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Australia’s military is being called in to help the state of Victoria cope with a sharp rise in coronavirus cases. Authorities have reported a spike in COVID-19 infections in the past week and have urged residents not to leave several disease hot spots in Melbourne.Victoria recorded 33 new coronavirus infections Thursday, the ninth consecutive day of double-digit growth in case numbers. Lockdown restrictions that have been eased in recent weeks could be reimposed.Sending in the military is a significant move. One thousand Australian troops will boost security at quarantine facilities for travelers returning from overseas. They will also help with testing as the state struggles with a surge in COVID-19 cases. Complacency and a flouting of distancing and hygiene protocols have been blamed.“The primary lever that we have now is a test-and-trace mechanism, broadening the testing availability, and the messaging and reach everyone about the need to test if they are symptomatic is our key driver to get numbers down,” said Brett Sutton, Victoria’s chief medical officer.The virus is spreading, especially in Melbourne, the state’s largest city and the second-largest city in Australia, and hot spots could again be forced into lockdown.Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews described the pandemic as a “public health bushfire,” a reference to the deadly summer blazes that tore across much of southeastern Australia.Andrews said there will be a testing blitz in 10 suburbs, and more than 100,000 tests are planned in the next 10 days.“People are going to be knocking on your door and they are going to be asking you to get tested,” Andrews said. “Please say yes. Please go and get tested. That is the most important thing that you in those suburbs can do to help us contain this virus.”State government health care workers will be using a new type of saliva swab, rather than nasal pads, to screen for the disease.Authorities have said that large family gatherings, permitted following the easing of lockdown restrictions in Victoria, have been the source of the new infections.Officials in New South Wales, the nation’s most populous state, remain concerned about active community transmission of the virus. Health Minister Brad Hazzard said it was not a time for residents to be complacent.There is some good news, though. The state of Queensland has now gone eight days without any new COVID-19 cases.Australia has recorded 7,521 confirmed coronavirus cases, 104 people have died. 
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Colombian President Ivan Duque said he is receptive to prosecutors seeking a life sentence if several soldiers accused of raping a 12-year-old girl Monday are charged and convicted.Gito Dokabu Indigenous Governor Juan De Dios Queragama said a human rights official told him seven uniformed soldiers raped the girl. He said the girl was unable to walk when friends assisting her mother found at her at her school.No circumstances of the alleged attack were immediately made public. The case comes a week after Colombia’s Senate approved a life in prison sentence for cases involving the rape or murder of minors.Colombia’s attorney general is investigating whether the soldiers were involved and will determine if they will face charges. 
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U.S. President Donald Trump’s national security adviser says China is trying to “remake the world’ in its image.Speaking Wednesday before a group of business leaders in Phoenix, Arizona, Robert O’Brien said U.S. policymakers had naively believed for decades that the Chinese Commnunist Party would move steadily towards democracy as it grew economically, while at the same time downplaying Beijing’s numerous human rights abuses.O’Brien said China has launched a massive effort to influence opinion within the United States, claiming that people in more than a dozen American cities listen to FM radio stations that broadcast “subtle pro-Beijing propaganda.”  One example he cited was a false assertion that the novel coronavirus that was first detected in Wuhan late last year was brought into the country by a U.S. soldier.O’Brien also cited China’s efforts to collect personal data on millions of Americans through cyberhacking of credit bureaus, health insurers, hotel chains and even dating websites.“The Chinese Communist Party wants to know just about everything about you,” he said.O’Brien said the Trump administration has imposed restrictions on Chinese companies that are closely allied with the Chinese Communist Party’s intelligence and security apparatus from accessing U.S. data, including tech giant Huawei, which the administration contends will use its new 5G network to spy on Americans.O’Brien’s speech is part of the administration’s increasingly hardline stance towards China over economic and diplomatic issues, including trade, restrictions on tech giant Huawei from accessing U.S. semiconductor technology, and Beijing’s tightening grip on semiautonomous Hong Kong.Other high-ranking senior administration officials, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Attorney General William Barr and FBI Director Christopher Wray, are expected to deliver similar speeches challenging China in the immediate future.O’Brien’s harsh criticism towards China stands in sharp contrast to recent allegations made in a new book by his predecessor, John Bolton, that Trump directly asked Chinese President Xi Jinping to increase China’s purchase of American agricultural products to help Trump secure votes in farm states in the November 2020 U.S. election, in return for a more favorable tariff rate on Chinese goods.Bolton also alleges that Trump approved of Xi’s explanation for building internment camps for as many as one million Uighur Muslims, an ethnic minority in Xinjiang 
