Author: CensorBiz

Family and friends are honoring George Floyd at a private funeral Tuesday in the U.S. city of Houston, two weeks after his death in police custody inspired renewed protests against police brutality in numerous cities across the country.    Relatives and friends began arriving at the Fountain of Praise Church before the service and walked behind his golden casket as it was ushered into the church as the media looked on.WATCH: George Floyd’s funeral serviceFloyd’s casket was rolled into the church by six men wearing black suits and masks as a line of police officers stood nearby at attention.After the funeral, Houston Police will escort the funeral procession to the nearby city of Pearland, where Floyd will be buried next to his mother.    Houston’s city hall was lit up Monday night in crimson and gold, the colors of the high school Floyd attended, in remembrance of his life.  Other cities joined the effort, with crimson and gold lights shining on city halls in Los Angeles, Boston, Oakland, Las Vegas, New York and elsewhere.   Tonight, City Hall is lit crimson and gold in remembrance of #GeorgeFloyd.
I appreciate my fellow @usmayors and @OurMayors members for joining in solidarity to show support for his family and good policing.
Crimson and gold are the colors of his alma mater @JackYatesHigh. pic.twitter.com/T29oRpUD7v
— Sylvester Turner (@SylvesterTurner) Flowers are prepared and delivered to a public memorial for George Floyd at The Fountain of Praise church in Houston, MoJune 8, 2020, in Houston.Biden meets with Floyd’s family
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden met Floyd’s relatives for more than an hour in Houston on Monday, according to the family’s lawyer, Benjamin Crump.         Crump said on Twitter that Biden “listened, heard their pain, and shared in their woe.”          Also Monday, Derek Chauvin, the white officer who was filmed pressing his knee against Floyd’s neck for more than 8 minutes before Floyd’s death, made his first court appearance since the charges against him were upgraded to second-degree murder. Floyd’s death was the latest of many deaths of black Americans during or after encounters with white officers, triggering worldwide calls to correct racial injustices in the U.S.       Chauvin said little during Monday’s brief hearing at a Minneapolis court as he appeared on closed-circuit television from a maximum-security prison. His next appearance is set for June 29.       Calls to defund police
White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany told reporters Monday President Donald Trump is “appalled” by calls from some protesters and activists for police departments to be defunded. She said the president is “taking a look at various” proposals in response to Floyd’s death but offered no specifics.           In Minneapolis, where the 46-year-old Floyd died May 25, nine of the 12 City Council members pledged to disband the city’s police department.             “A veto-proof majority of the MPLS City Council just publicly agreed that the Minneapolis Police Department is not re-formable and that we’re going to end the current policing system,” council member Alondra Cano tweeted Sunday.             In California, Governor Gavin Newsom ordered the state’s police training program to stop teaching chokeholds.         Denver’s police department announced Sunday that it has also fully banned the use of chokeholds. In addition, it said it would also require members of its SWAT team to activate their body cameras during operations. In the northwestern state of Washington, Governor Jay Inslee proposed creating an independent investigative unit to probe officer-involved killings and making it obligatory for officers to report misconduct by other officers. Protests around the world
The U.S. protests have also led to demonstrations in other countries, with people showing both solidarity with those marching in the United States and calling attention to cases in their own countries. France is one of the nations that has seen protests, and the country’s interior minister announced police there will no longer be allowed to use chokeholds during an arrest. “No arrest should put lives at risk,” Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said. Poll finds vast majority of Americans back protests
In a new Washington Post-Schar School poll released Tuesday, 81 percent of respondents said police need to continue to make changes needed to treat blacks equally to whites.Seventy-four percent said they either strongly or somewhat support the protests overall, while 25 percent strongly or somewhat oppose the demonstrations.When asked about the way Trump has handled the situation, 61 percent said they oppose his response, while 35 percent said they approve.
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Amid protests over police brutality and racism that have broken out across the United States, experts say they are seeing an increase of targeted campaigns to actively spread disinformation. As Mariia Prus tells us in this report narrated by Anna Rice, one aim is to undermine social cohesion by making people believe there is no objective reality.
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More statues of imperialist figures could be removed from Britain’s streets, following the unauthorized felling of a monument to slave trader Edward Colston in the city of Bristol, the mayor of London said Tuesday.
Mayor Sadiq Khan said he was setting up a commission to ensure the city’s monuments reflected its diversity. The Commission for Diversity in the Public Realm will review statues, murals, street art, street names and other memorials and consider which legacies should be celebrated, the mayor’s office said.
“It is an uncomfortable truth that our nation and city owes a large part of its wealth to its role in the slave trade and while this is reflected in our public realm, the contribution of many of our communities to life in our capital has been willfully ignored,” Khan said.
Debate over who should be publicly commemorated has been reignited in Britain by the felling of a monument to Colston, a 17th-century slave trader and philanthropist. His bronze statue was pulled from its perch in Bristol, southwest England, during a Black Lives Matter protest on Sunday and dumped in the city’s harbor.
Many Bristolians welcomed the statue’s removal, but the British government called it an act of vandalism and urged police to prosecute the perpetrators.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson acknowledged that it was “a cold reality” that people of color in Britain experienced discrimination, and promised his government was committed to “eradicating prejudice and creating opportunity.”
But he said those who attacked police or desecrated public monuments should face “the full force of the law.”
Colston’s demise has reinvigorated Oxford University campaigners calling for the removal of a statue of Cecil Rhodes, a Victorian imperialist in southern Africa who made a fortune from mines and endowed the university’s Rhodes scholarships.
As the Rhodes Must Fall group planned to protest Tuesday at the statue, a banner erected in Oxford declared: “Rhodes, you’re next.”
In Edinburgh, Scotland, there are calls to remove a statue of Henry Dundas, an 18th-century politician who delayed Britain’s abolition of slavery by 15 years.
The leader of Edinburgh City Council, Adam McVey, said he would “have absolutely no sense of loss if the Dundas statue was removed and replaced with something else or left as a plinth.”  
Some historical figures have more complex legacies. At weekend protests in London, demonstrators scrawled “was a racist” on a statue of Winston Churchill. Britain’s wartime prime minister is revered as the man who led the country to victory against Nazi Germany. But he was also a staunch defender of the British Empire and expressed racist views.
