Author: CensorBiz

President Donald Trump on Friday vetoed a measure that would have overturned a policy that Education Secretary Betsy DeVos issued in 2019 making it harder for students to get their loans erased after being misled by for-profit colleges.The Senate gave final approval to the bipartisan measure in March, dealing a rare rebuke of DeVos from the Republican-led chamber. But Trump on Friday said DeVos’ rules are better than an Obama-era policy that would have been restored if the measure succeeded.In issuing his veto, Trump said the rules created by former President Barack Obama “defined educational fraud so broadly that it threatened to paralyze the nation’s system of higher education.”He added that DeVos’ policy “strikes a better balance, protecting students’ rights to recover from schools that defraud them while foreclosing frivolous lawsuits that undermine higher education and expose taxpayers to needless loss.”Democrats condemned the move and promised a House vote to override the veto. Rep. Susie Lee, D-Nevada, who led the bill in the House, said the fight is “far from over.””President Trump sent a message to the American people that he cares more about enriching predatory schools than protecting defrauded students and veterans,” Lee said.A statement from the Education Department thanked Trump for the veto.”This administration is committed to protecting all students from fraud and holding all schools accountable when they fail their students,” the department said. “This administration’s rule does just that, despite false claims from many corners.”Borrower defense to repaymentLawmakers moved to overturn DeVos’ policy through the Congressional Review Act, which allows Congress to overturn federal rules with a simple majority of both chambers and approval of the president.The resolution sought to strike down DeVos’ changes to a policy known as borrower defense to repayment, which erases federal student loans for borrowers whose colleges commit fraud.The policy dates to the 1990s but was expanded under Obama to forgive loans for thousands of students who went to for-profit college chains that used false claims to get them to enroll.When DeVos took office, though, she suspended the rules and began writing her own, saying the Obama policy allowed too many students to get their loans erased at the expense of taxpayers.Her changes were opposed by borrower advocates but embraced by for-profit colleges, who said their industry had unfairly been targeted by the Obama administration.DeVos’ 2019 update made it harder for students to get their loans discharged by requiring them to prove their colleges knowingly misled them and caused personal financial harm, among other changes.Congress’ effort to reverse the rules were supported by advocates for military veterans, who make up a major share of students at for-profit colleges.Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who led the measure in the Senate, said the veto hurts veterans while helping DeVos and the “fraud merchants at the for-profit colleges.””My question to the president: In four days did you forget those flag-waving Memorial Day speeches as you vetoed a bill the veterans were begging for?” Durbin said.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said her chamber “will soon vote to overturn this veto, which poses a grave harm to the financial security and futures of America’s students.”The congressional measure was applauded by education advocates who said DeVos’ rules made it nearly impossible for defrauded students to get loans erased.James Kvaal, president of the Institute for College Access and Success, said he was “crestfallen” by the veto.”As a direct result of today’s action, hundreds of thousands of students cheated by colleges will have no way to get a fresh start,” he said. “The message to unscrupulous colleges is that there will be little or no consequences for illegal wrongdoing.” 
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A final decision on a launch attempt for SpaceX’s milestone mission to the International Space Station on Saturday afternoon will take place after assessing the weather that morning, NASA chief Jim Bridenstine said Friday.Fears of a lightning strike postponed the initial takeoff attempt Wednesday of what would have been the first crewed rocket launch from U.S. soil in almost a decade, and the first time a commercial company had achieved the feat.”No decision on weather right now for Saturday’s test flight of @ SpaceX’s #CrewDragon spacecraft. Will reassess in the morning,” tweeted Bridenstine.Earlier in the day, NASA said the chances of a Saturday launch at 3:22 p.m. EDT (1922 GMT) were 50 percent. A chance of afternoon and evening thunderstorms was in the forecast for the area.Next chance: SundayThe next window, which is determined by the relative positions of the launch site to the space station, would be Sunday at 3:00 pm EDT (1900 GMT). Storms were again in the forecast.NASA astronauts Robert Behnken, 49, and Douglas Hurley, 53, former military test pilots who joined the space agency in 2000, are to blast off from historic Launch Pad 39A on a two-stage SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.The same launch pad was used by Neil Armstrong and his Apollo 11 crewmates on their historic journey to the moon, as NASA seeks to revive excitement around human space exploration ahead of a planned return to Earth’s natural satellite and then Mars.The mission comes despite shutdowns caused by the coronavirus pandemic, with the crew in quarantine for more than two weeks. NASA has urged crowds to stay away from Cocoa Beach, the traditional viewing spot, but that did not deter many space fans on Wednesday.President Donald Trump, who flew in for the previous launch attempt, is expected to attend again.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File Embed” />Copy Download AudioTriumph for SpaceXNASA has had to pay Russia for use of its Soyuz rockets to take its astronauts to space since the space shuttle program ended in 2011 and the decision was taken to shift focus to commercial partners for missions in low Earth orbit.The mission is a defining moment for SpaceX, the company founded by Elon Musk in 2002 with a goal of tearing up the rules to produce a lower-cost alternative to human spaceflight.By 2012, it had become the first private company to dock a cargo capsule at the ISS, resupplying the station regularly ever since.Two years later, NASA ordered the next step: to transport its astronauts there by adapting the Dragon capsule.$3 billion-plusThe U.S. space agency paid more than $3 billion for SpaceX to design, build, test and operate its reusable capsule for six future space round trips.The project has experienced delays, explosions and parachute problems — but even so, SpaceX has beaten its competitor,  aerospace giant Boeing, to the punch.Crew Dragon is scheduled to dock with the ISS about 19 hours after liftoff, for a duration that is yet to be finalized, but is likely to last to early August.Wednesday’s scheduled flight was scrubbed 17 minutes before blastoff because of high levels of atmospheric electricity that could have triggered a lightning strike on the rocket. 
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Fires raged in Minneapolis Thursday night and protests broke out in major cities across the United States as the videotaped death of George Floyd while in police custody became the latest example of how ubiquitous phone cameras and social media have combined to become a powerful mechanism of accountability for alleged mistreatment of minorities by both police and private citizens.
 
