Author: CensorBiz

As largely peaceful protests continue in major cities around the United States, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Wednesday that he does not support the use of active-duty military forces in quelling unrest. The Pentagon Chief’s statement puts him at odds with President Donald Trump, who has threatened to send troops to crack down on over a week of massive protests sparked by the death of a black man in the custody of a white police officer. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has the story. 
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A weakened Tropical Storm Cristobal is moving gradually across Mexico after dumping heavy rains on the country’s Gulf coast state of Campeche on Wednesday, with an expected path toward the Gulf coast region of the United States. The U.S. National Hurricane Center anticipates the storm could become a menace for the U.S. coastal region by Sunday after gaining intensity over the warmer Gulf waters on Friday. Before threatening the United States, forecasters expect Cristobal will continue to produce heavy rains and flooding along Mexico’s Gulf coast.  Mexico’s national coordinator of civil defense, David Leon Romero, said Wednesday, five priority states have had the highest rainfall and the greatest impact. Romero said they have taken steps to allow crews to account for casualties.  He said so far they have not identified any deaths or injuries.  However, he said, they are still monitoring the situation. Cristobal developed Tuesday from the remnants of Tropical Storm Amanda, which formed in the Pacific Ocean and caused severe flooding and landslides in Central America.  At least 22 deaths have been reported in El Salvador and Guatemala because of the storm.  
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The sister of North Korea’s leader has warned South Korea to stop defectors from sending leaflets into the demilitarized zone separating the countries, saying it may cancel a recent bilateral military agreement if the activity persists.Kim Yo Jong, who serves unofficially as Kim Jong Un’s chief of staff, issued the warning in a statement carried by state news agency KCNA on Thursday.She was referring to thousands of “anti-DPRK leaflets” recently dumped along the North’s side of the heavily fortified DMZ titled “Defectors from the North.”DPRK, or the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, is the North’s official name.”If such an act of evil intention committed before our eyes is left to take its own course under the pretext of ‘freedom of individuals’ and ‘freedom of expression’, the south Korean authorities must face the worst phase shortly,” the KCNA statement said.Kim Yo Jong warned of the possible scrapping of the inter-Korean military agreement that promised to eliminate practical threats of war as a result of the clandestine leafletting.The military pact reached in 2018 was “hardly of any value,” she said.She also warned the North will completely withdraw from the Kaesong industrial project and shut down the joint liaison office in the North’s border city, unless Seoul stopped such actions.The KCNA report did not single out any individuals for blame in the leafletting. But Kim Yo Jong’s comments come after a former North Korean diplomat and another North Korean defector won parliamentary seats in South Korea’s general election in April.Kim Yo Jong has been the most visible presence around her brother in the past two years. She serves formally as a vice director of the ruling Workers’ Party’s powerful Central Committee 
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Jim Mattis, Donald Trump’s former secretary of defense who had resigned to protest the withdrawal of American troops from Syria, accused the U.S. president of trying to “divide” America.”In my lifetime, Donald Trump is the first president who doesn’t try to bring the Americans together, who doesn’t even pretend to try,” he wrote in a statement posted online by The Atlantic on Wednesday.”Instead, he is trying to divide us,” said the former general of the Marines, who had so far displayed his reservations without ever commenting directly on Trump.”I observed the events of this week, angry and dismayed,” he continued.Since the May 25 death in Minneapolis of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody, a wave of historic anger has risen in American cities, denouncing racism, police violence and social inequalities. Tens of thousands of protesters protested peacefully across the country, but looting and riots also marred the movement.Trump has used a martial tone and threatened to resort to the military to subdue the streets.”We must not be distracted by a handful of outlaws,” Mattis wrote. “The demonstrations are tens of thousands of principled people who insist that we live up to our values.””We must reject and hold accountable those in power who mock our Constitution,” he added.  
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Eight U.S. states and Washington, D.C., the nation’s capital, held primary elections on Tuesday, in the midst of police brutality protests across the country and the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The primary contests further solidified former Vice President Joe Biden’s status as the all-but-certain Democratic Party nominee for president, as protests against racism have taken center stage in an increasingly bitter and polarized race. VOA’s Brian Padden reports.Produced by: Barry Unger 
 
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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: Temperature checks of employees will make workplaces safe.Verdict: FalseRead the full story at: Associated Press​Social Media DisinfoScreenshotCirculating on social media: Claim that a video shows Chinese citizens converting to Islam as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.Verdict: FalseRead the full story at: Agence France-Presse
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Protests are being staged across America — some violent — following the death of another unarmed black man by police. 46-year-old George Floyd kept pleading “I can’t breathe” while a policeman’s knee pressed on the neck of the handcuffed man, arrested for suspicion of using forged currency. Plugged In with Greta Van Susteren examines Floyd’s death, the protests, the violence, the police response, and President Trump’s warning with Peniel Joseph from the University of Texas. Air date: June 3, 2020.