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The NFL’s Washington Redskins team is making a clean break with its past and is removing the name of founder George Preston Marshall from all official team material, as well as pulling his name from the stadium’s Ring of Fame.Marshall was an avowed segregationist and the last NFL owner to allow Black players on the team.He did so in 1962 only after President John Kennedy’s administration threatened to evict the team from playing in the stadium, which was built on federal property.Last week, the city of Washington tore down Marshall’s statue from outside the team’s former stadium. It had been vandalized with red paint and graffiti.Among those who said the statue had to go was Marshall’s granddaughter, Jordan Wright, who told The Washington Post it was past time for it to be destroyed.Marshall moved the Boston Braves football team to Washington in 1937. He pioneered some professional football trademarks, including the halftime show and team fight songs.“He was widely considered one of pro football’s greatest innovators, and its leading bigot,” the late Washington Post sportswriter Shirley Povich once wrote.Marshall was an unapologetic racist who refused to integrate his team years after the league began recruiting Black athletes.When Marshall died in 1969, his will stated that none of his estate was to go to any institution that backed school integration.With Marshall’s legacy buried, activists say it is long past time for the Washington football team to change its name, calling the moniker Redskins an insult to Native Americans.The removal of the Marshall statue and his name is part of a wave of cities and states tearing down monuments and memorials to historical figures activists say celebrate racism and Civil War-era slavery.The movement to bury racist symbols has also been taken up by corporations. Quaker Oats announced last week it is retiring the Aunt Jemima name and 120-year-old trademark of a smiling Black woman from its pancake mix and syrup bottles.Mars says its Uncle Ben’s rice, featuring a middle-aged African American man on the box, will “evolve.”  
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Among the thousands of activists who have marched in the nation’s capital recently to protest racial injustice are survivors of a Florida high school massacre who stood in the very same place two years ago to fight gun violence. It was 2018 and the world was transfixed as the survivors of the Valentine’s Day mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland created the anti-gun violence movement March for Our Lives. The movement raised millions of dollars, earned the students the Children’s Peace Prize and the cover of Time magazine, and spawned sister marches from California to Japan. Now, Aalayah Eastmond, Christle Vidor and many other Parkland students are using their fame and organizing skills to join a massive call for racial justice and equality that has exploded across the nation after the death of George Floyd last month in Minneapolis. “There are Black people dying and it makes no sense for us to be losing our lives to violence like this, so either we can sit back and be complacent or we can do something about it,” said Vidor, 19, now a student at Howard University. Early in their activism, the Parkland students gave voice to racial justice issues, calling attention to gun violence in low-income communities and in return, receiving support from Black Lives Matter youth chapters. BLM members joined the Florida students onstage during a nationally televised rally in Washington, D.C., and the two groups bonded over a poolside pizza party. Later, the students partnered with Colors of Change and other Black activist groups to rally young voters to participate in the 2018 midterm elections.Still, the anti-gun violence group recently acknowledged that it wasn’t enough, saying the recent protests helped reveal that their organization lacked diversity.”We have worked so tirelessly in the last couple of years to restructure and recreate the narrative that was initially pushed out and to understand our own personal biases,” said organization member and former Parkland student Lauren Hogg, 17. Hogg, who is white, lost friends in the 2018 shooting. Last year, March for Our Lives established a Youth Congress to include students from other communities affected by gun violence and expanded its youth board seats to include more minorities. They’re also launching a training program on race, equity, inclusion and implicit bias. In addition, chapters of the group around the country have reached out to support the Black Lives Matter movement in its newly revived fight for racial justice after Floyd’s death. Eastmond, who is Black, was in her Holocaust history class on Valentine’s Day 2018 when the gunman opened fire, killing several of her classmates. She survived by hiding under one of their bodies. One of the students who testified before Congress after the shooting, Eastmond said it was “extremely frustrating” to watch Blacks and other people of color being generally excluded from the post-Parkland conversation about gun violence. “As a young Black girl that survived a mass shooting at an affluent high school that was predominantly white, it played a huge role in my activism,” said the 19-year-old, who just finished her freshman year at Trinity Washington University. “I unapologetically speak out for Black people and I no longer bite my tongue. … I found myself doing that a lot at (Stoneman Douglas), being the only Black girl in my classes.”Vidor, who is also African American, said she had never experienced gun violence before the Parkland shooting, which she calls her “wake-up moment.” She said she was shocked when many classmates at Howard told her gun violence was a normal part of their lives.Hogg, whose 20-year-old brother David Hogg was one of the premier voices of the March for Our Lives movement when it began, has also been in D.C., walking dozens of miles almost daily at protests organized by Black Lives Matter. She and many in the organization also are working tirelessly behind the scenes, but are reluctant to draw undue attention to their roles.”This is not about me,” Hogg said. “This is not about my white organizing friends. This is about radical inequality.” 