Khan suggested Churchill’s statue should stay up.
“Nobody’s perfect, whether it’s Churchill, whether it’s Gandhi, whether it’s Malcolm X,” he told the BBC, adding that schools should teach children about historical figures “warts and all.”
“But there are some statues that are quite clear cut,” Khan said. “Slavers are quite clear cut in my view, plantation owners are quite clear cut.” 
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Portland’s police chief resigned on Monday, just six months into her job, amid criticism of her department’s handling of protests in Oregon’s largest city. An African American lieutenant on the force replaced her. The shakeup came as police have been sharply criticized for using what has been called inappropriate force against some protesters as huge demonstrations continue in Portland.   “To say this was unexpected would be an understatement,” new Police Chief Chuck Lovell said at a news conference. “I’m humbled. I’m going to listen. I’m going to care about the community, and I’m looking forward to this journey.”   He and community leaders of color credited Jami Resch, a white woman, for stepping down as George Floyd protests roiled the city.   Resch told the news conference that Lovell is “the exact right person at the exact right moment” to head the police department.   Resch had replaced Danielle Outlaw, who was Portland’s first African American female police chief and who became Philadelphia police commissioner in February. Resch said she suggested the shakeup to Mayor Ted Wheeler, who said he supported Lovell to lead the department as it moves through needed reforms. “We need Chief Lovell’s leadership,” Wheeler said at the news conference. “We must re-imagine reform and rebuild what public safety looks like.” Lovell served as Outlaw’s executive assistant. Under Resch, he led a new Community Services Division that included the Behavioral Health Unit, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported. The unit’s mission, according to its web page, is to aid people in crisis resulting from mental illness and/or drug and alcohol addiction. Resch said she will stay with the department in a different role. Demonstrators held two peaceful George Floyd protests in Portland but a third one that lasted until the early hours of Monday resulted in at least 20 arrests, with some demonstrators throwing objects at police, who fired tear gas and sponge-tipped projectiles.Police use pepper spray against protesters in Portland, Oregon, May 31, 2020, in this still image taken from video obtained by Reuters.Full beverage containers, glass bottles, hard-boiled eggs and rocks were thrown or fired at officers using sling-shots, police said in a statement Monday. A medic who was working with the officers was hit in the stomach with a rock. The protest that turned violent happened at the Justice Center in downtown Portland. The ACLU of Oregon has called on Portland police to end the use of tear gas, impact weapons and flash bang devices.   “We join the protesters in calling for a new approach in our community, and demanding that we uphold the rights of people who have historically had their rights and humanity denied,” the rights group said Sunday. Portland City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty, who is African American, slammed the recent police response to some protests.  “I’m incredibly troubled by the excessive force used nightly by PDX police since the protests began,” she said. “The videos and painful firsthand accounts of community members getting tear gassed and beaten by police for exercising their 1st Amendment rights should be concerning for us all.” Lovell’s appointment does not require City Council approval, Wheeler’s spokeswoman Eileen Park said. Police say they have encouraged peaceful protests, but smaller groups splinter from the demonstrations or come out later to engage in mayhem. Protesters Monday evening walked onto Interstate 84 in Portland’s Lloyd District, which led to officials temporarily shutting it down in that area, news footage showed. Earlier, protesters cheered when a speaker at the demonstration talked about the police chief’s resignation. “Are we done yet,” he asked the crowd. “No,” the crowd shouted back. Another crowd near the downtown jail after 9 p.m. was urged by police not to shake and climb a fence erected to keep protesters away. “We are not here to police a fence,” Portland police said on Twitter. “We are here to protect the people who work in the Justice Center and the adults in custody who are living there.” On the ground, police were staying farther away from the fence than they had during other nights. The crowd had grown to hundreds by around 9:40 p.m., The Oregonian/OregonLive reported. 
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A South Korean Court has rejected an arrest warrant for the heir to the legendary Samsung Group conglomerate in connection with a controversial merger.   Prosecutors have accused Lee Jae-yong, the vice chairman of Samsung Electronics, of stock manipulation and illegal trading involving the 2015 merger of two Samsung affiliates, Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries, of which Lee is the largest shareholder.  He allegedly sought to inflate the value of Cheil Industries and lower the value of Samsung C&T to give him a bigger stake in the merged company, a move that would give him increasing control of South Korea’s largest conglomerate and smooth the transition from his ailing father, Lee Kun-hee, who suffered a heart attack in 2014.    But the Seoul Central District Court ruled Tuesday that while prosecutors had amassed enough evidence against Lee in their investigation, there was not enough to justify detaining him.   The 51-year-old Lee arrived at the courthouse Monday for the hearing, which lasted nine hours, and awaited the decision at a detention center.      Samsung released a statement last week denying the allegations against Lee, who prosecutors have also accused of inflating the value of Samsung Biologics, a subsidiary of Cheil Industries.    Lee is also awaiting a retrial on his original 2017 conviction for bribing a confidante of then-President Park Geun-hye in return for Park’s support for the 2015 merger, a scandal that forced Park out of office and eventually landed her in prison. Lee served a year in prison before an appeals court suspended his sentence, but South Korea’s Supreme Court overturned the lower court’s decision last year.   
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North Korea said Tuesday it will cut off all communication channels with South Korea as it escalates its pressure on the South for failing to stop activists from floating anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border. The North Korean warning came as relations between the two Koreas have been strained amid a prolonged deadlock in broader nuclear diplomacy between Pyongyang and Washington. Some experts say North Korea may be deliberately creating tensions to bolster internal unity or launch bigger provocation in the face of persistent U.S.-led sanctions.  