Author: CensorBiz

Emily Brown was stretched thin.As the director of the Rio Grande County Public Health Department in rural Colorado, she was working 12- and 14-hour days, struggling to respond to the pandemic with only five full-time employees for more than 11,000 residents. Case counts were rising.She was already at odds with county commissioners, who were pushing to loosen public health restrictions in late May, against her advice. She had previously clashed with them over data releases and control and had haggled over a variance regarding reopening businesses.But she reasoned that standing up for public health principles was worth it, even if she risked losing the job that allowed her to live close to her hometown and help her parents with their farm.Then came the Facebook post: a photo of her and other health officials with comments about their weight and references to “armed citizens” and “bodies swinging from trees.”The commissioners had asked her to meet with them the next day. She intended to ask them for more support. Instead, she was fired.”They finally were tired of me not going along the line they wanted me to go along,” she said.In the battle against COVID-19, public health workers spread across states, cities and small towns make up an invisible army on the front lines. But that army, which has suffered neglect for decades, is under assault when it’s needed most.FILE – This March 2019 photo provided by the Colorado Association of Local Public Health Officials shows Emily Brown, director for the Rio Grande County Public Health department in rural Colorado.Officials who usually work behind the scenes managing tasks like immunizations and water quality inspections have found themselves center stage. Elected officials and members of the public who are frustrated with the lockdowns and safety restrictions have at times turned public health workers into politicized punching bags, battering them with countless angry calls and even physical threats.On Thursday, Ohio’s state health director, who had armed protesters come to her house, resigned. The health officer for Orange County, California, quit Monday after weeks of criticism and personal threats from residents and other public officials over an order requiring face coverings in public.As the pressure and scrutiny rise, many more health officials have chosen to leave or have been pushed out of their jobs. A review by Kaiser Health News and The Associated Press finds at least 27 state and local health leaders have resigned, retired or been fired since April across 13 states.From North Carolina to California, they have left their posts because of a mix of backlash and stressful, nonstop work, all while dealing with chronic staffing and funding shortages.Some health officials have not been up to the job during the biggest health crisis in a century. Others previously had plans to leave or cited their own health issues.But Lori Tremmel Freeman, CEO of the National Association of County and City Health Officials, said the majority of what she calls an ”alarming” exodus resulted from increasing pressure as states reopen. Three of those 27 were members of her board and well known in the public health community — Rio Grande County’s Brown; Detroit’s senior public health adviser, Dr. Kanzoni Asabigi; and the head of North Carolina’s Gaston County Department of Health and Human Services, Chris Dobbins.Asabigi’s sudden retirement, considering his stature in the public health community, shocked Freeman. She also was upset to hear about the departure of Dobbins, who was chosen as health director of the year for North Carolina in 2017. Asabigi and Dobbins did not reply to requests for comment.FILE – In this Feb. 27, 2020, photo Ohio Department of Health Director Dr. Amy Acton holds up a mask as she gives an update on the state’s COVID-19 preparedness and education efforts.”They just don’t leave like that,” Freeman said.Public health officials are “really getting tired of the ongoing pressures and the blame game,” Freeman said. She warned that more departures could be expected in the coming days and weeks as political pressure trickles down from the federal to the state to the local level.From the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, federal public health officials have complained of being sidelined or politicized. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been marginalized; a government whistleblower said he faced retaliation because he opposed a White House directive to allow widespread access to the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine as a COVID-19 treatment.In Hawaii, Democratic congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard called on the governor to fire his top public health officials, saying she believed they were too slow on testing, contact tracing and travel restrictions. In Wisconsin, several Republican lawmakers have repeatedly demanded that the state’s health services secretary resign, and the state’s conservative Supreme Court ruled 4-3 that she had exceeded her authority by extending a stay-at-home order.With the increased public scrutiny, security details — like those seen on a federal level for Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top infectious disease expert — have been assigned to top state health officials, including Georgia’s Dr. Kathleen Toomey after she was threatened. Ohio’s Dr. Amy Acton, who also had a security detail assigned after armed protesters showed up at her home, resigned Thursday.In Orange County, in late May, nearly 100 people attended a county supervisors meeting, waiting hours to speak against an order requiring face coverings. One person suggested that the order might make it necessary to invoke Second Amendment rights to bear arms, while another read aloud the home address of the order’s author, the county’s chief health officer, Dr. Nichole Quick, as well as the name of her boyfriend.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 11 MB480p | 15 MB540p | 20 MB720p | 45 MB1080p | 83 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioQuick, attending by phone, left the meeting. In a statement, the sheriff’s office later said Quick had expressed concern for her safety following “several threatening statements both in public comment and online.” She was given personal protection by the sheriff.But Monday, after yet another public meeting that included criticism from members of the board of supervisors, Quick resigned. She could not be reached for comment. Earlier, the county’s deputy director of public health services, David Souleles, retired abruptly.An official in another California county also has been given a security detail, said Kat DeBurgh, the executive director of the Health Officers Association of California, declining to name the county or official because the threats have not been made public.Many local health leaders, accustomed to relative anonymity as they work to protect the public’s health, have been shocked by the growing threats, said Theresa Anselmo, the executive director of the Colorado Association of Local Public Health Officials.After polling local health directors across the state at a meeting last month, Anselmo found about 80 percent said they or their personal property had been threatened since the pandemic began. About 80 percent also said they’d encountered threats to pull funding from their department or other forms of political pressure.To Anselmo, the ugly politics and threats are a result of the politicization of the pandemic from the start. So far in Colorado, six top local health officials have retired, resigned or been fired. A handful of state and local health department staff members have left as well, she said.”It’s just appalling that in this country that spends as much as we do on health care that we’re facing these really difficult ethical dilemmas: Do I stay in my job and risk threats, or do I leave because it’s not worth it?” Anselmo asked.In California, senior health officials from seven counties, including Quick and Souleles, have resigned or retired since March 15. Dr. Charity Dean, the second in command at the state Department of Public Health, submitted her resignation June 4. Burnout seems to be contributing to many of those decisions, DeBurgh said.