Delaney Tarr, a white Parkland survivor and co-founder of March For Our Lives, has attended several protests recently organized by Black Lives Matter in Fort Lauderdale, saying she is “confronting overt and covert racism in my own life.” “Like all my white peers, I have a lot of unlearning, confronting, and relearning to do,” said the 19-year-old college student. March For Our Lives is also rallying students from its chapters in other states.Daud Mumin, 19, who is African American, has been marching through the streets of Salt Lake City “in solidarity with Black lives all over the country.”Tatiana Washington, a Black member of a chapter in Milwaukee, has been holding weekly Zoom calls “for Black youth from all over the country to come together,” while Kelly Choi, a 19-year-old student who participates in the Texas chapter, attended a protest in Houston organized by Floyd’s family, signed petitions and donated money. “As a non-Black person of color,” Choi said, “I have been trying my best to be an ally.” 
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This week Florida hit a grim milestone as the number of COVID cases in the state passed 100,000, with more than 3,000 deaths. Despite the spike in cases, Florida entered Phase 2 of reopening with non-essential businesses working at 50 percent capacity and beaches remaining open. Liliya Anisimova has the story narrated by Anna Rice.Camera: Liliya Anisimova 
 
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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: Research in Italy finds COVID-19 is caused by bacteria and can be treated with aspirin.Verdict: FalseRead the full story at: The Logical Indian Social Media DisinfoProduction of disposable medical masks. Bishkek. Kyrgyzstan, June 24, 2020.”Are These Claims About the Effectiveness of Face Masks True?” Snopes, June 18.Factual Reads on CoronavirusSwiss giant Novartis halts COVID-19 hydroxychloroquine study
Swiss pharmaceuticals giant Novartis has decided to halt a clinical trial of hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for COVID-19, citing problems in recruiting enough patients for the study of the controversial drug.
— Medical Express, June 20
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 The federal office that led the prosecution of President Donald Trump’s friend Roger Stone received “heavy pressure from the highest levels of the Department of Justice” to ease its sentencing recommendation, career prosecutor Aaron Zelinsky plans to tell Congress, according to his prepared remarks.Zelinsky, who withdrew from the Roger Stone case in protest, will testify on Wednesday before the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives Judiciary Committee about political pressures that he said the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia faced.He will add that Tim Shea, the acting U.S. attorney at the time who was appointed by Attorney General William Barr, ultimately caved into the pressure because he was “afraid of the President.”Zelinsky’s testimony never explicitly says who pressured Shea, but he said he was told that Shea “was receiving heavy pressure from the highest levels of the Department of Justice to cut Stone a break.””I was explicitly told that the motivation for changing the sentencing memo was political, and because the U.S. Attorney was ‘afraid of the President,'” Zelinsky said.Republicans are expected to push back on his testimony, saying he is confusing politicization with policy disagreements.Zelinsky said career prosecutors never got to see the draft of the revised memo, which Shea filed after Trump blasted the office on Twitter for its original recommendation of a seven-to-nine-year term.The Republican president called the recommendation “horrible” and a “miscarriage of justice.” Stone’s friendshipwith Trump dates back decades.Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said in a statement that Zelinsky had not had any discussion about the sentencing with Barr or other members of the department’s political leadership and his allegations were based on his own interpretation and hearsay.Barr had not discussed Stone’s sentencing with Trump or anyone else at the White House, and had made the decision to revise the filing before Trump’s tweet, Kupec said.Stone, 67, who was convicted of obstruction, witness tampering and lying to Congress during its investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, is due to report to prison later this month to begin serving his three years-and-four-month sentence. He is seeking an extension due to concerns about contracting COVID-19.