The North’s Korean Central News Agency said Tuesday that all cross-border communication lines will be cut off at Tuesday noon. It said it will be “the first step of the determination to completely shut down all contact means with South Korea and get rid of unnecessary things.” “The South Korean authorities connived at the hostile acts against (North Korea) by the riff-raff, while trying to dodge heavy responsibility with nasty excuses,” it said. “They should be forced to pay dearly for this.” Since last week, North Korea has increasingly expressed its anger over the leafleting by threatening to permanently shut down a liaison office with South Korea and a jointly run factory park, as well as nullify a 2018 inter-Korean tension-reduction agreement. North Korean citizens have also staged a series of mass anti-Seoul public rallies, something the North typically organizes in times of tensions with the outside world. N. Korea Warns S. Korea to Stop Defectors from Scattering Anti-North LeafletsNorth says it may cancel recent bilateral military agreement if activity persists North Korea has in recent months suspended virtually all cooperation with South Korea as its nuclear negotiations with the United States remains stalemated since the breakdown of a summit between its leader Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump in early 2019. A main sticking point in the U.S.-North Korea diplomacy is a U.S. refusal to lift much of crippling international sanctions on North Korea in return for limited denuclearization steps.  North Korea has slammed South Korea for failing to break away from Washington and for not restoring massive joint economic projects held up by U.S.-led sanctions. Inter-Korean relations flourished in 2018, when Kim entered talks on the future of his nuclear weapons. South Korea had no immediate response to the North Korean announcement. But it has recently said it would push for new legal steps to ban activists from launching leaflets in an attempt to save faltering ties with North Korea. But the North has countered the South Korean response lacks sincerity.  The leafleting has been a long-running source of tensions between the two Koreas. In recent years, North Korean defectors and conservative activists have floated huge balloons carrying leaflets criticizing Kim Jong Un over his nuclear ambitions and abysmal human rights record. The North, which bristles at any outside attempt to undermine the Kim leadership, has often made a furious response to the South Korean government for failing to stop them . In 2014, North Korean troops opened fire at propaganda balloons flying toward their territory, triggering an exchange of fire that caused no known causalities. South Korea has typically let activists launch such balloons, citing their rights to exercise freedom of speech, but it sometimes sent police officers to stop them from floating leaflets in times of tensions with North Korea. 
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Construction workers in Paris dangled from ropes and used saws to cut through the charred tangled remains of metal scaffolding as they resumed restoration work on Notre Dame cathedral. Fire nearly destroyed the centuries-old structure in April 2019. The coronavirus outbreak suspended work rebuilding the church in March.Huge towers of metal scaffolding erected before the fire — as part of a renovation — melted into a maze of tubes and pipes and must be cut away before any more work on the building can continue — 40,000 pieces of metal weighing as much as 200 tons must be carefully lifted out, which is expected to take three months.  Workers prepare to remove damaged scaffolding elements from the remains of the damaged roof of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, June 8, 2020“It’s a bit like open-heart surgery because we are in the middle of the cathedral between the transept and its heart, precisely where the spire crashed,” Christophe Rousselot said. He heads a charity collecting funds to help pay for the restoration.  The fire burned through the roof and destroyed the spire, but the main bell towers, walls, and most of the ceiling survived as well as many of the relics inside the church. Engineers cannot enter the cathedral to inspect its vaults until the fused scaffolding is removed. Once the scaffolding is gone, a temporary roof will be put up and the restoration work will begin. French President Emmanuel Macron has said he hopes the cathedral will be restored and ready for visitors again by 2024, when Paris hosts the Summer Olympics.  
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Police departments have used tear gas and pepper spray on protesters in recent weeks, raising concern that the chemical agents could increase the spread of the coronavirus.  The chemicals are designed to irritate the mucous membranes of the eyes, nose and throat. They make people cough, sneeze and pull off their masks as they try to breathe. Medical experts say those rushing to help people sprayed by tear gas could come into close contact with someone already infected with the virus who is coughing infectious particles. Also, those not already infected could be in more danger of getting sick because of irritation to their respiratory tracts. There’s no research on tear gas and COVID-19 specifically, because the virus is too new. But a few years ago, Joseph Hout, then an active duty Army officer, conducted a study of 6,723 Army recruits exposed to a riot control gas during basic training. The study found a link between that exposure and doctors diagnosing acute respiratory illnesses.  Medics help protesters after Montreal Police used tear gas during a march against police brutality and racism in Montreal on June 7, 2020.Could tear gas lead to an increase in coronavirus infections? “I think it’s plausible, yes,” Hout said Monday.   The gases and sprays “by their nature, make you cough, sneeze and excrete fluids,” said Hout, now employed by Fairfax, Virginia-based Knowesis Inc., a private contractor.   “If there is a person who is positive for the virus, I can see them coughing on someone else and spreading it that way,” Hout said. “Another less likely way is through irritation of the respiratory system. It could create an environment for opportunistic infection in the body.”  Last week, more than 1,000 medical professionals and students signed a letter urging public health officials to oppose any use of “tear gas, smoke, or other respiratory irritants, which could increase risk for COVID-19 by making the respiratory tract more susceptible to infection, exacerbating existing inflammation, and inducing coughing.”   In the U.S., mayors in Portland, Oregon, and Seattle have ordered limits on the use of one common gas for crowd control. A judge in Denver imposed restrictions on the use of chemical weapons by police. And officials in Pittsburgh, New Orleans and Washington, D.C., have proposed bans or limits on tear gas use. As protests over the death of George Floyd and other black Americans killed by law enforcement continue, it will take weeks before the effect might show up in rising COVID-19 case numbers. If cases increase, there are other factors that could share the blame, such as shouting, singing and, for thousands who were arrested, being confined in close spaces with others. 
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Google is adding features on its Maps service to alert users about COVID-19-related travel restrictions to help them plan their trips better, the Alphabet Inc unit said Monday. The update would allow users to check how crowded a train station might be at a particular time, or if buses on a certain route are running on a limited schedule, Google said.The transit alerts would be rolled out in Argentina, France, India, Netherlands, the United States and United Kingdom among other countries, the company said in a blog post.The new features would also include details on COVID-19 checkpoints and restrictions on crossing national borders, starting with Canada, Mexico and the United States.In recent months, the company has analyzed location data from billions of Google users’ phones in 131 countries to examine mobility under lockdowns and help health authorities assess if people were abiding with social-distancing and other orders issued to rein in the virus.Google has invested billions of dollars from its search ads business to digitally map the world, drawing 1 billion users on average every month to its free navigation app. 
 