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Italy, one of the countries hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic, is now reopening its most renowned tourist attractions to international visitors. But these sites will not be seeing the crowds of the past for some time even though the country is open for business. For VOA, Sabina Castelfranco reports from Rome.Camera: Mark Brewer    Produced by:  Jon Spier     
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Asian markets rose for a third consecutive day Wednesday thanks to growing optimism over a gradual post-pandemic recovery. The Nikkei in Tokyo closed 1.2% higher, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index is trading 1.2% higher in late afternoon trading.  Sydney’s S&P/ASX index and the TSEC in Taiwan are both up 1.7%, while the KOSPI in Seoul is 2.8% higher.  The Shanghai Composite index is trending upward but is basically unchanged. Oil markets are also on the upswing, with U.S. crude selling at $37.59 per barrel, up 2.1%, while Brent crude is selling at $40.19 per barrel, up 1.5%.   All three major U.S. indexes are trending upward in futures trading Wednesday, indicating another good day for investors on Wall Street. 
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Images of violence and looting have dominated news coverage of America’s protests against racism and police brutality, but most people participating in the demonstrations have not taken part in the mayhem. VOA’s Jesusemen Oni has this report on how people are making themselves heard without violence.Camera:  Saqib Islam, Jason Patinkin   
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U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday the Republicans will move this year’s national convention from the southeastern state of North Carolina because the governor is refusing to remove restrictions on large events aimed at preventing the spread of the coronavirus. As many as 19,000 people, including delegates and party officials, were expected to gather in Charlotte’s Spectrum Center, home of the city’s National Basketball Association franchise, in late August to nominate President Trump as the party’s candidate in the November presidential election. The president and Republican officials had demanded that Democratic Governor Roy Cooper allow the party to hold a typical full-scale convention, with an arena packed with delegates freely walking around without face masks. But Governor Cooper rejected those demands Tuesday, saying that “a scaled-down convention with fewer people, social distancing and face coverings is a necessity” because officials could not be sure of the status of the COVID-19 pandemic when the convention begins.FILE – North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper speaks to supporters in Raleigh, N.C., March 3, 2020.Trump blasted Cooper as “still in Shelter-in-Place Mode” on Twitter late Tuesday night, and said the decision was forcing Republicans “to seek another State to host the 2020 Republican National Convention.” News outlets say Republican officials will visit Nashville, Tennessee, located more than 600 kilometers west of Charlotte, in their search for a replacement city.  Other cities being discussed are the Florida cities of Jacksonville and Orlando; Las Vegas, Nevada; and sites in the southeastern state of Georgia. The Democrats have postponed their national convention, which was scheduled to be held a week earlier in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.   
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A Confederate soldiers’ monument that stood in Birmingham, Alabama, for more than 100 years is no more.Construction workers Tuesday dismantled the last piece of the five-story structure after Mayor Randall Woodfin ordered it gone.The mayor acted Sunday after a group of demonstrators protesting the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis threatened to tear down the monument themselves. They had already vandalized it and destroyed a statue of Confederate Navy Captain Charles Linn, one of Birmingham’s founders.”Allow me to finish the job for you. I wanted you to hear it directly from me. But I need you to stand down,” Woodfin told the crowd before declaring a state of emergency and curfew in Birmingham.Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall has sued the city, accusing it of violating a state law ordering protecting Confederate memorials that are at least 40 years old.The Washington Post reported that a statue honoring Confederate troops in Alexandria, Virginia — a Washington suburb — was taken also taken down Tuesday.Demonstrators in Nashville took matters in their own hands and tore down the statue of Edward Carmack, a former state lawmaker and newspaper publisher who espoused racist views, who was gunned down in the streets of Nashville in 1908, according to the Tennessean newspaper.FILE – Protesters toppled the statue of Edward Carmack outside the state Capitol after a peaceful demonstration turned violent, in Nashville, Tenn., May 31, 2020.And outside Tampa, Florida, a Sons of Confederate Veterans chapter voluntarily lowered a huge Confederate battle flag that flew within sight of two major highways for years.City and state officials across the southern U.S. have been removing Civil War Confederate-era memorials over the past several years.African Americans and others call the structures monuments to slavery, institutionalized racism, and terror.Alabama statue of LinnSarah Collins Rudolph’s sister Addie Mae Collins was one of four black girls killed in a 1963 church bombing in Birmingham by Ku Klux Klansmen — one of the most shocking acts of violence during the civil rights era.”I’m glad it’s been removed because it has been so long, and we know that it’s a hate monument,” said Rudolph, referring to the Linn monument. “It didn’t represent the blacks. It just represented the hard times back there a long time ago.”Rudolph continued, “The things that we were fighting for in the ’60s aren’t solved yet. We shouldn’t be treated the way they treat us.”A large group of southern states broke away from the United States in the 19th century in part to preserve the institution of slavery. Other areas of disagreement with the northern states included states’ rights and westward expansion. The resulting Civil War from 1861 until 1865 resulted in the official end of slavery in the U.S. when Congress passed the 13th Amendment three months before the Confederate surrender. 