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With the death toll surpassing 100,000 deaths, Latin America has emerged as the world’s newest epicenter for the novel coronavirus pandemic. Brazil leads the region with 1,145,906 confirmed COVID-19 cases, including 52,645 deaths, making it the world’s second-highest number of cases in both categories after the United States, according to Johns Hopkins University. The nation recorded 39,436 new confirmed cases over the last 24-hour period on Tuesday, including more than 1,300 deaths.   The pandemic has reached such a crisis that a federal judge ordered President Jair Bolsonaro to wear a face mask in public or pay a fine of nearly $400 a day.  A man, wearing a protective face mask walks past a mural depicting a tug-of-war between health workers and President Bolsonaro, with a message that reads in Portuguese: “Which side are you on?”, Sao Paulo, June 19, 2020.The judge said Bolsonaro is violating local law in Brasilia aimed at slowing the spread of the virus. Bolsonaro has so far refused to cover his mouth at large political rallies where he comes in close contact with voters and children.  Bolsonaro has shrugged off the pandemic as just a “flu” and said anyone worried about the virus is just being neurotic.  Analysts attribute the rise in confirmed cases and deaths in the Latin American region to a combination of widespread poverty, widespread distrust of the government, and leaders, such as Bolsonaro and Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who have either downplayed or dismissed the true risk of the virus and failed to impose stringent lockdowns.   With the rising death toll in Latin America, the total number of deaths around the world now stands at more than 477,000, part of a combined 9.2 million cases.  Wearing face coverings, John Williams, right, and Jeff Lee play chess, June 23, 2020, in Santa Monica, Calif.US has most cases, deaths
The United States continues to lead the world in both categories with 2.3 million confirmed cases and 121,228 deaths.  According to The Washington Post, seven states — Arizona, Arkansas, California, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas — have reported their highest number of COVID-19 hospitalizations since the start of the pandemic.   Its top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, told a congressional panel Tuesday there will be more testing, not less, even after President Donald Trump asked health officials to slow down testing.   The White House has said the president wasn’t serious when he said more testing is the reason there are so many cases in the U.S. But Trump said Tuesday that he wasn’t joking.  From left to right, Dr. Robert Redfield, Dr. Anthony Fauci, ADM Brett P. Giroir and Dr. Stephen M. Hahn testify before a House Committee on Energy and Commerce on the Trump administration’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, June 23, 2020.Fauci also said he is cautiously optimistic a coronavirus vaccine will be available as early as the end of 2020. But he has previously said even if a vaccine is ready, there is no guarantee it will work or give any long-term protection.  Ban on American travelers The New York Times reports that European Union nations plan to stop U.S. citizens from crossing its borders because of what officials call the U.S. failure to control the virus.  The newspaper is basing its story on what it says are draft lists of who will be allowed to travel to the EU starting July 1. It says it confirmed the lists with two EU officials in Brussels, but the Times says none of the 27 EU members are obligated to adopt it.  The World Health Organization says the coronavirus pandemic is still growing even as countries start to ease lockdowns and other restrictions.    “The epidemic is now peaking or moving towards a peak in a number of large countries,” WHO emergencies chief Dr. Michael Ryan said.  People wait in a queue for the COVID-19 rapid antigen test in New Delhi, India, June 24, 2020.Several nations, including Germany, South Africa and India — which reports about 15,000 new cases of COVID-19 every day — are looking at reimposing lockdowns and preparing to treat an influx of new cases.   WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it took three months for the world to confirm its first 1 million cases, but just eight days for the most recent 1 million to be identified.  “The greatest threat we face now is not the virus itself. It’s the lack of global solidarity and global leadership,” Tedros said without naming any specific country or leader he believes has failed.   Serbia’s Novak Djokovic returns the ball during an exhibition tournament in Zadar, Croatia, June 21, 2020.Tennis star, wife test positive
Meanwhile, tennis star Novak Djokovic said Tuesday he and his wife have tested positive for COVID-19 after he hosted a series of exhibition events he organized in his native Serbia and Croatia.  Three other players who participated in the matches also tested positive for the virus, which could threaten professional tennis’s hopes of resuming play this year. 