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 9 MB480p | 13 MB540p | 18 MB720p | 36 MB1080p | 72 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioIn addition to the harm to current officers, DeBurgh is worried about the impact these events will have on recruiting people into public health leadership.”It’s disheartening to see people who disagree with the order go from attacking the order to attacking the officer to questioning their motivation, expertise and patriotism,” said DeBurgh. “That’s not something that should ever happen.”Some of the online abuse has been going on for years, said Bill Snook, a spokesperson for the health department in Kansas City, Missouri. He has seen instances in which people took a health inspector’s name and made a meme out of it, or said a health worker should be strung up or killed. He said opponents of vaccinations, known as anti-vaxxers, have called staffers “baby killers.”The pandemic, though, has brought such behavior to another level.In Ohio, the Delaware General Health District has had two lockdowns since the pandemic began — one after an angry individual came to the health department. Fortunately, the doors were locked, said Dustin Kent, program manager for the department’s residential services unit.Angry calls over contact tracing continue to pour in, Kent said.In Colorado, the Tri-County Health Department, which serves Adams, Arapahoe and Douglas counties near Denver, has also been getting hundreds of calls and emails from frustrated citizens, deputy director Jennifer Ludwig said.Some have been angry their businesses could not open and blamed the health department for depriving them of their livelihood. Others were furious with neighbors who were not wearing masks outside. It’s a constant wave of “confusion and angst and anxiety and anger,” she said.Then in April and May, rocks were thrown at one of their office’s windows — three separate times. The office was tagged with obscene graffiti. The department also received an email calling members of the department “tyrants,” adding “you’re about to start a hot-shooting … civil war.” Health department workers decamped to another office.Although the police determined there was no imminent threat, Ludwig stressed how proud she was of her staff, who weathered the pressure while working round-the-clock.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 9 MB480p | 13 MB540p | 16 MB720p | 27 MB1080p | 56 MB Embed” />Copy Download Audio”It does wear on you, but at the same time, we know what we need to do to keep moving to keep our community safe,” she said. “Despite the complaints, the grievances, the threats, the vandalism — the staff have really excelled and stood up.”The threats didn’t end there, however: Someone asked on the health department’s Facebook page how many people would like to know the home addresses of the Tri-County Health Department leadership. “You want to make this a war??? No problem,” the poster wrote.Back in Colorado’s Rio Grande County, some members of the community have rallied in support of Brown with public comments and a letter to the editor of a local paper. Meanwhile, COVID-19 case counts have jumped from 14 to 49 as of Wednesday.Brown is grappling with what she should do next: Dive back into another strenuous public health job in a pandemic or take a moment to recoup?When she told her 6-year-old son she no longer had a job, he responded: “Good, now you can spend more time with us.”This story is a collaboration between The Associated Press and Kaiser Health News, which is a nonprofit, editorially independent program of the Kaiser Family Foundation. KHN is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente. 
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Brazil’s biggest metropolis has an unorthodox plan to free up space at its graveyards during the coronavris pandemic: digging up the bones of people buried in the past and storing their bagged remains in large metal containers.Sao Paulo’s municipal funeral service said in a statement Friday that the remains of people who died at least three years ago will be exhumed and put in numbered bags, then stored temporarily in 12 storage containers it has purchased. The containers will be delivered to several cemeteries within 15 days, the statement said.Sao Paulo is one of the COVID-19 hot spots in Latin America’s hardest-hit nation, with 5,480 deaths as of Thursday in the city of 12 million people. And some health experts are worried about a new surge now that a decline in intensive care bed occupancy to about 70 percent prompted Mayor Bruno Covas to authorize a partial reopening of business this week. The result has been crowded public transport, long lines at malls and widespread disregard for social distancing.Cemetery workers exhume remains buried three years ago at the Vila Formosa cemetery, June 12, 2020. They’re making room for COVID-19 victims.Many health experts predict the peak of Brazil’s pandemic will arrive in August, having spread from the big cities where it first appeared into the nation’s interior. The virus has so far killed almost 42,000 Brazilians, and Brazil passed the United Kingdom on Friday to become the country with the world’s second highest death toll.Dr. Michael Ryan, the World Health Organization’s emergencies chief, said Friday that the situation in Brazil remains “of concern,” although acknowledged that intensive care bed occupancy rates are now below 80 percent in most areas of the country.”Overall the health system is still coping in Brazil, although, having said that, with the sustained number of severe cases that remains to be seen,” Ryan said. “Clearly the health system in Brazil across the country needs significant support in order to sustain its effort in this regard. But the data we have at the moment supports a system under pressure, but a system still coping with the number of severe cases.”The experts aren’t the only ones with concerns.At Sao Paulo’s biggest cemetery, Vila Formosa, Adenilson Costa was among workers in blue protective suits digging up old graves Friday. He said their work has only grown more arduous during the pandemic, and as he removed bones from unearthed coffins, he said he fears what is to come.”With this opening of malls and stores we get even more worried. We are not in the curve; we are in the peak and people aren’t aware,” Costa said. “This isn’t over. Now is the worrisome moment. And there are still people out.”Cemetery workers exhume the remains of people buried three years ago at the Vila Formosa cemetery in Sao Paulo, Brazil, June 12, 2020. They’re making room for COVID-19 victims.In April, gravediggers at Vila Formosa buried 1,654 people, up more than 500 from the previous month. Numbers for May and June aren’t yet available.Before the pandemic, Costa said, he and colleagues would exhume remains of about 40 coffins per day if families stopped paying required fees for the plots. In recent weeks that figure has more than doubled.Remains stored in the metal containers will eventually be moved to a public ossuary, according to the statement from the city’s funeral office. Its superintendent, Thiago Dias da Silva, told the Globo network that containers have been used before and they are more practical and affordable than building new ossuaries.Work has been so busy in Sao Paulo cemeteries since the outbreak began that one of Costa’s relatives was buried only a few meters (yards) from where he was working one day — without him even knowing. “I only found out the next day,” he said.Three other people he knew have also died from the virus.”People say nothing scares gravediggers. COVID does,” Costa said. 
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African countries on Friday called on the U.N. Human Rights Council to organize an urgent debate on racism and police violence, in the context of global mobilization after the death of George Floyd in the United States.In a letter written on behalf of the 54 countries of the African Group, of which he is coordinator for human rights questions, the ambassador of Burkina Faso to the United Nations in Geneva, Dieudonné Désiré Sougouri, asked the body to the U.N. to organize an “urgent debate on the current racially-inspired human rights violations, systemic racism, police brutality against people of African descent and violence against peaceful demonstrations.””The tragic events of May 25, 2020 in Minneapolis, USA, which resulted in the death of George Floyd, sparked worldwide protests over the injustice and brutality faced by people of African descent daily in many regions of the world,” wrote the ambassador.”The death of George Floyd is unfortunately not an isolated incident,” he wrote, adding that he was speaking on behalf of the representatives and ambassadors of the African Group.The letter, addressed to the President of the Human Rights Council, Elisabeth Tichy-Fisslberger of Austria, requests that this debate take place next week, at the resumption of the 43rd session of the Council, interrupted in March due to the COVID-19 epidemic.The request comes after the family of George Floyd, families of other victims of police violence and more than 600 NGOs called on the Human Rights Council to urgently address the problem of racism and impunity which benefits the police in the United States.In order for the Council to consider such a request, the approval of at least one country is required.With the request now coming from a large number of countries, “the chances” that such a debate can take place “increase,” a spokesman for the Council told AFP. 