 
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Zuhura Hassan is a mother in Tanzania struggling to keep her son safe during the pandemic. Zuhura’s son, a 5-year-old boy named Hayyan Hamoud, is one of the estimated 11,000 Tanzanian children who are born with sickle cell disease each year. SCD is a blood disorder that leads to immunity deficiency. This puts Hayyan Hammnd into a high-risk group that could become more severely compromised by COVID-19 should it infect him.  Camera: Honeymoon Aljabri  Produced by: Barbara Santos and Euna Lee 
 
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Malawi is seeing a surge in COVID-19 cases as citizens return from South Africa, the country hit harder than any other in Africa. Hundreds of returnees are expected to arrive in Malawi this week, raising fears the figures will increase even more. Out of nearly 1,000 Malawian migrant workers who recently came home, 134 tested positive for the coronavirus, almost doubling the country’s total cases. Malawi started registering a rise in COVID-19 cases on Thursday, a few days after the return of a group of migrant workers who had been stranded in South Africa because of a coronavirus lockdown.Of the 102 cases confirmed Thursday, 92 were among the returnees, the highest number of new cases in a single day since Malawi confirmed its first case on April 2.The trend continued this week. The Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 said out of 52 cases confirmed Monday, 42 were from people who have just returned from South Africa.And in a more alarming development, about 400 returnees escaped last week from a stadium where they were being held in quarantine. Officials are concerned the escapees will spread the virus when they go back to the rural areas where most of them live.Dorothy Ngoma, former president of Malawi’s National Organization of Nurses and Midwives, told VOA that it’s time for Malawian political leaders and clergy to help teach people about ways to prevent the virus from spreading.“We must go house to house and I want to encourage UTM [United Transformation movement Party], Malawi Congress [Party], DPP [Democratic Progressive Party], whatever party; the chiefs, the churches to continue doing this 24 hours a day until we make sure that everybody understand,” said Ngoma.Critics blame the government for failing to enforce anti-coronavirus measures, which include social distancing, use of face masks and closing borders to prevent imported coronavirus.FILE – President Peter Mutharika of Malawi said cash payments aims to support Malawians who normally depend on the markets for their livelihood. (Lameck Masina/VOA)Speaking on live television Monday, President Peter Mutharika said his administration has tried to contain the spread of the virus but politics has undermined those efforts. The country is preparing for a June 23 presidential election.“Our fight against coronavirus is being undermined by politics and politicians. The courts stopped us from going on a lockdown. The same courts want us to go to an election. Now, we have a situation that is encouraging everybody to campaign and undermining social distancing,” he said.Mutharika, who later in the day conducted a political rally, said it is now up to Malawians to choose between fighting coronavirus and going to an election.A survey released this week about public perception of COVID-19 has shown that 82 percent of Malawians are more scared of hunger than being infected with coronavirus.Boniface Dulani is the research director at the Institute for Public Opinion and Research, which conducted the survey.“Our findings, interestingly enough, also show that Malawians support that the elections should be held notwithstanding the risk of coronavirus. So this actually has basically made people think that maybe social distancing is not the best way to fight the coronavirus, which is really dangerous in itself,” said Dulani.Health experts have warned that the ongoing political rallies, coupled with the return of people from South Africa, puts Malawi at higher risk of more COVID-19 cases in the near future. 