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Top U.S. health officials told lawmakers Tuesday the nation’s coronavirus response is improving – even as 26 U.S. states are now reporting a rise in the number of COVID-19 cases. Those numbers have increasingly become the focus of a political debate after President Donald Trump said at a rally Saturday, he had asked for slower coronavirus testing. VOA’s congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson has more from Capitol Hill.
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U.S. President Donald Trump was at the southwestern state of Arizona Tuesday to inspect the border wall with Mexico and deliver a campaign speech to highlight his achievements on immigration. This week, his administration is suspending certain temporary work visas for foreigners, saying it would ease the economic impact of the pandemic. White House correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has this report.
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The Louisville Metro police department has fired one of the police officers involved in the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor.  A termination letter for Officer Brett Hankison released by the city’s police department today said Hankinson violated procedures by showing “extreme indifference to the value of human life” when he “wantonly and blindly” shot 10 rounds of gunfire into Taylor’s apartment in March. The letter also said Hankinson violated the rule against using deadly force. Taylor, who was Black, was shot eight times by officers who burst into her Louisville home using a no-knock warrant during a March 13 narcotics investigation. No drugs were found at her home. Mayor Greg Fischer said last week interim Louisville police Chief Robert Schroeder had started termination proceedings for Hankison. Two other officers remain on administrative reassignment while the shooting is investigated. 
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The World Health Organization says the coronavirus pandemic is still growing even as countries start to ease lockdowns and other restrictions.  “The epidemic is now peaking or moving towards a peak in a number of large countries,” WHO emergencies chief Dr. Michael Ryan said. Several nations, including Germany, South Africa and India – which reports about 15,000 new cases of COVID-19 every day – are looking at reimposing lockdowns and preparing to treat an influx of new cases.  Hindu devotees offer prayers in front of a chariot carrying an idol of Lord Jagannath (not pictured) as the annual Rath Yatra procession was cancelled amid concerns over the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, in Ahmedabad, June 23, 2020.WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it took three months for the world to confirm its first 1 million cases, but just eight days for the most recent 1 million to be identified.  “The greatest threat we face now is not the virus itself. It’s the lack of global solidarity and global leadership,” Tedros said without naming any specific country or leader he believes has failed.  Johns Hopkins University counts more than 9 million cases and 474,000 deaths.Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Dr. Anthony Fauci takes off his face mask before testifying before a House Committee on Energy and Commerce on Capitol Hill in Washington, June 23, 2020.The United States leads the world in both categories by far. Its top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, told a congressional panel Tuesday there will be more testing, not less, even after President Donald Trump asked health officials to slow down testing.  The White House has said the president wasn’t serious when he said more testing is the reason there are so many cases in the U.S. But Trump said Tuesday that he wasn’t joking. Fauci also said he is cautiously optimistic a coronavirus vaccine will be available as early as the end of 2020. But he has previously said even if a vaccine is ready, there is no guarantee it will work or give any long-term protection.  The Infectious Diseases Society of America said it is deeply concerned by reports that the White House is considering a significant reduction in the part the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention plays in fighting COVID-19. The society said CDC leadership in establishing guidance to stop the further spread of the coronavirus is urgently needed. “The emphasis should not be on partisan politics,” a society statement says. “All facets of our nation’s response to COVID-19 must be strengthened, and weakening the CDC runs counter to that goal. CDC has unique expertise in multiple priority areas, including infection prevention and vaccine distribution.” Some reports say the White House is looking at overhauling the CDC because of what the news reports say is the administration’s belief that the agency has failed to stem the growing number of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. There has been no comment from the White House or CDC on the reports.  In Brazil A federal judge in Brazil has ordered President Jair Bolsonaro to wear a face mask in public or pay a fine of nearly $400 a day. The judge said Bolsonaro is violating local law in Brasilia aimed at slowing the spread of the virus. Bolsonaro has so far refused to cover his mouth at large political rallies where he comes in close contact with voters and children. Brazil has the world’s second-highest number of cases after the United States. Bolsonaro has brushed off COVID-19 as just a “flu” and said called anyone worried about the virus is just being neurotic. In Britain British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says he “can’t wait to go out to a pub or a restaurant” when restrictions are lifted next month but urged people that they are still obligated to behave responsibly.  “I think people need to go out, and I think they need to enjoy themselves and rediscover things that they haven’t been able to do for a long time,” Johnson said Tuesday. Two women sit with take away drinks from a pub on the banks of the river Thames in London, June 23, 2020.Drinkers and diners will be required to stay at least one meter apart. “I want to see bustle, I want to see activity, but let’s be absolutely clear that I also want to see everybody being careful: Stay alert and follow the guidance,” Johnson said. “We can’t have, you know, great sort of writhing scenes in the beer gardens when the virus could be passed on.” British eateries, hotels and trademark pubs have been shuttered since March. The European Union The New York Times reports that European Union nations plan to stop U.S. citizens from crossing its borders because of what officials call the U.S. failure to control the virus. The newspaper is basing its story on what it says are draft lists of who will be allowed to travel to the EU starting July 1. It says it confirmed the lists with two EU officials in Brussels, but the Times says none of the 27 EU members are obligated to adopt it.  It says travelers from Brazil and Russia would also be excluded. A final decision on the list is expected next week.  Elsewhere Egypt says it plans to lift its nighttime coronavirus curfew starting Saturday, and officials in Saudi Arabia say they are limiting the number of hajj pilgrims this year to only a few thousand instead of the 2.5 million who usually visit Mecca in the last month of the Islamic calendar. The 2020 Summer Olympics in Japan may have been put off until next year, but the International Olympic Committee has teamed up with the WHO to kick off a new program featuring athletes from across the world to encourage people to stay physically fit and mentally sharp to fight off COVID-19. The athletes will appear in a series of public health announcements touting exercise and healthy diets and warning people against cigarettes and drinking.  “We are pleased to partner with the International Olympic Committee to spread important health messages that will save lives. Olympians will help us advocate for healthier populations to ensure that people are as resilient as our health systems must be to fight COVID-19,” WHO chief Tedros said Tuesday.  According to the WHO, many COVID-19 victims had underlying health issues that make it harder to recover.  
 
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Pakistan on Tuesday ordered India to cut its embassy staff in Islamabad by half, just hours after New Delhi announced a similar decision.The reciprocal action comes amid heightened tensions between the nuclear-armed South Asian rival countries over their long-running Kashmir territorial dispute.While the expulsion of diplomats is not uncommon due to the historically acrimonious relationship, the latest diplomatic dispute began late last month when India expelled two Pakistani officials for “espionage,” prompting Pakistan to do the same in response.In a statement issued Tuesday, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs alleged that officials at the Pakistani High Commission in New Delhi have been “engaged in acts of espionage and maintained dealings with terrorist organizations” in violation of international conventions on diplomatic relations.“Therefore, the government of India has taken the decision to reduce the staff strength in the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi by 50%,” the ministry noted. The Pakistani charge d’affaires was summoned and told to implement the decision within a week, the ministry added.KashmirIslamabad quickly rejected and condemned what it said were baseless Indian allegations to seek a 50% reduction in the staff strength at the Pakistani embassy.A Pakistani Foreign Ministry statement said the deputy chief of India’s diplomatic mission in Islamabad was summoned to the ministry to be informed of Pakistan’s decision to reduce the staff strength at the Indian High Commission by half “as a reciprocal measure” within a week.“The latest Indian action is a part of India’s desperate attempts to divert attention from its state-terrorism and worst human rights violations in Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir,” the Pakistani statement asserted.Bilateral tensions have deteriorated since last August when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government unilaterally stripped the Indian-ruled portion of Kashmir of its decades-old constitutional semiautonomous status. New Delhi also placed the Muslim-majority region under a strict security and communication lockdown to deter violent reaction against the move, though some restrictions have been partially eased.Pakistan swiftly rejected India’s Kashmir-related actions, saying a decades-old United Nations resolution prevents both countries from unilaterally altering the region’s status. Islamabad also downgraded bilateral diplomatic and trade ties with New Delhi, fueling regional military tensions and leading to almost daily skirmishes across the Kashmir cease-fire line.New Delhi, which controls two-thirds of Kashmir, maintains its actions in Kashmir are an internal Indian matter. Islamabad controls one-third of the Himalayan region. Both rival countries claim Kashmir in its entirety. 