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A Turkish court jailed a prominent opposition journalist from an online news outlet pending trial on accusations that she revealed state secrets in two articles about Ankara’s military involvement in Libya, her lawyer said on Friday.Muyesser Yildiz, the Ankara news editor for the OdaTV online news portal, was detained on Monday and formally arrested on Thursday following her questioning.One article published in December questioned which Turkish commanders met Khalifa Haftar, the commander of the Libyan National Army, which is fighting the internationally recognized Government of National Accord of Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj, backed by Turkey.The second article, from January, gave details about a military officer who was sent to Libya to oversee Turkey’s involvement there.Yildiz was initially detained on espionage charges but this was later changed to revealing state secrets, lawyer Erhan Tokatli told Reuters.”If the articles threaten the security of this country so much, they should have blocked access to them,” he said.Ismail Dukel, Ankara representative of broadcaster TELE1, who was also detained along with Yildiz and questioned, was released, state-owned Anadolu news agency said. An army sergeant detained with them was also jailed, it said without elaborating.OdaTV, an online news outlet, has been critical of President Tayyip Erdogan’s government. Turkey ranks among the top jailers of journalists across the world.Erol Onderoglu, Turkey representative for Reporters Without Borders (RSF), said such cases damage Turkey’s international reputation and that the detention of journalists aimed to silence criticism.”Turkey, which is one of the biggest jailers of journalists in the world, needs to make peace with criticism, transparency and the values of an open society,” he said.Critics say Erdogan has used a failed 2016 coup as a pretext to clamp down on dissent and strengthen his grip on power, a charge Ankara denies. It says the measures are necessary to safeguard national security.  
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Fake news about the coronavirus can do real harm. Polygraph.info is spotlighting fact-checks from other reliable sources here​. Daily DebunkClaim: Tijuana, Mexico, is “the most heavily infected place anywhere in the world” when it comes to COVID-19.​Verdict: FalseRead the full story at: FactCheck.org  Social Media DisinfoXu Lin, vice head of the publicity department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee. REUTERS/Florence Lo “Coronavirus Disinfo: These Two Tweets Could Be the Key to Understanding China’s Propaganda Campaign,” June 11, The National Interest.
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A former police officer recalls the racism and sexism she endured during her law enforcement career.  Reporter:  Marsha JamesCamera/Editor:   Gabrielle Weiss, Additional Camera:  Virginia Gunawan
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India reported nearly 11,000 new cases of COVID-19 in a 24-hour period Friday. The surge of 10,956 new coronavirus infections puts the massive South Asian nation in fourth place, surpassed only by the U.S., Brazil and Russia in the number of cases. India’s has 297,535 of the world’s total 7.5 million COVID-19 cases, according to Johns Hopkins University. The U.S. is leading the world count of infections with more than two million, Brazil has more than 800,00 and Russia has more than 510,000. Vaccine prospects
A U.S. biotechnology company says it will make the first widespread tests of a possible coronavirus vaccine next month.Moderna is working with the U.S. National Institutes of Health in developing a COVID-19 vaccine. The company said Thursday the vaccine trial will begin with 30,000 volunteers. Some will get the actual vaccine, and others will get a placebo.A Chinese biotech firm, Sinovac, also plans to test its vaccine next month, on 9,000 volunteers in Brazil. Brazil will also be the testing ground for a vaccine being developed by Britain’s Oxford University. The Trump administration is working with private labs in what it calls “Operation Warp Speed,” which hopes to have 300 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine ready to go by January.But experts say there’s never any guarantee a vaccine will work or, if it does, will offer more than a few months of protection.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 9 MB480p | 12 MB540p | 15 MB720p | 27 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioEconomic hit
Another major study forecasts millions sinking into extreme poverty because of the coronavirus pandemic.A report by the United Nations University says the economic fallout could plunge 395 million people into conditions in which they are forced to live on $1.90 a day or less – the definition of extreme poverty.A separate World Bank report this week put that number between 70 million and 100 million people. “The outlook for the world’s poorest looks grim unless governments do more and do it quickly and make up the daily loss of income the poor face,” one of the U.N. report’s authors, Andy Sumner, said. “The result is progress on poverty reduction could be set back 20-30 years and making the UN goal of ending poverty look like a pipe dream.”  The U.N. report says South Asia – India in particular – will see the largest number of people sinking into extreme poverty, followed by sub-Saharan Africa. Experts are appealing to economically powerful nations, such as the United States, to forgive the debts of developing countries that would take a stong hit from the pandemic. FILE PHOTO: The headquarters of the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, May 18, 2020.We need WHO, Fauci says
The U.S. top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said the World Health Organization isn’t perfect, but the world needs it.“It certainly has made some missteps, but it has also done a lot of good,” Fauci told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation on Thursday. “I would hope that we could continue to benefit from what the WHO can do at the same time that they continue to improve themselves. I’ve had good relationships with the WHO, and the world needs the WHO.”President Donald Trump announced last month that he is pulling the United States out of the WHO, accusing it of being dominated by China and letting China “mislead the world” on the coronavirus. The U.S. is by far the largest donor to the WHO.Fauci told the CBC that when the outbreak began in December in Wuhan, some Chinese scientists were “not able to express” their concerns about human-to-human transmission in a clear way, leading the WHO to downplay the risks. Fauci did not elaborate on what he meant by the inability express those concerns. “There may have been things that would have been done sooner both in China and outside China,” Fauci said. “The original reports were that this was a dominant animal-to-human spread.”With the number of U.S. cases surpassing the 2 million mark, according to Johns Hopkins University, and the number of new cases appearing to rise, Fauci said it is still possible for the U.S. To avoid a second wave through mass testing.WATCH: VOA Interview with Dr. Anthony Fauci Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
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An attack on a mosque in Kabul during Friday prayers killed the imam and three worshipers and wounded several others.
 