The Minneapolis Police Department originally had put out a press release saying that Floyd, a 46-year-old African American who died Monday afternoon, had experienced a “medical incident during [a] police interaction.”
 
But a video captured by a bystander showed Floyd face down in the street in handcuffs, begging to be allowed to breathe as a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.
 
After the video went viral on social media, the four officers on the scene, including the one pressing Floyd to the ground, were fired Tuesday. Investigations have been launched, including one by the FBI, that could lead to criminal charges against them.People gather outside the Hennepin County Government Center for a moment of silence for the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, arrested by police officers in Minneapolis, Minnesota.Local and national activists and friends of Floyd said they believe the existence of the videotape is the only reason why the police officers are being held accountable for his killing.  
 
“Everyone knows, in the black community, that there has been a long history of police abusing black individuals,” said Amiin Harun, a Minneapolis-based attorney. “There has been a long history of white officers killing black individuals, but this one is striking a nerve because it has been recorded on video.”
 
Andra Gillespie, director of the James Weldon Johnson Institute for the Study of Race and Difference at Emory University in Atlanta, said, “You know, the fact that that video is so visceral and because it shows kind of the sustained subduing of George Floyd in a deadly way for so long, I think it didn’t give the Minneapolis Police Department any choice. But to fire the officers who were involved in the case isn’t enough. I think the larger question will be will criminal charges be brought against all of the officers?”
 
The Floyd case had disturbing echoes of the death of Eric Garner in 2014. Garner, an African American man, was choked to death by a New York City police officer after being arrested for selling loose cigarettes. Garner, like Floyd, was captured on video begging to be allowed to breathe moments before he lost consciousness and died.
 
Floyd died on the same day that another viral video sparked anger for the racist overtones of an interaction between a black man and a white woman in New York City’s Central Park. Christian Cooper, an avid birdwatcher, asked Amy Cooper (no relation) to leash her dog in an area of the park where dogs are not allowed to roam free. In a video taken by Mr. Cooper, Ms. Cooper responded by approaching him and threatening to call the police.
 
“I’m going to tell them there’s an African American man threatening my life,” she said, before using her phone to call the police. She is seen on video speaking into the phone, saying that “an African American man … is threatening me and my dog.” She concludes by saying,” Please send the cops immediately!”
 
When the video exploded onto social media, it immediately sparked fury, particularly from members of the African-American community, who pointed out there is a long history of violence against black men—judicial and extrajudicial—being sparked by false allegations made by white women.
 
Ms. Cooper was publicly identified, and fired from her job.Malik Muhammad, center, joins a group of people marching from the Glynn County Courthouse in downtown to a police station after a rally to protest the shooting of Ahmaud Arbery, Saturday, May 16, 2020, in Brunswick, Ga. (AP Photo/Stephen B. Morton)The Floyd and Cooper videos appeared while another wound in U.S. race relations continued to fester. In February, 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery was shot to death on a rural road in southern Georgia where he had been jogging. No charges were filed in the case after one of two men involved in the shooting, a former local police officer named Gregory McMichael, claimed he had suspected Arbery of burglary and that the shooting had taken place in a struggle over a shotgun.
 
Months later, a video surfaced showing McMichael and his son, Travis, chasing Arbery down the road in a pickup truck with at least one weapon drawn, and pulling in front of him to block his path. Arbery did struggle for the shotgun, but only after one of his pursuers exited the truck and approached him with the weapon.  
 
Prior to the release of the video, Arbery’s family had watched in fury as prosecutors refused to file charges against the McMichaels, saying they had acted in self-defense. After the video became public, the McMichaels were charged with murder and aggravated assault, a result that many believed would not have come about except for the video.
 