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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: People with blood type O are more protected against COVID-19.Verdict: Lacks ContextRead the full story at:Health Feedback​ Social Media DisinfoScreenshotFresh false claims about COVID-19 vaccine and 5G technology spread online in the Philippines.Read the full story at: Agence France-Presse​Factual Reads on CoronavirusSwiss giant Novartis halts COVID-19 hydroxychloroquine study
Swiss pharmaceuticals giant Novartis has decided to halt a clinical trial of hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for COVID-19, citing problems in recruiting enough patients for the study of the controversial drug.
— Medical Express, June 20
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India and China have agreed to cool tensions along their disputed Himalayan border following their worst border clash in 50 years that left 20 Indian soldiers dead.Indian army officials said on Tuesday “there was mutual consensus to disengage” following marathon talks held the previous day between military commanders of the two countries. The officials told local media that the “modalities for disengagement from all friction areas in eastern Ladakh are being discussed and will be taken forward by both sides.”Large contingents of Indian and Chinese forces are confronting each other at three strategic points in eastern Ladakh, a barren icy desert in the Himalayas along their disputed border.Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian takes a question at the daily media briefing in Beijing, April 8, 2020.In Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said that the two sides “agreed to take necessary measures to cool down the situation.”Zhao said that both sides “had a candid and deep exchange of views on the border management and control issue, agreeing to take the necessary measures to lower the temperature on the situation.”Neither China nor India has given any details of how they will deescalate, but the statements were the first signal that both countries have made some progress in bringing down tensions that had spiraled dangerously over the past week.Commentators in New Delhi, however, pointed out that the disputed Himalayan border between the two countries would continue to be volatile, as the bloody brawl on June 15 had breached agreements that they had reached over the last 25 years to maintain peace.“The elaborate series of confidence-building measures put in place since 1993 have collapsed. That was the regime through which border patrols and army commanders were able to interact to maintain peace,” says Manoj Joshi, a security expert at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi. “Now the whole thing has come apart. What happens next time you meet a Chinese patrol?” According to earlier agreements, Chinese and Indian border patrols, which are often in close proximity, were not allowed to use firearms during any confrontation. While the latest incident involved hand-to-hand combat, it was more brutal than any in the past and fought with rocks and clubs studded with nails.Indian officials have called it “premeditated and planned action by Chinese troops.” Beijing has blamed India for the incident.The two countries also face a mammoth task in resolving the fresh disputes that have erupted in recent weeks along what is known as the Line of Actual Control.Indian officials have demanded the restoration of the status quo after accusing Beijing of entering its territory. China on the other hand has laid claim to the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh, where the clash between troops from the two sides took place.Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, who took part in a virtual conference with his counterparts from Russia and China on Tuesday, underlined the need to “respect international law and recognize the legitimate interest of partners.”Jaishankar said that the meeting “reiterates our belief in the time-tested principles of international relations. But the challenge today is not just one of concepts and norms, but equally of practice.” 
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In January 2015, a stunned France reeled from the first of multiple terrorist attacks it would endure. The target: the saucy and irreverent Charlie Hebdo newspaper, known for poking fun at religions and just about everything else.    Brandishing pencils and banners, millions flooded the streets of Paris, defending the right to free expression.    Then came the troop and police patrols. And that November, after another deadly  terror strike on the Bataclan theater and other popular nightspots, a tough, months-long emergency law. Rights activists claimed free speech and other basic rights were slowly and enduringly eroding. Five years later – as France weathers another crisis and another state of emergency – they fear that is happening again, under the coronavirus pandemic.  “We think it could be durable, and that the COVID crisis is a pretext to push different surveillance technologies,” says Benoit Piedallu of digital rights group, La Quadrature du Net.   Critics point to a raft of areas where they believe personal freedoms have been compromised under the health emergency, which saw France imposing one of Europe’s strictest lockdowns.  Some – such as reports of racial profiling and police violence during confinement – are not new, but allegedly are heightened with the health crisis. Along with George Floyd’s killing in the United States, they are helping to fuel nationwide protests against police violence.    Other COVID-19-fighting measures – including the use of drones to police the lockdown and a new virus-tracing app – are sparking accusations of a creeping French surveillance state.  