Mawlawi Azizullah Mofleh, the imam of Sher Shah Suri mosque in the Kart e Char area, was a well-known religious scholar.  
 
This is the second attack on a religious scholar in the last 10 days. On June 2, Mawlawi Ayaz Niazi was killed in a similar attack at the Wazir Mohammad Akbar Khan mosque in downtown Kabul. The local chapter of Islamic State claimed responsibility for that.  
 
A suicide attack was carried out May 12 during a funeral in the Shewa district of Nangarhar province, killing at least 26 and wounding more than 100.  
 
The Taliban had denied responsibility for the earlier attacks, and so far, no group has claimed responsibility for the Friday attack.  
 Kabul, AfghanistanMeanwhile, security officials in Kandahar province said several people attacked a small intelligence base Thursday night on the outskirts of the city of Kandahar.  
 
The base housed unit Zero 03 of the National Directorate for Security NDS special forces.
 
Jamal Barakzai, a spokesman for Kandahar police, told VOA that a number of attackers took position in nearby mountains. A security source told VOA that attackers fired heavy artillery on the NDS base.  
 
The Zero 03 special forces base is located inside the house of the Taliban’s founding leader, Mullah Omer, in the Arghandab district.  
 
The incidents of violence come at a time when the start of much-anticipated negotiations between the Taliban and other Afghans, including the Afghan government, seem to be near.  
 
President Ashraf Ghani announced Thursday that his government, which had already released 3,000 Taliban prisoners, was planning to release more.    
 
“My colleagues and I have made the decision to release an additional 2,000 prisoners within a very short period. We will announce the date soon,” the Afghan president said to an online forum hosted jointly by the Washington-based Atlantic Council’s South Asia Center and the United States Institute of Peace.
 
The Taliban has said it is ready to start negotiations within a week of the release of 5,000 of their prisoners.
 
The United States Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad, who negotiated a deal with the Taliban signed in February, hailed the development and urged both sides to grab the opportunity.  
 