“The importance and significance of videos in the last five years, I think is twofold,” said Gillespie. “One, it helps to document what African Americans had known their whole lives. It helps to educate people about the extent of racism in American society. But also it is teaching a new generation of Americans what racism is and how to be vigilant. It’s not enough to talk about racism in terms of slavery; it’s not enough to talk about racism in terms of Jim Crow, and to think that that all went away with the civil rights movement of the mid-20th century.
 
“Racism is still alive and well in the United States,” she continued. “And unfortunately, these incidents remind us of how it is still operating in American society. And it should call us to cry out for justice and to look at that now.”
 
While the prevalence of video cameras has made evidence of the mistreatment of minorities by both the police and civilians more likely to come to light, there are other side effects to the virality of such recordings. Tiffany Cofield, a close friend of Floyd’s, said it was simply too painful for her to watch the video of his death. But at the same time, it has been so ubiquitous on social media that she keeps coming across it whether she wants to or not.
 
“I can’t put myself through that trauma,” she said of watching her friend’s last moments. “I think it would be a detrimental setback to my mental and emotional stability to see him like that. You know, I’ve known him for a while and I’ve always known him as a joyous, vibrant, you know, active, fun loving laughing dancing individual. And so I don’t even want to see that. It’s hard enough for me to process that he’s not here. So it’s even more difficult for me to process that it’s another black man’s life that was taken by the police. So I can’t watch it.”
 
Additionally, the widespread attention also forces national political figures in the U.S., who might otherwise have taken no position on local law enforcement matters, to weigh in. That includes President Trump, who on Wednesday used Twitter to express sympathy for Floyd’s family and friends and to announce that the FBI was investigating the matter.  A protester carries a U.S. flag upside down, a sign of distress, next to a burning building, May 28, 2020, in Minneapolis.On Friday morning, Trump addressed the protests in Minneapolis, which had escalated to violence and looting, tweeting, “I can’t stand back & watch this happen to a great American City, Minneapolis. A total lack of leadership. Either the very weak Radical Left Mayor, Jacob Frey, get his act together and bring the City under control, or I will send in the National Guard & get the job done right. These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won’t let that happen. Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!”….These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won’t let that happen. Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 29, 2020
It was unclear whether Trump was aware the phrase “When the looting starts, the shooting starts,” was coined by former Miami Police Chief Walter Headley, whose aggressive policies in the 1960s were denounced by civil liberties advocates. Headley famously said, “We don’t mind being accused of police brutality. They haven’t seen anything yet.”  
 
