TSX:CRR.UN) is one of Canadas largest owners of grocery-anchored real estate. It owns 285 properties in total, spanning more than 17 million square feet of space. Sobeys and Safeway stores are by far the REITs largest tenants, contributing approximately 55% of total rents.

Story continues

In a world where many retail REITs are struggling, Crombie is doing just fine. Yes, some of their smaller tenants are having trouble paying rent, but it still collected 87% of total rent owing in April. Mays numbers arent out yet, but Id expect them to be about the same. Crombie has also pledged to help many of its smaller tenants get back on their feet with rent deferrals.

The company is also just beginning an ambitious redevelopment plan. It owns dozens of properties in major Canadian cities that have oodles of potential. In total, the company plans to redevelop 33 different properties, adding 1.3 million square feet of commercial space and nearly 10 million square feet of residential space. Two properties in Vancouver and Montreal should be completed this year, adding nicely to the bottom line in 2021.

Thanks to its dependence on grocery tenants, Crombie offers one of the most secure dividends in the entire sector. The current payout is 6.9%, a distribution easily covered by earnings. Crombie also has an excellent balance sheet, meaning it can easily afford to dip into its savings if there are a lot of vacancies.

The bottom line

Youll likely need less than you might think to retire. You wont have to be a millionaire, anyway.

And just think; $500,000 invested in stocks like Crombie REIT yielding 7% would generate an additional $35,000 in income. Add that to CPP and OAS and were most of the way to a very comfortable retirement.

The post Canadians: Do You Really Need $1 Million to Retire? appeared first on The Motley Fool Canada.

More reading

Fool contributor Nelson Smith owns shares of Crombie REIT.

The Motley Fools purpose is to help the world invest, better. Click here now for your free subscription to Take Stock, The Motley Fool Canadas free investing newsletter. Packed with stock ideas and investing advice, it is essential reading for anyone looking to build and grow their wealth in the years ahead. Motley Fool Canada 2020
By Akbar Mammadov

Thirty-four Azerbaijani children have been victims of the Armenian terror in recent years, chairman of Azerbaijan's Parliamentary Committee on Family, Women and Children Hijran Huseynova said in her article titled "Children are our future", Azertag reported on May 31.

"Fourteen of them were killed and twenty were injured. The youngest of them is one year and eight months old Zahra Guliyeva".

Huseynova said that despite the signing of a ceasefire in 1994, the facts of Armenians killing of children continue to be recorded.

On the occasion of International Children's Day-June 1, Huseynova stressed that "Armenia is a state that has ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child, but, unfortunately, it grossly violates its obligations under the Convention.

It should be noted on July 4, 2017, Armenian armed forces killed a 14-month-old Zahra Guliyeva and her grandmother Sahiba Guliyeva, born in 1967, using mortars and machine grenades at Alkhanli settlement of Fizuli region. Another victim of Armenian terror is 8-year-old Azerbaijani child Fariz Badalov killed by a sniper of the Armenian armed forces in Aghdam district of Azerbaijan on March 8, 2011.

Azerbaijan and Armenia are locked in a conflict over Azerbaijans Nagorno-Karabakh breakaway region, which along with seven adjacent regions was occupied by Armenian forces in a war in the early 1990s. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and around one million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.

The OSCE Minsk Group co-chaired by the United States, Russia and France has been mediating the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict since the signing of the volatile cease-fire agreement in 1994. The Minsk Groups efforts have resulted in no progress and to this date, Armenia has failed to abide by the UN Security Council resolutions (822, 853, 874 and 884) that demand the withdrawal of Armenian military forces from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan.

---

Akbar Mammadov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AkbarMammadov97

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
Statement of Minority Senators Franklin Drilon, Risa Hontiveros, Kiko Pangilinan on PNP mulling reopening custodial center to visitors

We welcome the positive response of the Philippine National Police to our letter regarding Senator Leila De Lima, who has been put in solitary confinement since April 25.

International Human Rights Law prohibits solitary confinement, and for it to only be used in exceptional circumstances. Nelson Mandela himself, esteemed world leader and political prisoner for 27 years, described solitary confinement as "the most forbidding aspect of prison life."

One is not allowed visitors and physical meetings, rendering one incommunicado. It is inhumane. It is unhealthy, and physically and mentally taxing. It is against our most basic human rights.

Now that we are entering General Community Quarantine, we urge the Philippine National Police to reconsider Sen. Leila De Lima's case. Surely, with the easing of restrictions brought by the Enhanced Community Quarantine, this also applies to the protocols of the police for persons deprived of liberty.

While most of the world continues to be in quarantine, it's more so for those who are illegally detained.

Rights know no prison. Rights know no lockdown.

The plight of Senator Leila De Lima and all those who are unjustly detained will never be forgotten. The world continues to watch.
A Spaniard died in hospital, just before the necessary antidote arrived, after he was bitten by one of his 25 pet snakes.

The 27-year-old was rushed to hospital in the southern port city of Algeciras but died before he got a new antidote that was being sent from Madrid after other treatments did not work.

The police transferred the remaining snakes to be kept and looked after at a nearby zoo.

Pictured: Punta Europa Hospital in Algeciras where the 27-year-old man died after he was bitten by one of his 25 pet snakes

The man died around lunchtime on Friday at Punta Europa Hospital in Algeciras a day after he was bitten.

The man and the species of the snake have not been named but the snake was poisonous and from Asia.

Around 600 of the 3,500 snake species in the world are venomous.

The Saw-scaled Viper is responsible for more human deaths in Asia than all the other venomous Asian snakes combined.

Its venom is said to be five times more toxic than that of cobras and 16 times more toxic than that of the Russell's Viper.

The Saw-scaled Viper (stock photo) is responsible for more human deaths in Asia than all the other venomous Asian snakes combined
But he explained that a couple hours after the peaceful rally began Friday evening, it turned violent with people breaking the law. That is when officers needed to use tear gas and pepper balls to disperse the crowd from 72nd and Dodge Streets to keep them safe, he said.

Twenty-one people at the protest were arrested on suspicion of various charges  gun possession, disorderly conduct, destruction of property or failing to disperse. Schmaderer said of the people arrested, 16 were white, three were black and two were Hispanic.

Twelve businesses in the area were damaged  either their windows were broken or there was graffiti. About 12 cruisers were damaged, including one that had ISIS carved into the back. Only one protester and two officers had documented injuries  they were treated by medics and released, not hospitalized.

Things could have been worse but things turned out to be OK, he said.

Schmaderer was at the command center nearby and was in constant communication with Mayor Jean Stothert, who he later told not to come to the area because the situation was devolving. He provided a rough timeline of how the night unfolded, according to police:
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-31 20:42:28|Editor: huaxia

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Protesters confront the police during a massive street protest over the killing of George Floyd in Los Angeles, the United States, May 30, 2020. (Xinhua)

"This is no longer a protest. This is vandalism. This is destruction," says Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti.



LOS ANGELES, May 31 (Xinhua) -- California governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in Los Angeles County on Saturday night on the fourth straight day of protests over the death of African American George Floyd.

Newsom also authorized assistance by the National Guard in coping with the unrest in downtown Los Angeles.

A document signed by him said the state government made this decision based on the request by the city and the county of Los Angeles, which, with a population of more than 10 million population, is the most populous county in the United States.

It also attributed the Los Angeles protests to a response to the death of George Floyd.

A screengrab from the Twitter account of the Office of the Governor of California on May 31, 2020, shows the office's announcement that Governor Gavin Newsom has "proclaimed a state of emergency in Los Angeles County." (Xinhua)

"On May 25, 2020, George Floyd tragically died in Minneapolis, Minnesota, shortly following his arrest in which an officer of the Minneapolis Police Department kneeled on his neck to detain him during the arrest, and then did not respond to Mr. Floyd's requests for help when he stated that he could not breathe," the document read.

A curfew announced by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti on Saturday afternoon took effect in the second largest city of the United States, from 8:00 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. local time for Saturday going into Sunday.

Several other cities in the Los Angeles area on Saturday imposed curfews beginning at 8:00 p.m. as well. They included Pasadena, Santa Monica, West Hollywood and Beverly Hills.

Protesters confront the police during a massive street protest over the killing of George Floyd in Los Angeles, the United States, May 30, 2020. (Xinhua)

The protest over Floyd's death went into the fourth straight day on Saturday in Los Angeles city. Thousands of protesters on Saturday afternoon took to the streets of the downtown Fairfax District, home to some shopping streets with boutiques and specialty stores, to express their anger over the killing of the unarmed Minnesota black man by a white police officer.

But the demonstration turned into riots later.

Video clips posted online showed that the storefront windows and ATM machines on the street there were broken, and that an Adidas flagship store, a two-floor Nordstrom department store and a Ray-Ban sunglasses flagship boutique had been looted.

Policemen are seen during a massive street protest over the killing of George Floyd in Los Angeles, the United States, May 30, 2020. (Xinhua)

"This is no longer a protest," Garcetti told the NBC4 news Saturday night. "This is vandalism. This is destruction."

Local media said about 1,000 National Guard members were expected to be on the scene starting around midnight to help restore order.

More than 530 people were arrested Friday night and early Saturday after protests turned violent in downtown Los Angeles, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. 
(This is a version of a print article on Western Australian wine published earlier in the year. The world has changed since, but there are some stories in here worth telling)

In production terms, Western Australia is a minnow.

According to the latest Wine Australia statistics, WA accounts for less than 5% of the national crush (2019 figures).

Yet while the volume is small, WA has an outsized reputation for quality, with Margaret River alone producing 20% of the countrys premium wine (which is a questionable figure but worth including). Its not just production either, with 10 of the 50 Young Guns of Wine coming from our biggest state. And WA enjoyed the largest increase in export prices of any state or territory (MAT 2019 figures),

The reasons for this quality bias are complex but fascinating, with WA enjoying a privileged reputation for premium wine that is unusual for Australia. In fact, the only state to consistently enjoy higher average export prices per litre is Tasmania.

You can see the exclusive focus on premium wine most evidently in Margaret River and Great Southern, where prices continue to grow at a pace not seen in the larger winemaking states. Put simply, Western Australia equals premium wine.

New wines, new winemakers

But why? One theory about WAs long term premium wine success is purely about a wilingness to evolve. Small changes, on a regular basis, and accompanied by a big push on sustainability.

Look at Ferngrove, for example, has evolved significantly in recent years, including the development one of the bigger solar power plants of any winery in Australia, with 696 panels now providing sustainable electricity for the business.

For this Frankland River producer, success has come thanks to some less conventional stand-alone styles, with the $22 RRP Black Label 2018 Malbec awarded trophies at the Royal Adelaide Wine Show, The Royal Perth Wine Show and the National Cool Climate Wine Show, along with eight gold medals.

You dont have to go far in Great Southern to see the love for uncommon varieties either. At Mount Barkers Galafrey, Kim Tyrer has been pleased to see the success of Muller Thurgau  a variety once seen as a boring, volume commodity.

Tyrer explains:

I am very excited about our Muller Thurgau. Its very aromatic especially with beautiful perfume white flowers which are so on-trend now she said.

While the 2019 Muller crop was smaller than usual, it pushed Tyrer to blend the grape with Riesling, creating a blend that she thinks looks amazing  lovely and textural. Theres no hiding her enthusiasm for this rare (in Australia) white grape though.

We are one of a handful of people growing the grape in WA. Due to its uniqueness and light aromatic style people love it. Can you believe my Dad pulled 9 rows out back in early 2000 as it wasnt very popular?

Western Australian wine backdrops. Not shit.

Further north in Margaret River, Brad Wehr from Amato Vino has been surprised by the success of several Italian grapes  and especially Nero dAvola.

Its amazing how only 8 years ago when we made our first Nero dAvola it was a bit of a struggle to sell due to its relative obscurity. But now we sell out each year and cant keep up

Another hit for Wehr is much more obscure:

Teroldego is another of our fast-movers, despite the higher price tag he said.

This northern Italian grape is still very much obscurity here in Australia, but those who know the secret are on to it.

Also in Margaret River, another obscure grape to find some appeal is Aligote. Ben Gould at Blind Corner has had a handful of crops from this French oddity and is a real fan.

(If I was planting winegrapes) Id choose more Aligote. it works well in warm Burgundy years, is a great acid hit for Chardonnay.

Gould also has Brunello clone Sangiovese, Pinot Grigio and some decent Merlot clones producing now too, alongside bee hives and a skateboard half pipe.

Not reinventing the wheel

But its not just about reviving old grapes, or indeed forging into new ones. Tyrer thinks WAs success is really about marketing, and presenting a unified face.

I think regional branding is very strong considering our size she said.

Margaret River, Great Southern and Swan Valley are well-known regions nationally (which is remarkable).

Meanwhile, Jesse Lewis from Perth retailer Grand Cru Wineshop has spotted what could be driving the evolution of WA wine  a reinvention of tried and true styles.

I think the main trend Ive noticed is that a few of the bigger producers are experimenting with different techniques on their classic wines he said.

(Margaret Rivers) Vasse Felix are a good example  with their SSB, they are blending heaps of differently treated parcels  skin contact, barrel ferment etc.

Tyrer has also witnessed the style evolution, with the newish Galafrey Whole Bunch Shiraz enjoying considerable success.

It works on the concept of making Shiraz in the Beaujolais style she said.

This moves away from the style of red which is blocky, oaked, aged, and overworked to a more savoury, textural, complex, light but lots going on style.

I feel like this is the future of red wine styles in Australia as we get away from a bigger is better mentality.

Although a little bigger might be better in the case of Chardonnay, as Lewis explains:

I think Chardonnay styles might have a shift back towards slightly richer styles.

Im surprised this isnt happening already since thats what customers are asking for

I reckon only 1/10 Chardonnay drinkers ask for a low-oak or lighter style. The rest all say buttery, big.

Further, Lewis sees some serious intrigue if you venture beyond the usual suspects too.

Some cool stuff is happening in the Perth Hills he notes.

Myattsfield and Fairbrossen are playing around with leftfield varieties and techniques. Side Project is definitely one to watch  Saperavi, skin contact Vermentino, pet nats. Tonon produces the regions only Prosecco and have a smart Sangiovese. La Fattoria do Brachetto, Barbera, Sagrantino & a Sparkling Pignoletto.

I think the region is grossly overlooked.

Sustainable and low intervention for the youth

While its easy to focus on varieties and style, the other key element driving the popularity of Western Australian wine is the shift in national drinking habits.

According to Wine Intelligence figures, the Australian wine drinking population is shrinking. This trend is most obvious in younger drinkers, with millennials and generation Z drinking less often and drinking less wine. The under 42 age category had a 2% drop in regular wine drinkers between 2017 and 2019 alone.

The bright star amongst the figures is that these younger consumers are drinking more in the off-trade per occasion, than previously mirroring the trend of all age groups to drink less often but better. Those willing to spend $25+ per bottle each drinking occasion, for example, has risen 5% between 2016 and 2019 as well (Wine Intelligence figures).

A further consideration is that younger consumers are increasingly environmentally conscious, with an Australian Organic report by the Modium group in 2018 concluded that millennials are much more likely to choose organic products.

Lewis has noticed the full manifestations of these trends at retail too:

Younger people are drinking lots of natural and minimal intervention stuff  I think theyd drink even more if the economy was better / the wines were lest costly he said.

But theyre usually happy to pay $30-40 on a nice bottle which was fairly uncommon 10 years ago.

The connection for Western Australian wine comes from the proliferation of sustainably produced and natural wines now crafted in WA. Great Southern, in particular, has become a hotbed for natural wines headlined by makers like Brave New Wine and Express Winemakers, with Margaret River increasingly known for organic wine production too.

Its not just small, niche producers going organic either, as Gould explains.

Were now the second biggest certified organic and biodynamic vineyard in WA, but the interesting trend is that people ARE going organic including Voyager, Vasse Felix and Woodlands too apparently.

The 2020 vintage

Finally, while vintage is still underway in Western Australia, there is considerable promise for this harvest, which is very welcome given the challenges faced in some eastern states regions.

Tyrer gives the early scoop:

2020 will be one of the earliest vintages on record she said.

Our earliest was 2007 which started on 16th Feb. and this year we started on the same date. Everything is ripening up together so a short fast vintage

Its always a pleasure to hear vintage enthusiasm from a wine producer, and Tyrer is one of many who is quietly optimistic, albeit with a caveat.

Yields are down but flavours, however, look really good. Much better than the 2007 vintage which in turn had some average wines.

This year expect excellent wines.



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About 175 Target stores across the country are being temporarily closed amid several days of nationwide protests and violence after a Minneapolis police officer was charged with the murder of George Floyd, a handcuffed black man who pleaded for air as the officer pressed a knee on his neck.

Though no stores in New Jersey are affected, 10 in New York City and Philadelphia have been shuttered on the heels of looting and rioting in both cities.

We are heartbroken by the death of George Floyd and the pain it is causing communities across the country, the Minneapolis-based retail chain said in a statement Saturday. Our focus will remain on our team members safety and helping our community heal.

Philadelphia police said early Sunday they have made 109 arrests, including 43 for looting and burglary and an additional 52 for violating the 8 p.m. curfew implemented by Mayor Jim Kenny.

Damage is mostly smashed windows. Some looting continues. Lots of people taking photos, cleaning up. Firefighters still putting water on Walnut Street building that burned overnight pic.twitter.com/VlT63ojiHw  Noah Cohen (@noahyc) May 31, 2020

A day of mainly peaceful protests in the area of City Hall and the Art Museum turned violent at night as people smashed windows and clashed with police in Philadelphia. At least 13 officers were injured, seven of whom suffered burns to the face, police said.

In New York City, police said early Saturday, professional and organized agitators caused havoc on the city resulting in violence, injured police officers, and the destruction of property. The NYPD then arrested at least 345 Saturday night and early Sunday, according to 7abcny.com.

In New Jersey, protests on Saturday in Newark, Camden and New Brunswick were largely peaceful with no reports of violence or looting.

About 75 of the closed Target stores are in the Minneapolis area, where there have been days of sometimes violent demonstrations, looting and vandalism.

Target said it would pay affected employees for up to 14 days of scheduled hours during store closures, including COVID-19 premium pay. They will also be able to work at other nearby Target locations.

Derek Chauvin has been charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in the death of Floyd. Three other officers were also fired but have not been charged for their roles in the Monday incident.

Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.
Tripura registered 11 new Covid-19 positive cases on Sunday taking the state tally to 280. All the newly detected patients had recently returned from Chennai.

810 samples have been tested for #Covid 19 in Tripura since last night, out of which, 11 people found #POSITIVE. All of them have returned from Chennai, chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb wrote on his Twitter.

The state has tested a total 26,376 samples so far and 172 out of 280 infected people have been cured of the disease so far.

Deb recently said that his government is taking initiatives to test samples of all incoming persons from other states.

The HT Guide to Coronavirus COVID-19

The samples of all Bangladesh and Maharashtra returnees are being tested. Besides, samples of a good number of Chennai returnees have also been tested. More equipment is coming to the state and the government is planning to conduct Covid-19 tests for all coming from other states, the chief minister had said.

He added that the quarantine procedure is maintained at every level including villages and the Corona Monitoring Committees constituting local public representatives are actively monitoring the situation.
The Covid-19 pandemic finds Zimbabwe in an economic quagmire and it has exacerbated the economic malice on the average citizen whose economic sustainability had been pivoted on the informal sector. Thus, the influx of returnees  most of whom do not have formal education  will increase the size of unemployment and place significant pressure on the limited resources. The Government will be under pressure to provide social welfare. The Government will be the most important engine for economic growth with agriculture and the whole food value chain being the fulcrum for economic growth and employment creation. Crime is going to be on the rise and a lot of people are at risk of serious food shortages, said Mr Dhlamini.
In a joint operation, Punjab Police and Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) arrested a wanted Khalistani terrorist from Uttar Pradesh's Meerut on Saturday (May 30). According to police, the Khalistani terrorist identified as Tirath Singh is highly radicalised.

Singh is connected with the Khalistan movement on social media and police have recovered posters of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and some other suspected materials from his possession. Further interrogation of Singh is currently underway.

The 32-year-old Khalistani terrorist was arrested after Punjab Police provided information about him to UP ATS. It is learnt that Singh was booked by Mohali poilice under in the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) act in January 2020.
A Channel Nine reporter who felt the the brunt of angry US protesters while reporting on riots in Los Angeles over the death of George Floyd has come under more fire from Aboriginal activists back home.

The network's US correspondent Alexis Daish and her cameraman were in West Hollywood on Saturday afternoon local time filming the protests for Sunday morning's edition of Weekend Today.

Protests and riots have erupted across the US since George Floyd, 46, died in Minneapolis on Monday after a white cop pressed his knee against Mr Floyd's neck for eight minutes.

The young blonde reporter interviewed protesters throughout the morning, some of whom were angered by her questioning.

Her interviewing also sparked backlash from Aboriginal activists including rapper Adam Briggs, who took to social media to vent their outrage.

Channel Nine US correspondent Alexis Daish (pictured interviewing a protester) has come under widespread backlash for her reporting of the riots in Los Angeles

'This country was built on violence,' one American protester replied when Ms Daish asked whether their message had been lost in the violence seen on the streets.

'I'm not going to give you a history lesson. If you don't know, then that's the problem. You don't know where the violence starts.'

'Why is everyone here on the other side armed? This is the message they want.'

Ms Daish later ended the interview by thanking the man for his time to vent about police brutality.

'I really appreciate you giving your perspective because people in Australia doesn't have the understanding of the history of police killings here,' she signed off.

Aboriginal activist and ARIA award nominated rapper Adam Briggs accused her of being 'ignorant' by claiming Australians didn't have the 'understanding of the history of police killings'.

'How embarrassing. 'People in Australia doesn't have the understanding of the history of police killings here'. No; WE definitely do understand. We also have our own history of killings at the hands of police. What ignorance,' Briggs tweeted.

Rapper Adam Briggs (pictured with his partner at 2019 APRA Music Awards) was quick to express his outrage over Ms Daish's reporting

Briggs later commented: 'If Lexi had a better understanding of the history of her own country she might've been able to draw some parallels and empathize somewhat with the protester she was interviewing. But Australia doesn't do that. Apologies to all my First Nations, Black & Brown people stateside.

It also sparked a furious reaction from Australian actress, writer and comedian Nakkiah Lui, who's also of indigenous background.

'This is disgusting & embarrassing. Has Lexi been pulled from work experience during her college break because her dad spoke to one his mates & thought she should try some 'real' journalism? The way she spoke down to & couldn't intellectually engage with the protester is shameful,' she tweeted.

Indigenous feminist and unionist Celeste Liddle issued a public apology on behalf of Australia.

'Dear Native Americans and Black Americans, I am sorry for the ignorant Australian press who fronts up to your rallies not knowing a thing about their own country's history so they can feign superiority. Solidarity,' she tweeted.

Aboriginal actress, writer and comedian Nakkiah Lui also made her feelings known

Weekend Today viewers were also angry about Ms Daish's 'appalling' and 'ill informed' reporting.

'She couldn't even be honest from the start. "This man wanted to speak to us" No! you wanted to speak to me let get that straight. The Today Show sucks,' one viewer vented.

Another added: 'Your coverage of this, from a supposed moral high ground of outrage, shows the endemic ignorance of our own racist history - and racist present. How outraged do you think our First Nation people are? Or more likely, are they just seeing their own experience writ large?

Earlier on, Ms Daish sparked fury from a group of protesters when she asked them to explain their outrage.

'We're tired of people like you guys telling us how to feel about our own lives,' one of the protesters said, pointing at Ms Daish, who is blonde, and her crew

'We're tired of people like you guys telling us how to feel about our own lives,' one of the protesters said, pointing at Ms Daish.

'This anger is coming from hundreds of years,' he went on to say. 'Three people in two weeks... How many times does this have to happen?'

'We have done everything white people have asked us to do,' a protester told Ms Daish on the streets of West Hollywood, a 28 hour drive from where Mr Floyd died.

'We've tried everything. We had a black f**king president and it didn't work. Black people were still dying.

'We're tired of being told that these buildings and businesses are worth more than my body. That is not the case.'

Los Angeles erupted in violence Saturday as cops in riot gear clashed with protesters who sprayed graffiti and torched police cruisers while officers shot rubber bullets into crowds and beat demonstrators with batons.

Officer Derek Chauvin (pictured) was identified as the officer pinning down George Floyd in video footage that was widely shared on Tuesday

Ms Daish described the chaos as 'just unbelievable', particularly given the nation is still battling a deadly COVID-19 pandemic.

'Los Angeles has been so strict about these shutdown stay at home orders,' she told viewers back home in Australia.

'You're not even allowed to leave home without having a mask on you. We're in the midst of a pandemic and now this.

'If anything is going to lead to a second wave, this is the perfect storm.'

The officer involved, Derek Michael Chauvin, was charged with third degree murder and manslaughter days after footage of the incident went viral.

Protesters took to the streets demanding reform after what many believe is another senseless death and example of police brutality.

A person jumps on a burning police vehicle in Los Angeles, Saturday, May 30, 2020, during a protest over the death of George Floyd

George Floyd's (pictured) heartbroken family have called white cop Derek Chauvin to be charged with a more serious crime than third-degree murder after their lawyer revealed that Chauvin knelt on Floyd's neck for a staggering eight minutes during the arrest for forgery

Ms Daish's run in with the protesters comes as Channel 7 journalist Ashlee Mullany was almost taken out by a stun grenade as police closed in on a Minneapolis protest.

Ms Mullany, who is the network's US correspondent, crossed to Sunrise live from Minneapolis on Thursday afternoon to report on the mayhem as protests raged on in the city for a third day.

Footage showed the journalist duck for cover as a stun grenade was fired in her direction by police officers who descended on the protest.
A Senior Lecturer and Head, Department of Business and Social Sciences Education, Dr. Tufuor Kwarteng of the University of Cape Coast has asserted that the executive order going to enforce the ban on the importation of salvage cars would harm us than do us good.

He continued that the implementation of this law would make cars very expensive and out of the reach of the average Ghanaian as the implementation takes effect.

"The establishment of car assembling plants in Ghana would be a positive image building activity but the negative effects with the implementation of this law would outweigh it," he stated.

He was speaking to D. C. Kwame Kwakye on GBC Radio Central's weekend morning show dubbed "Wonfr Yie" today Saturday, 30th May, 2020.

Seeking his general view on the ban on the importation of salvage cars in Ghana come September 2020, Dr. Tufuor Kwarteng said every country must assess it's citizens based on demographics, business, capacity and other relevant factors before any law such as this is passed and implemented.

"It appears that government is under some pressure to implement the law which seeks to benefit foreign companies at the expense of indigenous," he opined.

He further explained that the assembly plants of some automotive companies coming to Ghana was good but "the cars being manufactured may not be competitive on the Ghanaian market and as such something needs to be done."

He further averred that government ought to have analyzed the situation carefully before enacting the law. "Salvage cars could be a car with a broken tail light, or mangled bonnet or fender and when such cars are repaired, they become good as new".

When asked whether only salvaged cars are being barred from being imported into Ghana, the Senior Lecturer explained that not all imported second hand cars are salvage cars.

According to him, some have clean titles without any dent and are not considered part but such vehicles that are above 10 years cannot be imported after September.

"Salvage cars are not necessarily damaged cars because most of them that are imported into our country have very minimal defects. We cannot look at the interest of foreigners at the expense of indigenes. That isn't right and government should re-look at the law and its implementation," he stressed.

Dr. Tufuor Kwarteng quizzed, "why are we pushing others out of business and promoting those of foreign nationals"?

He continued "we should allow salvage cars to come into the system while the car assembling companies also produce and sell their brand new cars. Those who want to buy brand new cars can go ahead and do so while those who want salvage cars can also do same as well. It is a matter of choice."

Touching on issues of employment in relation to the automatic industry, he claimed that, "these assembling plants cannot employ a lot of people as being speculated because the assembling plants are more automated and as such very few persons would get employment".

He added, "The policy may affect garages, clearing agents, auto artisan, straighteners and welders, spare parts dealers going forward and law needs to be looked at again. Don't you think it is worth talking about the depression associated with unemployment this law brings? This has the capacity of increasing social vices like spousal and child abuse, and robbery."

Explaining further on which cars can be imported into Ghana, he said cars that have no problem and are clean "are very expensive and beyond the reach of the average persons".

The UCC Senior Lecturer gave an analogy that, "if your mother runs a domestic kitchen in your village and the authorities of your village decide that your mother's kitchen should demolished to make way for a modern restaurant (from which you cannot buy and eat) to heighten the image of the village, should the establishment of the new restaurant result in your mother closing down her domestics kitchen? Or they should run side by side?"

According to him, the food that would be sold in the modern restaurant cannot be afforded by the majority of the village inhabitants and as such the two food producing sources should run.

Dr. Tufuor Kwarteng further added that "the number of second hand car dealers in the USA outweighs that of brand new car dealers. If that is the case in such a developed country, why would we be seen to be curtailing our own".

He emphasised, "Think about transportation in the country in the wake of the troubling effects of this law. It would eventually decrease the quality of life of the average Ghanaian because intra-city transportation would be a problem with time. In concluding the discussion, he said the loss of revenue to government is estimated to be GHS800 million and we need more money for development and also to fight Covid-19. One normal Toyota Corolla is cleared at GHS15,000.00 so I wonder why government is in a hurry to implement a law that would cut us from this revenue source".
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-31 17:28:33|Editor: huaxia

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LOS ANGELES, May 30 (Xinhua) -- California Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in Los Angeles County, the most populous county in the United States with over 10 million inhabitants, after protests over the killing of George Floyd turned violent on Saturday.

"On May 25, 2020, George Floyd tragically died in Minneapolis, Minnesota, shortly following his arrest in which an officer of the Minneapolis Police Department kneeled on his neck to detain him during the arrest, and then did not respond to Mr. Floyd's requests for help when he stated that he could not breathe," said a statement released by the governor's office on Saturday night.

Floyd's death has triggered "civil unrest" within the city and county of Los Angeles, whose threat local authorities are "inadequate to address," it said.

According to the statement, Newsom also authorized assistance after a request from the city and county of Los Angeles, and will deploy members of the National Guard to assist Los Angeles and neighboring communities in containing the unrest.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announced earlier that a curfew will be in effect in the city beginning from 8:00 p.m. Saturday to 5:30 a.m. Sunday local time.

The protests against police brutality in the city went into the fourth straight day on Saturday. Thousands of protesters took to the streets of the Fairfax District and downtown Los Angeles on Saturday afternoon to express their anger over the killing of the unarmed Minnesota black man by police.

Over 530 people were arrested Friday night and early Saturday after the protests turned violent in downtown Los Angeles, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. Enditem
President Donald Trump, right, and Vice President Mike Pence wait on the rooftop of the Operational Building at NASA before the launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley aboard the rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., on May 30, 2020. (Saul Martinez/Getty Images)

Trump Says US Will Declare Antifa a Terrorist Organization

President Donald Trump on Sunday said the federal government will declare Antifa, a far-left group that is closely tied to communist and quasi-Marxist movements, as a terrorist organization as violent protests continue to grip cities across the United States in the wake of a black mans death in Minneapolis.

The United States of America will be designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organization, Trump wrote in a series of messages on Twitter blaming rioting during police brutality protests on Antifa and other radical left elements.

Related Coverage The Communist Origins of the Antifa Extremist Group

On top of that, legacy news outlets are doing everything within their power to foment hatred and anarchy across the United States, he added.

As long as everybody understands what they are doing, that they are FAKE NEWS and truly bad people with a sick agenda, we can easily work through them to GREATNESS! the president wrote.

According to a tally from The Associated Press, more than 1,400 people have been arrested across the country since May 28 amid protests over the death of George Floyd, who died in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He died May 25 after officer Derrick Chauvin placed his knee on his neck, although an autopsy showed Floyd didnt die of strangulation or traumatic oxygen deprivation.

Protesters march along the freeway that exits St. Paul on their way to U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis via the Saint Anthony Falls bridge on the fourth day of protests and violence following the death of George Floyd, in Minneapolis, Minn., on May 29, 2020. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

Chauvin was arrested and charged with third-degree murder, but it did little to quell the violence.

At least 1,383 people have been arrested since last week. The actual number is likely higher as protests continue Saturday night. More than a third of the arrests, 533, came from Los Angeles alone on May 29. The mayor of the nations second-largest city has imposed a citywide curfew until 5:30 a.m. Sunday.

Trump on Sunday, meanwhile, praised the use of the National Guard to stop the unrest.

Other Democrat run Cities and States should look at the total shutdown of Radical Left Anarchists in Minneapolis last night. The National Guard did a great job, and should be used in other States before it is too late! he wrote, adding that the National Guard arrived in Minneapolis and shut down Antifa and others.

Should have been done by Mayor on first night and there would have been no trouble! he said.

Trump provided no other details about declaring Antifa a terrorist organization, but it marks a significant step in limiting the actions and movement of the far-left group.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
press release

Following the Government's decision to lift the Curfew on 30 May 2020, all officers of the Public Service are to resume work as from 01 June 2020.

In a Circular letter issued, today, by the Ministry of Public Service, Administrative and Institutional Reforms, the Secretary for Public Service, Mr Swaminathan Ragen, requests all Supervising Officers to ensure that appropriate sanitary precautions and procedures are being set up at the level of all Ministries and Departments to ensure a safe working environment for everyone.

They should also ensure where possible and without disrupting service delivery, flexible time working arrangements and the Work-from-Home Scheme.
Tehran, May 31 : Iran's Foreign Ministry condemned the recent US decision to end the sanctions waivers under the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal.

The US move to end the remaining sanctions waivers under the landmark deal is a "violation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231" which endorses the deal, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Abbas Mousavi said on Saturday, Xinhua news agency reported.

Iran will take necessary legal measures in case the US decision adversely affects Iran's nuclear rights under the accord, internationally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), said Mousavi.

US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo announced earlier in a statement the end of sanctions waivers covering nuclear projects in Iran including the Arak reactor conversion following a final, 60-day wind-down period.
Lawmaker should not hide behind privileges



An activist-turned-lawmaker has failed to provide a clear explanation about allegations that she misappropriated donations for the surviving victims of Japan's wartime sexual slavery. On Friday, Yoon Mee-hyang of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea called a press conference at the National Assembly only to deny all the accusations leveled against her.



Yoon stopped short of making an apology for the simmering scandal related to her 28-year career as an activist advocating for the rights of the victims. She also turned down opposition parties and some civic groups' call for her to give up her Assembly seat which she obtained under the proportional representation system in the April 15 general election.



The scandal erupted May 7 when Lee Yong-soo, 92, a former sex slave for frontline Japanese troops before and during World War II, accused Yoon of mismanaging donated funds for the victims. Yoon had long led the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance for the Issues of Military Sexual Slavery by Japan.



The allegations against her are shocking, considering that Yoon has been recognized for organizing the weekly Wednesday rally in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul since 1992 to call for Japan's apology and compensation for the slavery victims. She has also contributed to raising awareness of Japan's wartime crimes against humanity at home and abroad.



It is regrettable that she now faces allegation after allegation, including the diversion of the council's funds to finance her daughter's study in the U.S. and buy houses for her family. She has also come under criticism for purchasing a house to build a shelter for aging slavery victims in Anseong, south of Seoul, in 2013. She and her civic group were found to have bought the house at a price much higher than its market value and sold it far below the market price. This raises suspicions that she might have embezzled the council's funds by manipulating the prices.



During the press conference, Yoon apologized for causing a controversy over her operation of the council. She admitted using her personal bank accounts to raise donations and hiring her father as a caretaker of the Anseong shelter. But her apology can only be seen as lip service because she rejected all other allegations.



The conference came after Lee held her second press conference May 25 to hold Yoon accountable for the diversion of donated funds for personal purposes. It also came a day before she officially started her career as a legislator Saturday.



Yoon and Lee are playing truth or dare. No one can figure out who is telling the truth and who is telling lies. Yet we need to listen carefully to what Lee said: Yoon and the council have done little to help the victims. We urge Yoon not to try to hide behind the privileges of a lawmaker. She must reflect on her failure to ensure keeping the moral high ground in running the advocacy group.



Now the prosecution should conduct a fair and thorough investigation into Yoon and the council to shed light on the scandal as soon as possible. She should fully cooperate with the probe. This is the least she can do so as not to disappoint the people, particularly the surviving victims, even more.




Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD), the UAEs leading national entity spearheading global development projects, has announced an AED1 billion ($272.2 million) initiative to support national companies during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The initiative, which lasts for the duration of 2020, provides concessionary loans for national companies operating in sectors crucial to the UAE economy  such as healthcare, food security and manufacturing. It also considers firms in sectors that are bearing the brunt of the Covid-19 related disruption to business and economic activity.

The initiative has been launched under the directives of His Highness Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Presidential Affairs and Chairman of ADFDs Board of Directors; and is supported by His Highness Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, and Deputy Chairman of ADFDs Board of Directors.

Mohammed Saif Al Suwaidi, Director General of ADFD, said: Under the directives of the UAE leadership and His Highness Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, ADFD is determined to support our national companies during these exceptional circumstances. The health of our national companies is a crucial driver of our long-term growth, resilience and development. By pledging an AED1 billion allocation for concessionary loans to national companies through 2020, we ensure that businesses in key industry sectors can access the support they need to recover from the current crisis, continue operations, and bolster the national economy during this time.

The announcement is in line with the ADFDs remit of supporting national companies, and sees the Fund take decisive action to safeguard the UAEs long-term economic growth and development. The initiative is projected to positively impact recipient sectors both directly and indirectly throughout 2020.

Al Suwaidi added: As a nation, the UAE has always taken a long-term approach to sustainable development, at home and around the world. We are confident that our national companies will emerge from this current situation stronger and more resilient, as we continue on the path of sustainable growth and economic diversification. Our nations economic strength is underpinned by our national companies that drive innovation and employment. This initiative shows that we stand ready to support these companies and collaborate with them in building a resilient and prosperous future for the nation.

The national company assistance initiative dovetails with the ADFDs enhanced remit of supporting the local economy while catalysing and co-investing in global development projects. Over the last decade, ADFD has facilitated business deals worth AED16.5 billion ($4.4 billion) for UAE companies in its overseas projects.

In late 2019, ADFD also launched the Abu Dhabi Exports Office (ADEX) to support national exporters and open new markets for them. ADEX boosts the competitiveness of UAE exports by offering financing and guarantees to overseas buyers sourcing goods and services from UAE exporters. In 2020, ADEX allocated AED550 million ($150 million) to support the strategic expansion of the nation's export businesses. - TradeArabia News Service
Kabul, May 31 : A journalist and a studio technician were killed after a TV channel vehicle hit an IED in Kabul, Afghan officials said.

The attack took place on Saturday in the city's PD4 area, TOLO News reported.

Khurshid TV's economic reporter Zamir Amiri and technical staff member Shafiq were killed in the blast.

Rafi Sediqqi, the editor-in-chief of Khurshid TV, said that six staff members of the channel were wounded in the blast and two are in serious condition.

Those wounded in the blast were transferred to Kabul's Emergency Hospital.

Sediqqi said that no group or individual had threatened the TV channel recently.

"Such attacks will not demoralize Afghan journalists and media outlets from reporting the news," said Sediqqi.

The Taliban's spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid in a statement denied involvement.

Last August, a magnetic IED blast targeted a bus carrying the employees of Khurshid TV in the fifth street of Taimani in Kabul's Police District 4.
(UroToday.com) Timur Mitin, MD, PhD, began his talk emphasizing the diagnostic uncertainty of the transrectal ultrasound-guided biopsy of the prostate, which is used to diagnose prostate cancer. This is one of the reasons why prostate MRI has been introduced and commonly used for local staging of prostate cancer in an attempt to improve the results of prostate biopsy and identify the patients who need to have a biopsy. There have been many studies attempting to ascertain the accuracy and precision of prostate MRI in local staging of prostate cancer, as can be seen in Table 1. However, despite the known limitations of prostate MRI with less than optimal sensitivity and specificity, its advantages have been shown repeatedly in several studies, resulting in the EAU guidelines recommending performing a multiparametric MRI before a prostate biopsy. However, multiparametric MRI is still not recommended as an initial screening tool.. Studies assessing the role of prostate MRI in local staging of prostate cancer

In Abstract 5513 presented by Dr. David Eldred-Evans et al. at the 2020 American Society of Clinical Oncology Virtual Annual Meeting, the authors from the Imperial College in London performed a paired screen positive study design in two screening centers. Men aged 50 to 69 years were invited for screening from seven primary care practices and using community-based recruitment. The men underwent screening with both a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) blood test, with a result of above 3 ng/ml considered positive, and a multiparametric MRI of the prostate (either 1.5 or 3 T with PIRADS 2.0 threshold  3 or  4 considered positive). All participants were blinded to the indication from biopsy, and all reporters were blinded to the results of the other tests. If both screening tests (PSA and MRI) were positive, the patients were referred for transperineal systemic 12 core biopsy +/- targeted biopsy. The clinically significant disease was sought out, defined as any Gleason score  3+4 (Figure 1).







Figure 1. Abstract 5513, ASCO 2020 study design



The authors also noted much faster recruitment rates than anticipated initially (Figure 2).







Figure 2. Recruitment rate in Abstract 5513



The results of this study, shown in Table 2, demonstrated considerably higher sensitivity and specificity of multiparametric MRI using a PIRADS 2.0 score of  4 when compared to PSA  3 ng/ml.



Table 2. Abstract 5513 results









The authors of the study concluded that these results support a large-scale evaluation of the clinical impact and cost-effectiveness of using a short MRI scan, with PIRADS 4 to 5 score as a cut-off to denote a screen-positive test.



The next abstract discussed was Abstract 5512 entitled: Late toxicities and recurrences in patients with clinical stage one nonseminomatous germ cell tumor after one cycle of adjuvant BEP vs. primary retroperitoneal lymph node dissection  A 13 years follow-up analysis of a phase III trial cohort.



This was a follow-up study to an original study that was published back in 2008 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, a randomized Phase III trial comparing retroperitoneal lymph node dissection (RPLND) with one course of BEP chemotherapy in the adjuvant treatment of clinical stage one non-seminoma testicular germ cell tumor.1 This was a multicenter study including 61 centers in Germany taking place between 1996 and 2005. A total of 382 patients were randomized to receive either retroperitoneal lymph node dissection or one cycle of BEP chemotherapy. After a median follow-up of 4.7 years, there were only two vs. 15 recurrences in favor of BEP. The hazard ratio to experience tumor recurrences after RPLND vs. chemotherapy was 7.9 (Figure 3).







Figure 3. Comparison of BEP chemotherapy to retroperitoneal lymph node dissection in the German multicenter randomized trial (1996-2005)



The follow-up results of this study, presented at the ASCO 2020 Virtual Annual Meeting, demonstrated an additional single recurrence in both arms (RPLND and BEP), as seen in Table 3. Retrograde ejaculation was significantly more common in the RPLND arm (24% vs. 9%, p=0.01).



Table 3. Follow-up and outcome in Abstract 5512









Dr. Mitin concluded his talk describing the recommendation from the European and US guidelines regarding the treatment of patients with stage 1 non-seminoma testicular germ cell tumors. The ESMO guidelines do not recommend performing RPLND for patients with non-seminoma stage 1, with surveillance being the preferred recommended treatment and BEP one to two cycles being an alternative.The SWENOTECA guidelines recommend one cycle of BEP to high-risk patients.Lastly, the NCCN guidelines recommend surveillance as the preferred treatment choice and as an alternative allow to choose between RPLND and one cycle of BEP (Table 4).. NCCN guidelinesPresented by: Timur Mitin, MD, PhD, Medical Director, Tuality OHSU Cancer Center, Associate Professor of Radiation Medicine, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, Oregon

Written by: Hanan Goldberg, MD, MSc., Urology Department, SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, New York, Twitter: @GoldbergHanan, at the 2020 American Society of Clinical Oncology Virtual Annual Meeting (#ASCO20), May 29th-May 31st, 2020


Image credit: Gerd Altmann (Pixabay)



Rough & Polished recently contacted several diamond producers and exploration companies with operations in Africa to establish how their operations were affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and what they are doing to alleviate the impact. We also sought to establish when they will likely resume their operations. Furthermore, we elicited their comments on efforts to temporarily suspend rough imports in India. Petra Diamonds, Lucapa Diamond, De Beers and Botswana Diamonds gave us their comments. Although, Lucara Diamond was yet to respond at the time of writing this article, we managed to extract some information in their first quarter 2020 report, which addressed some of our questions.

Below are responses from the diamond companies:

Petra Diamonds - Marianna Bowes (Spokesperson)

Petra remains focused on taking all actions necessary to support the measures to limit the outbreak of COVID-19 in the countries in which the company operates and to decrease the threat to our employees, contractors and other local stakeholders.

South Africa

On 16 April 2020 the Minister of Minerals and Energy in South Africa announced that mining companies that have been restricted to care and maintenance or scaled down activities are now able to ramp up to a 50% labour capacity during the period of the nationwide lockdown. All of the Companys South African operations have now ramped up to this level. In addition, on 23 April 2020, President Ramaphosa announced a phased, risk-based approach to lifting restrictions starting from 1 May 2020  the address to the nation can be accessed here. Details on the impact of this on the Company are still being discussed with the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE).

Prior to ramping up production, companies were required to demonstrate that they have Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) in place that comply with the Mineral Council South Africas COVID-19 guidelines. In addition, the DMRE has applied a number of conditions to the increase in capacity, relating to health screening and testing, the provision of quarantine facilities for employees who have tested positive for COVID-19, as well as arrangements for transporting employees from their homes to their respective areas of operations. These conditions and the announcement referenced above can be found on the DMRE website.

Prior to ramping up, Petra therefore adopted SOPs and measures that are in compliance with both the directive and the conditions referred to above, in consultation with the representative labour unions and mine-based DMRE officials.

Tanzania

As announced in the Market Update on 9 April 2020, the Williamson mine has been placed on care and maintenance, with only essential services being carried out in order to protect the mines assets and resources.

Group Production Guidance

FY 2020 production guidance of 3.8 million carats remains suspended until the Company is in a better position to quantify the full impact of this ongoing period of reduced production capacity.

Lucapa Diamond  Stephen Wetherall (Managing Director)

Lucapa suspended Mothae operations on 25 March 2020;

Reduced Lulo operations to essential services on 1 April 2020;

Resumed activities at Lulo to approximately 50% capacity on 1 May 2020.

The challenging diamond environment in 2019 had been successfully navigated by the group and we were seeing a much better pricing environment towards the end of the year and early into 2020. However, the impact of the pandemic and preventative actions implemented by many Governments towards the end of Q1 20 has been significant for the sector, resulting in the suspension of activities at both mines. We and our partners have not yet taken any decisions in respect of recommencement of activities at the Mothae mine yet, but we continue to monitor Government measures, health guidance and the market closely.

India

With respect to the talk of the Indian ban on diamonds, I am not sure that it is needed now or right. Time has moved on from when it was originally talked about and the larger producers are or have already stopped or reduced their production and amending usually strict requirements for clients to purchase goods. It would make no logical sense to put a ban over the top of actions already being taken by these larger commercial producers to stem supply and reduce adverse impacts on the sector. It is important to note that, many producer countries rely heavily on the diamond mining sector and they too are suffering severely from the impact of COVID-19 - it is important for the diamond sector to open up as soon as it can so that those countries can start to rebuild their economies.

A blanket ban on imports to India has an impact on many countries as India sees ~85% of global diamond production enter its borders. I think the ban would be short-sighted. Diamond producer countries and important markets (like India) need to dialogue and find a balanced position to re-commencing supply and rebuilding the pipeline. It too is not in Indias best interests long term for its sector to restart or the risk is that alternate competitor channels start to gain momentum elsewhere. Every stakeholder in the sector needs to work together  a blanket ban is not the answer.

Looking at it from our Companys perspective only, I am less concerned re a ban being implemented in India, as we are a low volume high-value niche producer. Most of our higher value product (>75% of our mines value) does not usually find its way to India as those diamonds are being cut in other centres. In addition, our much publicised strategy of partnering with strong high-end diamantaires in a win-win long-term partnership should stand our mines and demand for our product in good stead as we emerge from this pandemic and re-commence production.

De Beers  David Johnson (Spokesperson)

All of our upstream operations have now either returned to work or will do so in the near future, although they are all operating at reduced levels. De Beers Group recently published revised production guidance for 2020, noting that we will reduce production by seven million carats (from 32-34 million carats down to 25-27 million carats). This will remain subject to continuous review.

At this stage its not possible to say precisely [when we will fully resume our operations] as there remain several variables that could affect the situation. We will continue to monitor the situation closely and respond as appropriate, with an ongoing focus on taking responsible, long-term decisions.

We remain focused on providing flexibility for our customers during this challenging period, just as we have done during previous challenging periods. We recognise that our customers are also dealing with an extraordinary and unprecedented situation, so providing maximum flexibility in purchasing arrangements has been a key part of our approach.

India

While we understand that the current situation is challenging for all parts of the value chain, and that there is a desire to protect people from its impacts, we see this as a shared challenge that requires shared solutions. Keeping global supply chains functioning is vital, especially at a time like this, and preventing businesses from purchasing in the event that they have demand would be counterproductive. Meanwhile, there are many people in communities around our operations that rely on diamond revenue to support their health and wellbeing, just as there are in other parts of the world. We believe it is important for the industry to be able to function normally to ensure all those who rely on it can be supported as well as possible. Bruce Cleaver (De Beers CEO) recently issued an open letter that addressed this topic.

Botswana Diamonds James Campbell (Managing Director)

Much of our diamond exploration is arranged around campaigns, rather than ongoing operations. We have therefore re-arranged our exploration activities to resume once allowed by the authorities in the countries in which we work.

In South Africa, we are not allowed to travel across provincial borders under the current stage of the lock down and therefore exploration activities can only resume once this particular regulation has been lifted. Equally, no international travel is allowed and therefore the same applies to our operations in Botswana and Zimbabwe.

Lucara Diamond (Q1 results)

In March 2020, the Company implemented a crisis management strategy in relation to COVID-19, to protect the health and well-being of its employees in Botswana and Canada and to protect the financial well-being of the business. The Karowe Mine remains fully operational, under new measures and guidelines implemented by the Government of Botswana in late March 2020. These measures designate mining as an essential service in Botswana and include increased travel restrictions, reduced overall staffing levels and increased and appropriate social distancing. Employees who are able to work remotely are doing so. As travel restrictions relating to COVID-19 are expected to remain in place for an unknown period, the Company's ability to complete tenders in Botswana is expected to be impacted. As a temporary measure, the Government of Botswana has granted Lucara permission to hold diamond sales in Antwerp, Belgium if required.

Lucara completed the first of four planned diamond tenders for the year on March 5th, and achieved sales prices within 1% of forecast, however, diamond prices have since deteriorated in response to weaker demand as COVID-19 has continued to spread globally. The full impact of COVID-19 on Lucara's operations and production outlook for 2020 remains highly uncertain, and as a result, the Company has suspended its 2020 guidance until further notice.

Lucara's second quarter tender, originally scheduled for mid-May 2020, has been postponed and will be re-scheduled to a more appropriate date in the near-term, as market conditions are evaluated. The Clara digital sales platform, which allows for buyers to place orders without physically viewing the goods and to purchase only the diamonds they need on a stone by stone basis, continues to hold sales. Travel restrictions in Botswana, South Africa, India and Europe have caused disruptions during April preventing some deliveries from taking place.

Lucara's planned capital spending program for 2020 is largely focused on the initiation of our Karowe underground expansion project and was previously designed to ramp up in Q3, funded entirely from cash-flow, under a budget of $53 million. Given the present uncertainty related to our 2020 revenue forecast, this program is being re-scoped and reduced to focus on critical-path items through the remainder of the year. The underground expansion program has an estimated capital cost of $514 million and a five-year period of development. The Company expects to finance part of the capital cost with debt and the balance from cash flow generated by operations. In light of the uncertainty resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Company is also reviewing its original estimates and assumptions for the quantum and timing of cash flows expected from the current operations against the anticipated financing requirement for the underground expansion program.

The Company's $50 million revolving term working capital facility with the Bank of Nova Scotia has been extended by one year to May 5, 2021. The Bank of Nova Scotia has first ranking security by way of a charge over the Company's Karowe assets and a guarantee by the Company's subsidiaries, which hold the Karowe assets. As part of the extension, and until Lucara obtains greater clarity on its cash flow projections in the short-term, Lucara has agreed to limit capital expenditures related to the underground expansion project. The extension of this facility provides an important source of liquidity to Lucara during a period of significant uncertainty in global markets.

Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough&Polished
May 29 (Reuters) - Two U.S. senators are expected to introduce next week sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline that Russia is trying to finish, but which Washington has opposed since the Obama era, a source familiar with the matter said on Friday.

The sanctions, which would have to pass Congress and be signed by President Donald Trump, are expected to be introduced as soon as Monday by Senators Ted Cruz, a Republican, and Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat.

The senators' offices did not respond to requests for comment. This week, however, both senators indicated they were weighing sanctions on Nord Stream 2, led by state gas company Gazprom, as Russia moves closer to completing the project.

Late last year sanctions sponsored by Cruz and Shaheen halted work by Swiss-Dutch company Allseas on the pipeline that aims to double the capacity of an existing line sending Russian gas to Germany.

Now a Russian pipe-laying vessel aims to finish the remaining 100 miles (160 km) of the project, which would bypass Ukraine by sending gas to Germany under the Baltic Sea. The pipeline could be launched by the end of 2020 or early next year, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said.

Washington has opposed the project, which would tighten Putins economic and political grip over Europe.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said after the Reuters story about senators weighing new sanctions that Moscow considers such measures unfair competition and contradictory to international law.

Cruz told the Atlantic Council think tank this month that new sanctions would apply to any ship or any owner who attempts to finish the project. Ship officers would lose their ability to come to the United States and all their assets would be blocked, he said. Nord Stream 2 did not immediately respond to a request for comment. (Reporting by Dmitry Zhdannikov in London and Timothy Gardner in Washington; Editing by David Gregorio)
John Cusack is an actor perhaps most famous for his romantic comedies Say Anything, High Fidelity and Better Off Dead. He lives in Chicago, so when his city protested over the killing of George Floyd, Cusack took to the streets to document it. His Twitter feed is an hour by hour, street by street look at the scene in Chicago.

John Cusack | Jamie Squire/Getty Images

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Warning, some of Cusacks tweets involve harsh language and video of violent scenes. Showbiz Cheat Sheet took care to only publish his milder reports, but be aware of more intense content if you follow the links or his feed.

John Cusack reported on the George Floyd protests in Chicago

By Saturday, May 30, cities across the country had already protested for a day. Cusack took his first video at 1:22 PM of the streets of his city flooded with peaceful protestors.

His subsequent videos captured protestors chanting, I cant breathe, which is what Floyd said while officer Derek Chauvin held his knee on Floyds neck in the video posted on May 25. In other videos, they chant, Say his name. George Floyd.

Cusack followed protestors to Chicagos Trump Tower. Once there, he captured video of protestors spray painting Abolish the Police on a boarded up window.

John Cusack saw the people of Chicago support one another

Amid the intensity of Chicagos protest, Cusack also saw goodness. For example, in this photo, a first aid station helps a protestor by bandaging her hand.

First aid station  saw three young women with cut hands legs  pic.twitter.com/VMYZwbNq4N  John Cusack (@johncusack) May 30, 2020

RELATED: Beyonce Shares Powerful Message With Her Instagram Followers  Were Broken and Were Disgusted

Furthermore, this video shows a woman chanting about healing, and giving a bystander a hug.

The police barricaded Chicago streets

Cusack took photos of Chicago police forming a barricade around Trump Tower to prevent protestors from getting closer.

The city also shut down Michigan Avenue by 5:15.

City shut down Michigan ave  pic.twitter.com/Zb66fI4uI1  John Cusack (@johncusack) May 31, 2020

John Cusack reported on the ground

Cusack reported being pepper sprayed, but witnessing no tear gas.

I havent seen tear gas  but was hit by pepper spray  dont know how a curfew can be started at nine with bridges blocked CTA not running 

Be back out tonight a to see what I can  John Cusack (@johncusack) May 31, 2020

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He also spoke with police on the ground who opposed the Floyd killing in Minnesota.

Spoke to several cops- I was Masked so got a straight answer  Said murder was grotesque and wrong-and they understand the rage, Cusack wrote.

John Cusack went back out at night

Cusack took a break while it was still daylight in Chicago. When he went back out at night, he took this video of a car on fire.

RELATED: Killer Mike Wants Racism Burned to the Ground, Not the City of Atlanta, as Protesters Rage Over George Floyds Death

He said taking that video provoked some policemen to accost him on his bike.

Cops didnt like me filming the burning car so they came at me with batons. Hitting my bike.

Ahhm heres the audio pic.twitter.com/tfaOoVCw5v  John Cusack (@johncusack) May 31, 2020

After he rode away, Cusack filmed the police who ordered him away from afar.

These were some of the peace officers  who gently tuned up my bike with their batons- pic.twitter.com/atMf8VaV6l  John Cusack (@johncusack) May 31, 2020

Cusack continued to ride around the streets of Chicago. He documented Michigan State barricaded, looting of a beauty supply store and Whole Foods, Walls on Michigan Ave. torn apart. He estimated 15-20 smashed storefronts just from his travels.

Seen at least 15 -20 smashed storefronts  @chrisdougg: @johncusack Anarchy in the USA  John Cusack (@johncusack) May 31, 2020

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Cusack went home at 11:17 p.m. When one person asked him how no one in Chicago recognized him, Cusack said hed worn a face mask following COVID-19 safety guidelines.

The morning of May 31, Cusack tweeted his analysis of the previous night.

John Cusack | Albert L. Ortega/Getty Images

Many of police I talked to last night  understood rage of the protestors & did their best to deescalate during day & into night, he wrote. But After perimeter was set around trump tower & bridges raised -it got so fearful and violent  the dynamic changed rapidly into chaos.
Hippocrates was a Greek physician who lived c. 460 - c. 370 B.C. He is often referred to as the father of modern medicine because he was one of the first to describe his observations in a scientific manner. He wrote more than 70 books.

He might be most well-known for his ancient decree of primum non nocere, or, first, do no harm. This Hippocratic oath is still taken by many medical school graduates. Perhaps politicians should consider taking a similar oath when they take office.

COVID-19 is a dangerous virus to the elderly and the frail (and those who live in New York City). But our reaction to the virus has caused more harm than the virus itself.

As more and more data become available, it is clear that the overall fatality rate of this virus is around 0.2% which is in the ballpark of a bad influenza season. This is twenty times lower than originally assumed by the WHO. The fatality rate is higher for nursing homes and assisted living patients who account for close to 50% of all deaths in the United States, and much lower for younger Americans.

The average age of the deceased in most countries is more than 80 years old. For younger Americans (<25) there is a greater risk of being killed in an automobile accident than from COVID-19 yet we continue to cogitate about opening up our schools. The COVID-19 death toll IS now coming into question as official figures do not differentiate death from COVID-19 vs. death with COVID-19. In addition, we are learning that many presumed COVID-19 deaths had no laboratory confirmation and may have been coded as such to capture increased reimbursement for COVID-19 deaths from various government agencies.

I believe that when history books are written, we will view our reaction to this virus as the greatest mistake in human history. The continuation of our initial response to the virus is no longer just a mistake it is bordering on malice. With over 30 million Americans now unemployed and estimates that 40% of those will not have jobs to return to, the economic devastation has crippled America and the world. The self inflicted economic shutdown has also caused an almost complete shutdown of our outpatient health care system.

Doctors from all all over our country report devastating consequences to their patients. Recently I co-authored with Simone Gold, M.D., J.D. a letter written to President Trump highlighting this health care crisis. This is documented at www.adoctoraday.com. Two days after The White House received this letter Dr. Fauci changed his message:

Stay-at-home orders intended to curb the spread of the coronavirus could end up causing irreparable damage. - Dr. Anthony Fauci

A psychiatrist reported that his office volume is down by 80% and his prescriptions for benzodiazepines (Valium, Xanax, Ativan) are the highest of his career. Patients who require frequent visits to stay functional are not coming into his office due to fear. A cardiologist reports that routine echocardiogram and other non-invasive cardiac testing is not being done due to local decisions making these procedures non-essential. There is also patient fear of coming into a doctor's office. A gastroenterologist reported that his routine cancer screening colonoscopies have stopped altogether and a gynecologist reported that cancer-screening pap smears and mammograms have ceased. I am personally aware of a 61 year-old patient who died of intestinal obstruction because he feared going into his doctor's office. Instead, he suffered at home, ultimately succumbing to sepsis. This is being repeated across our country with devastating consequences. False information about waiting for a vaccination, the need for widespread testing, mask-wearing, and potential asymptomatic spread of COVID-19 fill the airways and stoke unnecessary fear among the American citizenry. Winston Churchill once quipped Fear is a reaction, courage a decision.

Primum non nocere. Maybe it is time we remember Dr. Hippocrates' ancient dictum of; first do know harm. It would go a long way not just for our doctors but also for our elected representatives.

Jeffrey I. Barke, M.D. is a board-certified primary care physician.

Image credit: Pixabay public domain
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Washington (AFP) - US negotiator Zalmay Khalilzad on Saturday welcomed the surprise announcement of a three-day ceasefire between Afghan and Taliban forces during the Eid al-Fitr holiday, hailing it as "a momentous opportunity that should not be missed."

"The US will do its part to help," the envoy, who brokered a withdrawal deal between the Taliban and US forces that was announced earlier this year, added in a tweet.

"Other positive steps should immediately follow: the release of remaining prisoners as specified in the US-Taliban agreement by both sides, no returning to high levels of violence, and an agreement on a new date for the start of intra-Afghan negotiations," he continued.

The US-Taliban accord, signed in Qatar on February 29, allows the US to begin withdrawing troops from its longest war in return for various security guarantees.

It is also designed to pave the way for peace talks between the insurgents and Kabul, including trust-building initiatives such as prisoner swaps.

Ceasefires are seen as another such measure.

But with US President Donald Trump openly signaling his desire to leave regardless, and the coronavirus pandemic complicating matters, violence has surged again in the war-weary country in recent weeks.

The ceasefire which begins Sunday was first announced by the Taliban, then welcomed by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.

It is only the second ceasefire since the US invasion in 2001, though the Taliban did agree to a brief "reduction in violence" after the accord with the US was signed on February 29.

The previous ceasefire, also held during Eid in 2018, was marked by extraordinary scenes as Taliban fighters posed for selfies and shared ice cream with fellow Afghans.
THE HOUSE ON FRIPP ISLAND by Rebecca Kauffman (Serpents Tail 12.99, 336 pp)

THE HOUSE ON FRIPP ISLAND

by Rebecca Kauffman (Serpents Tail 12.99, 336 pp)

You know someone will be dead by the end of Kauffmans suspenseful chiller, but the tension derives not so much from the question of who, as from the novels furtive atmospherics.

Lisa and Scott are on holiday for a week with Lisas old school friend Poppy and her husband John, who are as poor and content as Lisa and Scott are wealthy and miserable. The weather is hot, there are alligators in the swamp and Lisa is on edge after discovering that a local handyman is on the sex offenders register.

The children, meanwhile, are in their own bubbles  Lisas 14-year-old daughter Rae is an unhappy mass of broiling hormones, while Poppys 17-year-old son Ryan is disconcertingly laid-back and inscrutable.

While the fault lines between Scott and Lisa allow for plenty of tart observations on marital disenchantment, Kaufmann spins a secondary, far more disconcerting story about the toxic power of suspicion and rumour. A smart summer read.

PILGRIMS by Matthew Kneale (Atlantic 16.99, 352 pp)

PILGRIMS

by Matthew Kneale (Atlantic 16.99, 352 pp)

A right ramshackle bunch populates Matthew Kneales latest novel, set in medieval England. Theres Tom, son of Tom, a wretched lad intent on saving the soul of his dead cat from purgatory. Theres Sir John, a boorish landlord sulkily seeking forgiveness for punching an abbot. Theres a humble tailor whose daughter often speaks in the voice of God himself.

They and others are on a pilgrimage from Oxford to Rome, and most take it in turn to narrate a chapter or two as the pilgrims slowly limp their way across France, at one point seeking shelter in a nunnery, causing some of the chaps to briefly part ways with their trousers.

Theres a lot of superstitious talk and multiple anecdotes concerning sex, or swiving, as it was called back then.

Alas, far too much exposition, as characters provide lengthy back stories, and a muddling of narrative voices  to the extent its often impossible to distinguish one from another  sap the energy. And the clamour of medieval England never feels properly bedded into the writing.

Its a long old journey, thats for sure.

BELOW DECK by Sophie Hardcastle (Allen & Unwin 10, 304 pp)

BELOW DECK

by Sophie Hardcastle (Allen & Unwin 10, 304 pp)

Oli is in her early 20s when she abandons a career in finance to spend four lifechanging weeks on a boat sailing the Australian coast with a much older couple who quickly become her dearest friends.

Four years on and, fully immersed in a life at sea, she signs on as the only woman in a crew sailing to New Zealand. The atmosphere sours, and she is subsequently humiliated, abused and raped.

Partly because she didnt scream out during the worst of these moments, the experience seems to stain her very blood. Its only years later, on a trip to Antarctica with a group of female artists, that she feels able to be free.

Hardcastles debut novel for adults indulges some over-familiar tropes on the subject of feminine solidarity and her clumsy virtue-signalling can be tiresome. But her prose is often consolingly gorgeous, combining Olis synesthesia and innate empathy with the elements to mesmeric effect.
An imposed nighttime curfew would not run from 8 pm until 5 am instead of a previous 6 am starting Sunday

Egypt has slightly revised an imposed nighttime curfew to run until 5 am instead of a previous 6 am starting Sunday, minister of State for Information Osama Heikal announced.

Heikals statements came during a press conference held at the ministrys headquarters in Cairo on developments related to governmental efforts to combat the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.

The newly announced curfew hours come one day after Egypt began imposing on Saturday a nationwide curfew that begins at 8 pm instead of a previous 5 pm for two weeks, marking a gradual reopening of a country heavily affected by the coronavirus repercussions.

Wearing face masks in public places has become mandatory since Saturday, with violators facing hefty fines.

Face masks are mandatory for workers or visitors at markets, shops, banks, as well as governmental or private institutions until further notice, according to a decree by Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly earlier this month.

The decree also states that commuters taking public or private transportation must also wear face masks.

Those who do not not wear a mask will be subject to a fine up to EGP 4,000.

The country saw last week a coronavirus interrupted Eid El-Fitr religious holiday, which marks the end of the Islamic fasting month Ramadan, after stricter measures, mainly an imposed curfew, ran starting 5 pm during the six-day holiday.

Despite the stricter restrictions last week, Egypt reported on Saturday 1,367 new coronavirus infections, the highest single-day increase announced to date, bringing the countrys total number of confirmed cases to 23,449 since the detection of the first case on 14 February.

Saturdays toll was the third consecutive day for the country to witness a single-day record surpassing 1,000 cases in the number of detected infections.

The total death toll currently stands at 913 nationwide, after announcing 34 deaths on Saturday.

The curfew was first introduced in March as part of a series of measures to curtail the spread of the virus and has been extended several times since. Other measures include suspending air traffic, shuttering schools and universities, closing mosques and churches and banning public gatherings.

Egypt appears adamant to gradually re-open the economy to recover the main sources of foreign currency, including tourism and remittances from Egyptian expats.

The country has signalled in the past few weeks that it is looking to pull back on some of the heavy restrictions introduced in recent months, and has urged the public to maintain social distancing and other preventive measures when these changes are made.

In recent weeks, Egypt has resumed a number of governmental services, including licensing vehicles, as well as some court sessions.

Starting Monday, administrative services, including those handling civil status, passports, emigration and nationality, work permits, and those at the criminal evidence department will be resumed.

As of mid-June, the state will announce a gradual resumption of several activities, including sporting clubs and youth centres, while following precautionary measures against the virus. This may also include the gradual reopening of places of worship.



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Chandigarh, May 31 : With the curtains eventually coming down on Asia's largest wheat procurement process, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Sunday thanked the farmers, 'arthiyas', labourers and all government agencies for having achieved a record wheat procurement of 128 lakh tonnes successfully despite the pandemic.

He said due to elaborate arrangements and operation management of staggered arrival of wheat in the midst of Covid-19 failed to put a spoke in the gigantic wheat procurement operation lasting one-and-a-half month during the current Rabi season.

The Chief Minister, while expressing satisfaction, said the patience, discipline and adherence to the health safety measures during harvesting, procurement and storage of wheat was the hallmark in ensuring zero procurement related to Covid-19 cases.

Additional Chief Secretary, Development, Viswajeet Khanna said to facilitate the pre-harvesting necessities during lockdown, the Department of Agriculture had successfully coordinated the tracking, screening and supervision of all combine operators entering Punjab borders till completion of the harvesting operation.

Medical checkup of such combine operators was ensured before starting the work by them and sanitisation of combine harvesters and straw reapers was ensured by department apart from enforcing social distancing, face masking and hand washing measures.

Principal Secretary, Food and Civil Supplies, K.A.P. Sinha said of the wheat sown over 35.08 lakh hectares, 127.62 lakh tonnes has been procured by the agencies during this difficult phase.

He said amongst the districts, Sangrur topped in arrival of 12.24 lakh tonnes, which is almost 10 per cent of the state's total, followed by Muktsar (9.70 lakh tonnes) and Bathinda (9.65 lakh tonnes).

He said in comparison to the last season, about 3 lakh tonnes short has been procured in the state, with the major shortfalls being in Patiala, Fazilka, Amritsar and Tarn Taran.

Ludhiana, Sangrur and Jalandhar districts have, however, shown higher procurement over the last year.
iStock/Andrei StanescuBy: EMILY SHAPIRO, ELLA TORRES, CATHERINE THORBECKE and BILL HUTCHINSON, ABC News

(CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.) -- Astronauts on board the Dragon successfully docked at the International Space Station Sunday morning, 19 hours after the successful NASA-SpaceX launch.



At 10:16 a.m. Eastern time, the Dragon spacecraft carrying veteran NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley rendezvoused with the space station 262 statute miles above the border of China and Mongolia.



"Docking soft capture. We have docking," NASA mission control in Houston announced.



The accomplishment came at 18 hours and 58 minutes after the rocket, commercially built by technology entrepreneur Elan Musk and his SpaceX team in Hawthorne, California, propelled the astronauts into a new chapter of space exploration, marking the first time a privately funded space program teamed with NASA on such an endeavor.



Shortly after linking up with the space station, 12 latches of the Dragon were deployed creating an airtight seal that would allow Behnken and Hurley to enter a vestibule and go into the space station.



"It's been a real honor to be just a small part of this nine-year endeavor since the last time a United States space ship docked with the International Space Station," Hurley said after the historic accomplishment.



About 2 hours after docking, the astronauts opened the final of three hatches and entered the space station dressed in dark shirts, light-colored pants and white socks. Behnken was the first to through the hatch, entering the space station at 1:22 p.m. Eastern time quickly followed by Hurley.



On the other side of the hatch they were greeted with hugs by NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy and his two crewmates, Russian cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner. Hurley and Behnken entered the space station while orbiting 262 miles over Turkmenistan.



Flight director Zeb Scoville, who was at mission control in Houston, congratulated the crew.



''Bravo on a magnificent moment in spaceflight history, and on the start of a new journey that has changed the face of space travel in this new era of space transportation," Scoville said.



Jim Bridenstine, NASA administrator who was at mission control in Houston, was among the first to greet them.



"Welcome to the space station," Bridenstine told them. "I tell you, the whole world saw this mission and we are so proud of everything you have done for our country and in fact to inspire the world."



Hurley responded, saying, "I appreciate that sir. It's obviously been our honor to be just a small part of this."



"It's great to get the United States back in the crew launch business and we're just really glad to be on board this magnificent complex," Hurley said.



Bridenstine asked if they were able to get any sleep Saturday night and into Sunday morning.



"We did get probably a good seven hours or so of the opportunity for sleep and I did succeed at sleep and Doug did as well," Behnken said. "The first night is always a little bit of challenge but the Dragon was a slick vehicle and we had good airflow and so we had an excellent, excellent evening."



Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, was also on hand in Houston to congratulate the astronauts and asked them how the Dragon handled in space.



"It flew just like it was supposed to," Hurley said. "We had a couple of opportunities to take it out for a spin, so to speak, once after we got into orbit last night and again today about 20 minutes before we docked and my compliments to the folks back in Hawthorne [California] and SpaceX for how well it flew. It's exactly like the simulator and we couldn't be happier about the performance of the vehicle."



Cruz reminded the astronauts about the problems in the United States on the ground, referring to the violent protests stemming from the police-involved killing of African American George Floyd and the continuing battle against the coronavirus.



"I have to say this launch and y'all's docking is a powerful inspiration of what we can do when we come together," Cruz said.



Hurley responded by recalling that nine years ago he was among the crew that docked space shuttle Atlantis to the space station, ending a 30-year shuttle program and that ever since then SpaceX, NASA and the commercial crew program have been working to restore American launch capability.



"This is just one effort that we can show for the ages in this dark time that we've had over the past several months to kind of inspire especially the young people in the United States to reach for these lofty goals and work hard and look what you can accomplish," Hurley said.



Following the SpaceX launch on Saturday, Bridenstine said he was "so proud" of the achievement.



"For the first time in nine years, we have now launched American astronauts on American rockets from American soil. I'm so proud of the @NASA and @SpaceX team for making this moment possible," Bridenstine tweeted.



Speeding into orbit at more than 17,500 mph, the Dragon spacecraft, now named Endeavour, was able to track down the International Space Station in about the same amount of time it takes for a commercial flight to travel from New York to Sydney, Australia. But the docking procedure was done slowly and cautiously.



President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence were on hand at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, to watch the launch on Saturday afternoon. The blast-off was initially scheduled to take place on Wednesday but was postponed due to weather conditions.



"It is absolutely our honor to be part of this huge effort to get the United States back in the launch business. We'll talk to you from orbit," Hurley said minutes before launch.



Copyright  2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
"I think there's no question about that," the mayor said at a Sunday morning news conference. "There clearly was coordination. They were clearly listening to (police) radio traffic. They had Uhaul trucks that magically showed up in front of stores. Car caravans that dropped people off who broken into windows and then were hustling the goods out to the backs of cars. Absolutely it was organized. There's no question whatsoever about that."
As more questions surface about the credentials of a San Antonio events planner who won a $39 million food relief contract from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, similar alarms are sounding about his partner in the venture, local caterer Iverson Brownell.

Brownell, who worked as a chef and caterer in Utah and South Carolina before moving to Texas, said on his website and on LinkedIn that he initiated (the) concept of a restaurant inside a yurt on a mountaintop in Park City, Utah; that he co-created a popular television show on ESPN; and that he was chosen by the United States Olympic Committee for the USA House to be Head Chef at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece.

Although Brownell worked on each of these projects, his description of the roles he played is exaggerated, leaders of those ventures say.

Brownell was hired as a chef in the yurt by its creators, led a segment on the ESPN show years after it was created and worked as a sous chef at the 2004 Olympics.

Brownell filed for personal bankruptcy in 2011 in South Carolina after defaulting on more than $360,000 in debt, court records show.

Brownell, 46, responded by email to questions about his resume by explaining his roles in the projects in more modest terms. He defended his business record and attributed his bankruptcy to a significant downturn in the economy and our business.

I did nothing improper in relation to my business, Brownell wrote, and all transactions of the business were thoroughly disclosed and fully scrutinized as a result of the closing and bankruptcy filing of the business, the public record of which I stand by.

Gregorio Palomino has said Brownell persuaded him to bid on the USDA contract.

Jerry Lara, Staff / San Antonio Express-News

Palominos business, CRE8AD8, was one of several companies with little to no experience in food distribution that received multimillion-dollar contracts from the USDA for its Farmers to Families Food Box program, designed to get food to desperate families during the coronavirus pandemic.

Palomino did not respond to requests for an interview.

The contract requires CRE8AD8  pronounced create a date  to buy 18 million pounds of food, pack it into 750,000 individual boxes and transport the boxes to food banks and other nonprofits in seven states  all in less than six weeks.

Palomino has said Brownell will oversee food procurement and food safety.

The company delivered 685 boxes of fruit and vegetables last week to the San Antonio Food Bank, its first deliveries under the contract.

After winning the contract, Palomino quickly procured a Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act license from the USDA, which is required to do business in the produce industry and usually takes several weeks to obtain.

On its website, the USDA describes the license as proof to your customers and suppliers that you are a serious business person who can be trusted to honor the terms of your contracts.

But Palomino has claimed professional credentials he never earned. And some of Brownells former employers and colleagues say the caterer, while a talented chef, overstated his own accomplishments.

2004 Olympics

A LinkedIn profile for Brownell states he initiated concept and put together the Viking Yurt, a restaurant at the top of Park City Mountain Resort to which diners are pulled in a sleigh by snowcat.

The restaurant, praised in Vogue magazine as an incredible yurt dinner experience, actually was conceived in 1999 by Joy and Geir Vik, a couple who still own the business.

Jerry Lara, Staff / San Antonio Express-News

He was only a chef and was hired as a chef, Joy Vik said. He didnt initiate the concept. We did that entirely.

She said she hired Brownell as the restaurants first chef.

We were building it that fall when I hired him that fall, she said. He did go up one time and helped some hours on construction on the Viking Yurt, but that was entirely my husband. The business concept was not his at all.

In his email, Brownell clarified that he designed the menus and managed the start-up of the restaurant with the Viks.

Brownell was a good chef, Joy Vik said, but there were a couple of instances where it seemed quite obvious it was time for him to go.

Brownell narrates an illustrious career for himself on a website for CanSurvive Cuisine, a partnership he formed in Charleston, S.C., and later in San Antonio with Dr. Michael Wargovich, a UT Health San Antonio professor who specializes in cancer prevention.

Wargovich didnt respond to requests for an interview.

On the website, CanSurvive Cuisine cites H-E-B as a client/partner. Brownell said he provided recipes based on food science for H-E-B newsletters in 2013 and 2014.

But Dya Campos, H-E-Bs director of government and public affairs, said the company has never done business with this group.

Brownells bio on his website reads: While owning and operating a successful catering business in Park City, Chef Iverson also served for ten consecutive years as Head Chef for the famed Sundance Film Festival, running and overseeing the exclusive catering for a long list of celebrities and a most diverse, discerning and international range of palates.

In an email, a Sundance official confirmed that the Sundance Institute, which runs the festival, contracted with Brownells catering company for several events during Festivals, but he was not an employee of the Institute nor were those arrangements exclusive.

Joe Saladyga said he was general manager of Brownells catering company, Iverson Catering, in Park City.

Thats all in how you perceive it, Saladyga said. He was head chef of his own company, technically. And he served at Sundance. But he was not the head chef of Sundance.

In an email, Brownell said he never had claimed to be sole head chef for the festival. He said he was functioning as executive chef of my own company, overseeing as many as 80 people at 75 events per year.

Referring to another claim on Brownells resume, Saladyga said: I know he was not the head chef at the USA House at the Olympics. That always bothered me.

Brownells bio claims that as his expertise and unique work became more recognized, he was chosen as head chef at the 2004 Olympics, an experience that informed much of his interest in using food specifically to enhance and maintain health.

Thats not true, said Maxine Turner, founder of Cuisine Unlimited, a Utah catering firm. Turner was part of a coalition of caterers and chefs selected by the USOC to serve the USA House, headquarters of the U.S. delegation.

Brownell worked with the team as a sous chef, she said.

He was a member of our staff, but he was not the executive chef, Turner said. The executive chef was an outstanding chef out of New York City, Frank Lombardi.

In his email, Brownell clarified that he was chosen by Cuisine Unlimited to work as a chef (one of many) to produce food at the Olympics.

Turner praised Brownell as a creative chef and a good human being, but she called his involvement in the USDA contract concerning due to the size of his current catering operation.

I dont know what they put in their bid to land a contract like that, Turner said. Were bigger than he is, and we wouldnt qualify.

Brownells bio continues: Over the next few years, food and adventure came into play again as he co-created a still popular show on ESPN, Off Shore Adventures.

That shows creator, Chris Fischer, disputed that in an email.

Brownell was a chef on the (yacht) Go Fisch for a couple years and led a segment in Offshore Adventures called the Gourmet Galley, Fischer wrote. He was not a creator of Offshore Adventures as we had been making that show for many years prior to his involvement.

In his email, Brownell described his role on the show in more limited terms than his online bio does. He said he collaborated with Fischer for several seasons.

There were other chefs before and after me in earlier and later seasons, he wrote.

Filing bankruptcy

In 2009, Brownell tried to sell Iverson Catering in Utah to Saladyga, the general manager, who declined to purchase it. Despite a steady clientele, the company was in debt, Saladyga said.

At that point, I was like, No, I dont want to do this, Saladyga said. The money wasnt flowing. He spent more than he made, and that was an issue for me.

Some of the companys clients had paid Brownell thousands of dollars in deposits for future events, Saladyga said.

Jerry Lara, Staff / San Antonio Express-News

Among other creditors, Brownell owed $20,000 to his landlord, Paul Marsh  a debt that would surface two years later in a bankruptcy filing. Marsh said Brownell never repaid the debt.

Marsh said Brownell left town in a hurry, still has a number of obligations, if not legal, certainly ethical.

In his email, Brownell called Saladyga disgruntled.

He added, I resist the inference that there was anything improper about the compensation I took, or the expenses I either incurred or was reimbursed for from the business during the time I solely owned that business.

Brownell said his work has always been about creative collaborations with talented teams on all levels. My personal ethic is one of honesty and candor; in good times and bad.

Brownell left Park City and returned to Charleston, S.C., where he sold his catering company for about $40,000, according to Marc Williams, who brokered the sale.

In 2011, Brownell filed for bankruptcy in South Carolina. He owed more than $360,000 to a variety of creditors, court records show, including multiple banks and American Express, to which he owed $86,500.

In January 2012, a trustee for Brownells estate told a court that he had not received any property or paid any money on account of the estate. The case was closed that year and the debt was canceled.

The only debts that would have been paid were those allowed by the trustee in bankruptcy, Brownell wrote.

Palominos claims

A week ago, a San Antonio Express-News investigation detailed how Palomino claimed professional credentials he didnt earn and major corporate clients who say they have no record of doing business with him.

Since then, more evidence has emerged of unfounded claims by Palomino.

The International Live Events Association, a professional organization for the event planning industry, said it demanded recently that Palomino stop listing the credential CSEP  Certified Special Events Professional  after his name on his LinkedIn profile.

Jerry Lara, Staff / San Antonio Express-News

Jen Poyer, director of the ILEA board of governors, said the organizations records show Palomino never has been a CSEP.

Poyer said the organization sent a cease-and-desist letter to Palomino on May 21. Palomino previously had ignored requests from the ILEAs San Antonio chapter to stop using the designation.

The designation disappeared from Palominos LinkedIn profile after the Express-News began making inquiries about his credentials.

The CSEP designation was established in 1993 to recognize event professionals who have successfully demonstrated the knowledge, skills and ability essential to perform all components of a special event, according to the ILEAs website. The designation is earned by passing a rigorous exam.

There are fewer than 500 event planners worldwide who have earned the CSEP designation, including just five locally, said Armando Seledon, incoming president of the ILEAs San Antonio chapter.

As someone who holds the designation to high standard and has worked tirelessly to earn it, it is highly insulting and deplorable that someone like Gregorio Palomino continues to use it, Seledon, a destination experience manager with Visit San Antonio, the citys marketing arm, wrote in an email.

Seledon said local event planners were shocked to learn the USDA had granted CRE8AD8 such a large contract.

When everyone found out he was awarded that contract, we were kind of like, Wow. This man? Seledon said.

Palominos LinkedIn page says he was Chairman of the Board, YMCA of the USA. A San Antonio YMCA spokesperson said Palominos claim is incorrect.

In smaller print on his LinkedIn profile is Palominos actual service with the local YMCA, a seven-year stint on the board that oversees its Child & Family Services division.

Palominos biography on his public figure Facebook page, as of Saturday, also states he currently sits on the boards of the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and the National Hispanic Professional Organization.

A spokesman for the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce said Palominio never has been one of its board members.

Jerry Lara, Staff / San Antonio Express-News

Omar Guevara, president of the Rio Grande Valley chapter of the National Hispanic Professional Organization, also said there is no evidence Palomino is on the board of the National Hispanic Professional Organization.

We are not aware of him at all, and San Antonio hasnt had a chapter in, I would say, eight or 10 years, Guevara said.

Palomino also says on his Facebook page he is a Big Brother in the Big Brothers Big Sisters program. But Jessica Gonzalez, executive assistant to the president and CEO of San Antonio-based Big Brothers and Big Sisters of South Texas, said Palomino doesnt appear in the nonprofits records.

Gonzalez said she does not know if Palomino has volunteered in another city. The national headquarters for Big Brothers and Big Sisters of America does not have a database of members.

The organization said volunteers must live within an hour of a city that has a Big Brothers and Big Sisters chapter in order to serve as a volunteer. Palomino has lived in San Antonio since at least 2004.
WASHINGTON - When Republican Mike Garcia won a Southern California special election in May - reclaiming a district Democrats had flipped 18 months prior - he gave the House GOP its most encouraging piece of political news since President Donald Trump was sworn into office.

The good news might end there.

While Trump, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and other GOP leaders have heralded Garcia's May 12 win as proof that they can win the House majority this year, many other indicators suggest that it will be exceedingly difficult to unwind Democrats' 17-seat majority come November.

Vulnerable Democratic incumbents have outraised their Republican challengers, national GOP groups have yet to show the ability to make up the fundraising gap, and in several key districts, some of the party's most coveted recruits have opted not to run. Public opinion polls, meanwhile, indicate a Democratic advantage on the congressional ballot in line with what the party enjoyed in 2018, ahead of its sweeping national gains.

Nonpartisan forecasters in recent weeks have seen a worsening outlook for House Republicans, saying those structural disadvantages, plus national political obstacles for Republicans, will limit GOP House gains - and potentially allow for further Democratic pickups.

"Republicans sincerely believe that 2018 was a high-water mark for Democrats, that it is just not possible that Democrats can improve on their 2018 performance, and I don't know that that's true," said Nathan Gonzales, editor and publisher of Inside Elections, who recently declared the California result an "outlier" and predicted that the November election would leave the House "close to the status quo" with no more than five seats changing hands between parties.

GOP leaders see the math differently. Garcia's win, they argue, shows that Republicans can be competitive in the suburban battlegrounds where Democrats built their majority two years ago - on top of the 30 Democrat-held districts where Trump won in 2016.

"If we can win in the Los Angeles suburbs, we can win anywhere and everywhere we need to win in the fall," said Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Minn., chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), citing 43 Democratic seats with a heavier GOP tilt than Garcia's.

Democrats and nonpartisan analysts are quick to quibble with that arithmetic - starting with the size of the mountain Republicans have to climb. While the gap is now 17 seats, the margin is certain to be wider. A court-ordered midcycle redistricting in North Carolina created two additional safe Democratic seats in that state, and the retirement of GOP Rep. Will Hurd has opened a prime Democratic pickup opportunity in South Texas.

Meanwhile, Democrats are eyeing potential gains elsewhere, including suburban districts outside Dallas and Houston where GOP incumbents are retiring, as well as close calls from 2018 in central Illinois, southern Minnesota and suburban Atlanta.

That means Republicans may have to flip three or more Democratic seats before they begin to cut into the current majority, and they face obstacles in doing so. The most easily quantifiable is money: More than two dozen Democrats have raised more than $2.5 million each, easily lapping the Republican challengers in all but a few cases.

Data compiled by the Cook Political Report's David Wasserman found that, as of March, in the 55 top races targeted by the NRCC, the median Democratic incumbent had raised more than six times what the median leading Republican challenger had raised. And that was before the coronavirus pandemic upended political fundraising, making it more difficult for those behind to catch up. Wasserman declared the GOP's path to the majority as "slim to non-existent" earlier this month.

Outside Republican groups such as the NRCC and the Congressional Leadership Fund are likely to raise tens of millions of dollars to supplement individual campaigns, but those groups have also been trailing their counterparts at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) and the House Majority PAC.

Republicans have heavily touted star recruits in several districts - starting with Garcia, a former Navy fighter pilot, son of immigrants and first-time political candidate who skillfully positioned himself as a fresh alternative to his Democratic opponent, longtime state lawmaker Christy Smith. Wesley Hunt, an African American former Army officer, is challenging freshman Rep. Lizzie Fletcher in Texas, and Michelle Steel, a Korean American county official, is running against Rep. Harley Rouda in Orange County, California.

"A record number of women running, a record number of minority candidates, 240-some military veterans - these are people with great resumes, and the vast majority of them don't have voting records," Emmer said. "It's basically the Democrats' 2018 playbook that we're using."

But some of those diversity gains have been offset by setbacks elsewhere. Democrats were delighted when GOP voters nominated Jim Oberweis, a conservative former state senator, over two women to face Rep. Lauren Underwood in an exurban Chicago district Trump won by four points. This month, party officials moved to distance themselves from Ted Howze, the Republican facing Rep. Josh Harder in a competitive central California district, after Politico reported on racially offensive Internet postings made under Howze's name.

And on Tuesday, forecasters are closely watching the outcome of the GOP primary in Iowa's 4th District, where Rep. Steve King is facing a strong intraparty challenge after making racially offensive comments, prompting Republicans to strip him of his committee assignments. A King win, forecasters agree, would leave the seat vulnerable to Democrat J.D. Scholten, who came within three points of beating King in 2018.

Meanwhile, Republicans probably will go into November with less-than-ideal candidates in several other races. In New York's 19th Congressional District, which Trump won by seven points in 2016, no credible GOP candidate has emerged to challenge freshman Rep. Antonio Delgado, a Democrat. In Michigan, top potential Republican candidates failed to challenge Reps. Elissa Slotkin, who has raised $3.7 million to defend a district Trump won by seven points, and Haley Stevens, who has raised $2.5 million in a district Trump won by four.

The difficulties for Republicans have been on display in Utah's 4th Congressional District, centered on Salt Lake City, where Trump won by seven points in 2016. It leaped to the top of GOP target lists after Democrat Ben McAdams defeated GOP Rep. Mia Love in 2018. The NRCC initially backed popular state Sen. Dan Hemmert, who quickly raised more than $400,000. But Hemmert backed out weeks later, citing the demands of a high-profile campaign.

"It's not the right time. I don't know what to say," he told The Salt Lake Tribune in December.

McAdams, meanwhile, has raised $2.8 million for his reelection campaign and had $2.2 million left to spend as of early April. The best-funded Republican candidate, state Rep. Kim Coleman, had about $115,000 in the bank at the same point.

Meanwhile, it's unclear whether potential GOP attacks against McAdams - highlighting his vote for Trump's impeachment or tying him to far-left Democratic figures - will resonate in a post-pandemic political environment. McAdams, who recently emerged from a bout with the novel coronavirus, said Thursday that he was focused on helping his constituents and not on getting caught up in partisan politicking.

"One thing I have going for me is that I work harder than anybody else in the race, and I think a lot of people who were looking at the race knew that it was going to be hard to outwork me," he said Thursday.

While there is anecdotal evidence that presidential-year turnout will improve for Republicans with Trump on the ticket, there is little sign that public opinion about control of Congress has shifted since 2018. Democrats won the national House vote in 2018 by about eight points; a Monmouth poll released this month gave them a 10-point lead nationally, and other recent "generic ballot" polls have been in a similar range.

Hopes of outsize GOP gains largely rest on Trump's ability to keep the pandemic at bay and recover his political standing in the coming months, giving him the ability to drag underfunded candidates across the finish line on Nov. 3.

"President Trump won most of the seats that are on the battlefield now - all he has to do is win them again," said Rep. Steve Stivers, R-Ohio, a former NRCC chairman. "And so I don't know if he'll match his performance from 2016, but if he does, we win the majority."

But Rep. Cheri Bustos, D-Ill., chairwoman of the DCCC, expressed confidence in an interview Wednesday, calling Garcia's win "not a sign of anything" and predicting that Smith would best Garcia in the probably higher-turnout November election.

Bustos pointed to her party's fundraising advantage, GOP recruiting woes and a proven Democratic message on health care - "I'd much rather be the party of health care than the party of drinking bleach," she said, referring to Trump's recent musings about injecting disinfectant - as underpinning that confidence.

"It's literally failure and failure after failure for them, whether it's the money, the messaging or the mobilization," Bustos said. "By every measurement, I feel really good six months out."
By Anne Marie Roantree HONG KONG (Reuters) - The American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong said on Saturday it was a sad day for the global financial centre, hours after U.S. President Donald Trump moved towards stripping the city of its special treatment in a bid to punish China.

By Anne Marie Roantree

HONG KONG (Reuters) - The American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong said on Saturday it was a sad day for the global financial centre, hours after U.S. President Donald Trump moved towards stripping the city of its special treatment in a bid to punish China.

In some of his toughest rhetoric yet, Trump said Beijing had broken its word over Hong Kong's high degree of autonomy by proposing new national security legislation and the territory no longer warranted U.S. economic privileges.

"We will take action to revoke Hong Kong's preferential treatment as a separate customs and travel territory from the rest of China," Trump said, adding that Washington would also impose sanctions on individuals seen as responsible for "smothering - absolutely smothering - Hong Kong's freedom."

Speaking at the White House, Trump said China's move on Hong Kong was a tragedy for the world.

But Trump gave no timetable for the moves, leaving Hong Kong residents, businesses and officials to ponder just how far his administration will go.

"This is an emotional moment for Americans in Hong Kong and it will take companies and families a while to digest the ramifications," AmCham President Tara Joseph said in a statement.

"Many of us ... have deep ties to this city and with Hong Kong people. We love Hong Kong and it's a sad day," she said, adding the chamber would continue to work with its members to maintain Hong Kong's status as a vital business centre.

China's parliament this week approved a decision to create laws for Hong Kong to curb sedition, secession, terrorism and foreign interference. Mainland security and intelligence agents may be stationed in the city for the first time - moves critics say puts the city's extensive freedoms at risk.

Trump did not name any sanctions targets but said the announcement would "affect the full range of agreements we have with Hong Kong", including the U.S.-Hong Kong extradition treaty to export controls on dual-use technologies and more "with few exceptions".

China's Global Times, which is published by the People's Daily, the official newspaper of China's ruling Communist Party, said Trump's decision was a "recklessly arbitrary" step.

The Hong Kong government - which has a long history of working ties with U.S. counterparts distinct from Beijing - has yet to respond, although it warned on Thursday the move could be a double edged sword.

More than 1,300 U.S. firms have offices in Hong Kong and provide about 100,000 jobs. In the past decade, the United States' trade surplus with Hong Kong has been the biggest among all its trading partners, totaling US$297 billion from 2009 to 2018.

Britain, meanwhile, is prepared to offer extended visa rights and a pathway to citizenship for almost 3 million Hong Kong residents in response to China's push to impose national security legislation in the former British colony.

(Reporting By Anne Marie Roantree and Greg Torode; Editing by Daniel Wallis)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
An estimated 1.8 million people will forgo heading to the polls for Tuesdays primary and have opted to vote by mail instead. Its an unprecedented number of mail-in votes spurred by valid concerns over people crowding into polling places, touching the same pads and pens and leaning over the same desks with a coronavirus still threatening our communities.

But there still could be hundreds of people filing into polling places to cast their votes in person, and election officials are assuring them facilities will be cleaned and disinfected, and social distancing measures will be enforced to ensure the safety of both poll workers and voters.

Theres no doubt election officials are working tirelessly to try to make voting as flawless as possible for those who do it by mail and those who walk into the booths. But lets face it, there are going to be flaws. Things are going to be different, and it will require a new attitude of cooperation among voters, poll workers and election officials to meet the challenges COVID-19 has brought to our democracy.

David Thornburgh, President and CEO of the Committee of Seventy, and Suzanne Almeida, interim Executive Director of Common Cause, represent organizations committed to ensuring citizens are able to exercise their right to vote in fair elections. They appeared Friday on the Coronavirus Q & A with PennLives Opinion Editor Joyce M. Davis to talk about the challenges the primary election. While they know there will be challenges on Tuesday due to the coronavirus, they also believe voters have been given two valid options to exercise their rights in the primary election.

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted Tuesdays primary elections in Pennsylvania. David Thornburgh, president of President and CEO of the Committee of Seventy, an influential independent government reform group in Philadelphia and Suzanne Almeida, interim Executive Director of Common Cause, are guests for today's Coronavirus Q & A. They will talk about whats at stake in Tuesdays primary and the efforts being made to make sure things go as smoothly as possible in tabulating results. Get your questions ready! Posted by PennLive.com on Friday, May 29, 2020

Both see mail-in voting as a viable option, especially for the people most vulnerable to serious complications from COVID-19. And both believe enough safeguards have been built into the system to minimize any attempts at fraud.

Its important to note that mail-in votes are not new. The option has been expanded in Pennsylvania during this primary to respond to the coronavirus and the concerns many people have about going to a polling place during the pandemic. But mail-in voting has been done throughout the country and was initially instituted in World War I to allow American service members stationed abroad to vote.

President Donald Trump and members of his family have cast their votes by mail, Almeida noted. And people throughout the country have long sent in absentee ballots by mail.

But it is good that mail-in voting is an option, not a mandate, even during the coronavirus pandemic. For those who decide to take the mail-in option, there are some important details to remember.

The deadline to apply to vote by mail was May 26. If you met the deadline but havent filled out the ballot and put it in the mail yet, follow Almeidas advice and take your ballot to one of the drop-off boxes in your county. Dont risk it not getting to the county election office by 8 p.m. on election day  the deadline for all mail-in votes to be tabulated.

The VoterPA website says many counties have set up drop boxes, drop-off locations, and other means of returning mail-in and absentee ballots to make things as easy as possible.

For those who will head to the polls, you need to make sure you know where to go. Many people are not willing to take the risk to serve as poll workers this election, which is understandable. But because of a lack of poll workers, some precincts are being consolidated, and the polling place may have changed for this election.

READ MORE: See who is running in PennLives voters guide

We join Almeida and Thornburgh in urging our readers to exercise patience and civility with poll workers who will volunteer on election day. They will be working under significant stress, with new systems, new voting machines and a new virus to worry about. They deserve our respect and appreciation.

We also will need to be patient even after the polls close, as officials set to tabulating election results. Thornburgh cautions we may not know who won as quickly as wed like, but its better to let election officials take the time they need to get the results right. Its a good bet some of those mail-in ballots will hit the drop-off boxes at 7:59 p.m.

Thanks for visiting PennLive. Quality local journalism has never been more important. You deserve the best. Not a subscriber yet? Please consider supporting our work.

And please subscribe to Battleground PA to stay abreast of the issues in the 2020 elections!
A Salt Lake City man took a bow and attempted to fire arrows into a crowd of protesters Saturday, according to multiple reports, and it didnt end well for him.

A woman can be heard asking them man, Are you serious?

A civilian brought a hunting bow to the #slcprotest and began shooting it at protesters. pic.twitter.com/UYZFtISb9I  Titania v. 2.0 (@Gingersonfire) May 31, 2020

She also asked them man if he was American?

He replied that he was as he attempted to fix his arrow and take aim into the crowd, apparently, blocking the road on which he was driving his car.

But as he took aim the man was swarmed by protesters who were rallying follow the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis. According to social media accounts, the mans car was set ablaze by the crowd after he was taken down.
It is day five of protests following the killing of unarmed black man, George Floyd, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, at the hands of a white police officer as three of his colleagues looked on.

And now, as the number of demonstrators arrested continues to mount up around the country, Chrissy Teigen has pledged to help those in need of bail money.

The model and television personality offered to donate $100,000 to the cause, but she has since doubled the amount to $200,000, in a clap back at people who criticized her gesture and essentially labeled protesters as criminals.

Having a voice: Chrissy Teigen doubled her pledge to help bail out people arrested while protesting the death of George Floyd's death to $200,000

This all began when she took to Twitter Saturday afternoon to announce her support of those arrested while rallying against police brutality and the death of Floyd.

In celebration of whatever the f*** maga night is, I am committed to donating $100,000 to the bail outs of protestors across the country,' Teigen, 34, initially tweeted.

The term 'maga night' started trending after President Donald Trump used it while suggesting support for a counter-protest in Washington, D.C.

Fans and followers were quick to offer their opinions, which included some harsh critiques of both the protesters and Teigen.

One person tweeted: 'Wow, "celebrities" paying money to encourage VIOLENCE and criminal behavior.'

Taking a stand: Teigen initially pledged $100,000 in a Twitter announcement

Trolling: Some people criticized Teigen's donation and labeled protesters as criminals

Take that! In a clap back at people who criticized her gesture, the model and television personality doubled her donation to $200,000

Another follower brought up the plight of people who had their businesses damaged during the protests over these last five days.

'Does this include domestic terrorists vandalizing property, harming others, & destroying businesses? The hypocrisy never seizes to amaze. You just encouraged people to become uncivilized & to seek getting arrested, by way of bailout. Prayers for a PEACEFUL #MAGANIGHT.'

Never one to shy away from a heated debate, Teigen responded to one man who renamed the protesters as 'Rioters and criminals.'

'Ooo they might need more money then. Make it $200,000,' she tweeted.

Social media: Teigen shared screenshots of her tweets on Instagram

Social media response: One person said Teigen is encouraging violence with her pledge

Social media response: One follower who criticized Teigen brought up the plight of people who had their businesses damaged during the protests

The mother of two then turned took to Instagram and shared a screenshot of her two tweets.

'I stand with our heroes out there in support and solidarity,' she began in the caption.

'If you don't know what else to do, every little bit helps. Please see my retweets for direct links. Silence is betrayal.'

Teigen did garner her fair share of support for her donations on Twitter, with one follower commenting: 'You are a national treasure.'

Feeling inspired, another person tweeted: 'I'm in for $10k. That's a brilliant idea.'

Supportive: Teigen did garner a fair share of support for her pledge of bail out money

Inspired: Teigen inspired one person to pledge to donate $10,000

The fatal arrest was made after Floyd, 46, allegedly attempted to use a $20 bill in a deli where an employee claimed to be counterfeit.

Police stated that he 'physically resisted' after being ordered to exit his vehicle, which has been disputed.

As seen in several videos, Officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on Floyd's neck for a total of eight minutes and 46 seconds. All four officers at the scene were fired from the police department the following day.

On Friday, four days after Floyd's fatal arrest, Chauvin was charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter.

The other officers were identified as Thomas K. Lane, Tou Thao, and J. Alexander Kueng.

Face off: The number of people arrested amid the protests continues to rise
Until now, sitting presidents showed up for launches just twice. In 1969, President Richard M. Nixon attended the liftoff of Apollo 12, which was then struck by lightning twice during its ascent but still managed to recover and ultimately make it to the moon. In 1998, President Bill Clinton came to witness John Glenn return to space on the shuttle 37 years after his original orbital flight. Lyndon B. Johnson came for the launch of Apollo 11 after leaving office.

There seems to be little doubt that the moment will make it into a Trump campaign ad soon enough. The Village Peoples Macho Man, a regular staple of the presidents campaign rallies, played on the rooftop before the launch and then, with a short break for the last seconds of the 3-2-1 countdown, the speakers played Elton Johns Rocket Man, another Trump favorite as the real-life rocket climbed into the skies.

Mr. Trump was later ushered onto stage with Lee Greenwoods God Bless the U.S.A. and brought off by You Cant Always Get What You Want by the Rolling Stones, just as he has been at the campaign rallies he has had to suspend because of the virus.

Joining the president on top of Operational Support Building II was a partisan cast of guests, including Vice President Mike Pence and his wife, Karen Pence; Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the House Republican leader; Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida; and a variety of cabinet secretaries, senior administration officials. In his remarks, he thanked Mr. DeSantis, 16 Republican lawmakers and various Republican state officials and no Democrats.

Mr. Trump happily took credit for the days event. You know, four years ago this place was essentially shut down, he told reporters. The space program was over. The shuttle program was dead. He added: And now were the leader in the world again. And this is just the beginning. Theyre going to Mars. Theyre going to the Moon but theyre going to the Moon in order to go to Mars.

In the speech, Mr. Trump said, When I first came into office three and a half years ago, NASA had lost its way and the excitement, energy and ambition as almost everybody in this room knows was gone, he said. The last administration presided over the closing of the space shuttle.

Mr. Trump was indeed the one to decide to push to return to the moon and then Mars and he revived the National Space Council, putting Mr. Pence in charge of it. But the commercial launch on Saturday had its origins under two previous presidents.
A man has been charged with the murder of a young plumber described as the 'class clown' who was allegedly stabbed to death in Melbourne on Saturday night.

Liam Cahill, 22, was celebrating a friend's birthday at a party on the 15th floor of the M Docklands high-rise on La Trobe Street when a fight erupted at about 10.30pm between Mr Cahill and his alleged killer.

The noise of the altercation could be heard throughout the building, with one resident telling of their fear when they heard a young woman screaming.

Liam Cahill (pictured left) a popular young apprentice plumber from Pascoe Vale, Melbourne, was allegedly stabbed to death on Saturday night in front of horrified partygoers

'It was so loud we thought it was on our floor, but I think it was downstairs,' the resident told the Herald Sun.

'It was terrifying.'

The fight was heard by another resident, Rocky Petrelli, who lives in a 14th floor apartment below.

'It was just really noisy, it was like there was elephants stomping the ground in the apartment above, that's what I could hear below,' Mr Petrelli told Seven News.

The apprentice plumber from Pascoe Vale in Melbourne's north was allegedly stabbed several times before his accused killer fled, climbing down two balconies on the side of the building in a desperate bid to escape.

One of the apartments he's accused of trying to break into during his alleged escape bid was Mr Petrelli's.

'It's pretty scary that you think that it's a safe building especially when you're on the 14th floor and you've got someone jumping balconies to try and escape the building,' Mr Petrelli said.

He was unsuccessful, and climbed down another balcony to the 13th floor where he ran through an unlocked apartment in his bid for freedom.

A suspect was tackled and arrested by police a short distance from the scene. The suspect can be seen in CCTV footage lying on the ground in a corridor behind a stack of toilet rolls

Detectives leave the M Docklands high-rise at 677 La Trobe street, Melbourne with bags of evidence on Sunday after the alleged stabbing murder of 22-year-old Liam Cahill

The suspect was tackled to the ground by police a short distance away.

Mr Cahill was given first aid by another resident of the building, but couldn't be saved.

The alleged murder traumatised the other party guests who had to be comforted by police at the scene.

'Why did you do this to me?' screamed a woman at the scene.

A young woman with bright red hair was seen screaming in the lobby, falling to her knees in distress before being comforted by police and led away.

Close friend Macayla Dickson wept as she described Mr Cahill's generous spirit. Pictured: Liam Cahill (left) and Macayla Dickson (right)

Liam Cahill (pictured right) enjoying the ocean last year. The young apprentice plumber loved life and brought joy to many people with his fun-loving sense of humour

A distraught red-haired woman was comforted by emergency services and led away on Saturday night after the alleged stabbing

Liam Cahill (left) was allegedly stabbed to death on Saturday after an alleged fight at a party on the 15th floor of the M Docklands, Melbourne. Pictured with close friend Macayla Dickson.

Liam Cahill (left) being cheeky with the lads. His many friends poured out messages of grief on social media, saying they would never forget him, and they would cherish their memories

Police and emergency services swarmed the building at about 11pm, arresting a suspect.

Police could be seen leading young people sobbing with grief from the building.

Mr Cahill's friends took to social media to leave tributes for him, saying how much they loved the popular young tradesman.

'I will love you forever brother, I am going to miss you everyday. Thank you for every single memory together,' wrote one friend on Facebook.

Forensics teams scoured the apartment building on Sunday

Macayla Dickson (pictured left) said close friend Liam Cahill (right) was like the 'class clown' and would make everybody laugh

Close friend Macayla Dickson wept as she described Mr Cahill's sense of humour.

'He was just the best person. Just always had a laugh and always the class clown and just had his heart out for everyone,' she told Nine News.

Mr Dickson wrote on social media: Waking up seeing all these posts praying to God its all a joke. I am so grateful for having the pleasure of being in your life. I love you and I hope youre at peace now... forever be in my heart.'

Homicide and forensics investigators scoured the building on Saturday, carrying away bags of evidence.

Police charged a 22-year-old man from Williamstown in Melbourne's southwest with murder on Sunday.

He will face Melbourne Magistrates Court on Monday.
Pop star Halsey has revealed she was shot twice by rubber bullets as she joined the frontline of the riots to protest George Floyd's death alongside Emily Ratajkowski and Paris Jackson.

Halsey, who attended the protests in Los Angeles alongside her ex-boyfriend Yungblud, turned to Twitter to clarify she was not arrested after much speculation on social media.

The 25-year-old pop star, who advocated for police accountability after the killing of George Floyd, detailed being 'shot, gassed' and antagonized' with her peers.

Safe: Halsey turned to Twitter to clarify she was not arrested during the Los Angeles' protests on Saturday, after much speculation on social media

Back in black: Yungblud (real name: Dominic Harrison) wore a black jacket over his white T-shirt, along with two-tone black and white jeans and and studded black boots

'They opened fire multiple times. I was hit twice. Once by pellets and once by shrapnel' she detailed on an Instagram Story

'I wanted you to know I was SAFE because information was out of control,' the Without Me singer tweeted on Saturday night.

'But I will NOT be updating any more personal information!!! I WILL ONLY BE DOCUMENTING AND POSTING MY RECORD OF THE STATUS OF THE ASSEMBLY.'

She added: 'Thousands of you witnessed them fire on us unprovoked. Be safe.'

On her Instagram Story, the Closer hitmaker opened up in more detail of the scary encounter, saying 'They opened fire multiple times. I was hit twice. Once by pellets and once by shrapnel.'

'We were gassed repeatedly for hours,' she captioned a black and white snap of law enforcement officers on the sidewalk.

She says her and fellow protesters were not breaching the line and kept their hands up, while 'simply begging them to have empathy' and 'consider humanity and our nation's history and future.'

Fighter: The 25-year-old pop star, who advocated for police accountability after the killing of George Floyd, detailed being shot 'shot, gassed' and antagonized' with her peers

Stepping up: In her series of posts, the American Music Award winner encouraged others to donate to bail organizations because 'many are not safe' and are in custody

Despite the daunting experience she tweeted: 'A true patriot is someone who will rebel against the government if it becomes necessary, to protect the greater good of their fellow citizens. We are patriots.'

'If you are not, you are a coward,' she noted in the same post. 'THIS is what democracy looks like.'

In her series of posts, the American Music Award winner encouraged others to donate to bail organizations because 'many are not safe' and are in custody.

Model Emily Ratajkowski was also posting regular Instagram updates from the protests in LA. 'DISMANTLE POWER STRUCTURES OF OPPRESSION #defundthepolice #justiceforgeorgefloyd #blacklivesmatter,' she wrote on her slideshow.

Paris Jackson was out in California, along with Jaz Sinclair, former Disney star Ross Lynch and 'hot felon' Jeremy Meeks.

Meanwhile many other celebrities were fighting for justice on social media, including Billie Eilish who launched a furious tirade against the 'All Lives Matter' movement.

United: Paris Jackson (right) at a Black Lives Matter protest in California on Saturday

Emily Ratajkowski was also posting regular Instagram updates from the protests in LA. 'DISMANTLE POWER STRUCTURES OF OPPRESSION #defundthepolice #justiceforgeorgefloyd #blacklivesmatter,' she wrote on her slideshow.

Light hearted: Anna Kendrick went out to protest with her fellow actress friend Chrissie Fit. The two had on masks, and she joked in the caption that she looked 'f***ing creepy'

Riots have spread across dozens of States following the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis on Monday after a white officer knelt on his neck.

Rapper Machine Gun Kelly was also out with friends taking part in the LA demonstrations. He was pictured holding a sign which said: 'Silence is a betrayal.'

Actor Kendrick Sampson was also posting regular updates to his Instagram feed from the protests.

Horrifying footage showed the Insecure star being struck by police batons and fired at with rubber bullets as screams were heard in the background.

He is heard asking officers, 'Why are you hitting me,' as cops in riot gear strike him with their batons and shoot him with rubber bullets as he appears to be protesting peacefully.

Also joining protests in West Hollywood, Madison Beer wore a Dallas Cowboys sweatshirt and carried a Dior saddle bag along with her 'Black Lives Matter' sign.

One Tree Hill star Sophia Bush, who previously posted about Floyd's death on social media, joined in the protests too.

She wore a white shirt reading: 'Officer, I'm lost, I'm looking for the land of the free with equal right for everyone. It's called America.'

In North Carolina, rapper J. Cole was seen joining in the demonstrations against police brutality in downtown Fayetville.

Insecure star Kendrick Sampson was also posting regular updates to his Instagram feed from the protests. In one video he described how the police were trying to disperse the crowds but they had been boxed in.

Rapper Machine Gun Kelly was also out with friends taking part in the LA demonstrations. He was pictured holding a sign which said: 'Silence is a betrayal.'

Masked and anonymous: Although it's a common tactic for some protestors to wear masks to avoid targeting by law enforcement, most of the crowd covered up due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic

Also in the crowd were Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina's Skye P. Marshall, along with her co-stars Jaz Sinclair and Ross Lynch (center)

Paris Jackson (left and right) holds a sign saying 'Peace, Love, Justice,' at a demonstration in California on Saturday

Helping out: Elsewhere in Los Angeles, Jeremy Meeks, known as the 'hot felon,' joined the protests. He raised his fist in solidarity

Los Angeles deployed the National Guard for the first since the 1992 riots when the police officers who beat up black man Rodney King walked free of all charges and California Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in LA County.

The calling in of around 500-700 National Guard troops also came just hours after Mayor Eric Garcetti said he would stop short of calling for their activation.

'This isn't 1992,' Garcetti had said Saturday afternoon, referring to the move made by officials during the 1992 riots after the Rodney King when all police officers involved in violently beating up the black man were acquitted.

He had already announced a curfew in downtown LA starting 8pm Saturday through to 5.30am Sunday, in desperate efforts to restore some order as he urged both law enforcement and protesters to 'take a deep breath and step back for a moment'.

In downtown, protesters sprayed graffiti and torched police cruisers while officers shot rubber bullets into crowds and were seen beating demonstrators with batons.

This marked the fourth night of protests for LA after it became one of the first cities to start a break-off protest Tuesday over Floyd's killing.

Curfews were also announced in other California cities including San Francisco, where the mayor called for the National Guard to be put on standby.

Outspoken: Stepping out for a good cause, the Aussie beauty opted for a black sleeveless singlet top and she covered her face and nose with a red bandana

Activist: The 24-year-old brunette was seen holding a homemade sign which read: 'If you stand for nothing you fall for anything.'

Growing crowd: One Tree Hill star Sophia Bush previously posted about George Floyd's death, so she joined the protests on Saturday

Taking part: Madison Beer wore a Dallas Cowboys sweatshirt and carried a Dior saddle bag while joining the demonstrations in West Hollywood

Eilish's Instagram post is the latest in a slew of shares from the Grammy-winning artist, 18, in the wake of Floyd's death.

In the series of text screens, Eilish begin by writing, 'Ive been trying to take this week to figure out a way to address this delicately. I have an enourmous [sic] platform and I try really hard to be respectful and take time to think through what I say and how I say it But holy f**king s**t Im gonna just start talking.

'If I hear one more person say "aLL liVeS maTtEr" one more f**king time Im gonna lose my f**king mind,' the Bad Guy hitmaker continued.

'Will you shut the f**k uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuup???? No one is saying your life doesnt matter. No one is saying your life is not hard.

Los Angeles: LA Mayor Eric Garcetti deployed the National Guard to the city and mobilized its entire police department as part of its emergency response

Los Angeles, California: Firefighters put out a fire in a looted store set on fire on Melrose during curfew as thousands of protesters take the street to demonstrate following the death of George Floyd

'I'm just gonna start talking': The post is the latest in a slew of shares from Billie Eilish in the wake of the killing of unarmed black man George Floyd at the hands of police officers on Monday

'If I hear one more person say "aLL liVeS maTtEr" one more f**king time Im gonna lose my f**king mind,' the Bad Guy hitmaker said in her letter. 'This is not about you'

Towards the end of the missive: Eilish got to the heart of the matter, explaining why the Black Lives Matter movement is so necessary and the idea of 'All Lives Matter' is antithetical to it

Moved: Saturday saw another post from Billie in support of #BlackLivesMatter, which she captioned, 'I want things to be different'

'No one is saying literally anything at all about you. all you mfs do is find a way to make everything about yourself. This is not about you. Stop making everything about you. You are not in need. You are not in danger,' Billie added pointedly.

She went on in the post to draw some rather childlike analogies ('because IT FEELS LIKE THATS THE ONLY WAY YOU MFS WILL UNDERSTAND,' she said) about a person's arm being cut, or house being on fire, and how no one would expect a bandaid to be put on all arms or for the 'fire department to go to every other house on the block first because all houses matter'.

'No!', Eilish wrote. 'Because they dont f**king need it. You are privileged whether you like it or not. Society gives you privilege just for being white. You can be poor, you can be struggling.. and still your skin color is giving you more privilege than you even realize.'

Towards the end of the missive, Eilish got to the heart of the matter, explaining why the Black Lives Matter movement is so necessary and the idea of 'All Lives Matter' is antithetical to it.

'The slogan of #BlackLivesMatter does not mean other lives dont,' she wrote. 'Its calling attention to the fact that society clearly thinks black lives dont f**king matter!!!!! And they f**king do!!!!!'

She finished her letter with a repetition of the phrase, 'Black Lives Matter,' and ended with the hashtag #JusticeForGeorgeFloyd.

The post comes after another fiery share from the singer, which was in response to Donald Trump's tweets about the protests erupting in Minneapolis and around the country after this latest killing of an unarmed African-American.
Colleges and universities, when they eventually open after the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) lockdown, may do so by first inviting only research scholars back to the campus and gradually open their doors wider to let in other students.

All higher education institutions will also need to form strategic tie-ups with medical facilities and put protocols in place to deal with students who are unwell. Students and teachers with a history of health conditions will be asked to opt for online learning and teaching.

As the human resource development (HRD) ministry readies for consultations on the reopening of institutions, teachers, students and parents, higher education regulator, the University Grants Commission (UGC), has drawn up an initial list of dos and donts for campuses, officials familiar with the development said.

While the final standard operating procedures ( SOPs) for schools and colleges will be published by the government after discussions between the health, HRD and other ministries, the UGCs draft norms were part of the agenda at a meeting on the subject on Friday. According to an order issued by the Centre on Saturday, the health ministry may issue a protocol after discussions with the other ministries.

In the draft prepared by the UGC, it was suggested that the process of admissions be conducted online to avoid visits by students to the campus.

It is advisable the admissions are done online so that students dont have to come to campuses needlessly. It is also planned that some students, who have the online facility, should be encouraged to not to come to class and study on the web, said one official, requesting anonymity.

Students and faculty with a history of ailments like heart disease or diabetes would be told to prefer the online mode. For international students, too, the focus would be on promoting the online mode of learning.

Institutions would be advised to stay in touch with health facilities and put in place a mechanism for quarantine; contact tracing would be followed in case a Covid-19 case emerges. Hygiene in common facilities like kitchens and libraries are among the issues raised.

Regular screening of faculty and students and awareness drives are also part of the plan. In higher educational institutions, regular visits by counsellors to help stressed students are also planned.

Another suggestion, especially for teaching of subjects that have a practical component, is to teach half the students in the classroom and engage the rest in laboratories. Even in common facilities like labs, it will have to be ensured that equipment is not widely shared.

Varsities and colleges will also require to have plans in place to regulate the movement of outsiders.

This is a very serious matter because initially it may seem just an isolated case, but the disease may spread quickly. Therefore, the measures need to be elaborate and detailed. However, these are preliminary suggestions and a final draft will only come after discussions with all stakeholders, said a second official, who also requested anonymity.

Inder Mohan Kapahy, a former UGC member, said, We should remember that implementing such SOPs shall be herculean task. The total number of students in higher education is about 40 million which is more than population of more than 150 countries. Numerical expansion has taken place without creation of matching infrastructure. Yet non conventional methods shall be required in post-Covid period.
Washington

With a nation on edge, ravaged by disease, hammered by economic collapse, divided over lockdowns and even face masks and now convulsed once again by race, President Donald Trump's first instinct has been to look for someone to fight.

Over the last week, America reeled from 100,000 pandemic deaths, 40 million people out of work and cities in flames over a police killing of a subdued black man. But Trump was on the attack against China, the World Health Organization, Big Tech, former President Barack Obama, a cable television host and the mayor of a riot-torn city.

While other presidents seek to cool the situation in tinderbox moments, Trump plays with matches. He roars into any melee he finds, encouraging street uprisings against public health measures advanced by his own government, hurling made-up murder charges against a critic, accusing his predecessor of unspecified crimes, vowing to crack down on a social media company that angered him and then seemingly threatening to meet violence with violence in Minneapolis.

As several cities erupted in street protests after the killing of George Floyd, some of them resulting in clashes with police, Trump made no appeal for calm. Instead, in a series of tweets and comments to reporters Saturday, he blamed the unrest on Democrats, called on "Liberal Governors and Mayors" to get "MUCH tougher" on the crowds, threatened to intervene with "the unlimited power of our Military" and even summoned his own supporters to mount a counterdemonstration.

The turmoil came to Trump's doorstep Friday night as hundreds of people protesting Floyd's death and the president's response gathered outside the White House. Some threw bricks and bottles at Secret Service and U.S. Park Police officers, who responded with pepper spray. The image of the White House surrounded by police in riot gear fueled the sense of a nation torn apart.

Trump praised the Secret Service for being "very cool" and "very professional" but assailed the Democratic mayor of Washington for not providing city police officers to help. While governors and mayors have urged restraint, Trump seemed more intent on taunting the protesters, bragging about the violence that would have met them had they tried to get onto White House grounds.

"Big crowd, professionally organized, but nobody came close to breaching the fence," the president wrote on Twitter. "If they had they would have been greeted with the most vicious dogs, and most ominous weapons, I have ever seen. That's when people would have been really badly hurt, at least. Many Secret Service agents just waiting for action."

His suggestion that his own supporters should come to the White House Saturday foreshadowed the possibility of a clash outside his own doors. "Tonight, I understand, is MAGA NIGHT AT THE WHITE HOUSE???" he wrote on Twitter, using the acronym for his first campaign slogan, "Make America Great Again."

Asked about the tweet later, he denied encouraging violence by his supporters. "They love African-American people," he said. "They love black people. MAGA loves the black people."

Mayor Muriel E. Bowser of Washington responded Saturday, saying her police department will protect anyone in Washington, including the president, but called him a source of division. "While he hides behind his fence afraid/alone, I stand w/ people peacefully exercising their First Amendment Right after the murder of .GeorgeFloyd & hundreds of years of institutional racism," she wrote. "There are no vicious dogs & ominous weapons. There is just a scared man. Afraid/alone ... "

The days of discord have put the president's leadership style on vivid display.

From the start of his ascension to power, Trump has presented himself as someone who seeks conflict, not conciliation, a fighter, not a peacemaker. That appeals to a substantial portion of the public that sees in him a president willing to take on an entrenched and entitled establishment. But the confluence of perilous health, economic and now racial crises has tested his approach and left him struggling to find his footing just months before an election.

"The president seems more out of touch and detached from the difficult reality the country is living than ever before," said Carlos Curbelo, a former Republican congressman from Florida who has been critical of Trump. "At a moment when America desperately needs healing, the president is focused on petty personal battles with his perceived adversaries."

Such a moment would challenge any president. It has been a year of national trauma that started out feeling like another 1998 with impeachment, then another 1918 with a killer pandemic combined with another 1929 given the shattering economic fallout. Now add to that another 1968, a year of deep social unrest.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

It is fair to say that 2020 has turned out to be a year that has frayed the fabric of American society with an accumulation of anguish that has whipsawed the country and its people. But in some ways, Trump has become a combatant on one side of the divide rather than a mender of it, a totem for the nation's polarization.

"I am daily thinking about why and how a society unravels and what we can do to stop the process," said Timothy Naftali, a presidential historian at New York University. "The calamity these days is about more than Trump. He is just the malicious con man who lives to exploit our vulnerabilities."

Trump's initial response to the rioting in Minneapolis, where a police officer has been charged with murder after kneeling on Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes as he cried out that he could not breathe, underscored the president's most instinctive response to national challenges. Threatening to send in troops, he wrote that "when the looting starts, the shooting starts."

Only after a cascade of criticism did he try to walk it back, posting a new tweet 13 hours later, suggesting that all he had meant was that "looting leads to shooting" by people in the street.

"I don't want this to happen, and that's what the expression put out last night means," he said.

But many of the president's defenders rejected the idea that he had mishandled the crises, pressing the argument that Democrats and the news media were to blame for the turmoil in the streets, which spread from Minneapolis to New York; Atlanta; Washington; Louisville, Ky.; Portland and other cities.

"Keep track of cities where hundreds of millions of dollars in property damage and serious injuries and death will take place," Rudy Giuliani, a former New York mayor who has served as Trump's personal lawyer, wrote on Twitter on Friday night. "All Democrat dominated cities with criminal friendly policies. This is the future if you elect Democrats."

Bernard B. Kerik, a former New York City police commissioner who was pardoned by Trump for tax fraud earlier this year, amplified the point on Twitter. "It should be no surprise that every one of these cities that the anarchist have taken over, are the same cities run by leftist Democrats with the highest violence, murder and poverty rates," he wrote on Twitter. "They can't handle their cities normally, so how are they going to deal with this?"

Trump, who this past week retweeted a video of a supporter saying that "the only good Democrat is a dead Democrat" (though the supporter insisted he meant that in a political sense), picked up the theme Friday night and again on Saturday morning.

After crowds attacked CNN's Atlanta headquarters with rocks, the president offered no sympathy or condemnation. Instead, he made clear he thought it was just deserts for a network that has aggravated him so much.
Ghana's COVID-19 case count has increased from 7, 768 to 7,881 after 113 new cases were recorded as updated by the Ghana Health Service on its official website, Sunday, May 31.



Out of the total cases recorded, 15 are severe and 5 are critical of which 2 are on ventilator.



Per an update on the official website of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), the number of recoveries has now increased from 2,540 to 2,841 an additional 301



One more person has died moving the death toll to 36.



Brief report on 36th Death



A 93-year-old male, a known hypertensive and also with Prostate Cancer was admitted in a hospital at Accra with a complaint of difficulty in breathing and cough, COVID-19 was suspected and patient isolated at the emergency room.

COVID-19 samples were taken on 26th May, 2020 and results then confirmed as positive



Initial results of Kuwait returnees



The results of the intial test of all 231 Kuwait returnees had 35(15.15%) of them being positive for COVID-19.



Regional breakdown



Greater Accra Region - 5,507



Ashanti Region - 1,184



Western Region - 421



Central Region - 393



Eastern Region - 117



Volta Region - 71



Western North Region - 67



Northern Region - 37



Oti Region - 26



Upper East Region - 26



Upper West Region - 22



North East Region - 2



Savannah Region - 1



Bono Region - 1



Bono East Region - 1



Ahafo Region - 0











Source: Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Lets face it; no one typically wants to go to court. And there are no guarantees. But the price of doing nothing, for many, will cost them their restaurant. In other words, going to court is the best option for those about to go under.
George Floyds brother has revealed the details of a phone call he had with Donald Trump, describing the call as fast and felt the US president was trying to get him off the phone.

Mr Floyd was killed while in police custody, a video that shows white Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on his neck as he struggled to breathe has sparked widespread anger.

The reaction has seen violent protests and riots that began in Minneapolis and have continued across several cities from Washington DC to New York to Tulsa to Los Angeles.

Philonise Floyd spoke to US news outlet MSNBC about his brother, tearfully describing the situation as painful.

Were fuelled by pain right now and we should just be peaceful, but its hard right now, he said.

George Floyd's brother Philonise Floyd (left) pictured with nephew Brandon Williams. Philonise detailed a phone call he had with Donald Trump. Source: MSNBC

When asked about his phone call with Mr Trump, Philonise shrugged.

It was so fast he didnt give me an opportunity to even speak, Philonise said.

It was hard. I was trying to talk to him, but he just kept pushing me off like I dont want to hear what youre talking about and I just told him, I want justice.

I said that I cant believe they committed a modern-day lynching in broad daylight.

During another phone call, this time with US presidential candidate Joe Biden, Philonise said he begged the former vice-president for help.

Mr Floyd died while in police custody. A video that shows white Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on Mr Floyds neck as he struggled to breathe triggered outrage. Source: AP

I have never had to beg a man before but I said, Please get justice for my brother, please, please. I do not want to see him on a shirt just like the other guys. Nobody deserves that, he said.

Chauvin has since been charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter, but Philonise said he wanted the charge upgraded to first-degree murder and the other three officers in the video to be prosecuted.

A life for a life, thats what I want, he said.

You killed him... that was just hatred, nobody deserves that. Im tired of this, he didnt deserve that.

Chaos continues across the US as Trump vows to stop riots cold

Curfews were imposed on major US cities as clashes over police brutality escalated across America with demonstrators ignoring warnings from Mr Trump that his government would stop the violent protests "cold".

Story continues

Minneapolis, the epicentre of the unrest, was gripped by a fifth consecutive night of violence on Saturday (local time) with police in riot gear firing tear gas and stun grenades at protesters venting fury at the death of Mr Floyd.

Los Angeles, Chicago and Atlanta were among two dozen cities ordering people to stay indoors overnight as more states called in National Guard soldiers to help control the civil unrest not seen in the United States for years.

Businesses burning during demonstrations following the death of George Floyd on May 30, 2020 in Los Angeles, California. Source: David McNew/Getty Images

From Seattle to New York, tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets demanding tougher murder charges and more arrests over the death of Mr Floyd, who stopped breathing after Chauvin knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.

In Los Angeles, officers fired rubber bullets and swung batons during a testy standoff with demonstrators who set fire to a police car.

Police and protesters clashed in numerous cities, including Chicago and New York, with officers responding to projectiles with pepper spray while shop windows were smashed in Philadelphia.

with AFP

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Protesters who took to the streets in Minneapolis for the fifth straight night Saturday met a more determined response from police officers and National Guard troops, as demonstrations escalated in dozens of cities across the country  an outpouring of national anger sparked by the death of a black man in police custody.

Soon after an 8 p.m. curfew took effect, the police in Minneapolis began arresting protesters and firing tear gas and other projectiles toward crowds, and the National Guard used a helicopter to dump water on a burning car.

The forceful response reflected the desire of authorities to halt the violent protests that have spread nationwide since George Floyd, 46, died after being pinned down by a white Minneapolis police officer. There were still reports of violence and destruction: a fire on the roof of a shopping mall, a person who shot a gun at officers, and a group of people throwing items at the police. But state officials said around 11 p.m. local time that they were encouraged by the smaller crowds and apparent decrease in damage. Much of the city was empty shortly after midnight.

But even as aerial videos from Minneapolis showed police officers largely keeping demonstrators at bay, other cities were being overwhelmed, despite hastily imposed curfews.

Mayors ordered people of the streets in many of the nations largest cities, including Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia and Miami. And governors in at least eight states, including Georgia, Kentucky, Ohio, Colorado and Tennessee, called up National Guard troops in an attempt to impose order, often with little success.

In Tennessee, the building that houses Nashvilles City Hall was set on fire. Two police vans in New York City were filmed plowing into protesters. In Washington, demonstrators set fires and smashed the windows of buildings near the White House. The police in Indianapolis said three people had been shot during the protests  not by police officers  including one person who was killed. And in Philadelphia, the Police Department said at least 13 officers had been injured during protests.

The demonstrations continued to escalate Friday and Saturday even after Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer who was recorded kneeling on Floyds neck until he lost consciousness, was charged with third-degree murder.

President Donald Trump has harshly criticized the unrest, and Attorney General William Barr warned on Saturday that people inflicting the destruction could face federal charges. Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota said the people defying curfews and confronting the police were no longer protesting brutality but rather were seeking to exploit Floyds death for their own political motives.

Protests escalated nationwide throughout Saturday, prompting many cities to impose curfews.

Tens of thousands of people were in the streets across the United States on Saturday night, as demonstrations stretched from coast to coast in a national paroxysm of rage that saw buildings set on fire, businesses looted and an aggressive response from the authorities.

Protests have taken place in at least 48 cities and have reached the gates of the White House in the days since Floyds death. The imposition of curfews by mayors appeared to be more widespread on Saturday than at any time since the aftermath of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968.

 In Indianapolis, one person was killed and three others were injured when a gunman fired shots at a protest, the police said.

 In Chicago, protesters scuffled with police Saturday afternoon, burning at least one flag and marching toward the Trump International Hotel and Tower before dispersing. About 3,000 people took part in the protests, according to local news reports. Some protesters vandalized police vehicles and left spray-painted buildings in their wake.

 In Los Angeles, Mayor Eric Garcetti issued a curfew, a day after the police made more than 500 arrests. Police used batons and rubber bullets to disperse crowds, and Gov. Gavin Newsom activated the National Guard.

 In San Francisco, Mayor London Breed implemented a curfew as demonstrators arrived outside her home to protest.

 In Miami-Dade County, Florida, Mayor Carlos Gimenez ordered a countywide curfew beginning at 11 p.m. after at least one police car was set ablaze near the Miami Police Department headquarters. Tear gas was used to disperse crowds Saturday evening in Jacksonville and Orlando.

 In Washington, the National Guard was deployed outside the White House, where chanting crowds clashed with the Secret Service and attacked a Fox News reporter. Fires were set in Lafayette Park, just steps from the White House.

 In Philadelphia, at least 13 police officers were injured when protesters began setting fires and became violent.

 In New York City, thousands of demonstrators took to the streets for a third day, gathering at marches in Harlem, Brooklyn, Queens and outside Trump Tower in midtown Manhattan. In the late afternoon, protesters in Brooklyn confronted the police in a series of street melees, hurling empty bottles and pieces of debris at officers who responded with billy clubs and pepper spray. A video showed a police car driving into a crowd.

 In Richmond, Virginia, two police officers at the state Capitol were hospitalized with leg injuries after being struck by a baseball bat and a beer bottle, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported. Earlier, the police fired tear gas at protesters, some of whom launched fireworks and smashed windows.

Police and protesters clashed as flames rose on the streets outside the White House.

The turmoil was on display a short distance from the White House, where Trump had called earlier in the day for his supporters to rally. Instead, hundreds of protesters mobilized on the streets of the nations capital as tensions ratcheted higher.

Demonstrators hurled projectiles, including water bottles, fireworks and bricks, and wrested barricades from the police, who responded by lobbing canisters of tear gas into the crowd. Buildings up and down the streets near the White House were sprayed with graffiti, including the entrance of the Hay-Adams, a luxury hotel.

Nearby, scaffolding on a construction site behind the U.S. Chamber of Commerce could be seen on fire. The windows at the entrance of the building were smashed.

Around 11 p.m., two cars were set ablaze on an adjacent block, and a local bank was vandalized, its windows broken and the numbers 666 sprayed across the front.

As police officers moved to secure the block, a Chevy Suburban was engulfed in a plume of black smoke; trees nearby were on fire. The crowds retreated into Farragut Square to regroup as helicopters circled overhead, and some split off back toward the White House.

Trump had made a series of statements throughout the day that did little to tamp down the outrage nationwide. Speaking on the South Lawn of the White House, he criticized the authorities in Minnesota for allowing protests to turn violent and offered the help of the military to contain further demonstrations.

In a series of tweets, he called demonstrators who gathered at the White House on Friday night professionally managed so-called protesters and suggested that his supporters would meet them. Tonight, I understand, is MAGA NIGHT AT THE WHITE HOUSE???

Later Saturday, speaking from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida after observing the launch of a manned SpaceX rocket, Trump blamed the unrest in cities across the country on Antifa and other radical left-wing groups, drawing a distinction between peaceful protesters and other, more violent demonstrators.

What we are now seeing on the streets of our cities has nothing to do with justice or with peace, Trump said. The memory of George Floyd is being dishonored by rioters, looters and anarchists.

Former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, released a statement early Sunday appealing for calm.

We are a nation in pain, but we must not allow this pain to destroy us, he wrote. We are a nation enraged, but we cannot allow our rage to consume us. We are a nation exhausted, but we will not allow our exhaustion to defeat us.

Minnesotas governor activated all National Guard troops but declined the Armys offer to deploy military police.

Walz of Minnesota activated thousands of additional National Guard troops to send to Minneapolis but declined the Armys offer to deploy military police units.

Walz, a Democrat, acknowledged that officials had underestimated the demonstrations in Minneapolis, where despite a newly issued curfew, people burned buildings and turned the citys streets into a smoldering battleground Friday night. He compared the havoc to wars that Americans have fought overseas and said he expected even more unrest Saturday night.

What youve seen in previous nights, I think, will be dwarfed by what they will do tonight, he said.

Pentagon officials said that Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke Friday with Walz to express willingness to deploy military police units.

Nonetheless, the U.S. Northern Command has put several military police units on four-hour status, which means they could be ready to deploy in four hours, as opposed to a day.

Commissioner John Harrington of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety said that there had been tens of thousands of people in the streets Friday, more than any other night since Floyds death Monday.

Mayor Jacob Frey, looking weary after four days of outrage in his city, pleaded with residents to go home and stop burning down the local businesses that he said were even more vital in the middle of a pandemic.

Youre not getting back at the police officer that tragically killed George Floyd by looting a town, Frey said. Youre not getting back at anybody.

Death toll since Wednesday rises to four.

One person was killed and three others were injured when a gunman fired shots at a protest in Indianapolis early Sunday, bringing to at least four the total number of people killed since Wednesday in violence possibly connected with the outcry.

The authorities were also investigating a possible connection with the shooting death of a federal officer in California.

The officer, a contract security guard for the Department of Homeland Security, was shot and killed outside a federal courthouse in Oakland on Friday night as demonstrations in the city turned violent, with protesters setting fires, destroying property and clashing with the police.

Ken Cuccinelli, the Department of Homeland Securitys acting deputy secretary, called the attack an act of domestic terrorism, but the states governor cautioned against connecting the shooting with the protests.

No one should rush to conflate this heinous act with the protests last night, said Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, in a statement.

Elsewhere, people were killed when once-peaceful protests descended into violence.

The authorities in Minneapolis on Friday identified a man whose killing Wednesday was the first to be directly connected to the protests and looting there.

The victim, Calvin Horton Jr., 43, was shot to death outside a pawnshop that was being looted.

Also on Friday in Detroit, a 21-year-old man was shot to death while sitting in his car near Cadillac Square, as hundreds of protesters swarmed the streets. The police said the gunman may have known and targeted the victim and used the chaos of the demonstrations as a cover.

Officials blame outsiders for stoking violence but have little evidence.

Officials in Minnesota and Washington are claiming that outside groups are undermining the protests in Minneapolis, using them as a cover to set fires, loot stores and destroy property. But they disagree on whether far-left or far-right groups are to blame and have not offered evidence to substantiate their claims.

On Saturday, Walz said the best estimate suggested that 80% of those arrested at the protests were not from the state. Im not trying to deflect in any way. Im not trying to say there arent Minnesotans amongst this group, Walz said. But the vast majority, he said, are from outside the state.

KARE, a Minneapolis television station, found that such claims may not be accurate. The station reviewed all of the arrests made by Minneapolis-based police agencies for rioting, unlawful assembly and burglary-related crimes from Friday to Saturday and found that 86% of those arrested listed a Minnesota address.

The mayor of St. Paul, Melvin Carter, on Saturday retracted his claim that every single person arrested Friday night was from out of state. A spokesman said the mayor later learned that more than half are from Minnesota.

Harrington said the authorities were analyzing those arrested, trying to understand what online platforms they have used and whom they were associated with.

We have seen things like white supremacist organizers who have posted things on platforms about coming to Minnesota, Harrington said. Is this organized crime? Is this an organized cell of terror? Where is the linkage?

Frey also blamed outsiders for the violence. We are now confronting white supremacists, members of organized crime, out of state instigators and possibly even foreign actors to destroy and destabilize our city and our region, he wrote on Twitter.

On Saturday, Trump insisted that the protesters were far-left extremists. The memory of George Floyd is now being exploited by rioters, looters and anarchists, he said.

Attorney General William Barr echoed the claim.

In many places it appears the violence is planned, organized and driven by anarchic and left extremist groups, far-left extremist groups, using Antifa-like tactics, many of whom travel from outside the state to promote the violence, he said.

Residents say that Minneapolis has a core group of white anarchists. A man known as the Umbrella Man, dressed in all black and carrying a black umbrella, who appears to be white, was filmed breaking windows at an AutoZone store.

Tension rose at protests in Los Angeles, where memories of Rodney King are still raw.

The protest on Los Angeles affluent West Side began peacefully Saturday and stayed that way for nearly three hours. Activists handed out water and food, and a crowd marched on Beverly Boulevard, chanting slogans against police brutality and waving placards.

And then it took a violent turn.

Suddenly a police car was smashed and set on fire, black smoke billowing into the blue sky. A young man threw a skateboard at a police officer, and frightened men and women rushed away in every direction. Police helicopters hovered overhead, and convoys of police SUVs raced to the scene.

As tensions rose on the fourth day of protests, the mayor declared an 8 p.m. curfew.

Go home, Garcetti said. Let us put the fires out. Let us learn the lessons. Let us re-humanize each other.

But later in the evening, looting was reported at a Nordstrom store at The Grove, an upscale mall near the area of the protest, and a small fire was burning outside.

In San Francisco, a march drew about 1,000 people but remained peaceful, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. In Oakland, Mayor Libby Schaaf called on demonstrators to stay home after violent demonstrations Friday.

In Sacramento, police officers surrounded the state Capitol as protesters pelted them and their horses with oranges and water bottles.

Before the mayhem started in Los Angeles on Saturday afternoon, several hundred people reflecting the diversity of the city  white, black, Latino, Asian American  had protested peacefully.

The death of Floyd and the unrest it has provoked has tugged at painful memories in Los Angeles of the Rodney King beating in 1991 and the riots that occurred the next year after the acquittal of the four police officers involved in the case.

Reporters find themselves the targets of violence from protesters and the police.

A freelance photographer who was shot in the eye while covering the protests in Minneapolis on Saturday was one of several journalists who have been attacked, arrested or otherwise harassed while covering the protests that have erupted nationwide.

With trust in the news media lagging, journalists have found themselves the target of ire on both sides of a deeply politicized crisis.

A television reporter in Louisville, Kentucky was hit by a pepper ball on live television by an officer who appeared to be aiming at her.

Outside the White House, protesters attacked Leland Vittert, a Fox News correspondent and his crew, taking the journalists microphone and striking him with it.

In Atlanta, masses of protesters Friday night converged on CNN headquarters, where they broke through the front door, lobbed fireworks and vandalized the building. Earlier in the day, Omar Jimenez, a reporter for the network, was detained as he reported on live television.

I was aiming my next shot, put my camera down for a second, and then my face exploded, said Linda Tirado, the photojournalist. I immediately felt blood and was screaming, Im press! Im press!

The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press logged about 10 different incidents that ranged from assaults to menacing in Phoenix, Indianapolis, Atlanta and Minneapolis.

With the unraveling of civil peace around the country, reporters are perceived as a target by both the police and the protesters, said Bruce Brown, the executive director of the Reporters Committee, and that is an extremely frightening place to be.

An anguished nation watched the unrest with a mix of hope and horror.

The mass demonstrations, some peaceful, some destructive, touched off an anguished debate Saturday among commentators, pastors and scholars about the role of protest in forcing political and social change in America.

In the pages of the nations newspapers and on social media, some watched in horror and others with a sense of hope as protesters took to the streets following Floyds death.

Singer Selena Gomez said she had spent the last 24 hours trying to process this all.

Nothing anyone says can take back what has happened, she wrote on Twitter. But we can and must all make sure to take action. Too many black lives have been taken from us for far too long.

Shana Redmond, a scholar of music, race and politics at UCLAs Herb Alpert School of Music, described receiving calls from loved ones in Minneapolis with tears running too fast to pause at sadness.

They are hot with rage and anger at the condition of Black people in that place and in this world, she wrote on Twitter. This is not a drill. This is our terrifying, murderous present. #MinneapolisRebellion.

Some who sympathized with the protesters voiced concern that the destruction could undermine the goal of forcing social change.

I understand our frustration, rage and anger but its of no benefit when we hurt ourselves in the process, Jamal Bryant, the pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, Georgia, wrote on Twitter. I urge adamantly for the fixing of this corrupt justice system, and I pray profusely for the black businesses adversely affected!

Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, who is the only black Republican in the Senate and has called for the arrest of all four officers involved in Floyds arrest, urged calm.

I know well the anger and frustration felt throughout communities of color right now, he wrote on Twitter. But violence is not the answer. Violence takes the focus off #GeorgeFloyd and the real issues at hand, and gives those who prey on division more fuel. Make your voices heard, not bricks and fire.

Brian Merchant, an author, noted how the nation was briefly distracted Saturday by the launch of a rocket built and operated not by NASA but SpaceX, the company founded by billionaire Elon Musk.

The symbolism of a billionaire-owned, for-profit space company launching astronauts high above the heads of thousands of people protesting state brutality and oppression amid a global pandemic and economic collapse should not be lost on anyone, he wrote.

On Blavity, a website geared toward black millennials, an editorial argued that the fires in Minneapolis reflected the rage of Black protestors fed up seeing the lives of our brothers and sisters robbed by racism.

We are fed up because we are forced to fight a pandemic amid a pandemic, the editorial said. We are being disproportionately killed by systemic and overt racism at the same time  and are expected to accept these deadly conditions.

In the Los Angeles Times, an editorial argued that the country should focus should not on the looting but on the repeated instances of the police killing black men.

And no, police violence does not justify the rampages that erupted in Minneapolis, the editorial said. But as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. pointed out more than a half-century ago, a riot is the language of the unheard.

The officer who pinned Floyd was charged with murder, and his wife is seeking a divorce.

The intensifying protests came after the authorities announced that the officer who pinned Floyd to the ground had been arrested and charged with murder Friday, a development that activists and Floyds family had called for but also said did not go far enough.

Chauvin, 44, was charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter, charges that come with a combined maximum sentence of 35 years.

An investigation into the three other officers who were present at the scene remains ongoing.

Floyds relatives have said that had wanted the more serious charge of first-degree murder.

Third-degree murder does not require an intent to kill, according to the Minnesota statute, only that the perpetrator caused someones death in a dangerous act without regard for human life. Charges of first- and second-degree murder require prosecutors to prove, in almost all cases, that the perpetrator made a decision to kill the victim.

A lawyer for Chauvins wife, Kellie, said that she was devastated by Floyds death and expressed sympathy for his family and those grieving his loss. The case has also led her Chauvin to seek a divorce, the lawyer, Amanda Mason-Sekula, said in an interview Friday night.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
One fox, two fox, red fox, another red fox.

One chipmunk, two chipmunks, 16 chipmunks. Well-fed red fox.

That may be the states story this spring. A combination of things  lots of acorns last fall, a mild, nearly snowless winter  has given us a plethora of things scurrying and stalking.

Its a chipmunk festival up here, said Cathy Hagadorn, executive director of Deer Pond Farm, the nature center in Sherman owned by the Connecticut Audubon Society.

Ive never received so many chipmunk calls in my life, said Dan Schwarzbeck, owner of Got Wildlife?, a New Milford wildlife control company.

Everything, said Joe Gray of Bats R. Us Wildlife, a Bethel wildlife control company, of the calls hes gotten. Chipmunks, squirrels, flying squirrels. They started breeding earlier this year. Even the skunks were breeding early.

Add another factor or two. One is that because people are working from home, animals may be emboldened to wander into new spaces.

Red foxes may be more willing to walk near an office because people arent there, said urban wildlife expert Laura Simon.

Add this: People arent commuting, which could mean fewer road kills.

But theyre out walking around in the world or watching it from the kitchen window. It may be that animal numbers are the same, but people are noticing them more. Freed from the 9-to-5, theyre mixing coyote shots in with kid pics on their cell phone cameras.

People are out at all times of the day, said Jenny Dickson, director the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protections wildlife division. A lot of people have seen foxes, a lot of people have seen coyotes. Theyre seeing things they never saw before.

The great driver of all this is the acorn crop. If its a mast year, with lots of nuts, a host of creatures  everything from mice and squirrels to blue jays, wild turkey and black bears  share the bounty. They get fat and healthy and have lots of offspring.

Likewise, the birds and beasts that eat rodents  foxes, coyotes, bobcats owls, hawks  do well if theres more game to hunt.

If its a poor year, its the reverse  less food, hunger, fewer babies all around.

We consider it the great engine, said Rick Ostefeld, a disease ecologist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystems Studied in Millbrook, N.Y.

Ostfeld said 2018 was a poor year for acorns, while 2019 was a good one.

This means that ticks, which had fewer mice to feed on in the spring and summer of 2019, may have fared poorly. Hes predicting there will be fewer infected nymphal ticks in the region this summer. With plenty of scurriers this year, theyll rebound in 2021, he said.

Like others, Ostfeld is worried that people going out in the world to get their mind off coronavirus, may forget about ticks and the diseases they spread. Tick repellent and vigilance is still required.

The relatively low number of ticks could still translate to a high number of human cases, he said.

Ostfeld, who has spent years studying these cycles, said mast years impact the natural world in other, surprising ways. If there are lots of mice after a big acorn crop, those mice will eat gypsy moth cocoons, reducing gypsy moth damage later in the year.

He also said mice and chipmunks will eat the eggs, and even the very young, of ground-nesting birds like veerys, ovenbirds and thrushes. The great acorn engine giveth and taketh away.

With lots of mice and squirrels and chipmunks around, the light winter made them easier to catch, Dickson said. There was no snow to hide under. Sharp-eyed hawks and owls, sharp-nosed foxes and coyotes may have fed well.

There is another factor. This a good time to see predators like red fox anyway. Foxy parents  dogs and vixens  mate for life and share the rearing of their kits. Generally nocturnal, theyre out in the daytime now, finding food to fill famished fox mouths.

Simon said if people should stumble on a fox den, with fox kits crying and mewling, they should leave it alone. Theyre not abandoned, its just that the parents are out hunting.

Hagadorn of Deer Pond Farm also has this warning. A mild winter means there was no cold spell to kill off bugs. We may have a summer of DEET, deer flies and swatting ahead.

I like to remind people were going to pay for this, she said.

Contact Robert Miller at earthmattersrgm@gmail.com
Shamar Betts is being held in custody at the Champaign County Jail until his trial, which is currently scheduled to begin in February.
Beijing sees Trumps hand and wont fold



With Sinophobic hysteria reaching new heights in US, China's counter play is a massive new economic plan



By Pepe Escobar May 30, 2020 " Information Clearing House " - Stranger things have happened. Everyone was expecting US President Donald Trump to go nuclear by de facto sanctioning China to death over Hong Kong. In an environment where Twitter and the President of the United States are now engaged in open warfare, the rule is that there are no rules anymore. So in the end, what was announced against China amounted to an anti-climax. The US government, as it stands, is terminating its relationship with the World Health Organization (WHO). The geopolitical repercussions are immense and that will take time to sink in. In the short term, something must be blamed for the US appalling Covid-19 record, so it might as well be a UN institution. Hong Kongs preferential trade status will also be terminated, but in a hazy future in still undetermined terms. Phase 1 of the US-China trade deal still stands  at least for now. Yet theres no guarantee that Beijing itself wont start to doubt it. The bottom line: Investors were duly appeased, for now. Team Trump seems not to be exactly versed in the niceties of Hong Kongs Basic Law, as the president stressed the plain violation of Beijings treaty obligations with the United Kingdom. The national security law was blasted as the latest Chinese aggression against its own special administrative region. Now compare all this with the Two Sessions in Beijing ending the day before, with an intriguing, quite Keynesian performance by Prime Minister Li Keqiang. This was compelling as much for what Li did not say as for what he chose to put on the public record. Lets review some of the highlights. Li stressed that the NPCs resolution putting forth a national security law for Hong Kong is meant to protect one country, two systems, and not as an aggression. Instead of demonizing the WHO, Beijing is committed to a serious scientific investigation of the origins of Sars-Cov-2. No cover-up will be allowed, Li said, adding that a clear, scientific understanding should contribute to global public health. Beijing also supports an independent review into the WHOs handling of Covid-19. Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter Geopolitically, China rejects a Cold War mentality and hopes China and the US will be able to cooperate. Li stressed the relationship could be either mutually beneficial or mutually harmful. Decoupling was described as a very bad idea, for bilateral relations and for the world at large. China, after all, will start to import more and that should also profit US companies. Domestically, the absolute focus  70% of the available new funding  will be on employment, support for small and medium enterprises and measures to encourage consumption rather than investment in infrastructure building. In summation, in Lis own words: The central government will live on a tight budget. If not completely Sisyphean in the long term, it will at least be a daunting task in Lis terminology considering the previously stated end-of-2020 deadline would be to reach President Xi Jinpings goal of eliminating poverty across China. Li said absolutely nothing about three key themes: the alarming Himalayan border stand-off between China and India; the prospects for Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) projects; and Chinas complex geopolitical and geo-economic relationship with the European Union (EU). The non-mention of the last theme is especially noticeable after Chancellor Merkels quite encouraging assessment earlier this week and EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrells remark to a group of German ambassadors that the end of an American-led system and the arrival of an Asian century is now happening in front of our eyes. Confirming steady rumors emanating from Frankfurt, Berlin, Brussels and Paris, China and East Asia are taking precedence as the EUs top trading partner. This is something that will be extensively discussed at the upcoming EU-China summit next autumn in Germany. The EU is going Eurasia. Team Trump wont be amused. Dancing with wolves, remixed Predictably, the Beijing leadership needs to focus on domestic consumption and reaching the next level on technological production so as not to fall into the notorious  middle-income trap . Fine-tuning the balance between domestic stability and a very strong and wide global reach is another tak that brings Sisyphos to mind. Xi, Li and the Politburo very well know that Covid-19 hugely affected migrants, farmers and small-scale family entrepreneurs. The risk of social unrest is very high. Unemployment protection is far from Scandinavian levels. So back to business, fast, has to be the top priority. Enveloping this strategy is a new diplomatic offensive. Foreign Minister Wang Yi, usually meticulously nuanced and polite, is now increasingly exasperated . Earlier this week, Yi defined the demonization of China by the US over Covid-19 as a product of the three nos: no grounds, no factual basis and no international precedent. Moreover, he described attempts to blackmail China through threats as daydreaming. The Global Times, for its part, has blasted the Trump administration for typical international hooliganism and additionally stressed that labeling Chinese diplomacy as wolf warrior reflects an extreme ideology. The wolf warrior plot is bound to thicken. Beijing does seem ready to deploy its diplomatic force as wolf warriors. One should always keep in mind General Qiao Liang : if China is forced to dance with wolves, it might as well set up the rhythm. That applies perfectly to the Hong Kong question. Whatever Team Trump thinks, Beijing has no interest whatsoever in disturbing the Hong Kong financial system or collapsing the Hang Seng index. Thats exactly what the black block protesters last year were accomplishing. What we saw during this week is the result of what a task force, sent to Shenzhen last year to examine every angle of the protests, relayed back to the leadership in Beijing. The sources of financing for the hardcore black blocks have reputedly been cut. The local 5th columnist leaders have been isolated. Beijing was being very patient tackling the whole mess. Then along came Covid-19. The economic consensus in Beijing is that this will be an L-shaped recovery  actually very slow on the bottom of the L. So the West will buy much less from and invest much less in China. This implies that Hong Kong is not going to be very useful. Its best bet has already been offered many times over: integrate with the Greater Bay Area and be part of a booming Pearl river delta southern cluster. Hong Kong businesses support it. Another conclusion was that, whatever Beijing does, the Sinophobic hysteria in the US  and in this case also the UK  is unabated. So now is the right moment to go for the national security law, which of course is against subversion, against British-era wigs (judges) acting as 5th columnists and, most of all, against money laundering. A Global Times editorial cut to the chase: the national security law is the death knell for US intervention in Hong Kong. Cold War 2.0 As much as Yi may have said, this time diplomatically, that were on the brink of a new Cold War, the fact is the Trump administrations hybrid war on China  or Cold War 2.0  is now fully established. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is openly threatening Five Eyes allies and vassals, as well as Israel, with consequences if they fail to ditch any projects linked to Belt and Road. That is intimately linked to the avalanche of threats and measures against Huawei and everything connected to Made in China 2025, which proceeds at a fast pace but without using the terminology. The official Trump re-election campaign strategy China, China, China, detailed in a 57-page memo to Republicans, is bound to be deployed as total hybrid warfare, including non-stop propaganda, threats, infowar technologies, cyber warfare and breaking news fabrications. The ultimate objective shared by every Sinophobic strand, whether commercially-minded or think tank-based, is to derail the Chinese economy  a top level competitor  by any means necessary and thus cripple the ongoing Eurasian integration process whose three key nodes, China, Russia and Iran, happen to be top threats according to the US national security strategy. Once again, the gloves are off. And Beijing wont stop counterpunching in kind. Its as if Beijing had so far serially underestimated the Deep State and Beltways larger than life obsession with always remaining the undisputed hegemon, geopolitically and geo-economically. Every conflict erupting across the chessboard is and will continue to be directly linked to the twin objectives of containment of Russia and disruption of the Belt and Road. I previously referred to the Empire of Chaos , where a plutocracy progressively projects its own internal disintegration upon the whole world. But only now is the serious game starting, complete with Trumps intention to test nuclear bombs again. Not against a bunch of low-life terrorists, but against a serious, peer-competitor: the Eurasian strategic partnership. It would be too much to expect Team Trump to learn from Gramscian analyses of Belt and Road, which demonstrate how the Chinese Dream  a Confucianist variant of neoliberalism  marks the evolution of China into a core production zone in the neoliberal world economy by profiting from the existing global legal structure. Team Trump has vociferously announced its own strategy. Expect serial, silent Sun Tzu counterpunches. Pepe Escobar is correspondent-at-large at Asia Times. His latest book is 2030. Follow him on Facebook. Do you agree or disagree? Post your comment here
Update: The gathering of ministers today is with Mayor Ben Walsh and is a private meeting, according to city official Greg Loh. The meeting is not open to the public, Loh said. The story has been updated to reflect that.

Syracuse, N.Y.  A multi-denominational alliance of ministers will meet with Mayor Ben Walsh today to call for an end to violence after a protest about racial justice turned riotous late Saturday.

The gathering with the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance comes just hours after Walsh declared a state of emergency in the city in an effort to quell the chaos.

We want to echo the sentiments of the mayor last night, said the Rev. Erik Eure, who is pastor at The Promise Land Church in East Syracuse and vice president of the alliance.

We hear your frustration, he said of the protesters. But when acts turn violent, Eure added, were losing the value of what were saying.

Eure said he understands the outrage that prompted the protests across the nation in recent days. George Floyd, 46, died in Minneapolis last Monday after a former police officer was seen on video pinning him to the ground by his neck. That officer has been charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter.

I cant say I dont understand the frustration in our country right now with all the things that are going on right now, Eure said. We dont condone rioting and violence. But I do understand.

Eure said he was at the protest until about 11:30 p.m. Saturday. He said he didnt see any acts of violence on South State street.

Eure said, from what he saw, he believed local police acted well Saturday night.

I think they acted in a very professional manner, all things considered, he said. Thats the tragedy of this dichotomy. We need policing. We need people to be heard. We cant having rioting.

Walsh has set a curfew in the city, banning people from being out between 8 p.m. and 7 a.m. That order remains in effect.

MORE ON THE PROTESTS

How George Floyd protests in Syracuse went from peaceful to chaotic

Violence, looting in Upstate NY: Protests turn ugly in Buffalo, Albany, Rochester (videos)

Fewer than 10 arrested, no one believed to be seriously injured after Syracuse riots, police chief says

Syracuse mayor declares state of emergency, immediate curfew

Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh urges calm to protesters; Im very concerned for our city

Got a story idea or news tip youd like to share? Please contact me through email, Twitter, Facebook or at 315-470-2274.
Washington, May 31 : The SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft carrying NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley successfully docked with the International Space Station on Sunday, marking the beginning of a new era in the US space programme.

"Docking confirmed - Crew Dragon has arrived at the @space_station," SpaceX tweeted.

The spacecraft lifted off at 3.22 p.m. EDT on Saturday on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.

This is the first-ever crewed mission for SpaceX. This was also the first crewed launch from the US after the government retired the space shuttle programme in 2011.

Known as NASA's SpaceX Demo-2, the mission is an end-to-end test flight to validate the SpaceX crew transportation system, including launch, in-orbit, docking and landing operations.

Behnken and Hurley will work with SpaceX mission control to verify the spacecraft is performing as intended by testing the environmental control system, the displays and control system, and by manoeuvring the thrusters, among other things.

The Demo-2 mission is the final major test before NASA's Commercial Crew Programme certifies Crew Dragon for operational, long-duration missions to the space station.

For operational missions, Crew Dragon will be able to launch as many as four crew members at a time and carry more than 220 pounds of cargo, allowing for an increased number crew members aboard the space station and increasing the time dedicated to research in the unique microgravity environment, as well as returning more science back to Earth.

The first operational Crew Dragon mission, called Crew-1, could launch to the space station as early as August 30, Space.com reported. The Crew Dragon being used for this flight test can stay in orbit about 110 days, and the specific mission duration will be determined once on station based on the readiness of the next commercial crew launch.

The operational Crew Dragon spacecraft will be capable of staying in orbit for at least 210 days as a NASA requirement.

At the conclusion of the mission, Behnken and Hurley will board Crew Dragon, which will then autonomously undock, depart the space station, and re-enter Earth's atmosphere. Upon splashdown off Florida's Atlantic coast, the crew will be picked up by the SpaceX recovery ship and returned to the dock at Cape Canaveral.

NASA selected SpaceX and Boeing to design, build, test and operate safe, reliable and cost-effective human transportation systems to low-Earth orbit as part of its Commercial Crew Programme to reduce the agency's dependence on Russia's Soyuz capsule for transportation of astronauts to the space station.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
With lockdown 5.0 being restricted to only containment zones now according to the latest guidelines issued by the Central government, hilly districts of Uttarakhand which have been reporting a significant number of Covid-19 cases in the last one-week, lack well-defined containment zones.

Districts like Nainital which have the highest number of coronavirus cases with over 220 positive cases do not have a single containment zone.

Savin Bansal, district magistrate of Nainital said that the district does not have any containment zone as all the Covid-19 cases from the sudden spike in the past one week includes migrant workers.

All the cases that have been reported in the past one week, which caused a sudden spike in the number of coronavirus cases from Nainital district, were migrants who mostly returned from Maharashtra, Gujarat or Delhi. All these people were immediately quarantined at institutional facilities and their samples were tested. These people did not interact with local residents giving a chance for the virus to spread in the community, which is why we have not declared any containment zones in the district, Bansal said.

The district magistrate added that all the patients testing positive in Nainital are not necessarily residents of the district and many belong to other districts like Almora, Bageshwar or Pithoragarh; but as they have tested Covid-19 positive in Nainital, they are being counted in the district tally hence increasing the numbers.

Bansal also said that the district administration has started the process of sending Covid-19 positive cases from districts other than Nainital to their home districts for treatment at Covid Care Centres, so that there is no shortage of beds at designated Covid-19 hospitals in Nainital district.

Susheela Tiwari Hospital in Haldwani is basically meant for Tier-3 Covid-19 cases, but till now Tier-1 and Tier-2 cases which are mostly asymptomatic patients are being treated there. Now with increasing cases, we do not want to face a shortage of beds, so we have started the process of sending Covid-19 positive patients from other districts to Covid Care Centres where they can be treated till they are discharged, added the district magistrate of Nainital.

With strict lockdown being restricted to containment zones in Lockdown 5.0, officials say that the district magistrates have the power to decide upon containment zones.

Uttarakhand has a total of 31 containment zones in districts like Dehradun (8), Haridwar (15), Udham Singh Nagar (4), Pauri Garhwal (2) and Tehri Garhwal (2).

Officials from the state Covid-19 control room said that an area is declared as a containment zone if a lot of cases are reported from the same locality. An official from the Covid-19 control room, requesting anonymity, further said that district magistrates of the hilly districts are not willing to declare areas as containment zones as these areas are scattered. Only two hilly districts of Pauri Garhwal and Tehri have two containment zones each.

Uttarakhand has so far reported almost 750 Covid-19 cases of which 102 people have successfully recovered. The infection rate in the state stands at 3.25% while the rate of recovery is 14.03%.
Governor Amr Hanafy said Saturday that a Covid-19 case was detected in one tourist hub resort after the resumption of limited operations

Egypts Red Sea governorate has detected its first coronavirus case among visitors after a gradual return of domestic tourism, Governor Amr Hanafy has said.

In a phone interview with state television Saturday evening, Hanafy that a case was detected in one resort after the resumption of operations.

The case was isolated, Hanafy said, adding that the detected case is one among 2,000 visitors at hotels that have reopened their doors to receive visitors at limited occupancy amid the pandemic outbreak.

Hanafy added that the case was detected in a hotel with a lower occupancy rate in comparison to others.

He said 41 hotels have received certificates for reopening, on the basis of remaining below 25 percent occupancy as stipulated by the Ministry of Tourism.

Hanafy declined to provide further details on the detected case. However, several media reports quoted sources as saying that the case was of a 40-year-old woman who showed symptoms of the virus inside a hotel in Hurghada.

Egypt has allowed a limited number of hotels to open for guests and day users at reduced occupancy since mid-May, in an attempt to revive the tourism sector hit heavily by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Egypt said last week it granted 78 hotels in eight governorates a hygiene safety certificate required for reopening after fulfilling regulations announced by the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities and approved by the cabinet in accordance with the standards of the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Starting June, the approved hotels' occupancy cap will be upped to 50 percent.

The hotels, however, are not permitted to hold parties, weddings, or overnight activities. Their restaurants can only serve pre-set menus, as buffet services are banned, and dining tables should be set at a safe distance to reduce the risk of virus transmission.

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SAN FRANCISCO (BCN)

San Francisco is enacting a strict curfew of 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. Sunday and will have about 200 officers from outside law enforcement agencies to help protect people and property, city officials said at an online news conference.

Mayor London Breed said that the curfew would remain in place "until we see the situation is under control" and said the vandalism, looting and violence that followed a largely orderly protest Saturday would not be tolerated.

"Stay home," was the advice of Police Chief William Scott, who said people other than exempt workers such as medical and transportation personnel would be subject to questioning and possible detention.

Breed said that while there was reluctance to request outside law personnel, "We have to make sure we are prepared so that what happened in our city doesn't happen tonight."

Scott said police made 10 felony arrests for looting Saturday and detained numerous other people. He said the department is working with the district attorney to enhance charges for those arrested for looting.

Fire Chief Jeanine Nicholson said that in addition to being overwhelmed with responses to fire calls, her department received more than 250 medical calls on Saturday, "many the result of violence."

"We don't want to be putting out dozens and dozens of fires a night," she said. "We don't want to be answering dozens and dozens of vandalism calls a night."

Breed requested the extra law personnel Saturday from the California Office of Emergency Services.

Scott said the officers would be from agencies around the region "who are able to come in a reasonable amount of time."

"If we stop you and ask where you're going, please understand we are doing our job," he said.

Officials did not have an overall estimate of damage done Saturday night.

Karin Flood, executive director of the Union Square Business Improvement District said damage in that commercial area was "in the millions" and that 25 to 30 stores were entered and looted. She also said there is unspecified damage from vandalism and a fire that was set in the Westfield Center.

"San Francisco's Union Square has long been the celebratory heart of our City and also played witness to many historic moments and protests. Last night's vandalism and looting has broken that heart," Flood said in an announcement. "We were already on our knees but just beginning to get up from COVID. This has knocked us down again. All San Franciscans - peace officers and citizens - understand how to take part in peaceful demonstrations in ways that move us forward, not backward. Last night was not one of those times. But, as always, we will pick ourselves up."

Breed expressed appreciation to those who protested in a non-violent manner

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The wife of Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis police officer charged in the death of a man in custody, has filed for divorce.

Chauvin is the white officer who was seen on video kneeling for several minutes on the neck of George Floyd, a handcuffed black man who pleaded for air until he lost consciousness. Chauvin was fired, along with three other police officers at the scene, and has been criminally charged.

According to a statement released by a Minneapolis lawyer, Derek Chauvins wife, Kellie Chauvin, is devastated by Mr. Floyds death and her utmost sympathy lies with his family, with his loved ones and with everyone who is grieving this tragedy.

The statement says that she respectfully requests that her children, her elder parents, and her extended family be given safety and privacy during this difficult time.

Kellie Chauvin was crowned Mrs. Minnesota in 2018. She has children from a previous marriage. She holds an active real estate license, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Vandalism is viewed on the pathway and exterior of a townhouse owned by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin as protesters demonstrate in front of it, Friday, May 29, 2020, in Windermere, Fla. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack)AP

Derek Chauvin was charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter after the video showed him kneeling for nearly nine minutes on the neck of Floyd, suspected of passing a counterfeit bill at a convenience store on Memorial Day.

Floyds death has sparked protests, some of them violent, across the country.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

More:

George Floyd protests get violent in Harrisburg: PennLive photographer describes the scene

Harrisburg sets a curfew after hours of protests injure police, damage cars, block streets

Flames in Philadelphia as hundreds protest death of George Floyd and police brutality

George Floyd case: Pa. police chiefs condemn officers knee-on-neck method seen in viral video
Varanasi : , May 31 (IANS) The Kashi Vishwanath temple will also provide employment to the migrant labourers in the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor project which is Prime Minister Narendra Modi's dream project in his constituency.

The temple administration has decided to engage 1,000 migrant workers and even released phone numbers on which migrants can call to seek work at corridor.

The Varanasi district administration plans to launch a portal having details of migrant workers so that their skills that can be used by various government projects and private companies for their ongoing projects.

The idea of utilising migrant workers was mooted by officials looking after the Kashi Vishwanath Dham (corridor) project when the firm entrusted the construction work raised demand for more labourers when work was re-started in lockdown 3.0.

Most of the labourers working on the project had left for their homes by then.

According to Divisional Commissioner Deepak Agarwal: "The Gujarat based company that was awarded the contract for construction work in KV Dham project was facing crisis of labourers after most labourers had left for their native places when the lockdown began. When work was allowed, the company struggled to restart construction due to labour shortage and sent requirement of 790 labourers with different skills. Since, on government's orders, we had started skill-mapping of migrant labourers when they started arriving in large numbers and had collected all their personal details, skills and contact numbers, we had a ready database with us. It helped us in identifying 1,000 labourers, who can help the company handling KV Dham project to restart its work at an accelerated pace" The chief development officer and labour department had done skill mapping of labourers.

They have been told to create a portal having all details of skilled migrant labourers to enable all government and private agencies to utilise them in their projects restarted during lockdown.
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NATIONAL Assembly Speaker Jacob Mudenda has threatened to come hard on MDC Alliance MPs who have taken a hard-line position to boycott parliament in protest over what they find to be his biased expulsion of four party legislators at the behest of a faction led by Thokozani Khupe.

This came after independent Norton legislator Temba Mliswa had called on Mudenda to speedily resolve absenteeism from among Alliance legislators in order to restore the vibrancy of debate in the house.

Mliswa argued Zanu PF MPs did not have the spine to demand accountability by the executive, which comprises their party bosses.

In his response, Mudenda warned time shall come for parliament to stamp its authority and exercise decisive action on legislators who have deliberately absented themselves from the business of the house.

"Honourable Mliswa, your calls of concern are correct. The missing members need not be reminded that they took an oath to be here.

"It is not the responsibility of the chair to order them to come to Parliament. Standing rules and Orders will be invoked as the time comes," he said.

MPs from the Nelson Chamisa led opposition took a stand to 'disengage' from the house when Mudenda expelled four senior party legislators following written communication by reinstated MDC-T secretary general Douglas Mwonzora.

Mwonzora has joined forces with Khupe to revive the main opposition's 2014 structures as ordered by the courts as part of attempts to resolve the drawn-out MDC leadership feud.

The expelled MPs are Thabitha Khumalo, Prosper Mutseyami, Charlton Hwende and Senator Lilian Timveos.

The Chamisa led group is up in arms Mudenda has taken a bias towards the weaker faction of the party following the speaker's refusal to accept a letter also written by the party seeking the expulsion of Mwonzora, Morgen Komichi and Elias Mudzuri from the senate.
Chandigarh:

Haryana Finance Minister Abhimanyu Singh Sindhu on Thursday dismissed as "false, baseless and mischievous" allegations leveled by Congress MLA Karan Singh Dalal on lack of transparency in dealing with complaints and the court cases against two of the three allotees of stone mines in Bhiwani district which were auctioned in 2013.

"The reason behind such false, baseless and mischievous allegations is the Congress party's frustration stemming from its defeat in the last assembly polls, their shrinking base and the resultant nervousness which is palpable in the wake of the submission of the Justice Dhingra Commission report," he said here.

Sindhu described the allegations, levelled by Dalal earlier in the day, as a "ridiculous attempt to divert public attention in his characteristic shoot-and-scoot style in retaliation to the privilege motion admitted against him by the Assembly recently".

"He has simply tried to divert the attention of the people from the cases being faced by Congress leaders. This has been inspired by vested interests and political vendetta," he alleged.

Dalal had alleged lack of transparency in dealing with complaints and the court cases against two of the three allottees of stone mines in Bhiwani district which were auctioned three years ago.

The Congress MLA had also said he would submit a memorandum to the Governor seeking a CBI probe into the "mining scam" in Haryana.

Also, reacting to allegations leveled by Dalal earlier in the day regarding HSIIDC "trying to delay" the operations at Khanak stone mine, an official release, quoting an HSIIDC spokesperson, said, "M/s KIOCL Rungta projects ltd, the L1 bidder, had unilaterally conveyed its non-acceptance of the letter of award on 15.06.2016, which was made in line with the court orders and HSIIDC did not raise any technical grounds.

HSIIDC has even invoked their bank guarantee on 23.06.2016."

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Jharkhand on Saturday recorded its highest single-day spike with 72 cases of Covid-19. With this, the total number of cases have risen to 594, news agency ANI quoted state health secretary Nitin Madan Kulkarni as saying.

According to a bulletin released by the state health department on Saturday, five people have died of the disease in Jharkhand so far. The fatalities had been two from Ranchi, and one each from Koderma, Giridih and Bokaro.

Altogether 5,415 travellers are under surveillance and asymptomatic while 4,027 travellers completed observation of 28 days.

While 98,355 people are in various quarantine centres, 2,81,178 people are in home quarantine, the bulletin said.

The recovery rate of patients in Jharkhand is 45.5 as against the national rate of 47.40 per cent. The mortality rate is 0.89 per cent as against the national rate of 2.86 per cent, the bulletin stated.

So far, nearly 4.5 lakh out of nearly 7 lakh migrants have returned home in Jharkhand following the nationwide lockdown.

Jharkhand Labour Minister Satyanand Bhokta on Saturday said that plans are there to employ migrant workers in loading work in colliery areas in Latehar district.

He said that instead of pressing machines in the loading of coal in rakes and trucks in colliery areas, migrant workers returning from different parts of the country would be given work.

He assured proper food for migrant workers staying at different quarantine centres.

The Jharkhand government also hired a plane to bring back its workers from the remote Andaman and Nicobar Islands. As many as 180 migrant workers took the flight to reach Jharkhand.

Migrants were flown back home from Andaman & Nicobar a day after 60 stranded workers returned to the state from Leh by a service flight arranged by the state government.
The US death toll from Covid-19 has hit 100,000. A staggering figure. A figure larger than the American fatalities in the Vietnam, Korean and Iraq wars, combined. A figure that shouldn't become acceptable through met expectations or familiarity.

And it's a figure that, despite the president's best propaganda efforts, has started to weaken the Republican party's decades-long advantage with older voters. The question now is, can the Democrats and Joe Biden turn this current temporary weakness into a long-term trend?

In 1930, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was running to be governor of New York. His Republican opponent, Charles Tuttle, was running on a platform of opposition to the rampant corruption in Tammany Hall, the Irish American-run cabal that dominated New York politics. Having opposed them early in his career, the pragmatic FDR had long since decided he couldn't progress as a Democrat without their support so he was now deeply embedded with the Tammany machine - meaning he couldn't credibly respond to the Republican attacks. So he didn't. He instead ran a proactive campaign fighting for farm relief and full employment.

Resisting pressure to refute attacks and negate the Republican message, he told his adviser, Sam Rosenman: "Never let your opponent pick the battleground on which to fight - if he picks one, stay out of it and let him fight all by himself." FDR won the election with the largest plurality in New York electoral history.

For four years, the Democrats have failed to follow their most successful political campaigner's advice. Since 2016, Donald Trump has constantly and consistently picked the battleground. He's dominated the narrative. He's set the agenda. Whether it be the building of the wall, Hunter Biden's relationship with a Ukrainian oil company or blaming China for the devastating impact of Covid-19, the president has picked the ground and the Democrats have rushed to join him.

This has been a colossal mistake. Following Trump down his self-created rabbit holes plays to his strengths. Joe Biden needs to pick his own battleground, and bait Trump into joining him there.

Up until a few months ago there was some debate as to what that field should be - but no longer. It's very simple now - at least it is from a political campaigning perspective.

Donald Trump's incompetence contributed to the deaths of thousands of Americans and killed the Obama economy - regardless of the shape of the recovery. Trump's America has sacrificed thousands of the most vulnerable on the altar of the economy due to a combination of his incompetence, his envy of Barack Obama and his fear of losing.

That needs to be the constant focus of every Democrat. For the next six months they must make him deny it, make him justify it, make him answer on it. Recent history suggests that Trump will be allowed to turn the page on any of his failings and decisions - this can't be permitted. The Democratic party, as a whole, can't afford to get waylaid by every new Republican distraction.

A strategy that focuses on Trump's Covid failings and the reasons behind them is one that will motivate the Democratic base - anger being a powerful motivator, that can be replicated in every swing state and, most promisingly, is one that has already started to bear fruit - impacting Trump's support among a key demographic; the over-65s.

In 2016, the US president won voters over the age of 65 by seven percentage points. Now Biden leads Trump 48pc to 47pc with that cohort - a figure based on an average of 48 national polls by the polling site FiveThirtyEight. The New York Times has reported that internal Republican polling has shown the same change.

This is a massive shift: no Democrat has won this cohort since Al Gore in 2000. If the shift holds until polling starts, Biden would be in an incredibly strong electoral position.

Even if the strategy worked only in Florida, the state with the second oldest population - that would be half the job done. If Biden flipped this swing state, he would take away Trump's most realistic path to electoral college success. A late April poll had Biden leading Trump 52pc to 42pc among voters 65 and older in Florida.

A concerted campaign to turn this current dip into a cemented trend is a must. The immediate anger at the crisis will subside, the deaths will turn from tragedies to statistics. People will forget.

Democrats need to use the current attention on Trump's decisions and make sure that over-65s are left with the linked perception that he was callous and uncaring with their lives. He prioritised his re-election over their survival. They must turn the president's short-term adversity into a lasting negative perception.

Trump's campaign has already reacted to the initial loss of this support. Last Tuesday he announced a major initiative to cap insulin prices at $35, aimed purely at this demographic - claiming that "This is a big day for seniors".

The president is worried. His campaign is worried. And you can see that most clearly via his consistent attacks on postal ballots. Trump has made efforts to oppose Democratic initiatives to make postal ballots more widely available, a move designed to aid voting during coronavirus. He's done all he can to mislead the public about the integrity of postal voting; falsely claiming it will lead to "total election fraud" while threatening to withhold federal funding to states which continue to pursue widening postal ballots.

This is the most consequential fight in the election - because a depressed turnout means a Trump victory.

Twitter's decision last week to finally flag two of Trump's postal ballot claims as "unsubstantiated" is further evidence of this importance. Of all the mud that has been slung, this is the issue that their CEO Jack Dorsey finally felt they had to move on. Even if nothing but an outright ban would impact Trump's support at this point - it's still a welcome step from the social media platform largely responsible for Trump's success. A new norm has been created, one that might inhibit the rise of the next populist pretender.

The focus on postal ballots makes sense from Trump's tunnelled perspective. If it works, it will affect the Democratic vote, if it doesn't, it will allow him to cry deceit, theft and corruption if he happens to lose in November.

Even if Joe Biden is successful in November, Trump would still be president for two-and-a-half months - he won't go quietly into the night. Regardless, we haven't seen the last of the Donald and his imagined dynasty.

The question that remains is: will he be a triumphant two-term victor or a bitter former president - plotting an unlikely 2024 return?

The answer depends on the battlegrounds the Democrats choose to fight on.

Lorcan Nyhan is head of training at the Communications Clinic
By PTI

MUMBAI: Schools in remote areas of Maharashtra without internet connectivity and unaffected by the coronavirus pandemic should be reopened by implementing social distancing norms, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said on Sunday.

Stressing that the new academic year should begin in June, as in the normal times, the CM also called for the need to develop and strengthen online educationsystem in the state.

Maharashtra is worst affected by the coronavirus pandemic with 65,168 cases and 2,197 deaths so far.

"In remote areas, where there is no internet connectivity and coronavirus pandemic spread, schools should be reopened by implementing social distancing norms. In places where there is a problem in physically restarting schools, the option of online education must be used," he told officials of the School Education department and Minister Varsha Gaikwad in a meeting held via video conferencing.



CLICK HERE FOR COVID-19 LIVE UPDATES

While it is not necessary that schools must restart now, the department should develop and strengthen the online education system in the long run, he said.

"Coronavirus pandemic shouldn't be a roadblock in the education of children. The academic year (2020-21) must start from June. Maharashtra should set an example before the rest of the country," said Thackeray.

He said Google platforms could be used onan experimental basis.

"Education is a necessity which cannot be allowed to be stopped, he said.

The CM also said that premises of schools currently used as a coronavirus quarantine facility should be disinfected and sanitised before making them reusable.
More than three hours after a curfew on the City of Harrisburg has been lifted, there is no word yet from city officials, or the police, about the protest that escalated into violence on Saturday.

The protest in Harrisburg was one of many around the country in the wake of the death of George Floyd, who died in police custody in Minneapolis after an officer was captured on video kneeling on his neck for several minutes.

It started off as a peaceful protest in Harrisburg, but soon turned violent between the protesters and police, and pepper spray and tear gas were used by police as protesters surrounded a police vehicle.

As it continued into the night, Harrisburg Mayor Eric Papenfuse ordered a curfew at 9 p.m.

That curfew was lifted at 6 a.m., and the city streets appear to be quiet.

Neither the police nor the mayor have yet released statements about the incidents Sunday morning.

There is no word yet on how many people were injured or what the extent of the damage was, but Papenfuse did say on Twitter that two Capital Police officers were hospitalized and several patrol cars were damaged by bricks.

With two Capital Police officers in the hospital and several patrol cars badly damaged by bricks, I am watching law enforcement repeatedly attempt to deescalate while allowing room for peaceful protest - Commissioner Carter has been out front & represents the best of #Harrisburg  Eric Papenfuse (@EricPapenfuse) May 30, 2020

Questions remain about what turned the protest violent. Initially, protesters walked peacefully down the middle of the street for several blocks, passing the police station before turning back to the Capitol.

The city and police havent shared their side of when things took a turn for the worse, but some protesters at the scene described what they witnessed.

Harrisburg resident Sean Kitchen said the situation deteriorated quickly with the arrival of police in riot gear.

It didnt seem like there was any back and forth - it just seemed like after five or ten seconds, pepper spray went off and people started running, he said. After that, kids reacted by throwing bricks, water bottles and rocks at the cop cars.

Eamonn Wrightstone, an organizer with Black Lives Matter who helped put together Saturdays protest, said police were coming in riot gear from every direction. The skies above Harrisburg were soon filled with the sound of police helicopters.

People have been hit, children have been tear gassed, Wrightstone wrote in a text to PennLive.

What is going on in the other parts of the world  the movements and revolutions, I think we are all just angry and mad and pissed off, Wrightstone said. And, I cant control how people act. All I can do is say to people, Come out and make your voices heard, and remember we are here to be peaceful and make our voices heard'.....All I can do is ask for that."

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The WHO said cigarette firms were still trying out all manner of ways to get youngsters lighting up -- and it was no accident that the vast majority of smokers start before they turn 18

Tobacco companies are deliberately using "deadly" tactics to target children and get them hooked on smoking, the World Health Organization said Friday.

The WHO said cigarette firms were still trying out all manner of ways to get youngsters lighting up -- and it was no accident that the vast majority of smokers start before they turn 18.

Ahead of its World No Tobacco Day on Sunday, the WHO said 44 million children aged 13 to 15 were smoking, while many more pre-teens could be added to that number.

"WHO calls on all sectors to help stop marketing tactics of tobacco and related industries that prey on children and young people," the UN health agency said.

"The tactics are very mean by the tobacco industry," said Rudiger Krech, the WHO's director of health promotion.

"In some countries where it's not regulated you find tobacco products close to candy in the supermarkets," he told a virtual press briefing.

"You find 'advisers' going into schools to educate young children on using e-cigarettes; you find giving out free cigarettes in developing countries.

"They're targeting these children and adolescents. Ninety percent of all smokers start before 18, and that's deliberate: it's not a mistake.

"What they do is deadly."

- Replacing dead users -

Vinayak Prasad, coordinator of the WHO's No Tobacco Unit, said the industry was spending $1 million per hour on marketing.

"They're doing it to find replacement users: eight million premature deaths each year," he said.

Data from 39 countries showed that around nine percent of children aged 13 to 15 were now using e-cigarettes, while a huge increase in their use had been witnessed in the United States, said the WHO.

As for claims that e-cigarettes are safer, Krech said: "All tobacco products are harmful."

Adriana Blanco Marquizo, who heads the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, added: "Smoking a cigarette is so dangerous, it's very difficult to find something that is more dangerous."

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The physician said the prevalence of smoking was going down but also, the absolute number of smokers was declining for the first time, despite the global population increasing.

- Logo on face masks -

Krech said that during the coronavirus lockdown, there had been a "huge uptake" of people trying to give up smoking -- and the industry had responded.

During the COVID-19 crisis, some tobacco companies have been putting their logo on free face masks.

The industry has offered doorstep delivery during quarantine and, in some countries, lobbied for tobacco products to be listed as "essential", the WHO claimed.

"They see their market go, so that's why they don't leave anything open where they can interfere," said Krech.

The WHO on Friday launched a classroom toolkit aimed youngsters aged 13-17 to show them how the tobacco industry tries to "manipulate them into using deadly products".

It also called on social media platforms to ban the marketing of tobacco products.

Blanco Marquizo said that adolescents could be empowered to protect themselves "when they understand the intentions of an industry that really wants them hooked in an addictive behaviour just in order to keep their profits".

Nicholas Martinez, a 17-year-old from Florida's 6,500-strong group Students Working Against Tobacco, said it was "the only product that if you use it the right way -- the way it's intended -- it will kill you.

"It's a cool thing? It's more cool to be smart, and alive when everybody else is dead," he said.
Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban said recently that it's "highly unlikely" that he'll run for president in 2020.

But if he changes his mind, the investor and Dallas Mavericks owner would immediately tackle healthcare if he won the White House.

"Stranger things have happened. I'm an entrepreneur. I'm never going to say, 'No, Cuban said last week during a Verizon Media special event, RESET YOUR MINDSET AT WORK. That said, hed tackle one of the most polarizing issues in politics.

We haven't even had a basic discussion about what happens to healthcare," Cuban said, when pressed on what he would fundamentally change if he were president.

On top of the COVID-19 crisis, an economic crisis has erupted, with more than 40 million Americans filing for unemployment insurance claims in the last ten weeks. The end result has seen many lose their employer-sponsored health insurance plans.

"So we went from an environment where we had 45 million people who are eligible for the [Affordable Care Act], and 150 million who were on their employer payroll that could get health insurance through their employer, Cuban said.

Now, those numbers can be completely backwards, the investor added.

Immediately covered

LAS VEGAS, NV - OCTOBER 19: Investor and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban arrives before the start of the third U.S. presidential debate at the Thomas & Mack Center on October 19, 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Tonight is the final debate ahead of Election Day on November 8. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

According to Cubans calculations, there may be 75 million people who are now eligible for the ACA, and around 110 million currently on employer-based insurance.

"That creates a whole set of issues in terms of having people have a safety net and being able to take care of their families if somebody gets sick, not just from COVID, but all the other things we get sick from, Cuban said.

And no one has had even the briefest conversation about that. That's awful," he added. "Again, that goes back to leadership from both sides. And so that's the first thing I would do."

While acknowledging that healthcare is a more extended discussion, Cuban explained in a follow-up email with Yahoo Finance that his plan "would be the federal government acting as an insurance company, and effectively paying Medicare rates with premiums being means-tested."

He added that the rates would range from 0% for those earning less than 250% of the federal poverty level and go up to 10% for those making up to $1.5 million per year. Cuban noted that there would "one huge difference from traditional health plans.

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"Because insurance premiums are designed to help the insurance company build a financial base, something the federal government doesn't need help with, premiums wouldn't start until you used the system," he wrote, adding that "eligibility would be for anyone who doesn't have healthcare or [Medicare/Medicaid] or an employer."

He pointed out that before the pandemic, that number was 46 million, but now it's closer to 80 million people. All 80 million of those people "would be immediately covered," he wrote.



Julia La Roche is a Correspondent at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter.
Dominic Raab today appealed for the US not to 'tear itself apart over the George Floyd case as he refused to criticise Donald Trump's handling.

The Foreign Secretary said footage showing the treatment of Mr Floyd, who was black and died after a white police officer knelt on his neck in Minneapolis, was 'very distressing'.

But he insisted he would not comment on the backlash against Donald Trump's response to a wave of furious protests across the US, merely saying he wanted the country to 'come back together not tear itself apart'.

Ex-policeman Derek Chauvin has been charged with murdering Mr Floyd, 46.

Demonstrations have even been taking place in London, with many people ignoring coronavirus lockdown restrictions to make their anger known.

The President has been condemned from some quarters after posting on social media that 'looting leads to shooting'.

A Chicago police vehicle is set on fire during violent protests in the city last night

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab (pictured on the BBC's Marr Show today) said he wanted the US to 'come back together not tear itself apart'

George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, died on Memorial Day as he was arrested by four police officers over allegedly trying to buy cigarettes with a counterfeit $20 bill. He was seen in a video pleading that he couldn't breathe as white officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee against his neck

Mr Trump tweeted: 'Looting leads to shooting, and that's why a man was shot and killed in Minneapolis on Wednesday night - or look at what just happened in Louisville with 7 people shot. I don't want this to happen, and that's what the expression put out last night means.'

He also appeared to cheer the tougher tactics being used by the National Guard as protests spread across America.

Last night Mr Trump commended the Guard deployment in Minneapolis, declaring 'No games!', and also said police in New York City 'must be allowed to do their job!'.

Hundreds of people have taken to the streets in protest across the US in recent days, with more than 1,300 having been arrested in 16 cities since Thursday night.

In Washington, the National Guard was deployed outside the White House to deal with protesters.

Asked about Mr Trump's response, Mr Raab told Sky's Sophy Ridge on Sunday: 'I'm not going to start commenting on the commentary or indeed the press statements that other world leaders make, or indeed the US president.

'Footage of what happened to George Floyd was very distressing, as has been the scenes across America of the rioting and some of the violence.

'And what we do know is that the lead suspect has now been charged with murder, there is a federal review and we want to see de-escalation of all of those tensions and American come together.'

Later on the BBC's The Andrew Marr Show, Mr Raab added: 'I've long kept to the self-imposed guidance not to comment on what President Trump says or indeed other world leaders, it is not really what my job is.'

Mr Raab said he wanted to see the US 'come back together not tear itself apart over this, and of course that is a very distressing and upsetting case'.
Dear Annie: In July of last year, I saw three psychics, and they all told me that when I started college in September I would meet the love of my life again. I didn't believe them because I have no luck in that department. Well, within a week I ran into my old boyfriend, whom I dated at two different times in my life.

The first time that "Trey" and I met was in high school. My brother introduced us. I was 14, still playing with Barbies, and I didn't know how to kiss. We were both nerds. He wore an orange tuxedo to prom. We continued dating for a little while after high school graduation, before he left for the military. It ended soon after.

When we reconnected, I was 21 and had become a single mom, and he was in Texas for military training. We had so much fun whenever he'd visit. But the distance was hard, and I was struggling with the challenges of single motherhood. We ended things on good terms.

Then I ran into him last fall. He said he'd always wondered if we would see each other again. That day I realized one thing for certain: that the piece I'd been missing in my soul was him. I felt home.

Unfortunately, I looked him up online afterward and saw that he had gotten married in June. That broke my heart.

I know he's a wonderful man for a husband, and he would make an excellent father. I would be honored to have his children, even if we didn't end up staying together afterward. Should I tell him how I feel, since marriage doesn't mean anything nowadays, or live in regret and heartbreak? I feel like we belong together but we did it wrong. He was the only boyfriend who treated me like a person, but I blew it both times. -- Pining for the One Who Slipped Away

Dear Pining for the One Who Slipped Away: This man was (SET ITAL) a (END ITAL) love of your life. But he won't be (SET ITAL) the (END ITAL) love of your life. And while he may have been the first boyfriend to treat you well, he won't be the last. You will make sure of that by developing better self-esteem. Throw yourself headfirst into your college classes; try new hobbies; get out there and meet new people. In time, you will come to find that Trey wasn't your missing piece; you were whole on your own.

Dear Annie: With all of the recognition going on out there for various groups of people working during the coronavirus crisis, all of whom are very worthy, no one has even thought of newspaper carriers. We are out there on the front line. We are out there 364 days a year with no federal holidays off, no long weekends, just delivery 364 days a year with only Christmas Day off.

I am up at 1 a.m. every day and out the door with our papers by 3 a.m.! We deliver against all odds and whatever Mother Nature throws at us. Some people reward us for good service; some just complain. Some people never even think of a tip for the carrier. Bottom line, Annie, I ask the folks who read your column in the newspaper I deliver to them to remember their carrier. ... Even just a thank you would make us feel that we are making a difference. After all, we are the ones bringing you the latest news! -- Patsy in Naugatuck, Conn.

Dear Patsy in Naugatuck, Conn.: As a newspaper columnist, I especially owe gratitude to the hardworking newspaper carriers throughout the country. Please accept my sincere thanks.

"Ask Me Anything: A Year of Advice From Dear Annie" is out now! Annie Lane's debut book -- featuring favorite columns on love, friendship, family and etiquette -- is available as a paperback and e-book. Visit http://www.creatorspublishing.com for more information. Send your questions for Annie Lane to dearannie@creators.com.

COPYRIGHT 2020 CREATORS.COM

Read more advice:

Ask Amy: Separated soulmates are eager to connect

Dear Annie: Looking to hop off the hamster wheel

Dear Abby: Children cut off stepmother with dads power of attorney
No immediate claim of responsibility for explosion on road frequently used by government and security vehicles.

A roadside bomb has struck a minibus near Somalias capital, killing at least 10 people and wounding 12 others, the government said.

The deadly explosion occurred near Lafole village along the Afgoye-Mogadishu road where the passenger bus was travelling early Sunday.

At least 10 civilians were killed in an explosion at Lafole area this morning, those who died were all civilians, the information ministry said in a statement, adding that the victims were on their way to a funeral.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast, which occurred on a road used frequently by government and security vehicles.

Witnesses said the minibus was completely destroyed, and described an horrific scene with everyone on board either dead or wounded and many bodies ripped apart or burned beyond recognition.

I carried four dead people including my father in law, Nur Haji Ahmed told Reuters from Madina hospital in Mogadishu, where the wounded were taken. He had rushed to the scene after a phone call from a relative.

For more than a decade, al-Shabab has been fighting to overthrow Somalias internationally recognised government.

The al-Qaeda-linked armed group used to control most parts of the country but, since 2011, its fighters have been pushed out of most large towns and cities including Mogadishu.

However, it has continued to carry out deadly suicide bombings and assassinations in the capital and its surrounding areas.
We are having peaceful speeches, we have a reverend  Protesters gathered outside in Minneapolis on Saturday, for the fifth day in a row. This group was demonstrating outside the citys Fifth Police Precinct. I cant stand the fact that some people in our society cant walk around without feeling scared that a cop is not going to come to them with a death sentence. Just after 8 p.m., police came out to enforce the citys curfew. You are in violation of Minneapolis city curfew ordinance. They began firing pepper spray and tear gas to disperse the group. [screams] I swear to God! I swear to [expletive] God  Protesters here told us why they were out on the streets. Honestly, the world is watching the United States, and more specifically Minneapolis itself, to see how were going to react and get justice for Mr. Floyd. And for me, being out here is a huge thing. The Minneapolis Police Department is notorious for their racism here. Black men are about 13 times more likely to be killed by cops than white men in the city. And I think that people just finally had enough. They tortured him, right? What else is there to do but get their attention? Since George Floyds death, peaceful protests have mixed with looting and rioting at night. Most protesters we spoke with oppose the violence, but many said they understood the frustration and anger people are feeling. No justice, no peace! No justice, no peace! We are here for justice for George. Were sick and tired of being abused and oppressed by the police. Theyve been doing that [expletive] for years and years. Man, weve got to come together as a people, as a one. This racisms been going on for too long. All four hundred years or more. Too long. All this [expletive] can be replaced. The body cannot be replaced. The body can never be replaced. I dont want to see businesses burned down. But, I mean, were in kind of a war zone out here. And so, thats kind of, I think, the least of our worries in a lot of ways. Bring him, bring him, bring him one block. Bring him one block to a medic. What happened? Someone hit him with a bat? Youve got to calm down. Were on the same team. Youve got to calm down. Calm down  what happened, what happened? Weve got about 12 medics here. Were going to do the best we can. Weve got a combat medic here, OK? But weve got to dial it down  Weve got to keep it down.  because theyre looking for any reason to kill us. One protester described the violence that broke out after she confronted a group of rioters in the neighborhood. There was a group of guys who started screaming at the police, throwing things. I asked them, Who are you? Who are you to come in here and do this? They ran up on me with big steel pipes. They got in my face. And one guy came at me, holding the pipe, and he stepped in, and he took it. Youre going to be all right  What message are we sending by destroying what is ours? How does that, how does that get the message out about how we need change in our city if all were doing is destroying it and burning it down?








(END) NDP/MVB

Peru's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has reported that the Government of Germany deployed a mission of medical experts to the South American country and made a donation of ventilators, as well as emergency medical supplies to help tackle the COVID-19 pandemic. Published: 5/31/2020
On any given Sunday, the soaring sanctuary of St. Louis's Church of God in Christ echoes with thundering sermons, joyful music and ecstatic professions of faith.

Just not this week. Or next.

Silent since March, the church will stay that way until Bishop Elijah H. Hankerson III deems it safe - even though local authorities have authorized places of worship to reopen and President Donald Trump has prodded them to do it fast. Much as Hankerson wants to get back to preaching the gospel face-to-face, rather than online, he knows through tragic experience exactly what is at stake.

"I have a more personal view of the devastation than many people," Hankerson said.

So many in St. Louis's black community do. As is true nationwide, African Americans have been far harder hit by the novel coronavirus in the St. Louis area than other groups. They account for less than half the city's population but nearly two-thirds of both cases and deaths. In the surrounding county, the death rate for African Americans is twice as high as it is for whites.

The disproportionately heavy impact led Hankerson and other black faith leaders in St. Louis into an unexpected - and uncomfortable - position this spring: urging officials from the governor on down to keep their churches closed, along with much of the rest of normal life.

Nationally, faith leaders - many of them white and evangelical - have been among the most prominent voices demanding a quick reopening. They have sued governors, alleging that bans on large gatherings violate religious freedom. They have joined protests on statehouse steps. And they have cheered Trump on as he recently vowed to override any governor who refuses to allow places of worship to spread their doors wide.

"Thank you President Donald J. Trump for defending America's faith communities," wrote the Rev. Franklin Graham, an evangelical preacher.

But not all of America's faith communities felt defended. To many black pastors in the Gateway City who have spent months seeking to nurture in their congregations a sense of respect for a virus that spreads silently and kills readily, it felt more like a threat.

"As much as we want to reopen, we also don't want more people to get sick," said Bishop Larry O. Jones, senior pastor at Greater Grace Church in Ferguson, in St. Louis County. "There is no vaccine, and social distancing is working. Our faith must be accompanied by wisdom."

Jones said that, the president's advice notwithstanding, he planned to "stick to my guns" and keep his church closed for the time being.

Jones's city, Ferguson, became a byword for racial injustice six years ago and was a precursor to the sort of unrest now visible on the streets of Minneapolis and across the country. The fatal shooting of an unarmed black man, Michael Brown, by a white police officer during the summer of 2014 added to a long history of racial strife and discrimination in the St. Louis area that includes a massacre of black citizens by their white neighbors in 1917, decades of legally enforced segregation and the destruction of black neighborhoods under the banner of "urban renewal."

That history - mirrored in cities across the country - is critical to understanding why African Americans have been so vulnerable to the ravages of the novel coronavirus, said Fredrick L. Echols.

"Covid-19 has really just highlighted the inequities and disparities that were present before," said Echols, a doctor who has led St. Louis's coronavirus response as the city's health director. "If we're going to do our work properly, we have to understand the history and the structural and systemic factors that have contributed."

Echols, who is black, made learning about that history a priority for his staff when he took over the health department last year. He distributed pamphlets that explained why black and white St. Louisans have had dramatically different experiences with the health-care system, and he instituted mandatory training in how to undo racism.

Since the coronavirushit, he has focused on educating the general population about the virus, focusing on the Zip codes where poverty is greatest and health insurance coverage rates are lowest. In those areas, most of which are predominantly black, he and his staff have gone door to door to give out masks and information.

The experience has sometimes been disheartening: Basic facts about how the virus spreads are not well known, Echols said, and myths - that the virus can be killed with a shot of lemon juice or a blast of hot air from a hair dryer - persist.

"Most individuals still do not know a lot about covid-19. It was really surprising," he said.

Hankerson, Jones and other pastors have used the church's considerable authority in the black community - African Americans tend to be more devout than the U.S. population as a whole - to work with Echols in trying to change that.

Hankerson, senior pastor of the Life Center International Church of God in Christ, hosts a nightly Bible study online where he has made a point of slipping public health advice into his theological lessons. Jones is online every Wednesday night, joined by doctors and other health experts who answer questions about how to stay healthy.

The pastors have also sought to educate public officials about just how badly their communities are hurting. When Missouri Gov. Mike Parson, a Republican, was weighing when to reopen the state, the St. Louis Metropolitan Clergy Coalition - a group of about 150 predominantly black churches that Hankerson leads - weighed in strongly with advice: Don't do it yet.

"Let us take shelter and stay at home until the storm passes over," Hankerson pleaded.

The governor went ahead anyway, authorizing a May 3 reopening he said was necessary because the state's economy could no longer endure the pain of a prolonged shutdown.

"We were heard, but not listened to," Hankerson said.

The group had better luck with officials in St. Louis city and county, home to about half the state's nearly 12,000 cases. They opted to keep the metropolitan area shut for an additional two weeks after the rest of the state had reopened.

Even now that St. Louis churches are allowed to resume services, many that serve largely black populations are choosing to remain shut. Those with plans to open in the next week or two are doing so very tentatively, with elaborate plans to enforce social distancing and dispense masks and hand sanitizer liberally at the door.

For Hankerson, a 48-year-old who has been preaching since he was a teen, the case for staying closed has been intensely personal. Like many, he initially saw the coronavirus as a distant threat - a problem for China, then Italy, but unlikely to hit the American heartland.

Then, one Sunday, a top adviser - "my right-hand man" - called saying he was in the intensive care unit with covid-19.

"You've got to be kidding," Hankerson replied.

The adviser was dead by Thursday. An uncle in Germany soon followed. So did Hankerson's vice president at the Clergy Coalition who had joined in the group's first news conference urging officials to take the threat seriously.

"To me, these are not statistics I'm reading in the newspaper," he said. "These are my friends. My uncle. My own flesh and blood."

So far, members of his 300-member strong congregation have been spared. "Thank the lord," he said.

The same is true at Jones' 600-member church, though there have been close calls. "Most churches have older people, many with pre-existing conditions," Jones said. "It's like a ticking time bomb."

Christopher McCloud is on the younger side of Jones's congregation, at 42, but he nearly lost his life to covid-19.

A physical education teacher with a host of pre-existing conditions - high blood pressure, diabetes and congestive heart failure - McCloud had been isolating at home for nearly a week in March when he found he could not stand the smell of food. He was soon in the emergency room.

McCloud spent nearly all of April in the hospital, including two long stints on a ventilator. "It was real touch-and-go there the second time around," he said.

Now he is back home with his wife and daughter, but not taking any chances. As far as he can tell from limited trips in a mask and gloves outside the house, his neighbors in a largely black neighborhood of northern St. Louis County are not either.

"We have so many underlying health conditions in our community," said McCloud, who credited his survival to a daily exercise regimen, expert medical care and prayers from friends and family. "We have to take it more seriously than others do."

But some worry Trump is undermining that with his push for a quick return to normal, including at church.

Harry Parker, who has rebooted his popular seafood restaurant, Gulf Shores, for the new socially distanced reality, said church is another matter.

People at church want to be close together - to hug, to dance, to sing, to share food. It is a nightmare for keeping people apart and keeping them healthy. Trump, Parker said, has not made it any easier for those trying to do the responsible thing.

"I have a mother who's 93 years old, and she's been wanting to go back to church badly," said Parker, a member of Jones's church. "She'll say, 'God's kept me for 93 years. If He takes me, it's my time.' Now how can you argue with your mother when she says something like that? Particularly when the president is saying it's OK?"
Police in Houston launched an investigation Saturday after a shocking video showed a mounted police officer knocking down and trampling a female protester.

The incident occurred on Friday night in downtown Houston near police headquarters where a group had gathered to demonstrate following the death of George Floyd.

The video shows the woman standing with her back to the camera when the police horse plows into her and stamps on her as she struggles to get up.

It is not clear if the woman was injured although Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo on Saturday reported that they had not confirmed any injuries among protesters from the night before.

A shocking video from a George Floyd protest in Houston on Friday showed a woman being knocked to the ground by a police officer on a horse and being trampled on

There were 137 arrests and eight police officers were injured in Houston on Friday night as protests gathered over the death of Floyd while in police custody.

Floyd, 46, a native of the city, died on Memorial Day after a white police officer arresting him knelt on his neck for over eight minutes while he said that he couldn't breathe.

The video of the incident was posted to Twitter by Alison Amador who told the Houston Chronicle that the mounted police were called in once the protesters grew louder.

She said that they were already helping a fellow protester following a scuffle with the cops.

'From my point of view, it looked like to me the cop saw her standing there but continued to plow through,' Amador said.

The video starts with a group of protesters gathered in front of two mounted officers.

A whistle is then heard and another horse appears, not stopping as it crashes into a woman holding a sign and standing peacefully with her back to him.

The horse continues to move quickly over the woman, stamping on her as she struggles to get up.

She is quickly grabbed and pulled to her feet by other protesters and the crowd becomes quickly agitated and shouts at the cops.

'Don't trample her,' is screamed from the group assembled.

The women is seen here holding a sign before the horse came up from behind her

The cop blew his whistle but then smashed straight into the woman. Other protesters rushed to help as she struggled to get back onto her feet after the collision

Houston police said Saturday they are 'aware of a video circulating showing one of our mounted patrol horses and a citizen. We are currently reviewing the circumstances behind the incident'.

Police Chief Acevedo was questioned about the video in his Saturday press conference and stated that he did not believe the incident was intentional.

He claimed the officer and woman were both watching what was happening around them and not each other.

'Riding a horse is like driving a car, you've got to slow down because people aren't paying attention,' he said.

The woman in the video told KPRC 2 that she plans to take legal action against the Houston Police Department regarding the incident.

Houston Police said Saturday they are investigating the incident

On Twitter, however, Houston Police Officers Union Vice President Doug Griffith said that it was the protester's fault for being knocked over.

'The whistle is to warms (sic) people,' Griffith said. 'If you don't pay attention, then that's on your (sic)!'

Chief Acevedo said in a press conference on Saturday that most protesters in Houston had assembled peacefully but that 16 patrol vehicles were damaged.

The majority of those arrested would be charged with obstructing a roadway, the Houston Chronicle states.

The demonstration began Friday at around 2pm and marched toward city hall peacefully.

As the night progressed, however, groups began to throw objects at officers, smashed the windows and windshields of a police cruiser and shattered the windows of area businesses, leading to arrests.

A man speaks during a "Justice for George Floyd" event in Houston on Saturday as another day of demonstrations began. Floyd was a native of the city

Protesters stop and chant "I can't breathe" as they march in Houston on Friday. The city prepared for further demonstrations on Saturday night after 137 arrests the night before

The police chief blamed the unruly elements of the protest on white outside agitators who were stirring up violence.

'We're seeing that there are people -- who are not people of color -- who are coming into this city and other cities to actually start agitating and actually engaging in violence,' Acevedo said.

'Unfortunately, what happens is there are provocateurs or anarchists or those who want to hijack the legitimate pain, the legitimate grievances, the legitimate activities of 80 percent -- if not more -- of that crowd.'

Acevedo added that all state and local law enforcement had been mobilized for the further protests expected on Saturday night.

'We cannot tolerate criminal mischief or destruction of property,' he said.

All officers will be working on 12-hour shifts while Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner activated the city's Office of Emergency Management.

This ensures employees in various offices are prepared to respond.

On Saturday, Texas Governor Greg Abbott deployed 1,500 Department of Public Safety officers to four Texas cities, including Houston, in preparation, according to the Houston Chronicle.

Floyd grew up in the Third Ward in Houston before moving to Minneapolis where he died on Monday.

Further protests are scheduled around the country for Saturday night as Floyd's family continue to call for a more serious charge than third-degree murder be leveled against arrested former police officer Derek Chauvin.

Chauvin, 44, was arrested on Friday after days of protests calling for him to be charged.

A video of Floyd's death shows the white cop, who was fired the next day, kneeling on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes as he repeatedly states that he can't breathe.

The family and protester are also calling for the three other officers involved in the arrest - J Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao - to be charged.
Since Gov. Phil Murphy swore his oath, Senate President Steve Sweeney has been in his face, painting him as a clueless liberal who is ruining the state by failing to control spending.

Each year, Murphy proposes meaty tax hikes and spending increases, and each year Sweeney swats him down. You can see the end of these fights from the start. Because Sweeney, a fellow Democrat, has tons of allies and is the most skilled legislative tactician in a generation. Murphy is a lonely rookie who keeps bumping his head.

But the virus may flip the table. Because this problem is so big that New Jersey must borrow huge sums of money to make up for lost tax revenue. And once you borrow $10 billion or so, whats another couple billion to fend off Sweeneys nagging about the need for cuts?

It means well just continue funding programs we cant afford, Sweeney says. Heres $50 million for this program, $100 million for that. Everyone will say, Great! Awesome! And at the end of the day well be paying for it for 35 years.