“All sides must work to get to the negotiations table ASAP and prevent spoilers from undermining the process & betraying the hopes and yearning of Afghan people for peace,” he tweeted.  
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Three U.S. lawmakers asked Zoom Video Communications Inc to clarify its data-collection practices and relationship with the Chinese government after the firm said it had suspended user accounts to meet demands from Beijing.The California-based firm has come under heavy scrutiny after three U.S. and Hong Kong-based activists said their accounts had been suspended and meetings disrupted after they tried to hold events related to the anniversary of China’s Tiananmen Square crackdown.Zoom said on Friday it was notified of the events and asked to take action by the Chinese government in May and early June.It said it has now reinstated these accounts and will not allow further requests from China to affect users outside the country.”We did not provide any user information or meeting content to the Chinese government,” Zoom said in a statement. “We do not have a backdoor that allows someone to enter a meeting without being visible.”The online meeting platform, which has surged in popularity as the COVID-19 pandemic has forced millions around the world indoors, has seen its downloads soar in China.The service is not blocked in China, unlike many Western platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, which abandoned efforts to crack China’s market years ago due to government demands to censor and monitor content. Twitter on Thursday said it had removed accounts tied to a Beijing-backed influence operation.’Pick a side’Representatives Greg Walden, the top Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and Cathy McMorris Rodgers, the ranking member of a consumer subcommittee, sent a letter to Zoom CEO Eric Yuan on Thursday asking him to clarify the company’s data practices, whether any was shared with Beijing and whether it encrypted users’ communications.Republican Senator Josh Hawley also wrote to Yuan asking him to “pick a side” between the United States and China.The three politicians have previously expressed concerns about TikTok’s owner, Chinese firm ByteDance, which is being scrutinized by U.S. regulators over the personal data the short video app handles.”We appreciate the outreach we have received from various elected officials and look forward to engaging with them,” a Zoom spokesperson said.China’s internet watchdog, the Cyberspace Administration of China, did not immediately respond to a faxed request for comment from Reuters.Separate China from the worldWang Dan, a U.S.-based dissident and exiled student leader of the crushed 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, had his Zoom account suspended. He said he was shocked to hear Zoom acknowledge it had interrupted meetings he was participating in.His June 3 event with about 200 participants was deactivated midstream, he said.”Zoom compiled with China’s request, preventing us from going about our lives smoothly,” Wang said in an email to Reuters. “It cannot get away with just a statement. We shall continue to use legal means and public opinion to ask Zoom to take responsibility for its mistake.”The company said it is now developing technology to enable it to remove or block participants based on geography, allowing it to comply with requests from local authorities. It said it would publish an updated global policy on June 30.U.S.-based Humanitarian China founder Zhou Fengsuo said he welcomed Zoom’s acknowledgement of the suspensions but told Reuters it was unacceptable for the company “to separate China users from the rest of the world.”The company’s China links have been called into question before.Toronto-based internet watchdog Citizen Lab said in April it had found evidence some calls made in North America, as well as the encryption keys used to secure those calls, were routed through China. Zoom said it had mistakenly allowed Chinese data centers to accept calls.Zoom says it has many research and development personnel in China. Its founder Yuan grew up and attended university in China before migrating to the United States in the mid-1990s. He is now a U.S. citizen.Bill Bishop, editor of the China-focused Sinocism newsletter, wrote on Friday that “Zoom should no longer get the benefit of the doubt over its China-related issues and given how many people, organizations, government bodies and political campaigns now rely on its services the company must err on the side of transparency.” 
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Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s agreement to give a U.S. military pact its second chance despite distaste for Washington shows his relations with China are chafing after four years, analysts believe.Duterte’s foreign secretary announced June 3 that the Philippines would extend a Visiting Forces Agreement with the United States at least until late 2020. The government said in February it would end the 21-year-old pact that lets American troops freely access the Philippines for joint exercises. Washington sees the Southeast Asian archipelago as a strategic spot in case of any conflict in East Asia.Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin told a news conference last week that “heightened superpower tensions” in Asia motivated his government to retain the agreement.Role of South China SeaChina, which has Asia’s biggest military and a maritime sovereignty dispute with the Philippines, grew as a threat in the first half of the year, scholars in the region say. Beijing let a fishing fleet sail near a Philippine-occupied South China Sea islet, sent a survey vessel to a part of the same sea claimed by Malaysia and prompted the U.S. Navy to carry out four “freedom of navigation operations.”