Twitter placed a warning label on Trump’s tweet, saying that it violated the platform’s rules against glorifying violence. 
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The World Health Organization (WHO) Friday launched a global initiative designed to create a repository for sharing of data, technology and treatments in the fight against COVID-19, the respiratory ailment caused by the coronavirus. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and Costa Rican President Carlos Alvarado, who had the original idea, launched the initiative from Geneva.  FILE – Newly-elected President Carlos Alvarado Quesada speaks during a welcome ceremony at the presidential house in San Jose, Costa Rica, April 18, 2018.Tedros said the project, known as the COVID-19 Technology Access Pool, C-TAP, would build a worldwide “technology repository” for vaccines, medicines and diagnostics, to fight the pandemic. He invited companies or governments that develop effective therapies to contribute the patents to a medicine patent pool, which would then sublicense the patents to generic manufacturers. Tedros said the idea is based on the Medicines Patent Pool that was successful in expanding access to treatments for HIV and hepatitis C. While Tedros said he understands the importance of patents in promoting innovation, he added people must be the priority.  Tedros stressed that “tools to prevent, detect and treat COVID-19 must be accessible to all people.” C-TAP is voluntary, and the WHO is urging more countries to join the collective effort. Costa Rica and 35 other countries so far have signed on to the initiative. 
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Protesters angry over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody turned out for a demonstration in Columbus that began peacefully but turned violent, with windows smashed at the Ohio Statehouse and storefronts along surrounding downtown streets.
The crowd of around 400 people entered into a standoff with Columbus police Thursday night, blocking the intersection of key streets in the Ohio capital for hours,  the Columbus Dispatch reported.
The demonstration began as a peaceful protest, but news outlets reported protesters began throwing objects like water bottles at officers, who responded by using tear gas on the crowd. A scuffle between a protester and an officer broke out around 9:45 p.m., WCMH-TV reported.
Some protesters attempted to breach the Ohio Statehouse later Thursday, the TV station reported. Videos obtained by The Associated Press show people smashing the building’s windows.
Calls and emails to Columbus police and the Ohio State Highway Patrol, which covers Capitol security, from the AP weren’t returned overnight.
“I understand why some residents are angry and taking to the streets. I have said many times that racism exists across the country, state and right here in Columbus. We are committed to addressing racism wherever we see it,” Mayor Andrew Ginther tweeted before 9 p.m. “I respect peaceful protests and ask residents to remain peaceful in their actions tonight and every night.”
Earlier Thursday, video showed the crowd marching down Broad Street and blocking High Street, two downtown arteries near the statehouse. As they marched, protesters engaged in a call-and-response chant: “Say his name,” followed by “George Floyd.”
Demonstrators also chanted, “Black lives matter” and “I can’t breathe.”
The Dispatch reported that protesters dispersed by pepper spray broke windows along South High Street and broke into the DGX store, a subsidiary of Dollar General, on the street. Photographs from the Dispatch showed a smashed storefront at the Einstein Bros. Bagels shop across the street from the statehouse.  
Floyd, a black man, was handcuffed and pleading for air as a white police officer kneeled on his neck Monday. His death has touched off protests across the country this week, including in Minneapolis itself, where protesters torched a police precinct Thursday night.
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Twitter has added a warning to one of President Donald J. Trump’s tweets about protests in Minneapolis, saying it violated the platform’s rules about “glorifying violence.”
Trump, a prolific Twitter user, has been at war with the company since earlier this week, when it applied fact checks to two of his tweets about mail-in ballots.
The third tweet to be flagged started as a message of support for the governor of Minnesota, where there have been three days of violent protests over the death of George Floyd, a handcuffed black man who pleaded for air as a white police officer kneeled on his neck.
Trump added at the end of his tweet, “Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts.”  
Twitter did not remove the tweet, saying it had determined it might be in the public interest to have it remain accessible. It does that only for tweets by elected and government officials. A user looking at Trump’s timeline would have to click to see the original tweet.
On Thursday, Trump targeted Twitter and other social media companies by signing an executive order challenging the lawsuit protections that have served as a bedrock for online free speech.
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Scientists and environmentalists are urging an international moratorium on deep-sea mining after releasing a report indicating its impact on the Pacific Ocean and island states would be severe, extensive and last for generations.The report also said mining for polymetallic nodules, potato-sized lumps found in the seabed that contain metals used in battery manufacturing and high-tech industries, would cause “essentially irreversible damage” to the region, including Kiribati the Cook Islands, Nauru, Tonga, Papua New Guinea and Tuvalu.Entitled “Predicting the Impacts of Mining Deep Sea Polymetallic Nodules in the Pacific Ocean,” the 52-page report represents a scientific consensus based on 250 peer-reviewed articles, and 80 NGOs are now calling for a moratorium as a result.“There’s the removal of the nodules themselves and the sediment that will be stirred up and also the waste that’s going to be discharged from the mining process,” said Helen Rosenbaum, coordinator for the Deep Sea Mining Campaign.“At this point we don’t know what’s going to be in that sediment, what kind of heavy metals might be there, how bio-available they are, that is how readily they might be taken up in the food chain.”Exploration licensesIncreased demand for the metals — cobalt, nickel, copper and manganese — has bolstered deep-sea mining for polymetallic nodules.The International Seabed Authority, an intergovernmental organization based in Kingston, Jamaica, has issued about 30 exploration licenses – 25 in the Pacific Ocean, and 18 of those in the Clarion Clipperton Zone, which stretches from Kiribati to Mexico, where DeepGreen — a Canadian mining company that plans to mine these metals with an eye toward electric vehicles — hopes to be the first to begin operations by 2024.DeepGreen Chief Executive Officer Gerard Barron was unimpressed by the report, saying deep-sea mining offers the best alternative to surface mining, which has a long history of pollution and the destruction of forests, habitats and wildlife.