On June 17th, France’s CNIL data protection watchdog warned that new technology, including cameras and thermal scanners, to help track compliance with coronavirus rules, risked citizen fears of surveillance and undermining democracy. The organizations using these tools, including France’s RATP public transport firm and Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport, say they have taken measures to respect privacy rights.  To be sure, similar concerns are being echoed elsewhere around the globe as governments fight the pandemic. But in France – where authorities still promote the country’s revolution-era moniker as the “land of human rights” – activists say the new measures fit a years’-long pattern.  “The principle of a state emergency is exceptional restrictions to rights and freedoms to respond to a crisis,” said Anne-Sophie Simpere, spokeswoman for Amnesty France. “But by experience, each time we’ve had a state of emergency, we’ve never returned to the state of ‘before.’”    Liberty is the rule, government says French authorities argue otherwise, claiming the health restrictions are exceptional and basic liberties are the norm.  Daily death tolls are down to a few dozen at most from an April high of more than 800.  “Tens of thousands of lives have been saved by our choices, our actions,” French President Emmanuel Macron said in a June 14 address to the nation announcing a further easing of restrictions.  With the government’s scientific advisory body claiming the pandemic under control, authorities plan to lift the state of emergency next month, although they warn that some measures may be reinstated if cases rise again.  French have sharply criticized the government for underfunded health services and a dearth of masks, yet there is much less opposition to the health restrictions.  A May survey by Harris Interactive, released just before France began unwinding lockdown, found nearly that two-thirds of respondents said they endured confinement “easily.”  “I didn’t think it was too strict, and I didn’t find my liberties infringed,” said Gilda, a Paris resident catching some sun in a newly opened park. Gilda declined to provide her last name, as did her husband, who said he found some measures a “bit overboard.” “They did it for us to avoid having more deaths,” said 19-year-old student Hanae Violay, who said she strictly followed the lockdown rules. “I think it was a good decision.”  Critics say the survey findings are no surprise. Polls showed similar approval for the 2015 emergency law, with two-thirds of French backing it early on.    “People want less democracy during these periods, because they are afraid,” said Arie Halimi, lawyer for the French Human Rights League. “And fear is the most important leverage for states.” The 2015 emergency measures – allowing police to conduct raids and impose house arrest without previous judicial green light – were extended several times. That year, Macron’s centrist government replaced them with a tough new anti-terror law, making permanent some of the exceptional powers.   Divided opinions: drones and tracing app    Rights groups fear a similar situation today. Last month, France’s highest administrative court barred the use of drones to monitor lockdown compliance, after the Rights League and the Quadrature du Net filed a privacy complaint. Authorities previously used drones to surveil yellow-vest protests and migrant movements, among other purposes.  The drone ban is not permanent; it is supposed to last only until technological or other ways to address the privacy concerns. “That doesn’t mean they can’t be used in the future,” said Halimi, of the Rights League, asserting that France risks entering an “Orwellian era.”   Also controversial is a virus-tracing app released earlier this month, making France the first major European country to use one. Dubbed “StopCovid,” the smart phone application aims to warn users if they have been around someone who later tested positive.  Downloading it is voluntary, and the government insists it will be temporary and fully respect privacy rights. “You have to be confident and trust your state,” French Digital Minister Cedric O told The Associated Press. “But we’re in a democratic state; we have checks and balances.”Authorities have claimed early success, with roughly 1.4 million French downloading the app within days after it was rolled out. Still, that amounts to less than 2 percent of the population. Surveys suggest fewer than half of all French plan to use it. That is not enough, many experts say, for it to work effectively.    Both data watchdog CNIL and the French parliament greenlighted the technology, but critics still worry about digital creep.  An April letter signed by hundreds of academics raised concerns that the data gathered by the app could be repurposed for mass surveillance ends, a fear also raised by rights advocates.    “Protecting health rights is also a fundamental right,” said Amnesty’s Simpere. “But today for us, the balance between efficiency of an application like StopCovid and fundamental rights isn’t respected.”   Scott Marcus, senior fellow at Brussels think-tank Bruegel, said the French app “looks reasonable,” and appears to reflect government promises to limit sharing health data, although he questions its effectiveness.    The more fundamental question, he said, for French and other Europeans to consider, is “How much do you trust your government?”   “Essentially the data collection shouldn’t be longer than absolutely necessary, and shouldn’t be retained longer than absolutely necessary,” Marcus said. “The COVID-19 problem could be with us for years. So it’s a genuine worry.” 
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