“All contributed to the perception that it’s not a good time to be letting down the guard, so to speak,” said Jay Batongbacal, international maritime affairs professor at University of the Philippines.China claims about 90 percent of the sea, overlapping parts of a Philippine exclusive economic zone. The U.S. government, a former Philippine colonizer, says the South China Sea should stay open internationally. Manila and Washington also abide by a mutual defense treaty. More than 100 Chinese vessels had surrounded Philippine-held islets last year. In 2012 navy ships from the two countries got locked in a standoff over fishery-rich Scarborough Shoal.Duterte surprised world leaders and his own citizens in 2016 by laying aside the maritime sovereignty dispute to pursue a new friendship with China. China reciprocated with pledges of billions of dollars in aid and investment, including 150,000 COVID-19 testing kits and 70,000 N95 facemasks offered last month.The Philippine president has railed against U.S. influence in his country. He resented U.S. criticism of the deadly Philippine anti-drug campaign under ex-president Barack Obama and the revocation in January of a U.S. visa for former Philippine police chief Ronald Dela Rosa. Dela Rosa, now a senator, was key to the drug campaign marked by extrajudicial killings.But Duterte trusts the U.S. military over China’s armed forces, said Alexander Huang, strategic studies professor at Tamkang University in Taiwan. Ordinary Filipinos as well as senior military personnel prefer the United States to China as an ally.“To the very basic Philippine interest, they will not give the People’s Liberation Army access to their facilities,” Huang said. “And the United States would not allow that.”COVID-19 a factorIn the event of a conflict, Philippine troops would need backup especially now as they help the national police handle COVID-19, Batongbacal said. U.S. troops could enter the Philippines only with special permission if the visiting forces agreement ended.The Philippines may have extended the agreement as a negotiating tool, said Stephen Nagy, a senior associate professor of politics and international studies at International Christian University in Tokyo.Duterte may ask visiting U.S. troops to offer more training or bring certain assets, he said. Former U.S. Cold War foe China may step in with more help too as a counterweight, he said.“Maybe this reversal is just a way of trying to get a few more concessions out of the United States, or maybe they really are worried about China,” said Derek Grossman, senior defense analyst with the RAND Corp. research institution in the United States. 
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China on Thursday condemned the U.S. military for the “provocative” flight of one of its aircraft over Chinese-claimed Taiwan, saying the move infringed upon China’s sovereignty and contravened international law.China considers democratically ruled Taiwan its own territory, and it regularly denounces the United States for its support of the island.A U.S. C-40A, a military version of the Boeing 737, entered Taiwan air space with permission, though it did not land at any Taiwan airports, Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said Tuesday.China’s Taiwan Affairs Office said the U.S. aircraft had “harmed our sovereignty, security and development rights, and contravened international law and the basic norms of international relations.””It was an illegal act and a seriously provocative incident,” the office said in a statement carried by state media. “We express strong dissatisfaction and resolute opposition.”The U.S. Seventh Fleet said the U.S. Navy aircraft was on a routine logistics flight from the Kadena air base in Japan to Thailand but was rerouted by Taiwan to avoid “an exercise on its east coast.””The C-40 flew a cleared route provided by Taiwan air traffic controllers that went through their airspace and over the island and was never in the Taiwan Strait,” it said in a statement. “There were no interactions or intercepts from any aircraft during the flight.”Taiwan is separately governed from China and controls its own air space.On the same day as the U.S. aircraft flew over the island, Taiwan’s air force had to warn off several Chinese fighter jets that  briefly entered Taiwan’s air defense identification zone. Taiwan has repeatedly complained about Chinese drills near the island.The United States has stepped up its military activities near the island, too, with semiregular U.S. Navy voyages through the narrow Taiwan Strait that separates the island from China.While Washington and Taipei have no formal diplomatic ties, the United States is Taiwan’s strongest international supporter and main arms supplier.
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Several police officers were wounded Thursday in separate shootouts with a man suspected of ambushing and seriously injuring a deputy a day earlier, authorities said.  Scores of police officers have been searching for Mason James Lira, 26, since early Wednesday when authorities said he opened fire on the Paso Robles police station on California’s Central Coast and then shot a San Luis Obispo County sheriff’s deputy in the face. The deputy is in serious condition.  An Arroyo Grande police officer helping with the search was wounded in an exchange of gunfire with Lira at about 3 p.m., according to a post on the city of Arroyo Grande website that said the injury wasn’t life-threatening.  Later, after a second exchange of gunfire, the Paso Robles Police Department tweeted “Suspect down. Several officers wounded.” There was no immediate word on their conditions.  Mason James Lira is shown in this undated photo obtained from the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Department and provided by the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s office.A San Luis Obispo Sheriff’s Department spokesman said Lira was in custody.Police say Lira opened fire on the police station around 4 a.m. Wednesday. Two sheriff’s deputies heard gunshots but didn’t see the attacker until they were outside their patrol car and under fire. Nicholas Dreyfus, 28, was hit in the face. His partner fired back and dragged Dreyfus behind a police car.  While officers searched for Lira, they received a report of a body near a train station and found a 58-year-old man shot to death on the tracks. He appeared to be a transient who was camping out overnight. Police believe Lira was responsible for the killing.  As police searched for Lira, his father told The Associated Press his son had been diagnosed with schizophrenia, Asperger’s syndrome and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Jose Lira said his son often thinks he is a special agent or a solider and may believe he is under attack or in a war zone.  Although authorities have described the attack on the Paso Robles police station as an ambush, his father thinks it might have been a suicide attempt.  “He lives in a fantasy world,” Jose Lira said. “He doesn’t have a beef with the police.” 
 