“I think it was a bias, narrow view, which doesn’t address any the issues, by a group of people that have their hearts set on trying to stop the progress of this industry,” he said.He added, though, that severe shortfalls in metals used in high-tech industries are emerging. Some were available under rainforests in countries such as Indonesia but extracting those metals would exact an enormous toll on the local environment, he said.“The argument should be what has the lowest impact from an environmental and a societal perspective,” he said, adding the Clarion Clipperton Zone contained “enough nickel and cobalt there to electrify a billion electric vehicles.”“We have a choice to continue to go into these biodiverse areas and destroy these biodiverse habitats.“Or we can ramp up ocean science studies and say: ‘Look if ever Mother Nature was to put a large abundant resource somewhere out of harm’s way, 4,000 meters below sea level, a thousand miles from the nearest land mass would seem to be a pretty good place.'”Unrealistic financial expectationsHowever, environmentalists remain skeptical, warning cash-strapped island states – already feeling the effects of climate change – against unrealistic financial expectations from mining and the poor track record of surface miners in the region.That includes a nine-year war fought on Bougainville which emerged from a dispute over a copper mine, extensive damage to the Fly River system in Papua New Guinea caused by the Ok Tedi open pit gold mine and long-running disputes over phosphate mining on Nauru.Last year Canadian company Nautilus Minerals went bankrupt, abandoning its deep sea mining ambitions, which cost PNG about $120 million.“We don’t know if there’s going to be other toxic substances such as processing agents in the mine-ways,” Rosenbaum added. “One thing we know is, it’s going to be constant plume of sediment and whatever the sediment is carrying for the life of the mine.”The report found sperm whales, whale sharks, Leatherback turtles and bird life could be at as much risk from nutrient enrichment and metal toxicity as commercial fish such as tuna.“Also, local communities in the Pacific are worried about their way of life being disrupted because they’re very connected to the ocean environment,” she said.Emeline Siale Ilolahia, executive director of the Pacific Islands Association of Non-Governmental Organizations, echoed her sentiments.“For me it was really like, ban the whole system from any mining until we have more scientific information available for our decision makers,” Ilolahia said.“We are now in a situation of COVID-19 and we see in our countries are struggling to have funds to support the response in-country and then you always question in your mind, thinking; where has the money coming from mining gone?” she said. 
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Authorities in Cameroon are investigating a fire inside a maximum-security prison in the port city of Douala that sent three inmates to the hospital with serious burns.A fire official said two firefighters were also injured Thursday trying to put out the blaze at the New Bell jail in the commercial capital.Firefighters were able to keep the fire from spreading to a heavily populated neighborhood close to the prison.It is unclear what started the fire, nor if the fire was linked to overcrowded conditions in the prison.Human rights groups, including Amnesty International, say overcrowding, poor sanitation and violence are chronic issues confronting Cameroon prisons. 
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In Haiti, journalists investigating wrongdoing and corruption face intimidation and violence.
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The Trump administration may soon expel thousands of Chinese graduate students enrolled at U.S. universities and impose other sanctions against Chinese officials in the latest signs of tensions between Washington and Beijing that are raging over trade, the coronavirus pandemic, human rights and the status of Hong Kong.President Donald Trump said he would make an announcement about China on Friday, and administration officials said he is considering a months-old proposal to revoke the visas of students affiliated with educational institutions in China linked to the People’s Liberation Army or Chinese intelligence.Trump is also weighing targeted travel and financial sanctions against Chinese officials for actions in Hong Kong, according to the officials, who were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.”We’ll be announcing what we’re doing tomorrow with respect to China and we are not happy with China,” Trump told reporters at an unrelated event Thursday, referring mainly to COVID-19. “We are not happy with what’s happened. All over the world people are suffering, 186 countries. All over the world they’re suffering. We’re not happy.”FILE – Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks during a press briefing at the State Department in Washington, May 20, 2020.Although the student expulsions aren’t directly related to Hong Kong and China’s move to assert full control over the former British territory, potential sanctions against officials involved in that effort would be a result of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s determination that Hong Kong can no longer be considered autonomous from mainland China.Pompeo notified Congress on Wednesday that Hong Kong is no longer deserving of the preferential trade and commercial status it has enjoyed from the U.S. since it reverted to Chinese rule in 1997. Under a joint Sino-British agreement on the handover, Hong Kong was to be governed differently than the mainland for 50 years under a “one country, two systems” policy.Pompeo’s determination opened the door to possible sanctions and the loss of special perks Hong Kong has received from the United States. But neither Pompeo nor other officials were able Wednesday to describe what action the administration might take, an uncertainty related to the impact that such sanctions would have on U.S. companies that operate in Hong Kong and the city’s position as Asia’s major financial hub. Trump’s comments sparked a drop in U.S. financial markets.Concerns from educatorsSerious consideration of the visa revocation proposal, first reported by The New York Times, has faced opposition from U.S. universities and scientific organizations who depend on tuition fees paid by Chinese students to offset other costs. In addition, those institutions fear possible reciprocal action from Beijing that could limit their students’ and educators’ access to China.In a nod to those concerns, the officials said any restrictions would be narrowly tailored to affect only students who present a significant risk of engaging in espionage or intellectual property theft. The officials could not say how many people could ultimately be expelled.The possibility that the proposal