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Four suspected rebels were killed by government forces in Indian-administered Kashmir on Monday just hours after five militants died in a firefight in the same area, officials said, as deadly clashes increase in the restive valley.
 
The fresh clash was followed by the shooting death of an elected village official from India’s main opposition Congress party not far from the site of the firefight, which police blamed on the rebels.
 
Such armed encounters are frequent in the Himalayan region disputed by India and Pakistan, but the fighting has intensified with at least 85 militants and dozens of government forces killed this year.
 
In the latest incident, soldiers cordoned a village in southern Shopian area early Monday after a tip-off from police, army spokesman Colonel Rajesh Kalia said.
 
A firefight broke out and four suspected rebels were killed, he added. Soldiers also blew up at least one home, another police officer and locals said.
 
An army officer, who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity, said three soldiers were wounded in the confrontation.
 
Hundreds of villagers rallied in support of the rebels, throwing stones and shouting slogans against Indian rule as the firefight raged, a police officer and locals said.
 
On Sunday, five militants were killed after Indian soldiers and counterinsurgency police cordoned off Shopian’s Reban village.
 
On Saturday, unidentified gunman shot dead a young man in the northern Sopore area. Police blamed rebels for the killing.  
 
The incidents came a week after New Delhi expelled two Pakistan embassy officials over allegations of spying.
 
Tensions remain high in Kashmir after New Delhi in August revoked its semi-autonomous status and imposed a lengthy curfew.
 
Pakistan criticized the move and there has been a frequent exchange of fire across the heavily militarized border between the nuclear-armed rivals.
 
Since 1989, rebels groups have fought against some 500,000 Indian soldiers deployed in the territory, demanding independence or Kashmir’s merger with Pakistan.        
 