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Fake news about the coronavirus can do real harm. Polygraph.info is spotlighting fact-checks from other reliable sources here​. Daily DebunkClaim: Android phone users are being signed up for a COVID-19 tracing app by Google without their knowledge. ​Verdict: Partly FalseRead the full story at: Reuters Social Media Disinfo Circulating on social media: Tweets linking 5G and the COVID-19 pandemic.Verdict: FalseRead the full story at: The Verge
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For much of its seven-year existence, the Black Lives Matter movement has been seen by many Americans as a divisive, even radical force. Its very name enraged its foes, who countered with the slogans “Blue Lives Matter” and “All Lives Matter.” Times have changed — dramatically so — as evidenced during the wave of protests sparked by George Floyd’s death while in custody of Minneapolis police. Black Lives Matter has gone mainstream — and black activists are carefully assessing how they should respond.  A few examples of the changed landscape:  Senator Mitt Romney, a Republican stalwart, joined a Black Lives Matter march. Some NASCAR drivers, whose fan base includes legions of conservative whites, embraced the phrase. So did NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred and executives of all 30 major league teams. The mayor of Washington ordered the words painted in large letters on a street near the White House. Now, Black Lives Matter Plaza turns up in driving directions from Google Maps. FILE – The car for driver Bubba Wallace has a Black Lives Matter logo as it is prepared for a NASCAR Cup Series auto race in Martinsville, Va., June 10, 2020.Like many black activists, Sakira Cook is pleased by such developments but also cautious. She and others worry that businesses and politicians will hijack the slogan without any real commitment to doing the hard work needed to fight racism. “Black Lives Matter is not just a rallying cry,” said Cook, director of the Justice Reform Program at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. “It actually means you have to start to interrogate the systemic racism and inequalities that exist in our society and help to dismantle them. You must make sure you’re not co-opting this for your own purposes.”  The Black Lives Matter movement emerged amid anger over the acquittal of George Zimmerman, the Florida man who shot and killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in 2012. As a slogan, “Black lives matter” soon became as widely heard at protests as “No justice, no peace.”  Nationally, the phrase was praised for its clarity and attacked as strident and hostile toward police. But support grew as the list of slain black people got longer: Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Freddie Gray, Walter Scott, Alton Sterling, Philando Castile. FILE – Murals appear throughout New York City in response to the death of George Floyd while in police custody in Minneapolis, June 10, 2020.”When we started Black Lives Matter, it was really to have a larger conversation around this country about its relationship to black people,” said Patrisse Cullors, one of three black women who founded the Black Lives Matter Global Network, with chapters throughout the U.S. and in Britain and Canada. “What keeps happening, time and time again, is we’re witnessing black people die on camera, and there is little to no accountability.”  While large donations poured into the new, loose-knit group of black-led grassroots organizations, prominent figures within the movement were subjected to years of rebukes and threats from police, their unions and elected officials. Cullors said she and others were dismissed as too militant to be taken seriously by many of the individuals and corporations in the mainstream that now embrace their message.  In 2018, news reports revealed that the FBI’s counterterrorism division had begun tracking anti-police threats from black activists in the wake of deadly ambushes on police officers in New York, Texas and Louisiana. Many Black Lives Matter activists feared it was a repeat of the Cointelpro era, when the FBI illegally conducted surveillance and sabotage against civil rights groups and other organizations suspected of having links to the Communist Party in the 1950s and ’60s.  Today, the Black Lives Matter movement boasts a following of millions across social media platforms. A coalition known as the Movement for Black Lives, formed in 2014, now includes more than 150 affiliate organizations that have organized around such causes as defunding police departments and reinvesting in struggling black communities.  FILE – Thousands of people demonstrate in support of the Black Lives Matter movement in a park in Amsterdam, June 10, 2020.Its agenda focuses heavily on overhauling police training, the use of force and the punishment of rogue officers. The movement is also pressing to erase economic inequality and disparities in education and health care. “There are hundreds of thousands of black visionaries around the world that are doing the work that people keep saying, ‘Oh, that’s never going to happen. … Not in this lifetime,’ ” Cullors said. “And look what happened. Something gets unlocked, and because we’ve already laid the seeds, we’ve already had the conversations, the people doing the work get to bear the fruit.”  Although the current surge of support for the movement is vindicating, it’s not sufficient to realize the original vision, Cullors said.  Malik Shabazz, president of Black Lawyers for Justice, praised “Black lives matter” as “one of the most brilliant and creative phrases of our generation,” one that has won acceptance well beyond the movement. “There’s a danger it will become co-opted and mainstreamed,” he said. “But right now, anyone in our struggle would be happy more people are using it.” Shabazz said it is important for black people to remain at the forefront of the movement, even as more Americans of other races voice support. “It’s up to us that we don’t get happy with a couple of weeks of protest and demonstrations,” he said. “This is a good start. We just have to dig in and stay for the long haul. ” FILE – A street sign of Black Lives Matter Plaza and giant yellow letters spelling “Black Lives Matter” on the street are seen near St. John’s Episcopal Church, in Washington, June 5, 2020.Khalilah Brown-Dean, a political science professor at Quinnipiac University who has written about inequality and criminal justice reform, said uttering the slogan is easy. What comes next matters more. “It’s much more important for public officials and policymakers to inculcate that belief into the very fabric of how they lead and govern,” she said. “Painting a street, marching in a rally, or wearing kente cloth are only useful if these symbolic acts translate into substantive action.” The counterslogans that emerged in 2014-15 — “Blue Lives Matter” and “All Lives Matter” — have surfaced only sporadically in the past two weeks. Plans for a Blue Lives Matter rally in Las Vegas were scrapped after the city’s police department refused to help promote it. “All Lives Matter,” from the start, angered some black activists who said it minimized the entrenched racism faced by black people. Last week, longtime Sacramento Kings TV broadcaster Grant Napear resigned after tweeting “ALL LIVES MATTER” when asked his opinion on the Black Lives Matter movement. On Saturday, the top editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer resigned amid a furor over the headline “Buildings Matter, Too.”
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Army Gen. Mark Milley, the nation’s top military officer, said Thursday he was wrong to accompany President Donald Trump on a walk through Lafayette Square that ended in a photo op at a church. He said his presence “created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics.””I should not have been there,” the Joint Chiefs chairman said in remarks to a National Defense University commencement ceremony.Trump’s June 1 walk through the park to pose with a Bible at a church  came after authorities used pepper spray and flash bangs to clear the park and streets of largely peaceful protesters demonstrating in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death in Minnesota in police custody.Milley said his presence and the photographs compromised his commitment to a military divorced from politics.”My presence in that moment and in that environment created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics,” Milley said. “As a commissioned uniformed officer, it was a mistake that I have learned from, and I sincerely hope we all can learn from it.”His statement risked the wrath of a president sensitive to anything hinting of criticism of events he has staged. It comes as Pentagon leaders’ relations with the White House are still tense after a disagreement last week over Trump’s threat to use federal troops to quell civil unrest triggered by Floyd’s death.  