This is not a crazy concern. A crisis like this tends to boost executive power, for good or evil. A bill on the Legislatures front-burner this week would give Murphy authority to borrow up to $14.2 billion to cope with this economic collapse. And it explicitly gives the governor power to refinance it and spread the payments over 35 years.

From Sweeneys seat, it looks like Murphy is using this crisis to shift costs onto some future governor, while he lives it up today by throwing money at every liberal program he wants. Sweeney wakes at night remembering Christie Whitman stunt in 1997, when she borrowed $2.8 billion to fund pensions, and structured the repayments to grow enormously after she left office, a slippery stunt known as back-loading.

Were still paying that off, at cost of $468 million last year. I know we have to borrow, Sweeney says. But its important that we put safeguards in the bill to make sure the Legislature has a greater say in this.

Im going to stick my neck out and make a prediction: Murphys going to get most of what he wants this time. Sweeneys winning streak is about to end.

For one, the need is urgent and enormous. State Treasurer Elizabeth Muoio says she could run out of money by September. She estimates that tax revenues through next year will fall short by $10 billion, about 20 percent lower than expected.

There is a political reason to bet on Murphy, too. Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin has jumped the fence and is siding with the governor. In each of the budget fights, Coughlin has sided with Sweeney, forming a legislative roadblock to the governors more liberal ambitions.

But the alliance between Coughlin and Sweeney was starting to fray before the crisis, when the two presented competing plans to contain spending on health care for teachers. Sweeneys bill made deeper cuts, and Coughlin reportedly felt snubbed that Sweeney worked with the powerful teachers union behind his back. That bill has stalled, and feelings are bruised on both sides

Now they are split on the borrowing plan. If this turns into a real divorce, that would change Trentons core dynamic. At a minimum, it gives Murphy an advantage during this crisis.

Craig and I are fine, Sweeney swears. Coughlin wouldnt discuss it. Hmmm.

Sweeney has a suitcase of objections to the governors plan.

He says the Legislature should authorize a smaller sum, and parcel it out $1 billion at a time, with separate legislative votes. But treasury officials say most of the borrowing will be from a Federal Reserve program that expires in December. And, they say, tying their hands like this could block them from capitalizing quickly on a good deal in the market.

Given the uncertainty of federal aid, and the unknown course of the virus, they argue that the state needs a big loan they can tap at will, to be prepared. And they note that Murphy has already shown good faith by cutting $850 million from his own budget this year.

Were going to have to tighten our belts, says Muoio, the treasurer. But a $10 billion hole is going to take a lot of tools to fix.

Sweeneys suspicions about Murphy are probably right. The governor is so tight with the public worker unions that hell never make the cuts that are needed to fix the states structural fiscal crisis. Hes made modest improvements, but New Jersey still has the nations second lowest bond rating, behind Illinois, despite the high taxes.

Sweeneys fear that Murphy will take the borrowed funds and go on a spending spree is overblown. The governor may indeed want to do that, and the borrowing may reduce the pressure for cuts. But Coughlin points out that Murphy cant spend a dime without approval from both houses of the Legislature.

We have checks and balances, the Speaker says.

Sweeneys up against it this time. We may find out in 35 years that he was right all along. But for now, he playing the role of Cassandra, the Trojan Princess who was blessed with the gift of prophecy, but doomed to be always ignored.

More: Tom Moran columns

Tom Moran may be reached at tmoran@starledger.com. Follow him on Twitter @tomamoran. Find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook.
New Delhi, May 31 : As the world has changed following the coronavirus pandemic, so has the tobacco consumption behaviour. It is interesting to know, especially on World No-Tobacco Day on Sunday, that 37 per cent of people in India considered lockdown as an opportunity to quit smoking.

In a survey conducted by Indus Health Plus, a preventive healthcare company headquartered in Pune, it was found that 37 per cent of the respondents mentioned that lockdown is a good opportunity to quit smoking, while 42 per cent said that it helped them to reduce consumption.

It was a three-week consumer survey to understand the smoking behaviour and patterns of the people during the lockdown. Out of the total respondents, 39 per cent were females and 61 per cent males between the age group of 30-45 years. The sample size of the survey was 837 and the time-frame was May 8 to May 29.

The respondents of the survey were from metros along with tier-II cities of Maharashtra, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh.

The survey revealed that 68 per cent of smokers reduced consumption due to increased cost of cigarettes by the retailers and shopkeepers. Also, smokers found cigarettes unavailable. While 39 per cent of males and 25 per cent of females succeeded in reducing tobacco consumption in any form. However, the survey also revealed that 32 per cent of smokers increased smoking due to the stress of managing work from home and household chores, social distancing, and for a few people, it was due to free time.

Speaking to IANS, Dr Sanyam Gupta, Radiology Resident at Medanta hospital, said, "Lockdown is a boon in disguise for smokers because it has given them an opportunity to quit smoking and switch to healthy habits to fight their cravings. Smoking has become a style statement among the youth. It has negative impact on respiratory, cardiac and overall health. I have observed that during lockdown, people have opted for other forms of stimulation, such as yoga and exercises." Dr Gupta said: "Those who have been facing withdrawal symptoms, they are taking help of nicotine gums and other medically prescribed drugs. If a person quits smoking for more than a month, his/her chances of leaving it forever can increase significantly." Dr Preeti Shinde, Cardiac Radiologist at Pune's Sahyadri Hospital, told IANS that tobacco consumption decreased during the lockdown.

"Tobacco consumption has certainly come down in this lockdown. We have seen patients mentally relaxed much more in the lockdown, decreasing their stress levels and also decreasing their tobacco cravings. But the ones who were tobacco dependent have suffered withdrawal symptom, causing increase in their irritability." Amol Naikawadi, Preventive Healthcare Specialist at a company that conducted the survey, said: "We have observed a significant change in people's tobacco consumption pattern during this lockdown. Moreover, lockdown has given an opportunity to people to quit smoking and live a healthy life. We hope post lockdown, people will continue the pattern of modified habits. Besides, it is imperative people realized the value of prevention to improve their health and acknowledge the harmful effects of smoking." (Sfoorti Mishra can be contacted at sfoorti.m@ians.in)

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday (May 31, 2020) during his address to the nation through Mann Ki Baat said that the people from 'Hollywood to Haridwar' are paying serious attention to Yoga during the coronavirus pandemic.

PM Modi said, "During the present Corona pandemic it is being observed from Hollywood to Haridwar that, while staying at home, people are paying serious attention to 'Yoga'. People everywhere want to know more about 'Yoga' and along with it 'Ayurveda' and adopt it as a way of life."

He said that many people who have never practiced yoga, have either joined online yoga classes, or are also learning yoga through online videos.

"Truly, yoga is good for community, immunity, and unity," said PM Modi.

PM Modi in his address mentioned International Yoga Day and said that as yoga is getting integrated with people's lives, the awareness about their health, is also continuously on the rise among them.

"Yoga becomes all the more important because this virus affects our respiratory system maximally. In yoga, there are many types of Pranayama that strengthen the respiratory system; the beneficial effects of which we have been witnessing for long," said PM Modi.

"Most people will be familiar with 'Kapalbhati' and 'Anulom-Vilom Pranayam'. But there are many other forms of Pranayamas like 'Bhastrika', 'Sheetali', 'Bhramari' etc, which also have many benefits. By the way, the Ministry of AYUSH has also done a unique experiment this time to increase the practice of yoga in your life. The Ministry of AYUSH has started its International Video Blog competition entitled My Life, My Yoga."

PM Modi informed that not only Indians but people from all over the world can participate in this competition.

He said that in order to participate in this International Video Blog competition, you will have to make a three-minute video and upload it.

In this video, you have to show performing Yoga, or Asana, that you usually do and also tell about the changes that have taken place in your life through yoga.

PM Modi requested everyone to participate in the competition, and be a part of the International Yoga Day.

He said that these are time tested techniques, which have their own distinct significance.

PM also opined that the fight against coronavirus is a 'long one' and the Centre is taking all necessary steps to look into problems faced by the people of the country.
Three of Texas top Republican leaders are vigorously fighting efforts to expand mail-in voting during the coronavirus pandemic, arguing it will lead to increased voter fraud, yet all three have cast absentee ballots at least once in past elections.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick  then a state senator  voted by mail in 2007 in a May Houston municipal election and an ensuing runoff, though Harris County records show his first mail-in ballot was rejected because of a signature verification issue. Patrick is a regular voter in both local and state elections and favors casting his ballot during the early voting period. Hes been voting in Montgomery County since 2017.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, though a regular in-person voter in Collin County, used the voting-by-mail option to cast a ballot in a 2011 municipal election, according to county records. In recent elections, hes opted for voting early.

Travis County election records show that Gov. Greg Abbott cast a mail-in ballot in a 1997 special election when he was a justice on the Texas Supreme Court. Abbott consistently votes in local and state elections.

Paxtons office has been locked in legal fights on multiple fronts in state and federal courts to block an expansion of voting by mail during the pandemic, and thus far his office has successfully convinced appellate courts to close the legal door on allowing more voters to qualify for mail-in ballots.

Patrick recently referred to those expansion efforts as a scam by Democrats to steal the election, saying there was no reason anyone under 65 should be able to say I am afraid to go vote during the pandemic. Texas allows all voters 65 and older to qualify for ballots they can fill out at home and mail in. (Patrick was not yet 65 when he voted by mail.)

Those under 65 can vote by mail only if they meet a narrow set of restrictions: if theyll be out of the county during the voting period, if theyre confined in jail but otherwise eligible or if they have an illness or disability.

Lt. Gov. Patrick has repeatedly said that those who are eligible under Texas law to vote by mail should continue to do so  including those over 65, the disabled and anyone not in the county or city during the election, Sherry Sylvester, a spokesperson for Patrick, said in a statement. What he opposes is expanding vote by mail to everyone on the premise that the fear of contracting coronavirus is a disability.

Representatives for Abbott and Paxton did not respond to requests for comment.

Democrats, civic organizations and multiple voters have filed several lawsuits against the state, saying its dangerous to require people to wait in lines and cast ballots on machines shared with other voters while the virus remains in circulation. Their arguments have focused not on the fear of contracting the virus, but whether a lack of immunity qualifies as a disability under the states election code. GOP state officials have opposed the effort, arguing in part that mail-in voting should remain limited because it is vulnerable to fraud.

There are documented cases of fraud in mail-in voting in Texas. But like voter fraud overall, it remains rare.

Still, the Legislature has taken action to address weaknesses in the system in the recent past. State lawmakers passed a measure in 2017 to widen the definition of mail-in ballot fraud, boost penalties for certain offenses and strengthen rules for signature verification on mail-in ballots.

The legislation, which Abbott signed into law, also requires local election officials to notify voters when their ballots are rejected and limits who can assist voters using the vote-by-mail option.

The Texas Tribune is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
By Jonathan Landay WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday said demonstrators protesting the death of a black man who died after a white police officer knelt on his neck would have been 'greeted with the most vicious dogs, and most ominous weapons, I have ever seen.' Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, responded to the Republican president on Twitter, saying there 'are no vicious dogs & ominous weapons. There is just a scared man.' 'While he (Trump) hides behind his fence afraid/alone, I stand w/people peacefully exercising their First Amendment Right after the murder of #GeorgeFloyd and hundreds of years of institutionalized racism,' said Bowser, who is black.

By Jonathan Landay

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday said demonstrators protesting the death of a black man who died after a white police officer knelt on his neck would have been "greeted with the most vicious dogs, and most ominous weapons, I have ever seen."

Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, responded to the Republican president on Twitter, saying there "are no vicious dogs & ominous weapons. There is just a scared man."

"While he (Trump) hides behind his fence afraid/alone, I stand w/people peacefully exercising their First Amendment Right after the murder of #GeorgeFloyd and hundreds of years of institutionalized racism," said Bowser, who is black.

Floyd's death on Monday in Minneapolis has sparked demonstrations, some of them violent, in many cities across the nation, including one in Washington on Friday.

The White House was temporarily locked down as hundreds of people gathered on Friday afternoon across the street in Lafayette Square Park.

After marching away, demonstrators assembled again later and videos showed pushing-and-shoving matches between officers and protesters trying to push over metal barriers. The crowd dispersed early Saturday morning.

In tweets hours later, Trump praised the Secret Service officers who guard the White House as "very cool. I was inside, watched every move, and couldn't have felt more safe."

"Big crowd, professionally organized, but nobody came close to breaching the fence. If they had they would have been greeted with the most vicious dogs, and most ominous weapons," he said. "Many Secret Service agents just waiting for action."

Trump accused Bowser of refusing to send D.C. police to help. But the Secret Service said in a statement that "The Metropolitan Police Department and the U.S. Park Police were on the scene."

Secret Service officers made six arrests, the statement said.

"Some of the demonstrators were violent" and assaulted Secret Service personnel with bricks, bottles, fireworks and other objects, and an undisclosed number of Secret Service officers were injured, the statement said.

Trump appeared to call his supporters to rally outside the executive mansion on Saturday evening, saying, "TONIGHT, I UNDERSTAND IS MAGA NIGHT AT THE WHITE HOUSE???" MAGA stands for Trump's slogan "Make America Great Again."

He later said he did not know if any would show up.

On Friday, Trump drew a warning from Twitter and condemnation from Democrats after posting a comment that "looting leads to shooting," suggesting protesters who turned to looting could be fired upon.

(Reporting by Jonathan Landay; Additional reporting by Jeff Mason; Editing by Daniel Wallis)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
National capital Delhi is witnessing increase in the number of people who have recovered from coronavirus disease Covid-19. Till May 30, Delhi has seen 18,495 cases of Covid-19 out of which 8,075 - or 43 per cent - have recovered, according to analysis of data done by Hindustan Times Hindi language publication Hindustan.

The number of fatalities in Delhi due to Covid-19 stands at 416. The active cases in Delhi are 10,058. Out of this, 5,139 patients are in home isolation, reported Hindustan, quoting Delhi health officials.

There has been a marked increase in the number of those who have recovered from the disease from phase 1 of the lockdown to phase 4. In phase 1, the number of active cases were 1,561 whereas 30 people had recovered - which was less than two per cent.

The number of active cases reached 4,549 in the second phase and those who recovered were 1,362 or 29 per cent. In phase three of the lockdown, the number of active cases were 9,755 and recovered cases 4,202. This was 43 per cent cent of the total number of cases.

In the fourth phase of the lockdown, the rate of recovery is hovering around 45 per cent.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal conceded on Saturday that Delhi has recorded a two-fold increase in Covid-19 cases since May 14, a trend that is worrying. But he urged residents of the city not to panic because a majority of the patients are either asymptomatic or show mild symptoms like cough, cold and fever.

Delhi is several steps ahead of the Covid-19 pandemic and by June 5, will have in place 9,500 hospital beds for patients, Kejriwal said.

The national capital reported 1,163 new cases of Covid-19 on Saturday, crossing the threshold of 1,000 for the third day in a row.

Kejriwal also said the government will launch a dedicated mobile application and a website for people to check the availability of Covid-19 beds and ventilators in hospitals.

The app will show the data and status of beds and ventilators available in each hospital in Delhi. People who do not use smartphones can access this information on a website that is also being created, he said.

The number of deaths due to Covid-19 in India crossed the 5,000 mark on Saturday, reaching a grim milestone. According to a compilation of data reported by state governments, there have been 181,791 infections and 5,106 fatalities in the country as of Saturday. India took 79 days to record these many deaths, while some of the major Covid-19 hotspots - such United States, United Kingdom, Spain and Italy - took less than a third of this duration to rack up similar counts.
A sleepy standoff took place in Charleswood Saturday after police and Manitoba Conservation officers responded to a black bear sighting in the neighbourhood.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 30/5/2020 (600 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A sleepy standoff took place in Charleswood Saturday after police and Manitoba Conservation officers responded to a black bear sighting in the neighbourhood.

Just before 10:30 a.m., Winnipeg Police tweeted that a bear had been located on Pepperloaf Crescent near Rannock Avenue and advised residents to avoid the area.

When the Free Press arrived on the scene the bear had made its way up a tree on a property at the corner of Pepperloaf and Dunelm Lane. Police cruisers were blocking the road and bicycle patrol officers were busy redirecting people eager to bear witness to the activity happening in the neighbourhood.

Resident Tyler Walsh saw the bear running down a walking path behind his home on Rannock while he was drying dishes Saturday morning.

A Manitoba Conservation officer arrives with a bear trap after Winnipeg Police Service members cornered a black bear up a tree on Pepperloaf Crescent. (Daniel Crump / Winnipeg Free Press)

"The bear was literally running down the path from west to east, so I sort of took a second, shook my head and closed my eyes," he said. "I reopened them and he was still going."

Walsh has lived in Charleswood for 14 years and has never seen this particular species of wildlife in the community.

"Ive seen lots of deer, every day I see deer, but never a bear," he said, laughing.

The pyjama-clad family jumped in their car to try and follow the animal, which Walsh dubbed Charlie the Bear in tweets about the incident. By the time they caught up with Charlie, the bear had scaled a tree, where it remained for the better part of the day  shifting position every so often while conservation officers waited on the driveway below with a large red bear trap. A WPS officer was also on scene carrying what looked like a large rifle.

John Armatas lives on Pepperloaf and came home from work after a neighbour told him there was bear on the street.

A Manitoba Conservation officer arrives to assess the situation and to remove the bear. (Daniel Crump / Winnipeg Free Press)

"I wanted to come home to make sure my garages were closed," Armatas said. "I had a barbecue last night so I didnt want... that guy to go eating up my yard."

Jackie Fritz has lived in Charleswood her whole life and has seen coyotes in the neighbourhood, but never a black bear.

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"Its a little bit nerve-racking, we dont typically see dangerous wildlife," she said.

Fritz ventured from her home up the street in pyjama bottoms to get a closer look and was happy to see authorities managing the situation.

"Im glad theyre here because it makes me feel better to see that kind of a presence," she said. "I hope that they can get the bear down without having to injure it or kill it."

The Free Press left the scene at about 1 p.m., but the bear was still in its tall leafy hideout at 7 p.m. City police gave way to conservation officers in the evening who were waiting for the animal to descend from its perch.

eva.wasney@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @evawasney
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- To prevent looting during a wave of protests over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Target has decided to temporarily shutter 175 stores around the country, according to multiple published reports.

We are a community in pain. That pain is not unique to the Twin Citiesit extends across America, said Brian Cornell, CEO and chairman of the Minneapolis-based Target Corporation. The murder of George Floyd has unleashed the pent-up pain of years. ...As a Target team, weve huddled, weve consoled, weve witnessed horrific scenes similar to whats playing out now and wept that not enough is changing. And as a team weve vowed to face pain with purpose.

The nationwide protests are taking place in response to the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis on last Monday. Floyd died in Minneapolis after officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes. Chauvin has since been fired, and arrested and charged in Floyds killing.

On its website Target said: ...we are making the decision to adjust store hours or close stores temporarily. We recognize the important role we play in helping our communities shop for the food, medicine and other essentials they need. We apologize for the inconvenience and will reopen our stores on their normally scheduled hours as soon as it is safe to do so.

Published reports do not list the two Staten Island Target stores in New Springville and Charleston, among those slated for closing.

Forbes reported that 12 Target stores in New York are temporarily shuttered.

Were providing community support and prioritizing the rebuilding of our Lake Street store, which is near where George Floyd was killed, said Target on its website.

We have teams working to provide basic first aid supplies, water and essentials through partnerships with local nonprofits. We appreciate members of the community and our team who have assisted in cleaning in and around that location. We are now boarding the store up until we can survey the location and begin recovery efforts.

FOLLOW TRACEY PORPORA ON FACEBOOK and TWITTER
There is outrage in Nigeria following the murder of a 22-year-old student, Uwavera Omozuwa in a church.



The hashtag #JusticeForUwa is trending in Nigeria, with her family appealing for help to track down her killers.



Uwavera had been studying in a "quiet" church near her home in Benin City when she was killed, her sister, Judith, told BBC Pidgin.



The student, who had wanted to become a nurse, died in hospital on Saturday, three days after the attack.



Judith Omozuwa said her sister had also been raped.



Her family said they received a call from a woman at the Redeemed Christian Church of God on Wednesday evening.



Uwavera was taken to hospital after a security guard found her, her skirt torn and her shirt covered in blood, Judith Omozuwa said.



'Failure to curb gender-based violence'



However, a police spokesperson in southern Edo State, whose capital is Benin City, told BBC Pidgin that they were treating the incident as a murder, not a rape, case.



The student died following a fight at the church, the spokesperson added, without giving more details.

Source: BBC









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Indian software major Infosys is among the many UK companies to benefit from UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak's Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, it emerged on Sunday. Infosys, co-founded by Sunak's father-in-law Narayana Murthy, said it had used the furlough - or forced leave - option for 3 per cent of its staff in order to tide through the lockdown imposed to curb the spread of the deadly virus. "In light of the current situation, Infosys has furloughed 3 per cent of its UK workforce.

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US president says he wants to expand the list of countries invited to include Australia, Russia, South Korea and India.

US President Donald Trump has announced that he would postpone the Group of Seven summit that he wanted to hold in late June and expand the list of countries invited to include Australia, Russia, South Korea and India.

Speaking to reporters on Air Force One during his return to Washington from Cape Canaveral in Florida, Trump said the G7 in its current format is a very outdated group of countries.

Im postponing it because I dont feel that as a G7 it properly represents whats going on in the world, Trump said.

The decision is a dramatic pivot for Trump, who had sought to host the group of major industrialised countries in Washington as a demonstration that the United States was returning to normal after the coronavirus epidemic, which has killed more than 103,000 Americans to date.

The G7 is made up of the US, Italy, Japan, Canada, France, Germany, the UK, as well as the European Union.





Earlier, Germanys Chancellor Angela Merkel announced that she has declined Trumps invitation to attend the G7 summit in person, while the coronavirus pandemic continues to spread around the world.

Canadas Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who hosted the 2018 summit, had also said that any in-person gathering would have to prioritise safety, while a French presidential official said President Emmanuel Macron, last years host, was willing to go to Camp David if the health conditions allow.

European Council head Charles Michel, meanwhile, said through a spokesman that he would attend if health conditions allow.
I dont know how many people today still read Eric Hoffers The True Believer, but if you are puzzled by the breakout this week of rioting and mayhem (at last count in 17 cities) youd do well to make yourself familiar with this incredibly well-reasoned text on mass movements. Why are the streets regularly filled with mostly pasty looking stoners pelting stones and bricks, destroying businesses in the poorest urban areas and of even attacking law enforcement on thinnest of pretexts? Partly, I suppose its because the shutdown kept them isolated for so long, bored and out of work, but Hoffers observation seems to me to best fit: The permanent misfits can find salvation only in a complete separation from the self; and they usually find it by losing themselves in the compact collectivity of a mass movement.

Much of the looting -- as far as I could tell from the online videos shot in Minneapolis -- has been from neighborhood black thugs, but not all of it by any means: The riots that accompanied the looting there and elsewhere significantly involve white men and women with a decided stoner look about them. Reports are that many of these rioters are, in fact, being bussed in from elsewhere. The mayor of St. Paul said every person arrested was from out of town. The President tweeted that 80% of all the rioters in Minnesota were outsiders and reminded readers that federal law made crossing state lines to engage in violence a federal offense that would be prosecuted and punished. The attorney general was clear that it would be.

In that regard, it is a federal crime to cross state lines or to use interstate facilities to incite or participate in violent rioting. We will enforce these laws.

We must have law and order on our streets and in our communities, and it is the responsibility of the local and state leadership, in the first instance, to halt this violence. The Department of Justice (including the FBI, Marshals, ATF, and DEA), and all of our 93 U.S. Attorneys across the country, will support these local efforts and take all action necessary to enforce federal law.

In many places, it appears the violence is planned, organized, and driven by anarchistic and far left extremists, using Antifa-like tactics, many of whom travel from out of state to promote the violence.

Groups of outside radicals and agitators are exploiting the situation to pursue their own separate and violent agenda.

Unfortunately, with the rioting that is occurring in many of our cities around the country, the voices of peaceful protest are being hijacked by violent radical elements.

The outrage of our national community about what happened to George Floyd in Minneapolis is real and legitimate. Accountability for his death must be addressed, and is being addressed, through the regular process of our criminal justice system, both at the state and at the federal level. That system is working and moving at exceptional speed. Already initial charges have been filed. That process continues to move forward. Justice will be served.

The greatness of our nation comes from our commitment to the rule of law.

The purported theme of this outburst is the death in custody of George Floyd. Videos can be deceiving. The impression of most who saw it was that officer Derek Chauvin's kneeing his neck had asphyxiated him. (The preliminary autopsy report, however, concluded this was not the case, and while further examination may tell us more about his pre-existing health conditions and possible intoxication which the examiner observed, at first glance Chauvins conduct seems excessive and negligent. He has been arrested and charged.) We have seen similar protests in the Brown and Garner cases. We did not see any protests, however, when another Minneapolis cop shot point blank and killed for no reason Justine Damond, a white woman. That murder elicited outrage, of course, but civilized people know that courtrooms are the place to provide outcomes, not looting, burning, and attacking other innocent fellow citizens.

Hoffer also said, Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.

And this unfortunately is the case with the civil rights movement, which began as a just claim to equal rights and has devolved into rent-seeking and demands for superior rights of favored groups, often by pampered white kids. Sure, black lives matter. So do all lives. Like so many once-valued institutions and causes, it has been corrupted and is now a part of the very obvious effort to sow misery and discord throughout the land in the belief that when people become impoverished and distraught enough ,the left will win.

Why now, just as Americans are leaving the dispiriting and costly lockdowns? These riots, per observers on the ground, seem to have been well planned in advance, the organizers waiting for any spark to whistleblow the misfits into action. Elijah Schaffer reports on twitter:

ELIJAH SCHAFFER

@ElijahSchaffer

BREAKING: tonights Dallas riot was pre-planned Organizers were directing the crowd where to go They had pallets of 100 bricks ready for rioters They were yelling to the crowd go left, there are 100 bricks on the corner over there This wasnt random chaos

Andy Ngo

@MrAndyNgo

Masked militants ransacking the Justice Center in downtown Portland. Many came prepared with chemicals to start fires and weapons to break windows. #antifa #BlackLivesMatter

The press, on the other hand, often shows us these gangs in dramatic poses, set to mimic the brave students in Tiananmen Square or partisans fighting Nazis, at times even reprising Battleship Potemkin, the famous Soviet propaganda film, the TV footage rolls on. They are not giving us a very accurate picture of who and what is behind all this.

In some cases, its rather obvious that the journalists who cover these riots are cheerleading them on, reports Eoin Lenihan.

Antifa often receives media coverage that is neutral or even favorable, with its members violence either being ignored by reporters or vaguely explained away as a product of right-wing provocation. Whats more, anecdotal evidence has suggested that many of the mainstream reporters who are most active in covering Antifa also tend to enthusiastically amplify Antifas claims on social media. In October 2018, my research partner and I decided to investigate the truth of this impression by using a mix of network mapping and linguistic analysis to see which prominent journalists who covered Antifa also were closely connected to leading Antifa figures on social media. We then inspected the Antifa-related stories these journalists had written. [snip] That correlation turned out to be quite pronounced: Of all 15 verified national-level journalists in our subset, we couldnt find a single article, by any of them, that was markedly critical of Antifa in any way. In all cases, their work in this area consisted primarily of downplaying Antifa violence while advancing Antifa talking points, and in some cases quoting Antifa extremists as if they were impartial experts. [snip] Of course, all investigative journalists rely on tips from the general public. But collecting tips isnt what Wilson and Mathias appear to be doing. Like other prominent writers whose names appear among the 15 journalists most closely engaged with Antifa, they seem to function not at professional arms length from their sources, but rather as cogs in an activist enterprise that churns out both pro-Antifa propaganda and doxing information about real or imagined ideological enemies. Their allies in this mission include trolls such as AntiFashGordon, the pseudonym of a Twitter user who declares that I expose fascists, get them fired, de-homed, kicked out of school etc, and brags that he passes dossiers of doxes to national-level journalists, whom he refers to as our contacts. His entire online mission is to ruin other peoples lives, and it is a mission being supported by contacts like Mathias and Wilson. In providing such support, they are discrediting their publications and misinforming their readers.

Sometimes the propagandizing is even less hidden. An MSNBC reporter intoned on camera, I want to be clear on how I characterize this. This is mostly a protest. It is not generally speaking unruly. In the background we could see a burning building, and elsewhere videos of a Target store stripped clean of everything but school supplies, and as one wag noted, Fathers Day cards.

Perhaps the FBI, now free from political spying and covering up their misdeeds, might investigate this nationwide network of professional rioters, their funders and enablers, and round them up. Lenihan started tracing the journalist-Antifa nexus on Twitter, and while we are on the subject, Twitter itself, not just some of those who post there, seems to have a partisan objective of promoting disunity, violence and -- not least of all -- interfering with free speech. Its conduct, long a subject of criticism, finally induced the President to sign an Executive Order designed to rein in the big social media platforms practice of censoring views and writers with which they disagree.

First, Twitter targeted a presidential tweet on fraud in mail-in voting, and when that raised hackles, it targeted a perfectly presidential tweet on the criminal acts in Minneapolis as promoting violence.

Sara Carter explains:

Trump signed the Executive Order Thursday aimed at those social media giants he says have been operating as biased publishers rather than platforms for free speech. Trump tweeted, THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I wont let that happen. Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you! The National Guard was sent to assist local authorities in containing the rioting. Earlier the president criticized the citys mayor, who ordered the evacuation of the precinct saying, the very weak radical left mayor Jacob Frey if he didnt bring the city under control. In response, Twitter flagged the Presidents tweet and attached a notice saying we have placed a public interest notice on this Tweet from @realDonaldTrump. The tweet is actually hidden from public view but can be viewed if the reader so chooses to click on it. This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules about glorifying violence, said Twitter. However, Twitter has determined that it may be in the publics interest for the Tweet to remain accessible.

Do you see any incitement to violence in this? I dont. Instead, the characterization appears to be just another manifestation of the views of Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey (this week pictured in garb, including a black felt head covering, which made him look like something out of a Brueghel painting of the blind leading the blind).

Twitter (not unlike some other online platforms) have stifled, not promoted free speech, targeting viewpoints with which they disagree and posters who do not share their left-wing views with tactics like flagging, deplatforming, banning, shadow banning (hiding the tweets without knowledge of the poster) and such. Indeed, as others have noted, Twitter regularly permits actual calls to violence on its site if the target is the president or conservatives. See just one example out of many:

@oliviagatwood

burn it down. fuck property. fuck cops. Dan Scavino Jr.

@Scavino45

Twitter is targeting the President of the United States 24/7, while turning their heads from protest organizers who are planning, plotting, and communicating their next moves daily on this very platform.

Indeed, Yoel Roth, Twitters (ludicrous) head of site integrity himself has tweeted that Trump was a racist tangerine and complained of actual Nazis in the White House. To my knowledge hes still in that position and his tweets still are neither flagged nor removed.

Any reasonable person would have expected Twitter to shift gears, but not Jack Dorsey: Don Surber found this pretense of fact-editing laughably lacking in self-awareness:

Don Surber:

ITEM 18: Sohrab Ahmari reported, "This week, for the first time, Twitter fact-checked one of President Trumps opinions and redirected users to coverage from that paragon of fairness and objectivity, CNN (dont laugh).



"Twitter announced the introduction of the new feature earlier this month. The goal, two workers wrote, is to 'make it easy to find credible information' and to stanch the flow of 'misleading content.'



"But I wonder: Will the platform also append fact-check labels and links to tweets from prominent liberals that also turned out to be misleading or outright false?



"Start with a 2017 tweet from CNN contributor Ana Navarro claiming that an 'Ivanka Fund got $100 million pledge from the Saudis and UAE.'



"The truth: The cash went to a World Bank initiative for female entrepreneurs. Navarros tweet garnered more than 43,000 retweets."



Twitter just opened a can of whoop-ass on itself.

Victoria Taft adds to Surbers example tweets by liars like Avenatti and loonies like Jennifer Rubin which were demonstrably untrue but never removed or even flagged.

In any event, it is unclear how much longer this glorification of the left, intolerance toward those who decry it, and support for the weak Democratic politicians who condone if not promote lawlessness, can continue.

The Presidents executive order is designed to ensure true diversity of opinion, and I urge you to read it, but here are some highlights behind the order which have not been well-publicized. It attacks selective censorship, refers to tens of thousands of complaints for things as flagging content as inappropriate, even though it does not violate any stated terms of service; making unannounced and unexplained changes to company policies that have the effect of disfavoring certain viewpoints; and deleting content and entire accounts with no warning, no rationale, and no recourse. Worse, the order notes several online platforms are profiting from and promoting the aggression and disinformation spread by foreign governments like China. Their agency for China also includes working with the Chinese Communist Party to blacklist Chinese searches from for human rights, hiding data unfavorable to the Party, and tracking users determined by the CCP to warrant surveillance. Theyve provided direct benefits to the Chinese military and run CCP ads enabling human rights abuse there. They have also amplified Chinas propaganda abroad, including, by allowing Chinese government officials to use their platforms to spread misinformation regarding the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, and to undermine pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.

Lord Haw-haw and Tokyo Rose never had such wonderful tools as high-tech as these at their disposal.

The brilliant Daniel Greenfield explains why we cannot continue to treat the big tech operations which control speech as platforms free from the same laws that publishers are -- things like libel law, for example:

Removing things that aren't true isn't the business of platforms. Zuckerberg is correct in that, even if he doesn't really live by it. Outsourcing the job of determining truth to partisan fact checkers just makes the behavior of Big Tech platforms more damning. There's really no way to have truly objective fact checking of political speech in our society. And no one has tried to make that happen. Nor is such an effort healthy anyway. The public square is for debates about what's true. When Big Tech starts trying to determine that, there's no debate, no speech, and no public square. Just one point of view. Platforms which start censoring political speech based on a partisan 'fact checking' agenda are acting as publishers. All the pearl clutching about protecting standards comes down to platforms acting as publishers. If Twitter or Facebook don't want to have "bad information" on their sites that they don't agree with, they're publishers and they should own that status. Beyond the immediate need to break up Google, Facebook, Amazon, the Big Tech monopolies, all the debate over Section 230 makes it all the more obvious that we need to update our legal understanding of platforms to what the internet looks like today, not during the Clinton era.

The effort to rein in these foreign and domestic propaganda outlets now protected as platforms, not publishers, is well warranted. The next step is to round up the thugs and their financial backers whom these platforms -- directly and through selective censoring -- too often encourage in their regular rampages.
Anuja Chandramouli By

Unbroken: The Brussels Terror Attack Survivor written by Nidhi Chaphekar, a former flight attendant with Jet Airways and a victim of the worst terror attack in Belgian history, is the story of her harrowing ordeal in her own words.

On March 22, 2016, twin blasts went off at the main terminal of Zaventem International Airport and another explosion hit the Maelbeek metro station.

Chaphekar, caught in the thick of things, found herself in shock and in severe pain. There was blood on her person, clothes had been ripped apart by the blast, her shoe had melted into her foot, and there was thick smoke everywhere. Worst of all, there was no feeling in her legs.

Helped by a uniformed official, she made it to an airport chair.

Seated like this, Chaphekar was photographed by Ketevan Kardava, a journalist, who posted the photo online where it promptly went viral and this particular victim went on to become the face that symbolised the horror which had unfolded on that fateful day.

When the stretchers came and she was taken to the hospital after a prolonged wait, the full extent of her injuries became apparent.

There were shards of metal lodged deep in many parts of her body, including her eye. Severe burn injuries were present on her face, chest, hands and she would need grafts from her thighs to fix these in addition to multiple surgeries to restore her legs.

Chaphekar was put in a medically induced coma for the painful procedures that needed to be done immediately and even after, she endured unimaginable pain.

Chaphekar narrates the story of her journey to reclaim her health and independence in detail.

It is very inspiring no doubt and the message that is hammered home every few pages on the power of positive thinking, confidence and belief in God is also an important one.

Yet, the story is not quite as motivational as it could have been, nor is it very good in terms of craft. Chaphekar herself admits that she is not a writer, but that is only one of the problems.

Told in an extremely self-congratulatory tone, Chaphekar constantly attributes her own grit and character for her survival.

There is no doubt that her struggle was a remarkable one and she clearly had the mental toughness to cope, but the insistence on keeping the spotlight solely on her virtues is unsettling.

She neglects to sketch in fuller details about the attack itself. They were co-ordinated and triggered by three suicide bombers (two of whom were brothers) and the Islamic State claimed it was behind this incident.

Thirty-two people died in the bombings or succumbed to injuries afterwards, and over 300 were injured.

There is precious little coverage about any of these things in the book barring token commiserations and passing mentions.

These omissions come across as incomplete and insensitive. Many among the dead and other survivors may have had her positivity and toughness but not her privilege or luck.

Regarding the terrorists, Chaphekar refers to them only cursorily and mentions counselling and rehabilitation as opposed to more severe punishment.

This rings hollow. This is a good story and Chaphekar has the right to narrate it any way she wants, but it does not quite work the way it was intended to.

Unbroken: The Brussels Terror Attack Survivor

By: Nidhi Chaphekar

Publisher: Amaryllis

Pages: 354

Price: Rs 599
An unnamed 24-year-old demonstrator protesting the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis criticized people looting and causing violence in riots in major cities around the United States in a viral interview with CNN Saturday night.

What he's saying: "This is what I gotta say to the people who are destroying things," the demonstrator said. "If you really feel like you have to take an opportunity, like you have to be opportunistic, something is wrong with you. If you cannot stand up and fight the good fight, and you want to be a cheater and go ahead and take what we're trying to do, something is wrong with you."

"Because what we're trying to do is stand up for the basic rights of humanity. And that's what we're trying to do, and we're trying to do it in a peaceful way. We do not want to go through this anymore, OK? I want to be able to go into a white neighborhood and feel safe."

"I want to be able, when a cop is driving behind me, I don't want to have to clench and be tense, OK? I want to be able just to be free and not have to think about every step I take. Because, at the end of the day, being black is a crime. At the end of the day, being born black is a crime to them. And I don't understand why, because we're all humans."

The backdrop: The protestor said he was an immigrant from Liberia, a country originally established in 1821 by the American Colonization Society  which included future presidents James Monroe and Andrew Jackson among its members  as a colony to exile free black Americans to Africa.

Upwards of 12,000 freeborn and formerly enslaved black Americans were sent or immigrated to Liberia over a 40-year period.

"I'm from the original place where when America got rid of slaves, they sent them to Liberia," the demonstrator said. "Liberia, home of American slaves, that's where I was born. And to think that I have to come here and I got to deal with this stuff at 24."

Go deeper ... George Floyd protests: What you need to know
SCHAGHTICOKE  In the past year and a half, Mary Beth Delarms visits to her elderly mother have grown increasingly distressing.

Her then 90-year-old mother was a resident of Diamond Hill Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Schaghticoke, a facility whose persistently poor record of resident care made it a candidate last year for inclusion on a federal watch list.

Whenever Delarm would show up, she said, shed find her mother in a state of neglect  her body and clothes dirty and unwashed, a soiled diaper unchanged. Sometimes there would be feces smeared around the room, Delarm said. Sometimes her mother had unexplained bruises.

Then there were the gradual yet alarming changes in her mother's condition  a 50-pound weight loss in under a year, and teeth falling out from what Delarm suspected was lack of regular dental care.

She began to document her visits with photos and notes: Constantly found wet. Yet staff said they were too busy to change her. This was a regular response, she wrote about one photo.

Provided

That was staffs response to most complaints, Delarm alleges. She brought her concerns to administration and eventually began reporting them to the state. But in her view, nothing changed. And without guardianship rights, she couldnt move her mother to another facility.

Now that coronavirus has made its way into Diamond Hill and prevented Delarm from visiting, shes even more concerned. In fact, she doesnt even know if her mother is dead or alive. She doesnt have a direct line to her mothers room, and no one from the facility has called her back.

Diamond Hill CEO Ari Grinspan did not respond to a request for comment. Clara Tryon, administrator at the home, said she wasn't able to comment and hung up before the Times Union could ask any more questions.

These places have to be held accountable, Delarm said. I dont want to hear, Oh, were so short-staffed or Were so busy. Its a profiteering game to them.

While much attention has been paid in recent weeks to a state directive that may have helped fuel the coronavirus crisis in New Yorks nursing homes, advocates contend that longstanding issues at these facilities similar to those alleged by Delarm played a role as well.

Obviously nursing home residents are a demographic that is particularly vulnerable to COVID-19, said Richard Mollot, executive director of the Long Term Care Community Coalition, a nonprofit that advocates for safer nursing homes. But the lack of sufficient staff in nursing homes on a regular basis, the lack of providing basic infection control and prevention, and other failures in care that have persisted in our nursing homes for years undoubtedly exacerbated the situation.

A Times Union review of 10 nursing homes in the Capital Region with the largest or deadliest known coronavirus outbreaks found many have struggled to maintain adequate staffing and were cited for infection control violations over the years.

All 10 homes had staffing levels below the minimum recommended level for direct care in the months leading up to the crisis, according to a non-profit advocacy group's analysis of payroll data submitted to federal regulators. And seven of the 10 were cited for at least one infection-control violation during annual inspections in the past three years.

Nursing home leaders interviewed for this story disputed any suggestion that short staffing or poor infection control was a factor in the scale of their outbreaks. They said there was little they could do to keep out a virus that spreads among asymptomatic people, and some said the controversial state policy requiring nursing homes to admit COVID-19 patients from hospitals is just one example of how Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's administration left nursing homes to fend for themselves in the early days of the pandemic.

Was that the best policy? Hindsight is always 20/20. We can always second-guess a decision that someone has made, said Bruce Gendron, vice president of the Grand Healthcare System, which has two facilities with large outbreaks in the Capital Region. There is no villain in this scenario except for the coronavirus.

Lori Van Buren/Times Union

Short-staffed

While mistakes are inevitable in any industry, evidence shows that staffing shortages  especially chronic ones  make them far more likely.

Staff with too many residents to care for are simply less likely to have time for basic infection control and prevention practices, Mollot said. That includes things as fundamental as hand-washing or sterilizing equipment before administering care.

If you read any of the (inspection) citations, they dont explicitly say its because (the facilities) are short-staffed, Mollot said. But theyll say things like, Aide said she didnt have time. That, to me, is emblematic of a staffing issue.

In the months leading up to the pandemic, most New York nursing homes failed to maintain staffing levels that experts have determined are sufficient for meeting residents needs, according to an analysis by Mollots organization of payroll data submitted to the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

In the final three months of 2019, New York nursing homes averaged 3.4 direct care hours per resident day (HPRD) and 0.46 registered nurse hours per resident day, according to the analysis. Minimum recommended levels are 4.1 HPRD for direct care staff and 0.75 HPRD for RN staff.

My biggest concern in February, back when all this was starting, was that the lack of staffing would make residents that much more vulnerable, Mollot said.

In the Capital Region, nursing homes with the largest or deadliest known outbreaks of coronavirus all fell short on recommended staffing levels.

Diamond Hill, where Delarms mother lived, averaged 2.6 HPRD among direct care staff and 0.3 HPRD among RN staff in the final quarter of 2019. The facility has had 80 confirmed cases of coronavirus among residents and staff, and 16 virus-related deaths.

The nine other facilities reviewed by the Times Union also fell short. They include Shaker Place in Colonie, Hudson Park in Albany, Our Lady of Mercy Life Center in Guilderland, Teresian House in Albany, The Grand in Guilderland, Pine Haven in Philmont, The Grand at Barnwell in Valatie, Glens Falls Center in Queensbury, and Fort Hudson Nursing Center in Fort Edward.

Teresian House  where over 120 cases and 17 deaths from the virus have occurred  was the only facility to exceed the recommended direct care staffing levels at 4.2 HPRD. It fell short on recommended RN staffing, though, with 0.5 HPRD.

A spokesman for the facility, Paul Larrabee, said its staffing was adequate at the time of the outbreak.

Paul Buckowski/Times Union

Larry Slatky, executive director of Albany County-owned Shaker Place, wrote to the Times Union that at the time the facility learned of its very first COVID case, staffing levels met the facility's resident care requirements based on case mix.

"While we understand the commonly used minimum staffing guidelines, it is impossible to compare one nursing home to another since each nursing home has a unique case mix," Slatky wrote.

Other nursing homes affiliated with larger parent organizations, including Our Lady of Mercy Life Center and Glens Falls Center, said they were able to draw on staff from other facilities in their network as their staffing needs increased during the outbreak. But federal health officials who reviewed virus spread in other parts of the country have said this practice may have actually contributed to virus spread among multiple facilities.

Gendron, who spoke on behalf of the Grands Guilderland and Barnwell facilities, said staffing is a challenge across the industry, especially upstate.

Put simply, demand exceeds supply, he said.

Advocates point out that retention is the real issue. Staff are underpaid and overworked, resulting in high turnover and constant training of new staff.

New York lawmakers have pushed over the years for changes to state legislation that would require nursing homes and hospitals to implement minimum staffing ratios, but none have come to fruition. A state study on the topic is five months overdue.

Infection control

As coronavirus was bearing down on parts of the U.S., CMS announced in March it would conduct focused infection-control surveys at nursing homes to ensure they were prepared for a possible virus outbreak.

An initial wave of surveys during the week of March 30 found that 36 percent of facilities were not following proper hand-washing guidelines and 25 percent failed to demonstrate proper use of personal protective equipment (PPE)  which has been in use at nursing homes for decades.

Facility-specific results from those surveys have yet to be published. But inspection results dating back to 2017 show that seven of the 10 facilities the Times Union reviewed for this story were cited at least once for infection-control violations.

The Grand Rehabilitation and Nursing at Barnwell, a facility in Valatie with over 160 cases of COVID-19 and 14 virus-related deaths, was cited three times  once in 2017 and twice in 2018.

Paul Buckowski/Times Union

State health inspectors cited the home in October 2018, when flu season was getting underway, for failing to maintain contact precautions on residents who had been placed in isolation. Such precautions require the use of PPE when entering a patients room, which must be clearly marked to indicate protections are needed.

A nurse at Barnwell who requested anonymity for fear of retaliation told the Times Union this month that staffing shortages are putting residents in harms way.

I work doubles, she said. You have aides that are working overtime. Youve got one aide for 40 people and then one nurse. Weve got to feed, pass trays, do meds, do treatments, answer bells. Its just impossible. It is bound to lead to poor infection control. There is no way around it.

Grand Healthcare System's Gendron said the virus strained staffing levels at Barnwell as workers fell sick. The company wound up closing two units and transferring those residents to other Grand facilities in an effort to make patient-staff ratios more manageable.

He downplayed prior inspection-control citations by noting that over 60 percent of all nursing home facilities have been cited for such issues in the past three years.

Other area nursing homes downplayed them, too.

Jeffrey Jacomowitz, a spokesman for the Centers Health Care-owned Glens Falls Center, which has lost at least 19 residents to the coronavirus, wrote to the Times Union that the facilitys most recent citation in 2019 was for a wound care procedural hand-washing deficiency that resulted in no harm.

As leadership from Glens Falls Center and corporate take every deficiency seriously, this very minor citation led to a re-education of clinical and non-clinical staff on proper hand washing and disinfecting of various medical equipment and first aid materials, he said.

A spokesman for Pine Haven nursing home in Philmont, Columbia County, Geoff Thompson, wrote in a response to Times Union questions about the facilitys past infection control citations that in 2017 Pine Haven was cited for an incident involving a housekeeper that had no bearing on patient care, Thompson wrote. Also in 2019, Pine Haven received a state citation that related to human resources education for new hires concerning pneumonia vaccine. Thompson wrote it was unrelated to patient care.

When the crisis broke wide open in March, a lot was not known about COVID-19, Thompson wrote. We along with other healthcare providers are continuing to analyze the multiple factors that came into play.

Pine Haven, which saw 14 out of 36 residents die who contracted the disease, took in one COVID-19 positive patient. And while Thompson did not discuss if that action exacerbated Pine Havens outbreak, he wrote those with COVID need to be treated and remain in a hospital setting.

Advocates for safer nursing homes say states have long done a poor job of citing the extent to which problems occur inside nursing homes, as well as the extent to which they put residents in harms way.

A recent Kaiser Health News analysis found that 99 percent of all infection-control violations are cited as minor and not warranting fines, even though 1 million to 3 million serious infections occur inside long-term care facilities each year and 388,000 residents die annually as a result.

On their own?

More than 5,800 nursing home residents in New York have died from the coronavirus  a figure that is almost surely an undercount because it doesn't include residents who were transferred to hospitals before they died.

Some area nursing homes with large or particularly deadly coronavirus outbreaks said they did what they could to keep residents safe, but were hampered by factors outside their control and received little support from the state.

Our Lady of Mercy, where 14 out of 44 infected residents died, took in three COVID-19 positive patients. But the facility, which runs underneath the umbrella of St. Peters Health Partners, described those patients to the Times Union as in the recovery phase, and a spokesman did not have criticisms about any state policies made during the pandemic.

It started to spread before we even knew we had a single case in our building, wrote Our Lady spokesman Rob Puglisi. That was in March, before it was understood that people could test negative and carry the disease for several days with no symptoms, so we had no indications.

While a state directive requiring nursing homes to accept COVID-19 patients has received a lot of attention (more than 4,500 virus patients were admitted into nursing homes as a result of the directive, an Associated Press investigation found), some area nursing home leaders said they were more concerned that their pleas for help went ignored.

Larrabee, the spokesman for Teresian House, said the facility asked state and local health officials repeatedly for help testing its entire workforce and resident population. Those requests were rejected, he said.

The home eventually went out and got the tests itself, he said, and the entire facility was tested April 29. There have been no new cases discovered since then, he said.

Andy Cruikshank, CEO of the Fort Hudson Nursing Center in Fort Edward, which had 40 cases and 11 virus-related deaths, said it felt like the state abandoned nursing homes during the early stages of the pandemic. Cuomo was focused heavily on fighting for more ventilators and hospital beds, while nursing homes including Fort Hudson didnt even have tests for residents and staff.

Lori Van Buren/Times Union

After backlash for its handling of nursing homes, the state this month rescinded the controversial admittance policy and announced it would be requiring twice-a-week testing of nursing home staff. But Cruikshank contended that Cuomo's team offered no guidance on how facilities were to pay for such a massive undertaking.

With employees tested twice a week, the expectation was nursing homes would miraculously coordinate lab contracts (and) they would have to pay for it themselves, he said. (Cuomos) initial reaction was nursing homes ... are on their own.

At no time did the (state) commissioner of health ask, What do you need to make this better? Cruikshank added. The result is a discoordinated approach.

RELATED: Cuomo defends nursing home policies as long-term care deaths top 5,800

In a statement, the state Department of Health did not respond to the testing concerns raised by the facilities, but noted that it provided both Teresian House and Fort Hudson with thousands of pieces of PPE since the outbreaks, including gowns, face shields, gloves, hand sanitizer, oxygen concentrators and more.

"We've said from the start that protecting our most vulnerable populations including people in nursing homes and adult care facilities is our top priority," department spokeswoman Jill Montag said. "To do so we have issued (Centers for Disease Control)-supported guidance documents, led more than 650 COVID-19 focus infection control surveys and opened 3,000 complaints. Weve restricted visitors, ordered workers to be temperature checked every day, tested staff twice a week, provided 13 million pieces of PPE and taken other actions to protect this vulnerable population."

Lauren Stanforth contributed reporting for this story.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-31 23:25:07|Editor: huaxia

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OUAGADOUGOU, May 31 (Xinhua) -- At least 20 people were killed on Saturday as gunmen on motorbikes fired into a crowded market in Kompienga town in eastern Burkina Faso, local media reported Sunday.

It is unclear who are the attackers. On Friday, At least 15 merchants were killed in an ambush by gunmen in the country's northern Loroum province. Enditem
Victoria's state of emergency has been extended by three weeks as a cluster in the city's northwest continues to grow.

Health Minister Jenny Mikakos confirmed there has been a net increase of four cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, taking the state's total number of cases to 1649. About 70 remain active.

There were six new cases since Saturday, but two cases were removed from the state's overall tally due to reclassification.

Victoria's state of emergency has been extended by three weeks as a cluster in the city's northwest continues to grow forcing the closure of two schools (Keilor Downs Secondary College pictured)

Two of the new cases are linked to a family outbreak in Keilor Downs which has now infected 13 people across two homes.

It also led to the closure of Keilor Downs Secondary College and Holy Eucharist Primary School in St Albans after two siblings tested positive to coronavirus earlier this week.

CORONAVIRUS CASES IN AUSTRALIA: 27,244 Victoria: 20,269 New South Wales: 4,273 Queensland: 1,161 Western Australia: 692 South Australia: 473 Tasmania: 230 Australian Capital Territory: 113 Northern Territory: 33 TOTAL CASES: 27,244 ESTIMATED ACTIVE CASES: 269 DEATHS: 897 Updated: 5.31 PM, 11 October, 2020 Source: Australian Government Department of Health Advertisement

The schools will reopen after deep cleaning on Monday, but more than 100 students have been forced to self-isolate for 14 days after coming into contact with the infected students.

The group is made up of 80 students from Keilor Downs, 20 at Holy Eucharist, six students from Taylors Lakes Secondary College and one St Albans Secondary College.

Ms Mikakos said many outbreaks in Victoria have been acquired through family gatherings like weddings, birthday parties and dinners and urged Victorians to remain vigilant as restrictions ease this coming week.

'Just because you can do something doesn't mean you must do it,' she told reporters.

A drive-through testing site has been set up at the Keilor Community Hub to help curb the outbreak. There is also a screening clinic at Sunshine Hospital.

'We obviously have some concerns about what might be happening in the Keilor Downs area, it's possible there might be community transmission in that area that hasn't been established to date,' she said, urging residents even with very mild symptoms to get tested.

The new cluster, including two siblings, forced the closure of the Keilor Downs Secondary College and Holy Eucharist Primary School in St Albans with more than 100 students forced into 14-day quarantine

It is not yet known how the family first contracted the virus.

Of the other new cases, three were returned overseas travellers in hotel quarantine and one was discovered as part of community testing.

More than half a million Victorians have now been tested for COVID-19.

One additional case, meanwhile, has been linked to an outbreak at Rydges on Swanston.

Ms Mikakos said the case was not new, but further investigation has seen it linked to the cluster, which now totals seven.

The minister announced a three-week extension to Victoria's state of emergency to 11.59pm on June 21, to allow for the legal enforcement of the restrictions.

The schools will reopen after deep cleaning on Monday, but more than 100 students have been forced to self-isolate for 14 days

From Monday, cafes, restaurants and other spaces where people gather will be able to reopen for 20 people, among other changes, but people are still required to work from home if they can.

'It's really important that Victorians understand this pandemic is not over,' Ms Mikakos said.

'The virus is still with us. It is highly contagious. It's important that we take it seriously.'

Individuals caught breaching the directions face on-the-spot fines of $1652 while businesses could be fined $9913.

Six people remain in Victorian hospitals with coronavirus, including two in intensive care.

The state's death toll remains at 19.
Nollywood started recording the deaths of its practitioners in 2020 with the death of actress Jennifer Omole who passed away on January 3, 2020.

Here are Nollywood stars, who have passed away in 2020, from different tribes and sectors of the movie industry.

Jennifer Omole

Nigerian actress, Jennifer Omole, passed on in Spain on 3rd January 2020, at the age of 33. She was buried the following evening at Villarejo de Salvanes, Madrid.

The sad news about Jennifers death was shared by her close friend and colleague, Uche Ogbodo, on Instagram.

Omole was a member of the Actors Guild of Nigeria, Spain chapter, where she was based although her friends revealed that she recently moved to the United Kingdom. She hailed from Edo State.

Before her death, Jennifer was a movie producer and CEO of JennisFilms Production Ltd. She produced Stolen Vow alongside Uche Ogbodo, Jibola Dabo, Daniel Lloyd and a host of other Nollywood actors.

Stolen Vow had UK, Spain, and Switzerland premieres with Uche Ogbodo and the late actress as executive producers.

Toyosi Arigbabuwo

Ace Yoruba actor, Toyosi Arigbabuwo, died January 13, 2020, at his residence in Ibadan, the Oyo state capital, after battling an undisclosed illness for six months.

Arigbabuwo was a veteran actor who featured in many Yoruba movies including Ogborielemosho and Bashorun Gaa, Odun Baku.

He had dedicated his life to the promotion of Islamic religion, especially in Ido local government area where he lived until his death. He was the PRO of the Muslim community in Apete-Awotan-Ayegun and environs in Oyo state.

The chairman of the Muslim Community in Apete-Awotan-Ayegun and environs, Abdulwaheed Amoo, confirmed his death and burial on January 14, 2020.

Frank Dallas

The veteran Nollywood actor and production manager, Frank Dallas died on 19th February 2020 after suffering cardiac arrest in his hotel room.

The actor who was popularly known as Adedibu or Killer in movies reportedly died in Umuahia, Abia State while attending a summit.

The deceased, who hailed from Ohafia in Abia State was the former public relations officer of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Lagos chapter.

Monalisa Chinda-Coker defeated him to emerge AGN national PRO in an election held in 2019.

Dallas, who was renowned for his action roles in Nollywood movies, began his acting career in the early 90s. He often starred alongside Jim Iyke and Hanks Anuku in movies.

Some movies he featured include Emotional Pains, A Night to Remember, Back II Back, Blind Love, Sweet Love and Hit The Street.

Pa Kasunmu

Veteran Nollywood actor, Kayode Odumosu, popularly known as Pa Kasumu died on the 1st of March 2020, after a prolonged battle with heart failure.

The renowned thespian died in a private hospital in Lantoro, Abeokuta in Ogun State.

Born Ilesanmi Olukayode Olugbenga Odumosu in Ibadan on March 16, 1953, the 66-year-old veteran began acting as a teenager. His debut role was in 1968 in a stage play Iyawo Orun. In 1969, he featured in his breakout play titled Omo Ekere.

Pa Kasumu was a household name in the Yoruba movie industry until he went off radar when he was down with Biventricular Heart Failure in 2013.

In an interview with The Punch in December 2019, Pa Kasumu said that his sickness was of a spiritual nature.

The popular Yoruba actor said all he needed are fervent prayers and not financial aid from well-wishers and well-meaning Nigerians.

He said, The doctors are just saying their own. They said I had a partial stroke. It affected my left side and to some extent, my sight. In 2017, Pa Kasumus health worsened after he got back from a medical trip to India.

In 2016, the actors condition became so serious that members of his family moved him from his home in Abeokuta to his elder sisters residence at Aseese, an Ogun community situated off the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

Odumosu admitted that his health worsened shortly after returning from India, where he had gone to receive treatment for a heart-related ailment that also affected his eyesight and memory, in 2015.

Some of his memorable works include Babie A (2003), Jesu Mushin (2002) and Sango: The Legendary African King (1998).

Gbenga Ajumoko





Veteran Yoruba filmmaker and actor, Gbenga Ajumoko died on the 22nd March 2020, after battling with a chronic ailment.

The actor cum scriptwriter was reported to be critically down with a chronic ailment since last year.

For over 6 months, Ajumoko was in a hospital in Sagamu Remo where he was diagnosed with Diabetes and Hypertension.

He solely treated the ailments quietly until things got worsen for him. He was later transferred to a private hospital located at Ibadan Garage, Ijebu Ode, Ogun State, where he died.

Ajumoko worked as a production manager, actor, writer, and movie director before he died. Some of his works include, known Enikeji (2017), Agbere (2017), Yeye Efun, Wound (2019), Ako Okuta (2018).



Alkali Matt

Nollywood actor, Alkali Matt, popularly known as Dareng, died while filming on set on 24 March 2020.

Dimbo Atiya who shared the news of his demise on Facebook said Matt passed on at around 7 pm suddenly while he was filming on a set for an epic movie in a village near Keffi.

Matt is popular for his role as Dareng in the African Magic series Halita.

However, controversial journalist, Kemi Olunloyo claimed the actor died because he had contact with someone who tested positive for Coronavirus at the AMVCA 7.

Yomi Obileye

Veteran Nollywood actor, Yomi Obileye died on Friday morning of April 24th, 2020 from an undisclosed ailment.

Obileye was known for Tade Ogidans movie, Hostages in 1997, and Palace, a soap opera which featured Liz Benson, Jide Kosoko, Antar Laniyan, Dayo Adeneye, Jide Alabi, Tunji Bamishigbin.

His death was announced by Nigerian actor and comedian, Gbenga Adeyinka.

Obileye was the elder brother to Taiwo Obileye broadcaster cum actor, known for Chief Daddy (2018) and Tales of Eve: Thanks for Coming (2015).

Obileye played the fathers role to Nollywood actress, Funlola Aofiyebi in Palace opera.

Palace, one of the major Nigerian soap operas that dominated the airwaves in the 90s depicted the life of affluence of rich families and the many challenges they faced in keeping up with their status, managing their affairs, and making sure they stay on top.

Palace was aired on Africa Independent Television and directed by Tunji Bamishigbin and his co-producer, veteran TV director cum producer, Ralph Nwadike.

Chizobah Bosha Sam-Boye

Nollywood veteran actress, Chizoba Bosah Sam-Boye popular for her role in Mnet drama series, Tinsel as Aunty Abike died on Sunday, May 10, 2020, after a long battle with diabetes, stroke and high blood pressure.

Chizoba, who was also a filmmaker and presenter died at the age of 52.

The deceased was married to Sam Boye, and they jointly operated a company called Purple Pictures.

The deceased was a strong advocate for Nollywood Igbo, and would be remembered for her pioneering role in Living in Bondage, Checkmate, Scandals, and others.

Emilia Dike

Nollywood actress Emilia Dike died on Wednesday, 21st of April, 2020 in Enugu.

According to Okechukwu Oku, who announced her death, the actress slumped and died.

Oku, who is a movie director broke the news on his Instagram page and lamented why death is so cruel taking good people away.

Popular actress, Uche Ogbodo, also expressed shock over Dikes passage.

Pls what happened to her, I have an Unfinished project with her oooo , Jesus Christ . Pls what happened?, she wrote.

Dike featured in Nollywood movies such as Ignorant couples, Dust of yesterday, Kings Guard, Where Money Never Sleep 1 and 2, and many more

Femi Oyewumi (Laditi)

Popular Yoruba actor, Prince Femi Oyewumi, known as Laditi, died on Friday, 23rd of May, 2020, after he was rushed to the hospital on the previous night.

The 51-year-old prince of Soun of Ogbomoso was said to have been suffering from chronic back pain for some months before his death.

Those who watched him in the epics like Ayetoto; Koto Orun; Ija Eleye and so on wont find it hard to remember a character called Laditi and his brilliant roles in the film industry.

Femi Oyewumi, an actor and a producer who is a specialist in a stage play, epic, and historic film, started his career in the 80s.

Ogunojalu Ogbomoso was his last work.

However, Ajoke Kosemani, a Nollywood actress close to the actor, described his demise as a great loss to the movie industry in Nigeria.

***

Source: PM News
If you are a fan of Jack Reacher (played by Tom Cruise) then you are in for a real treat with these lockdown lovelies

There seems to be a new trend for authors to set their novels at the time of the book's publication, presumably so that the narrative feel fresh and up to date. That does present problems if events in real life conspire to overtake those in the fictional present.

Harlan Coben's new novel The Boy From The Woods (Century, 15.99) begins on April 23, 2020, by which point, in the real world, 44,000 Americans had already died of the coronavirus; but of course there's no mention of Covid-19 in the book, because it was written long before anyone had heard of the virus.

It feels strange to read a story supposedly happening in the here-and-now in which normal life is continuing without interruption; though this is a thriller, so the words "normal life" might be overstating it.

Wilde was found as a child living in the woods in New Jersey. Hence the name. A former soldier turned security expert, he now makes a living "off the grid" helping people when they need it. When two teenagers go missing, and a finger turns up in the mail, he's drafted in to track them down before it's too late. The Boy From The Woods is replete with Coben's trademark twists and humour, and, like his earlier novel The Stranger, this one is also being adapted as a series for Netflix.

In his maverick, itinerant, secretive way of life, Wilde bears something of a resemblance to the central character in The Goodbye Man (Harper Collins, 12.74), the new novel from Jeffery Deaver, and both are not unalike the hero of Lee Child's iconic Jack Reacher series.

Colter Shaw (yes, that really is his name) is loosely described as a "professional reward seeker" who is "hardwired to save people from disaster". This time he's on the hunt for two young men wanted for questioning about a hate crime.

The book begins as Colter is out for what would now count officially as a non-essential drive in a remote part of Washington State when a rock is deliberately rolled on to the road ahead of him. Moments later, clambering from his wrecked vehicle, he's also shot at. The story then goes back six hours to explain how he got into that predicament, before continuing forward as he gets involved in an amateur probe into a sinister cult called The Foundation, led by a man known as Master Eli.

It's billed as an "action thriller" to distinguish it from the more fiendishly intricate Lincoln Rhyme mysteries for which Deaver is best known. Colter doesn't have the charisma of Jack Reacher, but Deaver is a master at plotting and pace and draws readers in from the very first sentence, and it's almost comforting to be reminded of a time when people could still walk those mean streets freely, meeting strangers, visiting diners. Did such a world really exist just a few months ago?

Like Jeffery Deaver, Michael Connelly is also a former journalist, and his own new novel, Fair Warning, (Orion, 14.99), is the third centred on reporter Jack McEvoy, first introduced in 1996's The Poet, still one of his best books. McEvoy now works for a non-profit news group which shares its name with the novel's title. Fair Warning happens to be a real organisation, on whose board Connelly himself sits, and the proliferation of fake news is a theme running through its pages.

McEvoy becomes a suspect in the murder of a woman with whom he had a one-night stand, and he has to clear his name whilst racing to solve a series of murders by a killer who seems to use his victim's own personal data against them.

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Australian author BM Carroll's debut novel, Who We Were (Viper, 10.06), is also set in a Covid-free 2020, as schoolmates from the class of 2000 at Macquarie High prepare to celebrate their 20-year reunion, and one of the group hatches other plans. Remembering the "hateful faces" and "fake innocence" of those old friends, that anonymous character begins playing mind games with the invitees, promising: "Their shallow lives will be blown apart. And they'll be sorry".

Carroll's prose style may be functional rather than dazzling, but Who We Were is a genuine page-turner, and it never lags or loses the reader's interest. It features a great cast of characters, all of whom feel entirely believable, from Annabel, the school captain who was going to be a marine biologist before she got pregnant at school and settled into life as a stay-at-home mum, to Luke, who dreamed of being a Broadway star after playing Danny in the school production of Grease, but who's perfectly happy with his life now as an air steward in London.

Viper is the new crime imprint of independent publisher Serpent's Tail, and it has struck a real winner with this book, which encourages readers to reconsider their own time at school, and what they might do differently if they had the chance to go back, and, more importantly, who they may have annoyed enough to make them want revenge.

Romy Hausmann's Dear Child (Quercus, 11.99) is another debut novel, this time translated from German, but one in which the beautifully constructed sentences are as much of a draw as the plot.

It concerns Lena, who's being held prisoner in a windowless house in the woods by a man who, "like God", controls her world. The book begins, as the publicity puts it, where most crime books end, as she escapes to safety; but is she really the girl who vanished 13 years ago? The story is told from multiple viewpoints, which gives a satisfying complexity to what might otherwise be a lurid exercise in voyeurism. Hausmann has produced an intelligent and original book with unsettling echoes of real life events, as readers familiar with the ordeal of Natascha Kampusch may remember.

Finally, out this very day is The Darkling Halls Of Ivy (LB Productions, 22.36, though it's just 7.21 on Kindle), a collection of 18 mystery stories edited by the aforementioned LB, veteran American author Lawrence Block.

Contributors include Ian Rankin, David Morrell and Owen King, and the tales are all set in the world of academia, where jealous rivalries readily spill over deliciously into murder in fiction. Short stories are the perfect antidote for those who've struggled with long books during lockdown, and the themes of plagiarism and sexual misconduct on campus have never been timelier.
Throughout the protests over the death of George Floyd, journalists have been injured and arrested covering the unrest. That trend continued Saturday, and there were examples across the country, but journalists on the ground in Minneapolis expressed dismay at how law enforcement officials seemed to be targeting members of the media. In the Friday night protests, Linda Tirado was shot in the left eye while covering the protests in Minneapolis. Tirado, who believes she was shot with a rubber bullet, said she has permanently lost vision in her left eye. Starting to see a pattern of police targeting the media in Minneapolis, tweeted Brandon Stahl, a reporter with local NBC affiliate KARE 11. Chris Serres, a reporter for the Star Tribune, wrote that he was twice ordered at gunpoint by Minneapolis police to hit the ground and officers warned that if he moved an inch hed be shot and showing his press badge made no difference.

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an update: I am permanently blind in my left eye, and the docs absolutely refuse to let me go back to work for they say six weeks. Im definitely not allowed to be near smoke or gas.



Usually if I had to stay home Id spend a lot of time amplifying folk but reading hurts today  Linda Tirado (@KillerMartinis) May 30, 2020

Regarding police behavior last night, I was twice ordered at gunpoint by Minneapolis police to hit the ground, warned that if I moved "an inch" I'd be shot. This after being teargassed and hit in groin area by rubber bullet. Waiving a Star Tribune press badge made no difference. pic.twitter.com/pfBm7ubzOg  Chris Serres (@ChrisSerres) May 31, 2020

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Tom Aviles, a cameraman with CBS affiliate WCCO-TV was hit with rubber bullets and arrested while covering the protests in Minneapolis on Saturday night. Video aired by the station showed how police fired at Aviles despite the fact that he repeatedly told them he was with the media. Even though he was getting out of the area as he was told to do, Aviles was eventually pushed to the ground and taken into custody. Aviles continued to shoot cellphone video after he was arrested. He was released later in the evening.

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The @MnDPS_MSP has arrested @wcco photojournalist Tom Aviles, who clearly identified himself a day after arresting a @CNN crew live on the air. @wccophotogs pic.twitter.com/4fjjAVAnH3  Guy Still (@mplstvguy) May 31, 2020

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Not a perspective you see every day: Even after being unlawfully arrested by @MnDPS_MSP, @wcco photojournalist Tom Aviles pulls out his cell phone, while cuffed, and keeps shooting from the back of the paddy wagon. pic.twitter.com/gkbOoAY6xW  Guy Still (@mplstvguy) May 31, 2020

Photojournalist Tom is free, after being arrested and shot with a rubber bullet. This true blue, AMAZING journalist even managed to share a smile. #wcco pic.twitter.com/XrbnCKo3tb  Susan-Elizabeth (@susanelizabethL) May 31, 2020

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One of the most shocking videos of the evening came from Michael Anthony Adams, a reporter with Vice. Adams tweeted that he was sheltering at a gas station when police entered, and despite the fact that he was raising his press credential to the air, he was thrown to the ground and another cop fired pepper spray on his face while he was being held down. Earlier, Adams wrote that a group of police officers had weapons trained on a group of us even though everyone held up their press credentials.

Police just raided the gas station we were sheltering at. After shouting press multiple times and raising my press card in the air, I was thrown to the ground. Then another cop came up and peppered sprayed me in the face while I was being held down. pic.twitter.com/23EkZIMAFC  Michael Anthony Adams (@MichaelAdams317) May 31, 2020

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Molly Hennessy-Fiske of the Los Angeles Times posted a video on Twitter in which she says that Minnesota State Patrol fired tear gas at a group of journalists at point blank range even though they had identified themselves as press. She also posted a photo of her injured leg.

Minnesota State Patrol just fired tear gas at reporters and photographers at point blank range. pic.twitter.com/r7X6J7LKo8  Molly Hennessy-Fiske (@mollyhf) May 31, 2020

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Thats the PG version of my leg courtesy of @MnDPS_MSP still going to report tonight and tomorrow pic.twitter.com/G2kIp00Rf1  Molly Hennessy-Fiske (@mollyhf) May 31, 2020

Michael George posted a video showing how Minneapolis Police fired on a CBS News crew even though they were nowhere near any protesters, all had their badges out, and had visible cameras. He also posted a video showing how the crews sound engineer was hit with a rubber bullet.

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This is the moment Minneapolis Police fired on our CBS News crew with rubber bullets. As you can see, no protesters anywhere near us- we all were wearing credentials and had cameras out. Our sound engineer was hit in the arm. #cbsnews pic.twitter.com/UAy7HYhGnL  Michael George (@MikeGeorgeCBS) May 31, 2020

Police in Minneapolis are firing on us (press) with rubber bullets. Our sound engineer John Marschitz was hit. He is ok. We were not standing within 500 feet of any protesters at the time, and we had credentials displayed and cameras out. #cbsnews pic.twitter.com/Ai6Qd8gLjz  Michael George (@MikeGeorgeCBS) May 31, 2020

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MSNBC posted a video on Twitter showing how police fired tear gas and flash bangs very close to where journalist Morgan Chesky was reporting with a camera crew.

WATCH: @BreakingChesky reports from Minneapolis as police fire flash bangs.



"Law enforcement tonight, not taking any chances." pic.twitter.com/atuEfFvBpX  MSNBC (@MSNBC) May 31, 2020

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Ryan Faircloth, a Star Tribune reporter, posted photos of his injuries when what appeared to be a rubber bullet shattered a window of his car.

Attacks on the press were not limited to Minneapolis. A day earlier, for example, the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker said Sunday morning that it was working to verify and document at least 68 instances of journalists assaulted, arrested and equipment damaged from protests the last two nights.
Iran's new parliament speaker Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf has said any negotiations with the United States would be "futile" as he delivered his first major speech to the conservative-dominated chamber on Sunday.

Qalibaf (Ghalibaf), a former commander of the Revolutionary Guards' air force, was elected speaker on Thursday after low-turnout elections in February that helped ultra-conservatives dominate the legislature.

The newly formed parliament "considers negotiations with and appeasement of America, as the axis of global arrogance, to be futile and harmful," said Qalibaf.

He also vowed revenge for the U.S. drone attack in January that killed Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Guards' foreign operations arm.

"Our strategy in confronting the terrorist America is to finish the revenge for martyr Soleimani's blood," he told lawmakers in a televised address.

This, he said, would entail "the total expulsion of America's terrorist army from the region".

Tensions between Tehran and Washington have been rising since 2018, when President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from a landmark nuclear accord and began reimposing crippling sanctions on Iran's economy.

That was followed by the U.S. drone strike near Baghdad airport in January that killed Soleimani, the mastermind behind Irans regional expansion.

Days later, Iran fired a barrage of missiles at U.S. troops stationed in Iraq in retaliation, but Trump opted against taking any military action in response.

Qalibaf also harshly criticized President Hassan Rouhanis administration calling executive affairs of the country chaotic. He added that Rouhanis government is focused on foreign ties and does not believe in jihadi management. Irans Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and his supporters reject rapprochement with the U.S. and insist Iran can solve its problems by self-reliance.

The 58-year-old Ghalibaf is a three-time presidential candidate who lost out to current incumbent Hassan Rouhani at the last election in 2017. His speedy election as Speaker of Parliament was somewhat a surprise, as his name is associated with numerous financial corruption cases.

With reporting by AFP
Chinese state media took aim at the US government over the weekend as many American cities were gripped by raging protests and clashes, comparing the unrest with the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong.

Beijing has long been infuriated by criticism from Western capitals, especially Washington DC, over its handling of the pro-democracy protests that shook Hong Kong last year.

And as unrest erupted across the US over racial inequality and police brutality after the death during arrest of an unarmed black man, Chinese government spokespeople and official media launched broadsides against American authorities.

Chinese media also circulated video clips suggesting Hong Kong police were 'restrained' in comparison to actions seen in the US.

Chinese state media took aim at the US government over the weekend as many American cities were gripped by raging protests and clashes (pictured), comparing the unrest with the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong

Protestors are pictured clashing with police in Philadelphia. Chinese state-run media seized on the opportunity to compare the violence to Beijing's handling of the pro-democracy protests that shook Hong Kong last year

Chinese media also circulated video clips suggesting Hong Kong police were 'restrained' in comparison to actions seen in the US. Armed Chinese authorities are pictured in Hong Kong earlier this week

Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of nationalist tabloid Global Times, tweeted a question to Hong Kong protestors, asking them if they would demonstrate in the US under its response to George Floyd demonstrators

'US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi once called the violent protests in Hong Kong 'a beautiful sight to behold.'... US politicians now can enjoy this sight from their own windows,' Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of nationalist tabloid Global Times wrote on Saturday.

It was 'as if the radical rioters in Hong Kong somehow snuck into the US and created a mess like they did last year', he added.

He also tweeted, a question for 'violent protesters in Hong Kong and their supporters there,' asking 'Would you stand with angry Minneapolis demonstrators who attacked police station, or would you stand with President Trump who threatens to shoot 'These THUGS'?

China has insisted that 'foreign forces' are to blame for the turmoil in Hong Kong, where pro-democracy protesters - described by Beijing as rioters - have marched in the millions since June last year and often clashed with the police.

Beijing sparked outrage and concern earlier this month with a plan to impose a law on Hong Kong that it said was needed to protect national security and curb 'terrorism', but was condemned by pro-democracy activists and Western nations as another attempt to chip away at the city's unique freedoms.

Following President Donald Trump's announcement that he would strip Hong Kong of its special privileges, a commentary published Sunday in China Daily - a mouthpiece of the ruling Communist Party - said US politicians dreamed of 'victimizing' China.

Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of nationalist tabloid Global Times, tweeted a question (pictured) to Hong Kong protestors, asking them if they would demonstrate in the US under its response to the Floyd demonstrators.

'Better give up that dream and come back to reality,' it said.

'Violence is spreading across the US... US politicians should do their jobs and help solve problems in the US, instead of trying to create new problems and troubles in other countries.'

Lack of transparency

The back-and-forth over Hong Kong has exacerbated US-China tensions, which were already high over a number of issues - including trade and the coronavirus pandemic, over which Trump has accused Beijing of a lack of transparency.

As violence broke out in the US over the weekend, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunyingalso took aim at Washington.

'I can't breathe,' she said on Twitter, with a screenshot of a tweet by US State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus that had criticised the Chinese government over its Hong Kong policy.

The back-and-forth over Hong Kong has exacerbated US-China tensions, which were already high over a number of issues - including trade and the coronavirus pandemic, over which President Donald Trump (pictured) has accused Beijing of a lack of transparency

Hua was quoting the words George Floyd was heard saying repeatedly before his death - after a police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes - which sparked the current unrest in the United States.

Over the weekend, Chinese media also circulated video clips of the US violence, accompanied by the hashtag 'How restrained are the Hong Kong police' on the Twitter-like platform Weibo. One clip posted by the People's Daily on Sunday compared the recent on-screen arrest of CNN correspondent Omar Jimenez, who was covering the unrest in the US city of Minneapolis last Friday, with scenes of Hong Kong police appearing to back away from media personnel in the city last year.

The accompanying caption said 'reporters used their professional identities to obstruct law enforcement'.

Police in Hong Kong have been accused by rights groups of using excessive force during pro-democracy protests last year. They have been accused of using tear gas, water cannons and making mass arrests at the protests.
PUNE A 29-year-old Covid-19 (coronavirus) patient was booked for travelling to Pune without required permits.

The man had travelled to Wadebolai village of Haveli, Pune from Thane on May 25 without seeking the required permits from Thane police, according to the police.

As he reached Wadebolahi, the man underwent a Covid-19 test at a private laboratory as he started showing symptoms of the virus. The next day, he had tested positive for the virus.

A person is required to have permission to travel from any region. Especially if the person is coming from any place near Mumbai which is a hotspot. After reaching here as well, the person is required to go to the local public health centre, get checked and get a home quarantine stamp, said police inspector Pratap Mankar of Lonikand police station.

The village authorities learned about the man and reported the matter to the police.

The man was taken to Navale hospital and is undergoing treatment there. People should behave responsibly and not put others life at risk, said PI Mankar.

A case was registered at Lonikand police station against the man under Section 188, 269, and 270 of Indian Penal Code (IPC) along with relevant sections of the Epidemic Diseases Act as well as Maharashtra Covid-19 Regulations.
LAGOS: A police officer has been arrested after opening fire on his colleagues at Onikan, killing some of them today May 31.



According to reports, the officer whose name has not been revealed, went berserk around 5am following a disagreement with other members of his team. After opening fire on his colleagues, the officer who is attached to the Federal Inland Revenue Service FIRS, hijacked their operational vehicle and drove straight to Akoka in Yaba where he attempted to force his way into a building.



The building had a metallic door and the policeman allegedly opened fire on the property to gain access. No fewer than 30 bullet holes were counted in an apartment, corridor, and ceiling of the premises.



Men from the Bariga Police Division and the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) were alerted and they were able to disarm the officer and take him into custody. It is believed that the officer might not be mentally stable as he was filmed screaming incoherently while firing shots. He was also heard alleging that some persons wanted to corrupt him and that he should be allowed to go home in the name of Jesus.



Commenting on the matter, the spokesperson of the state police command, Bala Elkana, said the command was investigating to understand what truly happened.











Source: lindaikejisblog









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Ministers have been sent a list of 45 countries to prioritise for quarantine-free air bridges, it emerged last night.

Airlines drew up the index last week at the request of the Government amid mounting fury over unenforceable plans for a 14-day quarantine imposed on all arrivals.

The list, agreed by airlines including British Airways, Easyjet and Virgin Atlantic, includes favourite holiday destinations in Europe, such as France, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece, along with the US and much of the Caribbean.

Last night Tory backbenchers said there was growing horror at plans to subject visitors to the UK to blanket quarantine measures.

The full list of 45 countries that airlines want to prioritise for the quarantine-free 'air bridges'

A senior Tory said the plans did not have the support of very large parts of the Cabinet, adding: There was a case for it in March, but there isnt a case for it now. Officials are drawing up proposals which could allow quarantine-free travel to places chosen for popularity and economic importance.

Airlines want the first air bridges to be set up by the end of this month at the latest, sources said, raising fresh hopes for summer holidays abroad.

The blanket quarantine, which comes into force next Monday, has been criticised by Border Force, police leaders and Tory MPs who say it is riddled with loopholes.

Whitehall sources say the Home Office and Department for Transport are moving at pace to establish quarantine-free travel corridors between countries. An industry source told the Mail: A lot of [the list] is focused on short-haul leisure  popular holiday locations and places where people might fly to see friends and family. Wed want to see as many as possible set up by the end of the month.

The Government requested the airlines send it in, so they could have a sense of where the volume and demand would be. Its quite a contrast to a week and a half ago, when Downing Street played down the idea of air bridges. They added the proposed list depends on countries wanting to set up an air bridge with the UK and the Foreign Office will have to drop its advice against all but essential global travel.

Airline and airport bosses are due to meet Government officials tomorrow when details of the quarantine plan will be unveiled.

Dining out: Customers in Greece  which is on the list  this weekend

A number of Tory MPs are revolting against the quarantine plans and Sir Graham Brady  chairman of the 1922 committee of backbenchers  has told Downing Street of their concerns. He said: The fundamental objection to the quarantine proposal is that it makes no sense at all to have quarantine for travel from countries that have very low rates of infection or no infection.

At the very least, it should be possible to exclude a number of countries on that basis. Air bridges are a very sensible proposition.

One senior Tory said: I share concerns the quarantine plan will do such huge damage to the tourism industry, without necessarily making us much safer. It feels that its a bit too late and a bit strong.

An ex-minister said: There is growing horror on the backbench about this. Its several weeks since it first arose that the Government was considering quarantine and we are no further forward as to how it actually gets introduced.

Henry Smith, Tory MP and chairman of the Future of Aviation Group, said: I dont think quarantine is appropriate to be introduced in just over a weeks time. It will prolong damage to the aviation and travel industries. Its well intentioned but not very effective so the idea of air bridges has merit and is worthy of exploration.

Dont let Britain get left behind

By Graham Brady and Paul Maynard

A fact that may surprise many is despite being a small island nation, the UK has the third largest aviation network. We are behind only the United States and China, and the biggest in Europe.

Our world-class airlines and airports are proud to support the UKs global connectivity and the industry contributes over a million jobs across the country.

The sheer scale of the sector, however, is impossible to realise at present as airlines have had to ground their operations.

Sir Graham Brady MP (left) is chairman of the 1922 Committee and Paul Maynard MP (right) is a former aviation minister

While we are seeing other nations announce their intention to reopen their borders, the UK has appeared to turn the other way, declaring a 14-day quarantine for inbound passengers.

If this is to be implemented, it must be in place for no longer than necessary.

This is important not only for the long-term impacts on our aviation and tourism sectors but its disproportionate effect on our position as a proud trading nation.

It will be impossible to get goods to market if people are forced to self-isolate for two weeks upon arrival into the UK.

'While we are seeing other nations announce their intention to reopen their borders, the UK has appeared to turn the other way, declaring a 14-day quarantine for inbound passengers,' say Sir Graham Brady MP and Paul Maynard MP

So what way forward? The Government has accepted the concept of air bridges, which would enable certain countries to travel without the need for quarantine.

UK airlines have set out 45 destinations for quarantine-free air bridges. We urge the Government to establish these as soon as possible. We cannot afford to get left behind. France and Greece have recently announced plans to drop some border controls from June 15.

The Government must be working towards an approach which can ensure public health requirements are met while allowing the industry to get back to doing what it does best  connecting goods and people and creating jobs.

There is not a second to lose.

Sir Graham Brady MP is chairman of the 1922 Committee and Paul Maynard MP is a former aviation minister
Jorge Fernandez, right, is comforted by a friend at a rally at the site where George Floyd was killed by police early this week. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

When my cell rang, an unfamiliar number popped up on the screen. Normally I ignore these calls, certain my service provider has sold my information to half the country's telemarketing companies. This time I picked up.

It was a therapist I had used as a source on a story about mental health. He had watched a couple of my recent appearances on CNN regarding the death of George Floyd and was worried about me. It was not only a kind gesture but one that carried with it a great deal of wisdom.

I was suppressing trauma and anger I didnt even know I had.

Ive been so busy covering the unjustifiable deaths, murders, of black and brown people over the years that I had grown accustomed to ignoring the toll it had taken on me as a black journalist. In journalism school they teach you the importance of removing yourself from the story. But there arent any courses on managing your mental health when you are repeatedly reflected in gut-wrenching stories.

Or, in the case of CNNs Omar Jimenez  the black reporter who was arrested while covering the uprising in Minneapolis  you become part of the gut-wrenching story youre covering.

Yamiche Alcindor of PBS told me on Saturday that shes noticed a change in her own emotional connection to these particular tragedies over the years, beginning with the murder of Trayvon Martin in 2012.

Im from Miami and I have cousins who went to school with him, so I felt empathy," she said. At the same time, the journalist in me was covering George Zimmerman and his family with objectivity and professionalism. During Ferguson I started getting sadder. This time around, as someone who is married and wants to start a family one day, I feel like I got in a car accident. I survived, but I can see all of the air bag, which is unnerving. Then I get back in the car and get in another car accident, and the airbags go off again. They keep going off."

"I feel this story in my bones. I wake up in the middle of the night crying at times."

Story continues

"I feel this story in my bones. I wake up in the middle of the night crying at times. Im experiencing a different me.

The sleepless nights are a recurring theme among journalists of color who have made deaths of persons of color their unofficial beat. I havent slept more than six hours in nearly a week. Suzette Hackney, director of opinion and community engagement for the Indianapolis Star, told me, I walked six miles today trying to beat back the sorrow and depression.

I was on furlough this week, she continued, citing a company mandate that takes her off the job for one week this month because of the financial shortfall created by the coronavirus. Imagine being unable to write about this. Honestly, thats another reason this has hit me so hard. I did some journaling but its not the same. My city was insane last night and I had to sit quiet.

It has been a triple whammy for journalists like Hackney, Alcindor and others covering a pandemic that is killing black and brown bodies at a disproportionately high rate; dealing with the economic fallout from COVID-19; and another cycle of violence that follows and results in more death to black and brown bodies.

It is getting very difficult to tell the stories of black people dying on an emotional level, said John Eligon, a national correspondent covering race for The New York Times. People who look like me or family members of mine, and the practical weight that the police dont see you as a journalist but as a black man in the street.

I was walking around in Minneapolis where the protesters were, and these police floodlights came on. I didnt know if they were pointing guns at us or not because none of us could see. I was holding my phone and press pass out away from my body hoping they wouldnt think I was holding a weapon but at the same time I need to be reporting whats going on. It was a very scary moment.

I asked John if he had ever been to therapy to work out the lingering effects of covering these stories.

Not for this," he said. "I dont know if I have it siloed somewhere in my mind and at some point there will be an explosion. I try decompressing by talking these things out with my wife and unwinding that way.

Its a unique balancing act, juggling your humanity with your profession against the backdrop of both being under relentless attack in todays toxic political environment.

In 2016, when her fiance proposed to her, Alcindor couldnt help but think of Sean Bell, the black man New York City police shot and killed ten years earlier on the morning of his wedding.

My journalism is about emotion and being attached, Alcindor said. The moment I cover a story and I dont think about it nonstop, I need to find another story.

Still, some topics force her to assume a heavier burden than others. In 2016, when her fiance proposed to her, she couldnt help but think of Sean Bell, the black man New York City police shot and killed 10 years earlier on the morning of his wedding. The three detectives charged in the shooting were all acquitted.

The day he got down on one knee and proposed I started praying he would survive to the wedding day, she said. Thats not normal, but thats what America has become.

When I saw [Jimenez] getting arrested, my husband was standing in front of the TV with his mouth open. Hes a journalist like me and he couldnt believe it. It felt very personal  the criminalization of a black journalist. [Jimenez] is an amazing reporter and was very professional, but he didnt have a choice. In that moment, with all of those officers  it was shocking and scary to watch.

In these moments, we dont have a choice. Journalists of color recognize how important, essential, it is that we be there to bear witness. I do not look forward to going back into the streets to hear the cries of a hurting people. In fact, I dread it. But I do it because I recognize the melody. Their song is my song. Their pain is my pain. They have taken to the streets because they feel they have no other choice. So I, and others, follow, because neither do we.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-31 20:18:57|Editor: huaxia

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China's nationwide poverty-alleviation campaign, which vows to eliminate absolute poverty by 2020, is set to bring a better life to these kids.





NANCHANG, May 31 (Xinhua) -- Childhood should be full of love and laughter. Yet some children have shouldered a much heavier burden. Just as an old Chinese saying goes, children in poor families are forced to grow up faster and become independent quicker than their peers.

China's nationwide poverty-alleviation campaign, which vows to eliminate absolute poverty by 2020, is set to bring a better life to these kids.





YANGCUN VILLAGE

Zhou Tao, Yangcun Village of Suichuan County, eastern China's Jiangxi Province, finally bid farewell to his shadow "friend," a white gauze mask, after years of painful struggles.

This combo photo taken respectively on Nov. 5, 2014 and on April 30, 2020 shows Zhou Tao (R) feeding his mother with a lollipop in mask (up) and without mask (down) in Suichuan County, east China's Jiangxi Province. (Xinhua/Zhou Mi)

In March 2014, at the age of 13, the boy was disfigured in an accidental fire, in which 38 percent of his entire body was burned.

Since then, Zhou has been wearing a mask and became "the boy behind the mask."

Zhou Tao is helped as his mother applies medicine on his skin at home in Suichuan County, east China's Jiangxi Province, April 30, 2020. (Xinhua/Peng Zhaozhi)

"I dared not hang out," he reminisced. "The strange looks from passers-by made me uncomfortable, and it even led me into a spiral of self-loathing."

With the love and support from his family and schoolmates, as well as years of continued rehabilitation, his wounded heart was gradually healed.

"I'm recovering well, though obvious scars can still be seen on my face, neck, hands and feet," Zhou said. "Compared with five years ago, I no longer feel inferior, and now I go out alone now."

Zhou Tao (L) holds his younger brother to pick wild loquat fruit from a tree near their home in Suichuan County, east China's Jiangxi Province, April 30, 2020. (Xinhua/Peng Zhaozhi)

Zhou's family was registered as low-income in 2017 and granted living allowances and subsidies for his surgeries. A surgery in 2018 cost the family over 36,500 yuan (about 5,108 U.S. dollars), 90 percent of which was reimbursed. The government also provides the family with low-interest loans to help them start their own business.

"I hope my son could live a normal and better life," said Zhou's 43-year-old mother.

Zhou Tao (L) teaches his younger brother to play guitar at home in Suichuan County, east China's Jiangxi Province, April 29, 2020. (Xinhua/Zhou Mi)





SHANGYUAN VILLAGE

Luo Meiwei, 12, and her younger brother are left-behind children in Shangyuan Village, Jiangxi Province. The two used to squeeze into a leaky, shabby house with their grandmother.

This combo photo taken respectively on May 8, 2015 and on May 8, 2020 shows Luo Meiwei (L, back), her brother Luo Chenghui and their grandma posing for a photo in their old house (up) and new house (down) in Shangyuan Village, Ruijin City of east China's Jiangxi Province. (Xinhua/Wan Xiang)

"We had to finish homework before sunset as there was no electricity in the old house," recalled Luo, who now lives in a three-storey cement building with three bedrooms and access to high-speed internet with the help of the local government.

Luo Meiwei (R), her brother Luo Chenghui (L) and their grandma have lunch in their new house in Shangyuan Village, Ruijin City of east China's Jiangxi Province, May 8, 2020. (Xinhua/Wan Xiang)

Luo Meiwei (R) and her brother Luo Chenghui walk in a field in Shangyuan Village, Ruijin City of east China's Jiangxi Province, May 7, 2020. (Xinhua/Wan Xiang)

A passionate reader, she had famous lines extracted from her beloved novels pasted on the wall. The village library, which was built in 2015 with a collection of over 2,000 books, is her favorite place to spend her time.

"The collection includes encyclopedias and books on agricultural technologies, Chinese literature and foreign novels, among others. The library has offered a window for kids in our village to know more about the world as many have no chance of traveling out of the mountains," said Zeng Meichang, a village official.

Luo Meiwei (L) and her brother Luo Chenghui have fun in a field in Shangyuan Village, Ruijin City of east China's Jiangxi Province, May 7, 2020. (Xinhua/Wan Xiang)





XIUSHUI COUNTY

In 2012, when Xu Na, from Xiushui County of Jiangxi, was just six years old, her mother was diagnosed with uremia, and her medical expenses cost all the family's savings.

The originally well-off family of four could only live in a small space with a monthly rent of 200 yuan in 2014 when Xinhua reporters first visited them.

To help reduce the financial burden, Xu, who was just 1.2 meters tall and weighed less than 20 kg, began to learn how to cook and wash clothes while taking care of her 3-year-old sister. Photos of her standing on a chair to cook moved many people across the country.

This combo photo taken respectively on Nov. 29, 2014 and on May 19, 2020 shows Xu Na (R) making food with her younger sister by side in their old house (up, taken by Chen Zixia) and new house (down, taken by Zhou Mi) in Xiushui County, east China's Jiangxi Province. (Xinhua)

When Xinhua reporters revisited them this year, the family had moved to a 100-square-meter new house thanks to the poverty alleviation relocation policy in inhospitable areas.

"We now have our own house, and my father works as a chef at a local restaurant," said Xu. "I believe life will get better and better."

Xu Na (R) passes a dish she made for her mother and younger sister at home in Xiushui County, east China's Jiangxi Province, May 19, 2020. (Xinhua/Zhou Mi)

Xu Na (C) has lunch with her younger sister (L) and their mother in their new house in Xiushui County, east China's Jiangxi Province, May 19, 2020. (Xinhua/Zhou Mi)

Across China, more than 9.6 million poor people have been relocated to more habitable areas over the past several years, getting access to more job opportunities and better public services.

Around 5.51 million people remained impoverished at the end of 2019, but China intends to lift them from poverty by the end of this year. The total number of people emerging out of poverty will have reached 100 million since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012. 




Silence washes over the protestors as they arrive back at the State House and hundreds take a knee in unison and in protest of police killings of black people #protests2020 #BostonProtests @bostonherald pic.twitter.com/E39n6Kootf  Erin Tiernan (@ErinTiernan) May 31, 2020

Protests throughout Boston were held on Sunday to publicly respond to the death of 46-year-old George Floyd, a Minnesota man who was killed while being taken into police custody by an officer who knelt on his throat.

On the Facebook event page, the organizers state that the protest is nonviolent and warned those that wished to attend to observe the social distancing guidelines.

The first of three Boston protests, organized by the group, Justice for George Floyd, began at 3 p.m. outside of City Hall.

The second protest led by a group of pastors, called Clergy United in Prayer, Protest and Justice, also began at 3 p.m. on Washington Street in Roxbury. From there, those involved marched to Boston Police Headquarters.

Prior to the event, the pastors called for those attending to to pray for all the hurt and broken-hearted, to protest the continued killing of black people, and to call forth justice in our city, our Commonwealth, and our Nation.

Another protest was expected to take place in the city at 6:30 p.m. as people are expected to gather at Nubian Square in the citys Roxbury neighborhood. From there, protesters were to march to the State House on Beacon Hill.

Our officers are out in full force to guard and protect everyones rights. And, while everyone has a right to free speech, nobody has the right to hurt or harm people or property, tweeted the Boston Police Department.

If youre protesting in Boston this evening, please know our #1 priority is to keep everybody safe. Our officers are out in full force to guard and protect everyones rights. And, while everyone has a right to free speech, nobody has the right to hurt or harm people or property. pic.twitter.com/TREs7TU020  Boston Police Dept. (@bostonpolice) May 31, 2020

Worcester also saw a show of solidarity for Floyd when according to The Worcester Telegram, hundreds of black-clad protesters gathered at City Hall and made their way toward the police station at approximately 3 p.m.

The crowd then made its way toward the courthouse just after 4 p.m. and laid on the ground in protest.

Related Content:
The one-year-old boy initially tested negative on the first day after arriving, but the test results on May 28 and 29 turned positive.

With the newest case, the number of infected passengers on the May 13 flight from Russia has increased to 34. All have been in quarantine since arrival, posing no risk of transmission to the community.

Vietnam has not recorded any community infection of COVID-19 for 44 consecutive days since 6am April 16 to 6am May 30.

A total of 7,870 people who had close contact with COVID-19 patients or returned from pandemic-hit areas are being quarantined.

Among the 328 patients recorded so far, 278 have been given the all clear, and there has been no death.
As India gears up to enter the next stage of lockdown with significant relaxations, public health experts, including two members of an ICMR research group, have said that community transmission has been established in the country.

A joint statement issued by Indian Public Health Association, Indian Association of Preventive and Social Medicine and Indian Association of Epidemiologists said: It is unrealistic to expect that COVID-19 pandemic can be eliminated at this stage given that community transmission is already well-established across large sections or sub-populations in the country.

The government has, however, repeatedly said that no community transmission has taken place so far in India.

On Saturday, India's COVID-19 death toll crossed the 5,000-mark and the case count reached 1.76 lakh after a record spike in numbers of new cases and fatalities, while the government said a phased exit would begin on June 1m from the months-long nationwide lockdown.

Indias nationwide lockdown from March 25, 2020 till May 30, 2020 has been one of the most stringent; and yet COVID cases have increased exponentially through this phase This draconian lockdown is presumably in response to a modeling exercise from an influential institution which was a worst-case simulation,'" the statement said.

The signatories of the statement include Dr Shashi Kant, Professor & Head, Centre for Community Medicine AIIMS, New Delhi and Dr DCS Reddy, Former Professor & Head, Community Medicine, BHU. The two are part of an ICMR research group which was set up on April 6 on epidemiology and surveillance for Covid-19. Notably, Dr Reddy chairs the group.

The statement added that the subsequent events had proven that the predictions of this model were way off the mark.

"Had the Government of India consulted epidemiologists who had better grasp of disease transmission dynamics compared to modelers, it would have perhaps been better served, it said.

The statement further says that the handling of the migrant workers has added to the challenges in limiting the spread of Covid-19, the IE report added. The signatories make a range of recommendations, including the setting up of a panel of inter-disciplinary preventive health and public health experts and social scientists at central, state and district levels to tackle both public health and humanitarian crises.
Mascettis daughters, Caterina, Alessia and Paola Rodrigues, attend a private school. They receive assignments from their teachers through Google Classroom and participate in live lessons over Zoom. Mascetti has developed a routine: She gets instructions from the school as early as 7:30 a.m. and spends the rest of the morning monitoring her daughters classes. She has created a board for each class every week.
The Google building in the south lake union area late in the day. Photo: Getty

Google (GOOG) has rescinded job offers to more than 2,000 contract and temporary workers preparing to join the tech giant.

The latest cost-cutting measures come as the 810bn ($1tn) company claims its advertising revenue has dropped "significantly" during the coronavirus pandemic.

Many of the workers Google was about to take on had left full-time jobs to join the firm, and now find themselves unemployed, Business Insider reports.

In some cases this has delayed their eligibility to receive unemployment benefit because they left their last job voluntarily.

"We're slowing our pace of hiring and investment, and are not bringing on as many new starters as we had planned at the beginning of the year," Google told contracting agencies, according to The New York Times.

READ MORE: Coronavirus, dire data, geopolitical unrest: Markets brace for turbulence

The company had previously announced plans to slow hiring in 2020 and implement hiring freezes on non-essential areas of the business to offset COVID-19 losses.

More than half of Google's 253,000 workforce is made of contractors and temp workers, employed through external agencies.

These employees do not have access to the same benefits as full-time staff such as childcare and employment protection.

In April, Sundar Pichai, chief executive of Googles parent company Alphabet, told employees via a memo that the company would be slowing the pace of hiring with the exception of several strategic areas.

At the time the company confirmed Google intended to honour its agreement with people already hired who had not yet started. But it appears this did not apply to contractors or temporary workers.

Despite claiming to have a "sudden slowdown" in advertising, the company made 5.5bn profit in the first three months of 2020.
Kim Chun-ho, a fifth-generation hanji maker, poses for a photo after an interview with The Korea Times at the Hanji Culture and Industry Center in Seoul, May 20. / Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk



By Kwak Yeon-soo



Kim Chun-ho, 46, is a fifth-generation hanji maker following in his father's footsteps. His father, hanji master Kim Sam-shik, was designated as Intangible Cultural Heritage No. 23-B of North Gyeongsang Province in 2005.



"Since I was six years old, I've been trained to make hanji. I became fully involved in the papermaking business in 2000," Kim said during a recent interview with The Korea Times.



Hanji refers to traditional Korean paper made from the bark of paper mulberry trees. It is formed with laminated sheets and finished sheets are pounded to compress the fibers.



Although the hanji making process has evolved over centuries, the most traditional method involves the same steps used during the Goryeo and Joseon Kingdoms.



To make hanji, Kim harvests bark from paper mulberry trees usually between November and February from his own land that covers approximately 10,000 square meters.



"The busiest time for traditional hanji makers is from mid-October to early April as rice paddy agriculture begins in April and crop production comes in September," he said.



According to him, hanji making season ahead of crop production is the result of old Korean farmers' wisdom. "Although we're not involved in the crop production, we try to stick to the annual cycle of our ancestors," he said.



Once the paper mulberry trees are dried under the sun, Kim puts them in water where they are steamed for eight hours. Kim then removes the outer layer. The inner bark is then boiled in lye for four to five hours. Then, the boiled bark is washed and pounded before mulberry starch is added.



The fibers are scooped out of the water and lined horizontally and vertically on a wide rectangle sieve. Finally, the hanji is placed on top of a wooden board to dry.



"Hanji is similar to the Japanese paper 'washi,' but they are different in terms of the sheet formation technique," Kim said. "In contrast to washi that lines fibers in one direction, hanji requires fibers to flow up and down, side to side to make the paper stronger and more durable."





Kim Sam-shik makes hanji in his workshop named Mungyeong Traditional Hanji in Mungyeong, North Gyeongsang Province. / Courtesy of HCIC







Each year, Kim's workshop named Mungyeong Traditional Hanji produces about 15,000 to 20,000 sheets of hanji (60x90 centimeters). His hanji has a rough surface and a yellowish white color because he does not use bleaching chemicals.



Kim recalled that for his first five years as an apprentice, he followed his father's principle of producing as much paper as possible. In the past, hanji was in high demand because it was widely used to meet basic daily needs. Hanji makers were often specialized in making jangpanji (floor covering paper) and changhoji (window covering paper).



Over time, Kim wanted to improve the quality of the resulting products while upholding the traditional craft. He realized that they needed different approaches in order to preserve the centuries-old practice of hanji making: focusing on quality, not quantity.



"Today's customers use hanji for different purposes compared with customers from my father's generation. Nowadays, people rarely use hanji for basic daily needs but instead use it for decoration or the conservation of works of art," he said. "So I persuaded my father to make thinner, high quality hanji that caters to individual needs."



However, this does not mean Kim wants to adopt modern devices to streamline the production process. "I think following the ancient method is all about preserving our cultural heritage. Some ask me if I'd be willing to use a machine that pounds mulberry bark, and my answer to them is 'no' because it affects the quality of the resulting paper," he said.



"The purpose of running our workshop is to follow the exact same principle of artisans of the Goryeo and Joseon Kingdoms."



Thanks to his dedication to keeping the tradition alive, Mungyeong Traditional Hanji gained international recognition. In 2017, hanji was used by the Louvre Museum in Paris in the restoration of a handle ornament from an antique writing desk from 18th century Bavaria that belonged to King Maximilian II.



"The members of the cultural asset restoration team at the Louvre Museum visited our workshop three times to inspect the entire hanji making process. I also flew to Paris to introduce the traditional papermaking process at a Louvre Museum academic seminar," he said. "I heard in Europe, roughly 99 percent of the paper used for restoration is from Japan. I was glad I could share hanji's excellence."





Hanji left to dry naturally on a wooden panel / Courtesy of HCIC
The peaceful atmosphere of a citywide march against police brutality on Saturday afternoon slowly diminished as increasingly violent demonstrations took over San Francisco later in the night, causing Mayor London Breed to establish an 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew that will be enforced across the city and county on Sunday evening. It will be extended indefinitely.

I want to take this opportunity to really address the hurt and pain and frustration that I know so many people not only in San Francisco but across the country share for the unfortunate consistent violence that we see as it relates to African-American men who are unfortunately killed by police officers, Breed said at the beginning of a virtual press conference this morning.

When the curfew began at 8 p.m., the San Francisco Police Department declared an unlawful assembly outside City Hall, where a crowd of protesters remained.

At least a thousand masked residents gathered in front of City Hall on Saturday afternoon to protest the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, as well as other people of color who have died in police custody. Cars honked in solidarity as people marched down Market Street, along the Embarcadero and to the Bay Bridge, where they were stopped by a line of armed police officers before they could move forward. The demonstrators turned around and attempted to make their way onto the bridge at the I-80 Fremont St. off-ramp, chanting Floyd's name, but were again met by law enforcement.

So they kneeled.

Waiting in silence for close to nine minutes  the amount of time a Minneapolis police officer kneeled on the neck of Floyd while two others held him down  a speaker read aloud the transcript of Floyds last words as he died. Another reiterated the intentions of the demonstrators.

We are not here to destroy the property. We are here to protest the status quo, said organizer Raiah Sinn. The crowd moved down Folsom Street toward the Mission District, where the march ended at the police station there just after 6 p.m.

At that point, most of the crowd had dispersed, but violence escalated later that night as people damaged businesses around the city and lit off fireworks outside the home of Mayor Breed. A number of stores on Market Street were also broken into, including Old Navy, CVS, Walgreens, Marshall's, Urban Outfitters, Starbucks and Zumiez. The sign in front of Googles corporate office in Hills Plaza had also been defaced.

The San Francisco Police Department made 10 felony arrests, though many others, including juveniles, were detained and then released, while others were issued citations, according to police chief Bill Scott.

It is hard not to have a reaction. It is hard not to feel the pain, especially when you hear someone who is struggling and others are standing around and watching and not doing anything, Breed tearfully continued during the conference. That is what we know is at the heart of the protest. And as mayor, it doesnt mean Im immune to feeling the hurt and the pain. Having my own experiences, especially growing up here in San Francisco.

Yet, Breed was firm as she addressed the ensuing disturbances. Molotov cocktails were thrown at police officers, cars and other properties as small fires blazed throughout the city's downtown area. San Francisco Fire Department chief Jeanine Nicholson said firefighters responded to approximately 250 medical calls on Saturday night. Police are still determining full statistics, and Scott said he is in talks with District Attorney Chesa Boudin to enhance the charges made against those breaking into businesses during a public health emergency.

We will always support and tolerate peaceful protests because people deserve to have that vehicle, but when it rises to the level of a crime we have an obligation, said Breed. And were in the midst of COVID-19. Imagine how many more infections are going to occur because of these large gatherings, because theyre not necessarily being done safely.

In addition to implementing the curfew  one that includes businesses but is exempt for essential workers like doctors, nurses, police, firefighters and public safety workers  the city will bring in an additional 200 law enforcement personnel from the surrounding region. The California National Guard is also on standby.

In San Jose, a citywide curfew was carried out by city manager Dave Sykes via a local proclamation of emergency late Sunday afternoon. It will start at 8:30 p.m. and remain in effect "for the next 7 days or until further notice," according to a statement from the city. The city of Santa Clara also announced an indefinite 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew Sunday night.

We need your help and we need your cooperation. As a police officer with 31 years in this business, I will close with this: In 1992, when I was with the LAPD, I had two and a half years of experience as a police officer," said Scott. He choked up as he recounted the evening thousands rioted in protest of the violence enacted on Rodney King and the subsequent verdicts. "I was at work on April 29, 1992. Sixty-four people died that night. Sixty-four people. Think about that. Stay at home. We have work to do to keep each other and our city safe that we have worked so hard to build. We dont want to see it go up in flames.

The conference ended as Mary Ellen Carroll, executive director of San Franciscos Department of Emergency Management, urged protesters to get tested for the coronavirus.

We still want everyone to practice social distancing to the extent possible and definitely to wear masks while youre out, she said. Testing has indicated if you develop symptoms or if you have exposure to someone who is a confirmed positive  we would recommend folks get tested. So the answer is to stick with our current protocols, test if you have exposure or if you develop symptoms.

On Monday morning at 11 a.m., Breed will be joined by actor Jamie Foxx, San Francisco supervisor Shamann Walton and San Francisco NAACP director Rev. Amos C. Brown, among others, for a peaceful kneel-in protest in front of City Hall.

She was seen kneeling among protesters at a demonstration held in the Mission District later on Sunday afternoon.

Correction: An earlier version of this story stated the demonstration on Monday morning would take place at the San Francisco Police Department headquarters in Mission Bay. It will be located at City Hall.

Amanda Bartlett is an SFGATE digital reporter. Email: amanda.bartlett@sfgate.com | Twitter: @byabartlett
Chanting No justice, no peace, at least 1,000 protesters are marching in Trenton on Sunday in the latest demonstration in New Jersey prompted by the police killing of George Floyd six days ago in Minnesota.

The march culminated at a police station, where some officers took a knee in solidarity with the protesters  who then defended the officers as someone from the back threw water in their direction.

Crowd made a plea for officers to take a knee with the protesters. As officers went took a knee, protesters in the back threw water bottles at the officers. Protest leaders telling them to stop pic.twitter.com/RFCSjNmTeD  Chris Franklin (@cfranklinnews) May 31, 2020

Marchers earlier knelt in prayer for Floyd, who was killed after an officer placed a knee on his neck, stopping him from breathing freely.

Anita Broach was holding a sign that read, If youre angry, vote.

I have two African American sons, and weve been marching, saying, uttering, black lives matter. It didnt seem like it mattered, so Im out here to protest, to support my sons, and our black children, she said.

Hundreds have gathered outside the Trenton State House to protest police brutality pic.twitter.com/Y8hubcVfzG  Chris Franklin (@cfranklinnews) May 31, 2020

Protesters gathered in Trenton, as well as Glassboro, Pitman, Atlantic City, Rahway and Linden on Saturday, to call for an end to police brutality after Floyd, a Minneapolis man, was killed.

The officer who put the knee on his neck, Derek Chauvin, was charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter. Chauvin and three other officers were also fired from the department.

Since videos of the incident were released, protests and riots have occurred across the country, including throughout New Jersey and in New York City and Philadelphia. In New Jersey, the protests have been mainly peaceful, with the Camden County Police Department joining one of the marches in Camden Saturday.

Trenton march organizers created the gathering to honor the people who lost their lives due to police brutality.

Preparing for the protest in TrentonEd Murray / NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Biambi McCoy addressed protestors from a podium when the march reached the Capitol Building Annex.

This movement is about the people," McCoy said. Our work has to be in the area of shaping and working to produce elected officials who will move policy in and outside of the institution of policing, to change it  so we say together, no more."

Pastor Antonio Bellamy, of Transformation Church, said, Weve got to be the change that we want to see in our community.

After the speeches, a second march on State Street got underway, eventually reaching the police station.

Protesters have reached the front of the Trenton Police HQ building pic.twitter.com/eLfyUq5NFp  Chris Franklin (@cfranklinnews) May 31, 2020

In Atlantic City, hundreds of protestors met at the public safety building and marched toward the citys shopping outlet, temporarily halting traffic coming off the Atlantic City Expressway. The group continued on toward the boardwalk and the Tropicana before coming back to the public safety building  about a two-hour march. Protestors lingered outside after.

The demonstration in Atlantic City, like in other New Jersey communities, was peaceful. At one point, an Atlantic City police officer kneeled with the protestors.

Today is a good step in the right direction, said Troy Oglesby, one of the protestors. This is where people got a chance to voice their opinion about the atrocity that happened to George Floyd. Everybody can obviously see that was excessive force and something that could have been avoided. You had enough officers on the scene that could have intervened and saved that mans life.

23 Protests continue across N.J. after George Floyds death

NJ Advance Media multimedia specialist Tim Hawk contributed to this story.

Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a voluntary subscription. Tell us your coronavirus story or send a tip here.

Chris Franklin may be reached at cfranklin@njadvancemedia.com.
After reviewing over 300 companies, NASA has selected three Indian firms among the 13 international manufacturers to make the brand new low-cost ventilator that would assist the patients of COVID-19. The engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California have come with a prototype of the machine in 37 days and have even received an emergency use authorization from the US government.

The three Indian companies who will join NASAs venture to manufacture VITAL (Ventilator Intervention Technology Accessible Locally) are Alpha Design Technologies Pvt Ltd, Bharat Forge Ltd and Medha Servo Drives Pvt Ltd.

NASA has even shortlisted eight US-based companies to build the ventilator that would use only one-seventh of the parts that are required to build a traditional ventilator. While many countries are still rocked with the unprecedented outbreak of deadly coronavirus, VITAL is a simpler and more affordable option for treating the critical patients of the coronavirus infection. Thus, NASAs new machine would enable hospitals across the world to free the traditional ventilators for severe patients of COVID-19 disease.

"The VITAL team is very excited to see its technology licenced," Leon Alkalai, Manager of the JPL Office of Strategic Partnerships, and a member of the VITAL leadership team, said in a statement.

"Our hope is to have this technology reach across the world and provide an additional source of solution to deal with the ongoing Covid-19 crisis," it added.

In total, NASA has shortlisted 21 companies out of total 331 interested firms, including three Indian, eight American, three Brazilian, and one each from Canada, Egypt, Malaysia, Mexico, Turkey, UAE.

Read - ISS Crew Welcomes Hurley And Behnken Onboard; NASA Chief Asks 'did You Get Any Sleep?'

Read - Enroute ISS, NASA-SpaceX Crew Give Tour Of 'Dragonship Endeavour'; Show Off Dragon Inside

'Firsts for humanity'

NASA's prototype of the ventilator has been hailed by the organisation's Administrator Jim Bridenstine. According to him, VITAL is one of the many "countless examples" that show the investments of taxpayers money in space exploration. The researchers at NASA have been able to push boundaries and achieve "firsts for humanity" to make life better on earth.

"This ventilator is one of the countless examples of how taxpayer investments in space exploration - the skills, expertise and knowledge collected over decades of pushing boundaries and achieving firsts for humanity - translate into advancements that improve life on Earth," NASA chief.

See how a team of JPL engineers, fueled by a desire to help as #COVID19 hit, worked to make a ventilator prototype  VITAL  in just 37 days. 100+ manufacturers from around the world have applied for a free license to build VITAL. https://t.co/9ubj0Nj9Kn#InThisTogether pic.twitter.com/XOVpqSUnmn  NASA JPL (@NASAJPL) May 15, 2020

Read - NASA-SpaceX Crew Dragon Blasts Off Into Space With 'unique Guest' On Board

Read - Trump Lauds US' 'bold Return To Space' After NASA-SpaceX's Crew Dragon Launch

Image Source: medeng.jpl.nasa.gov
The Delhi Medical Association (DMA) has written to the Delhi government demanding the appointment of a nodal officer, and standard protocols to ensure coordination between the government and the 117 private nursing homes and hospitals that were roped in to treat Covid-19 patients.

The government had last week ordered these institutes with a minimum bed capacity of 50 to reserve 20% of beds for Covid-19 patients and 70 had complied, according to an official.

In the letter to Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on May 26, DMAs Nursing Homes and Medical Establishment Forum (NH and MEF) wing wrote that serious Covid-19 cases admitted in nursing homes will need to be treated in tertiary care centres.

Dr. Ajay Bedi, honorary secretary of DMAs NH and MEF wing, said, In such a case, the patient needs to be shifted and for this there has to be a nodal officer whom we can call. This officer should be responsible for arranging the bed for the transfer to higher tertiary care facilities and transportation in case of death.

They also demanded that the doctors and paramedical staff at these facilities be covered under the state governments insurance scheme for healthcare workers.

The DMA highlighted the difficulty in segregating Covid and non-Covid patients, and also staff shortage in such institutions.

We are as it is functioning only with just over half our staff strength as the rest live far away and cannot report for duty without public transport. For Covid-19, we will have to keep dedicated staff as we will have to reserve 24 beds. We dont know how we will manage it, said the medical director of a 120-bedded hospital in West Delhi, requesting anonymity.

Many of the designated Covid-19 hospitals in the private sector are on the brink of reaching capacity. The number of cases have been increasing in the city in the last few days, with over 1,000 new cases being reported for four days in a row on Sunday.

The Association of Healthcare Providers (India) -- which has at least 10,000 member hospitals across the country -- had also raised concerns over several smaller medical institutions finding it difficult to conform to the strict guidelines issued in the matter by the Delhi government.

It is difficult for smaller hospitals to completely separate the Covid and non-Covid areas, have separate entrances or stringently implement the standard operating procedures by the health ministry to prevent the spread of the infection, said Giridhar Gyani, director-general, Association of Healthcare Providers (India). We suggest that the government could designate two or three hospitals entirely in each district to get the same number of beds.

Dr. PK Bhardwaj, secretary, Delhi Voluntary Hospital Forum, an association of major hospitals in the city, said: Many hospitals that were constructed more than 10 years ago do not have planned isolation areas. This means that the air conditioning system and the gas pipeline is shared throughout the hospital. Now, this pipeline is also used for suction of fluids that go into a central repository, this can lead to further spread of the infection within the hospitals.

When contacted, a senior Delhi government official aware of the development said, The government is working on protocols for these hospitals. It will have details about what kind of arrangements have to be made at these hospitals. We are making all the possible arrangements to ensure people dont face any kind of difficulty.

On designating hospitals to treat Covid-19 patients, another senior government official said, We would have preferred to designate full hospitals en-bloc to treat the rising cases, but hospitals did not come forward for that.

Dr. Jugal Kishore, head of the department community medicine at Safdarjung Hospital, said, This is the time when all medical institutions should pitch-in. As far as appointing a nodal officer is concerned, the government should appoint area-wise nodal officers for better coordination between various hospitals. The number of ventilator-beds available should be accessible to all.
McKinsey & Company Global Managing Partner Kevin Sneader speaks in a video address at the 2020 Korea Times Forum held at The Plaza Seoul, Thursday. / Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul



McKinsey chairman warns of 'return of borders' in trade



By Kim Bo-eun



Korea has demonstrated a new partnership model in tackling the global challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic by enhancing the collaboration between the government and businesses in an agile manner, according to McKinsey & Company Global Managing Partner Kevin Sneader, Thursday.



The chief of the world's top consulting firm expects that this new, unprecedented private-public partnership model will likely play a bigger role in addressing various issues in the post-pandemic world



"This pandemic has seen the Korean public and private sector collaborate. That must be a model that has broader implications," Sneader said in a speech at The Korea Times Forum held at The Plaza Seoul hotel, Thursday.



"It talks to a way of partnering for the future in the Korean economy on the whole," he noted in the speech delivered via video, at the event addressing the new post COVID-19 normal.



Such collaboration was seen in procedures such as prompt public testing and contact tracing, which led to Korea being recognized for its effective response to the crisis.



This partnership is part of a global phenomenon, where collaboration is seen across all sectors.



"There have been some valuable lessons learned about the way in which businesses, the way in which governments, the way in which people can collaborate in order to tackle the problems we now face, the way in which innovations can be accelerated," Sneader said.



"These features are likely to continue and are likely to shape the next normal."






Saudi Muslim worshippers maintain a safe distance as they perform noon prayers at Al-Rajhi mosque in the capital Riyadh on Sunday Saudi Muslim worshippers maintain a safe distance as they perform noon prayers at Al-Rajhi mosque in the capital Riyadh on Sunday (AFP Photo/FAYEZ NURELDINE)

Riyadh (AFP) - Mask-clad worshippers flocked to Saudi mosques that reopened nationwide Sunday -- except in the holy city of Mecca - over two months after congregational prayers were halted under a coronavirus-triggered lockdown.

Complying with stringent social distancing rules, worshippers kept a minimum of two metres apart.

They had been instructed to bring their own prayer mats and to perform the cleansing ritual, or ablution, at home, instead of in mosque grounds.

"Worshippers rushed to the home of God to perform their obligatory duty (prayers) after the reopening of mosques," the ministry of Islamic affairs said on Twitter.

The ministry posted a video showing a mosque with many worshippers wearing face masks and reaching out for a large bottle of hand sanitiser after prayers.

Authorities have instructed mosques to avoid crowding and the distribution of food, drinks, incense and miswak twigs used to clean teeth, according to the ministry.

But some complained that worshippers were not strictly complying with the rules.

"I prayed, praise be to God, in the neighbourhood mosque... and it was a beautiful feeling," said one Twitter user.

"But I swear to God that some people do not care about anything. No face mask. No rug."

- Easing curbs -

Saudi Arabia, home to Islam's holiest sites, had shut down mosques nationwide for more than two months to limit the spread of the COVID-19 respiratory disease.

The kingdom, which has reported the highest number of coronavirus cases in the Gulf, is emerging from a full nationwide curfew imposed during Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim holiday that marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.

Domestic air traffic also resumed on Sunday, with state media saying around 100 flights were scheduled.

The interior ministry intends to ease restrictions in a phased manner, with the curfew lifted nationwide - except in Mecca -- between 6:00am and 8:00pm (0300 GMT and 1700 GMT) until June 20.

Story continues

The kingdom will lift the lockdown entirely from June 21, Mecca aside.

In Mecca, a virus hotspot, the curfew will be lifted between 6:00am and 3:00pm until June 20, and thereafter the curfew will be shortened by a further five hours.

Saudi Arabia has reported more than 85,000 coronavirus infections and 503 deaths from COVID-19.

In March, it suspended the year-round "umrah" pilgrimage over fears of the disease spreading in the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.

That suspension will remain in place until further notice, the interior ministry said.

Authorities are yet to announce whether they will proceed with this year's hajj -- scheduled for late July -- but they have urged Muslims to temporarily defer preparations for the annual pilgrimage.

Last year, some 2.5 million faithful travelled to Saudi Arabia from around the world to participate in the hajj, which Muslims are obliged to perform at least once during their lifetime.

Mecca's Grand Mosque has been almost devoid of worshippers since March, with an eerie emptiness surrounding the sacred Kaaba -- the large cube-shaped structure towards which Muslims around the world pray.

But mosque employees and security personnel have been allowed to attend prayers.
Major U.S. cities have implemented curfews and called on National Guard to mobilize as thousands of demonstrators gather across the nation to continue protesting the death of George Floyd.

The state of play: Hundreds have already been arrested as tensions continue to rise between protesters and local governments. Protesters are setting police cars on fire as freeways remain blocked and windows are shattered, per the Washington Post. Law enforcement officials are using tear gas and rubber bullets to try to disperse crowds and send protesters home.

The Army Secretary activated the Washington, D.C., National Guard on Saturday night in response to a U.S. Park Police request "to help maintain order during protests in the vicinity of the White House," per an official statement.

Protesters in New York City made their way to Trump Tower in Manhattan where at least seven people were arrested, according to The New York Times.

Minneapolis police said they had been "overwhelmed" as they respond to hundreds of 911 calls about gunfire, property damage and burglaries, per the Post.

A crowd of protesters tried to tear down the statue of former Mayor Frank Rizzo, who was also a police officer and the Philadelphia police commissioner in the late 1960s and early 1970s, The Philadelphia Inquirer reports.

Where curfews have been implemented:

Chicago, Illinois

Salt Lake City, Utah

Atlanta, Georgia

Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Los Angeles and Beverly Hills, California

Denver, Colorado

Seattle, Washington

Portland and Eugene, Oregon

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Dayton, Toledo, Columbus, Cincinnati and Cleveland Ohio

Lousiville, Kentucky

Rochester, New York

Miami, Florida

Nashville, Tenessee

Charleston and Columbus, South Carolina

San Francisco, California (From 8 p.m. Sunday)

Go deeper: George Floyd protests: What you need to know

Editor's note: This article has been updated with new details throughout.
YouTuber Jake Paul released a statement on Sunday after footage of him at a looted Arizona mall surfaced amid claims he and his friends were among those doing the looting.

"To be absolutely clear, neither I nor anyone in our group was engaged in any looting or vandalism," Paul said in a statement.

Paul said he and his friends spent the day joining in peaceful protests of "one of the most horrific injustices our country has ever seen," according to the statement. The video surfaced as protests and looting broke out across the country in the wake of the death of George Floyd while in police custody in Minneapolis.

"I do not condone violence, looting or breaking the law; however, I understand the anger and frustration that led to the destruction we witnessed, and while it's not the answer, it's important that people see it and collectively figure out how to move forward in a healthy way," he said.

Paul released the statement after video of him and his friends outside the mall, and later, inside the mall, went viral on social media.

The mall, reportedly Fashion Square in Scottsdale, Arizona, was being vandalized as Paul stood by and filmed. It was not clear if Paul took anything from the mall or destroyed any property.

YouTube star Jake Paul and his friends were caught looting and trashing property in a Scottsdale mall last night amid protests pic.twitter.com/KyrE87TvA9  Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz) May 31, 2020

The YouTube star is seen wearing a mask while those around him set off fireworks and break glass at the mall.

Story continues

Later, Paul is seen walking around inside the mall while filming. In an Instagram story, Paul also said he was tear gassed by police officers.

Paul's career has been plagued by controversy, and he has previously used humanitarian issues for questionable reasons.

During Hurricane Harvey, Paul traveled to Texas saying he was hoping to help those who had been victims of the natural disaster, but was met with skepticism, according to The Washington Post. During what was supposed to be a donation collection, thousands of fans turned up causing pandemonium, according to The Post.

Paul's career has seen its fair share of missteps outside of major news stories.

In 2017, he made headlines for causing a ruckus in his Beverly Grove, California, neighborhood, and he later moved. Hes also been accused of uploading content considered inappropriate for his younger audience, like a series on his channel about killer clowns who kidnapped him and his girlfriend.
As chaos stemming from protests over the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody rocked the Bay Area, many cities and counties in the region established curfews. The restrictions have since been lifted.

Here is the list of curfews that were in place.

SAN FRANCISCO COUNTY

 San Francisco: The city lifted its nightly curfew on Thursday.

ALAMEDA COUNTY

The Alameda County Sheriffs Office on Thursday morning said that a nightly curfew will be lifted immediately. Authorities asked people to check with their local jurisdiction for curfew restrictions in particular cities:

 Alameda: The city of Alameda issued a curfew from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. through Wednesday morning; the citys website now directs users to the countys curfew, which was lifted Thursday.

 Berkeley: The city lifted its nightly curfew on Thursday.

 Fremont: City officials lifted its curfew on Friday morning. Some road closures will remain in place June 5 through June 8, from 8:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m.

 Hayward: The city said its curfew was rescinded Wednesday.

 Oakland: The countys largest city on Thursday rescinded its curfew, which had run from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m.

 San Leandro: The city on Monday enacted a mandatory nightly curfew of 6 p.m. to 5 a.m., ending Monday, June 8.

 Union City: Several entrances to the Union Landing shopping center that were closed have been reopened.

CONTRA COSTA COUNTY

Contra Costa County on Thursday lifted its countywide curfew that it had instituted Tuesday, according to county Supervisor John Gioia. The cities below issued their own curfews:

 Antioch: The city on Wednesday rescinded its curfew and said instead it would follow the countys curfew order.

 Danville: In response to the looting in nearby Walnut Creek, Danville on Monday established a curfew from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m., ending Thursday.

 Lafayette: The city lifted its curfew order on Thursday.

 Moraga: The curfew was lifted on Thursday.

 Orinda: The citys curfew order has been lifted.

 Pleasant Hill: The city on Thursday rescinded its nightly curfew, following Contra Costa Countys lead, according to the Police Department.

 Walnut Creek: The city ended its curfew on Friday.

 Concord: The city ended its curfew on Friday.

NAPA COUNTY

Napa County imposed a curfew from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. that began Tuesday and ended Thursday for the area south of the city of Napa.

 American Canyon: Separately from Napa Countys action, American Canyon imposed a curfew from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. starting Tuesday and ending Thursday.

SAN MATEO COUNTY

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

San Mateo Countys two-day curfew ended Thursday.

SANTA CLARA COUNTY

 Palo Alto: The city lifted its curfew as of Thursday morning.

 Santa Clara: The curfew order issued Sunday night by the city of Santa Clara was lifted on Tuesday.

 San Jose: The City Council voted on Tuesday to lift the curfew at 5 a.m. on Thursday.

SOLANO COUNTY

The Solano County Sheriffs Office said that the countys two-day 8 p.m.-5 a.m. curfew expired Thursday morning.

 Vallejo: Separately from the county, the city of Vallejo had issued a curfew from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. The city lifted the curfew on Friday.

SONOMA COUNTY

 Santa Rosa: The 8 p.m.-5 a.m. curfew in the countys largest city expired Thursday.

Kellie Hwang is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kellie.hwang@sfchronicle.com

Reporter Matt Kawahara contributed to this story.
Peaceful protests eroded in Lincoln for the second night in a row, culminating with law enforcement officers advancing on protesters outside the County-City Building shortly after 1 a.m. on Sunday.

The clash between protesters and police heightened in the 11 o'clock hour on Saturday evening, as tear gas canisters were deployed on those in the crowd who lobbed objects, including fireworks, at law enforcement officers in riot gear.

The occasional volley of tear gas and rubber bullets continued well into Sunday morning. Across the street from the County-City Building, protesters broke windows at the Landmark Centre and adjacent office buildings on Lincoln Mall, even as they were chastised by other protesters.

Some in the crowd were seen entering the buildings, in some cases sparking fires that others in the crowd carrying fire extinguishers worked to douse.

It appeared at least one of the protesters at the County-City Building was taken into custody. Two of those carrying fire extinguishers were detained.

Hours after crowds dispersed, however, Lincoln firefighters were called to a fire at a multi-story insurance building at 601 S. 12th St.
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THE Covid-19 outbreak has forced the cancellation of the inaugural Bulawayo Day and Arts Festival which were scheduled to start on June 1, 2020.

The Bulawayo Day and the Arts Festival are hosted by the Bulawayo City Council.

The events were supposed to start this Monday, ending Saturday and were meant to provide an opportunity for the city to showcase its profound heritage, rich diversity and creative nature.

"For the past few weeks, in conjunction with all the partners and stakeholders, we have been working hard to explore all avenues to put on this year's festival," council spokesperson Nesisa Mpofu said.

"However, due to the continuing uncertainty regarding holding of public gatherings, the increasing number of coronavirus positive cases, the threat to people's health, and the potential need for an extended period of social distancing, we have taken the collective decision to suspend our 2020 programme as was planned."

Mpofu said the festival will now be held June next year while encouraging artistes and audiences to stay at home in line with a government directive to try and prevent the spread of coronavirus.

"Please be assured that we remain committed to re-launching fully in 2021," said Mpofu.

The council spokesperson said the local authority will however hold a digital launch of the event via Facebook.

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"We will however still recognise June 1 as Bulawayo Day," she said.

"We will also hold a digital launch and three special virtual online pop-up events from Wednesday 3rd June to Friday 5th June on the Bulawayo Arts Festival and city of Bulawayo Facebook pages.

"This virtual launch and footprint will run under the theme 'We Own Winter' (WOW)."

Mpofu said whilst the immediate future was uncertain, the pioneering spirit of the festival will continue through various pop-up events during the year.

"We are very sad to have had to make this decision, particularly for the many artists who were billed and had made such great work and for all the audiences and people for whom the festival is so important.

"We will be in touch once we have more news and dates for the future," she said.
Prince Joachim of Belgium on the ship GODETIA on his Promotion Day to the rank of officer of the Belgian Navy in Brugge, Belgium, on July 29, 2011. (Mark Renders/Getty Images)

Belgiums Prince Joachim Diagnosed With CCP Virus After Defying Lockdown Rules

Prince attended party in Spain

Belgiums Prince Joachim has tested positive for the CCP virus, commonly referred to as novel coronavirus, after attending a party in Spain, according to the countrys royal palace.

Joachim, 28, who is ninth in line to the throne, traveled to Madrid on May 24 for professional reasons, Spanish news outlet El Pais reported. The BBC reports that Joachim had gone there for an internship and also is known to have a longstanding relationship with a Spanish woman.

After arriving in Madrid, he took a high-speed AVE train to the southern city of Cordoba, where he attended a party the following day. It is while at the party that he allegedly contracted the virus, the BBC reported. The Epoch Times wasnt able to independently confirm this.

The young prince was reportedly among 27 people at the party, and the Belgian royal family confirmed to Flemish newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws that hes since been diagnosed with COVID-19, and has mild symptoms. He must quarantine in Spain for two weeks.

Spanish police are investigating the gathering; the 27 people who attended are in quarantine and may face a fine of between 600 euros ($666) and 10,000 euros ($11,100) for breaking Cordobas lockdown rules, which state that no more than 15 people are permitted to attend private parties or gatherings.

Spanish newspaper El Confidencial, which cited a document from the Andalucian authorities, was first to report the story but didnt identify the prince.

Rafaela Valenzuela, a representative of the Spanish government in Cordoba, condemned the party, calling those who attended irresponsible, and noting that the number of people who attended multiplied, could cause an outbreak, which would set the city back after passing phase 2 of its coronavirus deescalation plan.

I feel surprised and indignant, given that at a moment of national mourning for so many dead, an incident of this type stands out, she said. That is unforgivable. The police are investigating not just the observance of confinement measures, but also the breaking of other rules, given that we are still under a state of alarm. The virus is still out there.

Prince Joachim is the second member of the Belgian royal family to have contracted COVID-19, after Prince Laurent confirmed earlier this month that his wife, Princess Claire, was diagnosed with the virus in March.

Six months ago, we were hit because Claire became seriously ill, a lingering illness as they call it. Then, on top of that, she was diagnosed with Corona in March, he told Flemish newspaper Nieuwsblad.

Prince Laurent thanked two specialists for their care, saying, Her illness was discovered in an early stage. The treatment is now over. We can do nothing now but wait and hope she will be okay. I really hope it will be so.

She is a strong woman, and I am hopeful that she will completely recover.

Spain is currently emerging from strict lockdown measures after witnessing some of the highest number of CCP virus cases and deaths in the world. In April, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced a four-stage plan to begin easing the lockdown.

As of May 31, the country had 239,228 infections and 27,127 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University, which is tracking the pandemic.
Police take back the streets at around midnight after firing copious amounts of tear gas to disperse protesters and rioters outside the Minneapolis Police 5th Precinct during the fourth night of protests and violence following the death of George Floyd, in Minneapolis, Minn., on May 29, 2020. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

Curfews in Effect in Multiple Cities as Violence, Looting Continues Alongside Peaceful Protests

Curfews are in effect or imminent in more than a dozen U.S. cities facing rising unrest following the death of George Floyd.

The start times Saturday evening range from 6 p.m. in parts of South Carolina to 10 p.m. around Ohio. People are being told to get off the streets beginning at 8 p.m. or 9 p.m. in Atlanta, Denver, Los Angeles, and Seattle.

A curfew is in effect for a second night in and around Minneapolis from 8 p.m. onwards.

Emergency alert sent to phones in Minneapolis announcing an enforceable curfew on May 30, 2020. (The Epoch Times)

Floyd died earlier this week in Minneapolis while being held under arrest by police for alleged fraud.

Protests over the arrest erupted after footage emerged of an officer pressing his knee on Floyds neck for more than eight minutes.

Preliminary results from an autopsy have since suggested that Floyd died from a combination of heart disease and potential intoxicants in his system that were aggravated by the restraint placed on him by officers. Law enforcement officials nationwide have condemned Chauvins actions.

Read More Autopsy Shows George Floyd Did Not Die of Traumatic Asphyxiation or Strangulation

Floyds family have denounced the preliminary autopsy report, with family attorney Ben Crump saying, The family does not trust anything coming from the Minneapolis Police Department. How can they? They are demanding that an independent autopsy be performed.

Thousands ignored the Friday night curfew, but peaceful protests gave way to violence late into the night.

At midnight, the police are clearing everyone, including media, from the streets around the 5th Precinct in #Minneapolis. Since 11:30pm, when the police started gathering, they gave protesters many warnings over a loudspeaker to disperse or risk being arrested and fined. pic.twitter.com/LilPiiqxWg  Charlotte Cuthbertson (@charlottecuthbo) May 30, 2020

In Miami, an initially peaceful protest turned violent due to a small subgroup of demonstrators who set fire to police cars.

Witnesses to the clash Saturday say officers responded with tear gas and fireworks to disperse the crowd. The mayor has declared a 10 p.m. curfew.

At one point, Interstate 95 was shut down as protesters stood on the busy highway. Police also used bicycles to push back an increasingly rowdy crowd throwing rocks.

Elsewhere in Florida, protesters in Tampa smashed store windows and set a gas station ablaze Saturday night after a peaceful demonstration during the day. Some broke into AT&T and Gold N Diamond stores.

In Chicago, Mayor Lori Lightfoot has announced an overnight curfew in the city running from 9 p.m. Saturday until 6 a.m. Sunday, and she says police will crack down on any violence.

Lightfoot said that the peaceful protesting over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis has devolved into criminal conduct.

She says police will be aggressive with arrests for anyone caught damaging property.

We can have zero tolerance for people who came prepared for a fight and tried to initiate and provoke our police department, she said.

Attorney General William Barr said on Saturday that the violence seen in protests nationwide appear to have been planned, organized, and driven by groups of outside radicals and agitators who are exploiting the situation in order to achieve their own separate and violent agenda.

Epoch Times reporters Janita Kan and Tom Ozimek contributed to this report.
(Newser)  Algerians responded with anger online after the death of a 10-year-old girl during a faith healing. In announcing the arrest of a 28-year-old man in the case, the prosecutor said the girl apparently suffered "blows and burns," the Guardian reports. The victim "was abused during a ruqya (faith healing) to which she was subjected in her family home," the prosecutor said in Guelma, about 300 miles east of Algiers. She was taken to a hospital, per Barron's, where she died. The prosecutor announced that an autopsy will be conducted and an investigation begun.

story continues below

A ruqya often is held to treat the sick, cure infertility or drive out a demon, but the prosecutor did not say why it was conducted in this case. Islam allows the ritual, which many warn can lead to abuse. On social media, Algerians spoke out against the ruqya and what they saw as a lack of news media coverage. "Are we going to pretend for a long time not to see ... the 10-year-old girl tortured and killed?" journalist Akram Kharief, director of the MENA Defense website, posted. (Read more faith healing stories.)
After a night of protest over police brutality that triggered some violence in cities and communities across the country, including Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Harrisburg in Pennsylvania, Gov. Tom Wolf made a direct appeal to demonstrators - and those hearing them - to voice their anger and exercise their rights vigorously, but peaceably.

Wolf, speaking from Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency headquarters even as a fresh anti-violence protest was taking place at the state Capitol grounds in Harrisburg, said he gets the anger over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis over the Memorial Day weekend. He also stressed he did not want to chill anyones right to speak out about it.

But, in what Wolf called a personal appeal to every Pennsylvanian, he asked that it be done in peace.

At its best, our democracy is one that celebrates the rights of citizens to express themselves in demonstrations like these. Its also a democracy that celebrates respect. So to the folks who are out there demonstrating, as you exercise your rights today, do it in a way that our democracy. Do it in a way that reaffirms its noble potential, Wolf said.

"Speak your mind, and speak it with peace."

Center City Philadelphia appeared to take the brunt of property damage from rioting that grew out of the Floyd protests there Saturday, as some smashed windows and looted stores. There was some similar damage reported in Pittsburgh, and an afternoon demonstration in Harrisburg resulted in short-lived scuffles between demonstrators and police that sent two Capitol Police officers to hospital emergency rooms with minor injuries.

As a proactive measure, Wolf signed an emergency declaration Saturday night to help provide state resources to any communities that might have a need as the protests continue. He said Guard units are expected to be deployed in Philadelphia and neighboring Montgomery County - where there was some damage at and around the King of Prussia Mall Saturday night - in support roles on Sunday.

Theyre concerned obviously with a resurgence there this evening, PEMA Director Randy Padfield said.

Additional troops have been placed on standby for duty in Pittsburgh, should the need arise.

But Wolf stressed that his first hope is that it doesnt come to that, and that Pennsylvanians everywhere are ready to have a needed, open and continuing discussion about race and racism that does not devolve into violence.

These demonstrations are right on the mark," Wolf said. We need to protest injustice. We need to do something about it, and we cant think, yeah, its just part of the American landscape. It has been, unfortunately. But weve got to change that.

But in the streets today, he added, I urge everyone in these demonstrations to be peaceful. I urge everyone to have respect for their communities and our neighbors.... Please be safe.

Floyd, 46, was killed after he was detained in connection with the passing of counterfeit bills at a food store in Minneapolis on May 25.

Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer who was caught on video with his left knee pressing down on Floyds neck for nearly nine minutes as the man was in custody and in prone position in front of him, has been charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter.

Video shows that Chauvin kept his knee planted even as Floyd told all four officers involved in his arrest that he could not breathe. Prosecutors in Minnesota have alleged that the combined effects of Floyds underlying health conditions and the way the police restrained him likely contributed to his death.
New Delhi/Washington, May 31 : US President Donald Trump has decided to postpone the G7 summit till September and invite India, Russia, Australia and South Korea to discuss a plan on how to deal with the future of China among the 11 most powerful nations.

A White House statement said that after Air Force One touched down at Joint Base Andrews on Saturday night, the President came back to the press cabin to chat, off the record, for several minutes toward the end of the flight.

However, he permitted the White House to use his statement on the record about the G7.

"He is postponing it until September and plans to invite Russia, South Korea, Australia and India," the statement said.

President Trump took the decision saying: "I don't feel that as a G7 it properly represents what's going on in the world. It's a very outdated group of countries." The Group of Seven (G7) is an international inter-governmental economic organization of the seven largest advanced economies of the world comprising the US, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Italy and Japan.

The decision to postpone the G7 meeting and include four other nations, "is bringing together our traditional allies to talk about how to deal with the future of China", White House Director of Strategic Communications Alyssa Alexandra Farah said.

Incidentally, India and China are locked in an intense face-off along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Eastern Ladakh. Even as President Trump has offered to arbitrate between the two sides, both China and India are using the established mechanisms and communications channels to resolve the issue.

Last week, however, with its new vision document on China, the US announced the onset of its Cold War with the Asian giant, accusing it of exploiting rule-based world order and re-shaping international system in favour of Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) ideology and interests.

Just short of calling it Cold War, the US in its report titled, 'United States Strategic Approach to the People's Republic of China', released by the White House, declared that it is "responding to the CCP's direct challenge by acknowledging that the two major powers are in a "strategic competition and protecting" their "interests appropriately".

On Friday, the US, the UK, Australia and Canada jointly reprimanded China, stating that its decision to impose a new security law on Hong Kong was in direct violation of international treaties.
Ruhel Islam outside the Gandhi Mahal Restaurant in Minneapolis, near the police precinct that burned in protests to the death of George Floyd. (By Nancy Weingartner Monroe  2020 The New York Times)

On Friday morning, as dawn broke through the smoke hanging over Minneapolis, the Gandhi Mahal Restaurant was severely damaged by fire. Hafsa Islam, whose father owns the Bangladeshi Indian restaurant with members of his family, woke at 6 a.m. to hear the news.

At first, I was angry, said Islam, 18. This is my familys main source of income.

But then she overheard her father, Ruhel Islam, speaking to a friend on the phone. Let my building burn, he said. Justice needs to be served.

On Friday afternoon, after the fire stopped smoldering and the family came together, he repeated his support for the protests that had closed his restaurant. We can rebuild a building, but we cannot rebuild a human, said Ruhel Islam, 42. The community is still here, and we can work together to rebuild.

For days, the Islam family has watched the protests over the arrest and killing of George Floyd, the African American man who died Monday after a white police officer pinned him to the ground, a knee pressed against Floyds neck. The officer has been fired and on Friday was arrested and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter, authorities said.

The restaurant is just a few doors away from the 3rd Precinct headquarters of the Minneapolis Police Department, which was set ablaze by protesters Thursday night. Other buildings also burned, and fire eventually reached the restaurant.

Hafsa Islam, who delivers food part time for DoorDash, said she had stopped her car at a red light Monday as Floyd was arrested. She watched, horrified, from her car, she said. She learned only later that he had died.

I understand why people did what they did, she said of the demonstrators. They had tried with the peaceful protesting, and it hasnt been working.

Gandhi Mahal opened in 2008, during the Great Recession. Although Ruhel Islam believes in nonviolent protest  he named his restaurant in honor of Mohandas K. Gandhi  he empathizes with the frustration of many Minneapolis residents.

I am going to continuously promote peaceful ways and nonviolent movement, he said. But our younger generation is angry, and theres reason to be angry.

So as mounted police fired tear gas into the crowd Tuesday, the Islam family opened a room in their spacious restaurant to medics, who set up a makeshift field hospital. Hafsa Islam said she saw at least 200 people come in and out on both Tuesday and Wednesday night.

Some needed to catch their breath after inhaling tear gas, she said. One woman had been hit in the eye by a rubber bullet, damaging her vision. A rubber bullet tore open the back of another mans neck. When he fell unconscious, the medics laid him out on a table.

We were just trying to do what we could to help our community, said Hafsa Islam, who helped treat wounded protesters. Sure, we had our business. Sure, we were trying to keep our kitchen open. But more than anything, we were concerned for our people.

The tension in Ruhel Islams adopted city reminds him of his childhood in Bangladesh, when he lived through a dictatorship. Two of his fellow students were killed by police, he said. We grew up in a traumatic police state, so I am familiar with this type of situation, he said.

The restaurant has been a hub for interfaith efforts against climate change, and a related art collection was lost to the flames. In the basement, the family cultivated a small aquaponics farm to supply the restaurant with fresh ingredients.

Now probably, the whole basement is aquaponics with the water, Ruhel Islam said, laughing, joking about the sprinkler damage.

Both Tuesday and Wednesday night, before the medics had to relocate to a nearby church to protect their patients, Ruhel Islam kept cooking. As wounds were bandaged and hands were held in the front room, he was in the kitchen, preparing daal, basmati rice and naan. Simple food, he said, but high in protein  just the thing to get his community through a long, dark night.

c.2020 The New York Times Company
Protests continue in Minneapolis despite a curfew. "We are in it for the long haul," said one man. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

This city has become the center of a nations anger and frustration as the National Guard rumbles through its streets, protesters threaten more upheaval and many across Minnesota blame officials here for a bungled response to George Floyds death that over the last week has left the skyline in flames.

The rage emanating from Minneapolis has spread to Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia and dozens of other cities in a torrent of demands  many made peacefully, some not  for justice over the death of another black man at the hands of police. But that rancor is particularly deep here, where residents complain authorities stood down for too long while looters and rioters ran wild.

They dropped the ball. The moment the police officer did that, they should have called the National Guard in, said Glen Walton as he grilled hot dogs for hundreds of fellow protesters near the intersection where Floyd, 46, was fatally restrained Monday. We are in it for the long haul.

Officer Derek Chauvin, 44, was fired a day after Floyds death, but he wasnt charged with murder until Friday, hours after crowds overran his 3rd Precinct police station, setting it on fire. On Friday night, the largest crowds yet swept through the city, ignoring an 8 p.m. curfew, surrounding another precinct, rioting, looting and burning businesses as a few police officers and National Guard troops stood watching.

That momentum spread across the country, drawing in President Trump, who derisively tweeted that Minneapolis had to get tougher against demonstrators and anarchists, and from civil rights activists who complained that violence and vandalism were threatening to overshadow the wider intent of most protesters to advocate for civil rights and non-racist policing.

Protesters use milk to help a woman affected by tear gas fired by police near the 5th Precinct station in Minneapolis. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

Tensions between police and protesters intensified in many cities Saturday, with police in riot gear firing tear gas and more swiftly moving to stem unrest.

The demonstrations played out across a nation already reeling from the coronavirus, with a death toll that passed 100,000 last week, and unemployment numbers not seen since the Great Depression. Those frustrations  although separate  coincided with the anger over viral pictures of a white police officer kneeling on the neck of a black man who was gasping, I cant breathe.

Story continues

Those images caught this city and many others off-guard.

Minneapolis authorities handled it very poorly  which is to be expected, said the Rev. J.R. Logan of Apostolic Deliverance Temple, who was helping Walton grill hot dogs. Logan said he has tired of watching police act with impunity at the expense of minorities. Protests over the deaths of other black men  most recently Philando Castile and Jamar Clark  didnt result in convictions.

We sit and hope and continue to see the same thing, Logan said.

But he and others on Minneapolis streets Saturday said these protests have been more productive, perhaps worth the cost. Theres been looting and damage to businesses, some minority-owned.

But theyve also drawn a diverse mix of people, including many white supporters of Black Lives Matter. Theres been international attention. Few expressed fear that they would be arrested for breaking curfew Saturday, or that Gov. Tim Walz had deployed the entire state National Guard.

Walz and other officials, including former presidential candidate Sen. Amy Klobuchar, sought to distinguish between civil rights protesters angered by Floyds death and those responsible for looting and setting fires that escalated during the last week and appeared to overwhelm a progressive city not prepared to handle such a crisis.

Everything that we believe in, they are trying to destroy, Walz said at a Saturday briefing with local leaders, insisting that most of the marauders were from out of town.

St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter said rioters were using protesters as human shields.

Just by virtue of being part of a crowd that people looking to destroy our communities can hide in, that is aiding these people, Carter said.

The Minneapolis mayor, Jacob Frey, who has been a target of Trumps criticism since protests began, likened officials urging residents to stay home to London during the Nazis Blitz.

By being out tonight you are most definitely helping those who seek to wrong our city, he said.

But at least 2,000 protesters paid no attention and broke the 8 p.m. curfew, gathering near the 5th Precinct. Some carried signs. A few carried bats. A young white man wore a Guy Fawkes mask, sometimes associated with anarchists.

A middle-aged black man in a T-shirt that said Youre gonna stop killing us approached the young man in the Guy Fawkes mask and three of his friends, castigating them for fomenting chaos that gets blamed on African Americans.

The police station is gone. Stop burning s down, said Larry Arman, 46, of St. Paul.

The younger man, who declined to give his name, said he was from Minneapolis, as were his friends, who wore ski goggles in anticipation of clashes with police. He said they brought medical supplies. Arman didnt care.

Nothings going to change until people start getting touched, not buildings, he said, adding that no one was creating havoc in the suburbs. This is the only place where it looks like the end of the world. Lets stop making it look like that.

Protesters in Minneapolis on Saturday. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

Shortly after, at 8:35 p.m., a line of Minnesota State Patrol officers marched toward protesters and journalists gathered near the 5th Precinct. Officers told the crowd, Youre in violation ... please disperse. The journalists, including a Times reporter and photographer, identified themselves as press. Police then advanced and fired tear gas and projectiles at point-blank range into the crowd, hitting a Times reporter in the leg.

The Times photographer was having difficulty breathing and could not immediately see. Another journalist was seen with a bloody face. Reporters and protesters scrambled over a brick wall to seek cover.

Minnesota Atty. Gen. Keith Ellison, who was the states first Muslim and black congressman, urged protesters to stay home and await further charges against the officers involved in Floyds death. Ellison said evil elements were trying to tarnish the protests by causing mayhem,so people will say, Oh, those protesters are bad, theyre just out there causing trouble, their cause cant be just.

To Kelly Austin, the fearmongering and delayed crackdown seemed tone-deaf, reinforcing the very type of over-policing she and others were protesting.

People are seeing in real time why people are marching, Austin, 31, said as she visited Floyds memorial with her sister earlier Saturday. Its just a matter of time before police make another mistake and its just going to fuel the fire.

She said officials need to join protesters, visit sites like the memorial and confer with community leaders.

Were going to keep marching until we see a change, Austin said.

Her sister, Jeanelle Austin, 35, blamed the governor and other officials for telling protesters to stay home so that they could round up rowdy elements infiltrating their ranks, including white supremacists. She said they need to find a way to protect protesters rights without inciting fear or leaving them to fend for themselves.

We have to be able to fight for justice without dying in the process, she said.

Hundreds of residents descended on the battered East Lake Street corridor Saturday where buildings were still smoldering to sweep up debris and distribute donated food. They held community meetings in parks, prayer circles on corners and a protest of thousands outside the 5th Precinct.

Erin Lavelle, who volunteered to direct traffic nearby, blamed Frey for being in over his head. The mayor doesnt seem to have learned from the criticism his predecessor drew for her response to the 2015 police shooting of Jamar Clark, Lavelle said, and now here we are again.

Lavelle, 40, hasnt really slept since Monday. Saturday night, she planned to stay up to guard elderly neighbors after spending the previous night watching cars with out-of-state plates zoom down their street, shooting.

We cant just hide, she said.

Walz blamed anarchists, white supremacists and others for using protests as cover for theft, looting and arson. But some protesters at the 5th Precinct disagreed.

Artist Austin Boe, 37, said hes a peaceful anarchist outraged by Floyds death and police brutality. He said he joined Saturdays protests because Im not pro-cop, so it fits my agenda.

Boe, who said he did not condone looting, said its easy for officials to use the word anarchy to stir fear, which he felt Saturday when a black protest leader singled him out for his anarchist sign and others booed. He decided to stay anyway and defy curfew because he believes in Black Lives Matter.

Dionne Sims, 27, and her friends arrived at the 5th Precinct with brooms in hand to help clean nearby businesses, and planned to protest later. She called the expected National Guard expansion an unnecessary escalation without a clear goal.

Protesters, she said, remain focused on pressing prosecutors to charge the other three officers at the scene of Floyds death. Already, they have persuaded Minneapolis public schools and the University of Minnesota to drop contracts with the citys police, more than past protests accomplished.

That would not have happened if people were not in the streets, she said.




Channel 9 United States correspondent Tim Arvier and his crew have been handcuffed and detained by police in Minneapolis while covering protests following the death of an African-American man in police custody.

Scenes of destruction continued to spread across the U.S. as the death George Floyd at the hands of white cop Derek Chauvin ignited outrage over police brutality against African-American men.

Floyd, a 46-year-old father-of-two, was filmed gasping for breath as Chauvin knelt on his neck for eight minutes before he died in custody of the Minneapolis Police Department on Monday.

Arvier, a veteran reporter on the scene in Minneapolis, was arrested along with his cameraman and security guard about 1am Sunday morning local time in the epicentre of the nationwide protests.

Channel 9 United States correspondent Tim Arvier tweeted a photo of himself, a Channel 9 cameraman and their security guard sitting in a gutter with their hands cuffed behind their backs

The trio told police they were media as they neared the roadblock, but officers ordered the trio out of their car

Scenes of destruction continued to spread across the U.S. as the death of black man George Floyd at the hands of white cop Derek Chauvin ignited outrage over police brutality against African-American men

He tweeted a photo of himself, a Channel 9 cameraman and their security guard sitting in a gutter with their hands cuffed behind their backs.

'Just been detained and searched by #Minneapolis Police. They cuffed my cameraman and our security but were respectful and have now let us go,' Arvier Tweeted on Sunday evening, Australian time.

Arvier said he and his crew heard gunshots as they approached a police blockade in their car.

Despite the city of 425,000 people being placed in lockdown due to the protests, journalists are exempt and are allowed to travel.

They told police they were media as they neared the roadblock, but officers ordered the trio out of their car.

'Police are really cracking down on anyone who is out and about,' Arvier said.

'You have to stop, put your hands out the window and show your credentials. We were yelling out we were press.

'One police officer freaked out, pulled his gun out and got us to get out of the car.

New York: NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio and President Trump clashed Saturday night over New York's response to the escalating crisis there

Chicago: A Chicago police vehicle is set on fire during violent protests and bricks are hurled at it

New York: NYPD officers are poised with their batons after Trump praised their response - despite footage showing mutlipel scenes where cops manhandled protesters violently Friday

Washington DC:A protester holds up a sign saying 'Stop killing us' as a pack of military police are sen in the background

'They pulled out our camera man hand cuffed him, pulled out the security, handcuffed him. They pulled me out of the car, sat me down, they searched me.

'I didn't get handcuffed and was placed up against the car before they moved me to the gutter.'

Arvier said the police officers became calm once they realised they were dealing with a group of reporters and not protesters.

'While they were a bit aggressive and confrontational at the start, it's how nervous they are after what has happened over the last few nights,' he said.

Minnesota - where Floyd died - has born the brunt of the protests which began there Tuesday before fanning out across the country.

In Minneapolis, protesters were seen fleeing after cops hurled tear gas into the crowds while some responded by launching fireworks back at officers.

Channel 7 journalist Ashlee Mullany was almost taken out by a stun grenade as police closed in on a protest.

Mullany, who is the US correspondent for Channel 7, crossed to the Sunrise newsroom live from Minneapolis on Thursday afternoon to report on the mayhem as protests raged on in the city for a third day.

Footage showed the journalist duck for cover as a stun grenade was fired in her direction by police officers who descended on the protest.

Mullany, who is the US correspondent for Channel 7, crossed to the Sunrise newsroom live from Minneapolis on Thursday afternoon to report on the mayhem

Minneapolis: State troopers form a line in Minneapolis Saturday night on the fifth day of protests in the city

Philadelphia: A man walks past a vandalized business where 'I can't breathe' is written on the windows - some of Floyd's last words as he begged the white cop for his life

Officer Derek Chauvin (pictured) was identified as the officer pinning down George Floyd in video footage that was widely shared on Tuesday

Mullany said tensions only grew when police arrived to control the crowds of outraged citizens.

'What happened was about six police cars out of nowhere arrived and they came out in riot gear,' she told the Sunrise newsroom.

'It seems like they were prepared for some sort of confrontation.'

'But it really was like throwing a match in the tinder at that point. It was incredible to see how that anger exploded in a matter of seconds.

'The police were not welcome on the streets here.'

The National Guard was activated to defend the White House from attack as the Secret Service agents on the ground struggled to keep control of crowds descending on the seat of the US government.

The Big Apple was ablaze as NYPD vehicles were torched and ransacked while shocking footage emerged of cops violently detaining protesters.

A man was left critically injured in Dallas when he was attacked and stomped on by a group of people when he allegedly tried to defend a store with a large sword.

In Atlanta a cop suffered 'significant injuries' when they were hit by an ATV, while in Chicago, a man commandeered a police horse and rode off on it.

Los Angeles deployed the National Guard for the first since the 1992 riots when the police officers who beat up black man Rodney King walked free of all charges and California Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in LA County.

Minneapolis: Heavily armed police officers stand guard in Minnesota - the city where Floyd died - which has born the brunt of the protests

Philadelphia: A protester throws items in to a fire in the street as calls mount for the other three cops involved in Floyd's death to be charged

Philadelphia: A man and police confront each other in the streets of Philadelphia Saturday night

A total of 11 states and the District of Columbia had activated the National Guard by the early hours of Sunday, as law enforcement buckled under the strain of the protests.

States calling for Guard assistance included California, Georgia, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Washington state.

Meanwhile at least 25 cities roll out emergency curfews to try to bring rioting and looting under control, including San Francisco, Atlanta, Louisville, Los Angeles, Portland, Columbia, South Carolina, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Seattle.

President Trump has put the Army on notice to deploy to the streets with a four-hour notice - the first time this will have been done in almost 20 years during the 1992 LA riots over the beating of black man Rodney King by cops.
We were already heading into a long, hot summer of death.

Then a Minneapolis police officer put his knee on the neck of an unarmed black man and left it there until the man expired. And suddenly, a nation afraid to gather in the daylight began rushing en masse into the night.

One life. History has long shown that a single death can spark a revolution. In the case of George Floyd, however, a 46-year-old black man who had lost his job as a security guard because of layoffs in the COVID-19 pandemic, it was more than just his death. It was the way he died, in front of our eyes, on video everywhere, pleading for his life, that had angry people spilling into the streets of cities across this country.

At a time when it is dangerous to gather, when it is still against the law in many states to gather, when our very health could be compromised if we gather  by a virus that has already taken more than 100,000 American souls  a single American life was bigger than all of that.

What risk would you take?In our fight against the coronavirus, 100,000 Americans are dead. Were all potential victims and all potential killers.

So people gathered. From Minneapolis to Detroit to New York to Atlanta, from Los Angeles to Kansas City to Las Vegas and other cities. And yes, in some places those gatherings turned violent and in some places there was shooting and in some places stores were burned and windows were smashed and merchandise was stolen. And while all of that is awful and wrong, to focus on it is to be howling at the wrong moon.

Because this is about one life  but for black people in this country, its never just one life.

Its one life after another.

Hundreds march on Woodward Avenue to protest police brutality and the death of George Floyd in Detroit, Friday, May 29, 2020.

Nowhere to take grief but the streets

These are some of the words George Floyd can be heard saying, pleading as he lay dying beneath the knee of a white police officer for nearly nine minutes:

I cant breathe ...

Please, the knee in my neck ...

My stomach hurts, my neck hurts, everything hurts ...

Story continues

Dont kill me ...

Mama!

Ask yourself if you could hear all that and be indifferent for all that time. To an unarmed man. To a man already in handcuffs. To a man whose suspected crime was not threatening anyone, not shooting anyone, not committing any act of violence against anyone  but possibly using a phony $20 bill at a convenience store.

A protest talks to the Detroit police officers in riot gear on Jefferson Avenue after an afternoon march and rally against police brutality extended into the evening and became contentious on Friday, May 29, 2020 in Detroit.

A phony $20 bill? And the man is dead? Its beyond comprehension. Beyond explanation. But this is the pattern, the maddening pattern, that so many of us who are not African American can empathize with but never truly absorb.

Because death by police, for black people in this country, is too often over nothing. A $20 bill. Someone selling illegal cigarettes. A cellphone or bottle of pills assumed to be a gun.

Unarmed, yet shot.

Unarmed, yet strangled.

Unarmed, yet dead.

George Floyd is not the first black man to die from a white cops indifference. Hes not even the first to die from a chokehold. When something unforgivable happens over and over again, what are people to do? Where does the grief and the anger go?

A protester is being arrested by the Detroit police officers after an afternoon march and rally against police brutality extended into the evening and became contentious on Friday, May 29, 2020 in Detroit.

You see where it goes. It goes to the streets. And the sight of screaming protesters clashing with police in downtown Detroit on Friday night sent shivers through our collective memories, and the summer 53 years ago when police brutality and African American patience exploded.

And the city burned.

How do you eliminate indifference?

That was 1967. Yet here we are in 2020, grappling with this same issue. You can pick a year, it just keeps repeating. In 2009, a black man named Oscar Grant was pinned down, like George Floyd, this time in Oakland, California, by a police officer who kneed him in the head. Another officer shot him in the back.

Grant, like Floyd, was unarmed. Grant, like Floyd, died from the encounter. Once again, there were protests in the streets.

Eleven years ago. What has changed?

Protesters gather in Downtown Memphis on Friday, May 29, 2020, for the third night of protests following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

The officer who killed Grant got a two-year prison sentence. Other cops charged with killing suspects have received similar slaps on the wrist.

So while Derek Chauvin, the now-fired Minneapolis officer, has finally been charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter  which together carry a maximum of 35 years in prison  I imagine few in the black community hold out hope for justice.

I'm screaming into the void: Video of George Floyd pinned by Minneapolis cops is shocking but not surprising

One life after another. What can be done? Yes, there are preventive steps. Eliminate chokeholds and neck restraints from police force techniques. Train more officers in recognizing mental illness. Fire cops with multiple charges of abuse. Change laws on qualified immunity that make it near impossible to hold officers accountable for obvious misuses of power.

But how do you eliminate indifference? The image of Chauvin with his knee on Floyds neck for nearly nine minutes, ignoring his pain, ignoring pleas from bystanders to let him up, to put him in the car, to look at him and see his suffering  quite frankly, to even acknowledge Floyd as a human being  you cant legislate that out of someone.

Hundreds of people gathered in lower Manhattan May 29, 2020 to protest the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis earlier this week.

Thats in the heart. And in a nation where our hearts are being pulled further away from anyone who is not exactly like us  in race, religion or political views  we can only pray for a force strong enough to counter that.

I would say it is love, but that would invoke only laughter from a cynical nation and leaders who show no comprehension of the word. Love? Kindness? They are closer to weaknesses now than strengths, in the minds of so many who influence us.

You might have thought a common enemy, COVID-19, would pull us all together, make us sensitive to the fragility of life, lead us to treat one another with more compassion. But one cops knee on another mans neck, and all that talk about loving our first responder police force is blown away.

The hot summer is upon us. Anger is simmering. Sometimes the ending of one persons life grabs as much attention as losing more than 100,000 others, because cruelty is more shocking than arbitrary death.

The sad truth for black Americans is that there is often so little difference.

Mitch Albom is an author and a columnist for the Detroit Free Press, where this piece first appeared. Follow him on Twitter @mitchalbom

You can read diverse opinions from our Board of Contributors and other writers on the Opinion front page, on Twitter @usatodayopinion and in our daily Opinion newsletter. To respond to a column, submit a comment to letters@usatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: White cop gave George Floyd a death sentence over alleged fake $20 bill
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz on Saturday said that he was "fully" mobilizing the state's National Guard, a first in the state's history, saying that it was "nothing short of a blessing" that an innocent bystander has not yet been killed in unrest.

His announcement comes after protests raged across America on a brutal night in cities where people gathered to grieve and demand justice for George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody. At least 20 U.S. cities woke up to destruction and arrests Saturday morning after unrest over the death of Floyd boiled over in the Twin Cities, sparking demonstrations - some peaceful, others violent - across the country.

"Let's be very clear, the situation in Minneapolis is no longer in any way about the murder of George Floyd," Walz, a Democrat, said.

The governor said he had "sensitivity to the legitimate rage and anger" that Minnesotans felt after Floyd's death, which manifested earlier in the week with "healthy gathering of community."

By Thursday, Walz said that peaceful protest was gone and that the destruction Friday night made a "mockery" of Floyd's death.

"At this point of time, it is nothing short of a blessing that we have not had someone killed as an innocent bystander in this," Walz said.

The governor said the tactics of first responders will be to reduce loss of life and property in the state, where small businesses and community nonprofits were damaged in the unrest.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Saint Paul Mayor Melvin Carter, who also spoke during the news briefing, said the violent demonstrators weren't from their cities. Carter said there were "relatively few arrests" during Friday night's protests, but the people arrested were all from other states.

"Those folks are agitating and inciting and taking advantage of the pain, hurt, frustration, anger and real and legitimate sadness that so many of our community members feel to advocate for the destruction of our communities," Carter said.

Walz warned of more protesters gathering Saturday night spurred by increased police presence.

"This is only going to make it more difficult tonight," Walz said.

Minnesota National Guard Maj. Gen. Jon Jensen told reporters that there were already 700 guardsmen mobilized as of early Saturday but by noon, there will be 2,500 guard members activated and they were requesting federal assistance.

"What does that mean? It means we're all in," Jensen said.

In other developments:

-- President Donald Trump praised the Secret Service on Saturday, the morning after the White House was placed under lockdown as protesters clashed with officers outside. "They were not only totally professional, but very cool," Trump tweeted.

-- In Minneapolis -- where Floyd died Monday after a white officer pressed his knee into the 46-year-old's neck -- businesses were torched and shots were fired at police, who struggled to enforce an 8 p.m. curfew enacted after several nights of unrest.

-- Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms delivered an emotional plea for protesters to go home Friday after violence and vandalism erupted in her city. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp later issued a state of emergency for the area at the mayor's request.

-- In New York, officers were seen struggling with demonstrators, holding some down on the ground, amid screams. In Lincoln, Nebraska, police urged residents to shelter in place because a gathering there was "no longer a peaceful protest."

-- Fired Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter in Floyd's death on Friday. Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said he also anticipates charges for three other officers who were fired over Floyd's death.

-- The Hennepin County Medical Examiner announced it has made "no physical findings that support a diagnosis of traumatic asphyxia or strangulation." The medical examiner suggested underlying health conditions contributed to Floyd's death; Floyd's family said it will seek an independent autopsy.

-- Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear announced Saturday morning he is calling in the National Guard to help "keep peace" in Louisville, where protests have erupted over the death of 26-year-old emergency medical technician Breonna Taylor, a black woman who was fatally shot eight times by narcotics detectives in her own home in March. No drugs were found.
Bollywood actor Raveena Tandon has shared pictures with Sonali Bendre and remembered one of their shoots together. In her latest post, Raveena posted a collage of pictures - one image is a poster of a film where they worked together and another one a recent photo with both actors posing together.

Raveena captioned it as, A #throwback pic of then and now ! @iamsonalibendre and I rocking up the #keemat poster, and now us smiling away at an event.. lovely memories of the fun time spent shooting the film and the songs ! Omg!! especially- o mere chaila! Was a cardio workout! The post got much love from fans and industry colleagues. While Sonali posted heart emojis, a fan wrote, Now looking more gorgeous than throwback.

Directed by Sameer Malkan, 1998 film Keemat featured Akshay Kumar and Saif Ali Khan in lead roles. Sonali and Raveena also worked together in Rakshak where they starred alongside Suniel Shetty and Karishma Kapoor. While Sonali had a role in Rakshak, Raveena made a special appearance for the song Sheher Ki Ladki.

Raveena is currently shooting for a few projects at her home as studio shootings are stalled owing to the ongoing lockdown amid Covid-19 pandemic. Speaking about things she is missing during the lockdown, Raveena told Hindustan Times in an interview, Every artiste thrives on appreciation and on recognition. The fans, the well-wishers and the people are what make us. Todays society has given us everything; a name, fame, a kind of privilege that we have, and it is all given by the people, so it is it is definitely something that all of us are missing under lockdown.



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The Pentagon is finally going to go to open war against its own again  people first starting with the National Guard deployment in Minneapolis and followed by active duty military police.





by John Stanton





Without trampling through all the historical details, we can designate the entire history of [Americans]the glorious past so eulogized by our fathersas the history of shame, for in that history there is more betrayal, apostasy, perfidious intrigue, ignominious defeat, well-deserved failure, base vengeance, merciless retaliation and brutality that no hypocrisy can maskSo lets forget about the past and old glories, namely lets leave it be, lets no longer bring up those shames of the past and the jumbled mendacities considered worthy of praise, its more than enough for us just to remain on the surface of that swamp if at all possible, the swamp denoting the state of moral values todayWhoever is [American] continually postpones his present, exchanging it for a future that will never arrive. Baron Wenkheims Homecoming, Laszlo Krasznahorkai





What subcategory of human being takes a knee on a handcuffed man, mashed face down on the pavement and, ultimately, forces him to die? Such was the action of a psychopathic white Minneapolis, Minnesota, police-paramilitary officer named Derek Chauvin , that resulted in the death of a black man, George Floyd.





Protest against brutalism

Right there, on the street, recorded live by a bystander. Chauvin continued his personal application of the death penalty even as he knew he was being filmed. Idiot or no? Did he think hed be exonerated by his superiors. Now the world can watch a uniformed member of the Minnesota State paramilitary apparatus snuff the life out of a human being. For what? An allegedly forged $20 bill?





And the result?





A long overdue protest movement in major cities across the United States that is posing a challenge to the State-Wall Street monopoly on violence that disproportionately eliminates blacks, Latinos and poor whites. And lets not forget those citizens in foreign countries wiped off the map by perpetual US bombing and drone attacks. (State-Wall Street: referring to corporations, lobbyists, finance houses, politicians, mainstream media, upper echelon military, etc.)





Power to the State-Wall Street, Not the People





Its not the death of a black, white, Latino, Syrian or Iraqi, that is of concern to the State-Wall Street, rather it is the fear of the violent challenge posed by the protestors here at home (or insurgents abroad, China, Russia) to the State-Wall Street monopoly on violence.





The fear of the State-Wall Street crowd is so intense that the governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz, called the Secretary of Defense Mark Esper to talk about strategy and tactics to subdue the protestors. Is that such a good idea given that the Taliban is pushing the US military out of Afghanistan?





The Pentagon is finally going to go to open war against its own again  people first starting with the National Guard deployment in Minneapolis and followed by active duty military police. Most Americans will not care as they have been pummeled with constant propaganda about the military being a divine institution. Whats next? Another Jackson State





The protests underway have at their foundation the totalitarian economic conditions which the State-Wall Street benignly incarcerate the larger population leaving them with the sham outlet of elections that simply replaces one prison warden with another. Vote for what? Another fascist like President Donald J. Trump or governors around the country who have their eyes on senate or house seats?





Why would someone like Floyd, allegedly, try to pass off a $20 note? You cant separate that act from the grueling austerity measures and unemployment in the USA that leaves the young and poor, and lower classes of all stripes with no economic future and struggling to make ends meet each day, even to put food on the table.Yeah, sure, the COVID19 Pandemic has been really tough on most Americans. But where are the trillions of federal dollars in the form of food aid, unemployment benefits, jobs programs for the Floyds and others in this country?





The State-Wall Street act as if over 100,000 Americans deaths from COVID19 (largely poor, elderly, black) dont matter at all. Nothing to see here, move along, the dear leaders say. Put the American flags at half mast, the president says. Heres $1200 for each household, the US Congress says. Bow your heads in remembrance of the 100K religious leaders say. With this kind of American psychopathic leadership mentality that seems now to have infected nearly all American political and economic leaders, whats one more George Floyd to them?





And it was chaotic ineptitude by the Trump administration, and his predecessors, that led to so many deaths. Even the nonpartisan Lancet weighed in on the matter with an unsigned editorial:





Funding to the CDC for a long time has been subject to conservative politics that have increasingly eroded the agency's ability to mount effective, evidence-based public health responses. In the 1980s, the Reagan administration resisted providing the sufficient budget that the CDC needed to fight the HIV/AIDS crisis. The George W Bush administration put restrictions on global and domestic HIV prevention and reproductive health programming.





The Trump administration further chipped away at the CDC's capacity to combat infectious diseases. CDC staff in China were cut back with the last remaining CDC officer recalled home from China CDC in July 2019, leaving an intelligence vacuum when COVID-19 began to emerge.





If You Can Kill 1 or 100K Americans, Why not Kill the Environment and Wildlife?





Everywhere across the spectrum that you look you can see the State-Wall Street turning the clock back to the early 1960s. Nowhere is this more evident than in the repeal of environmental and wildlife protections.





The Trump administration is relaxing a rule on the hunting and killing of bear cubs and wolves in their dens. According to Newsweek this report:





The National Park Service described the new rule as an effort to reinstate federal alignment with the state's hunting regulations, according to an NPS news release. The rule, which is expected to go into effect in late June, would reverse course on hunting restrictions introduced in 2015 by President Barack Obama's administration.





NPS spokesperson Peter Christian told the Anchorage Daily News that hunters would be allowed under the new rule to use artificial lighting to entice black bears out of their dens, employ bait to attract black and brown bears, hunt wolves and coyotes during their denning season, and catch caribou while they are swimming.





The New York Times has a running list of Trumps assault on the environment. It notes that

The bulk of the rollbacks identified by the Times have been carried out by the Environmental Protection Agency, which repealed and replaced the Obama-era emissions rules for power plants and vehicles; weakened protections for more than half the nation's wetlands; and withdrew the legal justification for restricting mercury emissions from power plants. At the same time, the Interior Department has worked to open up more land for oil and gas leasing by cutting back protected areas and limiting wildlife protections.





And, Oh, The Joy of Watching People Suffer and Die





Isnt it enough for Americans to have hunted down Osama Bin Laden and killed him (a video somewhere); captured Saddam Hussein only to watch him hang in a stairwell; or have Muammar Gaddafi killed and stabbed in the anus with a bayonet








Looters and vandals ransack Spokes 'N Stuff at Melrose Avenue and Ogden Drive on Saturday. Several businesses on the trendy row of designer and clothing stores were looted. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

Rodney Beckwith, who goes by his artist name Flewnt, spent the night inside Resist 323, the store he manages on Melrose Avenue.

A garage door security gate was pulled down in front to protect the shop, which sells custom clothing and art. But one of the windows at the top of the store was still smashed.

Flewnt was inside when he heard people trying to break in through the back door Saturday night. He shoved a table saw against the security door to block their access.

All I could do was try to get to the rooftop, he said. My survival mode: Get high and get out the door. Im not going to sit down there. Theyre breaking through a door, theyre not knocking.

I know theyre Black Lives Matter. Im black, but ... theyre doing something crazy, Flewnt said. I cant say Im black, everything is good, Im on their side. I feel them, Im with them, but at the same time, Im protecting a business.

No one managed to breach the security door and get inside, but Flewnt kept a nail gun and an ax with him. He climbed atop a ladder and kept watch.

Its a black dude store. Leave it alone, protesters said when they spotted him perched above.

I couldnt get any sleep until daybreak, Flewnt said. It was a wild night. Hopefully tonight will be a little calmer."

A few storefronts down, Happy Ice was papered with fliers showing a photo of the owner below the words Black Owned."

Melrose Avenue along with Fairfax Avenue  two of Los Angeles' hippest streets, with rows of designer, clothing and streetwear shops  were targets of looters after protesters and police clashed outside the nearby Farmers Market area.

Numerous businesses were looted, and one building on Melrose Avenue was burned.

Mariana Solaris, 20, of San Bernardino was walking along Melrose when police fired foam pellets.

I came out peacefully to show my support, and the police are aiming right at me. To feel and experience it for myself  to have to run  Im still shivering.

Story continues

I saw this on the news earlier tonight, and I thought, No way is it really like that out there with the police. So I came out to see. And, yeah, its really like that.

Eli Ventov has had his store, Reloaded L.A., along Melrose for nearly 12 years. The shop had just reopened Wednesday after being closed for months because of the coronavirus outbreak.

The store typically brought in $30,000 a month but had lost nearly $100,000 during the closure, Ventov said. Business had been brisk for the past few days.

On Saturday, as the protests began to grow, store workers rushed to Home Depot and bought painters paper to cover the windows so no one would break in.

No one did, but in the same building, looters broke into a Dr. Martens store. Around 7 p.m., someone threw a gas-filled bottle inside the shoe store, Ventov said.

It went from this store, to this store, to this store, he said of the resulting fire, gesturing to the Tony-K shop and then to his own store.

Ventov stood across the street and watched his business burn.

You see all your life running across your face, he said. I cant believe it.

He stayed the whole time. We saw him on the news across the street watching his building burn down, said Ramon Pazos, who works at the store. Theres nothing we could do but watch.

On Sunday morning, Ventov stood outside the blackened store, where the roof appeared on the verge of collapse and the sky was visible through burned patches. He grew teary-eyed as a friend embraced him and told him it would be OK.

Passersby stopped and surveyed the damage and offered to help clean up.

Its not stable. The roof might collapse, Pazos said, thanking those who stopped.

What helped me was to think of the bigger picture, he said. If I think of why me, or why us, that can drive anybody crazy. I thought, you know what, if this is whats going to happen, then this is whats going to happen.

Times staff writer Emily Baumgaertner contributed to this report.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-31 18:24:59|Editor: huaxia

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SANAA, May 31 (Xinhua) -- Yemen's health authorities controlled by the Houthi militia Sunday confirmed the arrival of a medical shipment dispatched by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) to help curb the spread of COVID-19 in the war-ravaged country.

"A UNICEF's plane loaded with essential medical supplies to respond to COVID-19 landed at Sanaa Airport on Saturday and our teams will supervise distribution to the hospitals," one official of the Houthi-controlled Health Ministry in Sanaa told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

According to a brief statement released by the UN, "a UNICEF chartered plane landed at Sanaa airport on Saturday with lifesaving supplies to help curb the spread of the disease in the conflict-hit country."

It said that the supplies are a range of medical assistance, including Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) items such as aprons, boots, face masks and gloves for frontline health workers.

It added that the PPE items will help at least 1,600 health workers in primary health centres, hospitals and isolation units across Yemen to provide safe primary health care and nutrition services for a period of three months.

"These supplies will allow our courageous partners the health workers, who are working around the clock, to safely and more effectively address the spread of COVID-19," said Sara Beysolow Nyanti, UNICEF Representative in Yemen.

The UN agency noted that the outbreak of COVID-19 has created an emergency within an emergency in Yemen where only half of health facilities are functional and with almost every child in Yemen (over 12 million in total) already in need of humanitarian assistance, including nearly half a million suffering from severe acute malnutrition.

Yemen's Health Ministry on Saturday confirmed 27 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total tally of infections to 310 with 77 deaths in the country's provinces controlled by the government.

The government called on donors and relevant international humanitarian organizations to provide support to help contain the pandemic.

Yemen has been mired in a civil war since late 2014, when the Iran-backed Houthi group seized control of much of the country's north and forced the internationally-recognized government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi out of Sanaa. Enditem
Derek Michael Chauvin

31.05.2020 LISTEN

A $500,000 bail has reportedly been set for Derek Michael Chauvin, the white police officer whose action led to the death of George Floyd, a Blackman who was unarmed when he was arrested.

Chauvin was charged on Friday, May 29, 2020 with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.

Floyd was accused of using a fake $20 note to buy cigarette in Minneapolis.

After his arrest, Chauvin was seen in videos that have since gone viral, kneeling on his neck for more than eight minutes, leading to his death.

I cant breathe, man, Floyd can be heard saying in the new video. Please, let me stand. Please, man, Floyd, 46 was heard saying in the video.

However, Minneapolis police said Floyd physically resisted the officers.

Autopsy

Surprisingly, a preliminary autopsy revealed that the combined effects of Floyd being restrained, potential intoxicants in his system and underlying health issues, including heart disease, contributed to his death, pointing to a natural cause of death.

The autopsy report says there was no physical findings to support strangulation as the cause of death.

However, Floyds family, according to their lawyer, Benjamin Crump, is upset that Chauvin wasnt charged with a more serious offense.

We expected a first-degree murder charge. We want a first-degree murder charge. And we want to see the other officers arrested, the family noted in a statement.

If convicted of third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter, Chauvin faces 25 years in prison on the first charge and up to 10 years on the second, reports say.

Mass Arrests, Protests

There have been mass protests across at least 30 cities in the US over the death.

Over 100 people were reportedly arrested in Chicago on Friday night in relation to the protests, with 200 others including a CNN correspondent Omar Jimenez arrested in New York.

There have been reports of casualties including a 19-year teen believed to have been killed.
Gurbir Singh By

People in Mumbai got the scare of their lives last week. Groggy from Covid-fatigue, they saw a new pandemic staring at them through their windows. Locust swarms. Fortunately, these fears turned out to be the result of WhatsApp rumour mills. Other cities like Jaipur have not been so lucky. In recent days, locust swarms of horrendous size extending several kilometers in the air have invaded Rajasthan, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, and have now drifted into the Vidharbha region of Maharashtra, devouring crops and vegetation in their path.

Normally a once-in-30-years phenomenon, this biblical-style plague from the sky has only added to the misery of the corona virus lockdown. This invasion couldnt have come at a worse time. On the streets of Jaipur and in farms across the north, people are out with insecticide sprayers, and clanging vessels in an attempt to save their crops. In the corridors of power, the old environmentalists and climate-change wallahs, the perennial prophets of doom, are back in demand.

Rain havoc

The sheer size of these swarms make them unmanageable. Travelling with the wind, these mile-long swarms can travel 150 km in a day; and with 40 million insects to a square kilometer, feed on the equivalent of their own body weight, and consume what 35,000 people eat in a day. As much as 50,000 hectares of croplands may have been destroyed so far, creating the possibility of food shortage if the swarms multiply.

It appears the problem originated with heavy unseasonal rains in the Horn of Africa and Kenya. These were triggered by the Indian Ocean phenomenon called the Dipolewherein the warmer waters move to the West of the Ocean near Africa and the cooler waters drift to the East towards Australia. Last year end, the Dipole was amplified by rising temperatures due to global warming, thereby pushing more warm water towards the African coast.

This set off heavy rains in arid areas in the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, while the cooler water in the East created the drought and bush fires in Australia a few months ago. In the desert regions of Africa, these rains sprung vegetation unnaturally and became the breeding ground for the larvae of desert locusts which multiplied on huge swathes of land undetected for months.

By the time these breeding grounds were discovered, the swarms had lifted spreading havoc in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya. The science magazine Nature points out that it is these swarms that have crossed the Red Sea to Yemen and Saudi Arabia and even reached Iran, Pakistan and finally Rajasthan, in India. The destruction wrought will threaten the food supplies of 20 million people later this season as

well as pasture for millions of heads of cattle, Nature estimates.

Sparrows in China

Man, plant and animal life, forests, weather conditions, the sources of water and airthe totality we call Natureworks as a tenuous balance between these various parts. If the balance is disturbed, the reaction can often be apocalyptic. When the Chinese Communists defeated the pro-West Kuomintang forces and took power in 1949, they also took charge of a country plagued with infectious diseases like tuberculosis, cholera, malaria, and smallpox. In response, the new government set up one of the largest and most effective public healthcare systems. By around 1958, the focus of the health campaign came down to eradicating peststhat were carriers of disease and pestilence. The four pests campaign, as it was known, homed down on the mosquito, the cause of malaria, rodents that spread plague and ate the corn, flies that carried cholera, and the sparrow that ate up Chinas granaries.

It was a movement of unimaginable proportions, from the nursery schools to the factories, children and adults were mobilized through posters and lectures to go after the creatures. It was a textbook success story. With the vermin decimated, hygiene was restored, and malaria and small pox wiped out. Discover magazine reports 1 billion sparrows and 1.5 billion rats were killed, and 100 million kilograms of flies and 11 million kilograms of mosquitoes were annihilated. But what was not realized is that the sparrow while eating some grain, kept a watchful eye over the fields and held other vermin like the locust at bay. With the birds out of the way, the locusts swarms invaded the grain fields with abandon, creating an ecological disaster for China. Discover estimates that 20 to 30 million people may have perished from mass starvation in the 1958-62 period.

As we are learning ever so often, a disturbed Nature hits back. As forests are decimated, and temperatures rise, and the icecaps in the Arctic melt, the Oceans begin to rise and become warmer.

The effects are there everywhere: raging bushfires in Australia, locusts in Africa, and unbearable heat in the Indo-Gangetic plains. We can, of course, keep ignoring the signals at our own peril.

Delicate balance 20-30 million

People may have died of starvation in China between 1958-62 after a mass extermination of over a billion sparrows and countless other pests led to an explosion in the numbers of locusts

Food security threatened

20 million people may see their food supplies threatened due to the locust swarm
A Federal Protective Services officer was shot and killed Friday night, the FBI reports, as protests and riots took place in the city of Oakland.

In a statement, the FBI stated the shooting occurred at the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building at 1301 Clay St. Authorities say a vehicle pulled up to the building and an assailant inside the vehicle began shooting at security personnel stationed outside.

Two officers were shot, with one succumbing to his injuries and dying. The second officer was injured and his condition was not released by the FBI. On Saturday, officials from the Department of Homeland Security called the killing an act of Domestic Terrorism and said further attacks on law enforcement will not be tolerated.

When someone targets a police officer or a police station with an intention to do harm and intimidate  that is an act of domestic terrorism, Department of Homeland Security Acting Deputy Secretary Ken Cuccinelli said at a Washington, D.C., news conference.

On Sunday, the FBI officially identified the deceased as Dave Patrick Underwood, 53, of Pinole, Calif. Underwood's sister, Angela Jacob Underwood, also posted about her brother's death on Facebook: "My brother, Dave Patrick Underwood, a federal officer, was murdered 5/29/20 in Oakland California, while on duty during the riots," she wrote. "This Violence Must Stop."

The office who was injured but survived was not identified.

"FBI San Francisco has not yet determined a motive for this shooting," the bureau said in a statement. "The investigation is ongoing. No arrests have been made yet at this time."

On Saturday, Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a statement urging caution in directly linking the protests with the shooting.

No one should rush to conflate this heinous act with the protests last night, he said.

On the night of the shooting, thousands gathered for protests over the killing of George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis Police Department. Although the demonstration began peacefully, by the end of the night there were widespread reports of damage around the city. In total, 22 people were arrested on Friday, with 18 arrested by the Oakland Police Department and four arrested by other agencies. In addition, 60 suspected looters were detained for further investigation. None of the arrests were in connection with the shooting at the federal building.

Oakland Interim Police Chief Susan Manheimer released a statement pleading with demonstrators to remain peaceful and respectful.

"They started out peaceful, and we stood with our community here in the city of Oakland to provide safe spaces and respectful spaces for demonstrators," Manheimer said. "What we saw later on in the evening turned violent and disruptive."

SFGATE reporter Katie Dowd contributed to this report.

Eric Ting is an SFGATE digital reporter. Email: eric.ting@sfgate.com | Twitter:@_ericting
Hes put a lot of money into the campaign for San Diego District Attorney, but who is George Soros?

Hes a naturalized American born in Hungary, who amassed a fortune managing investment funds. In the early 1990s his success in the financial markets and global activism on behalf of emerging East European democracies made him a household name.



For the record: The $1.5 million given to the California Justice & Public Safety committee came from George Soros, not from Soros and his foundations. This item has been amended from its original posting, which was incorrect on that point.

More recently, his funding of liberal causes and support for progressive protest movements have made him a favorite target of the right.

Q: How wealthy is Soros?

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Hungarian-American investor George Soros (Ferdinand Ostrop / AP files )

A: Forbes magazine estimates his wealth at $8 billion, ranking him the 65th richest person in America. This is a sharp drop in personal wealth for for Soros, who last year was ranked 20th on the list with a net worth of $23 billion. In 2017, Soros transferred the bulk of his fortune, $18 billion, into his philanthropic organization, Open Society Foundations, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Q: Is Soros the biggest democratic donor?

A: Soros has contributed more than $4 million to candidates and super PACs that support liberal causes, ranking him among the top individual donors of the 2018 midterm elections, according to Center for Responsive Politics campaign finance data, OpenSecrets.org. The top liberal donor, Bay Area billionaire Tom Steyer, contributed more than $15 million to liberal groups in the same election cycle.

Q: Did Soros dump more than $1 million into San Diegos District Attorneys race?

A: Campaign finance reports filed last week show Soros contributing $1.5 million to the California Justice & Public Safety committee, which is supporting candidate Genevieve Jones-Wright in San Diego. However, it is unclear if all of the money will be spent here. Soros and the same PAC have funded district attorney candidates in Sacramento County and Contra Costa County this year.

Q: Has Soros supported DA candidates elsewhere?

A: Yes. Soros has spent millions around the nation to elect candidates he believes will be reform-minded prosecutors -- a movement viewed by critics as anti-law enforcement. A 2016 Houston Chronicle news story noted that Soros had put his money into district attorney races in Florida, Illinois, Mississippi and New Mexico though PACs with variations on the name Safety and Justice. In March, a Soros-backed candidate defeated the incumbent DA in Bexar County, Texas. Incumbent Nico LaHood blamed his loss on Soros cash.

Q: Did Soros pay protesters to join the Womens March?

A: A 2017 story in the Washington Times claims Soros gave $246 million to 100 of the groups listed as partners of the Womens March between 2010 and 2014. This claim was repeated and amplified by conservative bloggers. Although Soros foundations openly contributed to many of the partners, from Planned Parenthood to the National Resources Defense Council, there is no evidence that any of this money went into the pockets of marchers. Politifact.com rated this claim a Pants of fire misstatement.

Q: Did Soros spent $33 million to fund Ferguson protests and Black Lives Matter riots?

A: Like the Womens March rumor, there is some truth to this claim. Soros Open Society Foundations have given grants to some of the groups that engaged in organizing Black Lives Matter and Ferguson protests. Whats unproven is the implication that Soros personally paid rioters.

Q: Did Soros pay three Democratic U.S. senators to vote for a government shutdown?

A: No. This claim appeared in a post on a satirical website and the senators named in a fictional story are not real, according snopes.com

Q: Did Soros break the Bank of England?

A: Soros made $1 billion for his investors by anticipating a decline in the value of the British pound in 1992. This currency speculation caused some in the British press to dub him the ManMan who broke the Bank of England.

Background
Wednesday marks the one-year anniversary of the beginning of the end for investment manager Neil Woodford, for many years the sweetheart of tens of thousands of investors.

Yes, June 3, 2019 was the day Woodford's flagship fund, Woodford Equity Income, was forced to suspend dealings because it did not have enough cash to meet a wave of redemptions, with institutional investor Kent County Council leading the charge for the exit.

He had been kidding investors. Woodford Equity Income was no more an equity income fund  paying investors a steady stream of dividends while keep their capital safe  than a spitting cobra is a family pet. It was full of illiquid, and toxic, assets.

Super hero: There is a batch of fund managers, some young, working under the radar of most investors, who experts say are making a name for themselves

By now most of you will know what followed. Woodford Equity Income was dismembered, two other Woodford funds (Income Focus and Patient Capital) were given to other managers to run and Woodford Investment Management was wound up.

As for Neil Woodford, he was last reported speaking to Chinese investors about making a comeback. I imagine coronavirus and rising geopolitical tensions have kyboshed that idea, leaving him plenty of time to polish his CBE and count his fortune in his Cotswolds hideaway, in between a little bit of horse riding (his biggest passion, apart from his wife).

Yet with Woodford now a busted flush and his protege at his former employer Invesco, Mark Barnett, recently sacked for a period of woeful performance on the high profile Invesco Income and High Income funds, it begs the question as to whether active management has had its day.

By active, I mean funds run by investment managers or teams, rather than by computers programmed to track a particular stock market index (known as passive investment).

The answer is a resounding 'no'. Some high profile and long-established 'active' managers such as Terry Smith (Fundsmith Equity), Nick Train (Lindsell Train Global Equity) and James Anderson (Scottish Mortgage) continue to crank out consistently impressive returns for investors.

There is also a batch of fund managers, some young, working under the radar of most investors, who experts say are making a name for themselves.

Indeed, some could be the investment stars of the future, though it must be remembered that, like markets, the fortunes of fund managers can fall as fast as they rise.

Only a few  the Smiths, Trains and Andersons of this world  have remained at the top of their profession through thick and thin.

Here are 14 fund managers who experts predict have what it takes to deliver impressive returns.

Rising: Stephen Yiu created a 350m fund in under four years

STEPHEN YIU Blue Whale Growth

Although Blue Whale Capital is only three and a half years old and has just one investment fund it is beginning to be recognised by some experts for its global approach.

The fund is managed by 42-yearold Stephen Yiu from offices in London's Mayfair. The fund already has assets of 350million and its performance is impressive.

Since launch, it has generated an overall return of 58 per cent, while the average global investment fund has returned 19 per cent since September 2017. This year, despite the turmoil, the fund has achieved a respectable return of 10.7 per cent.

Yiu founded Blue Whale Capital after a career in fund management at Hargreaves Lansdown  then New Star, Artemis and Nevsky Capital. He is backed by his former employer Peter Hargreaves, who is chairman of the business and a big personal investor in the fund.

Born in Hong Kong and educated in Singapore and Britain, Yiu calls himself a 'global citizen'. He reflects this in his fund while drawing on analysis from the four other members of Blue Whale's investment team (all younger than him).

Currently, the fund is 70 per cent invested in the US and the portfolio is spread across 25 stocks. Top holdings include Adobe, Amazon, Mastercard and Microsoft, stakes held since the fund's launch.

Like Smith at Fundsmith Equity, Yiu likes to hold big companies  preferably long-term  that generate lots of cash and have pricing power in the markets in which they operate. Portfolio changes are rare, the most recent disposals being stakes in luxury goods brand LVMH and InterContinental Hotels.

Some 100 companies are on Blue Whale's watchlist, with a theme being 'digital transformation'. Yiu says he steers clear of banks, oil and gas companies, biotech stocks ('too speculative') and retailers. He adds: 'We're a young investment team, playing to our strengths and understanding how digitalisation is transforming the world we live in.'

Yiu is modest enough to say that the company's investment process is 'improving all the time'.

Yet he is adamant he wants to cement a reputation as a 'global specialist' investing in 'mega-capitalised companies'. He is not interested in smaller firms or portfolios with a specific geographic bent.

He says: 'I want the fund to be highly liquid at all times so investors can come in and get out when they want.'

HUGH YARROW and BEN PETERS Evenlode

Unlike most fund managers, who are London-based, Hugh Yarrow and Ben Peters run their investment business from a barn conversion in Chipping Norton. The Oxfordshire air seems to work better for them than it did for Woodford and Invesco's Barnett, who operated from Oxford and Henley-on-Thames respectively. Yarrow, a former fund manager with Rathbone Brothers, and Peters (a physicist by training) jointly manage its two main funds  the 3.5billion Evenlode Income and the 625million Evenlode Global Income  though Yarrow is lead manager on Income, and Peters the boss of Global Income.

While a rash of dividend cuts across UK and global-listed companies is not a great backdrop for funds aiming to provide investors with a steady income, Evenlode's emphasis on investing in quality companies should see it through.

Jason Hollands, a director of wealth manager Tilney, says: 'Yarrow and Peters are clear in how they manage money. Like Train and Smith, they buy great companies that generate lots of cash and then hold them for the long term. They buy large or medium-sized listed businesses, not market minnows.'

Both funds have 40 holdings, pay investors a quarterly income, and have a number of common holdings  the likes of Unilever and Reckitt Benckiser, which recently raised dividend payments. Global Income, however, has some 40 per cent of its assets in US-listed companies.

Over the past year, Global Income has generated a total return of 5.3per cent while Income has reported a small loss of 1.9 per cent.

Over the same period, the FTSE All-Share index has fallen 10.4 per cent. Over five years, Income has generated a return of 50.6 per cent  nearly six times that of the FTSE All-Share index. (Global Income was only launched in September 2017.)

JAMES HARRIES Trojan Global Income

Troy Asset Management was set up in 2000 to invest conservatively. Preserving your capital, it believes, is as important as making money.

Though the firm's driving force is founder and chief investment officer Sebastian Lyon  manager of 4.7billion Trojan fund  fund manager James Harries is considered by some as a rising star.

He joined Troy in 2016 from investment house rival Newton and was the catalyst for the launch of Trojan Global Income.

Harries says: 'The key to looking after investors' money is to remain conservative, focus on absolute rather than relative return, and run a portfolio that is robust.'

The performance of the 203million fund looks good, given the market backdrop. Over the past three months and six months, the fund has returned 5.2 per cent and 0.8 per cent respectively. Over the past three years, it has generated a total return of just under 22 per cent.

Ryan Hughes of wealth manager AJ Bell says the fund has 'plenty of capacity to grow' and 'has impressively outperformed Lindsell Train Global Equity over the past couple of years'.

He adds: 'Harries has a clear idea of the companies he likes  quality businesses with pricing power, good cashflow and the ability to pay dividends.'

DAN WHITESTONE BlackRock Throgmorton

Unlike many other managers running retail funds (funds for individual, rather than institutional, investors) Blackrock's Dan Whitestone is happy to profit from shorting shares  banking on them falling in price  as well as holding them in the hope of price rises.

It's an approach that has caught the eye of Peter Sleep of wealth manager Seven Investment. He was impressed by the way Whitestone made money last year from shorting shares in Woodford Patient Capital and other ailing stocks that Woodford held  the likes of construction company Keir and litigation financer Burford Capital.

Whitestone's specialism is smaller firms and he has managed the investment trust since March 2015  jointly to begin with, but as lead manager since early 2018.

Annabel Brodie Smith, director of the Association of Investment Companies, says Whitestone is 'passionate' about smaller firms.

The trust's short-term performance is nothing to write home about  three-month losses of 5.4 per cent  but over the past five years (when Whitestone has had a constant hand on the tiller), it has generated returns of nearly 90 per cent.

Bucking the trend: Alex Wright invests in out-of-favour firms

...and this one's for the brave

ALEX WRIGHT Fidelity Special Situations and Fidelity Special Values

FIDELITY'S Alex Wright is a contrarian investor who targets out-offavour companies he believes will come good  maybe as a result of a management overhaul, a takeover or a change in market sentiment.

It's an approach  referred to as value investing as it involves buying them when they appear to offer good value  that has been out of favour and is wildly different to the investment mantras pursued by the likes of Terry Smith and Nick Train, who focus on big established companies generating cash in markets they have a dominant position in.

Yet Tilney's Jason Hollands is adamant that Wright is a manager to watch. He says: 'Like nearly all value managers, including the legendary Warren Buffett, Wright's funds have under-performed recently, but if the investment style tables turn, the two funds he manages should be in a good position to benefit.

The performance numbers do not look good. Over the past year, the 2billion Fidelity Special Situations fund and 501million Special Values investment trust have recorded eye-watering losses of 20 per cent and 27 per cent. But Hollands says Wright has been successful in the past and sees no reason why he cannot come good again. Two funds for the brave investor.

OTHER MENTIONS

Other managers (together with details of funds they manage and their relevant identification codes) that experts believe have something of a magic touch include: Laura Foll: co-manager of trusts Law Debenture (3142921), Lowland (0536806) and Henderson Opportunities (0853657). Alastair Laing: co-manager of trust Capital Gearing (0173861). Praveen Kumar: Baillie Gifford Shin Nippon (BFXYH24). Abby Glennie: Aberdeen Smaller Companies Income (0806372). Tom Slater: co-manager, Scottish Mortgage (BLDYK61), Simon Brazier: Ninety One UK Alpha (3107522). Mark Heslop and Mark Nichols, Jupiter European Growth (7510632).
Ever since she competed for love on reality TV, Tayshia Adams has been living her life in the public eye. With over 786,000 Instagram followers, the 29-year-old has quite a large fan base. Adams competed on Colton Underwoods season of The Bachelor and made it to the top three before Underwood infamously jumped a fence and quit the show to pursue Cassie Randolph.

Tayshia Adams | Paul Archuleta/Getty Images

But, Adams wasnt single for long. Just a short while after her breakup with Underwood, she went to Mexico to compete on Bachelor in Paradise. Whilst there, Adams became a fan favorite and was pursued by a number of men. However, she ultimately struck up a romance with John Paul Jones, and the pair dated for a brief period of time before calling it quits.

Tayshia Adams celebrates a new collaboration on Instagram

Because of her participation on the popular shows, Adams developed somewhat of a cult following. In fact, many of her supporters were outraged when Clare Crawley was chosen as the next Bachelorette over Adams. But, with increased support also comes increased scrutiny. Even though the 29-year-old has a hefty Instagram following, she is often subjected to harsh criticism, even from people who consider themselves fans.

On May 20, 2020, Adams took to Instagram to share photos celebrating her recent collaboration with Erin Fader Jewelry. In the photos, Adams sits cross-legged on the floor and dons a large hat, a blazer, bikini bottoms, and, of course, jewelry. Gotta secret, can ya keep it?#tayshiaXerinfader Adams captioned the post. To date, the post has racked up over 37,000 likes, but not everyone was impressed with the photos.

The Bachelor alum responds to criticism

Close your legs girl! Otherwise, I like this photo, one Instagram user demanded in the comments, racking up 84 likes on their comment. Seeing this comment, Adams chose to respond. She expressed that she wanted more women to support other women and also explained her reasoning for choosing and posting the photos that she did.

RELATED: BIP: John Paul Jones Is Allegedly Upset With Tayshia Adams

Why dont we just start being positive and only lifting up other women. You bringing light to something thats so silly is making it a thing. Yes this is the pose I chose and to be honest, I think its dope, thats why I posted it.  the Bachelor in Paradise alum fired back, easily defending her Instagram post.

Fans of Adams rush to her defense

Of course, ofter fans of Adams were quick to jump to her defense as well. Some vehemently argued that the post was tasteful while others were disgusted with the constant policing of womens bodies, especially by other women. People really be so uncomfortable with a woman who is owning their body how they want they feel the need to tell empowered women what to do with their bodies,  one Instagram user wrote.

This pic is FIREEE girl!!! Why are these WOMEN out here pressed over a WOMANS BODY?!?! I will never get it You look beautiful and very modelesque! Keep shining and doing you, boo!  another person wrote, complimenting Adams. Unfortunately, life in the public eye means that there will always be criticism no matter what you do. But, Adams has once again proved that she can handle critiques well despite how misplaced they are.
31.05.2020 LISTEN

As President Akufo-Addo is expected to address Ghanaians tonight on easing of restrictions, some people within the Creative Arts and Tourism Industry including tourism and celebrity Journalist Mustapha Nii Okai Inusah popularly known as Attractive Mustapha have suggested that the president should reopen the borders since the tourism industry is the worst hit.

He said, according to a survey conducted by Oxford Business Group on African nations that had restricted the movement of people, goods and services, and closed non-essential businesses due to the spread of Covid-19, those countries tourism and construction sectors have been badly hit particularly by the novel COVID-19 pandemic, with 78 to 80 percent of companies, respectively, operating at 0-20 percent capacity.

The Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Barbara Oteng-Gyasi, not too long ago also stated that the year of return program provided Ghana with an economic boost of almost $2 billion.

The Kotoka International Airport in Accra was ranked number one in 2019 for airports receiving between 2 million and 5 million passengers by the Airports Council International, winning the Airport Service Quality Award.

Beyond the $275 million investment in Kotoka Airport, the Kumasi, Tamale and Sunyani airports are also benefiting from major improvements to infrastructure.

Ghanas aviation ambition is as well linked to the creation of jobs and National Tourism Development Plan.

The aviation industry aims to achieve 8 million tourists per year by 2027. Most of which the travelers were expected to arrive in the country by air and they were expected to contribute over $8 billion to the economy.

As to if the Ghanaian tourism industry will be saved from collapsing, it most definitely depends on the president's address tonight .

"We are aware the president has already met people within the Creative Arts industry for their views on the way forward for the new normal, But on one WhatsApp group which is made up of African travel journalists, the Ghanaian Journalist Attractive Mustapha argued that he supports the idea that the borders should be opened because no matter how many years it takes the president will still open the borders."

He suggested that the president should collaborate with the Ghana hotel Associations and also let anyone entering through the airports be quarantined and if possible pay for their quarantine.

He lamented that he believes the land borders should be closed for now, but the airport can be opened since its easier to control the airport and know the number of people coming in and going out through the airport.

This he believes will save the hotels who are running out of business and also add more revenue that air travel is expected to contribute to the nation.
Romania's prime minister has paid fines totaling about $600 for smoking indoors and holding a meeting in a government building where several Cabinet ministers and other participants did not follow social distancing rules.

In a photograph published in Romanian media, Prime Minister Ludovic Orban and others can be seen smoking with food and bottles of alcohol on a table.

No one in the photo wore a mask or maintained the required spacing. Orban told the Mediafax news agency that the picture was taken on May 25, his birthday.

The foreign minister and economy minister of Romania were among those attending. Romania has registered 19,133 confirmed coronavirus cases and 1,259 deaths.
By Maria Kiselyova and Andrew Osborn

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's space agency criticised U.S. President Donald Trump's "hysteria" about the first spaceflight of NASA astronauts from U.S. soil in nine years, but also said on Sunday it was pleased there was now another way to travel into space.

SpaceX, the private rocket company of billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, launched two Americans into orbit on Saturday en route to the International Space Station (ISS), a landmark mission that ended Russia's monopoly on flights there.

Trump, who observed the launch, said the United States had regained its place as the world's leader in space, that U.S. astronauts would soon land on Mars, and that Washington would soon have "the greatest weapons ever imagined in history."

NASA had had to rely on Roscosmos, Russia's space agency, to get to the ISS since its final space shuttle flight in 2011, and Trump hailed what he said was the end of being at the mercy of foreign nations.

The U.S. success will potentially deprive Roscosmos, which has suffered corruption scandals and a number of malfunctions, of the lucrative fees it charged to take U.S. astronauts to the ISS.

"The hysteria raised after the successful launch of the Crew Dragon spacecraft is hard to understand," Vladimir Ustimenko, spokesman for Roscosmos, wrote on Twitter after citing Trump's statement.

"What has happened should have happened long ago. Now it's not only the Russians flying to the ISS, but also the Americans. Well that's wonderful!"

SpaceX's capsule docked with the ISS on Sunday.

Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin congratulated NASA chief Jim Bridenstine for the success.

"Bravo! I know how anxious you were for this major event to become a success," Rogozin wrote on Twitter.

Rogozin said he had appreciated a barbed joke by Musk referencing his own 2014 barb that the United States should try using a trampoline to get to the ISS. Musk told a post-launch news conference "the trampoline is working".

Story continues

Ustimenko said Russia planned to test two new rockets this year and to resume its lunar programme next year.

"It will be interesting," said Ustimenko.

(Editing by Susan Fenton and Frances Kerry)
The legendary investor Warren Buffett has attracted criticism over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. Buffett bailed on his controversial airline bet in early May. Investors have historically looked to Buffett for guidance during turbulent periods, but he has been uncharacteristically quiet so far. But he has not lost his sense of optimism.

Warren Buffett: The eternal optimist

Warren Buffett is renowned for his incredible success employing value investing over his long career. However, he has also been heralded for his optimism. Where other investors were eager to bet against the success of the United States and global economy, Buffett moved in the opposite direction.

This outlook appeared to punish Buffett early in the COVID-19 crisis. Moreover, sectors like energy and hospitality have been ravaged in recent months. However, there are signs that these industries may be emerging from the worst of this pullback. Today, I want to look at two Warren Buffett-approved stocks that are on track to rebound in the summer.

Energy is rebounding



The price of WTI Crude and Western Canadian Select (WCS) plunged into negative territory in April. Oil and gas demand bottomed out due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Fortunately, prices have staged a promising comeback in May.

Suncor Energy (TSX:SU)(NYSE:SU), a TSX stock Buffett has loaded up on recently, should be a beneficiary of this trend. Shares of Suncor have dropped 42% in 2020 as of close on May 28. The company released its first-quarter 2020 results on May 5.