India regularly blames Pakistan for arming and training rebels before sending them across the border, charges that Islamabad denies.
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The coronavirus pandemic inflicted a “swift and massive shock” that has caused the broadest collapse of the global economy since 1870 despite unprecedented government support, the World Bank said Monday.   The world economy is expected to contract by 5.2 percent this year — the worst recession in 80 years — but the sheer number of countries suffering economic losses means the scale of the downturn is worse than any recession in 150 years, the World Bank said in its latest People affected by the coronavirus economic downturn, receive food donations at the Iterileng informal settlement near Laudium, southwest of Pretoria, South Africa, May 20, 2020.The depth of the crisis will drive 70 to 100 people into extreme poverty  — worse than the prior estimate of 60 million, she told reporters.   And while the Washington-based development lender projects a rebound for 2021, there is a risk a second wave of outbreaks could undermine the recovery and turn the economic crisis into a financial one that will see a “wave of defaults.”   Economists have been struggling to measure the impact of the crisis they have likened to a global natural disaster, but the sheer size of the impact across so many sectors and countries has made it hard to calculate, and made predictions about any recovery highly uncertain.   Under the worst-case scenario, the global recession could mean a contraction of eight percent, according to the report.   But Pazarbasioglu cautioned: “Given this uncertainty, further downgrades to the outlook are very likely.”   China still growing, barely   Although China is nearly alone in seeing modest growth this year, the depth of the slowdown in the world’s second-largest economy will hinder recovery prospects in developing nations, especially commodity exporters, the World Bank warned.   People wearing face masks to protect against the new coronavirus browse merchant tents at a government event aiming to stimulate consumer demand and consumption in Beijing, June 6, 2020.While China will see GDP rise just one percent, the World Bank said, the rest of the forecasts are grim: US -6.1 percent, eurozone -9.1 percent, Japan -6.1 percent, Brazil -8 percent, Mexico -7.5 percent and India -3.2 percent.   And things could get worse, meaning the forecasts will be revised even lower, the bank warned.   Though dramatic, the current forecast falls short of the Great Depression, which saw a global contraction of 14.5 percent from 1930 to 1932, while the post-war downturn in 1945-1946 was 13.8 percent, according to the World Bank.   Still, amid the still unfolding pandemic there remain some “exceptionally high” risks to the outlook, particularly if the  of the disease lingers or rebounds, causing authorities to reimpose restrictions that could make the downturn as bad as eight percent.   “Disruptions to activity would weaken businesses’ ability to remain in operation and service their debt,” the report cautioned.   That, in turn, could raise interest rates for higher-risk borrowers. “With debt levels already at historic highs, this could lead to cascading defaults and financial crises across many economies,” it said.    But even if the 4.2 percent global recovery projected for 2021 materializes, “in many countries, deep recessions triggered by COVID-19 will likely weigh on potential output for years to come.” 
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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 DebunkCan I get COVID-19 through my eyes or ears?Read the full story at: Associated PressSocial Media DisinfoScreenshotCirculating on social media: Claim that a 1981 novel written by Dean Koontz predicted the coronavirus outbreak.Verdict: FalseRead the full story at: USA TodayFactual Reads on CoronavirusDoes drug touted by Trump work on COVID-19? After data debacle, we still don’t know
Hydroxychloroquine was shown in laboratory experiments earlier this year to be able to block the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19, but this effect has not been replicated in rigorous trials in people.
— Reuters, June 4
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Tropical Storm Cristobal weakened into a depression early Monday after inundating coastal Louisiana and ginning up dangerous weather along most of the U.S. Gulf Coast, sending waves crashing over Mississippi beaches, swamping parts of an Alabama island town and spawning a tornado in Florida.         Heavy rainfall and a storm surge continued posing a threat across a wide area of the coast after Cristobal made landfall Sunday afternoon with 85-kph winds between the mouth of the Mississippi River and the since-evacuated barrier island resort community of Grand Isle.          At 5 a.m. EDT Monday, the storm was centered about 65 kilometers north of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, with top winds of 55 kmh, and moving north-northwest at 17 kmh. Cristobal’s remnants could be a rainmaker for days. Its forecast path takes it into Arkansas and Missouri by Tuesday, then through Illinois and Wisconsin to the Great Lakes.          “It’s very efficient, very tropical rainfall,” National Hurricane Center Director Ken Graham said in a Facebook video. “It rains a whole bunch real quick.”          Forecasters said up to 30 centimeters of rain could fall in some areas. The weather service warned that the rain would contribute to rivers flooding on the central Gulf Coast and up into the Mississippi Valley, posing a new test of the beleaguered pumping system designed to drain flood waters from the streets of New Orleans.       Coastal Mississippi news outlets reported stalled cars and trucks as flood waters inundated beaches and crashed over highways. On the City of Biloxi Facebook page, officials said emergency workers helped dozens of motorists through flood waters, mostly on U.S. 90 running along the coast.         In Alabama, the bridge linking the mainland to Dauphin Island was closed much of Sunday. Police and state transportation department vehicles led convoys of motorists to and from the island when breaks in the weather permitted.          Rudy Horvath walks out of his home, a boathouse in the West End section of New Orleans, as it takes on water a from storm surge in Lake Pontchartrain in advance of Tropical Storm Cristobal, June 7, 2020.Rising water on Lake Pontchartrain near New Orleans pushed about two feet of water into the first floor of Rudy Horvath’s residence — a boathouse that sits on pilings over the brackish lake. Horvath said he and his family have lived there a year and have learned to take the occasional flood in stride. They’ve put tables on the lower floor to stack belongings above the high water.         “We thought it would be pretty cool to live out here, and it has been,” Horvath said. “The sunsets are great.”         Elsewhere in south Louisiana, water covered the only road to Grand Isle and low-lying parts of Plaquemines Parish at the state’s southeastern tip. “You can’t go down there by car,” shrimper Acy Cooper said Sunday of one marina in the area. “You have to go by boat.”         In Florida, a tornado — the second in two days in the state as the storm approached – uprooted trees and downed power lines Sunday afternoon south of Lake City near Interstate 75, the weather service and authorities said. There were no reports of injuries. The storm also forced a waterlogged stretch of Interstate 10 in north Florida to close for a time Sunday.         Charles Marsala, who lives in the Orleans Marina in the West End section of New Orleans, films a rising storm surge from Lake Pontchartrain, in advance of Tropical Storm Cristobal, June 7, 2020.Rain fell intermittently in New Orleans famed French Quarter on Sunday afternoon, but the streets were nearly deserted, with many businesses already boarded up due to the coronavirus. Daniel Priestman said people may be “overwhelmed” by the coronavirus and recent police violence and protests. They seemed “resigned to whatever happens – happens,” he said.          At one New Orleans intersection, a handmade “Black Lives Matter” sign, wired to a lamp post, rattled in a stiff wind as the crew of a massive vacuum truck worked to unclog a storm drain.         The Sewerage & Water Board of New Orleans said the city’s aging street drainage system had limits, so residents should avoid underpasses and low-lying areas prone to inevitable street flooding.         Jefferson Parish, a suburb of New Orleans, called for voluntary evacuations Saturday of some low-lying communities because of threatened storm surge, high tides and heavy rain.          President Donald Trump agreed to issue an emergency declaration for Louisiana, officials said.     