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As the US is gradually reopening after many weeks of strict lockdown, hotels are about to start welcoming visitors again. Their owners need to figure out a way to provide traditional hospitality services with health and safety in mind. Medical experts and analysts of the industry believe a lot will change from new cleaning protocols to how room keys are handled. Lesia Bakalets has the story, narrated by Anna Rice.Camera: Aleksandr Bergan
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Police throughout California arrested hundreds of people who refused to heed curfews, chasing some down after they smashed into stores following a weekend of violence that accompanied rage over George Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police.Monday’s violence and thefts were not on the scale of the weekend, when blocks of stores were devastated, police cars torched and many officers injured.  Most of Monday’s protests were smaller, although an estimated 15,000 people gathered in Oakland and about 5,000 demonstrated in Riverside, east of Los Angeles.  In Sacramento, where two-thirds of the downtown businesses were damaged over the weekend, 500 National Guard troops were deployed and the city declared a Monday night curfew.  Most demonstrations were peaceful and there was sympathy expressed by law enforcement. Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco took a knee at the invitation of demonstrators.  “We support and will protect those who wish to demonstrate peacefully,” Los Angeles U.S. Attorney Nick Hanna said in a statement that announced the FBI will help identify those who commit serious crimes.San Diego Police Chief David Nisleit said Floyd’s death prompted him to revisit department policy and stop using a controversial neck restraint method. Floyd, who was black, was handcuffed and on the ground pleading for air as a white police officer pressed a knee on his neck for several minutes.Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore criticized looters as capitalizing on the death of Floyd and said “his death is on their hands.” Moore quickly said he regretted that characterization but added he was not apologizing to those committing violence and destroying livelihoods.”Looting is wrong, but it is not the equivalent of murder and I did not mean to equate the two,” Moore said later. “Let me be clear: the police officers involved were responsible for the death of Mr. George Floyd.”Most of Monday’s demonstrations ended when curfews took effect. But remaining crowds tossed fireworks and bottles in several cities, and authorities responded with tear gas and rubber bullets.Police who had been overwhelmed during the weekend were reinforced by 4,500 National Guard troops.  “Don’t be dumb,” Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti warned before the night’s curfew went into effect.Even so, scattered attacks on stores threatened to overshadow the message of protesters. Televised images showed attacks on stores in Van Nuys and Hollywood. Police said some people carried hammers.At one point, a handful of protesters stopped would-be thieves from entering a Walgreens on Sunset Boulevard.Many of the trashed businesses had only recently reopened following weeks closures because of the coronavirus. Volunteers turned out to help merchants clean up broken glass, board storefronts, and scrub away graffiti.  Alex Rose clutched a garbage-picker as he joined others cleaning up downtown Sacramento.”There’s a very clear distinction between protesters and the looters,” said Rose, who protested during the day Sunday. “I went home last night, and that’s when the criminals came out.”Some leaders blamed outsiders for the violence.Oakland’s acting police chief said organized thieves traveled more than 100 miles (160 kilometers) from other cities.  “Fifteen, 20, 30 cars at a time, hitting as you’ve seen different shopping malls, different areas,” Chief Susan Manheimer said.San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott said some people “came to this city with crowbars, bolt cutter, tools that were designed specifically to get into businesses, to take property and loot.”
 
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Police officers in Virginia’s capital city are facing disciplinary action after they were filmed using tear gas on a group of peaceful protesters.The Richmond Police Department initially defended its use of tear gas shortly before an 8 p.m. curfew Monday night, tweeting that some officers “were cut off by violent protesters” and the tear gas “was necessary to get them to safety.”About two hours later, the department retreated from that position after Chief William Smith reviewed video of the incident. In a tweet, the department apologized “for this unwarranted action.” The tweet said the officers who used the tear gas “have been pulled from the field” and will be disciplined “because their actions were outside dept protocols and directions given.”Mayor Levar Stoney also apologized on Twitter and invited protesters to a meeting at City Hall at noon Tuesday.”Words cannot make this right, and words cannot restore the trust broken this evening,” Stoney tweeted.The tear gas was used on a group of protesters gathered near Richmond’s statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee during the fourth night of protests over the killing of George Floyd, a handcuffed black man who died after a Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee on his neck for more than eight minutes as he pleaded for air. The officer has been charged with murder.On Monday, the Richmond protesters had marched from downtown to the Lee statue on Monument Avenue.Video posted to social media showed a line of police launching tear gas toward a group of protesters, who appeared to be yards away from the officers and peacefully gathered on the grass near the statue.Clouds of white gas surrounded demonstrators as they scattered, and one video appeared to show an officer chasing and spraying a protester.The department did not say how many officers were involved or what kind of discipline they face. 
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