Earnings took a big hit due to headwinds in the sector in the first quarter. Funds from operations came in at $1 billion, or $0.66 per share, compared to $2.58 billion, or $1.64 per share, in the prior year. It posted a net loss of $3.52 billion, or $2.31 per share, over net earnings of $1.47 billion, or $0.93 per share, in Q1 2019. Meanwhile, Suncor management remains confident in the face of this crisis. It boosted its liquidity by $2.5 billion in the quarter to combat short-term complications.

Story continues

Shares of Suncor last possessed a favourable price-to-book value of 0.9. The company reduced its quarterly dividend to $0.21 per share. This now represents a 3.5% yield.

Why you can trust fast-food stocks in this pandemic

Restaurants across Canada and the United States have been forced to resort to take-out and delivery-only in many regions. Meanwhile, this has devastated an industry that already relies on thin profit margins. Fortunately, this Warren Buffett-approved stock is well equipped to survive the pandemic.

Restaurant Brands International (TSX:QSR)(NYSE:QSR) owns, operates, and franchises major fast-food brands in North America. The three brands are Tim Hortons, Burger King, and Popeyes Louisiana Chicken. Shares of RBI have dropped 8.9% in 2020 as of close on May 28.

Investors got a look at its first-quarter 2020 results on May 1. Meanwhile, RBI announced the rapid advancement of its digital platforms in response to the pandemic. CEO Jose Cil pointed out that RBI was well positioned to weather the crisis as it is fortunate to have drive-thru, take-out, mobile order and payment, curbside and delivery options Amazingly, Popeyes delivered system-wide sales growth of 32% in Q1 2020, led by the success of the Chicken Sandwich.

Shares of RBI last had a price-to-earnings ratio of 23, which is in favourable value territory relative to industry peers. In Q1, the board of directors declared a quarterly dividend of $0.52 per share, representing a 3.9% yield.

The post 2 Warren Buffett TSX Stocks to Buy Before Summer appeared first on The Motley Fool Canada.

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Fool contributor Ambrose O'Callaghan has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends RESTAURANT BRANDS INTERNATIONAL INC.

The Motley Fools purpose is to help the world invest, better. Click here now for your free subscription to Take Stock, The Motley Fool Canadas free investing newsletter. Packed with stock ideas and investing advice, it is essential reading for anyone looking to build and grow their wealth in the years ahead. Motley Fool Canada 2020
As tense protests, sparked by the death of George Floyd, swelled across the country over Saturday night into Sunday morning, Confederate monuments in Virginia, the Carolinas, Tennessee and Mississippi were defaced.

The presence of Confederate monuments across the South  and elsewhere in the United States  has been challenged for years, and some of the monuments targeted were already under consideration for removal.

The words spiritual genocide, along with red handprints, were painted on the sides of a Confederate monument on the University of Mississippi campus Saturday, The Oxford Eagle reported. One person was arrested at the scene.

In Charleston, South Carolina, protesters defaced a Confederate statue near The Battery, a historic area on the coastal city's southern tip. The base of the Confederate Defenders statue, erected in 1932, was spray-painted, including with the words BLM and traitors, news outlets reported. It was later covered with tarp, photos show.

In North Carolina, the base of a Confederate monument at the State Capitol was marked with a black X and the phrase "F*** the police", according to a photo posted by a News & Observer journalist to social media. The word racist was also marked on the monument, the newspaper reported.

George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Show all 30 1 /30 George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Police spray mace at protestors to break up a gathering near the Minneapolis Police third precinct after a white police officer was caught on a bystander's video pressing his knee into the neck of African-American man George Floyd, who later died at a hospital, in Minneapolis Reuters George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets A protester holds a sign with an image of George Floyd AP George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Protesters demonstrate against the death of George Floyd AFP via Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets A protester throws a piece of wood on a fire in the street just north of the 3rd Police Precinct Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets People in other US cities also protested the murder, like Los Angeles AFP via Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets AP George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Reuters George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets AFP via Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets AFP via Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets AFP via Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets A police officer lobs a canister to break up crowds Reuters George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets A protester is treated after inhaling tear gas Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Two police officers stand on the roof of the Third Police Precinct during a face off with a group of protesters Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Protesters outside a Minneapolis police precinct two days after George Floyd died EPA George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Protesters run from tear gas Reuters George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets AP George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Demonstrators gather to protest in Los Angeles AP George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Police remove barricades set by protesters AFP via Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets A fire burns inside of an Auto Zone store near the Third Police Precinct Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Flowers, signs and balloons are left near a makeshift memorial to George Floyd near the spot where he died AFP via Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets A policeman faces a protester holding a placard in downtown Los Angeles AFP via Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets A couple poses with a sign in Los Angeles AFP via Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets MINNEAPOLIS, MN - MAY 27: A man is tended to after sustaining an injury from a projectile shot by police outside the 3rd Police Precinct building on May 27, 2020 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Four Minneapolis police officers have been fired after a video taken by a bystander was posted on social media showing Floyd's neck being pinned to the ground by an officer as he repeatedly said, "I cant breathe". Floyd was later pronounced dead while in police custody after being transported to Hennepin County Medical Center. (Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images) Stephen Maturen Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets A protester reacts after inhaling tear gas Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Getty Images George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Protesters use shopping carts as a barricade Getty Images George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Protesters clash with the police as they demonstrate against the death of George Floyd AFP via Getty Images

The question of Confederate monuments has been especially contentious in North Carolina, where such monuments are generally protected by law.

A nearly two-year battle was waged over the fate of the Silent Sam statue after it was toppled by protesters at the University of North Carolina's flagship Chapel Hill campus in 2018. A legal agreement reached last November handed over the statue to a group of Confederate descendants, keeping it off campus. A Confederate statue outside a Durham courthouse was also torn down by protesters.

Democratic governor Roy Cooper had asked for the three Confederate monuments on the grounds of the Capitol to be moved to a nearby battlefield; a state historical panel voted in 2018 to keep the statues, but add context about slavery and civil rights. Statues in Winston-Salem and Chatham County were removed last year in rare moves.

Protesters gather around a Confederate monument in North Carolina's capital (AP)

But the state where the debate over Confederate monuments has perhaps attracted the most attention is Virginia, where a 2017 white nationalist rally over Charlottesville's proposed removal of such monuments turned deadly.

In the coastal city of Norfolk, protesters climbed a Confederate monument and spray-painted graffiti on its base, according to photos posted by a Virginian-Pilot journalist. Norfolk is among the Virginia cities that have signalled intent to remove their Confederate monuments. In February, state congress members approved legislation that would give cities autonomy to do so.

A commission in Richmond, the state capital and what was the capital of the Confederacy, recommended removing one of five Confederate statues along the city's famed Monument Avenue. Photos posted to social media late from Saturday to early Sunday showed the bases of at least two statues  those of Confederate generals Robert E Lee and Jeb Stuart  almost entirely covered in graffiti.

Nearby, a fire burned for a time at the headquarters of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, a group responsible for erecting many Confederate statues and fighting their removal. The building was also covered in graffiti, The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported.

In Chattanooga, Tennessee, protesters spray-painted a statue Saturday of Confederate Lieutenant General Alexander P Stewart on Saturday, the Chattanooga Times Free Press reported.

In Nashville, Tennessee and in Philadelphia, statues of people criticised for racist views, but without Confederate ties, were also targeted.

Protesters in Nashville toppled a statue of Edward Carmack, a state congress member in the early 1900s and newspaper publisher who had racist views and wrote editorials lambasting the writings of prominent Tennessee civil rights journalist Ida Wells, The Tennessean reported.

Protesters sprayed graffiti on a statue of former Frank Rizzo, mayor of Philadelphia, tried to topple it and set a fire at its base. Mr Rizzo, mayor from 1972 to 1980, was praised by supporters as tough on crime but accused by critics of discriminating against people of colour. His 10-foot-tall bronze statue across from City Hall has been defaced before and is due to be moved next year.

Associated Press
Just recently, Khloe Kardashian broke the internet after posting a couple of selfies which made her totally unrecognizable. It also got people thinking that she underwent major surgery to achieve it.

The viral photo, which now has over 5.3 million likes on Instagram, showed Khloe's incredible transformation. The "Keeping Up With The Kardashian" star looked different from the Khloe that people used to see. She now has a noticeably slimmer face, more prominent nose and cheekbones, as well as glowing skin.

But aside from getting positive comments, the 35-year-old reality TV star also sparked speculations that she underwent major cosmetic surgery and enhancements to look this good. Most of the commenters are convinced that Khloe went under the knife to achieve such a glowing and gorgeous face.

For the past couple of days, the mother-of-one ignored the criticisms, but it looks like she just had enough and decided to clap back at trolls.

Khloe's Response

On Thursday, Khloe Kardashian once again took to Instagram to upload a series of selfies showcasing her incredible beauty.

In the photos, the "Good American" founder looked fierce, donning an Off-White printed mesh turtleneck paired with a sleek half-up, half-down hairstyle.

She completed her look with a pair of diamond stud earrings and a lowkey glam makeup featuring maximum lip-gloss.

"The Mondayest Thursday ever," Khloe wrote alongside two selfies and a short clip of herself smooching on the camera.

While Khloe got massive positive comments, she let down her guard and clapped back at a troll who bravely asked about her appearance.

"Why do you look so different in all your photos?" the follower wrote.

Khloe savagely responded with: "From my weekly face transplant clearly."

Clearly, Khloe has been reading the comments and reactions to her transformation all this time.

Expert Opinion

Injectables specialist Claire McGuinness recently shared her opinion on Khloe's recent transformation and expressed her belief that she only did some minor enhancements to her face.

In an interview with Australian radio show "3 pm Pick-Up," McGuinness weighed in on the procedures that Khloe might have done to overhaul her appearance.

"There's so much going on in this photo. Who knows what she has had?" said McGuinness, who is also a registered nurse.

The cosmetics expert claimed that Khloe made this new look possible through a combination of "surgery, injectable, weight loss, filters, makeup, and lighting."

Ever since Khloe rose to fame with her sisters in 2007, fans are always very critical of her looks and figure and keep comparing her to her siblings, Kim and Kourtney.

"We don't know what Khloe's mindset is. It's hard being in the public eye. She's always going to be judged, or people think she's unwell or that she's just rich," McGuinness added.

It could be recalled that in 2016, Khloe confessed to getting fillers to change the shape of her face. However, she swore that she never had a rhinoplasty and insisted that her nose looks slimmer only because of contouring.
Firefighters battle a major gorse fire on the outskirts of the Docks in Belfast on May 31st 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph)

Firefighters battle a major gorse fire on the outskirts of the Docks in Belfast on May 31st 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph)

Firefighters battle a major gorse fire on the outskirts of the Docks in Belfast on May 31st 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph)

Firefighters battle a major gorse fire on the outskirts of the Docks in Belfast on May 31st 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph)

Firefighters battle a major gorse fire on the outskirts of the Docks in Belfast on May 31st 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph)

Firefighters battle a major gorse fire on the outskirts of the Docks in Belfast on May 31st 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph)

Firefighters battle a major gorse fire on the outskirts of the Docks in Belfast on May 31st 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph)

Firefighters battle a major gorse fire on the outskirts of the Docks in Belfast on May 31st 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph)

Firefighters battle a major gorse fire on the outskirts of the Docks in Belfast on May 31st 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph)

Firefighters battle a major gorse fire on the outskirts of the Docks in Belfast on May 31st 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph)

Firefighters battle a major gorse fire on the outskirts of the Docks in Belfast on May 31st 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph)

Firefighters battle a major gorse fire on the outskirts of the Docks in Belfast on May 31st 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph)

Firefighters battle a major gorse fire on the outskirts of the Docks in Belfast on May 31st 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph)

Firefighters battle a major gorse fire on the outskirts of the Docks in Belfast on May 31st 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph)

Firefighters battle a major gorse fire on the outskirts of the Docks in Belfast on May 31st 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph)

Firefighters battle a major gorse fire on the outskirts of the Docks in Belfast on May 31st 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph)

Firefighters battle a major gorse fire on the outskirts of the Docks in Belfast on May 31st 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph)

Firefighters battle a major gorse fire on the outskirts of the Docks in Belfast on May 31st 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph)

Firefighters battle a major gorse fire on the outskirts of the Docks in Belfast on May 31st 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph)

Firefighters battle a major gorse fire on the outskirts of the Docks in Belfast on May 31st 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph)

Firefighters battle a major gorse fire on the outskirts of the Docks in Belfast on May 31st 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph)

Firefighters battle a major gorse fire on the outskirts of the Docks in Belfast on May 31st 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph)

Firefighters battle a major gorse fire on the outskirts of the Docks in Belfast on May 31st 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph)

Firefighters battle a major gorse fire on the outskirts of the Docks in Belfast on May 31st 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph)

Firefighters battle a major gorse fire on the outskirts of the Docks in Belfast on May 31st 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph)

Firefighters battle a major gorse fire on the outskirts of the Docks in Belfast on May 31st 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph)

Firefighters battle a major gorse fire on the outskirts of the Docks in Belfast on May 31st 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph)

Firefighters battle a major gorse fire on the outskirts of the Docks in Belfast on May 31st 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph)

Firefighters battle a major gorse fire on the outskirts of the Docks in Belfast on May 31st 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph)

Firefighters battle a major gorse fire on the outskirts of the Docks in Belfast on May 31st 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph)

Firefighters battle a major gorse fire on the outskirts of the Docks in Belfast on May 31st 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph)

Around 40 firefighters are tackling a large gorse fire at a nature reserve in Belfast Harbour Estate.

The Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service were tasked to the scene at around 3.44pm on Sunday.

Large plumes of dark smoke from the blaze could be seen for miles, with much of it drifting onto the M2 motorway.

Nine fire appliances and a high volume pump are being used to tackle the blaze, while a command support unit is also in attendance.

A drone is also being used to evaluate the extent of the fire.

A Northern Ireland Fire & Rescue Service (NIFRS) Spokesperson said: "This fire is generating high volumes of smoke across North Belfast and the City Centre, the public are advised to close doors and windows to prevent smoke entering residential property.

"NIFRS are being assisted by representatives from other support services, Belfast City Council and Skywatch, to manage this incident. It is anticipated that NIFRS will be committed for several hours into the night.

"Since Friday morning the Regional Control Centre has received 729 calls resulting in a response to 396 incidents across Northern Ireland, 134 of these have involved grass and wildfire. This has been an exceptionally busy Spring period for fire crews who have worked hard in tough conditions to extinguish these wildfires.

"Due to the recent hot weather, grass and gorse is extremely dry and NIFRS would appeal to members of the public not to light small fires or disposable barbecues as these can lead to significant wildfire incidents and damage to the countryside."
This article is part of our latest Design special report, which is about crossing the borders of space, time and media.

The French archaeologist and statesman Theodore Reinach spent his familys banking inheritance to live in exotic magnificence. In the early 1900s, he commissioned a house on a French Riviera peninsula with rooms frescoed in sea creatures and mosaicked with deities  all based on ancient buildings that he had documented on Delos island in Greece.

Mr. Reinachs property, Villa Kerylos, has been open for decades (in nonpandemic times) as a museum in Beaulieu-sur-Mer near Nice. In recent years, it has also served as a muse for the writer and historian Adrien Goetz. His novel, Villa of Delirium (New Vessel Press), blends fictitious characters experiences at the Reinach estate with historically accurate descriptions of the buildings evolution and the occupants accomplishments and fates.
Dar es Salaam  President John Magufuli yesterday issued a food security alert, cautioning that Africa and the whole world faced a hunger threat due to disruptions of agriculture following Covid-19 outbreak lockdowns.

Dr Magufuli issued his observation in Dodoma when he led ex-presidents to collectively lay the foundation stone for the construction of a new State House. Mwalimu Julius Nyerere's widow, Maria, was there on behalf of Tanzania's first president. The others were ex-presidents Ali Hassan Mwinyi, Benjamin Mkapa and Jakaya Kikwete.

Dr Magufuli said the hunger alert followed suspension of agricultural work in countries that imposed lockdown due to Covid-19 something that will affect food availability across the world.

He cautioned farmers against selling their crops arbitrarily, especially cereals, urging them to ensure they benefit from any decision to sell.

"We should preserve the food we have because the two years ahead will be tough in terms of food security. When the right time comes, ensure you get good prices," he advised.

He said the country has been blessed with good harvests, warning that since the government owned no farms, citizens should forget about getting free food from it.

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"People ink deals of buying rice while it is still in the farms in Shinyanga. You will be the ones left in great troubles once all the yields had been taken elsewhere. You'll then be forced to buy the same at a very high price," cautioned Dr Magufuli.

The warning comes at a time when East African states found themselves facing three major threats: Covid-19, desert locusts and torrential rains that caused floods, disturbing actual areas of focus in ensuring food security.

The National Food Security Bulletin for April 2020 issued by the Ministry of Agriculture also warns that Covid-19 would affect food security.

The ministry says the four pillars of food security and nutrition, namely: availability, access, utilisation and stability - may be affected by containment measures taken by different countries.

Tabling the 2020/21 budget in Parliament, Agriculture minister Japhet Hasunga said the National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA) planned to buy 300,000 tonnes of cereals including 277,000 tonnes of maize, 16,000 tonnes of rice and 7,000 tonnes of millet, making it the largest amount bought since 2016.

"Through the Cereals and Other Produce Board (CPB), 500,000 tonnes of cereals and 1.2 million tonnes of dry cassava will be bought and sold," said Mr Hasunga.

Speaking on the new State House, Dr Magufuli said the project was a duplicate of the Magogoni State House except that the new structures will have basement.

"Buildings erected 1977 to 1981 will not be demolished in order to preserve our history. We've preserved the bathroom and sitting room that Father of the Nation used, but this is after decorating them with beautiful stones," he said.

He also ordered release of Sh2 billion for the project after getting assurance from the head of National Service, Brigadier General Charles Mbuge, that the structures could be completed in the next four to five months.

He said Dodoma has qualified to be the country's capital after completion of the shifting of ministerial offices and respective staff as well as following a significant improvement in infrastructure including roads.

"After constructing 51 kilometres of roads, the process of identifying a contractor to build another 110 kilometres is in the final stages. The same applies to construction of the Msalato International Airport," he said.

Dr Magufuli said the government has completed construction of the Sh24.033-billion worth bus terminal and a market valued at Sh14.649 billion.

Also, he said provision of water, electricity and health services had improved a great deal.

Third phase President Mkapa said shifting to Dodoma was a process implemented by all past governments.

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"Both the Father of the Nation and his successor Mzee Mwinyi played their part. My leadership ensured that Cabinet ministers and national security hold their meetings here," he said.

"Mr Kikwete completed building the Parliamentary building and constructed the University of Dodoma (Udom) and now Dr Magufuli has shifted ministries and the State House to the city," he noted.

For his part, Mr Kikwete explained how his government made plans of ensuring Dodoma attained the status of the country's capital, including having a proper State House.

"But, now we have a leader who delivers on plans," he said gesturing towards President Magufuli.

The project is being implemented by Suma JKT under the Tanzania Building Agency (TBA) consultancy, with the head of National Services Brigadier General Mbuge saying the project area was 9,340 square metres consisting of six wings.

Area set for the Chamwino State House is 8,473 hectares.

Earlier, the four ex-presidents were gifted with 25 peacocks each.
Friends of President Donald Trump in Nigeria named 'MAGA Group' has written a letter to President Donald Trump describing in detail how the recent position of the US Secretary of State ,Robert Munichin is damaging American interest across Africa.

They said the act coincided with a time of Chinese insistent resurgence on the African continent.

The letter issued to journalists on Saturday, ,noted that the current American position calling for further probe of the AFDB President amounted to Washington shooting itself in the foot as the crisis was painting America in bad light among a cross section of Africans.

The letter signed by three leaders of the group, Dr Robert John, Chief Arowosaye Enitan, and Abdulahi Usman reads in part: " It is with deep anxiety and shock that we write to seek Mr President's intervention on the seeming lingering dispute over the leadership of the African Development Bank. We are not by any means disputing the rights of the United States government to have a say as to how the bank is run and managed . We also acknowledge the correctness of US policy of enforcing good governance and accountability in the management of multilateral institutions. This is even more critical as the US is a major shareholder in the bank.

"We however wish to note that in the current face off over AFDB probe of Dr Adesina, the United States is picking a wrong target. Mr President may want to know that the AFDB President is a western American trained scholar with years of international service before assuming the AFDB presidency. His tenure is not in anyway anti-West and if anything he has advanced the course of African development in a way that reduces the old burden on Washington. The philosophy of regions taking serious charge of their lives while America rebuilds is perfectly in line with Mr President's outlook."

"Mr President should also note that the bank has its rules and regulations which were complied with by the Ethics committee and the Board of Governors in their exoneration of Dr Adesina of spurious charged levelled against him. To insist on bypassing the rules has the potential to hurt American goodwill and undermine its leverage in the ongoing geo-political and geo-economic warfare. Washington cannot afford to be fighting her friends across Africa who have unanimously endorsed Adesina as the best of Africa since assuming the presidency of AFDB."

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" It should also be emphasised that Adesina's records of performance in the last four years has been unprecedented. He increased the capitalisation of the bank and ensured that funds are channeled to genuine intractable challenges facing the continent. Whatever grouse anybody within your administration may have against Adesina, it will be too heavy a price to pay if the goal is to deny him a second term in office."

" The consequences may be too damaging to contain in term of American reputation on the continent. We urge you to direct the Treasury Secretary to engage Dr Adesina and dialogue on how to continue to accommodate American interest as a major shareholder. Washington will achieve a lot through such productive engagement than attempting to pull down the house", the group concluded in the letter."
BEIJING, May 30 (Xinhua) -- It is a premeditated political conspiracy for some U.S. politicians to request so-called "compensation" from China over the loss from the COVID-19 pandemic, Chinese experts said.

The law only protects the legitimate right of action and reasonable demands, said Huang Huikang, a member of the International Law Commission of the United Nations.

Making false accusations and frivolous lawsuits are against the principles of equity and justice, and will disrupt social order and waste judicial resources, Huang noted in an article carried by Thursday's Guangming Daily, adding that such acts have always been banned by laws of various countries.

Huang called such accusations and lawsuits a "political farce" and voiced against politicizing the pandemic.

China, where COVID-19 was first identified, has made valuable contributions to the fight against the virus and the protection of rights to life and health, said Liu Huawen, vice-director of the Institute of International Law under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

In an article published in Friday's Guangming Daily, Liu said considering that source tracing of the virus has not seen notable progress, some U.S. politicians and a small number of legal figures are already eager to shift the blame to China, blatantly violating the principle of state immunity, which is also acknowledged by the U.S. laws and legal precedents.

China and the Chinese government are exempt from the jurisdiction of other country's courts, meaning that they cannot be listed as defendants in such lawsuits, said Xu Guojian, a lawyer based in Shanghai, in an article in Friday's Legal Daily.

The lawsuits demanding compensation from China over COVID-19 lack legitimate and reasonable excuses, Xu said.

It makes no sense for serious and scrupulous legal workers to file lawsuits against China merely based on media reports and ideas from academic papers, said Xu.

Claiming China's coronavirus response as a "commercial action" will be hardly supported by the court, said Wang Zhengzhi, a lawyer based in Beijing, in an article in Saturday's Legal Daily.

Stressing that the global impact of the novel coronavirus is not caused by China's epidemic containment measures, Wang noted that the source of the virus remains unknown so far.
A support worker puts on PPE as the first patients are admitted to the NHS Seacole Centre at Headley Court, Surrey, a disused military hospital, which has been converted during the coronavirus pandemic. Photo: Victoria Jones/PA Wire

Follow the latest coronavirus news in Ireland and across the world on the Independent.ie live blog.

17.15 31/05/2020

Two more people die of coronavirus with 66 new confirmed cases

A further two people have died of coronavirus in Ireland, the Department of Health has confirmed, bringing the total up to 1,652.

This is a rise of one on yesterday's figures after the denotification of one death.

The Department also confirmed another 66 people have been diagnosed, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in Ireland to 24,990.

15.40 31/05/2020

Britain reached 200,000 capacity testing yesterday, including capacity for 40,000 antibody tests a day

Expand Close Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Photo: Pippa Fowles/10 Downing Street/Handout via Reuters / Facebook

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Whatsapp Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Photo: Pippa Fowles/10 Downing Street/Handout via Reuters

Elizabeth Piper, Reuters

Britain has reached its 200,000 capacity testing target for the coronavirus, including the means for 40,000 antibody tests a day on Saturday.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson set the target of reaching 200,000 tests a day by the end of the month, with aides later saying it was an operational target for Britain to have the capacity to do that number of tests.

"Reaching our 200,000 capacity target is an important milestone on our journey to control the spread of the virus, save lives and gradually ease lockdown," health minister Matt Hancock said in a statement.

"By rapidly expanding our testing capacity, we have been able to introduce NHS (National Health Service) Test and Trace, and enabling those who have coronavirus symptoms to get a test is an important part of the programme."

Emirates airline lays off trainee pilots, cabin crew due to pandemic - sources

Expand Close Stewardesses of an Emirates Airlines flight from London arrive at Dubai International Airport amid the coronavirus Covid-19 pandemic. Photo: AFP via Getty Images / Facebook

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Whatsapp Stewardesses of an Emirates Airlines flight from London arrive at Dubai International Airport amid the coronavirus Covid-19 pandemic. Photo: AFP via Getty Images

Alexander Cornwell, Reuters

Emirates airline said on Sunday it had made some staff redundant due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, with two company sources saying trainee pilots and cabin crew had been affected.

"We reviewed all possible scenarios in order to sustain our business operations, but have come to the conclusion that we unfortunately have to say goodbye to a few of the wonderful people that worked with us," a spokeswoman said.

"The company is doing everything possible to protect the workforce wherever we can," she added.

The state-owned airline, which has around 60,000 employees and is part of the Emirates Group, did not say how many staff had been affected by the job cuts.

Emirates said on May 10 that a Dubai government commitment to provide it with "equity injections" would allow it to preserve its skilled workforce.

Emirates Group's airport services subsidiary data has also laid off some staff and placed thousands of others on unpaid leave.

14.40 31/05/2020

People are more important than the economy, pope says about Covid crisis

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Philip Pullella, Reuters

Pope Francis said on Sunday that people are more important than the economy, as countries decide how quickly to reopen their countries from coronavirus lockdowns.

Francis made his comments, departing from a prepared script, at the first noon address from his window overlooking St. Peter's Square in three months as Italy's lockdown drew to an end.

"Healing people, not saving (money) to help the economy (is important), healing people, who are more important than the economy," Francis said.

"We people are temples of the Holy Spirit, the economy is not," he said.

Francis did not mention any countries. Many governments are deciding whether to reopen their economies to save jobs and living standards, or whether to maintain lockdowns until they are sure the virus is fully under control.

The pope's words were met with applause by hundreds of people in the square, many of whom wore masks and kept several metres from each other. The square was reopened to the public last Monday. Normally tens of thousands attend on a Sunday.

The last time the pope delivered his message and blessing from the window was March 1, before Italy, where more than 33,000 people have died from the virus, imposed a lockdown. The last restrictions will be lifted on Wednesday.

Francis led the crowd in silent prayer for medical workers who lost their lives by helping others.

WATCH: 'Flying is going to be different' - Aer Lingus unveils new health and safety measures for passengers

Aer Lingus outlined measures it is introducing at airports and on-board its aircraft to protect the health of its customers and staff. They apply now, and to all future Aer Lingus services once business and leisure flying picks up.

13.47 31/05/2020

No new surge and it's safe to fly, says Nobel scientist

Expand Close GOT TO GET AWAY: People wearing protective face masks walk through Terminal 2 in Dublin Airport last week. Photo: Brian Lawless/PA / Facebook

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Whatsapp GOT TO GET AWAY: People wearing protective face masks walk through Terminal 2 in Dublin Airport last week. Photo: Brian Lawless/PA

The Stanford professor agrees with Michael O'Leary on air travel. He tells Niamh Horan that Ireland should get its economy going again

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Irish Covid-19 doctor and budding pop artist says music is a 'lifeline' in midst of pandemic

An Irish doctor who is working in a Covid-19 ward in University Hospital Galway has said that music is a lifeline in the midst of a pandemic.

Conor Waters (28) from Claremorris in Co Mayo is also a budding musician in his spare time and has been using music as a relaxation tool with his musical project Stepping on Lego.

While on a medical scheme at the Mayo Clinic in America, he decided to return to UHG, where he had been working for several years, in mid-March to help out with the crisis.

12.34 31/05/2020

'Operators need a bailout' - The tourism expert tasked with Ireland's post-Covid recovery

Expand Close Ruth Andrews has taken on another key tourism role. Photo: Gerry Mooney / Facebook

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Whatsapp Ruth Andrews has taken on another key tourism role. Photo: Gerry Mooney

After a life in tourism, Ruth Andrews must now help plot a route for the sector around its biggest challenges yet, writes Gabrielle Monaghan

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Malta to reopen its airport on July 1

Malta will reopen its airport to passenger flights on July 1, Prime Minister Robert Abela said on Sunday, as the Mediterranean island rolls back restrictions introduced in March to halt COVID-19 infections.

Tourism accounts for almost a quarter of Malta's economy and hoteliers have been pressing the government to reopen the airport or risk mass unemployment.

The southern Mediterranean island has recorded some 600 coronavirus cases and nine deaths, having carried out an intensive testing and contact tracing programme. Non-essential shops and restaurants were allowed to reopen in mid-May, but churches on the Roman Catholic island and schools remain closed. Bars and gyms will reopen next Friday.

"These are exciting time for Malta. We are returning to normality," Abela said.

He said the government will also announce a budget on June 8 with the aim of encouraging consumption and investment. The budget is normally announced in October.

Creches want 60m in aid for this year

Expand Close SEAS SUAS CHAIR: Regina Bushell has called for funding. Photo: Ger Rogers / Facebook

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Whatsapp SEAS SUAS CHAIR: Regina Bushell has called for funding. Photo: Ger Rogers

Health guidelines will impose severe limit on numbers of children and push up costs, writes Hugh O'Connell and Maeve Sheehan

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10.50 31/05/2020

Entrepeneur designs 'head box' for treating coronavirus patients

David Young, PA

An entrepreneurial designer has teamed up with medical experts to produce a new protective product for treating coronavirus patients.

The clear one-piece head box developed by Michael Knight shields clinical staff when they are performing procedures that result in patients expelling aerosol spray.

Mr Knight is managing director of Co Down company Donite Plastics, which uses specialist heat technology - thermoforming - to mass produce moulded plastics.

For the last six weeks he was been working with innovation experts from Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge to design the box for use when medics are intubating Covid-19 patients or connecting them to ventilators.

As those procedures result in patients expelling spray, they bring with them a high risk of virus transmission.

The inspiration for the project came during a conversation Mr Knight had with a friend, Dr Madalina McCrea, who works as a consultant anaesthetist in Northern Ireland's Western Trust.

Mr Knight told the PA news agency: "Mada knew I made things from plastic and we were chatting about a device that would sit over a patient's head, whether in a ward or an intensive care unit which would allow the medical practitioner to work on the patient, but also to protect them and the patient when carrying out procedures.

"There were pictures on the internet of very simple square acrylic boxes being used for this purpose in Taiwan during the height of their Covid-19 epidemic."

HSE told to correct list of Covid-19 deaths in nursing homes

Expand Close PUBLISH NOW: Fine Gael TD Fergus O'Dowd says there are serious questions about how the HSE list was compiled. Photo: Tom Burke / Facebook

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Whatsapp PUBLISH NOW: Fine Gael TD Fergus O'Dowd says there are serious questions about how the HSE list was compiled. Photo: Tom Burke

The leaking of disputed figures about Covid-19 deaths in care homes has shocked residents, writes Maeve Sheehan

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Mosques reopen across Saudi Arabia with strict measures

Aya Batrawy, Associated Press

Tens of thousands of mosques across Saudi Arabia have reopened for the first time in more than two months, but worshippers have been ordered to follow strict guidelines to prevent the spread of coronavirus and Islam's holiest site in Mecca remains closed to the public.

The Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, the third holiest site for Muslims after Saudi Arabia's Mecca and Medina, also reopened for prayers on Sunday for the first time since it was closed in mid-March.

Throngs waited outside the holy site's gates before it opened, with many wearing surgical masks. As they were allowed to enter, the faithful stopped to have their temperature checked.

The mosque was one of Jerusalem's many holy sites, including the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and the Western Wall, that were restricted to worshippers at the height of Israel's coronavirus outbreak. Throughout that period, worshippers continued to pray in the alleyways outside the mosque.

In Saudi Arabia, the government prepared for the reopening of around 90,000 mosques by sanitising prayer rugs, washrooms and shelves holding copies of the Koran.

The Ministry of Islamic Affairs said millions of text messages were sent to people in multiple languages to inform them about the new rules for public prayer, which include keeping two metres apart, wearing face masks at all times and abstaining from greeting one another with handshakes or hugs.

09.25 31/05/2020

Sunshine raises worries over social distancing as sunseekers flock to the beaches

Expand Close STEPPING UP: Gardai move along swimmers at the Blackrock diving tower in Salthill. Photo: Ray Ryan / Facebook

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Whatsapp STEPPING UP: Gardai move along swimmers at the Blackrock diving tower in Salthill. Photo: Ray Ryan

As the country basked in glorious sunshine yesterday there was concern about people failing to adhere to restrictions aimed at preventing the spread of Covid-19.

It came as health officials appealed the public to adopt a cautious approach as the number of new cases jumped 50pc yesterday compared with the previous evening.

Any increase in cases will be met with concern among officials as the country edges closer to entering phase two of the road map to reopen the country.

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'Could we have done better? Yes, of course,' - Minister Jim Daly on nursing home Covid crisis

Expand Close PAUSE: Jim Daly on care costs. Photo: Daragh Mc Sweeney/Provision / Facebook

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Whatsapp PAUSE: Jim Daly on care costs. Photo: Daragh Mc Sweeney/Provision

Minister Jim Daly is under scrutiny over despair wrought on nursing homes by Covid-19, writes Maeve Sheehan

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08.10 31/05/2020

Move to scrap travel limit from June 29 to save summer

Senior government figures are optimistic the roadmap can be accelerated if promising signs are backed up by data, writes political correspondent Hugh O'Connell.

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WATCH: Premier League gets all-clear but EFL announces 17 positive coronavirus tests

The Premier League has revealed there were no positive results from its latest round of Covid-19 testing, providing a timely confidence boost for the planned June 17 restart.

A total of 1,130 players and club personnel were tested in the fourth screening session, which took place on Thursday and Friday, and yielded the first all-clear.

Six million infected with virus worldwide

Expand Close Members of the public wearing facemasks during the Covid-19 pandemic in Dublin's City Centre. Photo: Gareth Chaney Collins / Facebook

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Whatsapp Members of the public wearing facemasks during the Covid-19 pandemic in Dublin's City Centre. Photo: Gareth Chaney Collins

Brian Melley and John Seewar, Associated Press

Coronavirus has infected more than six million people across the world and killed more than 369,000, according to a tally kept by Johns Hopkins University.

There are virus outbreak fears across America and the mayor of Atlanta, one of dozens of US cities hit by massive protests after the police killing of a black man, has warned demonstrators they have put themselves at risk of contracting coronavirus and should get tested.

As emergency orders imposed at the start of the pandemic are lifted and beaches and businesses reopen across America, protests have now been added to the list of concerns about a possible second wave of infections.

There are similar concerns in Paris and Hong Kong, where anti-government protesters have accused police of using social distancing rules to break up their rallies.

Health experts fear silent carriers of the virus who have no symptoms could unwittingly infect others at gatherings with people packed cheek to jowl and cheering and jeering, many without masks.

One protester said she has no choice but to demonstrate.

"It's not okay that in the middle of a pandemic we have to be out here risking our lives," Spence Ingram, a black woman, said after marching with other protesters to the state capitol in Atlanta on Friday.

"But I have to protest for my life and fight for my life all the time."
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang speaks at the video press conference from The Great Hall Of The People after the closing of the rubber-stamp legislative annual meeting in Beijing, China on May 28, 2020. (Andrea Verdelli/Getty Images)

Chinas Premier Acknowledges Serious Economic Crisis, With 600 Million People Earning $140 a Month

After this years meetings of Chinas rubber-stamp legislature concluded, Premier Li Keqiang revealed at a press conference that roughly 600 million Chinese citizens only earn 1,000 yuan, or roughly $140, a month.

That is not enough to pay for monthly rent on a one-bedroom apartment in a mid-sized Chinese city.

Li also admitted that the country was facing an unemployment crisis as many people have lost their jobs amid the pandemic and the countrys weakening economy.

He also admitted that millions continue to live in poverty, and do not have enough to eat. Furthermore, more people are struggling as a result of the pandemic, he said.

Poverty

Chinese leader Xi Jinping said during his 2020 new years message that his goal was for China to become a moderately prosperous society in the coming year.

But Xis target seemed out of reach, according to Lis latest comments

On the afternoon of May 28, Li Keqiang held a video-based press conference in Beijing. To prevent the spread of the CCP virus, all journalists sat together in one room, while Li was in another room.

When a reporter asked Li about Chinas plans for eliminating poverty and growing the middle class, Li answered: Our average annual income is 30,000 yuan ($4,198). But there are 600 million people whose monthly income is only 1,000 yuan ($140).

Chinas population is 1.439 billion. 600 million is roughly 41.7 percent of the total population.

The premier also said that due to the economic impact of the epidemic, there will likely be more Chinese citizens living in poverty, and will need social security or other forms of government assistance to survive.

Unemployment

Li also acknowledged that unemployment is a major problem.

He explained that while reading internet comments, he came across a post by a migrant worker in his 50s who has worked for more than 30 years, but could not find a job this year.

In addition, in July, 8.74 million students will graduate from university. These two groups, along with military veterans, are those in most need of a job, he said.

Li did not disclose an overall unemployment rate for the country, but mentioned a previously announced unemployment rate based on people who are officially registered as urban residents and reported their job loss themselveswhich is six percent.

The official figure does not include migrant workers who lost their jobs. According to Beijings estimates, there are roughly 288 million migrant workers in the country.

It has been broadly questioned by Chinese scholars and international experts. On April 30, a director at a Chinese brokerage firm was removed from his position after he posted on social media an analysis that estimated that Chinas true unemployment rate was roughly 20.5 percent.

Li said the central government would promote consumption in an effort to stimulate the economy and create more jobs.

Chinas Economy

The premier also admitted that the pandemic has done serious damage to Chinas economy, using the analogy of a big car driving on a road covered with thorns.

Beijing will cut down on expenses, and has also ordered local governments to do the same, he said.

Li also announced that the central government will issue national debt and local government bondsvaluing 2 trillion yuan ($280 billion) in totalto prop up the economy.

A previous version of this article misstated the estimated number of migrant workers in China. The Epoch Times regrets the error.
New Delhi, May 31 : Around nine lakh students between KG and class 12 from the Delhi government schools have benefited from the online and SMS/IVR supported learning during the lockdown, Education Minister Manish Sisodia said on Sunday.

The Minister reviewed the online and SMS/IVR supported learning for Delhi government school students along with his team. Sisodia said five different interventions for children across different grades between KG to Class 12 were running during the lockdown.

"These interventions impacted nearly nine lakh children of Delhi government schools," he said Soon after the lockdown was announced, the Delhi government introduced digital learning for children across different grades.

"I'm glad to see we could minimise academic damage due to the loss of learning time. This is perhaps the first time in our country that a new academic session started during the lockdown," Sisodia said.

He said it was challenging, at first, to conduct online classes with the help of digital technologies in these extraordinary times. "We had never used such technologies at this scale before." Along with Sisodia, Director of Education Binay Bhushan, Education Advisor Shailendra Sharma and Additional Director (School) Saroj Sain were also there in the review meeting, which was streamed online.

Bhushan said the Department is planning to track the students on a weekly basis from now onwards till they are back in school.

Sharma, on the other hand, explained about five programmes -- Live online classes for Class 11 students; Everyday English and personality development for classes 10 and 12 students; Online maths classes for class 9 students; Digital Entrepreneurship Mindset classes for students of 9 to 12; and SMS/IVR enabled activity classes for KG to 8 through parents.

Apart from these programs for children, 15 sessions of "Online Happiness class for family" were also organised during the same period, viewed on an average by 40,000 people every day, Sharma said.

The live Online Classes for students of Class 11 was launched on April 6 in partnership with the Career Launcher and 85 per cent students registered for the class.

"The maximum attendance recorded was for English class with 60,500 students logging in, as per the data recorded by the DoE. These classes concluded on May 30," Sharma said.

In the everyday English and personality development classes for the students of Class 10 and 12, the maximum attendance recorded on any particular day was 83,545.

"These classes were launched on May 4 by the government in partnership with British Council and MacMillian Education to provide an opportunity to acquire new skills for the students waiting to complete their board exams. The cycle of 30 sessions will conclude on June 2," Sharma said.

In the online Maths classes in collaboration with Khan Academy, around 1.75 lakh students of Class 9 accessed the Maths lessons assisted by 1,015 teachers who were oriented by Khan Academy to guide the students of their respective schools.

"The online maths classes were launched on April 27 and concluded on May 29." In the Digital Entrepreneurship Mindset class for students of class 9 to 12, around 45,000 students participated in 10 activities on 5 themes - creativity, self awareness, managing fear, dream big and decision making.

"Besides, two live interactions with accomplished entrepreneurs have also been organised and two more are scheduled for June 3 and 10." In the Mission Buniyaad and Happiness class through SMS and IVR to parents of the students between classes KG and 8, nearly 5.7 lakh students took part.

"Launched on April 2 and concluded on May 31, 25 IVR based activities each for Mission Buniyaad and Happiness and 52 inputs to parents shared with nearly 5.7 lakh students. These activities ranged from building reading, writing and numeracy skills to self reflection, critical thinking and responding to lockdown situations."
The Kerala government will begin virtual classes for school students from June 1, in an effort to ensure that they do not miss out on lessons due to COVID-19 induced lockdown.

Director of Public Instruction (DPI) K Jeevan Babu said the classes will be through theKerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education (KITE)-Victers channel under the name First Bell.

We very well know the situation of COVID-19, its spread and how dangerous it is. We need the nod of the centre and the state government to open schools and start regular classes. So the department had decided to start online classes. The classes will be through KITE Victers channel, Babu told media persons KITE has even brought out the timetable for conducting the classes. The sessions will be held from 8.30 am to 5.30 pm from Monday to Friday for all classes from 1 to 12, except class 11, on the channel.

The time slots for different classes vary from half- an-hour to two hours, a press release issued by KITE said.

We are not entering into a regular school period. We are unable to open the schools considering the health situation across the world. Our students have even written their tenth and plus two exams under these trying circumstances, Babu said.

The new method of teaching and studying will be a challenge to the teachers as well as students, he added.

He said the department was worried about a section of students who lacked facilities for online classes and had identified over two lakh students in that category.

We have entrusted the class teachers and school headmasters or principals to make sure that students have access to a television or a smart phone or a computer, and Internet for the classes. If not, they should find an alternative for the students to attend the online classes either in real time or later, Babu said.

The department suggested alternatives including television or Internet facilities of neighbours, friends living nearby, libraries or Akshaya centres.

The department also informed that all the classes will be in a downloadable format and can be compiled together and shown to those who have missed the class later.

The sessions on Victers channel will be available simultaneously on the KITE Victers website, mobile app, and social media pages.

The department said in the first week, the classes will be telecast on a trial basis and these will be repeated in the second week.

The modules for different classes will be prepared by agencies under the General Education Department such as the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT), KITE, Samagra Shiksha Kerala (SSK), and the State Institute of Educational Technology.

KITE informed that for the first week at least 1.2 lakh laptops, over 7,000 projectors and nearly 4,545 televisions have been readied for the students,
By PTI

KOLKATA: The West Bengal government on Saturday extended the lockdown in the state up to June 15 with further relaxations and certain condition, which included nod to indoor and outdoor activities related to TV and cinema production, barring reality show production, from June 1.

The announcement came ahead of the end of the fourth phase of the countrywide lockdown on May 31.

During the day, the union home ministry said the nationwide lockdown in containment zones would continue till June 30 and announced extensive relaxations, including the opening of religious places and shopping malls in a phased manner from June 8.

An order from the state government stated, "Government of West Bengal has decided to extend the lockdown for another two weeks, i.e. up to 15/06/2020 with further relaxations with conditions."

It said it is felt necessary to continue to implement the lockdown in the affected areas -- containment zones -- to contain the spread of COVID-19 effectively, and simultaneously open up activities in other areas for socio-economic revival.

The West Bengal government order stated that indoor and outdoor activities related to TV and cinema production, barring those for reality shows, including for web-portal and OTT platforms, with not more than 35 persons per unit at a time would be allowed with effect from June 1.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had on Friday announced a slew of relaxations, including reopening of shrines from June 1 and functioning of state government offices with 70 per cent staff in attendance from the second week of June.

The state government also allowed reopening of operations in hotels, restaurants, besides opening of shopping malls from June 8.

The government order asked the authorities and owners of private institutions to ensure that social distance norms and health hygiene protocols are strictly followed, as any violation will lead to the withdrawal of the relaxations.

"Norms of social distancing and health hygiene protocol must be strictly followed. Management committees, trustee boards, governing bodies and owners of private institutions, organisations and establishments shall be responsible for compliance of the stated norms and guidelines," the order stated.

Any violation in compliance of norms of social distancing, health protocol and not wearing of masks may lead to the withdrawal of relaxations provided herein as well as attract penal action as per law, it warned.

The state government, which had on Friday announced full operationalisation of the tea and jute industry, also allowed total attendance in micro, small, medium and large industries including mining activities from June 1.

It also allowed construction activities with 100 per cent of the strength of workers from Monday.

The Centre has given more powers to the states and union territories to ascertain and define a containment zone.

It asked the union health ministry to issue standard operating procedures for these sectors after consulting other ministries, departments and other stakeholders to ensure social distancing and to contain the spread of COVID-19.

The number of COVID-19 cases in West Bengal climbed to 5,130 on Saturday after 317 more people tested positive for coronavirus, the state health department bulletin said.

Seven fresh deaths due to the disease were also reported in the state, taking the toll to 237, it said.

Six of the seven deaths were recorded in Kolkata while one was in North 24 Parganas district.

Seventy-two patients have died due to co-morbidities where COVID-19 was "incidental", the bulletin said, adding the number of active cases in the state stood at 2,851.

Of the new cases, 80 were registered in Kolkata, 42 in Howrah, 38 in North Dinajpur, 32 in Coochbehar, 30 in North 24 Parganas district and 22 in Birbhum districts, the bulletin said.

Twelve other districts also reported fresh cases since Friday evening.

The bulletin said three people from other states also tested positive for the disease.

Coochbehar district of north Bengal, which had reported no case of the COVID-19 infection till Friday, registered 32 cases after migrant labourers tested positive for the infection, it added.

These 32 migrant labourers "underwent tests a couple of days back and reports showed them to be positive for the disease.

These people are all asymptomatic and are undergoing treatment at a COVID-19 hospital in Siliguri," Coochbehar district magistrate said.

The bulletin said 195 patients were discharged from various hospitals since Friday evening, taking the total number of people who have recovered from the disease to 1,970.

At least 9,436 samples have been tested since during this period and the total number of tests rose to 1,94,397.
Investment house Argonaut Capital has been around for 15 years. It's had its fair share of business associations and disassociations, most recently with Standard Life Investments, but today it's very much a one-man investment band.

The company's investment heartbeat is Barry Norris who learnt his trade at asset managers Baillie Gifford and Neptune.

He owns Argonaut outright and runs three investment funds from London offices with assets between them of 100million.

Norris, 46, is outspoken, disparaging about most of the retail investment funds industry  with the exception of Terry Smith's Fundsmith and Baillie Gifford  and does things his own way.

Nowhere is this more evident than on Argonaut Absolute Return, a 23million fund designed to generate rolling three-year positive investment returns irrespective of what is happening to stock markets.

He does this by investing in companies in the hope of their share price rising. But he also shorts stocks whose price he believes will fall. When they do fall, the fund makes money.

He says: 'My view is that if I am going to compete for investors ' money, I must offer something unique. Argonaut Absolute Return is a portfolio diversifier.

'It makes money when equity funds are suffering from plunging share prices. Also, anyone buying my funds is buying my expertise  I'm responsible and accountable for all the decisions and all the investment performance.'

The performance numbers look impressive. Over the past three and six months, Argonaut Absolute Return has recorded overall returns of 11.2 per cent and 23.7 per cent respectively, while over three years it has recorded a profit of nearly 37 per cent.

To put these numbers into perspective, the respective returns from the FTSE All-Share Index are losses of 5.8 per cent, 15 per cent and 6.7 per cent.

Norris describes the fund's investment philosophy as 'earnings surprise'.

This involves looking for companies that will surprise markets when they report their earnings, causing their share price to move sharply and the fund to make a resulting profit.

The 'surprise' could be negative or positive  with earnings lower or greater than expected by everybody else.

In recent months, the fund has benefited from short positions in both German payment processor Wirecard and London listed NMC Health.

In the past few days, Wirecard delayed publishing its 2019 results for a third time against a backdrop of accounting irregularities while NMC Health, a former constituent of the FTSE100 Index, was earlier this month put into administration.

Norris is comfortable making money for investors from shorting. He says: 'People such as myself play a key role in exposing companies that are not acting honestly.

'I don't think the market vigilante aspect to our work is acknowledged by regulators. Without us, the economic damage would be greater.'

Although the fund has made good returns from holding shares in technology giant Amazon, food delivery service Just Eat and Russian gold miner Polyus PJSC, Norris is busy building stakes in companies that should do well as the world moves out of lockdown.

He's bought holdings in UK house builders Berkeley, Redrow and Taylor Wimpey in the hope their fortunes improve sharply as new houses start getting built again and sales pick up.

He is also confident about the prospects for computer chip component makers as demand is propped up by greater use of home computers and 5G mobile phone technology. Holdings include US listed Micron Technology and German based Siltronic.
The Varanasi District Magistrate (DM) on Saturday warned against locusts attack in parts of the district. However, the authorities are prepared to fight the pests. According to Varanasi DM Kaushalraj Sharma, locust swarms were detected at Mirzapur and Sonbhadra border on Friday. He stated that they may attack Arajiline, Kashi Vidyapeeth, and Sewapuri blocks of Varanasi.

Speaking to a news agency, DM Sharma said that "All preparations have been completed to kill the locusts if they attack the district." He also added that if the need arises, the authorities will use the fire tenders and spray pumps of the municipal corporation to spray the insecticides.

"We have a stock of 2,000 litres of requisite chemicals in Varanasi. We will use fire tenders and spray pumps of the municipal corporation to spray insecticides. 300 manual spray pumps have been brought to the three blocks and will be used if the need arises," he said.

The desert locusts are a species of locust, a swarming short-horned grasshopper, and are known to devour everything in their path, posing an unprecedented threat to the food supply and livelihoods of millions of people.

Read: Locust Attack: Himachal Pradesh on high alert as swarms destroy crops in adjoining states

Centre steps up locust control measures

The Union Agriculture Ministry on Thursday said that 15 sprayers are being procured from the UK in a fortnight and plans are afoot to deploy drones and helicopters for the aerial spray of pesticides.

Union Agricultural Minister Narendra Singh Tomar has said that control measures are in full swing and in close coordination with state agriculture departments, local administration, and Border Security Force (BSF).

Read: DGCA issues advisory for domestic flights to tackle locust swarm threat

India on High Alert over Locust Attack

India has issued a high alert after the Locust Warning Organisation (LWO), under the Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmer Welfare, warned of another attack in May-June this year. The country's food security is at severe risk as a large swarm of locusts is entering India after breeding and maturing in Iranian provinces and Pakistans Balochistan province.

The authorities have also started deploying drones, satellite-derived tools, special fire-tenders, and sprayers at pre-identified border locations.

Meanwhile, the first locust attack of this year was reported from Ganganagar, a district in north Rajasthan bordering Pakistan on May 11 and has now spread to Punjab, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Andhra Pradesh.

Read: Locust swarm encroaches MP's Panna Tiger reserve; officials deploy sirens & other measures

Read: Locust invasion: Rajasthan fights back; destroys massive 6 sq. km swarm but 3 more remain

(With ANI Inputs)
Ghanaian musician Abrewa Nana known in real life as Dorcas Opoku Dakwa has declared her intentions to fly distressed musician Okomfour Kwade3 abroad for a change of environment.



The female musician believes that a change of environment would be good therapy for Okomfour Kwade3.



In a Facebook post, Abrewa stated that Just last week she was on phone with a friend abroad confessing that if she had all the means one of the things she would love to do, is to fly Okomfour Kwade3 abroad".



A new photo of the Ghanaian hiplife musician, Jerry Anaba, well known as Okomfo Kwadee, on social media, has left many of his fans in a state of shock.



For some time now, Okomfo Kwadee has been battling with mental challenges which landed him at a rehab centre. In 2018, the news about him being abandoned at the rehab centre by his family went viral.



Read her full post

Just last week,i was on phone with a friend abroad confessing that if i had the means one of the things i would loved to do, is to fly Okomfour Kwade3 abroad ,because i believe strongly that change of environment would be a good therapy for him to destress(eat well,sleep good,go shopping,fun activities,meet new people,seek counselling ,record ,shoot a video etc.) and trust me with prayers he will be good by the time he comes back within 6months to a year.I said it 'k3k3" God is my witness...God is my witness!!!

Only for me to see a picture of him,my star,my legend OKOMFOUR kWADE3 going viral this evening and am really saddened by the look.I got upset about the various post,just like others too.Someone said the reason why late Benard Nyarko(rip) did not want his colleagues visiting him,another also argued that if the pic hadn't gone viral,how would we have known what was going on with him.My heart is bleeding right now . I don't know his situation but definitely a brother needs help and its obvious no be today.I remember some years ago,i personally told the ex president of the musicians union of Ghana to organise a show at the stadium (of which i believed Ghanaians/fans would have supported ) to help him.Was willing to perform for FREE to aid the course and he told me he has thought about it and will put it on agenda;till today!!! This is not the time to point fingers,to be judgemental or explain what u think caused this.Fustration and depression can do alot more than your assumptions The brother is alive and its not too late.I can't do it alone.I can't do it on my own.Please i am begging all of u/s lets come together and help OKOMFOUR KWADE3 whiles we can instead of wait to bury him or use him for the "NEWS" and it ends there. We all need help,but, he needs US most right now.He needs our love, support and prayers in these hard times.No negative vibes PLEASE  ...Share this post and tag who comes to mind fam.Nobody knows tommorow.1 .1  #letshelpOkomfuorKwade3 Patrick Baah Flex Newspaper Kwame Dadzie David Kwamena Bolton Kofi Okyere Darko Dan Lartey Sammy Flex TV Bola Ray Alordia Promotions Kofitv Robby Fiifi Robbertson Bigg Nash















Just last week,i was on phone with a friend abroad confessing that if i had the means one of the things i would loved to...



Posted by Abrewa Nana on Saturday, May 30, 2020











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At the beginning of the COVID-19 Pandemic, St. Maarten, as well as much of the world, was faced with the development that was unforeseen in its magnitude, size, and impact. One that we could not have ever imagined.





On March 23, 2020, the government began closing its borders to minimize the impact and effects of the COVID-19 virus which was known to be an imported virus. However, at the end of the day, we were able to contain and crush the COVID-19 virus in a relatively short period of time of two months.





COVID-19 Cases





Based on the latest available data provided by Collective Prevention Services (CPS) Epidemiologist Dr. Raissa Tjon-Kon-Fat, for yesterday, May 29, 2020, as of 5:00 PM, there are now 60 individuals in self-quarantine, and 8 individuals in self-isolation. To date, 461 persons have been tested, of which 77 were positive, 380 were negative, and three tests are still pending.





Of the 77 positive cases, 60 have recovered. Notably, St. Maarten has had only one positive case in the last 33 days, and no new cases in the last 20 days which is almost three weeks. Presently, there are two active cases on St. Maarten.





As of May 29th, 2020, there are no COVID-19 suspected or confirmed patients admitted to SMMC, including the Mobile Medial Pavilion (MMP) and the ICU Tent. St. Maarten currently has about 900 samples of antibodies tests (PCR tests), and we look forward as soon as the labs have been certified this process that this will also continue and more information about this will be provided by Ministry VSA.





In the coming days, St. Maarten is expected to be free of COVID-19. To arrive at this point, it was imperative that we were forced to take stringent and decisive measures of closing down our economy. Flights, cruise ships, vessels, etc. were no longer allowed to enter St. Maarten, for visitors nor for





residents. In addition, to prevent and minimize the problem, we also had to go towards a complete lockdown of our domestic economy by not allowing businesses to be open, besides the essential services. We are slowly allowing residents and visitors to re-enter under very strict conditions.





These measures, although not popular, were necessary in order to bend or flatten the curve! However, these measures proved to be successful at the end of the day. Naturally, one of the major consequences of COVID-19, throughout the world, is that our interdependence and reliance upon each other have shown how vulnerable, reliant, and dependent we are upon each other as a small economic society.





The combination of taking Public Health Measures to protect our country and the economic impact of closing our economy, internationally and domestically, has resulted in a win for the health side of our country, but a loss for the economic side of the equation. This is and has been true for all countries going through this dilemma currently on a worldwide basis and some are still going through it.





EOC De-activation





In a full EOC meeting held yesterday, Friday, May 29, together with some members of the Council of Ministers and key ESF coordinators, it was decided to de-activate the EOC as de-escalation, as this has come full force we have not had to backtrack at any time thus far and phase 3 has now started today.





As a matter of fact, phase 3 has been accelerated and started today  Saturday - and we are now entering the stage of economic recovery for St. Maarten. Additionally, the EOC and Council of Ministers agree that the spread of the COVID-19 virus has now been contained and neutralized. As we transition into our new normal, the responsibility of each Ministry now lies in the hands of the respective Ministers to ensure that there is no reoccurrence of a second wave of the COVID-19 virus.





I would like to take this opportunity to thank the 11 Emergency Support Functions (ESF) Coordinators, their support teams, Disaster Coordinator Clive Richardson, the EOC Back Office, as well as His Excellency drs. Eugene B. Holiday, our Public Prosecutor M. Mol, and the Dutch Military for their unwavering commitment in shaping the decisions that enabled St. Maarten to collectively contain the spread of COVID-19.





Id also like to thank my support staff for their tireless efforts in ensuring that I was equipped to take all the necessary decisions and communicate them to the public.





The Council of Ministers have been diligently preparing for the recovery stage for some time now and will continue to build upon the exceptional work of the EOC and their support teams who as they of course form part of the mistrial teams as well. We must move from our disaster mode to recovery mode.





As mentioned previously, COVID-19 has impacted in particular, tourism-based economies the most and throughout the world, St. Maarten being no exception to this rule. Tourism economies are still very much dependent on the health situation of other countries COVID-19 to be under control before we can feel comfortable opening our borders to the world and traveling Public. A multi-disciplinary





group from the EOC will also continue to remain available to the Council of Ministers should they require additional advice.





As you know the guidelines have been put forth and approved and will continue to be looked at in terms of feasibility and applicability as we move forward.





Changes to Phase 3 of the Ministerial Regulation May 29, 2020 No. 2020/0324





The EOC advised and the Council of Ministers decided that movement should be allowed on Saturday, May 30, 2020, and that the curfew hours be adjusted from 11:00 PM until 5:00 AM. Additionally, businesses will be allowed to open on Sunday as well in accordance with the Ministerial Regulation signed on May 29, 2020, 0324 implementing the changes to Phase 3 which now begins today Saturday, May 30, 2020.





I know many woke up wondering, but we had to make sure in publishing it first, which was published today, and now everyone is aware that Saturday and Sundays are now open days as well. There was much debate about whether tomorrow would be open or not and so I would like to tell the people of St. Maarten it will not be feasible to open if you stay at home. It is still your prerogative to do your shopping and other essential services from Monday to Saturday even though some places will be opening prior to the lockdown on a Sunday. I believe we have learned a lot of lessons through this COVID-19 reality and the value of family and spending as much time as possible together should remain our focus even as we move forward in reopening our businesses.





We will continue as a Council of Minister on these topics and hope that people moving around on St. Maarten will continue to use their good judgment in order to remain safe.





Continue keeping yourself safe against COVID-19 by:





 Practicing proper mask usage





 Remaining socially distanced when in public: keeping 2 meters or 6 feet away from other persons





 Washing hands often with soap and water





 Covering your cough in a proper manner





 Sneezing in a napkin and disposing of it





 Limiting physical contact (handshaking, hugging, kissing)





I believe that we have learned some key messages from this experience and naturally, it has revealed some secrets to success for any future developments.





God forbid! We have learned that going forward we ALL, as a community, must plan and prepare for the future, and we know now we are facing the start of the hurricane season. So, preparations will be key to our survival. It is imperative that the measures and the guidelines that have been put into place for your safety continue to be followed.





The measures of Social Distancing, Wearing of Masks (esp. when Social Distancing is not possible), and the frequent handwashing and/or sanitizing. These measures are what has brought our COVID-19 situation under control and it is the continuation of these practices and even if someone returns and is





infected will keep it from spreading to others. We really would like to see that we can reopen out the economy and still maintain a COVID-19 free St. Maarten.





The government is, therefore, encouraging our Private Sector to take the initiative and lead to looking for ways to produce locally and/or export the goods made in St. Maarten or export services. This will and is urgently needed to sustain, protect, and safeguard our economy and livelihood.





As I have said in many speeches before, we must find ways to follow our dreams and find ways to create security and safety nets so never again would we find ourselves in this position. People of St. Maarten, there are more challenges ahead of us. However, the one thing that remains is that we are strong, and we are resilient people, and as a fact we define resiliency and like always we will rise again. Let us continue this great work that we have done over the past three months and continue to stay COVID-19 free.





I would like to remind you about this vision that I have for St. Maarten that we move from where we are, to being a multi-pillar economy, allowing for each and every one of us affording maximum growth where opportunities exist that empower each and every citizen of St. Maarten with your determination and strength of mind and your actions that would allow you to progress to the next level. There is no limit to the progress that we can realize if we only work together.





St. Maarten is a place where dreams can be achieved.





Be Blessed St. Maarten!

People of St. Maarten, I hereby address you as Prime Minister and Chair of the Emergency Operations Center (EOC), in the final update for today, Saturday, May 30, 2020, as part of the process to keep the community of St. Maarten informed about the latest developments and the Governments COVID-19 containment, mitigation and response measures.
US President Donald Trump, pictured May 30, has said he would like to invite Russia, South Korea, Australia and India to join an expanded summit in the fall AFP/Eric BARADAT

"I don't feel that as a G7 it properly represents what's going on in the world. It's a very outdated group of countries," Trump told reporters on Air Force One.

He said he would like to invite Russia, South Korea, Australia and India to join an expanded summit in the fall.

It could happen in September, either before or after the UN General Assembly, Trump said, adding that "maybe I'll do it after the election".

Americans head to the polls in early November to choose a new president, with Trump keen for a return to normalcy from the coronavirus pandemic and a healthy economy as voters cast their ballots.

Describing the event as a "G-10 or G-11," Trump said he had "roughly" broached the topic with leaders of the four other countries.

Leaders from the Group of Seven, which the United States heads this year, had been scheduled to meet by videoconference in late June after COVID-19 scuttled plans to gather in-person at Camp David, the US presidential retreat outside Washington.

Trump created suspense just over a week ago, however, when he announced that he might hold the huge gathering in-person after all, "primarily at the White House" but also potentially parts of it at Camp David.

"CANNOT AGREE" TO TRIP

German Chancellor Angela Merkel became the first leader to decline the in-person invitation outright.

"Considering the overall pandemic situation, she cannot agree to her personal participation, to a journey to Washington," her spokesman said Saturday.

Her response followed ambivalent to vaguely positive reactions to the invitation from Britain, Canada and France.

The 65-year-old chancellor is the oldest G7 leader after Trump, who is 73. Japan's Shinzo Abe, also 65, is several months younger than Merkel. Their age puts them at higher risk from the coronavirus.

The G7 major advanced countries - Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States - hold annual meetings to discuss international economic coordination.

Russia was thrown out of what was the G8 in 2014 after it seized Ukraine's Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, an annexation never recognized by the international community.

The work of the G7 is now more important than ever as countries struggle to repair coronavirus-inflicted damage.

VIRUS CRISIS

The White House had previously said the huge diplomatic gathering would be a "show of strength" when world economies are gradually reemerging from shutdowns.

The virus is progressing at different speeds across the globe, with infection numbers falling in many of Europe's most affected countries.

Trump's announcement came after he flew to Florida earlier in the day to watch the first launch of a commercial company rocket to carry humans into orbit, ushering in a new era in space travel.

The launch was a rare bright spot in the United States Saturday as clashes broke out and major cities imposed curfews amid ongoing protests over the death of George Floyd, an African American who died after a police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.

The demonstrations are taking place against the ongoing US coronavirus crisis: The United States is the worst-hit country for COVID-19 infections, recording more than 1.7 million cases and over 103,680 deaths.

Meanwhile the number of workers filing for jobless benefits since the virus arrived in country passed 40 million earlier in the week.
Washington, June 1 : A lawyer for the family of George Floyd, whose death sparked unrest across the US, has accused a police officer of "premeditated murder".

Minneapolis policeman Derek Chauvin has been charged with third-degree murder, but lawyer Benjamin Crump told CBS news it was a case of first-degree murder.

"We think that he had intent... almost nine minutes he kept his knee in a man's neck that was begging and pleading for breath," he said, the BBC reported.

Several US cities have imposed curfews.

The Floyd case has reignited US anger over police killings of black Americans. It follows the high-profile cases of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Eric Garner in New York and others that have driven the Black Lives Matter movement.

"The fact that officer Chauvin kept his knee on his neck for almost three minutes after he was unconscious. We don't understand how that was not first degree murder. We don't understand how all these officers haven't been arrested," lawyer Crump said.

Three other officers present at the time have also since been sacked.

For many the outrage over George Floyd's death also reflects years of frustration over socio-economic inequality and segregation, not least in Minneapolis itself.

In video footage, Chauvin, 44, can be seen kneeling on Floyd's neck for several minutes on Monday. Floyd, 46, repeatedly says that he is unable to breathe.

There have been five nights of arson and looting in Minneapolis and the adjacent city of St Paul. Minnesota's Governor Tim Walz said on Saturday he was deploying the full Minnesota National Guard for the first time since World War Two.

Governor Walz said racism in his state had created the conditions for Mr Floyd's death.

The National Guard - the US reserve military force for domestic emergencies - said on Sunday that 5,000 of its personnel had been activated in 15 states and Washington DC. It added that "state and local law enforcement agencies remain responsible for security".

In the CBS interview, lawyer Benjamin Crump also said "we now have the audio from the police bodycam and we hear where one officer says 'he doesn't have a pulse, maybe we should turn him on his side', but yet officer Chauvin says 'no, we're going to keep him in this position'. That's intent.

"Also, the fact that officer Chauvin kept his knee on his neck for almost three minutes after he was unconscious." The lawyer also said Chauvin and Floyd already knew each other before Floyd's death in custody.

He said the Floyd family was "notified by the owner of a club that Derek Chauvin was an off-duty police officer where George Floyd was a security guard, and so they had to overlap".

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Did you see the sea in Sydney last Sunday? Huge waves battered the city's coastline from Palm Beach down to Cronulla, with swells not seen for some time in Sydney.

People flocked to the coast to be awed by the ocean, even if they weren't game enough to go in while beaches were closed.

Jeremy Wilmotte takes a wild ride south of Coogee last Sunday. Credit:James Alcock

High tides and walls of churning whitewater battered Curl Curl. Homes in Narrabeen looked endangered for a while as they took a pummelling. Some surfers were game for the thrill, riding 10-metre monsters.

A few braved the wild waves south of Coogee Beach, near my home. A crowd gathered on the headland, intoxicated by one surfer. He battled towering waves a long way out, between the headland and Wedding Cake Island. It was a vicarious adrenaline rush to see him constantly pummelled, only to return by jetski to take them on, again and again.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-31 00:03:36|Editor: huaxia

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By Bosun Awoniyi

LAGOS, May 30 (Xinhua) -- The Nigerian government has expressed worry and grief over the high spate of banditry in the northwest part of the country, which has claimed dozens of civilian lives.

Minister of Police Affairs, Muhammad Dingyadi, on Friday, pledged the commitment of the government to sustain the ongoing security operation in the northwest, where violence has soared in recent years as criminal gangs involved in cattle rustling and kidnapping.

The Nigerian security forces in February announced a sweeping operation aimed at armed gangs in the restive northern area.

The operation, according to the police minister was aimed at decimating all forms of crimes in the region to ensure peace, safety, and security of lives and properties.

He said the operation had yielded positive results by neutralizing the attacks by the bandits and dislodging them from their hideouts.

Also, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday directed the military to enhance their operations to end frequent attacks by gunmen and criminal gangs in the country.

Buhari gave the order following attacks by gunmen in the northwestern Nigerian state of Sokoto on Wednesday, in which at least 70 people were killed.

The gunmen, believed to be bandits, rode on motorbikes and estimated to be in their hundreds stormed the villages of Garki, Dan Aduwa, Kuzari, Katuma, and Masawa, all about three kilometers from the town of Sabon Birrnin Gobir in the northern state of Sokoto on Wednesday.

Hundreds of people have been killed by criminal gangs carrying out robberies and kidnappings in the northwest part of the country since January this year.

Such attacks have added to security challenges in Africa's most populous country, which is already struggling to contain Boko Haram insurgencies in the northeast and communal violence over grazing rights in central states.

In April, gunmen killed 47 people in attacks on villages in the northwestern state of Katsina.

In neighboring Kaduna, unknown gunmen killed more than 50 villagers in two local government areas of the state in March.

Also in February, another 16 members of a family were killed by unknown gunmen in the north-central state of Kaduna.

Commenting on the attacks, Chukwuma Okoli, a lecturer and resident researcher at the Federal University Lafia, said the federal government's current counter-banditry effort, based on military reconnaissance and raids, is good and commendable.

The way forward is the development of grassroots policing, enriched by local personnel and intelligence, the political science expert told Xinhua.

According to him, banditry and other causes of insecurity in northern Nigeria have been allowed to degenerate into a complex national emergency with dire territorial implications.

Authorities in Zamfara, a troubled state in northwestern Nigeria, have decried the worsening security situation in the state. The state has witnessed a series of onslaughts by gunmen in recent months.

More than 50 people were confirmed killed by gunmen who camped in a thick forest in the state in April.

Sokoto State governor Aminu Tambuwal told reporters in Abuja on Friday that he has demanded from the President more military intervention to check the activities of bandits.

"Apart from the previous attacks, only two days ago through banditry attacks, we lost about 74 people in a very heinous and dastardly act of aggression from the bandits," the governor told reporters after a meeting with Buhari.

In the same vein, Nasir el-Rufai, the governor of Kaduna, who also met with the Nigerian leader, said his visit was to find a lasting solution to the problem.

"The Sokoto story only hit the headlines just a few days ago, but in Zamfara, in Kaduna, in Niger, in Katsina, this banditry has become a northwestern scourge and we have been battling it with the support of the military," he added. Enditem
- CSIR has finally confirmed there is an apple tree in Ghana.

- The apple tree is located at Atimatim Taaboum in the Ashanti region

- After two years of planting it, the tree has few fruits and many branches after 10 seedlings were planted for trail

Our Manifesto: This is what YEN.com.gh believes in

The Crop Research Institute (CRI) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has finally confirmed there is an apple tree in Ghana.

According to the scientist, the apple tree is located at Atimatim Taaboum in the Ashanti region.

A report filed by JoyNews revealed that in 2016, the apple tree was grown by a Ghanaian who lives in Belgium in his private residence, who conducted a trial for the growth of the tree in the country.

After two years of planting it, the tree has few fruits and many branches after 10 seedlings were planted for trail.

Apple tree at Atimatim Taaboum in the Ashanti region. Source: UGC

Source: Original

READ ALSO: Akufo-Addo should lockdown Ghana for 10 days - Pressure group urges government

Confirming the truth of the tree, a Plant physiologist and Principal Research Scientist at CSIR-CRI, Professor Beloved Mensah Dzomeku said there is nothing doubtful about the tree, as various tests have been conducted to prove its veracity.

Prof. Dzomeku says he has studied apple trees in Germany and that, Indeed, it is an apple.

According to Professor Dzomeku transverse and longitudinal sections through the immature fruits revealed all the features of Apple.

Professor Dzomeku concludes apples can grow well in Ghana. But this can only be done with scientific support.

READ ALSO: Supposed apple tree spotted in Ashanti Region discovered to be false

YEN.com.gh earlier reported that a plant looking like an apple tree was reportedly planted just five years ago at Wiamoase in the Ashanti Region has produced fruits bountifully as a recent trending video has shown.

The video was sighted by YEN.com.gh on Twitter as a gentleman who was clearly stunned by the discovery spoke at length about the tree and urged various stakeholders to come and have a look.

News about the tree has been interesting to most people due to the fact that real apple tree is known and believed to only do well in parts of the world with cold temperatures and high humidity.

READ ALSO: Nana Ama McBrown: No makeup video & photos of the actress with her gym instructor pop up

Ghanaian female accounting graduate and mushroom farmer recounts her experience | #Yencomgh

Get interactive via our Facebook page.

Source: YEN.com.gh
How a missionary imprisoned in Sudan brought prisoners to Christ

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Czech missionary Petr Jasek admits there was a time he doubted if he would survive his over year-long imprisonment under Sudans Islamic regime from December 2015 to February 2017.

After spending months locked away in a cell with six members of the Islamic State, taking beating after beating and enduring torture as he lost over 55 pounds, the 52-year-old Jasek was later transferred into solitary confinement and then into overcrowded cells with no access to toilets. He was given only tasteless beans with moldy bread to eat.

Spending his first five months mostly with Islamic extremists and no access whatsoever to Scripture, Jasek told The Christian Post in a recent interview that he prayed and hoped to be released as soon as possible because he had not yet seen what Gods purpose was for his unjust prison detention.

But things turned around when he was finally granted access to a Bible and locked away for three months in solitary confinement with nothing to do but read Gods Word. Looking back on his time in prison, Jasek said God's ultimate assignment for him was preaching the Gospel to spiritually hungry prisoners in Sudan.

[There] was a moment I was doubting whether I would survive, he explained. Then one night, there were 12 Eritrean refugees brought to our cell. They were teenagers.

I was encouraged to preach the Gospel to them. I went there and shared Christ with them. They were deeply touched. In the end, when I saw that their hearts were prepared, I asked them if they wanted to commit their lives to Jesus. So these 12 Eritrean refugees prayed with me that night because we could not sleep. There was no space to sleep. We spent the rest of the night talking about Jesus. In the morning, they were all transferred to a different prison and I could not see them anymore.

Jasek said that interaction with the refugees was a turning point for him during his detention.

Jasek, a leader who works the international persecution nonprofit Voice of the Martyrs, details his life in Imprisoned with ISIS: Faith in the Face of Evil.

In his new book, he talks about growing up under communism in Czechoslovakia and how a four-day trip to document how churches in Sudan were being persecuted by the government, turned into a months-long journey that took him through five different prisons.

When you think about the fact that my plan was to go for four days but the Lord has turned these four days into 445 days, that goes well in hand with Isaiah 55. I think it is verse eight through 10 that says that My ways are not like your ways. My thoughts are not like your own, Jasek said.

That is the wonderful thing that when we can trust the Lord and He can use us according to His purpose. I know that the Lord Jesus was preparing His followers that they will be persecuted. He doesnt guarantee that He will deliver us from persecution.

'Imprisoned with ISIS'

Jasek was arrested in December 2015 while at the airport set to fly home after filming persecution against Christian communities, specifically church properties being confiscated or destroyed by authorities.

He said he was arrested by the secret police who took all his belongings, including his camera and cell phone. He was taken to a local police headquarters and interrogated for 24 hours. After that, authorities placed him in the first of five prisons he would eventually be held in throughout his 14-month ordeal.

He was interrogated by the secret police for four months before being brought before a judge to hear the crimes lodged against him. Two of the charges  espionage and trying to overthrow the regime  could be punishable by death. Eventually, after months of prosecution, Jasek was sentenced to life in prison.

In the first prison, Jasek said he was forced to share a cell with six members of the Islamic State for two months. At the time, the Islamic State was making international headlines by way of its violence and controlled territory in Iraq and Syria. The group recruited militants throughout Africa.

According to Jasek, the Islamic State-aligned militants were highly educated doctors, pharmacists and IT specialists from various countries.

When ISIS was succeeding in Iraq and Syria, it inspired many young people, he said. These young ISIS members were all the age of my own children. The time with those people was not easy. They first limited my freedom of movement. I was not supposed to speak when not asked. They started slandering me with bad words and beatings and tortures followed.

One of the Islamic State members, whom others referred to as the man of the sword, was purported to have been a personal bodyguard for Osama bin Laden and also a militant who beheaded one of the 21 Christians decapitated on a Libyan beach in the widely publicized social media video that rocked the world in February 2015, Jasek said.

He was one of the people who were slaughtering the 20 Coptic Christians and one African Christian on the Libyan shore, Jasek said. He was threatening me with my life as well. But the Lord protected me and the Lord gave me the strength to even share the Gospel through my answers.
Some of Africas innovators, researchers, economists, thinkers and technology experts, on Saturday, held conversations on the collective future of Africa and the roles of individuals, groups, governments and corporations in birthing the desired future.

The discussions held at a virtual conference organised by TEDxYaba, the 2020 edition of the Convergence.

At the conference, various speakers delivered ideas on various sectors of the African society including security, health, agriculture and business, and how synergy can be built by African countries to foster growth and development.

Speaking at the conference, Lawal Bakare, the founder of EpidAlert, a Nigerian not-for-profit health organisation, said in order to attain the collective future of Africa, certain roadblocks must be removed.

Highlighting the major challenges hindering the convergence of African countries to harness the development of the continent, Mr Bakare said existential gaps, lack of trust, perception gaps, poor self-efficacy and cultural incompetence are the challenges.

Self-efficacy starts from knowing the changes required in an environment, knowing your roles in effecting the changes and acquiring the skill sets needed, he said.

Mr Bakare said to achieve the desired future, Africans must be committed, they must realise the need to make changes and shift their minds to the place of active intervention.

He added that if the micro units on which education, health and other sectors rely on are not functional, the entire community collapses.

As part of the measures to solve the problems Africa is faced with, the speaker said there is a need for culture fixes because certain cultures are progressing, while some are not.

He added that African countries need to build confidence and tackle cultural incompetencies that are within us.

Astrid Haas, an urban economist and researcher from Uganda, said organisations and cities are crucial to the convergence of Africa.

She said with well-managed organisations and cities, there are massive opportunities for Africa to leverage on in order to boost the future of Africa.

Organisations and cities allow the convergence of individuals with innovations and skills to develop a country.

Speaking on how to unlock the power of convergence in Africa, Ms Haas said good policies must be put in place, as well as good security and good infrastructure to unleash the power of connectivity, jobs, residence, business, and markets.

She said good organisations are essential to growth and to achieve the promise of cities that work in Africa.

The conference also featured a breakout session where participants engaged the speakers on the issues raised.

Another speaker at the conference, Charles Omole, a security expert, said Africa needs a new reality that will promote security convergence and Pan-African responses to security challenges in Africa.

READ ALSO:

Mr Omole is the Director-General of the Institute for Police and Security Policy Research (IPSPR), an independent Pan-African research institute to promote collaborative research and reform programmes between the police, military, security practitioners, the academia and security industry experts for peace and development in Africa.

Mr Omole said Africa needs a change of emphasis from just force to service.

Many security operatives in many countries in Africa engage in battles with their own compatriots rather than external forces, the paradigm has to shift, he said.

He said security outfits in Africa need a reorientation from regime preservation to citizen protection.

He said for security convergence to occur, there is a need for more transparency in procurement and activities sorrounding security matters as this will build confidence in security matters in Africa.

Harmonization of standard operating procedures across the continent must occur. Divide and rule must stop, Africa needs to create an industrial military complex, where all the equipment needed will be manufactured locally and there will be uniformity. This will enhance security and military convergence will be easier, he said.

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Also at the conference was Andrew Nevin, a PwC global thinker, who urged Africa to shift from a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) lens to Sustainable Development and Growth lens.

Mr Nevin said GDP does not connect people and the objective of the economy is to connect people by catering for their wellbeing.

He said given that there is no relationship between the GDP and the well-being of the people, Africa must begin to target the wellbeing of its people at a much higher rate.

The last panelist at the conference, Lola Omolola, the founder of Female IN (FIN), said power of community in transforming Africa cannot be over-emphasised.

Community is one of the best ways to create the kind of convergence needed to develop Africa. Community building can be saving grace of Africa if well nurtured.

Mrs Omolola said the power of community can be used to dispel the norms that are not profitable, and can break down the walls between African countries.

She added that building communities based on trust is an act that must be embedded in all aspects of developing a country.
News Corp's The Sunday Telegraph has denied it called the son of Kings Cross identity John Ibrahim a "mobster" or "Mafia figure" but says it can prove he is involved in organised crime, as it fights a high-stakes defamation claim filed against it in the Federal Court.

Daniel Taylor, also known as Daniel Ibrahim, is suing the newspaper over a 24-page spread on the Ibrahim clan published on June 23, 2019, under the headline "Inside the house of Ibrahim: Unauthorised".

Daniel Taylor, son of Kings Cross identity John Ibrahim. Credit:AAP

In documents filed in court, lawyers for Mr Taylor say the "special report", which branded Mr Taylor the "wise guy son" of Mr Ibrahim, defamed him by suggesting he is "a mobster", a "member of the Mafia" and "a criminal involved in organised crime".

The newspaper denies any of those meanings were conveyed. As a fall-back defence, it says it is "substantially true" to say Mr Taylor is involved in organised crime.
Washington, May 31 : Marking the beginning of a new era in the US space programme, the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft carrying NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley successfully docked with the International Space Station (ISS) on Sunday.

"Docking confirmed - Crew Dragon has arrived at the @space_station," SpaceX tweeted.

Aboard the space station, Expedition 63 Commander and NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy and Russian cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner welcomed Behnken and Hurley aboard the orbiting laboratory.

The two NASA astronauts made history on Saturday as they became the first Americans to launch on a US rocket from American soil to the space station in nearly a decade.

The spacecraft lifted off on a reusable SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.

This is the first-ever crewed mission for SpaceX. This was also the first crewed launch from the US after the government retired the space shuttle programme in 2011.

The US space agency on Sunday said the mission is an important step to expand human exploration to deeper space missions.

"Today, a new era in human spaceflight begins as we once again launched American astronauts on American rockets from American soil on their way to the International Space Station, our national lab orbiting Earth," said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine.

"The launch of this commercial space system designed for humans is a phenomenal demonstration of American excellence and is an important step on our path to expand human exploration to the Moon and Mars," he added in a statement.

The successful launch left SpaceX Founder Musk almost in tears.

"I'm really quite overcome with emotion on this day, so it's kind of hard to talk, frankly. It's been 18 years working towards this goal, so it's hard to believe that it's happened," Musk said during a post-launch press conference.

"This is something that I think humanity should be excited about proud of occurring on this day," he added.

Known as NASA's SpaceX Demo-2, the mission is an end-to-end test flight to validate the SpaceX crew transportation system, including launch, in-orbit, docking and landing operations.

Behnken and Hurley will work with SpaceX mission control to verify the spacecraft is performing as intended by testing the environmental control system, the displays and control system, and by manoeuvring the thrusters, among other things.

The Demo-2 mission is the final major test before NASA's Commercial Crew Programme certifies Crew Dragon for operational, long-duration missions to the space station.

For operational missions, Crew Dragon will be able to launch as many as four crew members at a time and carry more than 220 pounds of cargo, allowing for an increased number crew members aboard the space station and increasing the time dedicated to research in the unique microgravity environment, as well as returning more science back to Earth.

The first operational Crew Dragon mission, called Crew-1, could launch to the space station as early as August 30, Space.com reported. The Crew Dragon being used for this flight test can stay in orbit about 110 days, and the specific mission duration will be determined once on station based on the readiness of the next commercial crew launch.

The operational Crew Dragon spacecraft will be capable of staying in orbit for at least 210 days as a NASA requirement.

At the conclusion of the mission, Behnken and Hurley will board Crew Dragon, which will then autonomously undock, depart the space station, and re-enter Earth's atmosphere. Upon splashdown off Florida's Atlantic coast, the crew will be picked up by the SpaceX recovery ship and returned to the dock at Cape Canaveral.

NASA selected SpaceX and Boeing to design, build, test and operate safe, reliable and cost-effective human transportation systems to low-Earth orbit as part of its Commercial Crew Programme to reduce the agency's dependence on Russia's Soyuz capsule for transportation of astronauts to the space station.

"This is a dream come true for me and everyone at SpaceX," said Musk.
Dozens of Catholic parishioners in West Belfast have been blessed with holy water at their doorsteps during lockdown (Liam McBurney/PA).

Dozens of Catholic parishioners in West Belfast have been blessed with holy water at their doorsteps during lockdown.

A priest at the citys oldest Catholic church, St Marys, visited residents struggling to remain in good spirits during the coronavirus restrictions.

Some elderly parishioners have been remaining indoors most of the time, unable to attend Mass and with little ability to access internet sermons, Irene Leckey, who helped organise the event, said.

She said: People were struggling with mental health because of the isolation from their families.

Many people almost wanted the priest to hear their confessions, talking about their feelings.

It was a relief for the people to be able to speak to the priest privately.

As much as it was at their own door they were able to speak privately with the priest giving the blessing.

Expand Close Jackqui Magee holding a statue of the Holy Family that has been blessed by Fr Tim Bartlett of St Marys Church in Belfast (Liam McBurney/PA). PA / Facebook

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Whatsapp Jackqui Magee holding a statue of the Holy Family that has been blessed by Fr Tim Bartlett of St Marys Church in Belfast (Liam McBurney/PA).

Ms Leckey, 52, distributed bottles of blessed holy water because people were unable to visit church to pick up their own supplies.

Fr Timothy Bartlett from St Marys and a deacon gave blessings.

Ms Leckey added: A lot of them were very emotional today, very grateful.

Fr Tim wanted to keep the connection between the people and the church.

They blessed the houses from a distance due to social distancing requirements.

Ms Leckey said: They had realised how many people were missing the church.

May 31 was Pentecost Sunday, the festival when many Christians celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit.

The church of the streets, as Pope Francis says, is the church at its best Fr Timothy Bartlett

Fr Bartlett said: This was a community inviting us to help them  to be a church in the streets.

That is when the church is always at it best, when it is a church of the people, driven by the people in the streets and responding to their spiritual needs.

He said there was a sense that perhaps society was moving slowly in the right direction as pandemic restrictions eased.

We thought it was important to respond to the people and come to them.

He said that was what the church did during penal times in 17th century Ireland, when people worshipped in secret at Mass rocks.

We are seeing that again essentially in times of trouble and they wanted us to help them give expression to that.

The church of the streets, as Pope Francis says, is the church at its best.

The church is ultimately about a church of faith rather than about individuals and this was a community inviting us to help them.
On Tuesday afternoon, Cawo Abdi took her two children down to the site where George Floyd was killed in Minneapolis for a peaceful protest.

The 46-year-old Floyd died the previous day with police officer Derek Chauvin's knee pressed into his neck  gasping for air and repeatedly groaning, "Please, I can't breathe."

A crowd of bystanders shouted at police to release him.

Abdi, a Somali-Canadian sociologist from Ottawa, wanted to show her children what had happened in their home state and make clear the history of racism that accompanied Floyd's death.

'I wanted them to understand'

"I thought it was very, very important for them to go to that site and be aware of what's happened," Abdi, a professor at the University of Minnesota, told CBC News.

"I wanted them to understand the institutional racism that's very deeply embedded in this society. I do not want them to fear police, but I want them to be aware of who they are in their bodies: that they will be judged, not necessarily by their character, but by their skin colour."

Floyd's death, which was filmed by onlookers, has sparked protests, sometimes violent, across the United States.

Chauvin was dismissed from the police department with three fellow officers the day after the fatal encounter. After a night of violent protest that included the burning of a police station, he was arrested on Friday and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter.

"It's about time," said Abdi about the arrest. "I think it is very, very important both for trying to calm the community, but also for reigniting trust in the system."

CBC Ottawa News at Six

'We're literally on 24/7'

Ottawa resident Tyler Boyce told CBC Radio's All In A Day Friday that he felt an overwhelming sense of grief and anger when he heard the news about Floyd's death.

He wasn't surprised, however.

"It's almost like the constant portrayal of black death in the media and experiences of victimization seem to be more and more ubiquitous," Boyce said.

Story continues

"After I initially digested it, my initial reaction was tears," added Kevin Bourne, the Ottawa-based editor of Shifter Magazine, which publishes extensively about the black community in Canada.

Bourne said while black men and women share the same struggle, black men can never let their guard down.

"I don't think people understand how tiring it is to be a black man," Bourne said. "We're literally on 24/7  when you're in the store, when you're at work. We have to be on our best behaviour at all times."

Both Bourne and Boyce agree that the constant barrage of news about black men being killed has left them exhausted.

But despite the fatigue, Boyce said black men come from a long lineage of activism, and a tradition of making their right to be treated as equals heard.

Explaining death hard for parents

"Does it become tiring? Of course. Does it weigh us down? Of course," he said.

"But it comes with the responsibility of paving a way forward, so our children, so our siblings won't have to live in a world where they're constantly seen as a threat and could have their life taken away from them on any given day."

For Abdi, the last few days in Minneapolis have been shocking and horrifying, and she said explaining the brutality of Floyd's death is a struggle for parents.

But in the age of social media, she added, it's impossible to shield her children from what had occurred.

That's why she took her children to the street where Floyd died: not to traumatize or alienate them, but to hopefully educate them about the world they live in.

"Which they have every right to be part of, to participate, to excel and thrive," Abdi said.
Pope Francis voiced concern Sunday for the peoples of the Amazon who he said were "particularly vulnerable" in the coronavirus pandemic, in his first address to the faithful on Saint Peter's square in nearly three months.

The coronavirus crisis is a new threat in the Amazon where a surge in deforestation under far-right President Jair Bolsonaro already threatens isolated tribes.

"Today, the feast of Pentecost, we call on the Holy Spirit to grant light and strength to the Church and to society in Amazonia, which has been harshly tested by the pandemic," the Argentine pope said, recalling his Synod for poverty-stricken Amazon communities last October.

"There are so many infected and dead people, including among the indigenous peoples, who are particularly vulnerable," he said, urging that no one be without medical assistance.

According to the Association of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil, the virus has already spread through 40 native groups with 537 cases of infection and 102 fatalities.

The latest census from 2010 found nearly 800,000 indigenous people in 300 tribes living in Brazil.

The pope addressed Catholics from his window overlooking the square for the first time since March 10 as the city state further eases its virus lockdown.

For weeks his traditional Angelus prayer had been live-streamed each weekend to the world from inside the Apostolic Palace.

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China in Focus (May 30): Hong Kong Businessman Pleads to TrumpSave Our Children

Hong Kong reacted with a mix of criticism and support after President Trump announced he will end the United Statess special treatment for the financial hub.

A Hong Kong businessman is appealing to President Trump to protect Hong Kong like West Berlin and save Hong Kongs young protesters, whom he called seeds of the new China.

Chinas northeastern Jilin province is on lockdown. But many residents are left in the dark. One local tells us what its like.

The Chinese regime is taking a harsher stance towards Taiwan. Now the idea of armed reunification with Taiwan is starting to reappear on state-owned media outlet CCTV.

And Canada is working with the Chinese military to develop a CCP virus vaccine. But as its development begins human trials, one doctor is concerned for the safety of Canadian test subjects.

Subscribe to our Youtube channel for more first-hand news from China

For more news and videos, please visit our website and Twitter
By Express News Service

BENGALURU: Primary and Secondary Education Minister S Suresh Kumar on Saturday said the academic calender for 2020-21 will be chalked out as per the requirements of the state, after the Union Ministry for Human Resource Development (MHRD) issues guidelines.

The minister, however, remained silent on the dates of reopening of schools. Managements of pre-primary schools, who said they were under financial distress, have also written to the minister to allow them to start classes.

Speaking at a programme to distribute masks and sanitizers for SSLC students, the minister said, "The syllabus length and the duration of the academic year among other matters will be decided after assessing the requirements of the state."

Sanitizers worth Rs 75 lakh, donated by the Embassy Group, and masks hand-stitched by teachers and cadets of Bharat Scouts and Guides, were distributed at the event. PGR Sindhia, State Chief Commissioner of Bharat Scouts and Guides, said his team was glad to extend help during the pandemic. The articles were handed over to director of Karnataka Secondary Education Examination Board.
Byran Haeffele / Hearst Connecticut Media

Racism. It stops with me, says a banner on Main Street in front of the Ridgefields Community Center, the Lounsbury House.

There are pictures of George Floyd, the black man whose death at the hand of a police officer in Minneapolis sparked protests and disorder in cities across the country, and Amaud Arbery, the black man who was shot in Georgia while out running.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday addressed the nation in his monthly radio programme Mann Ki Baat and said that every Indian has played a crucial part in the battle against Covid-19. The prime minister said that Indias fight against the coronavirus pandemic is a people-driven one.

PM Modi said that the citizens have shown immense determination during the coronavirus crisis and have also shown that sacrifice and service are not just our ideals but also part of our lifestyle.

Now is the time to be more careful, the prime minister cautioned as a host of economic activities resume operation in the fifth phase of lockdown from June 1.

Also read: As India moves into Covid-19s Unlock 1.0, a word of caution from PM Modi

India's Seva Shakti is visible in the fight against COVID-19. #MannKiBaat pic.twitter.com/hVGETo0XJO  PMO India (@PMOIndia) May 31, 2020

With many precautions, domestic flights have resumed operations. Industries will also resume gradually. This means a chunk of our economy has started again and we need to be more careful now, the prime minister said reiterating the significance of maintaining do gaj ki doori and social distancing norms.

PM Modi said that no carelessness should occur when it comes to wearing masks in public. Stay indoors as much as possible, he said during the address.

It is important to be even more careful now. #MannKiBaat pic.twitter.com/VAaqoyaG5V  PMO India (@PMOIndia) May 31, 2020

Talking about Covid-19 fatalities in the country, PM Modi said that the rate of coronavirus deaths in the country is fairly low, although the loss of even one life is heartbreaking, he said.

Whatever we could save is an achievement in itself and that could only be possible due to the strong resolution, determination of all citizens, PM Modi said.

PM Modis 64th edition of Mann Ki Baat comes in the wake of Covid-19 lockdown 5.0, which will begin on Monday. Listen to the Prime Minister Live here:

Prime Minister Narendra Modis Mann ki Baat address comes a day before India is set to enter the fifth phase of nationwide coronavirus lockdown from June 1. Billed as Unlock 1, the phase will be marked by the lifting of most lockdown restrictions across the country barring Covid-19 containment zones. Metro services, international flights, gyms, swimming pools, bars, amusement parks will remain closed amid this phase. Various state governments are likely to issue their respective guidelines today that are to be followed from tomorrow.
I'm already seeing it on Twitter: "Thank goodness we have Bill Barr."

Which makes sense. Here's his plan of action on the beasts overtaking our cities under color of civil rights protests, according to the New York Post:

Attorney General Bill Barr will go after violent demonstrators with a 1968 law meant to quell rioting. We must have law and order on our streets and in our communities, Barr said Saturday at DOJ headquarters in Washington, DC. It is a federal crime to cross state lines or to use interstate facilities to incite or participate in violent rioting, he said. We will enforce these laws. Barr accused anarchistic and far-left extremists, using Antifa-like tactics for the unrest that has spread to cities throughout the nation since Monday, in the wake of the death of George Floyd while in the custody of Minneapolis police. Groups of outside radicals and agitators are exploiting the situation to pursue their own separate and violent agenda, he said. The federal Anti-Riot Act, part of the Civil Rights Act of 1968, carries penalties of up to five years in prison.

In light of what is going on in just Los Angeles, where these disturbing ABC7 videos are visible, they're looting and burning small businesses to the ground -- with no social distancing. The third video at this ABC7 report (non-shareable) taken from a news helicopter shows organized thugs driving up in a truck with no plates to a shambling little nail salon on Melrose Avenue, smashing and breaking into the small business, which, the reporters note was already weakened by the coronavirus shutdown, breaking in with looter force and destroying the shambling little small storefront. Not just one - they went storefront to storefront like army ants for the chopper camera - a nail salon, a Hello Kitty toy store - aiming for just the safe to bring out, pounding the safe with hammers in the street before uploading it to the truck which sped away. The report is shockingly accurate in the reporters' commentary and observations - noting the beat-up state of the businesses, hoping openly that the safe being stolen will be empty, and manipulating the chopper to read the license plate of the looting truck operation, finding none and adding observations that the truck had planned to steal the safe all along based on its missing license plates.

Whoa. Have never seen reporting like this before - raw and accurate as events unfolded. And I have a dog in this fight - for years I lived in Los Angeles and I know this place well. I'm horrified at the barbarism going on now, brought on by organized thugs, whether directed from some glassy tower foundation out of state or Antifa squat. Bust them.

Which rather tells you that Barr is right to go after these thugs with zero mercy. This isn't about civil rights protests. This is about organized crime and organized violence, in pursuit of some political aim. And whoever is doing it needs to be in jail, particularly the organizers from the top.

The one thing notable here is that Barr's act has shades of the great Ronald Reagan. Reagan, recall, was the governor of California, who came down with a hard hand against domestic terrorists from the 1960s, back when Bill Ayers was in his heyday, laughing at all the liberals who spared him prison for his sickening Weather Underground's vile murder and mayhem streak. While institutions led by liberals, such as the University of California kowtowed to, and were laid low by hippies, rioters, looters and thugs bellowing revolution, Reagan put a stop to them, calling out the national guard, making himself ragingly hated by leftists everywhere ... and beloved by the American people. Reagan rose to national prominence for his firm stance against the chaotic left and the rest is history.

Barr's taking a page from that history, defending the American people from this leftist plague hitting America's small businesses and more, and betting that even with two generations of leftwingery taught in schools, the American people are going to be grateful for the intervention. It worked for Reagan, it will work for Barr and the entire Trump administration. And based on that ABC7 report, is likely to be welcomed. Everyone knows that morally, hitting back hard, and with resolution, at this violent, larcenous, destructive chaos, in the face of a long soggy history of liberal coddling, is absolutely the most courageous thing any leader can do. Leaders like this get remembered.

Image credit: ABC7 shareable video screen shot.
COATESVILLE  Pennsylvanias Primary Election Day is Tuesday.

Many citizens shall cast votes across the commonwealth in primary races for the Democratic or Republican parties ahead of the General Election in November.

In Coatesville, a special non-partisan election is taking place June 2 to fill the remaining term of an unexpired City Council at-large seat. This election is open to all registered voters in the city, regardless of party affiliation.

Three candidates are running against each other for the office, including Councilwoman Marie Lawson, the incumbent, who is running as an Independent, as well as Republican Fran Scamuffa and Democrat Nydea Graves, who are both running for elected office for the first time.

Earlier this year, the council appointed Lawson to fill the vacant at-large seat, the term for which expires in January 2022, after Debbie Bookman relinquished the seat to take on the role of county Prothonotary, a countywide office she won election to in 2019.

Systematic disenfranchisement

The murder of George Floyd, has left me angry, heartbroken and somber over the last few days, as I continue to see my community cry out over the terrorism that have been done over centuries, said Graves on Sunday. I am an African-American person, and completely understand what its like to carry the burden of systemic oppression with me every day, black people have always been killed by police, prisons and racial capitalism.

Across the nation this weekend, cities are engulfed by demonstrations sparked by the death of Floyd which occurred while in police custody in Powderhorn, a south of downtown Minneapolis neighborhood, on May 25. Video footage taken at the scene shows a police officer, who has since been charged with manslaughter, kneeling on Floyds neck on a city street before a public audience.

Handcuffed and on the ground face-down, Floyd pleaded for his life, for relief, to no avail.

The video capturing his last moments went viral last week. Now, from Philadelphia to Los Angeles, tens of thousands of people are demonstrating for justice. However concurrently, much vandalism and some incidents of gun violence have also occurred.

In Washington, D.C., the U.S. Secret Service over the weekend repeatedly engaged with demonstrators outside the White House at Lafayette Park. This type of extreme civil disobedience in the nations capital is very atypical, especially since Sept. 11.

Across America, citywide national protests have resulted in many citizens charged with acts of violence against law enforcement. From Target to CNN, as well as several police stations, protesters are lighting up cultural targets in flames; enraged. Similar demonstrations, in terms of populous support, occurred during the Obama administration for several years to protest the death of African Americans as well as to decry racial profiling and historic, generational, social inequity.

As demonstrations continue, no singular non-partisan leader for the movement has yet to emerge, someone to lead a peaceful march from Boston to Washington D.C. with demands for justice to change the American legal system to benefit, and protect, all disenfranchised people. Civil disobedience, without the power of peace leading the way, historically ends with little changed and much destroyed, including the property of low-income small business owners.

Using the hashtag #ICantBreathe again has been completely devastating, but something in me knew that a murder, of this nature would inevitably happen again. I dont think hashtags, paid administrative leave, or even an officer being charged with manslaughter is enough to bring justice.

The Black Community in America, she said, must transform. We need a complete overhaul  of the criminal justice system  one that is based upon healing and accountability and not profit and punishment. That is the only way to stand against injustice and stand for humane treatment of all people.

Graves is 27.

As municipalities across Chester County prepare to lift some COVID-19 restrictions on June 5, the city remains disenfranchised in wake of the pandemic and its outgoing impact on wealthy neighboring communities such as Unionville, Downingtown, West Chester and Kennett Square.

For instance, while outdoor dining is set to take place in the boroughs of West Chester and Kennett Square on June 5, in contrast, the government of Coatesville recently announced that the city is extending its most restrictive stay-at-home mandates including an ongoing curfew.

Coatesville, established as a city in 1915, is the only municipality in Chester County to enact a curfew, earlier this spring, to mitigate COVID-19 exposure.

Once an industrial mecca, Coatesville is home to approximately 14,000 people and leads directly to the Main Line eastbound in the greater Philadelphia region, and westward leads to Lancaster, Harrisburg and Gettysburg.

Historic Coatesville is home to one of the highest municipal poverty rates in Pennsylvania  more than 30 percent of the citys population is impoverished.

Nearby Brandywine and Valley Forge, the city is rich with deep American Revolutionary history and the crux of the community runs along Lincoln Highway. Many historic buildings line the streets with some venues abandoned whilst other spaces are occupied by locally owned and run small businesses.

Coatesville is classified as a third class city under Pennsylvania code, and the city has no mayor.

There are seven member seats on council in the City of Coatesville, home to five wards across the municipality. Each ward elects one councilperson to represent their interests locally; there are also two at-large members. All seats are typically up for election every four years, unless someone resigns. Then a special, non-partisan election occurs, per Pennsylvania law.

The Daily Local News asked all of the candidates running in this springs special election for Coatesville City Council a few questions ahead of Election Day on June 2.

Marie Lawson

What about Coatesville inspires and as a City Council member and why are you running in this years special election? Why is this seat up for election?

In the 2019 election cycle, Debbie Bookman was successful in her run for Prothonotary. After she took on her role in the county, that created a vacancy on the council. I was more than happy to apply for that position. Being the only person to apply for the vacancy in January, I was able to become active by February, Lawson said.

I am always inspired by the city and people. After serving four years from 2014-2018 it is very gratifying to be able to return and have so many people want to help out, participate, and get involved because of the work that people see me getting involved in. I am running in the special election because I know what it takes to be a council member, I have the experience, the knowledge of all current projects due to being on council before, and I know what the mission and goals are for the city. I want to be there to help steer the city to those goals.

What are the three biggest challenges facing the city and what goals would you like to achieve as a City Council to address them in the year ahead?

The three biggest challenges for the city are building up our business district, our job market, and revitalization. All three of these areas demand consistency, determination, and professionalism, Lawson said. I feel that I bring all three of those qualities to the table. Relationships with other municipalities play a large part of everyones growth. I am proud to represent the City of Coatesville on the Western Chester County Chamber of Governments. (WCCCOG) We work together to share ideas, resources, and plans to create a better environment for each other. Knowing that our challenges require time and a part of a larger process, I am willing to do what it takes to make sure the people and government agencies who are investing in our future know that we are ready, we are committed, and we are poised to lead as the only city in Chester County.

Can you tell readers about your family life and background? Any recent milestones?

I have a wonderful, supportive husband, and two daughters who have been with me through three campaigns so far. I believe it is very important to show our youth what it means to be civically responsible. They come with me to work the polls, to meetings, and to vote. I am an educator by profession, Lawson said.

The City Council enacted a curfew to mitigate COVID-19 exposure. Has this decision proven successful in flattening the curve and protecting the community at large? When will the curfew be lifted?

As a governing body, it is our first priority to protect the residents of our municipality. As a mother of two daughters, it is equally important to me to protect the future, Lawson stated. As residents, family, and neighbors of the community where we serve, it is paramount that we look out for the safety of the people  The environment that we set by enacting the curfew was out of an abundance of caution.

She said many unknowns continue to be at play pertaining to the threat of novel coronavirus. We wanted to make sure that our residents were protected as much as possible. We have an aging population as well as many residents who are essential workers due to their positions in the hospitality, nursing, and retail industries. The curfew will be lifted when the county phases into yellow (on June 5) and restrictions are relaxed by the state government.

What are three tasks you believe are needed to be achieved right now to combat COVID-19 in Coatesville and in Chester County as a whole?

As we all work our way through this pandemic, the most important thing for our city as a whole is to make sure as people transition back to work and our stores begin to reopen, that these are all done with caution and procedures in place. It is very hard to distance ourselves from something we cannot see, Lawson said.

For many, the pandemic became a reality due to loss or illness. We want to make sure that we continue to educate our residents and make sure that they have the information they need to make good decisions regarding their health and the health of their families. Lastly, we want to get some normalcy back for our residents. We look forward to things such as concerts, festivals, carnivals  every year. We will have to be creative with social distancing measures in mind on how to engage and entertain while keeping everyone safe.

What has this pandemic taught you about the power of community in Coatesville how does this lesson inspire you to make a difference?

Said Lawson, I have been Coatesville through and through since I was a child. I knew that our community would stand up stronger together. Our city and school district always pull together when it is necessary. One thing about being from Coatesville, city or school district, is that we always look out for one another. If youre hungry, someone will make sure you eat. Cold? Someone has a heater, blankets, or a warm bed for you. Our community has been through a lot and if anyone can make it through a pandemic, its the City of Coatesville.

Fran Scamuffa

What about Coatesville inspires to run for City Council and why are you running in this years special election?

The City of Coatesville has had many of the same issues for years. We have had many of the same councilpersons for term after term and there has not been much change, Scamuffa said. It is time to open up a seat to someone that is a free thinker and can make their own decisions without the influence of others while still working in collaboration with one another.

What are the three biggest challenges facing the city and what goals would you like to achieve as a City Council member in the year ahead?

Choosing just three is a challenge. The three I would choose right now are:

Maintaining some sort of financial stability in the city;

Lack of businesses; although they are very slowly coming in;

Increase actual home-ownership rather than continuing the exuberant amount of rentals.

Can you tell readers about your family life and background? Any recent milestones?

My grandparents immigrated here to Coatesville from Italy in 1902. The first home they owned was on S. 1st Ave in S. Coatesville. From there they purchased a home on the corner of 2nd and Lumber. My mother immigrated from Sicily, I believe in the mid-to-late 50s. That was the beginning of my roots here in the City of Coatesville, Scamuffa said.

I, myself, was born and raised here in Coatesville. I grew up on S. 6th Ave and currently reside in the West End of the City. I am blessed and happily employed by Abdala Insurance in Valley Township as a licensed agent in the state of Pa. I have two adult children, ages 30 and 24. Both, attended and graduated from the Coatesville Area High School. I was recently appointed to the Civil Service Commission for the city, one of the many committees that I am happy to serve on for the city.

My uncle, Dominic Scamuffa, served on City Council back in the 80s. My brother, Mario Scamuffa was a member of the citys fire department stations 41/43, until his passing in 2002. He also served as the plumbing inspector at one point.

We have deep roots here Coatesville and I am proud to call it my home.

The City Council enacted a curfew to mitigate COVID-19 exposure. Has this decision proven successful in flattening the curve and protecting the community at large? When will the curfew be lifted?

The curfew enacted by the current council has definitely mitigated exposure to COVID-19. The rate of infection had they not done this could have been much greater, Scamuffa said. It is imperative that we keep all the members of our community as safe as possible.

Of the curfew, Scamuffa said, If I understood correctly during the latest council meeting via Zoom on May 26, the curfew has been extended to follow the current orders and dates issued by the Governor. This will be revisited and revised accordingly.

What are three tasks you believe are needed to be achieved right now to combat COVID-19 in Coatesville and in Chester County as a whole?

Continue to social distance, wear your mask, if you are symptomatic get tested, wash your hands and keep surfaces clean. If there are tests available to you and under recommendation of your doctor, maybe get tested for the antibodies. Your doctor can make recommendations to you on your specific needs. You can always contact the county as well and find where these services are available to you, Scamuffa said.

What has this pandemic taught you about the power of community in Coatesville and how does this lesson inspire you to make a difference in the world around?

You know, handling a pandemic in any government body is not the easiest task. In our lifetimes we havent experienced anything like this, said Scamuffa, 50. In the future should this occur, we will be more prepared. We live in uncertain times. As a whole, I believe the community has really stepped up in trying to counteract the effects of the virus. Even with the impact of income loss, people are doing their best to support the small businesses. My heart aches to see the impact COVID has had in the world. It gives me hope that humanity is not a complete loss.

Nydea Graves

What about Coatesville inspires to run for City Council and why are you running in this years special election?

I am a Coatesville resident born and raised. Ive been in Coatesville for my entire life and its a beautiful and tight knit community, Graves said. Everyone here knows your name and your family and even sometimes your parents and teachers graduated from Coatesville Area High School. I am a working class person who has grown up knowing that myself and other working class people in Coatesville have been left behind by the political establishment. As Coatesville revitalizes, I want to assure that the community that I love so much has access to a living wage guaranteed housing and can share the benefit of a thriving community.

What are the three biggest challenges facing the city and what goals would you like to achieve as a City Council member in the year ahead?

One of the biggest challenges in Coatesville is that we do not have a mayor. We need transparent and accountable leadership, someone who says that the buck stops here. Our executive leader needs to be someone voted in by the people and not appointed by the seven city council members. Our local government needs responsibility and accountability, Graves said.

Government is meant to work in favor of the people that it represents and we need a mayor, she noted.

Some of the biggest things that I would like to achieve as a City Council Person is working on housing as a human right, some of those things at the local level include fighting for fair zoning, tenants protections, and always voting against raising Coatesvilles extremely high residential taxes.

Can you tell readers about your family life and background? Any recent milestones?

I am From Coatesville, I am a fifth generation native my family has been here for over 100 years, I am African-American and Muslim, and I am a community activist, a lot of my work has been around prison reform. Im a grassroots organizer with the organization Chester County Stands Up, Graves said.

I am in college Im taking fashion classes, which shows I didnt go through planning my life out believing that I was going to step in to the public arena, however I became very clear on how necessary it was for me to stand up for people in my community who feel that their voices arent being heard.

The City Council enacted a curfew to mitigate COVID-19 exposure. Has this decision proven successful in flattening the curve and protecting the community at large? When will the curfew be lifted?

So I completely support city councils decision to institute a stay at home order, I have talked to an epidemiologist in my work around prison reform and its pretty clear to me that if I dont have a degree in epidemiology, I need to listen to the people who do, Graves said. We have to act in solidarity with people who are most vulnerable because these circumstances are very unprecedented, Its like something that weve never experienced.

She said science and technology have to catch up with this novel virus and during that time sometimes we have to resort to classic methods of disease mitigation. Graves said shed feel ready to lift the curfew upon the recommendation of epidemiologists.

I totally understand the worry of citizens who feel that they are going to experience economic recession during this time that is a real and valid worry. Graves said, Its a testament to how much working class people have been left behind, we shouldnt have to choose between our lives and safety and our economic stability. Thats why working on things like housing justice are so important to me as a City Council candidate because if we provided more resources, people would have less anxiety around how they are going to just make it day to day.

What are three tasks you believe are needed to be achieved right now to combat COVID-19 in Coatesville and in Chester County as a whole?

We need more resources to keep people at home without the fear of economic anxiety, some of the things that we are feeling uncertain about are things that are basic human rights. People are just concerned about whether they will have housing, jobs and access to education when this is all said and done, Graves said.

She added, We need to start considering universal health care very seriously. Graves also advocated that key medical resources to screen for COVID-19 immunity take place immediately to safeguard the community as a whole.

What has this pandemic taught you about the power of community in Coatesville and how does this lesson inspire you to make a difference in the world around?

The community of Coatesville during this pandemic has really risen up and shown me what a community actually is, Graves said.

Ive seen incidences of mutual aid, parents feeding children that they know only ate because of school lunch, and people grocery shopping for elders. I have learned during this pandemic that we are only physically distancing but have found ways to be in community with each other and thats been so amazing.

Graves encouraged fellow citizens to run for office if they believe they are the best person for the job. There are ways in which we are told that working class people are not meant to run for office and not meant to serve.

Those are lies, told to us by people in power that dont have our best interest, so that we can be disenfranchised and they can stay in power.
Josh Lucas and his ex-wife have reportedly remained close since their divorce was finalized in 2014.

But the Sweet Home Alabama star appears to have recently burned a bridge with ex Jessica Ciencin Henriquez.

She publicly accused him of cheating Friday as she took to Twitter with a furious tirade over the father of her son, tweeting: 'Exes are exes for a reason.'

Exes for a reason: Josh Lucas's ex-wife Jessica Ciencin Henriquez publicly accused him of cheating Friday as she took to Twitter with a furious tirade over the father of her son, tweeting: 'Exes are exes for a reason' (pictured in April, 2017)

The Colombian-American writer attached a Notes screenshot, which read: 'Having a child with someone makes you want to forgive them more than you normally would, it makes you believe they are better than they are.

'But it takes a really s*** human to cheat on their partner (correction: now ex partner) in the middle of a pandemic. Thank you for reminding me why I left you in the first place.'

She continued: 'I deserve better than this. Our son deserves better than this. And yes, I'm airing this publicly because there are a lot of women accepting much less than they deserve because there are kids in the picture. You're not stupid for hoping, for believing that people can change. I see you.'

Henriquez and Lucas tied the knot in March of 2012, and they co-parent son Noah, seven.

Cheater exposed: The Colombian-American writer attached a Notes screenshot, which read: 'But it takes a really s*** human to cheat on their partner (correction: now ex partner) in the middle of a pandemic'

On and off: The couple reportedly reconciled during quarantine, having been on-again, off-again since their divorce in 2014

Co-parenting: They practice 'bird-nest' co-parenting, which means they rotate out of the same house while their son stays put

The couple reportedly reconciled during quarantine, having been on-again, off-again since their divorce in 2014.

A source told People: 'They havent been together in a long time. They are co-parents and have been doing so since their split in 2014. Theyre in California now but live separately. They werent trying to reconcile.'

They practice 'bird-nest' co-parenting, which means they rotate out of the same house while their son stays put, and they even relocated last fall to Bali so he could attend an environmentally-focused school.

But it hasn't all been peaceful cohabitation between the exes, as she's opened up about the struggles of co-parenting in the past.

Henriquez wrote for Time in 2018: 'We tried really hard to be the worlds friendliest exes and in photos it was believable, but in reality we were actually two people desperately clinging onto the fantasy of what we thought our family could look like.'
New Delhi, May 31 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday assured that those affected by the locust attacks in certain parts of the country will be helped by the government.

"Help will be given to all those affected by the locust attacks that have been taking place in the recent days," Modi said in his monthly radio programme 'Mann Ki Baat'.

The government said on May 28 that a total of 377 spots covering 53,997 hectares have been covered under locust control operations since April 11.

Locust control operations have been conducted in 11 districts of Rajasthan, 24 of Madhya Pradesh, three in Maharashtra, two each in Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh, and one in Punjab.

As per the Locust Status Bulletin of May 27, several successive waves of locust invasions can be expected until July in Rajasthan with eastward surges across northern India as far as Bihar and Odisha, followed by westward movements and a return to Rajasthan with changing winds associated with the monsoon.

These movements will cease as swarms begin to breed and become less mobile. Swarms are less likely to reach south India, Nepal, and Bangladesh.
Travel trade professionals from across the world will gather online tomorrow (June 1) for the first day of Arabian Travel Market (ATM) Virtual, a newly-launched three-day event for the regions tourism community.

The debut event, which will run from June 1-3, will place a focus on emerging trends, opportunities, and the challenges which are directly impacting the travel and tourism industry amid the Covid-19 global health pandemic.

Over the course of three days, ATM Virtual will feature comprehensive webinars, live conference sessions, roundtables, speed networking events, and one-to-one meetings, as well as facilitating new connections and offering a wide range of online business opportunities.

Danielle Curtis, Exhibition Director ME, Arabian Travel Market (ATM), said: Our debut event not only underscores ATMs mission to support and guide the regions vast travel and tourism industry during and beyond Covid-19, but it also demonstrates our commitment to delivering positive business and networking opportunities to the entire community, during even the most challenging times.

With up to four live high-level sessions each day, industry experts will address a range of topics including a road map to recovery, tourism strategies for the future, the hotel landscape in a post-Covid-19 world, and the resilience of the travel industry, as well as exploring the new normal that lies ahead, emerging travel technology and sustainability trends.

Kicking off proceedings, the opening session A Conversation with Sir Tim Clark will take place from 11:00am  12:00pm GST (8.00am  9.00am BST) on June 1. The President of Emirates Airline will speak to John Strickland about his time at the airline, its response to the Covid-19 pandemic and its plans for the future, as well as unveiling Emirates strategy, including planned fleet and network changes.

Another key event taking place on the first day is OTAs & Distribution for Tours & Attractions post-Covid. Run by Arival, the global research authority on the tours, activities and attractions sector, this session will focus on the rise of online travel agencies, the re-opening of operations, and what this means for tour and attraction operators across the Middle East.

Meanwhile, other highlights from day one include Communicating and Building Confidence Now and The Hotel Landscape in a post-Covid-19 World sessions.

Day two will feature The Virtual ATM China Forum. Taking place from 11:00am  12:00pm GST (8.00  9.00am BST), the forum will focus on the recovery of outbound travel from the country and how Chinese travellers have been changing their way of accessing information about foreign destinations.

The packed agenda will also feature the debut Travel Forward Virtual event. Over the course of three days, suppliers and senior executives will be provided with innovative insights of what travel technology has to offer beyond 2020. Addressing the impact of Covid-19, the event will help bridge the gap between uncertainty and resilience during these unprecedented times. Highlights of on the second day will include the following sessions: Catapulting Resilience Through Technology and Analytics and Conversational Commerce for Travel Brands.

Another highlight of our second day will be live webinar Bouncing Back: Tourism Strategies for the Future which will see industry experts including Fahd Hamidaddin, Chief of Investment, Strategy and Tourism Marketing for the Ministry of Tourism Saudi Arabia and Keith Tan, CEO, Singapore Tourism discuss how the long-term tourism development strategies implemented by the regions governments will become a catalyst for recovery when travel patterns adjust to the new norm.

Fahd Hamidaddin, Chief of Investment, Strategy and Tourism Marketing, Ministry of Tourism Saudi Arabia, said: As global travel restrictions ease, our focus is on ensuring that Saudi Arabia is ready to welcome visitors as soon as they are ready to travel. We are collaborating across the public and private sectors, to safeguard the wellbeing of visitors, while continuing to invest in high quality tourism experiences. Saudi Arabia offers endless appeal to the modern traveler. We are optimistic about the future of tourism in the Kingdom and we remain committed to our long-term targets.

Drawing the debut ATM Virtual to a close, the third and final day, June 3, will include highlights such as an interview with Wizz Air CEO, Joszef Varadi, the International Travel Investment Conference summit and a webinar titled What are you doing to energise your operational performance? which will discuss the power of data analytics in helping to maximise performance.

Also, on the third day will be the Responsible Tourism session, The Implications of Covid-19 for Responsible Hospitality, with an interview between Harold Goodwin, the WTM Responsible Tourism Advisor, and Inge Huijbrechts, Global Senior Vice President Responsible Business and Safety & Security, Radisson Hotel Group. Inge will be speaking about the latest thinking on post-COVID-19 hospitality, managing hotels and the supply chain and about advancing the responsibility agenda when resources are limited.

The Influencers Summit will also take place the last day and will include a session entitled Make Your Connection: Influencers as a Key Part of the Marketing Mix  Covid-19 The Road to Recovery, featuring a panel of prominent travel and lifestyle influencers including Abdullah al-Jumah, Author, Lawyer and Influencer and Talel al-Rashed, Hospitality and Gastronomy Expert, who will discuss the importance of best practices and how to create relevant, engaging and impactful travel and lifestyle content in the current climate. This will be followed by a special networking event focusing on the Influencer Tourism market.

Meanwhile, a series of independently moderated, pre-recorded on-demand roundtables have been designed to discuss emerging hot topics such as domestic travel, luxury travel trends, corporate travel, the challenges faced by travel providers and agencies and tourism recovery plans.

And, one-to-one pre-scheduled 30-minute meetings between editors, exhibitors, and buyers will also take place, while live video sessions will include Q&As and polls which will be run alongside the presentations to enable audience interaction.

Curtis added: In addition, a host of hour-long speed networking sessions, between key buyers and exhibitors, will culminate in over 900 5-minute meetings that can then be extended into more in-depth meetings where a business need is identified.

Targeting exhibitors from this region predominantly, the dedicated networking events will feature one Middle East-focused session per day, as well as sessions for buyers, focused on purchasing European and Asian products, plus a session specifically targeting Chinese buyers.

As well as addressing the impact the global health pandemic has had on the hospitality industry, the debut ATM Virtual will provide travel professionals with a wealth of information, advice and support to cope with the current crisis and planning for the future.

ATM Virtual takes place from June 1 to 3. To register for the event as a visitor, please log on to: atmvirtual.eventnetworking.com/register/ .

For media registrations, please go to: atmvirtual.eventnetworking.com/register/media . - TradeArabia News Service
(Newser)  Nations around the world have watched the civil unrest in the US that has followed the death of George Floyd. But they have not been surprised. Racism-tinged events no longer startle even Americas closest allies, the AP reports, though many have watched coverage of the protests with growing unease. Burning cars and riot police in the US featured on newspaper front pages around the globe Sundaybumping news of the pandemic in some places. Thousands gathered in central London on Sunday. Chanting "No justice! No peace!" and waving placards with the words "How many more?" at Trafalgar Square, the protesters ignored government rules banning crowds because of the pandemic. Police didn't stop them. Demonstrators then marched to the US Embassy, where a long line of officers surrounded the building. Several hundred sat in the street and waved placards. The US Embassy in Berlin was the scene of protests Saturday evening under the motto: "Justice for George Floyd."

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Germanys top-selling Bild newspaper on Sunday carried the headline, "This killer-cop set America ablaze," with an arrow pointing to a photo of Derek Chauvin, who has been charged in Floyd's death, with his knee on Floyds neck. The newspaper reported "scenes like out of a civil war." In Italy, the Corriere della's US correspondent wrote that the reaction this time is "different" from previous cases of black Americans killed by police. "There are exasperated black movements that no longer preach nonviolent resistance," Massimo Gaggi wrote. In countries with authoritarian governments, state-controlled media have highlighted the violence. In China, the protests are viewed through the prism of US attacks on China's crackdown on Hong Kong protests. Russia expressed a lack of shock. "This incident is far from the first in a series of lawless conduct and unjustified violence from US law enforcement, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. "American police commit such high-profile crimes all too often."

(Read more George Floyd stories.)
A roadside bomb killed Khurshid TV journalist, Zamir Amiri and technician Shafiqullah Zabih, who were on a bus carrying 15 Khurshid TV employees. The International Federation of Journalist (IFJ) and its affiliate the Afghan Independent Journalists' Association (AIJA) condemn the deadly attack and urge the Afghanistan government to bring the killers to justice.

The bus carrying Khurshid TV station employees was in Kabul, Afghanistans capital when it was attacked on May 30, killing Zamir Amiri and Shafiqullah Zabih. According to AIJA at least seven people were injured, including six other Khurshid TV staff and the driver.

The interior ministrys deputy spokesperson, Marwa Amini said the attackers targeted the Khurshid TV vehicle. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, ISIS) group, who are responsible for many of the deadliest attacks in Afghanistan in recent years, claimed responsibility for the attack.

In August 2019, a similar attack struck a Khurshid TV van, injuring three employees and killing two passers-by. Afghanistan is one of the world's deadliest countries in the world journalists. According to the IFJ South Asia Press Freedom Report, six journalists were killed in Afghanistan in the last year.

AIJA said: AIJA expresses heartfelt condolence to the families and colleagues of the killed media workers. We call on Afghan government to investigate the case and punish the guilty.

IFJ General Secretary Anthony Bellanger said: The IFJ extends its condolences to the family and friends of Zamir Amiri, Shafiqullah Zabih and those injured in the attack. The targeted attack and killings highlight the hazardous lives of journalists in Afghanistan and the dire need to confront the culture of impunity and the issue of journalists safety. The IFJ urges Afghan authorities to investigate the murder and bring Zamir Amiri and Shafiqullah Zabihs killers to justice.
Today's tech new includes Xiaomi increasing price of select Redmi smartphones, Sundar Pichai sharing solidarity with the Black community and more.

Tech world is always buzzing with details about upcoming devices, bugs and vulnerabilities and new applications. Today we saw a mix of all these things and more creating a buzz. For instance, we got details about the iPhone 13 that will be launched next year. We also got to know details about Zooms upcoming security features and Apples Sign in with Apple bug.

Apart from this, we also Google CEO Sundar Pichai expressing his solidarity with the African American community.

Here is a list of all the things that made headlines today:

iPhone 13 leaks

Apples iPhone 13 is scheduled to launch next. But today we got to know about the phones camera specifications. A new report claims that the iPhone 13 is likely to come with five cameras consisting of a 64-megapixel wide-angle lens, a 40-megapixel telephoto lens, a 64-megapixel anamorphic lens for videos, a 40-megapixel ultra-wide-lens, and LiDAR sensor.

'Sign in with Apple' flaw

Delhi-based developer Bhavuk Jain said that he has received $100,000 as a part of Apples bug bounty program for finding a critical vulnerability in the companys Sign in with Apple feature.

Zooms privacy feature

Video-conferencing app Zoom has said that it is still working on securing its platform with end-to-end encryption. A Zoom spokesperson said that the feature was work in progress.

Sundar Pichai on racial equality

Alphabet Inc CEO Sundar Pichai on Sunday expressed his solidarity with the African Americans. His statement came in wake of the widespread protests in the US in wake of the death of George Floyd.

Delete China Apps app

Amid the rising tension between India and China, a Jaipur-based tech startup has launched an Android app called Delete China Apps that claims to delete all apps that have been developed by Chinese companies. This app has been downloaded over 1 million times.

Xiaomi hikes price of select Redmi phones

Xiaomi has increased the price of select Redmi smartphones in India. The price of 4GB RAM + 64GB memory variant of the Redmi Note 8 has been increased to 11,999, while that of the 6GB RAM + 128GB memory variant has been increased to 14,999. Similarly, the price of 4GB RAM + 64GB memory variant of the Redmi 8 has been increased to 9,499. In addition to this, the price of the 2GB RAM and the 3GB RAM variants of the Redmi 8A Dual has been increased to 7,499 and 7,999 respectively.
Airlines are plotting a major return to the skies come July, amid growing speculation that the government will ease its quarantine measures for international arrivals - but two summer hotspots may not allow Brits to visit.

British Airways, EasyJet and RyanAir have announced thousands of redundancies after the coronavirus lockdown grounded most of their flights in March.

But as domestic lockdown measures ease, companies are now scheduling more than 160,000 passenger flights from July, with room for 29.5million passengers, according to The Sunday Telegraph.

Heathrow Airport has been empty in May compared to previous years, but airline companies are now planning a return to service in July, should quarantine measures be eased

Home Secretary Priti Patels quarantine plan, which from June 8 will require anyone entering the UK to self-isolate for two weeks, appeared to torpedo Britons hopes of a European summer holiday.

But there are rumblings the government could change its plan when the quarantine is reviewed on June 29.

A senior industry source told The Telegraph: 'The sense is that they might quietly do a U-turn after the first review period. Grant Shapps [Transport Secretary] is against quarantine, the Treasury are against it, Beis is against it and DCMS hate it.'

RyanAir flights have been grounded as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, but its owner Michael O'Leary thinks the government could scrap quarantine rules by the end of June

Flights for July are scheduled, which means they are subject to change if lockdown measures are not eased. But there are hopes the government could decide to allow travel to certain summer holiday favourites, such as France, Spain, Greece, Italy and Germany.

Britain does not feature on Greece's list of 29 countries it has deemed safe enough to accept tourists from. However it is reviewing the list at the end of June.

Brits may still be able to visit during the last two weeks of June, but they will be subject to mandatory testing on arrival and a period of quarantine depending on the results.

British Airways, which has announced up to 12,000 redundancies, is scheduling flights for July in the hope passenger numbers will start to increase

Spain's tourism minister Maria Reyes Maroto has said the Britain's infection rate 'still has to improve,' before it will begin to allow visitors, according to The Mirror.

Spain is set to reopen its borders fully on July 1. Speaking to Spanish media about the possibility of Brits visiting beforehand, the senior Spanish minister said: 'There the health situation still has to improve.

'For us it is important to guarantee that people arrive health and leave healthy.'

In an interview with The Mail on Sunday, RyanAir boss Michael OLeary predicted quarantine rules for passengers would be quietly dropped or formally withdrawn by the end of June because they wont work.

He said: You can fill up your arrival card as Mickey Mouse, 1 Walt Disney Street, London SW22  theyll take the cards and off you go. So its a complete shambles.

The Home Office, Border Force and police will all tell you quietly, and off the record, it [quarantine] is completely unimplementable.

According to The Sunday Telegraph, RyanAir is hoping to ramp up flights to at least 40 per cent of its usual July schedule, while EasyJet hopes to run 30 per cent of its timetable from July to September.

British Airways, which has announced up to 12,000 redundancies as a result of the coronavirus crisis is also expected to return.

The Airport Operators Association says it is waiting for government guidance on how flights can travel safely with the correct social distancing measures in place.

A spokesman told the Sunday Telegraph: 'Once these guidelines are agreed and given that they are based on a common European baseline, this puts in place the right conditions for opening up air bridges to low-risk countries.'

When asked if July holidays could be a possibility for Brits earlier this week, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: 'I absolutely wouldn't rule it out, we've got to proceed cautiously, we've seen what happens when this virus gets out of control and we have as a country managed to get it back under control and protected the NHS.'
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 30)  S&P Global Ratings is maintaining its credit rating for the Philippines despite this year's economic slowdown due to the pandemic, noting that the country shall "achieve a strong recovery" in 2021.

In a statement on Saturday, the international debt watcher said it was affirming its "BBB+" credit for the country, a notch closer to "A" grade level. This rating attests to the stability of the Philippine economy and the capability of the government to settle debts, allowing for cheaper loans abroad, the institution said.

For this year, however, the New York-based credit rating agency expects the Philippine economy to shrink by 0.2 percent, citing local quarantine restrictions in place and demand-and-supply shocks resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.

This figure is more optimistic than the government's forecast for the current year, which is a 2 to 3.4 percent contraction for the economy.

To aid the government's response to the crisis, three pending measures have recently been approved by a House of Representatives panel. Among these is a 1.3-trillion economic stimulus package intended for those affected by the pandemic.

The Duterte administration has also taken on more loans to fund its response to the coronavirus crisis. Just this week, multilateral lenders World Bank and Asian Development bank approved loans of $25 million (equivalent to about 25 billion) and $400 million (about 20 billion), respectively.

These increased the country' total borrowings from WB to $1.1 billion (around 55 billion) and the ADB to $2.1 billion (about 106 billion) for the year. Also, the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank on Friday approved a $750 million (about 38 billion) loan.

S&P also sees the Philippine economy expanding by 9 percent next year, supported by a robust growth in investment and exports. But this is assuming that the pandemic is contained within the first six months of 2021, it pointed out.

The debt watcher maintained its stable outlook for the country as well, saying it reflects their "expectation that the Philippines' orthodox policymaking will continue to underpin its credit metrics."

"We may raise the rating over the next two years if the economy recovers much more quickly than expected, and the government makes significant further achievements in its fiscal reform program, such that the net general government indebtedness falls below 30% of GDP," said S&P.

Similar to last year, it said, the government had achieved "partial success" with its tax reform program.

However, S&P noted that the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises Act (CREATE) bill, a move aiming to lower corporate income tax rates from 30 percent to 25 percent pushed by the Finance Department, might "entail a net loss of revenue for the government over time" despite possibly supporting the economy in the near term.

The debt watcher also added it may downgrade the Philippines' credit rating if the country's economic downturn will continue longer than expected.
Passengers arrive from Mumbai after the government eased a nationwide lockdown imposed as a preventive measure against the COVID-19 coronavirus, at the railway station in Allahabad on May 30, 2020. (Sanjay Kanojia/AFP via Getty Images)
John Cusack at the 66th International Film Festival in Berlin, Germany, 16 February, 2016. (Photo by Britta Pedersen/picture alliance via Getty Images)

Hollywood star John Cusack has claimed he was attacked by police officers while filming riots in Chicago.

The actor has uploaded a video he was filming during which he said the bike he was on was hit repeatedly by an officer with a baton.

Several cities across the US are currently experiencing protests following the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, at the hands of police in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Read more: Protesters gather in Peckham after George Floyd killing in US

The clip uploaded is blurry, but a man can be heart shouting aggressively: Get out of here! Go on move! Get that bike out of here!

The sound of metal clanging on metal is heard, along with what sounds like Cusack saying: Alright, alright.

Captioning the clip, which was posted on Twitter, Cusack said: Cops didnt like me filming the burning car so they came at me with batons. Hitting my bike.

Cops didnt like me filming the burning car so they came at me with batons. Hitting my bike.

Ahhm heres the audio pic.twitter.com/tfaOoVCw5v  John Cusack (@johncusack) May 31, 2020

Cusack said the incident happened on Saturday night while police were out in force in response to late-night protests that were taking place despite a city-wide 9pm to 6am curfew put in place by the Mayor.

Cusack admitted he broke that curfew. He tweeted: Guilty as charged  when you cant witness what happens in your own city  then the way you see the world becomes strictly illegal.

Read more: John Cusack accused of anti-semitism over deleted tweet

He said he wasnt there to take part in disorder, but just there to witness what was happening.

The actor described what he was seeing during the footage, saying things were getting heated, adding: Its nasty as f*** out there  everyone is on edge, things burning  open looting.

Cusack later said he expects the disorder to continue, and hinted he thinks it could spell the end of Donald Trumps presidency.

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He tweeted: Would be very surprised if this is a one or two day event / this may well be the beginning of end of Trump loathsome era  thank god.

Feels like many streams of outrage coming to a head  a wave peaking  Chicago scene was about getting to Trump Tower most of day.

Protests have also been taking place in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles in the wake of the death of Floyd, which happened after police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for several minutes during an arrest.
U.S. President Donald Trump is seated prior to signing an executive order regarding social media companies in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, U.S., May 28, 2020. Jonathan Ernst | Reuters

The social media content debate has flared up to a level of intensity in recent days that we could never have imagined. Earlier this week, President Trump took to Twitter to suggest that there would be inevitable bias coming from the use of mail-in ballots  implications that Twitter affirmed amounted to misinformation. Twitter, which has long had a mechanism by which it can flag content disseminated by public figures while keeping it online, used it for the first time against President Trump's content, noting that his claims about mail-ins were misleading, and linking to a page featuring more information about mail-in voting. The response from the administration was swift: a social media executive order targeting the content policies of internet firms. The president's new policy was attacked by public experts immediately, with many scholars suggesting that legally speaking, the order was a mess in that it attempted to override the longstanding Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which proffers internet firms immunity for content-takedown decisions. The attention to content policy issues only redoubled Friday morning: Trump and the official White House account tweeted that "when the looting starts, the shooting starts," in reference to the George Floyd protests  words that Twitter fingered Trump for yet again, flagging the tweet on the basis that it glorifies violence. The scrutiny over content issues does not appear to be waning at all soon.

Online disinformation, hate speech and violence

That scrutiny over content policies is indeed important. The world is focused on the matter of passing content policy reforms, aimed at keeping offending content off of internet firms' platforms. As recent events in many parts of Europe, Sri Lanka, India, Brazil, and throughout the United States  most noteworthy, perhaps, the genocidal conduct of Myanmar military officials  clearly indicate, internet firms need to do more to keep their platforms free of disinformation, hate speech, discriminatory content and violence. But we must not forget that discussion of content policy regulations is a black hole of sorts in our present political climate. There are two reasons for this. The first is political conflict, particularly in the U.S., over how and how much we should maintain the national commitment to free speech in the forum of consumer internet platforms. The debates surrounding First Amendment rights are rife with controversy in the U.S., where conservatives have raised deep concerns with the account suppressions of such far-right thought leaders as Richard Spencer, Jared Taylor, and Laura Loomer, who have spread the spirit of white supremacy through their tweets, posts, and videos. Second  and I believe more critically  the standards applied in regulating hate speech, disinformation and other classes of offending content will vary greatly throughout the world. Different cultural norms, ranging from the fairly liberal to the ultra-conservative, exist between countries and within countries. It will be a monumental challenge for civil society, national governments, and international organizations to arrive at a set of norms that the internet should apply in perpetuity. This is a task that will necessitate many hard discussions over many years  and even after all that deliberation, we may have no clear path forward on the syndication of global standards. We must categorize policy discussions around hate speech, disinformation, terrorism, and the like as matters of content policy and treat them independently of a second class of regulations: economic regulations that attack the business models of Silicon Valley internet firms, focused around privacy, transparency, and competition.

Economic regulation versus content moderation

To be sure, both classes of future regulations  content policy and economic policy  are vital, and they are equally important. Society desires peace; but our internet platforms sow chaos by enabling the spread of disinformation, sow hatred by enabling the spread of white supremacists' messaging, and sow violence by giving authoritarian officials a platform to spread racist conspiracies. Society desires fairness; but our internet companies systematically exploit the individual, artificially and unjustly disable the vibrancy and dynamism of open markets, and make questionable decisions behind our backs. But the public, politicians, and regulators the world over have focused primarily on content policy regulation. The reason is understandable: politics and public perception is focused on the here and now. At the same time, we cannot leave the matter of economic regulations  policies that target the corrosive business model of the consumer internet firms  by the wayside.

We cannot allow our consternation over the Russian disinformation campaign and the industry's ill-placed adjudications about what should or should not stay online to override the deeper concern at hand: that it is the business model of the consumer internet that engendered and maintains these harms. We cannot let our deliberations over the content policy regulations to stay our hand for deeper-lying problems. To treat these problems and contain them at their source, we must not lash only at the leaves of the weed. We must poison its evil roots. While it is important to address content to limit discrimination, protect elections, and save lives, these are largely all administrative concerns that will ultimately be determined at the discretion of regional politics and culture. It is not an intellectual debate; drawing the lines of content acceptability is a determination of the collective attitudes of users in a given locality. In the meantime, internet firms can hire content policy executives who are charged with exploring users' concerns and reflecting them into the platform's governance.

Mark Zuckerberg and 'arbiters of truth'

The consumer internet firms have decided that determining what constitutes offending content is a responsibility that will have to eventually be graduated out of the industry. Consider, for instance, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's seemingly benevolent proclamation that he does not wish to be the arbiter of truth. Did he say this out of concern for humanity? The answer is likely no: he does not want to be the arbiter of truth because he does not want the weighty responsibility to rest on his and his company's shoulders. Why should he take the blame for the Russians' activity on his platforms and its impact on the 2016 U.S. presidential election when we as a society cannot even determine what kinds of content should be considered fake news? Whatever the negative externality, he wishes to pass on the responsibility of making such determinations. But pass on to whom? That does not seem important to industry executives, so long as it is a third party  an entity external to the firm  that has the public's trust. That third party could be a governmental agency, a civil society organization, an industry consortium, a review committee, or a nonprofit set up exclusively to resolve questions concerning offensive content. The organization should, in the industry's view, simply have authority and the public's trust in its local jurisdiction. It should be seen as the source of truth by the users of the platforms.

The industry knows that the many questions that such arrangements to address content policy challenges would necessarily raise  in terms of who should have such authority over content policy, how involved the regional and national governments should be in the decision-making processes, how to prevent political influence, and, perhaps most critically, just where to draw the line  will take an eternity to develop. Consider the situation in the United States, where Democrats and Republicans cannot even resolve to pass the commonsense policy advocated in the Honest Ads Act  which simply proposes imposing transparency over the provenance and dissemination of digital political ads. If we cannot find resolution on that issue after four years of deliberation, we are unlikely to be able to develop the content policy standards that Twitter, Google, Snapchat, Facebook, and Microsoft should follow anytime soon.

Consumer internet executives will secretly encourage the public debates over fake news and hate speech; they will add fuel to these flaring deliberations for as long as they can, drawing our eyes away from the subtler, more fundamental problems at the heart of the industry's commercial regime.
Vice News reporter Michael Anthony Adams shouted nearly a dozen times that he was a member of the media as police in Minneapolis poured out of a van on the street where he was covering the protests and yelled for people to leave.

"I don't care," said one officer, who ordered Adams to the ground. So he laid face-down, showed his press badge and tried once more.

"I am press. Please do -" That's when an officer hit Adams with pepper spray.

The entire exchange, caught on camera, mirrored similar scenes that unfolded across the country through early Sunday morning: police spraying tear gas and rubber bullets at journalists who were covering demonstrations sparked by the death of George Floyd, who died in police custody last week.

Several of the most chilling accounts came from Minneapolis, where Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz had just the day before strongly denounced the arrest of CNN's Omar Jimenez on live television, warning that it sent a chilling message to the community. "The protection and security and safety of journalists covering this is a top priority, not because it's a nice thing to do, but because it is a key component of how we fix this," Walz said Friday.

The next day, MSNBC anchor Ali Velshi stayed on air as he described the scene as police in Minneapolis marching down the street and spraying tear gas in his direction.

"They have now fired at us. Anybody hearing it? The gentleman next to us got hit," he said. "We got gassed. They are continuing to fire at us. ... There has been no provocation. There has been nothing that happened whatsoever."

Velshi later tweeted a rubber bullet hit him in the leg.

Los Angeles Times reporter Molly Hennessy-Fiske wrote that several journalists in Minneapolis shouted "press" and waved credentials but were nonetheless cornered and chased by police spraying tear gas and firing rubber bullets. One hit her photographer colleague Carolyn Cole in the face.

"I didn't realize it, but I was bleeding from several wounds to my leg," Hennessy-Fiske wrote. "Blood covered the face mask of a reporter next to me, who was so stunned someone had to tell him he was hurt."

Reuters TV cameraman Julio-Cesar Chavez was filming police around 8 p.m. when they began firing. "I've been hit in the face by a rubber bullet!" he said on camera. Chavez was hit in the back of his neck, under his left eye and his arm, while a Reuters security advisor also sustained injuries, according to the wire service.

Journalists weren't safe in their cars. Star Tribune's Ryan Faircloth had blood running down his face as he said on camera that he was "just trying to get out of the area" when police fired at his car and shattered a window. The gas hit him in the face and arm.

In some parts of the country, police detained reporters, including HuffPost reporter Chris Mathias, who wore a press badge while on assignment to cover protests in Brooklyn. He was released several hours later.

In Michigan, several Detroit Free Press journalists recounted harassment by police. The newspaper's senior news director, Jim Schaefer, said that several were pepper-sprayed by police, and an officer slapped a livestream camera out of the hand of a photographer "as she tried to do her job. This is not OK."

Free Press reporter JC Reindl captured a chilling image of a police officer wearing a gas mask just an arm's-length away. "Last thing I saw before I got sprayed," he tweeted. "I was even holding up 'media' badge."

According to Free Press reporter David Jesse, police ran past him - "a white, middle-age man" -and "got in the face of my young black male colleague."

"One of the craziest nights of my career. Got tear gassed multiple times," he tweeted. "Police shot rubber bullets at us even (though) we were moving where they wanted us to go, holding up our press passes and yelling media."

An officer in Louisville on Friday night pointed a gun at a local TV news cameraman as reporter Kaitlin Rust screamed "I'm getting shot!" with pepper balls. An anchor back in the studio asked who the officers were targeting. "At us! Directly at us!" she replied.

Louisville police spokeswoman Jessie Halladay said the department was still trying to identify the officer who fired at them. "Targeting the media is not our intention. There was a lot going on last night, and to be fair to both the officer and to Kaitlin, we need to take a deeper look at what happened and what prompted that action," Halladay said in a statement, reported by the station. "So we have said that we will do that and if there needs to be discipline we will address it."

But in Los Angeles, KCRW journalist Cerise Castle tweeted a photo one of the rubber bullets that she said police fired at her and protestors. One of them hit her.

Hennessy-Fiske, the Los Angeles Times reporter in Minneapolis, wrote that what she experienced there was unlike anything she's been through in a career that has taken her to war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan and protests in cities like Ferguson, Missouri, and Dallas.

"I have never been fired at by police," she wrote Saturday, "until tonight."
By PTI

PESHAWAR: A mentally disturbed man shot dead five members of his family before being gunned down by the security forces in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, officials said on Sunday.

The accused Jehanzeb Surkheli killed his two wives, daughter, son and daughter-in-law after a fight over a petty issue in KPK's Batagram district, Station House Officer Nisar Ahmed said.

Surkheli, whose age was not mentioned, is suspected to have suffered with a mental illness.

He threatened the locals from entering his house and started digging graves inside to bury the bodies, the SHO said.

The police team reached the spot and asked Surkheli to surrender but he opened fire. He was killed in the police's retaliatory fire.
Tourists taking selfies as cows gaze in front of the Pangong Lake in Leh district of Union terrritory of Ladakh bordering India and China on Sept. 14, 2018. Indian defence sources said hundreds of Chinese troops had moved into a disputed zone along their 3,500 kilometre-long (2,200 mile) frontier after recent skimishes. (Prakash Singh/AFP/Getty Images)

Chinese Regimes Aggression on Disputed Border With India Draws Concerns

The Chinese regimes acts of aggression on the disputed border with India have drawn concern, leaving analysts to question the timing of skirmishes between the patrols of the Asian neighbors at two locations in the past few weeks.

Multiple violent clashes have occurred recently along the 2,167 miles of a disputed border known as the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the eastern Himalayan Indian territory of Ladakh and the central Himalayan Indian territory of Sikkim, which also shares a border with Bhutan.

The recent conflict started on May 5 and May 6, between Chinese and Indian patrols in the area of the lake of Pangong Tso, where Ladakh meets the region of Tibet, according to Lt. Gen. Gurmit Singh, a former Indian deputy chief of army staff who retired after 40 years of service.

So on May 5, there was a faceoff that was ugly. They were jostling. On May 9, there was another faceoff in the north Sikkim area between two patrols, they were jostling with each other. Seven Chinese soldiers and four Indian soldiers were injured, Singh told The Epoch Times over the phone from New Delhi.

Since then, the activity level went up in the area of Galwan valley, which is north of the Pangong Tso lake area and also in the area of eastern Ladakh, he said, adding that the dispute exists between India and China because each country has a different perception about the LAC.

Since the conflict began, the Chinese have erected 80 to 100 tents, brought in heavy vehicles and heavy weapons, and have started building bunkers in the Galwan valley.

Meanwhile, India has deployed soldiers in the area. A hotline remains open between the local Chinese and Indian army commanders in east Ladakh, along with other diplomatic channels, Singh said.

He also said that the Indian army has been put on alert: They are prepared.

The Chinese side is blaming India for the tension, saying that the Indian side trespassed into Chinese territory, which the Indians have denied, according to the Press Trust of India.

File image of a Chinese soldier (L) and an Indian soldier standing guard at the Chinese side of the ancient Nathula pass border crossing between India and China in Sikkim. (Diptendu Dutta/AFP/Getty Images)

Argue Over Territory, Keep Pushing and Pushing

The Chinese regimes act of building bunkers along the disputed territory with India in Ladakh is a tactic it has used with other countries it shares borders with, Aparna Pande, a research fellow and director of Hudson Institutes Initiative on the Future of India and South Asia in Washington, told The Epoch Times.

This is their tactic: Argue over territory, keep pushing and pushing and testing the other side, then when you can build permanent bunkers and then sit there. Then again, after a little while, creep forward, said Pande, who added that the Chinese regime has been similarly aggressive with Japan, Russia, Myanmar, Vietnam, and the Philippines.

Remember, China does it on the land-sea, creates islands, and claims territory. [The regime] creates fictitious claims.

Singh says the building of bunkers by the Peoples Liberation Army is significant because its happening on the LAC and not on a resolved border, and also due to other incidents of strategic importance in the larger region around the same time.

He cites as examples a road that India inaugurated on May 5 in the state of Uttaranchal, in the border region of Nepal and China, that the Nepalese protested, and a dam that Pakistan is building in the region of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa area under Pakistans occupation of the disputed Jammu and Kashmir region.

The dam, inaugurated on May 2, is located in the same region where China and Pakistan are building the ChinaPakistan Economic Corridor, a part of the Chinese regimes ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) from Xinjiang to Pakistans southern shores. The dam is a joint venture of the lead firm, China Gezhouba Group of Cos. (CGGC), and a Pakistani firm, Descon Engineering.

While Singh said all these dots need to be connected to analyze the situation, Pande said the Chinese regime is using Pakistan and Nepal to put pressure on India.

Chinese soldiers are seen at the Nathula Pass area at the India-China border in the northeastern Indian state of Sikkim. (STR/AFP/Getty Images)

US Willing to Mediate Border Dispute

Pande said the Chinese regime is trying to deviate the worlds attention from the pandemic by such aggression on its disputed border with India.

China has built a lot of infrastructure on its side of the border over the years. India has been slow to do that but in the last few years, India has done a lot of airstrips, all-weather roads, and so on, she said.

Chinas belligerent actions are an attempt to prevent India from bolstering its side of the border. Beijing is hoping the worlds attention will be diverted by COVID.

President Donald Trump said on May 27 that the United States is willing to mediate between India and China to help them resolve their ongoing border dispute.

We have informed both India and China that the United States is ready, willing, and able to mediate or arbitrate their now raging border dispute. Thank you! said Trump in a message on Twitter.

While neither India nor China has sought any intervention from the United States or the international community, Trumps offer will upset China, Pande said.

Beijing will be more upset about this offer by President Trump than Delhi because in effect the U.S. is treating India and China as equals and that is something Beijing has never accepted, she said.

Singh says there could be many reasons behind the recent Chinese aggression on the borderit could be the internal political situation inside China, the global pressure on the Chinese regime to answer questions about the pandemic, or it could be a fallout of the U.S.China cold war.

He said it could also be because India took a leadership role as the chair of the World Health Organizations executive board on May 22, or because of many nations wanting Taiwan to be given an observers status in the World Health Assembly.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 31

Trend:

Azerbaijani MP has protested against the congratulatory letter of Canadian MP to representative of the so-called "regime" in occupied Nagorno-Karabakh.

"Being the head of the Azerbaijani community of the Nagorno-Karabakh region and the working group for Azerbaijan-Canada inter-parliamentary relations of Azerbaijans parliament, I protest and strongly condemn the "congratulatory letter" of Rachael Harder, a member of Canadas House of Commons, who is close to the Armenian lobby, addressed to a representative of the so-called "regime" established by Armenia in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan," Head of the Azerbaijani community of the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, MP Tural Ganjaliyev told Trend on May 30.

He reminded Harder that Armenia continues the illegal occupation of the Nagorno-Karabakh region and the adjacent territories of Azerbaijan, while more than 28 years ago, the Azerbaijani population living there was forcibly expelled from their homes through ethnic cleansing and denied fundamental human rights against the basic principles of international law, resolutions of the UN and other international organizations.

In this regard, the attempt to legitimize the "election" show organized on March 31 and April 14 by Armenia in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan is disrespectful to fundamental human rights and the rule of law. The world community, including Canada, unanimously supporting law and justice resolutely rejected the "election" show and expressed solidarity with Azerbaijan," he said. Unfortunately, the parliamentarian of Canada, the country that highly respects human rights and freedoms, expressed support to the ethnic cleansing policy pursued by Armenia against Azerbaijanis, thereby casting a shadow on Canadas foreign policy interests and the values on which it is based.

I once again state that the Azerbaijani community of Azerbaijans Nagorno-Karabakh region, sparing no effort for a peaceful resolution of the conflict, peaceful coexistence and development of both communities of Azerbaijans Nagorno-Karabakh region, tirelessly strives to achieve this goal. We express our gratitude to all those in the international community, including Canada, who support our fair position, and we urge those who are against justice to avoid this wrong path, but express support to peaceful coexistence of the Armenian and Azerbaijani communities of Azerbaijans Nagorno-Karabakh region within the framework of the internationally recognized territorial integrity of Azerbaijan," stressed Ganjaliyev.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on the withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno Karabakh and the surrounding districts.
LONDON  Thousands of people gathered across central London and other international capital cities this weekend to protest the killing of George Floyd, a black American who died while in police custody in Minnesota.

Sunday in London, marchers held up signs that said, "Justice for George Floyd" and "I can't breathe." Floyd, 46, died as a police officer kneeled on his neck to pin him down.

The protests, which were peaceful, began at Trafalgar Square before proceeding along the Thames River to the U.S. Embassy, where some held brief sit-ins. Some people broke official coronavirus-related lockdown rules of staying at least 6 feet apart. British police did not intervene to stop the protests.

Protesters in London chanted, "No justice! No peace!"

Live updates: Family lawyer says cop may have known George Floyd; Trump praises National Guard; cities pick up the pieces

Demonstrators block a road outside the U.S. Embassy in London on May 31 to protest the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died after a police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes during an arrest in Minneapolis.

Hundreds of people in Manchester in northern England held a rally Sunday in support of demonstrations in cities across America. Protesters chanted, "Black lives matter."

Derek Chauvin, 44, a white police officer, was fired from his job and charged with Floyd's murder. More protests are planned for central London next weekend, according to posts by organizers on social media.

Protests erupted in Berlin on Saturday as a crowd descended on the U.S. Embassy building next to the German city's Brandenburg Gate landmark. Footage posted online showed demonstrators calling for justice over Floyd's death May 25, standing in front of the embassy, clapping and chanting, "Black lives matter" and "Silence is violence." German police did not report any violence or incidents.

George Floyd: Trump says he'll designate antifa a terror organization

People attend a rally against racism in front of the Brandenburg Gate on May 31 in Berlin after the death of George Floyd in the USA.

Sunday, Germany's top-selling Bild newspaper carried the headline "This killer cop set America ablaze," with an arrow pointing to a photo of Chauvin. The tabloid newspaper's story reported "scenes like out of a civil war" in U.S. cities amid protests.

Story continues

In Canada on Saturday, thousands of people turned out at Toronto's Christie Pitts Park to show their anger at the death of Floyd and of Regis Korchinski-Paquet, 29, a black woman who died last week after falling from her 24th-floor balcony after police officers were called to her home. Police in Toronto are investigating. The family has pointed the finger at police.

Some U.S. enemies used state-controlled media to voice support for American demonstrators even though their own authoritarian governments permit little dissent.

British police officers block a road close to the U.S. Embassy in London as protesters march against the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis and in support of the demonstrations in North America on May 31, 2020.

"American police commit high-profile crimes all too often. ... U.S. authorities should meticulously investigate the murder of George Floyd," Russia's Foreign Ministry tweeted in English on Saturday. In Iran, which arrested thousands of demonstrators last year and cut internet access to the world, state TV accused U.S. police of attacking protesters.

Hua Chunying, a spokeswoman for China's Foreign Ministry, highlighted the U.S. racial unrest by tweeting Saturday, "I cant breathe" alongside a screenshot of comments by U.S. State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus about Hong Kong. U.S.-Chinese tensions have come to a head over the city's political status.

"Should Beijing support protests in the U.S., like you glorified rioters in Hong Kong?" asked Hu Xijin, editor of the Global Times, a state-owned newspaper that accused the United States of intervening in Hong Kong to support pro-democracy activists.

Demonstrations also took place in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, where hundreds of Israelis and Palestinians marched Saturday in protest against the killing by Israeli border police of Iyad Halak, a Palestinian man with autism who was fatally shot in Jerusalem's Old City. Israeli media reported that the demonstrators held signs that read, "Palestinian Lives Matter" and "Justice for Iyad, Justice for George."

More: 'Perfect storm' of civil unrest after George Floyd's death unique, effective, experts say

A Muslim woman wears a face mask that reads, "Black lives matter more than white feelings" at a protest rally against racism May 31 in Berlin after the death of George Floyd in the USA.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: George Floyd: Thousands join global protests from Berlin to London
#BeStillNewark from Donell on Vimeo.

Before he ever owned a camera, Donell Woodson always felt like he saw the world through a lens.

The Virginia native didnt go to school for photography, but after moving to Newark in 2012 for an IT job, he couldnt help himself  he bought a Nikon digital camera, took a six-week course at the International Center for Photography in Manhattan, and started shooting pictures and videos and posting them online.

Woodson, now 30 and living with his wife in Newarks Ironbound section, hasnt quit his day job in IT. But he freelances for Getty Images, much of it fashion and street style in New York, and does promotional work for the New Jersey Performing Arts Center and the Newark Downtown District. Check out his work at dwoodsonphotography.com and on his Facebook page.

With more free time to shoot and history in the making, Woodson began taking a series of stills and video clips captured largely with his drone camera documenting Brick City on lockdown, as Newark businesses closed and its streets emptied under orders from Mayor Ras Baraka and Gov. Phil Murphy intended to curb the spread of COVID-19.

This month, a friend sent Woodson a link to a post on NJ.com about an initiative by the Newark Public Library inviting submissions of captioned photos for archive of local images during the time of the coronavirus.

Woodson put together a submission, and forwarded the same works to NJ.com, which include a video, Be Still Newark," a title inspired by Barakas Be Still Mondays program, and a half-dozen stills, all in the black-and-white format that Woodson prefers for his personal work. Woodsons friend, Christopher Beltran of Plainfield, contributed some of the stills in the video.

Thats really what my inspiration was, too," Woodson said in an interview. "Just to be a part of history and kind of remember it when I look back and say, Oh, I was around for the 2020 pandemic.

I really just tried to capture a lot of the places where I spend a lot of time when Im in Newark," Woodson added. "I go in Penn Station, I go on these streets, I drive to work. So, there are all places Im familiar with and I see a lot of people, but I just dont see them (now) because of the impact the pandemic has had on Newark.

Below are the stills Woodson submitted, followed by a description of each in the photographers own words.

The image is of Market Sreet looking south, across the intersection with Broad Street, on a Friday afternoon early in May.Photo by Donell Woodson

The time that Ive spent here, since 2012, Ive always seen Broad and Market [streets] as the heart of Newark, or the heart of downtown," Woodson said. "And a lot of people catch buses here, a lot of people do shopping here, a lot of people go to local businesses, restaurants which are right there. So thats pretty much the lifeline of Newark is, and for it to be so empty at this time of day, when people. really should be out there, is something that I felt should be documented and should be captured.

A Welcome to Newark electronic sign on Broad Street in front of City Hall, looking east.Photo by Donell Woodson

I kind of wanted to give people a frame of reference on where I was shooting the video as well as taking pictures. I always want some type of landmark that tells users, if theyre not familiar with the surroundings, where we are," Woodson said.

About capturing the flag flying atop Prudential Plaza, Woodson added: It wasnt on purpose. Sometimes, a lot of the things in photography, you kind of just stumble upon or it just comes on its own, and just having things like that in the background actually enhance the photos."

Dr. Jay's Ladies, a women's footwear store on Market Street, in the morning sun.Photo by Donell Woodson

This one, I drove down Market Street one time and I couldnt stop at that point, and so I had to drive around again, and I just looked to the right and I was like, Man, that is an awesome photo, because like a said, I see stuff through a camera lens," Woodson said. And I said, I need to get that picture. That is an awesome picture. So, I actually had to go around the block, and circle back around and I found somewhere to park and I just kind of ran up, as I didnt want to disturb anybody or anything like that, and I wanted to kind of catch this person in their, you know, how they were.

It reminded me that there are people that normally shop there. They are there all the time. These gates are not down, theyre up.

CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Businesses that are open | Homepage

This person here is just sitting in front of an empty building where it normally should be up and bustling with people.

Right there, I think its a light post, it just cast that nice shadow right there in front of the person. It gives it that nice little pop for the image. But I just love stuff like that. Things that kind of cross into the frame, as well as the shadows that are already there.

An NJ Transit bus driver at Newark Penn Station, parked on Raymond Boulevard, beneath the railroad overpass.Photo by Donell Woodson

I drove by there, and I saw this guy," Woodson said. "He was taking his lunch break, I guess, or just taking a break before the route. So I just parked my car and I ran over and I was like, Sir, do you mind if I get a picture of you? Because I saw that he had this cool mask, protecting himself.

A lot of these shots that I got were with no people. But I wanted to also highlight essential workers, as well. You know, people who risk their lives every day, going out there just transporting people from Point A to Point B, and the precautions that they take. And I saw him with his mask, and I asked him if he could put it on and just give me a look. And, as you can see, thats what he did.

The Shape Shifters, a barbershop on Halsey Street.Photo by Donell Woodson

I actually used to go to this barber shop. Thats really the main reason behind it. This is right on Halsey Street, where they have a lot of clothing stores and barber shops, theres Hobbys Deli, which is a pretty popular deli in Newark. So I just took a picture of it. As you can see, its closed. Its a sunny day.

An aerial shot of Halsey Street looing west, taken with a drone camera on an overcast day.Photo by Donell Woodson

I spend a lot of time on Halsey Street for lunch," Woodson said. "So theres, like, delis and stuff and businesses. There are cars parked because there are residential buildings right there.

Normally, he added, This street is pretty packed, as well, because its a one-way street, and theres a light up there. So if you catch it at the wrong time, you know youre in traffic for a while.

Why black and white? Woodson responded to a question in a follow-up email. I believe that when you remove the distraction of color it helps viewers focus on other aspects of the photo, whether it be the atmosphere, the contrast, the overall energy and emotion it invokes, the shadows! A lot of history was captured in black and white so I wanted to continue that trend and be able to take a person back to a time gone by.

A self-portrait by photographer Donell Woodson.Photo by Donell Woodson

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Police officers in Salt Lake City, Utah shoved an elderly man using a cane to the ground while clearing out demonstrators participating in nationwide protests against excessive police force and the killing of George Floyd.

A local news outlet caught the moment on camera as two officers from the Salt Lake City police departments rescue unit approached the unarmed man.

Both dressed in riot gear, one officer pushed the man before the second officer began repeatedly shoving him until he fell to the ground.

Two other police officers then approach the man as he laid on the ground, unable to stand, to help him get back up.It was not immediately clear whether the man was participating in the demonstrations.

Sadly a man was just knocked off his feet, a reporter for Salt Lake Citys ABC 4 News said.

Demonstrations in at least 30 US cities were sparked over the weekend after cellphone footage that went viral showed a Minneapolis police officer kneeling on Mr Floyds neck for several minutes as he pleaded for air and later died.

George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Show all 30 1 /30 George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Police spray mace at protestors to break up a gathering near the Minneapolis Police third precinct after a white police officer was caught on a bystander's video pressing his knee into the neck of African-American man George Floyd, who later died at a hospital, in Minneapolis Reuters George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets A protester holds a sign with an image of George Floyd AP George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Protesters demonstrate against the death of George Floyd AFP via Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets A protester throws a piece of wood on a fire in the street just north of the 3rd Police Precinct Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets People in other US cities also protested the murder, like Los Angeles AFP via Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets AP George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Reuters George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets AFP via Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets AFP via Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets AFP via Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets A police officer lobs a canister to break up crowds Reuters George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets A protester is treated after inhaling tear gas Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Two police officers stand on the roof of the Third Police Precinct during a face off with a group of protesters Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Protesters outside a Minneapolis police precinct two days after George Floyd died EPA George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Protesters run from tear gas Reuters George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets AP George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Demonstrators gather to protest in Los Angeles AP George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Police remove barricades set by protesters AFP via Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets A fire burns inside of an Auto Zone store near the Third Police Precinct Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Flowers, signs and balloons are left near a makeshift memorial to George Floyd near the spot where he died AFP via Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets A policeman faces a protester holding a placard in downtown Los Angeles AFP via Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets A couple poses with a sign in Los Angeles AFP via Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets MINNEAPOLIS, MN - MAY 27: A man is tended to after sustaining an injury from a projectile shot by police outside the 3rd Police Precinct building on May 27, 2020 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Four Minneapolis police officers have been fired after a video taken by a bystander was posted on social media showing Floyd's neck being pinned to the ground by an officer as he repeatedly said, "I cant breathe". Floyd was later pronounced dead while in police custody after being transported to Hennepin County Medical Center. (Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images) Stephen Maturen Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets A protester reacts after inhaling tear gas Getty George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Getty Images George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Protesters use shopping carts as a barricade Getty Images George Floyd death: Minneapolis protests erupt in the streets Protesters clash with the police as they demonstrate against the death of George Floyd AFP via Getty Images

Many of the protests turned into violent riots, as participants said they were demonstrating against the use of fatal force on unarmed black men by police departments across the country.

In Salt Lake City, riots caused significant destruction in the downtown city area as the US National Guard was deployed to the scene.

A man with a bow and arrow reportedly attempted to attack protestors with the weapon before he was brought down by demonstrators and had his vehicle set on fire.

The city has issued a curfew until Monday in an attempt to quell the riots, with Salt Lake City Police Chief Mike Brown saying on Saturday night: It is time to go home. This is not helping. Please, parents: call her your kids and get them back home. Nothing good can come from this now.

Read The Independents special report from Minneapolis on the George Floyd demonstrations.
A heavy rain accompanied by strong wind inundated multiple streets and uprooted trees in Ho Chi Minh City on Saturday afternoon, causing a lot of challenges for local commuters.

The rain dampened almost all areas in the southern metropolis, with average rainfall topping 10-20 millimeters, the southern hydro-meteorological station reported.

According to the observation of Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper reporters, several streets in District 7 such as Tran Xuan Soan were flooded after the rain had lasted for just 15 minutes.

A similar situation was noticed on Nguyen Van Qua Street in District 12 and Vo Van Ngan Street in Thu Duc District, as sewers along these roads were not able to drain the rainwater fast enough.

A man delivers water bottles in the rain in District 7, Ho Chi Minh City, May 30, 2020. Photo: Chau Tuan / Tuoi Tre

Commuters had a hard time traveling on the flooded streets, while residents living along them were also troubled as the rainwater poured into their homes.

On Dien Bien Phu Street in Binh Thanh District, several trees were uprooted during the rain.

One commuter was hit by a fallen tree but only suffered some minor scratches.

An inundated street near Thu Duc Market, located in the namesake district in Ho Chi Minh City, May 30, 2020. Photo: Duc Phu / Tuoi Tre

Vo Van Ngan Street in Thu Duc District is severely flooded during a downpour on May 30, 2020. Photo: Tuoi Tre Contributor

An uprooted tree in District 8 Ho Chi Minh City, May 30, 2020. Photo: Tuoi Tre Contributor

A tree is uprooted during a heavy rain in Binh Thanh District, Ho Chi Minh City, May 30, 2020. Photo: Le Phan / Tuoi Tre

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Islamabad, May 31 (IANS) The Pakistan government has declared wearing of masks mandatory at crowded places, markets and in public transport, as the number of COVID-19 cases in the country shot up to 68,544, with 1,447 deaths.

"As 92 per cent cases have been reported through local transmission, we have declared the use of masks mandatory in markets, shopping malls, public transport, commercial flights, trains and crowded places," Dawn news quoted Special Assistants to the Prime Minister, Zafar Mirza as saying on Saturday.

About measures being taken to bring back stranded overseas Pakistanis, Special Assistant to Prime Minister on National Security Division, Moeed Yusuf said: "We were bringing 1,000 Pakistanis daily but now it has been decided to bring 2,000 per day. From 1st to 10th June around 20,000 stranded Pakistanis will be brought.

"Of them 8,000 will be brought from the United Arab Emirates and 4,000 from Saudi Arabia. We will soon introduce policy for the stranded Pakistanis due to which they would be able to reach Pakistan without any difficulty."

Till date over 33,000 stranded overseas Pakistanis had been brought from over 50 countries, he added.

While talking about resumption of routine flight operations, he said that only flights from Pakistan to other countries had been allowed and it was incorrect to say that anyone could come to Pakistan through routine flights.

Yusuf said borders with China and India would remain closed though some hundred Pakistanis were allowed to return from India in three intervals, reports Dawn news.

"As per agreement of Afghan Transit Trade goods are being sent to Afghanistan. As NATO supply also goes there, around 250 trucks are being allowed through Torkham and Chaman borders daily. Moreover, once in a week 500 Pakistanis are allowed to return through Torkham and 300 through Chaman border," he said.

He said there was no restriction on the Afghan nationals staying in Pakistan to return to their home country.

--IANS

ksk/
Khartoum, Sudan (PANA) - Ethiopias Ministry of Foreign Affairs has issued a statement calling for diplomacy to remedy the recent tension on the border areas between Sudan and Ethiopia over farming areas
Maiduguri, 29 May 2020 - As part of the ongoing response to the COVID-19 outbreak in north-east Nigeria, Borno State, WHO in collaboration with partners, has launched a campaign tagged "COVID-19 Heroes Campaign", to recognize and designate survivors as heroes and heroines .

Launching the initiative on 29 May 2020 in Maiduguri, the Borno state Deputy Governor and Chairman of the State Task Force on COVID-19 Response, Alhaji Usman Umar Kadafur said that the campaign aims to demystify and de-stigmatize COVID-19 survivors by declaring them heroes and heroines of a disease that has claimed 25 lives in Borno. As at 28 May there are 257 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Borno and 8915 in Nigeria.

"In Borno state, where insurgency has caused enormous internal displacements for many people, loss of jobs and lives for others, it is only heroes and heroines that can survive a combination of these life-threatening conditions coupled with COVID-19 infection. This is the reason why the government recognizes the COVID-19 survivors as heroes and heroines", says Alhaji Kadafur.

The Deputy Governor, Alhaji Kadafur adds that, "You have become the beacon of truth that COVID-19 is real. You have become the symbol of hope that COVID-19 can be survived even as the preventive vaccine is underway. You have proved that our isolation centres are active and functional. You have defeated COVID-19. For that, I declare you "Heroes and Heroines". Congratulations."

Notwithstanding, he cautioned the survivors that despite their current negative status, they still need to observe preventive etiquettes including regular hand washing under running water with soap or use of hand sanitizers, social distancing of at least two metres, covering of cough and sneezes, using face mask and avoiding crowded areas.

On his part, Dr Musa Audu the WHO State Coordinator in Borno, reiterated WHO's commitment to supporting the state to rapidly control the COVID-19 outbreak which has already affected eight Local Government Areas (LGAs).

"Although, Borno state has confirmed 257 cases, including 25 deaths since the index case was reported on 19 April 2020, WHO is coordinating partners' response as well as providing technical and financial support to the Ministry of Health to actively search for suspected cases of COVID-19 in the communities," says Dr Audu.

Presently, WHO is supporting local healthcare workers to trace contacts, manage confirmed cases on isolation and screen travelers at 28 entry points into Borno state. In addition, the Organization is supporting the State to implement risk communication and surveillance activities, strengthen logistics, provide mental healthcare services to people in need and build the capacities of local healthcare workers. "Since the beginning of the response in Borno state, WHO has built the capacity of more than 1000 healthcare workers including medical doctors, pharmacists, epidemiologists, nurses, health education officers and community health extension workers," Dr. Audu adds.

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Borno state is at the centre of a decade-old insurgency in north-east Nigeria which has claimed several lives and displaced millions of people internally.

Technical Contacts:

Dr Audu, Musa Idowu; Email: musaau [at] who.int; Tel: +234 803 700 5376

Dr Chima Onuekwe; Email: onuekwec [at] who.int; Tel: +234 803 535 4876
In a time of rampant unemployment, some people have had trouble starting new jobs because the coronavirus pandemic has caused background checks to be delayed at some local courts, including San Franciscos.

Im frustrated, one worker said in an email. The person received a job offer at a health care company months ago, but has been unable to begin work because the third-party company, HireRight, processing the background check has been unable to get the information it needs from San Francisco Superior Court.

The Chronicle agreed to not use the workers name under its anonymous sources policy so as not to jeopardize the persons current or future employment.

Many local courts are reinstating some services Monday, weeks after job losses began shattering records. The U.S. economy has shed a staggering 40.7 million jobs over the past 10 weeks, with almost 5 million jobless in California alone.

Ive been unable to start a new job Im really excited about for over two months. Ironically, the job is in health care technology  to modernize and deliver a better digital health care experience for Californians. To me, right now, this work should be more important than ever.

The person said they were disappointed that the San Francisco court had not adapted to enable the background check to go through. The HireRight form seen by The Chronicle showed that a check of criminal records at the Alameda County Superior Court as well as federal and out-of-state courts was completed, but the company was unable to access San Francisco court records.

I worry about how many other people may be caught in a similar situation who dont have the privilege of being employed while waiting for the court to process background checks again, said the worker, who currently holds another job.

Criminal records searchable by case name and a persons first and last name are available online, according to an email from San Francisco Superior Court spokesman Ken Garcia.

Garcia said in an email that starting Monday, the court will be restoring some services that were previously unavailable because of the pandemic.

Prior to the closure of the Criminal Clerks Office, firms who perform background checks could go to the office and look through our case index to see if applicants had any prior criminal history, Garcia said. That index has been placed online during the closure and can be accessed on our website. If an applicants name is found in the index, the firms can submit a request for criminal records to the clerks office. This service never ceased, as a request can be submitted via U.S. mail. The form and instructions for this are also on our website.

The process described by Garcia has not been our experience with the court, however, according to an email from Alonzo Martinez, an associate counsel focusing on compliance at HireRight.

Inside the newsroom Anonymous sources: The Chronicle strives to attribute all information we report to credible, reliable, identifiable sources. Presenting information from an anonymous source occurs extremely rarely, and only when that information is considered crucial and all other on-the-record options have been exhausted. In such cases, The Chronicle has complete knowledge of the unnamed person's identity and of how that person is in position to know the information. The Chronicle's detailed policy governing the use of such sources, including the use of pseudonyms, is available on SFChronicle.com. See More Collapse

Martinez said that process also requires and assumes that the court is adequately staffed to manage the volume of inquiries necessary to process criminal checks when a court researcher is needed to validate that a record matches an individual and that the criminal information is complete and up to date.

Martinez said while some court records were available online, they are limited to a persons first and last name and did not always provide the detail necessary for his company to determine a persons criminal record, or lack of one.

A terminal inside the court typically used for more in-depth research will remain closed indefinitely, according to an email from Sherife Huseny, the acting court manager for the criminal division of the San Francisco Superior Court.

Huseny said that if more detailed information is needed as in the case of a background check, companies can email his department with a day and preferable time they would like for us to call you to go through the cases for research along with your phone number. Huseny said his department would then have a staff member call back to assist with additional research.

Martinez said in the past his company employed runners to go to the court to access terminals that had the most up-to-date information and to follow up with clerks if records were incomplete.

He said the San Francisco court had told his company its runners would be allowed to use the public access terminals as of Monday, but noted, Information that cannot be validated via the courts public access terminal will have to be researched with the courts clerks. However, we do not yet know how the court will manage that process as it has informed us that it will operate with limited hours and staff when it reopens.

Huseny could not confirm whether some people would still be able to access the terminals.

Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes

Delays in processing the checks present a particular problem for candidates in industries that have access to vulnerable people, like in health care, according to Theresa Adams, a senior knowledge adviser at the Society for Human Resources Management.

Some employees in those industries cannot legally start working until their check is complete and workarounds used by other companies to bypass a background check arent possible.

She said for some companies not in more heavily regulated industries like finance or health care, employees may be able to sign a form saying they have never been convicted of a crime, among other workarounds.

Other Bay Area courts are taking different approaches.

The Napa County Superior Court plans to close one of its two research terminals in its criminal department to ensure social distancing as part of its reopening Monday, according to court spokesman Robert Fleshman.

The Contra Costa County Superior Court does not have an online portal, but is processing background checks preferably by mail or by drop-off in its criminal drop box at the Main Street entrance to the Wakefield Taylor Courthouse, according to Public Information Officer Matt Malone.

The Santa Clara County Superior Court is back to normal for in-person visits only regarding background checks, according to an email from court Public Information Officer Benjamin Rada. He said there is no online database for the court and that visitors must observe social distancing and wear masks.

The Marin County Superior Court said in an email it is prioritizing requests for background information from government and law enforcement agencies as well as members of the public that request such information for employment or social security purposes.

As of April 20, the Alameda County Superior Court has allowed public access for records searches between 8:30 a.m. and 3 p.m. at the Rene C. Davidson Courthouse in Oakland.

Chase DiFeliciantonio is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: chase.difeliciantonio@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ChaseDiFelice
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's COVID-19 lockdown rules are clear and apply to everyone, a senior medical officer said when asked about a long road trip made by the prime minister's top adviser, Dominic Cummings, at the height of the lockdown.

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's COVID-19 lockdown rules are clear and apply to everyone, a senior medical officer said when asked about a long road trip made by the prime minister's top adviser, Dominic Cummings, at the height of the lockdown.

England's Deputy Chief Medical Officer Jonathan Van-Tam has become a favourite on social media during the pandemic due to his colourful turn of phrase, including his insistence on Saturday that the public must not "tear the pants" out of new, slightly looser guidelines.

Asked at a daily news conference whether people in authority should set an example and obey the rules, he willingly addressed the issue in contrast to his boss and the country's chief scientific officer, who did not comment on the matter at a previous briefing.

"Thank you for the question and I'm quite happy to answer it," he said.

"In my opinion the rules are clear and they have always been clear. In my opinion, they are for the benefit of all and in my opinion they apply to all."

Cummings, the campaigner who helped deliver the 2016 Brexit referendum win and Boris Johnson's 2019 election landslide, has been fighting to keep his job this week after his long road trip at the height of the lockdown provoked outrage across Britain.

Cummings has refused to apologise for the trip, involving a 400 km (250 mile) trip to his parents' property in northern England and another trip to a local castle that he said he took to test his eyes and driving ability after falling ill.

The local police force said he may have breached lockdown rules with the shorter drive but said they would take no further action. Johnson has said he accepts the explanation and believes the matter is now closed.

(Reporting by Kate Holton; Editing by Giles Elgood and Helen Popper)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
The trans-Australian speed record was broken by Royal Australian Air Force planes twice yesterday, within the space of seven minutes, when a Lincoln Bomber and an Australian-built Mosquito returned from Perth to Point Cook.

The bomber, which arrived first, held its record for only six minutes and a half before the Mosquito flew overhead, beating its time by seven minutes and a half.

The Mosquitos new record from Pearce, W.A., to Point Cook, was six hours flying time.

The previous record was held by a civil plane, the A.N.A. Skymaster Amana. Incidentally, the Mosquito  holder of the new Perth-Melbourne speed record - improved by one hour 14 minutes on the time for the flight from Melbourne to Perth 12 days ago.

Dramatic Finish

Yesterdays arrivals at Point Cook had all the elements of a dramatic race finish. The Lincoln bomber was just touching down when the Mosquito whirred overhead. Actual time of arrival was fixed as the planes came over the control tower.
(Newser)  The mayor of Los Angeles says National Guard troops are being sent in to the nation's second-largest city after a fourth day of violent protests Saturday saw demonstrators clash repeatedly with officers, torch police vehicles, and ransack businesses. Mayor Eric Garcetti says he asked Gov. Gavin Newsom for 500 to 700 members of the Guard to assist the 10,000 LAPD officers. "The California National Guard is being deployed to Los Angeles overnight to support our local response to maintain peace and safety on the streets of our city," says the mayor, who ordered a rare citywide curfew until Sunday morning. Gov, Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in Los Angeles County, NBC Los Angeles reports.

story continues below

Community leaders denounced the violence that has accompanied protests over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody, the AP reports. Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn said she lived through two previous seminal LA race riotsWatts in 1965 and 1992 following the acquittal of police officers in the beating of black motorist Rodney Kingand remembers the pain the city endured. "We must stand in solidarity against the deaths of unarmed black men at the hands of law enforcement," she said. "But please dont destroy our beloved Los Angeles. This is not a protest anymore." Texas has also activated the National Guard and deployed troopers to cities including Houston, Dallas, and Austin.

(Read more Los Angeles stories.)
Minneapolis

The nation was rocked again Saturday as demonstrators clashed with police from outside the White House gates to the streets of more than three dozen besieged cities, as outrage over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis traversed a razor's edge between protest and civic meltdown.

Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota said on Saturday that he was activating thousands of National Guard troops  up to 13,200  to control protesters in Minneapolis who turned out in droves for the fourth consecutive night Friday, burning buildings to the ground, firing guns near the police and overwhelming officers. But he declined the Army's offer to deploy military police units.

Rallies, looting and unrest expanded far beyond Minneapolis, with protesters destroying police vehicles in Atlanta and New York and blocking major streets in Detroit and in San Jose, Calif. Crowds in Milwaukee chanted, "I can't breathe"; and demonstrators in Portland, Ore., lit a fire inside the Multnomah County Justice Center.

On Saturday, demonstrators amassed outside City Hall in San Francisco, shut down highway traffic in Miami and attempted to topple a statue in Philadelphia. Curfews were imposed in some of America's largest cities, including Los Angeles, Atlanta and Philadelphia.

The chaos and rage on such a broad scale evoked the Black Lives Matter demonstrations of recent years; the Los Angeles riots that followed the 1992 acquittal of four police officers charged in connection with the beating of Rodney King the year before; and even the racial strife of the 1960s, when the fury and despair of inner-city African Americans over racism and poverty erupted in scores of cities, reaching a climax in 1967 and 1968, two years that saw more than 150 riots.

This moment has not produced anything close to the violence of that era. But it is playing out under dystopian circumstances, with a pandemic that has kept much of the nation at home for months, Depression-era job losses and the public bitterly divided on politics and culture.

As governors and mayors urged restraint, President Donald Trump on Saturday urged officials in Minnesota to "get tougher" on the protesters and offered greater military support, a move that would represent a significant escalation in the government's response to the tensions.

There was a sense of a nation on the brink. "What are you changing by tearing up a city?" Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms of Atlanta asked protesters there. "You've lost all credibility now. This is not how we change America. This is not how we change the world."

The protests continued with new ferocity even after Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer who was shown on a cellphone video kneeling on Floyd's neck as he lost consciousness, was charged with third-degree murder Friday.

Walz said that the state was bracing for more protests and that the authorities had been overwhelmed by the demonstrations, which he said had devolved into "absolute chaos." He did not rule out accepting the help of the federal military, although he called it an extreme step.

The roots of the unrest and division are long and deep.

But the immediate trigger is a protest movement, ignited by the death of Floyd, that reflects the street uprisings of the Black Lives Matter movement that came to prominence six years ago.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

The escalating violence and destruction felt like a warning that this moment could be spinning out of control both because of the limitations of a largely spontaneous, leaderless movement and because, protesters and officials warned, there were indications it was also being undermined by agitators trying to sabotage it.

Beyond the chaos in Minneapolis, there were widespread fears that a movement protesting police violence and systemic racism was instead being subverted by images of violence and chaos playing out around the country.

Mike Griffin, an organizer in Minneapolis, said these are mostly decentralized protests: "That happens without the black pastor coming in and telling us to do it. That's organic. These are organic protests."

The protesters come from diverse racial backgrounds with ardent cadres of young white allies quite unlike earlier eras of racial unrest. Some marches are led by national or local activist organizations. Many others are simply spontaneous, sprouting up from long-simmering frustrations in city neighborhoods.

In many communities, the protests reflected both Floyd's death and simmering local controversies.

One hot spot was Louisville, Ky.

Gunfire broke out in the late hours of a demonstration Thursday that was protesting the shooting death of Breonna Taylor, 26, an emergency medical technician who was killed by Louisville police officers executing a search warrant.
Rheinsberg, Germany: Members of a Bolivian orchestra featuring traditional flutes and pipes hope to return home next week after being stranded in the grounds of a German castle for about 80 days due to the coronavirus epidemic.

The 20 young musicians of the Orquesta Experimental de Instrumentos Nativos had arrived in Germany on March 10 to perform at a music festival. But the event was cancelled and days later Germany entered a coronavirus lockdown.

They tried to head home but the bus taking them to the airport broke down on the motorway. Then Bolivia closed its borders.

The musicians, most of whom had never been abroad before,

stayed at a music academy on the grounds of the 15th-century Rheinsberg Castle in eastern Germany, where Frederick the Great said he spent the happiest days of his life as crown prince.

Orchestra director Carlos Gutierrez said they had enjoyed their time despite the circumstances.

"They went to the woods, they know a lot of lakes, they visited the city," he said, adding that most of them had until now spent most of their lives in a town of 4,350 inhabitants.

"For most of them, Germany is pretty much this," he said.

Local media said the castle was haunted and is home to packs of wolves. None of the musicians had seen a wolf, however, Guitierrez said.

Now they are focusing on going home after a stay that had become "more and more difficult", said musician Isabel Sanjines Rodriguez, from La Paz.

They think they will return home via Madrid on June 1 when Bolivia is expected to lift international flight restrictions.
The Nepali Congress, the main Opposition party, on Saturday decided to vote in favour of the Constitution amendment bill related to a new political map of the country put forth by the government in Parliament.

The crucial decision was taken during a meeting of the Central Working Committee (CWC) at the party's headquarters in Sanepa.

The CWC of the NC has directed the party lawmakers to vote in favour of the proposal to amend the Constitution to change the country's map in the national emblem, The Kathmandu Post reported.

"The party will now stand in favour of the bill when it is put to voting," CWC member Min Bishwakarma was quoted as saying by the Post.

According to the Nepali Congress sources, the proposal put forth in the CWC meeting was related to the Constitution amendment bill that seeks to bring amendment to the political map included in Schedule 3 related to Article 9 (2) of the Constitution.

Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Shivamaya Tumbahangphe was supposed to table the bill for discussion at Parliament on Wednesday.

However, the bill was removed from the parliamentary business schedule as per a request by the Nepali Congress to wait until the party could take a decision to this effect from its CWC meeting.

It requires a two-thirds majority vote in Parliament to bring an amendment to the Constitution.

Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli has decided to seek national consensus on the issue.

In the midst of a border dispute with India, Nepal recently released the revised political and administrative map of the country laying claim over the strategically key areas of Lipulekh, Kalapani and Limpiyadhura.

India reacted angrily to the move saying such "artificial enlargement" of territorial claims will not be acceptable and asked the neighbouring country to refrain from such "unjustified cartographic assertion".

The ties between the two countries came under strain after Defence Minister Rajnath Singh inaugurated a 80-km-long strategically crucial road connecting the Lipulekh pass with Dharchula in Uttarakhand on May 8.

Nepal reacted sharply to the inauguration of the road claiming that it passed through Nepalese territory. India rejected the claim asserting that the road lies completely within its territory.

Nepalese Foreign Minister Pradeep Kumar Gyawali earlier this month summoned Indian Ambassador Vinay Mohan Kwatra and handed over a diplomatic note to protest against India inaugurating the key road.

However, Gyawali last week said that he was confident that the Kalapani issue between the two neighbours will be resolved through talks.

India on Thursday indicated its readiness to engage with Nepal to resolve the festering border row on the basis of mutual sensitivity and respect.

India is monitoring the current situation in Nepal, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said referring to Kathmandu deferring a plan to bring in a constitutional amendment to validate a new map that depicted Lipulekh, Kalapani and Limpiyadhura as its territory

"India is open to engaging with all its neighbours on the basis of mutual sensitivity and mutual respect, in an environment of trust and confidence. This is a continuous process and requires constructive and positive efforts," Srivastava said.

The Lipulekh pass is a far western point near Kalapani, a disputed border area between Nepal and India. Both India and Nepal claim Kalapani as an integral part of their territory -- India as part of Uttarakhand''s Pithoragarh district and Nepal as part of Dharchula district.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-30 07:21:24|Editor: huaxia

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Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Carrie Lam visits a street stand and signs a petition in support of the national security legislation in Hong Kong, south China, May 28, 2020. (Xinhua)

"Hong Kong affairs are purely China's internal affairs and allow no external interference. National security legislation for Hong Kong does not constitute any threat to international peace and security," Chinese UN envoy said.

UNITED NATIONS, May 29 (Xinhua) -- Zhang Jun, China's permanent representative to the United Nations, on Friday urged the United States and the United Kingdom (UK) to immediately stop interfering in Hong Kong affairs, immediately stop practices of hegemonism and power politics, and mind their own business, rather than provoking tensions and making troubles everywhere.

Zhang refuted the fallacy on Hong Kong made by the United States, Britain, and some other countries, saying China opposes and completely rejects the baseless remarks made by the United States and Britain.

"The United States and the United Kingdom, for their own political purposes, have been making unwarranted comments, interfering and obstructing, and attempted to push for an open video conference in the UN Security Council. China expressed strong opposition, and the vast majority of the Council members did not support the U.S. proposal, believing that the Hong Kong-related issues were China's internal affairs and had nothing to do with the mandates of the Security Council. The Security Council rejected the unreasonable request of the U.S., and its attempt failed," said a press release issued by the Chinese Mission to the United Nations.

"Hong Kong is a special administrative region of China. Hong Kong affairs are purely China's internal affairs and allow no external interference. National security legislation for Hong Kong does not constitute any threat to international peace and security. The Council must not get involved in any way," Zhang said.

The third session of the 13th National People's Congress, China's national legislature, on Thursday adopted the Decision on Establishing and Improving the Legal System and Enforcement Mechanisms for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) to Safeguard National Security.

In face of strong opposition from China and Security Council members, the United States and Britain could only mention Hong Kong under "any other business" in the informal consultations of the council. This move was strongly countered by China and generally opposed by council members. They urged the United States and Britain to stop interfering in the internal affairs of other countries and making groundless accusations against China. There was no consensus, no formal discussion in the Security Council, and the U.S. and Britain's move came to nothing, said the press release.

A screen capture image shows Zhang Jun, China's permanent representative to the United Nations, attending a virtual meeting in New York, the United States, April 21, 2020. (Xinhua)

The Chinese ambassador pointed out that since June last year, serious organized acts of violence and separatist activities took place in Hong Kong, which have got the support from some foreign forces and posed a real threat to China's national security. It is necessary and fully justified for the National People's Congress of China to establish and improve legal framework and enforcement mechanisms for Hong Kong to safeguard national security.

Such legislation does not affect Hong Kong's high degree of autonomy or the rights and freedoms of Hong Kong residents. Instead, it is conducive to the implementation of the policy of "one country, two systems" and the prosperity and stability of Hong Kong, he added.

Zhang emphasized that the legal basis for the Chinese government's administration of Hong Kong is the Chinese Constitution and the Basic Law of the HKSAR, not the Sino-British Joint Declaration.

"After Hong Kong's return to China, the UK has no right of sovereignty, jurisdiction or supervision over Hong Kong, still less is the U.S. entitled to comment on Hong Kong with the excuse of the Sino-British Joint Declaration," he said.

The United States and Britain, out of hidden political agenda, have blatantly interfered in Hong Kong affairs, emboldened rioters, and threatened and intimidated the HKSAR government. "They bear unshirkable responsibilities for the serious violence in Hong Kong. The gross interference by the U.S. and the UK is an important reason of China's decision on national security legislation for Hong Kong," he said.

Zhang pointed out that the United States abuses force, imposes unilateral sanctions, and seeks regime change all over the world. A more unilateral United States has withdrawn from international instruments, including the Paris Agreement, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty and the Treaty on Open Skies.

"That is the real source of trouble in the world and a real threat to international peace and security, which merits the council's attention," he noted.

Whatever the United States and Britain may say, the Chinese government is firm in its resolve to safeguard national sovereignty, security and development interests, implement the policy of "one country, two systems," and oppose external interference in Hong Kong affairs. Any attempt to use Hong Kong to interfere in China's internal matters is doomed to fail, said the ambassador. 
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Some youth in the Sunyani West Municipality of the Bono Region are demanding one of governments 88 proposed hospitals be sited in the area.

President Akufo-Addo in his eighth address to the nation on the coronavirus pandemic announced plans to construct hospitals in 88 districts across the country in a bid to improve Ghana's health sector.

Addressing a presser on May 28, the Chiraa Youth Forum said the hospital was an opportunity for the state to make up for years of neglect.

The convener of the youth group, Joseph Opoku Kyeremeh said: By virtue of its location on the main Sunayni-Takyiman-Wenchi highway, which is one of the major accident-prone stretches in the region and even the increasing vehicular movement, Chiraa would be a strategic location for emergencies like road accidents to augment the efforts of the Sunyani Regional Hospital and the Holy Family Hospital at Takyiman.

This is justifiably true in the sense that it is only Chiraa which has an existing family as an alternative to the Sunyani Regional Hospital or the Holy Family Hospital at Takyiman. People from other districts and municipalities who are close neighbours access their health needs from the Chiraa Health Centre, he added. Background

Government announced its ambitious plan to construct the 88 hospitals and six new regional hospitals as well as the rehabilitation of the Effia Nkwanta Hospital, in Sekondi, which is the regional hospital of the Western Region all in a bid to boost healthcare delivery in the country.

The project which is expected to last for one year will commence in July this year, according to President Akufo-Addo.

The Local Government and Rural Development Minister, Hajia Alima Mahama has directed the various district assemblies without hospitals to identify and release a minimum of 15 acres of land for the projects.

This exercise must be completed with all necessary documents prepared by 31st May, 2020, a letter from the Minister said.

She further urged Regional Ministers overseeing the selected districts to take a personal interest in facilitating the smooth take-off of this very important initiative.

Similar calls

The Mental Health Nurses Group (MHNG) in Ankaful Psychiatric Hospital had earlier petitioned Akufo-Addo to consider the construction of psychiatric hospitals across the country in the wake of COVID-19.

The group said the psychiatric hospitals could be built as part of the 88 hospitals the President announced will be constructed across the country.

---citinewsroom
Australia would welcome an official invitation to the Group of Seven (G7) nations and there has been contact on the matter between the prime minister and the United States, a government spokesman said on Sunday.

The G7 has been a topic of recent high-level exchanges, the spokesman said in an emailed comment. Australia would welcome an official invitation. Strengthening international cooperation among like-minded countries is valued at a time of unprecedented global challenges.

US President Donald Trump said he would postpone a G7 summit he had hoped to hold next month until September or later and expand the list of invitees to include Australia, Russia, South Korea and India.

US-Australia ties have been strong, even though recent White House comments on the origins of the coronavirus outbreak have frustrated Australias push for an independent inquiry, sources have told Reuters. The two security partners also diverged radically in their management of the pandemic.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has been so far one of very few world leaders to pay a state visit to Washington during Trumps tenure, and both leaders have openly signalled their camaraderie.

Morrison, unlike some European leaders, has avoided criticising Trump publicly and has teamed up with the United States in its tougher stance against China, Australias main trading partner.

Relations between Canberra and Beijing have been strained amid Australian accusations of Chinese meddling in domestic affairs and concern about what Australia sees as Chinas growing influence in the Pacific region.
DETROIT, MI  A total of 84 people were arrested Saturday night following a second night of police brutality protests in Detroit.

The protests have been sparked by the May 25 death of George Floyd who died after Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin was recorded kneeling on Floyds neck as he pleaded, I cant breathe.

Of the arrests made Saturday, May 30, Detroit police Sgt. Nicole Kirkwood said a majority of the people live in the metro Detroit area, 21 in Detroit, with two from outside the state  one from Tennessee and one from Ohio -- double the amount from the previous evening.

In a press conference on Facebook Live, Detroit Police Chief James Craig said the protest started out peacefully, with the group becoming somewhat agitated as they moved toward police headquarters.

Rocks, M-80s, small-sized bricks and other items were thrown at police.

It became a violent situation at that point, Craig said.

An order was given to deploy tear gas and other non-lethal force to help disperse the crowd.

If they were just going to stand there, were patient, but when you start attacking police officers thats when enough is enough, he said. We had no other choice, certainly it was a safety issue for the officers.

Craig expressed disappointment when local activists tried to engage protesters, but some in the crowd continued to cause issues for officers.

He pointed out police would have the same amount of police officers out Sunday night.

Were going to continue to remain very professional, said Craig. We support the protest. We do not support law-breakers. Its just not going to happen.

Two officers were injured Friday, including a captain who suffered a concussion after being hit in the head with a thrown rock and an officer who fell and injured his shoulder.

Some officers were affected by the tear gas used on Saturday, but Craig said hed not heard of any injuries.

The protest Saturday was one of several across the state including Grand Rapids where some vehicles were set on fire and businesses damaged, as well as a peaceful protest in Flint Township.

More on MLive:

Detroit George Floyd police brutality protest turns violent as police fire tear gas, rubber bullets

Flint-area police join protesters marching to seek justice for George Floyd

Peaceful protest in Grand Rapids devolves into riot, looting and fires

Police brutality protests in Michigan: What you need to know from this weekends rallies, riots
Abuja, Nigeria (PANA)  The Nigerian Armed Forces on Sunday said that Nigerian Air Force (NAF) airstrikes destroyed a bandits logistics warehouse in Zamfara State, Northwest region of the country
While much of the attention in New Mexicos congressional races has been on the negative campaigning for the 2nd Congressional District seat, another race has been heating up as Tuesdays primary approaches.

The campaigns of Republican candidates seeking to replace Democratic U.S. Sen. Tom Udall have been taking shots at one another through advertisements and social media.

Much of the criticism by former New Mexico State University professor Gavin Clarkson and anti-abortion activist Elisa Martinez has focused on comments made by former television meteorologist Mark Ronchetti that seem to have been poking fun at President Donald Trump, leading both to label Ronchetti as a Never Trumper.

But Ronchettis campaign struck back in recent weeks, raising questions in ads about Clarksons brief tenure with the Trump administration, and Clarksons and Martinezs personal financial dealings that were listed in the Journals candidate questionnaires.

New Mexico residents opened their mailboxes a couple of weekends ago to find a mailer saying, Gavin Clarkson is trying to hide his shady record. The mailer says Clarkson was forced out of his position as Bureau of Indian Affairs deputy secretary for policy and economic development. He served in the position for about six months before resigning in December 2017.

Professor Clarkson has chosen to run a negative campaign, and voters deserve to know why hes unable to run on his own record, Ronchetti campaign spokesman Jeff Glassburner told the Journal. Clarkson has a shady record of mishandling personal and taxpayer money.

Glassburner also linked Clarksons bankruptcy in 2012 to a loan from the program Clarkson later oversaw that The Washington Post said was related to his resignation.

Its ironic for a candidate who claimed he left the Republican party because President Trump had stolen part of his soul to say he now supports the president while using the same discredited liberal media sources that concocted the Russia Hoax and the Impeachment Witch Hunt to attack me, Clarkson said in a statement to the Journal.

He cited a photo taken of him with former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and current Interior Secretary David Bernhardt as proof he was not forced out of his position. He told the Journal in 2018 that he left his post to run for Congress.

According to the Post, Clarkson ran a program that guaranteed loans to tribal businesses. Its story said Clarkson served as a consultant to tribes that received loans from programs during the Obama administration, including a $22.5 million loan for the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe to help with the purchase of a brokerage firm that went under. The Interior Department was sued for its refusal to guarantee the remaining $20 million balance on the loan, the Post reported.

His resignation followed the bureaus inspector general report critical of the program Clarkson ran, the Post reported.

The Inspector General report frequently cited against me states on its first page that the period covered was 2010-2016, during the Obama administration, Clarkson said. I didnt join the Trump administration until 2017 and was actually tasked with fixing the problems identified by the IG report.

Clarkson contended the loan he helped secure was proper and believes former IRS executive Lois Lerner blew up the deal. Clarkson said he had previously called out her IRS for their racist attacks on tribal sovereignty and economic development  and made her back down.

The mailer also linked Clarkson to protesters opposing the Dakota Access pipeline.

He acknowledged being present, but he said he was there to help an ex-girlfriend search for her cousin who had gone missing.

Scott Turner: sturner@abqjournal.com
FILE PHOTO: Reuters security advisor Rodney Seward is treated by a medic during nationwide unrest following the death of of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody, in Minneapolis

By Kenneth Li

(Reuters) - On Friday evening, viewers watched as CNN correspondent Omar Jimenez and his crew were arrested on live television while covering a protest following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

By Saturday, as protesters and the police clashed across the nation, reporter Kaitlin Rust from Louisville, Kentucky local station WAVE News screamed on air "I'm getting shot! I'm getting shot!" as cameras caught her and her crew being targeted at gunpoint and shot at by local police with pepper balls.

Over a three-day period, organizations that track press violence documented about two dozen acts of violence, including an incident on Saturday night in Minneapolis during which Reuters journalist Julio-Cesar Chavez and Reuters security adviser Rodney Seward were struck and injured by rubber bullets.

From Los Angeles to Minneapolis to New York, what seemed like isolated attacks on the press at political rallies and protests over the last few years intensified as trust in media is near a decade low, some media experts said.

"It is an extremely scary place to be and not a place where journalists have felt since 1968 in this country," said Bruce Brown, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, referring to journalists being harassed at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

The numerous, targeted attacks that journalists reporting on protests across the country have faced from law enforcement over the last two nights are both reprehensible and clear violations of the First Amendment," he said.

Freedom of speech and the press are enshrined, among other freedoms, in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

The attacks, which come amid the anti-media rhetoric of U.S. President Donald Trump, have been leveled at media organizations across the political spectrum.

Leland Vittert, a Fox News correspondent with experience in war zones, and his crew were attacked by demonstrators near the White House on Friday after being identified as an employee of Fox News. "It's the most scared I've been since being caught in a mob that turned on us in Tahrir Square (in Cairo, Egypt)," Vittert said in an interview with Reuters on Sunday.

Story continues

Vittert recalled how the public perception of the media similarly deteriorated during his time covering the Middle East. "We saw that transition happen where those who we reported on went from being glad we were there to tell our stories to viewing us as potential targets," he said. "And now we're seeing that same shift in America which is terrifying."

Since taking office in 2017, Trump has frequently lashed out at the media.

"There's a campaign of vilification of the media by President Trump," said Courtney Radsch, advocacy director at the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Radsch said this is also occurring as protesters "want to control their narrative as well. Everyone wants to go directly to public with their version of events."

On Sunday, the president wrote on Twitter: "The Lamestream Media is doing everything within their power to foment hatred and anarchy. As long as everybody understands what they are doing, that they are FAKE NEWS and truly bad people with a sick agenda, we can easily work through them to GREATNESS!"

Some Trump supporters in the past have played down the backlash against the media and the president's role in it, saying the media had eroded its own credibility with partisan reporting.

"He (Trump) is not the only trigger," Brown said. But, "If he were to stop attacking journalists, that would help a lot."

Watching journalists get arrested and attacked on television sends a message to viewers that there are no repercussions for the violence, media experts say.

The governor of Minnesota apologized for the arrest of CNN's journalists and the Louisville police department apologized if Rust was singled out for being a reporter. No actions have been taken so far against the officers involved.

Fox and CNN both condemned the actions taken against their journalists and other members of the media.

A Reuters spokeswoman said the news organization strongly objects to police firing rubber bullets at its crew in Minneapolis and is addressing the situation with authorities.

"It was clear that both our reporter and security adviser were members of the press and not a threat to public order. Journalists must be allowed to report the news without fear of harassment or harm," the spokeswoman said in a statement.

(Reporting by Kenneth Li; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
In June 2010, ethnic violence between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks started in Kyrgyzstan's second city, Osh, and spread to other parts of southern Kyrgyzstan.

In less than one week, hundreds were killed, hundreds of thousands fled their homes, and entire neighborhoods were destroyed.

The so-called "June events" came barely two months after a revolution that ousted former Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiev.

The interim government needed to move the country forward and as a consequence and despite internal and international investigations of the violence, many questions about what happened in southern Kyrgyzstan in June 2010 were left unanswered and remain unanswered and unresolved to this day.

The memory of those days haunts politics and society in Kyrgyzstan but the subject remains almost taboo and nobody seems anxious to raise or talk about the issue.

On the latest Majlis Podcast, RFE/RL's media-relations manager for South and Central Asia, Muhammad Tahir, moderates a discussion that looks at the legacy of June 2010 in Osh and other areas of southern Kyrgyzstan.

This week's guests are Mihra Rittmann, who has been monitoring events in Central Asia for Human Rights Watch for many years; Jasmine Cameron, a human rights lawyer focusing on Central Asia and who hails from Kyrgyzstan; Muzaffar Suleymanov, Eurasia program officer at Civil Rights Defenders, who is originally from Uzbekistan; and Bruce Pannier, the author of the Qishloq Ovozi blog.

Listen to the podcast above or subscribe to the Majlis on iTunes or on Google Podcasts.
Uttarakhand police arrested a man on Sunday for allegedly sexually harassing a girl who was alone at quarantine centre in Nainital district, police said.

The accused was booked under under IPC (Indian Penal Code) section 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty).

 A 25-year-old girl was quarantined alone at a primary school in Gusainpur village in Haldwani area after she returned from Dehradun on May 21, said Bhagwan Singh Mehar, in-charge of Mukhani police station in Haldwani .

Mehar said girls mother, brother and sister-in-law were staying with her at the quarantine centre during the nigh time to protect her.

She was alone at quarantine centre on Sunday as her family members had gone home after staying with her in quarantine centre during the night, he said.

Mehar said the accused entered the quarantine centre around 11.30 am on Sunday when her family members had gone home.

The accused started obscene talk with her and then harassing her sexually. The girl screamed for help due to which a teacher and village development officer posted at the centre came rushing and caught the man.

Both teacher and the VDO took the man to the police station. He has been identified as Rinku, 28, resident of Haldwani, Meher said.

The school teacher Dayal Nath Goswami lodged a complaint with the local police station after the accused was handed over to the police.

Kundan Singh Vohra, gram pradhan (village head) Anandpur gram sabha, where the incident took place, said, The girl was quarantined alone in the school as there were no other such cases in the area. So her mother, brother and sister-in-law were also staying at the school in the night to protect her. We had made separate arrangements for the family members. We had demanded police protection for the girl but it was not granted, he said

This is not the first time a woman has been allegedly sexually harassed in a quarantine centre. Earlier, a police constable had allegedly sexually harassed a woman at a quarantine centre in Kichha area of in US Nagar district. The constable was suspended later by the state police department
Islamabad, May 31 : A new leaked photo of former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who is currently in London for treatment, has sparked a debate about his health, a media report said on Sunday.

In the picture, Sharif is seen sitting at a roadside cafe in London with his grand-daughters, said the Dawn news report.

As the picture went viral on social media, it sparked a debate about the former premier's health with his detractors asking why he does not return to Pakistan if he is well and roaming on London streets, while his supporters expressed joy at seeing their leader in good health and spirits.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb told Dawn news that some passerby had taken the picture when Sharif stopped at the cafe after a walk, and uploaded it on social media.

Commenting on her father's picture, Maryam Nawaz tweeted: "The picture of Nawaz Sharif was released with an intent to humiliate him. But the response to it was otherwise. The supporters of Mian sb got happy to see him. His detractors must learn from this." In January, a picture of the PML-N supremo having tea at a London restaurant along with some family members had gone viral.

The ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf's (PTI) leadership responded to the picture, saying Sharif was feigning his ailment, Dawn news reported.

Sharif had gone to London in November 2019 after the court allowed him a four-week stay abroad for medical treatment.

The government, however, did not allow an extension to his stay.
Imperial Valley News Center

Irish National Extradited to the United States from Ireland for Trafficking of Rhinoceros Horns

Waco, Texas - An Irish national who was arrested on August 1, 2019, in Ireland pursuant to an extradition request by the United States, was extradited on May 22 for his role in trafficking horns from black rhinoceros, announced Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Bossert Clark for the Justice Departments Environment and Natural Resources Division.

On May 13, 2014, a federal grand jury sitting in Waco, Texas, returned an indictment that has since been unsealed, charging John Slattery and a co-defendant, Patrick Sheridan, with conspiring to traffic in horns from black rhinoceros. In addition to conspiracy, the indictment charges substantive violations of the Lacey Act for wildlife trafficking and making a false wildlife document.

According to the indictment, Slattery, along with Sheridan and Michael Slattery Jr., used a straw buyer to purchase two black rhinoceros horns from a taxidermist in Texas, which the group then transported to New York, where they sold the horns. In January 2014, Slattery Jr. pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 14 months in prison for his role in the conspiracy. In September 2015, Sheridan was extradited to the United States from the United Kingdom. Sheridan was returned to the Western District of Texas where he pleaded guilty and was also sentenced to 14 months in prison. In addition to the trafficking, the indictment charges Slattery and Sheridan with making a fictitious and fraudulent bill of sale in connection with the rhinoceros horns, in an attempt to make their illegal purchase of the horns appear legal.

The transport of Slattery to the Western District of Texas to face these charges concluded the extradition process from Ireland, a process governed by an extradition treaty between the United States and Ireland. Slattery made his initial appearance today in federal court before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeffrey C. Manske.

The charges contained in the indictment are merely accusations and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.

The case was investigated by agents from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Office of Law Enforcement. The case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Gary N. Donner of the Environment and Natural Resources Divisions Environmental Crimes Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Greg Gloff for the Western District of Texas. The Criminal Divisions Office of International Affairs provided significant support in securing and coordinating Slatterys arrest and extradition. The Justice Department extends its gratitude to the government of Ireland for its cooperation and assistance.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-31 00:54:56|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, May 30 (Xinhua) -- The police killing of George Floyd, an unarmed 46-year-old black man, in the city of Minneapolis, Minnesota on Monday evening has sparked waves of outrage across the United States.

For the fourth straight night following the death of Floyd at the hands of a white police officer while in custody, thousands of demonstrators have poured into streets in multiple U.S. cities to denounce the police brutality and racial discrimination.

The latest instance of police violence has once again brought the public attention to the racial divide which has kept tearing the U.S. society apart. (Xinhua/Wang Ying, Michael Nagle, Angus Alexander, Marcus DiPaola, Bao Dandan, Gu Xingnan, Yin Bogu, Jim Vondruska, Dane Iwata)




Godwin Obaseki, governor of Edo, has ordered an immediate probe into the death of Vera Uwaila Omozuwa, a 100-level microbiology student of the University of Benin (UNIBEN) in the state.

The deceased undergraduate was said to have died after she was raped and her head smashed with a fire extinguisher inside a RCCG church in Benin city.

In a statement by Crusoe Osagie, special adviser to the governor on media and communication strategy, on Sunday, he ordered the police and other security agencies to go after the perpetrators and bring them to justice.