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Thai activists and organizations have raised alarm bells following last month’s announcement that the Mekong River Commission will begin its prior consultation process on the Sanakham hydropower plant, a new Mekong River dam project in northern Laos.  The plant would be the sixth dam in Laos, costing more than $2 billion, and would follow Laos’ Xayaburi Dam, farther upstream, which began operation in November.  The MRC prior consultation process normally lasts for six months, during which other MRC members, including Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, can review the project and assess any cross-border impacts. While members can suggest changes, the MRC consultation process cannot veto projects, meaning the Sanakham project will move forward. Save the Mekong, a coalition of organizations and academics, said June 2 the proposed dam is expensive, unnecessary and risky, and should be canceled. “Now is the time to cancel the Mekong mainstream dams permanently and prioritise sustainable and equitable energy options and pathways that respect the rights of communities,” the group said. Like the Xayaburi Dam, the electricity generated by the Sanakham project would mainly be exported to Thailand, a country many observers say is already oversupplied with power. “Records show that electric plants in the region generate enough power already and the Sanakham dam will only add more problems for the people living and working along the river,” according to Ormbun Thipsuna, spokesperson for the Network of Thai People in Eight Mekong Provinces.  The organization was scheduled to meet Thai government officials in March to discuss the potential adverse effects of the newly operational Xayaburi dam, along with concerns about the proposed Sanakham project.  The meeting was postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Lower Mekong Basin had record-low water levels in the last half of last year, which exacerbated Thailand’s worst drought in 40 years at the beginning of 2020, affecting farmers who heavily depend on the waterway for irrigation.Local villagers travel on the Mekong River near Nong Khai, Thailand. The river’s water has become clear since the Xayaburi dam upstream began generating hydropower. (Steve Sandford/VOA)Critics say that new dam will only make conditions worse. “According to villagers in Loei [a northeastern Thai province on the Mekong], downstream of the proposed Sanakham dam site, the push for the Sanakham project will greatly aggravate the environmental and social problems within the Mekong river on the communities in the lower Mekong basin,” Paiporn Deetes,  of the conservationist group International Rivers, said.  “Data notification,” Deetes added, referring to the limited environmental information  supplied by countries where the dams operate, particularly in the Upper Mekong Basin, controlled by China, “which until now has been made through government channels, has failed to keep the public sufficiently informed and has also failed to address transboundary impacts.”   “Most importantly, the notifications have not addressed the impacts on downstream communities and the ecological system,” he said. Many groups in the Save the Mekong coalition are calling for a moratorium on large-scale hydropower dams, similar to Cambodia’s March decision to impose a 10-year ban on new dam building along the section of the river there. Although China is not a commission member, the country extends a strong influence in the region through investments and loans. The MRC released a statement calling for greater transparency after the April release of a report saying Chinese Upper Mekong dams had held back water, creating low water levels in the Lower Mekong Basin. The report, by water research and consulting company Eyes on Earth, combined daily satellite imagery from 1992 to 2019 with daily river height gauge data to assist in their conclusions that the 11 Chinese Upper Mekong Basin dams, have held back water to fill local reservoirs for long-term storage. “The need for all the countries along the length of the Mekong to strike a balance between the benefits of development, social justice, and environmental sustainability is so paramount. A transparent data sharing arrangement on how water and related infrastructures are operated will help everyone manage risks and avoid misperception,” said An Pich Hatda, the MRC Secretariat’s chief executive officer.  The date for the beginning of the Sanakham consultation will be announced after the completion of the previous MRC consultation process, assessing the Luang Prabang dam project, another Laos – based dam, which will conclude June 30. Datang Sanakham Energy, is the contractor of the Sanakham project, a subsidiary of China’s Datang International Power Generation Co. – a state-owned company. 
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The killing of another black teenager by Rio de Janeiro police last month was, based on the numbers, unremarkable – one of hundreds gunned down every year by some of the world’s deadliest cops. But the fallout has surprised many. Brazil’s Supreme Court last week banned raids by Rio police during the COVID-19 pandemic and Sunday saw nationwide marches against right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro, as U.S. demonstrations and a global debate over racial violence by police has spurred a reckoning in Brazil. A studious 14-year-old who talked of becoming a lawyer, João Pedro Matos Pinto spent the afternoon of May 18 playing with friends around his uncle’s backyard pool in São Gonçalo, a gritty suburb of the Rio state capital. When police helicopters began circling close overhead, the frightened boys rushed inside, João Pedro’s mother and uncle told Reuters. Heavily armed police stormed the home, throwing a grenade inside and spraying the structure with gunfire. One of the bullets hit João Pedro in the torso, killing him. “When you enter a community shooting, it’s as if everyone in the community is a criminal. It’s as if nobody good lives here,” said Rafaela Coutinho Matos, mother of the slain boy, in an interview. Authorities told her family the death was an accident, she said. They said helicopters spotted a man they thought was the target of a police raid hopping over a fence near the pool. In a statement, Rio state police said detectives had opened an investigation into the incident and three officers had been suspended. Brazil’s federal police, which also participated in the operation, did not respond to a request for comment.A homeless man makes a victory sign during a protest against racism and hate crimes during a Black Lives Matter demonstration in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sunday, June 7, 2020.Such tragedies are commonplace in Rio, where a notoriously violent police force killed 1,814 people last year, according to official statistics. They killed 606 more