may be implemented has drawn concerns from educators.”We’re very worried about how broadly this will be applied, and we’re concerned it could send a message that we no longer welcome talented students and scholars from around the globe,” said Sarah Spreitzer, director of government relations at the American Council on Education.”We don’t have a lot of details about how they are going to define ties to Chinese universities, what type of universities are they going to target, what would constitute a university having ties to the Chinese military,” she said.If the situation were reversed and another nation imposed limits on students from U.S. universities that receive Defense Department funding, she noted, it would affect a wide range of schools.The U.S. hosted 133,396 graduate students from China in the 2018-19 academic year, and they made up 36.1% of all international graduate students, according to the Institute of International Education. Overall, there were 369,548 students from China, accounting for 33.7% of international students who contributed nearly $15 billion to the U.S. economy in 2018.Rising tensionsThe proposal to revoke the visas is not directly related to the dispute over Hong Kong, nor is it tied to U.S. criticism of China for its handling of the coronavirus outbreak. Rather, it is connected to various elements of trade and human rights issues that have seen U.S. officials complain about Chinese industrial espionage and spying and harassment of dissidents and religious and ethnic minorities.But the timing of a potential announcement could come at a time of increasingly heated rhetoric about the imposition of national security laws on Hong Hong in violation of the Sino-British accord.The proposal first began to be discussed last year when the administration moved to require Chinese diplomats based in the United States to report their domestic U.S. travel and meetings with American scientists and academics. At the time, U.S. officials said it was a reciprocal measure to match restrictions that American diplomats face in China.Those limits were followed by a requirement that Chinese state-run media in the U.S. register as “foreign diplomatic missions” and report their property holdings and employee rosters to the government. That was, in turn, followed by the limiting of the number of visas for Chinese journalists allowed to work in the United States.China retaliated for the visa limitations by expelling several reporters from U.S. media outlets, including The Washington Post and The New York Times.
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Larry Kramer, the grandfather of fierce protests demanding action to fight the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s and ’90s, died Wednesday at age 84. The author and activist founded the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, known as ACT UP, in 1987.ACT UP mounted dramatic and angry demonstrations credited with raising awareness of the plight of those suffering from Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. They were also aimed at pressuring the U.S. government to devote resources to stop the spread of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, and to find an effective treatment for the disease. AIDS primarily struck gay men in America, an often-reviled group with little political clout before Kramer launched his unique brand of unapologetically confrontational activism.Tributes have poured in for Kramer, including from those with whom he had a stormy relationship, such as Dr. Anthony Fauci, who served as the first director of the U.S. government’s Office of AIDS Research.Kramer granted his last on-camera media interview to VOA’s Carolyn Presutti in April, when his health was failing. Here are selected clips, in Kramer’s words, recorded as he struggled to hold his cellphone to speak.Larry Kramer: The first cases included several of my friends who died. So I was involved then [from the beginning] with AIDS activism really since 1981.ACT UP was one of the most successful grassroots organizations that was ever founded. It was enormously successful. We never stopped working and fighting, and moving and doing all kinds of things to call the world’s attention to AIDS. You have to remember that Ronald Reagan, who was president, never even said the word AIDS. So we were operating “on our own” to bring the world the message that we were dying from this mysterious virus.Fauci was someone we were very angry with because he wasn’t doing anything.VOA: Larry, Fauci is actually quoted as saying, “You can divide medical research into before Larry and after Larry.”Kramer: I know he said that and that was very nice of him. I certainly had a lot of fights with him, as did ACT UP, to get him to the point where he paid attention to us. Now we are all buddy-buddy.VOA: Why was it so hard to get him and the government to pay attention?Kramer: Because it was happening mostly to gay people.VOA: Going back to the battles then, the battles of the ’90s, do you feel like you won that battle?Kramer: No. We still don’t have a cure. We have some drugs that keep us alive longer. They cost a good bit of money if you don’t have insurance. The fight is never, ever over.
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The coronavirus, medical experts like to say, doesn’t care about borders, or language, or any of the cultural aspects of humanity. Like viruses the world over, it just sees targets.But since the virus appeared on the African continent three months ago, it has taken a different course in different countries. The continent recently reported 100,000 positive cases, but they’re spread unevenly. South Africa leads the continent, with more than 25,000 cases and rapid growth, whereas the small tropical island of Mauritius hasn’t seen a new case of local transmission in more than a month.Meanwhile, countries such as Rwanda and Uganda that have previously sparred with epidemics have reported cases in the hundreds, but no deaths.Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, the World Health Organization’s regional director for Africa, said the organization is training more than 10,000 health workers in an attempt to decentralize their response to deal with these different realities.   “Most countries still have fewer than 1,000 reported cases,” he said. “This means that as governments ease lockdowns and other social measures, it’s important that the strong public health measures are in place all over the territories, not just in the capital cities. That communities are empowered and enabled to take preventive actions. And that we continue working on strengthening health systems and delivering essential services to people.”FILE – Ugandan police officers and members of Local Defence Units, a paramilitary force composed of civilians, patrol during the coronavirus lockdown after the 7 p.m. curfew in Kampala, Uganda, April, 29, 2020.In Mauritius, the nation’s minister of health and wellness, Dr. Kailesh Kumar Singh Jagutpal, said preparation was key to the nation’s response, and its apparent success in containing the virus.  “Mauritius registered the first cases of COVID-19 in March. Our monitoring and preparedness action plan was in place already since mid-January,” he said. “The Mauritian prime minister himself chairs a high-level committee on a daily basis. This allows the government to have daily updates on the evolution of the pandemic and implementation measures.”Despite seeing rapidly growing clusters of the outbreak, South Africa recently announced a new approach: Houses of worship will now be allowed to reopen, with precautions and limited congregation sizes. That, Health Minister Dr. Zweli Mkhize explained, is part of the strategy — deputize trusted institutions, like churches, to teach South Africans how to live with the virus in the long term.   “It’s become clear that we are likely to have this pandemic for more than a year, maybe even two years. And therefore, it is important for us to understand that there is a degree of easing … and in this process … begin to motivate every part of our society to focus on social and behavioral change,” Mkhize said.And in the East African nation of Uganda, which has yet to report any deaths amid its fewer than 300 cases, Health Minister Dr. Jane Aceng said the health system was already well-fortified by other lethal epidemics.  “Uganda has had [the] opportunity to have several outbreaks. From the year 2000 to date, at least, we have had over six Ebola outbreaks and about five Marburg outbreaks, and several other outbreaks,” she said. “And these outbreaks have given us the opportunity to build capacity, but also to build systems in place which can easily be activated to respond to epidemics as they are occurring.”Moeti, the World Health Organization official who said that cases in Africa remain lower than in other parts of the world, said one thing holds true across this continent: The virus doesn’t let its guard down in its quest to survive. And so, she said, we shouldn’t either.
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Iran’s parliament has elected conservative Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf to be its new speaker.State television said the 58-year-old former mayor of Tehran received nearly all of the votes cast.He replaces Ali Larijani, who held the post for 12 years.Qalibaf previously served as police chief and was a member of the Revolutionary Guard Corps.He also ran unsuccessful campaigns for president in 2005, 2013 and 2017. 
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China’s rubber stamp parliament has approved a new national security law for Hong Kong that critics say threatens the city’s semi-autonomous status.   The National People’s Congress approved the controversial measure Thursday by a vote of 2,878 to one, with six members abstaining.   The new law would prevent and punish acts of “secession, subversion or terrorism activities” that threaten national security. The law would also allow Chinese national security organs to set up agencies in Hong Kong.  The legislature’s Standing Committee will begin drafting details of the law, which is expected to take effect in September.   The legislation was widely condemned by business groups and Western nations as the death knell for Hong Kong’s status under the “one country, two systems” concept established after Britain handed over control of the financial hub to China in 1997, especially since it bypasses Hong Kong’s legislature. Hong Kong police arrested dozens of protesters on May 27, 2020. (Photo courtesy of Hong Kong Police Facebook)Beijing’s announcement of the national security law for Hong Kong last week sparked a new round of protests similar to the massive and often violent demonstrations that engulfed the city during the second half of 2019.  The protests were initially provoked by a controversial extradition bill that eventually evolved into a demand for greater democracy for the city. As many as 360 people were arrested Wednesday night to protest the national security bill. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks during a press briefing at the State Department on May 20, 2020, in Washington.U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday he has reported to the U.S. Congress that Hong Kong is “no longer autonomous from China” and “Hong Kong does not continue to warrant treatment under United States laws,” given facts on the ground.   The secretary’s remarks indicate the United States is considering suspending the preferential status that has made the city a top U.S. trading partner.   Hong Kong’s pro-democracy activists are also angry over legislature under consideration in the city’s Legislative Council, dominated by pro-Beijing lawmakers, that would criminalize disrespect of China’s national anthem.  The legislature was forced to adjourn Thursday’s session after two pro-democracy lawmakers were ejected from the chamber during an angry debate over the anthem law.     
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Archaeologists are celebrating the discovery of dozens of mammoths near Mexico City, which may shed light on the capital city’s ancient footprint.Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) said Wednesday the remains of 60 mammoths were found in a dig site that is a former lakebed.Archaeologists suspect the herd may have gotten stuck in the lake’s mud.A spokesperson for Mexico’s archaeology department, Jose De Jesus, said the mammals date back more than 10,000 years to the Pleistocene era, which is part of the so-called Ice Age period.The discovery is the latest prehistoric find made near the construction site for Mexico City’s new international airport.Remains of mammoths were first unearthed in the vicinity in October.     
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Go ahead and pray — it’s OK.That’s the new word from the man at the top, South African president Cyril Ramaphosa, announcing that houses of worship will now be allowed to hold in-person services — with certain restrictions to guard against COVID-19.The announcement softens the government’s hard stance prohibiting all religious gatherings, which medical experts identified as high-risk for transmission of the virus.But Ramaphosa said that in the end, faith trumped those concerns.“As a nation, we have a responsibility to respond to this aspect of the pandemic with as much effort and urgency as we have responded to the health crisis, and as we have acted to relieve the economic and social effects on our people,” he said. “We have a responsibility to also take care of the spiritual, psychological and emotional well-being of all South Africans.”Under the new regulations, houses of worship must keep facilities clean and sanitized, limit congregations to fewer than 50 people and require participants to wear face masks and maintain social distancing protocols.Bishop Malusi Mpumlwana, general secretary of the influential South African Council of Churches, told VOA that the group’s member churches themselves came up with the new guidelines, which gives him confidence that they can follow them. He said heads of member churches meet weekly — online — to discuss their anti-virus strategy, and want to include other faiths in these discussions.He stressed that for millions of lower-income South Africans, who don’t have the means to watch virtual services, the physical church is a lifeline.