Read Also: Ize Iyamu Reacts To Death Of Uniben Undergraduate, Uwa

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The governor is deeply saddened by the news of the death of Miss Vera Uwaila Omozuwa. We have been in consultation with the Edo State Command of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) and have mandated thorough investigation of the matter to ensure that those who are responsible for this heinous crime are brought to justice, Osagie said.

According to the Governor, the law would run its course and that the violence against persons (VAP) law and other laws related to rape and sexual abuse will b exploited to get justice for the deceased.
Dan Simon, founder and co-owner of Founding Farmers, similarly expressed support for protesters after his restaurant was damaged on Saturday night. He drafted a string of tweets from his car on Sunday, soon after he saw the broken glass at his restaurant: My team & I stand firmly with the message of the protest. The rage is justified. I would rather it be expressed peacefully, but if I need to suffer some broken property, lets be real, that isnt suffering.
She first called a psychiatric crisis line because her son tried to choke another child at school. He was 3 years old.

When he was even younger, he frequently darted into traffic. The boy argued, aggressively, over the color of the sky with his preschool teachers. At home, he destroyed things and terrorized his two siblings.

What do the bad weeks look like, Nicole Desnoyers says of her 10-year-old middle child, Ja-seir. Running away from home. Destruction in our house. Me having to call the police three or four times.

Her son often hit, bit and scratched those who disagreed with him or got too close. He once stabbed a nurse with a pen when she touched him, she says.

Ja-seirs diagnoses include disruptive mood dysregulation disorder  characterized by severe, unpredictable bouts of rage, along with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and general anxiety, Desnoyers says.

He was first hospitalized at age 5 and has been hospitalized multiple times since, including at Providence Behavioral Health Hospital in Holyoke in 2017. Medical and therapeutic personnel there were able to help stabilize Ja-seir for two years, the longest period of relative calm in his short life, according to his mother, who lauds the facility for the help it provided her son and family.

Significant changes to access to such care are now on the horizon.

Mercy Medical Center, which operates Providence, and parent company Trinity Health Of New England plan to end inpatient services in Holyoke by June 30, citing a dearth of psychiatrists and trouble recruiting and hiring qualified staff.

A state review of the plan deemed the inpatient beds an essential service. Mercy was due to submit a more detailed plan to regulators by this weekend, outlining alternatives for maintaining access to inpatient beds. The state has also asked Mercy officials to document its search for psychiatrists.

If the state finds the plan acceptable, Mercy can close the Providence beds  a total of 74 for children and adults. The move would reduce the number of psychiatric beds for children and adolescents in Western Massachusetts to zero. This realm of care has historically been stretched thin to begin with, families and mental health advocates say.

The potential closure punctuates a contradictory public dialogue over the need for increased mental health services for children and teens and the economic tug-of-war between insurance companies and physicians, experts say.

Opponents of the closure argue its more of a bottom line issue for Michigan-based Trinity Health, a company with annual operating revenues of $19.3 billion and $27 billion in assets.

U.S. Sen. Edward Markey, D-Massachusetts, has twice called on the health system to reconsider the plan to close the units.

Providence Hospital provides an essential service for Western Massachusetts, and Trinity Health has a responsibility to these communities, Markey has said. I urge the company to redouble its efforts to recruit needed staff, and to provide sufficient reimbursement to recruit that staff, rather than close down these beds.

Mary K. Orr, a spokeswoman for Mercy Medical Center, said the company will work with the state to help patients access care when inpatient services at Providence end.

We respect and appreciate Senator Markeys position, she said. Unfortunately, the shortage of psychiatrists has reached a critical point, preventing our future ability to provide safe, quality care to our patients.

Experts in the psychiatric field say many health care providers struggle with reimbursement parity in behavioral health treatment compared to medical treatment. Despite the states progressive posture, insurance reimbursement rates for mental health treatment in Massachusetts tend to be about 60% lower than medical care, according to the American Psychiatric Association.

The chasm between the two treatment worlds has widened more than 20 years after Congress passed the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act in an effort to close it. Trinity Health made its announcement one day after state Attorney General Maura Healey announced a $1 million settlement with three insurance companies for allegedly violating the act by creating barriers to mental health services.

Mental health needs have never driven the system, says Dr. Jeffrey Geller, president of the American Psychiatric Association. Reimbursement and who pays the bill have driven the system.

He adds, If we are going to manage teen suicide, if were going to manage escalating drug overdoses, we need to have a system which we dont have in the U.S. and which weve never had  where needs come first.

Orr describes the shortage of inpatient providers as a nationwide problem and says the challenge is not unique to us or our area.

Recruiting efforts for Providence failed to find board-certified psychiatrists to fill positions, according to Orr, and relying on temporary or per diem physicians is not sustainable. Using temporary workers forces us to make decisions as to whether we can safely provide care on a week-to-week or even day-to-day basis  which is disconcerting for patients, staff, and the community as such staffing could be detrimental to patient safety and quality, she says.

Parents like Desnoyers say they are aware of the reimbursement struggle for mental health providers, but argue it pales in comparison with the struggle to find care for a child grappling with mental and emotional health.

They dont get reimbursed enough. I get it, Desnoyers says, but we desperately need these services here.

When her son sank back into a behavioral crisis last year, she pushed to get him re-admitted to Providence. The center refused him, according to Desnoyers. Instead, he boarded at Baystate Medical Center for three weeks. Hospital officials attempted to send Ja-seir home, but she refused to take him. Its not that she didnt want him; she says she didnt feel it was safe.

He finally found a placement in Westborough, more than an hours drive from here. Desnoyers struggled to make family meetings as she and her partner, who works full-time, share a car. Ja-seir is currently in a local group home as a step-down measure.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, she has not been allowed to visit her son. They are allowed one 20-minute Skype call per day. His tiny face appears on her iPhone and she asks him about his day. She has not been able to hug her son in two months.

Jamie Guerin of Northampton poses for a photograph while her 14-year-old daughter sits on a bench in the background. (Hoang 'Leon' Nguyen / The Republican)

Jamie Guerin is similarly distraught over the planned end to inpatient services in Holyoke. Her 14-year-old daughter received treatment there after a suicide attempt late last year.

The girl remained in a locked pod at Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton, where the family lives, for a week as doctors urged her to go home with a Scouts honor pledge to stop acting out or trying to hurt herself, says Guerin.

Their argument was: Theres no bed, theres no bed, theres no bed  and they kept trying to triage her out of there on a teenagers promise, Guerin says. There wasnt a bed available in the entire state  and she was considered a high-risk, low-profit patient.

Guerin refused to take her daughter home and slept on the floor or in a broken recliner at the hospital for a week. Eventually, the state Department of Mental Health got involved and began advocating for her daughter. They helped secure a bed at Providence.

She loved the staff, she loved the groups, she loved the structure and she loved being with the other children there. She really formed some great relationships, Guerin says. We heard about the closure shortly after she came back home. It was very fresh. She was like Whats going to happen to all the kids?

Guerin says her daughter knows of three teens who have taken their own lives over the past year. This is increasing at such an alarming rate, she says. Our culture and our society need a lot of work, but we need more beds, not less.

Her daughter was ultimately sectioned by the state  a court-driven process that deemed the girl a danger to herself  before she was able to secure the bed in Holyoke.

Among Trinity Healths arguments pushing back on criticism of the planned closure is that families here will have access to its facilities in and around Hartford, Connecticut. While Geller would not comment on Trinity Health specifically, he says he believes that alternative is flawed, at best.

For one, those court-ordered sections that helped Guerins daughter secure a bed in the first place hold no value or authority outside Massachusetts, he said. And, greater distance creates greater hardships for families.

Particularly in child psychiatry, were talking about acute care. Family members are active individuals in that treatment. They go to team meetings; family contact in terms of visiting is crucial, Geller says. The farther the distance  the greater the burden is going to be.

Statistics cited in the Milliman Report, a gold standard look by a think tank into the parity issue, show long-distance placements for children needing inpatient psychiatric care in Massachusetts nearly doubled between 2013 to 2017.

The state said the revised plan submitted by Mercy and Trinity Health must address methods of transportation for patients who need access to inpatient care after the closure of the hospital as well as family and friends who wish to visit and will now have to travel out of the Holyoke-Springfield area.

For parents like Desnoyers, who fears her son will need inpatient care for the rest of his life, the landscape fills her with anxiety. This is a scary, ugly system, she says. And none of us wants to be in it.
What happened in Louisville?

Shortly after midnight on March 13, Louisville police officers executing a search warrant used a battering ram to enter the apartment of Ms. Taylor, a 26-year-old emergency room technician.

The police had been investigating two men who they believed were selling drugs out of a house that was far from Ms. Taylors home. But a judge had also signed a warrant allowing the police to search Ms. Taylors residence because the police said they believed that one of the men had used her apartment to receive packages. Ms. Taylor had been dating that man on and off for several years but had recently severed ties with him, according to her familys lawyer.

Ms. Taylor and her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, had been in bed, but got up when they heard a loud banging at the door. Mr. Walker said he and Ms. Taylor both called out, asking who was at the door. Mr. Walker later told the police he feared it was Ms. Taylors ex-boyfriend trying to break in.

After the police broke the door off its hinges, Mr. Walker fired his gun once, striking Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly in a thigh. The police responded by firing several shots, striking Ms. Taylor five times. Mr. Hankison shot 10 rounds blindly into the apartment.

Mr. Walker told investigators that Ms. Taylor coughed and struggled to breathe for at least five minutes after she was shot, according to The Louisville Courier Journal. An ambulance on standby outside the apartment had been told to leave about an hour before the raid, counter to standard practice. As officers called an ambulance back to the scene and struggled to render aid to their colleague, Ms. Taylor was not given any medical attention.

It was not until 12:47 a.m., about five minutes after the shooting, that emergency personnel realized she was seriously wounded, after her boyfriend called 911.

I dont know whats happening, Mr. Walker said on a recorded call to 911. Someone kicked in the door and shot my girlfriend.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-31 10:23:02|Editor: huaxia

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CAPE TOWN, May 30 (Xinhua) -- The South African government on Saturday announced a phased reopening of tourism, further easing COVID-19 restrictions starting from June 1.

"Based on the COVID-19 epidemic expected trajectory, the first phase of the recovery for the sector will be driven by domestic tourism, followed by regional tourism and international tourism next year," Tourism Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane said.

On May 24, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that the lockdown for the whole country will be lowered from level four to level three effective from June 1, allowing more industries to resume operations and millions of people to return to work, accompanied by the reopening of schools.

Although South Africa will be gradually reopening up in the coming months, depending on how the virus is spreading, the tourism sector is expected to fully recover in the end of this year, said Kubayi-Ngubane.

The past two months of lockdown have been difficult for the tourism sector, she said.

"We continued to see many businesses in the sector fighting for survival and our projections showed that almost 600,000 jobs were at risk if the sector doesn't come into operation by September 2020," Kubayi-Ngubane said.

"As we open up the sector, we are therefore confident that measures have been put in place to protect our employees, suppliers, tourists and all those who are involved with the sector," the minister said. Enditem
Michael Angelis, who narrated the classic Thomas the Tank Engine cartoons, has died at 68.

His agent has confirmed that the actor died suddenly at home with his wife on Saturday 30 May.

Angelis narrated Thomas the Tank Engine for 13 series, having replaced Ringo Starr in the role in 1991.

He was best known to adult audiences for his role as Arnie in September Song, Martin Niarchos in GBH, Lucien Boswell in The Liver Birds and as Mickey Startup in Auf Wiedersehen, Pet.

He also made appearances in Casualty, The Bill, Holby City and Heartbeat.

Recommended The celebrities who died in 2020

Born in Liverpool, Angelis first appeared on screen in the 1970s in programmes including Z Cars, Thirty-Minute Theatre and an episode of Coronation Street, before stints in Minder, Worlds End and Boys from the Blackstuff.

He was married to Coronation Street actress Helen Worth, who plays Gail Platt, from 1991 to 2001, and later married Jennifer Khalastchi.

Matt Lucas led tributes to Angelis on Twitter, writing: Michael Angelis was one of the greatest TV actors Ive ever seen ... What a loss.

Additional reporting by Press Association
Ask any mum about the cost of childcare. The cost often means women gradually returning from maternity leave and those on a lower income get very little net benefit from working. Aren't these the people most in need of our help? They keep going to get the chance to progress.

The system might be good for regular five-days-a-week parents in reasonably or well paid nine-to-five jobs. But if you work irregular hours, at nights or on the weekend it's a pretty useless system. The system is helpful to some and a nightmare for many.

They are, incidentally, a very large block of users. We've set up a system that suits regulators and childcare centres but does not suit the users. How dumb is that?

Sometimes what starts out as a good thing ends up a mess. Childcare is but one example. I think we've regulated ourselves into a nightmare. We've produced a system that gets more expensive every year, is far too expensive for many users and doesn't suit the people who work on irregular shifts, on the weekend, or at night.

Herein lies what I think is the problem. We've said you can't have government assistance unless you go to government approved providers. We need to stop that lunacy.

Since when do regulators know better than parents what is good for their child? If you're a stay-at-home mum, we don't tell you what you have to do with your kids. If you work and use childcare, we stick our beak in and only help you with the cost if it's in government-regulated care provision. If you stay home you are capable of deciding what's best for your child ... but not if you work. It's crazy.

A family might think that a grandma in the home is best for their child. They may think the familiarity of being in their own home or with a neighbour is better than a regulated facility. But we won't help them financially. We use cash to ensure you go the government way. Surely parents should be able to decide who will look after their kids, where, when and how?

Take the example of a nurse who has irregular shifts. The childcare centre will want regular bookings on set days, usually two or three a week. But that's not how nursing rosters work. So if her days are Monday and Tuesday but she gets rostered Wednesday and Thursday here's what happens. She still has to pay for Monday and Tuesday when she's not working. She has to pay casually for Wednesday and Thursday as well. She shells out for four days' care when she only needs two. Hopefully family and friends might step in. Until recently if Monday was a public holiday, she still had to pay even though the centre was shut!

Furthermore, the nurse might start mid-afternoon but the centre wants the whole day. Another parent or friend has to pick up the child around 6pm. It all suits the provider but not the client.
With four more tested Covid-19 negative, a total of 11 persons have discharged from hospitals in Manipur after recovery, state health official said on Sunday.

Earlier, seven persons had already recovered and discharged from the hospitals after they had tested negative.

Today four female patients were discharged from RIMS (2) and JNIMS (2) after they were found Covid-19 negative on two consecutive tests, says Dr Khoirom Sasheekumar Mangang, Additional Director and spokesperson of the health department in a press release this afternoon.

Two of them are from Thoubal district and the remaining are from Churachandpur and Kamjong districts.

Stating that they will continue home quarantine for the next 14 days and they will remain under surveillance, the release said, Five new positive cases (3 males & 2 females) were reported from VRDL (Virus Research & Diagnostic Laboratory) of RIMS.

Of the new five cases, three are from Ukhrul district, while the remaining two are from Noney and Imphal East districts.

Informing that their conditions are stable and they will be shifted to the Covid care facility of RIMS, it said all necessary control measures like containment and contact tracing are in place.

The total number of recovered cases of today is 11 while the active and confirmed Covid -9 positive cases have increased to 60 and 71 respectively, it said.

Earlier, three females (aged 26,21 and 19 years) and one male (20-year) were also tested at VRDLs of JNIMS and RIMS on Saturday night and they were found Covid-19 positive.

Of the three females, one is a returnee from Delhi and she belongs to Imphal East district, while the other two are returnees from Pune and belong to Kangpokpi district, according to another official release.

On the other hand, the male is from Sekmai in Imphal West district and he had recently returned from Delhi.

Meanwhile, the state health and family welfare minister L Jayentakumar Singh on Sunday visited some of the government quarantine centres in Imphal West and Imphal East districts and interacted with the officials working there.

The minister accompanied by the health department officials also distributed the personnel protective equipments,sanitizer,N-95 masks and gloves for the health workers as supplementary protective back-ups.
Andre Kuhner and his family used to go to Mass every day. So when the Army logistics expert figured out Sunday morning that the Catholic Diocese of Arlington was reopening and that their 2 1/2-month Communion drought was over, he was like a shot out of a cannon.

"I ran around the house and said: 'Get dressed, we're going to Mass!' " he said Sunday, with his wife, Renata, and two young sons all beaming outside the Cathedral of St. Thomas More in Arlington, Virginia, where they'd just gone back to in-person services. It was the first time since March that they had received Communion, a rite Catholics in particular believe connects them to God.

"It's been terrible," Kuhner said. Virtual services "just aren't the same."

Coronavirus restrictions lessened for congregations around the Washington region this weekend, during a symbolic time on Jewish and Christian calendars. Jews were observing the holiday of Shavuot, which commemorates the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai.

For Christians, Sunday was Pentecost, which marks the end of the Easter season, when scripture teaches that the Holy Spirit came; it's often called the start of the Christian church. For some Christians, it's a powerful and important day focused on renewal.

The Kuhners heard a homily from Bishop Michael Burbidge about praying for spiritual power to strengthen, inspire and sanctify the earth - in particular in the current time of pandemic isolation and death, and of race-based tension.

"Come Holy Spirit and renew the face of the earth. We ask the Lord to send the Holy Spirit and renew our nation, especially at this time," Burbidge said to the masked parishioners, citing the "brutal" killing of George Floyd, whose death after a police officer knelt on his neck in Minneapolis has sparked protests and anger nationwide.

"We denounce the abuse of power, so unbecoming and below the decency of our nation, as is violence and vandalism, which are making a tragic situation more difficult. I've asked all in the diocese to join in asking for the guidance of the Holy Spirit so we can peacefully and justly address the root causes of injustices," Burbidge preached. "Lord, send out your spirit."

Sparse church attendance in many places Sunday - and many congregations opting not to meet in person altogether - reflected the hesitance that remains about when and how to come back together.

The cathedral in Arlington was expecting 350 people, a diocesan spokeswoman said; about 70 came, with people spread out like dots in the pews.

Yet for those who were there, the feeling of knees on kneelers, the receiving of the Communion wafer in the hand, the experience of coming out into the Sunday sunshine after church on a holy day was still powerful.

"It was refreshing and nice to be back, but I have a heavy heart that it's not the same," said Cathy Davis, principal of the parish school, who attended with her husband and brother - her first Communion since the virus outbreak. "Looking around and seeing little people with masks makes me sad."

Davis said she hopes the shutdown will bring people back, eventually, renewed.

"I hope we'll all come back with a vengeance, that a tragedy of this magnitude will help people come back to faith, to see there is something larger," she said. "That God will heal us."

Northern Virginia joined most of the rest of the state and parts of Maryland in allowing indoor services this weekend, so long as sanctuaries were no more than 50% full. In the District of Columbia, congregations were still required to obey the same restrictions as private gatherings: no more than 10 people at a time.

It was a Sunday when "getting dressed for church" suddenly seemed exciting and new. Worship spaces looked totally altered.

At St. Charles parish in Arlington, congregants sat not in the sanctuary, with its upholstered pews, but on easily cleanable plastic green chairs in the red-floor gym upstairs.

In normal times, members of the young congregation are used to hanging out at Bible studies or over beer. During the shutdown, however, they have been connecting by working together to deliver food to 100 families from the parish - many Latino - who have lost work and been hit hard by the virus and its shutdown.

On Sunday, they were ushered into St. Charles with the words: "Welcome back! Please take some hand sanitizer."

At the door was Alexander Hoffarth, an usher and attorney who lives alone and who, until Sunday, had been using the quarantine to mix up his worship - dropping in on virtual Masses from his hometown parish in Rochester, New York, from the college he attended in Boston and from other cities where he has worked and lived. He asked himself during quarantine more pointedly what it means to be a "Catholic" lawyer.

"Everyone is yearning to get back to normal. We're not able to do that for the foreseeable future," Hoffarth said. "But if there is any time for the Holy Spirit to renew all of us in faith, now is the time, especially this week, and in these few months, that feel like 1918 and 1968 all mixed together."
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Protests have erupted in more than two dozen cities across the US, as unrest continues to explode in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd, an African American man who died after being pinned to the ground by Minneapolis police officers and choked with a knee pressed against his throat.

His death has galvanised furious protests as well as peaceful calls to action among Americans exhausted by police killings and disparate policing.

After the National Guard stepped in to try to seize control of the situation in Minneapolis, Donald Trump praised his own Secret Service agents for protecting him when activists picketed the White House, threatening them with his "most vicious dogs, and most ominous weapons if they breached fencing.

The president suggested his supporters would stage a counter-protest, calling for MAGA NIGHT at the White House, though he appeared to dismiss accusations that he was provoking violence and told reporters that MAGA loves the black people.

Demonstrations and marches continued across the US on Saturday, with at least eight separate marches and protests in New York City, attracting thousands of people into city streets.

Several states are deploying their National Guard and imposing curfews to prevent people from staying out on the streets or risk their arrest. Chicago has mandated a curfew "until further notice".

The president and US Attorney General William Barr meanwhile blamed violence on Antifa and radical left groups exploiting the situation for their own separate agenda.

AG Barr said protests in the wake of Mr Floyds killing are being planned, organised and driven be anarchic and far-left extremist tactics and threatened to invoke harsh federal penalties against people travelling from out of state to participate in protests.

Activists and protesters have dismissed his characterisation, alleging white supremacism within police that has provoked demonstrations with threats of violence.

Police were captured on film pepper spraying and driving patrol cars into crowds, among other violent scenes, as police cars engulfed in flames became ubiquitous symbols of unrest in cities across the US.

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It is the first time a privately built and owned spacecraft has carried crew to the orbiting lab.

SpaceX delivered two astronauts to the International Space Station for NASA on Sunday, following up an historic liftoff with an equally smooth docking in yet another first for Elon Musks company.

With test pilots Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken poised to take over manual control if necessary, the SpaceX Dragon capsule pulled up to the station and docked automatically, with no assistance needed.

We copy, docking is complete, said a member of the crew.

Its been a real honour to be a small part of this nine-year endeavour since the last time a United States spaceship has docked with the International Space Station.

It was the first time a privately built and owned spacecraft carried astronauts to the orbiting lab in its nearly 20 years. NASA considers this the opening volley in a business revolution encircling Earth and eventually stretching to the Moon and Mars.

The docking occurred just 19 hours after a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasted off on Saturday afternoon from Kennedy Space Center, the USs first astronaut launch to orbit from home soil in nearly a decade.

Thousands jammed surrounding beaches, bridges and towns to watch as SpaceX ended a nine-year launch drought for NASA.

A few hours before docking, the Dragon riders reported that the capsule was performing beautifully. Just in case, they slipped back into their pressurised launch suits and helmets for the rendezvous.

The three space station residents kept cameras trained on the incoming capsule for the benefit of flight controllers at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California, and NASAs Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Gleaming in the sunlight, the Dragon was easily visible from a few miles out, its nose cone open and exposing its docking hook and a blinking light. The capsule loomed ever larger on live NASA TV as it closed the gap.





Hurley and Behnken took over the controls and did a little piloting less than 200 yards (metres) out as part of the test flight, before putting it back into automatic for the final approach. Hurley said the capsule handled really well, very crisp.

SpaceX and NASA officials had held off on any celebrations until after Sunday mornings docking  and possibly not until the two astronauts are back on Earth sometime this summer.

NASA has yet to decide how long Hurley and Behnken will spend at the space station, somewhere between one and four months. While they are there, the Dragon test pilots will join the one US and two Russian station residents in performing experiments and possibly spacewalks to install fresh station batteries.

In a show-and-tell earlier on Sunday, the astronauts gave a quick tour of the Dragons sparkling clean interior, quite spacious for a capsule. They said the liftoff was pretty bumpy and dynamic, nothing the simulators could have mimicked.

The blue-sequined dinosaur named Tremor who was also on board  selected by the astronauts sons to make the trip to space  was also in good shape, Behnken assured viewers. Tremor was going to join Earthy, a plush globe delivered to the space station on last years test flight of a crewless crew Dragon. Behnken said both toys would return to Earth with them at missions end.

An old-style capsule splashdown is planned. After liftoff, Musk told reporters that the capsules return would be more dangerous in some ways than its launch. Even so, getting the two astronauts safely to orbit and then to the space station had everyone breathing huge sighs of relief.

As always, Musk was looking ahead. This is hopefully the first step on a journey toward a civilisation on Mars, he said on Saturday evening.
The Associated Press surveyed more than 70 counties and states from Texas to Virginia, with more than 60 percent of coastal counties saying as of late May that theyre still solidifying plans for public hurricane shelters. Theyre also altering preparations for dealing with the sick and elderly, protective equipment and cleanup costs.
Lydia Blaha is communications director for Save the Persecuted Christians which advocates for hundreds of millions of Christians around the world who are harmed for their faith. This column originally ran in Townhall.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-31 07:48:19|Editor: huaxia

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Video: Over 530 people were arrested Friday night and early Saturday after protests against police brutality turned violent in downtown Los Angeles, California, the United States, authorities said Saturday noon. (Xinhua)

"Whether you wear a badge or whether you hold a sign, I'm asking all of Los Angeles to take a deep breath and step back for a moment," says Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti.



LOS ANGELES, May 30 (Xinhua) -- Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announced at a press conference Saturday afternoon that a curfew will be in effect in the city's downtown beginning from 8 p.m. Saturday to 5:30 a.m. Sunday local time.

"We will always protect free speech and Angelenos' right to live without fear of violence or vandalism. To increase safety for demonstrators, law enforcement and all citizens of Los Angeles, we are putting a curfew in place from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m.," Garcetti said.

He also called for peace as demonstrators climbed on a Metro bus and set police cars ablaze in the Fairfax District, saying "Whether you wear a badge or whether you hold a sign, I'm asking all of Los Angeles to take a deep breath and step back for a moment."

A screengrab from lamayor.org on May 30, 2020, shows Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti speaking to reporters in a recent press conference. (Xinhua)

The protests against police brutality targeting African Americans went into the the fourth straight day on Saturday in the second largest city of the United States. George Floyd, an unarmed black man, died of white police brutality in Minneapolis on Monday.

On Friday night, multiple businesses were looted and damaged in an unrest in downtown Los Angeles that ended with more than 530 arrests and six policemen injured.

Protesters march on a street in downtown Los Angeles, the United States, May 29, 2020. (Xinhua)

"A total of 533 arrests were made last night related to the protests. The charges include Burglary, Looting, Probation Violation, Battery on Police Officer, Attempt Murder and Failure to Disperse. All but 18 of the arrestees have released on their own recognizance," the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) tweeted Saturday morning.

The LAPD also said Saturday that the department would deploy additional resources to maintain order and ensure the safety and security of local residents and businesses. 
New Delhi: The Special Investigative Team (SIT) of Delhi Police is most likely to file its first chargesheet within two days by June 1 in Delhi's Chand Bagh riot case, sources said.

According to reports, the SIT has named suspended AAP councillor Tahir Hussain and more than 15 other people for plotting the riots in the northeast district of the national capital in February, that claimed as many as 53 lives and left almost 200-250 inured. The SIT has included 50 people as a witness in the Chand Bagh riot case.

The police and forensic experts later recovered stones, bricks, petrol bombs, acid packs, catapults to hurl stones and inflammable substance from Tahir Hussain's roof. He was booked under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in a separate case related to the February riots in northeast Delhi. Two Jamia Millia Islamia students and former JNU student Umar Khalid have also been named in the same FIR.

Tahir is also accused in the murder case of IB staffer Ankit Sharma in which more than 10 people have been arrested.

The Crime Branch is probing into Delhi riot cases related to - Tahir Hussain, IB staffer murder, head constable Ratna Lal murder, DCP Amit Sharma murder attempt, Dilbar Negi murder, Shahrukh Khans pistol case, and Akbari Devi (84) murder.

Communal clashes broke out in northeast Delhi in February after violence between groups supporting the changed citizenship law and those opposed it had spiraled out of control. Tahir and two others, Gulfam and Tanvir, were arrested for attempt to murder and criminal conspiracy. The councillor has six other FIRs registered against him and is currently in judicial custody.

Tahir had stated in his bail plea, "The applicant is neither directly nor indirectly involved in the case. The FIR merely mentions that certain acts of violence were taking place from the house of the applicant at the time when the complainant got injured, rather than the applicant himself firing the shots."

He pleaded for bail on the grounds that no seizure of any firearm, bullets, or even empty cartridges were made from him by the police.
Melissa Shapiro, 26, sat in the sun under a sign suggesting social distancing at the Redhead Lakeside Grill on Saturday, as dozens stood shoulder-to-shoulder in waist-deep water before her. "We're not in L.A. or New York," she observed. "We're at Lake of the Ozarks, and if there were as many people here as there was last weekend, we'd leave."

Besides, Shapiro said, "we're millennials, we're healthy," and she and her friends planned to isolate themselves for 14 days after returning home to St. Louis.

Proprietors at a number of the bars and eateries that line the Missouri vacation spot said the crowds were about normal for an early summer weekend - albeit smaller than the hordes that packed into the area on Memorial Day. Images of the holiday revelry went viral online.

Local health officials reported that at least one person tested positive for the coronavirus after being in the lake area last weekend. The Camden County Health Department posted a timeline of the multiple bars the unnamed resident of a nearby county had visited in succession over a number of hours.

But on Saturday, face masks and social distancing were scarce to nonexistent in the many marinas and boat docks, and restaurants along the lakefront appeared to be open for business.

Similar scenes played out around the country as many Americans, eager to recapture a sense of normalcy and seemingly confident that the risk was low, enjoyed public recreation and seemed unbothered by the crowds.

Crowds of another sort gathered in a number of cities, where thousands took to the streets, at times amid violence, in protests sparked by the killing of George Floyd, a black man, by white police in Minneapolis.

"We are still in the middle of a pandemic," Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, reminded demonstrators in a news conference where he announced the full mobilization of the state National Guard to control the violent unrest.

Warning that hospitals were "on the verge of being overrun," Walz said "demonstrators should wear masks and try to practice social distancing."

Far from the demonstrations, highways were gridlocked and beaches and roadsides were crowded around Cape Canaveral, Florida, as thousands gathered to view the launch of the SpaceX capsule carrying NASA astronauts to the International Space Station. In some spots, the waterfront was crammed with no social distancing, even as beachside restaurants took temperatures and spaced tables far apart.

President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and their official parties who gathered with other VIPs to watch the launch at the Kennedy Space Center were not seen wearing face masks.

Ace Speedway in Elon, North Carolina, was rebuked last weekend by Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, for "dangerous and reckless" flouting of state regulations banning outdoor gatherings of more than 25 people, after maskless thousands stood together in the grandstands. On Saturday, however, the speedway parking lot was overflowing, and hundreds more stood in line two hours before the 7 p.m. race time.

Temperatures were taken at the entrance, where a sign advised patrons to cover their mouths when sneezing and to wash their hands or use sanitizers. Limits were posted on how many mechanics could gather around cars in the pit - where most wore face masks. But up in the stands, there was neither social distancing nor masks.

"It's not a crisis. The actual virus is real, but the pandemic is made up," said Joe Florio, standing in line with his daughter and grandson. A reporter's interview was cut short when an employee at the gate, speaking for track owner Jason Turner, ordered journalists off the property.

Some people interviewed Saturday declared themselves confused by the patchwork of differing state and local requirements, along with enforcement that ranges from restrictive to none. Others said they were being careful. Still others said they were disbelieving or simply mad at what they considered an exaggerated threat.

"All of us old, belligerent people refuse to wear those d----- things," Lenny Kempf, an 82-year-old retired home builder, said of face masks as he watched the boats easing into slips at the yacht club in Osage Beach, Missouri. "I wish I could wring [Anthony] Fauci's neck," Kempf said of the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

"I think we're really concerned about the mixed messaging and the confusion that it creates," said Umair Shah, executive director of public health for Harris County in Texas. "That then leads to complacency, where people say, 'You know what? Not worth it.' "

Two to four weeks after many states began lifting restrictions on restaurants, bars and larger gatherings, cases are rising in areas that had previously dodged the worst of the virus's impact. Arizona, Mississippi, South Carolina, Utah and Wisconsin all set record highs for new cases reported Friday. Restaurants, gyms, and other businesses have been allowed open for at least two weeks in all of the states.

The five are among 18 states that continue to see increases in their rolling seven-day case averages as of Friday, according to Washington Post data, as has Puerto Rico. Some of the places, such as Washington state, California and parts of Virginia, had imposed stringent stay-at-home measures and had been cautious in their reopening procedures. Other states experiencing case increases, such as Alabama, Missouri and Tennessee, have been more aggressive in their push to reopen.

In many areas, large gatherings are cited as the center of major outbreaks. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently highlighted an Arkansas church event that infected dozens and left at least three dead. In California on Saturday, a number of churches said they would defy strict limits on inside services set by the state government - and upheld Friday by the U.S. Supreme Court.

In Missouri this past week, local officials expressed public displeasure with the disregard for social distancing shown by those gathered at Lake of the Ozarks. But Rex Archer, director of health for nearby Kansas City, Missouri, bemoaned not only the behavior of those in attendance, but also the lack of consistent messaging from the federal government that he said facilitated it.

"If we had stronger messages, if the CDC had been allowed to give daily briefs, if the public were hearing the concerns and the risks, we might have been able to do differently," Archer said.

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson, a Republican, largely downplayed the Memorial Day holiday event, arguing that most Missourians were adhering to public health recommendations.

"The Lake of Ozarks is a small sample of Missouri," he said at a news conference. "While poor choices were made by some at the lake, there were many other Missourians across the state who did make safe and responsible choices."

- - -

Farwell reported from Lake of the Ozarks, Mo., and Schneider from Elon, N.C.
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A chartered flight carrying over 300 Indian nationals stranded in Nigeria due to COVID-19-induced lockdown arrived here on Sunday afternoon, an airport official said. The Air Peace flight from Lagos, Nigeria carrying 312 passengers on board, landed at the airport at 3.30 pm, Cochin International Airport Spokesperson said.

"There were 197 Keralites among the evacuees, who were stuck in the African country during the lock down," he said. Rest of the passengers are from other south Indian states including Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, he added.
By Musheera Ashraf, TwoCircles.net

Pointing to cases of AIIMS doctors detected corona positive, Dr Sheela Aglecha who works as a Paediatrician at Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital, Madhya Pradesh says the stress level of healthcare workers has doubled amid the pandemic. The stress has doubled because every day we are listening about how healthcare workers are risking their lives. When even institutions like AIIMS are facing this, you can imagine the situation at other hospitals, she says.

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Dr Aglecha looks after the Paediatric COVID-19 patients. The hospital has a separate paediatric COVID isolation award.

In general ward, we dont wear PPE. We work with masks and gloves. A patient who is suspected of COVID-19 is sent to corona wards and other patients are sent to general wards but the situation is turning worrisome now because now the patients are asymptomatic, she said.

Dr Aglecha said the government should provide insurance and security to the health workers.

Some states have said that if after wearing the PPEs the doctors still contract corona then it is their own responsibility but the doctors have said that they are not sure about the quality of PPEs provided to them.

It is like sending doctors to fight in a war and then shooting them on their backs, Dr Aglecha said.

Talking about her experience working amid the pandemic outbreak, Dr Aglecha says that some patients try to hide their travel history which itself is a challenge for the doctors. When we get them tested based on symptoms and their reports come out to be positive it creates distress among the staff, so every patient has to be looked upon keenly, she said.

As a prophylactic measure, every health care worker working at the forefront is recommended to take hydroxychloroquine, no matter if they are nurses, ward boys, sweepers or doctors. The ones who are treating corona patients are kept in hotels and after the completion of their duty, they are quarantined.

The nurses and frontline workers working in general wards are at risk because they travel home every day. We dont know who is corona positive, because the reports come 2 days later, she said.

The flow of daily patients has reduced. Because of the fear of corona, many of them fear being isolated if anything related to corona is suspected.

The patients have reduced to 50, while generally, we used to see around 200-250 patients in general OPD but the cases in NICU and deliveries are going on normal, she says.

Another frontline worker Dr Minakshi Singh who used to work in Anatomy department in Doon Government Hospital but is now working in OPD for the screening of corona patients told TwoCircles.net that life is difficult academically and on a personal level, patient load is heavy, adding that, Non-clinical staff is also being posted in OPDs due to lack of staff.

Dr Singh said that they are provided with new N95 masks daily and they have ample PPE kits at the hospital. The management is quite good in Dehradun, she said, adding, But we dont know which patient is corona positive so we need to be very careful. Every information has to be sent to WHO as well so there is more paperwork these days.

Dr Singh said that the situation is unpredictable at the hospitals. Cases are increasing and we can only hope for the best, she adds.

Concerned with misbehaviour and harassment meted out to health care workers Dr. Aglecha says, it is heart-breaking and the Government should work in creating awareness among people.

Opening alcohol shops amid lockdown was very bad and then they expect us to treat them. This is foolish if this is being done intentionally, she said.

Ashu, who works as a staff nurse in Shaikh-Ul-Hind Medical College says that the Corona duty is comparatively hard. We had to go without water or food for hours altogether, he said.

Ashu said that the situation was very hard initially. There were no ward boys or sweepers but gradually the situation got better. The administration is trying its best now, he said.

Ashu said that healthcare workers are putting themselves under risk, so government should be concerned about us.

Another male staff Varun Kumar, who was previously taking care of the corona suspects in Subharti Medical College but is now working in Saharanpur, said that they are wearing 2 PPE kits to avoid contracting the virus. Whatever the situation, we have worked with full determination and faced stigma. Our relatives dont come near us when we return home from duty, he said, adding, It is time that the government works for our upliftment.
A rally and march by the People's Organization Progress is held to protest the death of George Floyd, Saturday, May 30, 2020, in Newark, N.J. (Michael Mancuso/NJ Advance Media via AP)

Watts 1965, Detroit 1967, LA 1992, Ferguson 2014 - and now Minneapolis 2020.

America has been here before - its treatment of black people an open wound running through a fractured society before exploding periodically into violent confrontation.

This time it is the killing of George Floyd that has set this country ablaze once again -another name to be chanted on the streets by a people "sick and tired of being sick and tired". That name now resonates across America, and Mr Floyd's last words as he lay gasping for air - a policeman's knee choking the life out of him - have become a rallying cry. From Minneapolis across to Los Angeles, New York and the nation's capital, Washington, they chant: "I can't breathe".

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The corner store where Mr Floyd's life ended is something of a community hub in Minneapolis' Southside - part convenience store, part cheque cashing business, with apartments above, and a mosque in the basement below.

But from the moment Mr Floyd (46) was filmed outside the shop gasping as he told police officers "I can't breathe" last Monday night, the Cup Foods storefront has become a makeshift memorial to him. Hundreds of people have gathered at the site each night since the footage of Mr Floyd's arrest circulated online last Tuesday, showing a white officer, Derek Chauvin, holding his knee into the neck of Mr Floyd, an African-American father of two and nightclub security guard, until he became motionless.

Mr Floyd's offence? Allegedly using a counterfeit $20 bill to buy cigarettes in a local shop.

Derek Chauvin has been dismissed and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter. The three other officers involved have been fired and may also face charges, prosecutors said.

But this has done little to quell the public outcry over Mr Floyd's death - just the latest in the roll call of hundreds of usually unarmed black men, women and children who die at the hands of those who pledge to protect and to serve.

Mr Floyd's death, and his last desperate words, have resurrected the memory of Eric Garner, another black man, who also told police "I can't breathe" as he was placed in a fatal chokehold on New York's Staten Island, on July 17 2014.

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That death also prompted outrage. But it didn't stop black people dying.

Indeed Mr Floyd's death comes just weeks after the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, a black jogger in Georgia, at the hands of two white men, was captured on camera, and a couple of months after Breonna Taylor, an emergency medical technician, was shot and killed by police officers who raided her Kentucky apartment.

The latest deaths have led to a resurgence in the Black Lives Matter movement, founded in 2013, initially as a social media hashtag before becoming a protest movement, after the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of African-American teenager Trayvon Martin the previous year.

The slogan was seen on placards across the US as demonstrators took to the streets to express their fury at Mr Floyd's death.

Compounding the sense of rage on the streets is that this injustice comes in the middle of a pandemic that has claimed a disproportionate number of black and ethnic minority lives, in part because of the deep structural inequalities of US society.

Last Friday night hundreds of people, black and white, young and old, returned to the site of Mr Floyd's arrest in the Southside neighbourhood of Minneapolis.

Dozens of flowers lie below a picture of Mr Floyd, surrounded by signs reading "rest in power", "stop killing black people" and "I can't breathe".

Local artists played music, others sold hot dogs or gave out free water bottles.




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Justice Department Requires Divestiture in Order for Communications and Power Industries to Proceed with Acquisition of General Dynamics Satcom Technologies

Washington, DC - The Department of Justice announced today that it is requiring Odyssey Investment Partners Fund V, LP (Odyssey), its portfolio company Communications and Power Industries LLC (CPI), and General Dynamics Corporation (General Dynamics) to divest CPIs wholly-owned subsidiary, CPI ASC Signal Division Inc. (ASC Signal), in order for CPI to proceed with its proposed acquisition of General Dynamics SATCOM Technologies, Inc. (GD SATCOM), a subsidiary of General Dynamics. Without the divestiture, the proposed acquisition would substantially lessen competition for the sale of large geostationary satellite antennas in the United States.

The Justice Departments Antitrust Division filed a civil antitrust lawsuit today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to block the proposed merger. At the same time, the department filed a proposed settlement that, if approved by the court, would resolve the competitive harm alleged in the lawsuit.

The merger, as originally structured, would have eliminated competition for large geostationary satellite antennas, an essential component of government, military, and commercial satellite communication networks, said Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim of the Justice Departments Antitrust Division. Todays settlement will ensure that the Department of Defense and other purchasers of large geostationary satellite antennas continue to benefit from vigorous competition in the design, manufacture, and sale of these products.

According to the Justice Departments complaint, CPI and GD SATCOM are two of only a few firms that design, manufacture, and sell large geostationary satellite antennas. These antennas are critical components in satellite networks that enable secure communications links in remote areas that lack access to the main telecommunications grid. The departments complaint alleges that competition between CPI and GD SATCOM has resulted in higher quality, lower prices, and shorter delivery times, and has fostered innovation, resulting in large geostationary satellite antennas that are more robust and operate at higher bandwidths. According to the complaint, the combination of CPI and GD SATCOM would leave customers, including the Department of Defense, without a competitive alternative for this critical component of communications networks and likely result in higher prices, less favorable contact terms, and reduced research and development efforts.

Under the terms of the proposed settlement, Odyssey, CPI and General Dynamics must divest the entirety of CPIs ASC Signal subsidiary, including its facilities in Texas and Ontario, Canada, as well as other assets related to large geostationary satellite antennas.

Odyssey, a private equity fund managed by Odyssey Investment Partners, is a limited partnership organized in Delaware with its headquarters in New York, New York. Odyssey Investment Partners has raised over $5 billion since its inception.

CPI, a portfolio company of Odyssey, is a Delaware corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, California. CPI had sales of approximately $500 million in 2019.

General Dynamics is a Delaware corporation headquartered in Reston, Virginia. Its subsidiary GD SATCOM earned between $200 million and $300 million in revenues in 2019.

As required by the Tunney Act, the proposed settlement, along with a competitive impact statement, will be published in the Federal Register. Any person may submit written comments concerning the proposed settlement during a 60-day comment period to Katrina Rouse, Chief, Defense, Industrials, and Aerospace Section, Antitrust Division, U.S. Department of Justice, 450 Fifth Street, N.W., Suite 8700, Washington, D.C. 20530. At the conclusion of the 60-day comment period, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia may enter the final judgment upon finding it is in the public interest.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-31 16:36:12|Editor: huaxia

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By Duncan Murray

SYDNEY, May 31 (Xinhua) -- Drones from Chinese company, XAG have been used to reseed an area of Australian wilderness devastated by bushfires similar to those which swept the country last summer.

In a combination of classic environmentalism and cutting-edge technology, the drones dropped thousands of seeds across 40 hectares of Lake Cobrico peat swamp in the south eastern State of Victoria.

The initial brains behind the idea, Paul Hartrick, from the Heytesbury District Landcare Network (HDLN) told Xinhua on Friday that the area is vital to the region's broader ecology, but has been slow to recover since being badly charred by bushfires on St Patrick's Day in 2018.

In some areas, the fire had burnt up to a meter below ground into the flammable peat, creating slumps and bare patches over two years later.

"Because of the way peat swamps and mass areas form, it takes a long time to rebuild the hydrology and the plants to hold the water in and for that environment to re-establish itself," Hartrick explained.

With this in mind, and inspired by the growing use of drones in agriculture, Hartrick began the search for a company which could pick up the project, landing on XAG.

In April this year, XAG sent three sets of its P Series drones, equipped with a custom designed seed spreading attachment, and in conjunction with the HDLN and Victoria's Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP), set about distributing native seeds directly onto Lake Cobrico peat swamp in an Australian-first.

Co-founder of XAG, Justin Gong told Xinhua that drone seeding has several benefits over traditional methods.

"(We) use a remote sensing drone to find out which places are seriously damaged and need reseed and where not, in this way we generate a prescription map."

"Then the drone carrying the seed will take off and reach the predetermined area to sow the seed. The whole process is very efficient and cost-effective."

During the operation, drones followed the pre-set flight routes projecting seeds from two-three meters above the ground, while the rate of distribution could be easily controlled and adjusted in real time to ensure that the proper amount of seed was distributed evenly into the targeted bare land.

"Drones aren't new, as we all know, but in Australia and particularly Victoria they're a relatively new tool in terms of land use, primary production, agriculture, as well as environmental work," Hartrick said.

As well as being both cost and time effective, the drones also avoid the necessity of putting people on the ground in affected areas, potentially causing more damage to the ecosystem, or being hurt themselves.

With bushfires expected to be an increasing influence not just in Australia but globally, the technique pioneered in partnership by Australian and Chinese innovators may play a role in future regeneration efforts worldwide.

"The trial project in Lake Cobrico demonstrates the best practice of drones to regenerate fire-impacted peat swamps in a safe, cost-effective manner, without human or mechanical trampling on vegetation cover," XAG said in a statement. Enditem
In a stunning interview, Prince Harry's ex-girlfriend Cressida Bonas revealed the true reason why she didn't take the next step in her relationship with the Duke of Sussex.

Bonas, an English actress and model, had a high-profile relationship with Prince Harry beginning in 2012. However, it didn't last long and they split up two years later in 2014.

Now, in her chat with The Daily Telegraph, the 31-year-old film and TV star admitted that she was a big reason why their relationship didn't work out. According to Bonas, the pressure of being in the royal family was too much for her to handle and she was not prepared for it.

"The fear of failing, the fear of rejection, the fear of not getting it right, the fear of not being perfect ... I think that has limited me in certain situations in my life," Bonas said, referring to the kind of life she would definitely have had she been the one Prince Harry married.

Sure enough, Bonas is not wrong with her comments. Royal watchers need not to look further for proof than Meghan Markle, who married Prince Harry in 2018.

While everyone thought it was a fairy tale wedding for Prince Harry and Meghan, it didn't last long and their dream life soon turned into a nightmare filled with controversies and criticisms about their every single move -- be it good or bad. The constant media scrutiny was also a big factor why the Sussexes decided to stepo down as senior members of the royal family and live an independent life, away from the monarchy.

Cressida could have been the one in Meghan's position, but she knew she wouldn't be able to survive it. However, she is happy with what happened and admitted that she has grown ever since her relationship with the Duke of Sussex ended.

"I think I have grown confident and fortunately I have learnt not to sweat the small stuff too much," Bonas shared.

"And I just think it has definitely given me a stronger sense of purpose and a stronger sense of what I want or don't want."

For what it's worth, Cressida Bonas is now set to marry another Harry in real estate broker Harry Wentworth Stanley. It remains to be seen when they will tie the knot, as their wedding has been delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

As for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, they are now living in Los Angeles after moving there from Canada at the onset of the COVID-19 health crisis.
Court has finally intervened on behalf of the well-being of migrant workers

Solicitor-General Tushar Mehtas comments in the Supreme Court have, predictably, stirred a storm. For an officer of the court to go beyond his legal brief and question the bona fides of anyone seeking to raise the plight of the urban poor after the lockdown was unwarranted.

Mr Mehta would do well to remember that he is a representative of the government, not a spokesperson of a political party.

He may genuinely believe that those who are critiquing the consequences of the lockdown for its devastating impact on the vulnerable are prophets of doom and vultures, but his comments betray a basic lack of empathy for the humanitarian crisis at hand, a crisis that transcends political divisions.

It is good that the Supreme Court has finally intervened on behalf of the well-being of migrant workers.

But, essentially, this spat in a courtroom is a storm in a teacup held in the hands of the relatively privileged. Whatever their transient political adversity, they and we are all complicit in a socio-economic structure in which the welfare of the millions of the poor, living in the crevices of our great urban sprawls, was ignored or taken for granted.

Under the shadow of the glitzy malls, the upward mobility of middle class Indians, and stories of Indias emergence as a global economic power, there was the harsh truth of millions of the poor hovering precariously just above levels of absolute poverty, living in unlivable slums, part of an unmapped unorganised sector, bereft of a social safety security net, and eking out a living from one meal to another.

The unintended consequence of the lockdown has been the great discovery of these poor. Hitherto, they had remained invisible, hidden in their miserable burrows, but available to provide service when required for the beneficiaries of the India success story.

The quality of their lives, the history of their migrations from village to city, the miserable slums in which they lived, and the sheer fragility of their economic survival, was not something that bothered any of us too much. The lockdown was a revelation, both for the government, and for the privileged, of this other India, living cheek by jowl with our insulated worlds.

Who is to blame for this flawed and utterly insensitive socio-economic order? The Opposition can blame the government, and it is true that some of the criticism is valid.

The manner in which the draconian lockdown was announced, with just four hours of notice, and the period for which it was announced, left no option for the millions of these poor to make themselves visible, for they had suddenly been rendered homeless, jobless and penniless.

They began their long trek home, back to where they had come from in search of a tenuous living. Since all public transport was shut, they began to go back on foot, walking hundreds of miles, using any means of transport, hungry, thirsty, with blisters on their feet, and at the mercy of the police.

It took the Central government 36 days to reopen train services, and that too in a haphazard manner, where money was charged for tickets and health clearance. Some believe that it was a larger human migration that that during the 1947 Partition of the subcontinent.

But are those blaming the government entirely blameless? The Congress Party has been in power for decades. What did it do to remove or reduce this inequity? The 1991 economic reforms ushered in by then Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao and his finance minister Manmohan Singh have been rightly hailed for turning the economy around.

The higher growth rates they ushered in for the next decade and beyond transformed important sectors of the economy. It was bonanza days for the Indian middle class, but even as employment increased, and consumer spending multiplied, no one cared too much about the continuing and inherent inequities in the system. As malls mushroomed, so did slums.

It did not require a lockdown to reveal that outside the sylvan surroundings of Lutyens Delhi, where economic reforms were hailed and government achievements were pompously touted, 49 per cent of the capital of the Republic was officially a slum, an area defined by the Census as not worthy of human habitation.

Moreover, the urban poor are migrants seeking to find a living in cities because the agricultural sector can no longer give them remuneration or employment. In all these decades, what has been done on a systemic basis to boost agricultural productivity, and raise the agricultural sectors growth rate to beyond the one or two per cent per annum?

Schemes like MNREGA are not a solution to the fundamental problems of raising incomes and providing employment with dignity. They are an essential but short-term relief measure, not an answer to foundational malaises.

What agriculture needed was quantum investments in irrigation, better agricultural extension services, new and better seeds and fertilisers, increased warehouse and cold storage facilities, better road connectivity, more effective R&D inputs, and above all structural reform, like the ones initiated now, of changes to the Essential Commodities Act and the Agriculture Producers Market Committee Act.

The confrontation between Tushar Mehta and Kapil Sibal is thus really an altercation between two beneficiaries of the system pointing fingers at each other about who upset the happy apple cart over which both presided.

Except for the fact that the countrys highest court has now intervened, it makes little difference to the plight of the poor, even as governments come and governments go.
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The CBD Health Club markets its products through an E-commerce website, http://www.CBDHealthClub.com, and via Distributors around the United States. It features a major specialty in THC free, CBD pet products, which help pets with pain, anxiety, skin issues and overall wellness. Mike Burns, Co-Founder, said that he sources his CBD from certified hemp farms in Colorado and California and all of the products come with third party lab Certificates of Analysis (COA's). He offers free shipping on all of his products. You can reach Mike at 713-927-7501 or mikeb@nwpros.com.

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When Yasir Naqvi first started running for political office, people would often ask him what his background was.

He would cheekily tell them he was a lawyer by training.

But deep down, he knew thats not what they were really asking.

They were not asking about my professional background, they were trying to figure out where I came from because of my accent. And one of the things that I did, which is actually true for all immigrants, is we just work extra hard. We just put more into the work we do to prove the point that were very much capable of doing the job, he said.

Naqvi, CEO of the Institute of Canadian Citizenship and a former attorney general of Ontario, is helping to spearhead a campaign called Standing Together in response to a rise in racism and anti-Asian discrimination fuelled by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The aim of the campaign is to highlight how many immigrants and people of colour work as health-care workers on the front line. According to Statistics Canada, one in four health care workers in Canada is an immigrant. More than one-third of family physicians are newcomers.

I think it definitely shines a light on the fact that immigrants work hard, a lot of the time they take the jobs that are available to them, and how essential these jobs are to our way of living, Naqvi said.

A lot of these jobs, we never thought of them as essential until this pandemic hit. And to see that my grocer, or the person who is a personal support worker looking out for my elderly parents, they are people who are newer to Canada and are risking their lives to protect ours.

He said the pandemic has shone a light on how much Canadians depend on each other, how much we rely on essential workers, and how much of that workforce consists of new Canadians.

It shines a whole different light on immigrants, people of colour, on new citizens, Naqvi said. And thats why we felt very strongly that we need to spread the message that we stand together.

The Star spoke with four racialized Canadians working on the front lines about their experiences with racism and discrimination while on the job.

Most said they havent encountered overt racism while working, but a common experience was having their education and credentials questioned. Some have experienced blatant racism at work, which they say makes them question their identity as Canadians.

Joebie Ian Tanamal, immigrated from Philippines in 2011

Not long after he arrived in Canada as a skilled immigrant, Joebie Ian Tanamal was standing in a Service Canada line in Brampton when he heard a man speaking his mind loudly about newcomers taking jobs from Canadians.

Tanamal says the Service Canada employee told the man certain sectors in Canada have a labour shortage. She then asked the man if he had a college degree. He did not respond. She then asked Tanamal if he had a college education and he responded he had bachelors degrees in nursing and physiotherapy.

Tanamal said the Service Canada worker then turned to the man and said unless youre a physiotherapist or a nurse, theyre not taking your job.

Tanamal, a physiotherapist, said he was working in a long-term-care home not long after he arrived when a resident asked him where he was from. He told her he was from the Philippines and she replied: Arent you well-dressed for a cleaning guy?

These kinds of assumptions dont bother Tanamal, who said hes used to the caste system because the Philippines was colonized by Spain and the United States.

I think theyre just misinformed. I dont really take them personally, he said. I just do my job every day. I dont ask for appreciation or anything because were paid to do it.

But he said he was disheartened to hear comments about Filipino workers at an Alberta meat plant that he felt blamed workers cultural background for the high rates of transmission in that community.

Particularly as a Filipino. I feel for them.

He said he decided to take part in the Stand Together video because he believes Canadians need to be reminded that xenophobia and racism are still common in society.

Down the line, were all immigrants here. At this time, we just have to work together and not blame each other.

Christine Sinclair, immigrated from Jamaica in 2013

Christine Sinclair says she boarded a flight to Canada with money from her father, who worked as a jeweller in Jamaica. He had saved it up by selling diamond fragments hed collected.

But it was a different kind of diamond that left a mark on her while she was working at a facility in Alberta.

While there, she heard that certain residents were included in what was called the diamond program. In the care notes for those clients, Sinclair said there was a message that said Please do not send anybody whos Indian, Filipino, Black-skinned, African or whatever. They have to be Caucasian.

I was like, Whoa, what have I gotten myself into?  If thats not racism, I dont know what is.

Sinclair is a health-care aide and works with ill, elderly and disabled patients to help them perform daily activities such as bathing and eating. In her role, shes used to people assuming shes African because shes Black.

She said shes often asked where she went to school or where she obtained her qualifications. She also said shes been referred to as just the help on numerous occasions.

One particular incident she said left her in shock for days involved a resident reciting the Eeny, meeny, miny, moe nursery rhyme, but with the word Tiger replaced with the N-word.

I was just in shock. I didnt how to respond. And when my supervisor asked me How did you deal with it? I told her exactly how I dealt with it  I just focus on the client, Sinclair said.

These kind of interactions have made her question her identity as a Canadian, and its something she thinks about when going to work or when being interviewed for other job opportunities.

They look on you as if you dont really belong here, but they dont say those words, Sinclair said.

I worked really hard and I have every right to be here just like anyone else. Why am I not allowed to be Canadian?

Despite those negative experiences, Sinclair said shes encountered many more good people than bad and is grateful to be in Canada.

Ellen Hong, immigrated from the Philippines in 2014

Ellen Hong has been a medical laboratory technician for more than 20 years, but is still accustomed to being asked if she knows what shes doing.

Hong is from the Philippines, but said people frequently mistake her for being Chinese. She recalls one experience where she entered a hospital room to administer a needle to a young patient.

When I entered the room, the parents looked at each other. And then the mom says, Oh, I dont want my son getting poked so many times  do you really know how to do this? 

She said the parent then asked another staffer if they had an ICU nurse or someone with expertise in administering needles, and they replied that Hong was their expert.

These kinds of comments frustrate Hong, but shes learned theyre part of the immigrant experience in this country.

You know, my heart is pumping if I hear those things. But what can I do? Its my job, Hong said. Just understand that, hey, youre in Canada.

She said Canadians dont always fully appreciate the risks health-care workers who immigrated to Canada face while working on the front line.

They dont understand that were here to help them, you know? Were not taking their jobs, were just qualified.

She said shes grateful to have a job in Canada and said helping people is her passion. But some of her experiences have made her feel belittled. For example, when shes standing in line at the grocery store with her son and the cashier asks him a question instead of her, she believes its because they assume her English is poor.

She tries not to let these experiences get to her.

If you keep thinking about it  youre gonna explode. So yeah, thats what I do, its like, OK just another day,  Hong said.

But sometimes, you still think of it.

Stephanie Chiang, born in Canada

Stephanie Chiang, a Chinese Canadian nurse in Vancouver, told the Star shes never felt discriminated against, despite the fact that she grew up in the small B.C. town of Chemainus, where she says there were only a few other Chinese families.

Chiang is also the only health-care worker the Star spoke to who was born in Canada and has no accent, which she recognizes may have played a role in her experience. She remembers her mother attending her school to educate students about Chinese New Year and how her peers were big fans of her moms chow mein, and said these experiences helped her feel like she belonged.

But she also says shes quick to stand up for herself and wonders if her personality has shielded her from racist incidents.

Maybe Im not as much of an easy target. But that also makes me even more angry, that people would feel like they have this right to treat people this way that they dont see as equal.

Chiang estimates about 40 to 50 per cent of the staff at her hospital are ethnic minorities. So it makes it even more jarring for her to hear about Asian Canadians in Vancouver being targeted in hate crimes and racist incidents.

Hearing about these incidents in Vancouver on the news, I was shocked, she said. And then also, it does kind of make my view of the world a little bit more shaded.
Retailers that reopened also weighed how many precautions to take. Some chains have closed fitting rooms, while those that let shoppers try on merchandise must sanitize or quarantine it before placing it back out for sale. Some require appointments to help stay below rules restricting them to half their normal capacity, while others let shoppers line up outside.
Reporter

Ben Zigterman is a reporter covering business at The News-Gazette. His email is bzigterman@news-gazette.com, and you can follow him on Twitter (@bzigterman).
LONDON  After violence erupted in several U.S. cities at protests over the death of George Floyd, more peaceful protests took place Sunday in cities around the world.

Hundreds of people gathered in London's Trafalgar Square on Sunday, following demonstrations in Berlin and Toronto.

"Say his name," some shouted in London, while other held placards reading "I can't breathe," the last words uttered by Floyd, 46, before he died after a Minnesota police officer, Derek Chauvin, kneeled on his neck during an arrest last Monday.

Chauvin was charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter on Friday, but riots across the U.S. continued over the weekend.

Image: Demonstrators block a road near the U.S. Embassy in London in protest over the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died after a police officer knelt on his neck, on May 31, 2020. (Justin Tallis / AFP - Getty Images)

In London, protesters defied laws banning the gathering of large crowds during the coronavirus pandemic and many protesters were not social distancing, although a large number were wearing masks.

In Berlin on Saturday, thousands of protesters gathered outside the U.S. embassy, some holding signs that read "Justice for George Floyd" and "I Can't Breathe." Many also chanted "Black Lives Matter."

Thousands now chanting black lives matter in front of the US Embassy in Berlin #GeorgeFloyd pic.twitter.com/Jh65RKhTLo  Carl Nasman (@CarlNasman) May 30, 2020

In Canada, thousands turned out in Toronto's Christie Pitts Park on Saturday, before they marched to police headquarters.

As well as protesting Floyd's death, many vented their anger at the death of Regis Korchinski-Paquet, who died in a fall from her 24th-floor balcony after police officers were called to her home.

Toronto Police are investigating the incident.

China, Iran and Russia voiced support for the protesters and criticized the U.S.

Story continues

In China, state media highlighted the "double-standards" of U.S. support for pro-democracy demonstrators in Hong Kong, while quelling unrest in the United States.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian on Monday called discrimination against ethnic minorities a chronic disease in American society," according to China's People's Daily newspaper.

The Russian ministry of foreign affairs tweeted on Saturday: "American police commit high-profile crimes all too often, ... U.S. authorities should meticulously investigate the murder of George Floyd."

Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif shared a satirical post on Twitter, crossing out accusations toward Iran in a U.S. press release about the 2018 protests in the country with red ink and redirecting them back toward America.

Some don't think #BlackLivesMatter.



To those of us who do: it is long overdue for the entire world to wage war against racism.



Time for a #WorldAgainstRacism. pic.twitter.com/06p1LmmwgF  Javad Zarif (@JZarif) May 30, 2020

China, Russia and Iran have all been criticized for their own treatment of protesters.

Russian authorities have been accused by Amnesty International of refusing to authorize public assemblies, breaking up peaceful gatherings and prosecuting protesters as people took to the streets to demand fair elections last year.

In Iran, security forces used lethal force unlawfully to crush protests, killing hundreds, and arbitrarily detaining thousands of protesters to quash unrest in 2019, according to the human rights organization.

The group said in China, where there is a systematic crackdown on dissent, peaceful protesters in Hong Kong have been attacked with tear gas and batons, arrested under vague charges and beaten in custody.

Reuters contributed to this report.
In 2004, still amid the Second Intifada, or Palestinian uprising, I visited Israel on military business. In Haifa, to the north, we met with our counterparts of the Israeli Defense Force regarding several issues.

After the meetings, I took military leave and traveled throughout Israel and Palestine. Certainly, I wanted to visit the iconic sites. But I also wanted to understand for myself the Israeli-Palestinian dynamic, without the filter of media.

After several days in Jerusalems Old City, I hopped aboard a Palestinian bus bound for Bethlehem and Beit Sahur in the West Bank. As the bus left Jerusalem, an Israeli police car, lights flashing, pulled up behind us. The bus driver turned sharply at the next intersection and, while slowing the bus, opened the door. A passenger got up and jumped out. The bus then picked up speed and turned again at another intersection, before pulling over. The police boarded the bus and reviewed everyones ID, including my passport. As they debarked, the bus started moving again, turned at the next intersection, opened the door while slowing, and the gentleman who had fled the bus jumped back on.

We were on our way to the West Bank.

Once there, I discovered that I was the only Westerner in Bethlehem, not counting the nuns at the local convent. The next day I toured the Basilica of the Nativity - the place of Christs birth. In non-conflict years, an admissions line at least a quarter-mile long would snake through the town. That day, I was the only tourist in the church.

In addition to historical sites, I toured a nearby Palestinian refugee camp, observed a demolished, still-smoldering building, the product of a recent IDF airstrike, and watched as packages of food were being transferred from one commercial truck to another across a berm of dirt, used as a road block, for delivery in Bethlehem.

(In hindsight, a road block is a way to inflict economic stress on a people. That is, when two trucks are needed, instead of one, to deliver goods, the price to consumers must rise.)

We also visited the border wall that separates Israel from the West Bank. My guide pointed out a hole in the wall through which people apparently pass.

Over the next several days, I traveled to Jericho, Dead Sea, Masada, Negev, and Eilat, Israels southern-most city. After visiting Jordan, next door, I returned to Eilat and caught a flight to Tel Aviv. Id never had my bags searched so thoroughly, the price of safe travel in Israel.

In those days, the American Embassy to Israel was in Tel Aviv. People used to hang out at Mikes, a popular pub beside the embassy. Today it is in Jerusalem, a gift from President Trump to Prime Minister Netanyahu.

Fortunately, no third intifada occurred when the embassy was relocated to Jerusalem, which the Palestinians claim as their own, as well. Perhaps decades of struggle, oppression, and conflict have people tired.

Israel and Palestine need a two-state solution that would allow Israel to remain a Jewish state without renouncing its democracy (on the other hand, a one-state solution would force Israel to institutionalize mass voter suppression in order to retain its Jewish nature), end the Israeli occupation of West Bank and Gaza, and liberate the Palestinians while marginalizing radicalized groups like Hamas.

Are you CIA? my West Bank guide asked me, over tea. No, I replied, Im just an ordinary American from the state of Montana. But if I can help you some day, I surely will.

John Mues is a Democratic U.S. Senate candidate. An honors graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and London Business School, Mues is a fourth generation Montanan, four-times deployed naval officer, senior engineer in the business sector, and Montana teacher and rancher.

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100,000

For me, the Sunday New York Times is an uplifting experience. It affords some of the best reporting on the planet and a compendium of developments in the arts, science, politics and every human endeavor. By the time I get to the crossword puzzle, I feel like I have had my weekly course on the human condition and feel enriched by the experience.

Except for the May 24 edition.

As the death toll from COVID-19 in America approached 100,000, The Times marked the occasion with a front page full of the names of the dead. Actually, it could only fit in a fraction of those victims, but the effect was stunning. There, in black and white, was the incalculable loss to America and a reality check for all survivors.

Let us take in that number  100,000 and growing daily  and understand that it is about four times the number of soldiers and colonists who died in the American Revolutionary War. It is about 40 times the number of Americans who died on D-Day. It is more than all the fatalities recorded in all of our countrys battles since World War II.

The proper response to the pandemic is utter sadness. Many of us have a loved one or a family member who perished. Most of us know at least one victim. All of us share in the suffering because we remember that Hemingway taught us that we are the ones for whom the bell tolls.

It is baffling, then, that some citizens remain more concerned about the inconvenience of isolation than the horrible suffering that their neighbors endured. We continue to see disturbing displays of faux patriotism from folks protesting by hanging political leaders in effigy. Crowds are ginned up to demand their rights to congregate  even though scientists and experts concur that beaches and bars are still hotbeds of possible infection. The history of the 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic is that the resurgence was worse than the initial wave.

Yes, we are all tired. Yes, the pandemic has a stranglehold on our economic vitality and needs to be vanquished as soon as possible. But truth matters in this country and leaders have an obligation to tell their constituents not what they want to hear but what they need to know.

A recent study by Columbia University has determined that social distancing was the correct strategy to contain the virus. It also concluded that had the United States imposed strict social distancing just one week earlier than we did, 36,000 fewer people would have died in the outbreak. Failing to recognize the threat, refusing to listen to the experts, and delaying a response by more than a month added significantly to that death toll.

Christopher Murray who directs the Institute of Health Metrics for the University of Washington said: I was not expecting 100,000 deaths. Putting in place social distancing earlier and accepting the economic hardship it caused would have kept the transmission down to a very low level."

One political leader observed, this is a fateful milestone we should never have reached.

The president has yet to offer the condolences and empathy that the carnage demands. Instead, true to form, he brags about his handling of the pandemic. He talks about a ban on Chinese travel. Even though 10 other countries implemented such a travel ban before he took that action. In fact, 400,000 Chinese entered the United States in the months of January and February when the virus was raging. Another 40,000 came to the US even after the ban was in place. The clumsy response to the crisis at the federal level caused a shortage of tests which hampered diagnoses which meant people suffered and died. At a time when the nation cried out for leadership, the president was promising that the virus was under tremendous control and that it would miraculously go away.

In 1966, President Lyndon Johnson gave upbeat reports on a war that was going badly in Viet Nam. With the release of the Pentagon Papers, Americans concluded that they had been misled by their own leaders. It cost Johnson his credibility and the presidency. Truth matters. Especially in the time of war or pandemic.

So here we are with a bleak New York Times report about thousands of Americans who have died or who are living with painful memories. We owe it to them to right this ship. We owe it to them to return to commerce and conviviality in a way that does not put even more of the country in jeopardy. We owe them honesty and decency; not spin and self-promotion.

Mark S. Singel is a former Democratic Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania. He and Republican Charlie Gerow can be seen at 8:30 a.m. each Sunday on CBS21s Face the State.
D onald Trump has hailed the historic launch of the SpaceX rocket as a beautiful but dangerous moment.

After witnessing lift-off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the US president marvelled at the power of the Falcon 9 vessel, and the risks faced by its crew.

The moment of jubilation  which saw NASA astronauts blast off from US soil for the first time in almost a decade  came as violent protests continue to rock swathes of the country.

Unrest has engulfed several American cities over the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died in the hands of a white police officer.

Meanwhile, the US continues to report the worlds highest coronavirus death toll  with more than 105,000 lives lost so far to the disease.

But on Saturday, Mr Trump took a moment to revel in the triumph of the successful start of the landmark space mission.

Speaking to reporters following Saturdays big event, the president said: That was a beautiful sight to see and I hope you all enjoyed it.

Donald Trump speaks after the successful launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket / Getty Images

He added: When you hear that sound and you hear all of that roar, you can imagine how dangerous it is.

When you feel the shake  and were very far away  but when you feel the shake over here, its pretty amazing.

Beautiful sight. A beautiful ship, too.

SpaceX Falcon 9 launch - in pictures 1 /50 SpaceX Falcon 9 launch - in pictures SpaceX Falcon 9, with NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken in the Crew Dragon capsule, lifts off from Pad 39-A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida Getty Images SpaceX Falcon 9, with NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken in the Crew Dragon capsule, lifts off from Pad 39-A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida AP AP Gregg Newton/AFP via Getty Image AP REUTERS AP The astronauts shortly after take-off AFP via Getty Images Getty Images NASA TV/AFP via Getty Images In this still image taken from NASA TV, the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket's second stage separates from the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule after launch AFP via Getty Images Mike Pence and President Donald Trump REUTERS President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and second lady Karen Pence at Kennedy AP AFP via Getty Images AFP via Getty Images People watch the launch REUTERS REUTERS REUTERS NASA TV/AFP via Getty Images NASA TV/AFP via Getty Images REUTERS The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, with the company's Dragon crew capsule onboard, is illuminated on the launch pad at Launch Complex 39A as preparations continue AP The countdown clock Getty Images Astronauts Bob Behnken (R) and Doug Hurley walk out of the Operations and Checkout Building on their way to the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket Getty Images AP Behnken gives the thumbs up AP AP Bob Behnken, right, and Doug Hurley say goodbye to family members Getty Images Getty Images AFP via Getty Images Douglas Hurley's wife Karen Nyberg and their son say goodbye REUTERS Getty Images AP Gregg Newton/AFP via Getty Image Donald Trump on his way to Kennedy Space Center REUTERS Bob Behnken, right, and Doug Hurley pose on Launch Complex 39A NASA TV/AFP via Getty Images REUTERS Gregg Newton/AFP via Getty Image

The US leader had flown to Cape Canaveral on Wednesday, only to see the launch postponed at the last minute owing to bad weather.

Asked why he felt it was important to be in Florida for the launch, given the issues blighting the country, Mr Trump said the launch was a source of great inspiration to all.

He continued: We suffered something that was terrible, it should have never happened.

"And thats one of the reasons I wanted to be here today. I thought it was so important to be here today.

And I think any one of you would say, that was an inspiration to see what we just saw.
What just happened? Huawei has revealed they have spent over $23 billion on stockpiles of essential components as a countermeasure to US trade sanctions. The stockpile will last at least eighteen months, and if necessary, could be stretched a further six months. But even with enough raw supplies, Huawei may not be able to weather the storm.

According to industry sources who spoke with the Nikkei Asian Review, Huawei began stockpiling towards the end of 2018. At the time they said they were shocked or sometimes amused by the ungrounded and senseless allegations leveled against them. Now theyre publicly in panic mode, and justifiably enough as Huawei isnt allowed to sell to American companies or buy software or hardware designed by them. Thus far the ban has manifested at the consumer level with the restriction (or complete absence) of Android software and other Google services on Huawei smartphones.

However, Huawei sells more than smartphones and its their server and networking infrastructure that stands to suffer the most. A big portion of the stockpiled chips are Intel and AMD server processors, and FPGAs from Xilinx. Unfortunately for Huawei, much of the stockpile is probably already out of date. Server processors recently doubled in core count, and PCIe 4.0 is steadily being rolled out. The situation is worse with FPGAs, though: these are extremely specialized processors that are often customized to the clients needs, an opportunity Huawei has now lost.

But that's not all. Huawei hasnt been able to buy much of its stockpile direct, instead buying from retailers and other third-parties which has translated in a price increase and no support. They wont be able to problem-solve effectively, get refunded on defective hardware, or get software or infrastructure updates.

As a necessary remedy to US' restrictions, Huawei has renewed its focus on developing its own hardware. Subsidiary HiSilicon is working on developing CPUs, GPUs, FPGAs, modems, and dozens of other specialized chips, but it's easy to assume those won't be ready as drop-in replacements in the short term, otherwise they wouldnt be stockpiling in the first place.
President Donald Trump declared Sunday afternoon that the anti-fascist left-wing movement known as ANTIFA will be designated as a terrorist group.

'The United States of America will be designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organization,' the president tweeted.

On Saturday Trump blamed ANTIFA for violent nationwide protests over the death of George Floyd, after Minnesota Governor Tim Walz suggested that foreign influences, white supremacists and drug cartels are fueling chaos.

'It's ANTIFA and the Radical Left. Don't lay the blame on others!' Trump said in a tweet on Saturday, referring to the militant far-left movement, short for 'anti-fascism', that is known for violence.

President Donald Trump has declared that the anti-fascist protest movement known as antifa will be designated as a terrorist group

'The United States of America will be designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organization,' the president tweeted Sunday afternoon

On Saturday Trump blamed antifa for violent nationwide protests (burning police car in Miami) over the death of George Floyd, after Minnesota Gov Tim Walz suggested that foreign influences, white supremacists and drug cartels are fueling chaos

Widespread looting, arson and violence continued in Minneapolis and multiple other major cities across the U.S. on Saturday, leaving three dead and dozens more injured. It was the third day of such demonstrations.

Echoing the president, Attorney General Bill Barr said on Saturday that 'the voices of peaceful protest are being hijacked by radical elements'.

'Groups of outside radicals and agitators are exploiting the situation to pursue their own separate and violent agenda,' Barr said in an on-camera statement.

'In many places it appears the violence is planned, organized and driven by anarchic and far-left extremist groups using antifa-like tactics.'

'It is a federal crime to cross state lines or use interstate facilities to incite or participate in violent rioting and we will enforce those laws,' he added, saying that the FBI, US Marshals, DEA, ATF and US Attorney's Offices would fully support local and state law enforcement in restoring order and cracking down on violence.

Earlier on Saturday, Gov Walz suggested domestic terrorists or foreign influences might be subverting peaceful protests and turning them to violence.

Walz said the riots in Minneapolis had begun to resemble a 'military operation' and that he was actively weighing whether to accept military and intelligence assistance from The Pentagon.

'Last night is a mockery of pretending that this is about George Floyd's death, or inequities, or historical traumas to our communities of color,' said Walz, a Democrat.

'It's ANTIFA and the Radical Left. Don't lay the blame on others!' Trump said in a tweet on Saturday, referring to the militant far-left movement, short for 'anti-fascist', that is known for violence. Protesters are seen in Washington, DC, on Saturday

Protesters march through the streets of Detroit, Michigan, on Saturday night

WHAT IS THE ANTI-FASCIST MOVEMENT (ANTIFA) The anti-fascist protest movement known as antifa gained new prominence in the United States after the white supremacist Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, VA, in August 2017. In Charlottesville and at many subsequent events held by white supremacists or right-wing extremists, antifa activists have aggressively confronted what they believe to be authoritarian movements and groups. While most counter-protestors tend to be peaceful, there have been several instances where encounters between antifa and the far-right have turned violent. The antifa sometimes use a logo with a double flag, usually in black and red These violent counter-protesters are often part of 'antifa' (short for 'antifascist'), a loose collection of groups, networks and individuals who believe in active, aggressive opposition to far right-wing movements. Their ideology is rooted in the assumption that the Nazi party would never have been able to come to power in Germany if people had more aggressively fought them in the streets in the 1920s and 30s. Most antifa come from the anarchist movement or from the far left, though since the 2016 presidential election, some people with more mainstream political backgrounds have also joined their ranks. The antifa sometimes use a logo with a double flag, usually in black and red. The antifa movement began in the 1960s in Europe, and had reached the US by the end of the 1970s. Most people who show up to counter or oppose white supremacist public events are peaceful demonstrators, but when antifa show up, as they frequently do, they can increase the chances that an event may turn violent. Antifa have expanded their definition of fascist/fascism to include not just white supremacists and other extremists, but also many conservatives and supporters of President Trump. Because there is no unifying body for antifa, it is impossible to know how many 'members' are currently active. Different localities have antifa populations of different strengths, but antifa are also sometimes willing to travel hundreds of miles to oppose a white supremacist event. Source: Anti-Defamation League Advertisement

'The situation in Minneapolis is no longer in any way about the murder of George Floyd, it is about attacking civil society, instilling fear, and disrupting our great cities,' Walz said.

'As you saw this expand across the United States, and you start to see whether it be domestic terrorism, whether it be ideological extremists to fan the group, or whether it be international destabilization of how our country works,' he continued.

On Friday night, Walz hinted that white supremacists and drug cartels may be fueling violence or taking advantage of the chaos in the rioting.

Pressed by reporters on rumors that white supremacists were secretly infiltrating Black Lives Matter protests and instigating violence, Walz said: 'My suspicions and what I've seen on this, yes.'

'It gets worse than that,' Walz said. 'The cartels, who are wondering if there was a break in their drug transmissions, are trying to take advantage of the chaos. That's why this situation is on a federal level.'
Police in Kaduna State have debunked a story circulating on social media claiming fresh attacks in Southern Kaduna.

Police command in the state described the story as fake, saying it was deliberately disseminated to create fear and apprehension in the minds of people.

The spokesman of the command, ASP Mohammed Jalige in a statement urged the public to disregard it, assuring that the police command would not spare any effort in making sure that law and order is maintained in the area.

According to him, "The attention of the Kaduna State Police Command has been drawn to a Fake and maliciously fabricated story being circulated on social media, purportedly issued by the National President of Adara Development Association dated 28th May, 2020 captioned Again Fulani Herdsmen Attacked Southern Kaduna Communities in which the writer reported that there are fresh attacks on some communities in Kajuru L.G.A where he claimed that from January to May, 2020 people were killed and many injured and displaced from their homes.

"The Command therefore, wishes to categorically debunk the story in its entirety as fake and deliberately disseminated to create fear and apprehension in the minds of peace loving people of Kaduna State and Kajuru in particular."

"The fabricated and malicious figures being circulated in the media should be disregarded and discountenanced by the general public and all media houses should endeavor to seek for clarifications on security matters through the Commissioner of Police or the Public Relations Department to avoid being caught in circulating fake news as the consequences of such would be very dire."

He noted that the command has upgraded security within the affected areas of Kajuru/Kasuwan Magani, by deploying more Police men in synergy with other sister security agencies on the directive of the Commissioner of Police CP UM MURI to ensure that there is no further break down of law and order in the area while concerted efforts are being made through Community engagement strategies to enlighten the affected areas against reprisal attacks.
31.05.2020 LISTEN

I am a citizen



I am the son of a gong-gong beater.

The Electoral Commission has been adamant to advice about stopping the New Voters register amidst the Coronavirus pandemic and heed to Limited Registration.

They have actually gone ahead to set a new date at their last IPAC meeting to start the registration awaiting a court decision.

An African proverb says Its only a fool that tests the depth of a river with both feet. Which means that do not leap into a situation without first thinking about the consequences? I am sure the Electoral commission knows better than this.

Is it possible to register 16.5 Million people within 40 days?

Why cant the EC use limited registration to update the register?

Even the NIA that started its operations almost year ago hasnt been able to deliver on their mandate as at today. More than 50% of eligible voters dont have a Ghana Card

Can someone educate us?

We used birth certificates to acquire passports, and birth certificates to acquire Ghana Cards; so why cant people use birth certificates to register to vote?

Does the EC know that the cost of a passport is over the minimum wage in Ghana? All Ghanaians can not afford to acquire passports.

What are the bare facts of practicability on a registration day?

Assuming all things being equal at the registration center with all the necessary COVID-19 protocols in place i.e. washing of hands, sanitizers etc.

With every new registration, it will take a minimum of 10 minutes to register one person. Dont forget that equipments will be sanitized after each registrant. That means we can have only 6 or less people getting registered in one hour. We have 10 hours daily so in effect we can register about 60 people in a day.

The Electoral Commission has ear-marked 6 days of registration to every polling station. Obviously 60 people getting registered in a day by the 6 days will give you only 360 registrants.

The polling station where I vote has about 700 voters on the register, without excluding those who have just turned 18 years.

Do you know what chaotic situation we are bound to face when this registration begins?

The functions of the Electoral Commission as captured in Article 45(e) states inter alia "to undertake programmes for the expansion of registration of voters.."

Is the Electoral Commission seeking to solely rely on the use of Passport and Ghana Card as the only admissible personal identification documents for purpose of registering prospective eligible voters on the proposed new electoral register?

Is the Electoral Commission upholding the stipulation of expanding the registration of voters?

Or is the EC rather seeking to shrink (condense) the registeration of voters and thus reduce the total number of potential eligible voters on the electoral register ?

The Electoral Commission doesnt care about the lives of Ghanaians and any form of violence that may arise within this short time specified for a new register.

They just dont care because they will do anything to please their pay masters.

It is said that "the rain beats the leopards skin but it does not wash out its spots. Which means no matter how hard you try, you cannot change another persons character.

Similarly, if you behave badly and develop a poor reputation, its difficult to change other peoples opinions of you, regardless of how many good deeds you perform.

The Electoral Commission is becoming a stubborn cat, and doesnt fear even God.

The National Identification Authority in whose womb lies the Registration and distribution of Ghana Cards started their journey with piloting in June 2018.

Prior to this, they did a lot of preparations, technical trials of equipments before rolling out the mass registration exercise

They went ahead to start mass registration in Greater Accra, specifically in the Adentan Municipality on the 5th November 2018, after the recruitment of Commissioners of Oath hitch that delayed the process.

As at November 2018, about 80,000 people had been registered which included Parliament and some Security Agencies.

NIA registration was clustered from Greater Accra which was zoned and ended on the 6th July, 2018.

The Volta and Oti Regions started from the 15th July to 1st August, 2019.

Northern, Savannah and North East Regions from 13th August to 2nd September, 2019.

The Upper East and Upper West Regions had their turn from 12th September to 29th September, 2019.

Bono, Bono East and Ahafo Regions, from 10th October to the 30th October, 2019.

Western and Western North Regions from 11th November to 2nd December, 2019.

The Ashanti Region from 10th December, 2019 to 31st January, 2020.

The Eastern Region started from 12 February to 4th March, 2020 and again in the Eastern Region, from 13th March to 31st March, 2020. This exercise was suspended due to the COVID -19 restrictions.

The Head of NIA Corporate Affairs, Assistant Commissioner of Immigration (ACI) Francis Palmdeti disclosed to the Ghanaian Times on 16th September 2019 that about 2.9 million Ghanaians, aged 15years and above, have so far been registered by the National Identification Authority (NIA) for the Ghana Card.

Out of the figure, exactly 2,902,035, the authority has printed 2,590,526 cards out of which it has issued 1,718,021 to their respective owners.

This data covers registration conducted in the Greater Accra, Volta and Oti Regions between June 4, 2018 and Saturday, September 14, 2019.

According to a Citinewsroom report on the 6th January, 2020, the National Identification Authority (NIA) had so far registered 5.9 million (5,907,536) people as at the end of 2019 in the nationwide mass registration exercise.

Out of this number, the authority had printed 5.1 million (5,167,994) cards.

As at the 13 February, 2020, the GNA reported that, the National Identification Authority (NIA) had registered 8,733,440 eligible Ghanaians for the Ghana Card as at Tuesday, February 11, 2020, with 7,436,522 cards printed and 5,332,620 issued to applicants.

It had, so far, registered 2,467,617 in the Ashanti Region, 1,995,669 in the Greater Accra, Volta  568,265, Central  625,803, Northern  510,047 and Western  530,684.

The rest of the regions are: Oti  360,296, Bono  294,440, Bono East  277,485, Upper East  220,191, North East  197,057, Western North  217,719, Savannah  178,009, Upper West  146,976, Ahafo  141,191.

Mr Francis Palmdeti, the Head of the Corporate Affairs of the NIA, told the Ghana News Agency in Accra that the NIA was registering people in the Western, Western North and Central Regions.

Ghanaian CSOs such as Institute of Democratic Governance, IMANI GHANA, IDEG and CDD GHANA have also added their voices and called for limited registration in place of new voters register compilation according to a myjoyonline report of 26th May, 2020.

Leading Governance Experts have raised public health concerns over the Electoral Commissions decision to compile a new register instead of undertaking a limited registration exercise as Covid-19 lingers on.

Dr Emmanuel Akwetey, Executive Director, Institute of Democratic Governance, Franklin Cudjoe, President, Imani Africa, Dr. Kojo Asante of CDD Ghana who were speaking on the AM Show on Joy News, explained that it will be safer to update the current register with approximately two million new voters than compile a new one for an estimated 17 million voters. Their comments came ahead of an Inter Party Advisory Committee meeting on Wednesday May 27, 2020 where the Electoral Commission briefed IPAC on preparation for the voters registration exercise.

Meanwhile , Ghana's Coronavirus case tally has reached 7616 as at Friday, 29th May, 2020.

The Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary General for West Africa and the Sahel and Head of UNOWAS, Dr Mohammed Ibn Chambas says, the UN has been having frequent consultations with the Ghana Electoral Commission, to share ideas in the discharge of its duties.



He said there is a network of Electoral Commissions in West Africa that meet and share ideas on the best practices from their countries.

Speaking at a special round table with Business Executives and Policy Makers in Accra, Dr Ibn Chambas said the EC in Ghana has the responsibility to ensure that all eligible voters are captured in the voters register.

However, in carrying out its mandate, the EC should ensure that all its stakeholders are consulted.



Before I pen off, let me quote a famous African proverb that says that  the Rain does not fall on one roof alone. Which means trouble does not discriminate. It comes to everyone at some point in time.

Secondly, ears that do not listen to advice, accompany the head when it is chopped off. Which means a

person who does not heed to advice will suffer the consequences also.

We are better off going ahead with the Limited Registration as a peaceful country to save lives during this pandemic and possible violence during the upcoming mass registration than saying that  you can have your day but we will have our way. The EC must listen.

I remain the echoing voice of a village scribe and the son of a gong-gong beater.

TT Caternor

La Dadekotopon
New Delhi, May 31 : Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat has termed the first year of the second term of the Modi government as very successful. He said the country has chosen the right path for progress by electing Narendra Modi as Prime Minister. He, however, attacked the opposition parties for not playing the constructive role during the Covid-19 crisis.

In an exclusive interview to IANS, Shekhawat said, under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi, India's image has grown manifold in the eyes of the world. "I can say with confidence that the people of India must be very happy today after choosing Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister in 2019. Modi has lived up to the expectations of the people, as the government has taken a series of path breaking and historic decisions -- removing Article 370 from Jammu & Kashmir and clearing all hurdles from the path of construction of Ram temple," he said.

On the question of the role of opposition in the last one year, Shekhawat said, the opposition parties are making unnecessary noise, not giving constructive suggestion to the government and are only making statements which are not needed. "When Prime Minister announced Rs 20 lakh crore package to revive the economy, a former president of a political party said that the mother India is crying today. I think the people of India understand the reality." Endorsing the Centre's lockdown 5.0 plan and a significant easing of curbs, Shekhawat said the plan will help revive socio-economic activities and restore normalcy in people's lives. "An awareness about the new virus has been created in the last 60 days. The lockdown was enforced to slow the spread of the pandemic and prepare to deal with it. We have won in our efforts." "We have to strike a balance between lives and livelihoods. We will take the country towards normalcy in three phases of Unlock India," he said.

Stressing upon Modi's initiative of self-reliant India, Shekhawat said, India will turn this crisis into opportunity. "Country is moving in that direction under Modi's leadership. We will also fulfill our pledge to make India a five trillion dollar economy," he said.

Shekhawat did not agree that the river Ganges were cleaned due to the lockdown. He said, "It was because of the work done in the last four years on a mission mode to clean the Ganga.

The union minister said that despite the lockdown, Central, state and local administration continued to work on the 'har ghar nal' scheme by preparing action plans.
Delhi has experienced six earthquakes in the last one month, increasing tension for the people who are already facing troubles due to coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. Social media have been flooded with memes related to earthquakes and though people are trying to show that they are not too worried by the minor tremors there is no denying the fact that many are concerned over the frequent earthquakes jolting the national capital.

While speaking to Dr Soumitra Mukherjee, Professor of Geology at Jawaharlal Nehru University over the topic, he said that there is no need to worry about it as these tremors occur every year but yes it is necessary to be vigilant.

According to the opinion of experts, there are small earthquake tremors in Delhi which are 3-4 standard on the Richter scale. However, the danger is when the earthquake magnitude is above 4 on the Richter scale, especially on those areas where the houses are not strongly built.

Talking about how safe are Delhi's buildings due to the continuous occurrence of the earthquake, Soumitra said that illegal colonies of Delhi have danger from it. Giving an example over the same, he said, ''During the hearing of a case in 2019, the MCD in the Delhi High Court had said that it believed that about 90 per cent of Delhi's buildings would not be able to withstand a major earthquake, after which the High Court had asked for a safety audit of the houses. Illegal colonies of Delhi, where the city is inhabited by a majority of the population, houses have been erected just like cards. There is no map nor building norms, nor security. Nothing has been taken care of.''

''However, no major earthquake shock has been predicted yet. But because Delhi Seismic Zone reads in four, it is necessary that these houses have a safety audit,'' he added.

On being asked whether the earthquake can be predicted in advance, Professor Mukherjee said, ''Before an earthquake, there are changes in the earth. Experts say that it is possible to assess these changes. Before the earthquake in the earth, the natural vegetation either dries up or becomes very green. It can be detected with high resolution through satellites. Normalized differential weighting index can be used. Interferometry is a subject in which it can be detected by remote sensing whether there has been a change of one or two millimeters in height at any place on earth ... If it has come then it can be evaluated with the state of the art remote sensing method. But the problem is that this method is not being given as much importance.''

Professor Mukherjee also explained the structure of earth below, "There is an ancient rock group under the land of Delhi. It is said to be of the Precambrian period, which consists of quartzite, cyst, granite or pegmatite group. If we talk about seismic zonation of India, Delhi falls in Zone 4 Who is sensitive. That is, there is a high probability of earthquakes here, but even more sensitive areas come in the areas of the Himalayas, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, North East. Delhi has a large population, so even mild shocks make people restless.

Speaking of the major change in the inner surface of Delhi, Professor Mukherjee asserted, ''Experts say that looking at the satellite map shows that the ground level of Delhi is slipping. This level configuration is called en achlon fault. It is like this, as many other bicycles have been parked next to each other and one cycle after the other may fall. The level configuration of Delhi is also made in the same manner in which quartzite or cyst surfaces are made. These surfaces can fall on top of each other if there is a slight shock. This is why so many tremors were felt in Delhi in 1 month.''

Throwing light on Delhi's land formation, Mukherjee said, "Seismic microzonation was done in 1957 in which it was found that Delhi Haridwar Harshal Ridge which connects to the Himalayas, on which many important areas of Delhi are inhabited, is a sensitive zone but a new fault is also developing. This fault is from Asola Bhati Century to Bahadurgarh, its depth is not much, so even if there is a little rain, the moisture rises and enters the earth and the stone gets wet and starts moving. The tremors can be felt. "

The only matter of relief for Delhi is that there is no prediction of any big earthquake made yet. The advantage of three to four small tremors is that the accumulated energy of the earth is removed which eliminates the possibility of a dangerous earthquake.
Bansy Kalappa By

Express News Service

Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar, during an interview with the The New Sunday Express, said that Karnataka has handled the COVID-19 crisis well and has fared better than many other states in the country. The state government has also discussed all issues threadbare to tackle the situation once the Lockdown 5.0 begins on Monday, he said.

How has Karnataka fared compared to other states in fighting COVID-19?

We have fared exceptionally well. We are conducting 4,124 tests per million, which is among the highest in the country. Our positivity rate at 1 per cent is better than Keralas 2 per cent, which means we are finding one positive case for every 100 tests conducted. Our average daily growth is 5.8 per cent, while the national average is 10.2 per cent. The states mortality rate is 1.72 per cent and it is 5 per cent for the country.

ALSO READ| Mysuru: Not just a piece of cloth, volunteers promote menstrual hygiene amid COVID-19 pandemic

You have plans to set up 100 testing centres soon. Should we have reached this figure much earlier?

We are steadily ramping up our testing capacity, and on Friday, we tested 15,269 samples on a single day. So far, we have conducted over 2.75 lakh tests across 60 labs in the state. In February, we started with two labs, by March-end we had eight, and in April we increased it to 23. We reached our target of 60 labs well before the May 31 deadline.

Everyone wants to be tested and people are anxious. When can we test all?

I understand the anxiety of the people. Our priority is to trace and test suspected people, who are primary and secondary contacts of infected patients. We are conducting mass testing in containment zones, besides taking several measures to increase testing.

How are you preparing for the scenario after Lockdown 4.0?

Much as we desire, corona is not going away soon. We understand this reality and have plans to tackle the situation when Lockdown 5.0 begins on Monday. We have discussed all issues threadbare at the Covid

task force committee.

ALSO READ| Tribals in Uttara Kannada's Joida show the way to self-isolation amid COVID-19 pandemic

There are thousands of travellers coming in from across t h e country and abroad. How are you prepared?

n the last 2-3 weeks, around 2.5 lakh people entered Karnataka and about 1.5 lakh are under institutional quarantine. With the influx, increasing home quarantine is the only option and people should act more responsibly.

How do you use technology to fight COVID-19 better?

We have leveraged technology extensively. We launched online training with the SOP for doctors and healthcare professionals. This helped train over 1.6 lakh corona warriors in record time. The special tele- ICU patients monitoring task force ensured that specialist doctors can monitor cases, but are themselves not exposed to risk.

Technologies in the COVID-19 war room have enabled the integration of health department with police, hospitals, surveillance teams, Asha workers and BWSSB. Screens in the war room have been used for mapping of cases, using Geographical Information System.
Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex are settling into their new lives as free agents. The two gave up their lives as senior members of the royal family in favor of more independence earlier this year and spent several months narrowing down a new home base before ultimately deciding on Meghans home state of California.

Unfortunately, their move was overshadowed by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the couple has been locked down for several months, waiting out the worst of the outbreak. Still, Meghan and Prince Harry likely arent bored while staying at home, especially since they are reportedly surrounded by some of the worlds biggest celebrities.

Why did Meghan Markle and Prince Harry decide to live in L.A.?

RELATED: Prince William and Kate Middleton Reportedly Miss Prince Harry More Than Meghan Markle But Heres Why Its Normal

In January, the royal family, as well as the world, was rocked by the announcement that Meghan and Prince Harry intended to step down as senior members of the royal family. They would no longer be working royals, traveling the world to represent the queen. In their announcement, which they posted to their Instagram page, the couple stated that they wanted to pursue their own interests, including founding their own charity and making their own income.

Many royal followers wondered where the couple would settle since they had been spending the majority of their holiday break in Canada. There was some speculation that Meghan and Prince Harry would divide their time between Canada and the United Kingdom.

However, the couple shocked everyone when it was revealed that they would be making their new home primarily in Los Angeles. While they did not reveal their reasons for the move to California, many have assumed that it is so that they can be close to Doria Ragland, Meghans mother. Los Angeles also provides the pair with plenty of opportunities for work in television and film, an industry close to Meghans heart.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are surrounded by celebrities

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle | Karwai Tang/WireImage

During the first several months of Meghan and Prince Harrys residency in LA, fans had no idea where the couple had decided to set up shop  other than that it was somewhere exclusive and very private.

Recently, however, it was revealed that the two have been living in a mansion owned by the prestigious film producer Tyler Perry. The spacious mansion reportedly has eight bedrooms, access to a private walking trail, a large chefs kitchen, and twelve bathrooms.

Perry isnt the only connection to celebrity culture that Meghan and Prince Harry are currently enjoying. According to a recent report, the couple is virtually surrounded by A-list celebrities. The mansion where they are staying is close to residences owned by Cameron Diaz, Samuel L. Jackson, Sylvester Stallone, Adele, Katy Perry, and Sir Elton John, who is a good friend to both Prince Harry and Meghan.

Not only does this ultra-private location guarantee the couple privacy, but it grants them easy access to the biggest stars in the business.

Is Prince Harry settling into his new life?

Many fans of pop culture might consider Meghan and Prince Harrys new home to be a veritable paradise. However, several reports have claimed that the redheaded royal is struggling, and hasnt settled as easily into California life as he might have hoped.

Even Dr. Jane Goodall, a close personal friend of Prince Harry, revealed in a recent interview that he was finding things a bit challenging.

It is unclear if the couple plans to stay in LA for the long-term, or are only staying in the state temporarily. One thing is clear, they are certainly experiencing A-list life in their exclusive neighborhood.
MEA said that Pakistan's Charge de Affaires was issued a demarche in which a strong protest was lodged with regard to the activities of these officials of the High Commission of Pakistan against India's national security.

Two persons attached to the Pakistan High Commission here were apprehended by security agencies for indulging in espionage activities in the country, the external affairs ministry said, adding that the two have been asked to leave the country within 24 hours.

India has declared both of them persona-non grata for indulging in activities incompatible with their status as members of a diplomatic mission, the MEA said in a statement today.

A persona-non grata is a foreign individual whose entry or stay in a particular country is prohibited by that countrys government.

Two officials of the High Commission of Pakistan in New Delhi were apprehended today by Indian law enforcement authorities for indulging in espionage activities, the MEA said.

The Government has declared both these officials persona non grata for indulging in activities incompatible with their status as members of a diplomatic mission and asked them to leave the country within twenty four hours, it added.

The MEA said that Pakistans Charge de Affaires was issued a demarche in which a strong protest was lodged with regard to the activities of these officials of the High Commission of Pakistan against Indias national security.

The Charge de Affaires was asked to ensure that no member of its diplomatic mission should indulge in activities inimical to India or behave in a manner incompatible with their diplomatic status.

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08:17

United States President Donald Trump on Saturday postponed the "outdated" Group of Seven summit that he planned to hold in June at the White House, seeking inclusion of India and some other countries to the grouping of world's top economies.

Trump told reporters, travelling with him on board the Air Force One from Florida to Washington DC, that he is "postponing it until September" and plans to invite Russia, South Korea, Australia and India.

"I don't feel that as a G7 it properly represents what's going on in the world. It's a very outdated group of countries," he said.

Alyssa Alexandra Farah, White House Director of Strategic Communications, said that this is bringing together "our traditional allies" to talk about how to deal with the future of China.

German chancellor Angela Merkel's office had said on Saturday that she would not attend the summit unless the course of the coronavirus spread had changed by then.

G7 is a forum of the seven countries with the world's largest and most advanced economies -- France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada.





Heads of States of these countries meet annually on international economic and monetary issues.

The US holds the presidency of the G7 this year.





During the summit, G7 president normally invites heads of States of one or two countries to attend the meeting as a special invitee.





Last year French President Emanuel Macron had invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the G7 Summit.

Trump talking about inviting India to the next G7 Summit is reflective of the growing international stature of the country. -- PTI
Salman Khan has donated hand sanitisers to the Mumbai Police department.

Praising the actor, Yuva Sena member Rahul Kanal tweeted: "Thank you @BeingSalmanKhan bhai for being there for our frontline warriors, thank you @CMOMaharashtra @AUThackeray ji @MumbaiPolice @CPMumbaiPolice for being there for one and all...FRSH sanitisers to be distributed to all our frontline warriors in the Police Dept."

Thank you @BeingSalmanKhan bhai for being there for our frontline warriors, thank you @CMOMaharashtra @AUThackeray ji @MumbaiPolice @CPMumbaiPolice for being there for one and all...FRSH sanitisers to be distributed to all our frontline warriors in the Police Dept  pic.twitter.com/y51qvFVLgg Rahul.N.Kanal (@Iamrahulkanal) May 29, 2020

Fans were moved by Salman's gesture.

One wrote: "Megastar #SalmanKhan Donates Huge 1,00,000 (1 Lakh) Bottles of FRSH SANITIZERS To Police Personnels in Mumbai Amidst This Coronavirus Lockdown! #LoveUBhaijaan!"

Another fan wrote: "The #SalmanKhan Man with the golden heart that's why he most lovable superstar in country hattoff God bless you. always love #BeingHuman"

Salman has been doing his bit all through the COVID-19 lockdown. A while back, he had provided financial help to 32,000 daily wage workers and helped 90 vertically challenged wage workers associated with All India Special Artistes Association (AISAA), a wing of FWICE.

The superstar had also arranged for food and other resources for the villages around his farmhouse and catered to the needs of around 2500 families.

Follow @News18Lifestyle for more
Ryanair is preparing to slash fares this summer. Photo: Getty

Budget airline Ryanair (RYAAY) has announced plans to slash fares in half to lure passengers from rivals.

Boss Michael O'Leary told The Mail on Sunday he was prepared to operate at a loss over the next year to recover bookings lost during the pandemic.

The chief executive has declared a price war by launching a "pile them high, sell them cheap" sale including flight routes left empty by other airlines.

The aggressive recovery plan is a bold attempt to attract nervous customers after 99% of flights were grounded in March.

Around 1,000 Ryanair flights per day will resume on 1 July, some 40% of its usual capacity.

The price "dump" is aimed at families hoping for a European getaway this summer.

O'Leary said he aims to negotiate with airports and aerospace giant Boeing to secure big savings on landing fees and orders for new planes.

READ MORE: Coronavirus, dire data, geopolitical unrest: Markets brace for turbulence

If successful, the sale will limit the airline's losses to a few hundred million euros.

Irish multi-millionaire O'Leary, told The Mail of Sunday: "We will dump prices to get people moving again. Once we start flying in July, we will sell at whatever price we can to fill as many of those seats as we can."

Last July the average Ryanair fare was 54 ($66.65) to 63 ($77.76) one way with the airline carrying 14 million passengers.

O'Leary said his firm would be "lucky" to carry five million passengers this July and the average fare will be 22 to 27.

Ryanair will fly customers without social distancing on planes and instead passengers and crew will have to wear face masks.

The company, which expects to make a loss of 180m between April and June, has furloughed 80% of its 18,000 staff and received a 600m government backed loan. But it is still set to make 3,000 workers redundant from July and will be asking pilots and cabin crew to accept pay cuts.

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A nation already reeling from a deadly pandemic and a deep economic crisis was further convulsed this week by the death of another black man at the hands of the police. George Floyd, an unarmed black man, was choked to death by an officer in Minneapolis on Memorial Day, one more casualty in a long history of police abuse that has haunted the country for decades.

In New York, the American city that has suffered the heaviest toll from the coronavirus, the grief and anger erupted at weeks end in three days and nights of protest in Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan. Videos showed that police acted not only against the small number of protesters who became violent but also used disproportionate force against peaceful demonstrators, including elected officials.
The director of the Hunterdon County Freeholder Board has sent a letter to Gov. Phil Murphy requesting that New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal allow libraries to distribute books and other items free of contact to patrons.

Library buildings are closed to the public by executive order, but the public should not be cut off from books and other materials," Freeholder Shaun C. Van Doren said in a press release shared with NJ Advance Media on Friday. "The Hunterdon County Library Director and staff have devised a creative way to provide these services while maintaining adherence to social distancing rules.

The Director of Library Law for the New Jersey State Library wrote to New Jersey libraries on May 27 stating that the Office of the Attorney General is enforcing their closure without curbside pickup, according to the release.

Expressing his opposition to this decision, Van Doren emphasized that the Hunterdon County Library system provides a completely no contact pickup program, for which community members schedule appointments to pick up items from the library with no interaction with any staff members or other members of the public.

It is overwhelmingly successful. We are seeing over 300 residents use the service per week, Van Doren said.

Van Doren argued that the no contact program presents even less risk than the curbside pickup process for non-essential businesses."

The Freeholder Board requests that you have the determination by the Attorney General reconsidered, he said.

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.

Caroline Fassett may be reached at cfassett@njadvancemedia.com.
A 14-year-old Iranian girl has reportedly been beheaded in her sleep by her father in a so-called honour killing after police took her back home when she ran away.

The incident took place in Hovigh, in Talesh county, in northern Iran.

According to local media, the young girl named as Romina Ashrafi had run away from home with a man, reported by Iranian outlets as being 35 years old, after her dad opposed them marrying.

The girl was eventually found by police and was later returned home and placed under the care of her father.

According to local media, she was handed over to her dad despite "repeated warnings" that to do so would put her in danger.

Romina Ashrafi, 14, was reportedly beheaded in her sleep allegedly by her father in a so-called honour killing. Source: Australscope/Newsflash

The girl's father allegedly killed her in her sleep by beheading her with a curved blade weapon.

It was reported he then allegedly went to the police station with the murder weapon in his hand and confessed to the crime.

But if convicted he will not be punished by death under Iranian law because he was the girl's guardian.

Meanwhile, Iranian local media has also interviewed the man who the girl ran away with.

They claim he is a 35-year-old man named Bahman.

Reports say the governor of Talesh has confirmed the father, who has not been named, has been arrested.

Speaking to local media, the governor added the details of this case will be made public after the legal process.

While the exact figures for the number of honour killings in Iran are unknown, a police official has previously suggested they make up a fifth of the murder cases in the country.

 Australscope

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The White House announced on Sunday that the U.S. has sent 2 million doses of the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine to Brazil and that 1,000 ventilators will soon be delivered as well as the South American country becomes the new epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic.

The big picture: The situation in Brazil, which has reported over 498,000 cases of COVID-19 and more than 28,000 deaths, is threatening to spiral out of control as far-right President Jair Bolsonaro faces mounting criticism for downplaying the severity of the virus.

Brazil reported a record 33,274 new cases on Saturday as its death toll surpassed France's, ranking fourth in the world behind the U.S., U.K. and Italy.

Trump last week suspended entry of non-U.S. citizens who have been in Brazil within the past 14 days.

Between the lines: Hydroxychloroquine has become a point of heated political debate in President Trump's response to the coronavirus outbreak, as he first touted the drug as a potential "game-changer" and said he was taking it himself as a preventative.

But a large study in The Lancet found an increased risk of heart problems and death among coronavirus patients who took hydroxychloroquine, prompting France to ban use of the drug and the World Health Organization to temporarily suspend a trial.

Anthony Fauci told CNN last week that the scientific data "is really quite evident now about the lack of efficacy" of hydroxychloroquine as a coronavirus treatment.

What they're saying: The White House said in a statement that the drug will "be used as a prophylactic to help defend Brazil's nurses, doctors, and healthcare professionals against the virus."
Srinagar, May 30 (PTI) A core group of security forces in Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday reviewed the prevailing situation in the Valley and discussed measures to effectively deal with various challenges, including the increasing infiltration bids from Pakistan and calibrated increase in terror attacks in the hinterland, said the Army.

In the backdrop of the prevailing situation in Jammu and Kashmir, the General Officer Commanding, Chinar Corps, Lt Gen BS Raju and J&K Director General of Dilbag Singh, co-chaired a meeting of the core group consisting of top officials of the civil administration, intelligence agencies and security forces here, an Army spokesman said.

He said the meeting was to review the security situation and ensure readiness to meet the anticipated security challenges.

The core group focussed on the need for high-level of synergy among all agencies in addressing the security concerns of Kashmir, he said.

Intelligence inputs indicate that Pakistan had intensified its efforts to increase infiltration and ceasefire violations across the Line of Control. There is also an effort to achieve a calibrated increase in terrorist actions in the hinterland. Pakistan and its proxies are also active on social media to launch a disinformation campaign in J-K, the spokesman said.

He said the core group discussed the plans to ensure a robust counter-infiltration grid along the Line of Control and counter-terrorist grid in the hinterland, besides the recent successes in anti-terror operations.

The intelligence inputs indicate efforts by anti-nationals and Pakistan-proxies to resort to a calibrated increase in violence in Jammu and Kashmir. Recent successes including the killings of terror tanzeems (outfit) leaders and prevention of large scale IED attacks have blunted such efforts. The support of the Kashmir people has been critical in the success of the security forces, he said.

The spokesman said the core group discussed the need for continued intelligence-based anti-terror operations with a humane touch.

In order to address the complete eco-system of terror organisations in Jammu and Kashmir, the anti-terror operations are being supported by efforts to identify and arrest over-ground workers who sustain the terror organisations, he said.

During the meeting, Kashmir divisional commissioner apprised the participants of the meeting of the administration's effort to tackle cultivation and trafficking of drugs in the Valley, besides its strive to address the COVID-19 challenge, the spokesman said.

He said at the end of the meeting, the senior commanders expressed satisfaction at the successful handling of the security situation and asked for continued efforts to maintain peace in Jammu and Kashmir. PTI SSB RAX

RAX
The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., seen in Los Angeles in 1965, advocated that a racially divided America come together in community. President Trump stokes divisions. (Los Angeles Times)

Los Angeles, like so many American cities, is on edge. Protests over the police killings of unarmed black civilians have been mostly peaceful, but they were marred Friday night by unfortunate acts of vandalism and looting that damaged downtown businesses, many of them owned by immigrants and people of color . The Los Angeles Police Department has acted with restraint, even as protesters destroyed some of its vehicles Saturday. Mayor Eric Garcetti, who ordered a curfew downtown Saturday, has been a voice of calm and reason.

Not so, alas, President Trump, whose depravity seemingly knows no bounds. In truth, we are tired of condemning him. Chronicling his lies is exhausting. We would rather focus on defeating him in November  an essential (though by no means sufficient) step toward restoring our democracy.

Yet condemn him again we must.

Trumps threats Saturday to unleash vicious dogs and ominous weapons against protesters at the White House; his crude appeal to his Make America Great Again supporters to convene in Washington Saturday night; and his bizarre and offensive statement that MAGA loves the black people all threaten to throw fuel on a powder keg. This is no mere dog-whistling ; it is an all but open invitation to far-right elements and white supremacists to engage in violence.

Furthermore, Trump continues to politicize law enforcement. Saturday, he threatened liberal governors and mayors that if they do not get MUCH tougher, the Federal Government will step in and do what has to be done, and that includes using the unlimited power of our Military and many arrests.

These are the words of an authoritarian. Threatening the use of military force against ones own citizens is the last resort of despots and tyrants; such language has no place in a free and open society.

Across America, governors and mayors are working to keep the peace. This is not a matter of Democrats versus Republicans, blue states versus red states or black lives versus blue lives. This is a matter of what our democracy stands for. Simply throwing more force at the protesters would only make the situation more combustible and deepen the scars it leaves behind.

Story continues

America may be at a tipping point. As a nation, we are mourning the deaths of 100,000 of our people from the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 20% of our work force may be unemployed, the highest rate since the Depression. Tensions are high, with so many Americans having been cooped up in their homes for close to three months. Layered onto that volatile mix is the enduring fact that many people in minority communities do not feel that the police enforce the laws equitably. The shocking death of a black man cruelly restrained by Minneapolis police officers Monday has only worsened the mistrust and anger that have been generations in the making, the bitter fruits of systemic racism.

The protests are being driven by young people  of all ethnic and racial backgrounds  who see a lack of hope and opportunity. They are angry and fearful about the more than four centuries of subjugation that people of African descent have endured in what is now the United States. They were not alive during the 1965 Watts riots or the 1992 disturbances triggered by the acquittal of the LAPD officers who beat Rodney King  and prompted reforms that are still works in progress. They may lack context and perspective, but what they have in abundance is a yearning for a more just and decent society, for a more humane and sustainable economy, and for urgent action to address the climate crisis that threatens all of humanity.

This is a time for Americas leaders to listen to these young people  with compassion, empathy and humility. We condemn violence, but we urge restraint by the authorities and we reject false equivalency. The actions of looters and vandals may grab the attention of TV news crews and embolden Trump, but the misdeeds of a small minority do not justify an excessive or brutal response by the police or the National Guard. Deployment of the active-duty military would be an extraordinary measure, one constrained by federal law; it should be considered only if regular law enforcement has utterly failed. If there are outsiders stoking the disturbances, as Trump and some other leaders have suggested, they should go home  regardless of their political persuasion  and stop exacerbating the situation.

America is on edge. In 1967, a year in which disturbances rocked cities from Detroit to Newark, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. asked, in his fourth and final book: Where do we go from here? Chaos or community? His answer, of course, was community  a beloved community grounded in human dignity, nonviolent social change and the defeat of poverty, racism and militarism. We are called again today to answer his question. Trump has already done grievous injury to the idea of the beloved community; the least he can do is be silent, and not accelerate a slide toward chaos.
The Illinois governor and many others have said they follow the science, so why the masks? Where is the scientific data that show that children have spread the virus? I bet there are few, so why are they required to wear masks, especially two-year-olds?

Do these governors want more healthy people to get sick?

In early March, the CDC, Fauci and other experts said we shouldn't wear masks. So for the first 244 years in America, while we have gone through annual flus, pandemics, pneumonia, respiratory illnesses, etc., we never had to wear oppressive masks until now, yet we thrived, and life expectancy and quality of life improved greatly. We also didn't have to social distance or gather in groups smaller than ten.

We could go to church, restaurants, bars, sporting events, concerts, dentists, hairdressers, department stores, gyms, casinos, work, and we were fine until now, when we have to obey the dictatorial edicts of power-hungry politicians.

When will journalists ask why the governors in Illinois and elsewhere aren't following the science?

Since April 6, the World Health Organization said healthy Americans should not wear masks. We generally hear the dire pronouncements and predictions of the WHO to scare the public, so why has this one been buried? The answer is clearly that it doesn't fit the agenda to scare and control us.

WHO says there is no need for healthy people to wear face masks, days after the CDC told all Americans to cover their faces On April 6, the World Health Organization released new guidance saying that healthy people don't need to wear face masks to prevent coronavirus spread.

Masks should be for the sick, their caretakers, and healthcare workers, the WHO guidance said. ... But new guidance from the World Health Organization released on Monday says healthy people don't need to wear face masks and that doing so won't provide added protection from the coronavirus. There's some evidence that caretakers of infected people can protect their health by wearing masks, the WHO guidance said, but "there is currently no evidence that wearing a mask (whether medical or other types) by healthy persons in the wider community setting, including universal community masking, can prevent them from infection with respiratory viruses, including COVID-19." WHO officials said healthy people who wear masks might touch their own faces more often than necessary, which could increase their risk for COVID-19. Cowling said user error was a potential reason studies have yet to show community masking is effective at preventing disease spread. "Randomized trials don't support a big effect of face masks, but there is the mechanistic plausibility for face masks to work, right? So why not consider it?" Cowling said. "If you don't wear the mask properly, and if there's a lot of chances for you to get infected, then the mask may not do a lot of good."

So far, evidence suggests that the virus does not linger in the air outside hospital settings, where certain procedures, such as intubating a patient, can aerosolize virus particles.

The New England Journal of Medicine also says masks help little, if at all, and we are in little jeopardy walking near people with no mask. Why is this science buried, since all the governors say their rules are based on science? Their rulings are actually based on garbage modeling predictions instead of actual, factual scientific data.

Let's look at the science. According to a new article published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), in public contexts outside of hospitals and other health-care settings, masks offer the wearer and those with whom he or she comes into contact scarce preventive benefit. From "Universal Masking in Hospitals in the Covid-19 Era" We know that wearing a mask outside health care facilities offers little, if any, protection from infection. Public health authorities define a significant exposure to Covid-19 as face-to-face contact within 6 feet with a patient with symptomatic Covid-19 that is sustained for at least a few minutes (and some say more than 10 minutes or even 30 minutes). The chance of catching Covid-19 from a passing interaction in a public space is therefore minimal.

The American people have been indoctrinated by propaganda to scare them into submission and to allow the government to control them while intentionally destroying the economy.

Our freedom, prosperity, and mental and physical health are being threatened every day. Thank goodness we have a president who wants to open and restore the economy, as opposed to the many Democrat governors who want to hold it in depression.
Imperial Valley News Center

President Donald J. Trump Is Protecting America From Chinas Efforts To Steal Technology And Intellectual Property

Washington, DC - "Protecting the innovations, creations, and inventions that power our country are vital to our economic prosperity and national security." ~ President Donald J. Trump

SAFEGUARDING NATIONAL SECURITY: President Donald J. Trump is dismantling Chinas ability to use graduate students to steal intellectual property and technology from the United States.

President Trump has issued a proclamation to block certain graduate level and above Chinese nationals associated with entities in China that implement or support Chinas Military-Civil Fusion (MCF) strategy, from using F or J visas to enter the United States.

Chinas theft of American technology, intellectual property, and research threatens the safety, security, and economy of the United States.

Todays actions will not affect students who come to the United States for legitimate reasons. Affected students are those who have been employed by or who studied or researched with Chinese entities that support Chinas MCF strategy.



PRESERVING AMERICAN SUPERIORITY: President Trump is ensuring that our Nation remains militarily and technologically dominant.

The United States is the leading innovator of next-generation technologies, including those with military applications.

Chinas MCF strategy is an attempt to develop the most technologically advanced military in the world by any means necessary, including by co-option and coercion.

Through Chinas MCF strategy, the Peoples Liberation Army is using certain Chinese students and researchers to steal American technological secrets and innovations.

China should not be permitted to advance its military development through access to our Nations educational and research centers.

President Trump is preventing China from acquiring critical American technologies that could boost its military and threaten our national security interests, by suspending and limiting the entry into the United States of high-risk students and researchers from China.

KEEPING PERSISTENT PRESSURE ON CHINA: Todays action is the latest example of President Trumps commitment to preventing China from taking advantage of the United States.
Some Waco teachers could be close to earning 6-figure salaries as soon as next year, with a funding boost from a school finance reform package the state Legislature approved last year.

Both the Waco Independent School District and its in-district partner that operates five schools, Transformation Waco, plan to take part in the states teacher incentive allotment, a new funding source benefiting high-performing teachers in economically disadvantaged and rural areas.

Transformation Waco is a year ahead of Waco ISD in the process of participating in the teacher incentive allotment and could see money from the state as soon as fall 2021, if the state approves its teacher evaluation methods, Talent Development Executive Director John Jenkins said.

Under the school finance reform law that advanced as House Bill 3, districts will get between $3,000 and $32,000 in additional funding for every designated teacher they employ, according to the Texas Education Agency. Districts will receive more money for designated teachers at rural or economically disadvantaged campuses, and at least 90% of the funds must go toward teacher compensation on the campus where the designated teacher works.
A former Minister and Vice Chancellor of the Ahmadu Bello University, ABU, Zaria, Professor Ango Abdullahi has said that Olusegun Obasan...

A former Minister and Vice Chancellor of the Ahmadu Bello University, ABU, Zaria, Professor Ango Abdullahi has said that Olusegun Obasanjo is a far more better President than Muhammadu Buhari.





Abdullahi, who is the current Chairman of the Northern Elders Forum, NEF, also pointed out that President Buhari delegates power to other people who probably have no qualification and competence to execute the duties of their offices.





NEF Chairman noted that Obasanjos presidency was able to make decisions and took responsibilities, qualities, according to him, the Buhari administration lacked.





I would say that he [Buhari] delegates power to other people who probably have no qualification and competence to execute the duties of their offices. They may also have no mandate to execute those powers delegated to them, Daily Trust quoted Abdullahi.





The presidential powers that are enshrined in the constitution are entailing the responsibilities of a person who offered himself for election, as Buhari did.





Eventually, he emerged as the president and therefore those powers are exclusively his own powers. All he needs to do is to ensure that those powers are executed in the expectation of the people of the country.





According to him, it is true Buhari cannot do everything all alone but there are responsibilities and functions that are totally his.





He said unfortunately, the President had failed to gather the necessary materials with which to carry out the duties and functions of the President and had also put together poor quality of people either as Ministers and other positions.





I have worked with only one of the presidents. I worked with Obasanjo for three years. Of course, Obasanjo was a better president.





I ranked Obasanjo far better president than Buhari. This is because of his ability to take on the duties of president whether sometimes right or wrong.





The critical job of the president is to take decision. Some of the decisions may be right, while others may be wrong. The most important thing is that there must be somebody who takes decisions and take responsibility.





This is where Obasanjo excelled. He took decision and took responsibility. This is the major difference between Obasanjos presidency and that of Buhari, he said.




Saudi Muslim worshippers maintain a safe distance as they perform noon prayers at Al-Rajhi mosque in the capital Riyadh on Sunday

Mask-clad worshippers flocked to Saudi mosques that reopened nationwide Sunday -- except in the holy city of Mecca -- over two months after congregational prayers were halted under a coronavirus-triggered lockdown.

Complying with stringent social distancing rules, worshippers kept a minimum of two metres apart.

They had been instructed to bring their own prayer mats and to perform the cleansing ritual, or ablution, at home, instead of in mosque grounds.

"Worshippers rushed to the home of God to perform their obligatory duty (prayers) after the reopening of mosques," the ministry of Islamic affairs said on Twitter.

The ministry posted a video showing a mosque with many worshippers wearing face masks and reaching out for a large bottle of hand sanitiser after prayers.

Authorities have instructed mosques to avoid crowding and the distribution of food, drinks, incense and miswak twigs used to clean teeth, according to the ministry.

But some complained that worshippers were not strictly complying with the rules.

A Saudi medical worker checks the temperatures of worshippers upon their arrival at Al-Rajhi mosque on Sunday

"I prayed, praise be to God, in the neighbourhood mosque... and it was a beautiful feeling," said one Twitter user.

"But I swear to God that some people do not care about anything. No face mask. No rug."

- Easing curbs -

Saudi Arabia, home to Islam's holiest sites, had shut down mosques nationwide for more than two months to limit the spread of the COVID-19 respiratory disease.

The kingdom, which has reported the highest number of coronavirus cases in the Gulf, is emerging from a full nationwide curfew imposed during Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim holiday that marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.

Domestic air traffic also resumed on Sunday, with state media saying around 100 flights were scheduled.

The interior ministry intends to ease restrictions in a phased manner, with the curfew lifted nationwide -- except in Mecca -- between 6:00am and 8:00pm (0300 GMT and 1700 GMT) until June 20.

The kingdom will lift the lockdown entirely from June 21, Mecca aside.

In Mecca, a virus hotspot, the curfew will be lifted between 6:00am and 3:00pm until June 20, and thereafter the curfew will be shortened by a further five hours.

Saudi Arabia has reported more than 85,000 coronavirus infections and 503 deaths from COVID-19.

In March, it suspended the year-round "umrah" pilgrimage over fears of the disease spreading in the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.

That suspension will remain in place until further notice, the interior ministry said.

Authorities are yet to announce whether they will proceed with this year's hajj -- scheduled for late July -- but they have urged Muslims to temporarily defer preparations for the annual pilgrimage.

Last year, some 2.5 million faithful travelled to Saudi Arabia from around the world to participate in the hajj, which Muslims are obliged to perform at least once during their lifetime.

Mecca's Grand Mosque has been almost devoid of worshippers since March, with an eerie emptiness surrounding the sacred Kaaba -- the large cube-shaped structure towards which Muslims around the world pray.

But mosque employees and security personnel have been allowed to attend prayers.
No evidence was found to back up allegations of bribery against Japanese plastic maker Tenma and Vietnamese officials.

Japanese plastic producer Tenma, which has a local office in the northern province of Bac Ninh, has been investigated for allegedly paying JYP25 million ($215,000) in bribes to some local tax officials to lower its tax liabilities in 2017 and 2019.

Pham The Tung, director of Bac Ninh Police Department, said that the tax scandal has been thoroughly investigated. However, they have found no evidence of bribery.

Meanwhile, local authorities were not able to meet Tenma Vietnams CEO since he was not in Vietnam at the moment.

Eleven customs and tax officials in Bac Ninh province have been suspended for 15 days for the duration of the investigation. The Ministry of Finance also formed an investigation team to work on the reports.

According to Japanese newswire Asahi, the bribe had been approved by the Tenma headquarters in Japan, particularly by chairman Kento Fujino.

Notwithstanding, Bac Ninh customs and tax officials have denied the allegations, claiming that Tenma, since it processes for export, is eligible for zero import and value-added tax duties, and so the allegations are baseless, according to Tuoi Tre.

Ngo Xuan Tong, director of Bac Ninh Tax Department, said that the tax evasion was only a report from Japanese media and has not been confirmed by the Vietnamese side. Tenma Vietnams chief accountant outright refused the allegations.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc also confirmed that Vietnam has been verifying the allegations of Tenma, with co-operation from the Japanese side.

"If the reports are true, these officials must be punished to create a transparent and fair business environment and to prevent tax losses," Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said in a release on the governments website.

"The information of Tenma bribing Vietnamese officials came from Japan, so we need international co-ordination to investigate this case," To Lam, Vietnams Minister of Public Security, said on the sidelines of a parliament session in Hanoi.

To Lam, Vietnams Minister of Public Security, said Vietnam authorities are investigating the tax bribery case with the Japanese side

Earlier this month, at the shareholders' meeting in June, Tenma Corporations CEO announced resigning amidst the tax scandal. Tenma has not yet disclosed who would take over as the next CEO.

At the moment, Tenma is being closely investigated for bribing foreign officials and violating the competition law in Japan. VIR

Minh Luu

Eleven officials suspended for alleged bribery at Tenma Vietnam Eleven Vietnamese officials involved in tax and post-customs clearance inspections at Tenma Vietnam have been suspended from work for being implicated in alleged bribery.
SEOUL, May 31 (Reuters) - South Korea is aware of U.S. President Donald Trump's invitation to Seoul to join this year's Group of Seven summit and will discuss the matter with the United States, a government official told Reuters on Sunday.

Trump said on Saturday that he is postponing until September the G7 summit that had been scheduled for late June, and that he wants to invite Australia, Russia, South Korea and India to the meeting. (Reporting by Hyonhee Shin, Writing by Joori Roh; Editing by William Mallard)
The 'new normal' is a phrase we'll soon grow sick of, but what will it mean? It could be the end of pubs as we know them and hot-desking office spaces. It could be the start of wearing masks on public transport, using hand sanitisers as you walk into shops, and an increase in online shopping.

One of the biggest changes has been a move to remote working. Many have had to adapt quickly to what always seemed to be the next big thing, but had never really taken off. Now that it has been forced on recalcitrant employers and uncertain workers, it is unlikely that work will go back to what it was.

This will present challenges for people. Living in small city centre flats will be even less attractive if your commute to work is a one metre step from your bed to your desk. That might lead to a demand for bigger homes, with space for offices and balconies. The old solutions to the housing crisis - building smaller, more affordable units, such as co-living - might create new problems.

But the move to the 'new normal' also provides opportunities to solve old problems. Since Sean Lemass came to office in 1959 there have been concerns over the decline in small Irish towns and villages. Journalist John Healy described the decline of rural Ireland in his book on Charlestown, Co Mayo, No One Shouted Stop, in 1968.

Even as the Irish economy boomed, small towns in Ireland complained that they could no longer field a full Gaelic team, and when that turned to bust after 2008, things got worse. The last few Daileanna has seen the rise in rural independents, but they have failed to halt the decline - the closure of garda stations, post offices, shops, pubs and schools, and the exodus to cities and abroad.

Solutions offered by rural TDs usually focus on connectivity: improve the roads and deliver rural broadband. In the post-Covid-19 world these will continue to be important, but they won't be enough, and if done badly could wreck those towns.

Remote working will provide an opportunity to reinvigorate small towns and villages in ways that rural development campaigners could only dream of. Now that remote working has become normal, it will stay normal.

A lot of people will prefer to move to rural towns and villages where they will be able to afford bigger homes, than if they stay in or near Dublin. Dublin's high rents, poor public transport, expensive bars, cafes and restaurants will make living in rural Ireland more attractive, and now possible. If people are expected to come to their office just once or twice a month, even long journeys to work will be manageable.

But this won't happen by itself. Or if it does happen by itself, it could end up creating new problems for rural Ireland. Many of the rural TDs most vocal on the issue have been insistent in the right of people to build anything anywhere on their own land. This as much as anything has damaged rural towns which are dead after 6pm as people retreat to their homes 'out the road'.

The ribbon development along roads blights the landscape, erasing the distinction between town and country, making it harder for pubs to survive and more expensive for other services, such as bin collection to be sustained.

The Government and other rural towns can learn from places like Dingle and Westport, which have thrived despite their relative isolation. Dingle could hardly be more remote, yet it is full of life, and probably a place in which many more people would choose to live. The advantage these towns have is that people live within them.

Dingle is probably helped by its geography, couched between high mountains and the sea, forcing most development to stay inside the town. Westport took a deliberate decision to keep people living in the town, and to push cars out of the town centre.

So rural towns should be forced to only allow development within the towns, keeping people within the towns. The Government could encourage this with its rural broadband programme. At the moment it is promising to deliver broadband to everyone's doorstep regardless of where you live. This is adding greatly to its cost.

In other countries rural broadband programmes bring the cables to boxes in the town, and the subscriber pays a small amount to get it to their door. This will encourage more people to stay in the rural towns, and avoid the retreat to the countryside that kills many towns.

Remote working is often assumed to mean home working. But it need not be. Most people want to put space between our office and our home. We have discovered that it's hard to work when kids are screaming in the background. We also miss the social aspect of work, having coffee with colleagues.

The Government could help towns develop work hubs with all the services you'd expect in your office, high-speed broadband, printing facilities, maybe some shared meeting rooms, and other people that you can meet and chat with.

Other services should be designed to make it easier for people living in rural Ireland. It may not matter if the cancer service is 100km away if routine consultations can be done online and local primary health centres can do some of the tasks like administering blood tests.

A push to remote working will help those who cannot work remotely. Teachers, nurses, shop assistants, cleaners, gardai who have to turn up for work might find that their rents are cheaper, as many of the office blocks might be converted for housing. They could find their commutes are more pleasant and less traffic-choked.

It just needs someone to shout 'start'.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-31 20:08:47|Editor: huaxia

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TEHRAN, May 31 (Xinhua) -- Iran's new Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf on Sunday ruled out the likelihood of talks with United States, saying the negotiations with Washinton is not for the interests of the country, state TV reported.

The Iranian parliament considers the negotiations and compromise with the United States as "futile and harmful," he said.

He stressed the strategic policy of the Islamic republic is to expel the U.S. forces from the region.

"The new parliament regards the fight against the world arrogance as an ideological cause and a strategic interest of Iran," Qalibaf was also quoted as saying by Tasnim news agency.

On Thursday, the new parliament meeting, dominated by the principlists, elected Qalibaf overwhelmingly as the new speaker. Enditem
An estimated 5,000 demonstrators marched through the streets of downtown San Antonio on Saturday evening to protest the death of George Floyd, an unarmed African-American man who died after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes.

Although the march largely was peaceful, protesters afterward smashed windows and clashed with police in streets near Alamo Plaza. Officers fired tear gas to scatter protesters massed at North Alamo and East Houston streets. Elsewhere, police fired pepper-spray projectiles.

Visit ExpressNews.com to see more photos from the night.
Tony Hetherington is Financial Mail on Sunday's ace investigator, fighting readers corners, revealing the truth that lies behind closed doors and winning victories for those who have been left out-of-pocket. Find out how to contact him below.

Mrs C.D. writes: Congratulations on last Sunday's report about the rejection of the pub owner's claim under his business interruption insurance with Lloyd's of London. We are in the same position.

We own a small village pub in Devon. As the Government ordered pubs to close, we made a claim under our policy with New India Assurance. Our business interruption cover applies when there is an outbreak of any notifiable disease except Aids within 25 miles.

The policy is unambiguous but our claim has been rejected. I paid a lot in premiums to ensure we could survive, and now I wonder what I really paid for.

Barred: Insurers are rejecting claims over pubs closed by virus crisis. Our report last week (see link below)

Although its roots are in Mumbai, the New India Assurance company has been operating in Britain since 1920. It has a number of offices including one at  guess where  the Lloyd's of London building. Your policy is signed by Mrs Neerja Kapur, the chief executive of New India in Britain. It says you are insured against loss of income resulting from 'any occurrence of a notifiable disease within a radius of 25 miles of the premises'.

But when you lodged a claim after the Government shut down your pub, Ajul Raj, a branch manager with the insurance company, told you that your pub had not suffered any losses because of Covid-19 itself.

He wrote: 'We do not know whether there has in fact been an occurrence of a Notifiable Disease within the 25-mile radius of the premises.' (Yes, there has.)

Raj explained that your losses were all the fault of trading restrictions that the Government said were 'in response to the serious and imminent threat to public health'. Those restrictions applied nationally, and did not identify your pub, your village, or any part of Devon, nor did they mention any specific cases of Covid-19 in your area.

His reading of your policy is that it could only apply if the Government had specifically identified Covid-19 in your area or at your pub, and had revealed those details to close your doors. The fact that without Covid-19 there would have been no closure order and no business interruption does not seem to count.

To me, this is like saying that on a night in 1912 in the Atlantic, more than a thousand people drowned because they could not swim, while failing to mention that they were passengers on the Titanic. If the ship had not sunk, they would have lived. And if the virus had not struck, your pub would be open for business. It is cause and effect. But to New India and Ajul Raj, the two seem completely unrelated.

However, the real giveaway line in Raj's letter almost amounts to a confession.

He claims: 'New India's policies were not designed to respond in the event of a worldwide pandemic such as Covid-19.'

I asked him and his boss Neerja Kapur to show me where your policy sets out this exclusion. They did not respond.

In a nutshell then, they wrote the policy, they sold the policy, and they had every opportunity to spell out that it would not apply in the case of a pandemic, but they failed to do so. They sold you a policy with what amounts to a secret exclusion, and since there was no way that you could know that claims in a pandemic would be refused, I believe this should operate in your favour and not theirs.

And this is before we unpick the completely impractical picture painted by New India that means you could have claimed if Prime Minister Boris Johnson had issued exactly the same restrictions but had named your pub in his announcement.

Your pub is not alone in this. Insurers all over the country are turning down claims. I am hearing that some have even used the 25-miles rule to say that claims are disallowed if there are Covid19 cases outside the 25-mile radius as well as inside.

The Financial Conduct Authority plans to ask the High Court to look over the most common wording used in business interruption policies and rule on exactly what it means.

I hope a judgment does not come too late for the pub industry and the huge number of jobs involved. When the history of these days is written, it is already clear that large parts of the insurance industry will stand condemned.

Tiny slip could have cost 10,000

M.M. writes: I attempted to transfer 10,000 from NatWest to top up my Isa with Crowd2fund. However, I made a one digit error with the sort code.

When I realised this, I went to my NatWest branch and pointed out that the recipient's account could not have been in the name of Crowd2fund, so the transfer should have failed.

But NatWest told me it relies only on sort codes and account numbers.

Slip-up: NatWest says it relies only on sort codes and account numbers

When banks began to ignore names on cheques and transfers some years ago, I warned it would be disastrous. Since then customers have lost millions of pounds because it is so easy to make a mistake when entering a six digit sort code and typically an eight digit account number. The big banks have now finally brought back name checks.

When I pressed NatWest, the bank revealed that your 10,000 had ended up in Luxembourg. You then remembered that Crowd2fund used to use a Luxembourg bank. Sure enough your cash was there. Crowd2fund itself managed to recover the money from its dead account.

NatWest said it was your mistake and 'customers should be very careful in entering account details for payees, as once funds have left their account, they can be very difficult to retrieve.'

M&S must give credit where credit's due

B.S. writes: I have a Marks & Spencer credit note that expires soon. I tried to use it online, but it was not accepted.

M&S told me the expiry date would only be extended in exceptional circumstances.

Obviously the Covid-19 crisis does not count.

Web of intrigue: Credit notes can only be spent in stores, and its clothes stores are closed

Your credit note can only be spent in a store, and its clothes stores are closed. But when you emailed M&S it replied that the expiry date appears on the credit note and 'we are bound to follow the terms and conditions'. Surely though, those terms and conditions assume that an M&S store will be open so you can shop?

I contacted the store group's head office, where staff told me they are working on a case by case basis with customers, and despite what you were told, they will extend expiry dates. With your permission, I gave them your phone number and within hours they called you and offered to swap your 35 credit note for a 55 gift card valid for two years and worth 55. You accepted.

If you believe you are the victim of financial wrongdoing, write to Tony Hetherington at Financial Mail, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TS or email tony.hetherington@mailonsunday.co.uk. Because of the high volume of enquiries, personal replies cannot be given. Please send only copies of original documents, which we regret cannot be returned.
MAYOR QUINTON LUCAS BETRAYED KANSAS CITY WITH HIS APOLOGETIC AND SOFT RESPONSE TO RIOTERS WHO TERRORIZED THE PLAZA LAST NIGHT!!!

It's unfortunate that fights betwixt protesters, shooting and vandalism overshadowed demands for police accountability and longstanding complaints challenging racism.

Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas to protesters: 'Make sure your message is heard right' The second day of protests at the Country Club Plaza in Kansas City over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis earlier this week started out peaceful.By 10 p.m. Saturday night, Kansas City police said several violent groups of protesters had thrown bottles and rocks, blocked streets, looted businesses and set fire to a police cruiser near a parking garage.

KC mayor says violent protesters distract from talking about real message after George Floyd's death KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Protests in Kansas City, Missouri on Friday night went from mostly peaceful to a considerably different tone Saturday night with people throwing rocks at police officers and into businesses and setting a police vehicle on fire.

KC Mayor urges peaceful demonstrations after Saturday's unrest KANSAS CITY, Mo. - After a peaceful protest turned violent Saturday night in Kansas City, Missouri, the mayor called for protesters to peacefully share their message Sunday. A new protest is expected to take place Sunday afternoon on the Country Club Plaza, the same location where police said at least 50 people were arrested, 10 were injured and businesses bore the brunt of property destruction.

Every voter in Kansas City knows that Mayor Quinton Lucas has a bright future ahead of him.The ambitious politico is a future congressman and D.C. power player. This cowtown has always been just one aspect of the upward trajectory of a truly intelligent and skilled future statesman.Nevertheless . . .A simple look at the scene reveals that this violence was only marginally related to "social justice" and at the end of fracas, the mob was simply in a grudge match with each other, police and property owners.Still . . .The elected leader Kansas City making excuses for burned cars, broken glass and gunfire on local streets betrays voters, taxpayers and residents who deserve more credible leadership in a crisis.Even worse, his lack of commitment to fight violence and stand up to criminals has endangered Kansas City and brings us to a point where homicides are on a record-breaking pace.Check the links:You decide . . .
It sounds as if these periodic meetings between your wife and her friend have been going on during most of - and perhaps your entire  relationship. Perhaps you dont think that married people should have one-on-one meetings with people of the opposite sex. Did you think marriage would affix a golden handcuff to you and your wife? It doesnt work like that.
Eleven people who returned to Tripura from Chennai recently tested positive for COVID-19, taking the total number of cases in the state to 282, Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb said on Sunday.

Of the total cases, 172 people have recovered and discharged from hospitals, officials said.

The chief minister said, "810 samples have been tested for COVID-19 in Tripura since last night, out of which 11 were found positive. All of them had returned from Chennai."

Most of the fresh cases in the recent times have been detected among those who returned from outside the state, including Bangladesh, officials said.

READ | Chief Nurse Of RGGH Dies In Chennai, Hospital Dean Denies COVID-19 As Cause Of Death

READ | Passenger Ship Service From Chennai To Andaman Resumes After Nearly Two Months
When someone steps in front of the security camera at Griffith Security, a green square appears around their head on the live video. The persons temperature pops up in bold block letters in just seconds.

If its a normal temperature, nothing happens. But a fever sets off alerts. The temperature turns red, a light flashes on the camera, an alert can sound and an email alert with a photo of the person running a fever can be sent to others.

Britt Griffith, owner of Griffith Security, sees the thermal imaging camera as the way of the future. Companies in the area are already jumping on the idea, Griffith said.

This technology is pretty neat and I can see it being the new normal going forward, he said.

For large employers, the camera can be used to monitor employees and visitors as they enter the business. The technology allows the employer to recognize people running a fever and stop them from working with and being close to hundreds of other people. The camera could be the early detection that stops a COVID-19 outbreak, Griffith said.

These businesses are trying to minimize it (COVID-19) as best they can, he said. It can cause some major financial difficulties.
China honored ten research teams and 286 sci-tech workers on the nation's sci-tech workers' day, which falls on Saturday.

Ten groups, including the team on the third-generation of semiconductor (gallium nitride), were given the "scientific innovation and advancement award" medals.

A total of 28 people, including several researchers who made contributions to the fight against the COVID-19 epidemic, were awarded with badges, while another 258 sci-tech workers were awarded with certificates.

Wan Gang, chairman of the China Association for Science and Technology, said that since the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic, China's sci-tech workers have been fighting on the front line of the epidemic prevention and control and providing support to win the battle.

He expressed the hope that sci-tech workers will forge ahead through creation, innovation and entrepreneurship.

The award, first issued in 2017, is given once every three years. Two special sections of "epidemic prevention and control" and "poverty alleviation" were set up for this year's award.
<! SlimCase-Tina- >

By Michael Adesina and Taiwo Okanlawon

Indigenous artiste, Oluwafemi Oladapo, popularly known as Slimcase, is currently under fire over his comment about the death of Tina Ezekwe, the 17-year-old who was on Tuesday killed by a trigger-happy policeman in Lagos.

The 34-year-old had on Saturday on Instagram implied that he would rather focus on the death of American, George Floyd, a victim of police brutality in the United States which e described as a global pandemic, and leave the issue of Ms Ezekwes death to local news platform.

Justice for Tina became a trending topic after a trigger-happy police officer aimed at a bus diver who he was trying to arrest for violating curfew and in the process mistakenly shot the unarmed teenager who happened to be nearby.

On May 25, Minneapolis resident George Floyd was pinned facedown on the ground, in handcuffs, by a white police officer who pressed his knee against Floyds neck for more than eight minutes. Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, was suspected of passing a counterfeit $20 bill.

He was unresponsive when paramedics arrived, and he was pronounced dead later.

However, attack on Slimcase started when he tweeted a picture of George Floyd writing: FAME AFTER DEATH any positive blow wey I gats blow God Let me blow am now that I am alive not after I am dead ? ? George A sacrifice for d change in black history #blacklivesmatters

An Instagram user then responded, demanding to know why celebrities usually jump on issues abroad and turn a blind eye to issue that happens in their country.

The follower wrote; Na America matter una always dey carry for head, why you no post that 16 years old girl police shoot for Lagos. Abi them never settle the girl matter finish?

Slimcase then replied; We are talking about a global pandemic here. Leave the Lagos girl for Channels to talk about.

However, Twitter users have expressed outrage over Slimcasess now-deleted comment.

See some reactions;

@drpenking: A pandemic is a DISEASE occurring over a wide geographic area and affecting an exceptionally high proportion of the population. Apart from being insensitive, Slimcase thinks that George s death is a pandemic Clown faceClown faceClown face. It is a National embarrassment to be both INSENSITIVE and DUMB.

@bratty_nono: The Lagos culture is why agberos like Slimcase, Naira Marley and Zlatan have a voice today This is Lagos, shine your eye a phrase that justifies irrational behaviour all in the name of being streetwise..hence thuggery and hooliganism have been enshrined and even glorified.

@EdmundOris: The more I read that Slimcase comment, the more disgusted I get. How foolish can one be? Nobody is saying dont demand justice for George. But leave the Lagos girl for channels Misplaced priorities. Same Lagos girl thatll play your music, come for your concert, Lagos girl.

@Baldilocks__: I cant get over the fact that Slimcase literally said, leave the Lagos girl for channels to talk about. That Lagos girl was Tina who was gunned down by the police in Nigeria. Its one thing to be more interested in the injustice in the faraway US. Its another thing to be daft.
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Duke Energy CEO: Offshore Wind Potential at Least 10 Years Away
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-31 20:57:40|Editor: huaxia

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TOKYO, May 31 (Xinhua) -- The Japanese government has no immediate plan to reinstate a state of emergency for the capital of Tokyo and Fukuoka Prefecture despite an increase of COVID-19 cases in the two areas recently, Economic Revitalization Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura said on Sunday.

Nishimura, also minister in charge of the government's response to the pandemic, told the public broadcaster NHK that he did not expect the number of new infections to rise quickly as Japan restarted its economy, adding that he would continue to monitor the situation closely.

The city of Kitakyushu in Fukuoka Prefecture has been hit by a second wave of coronavirus infections, after a recent spike in new COVID-19 cases led to the government deploying its cluster response team to the city.

In Tokyo, the epicenter of Japan's outbreak, the daily infection rate has been in double digits for several days since Tuesday when the government completely lifted the state of emergency.

According to the latest figures from the health ministry and local authorities on Sunday, the confirmed COVID-19 cases in Japan increased by 35 to reach 16,912.

The number excludes the 712 cases from the Diamond Princess cruise ship that was quarantined in Yokohama near Tokyo.

Meanwhile, the death toll in Japan from the pneumonia-causing virus currently stands at a total of 910, according to the health ministry, with the figure including those from the cruise ship.

In Tokyo, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases has increased by five to reach 5,236, followed by Osaka Prefecture with 1,783 infections.

Kanagawa Prefecture, meanwhile, has recorded 1,367 infections, Hokkaido 1,091 cases, Saitama 1,000, Chiba 902, while Fukuoka Prefecture has recorded 758 cases of COVID-19, according to the latest figures on Sunday.

The health ministry said there are currently a total of 120 patients considered severely ill and are on ventilators or in intensive care units.

The ministry also said that in total, 15,113 people, including 654 from the cruise ship, have been discharged from hospitals after their symptoms improved. Enditem
London  29 May 2020

For some online start-ups in Africa like Jumia, the Covid-19 lockdown has presented both opportunities and challenges. For others, it has created difficult setbacks that have taken time to negotiate. Earlier in May we spoke to Johnny Enagwolor, co-founder and Managing Director of transport start-up Plentywaka, a premium bus hailing service.

The idea for the bus services Plentywaka runs came out of bitter personal experience:"I saw the problems ravaging the whole transportation system in Lagos. One day I was going for an interview a year ago. I waited one hour for a bus with a group of 30 people. I struggled to get on the bus and got one of three seats left. I got to my drop-off bus stop and as I got off part of the bus tore my jacket. There's a lack of comfort and safety. Over 11 million people go through issues like this on a daily basis. There's also 2.5 million people who use cars every day but don't want to use them".

He sat down with a friend and had a brainstorm about how they might change things:"I thought what if we have a system where you can book your place on the bus online from the comfort of your own home. How can we come up with a solution that will work? What will it take? We brainstormed the idea and came up with a solution that allowed payment through a mobile wallet".

The pricing sits between using an Uber and the ordinary Lagos bus and is aimed squarely at millenials and the middle classes. Depending on your journey, an Uber might cost you N1500 on a daily basis, a Plentywaka journey N500-600 and a cheaper bus N350-400.

Plentywaka was established in September 2019 and has, between a period of eight months, acquired a total of 51 vehicles, while moving over 2000+ riders daily on 7 routes with 100,000+ completed ride bookings, and 38,000+ downloads on its mobile app, earning N550,000 daily:" "We want to grow the numbers and provide a better user experience. We will increase fares gradually but we did free rides for 2 months to get people familiar with the product".

"We suspended operations for 4-5 weeks and now have 8 riders on board to maintain social distancing. We have to adhere to the guidelines. The truth is that Covid-19 has reduced the numbers using public buses. We need to strictly follow the guidelines to prevent further spread".

To survive, Plentywaka has had to put in place a whole series of new operating procedures:

- All buses were cleaned and fumigated to ensure that they were germ and virus free.

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- The new service includes a reduced capacity and transporting schedule of 06:00 - 18:00, commuting only 8 riders (passengers) on the 14 seater buses and 16 riders on the 28 seater buses.

- A temporary increase in fares of between 20-25% has been applied to manage the limited-service being offered.

- Plentywaka's preventative measures at the beginning of the pandemic in Lagos (i.e. placing hand sanitizers on buses upon boarding) will be continued. Disinfectant wipes and towels will also be used to clean the seats at regular intervals and in preparation for the following days' service.

- Plentywaka pilots (drivers) and vehicle assistants have been instructed to wear face masks and gloves at all times. Riders will be encouraged to do the same.

While in transit, air conditioning will be turned off and riders with visible signs of illness will not be allowed on board.

In order to survive the challenges of Covid-19, it has announced an expansion of their services, the Plentywaka Staff Bus Solutions and it has also boosted its number of routes from 5 to seven:"Company staff will be able to book online and the company can either have a monthly or yearly subscription."
Roland Berger also told of heartbreaking visits to his father in Gestapo detention and said his father was later held at Dachau, the notorious concentration camp near Munich.

Parts of that story were true, and some were not, according to Mr. Wolffsohn.

Georg Berger did not resign his post with the Hitler Youth until September 1939, nearly a year after Kristallnacht. After a stint managing a factory that produced a kind of cracker, Mr. Berger became director of Ankerbrotfabrik, at the time Europes largest bakery, in Vienna. The appointment in 1941 was an indication that Mr. Berger was still well regarded by the regime. The bakery, as well as a villa in Vienna rented by the Berger family, had earlier been seized from Jewish owners.

Mr. Wolffsohn said that Georg Berger played no role in stealing Jewish property and, on the contrary, had tried to protect the interests of the former owners of the bakery, who were members of a Jewish family who had fled to Switzerland.

The owners sold their shares in the bakery to a German businessman living in Switzerland. The businessman was in all likelihood a frontman for the original owners, Mr. Wolffsohn said, and after the war sold the bakery company back to the family for a modest price.

Georg Berger resisted attempts by local Nazis to take full control of the bakery, though it was unclear whether his motives were altruistic or tactical. But Mr. Bergers stance appears to have angered the party. In 1942, he was fired as head of the bakery after the Gestapo searched the family residence and accused Mr. Berger of hoarding rationed items like butter, eggs and soap.

Mr. Wolffsohn said that the accusation of hoarding was probably a pretense. Denunciation was a commonly used weapon in the bureaucratic power struggles that permeated the Nazi regime.

Mr. Wolffsohn also found documents to bolster a poignant story that Roland Berger often told about visiting his father on his birthday in a Gestapo jail in Munich.
Jackson County Sheriff Darryl Forte said he understands "the rationale" for protesters speaking out against the death of Minneapolis' George Floyd. "I'm an African American male, born and raised in Kansas City, and I've been racially profiled myself," Forte said, "and so I understand the frustration level.
At least six people were killed on Sunday when a minibus struck a roadside bomb near the Somali capital Mogadishu, police and witnesses said.

The vehicle was carrying passengers, mostly from the same extended family, from the city to a funeral in a nearby town, when it hit the explosive at Hawa Abdi village, 19 kilometres northwest of Mogadishu.

"So far we know the blast killed six people and injured others... The death toll may rise," Farah Hassan, a police officer told Reuters.

The road is used frequently by government and security vehicles.

"I carried four dead people including my father in law," Nur Haji Ahmed told Reuters from Madina hospital in Mogadishu, where the injured were taken. He had rushed to the scene after a phone call from a relative.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack from any group.

Somalia has been mired in conflict since 1991, when clan warlords overthrew dictator Siad Barre and then turned on each other.

Since 2008, the Islamist militant group al Shabaab has been fighting to overthrow Somalia's central government and establish its own rule based on its own harsh interpretation of Islam's sharia law.

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TONIGHT IT SEEMS LIKE KCPD ARE CRACKING DOWN ON PLAZA PROTESTERS AND CORRALLING THEM INTO MILL CREEK PARK AROUND JC NICHOLS FOUNTAIN!!!

There have already been a few arrests and protesters are throwing water bottles at police.

Mayor Lucas Hopes Protesters Will Stop Destroying Property

'Stay peaceful': Kansas City mayor passionately condemns protest vandalism KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Mayor Quinton Lucas, while participating in a protest on May 30 over the death of George Floyd, condemned protesters involved in vandalism.

Saturday Night Special

Kansas Citians Take To The Streets For A Second Night Of Protest Over The Death Of George Floyd A protest planned for Saturday evening beginning at 5 p.m. got off to an early start by the J.C. Nichols Fountain on the Country Club Plaza, with at least two arrests reported before the official start time.

Plaza stores board up ahead of possible protests

Live blog: Mayor Lucas says he is 'proud' of KC's protesters KANSAS CITY, Mo. - People are taking to the streets across the nation to protest the death of Geroge Floyd. 5:53 p.m. | More businesses have been boarded up as a precaution. 5:48 p.m. | Some protesters threw water bottles at police and were escorted away in zip ties.

Newspaper Reports "Alternative Facts" In Their Local Protest Coverage

Protests in Kansas City on Friday and Saturday not perfect, but went relatively well A protester confronted a Kansas City police officer during a gathering to protest the death of George Floyd Friday at the Country Club Plaza in Kansas City. Protests have been erupting all over the country after Floyd died earlier this week in police custody in Minneapolis.

Meanwhile Back In Reality

Several protesters arrested in Kansas City, business windows and police cars smashed by: FOX 4 Newsroom Posted: / Updated: KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Several protesters were arrested on May 30 during protests over the death of George Floyd, a man who died in a confrontation with Minneapolis police. On Friday, a peaceful group first gathered around 3 p.m.

Preview Of Tonight . . .

Live blog: Mayor Lucas says he is 'proud' of KC's protesters KANSAS CITY, Mo. - People are taking to the streets across the nation to protest the death of Geroge Floyd. 5:53 p.m. | More businesses have been boarded up as a precaution. 5:48 p.m. | Some protesters threw water bottles at police and were escorted away in zip ties.

Continued outrage across the nation over the police killing of George Floyd also errupts in Kansas City.Last night protestors clashed with police and each other amid late evening marches that resulted in a few broken windows and 5 arrests.And then . . .Here's a glimpse at headlines that we'll keep updating as the situation moves forward . . .Developing . . .
Engineer, industrial designer and technology entrepreneur Elon Musk finally made his dream come true when his company SpaceX successfully managed to send two astronauts into space in their very own rocket ship earlier today.



What makes this achievement so special is that it opens the doors to the possibility of commercial space travel and a completely new era of space exploration, the very reason why Musk founded Space Exploration Technologies Corp 18 years ago.

The blast-off took place without a winkle in execution and the National Aeronautics and Space Administrations (NASAs) Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken rode off into the sky.

Images from the launch have ever since been making rounds on social media and have the viewers in complete awe of how majestic it appeared:

Falcon 9 lifts off from historic Launch Complex 39A and sends Crew Dragon to orbit on its first flight with @NASA astronauts to the @space_station pic.twitter.com/UOoaKiQaFk  SpaceX (@SpaceX) May 31, 2020

NASA also shared recorded footage of the two astronauts from inside the Endeavour capsule, before Bob and Doug gave us a tour of their fancy spacecraft which is currently en route to the International Space Station, where the two will spend between 1-4 months as a part of this mission.

Welcome aboard the @SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft!



In this video from space, @AstroBehnken and @Astro_Doug reveal the name of their capsule: Endeavour. Take a look inside as the crew continues their journey to the @Space_Station: https://t.co/K9S5mejONx pic.twitter.com/mvH8UhE5FW  NASA (@NASA) May 31, 2020

And while Musk may have taken a giant leap towards realising his dream of populating foreign planets, the common people of Twitter couldnt help but show their jealousy towards those who got the opportunity to leave Earth on the spaceship in such horrible times.

super jealous of these SpaceX astronauts leaving earth right now, talk about timing.    (@becccasky) May 30, 2020

Riots everywhere and people leaving earth. Wtf is going on. Wait for me....  Just Looking (@JustLoo29276504) May 30, 2020

Lowkey jealous of those astronauts that got to leave earth today, congrats @SpaceX  Ronak Patel  (@_patel4k) May 31, 2020

Saw this on Instagram and had to steal! Haha!! Im definitely jealous of them!!  #2020 #nasa #spacex pic.twitter.com/cFJvWsks3j  Michelle C Bush (@michelleCbush) May 31, 2020

Other than the coronavirus pandemic taking over the world, causing people their lives and livelihood and pushing them into poverty, the US is also battling racism and police brutality. Ever since the horrible death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, protests and riots have flooded the country which takes pride in being called the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Dude brought a bow to SLC riots, got taken out. pic.twitter.com/K58QpwBDkU  Garth Mortensen (@voldemortensen) May 31, 2020

Its not just America that has been fighting the demons of their backyard. India too is struggling from the locust attack, ruing the crops of farmers from states such as Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. Heartbreaking stories of people losing their loved ones are making headlines every single day. Many are resorting to crime just to fill their stomach.

A man broke into a roadside eatery in Maharashtra's Yavatmal district to steal food as the coronavirus-induced lockdown had left him famished https://t.co/tz8U3LyUZ7  SK Iyer (@iyer_sk) May 31, 2020

Given the situation, their envy towards the two astronauts away from this toxic planet is completely understandable.
Oakland, Calif.

A federal law enforcement officer in California was killed and another critically injured after being shot while providing security at the U.S. courthouse in Oakland amid one of the increasingly violent protests unfolding around the country.

The Oakland shooting occurred after a vehicle pulled up outside the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building at about 9:45 p.m. Friday. Someone opened fire at two contract security officers who worked for Homeland Security's Federal Protective Service, killing one and critically wounding the other, authorities said.

The officers protect federal court houses as part of their regular duties. DHS officials said the two officers were monitoring the Oakland protest over the police killing of George Floyd in Minnesota.

The identities of the officers have not been released.
New Jersey pays lots of taxes. We pay state taxes, property taxes and federal income taxes. Those federal taxes go to Washington, get chopped up and returned to the states in the form of government contracts for stuff like education, infrastructure and pandemic relief funds. So why is it that New Jersey is one of the hardest hit states with 10% of the national total of COVID-19 cases and we only got 2% of the relief funds. Like everything these days, the answer is politics.

New Jersey is a blue state, the Senate is run by red states. That puts us at a big disadvantage when the senate and executive are run by soulless goblins like Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump. McConnell talks of letting states go bankrupt when his home state of Kentucky, which has thus far not taken the same kind of hit from the coronavirus as Jersey, sucks up federal dollars like a sponge.

The current Republican leadership doesnt view government as a vehicle for change. To guys like Mitch McConnell, government is simply a means to an end, the end being power. They will do whatever it takes to maintain that power like stealing Supreme Court seats, gerrymandering congressional districts and siphoning relief funds from states that need it to those that dont.

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Unrestricted travel between regions from 3 June sparks debate among Italy's local governors.

Italy has confirmed that unrestricted travel between regions can resume from 3 June as planned, the same day that the country reopens all airports in preparation for a gradual return to international tourism.

The confirmation, announced this weekend by Italian health minister Roberto Speranza, comes after the government reviewed the latest regional statistics relating to the covid-19 crisis, compiled by the country's health ministry and the Higher Health Institute (ISS).

The report described the current situation as "positive overall" but warned that there are "still signs of transmission" and "new hotspots", urging strict compliance to Italy's anti-contagion measures in place, including social distancing.

Read also:

The government's confirmation that it will lift internal travel restrictions on 3 June has caused division among Italy's local governors, with those in favour and against the uniform reopening of regions.

Several governors have particular concerns about allowing unrestricted access to and from the northern region of Lombardy, which has registered almost half of the country's 33,340 coronavirus fatalities.

The "no" front includes Sardinia, Sicily, Tuscany and the southern region of Campania whose president Vincenzo De Luca says that a reopening of unrestricted travel including "provinces still heavily affected" by covid-19 is "incomprehensible."

However the mayor of Lombardy capital Milan, Beppe Sala, describes the move as the "right decision", stressing that "now is the time to give oxygen back to work."

The news was also welcomed by the regional presidents of Veneto, Liguria and Emilia-Romagna in the north, and Calabria in the far south.

For now, inter-regional travel remains prohibited unless for proven reasons of work, health or emergencies, until 3 June.
After I wrote Minneapolis goes Baghdad in the early morning hours yesterday, Governor Walz called a 10:00 a.m. press conference. With the fires still smoldering in Minneapolis, Walz announced that he had activated our entire National Guard contingent and declared that the curfews in Minneapolis and St. Paul would be enforced yesterday evening (video below). Apparently between 4,000 and 5,000 National Guard soldiers enhanced the law enforcement officers in the unified command deployed throughout the Twin Cities last night.

The curfews appear mostly to have been enforced last night. The crowd assembled at Minneapoliss Fifth Precinct headquarters was broken up live on local television at about 8:40 p.m. Law enforcement also barred the Minneapolis crowds from moving to St. Paul over either the Lake Street Bridge or the Ford Bridge. Traffic was blocked on Highway 94 between the cities as well. A significant deployment of forces protected the state capitol in St. Paul.

I am slaphappy from listening to Walzs torrent of verbiage at these press conferences. As far I can tell, however, Walzs latest moves are all to the good. Consistent with my own observations, Governor Walzs remarks called out the object of the operations as domestic terrorists. He and others sought to identify them with white supremacists who, to my knowledge, have yet to be sighted  see Jon Justices tweet above  but the enhancement of the forces of law enforcement in support of last nights operations represents a late step in the right direction.

Stephen Montemayor reports in the Star Tribune: A law enforcement source with knowledge of the investigations of outside agitators acknowledged that people are coming in from out of state to cause problems. But he said he has yet to see any credible evidence linking that behavior to white supremacists. Montemayor quoted his law enforcement source Its a red herring. Ita a red herring deployed by Governor Walz along with the National Guard soldiers.

UPDATE: I copied and pasted the quotes from Montemayors article abvoe. They have now been excised from the article without any note or explanation.
* Mexico's Q1 economic activity contracts less than expected * Brazil posts record current account surplus in April * Investors turn "underweight" on Brazil's real - JPMorgan * Chile's LATAM Airlines files for bankruptcy (Adds comment, updates prices) By Susan Mathew and Ambar Warrick May 26 (Reuters) - Mexico's peso hit a 10-week high on Tuesday after first-quarter economic activity contracted less than expected, while broader regional assets were lifted by hopes of economic recovery as more countries eased virus-driven lockdowns. The peso jumped 1.5%, extending gains to a seventh straight session after the GDP data, but as a coronavirus lockdown was applied only in late March, the second quarter is expected to bear the brunt of the shutdown in business activity. "The peso should be well placed to benefit from any improvement in global growth momentum and EM risk appetite, helped by its appealing short term valuations improving balance of payments dynamics," said global FX strategists at JPMorgan. The planned lifting of coronavirus-related curbs in major European economies brewed optimism over an eventual return to economic normalcy from the coronavirus. Brazil's real surged 2% to a four-week high. Central bank support has helped the currency come off record lows, but it still remains about 25% down on the year amid a federal investigation into President Jair Bolsonaro as well as a spree of ministerial resignations. JPMorgan analysts said investors had turned "underweight" on the real for the first time since September 2018, but they still see the currency outperforming by the end of the year as financial markets focus on "the significant cheapness of the currency in the medium run." Brazilian central bank data showed the country posted a record current account surplus in April, although foreign direct investment slumped to its lowest in four years. "Despite the constructive market environment seen in recent weeks, the economic outlook for Latin American economies looks grim," wrote Gustavo Rangel, Chief Economist, LATAM, at ING. "A particular source of concern is likely to be the fiscal toll represented by the deep recession and the greater spending needed to fight the pandemic... Brazil should remain an especially important source of concern here." While the economic threat of the coronavirus has battered emerging markets, those in Latin America have lagged behind their broader peers this year due to doubts over regional economies packing the fiscal strength to handle the crisis. Chile's LATAM Airlines Group SA filed for U.S. bankruptcy protection on Tuesday, becoming the world's largest carrier so far to seek an emergency reorganization amid the coronavirus outbreak. Still, gains on Wall Street helped improve investor confidence in equities, with Brazil's Bovespa touching an 11-week high, while Mexico's main index rose 0.6%. Key Latin American stock indexes and currencies at 1915 GMT: Stock indexes Latest Daily % change MSCI Emerging Markets 927.98 1.82 MSCI LatAm 1776.09 2.3 Brazil Bovespa 85918.66 0.3 Mexico IPC 36060.52 0.64 Chile IPSA 3737.01 -0.38 Argentina MerVal 41230.82 0.654 Colombia COLCAP 1073.11 1.46 Currencies Latest Daily % change Brazil real 5.3433 2.10 Mexico peso 22.2074 1.47 Chile peso 805.5 -0.12 Colombia peso 3729.12 1.27 Peru sol 3.4328 -0.20 Argentina peso 68.2600 -0.12 (interbank) (Reporting by Susan Mathew in Bengaluru; Editing by Nick Zieminski)
By George F. Will

WASHINGTON  From Harvard Law School comes the latest conservative flirtation with authoritarianism. Professor Adrian Vermeule, a 2016 Catholic convert, is an integralist who regrets his academic specialty, the Constitution, and rejects the separation of church and state. His much-discussed recent Atlantic essay advocating a government that judges the quality and moral worth of public speech is unimportant as a practical political manifesto, but it is symptomatic of some conservatives fevers, despairs and temptations.

Common-good capitalism, Sen. Marco Rubios recent proposal, is capitalism minus the essence of capitalism  limited government respectful of societys cumulative intelligence and preferences collaboratively revealed through market transactions. Vermeules common-good constitutionalism is Christian authoritarianism  muscular paternalism, with government enforcing social solidarity for religious reasons. This is the Constitution minus the Framers purpose: a regime respectful of individuals diverse notions of the life worth living. Such respect is, he says, abominable.

He would jettison libertarian assumptions central to free-speech law and free-speech ideology. And: libertarian conceptions of property rights and economic rights also will have to go, insofar as they bar the state from enforcing duties of community and solidarity in the use and distribution of resources. Who will define these duties? Integralists will, because they have an answer to this perennial puzzle: If the people are corrupt, how do you persuade them to accept the yoke of virtue-enforcers? The answer: Forget persuasion. Hierarchies must employ coercion.

Common-good constitutionalisms main aim, Vermeule says, is not to minimize the abuse of power but to ensure that the ruler has the power needed to rule well. Such constitutionalism does not suffer from a horror of political domination and hierarchy because the law is parental, a wise teacher and an inculcator of good habits, wielded if necessary even against the subjects own perceptions of what is best for them. Besides, those perceptions are not really the subjects because under Vermeules regime the law will impose perceptions.

He thinks the Constitution, read imaginatively, will permit the transformation of the nation into a confessional state that punishes blasphemy and other departures from state-defined and state-enforced solidarity. His medieval aspiration rests on a non sequitur: All legal systems affirm certain values, therefore it is permissible to enforce orthodoxies.

Vermeule is not the only American conservative feeling the allure of tyranny. Like the American leftists who made pilgrimages to Fidel Castros Cuba, some self-styled conservatives today turn their lonely eyes to Viktor Orban, destroyer of Hungarys democracy. The prime ministers American enthusiasts probably are unfazed by his seizing upon COVID-19 as an excuse for taking the short step from the ethno-nationalist authoritarianism to which he gives the oxymoronic title illiberal democracy, to dictatorship.

In 2009, Orban said, We have only to win once, but then properly. And in 2013, he said: In a crisis, you dont need governance by institutions. Elected to a third term in 2018, he has extended direct or indirect control over courts (the Constitutional Court has been enlarged and packed) and the media, replacing a semblance of intragovernmental checks-and-balances with what he calls the system of national cooperation. During the COVID-19 crisis he will govern by decree, elections will be suspended, and he will decide when the crisis ends  supposedly June 20.

Explaining his hostility to immigration, Orban says Hungarians do not want to be mixed ... We want to be how we became eleven hundred years ago here in the Carpathian Basin. Ivan Krastev and Stephen Holmes, authors of The Light that Failed, dryly marvel that Orban remembers so vividly what it was like to be Hungarian eleven centuries ago. Nostalgia functioning as political philosophy  Vermeules nostalgia seems to be for the 14th century  is usually romanticism untethered from information.

Last November, Patrick Deneen, the University of Notre Dame professor whose 2018 book Why Liberalism Failed explained his hope for a post-liberal American future, had a cordial Budapest meeting with Orban. The Hungarian surely sympathizes with Deneens root-and-branch rejection of classical liberalism, which Deneen disdains because it portrays humans as rights-bearing individuals who can fashion and pursue for themselves their own version of the good life. One name for what Deneen denounces is: the American project. He, Vermeule and some others on the Orban-admiring American right believe that political individualism  the enabling, protection and celebration of individual autonomy  is a misery-making mistake: Autonomous individuals are deracinated, unhappy and without virtue.

The moral of this story is not that there is theocracy in our future. Rather, it is that American conservatism, when severed from the Enlightenment and its finest result, the American Founding, becomes spectacularly unreasonable and literally unAmerican.

Will is a columnist for The Washington Post Writers Group.
Popina Swimwear was due to celebrate its 14th anniversary on March 17. Instead, owner Lulu Levenson and marketing manager Willie Levenson laid off their staff and closed the shops two locations on that day due to the coronavirus crisis.

Popinas Hollywood District shop finally reopened Thursday, but the shutdown took its toll on the longstanding Portland swimwear company.

The business generated almost no revenue over the two-and-a-half months that its storefronts were closed, prompting the Levensons to look seriously at cost-saving measures. A week into the shutdown, they decided to permanently close their Pearl District location and focus their energy on keeping their larger Hollywood store afloat.

Before reopening, they set up new safety measures, put together a plan to offer curbside pickup and discounted their swimwear by 25%. But the Levensons still dont know whether that will be enough to convince customers to return.

Were assuming the first week or two might be slow, but hopefully, the longer were open, the more confidence customers will have in the processes and safety measures that weve set up, Willie Levenson said. Only time will tell. Theres really no way to know whats going to happen.

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown allowed the retail stores that were shuttered by her March stay-home order to reopen on May 15. Some stores have opted to remain shut, while others have cautiously reopened with new safety measures.

Even in Multnomah County, the only county in the state that has not yet applied to enter Phase 1 of Browns reopening plan, all retailers are allowed to operate. But those that have reopened say that they arent seeing anywhere close to the same number of customers that they saw before the outbreak.

Pam Coven, the owner of Imeldas and Louies Shoes, reopened her Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard shop on May 15 and partially reopened her Northeast Alberta Street store on May 22. Both stores are currently open to the public for limited hours and offering private shopping by appointment.

After a slow week, Coven said she discounted everything in the stores for Memorial Day weekend. That led to an uptick in traffic, but Coven said that revenue has still plummeted 70% to 80% since the outbreak started. She said it doesnt help that Multnomah County has not yet entered Phase 1 and that customers dont have a reason to flock to the Hawthorne district where many restaurants, bars and stores still remain shut.

Multnomah County officials said Wednesday that they are aiming to submit their Phase 1 reopening plan by June 5 and gradually lift the coronavirus stay-home order starting June 12. Bars, restaurants, gyms, malls, salons and other personal services will be allowed to reopen when Multnomah County is approved to enter Phase 1.

The fact that Multnomah County hasnt even applied to be open is adding insult to injury, Coven said. I dont understand why theyre waiting. Many of the other counties that have applied and been approved are no further along on a lot of the requirements than Multnomah County is.  If they dont do something soon, theres no way people will be able to get through this.

Sandra McDonough, the president and CEO of Oregon Business & Industry, which advocates for the states business community, said that retailers in parts of the state that have entered Phase 1 have seen a slow increase in business, but that customers remain cautious about going out and it will take time for many retailers to see a significant uptick in sales.

What weve see in the other counties is people start stepping out," McDonough said. "People start going to restaurants. Once that signal comes, youll start to see a gradual increase in activity. What Ive heard from friends and members is that people are really hungry for that human activity, so well see it. ... We just need to start educating Oregonians on what the new normal is and help them start building the confidence that they need to safely go out.

Coven, who has owned Imeldas and Louies Shoes for 26 years, has been able to negotiate payment plans with her vendors and landlords due to the coronavirus crisis. She also received a Paycheck Protection Program loan from the federal government, which has enabled her to make payroll and pay her bills. But that money will run out in June, leaving her business in a difficult position if sales dont pick up soon.

While Coven remains optimistic that her business will be able to survive the crisis, she said it wont be easy.

Unless things pick up in a significant way in the next three weeks, I dont know, Coven said. We hope that the community continues to show up and support us. I have amazing customers, loyal customers that want us to be around.

Still, many customers feel differently about shopping than they did before the coronavirus outbreak, and it is unclear when, or if, that will change.

Carey Deza, the owner of Black Wagon, a childrens store on North Mississippi, said that customers are continuing to shop online or request private shopping appointments and that her store has seen only limited foot traffic since it reopened on May 15. She said 50 to 75 people would usually stop by Black Wagon on a typical weekend day before the outbreak. Now, she said she would be happy if 10 people came into the store in one day.

Portland businesses can now apply for permits to convert sidewalks, street parking and potentially entire blocks into car-free zones, something Deza said could be critical in helping customers feel comfortable about once again shopping. But the city transportation bureau stressed that the permits will be tied to the countys reopening timeline.

In the interim, Deza is focused on doing whatever she can to prevent Black Wagon from having to close its shop and move entirely online.

I hope that we can still be a brick and mortar at the end of this, Deza said. I like having that connection and those relationships with the customers.

McDonough said that certain retailers, such as home improvement stores and bike shops, remained relatively busy during the coronavirus shutdown as people attempted new projects and activities.

But other stores had a tougher time as retail sales nationwide plummeted by a record 16.4% from March to April. Some of those stores may have to wait longer for business to return as well. Clothing stores, in particular, could face a challenge as people continue to work from home and avoid large gatherings.

Erica Lurie, the owner of Garnish, a boutique in the Pearl District, said that customers have told her that they dont feel as if they have a place to wear new clothing right now. Still, Garnish has been able to generate revenue over the last two months by pivoting to selling cloth masks online.

Lurie estimates that 75% of her business is still coming from the sale of masks, even though her storefront has been open since May 16. Those sales helped Garnish enjoy a strong April, but the shop has struggled a bit more in May. Yet, Lurie remains confident that Garnish will make it through the coming months thanks to her loyal customer base and her willingness to adapt.

You dont make it through 16 years without making a lot of changes and adapting, Lurie said. Well make it through, but it wont be for a lack of grit and determination.

-- Jamie Goldberg | jgoldberg@oregonian.com | @jamiebgoldberg

Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.
By Express News Service

MANGALURU: Three persons tested positive for COVID-19 in Karnataka's Dakshina Kannada district, a day after they reached their homes having completed institutional quarantine.

Deputy Commissioner Sindhu B Rupesh said, two of them had returned from Qatar and were in an institutional quarantine facility in Bengaluru while the third had returned from Maharashtra and was put up in a quarantine facility at Deralakatte in Mangaluru. She said all three were allowed to go home as they had completed seven days of institutional quarantine as per the new guidelines.

As per the new guidelines, no test is conducted for asymptomatic persons on their return from abroad and outside the state, but the swab of these three were collected and sent for tests as they had reached the state before the new guidelines came into effect.

FOLLOW COVID-19 LIVE UPDATES HERE

Asked whether the persons whose test reports are awaited can be sent home, the DC said: there is no mention of it and she will write to the government for a clarification on it. All three have been shifted to a COVID-19 hospital.

DHO Dr Ramachandra Bayary said the man who returned from Maharashtra reached home at Boliyar from the quarantine facility on Friday night and from there he was shifted to Covid hospital on Saturday morning at around 11 am. His primary and secondary contacts are being traced, he said.

Meanwhile, 14 fresh covid positive cases were reported in Dakshina Kannada on Sunday. While nine of them had returned from Maharashtra, one each had come from Qatar and Malaysia and the remaining three are primary contacts of another patient.

Twelve corona patients who got cured were discharged on Sunday. The total number of corona positive cases reported in the district are 133 out of which 70 are active cases.
A video posted on Facebook shows several mattresses lying on pallets on a floor in what appears to be a warehouse.

The mattresses are spaced apart to comply with physical distancing, but a group that represents migrant workers points to it as one example of serious health and safety concerns at farm operations in Essex County.

"It's horrifying, cold conditions. No one deserves this," said Chris Ramsaroop, Organizer for Justice for Migrant Farm Workers.

The video was released as many of the recent coronavirus cases in the Windsor-Essex region are linked to the agriculture sector.

The farm's lawyer said it was inspected and approved by Leamington Fire and Rescue and the region's health unit, adding that workers sleeping in the conditions have not complained.

"Furthermore the accommodations have been seen and approved by the Eastern Caribbean Liaison Service for foreign workers in Canada," writes James Cooke, lawyer for Cervini Farms in Leamington.

Cooke writes accommodations are temporary and the workers will be moving back to their permanent living quarters once their quarantine period is up.

Chris Ramsaroop

But Ramsaroop said this is one example of the many health and safety issues that exist at different facilities in Essex County.

He also alleges, in some operations, there is a lack of personal protective equipment and hand sanitizer, adding some who have tested positive are living with people who have not.

"They're scared, confused, angry, wondering why more steps aren't taken," said Ramsaroop, adding he wants the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit to do more to protect workers.

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, migrant farm workers have complained about crowded housing, the threat of deportation, racism and harassment.

"We are doing all the 'D' jobs  the dirty jobs, the dangerous jobs, the difficult jobs. We do non-unionized jobs. Do we have a voice? Do we have representation? Or is that a recipe for exploitation?" said Gabriel Alladua, a former migrant farm worker.

Story continues

He adds farm workers are intimidated because the employer has so much power, having control over their travel in and out of the country.

He left the farm he was working at in 2015 because of all of those issues and the fear and hopelessness, he said, came along with it.

Jason Viau/CBC

When it comes to the COVID-19 related issues, the Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Growers (OGVG)  which holds the power to revoke licenses  said there are many checks and balances that deal with compliance. Those include unannounced inspections by the Ministry of Labour.

"The allegation for workers who tested positive are living in the same housing as those who have not -- all actions as a result of a positive identification are directed by the local health unit. The described situation would seem highly unlikely to align with any public health direction," said Justine Taylor, science and government relations manager for the OGVG.

Justice for Migrant Workers sent its list of concerns to the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit calling for action.

This region's medical officer of health, Dr. Wajid Ahmed, said his inspectors attend these farms to review the accomodations and they return to ensure anyone who tests positive is isolating appropriately.
In New York City, protesters leapt onto police vehicles in Manhattan parks and marched down main Brooklyn thoroughfares on Saturday evening, as demonstrations around the country over the death of George Floyd entered another night.

The protesters spanned several city blocks as they marched down Flatbush Avenue in central Brooklyn, chanting, No justice, no peace and Hands up, dont shoot. Similar chants were heard on the streets of Las Vegas and Los Angeles, as mayors of major cities issued curfews on Saturday evening and pleaded with residents to stay home.

Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Denver and Cleveland were among the cities that enacted curfews. California, along with 11 other states and Washington, D.C., had activated National Guard troops in response to protests.

New York: 'A lot of anger and frustration'

Near Barclays Center arena in Brooklyn, protesters blocked an NYPD vehicle, which then accelerated into the crowd; one person jumped on the hood. After law enforcement officials saw viral video of the incident, some tried to explain by saying the officers decided to push the barrier into the crowd instead of confronting the protesters outside the car.

"It's inappropriate for protesters to surround a police vehicle and threaten officers," Mayor Bill de Blasio said Saturday night. "The video was upsetting and I wish the officers hadn't done that but they had to get out of that situation."

Unrest also edged into violence around Manhattan's Union Square, according to several videos broadcast on television or posted on social media. A large vehicle was shown to be ablaze outside the Regal Cinemas movie theaters a few blocks from the park and later several people appeared to jump on top of a police vehicle with smashed windows.

Union Square is now a scene from Joker pic.twitter.com/bPggrKgmVC  Denis (@Gramatik) May 31, 2020

The New York City Police Department arrested more than 100 people as of Saturday evening, a senior police official said, adding that 15 police vehicles were burned in Manhattan and in Brooklyn. Two Brooklyn residents and one Greene County, New York, resident were charged with attempting to use flammable bottles, known as Molotov cocktails, to damage NYPD vehicles, according to a statement from the Department of Justice.

Story continues

After midnight near the Brooklyn Academy of Music, near the downtown section of the borough, protesters threw glass at police, who responded with tear gas and some arrests.

Earlier in the evening, hundreds of people held up their fists outside the Barclays Center while staring down the NYPD officers who stood in front of a subway station entrance. Protesters participated in a moment of silence for Floyd, who died after a Minneapolis police officer pinned him to the ground for more than eight minutes.

Nella Mueier, a black Brooklyn resident, said she joined the protests for the first time on Saturday.

She held a sign that said, Good cops speak up and said she came out because too many black men and women had been killed by police.

I know there have to be some good ones out here but they should be out here with us protesting against what were seeing, she said of the police officers guarding the subway station. We need them to keep our communities safe, but we dont feel safe because they dont see us as human beings.

She continued, A lot of people are out here for different reasons. Theres a lot of anger and frustration. Theres a lot of people wanting to stand in solidarity.

Protesters rally against the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd in Manhattan (Andrew Kelly / Reuters)

The marchers had come from south Brooklyn and shut down Atlantic Avenue, a major city thoroughfare, to traffic. Many drivers held up by the demonstration honked their horns in solidarity  some even holding up their fists.

Full coverage of George Floyds death and protests around the country

Alicia Fox, a white Brooklyn resident, held a sign that read, Defund the police.

Its ridiculous I cant even remember everyones name anymore, she said of all the people who had been killed by police. The chant and idea is always remember his name, remember her name, but who can? Thats a genuine question because so many people have died at the hands of police.

Protesters went from the Barclays Center to the Target store at Atlantic Terminal where an argument broke out, as organizers pushed back against attempts to damage the store. Some yelled, Why are we protecting corporations? before a sudden police movement drove protesters away from the stores entrance north toward the Fort Greene neighborhood.

Protests grew tense as demonstrators surrounded the entrance to Target at Atlantic Terminal. Organizers held some back from potentially breaking into the store, earning calls of, Why are we protecting corporations? #GeorgeFloydprotest pic.twitter.com/LhjhLGp9kl  Phil McCausland (@PhilMcCausland) May 31, 2020

As marchers headed toward that neighborhood, some residents cheered the demonstrators on from their windows.

Earlier in the day, NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said police in New York City had already been the target of some violence, some of which involved bricks. Shea cautioned that they were still sorting out the addresses of those who had acted violently, but at least 20 percent are from out of town, he said.

It's probably higher, maybe much higher, Shea said, adding that he suspected some of those taken into custody might have given false Brooklyn addresses.

Las Vegas: 'I could only take so much'

In downtown Las Vegas, hundreds of people arrived at Container Park, where they stood outside the shopping center built from old shipping containers and held signs that read Silence is complacent and No justice, no peace. Demonstrators marched from the shopping center down Las Vegas famed Fremont Street, walking pasts the neon signs, bars and restaurants. They chanted Floyds name along with I cant breathe, raising their fists in the air.

The demonstration, organized by a local Black Lives Matter group, began around 7 p.m.

Las Vegas resident Jasmine Wharton, 23, was among those outside Container Park. She said shes been posting on social media about the injustice of Floyds death  but it wasnt enough.

You really need to come out and represent, Wharton said. I could only take so much.

Protesters march in Container Park in Las Vegas on Saturday, May 30, 2020. (Anita Hassan / NBC News)

Christian Williams, 9, stood on a downtown Las Vegas sidewalk near the county jail, holding a sign that read, Stand up for Floyd. The march was Christians first.

He said the scene was sometimes a lot to take in, with the chanting crowds and honking cars, but it felt good. Because maybe when the cops see this, they will know not to do this again, he said.

Christian came to the protest with his mother, Dee Young, 29. She said she brought her son to educate him about Floyds death and police shootings.

Hes got to see this because hes a little black boy in America and he needs to be aware, Young said.

She looked over at the crowd of hundreds of protesters, then she turned to her son.

Look at this, she said to him. All these people from all these different races coming together for the cause.

Protesters march in Las Vegas on May 30, 2020. (Anita Hassan / NBC News)

As the evening wore on and grew darker, the demonstration grew larger, with cars clogging the streets and accompanying those on foot. A few had guns strapped to their waist or around their upper thigh.

Protestors cheered as at least one person sprayed graffiti on a downtown building.

Police officers lined the intersections of many streets, standing side by side, wearing face shields and zip ties attached to their duty belts. Police cars went whizzing by, sirens flashing, while helicopters hovered overhead.

Los Angeles: 'I want to live in a world...'

In Los Angeles, Mayor Eric Garcetti announced an 8 p.m.-to-5:30 p.m. curfew Saturday night for downtown, where businesses were damaged, looted and vandalized Friday night.

Hours before the curfew, Jo Nesha Kelly, 43, said she joined protests out of frustration and the desire to do more than comment on social media.

Download the NBC News app for full coverage and alerts on this story

"I feel great about what I've seen, the part of the rally I was a part of was very peaceful," she told NBC News while in the Fairfax neighborhood. "It wasn't until I came down other streets where I saw a little bit more of the anger and frustration."

"What's great about being here is that there are so many different ethnicities and cultures out here participating for change," said Kelly, who is from Palmdale in Los Angeles County. "And it's not just black people. It's brown people, it's white people, Asian people, and it's really great to see."

Nearby, Andrina Dominguez said she had joined the demonstrations out of concern for her family, particularly for her sister, stepfather and others who had darker skin tones than her. "I want to live in a world where I dont have worry about if theyre going to go home and be safe at the end of every day," she said.

Buddy Burch, 26, meanwhile, said she felt a particular obligation as a white American.

"As a white person living in the United States  like Im physically sick from police violence," Burch said. "Its important for me to put my body between police and people of color."

Phil McCausland reported from New York, Anita Hassan from Las Vegas and Brock Stoneham from Los Angeles.
Hong Kong security law violates 'one country, two systems' formula



China has legislated a Hong Kong national security law, drawing international criticism for tightening its control in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory. This law runs counter to Beijing's much-touted policy of "one country, two systems," under which the territory is allowed to keep its autonomy in civil, legal and economic institutions.



On Thursday, the National People's Congress voted for the legislation. The law is designed to curb sedition, secession, foreign interference and terrorism in Hong Kong. The Chinese congress regrettably disregarded international society's worries about the potential adverse effects of the security law on the future of Hong Kong.



In a nutshell, the legislation is nothing but a move by the Chinese authorities to stifle the basic rights of Hong Kong citizens and disregard universal democratic values. It reveals Beijing's outright political intention of imposing direct control on the city. It also spells an end to Hong Kong's special status which is supposed to allow the city a certain level of freedom and autonomy for 50 years from 1997 when Britain returned it to China.



It is easy to fathom what will happen to Hong Kong and its 7 million citizens after the security law goes into effect. The city can no longer serve as Asia's financial hub and global economic gateway to China. Nor can it maintain a free market economy, an independent judiciary and legislative autonomy. Citizens there will be unable to enjoy free speech and other basic liberties.



The legislation is also feared to have negative implications on issues relating to Taiwan, the Xinjiang Uyghur autonomous region and the South China Sea. It should be understood in the context of a more assertive China which seeks global hegemony. Thus it is inevitable for Beijing to take a head-on clash with its rival  the United States.



In response to the Chinese move, U.S. President Donald Trump immediately announced measures to end Hong Kong's special trade status and suspend the visas of Chinese graduate students who are suspected of acquiring trade knowledge and conducting research for the Chinese government and military. It would be unfortunate if the two countries cannot avoid the worst-case scenario.



But no one can rule out the possibility of Trump implementing his threat, which he made last month, of cutting off ties with China. Trump might also nullify the Phase 1 trade deal reached with Beijing earlier this year. These factors could add fuel to an emerging new Cold War and a trade war between the two superpowers.



To avoid catastrophic consequences, China should first refrain from escalating tensions with the U.S. It needs to consider delaying the follow-up legislation process of the Hong Kong security law. Clearly, Trump would be served best if he does not try to use the China issue to his advantage as part of his desperate re-election bid.



We hope that both countries will stop their rivalry and ease tensions. They will gain more from cooperation, not confrontation, especially in the face of the coronavirus pandemic and its devastating impact on the global economy.


Copyright  2020 Albuquerque Journal

The valedictorian at Highland High School had her sights set on the University of Rochester in New York next year.

Then the global coronavirus pandemic hit, and Marina Seheon decided to stay close to home and go to the University of New Mexico. Her parents were against a move across the country.

They didnt want me to go, Seheon said. Coronavirus in New York is really bad. New Mexico has been doing a good job. Our governor has been really proactive. Its just best that I stay here for now.

National surveys indicate that like Seheon, many other recent high school graduates are now rethinking their college plans. Proximity to home and college affordability have become major factors as students ponder their future.

Admissions officials at UNM are left crunching numbers and surveying prospective students to try to project what size its student body will be next year.

A lot we dont know

Obviously theres the unknown. Theres a lot that we dont know, said Dan Garcia, UNMs vice president for enrollment management.

Garcia told a Board of Regents meeting earlier this month that UNM data and national surveys show a mixed bag for how the pandemic will affect enrollment at the states largest university.

UNM enrollment has declined for several years, and the school has pumped resources into trying to reverse the trend.

In 2019, UNM had 16,170 students at the start of its fall semester, down more than 18% from 2015, when there were 19,885 undergraduates.

The decline has hurt university finances for years. Last year, for example, enrollment was about 6.5% less than the year before. The unexpected drop created a total budget shortfall of about $4 million.

The school took several measures  including taking $350,000 from the principal of one of its endowment accounts to spend on an enrollment drive  to try to attract more students.

One hopeful trend

Theres some data that appears positive. The number of students who have accepted scholarships at UNM is up significantly  8,547 students this year up from 7,144 compared with last year, a 19.6% increase, according to regent documents. As of early this month, housing contracts for next fall are about the same as they were last year at this time.

But the pandemic has injected uncertainty into the mix.

Garcia said nationwide surveys in recent months found that more than a third of students are considering a school closer to home, 40% are rethinking the schools on their list and 7% of students are thinking about not enrolling in college next year at all, according to a survey of 23,000 high school seniors by Niche, a company that researches and analyzes college.

A nationwide survey by Longmire and Associates conducted in April through mid-May found that 26% of high school seniors have changed their college plans, according to regent documents.

Living at home while attending college or switching from a four-year university to a community college were some of the reasons cited.

Were seeing other national surveys that indicate students are still planning on going to college. They are not giving up on that hope, Garcia said. But a sizable number of students are reconsidering schools on their list.

Dream school to CNM

Tatum Saavedra, another recent Highland graduate, had her college plans go topsy-turvy in the past two months.

In early March, Saavedra decided on her dream school. She chose Shippensburg University in southern Pennsylvania.

Saavedra said she fell in love with the community during a visit there. The school, with just under 7,000 full-time undergraduates, was the perfect size for her  not too big, not too small.

But the pandemic canceled her SAT exam. Without those scores, she lost access to a planned scholarship to make the school and its physical therapy program affordable.

So she changed her plans and briefly decided on UNM. In the past week, she has changed her mind again. She now plans to take core courses online next year through Central New Mexico Community College and then transfer to UNM. Affordability and staying close to family were two of the reasons for her decision.

I decided to go to CNM because in all likelihood Im going to end up taking my first year of college online because of the virus, she said. I might as well pay a lot less.

UNM officials have unveiled plans to have a hybrid fall term. A planning document released Friday says that critical elements of courses will be done in-person in a controlled way.

CNM officials are hoping they can offer an alternative to students whose college plans have changed. College President Tracy Hartzler said in a statement that the school has a long history of offering courses online.

For 2020 high school graduates and students who may have been forced to return home from out-of-state colleges, CNM is very capable of serving the needs of a diverse range of students with our many educational and workforce training options, she said.

Not just college plans

It wasnt just college plans that have upended the lives of high school seniors across the country. The virus also wiped out the end of their last year in high school.

Seheon took a class over again and worked hard in an effort to become the valedictorian at Highland.

But she wont be giving a speech to her class during the graduation ceremony.

I used to be really upset, and I still am. But Im making the best of the situation, Seheon said.

And graduation wasnt the only disappointment. Prom and the last quarter of classes were canceled because of the virus.

I went through a pretty big emotional downhill when the pandemic first started, Saavedra said. You look forward to your senior prom and your graduation your whole life. You dream about it. And then some crazy virus happens and it takes over the whole world and your last year of high school is taken away from you.
On This Day The Day Britains Queen Visited Myanmars Imperial Pavilion

A postcard of the Burmese Pavilion in the British Empire Exhibition in Wembley in 1924.

Yangon  On this day in 1924, Britains Queen Mary and her son, the Prince of Wales  the future King Edward VIII  visited the Myanmar (then Burma) pavilion at the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley Park in northwest London.

The pavilion featured scrimshaws, lacquerware, traditional clothes, bells and gongs and two large paintings depicting natural resources and farming. The pavilion also displayed forestry produce, rubies and gems and examples of the Burmah Oil Companys work.

The Queen purchased amber, pearls and carved ivory.

The delegation presented the Queen with a golden umbrella and the royal entourage was entertained by dancers, the cane ball juggler Maung Law Paw and an elephant dance.

It was the second time she visited the pavilion after an earlier excursion with Queen Marie of Romania, who was British. The artist of the two 2-meter wide paintings at the pavilion was Maung Ba Nyan, who was studying painting in England at the time. Maung Ba Nyan was the first artist from Myanmar to study painting in England, and was the only Burmese artist who exhibited his paintings at the colonial governors residence in British-run Burma. He revolutionized Myanmars artistic sphere by introducing western techniques to the country.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko
The headline on the front page of the Daily Patriot on June 1, 1889, said:

Great Calamity

Several Hundred Lives Lost,

By the bursting of the Johnstown Reservoir,

Two hundred bodies floating down the river

Lack of communication

A tremendous amount of rain fell in late May 1889. Damage was heavy across Pennsylvania but it was horrific in Johnstown.

The South Fork Dam burst on May 31 sending 20 million tons of water barreling through town. The flood killed 2,209 people.

In the book, Great Floods of Pennsylvania William H. Shank described the water that hit Johnstown as an "avalanche of death" that moved from 40 mph to 60 mph, "carrying with it wreckage of every kind, plus animals and people, some still alive, clinging to the debris."

Shank said the wreckage from the water piled up 50 feet behind the stone-arch Pennsylvania Railroad bridge. That wreckage caught fire - likely from kitchen stoves and kerosene lamps carried along in homes. Flood victims, Shank wrote, still alive but trapped, "were burned alive." Shank said the fire burned for several days.

Survivors look through the debris in Johnstown, May 31, 1889. (Photo courtesy of Johnstown Flood Museum)

The Daily Patriot reported, The flood at Johnstown has resulted in an awful catastrophe. It is said that the reservoir above the town broke about 5 oclock this evening the immense volume of water rushed down to the city, carrying with it death and destruction.

Houses with their occupants were swept away and scores, probably hundreds of people were drowned.

There is no communication with Johnstown, but a telegraph operator in the Pennsylvania railroad tower at Saag Hollow, 12 miles this side of Johnstown, says at least 75 dead bodies have floated past.

In an updated, the newspaper reported that Pennsylvania railroad officials said that over 200 dead bodies have been counted floating down the stream at Johnstown alone, while along the line many additional lives have been lost. It is asserted that there are but two houses in Johnstown proper entirely above the water line. A special train bearing Pennsylvania railroad officials and a large number of newspaper men has left this city for the scene. Telegraphic communication is entirely cut off.

The paper reported that in Williamsport, the streets were flooded and impassable. Six bridges had already been swept away and others are expected to go.

In Clearfield, where two women had died, the entire place is under water and all means of escape is cut off.

In Lock Haven, the lumber boom has bursted and the town is overflowed.

Another news story reported, "The bottom seemed to have dropped out of the sky on the state of Pennsylvania yesterday. About every foot of ground from one end of the Keystone to the other was baptized by a rainfall so great in its character that even the oldest resident was forced to confess that he has never seen its equal."

Johnstown was 14 miles downstream of Lake Conemaugh, a recreational lake owned and operated by South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club. The South Fork Dam was created by the club in 1881 to create the lake. According to history.com, the dam was in need of repairs by 1889.

When several days of heavy rain struck the area in late May 1889, club officials struggled to reinforce the neglected dam, which was under tremendous pressure from the swollen waters of Lake Conemaugh. The dam began to disintegrate and on May 31 the lakes water level passed over the top of the dam. Realizing that the dams collapse was imminent, club officials sent riders down the valley to evacuate area residents. However, flooding was a familiar occurrence in the valley, and few Johnstown residents heeded the riders desperate warnings, according to history.com.

The dam broke at 3:10 p.m. Twenty million tons of water roared through South Fork, Mineral Point, Woodvale and East Conemaugh, all the while collecting debris  rocks, trees, houses, railroad cars, animals and people. It reached Johnstown at 4:07 p.m.  more than 30 feet high and half a mile wide. It wiped out the northern half of the city.

In Williamsport, according to Shank, a major flood up river at Clearfield was telegraphed to the town early Friday, May 31 but it was not until 2 p.m. Saturday that the Susquehanna West Branch at Williamsport began to react, rising 2 feet an hour. The rain fell from Thursday afternoon throughout Friday night. After midnight Friday it came down in "absolute torrents."

Soon after daylight Saturday the rain ended. Grafius Run, a small stream through the city, had begun to subside. Residents were not concerned about more flooding because the river had not yet risen to an alarming height. But "the water kept getting higher and higher."

When it was over, "loss of life had been heavy." Total logs lost from the boom estimated at about 200 million feet, also lost was 40 million feet of finished lumber.

A reporter for the Philadelphia Times telegraphed this, "The loss is awful. There have not been many buildings in the town carried off, but there are few that have not been damaged. There is mourning everywhere for the dead."

The mayor sent this message, "Send us help at once, in the name of God, at once. There are hundreds utterly destitute. They have lost all they had, and have no hope of employment for the future. Philadelphia should, if possible, send provisions. Such a thing as a chicken is unknown here; they were all carried off. It is hard to get anything to eat for love or money. Flour is needed worse than anything else."

From the book: A pathetic side of the flood was the great number of children drowned.

READ MORE

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Saturday, May 30, 2020 at 10:49PM

by Claudio Alves

Last time we talked about Japanese cinema, we were looking at the history of the Best Costume Design Oscar. Among the five pictures from Japan nominated for that awards, we find Ugetsu, the only Kenji Mizoguchi film to ever receive any sort of recognition by the Academy. Considering some of the director's best films are currently available online thanks to platforms like the Criterion Channel, Kanopy, and HBO Max, it seems like a good time to highlight more of his cinematic mastery. After all, there's much greatness in Mizoguchi's exquisite cinema beyond the sartorial splendor of Ugetsu

Ugetsu

There are many ways to discuss the filmography of Kenji Mizoguchi. Some have written about his careful compositions, the mastery of horizontal camera movements that turn action into living painted scrolls, about the way he loved traditional art forms, and so forth. All that said, for this piece, we'd like to invite you to look at this director's cinema through a prism of feminist concerns. First of all, though, it might be necessary to give some context regarding the filmmaker's life. While auteur's theory has its limitations, when facing a filmography like that of Mizoguchi, to understand the director is to understand his films.

Born to a family of modest means as the 19th century died out, Kenji Mizoguchi spent a good part of his childhood suffering through the aftermath of the Russo-Japanese war. Due to economic troubles, his family moved out of the Bunkyo-Hongo neighborhood of Tokyo to a more traditional district of Asakusa, where remnants of the Eido period still survive to this day. In that environment rich in history, the director grew to love Japanese art, especially painting and even worked as a kimono maker thanks to the help of his beloved older sister. Among ancient temples and geishas, Kenji Mizoguchi developed the tastes and aesthetics that would help him create some of the most beautiful examples of Japanese cinema in the first half of the 20th century.

It wasn't all art and culture though. The family's life in Asakusa was still haunted by economic hardship. So much so that, when she was fourteen, the director's sister Suzu was sold by her father to a geisha house. The shock of losing his beloved sibling paired with the way the patriarch also maltreated Mizoguchi's mother would bear out lifelong rancor from the son towards his father. That's important to have into account when looking at his cinema because, if there's one theme that manifests in every one of his works, it is that men are trash. To explore Mizoguchi's filmography is to encounter a string of horrible men, mean-spirited and prejudiced, hypocritical, and violent, whose main contribution to this world is their destructive power, especially towards women.

Osaka Elegy

During a time when Hollywood was doing weepy melodramas about fallen women whose tragic endings were a moral necessity, Mizoguchi dedicated his career to exploring female characters whose lives are constantly thwarted by societal pressures. His portrayal of sex workers is particularly interesting, feeling refreshing even today. Geishas are recurring subjects, as are more urbane prostitutes, all of them observed with utmost respect and consideration. In 1936's Osaka's Elegy, a woman prostitutes herself to save her father and brother from debt but is then shunned by them for her delinquency. Instead of allowing those putrid hypocrites to get the final word, Mizoguchi instead closes the film on the defiant visage of his protagonist.

Mizoguchi's women may be victims but, more often than not, they are sure in their knowledge that they don't deserve it. Even when reacting to such fate with beatific resignation, like in the tortuous masterpiece that is Sansho the Bailiff, they are framed as the ones in the right. In the aforementioned Ugetsu, we see human women and female figures of the beyond. While the magical ones use their powers to manipulate scoundrels, the mundane people are subject to rape and the stupidity of their spouses. As for The Crucified Lovers, another period piece, Mizoguchi weaves a tale of star-crossed lovers whose adultery is cruelly punished by a society whose notions of honor are more important than the value of human life.

Life of Oharu

In all of those movies, the director gets extraordinary performances out of the actresses giving life to these characters. From his more regular players, Kinuyo Tanaka was the first among equals, serving as recurrent muse to the director. In The Life of Oharu, he practically built an entire film around her presence, telling the story of another woman forced by life's circumstances to sell her body. Of all his works, this is perhaps the most painful to watch, but it's also the most vibrantly angry. For all that he made his characters suffer within the narratives, Mizoguchi's camera always forces the audience to sympathize with them. He makes us suffer along with them and engage in their unfair struggle.

Street of Shame

After a while, that sympathy tends to transform into rage against the oppressive systems that make the tragedies possible. It's especially galling that, whether doing period films or contemporary dramas, the societal issues in Mizoguchi's films are always the same, painting a view of misogyny as an eternal malady of history. One day that might change, and in his last film, the director laced his cinema of indignation with something more hopeful. Street of Shame tells the story of various prostitutes in the Japan of the 1950s, weaving tales of resilience with personal pain and much empathy. With the grace of his actress' careful characterizations and his camera's elegance, Mizoguchi ended his career with a movie that, for all its hardships, finds in the wonder of humanity a light at the end of the tunnel. We all need that light.

All the films mentioned in this piece are streaming on the Criterion Channel.
* NASA resumed human spaceflight on Saturday after hiatus

* Move ended Russian monopoly on flights to space station

* Moscow welcomes move, but queries Trump's reaction

By Maria Kiselyova and Andrew Osborn

MOSCOW, May 31 (Reuters) - Russia's space agency criticised U.S. President Donald Trump's "hysteria" about the first spaceflight of NASA astronauts from U.S. soil in nine years, but also said on Sunday it was pleased there was now another way to travel into space.

SpaceX, the private rocket company of billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, on Saturday launched two Americans into orbit from Florida en route to the International Space Station (ISS), a landmark mission that ended Russia's monopoly on flights there.

Trump, who observed the launch, said the United States had regained its place as the world's leader in space, that U.S. astronauts would soon land on Mars, and that Washington would soon have "the greatest weapons ever imagined in history."

NASA had had to rely on Roscosmos, Russia's space agency, to get to the ISS since its final space shuttle flight in 2011, and Trump hailed what he said was the end of being at the mercy of foreign nations.

The U.S. success will potentially deprive Roscosmos, which has suffered corruption scandals and a number of malfunctions, of the lucrative fees it charged to take U.S. astronauts to the ISS.

"The hysteria raised after the successful launch of the Crew Dragon spacecraft is hard to understand," Vladimir Ustimenko, spokesman for Roscosmos, wrote on Twitter after citing Trump's statement.

"What has happened should have happened long ago. Now it's not only the Russians flying to the ISS, but also the Americans. Well that's wonderful!"

Moscow has said previously that it is also deeply worried about what it fears are U.S. plans to deploy weapons in space.

Moscow would not be sitting idly by, Ustimenko said.

"..We are not going to rest on our laurels either. We will test two new rockets this year, and next year we will resume our lunar programme. It will be interesting," said Ustimenko. (Editing by Susan Fenton)
A migrant worker who died last week on board a Shramik Special train by which he was returning home from Haryana has tested positive for COVID-19, raising Bihar's death toll to 21, an official said here on Sunday.

According to the official, the victim, aged 51 years, hailed from Khagaria district and breathed his last on May 28, shortly before the train reached its destination.

His sample was sent for testing after the body was brought down at the station, the official said.

This is the third COVID-19 fatality reported from Khagaria, the highest for any district in Bihar.

Other districts having reported deaths are Patna, Vaishali, Siwan and Bhojpur and Munger, Bhagalpur, Begusarai, East Champaran, Sitamarhi, Rohtas, Saran, Jehanabad, Nalanda and Samastipur.

The state has so far reported 3,565 cases, of which 206 were reported on Saturday.

Although the first two cases were reported in Bihar in March, the tally began to rise drastically since the beginning of the month which has accounted for more than 3,000 cases.

The number of patients that have recovered stands at 1,311, while 73,929 samples have been tested so far, according to a release issued by the state health department.

Migrants, who had been arriving by train and other means of transport, including cargo vehicles, make for a major chunk of COVID-19 cases in Bihar.

Since May 3, as many as 2,433 migrants have tested positive for the coronavirus.

Majority of them have returned from places like Maharashtra (613), Delhi (534), Gujarat (342), Haryana (213), Uttar Pradesh (124), Rajasthan (118), Telangana (103), West Bengal (101) and Punjab (73).
New Delhi, May 31 : After remaining in lockdown for over two months, the people of India will proceed towards a normal life from Monday but with several terms and conditions. With this comes a time which will be highly sensitive for the country.

Experts say that the lockdown slowed the speed of the transmission of infection and bought some time for the health infrastructure to meet the challenge posed by the pandemic. However they are worried that the numbers will rise exponentially in the time to come.

Speaking to IANS a senior epidemiologist and Public Health Specialist, in a Delhi government hospital said on the condition of anonymity, "As we are moving towards unlocking the country, I can clearly see that the situation is going to worsen. There are various reasons to say that. In our country at least 22 per cent of the population lives below the poverty line. It's very difficult to expect them to use sanitisers and soaps and even water. Many of them cannot afford to do so.

"They also wear low quality masks which hardly save them from the disease but merely give them false sense of security. Secondly, not only uneducated but even educated people don't know how to wear a mask. They continue touching it from the front." He also said that the people after getting some relaxation will become reluctant towards social distancing. "People will try to meet their friends and relatives etc. in relaxation as they have kept distance for a very long time. But they should remember that the disease is still there. Third reason is that the upper middle class can afford a separate room for self isolation but there are thousands of people living in a single room where it is impossible to avert the transmission. We are already seeing community transmission.

"Hospitals are preparing themselves but there are also loopholes. There should be a provision that the samples must be collected at the same place where the patient reported the disease. They send the infected persons from one centre to another, meanwhile the person infects others. They need to expedite the diagnosis procedure." Dr Neha Gupta, Consultant, Infectious Disease at Fortis Memorial Research Institute in Gurugram told IANS that as the cases are increasing, there may be shortage of beds if all patients are admitted, therefore mild cases need to be managed at home quarantine.

"As community transmission is well established now and the cases are increasing - there may be a shortage of beds if all patients are admitted. Hence cases with mild symptoms can be managed at Home quarantine under the telemedicine guidance of a good physician or Infectious Diseases specialist with video consultation if the home facility permits.

Moderate or severe cases with breathlessness or pneumonia or saturation decreasing to less than 94 percent, need hospitalisation in a dedicated COVID care centre or Heath centre or hospital. Now, home quarantine or hospitalisation based on the symptoms is becoming a part of the care.

On the preparation of the hospitals in the coming time, Dr Saurabh Sachar of the Safdarjung hospital told IANS that the hospital is preparing itself to receive more patients. "As far as Safdarjang is concerned, we are trying to scale up the infrastructure. We are trying to increase beds in ICU and Corona wards. But every hospital has a set potential and can go up till that only, we are trying our best to increase our infrastructure which was there till May. Now every person needs to take care of their own health and ensure that they dont get infected.

The government has also come out with home quarantine policy so hospitalisation may be required for highly susceptible age group and where deterioration could be much faster or who are exhibiting more serious symptoms. Currently we have 70 ICU beds and 300 - 500 ward beds, now we are planning to make it at least 200 ICU beds and increasing ward beds. We are also getting more ventilators this week by the Ministry."

Dr Ritu Garg, Zonal Director of Fortis told IANS how the hospital is extra alert to avert the chances of infection. "With the relaxation in the lock down, there are chances of the cases in India to increase. We are following very strict extensive screening at the entrance of the hospital. Anyone with flu-like symptoms is isolated and taken to separate flu corner which is outside the main building. At the entry point each visitor is checked for fever, cough and cold along with Aarogya setu app and if they are coming from the containment zone.The hospital has deployed indoor disinfectant robots for sanitizing the premises. Strict social distancing norms and hygiene are followed."

Dr. Saksham Mittal, Joint secretary of Federation of Resident Doctors Association (FORDA) told IANS that hospitals need more beds and ICUs to deal with the upcoming situation. "RML and other covid dedicated hospitals are already dealing with this pandemic situation. They have a limited number of beds and ICU which are being used to their maximum capacity. So if the number of patients increases as the lockdown eases, we require more number of beds and ICUs which the government claims they are prepared for. If at all the demand arises, I think RML or any other central government hospital may be converted to a covid dedicated hospital as a whole."

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)

-- Syndicated from IANS
Duke University researchers have developed a synthetic molecule that selectively dampen the physiological rewards of cocaine in mice. It also may represent a new class of drugs that could be more specific with fewer side effects than current medications.