in the first four months of 2020. Many killings of unarmed black men, or children, come and go with relatively little protest or media attention. Yet anger at João Pedro’s death and other recent complaints of police brutality are boiling over in Brazil against a backdrop of widespread U.S. demonstrations after the May 25 death of George Floyd in police custody. Supreme Court OrderOn Friday, hundreds gathered outside the São Gonçalo city hall, chanting “No justice, no peace!” in Portuguese. Many focused their ire on Bolsonaro and Rio Governor Wilson Witzel, both far-right politicians that have encouraged police to kill more criminals. Witzel, a former judge, said a surge in police killings under his watch “isn’t difficult to justify.” Also on Friday, Supreme Court Justice Edson Fachin issued an order prohibiting police raids in Rio’s cinderblock slums, known as favelas, until the worst of the COVID-19 outbreak subsides. The order, which made reference to João Pedro’s death, allows raids only under “exceptional circumstances” with prior approval by state prosecutors. On Sunday, anti-racism marches in major Brazilian cities brought out the largest crowds of anti-Bolsonaro protesters since the pandemic arrived in March. In the capital Brasilia, demonstrators in masks carried “Black Lives Matter” banners emblazoned with João Pedro’s name. Public safety expert Ignacio Cano said that such fallout from a police killing was unprecedented, suggesting that news from the United States had heightened sensitivities in Brazil. “It’s sad in a way that part of Brazilian society has to look at the U.S. to realize that the problem exists at home,” said Cano, a professor at Rio de Janeiro State University. “And the media is giving a lot more coverage now after the George Floyd case than they would otherwise give to the recurrent cases of executions in favelas.” At Friday’s protest in São Gonçalo, black college student Mykaella Moreira echoed demands for human rights that have taken center stage in the United States as well. “We can’t accept this genocidal state, which thinks we can die for nothing,” Moreira said. “We are also people. We also have a right to live.” São Gonçalo is patrolled by Rio’s 7th military police battalion, the state’s most deadly police force, public records show. In October, Reuters published an investigation into the death of Brayan Mattos dos Santos, a 19-year-old who was also the unintended victim of a raid here. This year, police in the area are set to break their own grim record, having killed 103 people in the district in the first four months of 2020. In March, police here set a monthly record, killing 33 people, according to public data. Although whites make up half the population in Rio, they account for only 12% of police killings, according to data obtained by Reuters last year under a freedom of information request. João Pedro was studious, devout and went nowhere without family, said his mother Rafaela. On the day he was killed, Rafaela said the boy was visiting his cousin about a kilometer away to play by the pool. She learned that João Pedro had been injured when her husband entered the family home in a panic, saying their son had been shot and taken to a hospital by helicopter. It was nearly a full day until she learned his fate. “He was a loving boy,” said Rafaela. “A boy who had dreams.” 
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The Minneapolis police department could soon undergo a radical change following the death two weeks ago of George Floyd, an African American man, while in the custody of four city officers.Nine of 12 members of the city council announced at a rally in a city park that they support dismantling the police department and replacing it with what is being described as a community-based public safety model.Details on exactly what this new model would look like are unclear.The 12-member council still has to approve the plan and, under council rules, the decision would be veto-proof.A group of demonstrators rallied outside the home of Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey Saturday to demand the police department be defunded, accusing it of long-standing racism and rough treatment of black suspects.“It shouldn’t have taken so much death to get us here,” said Kandace Montgomery, the director of Black Vision which organized the gathering outside the mayor’s house. “We’re safer without armed, unaccountable patrols supported by the state hunting black people.”Frey told the crowd that he does not support getting rid of the police department as it looks now.”I told them the truth about where I stand. I’ll work relentlessly toward deep structural reforms to change policing, rethink our system, and directly address systemic racism. However, I do not support abolishing the department,” Frey said.Many of the demonstrators who have been protesting across the country have demanded that big city police departments be defunded. Supporters say that doesn’t mean literally getting rid of law enforcement but say much of the money used to run police departments can be reinvested into social services, arguing that creating better lives for citizens means little need for a gun-toting officer.Opponents say they want people to ask themselves what happens when someone calls 911 to report a rape in progress or a murder or armed robbery and few officers are available.Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden will be in Houston Monday to meet with George Floyd’s family before a funeral service.A Biden aide says a video message from Biden will be played at the service, but Biden himself will not attend.Floyd was born near Fayetteville, North Carolina, but grew up in Houston, where he will be buried Tuesday.Biden got a huge endorsement Sunday when former Secretary of State Colin Powell said he would be voting for the Democrat in November.”I cannot in any way support President Trump this year,” Powell told CNN Sunday.He added that he is “very close to Joe Biden on a social matter and on a political matter. I think what we’re seeing now, this massive protest movement I have ever seen in my life, I think it suggests the country is getting wise to this and we’re not going to put up with it anymore,” Powell told Tapper.Trump shot back, calling Powell a “stiff” and “overrated.”Powell is another major voice from the U.S. military critical of the way the Trump administration has been calling for force to deal with protest marches against the harsh police treatment of black men.The National Guard will start pulling out of Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento, and other California cities as the violence by Floyd protesters has eased.Sunday’s marches in California were peaceful, but Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti says a “small number of units” will be stationed nearby for at least two more days in case of emergency.A group of primarily African Americans calling themselves The Compton Cowboys held a peaceful protest on horseback in some southern L.A. suburbs Sunday while a group of classic car fans held their own march in East Los Angeles.The situation in Oakland was a bit more tense when demonstrators tried to close down an interstate highway but backed down after a brief standoff with police. Another gathering painted the words Black Lives Matter in a downtown Oakland street, just like the one painted on a Washington street.Several hundred families, many pushing baby strollers, marched peacefully around a lake in Oakland. A similar march was held in San Francisco and thousands also gathered peacefully along that city’s waterfront. 
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U.S. envoy for Afghanistan reconciliation, Zalmay Khalilzad, has met with leaders of the Taliban in Qatar to review the implementation of a peace deal with the Islamist insurgency aimed at ending nearly two decades of Afghan conflict.
 