After protesters were cleared from the Lafayette Square area, Trump led an entourage that included Milley and Defense Secretary Mark Esper to St. John’s Episcopal Church, where he held up a Bible for photographers and then returned to the White House.Esper had not said publicly that he erred by being with Trump at that moment. He told a news conference last week that when they left the White House he thought they were going to inspect damage in the Square and at the church and to mingle with National Guard troops in the area.Milley’s comments at the National Defense University were his first public statements about the Lafayette Square event on June 1, which the White House has hailed as a “leadership moment” for Trump akin to Winston Churchill inspecting damage from German bombs in London during World War II.The public uproar following Floyd’s death has created multiple layers of extraordinary tension between Trump and senior Pentagon officials. When Esper told reporters on June 3 that he had opposed Trump bringing active-duty troops on the streets of the nation’s capital to confront protesters and potential looters, Trump castigated him in a face-to-face meeting.Just this week, Esper and Milley let it be known through their spokesmen that they were open to a “bipartisan discussion” of whether the 10 Army bases named for Confederate Army officers should be renamed as a gesture aiming to disassociating the military from the racist legacy of the Civil War. On Wednesday, Trump tweeted that he would never allow the names to be changed, catching some in the Pentagon by surprise.The Marine Corps last week moved ahead with a ban on public displays of the Confederate Army battle flag on its bases, and the Navy this week said plans a similar ban applied to its bases, ships and planes. Trump has not commented publicly on those moves, which do not require White House or congressional approval.Milley used his commencement address, which was prerecorded and presented as a video message in line with social distancing due to the coronavirus pandemic, to raise the matter of his presence with Trump in Lafayette Square. He introduced the subject to his audience of military officers and civilian officials in the context of advice from an Army officer and combat veteran who has spent 40 years in uniform.He said all senior military leaders must be aware that their words and actions will be closely watched.”And I am not immune,” he said, noting the photograph of him at Lafayette Square. “That sparked a national debate about the role of the military in civil society.” He expressed regret at having been there and said the lesson to be taken from that moment is that all in uniform are not just soldiers but also citizens.”We must hold dear the principle of an apolitical military that is so deeply rooted in the very essence of our republic,” he said. “It takes time and work and effort, but it may be the most important thing each and every one of us does every single day.”Milley also expressed his outrage at the Floyd killing and urged military officers to recognize as a reflection of centuries of injustice toward African Americans.”What we are seeing is the long shadow of our original sin in Jamestown 401 years ago,” he said, referring to the year in which the first enslaved Africans arrived on the shores of colonial Virginia.Milley said the military has made important progress on race issues but has much yet to do, including creating the conditions for a larger proportion of African American officers to rise to the military’s senior ranks. He noted that his service, the Army, has just one African American four-star general, and mentioned that the Air Force is about to swear in the first-ever African American service chief. 
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The removal of a prominent reminder of Kenya’s British colonization is being celebrated — five years later.The statue Britain’s Queen Victoria outlasted several of statues from before Kenya’s independence from Britain in 1963.It was beheaded and thrown into nearby brush in 2015, after standing in Jeevanjee Gardens in Nairobi for more than century.Nairobi resident Samuel Obiero was among those this week who welcomed the removal of the statue, saying citizens do not want to be reminded of slavery, colonialism and the suffering it brought.Worldwide, statues that pay homage to people with a history linked to racism and slavery are coming down.The push accelerated after the death of George Floyd, a black American who died last month after a white police officer in Minneapolis knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.The officer is jailed on a murder charge, and the FBI is investigating whether civil rights violations occurred.Three other officers on the scene are charged with aiding and abetting. 
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Young adults have filled streets across the country on a scale not seen since the 1960s to protest for racial justice after the death of George Floyd. But whether that energy translates to increased turnout in November is another question. They could make a difference in the presidential race — polls show President Donald Trump is deeply unpopular with young voters — with control of the Senate and hundreds of local races also at stake. But some activists are concerned their focus will be on specific causes instead of voting. “In a normal election year, turning out the youth vote is challenging,” said Carolyn DeWitt, executive director of Rock the Vote, which works to build political power among young people. “That’s even more true now. People’s minds are not on it.”  FILE – Steven Posey checks his phone as he waits in line to vote, June 9, 2020, at Central Park in Atlanta. Voters reported wait times of three hours.Voters under 30 have historically turned out to vote at much lower rates than older voters, though the 2018 midterm elections saw the highest turnout in a quarter-century among voters ages 18-29 — a spike attributed in part to youth-led movements like March for Our Lives against gun violence. There are signs young people are getting more politically engaged. DeWitt said more people registered to vote through Rock the Vote’s online platforms last week — some 50,000 — than in any other week this year. The organization’s social media accounts had as many impressions between Monday and Friday of last week as it typically has in a month, with more than 1 million.  “It will just be incredibly important to us to make sure we’re protesting now and voting later,” DeWitt said.  That’s not assured. The coronavirus pandemic has halted traditional campaigning as well as big concerts and festivals, the kinds of places where campaigns and groups like Rock the Vote and HeadCount typically recruit young voters. On top of that, lawmakers’ efforts to change voting laws in some states could restrict younger voters like college students. Joe Biden’s Democratic presidential campaign is banking on these voters supporting him when the choice is a binary one between Biden and Trump. But that’s not guaranteed. “Our bar can’t be: Are you better than Trump?” said Cliff Albright, a co-founder of Black Voters Matter, which works to register voters and organize black communities. “For folks who are angry, who are in the streets, or who are at home and not engaged, you just telling me you’re better than this nut — that’s not enough.”  Many young people are still unfamiliar with Biden, “and they certainly don’t know where he stands on issues,” said Heather Greven, spokesperson for NextGen America. The group plans to spend at least $45 million to target young voters in battleground states.  FILE – Democratic presidential candidate, former Vice President Joe Biden holds his notes as he speaks to members of the clergy and community leaders at Bethel AME Church in Wilmington, Del., June 1, 2020.Biden said during a recent virtual fundraiser he thought the protests will energize young people to turn out for him. “Now they are engaged,” Biden said. “They feel it. They taste it. And they’re angry and they’re determined.” His campaign hasn’t made major changes to its youth outreach amid the protests, which started after a white Minneapolis officer pressed his knee into the neck of Floyd, a black man who was handcuffed and crying out that he couldn’t breathe. Instead, Biden has stuck largely with an initiative known as “League 46” that combines groups such as Students for Biden and Young Professionals for Biden.  In an effort to appeal to younger, liberal voters, Biden has put progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on a climate change task force. But he doesn’t support some of the proposals that energized supporters of his primary rival Bernie Sanders such as “Medicare for All.” Ja’Mal Green, 24, an activist in Chicago, said he and other young people were disappointed by Biden’s rejection of a call to “defund the police,” which has become a rallying cry for protesters. The former vice president said Monday an overhaul of policing is needed but can be done by putting conditions on federal funds.  That position may reassure older and moderate voters who helped Biden win the nomination, Green said, but young people want to see more change. “If not, they’ll just say ‘to hell with the election,'” he said.  Many of the young people taking to the streets are focused on public officials with a more direct impact on their lives such as mayors, police chiefs and district attorneys because “they see that’s where the change is,” said Green, a Black Lives Matter leader who joined protesters in Minneapolis. Demonstrators protest over the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, June 1, 2020, in Louisville, Ky. Breonna Taylor, a black woman, was fatally shot by police in her home in March.There were also protests in Louisville, Kentucky, over the death of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old black woman fatally shot by police in her home in March. Tom Bergan, 22, attended a protest last week in Louisville, where he’s a HeadCount field organizer. In pre-pandemic days, HeadCount focused on registering young people at concerts and festivals, but that’s shifted to more online organizing since COVID-19. For Friday’s protests, Bergan printed off large QR codes that he hoisted on a poster board. Anyone who scanned the code on their phone was connected to an online voter registration page. Bergan said the crowd was enthusiastic, with many already registered to vote, and much of the conversations were around Taylor’s death and local changes such as the decision to limit no-knock warrants. He said the moment reminds him of 2018, when he volunteered with HeadCount during a March for Our Lives in St. Louis, as thousands of young people turned out in cold, rainy weather.  That fall, turnout among voters ages 18-29 was nearly double what it was in 2014, with 28% of eligible young voters casting ballots, according to CIRCLE, the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts University. They were much more likely to support Democratic than Republican congressional candidates, 64% to 34%, according to an AP VoteCast survey of more than 115,000 midterm voters nationwide.  That turnout is still less than in 2016 or 2012, presidential election years when about 45% of young voters turned out, according to CIRCLE, a drop from 2008, when Barack Obama was on the ballot and turnout soared to a level not seen since 1992.  Will 2020 bring another peak?  “That’s the big ‘if,’ and we don’t really know until November,” Bergan said.    
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