In mice that were treated with the stimulant cocaine or methamphetamine, the new molecule was found to calm their drug-induced hyperactivity and interfere with the dopamine system's ability to change metabolism in the brain's rewards center.

In mice that were allowed to self-administer cocaine, the treatment slowed down their drug use in 20 minutes to an hour, and reduced the amount of drug they used by more than 80 percent, compared to a control group of mice.

The molecule, SBI-553, activates cell surface chemical receptors called G protein-coupled receptors or GPCRs, which are the target of more than 35% of all FDA-approved drugs. (The discovery and characterization of GPCRs earned the team's Duke colleague, Robert Lefkowitz, the 2012 Nobel Prize in chemistry.)

When a GPCR is activated by a signaling molecule, it transmits that signal to the inner portion of the cell via interaction with two intracellular proteins: G protein and beta-arrestin. Most GPCR drugs in use today indiscriminately activate both G protein and beta-arrestin, and sometimes activating both molecules withthe same GPCR can produce dramatically different physiological effects.

Drug developers have been trying to identify compounds that selectively activate one or the other because they have the potential to be safer drugs with fewer side effects.

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In a paper appearing online May 28 in the journal Cell, the Duke researchers report the development of a new class of small molecules that may allow for just that -- thereby separating the good effects from the bad.

"This kind of idea has been kicking around for 20 years or so," said senior author Marc Caron, the James B. Duke professor of Cell Biology in the School of Medicine. His work has focused on GPCR signaling involved in disorders like addiction, schizophrenia, Parkinson's Disease and depression.

For decades, researchers working on drug abuse and addiction have pursued molecules that would activate one specific GPCR called neurotensin receptor 1 (NTSR1) as a way to interrupt the actions of stimulants and treat cocaine and methamphetamine addictions.

Neurotensin is known to be involved in drug-seeking behavior and food intake in mice. "It regulates the brain's reward system and motivated behavior," said senior post-doctoral fellow Lauren Slosky, who is the lead author on the paper.

But so far, the drugs that activate NTSR1 have severe side effects for blood pressure, body temperature and motor coordination, because those are also controlled by NTSR1. "This was known, but nobody could do anything about it," Caron said.

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In collaboration with the Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute in La Jolla, California, the Duke team screened 400,000 small molecule drugs to see if any of them could stimulate the NTSR1 beta-arrestin response.

One small molecule called SBI-553 that emerged from the screen acts at a previously unknown site on the NTSR1 and selectively activates the beta-arrestin without activating the G protein. SBI-553 can bind the NTSR1 at the same time as this receptor's natural activator, a peptide known as neurotensin, and it promotes neurotensin's ability to activate beta-arrestin while blocking its ability to activate the G protein.

"This type of activity isn't something we've seen before," said study co-author Lawrence Barak, an associate research professor who has studied GPCRs for decades and initiated the NTSR1 research program at Duke as well as the collaborative, large-scale screening effort.

Like conventional NTSR1 activators, SBI-553 was found to reduce the amount of cocaine the animals consumed and their associated drug-craving. But it did so without the usual side effects of decreased blood pressure and body temperature and motor coordination problems.

"The current findings suggest that the selective activation of the NTSR1 beta-arrestin response is sufficient to produce some of the anti-addiction effects attributed to the NTSR1, but not its effects on blood pressure and body temperature," Slosky said.

Because NTSR1 is a prototypical GPCR, molecules of this class can now be pursued for other receptors, Slosky said. "This kind of modulator may allow for the fine-tuning of receptor signaling."

The Duke team and their colleagues at Sanford Burnham were recently awarded a $3.58 million grant from National Institutes of Health (NIH) to develop SBI-553 for clinical trials and evaluate its effects on behaviors associated with opioid addiction.

This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health (F32DA043931, K99DA048970, 1K01AG041211, K08HL125905-01, R21/33DA038019, P30DA029925, R37MH073853.)
A former Saskatchewan resident has volunteered to be a nurse in New York City  the epicentre of COVID-19 in the United States. He knew it would be tough, but didn't know just how much of a toll it would take on him.

Anil Gorania, who moved from Saskatchewan to the U.S. in 2008 and became a nurse, says he was compelled to volunteer at New York's busy hospitals during the pandemic.

"I saw people suffering on the news and I immediately thought of the nurses," said Gorania.

"I thought of how overwhelmed they were  I know what those words mean when they're saying there's a four-to-one patient ratio in the ICU and patients in the hallway. That means some of those patients were dying alone. And I couldn't stand by and do nothing."

Anil Gorania was born in Swift Current and spent more than 30 years living in Regina. He and his family now reside in Oregon. But Gorania says he still considers Regina to be his home.

Submitted by Anil Gorania

Gorania has been working at multiple hospitals in New York City for the past month.

He says nurses are under immense emotional, mental and physical stress as they deal with high COVID-19 death tolls and constant interruptions to their duties, like new emergency room arrivals and patients crashing.

"I don't think I can do another month. It's ravaging my mind," Gorania said.

"I'm going to need a psychiatrist, or a therapy group at the very least. These stories of these people and all these patients gather in my mind. And every one of them is there for life. They're not going to leave. Those patients are in my mind forever."

Gorania says nurses are used to saving more people than they lose in intensive care units. But that has not been the case during the pandemic. Gorania says it's very common to see nurses crying in the hall either because of the stress or because of losing another patient.

"It's hard to see a battle-hardened nurse fall apart. But when you see a battle-hardened attending doctor who's been there for years and seen everything turn his head away to hide his tears ... it's amazing. It's shocking."

Story continues

Submitted by Anil Gorania

Constant sirens

Gorania says the shocking reality of the pandemic hit him as soon as he arrived in New York City a month ago,

"It was traumatizing from day one. Before I even reached the hospital, the wail of sirens shrieking through the night was constant."

He says he was initially shell-shocked because healthcare workers are required to put on a mask before they even enter the hospital. This is because all the air is contaminated in the building.

"The fear struck right then," he says.

Submitted by Anil Gorania

Gorania says there are story cards on patients' doors that show the patients when they were healthy, as well their families. The purpose of this is to humanize the person with COVID-19.

"You look at the picture and then you walk in the room and they're unrecognizable. You can count 10 to 20 different lines coming in and out of every part of their body."

Gorania says this is taking a toll on healthcare workers. He says is not just the elderly and unhealthy that are dying  it is the young as well.

"These scars are going to cut deep and they're going to cut forever. I find myself crying three times a day, randomly."

Submitted by Anil Gorania

Many nurses express their concerns about having or getting PTSD, says Gorania. But he says the New York hospital he is currently working at has done a good job of providing meditation options, emotional support and respite for struggling healthcare workers.

Gorania says that while the COVID-19 situation in New York hospitals is improving, it is still bad. He says he will stay and help as long as he can, as there are not enough nurses working on the front lines.

"But I'm struggling to see that I can do another month."
Washington, May 31 (IANS) The SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft carrying NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley successfully docked with the International Space Station on Sunday, marking the beginning of a new era in the US space programme.

"Docking confirmed - Crew Dragon has arrived at the @space_station," SpaceX tweeted.

The spacecraft lifted off at 3.22 p.m. EDT on Saturday on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.

This is the first-ever crewed mission for SpaceX. This was also the first crewed launch from the US after the government retired the space shuttle programme in 2011.

Known as NASA's SpaceX Demo-2, the mission is an end-to-end test flight to validate the SpaceX crew transportation system, including launch, in-orbit, docking and landing operations.

Behnken and Hurley will work with SpaceX mission control to verify the spacecraft is performing as intended by testing the environmental control system, the displays and control system, and by manoeuvring the thrusters, among other things.

The Demo-2 mission is the final major test before NASA's Commercial Crew Programme certifies Crew Dragon for operational, long-duration missions to the space station.

For operational missions, Crew Dragon will be able to launch as many as four crew members at a time and carry more than 220 pounds of cargo, allowing for an increased number crew members aboard the space station and increasing the time dedicated to research in the unique microgravity environment, as well as returning more science back to Earth.

The first operational Crew Dragon mission, called Crew-1, could launch to the space station as early as August 30, Space.com reported. The Crew Dragon being used for this flight test can stay in orbit about 110 days, and the specific mission duration will be determined once on station based on the readiness of the next commercial crew launch.

The operational Crew Dragon spacecraft will be capable of staying in orbit for at least 210 days as a NASA requirement.

At the conclusion of the mission, Behnken and Hurley will board Crew Dragon, which will then autonomously undock, depart the space station, and re-enter Earth's atmosphere. Upon splashdown off Florida's Atlantic coast, the crew will be picked up by the SpaceX recovery ship and returned to the dock at Cape Canaveral.

NASA selected SpaceX and Boeing to design, build, test and operate safe, reliable and cost-effective human transportation systems to low-Earth orbit as part of its Commercial Crew Programme to reduce the agency's dependence on Russia's Soyuz capsule for transportation of astronauts to the space station.

--IANS

gb/vd
Governor Authorizes Assistance After Request from Los Angeles & Proclaims State of Emergency

Sacramento, California - Governor Gavin Newsom this evening authorized assistance after a request from the city and county of Los Angeles, and proclaimed a state of emergency in Los Angeles County.

California approved the city and countys request to deploy members of the National Guard to assist Los Angeles and neighboring communities.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 31

By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:

Turkeys export of ready-made clothing to France decreased by 24.4 percent from January through April 2020 compared to the same period of 2019 and stood at slightly over $216 million, Turkeys Ministry of Trade told Trend.

In April 2020, the export of ready-made clothing from Turkey to France plunged by 69.6 percent compared to the same month of 2019 and amounted to $21 million.

In the first four months of 2020, Turkeys export of ready-made clothing to world markets dropped by 20.1 percent, compared to the same period of 2019, and made up $4.7 billion. Meanwhile, Turkeys export of ready-made clothing amounted to 9.3 percent of the countrys total export.

In April 2020, Turkey exported the ready-made clothing to world markets worth over $575.8 million, which is 61.7 percent less compared to the same month of 2019. In this month, the export of Turkish ready-made clothing amounted to 6.4 percent of the country's total export.

From April 2019 through April 2020, Turkeys export of ready-made clothing reached $16.4 billion.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) flagbearer, John Mahama has reiterated calls to government to consider conducting mass testing exercises before the reopening of schools.



According to Mahama, government has accumulated enough resources in the name of Covid-19 to be able to fund a mass testing exercise, even if it has to rely on private laboratories; for the sake of the life and health of Ghanaians.



In the latest in his series of letters to government and the general public, he suggested that following the reopening of schools, students, teachers and ancillary staff returning to school or church attendants should undergo a mandatory Covid-19 test as a safety precaution.



The Former President indicated his support for the position of the various teachers unions and parents who have protested the hasty reopening of schools.



Government must pay close attention and take into consideration, the concerns of the various unions and parents.



He added that, any decision taken by government to ease restrictions must be based on the utmost respect for human life and the science of the disease we are dealing with.



Decisions based on false premises will have grave consequences for all of us as Ghanaians.



On behalf of his party, John Mahama congratulated all health workers still at the frontline of the fight against the virus for their collective effort during the pandemic.



Ghanaians truly appreciate your sacrifices, and you can be assured that your commitment and sacrifice will never be forgotten.

Source: myjoyonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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V ulnerable people in England who have been asked to stay at home since the start of lockdown will be allowed outdoors once a day from Monday, the Prime Minister has confirmed.

Those living alone will be able to meet outside with one other person from another household, provided they maintain safe social distancing.

People identified as being at particularly high risk of needing hospital treatment for coronavirus symptoms were sent a letter asking them to shield at home back in March.

Boris Johnson unveiled the relaxation of strict restrictions for the 2.2million "shielders", as he praised their resilience during the pandemic.

All you need to know about the lifting of lockdown measures

He said on Saturday: I want to thank everyone who has followed the shielding guidance  it is because of your patience and sacrifice that thousands of lives have been saved.

I do not underestimate just how difficult it has been for you, staying at home for the last 10 weeks, and I want to pay tribute to your resilience.

I also want to recognise the hundreds of thousands of extraordinary volunteers who have supported you in shielding.

Whether through delivering medicines and shopping, or simply by checking in on those isolating, they should feel deeply proud of the part they have played in this collective effort.

We have been looking at how we can make life easier for our most vulnerable, so today I am happy to confirm that those who are shielding will be able to spend time outside with someone else, observing social distance guidelines.

I will do what I can, in line with the scientific advice, to continue making life easier for you over the coming weeks and months.

UK lockdown eases as more people return to work - In pictures 1 /54 UK lockdown eases as more people return to work - In pictures A woman wearing a face mask and gloves walks on a platform at Waterloo Station in London Reuters Cannon Street Station Jeremy Selwyn General view of roadworks on London Bridge, London PA Busy tube train between East Ham and Upton Park. PA People are seen at Waterloo Station in London Reuters People wear a face masks at Leeds station PA A worker from LNER stands beside ticket barriers that have been blocked for social distancing measures at Newcastle train station, PA Cannon Street Station Jeremy Selwyn Police at Victoria Station as Lockdown is slowly lifted at Victoria Station Nigel Howard Nigel Howard Burnt Oak tube station. PA A Victoria line train is deep cleaned at Northumberland Park depot PA Commuters at Clapham Junction Station PA Nigel Howard Euston Station Jeremy Selwyn Nigel Howard Passengers board and leave a train at a station in Bracknell, Berkshire PA Commuters and staff in and around at Clapham Junction Railway Station Daniel Hambury Police officers pictured at Colliers Wood Daniel Hambury/@stellapicsltd Cannon Street Station Jeremy Selwyn Euston Station Jeremy Selwyn Euston Station Jeremy Selwyn Euston Station Jeremy Selwyn Euston Station Jeremy Selwyn Euston Station Jeremy Selwyn Increased police and security personnel at New Street station in Birmingham PA Cannon Street Station Jeremy Selwyn Commuters at Clapham Junction sStation PA Nigel Howard Cannon Street Station Jeremy Selwyn Commuters at Clapham Junction Station PA Busy tube train between East Ham and Upton Park PA Nigel Howard Commuters and staff in and around at Clapham Junction Railway Station, Daniel Hambury Nigel Howard Increased police and security personnel at New Street station in Birmingham PA Increased security at New Street station in Birmingham, PA Busy tube train between East Ham and Upton Park PA Commuters at Clapham Junction Station PA A sign advising passengers to wear a face mask at Clapham Junction station, PA Stickers being installed on a bus at Abellio Camberwell bus garage, as more people are set to return to offices, factories and building sites this week PA

Reviews of the shielding guidance are expected to be made at regular points in the coming weeks, with Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick set to outline more details at Sunday's Downing Street press briefing.

Responding to the announcement, Mr Jenrick said: Those shielding from coronavirus have made huge sacrifices over recent months to protect both themselves and the NHS  they deserve our thanks and our support for their efforts.

Incidence rates of coronavirus are now significantly lower than before these measures were put in place.

Thats why we are focused on finding the right balance between continuing to protect those at the greatest clinical risk, whilst easing restrictions on their daily lives to make the difficult situation more bearable  particularly enabling the contact with loved ones they and we all seek.

We will now be providing regular updates to the shielded to guide them through the next phase and, we hope, to better and less restrictive times. In the meantime we will continue to provide the support that the shielded in our communities need.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock also commented on the news, saying: I want to take this opportunity to thank the NHS, GPs, all those who volunteered, community pharmacists and all those involved in providing much-needed support and guidance for patients required to shield over the past 10 weeks.

Thanks to the sacrifices made across the country, which have protected the NHS and saved lives, its now time to begin lifting restrictions, step by step, and while we must all stay alert, we can now start to resume a sense of normality.

Steven McIntosh, director of policy at Macmillan Cancer Support, said: This is a step forward for people who are most vulnerable to coronavirus, a group who have felt left behind and forgotten as lockdown eases.

The Government has listened and it is good news that they are now regularly reviewing guidance for this shielded group and will have written to those affected by mid-June.

For many, itll be welcome advice that they can now choose to go outside for exercise or to meet people whilst socially distancing.

But they still face heavy restrictions like being advised to avoid food shopping, going to pharmacies or their workplaces.

The Government also hasnt yet delivered its commitment to provide greater help to this extremely vulnerable group, and Macmillan has heard from people living with cancer that existing shielding support isnt getting through.

So the Government must now set out how they will guarantee the needs of the most vulnerable and isolated are met.

And Phil Anderson, head of policy at the MS Society, said people would want to hear the scientific evidence behind the decision.

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He said: Over 130,000 people live with MS in the UK and thousands of them have been left feeling forgotten after months of shielding.

"While for some it may be a relief that this relaxation is happening in England others have been left feeling confused.

"Were extremely concerned this news has come out of the blue  people who are extremely vulnerable will rightly want to hear a lot more about the scientific evidence showing this will be safe for them.

If the Government is serious about supporting vulnerable people who are shielding they need more than just the ability to go outside. Crucially, we want to see better mental health support for everyone who needs it.
Manager of late Ghanaian dancehall/Hiplife artiste Terry Bonchaka; Reagan Mends has recounted how the late music icon reported legendary Hiplife artiste, Jerry Anaabaa better known as Okomfour Kwaadee to the Police for smoking Indian hemp (Wee) in his car.

For some time now, Okomfour Kwaadee who has been an inspiration to many, inspiring a whole generation of rap music like the Sarkodies and others have been battling with mental challenges as a result of smoking marijuana (Wee) which resulted in his detention at a rehab centre.

In 2018, the news about the Yenko Mbaa Pe hitmaker being abandoned at the rehab centre by his family went viral. After he was announced to have recovered, it emerged he had sadly relapsed again following few months of making public appearances and even released a new song.

However, a new photo of the celebrated Hiplife musician which has gone viral on social media has left the showbiz fraternity in a state of shock. In the photo, the Abrantie Mabre composer has really lost weight.

According to RazzNews.coms checks, Kwaadee is dealing with mental, spiritual and financial issues thus he is currently seeking help from a female Pastor somewhere in Kumasi.

Commenting on the photo in an interview on Hot 93.9FM, Reagan Mends cited the current state of the Prolific Hiplife artiste as sad and embarrassing.

According to Reagan, the late Terry Bonchaka who was an intimate friend of Kwaadee and had advised him to minimize his smoking habit, once reported the latter to the Police for overly smoking marijuana in his(Kwaadee) car.

What I am about to say would shock everyone; Terry Bonchaka advised Kwaadee to minimize his smoking habit..I can really remember Terry reporting Kwaadee to the Police on the Ho/Accra highway for smoking wee in his own car after they had performed at the Ho Polytechnic in 2003. After the show, Terry Bonchaka sat in Kwaadees red BMW car;he then called me on phone that Kwaadee was overly smoking wee in the car which he frowns on so he would report him to the police when they get to a Police barrier. Seriously, when Terry called, I thought he was just pranking but he truly reported Kwaadee to the police when they got to the barrier.Reagan quipped

He continued, "The Policemen on duty thought Terry was only pranking so they all laughed it off and allowed them to continue their journey. So when they got to the Tema roundabout, Terry quickly alighted from the car and vowed never to sit in Kwaadees car again. Kwaadee also called me on Phone and vowed never to pick Terry in his car againthey were very good friends.

It is widely perceived by most people across the globe that celebrities are fond of engaging themselves in wild lifestyles such as smoking, partying, flaunting their wealth and above all living a licentious life.

But according to Reagan Mends who is a journalist at Hot 93.9FM and the CEO of RazzNews.com, though Terry Bonchaka was regarded as the best performer that time, he never engaged himself in those practices adding that the late Puulele composer even died a virgin.

Terry Bonchaka, 21, died on the Legon-Madina road on 30th October, 2003 when the vehicle in which he was riding with a friend after performing at the Akuafo Hall Celebration, suddenly veered off the road and hit a tree.

He got his big break in the Miss Ghana Hiplife Amateur Competition and went on to win the regional competition before taking home the title of Hiplife Champion 2001 in the final round.

During the short time that he captivated Ghanaian music lovers he released his songs including; Puulele, Zoozey, Ghana Ladies, Im Aware, Ghana Ladies and African Chow.

He also influenced some Ghanaian musicians including dancehall artiste Shatta Wale, Sherifa Gunu and Afro-beats star King Ayisoba.

Source:RazzNews.com
Ireland's pubs face an uncertain future if the strict lockdown continues

As the coronavirus epidemic worsened across Europe, raucous celebrations among revellers in a Dublin pub in March forced the Irish government into one of the continent's strictest lockdowns.

As the country emerges from the first wave of the crisis, the plight of the Irish pub has emerged as a key battleground between cautious policymakers and industry groups calling for much quicker loosening of economic restrictions.

Almost half of pubs may exploit a loophole in government rules by opening as a 'restaurant' in June, according to a survey last week. Officially, watering holes can open their doors again in August, but those with restaurant certificates could open earlier - raising the prospect of drinkers having to book a table in advance and order their Guinness from a waiter.

Pubs and restaurants were not included in the government's initial early lockdown orders and were instead advised to adhere to strict social distancing measures. On March 15, though, images emerged on social media of a crowded pub in the Temple Bar, a popular Dublin city centre tourist hotspot, of young people huddled together while singing along with a live band.

There was a widespread backlash among the public. The government immediately ordered the closure of all pubs and restaurants. On March 12, Leo Varadkar, the Taoiseach, interrupted his annual St Patricks Day engagements in Washington to give a live address on Irish TV. Also as part of lockdown measures, people were not allowed to travel more than 2km from where they lived. Movement was restricted to one daily exercise and a visit to the shop.

Ireland has one of the lowest rates of hospital beds per capita in the EU. The government knew that if it didnt stem the flow of the disease at an early stage, the healthcare system would be overwhelmed.

Just sent to me from Temple bar.



Glad we are taking this serious.#COVID19 #CloseThePubs pic.twitter.com/YI1YOwzDV7  Gareth Neary (@Tiananmens) March 14, 2020

And the country has coped relatively well by international standards. There were 326,000 tests carried out in a population of just under 5 million  one of the highest rates per capita in the world. The latest figures show 24,803 cases and 1,631 deaths recorded. However, the death rate is the eighth highest per capita in the world, but that is partly because the government included all Covid related mortalities in the official figures.

Story continues

The crisis has been good for the government. Fine Gael, Mr Varadkar's party had a disastrous general election last February. It slumped to third place on 21 per cent of the popular vote. The party is leading a caretaker government as negotiations to form a new administration have been complicated by the pandemic. The partys competent handling of the crisis has seen its popularity surge to 37% in the latest opinion poll. Mr Varadkars personal ratings have also soared. A qualified doctor, he renewed his licence to practice in a clinic every Saturday.

But there has been one very large blot on its copybook. Figures published on Thursday (May 28th) show that Ireland had the second highest rate of care home deaths in the world.

Now the focus has shifted to reopening the economy, and the public consensus that helped Ireland through the crisis could unravel. The scale of the damage caused by the pandemic was underlined by figures released by the Economic and Social Research Institute on Thursday. It estimates that Ireland will experience its worst ever recession this year as the economy is forecast to shrink by 12 per cent.

Leo Varadkar was praised for renewing his doctor's licence, but was accused of flouting lockdown rules with a park barbecue

Industry groups have warned the cautious approach risks inflicting lasting economic damage.

Pub owners have said that if the government doesnt accelerate the timeline for reopening the economy, then the sector could be destroyed.

The Vintners Federation of Ireland (VFI), which represents publicans, wants the government to change course and allow pubs open on June 29th, when restaurants open their doors. Publicans also want the government to reduce the social distancing rule from 2 metres to one metre, which would reduce standing capacity by 87% and seating capacity by 66%.

The VFI has said that if the social distancing rule was reduced to 1 metre, in line with World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines, then standing capacity would only be reduced by 50% and seating capacity by 35%.

From the perspective of commercial viability, the WHO guidelines obviously make much more sense for hospitality venues such as pubs, Padraig Cribben, chief executive of the VFI, said.

Several cabinet ministers have called on Mr Varadkar to relax the rule.

Government formation talks are close to an agreement. It is expected that Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and the Green Party could publish a programme for government next week and a new government in place next month [June]. What to do about the social distancing rule and the pub sector is just one of the many sensitive issues it will have to resolve as the Irish economy recovers from a devastating trauma for the second time in a decade.
Indonesia in 1965 was the apex of anti-Communist violence in the 20th century. The slaughter obliterated the popular, unarmed Partai Komunis Indonesia, the largest Communist party outside of China and the Soviet Union, and toppled President Sukarno, a founding leader of the Nonaligned Movement and an outspoken anti-imperialist, replacing him with General Suharto, a right-wing dictator who quickly became one of Washingtons most important Cold War allies.

This was such an obvious victory for the global anti-Communist movement that far-right groups around the world began to draw inspiration from the Jakarta model and build copycat programs. They were assisted by American officials and anti-Communist organizations that moved across borders. In turn, leftist movements radicalized or took up arms, believing they would be killed if they attempted to pursue the path of democratic socialism.

In the early 70s, right-wing terrorists in Chile painted Jakarta on the houses of socialists, threatening that they too would be killed. After the C.I.A.-backed coup in 1973, they were. Brazilian leftists were threatened with Operacao Jacarta, too. By the end of the 1970s, most of South America was governed by authoritarian, pro-American governments that secured power by mass murder. By 1990, death squads in Central America pushed the Latin American death toll into the hundreds of thousands.

In North America and Europe, if people think about these terror campaigns at all, the narrative is too often that the United States made alliances with unsavory characters, who committed unfortunate abuses. That is wrong. The United States government was behind much of the violence, and it was far from inconsequential. Most nations in the former third world were set on their current path by conflicts that took place during the Cold War. The violence made possible a version of crony capitalism that comprises daily reality for billions of people, and it is an integral part of the version of globalization that the world ended up with.

No reasonable person denies the great things the United States did in the 20th century, or that many countries enjoyed prosperity while in happy alliances with Washington. But as we move deeper into the 21st century, Americans are going to need to confront the darker side of American hegemony  because much of the rest of the world already has. Part of the reason the current order is so fragile is because so many people around the world know, indeed can physically feel in their bodies, that Washington used brutality to construct it.

We do not know yet what the world would look like were China to take up the position the United States is losing. There is no reason to believe that just because this world order has blood in its roots, something better will spring to life if it dies.

As Americans reckon with  and fret about  their countrys diminished position in the world, we need to understand that the United States is not, in fact, beloved as a beacon of freedom, democracy and human rights. From Argentina to the Democratic Republic of Congo, East Timor to Iran, millions of people are skeptical of Washingtons intentions, even if they have no particular desire to emulate Chinas government, either.

A failure to recognize reality, however, and a desperate attempt to claw back a deeply imperfect global order, could be very dangerous for everyone.

Vincent Bevins (@vinncent) is the author of The Jakarta Method: Washingtons Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program That Shaped Our World.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. Wed like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And heres our email: letters@nytimes.com.

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Three people died early Saturday morning after their car crashed into an NJ Transit bus in Moorestown, police said.

The bus was making a left turn from Route 38 west to Pleasant Valley Avenue around 12:30 a.m. when it was hit by a car traveling east on Route 38, according to a statement from the Moorestown Police.

The three occupants of the car, two women and one man, were pronounced dead at the scene, but their identifies were not released Saturday as police were still trying to notify their families, authorities said.

The bus driver and one passenger were transported to Cooper University Hospital with non-life threatening injuries, police said.

The cause of the crash remained under investigation on Saturday evening and anyone with information on it was asked to call the Moorestown Police Department at 856-914-3092 or traffic@moorestownpd.com.

Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a voluntary subscription.

Chris Sheldon may be reached at csheldon@njadvancemedia.com.
Islamic rebels kill at least 57 in attacks on civilians in DRC

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At least 57 people were killed this week in attacks carried out by an Islamic rebel group in the northeast Democratic Republic of Congo as escalating violence near the Ugandan border has displaced hundreds of thousands of people so far this year.

The Centre for the Promotion of Peace, Democracy and Human Rights said in a statement that Islamic rebels attacked Samboko, Bandavilemba and Walese-Vukutu villages in Ituri province on Tuesday, killing 40, according to The Associated Press.

Attacks on villages have been attributed to members of the Allied Democratic Forces and a group known as MTM, which claims to be affiliated with the Islamic State terror faction. According to the news agency, the two groups have begun carrying out attacks together.

The latest attacks follow a separate attack on Monday that was attributed to ADF, an Islamist rebel group that was driven out of Uganda in the late 1990s but has operated in eastern DRC and resurged in recent years. A military offensive was launched against the groups bases last year.

A source told Reuters that ADF launched an early morning attack on civilians in the village of Makutano in Ituri.

They fired several shots in the air. When the population was fleeing, they captured some people and cut them up with machetes, Gili Gotabo, a civil society leader in the Irumu territory, said of the Monday attack.

The Kivu Security Tracker, a research initiative that monitors violence in the region, reported that at least 17 were killed in Monday's attack. However, Gotabo told Reuters that there are likely to be more deaths.



ADF has been blamed for killing hundreds of people since the offensive began last year.

After a sharp decline of violent deaths in March, the Kivu Security Tracker shows an uptick in attacks in the region over the last two months.

The U.N.'s Children's Fund reported last week that over a quarter-million people, most of whom are children, have been forced to flee violence in Ituri since the beginning of the year.

The agency said that 22 health facilities have been destroyed and 160 schools have been damaged or looted.

UNICEF stressed in its May 20 report that 25,000 newly displaced people have gone into IDP camps and are struggling to access safe water and sanitation. The U.N. Refugee Agency estimates that over 5 million people were displaced in-country between October 2017 and September 2019, with over 900,000 refugees and asylum seekers in host countries.

According to UNICEF, the new displacements put further pressure on already stretched humanitarian services in one of the poorest, most insecure and disease-stricken parts of the country.

Even before the new influx, displaced people could only access five liters of water per day  far below the recommended daily minimum, the report says.

From three areas  Djugu, Mahagi and Irumu  UNICEF notes that about 200,000 people are seeking shelter in host communities or at extremely overcrowded displacement sites in and around Ituris capital of Bunia since December 2019.

The humanitarian situation in Djugu area is especially precarious as 70 percent of humanitarian workers have had to suspend operations due to the worsening security context, the UNICEF report adds.

Edouard Beigbeder, a UNICEF representative in the DRC, said the security situation in Ituri is deteriorating fast.

We need to act equally quickly to avert a crisis that would forcibly uproot and endanger even more children, Beigbeder warned in a statement.

The conflict between rebels and security services come as a conflict between farming and herding communities in the region has also led the killings of 701 people between December 2017 and September 2019 in Djugu and Mahagi, according to a U.N. investigation.

Violence and mass displacement has effected millions across Central and West Africa, including those that have been displaced or killed by extremist or rebel attacks in countries such as Nigeria, Cameroon and Burkina Faso. Escalating Islamic terrorism in the southeast African country of Mozambique has also led to the displacement of over 100,000 people.
Updated at 4:54 a.m. with county police summary.

ST. LOUIS COUNTY  Police deployed tear gas Saturday night as protesters in Ferguson launched fireworks at officers, smashed windows to police headquarters and looted a beauty supply store.

Hundreds of people on Saturday participated in two marches to protest the deaths of black people killed by police. One during the day was peaceful, though tensions escalated around 10:30 p.m.

By 1 a.m. Sunday morning, guns were shot in the air near the Ferguson police department, and police deployed pepper spray and rubber bullets.

Late Saturday night, Gov. Mike Parson announced he had activated the Missouri National Guard to support local authorities in protecting citizens against violence and property destruction that may occur in connection with the ongoing protests. The Missouri Highway Patrol was also made available, the governor said. Up to that point, however, protests in the St. Louis area had remained peaceful if heated at times.

One large local demonstration started about 3 p.m. in Clayton, the government seat for St. Louis County. The other began before nightfall in Ferguson, where raging protests were held nearly six years ago after Michael Brown Jr. was killed by a Ferguson police officer.

St. Louis County Police, in a summary released just before 5 a.m., said seven officers were injured after being hit by rocks, bottles and fireworks in Ferguson. Three officers were taken to local hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries, four were treated at the scene. Numerous businesses and other buildings in downtown Ferguson were damaged, including the Ferguson Police Department headquarters at 222 S. Florissant Road, and police reported a significant amount of gunfire in the immediate area throughout the night. No arrests had been made at the time of the update, police said.

Police investigating fatal tractor-trailer incident during downtown St. Louis protests According to new information released by police Saturday afternoon, the truck driver was unaware at the time that an individual was between the truck's two trailers.

Protests have taken place in cities across the U.S. since the death Monday in Minneapolis of George Floyd, an African American man who died after a white police officer knelt on his neck for several minutes to restrain him. The officer has been charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter, and three other officers present that day have been fired.

Saturday was the third day of demonstrations in the St. Louis area. On Friday, several hundred protesters marched in downtown St. Louis. Later, a group blocked Interstate 44 for almost three hours, and one person died after climbing between two trailers of a FedEx truck as the truck drove away.

Referring to violent incidents, Gov. Parson said, I support those who are calling for justice and peace. However, a small element has seized on these peaceful demonstrations to commit violent acts that endanger the lives of citizens and bring destruction to our communities.

Kelli Jones, Parsons spokesperson, said the governor had received requests for assistance from Kansas City area officials as a precaution. She said there also had been discussions with St. Louis area officials.

Early Saturday

Hundreds gathered Saturday afternoon at 100 South Central Avenue in Clayton, where the county jail is located. The diverse crowd included all ages and races. Social distancing to prevent spread of the coronavirus was impossible among the throngs, but nearly all were wearing masks.

The large crowd made its way to University City, stretching several blocks and blocking traffic on Forest Park Parkway and Delmar Boulevard. Protesters held signs and chanted phrases such as, no justice, no peace and this is what democracy looks like.

They sat in the middle of major intersections along the way, with fists in the air, urging stopped drivers to join the protest.

Jason Wilson, 47, of Clayton, marched Saturday with his wife and two sons.

People say Black lives matter. It does matter. People use these words  and words like equity  fashionably, and we need to make it count, Wilson said. Im trying to keep the enthusiasm going around supporting the idea of equity and equality.

When protesters entered the intersection of Forest Park Parkway and Big Bend Boulevard, they sat in the middle of the intersection for nearly 10 minutes.

From there, the march headed north on Big Bend to Delmar Boulevard and into the Delmar Loop.

As the protesters passed nearby residential streets, some chanted, out of your homes, into the streets.

Passing cars honked, and police set up roadblocks along the way for the marchers.

While briefly stopped in front of University Citys City Hall, one of the organizers, state Rep. Rasheen Aldridge, D-St. Louis, thanked the crowd and said through a megaphone: What we are doing is what we are going to keep doing!

Friends Jami Stark, 40, of Florissant, and Rebecca Steele, 39, of Hazelwood, said Saturdays protest was their first. They were heartbroken and fed up.

Were done with it, Stark said. Its time. Its way past time.

The crowd made its way into St. Louis, stopping traffic for several minutes in the Skinker Boulevard intersections with Delmar and Forest Park Parkway. The protesters then returned to Clayton via the parkway and dispersed to their vehicles around 7 p.m., just as diners were filling the restaurant patios.

An hour later, about 500 protesters had gathered in Ferguson, demonstrating peacefully. Among the people in Ferguson as the sun started to set was Jason Armstrong, Fergusons police chief since last July.

Ferguson was a wake-up call to law enforcement, Armstrong said. It definitely got my attention. It forced me to look at what (police) were doing  it opened my eyes to be a leader, to build that change and build better relationships.

Isa Shakur, 45, a St. Louis native who moved to Los Angeles but got stuck back here because of the pandemic, said when the U.S. Constitution fails, the people are the Constitution in the flesh.

Looking around at the teenagers and those in their 20s around him, Shakur said, This is the spark, the key to the next generation.

The protest started peacefully, but that changed around 10:30 p.m. People started shooting fireworks at police officers and setting off fireworks inside Ferguson police headquarters. Several windows were also smashed there.

Officers deployed tear gas to disperse the crowd, which began to shrink.

About 20 minutes later, a crowd broke into nearby Beauty World, 110 South Florissant Road, which also sustained heavy losses in protests six years ago. People were seen leaving with armfuls of merchandise.

Police continued to deploy tear gas and rubber bullets as protesters spread in Ferguson.

Target stores close

Minneapolis-based Target Corp. announced it was temporarily closing dozens of its big-box stores amid the ongoing protests. Target stores in the Twin Cities and one in Oakland, California, sustained damage in looting last week.

We are heartbroken by the death of George Floyd and the pain it is causing communities across the country, the company said in a statement. Our focus will remain on our team members safety and helping our community heal.

The company originally said that four local stores would close; Sunday, a revised list said the stores in south St. Louis, Brentwood, Bridgeton and Florissant would remain open.

Annika Merrilees of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.

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Michele Munz Michele Munz is a health reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Follow Michele Munz Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today

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Morning Queues

The drugstore opened at ten in the morning in a Tokyo suburb. Despite it being a cold, rainy Monday at the beginning of April, seven people were already standing in a queue waiting for the store to open. They were there to buy face masks, even though there were signs on the front wall stating, This shop will not sell masks during opening hours.

An older woman stood next to me (Erika), reading the sign. Well, itll be five minutes or so [until the store opens]. She said it to me as if she needed an excuse to wait. A few minutes later, all the waiting customers streamed into the store and went straight to the corner where the masks were usually displayed. Of course, there were none. Marking their absence was a hanging leaflet explaining how to sew fabric face masks (see figure 1).

Figure 1. Instructions on how to sew fabric facemasks.

Well, I knew it. The woman shrugged and went looking for hand sanitizer, which was also not on display. Others followed the same pattern, cursorily searching the store shelves without much hope. During the pandemic, none of these high-demand products had been in stock.

While Euro-Americans have only recently started the practice of mask-wearing,[1] it has been fairly common for Japanese people to wear face masks in public areas when they have mild cold symptoms or hay fever. They are widely available not only at drugstores, but also at convenience stores, 100-yen discount shops, and many other places. In 2018, there were approximately four billion masks sold in the Japanese market.[2] However, since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, masks have become scarce, and people started forming queues to buy them.

This shortage of masks has led people to criticize those who wait in these queues.[3] Online tabloids claimed that because of these overeager customers, other people were unable to purchase masks and hand sanitizer. But who are these customers? According to the tabloids, they are elderly people. They wake up early, and so they have plenty of time to wait in queues, unlike younger people who have to go to work. Because of these selfish old people stockpiling face masks, they accused, younger generations cannot buy masks at drugstores. As a result, most drugstores have stopped selling masks in the morning and have posted stern warnings aimed at anyone waiting for doors to open (see figure 2).

Figure 2. A drugstore warns customers to not enter the store before opening. It warns that the store may call the police.

I continued my little impromptu fieldwork by visiting drugstores and supermarkets in the morning to check their queues. On sunny days, there were about fifteen people in front of each drugstore and more than sixty people in front of supermarkets. Most of them looked like they were over sixty years old, just as the tabloids contended. But selfishness is not the only possible explanation. Many face masks were for sale online, but these people were unlikely to be accustomed to online shopping because they were not raised with the internet. The harsh tone of the tabloids and drugstore notices seemed wildly disproportionate with my impressions of the people quietly waiting in front of these stores. Where were the aggressive customers I was warned about?

The disconnect between the affectively charged images of older selfish hoarders and the quiet earnestness of the people I met hints at the devilish ways the COVID-19 pandemic reveals the structural weak points of societies. Each country has its own politico-economic arrangements and responses to COVID-19; the public images of patients and the responses those images conjure are culturally and socially unique. In some cases, immigrants have come under public scrutiny. In others, ethnic minority groups have been identified as suffering more than most. In Japan, where the low-fertility aging society has been a source of public concern for decades, accusations towards retired seniors and young students have deepened of the already existing split between the young and the old.

The Profiles of COVID-19 Patients

Japan was one of the first countries outside of China to have COVID-19 patients. However, politicians here only started considering locking down cities and preparing medical equipment two and a half months after the first patients were diagnosed in January 2020. Also, no large-scale polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing was done in Japan because of structural and bureaucratic obstacles. (e.g. As of May 1, 2020, about one hundred and fifteen thousand PCR tests has been conducted[4]). Instead, tracking the networks of patients has been the primary countermeasure of the viruss spread. A group of epidemiologists called a cluster tracking group from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare has started issuing analyses on where the virus has spread the most.

From the beginning, the press has constructed personal profiles of COVID-19 patients. The first group highlighted were people working part-time jobs in convenience stores, pubs, and fast-food restaurants at night, despite having full-time day jobs.[5] They took second jobs because they could not sustain their daily lives with income from their day jobs alone.[6] In the early stage of the pandemic, economically disadvantaged workers became patients. Another group of patients were the passengers of a cruise ship, the Diamond Princess. Most of them were seniors enjoying a trip abroad after their retirement.[7] Some of the passengers got off the ship without diagnoses, went about their daily lives, and spread the virus. There was sensationalist coverage of one passenger who visited a fitness center and made contact with more than 170 people.[8] Even though the passengers of the cruise ship were not extremely wealthy as trumpeted by media, press coverage in the early stages of the pandemic undeniably drew a contrast between the poor young and the rich old.

As the number of patients grew, a third wave of patients came under scrutiny by mass media and the public. These were young students returning to their rural hometowns from studying abroad or on their spring break trips. In one particular case, a student who came back from Europe unintentionally spread the virus to over seventy people at her university in Japan. Since then, this universitys students have been subject to severe discrimination (e.g. they have been refused entry to pubs and have been put in separate rooms for job interviews).[9] This time, it was the older generation who blamed the young for their reckless behavior or even for just returning home.

The Fragmentation of Society

Diseases have always had the power to transform patients (victims) into enemies. HIV, cancer, and tuberculosis have all stigmatized patients by becoming metaphors that have linked pathology to other cultural and moral meanings.[10] Yet infectious diseases are not mere metaphors. Epidemiological numbers become irrefutable facts. Unlike animals or cities, these tracked or profiled humans are not seen as kindly sentinels or whistleblowers as Frederic Keck described[11]  they are criminalized.

Generations in Japan are fragmented. Society lacks structures to create solidarities between them (which is a very Western, and thus foreign idea anyway). Is it naive to think the brutal fact of a higher COVID-19 mortality rate for the aged might inspire sympathy rather than division? The criticism aimed at seniors queueing at drugstores has been just one of the everyday side-effects of COVID-19, one that naturalizes moral judgements against older bodies in public spaces. If we are not careful to reflect on this now, lines will become cracks, fragmenting us further, rather than connecting us when we need it most.

Erika Takahashi is an Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Humanities, Chiba University. Her research is on the eldercare system, its privatization, kin care, and aging. She has also written several chapters on the anthropology of aging in Japanese textbooks for cultural anthropology.

Jason Danely is Senior Lecturer in Anthropology at Oxford Brookes University. He is author of Aging and Loss: Mourning and Maturity in Contemporary Japan (2014 Rutgers University Press) and editor of Transitions and Transformations: Anthropological Perspectives on Aging and the Life Course (2013 Berghahn). He currently works on research related to family care and elderly ex-offenders in Japan and England.



The Age of COVID-19 is a series being cross-posted at Somatosphere and the Association for Anthropology, Gerontology and the Life Course (AAGE) blog and is edited by Celeste Pang, Cristina Douglas, Janelle Taylor and Narelle Warren.

[1] Stephen E. Nash, The Masked Man, Sapiens, April 29, 2020, https://www.sapiens.org/column/curiosities/history-of-masks/; Wilkinson, Clare M. 2020. Whats in a Mask? Anthropology Newswebsite, May 8, 2020. DOI: 10.1111/AN.1401.

[2] The statistics of face mask production. Japan Hygiene Products Industry Association, http://www.jhpia.or.jp/data/data7.html. (Retrieved on May 7, 2020)

[3] Troublesome senior customers in drugstores during COVID-19. Career Connection News, March 26, 2020, https://news.careerconnection.jp/?p=90155.

[4] Data on COVID-19 positives and PCR testing. Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, May 2, 2020, https://www.mhlw.go.jp/content/10906000/000627445.pdf

[5] Notice on a COVID-19 patient.Kyoto City Task Force for COVID-19, March 3, 2020, https://www.city.kyoto.lg.jp/hokenfukushi/cmsfiles/contents/0000265/265801/200303oshirase.pdf.

[6] False statement by a COVID-19 patient. Yomiuri Newspaper, March 9, 2020,https://www.yomiuri.co.jp/national/20200309-OYT1T50152/.

[7] COVID-19 cases in the Diamond Princess. National Institute of Infectious Diseases, February 19, 2020, https://www.niid.go.jp/niid/ja/diseases/ka/corona-virus/2019-ncov/2484-idsc/9410-covid-dp-01.html.

[8] Bath house in a fitness center used by a former passenger of the cruise ship. Mainichi Newspaper, March 2, 2020, https://mainichi.jp/articles/20200302/k00/00m/040/004000c.

[9] Death threats against the university students. Mainichi Newspaper, April 16, 2020, https://mainichi.jp/articles/20200416/dde/041/040/036000c.

[10 ]Susan Sontag. Illness as Metaphor. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1978).

[11] Frederic Keck. Avian Reservoirs. (Duke University Press, 2020).

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Former Chief Minister Rabri Devi and leader of opposition Tejashwi Yadav are among the over 90 RJD leaders booked for gathering here recently in large numbers in violation of the lockdown to go to Gopalganj for a protest, police said Sunday.

They had said they wanted to protest, while maintaining social distancing, against the attack on the family of a party supporter in which case a JD(U) MLA has been named as an accused.

The FIR has been lodged against 32 named persons and about 60 unnamed ones who had gathered at Rabri Devi's 10, Circular Road residence on Friday where Tejashwi Yadav had summoned all party legislators in order to proceed on a march towards Gopalganj district which was thwarted, said Sachivalaya police station SHO Mitesh Kumar.

The FIR has been lodged under IPC Sections 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by a public servant), 269 and 270 (negligent act likely to spread infection of disease) and the National Disaster Management Act, he said.

Those named in the FIR, besides the former CM and Yadav, who is her younger son, include elder son Tej Pratap Yadav and Abdul Bari Siddiqui, both sitting MLAs and former ministers, besides the party's state unit chief Jagadanand Singh, he said.

Tejashwi Yadav had desired to visit Gopalganj to meet the victims of a triple murder case, in which an MLA of the ruling JD(U) has been named as an accused while his brother and nephew have been arrested.

A former Deputy CM, Yadav has been alleging that the JD(U) MLA Pappu Pandey was not arrested since he was being shielded by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who heads the ruling party.

The 30-year-old RJD leader, named by his party as its Chief Ministerial candidate for the assembly polls due in a few months, had met Governor Fagu Chauhan earlier this week and submitted a memorandum alleging that the triple murder was symptomatic of the collapsed law and order in Bihar.

He had announced that he would leave for Gopalganj if the accused MLA was not arrested by Thursday evening.

After being prevented from leaving for Gopalganj despite protestations that they will do so observing social distancing norms, Yadav met assembly Speaker Vijay Kumar Chaudhary and urged him to convene a special session of the House on the issue of law and order.

The RJD leader's aggressive stance on the incident, that involved a member of his party who survived the attack though his parents and a brother got killed, drew criticism from his own allies like Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) headed by former Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi and former Union minister Upendra Kushwaha's Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP).

Both HAM and RLSP accused Yadav of being selective in his outrage hinting that he was being proactive since the victims belonged to his caste and the incident had taken place in his native district.

The ruling NDA had also lashed out at the RJD leader, accusing him of trying to cover up for his prolonged absence from the state during the COVID-19 crisis.

Yadav, who had been in Delhi since before the nationwide lockdown was clamped in March, returned to Patna on May 12, shortly after NDA supporters led a hashtag campaign titled 'Tejashwi bhagoda hai' (Tejashwi is a deserter) on Twitter, of which the RJD leader is an avid user.
Baku, Azerbaijan, May 30

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

During oil exploration operations conducted in Turkey in 2019, 5,063 exploratory wells were drilled, the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources of Turkey told Trend.

In the reporting year, the total depth of exploratory drilling operations exceeded 9.5 million meters.

The Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO) drilled 3,048 exploratory wells with a total depth of more than 6.1 million meters, the ministry said.

According to the ministry, the organizations of Turkeys Mineral Research and Exploration General Directorate (MTA) drilled 104 wells with a total depth of 133,386 meters; and 257 wells with a total penetration of 311,662 meters were drilled by the countrys other companies.

Some 1,312 exploratory wells with a total depth of over 2.2 million meters were drilled by foreign companies, and 342 wells by joint ventures and consortia.

From January through December 2019, TPAO identified 510 deposits, MTA - eight, other Turkish companies - 24, foreign companies - 306, and joint consortia - 93 fields.

In April 2014, a law allowing oil exploration in forests and national parks came into force in Turkey.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
Europe's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier has been warned to get real or see trade talks with Britain collapse.

Allies of UK mediator David Frost say he will tell his Brussels counterpart on Tuesday that Britain will not budge over fishing rights and continued EU red tape, and will warn Europe to 'think quickly about how they can find an agreement that reflects this reality'.

It comes amid claims on the British side that Brussels are dragging their feet by refusing to engage on British proposals and are instead clamouring for an extension by stalling talks.

Last week saw sabre rattling on both sides, as Mr Frost and Mr Barnier prepared for a fourth round of negotiations on Britain's future trade relationship with the bloc.

British Chief Negotiator of Task Force Europe at the Cabinet Office David George Hamilton Frost, CMG (L) is welcomed by the European Union Head of the UK Task Force Michel Barnier (R) prior to the first bilateral meeting to begin formal negotiations of the future relationship between the EU and UK on March 2, 2020 in Brussels, Belgium

Ahead of this week's formal talks, a bitter war of words broke out after Mr Barnier told a German radio station on Friday that 'the British have not understood, or they do not want to understand, that Brexit has consequences for them'.

Despite warning Britain not to take a combative tone in a recent exchange of letters with Mr Frost, Mr Barnier stressed the need for 'more realism in London in the near future if they want an orderly agreement to withdraw from the single market and the customs union'.

But last night a senior British source hit back: 'What is clear is that the conventional approach will not get us much further.

The EU needs to inject some political reality into its approach and appreciate that they cannot use their usual tactic of delay to drag the talks into the autumn.

October is too late. Our businesses need to know whether there is going to be a trade agreement before then to prepare for the end of transition.'

Mr Frost has warned the EU27 that they must relax Mr Barnier's strict negotiating mandate or see the talks collapse, but the Frenchmen branded such a change 'out of the question'.

He added: 'I would remind you that the United Kingdom is leaving the internal market and the customs union  it's not us leaving the United Kingdom.

A third country, the United Kingdom, will not dictate the conditions of access to our market for British goods, services, data or for workers and businesses

We remain sovereign. This is my mandate.' Major sticking points continue to be fishing, where the EU is demanding the status quo continues on the totemic Brexit issue.

Britain's Brexit advisor David Frost arrives for a meeting with European Union chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier at EU headquarters in Brussels, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2019

Brussels are also infuriated at Britain's refusal to engage in any negotiation about so-called level playing field measures with which the EU wish to bind the UK to swathes of regulation and oversight from EU judges.

Britain has explicitly ruled out any such measures, pushing talks to the brink of collapse.

A UK source close to the negotiations said: 'We expect next week's round to be constructive and keep the process on track.

But then we are going to need things to move forward faster. 'We recognise the EU have other important issues on their plate too, as we all do, but they can't just mark time on these talks.

The EU seems to have finally understood we aren't going to move on fundamentals.

They need to think quickly about how they can find an agreement that reflects this reality.'

In a further spat, and despite being warned by Boris Johnson that the UK will not accept an extension to negotiations, Mr Barnier's right-hand man travelled to London last week to stir up talk of one.

Stefaan de Rynck set out Brussels' position on the matter as he said there are still 'huge challenges' ahead of the end of the transition period on December 31.

And he added: 'If there's a need for more time, it needs to be decided jointly and so we have said we're certainly open for that.

'Is it wise to end the transition at the end of this year? It's an open question but certainly on the EU side we have said we are open for an extension.'

A British source said: 'The talks cannot go on for ever. They need to wake up to this.'
Albert Memmi, a Tunisian-born writer whose novels and sociological studies explored his tangled heritage as a Jewish outsider in a largely Muslim country that was part of France's colonial empire, died May 22 in Paris. He was 99.

His death was announced on social media by Olivier Poivre d'Arvor, the French ambassador to Tunisia. The cause was not disclosed.

Memmi grew up in a Jewish ghetto in the capital city of Tunis, when Tunisia was a French protectorate. French businesspeople and government workers were at the top of the country's social pyramid, as other groups - Muslims, Jews, Berbers and immigrants - struggled to find a foothold. This deep-rooted sense of alienation became a central theme in Memmi's autobiographical novels and other works.

"I am a Tunisian, but of French culture," he wrote in perhaps his best-known novel, "The Pillar of Salt" (1953). "I am Tunisian, but Jewish, which means that I am politically and socially an outcast . . . I am a Jew who has broken with the Jewish religion and the ghetto, is ignorant of Jewish culture . . . a Jew in an anti-Semitic universe, an African in a world dominated by Europe."

He was a friend and near-contemporary of Albert Camus, an Algerian-born French writer and Nobel laureate whose novels painted a bleak view of life.

"Memmi can be seen as Camus's Jewish counterpart," Etan Nechin, a literary scholar and editor of "Bare Life Review: A Journal of Immigrant and Refugee Literature," said in an interview.

Camus wrote a foreword for "The Pillar of Salt," in which Memmi's autobiographical protagonist is a scholarly Tunisian Jew like himself. The novel vividly describes the sounds, smells and teeming hubbub of Tunis's alleyways and waterfront, but the principal character cannot resolve his ambivalent feelings toward his homeland and its people.

"The Pillar of Salt" and a 1955 novel about a strained marriage, "Strangers," won several literary prizes, but Memmi soon became known for his searching nonfiction works that examined the moral and psychological effects of colonialism and racism. His 1957 book, "The Colonizer and the Colonized," examined the idea of colonialism as a form of fascism, built on a foundation of racism and inequality.

In any colonial culture, Memmi argued, colonized people provide the labor that produces wealth and comfort for the colonizers. The colonized peoples - usually speaking different languages and of different races - are excluded from the social and governing systems put in place by the colonial powers. The festering resentment of the colonized peoples turns to anger and, over time, outright revolt.

"The basic theory is that the dependence is reciprocal, but the colonizer and the colonized have vastly unequal power," Nechin said. "Both are trapped."

"The Colonizer and the Colonized," which included an introduction by another Nobel Prize winner, Jean-Paul Sartre, appeared four years before Frantz Fanon's "The Wretched of the Earth." The two books were often paired as key texts exploring the social consequences of colonialism.

Camus interpreted one chapter in the book, "The Well-meaning Colonialist," as an insult directed at him and broke off his friendship with Memmi. They never reconciled before Camus' death in 1960.

"The Colonizer and the Colonized" was published one year after Tunisia declared its independence during a wave that drove France and other European powers from the African continent. Memmi supported the independence movement, even though he realized it would probably send him into self-imposed exile.

He noted in his book that colonized people often find solace in religion - one of the few aspects of their lives they can control - and ethnic nationalism. As a member of Tunisia's Jewish minority, Memmi felt like an outcast in his newly free country.

In his view, one group of oppressors (French colonialists) was exchanged for another (the country's Muslim majority). Despite his misgivings, Memmi fled to France, where he became a respected writer and intellectual. His later books included "Portrait of a Jew," "The Liberation of a Jew" and "Jews and Arabs," in which he sought to claim a Jewish cultural and humanist identity, separate from religious faith.

I wanted to understand who I am - as a Jew - and what the fact of being a Jew has meant in my life," he wrote in "Portrait of a Jew" (1962). "The Jew is not explained by his religious, economic or political situation alone, nor by his psychology alone, nor by the pathology of the anti-Semite."

He became what he called a "left-wing Zionist" who believed that Israel could offer a homeland for displaced Jewish people. His experiences in an oppressive colonial state led him to call for a separate Palestinian homeland.

After writing for a decade about Jewish identity, Memmi returned to fiction in 1969 with one of his most ambitious novels, "The Scorpion, or The Imaginary Confession."

In the book, a Tunisian-born doctor, whose last name is Memmi, goes through the artifacts of his late brother, finding a fictional autobiography in which the brother writes about killing his father. Memmi's technique in "The Scorpion" pointed toward the fiction of W.G. Sebald and later writers by incorporating commentary, invented memoirs and diaries - "a complex puzzle of voices and documents, with five different typefaces used to differentiate them, and haunting photographs interspersed throughout," New York Times critic Richard Locke wrote in 1971.

With this dizzying technique, Memmi "dramatizes the characters' experience in a way that reading a traditional narrative never could," Lock wrote. "But ultimately it is Memmi's heart, not his skill, that moves you."

Albert Memmi was born Dec. 15, 1920, in Tunis. His father, a saddlemaker, was of Italian Jewish ancestry. His mother, who was illiterate, was a Tunisian native who raised 13 children.

Memmi attended Jewish and French-language schools before entering the University of Algiers. During World War II, when France's Vichy government collaborated with the German Third Reich, Memmi was seized and placed in a Tunisian labor camp, from which he escaped.

After graduating from the University of Algiers, he moved to Paris in 1946 to continue his studies. That year, he married Marie-Germaine Dubach, and they eventually had three children. A complete list of survivors could not be confirmed.

Returning to Tunisia in the early 1950s, Memmi was a high school teacher and directed an educational research center. In 1957, he returned to Paris, where he became an educational researcher and later a professor at the University of Paris (often called the Sorbonne). He received a doctorate from the Sorbonne in 1970 and, in 1975, became one of the directors of France's graduate-level School of Higher Studies in Social Sciences. He spent a year at the University of Washington in the 1970s.

His later books included "Dominated Man," "Dependence" and "Racism." In 2006, he published "Decolonization and the Decolonized," a follow-up to "The Colonizer and the Colonized." In the new book, Memmi examined why so many once-colonized countries are marked by poverty, rapacious leaders, religious intolerance, poor education and a lack of democratic freedoms.

"There seems to be no end to the pustulant sores weakening these young nations," he asked. "Why such failures?"

Although he lived in France for more than 50 years, Memmi said his true homeland was not the country itself, but the French language.

"It is a curious fate," he wrote in 1957, the year he left Tunisia for good, "to write for a people other than one's own."
Coronavirus has spread to all 24 districts of Jharkhand by Saturday, coinciding with the highest single-day spike in the state with the detection of 72 new positive cases including a migrant in a Sahibganj jail, the first for the district.

The disease entered Jharkhands only green zone Sahibganj district after a 22-year-old migrant worker, who had returned from Punjabs Jalandhar, tested positive Saturday late night.

The patient has been languishing at an isolation centre at Rajmahal sub-jail since May 14 and was found asymptomatic, said Sahibganj deputy commissioner Varun Ranjan.

He added, The patient, along with his two friends, was put up in the districts quarantine centre at Uddhwa after their return from Jalandhar on May 12. The very next day, they entered into a brawl and assaulted some police personnel guarding the quarantine centre. All the three were then arrested and sent to jail following registration of an FIR.

The deputy commissioner said that the patient was being shifted to Covid-19 prisoner ward, especially set up at the jail hospital and all measures were being taken to keep a strict vigil on this patient.

Interestingly, a swab sample of the patient was taken on May 15 and the confirmatory test report came after a fortnight, a period in which many young asymptomatic Covid-19 patients recover from the disease.

The HT Guide to Coronavirus COVID-19

Since the test samples were taken 15-day ago and the patient is still asymptomatic, we hope that he has recovered by this time and the report of his next sample test turns negative, said the DC, who made an inspection of the jail premises on Sunday.

He informed that all other 10 people, who were in contact with the accused patient in the isolation ward, including his two friends, have been separated and put in a different quarantine centre inside the jail.

The state has seen a sharp rise in the number of cases since May 1, when Shramik special trains started ferrying stranded migrant workers. Jharkhand, then had only 113 Covid-19 cases spread over 12 out of 24 districts with Ranchi alone accounted for 83 cases.

But as the month ends, the pandemic has now gripped the entire state and the number of positive cases has seen a 337% rise to reach 494 cases till Sunday morning. The state also reported 256 recoveries and five deaths.

The states five districts--Deoghar, Jamtara, Godda, Dumka and Chatra-- have so far reported less than five Covid-19 cases and currently have no active patients.

The worst affected districts due to influx of migrant workers are East Singhbhum, Hazaribag and Garhwa, which have reported 96, 69 and 59 positive cases respectively.

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Mining giant Rio Tinto has apologised to traditional land owners after demolishing Aboriginal shelters of cultural significance dating back 46,000 years.

The caves in Western Australia's Pilbara region were legally destroyed by explosives last Sunday.

Explosives were detonated in a part of the Juukan Gorge, demolishing two ancient rock shelters and prompting outcry and renewed national debate on the protection of indigenous heritage sites.

The Juukan Gorge caves were the only inland place in Australia to show signs of continual human occupation through the last Ice Age.

Juukan Gorge in Western Australia, one of the earliest known sites occupied by Aboriginals in Australia. Mining giant Rio Tinto has apologised to traditional land owners after demolishing ancient Aboriginal rock shelters in the remote Pilbara region

Juukan Gorge in Western Australia. Explosives were detonated in a part of the Juukan Gorge, demolishing two ancient rock shelters and prompting outcry and renewed national debate on the protection of indigenous heritage sites

Archaeological excavation at the site revealed ancient artefacts including a belt made from human hair that provided a 4,000-year-old genetic link to the current traditional owners of the site, the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura (PKKP) people.

'We are sorry for the distress we have caused,' the company said in a statement on Sunday.

'Our relationship with the PKKP matters a lot to Rio Tinto, having worked together for many years.

'We will continue to work with the PKKP to learn from what has taken place and strengthen our partnership.

'As a matter of urgency, we are reviewing the plans of all other sites in the Juukan Gorge area.'

Losing the site was a 'devastating blow' to the traditional owners, said tribe representative John Ashburton.

'There are less than a handful of known Aboriginal sites in Australia that are as old as this one ... its importance cannot be underestimated,' he said in a statement.

'Our people are deeply troubled and saddened by the destruction of these rock shelters and are grieving the loss of connection to our ancestors as well as our land.'

The caves in Western Australia's Pilbara region were legally destroyed last Sunday. Above, heavy earth moving trucks at the Tom Price iron ore mine, operated by Rio Tinto Group, in Pilbara

Rio Tinto said it had a longstanding relationship with the PKKP people, and the demolition was done with all the necessary approvals.

'We are sorry that the recently expressed concerns of the PKKP did not arise through the engagements that have taken place over many years under the agreement that governs our operations on their country,' it said in a statement.

The PKKP said Rio Tinto had complied with its legal obligations, but that they are 'gravely concerned' at the inflexibility of the system.

Heritage sites fall under the control of states and territories in Australia and West Australian law allows government approval to be given to destroy culturally significant sites, but does not allow consent to be revoked.

In this case, Rio Tinto obtained permission to expand an existing iron ore mine in 2013 - before the significance of the caves was known and the artefacts were discovered.

Peter Stone, who holds the UNESCO chair on the protection of cultural property, called the blast 'a tragedy' on Australian radio, comparing it to the destruction of sites including Palmyra and the Bamiyan Buddha statues.

The federal Minister for Indigenous Affairs Ken Wyatt, the first Aboriginal to be appointed to the role, said it was 'incomprehensible' that the blast had gone ahead but that it appeared to be a 'genuine mistake'.

'I believe that Rio Tinto are very genuine in the partnership they have with Aboriginal communities (and) organisations,' he told the Australian Broadcasting Company.

A spokesman for his office told the Thomson Reuters Foundation they were alerted before the blast, but the caller was told to contact the Environment Department and Wyatt's office took no further action.

Rio Tinto said it had a longstanding relationship with the PKKP people, and the demolition was done with all the necessary approvals. Above, heavy earth moving trucks at the Tom Price iron ore mine, operated by Rio Tinto

In a statement, Wyatt said it was clear state legislation had failed in this instance.

Western Australia's laws are already under review. But advocates for indigenous people's rights say cultural heritage protections are inadequate nationwide.

For more than two years, the Djab Wurrung people in the southeastern state of Victoria have being trying to save centuries-old sacred trees from being destroyed in a highway upgrade.

They include a birthing tree inside the trunk of which tribe members have been born for hundreds of years. The group is lobbying for heritage status which would make damaging them a criminal offence.

Similarly, Scott Franks, a Wonnaurua man who heads an archaeology firm, lobbied for protection for a site discovered during construction of Sydney's light rail service in 2016.

The thousands of indigenous stone tools discovered there were crafted from Australia's colonisers' First Fleet ships and were saved, but the site was destroyed before its cultural significance could be investigated.

The Australian government can intervene only when state and territory laws are ineffective or there is unwillingness to enforce them.

In the past decade, that has only happened three times, a spokesman for the federal environment minister said.

He said no application had been made for the Pilbara matter to be reviewed at a federal level.

But Franks said the process was often a waste of time, with ministers often not making decisions until it is too late.

Western Australia's laws are already under review. But advocates for indigenous people's rights say cultural heritage protections are inadequate nationwide. Above, a truck at the Tom Price iron ore mine, operated by Rio Tinto

Samantha Hepburn, a law professor at Deakin University in Melbourne, said the laws which were only intended to be a two-year interim measure when introduced in 1984 were 'fundamentally inadequate'.

She wants national reform to make consultation with indigenous tribes compulsory before culturally significant sites can be destroyed, as recommended by a 1995 government-commissioned review.

'It doesn't mean that they're always going to get the protection they want, but at least they're at the table,' Hepburn said.

Franks said those recommendations may have prevented the loss of the Pilbara site.

'In the Pilbara, and those areas, you clearly have continued untouched untampered connection to country,' he said.

'We just simply cannot translate the cultural connection, the spiritual connection, the mythological connection, the traditional beliefs or the importance.'

The federal law has not been updated since the review, but a spokesman for the environment minister said other laws addressing some protections had been created.
OTTAWAEnvironment Canada has been doing fewer inspections, investigations and prosecutions over the last five years to enforce a law protecting people from toxic chemicals and air pollution.

According to figures provided last month in response to a written question submitted in the House of Commons, the department investigated 43 companies for violations of the Canadian Environmental Protection Act in 2015-16. There were 22 prosecutions and convictions.

In each of the last two fiscal years, however, the department investigated 12 companies. One was prosecuted and convicted.

It definitely raises a lot of questions and concerns, said NDP MP Laurel Collins, the critic for environment and climate change who posed the question.

Its wild that there was only one investigation that led to a prosecution in 2018 and 2019, she said. I think most Canadians would be surprised to hear that. I dont think anyone thinks there is only one company violating.

The Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA) governs how Canada manages toxic chemicals and air pollution.

In February, Collins submitted the order paper question, which is what MPs use when they want a more detailed answer from the government than is usually possible during the daily oral question period in the House of Commons. She was seeking an update to a 2018 report on CEPA enforcement from the federal environment commissioner.

That report called out Environment Canada for disproportionately focusing on dry cleaners and the fluid they use for cleaning  known as perchloroethylene  even though it was not more toxic than other substances investigators were supposed to be monitoring.

Collins says she was disheartened to find that enforcement has fallen dramatically.

Asked to explain the drop in investigations under the act, a spokesperson for Environment Canada said only that investigations can be complex and take many years to complete.

Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson would not comment because enforcement is an arms-length process that must remain outside the political realm, according to spokeswoman Moira Kelly.

The data provided to Collins does not mirror the numbers the department publishes in its annual report on the Canadian Environmental Protection Act. The response to Collins looked at investigations by the number of companies involved. The annual report reflected the number of investigations for each regulation under the act. Some companies are investigated under more than one regulation.

Those annual reports do show the number of total inspections the department is doing has also dropped substantially, from 3,898 in 2015-16, to 1,608 in 2018-19.

Companies that have been convicted end up on a national registry of environmental offenders. Some of the most recent cases involved selling products with volatile organic compounds above legal limits, chemical leaks and spills from electrical transformers, selling toxic chemicals to companies without making sure they had proper storage facilities available, and improperly disposing seafood waste in the ocean.

Muhannad Malas, the toxics program manager at Environmental Defence, an advocacy organization, said the Liberal government tries to bill itself as having the gold standard of environmental protections but there is just not very much enforcement happening.

When you start digging into the numbers here you find that the government is not taking it seriously, he said.

The Liberals formed government in the fall of 2015 and were re-elected, with a minority mandate, in October 2019.

The government is also well behind schedule in reforming the Canadian Environmental Protection Act. The law has to be reviewed every five years. The last review began in 2016 and was completed by the House of Commons environment committee in June 2017.

The committee made more than 80 recommendations, including a suggestion to consider enshrining the right to a healthy environment in the law, mandatory labels for hazardous materials in a product, and better data collection on those products.

Malas said he was encouraged when strengthening the law was one of the items in Wilkinsons mandate letter last fall. He is worried the COVID-19 pandemic, which has delayed numerous other environmental promises including better fuel standards and a single-use plastics ban, will also push back CEPA reform.

He said the government has spent the last two-and-a-half years consulting and working on it so introducing the amendments should, at this point, be pretty simple.

Kelly said in an email the government is still committed to reforming the act but also indicated the challenges posed by COVID-19 might be a factor in when that can happen.

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Prayagraj, May 31 : Several prominent temples in Prayagraj have sought grants from the state government to meet their expenses.

Though the temples are now preparing to reopen from June 8 under 'Unlock 1', the priests claim that they are finding it difficult to pay salaries to staff and perform Vedic rituals of the temples.

According to Pandit Shyamji Pathak, the chief priest of Maa Kalyani Devi temple, "We are unable to meet the daily expenses because income has completely stopped during the two-month lockdown." Her said that a minimum amount of Rs 30,000 is spent every month on workers' salaries and for daily essential works like cleaning and decoration of temple. As the source of income has stopped, other priests have started returning to their native villages.

The priest said that the temple had maximum earnings during 'Navratri' but this year, the 'Navratri' was held during the lockdown and the temple was shut.

"Ahead of Navratri, we had spent around Rs 1.50 lakh on decoration and renovation of the temple but when lockdown was enforced and devotees were not allowed to visit temple, we had to manage all religious activities without any source of income. Now we have no money for the daily 'aarti' and other rituals. The government should give us aid to keep the temples going," he said.

Pandit Ravi Shankar, chief priest of Takshkeshwarnath temple, said, "We have tweeted to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and chief minister Yogi Adityanath to take steps for better care of temple's daily activities during the lockdown period but there has been no response. The daily rituals in the temples can no longer be carried out and lakhs of priests, who earn their living by performing various rituals, are also left with no income." Shashwat Tripathi of Bade Hanuman temple, said that apart from priests who are directly linked to temples, the business of flower vendors and sweet makers had also come to a halt.

"We have appealed to the district administration to provide financial relief to them and waive off power and water bills of the temples but there has been no response," he said.

He said that temples are not only places of worship but also a major tourist attraction in the religious tourist circuit.

The Akhil Bhartiya Akhara Parishad (ABAP)---the apex decision-making body of 13 akharas representing thousands of seers and saints-had, last month, written to the Prime Minister, union home minister and UP chief minister to allow reopening of temples in the state.

The Congress and the Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party Lohia had also sought reopening of places of religious worship.
The Minister for Railways Development and MP for Essikadu-Ketan, Joe Ghartey, has responded to a distress call by the Holy Child Catholic Hospital at Fijai requesting for PPE and disinfectants.



The hospital which also cares for mentally challenged persons is currently investigating some of its staff who have been exposed to a COVID-19 patient and needed these PPE to avert any possible spread.





The Western Regional Organizer of the NPP, Abdul Ganiwu, who presented the assorted PPE on behalf of Joe Ghartey, said this is the second time the Railways Minister and MP for Essikadu-Ketan has come to the aid of the hospital.



The Minister received a distress call and in less than 24 hours he has acted on the call for help. Though he is busy with other schedules, he decided that we should go ahead with the presentation to the hospital which is in his constituency. He has been doing this to several entities since this pandemic began.



This is the second time the Minister is giving out to this facility and in a prompt manner as his contribution to protecting our frontline health workers.



The PPE included five thousand surgical masks, forty shoe covers, forty head nets, forty safety goggles, forty nose masks, forty nose aprons, forty surgical gloves, forty coveralls, two boxes of hand sanitizers, liquid soaps and tissues, two thermometer guns and bottled water.



Medical Superintendent of Holy Child Catholic Hospital, Dr. Sylvester Ackah Fameyeh, who was grateful to the MP for the PPE said it is timely.



Some of the challenges we have had is the acquisition of PPE. As we know, this COVID-19 came with nobody having an idea about it and so no facility had planned for it. So when it happened, the budget that we already have for the year couldnt contain it. The government brought us some but it wasnt enough so we believe this kind gesture that the MP has done will go a long way to help us in our fight against this COVID-19 pandemic.



People have been visiting the facility because in the midst of COVID-19 people also have other conditions like diabetes who need to take their regular medications so they have been coming and this would help us protect ourselves, hence we are grateful to the MP.



The Holy Child Catholic Hospital further appealed to the Railway Minister to intervene to get the hospitals electricity supply from the prepaid status as it interferes and affects surgical procedures when they run out of credit.





Source: Peacefmonline.com









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A man suffered splinter injuries and two houses were partially damaged after Pakistan opened heavy fire and shot mortars along the Line of Control (LoC) in Mendhar sector of Jammu and Kashmirs Poonch district on Sunday.

The injured person has been identified as Mohammad Yaseen of Gohlad village.

Pakistani troops opened heavy fire and shot mortars on Indian posts and villages around 3.10 am on Sunday. They even targeted villages in the fresh round of unprovoked firing, said a police officer.

Exchange of fire continued for nearly four hours in which a man suffered splinter injuries in his leg and two houses were partially damaged. The injured was evacuated to a hospital for treatment, he added.

The Pakistani troops had violated the ceasefire on Saturday too by resorting to intense firing and shelling on forward areas in two sectors along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmirs Poonch district, news agency PTI quoted a defence spokesperson as saying.

The intense firing from small arms across the border started around 10 am in Kirni sector, drawing befitting retaliation by the Indian Army, the spokesperson said.

Later in the day, the spokesperson said the Pakistani troops also initiated unprovoked firing and mortar shelling in Khari Karmara sector around 7.45 pm.

There was a strong retaliation by the Indian Army, he said, adding that there was no report of any casualty on the Indian side.
This is the moment a woman was filmed walking away from a looted Cheesecake Factory carrying an entire dessert.

Wearing a mask the Seattle, Washington resident appeared live on air Saturday as local news station KIRO7 covered George Floyd protests in the area.

The reporter tells viewers: 'You see someone actually walking away with a cheesecake there after the Cheesecake Factory was looted.

'Unclear where they may have got that.'

Thousands of people gathered in downtown Seattle in the rain Saturday to protest the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Windows are said to have been broken at the Cheesecake Factory with looters taking alcohol from the premises.

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The woman was filmed walking away from a looted Cheesecake Factory carrying the dessert

Wearing a mask the Seattle, Washington resident appeared live on air Saturday as local news station KIRO7 covered George Floyd protests in the area

"Unclear where they may have gotten that cheesecake." pic.twitter.com/mLfSJvMGvZ  Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) May 31, 2020

Mayor Jenny Durkan announced a 5 p.m. curfew for the entire city Saturday after police pepper-sprayed demonstrators who got close to police lines, and officers with bicycles pushed people to move back.

Durkan late Saturday afternoon announced a curfew to to last through 5 a.m. Sunday in response to the protests.

She also issued an order declaring an emergency and an order banning weapons.

Although many dispersed soon after, dozens remained downtown in defiance of the curfew, setting fires, breaking into retail stores and taking items while police fired tear gas and arrested at least one person.

The reporter tells viewers: 'You see someone actually walking away with a cheesecake there after the cheesecake factory was looted. 'Unclear where they may have got that'

People set fire to vehicles during the George Floyd protest in Seattle on Saturday

A protestor breaks the windshield of a police vehicle in downtown Seattle on Saturday

The governor said he had activated up to 200 members of the Washington National Guard in response to a request from the city to help protect property, as well as manage crowds and traffic.

Guard personnel will be unarmed and work under the direction of city leadership, the statement from the governor's office said.

'The National Guard is on stand by to assist the Seattle Police Department as requested by Mayor Durkan,' Governor Jay Inslee said. 'They will only be utilized if absolutely necessary and we appreciate their efforts to help in this important work.'

Residents should remain in their homes 'to the extent possible' and not travel in or through Seattle, said Durkan, Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best and Seattle Fire Department Chief Harold Scoggins in a statement.

Thousands of people gathered in Seattle in the rain to protest the killing of George Floyd

Police block the street during a protest in Seattle, Washington Saturday against the death of George Floyd, a black man who died May 25 in the custody of Minneapolis Police

'This curfew is intended to prevent violence and widespread property damage, and to prevent the further community spread of COVID-19 through continued gathering,' they said.

Tense protests over the death of George Floyd and other police killings of black people grew Saturday across the US.

The protests began in Minneapolis following Floyd's death Monday after a white police officer pressed a knee on his neck until he stopped breathing.

Derek Chauvin, the officer who held his knee to Floyds neck, was arrested Friday and charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.

But many protesters are demanding the arrests of the three other officers involved.
Uganda has reported 84 new cases of Covid-19, the highest number registered in a single day ever since the first case was confirmed in the East African country in March this year.

The Ministry of Health on Sunday morning said the country's total number of confirmed cases had risen to 413.

Of these, 52 cases are truck drivers, 50 of whom arrived from South Sudan via Elegu, while two arrived from Kenya through Busia.

Additionally, 32 cases are contacts to previously confirmed cases.

"All were under quarantine at the time of testing," said a statement posted on the ministry's social media platforms.

Relatedly, 51 foreign truck drivers who tested positive at points of entry were denied entry and handed over to their country of origin.

So far, 72 people have recovered and been discharged from hospitals across the country.

The total number of people tested Saturday is 1,835.

Recently, the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Health, Dr Diana Atwine expressed concern that the community contacts of the truck drivers might be spreading the disease because some of them are yet to be traced.

If Dr Atwine's fears are valid, the spread of the disease among communities during such a time when government is starting to ease the lockdown could cause a spike in the number of cases confirmed.

It is estimated that one asymptomatic COVID-19 patient can spread the disease to as many as 80 people or even more.

President Museveni is on Monday (June 1, 2020) expected to give further guidance on matters regarding COVID-19 and the way forward.

In his previous televised addresses, Mr Museveni said wearing a facemask would be made compulsory for everyone aged six and above as the country moves to ease the virus induced lockdown.
When she learned about George Floyds death in Minneapolis, Yolanda Deaver wanted to be there to protest.

The New Jersey business owner and mom had second thoughts when she saw TV images of rioters looting and setting fires. She had to consider her own safety and wanted to make sure she could get home to her children.

Video of now-fired Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin with his knee on Floyds neck as the restrained man died on the street May 25 has drawn condemnation and outrage. Chauvin, 44, was charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.

I was talking to my family about how I wanted to go to Minneapolis and protest and do something, Deaver said. What happened to George Floyd was very unfortunate and I felt I needed to do something about it.

She decided to organize a march in Camden, where she grew up and has owned a business for more that five years. Deaver posted about her plans on social media and one of her followers, a Camden police officer, asked if she could join.

She wanted to march with me because she felt the same way, Deaver said. Soon after, she heard from the police chief, who also asked to participate. From there, the event held Saturday in Camden blossomed into a peaceful protest in which residents and police walked side-by-side, carry signs and calling for change.

Camden Police Chief Joseph Wysocki helped lead the way, carrying a banner proclaiming Standing in Solidarity, while a police captain led a Camden Strong chant at one point.

Others carried signs proclaiming Black Lives Matter and demanding justice for Floyd. Cries of No justice no peace and Black Lives Matter filled the air.

U.S. Rep. Donald Norcross and Camden Mayor Frank Moran also joined the walk.

It just turned into something bigger than what I expected, Deaver said. I couldnt believe it. We walked in peace. I was so moved.

Knowing that protests were planned, Camden leaders began talking with organizers about how to peacefully express the anger, frustration and heartache felt by so many.

Yolanda Deaver (center) is shown with Camden Police Chief Joseph Wysocki and U.S. Rep. Donald Norcross before the start of Saturdays march.

It was great for our community, said Camden Councilman Victor Carstarphen, who joined the march and praised Wysocki, local religious leaders and elected officials for pulling together for the event.

Communication is key, Carstarphen said. Camden gets a bad rap on a lot of issues and weve been working as a city to rise. This was another level of rising together.

Violent protests and the destruction seen in other American cities in the last several days would have been devastating for Camden, he said.

It would take our city back years and thats something we dont want for our community, Carstarphen said.

Just across the Delaware River from Camden, Philadelphia saw businesses burned, stores looted and police vehicles torched during protests on Saturday. Multiple rallies were held in New Jersey on Saturday without the violence seen elsewhere in the country and more were planned for Sunday. Authorities closed the Ben Franklin Bridge between Camden and Philadelphia on Sunday afternoon as concerns of more protests in Philadelphia lingered.

For Deaver, her protest wasnt about destruction. She said she was fighting for justice and equality.

Im not trying to tear the city down or anything like that, she said.

Police provided a motorcade escort to keep the roughly 200 marchers safe as they walked from Deavers Prissy Chic Hair Company to the police station. While Deaver has heard criticism from some who felt police and city leaders only got involved in an effort to control her event, she disagrees.

I felt like they were sincere in their hearts, she said. They were marching with us, holding banners. They were chanting. I dont think it was political at all.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy praised participants in Camdens march, noting on Twitter that We can  we MUST  march toward justice together.

Camden police officers stand in solidarity with a protester during Saturdays march over the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Wysocki saw Saturdays protest as an important moment for Camden.

"Yesterday the CCPD, clergy, and community leaders marched through the city to stand in solidarity and unity with all residents who are rightfully angered, concerned and upset about the actions of the officers in Minneapolis and the murder of George Floyd, he said in a statement provided Sunday. We know that together we are stronger, we know that together, in the city of Camden, we can create a space where policing is focused on deescalation and dialogue.

Camden County Freeholder Director Louis Cappelli Jr. described Saturdays event as the result of a longstanding effort to improve relations in the community.

"The unity walk and gathering yesterday on the steps of the police administration building was the culmination of years of outstanding work by the men and women of the Camden County Police Department, the city's clergy, residents throughout the Camden, and our community's leaders, he said. Direct interaction, relationship building and community policing has been the bedrock of our agency since it was started in 2013 and has made a tangible difference in the city.

By keeping lines of communication open and constantly training officers, residents know that we stand with them, we grieve with them and that the ugly, tragic and appalling events that led to the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis will never occur here, Cappelli said.

Yesterday in New Jersey, protestors marched side by side with law enforcement, in peaceful demonstration against systemic racism and police violence.



We can  we MUST  march toward justice together. https://t.co/u09HrQvt03  Governor Phil Murphy (@GovMurphy) May 31, 2020

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Matt Gray may be reached at mgray@njadvancemedia.com.
The school system, like most others, has scrambled to create a distance-learning approach that works for its more than 136,000 students. It has handed out 60,000 loaner laptops to students who need them. Hard copy paper packets of classwork and televised lessons have also been used. But the fall remains a challenge.
Their plans of tying the knot hopelessly tangled in a pandemic that shows no signs of abating, many wedding has been postponed but some couples are choosing to get married in simple, intimate ceremonies that are just about them. Recasting the idea of the big fat Indian wedding -- with guest lists running into many hundreds, sometimes up to 2,000, and lakhs of rupees spent on multiple functions and elaborate clothes  couples are going back to the basics on arguably the most important day of their lives.

Retaining the essence of romance and maybe the gravitas that should go with a long-term commitment, they are saying I do on rooftops, homes, temples, churches, and sometimes even state borders, with only immediate family in attendance. Sans band, baaja, baraat and other extra frills, but with masks, sanitisers and social distancing norms in place.

We didnt have a grand procession, decorations, firecrackers, feasts and relatives, but this was indeed the most memorable experience of my life, said a bride in Odishas Jagatsinghpur district who did not want to be named.

We had earlier arranged for a grand function. But the lockdown threw a spanner in the works. So we decided to donate a part of the money saved for the wedding to help the state combat the pandemic, said Jyoti Ranjan Swain, the groom, a resident of Erasama block in the district. Apart from the parents, an inspector of the Erasama police station and the block development officer (BDO) attended the wedding. This was no social gathering. The couple distributed sweets after the ceremony. It was a simple affair, said the BDO Kartik Chandra Behera.

There have been many unlikely wedding venues over the years, but a checkpost on the Assam-West Bengal border is likely to be top amongst them.

Thats where Om Prakash Sha from Jalpaiguri in West Bengal reportedly wed Kajol from Dhubri in Assam last week. Given the restrictions on movement from one state to the other and mandatory quarantine, the families approached the administrations of both districts for permission. After much discussion, officials decided the wedding would take place on the Dhubri-Jalpaiguri boundary.

The brides father Mahesh Sha said his family accepted the advice of the administration and the priest to go ahead with the wedding despite the odds because it was an auspicious day. Taufiq Hussain and Abeda Begum also decided to go ahead with their wedding despite the lockdown. They got married at home in Goalpara, Assam, last month with only eight family members present. This is the way marriages should always be conducted among close relatives and people who matter rather than the usual fanfare and large sums of money being spent, said Hussain. His words found resonance many hundred miles away in the Tamil Nadu capital Chennai where K Shakthivel got married last month on the terrace of his home.

It resulted in a saving of at least 75 per cent of the originally planned expenditure of a few lakhs, Shaktivel, an AC mechanic, said.

Only 10 family members were present since the hall he had booked was shut in view of the lockdown. But Shaktivel was content. And thats how it was for Rebin Vincent Gralan and Cila Lona, too, in neighbouring Kerala. They got married on April 15 at the St. Josephs parish shrine in Pavaratty with only 10 family members in attendance. The date for the wedding was fixed earlier itself we both convinced everyone to hold the marriage on the same date itself and it was conducted as a low-key function, Gralan told PTI.

There is no point in waiting for the pandemic to end, agreed Alex Paul, a businessman in Ernakulam who is all set to get married on June 15. We got engaged almost a year ago and had elaborate plans for a major wedding. But then came coronavirus and the lockdown. Now the wedding date has been decided as it is almost sure that this pandemic scare is not going to end anytime soon, he said. His grand wedding was downsized to a small affair at a temple in Karnatakas Mandya district but 30-year-old Ravi Gowda is not complaining. He got married on April 20 as he had planned, and thats all that matters. I had invited about 2,000-2,500 people for my wedding at a marriage hall in Bangalores Rajarajeshwari Nagar on April 20 We got married on the same date at our village temple in Mandya, he said.

He said he spent about 10 lakh for the arrangements in Bangalore, but hasnt got the money back yet. Not everyone wants to get married without family and friends though. Shraddha Patel in Chhattisgarhs Durg district, for instance, was supposed to get married on May 17 but has postponed the plans. I dont want a lavish wedding with hundreds of guests, but at least I want my close friends and relatives to be present there on the occasion. We are trying to figure out when to hold the wedding, the 24-year-old teacher told PTI. There are also those who got married with parents looking on  virtually. Research analyst Chaitanya and IT professional Thanuj were going to get married on April 30 in Kannur in Kerala but could not because of the lockdown. They waited and finally tied the knot on May 24 in Bangalore at the brides uncles home with 12 relatives present. The lockdown was getting extended and the virus cases were surging. There was no point in waiting as the uncertainty was continuing, the brides father A K Sudhakaran told PTI. Most of his daughters jewellery was in a bank locker at Kannur so a few gold ornaments were bought for the big day. Both sets of parents and other close relatives saw the event on Zoom.

A businessman in Patna also went ahead and got the eldest of his three daughters married at a temple rather than wait for the lockdown to end. Everything was finalised. Even the engagement and tilak functions were done before the lockdown, so I decided to get my daughter married at a temple, the father told PTI on the condition of anonymity. Sneha Anil Mahajan, a mother in Nagpur whose daughter got married on May 8 said the family decided not to postpone the wedding because the date was an auspicious one. Only about 45 to 50 guests attended. We had a guest list of over 1,000 people but it was not possible to invite them in such health crisis, she said.

All the guests were given sanitisers and masks and we strictly followed social distancing norms. Each ritual was explained in detail which normally would not have been possible. A marriage to remember for lifetime. We have no regrets, said the mother, looking forward to a grand reception once the pandemic is behind everybody. And sometimes, the young just overcome every obstacle on the way. Like 19-year-old Goldie, who earlier this month walked 80 km from Kanpur to Kannauj in Uttar Pradesh to wed her fiance alone, unafraid and determined that the continuing lockdown would not interfere with their plans.

When lockdown throws a hurdle on the way to matrimony, just jump it  thats what young couple seem to be saying as the coronavirus continues its spread.
WASHINGTON  Protesters on Saturday converged at the White House and sought to break through barriers at Lafayette Park as nationwide demonstrations over George Floyd's death reached President Donald Trump's doorstep for the second consecutive day.

At the White House Saturday, police used pepper spray, tear gas and what appeared to be rubber bullets on protesters, seeking to push them back. Protesters tossed objects like bottles toward the police. Some pulled bricks out of a sidewalk near the park and began throwing them toward police.

Multiple cars and dumpsters were set on fire mere blocks from the White House. People smashed windows and spray painted buildings as the night went on.

Just after 9 p.m. ET, Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy directed the D.C. National Guard to activate in response to U.S. Park Police asking for assistance with the protest, Commanding General William Walker said in a statement.

Earlier, protesters amid the large crowd could be seen standing on top of Secret Service vehicles and a security booth next to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. Just before 6 p.m. ET, police warned protesters to clear the street and pushed them to do as much.

After 7 p.m., protesters moved to the opposite side of Lafayette Park, chanting and yelling at members of the Secret Service and Park Police. Officers lined up within the park behind barricades and park chain fencing. They zip-tied the barricades together and used pepper spray to keep protesters back.

Some in the crowd also ripped away the bike rack barriers that separate 17th Street from the Pennsylvania Avenue Plaza. Other demonstrators were seen standing face to face with a phalanx of Secret Service on the plaza.

Police block protesters in front of the White House on May 30, 2020. (Lauren Egan / NBC News)

Protesters chanted "hands up, don't shoot" and "I can't breathe."

Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., took part in the demonstration, as she posted to Twitter: "People are in pain."

"We must listen," she continued.

Story continues

Air around the White House was thick with pepper spray into the evening.

The protest began to die down after midnight as law enforcement used tear gas to push demonstrators back a few blocks.

Days after protests first began, Derek Chauvin, the since-fired officer who detained Floyd, a black man, was arrested and charged Friday with third-degree murder and manslaughter. Chauvin was seen on videotape holding his knee against Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes as he begged for mercy.

Three other officers were also involved in Floyd's detainment.

Following intense protests Friday night, Trump warned that had those demonstrators breached the fence surrounding White House, they would have been met "by "vicious dogs" and "ominous weapons."

"Big crowd, professionally organized, but nobody came close to breaching the fence. If they had they would....have been greeted with the most vicious dogs, and most ominous weapons, I have ever seen. That's when people would have been really badly hurt, at least," Trump tweeted Saturday morning, additionally praising the Secret Service after thousands gathered at the complex Friday.

One woman was taken into custody at that demonstration after climbing over a barrier.

Trump also tweeted that Saturday would be "MAGA NIGHT AT THE WHITE HOUSE," though what he meant was unclear. The president had blamed violent outbreaks at some protests on "Radical Left" extremists, as did Attorney General William Barr.

"I stand before you as a friend and ally to every American seeking justice and peace," Trump told reporters Saturday. "And I stand before you in firm opposition to anyone exploiting this tragedy to loot, rob, attack and menace. Healing, not hatred, justice, not chaos are the mission at hand."

Protesters gather near the White House on Saturday night, May 30, 2020. (Lauren Egan / NBC News)

A law enforcement source told NBC News that "several dozen" Secret Service personnel sustained injuries during Friday's protests in Washington, DC. Some were transported to hospitals with non-life threatening injuries.

The president was in Florida on Saturday afternoon to witness a SpaceX rocket launch. Air Force One took off just after 6 p.m. and landed at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland around 8 p.m.

"A lot of us are fed up with racists being comfortable," said Jessica Briley, 31, of Arlington, Va., who had been protesting outside the White House since 2 p.m. Saturday. The president's tweets are uncalled for. He knows certain words are trigger words."

Lauren Egan and Garrett Haake reported from Washington, and Allan Smith from New York.
The push to reopen many businesses is among a number of moves Iowa's governor has been questioned about in the state's response to COVID-19. (Adobe Stock)
COVID-19 has propelled him into a place in the sun that he could only have hoped for, notes Aditi Phadnis.

IMAGE: Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan at the World Health Organisation executive board meeting via video conferencing, May 22, 2020. Photograph: Ravi Choudhary/PTI Photo

In politics, calculation matters. But so does luck.

Take Union Cabinet Minister for Health, Harsh Vardhan.

In some other time and place, he could hardly have shone the way he's doing now: True, he would have been health minister and a reasonably competent one.

But being a doctor and also a health administrator, COVID-19 has propelled him into a place in the sun that he could only have hoped for.

And that's the story of his life: That he was born lucky.

Harsh Vardhan is an otolaryngologist surgeon: To you and me, ENT.

He is a successful and well-known doctor and came into contact with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in 1969 but grew in stature because of his philanthropic medical work.

He launched his political career by contesting Delhi's first post-statehood aqssembly election in 1993 though he had had no exposure to political work till then beyond supporting the Jayaprakash Narayan movement against the Emergency in 1975.

The man from the Bharatiya Janata Party tipped to contest the election was Yog Dhyan Ahuja.

He was replaced by Harsh Vardhan at the Sangh's insistence. His election as MLA was the first streak of luck.

As soon as the assembly was formed, he was appointed health minister in the Madan Lal Khurana government.

Later, he was given the education portfolio and his sole reform was to do away with the subjective element of interviews in hiring teachers for state government schools: Which meant that a candidate from an obscure university in UP or Bihar was on a par with a candidate from Delhi University with no proven ability to actually be qualified to teach school children.

In 1996, Madan Lal Khurana, whose name occurred in the Jain diaries along with L K Advani, was asked by the BJP to resign.

Amazingly, Harsh Vardhan's name was mentioned as a replacement, largely by the Sangh, though by then he had completed only three years in active politics.

The RSS's influence didn't work and Sahib Singh Verma became chief minister, but it did put Vardhan in the reckoning for the top job.

In 1998, Sushma Swaraj was made the party's face for the assembly elections.

In the 2003 assembly elections, Madan Lal Khurana returned as the nominee for chief minister, but the party lost the elections.

During this debacle, Harsh Vardhan was party president, which says something for the BJP's performance.

Despite this, the BJP didn't really punish him.

This was largely because the central BJP's Delhi leadership never saw him as a threat, unlike the more pushy and competitive Vijay Goel who was the other face of the BJP's Vaishya constituency in Delhi.

Ahead of the 2013 assembly election when the BJP's chances of forming the government were the brightest, the two big leaders of Delhi, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley, who couldn't see eye to eye on anything ever, became unlikely partners in a Stop Vijay Goel campaign.

Their mascot? Harsh Vardhan.

Two weeks before the election, Goel was told to step down from the presidentship of the party in favour of Harsh Vardhan. So luck was really on his side.

But in 2013, the BJP got only 32 seats in the 70-member assembly.

The Aam Aadmi Party staked a claim and formed the government for 49 days.

Harsh Vardhan was leader of the Opposition.

The BJP opted to recommend dissolution of the assembly rather than stake claim to form the government.

Goel was crushed and pushed out of Delhi politics, which was the top leadership's aim.

Vardhan was nowhere in contention as central rule was imposed. Elections to the assembly were held in 2015.

Meanwhile, the 2014 general election came around.

Harsh Vardhan had met Narendra Damodardas Modi in 1996, introduced to him by L K Advani.

He opted to contest the general election from Chandni Chowk, although East Delhi was his area of work.

Again, luck worked in his favour. Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad veteran and former Delhi University Students Union President Sudhanshu Mittal was to contest from the seat.

But Arun Jaitley prodded Vardhan to claim the seat to prevent Mittal.

Vardhan won. He was made health minister in the Modi Cabinet, but made the cardinal mistake of alienating the powerful chief of the Medical Council of India, Ketan Desai (arrested for corruption later in the private medical college scam).

He was sent off as minister for earth sciences, but was retained in the council of ministers.

Meanwhile, in 2015, the man, once thought to be important enough to be Delhi chief minister, had to stand by and watch Kiran Bedi demolish the BJP's slender chances in the capital.

He didn't seem to mind -- he hadn't lost his ministership, luckily.

In 2019, he decided to stick to his constituency and is health minister when India needs a health minister the most!

Wouldn't you call that luck?

Production: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com
Former Vice President Joe Biden said in a statement Sunday that he visited Wilmington, Delaware, to view the aftermath of the city's protests the previous night against the killing of George Floyd.

What he's saying: "We are a nation in pain, but we must not allow this pain to destroy us. We are a nation enraged, but we cannot allow our rage to consume us. We are a nation exhausted, but we will not allow our exhaustion to defeat us."

"The only way to bear this pain is to turn all that anguish to purpose. And as President, I will help lead this conversation  and more importantly, I will listen, just as I did today visiting the site of last night's protests in Wilmington."

Go deeper: Joe Biden issues late-night statement as American cities engulfed by violence
The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a statement saying that the Coronavirus already spread in America in mid-January. It turns out that the government was 13 days late in imposing a travel ban.

CDC: Virus spreads in the U.S. in mid-January

Were there any possible ways for the government back then to stop the virus from entering the country? Apparently not.

Dr. Robert Redfield, the head of the U.S. CDC, said that the virus started back in the country back days before the government imposed a travel ban. During a three-week period starting at mid-January to early February, the coronavirus had already infected several Americans.

"As America begins to reopen, looking back at how COVID-19 made its way to the United States will contribute to a better understanding to prepare for the future," said him. "Information from these diverse data sources suggests that limited community transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in the United States occurred between the latter half of January and the beginning of February, following the importation of SARS-CoV-2 from China."

The agency had successfully tracked the beginning of virus transmission through "syndromic surveillance of emergency department records, tests of respiratory specimens, and analyses of the virus's genetic sequences from early cases."

The three separate cases in California confirmed the first assumption that the virus was detected in early February.

No virus in November until December

Dr. Jay Butler, deputy director for infectious diseases at the CDC, confirms that there was no indication that the virus was introduced to America in earlier months than January.

This means that if someone felt sick back in November until December, it was probably due to flu-- and not Coronavirus at all. It was clarified since a lot of Americans ask about a possible transmission in late 2019.

"Based on just symptoms in January, it's almost certainly flu or another respiratory infection," said Trevor Bedford of Seattle's Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, one of the authors.

So, are we late on imposing a travel ban?

The health agency reiterates that, although there was a late announcement of the travel ban in America, it would be unlikely to track the virus, especially back then. It even added the fact that only current studies were published saying there were cases of asymptomatic with the virus.

"It's important to recognize the travel bans were intended to slow the introduction of the virus," said Dr. Jay Butler. "We knew it would be fairly unlikely that it would be completely kept out of the United States."

ALSO READ: COVID-19 Update: Virus Found in Bats is 'Closest Relative' of SARS-CoV-2; 6 Feet Not Enough to Avoid COVID-19, Experts Say

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Microscopy Devices Market Share, Trends And Growth Analysis By Type (Optical Microscopes, Electron Microscope, Scanning Probe Microscope (Spm), Others), By Application (Life Science, Material Science, Pathology), By End User (Hospitals & Clinics, Academic & Research Institutes, Diagnostics Centers) - Forecast Till 2022

Get Free Sample Copy @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/2313

Microscopy Devices are garnering a huge prominence, finding a range of applications in Bio-engineering and electronics. Extensive uptake of electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) in electron micrographs methods are driving the market growth.

Market Research Future (MRFR) in recently published study asserts that the global Microscopy Devices Market bt type is expected to reach USD ~10.5 Billion in 2022; it has been noted that market is growing at steady pace and is expected to grow at the CAGR of 7.8% during the forecasted period 2016  2022. Surpassing its previous growth records in terms of value & volume, the market is expected to gain prominence over the forecasted period.

Global Microscopy Device Market  Segments

The MRFR analysis is segmented into four key dynamics for the convenience of understanding;

By Types : Comprises Optical Microscopes, Electron Microscope, and Scanning Probe Microscope (SPM), among others.

By Applications : Life Science, Material Science, Pathology, and Nanotechnology among others.

By End-Users : Comprises Hospitals & Clinics, Academic & Research Institutes, and Diagnostics Centers among others.

By Regions : North America, Europe, APAC and Rest-of-the-World.

Key Players:

FEI, Meiji Techno, Nikon Metrology NV, Woodley Equipment Company Ltd, Radical Scientific Equipments Pvt. Ltd, Bruker, Mauna Kea Technologies SA, Icon Analytical Equipment Pvt. Ltd, Olympus Corporation, NIDEK Inc., Sonix, Inc., Konan Medical USA Inc., Carl Zeiss, and Leica Microsystems are some of the prominent players at the forefront of competition in the Global Microscopy Device Market and are profiled in MRFR Analysis.

Industry/ Innovation/ Related News

November 2017  Researchers of Germany and Portugal collaboratively developed the first microscope to concurrently monitor movement and neuron activity in zebrafish larvae without interfering with their behavior. To enable wider use in the research community, the neurobehavioral tracking microscope uses off-the-shelf components and is open source.

October 2017  Researchers at Keio University, Japan developed a single-step, laser-based method to produce small, precise hybrid microstructures of silver and flexible silicone that could enable factories to mass-produce customized devices that combine soft materials, like engineered tissue, with hard materials that add functions, like glucose sensing.

Access Report @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/microscopy-devices-market-2313

About Market Research Future:

At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.
At the beginning of the year, the biggest question facing Mayor Ron Nirenberg was whether he could win a victory for expanded public transit at the November ballot box.

Now the questions are much bigger: whether Nirenberg can bring an economy wracked by the coronavirus pandemic back to its feet, fix many of the citys longstanding inequities and keep the disease at bay.

A deliberative policy-maker in normal times, Nirenberg has had to adapt to the fast-paced, unrelenting nature of a global crisis.

When the virus made its way to San Antonio in March, he and Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff had to act quickly to put restrictions in place to slow the spread of the disease, even if it meant residents and businesses would suffer economically.

Those restrictions appear to have worked. Of the four major Texas metros, Bexar County has the fewest number of coronavirus cases and fewest deaths.

On ExpressNews.com: Get the latest update on coronavirus and a tracking map of U.S. cases

Kin Man Hui /Staff photographer

Initially, local governments had to make tough decisions on what to close and when, but Gov. Greg Abbott took back the reins when it came time to decide when businesses should reopen.

That forced Nirenberg, along with every other Texas mayor, to find ways to cope with the governors edicts rather than setting orders themselves.

Some big-city mayors publicly chafed at that. But Nirenberg, while hes made it clear he thinks Abbott is moving too fast, has shied away from starting fights with the governor.

I think Rons first thought is, OK, I dont like this at all, said state Rep. Diego Bernal, D-San Antonio, a former City Council member. What can I still do to keep the people Im responsible for safe and healthy?

To that end, Nirenberg has seized on the crisis as an opportunity to put a dent in the citys endemic poverty  in part by trying to bridge the citys long-standing gaps in internet access, train those who lost their jobs for new ones and expand the local safety net for the citys poorest residents.

What keeps me up at night is making sure that as we focus on rebuilding San Antonio, were not content to go back to the way things were, Nirenberg said at a San Antonio Express-News Editorial Board meeting.

At that meeting in late April, Nirenberg said when the San Antonio Food Bank reported it was serving 120,000 households per week, twice as many as usual, he was hit with the reality that it meant normal was 60,000 families needing food when the city wasnt in crisis.

It was a watershed moment for him.

Sometimes, big issues come at you that define who you are, said Wolff, himself a former mayor. I think hes really been defined in a very positive way.

Billy Calzada /Staff photographer

On ExpressNews.com: Training for 10,000 unemployed, child care for 5,000 kids part of San Antonios $191 million plan to deal with fallout from coronavirus pandemic

The mayor predictably was cautious in the beginning.

Nirenberg waited until March 13, when San Antonio had its first confirmed case outside of evacuees brought to Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland before restricting public gatherings and, perhaps most eye-opening, agreeing to postpone Fiesta.

At that time, Nirenberg was reluctant to close bars and restaurants as other cities had done. Five days later, after a jump in cases, he did so  a move he lamented, though he felt it was necessary to prevent more people from contracting the virus.

Nirenberg managed to pull a skeptical Wolff along, who was unconvinced at the time that was needed.

As it turned out, the governor followed with his own statewide restrictions the next day.

Soon, Nirenberg and Wolff handed down a more drastic measure: ordering residents to stay home except for essential trips.

Its really the first time that I felt like he took charge of the situation, Councilwoman Shirley Gonzales said. I was glad that that happened because there was not a lot of time to collaborate.

Those moves won early approval from residents, local poll results show  even among conservatives who likely backed Nirenbergs challenger in his hard-fought re-election campaign last summer, said veteran political strategist Christian Archer, who has been campaign adviser to Wolff and former Mayor Julian Castro.

He is taking people that voted against him and they are saying, Ron Nirenberg is doing a good job, Archer said.

Nirenberg has sought to avoid politicizing the virus response. Instead, the mayor has opted to use his bully pulpit to tout the advice of health experts: wear masks, keep your distance from others and dont leave home unless its necessary.

Kin Man Hui /Staff photographer

I think we have to resist all of the urges in the environment to make this pandemic response a partisan political one, Nirenberg said.

That attitude came as a relief to health experts, who say Nirenberg has been keen to seek their advice before making major decisions  even if that advice was unpleasant.

Hes very receptive to ideas that are different from his own and especially if we were coming with expertise and data, said Dr. Barbara Taylor, an infectious disease specialist at UT Health San Antonio who helmed the city-county health transition panel.

Some of Nirenbergs peacetime tendencies followed him into the pandemic. Early on, he drew criticism from council members who felt out of the loop on decisions regarding the citys response to the virus.

But Nirenberg has said acting quickly has been vital in keeping the virus in check, giving that as the reason he suspended council committees.

Instead, he relied on a tool he normally uses to tackle big policy issues like the citys housing crisis or climate change  assembling outside task forces that pull in input from dozens if not hundreds of San Antonio residents.

The best leaders are the ones who know what their limitations are and seek to get information, public health consultant Cherise Rohr-Allegrini said.

The five working groups and two transition panels he and Wolff put in place came up with concrete results and created a close collaboration between city and county that wasnt always there, officials said.

The pandemic also has strengthened the bond between their chief political leaders.

In February, the two men teamed against the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. One of the first actions they took together was to declare simultaneous public health emergencies to assert local authority over the release of evacuees housed at Lackland into the community.

Nirenberg and Wolff were irate when the CDC released an evacuee who later tested weakly positive for the virus and visited North Star Mall, coming into contact with more than two dozen people.

An investigation later found she didnt infect anyone, but the incident caused widespread fear and anger.

Now, Nirenberg and Wolff appear side by side every evening for daily city-county television briefings in which they and a rotating cast of city and county officials give the lowdown on the latest case and death numbers and use the live broadcast as a platform to promote issues of the day, such as halting evictions and allowing expanded mail-in voting.

On ExpressNews.com: As coronavirus recovery begins, questions and fault lines emerge about what post-COVID-19 San Antonio should look like

To some degree, Wolffs presence beside Nirenberg insulates the mayor from political battles.

Wolff, a Democrat, rarely passes up a chance to ding Republican state lawmakers for, say, not expanding Medicaid given theres a health crisis or call local party leaders crazies.

Im a little bit more confrontational, Wolff said. I dont mind taking on a fight.

Of course, Nirenbergs the only one seeking re-election. The mayors still nursing wounds from a bruising campaign last year in which former Councilman Greg Brockhouse capitalized on conservative anger to nearly unseat him.

Nirenberg and Wolff havent faced the same kind of heated opposition from local conservatives that, for example, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo did for insisting on requiring residents to wear masks. Chalk that up to a more active right-wing base in the Houston area and that its in Lt. Gov. Dan Patricks backyard.

Josie Norris /Staff photographer

But some of Nirenbergs actions during the pandemic still have managed to fuel conservative outrage.

Protesters lashed out at the mayor after he pushed an anti-hate resolution that discouraged residents from using terms like China virus and Wuhan virus to describe the novel coronavirus, saying such terms promote hate crimes against Asian-Americans.

On ExpressNews.com: Get the latest update on coronavirus and a tracking map of U.S. cases

Nirenberg occasionally has ventured into the political arena during the crisis. When Patrick suggested seniors should sacrifice themselves to save the states economy, Nirenberg went on CNN and blasted the lieutenant governors remarks as callous.

After Attorney General Ken Paxtons office sent a letter warning the city and county that their orders were out of step with Abbotts, he chided Paxton for seeking a cheap political headline.

But he largely has avoided criticizing Abbott. If he did, it could mean awakening conservative North Siders, who nearly ousted him during the last election cycle.

Observers note, however, that Nirenberg really hasnt had to go after Abbott because the citys coronavirus progress indicators have been looking good.

While hospitalizations have been steadily ticking up for two weeks, the system itself isnt under major stress. The city routinely has more than a fourth of its staffed hospital beds available any given day and 70 to 80 percent of its ventilators.

The time it now takes for local case counts to double sits at 36 days, compared with just a few days at the start of the crisis. And San Antonio has the ability to test nearly 4,000 people a day for the virus. The goal had been 3,000.

When Ron can point to concrete evidence and say, Whats happening is hurting us, there is no doubt in my mind that he runs to the mountaintop and points his finger at Abbott and says, You need to fix this, Bernal said.

But that hasnt happened.

At least Abbott has a more detailed strategy for reopening, Nirenberg said. Compare that to Georgia, where Gov. Brian Kemp reopened the state without much of a plan, Nirenberg said.

Lets give credit where credit is due and lets offer criticism and object when thats necessary, the mayor added.

Joshua Fechter is a staff writer covering San Antonio government and politics. To read more from Joshua, become a subscriber. jfechter@express-news.net | Twitter: @JFreports
THE cold storage industry may not have enough capacity and manpower to adjust to the new normal in the coming months, as cold storage construction projects in progress will not yet be available for some time, according to the president of the Cold Chain Association of the Philippines (CCAP).

Cold storage warehouses may not have capacities to hold additional volumes from local production and imports, said Anthony Dizon, CCAP president, speaking at a webinar on the food supply chain industry organized on May 21, 2020, by the Procurement and Supply Institute of Asia.

Dizon said cold chain warehouses are currently at about 97 to 98 percent occupancy level with 500 containers still waiting in line to be accommodated for storage.

Moreover, production capacities may not revert to normal in the near future due to lingering coronavirus concerns, as manpower reporting continues to be below normal because of personal fears related to the coronavirus issue.

He added that while there is incoming holding capacity as construction of cold storage facilities continues, it wont be available immediately.

There are cold storage construction projects in progress that are expected to be operational before the end of the year, which should contribute approximately 10 percent increase to total industry capacity, said Dizon. In rough figures that would translate to a holding capacity of about 40,000 metric tons of food.

But these capacities will not be available immediately but we are understandably rushing completion of these projects to be able to put them on stream at the earliest possible time, said the executive.

Food industry outlook

At the same time, Dizon gave his outlook on emerging food industry scenarios as the Philippines transitions to a more relaxed quarantine setting.

The retail distribution sector will rebound to normal, mainly through a combination of physical shopping and online/delivery ordering.

The hotel, restaurant and cafe sector will pursue a slower recovery path due to restrictions on dine in, said Dizon, adding this is a phenomenon expected to last for at least another three to six months.

The domestic travel and tourism sectors will possibly contribute minimally to food demand for the rest of the year due to travel restrictions and climatic effects such as the approaching rainy season. (PHILEXPORT NEWS AND FEATURES)
The Mayor of Austria marked the reopening of the tourism industry on May 29 in a small public ceremony at the landmark Ferris wheel.

Mayor Michael Ludwig and Nora Lamac, whose family has operated the ferris wheel for generations, pressed the button to restart the city's giant Ferris wheel - a key attraction which has been in constant use since the end of Second World War but closed for the first time in recent history due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Vienna is open

In Vienna shops, bars and museums have been open again for some days or weeks, and accommodation and leisure businesses opened again on May 29. In 2019, 135,000 visitors from the Gulf States spent a total of 325,000 nights in Viennese hotels. This summer from the Arabian Gulf States a connection flight is planned from July 1. At Vienna Airport it is possible to take a molecular biological Corona / Covid-19 test (PCR test). The result is available within about three hours.

Viennas mayor Michael Ludwig said: The ferris wheel is turning again in Vienna, hotels are opening up and life is slowly returning. What rankings such as those from Mercer or The Economist have shown for years has once again been proved  Vienna is a safe, functioning city, where life is worth living, well able to cope with challenging situations.

Owner of Viennas giant ferris wheel Nora Lamac noted: Before coronavirus, the giant ferris wheel was in continuous operation for 75 years. When the ferris wheel ceases to turn, life itself stands still. Today is therefore a very emotional moment for me and my family. The fact that the wheel has started to turn again today gives hope  not only to me, but to the whole of Austria and to everyone who has had a hard time in recent months.

Viennas Director of Tourism Norbert Kettner said: At this time the giant ferris wheel is more symbolic than anything else could be of a fresh start for the city. The fact that it is turning again is a very hopeful sign. We are delighted that we will be able to welcome visitors from Austria to Vienna with immediate effect, and visitors from other parts of the world very soon and promise that Vienna still has much to offer this year, despite social distancing the no or low-touch economy. - TradeArabia News Service
1. Yes. Too many kids are staying home. They need a virtual learning option to keep up.

2. Yes. Teachers are out sick and subs cant handle the load. Online learning is needed.

3. No. Its too late in the school year to make a wholesale switch in teaching platforms.

4.No. Many parents arent in a position to stay home while their kids learn virtually.

5. Unsure. It may seem like a good idea from a health standpoint, but it has shortcomings.

Vote

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CHICAGO  Gov. J.B. Pritzker activated 375 Illinois National Guard soldiers for state active duty to assist the Chicago Police Department in protecting the city and its residents, in response to a city of Chicago request.

The guard will carry out a limited mission to help manage street closures and will not interfere with peaceful protesters exercising their first amendment rights.

At the request of Mayor Lori Lightfoot, I am activating the Illinois National Guard to support the city of Chicago in protecting our communities and keeping people safe, Pritzker said.

This is an immensely challenging moment for our city, our state and our country, one born from decades and centuries of systemic racism he said.

To those peacefully expressing the pain, fear and rage of this moment, I hear you. Your voices matter. We must address the profound injustices in our society and bring about real and meaningful change.

Later Sunday, the governor then issued a disaster proclamation for Cook County to help enable state support for the city of Chicago as local authorities respond to ongoing protests.

Pritzker signed the disaster proclamation to expedite the use of state resources, personnel and equipment to help the city in its effort to keep people safe.

Also Sunday, the Illinois Emergency Management Agency Director Alicia Tate-Nadeau also ordered a 24-hour closure of all Community Based Testing Sites in Illinois to protect the staff and patients attending these facilities.

In addition to the soldiers from the Illinois National Guard, personnel from the Illinois State Police and IEMA are aiding the city in an operation to manage street closures.

The State Emergency Operations Center is monitoring operations throughout the state and fulfilling requests from local governments. All soldiers deployed for active duty will be outfitted with personal protective equipment, such as face shields and masks, to address the threats of the current COVID-19 environment.
Protesters hold signs against the Israeli police after they shoot dead an unarmed autistic Palestinian man Iyad Halak in Jerusalem's Old City on Saturday after saying they suspected he was carrying a weapon. (AP)

Jerusalem: Israeli police shot dead an unarmed autistic Palestinian man in Jerusalems Old City on Saturday after saying they suspected he was carrying a weapon.

The shooting drew broad condemnations and revived complaints alleging excessive force by Israeli security forces. On social media, some compared the shooting to police violence in the U.S.

Relatives identified the deceased man as Iyad Halak, 32. They said he suffered from autism and was heading to the school for students with special needs where he studied each day when he was shot.

They killed him in cold blood, Halaks mother, Rana, told Israels Channel 12 TV.

In a statement, Israeli police said they spotted a suspect with a suspicious object that looked like a pistol. When he failed to obey orders to stop, officers opened fire, the statement said. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld later said no weapon was found.

Channel 12 said members of Israels paramilitary border police force fired at Halaks legs and chased him into a dead-end alley. It said a senior officer ordered a halt in fire as they entered the alley, but that a second officer did not listen and fired six or seven bullets from an M-16 rifle, killing Halak. The report said both officers were taken into custody and interrogated for several hours.

AP video from the scene showed three bullet holes in a white wall at the end of the alleyway.

Halaks father, Kheiri, said police raided the familys home after the shooting. They found nothing, he said, claiming that police had cursed his daughter when she became upset at them.

Lone Palestinian attackers with no clear links to armed groups have carried out a series of stabbings, shootings and car-ramming attacks in recent years.

Palestinians and Israeli human rights groups have long accused Israeli security forces of using excessive force in some cases, either by killing individuals who could have been arrested or using lethal force when their lives were not in danger.

We must resist the expected cover-up and make sure that the police will sit in jail, Ayman Odeh, the leader of the main Arab party in parliament, wrote on Twitter. Justice will be done only when the Halak family, their friends and the rest of the Palestinian people know freedom and independence.

On social media, some pro-Palestinian activists compared the shooting to this weeks killing of George Floyd, a handcuffed black Minnesota man who pleaded for air as a white police officer pressed a knee on his neck. His death has set off violent protests across the U.S.

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid, whose daughter is autistic, said Halaks death was heartbreaking.

The death of a young person with special needs is heartbreaking and all of Israel bows their heads. This is not our way, he tweeted.

In west Jerusalem, about 150 protesters, some pounding drums, gathered to demonstrate against police violence. A violent policeman must stay inside, they chanted in Hebrew. At a smaller protest in Tel Aviv, one poster read Palestinian lives matter.

The shooting came a day after Israeli soldiers killed a Palestinian in the occupied West Bank who they said had tried to ram them with his vehicle. No Israelis were wounded in either incident.

Saturdays shooting occurred in east Jerusalem, which Israel captured in the 1967 war along with the Israeli-occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The Palestinians want all three territories for their future state.

Tensions have risen in recent weeks as Israel has pressed ahead with plans to annex large parts of the West Bank in line with President Donald Trumps Middle East plan, which strongly favours Israel and was rejected by the Palestinians. Netanyahu has said he plans on moving ahead with the plan in July.

The Palestinian Authority, which governs autonomous enclaves in the West Bank, said last week that it was no longer bound by past agreements with Israel and the United States and was cutting off all ties, including longstanding security coordination, to protest the annexation plan.

The Trump plan would allow the Palestinians to establish a capital on the outskirts of the city, beyond Israels separation barrier. It would grant them limited statehood in a cluster of enclaves surrounded by Israel, but only if they meet a long list of stringent conditions.

The annexation plan has also drawn widespread condemnations from Israeli allies in Europe and across the Arab world.
Hyderabad: Some community members have demanded shifting of the remains of a Muslim man who was buried in a Hindu graveyard after custodians of six Muslim graveyards had denied permission citing lack of space. Many others want the body of Mohammed Khaja Miyan, 55, resident of Gandhamguda, Bandlaguda, who died of a cardiac arrest on May 22, to lie undisturbed, unless the family wants it shifted to a Muslim graveyard.

The Wakf Board has convened a meeting of the ulema and advocates to discuss the possibilities of exhumation in Sharia and the laws of the land. Meanwhile, the board has established a helpline desk to ensure hassle-free burial in Muslim graveyards, on phone number 79955 60136.

According to Khaja Miyans family members, after they were refused permission at six Muslim graveyards, two locals, Sandeep and Shekar, had arranged a place to bury the man in a shamshan ghat.

Moulana Syed Khaja Moiz Ashrafi said those who had provided land at a Hindu graveyard should be praised and thanked by the Muslim community. He demanded the Wakf Board to take legal and Sharia opinion in this regard besides taking stern action against custodians who refused the burial.

Social activist Dr Mukhtar Ahmed Fardeen appealed to home minister Mahmood Ali and Wakf chairman Board Mohammed Saleem to make arrangements for shifting the body.

Moulana Mohammed Abdur Raheem Khurram Jamai opined that if the Wakf Board has the authority it can exhume the dead body and rebury it in a Muslim graveyard, though the decision should be left to the legal heirs.

Social activist Mohammed Mansoor Ali urged people not to make it a communal issue. He said the body could be shifted only if the shamshan ghat custodian or the heirs of the deceased ask for it. He called for evolving comprehensive rules to govern and manage graveyards.

Moulana Mufti Mohammed Abdul Mughni Mazaheri of Madarsa Sabeel-ul-Falah has issued a fatwa stating that without a valid reason exhuming a body from the grave is not admissible. It can be done if the heirs want to do so with a valid reason or the owner of the land demands shifting of the remains.
Planters from Assam said despite the Covid-19 pandemic, trade enquiries from China had been rising. However, owing to the growing conflict, enquiries may dry up. We have seen how the trade dried up in case of the Pakistan conflict and fear the same, a planter from Assam said.

Just when Indian tea exports to China were rising, the trade is likely to take a hit because of worsening Indo-China relations, following a military standoff at four points along the Line of Actual Control.

Over the past five years, China has emerged as the third largest buyer of Indian tea. In 2019, India had exported 13.45 million kilogram (mkg) tea to China as against an export of 10.31 mkg in 2018.

As relations between India and Pakistan soured, the tea trade took a beating. It is a wait and watch situation for us now, Vivek Goenka, chairman of the Indian Tea Association (ITA), said.

Planters from Assam said despite the Covid-19 pandemic, trade enquiries from China had been rising. However, owing to the growing conflict, enquiries may dry up. We have seen how the trade dried up in case of the Pakistan conflict and fear the same, a planter from Assam said.

However, exporters are of the view that even if the Indo-China trade is affected, Indian tea will find many global takers.

"Production this year has suffered, and there is a high demand in the market for Indian tea. Even if the trade gets affected in one global market, there are others who are eagerly awaiting Indian tea," an exporter from Kolkata said.

Tea production in Assam and West Bengal is estimated to have declined by 65 per cent during March-April, and it may further decline by 50 per cent during May.

Atul Asthana, managing director at Goodricke Group, said while such scarcity will create huge demand and a price surge in the market, plantation firms and exporters will grapple to meet the global demand.

According to data sourced from the Tea Board of India, a total of 1.47 mkg tea was exported to China during January-February, making it the third largest global destination for Indian tea.

Last year, India had pipped Sri Lanka to become the largest tea exporter to China as demand for Indian black tea, especially the Assam variety, had been on the rise. Traditionally, the Chinese have been making and consuming green tea, but sources said the demand for black tea among the youth has been on a rise.
In a statement issued here on Sunday, the state Health Department said 1,149 persons, including 95 who had come from other states and foreign countries tested positive for coronavirus taking the total tally to 22,333.

Chennai: On a day when the Tamil Nadu government relaxed some lockdown restrictions, the state breached the 1,000-mark for new coronavirus infections with as many as 1,149 persons testing positive over the past 24 hours.

According to the statement, a total of 99,651 persons have come to Tamil Nadu from other Indian states and overseas till May 30 and 1,570 persons have tested positive for coronavirus.

The statement also said 13 Covid-19 patients died taking the total death toll to 173.

The state capital Chennai with its high density of population continued to see the highest number of infections at 804 taking its total tally to 14,802. The Chengalpattu district reported 85 positive cases.

As on Sunday, coronavirus cases in Chennai stood at 14,802, followed by Chengalpattu (1,177), Tiruvallur (948) and Kancheepuram (407).

On Sunday 12,807 samples were tested taking the total to 4.91 lakh. Testing of 689 samples are under process.

The number of infected children in the age group 0-12 went up to 1,286. The total number of active cases in Tamil Nadu stands at 9,400.
Actor Rana Daggubati sprang a surprise on his fans earlier this month when he announced that he was engaged to entrepreneur Miheeka Bajaj. Now, his father, producer Suresh Babu, has confirmed that the wedding will take place on August 8.

Rana and Miheeka will get married on August 8 in the presence of both their families, Suresh told Deccan Chronicle. He further said that the ceremony will take place according to the guidelines set by the government to control the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

Earlier this month, Rana got officially engaged to Miheeka, who runs an interior decor and event management company called Dew Drop Design Studio, in a roka ceremony at his grandfathers (Daggubati Ramanaidu) Ramanaidu Studios in Hyderabad.

Also see: Sunil Grover cooks up a cigarette in his kitchen in hard-hitting video, Anubhav Sinha shares his own experiences

Rana said that he has a lot in common with Miheeka, who was brought up in Hyderabad. While she is friendly with his family, he is acquainted with her group of friends in Mumbai.

Talking about how he popped the question, Rana said, She knew where Im getting at when I called her. And then she met me in person, thats it. I remember I said a bunch of things together. For me, it was serious. It was commitment. When I met her, thats the time I felt I am ready to do this. It was that simple, for real, he said.

Rana added that it was not a conscious decision to not marry someone from the same industry. I never thought about it. I met her, I liked her, and thats it. I found love, he said.

Meanwhile, Ranas next release is Prabhu Solomons multilingual film titled Haathi Mere Saathi in Hindi, Aranya in Telugu and Kaadan in Tamil. The film, which has him playing a character inspired by environmental activist Jadav Payeng, was slated to hit theatres on April 2 but has been postponed in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

Follow @htshowbiz for more

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Humans are unusual, even among primates, in the length of our "extended childhood." Scientists think that this period of childhood and adolescence, which gives us lots of time to explore, create, and learn, is a key reason why we are smart enough to learn skills that take years to master. But humans are not the only species with an extended childhood. Elephants, some bats, whales, dolphins, and some birds - especially corvids - also have them. But does an extended childhood make other species smart too, and if so, what is the role of parenting?

A team of scientists from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, the University of Konstanz and the UK tackled these questions by combining the results of their own fieldwork on two corvid species - Siberian jays and New Caledonian crows - with published data from 127 corvid species and several thousand species in the passerine (songbird) order. The study, published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, offers a groundbreaking new view on the evolution of intelligence, where parenting takes center stage.

Parenting pays the costs of extended childhoods

Researchers spent years observing two bird species in the wild to understand how young birds' learning is related to parenting received during adolescence and survival in adulthood. At a study site in Sweden, researchers used field experiments to test the ability of young Siberian jays to learn crucial life skills: recognizing a dangerous predator and opening a puzzle box to access food. Across the northern Palearctic, Siberian jays live in family groups which can include not only the young of a breeding pair, but also young that were born in other groups. These young can stay with the family group for up to four years. Young that stayed with their parents longer benefitted from being with their parents. They learned faster by watching their parents and received more food from their parents. As a consequence, they were more likely to live longer and to start their own family.

At a study site in New Caledonia, researchers followed New Caledonian crows to track how juveniles learn a key survival skill: making tools for food retrieval. It takes about a year to learn this skill - a costly time investment for the parents who still have to feed the young. Surprisingly, these crows can stay with their parents for up to three years, allowing for a much longer "childhood" than most other crows. Parents and other adults are extremely tolerant to young crows. While adults are using a tool to get food, they feed the juveniles, let them watch closely, and even tolerate tool theft and physical contact by juveniles. As a result of this tolerant learning environment, New Caledonian crows have the largest brain size for their body size of all corvids.

Extended parenting affects intelligence

The authors argue that the key role of parenting on the evolution of cognition has been overlooked so far. Often thought of as merely an inevitable chore, parental care is the reason children can spend their childhood learning and making mistakes.

"Extended parenting has profound consequences for learning and intelligence," explains Michael Griesser of the University of Konstanz. "Learning opportunities arise from the interplay between extended childhood and extended parenting. The safe haven provided by extended parenting is critical for learning opportunities. It creates extended developmental periods that feed back into the extended childhood."

In addition to benefitting young learners, extended parenting helps pay for the costs of an extended childhood. Having to feed extra mouths is costly, but when there is enough food available in the environment, parents can afford to keep on feeding the young for longer. With a safe haven, young birds have the time to grow a larger brain, learn difficult skills, and access vital food resources. These acquired skills lead to better survival, and possibly also allow the species to expand into new environments.

Corvids are unusual birds, but are similar to humans

The researchers used phylogenetic comparative methods to analyze the differences between corvids and all other passerines. Corvids have much larger brains relative to their body size, like humans. They also have prolonged developmental periods, both in the nest and after they leave - another characteristic of humans.

"Both humans and corvids spend their youth learning vital skills, surrounded by tolerant adults which support their long learning process," explains Natalie Uomini of the Max Planck Institute. "Moreover, corvids and humans have the ability for lifelong learning - a flexible kind of intelligence which allows individuals to adapt to changing environments throughout their lifetime."

In the light of this study, the importance of parenting comes into even greater focus. Parents have a vital role in helping young brains grow smarter. Children, like young birds, cannot learn skills in isolation. Instead they need a nurturing, supportive environment that allows the full potential of their large brains to develop.

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NAIROBI, KENYAA Somali police officer says at least eight civilians were killed when a minibus hit a roadside bomb outside the capital on Sunday morning.

Abdullahi Ahmed says the minibus hit the bomb in the Hawa Abdi area near Mogadishu.

The death toll may rise because many of the surviving passengers were seriously wounded, Ahmed said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast. However Somalias extremist group al-Shabab, which is allied to al-Qaida, has carried out a series of bomb attacks in the area in recent months.
Pakistans AGP Ltd., a partner of Mylan NV, plans to sell the Covid-19 treatment remdesivir, which has been shown to improve recovery of coronavirus patients, within one to two months in the Asian nation.

AGP plans to seek permission from the countrys drug authority to import the medicine, Chief Executive Officer Nusrat Munshi said in an interview. It has a similar arrangement for the Hepatitis C treatment Sovaldi, which it will import from Mylan. AGP is Mylans exclusive distributor in Pakistan.

The development comes a few weeks after remdesivirs original creator Foster City, California-based Gilead Sciences Inc. signed agreements with four generic drug manufacturers in India, including Mylans unit in the country, and one in Pakistan to speed development and help meet anticipated demand. A unit of Pakistans Ferozsons Laboratories Ltd. is currently the only licensee in the country.

The global push to develop coronavirus treatments and vaccines is accelerating as governments look for ways to ease lockdowns safely and restart economies. Moderna Inc.s vaccine passed a crucial early safety test last week, and countries from the UK to China are pushing ahead to develop their own vaccines. Gileads drug was originally developed in 2010 to treat Ebola.

Pakistan eased its lockdown by opening shopping malls and retail shops this month and saw a massive rush of people ahead of Eid festivities. A few markets were temporarily shut for not following social distancing rules in Karachi.

The concept of a lockdown is that it gives the countrys health-care system time to prepare, said Munshi, adding that health-care facilities including beds havent been ramped up and mass testing hasnt been conducted.

AGP has also sold about 100,000 anti-body test kits since last month to hospitals and private companies looking to test their staff as more people return to work. The company has another 100,000 kits and is considering importing more as it is seeing high demand, according to Munshi.

Pakistan has about 66,000 infections and 1,400 deaths. The nation has tested fewer people than Ghana and has still seen the probability of a test turning out positive almost double to over 20% in the past week, the highest since the outbreak began.
Vietnam contains one of the highest potential for wind power in the region, as it is endowed with high wind speeds particularly in the offshore or near-shore areas.

Fitch Solutions, a subsidiary of Fitch Group, expects growing opportunities in Vietnams wind power sector, mainly thanks to stronger regulatory support announced in recent weeks and rising investor interest.

The Vietnamese government has proposed several policies in recent months to boost the development of the wind power sector, in particular offshore wind, which bodes well for the industry, Fitch Solutions said in its latest report.

It noted that Vietnam contains one of the highest potential for wind power in the region, as it is endowed with high wind speeds particularly in the offshore or near-shore areas, with the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) estimating this potential to be at approximately 475GW.

Vietnam - Total Installed Wind Power Capacity, MW.

In March 2020, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc issued a resolution for a five-year plan to 2025 to develop renewable energy sources off the coast, with specific mechanisms and policies to attract both foreign and local developers to invest in the sector.

In particular, Binh Thuan, Bac Lieu and Ca Mau were highlighted as prioritized provinces for offshore wind development. The offshore wind sector was also emphasized under the National Energy Development Strategy of Vietnam to 2030, and the MoIT has proposed to include several wind projects into the upcoming Power Development Plan.

According to Fitch Solutions, the government is also in process of amending seabed lease and licensing requirements for large-scale offshore wind farms, alongside the Ministry of Natural Resource and Environment of Vietnam (MONRE).

In contrast to Vietnams approach toward its solar sector, the MoIT has also proposed to extend the feed-in-tariff (FiT) deadlines for wind by two years, from the original commercial operation date (COD) deadline in November 2021 to the end of 2023, before implementing auctions thereafter.

The current FiTs for offshore wind is highly attractive at 9.8 US cents/kWh, which were increased from the previous rate of 7.8 US cents/kWh. This extension follows the appeals from several wind energy developers, industry associations and local governments from nine provinces, after the Covid-19 outbreak has caused some near-term headwinds to the sector.

This is largely due to project delays stemming from supply chain disruptions, labor shortages, and construction being forced to stop temporarily from the Covid-19 outbreak, as well as delays to several wind project approvals.

Fitch Solution expected that the more amenable approach the government is taking to the wind sector when compared to the solar sector is because growth to date has been at a more manageable pace for the system to cope with, given that the development or wind projects are typically longer and more complicated.

Surge in power demand expected

This also occurs against a broad support for renewable energy in general, particularly as Vietnam is set to see a surge in power demand, which offers capacity growth opportunities for the sector.

Vietnam - Net Power Consumption Growth, TWh and % y-o-y.

While the government is expected to announce a new Power Development Plan VIII in June 2020, Fitch Solution said renewable energy will likely see a greater focus.

Capacity targets for the wind sector is expected to increase to 6GW by 2025 and 10GW by 2030, from the existing targets of 2GW and 6GW respectively. The government is also looking to introduce a new Direct Power Purchase Agreement (DPPA), where renewable energy producers can sell and deliver electricity directly to corporate customers.

The size of the DPPA program is expected to range 400-1000MW, and will be available for wind and solar producers with a capacity greater than 30MW and consumers in industrial manufacturing purchasing electricity at a voltage level of 22 kV or larger. Fitch Solutions believed these developments will encourage further growth and investment in the sector.

Additionally, there has been growing investor interest across Vietnam's wind sector over the past year, which has strengthened the pipeline significantly. Most notably, Enterprise Energy has plans to build the Ke Ga offshore windfarm in Vietnam with a 3.4GW capacity, which will be the largest offshore wind farm in the region if it comes to fruition. The project has registered some progress, given that PM Phuc has requested for a formal proposal for the project to be included into the countrys power development plan.

Based on Fitch Solutions Key Projects Database, Vietnam has over 900MW of wind power plants that are under construction at present, and it is estimated that there is approximately another 13GW of plants in the pipeline.

Fitch Solutions forecast the wind sector to grow from an estimated 375MW as at end-2019 to over 2.5GW by 2029. Hanoitimes

Ngoc Thuy

Investors concern about wind power development Vietnam may not be meeting its development potential to exploit wind power to provide energy to the country.
By Associated Press

KABUL: The Islamic State group took responsibility on Sunday for a roadside bomb attack against a bus belonging to a local TV station that killed two employees.

Marwa Amini, the deputy spokeswoman for the Afghan interior ministry, said four other station employees were wounded in Saturday afternoon's attack in Kabul.

In a statement on an IS-affiliate website, the group said the attack was against a bus carrying employees of Khurshid TV, a station it described as "loyal to the Afghan apostate government".

ALSO READ | Bus belonging to TV station hit by bomb in Kabul, two employees killed

Both the Taliban and the Islamic State are active in the area, but IS has claimed the recent attacks on civilian targets while the Taliban has taken responsibility for military targets.

IS has been increasingly active in Afghanistan after suffering battlefield losses to government and US forces, as well as its Taliban rivals.

Mohammad Rafi Sediqi, an official with Khurshid, confirmed the deaths of two employees.

He said two of the wounded were in critical condition from a bombing that took place on the station's eighth anniversary.

The attack came after the the expiration of a truce that Taliban and Afghan nationals security forces reached during the three-day Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which ended Tuesday.

Sediq Sediqqi, a spokesman for Afghan president Asharf Ghani, tweeted that the Afghan government strongly condemned the heinous and cowardice attack on Khurshid TV crew in Kabul and "stand by the Afghan media".

Afghanistan is among the most dangerous countries in the world for reporters.

The Afghan Journalists Safety Committee reported that five journalists were killed in 2019.

The year before, 17 journalists and media workers were killed in Afghanistan, while a total of 121 cases of violence against journalists and media workers were reported.

In April 2018, nine journalists who rushed to the scene of a suicide bombing in Kabul were killed when a second bomber who waited for first responders and others to arrive set off his explosives.

In a separate attack in northern Parwan province, at least three small children were killed when a mortar shell hit their home on Saturday morning, said Wahida Shahkar, a spokeswoman for the provincial governor in Parwan.

Shahkar blamed the Taliban for the attack in the Siagred district, but the Taliban denied involvement.
Essential work in long-term care residences has never belonged in the gig economy.

Why does Ontario today even maintain policies intended to keep full-time personal support worker positions to a minimum, forcing PSWs to cobble together part-time, minimum-wage gigs in order to scrape up a rent cheque?

In our provincially owned LTC residences, are PSWs still going to work today knowing that if they become ill due to COVID-19 they will not receive paid sick leave? Why have these conditions not been rectified?

I wait with interest to learn whether the owners of privately held LTC residences will be billed for services rendered by the Canadian Armed Forces, or if Canada is donating this military labour to these owners.
CLEVELAND, Ohio  Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson imposed a civil emergency Saturday and an 8 p.m. curfew for the downtown area after protests turned volatile and businesses were ransacked.

And Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine activated the National Guard to come to Cleveland the request of Jackson and Police Chief Calvin Williams.

The city announced the curfew via Twitter about 7:45 p.m. Cleveland police warned that anyone who remained in the downtown business district after curfew will be arrested. Police made arrests on East Ninth Street, south of Euclid Avenue. Moving down Prospect Avenue, firecrackers and flash bombs were going off.

Heavy law enforcement presence just arrived at East 9th and Euclid pic.twitter.com/7uzIUuONX2  Cory Shaffer (@cory_shaffer) May 31, 2020

The curfew is imposed until 8 a.m. Sunday.

The protest drew thousands to downtown Cleveland, beginning at the Free Stamp.

Protesters clashed with police outside the Justice Center, where several police cruisers were torched. Protesters made their way along Euclid Avenue and smashed windows of dozens of businesses, including some that were ransacked.

The right-libertarian group Liberty Hangout posted a video on Twitter at 7:52 p.m. showing a large, diverse group looting Geigers downtown.

The city urged businesses to close until Sunday morning. Roads into downtown are closed.

Cleveland City Council President Kevin J. Kelley, Councilwoman and Majority Leader Phyllis E. Cleveland and Councilman and Majority Whip Blaine A. Griffin issued a statement: While we support and appreciate the publics right to protest in the face of unjust and unfair situations and thank the vast majority of protesters who came out in Cleveland and have made their voices heard peacefully.

We love the city of Cleveland and thats why we have no tolerance for those using this tragedy to commit criminal acts. There is a difference between protesting and criminal activity.

See the live feed below.

Cleveland issues 8 p.m. curfew, Ohio National Guard activated in wake of volatile George Floyd protest and ransacked downtown Cleveland businesses Posted by cleveland.com on Saturday, May 30, 2020

Read more from cleveland.com:

Protestors break windows, set police cars on fire as George Floyd demonstrations turn violent in downtown Cleveland

Clevelanders protest George Floyds death at Justice Center as demonstration turns violent

Watch Cleveland protest over George Floyds death on live video Saturday
By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 05/31/2020



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alums Victoria Fuller and Chris Soules are reportedly now girlfriend and boyfriend.Victoria, a Virginia Beach resident who finished in third place on Peter Weber 's season, has been spending time with Chris in his hometown of Arlington, IA, since late April, after Chris reportedly slid into Victoria's DMs And according to an insider, Victoria, 26, and Chris -- a 38-year-old farmer who starred on 's 19th season -- are definitely an item now.A source told Us Weekly that Victoria and Chris are "exclusively dating.""She is still quarantining with him in Iowa," the source revealed, as the coronavirus pandemic continues."She drove to visit Kelsey Weier who lives in Des Moines over Memorial Day weekend but is now back with Chris."Victoria reportedly joked on her Instagram Stories last weekend, "I've ESCAPED," when she briefly left Chris' Iowa farm, which was portrayed to be in the middle of nowhere with a ghost town nearby on his season.Fans wondered if Victoria and Chris ended their relationship or stumbled across some problems while living together, but Victoria clearly just left for a couple of days to visit her pal Kelsey, who also competed on Peter's edition and lives 180 miles away from Chris' farm, according to Cosmopolitan.Although Victoria and Chris never shared photos with each other on Instagram, Victoria shared a picture of herself posing in a beautiful room on April 27 and captioned it, "Farm life."She also tagged her location as Arlington and has posted other photos from inside Chris' house.Victoria and Chris also reportedly posted similar stills from a field in their respective Instagram Stories.Former star Ben Higgins told Us earlier this month he and Chris are good friends and he was "shocked" to hear about Chris and Victoria's alleged romance."I don't know her, but I'm shocked that it happened... I wish he would talk to me about it," Ben, 31, said at the time."Victoria seemed a lot more outspoken than Chris. Chris is a super quiet, shy guy. He has a great family. He's really good at what he does. He's a great farmer, and I didn't see that side of Victoria. That doesn't -- none of that relates with her."Chris told the magazine in December 2019 that he had "given up" on finding his perfect match."I just think you know when you know, when you find it. I'm getting old enough to kind of learn that it's just about, like, when it's time, it will occur," Chris said, adding that he didn't have a timeline for settling down."As time goes by, I'm healthy, I'm semi-young, and when I meet the right person, it will be the right time."It's possible Victoria and Chris may have bonded over negative press and being involved in controversy.Victoria has been accused of being self-centered and attention-seeking, and while she came across shy and sometimes insecure on 's 24th season, Peter's ex-girlfriend Merissa Pence argued it was all an act.Merissa, who lives in Victoria's Virginia Beach hometown and previously hung out with her considering they have mutual friends, told the magazine that Victoria broke up four marriages by having affairs with the married husbands.Victoria also missed out on gracing the cover of Cosmo's March digital issue because she had Instagram photos showing she had modeled "Marlin Lives Matter" merchandise created by White Marlin Marina, a marina in Maryland.The merchandise promoted conservation awareness of marlin fish in 2016, USA Today reported, but Cosmo's editor-in-chief Jessica Pels said the slogan is "problematic" because she believes it's rooted in racism and her magazine stands in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement.In addition, Victoria was admittedly emotional and dramatic on , and she and Peter bickered more than they got along while dating.As for Chris, the former star was charged with a felony of leaving the scene of a fatal accident in which he had rear-ended a farm tractor with his pickup truck in April 2017 in Iowa, resulting in the death of 66-year-old Kenneth Mosher at the hospital.TMZ had obtained the recording of Chris' 911 call , proving the reality TV star at least checked Mosher's pulse at the scene of the accident and waited for emergency responders to arrive before taking off and avoiding authorities.Prosecutors argued, however, that Chris should only have left the scene to seek necessary aid or report the accident to law enforcement authorities, neither of which he allegedly did.Chris was arrested at his home several hours after the crash, after he allegedly refused to come outside and police were forced to obtain a search warrant, The Des Moines Register previously reported.Chris was released from jail shortly afterwards on $10,000 bond and feared spending up to five years in prison.Chris -- who was not charged with driving under the influence -- entered a not guilty plea in May 2017 to the charge of leaving the scene of the fatal accident.His legal team's motion to dismiss the charge was reportedly denied in January 2018 before being brought to the Iowa Supreme Court, who then declined to hear Soules' appeal in February of that year.Chris subsequently pleaded guilty in November 2018 to a reduced charge of leaving the scene of an accident, according to a local Des Moines news outlet.A judge reportedly approved a plea deal in August 2019 that imposed two years of probation for Chris and a suspended prison term.In addition to starring on , Chris also competed for Andi Dorfman on ette's tenth season as well as Season 20 of Dancing with the Stars and the Food Network's Worst Cooks in America: Celebrity Edition.Interested in more news? Join our The Bachelor Facebook Group
Critics of former Labour deputy leader Tom Watson have accused him of lobbying for a lucrative music industry job before the post had been formally advertised.

Opponents of his appointment as chair of UK Music suspect the application process was mere window dressing for a private decision that had already been made.

UK Music and Mr Watson insist the contest for the job was fair. However, tweets by the ex-MP before he beat 79 rivals to the post suggest otherwise.

The position of chair of UK Music was advertised in December 2019, two weeks after Michael Dugher, a former Labour MP and close pal of Mr Watson, announced he was stepping down as its CEO.

Critics of former Labour deputy leader Tom Watson (pictured) have accused him of lobbying for a lucrative music industry job before the post had been formally advertised

In the two months before that, Mr Watson had posted a number of tweets supporting either UK Music or Mr Dugher. In October he thanked the trade body after receiving a framed copy of The Specials 1981 hit Ghost Town. Alongside a picture of him and Mr Dugher, he wrote: I was 14 Ghost Town spoke to me and every other teenage kid. In November, after revealing he would not stand in the General Election, Mr Watson wrote: Impressive news that @UK_Music has now revealed that music contributes 5.2 billion to the economy.

I am backing music during this election campaign and want to ensure that we take steps to grow these impressive figures further.

In December Mr Watson congratulated Mr Dugher on being appointed CEO of the Betting and Gaming Council. Then, as adverts for the UK Music job appeared online, Mr Watson posted: This has been a bountiful year for UK music.

It prompted a comment: You going for the UK Music job then?

His appointment sparked fury with critics  including Sir Cliff Richard (pictured)  questioning Mr Watsons suitability following his support for fantasist Carl Beech, who is now serving an 18-year prison sentence after making false claims that a child abuse ring had operated at Westminster

Applications for the post did not close until mid-January, yet The Sunday Times reported on December 29 Mr Watson was tipped to get the job which pays a reported 60,000 a year for 40 days work.

His appointment sparked fury with critics  including Sir Cliff Richard  questioning Mr Watsons suitability following his support for fantasist Carl Beech, who is now serving an 18-year prison sentence after making false claims that a child abuse ring had operated at Westminster.

Last night songwriter Mike Batt said: The tweets appear to confirm the worst fears of those who think UK Music wasnt serious about the recruitment process. Robert Wilson, a former director of the Music Industries Association, said: The tweets raise fresh concerns about the recruitment process and Mr Watsons links to Mr Dugher. I would question his knowledge of the job requirement of having a wide ranging and relevant experience of the commercial music environment. I applied and wasnt even interviewed.

UK Music said Mr Watson had been a prolific tweeter about music for years. There had been no vacancy when the tweets were posted and Mr Dugher left before Mr Watson was appointed chair.
A tornado touched down northeast of Calgary on Sunday afternoon as a severe thunderstorm swept into central Alberta.

At 4:21 p.m., a tornado was spotted near 15 kilometres south of the village of Beiseker, an emergency alert cautioned, and was moving southeast at 20 km/h. The alert ended shortly before 5:15 p.m.

"This is a dangerous and potentially life-threatening situation ... If you hear a roaring sound or see a funnel cloud, swirling debris near the ground, flying debris, or any threatening weather approaching, take shelter immediately," the warning read.

Eric Dykes, a meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, said it's not unusual to see tornadoes developing in late May.

He said it was too early to comment on the tornado's speed or if any damage was caused.

"We do have confirmation [this tornado] was on the ground for about 10 minutes and that it did pass through primarily farmers' fields. There is video online of it that looks to be going over a lake as well, and still keeping its shape and form," he said.

The first tornado of the season in Alberta was spotted near Mossleigh earlier this week. It did not cause any damage.

Sunday's tornado warning was in effect for Rocky View County and Wheatland Country.

Funnel clouds had been spotted in the area earlier in the afternoon.

The tornado came as part of a developing low pressure system that was expected to bring heavy rain, strong winds, large hail and thunderstorms to central Alberta, Environment Canada said in a thunderstorm watch issued at 2:30 p.m. Sunday.

Warnings for the southwest corner of the province, near Crowsnest Pass and Cardston, cautioned of 100 km/h wind gusts, as did warnings for the Red Deer, Lloydminster and Edmonton areas.

Hail began to fall Sunday as a protest wrapped up in Fish Creek Park, where 100 people had gathered to speak out against anti-black racism and police violence, in solidarity with protests occurring across the U.S. and Canada.

Story continues

Video posted to social media also showed flooding in the city's northwest.

The alerts come roughly 12 hours after an intense early-morning thunderstorm swept through the city, waking some and treating those who were still awake to a 3 a.m. light show.

An up-to-date list of weather warnings is available on the government's website.
New Delhi: The Indian authorities on Sunday (May 31, 2020) nabbed two Pakistani High Commission officials red-handed in Delhi's Karol Bagh while they were trying to source a sensitive document. For this act of espionage, India has declared them as persona non grata and they will be sent back on June 1.

It is alleged that the two had assumed fake Indian identities. The authorities recovered a fake Aadhaar card by the name of Nasir Gotam, resident of Geeta colony from them. Also, two Apple iPhone and Rs 15,000 in cash was recovered by the authorities.

Based on specific inputs, about the involvement of the officials in espionage, a trap was laid for them in Karol Bagh, when the officers reached the specific location they were apprehended.

"The Police have detained 2 Pakistan high commission staff members for espionage-related activities. Two visa assistants Abid Hussain and Tahir Khan work as Visa Assistants and are ISI operatives." Delhi police said.

The two officials, Abdi Hussain Abid, aged 42 and Tahir Khan, aged 44 had come in a Pakistani diplomatic car. Details reveal that the Pakistan high commission was in the process of selling the car.

The operation was conducted jointly by the Delhi Police Special Cell and Military Intelligence (MI).

The Ministry of External Affairs said in a press statement that India lodged has strong protest in the matter and Pakistan's Charge de Affaires was issued a demarche.

Meanwhile, Pakistan rejected the allegations leveled against its staff members as baseless and condemned the act of declaring them as Persona Non Grata and called it a 'a negative pre-planned and orchestrated media campaign'.

It claimed that the High Commission in New Delhi had always worked within the parameters of international law and diplomatic norms.
About 175 Target stores across the country are being temporarily closed amid several days of nationwide protests and violence after a Minneapolis police officer was charged with the murder of George Floyd, a handcuffed black man who pleaded for air as the officer pressed a knee on his neck.

Though no stores in the Harrisburg region are affected, three in Philadelphia have been shuttered on the heels of looting and rioting in both cities.

We are heartbroken by the death of George Floyd and the pain it is causing communities across the country, the Minneapolis-based retail chain said in a statement Saturday. Our focus will remain on our team members safety and helping our community heal.

Philadelphia police said early Sunday they have made 109 arrests, including 43 for looting and burglary and an additional 52 for violating the 8 p.m. curfew implemented by Mayor Jim Kenny.

Damage is mostly smashed windows. Some looting continues. Lots of people taking photos, cleaning up. Firefighters still putting water on Walnut Street building that burned overnight pic.twitter.com/VlT63ojiHw  Noah Cohen (@noahyc) May 31, 2020

A day of mainly peaceful protests in the area of City Hall and the Art Museum turned violent at night as people smashed windows and clashed with police in Philadelphia. At least 13 officers were injured, seven of whom suffered burns to the face, police said.

In New York City, police said early Saturday, professional and organized agitators caused havoc on the city resulting in violence, injured police officers, and the destruction of property. The NYPD then arrested at least 345 Saturday night and early Sunday, according to 7abcny.com.

About 75 of the closed Target stores are in the Minneapolis area, where there have been days of sometimes violent demonstrations, looting and vandalism.

Target said it would pay affected employees for up to 14 days of scheduled hours during store closures, including COVID-19 premium pay. They will also be able to work at other nearby Target locations.

Derek Chauvin has been charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in the death of Floyd. Three other officers were also fired but have not been charged for their roles in the Monday incident.
Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Sunday asked pharmaceutical companies to explore export opportunities in untapped markets of Russia and Eastern European nations.

The minister also advised the firms to bring to his notice if the companies face any roadblock or unfair competition in a country, with which India has a free trade agreement (FTA).

He said this while interacting with representatives of pharmaceutical industry, and office-bearers of pharma associations, through video conference.

The minister said, "They should look at large untapped market in Eastern Europe and Russia and in case of ongoing bilateral FTAs, if any roadblock or unfair competition is being noticed, the government may be informed and prompt remedial action will be taken".

Pharma exports in 2019-20 grew by 8 per cent to $20.7 billion as against $19.14 billion in 2018-19.

Eastern european nations include Romania, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Moldova.

Calling upon a collaborative route in the R&D efforts, Goyal said academicians, universities, ICMR and private sector should join hands.

Informing the industry that the government has decided to disinvest in certain pharma PSUs, the minister invited the Indian companies to use PSUs for plug and play model of manufacturing.

He assured that all suggestions presented in the meeting will be quickly examined and wherever required, the inter-ministerial consultations will be completed at the earliest.

The minister also said that the country should become self reliant in APIs (active pharma ingredients) as early as possible, as the government has taken a number of steps in this regard.

It has already approved the scheme on promotion of bulk drug parks for financing common infrastructure facilities in three such parks.

Also, production linked incentive scheme for promotion of domestic manufacturing of critical KSMs (key starting materials)/drug intermediates and APIs in the country has been given a go ahead, he said.

During the interaction, he said India has supplied essential medicines, during the last two months, to over 120 countries.

"India had adequate production capacity and abundant stock of HCQ (hydroxyxholoroquine) and PCM (paracetamol) for its projected domestic requirements," he added.

The meeting was also attended by Minister of State Som Parkash, Secretaries of commerce and pharmaceuticals departments.
Gov. Andrew Cuomos daily coronavirus briefings quickly became must-watch TV in March. They were aired on multiple national cable networks while the states outbreak began to escalate.

The governor gained a national fan base that took comfort in both his stoic assertiveness and calming presence in the face of the nationwide crisis. He also showed a softer side of himself by discussing his concerns for his familys safety. But most importantly, he has championed the importance of letting scientific facts guide the states decisions during this outbreak, as opposed to President Donald Trump, who has let his own political interests and feelings dictate his responses.

However, Cuomos newfound national popularity has begun to fade. The governor has been condemned for the high number of nursing home deaths, estimated to be over 6,000, which many have blamed on Cuomos directive that recovering COVID-19 hospital patients be sent to nursing homes.

While many people have grown to admire the governors leadership skills, both in and outside of the state, it may be some peoples first introduction to the ruler of the Empire State. So we decided its time to get everyone better acquainted with the Cuomo we know all too well.

Who is Andrew Cuomo?

While Cuomo has been a comfort to many throughout the coronavirus outbreak, hes not known for being an affable or sentimental politician.

The governor has always been obsessive when it comes to his work, so much so that his workaholic tendencies reportedly caused issues in his marriage to Kerry Kennedy before they divorced in 2005. Cuomo was introduced to the world of politics at a young age, learning the tricks of the trade from his father, former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo, who he worked for and with throughout his early political career. Andrew has been trained, since he was a child, to be a leader, Dan Klores, Cuomos friend of 35 years, told Vanity Fair. Hes got a reputation as a hardball player, and some of its true  but he has a deep, deep belief in public service. Yes, hes a politician. He was brought up to be a public servant.

Cuomo worked as his fathers driver during the elder Cuomos unsuccessful 1977 New York City mayoral campaign against Ed Koch. He also worked on all of his fathers gubernatorial campaigns from 1984 to 1992, with the exception of his fourth in 1994, when he was working as assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for President Bill Clinton. Cuomo continues to blame himself for his fathers fourth-term loss to George Pataki, according to a 2018 Intelligencer report.

The governor is currently in his third term and has already announced plans to run for a fourth term in 2022, which would eclipse his fathers tenure as governor. Though the two had similar political ambitions, they have very different governing styles. Mario was known for his impressive, eloquent speeches, while Andrews governing ethos has been more deal-oriented a la Glengarry Glen Ross. If I dont make a deal, I get nothing done, Cuomo told The New Yorker in a 2015 profile. If I get nothing done, I am a failure. If the objective is to make a nice speech, it means nothing.

During his time in office, the governors curtness and well-documented temper has earned him a reputation as a bully, the Prince of Darkness and a son of a bitch. Cuomo is known for being particularly brutal with underlings and ruthless with his rivals, Michael Shnayerson, author of The Contender, a biography of the governor, told Rolling Stone. And an anonymous source told New York magazine in 2018, that he gets joy from punishing people.

One of the governors main punching bags over the years has been New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, whom he has taken potshots at since the mayor took office in 2014. Cuomos control freak tendencies have often rendered de Blasio fairly ineffectual, including during the states coronavirus outbreak. Instead of allowing the mayor to issue a stay-at-home order in the city, Cuomo chose to undermine him. He said only the governor had the power to make such an order, and then later created a directive that was functionally the same as de Blasios. And by delaying the shutdown, it resulted in more coronavirus cases in New York.

Cuomos road to Albany

Cuomo began working in the Housing and Urban Development department for the Clinton administration in 1993. He was then promoted to secretary in 1997. During his time at the housing department, Cuomo was credited with reorganizing the department, which was once considered a haven for waste, fraud and abuse.

Nine days after Cuomo left his position and Washington, D.C., he launched his first gubernatorial bid in early 2001. Not long after his campaign began, the state was forced to recover from the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Months after the tragedy occurred, Cuomo criticized the leadership of then-Gov. George Pataki during the crisis, enraging many. There was one leader for 9/11: It was Rudy Giuliani, Cuomo said on the campaign trail at the time. If it defined George Pataki, it defined George Pataki as not being the leader.

Eventually Cuomo dropped out of the gubernatorial race and laid low for a few years until he ran to become New Yorks attorney general. Cuomo was elected attorney general in 2006, which made for a natural steppingstone to become governor. Cuomos time as attorney general has received mixed reviews over the years. Some lauded his ability to continue the work of his predecessor, Eliot Spitzer, while others felt he mishandled cases.

In 2010, Cuomo launched his second gubernatorial campaign while still serving as attorney general, promising to clean up Albany and get its fiscal state in order. This time, Cuomo won with 63% of the vote.

Cuomos gubernatorial record

Since taking office in 2011, Cuomo has overseen the passage of stricter gun measures, the legalization of same-sex marriage and medical marijuana, built impressive new bridges, increased the minimum wage and created paid family leave. In 2019, Cuomo supervised one of the states most progressive legislative sessions  but critics might argue that had more to do with the new Democratic majority in the state Senate than Cuomos leadership.

The governor has also had his fair share of controversies.

Cuomo has been accused of encouraging and benefiting from partisan splits in the state Legislature. You might assume that in an extremely blue state such as New York that most lawmakers would be Democrats, but for years the state Senate was controlled by Republicans.

It was reported that Cuomo liked having Republicans in charge because he could take more power for himself. As Republican control over the state Senate began to wane in the early 2010s, a group of Democrats formed a union with the Republicans, called the Independent Democratic Conference, which allowed Republicans to retain their majority. Cuomo lent his support to the Independent Democratic Conference, which was heavily criticized by other Democratic lawmakers for creating a power-sharing agreement with Republicans.

However, the group was disbanded in 2018, and later that year, Democrats defeated six of the eight former IDC members.
The two Pakistani officials back home after India declares them persona non grata and gives them 24 hours to leave.

Two Pakistani officials expelled by India over spying allegations have returned home, a Pakistan embassy spokesman said, as the nuclear-armed rivals wrangle over the claims.

The two staff members of the Pakistani High Commission in New Delhi, whose names have not been disclosed, returned to Pakistan via the Wagah border crossing, a Pakistan embassy spokesman said on Monday.

Meanwhile, Pakistan summoned Indias charge daffaires in Islamabad to express its condemnation of the expulsion order.

Pakistans foreign ministry called the allegations baseless and said New Delhis action was a clear violation of the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations.

On Sunday, the Indian government said the officials had been detained for indulging in espionage activities and given 24 hours to leave the country.

Two [Pakistani] officials were apprehended on Sunday by Indian law enforcement, Indias foreign ministry said in a statement, declaring them persona non grata.

Pakistans foreign ministry on Sunday condemned Indias decision in a statement, saying the two were lifted by Indian authorities on false and unsubstantiated charges.

They were, however, released on intervention by the High Commission. We condemn the detention and torture as well as threatening and pressuring of diplomatic officials to accept false charges, it said.

Tit-for-tat action expected

India and Pakistan routinely expel each others diplomats on spying charges. Pakistan is now expected to respond by expelling Indian High Commission officials in Islamabad in a tit-for-tat action.

India and Pakistan have a long-running dispute over Kashmir, which was split between them in 1947 when they gained independence from the UK.

The South Asian neighbours have fought three wars against each other since independence, including two over Kashmir.

Kashmir became a bigger source of tension in the relations between the regional powers after New Delhi last year scrapped the Muslim-majority Himalayan regions semi-autonomous status and imposed a curfew to quell unrest.

Rebel groups in Indian-administered Kashmir have battled for decades for the regions independence or its merger with Pakistan and enjoy broad popular support.

The fighting has left tens of thousands dead, mostly civilians, since 1989. India has more than 500,000 troops stationed in Kashmir.
Gov. Tom Wolf signed an emergency declaration that will utilize millions of dollars to deal with the violence tied to protests in Harrisburg, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

Wolf announced the signing of the declaration late Saturday night. Protests in Harrisburg, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh - initially designed to express their outrage over the death of George Floyd - eventually grew violent. Police officers were injured in clashes with protesters and dozens of stores in Philly and Pittsburgh were damaged and looted, authorities said.

The declaration authorizes the Pennsylvania National Guard and the Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner to activate personnel to protect the public.

People have every right to speak out and demonstrate, but its unacceptable to take advantage of protests to incite violence, harm others and destroy property, Wolf said in a statement. This declaration authorizes the commonwealth and its agencies to assist municipalities in their response to de-escalate violence and keep our communities safe."

Wolfs move authorizes the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency to direct emergency operations in Allegheny, Dauphin and Philadelphia counties, allocating all resources and personnel as deemed necessary to cope with the situation.

Wolfs action allocates $2 million in unused appropriated funds to assist PEMA with expenses related to the emergency. The Wolf administration also will transfer up to $4 million in state funds to PEMA.

The mayors of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh welcomed the move.

In a release issued by the governors office, Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney said, I appreciate Governor Wolf for heeding our request for additional state support. This emergency declaration will help Philadelphia access resources and police support from other jurisdictions, including other states, as we manage the impact of this weekends demonstrations.

Pittsburgh has long been a home to constitutionally protected protests and will continue to be one  but we will not allow others to hijack the goodwill of our community to spread needless destruction, fear and violence," Pittsburgh Mayor William Peduto said in the statement. I thank the governor for this extra tool to keep our neighbors safe.

Protests emerged across the country - and around America - to express outrage over the death of George Floyd.

Floyd was suspected of passing a counterfeit bill at a Minneapolis convenience store. He died in police custody after an officer was captured on video kneeling on his neck for several minutes.

The Minneapolis officer, Derek Chauvin, has been charged with manslaughter and third-degree murder. Police officers and public safety officials nationwide have condemned Chauvins tactics.

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Hundreds protest in Philadelphia, other Pa. cities over the death of George Floyd

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Anonymous, the Batman-like vigilante of the internet that was once widely feared, now appears to be back in action. The claims have been put forth courtesy a viral video posted originally on Anonymous own Facebook page itself, where the once-feared silhouette of a black hooded jacket and the signature Guy Fawkes mask has appeared after years of relative inactivity. In the video, the figure speaks out against police brutality in light of the recent murder of George Floyd by ex-officer of the Minneapolis Police Department, Derek Chauvin.

The message

In the video, the figure says, Police brutality and murder is a widespread problem in the United States, which has undoubtedly infected nearly every jurisdiction in the country. But, the Minneapolis police department is among the worst and has a horrible track record of violence and corruption. This weeks brutal killing of George Floyd, which has sparked protests and national outrage, is just the tip of the iceberg in a long list of high profile cases of wrongful deaths at the hands of officers in your state.

The message highlights the inaction of US police officers who stand by perpetrators of violence and do nothing, thereby being complicit to such acts of violence as well. It ends with a resounding sentence, stating that beginning May 29, Anonymous will be exposing the many crimes of United States police departments. Earlier today, about a day after Anonymous posted the message, reports by US citizens started claiming that the website of the Minneapolis police department was pulled down, allegedly by Anonymous. While News18 could confirm that the police departments website was indeed down as of 3PM IST, it could not verify if it was the work of Anonymous members.

The video message further states, In the past two decades, 193 people have been killed by police in Minnesota, including the deaths of Jamar Clark, Philando Castle, Justine Damond, Thomas Blevines and Brian Quinones. These are only the cases that caught headlines, where videos and other evidence prove that the police are lying. It eventually states that the travesty has continued for far too long, and the people have had enough.

Towards the end of the message, Anonymous says, You may have fired the officer to save face, but it is obvious that this type of behaviour is condoned, if not encouraged in your department, as it is in others. Officers who kill people and commit other crimes need to be held accountable just like the rest of us; otherwise, they will believe they have the license to do whatever they want.

The recent line of events

Chauvin has since been fired from his department, and charged with third degree murder and second degree manslaughter. However, this has not prevented protests that have also broken into riots in many areas. This is further combined with US president Donald Trumps radical and incendiary opinions posted on Twitter, against which many including Twitter itself are speaking up against. Since earlier this week, Twitter began labelling Trumps tweets as factually incorrect and inciting violence, marking the platforms first major move against a political figure of power, after doling out similar labelling to Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro.

USA has been rocked by protests and riots across the country, fuelled by Chauvins heinous act and Trumps tweets. While many took to Twitter to express awe upon discovering the Anonymous message, it remains unclear as to how much of its old power and threat does the hacktivist collective still carry. Over the past few years, noted Anonymous members such as Barrett Brown and Hector Sabu Monsegur were rounded up by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, leading many to assume that Anonymous only remained a shadow of what it once was. The collective has its place etched in internet culture already, with its signature of the Guy Fawkes mask and the ending phrase of We are legion, expect us being treated with considerable amount of caution by official departments.

Going forward, it remains to be seen how Anonymous eventually impacts the socio-political situation in USA right now. The collectives online portals have been more active in recent times, and this may well be a sign of things to come.
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A spokesperson of North Korea's foreign ministry backed China's controversial security legislation for Hong Kong Saturday, calling it a "legitimate step" and voicing opposition to "outside interference."

In an answer to a question from the North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the spokesperson also said that any country has no right to "say this or that" about the issue concerning the semiautonomous Chinese territory.

On Thursday, China's legislature approved a proposal for the security law legislation, which critics fear could pave the way for Beijing to tighten its grip on Hong Kong and weaken the territory's autonomy by bolstering security operations there.

"It is a legitimate step that China has adopted a decision for establishing and perfecting a legal system and an enforcement mechanism based on the Constitution of China and the Basic Law of Hong Kong," the spokesperson was quoted by KCNA as saying.

"Since Hong Kong issue is an issue pertaining thoroughly to the internal affairs of China, any country or force has no rights to say this or that about the issue. We categorically oppose and reject the outside interference detrimental to the security and the social and economic development of Hong Kong," the official added.

China pressed ahead with the legislation despite the U.S. warnings that it could revoke Hong Kong's trade privileges. The legal push is expected to further escalate geopolitical tensions, posing a tricky diplomatic challenge to countries, like South Korea, that want to maintain good ties with both major powers. (Yonhap)
Quarantine in Ukraine is known to be extended until June 22. Even with the gradual removal of restrictions. This means that mass events will not be taking place any time soon. And in such a situation Kyiv is to celebrate its birthday

Kyiv Day in Ukraine 112 Agency

This year, Kyiv Day falls on May 31. On this day, the capital will celebrate its birthday and will be 1538 years old. This date, of course, is conditional, because the history of the city goes back to the end of the 5th century, and it is not possible to establish the exact year.

The upcoming holiday will be held under quarantine restrictions, which, recently are being weakened, but still the mass events are not allowed.

So, unlike last year, in 2020 Kyiv will not hold any mass events on its birthday. Although

his, of course, does not mean that there will be no holiday at all.

It is possible that the celebration plans will be expanded with new locations and events. If so, we will add them. In the meantime, the situation is as follows.

Chestnut Run

This year it will be held online. And, of course, it will take place under the banner of combating Covid-19. The start of the event is scheduled for 9 a.m. on May 31.

All comers were encouraged to join the initiative by making a charitable contribution.

The collected funds will be directed to help Ukrainian doctors and medical institutions: the Center for Pediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, as well as various hospitals.

The organizers say that a team of ambassadors will run the distance of 5 km live on the streets of Kyiv for each participant in the run.

The rules are as follows: charitable contribution - 100 UAH. Individual participants and teams from 10 people are invited.

An offline run under chestnuts is going to take place in a year, on May 30, 2021.

Kyiv City State Administration promises:

The information is from Telegram channel of the KCSA.

- a festive quiz with the people of Kyiv, as well as radio concerts of bands [O], On I Ona, ADAM, Numer 482, Green Gray.

- In social networks, on YouTube channels, on various websites, celebrating videos of metropolitan performers will be published.

Khreschatyk Academic Chamber Choir has created a choral version of the song by Ihor Shamo and Dmytro Lutsenko Yak tebe ne lyubyty, Kyieve miy!.

The Kyiv Academic Municipal Brass Orchestra prepared a video of the congratulation song Happiness, Goodness and Love.

Dnipro Kyiv Academic Ensemble of Ukrainian Music recorded a video with congratulation song Ukraine is our native land.

- UA: ESTRADA YouTube channel.TV will show a gala concert of the winners and participants of the All-Ukrainian festival of choral art Song over Dnipro - 2020 named after Anatoliy Avdievsky.

- A gala concert World Masterpieces with the participation of artists and the orchestra of Kyiv National Academic Operetta Theater will be shown online.
Rocky Mountain Vice Director resigns to accept appointment as Colorado Section Manager

ARRL Rocky Mountain Division Vice Director Robert Wareham, N0ESQ, has stepped down from that post to accept appointment as Colorado Section Manager. Wareham would succeed veteran Colorado SM Jack Ciaccia, WM0G, who resigned effective on June 1 after serving since 2011.

"Jack will be moving to the East Coast to be closer to family, and I wish him only the best as he transitions to this next phase of his life," ARRL Rocky Mountain Division Director Jeff Ryan, K0RM, said in a message to his Division. "At the same time, I am sorry to lose such an outstanding leader who has been instrumental in the creation and maintenance of the vibrant Amateur Radio community that exists across Colorado today. Jack has been a personal friend and advisor to me for many years, and I shall miss his thoughtful guidance and his quick humor."

Ciaccia, who is relocating to New Hampshire, said his was a bittersweet decision. "I am really proud of our accomplishments in the Colorado Section during the past 9 years," he told ARRL. "I will miss the hams I have met here in Colorado and their friendship. I am looking forward to now being able to just spend the rest of my days continuing with the satisfaction and enjoyment that ham radio has given me over the past 63 years that I have been licensed."

Wareham would complete Ciaccia's current term, which runs until September 30, 2021. An ARRL Life Member, Wareham served as Colorado Section Emergency Coordinator since 2011, prior to his appointment as Rocky Mountain Vice Director in 2018. He previously served in the Field Organization as Colorado's State Government Liaison and as Public Information Officer. An attorney, Wareham assisted in drafting the bill that created the Colorado Auxiliary Emergency Communications Unit (AuxComm) in 2016.

Ryan said that while he's sorry to lose Wareham's counsel as Vice Director, "I'm certain he will provide for a virtually seamless transition."

A new Rocky Mountain Division Vice Director will be appointed.
Russia has no objection to the next meeting of OPEC and its allies, known as OPEC+, being brought forward to June 4 from the following week, three OPEC+ sources familiar with the meeting's preparations told Reuters on Sunday.

Algeria, which currently holds the presidency of the the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), has proposed the meeting planned for June 9-10 be brought forward to facilitate oil sales for countries such as Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Kuwait.

The lack of Russian opposition to an earlier date could indicate that it is moving closer to an agreement with OPEC's de facto leader, Saudi Arabia, on how to extend oil production cuts for the rest of the year.

OPEC+ decided in April to cut output by a record 9.7 million barrels per day, or about 10% of global output, to lift prices battered by a drop in demand because of lockdown measures to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

Reduced production from OPEC+, combined with a record decline in output from non-members such as the United States and Canada, helped to lift oil prices towards $35 per barrel, though they remain at only half the levels at the start of the year.

Sources have told Reuters that Saudi Arabia is proposing to extend record cuts from May and June until the end of the year but it has yet to win support from Russia, which believes that curbs could be eased gradually.

On Friday a monthly survey by Reuters showed that OPEC's oil output hit its lowest level in two decades in May as Saudi Arabia and other members delivered record supply cuts.

However, the survey showed that overall compliance was about 75% because Nigeria and Iraq failed to comply fully with their share of reductions.

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Among thousands waiting for international travel curbs to be lifted is an 11-year-old Egyptian boy for whom spending the lockdown time in India has come with a new lease of life as he underwent a crucial heart surgery using a virtual reality model developed by the IIT Madras.

The child underwent the life-saving surgery at Chennais MGM hospital using the virtual reality model to implant a heart pump, after he was turned down by several hospitals in the US and Europe.

According to Dr KK Balakrishnan, Director of the Institute of Heart and Lung Transplant, MGM Healthcare, this was a first of its kind implant surgery successfully performed in India, while similar procedures have been performed twice in the US.

The technique will also be presented on Monday at the Annual conference of The American Society of Artificial Internal Organs in Chicago. The meeting is happening virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Who could have imagined that playstation-type glasses worn on the head and visualising spectacular images in a 3D environment can save a childs life ? The boy was suffering from a life-threatening condition called restrictive cardiomyopathy and severe pulmonary hypertension (very high pressure in lungs) with recurrent heart failure admissions for the last one year. He was airlifted in an air ambulance from Cairo before the lockdown was announced, he told PTI.

He was a frail, very ill boy, skin and bones and drifting in and out of consciousness. After being turned down by several hospitals in the US and western Europe, the child was referred to me by the paediatric cardiologist in Cairo treating the child. The reason why he was turned down by several hospitals was simple. His very high lung pressure meant that a heart transplant was ruled out and there are no commercially available long term implantable heart pumps called LVADs or Left Ventricular assist devices for a child of this size in the world, he added.

The doctor explained that after arrival here, the childs heart failure worsened, and the only option was to consider whether somehow, a battery-operated, mechanical pump could be implanted to help the left chamber of the heart to pump blood to the rest of the body. There were two major impediments. The existing pumps are built for adults and could they be fitted into the small chest cavity of a child? What if the chest could not be closed after the operation? That would be a disaster. Also, the size of the heart chamber, the left ventricle was a major concern, as it was heavily muscle bound, full of excess, useless muscle with very small cavity size. There was no way of knowing if the pump can be fitted inside the heart or it will be sticking out, if it was too big, he said.

Balakrishna then reached out to the IIT Madras department of engineering design to check if a virtual reality model could be built from the CT scan of the child and the pump, so a virtual implant could be carried out to ensure that the implant was possible.

A virtual model was built and wearing head mounted 3 D glasses, like a computer game, the pump could be implanted virtually, in various positions, to make sure that the procedure was possible. Armed with the confidence of this knowledge, the implant was carried out and it was a great success, said Krishna Kumar, Professor, IIT Madras.

The boy has recovered rapidly, gained weight and has taken to dancing to Bollywood songs. They are waiting to return to Cairo, once air travel restrictions are lifted, he added.

International travel from the country has been suspended since March 22 ahead of the nationwide lockdown to contain spread of novel coronavirus. Close to 6 million coronavirus infections have been reported worldwide, with more than 365,000 deaths and almost 2.5 million recoveries, according to a tally by the Johns Hopkins University.
On a day his government granted a slew of relaxations in non-containment zones while extending the latest lockdown till June 30, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday said people should tread cautiously while beginning the new life.

In his televised address to the state, the CM said the Mission Begin Again, the nomenclature chose by the state government for the fifth phase of the lockdown which it extended till June 30, is aimed at restarting lives again.

The permission for outdoor physical activities, opening of shops and markets, offices is a trial to check on how we shouldmove forward, but we should tread cautiously.

Lockdown should now be thrown into dustbin, he said.

He said if lockdown is science, lifting it is an art.

Thackeray likened the Mission begin again to walking in heavy rains with people holding their hands and walking carefully.

But even as we begin afresh, we have to take cautious steps, he said.

Under Mission Begin Again, all markets, market areas and shops, except malls, will be allowed to open from June 5 on the odd-even basis in non-containment zones across Maharashtra.

However, religious places, shopping malls, hotels and restaurants will continue to remain closed.

Thackeray also said the prevailing situation is not conducive to allow holding of the final year university exams.

Aggregate Marks of semester exams will be taken and students will be given marks, he said.

I held talks with vice chancellors.I may be the CM and they may be vice chancellors but we all are also parents.

We cannot let our children suffer. Those students who feel they could have done better if they had appeared for the final year exams, they will be given a chance when the situation normalises, he said.

The state government is more keen to ensure that the academic year starts on time in June than re-opening schools.

Schools in rural areas where there isno pandemic spread can start whereas in cities online education can be given priority, he said.

The CM also said that doorstep distribution of newspapers will be allowed from June 7.

Delivery of newspapers was banned in Mumbai and Pune.

He further said the state governments consistent focus since the last two months has been on curbing the pandemic.

Ramping up the number of laboratories and testing will be priority, he said, adding that 28,000 of 65,000 COVID-19 patients in the state have recovered and discharged.

Maharashtras COVID-19 case count as on May 31 stands at 67,655 with 2,286 deaths, mainly fuelled by Mumbais case count of 39,686 and 1,279 fatalities, which is the highest in the country.

Thackeray listed health and education as the priority areas for his government, saying the Covid-19 pandemic has also taught positive lessons.

Taking a swipe at the Opposition, the CM said he felt bad that attempts are being made to malign the image of the state.

Referring to speculations about a survival threat to his tripartite government, Thackeray, who heads the Shiv Sena, said he wasnt worried since people are backing the ruling dispensation.

Meanwhile, he also appealed to fishermen to not venture into the Arabian sea following the Met departments observation of a brewing cyclonic storm that could hit the coasts of Maharashtra and Gujarat by June 3.

People on the west coast should remain alert.

Administration is fully geared up to tackle any eventuality, he said.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-31 00:18:05|Editor: huaxia

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by Burak Akinci

ANKARA, May 30 (Xinhua) -- Turkey's key automotive sector is trying to compensate losses due to the COVID-19 outbreak by fully restarting manufacturing after a long break, but the drop in domestic and international demand will be challenging, industry officials said.

Factory production in Bursa province, northwestern Turkey, where the bulk of the automotive industry is located, was not completely halted during lockdown as there was still demand from the Far East and South America.

Major plants started production in mid-May with some COVID-19 restrictions eased, hoping to reach pre-pandemic levels.

Tugrul Arikan, general manager of Turkish bus manufacturer Anadolu Isuzu, recently said their factories were running at 60-percent capacity, which could increase if foreign demand rises.

He added that the company had started production with only 50 percent of the workforce initially, and enhanced safety measures to protect workers from contracting the coronavirus.

The sector struggled with a major drop in exports as Europe came to a near standstill because of the pandemic. Around 75 percent of vehicles manufactured in the country are exported to the region.

Automotive Manufacturers' Association (OSD) data showed that Turkey's total automotive exports declined by 33 percent annually in January-April.

"Domestic demand in Turkey was not enough to offset the collapse in demand from Europe for the automakers," Alper Kanca, head of the Automotive Supplier Industry (TAYSAD), said.

The official said they expected a revival of the sector in 2021, after a contraction this year.

Turkey's automotive industry has developed from assembly-based production to an industry with research and development, and design capabilities, and high added values.

The sector has been of key value to local production input over the years, with the partnerships established between foreign companies, such as Ford, Fiat, Renault, Toyota and Hyundai, and Turkish entrepreneurs.

Turkey is now the largest light commercial vehicle manufacturer in Europe and ranks 14th in the world in terms of automotive production output.

The automotive industry is one of the main locomotives of the manufacturing sector in Turkey. It is also one of the main sources of employment in the country, providing more than 400,000 jobs.

It is also one of the largest sources of exports, accounting for 16 percent of total exports.

A source close to the government told Xinhua that the sector would be unlikely to reach the levels of 2018 or 2019 in short term, but it is expected to rebound at the end of the year in line with the economic recovery.

"We will continue to export, but it also depends on the foreign demand," he stressed, indicating that 85 percent of vehicle production in Turkey sent to foreign markets in 2018.

More than 1.3 million vehicles were exported from Turkey to foreign markets in the same year. In addition, Turkey was the number one vehicle exporter to European markets with 1.1 million units in 2018, statistics show.

In a car dealer shop in capital Ankara, a sales representative told Xinhua that sales have plummeted during the outbreak because of the lockdown and the fact that customers didn't know what to expect in the aftermath.

"The Turkish customers definitively love cars and we expect a revival ahead in the stagnated domestic market," Merdan Yasa said, adding that the government should also look into some tax advantages for consumers considering the declining national currency.

Last week, Turkey has increased the tax on the buying of foreign currency to curb fallout of the lira from the coronavirus pandemic.

The decision has increased car prices by up to one percent, according to experts. Enditem
Looters and vandals ransack Spokes 'N Stuff at Melrose Avenue and Ogden Drive on Saturday. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

The Los Angeles Police Department arrested nearly 400 people Saturday during unruly protests, but some officials are concerned at the amount of looting that went unchecked overnight.

Authorities did not have a tally of how many businesses were vandalized or robbed. But parts of Fairfax Avenue and Melrose Avenue were hard hit, with dozens of storefronts damaged. Looters also targeted the Grove shopping center, stealing from the Apple Store, Nordstrom and other businesses.

A procession of cars, SUVs and pickups pulled up in front of the MelroseMac store at 6614 Melrose Ave. and disgorged drivers and passengers around midnight.

With no police in sight, looters scrambled empty-handed into the store through shattered windows and emerged moments later with what appeared to be boxes of computers.

The scene was broadcast live for at least a half-hour on L.A. news outlets.

It was like a McDonalds drive-through outside the Mac store, where cars were pulling up and others were throwing in looted goods and driving off, Los Angeles City Councilman Paul Koretz told KTLA-TV Channel 5 Sunday morning.

They were in a line, one by one, he said. It was something the likes of which Ive never seen anywhere.

Indeed, police think that some of the looting late Saturday was not connected to the original protest, with people driving around looking for an opportunity to target stores.

In downtown, some looting continued despite the 8 p.m. curfew. Cars cruised around looking for easy marks. Drivers parked as passengers ran inside to grab goods before hustling back out and filling the trunk with pilfered products.

Groups of people  mostly men  wandered the streets of downtown Los Angeles late Saturday night, smashing windows and spray-painting anti-police graffiti on plywood boards that business and property owners had hastily affixed to their buildings earlier in the day.

Among the nearly 400 arrested by the LAPD on Saturday, charges ranged from burglary and looting to vandalism to failure to disperse and curfew violations.

Five officers were injured during the melee, and two were hospitalized. It was unclear how many protesters were hurt, but photos show some with various wounds.

Times staff writers Monte Morin and Richard Winton contributed to this report.
Joe Biden is calling for an end to the violent protests in Minneapolis, Minnesota over the killing of George Floyd, but his campaign staffers are also funding bail money to protesters who were arrested in the midst of the riots.

In a statement posted to Medium and sent out to his supporters through a campaign email, Biden demanded demonstrators stop 'burning down communities' in the midst of their protests.

'Protesting such brutality is right and necessary,' the presumed Democratic nominee admitted in the statement. 'It's an utterly American response.'

'But burning down communities and needless destruction is not,' he continued. 'Violence that endangers lives is not. Violence that guts and shutters businesses that serve the community is not.'

'The act of protesting should never be allowed to overshadow the reason we protest. It should not drive people away from the just cause that protest is meant to advance,' Biden urged.

Presumed Democratic nominee Joe Biden called on Sunday for an end to the violent riots that broke out in the wake of the killing of a black man, George Floyd, by a white police officer

Biden's comments also come as it was confirmed that at least 13 of his campaign staffers donated to a fund that helps pay bail for those arrested in Minneapolis  where the riots originated

The riots broke out after video emerged of a black man, George Floyd (pictured), being killed during an arrest after a white police officer held his knee on his neck for eight minutes in Minneapolis, Minnesota

Minneapolis wasn't the only city where rioters took to the streets. Here a protester stands in front of a street fire in Los Angeles on Saturday

The former vice president is responding to the riots that broke out in Minneapolis after video emerged of four police officers holding down a black man, George Floyd, until he died from suffocation.

Derek Chauvin, a white cop, can be seen in the video kneeling on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes as he repeatedly says he can't breathe.

The 44-year-old police officer was fired after the video emerged and was taken into custody on Friday following days of protests calling for his arrest  and the victim's family continues to call for a more serious charge than third-degree murder.

Biden's comments calling for an end to the violence, which has broken out all over the country, comes as it was revealed that at least 13 of his campaign staff have donated to the Minnesota Freedom Fund, which helps pay the bail fees of those arrested in the city.

Reuters confirmed that 13 of the candidate's staff advertised their donations on Twitter.

In their Twitter posts, Biden's staff called attention to U.S. inequities based on race and income.

'It is up to everyone to fight injustice,' Colleen May, who identified herself as an campaign organizer for Biden in South Carolina, Wisconsin and Florida, said in a Twitter post.

She included an image of her receipt from donating $50 to the Minnesota Freedom Fund.

The fund specifically opposes the practice of cash bail, or making people pay to avoid pre-trial imprisonment, and uses donations to pay bail fees in Minneapolis.

This has translated most recently to the donations paying the bail fees in the largest Minnesota city after its police jailed people rioting in the streets over the killing of Floyd.

It is unclear how many people have been jailed after four nights of protests, but Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said on Saturday that many of those arrested have been from out of state.

Biden campaign spokesman Andrew Bates affirmed that the former vice president opposes the institution of cash bail as a 'modern day debtors prison,' but he declined to answer questions on whether the donations were coordinated within the campaign, underscoring the politically thorny nature of the sometimes violent protests.

Bates instead pointed to Biden's comments that protesters have the right to be angry but that more violence won't solve justice problems.

In his statement, Biden sympathized with those experiencing loss and economic hardship in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic and in the black community  even seeming to point to his own experience with loss.

'I know that a grief that dark and deep may at times feel too heavy to bear,' Biden wrote. 'I know.'

Biden lost his first wife Neilia and their one-year-old daughter Naomi in a car accident in 1972  just one week after winning his Senate election. In 2015, he lost his 46-year-old son Beau to brain cancer.

'We are a nation in pain, but we must not allow this pain to destroy us,' Biden continued in his statement. 'We are a nation enraged, but we cannot allow our rage to consume us. We are a nation exhausted, but we will not allow our exhaustion to defeat us.'

President Donald Trump has threatened to respond to the 'thugs' with deadly force, but has also expressed sympathy over Floyd's death

President Donald Trump, who has previously described himself as a 'law and order' president, criticized violent protesters on Friday as 'thugs' and threatened to respond with deadly force.

The president has also, on the other hand, expressed sympathy over Floyd's death.

Minnesota could be critical in determining the winner of the Nov. 3 presidential election.

The Democratic candidate in the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton, narrowly won the state by a 1.5 percentage point margin. Trump hopes to win the state this year and held a large rally in Minneapolis in October.

Trump has struggled to attract African American voters, with only 8% of African Americans voting for him in 2016, according to a Reuters/Ipsos Election Day poll. However, a nationwide decline in black voter turnout in 2016 was widely seen as contributing to Trump's victory.
Vietnam has been advised to introduce a range of solutions aimed at attracting private investment in an effective manner with the private economic sector increasingly becoming a key part of the national economy,

therefore undertaking a large number of key development projects.

Many cities and provinces in Vietnam are getting a facelift thanks to new high-rise buildings invested by Vingroup

Becoming a key economic sector

Comprised of over 700,000 businesses of various sizes, the private economic sector last year ultimately made up approximately 42% of the countrys gross domestic product and employed up to 80% of the national labour force. Indeed, many private investors such as Sungroup, Vingroup, and BRG have been able to develop well-known brands in a market that is largely associated with large projects through utilising modern technology in both production and business.

According to Nguyen Dinh Cung, former Director of the Central Institute for Economic Management, facilitating the private economic sectors development remains an inevitable trend for the national economy. The number of newly established enterprises has been steadily annually, while the sector in general has been able to successfully mobilise huge amounts of capital for production and business, developing into an important part of the national economy in the process.

Championing this point of view, Alwaleed Fareed Alatanani, an economist at the World Bank in Vietnam, believes that about US$60 billion of idle money is being kept by local citizens, which could represent a great source of investment for the economy if it is utilised in an effective manner.

Most notably, the increasingly improved investment and business environment can be considered to be an effective support platform for enterprises to organise production, boost business, and attract investment from the private economic sector. At present, relevant authorities have reduced and simplified more than 3,807 out of 6,191 business conditions, along with removing some 7,000 lines of goods subject to inspection, thereby saving VND6,300 billion for firms.

In addition, the median score of the newly released Provincial Competitiveness Index reached 63, a 15-year record high, indicating the outstanding efforts put in by localities as they seek administrative reform.

Solutions to mobilise private capital

With the country effectively bringing the novel coronavirus epidemic under control it is now striving to reboot the economy to reflect moving into a new normal. Therefore, attracting private investment can be considered one of the key solutions for promoting economic growth.

Representing the business community, Vu Tien Loc, President of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, believes the reform of administrative procedures and investment environment should be an absolute requirement for each locality as they try to attract private capital. In line with this, the Government has asked ministries to cut down at least 20% of the number of documents under their authority between 2020 and 2025.

In addition, the Government plans to disburse VND700 trillion worth of public investment capital over the course of the year which will be considered to be a strong push to attract capital from the private sector. Pham Dinh Thuy, Director of the Department of Industrial Statistics under the General Statistics Office, notes that promoting public investment will ultimately create positive conditions for private enterprises to provide plenty of services, as well as work, in their role as contractors and investors.

The current ongoing session of the National Assembly is debating a bill on Public-Private Partnership. If it is granted approval, economic expert Nguyen Duc Kien says that the bill will pave the way for private businesses to engage in a range of large projects, therefore becoming the driving force behind national economic development. The Asian Development Bank has also forecast that the countrys infrastructure investment demand will stand at roughly US$480 billion in the 2017 to 2030 period.

With an array of investment opportunities lying ahead, creating a safe business environment along with a transparent and fair legal corridor appears to be the key factor in attracting private investment. VOV

Vietnam encourages private investment in energy: Politburo The Politburo will encourage all economic sectors, especially private businesses, to invest in energy projects, Party General Secretary, President Nguyen Phu Trong has said.
More than 100 scientists have raised concerns over a influential study of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine that led the World Health Organisation to suspend clinical trials to determine if the drugs could be an effective treatment for Covid-19.

Published last week in The Lancet, the large-scale study suggested the malaria drugs could be dangerous to people with severe cases of Covid-19, increasing the risk of abnormal heart rhythms and even death.

Now, scientists across the world are asking the research team, led by Harvard professor Dr Mandeep Mehra, to release its data for further analysis and independent academic review.

In an open letter, theyve asked the journal to provide details about the massive hospital database  consisting of 96,000 Covid-19 patients across six continents  which was the basis for the observational study.

So far the authors have declined to release their underlying data, which scientists worry carries several inconsistencies.

Among them are concerns the average daily doses of hydroxychloroquine, which is cheap and easy to administer, used were higher than the recommended amounts  and that data from Australian patients does not match data from the Australian government.

The French government last week revoked a decree authorising hospitals to prescribe hydroxychloroquine for Covid-19 patients after Frances public health watchdog warned against its use.

The move came days after the WHO said safety concerns had prompted it to suspend use of the drug in a global trial.

US president Donald Trump has endorsed the use of hydroxychloroquine and says he has been taken the medication prophylactically  despite confusion over whether or not it works against the coronavirus.
Dileep V Kumar By

Express News Service

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The first round results of the sentinel surveillance have come as a huge relief for the state government as it affirms that there is no evidence of community transmission at present in Kerala.

The finding is based on the examination of 4,400 samples collected from five categories, which had the chance of acquiring the infection, including their setting. Of the samples, only four turned positive. Also, none of the samples collected from the epidemiological links of the confirmed cases turned positive. However it remains inconclusive from where the four got infected.

The report has come at a time when rumours surrounding community transmission wade into a political debate as the Opposition alleges that the government is concealing data.

"The sentinel surveillance is designed to collect and test 900 samples per week from non-COVID-19 suspects from select villages in all districts. Since antibody tests were not available, the process was initiated with the RT PCR test. The first round results are related to the samples collected between April 19 and May 16, a period of four weeks," said an officer of the health department.

According to the officer, the samples were collected from patients in the general population with Acute Respiratory Infection but not a COVID-19 suspect, health care workers in non-COVID-19 settings, persons with high social exposure, COVID-19 suspects having sore throat or cough or rhinitis or diarrhoea and those who do not require testing unless there is a change in their category and guest workers.

First four weeks

The report states that a total of 4,414 samples were received for sentinel surveillance in the first four weeks in which the most number of samples were collected from people belonging to the age group of 36 to 45 years (28.2 per cent).

Gender-wise, it was from females that the samples were collected most- 65.6 per cent. Whereas from males the samples collected amounts to 34.4 per cent. Category-wise, it was from persons with high social exposure that the most number of samples were collected- 1,445.

Findings

Upon analyses, 14 samples were rejected. In the first week itself, two positive results were recorded and the other two positive results were recorded in the fourth week. The first case reported from Chathannoor in Kollam was of a community volunteer.

The second was a patient in the general population with Acute Respiratory Infection but not a Covid-19 suspect from Munnar in Idukki. The third is also from Idukki, a person with high social exposure.

The last was a community volunteer from Kalluvathukkal panchayat in Kollam. The study stated that though 124 epidemiological samples were tested from all four panchayats, none turned positive. In terms of future plan, the study says that the epidemiological gaps shall be filled by undertaking epidemiological studies on confirmed cases identified through surveillance.
Harris pointed to her deep knowledge of the school system and its challenges, having put in thousands of hours of education advocacy over more than a decade. She would like to see more substantive engagement of student and community wisdom in all decision-making and an open data system. She earned a bachelors degree in nursing at the University of Tulsa, a law degree at Washington University in St. Louis and a masters in public health at Johns Hopkins University. She has a son in a county high school.
Bloomfield Township Supervisor Leo Savoie has filed a lawsuit against the social media platform NextDoor, alleging it allowed people to post false statements to defeat a request for a tax assessment in August 2019.

About 62 percent of voters opposed the levy of 2.3 mills for 15 years; 6,678 voters rejected the special assessment and 4,058 approved it.

Savoie and other officials said the proposed special assessment district, which covered the entire township, was necessary because of changes in state law that required Bloomfield to boost its funding of retiree costs.

The lawsuit asks for monetary damages that would be held in trust for township residents.

After the SAD proposal failed, the township Board of Trustees followed Savoies recommendations to cut animal control, hazardous waste collection and other services.

The board drew residents ire by refusing to eliminate township-provided vehicles for Savoie, Clerk Jan Roncelli, Treasurer Brian Kepes and township department heads. Residents also complained about what they saw as a minimal share that employees paid for their township-provided health insurance. The board declined to change the employees share of the health insurance cost.

The lawsuit, filed in early May, has been assigned to Oakland County Circuit Judge Daniel P. OBrien.

Savoie could not be reached for comment Friday.

He is running for re-election this year and faces several Republican challengers in the August primary election. Several Democrats have filed to run in the November general election against the winner of the Republican primary.
The Banking Association South Africa (Basa) has announced that from 1 June 2020, banks will no longer absorb the cost of automatic teller machine (ATM) cash withdrawals and Saswitch network charges for their customers.

What this means, in simple terms, is that South Africans who withdraw money from an ATM of another bank will now be charged higher fees than during the level 5 and level 4 lockdown.

In April, Basa announced that banks had scrapped charges for withdrawing money from another banks ATM  known as Saswitch fees  during the national lockdown.

The Saswitch network allows people from one bank to use an ATM of another bank to withdraw cash.

This comes at a cost to consumers, as there is a fee charged by the bank which owns the ATM to get the money from the other bank.

This Saswitch fee is reflected in the difference in the fee which you pay to withdraw money from your own banks ATM and that of another bank.

The decision to waive all Saswitch fees during the lockdown was good news for consumers, especially poorer citizens who do not have the means to travel to get to an ATM of their bank.

Basa explained that the decision to absorb the cost of ATM cash withdrawals and Saswitch network charges during the lockdown was aimed at facilitating social distancing at social security payment points and other high traffic areas during the initial lockdown.

This, Basa said, has changed with the new lockdown regulations. The government has now regulated the wearing of masks in public and other social distancing practices, it said.

Prudent business practice now requires that banks recover the cost of maintaining and operating ATMs and point-of-sale (POS) networks to ensure the sustainability of these operations.

Calls to scrap Saswitch fees permanently

Venture capitalist and former FNB CEO Michael Jordaan said it is a great pity that banks will start to charge consumers for Saswitch network usage again.

Jordaan said the Saswitch network fee makes overall ATM usage less efficient and banking customers are often penalised for using the closest ATM or the one with the shortest queue.

The Saswitch network fee hits poor people particularly hard as they rely on cash to buy food and other essential products  which typically means withdrawing money from an ATM.

As they do not have the means to travel, they will use an ATM which is closest to them. In many cases, it is from another bank, which costs them additional money to withdraw cash.

Jordaan has called on Saswitch fees to be scrapped permanently  a position which he has held since 2006 when he was FNB CEO.

Jordaan was behind an industry proposal made to the Competition Commission by FNB in 2006 to scrap Saswitch fees.

This proposal was backed by Absa and Nedbank, which said doing away with these fees will make it more affordable for unbanked people to get accounts and use ATMs.

Standard Bank, however, was against the proposal. It said this decision would be prejudiced against the bank because it had a smaller ATM network than FNB and Absa.

The scrapping of Saswitch fees did not happen, and 14 years later, South Africans are still paying high prices when withdrawing money from another banks ATM.

Michael Jordaans comments about Saswitch fees
Canadian oil stocks are under considerable pressure. Oils sharp collapse, which saw West Texas Intermediate (WTI) plunge into negative territory for the first time ever, is hitting the energy patch hard. While the immediate outlook remains gloomy, this has created an opportunity to acquire quality drillers at once in a generation prices.

One oil stock that stands out is Frontera Energy (TSX:FEC). The driller, which emerged from the bankruptcy of Pacific Exploration and Production, has lost 64% since the start of 2020. This is significantly greater than the 55% decline of the international Brent benchmark price.

While there are plenty of headwinds ahead, there are signs that Frontera is very attractively valued, making it a speculative buy for contrarian investors betting on higher oil.

Why invest in oil stocks?

A key advantage of investing in oil companies rather than oil is their levered exposure to the price of crude. This means that when oil plunge their price decline, like Fronteras, typically exceeds that of benchmark oil prices.

Conversely, when oil rallies it means they generally experience far greater gains than oil, meaning they can deliver outsized returns to investors.

Key is identifying those upstream oil producers that possess quality assets and strong fundamentals, allowing them to weather the current crisis.

Quality oil portfolio

Frontera owns a diversified quality portfolio of oil assets across South America, with its main producing acreage located in Colombia. This not only gives Frontera a handy financial advantage by allowing it to access Brent pricing, which trades at a premium to WTI, but benefit from lower operating expenses.

As a result, Frontera reported a credible first-quarter 2020 operating netback of US$16.21 per barrel of oil sold. The drillers ongoing push to reduce operational costs and shutter non-economic production will keep its operations cash flow positive. That will be aided by Colombian government initiatives to reduce pipeline transportation costs.

Story continues

Solid fundamentals for an oil stock

One of Fronteras key strengths is its considerable liquidity and solid balance sheet. It finished the first quarter with US$265 million in cash and another US$30 million of restricted cash. This gives Frontera considerable financial flexibility, positioning it to emerge from the latest crisis relatively unscathed.

Importantly, Frontera has a very manageable US$364 million of long-term debt and lease liabilities. There are no debt repayments due until 2023, giving Frontera considerable breathing space to overcome the current crisis.

What makes Frontera a top oil stock to buy (aside from its solid balance sheet and quality assets) is that its shares are on sale. The driller is trading at a deep discount to the after-tax net asset value of its proven and probably oil reserves.

At the time of writing, Fronteras price of $3.55 per share is less than a third of its $11 per share after-tax net asset value. This highlights the considerable potential upside available when oil firms and Fronteras stock rallies.

Foolish takeaway

Frontera has long failed to unlock value from its oil assets. Finally, toward the end of 2019 it had resolved many of its legacy issues and was on track to reward investors, but this was derailed by the latest oil price collapse and coronavirus pandemic.

Nonetheless, Frontera will survive the current crisis. As oil prices rally higher, it will deliver considerable value for shareholders during the second half of 2020.

The post Invest $1,000 in This Oil Stock Today to Profit in 2021 appeared first on The Motley Fool Canada.

More reading

Fool contributor Matt Smith has no position in any of the stocks mentioned.

The Motley Fools purpose is to help the world invest, better. Click here now for your free subscription to Take Stock, The Motley Fool Canadas free investing newsletter. Packed with stock ideas and investing advice, it is essential reading for anyone looking to build and grow their wealth in the years ahead. Motley Fool Canada 2020
Military Police face off with protesters across from the White House on 30 May 2020 in Washington, DC, during a protest over the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, who died after a Minneapolis police officer kneeled on his neck for several minutes: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty

Tense protests over the death of George Floyd raged for a fifth consecutive night on Saturday in cities across the US, from Philadelphia to Los Angeles, with police cars set ablaze and reports of injuries mounting on all sides.

Donald Trump says the US will designate "Antifa", whom he blames for the unrest, as a terrorist organisation. Democratic mayors of the cities that have seen some of the largest protests have critiscised the president for making the situation worse.

The demonstrations, which began in Minneapolis following Floyds death on Monday when a police officer pressed a knee onto his neck until he stopped breathing, have become a national phenomenon as protesters decry years of police brutality against African Americans.

Please allow a moment for our liveblog to load


Growing up in Athens, Greece, Lydia Borsi remembers feeling tested when she tried to deal with mental health issues.

Borsi says she had been seeing a therapist for anxiety. But she notes that people in Greece do not openly discuss mental health issues, which also get little attention in general healthcare services.

It was a lot more secretive, and Oh, where is she going? And people thought that I was a lot more unique, Borsi told VOA.

That all changed in 2017 when she moved to the United States to study neuroscience at the University of Rochester in Rochester, New York.

When I came here  I really liked that people were not afraid to speak up about mental health and say that its important, she said.

The university was very supportive of her needs and offered plenty of information, Borsi said. She also became involved with a school group called Active Minds. It is part of a nationwide organization that helps students deal with mental health issues.

Then the novel coronavirus appeared in China and began spreading around the world. In March, the University of Rochester moved all its classes online. Luckily, the school also moved some of its mental health resources online. Borsi was also able to connect with a mental health expert outside the school, in the local community.



But as many of her American friends returned home, Borsi was stuck. Greece had succeeded in limiting the spread of the virus within its borders, but flights there from the U.S. are barred until July. And the health crisis has put her plans to seek admission to medical school in Britain on hold.

Far from her family and unsure about the future, Borsi says dealing with the virus has not made her mental health problems any easier. And she is not alone.

In April, Active Minds launched a survey of over 2,000 students at U.S. colleges and universities. The study found that over 80 percent of those asked said the coronavirus crisis had negatively affected their mental health. And one in five said it has affected them severely.

Laura Horne is the chief program officer at Active Minds. She says the findings are especially troubling given that the crisis is only going to make it harder for colleges and universities to help these students.

In 2018, the Center for Collegiate Mental Health found that student use of campus mental health services rose by an average of 30 to 40 percent between 2009 and 2015.

Horne calls the increase a good thing since it shows that more students are willing to discuss their problems and seek help. But even with many schools moving online, the economic problems resulting from the virus will likely put serious limitations on their spending for mental health services.

None of us has done this before, including colleges and universities, Horne said. And they had to pivot rather quickly to respond to COVID-19 and figure out all facets of university life, including mental health services. And theyre having to figure out how to communicate with students.



Frank Chen is a Houston, Texas-based psychiatrist who has worked with college-age young adults. He points out that individuals at that age are in an important stage of their mental development. And college can be a difficult experience for students with or without mental health issues, as they balance work, studies, and personal relationships.

Adding a major world event, like the spread of the coronavirus, makes it very difficult to predict what the long-term psychological effects might be.

I dont think that theres another event in the history of the people who are alive now that can really measure up to this, said Chen.

But while many students like Lydia Borsi feel their schools are doing the best they can, others feel somewhat under-supported.

Seamus Hawks of Greenfield, Massachusetts was found to suffer from psychosis when he was 16 years old. When he began studying at Berklee College of Music in Boston in 2017, Hawks quickly noted that while individuals seemed very supportive, the school -- as a whole - lacked a sense of understanding.

When there is a Mental Health Week, depression and anxiety are always mentioned, which is great. But I rarely see psychosis mentioned, he said.

As psychosis is less common than other conditions, Hawks worries that people like him might not get the support they need. Classes and support services may move online, but the video conferencing services they use can worsen the effects of psychosis.

Im Pete Musto.

Pete Musto reported on this story for VOA Learning English. George Grow was the editor. We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section.

Quiz - Coronavirus Raises Mental Health Concerns for College Students Start the Quiz to find out Start Quiz



_______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

therapist  n. a person who helps people deal with mental or emotional problems by talking about those problems

anxiety  n. fear or nervousness about what might happen

unique  adj. used to say that something or someone is unlike anything or anyone else

survey  n. an activity in which many people are asked a question or a series of questions in order to gather information about what most people do or think about something

negatively  adv. done in a way that is harmful or bad

campus  n. the area and buildings around a university, college, or school

pivot  v. to turn on or around a central point

respond  v. to do something as a reaction to something that has happened or been done

facet(s)  n. a part or element of something

psychosis  n. a very serious mental illness that makes you behave strangely or believe things that are not true
The coronavirus pandemic has hit hard on all sectors of Botswana. But for artists, social media has become the new way to connect with fans and make money.

The music industry, like other sectors in Botswana, has been affected by coronavirus pandemic. Artists are now using social media platforms to reach out to wider audiences.

With 35 confirmed cases and one death, authorities in Botswana eased a seven-day lockdown to enable businesses and cross-border trade to thrive. But many sectors, particularly the business community, have yet to catch up.

For musicians, the only way they can remain afloat is by using social media platforms like Facebook and WhatsApp to reach out to their fans and stay relevant.

Before the coronavirus pandemic, Frankilne Moyo performed his music and sold his CDs on the streets of the capital Gaborone. But because of social distancing and other hygiene protocols, he can't do that anymore.

"The coming of COVID-19, of course, froze that part of my career that I love most in terms of music," he told DW. "It (COVID-19) affected me financially, and it was quite frustrating. But with every challenge, you know one has to adapt and look for a solution."

To publicize his music on social media platforms, Frankline also set up methods of digital payments for his clients.

"I decided to use platforms that are available like WhatsApp and Facebook to upload my music for my friends in Botswana and across the world," he said. "I thank God for that."

Raising awareness

Other artists, like Tomeletso Sereetsi, a member of the Sereetsi and the Natives group, are also using digital platforms for the first time.

"It helps us, especially that a lot more shows are happening right now online. I will be doing one with an organization that is based in France," Tomeletso told DW. "It is an absolute honor for me to take part in an online Africa festival for all artists from all over Africa and the diaspora."

Sereetsi, known for mixing contemporary folklore with an undertone of Botswana's popular four-string guitar, has done online performances to raise money for the COVID-19 relief fund.

"It is also interactive because you get to see the people who are following you live," he said, "sometimes 500 people are watching you live and sending their requests."

The coronavirus pandemic has not stopped Sereetsi's from performing his music to a live audience because he is doing it now online, where he hopes to grow a large following.

No hard feelings

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Botswana artists may have taken to online platforms and digital media to distribute and share their art. Still, music promoters like Thapelo Fish Pabalinga, founder of the Gaborone International Music and Culture (GIMC) is unperturbed as he believes online events can never replace outdoor live shows.

"For those that are doing online events, big ups to them. They have got to do them, and they pretty much have no choice under the current situation of coronavirus pandemic," Pabalinga told DW.

"But the new normal as everybody calls it, it is still untested, and nobody knows what it looks like, I generally see it as a point of departure, online festivals can never replace outdoor live events."

Even though Pabalinga still has confidence that outdoor events will slowly pick up, he could not take the negative impact lightly the pandemic has had on his business.

"We had to cancel shows, and we had already paid lots of performance fees. In terms of financial losses, there is quite a bit, no doubt about it."
The Volta Regional Police Command is serving notice it is preparing to put the 14 suspected separatists arrested on Saturday May 30 before a court in the coming days.

The notice was contained in a release issued by the command and signed by its Public Affairs Officer (PAO), Cpl. Prince Dogbatse on Sunday, May 31, 2020.

The 14 suspects who include 11 men and three women, one of whom was carrying a 2-year-old child were arrested during a joint security operation carried out by the 66 Artillery Regiment of the Ghana Armed Forces, the Kpando Police, Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) and the National Security.

They were arrested at Kpando-Aziavi near Sovie in the Kpando Municipality of the Volta region the Police and the Military have said.

The police have since identified the 14 as follows; David Karl, 41 years, Kwami Dziwornu, 35 years, Emmanuel Korli, 31 years, Faustina Bitiye, 60 years and Kasmael Dotse, 41 years. The others are Richard Kli, 25 years, Jacinta Kugblenu, 25 years, Ernestina Akogo, 26 years, Nukornu Edem, 35 years and Stephen Atsu, 32 years.

The rest are Akubea Edem, 36 years, Francis Adzogah, 26 years, Wisdom Ametefe, 36 years and 46 year-old Francis Dente Donkor.

Corporal Dogbatse says they were arrested while discussing steps to secede the Volta and Oti regions from Ghana into Western Togoland and related matters.

He added that the suspects are being investigated and will be duly arraigned before Court.

He cautioned persons or groups who sought to identify themselves with what he described as illegal enterprise to be mindful of the grave consequences of their actions; adding that the law will not spare them.

Daily Guide
After 18 years of fighting, the Afghan war is at a deadly stalemate.

Afghanistan is divided among government forces backed by international troops, the Taliban and its militant allies, the Islamic State (IS) extremist group, and a collection of smaller foreign terrorist groups.

The United States and the Taliban signed a landmark agreement in February aimed at "bringing peace to Afghanistan." That deal foresees a power-sharing arrangement between the Afghan government and the Taliban, and the full withdrawal of all foreign troops.