A Taliban spokesman, while releasing details of Sunday’s meeting in the Qatari capital Doha, said Khalilzad was accompanied by Gen. Scott Miller, the U.S. commander of international troops in Afghanistan.
 
“Both sides talked about speedy release of the prisoners and commencement of intra-Afghan negotiations, in addition to other relevant matters,” tweeted Suhail Shaheen, who speaks for the Taliban’s political office in Doha.
 
Shaheen said Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the political deputy to the Taliban chief, led the insurgent delegation at Sunday’s talks. He noted that Qatar’s foreign ministry’s special envoy, Mutlaq al-Qahtani, also attended the meeting.
 
In a pre-visit announcement last week, the U.S. State Department had said the “primary focus” of Khalilzad’s trip will be to “obtain agreement between the Afghan parties on the practical next steps necessary for a smooth start to intra-Afghan negotiations.”
 
The long-awaited intra-Afghan dialogue, however, is tied to a prisoner swap between the Afghan government and the insurgent group, stipulated in the U.S.-Taliban agreement.  
 FILE – Newly freed Taliban prisoners are seen gathered at Pul-i-Charkhi prison, in Kabul, Afghanistan, May 26, 2020.Kabul is required to set free 5,000 Taliban inmates in exchange for 1,000 Afghan personnel being held by insurgents. So far, the Taliban says it has released close to 460 detainees while the government says it has freed around 2,700 insurgents.
Battlefield hostilities, meanwhile, have spiked in recent weeks, with the Taliban launching major raids against Afghan security forces, killing dozens of them. The government has responded by stepping up counterinsurgency operations.  
 
The insurgents, however, have stopped attacks against U.S.-led international forces in line with the pact, which requires all foreign forces to leave Afghanistan by mid-2021 in return for the Taliban’s counterterrorism assurances. The U.S. military also has halted direct attacks on insurgents
 
The Taliban and the Afghan government observed a temporary cease-fire during three-day annual Eid festivities, which ended on May 26. But violence has since increased again, prompting the U.S. military last week to launch airstrikes to disrupt Taliban attacks on Afghan forces.  
 Khalilzad visits Pakistan  
 
After his meeting in Doha with Taliban leaders, Khalilzad traveled to Pakistan, where he met with the country’s military chief, General Qamar Javed Bajwa. A military statement said that the Afghan political reconciliation process, Pakistan’s efforts to boost security at its long border with Afghanistan, and the presence of nearly 3 million Afghan refugees on Pakistani soil came under discussion.U.S. special representative Zalmay Khalilzad and his delegation meet with Pakistan’s army chief Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa at GHQ in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, Jun 7, 2020. (Courtesy – ISPR)“Both (Bajwa and Khalilzad) shared steps taken in this regard and agreed to continue working towards mutually agreed goals,” the statement said.  
 
Pakistan is believed to have maintained close ties to Taliban leaders and fighters whose families live among Afghan refugees. Islamabad takes credit for bringing the insurgents to the table for talks with the United States that produced the landmark Feb. 29 agreement between the two.  
 
Khalilzad is scheduled to visit Afghanistan on the last leg of his latest three-nation trip.
 
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