“For several months, including times of major festivals in their churches or even in their mosques and synagogues, they’ve been unable to get in touch with their spirituality because there’s a total shutdown,” he said. “It is not appropriate to say that they can only be able to do that next year, when we get to level one. But it says to me is that we need to now look at how differently to be church in COVID times, because COVID is not going away.”Some worry about risksFortunately, he said, churches are familiar with the challenges posed by plagues. To that end, the council plans to widen churches’ range of social services, including academic support for students who have suffered from school closures.But not everyone believes this is a good idea.Rick Raubenheimer is president of the South African Secular Society, a group of atheists, skeptics and agnostics that, since the pandemic began, has met only virtually. They do not plan to resume actual meetings, although technically, he told VOA, they could argue that they qualify under the new rules.“We think it’s a bad idea, from several points of view,” he said. “Firstly, the president has to date largely followed the science, and the science says that you need to practice social distancing, not have large gatherings, take precautions against transmission and so on. And a lot of these would be very problematic in religious gatherings, which is why the prohibition on religious gatherings, just like any other recreational gathering, has been a good idea to date. He is now making an exception for a particular community, so he is in fact going against the constitution which says that there shall be no discrimination on the basis of religion or belief.”A legal outcry seems unlikely, as 80 percent of South Africans identify as Christian. Mpumlwana said houses of worship now have to take the lead in showing how to live — and thrive — amid the virus.“We are a society, and we are as churches, a community that saves lives. We should not be, and cannot be, that this place of worship becomes a gateway to the grave,” he said. “And for that reason, we will do everything we can, and we are encouraging everyone. The reason I wear a mask is not because I fear you will contaminate me. I wear a mask because I fear I might contaminate you, and I do not know if I’m a carrier or not. It is an act of love that I would not shake your hand. It is an act of love that I’ll be distant from you. It is an act of love to make sure that all of us survive beyond this.”Ramaphosa has declared Sunday a national day of prayer across the Rainbow Nation. More than 520 South Africans have died of the virus since March.
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Demonstrators gathered Wednesday for a second night of protests over the killing in the U.S. city of Minneapolis of a handcuffed black man by a policeman who held him to the ground with a knee on his neck.As dusk fell, police formed a human barricade around the Third Precinct, where the officers accused of killing George Floyd worked before they were fired on Tuesday.They pushed protesters back as the crowd grew, a day after police fired rubber bullets and tear gas on thousands of demonstrators angered by the latest death of an African-American at the hands of U.S. law enforcement.Minneapolis police chief Medaria Arradondo cautioned protestors to remain peaceful.President Donald Trump in a tweet called Floyd’s death “sad and tragic” as outrage spread across the country over a bystander’s cellphone video of his killing on Monday while in the custody of four white police officers.All four have been fired, as prosecutors said they had called in the FBI to help investigate the case, which could involve a federal felony civil rights violation.”I would like those officers to be charged with murder, because that’s exactly what they did,” Bridgett Floyd, his sister, said on NBC television.”They murdered my brother…. They should be in jail for murder.”Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said he could not understand why the officer who held his knee to Floyd’s neck on a Minneapolis street until the 46-year-old restaurant worker went limp has not been arrested.”Why is the man who killed George Floyd not in jail? If you had done it, or I had done it, we would be behind bars right now,” Frey said.”Based on what I saw, the officer who had his knee on the neck of George Floyd should be charged,” he said.’I can’t breathe’The case was seen as the latest example of police brutality against African Americans, which gave rise six years ago to the Black Lives Matter movement.Floyd had been detained on a minor charge of allegedly using a counterfeit $20 bill to make a purchase at a convenience store.In the video, policemen hold him to the ground while one presses his knee to Floyd’s neck.”Your knee in my neck. I can’t breathe…. Mama. Mama,” Floyd pleaded.He grew silent and motionless, unable to move even as the officers told him to “get up and get in the car.”He was taken to hospital where he was later declared dead.’A public execution’Calls for justice came from around the country.Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said the FBI needs to thoroughly investigate the case.”It’s a tragic reminder that this was not an isolated incident, but part of an engrained systemic cycle of injustice that still exists in this country,” Biden said.”We have to ensure that the Floyd family receive the justice they are entitled to.”Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris called the policeman’s using his knee on Floyd’s neck “torture.””This is not new, it has been going on a long time… what our communities have known for generations, which is discriminatory implementation and enforcement of the laws,” she said.”He was begging to be able to breathe,” she said. “It was a public execution.”The protests evoked memories of the riots in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014 after a policeman shot dead a young African American man suspected of robbery, as well as the case of New Yorker Eric Garner, who was detained by police for illegally selling cigarettes and filmed being held in an illegal chokehold by police that led to his death.”How many more of these senseless excessive-force killings from the people who are supposed to protect us can we take in America?” said civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who was retained by Floyd’s family.Crump pointed out that the arrest involved a minor, non-violent crime, and there was no sign, as police initially claimed, that Floyd resisted arrest.”There is no reason to apply this excessive fatal force,” Crump said.”That has to be the tipping point. Everybody deserves justice…. We can’t have two justice systems, one for blacks and one for whites.”  
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