As a Taliban delegation arrived in Kabul for talks on prisoner releases and the Afghan government and the Taliban prepare to launch direct peace talks, most of the country is fiercely contested and ravaged by violence, with warring factions pursuing a "fight-and-talk" strategy.

WATCH: Some 900 Taliban members were freed from Afghanistan's largest prison outside Kabul as part of a prisoner swap under a cease-fire deal on May 26.

The Government

The Afghan government controls the capital, Kabul, provincial capitals, major population centers, and most district centers, according to Resolute Support, the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan.

Around 30 percent of Afghanistan's 407 districts are in government hands, the Taliban commands some 20 percent, and the rest of the country is contested, according to Long War Journal (LWJ), a project run by the Foundation for Defense Of Democracies, a Washington-based think tank.

The LWJ's "living map," based mostly on media reports, is the only publicly available source that tracks district control in Afghanistan, after Resolute Support stopped assessing territorial control and enemy-initiated attacks over the past two years.

Afghan security forces have been on the defensive since NATO's combat mission in Afghanistan ended in 2014, losing much-needed assistance with logistics, air support, and intelligence.

Resolute Support is training, advising, and assisting the 273,000-strong Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police. Additionally, the Afghan government employs around 20,000 militiamen who are part of the Afghan Local Police.

Meanwhile, a separate U.S. counterterrorism force is combating foreign terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda and the IS group and also elements of the Taliban. The United States also funds and supports special Afghan paramilitary units.

The Afghan forces have a large numerical advantage: There are an estimated 60,000 full-time Taliban militants and some 90,000 seasonal fighters.

But government forces are suffering from record casualties, high attrition, and low morale. That is widely blamed on a resurgent Taliban, ineffective leadership in the armed forces, and chronic corruption.

President Ashraf Ghani said in January 2019 that about 45,000 Afghan soldiers and policemen had been killed since he took office in September 2014 -- or a staggering 849 per month. In 2018, the government stopped publicizing fatalities.

"The internationally recognized and elected government doesn't have a monopoly on the use of force nor control over the majority of the country," says Jonathan Schroden, a security expert with the U.S.-based nonprofit research and analysis organization CNA, who has provided assessments on the security situation in Afghanistan to the U.S. military and Congress.

The Taliban, which claims to be a government in exile, "has eroded much of the government's control but cannot do so to the point of becoming the recognized government," Schroden says.

The result, he says, is a "strategic stalemate."

Government forces had been in an active defensive mode since a weeklong reduction-of-violence agreement preceding the U.S.-Taliban deal. But after two devastating terrorist attacks this month that the government blamed on the Taliban, Ghani ordered government forces to go on the offensive.

The political crisis over the disputed presidential election in September also affected the government's military posture. There were fears of civil war after Ghani's leading challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, threatened to form a parallel government and proclaimed himself the president, a scenario that threatened the cohesion of the security forces.

The standoff was resolved after Ghani and Abdullah signed a power-sharing deal -- their second after consecutive elections -- on May 17.

"The government faced serious challenges for months," says Obaid Ali, an expert on the insurgency at the Afghanistan Analysts Network, an independent think tank in Kabul. "The government didn't have a military strategy because the leadership was focused on the internal crisis after the presidential election's outcome and the U.S.-Taliban talks."

Ali says the months-long political feud sank morale and complicated logistics within the security forces.

The Taliban

The Taliban controls more territory than at any time since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001 toppled the fundamentalist group from power.

The fundamentalist militant group's leadership fled to neighboring Pakistan, where it allegedly received sanctuary, training, and arms, an accusation Islamabad has denied. From its safe havens in Pakistan, the Taliban has waged a deadly insurgency against Afghan and international troops.

The Taliban has been following what security experts call an "outside-in" strategy that was effectively employed by other insurgencies in Afghanistan, including the mujahedin who fought Soviet and Afghan government forces in the 1980s.

From its sanctuaries in Pakistan, the Taliban captured rural areas of Afghanistan and consolidated control over larger swaths of the countryside while generating recruits and resources. In recent years, the Taliban has encroached on more populated areas with the aim of isolating and then seizing them.

The militants have twice briefly seized control of the northern city of Kunduz, the country's fifth-most populous.

"The Taliban has so far been successful in seizing and contesting ever larger swaths of rural territory, to the point where they have now almost encircled six to eight of the country's major cities and are able to routinely sever connections via major roads," Schroden says.

"The major thing holding the Taliban back at this point is the government's supremacy of the air and its superior strike forces in the form of the commandos and special police units. But those units are being worn down and the Afghan Army has been slowly failing as an institution for the past five years."

The Taliban insurgency has been a unifying cause for some smaller foreign militant groups.

Around 20 foreign militant groups are active in Afghanistan, including Pakistani extremist groups like the Pakistani Taliban, Lashkar-e Jhangvi, Lashkar-e Taiba, Jaish-e Muhammad, and Central Asian militant groups including the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), the Islamic Jihad Union, and the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, a militant group fighting for Uyghur independence in China.

Ali says the Taliban has ties to some of these foreign militant groups. "Some of these groups operate under the Taliban umbrella," he says. "They can't operate in Afghanistan without the Taliban's permission. Each of these groups has a unique relationship with the Taliban -- operationally, ideologically, or economically."

Al-Qaeda is a largely diminished force, with only several hundred fighters in Afghanistan. But it remains a crucial part of the Taliban insurgency. The two groups have been longtime partners and are co-dependent, according to experts.

According to the U.S. State Department, the "implementation of the U.S.-Taliban agreement will require extensive long-term monitoring to ensure Taliban compliance, as the group's leadership has been reluctant to publicly break with Al-Qaeda."

Under that deal, the Taliban committed to "preventing any group or individual, including Al-Qaeda, from using the soil of Afghanistan to threaten the security of the United States and its allies."

A January report from the UN's Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team stated that ties between Al-Qaeda and the Taliban "continue to be close and mutually beneficial, with Al-Qaeda supplying resources and training in exchange for protection."

Islamic State

Afghan security forces said on May 11 that they had captured the IS group's regional leader for South Asia, Abu Omar Khorasani, in an operation in Kabul.

This was the latest in a string of recent setbacks for the group.

In April, Afghan security forces in the southern city of Kandahar captured the leader of the IS branch in Afghanistan, Abdullah Orakzai, along with several other militants.

According to the United Nations, since October 2019, over 1,400 IS fighters and affiliates have surrendered to Afghan or U.S. forces.

The U.S. military said the IS group's stronghold in the eastern province of Nangarhar was "dismantled" in November 2019 due to U.S. air strikes, operations by Afghan forces, and fighting between the Taliban and IS militants.

The U.S. military said around 300 IS fighters and 1,000 of their family members surrendered.

The fighters and family members who did not surrender have relocated to Pakistan or the neighboring province of Kunar, a remote, mountainous region along the border with Pakistan, it added.

The U.S. military estimates that there are between 2,000 and 2,500 IS fighters active in Afghanistan.

Ali says that the IS group has bases in a few districts of Kunar Province, and they are also likely present in parts of neighboring Nuristan Province, another remote, mountainous province. But he says recent reports that IS militants were active in northern Afghanistan are "unreliable."

"The group has lost most of the territory it held in eastern Afghanistan," Ali says. "The recent operations against IS have severely weakened them and most have gone underground."

But he says the recent arrests of IS fighters and leaders in major urban areas shows that there are still IS "sleeper cells" in the country.

Most IS fighters are thought to be former members of Pakistani militant groups, especially the Pakistani Taliban.

"There are a smaller number of Afghans, Central Asians, and even fewer from other regional countries," Ali adds.
Islamabad, May 31 (IANS) A new leaked photo of former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who is currently in London for treatment, has sparked a debate about his health, a media report said on Sunday.

In the picture, Sharif is seen sitting at a roadside cafe in London with his grand-daughters, said the Dawn news report.

As the picture went viral on social media, it sparked a debate about the former premier's health with his detractors asking why he does not return to Pakistan if he is well and roaming on London streets, while his supporters expressed joy at seeing their leader in good health and spirits.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb told Dawn news that some passerby had taken the picture when Sharif stopped at the cafe after a walk, and uploaded it on social media.

Commenting on her father's picture, Maryam Nawaz tweeted: "The picture of Nawaz Sharif was released with an intent to humiliate him. But the response to it was otherwise. The supporters of Mian sb got happy to see him. His detractors must learn from this."

In January, a picture of the PML-N supremo having tea at a London restaurant along with some family members had gone viral.

The ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf's (PTI) leadership responded to the picture, saying Sharif was feigning his ailment, Dawn news reported.

Sharif had gone to London in November 2019 after the court allowed him a four-week stay abroad for medical treatment.

The government, however, did not allow an extension to his stay.

--IANS

ksk/
Six people were arrested in the wee hours on Sunday for playing loud music inside their two cars and dancing on a road near the COVID centre in suburban Vile Parle here, police said.

The incident occurred around 1 AM, an official said, adding that the accused are residents of suburban Andheri who were found to be roaming the streets in cars in violation of the coronavirus lockdown norms.

They all were booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Epidemic Diseases Act, he said.

They were later released on bail, he added.

Mann ki Baat Highlights: Follow all COVID-19 protocols more sincerely from now, says PM Narendra Modi

PM Modi's 'Mann Ki Baat' at 11 am today; focus likely on 'Unlock 1' of lockdown 5.0

Coronavirus India: Record single-day spike of 8,380 COVID-19 cases takes country's tally past 1.82 lakh
By Azernews





By Laman Ismayilova

With its abundance of historical monuments, Gala State Historical Ethnographic Reserve offers unique insight into the past.

Founded in 2008, the Reserve treasures a rich collection of artifacts discovered during archaeological excavations. Traveling these historical sight will mesmerize you for sure.

People in love with historical journeys take great pleasure for visiting Museum of Archaeology and Ethnography (open-air), the Museum of Antiques and Castle Museum (partly open-air), operating under the Reserve.

The museum centers display more than 2,000 archaeological and architectural monuments, including ancient rock paintings, pottery, household items, jewelry, weapons, coins and much more.

The 18th-century tandoor and two underground passages (10th-15th centuries), old houses, portable tents made of animal skins, stone and straw houses with domes are of particular interest.

Ancient mounds, grave stones, dwellings, places of worship and other monuments also ultimately grab attention of curious visitors.

Gala settlement, where the Reserve operates, is especially famous for its magnificent rock carvings. Hunting scenes, anthropomorphic and zoomorphic images are depicted on the ancient stones.

Scenes of sacrifice, separate images of deer, goats, oxen can also be found here. Ancient findings are presented in the open-air museum and a mosque next to Gesr tower.

Gala is considered one of the oldest shopping centers. Even in the 17th century, the European traveler Engelbert Kempfer wrote that salt, which is distinguished by its taste and whiteness, was mined in the village of Gala.

The eighteenth-century researcher, Johann Lerch, in his notes told about the journey to the village of Gala. In the 40s of the 19th century, the Russian traveler Berezin also mentioned in his notes the fortress in the village of Gala.

The territory of Gala Reserve was suitable for sowing in the Middle Ages, and the defense tower located here was restored by Nadir Shah.

Today Gala State Reserve successfully preserves the spirit of Azerbaijan's historical past. Every year, the Reserve welcomes dozens of visitors who are ready to soak up an unforgettable atmosphere of this place.








Representatives at the Residences at Chestnut Ridge attribute their COVID-free status to early action, strict protocol and a stroke of luck.

Situated on the border of the city of Chester and Nether Providence, this 142-resident community of senior apartments, personal care and memory care has yet to record one positive case of coronavirus  among either residents or employees.

Weve been able to literally stay COVID-free up to this point, Amanda Marzano, a physical therapist at the facility, said.

And while Chestnut Ridge officials credit the compliance and efforts of all employees and residents with the protocols established early, they also recognize how fortunate they are with the rapidly spreading novel coronavirus.

If we really wanted to keep our community health, we really needed to get in front of it to do it, Marzano said.

Kim Smith, Chestnut Ridges director of operations, said the facility geared into action when officials saw shelter-in-place orders being issued in New York and New Jersey.

It was coming our way, Smith said, adding that the attitude was, This is coming, lets get ready, lets roll.

You see the tide coming and you try to stay ahead of it, she explained.

So protocols were installed in early March.

We implemented very early, Smith said. We closed to visitors. We went to temperature checks, masks throughout the community, sanitation protocols. We went to PPE very soon when we knew we had a problem. We were very aggressive on PPE, in obtaining PPE.

Marzano highlighted the strict guidelines within the Chestnut Ridge community.

They did a great job taking a proactive approach, she said. (Residents) can come out in the hallways, but they have to be wearing a mask.

Communal dining was eliminated early on and residents have been having their meals in their rooms.

We have a screening questionnaire, Smith said. We track everybodys temperature every day.

Theres aggressive hand-washing procedures and sanitizer everywhere. The building is sprayed every other night and hospital-grade disinfectants are used.

Marzano added that equally as valuable has been the emphasis to keep the residents healthy, especially with them being confined to their rooms and some with risks for falling. Its so important to keep the residents from going to the hospitals as well, she said, adding theres concerns with sitting in one space for 24 hours without moving around.

To address that, personnel have been going to the rooms to do activities  and activities that used to occur in the activity room are now done in the hallway.

Theres several tings you can do, Smith explained. You just need to be creative, and organized about it.

For example, Marzano said they had a little Cinco de Mayo celebration. We had a traveling little cart with margaritas on it and churros, she said. They were dancing in their room with all the staff. The residents really enjoyed it.

The social limitations have been difficult.

Its been tough on a lot of residents not being able to see their families, Smith said. And although FaceTime calls and the staff have been great, the emotional toll felt by the residents is tough.

Thats why Chestnut Ridge has started to allow visits again.

Residents can see loved ones in a space with a protective barrier between them. Everybody has to wear protective equipment, Smith said, but at least they get to see their family members.

And, now they are starting to have lunch dates. A resident gets picked and they get to pick three other residents. Then, the four go to the dining area where each person sits by themselves at a table with four tables in the room.

One thing that has really come about, that we knew all along but it shows its head in all of this is the residents, yes, miss their families  but they also miss each other, Smith said. That cannot be minimized. Theyre together a lot during the day normally. Our residents eat together three times a day. Theyre family.

Now the focus is becoming how to move forward.

Our next hurdle, Smith said, is looking at opening back up and how thats going to look  That is our challenge now  how we open back up safely given we know the vulnerability of our residents  and our associates.

In the meantime, they are grateful for the health of their residents and employees  and the tactics implemented to secure that as best as possible.

All that has served us well, she said. Thats not to say weve had some luck, too. I dont want to minimize that. But closing down, really adhering to our protocol and guidelines and keeping a tab on our residents, how theyre doing has served us well.
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By West Kentucky Star Staff

May. 30, 2020 | PADUCAH

By West Kentucky Star Staff May. 30, 2020 | 06:21 PM | PADUCAH

The City of Paducah leaders have written a letter to the residents of Paducah dealing with the tragedy and demonstrations seen in recent days in many cities of the country.



They stress that a community policing approach in which the officers become acquainted with the people is a commitment they are making, and also they stress the importance of working with the cultural and faith-based groups of the city.



The letter encourages residents to contact the leaders with their stories and ideas of how they believe their work can be better, and that they are listening to what is being said.



The letter, posted on the Paducah Police Department Facebook page, is as follows:





May 30, 2020



Paducah,



We want to assure our local citizens that we are right here with you. We are mourning for our nation and for all of our brothers and sisters. What we say now will not be enough. It's what we do that will make the difference.



Our leadership and actions locally can provide an example of what we want to see in America. We can't change what occurs in other cities, but we can take responsibility for what happens in ours.



We are committed to continue a community policing approach in our local department. We are committed to putting our officers on the streets, in neighborhoods and in our schools where they can get to know our friends and neighbors. We are committed to the initiatives in place to address issues of racism and understanding in our community. From the NAACP, multiple Race Unity Groups, the efforts of The Office of Cultural Diversity & Inclusion at WKCTC, and other faith-based groups, we are committed to supporting their work.



And we are committed to hearing your stories when you think we can do better. We are here. We are with you. And we are listening.



Sincerely,



Mayor Harless

Commissioner Abraham

Commissioner Wilson

Commissioner Watkins

Commissioner McElroy

Chief Laird

City Manager Jim Arndt
A man screamed "all lives matter" before taking aim with a bow-and-arrow at people protesting the death of George Floyd.

Video posted to social media shows Brandon McCormick taking his hunting weapon out at a protest in Salt Lake City in Utah on Saturday.

Mr McCormick did not appear to actually shoot the weapon. Within a few moments he was tackled to the ground by the crowd.

He told local news outlet KSL-TV: "First, I got beat up when I yelled 'All Lives Matter'".

A man takes aim with a hunting bow at protesters in Salt Lake City, Utah / Titania v. 2.0 @Gingersonfire/Twitter

"Then I pulled out weapons and I got beat up some more.

"The cops grabbed me and my car got totalled... I lost everything, coming down here to try to protect [the police] with what weapons I had."

He added: "I back up the law enforcement."

Salt Lake City police said: "While we do not have the individual who was brandishing a bow and arrow in custody, we do know who he is. We intend to screen charges against him."

Protests have raged in cities across the US for five days, after Mr Floyd, a black man, died in police custody in Minneapolis earlier this week.

Derek Chauvin, the white officer who was seen kneeling on Mr Floyd's neck for at least eight minutes, has been charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter.
Fogo Island shows how social enterprises can help rebuild communities post-coronavirus

by Natalie Slawinski and Wendy K. Smith

May 27,2020 | Source: The Conversation

Social distancing and stay-at-home measures around the globe have been necessary to tackle the COVID-19 crisis. Yet these measures have led to increased rates of loneliness and depression as people continue to physically distance from each other.



More than 30 per cent of the worlds population now faces restrictions related to COVID-19. The impact on mental health has rapidly become apparent. According to one recent study, levels of depression in Canada have more than doubled in the past few weeks, rising to 16 per cent from seven per cent.



The scope of mental health challenges continues to mount, but the underlying problem has been brewing for a long time. Over the past decades, increased globalization and online interactions have disconnected us from our local communities.



We now order food and products on Amazon and they conveniently and anonymously arrive at our door. Without the face-to-face contact with the people behind our products, we lose out on human connection.



Our teams in-depth research offers one antidote to the loss of human connection. For seven years, we studied Shorefast, a registered Canadian charity aiming to revitalize Fogo Island, a community of 2,500 people off the northeast coast of Newfoundland.



Like other fishing communities, Fogo Island was hard hit by the collapse of its primary industry, the cod fishery. In 1992, the Canadian government imposed a moratorium on cod fishing, causing people to lose their livelihoods and flee their communities in search of work in urban centres.



In 2006, Shorefast set out to rebuild Fogo Island and restore its local economy by developing a number of social enterprises, including the award-winning Fogo Island Inn, a 29-bedroom inn designed to honour the place.



Drawing on a deep culture of hospitality, the inn hires local residents to offer guests personal tours of the island, connecting them to its culture and history.



Local artisans made the quilts that adorn all the beds as well as the wooden furniture found throughout the inn. These products are sold at the Fogo Island Shop, another of Shorefasts social enterprises. These businesses, whose surpluses are reinvested into the community, have created new economic opportunities while also fostering deeper human connections.

 20102020, The Conversation Media Group Ltd

Theme(s): Communities and Organisations.
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Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica. To address comments or complaints, please Contact us.
I think one of the things that helped is I have a lady who lives upstairs, said Billys owner Nadar Farahbod. When she heard the breaking glass, she got up and turned on the lights. Maybe thats why they didnt hit my place. I was fortunate. I dont know what to do tonight. I may just show up at the restaurant, have the lights on and be vigilant.

Those who were interviewed on Lincoln Mall on Sunday morning universally understood the reason for Saturdays protest and largely sympathized with the peaceful protest. But they said the riot and destruction were disturbing and out of character for the city.

It doesnt feel like Lincoln to me, said city Councilwoman Tammy Ward. It makes me extremely sad and its upsetting. I feel peoples angst over the killing in Minneapolis. But we have to, as a community, take back Lincoln as soon as we can.

Taking back Lincoln began as early as 7:30 a.m. Sunday, when Robert Clayton, 26, was sweeping glass from broken bus stop windows.
In this file photo director and actor Clint Eastwood attends the "Richard Jewell" world premiere gala screening during AFI FEST 2019 Presented By Audi at TCL Chinese Theatre, on Nov. 20, 2019, in Hollywood, Calif. AFP



Movie legend Clint Eastwood turns 90 on Sunday, but don't count on the famously stoic and hard-working star of "A Fistful of Dollars" and "Dirty Harry" hanging up his cowboy boots just yet.



The multiple Oscar-winning actor-turned-director, who churned out nine films in his 80s, has expressed no desire to retire ahead of the milestone  and in any case, he's not a fan of birthdays.



"We're just going to do a family thing  very, very calm, very mellow," his 34-year-old actor son Scott told "Access Hollywood."



"We'll sneak a cake in there, definitely. He probably won't like it."



Eastwood, born in 1930, has enjoyed a career spanning seven decades and more than 50 films.



He last trod the Hollywood red carpet as recently as November, for his Olympic bombing biopic "Richard Jewell."



It was released to mixed reviews  and sparked a backlash over its fictional depiction of a real-life female journalist trading sex for FBI secrets.



But Eastwood's career has weathered greater controversy, from accusations of excessive violence in the spaghetti Western "Dollars" trilogy, fascism in "Dirty Harry" and warmongering in "American Sniper," to his portrayal of racism in "Gran Torino."



As well as Oscars for "Unforgiven" and "Million Dollar Baby," and a lifetime achievement Palme d'Or from the Cannes festival, Eastwood's back catalog also contains a few critically savaged flops.



"I would like to think it rolls off his back... he's gotten beat up along the way pretty regularly," Variety senior vice president Tim Gray told AFP.



"I think he's going to keep working as long as he can... he seems to have a creative drive that keeps him going."



- 'Just wants to work' -



Known on the Hollywood circuit as polite but reticent as far as small talk or personal details, Eastwood has hinted at future projects, but had not yet confirmed any plans before the coronavirus pandemic shut down all productions in March.



In a January interview with Britain's ITV, Eastwood indicated he was still enjoying plying his trade.



"I like doing it, it's nice to be able to have a paying job," he told "This Morning."



"I like being in films, I like making films and I started directing films because I thought one day I'm going to look up on screen and say, 'That's enough, Eastwood  you'd better do something else.'"



In other interviews, he has expressed confusion as to why luminaries such as Billy Wilder and Frank Capra quit the business at a younger age, and spoken of his desire to keep working as long as he finds projects that are "worth studying."



Despite previously announcing his retirement from acting after 2008's "Gran Torino," Eastwood returned in front of camera four years later in "Trouble with the Curve," and again in 2018's "The Mule."



"He's pretty unpredictable," said Gray, adding: "I get the feeling now, he does what he wants to do."



As well as continuing to oversee his Malpaso Productions, Eastwood  a former mayor of Carmel, California  remains politically engaged, endorsing Michael Bloomberg's doomed presidential run earlier this year.



And as a father of eight children and a grandfather many times over, Eastwood will likely have his hands full Sunday  even if he isn't asking anyone to "make my day."



"He probably won't even want us to acknowledge it. He hates his birthday," daughter Alison told Closer late last year.



"I think he just wants to work and enjoy his life but I don't think he wants to celebrate it... So we'll see." (AFP)


A powerful private equity baron has secured a seat on the board of the company behind make-up brands Rimmel and Max Factor amid speculation that a predator is circling.

Johannes Huth, head of Wall Street buyout giant KKR in Europe, has joined the board of Coty, whose brands also include Wella and Clairol.

Power play: Johannes Huth, head of Wall Street buyout giant KKR in Europe, has joined the board of Rimmel owner Coty

Huth is well known in the City for overseeing some of the biggest buyouts of British businesses, including the 11billion takeover of Alliance Boots in 2007.

The appointment comes after Coty  which paid $600million (488million) for a 51 per cent stake in US reality TV star Kylie Jenner's cosmetics business last November  struck a deal with KKR this month that will see the buyout firm inject $750million in return for a 17 per cent stake and a separate deal for the firms haircare division.

Cotys largest shareholder is JAB, the investment vehicle for Germanys Reimann dynasty.

Speculation was mounting last week about a potential offer for Coty. Henkel AG, the owner of Right Guard, and Unilever were previously linked to the company.
Even when a business is losing money, it's possible for shareholders to make money if they buy a good business at the right price. For example, biotech and mining exploration companies often lose money for years before finding success with a new treatment or mineral discovery. But while history lauds those rare successes, those that fail are often forgotten; who remembers Pets.com?

So should Sunrise Resources (LON:SRES) shareholders be worried about its cash burn? In this article, we define cash burn as its annual (negative) free cash flow, which is the amount of money a company spends each year to fund its growth. First, we'll determine its cash runway by comparing its cash burn with its cash reserves.

View our latest analysis for Sunrise Resources

When Might Sunrise Resources Run Out Of Money?

A cash runway is defined as the length of time it would take a company to run out of money if it kept spending at its current rate of cash burn. As at March 2020, Sunrise Resources had cash of UK319k and no debt. Looking at the last year, the company burnt through UK236k. That means it had a cash runway of around 16 months as of March 2020. That's not too bad, but it's fair to say the end of the cash runway is in sight, unless cash burn reduces drastically. You can see how its cash balance has changed over time in the image below.

AIM:SRES Historical Debt May 31st 2020

How Is Sunrise Resources's Cash Burn Changing Over Time?

Because Sunrise Resources isn't currently generating revenue, we consider it an early-stage business. Nonetheless, we can still examine its cash burn trajectory as part of our assessment of its cash burn situation. While it hardly paints a picture of imminent growth, the fact that it has reduced its cash burn by 33% over the last year suggests some degree of prudence. Admittedly, we're a bit cautious of Sunrise Resources due to its lack of significant operating revenues. We prefer most of the stocks on this list of stocks that analysts expect to grow.

Story continues

How Easily Can Sunrise Resources Raise Cash?

While Sunrise Resources is showing a solid reduction in its cash burn, it's still worth considering how easily it could raise more cash, even just to fuel faster growth. Issuing new shares, or taking on debt, are the most common ways for a listed company to raise more money for its business. Commonly, a business will sell new shares in itself to raise cash to drive growth. By comparing a company's annual cash burn to its total market capitalisation, we can estimate roughly how many shares it would have to issue in order to run the company for another year (at the same burn rate).

Sunrise Resources's cash burn of UK236k is about 5.5% of its UK4.3m market capitalisation. Given that is a rather small percentage, it would probably be really easy for the company to fund another year's growth by issuing some new shares to investors, or even by taking out a loan.

Is Sunrise Resources's Cash Burn A Worry?

Sunrise Resources appears to be in pretty good health when it comes to its cash burn situation. Not only was its cash burn reduction quite good, but its cash burn relative to its market cap was a real positive. While we're the kind of investors who are always a bit concerned about the risks involved with cash burning companies, the metrics we have discussed in this article leave us relatively comfortable about Sunrise Resources's situation. On another note, we conducted an in-depth investigation of the company, and identified 4 warning signs for Sunrise Resources (2 are concerning!) that you should be aware of before investing here.

If you would prefer to check out another company with better fundamentals, then do not miss this free list of interesting companies, that have HIGH return on equity and low debt or this list of stocks which are all forecast to grow.

Love or hate this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@simplywallst.com.



This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
The final round of the 19th "Chinese Bridge," an annual Chinese language proficiency competition, for southern Vietnam was held in Vietnam's southern Ho Chi Minh City on Saturday.

A total of 26 students from 12 colleges in southern Vietnam participated in three sections of quiz, speech and talent show in the nearly 10-hour-long competition, themed "One World, One Family," winning applause and cheering from the audience with their fluent Chinese and outstanding talent.

Vo Nguyen Quynh Nhu, a student at Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanities, won the first prize of the contest and will represent the country together with the winner of northern and central Vietnam in the "Chinese Bridge" competition in China.

Nhu said she started to learn Chinese by coincidence and had been fascinated by the beauty of Chinese language and culture ever since. "I will work harder to learn Chinese and understand the Chinese culture more deeply and comprehensively. After graduation, I would like to work in fields related to Vietnam-China friendship and improve cultural exchanges between the two countries," she said.



Pham Tan Ha, vice president of Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanities, said in a speech at the competition that the "Chinese Bridge" competition is expected to help students deepen their understanding of Chinese language and culture, adding that the contest was organized despite challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and had attracted many students who have passion for Chinese study.

Chinese Consul General in Ho Chi Minh City Wu Jun told Xinhua that this year marks the 70th anniversary of the China-Vietnam diplomatic ties and is of great significance, and that the increasing exchanges and cooperation between China and Vietnam have brought the two peoples closer.

The young generation of China and Vietnam should improve the cultural exchanges and mutual understanding and jointly promote the shared future of humanity for the two countries, he said.

The contest was co-sponsored by the Confucius Institute Headquarters (Hanban) and the Chinese Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City and organized by Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanities.
The number of coronavirus cases globally topped more than 6.1 million as deaths rose to at least 372,116, a tally from Johns Hopkins University shows. Cases in China had the biggest increase since May 11, the country's National Health Commission reported. As demonstrations erupted in major U.S. cities across the nation in response to the death of unarmed black man George Floyd, peaceful protests turned ugly as demonstrators set fires, looted stores and clashed with riot police. The destruction prompted Los Angeles to suspend coronavirus testing Saturday afternoon due to safety concerns. "We have been notified that all #COVID-19 testing centers throughout LA will be closed until further notified. A troubling consequence of social breakdown prompted by excessive use of force resulting in the death of another unarmed African American man, Mr. George Floyd," according to a tweet by Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley Thomas. The coverage on this live blog has ended  but for up-to-the-minute coverage on the coronavirus, visit the live blog from CNBC's U.S. team. Global cases: More than 6.1 million

Global deaths: At least 371,995

U.S. cases: More than 1.78 million

U.S. deaths: At least 104,381 The data above was compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Russia reports more than 9,000 new cases

09:40 a.m. (London time): Russia reported a further 9,035 coronavirus cases on Monday, bringing the total number of infections to 414,878, according to its coronavirus crisis center. In the last 24 hours, 162 people have died, bringing the total number of deaths to 4,855. At the weekend, Russia approved the use of an anti-influenza drug in the treatment of Covid-19.  Holly Ellyatt

China says U.S. 'addicted to quitting' after Trump says it will withdraw from WHO

09:08 a.m. (London time): China has said the U.S. is "addicted to quitting" following President Donald Trump's announcement last Friday that the U.S. will leave the World Health Organization (WHO), Reuters reported. Speaking to reporters Monday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian characterized the U.S.' behavior as selfish and said that the international community disagreed with its stance.  Holly Ellyatt

Health experts are worried about a rise in coronavirus cases in the Southern Hemisphere

2:30 p.m. (Singapore time)  Health experts warn that cooler weather conditions in the winter could trigger a more intense transmission of Covid-19 cases, saying that it's "very likely" the disease will show a similar seasonal pattern to other coronaviruses. Marc Lipsitch, professor of epidemiology at Harvard, has said that while he anticipates a slight decline in the contagiousness of the coronavirus in warmer, wetter weather, "it is not reasonable to expect these declines alone to slow transmission to make a big dent." In winter, however, Lispitch said he did have reason to believe Covid-19 "may transmit somewhat more efficiently" when compared to summer.  Sam Meredith

Cases in China the biggest increase since May 11

11:30 a.m. (Singapore time)  China reported 16 new cases as of May 31, the biggest rise since May 11, according to Reuters. That brought its total to 83,017 cases. There were no new deaths. China's National Health Commission reported another 16 asymptomatic cases.  Weizhen Tan

Recent economic trends could signal a potential recovery

3:45 p.m. ET  Though the U.S. economy suffered a significant downturn amid the coronavirus pandemic, recent data across multiple business sectors indicates that things are beginning to look a little bit brighter. As states move forward in their reopening progress, more Americans are traveling, buying homes and eating out at restaurants, indicating that some of the hardest-hit industries are starting to revive. With consumers returning to familiar routines, it could be a sign that the economy is beginning to recover from the outbreak's devastating impact.Five charts that illustrate these recent trends can be found by clicking here. Hannah Miller

Even as they ask for more, states are reluctant to spend virus aid

10:27 a.m. ET  Uncertainty and fear among amid the coronavirus pandemic have Americans hoarding cash and putting off spending, sending the savings rate to historic levels. The personal savings rate hit a record 33% in April, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis said Friday. Turns out, they're not the only ones reluctant to open up their wallets. Many states haven't spent the federal funds they received more than a month ago to help with soaring coronavirus-related costs, the Associated Press reported. Their unwillingness to part with the aid is complicating governors' claims that they need hundreds of billions more to weather the crisis. "If I knew today that another billion dollars was coming to Rhode Island to help solve our budget deficit, I'd spend the $1.25 billion now," Democratic Gov. Gina Raimondo told AP. When asked about other states that have started spending the aid, she said: "They're taking a gamble, and I'm just not ready to do that yet." Terri Cullen

The University of Michigan takes steps to bring students back on campus

University of Michigan tiny-al | Getty Images

9:44 a.m. ET  The University of Michigan told CNBC it is taking steps to bring students back on campus this fall. "The average student is very anxious to get out of mom and dad's basement and come back to school," President Mark Schlissel said. As Jessica Dickler reports, Schlissel is "very optimistic" the school will be able to host what he called a "public-health-informed residential semester." Terri Cullen

Google alumni reunite to assist families with home learning

9:05 a.m. ET  Since Covid-19 hit, several ex-Google employees have digitally reunited with each other in efforts to assist families trying to school their children from home amid shelter orders. "Many know that access to work at companies like Google begin at the youngest levels and are passionate about using their background and abilities to help others get there," Fong said. "Also, many are now having kids so it's also a personal interest area and they can understand the customer (parents and kids)." One of them, Jonathan Rochelle, spent more than a decade at the company, where he led some of the company's education efforts. The former employees and executives, which hail from Google, Youtube, Cloud and other areas of the company, are not only using their technical skills to connect parents, but they're also fielding broader questions about what the future of education will look like. Jennifer Elias

After recovering from Covid-19, Pure Storage CEO plots slow reopening of company offices
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-31 21:04:57|Editor: huaxia

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VALLETTA, May 31 (Xinhua) -- Malta was ready to act as a bridge between Libya and the European Union (EU) to address the problem of illegal migration, Prime Minister Robert Abela said on Sunday.

He said his lightning visit to the war-torn country on Thursday confirmed that Libya was facing its own migration problems with an influx of migrants from neighboring countries which were also facing their difficulties.

Abela met Fayez al-Sarraj, prime minister of the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA), in Tripoli. The two government heads discussed the need to push the EU to help Libya to train its coastguard, obtain funding for reception camps manned by the UN, as well as to build a realistic strategy to slow down the flow of migrants into Libya.

Al-Sarraj told Abela that Libya had around 800,000 migrants to deal with.

Referring to his visit, Abela said the two countries had agreed to set up specialized units to better coordinate operations against irregular migration. These centers are expected to start operating within the coming weeks.

According to Abela, the solution lies in concrete action on Libyan shores and its southern border. This would be done through addressing and stopping human trafficking, rather than focusing on the relocation of migrants to other countries.

"Previous local and foreign administrations have always tackled the migration problem on a boat-by-boat basis but we are looking at solving the issue in a holistic manner," he said, adding that the government had already sent out a clear message in keeping migrants aboard commissioned out at sea. There are some 425 migrants on four tourist vessels just outside Malta's territorial waters where Malta is keeping them there until a proper solution is found to the illegal migration.

"We have saved lives and saved people from drowning, but we have also given a message that Malta cannot bring in more people," he said. Enditem
Protests over the death of George Floyd and repeated police killings of black men grew Saturday from New York to Tulsa to Los Angeles, where police fired rubber bullets to scatter crowds and at least one police car burned, as governors in several states called in National Guard troops in the face of the rising unrest.

The demonstrations, which began in Minneapolis following Mondays death of George Floyd after a police officer pressed his knee on Floyds neck for more than eight minutes, have left parts of that city a grid of broken windows, burned-out buildings and ransacked stores. They have since become a national phenomenon as protesters decry years of deaths at police hands.

The large crowds involved, with many people not wearing masks or practicing social distancing, raised concerns among health experts about the potential for helping spread the coronavirus pandemic at a time when overall deaths are on the decline nationwide and much of the country is in the process of reopening society and the economy.

After a tumultuous Friday night, racially diverse crowds took to the streets again for mostly peaceful demonstrations in dozens of cities from coast to coast. The previous days protests also started calmly, but many descended into violence later in the day.

In the Greenwood District of Tulsa, Oklahoma, the site of a 1921 massacre of black people that left as many as 300 dead and the citys thriving black district in ruins, protesters blocked intersections and chanted the name of Terence Crutcher, a black man killed by a police officer in 2016.

In Tallahassee, Florida, a pickup truck drove through a crowd of protesters, sending some running and screaming as the vehicle stopped and started and at one point had a person on its hood, police said, but no serious injuries were reported. Witnesses said a group followed the vehicle and forced it to stop. Police handcuffed the driver but did not release his name or say whether he would face any charges.

In Columbia, South Carolina, a television reporter for WIS-TV was injured by rocks thrown outside the main police station. Several hundred people participated in the demonstration, tearing down the American and state flags in front of the building. They also swarmed a police car, breaking its windows, The State reported.

In Los Angeles protesters chanted Black Lives Matter, some within inches of the face shields of officers. Police used batons to move the crowd back and fired rubber bullets at demonstrators. One man used a skateboard to try to break the windshield of a police SUV. A spray-painted police car burned in the street.

In New York City, video posted to social media showed officers using batons and shoving protesters down as they took people into custody and cleared streets. One video showed on officer slam a woman to the ground as he walked past her in the street.

Our country has a sickness. We have to be out here, said Brianna Petrisko, among those at lower Manhattans Foley Square, where most were wearing masks amid the coronavirus pandemic. This is the only way were going to be heard. Back in the city where the protests began, 29-year-old Sam Allkija said Saturday in Minneapolis that the damage seen in recent days is a manifestation of longstanding frustration and rage in the black community.

I dont condone them, he said. But you have to look deeper into why these riots are happening. Others echoed him: Our country has a sickness. We have to be out here, said Brianna Petrisko, who was at lower Manhattans Foley Square where most demonstrators were wearing masks amid the pandemic.

This is the only way were going to be heard. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz fully mobilized the states National Guard and promised a massive show of force.

The situation in Minneapolis is no longer in any way about the murder of George Floyd, Walz said. It is about attacking civil society, instilling fear and disrupting our great cities. The unrest comes at a time when most Americans have spent months inside over concerns surrounding the coronavirus, which the president has called an invisible enemy. The events of the last 72 hours, seen live on national television, have shown the opposite: a sudden pivot to crowds, screaming protesters and burning buildings, a stark contrast to the empty streets of recent months.

Hundreds of people were arrested Friday, and police used batons, rubber bullets and pepper spray to push back crowds in some cities. Many departments reported injured officers, while social media was awash in images of police using forceful tactics, throwing protesters to the ground, using bicycles as shields and trampling one protester while on horseback.

This weeks unrest recalled the riots in Los Angeles nearly 30 years ago after the acquittal of the white police officers who beat Rodney King, a black motorist who had led them on a high-speed chase. The protests of Floyds killing have gripped many more cities, but the losses in Minneapolis have yet to approach the staggering totals Los Angeles saw during five days of rioting in 1992, when more than 60 people died, 2,000-plus were injured and thousands arrested, with property damage topping $1 billion.

Many protesters spoke of frustration that Floyds death was one more in a litany. It came in the wake of the killing in Georgia of Ahmaud Arbery, a black man who was shot dead after being pursued by two white men while running in their neighborhood, and in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic that has thrown millions out of work, killed more than 100,000 people in the U.S. and disproportionately affected black people.

The officer who held his knee to Floyds neck as he begged for air was arrested Friday and charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter  but that appeared to provide little balm. Many protesters are demanding the arrests of the three other officers involved.

President Donald Trump stoked the anger, firing off a series of tweets criticizing Minnesotas response, ridiculing people who protested outside the White House and warning that if protesters had breached its fence they would have been greeted with the most vicious dogs, and most ominous weapons, I have ever seen. Leaders in many affected cities have voiced outrage over Floyds killing and expressed sympathy for protesters concerns. But as unrest intensified, they spoke of a desperate need to protect their cities and said they would call in reinforcements, despite concerns that could lead to more heavy-handed tactics. Minnesota has steadily increased to 1,700 the number of National Guardsmen it says it needs to contain the unrest, and the governor is considering a potential offer of military police put on alert by the Pentagon.

Governors in Georgia, Kentucky, Ohio and Texas also activated the National Guard after protests there turned violent overnight, while nighttime curfews were put in place in Portland, Oregon, Cincinnati and elsewhere.

Police in St. Louis were investigating the death of a protester who climbed between two trailers of a Fed Ex truck and was killed when it drove away. And a person was killed in the area of protests in downtown Detroit just before midnight after someone fired shots into an SUV, officers said. Police had initially said someone fired into the crowd from an SUV.

In Atlanta, where crews worked Saturday to clean up glass and debris from rioting the night before, a large electronic billboard flashed the message:If you love Atlanta PLEASE GO HOME, echoing pleas from the mayor.
Meghan Markle continues to actively engage in her numerous patronages even after she stepped down as a senior member of The Firm alongside her husband Prince Harry.

Apparently, the 38-year-old duchess is secretly working with an animal welfare charity that has been massively affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Meghan Markle "In Touch" With Her Patronage

As a patron of Mayhew -- formerly known as "The Mayhew Animal Home" -- the ex-royal has been assisting the organization as it struggles financially due to the global crisis.

The London-based organization aims to help homeless individuals with their emotional support animal (ESA), as well as to improve the lives of dogs, cats, and the people in the community.

As cited by Newsweek, the running cost of the charity per day is $7,400. With that said, it "desperately needs extra funds" to provide supplies to be able to continue their work.

"We receive no government support or anything so we rely completely on public donations, which are for the most part gathered from fundraising events," Sarah Hastelow, PR and media officer for the charity told the news outlet.

With the government's mandate on social distancing and shelter-in-place restrictions, public fundraising events have been halted, leaving the organization in dire need of financial assistance for dog treatments and food.

"It's been a steady decline in operations and funds. We are trying to be as adaptive and reactive as possible," Hastelow furthered.

For her part, Meghan -- who is currently living in a rented Beverly Hills mansion together with Prince Harry and baby Archie -- "is in touch and working with Mayhew at this time."

Back in January, the former royal had a surprise visit to the animal charity as one of her last official engagements in the U.K. before moving to Canada with her family of three.

In the couple's previous official Instagram account @SussexRoyal, the duchess was seen visiting Mayhew's Kensal Green headquarters while wearing a chic navy wool coat, blue and white buttoned-up shirt and black pants.

"Earlier this month, The Duchess of Sussex popped in to see the amazing people at Mayhew to hear about the incredible progress made throughout the festive period," the caption read.

Founded in 1886, the said animal welfare charity has been one of the duchess' first patronages.

"The Duchess of Sussex, having been a proud patron of Mayhew since January 2019 and long understanding the connection between animal and community welfare applauds the people at Mayhew for the vital work that they do every day."

Prince Harry And Meghan Markle Secretly Delivers Food Meals In L.A.

Aside from this, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have also been spotted delivering food supplies to vulnerable communities in Los Angeles that were heavily affected by the pandemic.

The couple worked with local charity Project Angel Food on three different occasions.

PAF executive director Richard Ayoub mentioned that it was Meghan's mother, Doria Ragland, who suggested the non-profit organization after learning that they needed extra help in delivering food meals.
President Donald Trump (center) with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California (right) speaks with reporters while in the air en route to Andrews Air Force Base on Saturday. Read more

President Donald Trump said Sunday that he was designating Antifa as a domestic terrorism organization after another night of violent protests over racism and police violence erupted in cities across the nation.

The practical effect of the presidents declaration was unclear. While domestic terrorism is defined in the 2001 Patriot Act bill  and law enforcement could use the designation to seek enhanced powers to investigate members of the group  there are no current designated domestic terrorist organizations.

 READ MORE: Philly orders all retail stores to close for curfew as looting expands beyond Center City

Theres also no explicit law against providing support to domestic terrorist organizations  unlike groups designated as foreign terrorist organizations. The Antifa movement is largely decentralized, with activists organizing their protest activities online or in small, decentralized groups.

Antifa is short for anti-fascist and sometimes used to describe militant left-wing political activists.

The violence instigated and carried out by Antifa and other similar groups in connection with the rioting is domestic terrorism and will be treated accordingly, Attorney General William Barr said in a statement.

For the president, the symbolic gesture was the latest in an increasingly provocative series of responses to protests that have broken out in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, in Minneapolis police custody.

The National Guard was deployed Saturday in more than a dozen states and the District of Columbia, with mayors in cities across the country enacting curfews and pleading for calm.

Trump also tweeted that Minnesota authorities should have immediately called in the National Guard to address protests, and blamed members of the media for unrest.

Critics have said the president has fanned the flames of unrest in a series of statements and tweets. On Saturday, Trump threatened to unleash the unlimited power of the U.S. military on demonstrators, despite legal restrictions on domestic activity, and defended the overwhelming majority of police whom he said are incredible in every way.

No one is more upset than fellow law enforcement officers by the small handful who fail to abide by their oath to serve and protect, the president said.

Trump also threatened protesters outside the White House with vicious dogs and ominous weapons, while inviting his supporters to demonstrate there on Saturday night. That prompted concern of possible clashes between protesters and Trumps backers. While a pro-Trump contingent didnt materialize, hundreds of protesters circled the White House while smaller groups looted nearby stores and restaurants, and lit fires in the streets.

Trump last year had threatened to designate Antifa as an organization of terror after leftist demonstrations made public their plans to confront a group of far-right activists with links to the 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

A pair of Republican senators  Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Ted Cruz of Texas  have also advocated for congressional action that would symbolically designate Antifa as a terrorist organization.
Rachel Johnson has been accused of bending lockdown rules by staying at her second home in Notting Hill after finishing her presenting shift at LBC.

Boris Johnson's younger sister has previously said she is isolating at her home in Exmoor, Somerset, making only essential journeys to Leicester Square in London where she presents an evening show on the talk radio station.

According to The Mirror, instead of travelling four hours back to Somerset on Friday, Ms Johnson instead opted to stay at her second home in Notting Hill, where her two sons live.

Rachel Johnson was seen returning to her home in Notting Hill on Saturday, having stayed the night after a presenting shift on LBC on Friday

It is claimed she travelled back to the Exmoor farm, she shares with her husband and daughter, on Saturday morning by train.

A Whitehall source told The Mirror: 'It doesn't look good for anyone,' adding: 'First his friend Dom and now his sister have been caught bending the rules, if not breaking them.'

The radio host's spokesman told The Mirror Ms Johnson 'sometimes stays over,' after finishing her show at 7pm.

They added Ms Johnson has keyworker status as she is a broadcaster, saying she stays alert at all times while travelling between her job and her home.

MailOnline has approached Ms Johnson's for a full comment.

Boris Johnson, outside Downing Street on Sunday, is facing further embarassment after his sister stayed in London overnight, despite saying she was isolating at a farm in Exmoor

Earlier this week Ms Johnson called for Dominic Cummings to apologise after it was revealed he drove to 260 miles to Durham with his wife and son, amid fears he and his wife were coming down with Covid-19.

It was later revealed Mr Cummings had driven to nearby Barnard Castle, again with his wife and son in the car, to test his eyesight.

Speaking on Wednesday, Ms Johnson told presenter Ben Shepherd: 'I think that if I had been Cummings, I'd have admitted I'd messed up.'

Rachel Johnon said Dominic Cummings, pictured outside his home on Sunday, should apologise after it was revealed he travelled to Durham at the end of March

She added: 'I'd have got on the front foot and said, "I apologise for all of those who followed my messages, I took bad decisions at the time and I understand how angry it's made a whole country feel, and please let's move on because we have bigger fish to fry".'

Speaking live from Somerset, Ms Johnson said: 'Obviously, everything is bigger than Dominic Cummings, the pandemic is bigger than Dominic Cummings and as my brother said, nobody has his unconditional support.'

She added: 'The reason the country is so unutterably furious and het up about the Cummings crisis is because there is an enormous amount of pent up anxiety, anger and fear.
Bir Lehlou (Saharawi Republic) 31 May 2020 (SPS) The Saharawi National Commission for Human Rights (CONASADH), called on the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), to urgently intervene for the release of Saharawi political prisoners in Morocco, to protect them from possible Covid-19 infection.

In a letter sent to the President of the ICRC, Mr. Peter Maurer, CONASADH, expressed deep concern about the situation of the Saharawi prisoners under the bad conditions of Moroccan jails and the spread of Covid-19 in many Moroccan prisoners.

Here is the complete text of the letter sent by CONASADH to ICRC of which Saharawi.net received a copy:

Request of urgent intervention for the release of Saharawi political prisoners in various Moroccan jails

Dear President,

It is with deep concern that the Saharawi National Commission for Human Rights (CONASADH) addresses you this letter hoping to draw your attention to the dangerous conditions in which Saharawi political prisoners are living in various Moroccan prisons, especially with the alarming spread of Covid-19 infections all over the world, including in Morocco.

The dire conditions of the Moroccan prisons and the alarming lack of the minimum hygienic environment necessary for the protection of prisoners is a permanent threat to the lives of political prisoners, whose only crimes, as evidenced by all international organization, are related to their political views and peaceful activities, as human rights defenders.

ICRC, which strives for the implementation of the Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols that form the core of international humanitarian law according to Article 5 of its Statutes, has received many letters and communications calling on it to visit these political prisoners and to work for their release.

ICRC also received communications calling for its initiative to persuade Morocco end its gross violations to the International Humanitarian law and International law of Human Rights against Saharawi civilians in the absence of any sort of international or UNs mechanisms in charge of the monitoring, reporting and protection of human rights in Western Sahara, which remains under the responsibility of the UN as a Non-Self-Governing Territory pending a decolonization process.

CONASADH cannot understand why ICRC has never visited Saharawi political prisoners in Moroccan prisons so far. ICRC has, on the other hand always been highly welcomed by Saharawi authorities since the seventies to visit Moroccan prisoners of war until the last Moroccan prisoner was released back in 2005. Unfortunately, the ICRC has not been equally helpful to Saharawi victims of disappearance nor to Saharawi prisoners of war and political prisoners so far.

Mr. President,

The Moroccan regime of occupation arrested those Saharawi political prisoners simply because they were defending theirs and their peoples rights to self-determination and independence, which are recognized to them by the UN and other international and regional organizations and instruments. Worse, Morocco tried those civilians before its military courts in total violation of the minimum requirement for fair trials. They were also subjected to torture and ill-treatment, and they were transferred tried and imprisoned outside their occupied country, deported to Morocco where they are imprisoned far away from their families, in total violation of the relevant Geneva Conventions requirements.

Even there in Morocco, Saharawi political prisoners are suffering from Moroccan prisons lack of the standard minimum rules of incarceration though they are serving long imprisonment periods (between 20 to perpetuity). Most of the prisoners have severe health problems and also suffer from the consequences of torture.

Therefore, the spread of Covid-19 in Morocco, including in Moroccan prisons, is an additional threat to their lives and need an urgent intervention from ICRC and all relevant international organizations.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ms. Michelle Bachelet, has already launched an appeal last March on all governments to release prisoners, especially political ones and those detained without sufficient legal basis, to prevent catastrophic rates of infection. We do know of no other prisoners detained illegally than Saharawi political prisoners in Morocco, whose trials were qualified of highly illegal by various international observers, including UN experts.

For all these reasons, Mr. President, CONASADH calls on you and on your organization to immediately and urgently intervene for the release of Saharawi political prisoners and to put an end, not only to their ordeals and possible threats to their lives, but also to a long continuing violation of the international humanitarian law in Western Sahara, the last colony in Africa.

Finally, please accept Mr. President, my highest considerations. (SPS)

090/500/60 (SPS)
In an online conversation for WW, Oprah Winfrey and best friend Gayle King discussed the recent upheaval across the country. (Photo: Tom Cooper/Getty Images for Oprah)

Oprah Winfrey told Gayle King that even her longtime love Stedman Graham has been the victim of racial profiling.

I do not know a black man, period, who has not been profiled. I do not know a black man who has not been stopped at some point  including Stedman Graham, Winfrey told King, referring to her boyfriend of more than 30 years.

In an online conversation over Zoom titled WW Presents: Your Life in Focus: A Vision Forward, the longtime best friends reflected on a series of current events, including this weekends protests across the country sparked by the death of George Floyd. Floyd, an unarmed black man, was killed Monday after a Minneapolis police officer kneeled on his neck for almost nine minutes.

Noting her heavy heart, Winfrey said she couldnt get the images of Floyds death out of her head. When King joined her online, the CBS anchor also admitted that she was having trouble sleeping because she feels so haunted and unsettled by it.

I cannot stop thinking about it, said King. I cant stop thinking about the looting. I cant stop thinking about George Floyd. I cant stop thinking about the expression on that cops face when he has his knee on his neck. Hes so comfortable he had his hands in his pocket. Thats the universal sign of Im really chilling here, Im so comfortable.

King also reflected on how she became emotional on air Tuesday morning. Visibly shaken over Floyds death and a recent incident in which a white woman called the police on a black birdwatcher in Central Park, King had told viewers: I am speechless. I am really, really speechless about what were seeing on television this morning. It feels to me like open season  and that sometimes its not a safe place to be in this country for black men.

Looking back on her experience on-air Tuesday, King told Winfrey that she did think I was gonna lose it. I was trying very hard.

That story, coupled with the Central Park ladys story, preceded by Ahmaud Arbery the week before that ... It was just too much, King told Winfrey.

Story continues

King also went on to detail the conversations shes had with her own son, Will, expressing her fear that something could happen to him when he goes out to walk his dog.

Related: Winfrey Praises Florida Students As Warriors of the Light

Will, walking your dog Scott who we all know and love ... Youre doing the most ordinary things and you lose your life doing the most ordinary things, she said, pointing out that her son said he always wears T-shirts with college logos on them. But King put her foot down when he showed her his mask, which was all black. I said, thats a little scary. You could look menacing, she told her son. When he replied wondering what difference the color of his mask would make, King told him, Will. It makes a difference. It just does ... Cut to Central Park. Cut to Ahmaud Arbery. Cut to George Floyd.

Theres no black mother that hasnt had the conversation with their son about making the adaption to when youre stopped, having the right demeanor and behavior and going into that. Whatever is necessary to keep yourself alive. But when you look at that videotape, he did all that, replied Winfrey, referring to the Floyd case.

Thank god for the videotape. In this case, the Central Park case, in the Ahmaud Arbery case, people say its better. Well, racism isnt better, said King. Racism still exists. Its just on video.

Read more from Yahoo Entertainment:
The coronavirus pandemic since its first cases were recorded in Ghana on March 12, 2020, has seen many press addresses from the ministry and other important stakeholders.

Prominent among these addresses are the televised addresses from the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

Our Manifesto: This is what YEN.com.gh believes in

His next address, which is going to be his 10th address in the series of addresses that is given, is expected to be delivered today even though there has not been any communication whatsoever regarding this.

Based on his ninth address when the president gave May 31 as a deadline for the extension of most of the COVID-19 restriction, Ghanaians are however waiting.

YEN.com.gh has however compiled 5 expectations of Ghanaians as they are looking forward to Akufo-Addo addressing the nation.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo Source: Original

Source: UGC

1. Opening of borders

This has been one of the boldest and best decisions the president took since the outbreak of the disease. The closure of the borders were announced by the country to ensure that no entry or exit is made to and fro the country via its land, air and sea points.

In his last address to the nation, Akufo-Addo extended the closure of the border to May 31, 2020.

2. Opening of schools

The closure of schools has been one of the things most Ghanaians especially students were extremely happy about. Even though per the academic calendar, students out to be preparing for examinations, most students are not really bothered about that.

Some private school owners and teachers earlier called for schools to be reopened since the reasons for which students were asked to stay at home as not being followed.

Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah however stated that schools were not going to open anytime soon.

READ ALSO: Kuwait deportees: 35 out of 231 Ghanaians test positive to COVID-19

3. Opening of churches

There have been calls for churches to be open for communal worship to continue.

Opening of churches would be a difficult decision for the government to make since it might be a contributing factor to increase in cases.

Head Pastor of the International Central Gospel Church, Pastor Mensah Otabil revealed that it would be a bad idea for churches to open.

4. Opening and operation of restaurants and pubs

There was an earlier directive from the Ghana Tourism Authority indicating restaurants and pubs could begin full operations by adhering to strict protocols. This information excited a lot of people especially the party poopers.

This directive was, however, countered by the Ministry of Tourism, stating that the statement from the GTA was nothing to go by.

Pub owners and other business owners affected by this directive are keenly looking forward to having this restriction lifted.

5. Lifting of the ban on the social gathering of fewer

The directive to hold a public gathering with a number, not more than 25 people, has disrupted a lot of plans made by people especially those who have planned big wedding ceremonies, parties, and funerals.

Those who cannot bear to have very small ceremonies are probably looking forward to this ban to be lifted to choose the next suitable date to schedule their events.

READ ALSO: COVID-19: Undertake mandatory testing before easing restriction  Mahama

In other news, a pressure group, Center for Ethical Governance and Administration (CEGA), has underscored the need for the country to be under lockdown for 10 days.

They, however, called on President Akufo-Addo not to ease restriction as the number of Coronavirus cases has surged to over 7000.

According to CEGA, government should use the 10 days to undertake or conduct mass testing to curtail the spread of the disease.

READ ALSO: Video drops as 245 Ghanaians deportees finally arrive from Kuwait

Ghanaian female accounting graduate and mushroom farmer recounts her experience | #Yencomgh

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Source: YEN.com.gh
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The death of George Floyd struck a chord for many on Staten Island, especially Gwen Carr -- the mother of Eric Garner.

On Saturday, she and the Rev. Al Sharpton led a prayer vigil at the Tompkinsville site where her son died while being taken into police custody in July 2014.

We have to send a message -- were not just going to sit still while they kill our people, Carr said to a crowd of more than 500 people. This is too much.

Floyd died Monday in Minneapolis after officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes. Chauvin has since been fired, and arrested and charged in Floyds killing.

Sharpton, Carr and others in the crowd called for the prosecution of three other officers who were present but did not intervene on Floyds behalf.

People walking by spoke up. How could people walking by see what they couldnt see? Sharpton said. We dont want just one -- we want all four.

BREAKING: Protestors march to 120 Precinct in memory of George Floyd Posted by Staten Island Advance on Saturday, May 30, 2020

Valerie Wilson, 70, said she came from Paterson, N.J., to take part in the vigil. She said she also protested at the site after Garners death.

I had to come out to stand in solidarity with them. I was here when Eric Garner had got choked, she said. When I found out his mom was going to come here today, I had to come out in support.

In his final moments captured on video, Floyd can be repeatedly heard calling for his mother, and telling those present that he could not breathe -- reminiscent of Garners final words as Officer Daniel Pantaleo took him into custody.

Pantaleo was fired for his actions in 2019, but a grand jury declined to indict him shortly after Garners death.

Like Garners, Floyds death has sparked protests across the nation, some that have led to violence and rioting. Following two nights of demonstrations across New York City, more than 200 people have been arrested and several police officers have been injured.

Both Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo have called for an independent review of what happened in Brooklyn between police and protesters Friday night in Brooklyn.

The public deserves answers, and they deserve accountability, Cuomo said during a press conference Saturday.

After the Sharpton-led prayer vigil, the crowd marched along Bay Street and Richmond Terrace to the front of the 120th Precinct stationhouse in St. George.

Organizers, mostly from Sharptons National Action Network, insisted that participants remain peaceful and not take part in any violent agitation.

At least one NYPD vehicle was vandalized with F*** 12 -- a reference to the police -- spray-painted on the side.

The NYPD said no arrests were made on Staten Island in connection with the rally.

Multiple elected officials from around the city, including City Councilwoman Debi Rose (D-North Shore) and Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, attended the event.

Williams addressed the crowd in front of the stationhouse as they chanted for justice and the arrest of all four of the officers involved in Floyds death.

There are times we have to disturb the peace and make people uncomfortable, he said. We want to make sure that black peoples voices are heard, because were tired. Were fed up.

Despite blocking a large portion of Richmond Terrace, the crowd dispersed after about a half-hour in front of the stationhouse. A sit-in that blocked Bay Street between Victory Boulevard and Minthorne Street took place for about an hour after the crowd dispersed.

Cynthia Davis, the president of the Staten Island chapter of the National Action Network, addressed the crowd in front of the stationhouse lending her support to some members of the NYPD and asking protesters present to pray for peace.

We dont have to be violent to shut it down, Davis said. Were not going to disrespect all police officers because of a few bad ones.
TCN News

The first-ever book covering the origins, spread and impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, Behind the Mask by Indian Muslim journalist and author Mohammed Abdul Mannan was released this week on Amazon in both print and digital formats.

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Behind the Mask is the eighth book by Indian Muslim author and journalist from Hyderabad, Abdul Mannan. He has previously worked for Deccan Chronicle, Indian Express, India Today, Khaleej Times, Doordarshan and Zee TV along with a rewarding career in PR and Communications in Dubai, winning the first Qatar Tourism Award for his bestseller, Dubai  A City Making History.

Mannan had already started writing his latest book on COVID-19 on March 22, in an attempt to detail an all-encompassing impact of the 21st centurys second pandemic through engrossing ground reportage. I finished the book in 55 days, he says, speaking to TwoCircles.net.

He had begun tracking the Coronavirus spread since late January and worked almost 20 hours daily to report, research, write and compile it into a book form. He informs that an exhaustive collection of 16 chapters in the book covers almost all aspects relevant to us, from economy to environment and vaccines to vacations.

Unfounded and unjustified hate against Muslims had not occurred in the past pandemics, he said when asked how is this pandemic different from the earlier ones in modern history. He discussed websites and social media accounts peddling fake news against the disease since the Tablighi Jamaat controversy happened.

The volley of hate against Muslims without any reasoning, he states, has spiralled into subsequently increasing attack on Muslim vendors, sellers and traders with mainstream media going all out in launching its anti-Muslim propaganda even in the middle of a disease outbreak. The Coronavirus is in fact the worst in terms of the number of fatalities and inflictions in modern history, he opines, as earlier medicines were not much developed but now with technology, a pattern of extensively tracing and warning people through social media has led to a wide network of false narratives and fake news spreading with almost negligible checkpoints. To address this, Mannan has dedicated a full chapter titled Infodemic, that captures these experiences and trauma of the Muslim community as a result of the Hindutva campaign of hate speech surrounding the Jamaat incident.

To address the huge communication barrier between vernacular speakers and English readers which is the main source of misinformation in India, he expresses his wish to come out with the book in languages like Urdu and Hindi.

A fully efficient vaccine is not possible in the next two years, but a relief vaccine may emerge by next year, he feels when asked about the possibility of a vaccine in the upcoming months. He implies that the disease is a dynamic one with impacts so majestic that data kept updating on an hourly basis, and with lockdown measures in place coupled with the world over scientists involved in developing drugs for the COVID-19, he has added a chapter on Vaccines for people to understand the circumstances the researchers are working in.

I think thats the timeframe given by most experts when the coronavirus curve will flatten, discusses Mannan, about a possible epilogue to his book. He affirms the looming uncertainty of the viruss stay and faint possibilities of drugs to curb it, disclosing his plans to publish an updated edition after September when a very clear picture emerges.

We have to reboot the world from every angle, he says, discussing the long term socio-economic impacts of living in a post-pandemic world. He informed that tourism and travel, the first-hit industries, would continue to suffer the most for at least two years if normalcy returns early. Additionally, the economy, health and education would require a total transformation even if a vaccine is developed soon.

Diseases dont see which religions we follow but strike at their will at the weakest, he states. Speaking about the multiple crises in government policies and state failure, he feels another book on our experiments with the Coronavirus pandemic in terms of governance and other issues will be ideal.

Addressing readers of Behind the Mask, Mannan says that the outcome of this disease is of concern to everyone and therefore at such difficult times, people must unite to observe safety guidelines irrespective of their cultural and religious biases. As a message to his readers, he adds, Communities have opportunities to find their names in history by excelling in various ways, and this is the time to be an informed and responsible community.
By Adam Borowski





The world is divided into three groups of people: those who believe in eternal salvation or damnation after death, those who see infinite possibility after death, and those who categorically reject any afterlife. When I was working in China a few years ago, I grew to appreciate the diversity of thought in the country. I know it sounds strange if you have never been to China; while it is true atheism is the prevalent belief system and proselytism is banned, there are all sorts of beliefs existing alongside each other.



Going to China was a relatively easy process. The most important part was getting my university degrees authenticated by the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Chinese consulate in Warsaw.



I flew to Beijing, and then to Chengdu. When I arrived at the hotel in Chengdu, I walked around the area surrounding the hotel. The first thing that struck me was the number of scooters; they were everywhere.



In the morning, I had a blood test. There were mostly foreigners at the hospital, some of us were joking about the test. You know, what our blood could be used for. Then, there was WeChat. I call it "the almighty WeChat.'' If you have never been to China, you are not going to understand the power of WeChat.



"WeChat? What's that? I don't need it,'' were my thoughts before coming to China.



When I started working in China, I quickly learned there was no way to survive without WeChat. Facebook? Forget Facebook. You don't exist in China without WeChat.



I was tempted to ask Chinese people in their 20s about the Tiananmen Square protests. I was curious to hear their perspective.



"It's not a good idea,'' my inner voice said. "Don't do it.''

I listened to the inner voice. Besides, I knew what they were going to say.



A Chinese woman who was helping me was surprised I could understand the Sichuan Dialect. She even called me a "smart man.'' In fact I did not understand a single word; I simply guessed what the conversation was about.



"British? American?'' I was often asked. I didn't bother to explain.

When I signed an employment contract, the Chinese version was legally binding. While I understood the English version, I could not read the Chinese version. Was it a risk? Probably. No risk, no gain.



When a three-wheeler was suspiciously following me in a dark alley not far from my apartment, I knew I had to exercise extra vigilance. Strengthening your situational awareness can save your life, just as English helped me when I had to find out why there was suddenly no electricity in my apartment.



How could I forget about the Chengdu Zoo? I definitely wanted to see the giant pandas. Strangely enough, judging by the number of glances, I attracted more attention than the pandas and screaming peacocks.



I am glad I had a chance to work in China. It is a complex country which is never going to be the same after the coronavirus. South Korea  in a delicate dance between China and the U.S.  is the next country on my list to explore.





Adam Borowski (adam.borowski1985@gmail.com) is a technical Polish-English translator and an international relations aficionado.


(CNN) Protests over the death of George Floyd raged from coast to coast -- with crowds breaking curfew in major US cities on another night of fury and frustrations.

Fires burned and and tear gas canisters flew in Minneapolis as people threw objects at officers. In Seattle, smoke filled the air as police in riot gear lined up outside stores. And in Philadelphia, firefighters doused blazes and officers chased a group of protesters down the streets for violating curfew. The words "I can't breathe" were scrawled on a building not far from where smoke billowed.

Looters ransacked stores on the famous Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles, leaving shelves bare and setting some buildings ablaze.

The National Guard dispatched to Washington, DC, to assist police handling protests around the White House, authorities said.

At least 25 cities have imposed curfews and numerous states activated National Guard forces in anticipation of another night of protests, sparked in part by the death of Floyd -- who was unarmed and handcuffed -- while in Minneapolis police custody.

The former officer seen in a video kneeling on Floyd's neck was arrested and charged. Protesters are demanding the arrest of three other officers at the scene.

Latest developments

 City curfews: A curfew is underway in cities like Atlanta, Philadelphia and Milwaukee until Sunday morning. Mayors in cities like Denver, Cincinnati, Louisville and Salt Lake City imposed evening curfews that will expire Monday morning.

 Officer injured: A Philadelphia bike officer trying to stop people involved in looting was run over by the suspects while escaping. The officer is in the hospital with a broken arm and other injuries. At least 12 other officers were injured.

 National Guard: Several states and the District of Columbia have either activated or requested assistance from the National Guard, including Minnesota, Georgia, Ohio, Colorado and Kentucky.

 21-year-old shot: A young man was killed Friday night in downtown Detroit where protests were taking place. Police had previously said the victim was 19 and that they could not confirm whether the victim was part of the protests.

Minnesota officials say outsiders are hijacking protests

State and local authorities said the violence in Minneapolis was being fueled by outsiders.

"Nothing we do to provide justice" for Floyd "matter(s) to any of these people who are out here firing upon the National Guard, burning" businesses and "disrupting civil life," Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz told reporters on Saturday.

The governor said he understands that "Minnesotans' ... inability to deal with inequality" and racism was the catalyst for the protests -- but he said rough estimates indicate only 20% of protesters there are Minnesotans.

St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter said everyone arrested in his city on Friday night was from out of state.

A CNN analysis of data from the Hennepin County Sheriff's office showed that more than 80% of those booked into jail on riot and other potentially riot-related charges over the last two days were from Minnesota.

Of the 51 people booked into jail between noon Thursday and noon Saturday on riot, unlawful assembly, burglary or damage to property charges, a total of 43 had an address listed in Minnesota, the data showed.

The data only covers people booked into jail, not necessarily all arrests. Hennepin County includes Minneapolis, but not St. Paul.

John Harrington, the state public safety commissioner, said that assertions about outside agitators come partly from arrest data as well as information from fliers and online postings.

Officials did not provide further details about who exactly was fueling the unrest and where they were from. Harrington said he hoped to release more information later Saturday.

US Attorney General William Barr said the "voices of peaceful protest are being hijacked by violent radical elements" pursuing "their own separate and violent agenda."

Without citing evidence, the attorney general said that in many places "it appears the violence is planned, organized, and driven by anarchic and left extremist groups, far-left extremist groups using Antifa-like tactics, many of whom traveled from outside the state to promote the violence."

A Justice Department spokeswoman later said the information underpinning Barr's assertion came from state and local law enforcement.

Vandalism in Los Angeles and Chicago

Protests were underway Saturday in cities like Chicago, Baltimore, Los Angeles and Washington, DC, where several Secret Service vehicles were vandalized with graffiti outside the White House.

A demonstration in Los Angeles led to clashes between police and protesters. Police vehicles were vandalized in Los Angeles by some protesters who kicked in the windows or sprayed the cars with graffiti. Police fired rubber bullets at demonstrators, who chanted "Black Lives Matter" and "George Floyd."

Aerial footage from CNN affiliate WLS showed protesters in Chicago vandalizing police vehicles. Some threw water bottles at police officers in riot gear, while others were seen lifting police barricades and throwing them at police cars.

In Philadelphia, police said protests at City Hall and the Art Museum began peacefully before a group of others began "committing criminal acts, including vandalism."

In Atlanta, police braced for more potential protests and arrests Saturday night. Members of the National Guard gathered at Lenox Square Mall after the police department said it would be assisted by about 20 other agencies to monitor activity and "protect vulnerable business districts and retail centers"

Protests turned deadly in some cities

A nation cooped up for weeks over coronavirus restrictions and suffering from resulting job losses saw throngs of people demonstrating in the streets of more than 30 cities on Friday.

People initially gathered peacefully in some places but anger boiled over as the hours passed.

At a protest in Detroit, one person was shot dead.

In Oakland, California, one Federal Protective Service officer was killed and one other injured Friday in a shooting at the downtown federal building during protests in the city, police said. Details about what led to the shooting weren't immediately available.

"It's about time this police brutality has to stop. I don't agree with breaking into all of the businesses, but I can understand the outrage after REPEATED incidents," Mackenzie Slagle said of protests in Oakland. "Because I'm a white woman, and I needed to show up for all my brothers and sisters."

In Atlanta, protests turned violent when a crowd set fire to a police car and smashed windows at CNN Center.

"What I see happening on the streets of Atlanta is not Atlanta. This is not a protest. This is not in the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr. This is chaos," Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said.

"Killer" was scrawled across a damaged police car in Los Angeles where protesters lined up along a freeway to block traffic. At least two officers were injured during the night, said the LAPD.

But other cities saw a contrast of demonstrators.

In Minneapolis, the epicenter of the demonstrations, some protesters knelt under a bridge and prayed while others tossed rocks at officers who fired rubber bullets in return.

Minneapolis and St. Paul were under a curfew after looting and arson broke out during days of protests. But hundreds took to the streets as police fired tear gas and protesters hid behind cars.

And in Springfield, Massachusetts, hundreds gathered peacefully.

"If you can tell me something better for me to do -- if you can tell me a way that we could change the world without trying to make noise like that, then I'll get out of the streets," Max Bailey, 22, said at the protests in Denver.

Video shows 3 officers kneeling on George Floyd

Derek Chauvin, the former officer charged in Floyd's death, is being detained at the Ramsey County Jail in Saint Paul, a spokeswoman with the state's bureau of criminal apprehension told CNN.

He is facing third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter charges. His bail has been set at $500,000.

Chauvin, who is white, and three other officers detained Floyd, who was black, in handcuffs Monday after he allegedly used a counterfeit bill at a convenience store. Outrage grew after a video surfaced showing Chauvin kneeling on Floyd's neck.

Chauvin had his knee on Floyd's neck for a total of 8 minutes, 46 seconds, according to a criminal complaint filed Friday.

All four officers were fired this week after Floyd's death.

New video posted on social media appears to show three Minneapolis police officers -- not just Chauvin -- kneeling on Floyd during his arrest. CNN has not been able to locate the person who shot the footage. The new video shows the other side of the Minneapolis police vehicle -- the side opposite shown in the first video.

A preliminary autopsy said the combined effects of Floyd being restrained, potential intoxicants in his system and underlying health issues, including heart disease, contributed to his death.

So far, there are physical findings to support strangulation as the cause of death, the medical examiner said but CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta cautioned it doesn't necessarily mean Floyd didn't die from asphyxiation.

CNN has reached out to the former officer's attorney and the Minneapolis police union for comment.

This story was first published on CNN.com, "Protesters break curfew on another night of fury and frustrations over George Floyd's killing."
SAN FRANCISCO (BCN)

Free coronavirus testing will be available for residents in San Francisco's southeast neighborhoods starting Saturday as part of an effort led by the city and the University of California at San Francisco, among others, to increase access to testing for underserved areas.

According to Supervisor Shamann Walton, whose district includes southeast neighborhoods, increased testing is needed for people in those census tracts because they've been disproportionately affected by COVID-19.

"The moment we knew that COVID-19 was affecting District 10 and other vulnerable populations disproportionately, we immediately began to demand asymptomatic testing for everyone in our communities," Walton said in a statement. "It's been a fight, but we are making some headway."

Testing for residents in the Bayview neighborhood kicks off on Saturday and Sunday starting at 8:30 a.m. through 5 p.m. at Leola Harvard School at 1520 Oakland Ave.

Then on Monday and Tuesday, more testing will be held at Herz Playground, 1701 Visitacion Ave., for people in Visitacion Valley and Sunnydale.

Another round of testing is scheduled for unhoused people in the Bayview on June 6 and 7 at a location and time to be determined, according to Walton's office.

Services will be available in multiple languages including English, Spanish, Chinese and Samoan. People who get tested can also get personal protective equipment, food and other items.

People who test positive will get access to health providers who can help them develop a care plan, Walton's offices aid.

Residents eligible include people in the census tracts 231.02 in the Bayview and Hunters Point areas and 605.02, which includes the Visitacion Valley and Sunnydale neighborhoods.

The testing is made possible through a partnership involving the San Francisco Department of Public Health, UCSF, United in Health.

More information about testing or volunteering can be found at www.unitedhealth.org.

Copyright  2020 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.
Vivien Wong, 40, co-founded Little Moons, a range of Japanese mochi dough balls filled with artisan gelato, with her brother Howard, 35, in 2010. She lives in London with her husband Ross.

Howard and I grew up helping our parents (who moved here from Malaysia) with their London bakery. It sold traditional desserts to Asian supermarkets.

One of our favourites were the mochi balls of sticky rice dough, filled with sweet red bean paste.

We dreamed of setting up our own business together. Our parents wanted us to go into a profession, however, so I got a job at Barclays, as a finance analyst, and Howard started at JP Morgan.

Vivien Wong, 40, (pictured) who lives in London, revealed the inspiration behind her artisan ice-cream brand Little Moons

Yet, I always felt like something was missing. Id often be working until midnight and I craved less structure and more creativity.

Then, in 2004, our father was diagnosed with cancer. I asked myself, if I was to die tomorrow, what would I regret not doing? Number one: starting a business. And number two: getting a dog.

I got the idea for Little Moons a few years later, after Howard went to New York and tried mochi filled with ice cream. It was a twist on the dessert wed loved as children.

Later, I tried a vanilla version in Japan. I loved it, but thought, This could be even better with other flavours, or fancy gelato. This was my lightbulb moment. We had nothing like this back in the UK.

It was 2008 and the height of the financial crash. My job felt increasingly uncertain, so I quit. My colleagues thought I was crazy, but I had to be true to myself.

Bitesize: Mochi balls in a range of flavours, littlemoons.co.uk

I spent the next two years perfecting the recipes from our flat, before launching Little Moons. We were the first company to make these snackable balls available nationwide. Our first flavour was matcha green tea.

My brother soon quit his job to come on board full-time. Initially, we sold directly to restaurants, such as Nobu, Yo! Sushi, Itsu and Wagamama. Wed often be up until 4am getting orders ready.

In 2015, we moved into retail. Now, were stocked in Tesco, Waitrose, Ocado, Selfridges and Whole Foods, as well as in Europe and the Middle East. We have 12 flavours, including salted caramel, triple chocolate and strawberry and cream, all made in our London factory. Last year, we made more than 21 million balls.

When I started this journey, it was scary. But I am so much more fulfilled now. And yes, I did tick off another part of my bucket list... and now have a dog called Cookie.
Brett Kepley is a lawyer with Land of Lincoln Legal Aid Inc. Send questions to The Law Q&A, 302 N. First St., Champaign, IL 61820.
SoBi riders flooded Hamilton City Hall with bicycles Saturday protesting the end of the popular bike sharing network.

Cyclists started arriving early afternoon, photographing themselves with locked bikes on forecourt hand rails and lamp posts. By dinner time Saturday nearly 100 bikes had been dropped off.

The bike-share system is scheduled to come to an abrupt end June 1 after council narrowly voted down a motion, in an 8-8 tie, for emergency funding that would have kept riders riding to the end of 2020.

That council vote was spurred by a surprise decision by Uber to bail early on its bike share operating contract with the city, abandoning the 26,500 residents who pay to use the network.

SoBi advocates arent ready to give up, however, as a fundraiser seeking $400,000 to save the bike-share network surpassed $54,000 Saturday with nearly 700 donors contributing.

The nonprofit group Hamilton Bike Share Inc.  which is willing to take over SoBi operations at least temporarily, if it can find a funder  kicked off the online fundraiser Thursday.

Grieved bike-share system users and supporters have taken to social media since the council vote to denounce the end of SoBi operations.

Following the vote against funding the system, council voted to mothball the 900 bikes at a cost of $130,000.

- With files from Matthew Van Dongen

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Louisville police spokeswoman Jessie Halladay said the department was trying to identify the officer who fired at them. Targeting the media is not our intention. There was a lot going on last night, and to be fair to both the officer and to Kaitlin, we need to take a deeper look at what happened and what prompted that action, Halladay said in a statement, according to the station. So we have said that we will do that and if there needs to be discipline we will address it.
President Donald Trump makes an announcement about U.S. trade relations with China and Hong Kong in the Rose Garden of the White House on May 29, 2020. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)

US Will Take Tougher Action Against Beijing Amid Growing Resolve to Counter Threats, Experts Say

The United States will continue to step up pressure on Beijing, observers say, after President Donald Trump announced a series on measures tackling threats posed by the communist regime.

In a strongly-worded speech on May 29, Trump decried Beijings absolute smothering of Hong Kongs freedoms, rampant theft of American intellectual property, coverup of the CCP Virus outbreak, and influence over the World Health Organization (WHO).

In response, he announced a range of measures: the revocation of Hong Kongs special status with the United States, sanctions on Chinese and Hong Kong officials, formal withdrawal from the WHO, the barring of Chinese graduate students tied to the Chinese military, and a review into Chinese companies listed on U.S. stock exchanges.

I dont think Chinese leaders have ever heard an American president talk to them this way in public before, China expert Gordon Chang told NTD, an affiliate of The Epoch Times.

The tone of Trumps remarks was not only adversarial but angry, Chang said, adding that the speech signaled that the United States has a whole new posture towards the regimethat of an adversary.

Relations between the worlds two largest economies have soured since the signing of the phase-one trade deal in January with the Trump administration signaling increasing frustration over the regimes responsibility in causing the pandemic and its continued lack of transparency.

Beijing should understand that theres a new tone in Washington, and theyre not going to like it, Chang said.

The Chinese regime has yet to formally respond to the administrations actions. Earlier this week, Beijing indicated it would take countermeasures if the United States were to proceed with punishing it over its imposition of the national security law for Hong Kong.

Trump said that Beijings move showed that it had broken its word given during the citys handover in 1997. The regime had pledged to allow Hong Kong a high degree of autonomy not enjoyed in the mainland under the framework one country, two systems.

China has replaced its promised formula of one country, two systems with one country, one system,' Trump said.

The president said Hong Kong was no longer sufficiently autonomous to warrant U.S. economic privileges, adding the administration would take action to revoke Hong Kongs preferential treatment as a separate customs and travel territory from the rest of China.

Trump said Washington would also impose sanctions to Chinese or Hong Kong officials involved, directly or indirectly, in eroding the citys autonomy.

Harry J. Kazianis, a national security expert at the Washington-based think tank Center for the National Interest, said the administration may sanction officials in Hong Kongs police department and in Beijings intelligence apparatus responsible for subjugating the freedoms of the Hong Kong people.

He said the administration may also use the Global Magnitsky Act to target Chinese officials for human rights abuses. The Magnitsky Act authorizes the U.S. government to punish foreign violators of human rights by freezing their U.S.-based assets and barring their entry into the country.

I think you are going to see the administration ramp up its approach on China, Kazianis told NTD, an affiliate of The Epoch Times.

Separately on Friday, Trump took further action to counter Chinese state-sanctioned economic espionage by issuing a proclamation blocking entry to Chinese graduate or post-graduate students from universities affiliated with the Peoples Liberation Army.

The move came amid increasing federal action targeting IP theft at U.S. research and academic institutions. The justice department in recent months has launched a spate of prosecutions against Chinese and American researchers and academics for theft of trade secrets, and failure to disclose funding from Chinese talent recruitment programs.

Chinese companies listed on U.S. stock exchanges are also in the administrations crosshairs, with an upcoming review into whether they should be subject to U.S. auditing and disclosure rules.

The Chinese regime has blocked U.S. regulators from inspecting the audit work papers of Chinese companies, saying they contain state secrets.

Critics say the lack of oversight of these companies puts American investors at risk, citing the growing number Chinese companies embroiled in fraud scandals, the latest being U.S.-listed Luckin Coffee which in April reported that an internal investigation found it had fabricated more than $300 million in sales.

On the tech front, the United States has taken a series of actions in the past few weeks targeting security threats posed by Chinese companies.

It recently tightened restrictions on Chinese telecom giant Huawei by blocking the company from being able to acquire, from global chipmakers, crucial semiconductors that power its smartphones and telecom gear.

The commerce department on May 22 blacklisted 24 Chinese companies and government bodies over their links to weapons development for the Chinese military. Earlier in April, the department released rules to make it tougher for U.S. companies to export certain types of advanced technology to China that might aid its military, even if the items are for civilian use.

Kazianis said the administration will get tougher on the regime ahead of the 2020 presidential election, given that China will be one of Trumps top campaign issues.

I think he is going to rightfully blame China for a lot of economic damage that has been done to this country, Kazianis said, referring to the regimes role in causing the global spread of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, also known as the novel coronavirus. And I think a lot of the American people are going to believe that.
The management of the University of Benin (UNIBEN) has reacted to the alleged r.a.p.e of one of its students, Vera Uwaila Omozuwa.

It was learned that Uwaila, who was a 100-level Microbiology student of UNIBEN, was r.a.p.e.d and killed by some unknown person while reading in a church at Benin City.

The Vice-Chancellor of UNIBEN, Lilian Salami, in a statement through the institutions Public Relations Officer, Benedicta Ehanire, expressed shock over the news.

He described the action as condemnable, adding that inflicting such pain on any family in this era of covid-19 pandemic is a wicked act.



While commiserating with the bereaved family on the loss of their daughter, Mrs Salami prayed God to grant her soul peaceful rest.

The Vice-Chancellor advised students of the institution to be careful of the company they keep and the places they visited.

He added that a delegation had been sent by the universitys management to commiserate with the bereaved family.

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Alleging "harassment" of cockpit crew by health officials at Delhi airport, Indian Commercial Pilot Association (ICPA), a representative body for the pilots of national carrier Air India, on Sunday warned that its members will stop flight operations other than the essential services if such "distasteful" treatment meted out to them is not stopped. It has also demanded clarifications from the airline on the safety protocols with regard to COVID-19.

In a letter to Air India Executive Director (Operations) R S Sandhu, ICPA has also sought clarity on the protocol to be followed by a pilot when a positive case of COVID-19 is found on domestic flights or Vande Bharat Mission, operating to bring stranded Indians home in light of pandemic.

The association alleges that "the SOP for movement of Indian Nationals stranded outside the country requires RT-PCR test for passengers. It has been brought to our notice this is not being followed."

Referring to the latest incident wherein a pilot on the Delhi-Moscow flight had to be called back shortly after take-off as it was learnt that he was COVID-19 positive, the ICPA said what the crew underwent after that was "traumatic". The rest of the crew were made to wait the entire day without any food or refreshments.

Also Read: Emirates lays off 180 pilots amid coronavirus crisis, more job cuts likely

"The health officials at the Delhi airport failed to comply with the government orders and the protocol to be followed for both the pre- and post-flight COVID-19 testing for crew operating Vande Bharat Mission flights was thrown out of the window. Hence, the crew were shuffled to multiple places aimlessly. The crew were harassed by the health officials at the airport," the ICPA stated in the letter.

On May 30, an Air India flight that was on its way to Moscow to bring back Indian nationals from there was forced to come back mid-away after the airline officials on the ground realised that the pilot of the flight was "mistakenly" given a "negative" report for the virus while he was actually tested "positive".

The letter directed to the executive director alleged that the pilots were being "forced" to be taken to a government medical facility for a period of seven days and that it was only after the institutional quarantine facilities refused to accept the crew, they were allowed to go home to follow home-isolation for 14 days.

"Not to mention, the post flight COVID-19 testing was violated. On return, the COVID-19 testing was not carried out and they were also not accommodated in a hotel as per the protocol," the ICPA said.

Also Read: Lockdown 5.0: MHA issues guidelines for phased reopening, restrictions remain in containment zones

"This can be construed as lack of coordination between Air India, Ministry of Home Affairs, aviation regulator DGCA and health officials at the airport," it said.

According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and DGCA's March 23 circulars, "If a laboratory positive case of COVID-19 is found in a flight, the entire crew has to be de-rostered for a minimum of 14 days. The crew needs to follow home-isolation during the time in their own country," the ICPA said.

Though as per the MHA order of May 5, the standard operating procedure for movement of Indian nationals stranded outside the country requires RT-PCR test for passengers, "It has been brought to our notice this is not being followed," the ICPA alleged.

"We are operating flights under Vande Bharat Mission as "National Duty" and the treatment meted out to the operating crew is distasteful. We do not appreciate the treatment perpetrated to our crew and if history repeats itself, we will not be in a position to operate any flights other than the essential services," the ICPA warned in the letter.

With PTI inputs
At the epicenter of the national anguish, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) mobilized his states entire National Guard for the first time. Bracing for a fifth night of violence and riots, he warned that the destruction of past nights could be dwarfed by events on Saturday night. Governors in other states also activated National Guard units. The Trump administration offered active-duty military forces to help quell the unrest, as the president intensified his rhetoric against protesters, launching tweets about the unlimited power of the military and the prospect of many arrests.
The economic downturn brought on by the coronavirus was apparent Saturday as thousands of meals were handed out to people in cars lined up at Kean University.

Two thousand families pre-registered to pick up the meals, a county spokesman said, which were provided in a partnership between the County of Union, Community FoodBank of NJ and the United Way of Greater Union County.

A car waits as volunteers distribute meals May 30, 2020, to more than 2,000 families at Kean University in Union, New Jersey. The County of Union is partnering with the Community Food Bank of NJ and the United Way of Greater Union County to help families during the COVID-19 pandemic.Matt Smith | For NJ Advance Media

Only those with cars were admitted Saturday. However, the county and United Way have been distributing food donated by Amazon and Whole Foods for those without a car at 19 social service agencies.

The County has also sponsored Monday to Saturday food distributions in Elizabeth at the Sampson Center and ODonnell Dempsey Center. Those locations have served over 200,000 meals since the beginning of the COVID-19 emergency, a county spokesman said.

Ayisha Mapp, of Plainfield, lifts a box of non-perishable items as volunteers distribute meals May 30, 2020, to more than 2,000 families at Kean University in Union, New Jersey. The County of Union is partnering with the Community Food Bank of NJ and the United Way of Greater Union County to help families during the COVID-19 pandemic.Matt Smith | For NJ Advance Media

Margarita Valentin, of Elizabeth, directs cars as volunteers distribute meals May 30, 2020, to more than 2,000 families at Kean University in Union, New Jersey. The County of Union is partnering with the Community Food Bank of NJ and the United Way of Greater Union County to help families during the COVID-19 pandemic.Matt Smith | For NJ Advance Media

Alexander Mena, with the Union County Department of Corrections, waits with a box of non-perishable items as volunteers distribute meals May 30, 2020, to more than 2,000 families at Kean University in Union, New Jersey. The County of Union is partnering with the Community Food Bank of NJ and the United Way of Greater Union County to help families during the COVID-19 pandemic.Matt Smith | For NJ Advance Media

Andrew Wilf, of Livingston, puts a frozen chicken in the back of a car as volunteers distribute meals May 30, 2020, to more than 2,000 families at Kean University in Union, New Jersey. The County of Union is partnering with the Community Food Bank of NJ and the United Way of Greater Union County to help families during the COVID-19 pandemic.Matt Smith | For NJ Advance Media

Manny Grova, of Eleizabeth, puts a box of non-perishable items into a car as volunteers distribute meals May 30, 2020, to more than 2,000 families at Kean University in Union, New Jersey. The County of Union is partnering with the Community Food Bank of NJ and the United Way of Greater Union County to help families during the COVID-19 pandemic.Matt Smith | For NJ Advance Media

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Rebecca Panico may be reached at rpanico@njadvancemedia.com. Tell us your coronavirus story or send a tip here.
The royal family has "no plans to review" Prince Andrew's retirement from public life after he stepped back from his duties "for the foreseeable future" in late 2019.

While The Queen is still working at the age of 94, it's all over for Andrew at 60, reports The Sunday Times.

The royal family has made the decision that Prince Andrew will never return to public duties following his headline-grabbing interview about his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein. Photo: Getty

The news that Andrew would take a step back came after his infamous interview with Newsnight about his friendship with the late convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

In the interview, Andrew was attempting to "set the record straight" following damning allegations by Virginia Giuffre that he had sex with her when she was 17 and had been trafficked by Epstein. He strongly denies the claims.

Following the interview, he was accused of lacking empathy for Epsteins victims and failing to show regret over his friendship with the disgraced financier.

Earlier this month, Andrew faced more controversy after a payment of over $650,000 was made to his private secretary and called an "unauthorised trustee benefit".

Amanda Thirsk, Andrew's secretary, who resigned soon after the Epstein interview aired last year, was given the money as payment for her work as trustee of the Prince Andrew Charitable Trust.

If that wasn't enough, Andrew and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson are currently involved in a dispute over an $11 million debt for their $33 million ski chalet in Switzerland.

The Epstein scandal involving Prince Andrew was reportedly "greatly upsetting" to the Queen. Photo: Getty

Now, Air Mail reports that The Queen is set to pay the debt after a court case was threatened by Isabelle de Rouvre, who sold the Duke and Duchess of York the ski chalet.

Earlier this year, it was reported that the Epstein scandal was "greatly upsetting" to the Queen.

This latest scandal involving Andrew, which is not going to go away any time soon, is greatly upsetting for the Queen and its also quite damaging for the institution of the monarchy, Joe Little, editor of Majesty magazine, told Yahoo News UK.

Its not something she would want to have associated with the royal family, so for them and for Buckingham Palace its an uneasy time.

Got a story tip or just want to get in touch? Email us at lifestyle.tips@verizonmedia.com.
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler said Sunday morning he had decided to extend his curfew order, first imposed Saturday, after a second night of protests.

The curfew will again take effect at 8 p.m. Sunday, Wheeler said.

The extension comes after protesters flooded downtown for a second night Saturday, defying Wheelers initial curfew order. By 9 p.m., demonstrators had moved to the east side after being chased out of the downtown core where they had gathered for hours. Over the course of the night, 48 adults were arrested.

The night before, a riot that broke out after hours of largely peaceful demonstration caused property damage throughout the downtown area. Storefront windows were shattered and businesses looted, and the Multnomah County Justice Center was ransacked and set ablaze as workers, inmates and others remained inside. One person was shot in the middle of a crowd amid that nights unrest, police said, but suffered only a minor injury.

The unrest, which unfolded in cities across the country, was in response to the death of George Floyd, who died while handcuffed and in police custody in Minneapolis.

Wheelers curfew is intended to prevent more mass gatherings that could devolve into rioting. It applies throughout the city, but the mayors office said Saturday it wouldnt be widely enforced in other circumstances. It includes exemptions for people traveling to or from work, seeking help in an emergency or those experiencing homelessness. People found to be violating the curfew could face fines of up to $500.

TriMet on Sunday urged riders to use extreme caution at bus and MAX stations in downtown, the inner east side and in the Lloyd neighborhood due to broken glass and other damage from the protests. The transit agency said it plans to provide service after 8 p.m. Sunday but may alter those plans without warning if violence erupts.

Some groups, like the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon, have come out to oppose the curfew, saying it leads to selective enforcement.

Mayor Wheeler & Chief Resch:



A curfew on the entire City of Portland is an extraordinary measure that will likely lead to selective enforcement. It is not necessary to allow police to intervene in acts of actual lawbreaking. We urge you to look for a less restrictive approach.  ACLU of Oregon (@ACLU_OR) May 31, 2020

Council on American-Islamic Relations of Oregon and the Oregon Justice Resource Center on Sunday issued a statement calling curfews an attack on our rights.

This is a critical moment to confront police violence and brutality, protect black life and support necessary healing for our communities of color through systematic reforms and resources, the two groups said. Instead, elected and public officials are responding to this moment using the same mechanisms that brought us here: aggressive policing.

City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty said on Twitter Sunday morning that she called for the curfew.

Friday night I stayed up all night and personally went to downtown Portland to observe the unrest that took place, and Portland, Im tired. The Black community is tired. (Thread) pic.twitter.com/83DB2Y2k8l  Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty (@JoAnnPDX) May 31, 2020

As the acting president while the Mayor was out of town last night, I was the one to call for a curfew this wknd. Given the incredibly high tension during this time, I want to give Portland a moment to cool off + reground ourselves, Hardesty wrote.

Hardesty encouraged the public to press for reforms to Oregons Officers Bill of Rights, a law that she said protects officers engaged in misconduct. She also urged Gov. Kate Brown to hold a special short session to address police accountability.

Im committed to working with my colleagues on how to address these issues at the local level, starting (but not ending) with the full review of all Portland Police Bureau specialty units and fighting for a fair police contract, she wrote.

In a press conference early Sunday, a grim-faced Wheeler blasted those who engaged in violence and looting in Portland on two consecutive nights. He said millions of dollars of damage were done to dozens of businesses over the course of both nights.

Wheeler accused people who engaged in violence of exploiting the moral soul of this movement as cover to destroy our communities.

Cities across the country, millions of people all across the country, are waking up to a dark morning in America, he said.

Speaking directly to agitators and rioters, Wheeler accused them of engaging in blatant lawlessness and selfish violence.

It no longer feels like sincere mourning for the death of George Floyd and many other black men and women in our country, he said.

The mayor went onto say that agitators are not led by a conviction to change systematic racism. They are opportunists using the cover of legitimate protests to sow fear in our communities.

Portland Police Bureau Chief Jami Resch also spoke during the morning press conference. She called the widespread property destruction in Portland over the past two nights unacceptable.

Our city has been deeply stained by this ugliness, she said.

Addressing Portland business owners, Resch acknowledged the burdens they face from the global pandemic.

We wish we had more resources to protect your property from arson and destruction, she said. Your relationships with us matter, and we hope this has not marred your commitment to our city.

-- Noelle Crombie; ncrombie@oregonian.com; 503-276-7184; @noellecrombie

Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.
A joint team of military and Police forces have rounded up some 14 persons suspected to be members of the secessionist group, Homeland Study Group Foundation, which has been pushing for the independence of Western Togoland from Ghana.

The group, led by Charles Kwame Kudzordi, an octogenarian, has undertaken several activities including the hoisting of the supposed flag of Western Togoland in front of the Volta Regional Coordinating Council on the eve of Ghanas independence day celebration this year.

The 14 who were picked up at Kpando Aziavi in the Volta Region were allegedly in crunch meeting, discussing strategies to destabilise Ghana, according to the military.

The Second in command of the 66 artillery regiment in Ho, Major Jalal Din Ibrahim, told the media the strategic documents intercepted from the meeting detailed a strategy for an uprising in the areas the group claims belong in the so-called Western Togoland.

The 14 were handed over to the Volta Regional Police Command on Saturday evening, pending investigations.

The military has also intensified its visibility in the region following what Major Jalal Din Ibrahim says is intelligence gathered on some planned activities of the group in the Volta Region.

The military assures that with the collaboration among the Police, BNI and the Military, all the plans of the secessionist group will be foiled.

---citinewsroom
An unidentified woman picks through clothing in the middle of Chestnut Street as clean up begins the day after protests in Philadelphia, Pa. on May 31, 2020. Peaceful protests over the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis last week gave way to violence, looting, and vandalism Saturday across the country. Read more

As the sun rose above Philadelphia on Sunday, the cool morning air was thick with smoke, and the streets were covered with shattered glass and burned clothes. Helicopters hovered overhead and stores security alarms blared, but an eerie silence overcame residents as they wandered through the streets, shocked by the path of destruction.

After Saturdays peaceful protests in Center City of the police killing of a black man in Minneapolis a week ago turned violent, people started fires and looted stores. The shopping district west of City Hall extending to the Rittenhouse Square area became the epicenter of the torment. Big-name stores like Urban Outfitters, Loft, Foot Locker, and H&M were decimated, now a shell of glass, ripped clothes, and spray paint.

Empty shoeboxes scattered the alleys and dumpsters were overturned. Water ran in the streets as firefighters doused three buildings on Walnut Street, including the Dr. Martens and Vans stores, which had been set on fire overnight.

 READ MORE: Philly to start curfew at 6 p.m., orders all retail stores to close; looting expands beyond Center City

All a statement against the citys deep racial tensions and a recent act of violence  a Minnesota police officer kneeling for nine minutes on the neck of George Floyd, who was unarmed and suspected of using a counterfeit $20 bill in a local deli. His life-ending takedown that was captured on video has sparked global outrage and many destructive nights across the country.

In Philadelphia, residents couldnt find the words and simply shook their heads as they stepped over piles of ash and peered into shattered windows.

I cant believe it, one man said.

I cant stop walking or Ill start crying, a woman told her daughter as they stepped over a scorched mannequin.

Many walls and windows in Center City were spray-painted with phrases like Racist cops did this," I cant breathe," and Justice 4 Floyd." More than 200 people were arrested Saturday  including 48 suspected of burglary or looting, four of theft, three of assaulting police, and three of weapons violations, police said Sunday.

Armed with brooms and trash bags, dozens of volunteers flocked to the Rittenhouse Square area to clean up the destruction. By noon, the scene was drastically different from what it was in the early morning. Most of the shattered glass had been swept up, and trash was piled on the corners. Business owners rushed to board up their windows to prevent further destruction.

 READ MORE: After years of pent-up anger, Philadelphia erupts

Jake Newman, who lives in an apartment on the corner of 17th and Walnut Streets, where a majority of the vandalism and looting unfolded, walked down to the street at 7 a.m. to start cleaning.

Thats what we do when its in your neighborhood, said Newman, who moved to Philadelphia from Dallas 10 months ago. It doesnt matter who did it.

Newman, 37, said he took his dog for a walk around 5 p.m. Saturday but hurried home as the atmosphere was thicker and the tension grew.

You could hear the windows smashing, he said. And you could smell the trash burning from the dumpsters on fire along Sansom Street.

Then there was nothing but fire and police sirens, he said.

 READ MORE: Some Gap stores reopen in Philadelphia as hundreds more prepare to go live soon

The looting continued into Sunday afternoon. Some people picked over the clothes thrown throughout the streets, while dozens ran in and out of Foot Locker and Modells on Chestnut Street, their arms and backpacks filled with sportswear. Some sat on the sidewalk outside Modells as the crowd grew, trying on shoes then heading back into the store to see if their size was still left.

For much of the morning, there was little police presence in the commercial area. Around 10:30 a.m., police arrived at Modells to disperse the crowd and guard what was left of the store. Twelve! Twelve! people yelled to warn their friends, sending many sprinting out of the store, while others stood in defiance to confront the officers with middle fingers. The Police Departments presence increased as the day went on in an attempt to lock down streets ahead of Sundays 6 p.m. curfew.

Around the corner, at 16th and Sansom, the owners of Philadelphia Runner arrived at their Center City store to find the windows bashed in, shoes and clothing stolen, and the floors flooded.

We came down thinking wed clean up, but I think its a little beyond what we were expecting, said Ross Martinson, one of the owners.

The flagship store was unrecognizable beyond its sign out front. The parts of the floor that werent covered in glass and tossed clothing were flooded. Demonstrators had tried to light three fires inside the store, Martinson said, which triggered the sprinklers to go off, flooding the building and forcing the apartments above the store to evacuate.

What is left is mush, Martinson said.

I cried on the way down and tried to get it out then, he said. And I go in and out of wanting to cry again.

We were looking forward to opening next week, he said. But now, the entire store will likely need to be gutted, exacerbating the financial stress the local store was under due to Gov. Tom Wolfs coronavirus-inspired shutdown orders.

I knew there would be a lot of damage, he said, but I didnt think it would be this bad.
Britains smooth and complacent Left-wing elite are so completely convinced of their goodness and rightness that they think they are licensed to behave like louts.

The behaviour of this group over the past few days has been a masterpiece of hypocrisy, spite and crudity.

Their quarry has been Dominic Cummings, the Prime Ministers principal adviser. The Left loathe Mr Cummings for a simple, furious reason. He knows how to beat them.

It was Mr Cummingss political genius that secured victory for Brexit, and again for Boris Johnson, in the December Election.

The Left's quarry has been Dominic Cummings, the Prime Ministers principal adviser. They loathe Mr Cummings for a simple, furious reason. He knows how to beat them

They simply cannot forgive him for this. They fear that Mr Cummings will beat them again if he stays in his position, and so they will do almost anything to secure his removal.

They are themselves highly skilled at the dark arts of politics. Some would say they are far more skilled than Mr Cummings, because they are prepared to break rules he would never breach.

Others might say this is not skill but old-fashioned Leninist ruthlessness, in which no holds are barred and the truth is unimportant.

The prominent role of Alastair Campbell among Mr Cummingss attackers tells us much.

Mr Campbell was even more powerful in Tony Blairs Downing Street than Mr Cummings is in Mr Johnsons No 10.

He operated as a formidable political commissar. But above all he was in charge of the Dodgy Dossier and the ruthless manipulation of public opinion that cajoled this country into the wholly mistaken Iraq War, a catastrophe that ought to have ended his career for ever.

But the attack on Mr Cummings, who has learned how to woo working class votes away from Labour, is so frantic and enraged that its supporters do not care how low they sink, or how discredited their allies may be.

And they sink very low. The Mail on Sunday reports today in detail on the falsehoods told about Mr Cummings, by individuals and by some media, which repeated them without confirming them.

We accept that millions of people are quite reasonably becoming tired of abiding by irksome rules.

But that is simply not a reason to demand the sacking of Mr Cummings for doing what any parents instincts would have told them to do.

There is another grim aspect to the events of the past week. Normal politics in this country is supposed to be forthright, with plenty of rough and tumble.

Nobody would want it otherwise. But in this case a level of personal malice and implied violence has been called into being that is positively dangerous to the safety of the state and the future of free democracy.

One example of this is the repellent tweet sent to Sarah Vine, wife of Cabinet Minister Michael Gove and columnist for our sister paper the Daily Mail.

This message was so violent and abusive that its author has now accepted a police caution, not that this begins to cancel out the shame of such behaviour.

The culprit has  unsurprisingly  worked in the past for The Guardian and Daily Mirror, both newspapers in the forefront of the hounding of Mr Cummings.

Another example is the snarling mob that gathered outside Mr Cummingss London home.

Some of the individuals involved in the display of foul-worded placards and the yelling of crude abuse turn out  unsurprisingly  to have connections with the theoretically impartial BBC.

Some on the Left, to their credit, have criticised this unpleasant development.

One witness who reported Cummings, teacher Robin Lees (pictured), drove 250 miles himself to collect his daughter despite the lockdown regulations

Marina Hyde, a columnist for The Guardian, described scenes outside Mr Cummingss home as distinctly disturbing when set alongside his account of his familys house having become a target for threats of violence. She added correctly: This is never right.

But others, notably Shadow International Trade Secretary Emily Thornberry, Mr Cummingss local MP, daughter of a diplomat and married to a distinguished judge, appeared to support the siege of Mr Cummingss home, saying The people of Islington South and Finsbury can always be relied on to say it as it is.

This is extraordinary language from someone who aspires to high office. What would the Left have said if one of their own major figures had been the target of the sort of abuse directed against Mr Cummings?

The outrage would have been beyond ballistic.

Ms Thornberry is far from the only major public figure to pile on to Mr Cummings in public, long before the full facts made it clear that the Downing Street adviser and his wife were in fact extremely worried about the welfare of their small child, and trying to act for the good of that child.

Bishops, MPs, and of course media celebrities, were quick to join in the attack, but not so quick to regret their initial fury when it turned out that the story was more complicated than they had at first imagined.

Perhaps most astonishing of all was the extraordinary accusatory verbal assault  effectively a party political broadcast  made on Mr Cummings and the Prime Minister by Emily Maitlis, the presenter of BBC2s flagship programme Newsnight.

Editorialising of this sort is clearly forbidden under the Charter and Agreement that the BBC acceded to in return for the licence fee.

This fee does not just pay Ms Maitliss 260,000 salary, but also for every girder, brick, cable, camera and microphone in the vast and costly new building from which Newsnight is transmitted.

How could they have forgotten this? How was it that nobody in the editorial structure of the BBC acted to prevent this grotesque breach of the known rules?

The answer almost certainly lies in the great pretence that the British liberal establishment have accepted the verdict of the people in the EU referendum.

Some of them may truly have done so. The vendetta against Mr Cummings shows that many plainly have not.

Another man who claimed to have spotted Cummings breaking the rules, Tim Matthews (pictured) revealed he made up his tale of events as a joke

They watch and wait for any opportunity to prevent the UKs final departure from Brussels rule.

They see Mr Cummings as the keystone of Brexit, and believe that if they can dislodge him, the Government might yet be manoeuvred into a delay that could be turned into a reversal of the referendum.

They want a counter-revolution. They thought this was their chance.

But the Prime Minister quite rightly refused to be bullied into sacking his friend and ally.

Mr Cummings, with considerable personal bravery, confronted and faced down his media attackers (some of them more or less enraged).

He explained calmly and patiently what everyone now knows, that he and his wife were acting for the best interests of their young son.

At the end of all the frenzy, Durham Police, who have not covered themselves in glory in this affair, confirmed that the main charge against him was empty and the second one was minor.

Politics is a rough game and in general there is not much point complaining about it. But the events of the past few days went well beyond Queensberry Rules.

This was not a fair fight, but an attempted mugging. Thanks to some very tough resistance, it failed. Let us hope that those involved have learned their lesson.
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THE National Oil Infrastructure Company of Zimbabwe (NOIC), Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) and the Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority (Zera) are making concerted efforts to resolve the biting fuel crisis, which threatens to paralyse the economy.





In the past week, there have been severe shortages of diesel and petrol, as authorities were caught flat-footed by increased economic activity, a result of more relaxed Covid-19 national lockdown measures.





Companies and individuals have had to contend with the shortages, which saw motorists spending several hours in winding queues  sometimes at dry service stations.





NOIC chair Engineer McKenzie Ncube said his office together with the RBZ and Zera had put their heads together to solve the crisis. He said the RBZ was allocating financial resources to pay for the fuel.





Said Eng Ncube: We are working tirelessly to resolve the fuel problem in the country. The RBZ is making foreign currency allocations and the situation will soon stabilise.





Zera acting chief executive officer Mr Eddington Mazambani said when the national lockdown was reviewed and relaxed, allowing more companies to operate, demand for fuel increased exponentially.





The fuel which we had as more people went back to work, was not enough, but Government is allocating more foreign currency to improve the situation, he said.





RBZ Governor Dr John Mangudya could not be reached for comment.





Mr Mazambani said as of Saturday May 23, the national fuel drawdown stood at 3,4 million litres of both diesel and petrol per day, against the average normal daily fuel demand of 2,5 million litres (diesel) and 1,5 million (petrol).





He said of the four to five million litres of daily national fuel consumption, 50 percent of it feeds Harare, while the remainder is divided among other parts of the country.





There is adequate fuel at the Msasa, Mabvuku and Mutare depots, which can be released by international traders as soon as payment is done. Government is making huge strides in releasing the money to buy the fuel, said Mr Mazambani.





We want to go back to the situation where we were before the coronavirus lockdown (in March). Although there was a shortage, most service stations had fuel.





He warned unscrupulous dealers diverting NOIC fuel to the black market, saying such retailers face the wrath of the law.





There are people who want to take advantage of the situation to make a killing, but we will be on top of the situation, said the Zera boss.





Energy and Power Development Permanent Secretary Engineer Gloria Magombo said she could not comment on the phone, preferring that questions be sent to her instead. However, she had not responded by the time of going to print.





Figures obtained from NOIC show that from May 1 to 28 2020, fuel traders took delivery of 94,1 million litres of diesel and petrol against a monthly demand of about 150 million litres.





Fuel traders collected 62 242 091 (diesel), 30 020 210 (petrol), 1 719 470 (ethanol) and 121 598 (JET A1).





Indigenous Petroleum Association of Zimbabwe (IPAZ) chairperson Mr Aaron Chinhara blamed fuel shortages on lack of foreign currency allocations from the RBZ.





He said the central bank last issued letters of credit on March 14 2020, thereby crippling the fuel traders.





The RBZ should stop subsidising fuel and allow private players to buy and sell fuel, said Mr Chinhara.





The other challenge is that if we buy fuel in US dollars we are charged excessive duty. We appeal to Government to review the duty on fuel.




PARIS, May 31 (Reuters) - France's coronavirus cases are continuing to decline, health officials said on Sunday, with 14,322 patients currently in hospital, down from 14,380 a day earlier.

The number of COVID-19 patients in intensive care fell to 1,319 from 1,361, the health directorate said in a statement. The hospital death toll from the virus rose by 31 to 18,475 - the 11th consecutive daily increase below 100.

Numbers for nursing home deaths will next be updated on Tuesday, the directorate said. (Reporting by Laurence Frost; Editing by Nick Macfie)
Egypt has announced an anti-Turkey alliance that includes Greece, Cyprus, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and France to confront Turkish moves in Libya and the Mediterranean. The announcement was made during a virtual meeting with the foreign ministers of these countries on May 11.

In a joint statement issued shortly after the meeting, the five-party alliance said it will focus on confronting the Turkish moves in the territorial waters in Cyprus, where Turkey has been carrying out illegal excavations in the Mediterranean under Cyprus sovereignty.

The alliance also condemned Turkeys escalated violations of Greek airspace.

The European Union condemned May 16 the drilling and exploration operations of the Turkish drill ship Yavuz that has been drilling off Cyprus since April.

On May 3, Greece condemned two Turkish aircraft flying over Greek islands, stating that the Turkish jets buzzed a Greek chopper transporting the minister of defense and army commander who were traveling over a small island in the Aegean Sea.

The alliance statement also criticized Turkish actions in Libya, and the memorandum of understanding on the delineation of maritime borders in the Mediterranean and the understanding on security and military cooperation, both signed in November 2019 between Turkey and the internationally recognized Tripoli-based Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA) headed by Fayez al-Sarraj.

On May 14, the Turkish Petroleum Corporation submitted a request to the GNA to obtain permission to start exploration in the eastern side of the Mediterranean. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also discussed with Sarraj May 17 the executive steps of the above-mentioned memorandum.

The anti-Turkey alliance also condemned the ongoing war in Libya and the Turkish military support for the GNA, calling on Turkey to stop the flow of foreign fighters from Syria to Libya.

The Turkish military movements in Libya have changed the course of the battles ongoing around Tripoli between pro-government forces and eastern military strongman Khalifa Hifter. The latters self-proclaimed Libya National Army (LNA) withdrew from al-Watiya air base May 19, in light of attacks by the GNA, backed by Turkish military battleships and airstrikes, according to Ahmed al-Mismari, spokesman for the Libyan army.

The alliances joint statement concluded that it will continue to hold regular consultations, which according to pundits is further confirmation of the alliance endeavors to keep Turkey at bay.

The statement raised the ire of Ankara, as the Turkish Foreign Ministry announced in a May 11 statement that Ankara was successful in disrupting the sabotage schemes of these countries in the region and their efforts to support putschists.

Egypt and the UAE are openly supporting the LNA, with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi announcing in December 2019, We support the LNA and we will not abandon it.

In April, the UAE praised the efforts of the LNA in confronting extremist militias in Libya.

Tariq Fahmy, a professor of political science at Cairo University, told Al-Monitor, The five-party alliance succeeded in achieving its first goal that is to raise Turkeys concerns, which was evident in the Turkish Foreing Ministrys statement that attacked each of the countries party to the alliance.

He said, Frances participation in the alliance is of paramount importance, since it is seen as an EU power, which could contribute to imposing expected sanctions on Turkey in order to protect Cyprus from Turkish violations."

Fahmy added, France will play an important role in the alliance because it is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, and thus can veto any decision in favor of Turkish moves in Libya.

GNA Foreign Minister Mohamed Taha Siala said in a May 18 statement that his ministry is preparing a file to document violations of the countries that support Hifter through quantities of arms found in al-Watiya air base, to be submitted to the Security Council.

Fahmy noted that France gives further impetus to the new alliance, as it is part of the EU naval mission, dubbed Irini, launched in April to enforce an arms embargo on Libya and stop Turkey from sending arms to the GNA to fight the LNA.

In early May, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar had called on the parties to the Irini naval mission to reconsider their support of the LNA. Meanwhile, the Turkish state-run Anadolu News Agency published an article May 10, accusing France of preventing Turkish military support for the GNA.

In July 2019, the GNAs Interior Minister Fathi Bashagha had accused France of sending troops to Libya to support Hifters LNA in his offensive on Tripoli.

Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron expressed his support for the LNAs fight against terrorism during a March 9 meeting with Hifter in Paris.

The continuous Turkish violations in Libya and the Mediterranean will probably cause the alliance to become militarized and form a joint military force to protect the interests of the involved countries and to step up security, strategic and information coordination against Turkey, Fahmy said.

Hassan al-Hassi, a Libyan political analyst, told Al-Monitor, The coming period will witness the formation of new coalitions such as the five-party alliance over the declared Turkish military intervention in supporting the GNA and threatening the interests of the concerned countries.

He added, Egypt is the guarantor of the continued cohesion of said alliance to preserve its national security on the border with Libya against the Turkish movements, especially following the recent defeats of the LNA."

During the African Union-led Contact Group meeting on Libya May 19, Sisi said, Libyas stability is a determinant of Egypts national security and will not tolerate terrorist groups and those who support them.

Hassi concluded, France has joined the [recently formed] alliance aimed to preserve its interests in Libya that are threatened by Turkey and its support for the GNA. This is why France will seek to [continuously] support and enhance the alliance."
The cause of her difficulties was Britains labyrinthine architectural conservation system, which ensures that any changes to a building deemed to be of historic importance, like the Harley Street townhouse, must be approved by the local planning department. Ms. Kanes home is in the City of Westminster, which includes some of Londons finest historical buildings, but whose planners are famed for their strictness and for having very particular opinions on what constitutes acceptable  and unacceptable  architectural interventions.

Translating such a building into a comfortable, functional contemporary home is almost always intensely subjective and potentially contentious. One persons interpretation of sensitive restoration can be anothers idea of architectural carnage, while a third might regard it as too timid. As Ms. Kane admitted, one of her challenges in navigating British conservation politics was having no knowledge of the planning system. Another problem was the difficulty of translating her needs and wishes into something that Westminsters planners would approve.

Like much of Marylebone, Harley Street originated as a speculative development by the Portland Estate, owned by the Duke of Portland, whose wife inherited most of the land between what are now Oxford Street and Marylebone Road, in 1741. Harley Streets construction began in the 1750s, and the house containing Ms. Kanes apartment was designed and built from 1773 to 1774 by one of the estates surveyors, John White, and Thomas Collins, a sought-after ornamental plasterer.
Vietcombank and Vietnam Airlines spend VND40 million a month on each employee, much higher than other enterprises.

Bearing adverse impacts from Covid-19, many enterprises have had to cut their wage funds to cut costs.





The finance reports of public companies show that two enterprises had labor costs of over VND10 trillion in 2019, or before the epidemic broke out. They were Vingroup and FPT.



As the corporation with the largest scale in the stock market, and operating in many business fields, it is not a surprise that Vingroup spent VND16.5 trillion on the labor force.



The figure included a considerable amount spent on the workers of Vincommerce system, which was transferred to Masan Group on the last days of 2019.



After the deal, about 30,000 workers of Vincommerce shifted to Masan, while the number of Vingroups workers fell from 65,300 in late 2018 to 51,000 in 2019.



FPT, the largest Vietnamese IT group, ranks second with the wage fund of VND10.3 trillion. At the end of 2019, the group had 29,000 workers, an increase of 1,000 over the year before.



Commercial banks, which make fat profit, are always generous in paying workers. Using high numbers of workers, banks hold the next positions in the list of the enterprises with the largest wage funds.



They are BIDV (VND9.7 trillion), VietinBank (VND9.5 trillion), Vietcombank (VND8.9 trillion) and VP Bank (VND7.3 trillion).

For the enterprises which specialize in providing services such as FPT, Viettel Post and banks, labor costs are the major expense item which may account for half or 2/3 of total direct costs.

For the enterprises which specialize in providing services such as FPT, Viettel Post and banks, labor costs are the major expense item which may account for half or 2/3 of total direct costs.



The non-bank enterprises which also have high labor costs include Vietnam Airlines (VND9.6 trillion), The Gioi Di Dong (hi-tech product distributor  VND7.9 trillion), Petrolimex (petroleum distributor), Vinatex (textile and garment), ACV (airport management) and Thaco (automobile manufacturer).



The Gioi Di Dong (Mobile World) is the listed company with the second largest number of workers in the stock market with 57,600 workers, an increase of 17,000 workers compared with late 2018.



The enterprise with highest number of workers is the Vietnam Rubber Group (VRG), 85,000, did not report their labor cost. Vietjet (air carrier) and Masan (consumer goods manufacturer) are also believed to have high labor costs, but have not reported the exact figures.



There are two names in the top 10 that caused a surprise to analysts  Viettel Construction (VND2.886 trillion) and Viettel Post (VND2.852 trillion), which far exceeded other enterprises such as Vinamilk, Hoa Phat Group and Sabeco, though their scale is smaller.



CafeF estimates that with 10,000 workers (the numbers of workers of the two companies were not shown in finance reports), the average spending on each worker was VND20-25 million a month.

Thanh Mai

VN banks eye post-pandemic business opportunities Banks are ready to seize business opportunities in the coming months as the COVID-19 pandemic has been basically controlled in Vietnam and domestic production and business are expected to accelerate soon.
People in Tokyo have been enjoying their first weekend since the Japanese capital ended a state of emergency that was declared due to the coronavirus.

Some cautiously made trips into shopping areas where many businesses have reopened for the first time in weeks.

Crowds were noticeably bigger in the popular district of Shibuya following the easing of restrictions.

Shoppers and staff were required to wear masks at all times in a department store. Floor markings reminded people to maintain distance.

Tokyo will allow gyms, theaters and shops selling non-essential goods to reopen on June 1. It will continue to request that restaurants and cafes stop serving food and drinks by 10 p.m.

It's a different story in the southwestern city of Kitakyushu, where authorities are calling on people to stay home amid a renewed surge in coronavirus cases.

Kitakyushu recorded new infections for seven straight days through Friday, reaching a total of 69.

More than 16,800 people have tested positive across the country and about 890 have died.
James "Bud" Mars in Japan, circa 1911. Robert Neff Collection



By Robert Neff



American aviator James "Bud" Mars was one of those dashing men in the early 1910s who the media  and public  loved. He was brave  said to be the most daring aviator in the United States  and he had ambition. He also had an imagination.



In early 1911, he and his team traveled extensively throughout the Far East and demonstrated their aerial prowess to astonished crowds. In an interview, Mars claimed to have given over 250 flying exhibitions in places such as "Honolulu, Manila, Sumatra, Japan, Java, Singapore, Calcutta, Siam, China, Korea, Siberia, Russia and Poland"  making him the first person nearly to circle the world in an airplane.





James "Bud" Mars, circa 1911. Robert Neff Collection

There is no question that he flew in many of these places. Newspaper accounts verify these claims. It is even said that he gave the young Japanese emperor a ride in his plane. But his claim of visiting Korea seems to be more imagination than reality.



If he traveled to Korea, it would have been in late March after his tour in Japan and perhaps on his way to Siberia.



Mars claimed that while in Korea he was "under government protection continuously" to protect him from the superstitious citizens. Allegedly, while in Japan, he had narrowly avoided being assassinated by poison by some superstitious Japanese who were intent on destroying him and his flying machine, so the precautions in Korea (which was in a degree of unrest) by the authorities seem rather reasonable.



Yet, despite the danger, Mars was able to give an aerial demonstration in Seoul. He claimed that he received the "greatest mark of favor" from the Korean monarch who had been so enthralled with the performance that he presented the aviator with an elephant. The aviator, however, thought of the elephant as "an embarrassment of riches" and gave it to a Korean girl (who had been following him), with the instruction for her "to be good to it."



But the aviator's claims to the American press aren't supported by facts in Korea. I am yet to find a contemporary Korean newspaper account of this supposed aerial exhibition and the anecdote of the elephant makes it even more unbelievable.





James "Bud" Mars in Japan, circa 1911. Robert Neff Collection
Tony Stamas, 54, has served as the president and CEO of the Midland Business Alliance for the past year and a half. Stamas is a proud Lancer from Bullock Creek and a graduate of Michigan State. He and his wife, Sara, have two children. Prior to joining the MBA, Stamas served our area as a state representative and state senator. He later served as the vice president of governmental relations for the Small Business Association of Michigan. He was introduced to business working for his family at Pizza Sams, a fixture in downtown Midland. The Midland Business Alliance represents over 3,000 businesses in Midland County. Last year, they worked with the Sanford Area Chamber of Commerce on a joint membership program. The MBA brings together economic development, the Chamber of Commerce, CBM Services, MITCON, and the Innovation Center. Some of the chambers efforts include Wake Up Midland, Midland Blooms, and the Farmers Market.

1. What do businesses need to do that have been impacted by the flood?

Were in the clean-up and assessment phase. Were working with the City and the County to make sure theres an accurate assessment of whats happened in the community. You can complete a flood damage report by going to www.midland911.org. You can also call 211.

2. Whats been done to help businesses impacted by COVID-19?

They were able to apply for zero interest loans from the Midland Area Community Foundation. Also, $280,000 in grants were given out to over 80 businesses by the Dow, Gerstacker, and Strosacker Foundations. We put together a tool kit you can still find on our website to get more information. Go to mbami.org.

3. What services has the MBA provided during these crises?

Both with COVID and the flood, you can go to our Facebook page and our website to get information. With COVID, weve been working to promote local businesses. For example, we had the gift card giveaway for 40 days. Each day, we gave a $100 gift card to a person. It helped the businesses and the people we gave the cards to.

4. What can individuals do to help local businesses?

Shop local, support our businesses. Buy gift cards even when the stores not open or to the extent were used to. Downtown Midland had the gift card program this spring, encouraging people to buy one at that time to use starting in June.

5. For homeowners and businesses, what steps can they take to make sure theyre hiring a reputable company with clean up or restoration after the disaster?

We encourage them to go with local companies, the companies that were here before and will be here afterwards. Still, do your homework, but you could have greater confidence in the services they provide.

6. How can businesses help one another?

Give business to each other. Thats a big help. Working with other businesses in your sector is important like we encouraged with COVID. Its important to help one another as we work to the point of re-opening Midland.

7. Final thoughts?

Weve got a tool kit for COVID and were also going to have one soon for the flood. We want to help people navigate through these incredibly challenging times. What we know, so much, is that one of our greater strengths is helping one another.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and other officials applaud after the vote on the national security legislation for Hong Kong Special Administrative Region at the closing session of the National People's Congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, May 28, 2020. Reuters



China's parliament, the National People's Congress, approved a decision on Thursday to go forward with national security legislation for Hong Kong that democracy activists in the city and Western countries fear could undermine its autonomy.



China says the legislation will be aimed at tackling secession, subversion, terrorism and foreign interference in the city but the plan, unveiled in Beijing last week, triggered the first big protests in Hong Kong for months.



Riot police were out in force in Hong Kong as its legislators debated another piece of legislation, a bill that would criminalise disrespect of China's national anthem, while the United States piled on pressure aimed at preserving the city's freedoms.



Dozens of protesters gathered in a shopping mall to chant slogans but there was no repeat of disturbances the previous day when police made 360 arrests as thousands took to the streets in anger over the anthem bill and national security legislation proposed by China.



Last year, the city was rocked for months by often violent pro-democracy demonstrations over an unsuccessful bid to introduce an extradition law to China.






A 21-year-old Indiana protester has lost an eye after being hit in the face by a tear gas canister while attending a demonstration on Saturday.

Balin Brake revealed he suffered the devastating injury at around 5.30pm in Fort Wayne while protesting the death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man who was killed while in the custody of Minneapolis police officers on Memorial Day.

After getting out of surgery on Sunday, Brake told DailyMail.com: 'Protesters were in the streets. Cops yelled disperse then began launching tear gas canisters into the crowd.

'One hit and burned my shoe. I began to run and as I turned around to see what was going on behind me another canister hit my face.'

Balin Brake has lost an eye after being hit in the face by a tear gas canister while attending a demonstration on Saturday

Balin Brake shared this photograph after having surgery to remove his eye. He will be having a prosthetic fitted after he has surgery to repair his occipital bone. He is pictured after surgery (left) and before his injury (right)

He added: 'I didnt feel a lot of pain because the right side of my face went numb, but I instantly knew my eye was done for. I couldnt see out of it and there was blood just leaking from it.'

Brake, who lives in Fort Wayne and works part time as a video editor for a local news station, said he was protesting peacefully because 'anger and violence isnt going to fix any of the problems were facing.'

He underwent surgery on Sunday and revealed his eye 'ruptured' when a 'FWPD [Fort Wayne Police Department] Officer unnecessarily and improperly fired a tear gas canister at my head hitting my eye'.

He had his eye removed and will have a prosthetic fitted in the following weeks after having surgery to repair his occipital bone.

He told his Twitter followers: 'This pales in comparison to the hardships African Americans have endured for decades. Stand up for what u believe in.

'I regret nothing. Ill say the same thing Ive been saying. This is chess not checkers. My eye is small collateral when you think of what the big picture is.'

Demonstrators are pictured at a rally protesting the death of George Floyd in Fort Wayne, Indiana on Sunday

He added to DailyMail.com: 'If I could be back on the streets for the protests today I would be. The police need policing.

'This white skin of mine is a privilege and I fully intend to use my privilege to advocate and continue to help my fellow people. Black Lives Matter.'

Sofia Rosales-Scatena, Public Information Officer for Fort Wayne Police Department, said in a statement: 'At this time this is what I can tell you regarding the eye injury of a male protester. I do not have an official name at this time but we do believe it to be the same person many of you are inquiring about from Saturdays protest.

'According to our officers on the ground the protester was still in the area after commands to leave the area were given. Gas was deployed in the area and the protester bent over to pick up the canister to throw it back at officers as many others were trying to do.

'When he bent over another canister was deployed in the area and that canister skipped and hit the protester in the eye. There was no deliberate deployment of gas to any persons head.'

Brake's injury comes just one day after journalist and mother-of-two Linda Tirado was left blind in one eye.

She was struck by what she believes was a rubber bullet or marking round at a protest in Minneapolis on Friday.

The 37-year-old from Nashville was left with life-changing injuries while photographing the rally protesting the death of black man George Floyd.

The freelance writer and author told DailyMail.com: 'Protesters said police were tear-gassing. I put on my goggles and respirator.

'It was pretty chaotic - people were moving in every direction. Then I kind of felt my face explode.'

The mother of two young girls, who had also photographed the protest in the city the night prior, added: 'I put up my hands and shouted "I'm press, I'm press."'

With her eyes filled with blood, protesters 'acted as my eyes when I couldn't see past the blood and the swelling' and got her to hospital.

Linda Tirado, 37, has been left permanently blind in one eye following the protest. She shared a photograph (right) of her backpack while she was in hospital. She believes she may have been hit by a marking round. They are reduced power cartridges tipped with soft plastic projectiles that leave a bright mark on the target

'I was in surgery 20 minutes after that,' she told DailyMail.com after returning from hospital on Saturday. 'I woke up this morning with an eye patch on.'

Doctors have told her she is going to be left with scarring on her face and will be permanently blind in one eye - although she hopes in the future she may be able to gain the ability to see light and shadows through the damaged eye.

It will take around six months for her wounds to heal, but she is grateful she didn't lose her 'photography eye so it's not career-ending'.

She explained that her eyeball actually split in two and it is believed the injury was caused by a rubber bullet or a marking round.

Marking rounds are reduced power cartridges tipped with soft plastic projectiles that leave a bright mark on the target. Tirado's bag was left covered with large splotches of fluorescent paint.

She is trying to remain in good spirits despite her prognosis.

'I am out of hospital!' she tweeted Saturday afternoon. 'Still covered in tear gas and blood, kinda pissed that I can't go get like a steak or a super artery-clogging cheeseburger cause everything is shut down, but there's a couple beers in the fridge and there's worse things than a lack of cheese fries.'

The devastation caused by rioting and looting in multiple US cities has prompted the black mayors of Washington, DC, and Atlanta, Georgia, to plead for an end to violent demonstrations.

Washington, DC: By Sunday afternoon, thousands of protesters had gathered outside the White House

Minneapolis, Minnesota: Businesses were burned to the ground in Minneapolis during Saturday night's protests. Images show volunteers digging and searching through debris of businesses along East Lake Street on Sunday for possible charred remains of rumored victims trapped in the building

New York, New York: Other images show glass and debris outside a Verizon store (pictured)

DC Mayor Muriel Bowser and Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, both Democratic women, said while they support Americans' right to protest, they wish it was not at the expense of the safety of their community.

Authorities across the nation have arrested more than 1,400 people in 17 cities since Thursday.

At least three people have died since the protests began following the horrifying death of Floyd.

'We're sending a very clear message to people that they have a right to exercise their First Amendment rights, but not to destroy our city,' Bowser told NBC's Chuck Todd in a joint interview with Lance Bottoms on Sunday morning.

'So we saw a level of just destruction and mayhem among some that was maddening,' she continued. 'Our crews are out right now cleaning up our city, and we are working with all of our law enforcement partners to ensure calm in our city.'

Bowser's comments came as rioters took to the streets in DC over the weekend, clashing with law enforcement all over the city  and even in front of the White House.

Lance Bottoms told Meet the Press that 157 people were arrested in Atlanta.

She admitted that 'there are no easy answers' on how to respond to Floyd's death or race relations between black people and cops, but agreed with Boswer in asserting that 'the solution is not to destroy our cities'.

Protests have escalated across the country all week after video emerged of Floyd being killed during the arrest in Minneapolis.

Protests have escalated across the country all week after video emerged of Floyd being killed during the arrest in Minneapolis

White officer Derek Chauvin was captured on video by a bystander kneeling on Floyd's neck as he begged for air

The cellphone video footage showed that Floyd was handcuffed as four police officers pinned him down.

Derek Chauvin, a 44-year-old white cop who has since been arrested, is seen kneeling on Floyd's neck for eight minutes as the victim repeatedly said he could not breathe.

Chauvin was taken into custody on Friday after protesters called for him to be arrested  and he was charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.

Floyd's family, as well as protesters, are calling for the three other officers involved in the arrest - J Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao - to be charged, too.
Its been a few months since I rounded up the beer notes and briefs on my virtual desk (which is not surprising, given that so much has been curtailed or shut down) so I thought today would be a good day as we heard into a new month.

First up is the news that a 103-year-old Massachusetts resident recently recovered from COVID-19 and celebrated by having a beer. Now, some beer snobs will turn their noses up at her choice, Bud Light, but I say that if you 1) beat the coronavirus and/or 2) live to be 103, you can drink whatever the heck you want. (To be fair, I think people can drink whatever they want anyway, but in the case of this woman Jennie Stejna, Id be glad to have a Bud with her, just because both her age and recovery is worth celebrating.) Cheers, Jenny!

Our second bit of news comes from the Czech Republic where the nations biggest brewery, Plzensky Prazdroj, celebrated the reopening of bars and restaurants in the country with a promotion named First Beer On Us.

Now before beer fans start planning trips there, be advised that the name is a little deceptive. Its actually the second beer you get free. The deal is that if you order a beer in any place serving Pilsner Urquell on tap, you will get your second beer at no charge. The country allowed bars and restaurants to reopen on May 25 and the promotion runs until June 7.

Third on our list: I understand that the idea of having beer delivered to ones home may seem sketchy to some folks who worry about underage kids pulling a fast one in order to drink illegally.

Yet almost half of the states in the U.S. allow some sort of home delivery. (Massachusetts is not one and the only New England state that allows it is New Hampshire.) the reason I bring this up is because of a group known as the Beer Buyers Club, which is doing great things in delivering harder-to-find brews to its members.

I realize Massachusetts  and New England in general  tends to be more puritanical about these things, but if legislators in 24 states see fit to allow this sort of thing, Im not sure why Massachusetts, which is one of the more progressive states in general, refuses to do so. (Im also a bit shocked that Vermont  a bastion for all sorts of liberties  also doesnt allow it.)

Im not sure I would indulge in this activity, but I know plenty of people who would. It seems a shame that a state that certainly is a leader in craft beer denies its citizens a chance to sample brews that they otherwise would have trouble getting.

Last but not least, Building 8 just released a new lager (aptly named The Lager) which is an alteration of the brewerys tasty LBer lager from last year. Its a German pilsner with a slightly different hop profile. Cant wait to check it out.
For several decades, America has been a deeply divided nation, but it has grown more so in the Trump era. Its not just that hostility from those in one political party towards those in the other has risen. Divisions between urban and rural America, between those with university degrees and those without, have also widened.

As the crisis in Minneapolis and other cities demonstrates, race also remains a significant fault line. Of course, the immediate spark for the protests and subsequent riots was the truly horrifying footage of last weeks encounter between African-American man George Floyd and the Minneapolis police: an officer is seen pressing his knee on Floyds neck while his pleas for help are ignored before he dies.

Protesters gather near the White House on Saturday. Credit:AP

Within days, the video precipitated nationwide demonstrations against police brutality. The protests have been turned into wanton violence and destruction in the twin cities and elsewhere. The law has to be allowed to run its course and already all four policemen have been fired and one charged with murder and manslaughter.

The mayhem follows a depressing pattern in American history. The record of state failures to protect blacks and others against police brutality is all too full. Ditto the looting and arson, killings and general eruption of racial violence in many American cities when injustices occur.
Fashion brand Jimmy Choo is understood to be opening a store at the Kildare Village retail destination, currently closed by coronavirus restrictions

Couture shoe brand Jimmy Choo may be about to step up with a rare and badly needed piece of good news for the Irish retail sector.

The brand, known for its expensive high-end women's shoes, is to open one of its outlets at Kildare Village, it is understood.

The retail village is currently closed due to government guidelines and has not announced a reopening date so it is not yet clear when Jimmy Choo will make its debut at the venue.

The famous shoe brand was co-founded by UK-based Malaysian fashion designer Jimmy Choo Yeang Keat. He is best known for co-founding Jimmy Choo Ltd, which became known for its handmade women's shoes.

The Village is owned by Value Retail and houses almost 100 boutiques with new arrivals in recent years including luxury brand Prada, DVF, Guess, New Balance, The White Company, Kurt Geiger Men's, Rituals and The Christmas Collective.

Before the pandemic, the luxury fashion outlet had experienced strong growth of more than 20pc over recent years, particularly following the opening of a 50m phase two extension in late 2015.

Footfall had grown strongly, by over a quarter, after the opening of the new extension, with international visitor numbers and tax-free sales in particular growing strongly.

But the closure of retail due to the pandemic has come as a major blow to the sector. New figures on Friday showed retail sales collapsed by more than a third in April, making it the worst month for shops in more than a decade. The latest figures from the Central Statistics Office show there was a 35.4pc fall in the month compared to March.

International shopping centre owner and operator Hammerson owns a 40pc stake in Kildare Village, as well as a 50pc stake in the Dundrum, Ilac and Pavilions shopping centres in Dublin.

It was announced last week that Hammerson chief executive David Atkins will step down because the company is facing a crisis due to coronavirus-induced shop closures and a collapse in rent.

Kildare Village declined to comment on the expected arrival of Jimmy Choo when contacted for comment.
Popular Nigerian rapper, Slimcase has begged for forgiveness from Nigerians after he left a thoughtless comment on Instagram.

Social media users slammed the rapper over his response to someone attempting to bring his attention to the unjust killing of a 16-year old girl named Tina.

Tina was allegedly shot and killed by the Police in Lagos.

Taking to the photo-sharing app, Slimcase reacted to the death of an African-American man, identified as George Floyd, who was killed by some police officers in the US.

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Sharing a photo of Flyod, he wrote;

FAME AFTER DEATH any positive blow wey I gats blow God Let me blow am now that I am alive not after I am dead George A sacrifice for d change in black history.

A follower took to his comment section to tackle him for turning a blind eye to Tinas death.

Responding to the comment, the rapper, shocked many as he insinuated that Floyds death was global issue while Tinas death is for local news channels to publicize.

In his words:

We talking about a global pandemic here. Leave the Lagos girl for Channels to talk about am.

The rappers comment caused a stir on social media.

Realizing his mistake, Slimcase released a video in which he apologized for his insensitive comment and he wrote;

I am just knowing about the little girl cus I hardly check posts I am so so sorry I never meant it that way so sorry I apologize

Read Also: Toyin Abraham Calls For Justice Over 16-Year-Old Murdered By A Police Man

See the comment and video below:
FILE PHOTO: Turkish Minister of Energy Fatih Donmez speaks during a ceremony to mark the completion of the sea part of the TurkStream gas pipeline, in Istanbul

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey may begin oil exploration in the eastern Mediterranean within three or four months under a deal it signed with Libya that was condemned by others in the region including Greece, Energy Minister Fatih Donmez said on Friday.

Libya's internationally-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) signed the maritime delimitation deal last year. Turkey says it creates an exclusive economic zone from its southern coast to Libya's northeast coast, and protects rights to resources.

Greece, Cyprus and others oppose the accord and call it illegal, an accusation Ankara has rejected. The European Union also opposes the maritime deal that was signed alongside an agreement for Turkey to provide military support to the GNA, which has battled forces based in eastern Libya for more than a year.

Speaking at a ceremony to mark the launch of Turkey's Fatih oil-and-gas drilling ship to the Black Sea, Donmez said Turkish Petroleum (TPAO), which had applied for an exploration permit in the eastern Mediterranean, would begin operations in areas under its license after the process was completed.

"Within the framework of the agreement we reached with Libya we will be able to start our oil exploration operations there within three to four months," Donmez said. Turkey's new Kanuni drill ship would also go to the Mediterranean later this year, he added.

The move could further stoke tensions in the region, where Turkey has been at loggerheads for years with Greece, Cyprus, Egypt and Israel over ownership of natural resources. Turkey could also face possible EU sanctions over its operations.

Separately, Donmez said the Fatih drill ship would hold its first operation in the Black Sea on July 15, the anniversary of a 2016 failed coup attempt. Friday also marked the anniversary of Istanbul's conquest by the Ottoman Empire in 1453.

(Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu)
The management of the University of Benin (UNIBEN) has decried the news of the rape and subsequent murder of one of its students, Vera Omozuwa.

The victim was a 100-level Microbiology student of the institution before her travail.

The Vice-Chancellor of UNIBEN, Lilian Salami, in a statement through the institutions Public Relations Officer, Benedicta Ehanire, described the news as shocking.

In the statement made available to journalists on Sunday in Benin, the VC said the actions were condemnable and should not be condoned by any society.

She said the current COVID-19 pandemic was already hard on everyone and that compounding it with inflicting additional pain on any family was a wicked act.

While commiserating with the bereaved family on the loss of their daughter, Mrs Salami prayed God to grant her soul peaceful rest.

The vice-chancellor urged students of the institution and indeed all young people to be wary of the company they kept and the places they visited.

Meanwhile, a delegation had been sent by the universitys management to commiserate with the bereaved family.

(NAN)
Childcare providers want an extra 60m from the Government to fund the reopening of the sector for the rest of the year while operating under public health guidelines that are likely to severely limit the number of children they can look after.

New guidance on infection prevention and control in creches and care facilities has been issued to the sector ahead of plans to reopen from June 29 for the children of essential workers and those returning to work.

Children and childminders will be grouped into so-called 'play-pods' that will limit their interactions with others. While the new guidance has been welcomed by the sector, childcare providers want more clarity on what funding will be available to allow creches to reopen and remain financially viable while they are operating at reduced capacity.

Children's Minister Katherine Zappone is facing calls to divert as much as 30m that has been set aside for at-home childcare for healthcare workers to creches and childcare facilities so they can prepare to reopen and find additional funding from Government to cover increased costs.

Expand Close PRESSURE: Suas Suas wants Paschal Donohoe to be appointed to the childcare taskforce. Photo: Leon Farrell / Photocall Ireland / Facebook

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Whatsapp PRESSURE: Suas Suas wants Paschal Donohoe to be appointed to the childcare taskforce. Photo: Leon Farrell / Photocall Ireland

As well as limits on numbers, many providers will have to adapt their facilities in order to comply with the new guidelines.

Early Childhood Ireland, which has almost 3,500 childcare members, estimates there will be a funding gap of around 60m that the Government needs to cover until at least the end of the year. Its director of policy, Frances Byrne, said of the funding gap if the sector needs to operate at a reduced level: "You are probably looking at 60m.

"We hope that the Government will make a realistic offer around funding so at least people can plan," she said.

"That would be hugely welcome and ideal. It's not huge money. It's not propaganda to say that no parent is going back to work full time at the end of the pandemic unless there are creches there."

Seas Suas, which represents private providers, estimates that only one-in-five children will return to childcare and that it will take between six and 12 months for this situation to improve with many parents continuing to work from home. "That collapse in demand -in the context of a wider national economic downturn -makes reopening and staying opening the core issue. Guidelines, while welcome, do not pay the bills," Regina Bushell, the chair of Seas Suas, said.

"Mortgages, salaries, utilities and more must be paid for in order to operate. That is before a single euro is spent on Covid-19-related safety requirements. Capital grant support makes little or no difference because that is not where the crisis resides."

Ms Bushell believes the majority of the 4.2m per week fund announced by Ms Zappone for at-home childcare for healthcare workers for the period between May 8 and June 29 is unspent. This leaves around 30m that can be redirected to care providers up until the end of the year, she argued.

The organisation also wants Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe to be appointed to the childcare taskforce. "This is a financial crisis and needs the active involvement of the minister who oversees financials," Ms Bushell said.

Ms Zappone's spokesperson said the minister and the Department of Children are carrying out extensive work on the funding model for childcare providers in conjunction with the minister for finance.

"This guidance has been made available to all childcare providers and childminders, who will now be asked to apply the guidance to their setting and see how much capacity they can offer, in accordance with the guidelines," the spokesperson said.

"The information provided by the sector following receipt of the guidance will inform the extensive work done to date on a funding model by the department.

"The department is preparing a range of additional guidance and resources to assist the sector to prepare for reopening. These will start to issue in the coming days and continue over the four remaining weeks before opening."

A source close to the minister said: "Until we had that health advice we couldn't progress the funding model. There is huge work done in relation to funding and what the sector needs but we can't finalise the plan until we know what's needed. They [childcare providers] need to come back to us and tell us how much it will cost."

Mr Donohoe declined to comment yesterday.

The guidelines announced last Friday were drawn up by the HSE Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) and will see children grouped into 'play-pods', a model that restricts interactions between closed groups of children and adults as an alternative to social distancing, which is not possible with young children.

The size of each pod will be in line with childcare regulations. For example, children under the age of one can be in a group of six with two supervising adults.

There will be staggered arrival times for each pod and the use of communal facilities will also be staggered to avoid crowding.

Pods will share the same toys and items like jigsaws, puzzles and other toys that children are inclined to put in their mouths must be capable of being washed and disinfected.
Amid record unemployment, millions of Americans are expected to struggle to pay their rent or mortgage in June.

Already, more than 8 percent of U.S. homeowners, about 4.7 million households, have signed up for mortgage relief programs, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. That is up more than 2,000 percent since early March.

The crisis facing the country's 40 million renters is even more dire, sparking calls for rent strikes across the country and a $100 billion bailout. The number of tenants not paying their rent on time has doubled since the crisis, industry officials say. Amherst, a data and analytics real estate firm, estimates up to 28 million renters, or 22.5 percent of all U.S. households, are at risk of eviction or foreclosure because of the coronavirus.

Here are some answers to common questions about moratoriums on evictions and foreclosures passed due to the pandemic.

Q: I'm a renter. Can I be evicted?

A: It depends.

The $2 trillion economic rescue legislation passed by Congress, the Cares Act, prohibits rental evictions for 120 days on certain properties. Once that ban expires on July 25, landlords must give tenants 30 days notice before eviction, according to the law.

Among those covered by that moratorium are properties that receive federal assistance or have loans backed by the government-controlled mortgage companies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. About 30 percent of renters fall into those groups, according to the Urban Institute.

Renters' level of protection can vary widely by state, with some people covered by overlapping eviction bans established by governors, state legislators or the courts, said Emily A. Benfer, director of the Health Justice Advocacy Clinic at Columbia Law School. In some states landlords are still allowed to file eviction notices even if the courts are closed, and in others late fees can continue to accumulate through the moratoriums, said Benfer, who has been maintaining a database of eviction policies during the coronavirus crisis.

Seven states, including Arkansas, Oklahoma and Ohio, never enacted state-level eviction bans, and the majority of moratoriums, including in Colorado, Rhode Island and several other states, are set to expire in a few weeks, she said.

Q: How can I determine whether my home is covered by the federal moratorium?

A: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have created new online tools for renters to determine whether they live in properties covered by the Cares Act moratorium.

The site for Fannie Mae can be found at https://www.knowyouroptions.com/rentersresourcefinder.

The site for Freddie Mac can be found at https://myhome.freddiemac.com/renting/lookup.html.

Q: How can I determine whether I am covered by a state-level eviction moratorium?

A: Ask local officials whether there are any eviction bans in place and when they expire. The National Consumer Law Center is also maintaining a list of what states are doing to help local residents, including protection from eviction. It can be found at https://www.nclc.org/issues/foreclosures-and-mortgages/covid-19-state-foreclosure-moratoriums-and-stays.html.

Q: Is there a federal program to help renters?

A: Some Democrats have called for a $100 billion national rental assistance program, but it is unclear whether it will gain enough support among Republicans to make it into the next stimulus bill.

Housing advocates say they are hopeful, arguing that it is the only way to avoid a major crisis in the rental market. Either Congress gets ahead of the problem and establishes a rental assistance program now or it waits until an emergency emerges, said David M. Dworkin, who was a senior adviser in the Treasury Department on housing finance during the Obama and Trump administrations. If Congress waits "the resulting crisis costs us much more money as well as the personal and community-wide devastation that comes with it," said Dworkin, chief executive of the National Housing Conference.

In the meantime, renters who have lost their jobs or are sick because of the virus should immediately contact their landlord and alert them - in writing - of their hardships.

Many states have also established local rental assistance programs. Utah launched a $4 million program to help tenants cover their rent payments, for example. Nevada is using $2 million from a state settlement with Wells Fargo for a renter assistance program, while the city of Austin, Texas, is determining who is eligible for its $1.2 million program through a lottery.

Q: What if I am a homeowner facing foreclosure?

A: The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the regulator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, have directed mortgage servicers to halt all new foreclosure actions and suspend those already in progress.

The HUD order applies to single-family homeowners unable to pay their Federal Housing Administration-backed mortgages. There are 8.1 million active FHA loans.

The moratorium also applies to loans backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which covers about half of the country's mortgages, or about 28 million borrowers. (The government seized control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in 2008 as the housing market unraveled, and the firms' losses piled up. The companies, which play a critical part in the housing market, remain under federal oversight.)

The moratoriums were recently extended and now don't expire until June 30.

Q: How do I figure out if my mortgage is backed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac?

A: Homeowners can look up whether their loans are backed by the mortgage companies through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's websites.

Fannie Mae's online form can be found at https://www.knowyouroptions.com/loanlookup.

Freddie Mac can be found at https://ww3.freddiemac.com/loanlookup/.

Q: What if I don't have an FHA loan or one backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac?

A: About 5 million homeowners with loans valued at $3.7 trillion are not covered by the HUD or FHFA moratoriums, according to Inside Mortgage Finance, an industry research group.

These homeowners should ask their mortgage servicer, the company that collects their loan payments, who owns their mortgage and what options are available to borrowers.

"Document every conversation and follow up in a letter or email noting what was discussed in your phone call. This will help you and the next person you talk to when you call back or they call you," said Dworkin of the National Housing Conference.

Q: I haven't missed a mortgage payment yet but just lost my job. What are my options?

A: While it can take months or years for someone to lose their home through the foreclosure process, many Americans fell behind as companies shuttered their doors to guard against the spread of the coronavirus and laid off workers.

If you fear falling behind on your payments, don't ignore the problem, said Andrea Bopp Stark, an attorney at the National Consumer Law Center. "It is easy to get overwhelmed right now with everything that is going on but a borrower having trouble paying their mortgage must be proactive in trying to resolve the delinquency," Stark said. "There is most likely help available."

For borrowers with loans backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, mortgage servicers have been ordered to offer generous forbearance programs allowing borrowers to skip their mortgage payments for as long as a year. Many people in forbearance programs will not have to make another mortgage payment until 2021, according to industry analysts.

Borrowers must apply for the mortgage relief through their mortgage servicer, which collects monthly payments, and will decide how long the assistance will last.

But, again, the level of relief a homeowner receives depends on who owns their loan. A borrower having trouble navigating the process could contact a non-profit housing counselor. HUD-certified housing counselors can be found at https://www.hud.gov/findacounselor%20[hud.gov].

Q: If my lender allows me to temporarily skip my mortgage payments, do I have to repay the payments I skip?

A: Mortgage servicers are expected to allow millions of borrowers affected by the crisis to skip some mortgage payments. But the money will have to be paid back. Think of it as a loan rather than a gift.

Some borrowers will be told to repay the entire past due amount all at once, while others will be given several months to catch up. But regulators are encouraging banks to simply extend the length of the borrower's mortgage rather than forcing them to catch up in a short amount of time.

Mortgage deferral is the "gold standard," said Dworkin. That means the borrower doesn't pay it back until they sell their house or at the end of their mortgage term, he said.

"The tricky part is that they can't offer it to you until you are able to pay your mortgage again, so stay in touch while you are out of work, and be assertive about deferral when you are ready to resume your mortgage payments," said Dworkin.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday praised the spirit of innovation among Indians during his 65th Mann Ki Baat radio programme and said it is helping the country fight the coronavirus pandemic.

One more thing, which has touched my mind, is innovation in this hour of crisis. All the countrymen from villages to cities, from our small traders to startups, our labs are inventing new ways, innovating in the fight against corona, he said on Mann Ki Baat programme.

Click here for full Covid-19 coverage

In addition to the will to change any situation, a lot depends on innovation. Thousands of years of mankinds journey have reached such a modern era by continuous, innovation, therefore, these special innovations are also a great foundation for our victory over this epidemic, he said.

PM Modi gave the very interesting example of Rajendra Yadav from Nashik in Maharashtra.

He said Yadav, a farmer in Satna, has built a sanitation machine by connecting it to his tractor to save his village from coronavirus infection. And this innovative machine is working very effectively, the Prime Minister added.

The Prime Ministers Mann Ki Baat address came on the final day of the fourth phase of nationwide lockdown to control the spread of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19).

His address came a day after the Union ministry of home affairs (MHA) issued new guidelines for phased re-opening of all activities outside containment zones for the next one month beginning June 1.

PM Modi also said people have to be more cautious after a major chunk of the economy has been opened up.

With all the precautions, aeroplanes have started flying and the industry has started running gradually, meaning a large part of the economy has opened up. In such a situation, we need to be more vigilant, PM Modi said on Mann Ki Baat.

There should be a rule of two yards and people should use masks and as far as possible, stay inside. You must follow all these things and there should not be any slop in it, he said.

The Prime Minister had announced a 21-day nationwide lockdown on March 24 as a precautionary measure to contain the infections. The lockdown was later extended thrice till May 31.

India recorded more than 8,000 new cases of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in a single day for the first time as the tally surged to 182,143 and death toll stood at 5,164, according to the Union health ministry.

Data showed there were 8,380 fresh Covid-19 cases, up from Saturdays 7,964, and 193 fatalities in the last 24 hours. The number of deaths went down from 265 reported on Saturday, a day before the fourth phase of the nationwide lockdown was scheduled to end.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-31 22:22:10|Editor: huaxia

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SWEIDA, Syria, May 31 (Xinhua) -- "I had been dreaming about my wedding day for two years, but this dream remains a dream," said Rama whose wedding party was limited to a small family gathering as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Like all other brides, Rama couldn't have her dream wedding as all wedding halls in Syria were closed as part of the government instructions to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This case applies to all Syrian areas, but in Sweida province in southern Syria, the impact on wedding parties was bigger as the tradition of the people there is to have a three-day wedding with several activities done by the bride and the groom as well as their families. But now, everything has changed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We had been planning our wedding for several months and we wanted it to be a big wedding attended by all our friends and family members, but now we can't have the day we envisioned," said the bride.

Rama and her groom held a small gathering at the house of her father-in-law. Xinhua reporter in Sweida attended the small party but didn't witness any form of traditional celebration as people maintained social distancing.

Roa Sobeh, another 26-year-old bride, had two choices; either to postpone her wedding for another year or to get married in these circumstances.

She finally settled to have her wedding now than to push it back another year.

"I decided to have my wedding sooner and I think I can make another party when the situation gets better," the new bride told Xinhua, adding that safety is more important.

Her husband, Khaled, 31, told Xinhua that most weddings in Sweida have been either canceled, postponed, or done on a low scale.

He also pointed out that some of the newly-weds found in the current situation a chance to get married without additional fees as doing the wedding on a lower scale doesn't cost much.

"Everything is expensive these days, and maybe this is an opportunity for people to get married without worrying about the high cost of weddings nowadays," he said.

In Sweida, which is largely inhabited by the Druze minority in Syria, the clergymen of the Druze minority also empathized the government's instructions to maintain social distancing and shut down wedding halls.

Sheikh Hamoud Hinnawi, a revered Druze sheikh, told Xinhua that the people in Sweida have largely abided by the social distancing and minimizing the wedding parties as a result of the COVID-19 infections.

A total of 122 COVID-19 infections have been reported in Syria, including 41 recoveries and four deaths. Enditem
Queensland will enjoy a major easing of coronavirus restrictions this week, having dodged several bumps in the road that could have derailed the reopening plans.

From noon on Monday, Queenslanders can travel anywhere they like in the state and stay for as long as they want, as the state government brings stage two of reopening forward by almost two weeks and greatly expands its scope.

Brisbane residents can now road trip as far as Birdsville (pictured), Mount Isa or the Cape York Peninsula. Credit:Tourism and Events Queensland

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the move opened up Queensland for Queenslanders while reiterating= the states borders would remain shut for at least the next month.

"Let me make it very clear, the border will remain closed for the month of June," Ms Palaszczuk said.
A three-year-old child has tested positive to coronavirus in Western Australia as the state recorded three new cases bringing the state's total to 589 on Sunday.

The child is a Western Australian citizen who had contact with a known case, had recently returned from overseas and is now in hotel quarantine.

The other two cases are also returnees in hotel quarantine including a woman in her 60s from WA and a man in his 30s from interstate.

A nurse swabbing for coronavirus in Perth earlier this month. WA had a total of 589 cases on Sunday including a three-year-old girl recently returned from overseas

The news came as one of the coronavirus patients from the Al Kuwait livestock ship was hospitalised.

The crew member was admitted to the Royal Perth Hospital overnight and is the only patient being treated in hospital so far.

There are now 28 active cases in the state, including 20 from the Al Kuwait ship, which remains stranded at Fremantle Port.

The new infection of a young child comes less than a week after two school students were found to have coronavirus in Sydney's east: one at Moriah College and one at Waverley College.

The Al Kuwait was stranded yesterday at Fremantle port. The live export ship is responsible for 20 of the state's 28 active cases

The discovery of the infected children came just one day after NSW Public schools opened full-time.

The Waverley student that tested positive is in Year 7, while the Moriah student is in Year 5.

The independent colleges are located less than 2km away from each other.

Australia's Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy said on March 23 that 'very, very few children contract COVID-19'.

'All of the international data shows that it's very, very uncommon for children to get symptomatic disease,' he said at the time.

'Let me also say again, we don't know whether children have a significant role in transmission. We have not seen evidence of major transmission amongst schools in children.'

A study in China, finished in February and published in the medical journal JAMA, found that almost one in ten patients in the country were under the age of 30

Daily Mail Australia asked the Federal Health Department if there is any update to this advice.

Health responded that out of Australia's 7195 total cases, 219 or 3 per cent were in children under 18 years.

In school children aged five to 17 years there have been 156 cases or 2.1 per cent of the total.

CORONAVIRUS CASES IN AUSTRALIA: 27,244 Victoria: 20,269 New South Wales: 4,273 Queensland: 1,161 Western Australia: 692 South Australia: 473 Tasmania: 230 Australian Capital Territory: 113 Northern Territory: 33 TOTAL CASES: 27,244 ESTIMATED ACTIVE CASES: 269 DEATHS: 897 Updated: 5.31 PM, 11 October, 2020 Source: Australian Government Department of Health Advertisement

'Globally, COVID-19 infections are less frequently observed in children, with their illness tending to be milder compared to adults,' a departmental spokesman told Daily Mail Australia.

'Evidence globally highlights that their odds of infection is much lower compared with adults. Additionally, child-to-adult transmission appears to be uncommon.'

In recent weeks however, a new inflammatory illness linked to coronavirus in children has emerged.

The new illness, is said to be similar to Kawasaki disease and has been identified in more than 100 children in New York State, where it was linked to three deaths.

Some of the children with the mystery illness have required hospitalisation including in intensive care.

The disease is seen in children who previously had coronavirus and has a range of symptoms including prolonged fever, abdominal pain, low oxygen levels (or shock), rashes and conjunctivitis, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Many of the children also developed inflammation of the heart.

The rare syndrome has been recorded in 14 other US states.

More than 50 cases of the illness have been recorded in the UK and in European countries including Spain, France and Switzerland.

It has been officially named 'paediatric inflammatory multi-system syndrome temporally associated with SARS-CoV-2' or PIMS-TS for short.

Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy commissioned Australia's top paediatric experts to prepare a report on the illness for the National Cabinet meeting earlier this month.
Thousands rally in Toronto to protest racism in wake of the death of Regis Korchinski-Paquet

Thousands of people took part in a rally downtown on Saturday to protest racism around the world and to demand answers in the death of 29-year-old Toronto resident Regis Korchinski-Paquet.

"It's important for me to be here because if I'm not here then who else is?" Sore Sanni, 17, told CBC Toronto at the rally.

"All lives will not matter until black ones do."

The peaceful rally, organized by a group dubbed Not Another Black Life, comes on the heels of high-profile, police-involved deaths in both Canada and the United States. Some of the ensuing protests in the U.S. turned violent.

Michael Charles Cole/CBC

A Minnesota police officer is now facing a murder charge in the death of George Floyd, a black man caught on film pleading for air as an officer knelt on his neck.

Meanwhile, the family of Regis Korchinski-Paquet said what began as a 911 call for help ended in her death. Korchinski-Paquet fell from the balcony of a 24th-floor Toronto apartment while police were in the home on Wednesday.

Korchinski-Paquet's death has drawn widespread community reaction and online attention after her cousin and mother took to social media following her death, initially claiming she was pushed off a balcony by police.

In a statement released on Saturday, Knia Singh, the family's lawyer, said family members are now "waiting on evidence from the investigation before any further conclusions can be made," adding that statements made prior to May 28 are not part of the official Korchinski-Paquet statement.

In Toronto, people chanted "not another black life," "abolish the police," and "no justice, no peace" as they wound through the downtown streets clad in face masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

"We've been protesting and now everyone is watching and now people are mobilizing. We can see the power we have in numbers so this won't stop any time soon," said Cara McArthur, who is black, Cree and Sioux.

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Later on Saturday, as the rally turned into a march, others chanted "stop killing black women."

Police estimated the crowd to be between 3,500 and 4,000 and said there was no violence.

Sanni said the protest was not just about Korchinski-Paquet, but about "every person that has been killed unjustly and treated unfairly by police and our judicial system."

"As a person of colour and as a black person I am treated differently every day ... It's so sad that I have to come out here in a pandemic to protest black lives."

Michael Charles Cole/CBC

Brampton North MPP Kevin Yarde, a member of the Ontario NDP Black Caucus, told CBC Toronto that he participated in Saturday's event in Toronto to "show support for Regis."

"She can't speak and we are here to speak on her behalf."

Yarde says "too many black lives have been lost over the years," adding that he will continue to push to "make sure justice is served."

Meanwhile, police said hundreds attended a similar protest in Halifax on Saturday. No arrests were made.

"We respect the public's right to a peaceful protest," Staff Sgt. R. Scott MacDonald said.

"Police were on hand simply to ensure the safety of the participants and the public. We appreciate that attendees conducted themselves in a peaceful manner."

A rally also is scheduled for Montreal on Sunday.

Racism a 'fact in our society,' Toronto mayor says

A lawyer representing Korchinski-Paquet's family says her relatives do not want to see violence, only answers as to how and why she died.

In a statement released Saturday, lawyer Knia Singh says the family did not organize or plan the protest. The family says it thanks organizers for bringing attention to a "very serious matter."

Ontario's Special Investigations Unit is looking into the death of Korchinski-Paquet, as questions swirl around exactly what happened in the moments leading up to her death.

Toronto's police chief said Friday said police received three 911 calls for an assault, with at least two of the calls saying a knife was involved.

In the statement released Saturday, however, Singh said when police arrived and spoke with Korchinski-Paquet, her brother and mother, there was no knife present and no assault taking place.

"The family strongly believes that Regis' death could have been prevented," the statement reads in part.

Korchinski-Paquet was described as an active member of her church, a talented gymnast and proud of her Ukrainian and Nova Scotian roots.

Regis Paquet/Facebook

On Friday, Toronto police Chief Mark Saunders urged calm in the wake the incident, warning of an information "vacuum" faced by police that risks being filled by "opportunists."

Toronto Mayor John Tory called the community's anger over her death understandable, describing anti-black racism as "a fact in our society" and encouraging protesters to practise physical distancing in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Meanwhile, a petition on Change.org demanding "justice" for Korchinski-Paquet has drawn over 50,000 signatures.
Live updates: Police have fired tear gas in downtown Syracuse. Windows have been broken.

Syracuse, N.Y.  More than 500 protesters on foot and in cars continued to move through the Syracuse-area tonight to protest against police brutality.

The group started at the Justice Center downtown around 3 p.m., continued to the South Side, the North Side and then west out West Genesee Street. At some point, they turned and headed back toward the city.

More than 500 people and 100 cars joined the protest.

At 9 p.m. people could be seen cheering along the route in Syracuse. Some protesters were on foot, others on skateboards. Dozens of vehicles were following, many honking their horns and flashing their headlines. Some people were jumping in and out of vehicles.

The protest returned downtown to the Public Safety Building, 511 South State Street, and a window was broken by the crowd at the PSB. A protester with a bag broke a window at the Onondaga County Courthouse and others kicked it in.

At least 20 riot police moved in carrying shields and wearing helmets.

By evening, police started to block roads and limit access to large shopping centers, apparently guarding against any of the kind of vandalism thats happened in other cities during larger protests.

Police blocked off access to the Target store in Fairmount which closed early. A number of police vehicles could be seen outside the Target store.

Police cars gather outside the Target in Camillus on Saturday May 30, 2020. Police blocked access to the store to protesters.Hank Domin | hdomein@syracuse.com

Police also blocked access to Destiny USA mall in Syracuse. Several streets were blocked in Solvay, where the group was around 8:30 p.m.

The protesters were largely peaceful all day, but impassioned about the treatment of black people at the hands of police here and nationwide.

Protests have erupted in at least 30 U.S .cities today over the death of unarmed George Floyd at the hands of a police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Protesters say they want to see charges for all four police officers involved in the death of Floyd.

One officer, who was seen in a video with his knee on Floyds neck, was charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter  but protesters and critics believe the charge isnt harsh enough.

In Syracuse, the protest started with about 50 people who blocked off South State Street in front of the Public Safety Building. Syracuse police officers watched from the windows and cars turned away from the protest.

Then demonstrators began marching and the size of the protest grew. Neighbors walked out their doors and into the streets to watch. Drivers, heading off to some other destination, turned away from the marchers.

One man, having seen the protest on Facebook, reversed his gold and green Acura down Madison Street. He stopped, got out and popped the trunk. MTX Terminator speakers bumped out Michael Jackson.

All I want to say, Jackson yelled over the beat, is they dont really care about us.

While Floyd was the focus, protesters decried the way theyre policed in Syracuse just as much.

Demonstrators crowded the street outside the Justice Center after 9 p.m.

At one point fireworks exploded overhead.

Fireworks explode over downtown Syracuse as protesters gather near the Justice Center on Saturday, May 30, 2020.Patrick Lohmann | plohmann@syracuse.com
The latest voice to join the protest against those who silenced George Floyd is Citi's Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Mark Mason.

In a blog post titled "I can't breathe", Mason, a person of colour himself, recounted the systemic racism Black Americans have faced.

"Even though I'm the CFO of a global bank, the killings of George Floyd in Minnesota, Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia and Breonna Taylor in Kentucky are reminders of the dangers Black Americans like me face in living our daily lives. Despite the progress the United States has made, Black Americans are too often denied basic privileges that others take for granted," Mason wrote.

He also announced donations to three organisations fighting "injustice and inequality" - NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Advancement Project, and Color of Change.

The death of George Floyd, a black man from Minneapolis who died after being pinned by the neck under a white police officer's knee, has sparked riots across major metropolis such as Atlanta, Detroit, Houston and Denver among others.

Here is the full text from Mason's blog:

Tens of thousands of people were in the streets across the country, many of them not wearing masks or observing social distancing, raising concerns among health experts about the potential for spreading the novel coronavirus at a time when much of the country is in the process of reopening society and the economy.
Malta will reopen its airport to passenger flights on July 1, Prime Minister Robert Abela said on Sunday, as the Mediterranean island rolls back restrictions introduced in March to halt COVID-19 infections.

Tourism accounts for almost a quarter of Malta's economy and hoteliers have been pressing the government to reopen the airport or risk mass unemployment.

The southern Mediterranean island has recorded some 600 coronavirus cases and nine deaths, having carried out an intensive testing and contact tracing programme. Non-essential shops and restaurants were allowed to reopen in mid-May, but churches on the Roman Catholic island and schools remain closed. Bars and gyms will reopen next Friday.

"These are exciting time for Malta. We are returning to normality," Abela said.

He said the government will also announce a budget on June 8 with the aim of encouraging consumption and investment. The budget is normally announced in October.

The government has been paying 800 euros ($888) per month per employee in order to discourage layoffs in companies impacted by the virus and says it will maintain the scheme until the economy picks up again.

Tourism authorities are negotiating 'safe corridors' for travel with countries which have low COVID-19 numbers, including Luxembourg, Norway, Serbia, Slovakia, Austria, Czech Republic, Latvia, Lithuania and Israel.

They have not yet given the green light for travellers from Britain, which traditionally has close tourism ties to Malta. ($1 = 0.9011 euros)

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More 282 COVID-19 patients have died in Britain as of Friday afternoon, bringing the total coronavirus-related death toll in the country to 36,675.

This is according to British Transport Secretary, Grant Shapps, on Saturday.

The figures include deaths in all settings such as hospitals, care homes and the wider community.

Meanwhile, 2,959 people have been confirmed positive for the virus, bringing the total confirmed cases in Britain to 257,154 as of Saturday morning.

Dr. Jenny Harries, Englands Deputy Chief Medical Officer, told the Downing Street briefing that deaths are starting to come down.

She said: We will be looking to expect that to come down further.

Encouragingly, Britain is also maintaining a downward trend in new confirmed cases, she said.

During the briefing, Shapps announced that the government is investing 283 million ($344.3 million) into the public transport system to increase both frequency and capacity of services while ensuring there is enough space on vehicles to allow for social distancing.

We now have the opportunity to use the power of transport to improve longstanding national weaknesses, he said.

The transport secretary said the measures are not just to get through (the crisis) but come out of the recovery stronger by permanently changing how we use transport.

Transport is not just how we get from place to place, but it shapes the places, he said.
Derek Chauvin, the white police officer arrested and charged with the murder of George Floyd is "effectively on suicide watch" and being checked in on all the time as he remains in an isolated cell.



According to TMZ, the former Minneapolis cop, has a camera focused on him all day and cops check on his cell in person every 15 minutes.



The gossip site also reported that Chauvin, who was charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter on Friday, is under constant surveillance and is in isolation in Ramsey County Jail in St. Paul, Minnesota.



A source at Ramsey County Jail in St. Paul, MN, where Chauvin is detained told TMZ, he was brought in late afternoon Friday and didn't make eye contact with anyone upon his arrival before beginning the check-in process.



He was then placed in a prison uniform and led to his cell, where he is reportedly being held for 23 hours a day with just one hour of recreation time. The ex-cop only has access to books, pencils, and paper.



It is reported guards "want to make sure nothing happens to him" while he remains in prison even as they do not believe Chauvin is actively suicidal, but they fear for his safety.



This comes after his beauty queen wife Kellie Chauvin filed for divorce over her husband's involvement in George Floyd's death.



Chauvin was taken into custody on Friday and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter. His bail was set for $500,000.



He was caught in a viral video kneeling on Floyd's neck while arresting him for allegedly trying to use a counterfeit $20 bill at a deli.



According to the criminal complaint against Chauvin, the Minneapolis police officer was said to have had his knee on Floyd's neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds.



"I can't breathe...please stop," Floyd told the cop who "placed his left knee in the area of Mr. Floyds head and neck and continued to choke him.



Floyd was taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.









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Welsh Government announces 20m fund to help transform homelessness services

This article is old - Published: Sunday, May 31st, 2020

The Welsh Government have announced new 20m fund to transform homelessness services.

The funding aims to ensure that no-one in emergency shelter during the coronavirus crisis has to return to the streets or unsuitable accommodation.

An initial funding package of 10m has meant that over 800 people in Wales have been housed since lockdown began. Many of those were previously forced to sleep on our streets or were the hidden homeless living precariously as sofa surfers or in unsuitable temporary accommodation.

The Welsh Government now wants to change the approach to homelessness for the long term.

Local authorities will be asked to draw up plans to transform services and the accommodation offer across Wales to help those currently in temporary accommodation to move on to a longer term home and ensure dignified suitable options for those who face homelessness in the future.

The additional funding, support and guidance will help them to achieve this.

Announcing the funding ahead of a virtual summit on homelessness with local authorities, registered social landlords, health services and the third sector, Julie James said: The collaborative effort of the sector to accommodate homeless people during the pandemic has been incredible.

Getting over 800 people off the streets or away from unsuitable accommodation has not been easy but by working together we have made a big difference to the lives of these people.

This does not, however, mean we have resolved homelessness in Wales. We have achieved a temporary reprieve, but it remains our goal to end homelessness and we will not see people forced back onto the streets.

This crisis has provided us with a unique opportunity to change the services and change lives for the better and I am truly excited about this. This funding, together with the collaborative approach we have taken so far gives me confidence that we can now make a significant step towards achieving our goal of ending homelessness in Wales.

Jon Sparkes, chair of the Homelessness Action Group and chief executive of Crisis, added: The coronavirus outbreak has affected everyone in our society but people facing homelessness are among the most exposed. Swift and decisive action early on by the Welsh Government, councils, Welsh public services and charities has successfully protected many people by providing emergency accommodation.

This has been a very challenging time for many of us but it shows how much we can achieve by working together. We now need to urgently start the next phase of helping people into safe and secure homes, so that we dont see people forced back onto the street or into unsafe temporary accommodation.

The Welsh Government is taking very positive steps right now and as we move out of lockdown I look forward to seeing in due course the Welsh Governments plan to prevent and end homelessness for good as the Homelessness Action Group recommended.
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A spokesperson of the Chinese Mission to the European Union (EU) on Friday urged the EU to refrain from interfering in Hong Kong affairs and China's internal affairs in any form, in response to Declaration of the High Representative on behalf of the EU on Hong Kong.

The spokesperson said Hong Kong is a special administrative region of China, and Hong Kong affairs are China's internal affairs. The legal basis for the governance of Hong Kong by the Chinese government is the Constitution of China and the Basic Law of Hong Kong, not the Sino-British Joint Declaration. It is just untenable to accuse China of not being in conformity with international commitments citing the Sino-British Joint Declaration.

The spokesperson said upholding national security is always a duty of the central government. The Constitution of China and the Basic Law of Hong Kong give power and responsibilities to the National People's Congress (NPC) of China to establish and improve the legal system and enforcement mechanisms for safeguarding national security in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) at the national level. The relevant decision is designed for closing national security loopholes in Hong Kong, stopping violence and restoring law and order in Hong Kong, and ensuring Hong Kong's long-term prosperity and stability.



The spokesperson said "one country, two systems" is China's basic state policy. The central government is firmly resolved to implement the "one country, two systems." The decision adopted by the NPC on establishing and improving the legal system and enforcement mechanisms for safeguarding national security in the HKSAR provides a fundamental guarantee for the full implementation of the "one country, two systems," "Hong Kong people administering Hong Kong" and a high degree of autonomy. The decision only targets acts of separatism, subversion, terrorism and foreign interference that seriously undermine national security. It will not impinge on the rights and freedoms of Hong Kong residents, nor the legitimate rights and interests of foreign investors.

The spokesperson urged the EU to observe international law and basic norms governing international relations, respect China's efforts to safeguard national security, refrain from interfering in Hong Kong affairs and China's internal affairs in any form, and take real actions to sustain the sound and steady development of China-EU relations.
SpaceX made history today, flying NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to space aboard its Crew Dragon spacecraft using a Falcon 9 rocket. The launch, titled 'Demo-2', is for the final demonstration mission in the human rating process of SpaceX's Crew Dragon and Falcon 9, meaning that once this mission is complete, the launch vehicle will finally be certified for operational use for regular transportation of people to space. This was the second attempt, after an initial launch try last Wednesday was scrubbed due to weather conditions.

This is the first time ever that humans have been aboard a SpaceX vehicle as it launched. To date, SpaceX's Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets have succeeded in delivering multiple cargo payloads to orbit, but Behnken and Hurley are the first people to make the trip with the private spaceflight company.

SpaceX also successfully landed its first stage booster from the Falcon 9 used today  which means it will recover the first private spacecraft booster that has ever delivered human astronauts to space.

NASA created the Commercial Crew space program to spur the development of private launch vehicles that would also be able to serve commercial customers in addition to the agency, in order to defray the cost of launch overall. Both SpaceX and Boeing ended up placing winning bids on the Commercial Crew contracts, and have subsequently developed human launch systems, though SpaceX is the first to actually fly people on their vehicle after Boeing encountered some unexpected issues in their last uncrewed demonstration flight.

Astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley bump fists to celebrate their history-making launch on SpaceX's Crew Dragon.

It's been multiple decades since a human took off from U.S. soil on a brand new launch vehicle, and this is also the first time anyone has flown to space from an American launch site since the Space Shuttle program was officially retired in 2011. Returning U.S. spaceflight capabilities also means NASA won't have to rely on Russia's Roscosmos and its Soyuz spacecraft exclusively to transport its astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS)  could save more than $30 million per astronaut per trip as a result.

Story continues

Today's launch kicks off a multi-week mission for Behnken and Hurley, which next involves a rendezvous with the ISS around 19 hours from now. Crew Dragon will first take around 30 minutes to perform a manual control test, wherein Behnken and Hurley will take over and fly the spacecraft themselves. This isn't what would normally happen on a normal Crew Dragon mission, since the spacecraft is designed to make the trip to ISS on its own operating entirely in an automated manner.

After that manual control test, Crew Dragon will once again take over and then fly the remainder of the way to the ISS, where it'll dock itself with an entry hatch on the station. From there, Behnken and Hurley will transfer over to the station, where they're set to stay for a period of between six and sixteen weeks, depending on NASA's determination of how long the mission should last. This is somewhat dependent on staffing requirements on board the ISS, since currently there's only one U.S. astronaut there in an operational capacity, and Hurley and Behnken will be tasked with assisting with experiments and maintenance on the station.

CAPE CANAVERAL, FLORIDA - MAY 30: The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches into space with NASA astronauts Bob Behnken (R) and Doug Hurley aboard the rocket from the Kennedy Space Center on May 30, 2020 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The inaugural flight is the first manned mission since the end of the Space Shuttle program in 2011 to be launched into space from the United States. (Photo by Saul Martinez/Getty Images)

Once it's determined when they're coming back, they'll climb back aboard the Crew Dragon, seal it up and then detach from the station. This return part of the program is also designed to be fully automated, with the spacecraft preforming the necessary boost-back engine firing to control its re-entry and descent. Once in atmosphere, it'll release its parachutes to slow the fall back to Earth, and coast to a landing in the Atlantic Ocean, where SpaceX crews will recover the capsule and provide the astronauts their ride back to dry land.

SpaceX plans to begin flying astronauts to the ISS for fully, regular operational missions later this year if all goes well, and it has also signed agreements to begin offering berths to paying passengers for Crew Dragon space tourist trips (likely with an extremely high price tag) as early as next year.
Schools in remote areas of Maharashtra without internet connectivity and unaffected by the coronavirus pandemic should be reopened by implementing social distancing norms, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said on Sunday.

Stressing that the new academic year should begin in June, as in the normal times, the CM also called for the need to develop and strengthen online educationsystem in the state.

Maharashtra is worst affected by the coronavirus pandemic with 65,168 cases and 2,197 deaths so far.

In remote areas, where there is no internet connectivity and coronavirus pandemic spread, schools should be reopened by implementing social distancing norms. In places where there is a problem in physically restarting schools, the option of online education must be used, he told officials of the School Education department and Minister Varsha Gaikwad in a meeting held via video conferencing.

While it is not necessary that schools must restart now, the department should develop and strengthen the online education system in the long run, he said.

Coronavirus pandemic shouldnt be a roadblock in the education of children. The academic year (2020-21) must start from June. Maharashtra should set an example before the rest of the country, said Thackeray.

He said Google platforms could be used onan experimental basis.

Education is a necessity which cannot be allowed to be stopped, he said.

The CM also said that premises of schools currently used as a coronavirus quarantine facility should be disinfected and sanitised before making them reusable.
Nairobi  The government has warned leaders operating with impunity after dozens convened in Kajiado, in total disregard of the COVID-19 containment measures.

The meeting in Kajiado was convened by COTU Secretary General Francis Atwoli at his residence where he invited Luhya leaders in elective positions and those in government-including Devolution Cabinet Secretary Eugene Wamalwa.

It was the subject discussions on social media on Saturday, with many accusing the government of double-speak by failing to stop such meetings.

Many said police were only arresting ordinary Kenyans while allowing leaders to break public health regulations at will, despite the spike in positive cases which rose to 1,888 on Saturday after 143 cases were detected.

"It is disturbing and disheartening to observe from time to time the casual manner in which some of us in leadership positions practice the containment measures," said Rashid Aman, a Chief Administrative Secretary at the Ministry of Health.

He appealed to the leaders to lead by example in the fight against COVID-19.

"As leaders, it is of crucial importance that we walk the talk, we must lead by example. It does not help if we continue to appeal to our people to wear masks in public places yet some of us as leaders' we do not do the same," he said.

He was non-committal on whether action will be taken against Atwoli and leaders who attended the Friday meeting at his residence.

"I would not want to respond to that because we have sectors that are in charge of implementing such measures," he said Saturday, in response to a question from a journalist during a media briefing on COVID-19.

Most of the leaders who attended the meeting in Kajiado County, outside the capital Nairobi which is one of the counties with a cessation of movement for recording high virus numbers.

Aman stressed that the success in the fight against the virus will be pegged on the input by members of the public.

"People must play their part in the campaign and their part is to cooperate and take responsibility given the fact that a majority of Kenyans might be carrying the virus and are unaware of it," he said.
gujarat:

BJP chief Amit Shah on Friday held a meeting with various state party leaders and ministers of Gujarat government to discuss and finalise various programmes to be held in the run-up to the Assembly polls next year.

Shah held discussions with several top BJP leaders and ministers, including Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, newly-inducted state BJP chief Jitu Vaghani, Union Minister of State for Agriculture Parshottam Rupala and several other leaders at party headquarters in Gandhinagar.

"Our president discussed several issues pertaining to strengthening the party ahead of the 2017 polls.

He had detailed talks about the programmes which the party would organise to reach out to people," BJP's state media convener Harshad Patel said.

"He also took feedback about people's response to the Saurashtra-Narmada Avataran Irrigation Yojana (Sauni Yojana) scheme inaugurated by PM Narendra Modi recently at Jamnagar," he added.

Shah is scheduled to visit Gujarat on September 8 again to attend a programme in Surat.

"On that day, four Patel leaders of BJP will be felicitated by Patel community for their contribution to the society and the community," he said. These Patel leaders include Vaghani, Rupala, Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel and newly-inducted Union Minister from the state Mansukh Mandaviya.

The upcoming event holds significance for the ruling BJP and the state government led by the party ahead of the state polls, as they have been facing wrath of Patels, a crucial vote bank in Gujarat, due to the ongoing quota agitation.

Surat had witnessed large-scale violence during the agitation last year. The event is expected to send a strong message that the Patel community is no longer angry with BJP and ready to support it in the coming polls.

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Although I live in a red state, I live in a blue county and, more specifically, in a suburb thats within twenty minutes of a blue city. I spent a pleasant day today running errands, surrounded by congenial people of all races. After my errands were done, I dedicated myself to domestic tasks. I avoided the news. When news is your job, its nice to take a little time off.

At 9 p.m., as always, I finally turned on my computer to see what was going on in the world. I was surprised to learn that there were riots and looting in that nearby blue city. People were marching, screaming about wrongs committed five years, eight years, 80 years, and more than 150 years ago. Like Muslims still vowing revenge for the Reconquista, the left never forgets a slight.

I view riots the same way I view wildfires  once they start, they can spread with incredible speed and shoot off in random directions. When there are wildfires within a 35-mile radius of your home, you make sure you have your go-bag at hand.

And when there are rioters attacking police, burning buildings, and looting stores within 20 minutes of your home, you take precautions. Rather than prepping for writing, I prepped for the possibility of an assault.

All entrances to my house are sealed. The alarm is set. Should someone break in, I know the police wont be there, but the alarms shrill sound will give me an early warning.

The things in my house that can be used as weapons, including a nice actual weapon, are consolidated in my bedroom, which is the designated retreat space. A friend of mine was raped at knifepoint in her own home, with the added insult to that overwhelming injury being the fact that the perpetrator used a knife from her own kitchen. That wont happen at my house, at least not tonight.

I like to get my ducks in a row. The greatest likelihood is that nothing bad will happen. Besides, the rioters are concentrating on shopping areas. If you break into a closed Nike store, you know youre going to leave as happy as the woman in this video about Chicagos Nike store did:

Nike store on Michigan Ave smashed and completely looted pic.twitter.com/IRZc4FuDBO  Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) May 31, 2020

If you break into a jewelry store in Dallas, you might have to beat the owner to death (or almost to death), but at least youll get some jewelry. (And please, please dont watch the video about that beating in Dallas -- which Im not even embedding in this post -- if seeing horrific violence upsets you. I watched it because its my job and Im still shaken.)

But breaking into a house is a more dicey proposition. The likelihood of finding the things you want is small. Moreover, even though Im in a blue county, this is a red state, and, in many houses, looters may find themselves looking down the wrong end of someones AR-15.

When Donald Trump tweeted when the looting starts, the shooting starts, he was saying nothing more than the truth. He was not glorifying violence, no matter what the imbecilic, micro-brained morons at Twitter claimed. He was, instead, stating a fact. A black federal police officer was shot and killed in Oakland. That poor man in Dallas was beaten to mush. An Antifa rioter in Seattle grabbed an AR-15 and was prevented from committing mayhem with it thanks only to the quick-thinking citizen who seized and then instantly cleared the weapon:

Heres another angle. This guy was SO quick to act. pic.twitter.com/yMJmjsIlHs  Caleb Hull (@CalebJHull) May 31, 2020

There are 300 million guns in America, most in the hands of law-abiding citizens. The NRA has approximately 5.5 million members, the vast majority of whom are law-abiding citizens. These are not people who use guns offensively. They are people who use guns defensively, as did this storeowner in Rochester. If the police can no longer defend them, they will defend themselves.

Trump wasnt glorifying violence. He was warning the rioters and looters that they are poking the sleeping dragon. In World War II, the Japanese and Germans (who declared war on America two days after Pearl Harbor) thought that one good Japanese bombing and a German threat would keep America out of the war. They were wrong. Instead, they roused the arsenal of democracy.

Todays rioters are wrong too, but we may be in for an ugly time in America as roused law-abiding Americans teach the rioters a well-deserved lesson.
Around 250 personnel of the Mumbai Police who were infected with the coronavirus, recovered, were declared fit and have resumed their duties to protect the city in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.

Confirming the development, Naval Bajaj, joint commissioner (admin), Mumbai Police, said, After recovering and being discharged, we ask our men to stay at home for a certain period before declaring them fully fit. About 250 such personnel have been declared fully fit and reported back to duty. Of the total 472 discharged, as many as 300 personnel recovered at special Covid care centres set up by the police department, confirmed Bajaj.

Till Friday night, 1,390 police personnel had tested positive for Covid-19 and 16 succumbed to the virus.

20K migrants, on waiting list, 30,000 leave on Sunday

Maharashtra Police till Saturday night sent 11.56 lakh stranded migrants back to their home states in 792 Shramik trains and said around 20,000 on the waiting list are mostly from West Bengal. Around 30,000 migrants left on Sunday. We will require around 15 more trains to send back the remaining 20,000 migrants, said Amitabh Gupta, principal secretary (special) and head of the three-member committee formed for stranded migrants.

1.20 lakh FIRs, 76 K vehicles seized

From March 22 till Sunday morning, Maharashtra Police registered a total of 1,20,150 FIRs and arrested 23, 575 people for lockdown violations. It also seized a total of 76, 445 vehicles. Fine of 6 crore has been collected from violators. Till now, 86 policemen and 45 health workers have been injured in assault cases while discharging their duties. A total of 835 people have been arrested and 257 FIRs were registered in this regard. Another 706 people have been booked for violating home quarantine.

Mumbai Police booked 46 people in 23 FIRs and arrested 31 on Saturday for lockdown violations. Among the 23 FIRs, a maximum of 14 are for gathering in one place, four for not wearing masks, two each against unnecessary use of vehicles, and shops operating in violation of lockdown rules.
This is truly the affordable iPhone you were waiting for. This does not compromise at all in terms of the specs and the experience. It is a thoroughbred iPhone, albeit in a compact form factor. Which also makes this a very rare combination of compact and powerful. How many Android phone options do you get which offer a similarly handy footprint and yet pack in the most powerful specifications there are at this time? The answer lies in a word that starts with Z and ends with ero. The second generation of the Apple iPhone SE is a melding of the past with the present, representative of the future.

The Apple iPhone SE prices start at Rs 42,500 and that is before you take advantage of an HDFC Bank cashback offer which brings the effective price down to Rs 38,900. For an iPhone that runs largely the same specs as an iPhone 11, that is a steal deal.

Design is familiar, and yet very likeable

There is no running away from the fact that the second-generation Apple iPhone SE is basically the same body as an Apple iPhone 8 from 2017. It may have been a good-looking phone then, but its a beautiful phone now. And that came after the iPhone 7, the iPhone 6S and the iPhone 6. There could perhaps have been the argument that Apple should have gone with the iPhone 8 Plus body instead, but that 5.5-inch size would have not appealed to anyone who wanted a compact phone and would have pegged it too close to the 6.1-inch iPhone 11 in the size stakes. Apple says that the 4.7-inch screen size has been its most popular, and continues to be its most popular screen size, over the years. There must be some merit in the argument that not everyone wants a bulky phone.

You could be on the other side of the fence and say that the design looks a bit out of place now, and you would have a point there. The thick bezel above the screen stands out now, and the space below the screen for the Touch ID fingerprint sensor integrated within the Home button does add to it vertically. But Apple will counter that with pristine build quality. It feels fantastic to hold, much thinner than what our hands have become used to, no rough edges, no flex and everything is just right in place. It weighs just 148 grams, which is featherweight category in these times. You can have this in three colours at this timeBlack, White and the gorgeous (PRODUCT)RED.

It is IP67 water resistant which means it isnt averse to getting a bit wet, and the glass on the back enables wireless charging as well in case that catches your fancy. Incidentally, it also supports fast charging, but Apple doesnt bundle that charger this time around.

All said and done, this is a proper iPhone. The build. The design. The attention to detail. The experience. Need I also remind you that there are no good compact Android phones right now.

Home button: a blast from the past

The Home button had stopped being a physical button quite a while ago. Good to see Apple has carried that forward with that reassuring haptic feedback every time you press on it. Touch ID on the iPhone SE is fast, very fast.

The magic number on the canvas is 4.7

It also isnt the same 4.7-inch display carried forward. Apart from all the under-the-hood improvements, you will surely notice the True Tone Display feature, which that matches everything you see on the screen with the ambient lighting around you. The result, as we have experienced with the MacBook, the iPhones and the iPad Pro is that there is much less strain on the eyes than otherwise. This screen is LCD, and not an OLED. In the real world, people really dont care. As long as it works, they are happy. And this most definitely works. It is bright, shuns reflections quite well and colours look good too. Yes, youll probably feel its a bit more restrained if you are using a higher resolution display all this while, but the thing is, most iPhone SE buyers will likely be the ones who have held on to their older iPhones till nowand for them, this is familiar yet an upgrade.

That being said, if you do intend to switch from a larger phone to this, you will feel the keyboard is a bit more compressed than what you are used to. It is a learning curve, make no doubt about it.

It is Futureproof, including for iOS updates: Leaving Android far behind

Power isnt in short supply either. And that is putting it diplomatically. The iPhone SE runs the same A13 Bionic chip as the iPhone 11 series, which means it isnt playing catch up. There is no faster smartphone processor right now, all chipmakers considered, and that gives the iPhone SE a solid foundation to build on. It also means that iOS updates will be available for this phone for many years to come. That is immediately better than most Android phones, including the expensive flagships, which see the end of the update goodness after about 2 years. If you are lucky, that is.

We have come such a long way since the iPhone 8s time, that the A13 Bionic chip is 1.4x faster than the A11 which powered that phone back in the day. And it is 2.4x faster than the original iPhone SE. The party piece of the A13 Bionic is the 8-core Neural Engine that does 5 trillion operations per second.

Battery life is a day, and comfortably so. A lot of that is limited by the physics of size, which means it doesnt get a battery pack as large as an iPhone 11. But since there are less display pixels to light up, the tradeoff has worked well.

But you do miss out on some things: 5G and more

The iPhone SE doesnt make the shift to USB C, nor does it show any love for the headphone jack. This does not have 5G as well, and Apple for some reason doesnt bundle a faster charger in the box even though the iPhone SE is fast charging capable.

Camera relies on software: More than ever before

The 2020 iteration of the Apple iPhone SE gets a 12-megapixel camera at the back. Yes, it is a single-camera system. It does get a new image signal processor, the enhancements of the Neural Engine of the A13 Bionic and new algorithms working behind the scenes after you tap the shutter button in the camera app to take a photo. The biggest beneficiary has to be the Portrait Mode and Portrait Lighting. It is all software based, but the iPhone SE can take some really good portrait photos. The neural engine is trained to focus on people, and you get depth control as well. If you are wondering that this is already more versatile than the photography capabilities of the iPhone XR, which also has a single camera system, you would be absolutely right. It is not just the new hardware, but also updated algorithms and image processing that makes all the difference.

The full gamut of Portrait Lighting modes are available as wellNatural Light, Studio Light, Contour Light, Stage Light, Stage Light Mono and High-Key Light Mono are all available on the iPhone SE. Then there is Smart HDR as well and the ability to shoot 4K videos at 60fps. For the price that you pay for this iPhone SE, the photography performance is absolutely fantasticgreat dynamic range, sharp, vivid colours that are well distinguished and overall photography that is quite close to the iPhone 11. It will struggle a bit in low light, because there isnt a second sensor to provide more data, and there isnt a night mode either. Its a bit perplexing that, considering Google has managed better low light photos all thanks to AI and software, on single camera systems for a while now.

At the front sits a 7-megapixel FaceTime camera, and to be honest, we would have loved an upgrade here.

WHAT ABOUT THE ANDROID ALTERNATIVES?

Purely in terms of price, there will be the persistent debate about how the iPhone SE matches up to the Android counterparts. The thing is, the fact that you are considering the Apple iPhone SE second-generation means you want top-notch performance. That discounts a lot of the pretend flagship killer Android phones, and we get into the business end of that debate with the OnePlus 7T with prices starting Rs 34,999 and the new OnePlus 8 with prices starting at Rs 44,999 though availability is limited at this time. But they only get factored into the equation if you arent adamant about a compact screen size. In which case, why wouldnt you also consider the iPhone 11? It is all too complicated, isnt it? That is the power of choice.

The Last Word: Smaller size does not mean a compromise

The thing is, the 2020 iPhone SE would be a definite upgrade for anyone still rocking an iPhone older than let us say the iPhone XRthe performance boost will hit you in the face in the most pleasant manner. The camera matches the much more expensive iPhone 11 for the most part, which is a huge bonus for the new iPhone SE. There are three storage options to choose from, and I would seriously recommend paying a little more for the 128GB option over the 64GB one, just to add to the longevity aspect of your purchase. You want an iPhone. You got an iPhone. And this wouldn't leave you penniless either.
Demonstrators marched the streets of downtown Portland and the inner east side on a second consecutive night on Saturday, disobeying Mayor Ted Wheelers 8 p.m. curfew as they sprayed graffiti on buildings and ran from tear gas fired by police.

By 9 p.m., demonstrators had moved to the east side after being chased out of the downtown core where they had gathered for hours, including at the Multnomah County Justice Center, which had been briefly set ablaze on Friday. A group returned later and threw fireworks at the county courthouse, police said.

At least 48 adults were arrested over the course of the night, according to the Portland Police Bureau. About half faced charges of curfew violation, some also charged with misdemeanors such as interfering with a police officer, disorderly conduct or harassment. Thirteen faced charges of riot and 11 were accused of second-degree burglary. Nine juveniles also were detained on a similar array of charges.

Responding to the death of a handcuffed black man in police custody in Minneapolis, hundreds of Portland protesters joined demonstrations across the country calling for justice and police reform. Portlanders took to the streets in the early evening Saturday and about an hour before the curfew, several dozen people were sprawled on the ground in front of the justice center chanting I cant breathe, while drivers honked their car horns in support.

And though TriMet officials had said earlier that they would operate through the curfew, yet they announced around 7:45 p.m. that all MAX and bus service in downtown Portland was suspended.

With just a few minutes before the curfew took effect, police gave a final warning to demonstrators that they were at risk of violating the mayors curfew. The fine for violating the order was $500.

Refusal to obey this order may result in citation or arrest, the announced from speakers on various vehicles rolling through the city.

Already it appeared a first arrest had been made.

An arrest made in Portland just now, very intense out here pic.twitter.com/wwqE1DPPea  Beth Nakamura (@bethnakamura) May 31, 2020

At about 8:15 p.m., demonstrators overtook the intersection of Southwest Fourth Avenue and Salmon Street, blocking traffic and chanting George Floyd  the name of the Minneapolis man prosecutors say was murdered by a police officer.

While hundreds of protesters moved through Old Town, many protesters stopping to tag buildings with Floyds name and 1312, a reference to an anti-police statement. They also took the street yelling Whose street? Our street -- a call that continued throughout the night at various points in downtown.

Some demonstrators fought with each other in the streets. In one case, a man with an American flag was on the ground in the middle of a skirmish with a couple dozen protesters. Others watched, and some through debris into the middle of the melee.

I didnt see how this happened, but a skirmish broke out near the Mult. Co. Courthouse. pic.twitter.com/GT6RHcNhnR  Jim Ryan (@Jimryan015) May 31, 2020

Shortly thereafter, a man was kicked in the face by another protester after he had fallen to the ground. He stayed on the ground for some time but was eventually able to get up.

As helicopters hovered overhead, police fired flash-bang grenades to break up large crowds even as workers labored nearby to board up store windows.

Businesses across the city aimed to protect their building Saturday, concerned about what the rest of the weekend could bring. Workers covered the large display windows of the Microsoft store near Pioneer Place. Earlier, others did the same at the Target store on Southeast Powell Boulevard.

On Friday night, protesters broke the windows at the downtown Portland Apple store to steal a desktop computer that they then used to break the window of another store. Numerous retailers reported building and looting damages in the millions.

I didnt see how this happened, but a skirmish broke out near the Mult. Co. Courthouse. pic.twitter.com/GT6RHcNhnR  Jim Ryan (@Jimryan015) May 31, 2020

A few more shots of tear gas sent most of the remaining protesters gathered in Waterfront Park over the Burnside and Steel bridges toward the east side around 9:15 p.m. There, some dispersed while one last large group marched south on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and then north on Grand Avenue. By 10 p.m., police had dispersed what remained of the group.

Around 11:30 p.m., demonstrators had returned downtown and threw fireworks at the Multnomah County Courthouse, police said. Officers used tear gas to disperse the crowd.

-- Brad Schmidt and Jim Ryan

Elliot Njus contributed to this report.
News

Washington, DC - Remarks by President Trump Announcing an Executive Order on Preventing Online Censorship:

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Were here today to defend free speech from one of the gravest dangers it has faced in American history, frankly. And you know whats going as well as anybody. Its not good.

A small handful of powerful social media monopolies controls a vast portion of all public and private communications in the United States. And we know what they are; we dont have to name them. Were going to give you a complete listing. Were going to give you a signed copy of what Im going to be signing in a couple of minutes, and youll see exactly what were doing.

Theyve had unchecked power to censor, restrict, edit, shape, hide, alter virtually any form of communication between private citizens and large public audiences. Theres no precedent in American history for so small a number of corporations to control so large a sphere of human interaction. And that includes individual people controlling vast amounts of territory.

And we cant allow that to happen, especially when they go about doing what theyre doing, because theyre doing things incorrectly. They have points of view. And if we go by that, its actually amazing that there was a success in 2016. But we cant let this continue to happen. Its very, very unfair.

And you look at the statistics and you look at what is going on, and I think everybody would very much agree with that, including Democrats, by the way. I saw quite a few Democrats are saying this is about time something is done. So lets see if they keep that decision after they hear that we agree with them.

The choices that Twitter makes when it chooses to suppress, edit, blacklist, shadow, ban are editorial decisions, pure and simple. Theyre editorial decisions. In those moments, Twitter ceases to be a neutral public platform, and they become an editor with a viewpoint. And I think we can say that about others also, whether youre looking at Google, whether youre looking at Facebook and perhaps others.

One egregious example is when they try to silence views that they disagree with by selectively applying a fact check  a fact check  F-A-C-T. Fact check. What they choose to fact check and what they choose to ignore or even promote is nothing more than a political activism group or political activism. And its inappropriate. If you look at whats happened, you look at where theyre going, where theyre coming from, I think you all see it yourselves.

This censorship and bias is a threat to freedom itself. Imagine if your phone company silenced or edited your conversation. Social media companies have vastly more power and more reach than any phone company in the United States. More reach, actually, than your newspapers, by far. More reach than a lot of your traditional forms of communication.

Therefore, today Im signing an executive order to protect and uphold the free speech and rights of the American people. Currently, social media giants, like Twitter, receive an unprecedented liability shield based on the theory that theyre a neutral platform  which theyre not  not an editor with a viewpoint.

My executive order calls for new regulations, under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, to make it that social media companies that engage in censoring or any political conduct will not be able to keep their liability shield. Thats a big deal. They have a shield; they can do what they want. They have a shield. Theyre not going to have that shield.

My executive order further instructs the Federal Trade Commission, FTC, to prohibit social media companies from engaging in any deceptive acts or practices affecting commerce. This authority resides in Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act. I think you know it pretty well. Most of you know it very well. I would think you know it quite well, right?

Additionally, Im directing the Attorney General to work cooperatively with the states. Hes going to be working very much and very closely in cooperation with the states to enforce their own laws against such deceptive business practices. The states have brought in powerful authority to regulate in this arena, and theyll be doing it also  and we encourage them to do it  if they see exactly as weve been seeing.

Its  what theyre doing is tantamount to monopoly, you can say. Its tantamount to taking over the airwaves. Cant let it happen. Otherwise, were not going to have a democracy. Were not going to have anything to do with a republic.

Finally, Im directing my administration to develop policies and procedures to ensure taxpayer dollars are not going into any social media company that repress free speech. The government spends billions of dollars on giving them money. Theyre rich enough. So were going to be doing none of it or a very little of it.

As President, Ill not allow the American people to be bullied by these giant corporations. Many people have wanted this to be done by presidents for a long time. And now were doing it. And Im sure theyll be doing a lawsuit, and Im also sure that were going to be going for legislation, in addition to this. And the legislation will start immediately.

And Ill tell you, Ive been called by Democrats that want to do this, and so I think you could possibly have a bipartisan situation. But were fed up with it, and its unfair, and its been very unfair. And well see what happens.

Any questions?

Q Mr. President, given your concern with Twitter, have you given any consideration to deleting your account, to just walking away from this platform youve been so critical of?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, you know, if you werent fake, I would not even think about it. I would do that in a heartbeat.

Q Im real, sir.

THE PRESIDENT: But the news  the news is fake. We  if you look at what gets printed in newspapers, if only the public could understand where, you know, theyre reading a story and they think its real, and its not real in so many cases. And Im not saying in every case. You have some great journalists. You have some journalists that I have great respect for. But largely, I find, at least in a political sense, there is so much fake news, its disgraceful.

I would do that in a heartbeat if I had fair  if we had a fair press in this country, I would do that in a heartbeat. Theres nothing Id rather do than get rid of my whole Twitter account. But Im able to get to, I guess, 186 million people, when you add up all the different accounts and add Facebook and Instagram. Thats a lot of people. And thats more than the media companies have, frankly, by a lot. And so, if I get a story thats wrong, I can put a social media  I dont usually use the word Twitter; I use  I say social media.

But I put something out, and the next day or the next hour or the next minute, everybody is reading about it. So Im able to refute fake news, and thats very important.

Id like to ask the Attorney General, please, to say a couple of words. And hes very strongly behind it, backing it very powerfully. And again, were going to be doing this, but were also going through Congress.

Please.

ATTORNEY GENERAL BARR: Well, as youve mentioned, Mr. President, one of the things that I found has the broadest bipartisan support these days is the feeling that this provision, Section 230, has been stretched way beyond its original intention. And people feel that on both sides of the aisle.

This was adopted 25 years ago to protect a fledgling industry, and its purpose was to allow websites that were serving as, essentially, bulletin boards for diverse third-party content coming on, to say that youre not responsible for the content of that third-party information. And it also tried to encourage these companies to take down things like child pornography or human trafficking advertising and things by saying, if you act to remove this kind of objectionable material, you wont be liable for taking it down.

Now its been completely stretched to allow what have become really behemoths who control a lot of the flow of information in our society to engage in censorship of that information and to act as editors and publishers of the material.

So when they put on their own content  like fact check content  onto other peoples content, and when they curate their collection, and when they start censoring particular content including, in many cases, at the direction of foreign governments like Communist China, they become publishers and they shouldnt be entitled to the same kind of shield that was set up earlier.

Now, this executive order is a very strong step toward addressing this problem. It sets up a rulemaking procedure that will eventually be under the FCC to try to get back to the original interpretation and understanding of Section 230. It also empowers the Attorney General to work with state attorneys general to come up with model legislation that addresses this at the state level. And were preparing federal legislation, which we will be sending over shortly for review at the Office of Management and Budget.

So this is an important step to get back to the original understanding.

You know, theres a bit of a bait-and-switch thats occurred in our society. These companies grew because they held themselves out as public forums, as free public forums where a variety of voices and diverse voices could come on and be heard. Thats how they grew. Thats how they attracted the eyeballs. Thats why people joined them.

But now that they have become these very powerful networks of eyeballs, now that theyve grown by holding themselves out as free public forums, theyve now switched. And they are using that market power to force particular viewpoints, and thats wrong. And it has to be addressed not only through this executive order, but I think litigation going forward and by further action on Capitol Hill.

Thank you, Mr. President.

Q Mr. President, not only 

THE PRESIDENT: Do you have any questions for the Attorney General?

Q Yes, actually, I do. Mr. Attorney General, not only have you been against Section 230, and the President has been against Section 230, the Vice President has said hes against Section 230. Do you believe that the executive order that the President is about to sign in any way repeals or amends Section 230?

ATTORNEY GENERAL BARR: No, it doesnt repeal Section 230. And Im not against Section 230 if it was properly interpreted and properly applied. But its been stretched, and I dont know of anyone on Capitol Hill who doesnt agree that its been stretched beyond its original intention.

I think this will help it get back to the right balance.

Q Mr. Attorney General, can you give us more details on the legislation both you and the President referred to? What do you want to do in that legislation?

ATTORNEY GENERAL BARR: Well, were still reviewing a number of possibilities. And itd be premature for me to discuss the specifics.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, one of the things we may do, Bill, is just remove or totally change 230. What I think we can say is were going to regulate it. Its a provision, and were going to regulate it.

You take a look at this as an example; this was just out: Twitter Moments on the Mueller witch hunt. So, we won. We were in the right. You see whats happened. Its a total fraud. It was a total fraud. Seventy-six to one, okay? Seventy-six to one. You look at it. You think thats fair? Twitter classifies the term illegal alien as hate speech. Illegal alien. And viciously.

You look at what China  I mean, just article after article. Heres one. This is our  this is the arbiter. This guy is the arbiter of whats supposed to go on Twitter. Hes the one. He thought that  he thought  and he used CNN as a guide  CNN, which is fake news. He uses CNN as a guide. His name is Yoel Roth. And hes the one that said that mail-in balloting  you look, mail-in  no fraud. No fraud. Really? Why didnt you take a look all over the country? Theres cases all over the country.

If we went to mail-in balloting, our election all over the world would look as a total joke. It would be a total joke. Theres such fraud and abuse. And you know about harvesting, where they harvest the ballots, and they go and grab them, and they go to peoples houses, and then they say, sign here. No. Doesnt work.

Now, an absentee ballot  you cant be there or youre sick, and you go and you register and you do all sorts of things to get that ballot, and theres good security measures. But when they send out  like in California  millions and millions of ballots to anybody thats breathing  anybody in California thats breathing, gets a ballot.

Q But, Mr. President, thats not true. California 

THE PRESIDENT: So here  here  excuse me. Wait a minute. Im not finished. So heres your  heres your man, and thats on Twitter.

And the amazing thing is hes wrong. And even no  no matter who it is, they will admit that hes wrong, because theres tremendous controversy on mail-in voting.

And I can say this: The Republican Party cannot let that let it happen.

Go ahead.

Q But you know Gavin Newsom  Governor Newsom has 

THE PRESIDENT: I do. I do.

Q  has not sent ballots out to everybody in California. Theyre only going to registered voters.

THE PRESIDENT: Oh, really? How many are there?

Q So  so 

THE PRESIDENT: How many are there?

Q So what your tweet 

THE PRESIDENT: Yeah.

Q  said was  was not wrong 

THE PRESIDENT: Okay, so 

Q  or was not correct. It was wrong.

THE PRESIDENT: Okay. Oh, really? So when he sends out 28 million ballots and theyre in all the mailboxes, and kids go and they raid the mailboxes, and they hand them to people that are signing the ballots down the end of the street, which is happening  they grab the ballots  you dont think that happens? Theres ballot harvesting where all of us  you know, we had seven elections for Congress, and they were, like, tied. And they lost every one of them because they came and they dropped the whole pile of ballots on the table.

But you dont think they  they rip them out of mailboxes? Its all the time you read about it. You could read about it. Take a look.

Q I mean, there are 

THE PRESIDENT: They do worse than that. In some cases, they wont sell [sic] them, like to a Republican community  a conservative community. They dont happen to send the ballots to those communities. And theres no way of checking.

No, you have to go and you have to vote. Voting is a great thing. Voting  we would be the laughingstock of the world. And if you just use common sense, you know thats going to happen.

But they raid the mailboxes. They can even print ballots. They get the same paper, the same machine  nothing special  they get the same paper, the same machine. They print ballots.

And Bill would have to do a great job to catch them doing it, or you state authorities would have to.

But you have tremendous potential and you have tremendous fraud and abuse, but you have tremendous potential for fraud and abuse.

Go ahead.

Q Mr. President, you had said in one of your Twitter  in one of your tweets that you would consider shutting down Twitter and social media companies. Did you actually mean you would want to shut down an American company?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think its going to be  you know, Ill tell you what: I have so much, it seems, influence over Twitter in the sense of people wanting to see  go Twitter because of what I have. I have a vast number of  we have a number of platforms, as you know. We have millions and millions of people.

I think this: If Twitter were not honorable  if youre going to have a guy like this be your judge and jury, I think just shut it down, as far as Im concerned, but Id have to go through a legal process to do that.

Q But how would you shut down an American company?

THE PRESIDENT: I dont know. Id have to ask the lawyers. Id have to go through a legal process. If it were legal, if it were able to be legally shut down, I would do it. I think Id be hurting it very badly if we didnt use it anymore. I mean, we have other sites we could use, I guess, or wed have to develop other sites.

But  and Im not just talking about Twitter. Look at Facebook. Look at the tribunal they set up on Facebook. This woman, who you remember testifying recently in Congress, her hatred was so incredible toward the Republican Party and me that there is no way you can get a fair trial.

So this is not like its supposed to be. This is not like its supposed to be. So were going to see what happens. And you know what? I guess its going to be challenged in court. What isnt? But I think well do very well.

Yeah. Go ahead.

Q Mr. President 

Q Mr. President 

THE PRESIDENT: Yeah. Go ahead.

Q  as to potential litigation, can you discuss the timing of that? And what is the remedy that youre going to be seeking?

ATTORNEY GENERAL BARR: No, what I was referring to, there is litigation going on all the time on Section 230 and its scope. So we would look for appropriate vehicles to weigh in and file statement of interest.

Q So you wouldnt be filing an individual 

ATTORNEY GENERAL BARR: Not necessarily.

Q Okay. Thank you.

Q Mr. President 

THE PRESIDENT: Go ahead. Please.

Q Are you worried about the situation on the border between India and China?

THE PRESIDENT: Ah, India. He loves India so much. Hes never asked a question other than an India question, and thats okay. I just got back from India, right?

Q I (inaudible) Indian, sir.

THE PRESIDENT: I just beat COVID.

Q You are very popular in India.

THE PRESIDENT: I got back  I know. And they like me in India. I think they like me in India certainly more than the media likes me in this country.

Q Youre a rock star there because of Ahmedabad and 

THE PRESIDENT: And I like Modi. I like your prime minister a lot. Hes a great gentleman. A great gentleman.

Yeah, they have a big conflict going with India and China. Is that what youre talking about? Yeah?

Q Yes, sir. Yes, sir.

THE PRESIDENT: They have a big conflict going with India and China. Two countries with 1.4 billion people. Two countries with very powerful militaries. And India is not happy, and probably China is not happy. But I can tell you, I did speak to Prime Minister Modi. Hes not  hes not

in a good mood about whats going on with China.

Q Mr. President, have you spoken to 

THE PRESIDENT: Wait. Are you finished?

Q No, sir. So, yesterday, you tweeted about do you want to mediate between India and China on this issue.

THE PRESIDENT: I would do that. You know, I would do that. If they  if they thought it would help if I were the mediator or the arbiter, I would do that. So, well see.

Go ahead.

Q Have you spoken to the family of George Floyd yet?

THE PRESIDENT: No, I havent. But I feel very, very badly. And its a very shocking sight.

Bill and I were talking about it before. Its one of the reasons Bill is here right now because, as you know, were very much involved. And Ive asked the Attorney General  FBI and the Attorney General to take a very strong look and to see what went on, because that was a very  a very bad thing that I saw. I saw it last night, and I didnt like it.

Q Do you think those police officers should be prosecuted?

THE PRESIDENT: Im not going to make any comment right now. I can tell you I think what I saw was not good  was not good. Very bad.

Q Mr. President 

THE PRESIDENT: Anybody else?

Q Mr. President, are you definitively staying in the U.S.-China trade deal?

THE PRESIDENT: Well be announcing what were doing tomorrow with respect to China. And we are not happy with China. We are not happy with whats happened.

All over the world, people are suffering. A hundred and eighty-six countries  all over the world theyre suffering. Were not happy.

Okay. Thank you very much, everybody.
I havent held the cannabis industry in high regard since the nascent industry began. It was a wild west type of investing, where stocks shot up and crashed on sentiment and feelings rather than on fundamentals. The only area of the cannabis space that held any weight in my mind was that of medical marijuana production.

Medical marijuana, after all, appears to have many positive attributes. It holds promise as a medicine in the treatment of epilepsy as well as many other ailments. In that regard, I stumbled upon one name that might be a decent pure-play in the medical marijuana sector.

However, this is an early-stage growth stock that I would only recommend for investors with long time horizons.

The oily names

Oil has primarily meant black gold for me over the years, but it turns out there is another type of oil worth looking into. Medipharm Labs Corp. (TSX:LABS) focuses on extracting medical-grade cannabis oil from marijuana plants. Its business is solely focused on extraction, a process that seems to have a wider moat than merely selling the commodity plant products.

Financial strength

The company had enormous growth in revenue over fiscal 2019. Revenue grew by 1,168% over that period. EBITDA also grew incredibly, increasing 2,844% in the same time frame. Gross profit increased by 973% and net income increased by 180%. Net income was positive for the year, which is quite amazing for a new company at this early stage of growth.

Of course, investors need to keep in mind that the company is a new one, which means that growth will be rapid in the early stages. After all, earnings and revenue started from a very low level making any increase seem huge on a percentage basis.

The company is new, though, and its share count is expanding. This will be dilutive to existing shareholders if Medipharm continues to issue shares. It also does not yet generate free cash flow due to its continued business investment and growth.

Business model

Story continues

There are two aspects of this business I find very appealing. The first is the focus on medical purposes. The attention to producing medical-grade oils puts this firmly into the high-demand medical marijuana business. It sells both its own brands of oil as well as unbranded types.

The Foolish takeaway

I am not a big fan of investing in cannabis stocks in general. It seems like recreational marijuana is a difficult business and the product itself is more of a commodity than anything. The oil extraction business is more technical, especially if you are aiming for medical-grade oil. Medipharm seems to have a greater moat around its business than the producers.

This is a new business that is very speculative in nature. However, if you are looking to invest in the burgeoning medical marijuana space, Medipharm is as good a bet as any. It does look set on building a business that fits a core need, has a product that is certainly growing in demand and is starting to grow in profitability.

If you are a millennial investor with a long time horizon who believes in the medical side of the cannabis industry, you might want to give Medipharm a try.

The post A Medical Cannabis Stock for Millennial Investors appeared first on The Motley Fool Canada.

More reading

Fool contributor Kris Knutson owns shares of MediPharm Labs.

The Motley Fools purpose is to help the world invest, better. Click here now for your free subscription to Take Stock, The Motley Fool Canadas free investing newsletter. Packed with stock ideas and investing advice, it is essential reading for anyone looking to build and grow their wealth in the years ahead. Motley Fool Canada 2020
Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi on Saturday urged the Centre to bear the entire expenses of all Centrally sponsored schemes for one year.

In a letter to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, the Bihar DyCM said that all 66 Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS) might be closed/discontinued for this year (2020-21) for want of money if the Centre does not bear the states share for schemes. He said the Centre should also bear the states shares as most states are not in a position to give their share of Centrally Sponsored Schemes because of the crisis due to lockdown in the country.

Click here for full Covid-19 coverage

Sushil Modi, who also holds the finance portfolio, thanked the Central government for releasing Rs 9,268 crore as Bihars share in central taxes besides giving Rs 1,210.28 crore for MNREGA, Rs 708 crore for disaster and Rs 502 crore for urban local bodies.

Of the Rs 25,650.43 crore which was spent on 66 CSS during the financial year 2019-20, the state received Rs 15,513.03 crore as central share whereas it had to spend Rs 10,137.40 crore as its own share, the DyCM said.

Similarly, the state got Rs 1,093.13 crore for Mid Day Meal scheme and Rs 3,268.93 crore under Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) from the Centre while it (state) had to spend Rs 728.75 crore on MDM and Rs 2,177.95 crore on SSA respectively as its share.

But given the situation arising out of Covid-19 and subsequent enforcement of lockdown, it is quite difficult for majority of the state governments to spend such a huge sum of funds this year (2020-21), he said.
Microsoft is set to replace dozens of contract journalists on its MSN website and use automated systems to select news stories, US, and UK media reports.

The curating of stories from news organisations and selection of headlines and pictures for the MSN site is currently done by journalists.

Artificial intelligence will perform these news production tasks, sources told the Seattle Times.

Microsoft said it was part of an evaluation of its business.

The US tech giant said in a statement: Like all companies, we evaluate our business on a regular basis. This can result in increased investment in some places and, from time to time, redeployment in others. These decisions are not the result of the current pandemic.

Microsoft, like some other tech companies, pays news organisations to use their content on its website.

But it employs journalists to decide which stories to display and how they are presented.

Around 50 contract news producers will lose their jobs at the end of June, the Seattle Times reports, but a team of full-time journalists will remain.

Its demoralising to think machines can replace us but there you go, one of those facing redundancy told the paper.

Some sacked journalists warned that artificial intelligence may not be fully familiar with strict editorial guidelines, and could end up letting through inappropriate stories.

Twenty-seven of those losing their jobs are employed by the UKs PA Media, the Guardian reports.

One journalist quoted in the paper said: I spend all my time reading about how automation and AI is going to take all our jobs  now its taken mine.

Microsoft is one of many tech companies experimenting with forms of so-called robot journalism to cut costs. Google is also investing in projects to understand how it might work.

---BBC
WASHINGTON - Under a clear blue sky, on a picture-perfect late spring afternoon, downtown Washington felt anything but calm Saturday. Protests and riots in cities across the country following the death of George Floyd while detained by Minneapolis police had put the District of Columbia on edge. As demonstrators gathered at the U.S. Navy Memorial in the city's downtown, Washington held its breath about what might happen here.

It did not take long for the city to find out. By early evening, violent clashes erupted near the White House. Some angry protesters broke windows of police vehicles and hurled epithets and water bottles at law enforcement officers, who, in some instances, responded with batons and tear gas to push back the crowd. As night approached, there were no signs it would bring calm.

The day of protest began peacefully. After taking a moment of silence to honor Floyd, the hundreds of demonstrators, most of them college students and young people, began heading toward the U.S. Capitol. Shouting Floyd's name, they marched down Seventh Street NW, carrying signs with the words "White Silence is White Violence," "Call it what it is: murder" and "AM I NEXT?"

Among the protesters was Malik Harris, a 23-year-old student who is originally from Prince George's County and now lives in Baltimore. He helped coordinate Saturday's protests with the organization Our Revolution.

Emails went out to about 2,000 people across Maryland and the District area, Harris said, pulling a speaker on wheels and holding a sign that said: "An attack against one is an attack against all."

The crowd gathered near the Capitol Reflecting Pool, shouting "let us breathe, let us breathe," sweating in masks beneath the 85-degree afternoon sun.

Photo by Evelyn Hockstein for The Washington Post

"This is not violence," Harris shouted in a megaphone, standing on the Grant Memorial. "This is a disruption of a prejudiced system."

His voice was cracking, he said, because he had been at protests the day before. But even as he could barely speak, he urged the crowd to shout the name louder: "George Floyd."

"Don't stop," he said. "We have put too much into the construction of this country. We have invested too much to not be recognized. We are here, and we will not be silenced."

Later, the crowd solemnly sang the lyrics to "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing," known as the black national anthem.

Brandon Iracks-Edelin, a 24-year-old from Washington who works in communications at a nonprofit group, was following the news of protests around the country Friday, and started searching Twitter for demonstrations planned in the District. He heard about the group meeting at the Navy Memorial and decided to join with his two friends, carrying a sign with the words: "The biggest threat to America is black unity."

He wore a blue mask, but he said he was not worried about the risk of exposure to the coronavirus.

"This is a cause to die for. This is a pandemic. This has been a pandemic in the black community since the founding of this country," he said. "It's ingrained in the history of this country."

Many of the protesters then began marching back across town and toward the White House, the scene of a tense standoff the night before with occasional skirmishes between law enforcement and several hundred protesters who called for justice for Floyd and railed against President Donald Trump, who was in the residence at the time.

Milto Tasissa, 20, heard about the protest in an Instagram story and decided to drive with her friends from her parents' home in Silver Spring to join.

Tasissa, who is studying information science at the University of Maryland, wore plastic gloves and a yellow mask as she marched, shouting "hands up, don't shoot" with the crowd. Her parents didn't know she was there, she said, and they probably wouldn't approve of it. "They think it's violent," she said.

"I was kind of scared because of the virus, but you just get to a certain point, and you see certain things," she said. "I needed to release my anger somehow."

Being in the protest, marching with "like-minded people," she said she felt less afraid. "It makes you feel less crazy about what's going on."

Tasissa carried a cardboard sign with the letters "BLM" written in black marker. Her friend carried a sign that read: "Take your knee off my neck America."

Across town, in Northeast Washington, another protest was forming in a Safeway parking lot. Black Lives Matter organized a car caravan through the city, and by 4 p.m., hundreds of cars had filled the lot, many with Floyd's name written on the windows.

About 20 young Filipino activists from around the District area came to the protest together in 10 cars.

"We want to show solidarity," said Jhong Delacruz, 26, from the District. Their group, Bayan, is active in issues in the Philippines but wanted to represent, as the signs on their cars said, "Asians for Black Lives Matter."

Silvia Samayoa, 25, came to the caravan with a friend from Rockville, Maryland, with signs expressing Latino support for Black Lives Matter.

"We're both minorities as well," she said. "We can't just stand by and watch."

She brought goggles just in case things get ugly and she has trouble seeing, but she said it was important "to be here and be ready."

The caravan, which headed toward the White House by evening, is the first gathering District resident Rafael Woldeab, 28, has been a part of since the pandemic began. He drove two friends, and they brought masks and hand sanitizer.

"This is larger than coronavirus, and it's connected to coronavirus, in a way," given higher mortality rates for black people infected. "I feel like I'm doing this for my future kids."

It took an hour for the cars to pull out of the lot, horns blaring, and head west toward downtown Washington. Along much of the route, city residents stood and watched the procession pass, some with confusion and annoyance and many others giving raised fists, clapping and cheering.

But the tension in the District that began early in the day with tweets from Trump had not abated. Trump offered support on Twitter for the Secret Service and U.S. Park Police officers who kept the protesters from coming on to the White House grounds. And then he described what would have happened if the protesters had broken through the barriers.

"If they had they would. . .have been greeted with the most vicious dogs, and most ominous weapons, I have ever seen," Trump tweeted. "That's when people would have been really badly hurt, at least. Many Secret Service agents just waiting for action. 'We put the young ones on the front line, sir, they love it, and. . .good practice.' "

Trump then attacked District Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, with a tweet that said she had prevented the District police from joining law enforcement efforts at the White House.

Bowser clapped back on Twitter, saying: "My police department will always protect DC and all who are in it whether I agree with them (such as those exercising their First Amendment Right) or those I don't (namely, @realdonaldtrump)."

By late Saturday afternoon, there had already been numerous clashes between police and some protesters near the White House.

"Do not storm the White House. You will get shot," shouted Nana Agyire, 26, of Silver Spring, Maryland, as he walked through the crowd on Pennsylvania Avenue. He said he came out "so things don't go unnoticed or unpunished."

"History will count me present," he said. But he worried the group might press forward toward the White House, and was hoping to stop them from trying to storm it, because that would be "an attack on the nation."

"We did not come out here to be un-American," he said. "We just want our rights protected. We want to be respected. We want to be treated as equals."

Kelsey Roy, 25, a data analyst from Georgetown, was at the front of the crowd of protesters, right up against the row of Secret Service officers. One of the officers looked her in the eyes and told her: "You need to leave. Please leave."

Then, more officers joined the row from behind and started pushing the crowd forward with their shields, pepper-spraying what appeared to be dozens of protesters. Roy fell to the ground in the stampede, as others got pinned to metal gates. Her arms and hands were scraped up and bloodied from the fall.

It was not yet dark outside.
Russia has finally completed the refurbishment of one of its oldest large surface warships, the 12,000 ton Moskva. This was the first of the Slava class cruisers and entered service in 1982. Three more were launched and two entered service in 1986 and 1989. The remaining one was launched in 1990 and was nearly complete when work was halted in 1991 because this ship, renamed the Ukrayina (Ukraine) because the shipyard where the work was being done was in the newly independent nation of Ukraine, now belonged to Ukraine. There was no money to complete work on the Ukrayina.

Work on nearly all unfinished Russian Navy warships was halted in the early 1990s because Russia was broke. That, plus nationalism and long-suppressed separatism, was the main reason the Soviet Union disintegrated into 14 new nations, the largest being Russia and the second largest was Ukraine. The dissolution deal had all the new nations taking ownership of any Soviet assets, including military and economic ones, belonging to the new nation the assets were now in.

The Ukrainian Navy initially consisted of nearly 70 former Soviet Black Sea fleet warships. The problem was that most of the officers on these new ships were Russians who did not want to change their nationality. The rest of the Soviet military had the same problem but that was solved by allowing the Russian officers and troops to transfer to Russia, where most of them were demobilized. Most of the former Soviet land, air force and strategic rocket (ICBM) units were disbanded and Russia, with the help of the United States, bought and dismantled the nuclear weapons based in Ukraine, Kazakstan, and Belarus as part of a post-Cold War nuclear disarmament treaty. This agreement led to a sharp reduction in American and former Soviet ICBMs, and nuclear warheads in general. Russia went along with this because they feared Ukraine, Kazakstan, and Belarus would hold on to the nukes as insurance against future Russian aggression. Many people in these three nations favored doing this but Russia signed agreements guaranteeing their safety against any future aggression. Russia violated this treaty in 2014 when it seized Crimea and is still fighting to annex part of eastern Ukraine (Donbas), an effort that was stalled because Ukraine rallied its forces and halted the annexation process. That conflict resulted in heavy economic sanctions by the West. These sanctions will only be lifted if Russia leaves Crimea and Donbas, something Russia has so far refused to do. With the takeover of Crimea Russia took back 54 of the 67 remaining Soviet era Black Sea fleet warships.

The 1997 treaty with Ukraine that settled the Black Sea Fleet problems involved leaving a lot of Russian officers still operating Black Sea Fleet ships. While now classified as Ukrainians, many of these Russian officers and technical specialists still considered themselves Russian and this helped with the Russian seizure of Crimea in 2014. The Black Sea fleet ships that were not repossessed by Russia were those in other Ukrainian ports. Crimea had always contained most of the naval bases and shipyards that supported the Black Sea fleet. One of the ships the Russians did not get was the fourth Slava class cruiser, which was still 95 percent and rusting away in a Ukrainian port. Even after 2014 the Russians were willing to buy back the fourth Slava, and complete it. Ukraine was tempted but refused because Ukrainian troops were still fighting, and drying, to hold onto the Donbas. In 2017 Ukraine decided to scrap the Ukrayina because Ukraine never had the money to complete the ship and really didnt need it because until 2014 they had the largest fleet in the Black Sea. Russia also realized they could not afford to complete the Ukrayina, which had deteriorated greatly since work was abandoned in 1991.

The other three Slavas were worth refurbishing but even that was a financial strain. The Slava (now Moskva) was the flagship of the Black Sea fleet in 1991 but was not in Ukraine at the time and the largely Russian crew declared allegiance to Russia and managed to get away with it. Most of the former Soviet Black Sea fleet ships were unable to do that and became part of the Ukrainian Navy. The Soviets had planned to build ten Slavas and all were to be built in shipyards that were Ukrainian after 1991. Four Slavas were already built or under construction but even before 1991, Russia realized it could not afford to build that many and work on the fifth, unlaunched, Slava was halted in 1990 and the partially completed hull was scrapped.

Although the first Slava was only nine years old in 1991, it already needed refurbishment. Towards the end of the Soviet Union work on new ships declined in quality and the Slava was an example of that. The Slava was scheduled for refurbishment in 1991 in a Russian controlled shipyard but work was stalled because Russia was still broke and the Russian military budget had been cut by over 80 percent. There was not even enough money to operate or maintain a lot of the warships that Russia had inherited from the Soviet Union. Russia was in possession of most of those ships because, except for the Black Sea fleet, the other named fleets (Northern in north Russia, Pacific in the Russian Far East, and the Baltic Fleet) were based in ports still a part of Russia. Most of the refurbishment on Slava was completed by 2000 and it was renamed Moskva because the city of Moscow had raised money to complete the work. The Moskva then became the flagship of what was left of the pre-1991 Russian Black Sea fleet. Slava wasnt the only Soviet Black Sea ship that was not in a Ukrainian port in 1991. Parts of the Black Sea coast were still part of post-1991 Russia and the refurbed Moskva was the most powerful vessel of its new Black Sea fleet, the smallest fleet in the Russian Navy. The Ukrainian Navy was much larger and that continued to annoy the Russians. The rest of the refurb work that was not completed in 2000 was now to be completed starting in 2016. Once more lack of money delayed work and it was not finished until 2019.

The last Slava to enter service, in 1989, was stationed in the Pacific where it spent most of the 1990s tied up in port because all the budget could afford was a skeleton crew and enough fuel to keep essential equipment in working order. This Slava was returned to service, after some refurbishment, in 2008. The second Slava, which entered service in 1986, completed its refurbishment in 2016. At the moment one Slava is based in the Baltic, one in the Black Sea (with frequent trips to the Mediterranean) and the third in the Pacific.

These 11,500 ton ships look impressive, despite their elderly weapons and electronics. Each carries a crew of 485, two 130mm cannon, sixteen P-500 anti-ship missiles, 64 S-300PMU long-range anti-aircraft missiles, 48 short-range OSA-M anti-aircraft missiles, six 30mm anti-missile autocannon, two launchers for rocket-powered depth charges, ten 533mm (21 inch) torpedo tubes and a helicopter. The refurbishments were necessary to upgrade engines and other mechanical components, as well as missiles and electronics. This work takes two or three years.

The refurbishment of the larger Kirov class nuclear battlecruisers and non-nuclear aircraft carrier takes longer. These refurbs are expensive and dont do much to modernize these 1980s era warships. But these ships mainly serve as a symbol of fading Russian naval might. This means a lot for many Russians because for over two decades, from the late 1960s to 1991 Russia was a major naval power. That was never the case before and wont be again as long as the U.S. and China maintain their fleets.

The Slavas are likely to be refurbed again because their replacements, the Lebed class cruisers, were recently canceled and the larger and older Kirov class battlecruisers are fading fast. So is the tradition of the Russian fleet operating large surface warships.
An unidentified man on Sunday shot at a 50-year-old security guard deployed at the farmhouse of a leader of the Republican Party of Indias (RPI) in outer Delhis Nihal Vihar, police said. The security guard suffered bullet injuries on his leg, they said adding that a case has been registered in the matter.

According to the police, the suspect first approached the guard, Hari Nath, asking him about the whereabouts of the RPI leader Mohammad Shakeel Saifi. When the guard asked the suspect to contact his employer on his mobile phone, the suspect fired two rounds at him.

Deputy commissioner of police (Outer) A Koan said that Nath suffered bullet injuries in his legs and was shifted to Balaji Action Hospital. A case of attempt to murder with sections 25/27 of the arms act has been registered at the Nihal Vihar police station and the investigation is on ion the matter, the DCP added.

A police officer associated with the investigation, on the condition of anonymity, said that Saifithe national president of the minority cell of RPI was at his farmhouse with his family when the firing took place around 9 am. RPI is led by Ramdas Athawale, the Union minister of state for social justice and empowerment.

Saifi was not available for a comment as multiple calls and text messages sent on his cellphone remained unanswered.

The officer said the injured security guard told the police that he was on duty alone when someone knocked at the farmhouses main gate. The guard opened the gate to find a man wearing a mask. The man asked the guard about Saifi. Nath responded asking him to call Saifi if he wanted to meet him. At this, the man pulled out a pistol and fired two shots. The attacker fled as Nath screamed for help, the officer said.

The police said they were informed about the incident around 9.15 am following which a team rushed to the spot immediately.

The CCTV camera installed near the crime scene at Saifis farmhouse was defunct. We are scanning CCTV cameras in the neighbourhood to ascertain the suspects identity, the officer added.




The tussle for the number one seat at the Dennis Osadebey Edo State Government House hots up as a faction of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has selected Osagie Ize-Iyamu to go against incumbent Godwin Obaseki.

This has not gone down well with some governors elected on the platform of the APC, who have taken it upon themselves to find a solution to the political crisis rocking the state.

It was gathered that the governors have resolved to meet with the National Leader of the ruling party, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

The meeting, which is believed to be connected to last-minute efforts to ensure Obaseki clinches the partys ticket for the forthcoming governorship election in the state, is scheduled to hold today (Sunday).

Speaking to The Punch on Saturday, a source stated that the meeting was at the instance of the governors, noting that a delegation of the governors would meet with Tinubu to seek his intervention preparatory to further talks with President Muhammadu Buhari on the issue.

The meeting with Tinubu is essentially to seek his intervention in the crisis rocking the party in Edo State.

Part of the conditions being worked on, which the governor is expected to meet, is to swear in the remaining members of the state House Assembly who have yet to be sworn in, the source said.

Also speaking on the move to bring lasting peace to the Edo State APC, another party source stated that it was too late to reconcile Obaseki and the National Chairman of the party, Adams Oshiomhole.

The train has since left the station. It is too late in the day to find common ground on the Obaseki issue.

We expect all aspirants (governorship) to go to the field to test their popularity. This is the language of democracy, he said.

One APC governor told The Punch that the party governors would do whatever they could do to save Obaseki.

He said: We will see what we can do to make things right. Whatever is in our power as progressive governors we would do in the interest of our party and in the interest of the people of Edo State. We may also see the President on the issue.

Asked if the direct primary election sanctioned by the party at the national level was not meant to swing the result of the governorship primary against Obaseki, the source said we shall see.

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Thousands of activists have defied social-distancing rules in Britain to gather in protest at the death in the US of a black man after a white police officer knelt on his neck.

Police watched as huge crowds of people demonstrated outside the US Embassy in Battersea, south London, sitting in the road and blocking it to traffic.

Earlier, Trafalgar Square in central London was filled with hundreds of people who chanted black lives matter, in memory of George Floyd and to protest against alleged police brutality in the UK.

Five people were arrested during the day, three for breaches of Covid-19 social-distancing legislation and two for assault on police, Scotland Yard said. Those arrested, who were between 17 and 25, were taken into custody.

The US has been rocked by nightly protests by tens of thousands of people across many cities after Mr Floyd died in custody in Minneapolis on Monday.

At least 1,600 people have been arrested in 22 cities as demonstrations descended into violence.

In central London, many protesters knelt, and repeated No justice, no peace and Say my name, George Floyd.

Others held up placards saying Racism has no place and I cant breathe  thought to have been among Mr Floyds last words to the police officer, who had handcuffed him during his arrest.

It's thought many had travelled to the capital by public transport despite appeals by rail companies for people to stay away, allowing key workers to be socially distanced from others.

It remains illegal to socialise in groups of more than two in public under coronavirus laws, police chiefs had warned on Saturday.

Officers moved the crowds on, and some protesters walked to the gates of Downing Street, where they held up placards calling for justice.

Outside the US embassy, passers-by applauded the demonstrators and drivers sounded their horns in support. Other activists made their way to Grenfell Tower in northwest London.

More protests in the capital are planned for the coming week.

Hundreds of people also joined a march in Manchester to protest at Mr Floyds death.

Just before Trafalgar Square filled up, London mayor Sadiq Khan tweeted: Lockdown has not been lifted. The virus is still out there. He advised people to stay at home as much as possible, keep a social distance when outside and avoid public transport.

Some in the London crowd wore masks (PA)

The deputy chief medical officer insisted on Saturday that lockdown rules apply to all and that the country was facing a very dangerous moment in the coronavirus pandemic.

The UK has one of the highest death rates in the world from Covid-19.

Top scientists advising the government have expressed growing alarm at the lifting of restrictions when 8,000 new cases are confirmed each day.

Professor Robert West said there was a huge risk of a spike in coronavirus infection rates when the lockdown was eased, adding: Because we dont have track and trace in place, we wont know whether this easing of the lockdown has caused an increase in infections for some time, by which time it will be well under way, the second peak will be well under way.

A man wearing a protective face mask kneels in front of police officers during a protest against George Floyds death near the US embassy (Reuters) (REUTERS)

The Rev Sally Hitchiner, associate vicar at St Martin-in-the-Fields church in Trafalgar Square, who saw the protest there, said: Im very sympathetic to the issue but also surprised to see the strength of emotion that has gathered people together.

Its showing there are people in the UK who care passionately about the situation in the US.

Clearly theyre not following lockdown and social distancing, but I think theres a huge amount of passion there, and thats overriding their concerns.

Its an issue that requires passion but at the same time theres a huge amount of risk in what theyre doing.

A police officer has been sacked and charged with third-degree murder following Mr Floyds death.

Derek Chauvin, who has previously had multiple complaints filed against him, was held in custody for four days. His wife has filed for divorce.
YouTube star Jake Paul is facing backlash after he was recorded among a group of looters at an Arizona shopping mall.

Cell phone footage shared by Paul's videographer shows the YouTuber, 23, wearing a face mask while with demonstrators at the Fashion Square Mall in Scottsdale.

He is first spotted outside the Fashion Square Mall as protestors appear to shoot fireworks at the building's entrance.

Later, Paul films a group of police officers stationed at the mall to curb any looting or violence amid the George Floyd protests.

YouTube star Jake Paul (left) was spotted outside the Fashion Square Mall in Scottsdale, Arizona, on Saturday night

'Bunch of f****** idiots, bro,' he says. The caption on the video reads 'American is in ruins.'

He claims to have walked on a sidewalk near the officers who allegedly teargassed him.

'Literally I walked right here, right up to there. these f****** idiots teargassed me. I aint doing s***, bro. Look at them pointing guns at me,' Paul said.

'Look at them. Twenty guns on me. Twenty guns on me right now,' he adds before saying 'Rest in Peace, George Floyd' and flipping his middle finger at the officers.

Paul was recorded near a group of Arizona officers who allegedly threw tear gas at people

At some point, demonstrators appear to break into the Fashion Square Mall by damaging the entrance of a P.F. Changs restaurant.

Footage then cuts to Paul and group of friends inside the mall as looters break into stores.

After two people attempt to shatter the storefront of a Swarovski jewelry store, Paul laughs as he sprints out of the mall with his friends.

Neither Paul, nor his friends appear to take anything from inside the mall.

The videos, shared to Instagram by Andrew Blue, Paul's videographer and photographer, have since been sparked backlash on social media.

Demonstrators outside the Fashion Square Mall appeared to shoot fireworks at the entrance (pictured)

Paul (left) said in a later statement that he was in Arizona to fight police brutality and protest the death of George Floyd

After the entrance of a P.F. Chang's was damaged, footage showed Paul (center) and and others inside the Fashion Square Mall after hours

Paul was initially accused of being a looter himself, which outraged those who pointed out Paul's status as a multimillionaire.

In 2017, Paul was ranked as one of the highest paid YouTube celebrities by Forbes with a net worth of $11.5million.

People were also upset over the trivializing the George Floyd protests and Black Lives Matter movement for new video content.

'Jake Paul, a millionaire going out on the streets to destroy shops, cars etc while filming everything for new youtube content. He's part of the problem,' said one user.

'I am so f******angry [about] scottsdale fashion square being looted...jake paul + his other rich white friends are capitalizing off of this for attention + notoriety while doing nothing to support the actual movement,' another wrote.

Some people took offense to allegations that Paul was looting stores because of his status as a multimillionaire

Others worried the move would trivialize the George Floyd protests and Black Lives Matter movement

On Sunday, Paul released a statement that claimed he was not involved in any looting and was in the area for protests

Paul released a statement that dismissed accusations against him.

'To be absolutely clear, neither I nor anyone in our group was engaged in any looting or vandalism,' wrote Paul.

'For context, we spent the day doing our part to peacefully protest one of the most horrific injustices our country has ever seen, which led to use being tear-gassed for filming the events and brutality that were unfolding in Arizona.

'We were gassed and forced to keep moving on foot. We filmed everything we saw in an effort to share our experience and bring more attention to the anger felt in every neighborhood we traveled through; we were strictly documenting, not engaging.'

Paul added that he does not condone 'violence, looting, or breaking the law.'

Blue also denied the allegations against him and Paul in a statement released Saturday afternoon.

He wrote: Just for clarity, I am a videographer and my job is to document virtually everything. We were strictly documenting the situation and doing our part to use our platform to raise awareness about the horrific event and overall injustice.

'Nobody with us was looting or vandalizing, bit it certainly was tragic to see and while we understand the frustration, we dont condone or support any behavior like that.'
Police have identified the three people killed in a crash early Saturday when their vehicle collided with a New Jersey Transit bus in Moorestown.

The 45-year-old driver, Rodriguez Heriberto, and his two passengers, Betsy Colon, 40, and Monica DeJesus, 42, were killed after their eastbound vehicle collided with a bus making a left turn from Route 38 west onto Pleasant Valley Avenue around 12:30 a.m., authorities said.

The Philadelphia residents were pronounced dead at the scene.

The bus driver and a passenger were taken to Cooper University Hospital with injuries not considered life-threatening, police said. The bus driver had a green left turn arrow and will not be charged, Moorestown police Chief Lee Lieber said in an email Sunday.

Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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Clashes erupted between law enforcement and protesters in several major U.S. cities Saturday night as demonstrations over the death of George Floyd and other police-related killings of black men spread across the country.

The big picture: Floyd's death in Minneapolis police custody is the latest reminder of the disparities between black and white communities in the U.S. and comes as African Americans grapple with higher death rates from the coronavirus and higher unemployment from trying to stem its spread.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency late Saturday, as the state became the latest to activate the National Guard over the unrest. Major U.S. cities have implemented curfews.

The latest in Minneapolis: Police again fired tear gas during a fifth straight day of protests in the city, video from the scene shows.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz announced he was fully mobilizing the state's National Guard for the first time since World War II as they prepared for more protests.

The Minnesota National Guard tweeted that more than 4,100 troops have been deployed, with plans to possibly deploy 10,800.

Police had difficulty enforcing the 8 p.m. curfew, per The Washington Post.

The Pentagon also took a rare step of putting several active-duty military police units on alert, ready to deploy to Minneapolis within four hours of orders, AP notes.

Firefighters struggled to put out fires in the city because streets were filled with protesters.

Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin is in jail under $500,000 bail on charges of third-degree murder and manslaughter after a video emerged of him kneeling on Floyd's neck for more than eight minutes.

The latest in New York City: Thousands of people simultaneously marched through the city's five boroughs, per The New York Times. Clashes erupted in several areas.

Police arrested over 100 protesters on Saturday, NBC News reports.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez blasted NYC Mayor Bill De Blasio early Sunday for defending the NYPD after video emerged of some officers driving cars into a group of demonstrators. He said the protesters should have "gotten out of the way."

New York Police Department chief Terence Monahan tweeted, "We'll always welcome protestors who want to peacefully express their views. When violent individuals throw bottles, rocks, and cause serious injuries to our officers  we will make arrests.... there is absolutely no tolerance for violence."

The latest across the U.S.: Major U.S. cities have implemented curfews and called on National Guard to mobilize in response to the violent scenes.

Attorney General Bill Barr denounced what he described as "planned" violence from "far-left extremist groups" on Saturday, without citing any evidence.

Local and national leaders are asking the thousands who are protesting to stop the violence, as police in some areas respond to crowds with tear gas and rubber bullets.

Protests also took place in, per CNN:

Bakersfield, Sacramento, San Jose, Oakland and San Francisco, California

Denver, Colorado

Chicago

Des Moines, Iowa

Indianapolis and Fort Wayne, Indiana

Louisville, Kentucky. The protests are also related to the death of Breonna Taylor, a black woman who died in March when the police raided her apartment.

New Orleans, Louisiana

Boston, Massachusetts

Las Vegas, Nevada

Raleigh and Charlotte, North Carolina,

Columbus and Cincinnati, Ohio

Dallas and Houston, Texas

Richmond, Virginia

Go deeper:

Editor's note: This article has been updated with new details throughout.
Sources in the aviation industry said: After weeks of trying to comply with several, supposedly regulatory demands, presumably because Air Zimbabwe was applying to operate a commercial flight between South Africa and China, the South African company decided the process was taking long and it was losing business, hence a request for a refund.
Mike Goodwin

SCHENECTADY  The city of Schenectady will institute a curfew from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. Sunday through Friday this week as officials hope to keep the peace after a series of violent protests around the Capital Region the night before.

Mayor Gary McCarthy signed the emergency order just before 6 p.m. Sunday, citing the "likely outbreak of civil unrest and disturbance" and the threat it "poses to the maintenance of law and order, the protection of property and the health and welfare of the city of Schenectady's residents and visitors."
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Linkedin Alya Nurbaiti (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sun, May 31, 2020 12:41 599 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdb28848 1 National threat,intimidation,UGM,Gadjah-Mada-University,freedom-of-speech,academic-freedom,discussion,presidency,treason Free

Yogyakartas Gadjah Mada University (UGM) has canceled a planned online discussion about the constitutional mechanism for removing a president from office after students and a professor received death threats and faced other forms of intimidation.

The Constitutional Law Society (CLS), the student community that organized the discussion, said the event, scheduled for Friday, was meant to be a response to recent public discussions about the possibility of dismissing the President for what some perceive as his inadequate handling of the COVID-19 outbreak.

The aim of the discussion was to inform the public about the dismissal of a president from a constitutional law point of view, CLS head Aditya Halimawan said in a written statement obtained by The Jakarta Post on Saturday.

On Thursday, a poster of the discussion went viral after a man named Bagas Pujilaksono, who identified himself as an UGM academic, wrote an opinion article denouncing the discussion as an act of treason.

According to the CLS statement, on Friday, two members of the discussions organizing committee started to receive threats in various forms including text messages, phone calls and the hacking of their accounts.

Individuals claiming to be members of the Klaten branch of the Islamic mass organization Muhammadiyah sent death threats to the committee members parents through text messages.

Tell your child they will be charged with treason, one message said. I will kill your whole family if you cant teach your child.

Can you tell your child? Or teach your child to be a good person? another message read. Please, just turn yourself in. I will kill your whole family.

Muhammadiyah Klaten has denied that it was in any way involved in the messages and condemned such threats as violations of academic freedom.

The regional leadership of Muhammadiyah Klaten urges the National Police to conduct a complete investigation into the crimes of impersonation, defamation, threats, terror and intimidation toward the organizers of the discussion, the group said in a statement on Sunday.

Read also: Fears of repression grow in virus-crippled Indonesia

One of the students also had their WhatsApp account hacked on Friday. The hacker sent a message saying that the discussion had been canceled to a group of around 300 participants. The hacker also kicked out all participants from the group afterward.

The other students Gojek account was hacked and was used to order GoCar and GoFood services to the student's house. Adityas Instagram account and the CLSs official Instagram account were hacked as well, though Aditya managed to recover his account.

Constitutional law professor of the Indonesian Islamic University (UII) Nimatul Huda, who was a speaker at the discussion, was also reportedly threatened.

Professor Nimatul called me on Thursday night, and reported that several people had visited her house at 11 pm and knocked on her door and rang the bell repeatedly until 6 am, UIIs School of Law dean Abdul Jamil said in a television interview.

He added that Nimatul also received a death threat via text message.

Following the threats, the committee officially canceled the discussion on Friday for security reasons.

UGMs School of Law dean Sigit Riyanto condemned the acts of intimidation as well as those who said the discussion was an act of treason.

This is a serious threat to academic freedom. These people arbitrarily and brutally defined the discussion as treason even before it started. The students are now experiencing psychological shock from the threats, Sigit said in a written statement.

He said he appreciated and supported the students initiative and contribution to offering different perspectives through discussion.

Its also a part of freedom of speech. The School of Law also encourages the public to respect freedom of speech and academic freedom, he said.

The National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) also condemned the incident and urged the police to find and arrest the perpetrators.

This is important so that serious crimes like this are not repeated, the commission said in a statement on Saturday.

National Police spokesperson Insp. Gen. Argo Yuwono said on Sunday that the police had yet to receive an official report about the intimidation, but were ready to start an investigation once it had.
As recently as Saturday night, senior administration officials told me that the designation of a violent cohort of far-left activists, antifa, as a terrorist organization was not being seriously discussed at the White House. But that was Saturday.

Behind the scenes: The situation changed dramatically a few hours later, after prominent conservative allies of the president, such as his friend media commentator Dan Bongino, publicly urged a tough response against people associated with antifa (short for "anti-fascist").

A senior White House official told me that on Sunday morning, President Trump discussed the move with White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Attorney General Bill Barr.

Then, at 12:23pm, Trump tweeted: "The United States of America will be designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organization."

Yes, but: There currently is no law under which Trump could formally designate antifa, a loosely defined and domestic movement, as a terrorist organization. Only the State Department can designate foreign groups as terrorist organizations.

Mark Bray, author of "Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook," wrote of Trump's tweet: "To explain a little: it's like calling bird-watching an organization. Yes, there are bird-watching organizations as there are Antifa organizations but neither bird-watching nor antifa is an organization."

About an hour after Trump's tweet, Barr said in a statement that antifa protesters were engaged in domestic terrorism.

"To identify criminal organizers and instigators, and to coordinate federal resources with our state and local partners, federal law enforcement is using our existing network of 56 regional FBI Joint Terrorism Task Forces."

"The violence instigated and carried out by Antifa and other similar groups in connection with the rioting is domestic terrorism and will be treated accordingly."

Go deeper: DOJ to treat antifa involvement in protests as domestic terrorism
Flesch told CBS that he got a notification from the security system around 9 p.m. Saturday. He arrived before the fire began and found a gate broken and people coming out of the shop with baskets filled with inventory. At one point he saw two or three guys walk in, come out and a moment later there started to be smoke.
The past week has once again demonstrated the depths of violence in which the young people of this city will lower themselves. The lack of respect for life and the belief that the gun is the only means to handle problems, endangers everyone and anyone that may stand in their way.

Even as the rest of us attempt to grapple with the effects of a worldwide pandemic, these individuals go after each other as though killing each other is the only thing that matters. Whatever the reasons, death and mayhem are whats left in their wake.

As the violence continues, it is obvious that the police department is unprepared in dealing with this crisis. They are left in reactionary mode, chasing its tail from one murder to the next. The lack of preparedness is curious in the fact that Police Director Sheilah Coley has been in place for a little more than a year and this is the third time in that year in which the level of violence has reached these heights.

After a year on the job, all the police department has to show for its investment in Director Coley are walking posts. As I stated in a previous article, walking posts alone are not the panacea in preventing crime or violence. It is but a tool in an overarching plan of action to address crime. But what is that plan of action? How much longer must the city wait for Director Coley to introduce and implement her plan?

Where is Director Coley? LA Parker wondered if there was a falling out with the Mayor being that she has yet to comment on the violence. But in all reality, she has failed to communicate to the public since she has been Police Director. The Mayor seems to have taken on the role of spokesperson for the police department due to her lack of communication. Some have suggested that the Mayor has put a gag order on Director Coley to keep her from engaging the public. That is just a ruse to quiet any criticisms or questions about the whereabouts of the Police Director. And even if the Mayor had issued that directive, the Police Director is afforded plenty of opportunities to address City Council and the public at the weekly council meetings. Again, where is Director Coley?

Police officers follow orders and will act according to how their leader leads. If Director Coley has been invisible to the rank and file, never addressing one roll call in all this time to at the very least introduce herself and at the most, to present her plan, then who do officers turn to in these critical times. If Director Coley never works to inspire and motivate, using fear instead of guidance and leadership, then what you have is a group of individuals unsure of their place and unwilling to go above and beyond.

If Director Coley is willing to make up a criminal offense as she allegedly did a few weeks ago, in an effort to intimidate and make the officers afraid, then what you are left with is a lack of support from the officers and officers with low morale who will only do the bare minimum.

The Trenton Police Department has experienced that type of leadership several times since the implementation of the police director in 2000. Police Directors Joe Santiago and Ralph Rivera are examples of leading that way. Under their leadership, the homicide records were broken first at 31 homicides in 2005 under Director Joe Santiago and at 37 homicides in 2013 under Director Ralph Rivera. Poor leadership, the inability to trust the leadership of the department, coupled with a lack of knowledge of the people of the city and the city itself, created a firestorm of violence that they were unable to handle.

Director Coley is falling in line with those two police directors. As bodies continue to pile up, her lack of response and action is indicative of her inability to lead.

When will enough be enough?

I am sure there will be those that will say this article is an attempt by a small group of officers to undermine Director Coley. Some will say that I have an agenda being that I was not selected to be police director by Mayor Gusciora. Others will say, as has been written any time I am quoted in an article in this paper, that I was a Paul Perez supporter and its assumed that I just want to criticize the current administration.

And none of those would be accurate.

I was raised in Trenton in one of the worst areas of the city, the 400 block of Centre St. I attended public school graduating from Trenton Central High School in 1987 and went off to college at Rutgers University. I was blessed to have been raised by very strict religious parents in the Assemblies of God church led by Reverend Jose Rodrigues Sr., whom I still consider my pastor. I was convinced to take the police test by the late Carlos Pacheco and ended up being offered a job as a police officer in 1992. I served this city for 26 years and worked each day to make this city a better place. I have lived in and served this city for most of my life. I am a Trentonian through and through, and proud of it.

I have a vested interest in seeing the best people run the police department because I am extremely proud to have worn that uniform and hate to see it ruined by individuals who care nothing about the city and less about the department. If I help in providing truth to discussions about the city and the police department, then I have accomplished my goal.

And that is my agenda.

I want to make Trenton a better place for all of my family and friends that live and work there. I believe this agenda should be the same of every Trentonian, especially its leadership. Are we not allowed to hold the leaders accountable because of some unwritten rules of engagement?

It is our right to be honest about the successes and failures of the city, especially in critical times like the ones we are experiencing today. And by being honest will we be able to fix the many issues that continually plague this city.

Right??
Even as protests raged against the killing of George Floyd, the 46-year-old African-American who was killed this week on Monday after a police officer held him down by the neck until he choked, an image of a protestor standing up to police officers is going viral.

On Saturday, protests tore through cities across the United States. By evening, several had turned violent such as in San Jose, which saw intense clashes between protesters and police.

The protesters have been demanding action against the cops who killed Floyd, allegedly while trying to arrest the unarmed man for a bad check. Many including common citizens, journalists and intellectuals as well as human rights activists have raised concerns about the repeated issue of racial discrimination in the country's police force.

While several images have been going viral, one photograph by photographer Dai Sugano seems to have captured the tense pulse of the nation, torn by police injustice, violent protests and reports of looting. In the photo, a young woman can be seen kneeling peacefully in front of armed policemen with guns and batons in a mark of protest.

San Jose | Picture: Dai Sugano pic.twitter.com/TkNE7XG2d6 Khaled Beydoun (@KhaledBeydoun) May 31, 2020

The photo has been shared by thousands of netizens across the world on Twitter, even as police continue to arrest protesters from across sites. Dozens of rioters were arrested from New York after several police cars were set on fire.

The photo is reminiscent of an image of an African-American nurse peacefully courting arrest as police dressed in riot-gear put handcuffs on her hand. The image was taken in Baton Rouge in 2016 as similar anti-police and anti-racism protests rocked the the country after the police shootings of two African -American men Alton Sterling and Philando Castille.

The image by Sugano was captured in San Jose while the protests were still non-violent. The demonstrators later turned violent by night, leading to a war-zone like situation in the city, with protesters lobbing stones and bottles at cops who tried to contain the violent crowd with "flash bangs" as well as spraying chemical irritants.

Protests also consumed other parts of US such as Los Angeles, Seattle, Philadelphia and New York with demonstrators setting fire to cars and other public property. In San Jose, rioters set La Mesa City Hall ablaze and set over 200 American flags on fire.
The Minister of Health for Yemen's Houthi Rebels on Saturday denied that authorities have failed to report the actual number of coronavirus cases.

Dr. Taha al-Mutwakil said the government had been transparent about the number of confirmed cases and those who have recovered.

He claimed that the recovery rate for coronavirus patients is "high" at 80%.

The rebels have officially reported just four cases, including one fatality, raising questions about reports of an unaccounted-for surge in deaths there.

The World Health Organization has warned the Houthis that full transparency is needed to fight the virus' spread.

On Thursday, Yemen's Houthi rebels acknowledged for the first time that the coronavirus has spread to multiple governorates under their control.

The Houthi Health Ministry buried the admission in a muted statement, saying only that authorities are working to trace and isolate infected cases that have been recorded in the capital, Sanaa, and several provinces across the war-torn country.

The statement accused the World Health Organization of sending "inaccurate" and deficient tests.

Yemen's internationally recognized government, based in the south, has reported 278 cases and 58 deaths. A major outbreak is threatening to overwhelm the country's health system, devastated by five years of brutal war.

Yemen's war erupted in 2014, when the rebels seized Sanaa, and much of the country's north.

The U.S.-backed, Saudi-led coalition intervened to oust the rebels and restore the internationally recognized government.

The conflict has killed over 100,000 people and largely settled into a bloody stalemate.

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Organizers estimate about 1,000 people gathered Saturday in Birmingham for a rally and march to protest police brutality and racial inequality in the wake of George Floyds death, although protesters were reporting arrests at one event later in Hoover.

Protests have spread across the country in the days since Floyd died while handcuffed after a Minneapolis police officer kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes in an incident that was captured on video. Video of the incident sparked outrage across the country, though protests in Alabama remained peaceful so far on Saturday.

In Birmingham, a large crowd filled Kelly Ingram Park, across the street from the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church for a rally and march through the citys downtown business district, chanting Black lives matter, George Floyds name, no justice, no peace, I cant breathe, and hands up, dont shoot.

The rally, organized by a group called Alabama Rally Against Injustice, featured speeches from organizers as well as elected officials, including State Sen. Linda Coleman-Madison, State Rep. Neil Rafferty, Jefferson County Sheriff Mark Pettway, and former Birmingham Mayor William Bell.

The group held a similar protest on Thursday night, but Saturdays event drew far more people to the park.

After several speeches and some donated pizza and water bottles, the crowd marched from the park down Fifth Avenue North through the citys central business district.

The rally was one of several in Alabama Saturday in the wake of Floyds death.

In Huntsville, protesters marched through downtown, as seen in the video below.

Hundreds gathered today on the courthouse square in downtown Huntsville, Ala. They peacefully marched in the streets, chanting #NoJusticeNoPeace and #georgefloyds name. pic.twitter.com/i8wW8gFyef  Ashley Remkus (@aremkus1) May 30, 2020

Protesters also marched through Hoover along U.S. Highway 31 at the Hoover Municipal Complex with a crowd estimated at 100 or more. Police officers from Hoover and other area police departments lined the road to keep protesters off the road. Protesters said some were arrested.

Police at the scene declined comment but later said 20 people were arrested for various charges - mostly stemming from blocking traffic on Montgomery Highway.

The majority of those arrested were charged with disorderly conduct. Additionally, some were charged with criminal trespassing, resisting arrest, and one person was charged with carrying a firearm during a demonstration, Lt Keith Czeskleba said.

No injuries to any protesters or officers were reported, Czeskleba said. Two buildings, Jared Jewelry on Galleria Circle and Von Maur at the Riverchase Galleria, sustained damage to their windows as a result of the protest, he added.

Some protesters, most wearing masks due to the pandemic, held signs such as I Cant Breathe referring to the death of Floyd, who had told the Minneapolis police officer he couldnt breathe as the officer put a knee on his neck.

Other signs held by protesters included White silence is violence and End Police Brutality and protesters at times shouted. The protests were reminiscent of protests following the shooting death of E.J. Bradford by a Hoover police officer at the Galleria in November 2018. Some in the crowd Saturday night brought up the memory of Bradfords death.

Saleighna Pryor attended the Birmingham and Hoover protests because, she said, Black people are tired. Pryor, who is African-American, said that she doesnt expect white people to understand what black people continually face.

We do not expect you to feel for us," Pryor said, "but you cannot continue to poke a lion and expect it not to get mad. You cannot expect to kill us and us sit there and do nothing. You cannot expect to put us down over and over and expect us to allow you to do it.

Hoover resident Andrea Lilly brought her daughter to the protest. As to why she attended, she I have two little boys, and I want them to become black men one day. I want them to make it that far. Lilly then teared up, saying that given what is happening across the country, Its a very real thing that that could not happen.

Justice choir at Hoover jail Stay up yall til everyone is home. These are very young people basically kids. We must support. Still have 25 or more to get out. Posted by Cara McClure on Saturday, May 30, 2020

Heres the scene in front of the Hoover Municipal Center. Peaceful protest. pic.twitter.com/wRXWW97jhl  Trisha Powell Crain (@Trish_Crain) May 31, 2020

Large crowds also gathered in Montgomery for a protest on the steps of the Alabama State Capitol.

The protests are expected to continue Sunday. A march is planned in Mobile for 3 p.m., and the city of Birmingham has announced a Rally for Justice and Peace at 4 p.m. at Kelly Ingram Park.

AL.com reporters Trisha Powell Crain and Ashley Remkus contributed to this report.
LAKEWOOD, Ohio

Grand theft of a vehicle: Clifton Boulevard

An apartment resident called police at about 8:45 a.m. May 20 to report his vehicle missing. The complainant learned about the theft after apartment management called him to report witnessing someone entering through an apartment window, then exiting out of an apartment door.

Grand theft of a vehicle: Detroit Avenue

Police responded shortly after 8 p.m. May 17 to a GetGo gas station after a man had left his silver truck running at one of the pumps while he went inside the store. The truck was stolen while he was inside, according to a police event report.

Grand theft of a vehicle: Richland Avenue

A woman at about 11:30 a.m. May 15 reported a vehicle missing from her driveway.

Theft: Delaware Avenue

Officers responded at noon May 16 to a report of a gun being taken out of a vehicle.

Theft: Detroit Avenue

Lakewood police at 12:50 p.m. May 21 responded to the Rite Aid Drug store at Detroit near Northland Avenue regarding the theft of cigarettes off a delivery truck. Fifteen cartons were taken. A witness said he saw a man carrying away two of the boxes, but he was not sure in what direction the man went.

Driving under the influence: Clifton Boulevard

Police at 12:35 a.m. May 20 stopped a car at Clifton Boulevard near Idlewood Avenue and arrested a male suspect for operating a vehicle while impaired. His car was towed from the scene.

Theft: Newman Avenue

Police on May 20 took a report about a package that had been stolen from an apartment lobby.

Disorderly conduct: Bunts Road

Police at about 9 a.m. May 18 arrested a man for disorderly conduct while intoxicated. The man was found intoxicated inside the first-floor stairwell of an apartment building and refused to leave.

Driving under the influence: Clifton Boulevard

Police at approximately 3 a.m. May 18 arrested a man for operating a vehicle while intoxicated after they found him passed out behind the wheel in a handicapped parking spot outside a CVS pharmacy.

Theft: Clarence Avenue

Officers responded at 8:55 a.m. May 17 to a report of an unlocked car being entered and tools taken.

Breaking and entering: Detroit Avenue

Six laundry machines inside an apartment building were discovered broken into early May 15.

Driving under the influence: Madison Avenue

Police stopped a car at about 2 a.m. May 15 because there was no visible license plate. The officers arrested the female driver for operating a vehicle while intoxicated.

Theft: Quail Street

Officers took a report on May 15 of an Amazon package being taken off a front porch between 4:11 p.m. and 6:15 p.m. that day.

Read more from the Sun Post Herald.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 31

By Jeila Aliyeva - Trend:



Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan have discussed proposals to stimulate entrepreneurship and investment cooperation, Trend reports with reference to Turkmenistans State News Agency.

The mentioned issues were discussed with the representatives of the Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs of Kyrgyzstan.



The Kyrgyz side got acquainted with the reforms of Turkmenistan on state support and expansion of business activities. According to the source, it was noted that the work of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Turkmenistan is aimed at developing market relations, creating conditions for successful business, and enhancing interaction with foreign business circles.



In the first seven months of 2019, the trade turnover between Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan amounted to $6.5 million, while entrepreneurs mainly cooperated in the trade sphere.

Tourism, transport, logistics and agriculture were also identified as promising areas of cooperation.



Turkmenistan supplies fresh tomatoes, bakery and flour products, textiles, and pipes to Kyrgyzstan . In turn, Kyrgyzstan exports lamps, plastic films and tapes, and machinery for the textile industry to Turkmenistan.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @JeilaAliyeva
BLOOMINGTON  More than 120 people rallied and marched through downtown Bloomington Saturday afternoon to protest the killing of a handcuffed black man in Minnesota.

Micah Denniston posted on her Facebook page Saturday that she wanted to hold a rally, like many that have been occurring in cities across the nation since the police killing of George Floyd earlier this week.

By 2 p.m., a large crowd had formed outside the McLean County Law and Justice Center.

"We're all out here supporting the cause," she said. "If I am being honest, I am definitely surprised. I didn't think there would be more than 10 or 15 people. To see our community come together for the black lives and the rights of our families, our brothers, our sisters I am definitely surprised.

Racial tensions have heightened nationwide since video surfaced of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin holding down Floyd with a knee on his neck during an arrest. Floyd died and Chauvin faces murder and manslaughter charges. Three other officers could also be charged, officials say.

Denniston led the crowd, using a bullhorn, in chants and singing. Other than some shouting, the gathering was peaceful.

"We started chanting. We started marching," said Denniston. "We're just out here fighting for our rights, fighting for our freedom."

Floyd's death affected Denniston because "I am the mother of three mixed children. They are mixed with black," she said. "I shouldn't have to fear for my son's life when he grows up. God forbid, he gets pulled over and the next thing you know he's dead on the ground by a cop because they fear him for the color of his skin or they fear my boyfriend for the color of his skin or my brother next to me for the color of his skin. It's not right."

McLean County deputies stood outside the Law and Justice Center while Bloomington police parked several vehicles nearby along Madison Street to keep the crowd from blocking traffic. Police also provided traffic control at intersections as the crowd marched through downtown Bloomington on Main Street, west on Market Street, south on Morris Avenue, east on Front Street and then back downtown before dispersing about 4:15 p.m.

"I think it's great that we have police out here keeping everybody safe," said Bloomington Ward 6 Alderwoman Jenn Carrillo, who was among many Black Lives Matter members who attended the rally. "It is going to take a whole more than that."

Carrillo added: "It's going to take a re-imagining of what policing looks like in a way that police don't just have power over people, but actually learn how to share power with our community.

"The distrust between people of color and police runs deep and is hundreds of years old," said Carrillo. "So it's going to take a whole lot more than a nice gesture here and there to actually build the justice and equity."

"When people ask us why we are doing this, why we are causing all of this ruckus, I like to remind people that there's no place in this country where African Americans have protested that we haven't been told this is not the right time or we shouldn't do it this way," said Theartis Butler, 30, of Bloomington.

"When we see injustice happen and not speak out, that builds up," said Butler. "The things that are going on in Minneapolis are basically evidence of that; that we're not having these conversations as a nation and as a community.

"As America, we generally put Band-Aids on knife wounds and wonder why we have an infection. It's sad," said Butler.

"We need to do something different. This justice does not work for everyone," said Darlene Hedrick of Bloomington.

Also on Saturday, more than 1,000 people attended a peaceful march in downtown Peoria, chanting No justice, no peace, no racist police and I cant breathe! The event also included more than an hour of speeches. In Rockford, a few hundred people gathered downtown, with organizers calling for a peaceful protest.

Contact Maria Nagle at (309) 820-3244. Follow her on Twitter: @Pg_Nagle

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Joe Biden holds a 10-point lead over President Donald Trump among registered voters in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll, but that's sliced in half among those certain to vote, reflecting challenges for Biden in terms of voter commitment and enthusiasm alike.

Trump has his own risks, including sharply negative views of the economy and greater criticism of his handling of the coronavirus pandemic. His overall job approval rating is back under water, 45-53% among all Americans, with a seven-point rise in disapproval since late March.

See PDF for full results, charts and tables.

Trump's rating specifically for handling the outbreak is a nearly identical 46-53%, with approval down 5 percentage points and disapproval up 8 in the past two months. The margin worsens in terms of strong sentiment: The number who strongly disapprove of his work on the crisis exceeds those who strongly approve by 15 points, 43 versus 28%.

Neither is popular in this poll, produced for ABC by Langer Research Associates. Forty-two percent of adults see Trump favorably overall, 46% Biden. But more see Trump unfavorably, 55% versus 48% for Biden. And Trump remains poorly rated on a range of personal attributes: About 6 in 10 apiece don't see him as honest and trustworthy, don't think he understands the problems of average Americans and don't think he has the personality and temperament for the job.

PHOTO: Former Vice President Joe Biden speaks in Wilmington, Del., on March 12, 2020, left, and President Donald Trump speaks at the White House in Washington on April 5, 2020. (AP)

That said, 50% see Trump as a strong leader  shy of a majority but up a slight 6 points from last fall, and more than say the same of Biden, 43%. And even with the economy in dire straits, Trump gets 52% approval for handling it, although that's down 5 points since late March, with disapproval up 6, to 44%.

Helpful for Biden is that Americans trust him over Trump to direct the federal government's efforts to control the spread of the coronavirus, 50-42%. The two instead are rated evenly in trust to direct federal government efforts to help the economy recover, 47-47%. But polling this spring has found a greater public priority on controlling the spread of the virus than on restoring the economy.

Story continues

Economy and COVID-19

The economy's condition was to have been Trump's ace in the hole in the November election. But the number of Americans saying it's in good shape has plummeted from 69% in a Bloomberg survey in early March to 34% in this poll.

That matters: Trump is supported by 73% of registered voters who say the economy is in good shape. Among those who say it's in bad shape, 70% back Biden. (Those economic views, themselves, are highly partisan.)

A statistical analysis called regression finds that views of the condition of the economy are a significant independent predictor of candidate support. Holding other factors constant -- including the usual heavy hitters, partisanship, ideology and race/ethnicity -- having favorable economic views predicts support for Trump.

PHOTO: President Donald Trump speaks about U.S. relations with China, at the White House May 29, 2020 in Washington. (Win Mcnamee/Getty Images)

Another factor is an independent predictor of vote preference as well: The relative prevalence of COVID-19 cases in one's county of residence.

This appears in cross-tabulated data. We split the nation's counties into four equal-sized groups, or quartiles, from those with the most COVID-19 cases to those with the fewest. Among registered voters living in counties with the most cases, Biden leads Trump by 72-24%. In the second-highest quartile, it's 62-35%. In the third quartile, results flip, 53-41%, Trump-Biden. And in the quartile with the fewest cases, it's 60-38%, Trump-Biden.

Part of this reflects that fact that there are more Democrats in harder-hit counties and more Republicans in counties with fewer cases. As noted, however, the regression shows that county-level COVID-19 cases predict vote preference even when controlling for party identification, among other factors.

Vote Preference

In all, the presidential contest stands at 53-40%, Biden-Trump, among all adults; 53-43% among those who report being registered to vote; and 51-46% among those who are both registered and certain to vote. The result among registered voters is Biden's best since last fall, improved from a scant +2 points, 49-47%, in late March.

Biden's gains from two months ago have come mainly among independents, moderates and younger women. But, as noted, he faces challenges in commitment and enthusiasm.

Among registered voters who support Trump, 87% say they'd "definitely" vote for him if the election were today (as opposed to probably or possibly supporting him). Definite support slides to 74% for Biden  about where it was for Hillary Clinton in an ABC/Post poll four years ago.

Further, again among registered voters who support Trump, 69% are very enthusiastic about doing so. Strong enthusiasm for Biden, by contrast, is just 34%, a 2-1 margin for Trump on this measure  potentially important because enthusiasm can motivate voter participation.

Indeed, even while he's lost ground overall, strong enthusiasm for Trump among registered voters who support him has gained 14 points since late March, while strong enthusiasm for Biden is up just half as much. It is, though, slightly up; in March Biden's strong enthusiasm was the lowest on record for a Democratic presidential candidate in ABC/Post polls back 20 years.

There are mixed results for Biden from Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents who supported Sen. Bernie Sanders for the nomination. They're as likely as those who preferred Biden in the primaries to back him over Trump. But they're slightly less likely to say they're certain to vote in November, and much less enthusiastic about Biden.

PHOTO: Former Vice President Joe Biden speaks about the Coronavirus and the response to it at the Hotel Du Pont in Wilmington, DE. (Michael Brochstein/Echoes Wire/Barcroft Media via Getty Images)

Mail It?

Among the many wildcards in the election is how voting will happen. The public by more than 2-1, 65-30%, supports making it easier for people to cast an absentee ballot or vote by mail instead of going to a polling place to vote. Twice as many strongly support such steps, 49%, as strongly oppose them, 24%.

Trump has opposed expanded mail-in voting, arguing that it's vulnerable to fraud and that its expansion would "lead to the end of our great Republican Party." The comment resonates within his base: Just 33% of Republicans support expanded absentee or mail-in voting. That doubles to 67% of independents and rises further to 87% of Democrats.

Groups

Notably among groups, Biden leads by 56-39% among independents who are registered to vote, often a swing group in presidential elections; that's shifted from a dead heat among independents (Biden +1) two months ago. And there's a vast gender gap, Trump +8 among men (52-44%), Biden +28 points among women, 62-34%.

The divisions by sex include a shift toward Biden among younger women, age 18-44; 72% in this group favor the Democrat now, vs. 54% in March.

Differences by racial and ethnic groups remain profound. It's 53-44%, Trump-Biden, among whites who are registered to vote, while Biden is supported by 89% of blacks and 69% of Hispanics. Racial and ethnic minorities have made up a growing share of the electorate, rising from 10% of voters in the national exit poll in 1976 to 29% in 2016.

Biden, further, leads Trump by more than 2-1, 66-30%, among Americans who have been laid off or furloughed without pay since the pandemic began. That's a group with larger numbers of women and racial or ethnic minorities than the population at large.

Another potential factor  given the Electoral College lesson of 2016 -- is the distribution of votes across states. Biden has a vast 65-32% lead among registered voters in the so-called blue states won by Clinton that year, evidence of a Democratic overvote, meaning he's getting more support there than he needs. In the 2016 red states, by contrast -- states that were sufficient for Trump to claim the presidency even while losing the national popular vote -- it's 51-44%, Trump-Biden.

Attributes

Trump's difficulties on personal attributes are well-established and mostly stable. Biden generally does better  but, at the same time, not particularly well. Fewer than half rate him as honest and trustworthy (48% versus 35% for Trump) or say he understands the problems of people like them (45% versus 38% for Trump).

Biden does better, but still just 53%, on having the personality and temperament it takes to serve effectively as president (compared with 38% who say that of Trump). And 51% say Biden -- dubbed "Sleepy Joe" by Trump -- has the mental sharpness it takes to serve effectively; 46% say that of Trump.

These weaknesses for Trump are among the factors that have kept his approval rating below 50 percent continuously since he took office -- a first for any president -- and, likewise, have given him the lowest career average presidential approval on record in polls dating to the Truman administration. The questions in the months ahead include whether Biden, with his poor enthusiasm and weak voter commitment, can capitalize on Trump's vulnerabilities; and -- perhaps above all -- the course of the economy and the COVID-19 pandemic alike.

Methodology

This ABC News/Washington Post poll was conducted by landline and cellular telephone May 25-28, 2020, in English and Spanish, among a random national sample of 1,001 adults. Results have a margin of sampling error of 3.5 points, including the design effect. Partisan divisions are 31-24-37 percent, Democrats-Republicans-independents.

The survey was produced for ABC News by Langer Research Associates of New York, N.Y., with sampling and data collection by Abt Associates of Rockville, Md. See details on the survey's methodology here.

Advantage Biden, with risks; Trump disapproval grows: POLL originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
Brussels, May 31 : A Belgian prince has contracted coronavirus after attending a party during lockdown in Spain, the country's royal palace says.

Prince Joachim, 28, travelled from Belgium to Spain for an internship on 26 May, the palace said, the BBC reported on Saturday.

Two days later, he went to a party in the southern city of CArdoba, before testing positive for COVID-19.

Spanish reports suggest the prince, a nephew of Belgium's King Philippe, was among 27 people at the party.

Under CArdoba's lockdown rules, a party of this size would be a breach of regulations, as gatherings of no more than 15 people are currently permitted.

Spanish police have launched an investigation into the party. Those found to have flouted lockdown rules could be fined up to $11,100.

Everyone who attended the party is said to be in quarantine. Prince Joachim, the youngest son of Princess Astrid and 10th in line to the Belgian throne, is said to have mild coronavirus symptoms.

Rafaela Valenzuela, a representative of the Spanish government in CArdoba, condemned the party, calling those who attended "irresponsible".

"I feel surprised and angry. An incident of this type stands out at a moment of national mourning for so many dead," she said.

The party was first covered by Spanish newspaper El Confidencial, which cited a document from the Andalucian authorities but did not name the prince.

Belgian media have since confirmed with the palace that Prince Joachim was in Spain, where he remains.

The prince is known to have a long-standing relationship with a Spanish woman, reported to be Victoria Ortiz.

Spain is in the process of emerging from one of the strictest lockdowns in Europe. It outlined a four-stage plan on 4 May to start easing the lockdown, which saw children under 14 confined to their homes for six weeks.

The country said it was moving to a second phase from 1 June for 70 per cent of Spaniards, leaving only major cities under tighter restrictions.

Spain has among the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world. As of Saturday, the country had 239,228 infections and 27,125 deaths, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.
Advertisement

A Mayfair townhouse built in the 18th century has hit the market for an eye-watering 5.5 million.

Located at 76 Park Street, the Grade II Listed Georgian townhouse spans over four floors and 2,586 square foot, and is described as having exceptional original features with elegant interior design.

Boasting four bedrooms, with the master suite taking up the whole of the second floor, it features two south-facing terraces, a playroom which leads onto a quiet patio, a guest room with an en-suite and a study.

76 Park Street was constructed in 1729 by bricklayer John Barnes, at a time when Mayfair was just starting to develop into an exclusive residential address.

Park Street is the longest street on the Grosvenor Estate with numbers 70 to 78 the only surviving original Georgian properties, making it one of the most desirable addresses in Mayfair.

Grosvenor Square and Hanover Square were first laid-out in 1710 and 1719 respectively by Sir Richard Grosvenor, the fourth Baronet of Eaton, and the Earl of Scarborough, and by the 1720s development had begun and the surrounding fields of Mayfair were becoming new homes for the aristocracy.

One of Mayfair's original townhouses built on the exclusive Grosvenor estate, which dates back to the 1700s, has hit the market for an eye-watering 5.5 million. Located at 76 Park Street, the Grade II Listed Georgian townhouse spans over four floors and 2,586 square foot, and is described as having exceptional original features with elegant interior design. Seen: One of four bedrooms

Elsewhere, the lower-ground floor has a smart study with further panelling, echoing the dining room above, which could also be used as a bedroom

On the ground floor, there is a grand dining room with extensive bespoke panelling on the walls and a historic fireplace. The contemporary kitchen has integrated appliances and ample storage space, with an adjoining utility room

In the decades after the squares were laid out, the survival of original Georgian townhouses of Mayfair was threatened.

'New money' business owners tore down townhouses to build lavish mansions in the 1850s, with further homes destroyed in the 1930s to build new hotels, offices and apartment buildings.

Estate agent Wetherell, who are selling the property, highlight that since the 1980s, Mayfair has returned to its residential heritage and is once again a highly sought-after addresses, with its few remaining original homes often in demand as family homes.

76 Park Street is a four storey home boasting a carefully preserved facade, with sash windows and shutters, cast iron balustrades and monochromatic Georgian floor tiles to the entrance.

The 2,586 square foot townhouse has period features throughout, providing four bedrooms and benefitting from both a private patio and two South facing terraces which is enviable outdoor space in central W1

Meanwhile the first floor has an elegant drawing room with sash windows looking West onto the street, and an ornate fireplace and impressive ceiling heights. There is also a guest bedroom with a private terrace and family shower room

The large bathrooms that go with the four bedrooms in the property are all finished in a marble-effect

The 2,586 square foot townhouse has period features throughout, providing four bedrooms and benefitting from both a private patio and two South facing terraces which is enviable outdoor space in central W1.

Who was the fourth Earl of Eaton Sir Richard Grosvenor, 4th Baronet of Eaton, lived from 26 June 1689 to 12 July 1732). He was a politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1715 to 1732. He is an ancestor of the modern day Dukes of Westminster, a peerage created by Queen Victoria in 1874. Advertisement

On the ground floor, there is a grand dining room with extensive bespoke panelling on the walls and a historic fireplace. The contemporary kitchen has integrated appliances and ample storage space, with an adjoining utility room.

Meanwhile the first floor has an elegant drawing room with sash windows looking West onto the street, and an ornate fireplace and impressive ceiling heights. There is also a guest bedroom with a private terrace and family shower room.

The property's entire second floor is the Master suite, with a stylish bedroom and large bathroom finished in a marble-effect. The floor is complete with a large, private roof terrace which is south facing.

Elsewhere, the lower-ground floor has a smart study with further panelling, echoing the dining room above, which could also be used as a bedroom.

There is a children's playroom that leads onto a quiet patio, as well as another guest bedroom with an ensuite bathroom.

Peter Wetherell, Chief Executive of Wetherell said: 'Mayfair saw its first residential development in the early 1700s, with fine Georgian townhouses constructed in the following decades.

The property's entire second floor is the Master suite, with a stylish bedroom and large bathroom finished in a marble-effect. The floor is complete with a large, private roof terrace which is south facing

The 2,586 square foot townhouse has period features throughout, providing four bedrooms and benefitting from both a private patio and two South facing terraces which is enviable outdoor space in central W1

'Due to Mayfair's changing residents and the move to more commercial use in later years, many beautiful period properties were torn down, leaving original homes a sought-after asset for today's buyers.

'76 Park Street is a beautiful townhouse, one of the few surviving original Mayfair townhouses, and is a perfect family home.

'The home has been beautifully refurbished, with elegant interior design reflecting the home's grand nature throughout. The opportunity to purchase freehold an original Mayfair townhouse, that has remained a family home over the centuries, is a rare occurrence.'

Speaking about the market, Peter Wetherell added: 'Since lockdown restrictions were first brought into effect across London, buyers are increasingly wanting self-contained homes or individual houses with their own front door.

'Our clients are increasingly health-conscious and want homes without communal access or shared areas, with the limited number of original townhouses in Mayfair now a very sought-after asset.'

On the ground floor, there is a grand dining room with extensive bespoke panelling on the walls and a historic fireplace. The contemporary kitchen has integrated appliances and ample storage space, with an adjoining utility room
They keep telling me it's not my fault, and I'd give anything to believe that. The doctor called after my mom went to the hospital and said: "Don't blame yourself. You didn't do anything wrong." The pastor said basically the same thing at her funeral. "Let it go. You had nothing to do with this."

I know they're trying to make me feel better, but it's a lie. I had everything to do with it. This virus doesn't just appear in your body out of nowhere. It has to pass from one person to the next. It has to come from somebody, and this time I know it came from me.

I keep thinking: What if I'd stopped going to work when the first people started to get sick? What if I didn't live with my mom? What if I'd stayed upstairs in my room like I'd been doing all week? What if I'd kept my mask on? What if I'd turned away when she reached out to hug me? We only had close contact that one time, and it barely lasted a few minutes, but that was all it took. A week later she was in the hospital. Ten days after that she was gone. That's the timeline I have to live with, and it points right back to me. I got sick and then she got sick. I lived and she died. How am I supposed to let go of that?

The thing is, I was trying so hard to be careful from the very beginning. It's not like I was one of those people who didn't pay attention. I work at a nursing home. I knew how fast this virus could spread. As soon as a few of the residents started spiking fevers in March, I went online to buy extra masks. We didn't have the right protective supplies, and you can't social distance when you're a nursing aide. I work on the lockdown unit. These people need a lot of help. We feed. We wash. We do everything. I came home one day with a slight headache, and then I started to cough. My mom said to me: "This doesn't sound like your sinuses. This is different."

I told her not to come too close to me. She was healthy for a 70-year-old lady, but I wanted to be safe. I called off work. I moved out of the bedroom I share with my daughter and her father so I had my own space upstairs. I started drifting away from everybody. I didn't know for sure if I had corona yet because I was waiting on the test, but I had a good idea. My 5-year-old would stand outside the room for hours calling after me. She likes to cuddle underneath you. That's the kind of person she is. She kept banging on the door. "Mommy. Mommy. Let me come in." I begged for her to go away. "Please, baby. Pretend like I'm not here." She wouldn't leave. Eventually, I had to stop answering.

We're a tight family, and all of us have been living on top of each other in this house for 20 years. That's how we like it. It's the Jamaican way. I'm upstairs with my kids and my sister is downstairs with hers, and my mom went back and forth. We share the bills and the child care. We rely on each other. Some days, we might have 15 people staying here, and my mom was always at the center. She wasn't a person of so many words, but she would sit in the kitchen all day, watching and listening. She knew I had something bad. She had 10 children, and she's a caretaker. I had to fight her from coming into the room. She told me to steam my head with orange and lemon. She starting making this tea drink. It had turmeric, garlic, lime, honey and ginger. She would put it in a cup and leave it at the door five or six times a day. She stood outside in the hall and called me on the phone to make sure I was drinking it. "Put the phone where I can hear it go down." When I lost my voice and couldn't talk, she would stand out there and text me. "Did you drink it? All of it?"

Anytime I heard people moving around in the hall, I would never go outside. If I needed to leave the room, I waited until it was quiet. They say the average person gives this virus to three or four people, but I thought: This is going to die inside me. I drove myself to go get the test. I drove myself to the hospital a few days later. I drove myself to the pharmacy to get all the meds even though I was hyperventilating so bad I could barely hold onto the steering wheel. I took Clorox with me every time I went to the bathroom and tried to sanitize behind myself, but sometimes it got too hard to stand. I would text my mom and my sister: "I sprayed the bleach but I had to leave it."

At night, I was like an animal. I couldn't breathe, and lying down made it worse. I was running a fever and the doctor said I had pneumonia. I drank so much cough syrup that my body started to smell like it. I would pace in the bedroom all night, from the wall to the doorway and back, counting steps and watching the clock. My mom has the bedroom right underneath mine, so she could hear my feet on the floor, and she would call in the night. "Are you OK? Francene, you're scaring me."

One day, my back and my neck were on fire and I couldn't keep walking. I tried to lie down, and it felt like the whole house was falling in on me. It felt like I was dying, and I started to have a panic attack. I took off running because I wanted to find air. I went downstairs, and I kind of tripped over my slippers. My mom heard me, and she came to the bottom of the stairs. I was gasping and sobbing. I couldn't talk. She told me: "Take off your mask. Let the air in."

I pulled my mask down around my neck, and she held me. I needed it, and she needed to help. Our faces were touching. I was breathing on her. I wasn't thinking about anything. I leaned on her until I was calm again, and then I put my mask back on and went upstairs. I tried to forget about it. It was only two or three minutes. I didn't even know for sure yet if I was positive for the virus. I tried to tell myself it would be fine.

A few days later, I heard her start to cough downstairs in her room. It was nighttime, and I leaned against the floorboards to listen. I said, "Oh God, no. No. Please, Jesus, don't let her be sick."

But I already knew. She sounded exactly like me.

She had diabetes, so maybe that's why it went downhill fast. I don't know. She was so out of it that she stopped taking some of her other medications. I talked to her once over the phone when she was at the hospital. She had a Z-pack mask on her face, and the doctors didn't want her to do much talking. They were trying to get ready to put her on a ventilator. I told her she needed to listen to the doctors. I told her I was sorry. I didn't have my voice back, so I was kind of whispering, and I'm not sure if she could hear me or understand me. She said: "Don't worry about me. Focus on yourself. Are you drinking the tea? Please, drink the tea."

I was still in isolation in the bedroom when her doctor called again. The Department of Health told me to stay up there until three days after I stopped having symptoms. It was 7 in the morning, and I was winded from taking a shower. Sometimes, it took two hours for me to recover from the shower and get dressed. The doctor said they were doing chest compressions, but she wasn't going to make it. He said it wasn't my fault - that the virus could have come from anywhere. I told him: "What do you mean? She never even left the house. It was me. I know it was me, and I killed her." I threw the phone. I was so lost and so angry. I didn't want to hear it.

The phone kept ringing. People started coming over to grieve, and I heard them downstairs, crying and consoling each other. A few of them knocked on my door. They were worried. Nobody was blaming me. My 19-year-old stood in the doorway and talked to me for like an hour, telling me it was OK, trying to get me to come out. I told him: "I'm not getting near anybody." I closed the door and stayed upstairs by myself.

It's been almost a week since the funeral, and I'm still afraid to go outside. I'm scared to be within 10 feet of anybody. I start shaking whenever I walk out the door. What if I catch it all over again, or what if I can still give it to someone else? The doctor told me that's not factual, since they cleared me as recovered. He says it's paranoia and anxiety. He wrote me a prescription and told me to take two tablets every time I leave the house, but it's easier to stay here. If I'm by myself, nothing else can go wrong.
Disturbing scenes of migrants leaving the city in large numbers, creation of makeshift hospitals to accommodate hundreds of patients, and door-to-door testing in high-density areas have a sense of deja vu, given that Mumbai has faced its fair share of epidemics in the past.

In a pictorial presentation on Saturday, organised by the Mumbai-based Khaki Lab, Manjiri Kamat, history professor and associate dean, faculty of humanities, University of Mumbai, talked about the bubonic plague, Spanish flu, cholera and smallpox epidemics that caused devastation in the city.

Much like today, several people left the city in huge numbers after the outbreak of the bubonic plague of 1896 in Bombay. The city was caught unawares and there was no cure for it then, said Kamat. The citys mortality rate was very high. It is said to have originated in Hong Kong from where it spread via trade ships to Bombay.

The then municipal corporation with police teams conducted door-to-door testing in high-density areas. The outbreak resulted in the formation of the Bombay City Improvement Trust to create affordable housing and improve east-west connectivity in the city.

Following an international conference on sanitation in 1866, held in Istanbul, the then British government in India reportedly made quarantining more rigorous and cancelled several pilgrimages to contain the spread of diseases like cholera and smallpox. In 1892, the Bombay Compulsory Vaccination Act was introduced to contain the spread of smallpox.

In her essay on the outbreak of the Spanish flu or influenza pandemic of 1918, Dr Mridula Ramanna states that space was made available at Sir JJ Hospital, Gokuldas Tejpal (GT) Hospital, and the Infectious Diseases Hospital (Kasturba Gandhi Hospital), and the government encouraged isolation of infected patients, Kamat said. In her talk, she described how many institutions like the Prince of Wales Museum (Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya) and the Royal Institute of Science in Fort were converted into makeshift arrangements to accommodate patients and soldiers of the First World War.

Looking at history, we are in a better position now to handle a crisis than we were ever before, thanks to technology. We must learn from history and be well-prepared for the future, said Bharat Gothoskar, founder of Khaki Lab.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-01 01:29:46|Editor: huaxia

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People take part in a protest over the death of George Floyd in London, Britain, on May 31, 2020. Despite the ban of mass gatherings in Britain, thousands of people gathered Sunday in London and Manchester to protest over the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man suffocated to death by a white police officer in the mid-western U.S. state of Minnesota on Monday. (Xinhua)

LONDON, May 31 (Xinhua) -- Despite the ban of mass gatherings in Britain, thousands of people gathered Sunday in London and Manchester to protest over the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man suffocated to death by a white police officer in the mid-western U.S. state of Minnesota on Monday.

Chanting "no justice, no peace", the protesters gathered in London's landmark Trafalgar Square shortly after 1 p.m. (1200 GMT) before marching through Westminster to Downing Street.

Videos posted on twitter showed people shouting "I can't breathe" on the square. Taking to their knee, they also chanted "George Floyd", as some of them held banners reading "Black Lives Matter".

Protests were also held in Manchester and outside the U.S. embassy in London.

Meanwhile, London's Metropolitan Police said on its twitter account that police are aware of demonstrators gathering outside the U.S. embassy.

"Officers are on scene & engaging with those in attendance. An appropriate policing plan is in place," it added.

Protesters continued to take to the streets on Saturday in at least 30 U.S. cities over the death of Floyd.

As many as 25 cities across 16 U.S. states have imposed curfews while at least eight states and Washington D.C. have called on the National Guard to help respond to protests and unrest as of Saturday.

Nearly 1,400 people have been arrested during the protests in 17 cities since Thursday, according to an AP tally, which added that the actual number is likely higher as protests continue on Saturday night.

In Washington D.C. on Saturday, protesters gathered outside the White House for the second straight day, chanting "hands up, don't shoot" and "I can't breathe."
Bamboo, an Irish food-ordering app which had liquidators appointed in early May, has been saved following a buyout organised by a group of its original investors.

Mahalo, the company behind the app, was co-founded by Luke Mackey and Alan Haverty, who launched the Bamboo app in 2018. It was designed to allow professional people to get meals from around 150 restaurants in Galway, Dublin and Cork, located near their place of work.

Bamboo fell into difficulty in April when many of its partners were forced to close and a "financial event" fell through. During the restructuring period, a group of the original investors, led by Andrew Connolly - the managing director of Morgan McKinley's Toronto Office - acquired the app. The deal was completed last week, while figures were not disclosed.

Speaking with the Sunday Independent, Connolly, whose role is advisory, said that the company had been about to launch a new self-service product called Serve when the pandemic hit.

"There was a major downturn, and we didn't know how people would react," he said, "We didn't know where we fitted in the new world.

"I spoke with Luke, and we talked about the opportunity [to save the app]. It all came from our customers who as they came back were reaching out and wanting to use our technology."

With the acquisition going through on Tuesday, Connolly is speaking to more investors. The business hopes to raise further money soon, he added, provided it is with the right people.

Bamboo has plans to hire, and is in talks with pubs to see how its software can help them. It has managed to win back many former clients, including Dublin burrito chain Tolteca and On the Go Coffee in Buncrana, Co Donegal.
The government had registered the bill at the Parliament on May 22, seeking to amend Schedule 3 of the constitution to update Nepal's political map in the national emblem."As per Nepal's Constitution Section 9, Sub-section- 2, the emblem of the country in Schedule 3, the Government of Nepal lately had issued an updated political and administrative map and approved it. The Constitution of Nepal Schedule 3 which has the national emblem with Nepal's map and it is required to be changed as per the actual territory of the nation. In order to amend the Schedule 3 to incorporate the changes this amendment bill is hereby presented before the Parliament today," Tumbahangphe said during an address to the parliament.Nepal's updated map was publicly released on May 20 after a go-ahead signal from the Cabinet meeting on May 18.The Department of Survey under the Ministry of Land Management cited a map drawn during the Treaty of Sugauli, in 1815, and the order issued by the then Prime Minister Chandra Shumsher, as evidence to claim on the land belonging to the Himalayan nation.The earlier map issued in 2032 BS had left Gunji, Nabhi and Kuri villages which now has been included in the lately revised map adding on 335 square kilometres of its land.Formal discussion over the tabled bill is expected to start in this week while the government has already managed to garner two-thirds majority required to amend the constitution to include the lately issued map.The House of Representatives or the lower house of Nepal has 275 seats out of which, ruling Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has 174 seats and runs out of 10 seats for a two-thirds majority. The main opposition Nepali Congress has 63 seats and Janata Samajbadi Party 34 seats.The tabling of bill was taken off the schedule last week after the Nepali Congress asked for more time to decide over the issue by conducting a Central Working Committee meeting which finally commenced on Saturday.With a clear two-third majority in view after the incumbent government got support from the main opposition, it would be the second time that for Nepal to amend the constitution. Nepal on 2015's September 16 promulgated constitution after years of debate which sparked protest in the southern plains of Nepal claiming it was not able to address and include them.Tension has been mounting between New Delhi and Kathmandu after the issuance of a political map by Nepal on mid of May including the Lipulekh, Kalapani and Limpiyadhura, which India had earlier included in its map issued last November.Diplomatic ties between the nations frayed further after the inauguration of road linking Kailash Mansarovar via Lipulekh on May 8 after which Nepal handed over a diplomatic note to India objecting the move.Prior to the handover of a diplomatic note to the Indian envoy in Nepal, the land-locked country also had strongly objected over India's unilateral move of constructing the road. Following a strong objection from Nepal, India's Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) had said the road going through Uttarakhand's Pithoragarh district "lies completely within the territory of India".Nepal said it has "consistently maintained" that as per the Sugauli Treaty (1816), "all the territories east of Kali (Mahakali) river, including Limpiyadhura, Kalapani and LipuLekh, belong to Nepal." Indian Defence Ministry had said the Border Road Organisation (BRO) in Uttarakhand has connected Kailash Mansarovar route to Lipulekh pass, which will provide connectivity to border villages and security forces.Following a strong objection from Nepal, India's Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) had said the road going through Uttarakhand's Pithoragarh district "lies completely within the territory of India". (ANI)
Being an ardent lover of entrepreneurship, I have always wondered why several indigenous Ghanaian businesses remain small, unable to expand to other jurisdictions, and scarcely survive after the demise of their founders, unlike companies that have some amount of foreign ownership or management. There will obviously be varying reasons for this phenomenon but being an accountant in practice, I will share my thoughts and experiences from an accounting perspective.

The Companies Act of Ghana, 2019 (Act 992) provides guidance on the formation of companies in Ghana. For the purpose of this writing, I will limit myself to companies limited by shares. A company (limited by shares) has the liability of shareholders limited to such amount, if any, unpaid on the shares respectively held by them. The company is a separate legal entity distinct from its owners, have well-structured management, relatively easier to raise capital, strict regulation and requires extensive record keeping.

Companies are required by law to produce audited accounts and file same with relevant state agencies. On the other hand, the Registration of Business Names Act 1962 (Act 151) also provides guidance on the formation of sole proprietorship business in Ghana. Sole proprietorship business is owned by one person who is not distinct from the business, has unlimited liability, the owner makes all the decisions, bears all the loses and enjoys all profits from the business. The owner exercises direct control over the business and is not required by law to produce audited accounts. Theres usually lack of continuity and difficulty in raising capital.

My experience in accounting practice largely points to the fact that several indigenous Ghanaian businesses registered as companies are practically managed as sole proprietorships. The companies are not well structured, they have no functioning boards, no record of meetings, lack of internal controls and the owners seem to have direct control of the company as though it was a sole proprietorship. The owner of the company is the CEO, board chairman, accountant, operations manager etc. In situations where there is some sort of controls, the owner overrides them. The owner becomes the company, and the company, the owner, their absence will mean that a lot of things come to a standstill. The owner has absolute access to the funds and other resources of the company as if it was his personal resources.

The only reason that may compel such a company to keep some sort of accounting record is the fear of tax authorities, the mention of Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) sends shivers down the spine of management. Nonetheless, the absence of proper accounting records exposes the company to huge tax liabilities that could have been easily avoided.

On the contrary, my experience with companies that have some amount of foreign ownership/management is in sharp contradiction with indigenous Ghanaian companies, several of them are companies in the true sense of the word. They have well-functioning boards; meetings are documented, and accounting systems conform to best practices. Monthly management account is such an important report in these companies, they serve as the basis for management decision making. Management letters issued by auditors are treated with all seriousness and efforts are made to ensure that issues raised are addressed.

It is therefore not surprising that a lot of these foreign-owned/managed companies perform better in GIPCs Club 100 compared to indigenous companies. It can be said without any equivocation that the collapse of microfinance institutions and some indigenous banks in Ghana is largely due to poor corporate governance structures. They were only exposed because of strict regulation of the financial services industry and it came as no surprise to me because by my experience, the average Ghanaian owned company is poorly managed.

Entrepreneurship is essential for the growth of every economy, but the absence of the right approach and structures will stifle expected results. Putting together a strong accounting team, investing in the accounting function and the right corporate governance structures are crucial elements that will determine the success of every company.
The central province of Ninh Thuan experienced a historic drought between November 15, 2019, until May 26 this year.

Local authorities earlier this month announced a level 3 natural disaster due to drought in the whole province and level 4 (the highest level) for Thuan Nam and Thuan Bac districts.

A small girl in Ninh Son District gets water from a local underground water source.

By May 24, the total amount of water measured in 21 lakes in the province accounted for just more than 12 per cent of designed capacity.

Seventeen lakes were totally empty and locals had to abandon the summer-autumn crop this year in more than 15,300ha of land, losing 10,800ha of rice and 4,500ha of vegetables.

A herd of sheep seek for food in a barren field due to the drought.

Local residents lacked water for daily use, leading to authorities implementing various solutions to support them.

Every four hours, authorities sent tanks of water to people, while Thuan Bac District authorities co-ordinated with investors of Binh Tien Tourism Site Project to examine and drill wells, as well as treat underground water from the wells to provide local citizens.

An old woman in Ta Noi Village, Ninh Son District, fetches water home.

Local authorities have also enhanced peoples awareness of the need to save water.

Residents in Binh Tien Village, Cong Hai Commune, in Thuan Bac, said each day they came to a nearby stream to take water home. As the stream was exhausted, they had to wait several hours to get enough water.

Mrs A Toa Thi Huynh, 47, from Ta Noi Village, Ma Noi Commune in Ninh Thuan said she walked to a water source located more than 100m from her home under strong sunlight to fetch two 5 litre cans for daily use.

"There is less and less water in the stream while the water is not clean enough for drinking, she said. The local army brings us drinking water every day.

Huynh said wells that locals drilled had also dried up.

An old man sits on a cracked barren field.

Ca Mau Ha, 58, also from the village said he had never experienced such a serious drought.

Streams are getting dried, he said. Each day our family needs four cans (each of 10 litres) to use.

He also said his 1ha land of rice and corn was dying as he could not water it for two months.

The poultry and domestic animals in the village are also in need of food.

Forests in Ninh Son District have died during the long drought.

Nghiem Van Vinh, chairman of Ma Noi Communes Peoples Committee, said the commune had stopped nurturing rice and vegetable planted on 800ha of land.

Ta Noi Village is in serious need of water among six villages in the commune, he said.

The village hosts nearly 700 people who mostly live on agriculture.

Local soldiers will provide clean water to locals till the end of May, he said.

Luckily, the situation got better as on May 26, a large amount of rain fell in several hours in Bac Ai District.

The rain measured at Phuoc Hoa Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting Station was 43.6 mm/24 hours; in Phuoc Tan Station 44.6mm; and Phuoc Dai Station 36.6 mm.

Thanks to the rains in the past few days, streamlines in Ninh Thuan have got enough material for water processing plants to supply locals.

Before May 26, thunder and rain appeared in various localities in the province.

The total amount of rain in Ma Noi Commune on May 27 was 85 mm and Pha River (in the same Ninh Son District) was more than 105 mm; in Phuoc Binh Commune (of Bac Ai Province) was 117 mm.

Tran Ngoc Hung, deputy director of Ninh Thuan Provinces Fresh Water and Environment Hygiene Centre, said the rain had helped improve the problem. VNS

Ninh Thuan farmers face severe drought Thousands of households in the central province of Ninh Thuan have been facing a shortage of fresh water due to severe and prolonged drought.
Pinckney Michigan Podiatrist Dr. Tomasz Biernacki discusses plantar fasciitis, Insertional Achilles tendonitis and heel pain. Patients who let 2-3 months go by can develop difficult to reverse scar tissue and ligament damage that can be more difficult to reverse. The earlier you catch and treat heel pain, the faster you will improve!

Dr. Tomasz Biernacki states that if plantar fasciitis and heel pain are caught early, this can help prevent a condition called plantar fasciosis from developing. This is essentially scar tissue that is exceedingly difficult to reverse. This is when people can develop years of chronic heel pain.

Dr. Biernacki further states it is estimated that between 10 to 40% of people around the world will develop chronic crippling heel pain at some point in their life. There are some extremely easy changes to implement such a shoe gear and orthotic changes that dont have to be expensive and can be very quickly effective.

The podiatrists and foot doctors at Advanced Foot and Ankle Specialists of Pinckney Michigan have developed a treatment algorithm for diagnosing heel pain. There are six common causes of heel pain that can cause your chronic heel pain. These are plantar fasciitis, Achilles tendinitis, heel stress fractures, fat pad atrophy to the heel, back injuries that can cause nerve pain down to the heel, and finally a bottom of the foot nerve entrapment called Baxters nerve compression.

Dr. Tomasz Biernacki is a practicing podiatric foot and ankle surgeon at Advanced Foot and Ankle specialists of Howell, Michigan and Brighton, Michigan.

Advanced foot and ankle specialists of Howell, Michigan and Brighton, Michigan pride themselves on providing comprehensive the care and working as a multispecialty team. The four doctors at this practice are on staff at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital Livingston, St. Joseph Mercy Hospital Brighton, and St. Joseph Mercy Hospital Ann Arbor. Working as part of this large multidisciplined team, they can work with internal medicine doctors, primary care doctors, endocrinologists and vascular surgery specialist to provide comprehensive care.

Advanced foot and ankle specialists have four different doctors within their practice: Dr. Tom Biernacki, Dr. John Stevelinck, Dr. Marc Bonanni and Dr. Danielle Meyka-Blanchard. All podiatrists foot doctors are on staff at St. Joseph Mercy hospitals in Ann Arbor, Howell and Brighton Michigan. They pride themselves on serving Livingston County and Washtenaw County.
Gangster Jinder Singh, alias Jindi, and his accomplices allegedly opened fire at a man and assaulted his son over a monetary dispute in Mayapuri, Tibba, on late Saturday night.

The Tibba police have registered an attempt to murder case against Jindi and his accomplices, Pamma of Meharban, Jindis nephew Sunny of Rahon Road, Mani Bains of Ghora Colony and Gaurav Dang of Kailash Nagar.

The victim, Jaspreet Singh, 23, of Mayapuri, told the police that he went to a dairy on Saturday night to fetch milk. Jindi arrived there in a car with some men. Armed with guns and sharp-edged weapons, the men attacked him. When he ran inside the dairy for safety, they dragged him out and beat him up more.

Hearing his cries for help, his father, Kuldeep Singh, and passers-by rushed to his aid. Noticing the swelling crowd, the assailants opened fire at Kuldeep and fled the scene. Kuldeep managed to escape unhurt.

Onlookers informed the Tibba police, who reached the spot and initiated investigation.

Kuldeep claimed that as per his neighbours, the attackers had been recceing the area since the afternoon in search of his son.

Inspector Sukhdev Raj, SHO, Tibba station, said they had recovered a bullet shell from the spot.

A case under Sections of 307 (attempt to murder), 452 (trespassing), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapons), 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object) and 188 (disobedience of orders duly promulgated by public servant) of the Indian Penal Code and relevant sections of the Arms Act has been registered against the accused.

A manhunt has been launched to arrest the accused, the SHO said.
(Newser)  SpaceX delivered two astronauts to the International Space Station for NASA on Sunday, reports the AP, following up a historic liftoff with an equally smooth docking in yet another first for Elon Musks company. With test pilots Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken poised to take over manual control if necessary, the SpaceX Dragon capsule pulled up to the station and docked automatically, no assistance needed. It was the first time a privately built and owned spacecraft carried astronauts to the orbiting lab in its nearly 20 years. NASA considers this the opening volley in a business revolution encircling Earth and eventually stretching to the moon and Mars. The docking occurred just 19 hours after a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasted off Saturday afternoon from Kennedy Space Center, the nations first astronaut launch to orbit from home soil in nearly a decade.

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A few hours before docking, the Dragon riders reported that the capsule was performing beautifully. Just in case, they slipped back into their pressurized launch suits and helmets for the rendezvous. The three space station residents kept cameras trained on the incoming capsule for the benefit of flight controllers at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif., and NASAs Johnson Space Center in Houston. Gleaming white in the sunlight, the Dragon was easily visible from a few miles out, its nose cone open and exposing its docking hook as well as a blinking light. Hurley and Behnken took over the controls and did a little piloting less than a few hundred yards out as part of the test flight, before putting it back into automatic for the final approach. Hurley said the capsule handled really well, very crisp. NASA has yet to decide how long Hurley and Behnken will spend at the space station, somewhere between one and four months.

(Read more SpaceX stories.)
Tiger Shroff grooves on Justin Biebers song Yummy as he shared a throwback video from his dance session. Although right now the actor is lockdown at home amid coronavirus he is still entertaining his fans with some class videos and photos from his memory lane. In the past few days, he has also shared some BTS photos and videos from his films which left the audience in awe and split both. Disha Patani couldnt stop herself from praising beau Tiger Shroff for his sexy dance moves.

Baaghi actor is known for his commendable acting and when he comes to the dance floor he pours magic to it and leaves the audience surprise every time. Also, his Martial arts skills made his action film so amazing that no one can resist himself to watch him. Also, people loved Disha Patani and Tiger shroff as a couple, fans adore them and would always love to see them together. The couple was seen in Baaghi 2 opposite to each other. The film managed to win the hearts of the audience and also it became the reason for them to fall in love with each other.

Disha Patani responded to the video shared by Munna Michael actor for his amazing dance and applaud in the comment section, it got quick attention as netizens notice the social media love of both Tiger and Disha for each other. Disha Patani made her debut in the film MS Dhoni: The Untold Story and Tiger started his Bollywood career with Heropanti.

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New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday (May 30) assured that those affected by the locust attacks in certain parts of the country will be helped by the government. "Help will be given to all those affected by the locust attacks that have been taking place in the recent days," PM Modi said in his monthly radio programme 'Mann Ki Baat' today.

On May 28, the government said a total of 377 spots covering 53,997 hectares have been covered under locust control operations since April 11. Locust control operations have been conducted in 11 districts of Rajasthan, 24 of Madhya Pradesh, three in Maharashtra, two each in Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh, and one in Punjab.

As per a government bulletin, several successive waves of locust invasions can be expected until July in Rajasthan with eastward surges across northern India as far as Bihar and Odisha, followed by westward movements and a return to Rajasthan with changing winds associated with the monsoon. According to the Ministry of Environment, Rajasthan is the most affected state due to locust attack.

Several areas of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh have been witnessing worst invasion of locusts in years. In Bihar, the locust menace has increased the anxiety of farmers, especially mango and litchi growers. According to agriculture scientist Dr Rajesh Kumar the grasshoppers have entered India due to a change in weather conditions. Swarms are less likely to reach south India, Nepal, and Bangladesh.

The desert locust is a species of locust, a swarming short-horned grasshopper. They are known to devour everything in their path, posing an unprecedented threat to food supply and livelihoods of millions of people.
Tense protests over the death of George Floyd and other police killings of black men grew Saturday from Tulsa to Los Angeles, with police cars set ablaze and reports of injuries mounting on all sides as the country lurched toward another night of unrest after months of coronavirus lockdowns.

The protests, which began in Minneapolis following Floyd's death Monday after a police officer pressed a knee on his neck for more than eight minutes, have left parts of the city a grid of broken windows, burned-out buildings and ransacked stores. The unrest has since become a national phenomenon as protesters decry years of deaths at police hands.

The large crowds involved, with many people not wearing masks or social distancing, raised concerns among health experts about the potential for helping spread the coronavirus pandemic at a time when overall deaths are on the decline nationwide and much of the country is in the process of reopening society and the economy.

After a tumultuous Friday night, racially diverse crowds took to the streets again for mostly peaceful demonstrations in dozens of cities from coast to coast. The previous day's protests also started calmly, but many descended into violence later in the day.

 In Washington, the D.C. National Guard was called in as hundreds converged on the mall and pockets of violence erupted during a second straight night of protests. Outside the White House, crowds chanted, taunted Secret Service agents and at times pushed against security barriers, and police used pepper spray. President Donald Trump, who spent much of Saturday in Florida for the SpaceX rocket launch, landed on the lawn in the presidential helicopter at dusk and went inside without speaking to journalists.

 In Philadelphia, at least 13 officers were injured when peaceful protests turned violent and at least four police vehicles were set on fire. Other fires were set throughout downtown.

 In the Greenwood District of Tulsa, Oklahoma, the site of a 1921 massacre of black people that left as many as 300 dead and the city's thriving black district in ruins, protesters blocked intersections and chanted the name of Terence Crutcher, a black man killed by a police officer in 2016.

 In Seattle, police fired tear gas and stun grenades to try to disperse black-clad crowds that smashed downtown shopfronts, stole merchandise and tossed mannequins onto the street.

 In Los Angeles, protesters chanted "Black Lives Matter," some within inches of the face shields of officers. Police used batons to move the crowd back and fired rubber bullets. One man used a skateboard to try to break a police SUV's windshield. A spray-painted police car burned in the street.

 And in New York City, dangerous confrontations flared repeatedly as officers made arrests and cleared streets. A video showed two NYPD cruisers lurching into a crowd of demonstrators who were pushing a barricade against one of them and pelting it with objects, knocking several people to the ground. It was unclear if anyone was hurt.

Here are more stories and videos:

"Our country has a sickness. We have to be out here," said Brianna Petrisko, among those at lower Manhattan's Foley Square, where most were wearing masks amid the coronavirus pandemic. "This is the only way we're going to be heard."

Back in Minneapolis, the city where the protests began, 29-year-old Sam Allkija said the damage seen in recent days reflects longstanding frustration and rage in the black community.

"I don't condone them," he said. "But you have to look deeper into why these riots are happening."

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who said local forces had been overmatched Friday, fully mobilized the state's National Guard and promised a massive show of force. The Guard announced Saturday it had more than 4,000 members responding to Minneapolis and would quickly have nearly 11,000.

"The situation in Minneapolis is no longer in any way about the murder of George Floyd," Walz said. "It is about attacking civil society, instilling fear and disrupting our great cities."

Soon after the city's 8 p.m. curfew went into force, lines of police cars and officers in riot gear moved in to confront protesters, firing tear gas to push away throngs of people milling around the city's 5th police precinct station. The tougher tactics came after city and state leaders were criticized for not forcefully enough confronting days of violent and damaging protests that included protesters burning down a police station shortly after officers abandoned it.

Overnight curfews were imposed in more than a dozen major cities nationwide, ranging from 6 p.m. in parts of South Carolina to 10 p.m. around Ohio. People were also told to be off the streets of Atlanta, Denver, Los Angeles, Seattle and Minneapolis  where thousands had ignored the same order Friday night.

More than 1,300 people have been arrested in 16 cities since Thursday, with more than 500 of those happening in Los Angeles on Friday.

The unrest comes at a time when most Americans have spent months inside over concerns surrounding the coronavirus, which the president has called an "invisible enemy." The events of the last 72 hours, seen live on national television, have shown the opposite: a sudden pivot to crowds, screaming protesters and burning buildings, a stark contrast to the empty streets of recent months.

Many protesters spoke of frustration that Floyd's death was one more in a litany. It came in the wake of the killing in Georgia of Ahmaud Arbery, a black man who was shot dead after being pursued by two white men while running in their neighborhood, and in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic that has thrown millions out of work, killed more than 100,000 people in the U.S. and disproportionately affected black people.

The officer who held his knee to Floyd's neck as he begged for air was arrested Friday and charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. But many protesters are demanding the arrests of the three other officers involved.

Leaders in many affected cities have voiced outrage over Floyd's killing and expressed sympathy for protesters' concerns. But as the unrest intensified, they spoke of a desperate need to protect their cities and said they would call in reinforcements, despite concerns that could lead to more heavy-handed tactics.

___

Numerous AP journalists contributed from across the U.S.

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By PTI

SRINAGAR: National Conference (NC) vice-president Omar Abdullah Sunday took a dig at celebrities for showing concern for American lives, in the event of George Floyd's killing in the US city of Minneapolis, but being allegedly indifferent to Indians who are victimised.

'So much respect for all the celebrities tweeting #BLACK_LIVES_MATTER. It takes courage to bring your cowardice to the fore when you tweet for American lives but can't tweet for Indian lives,' Omar wrote on Twitter.

The NC leader was apparently referring to the social media posts of several celebrities including Bollywood stars Priyanka Chopra and Kareena Kapoor.

Floyd, a black man, died May 25 in Minneapolis, Minnesota after a white police officer pressed his knee on his neck for more than eight minutes.

So much respect for all the celebrities tweeting #BLACK_LIVES_MATTER. It takes courage to bring your cowardice to the fore when you tweet for American lives but cant tweet for Indian lives.  Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) May 31, 2020

The officer was arrested on Friday and charged with third-degree murder.
New Delhi, May 31 : The world is looking towards India how Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the government and the people have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic, controlled it and minimised it, said Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland.

She said she was impressed with the way Prime Minister Modi pulled together members of the SAARC, including Pakistan.

In an exclusive interview with IANS, the Secretary-General said India -- a home to half of the Commonwealth's 2.4 billion citizens -- is a valued member of the Commonwealth family, with its government, people and institutions contributing in practical ways to collaborate across the 54 member countries, particularly through innovative programmes such as the UN India Fund and Commonwealth Trade Finance Facility.

On the pandemic, she said the whole Commonwealth has been affected by the virus.

India reported its first case in January just like the US, Italy and Russia and has made an immense effort to keep the spread of the virus under control and safeguard its citizens.

As of May 20, it has over 106,000 cases and 42,298 recoveries -- considering the size of its population, India has done well, Scotland said.

"That is why, people are looking to India for how Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the government and people of India have responded to the pandemic, controlled it and minimised it because it could have been so much worse," she said.

"We know that we have never needed multilateralism more than we do today. I was very impressed with how PM Modi pulled together members of SAARC, including Pakistan -- everyone came -- in which the need for 'coming together, not growing apart' was underlined.

"I commend India for providing various medical supplies -- testing kits and sanitisers among other items -- to SAARC members, including Commonwealth member states Bangladesh, Maldives and Sri Lanka," she said.

"India is the largest provider of generic drugs globally and can, therefore, draw on its growing pharma industry to provide medical supplies to many small Commonwealth states and we've been very interested in how India's made this contribution." Thanking to India's Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan for participating in the Commonwealth Health Ministers' meeting this month, she said he highlighted India's response to COVID-19, under the highest level of political commitment and guidance of Prime Minister Modi, who has been pro-active.

"The Commonwealth looks forward to working more closely with representatives of government and other agencies to share solutions and advice in fighting this pandemic," she added.

Commonwealth Health Ministers, including Vardhan, at the Commonwealth Health Ministers' meeting have agreed to coordinate their response in tackling the pandemic.

The ministers have endorsed removing fees for the coronavirus tests and treatment, especially for migrants and refugees, as appropriate within national contexts, and creating a voluntary mechanism to share and distribute extra medical supplies, including ventilators and testing kits.

India will chair the next meeting of the Commonwealth Health Ministers in May 2021.

As on May 21, 5,000,038 coronavirus cases have been reported globally. Half a million of these are in the Commonwealth countries.

Seven member states are among the 12 nations worldwide that have not reported any cases.

(Vishal Gulati can be contacted at vishal.g@ians.in)
The Government has been warned that a rush to ease restrictions could lead to a resurgence of Covid-19.

It has been reported the Government is considering scrapping the travel limit three weeks earlier than planned.

It is due to be extended to 20 kilometres from June 8 but might be dropped by the end of next month.

Public health expert Dr Gabriel Scally said speeding up the country's re-opening carries risks.

"For the benefit of us all, we need to get this right," he said.

"A rush to make up for all those weeks that we've been bottled up could lead us in the wrong direction and it could lead to a resurgence of this.

"We don't want to get back to announcing death tolls in the hundreds. We just don't want to get back there because that would lead to even more mayhem for all of us."

Dr Gabriel Scally

Government considering scrapping coronavirus travel restrictions three weeks early

The Government is considering scrapping the Covid-19 travel restriction three weeks earlier than planned.

Other measures like the re-opening of museums and hairdressers could also be brought forward.

Phase Two of the country re-opening is due to start on June 8.

That will see more shops re-opening and larger numbers allowed at funerals.

The travel limit is also set to be extended from five kilometres to 20 kilometres from someone's home.

That is due to stay in place into Phase Three on June 29.

But there are reports the Government is looking at scrapping that restriction at the end of Phase Two.

Museums, galleries and hairdressers being allowed to open by the end of June is also under consideration.

Professor Mary Horgan, a consultant in infectious diseases at Cork University Hospital, says the travel restriction has served a purpose.

"It really, I presume, was brought in to limit the number of people a given person would interact with," she said.

"But that was in the big peak we saw in late March and early April, and we're well past that now.

"I think we're at the point of seeing what are the benefits and what are the risks of continuing a very narrow ability to travel."

The Government has said speeding up the roadmap can only happen if the pattern of coronavirus continues heading in the right direction.

The latest figures show a further nine people with Covid-19 have died, bringing the death toll to 1,651.

There are also 59 new cases - with the total now standing at 24,929.
The "highly dangerous" ingredients in cigarettes and the way the tobacco industry manipulates them to taste appealing to young people needs further national regulation to stop a new generation of smokers.

That's the opinion of WA Health Minister Roger Cook, who urged the action on Sunday, World No Tobacco Day.

The pandemic may be a perfect time to quit smoking. Credit:Getty

Mr Cook said that while the fall in the number of WA children and teenagers smoking was encouraging, the tobacco industry was always looking for new ways to get them hooked and make it hard for them to quit.

Weekly smoking rates in 12 to 17-year-old school students fell from 21 per cent in 1984 to five per cent in 2017. Over the same period the proportion who had never smoked increased from 32 to 83 per cent.
One man is fighting for life while another has been charged with attempted murder following a confrontation with three men in north Queensland.

The 26-year-old is facing a raft of charges including attempted murder, acts intended to cause grievous bodily harm and unlawful possession of a weapon.

The three men arrived at a Collinsville home on Saturday afternoon where they argued with the 26-year-old man, police said earlier.

The 26-year-old allegedly grabbed a firearm from inside the home before shooting one man in the stomach.

The injured man, 29, was airlifted to Townsville Hospital where he remains in a critical, but stable condition.


SpaceX sends 2 NASA astronauts to ISS in historic mission Scripting a historic chapter in the history of US space programme, Elon Musk-run SpaceX on Saturday sent two NASA astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) onboard the reusable Falcon 9 rocket. The SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft carrying NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley was on its way to the orbiting laboratory in the space and had safely reached orbit, NASA said in a statement.



It is the first time that astronauts have been sent into space from the US soil since 2011.



It is also the first time that US astronauts have been sent into space by a private company, signalling an end to the US dependence on the Russian space technology.



The Crew Dragon spacecraft lifted off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the same site used for the first moon landing in 1969, reports the BBC.



The journey would take approximately 19 hours and astronauts Hurley and Behnken should reach the space station at around 10.30 ET (eastern time) on Sunday, according to NASA.



After successfully docking, Behnken and Hurley will be welcomed aboard station and will become members of the Expedition 63 crew. They will perform tests on Crew Dragon in addition to conducting research and other tasks with the space station crew.



Earlier, NASA and SpaceX postponed historic launch of two astronauts to space from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday due to bad weather.




By Azernews





By Akbar Mammadov

The Head of the Azerbaijani community of Azerbaijans Nagorno-Karabakh region, MP Tural Ganjaliyev, has condemned the congratulatory letter sent by Rachel Harder, a member of the House of Commons of the Canadian Parliament close to the Armenian lobby over illegal elections held in occupied Nagorno-Karabakh.

As the head of the Azerbaijani community of the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan and the Azerbaijani-Canadian friendship group in the Azerbaijani Parliament, I condemn and strongly object to the irresponsible "congratulatory letter" sent from Rachel Harder, a member of the House of Commons of the Canadian Parliament close to the Armenian lobby, to the representative of the so-called regime in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, Ganjaliyev wrote in his Facebook page on May 30:

Ganjaliyev reminded Canadian MP Harder that while Armenia continues to illegally occupy the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan and adjacent territories in violation of the basic principles of international law, UN and other international organizations, the Azerbaijani population has been forcibly evicted from their homes through ethnic cleansing and deprived of basic human rights for more than 28 years now.

"In this context, trying to legitimize the election show" in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan on March 31 and April 14, 2020, is a disrespect to fundamental human rights and the rule of law. The international community, including Canada, unanimously rejected the "election show" in favour of law and justice, and expressed solidarity with Azerbaijan.

Unfortunately, the parliamentarian of a country like Canada, which has high respect for human rights and freedoms, has expressed support for Armenia's policy of ethnic cleansing against Azerbaijanis, thus casting a shadow over Canada's foreign policy interests and values.

In the meantime, Ganjaliyev told Trend News Agency on June 2 that Rachel Harder's assistant is a Canadian citizen of Armenian origin. "Most likely, the assistant provided false information to MP Rachel Harder. It would be good if after receiving such information the deputy would clarify it and take action after studying the issue of the conflict objectively", he said.

Ganjaliyev also reminded that Canada recognizes the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and attaches great importance to high democratic principles and the rule of law. "Therefore, such a step of the Canadian parliamentarian arouses the feeling of regret", added he.

I reiterate that the Azerbaijani community of the Nagorno-Karabakh region spares no effort to find a peaceful solution to the conflict - the peaceful coexistence and development of both communities in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, works tirelessly for this purpose.

Ganjaliyev added: We express our gratitude to the international community, including those who support our just struggle in Canada, and call on those who oppose justice to refrain from this wrong path and support the Armenian and Azerbaijani communities of the Nagorno-Karabakh region to live together in peace within the internationally recognized territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.

It should be noted that the illegal elections in Nagorno-Karabakh have been rejected by international organizations such as the EU, the European Parliament, Council of Europe, NATO, Non-Aligned Movement, OIC, among others as well a number of countries, including the UK, Germany, Turkey, Italy, Georgia, Ukraine, Estonia, etc.
San Francisco, May 31 : A Friday night protest in US Northern California city of Oakland over the police-custody death of black man George Floyd in Minneapolis turned into a riot with dozens of protestors arrested.

The city's Police Department said in a tweet that the peaceful demonstration turned out to be an unlawful assembly and multiple officers were injured, Xinhua news agency reported.

"What we saw later on in the evening turned violent and disruptive," police chief Susan Manheimer said in a video posted on Twitter, calling on everyone who would come to Oakland to respect the memory of George Floyd not to harm "our downtown businesses, which have been suffering since the pandemic began." "That rage crossed a line. We cannot tolerate vandalism or violence in our city. Black-owned businesses in downtown, businesses in our China Town were vandalized last night. Fires were set, further compromising the health of our already scared and vulnerable populations," said Libby Schaaf, mayor of the Bay Area city of Oakland.

"We have taken decades, in fact, centuries to get here. But we are committed to not just doing the work of this moment, but the long term work to recognize that there are systems of unfairness and lack of opportunities for our black, brown, Latino, African, American, indigenous, and many of our Asian residents," Schaaf said.

"We must fight the American travesty of racism, but we must do it in a way that works," she urged, claiming that Oakland has no tolerance for acts of violence or racism.

The death of George Floyd "was about the reality that some Americans remain vulnerable and unprotected as they go about their daily lives merely on the basis of the color of their skin, decades after the civil rights movement brought laws designed to cleanse the discrimination that has haunted our nation's history since its inception," said San Francisco Chronicle in its editorial published on Saturday.
Military chiefs have paid out more than 53.8million in the last ten years to help British troops suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

More than 3,000 personnel and veterans received settlements from the Ministry of Defence after suffering from flashbacks and nightmares.

Servicemen and women who toured in Iraq and Afghanistan were included in the settlements, Ministry of Defence data has revealed.

The MoDs Armed Forces Compensation Scheme paid out 42.1million in 3,120 Post Traumatic Stress Disorder payments, averaging 13,500 each.

Military chiefs have paid out more than 53.8million in the last ten years to help British troops suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, often linked to serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Pictured: Soldiers diving into cover, during an ambush in Basrah, Iraq, in 2005

Post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms include nightmares and flashbacks. The MoDs Armed Forces Compensation Scheme paid out 42.1million in 3,120 Post Traumatic Stress Disorder payments, averaging 13,500 each

A further 11.7million was paid out in 64 court settlements, averaging 183,000 each.

Johnny Mercer, the Minister for Defence People and Veterans, said: 'I have helped accelerate the introduction of a new high intensity service to meet the demand of those most in need.

WHAT IS PTSD? Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety disorder caused by very stressful, frightening or distressing events. Someone with PTSD often relives the traumatic event through nightmares and flashbacks, and may experience feelings of isolation, irritability and guilt. They may also have problems sleeping, such as insomnia, and find concentrating difficult. These symptoms are often severe and persistent enough to have a significant impact on the persons day-to-day life. PTSD can develop immediately after someone experiences a disturbing event or it can occur weeks, months or even years later. Source: NHS Advertisement

'As a former soldier, I am acutely aware of the experiences of those struggling with PTSD,' he told The Sun on Sunday.

Dr Walter Busuttil, Medical Director at charity Combat Stress: 'Combat Stress has long called for a properly coordinated approach to treating those in need.'

More than 300 personnel were diagnosed with PTSD in assessments carried out last year.

Of 301 diagnosed with the disorder, 216 were from the army, 37 from the navy, 30 from the RAF and 18 from members of the Royal Marines.

PTSD can affect those who have experienced or witnessed a traumatic event for months, or even years.

A previous study found that one in 13 young people in England and Wales experience post-traumatic stress disorder by the age of 18.

An estimated one in 11 people will be diagnosed PTSD in their lifetime, according to the American Psychiatric Association.

Is much more common in certain groups including firefighters, war veterans, rape victims and teenage car crash survivors.

The biggest single PTSD payment made by the Ministry of Defence is believed to be 2.4million to a Gulf War veteran in 2011.
The global oil market is in a state of disarray thanks to multiple factors, most notably the impact of COVID-19. That's sent the energy sector reeling, with bankruptcies, spending cuts, and cost containment efforts all viable avenues for companies looking to get through this historically difficult period. Material dividend cuts are also starting to take shape at companies like Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE:RDS.B) and Equinor that had long histories of reliably returning cash to investors.

It's only logical to question whether or not peers ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM) and Chevron (NYSE:CVX) will be forced to do the same. Here are some key things to consider.

1. It's the board's call

The first and most important thing to remember about dividend decisions is that, for the most part, they are entirely up to the board of directors. The management team clearly provides guidance on the matter, but whether or not to pay a dividend and how much to pay is at the discretion of the board.

This isn't good or bad, it's just a fact. However, there are clear statements that are made via dividend decisions. For example, Exxon has increased its dividend annually for 37 consecutive years. Chevron's annual streak isn't that far behind at 33 years. There have been multiple ups and downs in the historically cyclical energy sector over the last three decades. Clearly, paying a consistent and growing dividend is important to the boards of these to integrated energy giants.

2. Dividends get cut all the time

Don't assume, however, that the boards of Exxon and Chevron won't make the hard call to cut their dividends if need be. The current headwinds (more on this below) are intense, and have led many energy companies to trim their dividends. Shell and Equinor are two direct competitors that have taken this drastic step to ensure they have ample cash to survive.

But an even better example could be energy services company Helmerich & Payne (NYSE:HP). This company had a streak of 47 annual dividend hikes under its belt, but still felt it necessary to cut the dividend in March.

What's interesting about this cut is that Helmerich & Payne has a rock-solid balance sheet. Long-term debt made up just 12% of the company's capital structure at the end of the first quarter. That would be low for any company in any industry. This decision was a hard one, driven by the need to maintain capital spending plans in a capital-intensive business even though revenue was under pressure. That should sound pretty similar to what's going on at Helmerich & Payne's customers, a list that includes names like Exxon and Chevron.

3. The energy market is painful right now

That last point is important here, because the top and bottom lines at Exxon and Chevron are clearly driven by the price of oil. There was excess supply coming into the year thanks to decades worth of expansion in U.S. onshore production. That oversupply situation was exacerbated by a price war between OPEC and Russia, which has since been resolved. But the real hit was the global economic shutdown from COVID-19, which led to a swift decline in demand. With too much oil and too little demand, oil prices have plummeted to historic lows.

Although the world is starting to reopen again, there's a glut of oil sitting in storage that will need to be worked off. And while the supply side is contracting quickly, particularly in the U.S. -- the U.S. Energy Information Administration notes that the rig count is at its lowest point on record -- a material increase in oil prices is likely to take some time to materialize. That's not good news for Exxon or Chevron, since earnings could remain under pressure for a long time.

4. Pay attention to cash flow, not earnings

That said, dividends are paid out of cash flow and not earnings. It's an important difference, because earnings includes items that don't impact cash flow, like depreciation. And companies can generate cash outside of earnings. For example, both Chevron and Exxon have been selling assets in recent years. That results in cash that can be used however the companies want, including investing in the businesses or supporting the dividends. Although selling assets in the current market environment isn't likely to be easy, the key takeaway is that Exxon and Chevron can support their dividends in other ways. In fact, they have to support their dividends in other ways, since neither is earning enough to cover its dividend right now.

5. Keep an eye on the balance sheet

One of the other ways a company can get cash to pay for things is to issue debt. That's exactly what both Chevron and Exxon have done. At the end of the first quarter, Chevron's total long-term debt had increased roughly 20% from the start of the year. Exxon's long-term debt jumped even more, rising by nearly a third. The boards of these two companies are clearly making the call to lean on the balance sheet to maintain capital spending plans (at reduced levels) and dividends (at the same or higher levels) with the expectation that oil prices will recover. This is a cyclical business, so history suggests that prices will, eventually, turn higher again.

There is an important distinction here between Exxon and Chevron on the one hand and Shell and Equinor on the other. Shell and Equinor have historically operated with more leverage, offsetting that risk with sizable cash balances. That's typical of European energy companies. Exxon and Chevron have historically done the exact opposite, focusing on low leverage and more modest levels of cash. These are not equivalent options, as the current situation shows. High levels of leverage limit financial flexibility in tough times, because increasing leverage even more in a downturn isn't a desirable move. And in times of stress, burning through cash is equally problematic. Thus, Shell and Equinor chose to preserve cash by cutting their dividends. Starting out with much lower leverage, Exxon and Chevron have more balance sheet flexibility -- which they are using to protect their dividends. In fact, even after the increases in leverage at these two oil giants, they still remain at the low end of the peer group.

6. Between oil prices and dividends, something has to give

While the boards of Exxon and Chevron are clearly making the decision to support their businesses and dividends today by using their balance sheet strength, that can only go on for so long. If oil prices don't recover at some point the dividends here will eventually get cut. However, that would likely mean that there's been a structural change in global energy demand. That isn't something that Exxon or Chevron think is on the horizon right now, with each focusing on long-term supply and demand dynamics that suggest oil and natural gas will remain vital to the world for many years to come.

Still, as an investor, you need to watch the big picture. Exxon and Chevron made it clear during their first-quarter conference calls that they both plan to support their dividends during this dip, and they both have ample capacity to do so. But if the dip turns into something more, they will be forced to change those plans.

What to watch for

There are no guarantees when it comes to investing -- you have to accept a certain amount of uncertainty. When it comes to investing in Exxon and Chevron today, there are legitimate concerns about their abilities to keep paying the dividends supporting their 7.5% and 5.5% yields, respectively. In the near term it looks like both have the financial capacity and the will to support the dividends through what is a historically difficult energy market. That's not likely to change in a quarter or two.

However, dividend investors should be keeping a close eye on what these two integrated energy giants do and say. If either starts suggesting that there has been a fundamental change in the industry, you should probably begin to worry.
Self-made billionaire and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates doesn't recommend many business books.

"In my experience, it is rare to find one that really captures what it's like to build and operate an organization or that has tips you could really put into practice," he writes on his blog, GatesNotes.

But there's a new business book that, unlike most others, is actually worth your time, he says: "The Ride of a Lifetime" by former Disney CEO Robert Iger. Gates has already suggested the 2019 memoir to a handful of friends and colleagues, including current Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

Iger, who took over Disney in 2005 and retired in 2020, "does a great job explaining what it is like to be a CEO," writes Gates. He's "able to take you inside the workings of a massive media company and show how he thought about building on its strengths and shoring up its weaknesses."

Even if you don't have any interest in the business world, it's entertaining and worthwhile, he adds. "I think anyone would enjoy this book, whether they're looking for business insights or just want a good read by a humble guy who rose up the corporate ladder to successfully run one of the biggest companies in the world."

While Gates praises it as "one of the best business books I've read in several years," it's not his No. 1. His all-time favorite remains "Business Adventures" by John Brooks. "Whenever someone asks me to recommend one book on business, that's the one I suggest most often," Gates says.

A lot has changed in the business world since the 1960s, when the book was originally published, but the fundamentals of building a strong organization have not, says Gates. Brooks' insights are just as relevant today.

Don't miss: 5 books Bill Gates recommends reading right now

Check out: The best credit cards of 2020 could earn you over $1,000 in 5 years
At the full meeting of the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors scheduled for June 2, the boards Finance and Resource Management Committee will recommend a preliminary budget for the 2020-21 fiscal year.

Reflecting the uncertainty of the full impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on university resources, the preliminary budget for 2020-21 will be based on the current 2019-20 base operating budget, adjusted to include revenue contingencies and a 5 percent budget reduction in the university budget. Specific cuts at the unit level will be informed by the Partnership for Incentive Based Budget (PIBB) model and the strategic plan.

The proposed preliminary budget will allow the university to move forward with an understanding that additional budget adjustments may be necessary in the next fiscal year as more information comes into focus.

Our goal is to fiscally navigate the university through this challenging and unprecedented time and emerge from it financially strong and intact, said Senior Vice President and Chief Business Officer Dwayne Pinkney.

As discussed at the Finance and Resource Management Committee on May 7, the university asked campus budget responsibility centers to submit 5 percent and 10 percent base budget reduction planning scenarios. These scenarios will help the university prepare for potential future reductions if needed once the broader resource plan for the institution is better understood.

Pinkney noted that while much of the future revenue picture remains unknown, several elements of next years budget are currently known to the university. Those include changes in state support for fringe benefit rate increases and changes in revenues from previously approved fee adjustments.

It will take more time for us to have a full understanding of the fiscal impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Pinkney said. Developing our budget incrementally will enable us to continue operations while providing additional time for us to understand the impacts on our major revenue categories. As information becomes available, the university will be better positioned to react to base and/or one-time revenue fluctuations and the resultant impacts on the university budget.

As 2020-21 budget planning assumptions are finalized, the university will communicate to the campus community and will bring an update back to the board.

The Finance and Resource Management Committee will also advance a resolution to the full board to temporarily suspend any provisions outlined in the Faculty Handbook pertaining to furloughs or salary reductions and to delegate to the president of the university the temporary authority to institute furloughs and/or temporary base salary reductions affecting faculty and university staff. This temporary authority, which will expire no later than June 30, 2021, stipulates the president must consult with the rector and share with the board a plan for enacting this authority before the delegation of authority can take effect.

Our commitment to retain and support our greatest asset  our faculty and staff  is strong. This authority involves just one of many potential strategies available to us to help sustain our talent pool, said Sands. Should significant budget reductions be necessary, implementation of salary reductions and/or furloughs will be considered together with other strategies, such as use of reserves, continued hiring freezes, and limited procurement. Because the board will not reconvene until August, this delegation of authority must be considered now to allow design and implementation of a balanced and timely plan for managing the university budget.

Executive Vice President and Provost Cyril Clarke emphasized that consideration of this resolution does not signal that the university currently has a plan in place to implement salary reductions or furloughs for faculty, but that it allows the university to consider all available budget reduction options as it prepares for the future.

In the event that salary reductions or furloughs become necessary, the faculty and academic leadership will be fully engaged in developing a plan that protects lower income earners, is progressive in regard to contributions of higher income earners, and maximizes Virginia Techs ability to retain faculty talent over the long term. The Faculty Senate is already engaged with university leadership in the spirit of shared governance as the planning process moves forward.

In advancing this resolution to the full board, our committee hopes this authority will not have to be used, but we believe it is essential to provide university leadership with all options needed to navigate our current financial situation, said Letitia A. Tish Long, chair of the Finance and Resource Management Committee. As we have said, we want to emerge from the pandemic financially strong and intact. Im confident that any actions taken by the president will incorporate those key guiding principles that reflect the universitys commitments to the health and safety of personnel and students, and to teaching, research, and outreach.

Rector Horacio Valeiras expressed the board's support for retaining and recruiting exceptional faculty and said the board would look at all options before reducing compensation.

The university budget includes the capital outlay program, which for fiscal year 2020-21 is composed of 18 Educational and General projects and 10 Auxiliary Enterprise projects. As part of the resource management process, each project has an annual budget. The total capital program for 2020-21 includes approximately $1.046 billion of authorizations with an estimated annual budget for 2020-21 of approximately $194 million. Projects with secure funding and board approval are moving forward. The remainder will be subject to further board approval.

As part of the preliminary 2020-21 operating budget, compensation for graduate assistants will continue at the 2019-20 base stipend amount, with the academic year stipend supplement increasing by $58, to a total of $458, to mitigate the increase in the comprehensive fee. The university will continue to provide its share of the graduate assistant health insurance coverage of 88 percent and the tuition remission benefit as part of the graduate compensation package.

Likewise, the 2020-21 university budget calls for continuing the 2019-20 faculty compensation plan. Neither the states nor the universitys budget for 2020-21 includes any merit or across-the-board salary increase for faculty or staff. Salary adjustments that have been made through the Tenure and Promotion process will be preserved.

The Finance and Resource Management Committee also advanced a resolution for the June 2 full board meeting calling for a tuition freeze for resident and nonresident undergraduate, graduate, and professional students for the 2020-21 academic year.
Hundreds of Indian and Chinese troops are involved in the latest face-off concentrated in India's Ladakh region

NEW DELHI: India will not let its "pride be hurt" in its latest border flareup with China but is determined to settle the dispute through talks between the giant neighbours, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has said.

Singh also said in a television interview late Saturday that India has turned down a mediation offer by US President Donald Trump.

Hundreds of Indian and Chinese troops are involved in the latest face-off concentrated in India's Ladakh region just opposite Tibet.

The two countries have several disputes along their 3,500-kilometre (2,175-mile) border. They fought a frontier war in 1962 and there have been regular spats, though no shot has been fired since the 1970s.

The latest tensions blew up on May 9 when dozens of Chinese and Indian soldiers were injured in fistfights and stone-throwing in Sikkim state. Many Indian soldiers are still in hospital.

The main showdown is now in Ladakh centred around the Galwan valley which controls access to several strategic points on their Himalayan border.

The two sides have blamed each other but analysts say India's building of new roads in the region may have been the fuse for the dispute.

Both sides have blamed each other and sent reinforcements and heavy equipment to the zone.

"I want to assure the country that we will not let India's pride be hurt in any circumstances," the defence minister told the Aaj Tak television channel.

He referred to a similar 2017 showdown on the Doklam Plateau which he said was "very tense" but "we did not step back".

"India has been following a clear policy of maintaining good relationship with neighbouring countries. It is not a new approach," he added.

"At times, situations arise with China. It has happened before," Singh said while insisting that India was striving to make sure "tension does not escalate".

"Negotiations are ongoing between the two countries at the military and diplomatic levels," he said.

A defence ministry on Sunday warned the Indian public about fake social media videos showing fighting on the border. "Currently no violence is happening. Differences are being addressed through interaction between military commanders," a ministry statement insisted.

The US president this week tweeted an offer to mediate in what he called a "raging" dispute.

Singh said he spoke to US Defense Secretary Mark Esper on Friday to emphasise that India and China have mechanisms to resolve "problems" through talks at diplomatic and military levels.
Magandeep Singh By

The current situation, like the metaphorical stone in our shoe, has become a constant companion, but I have decided to not dwell on it.

Instead, I am reminiscing my last trip to Turkey, a planned gastronomic journey, to what used to be the centre of the world. Here are some food-notes from a time worth recalling.

Tarhana Soup: This is an easy, tasty and filling meal that preserves well, and is easy to prepare. The origin of this soup dishthe first instant soup of the worldgoes back centuries when the nomadic tribes figured out a way to preserve this fermented and dehydrated mix of flour, yoghurt and vegetables.

The powder was easy to store and transport, easier to rekindle into a mealy bowl of soup and great for energy as also for digestion. Today, some people still make it the traditional laborious way even although you can find it in most shops.

Kebabs: Every country east of Turkey (and some to the west too) has a version, and many claim it to be their recipe.

Well, keeping the semantics of variations aside, kebabs are truly Turkish in origin. It started with soldiers out in the fields cooking small chunks of their hunted meats by holding them directly over flames, usually skewered with their swords.

Doesnt sound appetising (or hygienic) but thats where the dish originates. From there it evolved and migrated in all directions, thus giving us a nomenclature of dishes that are varied in style, taste and texture, from the doner to the galouti, the testi to the adana.

Intestine sandwich: Its a street dish that comprises lamb offals wrapped up in intestine with spices on a skewer and cooked and served up in bread. All I can say is that the dish is tastier than it sounds. In olden days, dishes like these were common to ensure that no part of the carcass goes waste.

Aubergine: The one lovely thing about Turkish food is that it isnt all about the meats, theres ample vegetarian variety too. The things they do with the humble aubergine could keep a curious gastronome busy for days. The list is endless but if I had to pick one such dish, it would be imam Biyaldi, meaning the imam fainted, possibly an allusion to just how tasty the dish would have been to induce such a stupor in a man of God.

Dessert: No talk of Turkish food can be complete without a mention of Baklavas and Turkish Delight. I know, not for everyone, but do remember that back in the day even the French and Austrians looked up to them for all their achievements in the patisserie department.

My gastronomic journey last time took me to some of the top restaurants of Turkey and I now think it will be a long time before one can visit them again.

But, for posterity, Id suggest you take these names down and plan a holiday just around them: Yeni Lokantesi, Lale Iskembecisi, Sampiyon Kokorec, and Deraliye in Istanbul, and Han Ciragan, Dibek and Kadineli in Cappadocia.

While in the region, a visit to the all-women's team at Old Greek House will be worth the detour.

A week-long sojourn all around food and I still felt I had barely scratched the surface; Turkey left me wishing I had two stomachs.
An Upstate New York woman has been arrested after throwing a Molotov cocktail at a police vehicle with four cops inside during violent protests over the death of George Floyd.

Federal officials said Saturday that Samantha Shader, 27, of Catskill, admitted to possessing the Molotov cocktail and throwing it at the NYPD vehicle early Saturday morning in Brooklyn.

The New York Daily News reports an FBI affidavit filed in Brooklyn Federal Court said she lit up a bottle containing an incendiary chemical (sometimes referred to as a Molotov cocktail device)  while an unidentified male attempts to shield Shader from onlookers." She then threw the firebomb at the windows of a New York Police Department van; the device did not ignite and officers inside escaped unharmed, arresting Shader as she attempted to flee.

The FBI said the incident was captured on video and the affidavit included a photo of Shader throwing the flaming bottle around 1:12 a.m. Saturday.

Here's the photo in the EDNY complaint against Samantha Shader: "a video recorded by a witness captured her igniting a Molotov Cocktail and throwing it at an NYPD vehicle occupied by 4 police.. In post-arrest statement, Shader admitted" it https://t.co/oFsYZeifBp pic.twitter.com/eNoG3TPyhu  Inner City Press (@innercitypress) May 31, 2020

Shes been charged under federal law with using and attempting to use improvised incendiary devices.

According to the Daily News, she was originally charged with attempted murder, attempted arson, weapons possession and reckless endangerment before the case went to federal authorities.

Three other people were also arrested on federal charges of destroying police vehicles. All four are expected to appear before a judge Monday.

The Associated Press reports Shaders younger sister, Dorian, 21, was also arrested during the protests. She was not named in the FBI affidavit, and is expected to be charged in Brooklyn Criminal Court with resisting arrest and obstruction of governmental administration.

Protests have turned violent in numerous cities across the U.S. after the death of Floyd, a black man killed by police in Minnesota. The officer filmed kneeling on his neck was arrested Friday and faces criminal charges.
Although brilliant and a master strategist, Ghanas first prime minister and president Kwame Nkrumah emerging from an impoverished background lacked funds to execute campaigns in his battles with the colonial British government for self-rule for the locals.



Rebecca Naa Dedei Aryeetey also known as Dedei Ashikishan was on the other hand an entrepreneur and political activist, who became a chief financier of the Convention Peoples Party (CPP)  the party formed by Nkrumah after breaking away from the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC).



By age 30, Aryeetey was a business tycoon and crucially the flour queen in Accra, wealthy enough to own a huge house in Kokomlemle, a suburb of the capital, Accra. She earned her Ashikishan nickname, which is flour in the Ga language thanks to the product she traded in.



She was influential, being the leader of the Market Mammies (Mothers) Association. Aryeetey was born in 1924 to father Ataa Ayite, who hailed from Ga (Asere) and Osu. Her paternal grandma Ama Richter hailed from Osu. Although she had basic education, she went straight into the flour business afterwards. She grew up in Ga (James Town British Accra).



The queen of the flour business in Accra campaigned and funded Nkrumah to win the Accra Central seat. Many reckon had Nkrumah lost that seat, he would never have become the Prime Minister of Ghana.



Market women served as the backbone of CPP in Accra thanks to Komla Agbeli Gbedemah, who mobilized them with Aryeetey leading the pack so that when Nkrumah was released from jail in 1951, having won the 1951 Gold Coast legislative election, there was a core group of supporters ready for him. She is said to have campaigned and funded Nkrumah against her own kinsman Odarkwei Obetsebi-Lamptey of the UGCC.



Aryeetey identified with Nkrumahs vision and ideals for the country and people so poured money into CPP and as her financial contribution increased so was her influence in the party. Her closeness to Nkrumah was not favored by all. While in Nkrumahs company in 1960 at a CPP party function in Ho, she got served with tea and passed on later after complaining of stomach pains.



Nkrumah was inconsolable at her funeral, according to reports. Eyebrows were raised when no postmortem was carried out to officially ascertain the cause of her death, despite her stature in the party.



The 50 pesewas coin as well as national stamp was reportedly issued in her memory while double-decker buses introduced in Accra, locally referred to as Auntie Dedei is apparently in reference to her.

Source: face2faceafrica.com









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In this image taken from NASA TV video, the SpaceX Dragon crew capsule, with NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken aboard, docks with the International Space Station Sunday, May 31, 2020. It was the first time a privately built and owned spacecraft carried astronauts to the orbiting lab in its nearly 20 years. (NASA TV via AP)

SpaceX delivered two astronauts to the International Space Station for NASA on Sunday, following up a historic liftoff with an equally smooth docking in yet another first for Elon Musk's company.

With test pilots Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken poised to take over manual control if necessary, the SpaceX Dragon capsule pulled up to the station and docked automatically, no assistance needed. The hatches swung open a few hours later, and the two Dragon riders floated into the orbiting lab and embraced the three station residents.

Unlike the SpaceX and NASA flight control rooms, where everyone was spaced well apart, there was no social distancing or masks needed in orbit since the new arrivals had been in quarantine for many weeks.

"The whole world saw this mission, and we are so, so proud of everything you have done for our country and, in fact, to inspire the world," NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said in a call from Mission Control in Houston.

Hurley credited SpaceX and added, ""It's great to get the United States back in the crewed launch business."

It was the first time a privately built and owned spacecraft carried astronauts to the space station in its more than 20 years of existence. NASA considers this the opening volley in a business revolution encircling Earth and eventually stretching to the moon and Mars.

"NASA is not going to purchase, own and operate rockets and capsules the way we used to," Bridenstine said. ""We're going to partner with commercial industry."

The docking occurred barely 19 hours after a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasted off Saturday afternoon from Kennedy Space Center, the nation's first astronaut launch to orbit from home soil in nearly a decade and drawing a Washington delegation led by President Donald Trump. NASA said peak viewership online hit 10 million.

Despite the coronavirus pandemic, thousands jammed surrounding beaches, bridges and towns as SpaceX ended a nine-year launch drought for NASA. The achievement, years in the making, is expected to drive down launch costs so more people might be able to afford a ticket to space in the coming years.

This photo provided by NASA shows Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, far right, joining the the crew at the International Space Station, after the SpaceX Dragon capsule pulled up to the station and docked Sunday, May 31, 2020. The Dragon capsule arrived Sunday morning, hours after a historic liftoff from Florida. It's the first time that a privately built and owned spacecraft has delivered a crew to the orbiting lab.(NASA via AP)

Behnken told the welcoming committee at NASA's Johnson Space Center that the Dragon was "a slick vehicle" and said he was surprised at how rough the ride was on the latter part of ascent, compared with the space shuttle, which he and Hurley rode twice.

"Dragon was huffing and puffing all the way into orbit," he said.

In this image taken from NASA TV video, the SpaceX Dragon crew capsule, with NASA astronauts Doug Hurley, left, and Robert Behnken aboard docks with the International Space Station Sunday, May 31, 2020. It was the first time a privately built and owned spacecraft carried astronauts to the orbiting lab in its nearly 20 years. (NASA TV via AP)

Two Texas members of Congress at Johnson for the dockingSen. Ted Cruz and Rep. Brian Babinsaid the flight offered inspiration and hope during a particularly tough time of protests and pandemic.

"Having it go off without a hitch was a tremendous blessing for our country," Babin told the astronauts.

Gleaming white in the sunlight, the Dragon was easily visible on NASA TV from a few miles away from the space station, its nose cone open and exposing its docking hook as well as a blinking light. Hurley and Behnken took over the controls and did a little piloting less than a couple hundred yards (meters) out as part of the test flight, before putting it back into automatic for the final approach.

Once on board the space station, Hurley said the capsule, newly named Endeavour after the retired shuttle, handled extremely well. He was the pilot on the last U.S. spaceship to visit the space stationthe last shuttle flight, by Atlantis, in July 2011.

In this image taken from NASA TV video, the SpaceX Dragon crew capsule, with NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken aboard, docks with the International Space Station Sunday, May 31, 2020. It was the first time a privately built and owned spacecraft carried astronauts to the orbiting lab in its nearly 20 years. (NASA TV via AP)

Restoring American launch capability nine years later, he noted, "is just one effort that we can show for the ages in this dark time that we've had over the past several months to kind of inspire, especially the young people in the United States, to reach for these lofty goals."

There was one small glitch: Hurley bumped his head entering the space station and frequently wiped his forehead during the welcoming ceremony.

NASA turned to private industry to pick up the slack following the shuttle fleet's retirement, hiring SpaceX and Boeing in 2014 for space station taxi services. Boeing's first astronaut flight isn't expected until next year.

Until Saturday, SpaceX had launched only space station supplies or satellites. The company's employees took to calling the astronauts "dads" to drive home the fact that two lives were at stake in this highly technical effort.

In this image provided by NASA, a view of SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft with NASA astronauts Douglas Hurley and Robert Behnken onboard is seen on monitors in firing room four of the Launch Control Center at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, as the spacecraft approaches the International Space Station for docking, Sunday, May 31, 2020. The Dragon capsule arrived Sunday morning, hours after a historic liftoff from Florida. (Joel Kowsky/NASA via AP)

Clearly relieved, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine tweeted a big "welcome home" to the Dragon fliers"America's two favorite dads."

NASA has yet to decide how long Hurley and Behnken will spend at the space station, somewhere between one and four months. While they're there, they'll join NASA's Chris Cassidy and two Russian station residents in performing experiments and possibly spacewalks to install fresh station batteries.

While U.S. astronauts will continue to catch a ride on Russian Soyuz rockets, it will be through a barter system now that NASA's commercial crew program has finally taken flight. NASA had been shelling out tens of millions of dollars for every Soyuz seat.

In a show-and-tell earlier Sunday, the astronauts gave a quick tour of the Dragon's sparkling clean insides, quite spacious for a capsule.

NASA astronauts Douglas Hurley, left, and Robert Behnken walk out of the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building on their way to Pad 39-A, at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Saturday, May 30, 2020. The two astronauts will fly on a SpaceX test flight to the International Space Station. For the first time in nearly a decade, astronauts will blast into orbit aboard an American rocket from American soil, a first for a private company. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

A SpaceX Falcon 9, with NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken in the Crew Dragon capsule, lifts off from Pad 39-A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Saturday, May 30, 2020. The two astronauts are on the SpaceX test flight to the International Space Station. For the first time in nearly a decade, astronauts blasted towards orbit aboard an American rocket from American soil, a first for a private company. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Spectators watch from a bridge in Titusville, Fla., as SpaceX Falcon 9 lifts off with NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken in the Dragon crew capsule, Saturday, May 30, 2020, from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Fla. The two astronauts are on the SpaceX test flight to the International Space Station. For the first time in nearly a decade, astronauts blasted toward orbit aboard an American rocket from American soil, a first for a private company. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

In this photo provided by NASA, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company's Crew Dragon spacecraft is seen in this false color infrared exposure as it is launched on NASA's SpaceX Demo-2 mission to the International Space Station with NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley onboard, Saturday, May 30, 2020, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. (Bill Ingalls/NASA via AP)

The blue sequined dinosaur accompanying themtheir young sons' toy, named Tremorwas also in good shape, Behnken assured viewers. Tremor was going to join Earthy, a plush globe delivered to the space station on last year's test flight of a crew-less crew Dragon. Behnken said both toys would return to Earth with them at mission's end.

An old-style capsule splashdown is planned.

After liftoff, Musk told reporters that the capsule's return will be more dangerous in some ways than its launch. Even so, getting the two astronauts safely to orbit and then the space station had everyone breathing huge sighs of relief.

As always, Musk was looking ahead.

"This is hopefully the first step on a journey toward a civilization on Mars," he said Saturday evening.

Explore further Dragon-riding astronauts join exclusive inner circle at NASA

 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Rana Daggubati And Miheeka Bajaj To Tie The Knot On THIS Date, And No Its Not In December!
The United States reached a devastating milestone last week with 100,000 lives lost to the coronavirus. The magnitude of loss is difficult to fully comprehend. That is as many as the entire populations of Columbia County and Delaware County combined.

At the same time, our nation is undertaking a reopening process meant to help regain some sense of normalcy and push our economy through these incredibly challenging times. Critically, with the easing of lockdown restrictions comes the potential of a second wave of infections. To protect against this and give ourselves the ability to contain emerging hotspots, it is imperative our testing capacity meet the moment.

This is what informed my support for the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act, which passed the House and Senate on an overwhelmingly bipartisan basis and was signed by the president. It includes $25 billion for testing and also requires the administration to provide a strategic testing plan within 30 days. On May 17, the administration released its strategic testing plan. According to the document, the administration intends to "maintain" the mid-May testing levels of approximately 300,000 tests per day.

Since the release of the plan, numerous medical experts have made it clear that 300,000 tests per day is simply not enough. Dr. Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, recently walked through the math: U.S. hospitals need close to 100,000 tests daily to monitor the virus and minimize spread within their facilities. Nursing homes, which are particularly susceptible to the virus and home to vulnerable populations, require another 150,000 tests daily. Those two needs account for 250,000 of the proposed 300,000 tests, leaving us with almost no ability to test people showing symptoms in our communities. Instead, experts say we need closer to 900,000 tests per day.

How does the administration intend to fill the gap? According the plan, testing will grow as states are "empowered with enhanced knowledge and funding." In other words, the work is left to the states.

There are problems with this approach, starting with the practical difficulties of states acquiring testing kits. While states may logistically be better positioned to designate testing sites, acquiring kits requires knowledge and navigation of national and international supply chains, which has presented challenges for states. Then there's the cost. State budgets are already hemorrhaging due to the economic impact of COVID-19.

This is exactly why the House passed the HEROES Act, which includes not only significant relief to our state and local governments to address the loss of revenue attributable to coronavirus, but also provides $75 billion for testing. Importantly, the additional $75 billion on top of the previous $25 billion authorized by Congress is what many medical experts believe is necessary to reach the testing capacity needed at this time.

Sign up for The Knick  Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter.

Here we are weeks later: States and local governments continue to wait for assistance while the Senate refuses even to vote on this bill and the White House sits silent.

Instead, the administration is putting most of its effort behind encouraging states to reopen. It appears they're willing to do so without the testing capacity we need. It is a very dangerous proposition to open America and put people at risk without taking the necessary steps to protect against the potential of a second large-scale wave  a wave that would not only take more lives but put our economy at a standstill again. We simply cannot afford the risk of leaving states unprepared. The stakes are just too high.

To those who think this is all too difficult to predict, so why not wait and see, I would ask them to reflect upon the fact that in four months we've already lost 100,000 of our fellow Americans to this vicious disease. Simply put, we need more than a wait-and-see approach or a plan that hopes that states can somehow just work it all out. This is a matter that requires our federal government to lead and provide meaningful guidance and support in order to achieve the testing capacity necessary to truly protect public health while reopening America.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 31)  President Rodrigo Duterte sent a video birthday greeting to his daughter, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio, as she celebrated her 42nd birthday on Sunday.

Alam ni nanay nya, when I was cuddling the baby, kasi Bisaya ako, I called her Inday, and [I said] she will be a mayor of Davao City, the President recalled in the video greeting, adding that he was right in his prediction.

[Translation: Her mother knows that when I was cuddling the baby (Sara), because I am a Bisaya, I called her Inday, and (I said) she will be a mayor of Davao City.]

Sara first assumed the mayoralty post from 2010 to 2013, and then was elected again in 2016, succeeding his father for two times. In his message, Duterte encouraged his daughter to keep working for the public.

Be true to your country, work hard for the people. And the rewards, I think maybe are there made in heaven, not here." he said. "Trabaho ka lang (Just keep on working) and be good. Happy birthday, I love you."

Besides the birthday of his second eldest child, the President said May 31 is also the wedding anniversary of his parents, who have both already passed away.
The market made a strong comeback in the week that ended on May 29, despite the rapid rise in the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases.

The Nifty50 and BSE Sensex rose 6 percent backed by positive global cues amid stimulus in China and in European nations, and rally in banking and financials. The benchmark indices had fallen in previous three consecutive weeks.

While hopes for more sector-specific reforms and measures also boosted sentiment, rising concerns over United States-China relations capped gains.

The rally seen last week may not be sharp in the coming days given the extension of lockdown in containment zones till June 30 and rise in new novel coronavirus infections, though some countries in the West have started re-opening economies. Thus, volatility is expected to continue till the market gets confirmations about further easing of lockdown restrictions and a vaccine, experts feel.

On June 1 (Monday), the market will first react to Q4FY20 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) data, downward revision of data of the last three quarters, and the lockdown extension.

COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine  one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show

"On a fundamental level, there are no reasons for the rally to sustain, and investors are advised to remain cautious. Economic data and its commentary, and the new lockdown norms, based on the spread of infections, can have an impact on the markets," Vinod Nair - Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services told Moneycontrol.

Jimeet Modi, Founder & CEO at SAMCO Securities & StockNote also feels this bull bear tussle phase is likely to continue for a few more months before investors can see any significant lasting up move in the indices. He has advised investors to be patient and to wait till markets adjust to ground realities.

FII inflow was strong in the week gone by, with net buying at over Rs 8,000 crore including the Bharti Airtel stake sale deal.

Here are 10 key factors that will keep traders busy this week:

Rising COVID-19 cases

Despite measures, the number of COVID-19 cases being reported every day has been rising. Now, 6,000-7,000 cases are being reported on a daily basis as compared to 3,000-5,000 per day in the previous week.

India's tally has crossed 1.7 lakh-mark which includes nearly 5,000 deaths. However, the recovery rate remains strong at around 45 percent.

Globally, there have been over 60.5 lakh confirmed cases of COVID-19. At least 3.69 lakh people have died so far.

Hence, the market may not rejoice till the COVID-19 infections in India cross the peak and there is a full re-opening of the economy, experts feel.

Click here for Moneycontrols full coverage of the novel coronavirus pandemic

Lockdown

The nationwide lockdown, now termed 'Unlock 1', has been extended till June 30 in containment zones. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has said all activities outside containment zones will be reopened in a phased manner starting from June 8.

Religious places, hotels and restaurants, shopping malls will be reopened in phase one. However, this will be done in consultation with states and Union Territories (UTs).

Also read | Unlock 1.0: Can I step out? Which shops are open? Important questions answered

Monsoon

Monsoon is the next key factor to focus on in the coming weeks as it is critical for agricultural production. Timely arrival of monsoon will ensure kharif crops get sown properly.

The monsoon is expected to arrival in Kerala on June 1. However, private agency Skymet Weather has already declared arrival on monsoon in Kerala.

If monsoon is normal, agricultural production would also be strong which would ultimately help revive rural economy.

Earnings

We will enter the last phase of March quarter earnings season this week, which has been extended by a month by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) due to the nationwide lockdown.

Over 75 companies will declare their quarterly results this week including the largecaps such as the State Bank of India (SBI), Larsen & Toubro, Britannia Industries, Aurobindo Pharma and BPCL.

Among others, InterGlobe Aviation, V-Guard Industries, Dhampur Sugar Mills, Granules India, Marksans Pharma, Motherson Sumi Systems, Spandana Sphoorty Financial, SPARC, PI Industries, SRF, Alkem Laboratories, Greaves Cotton, Gujarat Gas, HFCL, RPG Life Sciences, Karnataka Bank, Relaxo Footwears, Usha Martin, etc. will also announce earnings.

Auto sales

After a washout in April, given the re-opening of shops, freeing of agriculture activities from lockdown in orange and green zones and hope of normal monsoon and a good rabi harvest, there has been an increase in inquiries for passenger vehicles and two-wheelers in May, especially in rural areas.

But on the actual sales front, there could be significant decline in two-wheeler, passenger vehicle and commercial vehicle sales. While tractor segment saw good business, sales remained low on YoY basis.

Japanese brokerage firm Nomura expects 84 percent decline in two-wheeler sales YoY in May, 75 percent fall in passenger vehicle and 15 percent drop in tractor sales. But, "there is virtually no demand for new trucks, hence we expect only around 500/1000 units of MHCV sales for Ashok Leyland/Tata Motors."

US-China relations to sour further?

Given US President Donald Trump's aggressive stance against China ahead of the presidential election in November, tensions between the world's largest economies is unlikely to recede, experts feel.

After China's National Assembly session last week approved a decision to create laws for Hong Kong to curb sedition, secession, terrorism and foreign interference, Trump said the US would take action to revoke Hong Kong's preferential treatment as a separate customs and travel territory from the rest of China. "Washington would also impose sanctions on individuals seen as responsible for "smothering - absolutely smothering - Hong Kong's freedom," he added.

Hence, experts feel there will be an impact on the market if tensions rise further. However, Trump has not commented on Phase 1 trade deal signed between US and China in January.

Technical view

The Nifty50 gained nearly a percent on May 30 and rose 6 percent for the week, forming bullish candle on daily as well as weekly charts.

The index has broken its range and decisively surpassed 9,500 mark last week but sustainability of this uptrend is important going ahead, hence if the index crosses 9,600 levels and holds for few sessions then the rally may continue, otherwise bears may get upper hand, experts feel.

"The short term trend of Nifty continues to be positive. The next upside levels to be watched around 9,750-9,800 in coming sessions. Any downward correction towards 9,400 could be a buy on dips opportunity for the next week," Nagaraj Shetti, Technical Research Analyst at HDFC Securities told Moneycontrol.

F&O cues

The Nifty started off June series on a strong note, while the rollover was strong at Nifty (75.7 percent) as well as Bank Nifty (81 percent). Option data suggested that 9,200 could be immediate support followed by 9,000 while the resistance is around 9,600.

Maximum Put open interest was at 9,000 followed by 8,500 strike, while maximum Call open interest was at 10,000 followed by 9,500 strike. Marginal Call writing was seen in 9,600 followed by 10,000 strike while Put writing was seen at 9,000 followed 9,500 strike.

"Level of 9,500 has remained the highest Call base so far and is likely to shift to higher levels if no major negative emerges from global markets. The market is responding positively towards opening of certain economies," Amit Gupta of ICICI Direct said.

"On the lower side, 9,300 should extend support. The Put open interest has increased at 9,200-9,300 strikes," he added.

India VIX reached to 30 levels, which is supportive factor for bulls.

Corporate action and macro data

Here are key corporate actions taking place this week:

On the macro front, Markit Manufacturing PMI data for May will be released on June 1 and Services PMI for May on June 3, while foreign exchange reserves data for week ended May 29, and deposits and bank loan growth for fortnight ended May 22 will be announced on June 5.

Global cues

Here are key global data points to watch out for this week:
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-31 21:06:29|Editor: huaxia

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NAIROBI, May 31 (Xinhua) -- Restriction of movement between east African countries to curb spread of COVID-19 has come as a boon for Kenyan farmers, whose produce is currently selling at a better price as food demand surges.

The restrictions have seen a decline in food imports, allowing Kenyan farmers' produce to dominate the market.

Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania have each limited movement of goods and people into and out of their borders.

While travel of people between the countries has been banned, movement of goods and cargo is allowed.

However, the transporters have to test for COVID-19 and get certificates to show they don't have the disease.

The testing has occasioned delays, curtailing free movement of goods, thus creating a boon to Kenyan food producers.

Kenya imports a bulk of food produce from its neighbors Uganda and Tanzania. From Uganda, the country imports cereals, legumes, sugar and eggs mainly.

And from Tanzania comes fruits like oranges, lemons, pineapples and mangoes, onions, potatoes and tomatoes.

"It is a good time to be a farmer in Kenya because prices of commodities are now high due to COVID-19 restrictions. I produce eggs, at least 100 crates a day and for the first time, buyers are scrambling for them," said Cornelius Mutuku, a farmer in Kitengela on the south of Nairobi.

Farmers growing onions and tomatoes are also enjoying the boom as imports from Tanzania remain restricted.

At Wakulima food market in the capital Nairobi, where most produce from Tanzania is usually offloaded for supply to other parts of the city, very few trucks from the country now deliver food at the market.

From about 40 trucks in a day to now less than 10 arrive daily due to the restricted movement, a trader said.

Beatrice Macharia, an agronomist with Growth Point, an agro-consultancy, observed that Kenyan farmers have been able to sustain the market amid limited imports due to good rains in the March to May season.

"The rains offered a boost in the production but in the long-term we still need the imports," she said, adding good prices have cushioned farmer from high cost of inputs.

Kenya's agriculture secretary Peter Munya on May 20 asked local farmers to use the window brought about constrained supply chains to reap from their ventures by supplying the market.

Kenya food imports topped 1 billion dollars in 2019, according to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, with the high imports blamed on erratic weather during the period. Enditem
As President Muhammadu Buhari marks five years in office, an economic report has urged him to focus more on human capital reform, diversification of the economy, and opening the government.

The report, published by Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), examined the economic policies of the Buhari-led administration since it flagged off in 2015.

The report, titled A review of the Nigerian economy in the last five years (2015-2019) argued that focusing on reforms in the human capital sectors is key to achieving growth in other sectors, especially economic development, as the quality of the labour force influences the productivity of both private and public sectors.

Nigeria would do better if governance is open, CDD said in the report, by leveraging on new digital technologies in formulating programme strategies as well as during implementation.

It cited examples like the use of application programming interfaces (API) for government databases in order to improve access to information as well as peer learning in e-governance as used in East African Rwanda.

This will not only improve accountability and transparency, the report launched in May wrote, but will also ensure that citizens participate in the process, and as such bring about more efficient and equitable outcomes.

The report also said the nations infrastructural gaps, particularly transportation and electricity, need to be closed. This, it said would reduce the cost of doing business and keep small and medium scale businesses afloat.

While it said that funds for the projects could be drawn from other countries, it urged the government to ensure that the projects are bankable with clear and agreed-upon means of obtaining the returns on investment.

This is largely because a quarter of the federal governments revenue is used to service loans, with national debt toll at about is 26.2 trillion. This is even as $22.7 billion and $5.513 billion loans await legislative approval.

This aside, the report noted that there is a need to address regulatory and structural issues such as bureaucratic bottlenecks, corruption, and lack of enforcement of laws/contract.

It called for legislative reforms as well as a more business-friendly attitude for both local and foreign investments to thrive.

It also said the CBNs quasi-fiscal role should be reduced while also improving information on credit facilities such as the Anchor Borrowers Programme. This it said would ensure fiscal transparency and correct the attitudes of beneficiaries of credit facilities who see credits as grants.

Buharis economic footprints

In 2015, Mr Buhari inherited an economy experiencing a declining growth rate of the GDP. This, coupled with the age-long dependence on crude oil export as a major source of government revenue and foreign exchange earnings as well as weak policy response from the new government, contributed significantly to the 2016 economic recession.

Oil-revenue which dropped by 22 per cent in 2015 affected funding of federal and state governments budgets. This was even affected more by the increase in oil-facilities vandalism in the Niger Delta, the nations oil-rich region.

The resultant effect of this was the fiscal struggle by states. About 27 state governments could not cover their personnel expenses as their lower Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) could not compensate for the declining FAAC allocations, CDD wrote in its report.

This was not helped by the six months delay in constituting the federal cabinet, thereby affecting capital releases and creating an atmosphere of uncertainty that slowed down private sector investment decisions, and increased outflow of foreign investments.

The fiscal crisis in the states compelled the federal government to approve bail-out loans of $2.1 billion for states to offset a backlog of unpaid workers salaries.

The countrys economy, however, survived the recession in 2017 after an annual growth of 0.8 per cent. But economic growth since then has remained sluggish, leaving the economy with lower per-capita income, high poverty and unemployment rates.

About four in every ten Nigerians are poor, data from the nations statistics bureau show. While 23 per cent of Nigerians are underemployed, 20 per cent as unemployed as of the third quarter of 2018, according to the bureau.

The government, in 2016, launched the National Social Investment Programme (N-SIP), a four-pronged programme, viz: the Conditional Cash Transfer, which was aimed at capturing poor and vulnerable Nigerians in the social safety; the Home Grown School Feeding Programmenet, a cost-effective feeding of public primary school students; N-Power, which gives jobs and skills to young Nigerians; and the Enterprise and Empowerment Programme, a loan initiative for petty traders and MSMEs.

These reforms have been far reaching considering that there are about 1.64 million households in the national register, CDD wrote, and the number of beneficiaries of each programme are: Conditional Cash Transfer (394,430), Home Grown School Feeding Programme (9,817,568), N-Power (526,000), and Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (2,136,911).

As federal earnings continue to shrink due to global oil glut, an effect partly triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, finance minister Zainab Ahmed said the countrys economy will go into a recession at an average of -4.4 per cent in 2020.

Zainab Ahmed

The economy is thus under the real threat of running from one economic recession to another in the life of the Buhari administration, the report read.

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As a way out, the not-for-profit CDD said the administrations policies should expand the countrys revenue base and export earnings to non-oil activities, while also creating an enabling environment where domestic and foreign investors could thrive.

The report lauded the Buhari-administration for signing the Finance Act 2019. The act reduces the Companies Income Tax (CIT) and Value Added Tax (VAT) for small businesses (with a gross turnover of 25 million annually) and medium-sized businesses (with a gross turnover of between 25 million to 100 million annually) from 30 per cent to 20 per cent.
(CNN)  State and local officials on Saturday said violence in Minneapolis was being fueled by outsiders who, according to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, are "attacking civil society (and) instilling fear and disrupting our great cities" rather than demanding justice for the death of George Floyd.

"The people that are doing this are not Minneapolis residents," Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said in a news conference Saturday with the governor and the mayor of neighboring St. Paul. "They are coming in largely from outside of the city, from outside of the region to prey on everything that we have built over the last several decades."

The comments by officials came after a breathtaking night of protests in cities across the country, sparked in part by the death of Floyd, who was unarmed and handcuffed, while in Minneapolis police custody. The former officer seen in a video kneeling on the 46-year-old black man's Floyd's neck was arrest and charged in his death on Friday.

Walz said Saturday he would "fully mobilize the National Guard" after protests Friday night -- the first full mobilization of Minnesota's National Guard since World War II, the unit and Maj. Gen. Jon Jensen said.

"Nothing we do to provide justice" for Floyd "matter(s) to any of these people who are out here firing upon the National Guard, burning" businesses and "disrupting civil life," Walz said.

Walz and the mayors said vandals are largely nonresidents of the cities with no interest in Floyd's death. The state's "communities of color ... were out fighting hand in hand," he said, to try to save businesses, some that took generations to build, that were under attack.

The governor said he understands that "Minnesotans' ... inability to deal with inequality" and racism was the catalyst for the protests  but he said rough estimates indicate only 20% of protesters there are Minnesotans.

St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter said there were "those among us who would seek to use" George Floyd's death as an excuse to "agitate for the destruction of those same communities that have been most traumatized by George Floyd's death."

According to Carter, everyone arrested in St. Paul on Friday night was from out of state, adding, "What we are seeing right now is a group of people who are not from here."

Assertions about outside agitators come partly from data about who has been arrested, as well as information from fliers and online postings, according to state public safety commissioner John Harrington, who said authorities had "seen things like white supremacists organizers" who had posted online about going to Minnesota.

Officials did not provide further details about who exactly was fueling the unrest and where they were from. Harrington said he hoped to release more information later Saturday.

Protests continue on Saturday

Meantime, US Attorney General William Barr on Saturday said the "voices of peaceful protest are being hijacked by violent radical elements" pursuing "their own separate and violent agenda."

Without citing evidence, the attorney general said that in many places "it appears the violence is planned, organized, and driven by anarchic and left extremist groups, far-left extremist groups using Antifa-like tactics, many of whom traveled from outside the state to promote the violence."

A Justice Department spokeswoman later said the information underpinning Barr's assertion came from state and local law enforcement.

Protests were underway by late Saturday afternoon in cities like Chicago, Baltimore, Los Angeles and Washington, where two Secret Service vehicles were vandalized with graffiti outside the White House.

A demonstration in Los Angeles led to clashes between police and protesters. Police vehicles were vandalized in Los Angeles where some protesters kicked in the windows or sprayed the cars with graffiti. Police fired rubber bullets at demonstrators, who chanted "Black Lives Matter" and "George Floyd."

Aerial footage from CNN affiliate WLS showed protesters in Chicago vandalizing police vehicles. Some threw water bottles at police officers in riot gear, while others were seen lifting police barricades and throwing them at police cars.

Meantime, Philadelphia police said protests at City Hall and the Art Museum began peacefully before a group of others began "committing criminal acts, including vandalism."

In Atlanta, police braced for more potential protests and arrests Saturday night. The Atlanta Police Department said it would be assisted by about 20 other agencies to monitor activity and protect businesses.

Key developments

 City curfews: A curfew will be in effect in Atlanta from 9 p.m. ET through sunrise Sunday. Philadelphia will institute a curfew from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. Denver instituted a citywide curfew beginning Saturday at 8 p.m. MT to 5 a.m. that will remain in effect through Monday. Milwaukee imposed a curfew Saturday night beginning at 9 p.m. CT and Cincinnati announced a curfew from 10 p.m. ET to 6 a.m. this weekend.

 National Guard: At least six states and the District of Columbia have either activated or requested assistance from the National Guard, including Minnesota, Georgia, Ohio, Colorado, Denver and Kentucky.

 21-year-old shot: A young man was killed Friday night in downtown Detroit where protests were taking place. Police had previously said the victim was 19 and that they could not confirm whether the victim was part of the protests.

 Clashes and arrests: More than 500 people were arrested in Friday night's protests in Los Angeles, police said. New York City police have made more than 200 arrests connected to protests, and more than a dozen officers have been serious hurt, according to a senior NYPD source. In Houston, nearly 200 people were arrested and most will be charged with obstructing a roadway, police said.

 Pleas for peace: In Dallas, Mayor Eric Johnson implored people destroying property to stop. In Portland, Oregon, police dispersed protesters with tear gas, saying there was extensive property damage. "Enough," Mayor Ted Wheeler tweeted.

Protests across the nation

A nation cooped up for weeks over coronavirus restrictions and suffering from resulting job losses now sees throngs of people demonstrating in streets, unleashing powerful emotion in part over the recent deaths of Floyd and other unarmed black Americans.

Anger boiled over Friday in more than 30 cities, with some protesters smashing windows, setting vehicles ablaze, blocking traffic on highways and clashing with police.

Though protesters called out similar chants for justice, the demonstrations played out differently in each city.

In Minneapolis, the epicenter of the demonstrations, some protesters knelt under a bridge and prayed. Others tossed rocks at officers who fired rubber bullets in return. Officers stood on top of a precinct armed with nonlethal deterrents as a man in the crowd of protesters tried to climb the gate. When fires moved from the precinct to dumpsters and residential streets, more than 350 troops were deployed to control the groups.

Minneapolis and St. Paul were under a curfew after looting and arson broke out during days of protests. But hundreds took to the streets as police fired tear gas and protesters hid behind cars.

At a protest in Detroit, one person was shot dead. And in Springfield, Massachusetts, hundreds gathered peacefully.

"If you can tell me something better for me to do -- if you can tell me a way that we could change the world without trying to make noise like that, then I'll get out of the streets," Max Bailey, 22, said at the protests in Denver.

In Oakland, California, one Federal Protective Service officer was killed and one other injured Friday in a shooting at the downtown federal building during protests in the city, police said. Details about what led to the shooting weren't immediately available.

"It's about time this police brutality has to stop. I don't agree with breaking into all of the businesses, but I can understand the outrage after REPEATED incidents," Mackenzie Slagle said of protests in Oakland. "Because I'm a white woman, and I needed to show up for all my brothers and sisters."

In Atlanta, a day of protests began peacefully but turned violent when a crowd set fire to a police car and smashed windows at CNN Center.

"What I see happening on the streets of Atlanta is not Atlanta. This is not a protest. This is not in the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr. This is chaos," Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said.

"Killer" was scrawled across a damaged police car in Los Angeles where protesters lined up along a freeway to block traffic. At least two officers were injured during the night, said the LAPD.

In Washington, the White House was briefly locked down Friday as protesters moved toward it. Protesters overnight confronted officers, including those from the Secret Service, throwing bottles at them, removing metal barriers and pushing against officers' riot shields. Officers responded at least once by spraying pepper spray.

Bail is set for the officer arrested

The bail for Derek Chauvin, the former officer charged Friday with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter, was set at $500,000.

Chauvin, who is white, and three other officers detained Floyd, who was black, in handcuffs Monday after he allegedly used a counterfeit bill at a convenience store. Outrage grew after a video surfaced showing Chauvin kneeling on Floyd's neck.

Chauvin had his knee on Floyd's neck for a total of 8 minutes, 46 seconds, according to a criminal complaint filed Friday. Charges against the other three officers are likely, authorities said. All four officers were fired this week after Floyd's death.

Floyd's family is upset that Chauvin wasn't charged with a more serious offense, like first-degree murder, their attorney Benjamin Crump said. "And we want to see the other officers arrested," the family said in a statement.

Read the criminal complaint

Video shows 3 officers kneeling on George Floyd

New video posted on social media appears to show three Minneapolis police officers -- not just Chauvin -- kneeling on Floyd during his arrest. CNN has not been able to locate the person who shot the footage. The new video shows the other side of the Minneapolis police vehicle -- the side opposite shown in the first video.

"I can't breathe, man," Floyd can be heard saying in the new video. "Please, let me stand. Please, man."

Minneapolis police had said Floyd, 46, "physically resisted" the officers. Surveillance footage from a nearby restaurant does not appear to support the claim that he resisted arrest during the initial encounter. However, there are several minutes when Floyd's and the officers' interactions cannot be seen from that camera's vantage point.

A preliminary autopsy said the combined effects of Floyd being restrained, potential intoxicants in his system and underlying health issues, including heart disease, contributed to his death.

It said there was no physical findings to support strangulation as the cause of death.

The absence of physical evidence doesn't necessarily mean Floyd didn't die from asphyxiation, CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta cautioned. Gupta also said an officer should have started CPR after one of them told the others he couldn't find a pulse.

CNN has reached out to the former officer's attorney and the Minneapolis police union for comment.

This story was first published on CNN.com 'Minnesota officials say outsiders are hijacking protests and 'attacking civil society''
Local Enterprise Office Laois has announced that winning teenager entrepreneurs from Scoil Chriost Ri, Portlaoise will represent Laois at this years Student Enterprise Programme National Finals.

The enterprise education initiative, funded by the Government of Ireland through Enterprise Ireland and delivered by the 31 Local Enterprise Offices in local authorities throughout the country, saw 25,000 students from over 500 secondary schools across the country take part in 2018 / 2019.

The programme supports students to create, design and market their own business, all with the hope of reaching the National Finals.

In the Senior Category of the competition, Laois will be represented by Emma Fingleton, Aoife Wang, Gabriella Paulo Pindi, Rachel Horan and Arianna Cabellero- and their businessTwizard which is the design and production of magic wands. The winning team are students from Scoil Chriost Ri, Portlaoise and their teacher is Ms. Misty Higgins.

With the deferral of the traditional county final due to restrictions imposed for health & safety in relation to Covid-19 the adjudication on the school representatives was based on the business reports submitted by the teams. With over 300 students from 8 local schools participating, the competition was keen with business in new products development, manufacture, climate action solutions and services among many who participated. The schools continue to be innovative and committed to the programme and the skills acquisition in the area of enterprise and self employment as a career choice.

Evelyn Reddin, Head of Enterprise of Local Enterprise Office Laois congratulated the students.

We have a very successful student enterprise programme here in Laois with over 300 students from 8 local schools taking part this year. Our national finalists are excellent ambassadors for the programme and we wish them the very best of luck in The National Finals.

What our students are learning from the programme is that with the right supports and encouragement, they can take an idea from the classroom and develop it into a real-life business. The skills they learn along the way, such as business planning, market research, selling and team-work, will help them become more entrepreneurial throughout their future careers, she said.

Unfortunately, due to the current situation with COVID-19, the annual National Student Enterprise Finals event has been cancelled and entries will be judged in an alternative manner. They was a virtual National Student Enterprise Awards 2020 on Wednesday, May 27 at 3pm.

Further information around the Student Enterprise Programme is available from www.studententerprise.ie and by searching #studententerprise on social media.

Eight Laois schools took part this year: Scoil Chriost Ri, St. Marys CBS, Heywood Community School, Mountrath Community School, Dunamase College, Portlaoise College, Clonaslee College, Mountmellick CS.

Full list of winners

Overall

Senior Scoil Chriost Ri with Twizard - New Product- Magic Wand- created and designed by the team Emma Fingleton, Aoife Wang, Gabriella Paulo Pindi, Rachel Horan, Arianna Cabellero. Twizard also won the Scoil Chriost Ri school award.

School Award Dunamase College

Dunamase Woodcraft product homemade Christmas decorations. Team: Leah Stanley, Lucy Egan, Abbie Condon Kirwan, Rachel Ni Neill

School Award Mountrath Community School

Handcraftd hats, produce handknit hats. Team: Aine Kealy, Vickie Bergin,

School Award Heywood Community School

TY Hoodies, Retail TY Hoodies. Team: Ellie Smith, Roisin Moore, Niamh McDonald, Molly Hickey.



School Award St Marys CBS

Boot Bristles, product to clean boots. Team: Conn Dowling, David Delaney, Peter Naughton, Finn Delaney.

School Award Clonaslee College

Santas Snacks, product personalised Christmas plates. Team: Brian Multaney, Niamh Donogher, Caoimhe Kelly.

School Award Mountmellick Community School

WoodU product imitation wooden trains as candle holders. Team: Dylan Thomas, Odhran Davis, Gregory OReilly, Maclej Kopijka
German Chancellor Angela Merkel "cannot confirm" that she will attend a possible G7 summit of world leaders in Washington amid the coronavirus pandemic, a spokesperson at the Chancellery said Saturday. As CNN reports, US President Donald Trump has said the event could be hosted in Washington in late June, having previously announced in March that the summit would be held virtually. "The Chancellor thanks President Trump for his invitation to the G7 summit in Washington at the end of June," Merkel's spokesperson said in a statement. "As of today, given the overall pandemic situation, she cannot confirm her personal participation, that is, a trip to Washington," the spokesperson added.

Meanwhile, Germany's Health Minister, Jens Spahn, expressed his "disappointment" over the United States' withdrawal from the World Health Organization, saying that the decision taken by the Trump administration was a "setback" for international health policy.

Other world leaders have also been cagey with regards to Trump's proposed G7 summit.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Wednesday he could not yet commit to attending the proposed G7 meeting in person because of concerns over transmission of the virus and Canada's quarantine rules.

"There are significant health preoccupations that we have around holding it in person but there's no question that an in-person meeting in an ideal situation are much more effective than even virtual meetings," he said.

"However, there are many questions to answer before we can commit to showing up in-person and those discussions are happening in an ongoing and very constructive way."

French President Emmanuel Macron spoke with Trump on Thursday. The two leaders "agreed on the importance of convening the G7 in person in the near future," according to a White House readout of the call. But the White House did not say whether Macron had committed to attending in person.

Trump first mooted the idea of reviving the summit as an in-person event in a tweet on May 20, indicating that it would signal to the world that things are returning to normal after the coronavirus pandemic halted travel and froze the global economy.

"It looks like G7 may be on because we've done well, we're ahead of schedule in terms of our country and some of the other countries are doing very well," he said the following day on the South Lawn. "It looks like the G7 will be on, a full G7, and we'll be announcing something early next week."

Instead of Camp David, Trump suggested it would "probably" occur at the White House "but maybe a little combination at Camp David, but primarily at the White House."

US national security adviser Robert O'Brien told reporters at the time that he was on the phone with a "number of" his counterparts in Europe, and that "everybody wants to come to Washington."

"I can tell you countries around the world are trying to open up," O'Brien said. "All of the leaders are looking forward to coming to the White House if we can make it work."

The G7 is comprised of the US, Canada, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and Japan. Trump has mused about allowing Russia to rejoin the group but met fierce resistance from fellow leaders.
More than 21 lakh migrant labourers have returned to Uttar Pradesh from different parts of the country on over 1,500 special trains so far

Lucknow: More than 21 lakh migrant labourers have returned to Uttar Pradesh from different parts of the country on over 1,500 special trains so far, a senior state government official said on Saturday.

The Indian Railways started Shramik Special trains on May 1 to facilitate the movement of migrant labourers back to their home states during the coronavirus-induced nationwide lockdown.

"So far, over 21 lakh migrant labourers have come back to the state on as many as 1,550 trains. The maximum number of trains -- 257 -- has arrived in Gorakhpur on which 3.31 lakh migrant labourers returned," Additional Chief Secretary (Home and Information) Awanish Awasthi said.

He said 109 trains arrived in Lucknow, 125 in Jaunpur, 111 in Varanasi and 99 in Deoria.

Awasthi said the maximum number of trains (520) arrived from Gujarat, followed by Maharashtra (398) and Punjab (233).

"The chief minister has directed that food and water should be arranged for the migrant labourers who are returning from various states. They should be taken to quarantine centres," he said.

"During medical screening, the labourers, if found fit, should be provided with ration kits. Those who are found to be medically unfit should be sent for treatment," he said.

The lockdown has had a devastating impact on the economy as well as on the livelihoods of lakhs of migrant labourers. With no money to buy food or pay rent, labourers across the country have been returning to their native places.
(Natural News) With every new revelation about what President Trump calls Obamagate, you see the curtain being torn down and revealing the corrupt players who were running America and attacking our Republic. Former CIA Officer and counter-terrorism expert Kevin Shipp, who wrote a book about the Deep State called From the Company of Shadows, says any hint that POTUS is a tool of the Deep State is preposterous.

(Article by Greg Hunter republished from USAWatchdog.com)

Shipp explains, That is absolutely ridiculous. Donald Trump has confronted the Shadow Government and Deep State more than any other president in history, and that includes JFK. JFK did, of course, confront the Deep State and we saw what happened there. There has been no other president that has had the guts to expose the Shadow Government and Deep State like Donald Trump has. What has the Deep State done? They have gone after him with a vengeance. Why would the Deep State attack their own with attacks to try to destroy him and his family if he wasnt threatening to expose the Deep State? No, hes not a Deep State president. Hes not perfect. We all know that. There are members of his cabinet that we are concerned about with connections to some of the central banks. We all know that, but Donald Trump is not Deep State. He is splitting the Deep State wide open. Look what DNI Rick Grenell just presented to the President. He authorized for release of names of all the unmaskers. Trump is exposing the Deep State, and, personally, I am proud of him because I have been waiting for this for 20 years for a president to come out and expose these things.

On the virus crisis, Shipp says its turned into a political weapon for the Left. Shipp contends, They (Democrats) want to delay any solution to the Coronavirus until the election so they can keep the economy ruined and point the finger at Donald Trump. Thats one of the things they want to do. They also want mail-in ballots because that is one of the easiest ways to engage in election fraud. There is a report that just came out that people are getting mail-in ballots that already have the Democrat party checked on the box when they open it up, and they are not Democrats. You better believe they are going to try to engage in voter fraud using mail-in ballots. There is no doubt about it because they are going to lose badly, and they know it. So, they have to do that. You bet.

The Democrats in the House are going to try, once again, to impeach President Trump for Russian collision. Recently released documents show it was a proven total hoax that they made up, and, yet, the Dems are going to try this again before the 2020 election. Whats going on? Shipp says, This is the last gasp of Democrat Congressional tyrants trying one last time to remove this elected President. Its laughable . . . . What this is, is desperation on the part of Pelosi and Schumer. This is desperation on their part knowing that the whole thing was disproven and shot down by the evidence. If Trump gets elected a second time, you will see investigations into Congress, Senate, Obamagate and China. These people are desperate to keep that stuff from coming out. You think President Trump is exposing them now? You wait until he gets elected a second time. Thats why they are so terrified, and they are trying everything they can to keep him from being elected.

Join Greg Hunter of USAWatchdog.com as he goes One-on-One with CIA whistleblower Kevin Shipp.

Read more at: USAWatchdog.com
Governors in several US states called in National Guard troops as protests over police killings of black men intensified on Saturday.

Similar scenes of unrest unfolded across several cities from New York to Tulsa to Los Angeles, where police fired rubber bullets to scatter crowds and at least one police car burned.

The protests  which began in Minneapolis following Mondays death of George Floyd during an arrest  have left parts of that city a grid of broken windows, burned-out buildings and ransacked stores.

In Washington, President Donald Trump sent tweets ridiculing protesters outside the White House who were among thousands nationwide incited by the death of Mr Floyd, who died after a policeman pressed his knee onto his neck for more than eight minutes.

The demonstrations have become a national phenomenon, with protesters decrying years of deaths at police hands.

In Tulsa, Oklahomas Greenwood District, the site of a 1921 massacre of black people that left some 300 dead, protesters blocked intersections and chanted the name of Terence Crutcher, a black man killed by a police officer in 2016.

Other peaceful protests were being held in California, Delaware, Florida, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and South Carolina.

Protesters climb on a flipped over police vehicle in Salt Lake City (Rick Bowmer/AP)

In Tulsa and Wilmington, Delaware, demonstrators made their way onto nearby interstates and shut them down temporarily.

In Tallahassee, Florida, a pickup truck drove through a crowd of protesters, sending some running and screaming as the vehicle stopped and started and at one point had a person on its hood, police said. No serious injuries were reported.

In Columbia, South Carolina, a television reporter for WIS-TV was injured by rocks thrown amid protests outside the Columbia Police Department.

Several hundred people participated in the demonstration, tearing down the American and state flags in front of the police departments headquarters. They also swarmed a Columbia police car, breaking its windows, The State reported.

Story continues

People jump out of a window at a Starbucks store during a protest on Saturday in Philadelphia (Matt Rourke/AP)

In Los Angeles protesters chanted Black Lives Matter, some within inches of the face shields of officers.

Police used batons to move protesters back and shot rubber bullets to scatter the crowd. One man used a skateboard to attempt to break the windshield of a police SUV. A spray painted police car burned in the streets.

Meanwhile, Mr Trump fired off a series of tweets taunting protesters and praising the Secret Service, who used shields and pepper spray to push back people gathered to protest Mr Floyds death and the presidents response.

Mr Trump tweeted he had watched from inside the White House as officers let the protesters scream & rant as much as they wanted, but whenever someone . got too frisky or out of line, they would quickly come down on them, hard  didnt know what hit them.

Mr Trump said if the protesters had managed to breach the White House fence, they would  have been greeted with the most vicious dogs, and most ominous weapons, I have ever seen.

The US president ended the last of five tweets by saying, Tonight, I understand, is MAGA NIGHT AT THE WHITE HOUSE???

The professionally managed so-called protesters at the White House had little to do with the memory of George Floyd. They were just there to cause trouble. The @SecretService handled them easily. Tonight, I understand, is MAGA NIGHT AT THE WHITE HOUSE???  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 30, 2020

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz fully mobilized the states National Guard and promised a massive show of force to help quell unrest that has grown increasingly destructive.

The situation in Minneapolis is no longer in any way about the murder of George Floyd, Walz said. It is about attacking civil society, instilling fear and disrupting our great cities.

The Pentagon has ordered the US army to put military police units on alert to head to the city on short notice, at President Donald Trumps request, insiders said.

The rare step came as the violence spread to other cities, with a man shot dead in Detroit, police cars attacked in Atlanta and skirmishes with officers in New York City.

Protesters hold signs as they march during a protest over the death of George Floyd in Chicago on Saturday (Nam Y. Huh/AP)

Criminal charges were filed on Friday morning against the white police officer who held his knee on the neck of Mr Floyd, a black man who was handcuffed at the time. However, this has done nothing to stem the widespread anger.

Derek Chauvin, 44, has been charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.

Chauvin was also accused of ignoring another officer who expressed concerns about Mr Floyd as he pleaded that he could not breathe, while Chauvin pressed his knee into his neck for several minutes.

Mr Floyd had been arrested on suspicion of using a counterfeit twenty dollar note at a store.

Chauvin, who was fired along with three other officers who were at the scene, faces more than 12 years in prison if convicted of murder.

Philadelphia police restrain a man during the Justice for George Floyd Philadelphia Protest on Saturday (Matt Rourke/AP)

An attorney for Mr Floyds family welcomed the arrest, but said he expected a more serious murder charge, and wants the other officers arrested, too.

After a tumultuous Friday night, racially diverse crowds took to the streets again for mostly peaceful protests in dozens of cities on Saturday. The previous days protests had also started calmly before many descended into violence.

The massive crowds involved, with many people not wearing masks or practising social distancing, raised concerns among health experts about the potential for the spread of the coronavirus.

Hundreds of people were arrested Friday, and police used batons, rubber bullets and pepper spray to push back crowds in some cities.

Many departments reported officers were injured, while social media was awash in images of police using forceful tactics, throwing protesters to the ground, using bicycles as shields, and trampling a protester while on horseback.
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Linkedin (Reuters) Cairo  Sun, May 31, 2020 15:31 599 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdb32999 2 News Egypt,Hotel,tourism,travel,coronavirus,COVID-19 Free

Egyptian hotels operating with a new reduced occupancy rate of 25 percent to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus have almost reached full capacity, a tourism ministry official told Reuters on Sunday.

Egypt suspended international flights in March and shut down restaurants, hotels and cafes in order to combat the pandemic. Although airports remain closed to all but domestic and repatriation flights, hotels were recently allowed to reopen at a quarter of their usual capacity if they met strict health and safety protocols.

Around 78 hotels, mostly along the Red Sea coast, met these rules and are currently operating with an occupancy rate of 20-22 percent, said the ministry official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. An additional 173 hotels across the country have applied for a licence to reopen and will be considered in the coming week, he added.

The government said it aimed to increase the permitted occupancy rate of hotels to 50 percent in June. Tourism is one of the country's main sources of foreign currency and accounts for 5 percent of GDP.

Egypt has so far registered 23,449 cases of the new coronavirus including 913 deaths. Some of the first cases registered in the country were of foreign nationals.
Demonstrators tried to pull down a statue of former Mayor Frank Rizzo in front of the Municipal Services building in Center City on Saturday. Read more

In the early afternoon, hours before the blue sky over City Hall was blotted by plumes of black smoke while Center City businesses were looted, Jamial Hankinson stood near the Philadelphia Museum of Art with a colorful mask on her face and a large white sign in her hand.

Shed scrawled Im an angry Black woman! across the poster board, and as a crowd of thousands amassed Saturday in front of the museum to protest the May 25 death of George Floyd at the hands  and knee  of a Minneapolis police officer, Hankinson, a 50-year-old elementary school teacher, explained her pent-up emotions.

We have every right to be angry, because we live in fear, we raise our children in fear, she said. That trauma is in us, and we just pass it on from generation to generation. Im angry and tired of it.

The video footage that showed Officer Derek Chauvin press his knee against Floyds neck for nine minutes, while Floyd gasped that he couldnt breathe, has proved to be the tipping point for a country already on edge from a months-long pandemic, and for communities that have spent years protesting police shootings of black civilians and what Mayor Jim Kenney called Americas original sin of racism.

 READ MORE: Dozens begin cleaning up Center City destruction, Rizzo statue cleaned

It was little surprise, then, when initially peaceful demonstrations in Philadelphia turned violent later in the day  mirroring scenes from dozens of other U.S. cities  or that the 9-foot statue of former Mayor Frank L. Rizzo would be a focal point.

The first hint that Saturdays protests would be different than any of the marches that have played out in the city since the dawn of the Black Lives Matter movement came shortly before 4 p.m., when demonstrators set fire to a state police SUV and began tagging the Convention Center with graffiti. Traffic on the Vine Street Expressway was stopped.

I dont even trust these cops, LaMont Wilson, 25, of Northeast Philadelphia, said while waiting nearby. They could come out shooting any moment."

Hundreds of demonstrators migrated to the Municipal Services Building, across from City Hall, and unsurprisingly went about trying to topple the statue of Rizzo, which has served as a racial and political Rorschach test for much of the two decades it has stood looking onto John F. Kennedy Boulevard.

Protesters tried setting fire to the statue, hammering it, and yanking on it with ropes, but the 2,000-pound sculpture didnt give way. While the Rizzo statue has attracted plenty of attention from vandals and activists in the past, the surrounding landscape this time was more apocalyptic. Two police cruisers and a nearby Starbucks sat engulfed in flames, and people began shattering windows in City Hall before heading west, along Chestnut and Walnut Streets, to set more fires and loot numerous stores.

The Rizzo statue  like Rizzo himself  represents a chapter in the citys history that still sparks fierce disagreement. Many black residents remember the former mayor and police commissioner as a tyrant who used the police force to punish their communities. Many whites still regard him as a hero. For the last three years, Mayor Jim Kenneys administration has pledged to move the statue to another location, but has kicked the deadline for a final decision down the road.

Rizzos grandson, Joe Mastronardo, said Saturday that he wasnt surprised protesters swarmed the statue, but insisted that the critical depictions of his grandfather arent true. The people that I see on screen right now," he said, they have no idea what theyre talking about."

 READ MORE: As Philly protests descended into chaos, police restraint was no match for volatility

Scuffles occasionally broke out between police and protesters; Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said that 13 officers were injured and many were spit on, and pelted with bottles and urine. At least 14 people were arrested.

Officials made cryptic references to others and outsiders having joined the protest to escalate tensions and cause more destruction as the afternoon wore on, a claim that leaders have made in other states.

Unfortunately there are groups of people that come to these things that have no intention of doing anything else other than causing problems, Charles H. Ramsey, the former Philadelphia police commissioner, said on CNN Saturday night. They could care less about what took place in Minneapolis. Theyre there to cause damage. Its a small group of people, but theyre there nonetheless.

During Ramseys tenure, the Police Department adopted a bend-dont-break strategy for protests. Officers wore regular uniforms, not riot gear, and often allowed marches to peter out without having to resort to using tear gas or making violent arrests.

This ability to navigate tense conflicts without fires and looting was a feather in the citys cap. But after nearly a decade of marches and calls for a change in how minorities are treated by law enforcement, in Minneapolis George Floyd still ended up dead, uttering the same helpless phrase  I cant breathe  as Eric Garner before him.

And so Philadelphia burned on Saturday, and other American cities with it.

Staff writers Jeremy Roebuck and Rob Tornoe contributed to this article.
A group of protesters gathered in the parking lot of the East Peoria Walmart on Saturday night, and at two points police there fired pepper balls onto the ground near a shopping-cart barrier set up by protesters between the groups.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-31 04:32:43|Editor: huaxia

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CAIRO, May 30 (Xinhua) -- Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron discussed on Saturday the development of several regional issues, including the situation in Libya.

During a phone call, Macron said he is keen to exchange views with Sisi over these issues as Cairo plays a key political role in the region, Egyptian Presidential Spokesman Bassam Rady said in a statement.

For his part, Sisi affirmed Egypt's firm position towards the Libyan crisis based on restoring Libyan national state institutions, ending the spread of criminal groups and terrorist militias.

He added that Egypt also gives top priority to combating terrorism, achieving stability and security and putting an end to illegal foreign interventions in Libya.

The two presidents agreed to intensify their coordination in the coming period, stressing the necessity to end the Libyan crisis by reaching a political solution that paves the way for the return of security and stability in the country, the spokesman said.

They showed support for international endeavors as well as implementing the results of the Berlin process to end the conflict in Libya.

Libya has been locked in a civil war since the ouster and killing of former leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

The Libyan conflict escalated in 2014, splitting power between two rival governments, the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) in the capital Tripoli and another in the northeastern city of Tobruk allied with self-proclaimed Libyan National Army (LNA) led by Khalifa Haftar.

While Egypt supports Haftar's LNA that seeks to take over Tripoli, Turkey backs the Tripoli-based GNA. Enditem
June 1. Rent is due. This date usually marks the beginning of a month full of gatherings, celebrations, and milestones. This year, however, everything is different. Families are coping with fatigue, anxiety, and uncertainty. This is all the more true for those who have experienced recent job loss or reduction in income. Today, record numbers are grappling with how they are going to pay their rent.

Unemployment levels now rival those at the height of the Great Depression  10,000 claims were filed in Connecticut on one March day alone  and all job gains since the last recession have long since been lost. Those hit hardest by COVID-19 related job losses are those earning less than $40,000. Many are temporary workers, on-call workers and independent contractors, which now comprise 10 percent of the American workforce. Adding to their struggles in Fairfield County, low-wage earners often carry high rent burden, paying more than half of their income toward rent.

The CARES Act provides important protections for landlords and renters, including a grace period on rent payments and moratoriums on new eviction proceedings. These protections, however, are scheduled to expire at the end of June, leaving many wondering if a wave of evictions, now delayed, is all but inevitable.

For their part, many tenants are not waiting. Person-to-Person, a social service agency serving the Stamford/Norwalk corridor that provides pathways to economic stability for low-income residents through three food pantries, emergency financial assistance, college and vocational scholarships and summer camperships, has experienced a 300-percent increase in requests for rent assistance due to COVID-19. Renters fear accumulating housing debt they will be unable to repay with no clear path back to employment in the near future and are seeking ways to avoid falling behind. Person-to-Person is one of a handful of private nonprofits providing this type of support.

The arrival of summer brings further instability for many area families. While school has been virtual since mid-March, it has, in the best of cases, provided a touchstone for families in need of information about available community services. Teachers often are aware which children are thriving and which are falling through the cracks. Importantly, schools have continued providing critical meals to children under age 18 through the crisis. We applaud the Norwalk Public Schools for continuing summer meals through the end of August. Complementing the availability of school-based meals, Person-to-Person has experienced a 75 percent increase in food provided over 2019 levels and instituted Door2Door, delivering nutritious food to seniors and those home bound due to COVID-19.

Summer camps, including those that partner with Person-to-Persons Campership program, which sends 400 Stamford Public School students to camp each year, provide uninterrupted access to meals and a safe environment for children of working parents. With many camps not operating or operating at dramatically reduced capacity, this summer threatens to sever these ties.

Denise, a Stamford resident and single mother of three children and three grandchildren who receives food assistance from Person-to-Person recently shared: You feel helpless, but you have to keep going. You think of your children, and you know there is no choice  you cant give up right now.

While the pandemic has laid bare inequities that have long existed, including alarming racial disparities in access to health care, it has also unleashed a wave of philanthropic support, acts of kindness, and pledges to rebuild our society to be more just. Now is the time to plan for that post-pandemic just society. We must not fall back into complacency over policies that erode individuals ability to attain economic mobility. We must acknowledge the decades of documented success of programs like SNAP in reducing food insecurity and creating healthy citizens. We must forge partnerships between government, the business sector and nonprofits, which have proven once again during this crisis to be nimble and innovative.

Today we must act, together, with sustained urgency to stabilize the lives of our neighbors  students, seniors, immigrants, individuals with disabilities and hard-working families. Today we must begin to plan for the post-pandemic just society. And tomorrow we must emerge from this crisis committed to rebuilding an economy where no family fears the first of the month and the rent coming due.

Nancy Coughlin is CEO of Person-to-Person, Inc., which provides low-income individuals and families living in lower Fairfield County with basic emergency services. www.p2phelps.org
The curfew put in place in Harrisburg Saturday night amid protests that grew violent has lifted.

Harrisburg Mayor Eric Papenfuse ordered the curfew for 9 p.m. Saturday during the protest designed to express outrage over the death of George Floyd eventually grew violent.

The curfew lifted at 6 a.m. Sunday, according to the mayors office.

Floyd was suspected of passing a counterfeit bill at a Minneapolis convenience store. He died in police custody after an officer was captured on video kneeling on his neck for several minutes.

The Minneapolis officer, Derek Chauvin, has been charged with manslaughter and third-degree murder. Police officers and public safety officials nationwide have condemned Chauvins tactics.

Protests broke out around the country.

In Harrisburg, it started as a peaceful protest, but in the early afternoon, things got violent between the protesters and police, and pepper spray and tear gas were used by police as protesters surrounded a police vehicle.

 READ MORE: George Floyd protests get violent in Harrisburg: PennLive photographer describes the scene

Harrisburg Mayor Eric Papenfuse tweeted confirming two Capitol police officers were injured and that police were trying to deescalate the situation.

The group continued to chant No justice, no peace and I cant breathe as the officers held their shields, ready for any change.

In nearly every instance of tensions flaring up between protesters and police, whether bottles were thrown or people were getting too close to the officers, other protesters would shout to remind people that it was a nonviolent protest.

The protest began breaking up around 9 p.m. after Papenfuse ordered the curfew.

Late Saturday, Gov. Tom Wolf signed an emergency declaration to use millions of dollars in aid for Harrisburg, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh in the wake of the protests.

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As protesters took to the streets in several cities over the past few days after the death of George Floyd, officials expressed concern about an outbreak of coronavirus.

In Atlanta, the mayor told protesters they would probably need to be tested for COVID-19.

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms added to her message that there is still a pandemic in American thats killing black and brown people at higher numbers.

Several cities across the United States implemented curfews Saturday night as protests in major cities such as Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Atlanta and Minneapolis saw riots and tense clashes with police.

In some cities, stores were set on fire along with police vehicles.

Protesters clashed with police in Boston Friday night in the South End neighborhood. Ten people were arrested in connection with the Boston protests.

Floyd was killed in Minneapolis on Monday. Video showed Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin with his knee on Floyds neck as Floyd gasped for breath on the ground with his face against the pavement. The officer did not move for nearly nine minutes, even after Floyd stops speaking and moving.

Floyd was declared dead a short time later at a Minneapolis hospital.

Chauvin and three other officers involved in his death were fired Tuesday as community activists called for their arrests. Chauvin was charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter on Friday.

In a statement issued Friday, Minnesota Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm asked people to be mindful of others in order to limit the risk of the spread of COVID-19 while protesting.

This is essential not only to protect themselves but also to protect their loved ones and the larger community, Malcolm said. This includes wearing masks when in public and maintaining social distancing as much as possible.

The Twin Cities remain a hotspot for COVID-19, Malcolm said.

In fact, nationwide, we are one of the communities most vulnerable to rapid increases in the spread of the virus, given where we are in the course of the epidemic, she said. We are particularly concerned about people coming into the metro area from other parts of the state and from outside Minnesota who may not be aware of this. We are also concerned about the continued disproportionate impacts of COVID-19 on people of color in our state. We need the help of everyone involved to prevent additional suffering and preventable death by following the public health guidelines to limit COVID-19 spread.

As people gathered in a time of pain and grief, Malcolm stressed the need to protect one another from the virus.

A Boston doctor told WBZ that there is a high risk of spreading the virus in crowds.

Dr. Abraar Karan, of the Harvard Medical School, told the television station, There are a lot of people and people are yelling and screaming and theres very close contact. Theres physical altercations. The risk certainly is there.

As of Sunday afternoon, there were 103,853 coronavirus-related deaths in the United States, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Material from the Associated Press was used in this report

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GRAND RAPIDS, MI  City Commissioner Joe Jones said it appeared that those who rioted downtown were not the ones who took part in an earlier protest against police brutality.

Rioters were bent on destruction, not the cause that led to protests: The death of a black man, George Floyd, who died while pinned to the ground under an ex-Minneapolis police officers knee.

Two different atmospheres, two different mindsets, Jones, the president and CEO of Grand Rapids Urban League, told MLive/The Grand Rapids Press on Sunday, May 31.

Im 100% for demonstrations, not for destruction, Jones said.

35 Photos of damage from Grand Rapids riot

I understand the anger, I do, as a black man in America, he said. Ive got sons and grandsons. Last nights destruction didnt have anything to do with Mr. George Floyd, he said.

The rioting that broke out late Saturday and continued into the early morning damaged 100 businesses, with rioters smashing store-front windows, looting businesses and setting fires.

Fire caused extensive damage to San Chez Bistro, at 38 Fulton St. West, and destroyed seven police patrol cars.

Police arrested seven people, including four who were not from the area. Police Chief Eric Payne said police will release photos from surveillance cameras and other footage provided police to identify those who committed crimes.

Mayor Rosalynn Bliss on Sunday set a 7 p.m. curfew for the next 48 hours in the city. The Michigan National Guard has been deployed to help enforce the curfew and protect the city.

Robert Womack, a Kent County commissioner, said the rioting overshadowed the peaceful march and what should have been a powerful message.

The day protest went well and it was very peaceful, he said.

Before the violence broke out, someone was playing music: Michael Jacksons They dont care about us. People even started dancing in the street, he said.

I thought to myself, Maybe this is how things will end, he said. I knew all it would take would be the first rock to be thrown and the powder keg would explode.

Later, he said, there was a crowd by Grand Rapids police headquarters on Monroe Center Street NW.

Rocks soon hit the windows.

It unleashed all of the  pent-up frustration with law enforcement and its history with black America, Womack said.

He looked for young men he knew to stop the unrest from escalating.

There were so many people from different locales, that I didnt know all of them, Womack said.

Then, a young man stood in front of the police department. He tried to stop others from damaging the building. Womack said the young man was being beaten by others before he got up and fired a warning shot.

He had the right to stand his ground, Womack said. He shot in the air, right in front of the police department.

Later, he saw looters break into a jewelry store and take valuables. He was concerned that looters would break into Grand Rapids Arts Museum and destroy irreplaceable works, but they scattered when they saw police lights.

Womack said he was disappointed and discouraged. He said he tells young people all the time that to gain respect you have to give respect. That message was lost.

Last night was one of the most disrespectful Ive ever seen in Grand Rapids, Michigan, he said.

Womack said that Floyds death, captured on video, restarted concerns in black communities about police brutality. Racism, he said, never was a settled issue.

Still, he said, The riot was shameful, shameful and unnecessary. Last night, I said, Its hard to call it a riot. Its mayhem. It seemed like people were arriving just to take part in the mayhem.

He said that some who were wearing masks in response to COVID-19 likely felt emboldened because their faces were covered. Not all of the time, though.

Luckily, they pulled their masks down, Womack said. GRPD is going to do a great job and bring a lot of to justice.

Asja Saintard, an organizer, apologized and said the march was not supposed to turn out this way.

Thats not what we wanted, she said, in a Facebook video. Your voice will be heard. Together, we can make change.

Jones, the city commissioner, said his heart felt broken in the wee hours of Sunday. Then, as the sun came up, he said hundreds of volunteers and workers started showing up downtown to clean up and make repairs.

Read more:

Police brutality protests in Michigan: What you need to know from this weekends rallies, riots

Hundreds of people descend upon Grand Rapids to help clean up, spread positive messages

Riot damage, COVID-19 exposure temporarily close two Kent County Secretary of State offices

Grand Rapids mayor orders 7 p.m. curfew after night of rioting

Thousands gather at Michigan Capitol for protest against police brutality
When the pandemic collided with the spring migration, the sounds of the city changed overnight. Here are 13 birds that you can hear right now.

New York is quiet. Listen to the birds.

When the pandemic collided with the spring migration, the sounds of the city changed overnight. Here are 13 birds you can probably hear right now.

New York is quiet. Listen to the birds.

There is an obvious upside to the unnatural pall that has fallen over the city. Suddenly, in place of car horns, roaring planes, rattling trains and buses, New York City seems to be filled with bird song.

The birds are not new to the city. Its just that the pause in the urban soundtrack happens to coincide with the peak of the spring migration along the Atlantic coast. The birds have always been here. This spring, we can hear them.

Here is a mix of the birds passing through New York right now. Some are easy to spot, and some offer more of a challenge; some are best found only in the mornings or at dusk. And some will probably only be heard, and never seen.

Yellow Billed Cuckoo Coccyzus americanus Play Listen For A sharp, staccato, Kak-kak-kak-kak! Its the mysterious bird hiding the jungle in every Tarzan movie. Where to Find One Early mornings at the edges of woodlands. Stake out tent caterpillar nests; cuckoos have a weakness for them. In flight, the yellow-billed cuckoo has attractive rust-colored wing patches, with white spots arranged in parallel lines along the underside of a long tail. Long and lean, these birds perch in the dense tangles of local woodlands. Their ability to hide is legendary, but hearing them always confirms their presence, and that is always easier without airplanes overhead.

Laughing Gull Leucophaeus atricilla Play Listen For Riotous laughing, braying. Where to Find One Small and shapely, with a dark red bill and legs and a black head, the laughing gull can be spotted all day along shorelines or in the Rockaways and parts of southern Brooklyn. Around New York City, laughing gulls have staked out a claim to the marshes of Jamaica Bay in Brooklyn and Queens, and have forced a grudging relationship with the Federal Aviation Administration at Kennedy Airport.

Scarlet Tanager Piranga olivacea Play Listen For A melodic trill that sounds like a robin with a sore throat. Where to Find One Thoreau put it best: The tanager flies through the green foliage as if it would ignite the leaves. Scarlet tanagers prefer the crowns of trees. Despite plumage so bright they look lit from within, they stay out of sight. Only the males show this brilliant scarlet, and only in spring. By late summer, they begin to shed their flaming red to resume a more sensible, camouflaged life in olive green. Females remain drab green all year, a better strategy for protecting valuable eggs while nesting. During the height of the spring migration  that is, now  wander woodlands in the mornings.

Osprey Pandion haliaetus Play Listen For A high-pitched killy, killy, killy or a loud chirp that carries very effectively over open water. Where to Find One There is no mistaking this graceful hawk. It has a white-crested head with dark, horizontal eye stripes. In flight, ospreys long wings are bent, with a dark patch at each wrist. Ospreys are found anywhere there is open water, from the Central Park Reservoir to the edges of Queens.

Black-Throated Green Warbler Setophaga virens Play Listen For A buzzy, husky call described as Zoo-zoo-zee-zoo! Where to Find One These warblers challenge even binocular-wielding birders because of their preference for heights. Fortunately, the males distinct black markings and yellow-green face and upper body make identification pretty easy. Males are particularly active and never seem to stop calling and flitting about the branches. Where taller trees are absent, birds may forage at lower levels.

Willet Tringa semipalmata Play Listen For A repeated and piercing Will, will, willet, will, will, willet. Which is why theyre called willets. Where to Find One Choose a shoreline, and youll hear these charismatic birds before you see them. Pelham Bay in the Bronx and Plumb Beach in Brooklyn are two places to look. During breeding, males make themselves very visible on fence posts and open snags on quiet bay beaches.

Red Tailed Hawk Buteo jamaicensis Play Listen For One of the most magnificent screams in the bird kingdom. Where to Find One Red-tailed hawks seem to be all over the city, from Central Park to parkway median strips, always glaring, on the lookout for rodents. In flight this bird spreads its broad wings and tail, often soaring on thermals. And as for that iconic cry: As impressive as bald eagles look, their high-pitched chirps can be underwhelming. When an eagle cries in a car commercial or a cowboy movie, youre probably hearing the dubbed scream of a red-tailed hawk.

American Woodcock Scolopax minor Play Listen For A unique peenting of the adult males. Where to Find One A landlocked shorebird with a plump body and a long, probing bill, the woodcock is unmistakable but difficult to see in dim light. Just the same, its worth trying to spy on one of springs most captivating rituals. Listen for the unusual peenting call in a field in the late evening or at dawn in spring. Stay silent and still. Breeding woodcocks will emerge and suddenly spiral upward in a mating flight that takes them 50 or 60 feet high, before falling back to their original locations. Unfortunately, these birds seem prone to window strikes during migration, and can sometimes be observed, up close, recovering, or deceased below large buildings in early spring.

Red-Winged Blackbird Agelaius phoeniceus Play Listen For The famous (among birders) Cock-a-r-e-e-e. It is the sound of spring. Where to Find One Females are a streaky brown color in order to camouflage with vegetation while raising their young. But around the edges of wetlands, ponds or saltwater bays, males make themselves very visible: They are jet black in breeding season, with brilliant orange and yellow shoulders. They are unmistakable.

Wood Thrush Hylocichla mustelina Play Listen For A clear, musical three-note call, but the final syllable is an anatomical wonder: several tones produced simultaneously, resulting in a complex, oddly metallic and resonant call, like a softly echoing tambourine. Where to Find One Rusty brown overall, the wood thrush spends most of its time foraging through leaf litter looking for insects and other prey. Its breast is a warm white with well-defined speckling, and it has a prominent eye-ring. But you are more likely to hear this bird before you see it. The call of the wood thrush is the sound of summer evenings.

Common Yellowthroat Geothlypis trichas Play Listen For A repetitive, piercing witchety-witchety-witchety-witchety from low tangles of vegetation. Where to Find One The yellowthroat prefers swampy tangled shrubbery, where it can be observed low in the branches foraging for insects. One of the most attractive warbler species, it is easy enough to spot without binoculars. The males have a broad bandits mask (very pronounced during breeding season) set off by a white band. Both males and females are a warm olive green, shading toward yellow at the face and breast, the females a little less bright.

White-Throated Sparrow Zonotrichia albicollis Play Listen For There are many comical mnemonics for this birds unique and plaintive call. Most common are probably O sweet Canada Canada! or the oddly specific Sam PeabodyPeabodyPeabody. Where to Find One The cutest, most lovable little sparrow out there. At this time of year, males are marked with bright yellow spots just above their bill (the lores, technically), a bright white throat and stripes across their heads, set off by crisp black markings. Youll find them at the edges of woodlands, at bird feeders or even streetside near parks. As days lengthen, males begin their plaintive calling, and freshen up their plumage, so that a bird who is with us most of the year suddenly appears like a recent arrival from warmer ports of call. Two forms of this bird coexist, tan-crowned and white-crowned  each attracted to the opposite color for breeding purposes.
Hameed Ali, comptroller-general of the Nigeria customs service (NCS), has married a new wife at a low-key ceremony in Kano state. ...

Hameed Ali, comptroller-general of the Nigeria customs service (NCS), has married a new wife at a low-key ceremony in Kano state.





The wedding ceremony was held on Saturday, about two years after Hadiza Jummai, Alis first wife, breathed her last.





Jummai served as the first lady when her husband acted as the military administrator of Kaduna state between 1996 and 1998.





She, however, passed away at 53 in Abuja on October 29, 2018. Her marriage to the customs CG is blessed with four children.





Ali was appointed as the comptroller-general of the NCS on August 27, 2015 by President Muhammadu Buhari. He has been serving in that capacity till date.





In 2017, the 65-year-old made headlines over confrontation with the senate over his refusal to appear in uniform as instructed by the red chamber.





See photos below:








This article is published through a partnership with New York Medias Strategist . The partnership is designed to surface the most useful, expert recommendations for things to buy across the vast e-commerce landscape. We update links when possible, but note that deals can expire and all prices are subject to change. Every editorial product is independently selected by New York Media. If you buy something through our links, Slate and New York Media may earn an affiliate commission.

Its very likely that your fridge has never been fuller than it is right now. Sure, youre going to the grocery store less, but youre buying more when you would on a typical shopping trip. Most produce  vegetables, in particular  has a tendency to go bad if you dont use it quickly. One very easy way to extend the shelf life (and allow you to go even more time between grocery runs) is with fermentation.

Fermentation involves allowing the naturally occurring bacteria on fruits and vegetables to thrive and produce lactic acid, which helps preserve them. The most common examples of this are sauerkraut and kimchi, but as Michael Perrine, founder of rejuvenation and detox clinic Vitality NYC says, almost any vegetable will do as long as its hardy. Cabbage, carrots, beets, and other roots ferment really well, he says. I suggest using them as a base even if adding other veggies. Perrine is one of seven experts we asked  including chefs, cookbook authors, and a professional sauerkraut-maker  for advice on everything you need to become a modern preservation-minded homesteader. Heres how to get started fermenting at home.

Salt

The foundation of lactic fermentation is salt, which, according to Perrine, creates an environment where lactic-acid bacteria will completely take over the medium destroying all the bacteria, molds, and yeasts. Theres a bit of a divide on what salts to use, however: Kathryn Lukas, founder of Farmhouse Culture and co-author of The Farmhouse Culture Guide to Fermenting, which is geared toward true beginners, prefers high-quality, plain sea salt. I like a higher sodium chloride salt, like Sonoma sea salt, because its really, really high in sodium chloride, she says. Some of these other salts, like Celtic sea salt or Himalayan sea salt, can be as low as 90% sodium chloride and the rest are minerals. Higher mineral salts can cause off-flavors.

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Perrine is in the latter camp, saying that he likes to use Celtic sea salt and Himalayan for not only the mineral flavor they lend but the health benefits of adding those minerals to a ferment. I find a ratio of two teaspoons of salt per pound of vegetable to be perfect, he says. Either way, look for the most natural salt you can. Make sure that there are no additives, no anti-caking agents, no bleach, or anything like that, says Lukas. Thatll screw up the fermentation quickly.

Jars

Williams Sonoma Large Biscotti Jar Next comes the equipment, which costs little more than a jar of premade kimchi. If youre not quite sure you want to fully commit, David Zilber, head of fermentation at Noma in Copenhagen, says feel free to purchase a biscotti jar, which you can store in a dark cabinet during the fermentation process. Theyre much simpler to find, he says, plus theyre durable, theyre machine-washable, and they look as gorgeous as a fancy ceramic crock. And if you give up on fermenting, youll end up with a very nice looking jar. $20 from Williams Sonoma



If you want to keep your ferments on your kitchen counter, though, youll need a crock that keeps out the sunlight. Amelie Kang, the chef and owner of Sichuan dry-pot restaurant MaLa Project in New York City, is a fan of jellyfish pickle jars. After pickling, you can close the jar by putting the cap bowl upside down and then pour water into the curve, creating the perfect seal. she says.

Chefs Dave Park of Jeong in Chicago and Kevin Fink of Austins Emmer & Rye, meanwhile, are evangelists of the E-Jen Kimchi container. Its one of my favorite containers to ferment in, Park says. Its really useful because it has an insert that essentially creates a vacuum to press down your ferments. It has an inner ring where you can either burp your ferments or keep it airtight. Its definitely one of the most useful containers Ive found.

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Theyre also perfect for when you want to start fermenting dairy. These crocks are great for producing cultured butter or yogurts and other items that have a higher probability of rancidity, says Fink. The lack of light penetration makes checking them more necessary, but the end product is more stable.

Complete Mason Jar Fermentation Kit Or you can just click one link and be done. I like to refer people to culturesforhealth.com to order one of their kits, says Perrine of Vitality NYC. They also have gallons and lids for 16-ounce ball jars because I always say you may as well go big so you can do it less often. Cultures for Health makes it easy enough though to get everything at once. $50 from Amazon



Handbooks

Fermenting can be as simple as salt, cabbage, and a jar you can burp or as complicated as a multi-ingredient kimchi. If youre not quite sure where to begin, though, theres plenty of literature out there to get you inspired. Park of Jeong turns to two books.

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I really like these books because of the detailed information they provide, Park says. The Art of Fermentation contains a lot of general knowledge of all the different fermented products of the world in a very relaxed manner and helps you understand how you might be able to start making all of your fermented projects. The Noma Guide to Fermentation digs deeper into the science and details of some major ferments, such as shoyu, vinegars, and miso. It is more technical and precise, with things like temperature control, humidity levels, and bacteria.

Wildcrafted Fermentation: Exploring, Transforming, and Preserving the Wild Flavors of Your Local Terroir And if you really want to get outdoorsy, Sandor Ellix Katz, the aforementioned author of The Art of Fermentation, heartily endorses Wildcrafted Fermentation by wild-food researcher Pascal Baudar, which was published in March. Pascal is a culinary visionary, experimenting with what he finds outside his home and in nearby forests and using it for its flavors and as fermentation starters, Katz says. Hes taking fundamental fermentation processes and applying them in innovative and exciting ways. $21 from Amazon



Tools

Once you have all your fermenting equipment, its time to get started. Sauerkraut maker Kathryn Lukas says you need just three key tools: A small scale to weigh your vegetables, which determines how much salt youll use. (You can get one for $20, Lukas says.); a large stainless steel or ceramic bowl; and a canning funnel, which helps prevent overfilling your fermentation vessel. And then a knife and a cutting board for cutting the vegetables into smaller pieces, Lukas adds.

4-Pack of Fermentation Glass Weights with Easy Grip Handle for Wide Mouth Mason Jar If youre using a jar or other large container, youll need to make sure the fermenting produce is kept away from open air, which can carry yeast, mold, and other bacteria that you dont want in your ferment. The solution: Glass or ceramic weights. Their purpose is to keep all the food youre trying to ferment beneath the water line, Zilber of Noma told the Strategist back in 2018. If theyre not packed down nicely in the jar, therell be lots of air. A good weight thats heavy enough and fits the jar nicely without getting stuck on the sides is very important. $14 from Amazon


The United States went through another night of chaos Saturday as protestors demanding justice for the death of George Floyd, an African American man, in police custody marched in city streets, vandalized property and clashed with police who hit back, seemingly unprovoked at times, most notably in New York City, and with excessive force.

More than two dozen cities are under curfew, National Guard troops  US military reservists  have been summoned in 12 states and in Washington DC, where protestors clashed with Secret Service personnel outside the White House for the second day, undeterred perhaps by President Donald Trumps threat of vicious dogs and ominous weapons.

Trump has been under mounting pressure, even from his right-wing and conservative supporters, to speak to the nation in a unifying address that presidents had used before to calm the nation during similar unrests. He has so far responded with conflicting messages. While he has expressed outrage over Floyds death, he has condemned protestors as thugs and threatened violence in language used by racists before.

Asked if the president has plans to address the nation on the issue, National Security Adviser Robert OBrien told CNN Sunday the president had already addressed the issue. He has condoled Floyds death. The President also said that were with the protesters who are demanding answers, just like we are, the peaceful protesters. But weve got to stop the mob violence.

Minneapolis, the Minnesota state city where Floyd died pinned down to the ground with a white police officers knee on his neck last Monday, is under curfew and the National Guard. Los Angeles in California and Atlanta, Georgia have also called in the National Guard. And several units of US military police are standing by to be deployed if needed.

In New York city, police responded with increasing ferocity in day of escalating clashes with protestors. In videos that have gone viral, a mounted police officer police officer was seen knocking down a protestor, a police cruiser drove into a car and police officers used their bicycles to push back protestors.

Running SUVs in crowds of people should never, ever be normalized. No matter who does it, no matter why, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the firebrand Democratic congressman from New York in a tweet. She went on to criticize the citys Democratic mayor Bill de Blasios earlier comments on the issue as unacceptable.

This moment demands leadership & accountability from each of us. Defending and making excuses for NYPD (New York Police Department) running SUVs into crowds was wrong, she added.
Mr. Trump at one point described the theoretical gathering as the G10 or G11, which would mean making those countries members  something he cannot do on his own. He said he had had conversations with the leaders of those countries.

At one point Mr. Trump suggested he would host the summit in September, possibly around the time of the United Nations General Assembly, which is slated to begin Sept. 15 in New York, a city that is scheduled to begin its first phase of reopening from coronavirus shutdowns on June 8. At another point, Mr. Trump mused that he might schedule the summit for after the November general election.

Russias status in what was then the G8 was a source of consternation for other member nations in 2014, some of whom disagreed on how to punish Russias president, Vladimir Putin, for aggression in Crimea.

Mr. Putin last visited the United States for an event that was unrelated to the U.N. General Assembly in 2007, when President George W. Bush invited him to the Bush family compound at Kennebunkport, Maine. Mr. Putin, through advisers, has been pushing for another invitation to the United States since 2018. In July of that year, Mr. Trump stunned his director of national intelligence at the time, Dan Coats, when he announced he planned to invite Mr. Putin to visit in the fall. That visit never took place.

Inviting countries with geopolitical significance to discuss China, a country that Mr. Trump has seen as a competitor and an adversary, gives the president a rationale to host Mr. Putin. But the sight of Mr. Putin appearing in the United States two months before the presidential election, after the U.S. intelligence community determined that Russia interfered in the previous one to benefit Mr. Trump, will inflame his critics and risk discomfiting some of his Republican allies.

Even before Mr. Trumps announcement Saturday, the planning of the summit has fueled months of drama. Mr. Trump had previously suggested holding the summit in June. At the time, officials said it would be held virtually because of the pandemic.

But in late May, Mr. Trump suggested holding the event at Camp David, the rustic presidential retreat that the president has visited only periodically during his term.
Very few economists expect a strong economic recovery worldwide after the coronavirus health crisis ends, a new study found.

The Reuters news agency says it spoke with more than 250 economists and only 15 predicted what is called a V-Shaped recovery. A V-shaped recovery is one where the numbers rise quickly after a sharp drop.

Many of those questioned predicted a slower recovery or one with a lot of ups and downs before a long period of economic expansion.

U.S. President Donald Trump has said the United States economy would skyrocket as soon as the health crisis passes.

Some economists, however, say they believe a full recovery will take time.

The economists who talked to Reuters say one of the biggest questions is how to fuel economic activity without causing a jump in COVID-19 cases. Health experts are worried about the disease spreading when people once again return to stores, travel, and play.

False Information

Conditions such as the coronavirus give rise to many unproven cures and other advice about fighting or preventing the disease.

The latest false information on social media is the idea that people should take high levels of Vitamin D. Yet health experts say do not do it.

There have been some news reports about vitamin D reducing the risk of coronavirus. However, there is no evidence that this is the case, notes the British National Health Service.

Too much Vitamin D can cause heart problems, kidney damage and other medical conditions.

Experts say the body creates its own Vitamin D when exposed to sunlight. They say the best foods with high levels of the vitamin are fish, such as salmon and tuna, or just a cold glass of fortified milk.

Im Susan Shand.

The Reuters News Agency reported this story. Susan Shand adapted it for Learning English. George Grow was the editor.

________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

skyrocket  v. to rise very quickly

expose  v. to make something visible by uncovering it

fortified  adj. strengthened with vitamins
The Government is considering accelerating the reopening of the country, including scrapping limits on how far people can travel from home three weeks early. Museums, galleries, hairdressers and other amenities could also reopen by the end of June, while hotels could be allowed to operate with limited occupancies subject to the spread of Covid-19 remaining suppressed.

The current 5km limit on travel is expected to be replaced by a new 20km limit from Monday week, but the Government is now considering if this could be allowed to expire from June 29, three weeks earlier than envisaged under the current roadmap.

Senior government figures are optimistic that the roadmap can be accelerated in the coming weeks, but caution that decisions will be guided by data, including hospital and ICU admissions numbers.

It comes amid growing political and economic pressure to reopen the country as soon as possible. Business lobby group Ibec has called for all businesses to be allowed to reopen from next month and for the two-metre physical distancing rule to be reduced to one-metre.

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Fianna Fail now believes there is no logic or scientific basis for the 5km or 20km limits, while one of its senior TDs, Jim O'Callaghan, told the Sunday Independent: "I think we need to set the end of June as the goal for our restrictions to be lifted".

Senior government sources have confirmed that acceleration of the roadmap is being considered. This includes allowing businesses that are currently prevented from reopening until July 20 (phase four) reopening from June 29 (phase three). This would apply to hairdressers, barbers, museums, galleries and amenities such as swimming pools.

Those involved in the planning cite the fact that creches and childcare facilities will now reopen from June 29, three weeks earlier than set out in the roadmap. They also point to the resumption of horse racing on June 8 - three weeks earlier than initial guidelines stipulated.

On removing the limits on travel from home, a senior source said: "One of the most helpful things you can do is drop the 20km limit and that allows everyone in Ireland to see their mum or dad or granny and grandad while socially distanced. It will be a great thing to do."

Hotels may also be allowed to reopen with limited occupancies from June 29. "It is possible if the virus is under control but it's not guaranteed you could see people getting to take a holiday in Ireland before the end of the summer season," the source said.

In a significant move last week, Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin, who is hoping to become Taoiseach as early as next month, heavily criticised the current limits on travel. "The research shows that this limit may be forcing people in urban areas into more crowded situations," Mr Martin said in the Dail. "This also applies to the 20km rule, which is envisaged to replace the 5km rule. I do not see a logic or scientific basis for it. I believe we must deal with that more expeditiously."

Martin's view is the party position, but a number of his senior TDs have gone further, including Mr O'Callaghan, who said: "I don't see us having a situation where you can have large crowds locked into a pub or nightclub or at sporting events, but aside from that, we need to get back to normality.

"We've done a good job of reducing the level of disease in the community and now we need to prioritise young people and people's mental health. August 10 -is too late, we need to bring it forward."

Fianna Fail health spokesman Stephen Donnelly said the Government should no longer solely rely on public health advice when it comes to lifting restrictions, "particularly now the surge is over".

He added: "We do feel the government needs a separate group of people with economics, commerce, and psychology backgrounds so that there is a broader set of expert input going in.

"People are beginning to say there is a really serious cost to maintaining these restrictions, we need to understand the full cost and it is the role of the government to weigh up these costs. I do believe the public health officials have steered us well... but at the same time, we should be free to challenge that advice."

Senior Fine Gael figures believe their civil war rivals are attempting to assert themselves ahead of the formation of a new government, which both parties are hopeful can happen in June. "It's a little cynical, they see the progress being made, know it's likely we'll have further easing in just over a week so best to call for it," said one.

Meanwhile, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar warned colleagues to hold the line on public health messaging at the Cabinet meeting on Friday after some ministers openly called for the physical distancing guidelines to be reduced from two metres to one metre. Mr Varadkar issued what was described as a "reprimand" to Ministers Michael Ring and Finian McGrath after they publicly called for one metre.

However, it is now expected that the two metre rule will be relaxed as the country reopens. Mr Varadkar said on Friday "there's a good chance" it can be reduced to one. "We just need to see the virus come down a bit more. We're not at that point yet," he told FM104.
Rick Tracewell, left, and partner Debi Tipple, both of Sacramento, are asked to leave Main Beach by a Santa Cruz Police Ranger. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

The white pick-up truck began rolling down Boardwalk Beach late Friday morning. Dozens of people had spread out on the sandy expanse, and some splashed in the water, enjoying the mid-70s weather as a woman with a wand blew bubbles into the soft breeze.

It was a day before Memorial Day weekend, and there was only a fraction of the crowd Santa Cruz usually sees before the kickoff to summer. The Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk sat eerily empty, closed earlier this year for only the second time in its 113-year history. In the distance, waves rolled into Steamer Lane, the famed surfing spot off West Cliff Drive.

Around 11 a.m., the Santa Cruz Police Ranger announced that the beaches were officially closed from 11 a.m. until 5 p.m. under the countywide shelter-in-place order. People participating in water activities could stay, the ranger said, but everyone else had to leave.

Rick Tracewell and Debi Tipple packed up their things, and along with other beachgoers, exited the strand they had traveled so far to visit.

Im thankful that there are hours that we can come out here, said Tracewell, who arrived with Tipple on Thursday from Sacramento and learned about the beach closures while on the drive down.

Felipe Romero Perez combs the empty beach with a metal detector as the Beach Boardwalk sits empty remaining closed to guests in Santa Cruz. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

Santa Cruz County, home to 273,200 people, includes some tech businesses and other industries, but its economic engine largely depends on seasonal tourism and the revenue generated by the 19,000 students and hundreds of faculty and employees at UC Santa Cruz. That campus is now closed, and city and county have been urging visitors they once welcomed to stay away, at least for now.

The strict measures have undoubtedly helped the town and Santa Cruz County keep their COVID-19 cases and deaths low in a region hit hard by the virus. Santa Cruz County has reported two coronavirus-related deaths and 212 cases. In comparison, its neighbor Santa Clara County is reporting 141 deaths and more than 2,700 cases. Alameda County has more than 3,200 cases and 95 deaths.

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Brooklyn White, a fourth-year student at UC Santa Cruz, talks with a friend on the phone at the closed Beach Boardwalk in Santa Cruz. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

But the county must now weigh how quickly it will reopen to keep businesses alive and residents safe, given that they have successfully flattened the curve faster than their neighbors. County Public Health Officer Dr. Gail Newel issued a new order, effective Wednesday, allowing in-store retail shopping and religious services to resume.

On Friday, the county Board of Supervisors held a meeting on whether to approve moving further into the second stage of reopening under the governors road map. The board unanimously approved the effort, and Newel said a supplemental health order will allow indoor and outdoor dine-in at restaurants and barbershops and salons to reopen. She also warned the county will likely see an increase of cases and urged those most vulnerable to keep staying home.

As Northern California counties reported rising numbers in mid-March, Santa Cruz County joined six others in the greater San Francisco Bay Area in issuing a shelter-in-place order. The city of Santa Cruz already planned to close city facilities in anticipation of spread, Mayor Justin Cummings said.

An empty Pacific Avenue in downtown Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz has successfully bent the curve of cases and deaths from COVID-19 after sheltering in place early. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

In early May, Cummings used his Sunday column in the Santa Cruz Sentinel to remind residents they could not rush the road to recovery. He wrote of the second increase of cases and deaths in San Francisco from the Spanish flu in 1918 after the city re-opened too quickly.

The county public health department announced May 22 an investigation into four separate clusters of COVID-19 cases, attributed to family gatherings as the county eases some restrictions. While their numbers remain relatively low, reopening could present a challenge.

Its great that were in the position that were in, Cummings said in an interview. But "if we start seeing our numbers going back up, were going to likely shut things back down again."

Early projections predicted the county could have between 200 and 400 deaths, said Ryan Coonerty, a Santa Cruz County supervisor.

The economic impact has been damaging  the countys unemployment rate hit 17.4% in April, up from 8.1% in March, according to the California Employment Development Department. Residents and business owners, who largely complied with the shelter-in-place order, are now asking when they can restart after shutting down for so long, Coonerty said. But there is no easy answer for a place like Santa Cruz, whose fate is linked to its neighbors.

Were trying to figure out what our path forward is because we only control part of our destination," he said.

Community volunteers and the California National Guard distribute food to an estimated 1,100 families at the Boardwalk location for The Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Cruz County. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

On Friday, the Second Harvest Food Bank held its weekly drive-through pick-up at one of the Boardwalks parking lots. Beach Flats resident Antonia Hernandez, 46, and her husband, Felipe Ruiz, 42, arrived by foot, pushing a small cart to carry their items.

Ruiz lost his job at a panaderia as a result of the pandemic. This was their third time picking up offerings from the food bank  they received food weighing nearly 50 pounds  and Hernandez said she hoped to see the local economy open up again, cautiously, so they can afford to pay their bills and rent.

This is not a game, she said, teary eyed as she spoke about the toll of the virus. It's so sad, everything that is going on. We dont want this [virus].

On Pacific Avenue, the citys downtown, local storefronts doors were wide open but blocked by tables, a sign of curbside pick-up. The sidewalks, which wouldve been bustling on a usual Friday, were mostly empty with an occasional pair strolling by.

Marla Reckart and her daughter Sara Cronin picked up a couple of books from Bookshop Santa Cruz before they stopped by Pacific Trading Co., a womens clothing boutique, to buy a pair of pajamas. After coordinating the selection with co-owner Anandi Heinrich, who held up options through the glass windows until they approved one with thumbs up, they relayed the payment by phone, and Heinrich hung the bag on one end of a metal rack, inched the door open and pushed it through so Cronin could grab the bag.

Book seller Jason Cohen delivers a book to a customer at curbside at the Bookshop Santa Cruz. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

Curbside pick-up is tricky for a clothing store. Heinrich said she sets up virtual appointments and sends customers home with a box of clothing to choose from.

We hope to be reopening in a way that makes sense, said Heinrich, who chose to close the store on March 15, before the official order. But we also feel cautious in that we want to make sure that were doing it in a way that is safe for our customers and for our staff.

At Bookshop Santa Cruz, a longtime community hub, owner Casey Coonerty Protti shared a similar sentiment. On Friday, dozens of curbside orders were fulfilled by the hour as the bookstores information center was transformed into a central workstation, with employees weaving between shelves to keep their distance. Puzzles were spread out on the floor for easy access; the event space now featured tables covered in items for care packages.

Protti, wearing a Harry Potter-themed mask, explained their new workflow: No more than 10 employees worked inside at the same time, in different parts of the 20,000-square-foot store. And with a limited capacity reopening expected in weeks, the store will be restructured to accommodate curbside pick-up, in-store services and online orders.

Marla Reckart, left, of Santa Cruz and daughter Sara Cronin of Philadelphia pick up books at curbside at the Bookshop Santa Cruz. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

Even with a steady stream of customers, the store is doing only 60% of regular sales, she said. But Protti, whose brother serves on the county Board of Supervisors, a seat previously filled by their father, said she is on the side of restrictive measures to avoid a second rise in cases.

I understand why people are itching to reopen, and the amount thats at stake in terms of the economy and jobs and people's livelihoods, said Protti, who was able to bring back her 40-plus staff after receiving a Paycheck Protection Program loan. But Im going to be completely driven by science.

When they're ready to reopen, she said she believes the community will be there, rallying around local businesses.

"I do think people are going to come back," she said. "I really do."
Gurugram, May 31 : Gurugram continued to bear the brunt of coronavirus on Sunday as 97 fresh cases emerged in the city.

The number of cases are continuously increasing each day. The total number of cases has now jumped to 774 including 487 active cases. In the last 6 days alone, 490 cases appeared in the city, Gurugram Civil Surgeon Dr J.S. Punia said.

Meanwhile, District Magistrate Amit Khatri has imposed night curfew in Gurugram district between 9 pm to 5 am. The prohibitory order issued after the guidelines by the Ministry of Home Affairs for lockdown 5.0. The night curfew will remain in force till June 30.

"In case of violation, the offenders will be booked under IPC sections of 188, 269 and 270," Khatri said.

In another development, Ashok Sangwan, divisional commissioner of Gurugram range, held a meeting with representatives of religious places, restaurant and hotels in the district.

The religious representatives pointed out that as devotees assemble in places like temples, mosques and gurudwaras, there are higher chances of spread. Hence the administration must patiently analyse the situation before opening up.

The representatives of hotels and restaurants have different opinions. They advocated opening their facilities as they are facing hefty losses. They also said that every hotel and restaurant will follow strict guidelines of social distancing, hygiene and sanitation.
The Royal Flying Doctor Service is invaluable for Australians everywhere, especially those who live in the Outback, thousands of kilometres from medical assistance in the nearest cities. The RFDS has been in operation for 92 years and in the years since its inception, the service has had to evolve and adapt to a growing population, everchanging medical needs and new technologies.

We havent all been around long enough to see just how much the service has changed, but an image posted recently on the Qantas Instagram page proves just how different the service is to how it first looked.

The image in question is from 1928 and depicts the very first plane to bear the RFDS signage  although it was originally known as the Australian Inland Mission Aerial Medical Service  which was supplied by Qantas.

The partnership was formed when Reverend John Flynn, the founder of the RFDS, was approached by Hudson Fysh, one of the founders of Qantas (then known as the Queensland And Northern Territory Aerial Service) who wanted to pledge his support for the project.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Qantas (@qantas) on May 13, 2020 at 7:08pm PDT

Qantas supplied a De Havilland DH.50, with the tail number VH-UER and dubbed Victory. The first flight was piloted by Arthur Affleck and took off on 17th May 1928 from Cloncurry, Queensland, making an 85-mile journey to Julia Creek.

Qantas didnt provide the plane for free, however, and charged two shillings per mile during the Victorys first year of use (which equates to just under AU$9 per mile in todays money, and $765 for the 85-mile trip).

Over the next few decades, the RFDS  which finally received its current name in 1955  opened up several new sites and new airports to land at across Australia. It was also credited with world-first honours, including having the worlds first female flying doctor in Dr Jean White.

In addition, Flying Sister nurses were responsible for introducing new innovations such as a numbered body chart that allowed patients to better describe where their pain was being felt.

As for the aircraft the service used, in 1934 the inaugural De Havilland supplied by Qantas was replaced with a DH.83 Fox Moth, a small biplane manufactured by De Havilland. De Havilland aircraft continued to dominate the fleet until 1950 when Beechcroft and Cessna aircraft were brought into service.

Today, the Royal Flying Doctor Service has 77 planes in its fleet commissioned to fly in Australia, split across four different aircraft: two Pilatus jets and two King Air propeller-powered planes. These aircraft have all been paid for through donations (and are no longer supplied by Qantas) and all fly at least 30,000 feet in the sky, but usually higher so as to avoid any turbulence and keep passengers and medical staff safe from motion.

Theyre outfitted with stretcher beds and the very latest in in-flight technologies for both the pilot and medical team. It goes without saying theyre a far cry from the original bi-plane that took off in 1928. The Pilatus jets operate in WA, SA and NT, while the King Air cousins are used in QLD, NSW, VIC and Tasmania.

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Following the rising tensions between India and China and the escalating discontent against the country worldwide, a Jaipur-based startup in India has launched an application called 'Remove China Apps'. This app developed by OneTouchAppLabs detects apps made in China on the users' phones and provides a simple UI to remove them. Since its release on May 17, the app has already garnered massive support and has crossed one million downloads in less than two weeks. It is currently the top free app available on the Google PlayStore, available for free.

READ | Top 25 Chinese Apps List In India

Read: Milind Soman Uninstalls TikTok, Joins Sonam Wangchuk's 'Boycott Chinese Products' Movement

Following its success, the creators have stated that they are now looking towards developing a technology to detect China-based bloatware as well in the next version of the app. Currently, the app can only be downloaded by android users.

'Uninstall Chinese Software, Boycott Hardware': Sonam Wangchuk's call

A few days ago, Engineer turned education reformer Sonam Wangchuk posted a message on Twitter encouraging the citizens to drop the use of Chinese software "within a week", In a message that went viral on the platform he said  "Cheen ko Jawaab, Sena degi bullet se, Naagrik dengey wallet se (Answer to China will be given by soldiers with their bullets and citizens with their wallets)".

Speaking to Republic TV on Friday, Sonam Wangchuk said the Chinese actions on the border with India are a result of domestic dissatisfaction over the Chinese government's handling of the COVID-19 crisis. He encouraged people to drop the use of all Chinese software "within a week", like the video-sharing platform Tik Tok. Sonam said Indians have the freedom to choose what they spend on with their wallet and if a country doesn't treat India fairly then they should use boycotts as "personal economic sanctions".

Drawing inspiration from Sonam Wangchuk, actor and supermodel Milind Soman announced that he is no longer on Tiktok. The video-sharing application has the highest number of users in India. As per a study conducted in June 2019, there are more than 120 million Tiktok users in the country. If many Indians quit Tiktok, Wangchuk believes it has the potential of burning a hole in the Chinese firms pocket.

Read: Arshad Warsi Joins Sonam Wangchuk's Initiative, Says, 'going To Stop Everything Chinese'

Read: 'Uninstall Chinese Software, Boycott Hardware': Sonam Wangchuk's Clarion Call For Indians
Budget airline easyJet and cruise operator Carnival are set to tumble out of the FTSE 100 after being battered by travel restrictions during the coronavirus pandemic.

Despite a slight lift in value in recent weeks amid optimism about loosening restrictions, both firms have more than halved in value over the past three months.

The travel operators could also be joined on their way out on Wednesday by aerospace parts firm Meggitt and British Gas owner Centrica, in what could be the biggest reshuffle since the 2008 financial crisis.

Helal Miah, investment research analyst at the Share Centre, said: This reshuffle looks set to be one of the biggest in many years, we expect a minimum of four in, four out  but depending on market moves we could see more.

He said the clearest candidate to slip from the top index is Princess Cruises owner Carnival, which has seen shares dive nearly 60% since the crisis first hit Europe as travellers were left stranded on quarantined ships for weeks.

Further cruises have been halted and bookings have dried up, meaning its market capitalisation has continued to slide despite raising more funds to support the business.

The second most likely casualty is easyJet, which only returned to the index in December 2019.

Similarly to Carnival, sentiment remains low as revenues continue to dwindle on the back of mass cancellations.

Centrica trades in an area less impacted by the virus but the firm has hovered perilously close to relegation recently amid a tough environment for energy providers.

Meggitt entered the FTSE 100 last year but is another firm which has been heavily impacted by travel restrictions as aerospace manufacturers have seen production slow as a result.

Analysts have said ITV and Pearson are also at risk of leaving the FTSE 100.

Meanwhile, Avast, Homeserve, Ladbrokes owner GVC and Convatec have been earmarked as the most likely firms to move into the index.

Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said Kingfisher, Foreign & Colonial Investment Trust, B&M European Value Retail and Direct Line are also jockeying for position and sudden gains in their share prices could yet vault them into the UKs premier index.

He added: If they make the leap, GVC and Convatec would be returning to the FTSE 100 for the first time since March 2019 and December 2017 respectively, while Homeserve and Avast would be making their debuts in the premier index.
"#ChinarCorpsCdr, Lt Gen BS Raju & DGP Sh Dilbag Singh co-chaired Core Group meeting of Civil adm, Int Agencies & Security Forces at Srinagar. Continuity of Int based anti-terror operations with a humane touch, joint efforts to tackle drug-abuse & #COVID19 were discussed," tweeted Indian Army's Chinar Corps.An official statement in this regard stated that in the backdrop of the prevailing situation in Jammu and Kashmir, the General Officer Commanding, Chinar Corps, Lt Gen BS Raju and Director General of Police Jammu & Kashmir, Shri Dilbag Singh, co-chaired a meeting of the Core Group consisting of top officials of Civil Administration, intelligence agencies and security forces at Srinagar."The meeting was to review the security situation and ensure readiness to meet anticipated security challenges," the statement said.According to the statement, the Core Group focussed on the need for a high level of synergy among all agencies in addressing the security concerns of Kashmir."Intelligence inputs indicate that Pakistan had intensified its efforts at increasing infiltration and ceasefire violations across the Line of Control. There is also an effort to calibrate an increase in terrorist actions in the hinterland. Pakistan and its proxies are also active on social media to launch disinformation campaign in J&K," it said.The Core Group discussed the plans to ensure a robust counter-infiltration grid along the Line of Control, counter-terrorist grid in the hinterland and recent successes in anti-terror operations, added the statement."The intelligence inputs indicate efforts by anti-nationals and Pakistan proxies to calibrate increase in violence in the Jammu and Kashmir. Recent successes including the killing of terror tanzeems leaders and prevention of large scale IED attacks have blunted such efforts. The support of the Kashmir people has been critical in the success of the security forces," it added.The Core Group discussed the need for continued intelligence-based anti-terror operations with a humane touch."In order to address the complete eco-system of terror organisations in Jammu and Kashmir, the anti-terror operations are being supported by efforts to identify and arrest over ground workers who sustain the terror organisations," the statement read.It said that in the end, the senior commanders expressed satisfaction at the successful handling of the security situation and asked for continued efforts to maintain peace in Jammu and Kashmir. (ANI)
US President Donald Trump has said he will postpone a meeting of the G7 nations until the autumn.

He has also called for an expansion of the groups membership because he considers it an outdated body that does not properly represent whats going on in the world.

Alyssa Farah, White House director of strategic communications, said Mr Trump wanted to bring in some of his countrys traditional allies and those impacted by the coronavirus to discuss the future of China.

The G7 members are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Mr Trump singled out Russia, Australia, South Korea and India as possible additions.

The leaders of the worlds major economies were slated to meet from June 10-12 in the US, but the coronavirus outbreak has now interfered with those plans.

Angela Merkel is said to have incensed Donald Trump last week by swiftly declining his invitation to an in-person G7 summit (Tobias Schwarz/AP)

Mr Trump cancelled the initially-planned meeting, before last week saying he was considering holding it again on a similar date, and expressing a wish for it to be a face-to-face gathering, rather than be conducted by video conferencing.

However, reports in the US said Mr Trump was incensed that German Chancellor Angela Merkel swiftly signalled this week that she would not be attending as she believed June was still too soon to hold large gatherings amid the ongoing pandemic.

Mr Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One as he returned from the SpaceX launch in Florida on Saturday he had not yet set a new date.

But he said the gathering could take place in September around the time of the annual meeting of the United Nations.

He also said it might wait until after the US election in November.

Mr Trump has repeatedly advocated for expanding the group to include Russia, prompting opposition from some members including Canadas Justin Trudeau, who told reporters he had privately aired his objection to Russian readmission.

Russia has yet to change the behaviour that led to its expulsion in 2014, and therefore should not be allowed back into the G7, Mr Trudeau said at a news conference.
South Korean shares are expected to move in a tight range next week amid escalating U.S.-China tensions, analysts said Saturday.

The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) closed at 2,029.60 points on Friday, up 3 percent from a week ago.

The index closed higher Monday on hopes for an extra stimulus measure and earlier-than-expected development of a coronavirus vaccine.

The KOSPI extended gains on Tuesday, closing above the psychologically significant 2,000-point mark for the first time since March 6, before sliding again on the renewed Sino-American trade dispute.

The two world powers are also haggling over Beijing's passing of a new national security law that is expected to severely undermine the civil liberties of Hong Kong citizens.

The stock index will continue to rest heavily on the development of Sino-American frictions next week, analysts said.

NH Investment & Securities analyst Noh Dong-kil said expectations for economic recovery and additional global stimulus are positive factors for the index.

"But the escalating Sino-American tensions may continue to dent investor sentiment," Noh said.

Hana Financial Investment analyst Kim Yong-koo said despite heavy valuation pressures, the local stock market may move in positive terrain with rollbacks of major economies' lockdowns. (Yonhap)
Air India has made it mandatory for its pilots and cabin crew members to check and confirm that their pre-flight COVID-19 test results are negative before they operate an aircraft, according to an official communication issued hours after the Delhi-Moscow flight incident involving a pilot on Saturday.

An Air India flight from Delhi to Moscow with no passenger on-board was asked to return midway on Saturday after its ground staff realised that one of the pilots of the plane had tested positive for coronavirus but was assigned the duty following an oversight by a team checking pre-flight medical reports of the crew.

"The COVID-19 test is being conducted by the airline at a substantial cost, with considerable effort. As it is a recent procedure and there is a shortage of staff in office, there is a possibility of an oversight in this matter," said Captain R S Sandhu, Executive Director (Operations), Air India in a circular, which has been accessed by PTI.

"The test is primarily designed to mitigate the risk of transmission among the crew. Every effort will be made by the personnel dealing with the testing and rostering of crew to ensure that the reports are checked before crew is being rostered for a flight," he stated in the circular.

However, it is imperative that the individual crew member also checks and reconfirms his or her test result, Sandhu said.

"In case of any oversight in this matter, not only are there avoidable adverse operational issues, tarnishing the image of the airline, but also irresponsible exposure of a fellow crew member to this disease," Sandhu mentioned.

"Therefore, it is mandatory for every individual crew member to check and confirm a 'negative' report result, before undertaking a flight. Any laxity in this matter will be dealt with severity," he added.

About Saturday's incident, two senior bureaucrats had said there was a "lapse" on the part of officials responsible to scrutinise the coronavirus test reports of the crew members and that aviation regulator DGCA has already begun an investigation into the case based on a preliminary report by the airline.

The Airbus A320 plane departed around 7.15 am on Saturday for Moscow to bring back a group of stranded Indians under the Vande Bharat evacuation mission and it was back in Delhi by 12.30 pm following orders from the authorities, the officials said.

They said the airline officials tasked to examine medical reports of the crew did not look at the pilot's test results properly before assigning him the duty.

According to standard operating procedure, pilots and other crew members of any flight are required to undergo mandatory testing for coronavirus and are assigned duties if the laboratory results are negative.

The plane with registration number VT-EXR was in the airspace of Uzbekistan when it was told to return. All crew members including the Delhi-based pilot with coronavirus infection have been quarantined after they arrived in Delhi, the officials said,

"In this case, the airline officials did not look at the pilot's test results properly and deemed him fit to fly, assuming that he is COVID-19 negative, even when the test results stated otherwise," said an official in the DGCA.

In a statement, Air India had said on Saturday that it recalled the aircraft immediately when it was noticed that one of the cockpit crew had tested positive in the pre-flight COVID-19 test.

"Immediately after landing all cockpit and cabin crew have been tested and all laid down medical precautions are being taken to ensure their health and safety. Another aircraft has taken off today to operate the Vande Bharat flight from Moscow to Delhi," Air India said.

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More than 100 scientists and clinicians have questioned the authenticity of a massive hospital database that was the basis for an influential study published last week that concluded that treating people who have COVID-19 with chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine did not help and might have increased the risk of abnormal heart rhythms and death.

In an open letter to The Lancets editor, Richard Horton, and the papers authors, the scientists asked the journal to provide details about the provenance of the data and called for the study to be independently validated by the World Health Organization or another institution.

A spokeswoman for Dr. Mandeep Mehra, the Harvard professor who was the papers lead author, said Friday that the studys authors had asked for an independent academic review and audit of their work.

Use of the malaria drugs chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine to prevent and treat COVID-19 has been a focus of intense public attention. President Donald Trump has promoted the promise of hydroxychloroquine, despite the absence of gold-standard evidence from randomized clinical trials to prove its effectiveness, and recently said he was taking it himself in hopes of preventing coronavirus infection.

The scientists challenges to the Lancet paper come at a time of increasing debate about the risks of the rush to publish new medical findings about COVID-19. The paper, published May 22, included data on tens of thousands of patients hospitalized through April 14, meaning that the authors analyzed the trove of data, wrote the paper and went through the journals peer review of its findings in just over five weeks, much faster than usual.

The experts who wrote The Lancet also criticized the studys methodology and the authors refusal to identify any of the hospitals that contributed patient data or to name the countries where they were located. The company that owns the database is Surgisphere, based in Chicago.

Data from Africa indicate that nearly 25% of all COVID-19 cases and 40% of all deaths in the continent occurred in Surgisphere-associated hospitals, which had sophisticated electronic patient data recording, the scientists wrote. Both the numbers of cases and deaths, and the detailed data collection, seem unlikely.

Another of the critics concerns was that the data about COVID-19 cases in Australia was incompatible with government reports and included more in-hospital deaths than had occurred in the entire country during the study period.

A spokeswoman for The Lancet, Emily Head, said in an email that the journal had received numerous inquiries about the paper and had referred the questions to the authors.

We will provide further updates as necessary, she said. The Lancet encourages scientific debate and will publish responses to the study, along with a response from the authors, in the journal in due course.

Dr. Sapan Desai, owner and founder of Surgisphere and one of the papers authors, vigorously defended the findings and the authenticity and validity of the companys database. He said official counts of coronavirus cases and deaths often lagged behind actual cases, which might explain some discrepancies.

The papers authors said they had analyzed data gathered from 671 hospitals on six continents that shared granular medical information about nearly 15,000 patients who had received the drugs and 81,000 who had not, while shielding their identities.

What the world has to understand is that this is registry-based data, Desai said. We have no control over the source of the information. All we can do is report the data that is given to us.

Another group of researchers from the Barcelona Institute for Global Health also raised questions about the Surgisphere database, both with the authors and editors of The Lancet.

Scientists who wrote and signed the letter criticizing the study included clinicians, researchers, statisticians and ethicists from academic medical centers, including Harvards T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the University of Pennsylvania, Vanderbilt University and Duke University.

One of the signatories, Dr. Adrian Hernandez, who heads the Duke Clinical Research Institute, said the paper contained many troubling anomalies, but the biggest thing that raised a red flag was that here was such a large database across more than 600 hospitals, and no one had really known about its existence. That was quite remarkable.

Like several other signatories of the letter, Hernandez is involved in a clinical trial of hydroxychloroquine to see if it can protect health care workers from infection.

Allen Cheng, a professor of infectious diseases at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, who also signed the letter, said in an email that the individual hospitals included in the database should be identified.

Ideally, the database should be made public, but if that isnt possible, it should at least be independently reviewed and an audit performed, he said.

Surgispheres data was also the basis of a study of coronavirus patients published in The New England Journal of Medicine this month by some of the same authors, including Desai and Harvards Mehra, as well as for two versions of an article on the use of an antimicrobial drug to treat COVID-19 that were not published in an established medical journal.

Jennifer Zeis, a spokeswoman for The New England Journal of Medicine, said by email that the journal was aware of the questions that had been raised and was looking into them.

Mehra issued a statement Friday, saying that the papers authors leveraged the data available through Surgisphere to provide observational guidance to inform the care of hospitalized COVID-19 patients because the results of randomized clinical trials would not be available for some time.

Other observational studies had previously reported possible harms associated with the malaria drugs, and the Food and Drug Administration had issued a safety warning about their use. After the Lancet paper was published, the World Health Organization and other organizations suspended clinical trials of the drugs.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
The world is slowly scrambling back to work. The sad story of the deaths from Covid-19 continues. The debate as to the competence or otherwise of our Government in its handling of the virus will continue too.

However, while these are very early days, from a business point of view it is becoming clearer who the winners and losers are likely to be.

The share markets have made a solid comeback. The recovery varies from country to country, but viewed broadly equities have regained between half and three-quarters of the ground they lost.

Booming: One obvious beneficiary of the coronavirus pandemic has been Ocado

But that is in aggregate. Some companies are in grave peril and may not survive, while others have leapt forward and face a bright future. The market as a whole is looking through the difficult months ahead and focusing on that future.

One way to think about this is to acknowledge that we are seeing five years' structural change in five months. Take online grocery sales. These were rising steadily as a proportion of the total, growing by a couple of percentage points a year. Then bang, in May online sales doubled. One obvious beneficiary has been Ocado. Its share price has more than doubled. On March 11 it was 10.77. On Friday it was trading at 22.08, giving it a market capitalisation of nearly 16billion. For comparison, the once mighty Marks & Spencer is now worth less that 2billion.

At the other extreme are the motor manufacturers, where again the pressures mean that what would have taken several years is happening right now. The Renault/Nissan/Mitsubishi alliance was in trouble anyway, and not only because of the antics of its former chief executive Carlos Ghosn. But we have just heard that the Renault part of the business is shutting several factories, including some in France, while the Nissan side is shutting one in Barcelona.

It looks as though Nissan in Sunderland may actually be expanded to make Renaults. That underlines the fact that operations that have an excellent record on quality and productivity, come through in vastly better shape than those that don't.

This applies to companies, not just plants. Take two Anglo-European winners. One is Reckitt Benckiser. Its shares were trading around 65 in February before the share crash. They fell back with the market but now they are 71.14, valuing the group at more than 50billion.

Why? Well, think of Dettol. That is just one of the company's trusted, long-established germ-killing products where sales have boomed as health fears climbed. But actually Reckitt Benckiser was being sorted out by its new chief executive Laxman Narasimhan before this happened. This has helped speed up the transformation.

The other winner is AstraZeneca. Its shares are way up on the previous peaks of February and at 87.16 that values the company at 114billion. One obvious reason for recent strength is the heroic effort that the company is putting into mass-producing the vaccine developed by the Jenner Institute in Oxford before we even know whether it works. But quite apart from that, the company had become a world leader in developing anti-cancer drugs. It was already fighting its way into the top ten global pharmaceutical firms, thanks largely to its excellent research.

Looking ahead, these two sectors  household products and pharmaceuticals  are secure. We have all been reminded how much we need things that will help us keep ourselves and our homes clean, and will treat our illnesses. There are many other sectors too where demand is assured.

Of course the famous high-tech giants  Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and so on  will continue to shape our lives for a while yet. At the other extreme, the airlines, car manufacturers, conventional retailers and other declining sectors will struggle. Many companies there will be reduced to a shadow of themselves, or go belly-up. But well-run enterprises in solidly-growing sectors will continue to prosper.

The next few months will be very difficult for everyone. But the equity markets, in their stumbling, incoherent, chaotic way, recognise this. They are trying to figure out which companies will, a year or so from now, being doing quite decently as growth gradually returns. There may well be another dip in the markets  who can say?  but at least there is a solid explanation for the modest rebound in confidence we are now seeing.
Lee Yong-soo, a surviving victim of Japan's wartime sex slavery, speaks during her second news conference held at a hotel in Daegu, May 25. / Yonhap



By Jun Ji-hye



Lee Yong-soo, a surviving victim of Japan's wartime sexual slavery, has been the target of personal insults and ridicule online after holding media conferences where she accused activist-turned-lawmaker, Yoon Mee-hyang, and the civic group led by her of misappropriating funds that were donated to help the victims.



Lee, 92, held two press conferences, May 7 and 25, claiming the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance for the Issues of Military Sexual Slavery by Japan (Korean Council), previously led by Rep. Yoon of the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), had not used any of the public donations for the benefit of the victims.



Since then, a range of personal insults against Lee, which were unrelated to the content of her press conferences, have been posted in online communities including messages that said "The old woman has gone senile" and "She's got dementia."



Some politicians and celebrities have also made remarks construed as ridiculing Lee.






Earlier this month, Innovative Industrial Properties (NYSE:IIPR), a cannabis-focused real estate investment trust (REIT), reported strong first-quarter 2020 results.

Revenue soared 210% year over year to $21.1 million. Earnings per share surged 118% to $0.72, and adjusted funds from operations (FFO) -- a key profitability metric for REITs -- jumped 107% to $1.12 per share.

This type of robust performance has enabled shares to continue to outperform the cannabis group and the broader market. In 2020, Innovative Industrial Properties (also known as IIP) stock is up 7.7% through the end of May, while shares of industry bellwether Canopy Growth are down nearly 18%, and the S&P 500 (including dividends) is down 5%. Over the last three years, IIP stock is up a whopping 374%, while the broader market has returned about 34%.

Earnings releases tell only part of the story. Much valuable information is usually covered on the analyst conference calls following these releases. Like many companies, this was even more true for IIP's Q1 call because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Here are three things you should know from IIP's first-quarter earnings call.

Medical and recreational marijuana businesses are generally considered "essential businesses"

From CEO Paul Smithers' remarks:

In the vast majority of situations, medical-use and adult-use cannabis has been determined either formally or by implication to be an essential business that can continue to operate as an exception to general state and local shutdown orders. The essential designation has generally been applied throughout the supply chain. There have been certain exceptions, however, such as in Massachusetts, where the governor permitted medical-use cannabis businesses to continue to operate, but shut down adult-use cannabis businesses.

The fact that most companies throughout the U.S. medical-use and adult-use cannabis supply chains have been deemed "essential businesses" has certainly been a big positive for the country's cannabis market and, in turn, for IIP. However, Smithers said the social distancing measures implemented by authorities and businesses to slow the spread of the virus have hurt cannabis sales. In other words, the increases in curbside pickup and online ordering haven't fully made up for the loss of business from brick-and-mortar retailers.

The good news for the U.S. cannabis market, of course, is that state economies have largely begun to open. Many states are opening in phases.

As to Massachusetts, which Smithers mentioned, recreational marijuana shops were allowed to reopen on May 25 after being closed for two months. However, during the first phase of the state's reopening, only walk-up or curbside sales are permitted.

IIP gave temporary rent deferrals to three of its 21 tenants

From CFO Catherine Hastings' remarks:

Throughout March and April, we've been in discussions with each of our tenants [about their financial conditions in light of the pandemic] ... In light of those discussions, we've worked with three of our 21 tenants to provide temporary rent deferrals. [These are] generally structured to apply a portion of the security deposit we hold under each lease to pay April rent in full, defer rent for May and June in full and provide for the pro rata repayment of the security deposit and deferred rent over an 18-month time period starting July 1.

The total from the amended lease agreements is about $2.3 million. This represents only about 3% of the company's total Q1 revenue annualized, so doesn't seem to be a concern, at least at this point. Investors do, however, need to watch this issue; I plan on covering it again after the company's Q2 earnings are released.

Executive Chairman Alan Gold said that management is "fairly confident" that it's dealt with all the financial issues that its tenants might be experiencing. In other words, management doesn't think there will be any near-term negative surprises involving tenants finding it challenging to pay their full rent on time.

The company's pipeline remains "very strong"

From V.P. of Investment Ben Regin's remarks:

The pipeline is very strong right now. ... We're seeing continued demand for this type of capital solution [sale-leasebacks]. There [are] still a lot of very high-quality operators out there continuing to grow their businesses. ... And we have the ability to be very disciplined and selective and work with the top companies in the country and support their business.

Gold added the yields in the company's pipeline "have remained very high." He said they're seeing transaction opportunities "with yields north of 12%" and "close to the 15%" level.

For context, at the time of its last earnings call in late February, the company's average yield on invested capital was about 13.3% for its then 51-property portfolio. (IIP didn't provide this figure in its Q1 earnings release, at which time its portfolio included 55 properties.)
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-31 05:29:17|Editor: huaxia

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SANTIAGO, May 30 (Xinhua) -- The Chilean Ministry of Health announced on Saturday that the number of confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in the country had risen to 94,858, with 997 deaths.

Over the last 24 hours, 4,220 new cases were reported along with 53 more deaths.

Of the number of new confirmed cases, 3,736 presented symptoms and 484 were asymptomatic. Additionally, 40,431 people were reported to have recovered from the disease so far.

The ministry reported that 1,151 patients were currently on ventilators, with 306 of them in critical condition.

It also reported that 16,814 PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests were administered in the last 24 hours, for a total of 563,320 tests performed since the disease was first detected in the country in March.

Additionally, the Chilean government announced that it has decided to extend the quarantine in Santiago and 38 nearby towns until June 5 due to an increase in cases in recent weeks.

The quarantine is affecting around seven million people, and protests over "insufficient" government aid have arisen in poor sectors of the metropolitan region. Enditem
West Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankhar waded into the unrest in different establishments of the Kolkata Police this month with a tweet that the incidents have exposed chinks in the historically impeccable force.

Men in uniform so stanching @MamataOfficial worrisome. Chinks getting exposed in historically impeccable @KolkataPolice, the governor wrote in a tweet on Saturday.

Leader of the opposition in the Bengal Assembly and veteran Congress leader Abdul Mannan who met the governor on Saturday had also raised the issue.

Leader of opposition Abdul Mannan also expressed his serious concerns over the recent incidents @KolkataPolice Training School, Garfa police station & last night unfortunate event at 4th battalion of armed police Bidhanagar, tweeted Dhankhar.

Till Saturday, at least seven personnel of the Kolkata Police had been infected by Covid-19.

Click here for full Covid-19 coverage.

The unrest started on May 19, a day before Cyclone Amphan battered Kolkata and south Bengal districts. Around 500 personnel of the Kolkata Police Combat Force staged a demonstration at the Police Training School (PTS) alleging that they were being forced to share quarters with a colleague who had contracted the coronavirus disease. The men alleged that they were being sent to containment zones without adequate personal safety equipment.

The commandos allegedly ransacked the vehicle of their deputy commissioner Col Nevendera Singh Paul when he tried to talk to them and even assaulted him. On May 20, chief minister Mamata Banerjee visited PTS and addressed the agitated men even as Kolkata was being ravaged by the cyclone.

Senior Kolkata Police officials refused to speak on record on the incident. The situation is now under control. That is more important, said a deputy commissioner who is aware of the details.

In the second incident, some constables at Garfa police station vandalized office property on May 25 after one of their colleagues died in hospital of respiratory disease. They alleged that he was suffering from Covid-19 but was not sent for treatment on time. They called off the protest after senior officials intervened.

In the third incident, personnel of the fourth battalion of the Kolkata Armed Police force pelted stones and staged a demonstration inside their barrack at Salt Lake on Friday night, alleging that they were being forced to share the same rooms that had earlier been used by some infected colleagues. This agitation, too, was tackled by senior officers, said an officer who did not want to be identified.

No Trinamool Congress leader was willing to comment on the incidents since Mamata Banerjee is also the states home minister.

Unrest over infected people in Bengal is not limited to police barracks alone. On Saturday, there was a clash between two groups of villagers in the Uluberia area of Howrah district over allowing some migrant villagers, who recently returned from Maharashtra, to stay in the village. Police had to intervene and the migrants were shifted to a desolate building for quarantine.
Debates about bringing Santa Claus into church are perennial. But what about the Easter Bunny? We asked a variety of church leaders across the US to weigh in on whether this is good outreach, family friendly fun, or a distraction from message of Easter.

Caleb Campbell, pastor of Desert Springs Bible Church, Phoenix:

I think its totally fine as part of the egg hunt for kids or a prop for the sermon. However, I dont think the pastor should do the sermon in a bunny suitunless its a really good sermon.

Kevin Georgas, pastor of Jubilee Baptist Church, Chapel Hill, North Carolina:

Its not something Id get very worked up over. I wouldnt have the Easter Bunny be a part of our worship liturgy but am not opposed to having an event where people take pictures with the Easter Bunny.

Amy Palma, pastor of South Fellowship Church, Littleton, Colorado:

While the Easter Bunny can be used as a tool to invite families outside the churchs walls, we have chosen not to do so. We do a glow-in-the-dark egg hunt event for that purpose, and to be honest an Easter Bunny in the dark would probably be a little terrifying!

Bobby Breaux, pastor of Twin Cities Church, Grass Valley, California:

Grace allows the church to have an Easter Bunny, but I do not think it is the best strategy for the holiday. Our egg hunt is offsite at an elementary schoolso in childrens minds, not much association is made to the church. Our community sees it as a service we provide for free and an avenue where we advertise to young families our Easter church services.

Wendy Coop, host of the podcast Dear Pastor: Notes from a Virtual Pulpit:

Lets not confuse the kids with the Easter Bunny unless were ready ...

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After the Nagpur bench of Bombay high court (HC) extended the parole of gangster Arun Gawli till June 2 and directed him to report to Nagpur Central Jail, his family is making all efforts for the journey. The family has said that they have already made arrangements on the mode of travel to ensure that he reaches the jail on time.

Geeta Gawli, a corporator and daughter of the gangster said that they are following the court order. As per the order we took my father to Taloja Jail but they refused to admit him. So we again asked the court to extend the parole and it was extended for five days, said Geeta. The flights to Nagpur have already started and we will see that he reaches Nagpur on the given time as per the order. The travelling arrangement is mostly done by us, she added.

S. Agawane, senior police inspector, Agripada police station said,  As Gawli has received a court order, he is allowed to travel interstate.

Gawli is serving a life sentence at Nagpur jail for the murder of Shiv Sena corporator Kamlakar Jamsandekar. He now has to surrender before the Nagpur Central Prison on June 2. He was on parole from February 26 for his daughter Yogitas wedding. The parole was extended to allow him to attend to his ailing wife. However, on May 22 he was directed by the bench to surrender at the Taloja jail in Navi Mumbai as he was unable to travel to Nagpur due to the lockdown.

In a petition before the court on Friday, Gawlis counsel said that as per the court directives, he went to Taloja jail on May 24 to surrender. However, the jail superintendent refused his entry.

The gangster was originally supposed to surrender on April 27, but following the national lockdown, his parole was extended on April 23 for seven days. On April 30, the parole was again extended by another week. Finally, the HC on May 17, directed Gawli to appear before the jail authorities with a period of seven days. Gawli again moved the HC for an extension till May 31. The court then granted him a further period of seven days to travel to Nagpur from Mumbai for surrendering.
Smitha Verma By

Sometime in the last week of March, the name of Dr Minal Dakhave Bhosale was splashed all across newspapers and television channels.

The virologist from Pune, whom very few people knew until then, had given India its first commercially approved coronavirus testing kit.

Even as the media hailed her as the new corona warrior, she was wheeled into the operation theatre, where she underwent a C-sec to deliver a baby girl.

Bhosale from MyLabs Discovery, a molecular diagnostic company, had worked on the testing kit while in her third trimester, meeting both a professional and a personal milestone.

Its not Bhosale alone driving innovation, there are many others who are trailblazers in their chosen fields, in one way or the other around the healthcare sector.

For instance, Swati Subodh, a scientist, has moved out of the comfortable confines of her lab to find solutions for rural communities.

Dr Miniya Chatterji may be based out of Goa, but that hasnt stopped her from building a pop-up hospital in Kerala and Mumbai for Covid-19 patients.

It was the International Day of Action for Womens Health on May 28.

While a day is being observed to raise awareness about womens health, what we often fail to notice are women working in this field.

What about women in healthcare innovation? A few like Akansha Kukreja, Kshititi Nagarkar or Swarnima Bhattacharya didnt study science in university but their work in the healthcare field cant be undermined.

Anu Acharya is a name to reckon with in genomics while Jasdeep Mago is fighting an unending battle against stigma associated with mental health.

Monalisa Padhee left postdoctoral research in Australia to create healthcare solutions for rural women while Rajashri Padmanabhi had the foresight to prepare masks for India even before it was declared a pandemic.

While Bhosale certainly made it to the headlines, not everyone gets hailed in equal measure, some remain just a footnote.

We profile a few enterprising women making significant contributions to healthcare today.

Genome Genius Anu Acharya, 48 Entrepreneur, Hyderabad

She joined the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, as it was her childhood dream to be a physicist just like her father.

Growing up in Bikaner, Rajasthan, conversations at home revolved around science. But a few years in IIT and she realised her heart wasnt in Physics after all.

Post her stint in the USstudying Information Systems followed by working at several companiesAcharya returned to Hyderabad to start Ocimum Biosolutions, a bioinformatics company. In a few years, the company became a global genomics outsourcing partner. By 2011, we had over 11 years of expertise in genomics. It was time to start thinking about the next level. Can we impact peoples lives? recalls Acharya.

Around this time, the study of genomics was gaining traction. Armed with decade-long experience in the field, a state-of-the-art laboratory, a team of bioinformatics experts, and access to databases, Acharya registered her company Mapmygenome in 2012. It also started offering Genomepatri, a first-of-its-kind personalised health solution, with genetic counselling and lifestyle recommendations.

A take-off on janampatri (horoscope), Genomepatri is a preventive screen for identifying potential health risks and concerns that arise due to changes in the genetic code. DNA-based changes can put someone at risk for drug-induced adverse effects, too, which is covered in the test. By knowing about these risks beforehand, one can minimise risk and adverse outcomes, Acharya explains. They also included factors like severity to SARS-CoV and drugs that are currently used. Getting to know about your personal response can be helpful for the physician treating. Also the knowledge can help build immunity.

At present, Acharya is getting her lab ready for Covid-19 testing, and advising states on testing strategies including community testing and the use of antibody tests. And when not consumed by genomes, she finds her solace in poetry and has published a collection titled Atomic Pohe.

Protein Powerhouse Monalisa Padhee, 32 Medical Researcher, Rajasthan

Her father wasnt too happy with her decision of reverse migration. While he had left a small village in Odisha to move to a city for better career prospects, his daughter left Australia and moved to a small village in India.

All this while I was doing things to live up to expectations of my father or do what is considered a path for a settled life. Even though I enjoyed research, I wanted to understand the issues faced by rural women in India, says Padhee, who grew up in Sambalpur, Odisha, and had moved to Australia for her PhD.

She is currently the Program Head of Women Wellness Initiative, Enriche, at Barefoot College, a grassroots social enterprise in Rajasthan.

Based out of Tilona village, she works with community health workers in more than 30 villages in the state. Padhee joined Barefoot College under a Youth for India fellowship in 2015 and a year later started working in their Tilona campus.

Her team works to fight malnutrition in rural women through awareness, research, and by reviving indigenous products.

Padhee would like people to look at innovation beyond technological advancements. She says innovation is about demystifying a solution, so that it can be put in the hands of rural people to make them self-reliant.

For her, innovation is creating content and engaging with a population that cannot read.

Her decision to return to India is her most fulfilling decision ever taken. Currently in the US on another fellowship, Padhee rues how the society often glorifies young urban graduates coming back and working for rural communities

. We fail to acknowledge how these communities have fulfilled our own lives. The rural people have taught me true power lies in the collective strength of the communities, she says. Her team is now working on addressing issues arising out of Covid-19. A trained folk dancer, Padhee often uses music and dance to break barriers.

Colour Therapist Akansha Kukreja, 27 Graphic Designer, New York City

How often do you come across a graphic designer who wants to work exclusively in womens healthcare?

Meet Akansha Kukreja, a visual designer at Tia clinicwhich delivers gynaecology, primary care and evidence-based wellness, online and offlinewhere part of her work involves designing communication. Her innovation lies in making complex concepts easier for the masses through design.

My first day at Tia exposed me to so much more than I could ever imagine. The clinic does not feel like a doctors office and actually makes you feel less intimidated, Kukreja says.

I realised that my understanding of female healthcare (and my own body) was so limited and this could be the case for so many women. I remember sitting down with the resident gynaecologist at the time and asking so many questions, she recalls.

As a young girl growing up in Mumbai, Kukreja often used illustration, colour and typography to communicate what she wanted to say.

With a communication design degree from Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology in Bengaluru, she moved to New York for her masters and since then has made the city her home.

In the lockdown, Kukrejas work has increased manifold. In the wake of increasing cases and paranoia in New York City, Tia recently started offering Antibody Testing.

My recent project consisted of helping people understand what this test does, how the immune system works and what testing positive or negative could mean, she says.

Space Maker Dr Miniya Chatterji, 42 Sustainability Incubator, Goa

Locked down in Goa, Dr Miniya Chatterji built a pop-up hospital in Kerala in less than a week. She has also converted a vacant building into an isolation facility in Mumbai for Covid-19 patients.

As the number of coronavirus cases rise in India, Chatterji, who is director and founder of the Centre of Sustainability at the Anant National University in Ahmedabad, is preparing quarantine centres and exclusive Covid-19 hospitals.

Chatterjis job is to make businesses function sustainably. In India, I had set up the centre for research at Anant where we think, teach and do, she says over a call from Goa. The phone call that we manage to have is on a weekday, late evening, once she has settled her two-year-old son to bed. Chatterji, who is also the CEO and founder of Sustain Lab Paris (a sustainability incubator), is converting the university campus into a sustainable model through her company.

When India had just about 400 cases, Chatterji and her team chalked out a plan and reached out to the group Parliamentarians with Innovators for India.

Through the group, I got introduced to the Thiruvananthapuram local body and from there work got started, she says. She is now a government-approved vendor to convert vacant government and non-government spaces into temporary Covid-19 recovery facilities. She does this all in a span of three to five days.

In Mumbai, Chatterji has converted three centresin Najam Baugh, St Xaviers College and Dongri. The whole idea is to make it extremely affordable. So we came up with laminated corrugated cardboard beds, which can take the weight of seven people and is priced at Rs 1,300. A hospital bed made of steel is at the moment is priced at Rs 5,000, she explains.

At 42, Chatterji has held prominent positionsa policy analyst to former French President Jacques Chirac, a banker with Goldman Sachs in London, and a few years stint at the World Economic Forumbefore returning to India after 14 years.

I joined the Jindal Steel & Power Group as their Chief Sustainability Officer in 2014 and at that time not many organisations had this position. Three years later, I started Sustain Labs Paris.

The author of Indian Instincts, a collection of essays on India, also teaches a masters course, six weeks a year, at SciencesPo Paris, a university in France.

Designer of Hope Kshititi Nagarkar, 46 Healthcare Architect, Mumbai

Its an all-women team. And they only build healthcare facilities. If anyone were to ask Kshititi Nagarkar, principal architect of Shree Designs, a Mumbai-based firm that specialises in healthcare design, what made her stick to the above two exclusivity, she laughs off.

The first was partly coincidence, partly planned (all-women team) and the other was the need to fill the infrastructure gaps that existed in tier II and tier III cities, she says.

Nagarkar knew she had to construct buildings while in high school. And she knew she had to build hospitals when she was studying architecture.

In 1997, India was completing its 50 years of independence and a lot was published in the newspapers. What caught my attention were the articles on healthcarementioning lacuna in terms of bed ratio to population, lack of clean environments and resources for facilities. This prompted me to take up M.Arch with Healthcare major, Nagarkar recalls.

Shree Designs, which started operations in 2009, focuses on healthcare architecture.

Our motto of creating healing spaces is a challenge that encourages us to push our creative and logical limits, she says. A recent achievement for Shree Designs has been the companys empanelment with National Health Mission (NHM), a project by the Central government, to improve healthcare infrastructure in urban as well as rural areas throughout the country.

The company follows the principle of patient-centred care with the consumer as the focal point. Their innovations revolve around design of lighting and acoustics of the indoor space to cater to the sensitivity of the patient, design using green materials and creating modular spaces for multi-functional use.

Adaptable re-use of commercial spaces that are converted into healthcare facilities is their core area of expertise.Nagarkars forte lies in how she has managed to create spaces that arent just stereotypical. So she creates spaces that are less intimidating and more comforting.

Healthcare mainly follows the dictum form follows function. That being said, we (as patients) dread the stark and stoic spaces, which are often done in the garb of sanitation and sterility. I believe that we need to design these spaces to be more humane so as to support healing.

Peoples Patron Swati Subodh, 42 Scientist, Delhi

If theres a problem, Swati Subodh will find a solution. She is someone who would rather look at taking practical solutions from her research onto the field than keep herself confined to the lab. This outlook was shaped while she was working for her doctoral thesis at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

It was here that I realised the dichotomy in healthcare equity. People travelled from all across the country and spent many sleepless nights on the pavement waiting for their appointment.

"With technology, resources and human intelligence advancing, why is a basic facility like healthcare so siloed and heavily punctuated? It prompted me to look at healthcare in a totally different light, she says. Having worked for a decade in the field of biotechnology and genomics, she decided it was time to make a social impact.

As a result, she co-founded 1M1B (1 million for 1 billion) along with her brother, in 2014.

It is a UN-accredited non-profit and affiliated to the UN Department of Global Communications and UN Economic and Social Council. The idea was to activate a million people to impact a billion people.

The organisation identifies grassroots entrepreneurs and helps them create healthcare initiatives by providing resources or connecting them to tech or healthcare giants. We are building local solutions to our backyard issues, she adds.

As a senior scientist, Subodh also contributes to a philanthropic fund, which aims at promoting healthcare innovations.

I try to share my perspectives of the challenging healthcare landscape as a scientist, public health professional and an entrepreneur, she says, while discussing her role as a faculty at educational institutes and as a member of several national health committees.

The pandemic has reinforced her vision for working with the communities. With reverse migration happening as a result of loss of jobs in the cities and the resultant effects on the socioeconomic environment, it is quite evident why we need to focus more on developing our villages, she explains.

Her heart also resides in Indian art forms, which prompted her to start Aadyantara, a non-profit for their promotion. Kathak has always been a part of my lifeit has a meditative and therapeutic effect, says the classical dancer.

Her biggest pet peeve is not having corporates look beyond their CSR goals. The most difficult aspect of our work has been to motivate large organisations to contribute their resources to a bigger mandate for villages. Presently, limited funds are available for funding work in the villages in a sustainable manner, she rues.

We aim to create a leadership pipeline of changemakers for the future by skilling our youth. We are also working with women to empower them to address the issues of their communities.

Care Curator Swarnima Bhattacharya, 28 Holistic Healthcare Provider, Delhi

Nearly two years ago, Swarnima Bhattacharya had a discomforting realisation. I noticed the various gaps when it came to womens health in India.

It is medically under-researched and culturally blindsided. There is a lack of medical understanding, research and public health policy directed towards womens health. Cultural shame and stigma also surround the issue.

That she says is how her vision to provide a holistic caregiving platform for womens health became a reality and TheaCarea pan-India portalwas born.

The overall idea is to evolve into a hyperlocal discovery platform for all services that are relevant for womens health.

Be it access to a safe creche or a lactation consultant or somebody who is a pelvic floor specialist or a trusted gynaecologist, the platform helps to find the trustworthy experts near your location.

Originally from Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, and now living in Delhi, Swarnima stresses TheaCare is different from other similar portals.

We discuss the fact that women need the right kind of support and the evidence-based solutions to focus on their nutrition, lifestyle and mental health.

Though the platform supports all kinds of treatmentsAllopathy, Ayurveda or Homeopathyits believes that for any sustainable health change the most important intervention has to come through nutrition, lifestyle, improving your gut health, metabolic health, sleep cycle and finding a support system.

We are trying to redefine the culture of care around women, she says.

Swarnima also organises Femmecon, which is Indias first women health festival, to create a space where various stakeholders from womens health space come together to identify the gaps and brainstorm solutions to improve the condition of women health.

Even in this time and age, women entrepreneurs face sociocultural hurdles, she says. Despite the roadblocks, she had people who had her back. We always had people who believed in us, she smiles.

We are not just here to talk about the illnesses that women are facing whether it is hormonal or menstrual. We are here to talk about bringing care back into healthcare when it comes to womens health.

Mass Masketeer Rajashree Padmanabhi, 28 Public Policy Analyst, Delhi

It was the first batch of masks from MaskforIndia and they had delivered it to policemen in Nagpur. But the men in uniform handed it over to labourers on the street, made a small thank you note and sent it to Rajashree Padmanabhi.

Such kindness is what keeps this Delhi girl going. In her day job, she does number crunching, writes about climate and energy. And in the evening, she is busy identifying women who will make masks.

It was sheer curiosity in the emergence of an unusual epidemic (no, it wasnt declared a pandemic till then) in China that made Padmanabhi read up extensively on coronavirus.

And when the epidemic turned into a pandemic, this public policy specialist knew that masks were going to be in huge demand in the coming months.

It was early March and most of the experts in the field till then were talking about how masks were essential only for health workers or sick people.

"But I knew that it was just a matter of time and everyone would require masks. It was common sense, Padmanabhi talks about the initiative over phone. She and a bunch of friends staying in Germany and the Netherlands started MaskforIndia, which provided free, reusable cloth masks.

A civil engineer by training, Padmanabhi, 28, did her masters from Tata Institute of Social Sciences and later London School of Economics.

Currently, she works as a policy analyst on climate finance. With a network of 40 NGOs, independent boutiques and tailors, they have now moved to the next stage.

Until now, it was a match-making process. But now we have started raising funds to pay these NGOs, she says.

The plan for MaskforIndia now is to get more womens network on board, have funds in place and look at creating livelihood.

Once the lockdown eases, we are planning to approach corporates to buy masks for their employees. We are also looking at starting it as a marketplace, she says. She now wants the government to step in as scaling based on donations is a challenge.

It started as a social media awareness campaign. Then we launched a website, where we connected the NGOs making masks with those that required them. Also, we knew it could be an option for livelihood for a lot of women who have lost their jobs.



Keeper of Calm Jasdeep Mago, 27 Neuropsychologist, Mumbai

For many, Jasdeep Mago could well be their invisible friend as she intends to make mental health a top priority and ensure basic health service for all.

The neuropsychologist from Mumbai who co-founded Invisible Illness wants to erase the stigma associated with mental health and works actively on suicide prevention through campaigns, workshops and training sessions. Suicide is never impulsive, its well thought-out. Every such person should have someone to talk to and should receive timely intervention; it can be prevented, says the 27-year-old, who started the organisation when she lost one of her friends to suicide.

Mago isnt your conventional therapist.

She uses events to discuss mental health issues and conducts public events to spread the word. So her favourite form of spreading awareness on mental health arises out of art therapy, music lessons and dance. At the forefront of her practice lie her own struggles with anxiety and depression.

And Mago never shies away from talking about it. In fact, my approach to treatment is more from my own experiences.

"It is more holistic because I have seen mental health up, close and personal. My personal struggle with depression is my biggest driving force. No one should suffer the same pain, she recalls.

If it wasnt for her extreme anxiety she would have been a psychiatrist.

I was keen on studying brain and had originally set out to study medicine. But because of severe anxiety I had barely been able to clear my Boards. I gave up on studying five years of medicine, so the next logical step was paramedical and to be as close to psychiatry, says Mago, who pursued a masters in clinical neuropsychology from the UK.

The youngest in the family of three children, Mago had put extreme pressure on herself to outshine.

I was an average student but I wanted to be exceptional, she recalls. By the time she was 24, she had a major depressive episode and took medication, tried alternative therapies and came out of it successfully.

So even as some may question her skills in helping people, having suffered herself from depression, Mago maintains that her clients connect with her because of her personal ordeal.

When I say I understand to my patients, it isnt theoretical. I have been on the other side, she says. Mago conducts awareness campaigns in schools, runs a subsidised clinic and also works with corporates.

We do training sessions in corporate houses and at schools our work is mainly with teachers. We train teachers on how to respond to mental health issues of students as primary respondents, she explains.

I look at mental health strategy as a collaborative approachart, music are all an integral part of recovery from mental illness.


A woman wearing a mask looks at her mobile phone amid social distancing measures to avoid the spread of COVID-19 in Myeongdong shopping district in Seoul, May 28, 2020. Reuters



By Emanuel Pastreich




WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA  A day spent in peaceful protest turned destructive Saturday night in Los Angeles's Fairfax District as widespread looting damaged restaurants and shops already struggling under the weight of the coronavirus shutdown. Cars and buildings were set ablaze, a scene many residents never thought to see in their neighborhood. On Sunday morning, many grabbed gloves, brooms and did what they could to clean up after a night of chaos.

Tom O'Connell, a 20 year resident, woke to a trash-littered street. Blue Adidas boxes, from a looted shoe store, were scattered across his Laurel Avenue front yard and across the asphalt. Taking his dog for a walk, he followed the detritus to Melrose Avenue, and saw what happened when tensions snapped overnight.

Walking toward Melrose Ave. evidence of the night before flooded the streets. Photo: Tom O'Connell

He was met with graffiti and shattered storefronts. Rioters had ravaged stores until there was nothing left.

Their frustration was palpable.

O'Connell, a father of three, had joined hundreds on Saturday Pan Pacific Park a short distance from his Melrose area home.

Fairfax District protest on Saturday, was a peaceful, empowering multicultural event. Photo: Tom O'Connell

"The protest was beautiful, in support of the cause," he tells us. "The keynote speaker addressed the crowd, asking anyone who has lost someone to police violence to say their name out loud.

More than a dozen spoke out, O'Connell said.

"I had goosebumps," he says. "Here we are at our little park, and people fed up with leadership, with the situation, all joined together in peaceful protest."

According to O'Connell, the rally was a call to action, not the destruction they witnessed overnight.

They encouraged those present to get out, do what you can as an individual, to cast your vote, make your voice heard, to get up and make change happen, he said.

Black Lives Matter signs, testament to the peaceful protest at Pan Pacific Park on Fairfax. Photo: Tom O'Connell

As the sun arced in the west things took a turn.

At the intersection of Beverly and Fairfax, someone set a police car on fire.

"It got rowdy, there was a change," O'Connell tells us. He got out of there and went home to wait it out, a few blocks away.

Story continues

Like most Southern Californians, the O'Connell family watched on television as the Fairfax District's peaceful protests over George Floyd's death at the knee of a Minnesota police officer evolved into something else.

What began with signs and chants grew defiant in the face of uniformed police dressed in riot gear. After sunset, Saturday, protesters lashed out. Not against the uniformed officers, or the armored vehicles that rolled into the Fairfax District of Los Angeles. They lashed out against the stores, many of which are minority owned.

O'Connell captured pictures of littered side-streets of his area home.

Saturday night, he'd heard the voices, the screeching of tires, the sounds of fleeing. After 10 p.m., the helicopters left.

The police moved to other districts where there was still something left to protect.

"It was intense from La Cienega to Fairfax," O'Connell says. "Every third or fourth storefront smashed, gutted of merchandise."

On Melrose, Reformation women's clothing store closed since March due to the coronavirus pandemic, stood as witness to the night before, with shattered glass and tagged windows.



Reformation, a woman's clothing store, has been making masks for first responders in the time of coronavirus. Now, there is nothing inside. Photo: Tom O'Connell

The story was the same up and down the Melrose shopping district.

The tipping point for resident Wendy Nield, who has lived in this area for over 20 years, came with fires at a nearby shoe store. She smelled the smoke. So could her daughters.

More destruction down Melrose, seen early Sunday morning. Photo: Tom O'Connell

Nield's husband, Ken Berger, joined O'Connell Sunday morning to help sweep up the devastation.

There wasn't much to be done for the shopkeepers or the building owners, but the family could bring a broom, some gloves, and pile up the devastation. Create some order out of chaos.

For O'Connell, it's been bad enough with stores shuttered due to COVID-19.

Perhaps the temptation was too high. All of that merchandise, within pane glass view, unattainable as jobs turned to unemployment checks, phone calls for aid, and wondering how to make ends meet.

Some protesters turned into vandals. Then they evolved into looters.

Looting is almost too easy of a word to describe what happened here on Melrose.

Behind the jagged store windows, there is little to nothing left. Shelves are bare.

The destruction and thefts were indiscriminate. Random.

A sign proclaiming a shop to be Black Owned was hit as hard as another down the block. Photo: Tom O'Connell

Did this cool their fury? What will the next several days bring?

Sunday morning brought out the neighborhood, neighbors like Berger and O'Connell, who went into action instead of standing back, helpless.

"I would hope everyone would take a deep breath tonight," he says. "I understand the frustration."

In his thinking, we've all been pent up for nine weeks because of COVID. They are outraged by police violence, they are terrified about tomorrow, and on Saturday, they hit back.

"I would hope that they've got it out of their system, take a deep breath, reset, and focus energy in a positive direction."

Even if the only positive thing you can do is grab your gloves and pick up a broom.

Full protest coverage: LA Wakes To State Of Emergency Sunday After Intense Protests

This article originally appeared on the West Hollywood Patch
A JOINT East African Community (EAC) response against the Covid-19 pandemic is being prepared by regional civil society and private sector organisations, to facilitate life returning back to normal.

Delegates of the apex bodies of the private sector and civil society organisations that met virtually on Friday discussed the agenda for the Regional Dialogue Committee (RDC) meeting that will prepare possible interventions of the RDC to suit the needs of the region and developed a joint work plan for the Incubator for Integration and Development in East Africa (IIDEA).

The IIDEA will stretch from June 2020 to June 2021 and the meeting agreed on a joint statement for the Regional Apex Bodies on Covid-19 impacts and responses in the region.

The half day meeting was attended by representatives of the East African Civil Society Organisations Forum (EACSOF), the East Africa Law Society (EALS), the East African Local Government Association (EALGA) and the East African Health Platform (EAHP).

It came as countries are forging a way forward in post Covid-19, with some, including Tanzania, having opened up their skies and have completed preparations to get back tourism as life has gotten to normal with most empty beds at centres that were meant for patients suffering from Covid-19.

The members discussed a joint Covid-19 response to mitigate the effects that have been caused by the virus, impacting the entire world, in- cluding the EAC region.

Ms Generose Minani, the Principal Gender and Community Development Officer for EAC, commended the apex bodies for the strategic approach they had taken to continue working and complementing government efforts during the Covid-19 crisis and lockdown situation.

She urged them to strategise together on how to push the implementation of the consultative Dialogue Framework (CDF) in the region while scaling up their respective responses to the corona virus crisis in the region.

Ms Minani informed the meeting that the Social Sectors Directorate at the EAC Secretariat had developed a draft response, mitigation and adaptation for children and young people, developed a regional health, nutrition, education and social protection and is forming a regional gender based working group to address the gender-based violence and its related effects on the key groups in the region.

She further urged the apex bodies to embrace virtual meetings to conduct their business while coping with the lockdown and post Covid-19.

Mr Charles Omusana from the Pri- vate Sector and Investment Promotion Department of EAC, noted that the impact of Covid-19 had been felt across all key sectors in the region, such as manufacturing, trade, tourism, transport, agriculture and education and exposed chal- lenges as well as opportunities.

"The use of ICT and digital solutions has become the new norm of doing busi- ness especially for the private sector and small and medium enterprises (SMEs)," said Mr Omusana.

He pointed out that the department had plans to develop an EAC buyers and sellers platform that will promote EAC products to a wider audience, develop an EAC e-business registry that will provide opportunities for information sharing, establish an online registration and harmonise procedures for registration of companies across EAC Partner States and develop an investment guide to share investor information and pro- mote the investment opportunities that the EAC offers.

The Acting EACSO Executive Direc- tor, Ms Martha Makenge, stressed the need for creating public awareness on measures of Covid-19 to the citizens and engaging state agencies on the need to strengthen health systems and capacity to respond to coronavirus.

Ms Makenge urged the EAC partner states to implement a debt moratorium and divert resources meant for debt repayments towards rebuilding the public health system and investing in critical social service sectors.

She emphasized on the need for im- plementing a regional emergency fund towards social relief measures on Co- vid-19 and increase subsidies for small scale farmers to enhance regional food security.

The Cluster Coordinator of GIZ-EAC Programmes, Dr Kirsten Focken, said the IIDEA partners were proactively continuing work, adjusting project initiatives, plans and in addition providing response to mitigate Covid-19.

"We can see that in spite of diffi- culties, regional organisations focus on finding solutions, in particular to secure provision of services and trade in food products and also to use new digital technologies supported by various re- gional EAC-GIZ projects.

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The EALGA Acting Secretary Gen- eral, Ms Gertrude Aijuka, stressed the need for increased involvement, support and reinforcement of the Border County and Local Governments on matters of border security, control and management of mobility of people and goods which promotes cross border trade and safety of citizens during this period.

According to Mr David Sigano, the Programme Officer with EALS, the insti- tution had provided support to the East African Court of Justice (EACJ) in the launch of online Court proceedings and virtual training of lawyers intending to appear before the Court and undertake a baseline study on the impact of Covid-19 to cross-border small scale traders across the region.

EAHP Executive Director, Ms Jonniah William, called for a regional ap- proach to health security and promotion by adopting a two pronged approach where common social and scientific information, education and communication will raise public awareness and guide practices.
Pro-democracy protesters gather in Causeway Bay district of Hong Kong on May 24, 2020. (Isaac Lawrence/AFP via Getty Images)

Hong Kong Government Dismisses Trumps Imminent Sanctions Over Security Law

Hong Kong and Chinese state-run media have resorted to strongly worded rhetoric against the Trump administration in response to the presidents decision on Friday to rewrite ties with the former British colony.

Trumps decisions came after Beijing adopted a national security law for Hong Kong on Thursday, which would grant Beijings security apparatus the ability to operate in the Chinese-ruled city. Among the measures announced by Trump were revoking Hong Kongs special trading status with the United States and imposing sanctions on Hong Kong and Chinese officials responsible for directly or indirectly involved in eroding Hong Kongs autonomy.

The Hong Kong government, in a statement released on Saturday night, said that Trump and his administration continue to smear and demonize Beijings rights to safeguard national security in the city.

The Chinese Communist Party is crushing what made Hong Kong different from the rest of China. As a result, the President no longer believes its justified to treat Hong Kong the same as before. The U.S. will defend itself from the tyranny of the CCP. pic.twitter.com/OJNoDoPvRJ  Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) May 30, 2020

The statement also accused Trump of ignoring the facts on the grounds when the president said on Friday that China has replaced its promised formula of one country, two systems with one country, one system.

Before Trumps Friday remarks on Hong Kongs political modelwhereby Beijing promised to retain Hong Kongs autonomy upon the citys transfer of sovereignty from Britain to China in 1997pro-democracy activists and lawmakers also expressed that with the security laws passage, one country, two systems had come to an end.

Hong Kong Government and Beijing Respond

The Hong Kong government has defended Beijings decision to implement the security law, casting aside concerns that the U.S. decision could impact the citys economy.

We are not unduly worried by such [U.S.] threats, the Hong Kong government said, given its trade with the United States accounted for a small percentage of its total trade.

Two Hong Kong officials, Justice Secretary Teresa Cheng and Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Erick Tsang, have shrugged off the possibility of being named in the U.S. sanctions, while speaking to local media.

Chinese state-run newspaper Peoples Daily accused the United States in a May 31 editorial of stigmatizing and demonizing the legitimacy of Chinas national security law on Hong Kong.

In a commentary published on the same day, it claimed that the United States was playing with hegemonism in a shameless way with its proposed sanctions.

A day earlier, Chinas hawkish state-run media Global Times slammed Trump for bullying and gross interference in Chinas domestic affairs, adding that China would respond with firm countermeasures.

Hong Kong Opposition, US Supporters Back Move

Trumps announcement on Friday was welcomed by Republican U.S. lawmakers and pro-democracy lawmakers and activists in Hong Kong.

The Chinese Communist Partys aggression in Hong Kong has taken away their autonomy and has violated the terms of the Sino-British treaty. We will always stand with the freedom-loving people of Hong Kong and for our shared democratic values, said Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), GOP leader of the Foreign Affairs Committee, in a press release.

He added: The Chinese Communist Party officials responsible for these human rights abuses must be held accountable.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) applauded Trumps decision to pressure Beijing to honor its commitment to Hong Kongers and their freedoms in a press release.

As Beijing once again undermines democracy, we cannot let them profit from violating the Joint Declaration and trying to crush the spirit of Hong Kongs people, Rubio said.

For years, the Chinese government and CCP has worked to undermine #HongKongs autonomy. @POTUS is doing what is necessary to protect Americans and Hong Kongers. We cannot let #Beijing profit from breaking intl agreements. #StandWithHongKong Read more https://t.co/V9g89aKCpn  Senator Rubio Press (@SenRubioPress) May 29, 2020

On Sunday, Ted Hui, a lawmaker of Hong Kongs Democratic Party, told local media RTHK that local protesters should not give up in their fight for freedom and democracy.

Three members of Hong Kongs pro-democracy party DemosistoAgnes Chow, Nathan Law, and secretary-general Joshua Wongheld a press conference on Saturday, saying they welcomed Trumps decisions.

(L-R) Joshua Wong, Nathan Law, and Agnes Chow of the local pro-democracy party Demosisto, hold a press conference in Hong Kong on May 30, 2020. (Xiao Long/The Epoch Times)

Law, a former local lawmaker, said Trump was absolutely right in saying that one country, one system is the reality now in Hong Kong. He added that continued protests, international pressure, and ongoing efforts by pro-democracy lawmakers would be needed to force Beijing to drop the security law and answer protesters five demands, such as universal suffrage and an independent inquiry into instances of police violence. Such calls emerged in the mass protests triggered by a controversial extradition bill last year.

Wong, an iconic student leader from the 2014 Umbrella Movement, said Trumps announcement was the symbol of a new era in the U.S.-Hong Kong relationshipthe result of Hongkongers nonstop protests since June.

We also encourage more international alliances to stand with Hong Kong. Actions speak louder than words. Apart from issuing statements to oppose the national security law, more important [sic] is also to enhance different kinds of tools to put pressure on Beijing, Wong added.

The Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute (HKPORI) held a press conference on Friday, releasing the results of an online survey polling 10,996 people between May 25 and 28.

Of the 9,477 people who identified themselves as supporters of the local pro-democracy camp, 96 percent said they opposed the national security law.

Meanwhile, 29 percent of respondents who identified themselves as non-supporters of the pro-democracy camp also said they opposed the security law, and 9 percent were neutral.

The Washington-based advocacy group Hong Kong Democracy Council (HKDC), run predominately by Hongkongers in America, welcomed Trumps decisions in a statement on Friday.

We hope that it also solidifies a global alliance of defense for Hong Kong.

If Beijing persists in strangling Hong Kong, the path we are on now leads to lose-lose-lose for China, Hong Kong, the U.S., and the world, HKDC stated.

The Hong Kong edition of The Epoch Times contributed to this report.
The Netflix mini-series released earlier this year, Unorthodox, was a hit with critics and viewers alike. A 2012 memoir by Deborah Feldman, Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots, served as the source material for the Netflix show. But will Unorthodox, the TV series with only four episodes, get a second season? One of the co-creators of Unorthodox recently revealed the answer.

Will Unorthodox get another season on Netflix?

Shira Haas in Unorthodox | Anika Molnar/Netflix

RELATED: Unorthodox Star Shira Haas on the Response to the Netflix Series: It Was a Surprise

As the publication Metro reported after Unorthodox debuted on Netflix in Mar. 2020, it was so successful that people  flocked to social media, crying out for a second season.

But unfortunately, one of the executive producers on the series, Anna Winger, talked to Metro, and poured cold water on that idea.

Were not doing a sequel to this because we feel that we really told this story, Winger explained of Unorthodox. It was always designed as a mini-series. Winger and her co-creator Alexa Karolinski designed Estys story to be told in four chapters. However, Winger hoped she would work on projects with the cast in the future.

I suspect that I will work with these actors again, and with many of my collaborators from this project, the Unorthodox producer said. We have a lot of new things in development.

While Winger acknowledged its not the end of the road for this constellation, it is for Unorthodox  or at least for Esty Shapiro.

I dont think well tell this story again, Winger shared with Metro. Weve told it.

Estys story in Unorthodox resonates with many viewers in just four episodes

While the Netflix series creators based most of Estys childhood and teen stories on Feldmans memoir, the scenes set in Berlin are mostly fiction.

We decided from the beginning that we actually had to change a lot,

Winger told Metro. The Unorthodox producer explained of Feldman, on whom Esty was loosely based:

We didnt want her contemporary self to be too close to her real-life as shes a public personality. Very early on we decided to make her a musician rather than a writer.

RELATED: Unorthodox: The Real Woman Whose Book Inspired the Netflix Series Says Her Family Sent Her Hate Mail

However, Winger expressed that many Netflix viewers connected to Estys tale. She told the publication:

Estys journey is actually very relatable for many people  not feeling like you belong where you come from, wishing that you could find people who related to you better, wishing you related to the people youre growing up with better.

The Unorthodox co-creator also shared with Metro how many letters of support shed received.

So many people have written to me, whether its from Mexico or Saudi Arabia, telling me, This is my story,' Winger said. That part doesnt surprise me because I see this story as being universal.

Shira Haas cast as the lead in the four-episode mini-series

Amit Rahava and Shira Haas in Unorthodox | Anika Molnar/Netflix

Israeli actress Shira Haas plays the lead, Esty Shapiro, in Unorthodox. Winger couldnt help but gush about Haas to Metro.

Shira is just like magic, the executive producer shared. Shes a really intelligent young woman and shes deep.

The Unorthodox co-creator added of the actress: I think shell make a great director someday. Shes totally professional and worked so hard.

RELATED: Why Unorthodox Producers Only Cast Jewish Actors for Jewish Roles in the New Netflix Series
Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas has shot down a federal government suggestion to abolish payroll tax to stimulate the economy in a post-COVID-19 world, saying forgoing billions in revenue would reduce the state's capacity for services and infrastructure projects.

Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has begun listing economic reforms that should be looked at with "fresh eyes" to lower taxes, boost productivity and create jobs after the pandemic.

However, Mr Pallas is not prepared to scrap the state tax, which generated $6.2 billion last financial year.

Abolishing payroll tax would jeopardise Victoria's post-COVID recovery, says Treasurer Tim Pallas Credit:AAP

"Victoria will constructively participate in national reform discussions, but we have no intentions of reducing our capacity to deliver vital services and infrastructure that are funded by the state's revenue base," Mr Pallas said.
Most Southern states now report data about coronavirus cases in state-licensed nursing homes, but not Alabama.

Mississippi became the latest state required to publish the number of coronavirus cases in each facility after a judges ruling on Tuesday. Now Alabama and Texas will be the only Southern states to keep that information secret.

More than 130 nursing homes in Alabama have reported cases of COVID-19 in residents or workers, according to the Alabama Nursing Home Association. Nursing homes are required to report cases of COVID-19 to the county health department, Alabama Department of Public Health, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, residents, staff and resident representatives (often family members). AL.com has compiled a list of 60 reported by news organizations.

Case numbers change constantly, so current totals may not be accurately reflected in the data.
A Labour MP is no longer serving in a senior role in the parliamentary party after admitting breaking coronavirus lockdown rules.

Rosie Duffield, who represents Canterbury in the House of Commons, has apologised and is no longer a Labour whip after it was revealed that she met her partner when they were not living together in April.

Ms Duffield, who was first elected in 2017, met her partner for a long walk and did not deny that he came to her house, the Mail on Sunday has reported.

She said that they stayed two metres apart at all times on the walk, but that these meetings were before meetings between two people from different households were allowed.

Rosie Duffield MP

Ms Duffield added: My partner and I have been attempting to navigate a difficult personal situation as responsibly as possible. I apologise that during that process, we breached the guidelines.

A relationship breakdown is difficult at the best of times, let alone during a pandemic.

I hope people can understand why I took the steps I did and know that I take responsibility for the breaches that occurred and for which I apologise.

Anneliese Dodds / PA

Shadow chancellor Anneliese Dodds has said Ms Duffield was right to resign from her front bench position.

Ms Dodds told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show: She was absolutely right to resign, clearly she wasnt right to have broken the rules  quite the opposite  and it is absolutely correct that she has immediately taken responsibility for that as I understand it, and she has resigned.

But, you know, it is critically important  I talk to my constituents and the kind of sacrifices that they have gone through to stick to the rules, to keep us all safe, everybody has got to do that  so it is absolutely right, I think, that Rosie Duffield has resigned her position on the front bench.
The Nobel Prize-winning scientist who predicted, by analysing raw data, that Ireland's death and infection rate would "burn itself out" over the last two weeks is back with more good news.

Professor Michael Levitt of Stanford University says Ireland should not fear a second surge of the coronavirus and backs Michael O'Leary's claim it is safe to fly. The real worry now, according to Prof Levitt, is trying to save Ireland's economy from the biggest recession in its history.

Asked if we should fear a second surge of the virus, he said yesterday: "Ireland is fine. If you have a very low death rate, then there is a lot of uninfected people in your country and if you have a higher death rate then you are probably fine.

"Ireland didn't lock down early. That's my view from looking at the numbers. The countries that didn't lock down early have around 300 deaths per million of population - and Ireland has around 300 deaths per million. So you might have thought you locked down but you left a crack, let people travel and didn't take temperatures.

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"Ireland has managed to get enough people infected."

Prof Levitt went on to explain there may be more cases of infection in the coming months, but no second surge in deaths.

"We are getting very good at finding cases but what matters is the death rate. You might keep finding new cases and all that means is that the cases are very mild, but they won't lead to deaths," he said.

"Most people who were vulnerable have either got the disease or have died. Most people survive. So it looks to me that Ireland is going to be fine. Now your government should do whatever it can to get the economy going as quickly as possible again."

Asked if his data has shown lockdowns were effective in the fight against the disease, he said: "No. They definitely did more damage than good. I have been saying this repeatedly over the last month. And we still don't know how bad the damage will be.

"Any country that can get its act together quickly will be at an advantage."

Meanwhile, giving his take on air travel, Prof Levitt believes Europe's infection rate is high enough to enable people to holiday again.

"Let everyone onto the plane and just don't make a big deal of it," he says.

Although not an epidemiologist, Prof Levitt won the 2013 Nobel Prize for chemistry after developing accurate computer models of chemical reactions able to use features of classical physics and quantum mechanics.

"My skill in chemistry is not bench work but to analyse very complicated systems in order to understand what is going on," he told the Sunday Independent earlier this month.

Having amassed millions of followers on social media, Prof Levitt has now become committed to analysing the infection spread and the Nobel Laureate says what people really need going forward is reassurance.

"Let people fly, it is no extra risk," he said. "Ask them to wear some kind of face covering. It doesn't even have to be a surgical mask, or an M95 mask, it can be a cloth mask, perhaps even handed out by stewards advertising the airline. I predict that very quickly people will realise that it is okay to travel - and that is the important thing."

Prof Levitt believes new measures will be put in place to enable people to feel comfortable, akin to what we saw post-9/11.

"The disruption caused to air travel after 9/11 was massive," he says. "Why do they still test if you have a water bottle when getting on a plane when the chances of someone carrying a bomb that is liquid is so tiny? They do it to give people jobs and to make passengers feel secure. When people can't take little things like cigarette lighters on board they feel happy that nothing will happen, but I don't think it makes much difference."

He believes a similar trend will take hold after the Covid-19 pandemic.

"Maybe now they will take your temperature and it will be kind of funny and not a big deal. They have been doing this in China for the last 15 years, since Sars."

On whether it is safe for people to take holidays as early as this summer, Prof Levitt says the figures on Europe's infection rates give the green light: "Yes and I would go to places that have had lots of coronavirus already."

Prof Levitt originally came to the world's attention when he correctly predicted the initial scale of the pandemic and calculated the reduction of China's spread, long before most health experts. In early February, as many scientists warned of exponential growth, Levitt forecast the total number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in China would taper out at around 80,000, with 3,250 deaths. Four months on, China has a total of 82,999 cases and 4,634 deaths - in a population of 1.4 billion.

Asked if epidemiologists should be held to account if their predictions prove incorrect in the long run, leading to the knock-on effects of economic and social damage, Prof Levitt disagreed: "The people who are ultimately responsible is the government. And for whatever reason they panicked. It's very easy to blame epidemiologists but ultimately the government is responsible for the way things are run and no one else. It is all very well to say 'gee, he told me to shoot' but that's no excuse, you must use your common sense."
Syracuse, N.Y.  The states Department of Motor Vehicles is restarting some of its services  including road tests for commercial drivers licenses  in parts of the state next week as more businesses reopen amid the coronavirus.

The DMV is also expanding the types of services it can do online or by a secure document drop off system.

On Monday, June 1, state-run DMV offices in the counties of Albany, Onondaga, Nassau, Suffolk, Rockland, Westchester and New York City will begin to process vehicle registrations and other transactions by mail.

On Thursday, June 4, those same offices will begin accepting transactions through secure drop boxes, according to the DMV.

For now, DMV offices are not serving customers in person.

Heres what you need to know:

Commercial Drivers License road tests

Customers whose road tests were canceled because of Covid-19 will be given priority for rescheduling, and DMV staff will begin outreach to those customers on June 1.

Reservations for other CDL customers will be available in the days following at this online registry. Road tests and reservations for Class D (passenger vehicles) will not be available at this time.

Road tests will begin in all regions that are in at least phase one of reopening.

DMV examiners will wear gloves, face shields and have hand sanitizer.

Customers must wear masks and will be screened prior to beginning the test. They will have their temperatures taken and be screened for symptoms of Covid-19.

Road tests will be rescheduled if a customer has a fever (temperature of 100 degrees or higher), is exhibiting symptoms of Covid-19 or has had recent, close contact with anyone who tested positive for Covid-19.

Customers and staff must maintain 6 feet of distance whenever possible.

Customers will also need to disinfect the passenger side of the vehicle with disinfectant wipes upon arrival.

Customers should not report for their road test if they are in quarantine or asked to stay at home by a health professional; have been diagnosed with the virus or had close contact with a person who is positive; or have flu-like symptoms.

Other road tests will begin in phase three.

Vision tests

People should use one of 6,000 providers enrolled in the DMVs Vision Registry to be tested. The providers will enter the results online.

Customers who have not had their vision checked by a Vision Registry provider can have their doctor or another medical professional complete a Vision Test Report, which the customer can use to complete the renewal process online. 

Mail-In and Drop-Box Transactions

DMV is expanding necessary transactions by mail and drop box. That means you no longer need to come into an office to process:

All original vehicle registrations and license plate transfers (make sure you complete the registration checklist before submitting documents)

License plate surrenders

Sales-tax-only transactions

License and registration renewals (online option also available)

Replacement of lost documents (online option also available)

Address change (online option also available)

Beginning Thursday June 4, secure drop boxes will be located at all state-run DMV offices, including in Onondaga County. You can drop off documents during office hours, Mondays through Saturdays.

When dropping off documents, customers must wear a face covering, and only two customers will be allowed in the office at one time to access the drop box. Everyone must stay 6 feet apart.

All documents and instructions are available on www.dmv.ny.gov. Customer service representatives will not be available to assist with these transactions.

Once transactions are complete, a receipt, or license plates and registration documents, when applicable, will be returned to the customer by mail.

Upgrading to a REAL ID or Enhanced Driver License

That is still on hold until in-person service resumes. The federal REAL ID enforcement deadline has been extended one year until October 1, 2021.

Online Transactions

The DMV offers more than 60 transactions online

Select driver license services, such as renewing or replacing a license

Vehicle transactions, such as renewing or replacing a registration

Requests for DMV records like crash reports or driving abstracts

Personal services like changing an address

Handling fines and fees, including to plead or pay New York City traffic tickets and paying other civil penalties

What about NYs other 51 counties

County Clerks operate DMV offices in the remaining 51 counties. They are advised to follow the state DMVs timeline and guidance for reopening.

MORE ON CORONAVIRUS

Coronavirus in NY: Cases, maps, charts and resources

McMahon: Ugly reopening was making sausage,' but state made the right call in the end

Central New York, 4 other regions clear to move to phase 2 of reopening

NY releases guidelines for offices, retail shops, real estate and other phase 2 businesses

Complete coronavirus coverage on syracuse.com

Got a story idea or news tip youd like to share? Please contact me through email, Twitter, Facebook or at 315-470-2274.
(Natural News) Sen. Ted Cruz is laying out a zero-tolerance policy for Hollywood studios that willingly censor their movies to please Chinese Communist officials, proposing new legislation that will block all federal assistance to the studios behind those film productions.

(Article by David Ng republished from Breitbart.com)

The senator called China the single most dangerous geopolitical threat in the world in a speech on the floor of the U.S. Senate on Thursday.

Chinese officials want to shape what Americans see, hear, and ultimately think, Cruz said. Because Hollywood studios voluntarily change characters and plot points in order to gain access to the Chinese market, Chinese officials control not just what audiences see in China but also what Americans see.

In a bill he introduced Thursday, Sen. Cruz (R-Texas) is calling for Congress to cut off Hollywood studios from the federal assistance they receive if those studios censor their films for screening in China.

The senator had previously called for the elimination of Pentagon assistance to studios that cooperate with Chinese censors. But the version of the SCRIPT Act that he unveiled Thursday goes even further by suspending all federal assistance. Movie productions often request access to federal property and military equipment for filming purposes.

The SCRIPT Act  Stopping Censorship, Restoring Integrity, Protecting Talkies Act  will almost certainly face opposition from the major Hollywood studios, whose blockbuster movies often depend on the Chinese market to make money.

Sen. Cruz noted a few recent examples of Hollywoods voluntary self-censorship, including Paramounts upcoming Top Gun: Maverick, which eliminated the Taiwanese and Japanese flags from Tom Cruises iconic flight jacket . The sequel is a co-production with Chinas Tencent Pictures.

What message does it send that Maverick, an American icon, is apparently afraid of the Chinese communists? Thats ridiculous, Cruz said.

The Disney-owned 20th Century removed all references to Freddie Mercurys sexuality in Bohemian Rhapsody in order to gain access to Chinese cinemas. Disney also cast Scottish actress Tilda Swinton in a role that was originally meant to be a Tibetan monk in Marvels Doctor Strange.

Sen. Cruz said that he wants the SCRIPT Act to serve as a wake up call for Hollywood.

Studios would be forced to choose between the assistance from the federal government or the money that they want from China, he said.

Sen. Cruz introduced two other bills on Thursday that are intended to curb Chinese influence in the U.S.

The Blocking Evasive Attempts to Manipulate Signals Act  or BEAMS Act  would prevent China from exploiting FCC loopholes to broadcast Communist party propaganda to Americans from radio stations in Mexico or Canada.

The law would also apply to partially state-owned stations, such as Phoenix Television.

The Ending Chinese Medical Censorship and Cover Ups Act would sanction Chinese officials involved in the ongoing suppression of medical experts, journalists, and political dissidents.

Read more at: Breitbart.com
One individual was arrested during Saturdays protest in Harrisburg, an event that started peacefully but later turned violent and caused city mayor Eric Papenfuse to put a curfew in place.

Papenfuse and Harrisburg Police Commissioner Thomas Carter confirmed that the individual was arrested by Capitol Police following an incident at Forster Street. They had no additional information as of 4:47 p.m.

The Black Lives Matter protest began as a peaceful one in response to the death of George Floyd, who was in police custody in Minnesota. The rally at the Capitol turned into a march around the city that resulted in multiple police cars being damaged and a confrontation between citizens and police before the crowd dispersed after pepper spray was used around 9 p.m., when Papenfuses city-wide curfew began.

I understand why people are upset, Papenfuse said. "I recognize that throughout this country we have a problem with systemic racism, really at all levels of our judicial system, and this is something that has to be improved on, and we need to take these voices very seriously and listen, and thats exactly what was happening.

For the first several hours of this protest yesterday, the protesters represented really the best of democratic political civic engagement and optimism, and the protesters were organized, respectful, and had their voices heard.

Papenfuse explained the Forster incident as follows:

"There were six officers total, one in the car, five outside of the car, and we had at least some seasoned officers, many of whom Ive now spoken to, and they all were terrified and very much scared for their own well being. But, as police officers with the duty to protect and serve, they decided to stay focused and continue to push forward to try and get out of harms way.

"As they got closer to the intersection on Forster Street, the Capitol Police arrived, and its at that time that the Capitol Police began to discharge a degree of pepper spray to encourage the protesters to disperse and allow the police officers to escape from harms way.

The violence then escalated with bricks being thrown, and one Capitol police officer was at that time hit in the head by a brick. Two other Harrisburg police vehicles, which were there closer to Forrester Street, also had their windows smashed, and then the officers ... proceeded to get out of harms way and eventually made their way back to the Capitol.

Papenfuse suggested that more arrests are possible, specifically related to what he said was a white woman who damaged one of the police cars. The mayor said that she will be charged at some undetermined time. Carter described her as a young woman but suggested that they did not yet have her name. He was hopeful that she could be identified using facial recognition.

More coverage:
There is growing evidence that smaller nations are succeeding because social cohesion makes them easier to govern and economically efficient. It is argued that in smaller, more homogeneous societies citizens have greater trust in their governmental institutions, as well as in their fellow citizens. With greater trust, elected officials are given wide discretion in designing public policies. For example, smaller European nations, such as Sweden, are perceived to be more successful in designing policies in response to the financial crisis in 2008, and the current coronavirus pandemic. Critics argue that the failure in U.S. policy responses to these economic shocks is due to lack of trust in our governmental institutions, and that elected officials should be given greater discretion in designing policy responses.

However, analysis of policymaking in small European nations suggests a more nuanced explanation for their success. This is especially true in analyzing the fiscal response in Sweden to the economic shocks in recent decades. Elected officials in Sweden are constrained in fiscal decisions by stringent statutory and constitutional rules. These fiscal rules set explicit targets for balancing the budget, and for reducing debt to sustainable levels. The fiscal framework sets clear budget process rules to achieve these targets. A Fiscal Responsibility Council assures the transparency required for citizens to hold their elected officials accountable. In other words, the attitude of citizens in Sweden toward the fiscal decisions of their elected officials is trust but verify.

In the 1990s, statutory fiscal rules were enacted in the U.S. to constrain the fiscal decisions of elected officials. With these fiscal rules in place the federal government not only balanced the budget, but also generated small surpluses to pay down the debt at the end of the decade. The ratio of debt to GDP in the United States was comparable to that in Sweden and other low-debtor countries. Economists refer to the decade of the 1990s as the Great Moderation in monetary and fiscal policies. Over the past two decades, however, America has virtually abandoned the fiscal and monetary rules in place in the 1990s. The federal government has incurred deficits and accumulated debt at an unsustainable rate, leaving us with one of the highest debt burdens in the world.

Some economists argue that the debt crisis that has emerged over the past two decades is the result of debt fatigue in responding to the financial crisis and the coronavirus pandemic. But Sweden and other European countries responded to these economic shocks with countercyclical fiscal policies, without incurring unsustainable debt.

S ome economists question whether there is public support for prudent fiscal policies. The coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated a deep division between citizens in the states. Support for federal bailouts comes primarily from citizens in high-debtor states that have a high percentage of urban populations, and that stand to capture most of the rent from federal bailouts. Citizens in low-debtor states have a low percentage of the population in urban areas, and therefore do not capture as much rent from the federal bailouts. Citizens in states such as Utah that balance their budgets and limit debt are challenging the federal bailouts. Citizens in Salt Lake City are asking the obvious questions about this bailout money. Why should their federal tax dollars be used to bail out elected officials in Illinois who have failed to balance their budget and where debt is growing at an unsustainable rate? Public employees in Utah, where reforms have significantly reduced unfunded liabilities in pension and other post-employment benefit (OPEB) plans are asking why their federal tax dollars are used to prop up pension and OPEB plans in Illinois with unfunded liabilities that cannot be paid off within a 30-year amortization period. When the federal government addressed similar problems in Puerto Rico, it enacted legislation mandating that Puerto Rico declare bankruptcy in order to restructure its debt. If bankruptcy is the solution for Puerto Rico, why is it not the solution for unsustainable debt in Illinois and other high-debtor states?

In 2020, the United States is at a crossroads. Over the past two decades, each economic shock has left the country with a greater debt burden, and with a greatly expanded role for the federal government in the economy. The economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic has been comparable to a wartime economy. In responding to this recession, the federal government has incurred unprecedented amounts of debt, and has all but abandoned rules-based fiscal and monetary policy.

The long-term forecast by the Congressional Budget Office is for a continuation of these trends over the next three decades. The federal government will account for a greatly expanded share of GDP, and much of this expanded role for the federal government will be financed by debt. Higher debt levels will be accompanied by retardation and stagnation in economic growth. The United States is on the path of other high-debtor countries such as Japan.

The question for the United States is whether there is an alternative path, and if so, how can citizens choose this alternative path? The experience in Sweden and other European countries reveals that there is an alternative path, and that citizens in a democratic society are capable of choosing that path. In our research, we explore the potential impact of more effective fiscal rules on the budget and the economy over the next three decades. The dynamic simulation analysis reveals that with these fiscal rules in place it is possible for the United States to stabilize and reduce debt to sustainable levels. With these fiscal rules in place downsizing the federal government, America can restore long-term economic growth. It is time for American citizens to adopt the Swedish approach to elected officials: trust but verify.

John Merrifield and Barry Poulson are policy advisors at The Heartland Institute, a free-market think tank located in Arlington Heights, Illinois.
Neither love nor terror makes one blind -- indifference makes one so and corporate companies are making it crystal clear that in the wake of the dehumanising death of George Floyd in Minnesota as they choose not to remain silent 'indifferent' bystanders.

On the official blog of CITI Group, the CFO of the company, Mark Mason, posted a touching post about Floyd's death.

'I can't breathe' were Floyd's last words, and he had said them at least ten 'as a police officer kneeled on his neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds. While Three other officers stood by and WATCHED, read Masons post.

"Even though I'm the CFO of a global bank, the killings of George Floyd in Minnesota, Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia and Breonna Taylor in Kentucky are reminders of the dangers Black Americans like me face in living our daily lives. Despite the progress the United States has made, Black Americans are too often denied basic privileges that others take for granted. I am not talking about the privileges of wealth, education or job opportunities. I'm talking about fundamental human and civil rights and the dignity and respect that comes with them," wrote Mason.

He, however, is not the only one to condemn the death of Floyd. As demonstrators thronged the streets of Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Miami, and many other cities of the United States, despite a pandemic at large, to protest against police violence on African Americans, and chanted slogans of 'Black Lives Matter', corporates too extended their support on social media platforms.

Online streaming platforms like Netflix, Hulu and Youtube wasted no time in addressing the issue.

"We stand in solidarity against racism and violence. When members of our community hurt, we all hurt. Were pledging $1M in support of efforts to address social injustice," said Youtube's Twitter post.

Netflix took to Twitter to say, "To be silent is to be complicit. Black lives matter. We have a platform, and we have a duty to our Black members, employees, creators, and talent to speak up."

Besides, Amazon Studio and HBO took to Twitter to express their support to the African American community.

According to a report in American Banker, JPMorgan Chase's Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon and Brian Lamb, the bank's newly appointed diversity chief, wrote a memo that was circulated among the company's US employees on Friday, addressing Floyd's death, and declaring their commitment to fighting racism.

"Let us be clear  we are watching, listening and want every single one of you to know we are committed to fighting against racism and discrimination wherever and however it exists," the memo said.

Memos and emails were also sent to the staff of Bank of America, and Wells Fargo. Another media report claimed that a similar memo was received by the employees of Paramount Pictures on May 30 that said, "As a nation, our heartbreak and outrage are not enough. The fabric of our society, the founding promise that all men are created equal, is broken, and it is the responsibility of all of us to raise our voices and be part of the solution."

According to Deadline, the new CEO of Warner Media, Jason Kilar, also sent an internal memo that said, "I want to be very clear in saying that our responsibility to the Black community is that we truly listen, that we seek understanding, and that we do these things with as much empathy as possible. In no uncertain terms, we as a company are firmly in support of people that suffer injustice, including our own."
By Trend

Over the past 24 hours, Armenian armed forces have violated the ceasefire along the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops 25 times, Trend reports on May 31 referring to Azerbaijani Defense Ministry.

The Armenian armed forces were using sniper rifles.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding regions.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on the withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno Karabakh and the surrounding regions.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
The National House of Chiefs is expressing worry over the war threats being issued by some political elements ahead of the 2020 presidential and parliamentary elections.

It has therefore called for calm and peace over the proposed compilation of a new voters register.

It would be recalled that the CID recently commenced investigations into threats made by PNCs National Chairman, Bernard Mornah, against the Electoral Commission and its staff concerning the voters register.

At a press conference, Mr Mornah, who is largely seen as surrogate of the opposition NDC, says People who are already Ghanaians are already registered are going to be taken out of the voters register, don't you think confusion will come at the registration station and if confusion comes there, you think the EC staff will be safe, we will beat each other there and, we will kill each other there if that is what the EC wants to lead this nation to.

The said press conference was organized by the Inter-Party Resistance Against New Register (IPRAN) on May 26, 2020.

And in a statement, the National House of Chiefs said: We are very concerned about the growing tension in our country, at a time when we are confronted with a lot of challenges  Covid-19 pandemic, CSM epidemic, flooding, joblessness, etc.-that naturally require that we stick together and work towards finding the appropriate solutions.

In the face of these challenges, it says, Ghanaians need hope and not fear.

But sadly, our airwaves are filled with intimidation, and threats of anarchy, mayhem, war, according to the House of Chiefs, adding Our political leaders appear to be more concerned about winning power, than the development needs and happiness of our people.

It noted that central to the escalating tension is the decision of the Electoral Commission to compile a new register.

Unfortunately, the EC failed to honour invitations to the National House of Chiefs, when our traditional leaders wanted the opportunity to promote dialogue in the interest of peace, it says.

The House of Chiefs statement was jointly signed by its President, Togbe Afede XIV and Vice President, Daasebre Kwebu Ewusi VII.

Daily Guide
UPDATE  June 1, 2020: Evacuation orders remain in place for hundreds of southern B.C. properties on Monday morning, while Environment Canada has lifted all of its weather alerts for the province. Find our latest coverage here.

Heavy rainfall, snowmelt and rising rivers in the Kootenays have led to evacuation orders on more than 500 properties as of Sunday at 10 p.m. PT and an "unprecedented" evacuation alert covering nearly all the Regional District of Central Kootenay in B.C.

The largest number of evacuation orders are in the West Kootenay, where the entire watershed was under flood warning, which means river levels have exceeded their banks or will do so imminently, according to the River Forecast Centre.

There are also orders in place in rural Grand Forks, in the Kootenay-Boundary region, and for one property in Cawston, where the Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen has declared a local state of emergency.

Evacuation orders are in place for the following areas as of 10 p.m. Sunday:

Residents and visitors are required to leave the affected areas immediately, and should check the evacuation order for the exact addresses affected and instructions on where to go.

The Regional District of Central Kootenay is directing residents from each evacuated area to check in with specific hotels, to access short-term assistance and emergency support.

"Due to COVID-19 we ask everyone to do their best to practice physical distancing and wash or sanitize their hands regularly," each order states.

The Regional District of Kootenay Boundary, which covers Grand Forks, is not opening reception centres due to COVID-19. Evacuees are encouraged to stay with friends or family if possible, and will be contacted directly by B.C. Emergency Support Services.

From Saturday night into Sunday, heavy rains battered the region, turning rivers from blue to brown.

On Sunday morning Environment Canada said in a statement that a thunderstorm moving up from Washington State could cause rising rivers, downed trees, flash flooding, and that it could be dangerous to work outside.

Story continues

A severe thunderstorm warning was also in effect for the Elk Valley region, with strong wind gusts and heavy rain.

Bob Keating/CBC
Tobacco control advocates across Africa have called on governments to protect the continents young population from the manipulation of the tobacco industry and the sale of tobacco products to minors.

The advocates stated their positions on the occasion of the 2020 World No Tobacco Day themed Protecting youth from industry manipulation and preventing them from tobacco and nicotine use.

The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) said this years theme is very relevant to the Nigerian context in view of the tobacco industrys unrelenting efforts at grabbing the lungs of the youth and recruiting them as replacement smokers for a dying generation of older smokers.

The theme of the year 2020 WNTD should be a wake-up call to governments around the world, and particularly the Nigeria government, that they must act decisively because our youth are now an endangered species, said Akinbode Oluwafemi, ERA/FoENs Deputy Executive Director.

Mr Oluwafemi said the statistics of young smokers in low and middle income countries like Nigeria are set to spike as the tobacco industry exploits the poor enforcement of tobacco control laws to deepen their reach to this vulnerable group.

Aside the availability of traditional tobacco products on demand, the social media space which the youth dominate, has also been encroached upon by the tobacco industry to promote their so-called novel products that have been responsible for disturbing death rates across the globe.

According to the World Health Organisations 2015 data, 17 per cent of young people between the ages of 15 and 24 smoke worldwide. The WHO said as the tobacco industry is increasingly targeting young people as an emerging and vulnerable market for its addictive products, it is a pressing issue and a challenge for tobacco control policy-makers in every country.

Oluseun Esan, the programme coordinator of Nigeria Tobacco Control Alliance, said the WHOs message is clear on the need for governments to intervene to build resilience among the next generation of young people against tobacco and to move steadily towards a tobacco-free future.

Fortunately, the protections that the Nigeria youth need to dodge the booby traps of the tobacco industry are enshrined in our tobacco control law. It is now left for the Nigeria government to enforce them, said Mr Esan.

As the toll of the COVID-19 pandemic bites harder, the tobacco industry has equally heightened its image laundering and marketing of its harmful products to the youth in subtle ways. The youth must now reject their lethal products and it is the responsibility of our government to help make this happen.

He re-echoed the WHO position that the tobacco industry is well aware that a person who starts smoking before their early 20s is not only more likely to develop an addiction but may also have an impaired ability to exercise control over smoking later in life.

Exploitng the youth

The WNTD is marked on May 31 each year to nudge Parties to the World Health Organisation  Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO-FCTC) to assess their achievements and progress made throughout the year towards a tobacco-free world.

The Africa Tobacco Control Alliance (ATCA) in a statement noted that the 2020 WNTD theme provides the opportunity for tobacco control advocates to remind the world that tobacco kills half of its users.

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READ ALSO: More Nigerian youth at risk as govt fails to tackle illicit tobacco trade

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Consequently the tobacco industry regularly devices strategies to initiate new consumers and get them addicted. The tobacco industry only cares about the profit it makes from its products and not public health, Leonce Sessou, ATCAs Executive Secretary, said in the statement.

ATCA is a non-profit, non-political pan-African network of civil society organizations headquartered in Lome, Togo and with membership in 39 countries.

About 60 per cent of Africans are below 24, and according to 2018 World Bank statistics, sub-Saharan Africa has a population of almost 1.1 billion. It is projected that by 2050, the continents population will grow to 2.4 billion and 35 per cent of youths in the world would be Africans.

With strict implementation of strong tobacco control measures hindering the tobacco business in some parts of the world, it is not surprising to note that Africa, with such a growing and very youthful population, and with a relatively low implementation rate of tobacco control measures, is potentially a fruitful market for the tobacco industry, Mr Sessou said.

Tobacco control efforts have gone a long way to keep the tobacco industry at watch, but the industry continues to devise new strategies to keep its business afloat. Exploiting the exuberance of young people in the continent, the industry sometimes out rightly goes against established policies even at the detriment of the health and wellbeing of the population.

An ATCA study reveals that in Africa, children as young as six years old still have access to tobacco products at kiosks, grocery stores and from street vendors, and are targets of massive and very subtle cigarette advertising and promotion. Cigarettes are also widely retailed and sold in packs of less than 20 units, and flavoured tobacco products can easily be purchased by young people.

Mr Sessou said African governments must regulate social media  in relation to tobacco promotion  which is prominently used by its youth, and is heavily being exploited by the tobacco industry to widen its reach.

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The tobacco industry has proven beyond reasonable doubt that it has no regard for public health. Even during this difficult moment when the world comes together to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, the industry is undertaking very non-ceremonial actions to keep its business booming.

World No Tobacco Day 2020 therefore requires us to be even more vigilant and not relent our efforts in frustrating tobacco industry interference activities. The challenges are enormous, but together as a community, we will surely triumph.
MIDDLETOWN  Hundreds of people marched marched peaceably on Main Street in Middletown Saturday night  from the North End to the police station  in honor of George Floyd, who died May 25 at the hands of a police officer in Minneapolis.

Other marches also took place in Connecticut Saturday, including in Bridgeport.

In Middletown, as the large crowd, most wearing face masks and in black, proceeded toward the police station, they held up signs saying, Black lives matter, Well say it till we dont need to say it anymore, Silence = complicity, No justice no peace and There comes a time when silence is betrayal.

Follow live as rallies take place in Connecticut today.

Walking from Rapallo Avenue to police headquarters at 222 Main St., participants chanted as they walked: I cant breathe! No justice no peace, and other familiar phrases marking protests and rallies across the country.

Superintendent of Schools Michael Conner and Mayor Ben Florshiem, who took part in the demonstration, joined Police Chief William McKenna in speaking to those gathered. Several Common Council members joined the march.

When I leave my house every day, I dont feel safe, Conner admitted to the crowd. I worry about if Im coming home to my family. It doesnt matter if I have a suit on, doesnt matter if I have an education, they dont see that.

All they see is my color, Conner added.

What we have to do now is move from today, and make sure  make sure  this is not the last thing we speak. Make sure that black fathers and black women and black mothers are able to get home to their kids, he said.

Organizer Erica Hunter posted a notice about the event on social media, urging attendees to observe social distancing and wear facial coverings.

Several dozen Middletown police officers stood by on Main Street, as cruisers led the procession down the closed-off road.

More rallies were expected in several communities across Connecticut Sunday.
Protesters smash windows along Figueroa Street in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

Despite a citywide curfew, groups of people  mostly men  wandered the streets of downtown Los Angeles late Saturday night, smashing windows and spray-painting anti-police graffiti on plywood boards that business and property owners had hastily affixed to their buildings earlier in the day.

Cars cruised around downtown looking for easy targets to loot. Drivers parked as passengers ran inside to grab goods before hustling back outside and filling the trunk with pilfered products.

The CVS pharmacy on 8th and Grand avenues was boarded up after being vandalized and looted the night before. On Saturday night, one person began banging on the front door. After about five minutes, it finally broke and two people ran inside, grabbing items.

Soon, a stream of people rushed into the store and began removing items.

The scene was the same around 11 p.m. at a computer store on Melrose and Highland avenues in the Fairfax District, where throngs of people drove up, ran into the shop and emerged with boxes of electronics.

An 8 p.m. curfew enacted by Mayor Eric Garcetti did appear to clear the streets in many areas. TV footage showed police taking people into custody for curfew violations. The number of arrests was not immediately available Sunday morning.

As the sun rose over downtown L.A., crews went to work sweeping up a sea of shattered glass and covering up graffiti with paint rollers.

National Guard troops deployed onto the streets of Los Angeles after Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency.

A platoon of soldiers walked patrol between Skid Row and Bunker Hill, while Humvees rumbled through the Financial District.

The soldiers on foot patrol carried M-4 rifles and wore full combat gear, with gas masks strapped to their thighs. Some looked self-conscious as passersby stopped to photograph them, while others nodded and said, "Good morning."

It was the first time the National Guard has been called into Los Angeles since the 1992 riots, which erupted after the police officers who beat Rodney King were found not guilty.
WALWORTH  As I am writing this, we have just finished what I call Weekend #9 since this virus fiasco started, and now  because of the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling  things in Wisconsin are finally starting to open up again.

I am the director of the Big Foot Emergency Food Pantry located in Walworth. Our area of responsibility includes the towns and rural areas of Walworth, Fontana, Williams Bay and most of Linn Township. That covers an area of roughly 100 square miles. I would like to pass on to you some recent events concerning our food pantry. Similar stories are happening all over our state and many others.

First, I need to establish a baseline for what follows. You need to understand that very few people go to a food pantry because they want to. It is the most humiliating thing that many of them have ever done. Some openly show it more than others, but it can be a very difficult thing for them to do. Ive talked with many people that have returned after being gone for a while, smiling with a strong sense of pride telling me what they had been doing to not have to come to the pantry.

With all of that in mind, Id like to go on record stating some aspects about what the mainstream media has been reporting on that should be clarified. You have seen pictures and videos of lines to pantries and food banks in states like Texas and California being a mile or more long. You have not seen that depicted in Wisconsin, northern Illinois or even Oregon, because our numbers are down, not up.

Down? Yes. The numbers at our pantry have been down about 30% from what we normally see, and some other pantries in the areas I mentioned are down 50%. In addition, we are finding at our pantry about half the people that do show up have never been to our pantry before or have not been there for a long time. It is very subjective and impossible to measure, but what I have also been seeing is that for these families, the need for help has been substantially higher than what we have previously experienced.

But, overall, the numbers are down. Why? In talking with others from all the areas listed, there is an agreement that three factors are in play.

1. Every citizen got a stimulus check for $1,200 and their children got $500.

2. Families in the WIC program saw huge increases in their monthly benefits. Someone getting only $15 a month went to over $200 a month.

3. Anyone getting unemployment checks receives an additional $600 a week from Uncle Sam. Six-hundred dollars a week equates to a full-time job paying $15 an hour. And that is on top of whatever your unemployment check is. Many unemployed people are getting paid more now than when they were working.

So yes, numbers are down. Thats part of the good news. The not-so-good part is that you may have noticed that the food supply chain has been severely damaged and it is going to take time for it to heal. Our numbers may be down, but we still have families coming to us in dire need of food.

So where do we get it? Stores with empty shelves, and if they do have something, there are limits on how much you can purchase with often  but not always  no exceptions for food pantries. Government commodities have continued to be good, but our big supplier, Feeding America, has had issues. They send their trucks out to stores and factories for their regular pickups, and then find out that there is not much there. They have been our main source for things like frozen meat, which only would cost us 19 cents a pound. However, it has been almost two months since I have been able to order any beef or pork. Its been a month now for poultry. Pizza is a popular item for people getting food from us, and is not always available. Even when ordered, I never know if it will actually show up on the pallet when I arrive in Milwaukee. Many ordered items are just not on the pallets.

They cant give us things if they simply do not exist. Whenever possible, I load up as much as I can. For many of us, a rewarding part-time volunteer effort has turned into a stressful full-time job.

On the positive side, we are receiving incredible over-the-top support from all over the community. The financial donations have been unreal, and Ill give an example at the end on what we have been doing with them. Some short stories on what people have been doing for us:

One high school student from Big Foot High School and another group of students from Williams Bay held excellent impromptu food drives in their areas.

The Fontana Police Department held a big food drive for us.

Sadly  boy, I really enjoyed going there  St. Bens had to quickly cancel their Friday Lent fish fries. They had freezers full of frozen cod, french fries/potato cakes, green beans, etc., that they were stuck with. We gave them a donation to purchase it all from them.

An employee at a local food store purchased and gave us 63 one-pound packages of ground beef. Without him, we would have been out of ground beef by now. I should add that the local FFA also gave us 25 one-pound packages of ground beef.

A local 4-H club is raising a hog for us and somehow managed to get it on the schedule for processing the first of September. They are taking care of all the costs. All of the meat processing plants in our area  maybe the whole country  are booked solid until September. Farmers are slaughtering and disposing of all kinds of hogs, beef and chickens, because there is no place to process them. Yet store shelves are empty or with limits on what you can buy. Earlier I mentioned how damaged the food supply chain is. This is just one example of that.

These were just some examples of the incredibly fantastic support we have been getting from our community. There are many many more. I could write a book.

It would be remiss of me not to also mention the many volunteers  some new  that have working so hard to keep things on track.

Well get through this. A big mega thank you to the whole community. We really do live in a very special area.

Jack Meredith is director of Big Foot Emergency Food Pantry in Walworth.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance completed one year of its second term on Saturday, with senior party leaders such as Prime Minister Narendra Modi, home minister Amit Shah and BJP president JP Nadda listing the central governments achievements during the period.

Marking the day, Modi addressed a letter to the citizens of the country, thanking them for their blessings, which he said helped the nation take historic decisions and progress rapidly in the last one year.

In 2019, the people of India voted not merely for continuity but also with a dream of taking India to new heights. A dream of making India a global leader. The decisions taken in the last one year are directed at fulfilling this dream, he said in the letter.

Modi also shared a document on his official Twitter handle detailing the steps taken by the government for the progress and development of the country. Have a look at the Vikas Yatra, that gives glimpses of our collective journey of development, empowerment and service, Modi tweeted along with the document.

Responding to this massive support from the people, PM Modi and the government have started delivering on big reforms, big decisions and big ideas from day one, the document said. From ensuring a new dawn for Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh to historic corporate tax cuts, from empowering farmers and traders with pensions to aiding a peaceful resolution to the Ayodhya issue, Modi 2.0 has begun on a high note, it said.

Hailing Modis leadership, Shah said that with pro-people measures and infrastructure development, the prime minister has not only prepared a blueprint for making a strong new India but also a self-reliant one for the countrys golden future.

The home minister said that during its tenure, the NDA government corrected many historic wrongs.

I heartily congratulate the countrys popular Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the successful one year of Modi 2.0. It has been full of historic achievements, Shah tweeted

BJP chief JP Nadda said that in the last one year, their government turned challenges into opportunities and took steps for the holistic development of the country.

This has been a year of accomplishments and we have also faced unimaginable challenges. The Prime Minister led from the front to give a vision to the country and managed the coronavirus crisis well. Starting from testing facility to developing PPE kits and ventilators in the fight against Covid-19, the country under Prime Minister Modis leadership is heading towards indigenous and self-reliant India. A holistic package was also announced by our government, Nadda said at a press conference.

While crediting Prime Minister Modi with bringing about a cultural change in the political arena, Nadda said: What is right will be implemented and the chalta hai (whatever goes) attitude will not be tolerated by the Modi government.

(With agency inputs)
By Panos Kotzathanasis | Published on 2020/05/30

Coming up with a film that functions like a modern version of "Pride and Prejudice" in a Korean setting and with Hollywood aesthetics is definitely not an easy task, but Lee Byung-il seems to have managed just that, in a rather interesting production.

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The story revolves around medical doctor Ko, his three daughters, and his wife, Mrs. Ahn's efforts to marry them according to her own agenda. In a rather unusual fashion, the film begins just after the wedding of the older one, Sook-hi with Seung-il, a man their parents did not exactly approve. During their first night together, the husband confesses that he used to love another woman in the past. Sook-hi is very understanding and in order to make him feel less burdened, she even confesses her own, similar story. Alas, his reaction is completely different from hers, and soon after, he leaves her and goes to the US. Sook-hi confines herself in the family's house for three years, at the end of which is where the main movie arc actually begins.

Mrs. Ahn is currently convinced that Sook-hi's blights were a result of her marrying out of love, and is now set not to let her other two daughters making the same mistake. Doctor Ko also has some plans of his own, but his attitude is more laid back, something that makes his offspring love him more. Mrs. Ahn plans for her second daughter, Moon-hi, to marry the son of a good friend of hers, who has just returned of the US, and mostly spends his time in their house sharing stories from his time there. Moon-hi, however, likes Joon-cheol, the tutor of the young son of the family, although her father considers him a nerd and her mother too poor and timid for her daughter. When they forbid her from proceeding with that relationship, she takes things in her own hands. The youngest daughter, Myeong-hi has grown a fondness for her father's assistant, Yeong-su, something her father seems to approve but not her mother.

Lee Byung-il directs a film mostly about the clash of traditional Korean values with Americanization, highlighting the hypocrisy of the previous generation, which is mirrored in Mrs. Ahn, about the concept. In that regard, Mrs. Ahn has no issues with her daughter marrying a man whose influences come from the US, or setting up her house in western style (including Greek-like ancient busts) but when the discussion goes towards the freedom girls enjoy in the US, and particularly regarding their disconnection from their parent's will, she simply closes her ears.

This attitude of hers, and the fact that Dr. Ko rarely takes a stand in the inevitable clash between mother and daughters, is the main source of the blights the girls experience in the main arc of the film, although each one's reaction is quite different. Moon-hi is devastated while Myeong-hi, amused. However, Lee does not make a point of showing that the daughters' way of thinking and actions are, necessarily, correct, and that of the parents, wrong, as exhibited by almost every individual story, at least until the rather forced happy ending takes over.

At the same time, however, and particularly through Sook-hi's arc, Lee presents the difference between the way people perceive men and women, and the fact that Korean society is a male-dominated one, despite Mrs. Ahn's effort to show the opposite.

The whole "politics" revolving around the three girls getting married is the element more reminiscent of "Pride and Prejudice". On the other hand, the way the protagonists conduct themselves, the general story line, the overall setting, the clothes, the music and almost everything else, point towards Hollywood in terms of aesthetics, with the happy ending doing the same for the narrative.

Regarding the technical aspect, apart from the fact that the film is excellently preserved, the first thing one will notice is the masterful job done in the art direction by Yim Myung-sun, with every setting's decoration being as impressive as it is meaningful. Particularly the various rooms seem to mirror the mentality of their occupants, all the while highlighting the impact of American culture in the then S. Korea. Lee Yong-min's cinematography takes full advantage of this prowess to present some rather memorable frames, while the whole visual aesthetics also seem heavily influenced by Hollywood, as is the case with the pace implemented by Kim Young-hee's editing.

The acting is also on a very high level, with the ones standing out though being Seok Geum-seong as Mrs. Ahn, with her strict and controlling love, and Jo Mi-ryeong as Myeong-hi, with her cheerful rebelliousness. In general, the combination of comedy and drama works well for the narrative, with the cast actually being split into representatives of the one or the other.

"The Love Marriage" is one of the easiest to watch Korean movies of the 50's (at least among the ones offered by the Korean Film Council), as it seems very familiar to what the audience is used to watch in the West. Apart from the interesting comments regarding modernization and tradition, this is where the film's main value lies.

Review by Panos Kotzathanasis

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"The Love Marriage" is directed by Lee Byung-il, and features Choi Eun-hee, Lee Min-ja, Jo Mi-ryeong, Kim Seung-ho-I, Choi Nam-hyun, Seok Geum-seong. Release date in Korea: 1958/10/14.
Thief in Assam caught red-handed after cooking Khichdi in the middle of burglary

With 159 new cases, Assams COVID-19 tally crosses 1,200 mark

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

Guwahati, May 31: Assam's COVID-19 cases crossed the 1,200-mark on Saturday with 159 people, including 20 air travellers, across districts testing positive for the disease, state Health and Family Welfare Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said.

With these cases, the total number of COVID-19 patients has gone up to 1,216 in the state from 1,057 on Friday. OF the total cases, 1,046 are active, Sarma said in a tweet.

Coronavirus outbreak: Assam to soon see Bihar-like situation in COVID-19 cases

oronavirus: India records single-day jump of 8,380 positive cases in 24-hours| Oneindia News

"Alert -- 31 new cases of COVID-19. 20 Air travellers, Morigaon 11," the minister added.

Earlier during the day, Sarma said samples of 128 persons from across the districts tested positive.

Kokrajhar and Chirang reported 26 cases, 20 in Hailakandi, 13 each in Kamrup and Dibrugarh, nine in Jorhat, seven in Golaghat, five in Dhubri, three in Barpeta, two in Cachar and one in Bongaigaon, he said.

The minister said 29 people have tested positive for coronavirus but the districts to which they belong are yet to be ascertained.

In a separate tweet, he said 38 patients have recovered from the disease and discharged from hospitals after their samples tested negative twice.

These include 14 at Silchar Medical College and Hospital, 11 at Mahendra Mohan Choudhury Hospital, eight at Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed Medical College and Hospital, three at Jorhat Medical College and Hospital, and two at Gauhati Medical College and Hospital.

COVID-19: Bodies to be sent to mortuaries within 2 hours

Out of the total cases, four patients have died, while 163 have been cured and were discharged from hospitals, Sarma said, adding three more patients have migrated to other states.

On Friday, Assam had crossed the 1,000-mark in COVID-19 cases with a single day highest tally of 177 new patients.

Earlier, Sarma said a CSIR-NEIST COVID-19 testing laboratory will be functional in Jorhat district of Upper Assam.

After inter-state movement through road, rail and air communication was allowed during the lockdown, Assam saw manifold rise in COVID-19 cases.

To screen all the people coming from outside the state, the government has imposed a mandatory institutional quarantine policy for everyone, barring some exceptions.

Assam has so far tested 1,01,257 samples for COVID-19 in seven laboratories in Assam, NIV in Pune, and Lal Path Lab and Core Lab in New Delhi, the state Health and Family Welfare Department said in its daily bulletin.
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Inside Hook

Has life under quarantine changed the way people drink? Its certainly made to-go cocktails a part of some peoples regular routines. And its shifted the drinking habits of others. A new report at Reuters, however, suggests that at least one aspect of the alcohol world is in the midst of a downturn: champagne.

This might not be a huge shock  after all, champagne is not necessarily something thats going to keep for too long in the fridge, and its traditionally associated with social events, which are not terribly common these days. But it is something that could have repercussions on the industry for a long time.
Protesters gather outside of the Fifth Police Precinct in Minneapolis, Minnesota on Saturday: Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

A woman who says she lost an eye during a protest over George Floyds death has urged people to keep demonstrating.

Linda Tirado, a journalist and photographer covering the protests in Minneapolis, the city where Floyd died after a police officer knelt on his neck for eight minutes, told people to stay in the streets for her.

It comes to my attention that some folk are using my injury to argue that people should stop protesting, she wrote on Twitter.

F*** that, stay in the streets double for me, because I cant.

She claimed: It was police who shot me, not protesters.

Ms Tirado said she has lost eyesight in her left eye after what she believed was a rubber bullet hit her in the face  although Minneapolis Police told The New York Times they have not used them for decades.

If someone believes that we have injured them, we encourage people to contact our Internal Affairs Unit or the Office of Police Conduct Review, John Elder, a police spokesperson told the newspaper, adding he was not aware of the incident at the time.

Ms Tirado told The New York Times: I was aiming my next shot, put my camera down for a second, and then my face exploded.

Okay because people are awful and we cant even take a day off it comes to my attention that some folks are using my injury to argue that people should stop protesting



Fuck that, stay in the streets double for me, cause I cant. It was police who shot me, not protesters.  Linda Tirado (@KillerMartinis) May 30, 2020

The Minneapolis Police Department has been approached for comment by The Independent.

Protesters have taken to the streets in Minneapolis  as well as in other US cities and across the world  after Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, was killed after he pleaded for air as a policeman kept him pinned to the ground.

Derek Chauvin, the now-fired officer, was charged with third-degree murder on Friday.

Story continues

Tens of thousands of people have joined nightly protests across the US since Floyds death, with at least 1,600 people arrested in 22 cities as some demonstrations descended into violence.

From Los Angeles to Miami to Chicago, demonstrations marked by chants of I cant breathe  a rallying cry echoing Floyds dying words  began peacefully on Saturday before escalating as people blocked traffic, torched cars and businesses, and clashed with riot police  some responding with tear gas and rubber bullets.

Hundreds gathered in Trafalgar Square in London for a Black Lives Matter demonstration on Sunday, with some holding signs reading Justice for George and Rest in power.

Additional reporting by agencies
Actor Alia Bhatt has the cosiest celebrity home ever. While most celebrities opt for the most luxurious options, Alia and her sister Shaheen have created the cutest home for themselves that looks lived-in, bright and full of life.

Alia moved into her Juhu home in 2019 which she bought with my own money, my own effort. The actor had also posted a video on her YouTube channel of her moving day with mom Soni and Shaheens help. The family set up their living room, kitchen and others rooms in the video.

Moving out of my house was a very very special experience because it was the first time I was moving away from my home and into my own house...Initially I was gonna move in alone then I decided to take my sister along with me and she was more than happy. She decided to live part time with me and part time with my mom Alia had said in the video.

The house is painted in bright white with the exposed brick detailing on a few walls. There are adorable decor elements such as a light box with a take me to the moon, message, a few framed quotes about not growing up letting go, a picture of a cat (Alia is a big cat lover and has a few of her own).

The bathroom comes with a shower separated by a glass with black panelling, a simple white bathtub and some colourful Moroccon tiles laid out on the floor. Alia has multiple reading nooks in her home and her living room hosts a low couch with white and blue ikkat-inspired design.Wood beams hold up the ceiling above the wooden dining table and the kitchen is bathed in mint green cabinets and white tiles.

Also see: Sunil Grover cooks up a cigarette in his kitchen in hard-hitting video, Anubhav Sinha shares his own experiences

Alia has previously shared cooking videos from her kitchen and a quiz with best friend Akansha Ranjan Kapoor, shot in her living room. She also often dresses up for events and poses at her own home for glam pictures before stepping out.

Alia was said to be living with boyfriend Ranbir Kapoor at his home during the lockdown. However, her latest video of her reading a chapter of Harry Potter for Wizarding World, makes it appear as if she is back at her own home.

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Rak-Su have revealed they have experienced racism in the past, including an incident where they were chased in a car by men trying to 'run [them] over'.

The X Factor winners, made up of Myles Stephenson, 28, Ashley Fongho, 27, Jamaal Shurland, 28, and Mustafa Rahimtulla, 29, told how they have also been subjected to racist comments on social media.

Speaking to The Sun on Sunday, Rak-Su hope to raise awareness of racism following the death of George Floyd, an African-American man who died after a white police officer knelt on his neck for eight minutes in Minneapolis on May 25.

Interview: Rak-Su have revealed they have experienced racism in the past, including an incident where they were chased in a car by men trying to 'run [them] over'

Myles said: 'Weve experienced racism in the past. We were chased as teenagers by men in cars in Watford. They were trying to run us over.

'Ive also had racism directed at me online.'

Floyd's death sparked protests and demonstrations in Minneapolis and across the US while all four police officers involved in his arrest have been fired.

Derek Chauvin, the officer who knelt on his neck, was arrested for third degree murder with his bail set at $500,000 (405,071).

Myles Stepehnson said: 'Weve experienced racism in the past. We were chased as teenagers by men in cars in Watford. They were trying to run us over'

Speaking about police brutality and discrimination against unarmed black men in the US, Myles said he hoped the group's British accents would protect them from discrimination from police in America.

He said: 'Id like to think when we go to America our English accents would make these police officers question what they do before they act.'

Bandmate Ashley added: 'A lot has got to change and we want to do whatever we can to raise awareness.'

Riots spiralled out of control on Saturday night as cop cars were torched, stores were looted.

Awareness: Rak-Su hope to raise awareness of racism following the death of George Floyd (pictured), an African-American man who died after a white police officer knelt on his neck

On Sunday, cop cars were torched, stores were looted and at least 11 states activated the National Guard on a fifth night of protests that show no signs of stopping.

Meanwhile, at least 25 cities roll out emergency curfews to try to bring rioting and looting under control, including San Francisco, Atlanta, Louisville, Los Angeles, Portland, Columbia, South Carolina, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Seattle.

President Donald Trump has put the Army on notice to deploy to the streets with a four-hour notice - the first time this will have been done in almost 20 years during the 1992 LA riots over the beating of black man Rodney King by cops.

Police in New York City sparked outrage on Sunday when a video appeared to show an SUV being driven by police plow into a group of protesters in Brooklyn.
New Delhi:

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, accompanied by his Cabinet colleague Satyender Jain, today left for Rome to attend the canonisation ceremony of Mother Teresa.

Kejriwal, who worked with Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata for a short period in 1992, has often fondly recalled his association with Teresa.

Working with the organisation, founded by the noted missionary, was his first brush with public service, he has said.

AAP leader Kumar Vishwas also accompanied Kejriwal. Vishwas clarified that he will be bearing his own expenses. The Chief Minister will return to the national capital on September 5.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee have also separately left for Rome with their delegations.

In March, Pope Francis had announced that Mother Teresa, who founded the Missionaries of Charity, will be elevated to sainthood after the Church recognised two miracles attributed to her after her death in 1997.

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Maine restaurant owners are going to have a lot of rotting food and idled staff on their hands, after their governor suddenly reversed a decision to allow them to re-open on June 1st. Having made the mistake of trusting their state governor, Janet Mills, the restaurants that were able to survive the lockdown spent scarce funds restocking their supplies and rehiring staff, in preparation for the promised reopening. But not so fast! WGME-TV, Portland reports:

Restaurant owners in three Maine counties are reacting to news that they'll have to wait longer to reopen. Wednesday, Governor Janet Mills postponed the dine-in dates for York, Cumberland and Androscoggin Counties indefinitely. Restaurant owners say theyve spent a lot of money and time preparing both their food and staff to safely reopen next week, and now with that date pushed back, theyre faced with an uncertain future.

Cumberland and York Counties are respectively the first- and second-most populous counties in Maine, and Androscoggin is number 4. Together they account for 44% of the population of Maine.

Now, they are in limbo, with no date announced for reopening. Here is the vague statement Mills offered on Wednesday:

Given the trends we are seeing in certain parts of Maine, our Administration is revising the plan to align with what is in the best interest of public health. To that end, rather than permitting dine-in services in Androscoggin, Cumberland, and York Counties as we had originally planned, we will be allowing outside dining only with precautions, a move we believe is safer for the health of Maine people and that balances the economic needs of these businesses, Mills said.

The closest Mills ever got to private employment, much less entrepreneurship, was working as a nursing assistant in a psychiatric hospital during her interrupted undergraduate college education. After earning her law degree, she went on the public payroll as a prosecutor and has been cashing government checks ever since.

She obviously has no concept of the fragility of an enterprise that can go bankrupt when sales receipts do not cover expenses. They cant just raise taxes or sell tax-exempt bonds, they go kaput. The notion of economic risk and loss is alien to her experience. Like many leftists, she must just assume that a business will always be there, and goods and services will appear magically, no matter what.

Restaurants already on thin ice financially now have wasted money in anticipation of reopening. Some restauranteurs, no doubt, will be driven to extinction by this capricious change. But what does she care?

Photo credit: US Congress (cropped)
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Linkedin Graham Keeley (Reuters) Barcelona, Spain  Sun, May 31, 2020 14:09 599 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdb2da00 2 People Prince-Joachim,Belgium,royals,coronavirus,COVID-19 Free

A nephew of Belgium's King Philippe, Prince Joachim, has tested positive for coronavirus after attending a party in Spain, which Spanish media said broke lockdown rules because of the number of people there.

The prince, 28, tested positive after attending the gathering in the southern city of Cordoba on May 26, a spokesperson for the Belgian Royal Palace said on Saturday.

The spokesperson said the palace could not confirm the number of people in attendance at the party. The palace said Joachim traveled to Spain from Belgium on May 24 for an internship and was still there.

El Pais newspaper said the prince, who is tenth in line to the Belgian throne, attended the party along with 26 other people.

This would be a breach of lockdown rules in the province of Cordoba, where the maximum number of people permitted to meet is currently 15.

Spanish police said they had launched an investigation into the incident and those who breached restrictions could face fines of between 600 and 10,000 euros.

Read also: Britain's Prince Charles tests positive for coronavirus

All 27 people who attended the party are now in quarantine, Rafaela Valenzuela, the Spanish government's regional envoy in Cordoba, told a press conference on Saturday.

Valenzuela called the gathering "completely irresponsible" and said it could have caused an outbreak of infections, triggering a return to a stricter lockdown.

"I feel surprised and angry. An incident of this type stands out at a moment of national mourning for so many dead," she said. As the government eases Spain's lockdown regulations, at one point some of the strictest in Europe, police have intervened in a series of cases of people flouting social distancing restrictions.
Overnight rain, accompanied with gusty winds of up to 60 km per hour, brought the mercury down in the national capital on Sunday, the weather department said.

The Safdarjung Observatory, which provides representative figures for the city, recorded 9.2 mm rainfall. On Saturday, it recorded the maximum temperature six notches below normal. The Palam Observatory gauged 5mm rainfall overnight.

The weatherman has predicted light rain and thunderstorm with winds gusting up to 50 kilometers per hour over Delhi-NCR on Sunday.

Maximum and minimum temperatures are likely to hover around 35 and 22 degrees Celsius respectively. With another western disturbance being expected in northwest India in the first week of June, a heat wave is not likely to return to Delhi-NCR before June 8, the weather department.

Kuldeep Srivastava, the head of the India Meteorological Department's regional forecasting centre, said the effect of the current western disturbance and easterly winds will reduce significantly by Sunday evening. He said the maximum temperature in Delhi-NCR is likely to increase by two to four degrees Celsius from June 1 to June 3.

"However, the mercury will remain below 40 degrees Celsius over most places and heat wave conditions will not return," he said.

A fresh western disturbance and southwesterly winds along with the formation of a low pressure system in the Arabian Sea will bring moisture to Delhi-NCR, Srivastava said.

These two systems will lead to thunderstorm and light rain over Delhi-NCR between June 3 and June 5."A heat wave is unlikely over northwest India till June 8," he said.
MALABA  The COVID-19 Inter-Agency Security Joint Task Force (IAJTF) Chaired by Maj Gen Leopold Kyanda has completed the inspection of key border posts with recurring reports of non-compliance to COVID-19 guidelines issued by the government.

The team that first visited Malaba and Elegu has on Sunday, May 31 completed the last leg of the inspection after a four-day visit to Mutukula, Mirama hills, Cyanika, Bunagana, and Mpondwe border posts.

Maj Gen Kyanda said the purpose of the visits were to interface with the Regional Task Forces in a bid to draw solutions to the problems affecting the implemention of the government anti COVID-19 directives on border closure and Cargo trucks movement.

He observed that from the interactions with the task force, some of the challenges they faced were related to Coordination.

In a place like Malaba, every agency did the right thing but there was little coordination. Things have since moved on smoothly after we met the teams, Maj Gen Kyanda said, adding that other places such as Mutukula had less challenges due to close coordination by all the actors.

Our interactions with the field teams were very important. We have been able to put some issues right on the spot, he said. He added that a report would be written to the strategic leadership for action on issues beyond the reach of the Task Force.

He said a key recurring issue in all the regions is violence against security agencies, something he strongly condemned. He, however, called on the security members to always exercise restraint when under such situations but not be cowed.

Do not allow the State to be subdued by such peoples. Appropriately employ the law and your rules of engagement to ensure we protect our people from situations that may lead to increased spread of COVID-19. Make sure such people are arrested and charged, said Maj Gen Kyanda.

The General further observed that despite considerable deployment by UPDF along the borderline, kinship relationship and interdependence of communities along the porous borders has made it hard to implement border closure.

Nevertheless, we have done our best and intercepted thousands of people trying to cross the borderlines especially through the hard to reach spots, he said.

The IAJTF comprises of the UPDF, Police, Prisons, Joint Intelligence committee, Uganda Revenue Authority, and Immigrations. The IAJTF often co-opts members from Ministries, Agencies and Departments for specific tasks.

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On a day his government granted a slew of relaxations in non-containment zones while extending the latest lockdown till June 30, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday said that people should tread cautiously while beginning the "new life".

In his televised address to the state, the CM said the "Mission Begin Again " is aimed at restarting our lives again.

"The permission for outdoor physical activities, opening of shops and markets, offices is a trial to check on how we shouldmove forward, but we should tread cautiously. Lockdown should now be thrown into dustbin," he said.

He said if lockdown is science, lifting it is an art.

Thackeray likened the "Mission begin again" to walking in heavy rains with people holding their hands and walking carefully.

"But even as we begin afresh, we have to take cautious steps," he said.

Thackeray also said the prevailing situation is not conducive to allow holding of the final year university exams.

"Aggregate marks of semester exams will be taken and students will be given marks," he said.

He also said the doorstep distribution of newspapers will be allowed from June 7.

Delivery of newspapers was banned in Mumbai and Pune.
(Newser)  A man who went after Dallas protesters with a sword Saturday is now hospitalized in stable condition after a vicious beatingand the whole thing is caught on video, CBS Dallas Fort-Worth reports. In the tweeted video (WARNING: violence) he can be seen screaming and chasing protesters away. But only seconds later he's on the ground being kicked until he appears unconscious and bloody. "Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God!" a man shouts as someone tries turning the guy over, but another voice warns not to touch him. Elijah Schaffer, a Blaze TV staffer who posted the video, tweets that the victim tried to defend his shop from "looters" with a "large sword" and was beaten with a skateboard and stoned "with medium sized rocks." In other Saturday incidents:

story continues below

A Seattle police officer held down a protester with a knee on his neckthe very hold that killed George Floyduntil protesters objected and another cop moved the officer's knee, the Independent reports. Journalist Matt McKnight tweeted footage of the incident.

Two NYPD cruisers rammed into a crowd of protesters near Prospect Park in Brooklyn, USA Today reports. Several people were knocked over but the extent of injuries is unknown. See video here (WARNING: violence).

A security guard accompanying a reporter in Seattle disarmed a protester armed with an AR-15 assault rifle, per the Daily Beast. Seems the protester had taken the weapon from an abandoned police car and shot it at nearby vehicles. See video here. The guard nabbed the demonstrator while using a Seattle Police Dept. gun and gave both weapons back to police.

A police officer in Flint, Michigan, put down his helmet and baton and joined the protesters. "The cops in this community, we condemn what happened," he tells TMZ. "That guy [Officer Derek Chauvin] is not one of us."

At least four people were shot and two were killed during overnight protests in Indianapolis, the Indianapolis Star reports. Police said most protesters "cooperated and did a fine job," but "a small group ... escalated to violent acts" that led to further violence.

(Read more protests stories.)
Iran, on May 30, berated the US over the alleged killing of an unarmed black man by a white police officer. The death of George Floyd has sparked violent riots across the American territory. Previously, China and Russia have targetted the US for its mishandling of the case.

Taking to Twitter, Iranian Foreign minister Mohammad Javed Zarif wrote that some people did not think that black lives matter as he posted an edited copy of US secretary of State Mike Pompeos statement. In 2018, Pompeo had called out on the Iran government saying that it was squandering its citizens. However, the new version had elements cut and replaced to target American dictators. Calling on Americas tactics of suppression, the tweet also said that Americans were tired of racism, corruption injustice, and incompetence from leaders.

Some don't think #BlackLivesMatter.



To those of us who do: it is long overdue for the entire world to wage war against racism.



Time for a #WorldAgainstRacism. pic.twitter.com/06p1LmmwgF  Javad Zarif (@JZarif) May 30, 2020

Read: George Floyd Protests Live Updates: 'Will Always Stand Against Violence & Disorder': Trump

Read: Trump Plays Politics After George Floyd's Death; Shames 'Democrat Mayor' Over Protest

Meanwhile, Trump, on May 29, reportedly said that he had talked to the family of late George Floyd. Floyd, an African-American man died in custody after a policeman knelt on his neck suffocating him to death. Previously, the American leader was lampooned after he dubbed protesters as 'thugs' on social media. In his tweet, he had also warned, when looting starts, the shooting starts However, later he came out in the support of peaceful protests and asked people to respect the memory of late George Floyd.

George Floyd's death

George Floyd's tragic death has not only angered millions across the world but it has also fueled a fresh wave of protests in various US states. George Floyd was handcuffed and begging for breath after being arrested. But in a video showing the entire incident, the police officer on duty can be seen kneeling on Floyd's neck which resulted in his death. The police officer, Derek Chauvin, was previously fired but now he has been arrested and charged with murder on May 29.

(Image credit: AP)

Read: George Floyd's Death: Donald Trump Says He Spoke To Members Of The Family

Read: Trump Strikes China Over Virus, Hong Kong And Student Visas
Children from Hejiazhuang primary school paint in Hejiazhuang Village of Wangba Township in Kangxian County, northwest China's Gansu Province, May 30, 2020. Staff of China Construction Third Engineering Bureau Co., Ltd. came to Hejiazhuang Village, their long-term poverty alleviation target village, carrying out fun activities with the children of Hejiazhuang primary school and Hejiazhuang kindergarten, to celebrate the upcoming International Children's Day. (Xinhua/Chen Bin)
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I am writing this as I lay in bed, feverish, sweaty, and persistent dry cough. I have been sick with presumed COVID-19 for the past ten days. I have quarantined myself from my wife and two sons, unable to hug or reassure them that everything will be okay. Additionally, my wife is 39 weeks pregnant. Therefore, I will be unable to accompany her in the delivery room and may not even be able to stay home when the baby leaves the hospital. There is tremendous uncertainty for me personally, medically, and professionally. This overwhelming doubt is the sole subject of my thoughts, yielding a vicious cycle of rumination, introspection, and hopelessness.

As an internal medicine resident in New York City, the epicenter of the current COVID-19 pandemic, I am constantly in awe of the immense sacrifice and bravery exhibited by my colleagues. We are truly on the front lines of this pandemic  a war with a microscopic enemy  and we are the foot soldiers.

When I began feeling ill, I realized how much is still unknown about this threat, and as a physician, I have never felt more helpless. The virus affects everyone differently, stay home, monitor for any shortness of breath. I kept hearing this same advice over and over. I have seen patients in their 30s without significant medical conditions on ventilators. What makes them different from me? My wife would come into my room in the middle of the night to make sure I was still breathing, worried that I would be one of the many that developed life-threatening shortness of breath. There is thus far no clinical evidence of documented cure or treatment. I did not take azithromycin or hydroxychloroquine based on the recommendations of my mentors. My only medicine was Tylenol, tea, and television.

Last night, my wife abruptly came to the room I was in and said, I am having contractions. What should I do? I froze. I knew I could not help her, and her mother lives more than an hour away. With that said, how do we know her mother is not an asymptomatic carrier? What if my sons are carriers, are they not allowed to touch their new baby brother? We still do not truly know how COVID-19 affects newborns. What if my wife is positive? How would that affect the pregnancy and eventual delivery? Thankfully, she did not have true labor, but that false alarm raised many additional questions that deepened our anguish.

In addition to my personal and medical dilemmas, my professional obligations add another layer of complexity to my universe of uncertainty. I will hopefully be allowed to return to work shortly. However, most of our clinical volume revolves around COVID-19.

Everything else, honestly, seems trivial in comparison. Our morning report and clinical conferences have either been moved online or canceled, and our subspecialty rotations have essentially been dissolved.

Everyone is now a COVID-19 generalist.

Most of my classmates have stopped studying for our upcoming internal medicine board exam because they are physically and/or emotionally burned-out, and believe it is pointless to study nuance when we are literally at war.

We have no idea how long this pandemic is going to last, or whether it will decline substantially and re-emerge in the fall. Even though I will be starting my cardiology fellowship in July, will I truly be a cardiologist or an advanced generalist?

The cardiac care unit (CCU) is now a COVID-19 unit. The procedural and imaging volumes have declined significantly, and therefore, there is less opportunity to learn cardiology. If this pandemic lasts another year, will our general fellowships be extended accordingly, as most of that year will almost surely be diluted?

I wonder if cardiology program directors have started thinking about the educational ramifications of this pandemic on incoming fellows as they are preoccupied with the current crisis and the redeployment of their current trainees. Most fellowships have an introductory clinical series, sometimes referred to as a boot camp, where core principles and procedures are taught. These procedures include essential fellow tasks such as: echocardiography, transvenous pacemaker and Swan-Ganz catheter insertion, and troubleshooting Impellas and intra-aortic balloon pumps.

What will the boot camp look like in this age of social distancing? Lectures could be easily moved online. However, procedural training would be difficult to effectively accomplish remotely. Furthermore, the best training that a resident or fellow can receive is learning by doing. How can a cardiology fellow truly practice if there is not a fully-functioning CCU?

The world is changing quickly in the face of this threat. And graduate medical education, as well as medicine as a whole, will never be the same. I discussed this very issue with one of the senior cardiologists at my hospital, whose response alleviated many of my concerns. He stated that he did not know what the future had in store for us, but that he goes to work every day with new-found energy and enthusiasm. He said, Medicine is not a career; it is deeply personal.

Honestly, it is a calling. For the past 25 years, I have been doing what I love, but in a sub-specialized silo. We have the opportunity now to drop our labels and just be physicians caring for the sick at the bedside. This is what we went to medical school for. We must battle this together. I am privileged and proud to be in the position to fight.

Even though many of my questions have no answers currently, I am privileged to be part of such a selfless community of caregivers. I realize that my personal, medical, and professional lives are not actually disparate, and that uncertainty is a foe best faced as a team. Many of us may be burned-out and sick, but this is a time we will never forget. No one knows what will happen next, but I am not alone. I will be a cardiologist with a subspecialty in resilience.

Solomon Bienstock is an internal medicine resident.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com
As law enforcement officials brace for another night of violent protests in Minneapolis, Minnesota National Guard members activated to support them are now armed and carrying ammunition, the general in charge said Sunday.

Guard members are carrying rifles, sidearms and ammunition in response to a "credible threat" aimed directly against them as reported by the FBI, Army Maj. Gen. Jon Jensen, adjutant general of the Minnesota National Guard, said in a phone briefing with reporters.

"Our soldiers are currently carrying ammunition in their magazine pouches," Jensen said. "We don't talk about rules of engagement," he added, but said in general troops "cannot greatly exceed the force" with which they might be threatened.

The number of Guard members activated in Minnesota to support local law enforcement reportedly could reach 10,000. By Saturday evening, there were nearly 2,000 troops ready for response.

Nationwide protests are expected to stretch into a sixth night Sunday over the May 25 death in Minneapolis of George Floyd, a black man, at the hands of a white police officer, seen in videos kneeling on his neck for more than eight minutes.

The adjutants general of Colorado and Georgia, who joined Jensen on the call, said their troops had not received any direct credible threats.

Air Force Maj. Gen. Michael Loh, adjutant general of Colorado, said the troops he has deployed to back up law enforcement in Denver were not armed, and Army Maj. Gen. Thomas Carden Jr., adjutant general of Georgia, said his troops were carrying only sidearms.

All three generals said they did not see an immediate need for federal active-duty troops in what they described as a situation in all three states where local law enforcement was getting a better grasp on dealing with the protests.

"At this time we have not asked for the Department of Defense to give us active-duty forces to support this operation," Jensen said, but added that assistance from National Guard units in other states in the form of military police was a possibility if violent protests persisted.

Jensen gave no indication of the group or individuals behind the threat relayed to the Minnesota Guard by the FBI, but Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz at a news conference Friday said "outside agitators" from other states were seeking to exploit the legitimate anger over Floyd's death to pursue their own agendas.

At a news conference Saturday, Attorney General William Barr said the protests were being manipulated by "anarchic" and "far-left extremist groups."

On the conference call, Jensen said the Minnesota Guard members deployed to Minneapolis and St. Paul were not equipped with rubber bullets and tasers in addition to their weapons and ammunition.

Loh said the Colorado Guard has shields, batons, tasers and pepper spray, but "we have not had to use any of those."

Carden did not disclose what his troops were carrying but said, "I primarily go with sidearms" for the Georgia Guard troops deployed to Atlanta and Savannah.

All three adjutants general said the activations to assist local law enforcement were not detracting from their ongoing missions to help combat COVID-19.

All three also said that their additional missions to back up local law enforcement against protesters were not ones they welcomed.

"We in America should not get used to or accept [calling up the Guard] to secure people in the United States of America," Carden said. "This is a sign of the times that we need to do better in our country."

In an earlier statement, National Guard Bureau officials said that a total of about 5,000 Guard soldiers and airmen had been activated as of Sunday morning "in response to civil disturbances in 15 states and the District of Columbia, with another 2,000 prepared to activate if needed."

The bureau added that "the situation is fluid so those numbers can change rapidly," and noted that "Guardsmen live in the communities they serve, and are there to protect their neighbor's right to protest peacefully."

-- Richard Sisk can be reached at richard.sisk@military.com.
Los Angeles, May 31 : "Insecure" actor Kendrick Sampson says he was hit by rubber bullets and even a police officer's baton while protesting in California.

The "Vampire Diaries" star took to Instagram to show videos from marches in the Los Angeles area, reports usatoday.com.

"They're gonna arrest all of us," Sampson said in one video clip, adding: "Just to let y'all know, they're telling us to disburse, but they boxed us in." The protests stemmed from the death of George Floyd, who died after a Minneapolis police officer placed his knee on Floyd's neck for several minutes.

In one video, LAPD officers can be seen firing rubber bullets to try and regain control at Pan Pacific Park.

"They shot me four times already. I already got hurt and I got hit with a baton," Sampson said on Instagram.

Another video showed the actor backing away from the police, as he appeared to be hit by an officer's baton, reports deadline.com.

aceY'all ain't see no police f***ing up white folks when they took guns to the statehouse," he said, while referring to an incident in Michigan over coronavirus restrictions, not in California.

"Ya all didn't see police attacking white folks, beating em up with batons, shooting them with rubber bullets when they brought guns to f***ing state houses. We came up here with no weapons, with masks.a And we're the ones who are not peaceful," he added.

The actor also tagged "Black lives matter supporters", and tweeted for elected officials to "defund police", citing brutality in multiple cities across the US.
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Linkedin Andrew Marszal (Agence France-Presse) Los Angeles, United States  Sun, May 31, 2020 07:09 600 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdb20426 2 Entertainment clint-eastwood,Movie,actor,director,birthday Free

Movie legend Clint Eastwood turns 90 on Sunday, but don't count on the famously stoic and hard-working star of "A Fistful of Dollars" and "Dirty Harry" hanging up his cowboy boots just yet.

The multiple Oscar-winning actor-turned-director, who churned out nine films in his 80s, has expressed no desire to retire ahead of the milestone -- and in any case, he's not a fan of birthdays.

"We're just going to do a family thing -- very, very calm, very mellow," his 34-year-old actor son Scott told "Access Hollywood."

"We'll sneak a cake in there, definitely. He probably won't like it."

Eastwood, born in 1930, has enjoyed a career spanning seven decades and more than 50 films.

He last trod the Hollywood red carpet as recently as November, for his Olympic bombing biopic "Richard Jewell."

It was released to mixed reviews -- and sparked a backlash over its fictional depiction of a real-life female journalist trading sex for FBI secrets.

But Eastwood's career has weathered greater controversy, from accusations of excessive violence in the spaghetti Western "Dollars" trilogy, fascism in "Dirty Harry" and warmongering in "American Sniper," to his portrayal of racism in "Gran Torino."

As well as Oscars for "Unforgiven" and "Million Dollar Baby," and a lifetime achievement Palme d'Or from the Cannes festival, Eastwood's back catalog also contains a few critically savaged flops.

"I would like to think it rolls off his back... he's gotten beat up along the way pretty regularly," Variety senior vice president Tim Gray told AFP.

"I think he's going to keep working as long as he can... he seems to have a creative drive that keeps him going."

Read also: Hollywood icon Clint Eastwood backs Bloomberg: Report

'Just wants to work'

Known on the Hollywood circuit as polite but reticent as far as small talk or personal details, Eastwood has hinted at future projects, but had not yet confirmed any plans before the coronavirus pandemic shut down all productions in March.

In a January interview with Britain's ITV , Eastwood indicated he was still enjoying plying his trade.

"I like doing it, it's nice to be able to have a paying job," he told "This Morning."

"I like being in films, I like making films and I started directing films because I thought one day I'm going to look up on screen and say, 'That's enough, Eastwood -- you'd better do something else.'"

In other interviews, he has expressed confusion as to why luminaries such as Billy Wilder and Frank Capra quit the business at a younger age, and spoken of his desire to keep working as long as he finds projects that are "worth studying."

Despite previously announcing his retirement from acting after 2008's "Gran Torino," Eastwood returned in front of camera four years later in "Trouble with the Curve," and again in 2018's "The Mule."

"He's pretty unpredictable," said Gray, adding: "I get the feeling now, he does what he wants to do."

As well as continuing to oversee his Malpaso Productions, Eastwood -- a former mayor of Carmel, California -- remains politically engaged, endorsing Michael Bloomberg's doomed presidential run earlier this year.

And as a father of eight children and a grandfather many times over, Eastwood will likely have his hands full Sunday -- even if he isn't asking anyone to "make my day."

"He probably won't even want us to acknowledge it. He hates his birthday," daughter Alison told Closer late last year.

"I think he just wants to work and enjoy his life but I don't think he wants to celebrate it... So we'll see."
NEW DELHI: India will not let its "pride be hurt" in its latest border flareup with China but is determined to settle the dispute through talks between the giant neighbours, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has said.

Singh also said in a television interview late Saturday that India has turned down a mediation offer by US President Donald Trump.

Hundreds of Indian and Chinese troops are involved in the latest face-off concentrated in India's Ladakh region just opposite Tibet.

The two countries have several disputes along their 3,500-kilometre (2,175-mile) border. They fought a frontier war in 1962 and there have been regular spats, though no shot has been fired since the 1970s.

The latest tensions blew up on May 9 when dozens of Chinese and Indian soldiers were injured in fistfights and stone-throwing in Sikkim state. Many Indian soldiers are still in hospital.

The main showdown is now in Ladakh centred around the Galwan valley which controls access to several strategic points on their Himalayan border.

The two sides have blamed each other but analysts say India's building of new roads in the region may have been the fuse for the dispute.

Both sides have blamed each other and sent reinforcements and heavy equipment to the zone.

"I want to assure the country that we will not let India's pride be hurt in any circumstances," the defence minister told the Aaj Tak television channel.

He referred to a similar 2017 showdown on the Doklam Plateau which he said was "very tense" but "we did not step back".

"India has been following a clear policy of maintaining good relationship with neighbouring countries. It is not a new approach," he added.

"At times, situations arise with China. It has happened before," Singh said while insisting that India was striving to make sure "tension does not escalate".

"Negotiations are ongoing between the two countries at the military and diplomatic levels," he said.

A defence ministry on Sunday warned the Indian public about fake social media videos showing fighting on the border. "Currently no violence is happening. Differences are being addressed through interaction between military commanders," a ministry statement insisted.

The US president this week tweeted an offer to mediate in what he called a "raging" dispute.

Singh said he spoke to US Defense Secretary Mark Esper on Friday to emphasise that India and China have mechanisms to resolve "problems" through talks at diplomatic and military levels.
When Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia launched the government's audacious medical drone service to deliver emergency medical service to remote areas in Ghana, it marked the beginning of an innovation in medical delivery in the country.



At the time, only Rwanda had signed up with Zipline, the American company that operates the drones and critics, mostly opposition elements, lashed the government's initiative as a misplaced and a waste of money.



The drone service was to provide blood and life-saving medications to 2,000 health facilities across the nation in a project described by Zipline CEO Keller Rinaudo as the "largest drone delivery network on the planet."



Despite the prospect of the drone service to serve an estimated 12 million people in remote areas, the concept was viciously criticised, and the main advocate of the initiative, Vice President Bawumia, was targeted by critics of the drone service.



However, a little over a year after the service was launched, it has indeed become the biggest drone service in the world, delivering more than its set target in emergencies in remote areas, which vehicles can't access on time during emergency situations.



Just 13 months after the drone service was launched, a fascinating video on the operations of Ghana's medical drones has provided an insight into its operations and its remarkable success which has earned the service international plaudits.



With two centres in Omenako in the Eastern Region and Mampong in the Ashanti Region, as well as two centres (in the north and Western region) nearing full capacity, each drones centre is able to operate over 80 flights per day nationwide.



According to Bright Boamah, an engineer of the drone service, the drone flights deliver up to 2000 different vials to deprived communities in emergency situations per day.



Some of the most in-demand drugs the drone service delivers daily are anti-snake venom vials.



Samuel Akuffo, a Zipline Ghana official, reveals they send out 100s of different vials, which are kept in the well-secured storeroom, every day to salvage emergency situations across the country



"We send more than 100 different vials, measles and rubbels vaccines, BCG; these are the vaccines that are usually used in the childhood immunization. But aside these, we deliver anti-snake venom as well," Samuel Akufo explained.



How the drones work



The drone, or if you like, the miniature plane, is set up and launched from the drone centre to its intended delivery destination.



Interestingly, the drone flight doesn't taxi like a normal flight before takeoff, neither does it land like a plane before delivering the vials.



Engineers set up the drones by fixing the battery, the wings and its spinning motor. The drone is then loaded with vials of drugs before it takes off about 1500 feet up in the sky to its intended destination.



According to Bright Boamah, the drone flights are programmed to self deliver the drugs by lowering itself and dropping the vials at a health facility and then making a swift return to the Drone Centres through same programming.



"It goes around and then comes back. Everything is programmed; it is like an AI system,"



So far, since last year, none of the drones has crushed. All scheduled flights have delivered drugs successfully, and as the two other drone centres get set to start operations, the Ghana Drone Service is expected to even deliver more vials to salvage hundreds of emergency situations nationwide.



Role of Drones in Ghana's COVID-19 response



The significance of Ghana's Drone Service to contemporary healthcare delivery has been underlined during the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic.



As a smart move, the government resorted to the use of the medical drones to deliver samples from remote communities for COVID-19 testing in the cities.



This has significantly aided Ghana in swiftly administering tests in few days, in situations which would have ordinarily required weeks.



The fact that Ghana's innovative use of drones in its COVID-19 response strategy has been hailed as the first by any country by the renowned TIME magazine, is a further testament to the significant impact the drone service has had on healthcare delivery since it was launched a year ago.



Adoption by US and other countries



What is even more significant is the adoption of Ghana's innovative use of drones to in its COVID-19 response by the US.



Last month, when the TIME magazine hailed Ghana as the first country to use drone service in COVID-19 operationd, it also reported how the United States was considering emulating Ghana's example.



And the BBC reported last week that indeed the United States Aviation Authority had granted licence for the use of drone to deliver samples for COVID-19 operations, as in parts of Britain and Ireland.



At the time of launching the medical drone service, Vice President Bawumia spoke passionately about how the drone medical delivery service represented a major step towards giving everyone in the country universal access to life-saving medicines. He also envisaged a significant turnaround in healthcare delivery in Ghana where would die due to lack of access to medicine in emergency situations.



Just over a year on, an insight into the operations of the Zipline Drone Service, coupled with its effective interventions nationwide, have proved the Akufo-Addo government's investment in the drones one that is worthy of commendation.





Source: ghanaweb.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Washington

The European Union on Saturday urged President Donald Trump to rethink his decision to terminate the U.S. relationship with the World Health Organization as spiking infection rates in India and elsewhere reinforced that the pandemic is far from contained.

Trump on Friday charged that the WHO didn't respond adequately to the pandemic and accused the U.N. agency of being under China's "total control."

The U.S. is the largest source of financial support for the WHO, and its exit is expected to significantly weaken the organization.

Trump said the U.S. would be "redirecting" the money to "other worldwide and deserving urgent global public health needs," without providing specifics.

The head of the EU's executive arm urged Trump to reconsider. "The WHO needs to continue being able to lead the international response to pandemics, current and future," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said. "For this, the participation and support of all is required and very much needed."

The WHO wouldn't comment on the announcement but South African Health Minister Zweli Mkhize called it an "unfortunate" turn of events.

"Certainly, when faced with a serious pandemic, you want all nations in the world to be particularly focused ... on one common enemy," he told reporters.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas called Trump's decision the "wrong signal at the wrong time." He said Berlin would have "intensive discussions" with Washington to try to convince the U.S. government to reconsider.

"The number of people infected worldwide is increasing and the crisis is spreading," Maas told Germany's Funke media group. "We can't tear down the dike in the middle of the flood and build a new one."

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

In China, where the virus outbreak began, only four new confirmed cases were reported Saturday, all brought from outside the country, and no new deaths. Just 63 people remained in treatment.

After judging the situation there now safe, a chartered flight carrying 200 German managers back to their jobs landed in Tianjin, a port city east of Beijing.

A flight carrying another 200 was due in Shanghai on Thursday.

"I'm really happy that business is starting again," said Karin Wasowski, a Volkswagen employee, before boarding the flight in Frankfurt. "I've been working from a home office but that is, of course, something completely different to being there."

More than 5,200 German companies operate in China, employing more than 1 million people.
Alison Steadman (L) and Michael Elwyn attend an after party celebrating the press night performance of 'Absent Friends' at Mint Leaf restaurant on February 9, 2012 in London, England. (Photo by Dave M. Benett/Getty Images)

The coronavirus pandemic has wreaked havoc on life as we know it and with society making its first tentative steps at emerging into a post-lockdown world, the industries of TV and film may need to find ways to get around stringent social distancing rules.

Though new government guidelines allow people to meet and gather with people not in their household, it is still recommended you stay at least two metres apart.

And with it looking likely such measures could be in place for some time in hope of preventing a second spike of COVID-19 cases, filming particular scenes could prove tricky for directors.

Read more: Rachel Riley 'feels guilty' enjoying family help with baby daughter during lockdown

A current solution being floated by TV executives includes casting couples, which as they are likely to be of the same household, would allow the filming of scenes which require stars to be close to one another for intimate scenes.

Executive producer of Netflix hit The Crown, Andy Harries had been considering the idea during lockdown before giving the green light to his company, Left Bank Pictures.

The 66-year-old told The Sunday Times: "I had asked my casting director to investigate couples who either lived together or were married to try and solve this challenge. Most dramas have intimate scenes  not just straight sex, you want other intimacy. I think it could be a good solution."

It isnt just Left Bank Pictures adopting the strategy to get around social distancing restrictions.

Headlong theatre company and Century Films for the BBC is currently producing Unprecedented, a series of plays filmed during lockdown which has cast real-life couples.

Olivia Williams and Rhashan Stone attend the British Vogue and Tiffany & Co. Fashion and Film Party at Annabel's on February 2, 2020 in London, England. (Photo by David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images)

The couples cast are Gemma Arterton and Rory Keenan, Alison Steadman and Michael Elwyn, Arthur Darvill and Ines De Clercq, Olivia Williams and Rhashan Stone, and Kathryn Hunter and Marcello Magni.

Jeremy Herrin, 50, artistic director of Headlong, compared the process of hiring the perfect couple as like threading a needle.

Story continues

Read more: Simon Thomas reveals his father has died aged 78

He said: "We needed a certain quality of actor with a certain sort of sensibility, but their partner needed to be fantastic as well.

"And they needed to be isolated together. It really was like threading a needle."

The hiring process might be tricky, but if casting couples continues to be a trend to get around social distancing, at least well be guaranteed to see some chemistry on screen.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-31 00:56:27|Editor: huaxia

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HONG KONG, May 30 (Xinhua) -- China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government on Saturday voiced deep regret that the U.S. government continued to smear and demonize the legitimate rights and duty of China to safeguard national security in the HKSAR which is aimed at restoring stability to Hong Kong society.

A spokesperson of the HKSAR government made the remarks in response to the statement by U.S. President Donald Trump and comments by the U.S. State Department over the past two days.

Hong Kong is an inalienable part of China and any suggestion that China does not have the right to protect its own territory from separatists, terror and anarchy does not stand up to scrutiny and smacks of hypocrisy and double standards, the spokesman said.

To allege that the improved legal system and enforcement mechanisms targeting an extremely small minority of criminals to be introduced by the national security law is undermining Hong Kong people's freedoms is simply fallacious, the spokesman said.

The spokesman said every country has legislation in place to safeguard national security, including the United States.

The existence of those laws to safeguard a country's national security and sovereignty does not give rise to fears of the loss of liberties by its people that will warrant international debate or interference by another country, the spokesman said, adding it is generally acknowledged that all citizens should have the duty to safeguard their country's interests.

If the mere enactment of a national security law is a universal sovereign obligation and does not contradict with individual freedoms and the rule of law, the reactions of the United States and other foreign governments since the approval of the decision by the National People's Congress (NPC) to enact such a law for application in the HKSAR are totally misplaced, the spokesman said.

The legislation only targets acts and activities endangering national security, and the illegal activities particularly mentioned include splitting the country, subverting state power, organizing and carrying out terrorist activities, as well as interfering in Hong Kong affairs by foreign and external forces.

The five basic principles of the legislation are firmly safeguarding national security, upholding and improving the "one country, two systems," adhering to governing Hong Kong in accordance with the law, resolutely opposing external interference, and substantially safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of Hong Kong residents, the spokesman said.

The Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council reiterated in a statement on Friday that the enactment of national security legislation would not change the high degree of autonomy enjoyed by the HKSAR and would have no impact on the HKSAR's judicial independence, including that of final adjudication as enshrined in the Basic Law, the spokesman said.

Trump's claim that Hong Kong now operated under "one country, one system" was completely false and ignored the facts on the ground, the spokesman said.

He said that in exercising a high degree of autonomy under "one country, two systems," the HKSAR government was resolutely committed to upholding its international responsibilities and agreements with the United States and all countries in areas such as trade, investment protection, mutual legal assistance, the fight against transnational crime and terrorism, as well as education and cultural exchanges.

Many of these bilateral co-operations are underpinned by multilateral institutions or bilateral agreements, rather than a "gift" to Hong Kong by another jurisdiction, the spokesman added.

The spokesman said that sanctions or trade restrictions against Hong Kong are not justified and will lead to a breakdown of the mutually beneficial Hong Kong-U.S. relationship built up over the years and only hurt local and U.S. businesses in Hong Kong and the people working for them.

The HKSAR government will not be unduly worried by such threats as Hong Kong will continue to rely on its fundamental strengths of the rule of law, independence of the judiciary, free and open trade policy, level playing field and unique advantages brought about by the continuous opening up of the mainland economy, he noted.

In recent years, Hong Kong has also been doubling the efforts in diversifying markets, including more focus on the fast-growing ASEAN economies, the spokesman said.

In terms of bilateral trade, the United States has been enjoying a trade surplus with Hong Kong over the years which has been the biggest among all its trading partners, the spokesman said.

In 2019, total trade in goods between Hong Kong and the United States stood at 517 billion Hong Kong dollars (about 67 billion U.S. dollars), whereas Hong Kong's domestic exports to the United States were a modest 3.7 billion Hong Kong dollars.

According to the U.S., the United States enjoyed a trade surplus of over 200 billion Hong Kong dollars with Hong Kong in 2019. (1 USD equals 7.75 HK dollars)
Vietnamese enterprises, hit hard by Covid-19, may be the aiming points of foreign sharks attempting to swallow up enterprises at low costs.

The Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) chair Vu Tien Loc has proposed temporarily stopping M&A activities in an effort to prevent foreign investors from acquiring Vietnamese enterprises, many of which have become weaker because of Covid-19.





Both the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) and VCCI have warned that Vietnamese enterprises, hit hard by Covid-19, may be the aiming points of foreign sharks attempting to swallow up enterprises at low costs.



MPI reported that in the first four months of the year, there were 3,210 transactions of foreign investors buying into Vietnams enterprises, an increase of 32.9 percent compared with the same period last year.



Chinese investors alone carried out 557 M&A deals, up by 38 percent.



Asked if this is a worrying issue, Pham Chi Lan, a respected economist, said that countries tend to be cautious about foreign investment and have applied measures to supervise foreign capital flow. The US also has a law which says the government has the right to consider foreign investment.

Asked if this is a worrying issue, Pham Chi Lan, a respected economist, said that countries tend to be cautious about foreign investment and have applied measures to supervise foreign capital flow. The US also has a law which says the government has the right to consider foreign investment.

Lan believes that Vietnam should refer to the measures.

At this moment, according to Lan, Vietnam needs to intensify supervision, or even inspect, foreign invested projects, especially when there are signs of abnormality.



There should be a filter which helps Vietnam select high-quality investment projects, Lan said.



The government also needs a policy that encourages Vietnamese investors to buy key Vietnamese invested projects to protect some sensitive business fields.



Asked if Vietnam should temporarily stop M&A activities as suggested by VCCI, Phan Huu Thang, former director of the Foreign Investment Agency (FIA), said there was no need to do this now.



Thang said the number of M&A deals made by foreign investors in the last four months was higher than that of the same period last year, but the total contributed capital just accounted for 34.7 percent of the same period last year.



Each capital contribution deal in the last four months had small value of $0.77 million, which was much smaller than the size of the deals in 2019.



Thang affirmed that there is still no sign of foreign investors massively taking over Vietnams enterprises. This is because foreign investors themselves are having difficulties and have had to postpone their investment projects.



However, Thang agrees with Lan that it is necessary to filter investors. It would be better to list the business fields that Vietnam wants and doesnt want.



Meanwhile, Lawyer Truong Thanh Duc from Basico Law Firm said Vietnam doesnt have a legal basis to stop M&A activities temporarily.

Thanh Mai

Vietnamese businesses swim against the stream to seek profit While many businesses have had to take big losses because of Covid-19, other businesses have reported profits with 2-digit growth rates.
(Newser)  The mayor of Atlanta, one of dozens of US cities hit by massive protests, has a message for demonstrators: "If you were out protesting last night, you probably need to go get a COVID test this week." As more beaches, churches, mosques, schools, and businesses reopened worldwide, civil unrest in the US over repeated racial injustice (like George Floyd's death) is raising fears of new coronavirus outbreaks in a country that has more infections and deaths than anywhere else in the world. And it's not just in the USLondon hosted a large anti-racism protest Sunday that certainly violated government social distancing rules. Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms warned that "there is still a pandemic in America that's killing black and brown people at higher numbers."

story continues below

"We have two crises that are sandwiched on top of one other," Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said. Health experts fear that silent carriers of the virus could unwittingly infect others at protests where people are packed cheek to jowl, many without masks, many chanting, singing or shouting. The virus is dispersed by microscopic droplets in the air when people cough, sneeze, sing, or talk. "Whether theyre fired up or not, that doesn't prevent them from getting the virus," said Bradley Pollock, chairman of the Department of Public Health Sciences at the University of California, Davis. The US has seen over 1.7 million infections and nearly 104,000 deaths in the pandemic, which has disproportionately affected racial minorities in a nation that does not have universal health care. (See why blacks "have been living in a burning building for years.")
Rep. Lee Nak-yon, head of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea's special committee dealing with the country's fight against the COVID-19 crisis, attends a debate on job creation at the National Assembly in Seoul, Thursday. Korea Times photo by Oh Dae-geun



By Jung Da-min



Some of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea's (DPK) heavyweights are already gearing up for a race to become the party's new leader, three months ahead of the party's national convention set to be held in late August. The convention will elect a new leader and members of the party's decision-making Supreme Council.



Winning the race is likely to be a stepping stone for the winner toward the 2022 presidential race if the person shows good leadership of the ruling party that has a super majority in the National Assembly. No strong presidential contender has surfaced among opposition so far.



Among the heavyweights aiming for the leadership is Lee Nak-yon, former prime minister to President Moon Jae-in and currently the chief of the DPK's special committee dealing with the COVID-19 crisis. He is considered by political watchers to be the strongest candidate and is expected to declare his bid to run in the leadership competition soon as he indicated during talks with journalists last week.



Following him, another heavyweight who has been seeking the leadership, Rep. Song Young-gil, said in late May that he would not run and instead support Lee.





Kim Boo-kyum, a former four-term lawmaker with the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, talks during an interview with the Hankook Ilbo, the sister paper of The Korea Times, at the company's building in Seoul, April 22. Korea Times file
A 52-year-old man is fighting for his life after being shot in a Whataburger parking lot overnight.

The man had gotten into an argument with another man somewhere in Humble when the victim decided to drive away shortly after midnight, according to Harris County Sheriffs Office Lt. Lynwood Moreau. The man pulled into the parking lot of the fast-food joint in the 1600 block of FM 1960 West around 12:30 a.m. Thursday morning.
FLAGSTAFF  In a forest clearing outside Flagstaff, Sasha Krause was found cold and stiff, with a bullet wound to the back of her head. She was facedown beneath brush, wearing a gray dress, white coat and hiking shoes. Her hair was pinned in a bun and her hands bound by duct tape. Her underwear was missing.

The 27-year-old Sunday school teacher had disappeared more than a month earlier from a Mennonite community in New Mexico more than 400 miles away.

Authorities are still trying to determine how her body ended up steps away from a makeshift camp off a lonely two-lane road that cuts through the canyons and groves of towering pine trees.

A 21-year-old Air Force airman stationed near Phoenix has pleaded not guilty to murder and other charges. Raised in a Mennonite family in Wisconsin, Mark Gooch joined the military to escape what he told investigators was a difficult, sheltered and restricted life, according to sheriffs records obtained by The Associated Press.

Sheriffs officials used cellphone records to link Gooch to Krause, but his attorney, Matthew Springer, said that doesnt mean his client is a killer. Gooch is jailed without bond.

When authorities first questioned Gooch at the base, he said he thought it was about driving his motorcycle too fast. Coconino County sheriffs detective Lauren Jones asked him about his recent travel, his family history and church. At the end of the 75-minute interview, she asked pointedly: Did you abduct Sasha Krause?

No, maam, Gooch responded.

Did you kill Sasha Krause?

No, maam, he said again.

The records hint at disdain for the Mennonite community by Gooch and at least two of his brothers. He never became part of the church, a process that involves a period of study, a commitment to be a follower of Jesus, and baptism usually in teenage years.

Gooch said he felt like an outsider because his family wasnt born into the religion. He once told a friend that he found life on his familys organic dairy farm depressing and wanted to live like other people. His older brother, Sam Gooch, told investigators his brother holds a grudge against the Mennonite community over perceived mistreatment, but he didnt elaborate.

Mark Gooch acknowledged traveling to Farmington on Jan. 18, when Krause was reported missing. He said he had time for a long drive.

He left the base early that Saturday and drove north, past Flagstaff and through the Navajo Nation, stopping for food and then for gas in Farmington.

He said he went to the Mennonite church on the outskirts of town where the words Lamp + Light are spelled out in painted white rocks on the side of a mesa  a nod to the publishing ministry where Krause worked. He said he wanted to attend a service because he missed the fellowship of Mennonites. But he hadnt checked to learn when services would be held and instead hurried back to the base to meet a friend the next day.

Detectives say there were inconsistencies in Goochs story. Cellphone records indicate he was around the church for a couple of hours and in the forest outside Flagstaff after midnight. Surveillance video at the base showed his car returned about 7 a.m. the day after he left. Gooch said he thought it was no later than 2 a.m.

A receipt showed Gooch had his car detailed a day after authorities announced a body had been found in the forest. In addition, Goochs phone was the only device that communicated with the same towers as Krauses phone before her signal dropped off west of Farmington, prosecutors said.

Authorities arent sure yet whether the .22-caliber bullet believed to have killed Krause was fired from a rifle that belonged to Gooch. Results also are pending on DNA from under Krauses fingernails and on her neck.

Gooch was assigned to Luke Air Force Base in October and worked in equipment maintenance. Base officials wouldnt say whether hes ever faced disciplinary action.

The case has entangled other members of Goochs family. Sam Gooch was arrested last month after authorities said they suspected he flew to Arizona to pick up the rifle used in the killing. He was released on bail and hasnt been charged.

Sam Gooch said the family left a Mennonite church in Wisconsin around 2015. As the siblings grew older, some went separate ways but kept in touch through occasional phone calls and text messages.

In one text exchange in mid-April, brother Jacob Gooch, a state trooper in Virginia, told Mark and Sam he gave a Mennonite a ticket and coughed on the driver so he would spread Corona to the wedding they were going too. lol. The other brothers encouraged the behavior, according to the messages.

Virginia State Police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said the text exchange is part of an internal investigation into Jacob Gooch, who was placed on administrative leave May 8 as part of a separate criminal investigation. She declined to discuss details but said the probe is unrelated to the death of Krause.

Authorities dont have any indication that Mark Gooch and Krause, who both came from large families, knew each other. Calls to numbers listed for the Gooch family and Krauses parents went unanswered or unreturned.

In what has been chalked up to coincidence, one of the elder Gooch brothers attended Bible school with Krause in her hometown in Texas several years ago and had dinner at the Krause home.

A former schoolteacher in Texas, Krause arrived in Farmington two years ago to work for the publishing ministry. She knew Spanish, a skill that proved valuable to the ministry known for its outreach to Spanish speakers, and she was learning French.

Krause was part of a group of conservative Mennonites in which women wear head coverings and long dresses or skirts. Men wear plain clothing. They practice nonresistance and believe in forgiveness, said Paul Kaufman, general manager of Lamp and Light Publishers.

Krause also was a poet whose words became hymns. Some were sung at her memorial service. Her father, Robert Krause, described her as friendly and deeply compassionate with zero ability to hide stress or emotion.

On the evening she disappeared, Krause drove to the church to pick up materials for use as she filled in at Sunday school. She parked her silver Ford Focus close to the sidewalk and went inside the church.

She wouldnt be seen alive again by anyone in her community.

An autopsy report released Thursday declared Krauses death a homicide, citing the gunshot wound and head injuries. It noted there was no definitive evidence of injury to her genital area but didnt elaborate.

Goochs phone records indicate he returned to the forest a couple nights after authorities said he left Krauses body beneath brush.

A camper discovered her body while gathering firewood. She noticed something white on the ground amid the black volcanic cinders and dry pine needles.

Weeping and shaking, the camper drove to a nearby visitor center and told staff she had seen legs and shoes.

The news spread through Mennonite communities across the world.

It hit people, it became very personal to people, Kaufman said. It was so wrong.

AP writer Denise Lavoie in Richmond, Virginia, contributed to this story.
Political scientists observe that our views over the long run are much affected by our reaction to the person in the White House when we get to voting age. In Trump, they have experienced a reckless, selfish, authoritarian and incompetent president determined to divide us. Shockingly but typically, his reaction to the civil disorder that followed Floyds killing was not to try to heal our wounds but to provoke and threaten. When the looting starts, the shooting starts, our president declared Friday on Twitter.
The royal family have 'no plans to review' Prince Andrew's retirement from public life following a series of controversies, sources say.

The beleaguered royal stepped back from his duties 'for the foreseeable future' following his car crash Newsnight interview with Emily Maitlis last year.

Since then, the Duke of York has faced a series of controversies leading sources to brand him a 'busted flush' with a 'toxic' presence, The Sunday Times reported.

In the November interview, he attempted to 'set the record straight' by speaking about allegations that he had sex with 17-year-old Virginia Roberts three times, which he has strongly denied.

The royal family have 'no plans to review' Prince Andrew's retirement from public life following a series of controversies, sources say. Pictured: The royal family during Trooping The Colour last year

In his Newsnight interview last year, the Duke spoke about allegations that he had sex with 17-year-old Virginia Roberts three times (pictured together), which he has strongly denied

But he was widely condemned for showing a lack of remorse over his friendship with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

The interview triggered days of catastrophic headlines and caused a string of businesses and charities to desert him.

In March, the Duke of York hired PR expert Mark Gallagher, nicknamed 'the backroom fixer', to deal with the fallout from the scandal.

Mr Gallagher previously helped exonerate VIPs falsely accused of paedophilia by fantasist Carl Beech in 2014.

The beleaguered royal stepped back from his duties 'for the foreseeable future' following his car crash Newsnight interview with Emily Maitlis (pictured) last year

The Prince (right) faced further controversy earlier this month after 355,297 paid to his private secretary Amanda Thirsk (left) was branded an 'unauthorised trustee benefit'

The Queen is to pay Prince Andrew's 6.7million debt on a Verbier ski chalet after a French socialite threatened to drag the case through the courts, it is claimed. Pictured, the Duke of York leaving Chalet Helora

An insider told US magazine Air Mail that the Queen will pay the debt to Isabelle de Rouvre (left) to avoid Prince Andrew being dragged through the courts

The Prince faced further controversy earlier this month after 355,297 paid to his private secretary was branded an 'unauthorised trustee benefit'.

Amanda Thirsk, the Duke of York's long-standing private secretary who resigned shortly after the disastrous BBC Newsnight interview last year, was given the money as payment for her work as trustee of the Prince Andrew Charitable Trust (PACT).

The Queen's second son is also currently in a dispute alongside his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson over a 6million debt for their 18million ski chalet in Verbier, Switzerland.

Prince Andrew, 60, has enlisted the services of Mark Gallagher (left), nicknamed 'the backroom fixer', to deal with the fallout of the Jeffrey Epstein scandal

It has today been reported that The Queen is to pay the debt after a French socialite threatened to drag the case through the courts, it is claimed.

Her Majesty will end the feud between the Duke and Duchess of York and Isabelle de Rouvre, who sold the Switzerland luxury chalet to them for 18million in 2014.

The socialite is now pursuing them in court, after alleging they did not pay the remaining 6.7million for Chalet Helora.

An insider told US magazine Air Mail that the Queen will pay the debt herself to avoid Prince Andrew being dragged through the courts.

Buckingham Palace declined to comment.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 31

By Tamilla Mammadova - Trend:

Tea imports from Azerbaijan to Georgia increased by 30.8 percent from January through April 2020 compared to the same period last year, Trend reports citing Georgian National Statistics Service (Geostat).

As reported, in the first four months of 2020, 250 tons of tea worth $1.55 million were imported from Azerbaijan to Georgia, compared to 194.7 tons of tea worth $1.18 million imported from Azerbaijan to Georgia in the same period of 2019. In the first four months of 2020, tea took tenth place in terms of import volume among the top 10 goods imported from Azerbaijan to Georgia.

According to Geostat, the ninth place in the top ten was occupied by the product group "Coke petroleum, petroleum bitumen and other residues from the processing of petroleum or petroleum products" in the amount of 9,039.5 tons.

The eighth position is occupied by the commodity group Crude oil and crude petroleum products obtained from bituminous rocks (4,164.6 tons).

Import of cement ranked seventh, and the import of steel bars (9,843.5 tons) ranked sixth. In the reporting period, Georgia imported 2,311 tons of copper ores and concentrates worth $5.9 million from Azerbaijan, which is 1,595 tons more compared to the same period last year (fifth position).

Meanwhile, 8.5 tons of parts and accessories suitable for use with typing or calculating machines worth $11.1 million were imported by Georgia from Azerbaijan (fourth position).

From January through April 2020, Georgia imported 41,870 tons of petroleum and petroleum oils worth $13.5 million from Azerbaijan (third position). Georgia imported from Azerbaijan electricity worth $21.2 million (second position).

The first position is occupied by petroleum gases and other gaseous hydrocarbons, the most popular products imported by Georgia from Azerbaijan. Georgia imported 802,768 tons of petroleum gases and other gaseous hydrocarbons in a total amount of $136.8 million from Azerbaijan from January through April 2020, which is 545 tons less compared to the same period of 2019.

Azerbaijan ranked third in Georgias commodity circulation in the reporting period

From January through April 2020, the foreign trade turnover between Georgia and Azerbaijan amounted to more than $367 million, which makes up 10.6 percent of the total trade turnover of Georgia.

During the reporting period, Georgia exported products worth $221.8 million to Azerbaijan, which comprises 9 percent of total exports from Georgia. Meanwhile, Azerbaijan exported products worth $145.1 million to the Georgian market, which is 14.5 percent of total imports to Georgia.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @Mila61979356
By Trend

The export of cars from Turkey to Azerbaijan from January through April 2020 increased by 55.97 percent compared to the same period of 2019 and amounted to $29.7 million, the Turkish Ministry of Trade told Trend.

The export of cars from Turkey to Azerbaijan in April 2020 increased by 121 percent compared to April 2019 and amounted to $7.8 million.

The export of cars from Turkey to the world markets decreased by 26.9 percent from January through April 2020 compared to the same period of last year and reached $7.6 billion.

Meanwhile, the export of cars from Turkey accounted for 14.6 percent of the country's total export volume from January through April 2020.

Turkey exported the cars worth $596.3 million to the world markets in April 2020, which is 77.2 percent less than in the same month of 2019.

The export of cars from Turkey in April 2020 amounted to 6.6 percent of the country's total export volume.

Turkey exported cars worth $27.8 billion over the past 12 months (from April 2019 through April 2020).

--

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-31 10:07:51|Editor: huaxia

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WASHINGTON, May 30 (Xinhua) -- It is false to say China's national security legislation for Hong Kong denigrates "one country, two systems," but instead it protects the practice of the principle in the country's special administrative region, said a U.S. expert on China.

"It is false to say that by passing this national security law that 'one country, two systems' is being denigrated. In fact, I think Hong Kong's prosperity and stability can be guaranteed in that regard," Sourabh Gupta, senior fellow at the Washington-based Institute for China-America Studies, told Xinhua on Friday.

"Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland are two parties which are joined together under the principles of 'one country two systems' and Hong Kong and China will thrive when it is implemented resolutely and fatefully," he said.

"Frankly, in my view, I think it's a must for what the Chinese government has done, with regard to the people, law-abiding people and all businesses in Hong Kong, I think it materially amounts to no change whatsoever," he said.

"This is meant to target a very small subset of infiltrators and secessionists. And it is those people who need to worry about what China has passed because they will not be able to continue with their activities on Hong Kong soil for much longer given what China has passed," Gupta said.

"I think Hong Kong needs it right now because as there is a gap in terms of national security related to Hong Kong as we saw last year things there amounted to a very dangerous escalation and situation," he said.

"And we've had many instances where Hong Kong police have found chemicals and bomb-making equipment and I think Hong Kong's situation was frankly getting out of control. It's time to restore some sanity in terms of management of Hong Kong's law and order situation," he said.
Two Delhi Police Assistant Sub-Inspectors have died due to COVID-19 since Saturday evening, taking the overall coronavirus casualty figure in the force to three, officials said on Sunday.

While a 52-year-old ASI died around 11.30 am Sunday during treatment at the Army Base Hospital in Delhi, another officer of the rank passed away at the same facility Saturday evening, they said.

A Delhi Police spokesperson said that nearly 500 personnel have tested positive for the deadly virus so far.



Delhi Police Commissioner SN Shrivastava paid homage to the two ASIs and spoke to all Station House Officers through videoconferencing on preventive measures and dedicated COVID-19 facilities for his personnel.

"Delhi Police family mourns the loss of 2 brave police officers in our fight against Corona pandemic despite best efforts to save them. We pay homage to ASIs Vikram and Shesh Mani Pandey and may their souls rest in peace. We are committed to providing all help to their families," he said in a tweet.

Officials said that the ASI Vikram, who died Sunday morning, was posted in the Sultanpuri Police Station of Outer District and was on highway patrol duty in the area since May 1.

They said he was declared negative for the virus in two tests -- conducted on May 11 and May 22.

However, he felt unwell on May 25 and went to the Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital where the doctor advised him one week of medical rest, the official said,

Back at his residence in Kirari Suleman Nagar, he started feeling difficulty in breathing early next morning, said Anil Mittal, the Additional PRO (Delhi Police).

On May 26, he was admitted to the Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital, and later in the evening, shifted to the Army Base Hospital where he was undergoing treatment, he said.

His third COVID-19 test, conducted at the hospital on May 26, came positive, Mittal said, adding the ASI breathed his last Sunday around 11.30 am during the course of treatment.

The ASI was a permanent resident of Gopalganj in Bihar and was staying with his family at Inder Enclave in Delhi's Kirari Suleman Nagar, he said.

He is survived by his wife and three sons aged 24, 19 and 15, he added.

A few other policemen from Sultanpuri police station had also tested positive for coronavirus but most of them have recovered, another police official said.

Before Vikram, 54-year-old ASI Shesh Mani Pandey died on Saturday evening. He worked with the Finger Print Bureau of the Crime Branch in Central Delhi's Kamla Market area, another set of officials said.

He was an ex-army personnel and had joined the Delhi Police on November 1, 2014. He hailed from Rewa district of Madhya Pradesh and was residing at Naraina village in west Delhi, police said.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central), Sanjay Bhatia, said the ASI was tested for coronavirus on May 26 at the Lady Hardinge Medical College after he complained of fever and cough.

His result came positive for the virus on May 28, Bhatia said, adding the ASI was admitted to the Army's Base Hospital in Delhi Cant and died on Saturday evening.

Four Crime Branch officers who were said to be Pandey's "close contacts" have been tested for coronavirus and sent for home quarantine as a precautionary measure, the DCP said, adding their reports are awaited.

Pandey is survived by his wife Madhuri, 50 and their three children. Two of their children -- Krishna, 32, and Preeti, 28, -- live with their family in Rewa. Their youngest son Naveen is a class 12 student and lives with his mother.

Police said that Preeti and Krishna came to Delhi on Sunday to perform the last rites of their father.

In the wake of rise in COVID cases among his rank and file, Commissioner Shrivastava interacted with all SHOs through videoconferencing on Sunday and briefed them about the circulars and Standard Operating Procedures on preventive steps.

He also told them about isolation centres, testing centres, treatment support, alternative accommodation, hospital beds reserved for Delhi Police personnel.

Delhi Police PRO Mandeep Singh Randhawa said nearly 500 police personnel have tested positive for COVID-19 so far, of whom over 200 have recovered.

The Delhi Police had reported its first COVID-19 fatality earlier in the month when a 31-year-old constable, posted at the Bharat Nagar police station in northwest Delhi, had succumbed to the disease.
Thousands of people demonstrated outside Montreal police headquarters Sunday evening to speak out against police violence against black people.

The demonstration came after similar actions in Toronto and Vancouver and as protests erupt across the United States following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minn. on Monday.

Floyd's last moments were captured on camera. A police officer is seen with a knee on Floyd's neck as he gasps for air.

Demonstrators in Montreal said police get away with killing black people both in the United States and in Canada.

Fannie Bussieres McNicoll/Radio-Canada

"If nobody would care about that video, probably that guy would be released by now," said Lionel Baudin, who was at Sunday's protest. Following the outcry over the video showing Floyd's death, the officer seen kneeling on his neck was charged with third-degree murder.

"For justice to happen, it needs to be recorded," said Baudin, and he said that must change.

Activist Will Prosper said the protest was also a way to show that racial profiling is happening in Montreal.

"Right now we're sending a strong message. Enough is enough," Prosper said.

Protesters held signs remembering Floyd as well as black Canadians who died during encounters with police.

They included Regis Korchinski-Paquet, a Toronto woman who fell to her death from the 24th floor of an apartment building during a police intervention on Wednesday, and Pierre Coriolan, who was shot to death by police in his Montreal apartment building in 2017.

After giving speeches outside the police headquarters, protesters marched through downtown Montreal.

Over loudspeakers around 8 p.m., police declared the protest illegal and used tear gas to disperse the protesters.

While most protesters dispersed, others remained, smashing nearby windows, erecting a barricade with nearby fencing on St-Urbain Street and some looting a downtown music store.